Posts

Fred Mouawad

Top Project Management Challenges

/1 Comment/in /by

Did you know that organizations lose $109 million for every $1 billion invested in projects and programs? It’s a staggering number to consider, and even more shocking, it’s due in part to the fact that over the last year, less than a third of all projects were successfully completed on time and on budget. Problems like this encourage the trend for employees to continue their education with programs like an online Six Sigma Green Belt.

Ask any project manager, and you’ll hear that one of the top problems that they face is a high tolerance for failure. Extending due dates, forgetting tasks and cost overruns are so common that they are considered a part of the process. However, we certainly do not extend the same liberty to other professions like engineers, doctors and pilots.

A high performing project manager needs a way to track projects from start to finish, get the team on board to work together towards a common goal and get more done on time and under budget. Excel spreadsheets and emails are two ways to accomplish this, but most managers should use a project management methodology to stay on task.[wcm_restrict]

Project Management StudyPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) conducted a survey on the topic of project management and found that companies that use a project management methodology (i.e. PRINCE2, Six Sigma and project management software such as Taskworld) versus those who don’t have an advantage in five different areas.

When it comes to these areas, project managers run into some hurdles that often result in lost money and time. Let’s take a look at the seven pain points of project management that managers face:

Organization

Organization accounts for a considerable part of a manager’s work life. Planning, delegating and keeping track of tasks is essential to getting things done in an orderly manner. Once this process is set, the manager can focus on execution.

Accountability

Deciding who is responsible for what can be a difficult task for a manager, especially when there are multiple individuals working on accomplishing the same task. Accountability needs to be established clearly and without any scope for misunderstanding, so that all parties involved are prepared to take on the exact responsibilities given to them.

Consolidation

Being able to see everything pertaining to a given activity in one place can be a great advantage. Having a single location where all the information is consolidated can help managers keep track of delegated tasks, access all versions of a task or project and inform all participants of changes at the same time.

Follow-up

If a manager was expected to remember every task he or she assigned and then to follow it up efficiently, nothing would ever get done. Writing things down and email threads are a better way of going about the follow-up process, but consolidation can be time-consuming when errant tasks suddenly become urgent.

Evaluation

Providing valuable feedback is a key responsibility that a project manager must take head on. There’s no way a manager can do this if there isn’t an established set of practices to collect and analyze an employee’s performance.

Visibility

In a traditional setting, employees are not privy to the information that is being used to evaluate their performance. This can be an inefficient way of facilitating continuous improvement, as employees do not know what they are doing wrong and what they can do to improve their performance.

Feedback

Managers must then take on the charge of providing quality feedback. Good feedback must be fair, clear and preferably done face to face. Tact and finesse must be used in the case of employees showing a lack of improvement and be encouraging when reinforcing the good performance of others.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

[reveal_quick_checkout id=”25489″ checkout_text=”Subscribing to the Self Guided Program – It’s Free!”]

[/wcm_nonmember]

About the Author

Fred MouawadFred Mouawad is a global citizen, serial and portfolio entrepreneur, and founder of Synergia One Group of Companies and CEO of Taskworld. He has expertise in building comprehensive management systems that are based on direct experience, academic research, ISO standards, and Lean Six Sigma. In his free time, Fred likes snow skiing, jet skiing, motorcycling, and scuba diving.

StrategyDriven Project Management Article

Project Management Best Practice 1 – The Project Management Intensity Continuum

/3 Comments/in , /by

Any amount of management represents an overhead expense to the endeavor to which the oversight is applied. Therefore, it is critically important the amount of management applied is limited to that which yields an increased overall product value and not so much that overall value is diminished. This balance between applied management intensity and overall valued added is represented by the Project Management Intensity Continuum.[wcm_restrict plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

The value project management offers any initiative comes from the creation of order from what would otherwise be chaos. The more numerous the activities and the more complex their interrelationships, the more value project management offers. When order is created, resources are deployed more effectively; coordinating and focusing their efforts on priority work and achieving greater resource utilization. Subsequently, value generation increases and overall costs decline.


Project Management Intensity Continuum Curve Shape

With respect to the Project Management Intensity Continuum, overall value is equal to the increase in value generation of the end product less the cost of management applied to create the product. As illustrated in Figure 1, The Project Management Intensity Continuum, the initial application of management to any initiative will tend to yield a rapid increase in overall value generation. As additional management is applied, however, profitability gains tend to diminish while the cost of management increases; reducing the rate of overall value increase relative to the additional management applied. Finally, at the point of diminishing total returns, any additional management applied to the governance of an initiative will result in a reduction of overall value creation. At this point, the amount of management applied maximizes the total value return. Beyond this point, too much management is applied and total value generation declines.

While the fundamental shape of the Project Management Intensity Continuum curve remains the same regardless of the project, the rate at which the curve changes will vary from project-to-project in direct correlation with the project’s overall complexity and its overall value potential. As a general rule, more complex projects will require a greater management intensity to coordinate the larger number of assigned resources completing the larger number of often interrelated tasks. Thus, more complex projects have a correspondingly stretched project management intensity continuum curve along the X-axis. Similarly, less complex projects reach an optimal management to overall value balance at a point of far lower management intensity compressing the curve along the X-axis. The height of this diminishing marginal returns curve tends to change with the overall value creation potential of the initiative. Initiatives with high value potential will have taller Project Management Intensity Continuum curves. Those with low potential value creation will tend to be flatter in appearance.

Applying Just Enough Project Management

Applying just enough management in order to realize the project’s peak value potential is the goal of every project manager. While requiring a degree of subjective ‘management feel,’ consider the following sensitivity analysis type questions when attempting to determine whether or not the optimal management to value creation ratio has been achieved:

  1. What value does the project’s output quantifiably offer in both objective and subjective terms?
  2. What is the current cost of the applied project management?
  3. If a project management component was eliminated, what would the corresponding change in cost and value be?
  4. If a project management component was added, what would the corresponding change in cost and value be?

Repeat questions 3 and 4 for different management components. For those changes that resulted in an overall value increase (overall value = value added – increased cost), try implementing the change on a trial basis and observe the actual results achieved. Consider making the change permanent for those management additions/deletions that enhance the project’s overall value contribution.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember plans=”25541, 25542, 25653″]

Hi there! Gain access to this article with a FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription. It’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Sign-up now for your FREE StrategyDriven Insights Library – Sample Subscription

In addition to receiving access to Project Management Best Practice 1 – The Project Management Intensity Continuum, you’ll help advance your career and business programs through anytime, anywhere access to:

  • A sampling of dozens of Premium how-to documents across 7 business functions and 28 associated programs
  • 2,500+ Expert Contributor management and leadership articles
  • Expert advice provided via StrategyDriven’s Advisors Corner

Best of all, it’s FREE Forever with No Credit Card Required.

Access the Article Now!

[/wcm_nonmember]