Displaying items by tag: project management

The underlying purpose of any project is to add value. Projects serve as vehicles that enable changes, which should bring upon benefits that exceed the cost of making these changes.

 

As long as this occurs, a project is deemed to have been effectively and efficiently undertaken. Project managers are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that both the performing organization, as well as to the clients they serve, benefit from projects undertaken.

 

Given the very large number of interrelated considerations as well as the highly volatile environments in which projects operate, the prospect of adding value becomes increasingly difficult. Uncertainties that affect projects abound. Costs of undertaking projects continue to rise. Requirements from stakeholders become increasingly ambiguous. These factors detract value instead of adding value.

 

As project managers, we have to overcome any potential threats that impede the realization of this value. This include the need to protect the “Agile Ozone Layer”. This Agile Ozone Layer is usually attacked from multiple angles, from rigid and bureaucratic organizational structures, command and control style leaderships, to a functional silo mentality and resistant vendors and customers.

 

To ride the wave of such impediments that surface, a heightened sense of opportunistic awareness based on careful examination of business value undertaken throughout the project is required. Business Value refers to the net quantified benefits derived from the business endeavour being undertaken by the company.

 

This requires developing a sense of urgency for intelligent collection and analysis of relevant data to make decisions that enable realization of business value to the project as well as ensuring that the momentum of continual improvement is maintained. Doing the above correctly occurs only when project managers select project management methodologies that commensurate with the business environment the projects are undertaken.

 

Developing and maintaining a sense of urgency

When projects are to be executed based on evolving requirements in a highly turbulent business environment, the agile project management approach is most applicable. Such an approach requires a sense of urgency to be ingrained within the project team.

 

Changes have to be embraced and adapted to through collaborative efforts with customers. Only by developing a sense of urgency will the cost associated with delays in adapting to changing requirements can be curtailed.

 

Firstly, we shall have to establish a Product Roadmap that provides an initial visual timeline based on the Project Vision. Then releases are planned using a Release Planning that defines when deliveries may be made based on frequency of delivery as well as extent of adaptation required. A more incremental model approach, where deliverables are made at regular intervals, speeds up the delivery of value to the client.

 

For situations where there is no need for deliveries to be made incrementally, but there is a very urgent need for the features to be aligned perfectly to the changing requirements of the client, an iterative model is adopted.

 

Realization of Business Value

To realize business value, a deep understanding of not only what the customer requires but also the value associated with those requirements has to be established.

 

The project team needs to ascertain the “why” behind the “what”. This is required for both the performing organization as well as for the client. The value or specific benefits the project delivers via the end deliverable needs to be understood and internalized.

 

This requires gradually uncovering all uncertainties within specific release cycles and working time blocks, that impede the ability of the project team to deliver the value that is expected. The ability to do so is enhanced when delivery is made incrementally based on priorities set by the client. This way, feedback from each incremental deliverable, as well as uncertainties uncovered, become valuable inputs for future deliveries. In this way the project “delivers value incrementally”, and in the process of doing so, enables realization of business value throughout the project life cycle.

 

Rapid Data collection and analysis

Successfully delivering value requires constant data collection and assessment of progress. It requires developing insights on what works and what does not. This is done not based on assumption, but on actual data.

 

To ascertain whether this is indeed the case, developers aim to produce what is called a Minimum Viable Product as a prototype. Such a product contains the smallest collection of features that enable customers to consider the product as being functional. This provides developers with an opportunity to test features and ascertain important improvement points quickly and effectively.

 

From the company’s perspective, this exercise also helps to establish what the smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business as well. Collecting data on minimal new value propositions and the corresponding positive business impact provides an impetus for the company to decide quickly and effectively on what value additions it should incorporate in order to maximize business growth prospect. This concept of Minimum Business Increment focusses on the realization of business value.

 

In summary, delivering value requires a combination of collaborative efforts of all stakeholders who are committed towards developing and preserving an Agile Ozone Layer that makes it conducive to undertake agile project management.

 

A sense of urgency to deliver value needs to permeate throughout the organization. This urgency extends to rapid data collection and analysis where Minimal Viable Product and Minimum Business Increment considerations are routine initiatives undertaken using a delivery model based on an incremental or iterative approach.

 

November 2020

One of the key roles of project managers is to integrate complex project success factors. This has become increasingly critical in today’s highly turbulent business environment.

In the revised examination content outline issued by the Project Management Institute (PMI) for the new PMP examination format effective 1 July 2020, one of the new domains that will be introduced is factors surrounding Business Environment. This article summarizes the key tasks project managers are expected to undertake in this rapidly changing business environment. By familiarizing yourself with these issues you will be better prepared to answer questions that will be posed in the latest PMP examination that will commence as of 1 July 2020.

When business environments within which projects are managed changes, the manner in which projects have to be managed needs to change as well. Many considerations and subsequent adaptations have to be made. There are critical primary considerations. A discussion on what they are with examples of how they affect projects is listed below.

 

The primary business environment considerations include:

 

• Maintaining the right fit between environment and approach
• Ensuring project benefit realization
• Supporting organizational change
• Planning and managing project compliance
• Establishing the right governance structure
• Optimizing knowledge transfer

 

Maintaining the right fit between environment and approach

 

As and when the business environment changes, due to changing technological developments or stakeholder requirements, the final project and product scope will have to change as well. Hence it is imperative that the project manager evaluates and addresses external business environment changes for impact on scope. This is done by determining the appropriate project methodology/methods and practices to be used in order to adapt to the changed business environment climate.

For example, the development of an Artificial Intelligence powered mobile app. Such a complex project will most likely have variations in scope and stakeholder requirements as and when there is a technological change that ripples across the business environment. It will require a cross functional team that would develop software in small iterative cycles. For this project, the project manager needs to select an agile life cycle approach and undertake it in accordance with the approach selected. If he continues the project using the usual predictive life cycle approach, the project will be ill equipped to meet the rapidly changing requirements that will occur. Hence, ensuring that the right fit between business environment and project life cycle type is critical.

 

Ensuring project benefit realization

Ensuring that the project management approach is suitably adapted to the business environment enables projects to better deliver upon its objectives. This translates to the projects being able to better deliver value to the end user. Project managers should focus on ensuring that the benefits are realized, and should also ensure measurements for tracking this realization of benefits are in place.

For example, the AI mobile app development project is deemed successful only once it produces value to the client, i.e. when the software developed allows the client to use AI and analyze existing big data, in order to make decisions that will benefit the organization’s bottom line. If the app is completed, and the client is unable to do so, the client will continue to insist on additional changes which will only increase the cost and time of the project in question.

Hence, project benefits/value for both the client as well as for the performing organization have to be clearly defined and measured. This is especially crucial for projects undertaken in an evolving, rapidly changing business environment. Until and unless both the performing organization as well as the client realize the benefits they crave, the project should not be deemed to be successful when undertaken in an agile project life cycle approach.

 

Supporting organizational change

 

A project manager’s sphere of influence usually extends beyond the boundaries of a particular project. They should be well versed with the current business environment and the need to be agile. Therefore, project managers should support the organization in adapting to changing external business environments. The organization’s current culture should be assessed and eventually shaped into what the current business environment demands, with the assistance of the project manager.

Looking back at the mobile app development example, the project manager should recognize that the project comes with it a degree of unpredictability. Therefore, for it to be successful, the work culture in the organization has to change from a “command and control” culture, with project managers exhibiting a “predict and plan” mindset, to a “servant-leadership” culture, with project managers adopting a “sense and respond” mindset. This allows for self-organizing teams that collaborate easily with stakeholders to emerge that is crucial for projects undertaken in an agile manner to succeed.

In this regard, project managers need to be mindful that organizational change from a cultural and structural standpoint is necessary for projects to continually deliver products and services that are desired. Hence supporting organizational change in this regard is necessary.

 

Planning and managing compliance

 

With changing business environments comes changing stakeholder requirements. Compliance requirements from regulatory bodies in particular will evolve and amend in order to keep up with the ever-changing business environment. Therefore, it is necessary for project managers to remain vigilant on threats to compliance and analyze carefully consequences of non-compliance, so that necessary action is taken (if required) to ensure project remains in compliance.

For example, when undertaking development of a software that involves relatively new disciplines, such as artificial intelligence and big data, there may be a need to comply with regulatory requirements that are unique and without precedent. This makes compliance slightly more complex. Project managers need to be aware of these complexities and seek for ways and means to ensure that compliance to these requirements are met throughout the project. Failing to do so will lead to project delays and increasing project cost as well as reputational risks.

 

Establishing the right governance structure