Daily view through the eyes of a project manager
LOOKING AHEAD: 2 Organizations do it, an Indian Public sector and a Multi National Organization.
One public sector company in India that seems to have looked ahead on the energy demand in the country is BHEL. It has expanded its own power plant equipment manufacturing capacity ready to face challenges from competitors for a target of around 15000 MW of plant equipment annually.
What is it doing differently?
1. They have promoted vendor development, focussing on adding 700 vendors across various products over the last year. This ensures adequate vendor support for manufacturing.
2. They have focussed on reducing import dependence by upgraded casting and forgings plants.
What are the challenges faced and possible solutions to them?
1. Presence of multiple partners on projects means that project responsibilities have to be synchronized well. BHEL focuses on main plant equipment but there are host of other partners involved in engineering, procurement, construction.
Solution: Increasing visibility on the responsibilities of individual partners
2. Mobilising people for projects is a challenge for the contractors.
Solution: Adding about 4000 people a year on own initiative, to reduce constraints
3. Moving into new areas in the power sector like Nuclear energy without having own expertise
Solution:A possible tripartite joint venture with an overseas partner and Nuclear Power Corporation.
A pharma MNC, Merck, with global revenues of over $25 billion and a global R&D budget of around 21% of revenue, is looking ahead to grow in India. This can possibly contribute in reducing the R&D budget spend.
Why India is suited to the overall plans of Merck?
1. Indian market is part of the top5 markets of the company. Growth for Merck is likely to come from cost conscious or price sensitive markets.
2. Indian companies are good at process innovation, with reverse engineering and continuous cost reduction expertise. Indian IT expertise is available close at hand for further support to research. This model can help pharma companies in other countries too, provided the model is spread through partnerships.
3. Make medicines accessible is a goal that Merck is pursuing that can benefit emerging market societies. This is likely to be a differentiator provided the doctors stick to a strong code of ethics and prescribe what is best for the patient. Merck has a stand of not offering incentives to doctors to prescribe medicines.
(Source: Economic Times 28/03/2010)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
PM daylights - 2
Daily view through the eyes of a project manager
Indian Wholesale Business
Learnings from Metro Cash & Carry, the first foreign player to enter this business in 2003.
It has grown to 5 outlets in India.
Challenges faced in their journey and solutions thought of are highlighted below,
1. Potential customers(Retailers, kiranas) have strong relationships with their existing suppliers making cost only one part of the need.
Possible solution tried: Build relationships through education. This is by building skills of the potential customers to help meet their customers needs. Food and Beverage training organized for potential customers through chefs at the shop floor.
2.Potential customers are widely dispersed across the Indian country and states and their needs are different.
Possible solution piloted: Customize services for your customers. An example is the pilot programme to offer a microfinance institution and third party logistic firm to ensure loan and delivery of products that small kirana owners need. This offers the benefit of working capital and saving owners travel time.
3. Multiple stakeholders like State Governments involving APMC regulations, licenses in respective states need to be complied with.
Possible solution: Highlight, make visible the benefits to all partners in the system due to modernization, greater effeciency.
Collect Requirements, is a process in Project Management that can combine observing, listening to your customers burning needs, and providing education, solutions to your potential customers.
(Source: Economic Times(22/03/2010)
Indian Wholesale Business
Learnings from Metro Cash & Carry, the first foreign player to enter this business in 2003.
It has grown to 5 outlets in India.
Challenges faced in their journey and solutions thought of are highlighted below,
1. Potential customers(Retailers, kiranas) have strong relationships with their existing suppliers making cost only one part of the need.
Possible solution tried: Build relationships through education. This is by building skills of the potential customers to help meet their customers needs. Food and Beverage training organized for potential customers through chefs at the shop floor.
2.Potential customers are widely dispersed across the Indian country and states and their needs are different.
Possible solution piloted: Customize services for your customers. An example is the pilot programme to offer a microfinance institution and third party logistic firm to ensure loan and delivery of products that small kirana owners need. This offers the benefit of working capital and saving owners travel time.
3. Multiple stakeholders like State Governments involving APMC regulations, licenses in respective states need to be complied with.
Possible solution: Highlight, make visible the benefits to all partners in the system due to modernization, greater effeciency.
Collect Requirements, is a process in Project Management that can combine observing, listening to your customers burning needs, and providing education, solutions to your potential customers.
(Source: Economic Times(22/03/2010)
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
PM daylights - 1
Daily view through eyes of a project manager
BCCI(Indian Cricket Board) has virtually hit six sixes through the product called IPL. Its version 3 plans to make them richer by Rs 750 crore in this year 2010. This is an increase of 25% from last years revenue.It looks like the project objectives has been hit the centre of the bat.It has also set a performance benchmark for other sports in india and other cricket loving countries. The key source of income(80% plus) is from 3 sources - 8 franchise rights, broadcasting rights and the key sponsors. Anyone looking for some reasons for BCCI's success can see that it has successfully captured the requirements -understanding the country's long standing love for cricket, the need for shorter forms of entertainment and the ability to use emerging infrastructure(flood lit stadia, airports for travel, media, etc) in the metro cities. Ofcourse they have seen similar successful examples in the Basketball leagues in US and the Football Leagues in Europe, but the proof is in making it work through innovation and persistence.
BMRCL(Bangalore Metro) acquired the land of 5 acres in Malleswaram for a low cost that is planned to be developed as the Malleswaram station by 2013. It is likely to earn 1% revenue for the next 30 years, from the builders who are building the station for Rs 35 crores. This is an example of a PPP(Public-Private Partnership) project where both the parties have made smart moves. Opportunities for partners multiply when positive risks are shared.
(Source - Economic Times 16/03/2010)Tuesday, January 19, 2010
How to enable Projects to see the DAYLIGHT
Starting to blog again.
I have always wondered why projects and troubles go hand in hand. There seems to be a natural affinity for troubles to appear right through the course of any project. Its only the size of the trouble that varies. Now I am convinced that project management has the right tools to tackle troubles in every phase of the project. Most of the tools help in capturing the right information required for the project and communicating them. Troubles don't seem to like the undiluted truths.
Early on: Here the troubles threaten to pre-maturely terminate your project before seeing the light of dawn.
The PM tools that help you very early are in assessing the
1. BUSINESS CASE(ROI, BCR, NPV) and building a safety net around your project. This will make it very clear to others WHY you are doing this project?
Planning: Here the morning troubles that threaten are you the lack of information, lack of knowledge and lack of access to the key people, lack of structure to show others WHAT you are going to DO, WHEN you are going to DO it, HOW MUCH money it will cost you? lack of a MEASURE whether the customer will like what you are making or if you are doing as well as you initially thought or if you are doing better than the best in your industry.
The following PM tools can help you here,
1. WORK STRUCTURE
So Identify your project's key stakeholders. Arrange and collect the needs and expectations of your key stakeholders through face to face meetings, conversations, prototypes.
Identify the work required, necessary tasks, steps required to produce the deliverables. Finally the size, shape, color, texture of the deliverable or result as defined by the customer is made very clear. The WBS(Work Breakdown Structure) advertises the scope of what you have to DO and NOT DO clear to ALL.
2. SCHEDULE AND COST STRUCTURE
The Project Schedule announces to the world, the number of activities that you will DO, in which order and agreed MILESTONES and a DEADLINE. The project Cost budget is a clear manifesto of the cost limits that help in designing the EVA sounds alarm bells, when you are close to falling into dangerous waters of schedule or financial troubles. Select a right type of contract and a right partner will help you in tackling some types of troubles.
3. MEASURE
The Quality METRICS identifies key numbers and charts, that again set tolerance limits to the size, shape, color, texture of the deliverable.
PARETTO CHARTS help in identifying the root cause of your troubles.
CONTROL CHARTS help in identifying the tolerance limits for serious troubles.
FLOW CHARTS help you do better than last time in tackling troubles.
RUN CHARTS help you see a pattern due to changing troubles and hence predict the future
4. SUPPORT STRUCTURES that are initially shaped
RISK REGISTER
RACI MATRIX
REQUIREMENTS TRACEABILITY MATRIX
RESOURCE CALENDAR, ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, REWARDS
CONTRACTS TEMPLATES
LESSONS LEARNED DATABASE
Executing, Monitoring, Controlling: Here the mid-day troubles can have the greatest impact and come in the form of unplanned changes, unforeseen issues, anticpated and unknown risks, unknown accountability, people unavailability, people conflicts, contract defaults, unknown status of work, etc
The PM tools that can help you stand firm are,
1.REQUIREMENTS TRACEABILITY MATRIX
2.RISK REGISTER
3.RACI MATRIX
4.RESOURCE CALENDAR, ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, REWARDS
5. ISSUE LOGS
6.CHANGE REQUESTS, LOGS , CHANGE CONTROL BOARD
7.PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK SESSIONS and AUDITS
8.PERFORMANCE STATUS REPORTS
9.RECORDS CAPTURING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Closing: The tools above will make it a satisfying project evening, where the only remaining task is to capture the lessons learned before it vanishes with the sleep and dreams of people. This provides the input to your unique potion, that enables another PM to have the strength for a new PROJECT DAY. This also enables the organisation to build a ROCK on which to stand.
1.LESSONS LEARNED DATABASE
I have always wondered why projects and troubles go hand in hand. There seems to be a natural affinity for troubles to appear right through the course of any project. Its only the size of the trouble that varies. Now I am convinced that project management has the right tools to tackle troubles in every phase of the project. Most of the tools help in capturing the right information required for the project and communicating them. Troubles don't seem to like the undiluted truths.
Early on: Here the troubles threaten to pre-maturely terminate your project before seeing the light of dawn.
The PM tools that help you very early are in assessing the
1. BUSINESS CASE(ROI, BCR, NPV) and building a safety net around your project. This will make it very clear to others WHY you are doing this project?
Planning: Here the morning troubles that threaten are you the lack of information, lack of knowledge and lack of access to the key people, lack of structure to show others WHAT you are going to DO, WHEN you are going to DO it, HOW MUCH money it will cost you? lack of a MEASURE whether the customer will like what you are making or if you are doing as well as you initially thought or if you are doing better than the best in your industry.
The following PM tools can help you here,
1. WORK STRUCTURE
So Identify your project's key stakeholders. Arrange and collect the needs and expectations of your key stakeholders through face to face meetings, conversations, prototypes.
Identify the work required, necessary tasks, steps required to produce the deliverables. Finally the size, shape, color, texture of the deliverable or result as defined by the customer is made very clear. The WBS(Work Breakdown Structure) advertises the scope of what you have to DO and NOT DO clear to ALL.
2. SCHEDULE AND COST STRUCTURE
The Project Schedule announces to the world, the number of activities that you will DO, in which order and agreed MILESTONES and a DEADLINE. The project Cost budget is a clear manifesto of the cost limits that help in designing the EVA sounds alarm bells, when you are close to falling into dangerous waters of schedule or financial troubles. Select a right type of contract and a right partner will help you in tackling some types of troubles.
3. MEASURE
The Quality METRICS identifies key numbers and charts, that again set tolerance limits to the size, shape, color, texture of the deliverable.
PARETTO CHARTS help in identifying the root cause of your troubles.
CONTROL CHARTS help in identifying the tolerance limits for serious troubles.
FLOW CHARTS help you do better than last time in tackling troubles.
RUN CHARTS help you see a pattern due to changing troubles and hence predict the future
4. SUPPORT STRUCTURES that are initially shaped
RISK REGISTER
RACI MATRIX
REQUIREMENTS TRACEABILITY MATRIX
RESOURCE CALENDAR, ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, REWARDS
CONTRACTS TEMPLATES
LESSONS LEARNED DATABASE
Executing, Monitoring, Controlling: Here the mid-day troubles can have the greatest impact and come in the form of unplanned changes, unforeseen issues, anticpated and unknown risks, unknown accountability, people unavailability, people conflicts, contract defaults, unknown status of work, etc
The PM tools that can help you stand firm are,
1.REQUIREMENTS TRACEABILITY MATRIX
2.RISK REGISTER
3.RACI MATRIX
4.RESOURCE CALENDAR, ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, REWARDS
5. ISSUE LOGS
6.CHANGE REQUESTS, LOGS , CHANGE CONTROL BOARD
7.PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK SESSIONS and AUDITS
8.PERFORMANCE STATUS REPORTS
9.RECORDS CAPTURING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Closing: The tools above will make it a satisfying project evening, where the only remaining task is to capture the lessons learned before it vanishes with the sleep and dreams of people. This provides the input to your unique potion, that enables another PM to have the strength for a new PROJECT DAY. This also enables the organisation to build a ROCK on which to stand.
1.LESSONS LEARNED DATABASE
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Strengths, Skills and Project Managers
A talent or an ability is a strength if you can find yourself doing it happily, repeatedly, successfully. These kind of strengths are transferable from situation to situation but is limited to the person.
Skills enable people to avoid trial and error and incorporate discoveries from best performers in the industry. Skill is transferable from person to person but is limited to specific situations
Project Managers find themselves to be the at the intersection of the senior managements search for value and an individual team members search for identity.
Project Managers add value to their team and their sponsors, when they build relationships upward, downward and sideward.
Project Managers can hold up the mirror to their team members as individuals to discover their skills and strengths.
People are wired to need attention of some kind. Project Managers are wired to give attention, feedback, encouragement and support. The Project manager's role is not to teach strengths but to match strength to roles and activities. It is to understand subtle differences in people and match the task to the right person.
One of the signs of a good project managers are that they can understand the unique strengths of their team members and utilize it for the Sponsors search for value. Human Resources is the last vast reserve of value left on planet earth and Project Managers have it in them to extract it and utilize it.
Skills enable people to avoid trial and error and incorporate discoveries from best performers in the industry. Skill is transferable from person to person but is limited to specific situations
Project Managers find themselves to be the at the intersection of the senior managements search for value and an individual team members search for identity.
Project Managers add value to their team and their sponsors, when they build relationships upward, downward and sideward.
Project Managers can hold up the mirror to their team members as individuals to discover their skills and strengths.
People are wired to need attention of some kind. Project Managers are wired to give attention, feedback, encouragement and support. The Project manager's role is not to teach strengths but to match strength to roles and activities. It is to understand subtle differences in people and match the task to the right person.
One of the signs of a good project managers are that they can understand the unique strengths of their team members and utilize it for the Sponsors search for value. Human Resources is the last vast reserve of value left on planet earth and Project Managers have it in them to extract it and utilize it.
Friday, July 24, 2009
TIME Management - A key ingredient in innovation
PROJECTS help in piloting innovation in organisations to increase productivity, quality and make an impact to the bottom line. Two of the most important ingredients in innovation and creative thinking are PEOPLE and TIME
The Japanese believe in four types of Managerial TIME
Operational time - time necessary to correct yesterdays errors
Strategic time - time needed to plan for future
Innovative time - time needed to become more competitive tomorrow
Kaizen time - time needed for continuous improvements
Aspiring innovators more than anything else, need the innovative time and use it for thinking, planning, collaborating, piloting and experimenting. Google and 3M are two organisations who believe in the innovative time for managers and team members.
Project Managers would take the step in the right direction, if they allocate more TIME for creative thinking in projects for themselves and their team members.
The Japanese believe in four types of Managerial TIME
Operational time - time necessary to correct yesterdays errors
Strategic time - time needed to plan for future
Innovative time - time needed to become more competitive tomorrow
Kaizen time - time needed for continuous improvements
Aspiring innovators more than anything else, need the innovative time and use it for thinking, planning, collaborating, piloting and experimenting. Google and 3M are two organisations who believe in the innovative time for managers and team members.
Project Managers would take the step in the right direction, if they allocate more TIME for creative thinking in projects for themselves and their team members.
Monday, June 8, 2009
PM Benefits - Success is Repeatable
Project Management framework ensures a REPEATABLE process which makes it easy for an organisation to perform a future project better than a previous project. It also gives confidence to the customer that an organisation can consistently achieve success under various environments and conditions.
1.The REPEATABLE PROCESS ensures that projects are planned and executed CONSISTENTLY across the dimensions of an organisation, location.
Example: In a core banking program consisting of multiple projects that involve the deployment of core banking solution in a global bank that has branches in multiple countries and cities, the projects need to be consistent across the whole bank, across locations.
Two or more project managers in an organisation will follow the same process steps in starting and completing a project, ensuring consistency in the performance of projects across an organisation.
It will also ensure that two different project managers, one representing a customer and another representing a vendor are able to understand each other. This will make sure that one project manager can take over from another in an emergency.
2.The REPEATABLE process will ensure that projects are planned, executed EFFICIENTLY by an organisation across the dimension of time.
The future projects will use the basic standards or core standards of past projects. Innovations will be built on the standard foundation of common processes. This will ensure that the project wheels are not re-invented.
Example: The core banking upgrade projects in a bank involves replacing the old banking system with a new system while retaining the customer and account data already in the system. These kind of projects involve conversion of data from the old system to the new system. This is the common, standard characteristic in all core banking projects. The knowledge of project management process called SCOPE MANAGEMENT helps in providing a boundary around the work that is performed. This helps the organisation to perform future projects with the common patterns of past projects but also adopting new customized, innovative techniques that can make core banking conversions happen faster, with higher quality.
1.The REPEATABLE PROCESS ensures that projects are planned and executed CONSISTENTLY across the dimensions of an organisation, location.
Example: In a core banking program consisting of multiple projects that involve the deployment of core banking solution in a global bank that has branches in multiple countries and cities, the projects need to be consistent across the whole bank, across locations.
Two or more project managers in an organisation will follow the same process steps in starting and completing a project, ensuring consistency in the performance of projects across an organisation.
It will also ensure that two different project managers, one representing a customer and another representing a vendor are able to understand each other. This will make sure that one project manager can take over from another in an emergency.
2.The REPEATABLE process will ensure that projects are planned, executed EFFICIENTLY by an organisation across the dimension of time.
The future projects will use the basic standards or core standards of past projects. Innovations will be built on the standard foundation of common processes. This will ensure that the project wheels are not re-invented.
Example: The core banking upgrade projects in a bank involves replacing the old banking system with a new system while retaining the customer and account data already in the system. These kind of projects involve conversion of data from the old system to the new system. This is the common, standard characteristic in all core banking projects. The knowledge of project management process called SCOPE MANAGEMENT helps in providing a boundary around the work that is performed. This helps the organisation to perform future projects with the common patterns of past projects but also adopting new customized, innovative techniques that can make core banking conversions happen faster, with higher quality.
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