Welcome to the 21st edition of Tips for Prospective PMPs. This newsletter provides tips, advice, and lessons for those project managers pursuing the PMP?.
This edition includes an article on the 90% factor, an article on scope creep, and access to 5 practice questions and mini-lessons.
Article 1: The 90% Factor
“90% or more of an effective project manager’s time should be spent on communications related activities…” - PMBOK 6th edition.
If you are a practicing project manager, the takeaway for you is that your "work" as a project manager is not the "doing" of the project, but communications-related activities: building teams, leading teams doing the work, engaging stakeholders, negotiating project agreements, managing conflict, empowering team members and stakeholders, addressing and removing impediments, mentoring team members and stakeholders, influencing, collaborating, facilitating, and much more.
How important is it to develop your communications and leadership skills? Every project manager should aim to continuously develop and improve these skills.
Consider the following tips for developing your communication skills:
- Prepare for every communication interaction. Know your “why” for the communications. General “whys” include: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, and to inspire. And sometimes, all of them at the same event.
- Know your audience. What are their expectations? How will you connect with them? What is in it for them? How do you ensure that they get value from your communications?
- Know the specifics of what you want to take away from the event. Ask yourself: what does success look like?
- Practice. Be intentional with all of your communications. Mentally practicing and rehearsing your interactions will make you better. Make every low-risk communications interaction an opportunity to practice for higher-risk interactions. For those significant interactions, consider role-playing.
- Seek feedback. Ask your peers, your team members, your customers, and your superiors for feedback. Consider that feedback for your personal development.
- Get out of your comfort zone. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Try something different. Experiment. Seek out those opportunities that stretch your limits. You can only get better and learn from every opportunity.
- Seek training and coaching. Consider training on communications, leadership, and presentation skills. Invest in a coach who invests in you. Consider joining a community (outside of your work environment) where you can practice and develop your communications and leadership skills in a safe place.
Invest in yourself by intentionally improving your communication skills. Not only will your projects and stakeholders benefit but you might discover your voice in the process.
Eddie Merla, PMI-ACP, PMP
Article 2: Scope Creep
Are your projects plagued by scope creep?
Scope creep is the unauthorized expansion of the scope of the project. It is called scope creep because it usually occurs in small increments. The client may ask for small changes (or large ones) that were not in the original scope of the project. If the team accommodates these changes without going through formal change control processes, the project objectives of cost and schedule may be negatively impacted.
If a project is plagued by scope creep, is the customer the problem? The problem is most likely a project management problem and more specifically, a communications problem. A savvy project manager will take steps to ensure that the scope is well-defined and understood. Once defined, scope change can be controlled through change control procedures.
Consider the following guidelines for defining and controlling scope using the 5 Cs of written communication:
- Correctness: Eliminate ambiguity in the scope by being as specific as possible. Scope (the “what” a project will do) is derived from user needs (or requirements). Those requirements should map to the project objectives and ultimately to the project outcomes and deliverables. If you are not familiar with the “Requirements Traceability Matrix” tool, this tool provides a complete list of requirements and maps those requirements to objectives and outcomes.
- Conciseness: Conciseness reduces the chances of misunderstandings. Simple trumps wordy in scope definition. Wordy descriptions may lead to subjective interpretations of the scope deliverables and outcomes. Of course, too simple may also be a problem. As Albert Einstein said: “Everything should be made as simple as possible but not one bit simpler.”
- Clarity of purpose: When defining the scope of a project, all requirements, deliverables, and outcomes should support the project objectives. If a requirement does not support the project objectives, it should not be included. The “requirements traceability matrix,” the project scope statement, and the work breakdown structure (WBS) are tools that can be used to ensure clarity of purpose. A scope statement can be used to clarify what will be excluded from the project scope. Those exclusions may identify those requirements which, if not documented, might show up as scope creep or scope change requests. By documenting exclusions early, a project manager can minimize the risk of scope creep.
- Coherent composition: To ensure a coherent composition of the scope, use the work breakdown structure (WBS) which is a hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work for the project. Walk through this structure with your team and stakeholders and obtain consensus. A best practice promoted by the Project Management Institute (PMI?) is the 100% rule which states that the WBS should represent all work of the project, including project management work. The WBS should be clear enough to ensure that nothing is left out and that no extra work is performed.
- Controlling: Controlling scope is an ongoing process once the scope of a project has been defined. Establish a change control process and educate your team and stakeholders on the process for making changes to the scope. Any requested change should be analyzed to determine impacts on the schedule and budget. For larger projects, you may consider a “change control board” which would approve or deny requested changes.
As a project manager, you can minimize or eliminate scope creep with a little discipline and a lot of communication.
Eddie Merla, PMI-ACP, PMP
Article 3: Five Practice Questions and Mini-Lessons
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