Guerilla Training or Never Let a Chance Go By

1. Guerilla TrainingorNever Let a Chance Go By Jon Scheele, PMP

2. Outline • Why train? • Identify the greatest need • Train in what? • Train who? • Train when? • Summary

3. Why Train? • Better buy-in • Authority to act • Their confidence, trust • Better output

4. Tuckman’s Wheel Forming Storming Norming Performing

5. How Much Training? • Enough to ensure that the job is done well • Avoid gold plating • Trade-off between preparation and execution

6. What Is The Greatest Need? • What does the organization do well? • How do you know? • Maturity level? • Where are the gaps? • What are the pain points?

7. Processes Initiating Planning Executing Controlling Closing Knowledge Areas Integration Scope Time Cost Quality Human Resources Communications Risk Management Procurement Train in What? “Guide to the PMBOK“, PMI, 2000

8. Executive support User involvement Experienced project manager Clear business objectives Minimized scope Standard software infrastructure Firm basic requirements Formal methodology Reliable estimates Other criteria Project Success Factors "Extreme CHAOS 2001“, The Standish Group

9. Train Who? • Sponsors • Customers and stakeholders • Team members

10. Sponsors Teach questions not practices: • Do we have a clear statement of what the customer wants? • Has this changed since we last met? • How much work have we done? • How much work was to be done by now? • How much did we spend on it? • How much were we to have spent for that work? "Project Managing Up! Getting Management Buy-In to Project Management", Carl Pritchard, 2003

11. More Sponsor Questions • Do you need any support from me to get it back on track?* • What risks (if any) need to be escalated to my level?* • Did any of our major risks turn into realities? • What changes have been made to the project? • Is the customer happy? • Are the team members satisfied with their work? • Do you need any of my intervention with the customer or the team?*

12. Prompting the Right Questions So, how do you prompt the sponsor to ask the right questions? • Identify their pain points/concerns • Present reports that address these • Prepare dashboards that highlight: • Sponsor’s pain points/concerns (rather than just what we did) • Decisions that we need them to make • External dependencies that we can’t control (but they may be able to influence)

13. Customers and Stakeholders • Triple Constraint: • Scope • Time • Cost • Change management

14. Team Members • Glossary of keywords and TLAs • Planning • Estimating • Communications • Learning curve effect

15. Train When? • Kick-off meeting • Workshop • Presenting the plan • Delegating tasks • Progress meetings • Status reports • Close-out • Lessons learned

16. Lessons Learned “The key to effective corporate learning on projects is to make the learning process both a normal part of the project delivery methodology and something that can be of immediate value to the team that learned the lessons, as well as to others.” “Don’t Park Your Brain Outside”, Francis T. Hartman

17. Summary • Train to achieve buy-in and better output • Tailor the training to suit the audience • Take advantage of training opportunities

18. Questions? Jon Scheele Phone: 571-275-0188 Email: jscheele@ieee.org