Project Charter

Project Charter

The project charter is one of the most important documents on your project. A well written charter will provide everything project team, the project sponsor, and other prominent stakeholders a good understanding of what the project all about. I found that graduate students struggle and developing a good comprehensive charter. It appears that graduate students struggle with either too much detail or not enough breath for the project to be well defined.

The project charter is typically the document that authorizes project. The development of the project charter can vary significantly depending on the organization chartering the project. The Project Management Institute recommends that the project sponsor should author the project charter and this is the ideal situation. The process of writing the project charter and facilitating input from various stakeholders provides a project sponsor with a good overview of the project and provides a good foundation for conversations with the assigned project manager. Often, it is the project manager facilitates the process of developing the charter and then goes to the project sponsors and other stakeholders to develop a group ownership of the project. This is a great opportunity for the project manager to clearly define the roles of the project sponsor and other major stakeholders in a way that supports the ongoing management of the project.

The components and the depth of the project charter are related to the profile the project. Large complex projects can have a very lengthy and detailed project charter, while less complex projects might have a one or two page charter. The Project Management Institute recommends the following:

·         Project purpose; why is this project authorize? What will it accomplish?

·         Project goals and a description of how these goals will be measured. The goals should reflect the success criteria for the project.

·         High level requirements; requirements detail what must be accomplished for the project to be a success. Requirements include business requirements, stakeholder requirements, solution requirements, project requires (such as acceptance criteria) and transition requirements. High level means listing those major requirements identified early in the project. Detailed requirements will be identified as the project progresses.

·         Major assumptions; what are the major assumptions made about the project, i.e. resource availability.

·         Major constraints; what major constraints are known i.e. the typhoon season on a project in India.

·         High level risks; what are the major risks that might impact project success. This is not a detailed risk analysis. This is the identification of the major risk known or suspected.

·         Summary milestone schedule

·         Summary budget

·         Stakeholder list; identification the stakeholder who can influence project success and stakeholders significantly affected by the project outcome.

·         Project approval requirements

·         Assigned project manager, responsibility, and authority level; this is your chance to indicate the requirement for executives and clients to timely approve project deliverables and changes.

·         Name and authority of the sponsor; this is your chance to detail your expectations of your project sponsor and develop alignment on expectations.

Your project may have more or less than the suggestions listed here. The project profile will determine the appropriate components of the project charter. One of the primary purposes of the project charter is to provide an overview of the project. A good project charter reflects alignment of the goals of the major stakeholders and their commitment to project success.  

I am interested in the experience of project managers in developing a project charter and their opinion of its value. Let me know what you think.

Russ

The Complexity Equation

In the November 2013 edition of the PMTWORK,  Donovan Burba* discusses project complexity as an increasing phenomenon within project management. I was interested in one quote; “the most difficult aspects to manage are the people within the project…” I wonder what else you manage on a project? I develop and monitor a schedule but I do not manage the schedule. I can change durations, change dependencies on the project schedule to manipulate it to be more realistic or to reflect a new milestone but this not management of a project. How do you manage a project except through people.

Complexity is not defined in the article but whatever it is complex projects need project managers with leadership skills and are less depended on technical skills. There are projects where the technical knowledge of the project manager is important to her understanding of the profile of the project and the development of an appropriate project execution approach. I would challenge that the relative need for technical skills in the project manager is correlated to the complexity level of the project. I do believe that there is a relationship between the project profile and the knowledge, skills and abilities of the project manager/ project team.

I would also argue that leadership skills are needed on all projects. The type of leadership skills depends on the project profile.

Understanding the complexity level of the project and the process for matching the execution approach with the project profile is a critical area of project knowledge development. This article highlighted some trends in project management but gave only standard “leadership is important” type solutions. Maybe a few well designed questions would have been more helpful.

Russ

* Donovan Burba works for Imagination and produces print and digital content for PMI and MSCI.

Asheville PMI Chapter Meeting

Local PMI Chapter Meeting

I attended the local PMI Chapter meeting in Asheville NC last night. Jon M Quigley was scheduled to discuss Agile Project Management vs. Traditional Project Management. Unfortunately, Mr. Quigley was unable to make it and the Chapter Satellite Chairperson (Gary Jarvis led a discussion on risk. I was looking forward to a lively discussion on how we define traditional project management.

Agile Project Management vs. Traditional Project Management might infer that there are two types of projects; agile and traditional project. Agile projects I understand. There has been a great deal of writing on the concept of agile projects. Traditional projects, not so much. If by traditional projects we mean every project that is not appropriate for an agile approach, then this maybe too simplistic. Projects vary significantly and the project management approach must meet the needs of the project profile.

This was the discussion I was looking forward to. We had a discussion on Risk that was interesting. We had insurance, medical, construction and operations represented in the discussion and each industry seems to take a little different approach to risk. The insurance company has a very defined approach to identifying and tracking risk. The construction industry is very mature in procedures but maybe less so in implementation. The health care industry, represented at the meeting, seemed to indicate there was very little structured approach to risk in the health care industry. This may not apply to the medical application but to the management of health care systems or projects.

I enjoyed the discussion and look forward to becoming more involved in the Asheville Chapter.

Russ

PMI Conference in New Orleans

In an earlier blog, I indicated I would reflect on my experiences at the project management Institute global conference in New Orleans. New Orleans is a great place to visit and Teri Beth traveled with me to this conference. One morning, we were able to have coffee and beignets at Café du Monde.  The hotel room was overpriced and the food at the hotel did not meet your typical New Orleans standards. But for October, the weather was great and the walk from the hotel to the conference was an enjoyable little stroll.

The conference itself seemed to have fewer attendees and this is a trend over the past few years. It may be that the cost of the conference is prohibitive, or that the value of the conference relative to the cost is decreasing. It was a large contingent of attendees from Nigeria. Looking at some of the data, Nigeria was the third largest represented country.

Complexity still seems like a hot topic because several presentations had the term complexity in the title. I attended one of these presentations and even though the presentation provided a basic overview of risk there was never mention of complexity in the presentation. So I assume that the author included complexity in the title to increase the likelihood that the subject would be accepted for the conference.

Most of the keynote speakers were high-priced presenters that make the conference circuit based on book sales and some overriding for developing creative topics of interest to readers. Daniel Pink talked about leadership in the principles of influence, Mark Sanborn talked about leadership without titles and John Grotzinger discussed the NASA Mars Rover Mission. Each of these presentations was interesting and although only lightly connected project management, the provided an opportunity for reflection.

I attended a couple of presentations on agile project management and there still seems to be the need for those with a focus on agile to compare agile and traditional project management. As I discussed in other posts, I find this mental construct less helpful in understanding projects and maybe even damaging. One presenter grounded his presentation by discussing the Standish research, which concluded that most projects fail. This research has some major flaws pointed out by a number of researchers, but that has not stopped people from quoting the data to justify the point of view.

During my breakfast, lunch and break conversations I asked people why they were attending the conference. A large majority indicated that they came to the conference to get the PDUs they needed for their PMP recertification. With all the free webinars in the numerous PMI chapter events that provide PDUs, this seems like an expensive way to obtain the PDUs requirements.

Over the years, I found the PMI conferences an opportunity for me to reflect on project management from a number of different perspectives and the latest thinking by the presenters. Typically, I will fill a notebook full of notes and ideas for later development. I walked away from this conference with very few ideas in my notebook.

Russ

Project Management Defined

A discussion of the definition of project management from some of my earlier works might be a useful foundation for some of the blogs I intend to provide over the next couple months. I hope you enjoy and participate in this process.

Russ

“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements” (Project Management Institute, Inc. p. 2013). This simple definition represents a compromise that resulted from intense discussions within the Project Management Institute (PMI) during the 1980’s. One of the priorities of PMI during this time was the development of project management as a profession. Although debate continues on whether project management is a profession with an enforceable code of conduct and other traditional criteria for recognition as a profession, the development of the Project Management Body of Knowledge and the project management certification that derived from these efforts, helped promote the understanding and development of the project management field.

The discussion about what should be included in the definition of project management included debates about the purpose of project management. Is the main purpose to meet client’s expectations or is the main purpose to meet the written specifications and requirements? This discussion around meeting project requirements was not easily settled. If it is assumed that the project client is the one that defines project requirements, then maybe project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet client requirements or client expectations. PMI’s definition of project management does provide a good understanding of project management but it does not help us understand project success. For that, we must include the client.

Meredith and Mantel (2000) discussed project management in terms of producing project outcomes within the three objectives of cost, schedule, and specifications. Project managers are then expected to develop and execute a project plan that meets cost, schedule, and specification parameters. According to this view, project management is the application of everything a project manager does to meet these parameters. This approach to defining project management shares PMI’s focus on the project outcomes in terms of requirements.

Meredith and Mantel added a fourth aspect of project management—the expectations of the client. One client-centered definition of project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet or exceed the expectations of the client. This definition focuses on delivering a product or service to the client that meets expectations rather than project specifications. It is possible to meet all project specifications and not meet client expectations or fail to meet one of more specifications and still meet or exceed a client’s expectation. 

Meredith and Mantel discussed a tendency noted by Darnall ( 2007) that expectations often increase during the life of a project. Meredith and Mantel suggest that this is a form of scope increase. A project scope is a carefully crafted document that reflects the performance specifications of the project deliverables. Defining the project scope and managing scope change is a very different process than developing an understanding of a client’s expectations and managing those expectations. Darnall focused on defining and managing client expectations as a critical project management skill that is distinct from scope development and management.

Client expectations encompass an emotional component that includes many client desires that are not easily captured within a specification document. Although closely correlated with project specifications, client expectations are driven by different needs. It is possible for a project team to exceed every project specification and the project end up with an unsatisfied client. 

The Evolution of Project Management?

I was reading my PMI today and found two articles that seemed related to me. The first was a short article describing the new organization of the project management Journal. The Journal will now have six new departments with two editors for each department. This appears to be an excellent approach to expanding the research concepts and opportunities with and project management.

Two things about this article interested me. First, was the selection of the six departments. The human side of project management and the organizational side of projects is easy to understand. The ICT side of project management? I have no idea what they will be researching. The management of infrastructure and public projects and project business is a title that is also confusing to me. I’m not sure what this department will be researching. Complex innovation projects and project strategy sounds like two different departments but included within one group. Project portfolio management, program management and implementation of strategies is the last department. I suspect any selection of departments for project research would be debatable. The current approach appears to be a good first start.

The thing that also interested me about this article was identification of the people to be the departmental editors. There were two editors selected for each department. Of the 12 departmental editors only one came from the United States. Although this group includes members from Canada  and Australia, to group is European centric. I am curious about what this says about the state of project management research.

In reviewing the August 2013 project management Journal I noted that none of the authors were US authors. There were six research papers presented by 17 authors and none were US authors or US research institutions. I am just curious what the implications are for US-based project management research.

This month is a PMI member I was asked to vote on the slate of officers for the PMI Board of Directors. I decided I would only go for board members became from an industry other than IT. I have a sense that IT is overly represented in many of the leadership roles within PMI. This might be a natural result of the growth of the IT industry. I also believe that the PMI board needs to be diverse. Therefore, my decision to only vote for board members outside the IT industry.

When the ballot arrived we were asked to vote for five out of the eight candidates for the PMI Board of Directors. After looking at the credentials of all a candidates and my determination not to vote for anybody with an IT background, I was only able to vote for three candidates. Of the people with non-IT backgrounds I voted for one candidate whose vita indicates he is a professional speaker. I voted for another candidate who’s the president of five companies including the biggest sport small in Argentina. The third candidate I voted for is an advisor for the United Nations with a focus on PMO’s.

The Board of Directors also has a resolution that they’ve asked the PMI membership to pass which would eliminate the ability of members to be nominated by a 1% approval of the membership. This would mean only the nominating committee could nominate people to the Board of Directors. I read the justification for this motion and do not understand why the board would want to restrict the nomination process.

I do not draw any conclusions based on these observations. There does not seem to be any correlation between the euro centric research approach and the IT dominance in the Board of Directors. I just contemplate disease trends have any implications for the future of the project management profession.

Russ

Traditional Project Manager Again?

 

Traditional Project Management

I am a traditional project manager. This is a statement that seems to draw weird looks. Something like declaring the “I belong to the old school”.

I was pursing the PMI website and read about Christophe Midler was recently awarded the PMI Research Achievement Award. I went and downloaded his research paper from the PMI Research Conference in 2000. Project Management for Intensive Innovation Based Strategies: New Challenges for the 21^st Century.

In his paper, Midler stated that traditional project management did not provide the processes needed for innovative projects. I am over simplifying his statement but his characterization of traditional project management still paints a picture of project management as a stagnant grounded in the processes of the construction and similar industries.

Project management is an evolving profession adjusting methods, knowledge, processes and skills needed to apply to a growing number of industries that value the benefits of project management. Every project still needs a scope, budget, schedule, risk analysis, and closeouts processes to name a few. Every project also needs to customize these processes based on the profile of the project.

Traditional project managers manage the scope, budget, schedule and risk. If you are using new tools and processes, that is great. We need to be developing new tools and processes and we need to develop research techniques to better understand the effective of these tools. We also need to develop research techniques that allow us to better understand the appropriate project profiles that will benefit from these new tools.

By labeling the baseline processes of project management as traditional and not applicable to new project profiles is doing a disservice to our profession and stymieing the research we need to be doing.

Russ

Interesting discussion is a PMI Discussion Group.

I could not help myself. I have decided NOT to continue to be offended by being called a traditional project manager (whatever that is) and focus on my favorite research topic; how do we develop an understanding of our projects? So I posed in the group discussion. The basic question that started the discussion was; what is the different between Agile PM and Traditional PM? Lots of replies; most focused on defining various aspects of Agile. Some discussed the difference between a methodology and a standard, (Agile vs PMBOK).

Here is my response.

Russ

 

The conversation rest on understanding what is Agile and what is traditional project management. Agile seems well understood. It is a methodology for executing projects, typically in the IT Industry or projects with similar profiles. When people refer to traditional, does this refer to the methodology use to build the Great Wall of China, the project management methodology used in the Apollo Space Program or the methodology to construct offshore wind turbines.

 

The IT Industry has done an excellent job of developing methodologies designed to address the project profiles of the IT industry. There are passionate champions of these methods, creating a strong brand and becoming recognized by PMI and other organizations as best practices in these industries.

 

Do we really believe there are only two methodologies for executing projects? I believe one of the most important research questions of the project management profession focuses on how we develop an understanding of our projects and develop the appropriate execution approach.

 

On three separate occasions beginning in the early 90s, PMI has chartered teams tto explore how we understand, profile, categorize projects. The last effort closed out the charter with a strong recommendation that PMI support research in this area. I just finished reviewing research proposals for funding from PMI and was disappointed; there were no proposals to address these questions.

 

I would like to change the question from what is the difference between traditional and agile project management and ask, How can we profile a project to better understand what methodology is most appropriate for a given profile?

 

Russ

I just got back from a nice vacation break. I was able to catch a Crosby, Still and Nash concert. It was great to see "rock stars" older than I am with so much energy and talent on the stage and fully appreciated by the audience.

I read the PMNET after I got back and was interested in the article about the labor shortage. The article focused on the labor shortage in construction. I always suspect articles including the ones that suggest a shortage of project managers.

Surveys of the industry are useful but a much more useful indicator of shortages is the labor or wage rates. The laws of economic indicate that when demand for a product or service is in short supply, the market will respond with higher higher price or wages, unless there is some mitigating factor. Since there is no indication of increasing wages in the construction labor market and has not been for many years, the article would be more useful if there was some explanation for the lack of wage increase.

Good to be back, although I could have used another week.
Russ
 

Third discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Third discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

Silvius, G.,Schipper, R., Planko, J., Brink, J., Kohler, A.

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

Project management and Sustainability

Sivious et al provide a model for exploring sustainability and project management through context of the project within the chartering organization. I saw this as directly correlated to the power or authority of the project manager within the organization.  In other words, my ability to influence sustainability is related to my authority and my power. Although this may seem obvious, Sivious looked at project management processes, project management delivery, and project management life cycle among other concepts.

Let’s take an early project in my career where Bethlehem Steel built a new coal injection plant at the integrated steel plant in Burns Harbor IN. The Board of Directors authorized the new plant to reduce the cost of steel as well as reducing the environmental impact of the steel plant. The Coal Injection plant reduced the need for coke which was both dirty and expensive. From almost every perspective (profit, people and planet) this met the criteria of a sustainable project.  

Bethlehem assigned a project manager to execute the project. The project manager had a deliverable that was sustainable from an organizational context. The project manager also had authority and the power to design the facility and include sustainability within the design of the facility. What is the expected life cycle of the facility, how can I reduce energy usage, what are the most sustainable equipment specifications for this plant. These are major questions that will influence the project costs, operating costs and the sustainability of the project from the plant design and build project perspective.

Fluor was contracted to design and build the new plant based on the specifications developed by the plant project team. The sustainability of the deliverables of the Fluor Project Team was determined by the client’s specifications. The Fluor Team could and did make recommendations relative to the deliverables that would reduce cost, add durability and save time. These suggestions were approved or rejected by the Plant Project Manager. Again, the Plant Project Manager retained the power and authority over the sustainability of the project within this context.

The Fluor Team also explored how to design the plant maximizing the use of electronic files and reducing paper, recycling paper, reducing the need for air travel and various techniques and processes that could be labeled green or sustainable. This was another context for sustainability in project management. Within this context the project manager used the power and authority of the position to execute a green project.

The Project Management Institute and other professional project management institutions have not yet included a sustainability requirement within the code of ethics but I suspect it is coming. How we define sustainability and the role of the project manager will be important is defining the ethical obligations and we are not there yet. Sivious et al and others are providing some models that may encourage this conversation.

Russ