Argh!  It happened again!  My project lost three key project resources to reassignment, reorganization, and lay-offs in the first 60 days.  What is a project manager to do?

After alerting all stakeholders to the risk events that occurred I was pulled into several emergency meetings.  A common theme of the discussions was “Who do you need?”  The willingness to respond to the crisis was a relief. But I shared with the stakeholders that it might be more appropriate to view the solution differently: “What roles do we need to be successful?”

I certainly acknowledge that project managers often have little say as to “who” is on the project team.  That’s a fact of life. Nevertheless, when the critical roles and skill sets are really defined you will have a project that is more likely to be successful.

This is for several reasons.  One is alignment. You have the correct resources doing the correct job for the required amount of time and no longer.  You are often more likely to receive more senior and skilled resources because you clearly understand the role that is needed.

So, what happens when you do not have that latitude?  Let’s say you receive a resource with a skill set of “5” when the project requires an “8” or “9”?  You utilize this information and it becomes input information into the initial risk assessment.  How can this risk be avoided or mitigated?  Maybe more training dollars are available for this resource. Perhaps you can request two “5” level skill resources for the one role.  This is an especially valuable exercise when you have no control over the resources assigned to your project.

Having this information is also critical on scheduling and setting deliverable expectations with project stakeholders.  We are often too optimistic.  We look at task durations in terms of utilizing the best skilled resources available. This can be a trap.  If a “10” can accomplish the task in three weeks it is more than likely that a resource with a skill level of “5” will take at least twice that long.  Common sense you say.  Yes.  However, the deeper implications surface when the interdependencies are viewed.  How many tasks depend on the one that now takes twice as long?  Will those resources still be available when the predecessor task is completed? Do we need to re-baseline the entire project?  If so, when?

Losing key resources is a fact of life.  One of the ways to recover as quickly as possible is to know exactly what role(s) is required for the project and the team to be successful.  (Hint from my personal Lessons Learned:  I ask them.)  When it becomes time to fill project vacancies it may prove fruitful to think in terms of “what” we need rather than “who” we need. Then we move forward with “who” we have and a clear expectation of what we can deliver and when.

PM-Pro

“A short pencil is better than a long memory.”

I am passionate about fly-fishing.  The water is cool; the scenery is gorgeous; and the sport very pure.  Fly-fishing is a solo sport.  While you can enjoy it with friends, you must read the hatch, know the current, read the water and wind, make the cast, and mend a drag-free drift.  There are a few analogies to the current job market for Project Managers and PM Consulting firms.

I used to become very frustrated with catching so many small trout in Montana’s blue ribbon trout streams.  Some trips I would catch-and-release dozens of rainbow and brown trout and wonder where the larger fish were.  Then an old-timer shared with me, “If you’re not fooling the little ones there is no way you’re going to get a big one.”  I learned to make better casting presentations with flies that were better tied and soon the sizes of the fish caught were larger.

This is exactly what I thought this morning after the 7^th recruiting agency called my company for very junior engagements.  If I am not getting calls from them I probably won’t be from larger clients.  What am I presenting?  How am I presenting it?  How can I make it look better?

The tendency often is to only look at and respond to the “once in a life time” catches.  Chances are if you can’t land the easy little ones the bigger ones might elude you also.  As I have shared before, we may not always do things “right,” but we must do the right things.

Certainly the analogy has limits but it is good to objectively review yourself from the perspective of another.  How do I compare?  Am I as appetizing and as appealing?  With trout I generally catch them and carefully release them.  With clients I recommend catch-and-keep!

Get your limit!  And remember, a short pencil is better than a long memory.

PM-Pro

Doing the Right Things:  Marketing Yourself

I have recently been asked by Project Management and other IT professionals “How do I market myself in the times we now live in?”  There have been so many books, web sites, blogs, and periodicals devoted to this topic that it has become an industry.  I will not go into those now.

One approach that I have used is to make finding my next engagement (or keeping my current job) a new project called “Work is Secured.”  This works for contracts or full time permanent work.  I utilize the PMI® formalized process of initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure in a model that fits my current situation.  The key here is that real milestones, deliverables, and time frames are quantified so that progress can be monitored and reviewed and corrections made as needed.

Whether looking for new work or working diligently to retain current work it is important to realize we are always marketing ourselves.  It is not something we turn on and turn off depending upon our current employment status.  The biggest challenges I have been faced with is the “ready, fire, aim” syndrome.  I am ready to rock and roll and get busy “doing” without a solid marketing plan behind my activities.  Soon I become tired, frustrated, discouraged, and angry.

A common downfall in most market (planning) strategies is the failure to honestly answer (yes, it must be put into writing) some of the following questions:

1.     What is it I really do well?

2.     What differentiates me from others in my field?

3.     Why am I good?

4.     What are 4-6 of my key strengths or transferable skills?

5.     What are documented, quantifiable examples of each?

6.     Why should I be selected over someone with equal or similar qualifications?

7.     What is it I really want in my career/profession?

Once we have really invested the time to answer these questions we will see greater clarity and focus as we move forward.  It’s also normal for the answers to evolve and change as we continue to better understand why we are really good in certain areas and more challenged in others.

Here’s an example illustrating key strengths and transferable skills (#4): 

I am a senior IT professional with an outstanding record in project management by using my key transferable skills in problem solving, solutions development, influencing, persuading, writing, and mentoring.

It can be a challenging time to answer the questions above.  They are certainly not exhaustible.  One way to help learn the answers is to ask trusted friends and associates, vendors, peers, and past co-workers.  Keep it on the positive side rather than an inventory of all your shortcomings and have fun!  This also becomes a great means to enlist the positive energy and help from people you already know and respect.