WTF?! No-BS PM -- Management Creating Winning (or Losing!) Project Conditions

There is a religious story that has relevance for the management function in any organization. Moses told of a farmer who went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where there was very little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. But when the sun rose, it scorched and withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. In the end, it produced no grain. and some seed fell on rich soil and produced a good crop.

Although this was not what Moses was talking about, the sower can be compared to management, and the seed to the company's staff. It’s management's role to create the environment in which the seed can grow-that is, the staff can perform at its best. The seed that fell on the path is like staff that has no support or supervision. They are just left alone.

They perform without passion. They feel they make little or no contribution to the company. They usually leave the company as soon as another opportunity comes along.

The seed that fell on rocky ground is like staff doing jobs that don’t match their skills/capabilities or their expectations. They usually have no commitment to such jobs. Be cause of this, when they encounter some difficulty or setback, they either leave or get fired.

The seed that fell among the thorns is like staff that en gages in office politics and infighting. They spend most of their time fighting with each other, trying to gain advantages over other functions, and thus produce few or no results for the company.

The seed that fell on rich soil represents staff that is highly productive because they flourish in a positive and constructive environment.

The moral of this interpretation is simple: the major responsibility for management is to create a positive environment for the team so that the team can be creative, cooperative, and confident that it can outperform competitors.

Just what is a positive environment for projects?

A POSITIVE PROJECT ENVIRONMENT

To answer this question, let's first look at the process of a development project and the role of management at each stage.

In general, a project has five distinct stages:

1. Concept stage: At this stage, one conducts research on customer needs and study the feasibility of products that will fulfill these needs. This includes a survey of competition.

2. Definition stage: Here one defines the project scope, funding, product requirements, and time line. This includes risk analysis, considering potential problems and alternative plans, and compiling a complete team member list.

3. Planning: Formulate a plan to start, implement, and control the project, including risk management and contingency plans.

4. Execution: Implement the plan, monitor progress, and control for deviations.

5. Closeout: Draft final reports, lessons learned, and other reviews.

While it’s unrealistic to expect the management team to be involved in the details of each and every project at its different project stages, there are some generic guidelines that the management team should apply to create a positive environment in which teams can operate to their full potential.

Following is an outline of these key generic guidelines. (The technical details of managing a project will be discussed in the next few sections.)

Management's vs. the Concept Stage

The concept stage is the birthplace of a project, so it should be thoughtfully conceived, planned, and scheduled, following the overall product roadmap. There should be no surprises. Each new project should follow closely the new product introduction schedule as defined in the product roadmap, an action plan for the overall product strategy, and the company's vision for the future. Management's role at the concept stage is to validate the key assumptions of this product/project as they relate to overall product strategy and current market conditions. Based on the latest market research and other market intelligence, management can decide to give its blessing to start this project as planned, make some necessary adjustments, or abandon it if it’s deemed unlikely to be viable in the market.

However, the most important role is to review and uncover information that ensures that the product roadmap will be more accurately prepared in the future. This is a process of learning and accumulating knowledge. Most companies do review the business case of a new product introduction project, but very few review the accuracy of the predictions for this project, as laid out in the roadmap, and learn from the experience. Since management envisions the future and pro vides a clear direction for the company, the accuracy of the product roadmap is most critical. If it’s not clear and accurate, the company has no way to plan and organize projects, and this includes funding, human resource allocation, equipment allocation, and so on.

As prev. mentioned, an inaccurate product roadmap creates a vicious cycle that standardizes delays in new product introduction and is hard for management to break. In fact, the only way to break it’s to continue to learn from mistakes made on previous projects-especially those of poor prediction-and hold product managers accountable for the accuracy of the roadmap.

Following are some key areas on which management should focus during the concept stage:

1. Customer orientation: Does this product/project focus on customer needs? What are the customer expectations for this product? How well does this product meet those expectations? How do our competitors address customer needs?

2. Product roadmap accuracy: How well is this product placed in the product roadmap? Are key features supported by the technology roadmap, and are these technologies now available and proven? What is the risk?

3. Business case: How well does this business case fit in the overall business strategy? Is this product/ project in line with the overall company business strategy? If not, what are the key justifications to change the company direction/strategy?

4. Resources: Do the resources required agree with the allocations from the product roadmap? If not, what additional resources are required?

5. Project manager: Does one have the right project manager to manage this project?

6. Learning: A short lesson learned is done at each stage to capture what can be learned. What can be done to make the roadmap more accurate in its prediction?

Management's vs. the Project Definition Stage

Once the management team endorses the project, a proper announcement should be made to inform all employees that the company will embark on this new project. This provides a clear sanction for the project team to function and a clear direction for the whole company. At this time, the project manager can finalize the scope of the project. This includes the function, features, and styling of the product. This is the most important stage for the project team, because many projects fail due to unclear requirements or frequent changes of specifications. Therefore, controlling product specifications and their changing scope is the project manager's most critical challenge.

Project managers are always under pressure to make changes in order to fulfill changing market conditions. Regardless of whether these changes are valid, they usually cause delays. Changes should be approved only if they are absolutely necessary in order to sell the product and marketing agrees to the delay. Alternatively, if a delay is unacceptable but changes are considered necessary, it’s management's role to provide the resources needed to maintain the end date while accommodating the changes. How ever, in the case of a long-term project, it will be almost impossible to make changes and still release the product on time. This is one reason to favor shorter duration projects.

Breaking a big project into smaller projects with clearly de fined deliverables ensures that the project, once it starts, will be less likely to require any changes.

The key areas of management focus in this project definition stage are:

1. Project scope: Are the project scope, and the product functions, features, and styling, defined and agreed upon? Do they match the requirements as defined in the roadmap?

2. Resources: Are project human resources allocated according to plan? Any new requirements? Does the allocation of resources cover all areas, including production operations/manufacturing?

3. Budget: Is this business case justified? What is the investment? What is the ROI? When is the breakeven point? What is the cash-flow schedule?

4. Duration: How long is this project expected to last? When will it be completed? When will the product be transferred to operations? What are operation's expectations on handover?

5. Risk assessment and alternative plan: What are the major risks of this project? What is its impact on other projects, and on the company? Any possible alternative plan? Did the project team review the design rules and FMEA database to ensure that they learned from previous projects and will avoid the pitfalls and mistakes of those projects?

Management's vs. Project Planning Stage

The project planning stage is the very last step before the project enters the execution stage, but no project should launch without an agreed-upon project plan. We always say, "Fail to plan, plan to fail." This is especially true when an innovation team plans a new product development project without involving the operations team at the beginning, but hands over the product to them for mass production. From our experience, there are always disagreements at the handover stage.

The project team wants to hand over the product to operations to begin mass production, but the operations will al ways say, "It's not good enough!" The requirements for handover are specified during the project definition stage. Still, there will be many gray areas that lead to disagreement. An effective way to minimize this problem is for the whole team to contribute to a joint project plan. This approach produces a single project plan prepared by all the team members-but controlled by the project manager. Only a jointly produced project plan should be presented to management for approval/endorsement.

However, there will be always some reasons for lack of participation by operations. Sometimes it’s due to lack of in formation or awareness of the new project. (A proper announcement will help!) Sometimes it’s due to lack of resources (operations is too focused on day-to-day problems). Whatever the reason, management's role is to prevent lack of participation and enforce mutual agreement in the project planning stage.

The key areas of management focus in this stage are:

1. Project plan coverage: Does the project plan cover the entire project up to mass production, and design rules and FMEA database to ensure that they learned from previous projects and will avoid the pitfalls and mistakes of those projects?

Management's vs. Project Planning Stage

The project planning stage is the very last step before the project enters the execution stage, but no project should launch without an agreed-upon project plan. We always say, "Fail to plan, plan to fail." This is especially true when an innovation team plans a new product development project without involving the operations team at the beginning, but hands over the product to them for mass production. From our experience, there are always disagreements at the handover stage.

The project team wants to hand over the product to operations to begin mass production, but the operations will al ways say, "It's not good enough!" The requirements for handover are specified during the project definition stage. Still, there will be many gray areas that lead to disagreement. An effective way to minimize this problem is for the whole team to contribute to a joint project plan. This approach produces a single project plan prepared by all the team members-but controlled by the project manager. Only a jointly produced project plan should be presented to management for approval/endorsement.

However, there will be always some reasons for lack of participation by operations. Sometimes it’s due to lack of in formation or awareness of the new project. (A proper announcement will help!) Sometimes it’s due to lack of resources (operations is too focused on day-to-day problems). Whatever the reason, management's role is to prevent lack of participation and enforce mutual agreement in the project planning stage.

The key areas of management focus in this stage are:

1. Project plan coverage: Does the project plan cover the entire project up to mass production, and with key project milestones defined. They only need to follow the project progress according to the milestones defined.

The project manager, on the other hand, should give an early warning to management if something has gone wrong and present the management team with an alternative plan or a new catch-up plan.

Another key success factor is to assign a senior management team member to sponsor the project and thus establish a direct communication link with the project manager. The management team member should keep in touch with the project manager and get frequent but informal updates. He or she should act as a sounding board for the project team in order to secure management's support or recognition. This also eliminates the time needed by the project team to pre pare formal presentations on status or answer questions from managers who don’t follow or understand the project's progress.

For any project to function properly, funding is an important factor. Funding and cash flow are a company's bloodline-they must be monitored and controlled. Having said this, there is a caution: While the control of project funding is important, a highly rigid system sometimes creates unnecessary delays and excessive constraints. It takes a lot of time for the project team to re-apply for funding during execution of the plan. In most cases, the existing financial system is unsuitable for project control. A project-focused organization should review and reorganize its financial control system to meet the needs of its projects.

When the business case of a new project is first presented, it should cover all major investments, including tooling, capital equipment, and facilities, together with the estimated schedule. Once it’s approved at the concept stage, the project team then prepares a detailed cash flow schedule during the project planning stage. Once approved, this bud get/cash flow schedule should be used as a baseline for the project team to follow. The project manager should be em powered to approve spending within this budget schedule.

The only time management attention and re-approval is required is when the spending will exceed more than 10 per cent of its original commitment.

An update to the plan is only necessary if there are significant changes. The project team should be held account able for the budget and cash flow, with the allowable deviation from target of +/- 10 %. This system will em power the team to control its own budget and reduce any unnecessary control for cash flow while still providing the financial system with a clear and proper cash flow projection.

The key management focus at the project execution stage includes:

1. Project progress against the committed milestone schedule: Is the project team progressing according to the approved plan? Any major obstacles ahead? Will the project team be able to complete the project on time and on budget?

2. Project human resources: Have adequate resources been allocated? Any additional resources required?

3. Project budget: Is the project team spending within the approved budget? Any new funds required? Would any additional project spending accelerate the project so that it can be completed ahead of its original schedule? Would this investment be worth while?

4. Recognize and celebrate even small successes: Don’t forget to reward the team and recognize even their small success. Remember that "success breeds success."

Management's vs. Project Closeout Stage

The happiest moment for a project team is definitely when it hands over a newly developed product to operations for mass production. This is the result of many mos. of hard labor by team members from different functions. At this project closeout stage, management should focus on two areas. One is the proper project handover to operations. Very often this is done in a very rushed manner. Operations personnel are often reluctant to accept responsibility for further product improvement, either in product quality or production yield improvement.

However, the management team should decide if the handover is valid in order to free up the development team to work on other projects. Management must maintain a balanced view and decide if the product being released is ready to start up production. Their second most important role is to ensure that the project team has learned from this project.

The project team should present a formal lessons-learned report that documents the learning and improvement opportunities. These recommendations should turn into actions for future projects. These actions should also be translated into formal documents, such as design rules, and entered into the FMEA database for future reference.

One recommendation is that the project team should follow the product through the first production run and market launch. If there are problems encountered with the new re lease, they should be required to correct them. In this way, they will get immediate feedback on what they did-especially any errors that they made. This means that they cannot be allocated 100 % to new projects until this stage has been completed.

The key management focus at the project closeout stage is on:

1. Product handover: Has the project team fulfilled all the handover requirements as specified in the project planning stage? Is the sustenance team (the group that will support the product once it’s re leased) and its budget defined?

2. What we have learned: What are the major lessons learned? What was done well? How do we capture these activities in future projects? What needs to be improved in managing future projects?

3. Celebration: Remember to give due recognition to the project team and reward them accordingly.

Management's vs. Office Politics

Environment is the overriding factor. What management perceived as the performance of the people is actually the efforts of people in the presence of the environment they work in. Management has to fix the environment, make it cooperative. Whether one likes it or not, office politics always intrude. In a project-oriented organization, the project manager must always spend time to fend off political attacks-both internally and externally-to keep the project on track. This is not to say that all office politics are bad. In some cases, they challenge the project team to do even better. However, excessive office politics hamper project progress and organizational growth. Management's role is to be aware of power plays and ensure that they are not destructive.

Office politics are here to stay, and as a leader one must be aware of the culture and political playing field in your company. Based on many studies of organizational dynamics, a company's personnel can be divided into four general groups:

"Lambs" represent those people who are honest and capable in their jobs but weak in playing politics. (Those who are not capable and are also weak in politics won’t survive in the first place.)

"Wolves" represent those people who have better political skills than the lambs but are weak in completing their tasks. Wolves like to take credit from lambs, and they use their political skills to hide their incompetence.

"Foxes" represent those who have strong political skills and are also competent in their jobs, but who focus on their own gains. They manipulate the situation to advance them selves instead of the objectives of the company.

"Owls" represent the wise individuals who have the company's goals at heart and do everything possible to achieve these goals. They are both competent and diplomatic.

Your role as a leader in the organization is to unite the team to achieve a common goal, eliminate the wolves, and develop the lambs to become wise owls. The very first step is to minimize politics among the project teams. The teams must be able to operate in an open, honest environment so that they will channel all their energy to the project and technical problems. We have had many opportunities to speak to project team leaders from different organizations, and they have commented that they (including their team members) spend as much as 10 to 70 % of our time making presentations, attending meetings, and engaging in negotiations just to avoid these political minefields. Imagine that time being saved for more positive project work, and the increase in speed that can aid in completing a project if these negative influences are eliminated! To minimize office politics, the management team must remain neutral. Decisions should be made based on facts and figures, not impressions. In organizations where whoever shouts loudest gets the attention, you can bet that the right things are not done in the long run. It’s especially important that the management team serve as a role model and not play politics themselves. Actions should always be guided by company objectives and not individual egos.

Open and honest communication, plus "management by walking around," will help the management team keep in touch with all staff at different levels, thus minimizing the political games in the company. Following are some specific suggestions:

1. An open door policy: Keep communications open to all at all times. All employees must be able to openly discuss with you any issues and problems encountered, without fear of reprisal.

2. A direct communication channel with project teams: As was stated earlier, it’s essential for a management team member to act as a project sponsor. This allows that person to understand any problems when they develop and to be the advocate for the project team at the management level. This is critical for the project's success, because it helps to resolve many problems quickly.

3. Facts-based management: Management should al ways make decisions based on facts and figures. The team must be able to justify their case through test results and objective analysis. The team should also be held accountable for their actions and learn from their mistakes.

4. Management by walking around (MBWA): Many management gurus have suggested that the management team must know what is really going on in an organization, not just through reports but through direct observation and experience.

Through walking around and talking to the people doing the jobs, the management team will see with their own eyes what is going on and feel first-hand the pulse of the organization. Furthermore, when the management team knows what is really going on, it will be more difficult for people to cover up problems and play politics.