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LaCrosse PMI Chapter Meeting

A discussion about the Introduction of PM within your business

4/20/2011

Jim Strong

Mayo Clinic DLMP PMO Director

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Today’s agendaAdding Value to the PM process at your business

Basic project parameters or questions that need to be asked

Review seven subjects for discussion and consideration• Sponsor / Proponent / Champion• Scope• Schedule / Key Milestones• Risk• Resources / Resource Managers• Issues / Action Items• Status

Exercise - Capture group thoughts on how to deal with these subjects in your business or work area

Summary and discussion of the ideas we’ve generated today

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Adding Value to the PM process at your business

• “What’s so special about PM methodology? Everyone does projects at my company (or in my work area) and they seem to do okay without applying all the formality associated with applying a PM and / or all the associated overhead”

• “Projects are a fun break from by typical job”

• “The project will get done when it gets done, if we try to go faster, we’ll jeopardize quality”

• “As a functional manager, I can get recognition from the business leadership if I can pull this off, why should I relinquish this opportunity?”

• Perception is Reality……..

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Are you familiar with any of these Questions?

• Where do you begin the project?

• What is the team planning to deliver or achieve?

• When will this project be completed?

• Is there a stated due date by the customer?

• What is the acceptance criteria?

• What are the team member roles or responsibilities?

• Are there any significant activity dependencies?

• What major obstacles or potential issues (risks) that could impact the team?

• How should the team communicate between its members or to a vendor / contractor?

• How should the team keep the key stakeholders or decision makers appraised of the activity?

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Sponsor / Proponent / Champion

• Take advantage of the sponsors key role in bringing about the change that the project is launching

• Meet regularly, even if there are no major issues confronting the project team

• Keeping the sponsor informed prepares them for helping make the best decisions when the situation does arise

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Scope• It’s as important to nail down what is

not in scope – also helps manage project expectations

• Key “boundaries” need to be established – getting definitions for data usually contained in a project charter is key to project planning

• Can we phase in the new capability or asset to gain some early project achievements?

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Schedule / Key Milestones

• Did you allow buffer in schedule? (under commit, over achieve)

• Is the business counting on this new capability or asset at a specific time?

• Show the progress toward completing key milestones helps the project team, sponsor and key stakeholders to have a better feel for progress and when the business change is available

• Helps establish accountability

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Risk

• What don’t you know now?

• What are your key dependencies – can you control them or not?

• Are the any opportunities that you can take advantage of in conjunction with the project that position your business even better than just completing the project?

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Resources / Resource Managers

• Get to know the resource managers well

• Keep the resource managers in the know about the project status

• Gain commitment from the resource manager on how much the resource will be available for how long

• Identify the process for letting each other know about business priorities that may divert key resources

• Be aware of competing interests between functional groups

Types of Skills Level of Expertise Quantity

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Issues / Action Items

• Document and Track them! • Assign person responsible• Target date for update or closure• Escalate if team can’t make

decision or see their way through

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Status

• Publicly display project info?• Overall schedule• Highlight key milestones• Trend charts (issues, % complete, etc

• Weekly emails to sponsor / team / key stakeholders?

• If the project is key to the business, communication of successes can provide more positive reinforcement or “cheerleaders” for your team

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Project Cost Project ProgressTODAY

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Exercise

• 10 – 15 minutes

• Using the post-it notes at your table; write down your ideas relating to each of the seven topic areas

• It’s okay to share your ideas or brainstorm with other folks at your table

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Discussion and Summary

• Did the discussion today help you?

• Did you discover a different way of looking at how to provide value to your business or work area?

• How will you apply this different way of looking at your PM role when you return to work?