I am planning a project. Do I need professional assistance?

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Most firms push for a consultation that is tedious and focuses only on the project itself. A process that requires more than the given availability both in dollars and time. What can one do to be more efficient on the decision of a project?

Seek advice from someone who has done it before!

Very simple and logical, no?

Last fall we had a client call who asked is it good to go with the cloud or not? The simple problem they faced involved the change that would result in the firm operation by implementing the cloud. They never thought about it before. The client just thought about the dollars spent and the resulting savings that would occur.

Advice on what is required is based on the project specifications and the firm’s successful implantation on a financial scale. Some projects can be done in house and some require a dedicated team. Being able to make a decision on the route your company takes should be a profound educated choice.

So, let’s look at a situation.

You have a project that you are thinking about. The project will cost at least 60 thousand dollars on an assumption based on what others have done before. This be the real end scenario we are happy. But let’s face it, we have a project to run and a business that is running.
The professional assistance is based on competence of the team trying to start the new project. If a company does not have the resources to make a project work it will inevitably fail. The CFO, controller or stakeholder should be in line with their business fully knowing their capabilities.

A quick snapshot of the financials it is often a great indicator of what can be done and thus a great indicator of how much professional assistance is needed.

Any PM with experience will ask, is this a project that is required? Does it have a budget? What is the time line?

Do Theories Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Play a Role in Project Management?

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This question came up the other day on a LinkedIn post and many answers were given. Personal bias plays a big role in answering this question. Usually this bias comes from experiences where companies have tried to integrate different theories such as Maslow’s into their team environment. The results are either good or bad based on how fast and how drastic the changes took to be implemented.

Many companies try to establish this induction of a theory or process in a subtle manner but are often found with too much change being implemented. This change can cause many emotional imbalances to come out by the team and is usually not shown or evident to the implementers.

A good process is to understand, based on a theory such as Maslow’s, what characteristics already exist in the team environment. Although the theory is created in a structured manner, many PM’s and corporations already deliver some, if not most, of the theory’s key concepts without fully being aware.

Let’s face it, the theory isn’t rocket science and we know that different things motivate different people. By looking at all the different concepts and slowly introducing them without impacting a “change chaos” situation, the team will gradually adjust.

A PM that enters into a failing project can have the ability to implement a drastic change, however this is based on how much need there is for it and what backlash will be received. Thus, gradual change over a period of time with limited emphasis to the change is a good method to achieve this goal.

Can a Project Manager who is not Specialized in the Area of the Project be Successful?

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Have you asked yourself this questions before? Have you been in a room where this question has been asked before? What were the results? Were all parties on the same page?

This question is usually a black and white kind of question for most. Either one agrees or does not agree. There is rarely a middle ground. It is based on experience and biased knowledge of what is possible. The story goes, if it’s a technical project I need an engineer. This engineer needs to be a project manager.

But why?

If a project manager is the smartest guy in the room then will we need to hire more engineers to do the work? We probably will have to hire someone new, as the engineer turned PM has the PM work to do. So how can they have enough time to complete the engineering work?

If this is the case then, do you pay the PM more or less money? Do you have the engineer make decisions or do the engineers make the decisions? What happens if some engineer work needs to be done and so to save time and money on the budget the PM starts doing some of the engineering work?

Fact is that although it’s a great idea, one has to look at the big picture. A PM has the knowledge of managing projects. No two projects are alike but basic principles are used. A strong PM is able to apply these to any project and be successful. The level of success is based on how well the resources are utilized. For instance, if the PM is not an engineer, they will leverage the engineer’s knowledge on the project in order to fully complete the PM tasks. One cannot exist without another.

Being inclined to hire based on reputation is a good thing, however, being inclined to hire based on PM characteristics strengthens the choice. If a PM has a personality that can deal with the engineers and talk their language in the meeting room, then that candidate can be successful.

If the harnessing of resources is done properly by the PM and is supported by the stakeholder and owners of the project then success is easily achieved.

How can I Sell My Idea to the Boss?

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Is dealing with the boss a challenge? Do you have an idea but not sure how to sell it to the boss? Is this something you want changed?

Simply put, the boss is human and only needs a simple push in the right direction. Our concept of the boss is shaped by the self-developed assumption of who the boss is.

Our belief is that he is the guy who can fire us!

This methodology is not only flawed but a travesty to our working understanding of life. The actual idea behind it stems from society engraving it in our minds from day one and letting it blossom into a normal habit of thinking. A new habit needs to be instilled this being:

If one wants success they need to achieve it by being what they are. Simply, a working solution.

So, instead of worrying about how to sell the ideas, work on how to understand the idea in the eyes of the boss. Look at it from their perspective. Understand more than your idea in an isolated form and place it in the light of their working world.

Every boss knows that there are many aspect to making a decision but let’s look at two parts. The first is based on the idea and the second on the budget/dollars. Sometimes a third is introduced that is on personal wants and needs but let’s avoid it until it gets complicated.

Focus on the sale in light of the bosses thought process and then bring back the playbook on sales that you read. Skill sets are developed over time and this no doubt is a skill set. One that you will be developing for many years!

Is Your Project on Track?

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The question that haunts most stakeholders relates to the project finishing on time and on budget. It is a normality of project management that exists in common fashion.   Stakeholder needs a project complete and a project manager has to deliver.

FACT: Projects are rarely on pace with planning!

Why?

Many factors exists. The scope of the project is really the defining factor. The questions have to be revolving around the probability that it will be complete.

Have you been in the stressful situation of uncertainty?

The actual play time is the introduction stage. The place where the project actually starts and the beginnings start to flow; meeting new people, gaining insights, brainstorming, etc.

The problem to this begins with people not realizing that the scope is the single most important document that one has to work with in a project. All planning starts with this document and without a solid scope document all things may come to a halt.

CASE 1: Scope document is not complete. Owner of project requires changes. What happens?

CASE 2: Scope document is complete. Owner of project requires changes. What happens?

In either case, when a problem presents itself it will cause some form of chaos. The fact of the matter is that most owners will understand that the scope document was complete or was not complete, however they will not really care. You, the PM on the job, has a due diligence to complete the scope document and maintain its integrity.

A PM’s primary focus has to be the scope document and the requirements defined by what the project owner requires. Simple steps include the provisions and understanding the characteristics of the project and presenting a thorough requirement document to the customer. A change request process must exist that is understood by the stakeholder.

Further this thought process, the stakeholders must have complete compliance to the process and a full abbreviated amenability must be completed to scope.

Take the proper approach to verify and make certain that project is completed to scope and can sustain uncertainties within its preplanned requirements.

The final complete project remains in accordance to the scope and its compliance!

Wish your text messages would get deleted? Try Tell, the new private messaging app!

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You know that moment when you wish the message you just sent to your friend would be deleted for good once they read it?

Tell is an app on iPhone that innovates how we send messages to our contacts with specifics that will knock your socks off. The two biggest features are a Timer and a Deadline for messages that are sent.

Have we been in these situations before where we wanted these features? I think we can all come up with a few. Business partners, relationships, during the bar extravaganza where too many drinks make for some happy texting?

Let’s say you have a message that you want to send to your friend but you won’t want them to keep it for long. You can set a timer for the amount of time it remains on their phone. It then deletes off the phone come that time!

The Deadline feature allows you to set a time where if the message is read or not it will just disappear… poof! Gone! Say what? Yes, so if you are in a bar and you send a stupid message to someone, you will be confident to know the next morning that the message is no more!

Tell App Icon

Tell Icon

Interesting fact about the creators: This is their very first go in the entrepreneurial ring. A knock out for sure! Co-founders; Marc Lafleur, Jonathan Makrakis, Shaheen & Sam Zangooi, currently have Tell in open testing mode on the App Store, and they have followed the life cycle to the tee, albeit without technical background’s or expertise. This mobile app is built by users, for users, said Lafleur and Makrakis. With their new 2.0 version on the way (more features) and it expected on the Android platform very soon, the 4 partners from Waterloo are moving forward at a pace that most app developers would love to have! Investment opportunity for sure.

Their inception of the idea was quite simple: Wouldn’t it be great to be able to send private messages to friends, and have it delete with no message history?

Their growth in the idea spawned with real life scenarios and yes I think you thought of a few while reading this article!

Download the app through the App Store and try it out with your friends, and enjoy the experience!

Visit up their sites:

www.facebook.com/taptotell

www.taptotell.ca

Stand Up Meetings … Nikos Advice (PM Network Magazine)

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Clever bee… where do you find the time?

Finding times for meetings is sometimes challenging and overall a headache when you have a project on the line and the team scattered on tasks. The questions PM’s always ask is how do you manage?

Simply put I don’t believe in big meetings. I don’t believe that sitting through an hour meeting once a week has any positive impact. This being said, traditionally and for many years this has been the norm. I don’t fight it when an organization wants it done this way. I don’t fight it when a manager wants it this way.

A simple method that can help improve meeting performance are stand up meetings. Stand up meetings are great for those who have to get things done and need to inclusively pass the messages along.  Why have an hour meeting when you can have a few a day that are 5 – 10 minutes?

Check out the article attached from the PM Network Magazine. Yours’ truly has provided some insight in the article regarding stand up meetings and the wonderful world of changing the flow!

 

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The NIKOS: the third person approach!

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Are you a regretful person? Do you regret a lot of things you do? Sometimes they torture you? Pardon the French but do you ever say to yourself: “#@!? was I thinking?”

I used to! I think everyone does. Don’t have stats on it but I am pretty sure everyone I talk to has had that moment and if you haven’t, come for a coffee and quick chat and I will make sure you say it… the question is why? Why do we get into these situations?

Simple: it’s the EMOTION!

Your emotion controls many decisions in a given day. From what you wear to what you do, where you go, how you say things, what you say, and so on. Emotions guide us and if you read up on the brain, emotion is a part of our decision making process.

So what’s the cure? Well there is no cure but we can create a behavioral process to lower the average amount of times you get into a regretful situation. How you ask?

Simple: Talk in third person!

Nikos is the best! Nikos rocks! Nikos, Nikos, Nikos… NO!  I don’t mean this!

Third person approach is much different. It is an art that is developed over time! You must take your time learning the technique. You put yourself in a baby step learning process.

The third person approach works like a charm when engaged in any situation where a decision will be made and emotion is part of it.

Examples include, should I buy something? Should I go to sleep? Should I do my homework? Should I spend time with a person I don’t like? Should I be getting advice? Should I, Should I, Should I…

When making critical decisions to problems, I use this process (replace with your name):

  1. Calm yourself down with a coffee or something that relaxes you
  2. Analyze the problem analytically
  3. Calm yourself down again by forgetting the problem
  4. Create the options that exist to the decisions
  5. Say:  What is the best decision here for Nikos? Nikos, it is best for you to… because… and you will not regret it for the following reasons, Etc.
  6. Write it down to have the why of your decision handy
  7. Remind yourself that you made the decision for the reasons…..
  8. DONE!

Try this for a few months… it will be hard but the advantages will change your mood. You will be happier in every decision you make. You will become a decision making GURU…

How did I come about this?

When running your own business situations come up where you need to make a critical decision. Sometimes you can get advice and sometimes you can’t. This process came about when I thought to myself, WHAT WOULD I RECOMMEND TO A CLIENT?

Magically the decision to use third person was an excellent choice… Simply put, AWESOME!

Smart or Smarter?

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FACT: everyone thinks they are smarter than the other! Why waste that time worrying about little things in life? When working with someone do you find it frustrating that a person is acting like they know everything but you seem to do all the work? While working with a client and a few of his partners on a consult, I realized that they had a big problem: “No one valued each other’s intellectual ability”

Fact is they didn’t trust each other. Big problem don’t you think?

I was standing in a typical example of a person not respecting the other thinking they were always right and always smarter. This applied for each of the partners on to each other… further this, it trickled down to the whole team of employees! Thought I was in Ramsy’s Kitchen Nightmares…

What did we do? We had a session on what everyone is good at looking at their strengths and weaknesses. Surprisingly, they all had both segments. What a relief.

We started talking all together and analyzed the opportunity cost for each person’s time spent on what the other was doing, trying to make it better or redoing work. The ROI on everything was causing them to be so inefficient that they were latterly bleeding their wallets dry. Further that, they had given up on the business and wanted to end it.

The process was simple:

State what you are good at and what you like to do, then focus on it
State what you are NOT good at and what you DO NOT like to do, then simply don’t do it
Mind your business over a period of 3 to 4 weeks while everything is being monitored

Analyze the performance in a meeting
Figure out a solution and implement it if required

Point is that we spend too much time in other people’s business. We spend too much time trying to fix the other instead of trusting them and helping them develop that skill… Trust is crucial especially in a growing company. If there isn’t any then it must be developed or an exit of one person must occur.