Project Leadership Considerations

The B2B audit report summary included reasons for the schedule slippage as well as reasons for the overall project success. While there is not enough detail to comment on the completeness of the project audit, at least it was performed and it addressed several areas.

The purposes for conducting project audits are to determine: how well the project priorities (scope, quality, schedule, and cost) were achieved; the reasons for the success (or lack of success) in achieving each priority; and any corrective actions that are needed.

The project audit serves a very useful function if it is performed in a positive manner. That is, it should be used to look for solutions, not to place blame. Project audits provide a thorough and methodical review of all aspects of a project and can be implemented in various ways. Some companies have a quality assurance group that performs the project audit, some have project audit teams as a function of the project office, and yet others have an auditing function in their accounting group.

Project audits are a useful tool for gathering the information needed to ensure that all deliverables are complete, quality is acceptable, and all open contractual issues are resolved. Project audits are normally performed at the end of the project, but can occur at any time during the project lifecycle. Project audits that occur earlier in a project can provide a measuring stick to see how a project is doing and, if necessary, make recommendations for corrective actions. Project audits performed during closing do not help the current project, but they capture lessons learned for future projects and also serve as a performance measure for the project manager and the project team.

Informal methods of conducting project audits include:

•  Mutual nonthreatening review of each other’s project by two project managers

•  Requesting a review of your project by an independent consultant or the project office staff

•  Internal team review to walk through the project and determine how it is progressing.

The project audit activities cover all aspects of project leadership. The project leader needs to take an active role in the analysis of the results of the audit and, if changes are required, take a positive approach to communicating and effecting the changes. The core team members need to look at the project audit in a positive light and assist in making any needed corrective actions now or on future projects. The organization needs to support this effort and assist by providing adequate resources to successfully complete the project audit and take any necessary corrective actions.

Project Leadership Considerations

CSM’s executive team appears to have made a sensible decision in stopping internal projects involving their customer, North Central Corp. They have learned that without positive business relationships, joint business ventures often fail. However, nothing is said about their plan to build this relationship. A corollary challenge to the executive team is to look internally for systematic issues that led to this situation.

One responsibility of project leaders is to be a strong advocate for their project, especially in difficult times. A contrasting responsibility, however, is to recommend project termination when it is appropriate.

Terminating a project is a very difficult task. Responsible project termination decisions require a detailed understanding of performance as well as an understanding of the personal and organizational impact of a termination. In some organizational cultures, terminating a project is tantamount to terminating the careers of the individuals involved. Frequently, projects need to be terminated for reasons that have nothing to do with the project leader or the project team, such as:

•  Changes in technology have rendered the product obsolete

•  The business need that caused the project charter to be written is no longer valid

•  Technological difficulties make the approach to the problem difficult or impossible or the cost is too high

•  The market has changed and the product is no longer needed or economically feasible.

One essential project leadership skill is to have the courage and foresight to terminate projects when necessary. For example, many research and development organizations expect to terminate many projects before one is commercially successful. These organizations often encourage early project termination since the later a project is terminated, the more money, personnel, and other resources are wasted. It is also not uncommon that the thought of terminating a project is much worse than the results of actually doing it. Although this seems to be a task-oriented issue, it affects all aspects of project leadership. Virtually all the stakeholders need to be informed and involved in the decision. The responsibility to recommend that a project be terminated rests with any one of the stakeholders that feel it is justified. The project leader should not have to bear the full responsibility of making the recommendation.

In Western culture, people often think in terms of completion with winners and losers. Terminating a project in this context appears to be losing. In fact, leaders who, by virtue of their termination recommendation, display the ethical wisdom of minimizing organizational waste and the value of honest and open communication should be rewarded. They are taking the long-term view of doing what is best for everyone.

Project Leadership Considerations

One method of integration is to capture and use project lessons learned. These enable project teams to perform better in subsequent project stages and on future projects.

Most organizations do not handle lessons learned very well. Sometimes the information is never gathered. Sometimes the information is gathered, but very few, if any, have access to it. Frequently, the information is gathered, organized, and available, but no one looks at it. Organizations will unfortunately tend to make the same mistakes repeatedly because they do not learn from their prior mistakes.

Another issue with lessons learned is the timing of when they are captured. If a project leader and the team decide to wait until the end of the project to gather all the lessons learned information, a number of things can impede the process or the quality of the results, such as:

•  Team members with knowledge of the events may have departed to work on other projects

•  On long projects, the project team members may have forgotten key points that occurred early in the project lifecycle

•  At the end of the project, there may be insufficient time or budget left to capture lessons learned effectively.

The project leader needs to include capturing lessons learned as a task in the project plan with resources assigned. Lessons-learned tasks, including gathering, compiling, analyzing, and disseminating information, should take place at the end of each project lifecycle stage.

Project leadership considerations related to the capturing and sharing of lessons learned include:

•  Project leaders should develop learning organizations

•  Project leaders should set the example of using continuous improvement

•  Project leaders should actively listen

•  Project organizations should develop and use a methodology to consistently gather, share, and benefit from the lessons learned

•  Project leaders should incorporate previous learning so that the project can be “jump started”

•  Project leaders should discover innovative ideas that can be pursued to improve the processes.

Project Leadership Considerations

Reassignment of personnel is the responsibility of the project leader. The project leader must care for and see that the team members are reassigned in a manner that is helpful to each team member’s career and professional development. In a large organization, the project leader may need to work with many people such as the human resources department, the project management office, other project leaders, and functional managers in an effort to make the best fit possible. The team members are assets of the company and the project leader has a responsibility to develop and protect them.

The reassignment of the project team to a new project or other assignments should be considered renewing as opposed to ending. It may be necessary to place some team members outside of the company or even with a competitor. It is the project leader’s responsibility to see that the team members are taken care of and to find appropriate new assignments for them.

Project Leadership Considerations

B2B project leaders did a good job recognizing and rewarding their participants. Recognition included the dinner, with each participant congratulated by Mark. Rewards included both across-the-board bonuses for everyone and individual gifts for superior performers. While there are many advantages and disadvantages of both across-the-board and targeted incentives, the B2B project leaders attempted to reach a balance. Project leaders define, develop, review, and reward performance.

Recognizing and rewarding accomplishments is a very important, but sometimes neglected, aspect of project leadership. It is appropriate to thank the team members when they do well. This informal approach to recognition is important, but it is not enough. Formal recognition is very important and can include the following:

•  Recognition in the company newsletter

•  Recognition in a company news release

•  Recognition through a picture or article in the business section of the hometown newspaper

•  Recognition at professional association meetings or in industry trade journals or magazines

•  Recognition at a special end-of-project celebration

•  Recognition at a company function, such as an awards dinner, company picnic, or holiday party.

There are no doubt other creative ways to recognize teams and team members for their contributions and achievements. As mentioned, providing higher levels of empowerment for the team or team members, such as a higher level approval authority or setting of the project team work timeframes, could be a way to recognize achievements. Basically it can be anything that the project team members and others will perceive as being of value to them.

Rewards do not have to financial, but cash bonuses are always a nice way to reward high achievement. People seem to work harder when they feel their compensation is tied to their performance. Some other ways to reward team members might include:

•  A promotion or pay raise out of the normal cycle to reward superior initiative or performance

•  Use of a company vehicle for some period of time

•  Use of a special reserved parking space for some period of time

•  Tickets to a sporting or entertainment event

•  Use of a company recreational facility

•  An expense-paid trip to a nice vacation spot

•  An expense-paid weekend away for two at a nice hotel or resort.

The thing to remember is that recognition and rewards are another form of investment in your most valuable asset as a project leader: your people.

Project Leadership Considerations

End-of-project celebrations can serve several functions. They can relieve the stress participants may have felt in a highly charged project. Celebrations are also a wonderful opportunity for project leaders to remind the participants how important their work really was. Most people are energized by performing worthwhile work.¹ Participants thus energized will be eager to work with the same project leaders and teams on future projects.

A celebration is the perfect forum for the project leader to reward and recognize participants. Make it an important event that is fun and something that people will remember and want to do again.

CSM’s decision to combine participant reward and recognition with the ending celebration makes sense. However, they missed an opportunity to energize their project participants by reminding them of the importance of their results.

Project Leadership Considerations

Uma correctly had someone from accounting close the books; however, she is still responsible for ensuring that this is done correctly and should verify the work. Uma should also have ensured that other items were completed as part of project administrative closure.

One of the final responsibilities requiring project leaders’ commitment is to oversee project administrative closure. This is largely a communications function, but also involves some specific tasks that need to be accomplished, such as ensuring that:

•  All the work packages in the WBS structure are completed

•  All the account codes for the project in the accounting system are closed so people can no longer charge to the project’s accounts

•  All final reports are prepared and distributed

•  All vendors, suppliers, and subcontractors are paid

•  All final invoicing is performed and payments are received.