Category: Program & Project Management - Juma Vera (Maitreyi Gautam)

Program/Project Stakeholder Management Plan- Why is it important? What should it contain?

8/29/2018

Stakeholders are individuals (or teams) that are directly or indirectly impacted by the work being conducted by the project team. These could be groups that will either be using, managing or maintaining the product or process after it is handed off (delivered) by the project team.

It is always advisable to have a properly formulated and documented Stakeholder Management plan which is properly circulated within the team to ensure that it is well-understood, accepted and executed by the relevant team participants. This becomes particularly crucial for large programs or projects that have high visibility within the organization.

An effective Program /Project Stakeholder Management plan should include and address the following five aspects:

Identification of stakeholders- it is important to identify all the stakeholders for your program or project.
Analysis of their needs, expectations and influences- one can utilize the power and interest quadrant system of analysis to understand and assign stakeholder interest.
Develop appropriate strategies and communication plan to work with the stakeholders in the four interest categories.
Develop a plan to address any conflict of interest situation if (and when) it is to arise between stakeholder groups.
Develop of log of stakeholder issues and complaints (particularly for large, highly visible or ‘not welcome’ projects) and indicate clear resolution steps that have been taken by the program/project team to address and mitigate them. Keeping a separate stakeholder issue and complaint log provides clear indication of importance being given to the stakeholders- that their voice is important and is not being diluted by being mixed with the general program/project issues register.

Having a detailed Program/Project Stakeholder Management plan shows preparedness of the program/project team to appropriately engage various levels of stakeholder interests. It helps to address leadership angst, particularly towards highly visible or complex programs/projects.

Maitreyi Gautam MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

#StakeholderEngagement #ProgramManagement #ProjectManagement #StakeholderInterestDiagram #SandhyaBhat

Scaled Project Management Frameworks: What are they? Why are they important?

6/12/2018

In order to better understand the importance of Scaled Project Management Frameworks, let us first understand a little bit about how they came into being…

Most projects, in the service industry or manufacturing follow standard project methodology- traditional/classical Waterfall which is recommended by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Of course, this is a time tested methodology and depending on details of the industry, this classical approach has been modified in many ways. Then of course there is the Agile way of working…

Probably the most famous methodology that is known within the Agile framework is Scrum. It was made particularly popular by the web and application development groups that needed to react to and incorporate client requirements and feedback in a fast-responsive, iterative approach even while the product (or application) development was underway. But classical Scrum mainly works well for software development.

When it comes to other development efforts, it fails miserably in its effectiveness. The very essential component- “Agility” leads to scope creep, budget overshoots ultimately leading to out-of-control project metrics and dissatisfied clients!!

This led to several scaled frameworks. These came into existence to bridge the gap between classical methodologies mainly Waterfall and Agile to better, more effectively incorporate the best of both these approaches. Scaled frameworks allow for the firm sequencing of steps which ensures that key sign offs happen at crucial stages to encourage stakeholder commitment while allowing for the flexibility of Agile ways of working to incorporate changing client requirements even after a solution has been designed and a development effort is underway.

Scaled Project Frameworks (SPFs) offer a streamlined and effective way of working to service a fluid environment with constantly evolving project work demands. Kanban and Lean-Agile are two of the most used Scaled Project Frameworks (SPFs).

Lean- Scrum heavily utilizes lean principles to enhance Agile-Scrum way of working. Lean-Scrum reduces wasteful steps and processes to increase overall process (methodology) efficiency.

Lean- Kanban on the other hand utilizes efficient Lean methods along with visual signage (Kanban hallmark) and other agile principles.

And then there is the Scaled Waterfall: where we incorporate agile way of incremental working (instead of the traditional phased approach) along with Lean efficiency principles that reduce wasteful steps and ensure high activity-coherence and optimal quality of deliverables.

As we evolve into complex work environments where project mandate changes constantly because of changing user needs, government regulations or simply changing market-feedback analytics, Scaled Project Frameworks will start becoming more of a norm rather than a novel way of Project Management.

#ScaledProjectManagementFramework #LeanKanban #LeanAgile

Sandhya U Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

The Art of Lemonade: a wise lesson in Project Management

3/11/2018

#ProjectManagement #SandhyaBhat #CorporateWisdom

How to “strategize” your Project Delivery methodology?

3/10/2018

Strategic projects require a Scaled Project Framework methodology. By doing this approach we can strategically evaluate solution alternatives. This modified methodology incorporates the People-Process-Technology triangle.

Here are five key steps that ensure you are incorporating strategic evaluation in your Project delivery methodology…

Identify key stakeholders.
Have a clear definition of what you want to accomplish, i.e. the desired outcome.
Conduct workshops with relevant teams and users to ensure you understand their current work processes and their key pain-points.
Document the current cross-functional maps which indicate all the groups involved along with call-outs for gaps, risks and pain-points.
Provide a set of proposed process- stacks, pyramids and maps which include call outs to indicate mitigation strategies for each of the above identified call-outs for gaps, risks and pain-points.

Once these above steps are conducted, it will provide a greater understanding into the underlying problem that needs to be tackled- it could be a new technology selection, it could be a support update or it could be revamping of a crucial enterprise application.

You can then propose a strategic solution alternative that will address maximum gaps and pain points along with any list of Requirements that you have elicited from the client-sponsor to arrive at a solution that will achieve the desired outcome.

Ultimately technology needs to enable people and this is done through a process, so when we strategically consider the People-Process-Technology triangle within our usual Project delivery methodology, we provide a technology solution that truly empowers and enables our clients.

#PeopleProcessTechnologyTriangle #StrategicProjectManagement #SandhyaBhat

Sandhya U Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

Rescuing Projects

1/20/2018

Regardless of the project scope, managing a project to successful completion is always a challenge. But it is even more challenging when we need to get a failing project back on track.

Here are five things you can do to revive a failing or distressed project and bring it to a successful completion.

1. Accept that the project is failing
This is an important step, but not all project managers are ready and willing to accept that their projects are not as successful as they want it to be. Admitting that the project has serious problems is key to starting a rescue mission by taking immediate and necessary corrective actions.

2. Suspend the project for a while
This is an opportunity wherein the integrity of a failing project can be restored. While this might affect project completion timelines, it is always advisable to pause a failing project than waste money, time and resources by continuing without concrete remediation action-plan.

3. Assess the extent of “project damage”
Initiate a project audit to determine, how much that project has deviated from it original scope. This helps to determine how much of project integrity must be restored. A project audit must be completed by the project manager. Key project resources and relevant stakeholders must also be engaged on an as-needed basis. The goal of the audit is not to fix the project per se, but to determine the causes of why it is failing, based on important factors such as budget, schedule and quality.

4. Assess the required effort to complete the failing project
Project auditing comes with the process of assessing required effort to complete a failing project. Intuitive estimation helps in case of small and low impact projects. For larger, complex projects be sure to consider all types of tangible and intangible impact. Include cost, resource requirements-availability, release timeline, missed benefits, loss of profitability, project team reputation, client-acceptance and such other criteria in your equation.

5. Validate integrity of the failing project
There is one question that must be answered with a resounding yes, and that is: is it still worthy to continue with the project? There is always a possibility that the failing project may no longer be a priority for the organization, particularly when it has already exhausted all its allotted resources. Only when it is determined that the project is still relevant and needed, should it be restarted.

Once you have completed these steps, restart the project with firm remediation action plan, tight project plan and strong project governance to ensure previously identified issues are avoided or resolved. This will help to ensure a successful completion.

#RescueDistressedProjects #ProjectManagement #SandhyaBhat

Sandhya U Bhat MSc, CSSMBB, CSSE has developed several new (under patent filing) and enhanced existing strategic methodologies to improve technology and human capital utilization, produce greater ROI on investments and streamline service delivery. She is an acclaimed author, speaker, a sought after thought leader and an avid world traveler.

Right balance between Competency & Attitude

12/4/2017

The key to building productive and profitable teams is to

#WinningTeam #CompetencyvsAttitude #BuildingGreatTeams

5 Key Aspects of an Effective Requirements Elicitation Process

3/1/2017

Requirements elicitation is an important if not the key part of any project. If we don’t understand what is needed and what it is that we need to achieve then planning to get there becomes a moot point. But many organizations and project teams do not give this key functionality its due importance and ensure that due diligence is conducted to ensure comprehensive understanding of needs:

1) Have a clearly defined Requirements Elicitation process:It is very helpful to have a clearly defined requirements elicitation process that clearly depicts how the clients will be approached, which other functions or groups will be involved (and in what capacity) and how this entire process will be conducted. Also ensure that you indicate the level of involvement that would be expected from each group and at what points in the sequence of steps.

2) Have a Requirements Elicitation process that is geared towards the main categories of work conducted in your organization:We all know that the depth and breadth of requirements that need to be captured for a sustainment type work request is very different than that for a full-fledged project. Also, when we think of projects, they are not all alike. Within IT, we know that Infrastructure project require a very different perspective than an application selection or implementation project. Because of this, it is helpful to have a process for each of these main category types.

3) Have a comprehensive and yet easy to read Requirements Gathering document:
Many a time organizations create a very complicated Requirements Elicitation document. This not only becomes very cumbersome for the person filling it out but also makes it very difficult to truly engage the client or the project (or work) sponsor. Because of this, the analyst conducting the requirement gathering workshop may try to skip or bypass capturing crucial information which would have helped in Solution Design.

So, to avoid all this ensure that you are creating a Requirement Gathering document which provides various sections to capture key information. Always remember that meaningful sections along with document style, font, line spacing all play a very vital role in making a document more readable as against of a dull & drab complicated (think tax) document!

4) Express the Requirements in simple sentences from the perspective of the requestor:
We are capturing requirements because there is a need. Something is missing that the requester would like to happen. Instead of stating the need ‘as if’ in void, if we capture the requestors view of the need, it will provide much more comprehensive information than mere technical words.

For e.g. let’s say a Payroll Manager would like to have a report that indicates the time spent by her staff to correct timesheet errors. One, you could capture the requirement as; Provide report that indicates time spent by the payroll staff to correct timesheet errors and the second would be as I wrote it above- Payroll Manager would like to have a report that indicates the time spent by her staff to correct timesheet error. The first way of writing is cold and non-personal where are the second style makes it a requirement-user-story. Someone wants something, so they can in turn do something else.

Stating requirements in this style of user-story soon creates a “Requirements Ambience” which the subsequent Solution Design needs to meet in addition to the actual delivered artifacts (in our example above, the actual report).

Capturing requirements in this way, also makes validation that much easier- since the user’s requirement have been captured from their perspective, it is easier for them to identify with that stated need, validate it and approve it in the Requirements Gathering document.

5) Map Gathered Requirements to Delivered Functionalities:Not many projects go this extra mile to ensure that they provide a detailed mapping of how- what they are providing as deliverables, actually maps with the original requirements. Of course clients and sponsor need to agree that their needs are met by the project deliverables for them to accept them and sign off on the project, but by actually mapping delivered functionality to the gathered requirements- it provides for better traceability during sustainment as subsequent changes and modifications are done to the original deliverables.

By mapping gathered requirements to delivered functionalities, projects can provide a more comprehensive and robust Operations document.

These are five crucial ways in which you can modify your Requirements Elicitation Process to ensure more effective Requirements gathering that help in formulating better solutions to satisfy clients and provide detailed information that can be easily utilized by the Operations group. A win-win way of working… happy clients, happy operations and engaged & satisfied project team members!

#RequirementElicitation #ProjectManagement #BusinessAnalysis #SandhyaBhat #ProjectDelivery #LearningandDevelopment #CorporateTrainingTV #Leadership #Management #Coaching #Mentor

A nice info-graphic on Business Relationship Management

4/20/2015

Info- graphic on Business Relationship Management

Why do we need Business Relationship Management (BRM)?

Most projects go thru similar steps- but addressing team and client relationships, helps to minimize “collateral damage”; of stress, hurt feelings and unmet expectations! BRM helps to keep situations sane.

As Lao Tzu said, a leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

#Business #Corporate #BusinessRelationship #Management #BRM #LearningandDevelopment #CorporateTrainingTV #Leadership #Management #Coaching #Mentor

How To Write Great Meeting Minutes Which Capture Key Points And Discussions

4/12/2015

Whether you are the designated note taker or taking notes for your own knowledge, writing meeting minutes is a beneficial skill that can affect your working life. The term minutes is slightly misleading because it makes us think of actual minute-to-minute collections, however the most important details to cover are discussions, steps, and action points. These minutes can help as a reference as well as remind employees, or yourself, of assigned tasks and time frames.

The starting point for meeting minutes is to list all the essential details of the meeting, including the organization, meeting format, time and date, name of the facilitator, key topics and ending time. The topic of discussion and date are necessary to recollect who spoke about what issue and the time it was said. This makes it easier to go through notes to find specific details.

It is best to have an outline ready prior to the meeting, with clear spaces for notes and discussions. It is best to leave plenty of room for notes instead of not having enough space. It’s also beneficial to make a list of those attending and to mark them as “attended” as they come into the meeting. Using abbreviations for names can help clearly mark who said what and when.

Refrain from recording each little detail but focus more on summarizing discussion points. If you write too much then it can be hard to go back and pinpoint the important points later. There’s no need to bother with the unnecessary. Use the method of taking notes that is best for you, whether it is pen and paper, a recorder or a computer. Always ask for clarification if something is not clear in order to take better notes.

The best time to go over or to collect meeting minutes is right after the meeting is adjourned. The closer time frames to the actual meeting means the more honest and reflective the notes will be. Go over your outline again and add any notes or points that you failed to note earlier. Make sure that all details of important topics are clearly mentioned, such as a summarized statement or a quick explanation.

Then you should edit the notes you have further by making sure it is easy for anyone to understand and only have significant points. By the end of the editing, the document should clearly point out what was accomplished, what decisions were made and what actions were agreed upon.

#Meeting #Business #Management #CorporateTrainingTV #LearningandDevelopment #OrganizationalEffectivess #Leadership #Management #Coaching #Mentor