BTEC ICT - Talisha South: 2012

Dedicated and relentless business focus i.e a project /programme business case

• Persistent drive to provide clarity (hence the reasoning behind the name of my consultancy “Clarety” a play on the word “Clarity”)

• Behaving with integrity

• Personal energy and an ability to harness the energy of others

What do these values /behaviours actually mean:-

• Dedicated and relentless business focus. This is the total focus on a project or programme’s business case. This (agreed) document should identify key system features required to achieve specific business objectives /goals along with detailed costings & business benefits of the work undertaken.

A good project manager must make sure that this information is clearly interpretated and communicated down the project /programme organisational structure to minimise the gap between what your project team believes needs to be delivered and the expectations of the business people. This focus on business need and return on capital employed is essential to control change and limit the potential for scope creep.

• Persistent drive to provide clarity. This is often the most misunderstood of the values /behaviours.

It is vital to provide continuous transparency on the essential aspects of a project /programme of work from week to week, in a similar way that a car dashboard provides essential-fit-for-purpose information necessary for your safety and the car’s health. Without this steering or managing a project for success becomes impossible!!

• Integrity. This can be another troublesome area with clients. Organisations where IT projects /programmes fail regularly the incumbent IT management often survive through the use of well practiced Spin Management Techniques. Project Managers with Integrity can be regarded by clients as a spanner in the works of an effective spin machine, which has seen many bonuses paid and preserved many “jobs-for-the-boys”. The fact that a healthy injection of management integrity would help make IT Project Failures less frequent, and therefore reduce the need for a spin machine is often lost on such people.

General information
Projects rely on teams working well, and good teams are built on trust. Also, stakeholders need to be able to trust the project team because, while projects are transient, the customer has to live with the outcomes for many years – long after the project team has gone.

Without integrity trust disappears, teams don’t function effectively, and time is wasted because opinions are not respected. More time is spent protecting positions than in delivering the project. All the Project Managers gravitas and respect is lost, very often for good unless that manager moves to another organisation.

• Energy and an ability to harness energy in others. It is often stated that enthusiasm is a force multiplier where projects are concerned.

In other words the inner energy necessary to push the project forward is just not there. People, in my view, cannot be given this gift. They either have it, or not, and I never waste time mentoring such people. You either have the capacity to work 65 hour weeks, work late at night and run presentations at the weekend together with family commitments or not.

I believe energy is perhaps the greatest differentiation between good and bad project managers. Good Project Managers don’t leave on time, sit back, and monitor history: they actively go out and manage the future.

All good leaders exude and create energy and enthusiasm toward achieving their objectives – and project managers need to be good leaders.

They have to be able to drive the project forward, finding creative solutions and working in partnership to release the power of the individual and the team. They have to be able to motivate people and recognize the importance of acknowledging and rewarding achievement. Determination and persistence makes things happen.

it is about the focused application of influence and determination to find the means to deliver – not finding out why things can’t be done.