Common Errors for a project manager

If you have ever done be a part of a project team, do you experience any kind of scenarios below? If so, I am with you. However, I do not think these are all project manager’s fault.

1. Focusing on asking for percent complete
2. Holding "go around the room" type status meetings
3. Spending host of your time babysitting team members by constantly checking on them
4. Asking to cut lo percent off the estimate
5. Not attempting to obtain finalized requirements
6. Not getting real resource commitments
7. Not having a reward system
8. Not focusing on quality
9. Not having a control system
10. Not having management plans
11. Not measuring against the project management plan, or even creating metrics
12. Not spending time finding and eliminating root causes of problems or deviations
13. Not implementing corrective action to keep the project in line with the project management plan
14. Not reevaluating the effectiveness of the project management plan
15. Not reevaluating the accuracy or completeness of schedule, cost, scope
    Ignoring resource managers' need to have their people do their own departments' work
16. Not realizing the project can affect the reputation of team members
17. Not realizing the project manager has some human resource responsibilities to the project team, such as project job descriptions and adding letters of recommendation to team members' human resource files
18. Blaming unrealistic schedules on management instead of realizing they are the project manager's responsibility

My understanding of Project Management -ism

1. Historical records are exceedingly valuable (like gold) to the project manager, the team, the performing organization and even the customer.
2. Project cost and schedule cannot be finalized without completing risk management.
3. A project manager must work within the existing systems and
   culture of a company, which is referred as enterprise environmental factors and they are inputs to many processes.
4. A project manager spends all his time dealing with problems is not a great project manager. A good project manager plans the project to address the problems and to prevent the problems coming.
5. Percent complete is an almost meaningless number. [JS] Unfortunately there are many cases that upper management only wants a number.
6. A great project manager does not hold meetings where you go around the room asking all attendees to report. Such meetings are generally, but not always, a waste of time. [JS] It is a channel for team members to clarify their concerns of the project.
7. The project management plan is approved by all parties, is realistic and everyone believes it can be achieved. [JS] I think it is a good practice to make the project management plan, or at least store it at a shared place.
8. If at all possible, all the work/assignment and all the stakeholders are identified before the project begins. Stakeholders are involved in the project and may help identify and manage risks. [JS] A project success is all project team member’s responsibility, not only the project manager.
9. The project manager has some human resource responsibilities of which you might not be aware. [JS] Whether you have the right person and they are keen to the project, and how team members are rewarded for their work. However, a project management is always limited by the organization.

Comments on “Things every project manager should do”

I read through a statement that “you do not understand project management if you do not understand five or more of the following items”. The list makes great sense to me, so I list here and add my own comments in italic.

1. A step-by-step process for managing projects and why each step is necessary.   I will only be confident in iterative model.
2. Project manager, sponsor and team roles.
3. Historical information from previous projects.
4. Lessons learned from previous projects.
5. Creation of lessons learned on your projects.
6. Project charter. Everyone must understand the same charter and work towards the same goal. This is not so strait forward during the project execution.
7. What is a work breakdown structure, how to create it, and that it is not a list in a bar chart. My understanding is this means the breakdown is not a list on paper, the team member should understand the meaning.  A good practice is to break down into 5 to 8 sub tasks in terms of time and size. For example, a quarter duration should be break down into biweekly tasks.
8. How to manually create a network diagram Don’t understand this.  How it is related to project management. Does it talking about human network.
9. Critical path-how to find it and what benefits it provides the project manager. Key points
10. Three-point estimating: To estimate a value (cost, duration, etc.), assume a=the best-case estimate m=the most likely estimate b=the worst case estimate, then the weighted average E=(a+4m+b)/6, and standard deviation=(b-a)/6
11. Monte Carlo analysis： refers specifically to a technique in which the project team leader or project team computes and/or quantifies the complete and total project cost and/or project schedule a number of times through the use of input values that have been selected at random through the careful utilization of probability distributions or potential costs and/or potential durations. I think it is an iterative way to define project cost or schedule.
12. Earned value. refers to the actual methodology of management in which the project management team embarks in the process of integrating the scope, the schedule, and the resources that are determined to be needed in the process of making an objective measurement of the progress that has taken place to date on a project, and also on how successful the performance has been to date. Performance is measured by assessing the budgeted cost of all work that has been performed to date (also known as earned value, or EV) and comparing it to the actual cost of work that had been performed to date (which is also known as the actual cost). Progress is determined by comparing the earned value to date and measuring it against the planned or expected value. Earned value management is essential to maintaining a proper budget.
13. Schedule compression, crashing and fast tracking
14. An unrealistic schedule is the project manager's fault. Mostly because the project scope, dependency, team capability not well understood.
15. Creating a realistic and approved project management plan that you would be willing to be held accountable to achieving.  At least for firmware project, a realistic plan is only possible if the domain and scope are understood. I don’t dare to say fully here, as in many cases, it is poorly understood.
16. Measuring and implementing corrective action.
17. Risk management process and that risk management is not just using a checklist.
18. Expected monetary value. Agree
19. Calculating budget reserves and their relationship to risk management.
20. Controlling the project to the project management plan. 

Do you know enough about project management?

I am reading PMP Preparation book recently. It has one statement:  You do not know enough if you experience two or more of the following problems on projects: .

1. Large cost or schedule overruns ;
2. Unrealistic schedules;
3. Excessive changes to the scope or schedule;
4. Poor communications and increased conflict;
5. Running out of time near the end of the project;
6. Unsatisfactory quality;
7. Low morale;
8. People on the team are unsure of what needs to be done;
9. Excessive rework and overtime;
10. Too many project meetings;

I totally agree that these are problems for project management. However, I do not think the project team can totally eliminate these problems even the project manager and team members have excellent technical and process knowledge of the project.

A project team is not isolated in vacuum environment. The project execution is restricted by many other factors. For example:

1. A giant MNC may have corporate wide pay-cut and promotion freeze, which might cause low morale of the project team, and the project manager can do nothing.
2. Excessive changes to the scope and schedule maybe because sales team boast some excessive functionality, which cannot be handled by Engineering team in time.
3. Too many project meetings maybe because the organization has a complex matrix structure, which is beyond the control of this team.

Actually for each items listed by PMP book above, there could be some reason beyond the project manager’s control. Anyway, I think what a project manager can do is to try his best to mitigate these problems, although it is really hard to eliminate them all.