How to revive a project?

Good day...

In my last posting, I discussed what to do when your project gets early terminated due to your management decision. I'm sure you must also have faced the situation when you were requested to re-commence a project as they now get back to alignment with strategy, or, an extra budget has now been obtained by your organization.

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Now, I would like to share some tips on this case also:

1. Similar with the case when you are about to early terminate a project, you need to re-confirm to your management on the new direction to the project. There are situations when a project is to be re-commenced with a different direction due to recent change in the organization's strategy. Let's be clear on the new direction and make sure that you are leading the project towards the direction.

2. In addition, you also need to re-confirm on the additional budget. The amount might no longer the same as the initial budget you had put in the project plan. Once the budget is confirmed, you might need to adjust your project plan to align with the available budget. Any change you make to the project plan should be well documented and signed-off by the authorized management representative (could be your project sponsor, or even a board of management).

3. The next step is then for you to call your team and deliver the exciting message. In most cases the original team is no longer available as they might be engaged with other projects. In this case you need to re-negotiate for resources with your PMO or the respective department heads. I would strongly recommend that you do another kick-off and assume that it is a new project with a new project team (although some of the team members are the same).

4. Then you will need to re-negotiate with your vendors on the term to continue the remaining work. As on step 3 it is recommended to assume the project is a newly started one, in many cases it is better to completely re-scope the project and issue a new work order to your vendor.

In short, once confirmation is obtained that the project is to be re-commenced, let's assume that it is a new project with re-defined scope, budget, and the entire set of project planning.

Edwin

What to do if your project gets terminated?

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Have you ever been in a situation when your management considered that your project is no longer suitable to the latest strategy and thus, they decided to terminate your project? Or, when the organization decided to re-allocate the budget to something more urgent from the management's perspective? It is even worse when the decision was taken when the project is running incredibly well, when everything was on-track and your team was on-fire. Well, what would you feel in this situation? Did you get upset or disappointed?

It is very normal when you felt uncomfortable about the situation. I suppose every good project manager would feel the same. Nonetheless, it should not be the case. Let's think back. Was the situation a result of you were not managing the project well? Did you contribute to any of the decision? The answer is No, it is not your fault at all and you did not have the influence to the decision.

Now, what you should do when this happens to your project? Below are some tips I would like to share to help you go through the unanticipated situation smoothly:

1. Re-confirm the decision to your management in an official meeting. Call for a SteerCo meeting with all decision makers attend and state clearly whether the decision to terminate the project early is confirmed and final. Document the decision in a minutes of meeting and obtain the necessary sign off.

2. Upon confirmation from your management, the next thing to do is to share with your core team (and extended team when necessary, depending on the situation). You are the one who should deliver the message, do not delegate such important task to anyone in your team. Call for a team meeting and convey the message professionally (see my other post on delivering negative message). It is essential that you are not adding any emotional flavor to your message.

3. Proceed with project closure phase. The hardest thing I found in this condition is re-negotiating the terms with your vendors. You need to carefully assess and agree with your vendor on the part of the project they have delivered and your organization's obligation for paying the completed work.

4. Document all the decisions and steps carefully. In this step, it is also important to make sure that your manager is across every progress and provide her sign-off to the documents as necessary. This is necessary to make sure that your performance is not affected as you did not contribute to the termination decision.

I hope that the above tips help. Please feel free to share your comment and feedback based on your own experience.

Edwin

Project Manager vs Product Manager

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I met some people who are confused regarding what is the different role between a product manager and project manager. Unfortunately I have been both, so I can give some brief introduction on both roles.

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As a product manager, you will be responsible for end-to-end life cycle of the product. Starting from business case, product design, proposal, seeking approvals by management (normally through product committee), obtaining regulatory approval, product development, product launching, marketing, campaign and promotion, further development, and so on until the product is matured and finally decided to be put off the market.

Although in some cases the product manager is responsible as a business project manager during product development, it is not always the case. In my organization we have a dedicated team for project management, who will take the ownership as the overall project manager. In this case, the product manager is positioned as a product owner or primary user, and in some cases as the sponsor of the project.

While as a project manager, your main responsibility is to lead the end-to-end project life cycle. In product development case, the scope of the project could be the same as product life cycle described above, or, focusing only in a fraction of the life cycle, such as product development, product campaign or product launching only. In other words, the product life cycle could be divided into more than one project, with each project has its own project manager. The person running the project manager role could be overlapping between one project to another, however, they are treated as separate projects.

It is interesting that in my experience, a good product manager is very potential into a strong project manager and vice versa. To become a good project manager, the product manager should equip herself with project management discipline. On the other hand, to becoming a good product manager, the project manager should strengthen her business acumen.

I met some colleagues who are coming from product management and end up into very strong project managers, and even a leader of project services team. On the flip side, I also know some colleagues who successfully moved from project management into star product managers once she is passionate about the business.

Edwin

Moving on

Good day...

Yesterday was my last day in the organization I have been working for in the last 4 years. I was so touched that my team has prepared a Hello and Goodbye event for me. They demonstrated a great deal of creativity, starting from the way the invited me without myself being suspicious of the surprise they were preparing, the videos, the games, the food, until the people they invited, who have contributed significantly to my career growth.

In this short posting, I would like to say that in many cases you know whether you are being loved or not only when you are leaving, or when you no longer hold a formal authority towards your team's career. It is the time when all of your good deeds and dedication is being put on test.

I would strongly recommend that you bear this in mind in your daily professional life, when you are interacting with your team, your stakeholders, your customers, and your managers. By always look ahead to the time when you are about to leave, you will have the passion and self control to always perform your best and to exercise a genuine care to your team.

For me, as I mentioned in the event, I am so thankful that I have been part of a great team that delivers so much for the organization. Being only one ordinary person given the opportunity to becoming part of such a team is the best thing I have in my career life so far. I can not be thankful enough to my team, my mentors, my managers and my leaders in the organization for all the friendship and support we have been extending to each other in the last four years.

Now as I am moving forward to a new organization, I am excitedly looking forward to the great people I am sure I will find in the new organization, new challenges I will face and the contributions I will strive my best to make to the organization.

Edwin

Being a good leader

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Honestly, I am taking the risk here to discuss this subject. I am fully aware that I am no expert in leadership. You will be able to find excellent references out there in this topic. Books authored by John C. Maxwell, Jack Welch, Steven R Covey, Stephen M R Covey, and many others are a few of the great sources on this domain. Great motivators such as Mario Teguh, Tung Desem Waringin, James Gwee and many others are also experts in this subject. I am sure that the list can go on with yourself adding more names and references.

However, in this posting I will try to give some tips on tips of being a good leader:

1. Be yourself. Do not try to imitate anyone leadership style. Although you admire the person and think of her as your role model, you need to come out from that boundary of trying to be her. You always need to create your own leadership style that is most convenient to your personality.

2. Care about your team. In my personal experience, once you show a genuine care to your team, there is nothing limiting you from doing extra mile for your team's success. Don't be afraid to go beyond their work and career. You can also care about your family, personal aspiration and anything else as long as you stay being professional in demonstrating your care for them. Active listening, attention giving, and trying to extend the support their need in your capacity are things you should never be lacking of as a leader.

3. Being flexible of staying on top of things and going down to detail. In some occassions you need to deep dive into a detailed level to understand the root cause of an issue. However, once you are comfortable enough with the detail, you must not forget to go back to the surface ensuring a helicopter view of the things happening surrounding your project or your team.

4. Continuous development. Your team will highly appreciate you as their leader when you consistently shows that you are passionate about new things and that you are keeping yourself up to date to new developments.

5. Be a good mediator between your team and your management. When you are in middle management position, you are highly expected to deliver your team's message and concern to your senior management and vice versa. A good communication and negotiation skill is key to be successful in this role.

Well, as I said in the beginning, there is a very long list of good leadership tips to which every good leader can contribute to. Therefore, I will welcome your thought and input on how to become a true leader.

Edwin

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Career path of a Project Manager

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So, you are now a project manager. You have transformed yourself from a junior project manager into a senior and seasoned one. You have delivered all kind of projects, from smaller one, large and complex project, a program, a transformation, just name it. You have received a number of awards due to successful project delivery. In short, you are anything a project manager can achieve.

Then, what's next?

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For me, becoming a project manager is a complete package to climb up the next career ladder as a true leader. Why? Because as a seasoned project manager as I described above, I am sure that you have the characteristic of a leader and you must have demonstrated both managerial and leadership skill. Then, there is no doubt you will be successful once you move up to a middle or even senior managerial level.

As for myself, I started as a product manager, project manager and started to step up into project portfolio head, project delivery head, and into a more strategic position heading the enterprise wide project services. I do believe that you will find the career path that best suits your aspiration. I have witnessed some of my project team members stepped into a managerial position. Some even move from IT to business, Finance and other strategic role. On the other hand I also witnessed a successful movement of a business person to IT to become a rising start in IT.

As long as you have the determination and confident to move further, the opportunity will come sooner or later for you to move higher up your career ladder. However, I found that you need to be ready whenever the opportunity comes. Keep up with your personal development (refer to my other posting on personal development), maintain a strong network with everyone within and beyond your organization, and consistently hold on to your values (integrity, care, accountability, etc). Then you can be sure that your name will come first whenever there is an opportunity at a higher level.

I also found that a as a project manager, in many cases you have the access to senior management, especially when you deliver a strategic or organization wide project. It comes back to you whether you are smart enough to take the opportunity to build your rapport and positive impression of everyone working with you.

Coming back to my initial question, you are now a seasoned project manager, then a wide horizon of opportunities is waiting for you to step into.

Edwin

Continuous self development

Good day...

Have you experienced the situation whereby you were once considered an expert in a knowledge domain, such as an IT expert during the emerging of PC, smartphones, or dot.com bubble? However, once a new technology emerged, your expertise quickly became obsolete and you were no longer considered as an irreplaceable resource. The same case might also applicable in other expertise area outside of technology. Your managerial concept might be no longer relevant to the current situation with the transition from generation X to generation Y and millennials in the workplace.

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The question is, how to keep your self up-to-date with the current development in technology, new methodologies, new systems, soft skills and expectations? In my experience, the following might help to keep improving yourself:

1. Read. It has been evidenced by a number of well recognized leaders around the world that reading good books has been expanding their horizons to the new developments in the industry. Now, with the availability of e-books, pods, audio books and other online sources, gaining the knowledge is much easier than ever before.

2. Socialize. Being an active member of positive communities of interest, such as project management (e.g. PMI chapter in your country), professional communities, industry communities or even informal communities helps you keep updated on the latest development in the industry.

3. Attending seminars, conferences, and summits. I found this exceptionally useful in particular in relation with the new development in digital technology. Although in most cases the public events will not give you a deep dive into the emerging technology, they serve as a insightful starting point for me to explore further. In addition, the events also provide networking opportunities with the key people in the domain you are interested in. After-event meetings and connectivity are highly recommended.

4. Training. I have a personal commitment that every year I must improve myself either through a formal training, certification, or job promotion and rotation. In addition to equipping yourself with the knowledge in the area, which had not been your expertise, joining a training also serves as a good networking opportunity. You will never know when the training will be useful to support your career progression.

5. Keep up an open mind and have a clear vision on where you are heading to in your professional career. By having a clear career path in your mind, there is a bigger opportunity for you to stay on track in term of self development and career progression.

Hope the above helps. Please feel free to share your opinion and experience in this subject.

Edwin