Dear PM Advisor. Mar 31, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I'm very good at breaking down a big project into smaller, manageable chunks. But my main hindrance is the procrastination. I put off the work for a later time. Any tips to overcome this issue?

Regards,

The late Robert from China

Dear Robert,

It has been my experience that people react to urgent activities before they react to important activities. Perhaps it is built into our DNA. We were bred to run from the lion before planting wheat for the winter food supply.

One finding we have discovered in Project Management is that activities scheduled for three weeks or more are more likely to come in late. When faced with a deadline that far into the future, people will work on activities with a nearer deadline rather than the further one, regardless of the effect on the critical path.

How do we deal with this? Simply by breaking down these activities into sub tasks and sub tasks into work packages until the lowest level of detail results in a task that is scheduled to take no longer than three weeks.

In most cases this is quite easy but there are two exceptions which can be dealt with in different ways.

1. The activity that must take 3 months like aging studies. Simply put the product on the shelf or in the incubator and set an alarm on your calendar to take them out and examine or test them on that date. Those tasks won't come in late because you are typically waiting until the second you can remove them and test to see if they still work..
2. The vendor with a six month lead time. Try to ask them to break down their activities to the sub task level so that you can follow up closely on their progress. But they may not do it. Therefore, you need to manage this activity closer than other activities on the project. Call them often to ask about their progress. Visit them. Be a pain in their side so that the only way they can get rid of you is by finishing the activity. 

This should help you with late activities throughout the team. But you admitted that you are the procrastinator so how can I help you with your problem?

Once you have broken your activities into smaller than three week units, work on those that are on the critical path. Be honest about the %complete these activities are on a daily basis. For example, if the activity is scheduled to last two weeks, every day you should be 10% further along. Set yourself a goal to exceed that percentage and give yourself a little reward if you achieve that goal. If you get behind on one day, you don't get the reward unless you completely catch up the following day. 

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

Pope leads by example

How do you encourage a billion Roman Catholics to attend confession? By example!
Pope Francis, after a sermon on the importance of confession, went straight to a local priest to publically confess rather than heading to his own confessional first to hear the sins of his faithful. See the full story here.

PMO Creation - Week 6

We held the first steering committee meeting. This was designed to come to agreement about the rules of our committee, set up monthly meetings, a prioritization session and an executive training.

The CEO finally got the point about other projects affecting his IT projects and was very pleased I had been pushing in this direction. The team agreed to all the proposed rules listed below and we will be holding regular meetings.

The CEO also sent out this e-mail intended to gather projects for the prioritization session:

Good afternoon everyone.

We had an awesome Project Steering Committee meeting on Friday led by our own PM Guru, Bruce Fieggen. During the meeting we agreed to have the PMO manage all projects within QPharma. What does that mean for each of us? I’m not sure exactly, but a few examples are:

•  It won’t impact Professional Services
• Change control will be managed through the PMO
•  Not just Python, all systems and desired systems.

This is your opportunity to tell us what you want done, your absolute wish list.

Bruce will be the point person, but I want to see a list by Tuesday noon. Regardless of how long you’ve been waiting, now is the time to tell us. Send the lists and a brief explanation to Emily and she’ll compile and send to the committee.

Here were the rules we came up with:

Project:  Defined as a temporary endeavor to provide a unique product service or result.  All projects need a defined scope and an end date.  For QPharma, this encompasses ALL projects, not just projects related to the Python system.

Goals:

•  Cross functional input into projects and priorities.
• Run projects within budget (# of hours or $)
• New projects and priorities do not randomly derail existing priorities.  
• The Steering Committee will prioritize and re-prioritize projects.
• The committee should communicate vision and strategy

Rules and Norms:

• The Steering Committee should authorize all projects.
• The committee should prioritize and re-prioritize all projects and will be published to the company.  Re-prioritization of projects will be done on a monthly basis during PM Steering Committee meetings.  In the cases of emergency changes/issues, an Emergency PM Steering Committee will be scheduled to discuss and decision-making on the issue.
• Approve all changes to the projects.  All project related change requests will need to be reviewed and approved by the PM Steering Committee
• Review all project status and project dashboard
• Fully resource all active projects.
• Approval of all deliverables.  Business owners will need to approve all project milestone deliverables.  Approval will be reflected in the Project Dashboard.
• The PM Steering Committee will meet on a monthly basis.  The quorum requirement for the Steering Committee is 5 members.

·         Projects will have the following categorization:

o   New Product Development

o   Customer Order

o   Process Improvement

o   Facility

o   Regulatory Mandate

Action Items:

• B. Fieggen will conduct an executive PMO training to the Steering Committee members.
• B. Fieggen will schedule the monthly PM Steering Committee Meeting.
• A list of all QPharma projects will need to be compiled 2 days prior to the PM Steering Committee Meeting for prioritization.

Dear PM Advisor. Mar 24, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I am a team member on a project and my Project Manager is strict about me meeting my activity deadlines. So I add a buffer when she asks me how long an activity takes. Recently I admitted I was doing this and she got real mad at me. She gets a buffer; why shouldn't I? 

War On Buffer in Cambridge, MA

Dear War On,

Buffers are a very tricky thing. Let's take your example to the extreme to see why not everyone should get a buffer and then show you why the way your PM is acting is correct.

Say the project is composed of a bunch of activities and all the team members add 25% as a buffer to the schedule and cost of each of these activities. Then their functional managers add another 25% to ensure their departments don't look bad. Then the PM adds 25% to make sure she can hit the baselines. The Steering Committee adds 25% before they decide if they want to pursue it. What does this do to a project that should have taken a year and cost $1,000,000?

12 mo x 1.25 = 15 mo. $1,000,000 x 1.25 = $1,250,000 (Team Member buffer)
15 mo x 1.25 = 19 mo. $1,687,500 x 1.25 = $1,562,500 (Functional Manager buffer)
19 mo x 1.25 = 23 mo. $1,562,500 x 1.25 = $1,953,125 (Project Manager buffer)
23 mo x 1.25 = 29 mo. $1,953,125 x 1.25 = $2,441,406 (Steering Committee buffer)

So our project more than doubled in size by adding all these buffers. Sounds good to you, right? But the steering committee may look at this and decide the project is not worth doing. And your leaner competitor will beat you to the market. So you won't be doing projects much longer here either way.

Buffer given out it is rarely given back. If you realize that the three day activity has been buffered to seven days, you probably won't start it right away and you won't feel the pressure to finish it in three days. So you'll start it on day three and finish it on day seven and feel proud of your accomplishment.

Here is the right way to add buffer to a project:

1. Each Team Member estimates the activity duration and cost given the most likely scenario while feeling pressure. They don't add buffer.
2. The Functional Managers review the TM's estimates and make adjustments if they think the TM made errors. They also don't add buffer. 
3. The Project Manager adds up all the costs and durations and determines the overall budget and schedule for the project. She also looks at the risks associated with this project and suggests a buffer based on all the known unknowns. She adds that to the request to the Steering Committee. 
4. The Steering Committee adds a buffer to account for all the things that go wrong on projects that we don't identify during the planning session. These unknown unknowns are taken care of using the Management Reserve, usually around 20%.

Let's look at what this does to our project:

12 mo x 1.00 = 12 mo. $1,000,000 x 1.00 = $1,000,000 (Team Member NO buffer)
12 mo x 1.00 = 12 mo. $1,000,000 x 1.00 = $1,000,000 (Functional Manager NO buffer)
12 mo x 1.10 = 13 mo. $1,000,000 x 1.10 = $1,100,000 (Project Manager Risk buffer)
13 mo x 1.20 = 16 mo. $1,100,000 x 1.20 = $1,320,000 (Steering Committee Management Reserve)

Now our project has an appropriate buffer but is still doable. The Team Members will feel pressure but they can accomplish their work.

But pay close attention to how we use this buffer. When you estimated three days on an activity, you need to do it in that time. Even though the overall project's schedule has been increased by 32%, you don't get to use that on every activity. That buffer belongs to the PM and she gets to distribute it when needed. She should be stingy with it. Remember it was placed there for Known Risks and Unknown Risks.

So you get three days for your activity. If you run into a problem you hadn't expected or hit a risk you had identified and you need another day, the PM should provide this from her four-month buffer. If you finish the next activity a day early, give that day back to her so she can add it back to the buffer. She will need every day she can get for that big problem that hits every project.

Wow! Long answer for a simple question but that was an important question that a lot of people get wrong.

Good luck,

PM Advisor.

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

Eighty-second excerpt from 'Twelve Towers'

          At night, after the boys were asleep, they would make love quietly under the covers. These sessions were slower and gentler than their love-making on the runes. Was it due to the presence of the boys or the absence of the rune? Either way, they enjoyed it and he slept afterwards, her wrapped in his warm, safe cocoon. On stirring in his sleep later, he often found her gone. He looked for her the first few times and found her studying the stars. Gwilym learned she was a night-owl who preferred to stay up late than to greet the dawn. Gwilym was the opposite. Usually, Gwilym lifted her in his arms while the boys packed away the pallet and he carried her into their cart.

          The bumping caused by Gwilym’s inexpert guiding of the horse woke her before long. She would get up, rub her eyes and sit next to Gwilym. She would look from him to the horse and back again for a few minutes then shake her head. She would take the reins and, with a few clicks of her tongue and shakes of the reins, guide the horse along the smoothest trail. Her head would droop again and she would appear to sleep while the horse continued down the trail. She would wake at each road turning and, with a quick glimpse at the sky, direct the horse down one track and doze off again. Gwilym learned to give her a couple of hours to wake up then prepare her a bowl of the leftover oatmeal. He had to add a surprising amount of honey to meet her satisfaction. After eating she would be ready for a conversation. 

          One day Gwilym re-opened the subject of Avalon. “You said you were being told to breed with me as part of your goal to become Lady of the Lake. Yet I am not of the royal line. Aren’t you diluting your royal line so that you can never be Lady?”

          “Viviane also bred with the other royal line. It meant she could never have daughters and her offspring could never be Lady following her. But the sons she had! Launcelot, and Ban and… All great knights and leaders. I have no doubt that Madoc and Brice will do as well.”

          Gwilym studied her face. What was she saying? Then he noticed something else. She was suffused with happiness, glowing. “You’re breeding again,” he said.

          She smiled in contentment and nodded her head.

          “That’s wonderful! How long have you known?”

          “I felt the baby start in me the night we lay on the tower. Just as I felt them start the last two times. He will share a birthday with Madoc and Brice.”

          Gwilym hugged her tight, and then stroked her belly. “I can’t wait to meet my next child. I hope it will be a girl this time. I’ve a hankering to dress up a girl in pretty clothes.”

          She shook her head. “It will be a boy, Gwilym. I will only have boys. Didn’t you hear me? The curse of the other line.”

          Gwilym put the puzzle together. “You are saying that I am of this other line. This line that only breeds boys. This line that includes Sirs Launcelot, and Ban. How is that possible?”

          “It’s simple, Gwilym. Your father was of the line, so you are too. The better question is: Who is your mother?”

          “She was a Cambrian woman my father met while searching Glastonbury for the Gospel of Joseph. They made love at Beltane. She fostered me out with my father when I was a baby. I know no more than this.”

          “You know enough now.”

          Blood was rushing through Gwilym’s head as he took in this information. He needed confirmation.

          “What is the origin of this other line?”

          “You already know the answer, Gwilym. It entered Avalon almost 500 years ago. Do the math.”

          Gwilym shook his head. “That old rumor? The Holy Grail? The bloodline of Jesus?”

          He looked at her for confirmation but she was looking around her. He hadn’t noticed before but they had entered a small village. The Roman road was intersected by a muddy track. An open square covered in straw occupied one corner. This was crowded with people hawking wagons and barrows full of produce. Goats, sheep and cows strained against the ropes held fast to poles driven into the ground. Pens held squealing pigs. The smell and sounds of market day assaulted his senses.

          The opposite corner held a prosperous round building, most likely a church. The other corners were occupied by a small inn and a house. People filled the square and the intersection.

          He looked down at a villager to give a greeting and then he saw what Grainne had noticed. The man was looking from Gwilym to a coin he held in his hands.
 
To read the entire first draft in one shot, click here:

PMO Creation - Week 5

This week we worked on more of the templates and Mike got the change control system working within SharePoint.

I started choosing members of the steering committee. My preference was to have representation from all the functions of our organization. So I started with IT, Operations, Finance, Quality, Marketing and IT QA.

I immediately received resistance from the CEO who wanted a small team. He saw no reason to include anyone other than IT and IT QA. He isn't understanding that projects from other areas are taking resources away from the IT projects he cares so much about. But he trusts me and is willing to give it a try in the first meeting.

Meanwhile he argued with me on some of the PMO rules so I adjusted them a little, mostly to give him veto power over some steering committee decisions:

The QPharma PMO will abide by the following rules and norms:

1. The PMO will operate under full transparency, sharing information with all interested parties
2. Escalation principles will be published and followed
3. Nobody works on projects past the research phase until the project is authorized by the steering committee
4. Projects can be authorized outside the steering committee meetings by approval of a majority of members – or just by PDB.
5. All projects within commercial operations require a charter. Professional operations can use a Statement of Work or Signed Contract as their charter
6. Project Managers will hold weekly status meetings with their teams that last 30 minutes or less
7. Project Managers will use Earned Value calculations to report on budget – commercial projects will use hours rather than dollars to determine Earned Value.
8. Project Managers will provide a weekly status report to the PMO every Wednesday – status reports should be updated weekly and available always on SharePoint.
9. Schedules require level of effort to be calculated for each activity
10. The PMO will provide a monthly dashboard showing all project status to the steering committee prior to their monthly
11. The steering Committee will meet monthly
12. Change control will be managed by the steering committee. The PMO head will facilitate the steering committee but the signatures of the majority of members or Pat DenBoer are required to approve a project change
13. PMO will meet weekly every Friday at 10 AM
14. Bruce will publish PMO status reports via e-mail and place them on SharePoint
15. PMO members will obtain their PMP certification by the end of 2014

McCain challenges Obama on Russia's invasion of Ukraine

For those are curious what John McCain would have been like as president rather than Barack Obama, here's a chance to see what the old war hawk would do in today's Crimean crisis.

In a recent Op-Ed, McCain criticizes Obama in his lead up to and handling of the crisis. He says Obama lacked resolve in Afghanistan and Iraq and allowed Bashar-al-Assad to cross his 'Red Line' without repercussions. He claims that Putin sees this lack of resolve as weakness to exploit.

McCain doesn't recommend military action other than NATO exercises, but he strongly insists on sanctions, removing Russia from the G8 and refusing Russian oligarchs places in the West to "park their ill-gotten proceeds."

It's a rare occasion to see how two leaders would deal with a crisis. Let's see what Obama does.

Dear PM Advisor. Mar 17, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

Can I make a horizontal Work Breakdown Structure? 

Outside the box in Boston

Dear outside the box,

I suppose you could but I'm not sure of the advantage. And I can think of plenty of disadvantages.

Considering that you have between 3 and 15 activities per deliverable and most projects have more than 15 deliverables, you end up with a rectangular structure with the number of deliverables defining the large side. Creating a WBS on the wall makes it convenient to place the deliverables along the top and your activities below each one. You'll typically have room for the 15 activities though you're stooping near the end.

If you are placing your deliverables vertically, people are working above and below each other rather than next to each other and someone is stooping to fill out the activities on the lower deliverables. Walls are typically wider than taller and it's easier to move sideways than up and down.

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

PMO Creation - Week 4

Now that we have our schedule in place, we have been working well towards that plan. Sarah and Mike are cranking out templates for use by the team. I got them administrative rights to modify the PMO SharePoint site. Mike has been inventorying all the projects we currently have and I've been notifying people that they are on the steering committee. Everyone seems to be enthusiatic. Let's see how the steering committee meeting goes when we start asking them to make those tough decisions.

We also came up with a list of rules for the PMO to operate under:

The QPharma PMO will abide by the following rules and norms:

1. The PMO will operate under full transparency, sharing information with all interested parties
2. Escalation principles will be published and followed
3. Nobody works on projects past the research phase until the project is authorized by the steering committee
4. Projects can be authorized outside the steering committee meetings by approval of a majority of members
5. All projects within commercial operations require a charter. Professional operations can use a Statement of Work or Signed Contract as their charter
6. Project Managers will hold weekly status meetings with their teams that last 30 minutes or less
7. Project Managers will use Earned Value calculations to report on budget
8. Project Managers will provide a weekly status report to the PMO every Wednesday
9. Schedules require level of effort to be calculated for each activity
10. The PMO will provide a monthly dashboard showing all project status to the steering committee prior to their monthly meeting
11. The steering Committee will meet monthly
12. Change control will be managed by the steering committee. The PMO head will facilitate the steering committee but the signatures of the majority of members are required to approve a project change
13. PMO will meet weekly every Friday at 10 AM
14. Bruce will publish PMO status reports
15. PMO members will obtain their PMP certification by the end of 2014

Potable water for poor communities

Dean Kamen has invented many wonderful things besides the Segway. His latest is a high-powered, efficient water purifier that he hopes to roll out all over poor parts of the world to relieve the diseases caused by contaminated water.

His company, DEKA , has teamed up with Coca-Cola to deliver thousands of EkoCenters. These solar-powered kiosks are placed on a concrete pad, hoooked up to the local water supply and provide the following services:

1. Potable drinking water through the DEKA water purifiers.
2. Free charging stations for cell-phones etc.
3. Cold storage for vaccines
4. Sell Coke products (Gotta get the next generation hooked, after all)
5. Employment for those servicing it
6. Entertainment for locals through the attached TV

Read more about it here.

Dear PM Advisor. Mar 10, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I want to create a Project Objective using the rules you teach but you ask us to use one date and we need to have three dates: The key milestone, the release date and the date 90 days after release that indicates the real project end date. What do you suggest we do? 

Torn in Portland, OR

Dear Torn,

I do suggest that a Project Objective have one date in it. In facilitating over 300 Rapid Project Start ups, I've only violated this rule twice, where there was an initial start up date followed by a the full move to production. But in your case it is not necessary. Let's look at your three dates:

1. Key milestone prior to release. This is important and should be reflected in the Schedule as a key milestone but it does not belong in the Project Objective. The Objective is the Headline of the project. Headlines should emphasize What we are doing, When and for How Much. 
2. Release Date. This is the date that management wants to focus on. This date belongs in the Objective.
3. End of the project after 90 days in the market. This is an important date to know and to emphasize to your team that they are not released until this date. Following the truism that 90% of the problems appear within 90 days of market release, we need the team members to stay engaged on the project until they have a chance to resolve all these problems. Put this date on your schedule and hold your team there until this date. Don't put it in the Objective. 

So you can get away with just using the release date on the Objective for your project. 

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

Eighty-first excerpt from 'Twelve Towers'

          The boys slept in the pavilion at night and explored the countryside during the day. While Grainne and Bleddyn directed the slow-moving wagons south and west, the younger boys would climb trees, jump over streams, and leap from rock to rock. Eventually they would sprint to catch up to the carts again. Grainne would crane her neck and stand up in the cart to try to keep an eye on her boys and would call to them if they left her sight. After the tenth time they disappeared, she looked at Gwilym and asked him, “How can you stay so calm? Don’t you care about what might happen to your boys?”

          He reached for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I worry myself sick when they do dangerous things. But I’m doing them no favors by keeping them within reach at all times. They have to stretch themselves, make mistakes, and learn from them. We discuss what they did during meals and that’s when I make suggestions. I try to make them think that the safer courses are their idea. They don’t want to injure themselves. They just want to try new things.”

          Gwilym told her all about his father’s quest to find the Gospel of Joseph and his theories about the life of Jesus. She told him about her childhood in Avalon, the expectations placed on her due to her royal blood, her hopes that she would rise to follow Viviane as Lady of the Lake.

          “What’s the origin of the royal blood of Avalon?” he asked.

          “There are two royal lines,” she replied. “One is much older and stretches through the Ladies of the Lake. Viviane has that blood, as do her sisters: Igraine and Morgause. Igraine’s daughter, Morgaine, has the blood too. Morgause and Igraine married men so they cannot become the Lady. Morgaine is reputed to have ‘The Sight.’ But she wanders the land and does not seem interested in becoming Viviane’s successor. It is rumored that she had a falling out with her aunt, Viviane, and will not wear the mantle.”

          “How are you related to Viviane? Where did you get your royal blood?”

          Grainne’s mouth smiled though her eyes belied the mood. “I am the daughter of her younger sister.”

          “Does the blood of the man come into play at all?”

          Grainne gave him a sharp look. “It does indeed. For the Lady of the Lake royal line, it is assumed that the women choose their mates so that their blood does not become diluted with lesser lines.”

          “Incest?” inquired Gwilym.

          “Most often the women mate with cousins to keep the line clean.”

          “Just like among the Saracens. No one there marries outside the clan. It’s a dangerous practice. Too much inbreeding is bad for a line. Farmers avoid it for good reason. Bad traits are doubled.”

          “So are good traits. And if a line has no bad traits, why bring any in from the outside?”

          “You are breeding outside your line. That can’t be helping your quest to be Lady.”

          “I was following the direct orders of the Lady.”

          Gwilym thought for a moment. “You said there were two royal lines. What of the other line?”

          Grainne hesitated. “That line is shorter. It entered Avalon less than 500 years ago. That line follows the males. It seems that they only breed boys. They leave Avalon and often become the Druids you see wandering about the land. Merlin is of that line.”

          “Why are boys not allowed to grow up on Avalon?” he asked

          “Avalon is a spiritual place, a land that teaches girls about the Goddess. They cannot do so around the distraction of boys. Young boys, like mine, are fine but they are fostered out when they turn three.”

          “Can Madoc return?”

          She shook her head. “To visit. For a few days. We have accommodations for that. But he cannot live there anymore.”

          “That must be difficult for you, choosing between your son and your calling. What will you do?”

          “I don’t need to decide yet. Glastonbury and Avalon are next to each other. Madoc will stay with you and I will visit daily, often stay with him for many days until Avalon requires my presence. In a year, this spell will be over and I can decide.”

          “We could marry and stay together all the time. Never be separated from your sons until they grow old enough to leave on their own.”

          She looked at him and stroked his face. “Dear man. Priestesses of Avalon do not marry. Though if they did, they would marry men like you.”

  

To read the entire first draft in one shot, click here:

PMO Creation - Week 3

Now that we have a mission, it's time to determine how to put this into practice. I did a bit of research and found an excellent site that advises people on how to set up a PMO. Here it is: www.practicalpmo.com.
Simon Wilkinson offers a free 7 steps guide and plugs his book. I may yet buy that book.

With his free guide in hand, I sat down with my team and developed a Gantt chart for the work we see ahead of us. Using good PM practices, I asked them to volunteer for activities and give me their estimates for duration. We are using this to complete our activities and check on our progress as we proceed. Here's a link to the Gantt chart we came up with:

Once again I distributed this chart to those who will be affected immediately by this work. I am not distributing it to the PMs outside the PMO until we have our processes in place. We want to be perceived as an asset to their efforts, not something else that starts with the same three letters.

Dear PM Advisor. Mar 3, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

When I'm generating a Work Breakdown Structure, the pattern for the completion of documents is always the same. Draft, Review, Edit, Review, Edit, Approve. Can't I just list all the documents as the one deliverable, place all the activities underneath it and I'm done with that section of the WBS? It seems a lot easier but I'm afraid I'll pay for it later?

Short-cut in Cambridge.

Dear Short-cut,

As the CarTalk denizens of your fair city are quick to point out: "It's the stingy man who pays the most!" As you suspect, there will be a payment for taking this short-cut. But it may not be as bad as you suspect.

Just remember what your next steps are after filling out the WBS. The activities need to be placed on the Responsibility Matrix and people need to volunteer for who will take responsibility for them. If they are all the same people on every document, you could be in luck. Most likely this is not the case.

Then the activities need to be placed in the schedule. If you're using MS-Project at this point, a simple cut and paste will help but you'll need to add the word describing each actual document. I'm a big proponent of activities standing alone. You shouldn't have activities named: Review. You'll have to scroll up each time to see exactly what the person is reviewing.

Next you have to add the durations and predecessors and they will vary by document.

My preference is to have each activity broken out within the WBS. You can use this as an opportunity to involve the people who have little to add to the WBS by asking them to repeat the activities you wrote under one document for all the other documents. Great opportunity for some team building.

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com