INTRODUCTION
Early in my career at 3M, I was fortunate to receive excellent training in project management. It became clear that advancing into a managerial role required demonstrating the ability to successfully bring products from the lab to the marketplace. Upon completing their training program, my first assignment was to transfer an ophthalmic lens coating line from the pilot lab in St. Paul to a production facility in San Diego. I was twenty-six at the time, with neither a college degree nor technical training. I didn’t know a micron from a microbe and often found myself sidetracked by technical discussions that delayed progress. However, by insisting that the team adhere to the corporate project management process, we completed the transfer on time, within budget, and with the planned features.
Since then, in my thirty-five-year career, I’ve built on this foundational training to further define a project management process that has consistently yielded a success rate of over 95%. My project experience includes manufacturing site selection, product development, building construction, acquisition integration, and global quality systems. I’ve worked in family-owned businesses, start-ups, Fortune 100 companies, and small, struggling public companies.
My industry experience includes medical devices, nutritional supplements, electronics, printed circuit boards, power transformers, plastic casting, digital media, barbecue tools, and software as a service. I’ve handled outsourcing, insourcing, and built factories both domestically and internationally. A common element in all my successful projects was the unwavering support of a leadership team that endorsed and upheld the project management process.
Many excellent books have been written on project management, and a wide array of software tools are available to help define tasks and track schedule performance. Colleges and professional associations offer certification programs focused on teaching key concepts and team management.
Despite these resources, organizations still experience schedule delays, budget overruns, and project outcomes that fail to meet expectations. Cynics often joke about the typical stages of a project:
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1. Euphoria
2. Disillusionment
3. Panic
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Reward for the non-participants
While there’s some truth to this humor, the real issue often
lies in the lack of effective project leadership at the senior
level of the organization. Common gaps include:
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Ignoring or downplaying risks
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Failing to eliminate scientific uncertainty
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Poorly defined requirements
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Too many concurrent projects
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Insufficient resource allocation
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The false belief in multitasking
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Weak cross-functional teamwork
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Lack of understanding or practice in critical path
management
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Allowing scope creep without reassessing its impact
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Absence or disregard of project management rules
These challenges must be addressed by the leadership team to
enable staff to deliver projects on time, within scope, and
within budget. The difference between well-run projects and
those that fall short lies in the level of support from the
leadership team. Even the best project managers, software
applications, consultants, corporate directives, or team
members cannot compensate for poor leadership.
This book will explain five key practices the leadership team
needs to understand and support:
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Project Risk Assessment
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Organizational Roles
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Critical Path
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Project Initiation Trade-offs
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Project Reviews
This is not a book about project management; it’s about
Project Leadership. The focus will be on the key skills, data,
and decision making required at the top of the organization.
The goal is to provide a set of logical and straightforward
rules for the leadership team to implement, follow, and
enforce.
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The core thesis of this book is threefold:
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Projects are often initiated without a complete definition of, or alignment on, requirements among all stakeholders in the organization.
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Project risks are not fully understood, communicated, mitigated, or shared.
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When project work conflicts with the day-to-day demands of running the business, there is often no structured process to keep the leadership team informed or to resolve these conflicts effectively.
To achieve consistently successful outcomes, the leadership
team must establish and drive a process that addresses these
issues. They must also hold the organization accountable for
results and recognize when corrective action is required. This
book will help you identify gaps in your current project
management practices and provide a practical toolkit for
improving performance.
The first five chapters address what I have learned to be the
key practices required of the leadership team. I define this
team not by title such as vice president, director, etc., but by
their relationship to the most senior manager on site
responsible for the success of the whole business unit.
The remaining chapters provide more details on creating the
structure and follow-up required to support an effective
project management function.
By the end of this book, you will have a clear understanding
of the key issues and the essential steps required to ensure
your organization consistently delivers projects as planned—
on time, within scope, and within budget—while
strengthening overall business performance and customer
satisfaction.
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