In a gale force wind the bough of an oak tree might snap. A palm tree bends without breaking, until the force is too much and the tree uproots. Either way, anyone who has managed projects and dealt with the demands of team members, subcontractors, clients, and sponsors (stakeholders), plus stringent cost, time, and scope objectives will know the feeling. I know I do! This paper discusses flexibility as a learned skill of project management and defines four levels to which flexibility can be applied. Flexibility depends upon circumstances, which suggests my experiences in seeking successful strategies may, with a little levity, be rooted in either the palm grove or the oaken forest.
I am assuming the reader is a project manager (PM) who is familiar with A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). The PMBOK® Guide is widely quoted but not so visible in day-to-day project planning and execution. The nature of the PMBOK® Guide is partly responsible—it is a long technical document and requires some experience to interpret. The PMBOK® Guide views project management as comprising nine knowledge areas including 39 processes implemented through many more tools and techniques. Like you, I want this knowledge disseminated and used, and I am proposing more emphasis on flexibility to achieve that goal. My first motivation for this paper is to supplement the treatment of the human and political dimension, realistically considering the influence of these variables on most projects. The second is to help unlock the value of this compendium of best practices by suggesting a mechanism for adapting them to the everyday project. I would like to see more recognition of the importance of flexibility in project management—in dealing with people, and in structuring project processes.
What exactly do I mean by flexibility in project management? Flexibility can be segmented into the four levels shown in Exhibit 1. This is the basis for my analysis and discussion.
Flexibility in social style is called versatility and is the ability to modify how you come across to others—the team, clients, and bosses. Considerable research is available to help you understand your natural style and methods of adapting it to make the other party feel more comfortable.
Political flexibility, or adroitness, means optimizing one’s relationship with the organization(s) in which the PM works, keeping on side, and maintaining options without paying a noticeable price. It is an area where many PMs are dubious. They wish to remain above politics. No one has this luxury, and good politics can be established within the PM’s mandate by applying the PMBOK® Guide knowledge areas with more finesse.
Processes and techniques are related. Processes, as described in the PMBOK® Guide, are the steps in fulfilling a project management function. The question is, how do you determine whether a process step is required or not? Techniques are the various means by which the step can be executed and the question is more likely the selection of alternatives. These questions are addressed by using process engineering to formalize the criteria and the selection of process steps, and by reviewing the circumstances that might require the PM to adapt sometimes radical alternatives to the standard PM techniques.
This paper presents personal observations and conclusions on project management flexibility at these four levels. It is intended to overview the concepts. Examples and illustrations will be addressed more comprehensively at the Symposium presentation.
Human Aspects of Flexibility
I came to the flexibility program late in life. Like most green project managers emerging from a technical discipline, I was eager to be trained and given the answers to the complex issues involved in getting projects done successfully. Through the late 70s and 80s I learnt and applied the basic disciplines, and the projects got done. Successful, yes, but usually with qualifications. Rarely did I see a uniformly happy team, client, and boss. I was assured, however, that this was the nature of the beast, and hard-nosed project managers didn’t flinch at a little unpleasantness. My epiphany arrived toward the end of the 80s when I was introduced to the concept of social style, and techniques that improved my communications with stakeholders who didn’t think and behave the way I did. I would like to introduce the Social Style model as a very useful way to supplement your project communications, team building, and problem resolution approach.
Exhibit 1. Flexibility Levels
Exhibit 2. Social Style Model
Social Style
I have encountered several interesting and helpful models of human communications behavior. The best known is Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator model (Myers 1993). This has a strong connection to Jungian psychology and is quite technical. Another is based on Neuro-Linguistic Programming Theory, which describes communications in terms of audio, visual, or kinesthetic preferences. This model specifically addresses teaching and learning techniques (Martin 2000). The Marston model looks at behavior in terms of influence, dominance, compliance and steadiness (Marston 1999). This model is particularly adept at matching people with job descriptions and has been commercialized by Thomas International. However, the model I wish to briefly present and endorse for use in project management is the Social Style model (Merrill & Reid 1981), commercialized by Tracom. This model may be viewed as a means of adding flexibility to the communications processes that are so important to PMs.
The Social Style model has several benefits. It is easy to understand and apply. The model provides guidance for inferring people’s behavioral specialty and personal values. It also indicates the climate individuals thrive in, the benefits and support they look for, how they make decisions, their growth needs, etc. It deals with perceived behaviors on two axes—the assertiveness continuum from “ask to tell,” and the responsiveness continuum from “emote to control.” (There is a third axis called versatility, discussed later.) The quadrant model that results from high and low levels of assertiveness and responsiveness is shown in Exhibit 2.
Exhibit 3. Application of Style Versatility
The basic styles are referred to as analytic, driving, amiable and expressive. Communication is impeded when people have different styles, and the model is extremely useful in understanding how to modify your natural style to be more compatible with another person. As you move away from your natural style toward the style of the other person, your social discomfort rises, but the other party’s decreases. The authors of the model call this versatility and the wonderful thing is, versatility can be learned. Social style itself tends to remain fairly stable, as you grow older though some people who have been retested have shown minor drift. Managers who have made a conscious effort to improve their versatility have significantly increased their score on this third axis, and benefit from the more effective communication habits that result.
This palm tree behavior is an especially strong technique to guide one-on-one encounters. In one-on-one communication your main aim is to build the other person’s comfort, attention and trust. You want individuals to be open to the message you are trying to deliver and conversely, make it easier for you to understand their message, unencumbered by style differences. In these private meetings you are primarily discovering the other person, not selling yourself. Other situations, however, call for a different approach. When addressing audiences, mixed groups, or unknown groups, use oak tree behavior. Present yourself as you are, being aware that in these circumstances you are selling yourself and your message. Winston Churchill demonstrated oak tree behavior in wartime Britain. His public persona reflected his innate driving nature and suited the role of war leader, but he was not a man who ever built coalitions and successfully appealed to the broader peacetime electorate.
There are cautions when using this model: playing amateur psychology, thinking there is a good and/or bad style, and overdoing versatility. The last point is interesting. People testing with extremely high versatility have been characterized by others as having no personality, or exhibiting chameleon behavior. Are these the uprooted palms?
Political
Social style analysis is particularly important when considering your interactions with certain key stakeholders such as your client or executive sponsor. Your ability to succeed will be influenced by the quality of these communications. Communicating, unfortunately, is not enough. You must also develop political adroitness—coping with the threads of power and influence that weave through a PM‘s performing organization, and the organization of the client. This is how most decisions of weight are made, specifically the allocation of resources. The PM is obligated to engage at some level. At a minimum, the PM must ensure the project is not disadvantaged. At all times, PMs must protect their integrity, build their credibility, and diplomatically exploit their own power to achieve the objectives of the project. I believe PMs can be politically effective by carefully applying the knowledge areas of the PMBOK® Guide in a flexible manner. For example, flexible use of risk and quality management can be most effective when dealing with executives and sponsors, as shown in the following two scenarios.
Handling an Unrealistic Deadline
Risk analysis can be used when faced with a mandated and potentially unrealistic deadline. This is definitely NOT your cue to develop a full-blown Gantt chart to prove to your executive sponsor that it cannot be done. You could be replaced by someone who is a little more accommodating, and your oak tree just lost a major branch. All estimating is probabilistic, not deterministic. Just as you can skillfully use the uncertainty argument to promote mitigation and contingency strategies, the same argument can be turned against you if you make definitive ‘can’t be done’ pronouncements. See the deadline as a problem to be solved and solve it—using assumptions, relieving constraints, and identifying (but ignoring) risk. Try to develop multiple options. It is better to give options than to say no. Do your homework and find out as much as possible about why the deadline is sacrosanct. Perform your own personal assessment of the real impact of slippage. Assemble your plan and obtain support from the demanding executive in return for your dedication to the objective. This will be your only opportunity to forge a genuine alliance with the power structure so take advantage of it. The plan will show the probability of the objective being met, but must include a list of risks that could throw it off, plus a list of actions that must have executive authority by specified dates. If this all boils down to about a 15% probability of success, so be it. You have done your planning job and exposed the facts for executive review and decision. The executive decision may be yes or no, but that is quite different from starting the relationship with a negative. Now we get to the heart of the oak. If your planning is rejected and the dictate reiterated, your integrity is now at issue. Never agree to something that you know you cannot do if you aren’t supported.
Exhibit 4. Political Adroitness
Preventing an Unacceptable Overrun
A second common scenario that requires significant political adroitness is the forecasted overrun that just cannot be allowed to happen. You have cut functionality to the bone, fast-tracked phases to the maximum, and crashed the critical path to your budget limit and beyond. There is nothing left except a reduction in quality. Here we have a subject, akin to sex in Victorian society, one that seemingly cannot be spoken about. In fact, degrading quality and not speaking about it is the worse sin. Your stakeholders must know, understand, and approve of what is being done, in the name of what, I presume, must be a high-priority schedule objective. Relaxing quality standards may give you many or few choices, depending on the project. Documentation, review and approval cycles, inspection frequencies, and testing might all be candidates for curtailments. You will pay for quality reduction with the strong likelihood of a fault-laden product. Political adroitness will ensure this is understood and agreed by your sponsor. The executive must also accept the need for follow on rectification work as the price of on-time commissioning. Oak tree behavior in this scenario hinges entirely on technical integrity. The judgment of the project team on how far this strategy can go, even with sponsor approval or insistence, will be based on the effect that compromised standards will have on operations, corporate assets, or public safety. Quality can be defined as meeting requirements, and requirements can be negotiated as part of a tradeoff; however, technical integrity cannot. This is not an approach to be used for heart pacemaker development, though most scenarios are never that simple.
Exhibit 5. Conditional Decision Matrix for Initiation and Scope Planning
Technical Aspects of Flexibility
A project manager who has mastered an ability to deal with human differences will be frustrated if adaptation is not available at the more technical levels of project management. There are two levels to consider. The methodology or process level is often prescribed by the organization. The technique level is more often left to the discretion of the PM, though policy or contract might imply the use of specific techniques.
The PMBOK® Guide provides a rigorous and comprehensive framework of processes and techniques. However, effort is required to apply the framework to a specific project and this can be a significant barrier. The PMBOK® Guide recognizes this explicitly: “Generally accepted does not mean that the knowledge and practices are or should be applied uniformly on all projects; the project management team is always responsible for what is appropriate for any given project” (PMI® 2000,3). Organizations need an approach to leveraging the PMBOK® Guide to create an applicable tailored methodology. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel or create yet another set of project management standards from scratch.
Process Level
I propose the discipline of process engineering be applied as a formal mechanism. Process engineering tailors standard processes through analysis of the environment, stakeholders, and characteristics of the project in order to create a set of processes for a specific project. The PMBOK® Guide is used as a reference or checklist during this process, to ensure completeness and rigor. Using process engineering in a methodical fashion requires that the performing organization specify the criteria that require specific process elements to be used. I recommend using a conditional decision matrix to define the organization’s business rules in terms of a requirement for a process based on predetermined criteria. For example, the organization can state “for projects with an initial risk index >3, then a monthly risk assessment must be performed.” The PM is then responsible for determining if the criterion is met and if so, selecting the required process. This rudimentary process engineering tool provides a consistent response to common factors causing variability. Definitely a palm tree strategy in the tricky world of methodologies where oak trees grow in profusion!
A process decision matrix is flexible (rules are easy to identify and change) and modular in concept. Exhibit 5 illustrates how ABC Company, a software services firm, wishes to proceed through the processes of Project Initiation and Project Scope Planning to generate project proposals. The mapping to ABC Company forms, checklists, policies and procedures is clear. The requirement for adherence (or not) is clear. The result—low risk proposals are speedily prepared at lower cost; higher risk undertakings are given greater attention and support.
The matrix provides a clear starting point for someone who just wants to know the rules of the game. The PM is further ahead compared to starting development of process from scratch. That approach requires too much time and relies on a PM with significant experience and developed judgment. Neither is abundant in today’s projects.
Technique Level
Technique flexibility is often more significant during the execution phase as the winds of plan variances or plan unfeasibility start to blow. Process engineering belongs in the planning phase and should be well supported by the organization. Technique adaptation is usually prompted by crisis, will be initiated by the PM, and may receive little, if any, support.
When one is inexperienced, techniques (of living, of project management) are applied in faith. Faith comes from belief in the book you’ve read them in, the teacher who taught you, or your friends and colleagues who practice them. Outcomes may reinforce your faith, raise questions, or suggest variations. In this manner experience is gained, and gradually you rely less on faith and more on knowledge. For this reason, technique adaptation is not the first thing a beginning project manager needs to learn. If this reads like a disclaimer, perhaps it is. An expert skier may have three turning styles to call on, but the novice just wants a snowplough turn that can be relied on! The following discussion suggests alternatives to that reliable old snowplough turn.
The WBS as a Voyage of Discovery
In the world of oak trees, scope is totally integrated with cost. If the client wants to estimate and control cost there is no other way than to labor on scope definition till you have something that can be estimated, loaded with a slate of assumptions. The work breakdown structure (WBS) is crucial to the plan and is defended by use of change control and other protective strategies. The goal of the project almost becomes completion of the WBS, no more no less, and success seems to hinge on scope adherence.
Unfortunately, some projects don’t quite fit this template, such as a software project with indeterminate scope. These projects may be amenable to a palm tree strategy of scope discovery. Scope discovery is a form of progressive development that allows for unpredictable twists and turns in requirements. It requires progressive iterations, huge contingency, and mutual trust. Scope is finally defined near the end of product development, and change control is immaterial. Success in this scenario is dependent upon the convergence of the client’s expectations with the team’s capability. Typically, the team’s capability increases as it gains familiarity with the real needs of the client and the enabling technology. During demonstrations, clients’ expectations are reduced as they start to appreciate the practicalities that undermine their more esoteric or conflicting requirements. A palm tree in every pot!
Exhibit 6. Technique Adaptations
Finely Crafted Schedule OR Meet the Deadline!
Most project managers like to showcase their abilities to develop detailed task lists, design networks, identify critical paths, and generate an impressive Gantt chart. Surely every project must need these oak tree skills! Many do. In the world of IT there are several examples, such as equipment moves, system conversions or network installations. Success with these types of projects is very dependent upon fine granularity of task and dependency definition, and high coordination during task execution. Success in this environment seems correlated with adherence to a finely crafted schedule.
Occasionally, projects characterized by new technology, lack of standards, and lack of experience require a palm tree strategy. In IT, I find these types of projects quite common. Bottom up schedule definition becomes problematic and the team resists demands to estimate research and problem-solving activities. Now the PM must either adopt an autocratic oak tree style or bend in the breeze, using the following guidelines. First, abandon activity duration as the lynch pin of your schedule, and adopt a series of time-boxed phases. Next, stop thinking of tasks, and think in terms of objectives to be achieved within successive time-boxes. Finally, move away from the deterministic criteria for task completion (done versus not done) and take a risk-based view of your objectives—how closely have they been met and what is the risk of continuing to the next time-box. Technology and performance issues are candidates for solution using this technique. Shifting and ambiguous requirements can also be successfully time-boxed, perhaps in conjunction with the WBS voyage of discovery already described. Success in these scenarios is primarily contingent upon meeting the time-box objective.
Conclusions
Flexibility in project management is an unacknowledged skill in project management texts and is hard to teach, yet is a critical success factor in many of today’s project environments. To be absorbed into the PMBOK® Guide, some formalism is needed. I suggest a flexibility model on four levels: social style versatility and political adroitness on the human factor side, and process engineering and technique adaptation on the technical side.
Social style can be modeled and versatility in style can be learned. Style versatility can play a key role in establishing a project manager’s positive relationship with all key stakeholders. A project manager who exhibits versatility will enjoy more success in team building, problem solving, negotiating, and general communications.
Success at the political level demands adroitness coupled with a strongly developed sense of integrity. An organization will value a project manager who supports the executive’s needs even though the PM may occasionally miss an implementation date.
The PMBOK® Guide is underused as a resource in day-to-day project management and introducing the discipline of process engineering may make it more accessible to organizations wishing to leverage this knowledge. Project managers and their organizations may want to consider the conditional decision matrix as a tool to plan project processes and procedures.
Finally, although standard project management techniques must be learned and added to every PM’s toolkit, sometimes they won’t work and other techniques are required. Be prepared to be innovative, experimental and flexible. Trust your instinct and experience; they always will be your primary weapons.