Audience asked to rate their own organisatrions in terms of project sponsorship, according to a set of questions from the APM publication - Directing Change - A guide to governance of project management.
How good is project sponsorship n your organisation?
Good 8% Satisfactory 20% Unsatisfactory 48% Poor 24%
Compared with the feedback received at the APM/IoD conference on Governance on 1st April:
Good 6% Satisfactory 32% Unsatisfactory 46% Poor 16%
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Can project sponsors be managed?
Where are your project sponsors? They’re not here and that’s part of the problem.
So how do you management upwards in the absence of your sponsor.
Example: Public sector organisation.
• Assess org. chart and core team.
• Rank sponsors – most cooperative to least. Get assistance by enlisting the most supportive to help bring the others on board.
• That helps build momentum.
• Educate those new to sponsorship, explain their roles, enabling them to fulfil their roles.
Summary
• Assess the current situation, assess the stakeholders
• Enlist a guiding coalition, get some supporters
• Articulate needs, in language appropriate for your audience.
• Educate upwards
• Use passion, persistence and patience
Question 1
Project sponsors can be managed
Strongly agree 18% Agree 60% Disagree 20% Disagree strongly 2%
So how do you management upwards in the absence of your sponsor.
Example: Public sector organisation.
• Assess org. chart and core team.
• Rank sponsors – most cooperative to least. Get assistance by enlisting the most supportive to help bring the others on board.
• That helps build momentum.
• Educate those new to sponsorship, explain their roles, enabling them to fulfil their roles.
Summary
• Assess the current situation, assess the stakeholders
• Enlist a guiding coalition, get some supporters
• Articulate needs, in language appropriate for your audience.
• Educate upwards
• Use passion, persistence and patience
Question 1
Project sponsors can be managed
Strongly agree 18% Agree 60% Disagree 20% Disagree strongly 2%
Martin Price - Can you align people, process and organisation?
There’s something more interesting than people – groups of people, because of the huge amount of interactions an organisation creates.
Aspects of PM that require leadership – leadership is about showing the way and draw the leadership from others, not by proscription.
Imagine a warship, ready for action, then you take away the crew – the warriors – what’s left can’t function. People aren’t just the heart of the matter - they are the matter.
Two arenas in project management:
Arena ‘A’ systematic necessities or essential tools (methodology, life cycle etc)
Arena ‘B’ the people necessities or vital behaviours (trust, decision making, leadership, collaboration etc).
Question
In which of these arenas are the causes of project success or failure?
A=3 hands, everyone else=B.
Need to address both arenas. There are also two others – engagement (not a competence, the quality of a group) and domain knowledge.
Building organisational capability – address:
Aspects of PM that require leadership – leadership is about showing the way and draw the leadership from others, not by proscription.
Imagine a warship, ready for action, then you take away the crew – the warriors – what’s left can’t function. People aren’t just the heart of the matter - they are the matter.
Two arenas in project management:
Arena ‘A’ systematic necessities or essential tools (methodology, life cycle etc)
Arena ‘B’ the people necessities or vital behaviours (trust, decision making, leadership, collaboration etc).
Question
In which of these arenas are the causes of project success or failure?
A=3 hands, everyone else=B.
Need to address both arenas. There are also two others – engagement (not a competence, the quality of a group) and domain knowledge.
Building organisational capability – address:
- the competence of the project players (professional skill and knowledge),
- the project organisation (leadership, engagement, collaboration) and
- building support from the business (alignment and support from the host business).
Elizabeth Harrin - Can you align people, process and organisation?
The techniques and tools I’m using now are the same I’ve been using for some years, given the rate of change in other professions – is that ok?
We all face shifting business challenges – economic, business models and technology – all the more so in the current environment.
General perception is that projects are failing – why are we still doing the same things?
The economy we’re working in is different to the one that our tools were designed for, this is the Google generation – look at all the sources and outlets we can now use, such as blogs, blackberries, wikis real-time status reports and collaboration tools. We need to be able to use them all within a project environment.
Project management teams need to be able to work with the same tools in the same way as others in our organisations.
We need people on our project teams with excellent communications skills and an openness to business change.
In summary:
• Adoption of new media
• Soft skills in methodologies
• Recruitment focus on emotional intelligence
Peter Simon, champion:
1. Is it important to develop as a complete project manager – professionals who can display the essential tools and the vital behaviours?
Strongly agree 77% Agree 20% Disagree 2% Strongly disagree 2%
2. Is it important for APM to give closer attention to developing human and organisational competence in its 4 level certification programme?
Strongly agree 34% Agree 52% Disagree 11% Strongly disagree 3%
3. My project management team is equipped to face the changing requirements of 21st business practices.
Strongly agree 8% Agree 29% Disagree 51% Strongly disagree 12%
4. My project management style reflects the way others work in my organisation.
Strongly agree 12% Agree 37% Disagree 42% Strongly disagree 8%
We all face shifting business challenges – economic, business models and technology – all the more so in the current environment.
General perception is that projects are failing – why are we still doing the same things?
The economy we’re working in is different to the one that our tools were designed for, this is the Google generation – look at all the sources and outlets we can now use, such as blogs, blackberries, wikis real-time status reports and collaboration tools. We need to be able to use them all within a project environment.
Project management teams need to be able to work with the same tools in the same way as others in our organisations.
We need people on our project teams with excellent communications skills and an openness to business change.
In summary:
• Adoption of new media
• Soft skills in methodologies
• Recruitment focus on emotional intelligence
Peter Simon, champion:
1. Is it important to develop as a complete project manager – professionals who can display the essential tools and the vital behaviours?
Strongly agree 77% Agree 20% Disagree 2% Strongly disagree 2%
2. Is it important for APM to give closer attention to developing human and organisational competence in its 4 level certification programme?
Strongly agree 34% Agree 52% Disagree 11% Strongly disagree 3%
3. My project management team is equipped to face the changing requirements of 21st business practices.
Strongly agree 8% Agree 29% Disagree 51% Strongly disagree 12%
4. My project management style reflects the way others work in my organisation.
Strongly agree 12% Agree 37% Disagree 42% Strongly disagree 8%
Practical agile project management - Dr Peter Merrick
Agile project management means responding to changing circumstances – it is characterised by its flexibility and speed. It is questionable as to whether it can be used in all circumstances, but it is useful in disciplines such as IT.
Agile projects tend to be smaller, shorter, the team is more capable and because there is nowhere to hide, the individuals become more capable. It can also create higher staff turnover because of the personal accountability and peer pressure that agile project management promotes. Sponsor involvement is often much closer.
There is resistance to the approach because it can be fairly imprecise in terms of time and budget. It relies heavily on trust over formal governance structures.
However, an agile culture can grow organically. Once success is realised it is often adopted elsewhere in the organisation.
Agile projects tend to be smaller, shorter, the team is more capable and because there is nowhere to hide, the individuals become more capable. It can also create higher staff turnover because of the personal accountability and peer pressure that agile project management promotes. Sponsor involvement is often much closer.
There is resistance to the approach because it can be fairly imprecise in terms of time and budget. It relies heavily on trust over formal governance structures.
However, an agile culture can grow organically. Once success is realised it is often adopted elsewhere in the organisation.
Discussion – Have we forgotten some of the basics?
Planning is a priority; there is never an option of not planning even when resources are scarce.
Planning should exist throughout the project and perhaps extend into operations (and possibly disposal). This way planning can help ensure that benefits are realised. As such, it might suggest that the sponsor – who is responsible for the benefits of the project – should have a greater interest in the planning aspects of the project or programme.
As projects adopt more ‘agile’ and iterative approaches, greater focus is put on ‘top down’ planning and risk prioritisation. If planning is often confused with ‘schedule’ then risk management is often confused with risks management – the management and focus on individual risks. Marginalising these techniques in this way, making them an operational rather than strategic issue is a problem.
Although these areas are referred to as basics it may be more appropriate to view them as ‘fundamentals’. The awareness of these fundamentals outside the profession is poor - senior executives are not interested in these ‘details’.
Professionally, both planning and risk management roles are considered a stepping stone to something more ‘bigger’. This is one of the why these fundamentals are ignored because they are perceived to have little strategic meaning and therefore are professionally unrewarding.
However, 100% of delegates believe constructed plans are often ignored by management who want a different answer.
It is not that senior executives are disinterested in these subjects, they have other pressures and priorities. If ignored the impact of failed projects can be cataclysmic. What is essential is that senior executives and even project professionals understand the value of planning and risk management and not discount these issues as an inconvenience.
84% believe your project risk management looked at ‘top down’.
100% believe that project risk management should be ‘top down’.
79% believe that project plans are not done by planning experts in their organisation
93% believe that risk is a process not a mindset in their organisation.
Planning should exist throughout the project and perhaps extend into operations (and possibly disposal). This way planning can help ensure that benefits are realised. As such, it might suggest that the sponsor – who is responsible for the benefits of the project – should have a greater interest in the planning aspects of the project or programme.
As projects adopt more ‘agile’ and iterative approaches, greater focus is put on ‘top down’ planning and risk prioritisation. If planning is often confused with ‘schedule’ then risk management is often confused with risks management – the management and focus on individual risks. Marginalising these techniques in this way, making them an operational rather than strategic issue is a problem.
Although these areas are referred to as basics it may be more appropriate to view them as ‘fundamentals’. The awareness of these fundamentals outside the profession is poor - senior executives are not interested in these ‘details’.
Professionally, both planning and risk management roles are considered a stepping stone to something more ‘bigger’. This is one of the why these fundamentals are ignored because they are perceived to have little strategic meaning and therefore are professionally unrewarding.
However, 100% of delegates believe constructed plans are often ignored by management who want a different answer.
It is not that senior executives are disinterested in these subjects, they have other pressures and priorities. If ignored the impact of failed projects can be cataclysmic. What is essential is that senior executives and even project professionals understand the value of planning and risk management and not discount these issues as an inconvenience.
84% believe your project risk management looked at ‘top down’.
100% believe that project risk management should be ‘top down’.
79% believe that project plans are not done by planning experts in their organisation
93% believe that risk is a process not a mindset in their organisation.
Transformation and transformational change - Anthony Lewis
Transformation is a favourite term for consultants – in this context it refers to major change. Major Change is high risk (and high reward) but can also be large and difficult.
Creating a transformation is often such a daunting prospect that it isn’t addressed. Often we wait until there is a ‘burning platform’ to make change happen, but change is inevitable; it should be anticipated and embraced.
Having a clear understanding of where we are and where we want to be is central to successful transformation. This involves ‘scenario probability’, demand forecasting and cost of service profiling.
This is the firm basis upon which good decisions can be made. Everyone has different perspectives and priorities - senior executives will have different priorities to the project manager. Therefore the transformation project manager will need to react differently in different situations.
The project professional has a key role to play in making this happen by shaping a strategy that can be implemented, they can help co-ordiante stakeholders and participants and ‘show the way’.
Creating a transformation is often such a daunting prospect that it isn’t addressed. Often we wait until there is a ‘burning platform’ to make change happen, but change is inevitable; it should be anticipated and embraced.
Having a clear understanding of where we are and where we want to be is central to successful transformation. This involves ‘scenario probability’, demand forecasting and cost of service profiling.
This is the firm basis upon which good decisions can be made. Everyone has different perspectives and priorities - senior executives will have different priorities to the project manager. Therefore the transformation project manager will need to react differently in different situations.
The project professional has a key role to play in making this happen by shaping a strategy that can be implemented, they can help co-ordiante stakeholders and participants and ‘show the way’.
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