Breaking the Chains of Project Management Dysfunction

Right now, you are sitting in front of your computer and wondering how, based on current project status, you will achieve your remaining project goals for the year or achieve those planned for the new year.

There is a very good chance that you are stressed and worried, uncertain about achieving these goals. And even if you do make it, it's shaping up to be a very challenging journey.

You wonder why this keeps happening year after year.

At ProPharma, we believe this process should not be stressful and daunting, but rather a manageable and achievable part of the project management execution life cycle. In fact, it should be fun.

As project teams head into the fourth quarter, they tend to fall into one of three categories:

1. Confident and In Control. They are performing as expected per the project plan and have successfully managed all issues/risks that have thus far revealed themselves. They will likely complete the project by year-end.
2. Stressed Out and Chaotic. They are not performing as expected per the project plan and they are struggling to address the issues/risks that have thus far revealed themselves. It is highly unlikely they will complete the project by the end of the year.
3. Cluelessly Churning. Leadership has limited visibility and oversight into these teams' progress. The project scope has not been properly defined, have minimal awareness of their status, definition of done, or project dependencies. They are trying to address the issues/risks as they reveal themselves with mixed results. It is anyone's guess if they will achieve project completion by the end of the year as project direction continues to meander.

Why aren't all companies nearing successful completion of their calendar year goals like (1)? What can project teams representing (2) and (3) do to improve their situation?

We have solutions that can help teams regain control, achieve project clarity, and move from chaos to confidence.

The Challenges & Recommendations

These challenges are chains impeding a project team's ability to successfully achieve their goals. Breaking these chains will require a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges, determining how the project team got there, and deciding how to effectively resolve the issues so that they can achieve successful project execution.

The most common challenges a project team will find themselves struggling with are:

• Lack of skills, capabilities, availability
• Overly ambitious project planning
• Excessive re-work or getting unplanned work
• Lack of project oversight
• Team denial of project status

Project Team Lacks Skills, Capabilities, Or Availability

Some project teams are not effective because they lack the skills and capabilities to successfully deliver their projects. Why? Potentially a mix of staff availability, staff expertise, and competing priorities. In other situations, project teams try to execute the project with whatever internal resources have the bandwidth but are not necessarily ideal for the team.

How to Address

• Evaluate resource needs: Review the work planned over the project's lifecycle. Determine if you have the available resources who are skilled to deliver the project on-time and within budget. If not, determine an alternate approach (e.g., identify external partners to complement your internal team).
• Reassess skill sets of team members: If current team members lack: (1) the necessary skills, (2) availability to deliver, or (3) decision-making authority, ask them to re-evaluate their commitment and appropriateness for the project. If they're not the right fit, then roll them off immediately.
• Prioritize project success over learning: If the success of this project means moving it away from it being a learning experience for less skilled resources to a time/cost/compliance critical activity, it is not doing the project team any favors having an unskilled resource or one with less than required availability on the team. Prioritze project success and do not apologize for that.

Project Planning is overly ambitious

Project teams sometimes determine that they can complete a scope of work even if it is too much work to do given the size of the team, not enough time available, or too complex for the team to handle. However, they have signed off on the scope and are trying valiantly, yet futilely, to complete the project.

How to Address

• Re-scope if possible:
  • Assess what is realistic for the remainder of the year given project parameters (e.g., capacity, scope, budget).
  • Transition any remaining scope to the following year.
  • Obtain approval from senior leadership to confirm the adjusted path.
• If re-scoping is not an option:
  • Increase staffing or bring in additional support.
  • Set up "war rooms" to enhance team collaboration, focus intensively on project goals, and proactively monitor progress.
  • Reallocate team ongoing responsibilities temporarily to ensure full attention on project goals and tasks.

The project team has to balance scope with time, budget, and resources available to achieve their project goals – some difficult decisions may need to be made. It may be very painful, but it is quite possible to complete the project on time at the expected level of excellence.

Excessive re-work or getting unplanned work

Some project teams struggle with successfully completing their deliverables, due to never-ending revisions or rework. In other situations, they have determined that X deliverables are needed for project completion, but they keep getting new unplanned deliverables added to their scope. Project teams find themselves rarely able to truly complete a deliverable – putting on-time project completion in jeopardy.

How to Address

• Define Deliverables:
  • Clearly identify required and planned deliverables.
  • Set criteria for what constitutes "complete" for each deliverable and ensure everyone drives toward that standard.
  • While a perfect deliverable would be ideal in all situations, it is not necessary for every situation and the project team has to accept that and get the work done.
• Assign the Right Personnel:
  • Ensure the appropriate team members are responsible for driving each deliverable to completion.
  • Avoid assigning tasks to individuals who lack the skill sets to deliver, as this can lead to lower quality and continually "churning to completion" deliverables.
• Control Scope Creep:
  • If new deliverables are proposed, implement a strict and heavily scrutinized evaluation process for scope additions.
  • At a minimum, assess each addition for risk, timing, and effort on the overall project before deciding to include it in the scope.

Lack of Project Oversight

Project teams sometimes lack the project leadership needed to successfully reach project completion. Hence, there is someone who is functioning as the decision-maker and is not effectively making decisions in a time-sensitive manner. This individual may not have enough transparency to the project or have enough information to make the right decision. Finally, they may lack the temerity to make the difficult decisions the project requires.

How to Address

• Strong Project Sponsorship is Required
  • Clear understanding of project goals, timelines, rationale, progress, and key issues/risks.
  • Knowledgeable and empowered to make decisions (popular/unpopular).
  • The sponsor should have the authority to remove obstacles to ensure the project stays on track.
• High-Performing Sponsor is Required:
  • An under-performing project sponsor is not acceptable; they must be engaged and actively support and guide the project.
• Accountable Sponsor:
  • The project sponsor (or oversight group) holds ultimate accountability for project success, NOT the project manager or team members.

Team denial of Project Status

The project team keeps reporting that the project is "green." But, they are missing deadlines, the wrong people are supporting the project or functioning as project managers, dependencies are not all identified, and/or there are huge financial/compliance impacts if the project continues to be delayed. How can a project team, based in reality with these problems, identify themselves as "green?"

How to Address

• Active Engagement from the Project Sponsor:
  • The sponsor or oversight entity must stay closely involved to hold the team accountable and provide a clear perspective on the project's status.
  • They must play a crucial role in enabling effective decision-making and supporting the project team.
• Objective Project Management:
  • The project manager should maintain a transparent, realistic view of the project's current state and team performance.
  • Proactively escalate issues and risks to ensure they're addressed promptly.
• Culture of Transparency:
  • The entire project team should embrace transparency, recognizing that highlighting issues is an essential and necessary part of successful project execution.
• There is no shame in "red" or "yellow," as you can highlight items which must be proactively addressed and define the approach to address those items.

As you are sitting in front of your computer, completing this document, hopefully you feel empowered – don't give up. Given our field of pharmaceutical/medical devices, we strongly believe that the work we do is ultimately in the service of our client's patient population. This group deserves a project management capability in which we commit ourselves to our highest standard of delivery by overcoming the challenges that encumber us. By doing this, we should be able to deliver our projects on time, under budget, and at the expected level of quality, breaking the chains of project management dysfunction. Contact us if you need help with your project management.

Author

Rob Turner

Senior Vice President, R&D Life Sciences Consulting