Author: Linky

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Project Management: 5 Metrics to Measure Project Success

By Maricel Rivera

project success metricsSuccess isn’t absolute. At the fundamental level, project success is difficult to define. According to Computer World, the usual group of project stakeholders – project manager, team members, sponsor, end users and top management – may give the project very different success ratings at any given point in time.

The triangle of time, scope and budget is just the starting point for project managers, as hurdling through the triple constraint is expected for the project’s output to be a success.

Then, there’s the fact that project success goes beyond just the output. As stated by the PMI, “Based on today’s project environments, project managers need to broaden their perspective to include other criteria to satisfy stakeholders and deliver business results.”

How to measure project success

Here are five project success metrics to consider.

#1 Client satisfaction

The project’s end result may squarely fit within the designated time, budget and scope requirements, but is the client happy? Clients, sometimes, cannot eloquently explain what they want, and it is up to the project manager to figure things out. Does the project pave the way to more future partnerships? If not, is the client willing to put his reputation on the line and recommend your company to his peers and colleagues?

#2 Quality of delivery

A project may elicit results the client absolutely loves, but if the people involved in its execution had to go through endless clarification stages and endure unnecessary headaches while working their way to completion, the project may not necessarily be a success. Knowing how team members feel about the overall project can prompt project managers to devise ways to better communicate and define future delivery objectives.

#3 User adoption

A software application as an end product can only be successful if the intended end users actually use it, and use it often. Aside from usage frequency, other questions to ask can include:

  • Is the software user-friendly and easy to navigate?
  • How is the learning curve?
  • Does it address prior user challenges?
  • Overall, is the product an enabler or a nuisance?

#4 Value realization

Apart from satisfying the needs of its clients, a company must also realize its business goals, such as ROI (rate of return), NPV (net present value), among others, for every project it takes on. Shorter time-to-market and faster project delivery benefits not just the client but the business as well, in that this ultimately leads to cost efficiency and more time to take on more projects.

#5 Lessons learned

For every project, successful or otherwise, there are lessons to be learned. While failure is oftentimes seen as a better teacher than success, two important factors to look into when evaluating the success of a project are:

  • Is the project instrumental to increasing the knowledge of its stakeholders?
  • Does it better prepare the company for future endeavors?

Conclusion

Keep in mind, to ensure success above and beyond the output, project and business objectives must be aligned. The above are just five measures to look into when evaluating the success of your projects. What other measures would you like to add? Please add your thoughts in the comments section.

 

About the Author: Maricel Rivera writes content for Comindware, the company behind Comindware Project, a state-of-the-art project management solution providing unique automated scheduling and unmatched collaboration capabilities for professional project execution.

Linky

Tips for Passing your PMP Exam

By Scott Coonrod and Cornelius Fichtner

Do you have as a personal or career goal to obtain your Project Management Professional (PMP)® Certification? Are you wondering about what materials might be the most helpful in studying and where is a good place to start?

If you are interested in the experiences and insights of those who have been there and who have recently passed the PMP Exam, there’s a forum you need to explore on The PM PrepCast website. There are comments from individuals like you who are full of questions and concerns, and looking for a place with information and answers. They also share tips and information concerning their study methods and experiences taking the PMP Exam.

Here are some tips and lessons learned from Scott Coonrod soon after he obtained his PMP certification.

Tips and Lessons learned when preparing for the PMP Exam

  1. Find others who are also studying to obtain their PMP Certification and review key items in the PMBOK® Guide together. Studying with others is a great support system during the exam preparation process.
  2. Go through The PM PrepCast lessons and take notes on the material being presented. Even if you do not go back and refer to the notes later they will serve as a good method for retaining the material.
  3. Take the quizzes after each PM PrepCast Lesson. If you feel as if you missed too many answers, you can always go back and listen to the presentation again or review the notes you had taken.
  4. Answer many, many, many practice questions. The study guide mentioned below comes with a CD with two 200 question sample exams and an option to obtain a third sample exam.
  5. Download free PMP Exam question apps. The great thing about these apps is that many have 25-50 questions each that you can answer whenever you have a free moment.
  6. As you are nearing your PMP Exam date create a data dump sheet with key formulas, definitions, and other items you want to make sure you remember for exam day. Practice recreating it; because that is what you are going to need to do on your exam day.

Tips and Lessons Learned related to PMP Exam study materials

  1. Read the most current version of The PMBOK® Guide together with others who are also looking to pass the PMP Exam if possible.
  2. Include additional study materials like the PMP Prepcast from Cornelius Fichtner, an exam prep video workshop; the “Project Management Professional Study Guide (Fourth Edition)” by Joseph Phillips. This study guide provides you an interactive quiz that indicates not only ‘if’ you answered correctly or incorrectly, but also ‘why’ the answer was correct or incorrect, as you answer each question. Also consider the PMP Exam Prep System from Rita Mulcahy.

Tips and Lessons Learned related to taking the PMP Exam

  1. Know where your exam site is. Allow for plenty of time to get to the Prometric Test Center without causing yourself unnecessary additional stress.
  2. Remember to have your two forms of identification because you will need to prove who you are in order to take the exam.
  3. Do not bring too much stuff with you. You will have to lock everything up because you can’t take anything into the exam room with you.
  4. If you are nervous about taking a computer based exam, don’t worry because there is an optional 15 minute tutorial at the beginning of the exam that does not count toward your PMP Exam time. If you are comfortable taking a computer based exam, use this time to recreate your data dump.
  5. If you start to feel nervous or overwhelmed, take a few deep breaths, tell yourself “you’ve got this”, and keep going.
  6. Answer all of the questions you know and mark those you don’t for follow up. Some questions/answers later in the exam may help you answer those you had marked.

These are just a few examples of the PMP Exam related lessons learned and other tips offered in The PM PrepCast Forum.

Please subscribe (top right) not to miss future updates!

Disclaimer: Some links are affiliate links.
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Project Management Software: How to manage Project Issues better?

By Sharon Thomson

project issuesDuring project execution there are typically a number of issues that need to be resolved. It is important to involve like-minded individuals who can share their knowledge and experience and provide valuable inputs for a breakthrough in resolving an issue.

Why is there a need to hold a discussion over an issue?

An issue that is creating a problem for the project needs an in depth understanding and analysis. Some issues are too complex to come up with an easy solution. Some issues are specific to individuals working in a particular department like marketing, procurement, etc.
For example, a marketing project that is launching a new product into the market require input from people who have the experience in the marketing field to resolve issues. These type of issues need to be addressed fast enough, so as not to delay the implementation of a project.

With many modern day projects having virtual teams who are distributed geographically, it poses a challenge as to how to bring them together on the same platform in order to have a discussion accurately and timely.

Technology comes to the rescue here. Project management systems are specifically designed to enable team members to collaborate over a common issue instantly and spontaneously. The centralized structure of a project management system allows a project issue to be discussed actively by the project members and in a fool-proof manner.

A project management tool allows people to be looped into the project. They can receive email notifications about their expected role in a project and how they can contribute to the project. They can express their willingness to join a project through email. Once their reply is received, they get connected to the project automatically and can start contributing to the discussions. Since certain stakeholders will only participate to help resolve project issues, their security access will be limited. The discussions feature promotes communication amongst small teams comprising of some selected members who are involved in discussions over an issue.

Project discussions can be categorised into two types. The first category is where every member of a project is involved and the other category is where only a few selective and knowledgeable individuals can participate. By applying this structure overloading of shared information can be avoided. Any type of discussion can be initiated depending on the need, scope and sensitivity of the issue.

The facilitation of issue discussions is done effectively by a project management system like ProofHub allowing users to deal with issues faster, contributing to a successful execution of a project.

About the Author:
Sharon Thomson is an author who likes to write on themes and issues related to project management. Through her write-ups she provides tips and suggestions for businesses, so they can better manage their projects and duly achieve their business objectives.

Please subscribe, top right so that you don’t miss future updates!

Linky

Project Management tool – Agile Gantt

Have you been using the Agile approach on your projects, but you find it difficult to present progress to stakeholders without the traditional Gantt Chart view?

Agile Gantt has just been introduced by Projectplace. This is the first tool that combines the functionality of Gantt charts and Kanban boards to bridge the gap between project managers, team members and senior management.

Agile Gantt
The gantt chart (in the bottom half) links to the Kanban boards. The coloured in dots across the bar marked ‘Video Production’ show the progress of this campaign.

Agile Gantt allows project teams to self-organize, prioritize tasks and work towards common goals in tandem with planning by the project manager, who can focus on strategy and meeting goals rather than administration. This new joined-up approach is enabled by integrating well-known Gantt charts, describing timeline and project steps, with Kanban boards, a common tool used by agile teams. This brings project managers and senior management more visibility over the project without placing an unnecessary workload on teams.

Despite Gantt chart’s popularity, it has forced many project managers to spend too much time micro managing and administrating. Agile Gantt is an industry-first; it capitalizes on the strengths of the original Gantt chart, but makes it more useful by empowering all stakeholders in the process. With Agile Gantt, project goals and deliverables can be specified hierarchically and connected to a Kanban board. As team members complete their tasks on the Kanban board that is connected to the Agile Gantt schedule, this is reported automatically and in real-time, providing a highly accessible visualization of how the project is progressing.

Agile management is at the heart of Agile Gantt and the Projectplace platform. It is a set of techniques according to which work should be done by self-organizing teams in a collaborative manner, with granular planning to take place as the project progresses instead of beforehand.

The benefit of this tool is that it offers powerful project steering and agile self-organization, it will unite teams, project managers and senior management on the same platform for the first time. It has a simple to use interface and it’s also available on mobile devices. To try it out, please click on Agile Gantt.

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About Projectplace:  Projectplace is a leading provider of project collaboration tools that enable people and organizations to reach their goals. From the free ToDo collaboration tool to the complete project management platform, Projectplace brings secure and scalable collaboration to individuals, small businesses and large enterprises since being established in 1998.

Please click below to subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss any future updates!

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How to Overcome Culture Challenges on Projects

Success Stories SharedRecently we spoke to a project manager, Richard Price, who shared one of his many success stories which focuses around some interesting challenges he experienced delivering to a complex customer. This is part of the Success Stories Shared initiative whereby experienced project management practitioners share project stories and lessons learnt.

Convergent CRM and Billing Solution Project

It was a CRM and Billing project to deliver an end to end solution that ran almost 9 months with a company called Cerillion, a convergent billing specialist company based in the United Kingdom.

What made this project complex, is the fact that a complex system had to be implemented in Africa, in a country called Mauritania, close to the Sahara desert. It posed challenges with regards to the surroundings, the work culture and the language.

Culture and Customs Mauritania Desert

Many challenges had to do with the country culture and the territory (3/4 consisting of Sahara semi-desert), hot and dry climate with frequent sandstorms and power cuts, that contributed to the project taking longer.

Mauritania consists of two main ethnical groups who are both Sunni Islam. Cultural differences could have derailed the project, but it was handled well by the team members, respect to all peoples ethnic and cultural differences was essential. As an example of the challenges the custom dictated the way women were treated; men were not allowed to shake their hands and needed to be very respectful of how to talk to them. A woman could talk to woman and a man to other men. This made project communications challenging to manage.

Read more …

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Career tips – How to Break into Project Management

Here is a wonderful story about a College Professor from Canada who cares so much about his project management students, that he compiled a special gift for them. An ebook called: 52 Tips to break into Project Management. You will find contributions from project managers all over the world who are passionate about projects.  It’s a privilege to participate in such an endeavour – well done Geoff Crane.

Enjoy the read and please subscribe to my blog (to your right) for more project management gems!

Linky

Change Management Process – Measuring Return on Investment (ROI) Part 2

Change management ROIMany people believe that an effective Change Management process, has become essential in delivering successful projects and getting a return on investment. This is Part 2 on a series about Change Management Processes. In this article we look at how to measure your return on investment (ROI). Part 1 was about the expected benefits from effective change management. 

Projects bring about change. Whether it is new technology, updated systems, or changes to processes – if there are people involved, they will most likely need to be doing something differently for the project to realise its benefits. By understanding the benefits of implementing Change Management properly, as outlined in the previous article, you can then determine whether the cost spent on Change Management yields a favourable return.

How to measure ROI

To show if something has improved or worsened, you need to measure it against a baseline. Here are a few ideas to do that.

#1 Adoption and Usage rate

In the case of a new or modified system, you can evaluate how many people are using the new system or following the new process.

#2 Customer service feedback

Organisations would be aiming for an improvement in customer service. You can measure the success of an implementation by measuring customer satisfaction. Customer service levels could be measured before the change, after implementation and after some time has passed.

#3 Assessing the productivity

Employee productivity could be assessed before, during and after the change to assess impact on productivity or service levels.

#4 Feedback from affected parties

Survey stakeholders before, during and after the implementation to provide insights into readiness for change and the likelihood of success of the change.

#5 Staff retention

Compare staff retention rates before, during and after implementation. If more key staff are leaving during implementation it may highlight an issue that needs to be addressed.

The most accurate way to measure Change Management ROI depend on each individual change situation. Therefor the ideas stated above should be considered as a starting point to measure ROI.

Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting (top right) not to miss the next article on Change Management, Project Management and other related topics.

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Change Management Process – Barriers and Negative effects – Part 3

Many people believe that an effective Change Management process, has become essential in delivering successful projects and getting a return on investment. This is part 3 in the series about change management. This article will look at the negative effects of insufficient change management as well as the barriers to a successful implementation of change. Click Part 1, Part 2 to read previous articles before this one.

barrier to change Barriers

Common barriers to the successful implementation of change, include the following:

  • Lack of shared vision and an understanding of what needs to be accomplished
  • Change fatigue
  • Timing
  • Lack of leadership support or alignment
  • Sustainability of the project
  • What is happening outside and in parallel to the change
  • Not enough understanding of how to measure the value of a benefit.

Negative Effects

When change management is insufficient, it can have some negative effects. Let’s look at a few.

Employee retention levels may drop

During times of change, especially when the people component is being neglected, it may bring about the loss of key staff. If people are not being heard or equipped to manage the change, people may choose to move onto another environment.

Insufficient focus on managing the impact of change on people

The objective of change management is to minimise the impact of a project and to support the realisation of benefits and to embed the change. Without sufficient change management the focus on the people aspects of the change is neglected and all benefits reliant on people will not be realised.

Risks may not be highlighted

One of the roles of a Change Manager is to highlight the risks that would impact on people. A lack of risk management, may also have an impact on the project timeline.

Drop in customer service

If users who are going through a change experience a productivity dip, or an inability to use the new system or any other negative side effects, it will have an effect on the customers they deal with. It can result in loss of customers and damage to an organisation’s reputation.

Increased resistance to change

People who are not involved in the change process and having change forced upon them, often shows signs of active resistance or even anger. Often just by engaging with employees and allowing them the space to raise and address concerns, can provide a platform for resolving their issues before they impact on project success.

Lower adoption or adaptation to change

Without managing a change properly there may be an increase in resistance and a greater likelihood of impacted staff not adopting a new system or new way of working. Change Managers often play the role of a bridge between the solution and the users and without this bridge there may be poor or no adoption.

Lack of ownership or shared vision

A project or change initiative has an end date. This means that after project completion some-one will need to own the change and ensure its sustainability going forward. During the course of the project there needs to be alignment and shared vision. When perceptions and visions aren’t aligned and no-one is taking ownership of the success of the implementation, the benefits will ultimately not be realised.

Negative impact on productivity

Productivity dips can be caused by factors such as a lack of planning, duplication of effort, despondent employees, ill-equipped stakeholders and business as usual versus project responsibilities overlapping. By equipping the individuals with the knowledge, skills and abilities they need to cope with the change, the dip in productivity can be minimised.

In addition to this, the issue of role uncertainty can negatively impact the individuals within the project team and stakeholders involved. When people are unsure or what they’re supposed to be doing, they can swing from either doing nothing or doing too much of the wrong thing.

We hope that you have enjoyed this series about Change Management. Please subscribe for more updates in future. (top right)

Linky

Change Management Process – Benefits and Project Impact

Benefits of change managementMany people believe that an effective Change Management process, has become essential in delivering successful projects and getting a return on investment.

In answer to the question if there is a Return on Investment for Change Management, we can turn to a Report that was published by Afro Ant in April 2014. This report was the output of an Ant Conversation, hosted by Afro Ant (and co-sponsored by Old Mutual) which was attended by 24 professionals who work in the field of Change Management or work closely with Change Managers. This conversation, centered around ROI, encouraged the sharing of insights, opinions, and lessons learned from working in the field of Change Management – specifically around the benefits of implementing Change Management properly, the negative effects if this is not done, and how the ROI on Change Management can be measured.

This is the first of a series of 3 articles about the Change Management process. It will cover the benefits of change management, ideas for how to measure return on investment (ROI) and negative effects of insufficient change management.

What is Change Management

Change management can be defined as a framework for managing the effect of new business processes, systems and structures or culture changes to achieve a required business outcome.

Directed change can be defined as the change in business and operational practices that is required to ensure the sustained realisation of business outcomes. It’s implemented within constraints.

It’s important to understand the objectives and scope of the change and what the expected benefits of the implementation are in order to determine if you’re doing the right things and doing them well. A measurement for the effectiveness is also needed.

Benefits of Change Management

When we talk about Change Management and its benefits, there is a distinct link back to how Change Management is managed. Some of the benefits of Change Managements are easily recognised, but there are other benefits that are not as overt, but would have a bigger impact on your project. When you implement change management you can expect some of, although not limited to, the following benefits:

#1 It will give you a structured approach to change

In addition change management will assist in managing the transition.

#2 Benefit realisation

If a change (to adopt a new way of working) is not managed properly, many of the benefits may not be realised.

#3 Change management will provide effective communication.

That means the ability to provide clear and consistent communication so that individuals involved in, or impacted by the change, know what they need to know, when they need to know and are able to work towards adopting the change.

#4 Role Clarity

Change managers work with the project and leadership team to confirm roles and responsibilities, and guidelines so that stakeholders understand what is expected of them and when.

#5 Making change sustainable

Structured management of change support working with stakeholders to make sure that the change is sustainable and that it lasts. A key element of this is to transfer knowledge from the project to the stakeholders, equipping them with the skills they may need to maintain the change.

#6 Stakeholder involvement

Change should be done with people. It gives people being impacted a voice and makes them part of the change initiative. Stakeholder buy-in and leadership engagement in driving the change has been identified as a driver for success.

#7 Leadership involvement

Change management focuses on ensuring that change leaders are enabled and empowered to lead.

#8 Faster adoption

Managing the change brings faster more visible adoption of the new way of working and user proficiency.

#9 Impact on Productivity

Change management aims to minimise the impact on stakeholders and the disruption to daily operations.

Any project manager who has ever worked on projects that required change interventions, can attest to the value of change management and the positive impact that effective change management had on successful project delivery.

Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting (top right) not to miss the next article in the Change Management series.

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Leadership in Project Management

An excellent Leadership ebook has been released by AtTask containing lessons from well-known Project, Program and Portfolio Management experts about making the transition from project management to project leadership.

Gartner predicted a massive change in the world of project management—a change that is forcing project managers into a greater leadership role and requiring them to work closely with senior executives.  Making the shift from project management to project leadership isn’t easy, but the rewards can be significant. Read the stories for inspiration to become a better leader.

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How Project Managers can use Excel as a Project Management Tool

By Dough Hong

Excel-as-PM-tool-dashboardThere are many useful tools that Project Managers (PMs) use in their day to day work. You may have heard that Microsoft Project is THE tool that PMs should use to manage projects.

But what if you don’t have $300+ to spend on MS Project or then spend countless hours learning how to use it properly?

To use MS Project effectively you may have to spend a considerable amount of time to set up the tasks, resources and schedules.  Then you would spend a lot of time to maintain the file with the numerous changes that would occur on any large scale project.

MS Project is a great tool if you have a large project but for smaller projects, it may be an overkill. You want to have a tool that doesn’t cost too much, is relatively easy to learn and commonly used.  That tool could be another Microsoft product – Excel.

With Excel you have a tool to do scheduling, budgeting, charting, create checklists and much more. You don’t need to be an Excel expert to create useful files for communicating with stakeholders. It has robust charting capabilities to create effective graphs and flow charts that can be done up fairly quickly. However if you wanted more complex applications, you can even use Excel to create advanced dashboards to show performance metrics.

It is fairly affordable depending if you buy it as a standalone software package or part of the Microsoft Office bundle. It may already be part of the standard software your organization puts on your desktop or laptop computer.

Ask most PMs and they would say that they have worked with MS Excel. So if you wanted to collaborate with others, most of the time you already have an audience that is familiar with the tool and could work with you on updates. So what if you wanted to increase your skills on Excel or just learn a few tips….where should you go?

If you don’t have MS Project and would like to consider Excel as an alternative project management tool, here are some quick video tutorials that will help (and they are free!).  Just go to Excel for Project Management video tutorials.

About the author:  Doug Hong is a business analyst for a Fortune 500 technology company.  He was a former PMP certified practitioner and now focuses on metrics dashboards and visualization using advance Excel features.  He shares his knowledge with training videos on his Excel Training 101 site.  He also has an extensive list of training videos where you can subscribe to on YouTube.