Author: Patrick d'Astous

A guest post from Kevin Lonergan, coach at PMIS Consulting Limited.

It is often said in firms that “we simply don’t have a project management culture”. This can be true but a) what doe it mean and assuming it is true, b) what can be done about it?

So, what is Organisational culture?

Organisational culture definitely exists. There is much written on organisational culture – just Google it and you’ll find loads of detail but in essence this is what it means.

All organisations that have existed for at least some time will have developed a “culture”. In its most simplest, it is the values and habits that are promoted by the organisation is being important, or even crucial to the business. This could be and often is extended to the behaviours that individuals and even teams’ exhibit in discharging normal business – and this can and will include projects. It will also extend to what (does and does not) get noticed by seniors in a business. A great form of this is the examples of behaviours or practice that are “promoted” (say in a corporate magazine) as being or value to the business – often though this focuses more on results than process, sometimes with the two becoming very confused.

To determine your own culture it is quite easy to write or find a list of terms that describe typical cultures, and use that to ask a cross section of people from a single business to assess which of those terms most closely describe their firm – it usually works very well to highlight the sort of things like behaviours that are highlighted as being desirable – including that which is sometimes be referred to as the “hero factor”.

So how does this relate to project management? Well, many firms will have developed at least a framework to describe how projects should be defined, planned, managed and closed-out. Often, these frameworks will follow or replicate practices that are generally considered to be valuable or even fundamental to project (delivery) success. However, despite this, when real projects come along the actual practice on the ground is often light years away from the written framework or procedures. Often, this could even have been driven directly from somewhere at the top in the business. That is usually the point when two or more people are having a coffee chat and one will say ”…… yes, but it’s just not in our culture….. etc etc”.

In practical terms, this can often mean that staff within the business will not necessarily follow (even in principle) what someone in the organisation believes is strategically important to planning and delivering successful projects. Others in the business may feel that managing projects is little more than running or chairing meetings, and that “Project Management” adds little value. Sadly, in their business they may well be right.

So, if this is the case, what can we do? I will address this in my next post and in the meantime, please feel free to add your comments and suggestions.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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I wrote recently about the difference between senior and junior project managers in terms of decision making. More specifically, I argued that while senior managers focused on potential project difficulties, junior managers were more easily swayed by their project’s plan and its deficiencies.

Spotting problem with your plan and being able to foresee difficulties are both essential skills for a project manager, but I would argue that while the first one can be acquired by anyone willing to put in the needed effort, the second skill is much harder to develop. This is why I believe in the importance of managing a project in a field you master.

Everyone does not share this view. Some people indeed hold the opinion that project management is a “standalone” skill: once you master the mechanics, you can apply it to any context. In the same vein, it could be argued that even a project manager with a lot of experience in a given field cannot possibly hope to master every single aspect of the project he will be working on. Why bother at all with choosing someone with field experience, then? This perception of project management does have its appeal, but it forgoes some of the most compelling advantages offered by choosing a project manager well versed in a given field.

The first one is obvious: when you know what you’re working with, you also know who to turn to when in need. Good data is essential when the time to take a decision comes, and that data can only be obtained by asking the right questions to the right members. Field knowledge is definitely a big plus in this case.

There’s also the fact that without mastering every skill, a project manager with knowledge of a given field still usually has a good idea of what every member of his team does. This is invaluable when evaluating the impact of a decision. Unforeseen consequences can be very damageable to a project’s progress; the more you know about your field, the more you can plan ahead.

Finally, a lack of project management skills is simply easier to remedy than a lack of field knowledge. Between coursework, mentoring and following commonly accepted best practices, the options are numerous and accessible to anyone willing to learn.

Combining field knowledge with project management skills invariably leads to making better decisions. Which is ultimately what being a good project manager is all about.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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I hate project audits.

My days are already full with planning, controlling, communicating, managing stakeholder expectations and making the right decisions. In my mind, a good project manager pretty much audits his project every day! That’s how I know what is going on:

Is my project delivering the expected result at this point in time? I must always be knowledgeable about the state of my project. My audits target the evaluation of the project’s health (cost, time, scope, risks) and I do them minimally at every milestone occurrences with the different project stakeholders.

Am I satisfied that everything is done to mitigate risks on future project expectations? Risks are part of a project. There may be risk associated with any expected results. Do I have a strategy to mitigate them? I need to be able to answer this question.

So, why should I care about project audits?

Project risk management is a vast topic. Many strategies and techniques exist to make sure you identify, measure and mitigate project risks. But what about project process risks? A best practice is a technique believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome when applied to a particular condition or circumstance. The Project Management Institute (PMI) proposes to use “best practices” as a mean to correct any deficiencies to reduce cost of quality and an increase in sponsor and customer acceptance of the project’s product. Project audits are used to answer two questions:

Are project management best practices being followed to mitigate risks? We can surmise that a project manager who uses best practices should have a higher degree of success than someone who doesn’t.

Are there any lessons learned from my project experience? Project management is an evolving science. My organization may benefit from my good or bad decisions.

I love project audits.

It’s easy to write a bunch of guidelines on a piece of paper. But how do I use them so I feel it is improving my chance of success? Since best practices are implemented to reduce process induced risks, I should audit my practices to ensure the process will impact positively on my project results.

Best practice auditing targets issues related to the project organization and management. I put forward that best practice auditing should occur as often as possible.

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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.

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