Managing customer satisfaction is a very difficult-to-measure component of the triple constraint. Cost, Time, Scope, Quality & Risk are more quantifiable constraints. They can be reported and, most of the time, how they will be managed is contained in the project management plan documents. Since customer satisfaction cannot be measured or quantified, how is it possible to control it & manage it?
The Goals of the Project
The goals of the project are contained in the Project Charter & the Contract and they are further refined in the scope statement and WBS. These are goals that should never be abandoned at any stage of the project. After all, these goals are the reasons for existence of the project. Running after customer satisfaction can sometimes derail the project, so the Project Manager should never lose sight of the project goals in favor of customer satisfaction.
Quality equals customer satisfaction
All the requirements of the customer for the project (whether the end result of the Poject is a product or a service) should be documented in the Quality Management Plan and should be confirmed to comply with the contract and scope statement (no Gold-Plating). Using this process, customer satisfaction becomes a quantifiable constraint that can be managed through the quality management plan, measured using quality assurance processes & improved through processes of quality control.
In conclusion, it is the responsibility of the project manager to translate customer requirements into quantifiable & attainable goals and the quality management plan can be used to help quantify & manage customer satisfaction.
© 2009 Saad Farooqi
Friday, February 6, 2009
Using a Project Management Methodology to Increase Morale
The existence of a standard project management methodology should be a requirement on every project. Furthermore, if due attention is paid to a few elements of this methodology, it will lead to a higher sense of team and greater morale of team members.
The Project Charter
The Project Charter needs to exist and needs to be communicated to the whole team. In this way, everyone will have an idea of the goals that they are working towards. Additionally, the title of the project once communicated with the Project Charter will act as a unifying factor for the team.
Developing the Project Management Plan
If all the team members are involved and their input is considered during the development of the Project Management Plan, and said plan is then communicated to all team members, everyone will have a stake in ensuring the successful execution of this plan, since the success of the project will reflect the team’s competence.
Presence of Integrated Change Control
The morale of a team can be hurt severely due to continuous changes to the baselines, scope, PMIS tools or any other element of the project. Often such changes will result in the prior efforts of the team or individual team members being wasted, and thus the team will feel like they put in a lot of effort for nothing. To avoid such scenarios, an integrated change control procedure should be developed and the process of approving and rejecting changes to the baselines, scope, PMIS tools etc., should be communicated to the team in order to assure them that their concerns are being looked after. Ideally, (though not possible in all industries & applications), the team members can be involved in the change approval / rejection process themselves.
Closing the Project
At the end of a project - particularly in projectized organizations using contract labor - the project team is suddenly released from the project and they find themselves without a home. Since the project manager has prior knowledge of the closing of the project, he can communicate the closing of the project to the team in a proactive manner. The administrative closure procedure can also have specific provisions on giving prior notice to the team of the upcoming end of the project.
Since the most important resources on a project are the human resources and, the success and failure of the project depends highly upon the performance of the team as a whole, the Project Management Methodology can be used as a tool to increase team morale and unify them. After all, there should be no ‘I’ in Project Management Methodology.
© 2009 Saad Farooqi
The Project Charter
The Project Charter needs to exist and needs to be communicated to the whole team. In this way, everyone will have an idea of the goals that they are working towards. Additionally, the title of the project once communicated with the Project Charter will act as a unifying factor for the team.
Developing the Project Management Plan
If all the team members are involved and their input is considered during the development of the Project Management Plan, and said plan is then communicated to all team members, everyone will have a stake in ensuring the successful execution of this plan, since the success of the project will reflect the team’s competence.
Presence of Integrated Change Control
The morale of a team can be hurt severely due to continuous changes to the baselines, scope, PMIS tools or any other element of the project. Often such changes will result in the prior efforts of the team or individual team members being wasted, and thus the team will feel like they put in a lot of effort for nothing. To avoid such scenarios, an integrated change control procedure should be developed and the process of approving and rejecting changes to the baselines, scope, PMIS tools etc., should be communicated to the team in order to assure them that their concerns are being looked after. Ideally, (though not possible in all industries & applications), the team members can be involved in the change approval / rejection process themselves.
Closing the Project
At the end of a project - particularly in projectized organizations using contract labor - the project team is suddenly released from the project and they find themselves without a home. Since the project manager has prior knowledge of the closing of the project, he can communicate the closing of the project to the team in a proactive manner. The administrative closure procedure can also have specific provisions on giving prior notice to the team of the upcoming end of the project.
Since the most important resources on a project are the human resources and, the success and failure of the project depends highly upon the performance of the team as a whole, the Project Management Methodology can be used as a tool to increase team morale and unify them. After all, there should be no ‘I’ in Project Management Methodology.
© 2009 Saad Farooqi
Adding impact to your Poject Management Skills
How to Simplify Stakeholder Management using your Communication Skills
The job of a Project Manager is anything but easy. Balancing the conflicting components of the triple constraint (schedule, cost, scope, quality, risk, customer satisfaction) and add to that the struggle to satisfy executive management & your team members, it often feels like one is fighting a loosing battle.
Communicating the impact of changes or demands to different stakeholders can become an indispensable tool in this fight. After all, not satisfying stakeholders’ needs could result in influential people putting boulders in your path, whereas agreeing to everyone’s demands will result in either one, or many, of the following: scope creep, schedule delay, cost over-runs, decreased quality, unidentified risks or a dissatisfied customer.
Considering that the Project Manager ‘needs’ to be pro-active and ‘needs’ to anticipate problems, here’s how you can foresee your stakeholders’ demands and be ready to communicate how fulfilling their demands will hurt their own interests.
Customer Expecting Gold Plating
In many industries, this is not very uncommon, either due to a pre-existing trend, failure to define & communicate scope or just a demanding customer. To deal with this situation a project manager needs to have knowledge of the scope in the contract, the pricing, and what impact the customer demands will have on the Project Goals. Obviously adding functionality to a product or performing more services than in the contract will have an impact on the schedule, (someone’s) cost, and could even in some cases decrease quality etc. Once equipped with all this knowledge, all the Project Manager has to do is to communicate how fulfilling the customer’s request will ultimately hurt the projects goals. Once this notification is made by the Project Manager using formal written communications, the customer will back down.
Executive Management Cutting Resources
Executive Management keeps their eyes on the bottom line, and, often, the resources spent in executing a project (especially while ramping up exponentially to meet deadlines) do not appear to translate into good ROI. This is a scenario where the Project Manager can use different progress reports to demonstrate how the project is on track and how cutting back on resources at this stage will ultimately result in greater investments to undo any damage caused by resource shortage, overloading of workers or use of substandard materials.
Politics & Issues of Ethics
There are some scenarios in Projects that every Project Manager will come to face, sooner or later, that are so critical that the decisions made by the Project manager will determine their continuation on the project. Scenarios like, an executive having an existing relationship with a supplier and demanding the use of such a supplier. Or someone with influence requesting the removal of a key team member due to personality differences.
In Scenarios like these, even though there is no silver bullet that will result in the whole situation going away, many consequences can be minimized by putting in formal writing, the impact on quality in the project that will be brought about by using an inferior supplier or, the impact on schedule that will be brought due to the absence of a key team member whose removal is being required.
Cover Your Bases
Even though communicating the impact of stakeholders’ demands will not always result in tables being turned in your favor, at the least, it will arm you with a written document that you can point to and say ‘I told you so!’, once your warnings become reality.
© 2009 Saad Farooqi
The job of a Project Manager is anything but easy. Balancing the conflicting components of the triple constraint (schedule, cost, scope, quality, risk, customer satisfaction) and add to that the struggle to satisfy executive management & your team members, it often feels like one is fighting a loosing battle.
Communicating the impact of changes or demands to different stakeholders can become an indispensable tool in this fight. After all, not satisfying stakeholders’ needs could result in influential people putting boulders in your path, whereas agreeing to everyone’s demands will result in either one, or many, of the following: scope creep, schedule delay, cost over-runs, decreased quality, unidentified risks or a dissatisfied customer.
Considering that the Project Manager ‘needs’ to be pro-active and ‘needs’ to anticipate problems, here’s how you can foresee your stakeholders’ demands and be ready to communicate how fulfilling their demands will hurt their own interests.
Customer Expecting Gold Plating
In many industries, this is not very uncommon, either due to a pre-existing trend, failure to define & communicate scope or just a demanding customer. To deal with this situation a project manager needs to have knowledge of the scope in the contract, the pricing, and what impact the customer demands will have on the Project Goals. Obviously adding functionality to a product or performing more services than in the contract will have an impact on the schedule, (someone’s) cost, and could even in some cases decrease quality etc. Once equipped with all this knowledge, all the Project Manager has to do is to communicate how fulfilling the customer’s request will ultimately hurt the projects goals. Once this notification is made by the Project Manager using formal written communications, the customer will back down.
Executive Management Cutting Resources
Executive Management keeps their eyes on the bottom line, and, often, the resources spent in executing a project (especially while ramping up exponentially to meet deadlines) do not appear to translate into good ROI. This is a scenario where the Project Manager can use different progress reports to demonstrate how the project is on track and how cutting back on resources at this stage will ultimately result in greater investments to undo any damage caused by resource shortage, overloading of workers or use of substandard materials.
Politics & Issues of Ethics
There are some scenarios in Projects that every Project Manager will come to face, sooner or later, that are so critical that the decisions made by the Project manager will determine their continuation on the project. Scenarios like, an executive having an existing relationship with a supplier and demanding the use of such a supplier. Or someone with influence requesting the removal of a key team member due to personality differences.
In Scenarios like these, even though there is no silver bullet that will result in the whole situation going away, many consequences can be minimized by putting in formal writing, the impact on quality in the project that will be brought about by using an inferior supplier or, the impact on schedule that will be brought due to the absence of a key team member whose removal is being required.
Cover Your Bases
Even though communicating the impact of stakeholders’ demands will not always result in tables being turned in your favor, at the least, it will arm you with a written document that you can point to and say ‘I told you so!’, once your warnings become reality.
© 2009 Saad Farooqi
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