How to lead projects, programmes and remote, global teams effectively

It has been over 20 years since our profession determined that measuring success against time/cost/scope is not project success – rather it is a measure of how successful project management was deployed during delivery in other words how efficient we were. Project success we are told is the achievement of the project objects as measured through the benefits/results/impact or in other words how effective the project was.

What has been our professions response to this re-definition of project success? Most of our practices, frameworks/methodologies, tools and techniques have been around for over 4 or 5 decades i.e. to support the success criteria based on being “efficient” rather than being “effective”.

A quick glance at the profession’s response may take you down the route that “programmes” deliver benefits and “projects” enable them by producing artifacts/products/deliverables or outputs. Why can’t all delivery modalities, including projects, focus on benefits? The PRAXIS Framework has broken down the artificial walls between projects; programmes and portfolios which is a good start. The APM Body of Knowledge does suggest an extended project lifecycle which would enable benefits to be the focus, but why don’t we use it?

The Sponsor/SRO/Executive we are told owns the business case and the project documentation and plan should demonstrate the delivery of that business case. So why do most project plans still end at the delivery of outputs? How can we say that these outputs will deliver the business case if there is no link to the realisation of the benefits? One of the APM’s Chartered Project Professional competence assessments is combined/integrated planning, so why don’t project managers have this as a skill and produce a plan that links objectives to; benefits – outcomes – capabilities – outputs, as well as communications, risk, quality and so on? Our project managers instead seem to focus on the teams’ activities, which if they are not careful, will result in the PM running the delivery as a large work-package instead of focusing on being in role of manager.

As delivery professionals, there is a danger we will keep repeating the past instead of challenging ourselves and others within the profession to think critically about our practices. It’s not that our practices are necessarily wrong, but most were put in place to help the PM deliver against a success criteria measured around time/cost/scope. So what practices have you changed to ensure that the project is both efficient AND effective? As we get closer to a post-covid era of delivery, what will we keep changing to ensure the profession remains relevant for the future?

1. Know your tradecraft – having a qualification in PRINCE2, Agile or P30 is not enough, joining APM/PMI and doing their range of qualifications is also not enough, even achieving an MSc and becoming Chartered is not enough – you must continually seek alternative views and practices. The future requires managers who can take on complexity, projects they haven’t done before, and be able to work in new and evolving sectors. There will be no space for those that simply cut a paste from the last project and pay lip service to the practices they should be deploying.
2. Know your capability – exploit your strengths – develop areas that will help you, study your competencies, get feedback on your behaviour, seek out coaches and mentors that will help you develop. Be part of a community of practice that will help take you forward.
3. Develop critical thinking and challenge everything! Many PM’s claim to have 10 years’ experience – but looking at their CV’s they often have 1 or 2 years only, but repeated many times, remember, much of what you will learn in 1 & 2 above is 40-50 years old.