As a hopeless optimist, it is natural to resist thinking about all the bad stuff that’s about to happen on a project. Face the fear and you'll become amazingly resilient. Risks, things that have not happened yet but might are created by  your powerful intuitions if you listen. Trust them. Then quickly think how you could avoid if, possible, or react to these smart thoughts created by your observant brain. Constraints are things you can't do anything about, so don't let them bring you down. Instead, figure out how to go around them. Determine what the rank order is for your Project Sponsor of these three things: Time, Budget, Scope/Quality.  Make sure your plan reflects these priorities, not the ones that you prefer. It's not about you.

There are two secret tools that are amazingly effective but rarely used- like cream of mushroom soup and fried onion strings are to green beans. If you do these two things, you will out-rock most other project managers. First, figure out a Communication Plan which includes regular and predictable Status Reports (use a boiled down version of your schedule to double-dip - I use Excel here). Tell everyone over and over again what the context of this project is and of course, how cool it is. See Bite 2 for tagline guidelines.Don't stop sharing until the project is done.  Next, figure out the Decider. Figure out who is the one person who can say your project is done. Then figure out people who have the clout to change your schedule, budget and scope. Take them to lunch - a lot. These two steps ignored are the primary reason projects fail to end.

Stop trying to figure out every little task on your project and how much time it will take to complete. It is impossible to answer that question in today's chaotic workplace. Here's an example - you estimate five hours for IT to create new login IDs for your e-learning program. Is that five hours on the clock or five hours of effort which will take two weeks? See how confusing it is?  Instead, work backwards from the due date and use milestones to put tasks together into neat little bowls of goodness just like the bowl of corn.

Okay, I have never had Fried Clams for Thanksgiving, but being from Massachusetts I always wish I could have Fried Clams.  They really don't ship well.  There's a special gift much appreciated in Project Management. All stakeholders (people) get a brief, high level email every Monday AM from you - the project manager -   which clearly states what each need to do that week (if anything) and how everything is going.  Impressive, right?  Status Reports are the best path to you looking like a Rock Star even when you don't feel like one. Use a simple list of tasks and/or milestones with Task Name, Owner (person) and Due Date, check them off when they are done and send the updated spreadsheet (as a PDF) every week on the same day to all your stakeholders. They will be thankful for YOU!

Project  Management is a team sport, just like Thanksgiving is.  Connect with others who do projects and shore each other up.  Notice and share your lack of confidence and fear, and then agree to re-frame the craziness into the experimentation of innovation, doing amazing things that have never been done before.  You and your peers are the ones who will forge a new solution, and bumps and bruises are required to get it right.  Be thankful you have the ability to drive value in your organization.

 "I'm such a dubious soul and a walk in the garden wears me down. Tangled in the fallen vines, pickin' up the punch lines, I've just been fakin' it. Not really makin' it. -Simon and Garfunkel  With insane velocity, we're heading to the end of 2015 and the start of 2016.  Each year, this is when we celebrate our ability to start again. As I started to reflect on conversations I've had this year, I focused most on the delusion of being too busy. So many people are missing life being victims of busy. So, in this final newsletter of 2015, I'd like to chat with you about how we fake ourselves out of our own lives.

Last month, I talked about two articles on why projects fail- one from the Standish Group and one from Gallup. To review, here are the reasons projects fail. It's the people.   Summary of Standish Group Research: We're faking it by avoiding the important people dynamics, for example:Poorly skilled Project Executive SponsorsPoor Emotional Maturity skills for all (aka too much drama)Team capability (not superior, but good) with calculated decision makingLack of issue resolutionSummary of Gallup Research: We're faking it by worrying about how to do the project, not about the outcome.  Projects come together when there is an engaging shared vision. The brain needs context to help. What will we have at the end that we don't have now? This context is defined through focus on #2 and #3 below. Projects have three levers:Technical (technology developed, project management techniques) - the problem is this is where most effort is Individual (project leadership, scope management, communication)Stakeholder (user involvement, executive buy-in, goal specificity)At Project Summit * BA World Boston, I reconnected with a friend Michael Mah (Benchmark Practice Director, Cutter Consortium Managing Partner, QSM Associates). His company tracks metrics of large IT projects to determine what really does drive success. Michael's Cutter Consortium article emphasizes similar points to the Standish Group and Gallup. Critical components to project success include:Buy-InVP or higher Senior Executive SponsorCore Group Energized, Passionate and trainedTeamworkPrototypes, PilotsFrequent, rigorous peer reviewsIntentional prioritization of communicationCo-locatedI attended a presentation he did comparing the results of outsourcing the 'coding' to keeping it all in-house. Turns out it is not cheaper to outsource coding. Here is a slide that compares the two: As Michael said, "We are not looking at an emperor with no clothes on, we ARE the emperor with no clothes on!" We are faking it, thinking that coding is a rote, precise and manual process. Michael's research shows that it is not the talent of the coders or the fact that they are outsourced that's the problem. One major issue is the difficulty communicating virtually with conflicting time zones and language issues. This creates more rework than an 'in-place' project team. Michael likes to mention the power of being co-located with your project team and your ability to 'swing your chair around and ask a question'. He also reminds us of 30-year-old research called Brooks Law that shows when you add people to a project, communication goes up exponentially not linearly because of (love this term…) combinatorial explosion. IT expert Ed Yourdon calls this Death March. Here's a graphic of that dynamic: ​ In 2016, let's stop pretending and deal with the mental game of project management through the growth of people.  RMA will continue to emphasize this critical change in focus next year .   If you'd like help revolutionizing your approach to projects, give Brittney a shout - bhelt@russellmartin.com. 

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