Project Management isn’t just for IT or Engineering anymore

Post written by Jason Z., Project Manager at Ideaca. Read more about project management on his blog: Unnatural Leadership.

As part of this month’s Ideaca blogging network challenge, we were tasked with discussing our thoughts on Emerging Practices.

One of my favorite quotes to reference from the The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK, pronounced pemmmmbock) is “As project management is a critical strategic discipline, the project manager becomes the link between the strategy and the team. Projects are essential to the growth and survival of organizations.” So, while operational duties are of very high importance to maintaining the forward momentum and revenue generation for a company, projects are strategic and help organizations react to changes in the external environment that may slow forward momentum and/or impair revenue generation.

Taking this as rote, one Emerging Practice that I am pleased to see is that more industries and functions – outside of Engineering and IT – are recognizing the need for project management:

• In the legal sector, project management has been a fairly hot topic since approximately 2010. It’s also getting more attention in law schools.
• Digital Ad Agencies position project managers to help their customers realize a marketing vision.
• The Human Resources designation – Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) - now has a focus on Project Management.
• Investment Banks have started hiring project managers to help manage deals.

So what does this mean for Project Management as a career? It means that effective Project Management is not just for IT and Engineering anymore. In fact, the rest of the organization is going to have to contend with:

• Increased workloads for Subject Matter Experts. If you know the organizational area, you must know how to manage the project to do something in this organizational area.
• Gone are the days of black box projects – clients are demanding more visibility into what is being delivered, how it’s being delivered, and how delivery is progressing.
• Organizations are demanding value from their staff’s time - projects are going to have to deliver more than a “thing.”
• Successfully implementing changes in an organization can no longer be ad-hoc, and to a lesser extent grassroots. Rather, efforts must be controlled activities.

This is both amazing, and troubling at the same time. It’s amazing because having proper control, visibility, and communication for organizations can return recognizable and material value. It’s troubling though, as many organizations may start expecting their people to be expert project managers without any proper training or experience (this link is a great discussion on LinkedIn, by the way).

If your organization is transitioning to more of a project focus, and you don’t have the time or desire to become a fully trained PMP, there are a number of ways to get up to speed on how to be effective:

• Hire a dedicated (or shared) Project Manager – This person should be able to apply project management best practices while you are focused on the subject matter at hand. If your department doesn't have the budget or enough work for a full time Project Manager, share the PM (both cost and time) with a different department.
• Mentoring – Junior PMs will often work with Senior PMs for mentoring, so why not do the same? Your company should have a PM for you to reach out to, or you can contact someone in your local PMI chapter.
• Training – Most colleges offer introductory PM training. In exchange for some of your time over a couple of weeks, you can get trained up on how to run a small project effectively.
• Reading – There are many great books available. One that I recommend is Project Management Lite: Just Enough to get the Job Done…Nothing more. Another, more detailed, is the big bible - Rita Mulcahy’s guide to passing the PMP on your first try. You don’t have to attempt the PMP, you just need to read this book.

Has your organization made the transition to more project-based initiatives?  How has it impacted you?  What have you learned?

Setting expectations with clients

Post written by Steve J, Project Manager at Ideaca

The Oxford Dictionary defines “managing expectations” as: “Seek to prevent disappointment by establishing in advance what can realistically be achieved or delivered by a project, undertaking, course of action, etc.”

Almost every part of our lives is surrounded by expectations, either ones we set for ourselves or ones that were set for us by others. When it comes to consulting and being on a project, every part of the project experience will be influenced by expectations. There will be expectations around the project as a whole, the deliverables, the time and especially the budget. It is the responsibility of the project team and Project Manager to ensure that the client has a clear and accurate understanding at all times. The overall success of any project will be linked to the expectations of the client, the understanding and efforts of the project team and how well these factors align. At the end of a project, the client’s satisfaction with the delivered project will determine its success.

I have worked on a variety of projects, including those with high expectations from the client. In one project the client as a whole had very little technical and user knowledge of the system that we were implementing for them. They were very much involved in the project and took on many tasks. One of the tasks that was completed by the client was the design and layout of the new system. This task was completed before the project team started on the project and with limited knowledge of the system. The designer was able to design the pages to match that of a SharePoint look and feel without any operational knowledge of the system as a whole. The project team was not a part of this design and the client wanted the end result to look and operate the same as they had designed it. When our project team realized this, we had to pivot our work to align with a more customized solution rather than an out of the box implementation as originally expected. Communication and managing expectations became a critical component of this project, especially since the plans and timelines shifted substantially. Working closely with the client, being honest about timelines and budget and reviewing changes before work continued were very important. Our open communication kept the client informed and the project team on the right track to meeting their needs. In conclusion, the client was very happy with the end product and assured us that we had exceeded their expectations.

Through my experience working with a variety of clients in different situations, I have developed an understanding of how to best manage client expectations. As in the example above, the situation could have turned out with one, or both parties upset about the changes in plans. But by effective expectation management, we were able to explain to the client why things needed to change and what exactly we were going to change. This turned a potentially problematic shift in work into a positive improvement of work.

In my next blog entry, I’ll cover the four key factors in managing client expectations that I have learned throughout my career. Check back next Tuesday, September 17 for more! 

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