Summarizing my brief tips for project managers

So, that was the 10 posts. Here are my 10 brief tips for successful project management summarized (each sentence links back to the individual post):

1. Do not forget that it is the people in the project teams that actually deliver successful projects
2. Be sure to use every chance throughout the project to manage expectations
3. Be sure to put conclusions in writing immediately, even if not using documentation heavy methods
4. You can never communicate too much as a project manager
5. Keep a close eye on risks throughout the project and use a visual risk log as a communication tool
6. Starting - not just planing, but actually doing - the most difficult tasks as early as possible increases the likelihood of a good result and minimizes the effect of a bad one
7. Establish checkpoints that you follow in each of your projects, even if operating in an agile way
8. As a project manager, try to add value beyond administering the project
9. Make sure that you have buy-in on all relevant levels, and reconfirm this as the project moves on
10. Try to look beyond the project, to ensure the project contributes to reaching the overall goals of the organization

When I look at it now, what do I feel – should I have changed something drastically? I think I might have created one specific post on goals. I think it is really important to have the goals clearly defined (and on the right level) and understood across project team and stakeholders. That is maybe buried a bit in the “managing expectations” heading in the current list of tips. Make sure to have it clearly visible in your mental checklist.

Apart from that and to be sure to communicate roles and responsibilities very clearly (and also to always work in stages or increments, but that is sort of given and an underlying assumption in everything that I have written so far, I think...) I am quite happy with the list as it has developed. But you might not be, and then the best way to show it would be leaving a comment. :-)

The always challenging question of summarizing it all in a sentence? Well, how about: Be proactive and care for your team, choose common sense rather than legal fights and have fun!?

Final brief tip, #10: Look beyond the project

I must admit that I love projects. I find them energizing and really enjoy going from the unavoidable feeling of uncertainty if it is feasible at all, to a successful delivery. I also like to be able to finish off, and then start a new one – with clean sheets (for the joy of Norwegian readers, I’d like to add a reference to Alf Prøysen, who came from a place close to my mother’s, at this point: “Du skal få en dag i mårå”, which I would say translates more or less to “You’ll have another chance tomorrow”).

Even if it you are like me and are happy about finishing off the project and then start a new one, possibly a different place and in a different field: I urge you to try to win the war, not only the battle… Thus my 10th and for now final tip is worded like this:

Try to look beyond the project, to ensure the project contributes to reaching the overall goals of the organization

You can be sure no-one will thank you for delivering on your formal mandate, if the product you delivered does not really leave behind anything valuable or useful when the project is terminated.

For me a key aspect of project management, as well as management in general, is to pursue continuous improvement, both within the project and across all projects of the company. The more mechanistic aspects of this, with Lessons Learned logs etc., are well covered in most project management methods. But it is of course even better if you can adjust course rapidly (agile, if you will…) as the project goes along, and that is as much a question of attitude as of hefty templates.

Another classical fight is the one between short terms requirements (“give me that functionality, and give it to me now!”) and long term demands of architecture and maybe even cleaning up some old mess. Again, trying to eat the elephant in smaller pieces is key – try to build architecture project by project and if you have a large code base (and they are never only pretty), leave it just that little bit better every day. Oh, and when estimating the cost of your next project: Make sure to estimate the required time and cost to improve architecture as you conduct the project.

I am considering writing a piece about project portfolio management, arguing that this is really more than what can be achieved in a project management office or similar structures. I hope to do this sometime before Christmas. Please come back to have a look. My next piece, though – and hopefully in just a few days, will be summarizing the brief tip series of posts.

Brief tip 9: Ensure buy-in and reconfirm along the way

Wow, a new post not that long after the previous. Another brief tip coming up, which is is simply going to be worded like this:

Make sure that you have buy-in on all relevant levels, and reconfirm this as the project moves on

The first part might be too self-evident, but make a mental note of the second part. It is in fact easy to forget this in the spur of the moment, and a project can often be nothing but a long sequence of hectic moments. Taking the time to involve key stakeholders, getting their opinions and buy-in (adjusting the course as required) will give you back the effort tenfold later – which may in turn contribute to more control of the hectic moments later in the project...

I think the tip is relevant on both a team level and an executive level. On the executive level, you might find yourself trying to mitigate different and conflicting interests. When this is not feasible, you hopefully have set up escalation mechanisms to get to a decision and move forward. This process also ties closely back to the second PM brief tip of managing expectations closely.

On a team level, reconfirming tasks, responsibilities and estimates are all important. This will also be a self-reinforcing loop, as team members tend to take on more responsibility when given the trust. Of course, you will have to work hard to create a context where the likelihood of succeeding give OK odds – if not the responsibility will be more like Scott Adams demonstrates for Dilbert as shown below:


I also think the principle of reconfirmation and no surprises can be used to contradict what some people seem to think about “that great final presentation of the project”: My take is that there is absolutely no point in such a “big bang" final presentation aimed at impressing and surprising the audience (often CxO-level). Share your thoughts (and software, if your project is developing any) early as much as possible, refine them along the way and deliver the final presentation knowing that the message will be understood.

Brief tip 8: Add value beyond administering

A little while since my last post. Looking back (wine, food and beaches in Tuscany and later Spain - then a surprise U2 concert as a birthday present from my wife), I can't say I got the priorities wrong. Good project management. :-) Anyway, here is another "brief tip":

As a project manager, try to add value beyond administering the project

The last year, I have completed my PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner certifications. In PRINCE2 there is a pretty clear advice that the role of the project manager “…is to manage, not to do”. While I see it as important that the project manager don’t loose her view of the big picture because of working on details, I actually think that it usually works better if the project manager can add some subject matter expertise or otherwise contribute beyond administering the project.

Some project managers have a technical background before being promoted to their own level of incompetence (the Dilbert Principle in all its beautiful essence). For these, taking part in architectural roles or detailed design may be a good way to be involved beyond the project administration. Others may contribute to testing, others again will have a strong hand on the business case and marketing plans.

I think you get some things for free if you as a project manager participate actively in the project (“doing”, if you will…). For instance if you take a role as a tester[2], you get project content and status under the skin “for free” that you would otherwise have actively worked to obtain.

For the team to see that the project manager is working along them (a Scrum master might very well be a developer for the most part of his time) can also be motivating and it shortens distances for communication and makes it easier for the project manager to detect problems early through informal channels.

[1] – PRINCE2 is a trademark of the Office of Government and Commerce in the UK and other countries

[2] – I do agree with PRINCE2 that the project manager should not be the same person as responsible for quality assurance though. If at all possible, it will make life easier for everyone knowing that there is two different persons filling those roles.

Brief tip 7: Choose your checkpoints

In my current job at PA, we have checkpoints, forms and procedures to ensure quality and avoid taking too much risk. That is all very fine if you have the machinery to handle that, as is the case with PA. But what if you don’t? I think you still need some sort of checkpoints (often commercially focused), even when you operate using agile methods.

I’d like to share with you what we ended up with when selecting some checkpoints for our projects at Inspera and hope you will find it useful. These are, more or less, the mandatory checkpoints we ended up with:

• Starting work on a proposal
• Delivering a proposal
• Project initiation/kick-off
• Periodical reporting of progress and budgets (here it was monthly, YMMV)
• Project sign-off, with a simple client satisfaction survey and handover to maintenance

What if you are not ready even for this level of formalism? If I should keep just two checkpoints, I think I’d go for proposal delivery (Who approves this in your company? Rules of thumbs for estimate breakdowns? Have cross-project coordination of resources been taken into account?) and of course sign-off. This would probably be in a very small environment where surveillance of risk and project status would be done rather hands on by the general manager anyway.

I guess one wording of this tip could be:

Establish checkpoints that you follow in each of your projects, even if operating in an agile way

“Even in an agile way” might sound strange, but while the almost automatic checkpoint built into many agile processes (such as the sprint review) can be combined with commercial ones, that does not happen automatically.

That was my tip #7, written at Bremen airport in Germany - traveling to Belgium this weekend with my wife who currently works in the Netherlands. If you don’t agree or have something to add, please leave a comment.

Brief tip 6: Do the hard things early

As I mentioned, agile methods have some built-in capability of reducing risk by having a working version early and improving it in increments. In my experience getting an early version up often uncovers miscommunication and can minimize the cost of this.

However, I have found, both using cousins of Scrum and occasionally also methods maybe best described as the evil twin of the waterfall process (!), that there is often a tendency to postpone the hard tasks that we do not know how to handle. Don’t.

In fact, I’d like to advice as my tip #6:

Starting - not just planing, but actually doing - the most difficult tasks as early as possible increases the likelihood of a good result and minimizes the effect of a bad one

Starting working on the hard tasks early has multiple advantages, which include:

• You learn more about the problem domain early on, often this helps finding the final solution even if it will not be finalized until a later iteration.
• Often the hardest tasks in a software development project involve complex integrations and multiple parties. Then it is often length of the calendar time that is required, with the hot potato being passed around, and not so much the number of hours worked that will help. Also the effect of adding more resource when already late has been questioned all the time since the seventies (“Mythical man month”, anyone?).
• Some times the hardest tasks are actually not possible (or at least not feasible) to solve. Finding the workaround or even scrapping the project or functionality early is so much better.

That was my tip #6. Please leave any comments below. My best wishes for the Easter also go out to everyone stumbling across my blog.

Brief tip 5: Use a visual risk log as a communication tool

Risk is most often defined as uncertainty of outcome (both PRINCE2 and PMBOK stress that both negative and positive impacts are considered risks). As a project manager you cannot always find appropriate actions to mitigate risks, but you should be sure to communicate your view of risks and their status.

One of the great things about agile methods is that they have a built-in capability of reducing risk by working in small increments. Nevertheless, risk management is sometimes overlooked by Scrum-masters and the like that was “born agile” that does not have the classical, old fashioned if you will, project pyramid theory under the skin. I actually think this is an area where the agile movement can be supplemented by methods from more traditional methods, such as PRINCE2 or PMBOK.

The steps in risk management are really quite straightforward: 1) Identify risks 2) Classify them 3) Select appropriate actions. I think it is important to separate risk identification and classification. If you don’t, the risk (pun intended) of prematurely ignoring a risk as already handled or not understanding its impact if happening it is too great. Risk classification will vary from project to project and organization to organization, but impact, probability and proximity (in time) will be safe bets as a starting point. Needless to say, the risk log should be a live document that you keep updated throughout the project – I would say that a weekly review is a minimum.

If you set up the format of your risk log, be it a formal risk log of your favourite project management method or a more informal overview you keep for yourself, in a practical way, you can automatically view the risks visually. I have found this to be a good tool for communicating the status of risks to project boards and the like. Below is a risk matrix for this blog post created by such a setup:


I have uploaded the excel sheet that I used to create the above graph. I hope you find it useful. As mentioned, I think the risk log and resulting matrix can be a great communication tool – even if the exact computation of impact and probability is not very sound mathematically. The idea is of course both to keep an overview, but also to move the risks down and to the left. But don’t let the matrix lull you into a false sense of control, of course.

That was my tip #5. If you don’t agree, please leave a comment. Oh and I almost forgot to formulate the actual tip, here goes:

Keep a close eye on risks throughout the project and use a visual risk log as a communication tool

Brief tip 4: Communicate early, communicate often

This tip is simply:

You can never communicate too much as a project manager

You should communicate clearly, often and repeat important messages even after you think everyone knows every little detail of it. They don’t. This is not because they are lazy or forget easily, it is just that most often they have not had the information internalized through lengthy discussions or working on the issue for a long time.

When the first members of the team smiles ironically when you repeat the message, you are not even half way through. When team starts to make jokes or even parodies of your most repeated messages, I would argue you are probably about three-quarters through getting a message out to everyone that will be sticky.

I also believe in sharing whatever information you have with the team early, even if you are still waiting for a conclusion of an external discussion. Even if one can argue that this can be confusing for the team sometimes, I feel it builds trust. Also, you avoid running into situations where you are unsure what you can say based on what you have said before. If you don’t do it, you will sometime have to make priorities that are hard to understand for the team. So I think saying “this is all that I currently know and I will share it now” is usually the best way of handling it.

This philosophy plays well with a notion of involving the team in decisions and to be able to make rapid adjustments of direction. You can formulate the principle of over-communication as a virtue the way I do in the title of this post: Communicate early, communicate often. As an added bonus, a little word play back to one of the principles of agile software development. :-)

That was my tip #4. If you don’t agree or would have ranked it differently, please leave a comment.

Brief tip 3: Now, write that down

Even if you use lightweight methods, which can be an excellent choice, with less focus on documentation it does NOT mean that you abandon writing down conclusions from meetings, internal discussions or how a difficult project issue was agreed to be handled. My most basic, but maybe the most useful, tip is:

Be sure to put conclusions in writing immediately, even if not using documentation heavy methods

I find over and over in projects that same discussions will be repeated throughout the project because participants are unsure what was concluded. To settle a discussion can sometimes be hard and time consuming work. Then you ought to think that writing it down and sending it by email just “to confirm and summarize my understanding of the conclusion” would be easy and done at once? The next time, do it.

Writing down conclusions is equally useful for internal architectural discussions and for external commercial ones. This is also related to the previous point about expectations and mutual understanding. You have the chance to use the power of definition. Your customer or your team will even thank you for it most of the time. Writing things down to document decisions will help you tremendously delivering projects, agile or not – it is what consultants like to call quick wins or low-hanging fruits.

That was my tip #3. Now go pick those fruits. I look forward to read any comments – even if you don’t agree, or maybe particularly if that is the case.

Brief tip 2: Manage those expectations!

Excuse me for the use of the exclamation mark in the title. I promise not to do it again, but as this point was beaten to the #1 spot, I just had to do it. :-) I can’t say strongly enough how important I feel this is.

Let’s take a slightly academic approach. Let’s say that customer satisfaction relies primarily on:
1) What the customer expects
2) What you deliver in your project

Now, how long do you spend doing 1) and 2) during the whole life cycle of the project? Seriously, do think about it for a minute. I have found that it can sometimes be extreme. That holds true both on a project level, but also on the micro level – haven’t you sometimes spent hundreds of hours tweaking a feature that the customer didn’t actually find that important? Could you maybe just have negotiated that out, perhaps giving something more valuable with less work in return?

Typically I find that way too little time and effort is spent on managing expectations. One way to uncover misaligned expectations is to be explicit about what you are NOT planning to deliver or do. Expectation management is not an one-off in an early phase, but something that you continue to do at every chance all the way until the project is signed off. Thus I formulate my tip #2 as:

Be sure to use every chance throughout the project to manage expectations

The process of managing the expectations all the way through the project is not only to the benefit of the supplier. Another expression for managing the expectations could actually be to really understand the customer’s needs. So if it is more politically correct, feel free to change the title of the point to “ensure mutual understanding”…

You can talk about managing expectations internally as well (for instance for the team or line management if you are in a matrix organization environment), but I won’t do that here.

That was my tip #2. I look forward to read any comments – even if you don’t agree, or maybe particularly if that is the case.

Brief tip 1: Don’t forget the people

I promised to deliver the tips in a roughly prioritized order. Thus, I had to start with this one – especially since most of my other tips will be somewhat more focused towards the harder aspects of delivering successful projects. So tip number one is:

Do not forget that it is the people in the project teams that actually deliver successful projects

The softer skills, needed to foster a team environment everyone will enjoy, contribute to project success at least as much as methods, templates and processes do. Motivated and happy team members run in circles around their dissatisfied and demoralized cousins! They take responsibilities and grow in a self-reinforcing virtuous circle. When you have gained trust early on in the project, they start raising issues as early as they even begin to sense them, instead of just before they blow up on you all.

Often the role of the project manager will be more of a facilitator than a more traditional manager. Also, if you operate in an environment and/or framework that command traditional top-down thinking, getting the balance right with bottom-up empowerment is important.

You should not only cultivate your team internally. Remembering to take good care of people and show a behaviour that helps people feel valued are equally important when dealing with people outside the team, for instance the customer if you are a supplier. If you run intro trouble, and almost any project of a significant size will at some point during its lifecycle, it will be so much easier to settle and move on if you already have established a platform of trust and maybe even a type of friendship with the client at this point.

And by the way: Don't try faking it. You will get caught and nothing will destroy carefully earned trust faster. So you have to really love your job and care about your team...

That was my tip #1. I look forward to read any comments, but you will have a hard time arguing that people are not important – even if you can present hard facts or rankings to back them up (this is one of my top five favorite Dilbert strips of all time, taken from “The Dilbert Principle” book by Scott Adams):