Deepa Kalangi's Blog, page 4

So, what happens before a Project Charter

So, what happens before the Project Charter is created and a PM is assigned?

PMI- PMBOK(Project Management Institute- Project Management Body Of Knowledge) has five knowledge areas discussed. Starts with Initiation Phase and that is when the project charter gets signed and a project manager is assigned.

Have you ever wondered what process or processes will bring you there or what happens before we even start Initiation phase? One thing we all know is that the business case is written and obviously, there is a business requestor for it. What artifacts are produced? How is the project approved?

In this article, you will learn the steps that occur prior to initiation phase or pre- initiation phase and who all are involved in getting the project approved along with the funding.

 

The business requester brings the requirement to the leadership within the business. It takes a form of a business case document.
The business case document is reviewed with cross functional teams a.k.a Business and IT leadership and the discussions will produce something called a business benefits document.
The business benefits are measured by quarter in cost savings and also the value is measured(for example- makes the service great, improves customer satisfaction etc)
Both the business case and benefits are submitted to the sponsors for approval.
Once the approval happens, the project is requested depending on who is doing it(for example, IT development, IT infrastructure etc) for funding from that business unit.
Once the project is approved, it is entered into any tools(example: Clarity) to track and measure progress on schedule, funding, quality etc.
A Project Manager is assigned.
The PM then starts stakeholder engagement process, prepare a project charter and gets the project started which is when the project is Initiated and enters into Initiation phase.

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Top factors to focus in a Merger and Acquisition.

Firstly, what is a Merger and Acquisition? As the name itself implies, when two different organizations merge the processes, tools, technologies as a result of one company buying the other, you get into an Merger and Acquisition situation(M&A)

An M&A itself implies complexity, challenges both culturally and technically. Merger and Acquisition raises many questions, anxiety among people. On the top of it; the employees are expected to complete certain tasks in the most stressful way. The leadership/management if they keep the following in mind, the programs can definitely run in a much smoother and efficient way.

Don’t neglect planning phase

This is a common pitfall among most Merger and Acquisitions. Leadership is so eager to complete the migrations so they are able to start the product/features in the marketplace as quickly possible and create business benefits. So to speed up the migration of the projects and integrate both companies as quickly as possible, they neglect the planning phase in a way that they almost eliminate planning phase.

A fixed schedule does not always mean a greater ROI.

Having a fixed schedule has become a common trend among companies to think that it will give a measure of greater return on investment. Now, in the current world, it is true that time is equal to money. However, if you are investing more time to patch up what you broke or missed during your project migration, you end up spending more than average compared to following a traditional project management process. For example, you estimate 9 months on a program to migrate with exempting certain phases or tasks vs 12 months on using a traditional project management process and you end up spending 5 more months fixing the broken pieces or finishing up the pending tasks, then, you are essentially 2 months behind schedule. So, leadership needs to watch out what they are spending without planning vs what they are with proper planning.

Ensure the company culture is preserved

These days, attrition has become very high in almost all organizations and that does not seem to bother the leadership like it used to. It is not important anymore because replacements have become very easy and quick, ramping up a new resource has also become easy. Yet again, what goes under the rug is the culture loss; a resource loss is just not a one person loss, it is a brand name loss, a culture loss and a stain on the company’s future. Especially in the case of a merger, it is all the more important to preserve and also meticulously manage cultures of both organizations until the transition is complete.

Cutting corners is not an efficient way.

Cutting corners really meant trying to pass through humps temporarily, basically adopting short term quick fix and then moving along. Skipping tasks, fast tracking tasks, overloading resources, compromising quality, all of these happen very easily and quickly on such poorly planned fixed schedule driven merger and acquisition projects. So, avoid as much possible to cut certain important tasks, again, you will end up using more time and money on fixing the mess you just created by employing short cuts. Because they are not going to last long. The operations and business will be unhappy in the long run because you will end up with more support defects than ever before.

Hope, the leadership will exercise care to avoid the top four mistakes outlined in this article. While there are other easy to make mistakes in such a situation, these four do sum it up and also what can be done to avoid those pitfalls.

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Why stringent process is an overkill?

Why stringent process is an overkill?

 

We all know working in the IT area, what a process means. And of course we are constantly looking for ways to improve current processes and contribute to making new ones so the work is more efficient. Process is great, there is no doubt about it. Without a process in place, everyone is clueless and the projects become chaos in no time. But what about a stringent/strict process?

First of all, a stringent process is harsh/rigid. Any such process also is bad because it also brings chaos and adds lot of extra work that is otherwise non-beneficial.

Let us take a closer look. For example, you define a process by having the best experts on the area and also making improvements as you adopt year after year and you do it because you are confident that whatever process you are making for that company works for the best and also brings you good and great results. What if there was a flaw in the basic flow itself that your best experts panel overlooked or did not think of? Now, since you have made it a stringent process, and you cannot change the baseline/basic process, you add layers over it to cover it up or in other words, get through it. This is evidently lot of extra work.

In an effort to get past the flaws, you are bothering senior management or other stakeholders in a different way so your task delivery is making progress. During this process you will also encounter higher visibility, large number of questions to be answered to different people of all levels, put additional documentation to prove that your argument is right etc.

What really is the goal of having a process? Timely delivery of the work/project/tasks. Right? If that very process is acting as a hindrance to the delivery of the project, then why bother? Remember, a good, flexible, meaningful process should not and will not come in the way of the delivery of the project. Only a stringent process will. At one point and in some cases it becomes almost useless and rather adds more re-work.

So, next time when a panel of experts are devising a process, keep in mind that the process is vital to an organization and adds tremendous value only if it is meaningful, adaptable to all situations and eliminates re-work.

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Culture Crush- Is the work culture tuning people to become machines?

Culture Crush- Is the work culture tuning people to become machines?

 

A lot has changed in a decade’s time. With the ever growing technology; Information Technology(IT) sector has grown exponentially. IT became global with workforce everywhere and the supply is available whenever there is a demand. Companies are reaping benefits, constantly looking at their ROI’s(Return On Investment) and KPI’s(Key Performance Index). Measuring success, measuring numbers, measuring rankings. Each of those fortune companies while making a fortune are competing with each other. Replicating things that they can do to bring a bigger ROI and obtain a better ranking. And the Time To Market(TTM) sat on the top of the world. While it is a great parameter and a goal to keep, for any company to decrease the TTM value, they should hire more resources, so the work is done in a shorter period of time. Again, if you are looking at greater ROI and lesser TTM, something should be lost. What is lost in this process? The very essence of this human existence and the value of its very own brain that actually invented the technology.

In today’s world, the employees are pretty much forced to do things in a fast mode. It is a speed mania, which counts every minute of the time you spent so you are able to produce the maximum output and hence the executives are able to measure the benefits/cost savings. The core of the human values are lost. Treating your employee with respect and trust.

You are questioned every day of your capacity and bandwidth(in other words micromanagement- which has always proven to be failing) or you are asked to question the capacity of your team by your boss. Always the push mechanisms are exercised. The Senior management or C-level executives stopped seeking inputs, rather they brute forced stuff assuming things or caring for none. And this has become a culture to the point that we forgot what the original culture was and has to be !! Hence we welcomed a word called ‘stress’ and soaked into a stressful world which shut down your senses and gave you a slew of other set of problems.

So, what can you do as your share if you are in management that are also constantly(maybe) swirling in this cycle of machine mechanisms calculating just the ROI and looking at your KPI’s.

Pause and think, what as a manager you can do to gain trust and develop relationship with your direct reports and also to your boss. Make a relationship, a good one with everyone. That will in disguise bring both the cultural values and also the ROI. Because the core values are touched upon and he/she will gain a sense of responsibility because of the trust you keep in them. It is self management that eliminates stress and brings the best in them and in you. Next time, when your boss tells you to question your stakeholders/direct report’s capacity and tries to put pressure(either verbally or through emotionally), refuse to do so. Trust yourself and your reports and ensure they are able to balance their work. This will automatically bring the best results to your project/work and also best results to the company.

At the end of the day, everywhere and anywhere, what we think is what we do and it is contagious. If you start thinking right, and doing right, your team will do the same and will spread prolifically. So, head in the direction of building trust and relationships with your team and enjoy the success and benefits it brings and show an example.

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Project management in a Merger and Acquisition(M&A)

Project management in a Merger and Acquisition(M&A)

Merger and Acquisition projects are the ones when the one company is bought by the other and you are transferring either data/processes/both to the buyer. As the name implies and sounds you are merging a lot of things between the two companies. The employees from the old company are also getting merged including the culture, the factors which are above and beyond the challenges of the actual activities.

Project management in such a situation needs heavy planning, much more than the regular traditional projects because the projects are heavily complex and chaotic.  A thorough robust planning and a tight monitoring is required throughout the lifecycle of the project

The projects in M&A situation are very easily prone to go wrong.

Why do the projects go wrong easily?

Known risks are not taken serious and unknowns risks add up quickly.

Anything such complex of a program or project comes with a lot of complexities and risks. The type of the project with an M&A has its own known risks, for example, the processes are different, the technologies are different, roles are different, expectations are different. Furthermore there are accountability issues, technical risks such as environments, configurations etc.

Unknown risks are called unknown as they are of course unknown and will be handled as an issue when an issue arises. The number of these unknown risks builds up quickly compared to other projects, either internal or external traditional projects. The contingency should be established, so the project is prepared to get back on track when the issues arise.

Cultural deviations are not accounted for.

Often times, the culture is ignored to be accounted for, either as a risk or a watch list item. But this plays a very significant role and adds to the complexity of the project. Because of the culture that the team is used to in the previous company, they operate differently and hence puts the pressure on the deliverables right from the beginning. So, need to pay close attention to this factor as well as others.

Under-estimation and late realization.

The standard PM processes and allocations do NOT always work for this kind of a program. There has to be a separately designed process for estimation of work. Basically, there is no one size fits all solution. Need to jot down all risks, prioritize, estimate properly by evaluating all the dependencies in terms of environments, technology, process changes, scope, business expectations, data transfer, networks etc.

What can a project manager and leadership do?

The leadership has to first understand the complexity, do a deep dive right from initiation phase. Making sure the scope is defined well, all the design aspects are covered, issues addressed and allocations are done right. Also important is assigning the project manager on time. If the project is moving along and the project managers are added later during execution by not understanding the bandwidth properly, then it puts lot of stress on both the timelines and the quality of the overall program. And once the project managers are on board, it is vital for the right knowledge transfer to be done so they are updated on the current status of the program and are able to jump in to make right decisions as quickly as possible.

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