Following the beat of your daily players!

A great team is your essential resource to success. Most of the time, we don’t get to choose our team members however they are pre- appointed. The initial element to kick-off a project is to acknowledge your team members’ capabilities and believe that each one is a valuable resource.

Mixing together the right ingredients creates a pleasant outcome, and to do so, we need to first understand the team members’ capabilities, skills, preferences, weaknesses, and strengths and accordingly assign the specified tasks.

I’m sure each one of you has experienced in one way or another managing a project whether it was a school project or building a flyover. You may find it weird comparing these two events, yet, if you think of it carefully you would realize that both require planning, managing people and delivering taks. Thus when I first was asked at work to manage a project from A to Z, I felt stressed and was wondering how would I put together all those variables in one basket and produce a positive outcome. Nothing to hide, yes my first experience was tough and required a lot of effort and time.

 team

The most challenging part was managing a team from different backgrounds, ages and cultures. In the beginning I faced resistance from some of the team members, as I was new and the youngest yet enthusiastic and ready to accept challenges.

Let me share with you one of the incidents, I have asked one of my team members to improve the inventory process as it was out of control, he simply told me: “I’m already working with the IT to create a process on the SAP system to control the inventory” so I was like that’s great, please invite me in your upcoming meetings. Each time I was asking for an update, he kept on playing around the answers till I figured out that he is not willing to share or accept anything from me. Meanwhile, I started working with my other members to creating sort of log sheets and tracking systems to control the flow of activities. Of course he noticed the progress and his colleagues acceptance. I made sure to make him busy and continue doing what he likes while fixing other sections till the day came and he asked me for assistance in the inventory system and I immediately said: “Sure lets do it!”

So do you think that relying on others to complete tasks could be an obstacle in delivering a project?

With time I realized that trusting the team and believing in its capabilities are the two main drivers to overcome difficulties. In other words, it is challenging to manage processes while you have an incontrollable team. I had to spend a lot of time with the team to discover their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, preferences … etc. in order to delegate the right task to the right person. As we were moving through the different phases of the project life cycle, I had to initiate a lot of different tactics to motivate the team and lead them to the same vision. We agreed to have regular meetings, feedbacks, seek support from each other when needed, work as one team, reward ourselves once we accomplish any phase and so on.

“Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”~ Helen Keller

 

 

Project management, between reality and practice; and which comes first

schemat_transfer_wiedzy_ang

Would you prefer to gain knowledge before practicing or practice before gaining knowledge? What if you don’t have the choice?

Nowadays, many managers in different work environments appear to find themselves responsible for increasing number of tasks and before they realize, their initial job description often appears to be no longer valid and very far from the reality!

From personal experience, I consider project management as one of the most interesting elements that happen to creep into the job description of many managers and leaders in different organizations, where sometimes, it eventually shapes a big part of their roles. It is fascinating to see many managers excelling in project management in their organizations and successfully manage various projects delivering superb results, whilst they have received minimal structured project management training or education, if any!

In the dynamic business environment of today, project management is one of the key qualities that organizations look for when recruiting for managerial positions. Recruiters will normally also look for potential to build such capabilities as many managers develop the same by practicing and ultimately become responsible for managing various project. Has the bar been raised by the workforce or is project management becoming a ‘must have’ for managers?

It appears that project management has now become an integral part of managerial roles, however, it is indeed interesting to see how knowledge and theories related to this science are placed compared to application in real life – based on which comes first and the degree of overlap between the two elements. When managers find themselves practicing project management roles by virtue of their job, they utilize the tools of the trades at work without structured studying / training pertaining to the same. Therefore, it is very likely for them to take particular interest in the concepts when they are formally introduced as practical experience will come to aid when taking closer look and probably better place them in terms of picking the most useful tools to put in practice.

Knowledge is important and having access to the various tools of project management is crucial for successful project management, nevertheless, learning by practicing is unmatchable! Having to face the reality and learning from peers and superiors at work help managers to develop project management skills in very exciting way. Such managers are also likely to better appreciate the concepts and tools when they learn more about them as they have seen them in practice and more knowledge will better equip them to further cultivate their careers and deliver better results.

Learning before practicing sounds more academic than practical, and the way I see it, unless knowledge of project management is coupled with concurrent practical application, only modest results can be reaped. Don’t you agree?

What Successful Project Managers Do

Workers arriving late, customers changing their orders and the bankruptcy of a key vendor are examples of events that might occur almost on a daily basis. The key challenge of every successful project manager is coping with the above frequent and unexpected events.

A study employing more than 150 successful project managers from more than 20 organizations revealed that the success of a project manager today is based on combining the traditional approach, which emphasizes that the success of any project requires stability, and the agile approach, which emphasizes that the success of any project requires massive flexibility during the project’s life.

A recent research indicated that, Develop collaboration, Integrate planning and review with learning, Prevent major disruptions and Maintaining forward momentum are the main four roles that would help successful project managers cope with unexpected events.

First, developing collaboration is essential for both: the early detection of difficulties and the quick development and smooth implementation of solutions. The level of collaboration amongst team members is the primary factor that can distinguish the successful mission from the failed missions. Second, Integrate planning and review with learning. Successful project managers tend to develop detailed short-term plans and tentative long-term plans once they realise that their organisation’s commitments cannot be met. They do not limit the learning process to the learning phase only but also use it during the project review phase. Third, prevent major disruptions. Even in calm situations, project managers never stop expecting unpleasant surprises hence; they are always anticipating disruptions and retaining the flexibility to react positively and immediately since it is easier to tackle a threat before it expands. Forth, maintain forward momentum. When unexpected events hit a specific task, all other tasks that are dependent will instantly get impacted.

Another research was conducted with a group of 20 project managers that focused on “how best to cope with unexpected events”. It was observed that most of the managers retained three complementary practices: “hand-on engagement, frequent face-to-face communication and frequent moving about”.

Projects with traditional management approach are intention-driven, while projects with agile management approach are event-driven. Nowadays, successful project managers must be both intention-driven and event-driven. They should be “people-oriented” when developing collaboration, “information-oriented” when integrating planning, “action-oriented” when preventing major disruption and at last, they should adopt all the three above mentioned orientations when maintain forward momentum.

In today’s dynamic environment, unexpected events will eventually occur at anytime during the life of the project however; a successful project manager has to be flexible and work toward minimizing the frequency and negative impact of such events. The project manager needs to respond quickly and effectively as soon as the problem has been acknowledge.

The article highlighted four of the most important roles that a successful manager must practice and implement while dealing with these events. I believe that the importance of the above roles varies from one project to another depending on the nature of the project as well as the capability of its team members.

http://marketing.mitsmr.com/PDF/MITSMR-Keeping-Complex-Projects-on-Track.pdf?cid=1

Do you think IBM/Lenovo deal is a success?

IBM

IBM is focusing on Global Services business since ten years but the company is now making a lot less on its contracts, and the turnover of business is brisk. IBM’s plan to grow earnings-per-share (EPS) to $20 by 2015. The primary method for accomplishing this will be by reducing US employee head count by 78% in that time frame. In my opinion, reducing employees by more than three quarters in three years is a difficult task.

Major issues that led to IBM’s crash are:

  • IBM shifted most of its jobs offshore but the problem is the offshore teams often lack the skill and experience to do the work.
  • The latest major transformation IBM went through is connecting the company to the decision makers so they would make better business decisions faster and more effectively, this step created more layers of management and coasted the organization more money.
  • IBM’s Executive Compensation is Misaligned. IBM has aligned executive compensation to its earnings per share targets, and if the executives achieve their targets, again by applying the offshore model (moving labor from the USA to lower cost countries), this will kill the ability of the company to innovate.

Has IBM put a robust risk plans for the above issues?

Now industries and businesses change all the time to better adapt to new opportunities and compete with the market. I believe IBM got confused, when they started getting bigger, they kept replicating their initial success with the great process people they have to a certain extent that they forgot about their content .. or precisely, the deliverables, whether a product or service!

Lenovo has proven history of successful mergers and acquisitions; # 1 in PCs, #3 in Smartphone, and soon to be #3 in x86 server business (through the acquisition with IBM).

Now Lenovo is acquiring a complete x86 portfolio: All IBM x86 Product Lines, Skilled x86 Sales force and support capabilities, and R&D labs & manufacturing resources. Lenovo is buying IBM’s x86 server business intact and is committed to flowing IBM x86 product roadmap

The $2.1 billion acquisition of IBM’s x86 server line gives Lenovo immediate standing as the world’s third-largest vendor in this market after Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

Acquisitions can generate cost efficiency through economies of scale, can enhance the revenue through gain in market share and can even generate tax gains.

I think the added value for IBM is that, by partnering with Lenovo, it gains better access to the market for services in China. In addition, stronger relations with the Chinese government can only boost IBM’s standing.

I see the deal for Lenovo is a success as globalization will improve the company’s economies of scale and allow them to compete both in China and abroad but they might be at risk in different areas: whether the new Lenovo will be accepted by IBM’s clients and the PC market, whether IBM employees will still be proud [employees of the new company], whether the two corporate cultures can be successfully consolidated and whether they will manage highly complicated logistics and supply chains!

Do you think that this deal is a good indicator that shows how resilient IBM is?

Do you think that this is a good move to both IBM and Lenovo?

References:

http://www.netnetweb.com/blog/top-10-reasons-why-ginni-rometty-will-fail-ibm%E2%80%99s-new-ceo

http://betanews.com/2012/04/27/the-downfall-of-ibm/

Image:

https://www.google.com.sa/search?biw=1280&bih=605&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ibm+lenovo&oq=IBM%2FLenov&gs_l=img.3.0.0i30l10.1858133.1865485.0.1867475.19.12.7.0.0.0.385.3115.0j1j7j3.11.0.msedr…0…1c.1.64.img..9.10.2321.UmQHTfAiMpw#imgrc=_

Facilitative PM and Agile PM

As a project manager, you are more effective if you roleplay in a placid and gentle path rather than a dictation or control manager. Facilitate Project managers are who learn skills to get teams and stakeholders or collaborator together to get consensus and buy-in. Tasks are more successful as a termination.

Facilitation makes it possible for a group to operate more effectively. At the time of meetings, the facilitator made sure everyone accepts an opportunity to be heard, helps the group to avoid unnecessary fights and to oversee the struggles that do come up. The role of facilitator PM includes:

Help Project managers focus on the right process

Identify requirements of the customer

Demonstrate clear and achievable objectives for the task

Balance competing demands for quality, scope, time and cost of taking the appropriate parties.

PM facilitates by enabling healthy planning, communications effective conflict management and decision-making. The PM ensures that the proper methods, policies, tools and processes are installed and being utilized. The PM protects the group from outside disturbances. Facilitative PM needs to ascertain out the right balance between the exercise of sanction and the usage of collaborative method. Directing the team members in a right way and clear thinking leads to better decisions which further leads to better performance.

The PM facilitates collaborative decision-making so that souls are subject to analytical assessment of options, admitting their own. He or she promotes willingness to be ruthlessly objective, cutting through unfounded beliefs and egoistic stances. The facilitative PM moderates make sure people are sensitive to the demands of others, especially when criticizing their ideas or execution.

The facilitative PM promotes clear clear thinking because clear thinking leads to more effective decision-making. He or she questions and promotes others do the like. Distinguishing between needs and wants and identifying objectives make decision making quicker and outcomes more effectively.

Thus, Facilitative Project managers get more dependable consequences that have the buy-in of all stakeholders enabling the greatest probability of success.

Without management, project teams may follow the wrong project, may not include the correct mix of personalities or skills may be impeded by organizational dysfunctionality, or may not deliver as much value as potential. Agile project management is a value-driven approach that allows Project Managers to deliver high-priority, high-quality work. It is about embracing change, even late in the growth phase. It is about presenting the features with the greatest business value first and having the real -time information to tightly manage costs, time and scope. It divides responsibility more than one team  member. The team itself assumes agile project management purposes when determining how to best reach the product ends. Team members will collaboratively decide which person should figure out on which tasks, which technical practices are necessary to accomplish stated goals. Task management is critical success of most tasks, even projects following agile process.

 

What do you think is the best Facilitative PM or Agile PM to be carried out?

Sources:

http://mgrconsulting.com/index.php/reference-materials-mainmenu-34/articles-and-presentations-mainmenu-41/92-qthe-facilitative-project-managerq-

http://www.pmi.org/learning/the-facilitative-project-manager-6970

http://www.versionone.com/agile-project-management/

 

The IBM/Lenovo Deal .. Is a success!

IBM

IBM is focusing on Global Services business since ten years but the company is now making a lot less on its contracts, and the turnover of business is brisk. IBM’s plan to grow earnings-per-share (EPS) to $20 by 2015. The primary method for accomplishing this will be by reducing US employee head count by 78% in that time frame. In my opinion, reducing employees by more than three quarters in three years is a difficult task.

Major issues that led to IBM’s crash are:

  • IBM shifted most of its jobs offshore but the problem is the offshore teams often lack the skill and experience to do the work.
  • The latest major transformation IBM went through is connecting the company to the decision makers so they would make better business decisions faster and more effectively, this step created more layers of management and coasted the organization more money.
  • IBM’s Executive Compensation is Misaligned. IBM has aligned executive compensation to its earnings per share targets, and if the executives achieve their targets, again by applying the offshore model (moving labor from the USA to lower cost countries), this will kill the ability of the company to innovate.

Has IBM put a robust risk plans for the above issues?

Now industries and businesses change all the time to better adapt to new opportunities and compete with the market. I believe IBM got confused, when they started getting bigger, they kept replicating their initial success with the great process people they have to a certain extent that they forgot about their content .. or precisely, the deliverables, whether a product or service!

Lenovo has proven history of successful mergers and acquisitions; #1 in PCs, #3 in Smartphone, and soon to be #3 in x86 server business (through the acquisition with IBM).

Now Lenovo is acquiring a complete x86 portfolio: All IBM x86 Product Lines, Skilled x86 Sales force and support capabilities, and R&D labs & manufacturing resources. Lenovo is buying IBM’s x86 server business intact and is committed to flowing IBM x86 product roadmap

 

The $2.1 billion acquisition of IBM’s x86 server line gives Lenovo immediate standing as the world’s third-largest vendor in this market after Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

Acquisitions can generate cost efficiency through economies of scale, can enhance the revenue through gain in market share and can even generate tax gains.

I think the added value for IBM is that, by partnering with Lenovo, it gains better access to the market for services in China. In addition, stronger relations with the Chinese government can only boost IBM’s standing.

I see the deal for Lenovo is a success as globalization will improve the company’s economies of scale and allow them to compete both in China and abroad but they might be at risk in different areas: whether the new Lenovo will be accepted by IBM’s clients and the PC market, whether IBM employees will still be proud [employees of the new company], whether the two corporate cultures can be successfully consolidated and whether they will manage highly complicated logistics and supply chains!

Do you think that this deal is a good indicator that shows how resilient IBM is?

Do you think that this is a good move to both IBM and Lenovo?

References:

http://www.netnetweb.com/blog/top-10-reasons-why-ginni-rometty-will-fail-ibm%E2%80%99s-new-ceo

http://betanews.com/2012/04/27/the-downfall-of-ibm/

Image:
https://www.google.com.sa/search?biw=1280&bih=605&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=ibm+lenovo&oq=IBM%2FLenov&gs_l=img.3.0.0i30l10.1858133.1865485.0.1867475.19.12.7.0.0.0.385.3115.0j1j7j3.11.0.msedr…0…1c.1.64.img..9.10.2321.UmQHTfAiMpw#imgrc=_

Risk Management (Aviation Project “Aircraft Lease Return”)

 

heavy maint

People tend to think about risk management as the use of statistical data and probability; well not always! Risk management is a process that we use in every day of our lives  and sometimes without even knowing. For example, before we go to bed, we adjust our alarm to ring at 6:00 a.m. Now, the question, why we did not set it to ring at 7:00 a.m.? The obvious answer is that we will be late for school or work!  The word ‘”risk” may be defined as the likelihood a loss will occur. Risk management is the preventive measures that we take against such  losses.

In the aviation industry, an Aircraft Lease Return Project involves very high risks. The project is about the redelivery of an aircraft back to the lessor (owner) in accordance with the terms and conditions specified in the lease contract. In order to succeed, the risk management plan must be well defined in term of its objective and importance. The preparation of a risk management process is usually started at least six months before the kick start of a project. The reasons are:  these projects may involve substantial an aircraft maintenance check; sending the aircraft engines and some other aircraft components to the overhaul facility; additional aircraft spares may require to be purchased. Such spares may have long lead time. To prepare a risk management plan for the project, first we need to start with reviewing the lease contract to identify the significant risks. For example, what are the consequences if we don’t meet the return conditions on the redelivery date? Or what are the penalties on late redelivery of aircraft? Next is to do the risk assessment by making different scenarios. For example, what if the engines get delayed in the overhaul facility? This could impact the entire timeline of the project severely. After identifying and assessing all risks, the risk responses have to come into the picture. Do we mitigate, transfer, avoid, or retain? Aircraft lease return can have lots of surprises, such as failure of components before the redelivery date, project scope change, change of the project team members or even the project manager, etc. Therefore, a contingency plan should be ready to execute at anytime.

Risk control plays an important part in the project plan. Risk control is a method by which project team members evaluate potential losses and take action to reduce or eliminate such threats. Risk control is a significant action taken by project team members that is intended to identify proactively, manage, and reduce or eliminate risk. All projects should have a well-prepared risk management plan. An aircraft lease return project can be very costly and stressful if the risks are not identified and assessed at the early stage.

Engine Overhaul

If you are assigned to be the project manager of an aircraft leased return project, what could be your action if the aircraft engines are not arriving on time from the overhaul facility as planned?

Qatar to deliver first underground metro in the GCC by 2019?

With the many multimillion dollar projects Qatar is handling, the underground metro line is said to be top priority. Metro lines exist in the GCC, specifically in Dubai, however an underground metro line is something completely new to the region. The Metro Line is said to reduce carbon emissions by 258,000 tonnes per year. It is also said to provide jobs for many and create sustainability and stability for Qatar’s growing economy. This project is also a great way of resolving traffic jams and road blocks. With the FIFA World Cup in 2022, the rail way system will resolve Qatar’s concerns of road congestion for the substantial event. Nevertheless any delay in this project will cause greater concerns for the 2022 World Cup, as the railways will be a primary source of transportation for the event and will heavily reduce traffic.

AI-Metro-Train-03

This multi-billion-project has so many aspects to consider in order for it to be completed successfully, the major concern would be time in this case.

As we know the railway industry has come a long way from the days of using manual labor for creating underground tunnels, and accordingly Qatar has managed to sign a deal with German Tunnel Boring Machine Herrenknecht, for the supply of 21 drilling machines that will manage to drill the underground passages of the metro line in two years time. The metro will consist of four main lines most of which will cover the greater Doha area and estimated daily excavation quantity is said to be 600 m³ with a total estimated excavation quantity of 5,000,000 m³, that’s a lot of drilling that needs to be done in two years! A great deal of monitoring and coordination is required to meet that two year deadline. Funding for the project may not be the greatest issue, however other issues need greater attention, such as machine maintenance, meeting daily targets, safety hazards, weather conditions, road blocks and so much more. Also, with the recent oil crisis in the middle east region, we may see a delay in current projects, however these things will be put into better perspective as we go further into 2015.

1476847425-1

Railway projects are very costly and time consuming, some of the most famous underground projects, like the London Underground, took almost 40 years to complete, but with the major technological innovations in the industry, and the use of drilling machines, underground railway construction has become faster and more efficient. Qatar’s delivery date for the project is four years from now, which begs the question is this enough time to deliver a major project such as this one?

Also, with the FIFA World Cup 2022 around the corner from 2019, if any delays were to occur how badly would they effect the upcoming event? Could this risk be averted in time for it?

Sources:

http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-33178-doha-underground-metro-tunnelling-begins/

http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/news/qatar/332279/metro-to-save-2m-km-car-travel-per-day

http://www.emirates247.com/business/economy-finance/qatar-begins-drilling-below-capital-for-underground-metro-2015-04-02-1.586228

 

 

The Importance of Project Planning

Project planning is one of the most important activities in the project cycle, if not the most important. Many underestimate the importance of this stage and the return it will yield if done appropriately.

This stage contains a roadmap which guides the project team to the right direction and prevents missing important points on the way to completion. It starts with a brain storming of the activities required to accomplish and complete the project, which then could be easily and logically grouped and put in order. The set of activities listed and grouped could be further classified into tiers depending on the depth of the activities and required information about each activates. The aim is to get clear and well-defined stages and milestones, which will allow the project team to define progress and have tangible deliverables moving forward.

Part of the planning stage as well, is to define the stakeholders and interfaces throughout the project. This activity is very important as it lays out who is going to be effected as a result of the project and what should stakeholders and interfaces know beforehand. Not going through this activity will lead to future obstacles and potential delays if not a big shift in the project’s direction and end results.

A simple example showing the benefits and importance of the planning activities is one of the first projects I have worked on. The project was to structure a live performance dashboard for several projects, which also functions as a portal to navigate through detailed information about each project. The reason I choose this project is because it made me realize how important planning is.

The planning stage started with brainstorming the activities required to accomplish the intended results. After that, they were put in a logical order and milestones were extracted to form a project plan. I was satisfied with the plan until I met with the IT department which had a different route to accomplish the project.   This is when I come to realize that the IT department should have been involved in the project planning from the beginning and taken into consideration while putting the list in order since they will be the ones responsible for implementing the dashboard. The project plan and scope of work were agreed on with the IT department and we went forward. A milestone of presenting the dashboard to senior management was reached, and unfortunately shifted the direction of the project. The proposal was not introduced to the management team before implementation as a result of not being considered in the project plan in the first stages.

This experience shows how important planning stage is in the project cycle. For me now, it is the basis of any project, and therefore it should be well thought of and invested in. more time planning will save a lot of time in implementation and give a clear direction.