Project Management Archives - Project Management Research Institute

blog post, Case Study, Mentoring, Project Management

Professional Project Management as a core competency for all managers

Recently I had the opportunity to train a group of young and dynamic MBA final year students who elected project management as their elective. The syllabus comprised of Predictive, Agile and Hybrid Project Management. Contrary to the earlier batches, the students with engineering background in this batch was less. That prompted me to think about the relevance of professional project management to all managers or would be managers, irrespective of their educational background. What is the core skill that is required to be successful as a manager?. What differentiates a manager from an individual contributor. It is definitely the ability to get things as per specifications (requirements) on time and within budget through a team. This is the skill every successful manager should posses. That realisation helped the whole team, including me to attribute a bigger and relevant cause to the program. The realization of the relevance of professional project management as a core skill for all managers / would be managers, to succeed in todays challenging professional environments bonded us together for almost 30 hours spread across 30 days, and hopefully the mentoring will continue.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the program

Proactive stakeholder management is key to success
Everything starts with defining the deliverables using a product breakdown structure
Without a work breakdown structure, accurate estimates are impossible. Even project strategy can be flawed
A well defined work breakdown structure will help to negotiate better for resources and cost. Without a WBS, one will never be able to defend their estimates.
Projects do not fail at the end. Projects fail at the beginning, due to incomplete scope definition, improper scope management. The failure will get revealed towards the end.
Without the knowledge of critical path, it is impossible to control the schedule
Relying on lead indicators (forecasts) help managers to be pro-active than reactive
These days projects are neither completely agile or predictive. Most of the projects rely on hybrid approaches
The co-location of teams is no more practical. Majority of the projects have distributed / work from home (wfh) teams, hence collaboration tools like Jira (Agile), SmartProject (Predictive Project Management / Digital PMO) is important
In a nutshell, all managers (rather all professionals) will benefit phenomenally by applying relevant project management practices for goal achievement on time, within budget and with stakeholder satisfaction / delight

About the blogger

Abrachan Pudusserry is an highly qualified and experienced professional with in-depth understanding about professional project management (Agile, Predictive, Hybrid). He is one of the founding members of Project Management Research Institute. He is also heading Wrench Academy, the education of division of Wrench Solutions, the makers of SmartProject Digital PMO. He is also a visiting faculty at XIME.

blog post, Methods, New product development, Project Management, Project management tools, Quality

80/20 Principle – The principle with ever increasing use cases

With the innumerable opportunities to get diverted from what is relevant, I have seen many successful and not that successful organizations, teams and individuals working very hard on the irrevelant and getting buried there. The 80/20 principle or the Pareto Principle is for those who are willing to pause a while before jumping into action. Though many have written about Pareto principle and analysis before, I thought of writing this blog post for the benefit of many who plunge into action on irrelevant projects, indicators than on the relevant ones. There is time for everything, if we can prioritize, eliminate, delegate and decide on the mosr relevant work we ahould be doing.

Pareto Principle or the 80/20 Principle

The 80/20 principle or the Pareto Principle by Vilfredo Pareto in the year 1896 is the one which is always heard in all walks of life, time and again even after a century of its discovery. Last week I heard it in our senior management review when one of the senior managers used 80/20 to highlight the need to focus on the 20% of the customers contributing to 80% of the revenues. The use cases of 80:20 or the pareto principle is innumerable. Here are some;

By eliminating 20% of the root causes we can eliminate 80% of the defects in a product
20% of the customers contribute to 80% of the revenue. It makes sense to focus on this 20% of the customers.
80% of the customers uses 20% of the features of the products. The remaining 80% of the features are used only by 20% of the customers.
By focusing on 20% of the project health indicators proactively, 80% of the problems can be eliminated / prevented.
20% of unhealthy practices contribute to 80% of the productivity loss. By controlling this 20% percentage of unhealthy practices, productivity can be improved phenominally.
20% of the workforce does 80% of the work. Remaining 80% does only 20% of the work
20% of the work we do produces 80% of the results. The remaining 80% of the work produces only 20% of the results.
During 20% of our worktime, we complete 80% of our work. During the remaining 80% of our work time, we complete only 20% of work.
Only 20% of the projects yield the desired results, 80% of the projects do not yield desired results.

Pareto analysis

Here are the steps involved in performing Pareto Analysis;

Identify the probable rootcauses – The best ways to do this is to brainstorm with the team to identify potential rootcauses leading to the situation. Ishikawa diagram or the Fishbone diagram can help to do structured brainstorming to arrive at the potential root causes.
Frequency of occurrence – With the help of data, identify how many times each rootcause occurred, resulting in the outcome.
Order on frequency – List the root causes based on the frequency of their occurrenece (in the descending order)
Prioritize and take action – Identify the 20% of root causes contributing to the 80% of occurrences. By controlling these 20% of the root causes, 80% of the problems can be eliminated.

80/20 at a personal level

Can be effectively used at a personal level to;

Eliminate unproductive activities
Focus on strengths
Finding time to work on Important and not urgent projects

blog post, Project Management, Risk management

Managing the Owner’s risk

Today Mr. Renjith invited me for an informal discussion across a cup of garam chai. The first restaurant we planned was under renovation, as if they are gearing up for the post pandemic era. On the way to the next restaurant in Kochi city, we spotted many closed shops which could not survive the impact of the pandemic. It resembled a graveyard of small businesses. For a moment I thought about the owners. As an unpleasant coincidence, Renjith who attended my project management workshop (PMP) around ten years back wanted to discuss about a project to convert his property into a residential villa project. A property development company approached him and proposed a professional association with him to start this project. He wants to know the key risks of such a project and ways of managing them?.

High level risks to the land owner of the real estate development project

There is a possibility of real estate prices shooting up in another 2 to 3 years time because there is a major road expansion project happening nearby. Budgets are already approved by the central government. This is a very positive risk. If the owner can leverage it, he can maximize the profits from the project.
The revenue from the project or the benefits to Renjith must be much higher than the land cost before development. After taking the risk of starting this project, if the returns are not substantially higher than the land cost, then it is better not to do the project.
If there are delays in getting approvals, the project can get delayed. That means, in reality there is a possibility of the projects real start date getting postponed resulting in a longer project duration than anticipated.
If the project do not complete on time, the responsibility of answering the buyers concerns may get transferred to Renjith, the owner.
Actual demand can be lower than the anticipated demand. On the contrary, the actual demand can be much higher than the anticipated demand as well.
Exit criteria from the project in the unlikely event of either party unable to continue with the project is not clear
The last but not least question is ‘How will you invest the money obtained from the project in the best possible way, which will provide better returns than holding the property for some more time.

These are just high level risks to the land owner of the real estate development project.

The key aspect of risk management to the land owner lies in the contract type selection. The possible types of contracts in this scenario are;

Outright sale of the land to the builder : In this case, the risk to the land owner is the least, provided he has another project ready to invest the money out of this project than just depositing it in the bank. The positive risk of land prices appreciating cannot be factored into this.
Variable pricing of the land : This is a good choice. Since this is not a standard practice, the modus operandi must be worked out in this case.
Per unit pricing : This is also a good option where the builder and land owner shares the revenue from the sale of each housing unit in the project. Again the details must be worked out.
Joint venture : This is applicable only if the land owner is willing to enter into the project as a full fledged partner of the project.

Choosing the right contract type is key here. Other actions to mitigate the risks are;

Credibility check of the developers and marketers
Appointing a consultant for project approvals to speed up the project initiation
Alternatives analysis
Value assessment
Learn lessons from past similar projects
Request for proposals, RFI so that the owner can learn from them
Adoption of agile project based cadence till the actual start with all approvals and drawings in place.

In a nutshell aggressive risk management during the pre-project phases, till the contract is inked with the contractors is important to maximize value to the owner in construction projects.

blog post, Case Study, Project Management

The Western Route Modernization Project – Case Study

blog post, Mentoring, Project Management

Inspiring Careers – Dr. Kalirajan, Deputy Dean at L&T Institute of Project Management

About Dr. Kalirajan

As a visionary leader and a Project Management specialist, He brings with him over 33 years of progressive experience in managing challenging mega projects in power and infrastructure sector. His complete ownership for ROI accountability and passion for developing people make him an asset for any organization. A Doctorate in Concrete Technology with MBA and PMP Certified professional, he possess sound ability to lead and ramp up projects and ensure their timely completion within defined budget and quality guidelines while institutionalizing budgetary controls. He holds the distinction of turning around projects in crisis and ensuing their successful completion and acceptance. Adept at managing all facets of engineering project management, including construction management, site survey & execution, design engineering, tendering & contract administration and people management. He is presently into corporate training and development in the areas of project management, leadership and team building, strategy development etc. Linkedin profile

Integrated project monitoring and control, PMBOK7, Project Management

Unboxing PMBOK7 – Article 2

What is the point in completing a project on time, within budget and meeting the complete scope, if the product of the project does not provide value to the sponsor / owner?. The single biggest issue for project failure is lack of solid business case. Many projects have solid business cases while starting the project, and very often they become irrelevant due to environmental impacts. The unknown – unknown risk of the pandemic itself have made many travel and tourism related projects irrelevant. Projects are plagued by uncertainties like never before, and it is the responsibility of the project manager to navigate these complexities successfully and achieve the intended benefits from the product / service the project delivers.

The shift of the project success criteria from just meeting the time, cost and scope criteria to delivering value to the owner of the project is the biggest change in PMBOK7 when compared to the earlier versions of the PMBOK. As a true project manager, one has to ensure the value delivery. Projects are initiated to achieve certain business goals and it is the opportunity of the project manager to ensure the achievement of these goals by delivering the intended benefits for which the project is undertaken in the first place.

The PMBOK7 brings more clarity to the project manager’s role.

Project manager is ultimately responsible for the success and failure of the project. The project manager role demands active participation while deciding the project management approach which will help the project to eliminate all negative risks and maximize the benefits from the positive risks from the initiation till the closure of the project.

The project management team comprises of the Project controllers, Engineering managers, Architects, Team leaders, Project coordinators, Quality managers, Procurement managers, Risk managers . Resource managers, Communications managers etc.

The project teams comprises of the people who really execute the work

Till PMBOK7 shows the growth path for those who belong to the Project management teams at present to the true Project Manager who is at the helm of affairs and whose primary objective is to steer the project through all uncertainties and deliver the intended value to the project owner and end user.

Another key aspect of PMBOK7 is that it is general enough to be applied for any type of project with proper tailoring. It is a collection of Models, Methods & Artifacts that can be arranged / sequenced as per the project management approach of the project.

If we approach PMBOK7, with this as the context, then everything starts making sense.

Structure of PMBOK7

Values	Principles	Performance domains
Responsibility	Stewardship	Stakeholders
Respect	Team	Team
Fairness	Stakeholders	Development approach & Life cycle
Honesty	Value	Planning
	Systems thinking	Project work
	Leadership	Delivery
	Tailoring	Measurement
	Quality	Uncertainty
	Complexity
	Risk
	Adaptability & Resilience
	Change Management

Most of the Inputs, Tools & Techniques from PMBOK6 with some new additions forms the section Mpdels, Methods & Tools in PMBOK7.

Models	Methods	Artifacts
Leadership models	Data gathering & Analysis	Strategy Artifacts
Communication models	Estimating	Logs & Registers
Motivation models	Meeting & Events	Plans
Change models	Other methods	Hierarchy Charts
Complexity model		Baselines
Project team development models		Visual data and information
Other models		Reports
		Agreements & Contracts
		Other artifacts

These models, methods and artifacts are linked to the performance domains. These linkages will be explained in the subsequent articles.

Integrated project monitoring and control, PMBOK, PMBOK7, Project Management, Trends in project management

PMBOK7 – Impact Analysis

Till yesterday, when people anxiously asked me about the changes in PMBOK7, my reply was in the form of another question – ‘Can you execute a project without any one of the knowledge areas (listed below)?’. The answer is a unanimous ‘No’. So they are inevitable. They have to be there in the new version hidden somewhere. If you can master the 10 knowledge areas and their application in both predictive and agile project management, you are pretty much done with project management. That is my view.

I am glad that my views hold good after going through all the 370 pages of the new PMBOK7.

The Ten Knowledge Areas evolved from Version 1 to Version 6 of the Project Management Body of Knowledge;

Project Integration Management
Project Scope Management
Project Schedule Management
Project Cost Management
Project Quality Management
Project Risk Management
Project Resource management
Project Procurement management
Project communications management
Project stakeholder management

These are immortal. Projects cannot succeed without them. The sequences may vary.

The PMBOK7 looks like an apex manual explaining the;

12 principles of professional project management (new)
8 project performance domains (new)
Tailoring guidelines
Models, methods and artifacts (Not part of the PMBOK7 document, but accessible from the digital library, Old, taken from PMBOK6)

High level mind map of PMBOK7

PMBOK7 comprises of 12 principles, 8 performance domains, tailoring guidelines and the models, methods and artifacts contained in a digital library ‘PM Standards Plus’ maintained by PMI. The immediate thought can be, about the 10 knowledge areas, 5 process groups, 49 processes and the inputs, tools & techniques and the outputs of the PMBOK6. Where is the place for them in the PMBOK7. All of that is under the digital library ‘PM Standards Plus’. In essence, nothing is lost during the transition from PMBOK6 to PMBOK7, and at the same time 12 principles, Eight project performance domains and the tailoring guidelines sits on top of the digital library PMStandards Plus which is nothing but the PMBOK6 contents, that makes up the 10 knowledge areas evolved from version 1.0 till 6.

How will this impact the different stakeholders who comprise the project management community?

Impact on Practitioners – the organizations who have shaped their project management policies and procedures around the structure of PMBOK versions 1 to 6 will have the added opportunity to embrace value driven delivery which can accommodate the whole gamut of project management ranging from large infrastructure projects to research and development projects. Even if they do not change anything, nothing will be in contradiction to PMBOK7.
Impact on 12,0000 PMPs World Wide – Change will always push us outside our comfort zones. Initially there can be expectation mismatch and the frustration stemming out of it. Once one dig deeper, like me, they also will realize that the changes are more to the value system and structure, than to the content.
Impact on PMP trainers – PMP trainers who are good at both predictive and agile project management will not find it difficult. The ones, who have not yet understood the true spirit of agile may need to gain hands on experience on agile to really understand and explain value driven project management.
Impact on the new PMP aspirants – PMI, keeps on repeating the fact that the PMP aspirants can still use the PMBOK6 as the reference material. Going by the earlier revisions, even if one use PMBOK Version 5, it should not make much of a difference because the fundamentals of project management cannot be changed as it revolves around the famous Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle and around the 10 knowledge areas. If you have already completed your PMP preparatory training, then do not disrupt your preparation. Proceed with PMBOK6 as the basis. It will be good if you can go through the new PMBOK7 quickly to understand those new jargon (not many any way).
Impact on other Agile frameworks and certifications – If the PMBOK7 gets wider acceptance, and if the new PMPs are equally adept in both predictive and agile project management frameworks then other agile frameworks and certifications will face a strong contender in PMBOK7 and PMP2021. PMI themselves will be forced to stop the PMI-ACP, as it will become redundant within PMI’s portfolio.

Abrachan Pudussery (Aby)

Project Management Domain Expert, Wrench Academy

Category: Project Management