Transcript Session Title Session - SCQAA-OC

Kristine A. Hayes Munson, MBA, PMP, CIA
State Street
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You will be able to apply systems thinking to
monitoring and controlling after:
◦ Reviewing PMBOK® Guide basics
◦ Selecting key performance indicators (KPI)
◦ Knowing when to implement change or when to
leave a project “as is”
◦ Determining whether or not proposed changes
will positively or negatively impact the project
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Managed an user acceptance testing project to
onboard a client to a major system within firm
Project went from greenish-amber to red in less
than a week with no major fires
SVP comment on the project:
◦ The team is working frantically
◦ The team is not working hard enough
“There is no such thing as a fact concerning an
empirical observation. Any two people may have
different ideas about what is important to know
about any event. Get the facts!”
—W. Edward Deming
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PMBOK® Guide Basics Review
Key Performance Indicators
Why Change?
◦ Special Cause and Common Cause Variation
◦ The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
Seeing is Understanding
◦ Deming’s Red Bead Experiment
◦ Deming’s Funnel Experiment
Understanding My Project
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Those processes required to:
◦ Track, review, and regulate the progress and
performance of the project
◦ Identify any areas in which changes to the plan
are required
◦ Initiate the corresponding changes
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Scope
Schedule
Cost
Quality
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Communications
Risk
Procurement
Stakeholder
Management
Integrated Project
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Comparing planned
results with actual
results
Reporting performance
Determining if action is
needed, and what the
right action is
Ensuring deliverables
are correct
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Acquiring sign-off on
deliverables
Assessing overall
project performance
Managing risks
Managing contracts
and vendors
What are our results?
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Translate project execution data from information
into knowledge
Make the right management decisions and take the
right action
◦ Implement appropriate, planned changes
◦ Allow the project to function “as is”
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Select 3-5 key performance indicators (KPI)
◦ Ask stakeholders what is most important
◦ Identify the impact of not completing the project
Make KPIs “SMART”
Remember may need to be “bad” at some things in
order to be “good”
• Ensure project team knows and understands
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Think about a project that you are currently
managing.
◦ Identify what are the 3-5 KPIs?
◦ What are you going to be intentionally bad at?
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We observe variation from our expectations
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How do we decide whether or not to “change,” “fix”
or “improve” something?
How do we determine if a change will positively
and/or negatively impact a project?
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Common Cause
◦ Fall inside the
control limits
Special Cause
◦ Something that is
special, not part of
the system of
common causes
◦ Fall outside the
control limits
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Mistake 1
◦ To react to an outcome as if it came from a
special cause, when actually it came from
common causes of variation.
Mistake 2
◦ To treat an outcome as if it came from common
causes of variation, when actually it came from a
special cause
When you discover that you are riding a dead horse,
the best strategy is to dismount.
In many companies more advanced strategies are
often employed, such as:
Reclassifying
the
dead
horse
as the
‘living
impaired’
Declaring
Providing
that
additional
as
the
dead
funding
horse
and/or
does
training
not
have
to
Rewriting
the
expected
performance
Lowering
the
standards
so
that
horses
Hiring
Doing
Arranging
Appointing
Harnessing
outside
a productivity
toa
contractors
visit
several
committee
Changing
other
study
dead
countries
to
riders
to
ride
horses
see
study
ifdead
to
lighter
the
together
dead
see
horse
how
riders
horse
increase
to be
fed,
the
itincrease
is
dead
less
costly,
carries
performance
lower
requirements
for
allspeed
horses…
can
behorse’s
included
would
improve
others
to
the
ride
dead
dead
the
horse’s
horses
performance
overhead, and therefore contributes
substantially more to the mission of the
organization than do some other horses
A
D
B
C
Adopt the change, or
abandon it or
run through
the cycle again
Act
Plan
Plan a change or
a test, aimed at
improvement
–Which option
to test?
– What is
anticipated
result?
Beware of
Unintended Consequences
Study the results.
What did we learn?
What went wrong?
Check
Do
Carry out the change
or test (preferably
on a small scale)
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Help Wanted
◦ 3 willing project team members (must be brave)
◦ 3 QA lead (must be able to count)
◦ 1 project manager (must be able to add & use
PowerPoint)
◦ 1 senior manager (sets the rules – me)
Worker
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Total
Marc
15
22
20
57
Vance
12
26
20
58
Ron
38
26
15
79
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Wrong to rank people
◦ Demoralizing
◦ Really ranking the effect of the process on
people
Futility of pay for performance; rewarding and
punishing the process
Display of bad management; procedures were rigid
No basis to assume that best team member would
be the best in the future
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Help Wanted
◦ 1 will project team member (must be able to hold
funnel)
◦ 1 project manager (must be able to use a marker)
◦ 1 senior manager (sets the rules – me)
No one gets fired in this experiment.
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Avoid management tampering
◦ Taking action based on the belief that a common
cause is a special cause
◦ Overreacting
◦ Causes losses – management by results
◦ Increases variation
Sometimes the process should just be left alone
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What is the most important decision we face on
our project right now because we observed
variation?
◦ What long-term consequence do the short-term
issues have?
◦ How does this decision relate to the project’s
3-5 KPIs?
How will we determine if this variation is a special
cause or a common cause variation?
How does this knowledge impact your decision?
How will you test your decision?

You will be able to apply systems thinking to
monitoring and controlling after:
◦ Reviewing PMBOK® Guide basics
◦ Selecting key performance indicators (KPI)
◦ Knowing when to implement change or when to
leave a project “as is”
◦ Determining whether or not proposed changes
will positively or negatively impact the project
“The truth is often buried deeper than where your
intuition can reach. Uncovering it starts with the
willingness to stop treating your beliefs as facts.”
— Frances Frei and Anne Morriss
“Learning the word ‘no’ is the hardest lesson for
many project managers.”
— Jim Johnson
Kristine A. Hayes Munson, MBA, PMP, CIA
[email protected]
+949-932-1476