Rebles Guide to PM
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10 common resource management problems and how to fix them
I mentor project managers, and the types of problems that people come up with on calls are not technical issues for the most part. Mostly, people want to chat about other people. Or “resources” as we unkindly call people in project management.
Stakeholders, project team members, the colleagues doing the actual work: these are all humans with their own To Do lists, objectives set by their managers and personal and professional goals.
Securing the right resource (and enough of it) is a huge headache for PMO leaders and project professionals. I can’t promise to make all your worries go away, but I can share with you the top resource management problems we see in project management so you can be ready to deal with them when they happen for you.
Why is effective resource management difficult?
Resource management is difficult because work is unpredictable and people aren’t very good at estimating! That’s it really – the challenges aren’t rocket science.
Project leaders need to balance the right amount of resources and funding to complete the work effectively. Organizational culture, management expectations and lack of the right software to provide visibility into the problem all contribute to the headache.
[lasso ref="crozdesk" id="22755" link_id="298384"]10 Resource management problems (and solutions!)
We all have limited resources to do our projects, so it’s to be expected that the route to successful project delivery isn’t exactly smooth where people are concerned.
I’m sure you can think of some poor resource management examples. Here are some (anonymized!) from my experience and that of my mentees:
- Not allocating enough resource to a project so it was always going to be late as the schedule wasn’t achievable. Plus the team had to work overtime (and still didn’t get it done). They should have extended the dates if people weren’t available.
- Not including the right stakeholders so a crucial piece of functionality wasn’t properly tested by the right people. They should have worked out what resources were really needed and secured support.
- Not having enough work for someone to do to the point that she started looking for other jobs because her project work was so unfulfilling.
Here’s another from my work that’s not really poor management, but it did cause us some problems.
A technical expert was needed on a project, but because he was a contractor he had quite a lot of flexibility over how he worked and when he took time off. He discovered his house had woodworm (if I remember rightly), and they had compromised the integrity of the floors in his house. His whole family had to move out, so he was busy with that and took a couple of weeks off work, which impacted our ability to deliver to our expected timeframe.
Below are some of the most common resource challenges. I suggest adding the relevant ones to your risk log so they are constantly under review.
1. Resources are assigned inconsistently
How are your resources assigned? If resources are assigned to project work without using any criteria, it can affect project prioritization.
People will be assigned to lower priority work, meaning you don’t have the right skills or people available to work on your strategic initiatives.
Resolve by setting criteria on how resources are assigned – by the PM, product owner, team leader etc. and define how leaders can secure resources.
Resource allocation should be done consistently. The PMO can lead on this but everyone will need to follow the process for it to work.
2. Resource utilization is not optimized
Some colleagues are busy and some are not busy! I’m sure you’ve had days like me where I’ve been rushed off my feet and yet a colleague is over by the coffee machine taking the time to have a good old catch up. Meanwhile, I’m wondering whether I can afford a bathroom break.
Optimizing resource utilization means making sure no one is overstretched, and that work is appropriately allocated to people with the time to do it!
Resolve by resource optimization reports from your project management software. Use your tools to track time and create clarity about where there is capacity for people to take on additional work.
Use resource leveling to manage.
3. Resources don’t have the right skills
This challenge happens when there are not enough people with the right skill sets.
Allocating work to team members who are not skilled in the topic (or at the right level of skill) typically means that you end up with more mistakes made or the work taking longer.
You might be prepared to accept that, for example, if you have a senior team member checking their work, or you allow for extra time so they can learn on the job and be faster next time. But if you aren’t factoring that in, your project quality and schedule will drift.
Resolve byforward planning what skills are needed and ensuring those skills are available; training or buying them in. Note that just being available is not enough of a reason to allocate someone to the work, because availability is not a skill set!
4. Resource utilization is not tracked
If utilization of resources is not tracked, you can’t tell what people are working on and how long they are spending on tasks.
Resolve byusing time sheets. I know people hate timesheets! But you’re going to have to do them if you want to make data-driven decisions. It’s essential for professional services organizations.
5. Resources are not forecasted
Do you forecast what resource levels are needed? Many organizations don’t do this, and then the management team is surprised when they haven’t got the people they need in 3 months.
You can’t predict what level of resource is required for future projects, or when future projects can start when resources are available. It can result in unrealistic deadlines.
Resolve by using forecasting and capacity planning reports, getting good estimates from resources and leaders on how long work will take and when it can start.
Resource planning will also help you work out when new skills are needed in the organization so you can recruit or train them in.
6. Resources have high turnover
People leave because the environment created is not suitable for them. This often happens when people are stretched or don’t have the right tools, or their manager does not create a welcoming, supportive, empowered team culture.
After all, people leave managers, not jobs.
Resolve by making sure people are empowered and you collect feedback to continuously improve. Track employee retention.
7. Resources are allocated to conflicting priorities
When this happens, team members don’t know what they should be working on as priorities are not clear.
When this has happened to me, I hope I’ve used good judgement to establish what I should be spending my day on, but who knows?
Should it really be up to the project team member to decide what is the priority project? Or whether they should be spending time on their day job or the project? Most people choose their day job in that situation, and as project people, that’s not what we want!
Resolve through effective communication and sharing priorities. Lack of visibility on what people are working on can be addressed through reporting. That will help you spot any inconsistencies.
8. Managers don’t have visibility
Resource managers don’t know what their team members are working on as there is no visibility on resource data.
I know we can talk to our teams, but sometimes you need aggregated data to see the whole department’s view. This is probably one of the most common resource allocation problems: I don’t know why I’ve left it down here as number 8!
Resolve by giving people access to reporting and tools, promoting transparency. Schedule work around people, not tasks.
9. Resources are not balanced across the portfolio
This is an interesting one, and it happens when one area of strategic benefit is getting a lot more investment/time than other areas. I do think it’s one of the key challenges though.
This happened to me in a past role. I was working with a particular department and there had been such a level of underinvestment that when I told them the project budget for this work, they nearly fell off their chairs! It was money they couldn’t fathom, having only been given peanuts for the past few years.
Still, it was a critical system upgrade, so it had to happen.
What it meant was that the organization was making the choice at the time to not invest in that area and instead divert funding to other areas. Which is a strategic choice to make. But make it consciously, not because you don’t know where resources are going.
Resolve by having portfolio level reporting, and linking resourcing to business goals.
10. Resource risk is not considered
People go off sick or are unavailable at short notice and this isn’t factored into the plans.
It can affect project performance management and the achievement of project goals because you’ll be late with the delivery which impacts customer satisfaction and benefits.
Worth having on your risk register! Although ultimately you can’t do much about it. For one program I led, we made a concerted effort to cross-skill people so that if there was sickness in the team, someone else could step in.
Resolve by focusing on risk and identifying people-based risks. Define ways of working and how the project will be delivered to try to cover this the best you can.
The question of tools
You’ll have seen I have mentioned tools quite a lot in this article, and that’s because, with all my experience over 20+ years of working in project environments, I have never seen an organization manage resources effectively with spreadsheets.
They are outdated too quickly. There is no requirement to update skills or create a resource pool, so people can be allocated to work that best fits their skills.
Resource challenges are universal, but they have simple solutions with the right resource management solution. You’ll also need the mindset change to create new ways of working. It might be simple, but it isn’t easy.
If you need a hand researching or selecting resource management software, Crozdesk is the free service I recommend.
Get it right, and stakeholders will soon see how much easier project resourcing can be.
This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management
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Project Management Apprenticeships: A UK Guide
I have mentored project managers for years, and recently, more of my mentees have been going through project management apprenticeships.
I really rate the training on offer and the support (although to be fair, the different awarding organizations who offer the training can vary widely in their support). Maybe an apprenticeship in project management would be the right career move for you?
Is there an apprenticeship for project management?
Yes! In fact there are several, at various levels, depending on your entry point and your career goals. From entry level up to degree level, so wherever you are, there is a qualification for you.
The project management apprenticeship standard has been around since 2017 and individual apprenticeships have evolved a lot since then, which is a good thing. There are more options, and more organizations offering them.
All of them will give you project management skills to help you lead successful projects.
What is a project management apprenticeship?
An apprenticeship is basically on the job learning. You study and do the job at the same time. They lead to professional qualifications and once you’ve finished the study time, you’ll be well placed to get a job in project environments whether that’s in your existing organization or elsewhere.
Pros:
- You get paid! A real salary for a real job, working in or with project teams.
- You get experience while you are learning so you can put your classroom knowledge into practice.
- You can find providers who offer all the training remotely (or you can go into a college if you prefer to study that way).
- You get regular reviews with a tutor and support from your line manager.
Practical work experience counts for such a lot on your CV, and the fact that you can meet professional standards, understand the
jargon of the job and interact with others confidently will all help you secure your next role.Cons:
- You’re expected to do 20% off the job learning study per week, which is a day a week for a full-time employee. Project work can be busy and full on so safeguarding that time can be hard unless you are physically not in the office.
- Some of the tutors I’ve come into contact with are struggling to support their large classes. You do need to be self-motivated.
The apprenticeship system seems to be constantly under review, so the requirements change every couple of years and training providers have to fit in with that. It can mean you don’t get perfectly clear answers to your questions sometimes.
What do you learn?
A PM apprenticeship will teach you about all the ‘normal’ stuff you learn on project management training, but instead of doing your Association for Project Management (APM) PMQ over a week, you do it over a much longer time period so you can evidence that you have the skills.
It should make you much more attractive to employers as they know you’ve put your learning into practice.
As for content, expect to study topics including:
- Project governance structures
- Project management methodologies and the project lifecycle
- Project budgets
- Project risks and risk management
- Schedule management
- Organizational strategy
- Contract management and procurement as it relates to projects
- Working with external stakeholders, the project sponsor and internal teams.
I asked Indie Basi, Owner and Director of UK firm Wade Building Supplies, about his experience with apprenticeships.
“Even though apprenticeships are mostly associated with on-the-job training, a small but important portion of the training will also be completed via formal education,” he said.
“The formulation of business cases, risk and problem management, cost control, project scope, budgeting, and schedule management are among the fundamental skills that your apprentices will master in this environment.”
A huge benefit of apprenticeships is the opportunity to put your knowledge into practice. “Students gain from being able to use it right away in their apprenticeship position inside the company,” he said.
Read next: Three ways to become a project manager
Types of project management apprenticeship
The most common project management apprenticeship to take is the Associate Project Manager Level 4.
Level 4: Associate PM
It will take you 24 months plus your end point assessment time (that’s the assessment period at the end of your training where you prepare a portfolio of evidence).
It’s perfect for anyone in (or wanting to be) an assistant project manager, junior project manager, or, frankly, anyone who doesn’t yet have the APM PMQ certification, as that’s what you get at the end.
It’s assessed by an evidence portfolio and professional review, which sounds daunting, but by that point, you’ll be able to manage a conversation with an assessor. The professional review panel will want you to do your best.
The application process requires you to show that you have 5 GCSEs at C or above and A Levels or equivalent. It took me a while to dig out my school certificates, so I hope you know where yours are!
At the end, you’ll get the APM Project Management Qualification (which is one of the certifications I hold, it’s probably my favorite!). You’ll be eligible to join APM as an Associate member.
The benefits of professional body membership are worth having and your company will probably pay for it as APM is one of the HMRC approved professional organizations.
Level 3: Project Controls Technician
There is also a Level 3 qualification. It will take you even longer than the Level 4 at 36 months, but it’s specifically focused on project controls.
You’ll learn things like managing project schedule integrity, control of costs and expenditure, project change controls, and techniques to support project managers with delivery in an organizational setting.
This is a good one if you want to work in energy, utilities, construction and engineering as those industries tend to have more need for people with project controls job titles than, say, marketing.
The entry requirements are 5 GCSEs, so it’s slightly lower entry criteria than the Level 4.
At the end, you get a Level 3 Diploma in Project Control Practice and you can apply for membership of the Association of Cost Engineers (ACostE). You’ll also be eligible to apply for registration as an Engineering Technician (EngTech) if you have engineering experience (or you can get that and apply later). So you can see that it’s a more engineering-focused role.
Either the Level 3 or the Level 4 are good routes into a PM career is perfect if you want to become a project manager without a degree in the UK.
Who can do an apprenticeship?
I would say that the Level 3 is more relevant to job seekers straight out of education. Level 4 is also a possible option if you want to move into project management without much experience.
However, you don’t have to be a young person to take an apprenticeship programme. They are also great for people who haven’t had the opportunity for much formal training – like accidental PMs or those who did their formal training in another discipline and have moved to project leadership as a second career.
I started mine when I was 46!
Project management apprenticeship jobs
The great news about choosing this career is that there is a huge range of suitable jobs. Whether you want to work in hospitality or construction, healthcare or finance, most large employers have project management teams.
And employers with an annual salary bill of £3m+ have to pay the apprenticeship levy which basically means they are paying for the scheme whether they put anyone through it or not. So it’s in their interest to get people into those roles as the funding is already secured.
Construction project management apprenticeships are advertised at organizations like Babcock and Iconic. Natwest, the NHS and the National Trust have all taken apprentices, so it’s worth giving some thought to the type of company you want to work in and then seeing if they have a relevant scheme.
How much do apprentice project managers earn?
Well, that’s the question! I think it depends on whether you are joining an organization specifically as an apprentice, on their funded scheme, or whether you are in an existing job, taking an apprenticeship alongside your existing responsibilities.
Glassdoor says a project management apprentice salary is advertised at between £18k and £27k when the job is specifically ‘join us in an apprenticeship role’. So that’s a ballpark. Different industries will influence that and there is a minimum salary set by the government.
I took my apprenticeship while I was already in a senior project management job (although I didn’t do a project management topic, I studied for the Learning and Skills Mentor apprenticeship). So my salary was obviously affected by the role I was in – I didn’t take a pay cut just because I was an apprentice!
I know PMO analysts and IT project managers who have also taken an apprenticeship while already in post, so their salaries probably stayed the same as what they were on before their training started.
The manager and mentor's perspective
Every apprentice has a mentor who supports them, as well as their line manager and tutor from the training company. So there is plenty of support available.
Uku Tomikas "Mentoring project managers is one of the most rewarding experiences I have had," says Uku Tomikas, CEO of Messente. "For instance, one of the project managers I mentored struggled with launching our services in multiple countries."
Tomikas shared his own experiences and supported the project manager to ensure their on-the-job learning helped them both develop and complete the project successfully.
"We launched in ten new countries in six months because of lessons I learned from my own experience, such as the importance of understanding local rules and cultural nuances," he says. "I strongly support apprenticeships. They provide a hands-on learning experience vital in today’s fast-paced business world.
"With apprenticeships, you learn theory while getting directly involved in ongoing projects. Employees can apply what they’ve learned on the spot, boosting retention and innovation simultaneously," he adds.
"Companies benefit from having a talent pool that aligns with their operational requirements and culture. Apprenticeships are an investment in your workforce. They’re an opportunity to innovate and build loyalty, which is essential for long-term business success."
Project management apprenticeships Level 6: Your next step?
Let’s say you’ve taken your Level 4 Associate Project Manager and want to move on. There are other options, still funded within the levy, that will give you quality training and experience. Perfect if you want to manage more project complexity or explore other project management roles like project management office leadership.
If you’ve already got some experience, you might want to skip straight to a Level 6. The higher up you go, the more specific the training and the topics. For example, at the time of writing, the Institute for Apprenticeships has approved the following higher level qualifications:
- Level 6: Project Controls Professional (48 months, not a degree)
- Level 6: Project Manager (48 months, this one is a degree apprenticeship)
For these, you are going to need A Levels or equivalent and meet the Maths and English requirements. (If you have secondary school qualifications in Maths and English, you’ll probably be fine.)
There is not a Level 7 apprenticeship specifically in project management, but if you wanted to go on and take a higher degree, then there are Senior Leader titles which would give you the rounded business knowledge.
This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management
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Level up your project schedules: 5 advanced techniques
For many projects, basic scheduling techniques are fine. You can’t go too far wrong with a task list and start and finish dates.
Throw in some start-to-finish dependencies, make a Gantt chart, and that’s a pretty good plan.
There’s no point in making your schedule more complicated than it needs to be, especially if your project is straightforward with secured resources and a degree of flexibility.
However, some projects do need more than that, and when you have to lead one that needs more than a simple Gantt chart or a straightforward work breakdown structure, it’s good to have some advanced techniques for project scheduling in your toolkit.
Beyond the basics
Projects need to be managed in ways that are more structured and controlled when they have:
- Multiple workstreams
- A varied resource pool, perhaps including third parties/suppliers
- Tight dates to hit with no flexibility
- Uncertain outcomes that need contingency or alternative plans
- Significant budgets that need to be phased over the lifecycle.
When you want to move beyond the basics, here are five techniques to take your schedules to the next level.
1. Critical path method
Do you really know the critical path of your projects? For simple schedules, you might not. Perhaps your work is very linear so it’s so obvious you don’t need to go through the exercise of working it out. Perhaps the work is straightforward, or the project timeline has a lot of flexibility.
However, project managers should know about their project’s critical path, especially if there are lots of dependent tasks and the dates are a challenge.
Critical path method (CPM) has its roots in the US Navy back in the 1950s. It is a process whereby you calculate the early start, early finish, late start and late finish of each task.
By default, tasks that have early start/late start or early finish/late finish as the same calendar date will be on the critical path. In other words, there is no wiggle room. There is no float. If a task does not start on time or finish on time, the project’s end date will slip. Hit the dates or there’s no chance of completing the project on time.
Back in the day when people calculated all this by hand, working out the critical path took some effort and if task durations changed, it all had to be done again. These days, I can hit the right button in Microsoft Project, critical path analysis happens behind the scenes and the key tasks are highlighted for me.
The right project scheduling software will speed up finding the answer, but you still need to be able to act on what it is telling you.
An experienced project manager will protect critical path activities so the overall project duration is preserved.
2. Precedence diagram method
A precedence diagram identifies dependencies for each task. The easier way to identify dependencies is to sit in a meeting and ask your team. They’ll tell you how the project activities are linked and you enter the data into the planning software. Great – that works fine for simple projects.
How much better would that be if you could see how the whole project scope looked with the links in place? How many more dependencies would you find before you hit issues delivering the project requirements? The precedence diagram lets you map it all out so there are no surprises (and identifies the critical path while you are at it).
This level of task analysis and mapping can also identify tasks that can be done in parallel (assuming no resource constraints) so that you can complete the project in a shorter overall timescale.
I recommend finding the right tools to help with this, and then using automated reports and views as part of your project scheduling process. Life is too short to try to work this stuff out by hand.
[lasso ref="crozdesk" id="22755" link_id="298246"]3. Contingency planning
Complex and long projects are often made up of several component parts. These may or may not come to fruition on the specified dates, and there may also be fixed deadlines. If the deadline is not reached, there could be contract penalties or an impact on another part of the business.
That’s why contingency plans are useful: they allow you to switch seamlessly(-ish) to a Plan B.
A common scheduling mistake is not thinking ahead about what might block your ability to deliver the plan.
Contingency plans form part of your overall project risk management. A full contingency plan that helps manage uncertainty is not easy to do, especially on a complex project.
It often results in doing work that is then thrown away if your original plans are achieved. For that reason, your sponsor may not be a fan. However, if you don’t have them and need them, it’s very easy to become unstuck.
Avoid delays and disruption to your project by thinking about which elements of the work need a contingency plan and then putting that into place.
Be prepared for the sunk costs of doing work that might not be needed because it is part of risk mitigation. Therefore the effort should be commensurate with the level of uncertainty and potential risk.
Contingency planning could involve:
- Being ready to crash the schedule if needed. Identify additional resources with the relevant skills who can step in if you need the work to go faster.
- Being ready to fast-track the schedule if needed. Identify where tasks could be done in parallel instead of sequence, even though this may mean taking a risk with potential rework being required.
You can also look at corrective actions to take after the event.
4. Resource leveling
One of the common problems with a basic approach to scheduling is that you assume the resources are available all the time to do whatever task you want them to do. But in reality, we all have access to limited resources and have to schedule around people’s availability.
That may not cause any issues on a simple project where most of the work happens sequentially and a single resource finishes one task before starting another. Where the activity duration is relatively long, an individual contributor or subject matter expert can fit their work in around their other commitments.
On more complicated programs of work with multiple strands of activity it’s easy to accidentally allocate more work than can be realistically done in a day to a single resource type, which may be a single person.
Resource leveling might not be thought of as a ‘true’ project scheduling method. However, it is a way to balance the resource constraints on the project over the lifecycle so you don’t find that one person has 67 hours of work to do in a week and then nothing the following week.
Read next: What’s the difference between leveling and resource smoothing?
You’ll need to use your software to create resource profiles for each individual resource and then add a named resource (or more than one) to each task. A resource allocation report will show the load per resource per project week or similar.
You’ll see where team members have too much to realistically complete in a week so you can adjust their workload. Note that this might also affect the project completion time. Resource management reports will also show you who will be sitting around twiddling their thumbs!
Pro Tip:Don’t set anyone’s resource utilization targets or availability at 100% of their working time. Even if they are assigned to your project full-time it is more realistic to set resource availability at 80% to allow for lunch breaks, meetings and so on.
5. Time-phased distribution of cost
Time-phased project budgets allow you to work out exactly when your project budget will be spent.
This goes beyond saying you’ve got £10,000 over a 10-month project so you’ll be spending £1,000 a month. It uses the contractual agreements and workload estimates to accurately work out how much money you’ll need on the project in any given month.
Plot spend across the timeline and you’ll get an idea of when bills need to be paid. In my experience, a lot of the cost falls into the early stages of the project, and then there’s another big set of expenses towards the end when contractors expect their final stage payment.
Why does a phased budget matter? It helps you manage costs more effectively as you will have better data for your forecasted expenditure and it will let you see if you are at the right level of spending for this point in the project plan.
For your senior managers, it’s useful to manage corporate cash flow as well, so they’ll appreciate you doing it alongside the detailed project schedule.
Connecting your project budget and schedule is one of the building blocks of Earned Value Management (EVM). It’s a smart way of tracking project progress over the entire project, while also paying enough attention to performance management and trends that are evolving right now.
Again, put your project management tools to work and use them for the heavy lifting. While you can create a time-phased budget in Excel, if you want (or need, because it’s mandated by your contract) EVM, you’ll have to upgrade to something that can do the job. You don’t see many construction projects being managed in a spreadsheet.
Other advanced project management scheduling techniques
If these 5 techniques don’t take you far enough, there are others that are worth researching, including:
- Monte Carlo simulations: Similar to above, a Monte Carlo simulation gives you a bell curve of probability relating to date and can factor in a number of variables that will influence the activity duration.
- Program Evaluation and Review Technique: A PERT chart is a network diagram that shows the logical relationship between individual tasks and allows you to schedule for uncertainty. It uses optimistic time for task completion (optimistic finish), pessimistic finish and most likely finish to build uncertainty and variation into your schedule.
- Critical chain: Uses the slack in task time to act as a buffer at the end of a chain of tasks or at the end of a project. Useful when you need to recognize the fact that humans are fallible and it’s useful to have some extra time. By putting the ‘extra’ time in smart places, you don’t have to impact the timelines too much (if at all).
- Time tracking: OK, not a pure scheduling technique, but if you don’t track projects with regards to time spent, you can’t manage progress so easily.
Validate your schedule
Regardless of what scheduling techniques you use, you should validate your schedule with the rest of the project team. In my experience, a surprising amount of project managers don’t do this!
They may gather the data for estimates with the entire team, and rely on their input for task-level durations and effort information, but they don’t then share what they have put together with everyone before it is finally approved.
Get your estimates. On large programs that might mean working with several project management teams from in-house departments and external suppliers. Determine task dependencies and create lists and mind maps together.
Then go away and type up your notes to create the project schedule. When it’s done, don’t tell your sponsor the end date and be done with it.
Go back to the team with the whole picture and validate it together.
Typically project managers only get schedule approval for the baseline from the sponsor. How many tasks on the plan is the sponsor actually going to work on? I’d guess not many.
Ask your team to review the plan in its entirety, even the bits that they aren’t working on before you take it to the sponsor. They may be able to spot issues that you haven’t seen yourself.
The great thing about bringing in some different project scheduling tools and techniques (and this is by no means a comprehensive list) is that you can adopt them to the level that makes sense for your project.
As with all project management techniques, think about how you can apply them to your project with the right level of scale and governance.
This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management
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7 Steps To A Project Management Capability Assessment
As a program manager, PMO or project team leader, you probably think about how to plan upcoming work. And that includes the requirements for developing the project management capability in the organisation to deliver the upcoming projects.
It’s easy to think that certification is the answer to developing capability in your project managers, but it’s better to take a step back from that.
While sending project managers on courses is definitely an option, you need to pick the right courses – the ones that will address the gaps in your capability and help your project managers build their skills in a way that equips them to deal with the work that’s coming.
Those challenges are particular to your organization, so it’s not possible for me to tell you what to do. You need a capability assessment to show you where the organization’s strengths are and where you have gaps in skills.
But how do you do that? Here’s an easy 7-step approach that will give you an understanding of where you need to grow your capability.
1. Survey your stakeholders
Who benefits from the skills of the project delivery team? You want to consult widely with your stakeholder community when wanting to find out about the skills the team has and the skills they have yet to develop. Think about:
- Internal project customers
- External project customers
- Senior executives
- Team leaders
- Subject matter experts
- Project support team members
- Project management office team members
- Project managers
These are all individuals or groups who will have something to say about how well they are equipped to deliver the upcoming work.
2. Ask what skills people already have
A capability assessment isn’t a test of how well the project managers know the formulae for Earned Value.
You want to know efficient they are at achieving the desired outcomes for the company, and how successful projects are at delivering benefits. That’s more relevant than finding out if they can map the critical path by hand on graph paper (which was one of the exercises I had to do on a training course).
You’re asking about the skills and competencies they have, with a view to mapping this against the strategy for next year and the upcoming projects. The objective of this capability assessment is, after all, to make sure that the two map closely.
If they don’t, you’re going to have a hard time delivering on your strategy because you don’t have the people with the competencies to get it done.
3. Don’t get analysis paralysis
People are busy. Don’t send out survey after survey. You want to get this piece of work done quickly, not spend ages interviewing individuals about what project management techniques they are confident in.
Find a decent balance.
4. Analyze the results
Take the answers to the questions from all stakeholder groups and start to dig into them. What does it mean that all project managers need communication skills that are ten out of ten?
Find out why some of the reported behavior is happening. Ask the next level questions to uncover the root causes.
Are the structures there to support alternative behaviors? If not, how are you going to build those in as well so that new skills have an environment in which to thrive?
A capability assessment or needs analysis like this gives you a consolidated view of where you are, helping you plan out where you want to be.
The data you gather is the basis for the development plan you need to put in place. So, now is the point that you can start to write out your development plan based on the data you have gathered and the gap that you have identified.
Looking for training or mentoring support for your team? I can help with that.
5. Secure commitment
Get your development plan sponsored at the highest level. Capability improvements have the best and most long-lasting effects if they have the commitment of the people at the top.
On paper this seems like an easy exercise: what Chief Exec wouldn’t want their people to have the skills and behaviors required to deliver their strategy?
In practice getting commitment can be harder because delivering on your plan requires time and energy which, in the short term, takes people away from doing their strategic work. Capitalize on the fact that this is enabling work to set the business up for future success.
At this point in the process you can secure funding for your capability improvements including any training needs.
6. Communicate the plan
OK, so management know why you are doing it and have given you their backing. Now you need everyone else to understand the benefits and support your plan.
Project managers might not want to up their skills in certain areas, especially if they feel the strategic requirements of the company take them away from areas where they prefer to work.
It’s worth spending some time with the individuals involved to sell the benefits of what you plan to do and what it means for them.
Use all the good change management practices that you use elsewhere in your business to bring people along with these changes too.
7. Schedule time to review
Capability changes over time. The plan as you put it together today might not be appropriate in six months. Build in feedback loops so that everyone understands the value of keeping the capability assessment up to date and fresh.
Get feedback on the process you went through too, so that if you repeat the exercise again in the future you can learn from what went well and what didn’t inspire your stakeholders as much.
Having got your results, it’s tempting to leap full steam into a huge training program, but be realistic about what you can achieve. This time next year the real question will be: has what you have done made a difference?
Tying your capability assessment and development plan to your strategic objectives is going to help you measure the outcomes of your investment into training and other development activities, and in turn that will help you secure more support and funding for further growth.
This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management
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New training: Change Management Workshop
As project managers, most of us know how important it is to make sure that what we deliver is actually useful and used by the people we deliver it for.
That’s where
change management comes in.Have you ever wished someone could give you the secret to dealing with resistance to change?
Me too!
I’m sorry to say there isn’t a secret exactly. It’s more a collection of best practices, real-world advice and tried-and-tested strategies for speedy and stress-free
change management .And I’ve gathered them altogether for you.
Want to learn more about
change management ? Join my new workshop.Dates: 8, 9, 10 May.
Time: Each day we meet on Zoom at 7.30pm UK time (2.30pm EDT).
Cost: US$60. Option available to pay in GBP as well.
Does
change management feel woolly to you?Change management is arguably the most important thing to securing a successful delivery, but most organizations don’t have change managers so project managers have to do it all.
And we have enough things to do. You don’t have time to learn a whole new discipline, and what does it even look like to ‘do’
change management anyway?That’s why I put together the
Change Management Workshop.It’s a live course that gives you:
- a simple process for doing
change management - tools and techniques for delivering changes
- templates and conversation starters to help you plan
- 3 (small) homework assignments so you can put your knowledge into practice straight away
- guidance on where to put your effort to get the most impact
- time within our calls so all your questions get answered!
Why learn with me?
I'm the author of Communicating Change, and I've been leading business and tech projects for over 20 years. I'm an APM Fellow and a mentor, and I still work as a practitioner alongside my writing and training.
Buy now
Prefer to pay in UK Sterling? Pay in GBP here.
What past students say
Syllabus
Module 1: Change basics
In this lesson you’ll learn why
change management is essential to project success and the differences betweenchange management and project management. We’ll talk about the benefits of reducing resistance to change and howchange management really is your secret weapon to having huge impact with your project.Module 2: Process and planning
In this lesson you’ll learn about 6 different
change management approaches including Lewin, Kotter and BEE. I’ll break down the essentials for a practical process you can use at work. We’ll cover how to plan our change engagement so that you know what you're doing and why, and have a good idea about how it will turn out.You’ll get some ‘plug and play’ conversation starters to help build your change plan.
Module 3: Tools for
change management In this lesson you’ll learn about tools and techniques for delivering change, across the plan, deliver and sustain phases of change. We’ll look at how you choose tools to best fit with your project, stakeholders and the organizational maturity of your business.
Other resources
Inside the course website, you'll also find the replays of the training sessions when these are available, copies of the slides, templates to help you get started and other resources to help you take your learning further.
FAQ
Here are some FAQ to help you decide if it's the right training for you.
What’s the time commitment?
Overall, the time commitment is 3 hours, plus any extra time you spend working on assignments.
When are the live teachings held?
8, 9, 10 May at 7.30pm UK time/ 2:30pm EDT.
What’s the background of participants?
I expect most of the people who will be on the course with you will be early or mid-career professionals working in project delivery/project management roles.
Normally at my courses we get a good mix of people at various stages in their careers and from different industries.
What about if I work in an
Agile team?Change management is still necessary, even if you are delivering your product using an
agile approach. If there is no one taking the lead on engaging with stakeholders or end uses to make sure they can see the benefit and use the thing when it's delivered, then this will help.Having said that,
agile teams are normally excellent at embedding end users in the delivery team. It might be your business user reps who would benefit more from the training as they have to cascade and share the project with their wider colleague group.Can I claim PDUs?
Yes. I will give you an attendance certificate that you can use as evidence for your portfolio. However, I am not a registered PMI authorized trainer.
Can I claim the cost through my company?
Yes. Get in touch and I can send you an invoice.
What’s the cancellation/refund policy?
If you choose not to attend, you can get a refund up until we start the live sessions. I will not be able to refund you after 8 May.
When will you be running this training again?
I don't know! I haven't run it since 2020 (at least, that's what my notes tell me) so it might be a while before it comes round on the rotation again.
This article first appeared at Rebel's Guide to Project Management
- a simple process for doing