project manager skills

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Purposeful Planning

By Louise Worsley

If you are going on a journey, it’s a good idea to know where you are going and how to recognize when you’ve got there. Might sound obvious, but many projects fail even that simple test. You really do need to know: 

  1. Purpose of the project: the problem or opportunity it is addressing
  2. Value of the project: why is it worth doing—and to whom?
  3. Objective: what “good looks like”—how to know the project has completed successfully
  4. Scope: what the project is expected to deliver in terms of physical things
  5. Critical success factors (CSFs): what has to be in place for success
  6. Risks: what are the main threats to the success of the project

These are six distinct and different aspects of the project, and failure is much more likely if one or more of them is not known, or, which is more common, they are conflated and confused with each other. The usual culprit is a statement that purports to be an objective, but which is, in fact, a hotchpotch of scope statements, activities, benefits and other outcomes. 

The Six Faces of a Project Plan

Six faces of a project plan

The six aspects of the project plan are like six faces on a beachball.  If you are close into the beachball then you are only going to see three of the faces. In this beachball we see the faces that the sponsor or client is likely to (or at least ought to!) focus on.

And here is our technical specialist or planners view of the beachball.  The tendency to over-focus on some aspects of the plan is an example of the ‘magpie effect’, in which our attention is drawn to those things that matter most to us, often to the exclusion of other views of the world.

Six faces of a project plan

One of the critical roles of project managers is to ensures that each aspect – each face of the beachball gets the attention it requires.  That means ensuring that each of the stakeholders in the project get the space and time to engage in the planning process.

Effective Project Initiation Workshops

One of the biggest decisions that a project manager takes is who to have in the room and be involved in the early stages of initiation.

To get at the problem-objective-value side of the beachball, the first one or two project initiation workshops (PIWs) are for the key stakeholders. They need to engage. The project manager should attend, of course, and possibly other project team members, but they are observers, not contributors.Now is not their time.  Too often we see projects falter as technical specialists drive these early workshops into discussions about solutions – what we can and can’t do – rather than what is wanted and valued.

It is quite likely you will find that despite the best efforts of a facilitator, client stakeholders will drift off into discussing solutions, their preferences, and even how to run the project! All of which is fine and should be recorded, however, the focus of these workshops is the outcomes; a domain wholly owned by the stakeholders. Its purpose is to determine what the project has to achieve. It’s not that other comments and observations will be ignored; necessarily. Such comments by stakeholders maybe fundamental success criteria for the emerging project. So, all ideas should be captured in the appropriate place around the beachball. These will be for discussion and review later.

The process of establishing answers to the three questions posed: ‘Why do it?’, ‘Why is it valuable, and to whom?’, and ‘What does success look like?’ may take several iterations before everybody is happy with the wording. We remember, with some delight, going through this process for a project in Ireland–it was the changeover to the Euro currency in a large bank. After a particularly tense workshop the sponsor, a senior manager in the bank commented, “To be sure, this clarity is a terrible thing.” We like to think he meant it in a good way!

Maintaining the plan-to-execution link

link between plan and execution

Now we have an agreement on the six faces of the project plan. What the world is to be like at the end of the project is understood, and why it is important to succeed, as well as what it is worth and to whom. In most cases, the basis for the solution is also agreed. All there is left to do, is to ensure that the money and effort expended, is structured, sequenced, and demonstrably connected back to the desired outcomes.   

The next stage is to work out how to provide the outputs, what tasks to perform, by whom, and in what order.  Now the project managers will be very much focused on another group of stakeholders – those involved in the delivery of the solution.  But how to make sure that these agendas, this effort remains connected to achieving the stakeholder-required outcomes.

Connecting the ideas and actions, translating the vision of the stakeholders to the mundane actions of a project is the fundamental purpose of project management. And it is a common source of project failure. To address this, CITI, a UK based Consulting Service, developed the CITI Mission Model™. It is used to capture the six perspectives – the six sides of the beachball, and then links them through a ‘bridge’ to the tasks, resources and schedule of an executing project. Maintaining the bridge is the real role of all the project governance structures.

About the author:

Louise Worsley

Louise Worsley, with her husband, Christopher Worsley, are the authors of “The Lost Art of Planning Projects”, published in February 2019. Planning to good purpose – planning how to manage successful projects in terms of delivering to the stakeholders’ expectations, is the subject of the book. Based on case studies, it analyses how best to plan under different situations, when and how to plan a project, when you have to use programme planning, and what the role of a portfolio manager really is.  

Readers of Virtual Project Consulting, click below!

The Lost Art of Planning Projects


Innovation through projects
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Innovation through Projects

Innovation Through Projects

By Linky van der Merwe

Innovation can mean different things, like a change made to an existing product, idea, or field. It can also be described as the process of translating an idea or invention into a product or service that creates value and for which customers will pay. Being innovative does not only mean inventing. Innovation can mean changing your business model and adapting to changes in your environment to deliver better products or services. Take the project from Google, for example, which delivered Google translator that translates to 100 different languages.

In this article we look at certain traits that innovative people seem to share, how projects are used for innovation, how to measure the outcomes and lastly some examples of innovative projects.

Traits of Innovative People

According to an article in Fast Company, “7 Habits of Innovative Thinkers”, emotional intelligence plays a big role in innovative thinking. People can all become more innovative and creative by developing the traits that innovative people share. Harvey Deutschendorf explains that some of the emotional intelligence-related attributes that innovative people share, are as follows.

  1. Emotional intelligent people have their egos under control and are open to other people’s ideas. They don’t think their ideas are always the best. As a result of their openness to other ideas, they are able to accumulate a larger source of data from which to draw from.
  2. They are confident, not arrogant and they see failures as temporary setbacks.
  3. They are continually curious about people, concepts, and issues. They’re open to new information always on the lookout for new ideas that can be put into practice. Being avid readers, forever seeking out new ideas, and expanding their knowledge base increases their repertoire of tools for future use
  4. They are good listeners who are adept at processing information that makes them excellent listeners. When someone is speaking, most people are formulating a response in their minds instead of just focusing upon what the person talking is saying. Good listeners are able to focus not only on the words that are being spoken, but are aware of the tone of the words, the body language expressed, and the emotions behind them.
  5. They don’t let their emotions affect their innovation efforts. They don’t have to defend an idea that is proven to be wrong as they’re seeking to advance themselves personally and are looking to advance their ideas. 
  6. They can take direction and are able to give direction.
  7. They show empathy towards co-workers and customers.

Now we understand how important the right character traits are for people to come up with innovative ideas. Let’s have a look at how projects can help with innovation.

Project as a Vehicle for Innovation

Projects are good vehicles for innovation as they can be used to solve real-life problems, bring new possibilities (creativity of entertainment at home), bring together subject matter experts through innovation hubs, or to help with goals towards sustainable development. Innovation is a collaborative process; where people in many fields contribute to the implementation of new ideas. This occurs most often through the execution of a project.

Measure of Success

Since projects are so important for implementing innovation ideas, we must consider how to measure whether the outcome of an innovation project was successful and if it was, how do we determine that.

Dr Harold Kerzner’s offers a helpful explanation of how to define success on innovation projects in his White Paper: “Defining Project Management Success with application to Innovation Project Management Practices”. According to Dr Kerzner:

  • There is no single approach for defining innovation project success or success on any other type of project. There must be multiple measures using the right timing.
  • Projects can appear to be successful once the deliverables or outcomes are completed, but real success may occur later when the desired business value is achieved over the longer term.
  • He acknowledges that effective project management practices are contributors to success and therefore must undergo continuous improvements.

Real world examples of Innovation Projects

In the 1990’s after a drop in sales, Lego changed their strategy to focus on the consumer by linking both business and creativity. In order to innovate new Lego sets, LEGO started “Lego Ideas”, an initiative based on a co-create open innovation model. In this online website, LEGO consumers can design their own LEGO sets either using LEGO bricks or computer 3D applications. Users then discuss the idea and vote for it, once the idea reaches a targeted vote, LEGO can consider it as a new product with giving a small part of the revenues to the creator of the set. This model contributes putting the consumer in the heart of the innovation process and help the team to target sets that can achieve success based on the LEGO Ideas votes and comments.

Coke followed a similar open innovation model through a product called ‘Freestyle dispenser machine’. It allows users to mix their own flavors and suggest a new flavor for Coca-Cola products. The new product records the consumer flavor so they can get it from other Freestyle machines using the Coca-Cola mobile application. With the open innovation model putting the consumers in the heart of the production process, the company uses the suggested flavors as part the external ideas that can be evaluated and processed as a new product line.

Managing Innovation Projects

There is no doubt that project managers need to create environments where innovative new ideas are created and implemented. Also visit this video explaining what will enable innovation through projects.

To create the context that is conducive for innovation, we need to understand traits that innovative people share and how to define success and measure the outcomes of innovation projects. This will help to differentiate you as a project manager who can take on that strategic innovation project that your company wants to embark on.

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5 Project Management Trends shaping 2018

By Ashley Lipman

5 PM trendsProject Management isn’t an industry that stays the same for a long period of time. It’s unpredictable, versatile, and subject to various trends at any given time.

Some of the trends influencing Project Management in 2018 may be old; others may have just emerged. However, the ones to look out for are those that are the most influential.

Want to know what these trends are?

Knowing about the emerging trends will help you manage your projects and get things done more efficiently in 2018:

1. Artificial intelligence is here to stay

AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is no longer a concept dreamt of in science fiction. Technology like Siri, Echo, and Home are the most popular kinds, but AI is also the base of several PM applications.

Repetitive tasks have been automated and AI software has been applied to PM management more and more over the months.

Project managers are now making use of AI programs to enhance the efficiency of their projects. This includes dealing with resources, streamlining workflow, and giving valuable insights into future plans.

It’s also used in centralising data that could immensely help your team work together even from remote locations. Application performance management and server monitoring | AppOptics is  just another example of how AI is becoming entrenched in this industry.

2. Embedded technology leads to faster project delivery

5 PM trendsSource: Pixabay

We know that technology has become highly portable, even to the point where you can wear a smartwatch to replace your phone, computer, and tablet to some extent. As a project manager, wearable technology enables you to track and enhance your productivity at all levels.

Using smart glasses, head-mounted displays, and smartwatches can enhance the efficiency, safety, and the accuracy of any team. What’s more, the data from such wearable devices can help managers learn what makes team members tick.

Once project managers start paying more attention to what their team members need, they will better know how to motivate them and to create a culture that encourages and rewards high performance.

 3. Remote workers are expanding the workforce

5 PM trendsSource: Pixabay

Project managers don’t require the whole team to be co-located, in fact virtual teams and outsourcing specialist skills has become quite the norm.

With team members working from home or from remote locations, more flexible work hours make for a higher productivity level. Hence, project managers need to be aware of this and improve their skills around managing virtual teams.

4. Hybrid management is the next big thing

Project managers now have to embrace the fact that cookie-cutter solutions (read methodologies) are out of date. They may have followed a traditional waterfall type methodology in the past, but now, it’s time to tweak this according to their clients’ project requirements.

There are certain processes that can help with this kind of project management. One example of these is following an Agile approach, giving companies the ability for faster time to market.

Hence, a project manager who is comfortable with following a hybrid approach is definitely in order. You need to consider several methodologies for approaching different projects. This sort of personalisation and customisation continue to grow more important as time goes on.

 5.  Project managers with emotional intelligence are preferred

Gone are the days when solid, technical skills were adequate for a project manager. Soft skills and a high level of emotional intelligence are now highly valued in the PM industry, and with several good reasons.

In 2018, business owners are increasingly looking for managers who can keep their teams happy, satisfied, and motivated. This combination is one of the best ones for making up a highly productive workforce.

Find some more insights from the “Pulse of the Profession” PMI report here.

These 5 trends are by no means a comprehensive list, but certainly trends to acknowledge and consider for a project professional in 2018.

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Project Management Insights from 2018 Pulse of the Profession Report

By Linky van der Merwe

Pulse of the profession 2018 Report“If your organization is not good at project management, you’re putting too much at risk in terms of ultimately delivering on strategy.”

Mark A Langley, President and CEO of PMI

The PMI’s “Pulse of the Profession” is the premiere global survey of project management practitioners which then charts the major trends for project management now and in the future. Based on research across different industries, some important insights came to light.

Watch the video or continue reading below.

#1 The future of value delivery is a spectrum of approaches:

  • Predictive
  • Iterative
  • Incremental
  • Agile
  • Hybrid

#2 Project professionals will learn in new ways and broaden their skills like:

  • Strategic advisor
  • Big thinker
  • Innovator
  • Communicator
  • Versatile manager

#3 Organisations will rely on their project professionals to take advantage of disruption – not just react to it.

The impact of digital transformation on project work is massive and some things you can do are:

  • Become a leader and true business partner in your organization
  • Ask the right questions
  • Deliver the business benefits of the projects you manage

Soft skills have become critical for project managers even more than 5 years ago and mature organisations who have invested more in their project management talent see strategic value from it.

Current state reveal trends such as:

  • Only 58% of organisations fully understand the value of project management
  • Only 41% or organisations with an enterprise-wide PMO report that it’s highly aligned to the organisation’s strategy.
  • 93% of organisations report using standardized project management practices which reduces risk and leads to better outcomes.
  • 72% of PMO leaders feel certification is very relevant for mid-career project managers as it requires ongoing professional development, allowing PM’s to evolve, enhance and grow a variety of skills including technical, leadership and digital skills.
  • 71% or organisations report greater agility over the last 5 years which is helping them to stay competitive
  • 1 in 3 organisations report high benefits realization maturity whereby tangible and intangible benefits should be considered.

According to the Pulse of the Profession there has been an evolution from ‘best practices’ to ‘next practices’ that encompass what is likely to come in future.

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5 Elements for Innovation through Projects

Innovation on projectsProject management often provides the ideal environment in which to harness innovation. A project manager’s skills need to include the ability to encourage and develop creative thinking to achieve results.

Watch this video to find out what will enable innovation through projects.

What will enable innovation?

#1 Listen

Listening creates a safe space and increases trust. In the context of listening we enter in a psychological state where we are more receptive to be creative.

#2 Find your flow

In sport they talk about getting into the zone, where they describe an altered state of consciousness, an increased mental state and even a heightened state of enjoyment.

We need to be in environments that are fun and innovative. Project managers need to enable that through conversation, having fun and giving meaning to work. Let people engage all their senses, because we think with our whole body.  We’ll immerse ourselves in a state of productivity that can increase our productivity by up to 60%.

#3 Social sensitivity

Diversity is a core aspect of innovation. It helps to have different perspectives, to care about each other and to have authentic leaders.

#4 Building a community

The work of Peter Block, called Social Fabric, is centered around the need to belong. Building a community gives a sense of connectedness, where collaboration is a choice and people realise that they can create more together than on their own.

#5 Culture of appreciation

Encourage a culture of appreciation. Reward and acknowledge people by their name, give empathy that will increase the feeling of connectedness.

Where projects consist of self-organising teams, project managers need to build resilience in the system to handle the uncertainty. It’s important to remember that you cannot innovate without disruption.

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A Visual Guide to the Scrum Methodology

By Simon Buehring

What is Scrum?

Scrum is an agile development framework used for managing product development. Like all other agile frameworks, Scrum boasts flexibility, team collaboration and iterative delivery.

This visual guide was developed to help you understand how the Scrum Methodology works. You can even download an A0 size version of the poster and print it to display in your office!

Scrum Methodology1) Select Scrum Team

One of the most difficult parts when creating a project is figuring out roles and responsibilities. Begin by identifying the roles people will take for the project.

The three roles on a Scrum team are:

a) Product Owner

The Product Owner should be someone with authority, availability and vision. They represent the customer and continuously communicate the priorities and vision to the team.

b) Scrum Master

The Scrum Master acts as a facilitator between the Product Owner and the Development Team. The Scrum Master will also work to remove impediments that may inhibit the Development Team reaching the sprint goal. The person does not, however, provide day-to-day directions or give instructions to the Development Team.

c) Development Team

The Development Team are self-organized and responsible for developing the product.

Do:

  • Train or orient your team on Scrum and agile development so that they know the roles they are playing once the sprint starts

Don’t:

  • Force anyone to take on the role of the Scrum Master. This role is important to the entire Scrum process and an unwilling person might not give enough dedication to the project

Top Tip:

  • Pick a strong Scrum Master. The Scrum Master plays a highly important role in the Scrum process. They ensure that the entire team are focused and have everything they need to get the work done. The Scrum Master is also responsible for removing obstacles that might keep the group from performing optimally or from reaching the deadline. Overall, the Scrum Master determines the success of the whole team.

2) Sprint Planning

Once the roles have been identified, it’s time to start planning the sprint. The whole team decide on a sprint length together, overseen by the Scrum Master. Sprints are typically 2-4 weekly cycles.

The Product Owner creates a product backlog which is essentially a ‘prioritized wish list’. The backlog is owned by the Product Owner, but everyone can add to it. The product backlog contains a list of user stories.

User stories serve as a guide for the team to show why they are working on something. They speak from the end user perspective and can look something like this:

As a I want so that
Music lover uninterrupted music streaming from my device it doesn’t use up storage space while letting me play music on the go
Music streaming app user to receive recommendations based upon my current playlists I can hear new bands that are suited to my taste

 

The Product Owner presents the highest priority user stories from the product backlog to the Development Team.

The Development Team decide on what they are able complete for the sprint and break user stories into tasks, estimating the effort and transferring them to a sprint backlog.

It is essential that the Scrum Master and Product Owner provide a set of acceptance criteria for each user story. Acceptance criteria is what determines whether the user story is complete. It can also be referred to as the “definition of done”.

The table below shows two user stories with two sets of acceptance criteria.

 

As a I want So that Acceptance criteria
Music lover A small-sized streaming app with no adverts it doesn’t use up storage space and interrupt my listening experience 1. App allows user to stream music without downloading
2. App size is 60MB or under
3. App offers premium subscription with no ads
Music streaming app user to receive recommendations based upon my current playlists I can hear new bands that are suited to my taste 1. Radio feature created based upon user’s playlists
2. Daily “Have you heard..” notification to be sent to users

Do:

  • Work on high priorities first
  • Break down each user story into small and manageable tasks

Don’t:

  • Bite off more than you can chew. Make sure that no one in the team is committing to more than what is feasible to do in the set timeframe

Top Tip:

  • Use INVEST to prioritize your user stories. INVEST stands for: I-independent, N-negotiable, V-valuable, E-estimable, S-small, and T-testable

3) The Daily Standup

To make sure that everyone is in sync, the team must meet every day to discuss what they worked on the previous day, what they will work on today and identify any impediments. To make sure that time is used efficiently, the meeting should be time-boxed into a maximum of 15 minutes. The Scrum Master oversees the meetings and makes sure that the team focuses on the subject at hand.

Do:

  • Use burndown charts to track your progress. A burndown chart shows you how much work remains in your sprint and whether you are on schedule
  • Keep the meeting short and concise. Make sure that everyone is speaking straight to the point
  • Answer questions like: What have I done since the last Scrum meeting? What do I plan to do before the next meeting? What are the issues I need help with?

Don’t:

  • Bring up topics unrelated to the user stories you’re working on from the backlog

Top Tip:

  • Don’t cancel a Scrum Meeting, even if you are busy or if the attendance is poor. The Daily Scrum meeting is an essential component to a Scrum project. When you cancel one, it becomes easier to cancel others and this disrupts the team’s focus.

4) Sprint Review

By the end of each sprint, the Development Team should deliver a potentially shippable product increment. In other words, the product increment should be in a useable condition. No incomplete work should be presented during a sprint review.

During a sprint review, the team present what they have accomplished during the sprint. They demonstrate the functionality of the product increment to the Product Owner and customer. The purpose of the sprint review is to get feedback from everyone on the product increment. After the feedback is shared, the next set of product backlog items can be discussed.

Do:

  • Let everyone provide feedback and suggest new ideas
  • Make changes to the product backlog when necessary

Don’t:

  • Use the sprint review as a signoff or user acceptance meeting

Top Tip:

  • Don’t forget to focus on the end users. Make sure to fully involve them during the sprint review. It may seem difficult collaborating with your customers because of the fear of making changes or hearing criticism, but it is easier to hear everything sooner rather than later.

5) Sprint Retrospective

During a sprint retrospective, the team evaluate the whole sprint. The two main questions that are asked are “what went well?” and “what can be improved in the next sprint?”

Do:

  • Make a list of what to start, stop, and continue

Don’t:

  • Point fingers or blame. Try to be constructive instead

Top Tip:

  • Get creative! Play games and keep people moving. Engage in mentally stimulating activities and help to break down tension

6) Product increment

The product increment is the output of all the product backlog items completed during the sprint (plus any previous sprints). It must be fully functional, in a useable condition and meet the allocated acceptance criteria or definition of done. The Product Owner decides whether to release the product increment.

Interim delivery

During an interim delivery, the product increment is tested by the customer. If the product is incomplete, the Development Team return to the product backlog to prepare for another sprint. This cycle repeats until all user stories are completed to the Product Owner’s satisfaction.

Do:

  • Remember what was discussed during the sprint retrospective and apply it to the next sprint

Don’t:

  • Dwell on past mistakes. Move on and learn from whatever went wrong during the previous sprint

Top Tip:

  • It’s easy to get caught up in preparing for the next sprint, but don’t forget to celebrate achievements and good results from the previous sprint. This gives you some room to breathe and get pumped up for the next cycle
  • Practice makes perfect! If you are new to Scrum, you might not get everything right at the beginning. Learning takes practice and the more you do, the better you will be at using the technique

 

Final delivery

Completing a project takes several sprints. Once all the user stories are completed to the Product Owner’s satisfaction, the product is ready for final delivery to the customer.

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About the Author:

Simon Buehring is the Founder and Managing Director of Knowledge Train.

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Women in Project Management Celebration

On Thursday 8 March 2018 I had the privilege to be a speaker on the international webinar hosted by the APM Women in Project Management Special Interest Group (SIG) to mark the global celebration of International Women’s Day.

Push for Progress

The Theme was ‘Push for Progress’ and I covered the topic: “Strategic integration of social media into project management to make it ‘future’ fit for practice” where I shared research and models from the book with a similar name: “Strategic integration of social media into the project management practice”, as well as from my own experience.

Attendees took away:

  • International overview of women in project management
  • A practical social media strategy framework
  • Use cases for social media on projects as well as benefits and barriers to overcome.
  • Study findings on smartphone apps for projects
  • How to raise your personal profile on social media
Push for progress: International perspectives on International Women’s Day webinar, 8 March 2018
from Association for Project Management

The video if you prefer to watch while you listen:

Please let us know in the Comments if you’re using social media on your projects and how?

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4 Reasons Why Waterfall isn’t a Fit for your Team

By Joel Roberts

Even though the Agile method is now being increasingly adopted by organizations worldwide, especially for software development, too many organizations still cling to Waterfall. The existing processes are probably influencing the decision of what methodology is used.

Your organization’s current processes are likely to determine the way you run your project, regardless of its nature. But, this shouldn’t be the case. Project managers are more than able to assist their organizations and suggest effective ways of implementing projects while reducing risks at the same time.

For this, you need to have a deeper understanding of how each project management methodology may impact the project and its success. Choosing the right methodology can be key to successful completion of a project. So, if your organization still uses the waterfall methodology, read on and see for yourself why this needs to change.

Waterfall Method and its flaws

As you know, the Waterfall method is a sequential approach, separating a project into different phases, where one phase has to be completed before starting the next one.

So here are the 4 crucial flaws caused by this:

#1 No Flexibility

The Waterfall method in its core means following a predetermined set of steps, as the methodology, in its traditional form, leaves almost no room for unexpected changes or revisions. You have to be clear with all the development requirements beforehand and just keep your team always moving forward.

A probable and highly undesirable scenario is that your team will carefully follow the steps nearly to the end of the project but, they may face an unforeseen obstruction that requires a change in scope or goals. Since the used methodology doesn’t welcome change, proceeding with the initial plan won’t be easy.  As you’ll have already put a considerable amount of work into a project, under very specific and fixed assumptions, an unexpected change to any parameter of the project may render much of the finished work useless.

This may have severe consequences and even throw off the entire timeline. Another aspect of Waterfall that reduces flexibility is that Waterfall projects are highly integrated and not an object-oriented approach.

#2 Uncertain and Time-consuming Preplanning

When using this method, you must produce a detailed and thorough requirement definition in one of the earliest phases of the project. But, in such an early phase of the project, trying to define the requirements is often very difficult.

Therefore, many of the requirements are subject to change throughout the project. Specifying requirements in advance means that a lot of the requirements are based on assumptions. You may come across many difficulties to validate those assumptions since the first builds are not available until late in the development phase.

Even the client has to outline all their preferences upfront, without seeing a working version. Once the first builds are available, it’s often too late to change requirements without substantial delays of the project. Also, when planning everything up front, very often you can overlook certain changes due to business plans or market influences. Since change is unwelcome and difficult to carry out, any new developments or changes of requirements which may occur after the initial agreement could raise serious concerns.

#3 Delayed Testing Period

Testing is a very important phase of a project as the results have an impact on all the work that has been done. The best practice would be to integrate testing as a fundamental and continual process throughout development. This has been the case with more recent SDLC models, whereas the waterfall model largely differs, leaving the testing until quite late into the life cycle.

This means quality and security issues or integration problems with existing products are typically discovered quite late in the process. Fixing such issues requires a lot of effort. What’s worse, sometimes testing may be short-changed in order to stay on schedule, and that means that bugs will be discovered by the customer only after the delivery of the product.

In turn, this makes fixing the code expensive and time-consuming. It has been shown that a bug identified at a later stage can cost up to 60 percent more to get fixed, as compared to its cost when identified at an earlier stage.

Another issue related to the testing is the possible appearance of careless coding practices. Testing teams often have less time to complete test execution and since more time is spent during the initial stages for detailed documentation, not enough attention is paid to testing.

#4 Lack of Client or Stakeholder Interaction

At times when communication seems to be one of the crucial factors that can impact project’s success, you cannot afford to leave the client or stakeholders out. In the Waterfall method a lot of time is spent with the client at the outset, with an attempt to document all the perceived requirements.

After this has been done, the implementation team usually take over and the client has no say until the project is nearly done. However, the feedback that arrives late into the development cycle can present a significant issue.

Due to the strict sequential process enforced by the waterfall model, an unforeseen requirement or request for a change, although not impossible to be done, will be both costly and time-consuming for everyone involved in the project. So, this method is definitely not suitable for projects with moderate to high risk of change of requirements.

If you are still not completely convinced with these reasons, add the high amounts of risk and uncertainty, longer delivery time, and other challenges that project schedulers might face to the list.

Considering the shortcomings of the Waterfall approach, which method do you prefer? Which factors made you decide?

Please provide some feedback in the comments section.

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Joel RobertsAbout the Author:

Joel Roberts is a Project Management Consultant and an established author with more than 12 years of experience in working for PrimaveraReader – Primavera P6 companion tool for viewing and analyzing project plans by the project team.

She is passionate about Mind Mapping and innovation management and her articles have been featured in more than a hundred project management and business websites.

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Staying relevant as a Project Manager in today’s world

By Derek Smith

Staying relevant as PM by following AgileIn today’s digital and disruptive world, executives and organizations are faced with fierce competitive challenges that require them to continuously adapt, or else face the consequences and the stark possibility of not being around for much longer. The same goes for project managers who need to keep abreast with what is happening with Agile methods and philosophies in Project Management in order to keep themselves relevant and employable.

Agile and Lean Practices

Flexible Agile and Lean practices, such as Scrum and Kanban which were once the sole domain of software developers, are uniquely positioned to create business success, and are making significant inroads outside of IT and finding acceptance and support by C Level executives. Organizations need to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver results productively and cost-effectively, without losing sight of the fact that governance is still required.

The quest for success also starts with the right approach to support project delivery, and specific project characteristics and organizational needs should form the basis of selecting the correct approach.

With everyone hopping on the bandwagon to capitalize on training and adoption, combined with so many choices when it comes to approaches, it can be daunting to try and keep abreast of how these practices are evolving, and how and what to choose. PMI have a series of reports which have been geared towards thought leadership, and it is pertinent to note that six reports deal with achieving greater agility.

The reports cover topics such as focusing on the customer, frequent feedback, choosing the right approach and transforming the organization by focusing on people and monitoring progress. Evolving the collaboration between lines of business, changing the culture and assessing the need for cross-functional support are other key aspects to consider when seeking to achieve greater organizational agility.

Career advancement

From a career standpoint, project managers need to keep themselves relevant to be employable and earn a decent wage. PMI’s Pulse of the Profession® research has indicated that stakeholders are pushing to adopt agile practices. Organizations that are agile and responsive to market dynamics, complete more of their projects successfully than those that are not — 75 percent versus 56 percent, according to the research.

It is for this reason that they have included information on agile practices, alongside traditional approaches in the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition, and partnered with Agile Alliance® to create the new Agile Practice Guide. The PMI-ACP® is currently the fastest growing PMI certification, and spans many approaches to agile such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean, extreme programming (XP) and test-driven development (TDD.).

Sources:

PMI.org

Achieving greater agility

Project management.com

Agile certifications

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About the Author: Derek Smith has over 24 years of experience in the technology and ICT industry. He has been a CIO for 2 listed companies, and has also managed some of the top outsource operations for 2 of South Africa’s leading service providers. He is currently a Projects Portfolio Manager, Mentor and Coach, and is an advocate and evangelist for Agile philosophies and methods.

Linky

10 Tips for Validating your Project Schedule

By Linky van der Merwe

Validate project scheduleWhether you’re a new or an existing Project Manager, it’s always a good idea to validate your project schedule. This is especially useful if you use a scheduling tool like MS Project, or similar to plan your projects and then to execute against the plan.

Watch the short video below to help you to validate that the project schedule contains all the necessary Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) elements to complete a project successfully.

Click here to download your own validation template that supports the schedule validation steps.

Linky

How to be a SMART Project Manager in 2018

SMART project managerAt the beginning of every new year people think about their goals and resolutions for the upcoming year. However, by the end of January, most people have forgotten their good intentions and fall back into old habits or routines and tend to do the same things they have always done.

I’m sure many of you have fallen into this trap, but there are always people who seem to have it together. What are they doing differently?

 

 

Good practices

Just like project management has been standardized by way of international standards and good practices ensuring consistent delivery and more successful outcomes, there are SMART ways to help you be more productive by keeping to your goals for the year.

Some experts recommend to have a vision by way of setting a personal theme as well as a professional theme for the year. This will take you beyond goals and resolutions and will help you to reach your objectives and become like a “heartbeat” for the year.

Based on your themes, you will still come up with objectives that will help you to achieve your goals and give you the best chance for success. If you don’t plan and prepare to win, how can you expect to win? This is taken from a Zig Ziglar “Born to win philosophy”.

There are numerous productivity experts and books available today that can help you reach higher levels of performance and it’s up to you to choose who to follow and what to implement. As long as you make it personal and you keep referring to your written goals on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis, there’s no obstacles that you cannot overcome.

How to make 2018 a successful year

Lastly, I want to share a wonderful resource on “How to make 2018 a successful year for your projects”, an eBook that was compiled by Elizabeth Harrin, containing ideas and tips from experts and inspiring project delivery professionals on how to make 2018 your most successful year ever? I was also privileged to be featured.

Some common themes that came up repeatedly are:

  1. Agile – if you don’t know enough about it, you need to start learning
  2. How crucial soft skills are for project professionals
  3. Authentic and ethical leadership that will help to get the work done and set you apart from your peers

Enjoy the eBook, take responsibility for your personal and career development and implement those success strategies that will help you to make this year one of the best years ever!

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