Category Archives: General

General, Project Management

Respect…instead of blame culture

3 Comments

I read this week’s QSWeek magazine. Sadly you have to register (it’s free) to view content, and even to contact them…but that’s another story.

You might find the fact that I read such a publication a little odd, especially considering that I’m “in software”. I believe that it is important to keep up with what’s happening elsewhere in my employer’s business, hence I read many of the magazines that appear in the office!

Anyway, our Business Relations Director was interviewed and came out with a few useful gems worthy of note here:

We have to all work together to make projects succeed.

Projects don’t manage themselves, nor do they succeed if there’s only one person doing all the work…it does take team work, it does mean we all have to work together.

A lot of other things can be added to quantity surveying to make a wider offering to the client and I don’t think that will stop.

As many of you know, I have written “value add” applications for my employer, generally these applications augment the existing quantity survey, cost management or project management function that the primary business is providing. I’m sure that software falls into these “other things”, and I’m glad to read that it has a future.

Lastly, the If I ruled the world box-out really caught my attention:

IF I COULD change anything it would be to bring back respect for people and property. We have lost the ability to respect other people and get on with each other. I’m not going to say ‘bring peace to the world’ – that’s crackers – but if people went back to respecting each other instead of this continual blame culture, I think the world would be a much happier place.

I think that last bit strikes true, as I noted here and here, a blame culture isn’t a good thing: it doesn’t do your project or your organisation any favours.

PM#, Project Management

PM#10 – The truth is best…admit it…

5 Comments

Project managers aren’t interested in listening to or reading about all the excuses that you might use to explain why something hasn’t been done. Nor are they interested in watching you try and get off the hook by listening to or reading about who you believe is to blame for your failure to do something.

If you haven’t done something that the project requires of you, or if you have made a mistake, the best thing you can do is admit it. The truth is best. Don’t send e-mails citing reasons why something hasn’t been done. Don’t write e-mails professing your apparent innocence and attributing blame on somebody else – if you haven’t done something, or if you can’t do it, tell somebody, tell the project manager. Feeble excuses don’t bring projects in on time or on budget, honesty is the only helpful option.

We’d rather know that something hasn’t been done, or that you can’t do it, as early as is possible – it gives us the chance to consider our options and still stand a chance of bringing the project in on schedule and close to budget. If you provide us with a barrage of e-mails with content similar to the above (blame-mail), the project is likely to incur schedule and budget hits (time is money).

If you admit the failure honestly, early and without blame-mail, you will be respected for your decision. It helps you, it helps the project manager, it helps the project, it helps the business.

The truth is best…admit it…admit it early.

Opinion

Early attribution of blame…

1 Comment

It’s amazing how quickly the Americans want to blame “somebody” for the terrible devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Blame – is it a cultural thing? Is it the American way?

Whatever it is, early attribution of blame seems to the order of the day, as reported in today’s Guardian: Bush team tries to pin blame on local officials. I don’t think anybody could have predicted the scale of the devastation, so why bother trying to blame somebody now? Just get on with solving the problem, that’s the real order of the day.

However, there is the other side of the coin, and it manifests itself in a plea to postpone attribution of blame. Good call, I’d even go a step further and postpone it until after the rebirth of New Orleans and the other affected townships.

Early attribution of blame isn’t going to help anybody. Instead of pinning blame on somebody, greater focus should be made to solve the problems of the moment: rebuilding the land-based infrastructure, creation of jobs, restoration of law and order and an examination of the damage done to the offshore facilities that provide America with much of its oil. It’s basic project management, solve the problem before going into post-mortem mode (even then, is it really worth it for all projects?)

On another related note, I read with interest a letter in today’s Guardian:

Donald Rumsfeld declared the looting in Iraq following “liberation” to be the consequence of “the pent-up feelings that result from decades of oppression”. We await his wisdom on New Orleans.
Chris Mazeika, London

My interest stems from wondering just how Mr Rumsfeld might answer were he asked to comment on this letter that quotes him to the letter.

Whilst it’s not the best news to read, I’m glad to see that blogs are rapidly playing their part in news provision: Hurricane Katrina – blogs and links

General, Project Management

What’s your most optimal process?

2 Comments

If I had a business, I would choose to have some of my “overhead” processes optimised such that they cost me the least amount of hassle, downtime and thus money. I would do this because processes that are an overhead to a business can really eat into folks motivation, especially if the amount of red-tape they have to handle gets too much. One such process that I would optimise is the “admin” process. Nobody likes excessive admin, yet in business we find it an increasingly popular activity. The trouble is, too much admin can lead to de-motivation which can then lead to stagnation, something that was covered in today’s Guardian.

De-motivation and stagnation are the two things that you don’t want your key personnel falling foul of. These folks are the first to be heard lamenting about the excessive overhead of admin, using phrases like “we’ve lost sight of where we’re going” and worse like the potentially blasphemous “our head is going up our own backside”. If you hear these phrases, it may well be too late. But if you’re early enough, all is not lost, something can be done! How do you identify “what” can be done? Well, the answer is remarkably simple: just ask your key personnel to list what’s bothering them from an admin perspective. You’ll them have a ready-made list of ways in which you can save money and motivate your team. It’s one of those “win-win” situations.

Key personnel don’t want to spend time “out of process”, where “process” means their job function, i.e. what you pay them to do, their professional service to you. They want to focus on their job, focus on the project and focus on what they can do to make everything easier all round. However, if your business plants landmines of administration in the paths of key personnel, any projects that they are working on will take a serious schedule hit. Key personnel will attempt to side-step the landmines, but eventually they’ll stand on one, and boom, de-motivation and stagnation are the injuries…injuries that are very difficult for the business to recover from (ultimately, the injured personnel find another job).

It’s very important to recognise that admin need not be overwhelming, just enough is enough. Admin activities are overhead, they do not contribute to the bottom line, every admin hour costs you at least two hours of at an hourly rate on a project. Focus on activities that increase your turnover, and anything that can increase your profit: seek out activities that eat into your turnover and profit, optimise or eradicate them.

The old adage of time is money stands true. Don’t thwart the progress of key personnel by making them meander through an administrative minefield.

PM#, Project Management

PM#9 – Avoid duplication of effort

4 Comments

Doing the same job once is optimal.

Doing the same job twice is criminal.

Doing the same job three times is just plain stupid (this happens, I’ve seen it)

Doing the same job four or more times is criminal and plain stupid (this happens too, really, it’s true)

Duplication of effort manifests itself in many ways, a few of which I’ll discuss here:

  1. Procrastination.
    We’re all guilty of this. Put simply, we look at our to-do list and we “hum and haw” about which item(s) we want to work on. Some items are too big, we feel that we’ve not got the time to do the item justice so we put it off. Other items are boring, so we focus in on the more exciting and less tedious items. In reality we should be focusing on the items that will add the most value to the “big picture” or the overall project. If you don’t think you procrastinate, try following the suggestions in the Touch it once topic below.
  2. Two (or more) groups expecting the same information from the same source (often in a slightly different format).
    This is a “duplication of effort smell”. Folks start seeing project-related data that is of some interest to them…they start to ask for reports based around that data without realising that reports actually take time to create, they fail to recognise that the report author has other things of greater importance to the project to work on. Similarly, if the underlying data changes, the report author has considerable round-tripping (going back’n’forth) in order to push the updated information out those who [claim] that they need it.
  3. The wrong people being involved.
    Hi-jacking of information is not uncommon and is one of the “duplication of effort smells”. A project can be making good progress, then all of a sudden, somebody starts taking an interest in parts of the project that really are outside of their skill-base. This is actually similar to 2 above whereby the wrong people sudden get involved by asking for reports/data in a format that suits them. They often join the party late, i.e. they did not realise that the data might have been important to them at the start of the project. If the wrong people are involved, it often manifests itself by virtue of the fact they have arrived on the scene after the scene of crime officer has been and gone, or by virtue of the fact they do not use the report/data correctly (or at all).
  4. Failing to start it…finish it.
    Similar to procrastinating, we often find ourselves revisiting an activity or task thus incurring the “start-up smell” whereby we have to spend time “getting back up to speed”. Interruptions are a key indicator that tasks will be started and returned to at least once prior to completion.

Touch it once
During a discussion about time management, a colleague pointed out a technique that appealed to me. How often do you pick up a document, look at it, procrastinate over it, then put it down again? You’d only be human if you agreed that you frequently pick documents up more than once! My colleague presented a well-known technique that catches this procrastination: each time you touch the document, you mark it with a red dot…the measles inducer. When you reach three red dots, you should agree with yourself that something has to be done with it. More about this common time management technique can be found here.

Of course, touching it more than once is a duplication of effort smell and the red dots will be the give-away…

The perils of the solution…
Obviously solving any duplication of effort requires that the duplication is identified. There are many reliable methods of doing this, not least a basic work-flow analysis. However, identification is the least important part of the solution. Once identified, removing the duplication enters into the realms of a political quagmire. The parties responsible for each part of the duplication will endeavour to prove that their duplicated process is the best one and that one that should be kept. They’ll also argue that their process is required for their day-to-day business, or that it is critical to the project or is just part of the fixtures and fittings (an unwritten policy or procedure if you prefer). This is your biggest problem, convincing those involved in the duplication to change their ways, to accept a single more optimal, more efficient way of achieving the same – a way that costs less, is completed quicker (early access to benefits, etc.) and generally makes the project more friendly and more approachable.

You may also encounter push-back when tackling item 2 above. Folks will cite “systems” as their need for the same data in different formats. “Our XYZ system needs project activities to be recorded in days”…whereas…”our ABC system requires project activities to be records in hours”. An easy conversion between hours and days may be possible, however in reality, different folks work a different number of hours per day. In such situations, where folks are perhaps being blinkered by the proximity of their problem and the need for the data in their format, where folks are unable to think out of the box, we must find a way of allowing them to take a step back from the problem itself. This will allow them to see the bigger picture, to understand the problem in context, to realise that they might need to change their processes in order to provide a better service now and in the future.

Whether you identify those involved in the duplication before or after you streamline the duplication down to a single activity, is up to you. In some instances it might be better to invite “the duplicators” into a [stand-up] meeting that can be used to determine the streamlined activity…this might win you friends and get you more buy-in. Either way, identification and removal of duplicated effort is paramount and should be embraced by all parties.

In this series:
#8 – Multi-tasking is evil
#7 – High workload means lower productivity…
#6 – You were right and I was wrong
#5 – Whose schedule is it anyway?
#4 – Start it…finish it
#3 – Use e-mail properly
#2 – Focus on the project
#1 – decision making

General

Advisory poster…

1 Comment

I’m probably blogging about this after everybody else, but I found this poster in my local baker’s shop window particularly eye-catching:

poster

It certainly drums it home…the unattended rucksack issue. My baker’s shop is in Dalgety Bay, Fife, some 400 miles north of London. I think it’s important to recognise that what happened in London in July may not be limited to the boundaries of the M25 or the tube/underground network.

A good campaign, got the message across – it certainly caught my attention.

General

Blogging as a marketing device

2 Comments

WordPress blogger Jeff Jarvis wrote about his experiences with Dell in today’s MediaGuardian. I’m afraid that you’ll have to register (it’s probably free). He has followed it up here.

Given the sudden increase in my blog posts that refer to the Guardian of a Monday and Thursday, astute readers will know that I’m merely following the media and online sections of the paper because I’m interested in them (hey, I write articles and work with IT, sometimes, surely I’m allowed to?)

I can’t say that I’ve had a problem with Dell when ordering new, but I have endured a few headaches with their support service – not enough, however, to rant about it in this blog. I can sympathise with Jeff, even thought it looks like he has moved over to the other side and bought an Apple… There are times when you just wish computer manufacturers (and others) would do the right thing from the start…none of this faffing about with “returns” procedures, etc. If the customer wants a refund, it’s often the best publicity you can buy…well, I certainly think so.

What I was interested to read in Jeff’s article is the fact that you can search for any brand name (or product, or person) followed by the word “sucks” to find out how much bad karma is attached… Don’t worry about trying it yourself, just take a look at this and see what I mean.

I was more interested to read that it appears Dell aren’t following this bad karma, nor are they following what folks are saying about their products in blogs (may be they are, but there’s little evidence of it.)

Surely reading blogs makes good sense? And especially for large corporates with “product” out there. It’s free marketing. Need a product survey…check some blogs. Need to know what to put in the next version…check some blogs. [Product] Bloggers are the knowledgeable end-users that corporates should tap into for guidance, for direction and for the honest truth about how to improve and move forward. Similarly, the best way to learn about what’s wrong with your business (and how it can be fixed or improved) is to ask your employees – they know a lot more than than they are given credit for.

Once again, I believe that this is another case for “do not underestimate the power of the blog“, especially for marketing purposes.

General

WordPress – Comment Spam…solution deployed

6 Comments

Despite having nothing more than WordPress 1.5.2’s default comment spam protection enabled, I enjoyed many months where my posts received no comment spam.

Until yesterday. Until Barry wrote this. Coincidence? I think not, I’m sure Barry’s not a spammer!

Anyway, I’ve now installed and configured Dr.Dave’s [anti] comment spam tool, Spam Karma 2.

It looks very comprehensive and has received a lot of good feedback. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Project Management

Agile in the Financial Times, Summer School, Day 18

I enjoyed my first business trip for August today – Edinburgh to Manchester and back again. And, contrary to some corporate travel policies, I returned home on a business class ticket – how did that happen? Business class afforded me the luxury of access to the BMI lounge at Manchester airport…where I picked up a copy of today’s Financial Times.

The Business Life Summer School series revolved around the subject of “Technology is the secret of an agile advantage”. Naturally, the word “agile” caught my eye.

The article itself was written by Mohan Sawhey, Tribune Professor of Technology and Director, Center for Research in Technology and Innovation, Kellogg School of Management.

It opened with:

“Today’s changeable markets require companies to value flexibility of efficiency and speed over scale”

This is rather reminiscent of the Agile Manifesto. Being responsive to change is the key driver here, if you are able to adapt your business direction, your product or your services such that they match market or customer needs, you will gain a competitive advantage. And how do you do that? Well, as Mohan says, “sense-and-respond” (responding to change over following a plan) organisational models that promote “modularity” can achieve this. In the software world, this is of course, iterative development.

Of course, Mohan’s mention of XML also caught my eye. With XML in the mainstream now, Mohan’s comments serve to firm home the huge benefits that XML gives us today. Yes, it is a really good mechanism for the development of agile IT systems. Mention of decoupling IT systems into layers (presentation and data are mentioned) proved to be a draw too. That said, the information Mohan presented, whilst correct, is a little over-used – sometimes people need to be told and told again before the good stuff sinks in I guess.

Modularity enables agility

Mohan explained that the key to “agile” is modularity [of products and IT systems] and decoupling of business processes and value chains, the latter might be seen to relate to the Agile Manifesto’s “individuals and interactions over processes and tools“. In other words, business processes should be placed far away from the associated value, i.e. don’t throttle the front-end service that adds most of the value by embedding a process overhead into the equation.

Increased modularity allows business processes to be swapped out, or “plug’n’play” as Mohan notes – this is similar to “Working software over comprehensive documentation“. Of course, we’re all used to modularisation when it comes to software development, it makes sense. And object-oriented design takes us further down the modular “plug’n’play” route. Leading on from this, modularisation helps us focus on the front-end value-add products and services, thus we are able to spend more time enjoying customer collaboration over contract negotiation (where contract negotiation includes all of the internal red-tape too).

However, the key take-away for me was found the last paragraph of the article:

Creating an agile enterprise is a transformation that needs to being at the top, with the leadership of the company. And it needs to begin with a questioning of the fundamental beliefs that drive the company.
…
The agile enterprise is risky to manage – you need to give control and ownership to partners…

Finally, Mohan’s box-out drummed it home:

Companies that have learnt to exploit technology can respond more flexibly to new trends and threats than their competitors (re-worded slightly)

General

Bloggers can be sued…

1 Comment

As part of the Guardian’s Blog Watch column, Bobbie Johnson picked up on the fact that:

“in general, bloggers do not believe people could sue them for what they have written on their blogs”

With the sudden profusion (or “viral nature” as the author of this study notes) of blogs, it stands to reason that somebody, somewhere will write something that offends somebody to the point that a lawyers are mobilised. 67% of the respondents reported that they lived in the United States, a location where more legal novels have been written about than I’ve had hot dinners…and from what I can gather here in the United Kingdom, we’re starting to go the same way. It’s easy to write controversial blog posts, a lot of us have a rants category for that purpose, but rarely do they get so heated that the next knock on the door costs £50 per 15 minutes and brings with it a barrage of paperwork.

So I guess the moral of this post is simple: be careful what you write for it may come back and haunt you. But it doesn’t stop at what you write…if your blog allows “comments”, you must be sure that the comments are tasteful too. It’s also worth ensuring that your blogging software is affording you a level of protection such that it is you and only you who can post to your blog – if others can switch on your PC or laptop and gain direct access to your blog for posting purposes, you could be in trouble.

Incidentally, the same can be said for web-based e-mail accounts like HotMail and GMail – “keep me signed in on this computer” is an easy tick box, but one that opens your e-mail account up to all sorts of trouble. What if your boss gained access to your “private” GMail account? What if an evil co-worker sent an e-mail from your private account? What if your laptop (or PC) was stolen? Do you “lock” your laptop or workstation when you leave the office for lunch, or to use the WC perhaps? These are ideal opportunities for the odd “quick” e-mail to be sent without your knowledge…secure your computer when it’s out of your sight.

The full story can be found here.

General

Exhaust my CD collection…I’m not alone…

Jenny Colgan reported that she didn’t think it was possible to get sick of all 4,000 tracks that she’d spent weeks ripping to iTunes…but that she appeared to have managed it.

Phew. I thought it was just me.

I too spent a long time ripping most of my CDs to MP3 format (yes I know I could be using WMA, but there’s a good reason, trust me!) , and I’m still not done.

I now have over 15GB of tunes. And I’m fed up with them. All of them. Even the tunes I didn’t know I had – this surprised me, entire CDs worth of tunes that I hadn’t heard or even knew I owned just turned up. But I’m fed up with all of them…I’ve sickened myself, too much availability has ruined it. Hopefully it’s a passing fad…either that or I’ll need to get some more music to listen to.

Luckily, I use an iRiver H320 which has a built in FM radio, so I’m not stuck for content.

Project Management

Uncanny horoscope…

1 Comment

I don’t normally read these things, but I had time to kill, yada yada yada, I know you don’t believe me, etc. but it’s true!

Daily Mail, Gemini, 23rd August 2005:

There seems to be not end of things to organise and ‘cope’ with. Make a list! Then prioritise it! Next, discard the inessential items. There are two ways to go now: into chaos or towards order. If you want to be able to enjoy the good things that are undoubtedly in you life, you need to make sure you don’t waste valuable time on things that don’t directly contribute to you happiness and well-being. Concentrate on really important people and tasks. You’ll be amazed at what you accomplish.

Now, either the writer is short of material, or he has just returned from a Scrum course. Either way, it’s uncannily close to the truth…and it works if you’re not a Gemini!