Many of you have been in the situation where C-level executives initiate a project with vague requirements, no resources and… a project end date. Executives are often the underlying cause of many failed projects. They have a vision, or an obligation to move the organization forward. After all, isn’t that their job? They aren’t getting paid to figure out how to execute their strategy. That’s your job. What inevitably happens? Well… look at Boeing’sDreamliner as an example, a project that is constantly behind schedule and over budget. How can you avoid getting into this situation?
I couldn’t resist putting this up here. After reading my post on The Cloud and Project Management, Kirsten Moore forwarded me this link. It is not only cute, but also thought provoking… especially if you’re over 40.
The Cloud has become a hot topic in business. What is The Cloud you ask? It has its origins, I think, in the network diagrams that techies have drawn for years. You know, that weird diagram that often gets drawn on a whiteboard that depicts some computers and a server, connected to a cloud or bunch of clouds. I think that is techie talk for magic… or… trust me, there is some cool stuff in there. So what is The Cloud and how will it impact Project Management in the future?
Understanding the value of project management to the organization is one of the biggest challenges for leaders. Too often project management is considered as tactical – with no real thought or understanding of the strategic value of project management. However, shortchanging project management not only hinders an organization trying to meet strategic long-term objectives, but also diminishes the value of some of the most important people in the organization – the project managers!
If Project Management keeps its promises, your project success rate should go up. For many organizations, it doesn’t. What gives? If you’ve spent a lot of time and money on project management, but your success rate hasn’t improved, don’t feel badly, as you’re not alone.
My daughter loves to dance and because of this I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Michael Flatley‘s Lord of the Dance. We actually went to see Riverdance a few years ago when it was in town, although Michael Flatley was retired by then. The dancing is spectacular. Precise. Inspiring. Rythmic. I began to wonder if we could learn anything from these spectacular shows when it comes to promoting project excellence.
As a leader, I often hope to achieve consensus by working with individuals and groups to get them to a common ground. However, sometimes this just isn’t possible. I recently had several experiences where I had to push an issue until several people got upset with me. If you are practicing true leadership, sometimes you’re going to have to make people uncomfortable.
I’ve trained quite a few project managers over the years, but not many project sponsors. That’s a problem. Too many organizations ensure they have processes in place and trained project managers to use them, but ignore the project sponsor. While you may be tempted to think project sponsors don’t need training, informal polls among my students indicate that sponsors rarely understand their role, resulting in dysfunction. I continually emphasize that even the best project managers cannot succeed if the project environment is dysfunctional.
I’m currently reading a book called The Little Book of Behavioral Investing: How not to be your own worst enemy (Little Book, Big Profits) by James Montier. While the book centers around investing, the premises in the book are very applicable to leadership and life in general.
There is a pretty interesting article at CIO Insight about Reinventing the PMO (read the article here). The general premise is that PMOs are good at delivering projects, but not so good at ensuring the project/product is actually what the business needs. Their recommendation – a Results Management Office (RMO). My response…. you’ve got to be kidding. This is insanity at best.
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