We have seen how Project Management as a profession has matured over the past few decades. There were numerous shifts concerning tools, approaches and training, to emphasis on new skills and pursuing certifications.
Enjoy the summary in the Then & Now Infographic brought to you by Wrike project task management software
By Ashley Lipman
With the rise in Agile adoption, the need for a streamlined process around the software development life cycle, through development and testing to production is paramount. The capabilities that make up DevOps are provided by people, defined practices and automation tools, according to the DevOps for Dummies. (Source: DevOps for Dummies by Sanjeev Sharma, Bernie Coyne)
While shifting to a DevOps approach is ideal for agile team to deliver value to customer faster, it can cause problems within a project development team. In fact, it’s been known to cause a few problems during the production implementation.
Here are some of the challenges faced by DevOps teams today.
Not having clearly defined roles and permissions for a DevOps teams can cause many problems.
When it comes down to it, developers and operations teams have different roles that sometimes overlap. It’s important to address these overlaps so that everyone knows not only what they’re responsible for, but what they aren’t permitted to do. For example, developers shouldn’t be able to access the same logs as sysadmins (source: https://papertrailapp.com/log-management).
Roles will allow DevOps teams to utilize applications that will encourage access rights management that promote effectiveness and compliance.
While starting to implement DevOps, it’s important to take a gradual, strategic approach. Rather than trying to transfer all new projects to the new management system, choosing a few projects and analyzing the benefits and challenges is key. From there, refining the implementation process and expanding will help make DevOps successful.
That being said, not all projects are meant for a DevOps approach. Many businesses are faced with challenges when it comes to change management. While one of those challenges is letting go of the old way, another is often identifying when the old approach works better for a specific project.
One of the main benefits of DevOps is the ability to finish projects quicker through a continuous feedback loop. However, quicker isn’t always better, especially during the early days. When aiming to move more efficiently, it’s critical that DevOps teams don’t neglect the testing process. Quality assurance testing to ensure that everything is bug-free is one of the most important steps in development, and the DevOps approach doesn’t always put this task in the limelight.
When releasing an app with bugs, it can cause a bad user experience. This can cause a blame game with the development and operations teams, creating a negative team dynamic that will impact future projects.
Focusing too much on the tools and not enough on the team dynamic is a unique challenge that many organizations face when switching to a DevOps culture. However, not putting enough attention into the infrastructure and tools can also be detrimental.
Using legacy infrastructure while trying to modernize standard operating procedures can be a significant limiting factor, even if the current infrastructure has been useful for years. The businesses that have the most success with DevOps are those that switch to a micro-services approach, implementing automation and innovating their old applications.
Of course, making these changes can be a monumental task, and can often lead to a “chicken or the egg” conundrum when trying to determine which practices versus which infrastructure should be changed first. Managing all of these changes without getting distracted by the wide array of tools meant to assist with DevOps can be time-consuming and costly.
Creating a successful DevOps culture isn’t an overnight process. It can take months of creating a culture of positive communication and cohesion between teams, and even longer to take a sustainable approach to scaling.
However, by focusing on the team itself, having the right foundation in place, and testing rigorously, DevOps can change the face of a business for the better.
By Louise Worsley
Appropriate planning of a project is the hallmark of a professional project manager—good planning is what sets apart great projects from failed initiatives. It is what ensures that the executive actions undertaken remain connected to the goals and outcomes expected by the stakeholders. A project plan is a framework for decision making throughout the life of the project. It is hardly surprising then that the significance of planning in projects is much greater than in any other management discipline.
Today if you ask a project manager what the most important skill they require for their job is, they are likely to refer to areas such as stakeholder management, communications, leadership, or behavioral competencies. Is this because it is assumed that planning is obviously important and does not need to be mentioned or is it that project managers believe that with the right leadership style, communications and engagement they don’t need planning? Do approaches such as Agile, which expound people over process, deliberately or inadvertently promote the obsolescence of planning?
After more than 70 years of experience in project management, and working with hundreds of professional, high-performance project managers, we know planning in projects is essential, but have also found the planning discipline to be both underused and misunderstood. Three factors we believe are responsible:
In our research into what makes project managers successful, planning, along with monitoring and control, are the two areas where high-performance project managers spend most of their time. What is also clear from the findings is that the most distinctive characteristic is their ability to use their experience and know-how to adapt their planning approach to meet the specific challenges of the project they were managing.
There is no single approach to planning a project, but neither is project planning a free-for-all. One consistent finding is that the context— the environment within which planning takes place—determines the approach that is most appropriate to use; which techniques and tools are most suitable; and what factors to consider.
Louise Worsley, with her husband, Christopher Worsley, are the authors of Adaptive Project Planning, published in February 2019. This book prepares you for many of the common project planning situations you will meet. It addresses how planning and planning decisions alter, depending on the constraint hierarchy: how resource-constrained planning differs from end-date schedule planning, what is different between cost-constrained plans and time-boxing. It also discusses the challenges of integrating different product development life cycles, for example, Agile and waterfall, into a coherent and appropriate plan.
Readers of Virtual Project Consulting who buy the book now, will receive a discount of 15% – use buying code WOR2019. Click on the image!
You all know how challenging it is to stay productive at work all day long. There is so much time wasted on inefficient work like:
There are productivity techniques to help combat some time wasters like multi-tasking. For example, a time-management method called the Pomodoro Technique (first developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s) that works on the principle that you focus on a task for 25 minutes and then take a break for five minutes. This technique forces you to focus on a single task, eradicating the negative effects of attempted multitasking. This focus has an immediate positive impact on your productivity and will enhance your work speed.
However, it’s estimated that 25% of the average worker’s day is wasted on inefficient work. That’s huge. If you work an 8-hour day, that’s 2 hours wasted every day. …10 hours per week. …520 hours per year. Do the math and you’re paying the average worker for 65 days (over three months of work!) of “info gathering” every year. For every employee in your company!
Another way to increase your team’s productivity, is to use work management tools which help teams cut out these inefficiencies, so we can stop spending so much time on “info gathering” and start putting our time into actually getting work done.
Read more on the challenges teams and managers are facing in today’s workforce in the Infographic below, sponsored by Wrike. Try Wrike’s work management tool free for the next two weeks, and challenge your team to get more done every day.
By Jessica Kane
Many articles are publishedat the beginning of every year covering a variety of trends that will impact the business sector. This article will look at it from the perspective of how the trends in 2019 will impact project management.
One of the most significant trends is the rise of “business agile.” Starting in 2016, a number of business sectors or industries commenced adopting the Agile development framework impacting various business operational, management, and strategic operations, including project management.
Still many individuals are not yet well versed in business agile. Indeed, in some ways, the concepts and practices underpinning business agile are in various states of maturity. With that said, the essential definition of business agile, is an “amalgam of different business & IT methods that work synergistically to create an agile and competitive business model,” according to the Business Technology Management Institute.
The business agile model incorporates a variety of disciplines into its overall functionality. These include, but are not limited to: business technology management, IT portfolio management, business process management, enterprise architecture, information technology, and project management.
Project management is impacted positively in that Agile help to improve employee communication, allowing the teams to inspect and adapt to changes faster and easier, often with quicker time to market and an earlier value realization for customers.
During 2017, there was a great deal of discussion about the internet of things as well as artificial intelligence. Admittedly, a good deal of the conversations and presentations on these matters were speculative. However, in 2019 we see an increasing interaction between the internet of things and artificial intelligence, as the two impact or pertain to project management.
The essential definition of the Internet of Things (IoT)is that it is a network consisting of physical devices of different types that are embedded with software, sensors, electronics, actuators, and network connectivity. These objects are enabled to connect and exchange data. Each thing in the network is uniquely identifiable, but able to inter-operate in a network utilizing existing infrastructure supplied by the internet itself.
Artificial intelligence (AI)is defined basically as intelligence exhibited by certain machines or software applications. The term is also applied to the field involved in the creation of computers and computer software that are capable of so-called intelligent behavior.
The ongoing convergence between the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, which is expected to reach a new plateau in 2019, will impact project management. Project management is already heavily reliant on technology in many sectors. Thus, imagine AI machine learning focused on PM domains, like ROI models, common risks and estimation omissions. It can be used as a safeguard from making basic technical project management errors or omissions.
Another trend in 2019 is the first real wave of Millennial project managers appearing on the scene. Although there has been a sprinkling of Millennial project managers at work already, they have been few and far between.
The primary reason why Millennials really haven’t been heavily involved in project management to this point really has been a function of age. The generational cohort simply hadn’t reached the stage where they had the experience and background necessary to occupy many project management positions.
By 2019 a larger group of Millennials will have gleaned the experience necessary to take on project management roles. More Millennials will be found in project management positions, particularly in those industries that more heavily rely on technology.
Although the Millennial generational cohort has a number of distinguishing features, the group is perhaps best identified by its use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies. Their familiarity with and reliance on these technologies is more profound than their generational predecessors, including Gen X and certainly Baby Boomers.
Refer to this video article: “How to manage different generations at work” to help you understand the Millennials better. It’s wise to acknowledge that Millennials will have an impact on project management in many different ways. The number of Millennials assuming project management positions in 2019 will determine how significant the impact on project management practices will be. Expect some alteration in the manner in which project management is approached because of Millennials reliance and even addition to social media and digital technologies.
About the author:
Jessica Kane is a professional blogger who focuses on personal finance and other money matters. She currently writes for Checkworks.com, where you can get personal checks and business checks
The trend of having virtual teams collaborate on projects while working in different physical locations have been growing for the past few years. I remember working on a few such projects in the past 5 years. Distributed teams are always more challenging to work with as a project manager. From coping with different time-zones, to culture and language differences, as well as the ever-present technical tool challenges – like team members having bad internet connections with poor audio quality to calls dropping, background noises etcetera – are the typical scenarios you will have to deal with on a daily basis. Add to that how difficult it is to build healthy relationships with team members who haven’t met in person yet and therefore will take more time to build trust and mutual respect, and you have all the ingredients for a stressful project experience. Unfortunately, this is the situation many project teams find themselves in as part of the ‘global economy’ we live in.
Today, enterprises are expanding their reach by taking advantage of telecommuting, with workers plying their trade based out of different offices, countries and even their own homes. Thanks to the Internet, modern professionals are enabled to work from virtually anywhere.
Some advantages of working as part of virtual teams, is the exposure to experts from outsourced companies and team members having more opportunities to engage with professional peers who reside anywhere around the globe.
Still, the effective deployment of virtual project teams, is challenging for enterprise leaders. For instance, a Deloitte study found that 66-percent of virtual workgroups failed to meet clients’ expectations. Further studies revealed that many professionals believe that virtual communication is not as effective as face-to-face meetings. They also expressed feelings of confusion when using new teleconferencing technologies.
Despite these sentiments, one study found that successful virtual teams outperformed employees who completed projects while working out of traditional office settings. Other studies found that virtual teams improve productivity, with some consulting firms experiencing performance gains of up to 43-percent. Although research has shown that virtual project teams can produce improved outcomes compared to teams operating out of traditional offices, the experience can prove just as stressful if not more difficult than working in normal office settings.
In this type of work environment, there are obstacles to productivity. To begin with, some workers may never meet in person or even live in the same country. Furthermore, it may prove difficult for project leaders to coordinate team members who live in different time zones.
For this reason, project leaders of virtual teams should establish policies that deal with these kinds of issues up front. Another important aspect is mindfulness, which means that you as the leader take responsibility for your words and actions. The team members are also made mindful and are careful of their words and actions; they don’t let their negative emotions impact the others around them.
A well-planned project will ensure employee mental health and optimal productivity. Moreover, by teaching team members to understand each other’s cultural nuances, team leaders can create inclusive and cohesive work environments where staff members respect each other and, ultimately, are satisfied with their roles.
To find more resources for mindfulness at work and what employers can do to help,check out this employee mental health guide developed by Maryville University’s online degree program.
By Ashley Lipman
There are more than 3.5 billion internet users worldwide which is roughly half the earth’s population. Internet use has been steadily growing over the years but perhaps nothing has expedited global internet penetration as much as the smartphone. Priced much lower, smartphones have smashed the barrier to internet use that was caused by the prohibitive cost of laptops and desktop computers. Little wonder that in 2016, mobile internet users surpassed desktop users for the first time. That number can only be expected to grow not just due to rising penetration in developing countries but also as a result of the growing sophistication of the average smartphone that is gradually transforming into a minicomputer. Even internet users in wealthier countries are spending more time on their smartphones than their computers.
If you are involved with Mobile App Development projects, you will appreciate the rise of the mobile internet and companies’s necessity to have an excellent mobile presence. Hence, this Guide with Best Practices for App Development, is really invaluable for 2019 and beyond.
Here’s a look at some of the most important tips and tricks when building mobile apps in 2019.
The move toward simplicity has revolutionized web design over the past few years. As one would expect, this trend is rapidly making its way into the mobile app space. Traditionally, developers would pack in numerous features as well as spectacular interfaces in the hope of leaving a lasting impression on users and standing out from the competition. However, there’s a growing realization that this doesn’t achieve the desired result.
First, when an app has an excessive amount of design elements, the numerous moving parts create multiple areas of potential malfunction. Second, a busy interface can make it difficult for uses to comprehend the app’s logical flow.
To avoid these pitfalls, practice building your apps from the core out. In other words, don’t think about a flashy interface from the get go. Instead, focus on building and perfecting the app’s essential function. Ensure that the processing is seamless, the backend is rock solid (details about this subject on logging would come in handy) and that the results end users expect from inputs fit down to a T.
The bells and whistles are okay to have as long as they do not overshadow or diminish the core purpose of the app.
The purpose of an app determines what features are essential and which ones are unnecessary. Unless you are building a banking app or one handling a similarly sensitive process, chances are that you don’t need to incorporate comprehensive controls and security procedures.
A banking app may require session timeouts that force the user to sign in after a period of inactivity. Such controls would however be a needless impediment to the user experience on gaming, messaging and social media apps that are largely used for leisure and to unwind. Keep requested user inputs at the minimum. Don’t ask for information if it isn’t unnecessary.
Make the most of inline validation. That means verifying data validity as the user keys it in. For example, on a new user registration page, the validity of a password should be displayed as the user types it.
Another practical but often overlooked idea? Autocomplete. When someone downloads your app, they probably already have dozens of apps on their phone that asked them for the same registration information that your app requires. Autocomplete ensures they don’t have to fill in the same data when registering on your app.
Source: Pixabay.com
If your app loads slowly, you are going to repel many users. Smartphones have experienced giant leaps in processing speed and RAM size just as available internet bandwidth continues its rapid rise worldwide. Nevertheless, this advancement masks the deep variation between devices, platforms and world regions.
Ergo, when developing a mobile app, find ways to create an app that takes this diversity into consideration. As much as possible, your app should load in in under 5 seconds in the majority of environments. In addition, communicate what’s happening to take care of instances where weak connectivity or poor device specs may make faster loading impossible.
For example, show loading progress by percentage that increases at it approaches completion. You could also make it clear that the sluggish speed is due to the user’s poor connection. These measures are vital because if the user opens an app and all they see is a blank screen, they’ll assume it’s frozen and could choose to uninstall it immediately.
If you are unlucky, they’ll even leave a bad rating in the app store. This creates a vicious cycle by steadily diminishing the incentive for new users to download the app in future.
Source: Pixabay.com
Whether you opt for the Waterfall method or choose to go with the Agile approach, testing is an integral part of any software development technique. Yet, a remarkable number of mobile app developers either fail to test their apps or do not give testing the depth of commitment it requires.
Some coders have fallen into the bad habit of making their end users the first beta testers. While this can be an effective way of capturing glitches that escaped developers, it’s possible for one to overly rely on it to identify even the most mundane of app problems. Shoving an untested app into users’ hands can give it a terrible reputation even before it is available to the market in its final form.
Instead, create a robust testing process (automated where possible) that ensures the overwhelming majority of errors are identified well before the app is first made available to some or all end users. Test app functionality, usability, compatibility, versatility, security and everything else that will have an impact on its performance.
And do not stop testing after the app goes live. Networks, devices, platforms and user behavior are always changing so you have to ascertain that your app is still fully functional despite these changes.While the opportunities in the mobile app market are vast, the competition is also incredibly intense. If you are going to stand out from the hundreds of apps that serve a similar purpose to yours, you have to make an effort at making an unforgettable first impression. Design an app that resonates with users and delivers on what it promises. The defining trait of nearly all successful mobile apps is their ability to blend function and aesthetics.
By Louise Worsley
Time-constrained projects arise from four external drivers.
In each of these cases, the significance of meeting the end-date varies depending upon the sponsor’s view of the risk exposure, or loss of benefit, they are prepared to countenance. Missing a legislative compliance date may result in a fine, but the sponsor may decide that this is preferable to the additional costs associated with speeding up the delivery of the project. In a time-constrained project, the project manager must understand the sponsor’s position about the date.
There is a fifth cause of time-constrained projects. It’s called timeboxing.
Notice the often-useful management effects of rigidly maintained time constraints on projects where some software development methodologies—in the old days DSDM and RAD—and now, Agile approaches – deliberately adopt the imposition of rigid time constraints on the product development process.
In the right circumstances and for the right products, a time-boxed approach works. Its value arises from the impact on what management is obliged to implement to meet its obligations driven by the temporal constraint. Done well, and using the time constraint as a driver for innovation in tasking and resourcing, it is a powerful productivity tool.
Implemented poorly, the time constraint becomes an excuse for de-scoping with disappointing results. There are many circumstances where the imposition of an unnecessary time-constraint leads to trouble, including situations where incurring the associated technical debt is unacceptable. Whatever else it may be, timeboxing is not a panacea for every project.
The truth is that less than 20 percent of projects are genuinely end-date driven. Project end-dates are often not deadlines but more like these:
And this is important! The target date may be regarded as a deadline, but it is not treated as a drop-dead end-date. It is not the primary driver for the project.
Where an end-date must be met, the planning process changes. For a start, planning under time constraints always demands more effort in planning, not less. It is essential, therefore, that the project manager engages with the stakeholders so that they become aware of this and in so doing resists the just “get on with it” pressure so often applied by them.
If “time is of the essence” for your project; if you need to bring in your project in tight time-scales, then here are just some of the actions you could and should be considering:
“Crash” the schedule by adding resources. Remember, more resources and more tasks mean greater monitoring.
Identify elapsed time delays, those activities which are not compressible using existing processes.
Identify delays which may be introduced because of decision-making processes.
Fast-track the schedule—look for ways of breaking dependencies between activities. Remember, parallel tasks increase resources and risks, so increase monitoring.
Identify resource skills gaps up front
Communicate and re-communicate the purpose, objective, CSFs, and value of the project throughout the project’s lifecycle
Identify foreseeable problems (risks)
Be prepared for unforeseen problems
Working with larger numbers of resources influences the way work is structured, scheduled, and communicated. Remember the bigger the team resources; the less productive each member will be.
Develop new processes, which allow products to be delivered faster. Remember new procedures will create new types of errors, and you won’t have prepared ways to correct them. So test and monitor more.
Ensure clarity on who makes what decisions and stick to it. Factor in decision-making; bring governance closer to the project. Delayed issue resolution can kill your project.
Evaluate and manage the additional risks associated with changing the standard dependency structures. Identify management actions; include in plans. Remember to investigate Start-to-Start with lag times sequencing rather the Finish-to-Start serial sequencing.
Whenever a task demands effort from a specific resource, try to eliminate it—it is a significant risk on time-constrained projects. If not possible, make the attaining and managing of that person as a CSF for the project.
Find ways in meetings and one-on-ones to rehearse the mission of the project with every project member —and in the steering group—and keep checking back with the sponsor that nothing has changed.
Log each risk statement with at least one management action associated with it. Most “fix-on-failure” solutions will cost more in time and money than the other four risk strategies. In time-constrained projects, making good is the least favoured option.
Schedule milestones, even inch pebbles. Only schedule at the level of detail that reflects your level of uncertainty. The less you know, the greater the detail! Remember schedules are the most volatile project document. Expect to change it frequently to account for the unplanned circumstances.
Time-constrained projects can be tough on teams; they may involve hard work and lots of overtime. However, our research suggests that managerially, they are often less complex. With an understood, agreed and, most importantly, an immovable constraint—a genuine drop-dead deadline end-date—the compromises that have to be made are clear-cut. Either you meet the end-date—or you fail. It is much easier to manage when the conditions of success are clear!
In our research into what makes project managers successful, planning, along with monitoring and control, are the two areas where high-performance project managers spend most of their time. What is also clear from the findings is that the most distinctive characteristic is their ability to use their experience and know-how to adapt their planning approach to meet the specific challenges of the project they were managing.
There is no single approach to planning a project, but neither is project planning a free-for-all. One consistent finding is that the context – the environment within which planning takes place – determines the following:
The project-planning environment is itself a product of the set of constraints that bound the project, and these constraints involve much more than time, cost and quality. To plan effectively and appropriately project managers must take into account both the source of the constraint and their relative significance or priority – the hierarchy of constraints.
Louise Worsley, with her husband, Christopher Worsley, are the authors of Adaptive Project Planning, published in February 2019. This book prepares you for many of the common project planning situations you will meet. It addresses how planning and planning decisions alter, depending on the constraint hierarchy: how resource-constrained planning differs from end-date schedule planning, what is different between cost-constrained plans and time-boxing. It also discusses the challenges of integrating different product development life cycles, for example, Agile and waterfall, into a coherent and appropriate plan.
Readers of Virtual Project Consulting who buy the book now, will receive a discount of 15% – use buying code WOR2019. Click below!
In today’s demanding world, we need to consider wellness in order to be productive and to stay present, focused and positive in the chaos we’re often confronted with.
We want to strive for well-being so that we can know ourselves better, have more fulfilling relationships, personally and professionally, and reduce stress.
Wellness will lead to happiness and studies like the Harvard Business Review have reported that happy workers are 31% more productive and three times more creative than the rest of the workforce.
Find below 13 ideas to build a happy and consequently, a more productive workforce, with compliments from Wrike.
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:
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 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.
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.
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!
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, 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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.