Accelerating Project

Management Success

Michael Stanleigh; CMC, CSP, CSM

CEO of Business Improvement Architects

PMBOK – PM Body of Knowledge

ISO 10006:2003 – Guidelines for

Quality Management in Projects

ISO 21500:2012 –

Guidance on PM

ISO 31000: 2009 Risk

Management

International

Standards

“If you can’t describe what you are doing

as a process, you don’t know what you’re

doing.”W. Edwards Deming, Ph.D. Quality

Management theorist, consultant and

author

Project Management

Process or Framework

Not a Methodology

Project Sponsor

▪ Senior Manager, PM’s Manager, Steering Committee, PMO

▪ Ultimately accountable for project success/ benefit realization

▪ Executive Sponsor

▪ Ensures understanding of project award opportunity

▪ Identifies PM & team

▪ Clarifies critical issues

Determine Project Culture

▪ Identifies sources of trouble in project

▪ Clarifies why projects are all managed

differently

Defining a PM Culture

“Organizations that have reached high level of excellence in creating project management culture demonstrate:

Ability to drive their business planning processes into identification of projects that use consistent processes, tools and templates focused on:

Delivery of quality

Meeting customer requirements

Resulting in improved organizational performance.” Business Improvement Architects

Project Management Culture

Problem Today

▪ Organizations implement tools, templates, methodologies –performance hasn’t changed

▪ Missing element - culture where projects are

▪ “Just part of what everyone does.”

The Bottom Line

▪ Most organizations operate with diversity

of project cultures

▪ Best practices must be embedded into

very fabric & support systems of

organization

The Project Kick-Off Meeting

Review Project Award

Requirements

Form Project Team

▪Roles & responsibilities

▪ Team norms

▪ Project team self-evaluation

Develop Project Scope Document

Team Self-Evaluation/Assessment

Continue

Team Members & Stakeholders

Project Team Member

▪ On “core” project team

▪ Develops scope & plan

▪ Assigned specific project tasks

▪ Helps manage plan

▪ Makes team decisions

Project Stakeholders

Individuals, departments, groups directly affected or impacted

Positively or negatively

Key Stakeholders

Project Manager

Customer

Performing organization

Sponsor

Project Stakeholders &

Customer FocusPMBOK

“Stakeholders must be identified, needs determined & managed to ensure successful project.”

ISO 10006

“Organization and its suppliers are interdependent and mutually beneficial relationship enhances ability of both to create value.”

Identify the Project’s Structure

Incorrect structure

with clear reporting

relationships

can be

contributing factor to

project challenges

One Person Managing Project

Project Manager

Subject Matter Expert

Subject Matter Expert

Subject Matter Expert

Project Team

Program Management

Program Manager

Project Leader A

Team Member A

Team Member A

Project Leader B

Team Member B

Team Member B

Portfolio Management

Project Portfolio

Project A

Team Member

A

Team Member

A

Project Leader

B

Program B Project C

Project Leader

B

Project Leader

B

Communication Process

Sender

Filter

Message

Filter

Receiver

☺Feedback

Difficulties in Communication

▪ Words mean different things to different

people

▪ Sender - difficulty putting thoughts into words

▪ People not had common experiences

▪ Communication takes many forms

▪ Make assumptions and inferences

▪ Difficult to get attention of listener

▪ Not trained to listen effectively

Managing Conflict

▪ Conflict neither good nor bad

▪ Not issue of win/lose

▪ Negotiate to get win/win

▪ Can be highly constructive

▪ Though must be skillfully managed

▪ Know your conflict style

▪ Understand how it influences behavior

▪ Change to situational-based

Understanding & Managing

Conflicts

▪ Don’t take responsibility for solving other’s

conflicts

▪ Take responsibility for helping them

resolve conflicts

The Scope Document

“Documented basis for making future project

decisions & for confirming or developing

common understanding of project scope

among stakeholders.” (PMBOK)

▪ Developed by Project Manager & team

▪ Reiterates understanding of project’s

mandate

▪ Start Project Planning after sign-off

Project Planning Process

1. Develop work breakdown structure

2. Resources

3. Duration

4. Dependencies and Milestones

5. Analyze the Critical Path

6. Project management software

7. Budget

Review Project Plan

▪ Level of detail?

▪ Vendor plan

integrated?

▪ External resources

(suppliers, consultants,

contractors) on track?

Integrated Project

Plan

▪ Includes project

schedule, vendor

plan, etc.

Level of Detail

Required

▪ No project ever

suffered because

too much detail

▪ Many projects

suffer from lack of

detail

Task Identification

Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., Project Management

▪ “What you don’t know hurts you.”

▪ “Same work under same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at ten different times.”

Duration

▪ Resource uninterrupted time

▪ Floats, lags - added to manage situations

where not possible

Example – Ordering & waiting for delivery

▪ Ordering - resource task with duration

▪ Waiting - task with duration – no resource

Work Breakdown Structure

Numbers

Understand WBS#

system & relationship

back to Scope

Document

▪ Unique number for

each task/activity

▪ Indicates grouping –

not sequencing

Goal

Deliverables

Plan

What & Why

→Level 0

High-level

How to reach goal

→Level 1

Detailed - How to reach

each deliverable

→Level 2, 3, 4

WBS Levels

Milestones

▪ “Significant” events in project

• Deliverable completion, Approval obtained, Materials received, etc.

▪ “Show stoppers”

▪ Zero duration

▪ Predecessor & successor

▪ On critical path

Note –no more than twice number milestones to deliverables

Milestones

Task

3.6.4 Order parts

Duration- 0.25 + 3 (wait for parts to arrive)

Milestone3.6.5 Parts received

Duration - 0

Analyze Critical Path

▪ Tasks linked together by dependencies to Milestones

▪ Longest duration of project tasks

▪ All lower level tasks must have dependency

▪Otherwise won’t be on Critical Path

Note

▪ Shorten total project duration by examining critical path tasks

Review Plan in Software

▪Durations correct

▪No “frozen” dates

▪Dependencies on all tasks

▪Resources identified

▪Critical path apparent

▪No re-baselining without approved change

request

Review Construction Lifecycle

Planning DesignPre-

constructionConstruction

Close-

out

Gate 0

Gate 4

Gate 3Gate 2

Gate 1

Gate 5

Stage 2

Stage 1

Stage 3

Stage 4Stage 5

Managing Change

▪Everyone manages project change

differently

▪Must work as team to identify best

approach to managing project change

▪Realize - not matter of “if”

▪Only matter of “when”

Change inevitable – scope and plan are

baseline for change

Project Change Management

Scope Changes

Modification to project scope

May impact

▪ Schedule & Budget

▪ Resources

▪ Quality

▪ Risk

▪ Project Deliverables

Project Change Control

Influence - ensuring changes beneficial

Has change occurred?

Prevent incorrect, inappropriate,

unauthorized changes

Manage changes ASAP

Project Change Control Requires

▪ Maintain integrity of

performance

baselines

▪ Add changes to

scope document

▪ Adjust project plan

Project Change Requests/Orders

Project Change Requests/Orders result from

External event

Project Scope error/omission

Project Plan error/omission

Value-added change

Preparing Project Change

Request/Order

1. Define and describe change(s)

2. Identify impact on project of each option

3. Define project impact if approved

4. Describe project impact if not approved (risks)

5. Provide options

6. Gain Sponsor’s/client’s approval to implement

If you don’t actively attack risks, they will actively attack you!!

Risk is continuous

process

Crisis Management vs.

Risk Management

▪ Risk occurs – not included in risk plan

▪ No contingencies in place

Managing a crisis

▪ Risk occurs – included in risk plan

▪ Contingencies in place

This is managing a risk

Identify Risks

Evaluate Risks

Assess Risks

Develop Responses to Risks

The Project Risk Management Process

Risk Mitigation Plans

▪ Review Mitigation Tasks

▪ Break into actions

▪ Include in project plan - work

breakdown structure

▪ Estimate time & add

resource for each task

▪ Rarely impacts critical path

Risk Contingency Plans▪ Tasks to manage a risk, should it occur

▪ Contingency Plan tasks include;

▪ Actions to be taken

▪Duration

▪ Budget

▪Resource (if other than Risk Owner)

▪ Plans held by Project Manager

Contingency Plan Triggers

▪ Symptoms/warning signs that risk occurred

or near-certain event

▪ If very likely to occur – execute

contingency plan

▪ Contingency Plans - include Risk Triggers

and Trigger date

On-going Risk Management

Traditional Risk Management

▪ Risk Register/Checklist

▪ High priority risks – Red category

Current Approach

▪ Complete risk assessment

▪ High priority risk categories identified &

analyzed

▪ Mitigation & Contingency plans developed

On-going Risk Review

▪ Complete Risk Assessment every 2 months

▪ Identify new Risk Categories

▪ Add to Risk Evaluation/Prioritization Record

▪ Evaluate new risk categories

▪ Re-evaluate previous risk categories

▪ Finalize your new risk category priority

Project Closure Team Reviews

Questions can include:

▪ Completed their tasks as assigned?

▪ Managed project changes?

▪ Contributed to overall project team

effectiveness?

▪ Contributed to overall outcome of project?

▪ Greatest challenges they had to work through?

▪ How did they manage these challenges?

Project Close-out Meeting

When?

Purpose?

Who to attend?

Meeting process?

After meeting?

Project Close-Out Evaluation

Questions Include:

▪ Major successes & failures?

▪ Extent project on schedule?

▪ Extent project on budget?

▪ Extent project met customer expectations?

▪ How change managed?

▪ How risk managed?

▪ How resources managed?

Project Knowledge Retention &

TransferContributes to continuous learning

Avoids repeated mistakes

Process

▪ Capture project lessons learned (page 138)

▪ Record conclusions from close-out meeting

▪ Retain all project documentation

▪ Archive so that others can easily retrieve

Archive Project Documentation

▪ Scope Document

▪ Team structure

▪ Project Plan

▪ Change Logs

▪ Risk Management Reports

▪ Close-out Evaluations

▪ Final Reports/ Recommendations

Thank You

Michael Stanleigh; CMC, CSP, CSM

CEO of Business Improvement Architects

mstanleigh@bia.ca

1-416-444-8225 x301

www.bia.ca

www.michaelstanleigh.com

https://twitter.com/mstanleigh

Profile for Michael Stanleigh; CSP, CMC, CSM

CEO, Business Improvement ArchitectsMichael Stanleigh has a reputation for helping organizations define their strategic

direction, manage change, become more innovative, improve the performance of their

leadership and successfully execute their projects. He has been fortunate to consult

and advise some of the most admired organizations in the world. As a Certified Management

Consultant (CMC) and CEO of Business Improvement Architects, Michael shares his consulting

wisdom and secrets for operational success with organizations around the world to help them

succeed.

One of Michael’s core competencies is project management. As a Certified Scrum Master (CSM)

Michael provides consulting, coaching and customized training for Project Management Offices,

Project Leaders and Project Teams on managing projects, creating project plans, conducting

project audits and undertaking project risk assessments. As a Scrum Master he uses his expertise

to create Hybrid processes to create unique approaches to continued project success.

As a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) Michael loves to share his business secrets for

operational success with business audiences around the world. Michael involves audiences in

understanding and managing change and business leaders in getting to the root cause of their

business problems and generating effective solutions. He has a tremendous way, during corporate

events, of engaging leaders and employees in a creative process of idea generation for the front-

end of innovation. His content rich presentations are delivered with the same passion, spark,

energy and creativity that he gives to his business clients.