The delivery of projects is often focussed around milestones to be hit, budgets to be kept to and scope to be delivered. During these discussions a basic, but often overlooked fact, is that it is people who deliver projects. Ultimately, without a well-motivated and dedicated team of people, no project would ever be completed.
A slick project process with strong governance may make you feel good, but unless the people involved adhere to it, you won't get very far. People have feelings, get stressed and have other pressures which need to be understood to ensure project success.
People also have limits, which if pushed beyond, can mean short term success is coupled with longer term problems. To continue to deliver projects, a sustainable project approach is needed, and core to this are the talented people who do the work.
4. Back to Basics: What is a project?
Has a beginning and end
Brings together people for a specific purpose
Has specific goals
Usually has time/cost limits
5. Our story begins with a project…..
…a nightmare project
Scream by Uriel Sosa from The Noun Project
6. What type of nightmare?
Complex
Not enough time
Not enough people
‘Must happen’
15. Tool of Choice
Magic Wand by John from The Noun Project
Whip by Yevgeniy Osovets from The Noun Project
16. Mechanics of a trick: Back to Basics
Projects require work
People carry out work
To deliver a project you need enough people for the work
17. Mechanics of a trick: Back to Basics
Supply vs. Demand
Supply = People x Availability x Duration
Supply = People x Availability x Duration
Supply = People x Availability x Duration
Icon by James Keuning from The Noun Project
19. Impact: a vanishing trick
A few late nights….
A few more….
Drop in quality….
Unhappy staff….
No staff at all!
20. The Cost
People will have gained a lot of knowledge
… on the business
… about the system
can you afford to loose them?
21. Long term
Maybe your staff don’t leave…
They feel burnt
Reluctant to take on the next project
Become cynical
22. It’s not a great trick
Anyone can do this
Magician or slave driver?
Icon by James Keuning from The Noun Project
23. There is always a bigger trick
“after you pull a blue whale from the hat… there’s this trick called
sawing a lady in half”
What You Need to Know about Project Management p148
ISBN: 978-0857081315
24. An Alternative
Sustainable Project Delivery
Tree by Humberto Pornaro from The Noun Project
Cross by Richard Schumann from The Noun Project
25. Sustainable Delivery Principles
1. We want to deliver projects today, tomorrow and beyond
2. We understand the value of people, their knowledge, skills
and contribution to success
3. We want to build a long term culture of successful delivery
27. Staying Sustainable: People
So don’t use a whip…
Don’t ignore the signs
People can be eager to please
Understand your people
Help them to help the project
28. Staying Sustainable: Deal in facts
Complex
Not enough time
Not enough people
‘Must happen’
Scream by Uriel Sosa from The Noun Project
Complex
Not enough time
Not enough people
‘Must happen’
29. Staying Sustainable: Deal in facts
Triangle by Pierre TORET from The Noun Project
CostTime
Scope
Quality
34. Join us….
GETTING THE BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS: REAL WORLD
SYSTEM SELECTION
Friday 18th July, 11:45am, Durham
Notes de l'éditeur
Some areas of project management get talked about a lot, frameworks, alignment.
These are great
But we aren’t’ talking about them today
Some areas of project management get talked about a lot, frameworks, alignment.
These are great
But we aren’t’ talking about them today
Look at one of the basic jobs for a project manager
Before we start, back to basics, what is a project?
We have all seen these projects – seen as a doomed venture
People worry about it
Don’t want to work on it
Sure we all have examples
Our flavour of nightmare
‘Failure is not an option!’ people cry
All things people know up front
Project managers, keep your thoughts on what you would do with this for now
How should we deal with this problem?Stakeholders cry out that a solution must be found.
Our magical project manager! Not intimidated by the challenge, he tells everyone that the project will still be delivered on time.
And behold! The nightmare project is not, somehow it all comes together and is delivered
Hurray for our magical project manager!
Accolades are given, and everyone is impressed!
A pay rise for this fantastic manager!
The question we should ask is
How was it done then?
People don’t necessarily always care, but we should
We have all seen them
Let’s look behind the curtain and see what the magician has been doing….
The team must be happy right?
The stakeholders are happy, the project was a success!
It must have been a great team
Sounds simple, takes us back to the principle – supply and demand
You may be heartless
But you probably care about the quality
Do you want to loose your staff?
Dah dah! Your staff have vanished!
Hopefully you don’t want to loose staff, but maybe you don’t care
Let’s strip it back to the fundamental level
Loosing that knowledge is hard to replace
Even if they don’t leave, what’s the impact on the culture of the organisation?
Not so magical, our project manager – it’s not even a clever trick!
Even worse if they believe they really are a wizard!
But it can still be a temptation – remember the adulation the project manager got?
As PMs, why shouldn’t we?
For someone who pulls off the impossible, there is always a bigger trick – people will expect it.
You start our with a rabbit from the hat
If you can do it with 10% less resource than you need, why not 20%?
Take it to the eventual conclusion
So there are plenty of problems with just driving people to complete a project
Getting people to do more time
So what’s the alternative
Sustainable project delivery an alterative
I don’t mean sustainable like this - green, hippy
We want to assess the impact of our actions on our longer term programmes of work
So this means the people, but it also means relationships with suppliers, customers
Yeah, so don’t be like our fraudulent magician
Remembering the value of people to the organisation
But also don’t ignore the signs that people are over worked – maybe they say they can give you 4 days a week, but what else are they commited to?
As a project manager, make it your mission to understand the challenges people in the team face
By helping them, you help the project
Arrange for them to be taken off other projects, work flexibly, pick up some lunch
This helps build the culture, but we have other things to tackle
This helps build the culture, but we have other things to tackle
Let’s go back to our nightmare project
Not enough people
Not enough time
Well, we know that there is an imbalance of supply and demand!
Our classic constraint triangle
We know our time is fixed
Not enough people – a cost constraint
Quality and scope could vary
Simple way of thinking about this is – fast, good, cheap, pick any two!
Is not about appearing with a wand or a whip
Appearing to work a miracle at a hidden cost
Being willing to tackle the difficult problems
To address the difficult question – what can you really have – how do you present these?
Understand your project
Present the options – higher cost, longer, less scope
No magic bullet to this, having the communication skills and the guts to deal in reality
Have done your groundwork
Understand the detail, be able to back up what you say and the team
No hat required, far more impressive
To communicate and bring the stakeholders with you, to make the right decision and see it through
Deliver real value in the long run, sustainably