Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme Managing Complexity in the Face of Uncertainty Presented by (facilitator name) Ch05: How to Launch a Project

Summary of Chapter 5 Ch05: How to Launch a Project • Recruiting the project team • Write the Project Definition Statement • Establishing team operating rules • Scope Change Management Process • Managing team communications • Resource assignment • Finalize the project schedule • Work Packages

Tools, Templates & Processes Used to Launch a Project Ch05: How to Launch a Project • Recruiting the Project Team • Project Definition Statement • Team Operating Rules • Problem Solving • Decision Making • Conflict Resolution • Consensus Building • Brainstorming • Team Meetings • Scope Change Management Process • Communications Management Planning • Work Packages • Resource assignment • Finalize the project schedule

Recruiting the Project Team • The project team has the following three separate components: • Core team • Client team • Contract team

Core Team Members • They typically have a major role to play in the project • They might also have responsibility for key tasks or sets of tasks in the project.

When to Select the Core Team Members • Because the core team will be needed for the Joint Project Planning Session (JPPS), its members should be identified as early as possible. • The core team is usually identified at the beginning of the scoping phase. • This means that the members can participate in the early definition and planning of the project.

Selection Criteria • Much of the responsibility for choosing core team members has been designated to the project manager. • However, you may have little or no latitude in picking the individuals who you would like on your core team: • Most organizations have a very aggressive portfolio of projects with constantly changing priorities and requirements. • The individual you want already has such a heavy workload that joining yet another team is not an option. • Staff turnover, especially among highly technical and in high demand professionals, is out of control in many organizations. Because of the high demand, the turnover among these professionals is also high.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Characteristics of the core team • Commitment • Shared responsibility • Flexibility • Task-oriented • Ability to work within schedules and constraints • Willingness for trust and mutual support • Team-oriented • Open-minded • Ability to work across structure and authorities • Ability to use project management tools

Selection Criteria… • The most important characteristics for core team members to possess: • Commitment to the project: each core team member places a high priority on fulfilling his or her roles and responsibilities in the project. • Shared responsibility: success and failure are equally the reward and blame of each team member. • Flexibility: adapt to the situation. ‘‘That is not my responsibility’’ doesn’t go very far in project work.

Characteristics of the core team… • Task-oriented: In the final analysis, it is the team members’ ability to get their assigned work done according to the project plan that counts. • Ability to work within schedules and constraints • Trust and mutual support: Are they empathetic and do they readily offer help when it is clear that help is needed? • Team-oriented: put the welfare of the team ahead of your own.

Characteristics of the core team… • Open-minded: welcome and encourage other points of view and other solutions to problem situations. • Ability to work across structure and authorities: In contemporary organizations, projects tend to cross organizational lines. • Ability to use project management tools: such as project management software tool.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Client Team Members • Individuals might get this assignment merely because they aren’t too busy back in their home departments. • When to Select the Client Team • These people need to be assigned in time to participate in the Project Kick-Off Meeting. • Many of them might have been part of the JPPS, and that would be a bonus. • They are probably assigned to the project for some percentage of their time rather than full time.

Client Team Members Selection Criteria • Profile the skills and experiences of the client team members • You would like to have client members with some decision-making authority. • If not, the client members will have to return to their supervisor or manager for decisions. That can slow project progress.

Contract Team Members • Organizations are routinely outsourcing processes that are not part of their core business or core expertise. • As a result, project managers have been forced to use contract team members instead of their company’s own employees for one or both of the following reasons: • Shortage of staff • Shortage of skills

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Contract Team Members - Implications • In most cases, people will join the project team only for the period of time during which their particular expertise is needed. Implications • Little variance in times they are available • Know how their tasks relate to the project • Commitment can be a problem • Quality of work may be poor • May require more supervision than core team

Contract Team Members… • Here are the steps you might take as a project manager to engage the services of a contract team member: 1. Identify the types of skills and the number of personnel needed, and the time frame within which they will be required. 2. Identify a list of companies that will be invited to submit a proposal. 3. Write the request for proposal (RFP). 4. Establish the criteria for evaluating responses and selecting the vendor(s). 5. Distribute the RFP.

Contract Team Members… 6. Evaluate the responses. 7. Reduce the list of vendors to a few who will be invited on site to make a formal presentation. 8. Conduct the on-site presentations. 9. Choose the final vendor(s), and write and sign the contract.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Balancing a Team • Balance is a critical success factor for any team that hopes to successfully complete its project. • Learning styles are measured using an instrument, the Learning Styles Inventory (LSI), which was developed by David Kolb in 1981. Kolb identifies the following four learning styles: • Assimilating • Diverging • Accommodating • Converging

Assimilating • Assimilators are people who excel at collecting and representing data in crisp logical form. • They are focused on ideas and concepts, rather than people. • These individuals like to put data and information together into models that explain the situation from a larger perspective. • they are more interested in something making sense logically than they are in any practical value. • These types of individuals typically specialize in various technical fields

Diverging • These individuals like to look at alternatives and view the situation from a variety of perspectives. • They would rather observe than take action. • Divergers like brainstorming, and they generally have a broad range of interests and like gathering and analyzing information.

Accommodating • These individuals are results-oriented and want to put things into practice. • They are strong at implementation and hands-on tasks and are good team players. • They tend to be action-oriented and more spontaneous than logical. • As problem solvers, they rely on people for input, rather than on any technical analysis. On the project team, you can count on these people to help foster a strong sense of teamwork and to facilitate the coordination of team members. They are often the peacekeepers as well.

Converging • These individuals like to assemble information in order to solve problems. • Convergers are the solution finders but not the solution implementers. • Their strength lies in their ability to take concepts, models, and ideas and turn them into practical use. • They are not particularly people-oriented and would rather work with technical tasks and problems. • They are good at picking the best option among a number of alternatives. • On the project team, these type of individuals will be the results-oriented members. They will drive the team into action by helping it focus on which approach to a situation is best and then mobilizing the team into action.

Balancing a Team Suppose you have a team that is loaded with convergers and does not have a single diverger among its members. What do you think might happen? • With no one on the team to encourage looking for alternatives (the role of the diverger), you would very likely have a rush to judgment, as the convergers press the team into action • A team that has balanced learning styles among its members is a team that is prepared to do a very good job at solving problems and making decisions.

Developing a Team Deployment Strategy • In reality, the team is formed more according to availability than to any need to balance its membership. As a result, teams are not balanced. • What’s a project manager to do? • you need a team development plan.

Developing a Team Development Plan • As project manager, identify the high-risk areas that are not covered by at least one team member who can deal with those types of risks. • As part of your risk management plan, put a development plan in place for selected members of the team. • You might want to use a conflict-resolution management behavior called masked behavior. Briefly, it means that you find the person on your team whose normal behavior is as close as possible to the missing behavior. • You might consider sensitivity training for all or some of the team.

Conducting the Project Kick-Off Meeting • The Project Kick-Off Meeting is the formal announcement to the organization that this project has been planned and approved for execution. • This meeting happens only once on each project— at the beginning of the project, after the project plan and project itself have been approved but before any work has been done. • It has the following two major parts. • The sponsor-led part • The project manager–led part

Sponsor-Led Part • It is basically a show-and-tell for the organization. • Selected senior managers and other interested parties are invited to this brief meeting. • It should last no more than 30 minutes. • The project sponsor provides a brief overview of the project, why it is being done, what it will accomplish, and what business value will be derived from it. • The Project Overview Statement (POS) is a good outline of what this briefing might include.

Project Manager–Led Part • It is an initial working session for the entire project team. • This part will last for the remainder of the day. Except for small projects, the team members may not know one another, or they may have worked on the same projects but did not directly interact with one another. • The project team comprises not only the development team members but also the client team members.

Purpose of the Project Kick-Off Meeting • This is the meeting that gets the project started. • Here is a sample Project Kick-off Meeting agenda: • Introduce the sponsor to the project team • Introduce the importance of the project by the sponsor • Introduce the project (client) • Introduce the project (project manager) • Introduce the project team members to each other • Write the PDS • Establish the team operating rules • Review the project plan • Finalize the project schedule • Write work packages

Attendees • The Project Kick-Off Meeting is usually attended by the following: • Sponsor • Other managers • Project team • Contractors and vendors • The author included the contractors to make the contractors feel as much a part of the project as the project team.

The Working Session Agenda • Introduce the project team members to each other • Write the PDS • Review the project plan • Finalize the project schedule • Write work packages

Writing the Project Definition Statement • There is a lot of documentation to support this exercise: Conditions of Satisfaction (COS), POS, RBS, and project proposal. • All of these documents should have been distributed to every team member prior to the Project Kick-Off Meeting so the project team has a chance to review them beforehand. • It is essential that everyone have the same point of view. • The PDS uses the same five parts as the POS but incorporates considerably more detail. Whereas the POS is a single-page document, the PDS will be several pages.

Writing the Project Definition Statement • The project manager and the project team use the detailed information provided in the PDS for the following: • As a basis for continued project planning • To clarify the project for the project team • As a reference that keeps the team focused in the right direction • As an orientation for new team members • As a method for discovery by the team

Writing the Project Definition Statement • In most cases, the PDS expands on two sections of the POS: • project objectives statement: the language can be technical and the development more detailed. Project objectives take on more of the look of a functional requirements or specification document. • the assumptions, risks, and obstacles statement: much longer and more detailed.

Establishing Team Operating Rules • These operating rules define how the team works together, makes decisions, resolves conflicts, reports progress, and deals with a host of other administrative chores.

Situations that Require Team Operating Rules • Problem solving • Decision making • Conflict resolution • Consensus building • Brainstorming • Team meetings

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Five Steps to Solving a Problem

Five Steps to Solving a Problem… • Couger’s process begins with an outside stimulus: Something has arisen creates an out-of-control situation in the project and must be rectified. • Step 1: Delineate the opportunity and define the problem. • This is a scoping step in which the team members attempt to establish a formulation and definition of the problem and the desired results that a solution to the problem will provide. • is best performed by team members who have a preference for the assimilator style. These individuals look at the problem independently of any focus on people and try to present the problem at the conceptual level and put it into a logical framework.

Five Steps to Solving a Problem… • Step 2: Compile the relevant information. • the assimilator is well suited to this task. • Step 3: Generate ideas. • This step typically begins with a brainstorming session. The team should identify as many solutions as possible. This is the time to think outside the box and look for creative and innovative ways to approach a solution. • The diverger is well suited to the tasks that take place in this step. The job of this individual is to look at the problem from a number of perspectives. Like the assimilator, the diverger also has an interest in collecting data in order to generate ideas, but he or she is not interested in generating solutions.

Five Steps to Solving a Problem… • Step 4: Evaluate and prioritize ideas. • Criteria for selecting the best solution ideas need to be developed (that’s a job for the converger), metrics for assessing advantages and disadvantages need to be developed (again, a job for the converger), and then the metrics are used to prioritize the solutions. • Step 5: Develop the implementation plan. • put a plan in place for delivering the recommended solution and making it happen. The accommodator is a good person to lead this planning and implementation exercise.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Decision Making is Pervasive • What has to be done and where? • Why should it be done? • How well must it be done? • When is it required? In what sequence? • How much will it cost? • What are the uncertainties? • Who should do the job? • How should people be organized into teams? • How shall we know? Scope Justification Quality Schedule Budget/Cost Risk Human Resources Communication/ Interpersonal Skills Information Dissemination/Communication

Types of decision-making models • Directive — The person with the authority (the project manager for the project and the task manager for the task) makes the decision for all team members. • Participative— Everyone on the team contributes to the decision-making process. • Consultative— This middle-ground approach combines the best of the other two approaches. The person in authority makes the final decision, but this decision is made only after consulting with all members to get their input and ideas.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project The Six Phases of the Decision-Making Process Table 05-01

The Six Phases of the Decision-Making Process • Phase I: Situation definition— This phase is one of discovery for the team, clarifying the situation to ensure a shared understanding of the decision the team faces. Phase I requires the services of an assimilator. • Phase II: Situation decision generation— Through brainstorming, the team tries to expand the decision space in search of alternative decisions. This is the province of the diverger • Phase III: Ideas to action — Metrics are devised to attach a reward and penalty to each possible decision that might be made. With the alternatives identified, the work can be turned over to the converger in Phase III. His or her job is to establish criteria.

The Six Phases of the Decision-Making Process • Phase IV: Decision action plan— The decision has been made, and the development of a plan to implement it is now needed. In this phase, the accommodator takes over and implements the decision. • Phase V: Decision evaluation—This phase is kind of a post-decision audit of what worked and what didn’t work. Some lessons learned will be the likely deliverable as well. (accommodator) • Phase VI: Evaluation of the outcome and process — The team needs to determine whether the decision got the job done and whether another attempt at the situation is needed. An evaluation of the results from Phase IV puts the work back into the hands of the assimilator. If the expected results were not attained, another round may be required.

I have a differentidea! Ch05: How to Launch a Project Conflict Resolution Conflict is good. I’ll win at any cost! Conflict is bad.

Three conflict resolution styles • Avoidant— Some people will do anything to avoid a direct confrontation. They agree even though they are opposed to the outcome. • Combative— Some people avoid confrontation at all costs; others seem to seek it out. • Collaborative— In this approach, the team looks for win-win opportunities. The approach seeks a common ground as the basis for moving ahead to a solution. This approach encourages each team member to put his or her opinions on the table and not avoid any conflict that may result. At the same time, team members do not seek to create conflict unnecessarily. This approach is constructive, not destructive.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Consensus Building • Consensus building is a process used by the team to reach agreement on which among several alternatives to follow. • The agreement is not reached by a majority vote, or any vote for that matter. Rather, the agreement is reached through discussion • Be careful--a consensus decision that equally satisfies all parties may be a bad decision after all.

Ch05: How to Launch a Project Brainstorming Method • Assemble individuals with knowledge of problem area • Throw any/all ideas on the table • Continue until no new ideas are uncovered • Discuss items on the list • Solutions begin to emerge • Test each idea with an open mind Look for solutions that no individual could identify but the group may identify.

Team Meetings • Meeting frequency— How often should the team meet? If it meets too frequently, precious work time will be lost. If it meets too infrequently, problems may arise and the window of opportunity may close before a meeting can be held to discuss and solve these problems. • Agenda preparation • Meeting coordinator— Coordination involves reserving a time, a place, and equipment. • Recording and distributing meeting minutes— Meeting minutes are an important part of project documentation.

Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme