Project Management for a Functional World

By Ronald N. Goulden, MBA, PMP

No book can ever address every possibility. To have value, a book must address a specific need of the reader. With this in mind, I have written this book, not with the aim of making anyone a Project Management Professional (PMP(r)), but to help apply some common Project Management concepts. Hopefully, this book will enable other emerging project managers to 'side-step' some of the common pitfalls and political 'landmines' that await them.
The intent of this book is not to be a rehashed version of The Project Management Institute's (PMI(r)) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK(r)). Many excellent books already address these topics very well. The aim of this book is to provide some assistance and insights for Project Managers who might find themselves overwhelmed by the PMBOK(r), or a new Project Manager who wants some help getting started and getting organized. It can provide some hints on how to get started and organized.
The goal of this book is to provide some insights and guidance for those Project Managers who find themselves managing projects in a functional or weak matrix organizational structure; organizational structures in which the Project Manager has little if any official authority or power. Typically, these will be organizations that have gained a nebulous realization of the benefits of Project Management; but have not fully committed to converting to a strong matrix or project-based organizational structure.
This book takes the readers beyond the theoretical aspects of Project Management and introduces them to some practical applications of the trade. While much of the focus of this book will be on the Information Technology industry; the tips, tools, and techniques introduced here can apply to any project in any industry and will support revenue projects as well as development projects.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ronald N. Goulden, MBA, PMP
• Release date: Oct 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311017604

Ronald N. Goulden, MBA, PMP

Ronald Goulden has written novels and stories for thirty years. Having served in Viet Nam as a Translator/Interpreter, He quickly adapts to new cultures and sees a story or an adventure everywhere. He has ‘dabbled’ in witchcraft, though he is not a witch. All of his novels and stories have interconnecting threads that link them into a larger universe, spanning space and time. Some of the links are obvious, while others are very subtle. Some of the events in the stories are based on real life, while others are pure fiction. The distinction between fact and fiction is up to the reader. Having studied witchcraft many years earlier, it had always been in my mind. When I became an IT Director for the Farm Credit bank system in Wichita, I observed the ‘power’ a small group of ladies expressed over others in the bank and their general disdain for many of the men. I had also researched the BTK Killer during his spree and developed a program that allowed me to ‘predict’ his next attacks. As such, I saw the potential for violence in anyone. After being treated rather rudely by the band of bank beauties, I decided to write a story to explain their odd and overbearing personalities. Using newspaper stories and personal experiences, I settled on baby sacrifices and Satanism. While the personalities and physical attributes are based upon real people I knew at the time, their involvement is this story is purely fiction. There are many ‘links’ in this story to the other novels I’ve written over time, essentially building an alternate universe.

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Project Management for a Functional World

Copyright © 2011

Ronald N. Goulden, MBA, PMP

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Cover design by Ronald Goulden

PMI and the PMI logo are service and trademarks registered in the United States and other nations; PMP and the PMP logo are certification marks registered in the United States and other nations; PMBOK is a trademark registered in the United States and other nations.

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Table of Contents

Overview

Organizational Structures

What is Project Management?

Project Methodology

Project Initiation

Planning

Execution

Control

Close-out

Prioritization

Quality Control

Analytical Tools

Security

Leadership

PM Tools

Glossary

Additional Works

Introduction

Traditional Project Management books tend to focus on the theory of Project Management as it relates to the PMBOK®. While this is the foundational starting point for any career as a Project Manager, many of the books tend to look and read the same, almost as a study guide for the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification exam. Occasionally, one can gather a tidbit of new information from reading through the vast array of Project Management books.

With over thirty years of Information Technology and Project Management experience, I have constantly looked for ways to simplify my work and to make my efforts more efficient. With that principle in mind, I wrote this book as a divergent path on Project Management. The intent behind my efforts is not to replace the works of other Project Management authors, but to supplement their work, especially with respect to using Project Management in a functional environment. I do this by providing a different perspective.

I hope to take the reader beyond the theoretical aspects of Project Management and introduce some practical applications of the trade. While much of the focus of this book will be on the Information Technology industry; the tips, tools, and techniques introduced here can apply to any project in any industry and will support revenue projects as well as development projects.

While most Project Management books focus on the theoretical, those concepts can be a daunting experience to try to implement in real-life, which often involves projects in a functional organizational structure. This book will help the reader implement Project Management in a functional environment and provide some guidance to avoid common pitfalls.

Remember that it is a natural tendency to resist change and managers at any level are often reluctant to change the status quo. Project Management represents organizational change to many functional managers, who may perceive the Project Manager as a threat to their sphere of control and will resist this change.

The structure of the book will briefly touch on the standard concepts covered by most Project Management references. However, entirely new concepts and capabilities may be introduced in each chapter. In addition, the subjects of project prioritization, staffing, quality, and reporting will be covered in detail.

The book will offer detailed explanations of proprietary software tools to make the Project Manager more efficient and an innovator in his or her organization. Some of these tools include SmartWBS, SmartPath, and the Project Management Templates. In fact, these Project Management Templates can fulfill a variety of Project Management needs including monitoring, controlling, reporting, and evaluating. They can provide a foundation for developing a custom Project Management Methodology, tailored to the specific needs of the individual Project Manager or organization.

Also included are certain tracts and treatises on a wide variety of topics relating to project management. They all offer sound advice. Some are based on hard learned lessons and others are anecdotal in nature.

Over the course of my career, I came to realize that many Project Managers often become ‘enraptured’ with their Project Management software, spending more time managing their software than they spend managing the project. Any software should be considered a tool to aid in the management of the project, rather than the definition of the project. With that in mind, I’ve developed an Excel® spreadsheet that provides a significant amount of flexibility for the Project Manager, while minimizing the effort of managing and reporting a project.

Ultimately, the Earned Value Management (EVM) tab in the spreadsheet can act as the ‘dashboard for the Project Manager. The goal in developing this tool was to adhere to the concept of ‘Enter Once, Use Many’. In other words, the interlinked pages of the spreadsheet templates allow a single entry item to replicate across multiple pages and documents.

I have found that this tool is quite adequate for short to medium duration projects. I have also tried to keep the tool scalable so that templates do not burden the Project Manager and the project with unnecessary ‘bureaucratic’ steps. The idea is to allow the Project Manager to define and represent the project, using a standard set of look and feel documents, with a minimal amount of effort. The needs of each project determine what documents are necessary, rather than the tool defining the needs of the project.

This tool provides a flexible framework for the new or inexperienced Project Manager, while introducing a library of templates for the more experienced Project Manager. The underlying principle to remember is that this is just a tool to help the Project Manager and is not the project itself.

The templates discussed in this book should provide some inspiration for the enthusiastic Project Manager to develop his or her own tools. These are presented as discussion points and are not intended to replace any existing Project Management system.

While the examples in this book make extensive use of my existing Project Management Methodology, the examples are intended to invoke curiosity and an awareness of possibilities, not to promote a new methodology. My Project Management Methodology will be discussed in detail in a different book titled: Project Management: Tools, Tips, & Techniques with a downloadable spreadsheet template.

As a final note, there are countless companies that offer excellent Project Management Methodologies (PMM). Many times, their sales representatives will chuckle if you mention using a spreadsheet to manage a project. Keep in mind that your job is to manage the project to the best of your ability, not help ‘sell’ someone else’s product. If spreadsheets work for you don’t waste the money of an expensive package. If you need more than a spreadsheet can provide, then by all means research the available options.

Ultimately you want to be able to manage your project and present progress and status to the stakeholders in a meaningful and consistent manner. With this brief introduction, we can begin exploring Project Management in a functional environment.

Chapter I – Overview

Why This Book?

There are already a large number of Project Management books available on the market. Many of them are excellent resources for all levels of Project Managers, ranging from novice to expert. So one has to ask, why this book? What is unique about this book?

I have found that many of the books currently on the market tend to focus on the theoretical aspects of Project Management without providing any real guidance or tools of substance for the functional world. Many of them aim more at passing the Project Management Professional (PMP®) exam than actually providing useful information to the working Project Manager.

The goal of this book is to provide some insights and guidance for those Project Managers who find themselves managing projects in a functional or weak matrix organizational structure; organizational structures in which the Project Manager has little if any official authority or power. Typically, these will be organizations that have gained a nebulous realization of the benefits of Project Management; but have not committed to converting to a strong matrix or project-based organizational structure.

The intent of this book is not to be a rehashed version of The Project Management Institute’s (PMI®) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®). Many excellent books already address these topics very well. The intent of this book is to provide some assistance and insights for Project Managers who might find themselves overwhelmed by the PMBOK®, or a new Project Manager who wants some help getting started and getting organized.

In addition, many of the books promote the author’s own specialized Project Management Methodology (PMM), which is a set of templates, steps, practices, procedures, and rules for managing a project. The focus of these books is on the PMM rather than on the practical application of Project Management. While this book will reference some proprietary templates and tools, it is with the intent of providing examples rather than promoting the sales of templates, tools, and services.

There are many excellent Project Management methodologies available for the Project Manager to adopt. All too often, these proprietary Project Management Methodologies (PMM) are not scalable, meaning they attempt to be ‘one-size fits all’. This can result in a lot of extra work for the Project Manager who has to learn how to make the PMM work in his or her environment. In some cases, the work associated with learning and completing all of the templates, steps, practices, procedures, and rules requires more time and effort than the project work itself. There is no ‘magic pill’ for Project Management. Each Project Manager must find the set of tools that meets the needs of their organization.

The goal of this book is to provide any Project Manager with real world advice and tools that will help them, regardless of their skill level or the size of their project. This is a good starting point for first-time Project Managers, or an experienced Project Manager that wants to implement a more standardized project methodology, but not necessarily invest the time required to make a commercial PMM work for them.

The viewpoint of this book will most often come from an Information Technology perspective. I do this for two reasons. First, I have thirty-six years of experience in the Information Technology field. Second, Information Technology historically has the greatest number of failed projects. Some estimates of IT Project failure are in excess of 60%, and this figure does not include projects that have been cancelled.

Just remember, Project Management is a lot of hard work.

Organizational Structures

In an ideal Project Management world, the Project Manager will work in a project-based organization in which functional sub-units support the needs of the project or program. However, relatively few organizations are willing to adopt this organizational structure due to the inefficiencies of having multiple functional units performing essentially the same activities for multiple projects or programs.

At the other end of the spectrum are the organizations that are structured around functional units such as accounting, legal, finance, Information Technology, etc. To be quite honest, most organizations will have a functional organizational structure. From the business perspective, this is the most cost-effective model.

Realistically, the most logically viable organizational structure for the Project Manager and the organization is a matrix organization. When properly implemented, it can represent a win-win situation for the Project Manager and the organization. The Project Manager has the authority and access to the resources necessary to fulfill the project requirements while the organization retains its functional efficiencies.

However, even in a matrix structure, there are functional issues and problems that the Project Manager must address. These issues include communications, authority, and the chain of command; all of which affect the prioritization of effort and focus of the team members. This book provides some guidance to these issues.

Functional Structure

The functional organizational structure is the most common structure found in American businesses. The functional organization is typically structured around ‘silos’ in which specific business activities, or functions, are grouped under managers with expert skill or knowledge about those activities. This type of structure provides great business efficiencies in that a single department within the organization performs all of the related activities for the organization. This provides better continuity and control, along with economic efficiencies.

However, this is probably the most difficult environment for the Project Manager. Typically, the functional managers are protective of their staff and resources and may be very politically oriented.

Even with a mandate from the executive levels within the organization, many functional managers are reluctant to relinquish control of their resources, even temporarily. They may view this as losing control or diminished power and prestige within the organization. In some cases, a functional manager may ‘sabotage’ a project or Project Manager to demonstrate their power and control.

The Project Manager must communicate with the functional managers and clearly define the roles, requirements, and responsibilities of each team member. It is equally important for the Project Manager to define the expected periods and durations for each functional team member’s active involvement in the project. This being said, there are distinct advantages for each team member to remain involved in the project, either actively or inactively, for the life of the project. While this defies conventional wisdom, the reasoning will become apparent as we progress through the book.

In the functional structure, the Project Manager has no real authority over the team members. Their involvement is by the good graces of the functional manager. All administrative, disciplinary, and performance issues remain in the strict domain of the functional manager. As such, the Project Manager has virtually no real control over the team members. In this environment, the Project Manager must learn to motivate and guide the team to successful project completion, under difficult circumstances. The Project Manager must be a leader.

Project-Based Structures

This is the ideal environment for a Project Manager. However, it may not be the most efficient structure from a business point of view. In this structure, all resources and staff are available from a ‘pool’. The Project Manager selects the resources and staff and has full administrative and budgetary responsibility for them.

In this type of organization, the Project Manager has full authority over the project, but also has full responsibility for all supporting aspects of the project. As such, this structure also requires that the Project Manager be able to manage different functional aspects of the project, such as accounting, legal, IT, procurement, etc. However, there will still be limited ‘political’ ramifications and distractions in this organizational structure as well.

Due to the inherent inefficiencies of redundant activities, few businesses will support a completely project-based structure. Logical exceptions are government agencies and businesses that perform projects as a core deliverable of their business.

Matrix Structures

The matrix organizational structure represents a compromise between the functional and project-based organizations. Depending on the organization’s commitment to Project Management, the matrix organization can resemble varying degrees of the functional organization to the fully project-based structure.

In many cases, when a traditional functional organization decides to support a formal Project Management concept, they opt for a weak matrix structure in which the Project Manager has only token authority. This also represents only a minor structural change to the organization and many mid-level managers are comfortable with this transition, often viewing the Project Manager as a powerless individual.

However, in many cases, this represents mere ‘lip service’ to the importance of Project Management. The organization executives may see the need for formalized Project Management and mandate its implementation, however, the mid-level and functional managers may not see the need and are reluctant to surrender any authority.

In this case, the Project Manager must work diligently to make the Project Management efforts successful and continually build on successes. Ultimately, the organization may move to a more balanced matrix structure in which the functional and Project Managers learn to ‘share’ resources and staff. Negotiations among the functional managers and the Project Managers as well as the political culture of the organization determine how much and to what degree this sharing occurs.

In a strong matrix organization, the Project Manager’s authority approaches that of a project-based organization, with the exception that the functional manager retains administrative responsibilities for the employees.

Ultimately, the balanced matrix organization probably represents the optimal organizational structure for most businesses. It provides appropriate levels of authority for the Project Manager along with financial efficiencies for the organization.

Always remember that even in this organizational structure, the Project Manager is working in what is essentially a functional environment. This mandates that the Project Manager have the ability to address the issues of communications, authority, the chain of command, prioritization of the efforts, and to focus the team members in a professional manner that provides a positive influence for the organization.

What is Project Management?

In order to define Project Management, one must first understand what constitutes a project.

Simply speaking, a project is any effort that produces a unique result within a defined range of time. A unique result can be a new product or service. However, in order to qualify as a project under industry-accepted standards, the effort must have a definite beginning and end.

If an effort is recurring without any uniqueness, by definition, it is not a project.

Typically, one should treat a recurring process as a separate issue. However, for the purpose of this book, keep in mind that many of the Project Management tools and techniques discussed here are available to manage some aspects of recurring processes as well as projects. Recurring processes represent operational functions within the organization and should not be managed by a Project Manager.

For the purpose of this book, there are three broad categories of projects: Development projects, Revenue projects, and other projects.

By definition, Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques in order to fulfill the needs of the project. The point to remember is that the Project Manager is the manager who is ultimately responsible for the outcome of the project. Regardless of organizational structure, the Project Manager is the person who is accountable for any project failures. That is why it is important that the Project Manager have the appropriate authority to fulfill the job requirements.

There is a huge laundry list of tools and techniques available for managing projects, and the Project Manager must decide which tools or techniques are applicable for each project or effort. This can be a confusing and daunting task in itself.

Any set of tools and techniques must be scalable to meet the needs of the individual Project Manager and the project itself. It makes no sense to spend ten hours of ‘paperwork’ for a one-hour project. The tools and techniques within the methodology must have a realistic return on investment, for the time the Project Manager spends using the methodology.

Only the Project Manager can identify the tools that fit the needs of his or her organization and personal management style. However, the wise Project Manager will sponsor a cross-functional team to approve the Project Management toolset. This cross-functional approval ensures some level of support for the methodology from the functional managers. Be aware that the higher level managers and executives may be ‘swayed’ by pretty graphs and dashboards.

Always remember that the Project Manager is solely responsible for the outcome of the project. If the project fails, it is the failure of the Project Manager, not the team members (even though the team members may have been instrumental in the project failure). Be aware that in most cases, the functional managers will establish and claim ‘plausible deniability’ for any project failures, even if the failure directly results from their own actions or inactions.

As a manager, the Project Manager is expected to execute the project within budgetary and schedule constraints and ensure that the work is being performed to a high standard of quality. Be aware that there will be individuals in any organization that may try to ‘take over’ a project that looks like it may be successful. Do not let that happen, it is a recipe for failure. The minute an ‘outsider’ takes over, the focus of the project will change.

Communications is the most important skill a Project Manager has. Typically, a Project Manager spends up to 90% of his or her time on communication activities. This communication can be phone calls, email, meetings, memos and documentation, or just walking around having ad hoc discussions with the team.

A good Project Manager is as much a leader as a manager and is aware of three critical knowledge skills. The Project Manager must know when to lead, when to follow, and when to get out of the way. There are times when an individual team member may take the lead in order to ensure that a particular function is performed properly. The wise Project Manager will recognize this and not block it. However, this is a temporary loan of the project leadership, not total abdication.

Development Projects

A development project is one in which something is created. In the Information Technology field, this can represent a program or new application system, installation and implementation of computer hardware, or adding new features to an existing program or system.

Typically, the deliverables of development projects are for use by the parent organization. While a development project may result in revenue increases for the parent organization, it generally is not defined as a revenue project since any revenue increases are the result of improved operational efficiencies, not necessarily as a direct result of the project itself.

Revenue Projects

A revenue project is one undertaken for the purpose of generating revenue for the parent company. Typically, consulting and outsourcing firms have revenue projects, or work-for-hire projects. Many times these projects are undertaken by offshore companies.

If the intent of the project is to produce a product or service for another entity and the sale of that product or service provided results in the generation of revenue to the parent company, then the project is a revenue project. Again, usually consulting or outsourcing firms work with revenue projects, as do some government agencies.

Other Project Types

Anything with a definite start and end that produces a unique product or service, or result is a project and can most likely benefit from the application of Project Management methodologies. With this in mind, virtually any human endeavor could be a project. Some common ‘other’ projects that come to