Figure 10-1: Project management infrastructures are focused in two broad areas, planning and execution.
I use the term operational because we are dealing with those tools, processes, and systems that facilitate day-to-day project management activities rather than those tasks that generally take place on a more periodic basis, such as planning. I use the term infrastructure to mean that the tools and processes in question are organized and integrated in a logical manner, as opposed to merely being a collection of things with no cohesive thread holding them together. The relationship between these elements and project management is shown in Figure 10-2.
Figure 10-2: The operational project management infrastructure.
Agile Strategy Create an operational project management infrastructure to help your project managers efficiently manage day-to-day PM activities such as task, action item, issue, and communications management.
All projects require some type of operational infrastructure to operate efficiently. The team needs to know how progress will be tracked and reported, how communications will be managed, how information will be shared, and how changes will be handled. These tools and processes collectively support the project manager in managing the project. An example of an operational project management infrastructure is given at the end of this chapter.
To further illustrate this point, here’s another example. Let’s say a new project manager is hired from the outside or internally transfers from another type of job. One of the first questions she will probably ask is: “How do you guys manage projects?” It’s not that she doesn’t know how to do the job; rather, she wants to know if there are methods and tools in place that have been used effectively in the past. After all, why should she reinvent the wheel if she doesn’t have to? Additionally, she will want to use tools that are consistent with what other project managers use, so team members who contribute to multiple teams won’t be confused.
You may be surprised, but in all but the most mature project management organizations (or those that have purchased a sophisticated enterprise software solution), there is generally no consistent operational infrastructure that is driven by the company. And, as you may suspect, most mature project management organizations tend to be in large conventional companies. The sheer volume and complexity of projects that large organizations undertake usually justifies the investment of time and resources necessary to develop both a planning and operational infrastructure for managing projects. On the other hand, there is a perception that smaller, faster-moving companies do not really need formal project management at all, let alone an operational infrastructure, because their projects aren’t as large or complex.
This line of thinking is fundamentally flawed because it only looks at project size or volume of projects as the justifications to develop a consistent infrastructure and does not consider the effects of uncertainty on project execution. The uncertainty of the agile environment creates frequent changes and therefore generates many action items, issues, and risks that don’t appear on the initial project plan. Managing these additional elements, as well as the increased communications, is as critical to project success as managing those identified in the original plan. Without an organized process for keeping these elements tied to the primary plan, your project can quickly go off-course.
Agile Strategy Ensure that your operational infrastructure integrates the status of unplanned action items and issues with those of the original project plan, to deftly manage the frequent and rapid changes to that plan.
The Agile Infrastructure
It’s no wonder that in the more classically designed project management offices (PMOs), there is more emphasis on tools and processes associated with the planning phase than the execution phase. These companies fully expect that they will be able to develop a robust upfront plan and then follow it closely for the duration of the project. Agile projects are quite the opposite (see Figure 10-3). Project managers expect their initial plan to change at some point, so they spend less effort on detailed planning at the start of the project and more effort on managing the inevitable changes. Obviously, there still has to be a reasonable planning element in the agile environment, just not as detailed as in the classic environment. This partially explains why it can be frustrating to use some of the common project management software tools on the market today—they are designed for detailed upfront planning, but do not help much with managing the many “unplanned” action items that pop up during project execution.
Figure 10-3: The focus of PM tools in an agile versus classic environment.
Agile Strategy When selecting project management tools, pick those that facilitate tasks associated with executing the project. You want the ability to easily integrate elements such as action items and issue management into the project timeline to assess their effect on the overall project.
Perils of On-the-Fly Process Development
When no standard operational infrastructure is available, project managers usually create their own tools and processes “on the fly” to manage the project at hand. They probably have some minimal level of discussion and/or training for their team members to acclimate them to the tools and to avoid confusion. Once the project is completed, the team disbands and people go on to other projects and the process repeats. Best practices may travel with individuals but are generally not pervasive. Furthermore, the ad hoc tools and processes created are usually incomplete and nearly always inconsistent from project manager to project manager. This, in turn, can lead to inefficiencies and frustration on project teams.
Infrastructure may include a wide range of processes, practices, software tools, templates, and forms. These elements are critical to effective and agile project management, so skilled resources need to be allocated to develop and support them. Agile organizations tend to have a culture of continual learning. With each new project, you probably learn something that will strengthen a particular piece of the infrastructure. Without resources committed to maintaining the infrastructure, these potential improvement ideas will be lost. The paradox is that “process development” resources are much less likely to be available to the agile organization, since we are usually talking about a smaller and leaner organization. Yet this is exactly where these resources can add enormous value.
Forcing the project team, rather than dedicated process development resources, to invent the infrastructure will likely have a negative effect on the project execution. It can also produce a suboptimal infrastructure. First, the team would usually have to do this work concurrently with executing the project, which takes time away from actual project tasks, in turn slowing the project. Second, the project manager and team are not necessarily process development experts. They may design processes that are inefficient, only work for specific situations, or are not cleanly integrated, which can lead to any number of problems down the road, thus reducing agility in terms of speed and making decisions correctly. Third, the project manager and team may not view these activities as part of their job, so they may decide to omit certain tools and processes completely and just “wing” it. When this happens, the implications are the same as mentioned previously: inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and possibly frustration.
Agile Strategy Allocate specialized resources/expertise to develop and maintain your project management infrastructure and you will accelerate your progress toward PM agility.
The overall goal is that the organization have the basic operational infrastructure in place, then the team can build on or modify it as necessary for specific situations. By employing dedicated expertise to facilitate these improvements, the project-specific modifications will, over time, become fewer and fewer. At that point, you will have developed a consistent and effective operational infrastructure, tuned to your unique business environment, and truly gained ground in your quest for agility.
Infrastructure As a Facilitator of Communications
An additional, significant value-add of an operational infrastructure is that problems, miscommunications, and other conflicts can be avoided during the project. The infrastructure lays out the details of how the project will be managed, thus leaving little to guesswork. Without an established operational infrastructure, team members who are not familiar with each other may be timid to ask basic questions such as “How will the project be managed?” because they think that everyone already knows. That’s a recipe for confusion and inefficiency. Much of the infrastructure should be referenced in the project communications plan (see Chapter 4). Any disagreement can then be discussed and resolved directly rather than indirectly, which will help to head off many team dynamics issues.
An integrated operational infrastructure is also a very efficient way to capture and distribute critical project information to the various stakeholders (e.g., management, project managers/leaders, contributors) through various reporting mechanisms. This is especially true for a program or portfolio that is composed of many individual but linked projects. A change in one project or environmental variable may have a ripple effect on several other projects. Likewise, a shift in high-level strategy or functional direction could have a similar ripple effect through various projects. A good operational infrastructure helps to efficiently propagate all relevant information and changes to the appropriate parties.