For Project Managers
Useful Stuff in Project Management
That's a nice stock image, isn't it?
This section is about tools and habits you can use to hopefully inform your own projects. Note this is from an IT perspective for now, but let me know any tips from your sector, I'd be happy to share.
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Methodologies
Waterfall and iterative, PRINCE2 and Agile. Usually, when looking at a job advert, those are the 2 methodologies most firms plump for. They're tried and tested, something of an industry standard, and do, in fact, work in many areas.
But as with all things in life, there are a lot more than just 2 ways to deliver a cat. That's the right phrase, isn't it? There are 3 different types of methodology:
Predictive
Or 'Traditional'. This is your PRINCE2 and 'Waterfall' standards, best for projects with fixed and specific requirements:
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Cloud infrastructure builds
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Houses (I'm guessing)
Adaptive
Or 'Agile'. This is iterative and flexible, best for evolving requirements:
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App development
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Game development
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Programming
Hybrid
Combination of both Predictive and Adaptive elements. Think Scrumban or Lean Six Sigma.
This is a blend of elements so you'd use the bits relevant to your project
Project methodologies are like underwear: there is no one type for every occasion. Except Scrum. I am convinced there is never an occasion for Scrum. Scrum is Agile in a trench coat.
And Scrum Masters are 100% cult members.
(I am kidding, I promise. Scrum is something that boggled my mind even when I was on the course!)
That said if there are any SMs that want to enlighten me, I'd love to hear about it. Drop me a message.
Risk, Change & Lessons
Regardless of method, toolset, company, or mood, these are the key things you actually need to worry about as a Project Manager.
Given I am mostly familiar with Predictive methods, I use a RAAID log (Risk, Action, Assumption, Issue, Decision) for Risk Management, and separate lists for Changes and Lessons. Below are some more expansive examples on how I take care of these things.
Risk Management: What Might Happen
Risks can be found at any point in the project, from writing the initial scope to after closure. In an IT project, the biggest risk I've found is always the customer. They may not know what they want and have undefined deliverables, may not understand the solution given and request significant change after implementation, or need extra support once live. It's a risk to bear in mind when working with end users rather than listing all over the RAAID logs.
Whatever risk you capture you need to understand the severity of impact should it happen - remember these are different from issues as they are, as Galadriel once said, what might yet come to pass. That will affect the method of dealing with it, by whom, and how quickly.
My best advice is to learn how to be as adaptable as possible. You will miss risks, and you will have them become issues. It's the way of the game, but how you adapt to them is what will make you stand out as a brilliant PM.
Key Tip: not every risk is a detriment. You will be able to exploit certain risks; I've taken one listed as "lack of customer understanding will impede solution acceptance" and generated a new opportunity for on-site training with a pile of days to burn down.
I've included a link below to the PRINCE2 Wiki Risk Management page, which helps explain it in line with PRINCE2 wording.
Change Management: Avoiding Scope Creep
You will hear the phrase "can you just..." an alarming number of times as a PM and it is the single most expensive phrase in the lifecycle. This is because it comes across as asking for a favour, asking for something for free or a little extra. In projects, every hour of every person aligned to the project is costed for. Adding in "can you just" cheeky asks will chomp away at your budget, quality and time tolerances faster than anything else. When you hear it, check your scope, and confirm how much it will change the delivery.
To be clear, the changes I refer to are the changes to scope, not the fun things a Consultant will implement to change a customer's BAU operations. You'll be surprised how many people confuse the two.
Key Tip: Keep track of your changes and make sure the customer signs them off. An e-signature service like Docusign or Signable is best as it date and time stamps approvals, and keeps them saved online outside of your inbox. Email is a backup option but shouldn't be the standard.
Lessons: Avoiding Insanity
By definition, insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome. The number of times I've seen repeated mistakes flatten a project and cost additional money is ridiculous.
Lessons registers ideally will have 2 filters: internal and external. External lessons, those you can share with a customer, are usually the easiest to identify and share. Internal lessons you will always, without fail, get push back.
The problem with lessons is they are viewed as a blame game when they are meant to be anything but. When I worked at CDW, I did something a bit bonkers and dragged every senior manager and team leader and individual affected by an onboarding into a room and gave them five things I knew I'd got wrong on the project. I then gave them the fixes and proposed processes to implement.
I wish I could say it was a wild success, but I'd be lying. While I made myself fallible and open to implementing changes to remove issues going forward, getting a group of people coated in Teflon to accept responsibility and action ownership was a vertical battle. Still, I stand by what I did.
To maintain your own sanity in observing lessons, include them in project plans as risks. For instance, if in a previous migration you learned that your own consultants weren't au fait with a certain migration tool, list a risk that knowledge is limited and see what training they can get. It will seem arduous and like it's a dead end, but like I said before: it's a game of CYA and if you've done all you can, then you can rest a bit easier.
PM Tooling
The tools I currently and have used to do my job. There's nothing wrong with Excel, but that isn't a PM tool and it never will be. Like the businesses I support, I am not bank rolled by any of these products, it's just worth you knowing about them.
Unfortunately, these are all heavily AI orientated. If you don't want it, use Excel.
Asana
Not to be confused with a yoga pose. Good for task tracking, think lists and Kanban style management. It's also excellent for task ownership as users can be added in and regularly badgered to complete what they need to do. I've used Asana for offboarding managed service customers and it's effective since that task list doesn't change and scope doesn't creep.
Smartsheet
My preferred tool of choice. It's largely Google Sheets but really intelligent. Gantt charts are dead simple to create and templating is a piece of cake. If you enjoy a widget, you can create plenty of dashboards to make reporting useful for stakeholders. License pricing is competitive, though the third level to get the automations is a big jump.