3 Benefits of Training with Activia and What Business Problems It Will Address

Gone are the days where employees stayed at their jobs their entire life; now staying for three to five years is considered normal. But replacing staff should be as easy as placing an ad in the papers, right?

Wrong.

According to Oxford Economics, it can cost up to £30,614 (and seven months) for a company to replace a departing employee. This cost is from:

the lost output the company experiences while the new worker is trained up to speed, usually around 28 weeks.
the cost of replacing that employee, including advertising costs, agency fees, time spent on interviews, etc.

With these figures, it’s no wonder why many small and medium-sized businesses are reluctant to invest in employee training. Training them, only to lose them later, simply doesn’t seem to be worth it.

But is this attitude helpful or self-serving? Should the possibility of staff leaving determine whether you train them or not? What happens if they don’t leave and you’ve missed the chance to improve your business? Taking this view is narrow-minded and can potentially be dangerous to business longevity.

Benefits of Staff Training

Training employees should be an essential activity for all organisations. Apart from avoiding recruitment expenses, here are some more benefits of staff training:

It empowers employees with the knowledge and skills they need to increase their contribution to the business.
It improves business performance and productivity.
It improves staff morale, loyalty and staff retention – by investing in them, you’re showing them how much you value them.
It leads to a reduction in wasted time and materials.
It leads to a reduction in staff turnover and absenteeism.

It’s also important to mention here that, on average, companies that invest at least £ 1,000 per annum on staff training earn higher profit margins than those who don’t.

Selecting a Training Provider

However, for those companies that do want to upgrade their staff’s skills, choosing a training provider can be difficult. There are around 12,300 private training providers in the UK alone, all with different areas of expertise and delivery methods. So what should you pay attention to when looking for a vendor?

The following are key questions to ask any prospective training provider. The answers to these questions can help you narrow down your options so you can find the right fit for your staff.

Where can you deliver training?
How will your training improve my staff’s performance?
How many clients do you work with?
How many trainers do you work with?
Can you develop a training programme for both large and small businesses?
How do you measure participants’ progress?

The Benefits of Training with Activia

For interactive and learner-focused training, look no further than Activia. Our trainers use a wide range of models, case studies, and skills practice to engage delegates. We ensure all delegates leave their sessions with knowledge, information, and the tools required to excel in their field. Some of our other unique features include:

Our Online Tools
Skills Appraisal: For a tailored learning experience, we ask delegates to take our Skills Appraisal test. This is to assess their proficiency and advise them on the best courses to take.
Course Creator: Looking to brush up on specific topics? Our Course Creator tool allows you pick and choose individual modules and create a bespoke training course. This allows you focus on getting the exact training you need with no fluff.

The Dashboard: The dashboard provides a one-click access to your entire Activia account. From here, you can change your account settings, view your booking history, your invoices, certificates, and so on.

Free eLearning: Using our eLearning revision platform, delegates can revisit and review the topics they covered in the course.

The Quality of our Courses: We’ve been in the training business for over twenty years, keeping abreast of every change in the business and the training industry. At Activia, we’re constantly refining our training methods so we can deliver actionable world-class training, every single time. At our training centres, we always keep class sizes between two and a maximum of 12. In our experience, this class size ensures that all delegates get adequate attention from the instructor.

Our Competitive Pricing –With 12 training centres in major cities across the UK, we can easily deliver group or one-on-one training, but if you’d prefer we train your staff at your office, that can also be arranged. All our prices are highly competitive due to our trading volumes, which means that we can offer delegates increased training quality at lower costs. We also offer discounts for early booking, low occupancy, and various special promotions.

To find out more about the best options for your training, then Activia’s staff are ready to help you with friendly, knowledgeable advice. If you’d like to talk to someone about your training needs and our offering, just fill in our contact form with your message and we’ll be back in touch very soon.

January 19, 2016April 26, 2019 Linky

Mindset of a Successful Project Leader

When comparing the qualities needed to be a successful manager (as shown in the Infographic below) with the characteristics of a successful project leader, and research analysis, there is much overlap.

Good managers tend to be natural leaders with a genuine interest in helping others. Not all project managers are natural leaders, but fortunately that is a skill that can be honed, especially when coupled with the desire to serve others.

Effective leadership is built on respect and trust. Leadership is critical during the beginning phases of a project when emphasis is on communicating the vision and motivating and inspiring the project team to achieve high performance. In a project context leadership is about focusing the efforts of a group of people toward a common goal and enabling them to work as a team. It’s also the ability to get things done through others.

Guidance to the project team is given in the form of influencing, mentoring and monitoring, as well as evaluating the performance of the team and the project. Open communication is essential together with listening to your team’s needs.

It’s always in the best interest of project leaders to keep investing in their own development and growth. For professionals who are new to project management, check out the Growth Program for new Project Managers that will put you on a fast-track for learning how to become a successful project leader.

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Inside the Mind of a Successful Manager

Online Masters in Business Administration

January 18, 2016January 16, 2016 Linky

Attention Aspiring Project Management Professionals

Important announcement for project managers who plan to do the PMP exam in 2016.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has changed the PMP Exam on January 11th. Cornelius Fichtner has published information in this regard on his PM Prepcast website and explains what it means for you. This is to share it with you and to help answer any questions you may have while preparing for this important exam.

Click here to read more

Remember that there’s a 10% discount on the PM Prepcast in January, which means $18 off if you use coupon code Jan16

January 11, 2016July 2, 2024 Linky

10 Reasons Why There Is Always Need Of Project Management

By Shikha Menwal

At some point you might have wondered: “Do I really need a project management for my company?” Well, project management is to business what food is to the body. The former is integral to the survival of the latter. So, there goes your answer! But what really makes project management such a crucial tool for thriving in the industry? The reasons are plenty, but here are some major points that make project management such a critical ingredient in the recipe for entrepreneurial success.

#1 To avoid the likelihood of reworking!

Who doesn’t like to get things done in the very first go? We all want to avoid reworking the same thing. According to a survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon, 70% – 85% of the total rework cost in projects occur due to the failure to specify all the requirements during the analysis phase. Also, 25%-40% of money gets wasted as a result of having to redo a major chunk of work.

Project management encourages collaboration. Collaboration helps enlist all the requirements right in the beginning when details are discussed. You can avoid do-overs altogether and get it right the very first time.

#2 Getting off on the right foot!

No one likes to hear things such as ‘could have’, ‘would have’, ‘should have’. With a strong work foundation, you won’t have to hear such statements. Project scope definition, statement of purpose, identifying business risks and limitations, and defining the objective of project; all this is part project management and will ensure that you get off on the right foot. Business analysis and project management let you make necessary adjustments in the plan and see if the scope of a project sounds feasible or not.

#3 Exercising control over change!

When running projects, get ready to deal with many changes in requirements because things are never as simple as they seem. This is where change management philosophy comes in. It allows managers to find an exhibit through various conflicting priorities. They are able to seamlessly integrate new changes into ongoing activities without disrupting the flow of work.

#4 Improved communication at all levels

According to one of the studies conducted by PMI, it has been observed that around 90% of problems in most projects arise due to lack of communication. With right project management, teams get to know their responsibilities, priorities, and what is expected from them. It would lay down simple and effective channels of communication. It helps to align everyone’s understanding of overall work.

#5 Documenting successes and failures

Learning never stops! This is the prime focus of project management. Project reviews documents the highlights where teams have excelled and the areas where they could have performed better. As the project reaches completion, both positives and negatives can be documented for future reference. A project manager would know which mistakes to avoid and what practices should be implemented that proved successful in the past. It’s like implementing learnings from one project for future endeavours.

#6 Selecting the optimal course of activities

There can be multiple ways to achieve the same output! But, a project manager needs to know which way is the most optimal one. A project is about implementing a series of activities in succession. But, which course of action is likely to have least possible constraints and challenges? Project management answers such questions and enables you to select the most optimal series of activities in the right sequence.

#7 For maintaining focus

Focus is the essence that makes the impossible possible. Someone who knows the art of project management inside out will keep everyone focused by helping them see the bigger picture. Project management leads the team towards the end goal. It wards off unnecessary distractions that team members might face. It’s the way to making sure that each and every thing in the process is properly planned, documented, and completed on schedule.

#8 Time and budget limit

Any project execution is challenging, because it needs to be done within certain constraints. Project managers define the deadlines and decide how much cost is likely to be incurred. Project management is about achieving goals while staying within the said timelines and budget.

#9 Keeps everyone posted!

We know that projects happen to be multi-dimensional. Several departments work collectively for the attainment of common goals. Lack of coordination brings chaos, which is the last thing a project needs. Project managers coordinate work across all the departments and ensure everyone is aware of the progress. When everyone is on the same page, communicating changes and discussing further details becomes easier.

#10 Prepares everyone for the unforeseen events

Projects are bound to come across multiple challenges and risks. Project management prepares everyone to handle most unexpected happenings in the most natural way. Being prepared for anything will keep you going in the right direction.

In conclusion, by inculcating project management principles and theories, project managers can streamline all the tasks and guide teams to work collectively towards a single goal.

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About the Author: Shikha Menwal is a writer at ProofHub. Her academic credentials include a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences. From lifestyle, to technology, and management, etc. she has written about myriad of industries in her writing career during the last three years.

January 8, 2016March 31, 2019 Linky

2016 – A New Year like a Chapter in a Book

“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” Melody Beattie

At the beginning of the year, most people are motivated for new beginnings. That’s why people have New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, most resolutions don’t last and people forget what they were motivated about at the beginning of the year.

I have done away with New Year’s resolutions a long time ago. Instead, I do what has always worked for me that is to identify my top 5 Goals for the year, then break it down to smaller goals that are SMART (Specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, time-bound). This keeps me focused on the things I would like to do and helps me to finish one thing at a time.

After a refreshing holiday away from home, spent in beautiful surroundings, I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to what 2016 holds. At work I’m working on an exciting Programme with multiple projects and there are many initiatives planned for Virtual Project Consulting this year.

My eldest son is in Matric, his final school year, and I’m astonished at how quickly his school career is going by. The other two children have their own interests, sports and activities that will keep my husband and me on our toes this year.

At Virtual Project Consulting we are working full swing on making new things a reality. We want to continue adding value to our existing and aspiring project management community. You can expect to see the following themes covered this year on our Blog from our own articles as well as from contributing guest authors.

Leadership
Social media in project management
Project management software, tools, recommended Podcasts
Project management as a career
Project management soft skills and more on personality profiling
Project management methodologies and processes
Change Management
Project Governance

There will be a special focus on project managers who are new to the profession and who are often called “accidental project managers”.

We will continue to bring you the most recommended resources on project management software, training, products, books and events. Also look out for more Success Stories being published from experienced project managers. Don’t forget about the Podcasts as well as free resources being shared.

I’m also excited to send you more details about the book: “Strategic Integration of Social Media into Project Management Practice” for which I’m a contributing author. The projected release date is March 2016.

I would like to wish each one of our readers a very successful, fruitful and fulfilling 2016! Please share in the comments what your goals are for the New Year.

Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss future future articles, tips and success stories!

December 18, 2015February 13, 2022 Linky

Reflections on 2015

Another year is coming to an end which calls for a personal reflection on the year of 2015. What a wonderful journey it has been with numerous highs and very few low points.

Memorable moments

There were plenty of highlights in 2015. At work we concluded a 14-month long Programme successfully. I facilitated a number of closing workshops and project reviews on lessons learnt. Many new relationships were developed with a few growing into friendships that will outlast the projects. What will make this Programme very memorable, is the honour of receiving a CIO award for Delivery Excellence at the end.

As one Programme came to an end, I moved on to the next Programme with its own challenges, complexities and relationships to be formed with new team members. And in that lies the pleasure and fulfilment of being a professional project manager. There is never a dull moment and what an interesting journey to get to know new processes, systems and new people. To work with and appreciate all the talented individuals who are chosen to work on big corporate Programmes.

Virtual Project Consulting

As far as Online activities are concerned, our presence through Virtual Project Consulting, continued to grow as a website with the most comprehensive recommended resources about project management software, training, products, books and events.

In the blog section appeared several articles covering leadership, change management, project methodology, project success stories from experienced project managers, guest posts, reviews of different project software, how to compare online project management software, Agile project management and emotional intelligence among others. Podcasts of our Best Practice articles, as well as the Success Stories have been published.

Contributing Author

This year a Book opportunity presented itself to me through an invitation to contribute a Chapter to a book about the Strategic Integration of Social Media into Project Management Practice, due for publishing in 2016. This came about as a result of the extensive research I have conducted in prior years around the use of social media for small business marketing, and more specifically in the project management context.

Anniversary

On the personal front, I am privileged to share that 18 December 2015 is my 22 year wedding anniversary, and I consider it a blessing to be happily married with three children as a reminder of our faithful commitment to each other.

Game Changers

There were a few events that shifted my priorities this year. I worked with a coach who really helped to broaden my perspective, but at the same time, who guided me to focus on getting specific things done that will contribute greatly to growing my online business in future. Some strategic partnerships were also formed which could lead to interesting new opportunities in the new year.

I had my first experience of running my own webinars, of doing a Pilot training program and eventually developing a fully online, self-paced Growth Program for New Project Managers aimed especially at the many Accidental Project Managers in every organisation.

This makes me look forward to making more contributions to the project management field in future. Like a quote from Audrey Hepburn saying: “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible”.

I will continue to live and work my passions and to always be grateful. I wish you a happy and fulfilling time with your loved ones over Christmas and a Prosperous New Year in 2016!

If it’s your first time visiting, please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss future future articles, tips and success stories!

December 10, 2015March 31, 2019 Linky

Working smarter with Project Management Technology

By Josh Benhamou

Given that three quarters of IT Executives believe that their projects are “doomed from the start”, it’s fair to say that Project Managers have to deal with a range of problems on a daily basis. But does it have to be this way? Increasingly, smart use of technology is helping embattled Project Managers everywhere run their projects more efficiently by taking the heavy lifting out of everyday tasks. Whether you need to communicate smarter, tighten up your documentation or simply save time – there’s an app for that. But in the bewildering array of technology solutions available today, it’s not always easy to see which is going to provide the greatest benefit for you and your business.

For a simple example, allow us to introduce Alex and John, two Project Managers struggling with common issues that were resolved with a bit of technological know-how.

#1 Requirements Management

Alex worked as an IT Project Manager in a financial services company for 3 years and was in the scoping and planning stages of a 2-year long project. Like many project managers out there, Alex had found that, on previous projects, requirements management was poorly achieved through lengthy, unmanageable spreadsheets. Alex did not want this to be repeated on such a large scale project. At a project team meeting, she suggested using a requirements management application that would allow the central management of requirements. They decided to try it out and, within three weeks, all requirements were being managed through the online application.

Fast-forwarding a few months takes us to the implementation stage of the project and the results were extremely positive.

The project was a few weeks ahead of schedule due to reduced workload which saved almost $120,000 of Alex’s budget.
The project team had collaborated on each requirement meaning that stakeholders were not surprised by any requirement.
The executive stakeholders were delighted and encouraged with the project thus far giving Alex more flexibility on the project.

#2 Documentation

John is an experienced project manager in a top-tier consultancy. John was in the middle of the Requirements Gathering and Analysis stage of a project for a high-priority client and was getting exasperated with the number of out-dated Requirements documents being sent to key stakeholders. John decided to take action by subscribing to a requirements management and document generation application. He immediately imported all the project requirements to the application and created a customised template to exactly match the clients document branding and structure. The project team began to manage the requirements through the application which allowed them to generate a new up-to-date Requirements Document whenever necessary.

In just 3 weeks, the results were overwhelmingly powerful.

The application reduced the project team’s workload by 20% saving a significant amount of money each week.
Requirements Documents were always up to date and took seconds to generate even with all the system architecture images and customised fields.
The application managed the project documentation which allowed the team to find any required documentation instantly.
Requirements were manged centrally through the application meaning that John benefited from the same results as Alex’s project.

Both Alex and John’s projects completed on schedule and budget beating 93% of the other projects out there. They both achieved this through VINDOC, a requirements management and document generation application.

To find out more about recommended project management resources, tips and tools, please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting.

November 30, 2015February 14, 2022 Linky

10 Principles for Effective Steercom Meetings

By Liz Dewing

Steering Committee effectiveness is achieved by keeping things: Sufficient, Objective, and Succinct (SOS)!

An Executive Sponsor’s worst nightmare is to be surprised by a development on a project….. particularly if that surprise occurs in a public forum when they haven’t had the opportunity to prepare themselves. One way to avoid surprises is to maximize the effectiveness of Steering Committees.

What are the needs

Executive needs are relatively straightforward:

To be kept up-to-speed on progress in general and security of benefits in particular.
To be informed about specific issues or obstacles that are hindering progress (and any significant risks threatening to materialize.)
Opportunity to collectively discuss and determine what actions can be taken to address these – with the RIGHT people at the RIGHT time.
To inform the project about anything forthcoming that may affect the work / require changes.
To achieve this in the least possible time.

On the other hand Project Teams need:

Decisions and Actions and commitment to doing it.
Information – to help move things along.
Guidance – about things they may not know with their limited organizational view.

Regular one-on-ones between the Sponsor and Project Manager can address the bulk of these needs. Where Steering Committee Meetings add real value is when robust collaborative discussion is needed amongst invested leaders who may have differing perspectives and agendas but who must arrive at mutually acceptable decisions in order for work to progress.

Ten Key Principles

Here are 10 key principles to support really effective Steercoms.

#1 Keep the attendee as limited as possible

Only those people who have designated authority to make things happen should attend Steercoms… they are NOT a place for people who simply need to be kept informed.

#2 Avoid repetition

Finalise Minutes and address and resolve actions from previous meetings BEFORE the next Steering Committee. Anything that remains unresolved can be discussed as an Issue.

#3 Avoid revisiting things

If a topic is coming up at Steercom over and over again it is an indication that there is an underlying issue that is NOT being adequately addressed. Identify it. Express it clearly, and escalate it.

#4 Keep an action focus

Make it easy for the Steercom members to make decisions by providing sufficient relevant information in the right formats and be very explicit about what is expected.

NOTE : Make sure the group understand the difference between discussion and decision. Many Steering Committees discuss things at length but fail to ever actually formalize a clear decision as a result.

#5 Keep the ‘routine’ consistent and predictable

Following a consistent process and format using a consistent process, format and tools, allows members to focus on content with full attention.

#6 Make sure mechanisms that are used are understood

For Example – Red / Amber / Green statuses are often interpreted very differently by different people.

#7 Celebrate achievement

This is so that successes become part of the routine as well as challenges – Steercoms that focus purely on problem-solving are very draining!

#8 Always be fully prepared

Minutes circulated and approved, progress on actions up-to-date and distributed for review, a detailed agenda and any pre-reading required sent out in advance, and an up-to-date dashboard available for review. Being prepared also means the Sponsor has had a briefing ahead of time and knows what to expect in terms of content AND potential for conflict.

Build a culture of preparedness and lead by example.

#9 Insist on Ownership from the Steering Committee members

A Project Manager is a Facilitator of outcomes, not an Owner. The Executive and Business Owners are the ones who need to live with, derive benefit from and continue to operate the outcomes of a project, so they must take responsibility for ensuring what is delivered WILL meet their needs.

#10 Steercom SOS

Remember that Steering Committee effectiveness is achieved by keeping things: Sufficient, Objective, and Succinct!

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About the Author: Liz Dewing has an extensive career in IT, Project and Project Office Management with various organisations, including 13 years with Old Mutual South Africa. Through consulting she helps people to use their powers of speech more effectively in business and career.

November 5, 2015August 25, 2019 Linky

Chaos to Chaos: The age of agile incrementalism

By Sakhile Malinga

As globalisation snowballs, organisations continue to enter the exciting age of complexity, a chaotic business landscape which is different from the two prior eras in strategy development.

The Eras in Strategy Development

#1 Era of grand design and systematic planning

The desire to over-elaborate the planning was made redundant by constant strategic drift. IBM and the mainframe was the king of the castle. Management approaches included detailed strategic plans with limited support from a changing internal and external environment. The analysis of SWOT (Strength Weakness, Opportunities and Threats) created historical context with a strong sense of hubris if the previous period was successful. Remediation if challenged.

#2 Era of Strategic Positioning

The era gave us value chain analysis, which created the technology giants such as Microsoft, IBM and Cisco. This era capitalised on large enterprise solutions that were meant to facilitate delivery in a Porter Value chain, looking at the 5 forces as a key driver of value (threat of substitute, new entrance, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, intensity of rivalry), with clear distinct variations of stratagem, which was focus, differentiate and cost leadership.

#3 Era of Complexity (Chaos)

The new era of a connected business world, with organic rather than hierarchic tendencies has led to the rise of social architectures that gave rise to the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype and cloud computing. This era is where agile incrementalism raises to the fore. A complex construct with too many unknowns, where change is welcomed and not feared and ownership is shared not assigned.

Leadership in Agile Incrementalism

The main change is primarily from transactional to transformational leadership. ¹

Transaction emphasises contingent rewards, and managing by exception. Transformation exhibits charisma, developing a vision, engendering pride, respect and trust, inspires and pays attention to the followers needs.

Agile incrementalism is transformational and it is incremental and not iterative, the fundamental difference is it does not predict what you want, just builds it better and quicker.

The key principle is the fact that individuals and interactions are preferred over process and tools. Chaos if not thought through. Customer collaboration is preferred over contract negotiations. Responding to change is preferred over following a plan. Working product is preferred over comprehensive documentation. Chaos if underestimated.

Agile affects strategy

Capital Planning – The financial returns on investment of software projects becomes more about “fixing of the problem” rather than finding a solution package.
Productivity – A general prediction of 25% boost in productivity ² in software delivery.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) vs Scope, you deliver what matters first and might not deliver the entire scope. The focus is working software.
Resources – Agile has people and not resources. The approach is more about predictable change and less stress in introducing change.
It’s about the Customer⁵– The time to respond to competition is swift and exciting as this becomes the focus of the team.

Software is a massive contributor to competitive advantage and any organisation that links it to an emerging strategy³ will dominate its market.

The challenges of Agile

You will lose a sense of control, trusting the judgement of the teams to deliver. Allocated capital to solve a problem rather than to deliver a predefined thing will require maturity.
Executive support and buy-in, for the existence of teams not business or IT. The concept of IT and business becomes archaic. The lines cannot be drawn, this becomes objective driven teams.
Requirement will not be required. This translates to business needs; the business will need to have specific needs to be solved.
Scope is variable; hence the power lies not with “completion”, but completing enough to enable the business.
Change will not be welcomed; agile environmental changes will lead to resistance. Chaos does that to people. Training will be necessary for the teams.
Different language, different delivery. The key to delivery will be a common language, whatever you call a thing, let it be a thing.
Embracing Failure – accepting this faster than later in the process is what makes it acceptable.

The age of chaos is exciting, it’s every day that you wake up and expect Apple, or Facebook, Snapchat, Google and Twitter to release a new feature. They use agile, one day we will all use it.

Conclusion

Using any method to achieve an outcome is a good reaction to environmental changes, however locating the reason why a particular method is the right method; helps clarify why the procedures and techniques are vital. Software Agile approaches are methods designed bring a logical approach to a chaotic world.

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About the Author:

Sakhile Malinga is a leader with a strong affinity to all things involving strategy, projects and digital. His purpose is to build stuff and people.

Sources:

Bass, B. (1990). ‘From transactional to transformational leadership: learning to share the vision.’ Organizational Dynamics, (Winter), 19–31.
http://www.deltamatrix.com/why-are-agile-teams-25-more-productive
Johnson G. Managing strategic change—strategy culture and action. Long Range Plan 1992; 25(1):28-36.
Ghobadian, A and O’Regan, N. “ John Lewis Partnership lessons in logical incrementalism and organic growth: A case study and interview with the Chairman, Mr Charlie Mayfield’ Journal of Strategy and management (2008).
Anderson JC, Kumar N, Narus JA. Value Merchants: Demonstrating and Documenting Superior Value in Business Markets. Harvard Business School Press.

October 30, 2015April 26, 2019 Linky

The Accidental Project Manager

By Linky van der Merwe

By definition an Accidental Project Manager is “A business professional where project management is a secondary responsibility, but who is asked to do important corporate projects nonetheless”.

It can also be any person who now manages projects for the first time with little or no prior experience or training.

You may feel a bit like the guy in this picture!

According to research most project managers start out with a qualification which determines their early years’ experience. Often these individuals are technical specialists who were put in charge of projects in their respective fields or industries. If they show potential as managers and work well with people, they tend to gravitate toward project management. With introspection, they would discover that project management actually suits their natural abilities and complements their core talents and skills.

The move to full-time project management becomes easier once they undergo some training that would equip them with adequate technical and interpersonal skills. Although many of these skills are usually honed with experience while managing projects.

Often there would be a high expectation to succeed especially if they come from a background of being a subject matter expert or a manager, managing teams of people.

An accidental project manager would be eager and motivated to learn. Such a manager requires some sort of accelerated learning in order to become more confident at doing project management. A fortunate project manager, would be sent to do a project management course ranging from 5 days (typical project management methodology course) to 6 months with a diploma at the end.

Career Path

In many organisations, there is no clarity on the typical career path options that project managers have. They are left to their own devices with perhaps only their Line Managers giving them guidance and support.

I believe that many good project managers are often lost to the profession if they don’t have a clear career path within an organisation with a mature project management program. There needs to be opportunities created for training and mentoring, for networking with other project managers who are at the same organisation or at least with others who work at similar organisations or in similar industries.

Some-times the right opportunities are not available for project managers to move from being junior to more senior project managers and even program or portfolio managers. A project manager would then have to move to another organisation which presents a growth opportunity, leaving their previous organisation to lose good talent and intellectual property.

Mistakes new project managers make

Understanding how the scenario plays itself out over and over again for new project managers coming on-board into this ‘accidental profession’, it will come as no surprise that the inexperienced project managers will keep making the same mistakes that are so typical, like:

Poor governance (importance of good governance is underestimated, or not understood)
No Business Case
Unclear scope (requirements analysis are not done appropriately, or scope keeps changing)
Not doing proper planning, planning in isolation (common pitfall for new PM’s)
No break-down structure showing phases, milestones with deliverables (no experience with project methodology)
Underestimate the effort, chasing imposed deadlines (no confidence in own/team’s ability to plan well and giving feedback on realistic timelines)
Not proper buy-in from stakeholders (happens often with inexperienced PM with little authority)

Accelerated Learning

What accidental project managers often need, is a fast-track learning program to give them the necessary confidence to see projects through to a successful delivery. They need to grow critical project management competencies and learn how to overcome the biggest challenges on projects.

The learning curve can be steep while trying to become effective as a project manager through trial and error. They can make many mistakes and waste time and money.

PM Toolbox

If an accidental project manager can build the following PM Toolbox when starting out, it will make a big difference in their experience. Once a project is delivered successfully, the sense of accomplishment is a great reward. Good project managers will choose to stay in the profession and pursue project management as a long-term career.

The PM Toolbox would include:

The essential technical project management skills you need for your new role
The soft skills you’ll use daily on projects and how to develop them
Understanding Governance in order to be an effective project manager
The main pitfalls for new project managers and how to avoid them
How to examine your goals and aspirations to define a career path
Which strategies to implement that will yield the biggest results
What it means to be a professional and how you can become one too

For more information on how to build your PM Toolbox as part of a fast-track growth program, visit Project Manager Growth.

October 22, 2015February 14, 2022 Linky

Are you equipped for Project Management? Infographic

In today’s workplace many people find themselves in the position of having to manage projects. If they are not properly equipped or don’t have relevant tools to use, it may cause much stress and frustration.

Wrike conducted a survey on Work Management and put their findings in this interesting Infographic.

It covers roadblocks to productivity, how people manage information, what types of tools people use and more. You will also find the link below to download the full Report.

Infographic brought to you by Wrike

September 28, 2015December 22, 2018 Linky

Project Planning – Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

By Linky van der Merwe

The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a very important tool at the start of your planning phase.

Once you have defined your project scope, it is necessary to create a work breakdown structure. By definition it’s a tool used to define and group a project’s work elements in a way that helps organize and define the total work scope of the project.

There are many benefits to having a WBS as it provides the project manager and team with a task framework that helps with task scheduling and deriving cost estimates. From the WBS you can also identify the Deliverables and Milestones of your project.

It helps to finalise the project scope and plan the project properly. In addition it will help to outline the project budget and to link deliverables to resources.

Types of WBS

There are different types of WBS depending on the type of project. Have a look at some options:

Use project life cycle phases as the 2nd level and deliverables at the 3rd level
Organised based on major deliverables on 2nd level, tasks to be completed on 3rd level

Benefits of a WBS

A WBS will give the project team confidence in that they are clear on the in-scope activities. A well-defined WBS enables resources to be allocated to specific tasks, helps in generating a meaningful schedule, and makes calculating a reliable budget easier.

The WBS will show well defined tasks that can be assigned to a specific individual, who is then responsible for its completion. It will keep the team focused on the project objectives and make them committed to the goals and completion of the project.

Time required

The development of a WBS can take quite some time. Depending on the complexity of your project, the number of people who must provide input and how large the scope is, it can take hours, if not days and multiple workshops to complete. Once drafted, the WBS will require refinement and it may change as the project changes.

However the advantages of having a WBS far outweigh the challenges of creating it. A good WBS makes planning and executing a project easier and lays the groundwork for the schedule, tracking, budgeting, and accountability. It’s considered project management best practice to have a WBS and as such it’s an essential element of overall planning.

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