6 KEYS TO PROJECT SUCCESS

By Paul Plotczyk

With more than 25 years experience helping organizations keep projects on scope,
on time and on budget we have arrived at some universal truths about project
management that can make or break a project.

Read more to find out how you can apply those truths to your next project whether
it is a $10K marketing project or a $10 billion dollar engineering project.

Project Savvy

Over 25 years ago, WSA began providing project consulting services for
organizations which designed and executed some of the largest and most complex
engineering and construction projects Engineering Marvel-type projects - around
the globe. Our mission was to keep those projects on scope, on time and on budget.

We then worked to apply the knowledge and best practices we learned on these
massive engineering projects to help organizations project-ize their work. These
organizations looked at most of the necessary tasks creating a market strategy;
designing a shift coverage plan; outlining a fulfillment process, etc. as a project.

The reason we were able to transfer this knowledge and experience so successfully
is that at the end of the day A Project is a Project is a Project.

A Project is a Project is a Project

While at first glance executing a new product launch may seem very different from
building an oil refinery in Algeria they share both the basic ingredients of a project:
Resource Requirements

Budget/Financial Plan

Schedule

Start Date

Completion Date

And the basic problems of a project:

Scope Creep

Lack of Alignment

Budget Overruns

Missed Deadlines

Poor Teamwork

What Makes a Project Successful?

Over the years, we have been frequently called into projects that have gone off the
rails. This usually means some combination of an out-of-control budget, a schedule
in shambles, very unhappy client(s) or a collection of people who have more in
common with a warring street gang than a functioning team.

We became very curious about what makes any given project successful. We
discovered that there are 6 key issues that every successful project must resolve.
And that these issues are most effectively handled through some type of structured
team conversation designed to address the performance challenges and
relationship issues required to build a successful project team. We call this type of
activity Team Chartering.

Project Team Chartering

Chartering helps the project team put the foundation for success in place. Sounds
simple, but too often this important foundational step gets missed. The process
helps the team:

Define its Purpose

Set Goals and Measures

Identify Critical Success Factors

Assign Roles and Responsibilities

Design a Conflict and Risk Mitigation Process

Develop all of the Operating Guidelines Essential for Success

6 Keys to Project Success

The primary goal of a Chartering session is to establish the guidelines that govern
team and individual behavior and set the stage for success. Project Teams can reach
this level of alignment by answering 6 Critical Questions:

1. Why should we work together? (What is our performance challenge?)

The number one reason projects fail is that there is no alignment on project success.
Addressing this question early lays good footing for the foundation, produces
alignment on the definition of project success, and typically includes:

Guiding Principles (values)

Technical Objectives

2. How will we know we are successful? (What must be accomplished for us to

determine the project is successful? How will we know we are headed in the right
direction?)

Addressing this question produces Critical Success Factors, or measures and

milestones that a team can use to assess progress, and to stay on track.
3. What are the limits of our authority? (What are we accountable for?)

The scope of authority is an important factor for internal and external teams to be
clear about. What decisions can they make and what has to be pushed up?

4. What are our roles? (What is expected of each individual on the project? What
do we expect from one another? What will each person stand for?)

Not having answered this question is the number two reason a project will fail.
Clarity about roles and expectations is critical to successful project execution.

5. How will we execute our work and function as a team? (How will we respond to
barriers and conflict outside of the project team? Inside the team?)

This addresses the technology of team work and insures that the work the team
was formed to produce gets done. Operating guidelines, codes of conduct, decision
making strategy, risk mitigation and conflict resolution processes, as well as work
processes and practices all get addressed here.

6. What will our relationships with one another be like? How will we develop trust?
Commitment? (What level of trust is expected? How will we develop and maintain
it?)

It is important for the project team to have a method to assess the progress of the
work, as well as a way for team members to give one another feedback on how they
are working together. This step becomes even more important when a project team
is comprised of people from competing firms. Also, if internal teams are positioning
for more budget, avoiding additional layoffs, etc., competition can create problems
when trying to develop trust and an aligned project team.
Conclusion

In these brutal economic times more and more of our clients see projectizing their
work as a way of optimizing productivity and profitability.

Projectizing work provides more control for the person responsible for the task or
project, enables budgets and schedules to be created easily, and facilitates the
allocation and tracking of people, bringing them in only when needed.

Realizing the potential benefits of projectizing work really does start by answering
these 6 key questions in a team chartering session. Chartering is one of the best
examples of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Regardless of the
size, scope and budget of your project, don't skip this step