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Acquire Project Team

Acquire project team is "the process of confirming human resource availability and obtaining the team necessary to complete project assignments." Chances are the core team has already been assembled, as it is very helpful to have the core team together for planning—and even earlier, for chartering a project. However, on some projects, some core team members may be added later. Also, on many large projects, subject matter experts (SMEs) may be added during the early stages. This section deals with the timing of assigning a project team member (preassignment), securing the needed and desired team members (negotiation), and successfully adding them to the project team (on-boarding). It is not necessary for the project manager to always have an opportunity to select the project team members. However, she is still responsible for their performance. Likewise, in certain organizational settings, the project manager may not have total authority over the team member, but she still is accountable for all individuals' and the team's performances.

Agile

Agile is a form of adaptive or change-driven project management largely reacting to what has happened in the early stages of a project rather than planning everything in detail from the start. Documentation is minimal early in the project but becomes progressively more complete. To understand Agile, one needs to know both the methods and the mindset of Agile practice. For the methods, a project vision is developed and shared early—often as part of a charter. Project teams plan in short bursts (generally of one to four weeks), often called sprints or iterations. The details are planned for the upcoming iteration and very little change is allowed during it. Products are defined and delivered one iteration at a time with an output that has business value successfully delivered at the end of each iteration. Then the next iteration is planned. The mindset is empowering, engaging, and openly communicating as detailed as follows.

What Are the Key Roles in Agile Projects?

All Agile roles are more collaborative than confrontational. Arguably the most essential role is the customer representative—sometimes called the product owner. This person ensures that the needs and wants of the various constituents in the customer's organization are identified and prioritized and that project progress and decisions continually support the customer's desires. The customer representative does much of what a sponsor might in traditional projects and also works with the team on a continuous basis, often performing some of the work a project manager might on a traditional project. The scrum master serves and leads in a facilitating and collaborative manner, emphasizing the need to facilitate and remove obstacles. The scrum master is a more limited, yet more empowering role than that of a traditional project manager. The team members in Agile projects are assigned full time and co-located as much as possible. The teams are self-governing, so the team now accomplishes many of the planning and coordinating activities a project manager would typically perform.

How Do You Start an Agile Project?

An Agile project should start with a charter, as any other project should. This high-level agreement between the product owner, scrum master, and empowered team will help share the compelling project vision, create commitment, uncover risks, identify stakeholders, ensure common understanding of success criteria, and establish working agreements and ground rules as needed. Often, the first iteration is used to determine the product to be built and prioritize the most valuable work for the next iteration.

Project management

Collect Requirements is the process of determining, documenting, and managing stakeholder needs and requirements to meet objectives. The key benefit of this process is that it provides the basis for defining the product scope and project scope. This process is performed once or at predefined points in the project. The needs of the project determine which components of the project management plan and which project documents are necessary.

Negotiation for Project Team Members

Depending on the norms of the organization, a project manager may need to negotiate with the functional manager and/or a prospective team member directly to secure his or her services for a project. The functional manager (perhaps called a department head or line manager) has the responsibility of running his or her department. For example, the head of accounting is responsible for how the accounting function is performed. She wants to keep all of her workers busy, but not too busy, and wants all of her workers to progress in their capability. The functional manager may see this project as a good opportunity for some on-the-job training to help a newer employee gain experience. The project manager, on the other hand, wants the "best" resource for his or her project. The best resource may already be busy. Wise project managers often develop good relationships with functional managers to have leverage in negotiating for a good worker. Functional and project managers may look at the situation from the perspective of the department or project, respectively, and have different ideas of who is the appropriate person to work on the project. A project manager cannot expect to have the best resource from every department (unless perhaps the project is the highest priority project for the company). The functional manager may sometimes need to agree to a different resource from what he or she prefers. In short, most projects have a combination of experienced and inexperienced resources. If a project manager finds all functional managers are only offering inexperienced people, he should probably ask his sponsor for support. In many organizations, project managers also need to persuade workers to work on their project. For experienced project managers, reputation goes a long way. A project manager can earn a reputation of being a good boss by caring for team members, helping people develop, and assisting them in securing interesting work and promotions at the end of a project. It is important to align individual aspirations and goals with project goals to get the best results from everyone on the project team. Many employees campaign hard to work for a great project manager and avoid a poor project manager. When negotiating with a potential team member, a project manager wants to sell the project to the person. Of course, strong technical skills are important for SMEs and are helpful for core team members. However, especially for core team members, it may be more critical to be an excellent generalist and skilled at communication and making decisions. Many core team members need to deal with a variety of issues beyond their discipline and focus on making trade-offs that key stakeholders demand. Sometimes, it is necessary to recruit project team members from outside of the parent organization.

What Is Needed for Agile to Be Successful?

Experienced and motivated team members are needed because one hallmark of Agile is self-managed teams. Without experience and willingness to be a cross-functional team member, the teams would likely flounder. A key stakeholder, often called the product owner or customer, needs to commit to frequent and detailed meetings, as described above, with the development team both for initial chartering and requirements gathering, but also for ongoing prioritization and evaluation. Trust between the client and contractor (or user and developer) is needed because the details of the requirements and scope are initially unknown. Trust is also needed as the client needs to prioritize to get maximum value, given time and resource constraints, and the project team needs to commit to creating certain working output during each iteration.

Preassignment of Project Team Members

Generally, it is helpful for a project to assign both core team members and SMEs as early as possible for various reasons. One reason is that people often do not like to be told what they must do, but are usually enthusiastic if they get a chance to help in creating a project plan. Therefore, it is good for motivational purposes to include the implementers in planning. A second reason is that when the people who will perform the work help to plan it, many more details may be considered and the resulting plans are often more realistic. Yet another reason to assign project team members early is to be sure they will be dedicated and be available when needed. For external projects, it is a common practice to list specific workers who will be assigned to a project team in the proposal, and occasionally they must be approved by the client. If the project is secured, it is helpful to bring the workers onto the project as quickly as possible. The downside to bringing SMEs on board before they need to complete project activities is that it could be expensive. For a highly paid expert, this decision can be substantial and impractical. Another problem with bringing people on board early is that they may first be committed to finishing work on a previous project and may not devote the necessary attention to the new project. Regardless of how early you bring a person on a project, it is helpful to keep communications open with the prospective team member and his or her boss so they understand when the person is needed. This is especially critical if the project has a tight deadline and/or if the organization is using critical chain project management.

Manage Communications

Manage communications includes all the work associated with the project communications plan, starting with planning for it; generating it; organizing and sharing it; and, finally, storing and disposing of it. In order to successfully communicate the right project information to the right stakeholders, in the right format, at the right time, several things must happen. First, all of the information required to develop the project communications management plan should be assessed and obtained. Then, while the project is under way, the project manager and team need to determine any additional information needs not already uncovered, establish an information retrieval and distribution system, collect information on executed work and work in progress, and then report progress to all stakeholders.

Determine Project Information Needs

Many stakeholder information needs were identified during communications planning, such as authorization to proceed, direction setting, status reporting, and approval of outputs. Often, other information needs arise during project execution. All needs must be handled accurately, promptly, and in a manner that balances effectiveness with cost and effort. Communicate accurately—Accurate communications means not only being factually honest but also presenting information in a manner that people are likely to interpret correctly. Communicate promptly—"Promptly" means providing the information soon enough so that it is useful to the recipient to facilitate timely decisions. Communicate effectively—Effectiveness is the extent to which the receiver opens, understands, and acts appropriately upon the communication. It is very easy to just copy everyone on an e-mail, but that is neither convenient nor effective for some people. Face-to-face communication tends to be the most effective, the telephone less so, and e-mail and formal reports even less. It is in the project manager's best interest to communicate effectively since the information provided allows stakeholders to make decisions, understand real challenges, remain motivated, and believe that the project is in control.

Negotiation

Negotiation is about redefining an old relationship that is not working effectively or establishing a new relationship. Negotiation is the most commonly used process and the first step to resolve a dispute, a difference, or a conflict. Project managers are generally held accountable for more performance issues than they have responsibility to direct people to perform. Because of this, project managers must negotiate. As stated earlier in this chapter, they often need to negotiate with functional managers for the people they wish to have on the project team. Project managers often need to negotiate with customers and other key stakeholders concerning schedule, budget, scope, and a myriad of details. They also often need to negotiate with sponsors, suppliers, SMEs, and core team members. Nobody is as committed to or involved with a project as much as the project manager. However, a project manager must remember that negotiations will be smoother if she realizes that everyone she negotiates with has their own set of issues and goals. Many of the project management tools discussed thus far in this book, such as charters, stakeholder analysis, communication plans, schedules, budgets, and change control, make negotiations easier. Several of the soft skills discussed in this book, such as involving your team in planning, treating everyone with respect, keeping communications open, and establishing trust, also simplify negotiations. The issues project managers need to negotiate can greatly vary in size and complexity. For example, many small issues can involve day-to-day scheduling issues. On the other hand, the entire set of project deliverables with accompanying schedule and budget are often negotiated.

Conflict-Resolution Process and Styles

Once a project manager recognizes that a conflict exists, if it is a task conflict, he or she tries to utilize it to develop a better solution. If it is a relationship conflict, he or she tries to resolve it before it escalates. A project manager can use the six-step project conflict-resolution process, making sure to pay attention both to the tasks and relationships needed at each step. Six-Step Project Conflict-Resolution Process Understand the conflict. Agree on conflict-resolution goals. Identify causes of the conflict. Identify potential solutions for the conflict. Pick the desired conflict solution. Implement the chosen solution. First, the project manager and the team investigate the situation: What are the signs of the conflict? Is it specific to a certain stage in the project? Does each party in the conflict understand it the same way? If not, they need to ask clarifying questions, summarize how the other person has stated the problem, and confirm that they have a common understanding. Next, ensure that all parties agree on what a successful conflict resolution would be. While there are often conflicting goals on projects, all stakeholders typically want useful deliverables on time and on budget. Use the project goals as a basis for what the solution needs to cover. Many conflicts have multiple causes, such as those shown in Exhibit 5.12. Identify potential causes and then verify which cause(s) are contributing to the conflict. The next step is to identify potential solutions to the conflict. This is clearly a time where creativity and mutual trust are helpful. It is important to focus on the conflict issue and not the person. Also, potential solutions should be considered based on their value and should not be evaluated based on the person who suggests a solution. The fifth step is deciding how to resolve the conflict. There are five general styles for resolving project conflict, as depicted in Exhibit 5.13. The collaborative style is preferred for important decisions that require both parties to actively support the final decision. However, collaboration requires both parties to develop trust in each other and, therefore, often takes longer than the other styles. Therefore, each style in 5.13 has its value in dealing with project conflicts. The final step is to implement the chosen solution. For a major conflict, this could be almost like a mini-project plan with activities identified and responsibility assigned. It is vital to include communication of the solution to all concerned parties.

Find Stakeholders

One way to understand who stakeholders are is to ask, "Who will use, will be affected by, or could impact this project?" The answer includes users of the project results and others who may have some changes forced upon them by the project outcomes. It also includes people and groups who might choose to influence the project in some way. We use the identify stakeholders process to determine the people, and groups, who might impact or be impacted by some aspect of our project. Stakeholders include people who: Work on the project Provide people or resources for the project Have their routines disrupted by the project Monitor regulations, laws, and standards of practice at local, county, state, and federal levels Another way to identify stakeholders is to determine whether they are internal to the organization performing the project or external to it. Note that there are potentially more types of stakeholders affected by the process of performing the project than by the project results and more external than internal stakeholders. This can be done using a brainstorming technique. Classic rules of brainstorming apply—initially, the emphasis is on generating a long list of potential stakeholders in the first column of a chart without evaluating and analyzing them. It may be easy to construct this chart on a large work surface such as a whiteboard or flip chart. Another suggestion is to be specific; identify stakeholders by name when possible. For each potential stakeholder, list the various project processes and results in which he or she might have an interest. Consider financial, legal, and emotional interests of potential stakeholders. The project charter can be useful here. Many stakeholders have an interest in multiple aspects of a project. Once the stakeholders and their interests have been listed, they may be combined into like groups with the same interests.

How Do You Continue an Agile Project?

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the process of running an Agile project is to visualize the four types of meetings (often called ceremonies) used: Iteration planning meetings have the product owner share the highest value-added output he or she would like the team to work on next, along with a definition of what "done" or quality completion is. The project team then commits to how much output it can deliver in the iteration. This meeting may include backlog grooming, which is reprioritizing the work, or backlog grooming may be conducted in a separate meeting. Daily stand-up meetings are often held for 15 minutes early in the morning and each team member shares the previous day's accomplishments, the plans for the current day, and any issues. Problem solving is not done in these team meetings, but if one teammate can help another, the two talk off-line afterward. Demonstration meetings are held at least once per iteration where the team demonstrates usable product. Only a completed, usable product is shown. Retrospective meetings are held at the end of each iteration where the project team, scrum master, product owner, and possibly other key stakeholders openly share what worked well and what could work better by making a change of some sort. The goal is to improve the work processes.Perhaps the easiest way to understand the process of running an Agile project is to visualize the four types of meetings (often called ceremonies) used: Iteration planning meetings have the product owner share the highest value-added output he or she would like the team to work on next, along with a definition of what "done" or quality completion is. The project team then commits to how much output it can deliver in the iteration. This meeting may include backlog grooming, which is reprioritizing the work, or backlog grooming may be conducted in a separate meeting. Daily stand-up meetings are often held for 15 minutes early in the morning and each team member shares the previous day's accomplishments, the plans for the current day, and any issues. Problem solving is not done in these team meetings, but if one teammate can help another, the two talk off-line afterward. Demonstration meetings are held at least once per iteration where the team demonstrates usable product. Only a completed, usable product is shown. Retrospective meetings are held at the end of each iteration where the project team, scrum master, product owner, and possibly other key stakeholders openly share what worked well and what could work better by making a change of some sort. The goal is to improve the work processes.

Project Manager

Plan Scope Management is the process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project and product scope will be defined, validated, and controlled. The key benefit of this process is that it provides guidance and direction on how scope will be managed throughout the project. This process is performed once or at predefined points in the project. Examples of project management plan components that may be inputs for this process include but are not limited to: Quality management plan, Project life cycle description, and Development approach.

Project Meeting Management

Planning and conducting projects require a variety of meetings, such as meetings to: Establish project plans Conduct the project activities Verify progress Make decisions Accept deliverables Close out projects Meetings are an important process on projects since many important decisions are made at meetings and much time of expensive project personnel is invested in meetings. One common feature of Agile projects is the "stand-up meeting." These short (15 minute or less) meetings are often held at the start of each day with no comforts such as coffee or chairs. Each project team member briefly states what she accomplished the previous day, what she plans to accomplish this day, and what obstacles may challenge her. Project meetings should be conducted as efficiently and effectively as possible. One way to improve the project meeting process is to apply the simple and effective plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model. PDCA Model The idea behind process improvement with the PDCA is that any process practiced repeatedly, focusing on reusing and adapting things that worked well and avoiding things that did not work well, improves over time. in short, this model gives advice on how to do the following for meetings: P= Plan: prepare an advanced agenda to guide the meeting D= Do: conduct the meeting and write meeting minutes C= Check: evaluate the meeting and A= Act: perform in-between meeting tasks. Project Meeting Agenda Template When applying the PDCA improvement model specifically to improving project meetings, the first step is planning the project meeting in advance. The project manager assures that the agenda is prepared and distributed ahead of time. If a project team is meeting often, this advance agenda preparation may be done at the end of the meeting for the next meeting. That way, everyone understands beforehand what will be covered in the upcoming meeting and will have the opportunity to prepare for the meeting. The agenda also can be helpful in deciding whether to invite a particular subject matter expert (SME) or other guest to the meeting. The top part of the agenda contains meeting logistics. The second item on the template is the meeting purpose. If a project manager cannot state in a sentence why he wants to conduct a meeting, perhaps the meeting is not necessary. The main body of the agenda has three columns. First is a list of the topics. This starts with a quick review of the agenda, because projects often move quickly, and this provides an opportunity to add or delete an item from the agenda. Also, it helps busy people rushing from another meeting to manage their time and focus on relevant agenda items. The major topics of the meeting are listed next in the order in which they will be covered. Often, remaining items from previous meetings or other urgent matters top the list. However, a project manager wants to be sure to cover the most important matters, even if they may not have the same sense of urgency. The second-to-the-last item on the standard agenda is the meeting summary. The project manager summarizes major decisions that were made as well as work assignments that were distributed. This helps people remember what they agreed to do. The final item on the agenda is an evaluation of the meeting. This is explained in the check step of the PDCA model. The second column lists the person responsible for each topic on the agenda. Typically, the project manager takes care of the meeting start and close, but individual project team members may be assigned specific action items. When people know in advance that they are responsible for an action item, they are more likely to be prepared. Additionally, if the advance agenda is available for key stakeholders to see, some of the stakeholders may contact the responsible person in advance to provide input. This is a good way to keep stakeholders engaged. The third column is a time estimate for each item. While the project manager does not need to be a slave to the clock, recognition of how long team members are in meetings and how many items are accomplished goes a long way. People are more likely to attend a meeting if they are sure it will end on time. Project Meeting Minutes Template The second step in the PDCA process—"do"—means to conduct the meeting and to capture minutes as the meeting is conducted. Many project teams rotate the role of minutes taker so each team member feels equal.

Establish Information Retrieval and Distribution System

Project information can be retrieved from many different sources. It can also be distributed via many systems. Project management software such as MS Project is frequently used for schedule information and sometimes for cost and human resource information. Project managers use many methods of communicating. In this information age, project managers need to keep three things in mind with communications: Target the communications. More is not better when people are already overloaded. Many methods are available, and the choices change rapidly. Use new methods if useful, but do not discard proven methods just for the sake of change. Projects often have many stakeholders who need specific information. Use your communications plan and always keep asking if there is any other stakeholder in need of upward, downward, or sideways communications. Tatro, Inc., uses a hosted project management page on its website that clients can access with a password to witness project progress from anywhere in the world on a 24/7 basis. It displays photos that show actual progress for the client to view. One specific and important skill that project managers can use to retrieve information is active listening. Active listening requires focus on what the person is saying. The active listener can ask clarifying questions and paraphrase to ensure that he or she understands exactly what is meant. Making eye contact and using body language that shows eagerness encourage the speaker to continue. An effort to simultaneously understand both the meaning of the message and the hidden emotions helps the receiver to understand the full message. Recognize that many speakers are not especially skilled in communications, so paying more attention to their message than their style of delivery also helps. Often, a project manager can successfully end the conversation by orally confirming what he or she just heard and by following up with an e-mail for documentation.

Plan Stakeholder Engagement

Project teams plan stakeholder engagement both by creating a tool called a stakeholder engagement assessment matrix and by planning to build relationships with the stakeholders.

Identify Stakeholders

Projects are undertaken because someone needs the project's output. A project must satisfy its users and their needs to be successful. Several things can complicate this goal. First, there may be multiple users, and each may have different wants and needs. Second, often end-users may not fully understand what they want because they do not know what alternatives may be available. Third, the customer who pays for the project may not be the actual person or group who uses the project deliverable or outcome, and the customer may not fully understand the end-users' needs. Fourth, when someone else is paying for the project, some users will ask for many project outcomes that are expensive or time consuming to deliver. Finally, many stakeholders, in addition to the users of a project's outcomes, have an interest in the project. Project managers need to first understand their stakeholders, build relationships with them, and then develop a communications management plan for managing them.

Managing Project Conflicts

Projects create unique outputs, work with diverse stakeholders, are represented by team members from various functions and even different companies, and frequently operate in a matrix environment. These factors, along with scope, time, and cost constraints, contribute to potential conflicts. Many project management initiating and planning tools exist to reduce destructive aspects of conflict, at least partly. This section discusses different ways to view conflict, along with various styles and approaches for dealing with it. This section also introduces a project conflict-resolution process model. In dealing with task-related conflicts, project charters are meant to help the project core team, project manager, and sponsor understand many aspects of the project at a high level and head off potential conflict between individuals. Several components included in charters, for example, assumptions, risks, roles, responsibilities, and acceptance criteria are examples of potential sources of conflict. Stakeholder analysis and communications planning can identify needs and desires of many others who will be impacted by either the process of performing the project or a deliverable of the project. These tools help to identify and deal with potential sources of conflict among the broader stakeholders. The more-detailed planning tools such as the WBS, schedule, and budget help to identify other conflict sources. People-related conflicts can be effectively addressed by developing a team charter, as discussed in Section 5-2b of this chapter. Everyone comes with unique experience, knowledge, IQ, and personality type and these differences can be a source of conflict. A team charter helps to define norms, attitudinal preferences, work ethics, and responsibilities for all team members. Adherence to team charter elements promotes mutual understanding and conflict resolution.

Project Manager Competences

Recent PMI studies applied the Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD) Framework to the skills needed by project managers through the use of The PMI Talent Triangle The talent triangle focuses on three key skill sets: Technical project management. The knowledge, skills, and behaviors related to specific domains of project, program, and portfolio management. The technical aspects of performing one's role. Leadership. The knowledge, skills, and behaviors needed to guide, motivate, and direct a team, to help an organization achieve its business goals. Strategic and business management. The knowledge of and expertise in the industry and organization that enhanced performance and better delivers business outcomes. While technical project management skills are core to program and project management, PMI research indicates that they are not enough in today's increasingly complicated and competitive global marketplace. Organizations are seeking added skills in leadership and business intelligence. Members of various organizations state their belief that these competencies can support longer-range strategic objectives that contribute to the bottom line. To be the most effective, project managers need to have a balance of these three skill sets.

Acquiring and On-Boarding Resources at Atos-Origin

Resources are the most important assets of a consulting company. It becomes very important to nurture them, utilize them effectively, and at the same time make money for the company. At Atos-Origin (a leading IT consulting company), a structured process is followed to manage resources. Resource skills, credentials, and travel preferences; the business unit to which the resource belongs; a summary of projects worked on; and so forth are maintained in a searchable database. Utilization (amount of time a resource is used on projects) is tracked on at least a weekly basis. Resource availability (amount of time each resource is idle or is available for client projects) is also tracked and published to a large group of managers to keep in mind for upcoming assignments. A central resource manager is responsible for tracking and managing resource utilization. If any member of the management team has an open requirement, the resource manager is first notified of the requirement, so that work can begin on tracking the right person for the role. Resource managers from each business unit meet regularly to discuss staff availability and open positions. Weekly meetings are held with senior management teams to understand the open staffing requirements. As a first fit, internal available resources are aligned (based on the skills required, time frame of the project, and whether the role aligns with a person's career preferences) with open positions. Since Atos-Origin is a global organization, this helps the company to increase utilization of the individual resource and of the group as a whole. If existing resources are not available or do not fit into the assignment, a requisition to hire new resources is completed, and the job is posted for recruitment. Atos-Origin considers three different types of external hires: full-time employees (the preferred option), hourly employees (work on an hourly basis; the option used when the project is for a short period of time or when the right resource does not want to accept a full-time offer), and subcontractors (contracting with other companies; the option used sometimes to mitigate resource risks). The new resource who is hired is on-boarded to the company in a structured fashion, and the same process for managing the person's utilization and availability is followed. This structured process has helped reduce attrition, increased internal transfer of resources, helped individual resource growth, and increased the company's profitability.

Sources of Project Conflict

Some conflicts on projects are useful; other conflicts can be destructive. Conflict over ideas on how to proceed with a project can lead to more creative approaches. Conflict over how to complete a project with a tight schedule can also be positive. Competition for ideas on how to best handle a project activity has the potential for generating more innovative and successful approaches and can be highly stimulating work. However, when conflict becomes personal, it can often become negative. These types of conflict need to be handled with care. A few typical sources of project conflict are shown in Exhibit 5.12. Generally, it is better to deal with conflict on projects promptly—or even proactively. Conflicts do not get better with time! This is especially true for projects with significant pressure to stay on schedule or on budget (in other words, many projects). Virtually all studies have determined that relationship conflict can be detrimental to project team success. When people spend time and emotional energy arguing, they have less energy to work on the project. Also, when people have personal conflicts to the point where they really do not like each other, they often feel less committed to the project and to their team. Task conflict is a bit more complicated. A certain amount of task conflict can encourage people to consider alternative approaches and to better justify decisions. Up to that point, task conflict can be useful. However, beyond a certain point, when people spend a great deal of time arguing over task-type issues, conflict takes away from the project team's progress and camaraderie. The timing of task conflict can also make a difference on whether it helps or hurts the project. The best times to discuss different options are during the initiating stage, when high-level approaches are being decided, and during the planning stage, when more detailed decisions are being made. However, once the plans are made, a project team needs to be a bit more careful because prolonged discussions during the executing periods of the project can lead to schedule slippage and cost overruns. In general, conflict occurs due to incompatible goals and differences in thoughts or emotions among the team members. It is a common experience with any team or a group of highly skilled and exceptionally creative individuals to interpret facts and events differently. The project manager must capitalize on this intellectual diversity using effective communication techniques and debates to identify the most appropriate resolution.

Analyze Stakeholders

Stakeholder analysis is a stakeholder identification technique composed of gathering and evaluating information to determine whose interests should be emphasized throughout the project. The first part of stakeholder analysis is to prioritize the stakeholders. Prioritization is important because on many projects, there are too many stakeholders to spend a great deal of time with each. While it is important not to ignore any stakeholder, it also makes sense to concentrate on those who are most vital. Stakeholders are frequently prioritized based upon level of: Power—ability to get others to do something Legitimacy—perception that their actions are appropriate Urgency—time sensitivity and legitimacy of claim Some organizations use additional criteria such as interest, influence, and impact. Some organizations only use two or three criteria; others may use up to six. Each aspect used can be rated on a simple scale of 1 to 3, with 3 representing the highest priority. For the first aspect, power, a stakeholder who could order the project shut down or changed in a major way would be a 3, and a stakeholder who could not change the project much would be a 1. The other aspects can be analyzed in a similar fashion. The scores from the aspects are added to form a total prioritization score. We will use an example of an African university that changed its entire curriculum to a modular approach—a major change project. This large university was in danger of closure because of failed quality ratings and public criticism of its performance. Major improvements were required. The newly appointed vice chancellor decided to modularize all the courses offered by the university, which allowed the students to "pick and mix" topics and create courses that better suited their needs. This change impacted every part of the university, and it was not a popular decision. The appropriate engagement of stakeholders was crucial. One of the major challenges to the modularization program was the shift in power base from academic management (the deans of faculty) to the academic registry. This shift in power was always going to meet resistance, and the program manager would need to carefully consider the positions of the three key stakeholder groups to find an appropriate strategy. By determining who the stakeholders are and what each group wants, project managers effectively: Set clear direction for further project planning, negotiating, and execution Prioritize among competing objectives Learn to recognize complex trade-offs and the consequences of each Make and facilitate necessary decisions Develop a shared sense of risk Build a strong relationship with their customers Lead associates, customers, and suppliers with empowering style and principles Serve as good stewards of the resources of both the parent and customer organizations The project team should next select the top 10 to 15 stakeholders for emphasis in the remainder of their planning. The stakeholders with the highest total scores are often considered to be key influencers for the project. The project manager and the core team should also plan to periodically review this prioritized list of stakeholders, as the relative importance may change as the project progresses, especially if the project goals are not clear at the outset. While from a practical standpoint, project managers need to be especially attentive to the top stakeholders, the enlightened "management for stakeholders" approach also encourages project managers to ensure that interests of all the stakeholders, including less powerful ones, are considered. This approach of giving preference to the most important stakeholders while recognizing needs of all stakeholders requires judgment, and the advice of the sponsor is often helpful. One additional consideration is that various stakeholders often have competing interests. For example, the client may want the work done quickly, while the accountant is worried about cash flow. Success Criteria for Various Stakeholders itemizes how different types of stakeholders frequently define project success. Another consideration is that each project was selected to support a specific business purpose and that purpose should help determine the relative importance of various stakeholders. It is not necessary that all stakeholders favor the project. Competitors in the business, public interest groups, voluntary organizations that promote environmental sustainability and, occasionally, a segment of end-users may oppose the project and its execution. The project manager must identify them and monitor their actions closely. If the project team developed the stakeholder identification and prioritization matrix without their sponsor, now would be a good time to share it with the sponsor and ask for feedback. Chances are good the sponsor will want to make some adjustments before the team continues with the stakeholder management plan. Sponsors are especially useful in helping to sort out conflicting priorities. Typically, when a conflict exists, external paying customers and top management are considered to be highly important stakeholders. The project team primarily considers these top stakeholders while they: Develop a communications plan (later in this chapter) Define the scope of the project (see Chapter 7) Identify threats and opportunities (see Chapter 11) Determine quality standards (see Chapter 12) Prioritize among cost, schedule, scope, and quality objectives (see Chapter 12)

Initiating Process Group

The Initiating Process Group consists of those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project or phase. The purpose of the Initiating Process Group is to align the stakeholders' expectations and the project purpose, inform stakeholders of the scope and objectives, and discuss how their participation in the project and its associated phases can help to ensure their expectations are met. Within the Initiating processes, the initial scope is defined and initial financial resources are committed. Stakeholders who will interact and influence the overall outcome of the project are identified. If not already assigned, the project manager is appointed. This information is captured in the project charter and stakeholder register. When the project charter is approved, the project is officially authorized, and the project manager is authorized to apply organizational resources to project activities. The key benefits of this Process Group are that only projects that are aligned with the organization's strategic objectives are authorized and that the business case, benefits, and stakeholders are considered from the start of the project. In some organizations, the project manager is involved in developing the business case and defining the benefits. In those organizations, the project manager generally helps write the project charter; in other organizations, the pre-project work is done by the project sponsor, project management office (PMO), portfolio steering committee, or other stakeholder group. This standard assumes the project has been approved by the sponsor or other governing body and they have reviewed the business documents prior to authorizing the project. Business documents are documents that are generally originated outside of the project, but are used as input to the project. Examples of business documents include the business case, and benefits management plan. projects are often divided into phases. When this is done, information from processes in the Initiating Process Group is reexamined to determine if the information is still valid. Revisiting the Initiating processes at the start of each phase helps keep the project focused on the business need that the project was undertaken to address. The project charter, business documents, and success criteria are verified. The influence, drivers, expectations, and objectives of the project stakeholders are reviewed. Involving the sponsors, customers, and other stakeholders during initiation creates a shared understanding of success criteria. It also increases the likelihood of deliverable acceptance when the project is complete, and stakeholder satisfaction throughout the project.

On-Boarding Project Team Members

The ideal time to bring team members and even a few SMEs on board, is when the project charter is being written. When that is not possible, the first thing a project manager might do is share the charter and the meeting minutes with the new member and then have a one-on-one discussion with that person. There are several purposes for this discussion. The first is to ensure that the new person understands the project at a high level and is enthusiastic about being part of it. The second is to learn about the person's personal and professional aspirations. The most effective and happy workers are those who understand how their personal goals and project goals are aligned. Does he or she want to experience the joy of working on something new, travel, training, new coworkers, and so on? What unique strengths does he or she already bring to the project, and what strengths does he or she want to further develop? At this point, the project manager can accomplish the third purpose of the talk, which is to assign the new team member to specific activities and develop a plan for personal improvement. Exhibit 5.2 illustrates how one consulting company that has many projects acquires and on-boards resources.

Document Stakeholders

The primary output of the "identify stakeholders" process is a stakeholder register. The stakeholder register is a repository of information regarding all project stakeholders. Teams use it to develop strategies to either capitalize upon stakeholder support or to mitigate the impact of their resistance. The stakeholder register provides input to relationship building with the various stakeholders and helps determine their requirements. In turn, these requirements serve as the basis of developing project scope. The stakeholder register is a living document that changes as needed. A stakeholder register often is in the format of a matrix. In the stakeholder register shown in Exhibit 6.4, we start to evaluate the interests of the different stakeholder groups. Sometimes referred to as the WIIFT (what's-in-it-for-them), this analysis can be used to help identify where there may be common areas of interest between the groups, and note that what made this particular program complex was the absence of common ground. Strategies would need to be sought to change positions or reduce the impact of the behaviors of some of the groups.

Issues Management

The project minutes mirror the agenda to the extent that both refer to the same meeting. The top part of the minutes form is logistics, just as in the agenda. The four primary types of information captured in a project meeting are: Decisions made New issues surfaced and old issues resolved Action items agreed to An evaluation of the meeting Decisions and Issues First, any decisions that were made should be documented. Second, any new issues that surfaced or existing issues that were resolved should be recorded. An issue is a situation that requires a decision to be made, but one that the team cannot make now, usually either due to needing information or more time. An issues log is a dynamic repository of information regarding both open issues and those that have been resolved. Issues logs benefit a project in at least two ways. First, when an important issue—but not one that can be solved in the immediate meeting—is introduced, the project manager can add it to the open issues and not spend time on it in the current meeting when more pressing matters need to be settled. Second, the issues log ensures that important issues are not forgotten. Action Items The third type of project information is action items. Each of these is a task that one or more members of the project team agree to perform by a specific date. These are recorded, and the project manager reminds the team at the end of each meeting what each member agreed to do. Evaluation The final item to be recorded on the project meeting minutes is an evaluation of both good points from the project meeting that the team would like to repeat or at least adapt and poor points from the meeting that the team would like to avoid or perform in a different manner in the future. An experienced team can collect these points in a minute or two; the time they save in future meetings often pays great dividends. An easy way to capture these evaluations is a Plus-Delta template. On Agile projects, this evaluation is called retrospectives. When assessing the project meeting with a Plus-Delta method, a project manager can simply draw the form on a flip chart or marker board. Then, each person is asked to offer his opinion on at least one aspect of the meeting that either was good (+) that she would like to see repeated or one thing that was poor and could be overcome in future meetings. The key to making this work for the project manager is how she responds to any deltas. If the project manager responds defensively, the team members may not want to offer further suggestions. Finally, the "act" part of the PDCA cycle for project meetings is for every team member to complete the action items they promised and for the project manager to communicate with the team members to make sure nothing is holding them back from their commitments. Wise project managers keep active but informal contact with team members between meetings to ensure action items are completed on time. When all steps of the PDCA cycle are applied to project meetings, the meetings improve; the team members gain satisfaction; and the project makes better progress.

What is Agile mindset

While much has been written about Agile, starting with the Agile Manifesto, a simplified version of the mindset needed to successfully plan and manage Agile projects boils down to four key ideas: Satisfy the customer by placing emphasis on outputs that fulfill their needs. Engage all participants through empowerment, cooperation, and knowledge sharing. Facilitate that engagement through servant leadership and visible and continual communication. Keep things simple with a sustainable pace or cadence and emphasis on process improvement.

The Planning Process Group

consists of those processes that establish the total scope of the effort, define and refine the objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives. The processes in the Planning Process Group develop the components of the project management plan and the project documents used to carry out the project. The nature of a project may require the use of repeated feedback loops for additional analysis. As more project information or characteristics are gathered and understood, additional planning will likely be required. Significant changes that occur throughout the project life cycle may initiate a need to revisit one or more of the planning processes and, possibly, one or both of the Initiating processes. This ongoing refinement of the project management plan is called progressive elaboration, indicating that planning and documentation are iterative or ongoing activities. The key benefit of this Process Group is to define the course of action to successfully complete the project or phase. The Planning Process Group (Figure 3-1) includes the project management processes: The project management team seeks input and encourages involvement from relevant stakeholders while planning the project and developing the project management plan and project documents. When the initial planning effort is completed, the approved version of the project management plan is considered a baseline. Throughout the project, the Monitoring and Controlling processes compare the project performance to the baselines.

Why is Agile?

Traditional plan-driven project management works well in many situations, but if the scope is hard to define early in the project and/or when much change is expected, an Agile approach often works better. For these ill-defined and rapidly changing projects, Agile proponents claim to decrease time, cost, and risk while increasing visibility and innovation.

Tatro, Inc.

is a designer and builder of high-end landscape projects. Its strategy is to retain its core strengths of securing contracts, designing exceptional landscapes, and managing projects with demanding clients. It subcontracts most other work, but wants to be very careful that the work is done as well as possible. Tatro understands it needs to have self-motivated workers who are very presentable to discriminating clients. Tatro primarily relies on recommendations to identify potential workers. To screen potential workers, Tatro performs extensive background checks. It examines previous work performed by the worker, talks to previous clients, and attempts to ensure the worker's finances will allow him or her to be stable. At that point, it attempts to recruit these proven workers. Chris Tetrault, president of Tatro, Inc., states that he uses a combination of four strategies to recruit, as follows: Pay well. Pay quickly. Provide signature projects for the workers to showcase their skills. Try to get them to like me.