WHEN YOU TAKE OVER A STALLED PROJECT

Unless a good reason exists, I like to share my lessons learned. There’s no point in repeating mistakes that can be avoided if only someone had told me so. I believe that strongly. If a better way exists, wouldn’t you like to know about it? I would, so the four steps outlined below are a succinct summary of points that I’ve learned work and, even better, work reliably.

A project is stalled if it is drifting along and nobody is working on it. Somebody decided that it needed to be dealt with. Kill it or finish it.

The author is a practicing PMP (Project Management Professional). For more information, visit the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Here are the steps and their order. Following the steps do not guarantee that you will successfully turn it around. The steps, however, are best practices that have been tested and proven to work and work well.

1. Take stock of the project. Determine the current status of the project against the schedule (time) and budget ($). Analyze the results. It will guide you to the items that need attention. Why it it behind schedule? Was the cause a process or resource?

2. Develop a plan. It may be that the original plan just stalled because the sponsors ran out of money. Or perhaps the sponsors changed their mind. Find out. If funding can resume then you may just need to restart the original plan. Start imagining the solutions as you uncover the reasons that stopped the project. Be creative but pragmatic in developing the plan. Your developed plan, when ready, should be presented to the stakeholders or the parties that have a stake in the outcome of the project. The stakeholders are often the same ones of the original stalled project.

3. Reducing the scope of the work or the desired outcome is the easiest way to restart a stalled project. For example, should less work be performed? Can the result or outcome be reduced in quantity (five instead of 10) and/or quality (two instead of three layers)? The sponsors who provide the resources (like money) may be more inclined to resume if they learn that a lesser version of the outcome is possible.

4. New sponsorship must be found. This is critical. The sponsors may be new or of the original group. Do as much as you can to ensure that the new sponsors are committed to the project. You must get this commitment in the form of a Project Charter. It formally creates a project. A true charter will include a section that authorizes the expenditure of resources on the project and explains how it will be done. The charter is signed by the sponsors. It is a legal document.

Congratulations! The charter marks the start of the un-stalling. It marks the start of a new project lifecycle. After your team receive the charter, start the planning in earnest.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: INSIGHTS INTO THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTROLLING CHANGES

Failing to fully consider the impact of any change often causes major problems. Look at it from the painting contractor's point of view.

A project is born when a stakeholder wants to achieve an objective that will either maintain the status quo, give him an advantage over his competition, or transform a radical idea into reality. These, then, are the three types of projects:

1. Maintenance of an existing function
2. Improvement of an existing function or development of a new product or service
3. Transformative

Of the three, only transformative projects merit an explanation since the first two are self-explanatory. Transformative projects aim for objectives that have never been attempted before. In fact, many transformative projects aim for objectives that have never even been envisioned before. This type tends to cost the most and have the longer durations. Needless to say, these are the riskiest types. On the other hand, if the objective is achieved and it generates the benefits that were hoped for, it can create a new market or even a new industry that will transform the status quo. Some recent and prominent examples were Apple’s introduction of the iPod and the iPhone.

BREAKING DOWN THE WORK

Regardless of the project’s type, the work required in order to accomplish the objective is systematically broken down until it reaches a point where the specific activity can be assigned to an accountable resource. This is called decomposition and it is the essence of a planning task that aims to create the ‘Work Breakdown Structure.” A good example of this would be the maintenance project of repainting the interior of your house. Achieving that objective requires the satisfactory completion of numerous tasks. You have decided to hire a reputable painting contractor to do the job. The contractor’s team consists of a “stripper,” a “preparer,” and a “painter,” and a “cleaner.” The stripper strips old paint. The preparer cleans and prepares the work area. The painter does the actual painting. And finally, the cleaner cleans the work area. These men are resources who are accountable for their individual activities. The sum of their work is called the scope of the project. The individual activity that each resource performs is called a “work package” and was developed through the Work Breakdown Structure.

The project scope is clear. The resources have been scheduled. Now, what happens most of the time? Changes. The paint was already purchased but now, you want eggshell white instead of cotton white. Also, your wife decides that they might as well paint another room. These two requests change the project scope.

An experienced painting contractor will accept these changes but go through some kind of process control. What does “process control?” mean? It means that the before the contractor agrees, he will estimate the additional charges and revenues and determine how he will reschedule his resources.

THE CHANGE CONTROL PROCESS

Formal project management (PM) refers to this as the change control process. It plays an important role in PM. Failing to fully consider the impact of any change often causes major problems.

When the contractor was hired, you had mutually agreed that the painting would be finished in time for your son’s birthday, 15 days away. Faced with these two change requests, the contractor must now do the following:

1. Calculate his additional expense and the fee that he will now charge.
2. Decide what to do with the paint that was already purchased.
3. Determine how he can reschedule his resources that were already scheduled for other jobs.

In formal PM, these three steps constitute the change control process. (For simplicity, assume that his resources—the stripper, preparer, painter, and cleaner—will agree and that's not always going to happen!)

THE 80/20 RULE

You may have heard of the 80/20 rule. It actually has a name: the Pareto Principle. Courtesy of about.com, I present this informative background about it.

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.

After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. An American pioneer in the field of quality management recognized a universal principle he called the "vital few and trivial many" and reduced it to writing. His work gave academics the impression that he was applying Pareto's observations about economics to a broader body of work. Unfortunately for this pioneer, his original contribution became known as the Pareto Principle. This pioneer’s observation of the "vital few and trivial many" generalizes that 20 percent of something is responsible for 80 percent of the results.

The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. In Pareto's original work it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In the American pioneer’s initial work he noted that 20 percent of defects caused 80 percent of the problems.

Project Managers know that 20 percent of the work (the first 10 percent and the last 10 percent) consume 80 percent of your time and resources. You can apply the 80/20 Rule to almost anything, from the science of management to the physical world. This is an uncanny thing when you think about it.

How can it help you? Whether in business or your personal life, the Pareto Principle can serve as your guide to focus on the 20 percent that matters. Of the things you do during your day, only 20 percent really matter. Those 20 percent produce 80 percent of your results. Identify and focus on those things. When the fire drills of the day begin to sap your time, remind yourself of the 20 percent you need to focus on. If something in the schedule has to slip, if something isn't going to get done, make sure it's not part of that 20 percent. Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 Rule, should serve as a daily reminder to focus 80 percent of your time and energy on the 20 percent of you work that is really important. Don't just "work smart", work smart on the right things.

CH- CH- CH- CH- CH- CH- CHANGES...

This is a list of the most common causes of change:

1. business requirements change
2. business environments change
3. new opportunities or problems arise during the course of the project
4. modifications in the process or system are discovered
5. errors in the process or system are uncovered

The painting contractor has been confronted by a change in the project’s requirements (a different color and an additional room). Assuming he agrees to these changes, he has to do the three activities mentioned earlier, namely:

1. Calculate his additional expense and the fee that he will now charge.
2. Decide what to do with the paint that was already purchased.
3. Determine how he can reschedule his resources that were already scheduled for other jobs.

There is a good chance that the Pareto Principle was at work here. If the original contract involved painting ten rooms for $10,000, it is unlikely that the homeowners will agree to pay significantly more than $1,000 for the 11th room.

They may agree to pay $1,500 but that sum will only partially compensate the contractor for the time and effort he put into recalculations. While $1,500 increases the value of the total contract to $11,500, will it cover the work that the contractor does behind the scene?

THE CONTRACTOR'S DILEMMA

The sum of $11,500 to paint 11 rooms increased his revenue per room from $1,000 (from $10,000 divided by 10 rooms) to $1,045 (from $11,500 divided by 11 rooms). Many paint contractors would rather take the $10,000 rather than incur the additional trouble of dealing with the paint that was already purchased and, more importantly, dealing with the risk of delaying some other projects due to the rescheduling of his resources.

The contractor may have felt pressured to accept these changes simply because of the fierce competition in the paint contracting business. Additionally, most contractors rely on the recommendations of satisfied customers. You and your wife would probably not appreciate nor understand the amount of extra trouble that the contractor went through. It just would not make sense to you especially since you were willing to pay him anyway.

If he turned you down, you would probably not be satisfied customers even if the ten rooms were painted superbly and the entire experience went smoothly. You just wouldn’t understand.

Furthermore, if the two of you agreed to pay the contractor the extra $500 to bind him to finish the project by your son’s birthday, and he accepted, the pressure on the contractor increases. He has to juggle his resources even more carefully.

THE DENTIST

In the world of project management, that deadline is called a time constraint. This project is actually time-constrained before and after the changes. The contractor has no choice but to assign more resources to it in order to finish the project on time. If the contractor could simply not reschedule his resources, he is facing a resource constraint. He has to find additional resources (by hiring temporary help for example) or miss his deadline.

What did we learn? In the formal world of project management, it helps to make the change control process intentionally burdensome. That’s correct—make the process a hurdle, a pain in the rear, a trip to the dentist.

Our mentor—an experienced Program Manager—explained it this way (with some rephrasing on my part).

Most dentists advertise “pain-free” dentistry. That’s well and good but you will not go to the dentist without a compelling reason. In fact, when a tooth starts hurting, you will probably not schedule an appointment immediately. You will wait several days to feel whether the tooth continues to hurt. When you are convinced that the pain will not go away, then and only then will you schedule your appointment. When you are finally seated at the dentist’s chair, the dentist—true to his advertisement—promises that all you will feel is a pinch and then a little pressure.

The change control process should follow this analogy. Your customer should be “taught” that even though the change will be “pain-free” (but not free), she should carefully consider whether the contemplated change is worth the trouble of going through the change control process. If she does, she should be conditioned to feel a little pinch and some pressure. This could take the form of conceding to drop some lesser requirements and, of course, paying more.

You want your customer to weigh the facts. Will the outcome of that change exceed the trouble of undergoing the change control process? If she thinks it is, you, the Project Manager—unlike the painting contractor—should ensure that you charge her in proportion to the trouble and effort of managing the change.

ACTIVE LISTENING

My favorite author, Stephen Covey, was the first who made me realize that listening is a skill that should have been taught early on along with reading, writing, and speaking. To paraphrase him, we spent years learning how to read; years learning how to write; weeks, sometimes months, rarely years learning how to speak. But how much time was spent formally teaching us how to listen?

Hardly at all, if you’re like 99%+ of the population.

Catch yourself this very moment and count the number of simultaneous conversations you’re having in your mind. Should we be surprised therefore at how difficult it can be to listen correctly?

Catch yourself next time you’re conversing. Have you already created your response before the other person has finished speaking? That might work some of the time but when you interact with a larger and more diverse group of people, that communication pattern—of creating your response before the other person has finished speaking—will be the cause of mistakes and interpersonal problems.

A COMMUNICATION SKILL THAT SHOULD BE DEVELOPED

Active listening is a skill—a communication skill like speaking, reading, and writing that should be developed.

I made it a personal goal. One of the best and natural ways it developed for me was through my active participation in my Toastmasters club meetings. Click here for that blog entry.

Many articles have been written about this. I’ve shared my personal view. Now follows my edited compilation of tips from Verzuh’s excellent book, The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management (Wiley, 2008).

A USEFUL LIST OF LISTENING TIPS

These tips can be practiced as you listen to others—whether in a one-on-one discussion or during a meeting.

1. Focus yourself physically. To the degree possible, eliminate environmental distractions. (If you’re writing, stop. If you’re eating, stop. You get the picture.)
   
2. Use nonverbal cues to show you are invoked in what the speaker is saying, including nodding your head, making eye contact, and leaning forward.
   
3. Provide feedback, paraphrasing or summarizing the speaker’s statements to ensure that you understand them as the speaker intended.
   
4. Ask relevant follow-up or clarifying questions.
   
5. Listen for the idea behind the facts and data.
   
6. Suspend judgment on the speaker’s statements. Understand his or her point first. As you ask questions or acknowledge points, remain neutral in your responses. “So, what you are saying is ...” or “From your point of view ...” Demonstrate that you understand without revealing whether you agree or disagree.
   

During active listening, work to avoid these behaviors.

1. Don’t try to solve the problem or give advice until it’s asked for. Analyzing a problem with questions shifts the focus from the speaker to your hypothesis. “Have you tried ...?” or “What happened before ...” or “Are you sure that’s the issue?” You may be able to help the speaker solve a problem, but first you need to listen.
   
2. Don’t judge what you’re hearing—either positively or negatively. In particular, don’t share a judgment, as in, “That's not logical.”
   
3. Don’t shift the attention to yourself. This happens when we try to relate to the speaker, but end up talking about our own experiences, ideas, or emotions.
   
4. Finally, be aware of resistance and defensiveness by the speaker. Probing too deeply or playing the psychiatrist may not be welcome.
   

These simple guidelines can get you started. As with any skill, your ability to listen will improve with practice.

In the process of researching this, I came across this excellent article from an equally excellent blog by Alexander Kjerulf. He calls himself the CHO or Chief Happiness Officer. I think that's pretty clever. Every organization should have one.

I should also mention the Talking Stick. It was inspired by my favorite author again, Stephen Covey.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: RISKS. ISSUES. ASSUMPTIONS. QUESTIONS. WHICH IS WHICH?

A planning process that has always given me problems is risk assessment. As you compile your collection of "risks," confusion settles in. Is this a risk, or is it more of an issue? No, it’s just an assumption. But it seems like a question?

We were several project managers who raised this topic at a program meeting. The program manager and a good mentor to all of us challenged us to define the four items. It took a lot of googling and checking Wikipedia, etc. before we arrived at a consensus.

Here they are. I hope you find these helpful.

RISKS

These are events that are uncertain. If they materialize, they will likely have a negative impact on the project or program.

ISSUES

These are actionable items. They require resolution or a decision. Once they are settled, they may eliminate risks or create new ones. If they are left unresolved, they will inevitably create risks.

ASSUMPTIONS

These are items that are known or presumed to be true. They serve as the basis for establishing plans or making decisions. Double-check assumptions. An assumption may turn out to be incorrect so try to keep a fallback plan ready.

QUESTIONS

These items need to be answered. Once they are addressed, they may identify new risks, issues, or assumptions. And the cycle starts over again!

MORE?

If this was helpful, you might want to read this perspective about risk, uncertainty, and information. You may have never thought of it this way. A new tab or window will open when you click here.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: A BEST PRACTICE FOR PREVENTING SCOPE CREEP

A most insidious thing that will wreck havoc on your project is scope creep. The term refers to the addition of one addition after another to the original objective. The additions are usually done in a subtle manner and seem minor initially. Unchecked, you may find yourself with an objective that is more complicated, time-consuming, and expensive than the objective that was originally agreed upon.

After the project baseline has been created, the requirements of the project are cast in stone. The requirements were derived from the project’s scope. That means that any changes to the project’s scope will cause the requirements to change.

Until those changes are approved, the scope does not change and the requirements do not change. The requirements that any proposed changes will make are not official; they are preliminary.

Until those changes are approved, there are only “preliminary” requirements and “baselined” requirements. Train your people to distinguish between these two. Train your people to refer to the requirements of proposed changes as “preliminary” requirements. The official requirements are the ones that were cast in stone after the project and its corresponding scope were baselined. These requirements are “baselined” requirements. Thus, baselined projects have baselined requirements. Proposed changes bring preliminary requirements.

HOW IT WORKS

Consistently using these adjectives reinforces the fact that a baseline already exists and that any other requirements are preliminary ones that are not part of the baseline. Consistently using these qualifiers reinforces the fact that all requirements are preliminary until they are added to the baseline. There is only one way for preliminary requirements to become a part of the project’s requirements—the origin of the preliminary requirements, namely the proposed change, must be approved.

The careful use of terminology is an effective way to create an environment that discourages scope creep. Here’s an example.

One way that a customer or a stakeholder can try to introduce change is by insisting that his people meet directly with your people. He insists that he wants the information “raw.” He believes that if the information passes through the project management office (PMO), the information is filtered before it reaches him. As a Project Manager, you may have to permit his people meet your people directly as he requested. However, your permission should be given with the condition that your people are not authorized to accept or otherwise permit any changes to the original project objective. Any proposed additions must go through the PMO. Make sure that your people and theirs acknowledge and agree to that condition—in writing if it’s necessary.

THE SANCTITY OF THE BASELINE

After the project’s scope has been agreed upon, the scope is captured in a baseline. This baseline is one of the most important documents in the project. Time and again, everyone from the project team to the stakeholders will return to the baseline. The project baseline is the reference standard of the entire project.

The baseline captures the project scope. The scope, as discussed earlier, includes the requirements. The requirements are expressed in terms of time and costs. Time represents the project schedule. Costs represent the resources.

The baseline typically takes the form of a tracking Gantt chart. A tracking Gantt shows the actual project’s progress beside the original forecast. The Gantt shows the project’s duration by task. The sum of task durations is the agreed-upon schedule (or time) of the project. The agreed-upon costs are visible behind the chart. The costs are shown by resources and the amount of resources used by individual tasks. These explain why the baseline is so important. It contains the triple constraints of scope, time, and costs.

The baselining, i.e., act of creating the baseline, is typically done at the end of the project planning phase. As the term suggests, the project has been planned and the stakeholders have signed off on the plans.

At that point, it is very very important for the Project Manager (PM) to notify all stakeholders that "from this point forward, the team will be strictly adhering to the change control process." The PM must emphasize the seriousness of the change control process. After the stakeholders have signed off on the project plan, i.e., the baseline, the PM must emphasize that any changes must first be approved before its attendant requirements are added to the project's requirements.

DISTINGUISH DISTINGUISH DISTINGUISH

A proposed change can take the shape of an addition, revision, or subtraction of the project objective. If the change is accepted without going through a formal change control process, it becomes a part of the project scope. It becomes a part of the project’s requirements. This is scope creep. The scope changes incrementally, i.e., it creeps.

Train your team to always make the distinction between preliminary and baselined requirements and the environment will change. It’s a subtle thing but it works. Everyone will stay alert and know the difference between the original and the still-unaccepted requirements.

To reiterate, the team should never use the term “requirements” by itself. Never say or write it by itself with stakeholders and especially customer-stakeholders. Requirements are either preliminary or baselined. This reminds everyone that the scope and project requirements were already agreed upon and documented in the baseline.

IT IS ALL PSYCHOLOGICAL

I consider this to be a best practice for psychological reasons. Stakeholders, especially customer-stakeholders, tend not to take the original requirements of the planning seriously. Consequently, these stakeholders never treat the baseline with respect. Left unchecked, these stakeholders will continually propose changes that effectively create new requirements. Left unchecked, if these changes are passively acknowledged, stakeholders will learn to expect the acceptance of their proposed changes without any consequences. That should not be the case. The baseline reflects everything that all stakeholders had agreed upon. Any changes have a “preliminary” nature until they are formally accepted.

IT BECOMES A TEAM EFFORT

Through this practice, the PM will not be forced to implement the ban on unauthorized changes alone. Team members will stay alert and know the difference between the original and the still-unaccepted requirements. This involves them in the fight against scope creep. The team helps the PM with one of the most vexing problems that confront a PM during the execution phase of the project, namely, scope creep. Training your team in the manner described above turns the effort to control scope creep into a team effort.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR: 12 RULES OF EFFECTIVE INFLUENCE



Influencing others goes a long way in becoming organizationally effective. And feeling better about your world and yourself.

Stephen Covey is my guru on this and all related subjects that pertain to effective people. Click here to read my blog entry about his highly acclaimed book, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People."

The power to influence others is important in any setting. Currently, most of my work involves projects. Project teams are typically composed of workers “borrowed” from different functional departments. One of my hospital projects had team members from the administration, legal, accounting, and pharmacy departments.

Team members are frequently workers that were assigned by their bosses to help the Project Manager (PM) accomplish the project. It is crucial for the PM to win their support. This is very challenging since it is both crucial and difficult to do.

It is crucial and difficult for at least three reasons.

One, their primary allegiance belongs to their functional department. It is, after all, the Accounting Manager who your accounting team member permanently reports to.

Two, they know the project is a temporary endeavor. Unless the worker is persuaded of the project’s relevance to his or her world, his or her support may be half-hearted at best.

And three, the worker is probably busy enough as it is. There is a good chance that they will view their participation as just another assignment added to their current work load.

PRACTICAL GUIDELINES

I’ve listed some practical guidelines for the PM below. They all work and were either taught to me or learned from hard experience.

1. In the short-term, you should build common interests.
2. In the long-term, work on building trust, confidence, and respect for each other. If you have integrity and honesty, seek to demonstrate those qualities at every opportunity. If you don’t—well, you’re not my kind of a person.
3. Make hard decisions when necessary. However, be empathic with people who are adversely affected by those hard decisions. What’s empathy? To me, it’s being in the other person’s shoes and feeling what they feel and then returning to your own and communicating that you understand how they feel.
4. Avoid making enemies. An opponent is someone who disagrees with you and wants a situation to have a different outcome from yours. An enemy, on the other hand, is someone who has taken your disagreement to a more personal level and seeks to harm you. Discourage your opponents from becoming enemies by demonstrating genuine integrity and honesty. Do not be manipulative or double-cross them.
5. Be a worthwhile ally. This doesn’t mean that you have to offer your wholehearted and unreserved support for every action of your allies. Rather, it means that you should support people when they have worthwhile goals even if you do not directly benefit.
6. Do you know what a “fair-weather” sailor is? This is a sailor who sails only when the weather is safe and nice. Likewise, don’t be a fair-weather friend. Don’t demonstrate that you care about your allies only when the situation is safe. Demonstrate your support even if you expose yourself to political risk. In the long-term, you’ll earn not only their respect but the attention and respect of others.
7. 7. Be generous with your favors. Do not dispense your favors conditionally. Do not dispense your favors on the condition that you expect an equal exchange or quid pro quo. Do favors when they are appropriate and within your power.
8. Ask for favors when you need help. Refrain from reminding those whom you seek help of any previous favors that you did for them. People of integrity will remember and act accordingly.
9. Keep your lines of communication open across barriers and, difficult as it may be, especially during times of conflict.
10. Make it clear by your actions and choices that you will do what’s right and beneficial to the organization.
11. Be aware that others do not necessarily follow the same code of principles that you do. Act with integrity but don’t be naïve to the reality of the behavior of others.
12. Do not win the battle and lose the war. There will be life after the most important project. Do not win at the cost of your principles. Take a long-term perspective. I know it's easier said than done. And even when I know, I still make some of these mistakes. That's what being human is, isn't it? We just have to try and keep on trying.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: HOW TO DEAL WITH VAGUE OBJECTIVES

It’s not unusual for an objective to be initially defined vaguely for any number of reasons. It may be a first-time objective. It may not have been thought through all the way and it’s your assignment to flesh the objective.

Do not make the mistake of accepting a project that has a vague objective(s)!

In fact, even if the objective seems straightforward, I think it’s a good idea to check it against your SMARTs. This familiar technique—you can google it easily—ensures that the objective is really clear. If it doesn’t pass your SMARTs, then you have to push back and insist on further clarification.

Remember, you have to clarify it before you accept it.

SMART is an acronym for the five standards that must be met by your project objective.

Specific + Measurable + Agreed-upon + Realistic + Time-bound


Here are the details.

Specific

An objective must have enough specific detail so you know what the final product or service is supposed to resemble.

Measurable

Quantify the objective and use an objective standard if possible and desirable. Reduce subjectivity since it leaves too many things open for conflict.

Agreed-upon

The standards of performance must be established before the project gets underway. This is especially important when there are numerous stakeholders.

Realistic

Negotiate. Exploit the flexibility of the triple constraints. Frequently, a project seems too difficult or impossible because of the project’s constraints. If the constraints are negotiable, risk is lessened and the likelihood of success improves.

Time-bound

A deadline motivates action. A lack of urgency tempts people to procrastinate. Always have a time constraint.

Additional Remarks:

The SMART process is iterative, i.e., it uses successive rounds to zero in on the most precise solution. Be forewarned that this is a time-consuming process. On the other hand, time-consuming as it is, you can be sure that it will save even more time by preventing (or at least minimizing) the chance that you will have to re-do the project.

Try to meet all stakeholders at each round of the process. Do this for everyone’s sake. Stakeholders who are neglected or even just feel left out frequently tend to put pressure elsewhere on your project. Invite them since you need to protect their self-esteem and sense of participation.

Summarize and paraphrase each stakeholder’s input until the stakeholder agrees that you, the PM, understands.

At the end of each round, prepare a draft statement of the negotiated objectives and circulate it. Invite feedback and discussion.

You’ll know that the objective is clear when it passes the SMART test and is accepted by all stakeholders. Ideally, this group should include even those stakeholders whose objectives were eliminated. This group may not like the final decision but the important thing is their acknowledgment of the fact that their objectives will not be in the final project. Remember: the objective has to pass the SMART test and is accepted by all stakeholders.

This post originally appeared in my other blog. I transferred it here as part of the project to separate work-related materials from personal materials.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: SHARING SEVERAL LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT HANDLING THE CRITICAL PATH

Obviously the critical path is important because any delay in the activities on the critical path will delay the project’s completion. You always return to the critical path to schedule overtime and add extra resources to catch up with delays. I'm sharing these lessons learned from experienced project managers.

1. Be extra attentive when assessing risks that can impact the critical path (directly or indirectly).
2. If you have a budget for reducing risks, spend it on tasks on the critical path.
3. Since you probably won’t have the time to monitor all activities, spend your available time on people working on critical activities.
4. Make it a point whenever possible to put the best people on critical activities.
5. If that isn’t possible, assign them to those activities that have the highest likelihood of turning into critical activities.
6. When other managers ask to borrow resources—people or equipment—be generous with resources assigned to non-critical activities and "stingy" with those assigned to critical activities.