Wow! I can’t believe it’s been over a month since my last post. Actually, I can. I’ve been busy. Very busy. Been working on a pretty large web project that’s requiring a lot of hours during the day, and a lot of hours during the night to complete. It’s a challenge, but I have confidence that the end result will justify the means–even if the means means long hours in front of a computer without being able to publish my normal Level2wo blog posts. Sorry, sometimes priorities get in the way. That’s a joke.

I think for today’s post I just want to jot down some off the cuff notes about what’s been going on in the project that’s taking so much of my time. It’ll help me think, and maybe give you some insight into another project manager’s world, so you realize that you’re challenges and difficulties may just be normal. Or, maybe, make you feel that much better about your management skills.

The project I’m working on has many moving pieces, including a project team in four locations, English as a second language (for some team members), difficulties in communication (at varying levels among various resources), and lots and lots of digital assets spread across multiple business units. Managing the project is like lasso-ing a hurricane…but I must admit, the lasso does work.

As in previous lives, you come to understand that, while there is chaos all around, understanding that chaos and ensuring everyone on your team is comfortable with that chaos is key to project success. As a PM, I often strive to bring comfort and to ease my team members when they are stressed, over-worked, and when they simply need to step back, take a deep breath, relax, and get their second (and third and fourth) wind. As any project manager knows, there is pressure coming from all around to ensure client expectations are met, to ensure the little details fit into the larger project, to ensure that budgets are met, to ensure that everyone is communicating what they need to be communicating to each other for the health of the project, to ensure that all contingencies are in place, and on and on. It’s normal to get stressed out, both as a team member and as a project manager. Read it again: It’s Normal.

I’ve found that, given you’re doing everything you need to be doing, given that you’re prepared and understand that there will be very, very busy times and some not-so busy times, given that you understand the need and value in coaching and making people smile from time to time, you’ll do fine. That’s not to say you’ll not go through the ups and downs yourself, but you’ll do fine. It’s managing the inputs above that will provide you with the output–a completed project that is polished at the end, even though it may have started as a rough boulder in the beginning.

No matter how many projects I work on, and no matter how many agencies I work with, it seems to be a common thread that processes need improving (in some cases creating), and that there needs to be an advocate or champion within the organization that ensures that these processes are created, implemented, and most importantly, followed by all of the internal stakeholders. In the heat of the battle–projects coming in at a rate a little more than what a normal project manager can handle, requests popping up from developers, designers, information architects, clients, and copywriters, deadlines creeping up, new SOWs you have to kick out, requirements documents that need completing, Project Organization Manuals, etc., it’s easy to understand how actually following a process can get in the way. Or seem like it will, anyway.
But I can’t stress enough just how important having the processes in place–not only for the PM’s working but the newbies that arrive to rescue the day–is to ensuring you can not only manage your current projects but be able to take on and effectively manage new projects. But how can we actually implement anything if we’re all busy managing projects, you ask? Simple. Outsource.

Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and hire a Project Management consultant or someone with a similar title who understands the ins and outs of project management, in my world a project management consultant in the Interactive space. If you’re a large agency, this shouldn’t be a problem–but I know for the smaller agencies with more limited resources, shelling out $75-$100 an hour or more can be a painful proposition. In the end, however, at least in my opinion, it’s definitely worth it for many reasons. Some of the reasons include:

1. Bringing in someone from the outside helps clarify what you may already think is clear.
2. Paying someone to work just on process improvement will get the job done faster.
3. Bringing in someone that isn’t assigned other projects will allow that person to focus, and thus allow them to be more effective.
4. Another set of eyes and experiences that will help strengthen the experience of your current PM organization.
5. You may just have your next project manager already working for you.

But before you jump up and down for joy that you have the budget to hire someone to fix what’s been broken for so long, make sure you’ve set the goals and objectives very clear in your mind, so that the person coming in to fix your project management organization has a base to work from. Make sure you’ve outlined what’s expected of the new PM consultant. Some things to consider making clear you want:

1. Documentation.
Make sure that the PM consultant creates documents that are useful to your organization for not only presenting to the client but that are effective information gathering tools that will help consolidate any and all project-related information that will be needed internally. A standard set of documents could include: POMs (Project Organization Manuals), SOWs (Statement of Works), BOM’s (Bill of Materials), Invoices, Contact lists (both internal and external), Vendor lists (in case you need to outsource any of the work to outside specialists), Escalation procedures, Change requests, Business requirements documents, Project Plan examples and templates, Design element documents, and any other documents that will be needed or produced by your project teams.

2. Communication Tools.
You want to have your communication tools evaluated for your projects, including file transfer tools such as FTPs and other software that you would use for transferring not only externally to the client but internally to those working on the project.

3. Finance.
Make sure you’re getting paid for your projects, and make sure that you’re documenting and following up appropriately. I hear and have seen how easily it is to forget to get paid. Clients aren’t in a rush to pay you–it’s only you who will ensure you get paid.

While I have covered a good deal of why processes are important, I’ve really only created a general overview of what you need to do to ensure your PMO needs to do to get closer to running a smooth operation. There will absolutely be pains associated with the process, but they’re growing pains that you’ll need to do as a creative or interactive agency, at least if you want to make your life easier. If you have any of your own suggestions you’d like to share, please feel free to comment. 

Project Management Issues

Projects are rarely easy. Well, let me rephrase that. Projects often have difficulties. Hmm. Let me use Robert Burns’ or John Stenbeck’s more popularly known phrase: “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Or, maybe…well, you get my point. Projects of any kind face difficulties, from scope creep to communication issues, over-promising and under-delivering, and quality and cost issues. There’s more, but I just don’t have the time to get into them all.

So what do you do? It’s simple, and yet it’s maybe not that simple. Nothing beats planning. Nothing except for luck, great clients, great teammates, and, if you’re lucky, a combination of the two. But that’s not something you should count on. Issues arising, clients changing their minds, less than efficient team members. That’s what you should expect; if you get anything better than that, then you, my friend, have a heck of a team that you need to hold onto.

 In interactive projects, much can and does go wrong. And by wrong I don’t mean failures of massive proportion, but rather websites becoming a lot larger and more complex than agreed to in the SOW (statement of work), quality being produced by outside vendors not being up to what your (or worse, the client’s) expectations are, technology failures (server crashes, missed deadlines, delayed client approvals, PHs (person hours) over budget), etc.

What do you do? Truthfully? Roll with the punches. Learn from your mistakes, and learn from the mistakes of others, so that you don’t repeat the mistakes. Learn how your organization works, and learn how your client’s organization works. Once you understand the big picture, managing the minutae gets better. But learn. Be patient. Understand that everyone has an agenda, that everyone is probably as just as busy as you are and lacks as many resources as you do, and that they’re making the best of it. Have a smile on your face, because the storm will pass. It always does. And keep your head in the game, showing confidence and glee the entire time. You get your teammates to stay in the game, you’ll get that much more done that much quicker. And focus. You’ll be fine…just know it, and all will work out.

One of the aspects of building websites and working for interactive agencies that is sometimes nice and sometimes excruiciatingly painful (for some, anyway), is the hurry up and wait aspect of projects. If you’ve been involved in this type of work–or other types that rely on bidding for a contract, a lot of back and forth with clients, dotting all of the i’s and crossing all of the t’s, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s good and it’s bad–depending, anyway, on who you ask.

Personally, i’m neither here nor there on the matter. I enjoy having downtime to prep, to learn more about my client’s business, to think (or at least try to think) as they do. I know putting myself in my client’s shoes is one of the best ways for me to help them get where they need to get. In previous positions, I’ve not always had the opportunity to step back for a few minutes in order to look at the bigger picture. And I know (and I’m sure you know), plenty of people that don’t really care to grasp the bigger picture, because they know what their role is and know (or think) that their role will not have a direct impact or substantial impact on the client business to make a difference…so why try. And, in reality, some of them may be right. But there needs to be a little bit of both type people–the contributor with his or her eye on the larger picture, and the contributor who can’t see the trees for the forest. I think that helps–at least I know it does in my world.

OK, I sense i’m blabbing here, because it’s getting late and i’m tired. I hope I made sense up above–and, in fact, I ‘hope’ so much that i’m not even going to read what I just wrote, which is pretty rare. Have a great night.

Baseline just put out a good list of project management trends for ‘08. It’s almost August, but it’s some good insight into the goings on in PM. Of course, for many of us in the biz, much of what’s listed is what we know and face every day, but it’s nice to see it listed in one place. I know I have less and less time each day to actually read anything (besides my day job I also write these blogs), and getting someone else’s take on what you’re doing each day, especially when it comes to project management, is a good thing.

10 Trends in Project Management
By Baselinemag
2008-06-26�
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Keep up to speed on the latest developments in the project management arena.
Here are the top 10 trends in project management for 2008, compiled by the senior management and practitioners of ESI:

1. Investment in project management training to counter effects of a troubled economy. Keeping projects on track and on budget can counter the ill effects of a down economy. Strategic organizations realize that an unsettled economy is the time to invest in project management training and development to optimize performance.

2. Better, faster project decision-making. The pressures for project managers to “get it done yesterday” keep increasing, particularly with today’s tightening budgets. Project managers need to deploy best practices when choosing projects, knowing when to say no to ventures that won’t deliver a solid return on investment (ROI) and when to green-light promising projects.

3. Critical thinking as a key project management competency. Technical competence alone doesn’t create success. Project management has evolved into a robust discipline, and critical thinking is the key soft skill that can make the difference between success and failure.

4. Emerging relevance of the project management office. Project management offices ensure a higher chance for organizations to reach their goals. (Imagine the space shuttle without its command center.) PMOs streamline processes, coordinate projects and enable more efficiency in day-to-day project management. As more companies see the relevance of PMOs, this trend will become increasingly important to overall project management design.

5. Codependency between project management and enterprise analysis. In active knowledge-management transfer, project managers with greater experience levels and an interest in functions such as risk management are taking on traditional business analyst (BA) responsibilities, including enterprise analysis.

6. Project managers taking leadership roles in organizational change. In the face of unrelenting organizational change, project/program managers need to take a leadership role. However, leadership qualities are not program deliverables, so project managers occasionally need direction in fulfilling their organizational change leadership obligations. They need to understand business implications and what they mean for projects, and how they can drive organizational change through effective project/project-portfolio management.

7. Communication challenges of remote team management. As projects are increasingly conducted remotely through outsourcing and global expansion, project communication is often based on e-mails and conference calls. Unfortunately, a very small portion of what should be communicated is transmitted to the recipients through these channels. To manage virtual teams, project managers need to find and use best practices in communications.

8. Earning certification. Certified Program Management Professionals (PgMPSM) will be joining the workforce in 2008. This new certification from the Project Management Institute has project/program management professionals asking what the inherent differences are between their disciplines.

9. Navigating the overlap between PM and BA tasks. Project managers and business analysts now recognize the symbiotic nature of their relationships. They know where to draw the line on their responsibilities and how to work together on areas that overlap.

10. Talent management’s impact on business ROI. During the next several years, thousands of baby boomers will leave the workforce—and thousands of Millennials (born between 1982 and 1997) will enter it. This will create challenges for managers, who will find that their new workers are motivated by a different set of incentives than the previous employees had been. Organizations need to develop a talent management strategy that focuses on recruiting and retaining talent to improve business performance.
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For some other project management steps, check out my previous Level2wo Project Management blog entries.

Without sounding too…something, I can’t stress the importance of teamwork. Not only in the sense of your coworkers helping you achieve the goals you need to achieve and vice versa, but in bringing together ideas and perspectives that, when combined (again, sorry to use this word, which I’m sure you’ve all heard plenty of times just in the past few weeks alone) create synergy. It’s what makes projects succesful, initiatives succesful, and, to go a little further, it’s what makes communities, country, and the world succesful.

But with teamwork comes personalities, egos, opinions, and every other factor you can imagine that has the potential to throw teamwork off track and away from the goals you’ve set for that team to begin with. Though not always the case, gathering groups of people, especially in business, means that you’ll often have to deal with adversity, often have to defer when you think your points may be valid, and, the true test of your understanding of situations and benefitting from teamwork–you’ll have to be able to open your eyes and be receptive to points other than yours, right or wrong.

It’s through that process that the best ideas will emerge–be it for a direct mail piece, a larger marketing strategy, creative, or even what type of venue to have for company outings. Let me stress that again: open your eyes and be receptive to points other than yours. You’re not going to be right all of the time, and I’m not going to be right all of the time. I learn from you, and you learn from me. It’s what makes the wheels turn, and what brings the good ideas to better ideas.

Rarely will you encounter that genius who’s ideas and insight and execution are perfection incarnate; rarely will you have anyone single-handedly, at least in a company of any size, be the end all be all for whatever product or service you’re hawking.

Knowing how to be a teamplayer doesn’t mean giving up your place in the food chain–it means securing it through smart decisions, an open mind, and the realization that we’re all consumers of good ideas and bad, and we’re all producers of them as well. It’s the end result we’re after by participating in a team of any size or structure–so don’t sabotage it, because you’re the beneficiary.

When you’re out there in the middle of techville, managing website builds and SEM campaigns and thinking about Search Engine Optimization, and writing copy (that, obviously, needs to be keyword rich), and you’re thinking about CTRs and PPC and maybe viewing your client’s business from the actual business perspective rather than from your point of view, and you’re google-ing things to help you cram in the minor bits and pieces of technology and the latest trends, you often for get the best resource of all (in my opinion): Books!

Below are a few books I find helpful when managing interactive media projects, some better than others–but I’ll stay hushed on which ones, as you may find some more interesting than others and I don’t want to skew your opinion in any way.

1. Managing Interactive Media: Project Management for Web and Digital Media by Elaine England and Andy Finney
2. Managing Interactive Media Projects by Tim Frick
3. Fundamentals of Technology Project Management by Colleen Garton and Erika McCulloch
4. Lean Project Management: Eight Principles For Success by Lawrence P. Leach
5. The Project Management Memory Jogger: A Pocket Guide for Project Teams (Growth Opportunity Alliance of Lawrence) by Paula Martin and Karen Tate
6. Web Project Management: Delivering Successful Commercial Web Sites by Ashley Friedlein
7. IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, Second Edition (Certification Press) by Joseph Phillips

If you’re an experienced project management professional, or a newbie, the above books are good. I didn’t include the Project Management for Dummies book, but I’ve actually read it and it’s a good resource to keep at home–but don’t bring it to the office if you have a copy or buy one–not that you should be ashamed of it, because it’s a good resource, but you want to look your best, especially in front of clients–and Dummies books aren’t always the best way to project professionalism to the PM craft (or, likely any other professional position).

One of the great things about software is that it opens up a world of ease to those who learn and use it to achieve, more often than not, completion of tasks that would otherwise take a much longer time to complete. That said, sorry if I am not making complete sense–I’ve been reading software manuals all day. Yes, this is where you laugh. Or chuckle. Or, at worse, give a silent nod of acknowledgement.

Actually, it’s not so bad. But it got me thinking. While we do use a variety of software programs to get done the things we need to get done, such as everything Microsoft ever puts out (excel, word, powerpoint, project, access, etc.) (no, I’m not going to mention Vista), we also ocassionally end up using new software that we’ve either never heard of, heard of and had no contact with, or heard of and tried to avoid. It’s times like these that I don’t look to the future to solve but the past. It’s sort of like financial planning–we know we need it but no one ever really teaches us it as we grow up (I know, I can hear you yelling either a) When we were growing up certain software didn’t exist, or b) Many of the software programs extant today ARE being taught to kids in school. Well, good. Good for those kids, I suppose. But in the land of Me, I want more of a quick fix than anything else. Maybe a quick IT doctor visit where I’m injected with the knowledge to not have to read printouts and dictionary-length software manuals that are standard issue in the brains of kids today. But I’m probably asking for too much. Well, at least I can blog about it. That’s something my folks probably think is a space creature from some far away Sci-Fi flic.

Today is the 4th of July, and I thought it would be appropriate to show some patriotism. We’ll be up and publishing again on Monday. Have a great holiday weekend.

Monday is our big move to Atlanta–and we’re going to be heading cross country for two weeks, hitting what are, in my opinion, the prettiest and more interesting places in America.
We’re going to have a guest blogger on Level2wo.net–founding partner and world-class web and design wiz, E. Themmen. I hope you enjoy his posts.

But from my end–it’s time for the fun stuff–showing off pictures of the places we will go! Below are some pictures from the national parks we’re going to–some of which I worked at during my youth–though, truth be told, I don’t feel it was that long ago.

Enjoy!