Part of preparing any project for success is pulling together accurate and complete information about objectives, deliverables, and expectations. Gathering this data as it relates to end user requirements can sometimes be tricky—conflicting opinions, competing priorities, lack of big picture awareness, and little or no influence over final budget approval can all hamper your efforts. Below are some tips to help you get the information you need, proactively spot potential problems, and deal with requests that you know aren’t going anywhere.

Ask the right questions

Talk with users about what expectations they have both after the project is finished as well as while things are underway. Will they need accommodations in the interim? Have they put short-term solutions in place that will need to be removed? Ask about potential safety concerns along with the need for training on new equipment or processes. It’s also important to inquire about headcount plans. As you pose questions across the organization, be specific about needs and timeframes, and keep asking until you feel you have enough information to formulate a good plan. When you have a lot of users to manage, consider using a survey to gather the first large batch of information. You can then follow up with individual users to get additional clarification.

Talk to the right people

It’s likely that you’ll need to gather information from more than just end users. You may want to consult with functional experts, department managers, and your executive team for better high-level strategic direction and confirmation of long-term plans. Your end users, however, are usually your best source of information on day-to-day needs. As you make notes and record data, include the source for each piece of information—this will help you resolve any inconsistencies or conflicts later. If you have concerns about the information you’ve been given, check in with someone a level up in the organization.

Sidestep frivolous requests

As you talk with end users, it’s not uncommon to receive requests for things that your budget, resources, or corporate policy can’t support. How do you deal with these situations without putting yourself in an uncomfortable spot? The key is to be candid from the beginning. When you get a request that you know can’t or won’t be implemented, tell the requestor right away. Explain as honestly as you can why you aren’t including their request in your project plan, but never divulge sensitive information and be careful about discussing decisions that are still pending—you don’t want any miscommunications looming over your project. You might also encourage the requestor to take their idea to their manager (or yours). If either supports the request, then you can modify your project to include it.

Talk to the budget folks

Before you try to implement solutions to every end user need, it’s important to know how much funding you have available. If you end up with too many or competing requests, you can look to your budget to determine what you can do and what needs to be set aside.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Project management and change management are inextricably linked—every project changes the status quo—and PMs often find themselves managing the effects of change as much as the implementation of change itself. Use these tips to embrace your role as a change agent.

1 – Understand the impact of change. You’re changing how people work and/or interact with their environment, and you shouldn’t assume that you know how changes will affect others. Instead, talk at length with end users to be sure you truly understand their concerns. You’ll move on to other things once the project is complete, but your end users will be living with your changes for a long time.

2 – Acknowledge the impact of change. End users frequently need time to assimilate to changes in systems or processes. They may attend training sessions, deal with downtime during cutovers, and cope with a learning curve. These are real and tangible issues for your users, and ignoring or dismissing them will quickly sap your credibility. Consider incorporating additional implementation support into your project, and provide whatever help you can to ensure a smooth transition.

3 – Take responsibility for change and its impact. Blaming the executive team for foisting difficult change on an organization will quickly infuriate end users, senior staff, and your boss. Instead, address concerns head on. Explain why change is needed, and be prepared to tactfully defend your reasoning. Some people don’t accept change easily—you may have some difficult conversations to endure, but remember that your team is experienced and capable, and your project will result in long-term benefits.

4 – Own your problems. Things won’t always go your way, so don’t pretend otherwise. By acknowledging glitches and issues, others will see that you’re logical, diligent, and realistic. This helps to ensure good teamwork when problems arise, and you’ll be more likely to overcome obstacles with your reputation (and project deliverables) intact. It’s more important to learn from your mistakes than to hide from them.

5 – Believe in the changes you’re making. If you can’t envision a positive post-change landscape, then no one else involved in your project—fellow team members, stakeholders, or end users—will, either. Your commitment to implementing positive change, and your ability to successfully defend your long-term vision, will be necessary to see you through the questions and challenges that others may throw at you.

6 – Paint a clear picture of the post-change world. People outside your team may not understand all the positive changes your project will make. Take the time to demonstrate the benefits your end users and stakeholders will reap once your project has changed their environment. Improved working conditions, better efficiency, and lower costs might all be long-term plusses. Scour the landscape for potential benefits, and be sure you let others know about them.

7 – Remember that change isn’t always necessary. Don’t undertake a project simply because it’s there. If current systems and processes are efficient and effective, then selling others on the benefits of change will be difficult. Your credibility will suffer if you embrace every opportunity for change that comes along, or—even worse—force change where none is needed.

8 – Accept the status quo if changes can’t be made. Changes might not be feasible right here, right now. If that’s the case, then keep any negative comments to yourself. You’ll be seen as a team player and gain more respect if you take on challenges you’re likely to win, and learn to make the most of those you aren’t. Griping about situations you can’t change will only undermine morale, both your team’s as well as your own.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Performance evaluation season is almost upon us, and it’s time to begin identifying individual goals for next year. Below are a few tips to get you started and keep you going.

1 – Invest time now. Spend enough time to be sure you know what you want to achieve, the steps needed to achieve it, and how you’ll know when you’ve successfully reached a goal.

2 – Map out your career path. Whether you’re hankering for larger projects, increased supervisory responsibilities, or more focused expertise, you should know exactly where you want to go.
3 – Write it down. Putting ink to paper can be great motivation. Consider posting your goals somewhere conspicuous, repeating your goals out loud every so often, or even creating a 10-second “why this goal is important” statement.

4 – Keep track. Pick a workable interval and make notes on your progress. Identify potential obstacles, formulate a plan to overcome them, and keep moving forward.

5 – Set stretch goals. Choose a couple of goals that will require some serious dedication and focus—they’ll be instrumental in giving you the skills and expertise necessary to score future promotions.

6 – Be realistic. Know the resources—time, money, energy—you have available, and don’t underestimate how much of each you’ll need to achieve success.

7 – Set good timeframes. Establishing both short- and long-term plans will help you reach large goals while avoiding burnout.

8 – Recognize your accomplishments. Take the time to reward yourself. This is also a good opportunity to evaluate the rest of your goals and confirm you’re still on track.

9 – Remove outdated goals. If life or career changes render a goal obsolete, don’t hesitate to remove it. Consider your new situation and either update your existing goals or identify new ones.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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One important aspect of improving your PMO’s performance is the review of end user feedback data. Unfortunately, many project management professionals either don’t actively solicit feedback, or they fail to take the time to closely scrutinize feedback once they receive it. User feedback is a success-building goldmine—learn to capture it and use it to your advantage.

The simplest and most common tool to solicit and gather meaningful user feedback is the survey. The beauty of this basic approach is threefold: 1) everyone knows what surveys are and how they work; 2) you can modify each survey to be as simple or as detailed as necessary; and 3) it’s an easily repeatable process.

Getting useful results

To maximize the usefulness of your survey’s results, keep a few suggestions in mind.

• Limit surveys to only 1 or 2 per project.
• Keep surveys short—the majority of users will simply toss surveys that are too long.
• Tailor each survey to be applicable to as many end users as possible. If you’re interested in specific information from a subset of users, create a survey just for them.
• Ask relevant questions. You’re guaranteed to have poor return rates if your surveys focus on areas of the project that aren’t of primary concern to your end users. Issues such as timely communication, an accurate understanding of users’ concerns, and readily available support are generally good places to start.
• Unless your survey is anonymous, quickly acknowledge receipt of each survey returned. Few things are more frustrating for end users than to never know if their feedback reached anyone.
• Follow up with users about the results of the survey. It isn’t necessary to divulge all the details, but letting folks know that you actually read the surveys they return is a huge step toward building a successful partnership between your PMO and its clients. Highlight either the total number of surveys received, or the percentage of users who filled out the survey.
• Let users know what you’re doing well, and which areas need improvement. Again, don’t delve into the details publicly, but if the surveys revealed any themes you’ll score points by sharing those with your user base. And while it’s a no-brainer to capitalize on good feedback, remember that you can continue cultivating happy end users by thoughtfully framing less-than-positive feedback, too.

Developing & implementing solutions

Follow this straightforward process to keep your team focused on finding the best solutions.

1) Remember: it’s a rare project that doesn’t have room for improvement, so unless the issue is truly heinous, don’t beat yourself (or your team) up too badly.
2) Don’t hesitate to contact end users for additional or more detailed information. Understanding the problem is the first step towards fixing it.

3) Gather your team to discuss the issues. Take the time to dig down to the root of your users’ concerns so you aren’t repeating the same mistakes later. Ask a lot of questions beginning with “why,” and keep asking until you understand the problem’s primary trigger.

4) Develop solutions. Once your team understands the issues and has investigated what caused them, talk about the best ways to address and resolve these concerns next time.

5) Change your processes. Formal process or procedure changes may not be necessary, but be sure the entire team is made aware of what changes are needed going forward.

6) Be diligent in following up with users about specific issues during future projects. Have your solutions successfully resolved users’ concerns? Improvement is an ongoing process, and continuous adaptation will result in greater success.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Have you been handed the reins to your own project, or maybe even your own project team? Congratulations! Now listen up—the list of questions below will give you a jumpstart on the road to project management success.

1. Who’s on our team? Understanding your resources is the first step. Your team may consist of internal staff, external consultants, contractors, vendors, and business partners.

2. What’s our budget? Knowing your funding capacity and limitations will be necessary to spot potential problems—such as hiring expectations that don’t jive with the dollars you have available—and will help you avoid over-committing.

3. Who are our stakeholders? You need to know who expects information from you on a regular basis. Knowing your stakeholders will also give you some insight into the visibility of your project or team, and the kind of support you can expect to receive.

4. Who makes higher-level decisions? From budget approvals to personnel changes, chances are good that someone else will have a say in how things happen. Don’t wait until the next budget or hiring cycle to find out where final approvals will come from.

5. Where and how is information stored? Locating data on timelines, budgets, resources, and other project details underpins all your other efforts, so become familiar with your dataset right away.

6. What are our current obligations? If your PMO has signed contracts with vendors, consultants, or other external providers, it’s important that you know those details. Your ability to negotiate may be limited by existing agreements.

7. How is continuing education and ongoing training managed? You (and your team) will need to keep your skills sharp, so find out what resources are available, who approves new requests, and what level of continuing education is needed to maintain the certifications within your team.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

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Long projects offer a unique set of challenges for your PMO team—deadlines are months or even years away, significant milestones are often few and far between, and the initial rush of “new project” enthusiasm eventually subsides. How do you maintain your group’s morale, encourage long-term innovation, and keep all eyes firmly on the project’s goals?

1 – Maintain regular communication. Team members will have an easier time managing their own slow periods if they’re aggressively connecting with others in the group on a frequent basis. Team meetings help to focus attention on the project’s overall progress, members receive regular reminders about upcoming activities, and any issues brewing in one area can be tackled by the group’s collective expertise.

2 – Identify interim milestones. Critical path items are always at the top of the list, but don’t forget that many other mid-project deliverables are worthy of recognition, too. With the project’s final success a long way off, it’s important to show folks that today’s efforts continue to be important. Letting the team know that their hard work is recognized and appreciated offers a good morale boost.

3 – Remember what you’re improving. A glimpse at the problems or inefficiencies your project will address is often a quick way to give folks new enthusiasm. Whether it’s struggling with an outdated piece of software or visiting a too-small manufacturing facility, your team can once again see how their efforts will make a tangible difference.

4 – Consider shifting resources. If team members possess the expertise to contribute in different areas of the project as time and needs allow, it may offer a good way to minimize the use (and cost) of external resources, while also giving folks a taste of something new or different. Understanding your team’s strengths is the key to successfully mixing things up once in a while.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Are you spending too much time on e-mail? If so, use these tips to turn the tables and make e-mail work for you.

Compose — Respond — Send

1. Keep e-mails concise, clear, and relevant. By following these three guidelines throughout your communications, you’re less likely to waste time on overly verbose messages, or messages that require additional clarification (and composition time) later.

2. Whenever possible, respond to or forward an existing e-mail instead of composing your own from scratch. Leveraging the original sender’s text allows you to reduce the amount of time you must spend summarizing or restating information, without reducing the usefulness of your communications to your recipients.

3. Utilize distribution lists at every opportunity. Organize them by project, functional area, or reporting structure, and you’ll spend less time looking up who should receive each message. It’s also a method that prompts fewer interruptions later when you realize you forgot to include someone, and must now locate the e-mail and forward it to them.

Store — Locate — Retrieve

4. Create project-specific folders in your e-mail program to produce a framework for storing e-mails that allows for quick retrieval later. A logical and consistent structure will make the archival process more efficient, too.

5. Be judicious in what you save—electronic storage space seems unlimited, but documenting multiple projects can quickly occupy an enormous amount of server space. Duplicate information should be consolidated, outdated information should be made current, and extraneous information should be discarded.

6. Take the time now to become familiar with your e-mail program’s search function, so you can quickly and efficiently utilize it later. Narrowly focused searches will be faster and more fruitful; apply as many filters as possible, and target your key terms to return only those messages you’re most likely to need.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Project budgets are regularly in the financial crosshairs. While careful budgeting is a priority for every project management professional, there will be times when others in your organization want you to cut costs beyond what you think is reasonable. If you find your budget is under serious fire, use these tips to defend your resources and protect the success of your project.

Explain what your budget includes. It isn’t always obvious to those outside your core team exactly what’s included in a project’s scope. By showcasing everything your project will accomplish, both near-term and in the months or years ahead, you’ll demonstrate the true value of each dollar allotted.

Highlight costs you’ve already cut. Your current budget is better able to withstand scrutiny if you can name a number of costs your team has already chosen not to support (premium materials), or has skillfully avoided (expedited shipping).

Demonstrate your bargaining success. Were you able to negotiate better-than-market material costs? Use an industry group’s buying power to reduce labor expenditures? These savings show that your budget has already undergone the right level of value engineering.

Leverage third-party benchmarking data. Offering comparisons to past internal projects is helpful, but the objectivity of outside comparison data is an even more powerful persuasion tool. Information is generally available by industry, company size, project type, and region.

Show the consequences of additional cuts. Negative impacts to end users, the reduction of future cost savings, and the loss of your organization’s market position are all serious consequences—are the cost savings worth it? If your project will result in cost reductions (in manufacturing expenses, materials, energy consumption, headcount, or anything else), then now is the time to add up those dollars. Today’s financial impact may look more prudent when compared to reduced expenditures in the future.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

It’s common to assume that small projects are simple and easy—until you try to do one. Small projects can be just as complex as their larger counterparts, and even seasoned PM pros sometimes mishandle them. Improve your project management skills by learning to recognize and avoid these common “small project” mistakes.

1. Underestimating the scope. Ensure your small project has adequate resources, funds, and other support, and recognize its potential impact on other active projects. Dedicate ample time up front to ensure your small project can reach its objectives, and get firm stakeholder buy-in, even if it’s trifling compared to other initiatives they’re supporting.

2. Inattention to budget. Create, defend, and adhere to your small project’s budget just as aggressively as you would any of your larger projects. Don’t settle for a smaller budget than the project needs, in hopes you can “find” a few dollars later. Sticking to a budget is critical for small projects, because the lower dollar figures leave less wiggle room—even a small overage will be glaring.

3. Failure to dedicate enough time. It’s easy for small projects to get lost among the larger (and potentially more visible) projects your team is also juggling. Fitting a small project in amongst larger endeavors without dedicating the necessary time to proper project management could lead to project failure. Carefully plot your tasks, milestones, and deadlines. Get them onto your calendar, plugged into your master timetable, and then stay on top of them.

4. Lack of adequate resources. Don’t expect to “borrow” resources from other projects if you discover your small project is lacking something. Earmark sufficient funds, personnel, space, and time to each project individually, otherwise your larger projects may suffer, and your smaller project still won’t receive the support it needs to be truly successful.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 6 Project Mistakes Every Company Makes

Trace just about every project management war story back to its inception, and you’re almost sure to find one of the following six all-too-common mistakes.

1 – Not enough money. Budget and scope are related; it’s as simple as that. If funds are lacking, then the scope must be scaled back accordingly. Piggybacking on another project or tapping multiple too-small line items are rarely successful solutions.

2 – Not enough people. Project management professionals are the engines driving your project’s train. Whether it’s a misguided attempt to save money or simple naivety, assigning too few people to a project is a lose-lose situation. Your project’s objectives aren’t likely to be met, budgets will be blown, and your team will burn themselves out trying to take up the slack.

3 – Not enough time. Planning, procurement, and execution take time. Everything that happens behind the scenes still needs to happen, even if senior management doesn’t see the machinations. Overlapping incompatible activities or hurrying key steps will only cause headaches later.

4 – Not enough information. Critical information isn’t shared with the right people, or too few data points are disseminated to the team. Project management professionals need enough information to make the best strategic decisions, and to execute the project in the best way. Assumptions often lead to budget-straining changes down the road.

5 – Micromanagement. The executive group thinks their involvement is helping, but in fact they’re often impeding the team’s efforts and progress—by demanding too much information too frequently, or by expecting to be too involved when they aren’t actively contributing to the project team’s efforts.

6 – Changing expectations or objectives mid-stream. Shifting priorities, scope creep, staffing transitions, corporate politics, and stakeholders’ personal whims are just a handful of triggers for this bane of the PM pro’s existence.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• 4 “Small Project” Mistakes to Avoid