Digitally Deaf by Steven M. Stone

Author:Steven M. Stone
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030018337
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Not having the right skills and personal attributes at crucial execution roles such as project manager

Not having a dedicated business sponsor or technology sponsor

Not understanding the talent dependencies with other projects running at the same time

Trying to run a project with “part-time” resources in critical roles

Over-reliance on external contractors

The first bullet is one I see quite often in companies without a means to understand their project demands and resource capacity. I relate this to “flying blind” for organizations. You commit to an effort without understanding if you have the resources needed to execute. In the same vein, I have seen companies commit to projects knowing they had a resource deficiency and assumed they would “figure it out” when the time comes. The problem with that approach is frequently specialty skills may require going outside the organization for help. These searches may take longer than expected and delay critical parts of the project. Companies must have an idea of their talent sourcing plans before undertaking significant projects.

Project management is often a thankless job. Quite often project issues are attributed to project managers, but upon inspection, we find the project manager was never set up to be successful. A true project manager needs to be skilled in project management disciplines including risk management, issue management, task management, estimation, project quality, change control, and resource management. They need to be appropriately empowered to provide unfettered status reports to project sponsor(s). They must also have the right personal behavior characteristics to succeed including communication skills, leadership, organization, collaboration, and be courageous in their decision-making. The larger and more complex the effort the more vital it is to have the right people leading.

The importance of project sponsorship can often be overlooked. We assume a “group” or “committee” can oversee an effort and it isn’t necessary to put a single person in charge. Not having an involved leader is the best recipe I know for scope creep, delays in decision-making, and inconsistent execution. I recall a significant (greater than $40 M US) project delivered on time and under budget. While many of the other large projects in the portfolio suffered from delays, this project was executed crisply and the resulting deployment was flawless. The difference? The business sponsor was top notch. She had a deep understanding of what scope was needed to achieve the business case. Just as important, she had a keen understanding of what was not needed and used this knowledge to keep the team focused. She devoted the majority of her time to the effort and it paid off in a big way.

Frequently we put together excellent plans for a project only to find out that one of our essential resources has been pulled into another effort at the same time. Accounting for other project dependencies, especially those sharing critical resources, is a must. Building contingency plans upfront based on these dependencies can help head-off potential issues that delay or stop a project dead in its tracks.

Honestly, in my career, I have witnessed project plans with more than 50 people assigned, none giving more than 25% of their time.

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