Project Communications - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (3 of 3)
We have all been on projects where an understanding different stakeholder groups becomes a ‘touchy-feely’ process. You have a gut feel for their tolerance for change, commitment, ability to influence and what they view as important. Most of the time we are wrong but if we had some real data for these areas, then we could establish effective communications and begin to understand what challenges faced us during our project time line.
Project Communications - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (2 of 3)
In part 1 of this blog, we talked about not all communication events were pushed out to the project stakeholders. Let’s look at some different types of communications interventions that represent the information, ideas, topics and subject matter that flow to and from the stakeholders through formal communication channels.
Mediocrity: Caring Enough to Give Your 2nd Best
Point 14 - Deming in Project Management
This point speaks to the need for
(1) commitment from top management and
(2) commitment from everyone else in the organization.
Quality is everyone’s job, and if any implementation is not total, it will not fulfill its full potential.
In project management, I see this point alluding to executive formation and support of a company-wide Project Management Office. That PMO must be the central source of all project management knowledge, under continuous development by the practitioners of project management. Lessons learned and any potential improvements to the project management methodology used by all PM’s in the company should be evaluated, tested, and implemented as a positive change.
Point 9 - Deming in Project Management
Break Down Departmental Barriers in Pursuit of a Common Goal
Many processes are cross-functional. The same is true of projects. {mosimage}This point is about dissolving the “us versus them” scenario that so often exists in one form or another within organizations. In most projects that I work on, there are individuals from departments such as operations, central services and other support functions, MIS, IT, Service Engineering, etc. The “us versus them” attitude comes about when project managers and project team members look at their own interests at the exclusion of others, and instead of working towards a common goal, work towards their own separate and distinct goals.
Why Do Developers Contribute To Open Source?
Bas de Baar, ProjectSociology.org
Whatever your take is on projects, at the end of the day it is just a bunch of people working together to achieve a certain goal. To laugh, cry, pull pranks, play dirty tricks and show all other kinds of behavior towards each other. If you are lucky they even work to reach the final goal. If you take everything away, and put people in the center of what a “project” is, you will see a group of stakeholders interacting with each other, just like any other group of people would do. As a Project Manager it is your goal to herd the project crowd toward the required end result.
Evil Alter Egos: Episode 4 - Mrs. Process
Deming's 2nd Point in Project Management
Adopt a Philosophy of Cooperation Where Everyone Wins and Teach it to Everyone
Often, projects can become battlegrounds where the project manager and team are at odds with the sponsor and other stakeholders. These conflicts can arise when the project environment is not conducive to a win-win approach.
In project planning and initiation, clearly define the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) for everyone on the project.
Avoiding Hindsight Management
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing and documentation. It introduced the sayings "fit for purpose" and "do it right the first time". It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection processes. One of the most widely used paradigms for QA management is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach, also known as the Shewhart cycle. The main goal of QA is to ensure that the product fulfills or exceeds customer expectations. PDCA (also known as the Deming Cycle, Shewhart cycle, or Deming Wheel) is an iterative four-step quality control strategy.