Much of what we think of as project management is actually influencing. Communicating, negotiating, discussing, planning, strategizing: it’s all influencing someone. If you need a hand with where to start, here are our six easy steps for successfully influencing others.

1. Establish your objective

First, remember that it influencing isn’t about always getting your own way. Yes, it would be great to think that we could ‘influence’ and then get what we want, but that isn’t influencing, that’s mind control.

However, successful negotiation starts with knowing what you want. You can’t win anyone round to your way of thinking if you don’t know what you think. Be clear about your objective. If you need someone to take on the responsibility for managing Earned Value Management (EVM) on your project, make sure you understand exactly what the role encompasses and the skills required to do it.

2. Establish who could help you

You may already have someone in mind, but before you go running to them to ask them (or their manager) to be involved in your project, take time to assess your other options. Is there anyone else who could help? Even people who may not be your first choice could still have something to offer.

3. Establish what you have to offer

Negotiating and influencing are two-way streets. As you plan what you are going to say to the person in question, consider the project from their viewpoint. They may, for example, have the opportunity to improve their presentation skills. They may be able to improve their financial management skills by working on EVM calculations. They may get to learn how to use the enterprise project management software.

You can also think about less tangible benefits: being involved in a high profile project, attending meetings with the executive sponsor, being exposed to the workings of the PMO, helping to define best practice EVM processes for the company, and so on. There are dozens of things that you have to offer, even if you can’t offer a salary increase or a new job. Think about the person you will be meeting as well, and tailor the benefits of your task to what you think they would want.

4. Discuss with the other person

Now you are fully prepared and ready to meet the individual concerned. It’s better to do this face to face if you can. The purpose of the meeting is to get commitment from the other person to help out on the project, but that relies on you having a good working relationship with them already. If you don’t know them well, you may have to have several meetings to build up a rapport before you successfully achieve your objective.

Share with them the level of commitment you require and explain the benefits to them, working through the list of things you identified earlier. Watch their body language to see how they respond to the various options that being involved with your project brings. If the discussion goes well, you will be able to gain agreement. Of course, you may not be able to gain agreement, in which case you can offer more, request less or move to the next person on your list and try to gain agreement from them instead.

5. Agree your joint approach

After your meeting, you have the agreement of the other person. But what have they actually agreed to? Document what you discussed and share it with them so that you both have a record of what was agreed and what is now expected.

6. Follow up

At this point you have their agreement to manage EVM for your project, or whatever it was that you required. You can expect them to carry out their side of the agreement, which has been documented. What you probably didn’t document though, was your side: whatever benefits you discussed with them. It’s difficult to put ‘have the opportunity to attend meeting with sponsor’ in writing, because it can look a bit petty. However, that doesn’t let you off the commitment you made to them. Make sure you keep a record somewhere of what you promised and deliver on it. At the point that you do offer them the opportunity to go to that meeting, gently remind them that this is part of the discussion you had together. Following up like this will show them that you can be trusted, and that bodes well for influencing situations in the future.

The ideal solution would be to change them into EPS Activity Codes, but P6 does not allow that to happen.  Even if all the projects that use them are under one EPS Node it isn’t clever enough to make it happen. There is a quick way of doing this that involves updating a record in the database, but your warranty will go out of the window so we’ll just have to use another way.

The task of changing a Global Activity Code to an EPS Activity Code can be achieved using Microsoft Excel.  Assuming all the projects are below the particular EPS Node where the EPS Activity Code is to be created, there are 3 major steps:

1. Create the EPS Activity Code by copying the definition and values in the Global Activity Code.
2. Export activities into an Excel spreadsheet that contains both Activity Codes.
3. Move the Global Activity Code values into the EPS Activity Code value column.
4. Import the Excel spreadsheet back into the P6 project.

Create the EPS Activity Code

The steps in this section will create an EPS Activity Code with exactly the same values as an existing Global Activity Code.  Before starting these steps, you should find out the “Max Length” value for the Global Activity Code.

1.  Go to “Enterprise > Activity Codes…” to display the “Activity Codes” dialog and then click on the “EPS” radio button to view the EPS Activity Codes.

2.  Click on the “Modify” button to display the “Activity Code Definitions – EPS” dialog.

3.  Now click on the “Add” button to display the “Select EPS” dialog. Choose the EPS Node where you want to create the EPS Activity Code and then click on the select button to choose it.

4.  A new Activity Code is displayed and highlighted in the “Activity Code Definitions – EPS” dialog.  Change the name to what you want it to be and adjust the “Max Length” field to the same size as the Global Activity Code.

In our example we are calling the EPS Activity Code “TBN-Delivery Manager” with a length of 20 characters.

Finally click on the “Close” button to return to the “Activity Codes” dialog.

5.  Select the “Global” radio button and then choose the Global Activity Code to copy from the drop-down list.  In this example we will be copying the “Delivery Manager” Global Activity Code.

Then click on one of the values and use the combination of CTRL + A keys to select all the values.  They will be highlighted.

Now click on the “Copy” button to make a copy of all the highlighted values.

6.  Click on the “EPS” radio button and select the target EPS Activity Code (“TBN-Deliver Manager”).  Then click on the “Paste” button and wait for all the values to be copied into the new EPS Activity Code.

They will be highlighted when they are copied.

7.  Click on the “Close” button to complete the creation of the EPS Activity Code and values.

Export to Excel

In this section we will export the data into an Excel spreadsheet so we can move the values from the Global Activity Code to the EPS Activity Code.

• Open a project that has the Global Activity Code values assigned to it. This project must be under the EPS Node where the EPS Activity Code was created.
• Although not necessary, I have created a simple view that shows the “Activity Id”, “Delivery Manager” Global Activity Code and the “TBN-Delivery Manager” EPS Activity Code.  It shows the EPS Activity Code is blank whereas the Global Activity Code is populated.

1.  Go to “File > Export…” to display the “Export” dialog.  Then select the “Spreadsheet – (XLS)” radio button and click on the “Next” button to continue.

2.  The “Export Type” dialog is displayed.  Select the Checkbox next to “Activities” and verify all other checkboxes are clear.

Click on the “Next” button to continue.

3.  The “Projects to Export” dialog is displayed.  You will need to select the project you wish to export by clicking on the Checkbox on the left hand side.

Click on the “Next” button to continue.

4.  The “Select Template” dialog is displayed.  If this is the first project you are changing the codes on then you will need to create a Template by clicking on the “Add” button.  Otherwise you will need to select the Template created for this task and click on the “Next” button to take you to step 8.

5.  The “Modify Template” dialog is displayed with a default name.  Change the “Name” to something that represents what the template is doing. For this tutorial we have called it “Move Demand Manager to TBN-Demand Manager”.

Click on the double left pointing triangles which will remove all but the three essential colums which are “Activity Id”, “Activity Status” and “WBS Code”.

Now use the list of columns on the left habd side along with the single right pointing triangle to add the Global Activity Code followed by the EPS Activity Code.

Click the “OK” button to return to the “Select Template” dialog.

7.  The newly created template should be selected.  Click on the “Next” button to continue.

8.  The “Select XLS” dialog is displayed with a default file name.  You may want to click on the elipses button at the end of the filename and use the windows dialog to choose another name.

Once the name is as you want it, click on the “Next” button to continue.

9.  The “Summary” dialog is displayed.  Click on the “Finish” button to export the data to the Excel file.

Once completed a dialog saying “The export was successful” is displayed.  Dismiss it by clicking on the “OK” button.

Move Data in Excel

This is the section where we move the values from the Global Activity Code to the EPS Activity Code for our project.

1.  Open the Excel Spreadsheet created in the earlier step.  It will look something like the screenshot below where the EPS Activity Code column is empty and the Global Activity Code column is populated.

2.  Swap the contents of the the first and second between column D and column E.

I do this by first copying column D1 and D2 to E3 and E4.  Then I copy E1 and E2 to D1 and D2 respectively.  Finally Icut the contents of E3 and E4 and paste them into E1 and E2.

This leaves my spreadsheet looking like the screen shot below where the names at the top of the columns for D and E have been swapped.

3.  Save the spreadsheet and exit Excel.

Import From Excel

Importing the modified Excel file will assign the same value of the EPS Activity Code to each Activity and remove the Global Activity assignment as well.

1.  Go to “File > Import…” to display the “Import” dialog.  Then select the “Spreadsheet – (XLS)” radio button and click on the “Next” button to continue.

2.  The “Select Excel File” dialog is displayed.  Use the elipses button to display the windows Open dialog and choose the Excel spreadsheet.

Click the “Next” button to continue.

3.  The “Import Type” dialog is displayed.  Select the checkbox next to “Activities” then click the “Next” button to continue.

4.  The “Import Project Options” dialog is displayed.  The “Import Action” should be “Update Existing Project”

Click the “Import To” box a couple of times and then click the elipses button when it is displayed.  This will display a dialog listing all open projects.  Use it to select the correct project.

Once back on the “Import Project Options” dialog with the project selected, click on the “Next” button to continue.

5.  The “Summary” dialog is displayed.  Click on the “Finish” button to import the the Excel file data into the project.

6.  Once completed a dialog saying “The import was successful” is displayed.  Dismiss it by clicking on the “OK” button.

If you now went back to the Activity View it will show the EPS Activity Code with the same values as the Global Activity Code as the screenshot below shows.

Repeat Until Done

To make the change in another project just repeat the last three sections as there is no need to create the EPS Activity Code again.  The process can become quite laborious but it is something that each user can do for their own P6 projects so can get done fairly quickly.

The most difficult scenario is when faced with Baselines.  Each baseline will need to be detached have the process performed on it and then re-attached to the project.  Don’t forget the Baseline Type and which Baseline slot, if any the project belongs to.

When you are certain all the projects have been completed, the Global Activity Code can be deleted along with its values and assignments and the transfer is now completed.

#1: Everyone can see our data

Not true. Well, it is true if you let everyone see your project data. But it doesn’t have to be true.

Some forms of social media, like Twitter and Facebook, have privacy settings that allow only a limited group of people to see information that you post. It would be more relevant, for business use, to keep these channels for customer service or marketing your project or company to the public. If you want to keep your corporate data private – and there aren’t many projects where you’d want to expose the internal workings to clients and competitors from the beginning – then choose another tool.

You can get social media tools that you host on your own environment and that are only available to employees and trusted third parties. This means your data is safe from public viewing. If you want to take it further, you can limit access of most tools through user accounts and passwords, so only designated employees can see the data.

#2: We won’t need face-to-face meetings any more

Sadly, social media tools will never negate the need for face-to-face meetings. Implementing a wiki will not suddenly make your PMO virtual, or replace the weekly status meetings. Any senior executive who thinks that introducing social media tools at work will slash the travel budget is unfortunately mistaken.

Social media tools do help teams collaborate when they are not all located in the same place, so there may be some travel savings. They contribute to a climate of virtual working by helping people work from anywhere with a network connection, but face-to-face meetings will always be the best way to communicate.

#3: A wiki will never be accurate

Managers sometimes worry that because wikis are updated by ‘the public’ they will never represent the truth. There are a few cases where data on a high profile wiki site like Wikipedia have been tampered with and untruths posted, but these a few and far between. In fact, a study by Nature found the articles were broadly as accurate as those published by Encyclopedia Britannica.

The same happens with corporate wikis. Managers who are concerned that disgruntled employees will deliberately tamper with the wiki so as to spread confusion or worse, will be proved right from time to time. However, in the vast majority of cases, people will not deliberately damage the wiki content, or if they do, other project team members will quickly step in to correct any remarks.

#4: Employees will spend all day surfing the Internet

The introduction of social media tools at work is unlikely to result in a drop in productivity, because most of the project team who want to access social media sites at work are already doing so. Smart phones and personal devices like iPads mean that employees can check LinkedIn and Facebook while they are waiting for the kettle to boil in the staff kitchen. Giving them access to limited tools for work purposes from their computers won’t change how they already behave, although it may improve employee morale.

And so what if they do spend all day surfing the Internet? Managers have a number of tools at their disposal to deal with employees who do not pull their weight. Enterprise project management tools can record time spent on tasks and can help identify those who are not being productive. Then HR can get involved if necessary. The problem of a poorly performing member of a project team can be addressed whether the cause is lateness, long lunch breaks, too much chatting or too much time spent on the internet. Project managers have always had to deal with team members who slack off.

#5: We won’t know who is contributing

In reality, social media tools have excellent access controls. If you allow people to access with anonymous accounts then of course you won’t know who is contributing. However, if you allocate usernames and passwords to everyone who uses the tool, and set it up to keep an audit trail, then you’ll instantly be able to see who is contributing.

You can use this information in two ways. First, if a project team member is not contributing but should be, the project manager can address this. Second, if the project manager notices that an abuse of the system has taken place, it can be tracked back to the person who carried out that abuse.

Set up right, social media tools can help your projects be successful and help your team members work well together.

Conflict on projects, like in other areas of work and life, is inevitable. It is not always huge tantrums or personality clashes. Conflict can also manifest in small ways, like grumbling about having to work overtime, or during discussions about why project milestone dates should change.

It may be impossible to avoid, but you can plan for it. And you can actively manage it when it arises. Here are some tips for handling conflict on projects.

1. Don’t put off dealing with it

Sort it out early. We’ve seen project team members squabbling over email, and copying in suppliers and senior managers. That doesn’t do anyone any favours. If you notice this happening on your team, step in and sort it out.

It takes courage to bring up a point of conflict when it could be easier to let the whole thing blow over or fizzle out, but the risks of conflict damaging your project later are far worse than the potential embarrassment of dealing with an issue early.

2. Stay positive

Assume positive intent http://www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/2011/10/why-you-should-assume-positive-intent/ and keep a positive attitude when dealing with conflict in the team. Assume that everyone is trying their best and has a valid point. You will need to listen to all the concerns and make an assessment, but start from a positive place. Your team will appreciate this and the positivity will influence the behaviour of others.

3. Check the policy

Dealing with conflict can be awkward, so it is useful to have the back up of a corporate policy. This gives you the opportunity to say that there are guidelines that have to be adhered to. This can be helpful with issues around timekeeping, dress code, use of social media and sickness absence.

You can also refer to policies from your Project Management Office. The PMO will have guidelines around keeping plans up to date, project team meetings, use of enterprise project management tools or collaboration software and others. Draw on these to set the standards for the team.

4. Don’t make promises you can’t keep

A big source of conflict comes from people feeling let down. If you say you are going to do something, then do it. Act professionally and follow up on any actions you take to ensure that your behaviour is never the cause of someone feeling disgruntled or unable to trust you.

5. Set expectations

Conflict can also arise when people don’t know what is expected of them. In the absence of clear direction, project team members tend to make up the next steps for themselves. This may work with an experienced project team, who have worked together before and who know exactly what the end goal is. But in large teams and on complex projects, people need to know what you want them to do.

Be clear with instructions and set expectations around behaviour as well as tasks. This can be done by using an exercise like making a project shield or via a project initiation session early on in the project to clarify how the team is going to work. You could also work together to draw up a set of ground rules for the team, such as turning up to meetings on time, listening respectfully and responding to emails within one working day.

When it comes to tasks, make sure that everyone knows what they are accountable for on the project plan and how this fits into the bigger picture. Continually reinforce expectations as the project progresses and discuss any transgressions with the individuals concerned.

Project managers will never avoid conflict on projects, and we would argue that a degree of conflict is healthy for a project team. No conflict at all generally means that the project team doesn’t care enough about the outcome to debate problems, challenge decisions or dispute priorities. It also means that the team members don’t feel comfortable discussing their issues, and that can lead to greater problems later on.

Don’t shy away from conflict: embrace it and manage it. Your team will thank you for it!

However, when you add on symbols for milestones, lines showing the dependencies between tasks, resource names and the lag on an activity, the charts get messy. They also typically need specialist software to view and formatting them for printing can be a challenge. Ask any experienced project manager if they have had a frustrating meeting with a stakeholder or executive because the Gantt chart was not understood and they will nod – before coming up with several examples.

Gantt charts are great tools, but if you need a simpler way to communicate the project to stakeholders, how else can you display that information?

A task list

The task list generally forms the left-hand column of a Gantt chart. If the bars themselves prove to be distracting, you can display (or print) just the task list and any additional columns such as start date, end date and resource name.

Alternatively, you could copy and paste this into another format, such as a table in a document or as part of a spreadsheet. If you copy and paste you are likely to lose any task hierarchy, so all the tasks you have neatly grouped together and indented on your Gantt chart will just appear as a list. It might be more effective – depending on your audience – to type out a task list focusing on the information that the stakeholders require.

Task lists can also incorporate a column to tick off when the task is completed. This is particularly helpful if your schedule is for a team member’s benefit and they want to be able to use it to track their own involvement in the project and make sure they complete their tasks on time.

A network diagram

Network diagrams show the logical flow through a project. Each activity gets its own box, and lines join the boxes together showing the sequential nature of the tasks. These can be easier for project team members and stakeholders to understand as many people have worked with flow diagrams or process maps before.

A network diagram shows the task name and an ID number, start date, finish date and the duration of the task. You could add more to this, such as the name of the person leading on that task, but don’t make the boxes too big.

Network diagrams work best when the tasks are displayed at a high level and there is a sequential flow of activity without too much happening in parallel strands. The more boxes and arrows you have (and the more information in the box) the busier and more complicated your diagram.

A simplified Gantt chart

You can create your own Gantt charts in spreadsheet packages. It is time consuming and will not show the dependencies between tasks in a streamlined way, but many project team members and stakeholders are far more comfortable working in solutions like Microsoft Excel.

The first column becomes a task list and subsequent columns represent dates. At this level, one column equalling one month is probably adequate. You could break that down further if you need more granularity in the timescales. Then just fill in the cells with a color to represent activity.

You could choose different colors for different workstreams or resources, although avoid making it look too garish! Add a key at the bottom so you remember what the colors stand for.

Management reports from your enterprise project management tool

Many enterprise project management solutions include a range of reports. Once you have configured the tool, you can generate reports in a number of formats. These can often be tailored specifically to the needs of stakeholders, so you could use the system functionality to output Gantt chart data in a graphical or tabular format that meets the needs of the stakeholders. You could even set up dashboards with the key information tracked and managed in a transparent way, or export data into a tool like Microsoft Excel.

The great thing about this type of report is that once it is set up, it’s there permanently. You don’t have to update a spreadsheet or generate a new view of your Gantt chart. Just hit the button and run the report. Pre-configured reports can be set up to run automatically, and you can even set up versions for different stakeholder groups. Every time a stakeholder comments on the report or wants more information, you can tweak your enterprise project management tool to generate the output in an appropriate fashion.

Gantt charts are great tools for project managers, but often, project stakeholders and team members need to see project information in a way that makes sense to them. There are alternatives to the Gantt chart: you just need to find something that works for your team.

1. Be prepared

It should go without saying, but know the status of your project before you attend a meeting! Don’t be on the back foot, as nothing spells ‘unprepared’ more quickly than stakeholders or other team members in the room who know more about the latest project issues or progress than you. Talk to your team members in advance, and make sure that they know to update you beforehand. There should be no surprises.

Bring along copies of reports from your enterprise project management tool. If you are chairing the meeting, be sure to have spare copies of any documents, like reports or slides, as you can guarantee someone will have forgotten to bring along their copy. If you are an attendee, bring a copy of the meeting papers, or your laptop so that you can review them on screen.

2. Have an agenda

Have an agenda and stick to it. It isn’t difficult to do, but in our experience many project managers still don’t do this. You can create a standing agenda to save time. This is a list of all the key things you want your status meetings to cover every time, such as updates from various team leaders or a financial report. The final item should always be Any Other Business. Circulate the agenda in advance so that people know what to prepare.

If you are inviting people along to only a section of the meeting make sure that they know when they are expected and then stick to that slot. Be respectful of their time and don’t keep them waiting outside for you to finish a side conversation.

3. Manage the meeting housekeeping

Make sure that everyone knows where the room is, and set the temperature of the meeting room to something bearable for everyone (which is easier said than done). If you plan to have coffee, remember to order it. If you are hosting a conference call, circulate the call number and pass code. Start on time. Finish on time.

Set ground rules about the use of gadgets in your status meetings. If you allow people to bring their own laptops to review the meeting papers or reports, make sure that they understand that checking their emails during the meeting is not allowed.

Make sure that your own technology works, especially if you are using a projector for the first time. Get to the meeting early so that you can set up your laptop and projector properly. If you are presenting, close all the other applications that are unnecessary. There’s nothing worse than trying to talk a group of important stakeholders through a project dashboard than an email alert popping up in the corner, letting everyone know what your lunch plans are with your best friend.

4. Get the right people in the room

Invite the smallest number of people possible to the status meeting, and make sure that one of them has the role of scribe. Sometimes people aren’t available to attend, so let them know if it is OK for them to delegate attendance to someone else. Deputies may be acceptable at some meetings but not at others.

You can also brief attendees before the meeting. This is particularly relevant if you plan to make decisions in the meeting. In fact, don’t make decisions in the meeting unless you really have to. A better approach is to decide before the meeting, and have the meeting attendees ratify the decision. Speaking to individual stakeholders prior to the meeting can be an excellent way of making sure that this process is as easy as possible.

5. Cancel the meeting

Why have status meetings at all? Could you report status in a different way? Talk to your project stakeholders about reporting by exception instead – they may be grateful not to have to attend meetings where they are told that everything is progressing to plan.

Consider creative ways to communicate project status. You could provide senior stakeholders with access to the project dashboard of your enterprise project management tool. They won’t want to see all the detail, but could you set up a view just for them? If you need to brief a much larger group, could you do so through a pre-recorded telephone message that people dial up to listen to? Or a podcast? Even a few bullet points in an email every Friday afternoon provides a quick weekly report for key stakeholders and assures them that everything is on track.

However you manage your project status meetings, make sure that you know what information your stakeholders and project team expect, and find the best, most efficient ways possible to provide that.

With more and more project managers and PMO staff taking to the internet to write about their projects and professional lives, or to share experiences through forums like LinkedIn, you never know who is going to be listening. We don’t know of any projects that have been stopped because information about them was leaked on social media sites, but there are plenty of examples of people losing their jobs because of things they have written online. There’s even a word for it: dooced.

In 2002, web designer Heather Armstrong, lost her job in Los Angeles because her employer decided that what she had written on her blog was inappropriate. Her blog was (and still is) called Dooce, and a new word made it into the vocabulary of the internet community. Today, Armstrong makes a living from her writing, but not everyone is lucky or smart enough to be able to turn being fired into a new career opportunity.

Keeping your project safe

Here are our tips for protecting your project information online.

1. Read your company’s policy on confidentiality. Make sure that everyone on the project team understands what they can and cannot share outside the confines of the company. That goes for third party partners too.
2. Get suppliers to sign confidentiality agreements. It’s unlikely that a supplier would jeopardize their relationship with you by posting information about your project or company online, but it never hurts to be safe. We have no problems signing confidentiality agreements if that’s what our clients want, and neither should any other reputable company.
3. Be careful if you publish photos. What might seem like photos of a fun project team night out could seem to someone else as invading their privacy. Don’t upset your project team by publishing images without their permission.
4. However low the readership figures of your personal blog, or however few people respond to your LinkedIn question, remember that the internet is a very big and very public place. Asking for help on a project may seem like a great idea, especially when people online are often very willing to help you resolve issues. Just remember to phrase the question in a way that doesn’t give away anything confidential about your project or team members.
5. Watch what other people are saying. Keep an eye out for what other people are saying about your project or company online (this is particularly helpful if you are working on a project in the public eye). Then if anyone comments negatively you can alert your PR team and move into damage control. One way to do this is to set up Google Alerts for the name of your project or company.

Protecting your own reputation

While you are busy looking out for incidents that made affect the success of your project, don’t forget to look out for yourself as well. Here are some tips for keeping yourself employable.

1. Read your company’s social media policy. They probably have one somewhere, but if you can’t find it, talk to the PR team. Make sure you know what you can and cannot say online, and abide by any disclaimers they specify. For example, it’s common to add a disclaimer to personal blogs and other sites to say that your views do not necessarily reflect those of your employer.
2. Think before you click submit. It might seem obvious, but have you checked to see if your comment, forum posting, tweet or similar makes you sound the most professional possible? If you read it back and the tone isn’t clear, don’t click submit. Rewrite, or don’t comment at all.
3. Keep work profiles and personal profiles separate. You can keep one account for your family and friends and another for work colleagues. Don’t feel that you have to merge work and your personal life if you are not comfortable doing so.
4. Don’t blog, tweet or comment if you are tired, cross with someone or just not thinking straight. Move away from the keyboard and leave it until another day.

Things stay online for a long time, so as a rule of thumb, make sure that the footprints you leave are the ones that you will be proud to share with your future employers. An online presence is a must for professional project managers today, and you can maintain this without putting your personal credibility or that of your project at risk by following a few simple guidelines.

Now you know where to find us online, why not come over and say hello?

It’s that time of year again when we all get the chance to attend the premier Primavera conference in Europe, the UK & EMEA Primavera Conference 2012. This one day event is being held in London on 8th March at the CBI Conference Centre.

The great thing about this event is the blend of real world user experiences and presentations from Oracle’s Senior Management team including Simon Noble and Dick Faris. You’ll get to hear from speakers on a range of topics including the roadmap for Primavera P6, business intelligence with P6 Analytics and a variety of user experiences covering implementation and use of the tool suite.

Venue

First Floor
Centre Point Tower
103 New Oxford Street
London WC1A 1DU

Tel: +44 (0)20 7395 8014
Fax: +44 (0)20 7395 8016

Cost

Members of the UKOUG – free
Non-members – £150+ VAT

You can register directly on the UKOUG site here

As always, these events are a great way to network, exchange ideas and experiences, learn best practices and get practical knowledge on how other companies have solved problems.

For more details on this event, visit the UKOUG site here

We look forward to seeing you all there.

With the Olympics just around the corner, 2012 is going to be an exceptional year for project management professionals, predicts Janet Parkin, Managing Director of UK-based enterprise project management consulting firm Kinley Consulting Ltd. She shared her predictions for the project management industry this week.

1. More companies will make use of virtual teams

“After the issues we had with the cold weather last year, we’ve seen more companies embracing technology to enable people to work remotely as part of virtual teams,” said Parkin. “It saves travelling time and allows people to continue to work when they cannot get to the office.” Another benefit of enabling virtual teams is that they allow project managers to choose the right people for the project team, not just the people who happen to work locally. Virtual teams mean that companies can choose from a wider talent pool.

2. Enterprise project management tools will incorporate social technology

Social media is here to stay, and many project managers are already incorporating social media tools into the way they manage projects. “Enterprise project management tools are incredibly powerful and provide a suite of solutions for planning, scheduling and controlling projects,” said Parkin. “However, project managers are also collaborating outside these tools.” She predicts that we’ll see solution vendors and project managers working out ways to incorporate the collaborative benefits of social media into project management tools.

3. Green projects will rise in profile

“This year is the first that businesses will feel the impact of the UK’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme through buying allowances to cover carbon emissions,” said Parkin. Companies will be looking at projects to lower their carbon emissions, reduce the financial burden of paying the ‘carbon tax’ and improve their position on the league tables.

4. Project teams will begin to better define project ‘value’

It will take a while for Project Management Offices (PMOs) to fully embrace the concept of ‘project value’ but the days of only managing by the triple constraint will soon be over. “I think we’ll see project managers starting to define project value on a project-by-project basis in conjunction with teams and project sponsors,” said Parkin. “The triple constraint of time, cost and scope will remain important, and the project tools on the market will have to adapt to incorporate alternative ways of measuring success.”

5. The PMO star will continue to rise

“Even in a recession, we’ve seen PMOs grow over the last 12 months, and I expect that to continue,” said Parkin. PMO positions remain a good choice with the career path extending from entry level jobs to PMO leaders. “The new challenge for PMOs is managing the multi-generational workplace, where we have potentially 5 generations working together on projects,” she added. “We’ve not seen that before, and PMOs will lead the way in ensuring that working practices suit all styles and ages.”

About Kinley Consulting Ltd

Kinley Consulting is dedicated to helping its clients implement effective project and programme management solutions. Kinley specializes in enterprise-wide programme and project management, including project performance management and technical solution implementations.

Letting your project team improvise on projects sounds a little unconventional. After all, the point of having a plan and good change control procedure is so that the team knows where it is headed and stays on track.

However, today success is far more about people than processes, and the environment in which projects operate is often ambiguous, flexible and complex. Issues materialize that have not been foreseen and clients change their mind about their requirements as a result of situations beyond the project’s control. Projects are not as predictable as we once thought they were and sometimes sticking to the plan is not the best course of action.

Improvising in action

Improvising on projects is not about throwing out all the existing plans and making it up as you go along. Instead, it’s about being able to equip the project team with the tools and skills they need to be able to deal with the unplanned in a constructive way. However good your enterprise project management tools, a Gantt chart doesn’t deliver a project: people do. So it’s important to make sure that the people on the project aren’t blindsided when they have to react to the unexpected. If the team can’t think outside the plan, they can’t help get the project back on track.

Improvised work can be the result of unforeseen circumstances, changing requirements, changes in the political or corporate environment, poor planning, poor or no specifications or a lack of leadership and direction for the team. Some of these are good reasons to improvise, some less so.

Improvising in a project environment means shifting the mindset of the project team to thinking about trying new things, within the boundaries of risk management and project control. Improvisation relies on intuition and creativity, which provide the space to develop new routines, and this is usually achieved in a flexible environment.

Managing the project requires stable routines and a controlled environment: great when things are going well, but when the team hits an unexpected issue, the management processes don’t provide the flexibility to work outside of these as required to get the job done.

Encouraging improvisation

You can’t expect the project team to improvise a new plan or a come up with a creative solution to a problem if they haven’t had the opportunity to first practise these skills. Create the time and space for people to try out creative thinking. 3M allows its employees to use 15% of their work time to come up with and work on their own projects, provided they are broadly related the company’s objectives. Google’s employees work on their set tasks for 4 days a week and use their remaining day to work on their own initiatives. That much time might be too much for your project team (it would be too much for many companies).

You could, however, allow the team to come up with a solution for a small problem, or to decide for themselves how best to plan the next section or work, record and track requirements or do quality audits. You can share successful practices and praise people for using their initiative. You can schedule their time at less than 100% so that they have a little bit of slack to think about what they are actually doing instead of working at full pelt throughout the day and never having time to take stock of whether there is a better way to achieve it.

The most important thing to encourage improvisation is a no blame culture. This can be hard to achieve in some companies where apportioning blame is the norm, as going against the prevailing corporate culture can be difficult. Try to create a little enclave of no blame culture that starts at the PMO and spreads through the project teams.

Controlling improvisation

Left unchecked, improvisation in a project environment could end up with teams producing no schedules at all and dealing with issues on an ad hoc basis instead of actively carrying out risk mitigation to prevent them from materializing in the first place. Improvisation does require some boundaries.

Improvisation can work well when the tasks are not on the critical path. You can introduce the opportunities to improvise bit by bit as trust is earned by the team. A strong risk management framework will also help, as will being very clear about the boundaries. Using project tolerances and mature methods of tracking work using enterprise project management tools will also help.

Improvisation isn’t suitable in every situation, but when it works it can be very powerful and open access to a wider knowledge base than just the project manager. How have you supported your teams to do the right thing through improvising? We’d love to know!

This article was inspired by Steve Leybourne’s presentation at the PMI Global Congress North America 2011.