Getting close to delivery date

Unless your are very lucky, the normal scenario in any technology project, that when you are getting very close to the deadline day there will be still a lot of tasks to do and very likely there will be lots of pressure on achieving the target date.

Very often the target date will have customer implications or cost implications if it is not met.

As the project manager you will probably be under huge pressure, but you must ensure that the last minute chaos does not compromise all the good work that you have done so far.

Here are 5 things to remember when you enter this period:

Replans and Timescales

The easy tasks have probably already been done, the straightforward test, the simple code or the basic job descriptions. Remember the last tasks always take longer than you think so plan and communicate accordingly.

Cutting Corners

Or to use its project language title de scoping, there will be the inevitable request from either the sponsor or steering group to see what can be dropped from the remaining project tasks. If you can it is a good idea to create a separate work stream to manage this activity including the documentation that de scoping will bring such as manual processes or new change requests. If you fail to document a key stakeholder will claim they were unaware of the decision or implications of the de scope.

Stay Firm

You know better than anyone else how your project is ran, how hard your team are working, as you reach the critical phase, lots of suggestions will be made on how to finish quicker and meet the deadlines, depending on the seniority of the stakeholder some will need investigating, however be firm and back your team, making changes at a late stage rarely pays dividends.

Other Workstreams

Make sure you keep up to speed with any other Workstreams in your programme, if they are also struggling with the deadline date, if gives you leverage in your planning, and it is good information to communicate to your team so they know they are not alone in being up against it.

Prompt communication

Make sure that any issues or risks that occur are communicated immediately at this time waiting for a formal governance structure is to late. Quick responses to progress requests also give assurance that you are in control.

What is a risk and an issue- Layman Terms

This may be very obvious to someone up to speed with Project Management speak, but it can be a bit of a mystery for those not.

The other week I heard an excellent analogy which makes it crystal clear.

If you are walking down a street and there is a pile of dog muck in front of you there is a RISK that you may walk in it, if you actually step it on, boy you do have an ISSUE.

In another every day scenario, when you are planning your holiday and you have a flight at 9, and you have to travel on the M25 you have a RISK you could miss your flight, if you then miss your flight you have an ISSUE.

You will often hear talk of mitigating risks, in the holiday example a good mitigation would be to book a hotel the night before so removing the risk of travelling on the M25.

Hope these everyday examples, help breakdown some of the project management lingo.

Please leave any comments particularly for any other subjects that could be demystified.

Who is important on your project

Stakeholder Matrix

In your initial project planning session you have identified your stakeholders, what you need to do next is to evaluate their importance and influence on the successful delivery of your project.

To do this I use a simple 4 quadrant matrix, which evaluates the stakeholder in simple terms, this is an activity you should do at the start of the project and then evaluate regularly as you go through the lifecycle of the your project, as you will often find new stakeholders come into play and need to be managed.


The Matrix



How to use the matrix

Look at all your stakeholders, and evaluate where they go

High-High A good example here would be your sponsor (note here if your sponsor doesn't have high interest you are in trouble.

High Interest- Low Influence Could be team members you are relying on to complete a task

Low Interest -High Influence Influencial person in the business but not close to your project, for instance finance director who holds the purse strings.

Low Interest-Low Influence Most interesting category as you could argue why are they a stakeholder if in this category, a good example here could be your IT department who you will need to find that elusive bit of kit but claim they need a 3 month lead time.


Key Uses of the Matrix

Governance

From your evaluation you can see who you would need to include in your steering meetings, regular working groups and in any weekly updates.

Communication

On a project I am currently working on, it has a long lead time and on my monthly review I noticed that I had no communication with a High Interest-High Influence stakeholder for the last month.

On evaluation they are still key to the project success, so it was a good reminder to drop them a note with a quick update and explain why they hadn't had the expected involvement just yet.

Summary

Stakeholders and their support are paramount to the successful delivery of your project, and this is a great tool to initially manage them and then continually evaluate them.