Category: project management

For sure, you are asking yourself: “Gaming and Project Management? Did I read well? “Yes, you read very well!

“But how does it work?”. The idea is quite simple: use a game model to create rewards in terms of productivity and goals.

It is simply applying the techniques used in games in non-gaming contexts, in order to increase the involvement in the activities. Those who face work as a game do not feel they are working. They are having fun and therefore this method increases the participation to the full advantage of the results.

In the company there can be various levels in which gaming techniques can be implemented. Here, in particular, we are talking about a completely new level of gaming, in which we play to achieve the highest level of optimization in the workplace.

The whole conversion of projects and business tasks into a game vision is called gamification process.

The premise of Gamification

The world of work is changing: While some companies continue to maintain a physical office and to follow a traditional approach, others have eliminated it. We are moving towards a new method that has already proved to be a winner: The teleworking system or remote work.

One of the biggest problems that is detected within the organizations is the disengagement of employees.

“Gallup”, the American company based in Washington, reports that 87% of workers are “actively disengaged” in their jobs.

Forcing employees to follow the traditional scheme of the 40-hour work week with limited vacation time is an “old” model that in many situations is already disappearing because it is not very productive.

With this strong increase in employee disengagement, the corporate world is looking for other exciting, inviting models, systems and platforms for employees in order to reach the necessary level of motivation and active engagement.

In fact, in order to manage workers, especially remote workers, it is fundamental to concentrate on the results they generate and also the working time analysis system should be more flexible.

What is the gamification process in practice?

The process of gamification means the application of different elements involved in a game, such as points, levels and rules, to other areas of activity, particularly in the company’s activities.

This change to the business model leads, as already mentioned, to a greater involvement of employees in the work they do, making it more like a real game.

Thanks to the involvement of employees, the job is done in a more concentrated way and is of high quality because every aspect of the work is submitted to the gamification process.

People like recognition and feeling part of something: gamification techniques are connected exactly to this concept.

The games consist of points, levels and prizes. Having these elements – considered social activators – in the workplace should therefore make people feel more involved.

Combining the gamification process with Project Management

The idea of combining the gamification process with project management seems perfect.

In fact, the premise is to use a game model and carefully design systems and points for the employee around the daily productivity and contribution to the goals of the project.

Then, it is possible to have team members who are rewarded and assigned to a higher level each time they contribute to the business in an appropriate manner.

The principles of the process of gamification and project management can simply be unified.

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In the management of the project there is indeed a goal to be achieved – the end of the game – and the team members are the means to achieve this goal – the players.[/av_notification]

It is also necessary to keep employees satisfied with the environment in which they operate. This will serve to make them want even more work – and success – everytime.

Therefore, the combination between the gamification process and project management represents a win-win situation for both the organization and the employees.

The idea can evolve in a series of positive situations: One could, for example, have a weekly meeting in which the ranking is drawn up with the number of points of each member; or reward those who reach the top of the ranking with appreciation signals or applause in front of colleagues, etc.

In short, every little gesture can be transformed into a great incentive for productivity, if inserted into the game concept.

The benefits of Gamification

Over the years, studies have shown that this model has really interesting results in the production and quality of the organization.

Proven benefits include:

• Increased productivity: working becomes funny, and people are more focused and stay in the office more willingly for a longer period of time;
• Increased employee satisfaction: the workplace becomes an exciting place and workers do not want to lose it;
• Increased employee retention: if an organization is giving everything that is needed, there is no reason to leave;
• Increased quality: the overall quality of the process increases and, therefore, the company produces products of the highest quality;
• Increased employee morale: recognition can be very rewarding for the mind and can elevate the mood of the employees.

What to keep in mind about the gamification process

The gamification process is revolutionary on the corporate front and the management of the project benefits a lot.

This is certainly an advantage, but it all depends on how it is managed.

Below are listed 5 essential aspects to keep in mind when implementing the gamification process within an organization:

• Challenges and play are part of the fun, but when the games are too difficult or complicated, there can be frustration and a drop in motivation. It is therefore important to ensure that the games are not too difficult;
• Create games that give everyone the opportunity to have a chance of winning; there should not always be just one winner. This can demoralize employees and dissuade them from trying to do their best;
• The project manager must be the motivator and part of the team. This is a key aspect to show the caliber of leaders and to connect and engage the team;
• Avoid repetition of the challenges. There is always displeasure when there are high levels of repetition in the activities offered.
• The gamification process will not work for each department or team in a unique way and must be properly studied before implementation. It is therefore the project manager and the management that have to make decisions about it. Moreover, if the gaming process does not satisfy the target audience, there should be no hesitation in deleting

Conclusions

In conclusion, the process of gamification within organizations gives the opportunity to allow “humans to be human”.

Gamification capabilities enable managers and leaders to gain complete trust from their employees and help them increase their productivity.

The gamification process makes it possible to reach a win-win situation:

• for organizations, because the targets and goals set are achieved,
• for workers, because their level of satisfaction increases.

Gamification processes are slowly catching on and many organizations have already adopted this new system in order to successfully increase the overall production.

We wonder if it will become a model recognized by most Italian companies!

Have you ever heard of the gamification process? Have you ever taken part? Tell us what you think.

What are the skills of the Project Manager today? That’s a good question!

Project management is not an easy job. In reality, this is composed by a series of difficult tasks, including the start-up, planning, execution, control, closure of a project and, last but not least, the management of the team.

And the project manager must do all this successfully. In order to do this, he must possess a variety of not only technical, but also transversal skills.

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The project manager does not deal only with systems and processes, but also with people.
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Here is then a list of 10 skills (9 + 1) that every project manager should have. 

1.Leadership

One of the first skills that come to mind when thinking of a manager is leadership.

This is a skill that some consider innate and that can not be learned.

However, we think everyone has the potential to learn how to apply leadership techniques.

Leadership can show up in different styles, depending on the personality of the project manager.

2.Communication

This aspect is closely connected with leadership.

It is not possible to be an effective leader if one is not able to articulate needs and necessities, but also praises and compliments.

Not only does a project manager communicate with his team, but also with stakeholders, suppliers and customers.

Communication concerns not only a personal level, but also specific tools such as reporting or collaboration tools via chat, file sharing and other means that allow to tag discussions.

3.Planning

This is a technical skill, absolutely essential in a project manager – otherwise it is very likely that the job chosen is wrong.

The only way to achieve the project goals within the established time frame is to divide the goal into individual activities along the timeline and to associate one or more team members to each activity.

In short, this is planning, and it is the heart of what a project manager does.

There are many tools that help this process. One of them is the Gantt diagram, which provides a visualization of the program with tasks, duration, dependencies and milestone.

4.Risk management

Doing anything is a risk. Planning a project, big or small, is also connected with some risks.

It is part of a project manager’s job to predict these events before they become real problems.

Therefore, before carrying out the project, it is necessary to insert the identification, the assessment and the control of the risk.

The more a project manager is able to manage risks, the more likely his project will be successful.

Of course, it is not possible to anticipate everything that could happen during the life cycle of a project.

Unforeseen problems can arise, so a valid and ready process to handle them when they arise is needed.

5.Cost management

The concept is clear, without money you cannot do anything.

Once the budget is created, the first task is to make sure that this is realistic and that it is possible to meet the financial needs of the project.

After that, the costs should be checked regularly during the execution of the project.

Failure to meet this requirement could harm organizations that manage limited budgets.

A good project manager has the ability to finish projects not only respecting the time, but also respecting the given budget.

6.Negotiation

Being good at negotiating is similar to communication, but it deserves a separate discussion.

Negotiation is not limited to negotiating the best price from a supplier, even if this is part of the job.

Managing a project means being in constant negotiation.

For example, stakeholders could make requests that may impact the scope of a project, and these must be managed and negotiated.

The same goes for the possible conflicts that will arise between team members or other people involved in the project.

Strong negotiating skills will resolve these conflicts before they explode and threaten the project.

7.Critical thinking

Project managers are not the only ones who can benefit from this ability.

Most of us do not think, but react and follow a series of answers that we have said or learned, like an automatic pilot.

Critical thinking is simply objective when analyzing and evaluating a problem or situation, so that an impartial judgment can be formulated.

Every day we are working on a project, we want decisions to be impartial.

The only aspect guiding the decision should be to pursue the best thing for the project.

8.Activity management

This is another technical skill that should be impressed in the DNA of a project manager.

There can be countless activities that complete a project that must be created, assigned and managed.

This means that poor management in this process can have a serious impact on the success of the project in general.

In these situations a project management tool could be a valid help.

Features that promote collaboration with the team and which help to prioritize and provide instant updates when tasks have been completed or are running are needed.

9.Quality management

This skill is often overlooked by project managers and is the one that probably needs more attention.

It is possible to be negligent in favor of meeting deadlines.

Respecting deadlines is certainly important, but the project in general is useless if it produces a product or service that is poor.

10.Sense of humor

With this we do not mean to be a comedian in the workplace, but there will for sure be a time and a place for a bit of healthy humor.

The sense of humor allows to have a different perspective, allows to see a problem in a different way and, maybe, also to see a possible solution.

Humor relieves stress both in the case of the project manager and the team. Only when the tensions are resolved, in fact, actions and ideas can be more profitable and productive.

The sense of humor also helps morale.  Working hard does not mean that the environment must be suffocating.

Although this may seem absurd, this ability is definitely not to be underestimated as far as project management is concerned.

 

So, these were the most important skills that a project manager should have in order to improve his effectiveness and productivity in  project management.

Having these skills will not only benefit the organization, but also the managerial career in general.

For you, what are the most important skills that a project manager has to have? Have we forgotten something that is relevant to you? Write us your opinion.

Project requirements are a key aspect in order to complete the project on time and without exceeding budget limits.

This is one of the essential skills of a project manager, often underestimated, which consists in the collection and analysis of these aspects of the plan.

Understanding clearly the requirements of any project you are about to undertake is very important.

Too many projects have failed because of no well-defined requirements.

As stated by the Project Management Institute

47% of projects failed due to poor requirement management.

There are no two identical projects: each project has its own set of requirements and it is a project manager’s responsibility to identify them correctly.

The more complex the project is, the greater the need to define the requirements in order to find certain processes for each part of the project.

What are the project requirements?

Stakeholders hear the term “requirements”, but everyone get its meaning in different ways, depending on the goals.

Therefore, before we can examine anything, it is essential to have a univocal operational definition.

Part of the confusion related to the requirements lies in the fact that there are several types. We will therefore try to stick to the classification made by the PMBOK (link all’articolo PMBOK)

The 6th edition of the PMBOK classifies the project requirements as follows:

• Corporate: they describe the reason for the project;
• Stakeholders: they describe the needs of a stakeholder or group of stakeholders;
• Solution: they describe the characteristics, functions and characteristics of the product, service or result that will satisfy the company and the stakeholders;
• Functional: they describe the behavior of the product or service;
• Non-functional: they describe the environmental conditions or the qualities required for the product or service to be effective;
• Transitional: they describe the temporary capacities necessary to pass from the current state to the desired state in the future;
• Project: they describe the actions, the processes or the other conditions that the project must satisfy;
• Quality: they describe any condition or criterion that validates the successful completion of a project result or the fulfillment of other project requirements.

But why are the requirements so important for a project?

When requirements are not clear, projects are at risk; they may not produce the desired and necessary result.

At least, the missing requirements involve reworking.

In short, the lack of project requirements or their poor definition produces negative impacts on the program and on the budget.

Obviously customers, as well as team members, will not be happy with these shortcomings.

We examine the essential steps to arrive at a correct identification and processing of the project requirements.

Collect the project requirements

A project manager can not expect the project requirements to be delivered on a silver platter.

Stakeholders may not know exactly what they want and should therefore be helped in formulating their requirements.

A good project manager knows how to gather the requirements. In case he does not know, he will have to ask for help from those who possess the skills.

The tools for gathering the requirements

Here are some tools and techniques that can be useful for gathering the requirements:

• Brainstorming: also called as group thinking or group creativity. Usually people with different roles and functions are brought together for this This technique is very useful when you do not have fixed needs and you want try to explore new requirements and new horizons
• Interviews / questionnaires: this technique is usually used in the case of large groups. Having a large number of interested parties does not allow to organize an individual interview. Be careful, however, to ask the right / pertinent questions for a correct and real collection of the needs of the interested parties.
• Interviews: a tool that involves personally stakeholders in order to understand their needs. Interviews can be facilitated through personal meetings or phone calls.
• Benchmarking: in this technique, a comparison is made between existing practices and market best practices. With the gap analysis with respect to these examples of excellence, possible project requirements can be.
• Context diagram: these diagrams represent a pictorial visualization of various interactions between users and different systems. Therefore, they describe the necessary steps to obtain the results and they may be suitable for identifying the requirements.

In each of these cases it is important to have project management software that allows, in the drafting of the project, these requirements, as an integrated part of the project itself.

Requirements analysis

The word “analyze” means to break down or examine in detail the constitution or structure of something.

If the situation allows it, one of the most powerful ways to analyze is to create prototypes or diagrams.

When users can see and / or touch things, it’s easier to see what they like and what do not like. A prototype or a diagram is more tangible than simple data.

Furthermore, in some cases, the priority of each requirement is examined during the analysis. In order to do this, you should ask yourself some questions. Here are some examples:

1. Which features and functions offer the maximum benefit for the project?
2. Which ones can cause the greatest risk?

Once analyzed, the requirements are documented and formalized in the project document.

What the project manager must do in general is to keep his team and client focused on clearly defining project goals and mapping valid, detailed and understandable requirements.

All this, in order to create a final solution that provides what the customer really wants.

The criteria for a project requirement

In general, a good requirement must meet four basic criteria:

• A good requirement must satisfy a specific need
• A good requirement is verifiable
• A good requirement is reachable
• A good requirement is understandable by all stakeholders

A good requirement must satisfy a specific need

A requirement is basically a declaration of something that someone needs.

That something is a product or a solution that performs a service or a function.

Even if it is verifiable, reachable and well declared, a requirement that is not necessary for the final solution is not really a good requirement.

Of course, the definition of the need will depend on the context and circumstances and must be deepened by the team and the client in each specific situation.

A good requirement is verifiable

A requirement must state something that can be verified through quantification, inspection, analysis or testing.

It is also important to determine the specific criteria for acceptance, which will consequently guarantee verifiable requirements.

A good requirement is reachable

The requirement must be within the budget and must be technically feasible.

It is important not to write requirements for things that can not be built or that are not reasonably within the budget or project timeline.

This is not always easy to determine and a project manager may not have the experience to judge whether a requirement is technically feasible.

In this case, it is necessary to ensure to include the members of the development team in the review process in order to predict technical problems.

It may be necessary to do a research in order to determine the feasibility of a requirement before it is added to the project baseline.

A good requirement is understandable by all stakeholders

A good requirement is understandable by all the subjects involved in the project. It expresses a single thought, is concise and is written in short and simple sentences with coherent terminology.

In this way, as you progress in the design and development phases of the project, the requirement will not change in meaning and will always remain clear to everyone.

Another advice is to formulate the requirements with affirmative language whenever possible.

For instance, it is easier to develop and test a product that does something specific than one that does not do something specific.

In conclusion, we can say that a thorough understanding of how to design, modify and adapt the requirements processes is the key for a successful completion of the project.

Have you ever found yourself in difficulty in collecting and analyzing the requirements? How did you handle the situation? Tell us about your experience.

Business coaching for a project manager is becoming a key aspect of the business.

John Whitmore, recognized by everyone as the founding father of Coaching, defined it as the ability to

“Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”

 

Business Coaching: Introduction

More and more frequently, the Project Manager deals with events where problems have to be solved, ideas presented and results presented.

The project manager spends most of his time communicating with team members and stakeholders, internal (at all levels of the organization) or external to the project.

Moreover, we should not forget that he must also motivate the team every day.

For instance, empowering and encouraging team members to improve their skills, attitudes and empathy in order to achieve better results has the same importance as solving problems or communicating in the right manner with stakeholders.

In addition, the project manager needs strategic skills in decisions and behaviors in order to achieve the objectives of the project.

In short, today more than ever, the Project Manager needs to create a work team and “lead” it to success.

This means knowing how to delegate, supervise, but also motivate.

In short, the role of the project manager for his Team is that of a real Coach that not only dictates the patterns but that also encourages, helps, supports, and gives rewards.

For these reasons, a good method that the project manager can use in his own routine is to instruct other people in the project. He can also use different tools that can help him improve goals and communications.

Business Coaching: the effects

According to a research done by the University of Amsterdam (Theeboom, Beersma and Vianen, 2013), business coaching has significant positive effects on

• Performance an skills (60%),
• Welfare(46%),
• Coping (43%),
• Work attitudes (54%)
• Achievement of the objectives (74%).

In general, their research found out that coaching in organizations is an effective tool that improves the functioning of individuals within companies.

Moreover, according to another study by Bersin of Deloitte (Garr, 2011), organizations that effectively prepare managers for coaching have 130% more chance of achieving more satisfactory business results.

Business Coaching: the skills to be improved

Based on the above, project managers should improve at least four skills to become effective coaches.

Four are the skills that could help them when they interact with other people:

1. Active listening;
2. Powerful questions;
3. Direct communication;
4. Awareness creation.

Let’s see them one by one.

Business Coaching: Active Listening

With active listening we refer to a specific attitude.

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Strive to listen not only to the words that another person is saying, but also try to understand the complete message.[/av_notification]

In order to do this, the person must pay particular attention to the other.

It sounds easy, but it is not!

The situations we live have accustomed us to listen only on a superficial level.

We take the words of other people, but in most cases, we do not contextualize them, therefore we lose the nuances and key aspects of the message.

This is why, if the project manager has at heart the success of the project, he should listen to a deeper level.

This means to listen to the meaning enclosed behind the words that are said.

Becoming active listeners takes a lot of effort and training.

But there are small tricks to start with.

Active listening and really transmitting the perception to be actively listening are steps that can be improved.

Here are some “exercises” to improve active listening:

• pay attention, looking directly the talker,
• set aside distracting thoughts and avoid being distracted by the surrounding environment,
• show that you are listening with the use of a smile or other facial expressions and encourage the speaker to continue by using small verbal comments such as “yes” and “mh”.
• provide feedback by summarizing the concept of the talker and by asking questions to clarify some points.
• postpone judgments and personal comments at the end of the speech (even if the temptation is strong!). Allow the talker to finish each point before asking questions and not interrupt him/her with contrary arguments.

In conclusion, the rule of common sense always applies.

You should respond appropriately, treating others the way you would like to be treated 🙂 .

Business Coaching: Powerful Questions

What are powerful questions?

These are the questions asked to make the interlocutor reflect. Those questions have the ability to create different perspectives and broaden horizons that had not previously been taken into account.

A powerful question brings clarity, action, discovery, intuition or commitment.

It creates more possibilities, new learning or a clearer vision.

Powerful questions cause people to think for themselves. And when you think of yourself, you generally learn more.

The questions are powerful when they impact people and bring them to think.

They are usually open questions and they generally start with the word “what” or “how” and are very direct on the subject.

Moreover, a powerful question gives the person the awareness of the topic and the opportunity to explore it further.

It brings the person to think outside the box, helping to change perspective.

Sometimes powerful questions can cause a bit of discomfort, but a powerful question should be free of judgment. It must simply be a curious question.

If project managers learn to ask powerful questions, this will help them increase their personal and business communication skills.

The key is to always be genuinely curious about the person you are talking to.

Business Coaching: Direct Communication

Direct communication is the ability to communicate effectively during a conversation and to use a language that has the most positive impact on a person.

Direct communication is clear and articulated, it shares and provides feedback.

It is important to reformulate and articulate the concept in order to help people see from another perspective.

Moreover, project managers should use appropriate language that is respectful to the person, for example, words that are not sexist, non-racist, non-technical, not jargon.

In addition, the use of metaphors, stories and analogies should be used to help illustrate a point or give a verbal picture and thus help communication.

Business Coaching: Creating awareness

Creating awareness is the ability to accurately integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information and to help people who are talking to the project manager to achieve the expected results.

A project manager plays an important role in creating the conditions for raising awareness. He must ensure that people can bridge the gap between where they are now and where they want to be.

The project manager is responsible for creating a support environment in which people can explore and discover their skills.

Once people know something, the project manager should help them take action in order to allow them to achieve better and more successful results for the project.

Project managers are persons that are organized, passionate and goal-oriented.

They play a strategic role and are the keys of change for their organizations.

They pursue learning, implement changes and achieve success.

In addition, they cultivate the interpersonal skills necessary to develop trust and communication among project stakeholders.

Have you ever applied these coaching techniques? Are there any others that are important to you? Write us your opinion in the comments.

The GTD (Getting Things Done) method is a system that allows to efficiently organize one´s activities in relation to time, thus remaining productive.

It may seem complicated from an external point of view, but the ultimate goal is to optimize the time to devote to the activities that need to be done, in order to have more time for the activities that a person wants to do.

The GTD method, if used correctly, allows to simplify both the working as well as the private life. In fact, this method can be used in both situations.

The GTD method: let’s deepen the subject

The GTD is a method used for organizing things to do, based on their priorities and on a – daily, weekly, monthly – schedule in order to make them all manageable.

This method allows you to see the activities at stake and to choose efficiently on what and how to work in the future.

The GTD method also allows you to eliminate from your mind any distractions that may impede efficient work.

All this sounds amazing, but this method is also known to be complicated.

Part of the reason for this reputation lies in the fact that there is no single and always valid and correct way to put it into practice.

For sure there are some guidelines, but there is no precise scheme to follow. The application of the GTD method varies in every situation.

Part of this flexibility makes it easy to customize it in order to suit your needs. On the other hand, it makes it difficult to approach and put into practice.

Let´s try to understand how it works in a very simple way.

The 5 phases of the GTD method

The GTD method is basically an organizational system. In fact, it does not set precise rules on how to carry out the work concretely.

The method focuses on how to organize, structure and choose the work to be done and is based on 5 phases or steps:

1.Collect

Here are meant all things to do, ideas, recurring tasks, in short, really everything

Collect and write everything in a notebook, in a Word sheet, on post-it, on any tool you prefer to use for your organization.

The GTD method does not tell you to use a specific tool, but whatever you use must adapt to your daily flow. There must be no excuse to say “I will add it to my list later”.

2.Analyze

Do not just write “Vacation Planning”, but divide it into practical and executable steps. For example: choose the destination, search for the flight, look for the hotel, etc.

If something can be done right away and you have time to do it, you have to take advantage of it, and do it right away.

If a thing can be delegated, then it should be delegated.

3.Organize everything by category and priority

Assign expiration dates and deadlines where possible, and set reminders to comply with them.

Pay particular attention to the priority of each activity.

Right now you are not concretely doing any of the items on the list, but you are just organizing the list and the points, according to category and priority.

4.Doing

At this point, the system is realized to make it easily understandable and it’s now time to get involved and get to work.

The activities are divided into manageable blocks, of limited size, easy to start. There are no more excuses.

5.Review

Periodically perform a detailed review of the points to see where progress is being made. It is also good in order to see where changes in priorities and categories are necessary and, in general, to verify if the system works.

How to start with the GTD method

Including the basic premises of the GTD method, getting started is simple.

In fact, it is likely that many project managers already use some of the pillars of the GTD and that these are already part of their workflow.

It is probable but not so obvious. So, for those who want to try, here is how to get started.

First of all, we need a tool to acquire and organize all the ideas, activities and tasks to be done, responsibilities, everything that we need to remember.

It is necessary to choose a method, an instrument or a tool that allows us to report the new information given to us as quickly as possible.

If the boss announces a new task, in fact, this has to be reported in the tool chosen in the most immediate way.

If the current method does not allow this freedom, it must be changed.

Here is the point that most people do not: dedicate some time each week, or at the beginning of each day, to really get in touch with things to do.

How many of us, entering the office, sit at the desk and start working blindly, thinking only about the individual activities without thinking or having a general picture of the day?

Tasks must be organized into specific tasks that can be managed according to schedule and priority.

Ideally, if the GTD method is executed correctly, all the tasks to be done should be easily displayed. You can quickly see what is most important, what takes more or less time, what can be postponed.

How a person organizes himself, specifically depends on the person, but a fundamental rule is: do not overdo it.

If the list begins to fill with categories, variable priorities and all kinds of labels, flags and possible functions, it’s time to get back to the starting point and simplify.

And above all, do not forget the periodic review, preferably weekly.

Conclusions on the GTD method

The GTD method has a lot to offer, but let’s not forget it: it’s just an organizational philosophy and it’s not suitable for everyone.

In fact, there are several other productivity tools and systems to choose from and the GTD method is only one of them.

The goal of the GTD method is to devote some time for organizing the activities in order to subsequently obtain a large amount of time that would otherwise have been spent on unnecessary and unproductive work.

You will generally be more relaxed, because you will not have to worry anymore with the thought of what to do next, how to do it or when you will have time to do it.

In our experience, success and productivity are connected to how you manage two aspects of work management:

1. Carefully model the complexities of your work environment – and here, of course, Twproject assists you wonderfully
2. Bring this complexity to something simple, light, quickly manageable by the individual user.

Many ideas surrounding “agile” and “getting things done” management move around this process.

The final result should be to be more in tune with work and to be more involved in the personal life.

And you, what method of organization of activities do you use?

What is your relationship with the GTD method? Write it in the comments.

Program managers and project managers, two roles with similar titles will not be so different, right? Wrong!

It is easy to get confused for the assonance, but above all because in some companies the Project Manager carries out tasks and activities that are very similar to those of the Program Manager.

In reality, the Program Manager and the Project Manager, although sharing similar responsibilities, have positions that are quite distinct due to key differences.

Projects vs. Programs

Before discussing the similarities and differences between the two roles, it is fundamental to understand what is the difference between projects and programs.

Projects are temporary, are implemented one-off, and are generally limited by costs, resources, budgets and time constraints.

Projects have clear end dates and short-term goals that turn into tangible results or derivables.

The programs are instead composed of several underlying and interconnected projects.

These projects complete each other in order to achieve a broader and longer-term business goal.

A successful program brings strategic benefits and organizational growth, rather than a single tangible result.

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In short, a project manager has a more focused view on work within a single project; on the other hand, the program manager has a broad view of all workflows that lead to a “higher” goal.
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Who is a Program Manager?

A Program Manager is a professional who articulates the strategy and goals of a program. His assessment will focus on how the program will impact the company in general.

The achievement of the general goals will pass from a list of interdependent projects that He (or She) must define, manage, and supervise.

The program manager creates a main schedule for managing dependencies between projects. A program risk management plan and a program communication plan are thus created.

The program manager therefore does not manage the projects, but rather provides the necessary supervision to ensure that the pieces of each project are completed in an effective and efficient way. The goal is to meet the needs of other projects in order to achieve the overall goal.

It may be useful to think of a program manager as an architect who designs a project.

An architect does not install the electrical system and does not build the walls of a house, but makes sure that all these pieces come together to create a solid and usable building.

The role of the Program Manager goes beyond the completion of individual projects and has as focus the long-term implementation of the whole company program.

The responsibilities of the Program Manager

The responsibilities of the Program Manager include: recruiting teams, implementing strategies, measuring ROI and other high-level activities and tasks.

A program manager is a highly qualified leader with a vision towards the future of the company.

The program manager should correctly and accurately inform the project managers of the corporate goal that needs to be achieved.

If the business strategy changes, the program manager must communicate it to the various project managers so that they are aware of the changes and can implement them into the individual projects.

The program manager focuses on the strategy and implementation plan and, as a result, delegates projects according to these factors.

The control of a program manager goes well beyond the life span of the single projects and focuses on long-term benefits for the company.

Who is a Project Manager?

The project manager manages the operations of the individual projects within the programs.

He (or She) coordinates the time, budget and resources needed to complete the work within the program guidelines. Moreover, he reports to the Program Manager on progress and any changes made to the initial project plan.

The role of the project manager is more tactical than that of the program manager. If program managers are architects, project managers are like team leaders.

A project manager focuses mainly on the execution and management of the functional elements of the project, this includes meeting deadlines, respecting the budget, delegating activities and achieving results.

Once the project has been completed and its goal has been achieved, the role of the project manager, with respect to that single project, ceases.

Program Manager and Project Manager

Let’s recap the three main differences between a program manager and a project manager:

• Program managers supervise groups of projects; project managers supervise individual projects;
• Program managers focus on long-term business goals; project managers work to achieve concrete results in the short term;
• Program managers are strategic; project managers are tactical.

One can think and believe that a program manager possesses a wider range of skills and power with respect to a project manager.

In reality, a program manager must wear different glasses in order to look at the program from different perspectives and thus have an overview.

Through these different perspectives, the correct identification and segregation of individual projects arises in order to achieve the company goal.

Once these perspectives are established and segregation is carried out, the role of project managers becomes prevalent.

Project managers do not need glasses to get a general vision, but rather they focus on the goals of the project and manage the process and the workflow that can lead to the success of the single project.

After listing the main differences between these two professional roles, it remains only to mention a great resemblance between the two.

Both are “structured” roles that require heterogeneous skills and individuals who want to strive to make a difference in the business and industrial world to which they belong.

Did you know the difference between project manager and program manager? Do you believe there are further noteworthy differences between these two? Leave us your opinion.

A clear and detailed project documentation is essential for the success of the project itself.

Every good project manager knows it well!

In fact, it is necessary to be constantly updated to stay on track with the project.

However, project documentation drafting can be a difficult and unloved task.

For some organizations and projects there are even legal requirements to be met for the drafting and storage of documents. These are mandatory requirements that, if not respected, can make in trouble not only the single project, but the company itself.

All clear then, project documentation is important and its correct drafting and conservation is essential.

So what’s the problem? The problem is actually very simple: most people hate to compile documentation.

It’s a time-consuming process!

It is considered boring and often underestimated or ignored not only by the collaborators who have to deal with it, but also by the people who requested it.

Each project is unique and therefore requires unique documentation to help to guide the project to a successful conclusion.

Hence, it’s very important to identify which documents are critical for each project.

Below we provide a simple project classification that could help to identify relevant documentation:

• Small projects: these projects last one to four months. The emphasis is on speed and completion of the project as quickly as possible. Examples of such projects are the creation of a website or simply an upgrade of existing systems.
• Medium-sized projects: these projects take up to 12 months to complete and are the standard for most companies. They are not that fast and usually involve external suppliers. The risk level and control of changes increases with respect to small projects.
• Super dimensional projects: these are the largest and most complex projects. It may even take years to complete them. An example of this project is the construction of a building.

Determination of project documentation needs

An important question to ask itself for each project is: what is the minimum project documentation needed?

In fact, written documentation requires time and money. Therefore, project size has an impact on the number of documents needed.

Furthermore, the development of project documentation becomes even more crucial when working with public administration and public institutions.

It is, for example, the case of the medical, pharmaceutical or defense sectors.

An Australian study of CSIRO (The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) link to the target = blank site, which took into consideration about 350 companies, found that incomplete documentation caused a reduction in the efficiency of the project.

In cases where there was very little documentation, the projects had an average completion of 11% which, to say it is superfluous, is a very low percentage.

For small projects, the emphasis is therefore on minimum requirements and minimum documentation.

Medium-sized projects gradually require more documentation, while large projects require maximum documentary effort because they require a high level of communication and coordination.

Create the right documentation

Sometimes project managers do not want to create new documents for each of their projects.

As an alternative, they can use a wide range of proven project models.

This allows the project manager to have more time to focus on the actual project, rather than wasting time on developing new documents from scratch.

Whether the project manager manages the entire project lifecycle or simply a phase, he will still have to deal with details and information from various sources.

Thinking to the input coming from customers, users and sellers, at some point he will have to write something.

Specifically, the project documentation focuses on:

• Define the purpose and scope of the project;
• Identify results and key points;
• Document the technical parameters and the technologies to be used;
• Address the way deliverable will be built or distributed;
• Evaluate elements such as quality, scope, resources, risks, training and costs;
• Document any backouts or unexpected events that may occur;
• Communicate progress and update project stakeholders.

Once again we can understand how much correct documentation is fundamental for the success of a project.

Whether it is simple paper documents or documentation sent in electronic format, it is necessary to plan and develop the project documentation before starting the project itself.

Hence, project managers must anticipate the time required to develop these documents within project planning and update the plan every time a change occurs.

What you need to document

Regardless of the organization’s structure, the ability to record and document all aspects of a project is vital to be a successful project manager.

Reports, graphs, documents, change requests and status updates must also be kept throughout the life of a project and, very often, even beyond.

It is important to consider the following to determine what to include into documention:

• Customer documentation: a simple example is sufficient for this topic. Imagine that a customer ask to the project manager information about a decision made a couple of months ago. The customer claims to have clearly chosen a direction, but the company has decided to follow another one. Clear documentation on customer meetings, with specific dates, times and participants, will help everyone to remember the decision made and to clarify any misunderstanding.
• Legal documents: For some projects there are legal requirements that require making specific documents. For public projects, for example, supervisory and review processes may be necessary to analyze a project after its completion. The legal requirements of a project must be clear already at the beginning of the project itself.
• Process documentation: important processes within a project must be documented. This documentation may also be useful as a resource for any similar future projects. In case of doubt, the best approach is always to document.
• Project Change Documentation: Project updates are essential to document when objectives, or project execution, change due to internal factors or external causes. Stakeholders must also be informed of these changes and receive the relevant documentation.

Documentation best practices

What are the best strategies to use to maintain effective, efficient and timely documentation? Here are the best practices:

• Taking the time: many people think that the calendar is only used to setup meetings. It’s not just like that! The calendar can be used to program blocks of time to to reflect and for drafting of an essential document for the project. We need to take some time to write an official document. This can‘t happen when you keep answering the phone, writing emails and talking with your co-workers. Likewise, you can plan 10-15 minute blocks every week to review and update the documentation.
• Enter the right details: depending on the documentation target, this must contain more or less details and, depending on the role of the target audience, the details must be of a certain type or another. For example, an engineer will need the project technical details, while a marketing manager will be focused on other factors. The project manager must to consider the right level of detail in the documentation.
• Smart Storage: documentation must be easy to identify and easily accessible. This also includes the use of clear and easily identifiable keywords.
• Share: the documentation must be shared and must not be saved individually on the project manager’s PC. Sharing the documentation, with the right collaborators, also allows you to receive constructive feedback if changes are necessary.
• Updating the documentation: as the project progresses, it is necessary to ensure that the project documentation is correctly updated. Needless to waste time in writing initial documents and then lock them in oblivion.

In conclusion, documentation is certainly a difficult topic for many project managers, but it is a fundamental tool that in some cases can even simplify the execution of the project.

Hence it’s important to give the right value to the project documentation.

That’s why in TWproject we have made the life easier!

Document management is a large topic, so there are dozens of specific applications (called DMS).

In Twproject we don’t want to compete with these specific tools. We are, in fact, aware that every company has its own system of document storage, tested and structured.

That’s why we have chosen to keep the management of documents to the essential. At the same time we have decided to integrate this aspect with some powerful and simple technique.

Therefore, we have created an intelligent system for managing and archiving project documents in Twproject.

Your documents will always be one click away from your projects (and resources, and even from issues).

You will be able to connect and access to your documents in two ways:

• Uploading a document directly to TWproject
• Creating a link to a file archive
• Adding a link, if you already have a document repository,

In this way you will have access to your documents directly from Twproject: a single place from where to manage everything and put everything available to the team.

Not bad, right?

All while working, also remotely or accessing from mobile.

In short, we have tried to meet all the needs of the PM to concretely support the need to manage project documents.

And what is your relationship with the project documentation?

Is it a difficult task for you or are you part of the project managers who not struggling dealing with it?

Give us your opinion, but above all, tell us what are the needs about that.

We would like to know what else we may implement in the software to improve your work.

In project management, the Earned Value method is one of the most appreciated and well-known project management tools.

It is a project management technique that allows to measure performance and progress.

It combines the measures of the project management triangle: scope, time and costs.

In a unique integrated system, the Earned Value Method is able to give accurate predictions on the performance problems of a project.

Therefore, you can understand how important its contribution to project management can be.

What is the Earned Value Method?

The Earned Value Method method is also known as Earned Value Analysis (EVA).

This method allows the project manager to measure the amount of work actually performed on a project.

Thanks to the EVA, it is possible to measure the project according to the progress achieved.

Using the measured progress, the project manager is therefore able to predict the total cost of a project and its completion date.

Often the term “earned value” refers to the Budgeted Cost of Worked Performed or BCWP.

This value allows the project manager to calculate the efficiency indexes of the project.

Moreover, it provides information on how the project is progressing in relation to its original planning.

These indexes, if applied to future activities, allow to predict how the development of the project in the future will be, provided that the performance indexes do not fluctuate.

The requirement for the Earned Value Analysis

In order to have an accurate Earned Value Analysis, the creation of a solid project plan is needed.

In particular, it is possible to use the Scope Statement, the real fondation of a project.

In short, the Scope Statement is a document wrote by the project manager on the project start-up.

It includes project goals and objectives, final product requirements, major milestones, and project risk analysis.

In order to develop that common understanding of the work required for a project, another key structure should be created, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

The WBS is a proper list of all project activities, a hierarchical decomposition which focuses on the deliverable of the project.

Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project’s work.

A WBS records the hierarchy and description of the tasks that have to be performed and their relationship with the final product.

The WBS breaks down all working sectors into appropriate planning elements.

Budget definition, cost accounting, progress measurement and management control.

Project planning is therefore a necessity not only for using the Earned Value Method, but also for the success of the project in general.

Once the bases have been established, let’s look at the three necessary information that allow to calculate the EVA.

The fundamental concepts of the Earned Value

The Earned Value Method allows the project manager to answer the following three questions about the project:

1. Where were we?
2. Where are we now?
3. Where are we going?

Unlike traditional management, in the Earned Value Method there are three data sources:

• Planned value – PV;
• Actual value – AV;
• the earned value of the concrete work already completed.

Starting from these three sources, the Earned Value Method extrapolates the data and is able to compare them.

The planned value

The planned value describes to what extent the activities of a project should be at a determined point in the project schedule and in the cost estimation.

The baseline of the project schedule and of the costs refer to the planned physical work and the budget approved in order to complete the planned activities.

Together, these two values define an important value: the planned value (PV).

This value can be analysed in two ways: cumulative or current.

The cumulative PV is the sum of the approved budget for the planned activities that have to be performed in general, througout the project.

On the other hand, the current PV is the approved budget for the planned activities that have to be performed during a given period.

This period could refer to days, weeks, months, etc.

The actual cost 

The actual cost (AC), also called the actual cost of the work performed (ACWP), is the real cost incurred for the execution of a task for a project.

This value refers to what has actually been spent and, as in the case of the planned value, can be either cumulative or current.

The cumulative AC is the sum of the actual cost for all the activities performed up to the historical moment in which it is calculated.

On the other hand, the current AC is the actual cost of the activities performed during a given period. Here too the period can refer to days, weeks, months, etc.

The earned value (EV) of the completed work 

The earned value is the quantification of the value of the work actually performed up to a certain date.

In other words, the EV refers to what was achieved during the project.

The cumulative EV is the sum of the budget for the activities performed up to the date when this value is calculated.

The current EV is the sum of the budget for the activities carried out in a given period.

Variance Analysis

The variance analysis is a method where the achieved results of a project are compared to the expected results.

When a project is approved, certain expected results are established, as well as a planning in order to achieve them.

The variance analysis, in case of failure to achieve those results, helps to understand the amount of difference between the expected results and those actually achieved.

After having evaluated the gap, it becomes fundamental to understand what were the causes of this failure.

This technique is used to highlight cost and time variances, ie the cost variance and the schedule variance.

Cost Variance (CV)

This value indicates how the project is evolving with respect to the initially estimated budget.

The cost variance is calculated by subtracting the earned value from the costs actually incurred, here is the formula: CV = EV – AC.

If the result equals 0, it means that the project is perfectly respecting the budget.

If the result is negative, this means that the project is out of budget, ie the costs incurred are greater than those planned.

It is therefore necessary to take action.

On the other hand, if the result is positive, it means that the project is under budget, ie the costs incurred are lower than those planned.

Schedule Variance (SV)

With respect to the scheduling initially approved, the project may be late, in advance or in line with the initial planning.

This value represents the Schedule Variance (SV).

It is essential to understand how this value does not provide data on the impact that any delay in work has on the project and its results.

It simply indicates whether the work is in line with the planning or not.

The Schedule Variance, which shows the actual situation of the project with respect to planning, is obtained by subtracting from the earned value the planned costs up to the moment in which the analysis is carried out.

Here is the formula: SV = EV – PV.

If the result is 0, it means that the project is in line with the planning.

If the result is positive, it means that the project is ahead of schedule.

On the other hand, if the result is negative, it means that the project is behind the schedule and it is necessary to take action.

Project efficiency indexes

Another analysis that can be performed using the Earned Value Method is that of project efficiency.

In particular, there are two types of efficiency analysis: the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and the Cost Performance Index (CPI).

The SPI is an indicator of the efficiency of the program of a project.

In fact, it is the ratio between the earned value (EV) and the planned value (PV): SPI = EV / PV.

If the SPI is equal to or greater than one, this indicates a favorable condition. This means that the project is being carried out efficiently.

On the contrary, a value lower than one indicates a negative situation.

The CPI is the indicator of economic efficiency of a project and is the ratio between the earned value (EV) and the actual costs (CA): CPI = EV/AC.

A CPI equal to or greater than one indicates a favorable condition and a value below one indicates a negative situation.

Therefore, in general, it is possible that our project is in line with the planning or is efficient or inefficient.

But which are the most frequent causes that determine these deviations? Let’s see them together.

The efficiency of a project can be reached thanks to the following conditions:

• Less complex work than expected;
• Less revisions and re-elaborations;
• Favorable market fluctuations in labor or material costs;
• Decrease of expenses in general.

On the other hand, the possible causes that lead to an inefficiency of the project could be:

• More complex work than expected;
• Many reviews and re-elaborations;
• Unclear requirements;
• Scope Creep or uncontrolled change of scope, ie the deviation of the project scope from what initially agreed and planned;
• Unfavorable market fluctuations in labor or material costs;
• Increase of expenses in general.

Estimate and budget upon completion

Let’s now how to analyze the future.

We are not talking about magic, but about what is expected to happen in a project, given the measurements of the progress recorded until the moment we perform the analysis.

These estimates allow us to see when the project will be completed and how much it will cost to complete it.

Therefore, we examine the Estimate At Completion (EAC) and the Budget At Completion (BAC).

The EAC is the total cost expected for a scheduled activity.

It is considered that the remaining work is performed on schedule and based on the current CPI and SPI.

The EAC is a periodic evaluation of the project.

It is usually carried out on a monthly basis or when there is a significant change in the project.

A common formula that allows to determine the EAC is expressed as the budget to completion divided by the current project IPC: EAC = BAC / CPI.

The BAC indicates the total value of the costs initially foreseen for the project and is calculated by summing the initial costs foreseen for each individual activity.

The BAC must always be equal to the total PV of the project.

If these two values do not match, the calculations related to the earned value will be inaccurate.

In conclusion, here are five basic rules for effective Earned Value Management:

1. Organize the project team and the project scope using a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS);
2. Plan activities in a logical way so that the lower level elements support the following elements and the higher level milestones;
3. Check the budget regularly;
4. Establish objective means to measure the realization of work. The budget should always respect what is planned.
5. Control the project by analyzing the cost and time deviations, evaluating the final costs, checking the changes with respect to the project baseline and developing corrective actions when necessary.

It must be clear that applying the Earned Value Method is certainly more complex than it may appear in this article.

A lot of discipline and detailed information are needed to manage it properly.

But we think, it is useful to simplify the concepts in order to make the approach easier for those who want to experiment with this method.

What is essential to remember is that everything starts with good project planning.

Thus, using good project management software can make all the difference.

Twproject helps you simplify complex processes because it has all the useful project management features integrated on one platform. It records and cross-references all the data you enter, making your business simpler and more efficient.

Have you ever had a chance to put the Earned Value Method into practice in one of your projects? Tell us about your experience!

With lessons learned, we talk about learning from the mistakes, and not only, of the past.

We could apply infinite proverbs to this statement, but we want to recall only one: “Errare humanum est, perseverare autem diabolicum”

Lesson Learned: the study of Axelos PPM Benchmark

According to the recent study by AXELOS PPM Benchmark, almost half of project managers who rarely (or never) revise projects have faced a project failure in the last 12 months.

On the other hand, only 34% of those who always (or almost always) review the project, have experienced a failure during the last year.

These results give further importance to the argument that “lesson learned” from past projects should be an integral part of project management.

So why is this aspect so often overlooked?

Learning from past projects and activities should be a continuous effort throughout the project life cycle.

This mentality should be strongly encouraged by the project manager right from the beginning.

Whether the lessons learned are used to prepare ongoing projects, or used to identify any improvement within the project, learning from the failures or successes of past projects becomes a very important element.

Not considering what went wrong during a project is simply stupid. It means to be in a position where we will repeat the same mistakes.

On the contrary, even not to highlight the successes of a project and how these have been achieved is a mistake.

You lose the opportunity to implement good processes and best practices that can contribute to the successful completion of an existing or future job.

In short, the lessons learned are documented information that reflects both the positive as well as negative experiences of a project.

They represent the organization’s commitment to excellence in project management.

For the project manager, it is an opportunity to learn from the real experiences of others.

The process of learning occurs during and at the end of each project, whether short or complex.

The best way is to hold a session to identify the lessons learned.

It should be conducted at different times according to the critical issues and complexity of the project.

The more complex the project, the more the sessions should be.

If you wait until the end of the project, especially if it is long and complex, you could lose some key points.

Project managers, team members and stakeholders can all be interested in reviewing the lessons learned and making decisions about how to use the acquired knowledge.

How does the process of lessons learned work

The process of collecting and evaluating lessons learned includes the five following steps:

• Identification;
• Documentation;
• Analysis;
• Archiving;
• Recovery.

1) Identification of lessons learned

This first phase consists in identifying comments and recommendations that could be useful for future projects.

The project manager, or the person responsible for data collection, should give all project’s collaborators, and possibly also stakeholders, a project survey.

The project survey will help identify input and lessons learned.

Thanks to the survey, all the points of view and the experiences will be collected.

Three key questions should be included in the survey:

1. What went well;
2. What went wrong;
3. What should be improved.

2) Documentation of lessons learned

The second step in the lessons learned process is to document and share the results.

After the lessons learned have been acquired, they should be reported to all project stakeholders.

The final report must be kept and stored together with all the project documentation.

This report should give an overview of how the process of lessons learned works.

It must also contain a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the project as well as the recommendations for the future.

3) Lessons learned analysis

The third phase of the process consists of analyzing and organizing the lessons learned in order to apply the results.

Information is shared with other team members during organizational meetings.

As a result of the lessons learned, improvements in the project management process or training needs are often identified.

4) Archive the lessons learned

The documents on the lessons learned are archived together with other project documents.

They must always be easy to consult.

For this reason, organizations often set up a portfolio of lessons learned in the shared unit.

This allows to make the reports available to everyone that might be interested.

5) Recover the lessons learned

Although the lessons learned reports are stored on a shared unit, without the possibility to search for keywords, it is difficult to find them.

Therefore, it is important to store them in an orderly and easily retrievable manner, so that even those who have not directly participated in the project can find them.

Organizations have different approaches with which they manage – or do not manage – the lessons learned.

Let’s see this in detail.

Management of lessons learned: Type 1

The organizations belonging to this first type do not collect the lessons learned.

Almost always there is no defined process for analyzing and evaluating them.

Lessons learned, if taken into account, are managed without standardized tools or consistency between the projects.

This makes them unreadable and uncomparable.

What organizations of this type need is a defined process and basic tools and techniques.

In this type of business it is important that the project manager sees the lessons learned as constructive.

He must therefore transmit this conviction to the project team and to the stakeholders.

Management of lessons learned: Type 2

Here organizations have a defined process and basic tools to identify and document lessons learned.

The process is already part of the corporate culture.

It is applied consistently to projects and processes that have been revised to achieve greater efficiency.

Although the organizations of this type are constantly taking into account the lessons learned, they do not use them in a correct, complete and effective way.

What these organizations need are effective tools.

It is necessary to identify the actions that can be undertaken within the company in order to strengthen weak areas.

After that, these actions have to be implemented during each project.

This can be done through better training of the project manager and / or of the team members.

It could also mean procedures or processes added or improved.

The people responsible for analyzing the lessons learned should have a role within the company that allows them to implement the solutions.

It is also important that data collection takes place using consistent processes and forms.

The coherence of input information enables faster identification of recurring problems and proactive resolutions.

An example of an effective tool for collecting lessons learned is the construction of an input form.

This document consents a consistent collection of data as well as providing a means for easier recovery.

The model should include fields such as: category, lesson learned, actions taken, how the action was taken, keywords, etc.

Keywords will be essential for an easy and quick recovery.

Management of lessons learned: Type 3

This third type of organization is normally able to perform a complete analysis of the lessons learned.

It is also able to convert this information into concrete actions.

The reports are well structured, using charts and diagrams, everything is consistent and maintained in a centralized unit.

Let’s repeat an important concept:

collecting, analyzing and learning from lessons learned should be a continuous effort throughout the life of the project. 

Everyone from the project manager to the project team, from bord of directors to stakeholders, should contribute to the collection, documentation and archiving of lessons learned for the benefit of future projects.

Do you collect and correctly use lessons learned in your company?

Is there a lesson learned that you remember the most or has left you important ideas to improve your project?

Share your experience in a comment.

Stakeholder management in a project can be vital for the very survival of the project.

Therefore, including everyone who is interested in the project, as well as all those that can influence the project, is a fundamental step for an optimal start.

Stakeholders identification

Before starting a new project, each project manager should take the necessary time to identify all the stakeholders.

As a first step, it is therefore necessary to analyze the stakeholders, is to conduct an analysis of the stakeholders, or an evaluation of the key participants in a project.

Subsequently, it is necessary to identify their individual characteristics and interests, define the roles and level of participation and determine if there are conflicts of interest between stakeholders.

Furthermore, it is necessary to evaluate how the project will influence them and their needs.

After that, we move on to assess the influence of a stakeholder, ie the degree to which the interested parties can influence the project.

The more a stakeholder is influential, the more the project manager will need his support and consent.

The project manager, knowing what each stakeholder expects from the project, will be able to adjust the level of support accordingly.

How should a project stakeholder be managed?

To make everything even more complicated, there may be many stakeholders, with different characteristics.

The answer in this case is simple. You have to treat them in the same way as you treat any other task in the to-do list: ie classifying by priority.

During a project, one stakeholder may be more influential than another, while some stakeholders may require more attention than others.

With stakeholder management, we mean to create a positive relationship with the stakeholders, meeting their expectations and the goals they agreed upon at the beginning of the project.

However, this relationship is not granted a priori, but must be earned.

The advantages of good stakeholder management

A positive relationship with the stakeholders can be built through proactive communication and listening to their needs.

One way to do this is to interview the project’s stakeholders, of course not all of them, but certainly the most important.

It could be the case that you need to speak with experts to get the basic information you need regarding particular groups.

This in order to get the most out of individual conversations with stakeholders, without unnecessary or superfluous words.

When talking to a stakeholder, it is necessary to understand his project expectations.

In case of doubts or when a concept has not been completely understood, it is necessary to ask for clarifications.

Moreover, each stakeholder can have a different idea of what “project success” means and, discovering it only at the end of the project, is a certain failure.

A project manager must collect this information in advance and include it in the objectives.

This would give him the guarantee that all the stakeholders support the final results.

Stakeholder management and the passive communication failure

Another key concept is to maintain the stakeholders involved and not use just a passive communication.

Ask for their contribution, learn to know them better, maybe during a coffee break, a lunch or a fast meeting, in short, make them participate; this can change everything.

Stakeholders must also be regularly updated on the project status.

Every day can be exaggerated, every month is not enough, unless this schedule is agreed.

Usually a weekly update is the best strategy.

Regular communication is always appreciated and can even soften the situation when there are bad news to share.

These are the bases in order to build strong relationships with stakeholders.

But as in any relationship, there are subtleties that every successful project manager should understand.

For example, a project manager should learn to recognize differences and “adjust” behavior to better relate to different types of stakeholders.

How to relate with different types of stakeholders

By conducting a stakeholder analysis, project managers can gather sufficient information on which to build solid relationships, regardless of the differences between them.

For example, the needs and requirements of a marketing director will be different from those of a chief information officer.

Therefore, the commitment of the project manager with each one must be different.

All project stakeholders will have different interests.

Some of them will be more interested in the ROI of the project, others will want to improve operations, others will want to increase market share or production, etc.

Keeping in mind the expectations and needs of each one of them is crucial during every conversation, relation or e-mail, regardless of how casual or formal the communication may be.

Regardless of the needs or desires of a stakeholder, all interested parties will respect a project manager who:

• is always honest, even when he tells them something they do not want to hear;
• becomes the „owner“ of the project;
• is reliable;
• is firm in his decisions;
• takes his responsability for errors.

Achieving the goals of a project requires a focused and well-organized project manager able to engage with a proactive team and able to get the support of all the interested parties.

Building solid and trustful relationships with stakeholders from the start can make the difference between success and failure of the project.

Tools to help stakeholder management

There are many “decelerating” factors in a project, the lack of support from stakeholders is one of those.

How do you make sure you have their support?

As previously mentioned, the key lies in identifying who the stakeholders are and what influence they have on the project.

Just because they are important in the organization in general does not necessarily mean that they are important for the project.

Just because they think they are important does not mean they really are.

Just because they do not think they have to be involved does not mean they do not have to be.

Not all stakeholders are the same, so understanding how to deal with each of them is essential.

To help you identify them, you can use this simple matrix:

• People with a lot of power and a lot of interest in the project (manage closely): these people have a great interest in the project and they have the power to help to successfully complete it. It is therefore essential to fully involve these stakeholders, to pay attention to their inputs, to implement their ideas when possible and to ensure that they are always satisfied. You have to follow them closely.
• People with a lot of power, but less interest in the project (keep satisfied): these people have little involvement or personal interest in the project, but they are very powerful. Surely it is better to keep them satisfied, but you must disturb them as little as possible. They can be involved in the most important decisions, but in general you must “only” make sure they understand how the project will have a positive impact on them.
• People with little power, but a lot of interest in the project (keep informed): these people have a real passion for the project, but they have little influence on it. The best strategy is to keep them informed about any important developments. The project, in most cases, can have a direct impact on this type of stakeholder, so they are usually more than willing to help when they can.
• People with little power and little interest in the project (monitor- minum effort): these represent the most apathetic stakeholders, the least interested in the project and which, in general, require little time and attention. If they are not disturbed or no damage to them is caused, a project manager will hardly have to deal with it.

Ensuring that stakeholders are listened and appreciated will certainly increase trust and support.

Building positive relationships and understanding motivations takes time and effort, but in the long run it will make the whole work easier.

Projects are more successful when everyone is on board and rowing in the same direction!

Have you ever dealt with a difficult project stakeholder?

What did you do to improve the situation?

Tell us about your experience.

The triangle of talent, not just a simple shape, but the golden triangle of the Project Manager.

Would you like to know more? I will try to explain it to you.

Let’s briefly think about what are the most important qualities for a successful project manager.

Everybody, both those who have worked for years in this world, as well as those who have just started, will certainly report the qualities of the project manager that are in line with what we will see in shortly.

Considering the many skills, talents and competencies required for this role, it is clear that project management requires many qualities and skills.

And in order not to leave any doubt, the Project Management Institute (PMI) outlined the ideal set of skills of a project manager in a model called the “Triangle of Talent“.

This model synthetically analyzes the art of project management in the three categories we will now see.

Let’s find out what skills make a project manager, a successful figure.

The three sides of the Triangle of Talent

The Triangle of Talents contains the ideal set of skills for project managers.

Its three sides include the following skills:

• Technical skill;
• Leadership;
• Business strategic management.

The beauty and charm of the Triangle of Talents lie in the combination of skills, elements of business management with technical skills in project management, and human and social skills.

The most successful project managers use all three of these areas in order to grow in their work.

The first side of the Triangle of Talents: Technical skill

A project manager could not excel in his work without the technical know-how of the sector in which he operates.

This includes not only the specific skills of project management, but also the knowledge of the industry in general.

Proper technical skills and knowledge are in fact fundamental to successfully complete the project.

A project manager needs to know how to calculate the so-called earned value, how to manage costs, how to do a risk analysis, etc.

The PMI outlines some of the specific technical skills that the project manager should possess, including:

• Agile practices;
• Earned value management;
• Project life cycle management;
• Management of project requirements;
• Schedule management;
• Time, budget, cost estimate;
• Data collection and analysis;
• Governance;
• Performance management;
• Risk management;
• Scope management.

As previously said, a successful project manager needs a solid understanding of the industry in which he operates.

In fact, the daily work of a PM can vary depending on the sector in which he works.

If he does not know the environment surrounding a project, he will have difficulties in understanding any problems and in finding solutions.

Moreover, due to lack of technical experience, the project manager may lose the respect of the members of the team.

In short, the lack of technical knowledge could lead to problems related to the understanding of project details and technical problems.

Both of these factors could jeopardize the future of the project.

Technical knowledge, commonly known as “hard skills“, can be learned, studied and refreshed through training courses, seminars, webinars, etc …

This side of the Triangle of Talents certainly represents the most concrete and easy to learn quality, but in order to have it, dedication is certainly necessary.

The second side of the Triangle of Talents: Leadership

The second core competency of the PMI‘s Triangle of Talents is leadership.

A successful project manager must guide his team – or more teams – through all phases and processes of the project.

Leadership can have different forms.

Leadership expertise includes coaching and mentoring, influence on employees and stakeholders, team building and brainstorming, interpersonal skills and negotiation.

Even problem solving and conflict management are included into the leadership skills.

Project managers must guide teams towards project completion, inspiring and motivating people to continue throughout the process.

Because using leadership means
TO WIN AS A TEAM, NOT AS AN INDIVIDUAL

As an effective leader, a project manager must inspire team members about the future and offer them a vision that will help them achieve the goal.

As a leader of an effective team, a project manager must be proactive and a problem solver.

The successful project manager must have motivating qualities. At the beginning of a project the motivation is usually high, and then gradually decreases.

Here, in fact, the manager’s motivation capacity is essencial.

Motivating the team is certainly hard and complex, but essential for the good success of the project.

A project manager should also have management and delegation skills that enable him to do his job in the best way and with the right support.

He must be able to understand who to entrust with a particular responsibility or particular task, and who is not the right person.

Moreover, ensuring that the team members possess the skills required to successfully complete the work is also part of the skills of this project leader.

If skills are lacked, the project management will give the necessary training or, in general, will allow the collaborators to receive it.

The third side of the Triangle of Talents: Business Strategic Management

The third side of this magic triangle is as important as the other two.

Business strategic management makes it possible to carry out an analysis of company decisions before implementing them.

Project managers not only apply their knowledge and leadership qualities, but must also align projects with business goals.

This third side of the PMI’s Triangle of Talents includes the following skills and competences:

• Competitive analysis;
• Legal and regulatory compliance;
• Operational functions, such as finance, marketing, ecc;
• Business Acumen;
• Customer service and satisfaction;
• Awareness of the market, its conditions and its trend.

Understanding the purpose of the project and the way it supports the organization’s overall goals enable project managers to be able to drive their teams to success.

These professionals must understand what the organization is trying to achieve in general and how the specific project fits into this general vision.

This helps the organization achieve its long-term goals.

The first step towards success is found in the confirmation and acceptance of the strategic business plan by all the stakeholders.

In conclusion

As any successful project manager can state, the mixture and the right balance of skills and qualities make this figure a complete and successful professional.

That is why the Triangle of Talents works.

In today’s dynamic environment, a project manager must be versatile.

Having just one skill is not enough.

The balance of the three sides of the Triangle of Talents is not just about the possession of complementary skills.

These are all the critical areas that a project manager must master in order to succeed in his career.

The technical skills of project management help to perform specific functions or tasks, leadership skills help to achieve business goals within the organization and strategic business management helps to achieve better overall business results.

So, this is the ideal recipe for a successful project manager.

Do you agree with what the Triangle of Talents expresses?

Do you think there are other qualities that deserve to be mentioned?

Leave us your comment.