Volodymyr Oros. Effective Retention of Skills and Knowledge in Long-Term Projects

#PMI50 #PMILIMGC19
PMI® Global Conference 2019
07 Oct 2019
Effective retention of
skills and knowledge in
long-term projects
Delivery Director, Itera
Volodymyr Oros
Session #201

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About presenter
Education:
• Master Degree in Math
• Specialist Degree in Economics
• PhD research in Math (unfinished)
• Executive MBA (unfinished)
Managerial certifications:
• PMP, PMI-RMP
• Prince 2 Practitioner
• Management of Portfolio Practitioner
• PMO-CP
• CSM, SAFe 4.6 Agilist
Career:
• Programmer
• Teacher of Math
• Hardware & Software Engineer
• Programmer in IT Outsourcing
• Various leadership positions

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ICELAND
Reykjavik
Bergen
ITERA – SPECIALISTS IN DIGITAL BUSINESS
A Nordic full-service provider
Serving leading customers in
creating digital business
Listed on Oslo stock exchange
>500 people
6 countries
Flexibility of a hybrid model
Delivery across borders
Top 25 most innovative
company
Recognized as one of Norway’s
25 most innovative companies
across all industries last 4
years*
*) Awarded by Innovasjonsmagasinet 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019

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People
People could be the most tender, loving, kind, caring and peaceful
creatures.
And very often they are the least predictable element of you project.
* Especially when they need something from you.

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Example #1
Small team of 4.
Regular rotations due to maternity leaves.
First time: no big deal, just normal.
Second time: “wow, what a coincidence!”
Third time: jokes “are we blessed?”, “shall we
focus more on men-candidates?”
Fourth time: just friendly laughter, “shall we
charge a fee for being admitted to this team?”

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Example #1 - continued
Current replacement: it’s a man.
Only for 6 months.
Hope he’ll be just fine.

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Example #2 – team of 6
100% attrition during a year.
Including myself.
Second year – also an
100% attrition.
Reason for continuing the
collaboration – high
productivity despite
rotations.

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In-demand specializations have highest turnover
“Full List of Most and Least Loyal Employees” – research by Payscale
Full List of Employee Tenure at Fortune 500 Companies. Retrieved from
https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-list

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Tenure distribution by months of employment
Eurofound (2015), Job tenure in turbulent times, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Each bar equals to 12
months of tenure.
Most attrition happens in
first year, then gradually
goes down.
Small glitch at 3rd year is
due to poor design of a
survey (acknowledged in
publication)

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Tenure distribution
* 3.8 years is median tenure in US private sector - BLS (2018 report),
retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/tenure.pdf
Probability for 1 person to
stay 0.8 (80%)
Probability for all members of
7-person team to stay
0.8* 0.8* 0.8* 0.8* 0.8* 0.8*
0.8=0.209 (20.9%)
It means 80% that at least
one will leave

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Is the risk high enough?
Whether to apply any recommendations
or not depends on your risk appetite.
Beware of tendency of less experienced
leaders to prioritize short-term gains.
Local optimum. “Value here and now”.
More experienced managers almost
always have broader view, covering full
project/product lifecycle. Global
optimum.

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Duplicating
key roles?
Downsides of duplication:
- high cost
- coordination overhead
- lower motivation!
Let’s explore alternative
methods

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Competence
VS
Knowledge

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Keeping the competence
Data are simply facts or figures — bits of information, but not
information itself. When data are processed, interpreted,
organized, structured – they are called information
Knowledge – information, and skills acquired through
experience or education; the theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject
Competence - the ability to do something successfully or
efficiently. This ability depends also on other people, their
goodwill, recognition, personal connections etc.

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Survey @ Itera & PMI Ukrainian chapter
This presentation contains selected results of a survey.
• Anonymous poll with single-choice question (SurveyMonkey platform)
• Conducted in May 2019
• 99 responses from Itera (mix of PMs and project members)
• 22 responses form PMI Ukrainian chapter (PMs)

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Answer Choices Responses
100% of the information is in such
systems 16.67%
Majority of information, but there are
some exceptions 53.33%
50% or so 7.50%
Only some information is stored in
centralized systems 18.33%
We don’t use centralized storage of
information 4.17%
#2 - Does your team or project store all documents and information in
centralized systems?

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ONLINE POLL #1
How much time do you need to add new text to knowledge base of
you project?
1. Less than 1 min
2. Several minutes
3. 5 or more minutes
4. I cannot edit it myself, need review or approval
5. We don’t have centralized knowledge base

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Recommendation for Knowledge base
• Centralized knowledge base (wiki-style tools, Confluence, OneNote etc.)
• Convenience – usability rule of «3 clicks» to reachupdate
• Culture & discipline – allow smaller & incremental updates by “doers”,
brush-up when needed
• Record video – while on teleconference call or domain-specific workshop
• Create dictionary of project-specific terms

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#3 - Does your project team have good documentation and plan of onboarding
activities for newcomers?
Yes, both documents and plan for
activities are present
20.83%
Some documentation is present and
activities are planned case by case
59.17%
Our team doesn’t have prepared
approach for knowledge transfer – as this
activity was not prioritized
20.00%

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Newcomer starting kit
• Includes both documentation and activities
• Trainer explicitly assigned
• Re-use of all video, presentations, whiteboard sheets, team photos,
other materials
• Newcomer has a task to validate and update any inconsistencies
Real life example – IT systems integration team
Onboarding time reduced from 6 months to 2,5-3 months

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#5 - Which method of knowledge transfer is the most efficient?
Answer Choices Votes
Reading detailed documentation 0.83%
Working together with experienced
person 20.00%
Exploring project myself by performing
tasks 7.50%
Combination of all methods listed
above 71.67%

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Newcomer productivity in project
Many projects
have
productivity
starting with
negative numbers

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Knowledge area matrix
Knowledge area matrix is a tool to measure
and visualize knowledgecompetence in
certain areas of project.
Table with team members on one dimension,
and areas of project, skills or competence
areas on other dimension.
Very helpful to raise awareness of
stakeholders, get buy-in for risk management
activities
List of team members
Knowledge
areas

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Real project
example
Measuring relative
knowledge of area by
person
Usage:
- Planning rotations
- Visualizing risks
- Planning switches

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Motivation is task based

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#4 - What gives you the most motivation for your day-to-day work?
Interesting task(s) 30.83%
Any task (good and bad) in
interesting project 25.83%
Any project and any task in good
company with good colleagues 43.33%

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Responsibility Exchanges

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#1 - Do you like to have unique knowledge inside your team?
I like to have unique knowledge and
normally I don’t spend time teaching
others if this activity hasn’t been
planned 8.33%
I like to have unique knowledge, but
I’ll try to teach others, even if not
planned 65.00%
I don’t like to be the only person who
knows some area 26.67%

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Responsibility Exchanges
People find this very motivating in long term projects
Ideas for exchange:
- Learning weak areas or gaps from Knowledge Area Matrix
- Teaching newcomers or mentoring less experienced team members
- Documenting certain areas or brushing up existing notes
- Pair work on some complex task
This must be used to increase scores in Knowledge Area Matrix.

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#6 - Which project do you prefer?
Project where you know all the
tasks
5.79%
You know most of the work, but
there are some tasks or areas to
learn
62.81%
Most of the tasks on the project
are new and unknown to you
31.40%

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Staffing for growth
Staffing for growth – newcomers with lower seniority, lower skills but
high willingness to learn and grow.
Gap in skills is a lot easier to cover than gap in attitude.
Personal observation: such a practice results in longer project
assignments (~4 years) comparing to “good match” candidates (~2,5
years).

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Planned Rotations
Some skilled team members are getting bored faster than others.
Their “plateau of productivity” in a project can be extended by 6-12
months when they see a clear and guaranteed plan for rotation.
This improves statistics on bad leaves.
Before leaving projects you could also request them to perform good
handover to newcomer.

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Regular
1 to 1 meetings

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Regular 1 to 1 meetings
Helps to discover all types of dissatisfaction, which may lead to rotation.
May feel awkward when done only once. It’s a lot more natural if properly
announced to the team and done regularly.
• With extroverts – be prepared to moderate and timebox.
• With introverts – be prepared with questions. 3 minutes meeting means
you’re not prepared or don’t want to spend time on this person.
Discuss personal development plan and how it aligns with project. If there’s
no progress – talk about circumstances.
Effectiveness is anyway probabilistic – works for many, but not for everyone

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Career roadmap
tailored to project
milestones

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Maintain bright vision of the future

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Keep your team busy
All types of activities during slack periods
- Start making that long-waited improvement
- Organize best teambuilding ever
- Charity event
- Professional meetup with external companies
- Speaking at conferences
- Task force to help other teams
- Gamification
- Etc
Activity creates engagement. Keeps energy flowing.

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PM integrates
everything

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PM integrates everything
Intersection of many areas:
- Recruitment
- Knowledge management
- Leadership
- Motivation & HR practices
- Career management
- Schedule management
- Risk management
- Sustainability
- Other
Limited time, money, limited
amount of personal energy
Selected approaches in this
presentation work with high
probability

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Summary
Define your risk
appetite. Optimize
for the full lifecycleEasy to use
knowledge base.
Incremental
documentation.
Use media!
Newcomer starting
kit to include plan
of various activities
Appoint
a mentor

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Summary Consider
staffing for
growth
Knowledge area
matrix helps to
visualize team
competence and
prioritize actions
Planned
rotations extend
the “plateau of
productivity”
Regular 1 to 1s
give you better
understanding of
your team

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Summary
Tailor career
progression
to project
milestonesPaint a bright vision
of the future
Keep your
team busy
PM
integrates
everything

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Question & Answer
THANK YOU
51

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CONTACT INFORMATION
VOLODYMYR OROS
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/voros/
• Volodymyr.oros@gmail.com
• Phone, Viber, Telegram: +380505505431
52

Volodymyr Oros. Effective Retention of Skills and Knowledge in Long-Term Projects

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