Project Management's 6 Foundations

Project Management is a technical role that requires both administrative and technical skills. To break down a PM’s role into the foundation skills you would require 6 basic skillsets. Apart from these skillsets the experienced PM should be a Subject Mater Expert (SME) to a level that the PM understands the technical language of what is being delivered. It is not a requirement to be a professional SME such as a Civil Engineer, Electrical Engineer, IT Developer, but it helps in some role requirements. With this stated, working over time on a projects, the beginner PM should pick up and understand the technical requirements and language making it easier to understand the flow of the project as well as enable the PM to communicate on a more technical level when it comes to risk management (solutions resolution).

Here are the 6 foundations for a PM:

1.??????? Time Management

1.1.?? Defining – A PM must know how to define the parameters of time and a delivery of the project and its tasks.

1.2.?? Scheduling – A PM must know how to differentiate the schedules being delivered and how they integrate for resources, tasks and budget. Time is the common denominator that sets the costs as well as the connection points between workstream tasks deliverables.

2.??????? Resource Management

2.1.?? Sourcing – Usually delivered by HR, a PM must be ready to define what human resources are required for PM controlled roles. When it comes to other workstreams and non-human resources, the PM must understand the requirements for task delivery and ensure that the resources within the project meet the project requirements. This is done together with the workstream leads that “own” the resources.

2.2.?? Scheduling – A PM must be able to allocate resources to the Tasks schedule and ensure all tasks have the exact requirements for resources. Risk mitigation requires replacement resources be considered in the event a resource is unavailable. For long lead resources, or resources with significant risk of delivery, alternative source resources must be considered, although in some cases (aerospace, pharma) where regulated resources are common, it can be hard to find alternates, and this becomes a critical path task by default.

2.3.?? Collaborating – Human resources require human interaction. Collaboration between workstreams must be organized at all levels, so workstream resources interact and do not use the PM as a “nanny”. With this in mind, a PM must initiate stand-ups, meetings, ad-hoc meetings etc.

3.??????? Task Management

3.1.?? Defining – Tasks are set by the technical workstreams, and a PM must be able to build the plan in a cohesive manner, aligning with all workstreams. A good plan whilst being WBS in structure, will provide granular information within the task description. The final outcome of success is when a task description leaves no ambiguity and everyone who reads it can understand what needs to be delivered. PID, Scope, drawings and other documents must be maintained in a library for reference. Risk mitigation requires the tasks to be fully understood.

3.2.?? Associating – Some tasks are stand alone, while others are associative, meaning they have a parent and a child. In some instances, tasks can be linked cross projects, which makes them inter project related as well as associative. Risk mitigation relies on tasks being fully associated to ensure a holistic view of dependencies.

3.3.?? Scheduling – all tasks are scheduled with durations and resources. A full resource allocation with durations will lead to a cohesive plan and enables the PM to view and use the estimated plan as a baseline for actual delivery.

4.??????? Communications Management

4.1.?? Personal – all PM’s need to be excellent interpersonal communicators, virtual salespeople. A PM needs to be able to persuade, align and push. Agreements are sometimes loose; therefore, a PM must be able to handle situations before allowing them to escalate.

4.2.?? Understanding – A good PM does not just discuss or pass on messages. A good PM ensures that all involved understand the message, This means getting feedback proving that the message receiver understands what is required or said.

4.3.?? Delivery - A PM must be knowledgeable in most forms of communications. This requires knowing how to discuss in video conferences, writing in e-mail and in face-to-face live presentation. As mentioned before, a good PM is also a good salesperson, without the confidence in delivering the message a PM will be run over by more dominant workstream resources. To avoid this a PM must be also a leader, a persuader and a good storyteller.

5.??????? Financial Management

5.1.?? Quantifying – At the preparation stage of the project, the PM must have an innate grasp of financial considerations and be able to immediately estimate by quantifying cost based on experience. With this in mind, the PM works together with other workstreams to define and set the budget, which is usually confirmed at the CFO level.

5.2.?? Control – Once a budget is confirmed, the PM must be able to understand and control the budget. Since budgets are flexible due to the nature of risk in projects, the PM musty be able to create multiple scenarios showing possible budgetary outcomes based on different projected issues. This helps overall risk mitigation at the planning stage.

6.??????? Risk Management

6.1.?? Defining – all projects, in fact all of life is managing risks and issues. The difference between managing an issue is when you ensure you plan for it as a risk and manage the risk to mitigate the issue. Therefore, all plans require risk mitigation matrices to define the possible scenarios that can lead to delays and resources management beyond the scope of the plan.

6.2.?? Mitigating – The risk mitigation matrix should cater for every possible scenario and is enacted exactly the way a task is enacted. Delivering solutions to issues is the last resort, managing risk is where the real work is required, and managing it in a way that it does not evolve into an issue.

6.3.?? Maintaining – Risk maintenance is where a project has reached an equilibrium between plan and RAID. Where risks are managed, and issues are waylaid. With that in mind, risks do arise, and the lessons learned log is where solutions are studied and integrated into the plan. An LLL is essentially the continuous improvement bible for delivering continuous improvement and excellence.

Summing Up

I have only touched briefly on each subject, and what I have not mentioned is Common Sense. Sometimes projects will be document intensive to a state where PMO will inundate the PM with checklists and documents to manage. This can become an issue by itself, and a good PMO will maintain a controlled environment using minimum document requirements. Modern BI provides PMs with live information. Connecting plans using digital plan systems and connecting that to BI will provide the PM with digital tools to ease the creation of multiple presentation pages that take hours to build and would in some instances be out of date/time by the time of the presentation.

Also note I have not yet discussed the 5W's: What, Where, When, Who & Way (How). This will be added on later.

Bottom line is that a PM needs to be skillful in the 6 foundations and understand modern digital project management tools as well we BI for easy presentation of project status and KPI baselines.

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