Finding the Direction of Your Projects

Projects - I Project Myself into the Future?

Projects are funny creatures. Our organization needs some changes and these changes have been endorsed (or at least desired) by management. Perhaps initiating a new product to open new markets. Perhaps a change of vendor to cut costs. Perhaps a new business partnership to leverage each other's expertise. We want to be somewhere different. And we believe this difference is better.

There are times when a project must happen, for business to continue. I was in such a project. The international headquarters of a vendor got into a financial scandal - one leading to the bankruptcy of the MNC. Internal compliance officers had made a firm decision to stop dealing with the local subsidiary. Time was of the essence. Important client information was with the vendor - it must be purged. Key services are still provided by the vendor - a replacement is required, as soon as possible. The vendor's workers are resigning, fast - we have to 'catch' them quickly, to ensure knowledge transfer to the new vendor. In the end, the transition was successful. A new vendor took over. The project was closed with operations going as per usual.

There are times when a project will mutually benefit organizations. A project I was part of involved the cooperation of two complementary services. Both organizations could do without one another. With cooperation, however, the partner organization could offer greater services that are welcomed by their customers and my organization can cross-sell services to more customers without actively recruiting. There were preferred deadlines and budgets to keep to. But as the project progresses, more requirements from management also implies the scope, budget, and timeline have to be adapted to meet the newer directions. The project was completed with the partner offering a co-brand membership to all their customers, and my organization gained a steady supply of customers making up around 20-30% of our customer base.

WHO AM I? - An Operations Support Team Member Turned Project Manager

"Projects can feel like walking on constantly changing terrains. However, a good project manager will help the team meneauver back on proper track -- toward the organization's strategic interests." ~Holmes Teng

? I have been involved in projects for more than 5 years of my professional life. In my earlier days, I relied on on-the-job training (figuring things out quickly on the go). As I manage more complex projects, I relied on project management tools and concepts.

? In 2021, I am a certified Scrum Product Owner and ScrumMaster. In 2022, I completed a Master's Level module in Information Technology (IT) Project Management.

However, projects were not the core feature of my career. My earliest projects were part of my mandatory military service (aka National Service in Singapore). Then, routine administrative work took up over 90% of my time - such as entering data, summarizing data for management, and ensuring that there is proper circulation of information. It is part of this routine work that I initiated projects to improve operational flows, saving between 5 to 20% of person-hours on different projects.

I continue to manage and participate in various projects at my job at an educational institution. Adding on to improving operational flows, this job requires a focus on using data to understand customers and operational issues better. There was the use of excel to visualize data, and the use of multiple data sources to identify that more than 30% of customers were asking for a particular service to be released.

Then, during my time at a statutory board, I transitioned from managing and participating in projects part-time to managing projects full-time. The benefits of my projects to the statutory board ranged from 20-40% decreases in costs to use hardware equipment, at least $20,000 in yearly troubleshooting costs to appease hundreds of annoyed customers, and the introduction of a new recruitment channel ensuring thousands of uniquely new customers yearly.

? The most exciting projects were also the most challenging ones. There were so many problems, but going through them was fascinating.

1. In a high profile project, a core stakeholder could not meet the originally sequential list of activities to ensure product readiness. In the next best alternative, 4 groups of stakeholders on highly tight timelines had to agree to accept more work and manage the additional works simultaneously with the original set of work. This event pushed the negotiation skills of my team to the limit. At the same time, it was one of the best learning opportunities for me. I saw how different levels of management saw different stakes in the same project.
2. In another project, management decided that a project had to be halted right when the project teams were ready to go into the most intensive executive stages. I learned firsthand how the survival of a project is dependent on support from senior management. Then, one year later, there was another project considering a component of the previous project. Yet, because the project was so hastily halted a year ago, with the intent that the project will never be revived, the documentation kept was poor. Recovering knowledge meant that similar sets of requirements gathering had to be done. Loose pieces of requirements had to be re-gathered, and work partially done had to be re-collected. However, no two projects are exactly the same. Similarly, even if the component looks very similar, due to the strategic interests being different, some requirements (timeline, objectives) also change. After salvaging for information for a few days, it was decided to keep things simple, identify the core objectives that must be achieved, and complete those. There is no need to expand the project scope to cover a whole list of low impact problems. There was no need to rock the boat when we can continue to thrive and improve with the current boat.

Why am I interested in projects?

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." ~Albert Einstein

Projects are exciting for me. From one aspect, projects imply change and improvements. Have you ever wondered how what you are doing can be done better? I always do, especially after repeating a routine a few times. Can I eliminate some steps and still achieve the same results? Can some processes be automated to improve efficiency and accuracy? These questions can come from any aspect of life. How about a play or musical scene and observing the steps? How about the process of a home-cooked meal? How about the process of travelling using public transport? In each area of life, there are many ways to achieve an outcome. The process of exploration can be fun, and the different sets of outcomes when revealed can be exciting.

In the process of each project, there were countless things that could have been done but only realized after it was too late. Yet, that is the fun part. Circumstances change and as the team leader, the project manager must act on a best effort basis to move the team forward. Then, as the project moves, set aside time for reflections and learning. Learning can be about the partner, the business environment, the nature of the project, or even about how individual personalities jell best in the project team. With these learning points, in addition to achieving organisational goals in the projects, the project team members also become better contributors to the organisation.

Hope you have enjoyed reading.?

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