Author: Kevin Lonergan

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Ethics in project management – customers and suppliers?

Picking up on Ethics in PM – dealing with customers – for example, how soon do you tell the sponsor / customer about an issue and what information do you give them?

We all know what should ideally happen; customers and suppliers should have access to and exchange real, timely information on aspects such as progress, risks and issues on projects.

However, we all know what happens in practice too often – information is massaged, withheld and provided in limited forms, as parties exchange information on projects.

What is your experience?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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The role (and challenge) of the project sponsor

many firms today are trying to introduce and use the role of sponsor on projects. Executed well, this role can contribute hugely to making a project a success in delivery terms and especially the outcomes that projects are intended to deliver.

The challenge is:

  • To deliver the role they need to be fairly senior people – often they are very hard to get hold of
  • They often don’t have a background in projects (or a project management process), leading to a lack of appreciation of the role and the value of elements of the process
  • It’s simply assumed by the organisation that any senior person can deliver this role
  • They sometimes shy away from the most important responsibilities of a sponsor

What’s your experience and tips if you have any?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Real Responsibilities of Project Managers?

Too many businesses describe the responsibilities of a project manager along the lines of: “to deliver the project on time and within budget” – this is the goal of project management, not the responsibilities of a project manager. Neither, for example, does it do much to help those entering the profession to understand the fullness of the role (or the level of challenge they may be about to face).

If you agree with the above, here’s one suggestion: organisations, business schools and the like understand common causes of project failure. Often this includes things like: “lack of / poor planning”. Therefore, if for example, you believe in the value of planning, one line on the PMs responsibilities should focus on this, hopefully qualified by measurable ‘standards’ that the organisation expects to achieve in this or any other area.

The other issue that the opening statement does not help with is the managing effectively the expectations or even behaviours required of project managers. Being an effective project manager requires being willing to take responsibility – not for everything, but in the main for the success or otherwise of the project. Food for thought.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Kevin Lonergan with Project Management Informed Solutions helps clients improve capability to deliver projects and programs, by providing process assets and skills transfer.

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In-House Project Managers vs. External

I have been having an ongoing discussion with a global company that has been having big issues in delivering its major customer projects. They are looking to develop a strategy for provision of real project managers / and or professional project management expertise to help. In doing this, they are having an important debate:

Should they develop in-house local project management competence or should they buy it in as required?

Personally I have my views but what do you think? ”

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Kevin Lonergan with Project Management Informed Solutions helps clients improve capability to deliver projects and programs, by providing process assets and skills transfer.

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Assumptions When We Plan and Define Projects

Whenever we plan, there are unlimited opportunities for us to make assumptions (consciously or otherwise).

Highly successful project managers (that rare breed?) recognise this acutely and most importantly, the potential impact that even the simplest looking assumption can have on a project. Recognising and capturing assumptions, thereby enabling us to test selected assumptions, can be one of the most important things we do on certain types of projects.

What is an assumption in the context of a project?: it could simply be not asking a question (early enough or even at all) in the project lifecycle resulting in, for example, incorrect or invalid design or product definition decisions.

It is very possible for a single (un-tested) assumption to cause major issues or re-work late in a project cycle – that’s why the ears of a experienced successful project manager will always come alive when they hear conversations among project team members that may contain key assumptions.

It’s a very challenging but can also be hugely important area – so my question is: what examples and methods do people use for identifying assumptions in projects?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Kevin Lonergan with Project Management Informed Solutions helps clients improve capability to deliver projects and programs, by providing process assets and skills transfer.

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What are the most valuable skills of a project manager?

There are growing numbers of competency models and such that attempt to identify the key skills required or suited to the role of being a successful project manager.

As with many topics relating to project management, there is a great diversity of opinions as to the skills that are most valuable to the role.

My question is: what do you think are the top three skills of a project manager?

What do you think?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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What makes a great project manager?

Throughout the whole of my career, I have come across a few great project managers. These are people who actually deliver a project, which is very much a success, and broadly gets delivered within the key mainstream delivery targets.

But, the key question in my mind is why are they great project managers? What makes the difference? (if indeed there is one?).

Many people (and even business psychologists) have looked at this question and have come up with some very interesting results, but with a tool like a blog we can ask all those out there for their views?

Please let us know your thoughts.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Is There “Best Practice” Project Management?

Is there any such thing as a ‘best practice’ project management?

I have a personal view but my aim in this blog is partly to pose and discuss questions of relevance and value.

It is certainly true that projects by their very nature can be very different and that drives some people to argue that trying to encourage or even “require” project teams to adopt any given practices may at best produce no benefit and at worst do the opposite – therefore they argue against the concept of best practices being appropriate in projects.

Others though, would argue that there are central principles that are fundamental to delivering projects well – often a very challenging task in itself. They might also argue that those principles are common to most if not all projects? Therefore the key question might be how can, or can these principles be translated into practices that support effective project definition and delivery?

One point of note you may wish to keep in mind before commenting – project management is a very broad topic itself and the aims and needs (and challenges) of project management can vary quite substantially from one business environment to another – therefore whenever we discuss questions such as this we need to be very mindful of this fact – in other words what may be fundamentally important in one environment may be completely irrelevant in another. Therefore it might be useful at times to qualify our comments.

Finally, please do contribute to the debate in this blog and by all means feel free to post questions. However, we must ask all to read and abide by the guidance on posting and participating – most importantly, no spam or similar.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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Welcome to the Project Management Blog!

I’m Kevin Lonergan and I’m the host of this blog. You can read more about me next to my picture in the sidebar. This blog will be about various aspects of project management, will focus especially on practical tips and tools, and will include posts from guest writers. You can learn more about this blog by clicking on the About link just under the header.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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