Projectrecovery

09/17/2020

Don’t you love meetings!
It is a fact that as a PM you strive to address all actions effectively and efficiently so they don’t become issues that require escalation and executive involvement.

Did you have a situation when you were hosting an important meeting with the main stakeholders or your core team members and after the meeting talking to the people you realize that many members misunderstood the directions?

Or after the meeting that you consider went well and the team is fully aligned as a next step you issue meeting minutes and people start responding to the minutes. At that time you realize half of the team misunderstood the direction.

What can you do in this situation?

The following steps can be used to remedy the situation:

Meet with core team members that you believe correctly understood the directions and let them paraphrase what they understood the directions are
Meet with team members who did misunderstand project directions with the objective to understand their point of view on the directions provided, if they have further concerns, and make sure they are aligned
Only after you aligned everyone update the meeting minutes and resend with further clarifications and detailed required
During the next team meeting re-state directions and ask if there are any questions or objections
My experience is that usually the directions are made at the high level but there are many details, constrains, assumptions and only by talking about further details the team becomes more comfortable in executing the directions.

The saying “the devils is in the details” is very applicable to the project management body of knowledge.

09/17/2020

Project Manager Week 1 on the Job

You got a new project management job!

Excitement is high as well as energy level and you are eager to start and learn about absolutely anything that can help you to success and establish your reputation within the team!

If this is your only goal you will use your project management IPECC (I-Initiate, P- Plan, E- Execute, C-Control, C- Close) techniques. You also need to be systematic and use your PMBOK knowledge areas to collect information about your project and start running.

The following are tips that will help you feel good and demonstrate progress:

Organize calls with main stakeholders with the objective to identify driving factors and success criteria for your project
Create or obtain project governance chart and identify names and understand roles of the people that you will have to interact with
Identify and document existing project management communication elements (meetings and reporting structure, governance)
Request and obtain access to all tools and repositories used
Understand your project basics: funding, health, open issues, risks


Remember at the end of week one and definitely week two people who hired you will want to see some results. You definitely don’t want to get a title of a lazy project manager!

You may have some other goals as well

First few weeks on the job you are allowed to ask many questions. If you want not only to be successful as a project manager but you also want to make a difference in the company by establishing your visibility and leadership you need to look at the project management environment as an ecosystem. Using your experience and knowledge identify area where you can contribute the most! Good reference for this would be to become familiar with Organizational Project Management Maturity Models and see if there are best practices that can be further enhanced in your company. More information can be found here:

We continue to expand and update our library of standards to meet the evolving needs of the project management profession. Find out about current projects.

09/17/2020

When you should feel fortunate as a PM
Let’s look at the following situation. The project is in ex*****on phase, funding approved, scope defined, teams in place including a few vendors, schedule defined and it should be a quit nice PM job!

You as a PM are monitoring weekly progress including milestones, deliverables and resource spending.

One of the teams is reporting green issuing a regular weekly status report for a few weeks now (3 to 4), but it is hard to see the evidence of the work being completed.

In the weekly team meetings you ask all the right questions: Are you on track, are there any issues, will delivery be on time as agreed on, and no indication that there is any problem.

As something feel wrong you reach out the responsible manager or account manager in case of the vendor engagement and you get some hint and indications that the work is stalling and it will be schedule impact. The next day you receive an official email indicating the teams is far behind the schedule and need more time and money to deliver.

After an initial shock what can you do to remedy this situation and get the project back on track?

Meet the responsible team manger to find out the root cause immediately next 4 hours – this is a situation for a panic button!
Once you have all required information and impacts identify a plan to remedy a problem – next 24 hours
Share the issue with your sponsor and obtain the agreement to execute the recovery plan
Establish new governance to resolve the issue including accountable Sponsor, Business Executive, Technology Executive, if Vendor include Vendor Management Account Manager and Vendor executive
Schedule frequent checkpoint to get new agreement in place, this should be done within a few weeks
Provide regular update and note decisions required
After the agreement is in place and agreed on milestones completed return to your BAU project model
If you have Sponsor that will support you all the way to recover the project you will probably feel humble and very LUCKY!

09/17/2020

What if one of the key stakeholders is not available to support your project
Although it is not happening very often it may happen to you as a PM
Let’s create a stage:

You are assigned to a project with multiple delivery teams spanning across different segment units within your company and includes a few Vendors. Resources are assigned and strong interdependency between the teams exists. Your key success criteria are to keep the cost and schedule on track.

Team is in place, you structured governance model required including the high level management, meetings, reporting and start running the project. After a few weeks you realize that THE key stakeholder does not have bandwidth and can’t support your project effectively and in time to deliver as required as he/she is involved in a different project or multiple projects. The other projects now become dependent projects for you to deliver on time.

What can you do in this situation?

Reach out to the key resource and understand what other projects are taking key stakholder time
Understand business benefits and impact to the company if the other projects are not delivered on time
Identify if the key stakeholder unavailability is temporary or will continue during your project. It could be short term or long term impact
Identify a risk and impacts if the situation continues and present to your manager and the sponsor, look for alternate ways to move your project forward
Reach out to the key stakeholder manager and ask if there are other resources within the team that could help in the interim. Identify and confirm other dependent projects priorities.
Try to identify and streamline the communication model in a way that only few people reach out to the critical scarce key stakeholder so decisions can still be made in time
Try to negotiate for a limited fixed time that a key stakeholder can be available for a consultation with your project team
Due to key stakeholder unavailability you may have a few gaps discovered late in the development cycle. If this situation is identified BEFORE the funding is confirmed you can add additional time and material for rework at a later stage. If the situation of the key stakeholder not been available happens during the ex*****on phase you can still raise a risk or issue and ask for contingency funding to deal with this problem
Setup checkpoints to monitor the progress on the other project and evaluate the risk and impacts to your project. At each checkpoint ask for a decision: STOP the work, REDIRECT, or CONTINUE AS IS
Report the status and the impacts to the team and to management on a regular basis to keep everyone informed

09/17/2020

What to do if Project Change is Identified

An easy way for a project to get in trouble is NOT to communicate change identified by different teams in any phase of the project. The change we discuss here is more on the technology side rather than business process change.

We all know that the change is inevitable and can be identified in any phase of the project.

In the organization that has well established project management as a discipline you will find that there are already in place a template to describe the change and a process to approve the change.

The problem and an opportunity to get our project into trouble are the following:

Change was not presented to anyone, human error
Change was not communicated to all stakeholders and impacted teams and the team is on the way to deliver the solution that does not work. This situation usually gets identified during the testing or even in production when it is more costly and too late
Change was not described at the details required and it was misunderstood by some teams
Assumptions , risks and constraints were not identified at the time when the change was assessed
Cost and funding source were not identified during the change impact process
Interdependencies were not identified at the time change impact is conducted
Impact to the ongoing cost was not discussed
Impact to steady state processes was not identified but t is required
Impact to a a different line of business or segment area was not identified
Timeline of the change proposed was not aligned to steady state activities already identified, or marketing strategies already planned for
If not taken into account any of the activities listed above may delay your project change to be approved or even stop your project.

09/17/2020

Project Governance - How to Set it Right

Project Governance term can be seen from multiple angles in the field of project management.

It could be project governance framework setup by the organizations to manage and obtain value for money for projects, programs and portfolios investment. It could also be IT project governance setup to effectively deliver IT projects.

I want to comment how and when a Project Manager should use Project Governance Body that already exists in the organization to quickly recover troubled project. I see it more as project governance at the micro level.

Wikipedia lists elements of Company wide established project governance. In the table bellow I compared how these steps can be applied to help you setup Project Governance Body and manage issues at the project level. Project Governance Body is a critical tool to recover troubled project

Hope these notes will help you to be successful in your role as a Project Manager!

Company Governance Objectives #1
A compelling business case, stating the objects of the project and specifying the in-scope and out-of-scope aspects

Project Governance Objectives #1
Use of a business case as a contract between the Project manager and the Project Governance

Company Governance Objective #2
A mechanism to assess the compliance of the completed project to its original objectives

Project Governance Objective #2
A mechanism to convey the trust that the project team will deliver the project as per original objectives
Identifying all stakeholders with an interest in the project

Project Governance Objective #3
Identifying all impacted stakeholders with an interest in the project is crucial for project success. It does not mean that all stakeholders need to be present at the project governance meetings but they need to be copied on the minutes from the meetings. It is also important that the Sponsor of the project is present at all meeting and committed to the project

Company Governance Objective #4
A defined method of communication to each stakeholder

Project Governance Objective #4
At the project level Project manager should establish “rules of engagement with the project Governance body”
Example:
· Minutes will follow every meeting identifying decisions and recommendations
· In case project is Yellow or RED more frequent communication may be required (it could switch from weekly instead of monthly )
· Meeting will be canceled if no issues or decisions required, update will be sent in advance…

Company Governance Objective #5
A set of business-level requirements as agreed by all stakeholders

Project Governance Objective #5
It is good practice to keep the list of proposed change as a separate table to make sure Governance Stakeholders are aware and in agreement with any of the of existing or upcoming changes

Company Governance Objective #6
An agreed specification for the project deliverables

Project Governance Objective #6
For audit purpose this is a standard best practice that should be followed by the PM. An exemption process should be initiated if the specific project will not require some of the deliverables. Example would be a fully hosted solution that does not require many of the technology deliverables and will be replaced with different deliverables as per the agreement with the Vendor and company Governance Policies

Company Governance Objective #7
The appointment of a project manager

Project Governance Objective #7
IT is crucial that the Project manager is not only appointed but also it is seen as a “go to person” to obtain update or prepare a remediation plan when the project is in trouble. If communication is taken outside and the project manager is not involved that is a first sign that the project manager needs to work with the Governance stakeholders to improve the communication

Company Governance Objective #8
Clear assignment of project roles and responsibilities

Project Governance Objective #8
At the project Governance level in time of an issue the project manager should reach out to the Sponsor with the objective to prepare a plan on how to resolve the issue. A good practice is for a Sponsor to reach out independently to the impacted stakeholders and obtain high level agreement before it is communicated to the team. Before going to the Sponsor a PM should have listed and agreed by the project team pros and cons and have clear understanding of the impacts of the decisions made. Remember you are approaching a Sponsor with a solution and not the problem at hand

Company Governance Objective #9
A current, published project plan that spans all project stages
An agreed project schedule is one of the main tools that Project Manager will use to his benefits to increase the trout in his ability to deliver project.
In some occasions and especially in the early stages of the project the PM can prepare next few weeks “Commitment List”
This list will hold the tasks, dates and the accountable person name of the activities to be completed in the next few weeks. By reporting progress on the Commitment list your project Governance Team will build trust in you as a PM to lead the team
In the time of critical issue the PM can prepare a similar Return to Green list of tasks to bring the project back on track. Other than tasks, dates and the accountable person name I would also add decisions required, when and by whom and the date when the decision is required

Company Governance Objective #10
A system of accurate status- and progress-reporting including time records.

Project Governance Objective #10
For audit purpose this is a standard best practice that should be followed by the PM. It is best practice to send a “pre-mail” 24 hours ahead of the meeting, identify health, issues at hand and decision required
In case there is no need for a meeting “pre-mal’ can be sent to the Project Governance team indicating that there are no critical issues and report on major accomplishments

Company Governance Objective #11
A central document repository for the project centrally-held glossary of project terms

Project Governance Objective #11
For audit purpose this is a standard best practice that should be followed by the PM

Company Governance Objective #12
A process for the management and resolution of issues that arise during the project

Project Governance Objective #12
I find this to be the most important element of the Project Governance Body. This is your way to get out of the woods with the full support of the management team.
You may want to think what process and steps you will use to get the troubled project back on track!

The following can be an example of the process:
· Issue identified recommended solution and impacts assessment completed – 48 hours
· Solution and the plan of action called “Return to Green Plan” prepared and reviewed with the sponsor – next 24 hours
· Sponsor executes the plan of action as required while the team is working on the details; Governance Body Return to green action plan update can be defined in advance with teh Sponsor
· Follow up and reporting on progress is defined based on the criticality and magnitude of the issue ( could be twice a day, daily, or every few days)
· Change management may be required and followed as part of the recovery process
· Final issue closure email is sent with accomplishments completed

Company Governance Objective #13
A process for the recording and communication of risks identified during the project

Project Governance Objective #13
Your project Governance Team must be aware and in agreement with major risks associated with the project delivery. Risk are not specific for the current phase and must include full project cycle
It is a best practice to include 5 highest risks. Mitigation plans need to be agreed on by the team and by the Governance Body. In some cases mitigation plan may trigger a change. The best practice is to report up to 5 high risks. A minimal set of information that a good Project Manager will use are: Risk Name/Description-Date Logged and by whom-Mitigation Plan-Accountable person and date

Company Governance Objective #14
A standard for quality review of the key governance documents and of the project deliverables

Project Governance Objective #14
For audit purpose this is a standard best practice that should be follow

09/17/2020

What would help in project difficult time

Commitment list is a tool that is easily created and will help your sponsor regain confidence in your abilities to bring the project health back to green. If you don’t do it your sponsor will ask for it anyway!

Frequent update on the commitment list and overall progress update would be very helpful in restoring the confidence into the team.

One other situation when a commitment list may come handy is when the business case approval is taking a long time and you need an effective way to close on the activity that appears not to be managed effectively.

Commitment list is a set of tasks to be completed in a week or two after the project goes to yellow or red. The list is relevant to the issues at hand and steps required resolving the issues.

The elements of the commitment list should be:

activity title
health
impact if not completed
owner name
committed date when the activity is supposed to be completed
Activity title could be a decision as well.

Owner name is usually a working core team member and a name that your sponsor is familiar with

It is recommended to keep the original committed date in the table in case you have to update new forecast date for any task

Make sure your core team members are aware and aligned in delivering as per the agreed on.

Commitment table example:

Activity name
Health (Red/Green/Yellow)
Impact if not completed
Owner Name
Committed date when the activity is supposed to be completed

08/17/2020

I reached the end of the project. Created Etsy sale page and activated it, updated page, created Instagram page, launched ãa product by creating and event in Toronto and the second show was just completed in Tellaro, Italy. All pictures were posted on the MBSilk FB page. Happy silk day!

06/16/2020

Well, after a long break the silk project is back on track and almost ready to transition to a steady state.

Since December Covid-19 happened and much of my time is now dedicated to my silk project. Production is in full swing and things outstanding before I can start project closure are the following:
1. Create page to share my work up to date ETA AUg 2020
2. Complete Etsy registration and publish product on Etsy Sep 2020

As a project has a definitive start and end I also want to define my success criteria to make sure I accomplished what I wanted and I am ready for the steady stay ex*****on. Will work on that in the next few days.

My good friend reminded my today that 10 years ago I told her when I retire I will do silk painting. Well, the day is almost here to say that I reached one of my live goals!

12/19/2019

Definitely in a recovery mode!

With travelling from England to Florida and spending time with grandkids and family I must admit my silk project is more trouble than I realized a month ago.

I am currently making sure I am ready to start again but ordering more supplies, making sure I have new correct tools ready to start painting again when I am back in England Early January.

Been here in Naples I also researched what silk artist and galleries are close to me so I can visit and get new inspirations.

In a summary some progress was made but definitely not enough, reporting project RED at this time.

What we need when a project is in red status we need an action plan to recover with realistic milestones and action plan.

1. Visit 3 artists and galleries while in Naples, Florida- Mila Due December 31, 2019

2. Find realistic shipping options so I am able to ship from anywhere in the world- Owner Mila, Due January 31, 2020

3. Secure necessary supplies to start producing more quality silk scarves, Owner Mila, due January 31, 2020.

11/23/2019

One year into retirement with a new focus on getting the silk scarves painting project going.

It is a new development and of course requires a lot of time, investigation, communication, networking and project obstacles resolution. Budget is limited so I have to think what makes sense and will provide long term benefits to the idea.

Living on 2 continents does not help with getting the distribution process going. The benefit is that I meet new people and have ability to expend my network and my skills by attending different venues and courses.

Something that is different with your personal project is that in order to create a piece of art your mind needs to be in a state to create a piece of art.

I love it anyway and for sure priorities need to be clear at all times. Family and then work!!!!!!!!!!!!

07/12/2019

My personal mSilk project is in trouble

Well it looks that my Personal project is in trouble. I launched my personal mSilk project the day I retired. It's been a year now and I am far from calling is "launched". I think I am feeling the 99% complete syndrome.

Today I need your help to proceed. It is a shaw stopper from a successful launch perspective.

The project objective is to create unique silk scarves and sell on Etsy.

My daughter gave me the silk paint, I bough the silk and started painting what ever comes to my mind.
I am still searching for the best method, so the product still has bugs, but I feel it is ready to go.

The help I need is to name for each of the scarves and pillows I created so I can post them on Etsy and get ready for the launch. You can make a few sentences or create a poem if you feel like.
Attaching the pictures bellow.

I must say I love my silk project and will continue as business as usual after the launch targeted for 2019!!!!
Just to be on the safe side " New" target launch date is December 31st, 2019.

Appreciate your help in getting the last steps done!