How To Overcome A Project Disaster
Sometimes a project hits a few speed bumps, and sometimes it suddenly crashes into a concrete wall. Here are some suggestions for dealing with these disasters.
By Steve Caseley and Chris Ward
The ultimate goal for any project manager is to complete the project on time and on budget. And yet, despite our best intentions, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes a project hits a series of speed bumps, and sometimes it suddenly crashes into a concrete wall.
Steve Caseley and I are project managers, and we’d like to share a couple of our personal disaster stories with you, as well as our solutions and the lessons we learned. By doing so, we hope you’ll take something away from our experiences.
The first story involved restarting a software upgrade project for a large international bank two-thirds of the way through—which is certainly not a position any sane person wants to be in.
Steve Caseley’s Challenge:
I was managing a project to upgrade a highly customized convertible bonds trading system for a major international bank. The requirements were straightforward: Upgrade the software and preserve customizations so they could be used in the new release.
The project went very well for the first two trading desks in New York and London. My project sponsor was tightly connected to both desks and had a firm understanding of what customizations had been done. Coincidentally, these were identical for each location.
However, the wheels fell off the bus when we implemented the project at the third trading desk, which was in Hong Kong. We had done a substantial amount of customization for this desk, but many of the changes were unfamiliar to staff members throughout the bank.
We suggested they could modify trading practices to “fit the software,” but that idea fell on deaf ears. “That’s just not how it works here,” we were told.
The end result was that we had to restart the project two-thirds of the way through, and integrate all the changes the third desk needed. We were substantially over schedule and over budget, causing significant operational issues for the bank because it had to keep duplicate copies of the trading system active for an extended period of time.
Ultimately, we completed all the modifications and successfully implemented them into the third trading desk, much to the delight of the local manager.
Lessons learned: Never underestimate the complexities of an international project, and always ensure that you have full coverage for your key project stakeholders. Originally, we didn’t have adequate stakeholder representation from Hong Kong, simply because the people there were harder to reach due to the time difference, and our project sponsor had assured us that “all the desks operate the same way.”
Chris Ward’s Challenge:
I was tapped to be the team lead on a project to develop training for a large tech firm, since I had experience with e-learning companies, helping corporate tech employees pass certification exams and learn skills.
The tech firm had printed material, but it wanted self-paced e-learning, too. I knew the material very well and was certified, so I felt confident that my style and methodology would blow them away, even if I went off script.
After recording several tutorials, I persuaded one of my colleagues (a sought-after Cisco trainer) to record an associated lesson on security. It was not exactly what the client had asked for initially, but I was sure they would love it.
After we sent our initial recordings and amazing graphics to the head of the training group, we received scathing reviews. One customer email read: “You sound like a bunch of monkeys pretending to teach this information.”
I was stunned. In subsequent meetings, “stick to the content” was drummed into our heads. So that’s what we did. We simply read the content and added the graphics once we had finished. The course was sent back for approval.
The responses this time were quite different:
“Brilliant!” “Exactly what we wanted.”“This is more like it.”
Lessons Learned: “Gold-plating” is not how to make your project succeed. Always identify your stakeholders and make sure you understand their requirements. Quality is ultimately in the eye of the customer as you fulfill the agreed-upon requirements. It was a painful lesson, but I have not made that mistake again.
Minimizing Disaster
Ultimately, even people with stellar track records can become entangled in a project that just doesn't work. To minimize the chances of disaster, here are some concrete steps you can take.
· Develop a schedule and use it to monitor your progress every week.
· Communicate up and down the chain, so no one is caught off guard if a project slowly drifts behind schedule.
· Continually improve your skill sets and keep current with changing technology through training.
If you do these things, you can help prevent delays. And, even if a project is suddenly derailed by unforeseen events, you will be in a position to handle it in the most effective way possible.
Steve Caseley has taught project management at the graduate and undergraduate levels at several universities and has developed and delivered project management training programs for organizations all over the world. He is currently finalizing an online PMP training series for the PMI Project Management Professional certification exam based on the 2015 RDS exam definition.
Chris Ward has been an expert on Microsoft products since the days of Windows 3.1. He holds PMP certification from PMI and was an online instructor for several of the world's top e-learning companies. He currently works as a trainer for CBT Nuggets and is finalizing an online training series, ITIL Intermediate Lifecycle: CSI.
2020 Candidate Profile: Andrew Yang
2020 candidate profile: Andrew Yang
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Businessman Andrew Yang is running in the Democratic primary for president.
Here are some fast facts about Andrew Yang:
Birth date:
Jan. 13, 1975
Hometown:
Schenectady, New York
Education:
Brown University (B.A.)
Columbia University (J.D.)
Career:
Yang worked briefly as an attorney before he became an entrepreneur. He spent a decade as CEO of Manhattan Prep, an American test preparation company.
Family:
Wife (Evelyn) and two sons.
What he’s saying about:
Health care:
“Access to quality health care is one of the most important factors in overall well being, and yet America is one of the few industrialized nations not to provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Through a Medicare for All system, we can ensure that all Americans receive the health care they deserve. Not only will this raise the quality of life for all Americans, but, by increasing access to preventive care, it will also bring overall healthcare costs down.”
Climate Change:
“The time to start dealing with climate change was a decade ago, so we need to do everything we can to tackle this existential threat. We need to adapt our country to deal with the natural disasters that we’re already seeing increase while investing in research on how to undo the damage we’ve done. We also need to invest in a sustainable economy, both on the personal level and country-wide, while exporting our technology worldwide to overcome this massive threat to our way of life.”
Opioid Crisis:
“We are in the midst of a crisis in this country. Opioids are killing eight Americans every hour,” Yang said. “That trend has only increased over the past several years. We need to hold those who profited from opioids to justice, and invest in treatment options, so that we can refer those who are addicted to these drugs to a place to get better rather than to jail.”
National Security:
“Russian interference into our election undermines our democracy and makes people question the fairness of election outcomes. While disinformation is one method of Russian interference, we also saw unprecedented cyber attacks. These attacks will be the battlefield of the future, and we need to secure our networks – especially our energy grid and banking system – from foreign attacks while ensuring our capabilities on both offense and defense are strong enough to protect Americans.”
Gun Laws:
“For many Americans, guns are a big part of their culture and identity. However, guns are a major responsibility and, thus, we need to have common-sense gun safety measures, especially considering that there are already approximately 300 million firearms in the United States. Responsible gun owners should continue to enjoy the right to bear arms, subject to licensing and education requirements that will encourage the public safety.”
College Tuition:
“College tuition has exploded over the past several decades. As president, I will explore a gradual phase-in of a desired ratio of administrators to students of 1 to 30 as a condition of public funding as opposed to the current 1 to 21. But we also need to recognize that college is over-prescribed...We need to do much more to support vocational and apprenticeship programs.”
Immigration:
“Immigrants have been a source of hard work and innovation for America over the centuries, and we need to continue to attract people to live out their American dream. We need to secure our Southern border while providing protection for DREAMers and more resources to ensure that our asylum courts are able to handle the massive influx of immigrants who are looking for a better life in America. We also need to provide a pathway to citizenship to get immigrants who are undocumented out of the shadows and into the formal economy.”
Presidential candidate comparisons:
-- On the issues-- Fun facts
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Watch Yang answer New Hampshire voter questions face to face in an installment of "Conversation with the Candidate."
4 Top Stress Triggers For Business Travellers And How To Overcome Them
If you’ve ever felt stressed or anxious about business travels, know that you are not alone. (File Photo: IANS)
If you’ve ever felt stressed or anxious about business travels, know that you are not alone. In fact, experts have come up with a new term to describe this very common phenomenon. It’s called "Permanxiety”.
Coined in 2017 by global travel industry platform Skift, Permanxiety refers to a permanent state of anxiety widely experienced across the world. An almost collective sense of dread around anything from acts of terrorism, natural disasters, climate change, political uncertainty, financial concerns, crime and personal safety.
Travel has a unique way of amplifying one’s anxiety. The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) reports that flight delays, lost luggage, language barriers, technology failure (for example, being unable to set up devices or get connected) and personal safety (including accidents and injury) are just some of the concerns facing business travellers.
Oz Desai, GM Corporate Traveller, identified four of the top ‘stress triggers’ for corporate travellers – and helps with ways to overcome them.
Travel admin – and curveballs
More and more business travellers are turning to tech when making their travel bookings. Interestingly, while the majority of business travellers enjoy the ease and convenience of modern booking tools, a 2019 SAP Concur study found that a surprising number of business travellers are still going out of their way to get a direct human connection – with more than a quarter of business travellers (28%) indicating that they would rather re-book cancelled travel arrangements over the phone than online.
Desai is not surprised. He says, " While making the initial flight, accommodation and transport bookings might be quick and easy, it actually takes a considerable amount of time to cancel and rebook flights and adjust one’s entire itinerary when plans change. Unfortunately curveballs are a reality with business travel – and more and more travellers would like a ‘human’ on the other end of the phone to unravel bookings and mitigate the knock-on effect of a rescheduled meeting, delayed flight or unexpected event.”
Airport anxiety
Airport anxiety is an unfortunate reality, with concerns about flight delays, lack of sleep, jet lag and fear of flying keeping many a traveller up at night.
And while it is hard to ease the some of the ‘pain points’, for example, queues at customs and immigration, there are ways to ensure your airport experience is a lot more bearable.
Many airlines also offer priority boarding at a nominal fee, meaning you can board, find your seat and stow your carry-on bag quickly and easily. This might seem like an unnecessary expense, but even securing space for your hand luggage in the cabin close to your seat can ease a little airport anxiety.
Work pressure
Meeting new people, jitters before difficult presentations or pressure around securing new business can all add to the stress of business travel. But it doesn’t end there. The SAP Concur study reveals that as many as 1 in 3 business travellers (33%) are most stressed after a business trip – saying that post-trip admin (including catching up on emails and filing expense reports) is the most stressful part of any trip.
Finding a travel management partner with convenient cost/expense management tools will go a long way to ease this stress, ensuring that travel expenses are reconciled and reimbursed quickly and easily and that employees are not left stressed and out of pocket!
Of course, you can always postpone the nightmare of post-trip admin by combining business with leisure. It’s no surprise that ‘bleisure’ travel is booming. Bleisure allows travellers to explore the world, make the most of their long-distance travel, enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation and hopefully return to work refreshed and ready to tackle their next challenge.
Personal safety
Safety remains top of mind for business travellers across the globe. Travellers are looking for maximum booking flexibility in their online tools, not only for convenience, but also so they can change their plans if they feel unsafe, unwell or uncomfortable. Sadly the SAP Concur report shows that at least 58% of travellers have changed their accommodation at some point because they felt unsafe.
Again, look for an integrated, comprehensive travel tool that meets all your needs, including safety alerts, location-sharing functionality, flexibility and trusted advice in times of need.
Travel insurance is becoming increasingly important as we head into 2020. Rather than treating travel insurance as an afterthought, interrogate your options, ensuring that you are effectively covered in the event of an accident, illness or unplanned event.
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