Are Project Managers Too Focused on Scheduling?
Over time I have found a number of project managers, directors, and project management office (PMOs) leaders who fuss profusely about scheduling and resource planning. Respectfully, scheduling and resource planning are legitimate and important functions.
But, I believe they are missing the higher priority focus — getting great project results.
We all know that project success is a core priority. So why is scheduling and resource planning at the tip top of their list?
There are many top reasons project fail reports, and they are mostly similar. According to an a number of lists, the classic reasons are (not in any particular order):
Scope creep
Poor leadership at many levels
Failure to adequately identify, document and track requirements
Poor plans and planning processes
Disengaged team members
Business value misalignment
Uncommitted projects sponsors
Inadequate or misused methods
Inadequate communication, including progress tracking and reporting
Etc.
The Standish Group CHAOS survey has been used for years and surveys many organizations about why they have failed projects. An article in InfoQ explains the CHAOS survey results and lists the most common reasons for failure as follows:
Lack of executive support
Missing emotional maturity
Poor user involvement
No optimization
Not enough skilled staff
"Poor resource planning and forecasting" are on some lists, but missing from other lists, such as the popular CHAOS survey reports.
If we look at the common reasons above, we will find two themes:
It's something I forgot.
It's something I don't know.
This sounds to me like either we failed to correctly execute something we did known, or failed to get the information for what we don't know.
So, why aren't we focusing more into these two key factors of failure? Maybe there should be a bucket load of money and time dedicated to solve these two things. I'm guessing these are the two main factors behind why so many things go wrong in life.
focus on project results
I propose that everyone stop fussing only about resource planning and make more time for what to do to increase the possibility of delivering great project results.
Let’s start with a nifty spreadsheet, such as using Google G Suite or Office 365, or use a tool like the Pie People Timeline tool or other project tools in the market, to track and calculate who's assigned to what and when.
But don’t go too far yet. It’s ok to draft it out at a high level. We’ll get back to this in the next section.
Now, the important work —
Let’s take a look at the Standish Group CHAOS report failure reasons list and come up with some action steps we could include as ingredients in our project recipes (project templates).
Add each of the following as accountable tasks in the project’s phases.
Lack of executive support. Identify the executive sponsors and leadership stakeholders and establish a few tasks that require them and your project manager to agree on project success factors, end-project results success factors, expected time commitment, decision turnaround, and other executive engagement activities. (Add as tasks in the initiation phase.)
Missing emotional maturity. Ensure the project lead and team candidate members all have enough emotional maturity before committing them to the project. I would include not only great experience, but also loves to be a knowledge sponge and learn from others as part of the emotional maturity factors. Ensure they all understand how to deal with change and overcome unexpected problems. (Add as tasks in the initiation phase.)
Poor user involvement. Define steps along the way to obtain feedback, responses, and acceptances from the end-project deliverable user base. They are your project customers and don’t wait to show them results until it’s too late to clear up any misunderstandings. (Add as tasks in all phases.)
No optimization. Optimize your project processes. This starts with defining the best project execution recipe you can or at least starting with a set of tasks from a previous like-project. Before any project is completed, always capture lessons learned and document new action steps in your project recipe for future projects like this one. Engage your team members to provide process improvement ideas in real time during the project and update the methodology also in real time. (Add as tasks in all phases, including capturing lessons learned.)
Not enough skilled staff. Document steps in your project processes that includes peer reviews and team knowledge sharing. As in #2 above, if you onboard novice project team members who have an appetite for learning from a few experts who enjoy sharing their knowledge with others, you’ll have no problem building a great team of skilled people. (Add as tasks in all phases.)
Let’s go back to project scheduling tasks
Once you have the above well structured to improve success, we can complete the process of scheduling since we’ll need to consider who’s accountable and when for the above process tasks.
I have an entire blog called 10 Resource Planning Steps For Humans. But, before jumping there, make sure you’re committed to great project results.
A note on tools. Resource planning methods and tools can save a project manager with timing and skills-matching challenges. There are many methods and tools in the market for this. But, don’t get too hung up on number of resource planning features when the real challenge is can you deliver great project results to your end customers. Look for tools, such as Pie, that can not only help with scheduling, but more importantly help great people who have smartly assigned tasks and spot-on due dates engage and drive towards super project results that makes everyone smile!
What’s your experience? Do you find your project leads not only do great scheduling, but more importantly focus on finding the right people with great mindset and building the right processes and frameworks that drive better project results?
Written by: Paul Dandurand, PieMatrix CEO
Photos by: Matthew Henry, Ellie Lord