Boosting Business Performance

by Adele Sommers, Ph.D.

www.LearnShareProsper.com

Adele@LearnShareProsper.com

October 19, 2006
Volume 2, Issue 21

"How-to" tips and advice on increasing business prosperity, published every other Thursday.

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Greetings!

- Feature Article: Vital Success Measures: Keys to Rescuing Ailing Projects

- Note from the Author: Aiming the Spotlight on PMI

- Special Message: You Have Some Great Insights!

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Aiming the Spotlight on PMI

Shining a spotlight I am devoting today's edition to the Project Management Institute (PMI), an international organization to which I belong. PMI represents project management professionals from every major industry in over 125 countries around the world. For more information, please see pmi.org.

Two PMI colleagues contributed to this newsletter, and I'm very pleased to shine the spotlight on their wisdom:

Tauria Linala, Systems Administrator for the County of San Luis Obispo, California, shares her experiences with using personas.

The co-author of today's feature article is Sharon Anderson, PMP, County of San Luis Obispo Information Technology Manager, and PMI Los Padres Chapter Assistant Director for San Luis Obispo (www.pmi-lospadres.org).

I hope you enjoy today's edition, including the article "Vital Success Measures: Keys to Rescuing Ailing Projects." Please keep sending your insightful comments!

Here's to your business prosperity,

Adele Sommers, author of the "Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance" success program

P.S. If you missed any previous issue, visit the newsletter index!

You Have Some Great Insights -- on Personas!

A persona staring into the mirror This last week, I had the privilege of speaking to my local PMI region on the subject of personas and related topics from my October 5th newsletter.

There, my colleague Tauria Linala, Systems Administrator for our local County government, explained how she has worked with personas on various projects:

"Recently I worked with a psychology graduate student developing a nonprofit outreach project. We profiled her using Adele's template. We discovered the student's strengths as well as areas of skill that could use further training or assistance. In essence, the student herself became a persona for that project.

"Creating fictional customer personas was also extremely important recently in creating a marketing plan and Web site. After we studied personas who were not thought of as sophisticated computer users, we decided to turn the Web site's menus 'upside down' to produce a more user-friendly site. We made the broad service categories accessible at first glance, with more generalized information and details further down. We thought that if visitors can 'see themselves' when they reach the site, they will look for more details; otherwise, they might miss finding the available services and leave because they think we are ignoring their particular needs.

"On smaller projects I've worked on, I've created persona profiles using the actual names and identities of real people who would be using the software. In other cases, well thought-out, fictitious personas provided more opportunities for brainstorming 'what-if' scenarios for unknown user types. On public-facing projects, I consider it a necessity to spend some time thinking and writing about the people who will use -- or won't use -- the tools we provide.

"It's fun and hard work blending marketing, demographics, psychographics, politics, and technical aspects in projects. From experience, I believe personas add value to information products and services."

Thanks, Tauria! You truly have some great insights!

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Tools You Can Use

To accompany the sample persona profile I provided in the last newsletter, I've added a blank Word template that you can download and use to create your own profiles. See http://learnshareprosper.com/tools/persona_profile_template.doc.

If interested in a live persona workshop, see "The Persona Lifecycle: Creating and Communicating User Personas," which occurs on October 23, 2006 in Seattle.

Vital Success Measures: Keys to Rescuing Ailing Projects
by Sharon Anderson and Adele Sommers

When we examine what makes projects succeed or fail, we're actually looking at a variety of vital success measures that can keep our projects healthy -- or offer a powerful remedy if they start to break down.

As a form of prevention, using these measures from the very beginning will make our projects considerably more successful. They'll avert many potential snags stemming from mixed communication signals, ignored problems, and unrealistic expectations that can lead to project downfall.

Let's explore some of the reasons why projects derail and how to use four vital success measures to revive them.

What Are Some Characteristics of Projects That Fail?

Projects that fall short of achieving their ultimate objectives often exhibit one or more of the following traits:

The projects don't deliver what is expected or required in a usable form. The project scope may not be well defined, or it might not take into account the real needs of the end users or customers. In the latter situation, the project delivers a result that doesn't help the customers accomplish their primary goals in a satisfying way.

The projects lack change management processes.

The projects lack project sponsorship or fail to get buy-in from the right stakeholders.

The projects may not have the right resources or budget available due to other higher priority initiatives.

The projects don't report or escalate critical problems in a timely manner, which chews up resources, budget, and schedule without a chance of re-planning effectively.

The projects fail to plan for risks and develop contingency plans. For example, they could experience a mass exodus of key team members, where no one is left to finish the work.

How Do You Recognize a Project That Has Gotten into Trouble?

Spotting and fixing problems early can help team members, clients, stakeholders, and sponsors avoid project failure. Red flags to watch for from the outset include situations in which:

Schedule delays and missed commitments are rampant.

The project is over budget with no end in sight.

Low morale and a lack of teamwork plague the project members.

Many changes and uncontrolled scope creep are occurring.

No clear direction exists for where the project is headed or when it will get there.

Major issues (showstoppers) have not been identified or diagnosed.

How Do You Rescue a Troubled Project?

Four vital success measures appear below that can prevent problems from occurring, and if needed, realign a project that has gotten off track. Those measures are: 1) investigating the current situation, 2) assessing and re-planning the project, 3) resetting everyone’s expectations, and 4) aiming to deliver per the new plan. Under each measure are specific actions you can take to significantly improve the project's outcome.

Measure #1. Investigate where the project stands and where it is headed.

Specific actions that can apply to any project (whether or not it’s in trouble) include maintaining an open and active communication style and continually taking the project’s "temperature," as follows:

Reviewing project documentation, such as a project plan and open issues list.

Conducting interviews with sponsors, team, stakeholders, vendors, and so forth.

Identifying project expectations from the interviews -- are all viewpoints aligned?

Identifying show-stopping problems from the issues list and the interviews.

Measure #2. Assess and re-plan the project if it has gotten off track.

Specific actions can include thoroughly evaluating the project’s situation and, if needed, charting a new course. You can begin realigning a troubled project by:

Confirming who the project sponsors and stakeholders are.

Verifying and validating the project objectives.

Clarifying the project's priorities and risks. Determine where this project falls with respect to the organization's other priorities. If it's low, realistically consider whether the project should be canceled, postponed, or scaled down.

Verifying the mechanisms for escalating questions, concerns, and problems.

Determining whether you have the right resources available -- both people and funding sources.

Clarifying everyone's roles and responsibilities.

Assessing whether you have the right documentation:

Is the project plan up to date?
Are critical issues identified with action items assigned?

Determining whether your project meetings involve the right attendees.

Identifying new or re-planning the existing milestones.

Measure #3. Reset everyone's expectations.

Specific actions will involve communicating the need for changes to, and getting agreement from, all key parties, such as by:

Presenting the facts candidly to the sponsor, stakeholders, and team members.

Obtaining buy-in from everyone on how to move forward. If the project features or deliverables need to be scaled down, or if the budget and schedule need to be revised, negotiate these changes with the sponsor and stakeholders.

Aligning your team and removing obstacles wherever possible.

Measure #4. After resetting project goals and expectations, aim to deliver!

Specific actions include accomplishing all re-planned project goals and objectives by:

Doing what you say you're going to do!

Keeping the project schedules and issues logs current, and discussing them with your team regularly.

Listening to your team! Don't shoot the messengers who raise red flags.

Escalating major issues when you need to, whether to a steering committee, management, or other stakeholders.

Continuing to set and reset expectations as needed. Don't ignore warning signs.

Continuing to manage changes and risks.

Maintaining a positive but realistic attitude about achieving the project goals.

Recognizing team members and celebrating success, and learning from mistakes.

Continuing to communicate, communicate, communicate!

In conclusion, vital success measures help reveal why a troubled project has gotten off track and how to reframe its success. By 1) continuing to investigate where the project stands, 2) assessing and re-planning the project as needed, 3) resetting everyone’s expectations, and 4) aiming to deliver, you can resuscitate an ailing project and deliver the desired results.

The Project Management Institute

"Straight Talk" Special Report
"Straight Talk" Workbook

Adele Sommers, Ph.D. is the author of "Straight Talk on Boosting Business Performance" -- an award-winning Special Report and Workbook program.

If you liked today's issue, you'll love this down-to-earth overview of how 12 potent business-boosting strategies can reenergize the morale and productivity of your enterprise, tame unruly projects, and attract loyal, satisfied customers. It's accompanied by a step-by-step workbook designed to help you easily create your own success action plan. Browse the table of contents and reader reviews on the description page.

Adele also offers no-cost articles and resources to help small businesses and large organizations accelerate productivity and increase profitability. Learn more at LearnShareProsper.com.

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