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Nudging Project Teams Up the Maturity Ladder
If you are a project manager in a situation where team members and stakeholders are not working to move project management along a path of maturity, what can you do? Even the installation of a well-modeled project management office (PMO) and the addition of top-quality project managers won’t guarantee that project management maturity will move up to the next level. Your best approach is to try to get some good practices established, even if they aren’t called by the typical terms. A freer or nontraditional use of terminology may spur cooperation from those who might be reacting against the use of terminology and techniques they don’t yet understand or value. On your next project, develop your own project charter for signature, if necessary, and use it to inform the team about business strategy and business needs for the project. If project management terms are a barrier, just refer to the charter as a tool to “see where our project fits in.”
The work breakdown structure can be referred to as “a means to capture all the work of the project so later we can see who will do what.” Decide with the help of the customer what measurable standards will be used to show each project requirement has been met. Ask the team, “What could go wrong?” Plan certain checkpoints — no need to call them milestones — to report the project cost, schedule and performance data to management. Set up a simple, regular reporting process to obtain the project data you need from team members. If the resource is non-compliant, talk to her/his manager. Ask if preparation of these regular reports can become part of the individual’s performance objectives. When constructing the schedule, add in a post-project meeting to discuss “what we learned and how we can use this in similar future projects.” You need not use the traditional term, lessons learned. This creative approach does not overburden the team with project management terminology. Rather, it helps them become familiar with a logical, workable way to do projects. You’ve now structured a project in a non-threatening way with a few key documents. You’ve agreed on and mapped out the scope of the project, discussed risk and arranged to capture and share project cost, schedule and quality data. Your team is talking about and learning from this project experience. When you take this approach one project at a time, you can educate team members, complete projects with increased business value and move the organization to a new maturity level. It is a slower approach that may increase acceptance and progress. PMI Community Post thanks Barbee Davis, MA, PHR, PMP, for developing the response to this suggestion. Ms. Davis is a reviewer for the global PMI Registered Education Provider Review Team. She owns Davis Consulting and is a published author, speaker, writer of training materials and an innovator in presentation skill workshops for corporate trainers. She holds a Black Belt in MS Project and teaches at the university level. Ms. Davis encourages your questions or comments. |
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Have the team develop a scope statement, even if you describe it as a way to “gain a good idea of the work, time and cost of this project.” |
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