The Zombies of Project Management

The Zombies of Project Management

‘How lazy habits and bad attitudes in Project Management continue to manifest themselves’

11th September 2013

Presented by Youssef MourraAuckland PMI Chapter MeetingCastlereagh Boutique HotelSydney

2 © Lexel Project Services 2013

The Speaker – Youssef Mourra

• Over 20 years' experience in the world of project, program and portfolio management (P3M).

• Consulted/Partner for Cognizant, Ernst & Young, Cap Gemini in Australia, France and the UK. Worked in Europe, Asia and America

• For the past 9 years has been based in NZ and has gained experience with a number of clients both in the private and public sector.

• Led hundreds of consulting engagements ranging from complex project and program rescues, mobilisation of project offices, to implementation of project management information systems.

• Recognised as a trusted advisor by a number of 'C' level executives and project offices throughout the APAC region.


Are you a Zombie PM?

Do you know a Zombie PM?


Meet the Zombies

Boris

Doris

Morris

Horace


Meet BorisBenefits Management Zombie


What Boris believes…• Benefits can’t be measured

• Because benefits are not all about dollars, then it’s too hard to do and not worth the effort

• Cynicism about the reason benefits are identified• He reckons they’re used to justify a project but then set aside during delivery

and never referred to again

• He’s never seen Benefits reported on or referred to or after the project has been delivered

• Just get on with the project• If enough people want the project and it’s a good idea, then that’s all you

need. What’s the drama?


Why Boris must die!• Why are you doing this project?• Why was it chosen above others?• Benefits Management is easy if you keep it simple

• There are Four phases to Benefits Management• There are Four broad types of Benefits• Keep the Business Case simple

• Use an Outline Business Case and then a Detailed Business Case if necessary• Use Investment Logic Maps• If you’re feeling lucky, use NPV or IRR

• How else do we establish return on investment?


Benefits Management Lifecycle - Four Phases

Program Management Identify the

ProgramDefine the Program

Close the Program

Deliver the Program

Deliver the Capability

Realising the Benefits

Managing the

Tranches

Review and Prepare

Establish

Benefits Management

Benefits Identification

Benefits Quantification

Benefits Tracking

Benefits Realisation


Four Types of Benefits

• Benefits are either: • Direct Financial – additional revenue, eliminating a business process, revenue

protection• Non-Direct Financial - Cost avoidance by action to reduce future waste, safety

compliance, brand awareness, legislation compliance.• Enabling - efficiency returns, increase in productivity, increases in increases in

quality or quantity of service delivery, training, new computer systems• Soft - staff satisfaction, turnover, absenteeism, brand value, empowerment of

staff, teamwork, morale

• All of the above are quantifiable in dollar or KPI terms


Business Cases

Applicable – is it a good strategic fit and does it meet business needs?

Appropriate – is it fit for purpose?

Attractive – is it commercially viable?

Affordable – is it within budget

estimates and are funding sources

available?

Achievable – can it be successfully delivered?

5 Element

s

Strategic

Functional

CommercialFinancial

Delivery


Investment Logic Maps

Grab the sponsor, get an ILM facilitator and spend a couple of hours


Benefits of getting it RIGHT

•Potential savings of 20% of portfolio value in Year 1

•30% improvement in time to market for revenue-generating initiatives

•5% reduction in overall costs•59% reduction in project failures•78% reduction in redundant projects•37% decrease in cost per project•35% increase in number of projects under management

Why do Benefits Management?

50%Value

Achieved

50%Value Lost

100%

66%

0%75% 100%E

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cti

ve

Se

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tio

n –

‘D

oin

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he

Rig

ht

Th

ing

s’

Iden

tify

ing

Po

ten

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Bu

sin

ess

Val

ue

Effective Execution – ‘Doing Things Right ’Realising Business Value Primary Source: :

IDC, September 2008

PortfolioManagement

ProjectM

gt

• Avoid the deadly combination of poor selection and ineffective execution


Meet HoraceSchedule Management Zombie


What Horace believes…

• Horace believes that you can control a project without a schedule. • He says that way too much emphasis has been placed on having a

schedule of activity on a project and this ties project managers down to their desks.

• He believes you should instinctively understand how your project is going and should focus on a few key dates and deliver to those dates without much trouble

• He believes that as projects constantly change then expending effort on a schedule that constantly changes is just a waste of time and a distraction that a project manager doesn’t need.


Why Horace must die!

• We need to sort Horace out. • Schedules get bad press because of some have used them as an

extreme sport• An effective schedule is NOT a checklist of activities but instead a

schedule of key work activities that acts as a communication device for the project team and other key stakeholders.

• Schedules should reflect the key deliverables or products that a project is delivering for ease of reporting



• Using an Inbound and Outbound dashboard at the top of each schedule assists in getting Dependency Management right

• Right practice tips take the oppressive aspects of scheduling out of the equation

• Using right practice schedules as powerful communication and engagement tools

• Using schedules to understand resource demand and resource utilisation

• Using schedules to support benefits management



• Critical Path Analysis• Earned Value• Enterprise Project Management – an enterprise view of all schedules• Matching Resource Demand to Resource Capacity• Dashboard Reporting• More than just quantitative data in dashboards this day• Quick and efficient status reporting


Critical Path

ID Task Mode

Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource Names

1 a 2 days Wed 26/09/12Thu 27/09/122 b 7 days Fri 28/09/12 Mon 8/10/1213 c 2 days Fri 28/09/12 Mon 1/10/1214 d 3 days Tue 2/10/12 Thu 4/10/12 35 e 4 days Tue 9/10/12 Fri 12/10/12 2,46 f 0 days Fri 12/10/12 Fri 12/10/12 5 12/10

S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T10 Sep '12 17 Sep '12 24 Sep '12 1 Oct '12 8 Oct '12 15 Oct '12


Dependencies & Program Schedules


Earned Value

Is this really hard? We only need three things:• Planned effort/cost• Actual effort/cost• Estimate to Completion effort/cost


Meet MorrisAgile Zombie


What Morris believes…

• Morris believes that Agile is a project management process in itself and doesn’t want to see it anywhere near PRINCE2 or PMBOK methodologies

• He objects to any attempt to use the term ‘waterfall’ near it.• He believes {in a particularly maniacal way} that any attempt to use a

schedule or any planning controls of any sort harms Agile and there is just no need for ‘that stuff’

• He believes PMBOK and PRINCE2 are outdated.


Why Morris must die!

• Morris needs to get a grip• Agile is a great development approach for when it’s impossible or

impractical to get the requirements completely nailed down before delivering.

• Agile is great when we have experienced practitioners who know ‘HOW’ they are going to do something but are still attempting to get a clear picture of ‘WHAT’ needs to be developed.

• Agile is delivery focussed.• However, Agile is not a project management approach for ALL project

types.


Why Morris must die!

• Morris doesn’t understand the information and visibility requirements that senior management require from projects.

• He also doesn’t understand the challenge facing the PMO who have a responsibility to provide a dashboard on all projects in an organisation.

• This approach doesn’t stop projects from using optimal development methodologies like New Product Development, Agile, V model and Waterfall in developing products or deliverables.


PM Methodology v Delivery Methodology

PM METHODOLOGY

DELIVERY METHODOLOGY

Project A

Project C

Project G

Project B

Project D

Project E

Project F


Project Types – The Diagram

Project management, processes, corporate knowledge and tools are well developed

Project management, processes, corporate knowledge and tools are not well developed

Project objectives are clear

Project objectives are not clear

Fog

Quest

Painting by

Numbers

Movie

KNOW HOW TO DO IT

DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT

KNOW WHAT TO DO

DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO


Fog

Quest

Movie

Painting by Numbers

What Types of Projects?

Wh

at t

o d

o

Clear

Unclear

How to do itClear

Unclear

Continuous improvement projects • Low risk but could be a bit of a quest

or a movie depending on the circumstances

Step change projects • Higher risk and well into the

quest/movie

Radical change projects • These start out as Foggy projects and

are high risk. You’ll need corporate courage to do these

Standard projects • Low risk meets the

requirements, do it right first time

InformationTechnology

Strategic / NPD

Scientific / Research

Business Process Improvement


Project Types – The Diagram

Project management, processes, corporate knowledge and tools are well developed

Project objectives are clear

Fog

Quest

Painting by

Numbers

Movie

KNOW HOW TO DO IT

DON’T KNOW HOW TO DO IT

KNOW WHAT TO DO

Profit / Assurance / Confidence / Income or Market or Brand & Reputation Protection‘Keeping the Lights on’

Innovation / Competitiveness / New Product or Service Development‘New or Radical Change’

Higher RiskHigher Rewards

Lower RiskLower Rewards

Project objectives are not clear

DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO

Waterfall?

Agile?


Meet DorisChange Management Zombie


What Doris believes…

• Business or Organisational Change Management is a luxury that most projects can’t afford

• Delivering the project is paramount and the rest is just fluff. She has no time for those that believe we need to understand and accommodate people’s hearts and minds when changing systems or processes.

• ‘If an organisation makes a change, then people should accept it and adopt it immediately. Why should an organisation invest in all of this touchy feely stuff? Projects use up enough resources as it is without extra cash and time and trouble being thrown at people who can’t handle change’


Why Doris must die!

• Doris is seriously deluded. • A project’s focus is a deliverable or product but without Change

Management, you may end up with a ‘WHITE ELEPHANT’ if you fail to gain adoption or commitment to use or take on the deliverable and product.

• If this happens, you run a very serious risk of failing to realise and deliver the benefits as promised in the business case. This is disastrous.


Project, Benefits & Change Management– the union.

Unfreeze Move Refreeze

Program Manager/Project Sponsor

Outputs/Products/Deliverables

Benefits Realisation(Business Intelligence)

Benefits Identified and Quantified(Business Case & Strategy)

Change Management

Project Management

Outcomes

Benefits Management

Benefits Tracking(Benefits Reporting)

Project Manager


Change Management – What is it?• The actions relating to people, process, systems and environment that

need to be undertaken in order to move from the ‘understood current state’ to the ‘planned future state’.

• Based on a well-known change management framework, Prosci’s ADKAR model, to achieve this successfully, you must have 5 clear goals:

• A - Awareness of the need for change• D - Desire to support and participate in the change• K - Knowledge on how to change• A - Ability to implement required skills and behaviours• R - Reinforcement to sustain the change


Change Management Lifecycle

Program Management

Change Management Transition

StateLock changes in so they don’t revert back

Managing the Change

Preparing for Change

Reinforcing the Change

Identify the Program

Define the Program

Close the Program

Deliver the Program

Deliver the Capability

Realising the Benefits

Managing the

Tranches

Review and Prepare

Establish

Unfreeze Move Refreeze


Change Management

Define your change management

strategy

Prepare your change

management team

Develop your sponsorship model

Develop change management plans

Take action and implement plans

Collect and analyse feedback

Diagnose gaps and manage resistance

Implement corrective actions

and celebrate successes

Preparing for Change

Managing the Change

Reinforcing the Change


Boris

Doris

Morris

Horace

WE’RE UNDER THREAT!


What do we do?

• We need to be vigilant• We need to adopt and use these right practices• We need to promote these practices and show

our workplaces how these will make a huge contribution to overall project & programme success

• The Zombies?• Don’t hire them. Make sure you fire them.• Tell everyone about them and where they are.• Name them. Shame them.


Like to Know More?• I offer a short 1-hour workshop on each of today’s key

shops to show you how straightforward, valuable and powerful each of these project and programme principles

• I’ll show you how to apply these in your work environment

• Project Design & Mobilisation• Project/Programme Office Services• Portfolio Prioritisation & Optimisation• Project & Programme Management Capability Development• Project & Programme Health-checks & Audits• Post-Implementation Benefit Reviews• Project Rescue• Training• Microsoft Project Training & Consulting


Thanks

• Thanks to you all for your attention and attendance today• Thanks to Malcolm McFarlane for hosting me today• Thanks to Angela Flannery for being my zombie today!• Thanks to the PMI and all sponsors for organising and helping

make this event happen.

• Like what you heard?• Follow me on Twitter on @youssefmourra• Contact me on [email protected] for more information.