Level2wo

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. 

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.

Less money to throw around and weak consumer demand is forcing companies to cut back on their advertising–in newspapers, radio, television, and just about any other media you can think of. While not completely dead (and for some, this is probably a good time to buy advertising, given that you can probably do a little more bargaining than usual to get the placements you want), retailers, financial companies, airlines, car dealers, and just about any other advertiser marketing products and services affected by the economy, gas prices, and the housing market disaster are cutting back, putting the hurt on media groups.

Conventional media, already on the ropes because of technological advances and advertising budgets shifting towards that technology, is getting the one-two punch from advertisers reigning in budgets or cutting their budgets completely, at least for the time being. And things will only get worse for media companies if the country goes into a recession (although, and I agree, we’re already in a recession).

While digital media has clearly boomed in recent years, the revenues that follow from advertising in that area may not necessarily be as high as if the marketers were sticking to conventional media advertising. Add to that the consumer cinching their wallets and cutting back on the products and services they’d normally be buying (but that are not necessities), and you can see how trouble is brewing for a good many companies. And it isn’t getting better any time soon.