12 March Spring is coming March 12, 2014 By Administrator Account Blogging flowers, photography, spring 0 Spring is coming and Summer is on the way too Toronto is forecast to get "walloped" by a snow storm tomorrow. No-one in asking for more Winter. We are all done. Ready for the next season. Spring is coming and Summer is on the way too. For a few weeks at the end of Spring every year there are beautiful flowers that blossom on our walkway. I look forward to seeing them. However, I rarely stop and slow down to examine them. This past June I did slow down and attempted to capture their beauty with some photographs. Spring Flowers 1 Spring Flowers 2 Spring Flowers 3 Stephen Wise http://www.IntegrationProfessionals.com/ Related Articles Six things I must do to bring value. Part 2 of 2. 4. Use Earned value to track schedule and budget progress against plan. Consider that the “Must finish on time” 6 month project you are leading has burned up 80% (5 months) of the calendar. You request an update to senior executives where you report that the team has determined that they need an extra month added to the schedule to finish the project. Some time later, the project finishes after a total of 10 months. Did something unexpected cause extra delay? Could you have provided a more accurate forecast during your executive update? Consider that: Team members, usually under subtle and not-so subtle pressure, consistently underestimate how long it takes to get things done. As an aside, in my experience, the most common source of the underestimate is changing requirements, unexpected complications, and lack of available folks to do the additional work. Given the chance to re-plan the project, the team looks only at the amount of work remaining, ignores the leanings from the start of the project, and bakes in the exact same underestimates in the re-plan. Earned Value is the single most powerful Project Management principle in the entire PMBOK; it provides unbiased status of current state and forecast of future impact to schedule and cost. It is also the most underused key concept by Project Managers. In a nutshell, Earned Value provides an independent Project Management perspective to the following questions: Are we ahead or behind schedule? When is the Project likely to be completed? What is the remaining work likely to cost? It isn’t unusual, that it is not appropriate to report and discuss Earned Value metrics to management. That’s not a showstopper, because the information is still highly valuable and actionable by the person most accountable to take the required day-day actions to ensure project success – the Project Manager. 5. Hold regular status meetings. Hold Weekly Status Meetings: Less frequent, for example, every two weeks, is too long because if key people miss one it is a month until you are together again. More frequent and not enough will have changed resulting in meeting churn. Standard Agenda and Meeting materials: That is, status late and upcoming activities, review new Issues, Risk Log updates, and potential Change Requests. Ensure that all “Work breakdown Structure” stakeholders are represented at the meetings. Issue Agenda/Pre-Mail / Minutes: – That is, issue the agenda and meeting materials at least 24hr prior to the meeting. 6. Escalate unresolved Issues and significant Change Requests to the management team. “Unresolved” – Don’t escalate until the Project Team has reviewed the issue without success. “Issue” - Ensure the item being discussed is within scope of the project and is impacting success, if not, note it for later discussion. “Significant Change” – a) Establish risk and impact thresholds, below which, the project team will “adjudicate” change requests internally without escalating, and above which, will always use the agreed change management process. “Escalate” – Advise the appropriate stakeholders quickly as a courtesy and to ask for help. There you have it. I support and subscribe to PMBOK, ITIL, Agile et cetera, and the more I learn about each one, the more similar and complementary they seem to me. However, as a Project Manager working with diverse clients and changing needs, the above six are my must-haves in order to provide value-add as a Project Manager. Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave comments if you feel strongly about anything. Stephen D Wise http://www.IntegrationProfessionals.com/ Look for a future drill-down on Earned Value. Team Building - Environmental Factors Fourth in a series on Team Building. Along with personnel factors, there are also a number of business environment factors affecting firms' ability to hire and develop quality team members. Just as the world population is evolving, so too is the world work environment, and the speed of change is leaving many firms breathless. Businesses must increasingly compete on a global scale and deal with staff just as mobile as their corporate leaders. Virtual teams are rising, freeing workers from the confines of the office, which in turn makes it more difficult to control and train talent pools. With lower loyalty levels to organizational leaders, the global, mobile, and virtual workplace can mean a staff free-for-all when competing for talent. GLOBALIZATION The blending of talent pools from around the world brings diversity of ideas, cultures, and practices to the business environment. For some firms, this is a wholly positive experience. For other firms, this is disruptive and difficult to adapt to in daily practice. Yet the shifting demographics of the world mean that globalization forces are more likely to increase than decrease, requiring staffing managers and business planners to adapt or lose at the global talent game. RISE OF THE VIRTUAL WORKPLACE In the United States, 58 percent of companies consider themselves to be virtual workspaces, according to the Insight Research Corporation.[1] This rise of virtual work and virtual office environments presents a challenge to hiring and developing quality team members. Culture and fit to culture is a prime driver of employee success, but how can this be assessed if the employee will never spend time in the office? What is the role of workplace learning culture over Twitter or via Skype conferencing? How can team member development be instigated and monitored remotely to ensure training and development investments are paying off? These questions and many more are becoming larger and larger issues for recruiters and managers worldwide. DECREASED LOYALTY/INCREASED MOBILITY Adding to the challenge of managing virtual work teams is the challenge of managing less loyal and more mobile workforces. While previous generations of workers were bound to one company for the effective duration of their careers, some 80 percent of modern workers are ready to go work for another firm if it appears more attractive according to research firm Right Management.[2] Over the course of their working lives, the average American worker will have 8 – 11 jobs, and up to five different careers. While this represents greater mobility than other parts of the world, it is not unusual for top talent in developing nations to switch jobs annually in pursuit of pay increases or promotions. Brazil, facing a 7.5 percent annual growth rate, can't keep up talent wise, while India and China face broad-based skill shortages as workers routinely jump ship to pick up the double-digit wage increases that are expected even in a down market.[3] Firms can no longer expect that workers will stay with them throughout their working life. On one hand, this makes organizations reluctant to invest in talent that may head for the door at the first opportunity. Yet on the other hand, firms who can grow talent become less dependent on individual workers and better able to pass knowledge between team members to reduce the impact of a highly mobile workforce. Adapting rather than complaining about the turnover rates is going to provide smart firms with real talent advantages. Stephen Wise www.IntegrationProfessionals.com [1] Insight Research Corporation. “The Mobile Workforce and Enterprise Applications 2007-2012.” Retrieved August 5th, 2011 from: http://www.insight-corp.com/reports/mwf.asp [2] Harnish, Tom. “Be Flexible To Modern Staffing Challenges.” Open Forum March 25th, 2011. Retrieved August 4th, 2011 from: http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/managing/article/be-flexible-to-modern-staffing-challenges-1 [3] Kazmin, Amy, Robinson, Gwen, and Weitzman, Hal. “Talent Shortage Adds To Growth Strains.” Financial Times, published May 19th, 2011. Retrieved August 4th, 2011 from: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5d288c4-816a-11e0-9c83-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1UNIic5IA Team Building - Power of Standards Addressing the modern staffing challenges and business environment challenges to hiring and developing quality team members begins by identifying the true needs of the organization. In this way, the power of standards and competency development tools can be harnessed on behalf of the organization. Standards and competency development tools help organizations navigate the challenges of modern staffing with clear goals. They have a clear picture of the elements that most influence talent performance at their organization, and a solid program for developing the talent that exists within their corporation. With standardized metrics for evaluating potential and incoming hires, effective on-boarding practices, and ongoing competency development program, firms can discover and develop performers that have the potential to be top performers. ESTABLISHING CLEAR HIRING METRICS Clear hiring metrics begin long before the talent search with the establishment of competency models for all key roles. These models should be developed as a joint initiative between line staff and recruitment teams so that they accurately reflect the current expectations for each role. Once defined, these competency models offer a number of benefits to the organization when approaching staffing challenges. Competency models for each role to be filled establish clear hiring metrics and remove gray space from candidate evaluation, benefiting the organization both in the present and in the future. Competency models: Ensure a match between the current workforce needs and available talent pools Guide recruiters toward the skills and proficiencies needed for current talent gaps and anticipated talent needs Save firms money by helping to avoid hires that are a poor fit for the organization's needs[1] By removing the mystery and hire costs from the talent selection process, firms will be able to pull better-quality candidates from their available talent pools. No longer chasing talent which will not ultimately meet their needs, firms can focus on the right candidates to secure more critical team members for open positions. Stephen Wise www.IntegrationProfessionals.com [1] Federal Acquisition Institute. “FAC-P/PM Competency Model”. Retrieved August 5th, 2011 from: http://www.fai.gov/pdfs/FAC-PPM%20Competency%20Model.pdf Team Building - Demographic Shifts Germany is the epitome of a first-world, highly industrialized nation. Its working age population is declining and the fertility rate is below replacement level. Talent shortages, particularly for highly skilled, well-trained workers, are a persistent complaint due to high levels of competition for the limited pool of available workers. Germany's case is continued in other developed nations. The most extreme case is in Japan, where 90 percent of hiring managers reported difficulty finding qualified talent for open positions. With more and more skilled workers aging out of the workforce, finding replacements is a palpable challenge. Ethiopia, on the other hand, is a nation routinely held up as a volatile and developing country. It has an extreme youth bubble typical of African nations, with a major portion of its total population not yet in the workforce and a high national fertility rate. Talent shortages are present now due to the unavailability of a deep pool of well-qualified workers, and the education-business disconnect is likely to hit the millions who are coming from under the youth bubble into the workforce. Stephen Wise www.IntegrationProfessionals.com $1 B Annualized Cost Savings from United Technologies Merger | Stephen Wise United Technologies has proposed a merger and acquisition of Raytheon for a combined company valued at more than $100 billion. The architects of the deal have analyzed the strategic rationale. One of the quantified success metrics they announced is synergy of economies of scale leading eventually to $1 billion in annual cost savings. Unfortunately, deal track records are not so good. According to The Art of M&A (Reed, Lajoux, and Nesvold), 55% of all mergers fail to deliver on the financial promise announced when the merger was initiated. Why do 55% of all mergers fail to deliver? Most assume that ensuring the deal success is the domain of the advisors, accountants, lawyers, and bankers. However, once the deal closes, management is left to deliver on the expectations and promises. I am convinced that the single biggest factor of merger failures is the lack-of a CEO sponsored Integration Program lead by a Project Manager. Why is that? Most post-merger activities run behind schedule. I believe a root cause is managers are assigned many of the activities as “business-as-usual” (BAU) work. Managers already have a day job and reporting structure so management of the resourcing, risks, issues, and decision making that was present during the pre-close phase has largely evaporated. There is a high-level of uncertainty on any project and M&A is no different. It is critical that the leadership team responsible for crafting the deal remain involved. The teams responsible for progress and benefits delivery can get easily mired in firefighting and in-fighting. Sometimes this can be blamed on “culture-clash” but regardless of the label it is up to leadership to quickly identify and make key decisions for the team. How do I fix that? A Project Manager will assure there is a process to engage, manage and communicate to stakeholders the changes to the timeline, unresolved issues, new risks, and most important, ensure timely decision making. In the case of the new Raytheon Technologies, the advisors, accountants, lawyers, and bankers have put together an impressive transaction overview. You can check out the announcement package here. Hopefully, in coming days we will also see demonstration of a strong Project Manager working closely with the CEO to successfully deliver on the annualized benefits everyone is so excited about. Stephen Wise Integration Professionals Dramatically Improve Traction https://www.IntegrationProfessionals.com Delivering Business Transformation Strategy | Stephen Wise | Integration Professionals Michael Porter’s books on Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage led me to embrace Project Management. That is, I have frequently said, a company that invests in Project Management is making an investment in their competitive advantage. Less frustration delivering value, less disruption to teams, improved engagement, etc. Porter’s Five Forces and the SWOT analysis are now inadequate as concrete underpinnings for strategy design. Strategy is still important, but the amount of change driven by disruption, innovation, and transformation means that the interpretation and implementation of Strategy – which occurs during the delivery – requires a high-touch feedback loop. An increased importance in the strategy delivery does not mean that strategy design is less important – it means that executives must give equal personal priority and attention to designing the right strategy as to delivering. Here are three key tips for executives to stay engaged in the delivery phase of business transformation strategy. Governance – Decision Making – Planning & Re-planning. Governance – Build a governance structure that reinforces the accountability and responsibilities for the vision. Ensure the team is adequality resourced in terms of experience and availability. Review and address risks and interdependencies at the beginning and periodically and through the realization of accumulated benefits. Insist on a complete set of regularly reported metrics and milestones. Decision Making - Move quickly to re-prioritize and remove roadblocks that are uncovered despite a lack of complete information or analysis. Accept changes to time and budget milestones based on new information from the working team. Planning & Re-planning – The less time you have available – the more important it is to have a robust plan. Don’t forgo detailed planning, but in today’s business environment planning and re-planning must be rapid and agile. Documenting tasks, task owner, and interdependencies are as important as schedule and budget. Issues impeding success should be discussed regularly and recommendations to tweak the plan fed up to the executive team in order to ensure alignment and ongoing support. Delivering strategy is like going on an expedition through a deep jungle. Every so often you will get to a hilltop and be able to asses how things went so far and what new landscape is coming in to view. An executive that spends time and money crafting the strategy needs to protect her investment by staying available and engaged for those hilltop moments. 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