Program and Project Management

Delays of Projects Caused by Owner
"Kindly I am doing a PhD on the impact of the management policies and procedures on the delay of projects in public sector in Libya.
In my opinion, the owner has a big part in the responsibility for creating project delay problems.
In your opinion, what are typical causes the owner is responsible for, causing project delay problems? Any information or feedback in this regard will be highly appreciated. Thank you very much."

Demography, Ethnicity, and Socio-cultural Factors in Project Management
"While there are volumes of books available on project management, very few discuss how demography, ethnicity and socio-cultural factors influence on projects outcome.
An empirical study recently conducted into this phenomenon in China, and comparing it with India, has shown that the profound influence of personal connection (guanxi), face (mianzhi), and ethnographic bonding (minzhu de jing mi jie he) all play an important role in determining the success outcome for their projects in China vis-a-vis with India.
Can these practices be be emulated in other countries to harness an increased efficiency in projects outcome?"

Effective Project Communication
"To ensure team collaboration and tasks completion, effective communication must be implemented for projects.
Communication is the most important tool when handling large complex global projects:
- At project kick off, rules must be laid down on this aspect, the do's and don'ts and which method to communicate on issues.
- This must be clearly detailed out in a document that everyone on a particular project is made aware of the requirements.
- A point of escalation for each role must be identified to ensure continuity and success of the project.
- Approach to phone calls versus emails must be detailed out - which appropriate tool to be used in which type of situation.
- A non-response to email or phone call for any critical request of over 24 hours must be followed up with the back up team. The usage of out of office notification must be adhered to if any particular person is going to be away from their working area for more than 3 hours.
Most of the problems we see today in any industry is failure or breakdown in communication pathway that leads to serious situations or risks."

What is the Value of PMP Certification?
"What value does PMP certification add to your resume?
Do companies prefer PMP certified professionals over those that do not possess it?"

Project Manager versus Business Analysis
"How is the role of a project manager different from business analyst? Is a project manager required to know the business process?"

Trends in Project Management Offices
"What do you consider to be the main changes or trends in PMO development for the next 10 years (strategy, organization, tools, HR, other)?"

Measuring the CUSTOMER Outcome of a Project
"The following questions are intended to measure customer outcome of projects.
- When are projects successfully managed and completed?
- Is there a demand for facilitating customer projects to success?
- Which requirements do customers have with regard to success factors for managing a project portfolio more effectively?
- Are time, money and quality the only (measurable) results that the customer aims for?
Your answers from a customer’s perspective is much appreciated."

Are Project Managers Born or Made?
"It is worth considering whether project managers are born or made.
If they are born, there is an assumption that core elements of the desirable traits mentioned in the 4C's of an Ideal Project Manager are inherent in the nature of the individual.
This may be the case for a lucky few but, in my experience, the best chance for success in developing project managers is to mould them by virtue of a combination of training, mentorship and experience.
That is where the competency element comes in to play. If the manager is given the tools to succeed and is exposed to lessons learned from previous projects then that, combined with the inherent personality should give you the greatest opportunity for becoming a successful and competent project manager."

The 4C's of an Ideal Project Manager
"To be excellent, a project manager should be:
- Communicative - Communication is the artery of any project and information is the blood that should flow seamlessly. The PM has to be communicative to all levels of the organization who are involved. It is not just to be communicative, but communicate effectively the right information at the right time to all the stakeholders of a project.
- Collaborative - Projects are a joint intellectual effort of many minds. The PM should lead any activity in a project and should take a collaborative approach. For example when adopting this approach, the PM is involving the client in project activities from the beginning, indirectly getting a buy-in. It becomes easier for the client to take decisions in any activity and overall it saves time in the project.
- Committed - This can make or break lots of decisions and has a tremendous impact on the project, and on the relationships and trust between the PM and various other constituents. A PM, once committed to a deliverable or a milestone, can never go back. By sticking to a commitment he builds relationship and trust.
- Creative - Customers are quenched with creative meaningful ideas that help them to meet the business or competitive market needs. The PM should be in the forefront with creativity in dealing with client’s problems or requirements. Also, he should be creative in leading the team. Problems do creep in a project, but the PM should be creative with array of new ideas to deal with them. "

What is a Programme?
"A program is more than a collection of projects towards a common goal:
1. First, a program consists of various and different activities, some of which are projects.
2. But there will also be other activities such as improvisations and unplanned processes concerning change, negotiations, conflict management, consulting and decision making that have an unpredictable outcome and therefor cannot be embedded in a project.
3. Most program managers will also manage routine processes temporarily, such as a program support office or a key department."

Agile Project Management Methods
"We have to quit using traditional project management methodologies, especially in IT projects. The right way to go is flexibility. Being agile, that’s the name of the game!"

How to Convert a Project into a Road Map for Product Development?
"Please suggest me: we started a project and successfully implemented it for two different customers and at two different sites. The project is now implemented and we want this to be converted as a product. If you people can suggest that what should be the road map for a project to product and other issues I have to look at?"

Project Quality Management for EPC
"As the Quality Assurance (QA) manager for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) projects I have developed a set of template management plans that define how every aspect of an EPC project should be managed and tested. One of this set of plans is the project quality plan. Would any QA manager be interested in exchanging ideas on the content and application of such a plan for EPC projects with a value > €10 million?"

Leadership in Project Management
"I think Rod Chambers is right, leading is the right way in managing a project. If there is a need to stay late, you have to be in the project, you have to set a good example of what a leader is. 1. Always be on time 2. Pick up small items that are left off. 3. Be the last person to go home 4. Be honest 5. Assume ownership 6. Care for your workers safety. Try "sheeperding" 7. Find time to listen."

Human Behavior and Project Management
"Even if there is control and knowledge of all techniques, methods and approaches, the most crucial aspect of a project is human behavior, and this critical factor is usually the hardest to deal with."

Project Success Factors
"Project succes factors:
1. Take proper time to make a proper feasibility study
2. Make clear, transparant business oriented project goals
3. Set up a project organisation based on stakeholdership and competences, and work accordingly
4. Involve all stakeholders, at start and at regular times
5. Secure active support from the steering committee (chairman)
6. Make sure that all project team members are supportive/contributive
7. Perform a structured project breakdown (goals-->act-->time plan-->resource plan,...)
8. Make sure that progress and risks get honestly assessed
9. Take proper time to realize a proper hand-over to the line-organisation / stakeholders."

Tracking Policies and Procedures.. Without the Big Bucks
"Any recommendations on how to track the progress of policies and procedure that are being updated or written... Without using the big dollar programs? We have over 200 policies and procedures that we will be updating for an upcoming accreditation and I need a fool-proof way to keep a handle on where they are in the process."

Approaches for Project Downsizing
"I have recently been tasked to come up with a proposal from the prime contractor (we are subs) that will significantly cut my team's hours. What is the best way to comply with the request without making my team's resources seem irrelevant."

Project Manager? Keep the BIG Picture in Focus
"A PM can only be successful if he keeps the BIG picture in focus. The big picture is the goals and objectives that he sets out to accomplish. Lose sight of it and you're doomed."

Creating Ownership in the Project Team
"How can the project manager/director make every member of the project team feel responsible for his mission in the project and for the whole results of the project?"

Earliest Event Time Definition
"Does anyone have the definition of "Earliest Event Time", unfortunately I can't find it anywhere. They do have Earliest Start Time, Earliest Finish Time, but not event time. Can anyone please help me. Thank you."

Hierarchy in Project Management
"Hello, to close a long discussion between management and my PMO, could you please tell me if a document exists to demonstrate the hierarchy within a project? Between a project manager, a project coordinator, business analyst, sponsor, wholesaler... Who supervises whom? Thank you."

What are the Basic Steps of Implementing a New Project?
"Can someone help me answer the question, please: What are the basic elements while implementing a new project?"

How to Prepare for PMP Certification?
"Hi All,
I am new to 12manage.com, I would like to prepare for PMP certification, can someone please let me know how to proceed and what needs to be done to get certified."

Community Development Approach
"Many development workers do not empower communities to be more proactive in implementing their own development programs while I see a very good community empowerment approach here."

Objective of Project Management?
"I want to get some formulation of the objective of project management... Thanks"

Criteria Program versus Project?
"I am trying to develop general criteria for determining if a group of projects should stay projects or if there is enough interdependency to make them a program or one large project.
Anyone having theory or guidance on what type of criteria or questions to use to help to make this determination?"

Best Practice: Five Crucial Project Conversations
"The success or failure of major projects can be predicted by examining the quality of 5 crucial conversations that must take place, yet which are often neglected:
1. Are we planning around facts? (or are milestones unrealistic or predetermined)
2. Is the project sponsor providing support?
3. Are stakeholders faithful to the process?
4. Are the progress and risks honestly assessed?
5. Are all team members contributing?
There are 5 supporting best practices to foster a culture of candor and rapidly improve project execution: 1. Make the case for the 5 issues; 2. measure project performance; 3. make it easy to discuss, 4. make it safe to discuss; 5. influence by teaching (train soft skills).(Source: MIT Sloan Management Review Summer 2007, David Maxfield, Joseph Grenny and Andrew Shimberg)"

Don't Ignore the Basics of Project Management
"While I agree with most comments in this excellent forum on project management - I do feel that sometimes we tend to overstate the complexities in PM.
I have seen project managers become very successful with nothing more than diligence in the basics - like collecting status, providing updates, periodic communication, appropriate escalation, reviewing progress, when appropriate asking for several opinions, treating your customers and team members with courtesy, etc.
In most projects 70-80% of your challenges can be overcome through a steady focus on the basics - typically everybody else pretty much falls in line.
Tasks perceived to be more complex - such as customer management, team management, vendor management, motivating team members, etc will all become much easier if you can simply focus on the basics."

Project Lessons Learned
"One of the greatest contributions of PM to an organization is the set of lessons learned. After every project concludes, a formal meeting with all of the team members should be conducted and both good and bad experiences should be duly written down in a document that should be a part of the project. But it does not end there. There should be a kind of library of lessons learned from each project implemented in the organization, to save time and effort and implement best practices born from within the organization."

Project Transition into the Operational Activities
"If you have achieved project support, and you had a good project leader who managed the project through to delivery that's great.
But often times the acceptance of the intended change is only achieved when the project has become part of the operational way of 'doing business'.
The most successful projects are those where the transition into the operational activities of the business has been taken up and owned by the people who receive it."

Project Expectation Management
"In managing a project, one of the critical factors that doesn't get enough attention is EXPECTATION management. No matter what method or process you use to deliver, you must realize that your project will have far reaching impact on many lives. Everyone will have their own perception of what's being delivered. As a project manager, one must make sure that everyone's expectation is managed appropriately. This will help keep everyone's focus on the mission, objectives, and deliverables of a project. COMMUNICATION is at the heart of expectation management, which helps us with establishing a balance between expectations and realities surrounding a project."

Build Project Support first
"An often overlooked fastpath to failure of any major project is to not (properly) assess the support for the project beforehand (using Force Field Analysis or similar), or to neglect to act upon it before kicking off the project (if the restraining forces for the project are bigger then the driving forces). Don't let your sense of urgency fool you, and do not assume you can always build the support later on."

Priority: Deliver the Project
"Many PM's have become blinded by paperwork and process. Having witnessed time and again large failures in government and industry the cause is often the same. The best processes in the world will NOT deliver the programme/project. It takes someone to shoulder responsibility and DRAG the project kicking and screaming through the process and deliver the result. The ability to push on regardless of the process is critical. Once enough inertia has been gathered the programme/project becomes unstopable. THEN there is time to go back and shuffle the mountain of paper that no-one bar audit ever reads. Priority 1. DELIVER !"

The Most Important Thing in Project Management: the Word MANAGEMENT
"In my opinion the most important thing in project management that many people overlook is in the word MANAGEMENT. Of all the difficulties you face,
- Project methods and tools are useful in project management to organize, to plan, to follow-up, to report but they represent no more than 30% of your challenges as a project manager.
- The other 70% concern the management of the project team, integrating the project into the overall management of the firm, the management of the stakeholders, and of course the management of the client relationship."

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