Truth is the latest statistics reveal that 70% of projects fail and yet we see more than ever the demand for project support to ensure success. And the larger an engagement the higher the likelihood that the project will fail as the project manager has more to watch and often entrusts workstreams to other workstream project managers. Nonetheless failure does not have to occur, and I have pointed out some considerations that will help the Business and Project Leads better manage toward success. As one who boasts a 100% project success rate, I would like to share my thoughts on why I believe projects fail.
I will start with overarching leadership issues and get down into the actual project management specifics that can slow project progress. I believe these points are helpful to both business leaders leading major transformation initiatives and project managers alike. The two have to work in partnership to deliver the project and therefore the success of one is the others success.
Leadership
Basically, two things must be in place, hire the right person for the job, understand the depth of their skill beyond certification and jargon. Make sure they have managed projects at the level of complexity, detail and diversity of stakeholder and issues as your particular project.
- Skill range of project managers – while we embrace the growth of the project management field it is important to recognize that not all project managers are equal. With agile, traditional and all other type of “execution” manager roles the project management role has evolved. Anyone who has managed a project can now add a skill to their LinkedIn profile and claim to be a project manager. When being project manager means being able to effectively manage time and resources to deliver a specific outcome with a team often not being responsible for any of the deliverables, having worked on an individual effort may not constitute the true definition of project manager.
- Perception of project managers by leaders – in many companies project manager is viewed as a someone who will put together the plan and track the progress, create reports. When leading a large project, I found that the business leaders were trying to give me directives to simply add lines to the project plan. While that is a part of a project managers job it is a very small part, the majority of the work is in managing stakeholders, following up on execution and anticipating actions needed to keep the project on track. Business Leaders your project manager is your co-pilot, reading the instruments with you to keep the flight on track.
Team Dynamics
Now that you have the right person hired and you understand that they are your partner in delivering the initiative what are the other things that we might miss in the process.
- Team composition and dynamics – as a consultant PM/PMO leaders one often does not have a strong say in who is involved in the team. Often times the project has been scoped and the team assembled, and a project manager is then asked to lead the engagement. It may take weeks before the project manager fully understands everyone’s roles. Last month I wrote on the importance of the kickoff meeting and one key aspect is the project governance. As a business leader onboarding a new PM take the time to review the key players/ functional groups involved and why, if possible, work on developing the kickoff deck together and have the PM tag along to as many business meetings to piece the project together themselves. The PM must ask a lot of questions, if there seems to be a gap question why and while changing the players may not be possible immediately it may be accomplished down the road. Specifically ask about what needs to be done in relation to what people do.
- Getting the PM involved early – this is a really big one, many times due to the limited perception of a project manager business leaders will limit the number of meetings/forums where they include the PM in attendance. Yes of course, we don’t want the PM slammed with back to back meetings as the Business Lead but how many times has the PM heard the words “you don’t need to attend that meeting” only to be pulled into the very same meeting a few weeks later. This happened to me on a very large engagement as I worked across multiple workstreams. Get the PM involved early, if they do not need to be in a particular meeting they will drop out themselves. What are they doing in those meetings? Learning the context, understanding progress, identifying dependencies and risk, building relationships with a stakeholder they may need to hold to account in a short while. They are also there to help facilitate in making the meeting more effective as needed.
- Resolving conflict – often times the team may have some underlying conflicts or role issues that may not be readily visible within the larger group meetings. It is really important that the Project manager is apprised of these dynamics. Of course, they may pick it up themselves later but if given a heads up on where there may be potential trouble, delay, lack of cooperation the PM can develop conflict resolution strategies with the business lead and use facilitation techniques to align the parties. We cannot encourage business leaders enough to be up front about issues and to keep monitoring and discussing with the PM to avoid a trainwreck. If the PM does not seem to have the EQ to help resolve conflicts, then the business lead will just have to cope. Successful projects have PM’s with a high EQ who know how to resolve issues without confrontation using objective techniques and tools to encourage alignment and participation.
So in a nutshell build the team together especially the execution layers or at least confirm it, include the PM in as many activities upfront so they can have the right picture of the problem, players and desired outcome. Leaders don’t be ashamed to share team challenges as long as it does not become a gossip session, and work together on conflict resolution techniques.
Project Management Technique
So, we are not going to put all the issues on the existing business or the Business Leaders and misperceptions of project managers. At times project management techniques are to blame. However, if one has dealt with point number one “hiring the right project manager” these should be avoided. Assuming there are issues, the usual suspects are:
- Project plan is not developed to the right level. – How many levels should the project plan have? Often times project managers will keep plans at a high level but the larger and more complex the project the deeper the plan unless it is repetitive. How large and deep should the plan go and to what level? To the level that is trackable which means being able to ascertain that a task has been completed fully. It is practically impossible to remember the tasks, so writing them down is the safest reminder, and use the right tool to match the product depth, views and flexibility needed.
- Workstream oversight – there are more workstreams than project manager and even working 40 hrs. will not cover all the work. The project manager has to have a strategy to make sure that the work is covered. In particular attention must be paid to high risk and critical path activities as ultimately slippage will impact the project constraints. The project manager has to maintain good relationships and regular communication with workstream leads and establish a follow up cadence with them especially if they are vendors as can be the case in a very large complex IT systems engagement where it is common to have system integrator, change management and other distinct vendor representation.
- Improper use of Action Items/ Issues and Risk Logs – these three documents look very similar, but they are used differently. Risk logs the most common is just that a catalog of risks or potential showstoppers that must be addressed – critical and high before the project is completed; review this regularly with the team and set up mitigation actions so as not to put the project at risk. The Issues logs covers challenges and blockers that need to be resolved for continued project progress. This prioritized list should be worked through preferably before project end otherwise it represents gaps in the solution. Action Items are tasks that need to be taken care of however they don’t warrant being in the project plan. If the PM loses control of any of these trackers the solution will be lacking, or time/quality/ cost may be negatively impacted.
- Reporting is not up to date – reporting must have a regular cadence and not be an afterthought. It indicates that the necessary follow-up on activities, decisions and work products are occurring. Reporting must be agreed to by stakeholders responsible for the work to ensure project operations and documentation are in alignment.
Managing a global project while challenging does not have to end in failure. Set up the necessary framework and them keep an eye out for the considerations above. You will succeed.
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