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Project Management Tool #2 – The Project Plan
The Project Plan – another post for the series of effective project management tools essential for getting the job done and delivering a successful outcome. Another very general tool that will work in any project situation to help communication within your team and up to your sponsor.
Yes yes Nick, come on! We all know how to do project planning, tell us something new for goodness sake!
Fair enough, I say, and if you are one of those that do it well then feel free to move on. The thing is, I’ve seen far more examples of bad planning than I have the reverse and usually that’s been because the project manager has missed the point before they even began.
The secret of creating a successful project plan is to realise that it’s not the plan itself that’s the valuable product here, it’s the process you go through to create the plan.
Most plans fail to hit the mark either because the format that’s used is overly complicated with features and dimensions or it’s created in an unfriendly format (sorry Microsoft!) or the creation process meant it was drafted by one person (normally the PM herself) in a darkened room all on their lonesome. Worst case scenario is that it’s a combination of all three.
Think back to previous projects and remember at least one example where you were the one doing the planning and then another when you were a resource being put into the plan.
How did you feel about your plan at the point when you had finished that first draft before you sent it for review? Chuffed to bits? Well it took you a long time, right? There was a lot to consider and the timeline was pretty aggressive.
Now, remember how was it received by your team. Any unhappy people or was everyone over the moon with what you had done? Anything like …
How do you think we’re going to be able to do that in just 4 days? What planet are you on Nick?
We can’t do those activities in that order because Mike needs to be involved in both. What’s he supposed to do? Work 80 hours a week?
That milestone can’t be achieved until we’ve done that one. You have them the wrong way round. Might have been a good idea to come and talk to us don’t you think?
Come on. Be honest. Never has a first draft been right on the money in anything I’ve been involvd in (unless it was only me on the project of course!).
How many revisions did you have to make before people agreed on it? How did you feel when members of your team picked your beautiful plan apart so callously. How did you feel at the end of the process? A little tired? How long did it take overall when you factor in the initial drafting and then all the subsequent conversations and revisions (not to mention the emotional fatigue)? Too long I’d wager.
Most importantly, what happened to the plan after that? The centre of all the action for the duration of the project or a dust collector in the 3rd folder down on your shared drive?
The problem here is not in the plan itself but the process that the team so often goes through to create the plan.
Remember, this is an incredibly important document in a project, arguably the most important, as it holds a lot of the important detail of how the team is going to operate to achieve the objectives that the project is setting out to achieve.
Remember also this is the most emotionally charged document you have (hence the bolding of the letters above) as it holds the immediate personal future of all the people involved. People tend to care quite a lot about their own destiny and most of the time like to have at least some control over it. Some of us even HATE being told exactly what to do, who to do it with and by when (ahem!). That’s just human nature I’m afraid and to change that you’re going to need a bit more than your measly plan!
So what can you do differently?
Two things – keep it simple and create it as a team.
Do those two things well and you not only have a higher quality final product but you have also helped bond your team together even more and saved yourself a heck of a lot of time in the process. You need a solid process though so as a starter for 10 here’s how I go about it.
What is it?
A project plan is a document or tool that maps out the entire implementation of the project – capturing roles, a timeline and activities shown in “swim lanes”.
It highlights all milestones, activities, interfaces, decision points and deliverables along the way.
When would you use it?
Early in the project after you have a team, you’ve developed a shared vision of the objectives (how might you do that? coming soon is a tool for you!) and you have agreed each team member’s role and responsibilities (how? again, coming soon).
A good plan then becomes a living working document that changes shape as the project progresses. It should become the place to look to see what the latest position is and what’s coming up in the future.
Who would you use it with?
Every tool should be used in a team environment if possible as I said with the Stakeholder Map.
This one, though, should ABSOLUTELY DEFINITELY and UNQUESTIONABLY be done as a group. Anyone and everyone on the project should be invited along to this workshop as they need to be able to contribute their thoughts and ideas on potential ways forward and hold their hands up to volunteer when it comes to plotting out activities.
Invite other interfacing workstreams and projects along if you can (or at least representatives). Rarely is a project a standalone island and a good way to foster intra-project relationships and collaboration is to get as many people’s fingerprints on this plan as possible. There’s less chance they’ll turn around at a later date and complain if they were part of the planning process in the first place.
Are there any rules?
Don’t plan alone. Have I said that already?
Start with the high-level milestones and work from right to left (i.e. start with the final deliverable first and then plot in subsidiary milestones back to the current day) before you start looking at the activities that will be required to deliver those milestones.
What’s the process?
Step 1 – draw the map
For this tool you need to go big as it needs to be on the wall so your group can crowd around and work comfortably with it. Length depends on how long into the future you’re planning and height depends on how many ‘swim lanes’ you might have. As a guide about 2 metres high and 4 metres long should do it (you can always tap extra paper on to the end or below if needs be.
Before you mark out the paper you need to work out the number of ‘workstreams’ in your project. For convenience, these are ways of dividing up the work for planning purposes. For example, they may reflect the responsibilities of different stakeholders in the project or they may reflect different functions. It’s totally your team’s choice how you do this, go with whatever you feel most comfortable with but make it a group decision.
I’m going to use the generic example of renovating a house for this post and my ‘team and I’ have decided to chunk the project into three workstreams – architectural design, work on the house itself and then landscaping the garden.
The workstreams therefore are called ‘design’, ‘house’ and ‘garden’ and are designated their own swim lanes for the duration of the project which is represented by the ‘timeline’.
Step 2 – plot the milestones
You should then start to populate the plan by identifying ‘key milestones’ first. These are events, deliverables or decision points that symbolise significant achievements at certain points along the timeline. Write one per post-it note (use post-its if you can as you’ll want the flexibility of being able to move them around) and stick them on to your plan starting from the end of the project and working backwards (i.e. right to left).
Your first milestone will probably always be ‘Project Complete’ and this should be stuck at you target date. Working right to left you might have others like ‘house complete’; ‘new kitchen floor down’; ‘loft conversion finished’; ‘sign-off architects drawings’ etc.
If you have a large number of workstreams and enough people in your team working on this then you might want to split into sub-groups to get the first draft up onto the wall quicker.
Use square post-it notes to represent the milestones, twist them 45 degrees and you now have a diamond (the international symbol of a milestone!). Write clearly the identity of each so all can be easily read from a distance.
That should leave you with a diagram that might look a little like this. Take a good look as a team and do a sanity check. Do they look in the right order? Any glaring errors? Does the flow look OK? Are they doable in the timeframe allotted? Are any clustered too tightly together that ‘feels’ like a bit of a stretch?
Don’t be afraid to challenge your initial assumptions (as a team through discussion mind) and move them around to your hearts content. That’s what this about.
If you’re the PM facilitating the process make sure everyone in your team is engaged and inputting. Any who aren’t gently bring them in by giving them the space, time and permission to contribute. It’s quite often the quiet ones that have the best ideas and once they’ve got going you won’t be able to stop them. You also want everyone to get in there to ensure this is a whole team effort.
Step 3 – plot the activities and dependencies
Complete the plan by using post-it notes to represent activities (note that for clarity, each workstream has been assigned a different colour). Activities are the work that must be done in order to meet the planned milestones. By using a string of post-it notes you can represent the planned duration of each activity, from start to finish. Use a marker pen to write on the identity of each activity.
Finally, it is advisable to indicate where the start or finish of one activity is dependent on another, by drawing lines between them.
If different people in the team were assigned to a workstream and have stuck to planning their ‘own’ swim lane, their thinking should then be challenged and informed by the planning of other workstreams on which they are interdependent. This results in a far more rigorous plan and builds ownership of the final product going forward.
That might leave you with something that looks a bit like this.
Now isn’t that just as good as those fancy MS Project plans that you’ve seen so many of? The big difference here is that, apart from the striking colour scheme and the wonderful flexibility that this plan has, it also has the hugely important advantage of being created by your team all at the same time. Finger prints are all over it and as a result it will be much more implementable and therefore have much more chance of success.
Don’t take it down, electronify it and bury the original in a cupboard somewhere. Be proud of your work, give it a central place on the wall by your team and watch it evolve naturally as the project progresses in open view for all to see.
Summary
That’s my take on project planning. When I was first shown this and got the chance to experience the process firsthand I can’t tell you how enlightened I felt (a little sad I know!)
You may feel that it’s a little upfront heavy in terms of resource and you wouldn’t be wrong. It does take your whole team away from what they would normally be doing for a while and therefore the temptation to go back to the usual method of one person creating the first draft and review modify review modify might seem lighter. It’s one of those false economies though as total time spent the old way will outweigh the new in the end and you miss out on theteam-building opportunity and emotional trust building that a productive workshop environment provides.
All those years I felt like I’d wasted watching myself and others create, discuss, struggle, modify, repeat, sign-off and eventually hate the very document that was supposed to bring us all together. All I’d ever heard was people complaining about that ‘the tool wasn’t fit-for-purpose’ when in fact the tool wasn’t really the issue. It’s ‘the process’ that most often needs the attention and to change that all you really need is to change your approach to creation.
I hope get the opportunity to give this a go.
Happy planning!
Project Management Tool #1 – The Stakeholder Map
The Stakeholder Map – this is the first of many in a series on favourite project management tools that can be done to progress a project to a successful outcome.
What is it?
A stakeholder map is a simple graphical tool that helps you identify who the key players are in a project and help work out how you need to influence them.
It’s good to understand how each stakeholder feels as early as possible, e.g. are they actively supportive, unsure or even against what you are doing? With the map you can see where they are emotionally, how much influence they have politically and then use that as a basis of an action plan to move them to a different place if required.
When would you use it?
Early in the project and then you want to periodically come back to it and reassess your position.
Have you moved the right people into the right areas? Are you spending too little time with some and too much with others? Do you need to alter your strategy with anyone as what you’re doing right now isn’t having an effect? Has anyone new popped up that needs dealing with?
Who would you use it with?
Every tool should be used in a team environment if possible. This one, though, can be pretty sensitive as you quite often name names. It can be a good way to bond a team as the conversations you have when you’re at the action planning stage tend to be quite secretive and everyone likes to be in on a secret, right?
Are there any rules?
Never print and leave you map lying about unless you’re on hand to explain the reasoning. It’s just not worth the hassle plus these days there are legal ramifications to worry about.
The more ballsy of you could use it as a basis of a conversation with someone you’re trying to move.
“Hi Rob, take a look at where me and my team think you sit on this project. How do you feel about where we’ve said you are? Do you think that’s about right as in that product development meeting last week you said this which has led me to think you maybe don’t think this is such a good idea? What I would really like is for you to be here. What do you think?”
What’s the process?
Step 1 – draw the map
If you’re doing this with a group then get a big piece of paper, stick it on the wall and draw the graph below. If you’re on your own an electronic version is fine but I’m a big fan of going big regardless as it makes it easier to stand back and reflect along the way. Perspective, even just spatially, can be very enlightening!
Most other stakeholder maps I’ve seen are a little simpler than this. They ask on the x-axis whether the person has a low or a high interest in the project and on the y-axis whether the person has low or high influence on the outcome. Personally I don’t think that gives you as rich a picture of the emotional and political forces at play and therefore leaves you lacking insight at the Action Planning step later.
Step 2 – plot the stakeholders
For each person (or group) ask the following questions:
1. Is the person/group for or against the project/change and by how much?
2. Is the person/group actively engaged by our project or are they passively disengaged?
If you’ve gone with the graph on the wall approach use a post-it note for each person/group so you can move them around. You’ll find that your attitude changes to previous judgements as you go so you’ll want the flexibility.
“Ah, we had Bob up there at maximum positivity but now thinking about Sally here I reckon she’s even more don’t you think?. Let’s scale Bob back a little.”
The location of a stakeholder on the map is determined by rating their relative disposition towards your project and the degree to which they are actively involvd in it. Hence, two stakeholders may both be active, but have quite opposing dispositions towards your project: one actively undermining it while the other is actively promoting it. The difference between ‘the enemy’ and ‘the change champion’.
Above are some of the ‘characters’ you might typically identify in your project. Do you recognise them?
Step 3 – influence and relationships
Two important dimensions of a stakeholder map that help you analyse the underlying ‘political’ landscape of your project – how influential is the person/group over the outcome of your project and what are the relationships that exist between the characters?
You represent influence by the size of the bubble (when using post-its for the draft on the wall you could use a scoring system 1-5 which you write on) and relationships by drawing connecting lines. The thickness of the line can be used to indicate the relative strength of that relationship – the closer the relationship, the thicker the line. Note that a relationship can be negative as well as positive! You could use a different colour or a dotted line to represent a negative one perhaps?
Here’s what you might end up with.
Step 4 – action planning
Now you have a good picture of the political landscape of your project what are you going to do about it? Clearly the perfect picture would be if everyone was up there in the top-right quadrant but that’s probably not going to be possible overnight so it’s about prioritising and picking your battles strategically.
I tend to use two mini-steps in this part by first asking in step 4a – where do I want to move so-and-so to?
For example:
“In the map above it’s clear that Mike is someone of influence and he’s already ‘with us’ when it comes to the project objectives but he’s not playing that much of an active role at present. Are we OK with that or are we missing a trick if we don’t make more of a role for him. He has good relationships with a couple of other passive/positive characters in Bob and Rob but also to our ‘lazy cynic’ in David? We could definitely do without David in that role so it’s worth spending some time on Mike is it not?”
Step 4b is for those that we want to move – what are we going to do to make that happen?
Continuing with Mike:
“Our change champion Sally (who happens to have tonnes of influence too) has a brilliant relationship with Mike so let’s talk to her to see what she thinks. I’m sure she’ll have a plan, she always does! That should do it. Next stakeholder? What are we going to do about Rachael?”
Repeat steps 4a and 4b until done.
Summary
So I hope that gives you a good picture of how the Stakeholder Map can work for you. As I said at the top this is not a one-time only exercise as the political dynamics of a project tend to be in constant flux. Revisit your map periodically (again with your team if you can) to see what’s changed, analyse whether your last action plan did what you hoped it would and work out where you need to focus your efforts next.
Happy mapping!
Relationships are the single most important thing to get right in Project Management
In my opinion and experience as a project manager, the relationship you build with your project sponsor is your most important asset that will have by far the largest bearing on whether you ultimately succeed or fail. If you want one thing to focus on getting right then that’s it. If you’re rubbish at building relationships then admit it to yourself NOW, pack your career bags and go and find spend time doing what you are good at. When I think back, every project manager I’ve ever worked with that I haven’t ultimately rated was bad at building relationships.
This is the first post that has deviated away from the theme of Involvd.com’s process and progress. I’ve decided to shake things up a bit and provide a little diversity in part because I don’t have a huge amount to report at the moment (I’m in discussions with potential development partners, more on that soon) but also because it could be fun to share a little of my love!
Therefore I’m going to throw some of my thoughts about project management out there. If they’re helpful, great. Tell me. If I’m way off the mark in your experience, great again. Tell me louder and let’s have a conversation. The best value for all will only be gained if the discussion after I hit the post button is healthy and robust. I would never claim to be a world leading expert on the subject and I’m well aware there’s plenty more to learn. Hopefully I can give a little back though.
Back to my subject. It all started following a discussion with an ex-colleague recently when this question came up – what is the most important aspect of project management that you absolutely have to get right that’s applicable to any project-type situation?
Any situation because a project means very different things to every one of us and we wanted to be gerneral. When I hear the word project I think of a professional situation that may or may not have a piece of software plonked squarely in the middle of it. Others, though, think completely differently. Some may think complex civil engineering project, others may think international NGO team on location and still others may think installation of their dream high-end home media server wired for their satisfaction into every room (who wouldn’t love to be able to play music in the toilet?).
So like any responsible consultant does we tackled this question like so many others in the past – some personal thinking time equipped with a fat marker pen, a pack of post-it notes, an empty window to use as our de facto whiteboard closely followed by discussion and consensus building. What fun you can have!
What arose were answers such as the process you use, the tools and techniques you deploy, the technical knowledge and experience you bring with you, your network of contacts, your experience of managing people, your work ethic, your management style and your favoured mediums of communication.
Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you all those things are irrelevant as they clearly aren’t. All are important in their own way and being at least OK at each one helps to make you a more all-round and competent project manager. Therefore you should definitely spend plenty of time honing your skills in these areas. The good news is that all these can be quite easily learnt or improved with a healthy bit of honest self-analysis and development so there really shouldn’t be anything stopping you.
It’s just that none of these are real showstoppers if you mess them up. Not if your relationship with the client and the people you’re working with is good. If you’re on solid ground with the person paying your bills then you’ll get a chance to recover. If you’re not then there’s a real possibility that this is the chance they’ve been waiting for to get you out of the door and you may as well start warming your network up for the next position because you are gone.
All projects go through rocky times. I don’t think I’ve had a single one in my time that hasn’t taken me, my team, my client and the other stakeholders down through ‘the emotional dip’ to some degree.
In a recent role we talked with our customers and clients about the Kübler-Ross change curve a lot. Sometimes I think we maybe over did it a bit but for many of those that we got the chance to spend a bit more time with it was useful for them to understand more about the emotional impact of change that they and others around them were going (or about to go) through.
As the eagle-eyed will note we simplified the traditional bereavement model slightly as we made the presumption that our customers were experiencing reactions to positive rather than negative change. Whether that was always the case or not is a discussion best reserved for another post but that’s where we pitched it.
It’s the dip that’s the potential killer (labelled here as informed pessimism). At some point on the journey the full facts of what you’re trying to do is going to come flooding out and smack your client, stakeholders, advocates, experts and targets full in the face and you better be ready for it.
No, it’s not as easy as you originally thought it was going to be.
Yes, I did try and tell you this would be the case.
No, that simple solution that you had in your head on day 1 isn’t going to be enough.
Yes, we are getting increased pressure from management to make sure we get a result.
No, you’re not going be going home early again for next few months.
Yes, your employees hate you even more now than they did before you took me on.
No, you’re not going to be seeing the back of me for a while longer yet…
… Oh! Actually you are. I’m fired you say? But I’m just trying to help. What do you mean I’m crap and this is all my fault? But all this work we’ve done will be for nothing and I thought we had an understanding. No understanding you say? Right … I guess I’ll see you around then. Thanks for the fish and all that!
Why did that happen? Because your relationship wasn’t strong enough, that’s why.
Don’t blame anyone and everyone else for your misgivings as it was your fault it went wrong. You messed up really badly at the beginning.
See that lovely little wave at the beginning of the process (labelled uninformed optimism), that’s the honeymoon period. What’s that for? Not for spending all your time on your own in a darkened room creating the master plan that’s for sure. That’s your space before the hard grind begins to build strong binding relationships with all the key people (identified through your stakeholder mapping exercise – more on that another time) to help you weather the storm when it comes crashing around you.
Use that time wisely as you don’t get it back. Get away from your desk, put your smile on and get talking.
Here’s what I do when I’m meeting a new or potential new client – concentrate the first three meetings on getting to know her/him/them REALLY REALLY WELL in between all the objective setting etc. I shout those words at you for a reason. By REALLY I mean as much as you can possibly get without being seen as rude or intrusive. As I said this is your honeymoon, you’ve just got married and therefore it’s time to start getting to know each other. Sure they may be all business business but that doesn’t mean you can’t take an interest in the rest of their life. I’m yet to meet anyone that all they have is their career.
Who are they under that suit (not literally)? What have they done professionally. What are they looking to do? What do they do away from the workplace? Have they a wife/husband/kids/aunts/uncles/pets etc? Where do they live? Where would they like to live? What do they live in? When and where would they like to retire to? What sports do they play? What sports do they watch? Their film preferences? Their food likes and dislikes? Past and future holiday plans? What are their dreams (again, not literally, that would be weird)? What are their prejudices etc etc?
Tell them about yourself (assuming they ask). Find points of mutual bonding as you’ll want to draw on those later. Both like Formula 1? Great! Have a penchant for Thai food? Fantastic! Both hate gardening but want a nice garden? Terrific! All the normal things you would talk about with a friend count here too.
I’m not suggesting anything cynical here, you shouldn’t be faking anything. Be sincere. Listen carefully. Be interested. Don’t lie. Take mental notes and write them all down the minute you leave the meeting. I store mine in my Outlook calendar against their contact name which syncs with my phone. That way I can read and update them whenever I need to which is especially useful if I bump into them unexpectedly.
Hi there Mike, wasn’t expecting to see you here, just need to make a quick call, hang on a second, don’t go away … [check and read] … now then Mike, how’s everything going? How’s your eldest getting on at University? Any better? The course settled down?
That kind of small attention to detail makes a big impact on the receiver. Aren’t you always impressed when someone remembers something small about your life when you next see them?
Try to get to the point where you have in-jokes between you as soon as possible. Don’t rush it because you might end up sounding like a wally, but aim to get there.
If and when you do get to the point that your relationship with your client is strong then that dip you’ve got coming at you in the not-so-distant-future will not be any less deep necessarily but may well be rideable together if you hold on tight (again, not to each other).
Any thoughts you’d like to share?
