Ah the Gantt chart. Twenty years ago that was project management. I worked on a large government project - more like a program, actually - where the only thing I was really using the project management tool for was to manage the project schedule comprised of more than 7600 tasks and show my government project customer visually that we were on time for deliverables and milestones. It did the job well and I could create custom reports and pull task list sections out for functional department managers to track down and report status on every week during our internal project review meetings that I led. But the heart of the project management and tracking effort centered around that visual depiction of the overall project status.


Fast forward twenty years and where are we now? What's important now? What does management want to see? What does the client want to see... need to see? What about the team? What's still relevant and what's important today? Let's consider...


The status report. The status report is necessary. It will always be a critical, driving force of project status and likely the main communication tool for any weekly project customer meeting and weekly or daily project team meetings. Prepare it in advance, use it to drive the meetings, and come up with one good version that satisfies all stakeholders needs as well as possible. C-levels like quick view dashboards so start off with that – preferably coming up with a green-yellow-red health status view of task progress, resource usage and forecasting, and financial analysis and forecasting. Include change orders and issues lists on the report and you should be able to make everyone happy. Having a great project management tool that can do much of this for you is a good idea as you – as the project manager – likely already have enough on your plate. But the status report – and a very good one – is critical.


The team meetings. Team meetings – the internal team is what I'm talking about – are critical. This is where you discuss strategy and get all of the latest updates from your team that drive the status report info and the revisions to the project schedule. I like to schedule this the day before the weekly customer status meeting so that I'm always giving the project customer the latest greatest information about the health and progress of the project.


The customer status meeting. The weekly project status meeting that includes the customer is where you lay out all the information. The status report, the change order statuses, the issues, the risks, the resource forecast, the financial health if that is relevant to the customer... everything. But the project status report usually drives this meeting. And yes, one other thing often still drives it and I will get to that shortly.


Project communications. Project communications are Job One for the project manager. This includes the status report, emails, conference calls, the weekly customer status meeting and review and any deliverable and milestone reviews you may need to schedule. All materials build into the project communications – making the project status report and other items that are involved with detailing project status critical pieces of the overall project communications.


The Gantt Chart. And now we are to the Gantt Chart. Is it still relevant? Yes, it most definitely is. Whether the customer wants to see it or needs to see it may be up to them. But what it depicts and what it tracks is absolutely necessary. From task dependencies, to levels of effort, tracking holidays and progress complete percentages... the good old standards from project management days gone by are still very relevant today. Can you do with out it? Not likely. Should your project management tool be able to produce a good, usable project Gantt Chart that is visually meaningful? Yes, most definitely.


Summary / call for input


So my conclusion is this... the Gantt Chart is still necessary. What is your take? Do you need a Gantt Chart or use a Gantt Chart every week on your project? If not, what do you do? If so, tell us about your favorite tricks and even about your favorite PM tool that creates the Gantt Chart for you.

Are you ooking for new ways to push your project management office (PMO) or PM infrastructure over the fence into new service and performance territory? Or are you a project manager looking to up your game and make a bigger difference in your own individual project delivery within the organization? Or maybe you are a third option – an independent consultant or contractor looking to add value to what you are offering both your client that brought you in to help out or lead and to the project client you are serving (may be a third party or the same client that brought you in as a consultant).


Whatever the scenario – if you aren't feeling creative or if you have only worked with one organization and are used to doing things just one way, being creative and coming up with a few options to add value as a PM to your projects may be difficult since you've always done things one way. That said, let me offer these tips on ways you can potentially add some value to your project engagements in your role as the project manager in charge...


Improved project status reports. Sometimes with the project status reporting process and output we are going through the motions producing the same report on every project. Not because it meets the specific needs and requests of the customer or the differences in this project from the last one you managed but because it's what we've always done in this organization without any thought to filling a void or any ounce of creativity or value added work and information. Consider doing something more substantial – a nice dashboard report with red-yellow-green status lights at a high-level for each key element for those stakeholders who want the quick glance. Then go into the detail on project health items – schedule, budget, resource planning, issues, change orders, risks, etc. And don't try to create a different status report for every interest group – make it a one size fits all and then you know that everyone always has the same information no matter what they may claim.


Share the financials. Go ahead and keep the project customer advised of the project financials on a weekly basis. Make it part of the status report in dashboard format, detailed format, or - more preferably – both. If I had done that (against my PMO director's better ? judgement on a couple of huge government contracts) then they probably wouldn't have ended in failure and cancellation. Be accountable and show accountability – don't hide the budget status from your project client. In many cases, if they aren't seeing it then they are assuming the worst.


Complete transparency. Be transparent. We are in the age of real time communication, news and information sharing no so there is no reason not to be completely transparent. Your stakeholders all need the latest information and keeping news and information from the project client is always a bad idea. Being transparent means that when a decision is needed from a stakeholder or client or participation in a meeting or just participation in a major decision you will be able to count on that individual having access to the the latest status and info and ready to provide what you need.


Focus on cybersecurity. I think that it's a given that most project managers can say we don't pay enough attention to risk management, avoidance, tracking and mitigation. Cybersecurity has grown into a necessary and ongoing concern. Cybercrime causes over $600 billion in damage annually so any project with any kind of data sensitivity needs a cybersecurity element which means that the CSO (Chief Security Officer or one of his staff) needs to be at least a peripheral part of every IT project. That also means that you really need a CSO or someone training to be in that role. Your project customer will definitely appreciate the addition of that critical team member. Value added... win-win.


Conduct lessons learned during the project. Lessons learned are important. We don't all do them and those that do likely don't do them all the time. There can be several excuses why...

• The project team members are off to another project after the current project is over so they are hard to gather back together for this event
• The project customer is busy with the handoff of the solution and post-implementation activities and isn't interested in the post-mortem review you're proposing
• The project went poorly so you're not pushing the lessons learned session very hard
• The project went so smoothly that you don't think it's necessary

All these are excuses and they are bad excuses – especially the last two – because a lessons learned session can be a very valuable learning experience. Now, what if you could take that valuable learning experience and apply it to the current project and improve on your project performance right now with this current customer rather on the next project with some other client. That would be great – and you can. Schedule several lessons learned sessions throughout the project. My best method is to schedule them to coincide with major milestones or key deliverable dates. It's also been beneficial for the current project and it's a great confidence booster with the current project customer.


Make your meetings the best. Hold awesome meetings. Don't just schedule meetings, carefully plan them out. Have notes, agenda, planned assignments and informational needs documented and sent out to attendees prior to the meeting. That way individuals will come prepared to share and contribute and be 100% accountable for the info they are responsible for. Attendance and participation will rise. And stay on schedule and end on time. Your reputation as a great meeting facilitator and not a time waster will rise fast. Also, follow up with notes post-meeting and ask for feedback within 24 hours to ensure everyone is on the same page.


Summary / call for input


I've got a few more, but this is a good start. Using these six concepts, the project manager can improve the vendor <==> client relationship as well as project delivery and performance... adding real value to the current project.


Thoughts? What else would you add to this list? Please share and discuss.

Got a project on shaky ground? We've all been there. We've all had those situations where we had one too many projects and one of them seems to be slipping into troubled waters. Or the customer is nowhere to be found and you need sign off on user acceptance testing (UAT). Or very few stakeholders seem to be on the same page in spite of your best efforts to keep them there. Or possibly the budget or timeline is beginning to go out of control. There are a hundred (maybe million?) different reasons, excuses, issues, causes, risks, behaviors, and out of your control problems that can arise that cause one of your projects to start to spiral downward... and you need a quick fix to get control back in your hands. Let's consider together some thoughts on how we might take some of the more common of these scenarios and apply a fix to them. Please share your thoughts on my list and add your own by commenting here – you'll be helping everyone!


Communication breakdown. If communication is the problem, it may be the meeting schedule and the way meetings are handled. To rectify, incorporate a daily project status/summary email that goes out to the team, the customer, all stakeholders and senior management. To improve the meetings, be sure to plan well in advance, send info in advance so participants can prepare and participate effectively knowing what will be expected of them, and followup after each meeting with notes to ensure everyone is on the same page. Ask for feedback if individuals are thinking they had a different understanding. You can't allow things to continue down that path.


Financial troubles. My stance has long been that if you stay on top of the project budget weekly and re-forecast every week with the overall project financials reflecting the current actual charges as well, it is very difficult to ever go more than 10% over on the budget without knowing it. No surprises – and no one likes financial surprises that don't involve scratch off lottery tickets. So if you are experience some financial troubles on your project right now and you're over 10% off budget, you'll need to take whatever corrective action you can to try to get back at least to that 10% bar, if possible. First, figure out the leak. It may be incorrect charges or even your own project team putting too many hours of labor against your project. If they don't know how important the financials are to you and how closely you are tracking them – make them aware now. Everyone has those “grey project hours” that they know they worked on one or more of the projects they are assigned to, but didn't track till the end of the week. If they think you aren't the project manager watching financials closely, you may get those grey hours. Don't let that happen. Fix them going back and stop them going forward. It can make a huge difference.


Timeline off track. If they project timeline is going off the rails, it may be time to step back and look at what could be moved around on the project. Is there a project deliverable or phase that could be moved out or is essentially non-essential to the initial delivery of the solution. Probably not, but if there is something that can get you closer to the point of delivering the necessary functionality on the due date, that would be worth taking to the negotiating table with the client and probably eating the costs to make that happen. It will mean more work, re-work and post-implementation work you probably won't be paid for unless the delays can be traced to the client. But happy clients are priceless, so it may be worth it.


Resource issues. If the project is experiencing resource issues that are causing delivery issues with the engagement, then those need to be resolved as quickly and smoothly as possible. It doesn't matter if it's resources that need to be replaced, added, removed, retrained or reprimanded... whatever needs to be done should be done as much out of the client's site as possible. They will know, but the less you let it become a project-wide event the better as that would only serve to affect the confidence of the customer in you to control your resources and deliver a successful project.






Where's my customer when I need him? The customer disappearing sounds like a luxury, right? No overbearing customer micro-managing you and asking questions at every turn. But in reality, we need our project clients throughout the project to give and receive information, aide in certain decisions and provide approvals and sign offs. So, if your project customer is prone to disappearing for long periods of time to work on his day job – meaning everything else he had going on before this project was dumped in his lap – then you may have to think creatively to keep him involved. For me that usually means keeping some tasks assigned to him at all times so he needs to be present at weekly project status meetings to discuss and provide updates. But watch out, he may try to delegate that.


Summary / for input


There are no one-size-fits-all fixes. Sometimes tweaking the status report can make the customer change their feelings about the engagement give them a better outlook overall. Sometimes replacing a vendor can change the supply or service availability necessary for the project. But, in generally, if the project needs help, there isn't a solution that will help every scenario or even every similar scenario – it will always be case-by-case on projects.


Readers – what are your feelings about this list? What would you change or add to it? Please share and discuss.

I have long been a fan of virtual teams and remote project management. Nearly all projects I've delivered on since 2006 have been using virtual teams and every project I've delivered on in that timeframe has been as a remote project manager. The bottom line is it works, works well, and I'm living proof of that.


When I consider the “why” of the virtual team success story – three key reasons come to mind. I believe there are many, but three specific ones are enough to convince me and they have been the top ones from my experiences over the past dozen years. Let's consider...


Getting requirements right. Much time needs to be put into requirements definition... often meaning that “extra” time needs to be put into requirements definition. It's nice to block out a three day time frame to dedicate to a series of meetings for documenting project requirements during the planning phases of the project, but what if that three days becomes three weeks out of necessity to get it right the first time on the requirements? It happens – and it happens a lot because sometimes with project requirements and the customers you are serving you just don't know what you're getting into until you start. With a virtual team you aren't tying your selves down with travel – everyone can be available throughout without needing to worry about location and airlines and logistics.


Getting the best project talent. Because we aren't asking anyone to move from Tokyo to Iowa, we always have the option of getting the absolute best resources for any project undertaking. Not many who are top notch in their field want to be forced to move and especially when it doesn't make great sense to do so. Plus it's a win win for your organization because those best possible resources will usually work on contract or work for less to stay where they are and work from their home office. Besides, many organizations and jobs have proven to be too unstable to consider such a move.


Immediate customer responsiveness. Virtual teams often have individuals in different timezones. I truly believe – and I am definitely this way – that the remote worker is way more likely to be ok with working in the middle of the night if necessary to meet the needs of clients in vastly different timezones. And again, I'm living proof of that as it's 3:40am right now and I'm doing work for a project client in a different timezone. However, virtual teams are also very likely to have a team member located close to the client's timezone and therefore working normal hours that matchup more closely to the client. That means they can represent the team and the project and be more responsive to an urgent client request rather than needing to work at 3:40am.


Summary / call for input


It's my belief that co-locating the project team “just because” is a huge waste of time and money. Project professionals can work remotely and virtually as a team and be as productive – and many times more productive – when allowed to work when and where they work best. I realize that some project work needs to be face to face and that some travel on projects is required from time to time. Keeping that at a minimum saves a lot of time and money. If the customer needs to have someone to reach out and touch, perhaps having one team member onsite 50% of the time will make that customer happy... still far cheaper than having the entire team onsite for most of the project.


Thoughts? What are your experiences – good and bad – with virtual teams and remote project management? Have you tried it – and did it work for you? Please share and discuss.

Oh the project client who always wants the latest and greatest status. Asking for more info like you're holding something back. The same is true for your senior leadership. Either they just don't believe your reporting or they are too lazy to read anything and want to hear it from you...which may be the case - especially if they have an agenda and some questions in their head that they must get answered.


In the long run, of course, it's best to always have almost up to the minute accuracy in the project status report. I realize that's nearly impossible - and completely impractical. But what we can do is make sure that the status report - and project schedule - is updated every week and that both contain as much accurate and up to date detail as possible when we walk into that weekly project status meeting with those two things in hand ready to drive the meeting forward.


How do we do that? Well, it's simple, but not always easy. And there are a couple of ways to do it depending on how well your project team members communicate and how much you can trust their accuracy without asking some detailed questions to drill down to a more specific or accurate status update from them.


Option 1 - the revised status report and schedule


This is likely your easiest option - if you can trust your team to actually make status updates or revise their own tasks in a commonly accessed collaborative project scheduling tool. I did this once on a very large government project that contained nearly 8,000 tasks. And to get to the point of that fully detailed, 8,000 task project schedule it took some serious work on the part of me and my staff and the use of mind mapping software with several peer managers on the program to get us there. It was really more like a large program – ongoing for three years – and I required updates by peer managers (who could delegate to their team if they wanted, but they were still responsible for their updates). It worked pretty well – they couldn’t all be trusted all the time, but I knew who to regularly follow-up on and who’s input my team had to closely check up on and verify.


If this approach works, great. Just send out an editable copy of last week's status report and have them send back their revisions one day before the weekly status call with the project customer. And do the same with the project schedule - have them make their own task progress updates and get them to you a day before the customer meeting so that you can finalize everything, ask any follow up questions you might have, and then send the revised status report and schedule off to all stakeholders for the weekly status call.


Option 2 - the internal weekly meeting


This is the option that I almost always resort to. I call the other one easier because in a perfect world, if your team does a great job of putting in their updates, you should just have to do a quick check and send it. Sure. Just like my kids don’t take care of the house quite as well as I do because they don’t own it – I do. Yes, the PM owns the schedule, the status report and everything about the project. So, if you want to make sure that you’re sending out the latest and greatest status information right before the weekly status call with that very demanding project customer, then this is the way you’ll likely want to go.


Every week I conduct an internals status meeting/call with my team. Usually it’s the day before the customer call. I use this opportunity to verify where I think everything stands and to go around the table and get updates, issues and concerns from everyone. Then, that evening I make sure that the project status report, the project schedule, the resource forecast, the issues and risks lists, and the budget forecast shows everything as up to date through that day. That’s the best I can do and all anyone can really ask for. And, when speaking in reality, this is the easiest option – at least for me. Again, because no one truly owns it like the project manager and no one cares about it nearly as much.


Summary


Our project clients deserve up to date project information. Some are demanding and some are pretty disengaged. But at least when we sit down with them on a weekly basis we should be able to guarantee that the information we are reviewing is 99% accurate to that moment in time. It makes for more productive meetings, increased customer confidence and participation, and far fewer ‘takeaway tasks’ from the project status call than if you walk in with many outdated piece to the project status puzzle.

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The motivated team is the more productive team. That's a fairly well established fact as the project manager or PMO director how do you get there? How do you male sure your project teams are as motivated and engaged as possible every time out on ever project?


As usual, I have some thoughts and opinions - coming from experience, logic and observation - that result in my personal list of four key tips to keep your project teams focused on the end goal.


Pay them well and timely. This may apply more to consulting situations but consultants are people, too. Your PM staffs and supporting team members - pay them well. Trust me, keeping the good ones around - and you know who they are and they know who they are - is very important to the success of your projects, the satisfaction of your project clients and the financial viability of your company.


Engage them as early as possible. You want an accountable and motivated project team? Get them assigned as early as possible to the projects. They cam assist the project manager inearly project planning and even take part in project kickoff. And the sooner the customer sees a full team the better.


Use their proper skill set. Use your team members well for the skills you know they have as well as the skills they want to acquire. But don't try to fit a square peg into a round hole. it will only frustrate them and make them fail. You want them to own the project and their tasks and be accountable. Misusing them won't make that happen.


Don't favor the most experienced. Finally, don't favor the most skilled. It's easy to rely on the most reliable. But that burns out the best and leaves the rest feeling resentful and underutilized. They will also feel less and less ownership of tasks and accountability to the project.




Summary / call for input


The well focused and well informed team will be the most motivated and ready to work on productively on your projects. Money helps, too. And that translates into more successful project engagements.


Readers - please share your thoughts on this list. Based on your own experiences leading projects, what would you add or change?

What can I do in 60 minutes each day? Well, you can watch your favorite one hour crime drama and still have 18 minutes left over if you record it and skip through the commercials. You can order a pizza and pick it up or have it delivered. You can watch one quarter of a Kevin Costner epic flop movie like “The Postman.” Or, you can manage a project. Yes, I said manage a project. Consider...


I'm not one for multi-tasking. I don't think men are really good at it – it's how our brains work. So, if you happen to be overseeing say, 5-6 projects at a time, then spend 60 minutes each day on each project. Certainly, if you have a project that really requires it, spend more time. Maybe one is running full steam ahead and two are not seeing much action at the moment. Spend two hours on the one that needs it and 30 minutes each on the two that are not requiring much attention right now. But, I think you get the picture – basically an hour per project per day should be the goal. Every project needs some daily attention. And what do we do during that 60 minutes of project-specific project management each day? Focus on these general areas and you'll be covered every day and every week on every project on anything and everything major AND you'll be initiating the communication to ensure that the little things do not fall through the cracks...


(Note: keep in mind that this is a general list of tasks that need addressed at least weekly, but not all need to be addressed daily. Make sure you hit all of these at some time during the week when you're spending your 60 minutes managing each project)...


Status reporting. Every week we need to spend time preparing a formal status report that – along with the revised project schedule – drives a weekly formal status call with the project customer. This activity, done weekly, shouldn't take too long – especially if you're spending focused time every day managing each of your assigned projects. From my experience though, on the larger, more complex projects this will likely take most of one day's 60 minute allotment.


Project schedule revisions. Using information gathered from your project team via email, phone calls and/or a weekly internal project team gathering, you will need to use a good portion of one day's 60 minute allotment on a detailed revision of the project schedule...including task progresses, resource assignments, new dates, and any additional work that needs to be added to the project.


Email/phone calls and face-to-face discussions with the customer and project team. Regular connection – whether there is much to say or not – is great for keeping project team members and the customer engaged and on task. Included in this is weekly meetings that every project of any real size should be having. You can see where your 60 minutes can really start to get consumed through just keeping in contact with everyone. Communication is Job One for the project manager. Period. Nothing is more important to project success.


Resource forecasting. Every week time must be spent analyzing your current resource needs on each project and ensuring the availability of your resources today, tomorrow and for the remainder of the project. You do not want surprises. Do this regularly and you won't be surprised.






Budget forecasting and analysis. Just like resources need to be examined regularly – at least weekly – the budget health needs the same scrutiny. A budget will almost never get out of hand if you're on top of it regularly with close observation, frequent revision, and regular forecasting and re-forecasting. Flags can go up almost before there is a problem – while corrective action can still be effective.


Summary / call for input


We often spend most of our days reactively putting out fires on our projects. What if we just stayed ahead of the game as much as possible with good project management focused on each project every day? What if we didn't let any project go unmanaged for more than 24 hours. I'm not saying we do, but often we are reacting rather than being proactive.


What would go on your weekly/daily list of project management activities to stay on top of for each of your project engagements? Do you think the 60 minute daily project management scenario works? Please share your thoughts...

Like nearly every big event, this year's annual Global SAFe Summit has gone virtual due to safety concerns for attendees during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can expect the same quality information and knowledge exchange, just at a distance. Be patient – we will all be back together again soon. But in the name of safety, this is our current normal for conferences and summits.

Why should you signup for the 2020 version? Here are my top five reasons – in no particular order...

• Networking: forging connections with friends—new and old... you never know who you'll meet! You may be talking to your next boss!
• Support Lifelong Learning: hear what others have learned throughout their SAFe journey, what's new with Scaled Agile, how the Framework is evolving, and so much more!
• Live Coaching: Meet 1-on-1 with a SAFe Expert in a private, live coaching session to get your toughest SAFe questions answered
• Tips for Navigating Business in this Changing World Economy: The Summit's theme this year is Navigating Next. Learn how Scaled Agile and many other enterprises used SAFe to pivot during the pandemic when business agility was needed most.
• On-Demand Learning: With your SAFe Summit pass, you'll gain access to recorded sessions that you can watch after the live event - this enables you to expand your learning to a much greater scale than attending just an in-person event

I have many more reasons, but that's my top 5... and if you have attended in the past, you already know it's a quality event. Even with the virtual nature of this year's Summit, it will be a top notch learning and networking opportunity. So don't hesitate... plan, prepare and signup today. The October 27 start date is just around the corner.

Americans are on the move in 2020. While the tally of permanent moves for 2020 is ongoing, short term moves more than doubled from roughly 150,000 to 350,000 in March of 2020 according to a MYMOVE analysis of USPS data.  California, New York and Illinois received the most short term net out migration and the beneficiaries include Texas, Georgia and Idaho.  
Reasons for relocation include:
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*Lower taxes
*Lower cost of living
*Better quality of life
*Better jobs
*Less congestion