5 WAYS TO ACCOMPLISH “A WELL DELIVERED PROJECT”

When one thinks of a successful project, what are the first things to come to mind? Probably certain things from a golden triangle, like all items from the agreed scope were delivered the project was completed on time and hopefully the agreed budget was respected so the final costs do not deviate that much. And of course, the software works, no one wants to compromise on quality. One might also think about the customer, did we get a good feedback? And don’t forget about your team, ideally you want to see them satisfied from accomplishing the goal and ready to take new challenges.

Quite often the goal of the project is to complete the tasks, reach the milestones, verify the contractual delivery and close the project. If everything has gone well until delivery and the customer is happy, it often feels like a good place to shut down the project, hope for the best and move on. But the real value of the project and what was delivered only becomes apparent later, in the daily use of the solutions. This is where it becomes clear whether it is in fact "a well-delivered project". This can of course be measured and evaluated, but the interesting question here is what you can do from the start to ensure that you deliver the right thing. I have 5 good suggestions for what can lead to a much better experience for both the customer and the service provider.

1.?????Create transparency in the collaboration

I bet most of us would be disappointed finding out that half of the work we have done was wasted because nobody is using the product or specific feature we worked on, it is not solving the initial problem, or we simply didn’t understand the needs of the customer (literally or by working with unclear requirements). In order to avoid that, we can take a hint from one of the pillars of Agile: “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation”. And if we focus on the collaboration part, then transparency is a key ingredient to achieve the desired results. Make it visible for everyone: what is the work being done, what are the requirements, what are the goals of your customer, product, sprint.

?2.?????Focus on the value of the delivered product

At the end of the day, it will bring much more satisfaction and pride knowing that your product or service has improved the life of the customer or the end user. On the contrary, it may be quite unpleasant to look back at your work and ask yourself – have we delivered the right thing?

Here are couple of things to consider improving the value of the delivered product or service:

o??The value for the business should be clear

o??Features that are actually solving the problems

o??Try to create a working product often and review

o??Get the feedback and adjust the plan

?3.?????Make sure you understand the stakeholders

This goes hand in hand with the first two points. The way we are collaborating with stakeholders can be determinative for the success of the project and delivering the right thing.

Do we often reflect on how we communicated during the project? We know that it should not be a “one-way street”, meaning the kickoff meetings, the status calls, and updates are not for you to promote or enforce your way of working, your procedures, not just to inform about your progress. You want to get feedback, find any gaps, clarify the needs and pains. But are we always open to listen? And how do we ask questions? We should try not to leave a meeting with question marks.

Since the network of stakeholders can be complex, another point to consider relates to understanding the interest in the project from different groups of people. Separate workstreams with different stakeholders sometimes may contradict the project goal, and we need to make sure to identify and solve a possible clash of interests.

Here are a couple of suggestions to consider improving the stakeholder engagement:

o??Make the stakeholders feel included and heard

o??Find a way to communicate as often as needed to make sure decisions are taken at the right time

o??Value transparency and openness, and promote those values

o??Try to build a trustworthy relationship where all stakeholders see each other’s as partners

?4.?????Ensure the individuals work together as a team on a common goal

?It would certainly not be a breakthrough to state that successful projects are delivered by successful teams. And the key word here is team, meaning that even the smallest task, or the smallest project that can be potentially done by one person, most likely will benefit from someone else’s contribution. So, when we rely on teams, on group efforts, to deliver the best results, how can we make sure that the team is really working together as “a team”? What is it so important for a group of individuals to be able to work together on a common goal? Lets’ look at a couple of suggestions that in my opinion are crucial for reaching the best results.

o??Explain why – Yes, this is not new either, we all want to understand why we are doing all these tasks and where we are heading. Probably each single company has its vision, goals and roadmaps, target revenues and many more reasons to strive for. And we all accept that since we also want our company to succeed. But is it only necessary to explain “why” for strategic initiatives? Should it only come from top management and relate to the whole organization? I believe there is a purpose for almost everything we do in our daily activities, and clear understanding of why we do certain actions, what are they contributing to and how, who will benefit from it, can change the way we perceive our work. So why don’t we create this mutual understanding while setting the common goals for the team, together with the team and make everyone’s contribution to the goal transparent.

o??Psychological safety – have you ever paid attention to the atmosphere in the team? Have you noticed how they communicate during your team meetings, like stand ups, planning and most important retrospectives or lessons learnt sessions? Does everyone feel comfortable sharing their challenges, asking for help, and asking “stupid” questions? In best performing teams, colleagues are not afraid of being judged or to appear unprofessional, but actually rely on the support and see the team as a temple of wisdom. And one of the most important questions – does everyone in your team feel safe in making mistakes? The answer to this question can give you more than you expect. Yes, we all make mistakes sometimes, but the point is that to make a mistake, we need to make a decision, we need to act and take responsibility. And the most importantly – we learn from mistakes (at least we know exactly what to avoid in the future :-) ).

o??Trust – an essential ingredient in building the best performing teams. Since we are talking about teams and team effort in creating the best solution or delivering the best service, we need to be sure that colleagues trust each other. And this is not only about the assigned work, but it goes deeper. It includes support in making decisions, help in solving issues and advice how to improve yourself.

o??Commitment – another backbone of successfully delivered projects.

The beauty of working in the team is to have different opinions, diverse ways of seeing the problem and solving it. We all like to discuss, analyze and share opinions. But we also argue and sometimes criticize (opinions, not people!). But in the end of the day (or planning session :-) ) the team is agreeing on the plan, solution, way of working… That is a commitment to deliver with a focus on the goal that everyone agreed to. Without such commitments, projects can run into serious problems.

?5.??????Renew your role as Project manager and motivator

Last but not least, it is important to look at the position and the role of Project manager in modern projects. And I use the term “modern”, since in my opinion, the days of reward and punishment as the main driver for progress has overall long gone. A lot of things have changed for the past 2-3 decades – the working culture, mentality, composition of teams, location of team members, approaches and attitudes on one end, and business demands, customer expectations, communication patterns, velocity of changes on the other hand. All these changes have pushed organizations to realize that no one can stay in a frozen, comfortable bubble, but instead we need to adapt and be flexible.

So, going back to teams, and managing teams… I think I was lucky enough for the past 14 years to work with very professional teams with high sense of responsibility. Our working culture made the concept of “old school boss” who knows everything and everyone is afraid of, just alien to us. But that is not always the case. If the work needs to be supervised and enforced there is always a cap to the efficiency of performed work. And this cap is not that high. When you try to control you sacrifice the creativity, you set boundaries on actions your team can perform.

If some of you may still have an idea that teams cannot perform without direct and active management, that they will just do nothing when no one is watching, then I think a terrific book from Daniel Pink, “Drive”, is a good place to start to get some ideas of what motivates people.

“we have three innate psychological needs—competence, autonomy, and relatedness. When those needs are satisfied, we’re motivated, productive, and happ
―?Daniel H. Pink,?Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”.y        

Anyway, if the ideas brought up in this article are implemented, the job of project manager is becoming quite satisfying and brings much less grey hair :)