Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

“Most people enter a new situation with a basic level of trust…” Ways to Build Trust… 0. Trust other people Address issues directly Share relevant information Follow through on commitments or give early notice when you can’t Say no when you mean no. Show what you know and what you don’t know. “Most people enter a new situation with a basic level of trust…” Esther Derby StickyMinds.com Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Chapter 7 Creating a Great Project Team Two parts to getting “there”: Hire or attract good people Grow better people once you get them Facilitate members to work together as a high-performing team. Take responsibility for making this happen! Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Team Roles Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Helping the team Jell Agreement on common goal! Commit to each other about their interdependent tasks. Buy-in on the approach to work. Begin by agreeing to short term goals… to be accomplished together. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Have the right tools! Software Configuration Management System Subversion 1. Replacement for CVS in the open source community 2. Software is released under an Apache/BSD-style (open source license. http://subversion.tigris.org/) Defect/Issue Tracking System (DTS)  Defects over time  Priority & Severity  Status of Defect  Age of Defect  Report information Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Team Dynamics Five Stages of a Team FORMING, STORMING, NORMING and PERFORMING Bruce Tuckman produced one of the most quoted models of group development. Tuckman’s description of the stages in the original article… http://www.infed.org/thinkers/tuckman.htm Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

FORMING Groups initially concern themselves with orientation accomplished primarily through testing. Such testing serves to identify the boundaries of both interpersonal and task behaviors. Coincident with testing in the interpersonal realm is the establishment of dependency relationships with leaders, other group members, or pre‑existing standards. It may be said that orientation, testing and dependence constitute the group process of FORMING. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

STORMING The second point in the sequence is characterized by conflict and polarization around interpersonal issues, with concomitant emotional responding in the task sphere. These behaviors serve as resistance to group influence and task requirements and may be labeled as STORMING. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

NORMING Resistance is overcome in the third stage in which in-group feeling and cohesiveness develop, new standards evolve, and new roles are adopted. In the task realm, intimate, personal opinions are expressed. Thus, we have the stage of NORMING. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

(Tuckman 1965 - page 78 in the 2001 reprint) PERFORMING Finally, the group attains the fourth and final stage in which interpersonal structure becomes the tool of task activities. Roles become flexible and functional, and group energy is channeled into the task. Structural issues have been resolved, and structure can now become supportive of task performance. This stage can be labeled as PERFORMING. (Tuckman 1965 - page 78 in the 2001 reprint) Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Model allowing for issues recurring at different points in a group's life. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Organization “A structure through which individuals cooperate systematically to conduct business.” Functional Organizations Pure Project Organization Conventional Matrix Organization Visualizing Project Management Forsberg, Mooz and Cotterman, Wiley 2000 Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Pure Functional – Skill Centers Strengths Skill development Technology development Technology transfer Low talent duplication High personnel loyalty Weaknesses Customer interface unclear Project priority unclear Confused communications Schedule/cost controls are difficult Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Pure Functional – Product Centers Strengths Product development Technology development High personnel loyalty Weaknesses Customer interface unclear Technology transfer difficult Project priorities unclear Communications confused Schedule/cost controls are difficult Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Pure Project Organization Strengths Accountability clear Customer interface clear Controls strong Communications strong Balances technical, cost & schedule Weaknesses Talent duplications Technology awareness Technical sharing Career development Hire/fire Staffing irregular workloads Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Conventional Matrix Organization Strengths Single point accountability Customer interface clear Rapid reaction Duplication reduced Technology development Career development Disbanded easily Weaknesses High management skill level required Competition for resources Lack of employee recognition Management cooperation required Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Types of Project Teams Functional Team Different PM for each function Fighting the silo mentality Matrix Team Members report to functional manager “When everyone owes their allegiance to the project, you have more responsibility…” Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

How large a team? Nine, max! Greater than 9… dynamics change Sub teams form When to add more? Changes dynamics New hires reduce team productivity What skills do you need? Interpersonal skills Domain experience Tools & technology expertise Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

What Interpersonal Skills? Active listener Good at negotiating Can write! Goal oriented Care about team members Can deal with ambiguity Can manage the details Problem-solving abilities Introspective – continual improvement mentality Can lead – steer – with buy-in! What is missing? Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Good exercise for revealing hidden expectations The Rule of Three Good exercise for revealing hidden expectations “If you can’t think of three things that might cause your great idea to fail, all that means is that you haven’t thought enough about it yet.” One alternative is a trap (easy to dismiss) Two alternatives are a dilemma (what to do) Three alternatives start everyone thinking about the proposed solution Gerald Weinberg Exploring Requirements: Quality before Design Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

What functional (technical) skills? Understanding of problem domain & solutions domain Able to fit different life cycle process to the project Able to schedule a project Able to estimate & coach others at estimating Able to assess risks and manage the risks Able to monitor project status Able to track what is done and what is not! How technical do you have to be? Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Technical knowledge – yes! But, how much technical contribution can you make? “ If you’re managing the project, helping people see the goal, removing obstacles, and monitoring progress, you don’t have time to contribute technically.” Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

When you (as a PM) are not right for the organization You have no choice about team members Meetings are wasted time Your manager is not supportive Your sponsor insists that people multitask You are supposed to contribute technically Management imposes silos Your project is not provided with needed resources Bad news is greeted with “you’re not a team player” Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

… but, if you stay too long Dilbert Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

When you’re not right for the team You don’t know how the team works, and you don’t understand the problem the project is trying to solve. Your manager wants to “help”, and you can’t push back. You know TOO much to manage. Your job is to remove obstacles, manage risks, and help the team finish the project successfully! TIPS: - Risky projects require a diversely talented team - Develop your interpersonal, functional, domain & nontechnical skills - Know when to leave Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

When to leave… Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman