Your Top 5 Questions Answered Simple Steps to Understanding Project Management Neville Turbit
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Your Top 5 Questions Answered Simple Steps to Understanding Project Management
Table of Contents Introduction... 5 Chapter 1 The Time to Plan... 6 Chapter 2 Scope Creep...7 Chapter 3 Need for a Project Manager... 9 Chapter 4 The Cost Estimate...10 Chapter 5 The Wrong Resource... 12 Conclusion... 15 About the Author... 16 iv
Introduction As a Project Manager, you are going to get asked difficult questions from Business people. They might have little concept of what constitutes Project Management. Their questions may seem naïve to you, but you need to patiently answer them in a way that ensures you can actually manage the project. Here are five questions I have been regularly asked over the years, and how I go about answering them. 5
Chapter 1 The Time to Plan Why do you need so much time to plan the project? Why don t you just get on and do it? I answer it this way. Imagine you were building a bridge. On day one, the trucks arrive with cement and steel. You have not organised people, or a design for the bridge. You don t know exactly where the bridge will start and end. You don t know the cost. You don t know the time it will take. You have no idea if you can avoid any problems down the track because you have not looked at risks. Planning is not there to delay the start. It is there to make the finish date happen as soon as possible. We plan so that when we do start work, we work as efficiently and effectively as possible. You can start early and finish late, or start a bit later and finish earlier. 6
Chapter 2 Scope Creep Can t we just squeeze this additional piece of work into the project? I never say no. I always say we can. Here is the answer. Sure. We can increase the scope. Since scope, time, cost, resources and quality are a constant, what would you like to change? We can: Increase the cost Extend the time Add more resources (sometimes) Reduce the quality The key to this approach is from the start of the project repeat over and over that the five components make up a constant. Change one, and one or more others have to change. I even put up a diagram on one project with the five as segments in a circle. I had it outside the door of the Sponsor. After a while whenever he spoke to me about changes he would already have the answer as to what else he would change. If I give you another resource for a week, can we have this variation? 7
Of course the same concept applies to budget cuts, resources not available, deadlines being brought forward and threats to the quality of deliverables. Never say no. Always throw the decision back to the requestor as to what else they want to change. Quality Scope Cost Time Resource 8
Chapter 3 Need for a Project Manager Do we really need a full time project manager? There are a couple of ways to answer this. One way is to quote estimates of the project management time required. Typically it is around 15%. There are many sources available on the web or through industry bodies. Another is to relate it to ongoing business. Would you set up a new business area and not have anyone in charge? How would you expect the new department to have any focus or be accountable without a manager? Take a few people and tell them to go organise themselves? A project is a new endeavour just as a new business area is a new endeavour. Even if you have set up a new business area before, each one has its own issues and needs its own decision making function. Someone has to make those decisions. A project is no different. It needs a project manager. Do you want to be responsible for launching a rudderless ship? 9
Chapter 4 The Cost Estimate Here is the concept we have. How much will it cost? I have tried to answer this by saying It will cost x but I could be out by 100% Unfortunately the 100% variation is often forgotten. I end up with a budget of X and it costs 2x. I find a more effective way is to answer in this way. If I asked you how much a house would cost you would sensibly ask what sort of house. I need to ask a lot more questions before I would even hazard a guess. Do you have the time (and it may take from an hour to a few days depending on the project) to sit down with others involved in the project and we will work through what exactly you are asking for? If you have the time, I can answer your question. If not, we are only taking a guess. Your guess is as unlikely to be right as mine. Yet another approach is to use the similar to approach. What project is this similar to? Do we know the cost of that project? Maybe it is bigger than project A but smaller than project B. Always put the estimate in that context. Don t say we can complete the project for $100k. Say 10
Without looking too closely, we feel it will be bigger than project A which cost $50k but seems smaller than project B which cost $200k. More work is required to verify the size. Yet another way is to say: I can t tell you how much it will cost, but I can tell you how much it will cost to find out. 11
Chapter 5 The Wrong Resource You can have to work on the project. Everyone knows this person is barely employable or has no knowledge of the particular area. They are using this person to fulfil a commitment to provide resources. How do you address the issue? Perverse as it may seem, don t ask for resources. Instead ask for skillsets. Let me explain. Years ago a CIO rang me and told me his company wanted to implement an ERP system. He was tasked with finding the right solution. It was a Board level derective. His concern was that the company had little idea as to what the impact of such a project would be, much less the cost. We devised a strategy. We did a board presentation where we outlined the impacts the new system would have on the organisation. One particular impact was that the general ledger codes were likely to change. Step two was to ouline the skills/experience/authority required to make decisions. We got the Board to agree that these were the skills required. At this stage we had not requested any resources. 12
In the case of the changes to GL codes, the most junior person who could be considered for those sorts of decisions was the Accounting Manager. The CFO would be more appropriate. We pointed this out to the Board who could not disagree as they had already agreed the skills required. We then put forward options to replace the Accounting Manager including a temporary promotion for a Branch Accounting Manager, and replacing with an external consultant. What we had done was get the Board to agree with the skills and the only person who could provide the skills. We engineered the discussion about how to put the person into the team and backfill their role. In the end, it all became too hard and they dropped the project. Not ust because of the Accounting Manager but because of the total disruption to their business. How do you use this in a normal environment? Say you want a project scheduler on your project. Start this way. We have a complex schedule for the project, and unless it is kept up to date, we will not be able to report to management. In addition, we are unlikely to be able to optimize resource usage and that will lead to additional costs. Suppliers are also dependant on an up to date schedule. If they are not properly scheduled, there will be extra costs associated with delivery delays. We need a top level person to manage the schedule. They should have at least three years experience in schedule management, and be able to work autonomously. A lesser skilled person will potentially cost us many thousands. Do you have someone who can work on the project? 13
Also think about who you may be offered. If they are unsuitable for one reason or another, make sure the specification excludes them. For example if there is a project scheduler who has a poor reputation, but has been doing the job for three years, look for another requirement they don t have. Make sure they are ruled out by the skill profile e.g. must have worked on a railway construction project, or have experience working with contractors in the IT area. 14
Conclusion When you are faced with a question that puts you in an awkward position, remember that the question has probably been put to thousands of other project managers. Some have found an answer that enabled them to continue a successful project. Draw on their experience. The best source of answers are often the older, more experienced hands who have faced a similar situation. Maybe they did not handle it well the first time but learned from that. Next time it happened, they had a way of addressing the question. Talk to them. Draw on their experience. Throw the questions at them and see how they respond. One day you will be asked and it is a great feeling to have the answer ready to roll out. 15
About the Author Neville Turbit has had over 20 years experience as a Project Management and IT consultant and almost an equal time working in Business. He is the principal of Project Perfect. Neville can be contacted at turbit@projectperfect.com.au About Project Perfect Project Perfect is a project management software and consulting organisation based in Sydney Australia. Their focus is to provide organisations with the project infrastructure they need to successfully manage projects. Project Perfect sell Project Administrator software, which is a tool to assist organisations better manage project risks, issues, budgets, scope, documentation planning and scheduling. They also created a technique for gathering requirements called Method H, and sell software to support the technique. They also sell a complete web based methodology for software package selection. For more information on Project tools or Project Management visit www.projectperfect.com.au 16