by Sinikka Waugh, Project Coach, Your Clear Next Step

Have you noticed that in today’s environment, we’re continually being asked to do more with less?  There’s more and more work to be done, and fewer and fewer resources to get it done – less time, less money, and fewer people to do the work.  And so, people are being stretched into roles they’ve not played before, including project management roles.  As a project management coach, I find myself being asked over and over again to summarize the essential truths of over a decade of project experience…in five minutes or less. 

“Hey Sinikka … I was hoping you could help me…I’m on my way to a meeting about this new project I’m leading…and I need to know how to be a project manager…the meeting doesn’t start for another five minutes…can you tell me what I need to know?”

5 minutes?  Forget lunch – that’s not even enough time for my coffee to cool to below scalding! 

Can it be done?  It’s tricky, yes, but not impossible.

Here’s a surefire way to send them screaming in the other direction: start spouting off details about work breakdown structures, earned value management, quantitative and qualitative risk analysis, the vast array of methodologies, and the ins and outs of the myriad project management tools at their disposal. 

Isn’t it amazing how fast people’s eyes actually glaze over when there’s any hint of “project speak” when they’ve just asked the question “tell me about how to be a project manager?”

With only 5 minutes to tell someone how to successfully lead a project, you’ve only got time for essentials that can be grasped regardless of their prior exposure to the discipline.  I’ve whittled my answer down to this:  there are three questions a project leader must be able to answer in order to be successful. 

1) What are you doing, and why?

What are you doing?  Does everyone on the team know the basic gist of the project?  What is the “thing” that you are all working on?  Are you building a house or a school?  Are you launching a brand new product or fixing something that’s broken?  Fundamentally, if the project team can’t articulate in a sentence or two what the project is doing, they won’t reach the same goal at the same time.  The project manager needs to understand the “what” and make sure the team does too.

The “why” here is equally important. Are you replacing a legacy system because it is no longer supportable, or are you pushing the envelope of innovation to match the growing business demands?  The “why” is the business need, the problem statement, the whole reason the project exists in the first place.  Knowing why you’re doing the thing you’re doing will help drive the team forward, help ensure that all and only the right work gets done, and help prioritize the project within the larger context.

"What are we doing, and why?   Well, we’re releasing a brand new product because our customers are asking for it, and it will differentiate us from our competition who has nothing similar to offer."

2) How are you going to get there?

How are you going to get the project done?  What’s your road map?  This is where you talk about timeline, resources, and tools the team will use to reach the end goal.  Depending on who you’re talking to, you’ll want to vary your level of detail.  Executives and sponsors might just be looking for a sentence or two – a high-level summary of the basic time line and costs.  Project team members will want more details – what methodology or approach are we using?  What are the roles and responsibilities of the different team members?  How are we going to stay connected even though we work in different locations?

"How are we going to get there?  Let's see...we’ve got a team of 5 people full time, plus access to subject matter experts and other technical resources as needed.  We plan to deliver a conceptual prototype by the end of March, a working version by May for a beta release, and then launch the final product in time for Independence Day."

3) What’s standing in your way?

While usually I get vigorous head nods at questions 1 and 2, I tend to get a more quizzical reaction to the third question.  I have a hunch that this is because we spend a lot of time hiding (or hiding from) our risks, rather than tackling them head on.  We like to talk about the stuff we know.  We feel comfortable when we can talk about the “what” and the “how”.  But when it comes to the “why not” – the uncertainty, the risks – we tend to clam up, as if talking about them makes us seem more vulnerable or less capable. 

As a project manager, if I haven’t taken stock in what could prevent the team from reaching our goals, how can I possibly be prepared for what lies ahead?  How can I speak with any confidence about the health of the project if I haven’t anticipated the obstacles we’ll have to overcome, or the cost reductions we may have to work around, or the currently unproven technical feasibility of a key component?  But that’s not quite all. 

It’s true that in some cases, just stating a risk is enough.  But to truly be successful, I have to know what could keep us from meeting our objectives and what we are going to do about it.  As a team, we need to have at least thought through the most impactful or most likely obstacles, and we need to have considered how we’re going to handle them.  Will we take action now to prevent them from happening?  Will we watch for certain indicators that it’s time to put a contingency plan in place?

"What’s standing in our way and what are we going to do about it? Interesting...Two of our team members are new and will need ramp up time, so we’re assigning them tasks they can do with their current knowledge and having them tag-team with more experienced team members to get up to speed.  And...there’s also a chance that our funding will be reduced after second quarter, so we’re focusing on the most critical functionality first, and making our beta release as production-ready as possible."

For large projects or small, any industry, any team, these same three questions apply.  The project leader’s ability to answer them quickly, accurately, and to the right level of detail for the audience – and the extent to which they ensure the team can do so as well – can make or break the project.

Is there more to project management than these three questions?  Absolutely!  There’s a delicate balance – of the art and the science, the people and the tools, the soft skills and the technical skills – that takes plenty of successes and failures and trial and error to learn over time. 

But if you only give me 5 minutes, then I’m not going to spend time on the stuff you might need – I’ll just give you the stuff you will need.  I can’t see how a project team can be successful if you don’t know what you’re doing and why, how you’re going to get there, and what’s standing in your way.  If you want more details from there, give me a call, and we’ll go grab a cup of coffee.