To: The Compiler of the Report for Study of Centrally Funded Projects in India (and anyone else that this may concern),

According to your recent study into the matter mentioned above, more than half the big centrally-funded projects – that is undertakings estimated to cost more than Rs. 20 crore – are running up to 25 years behind schedule (Reference: http://in.news.yahoo.com/248/20100510/1582/tnl-many-projects-25-years-behind-time.html). To most of the citizens, there is nothing surprising in this. The most common grievance that puts off many among the “common man” when the need arises to pursue any matter with the administration is that ‘it will take a lo…ng time’. In fact, your report itself cites that time overrun on projects has come down by hardly 11 percentage points – from 62 per cent to 51 per cent in the past 18 years. So hard earned public funds be damned, state governance and development rest in peace; time delay is condemned to be the forever faithful companion to any administrative initiative.

Some of the reasons sighted by your study for this delay include – inadequate funding, geological surprises and changes in the scope of projects. Us geeks in the project management parlance would term “geological surprises” as risks – risks that we claim, need to be identified and managed. It is obvious that given the largely capricious nature of the Indian topology, Mother Nature wields some kind of a grudge against all our efforts. How else can one explain the fact that despite holding voluminous amount of geo-scientific data through relentless field surveys and laboratory studies, we are still faced with novel “surprises” that thwart the project risk management plan (or whatever you call that small section buried amidst reams of other crucial data)? Project scope is another area that we professionals audaciously claim to handle and control changes. But of what good is our scope management experience when faced with the changes that are encountered in the gargantuan public projects where sometimes the scope may vacillate between appeasing this section of the community or that or spring up “added” requirements of provision of say, street lights on a newly constructed road?

Luckily handling of project funding is an area where we managerial nerds are on an equal footing with you. Most of our waking hours are dedicated to conjuring schemes by which the sponsor may be convinced to loosen the purse strings. Never mind that our tax money pays for the bureaucratic indulgence in having projects run a quarter century behind the due date. In fact, your performance in this area seems to have outpaced ours; your report talks of a decrease of 50 percentage points in project cost overrun between 1991 and 2009! The visible impact of this saving has already manifested in the amenities provided to and hoarded by the public servants; that on the lives of the needy citizens will obviously be revealed subsequently.

Amid all this rambling, what catches one’s attention is the resolution proposed in your report – ‘the institution of standing committees within ministries to monitor time and cost of projects and to fix responsibility for any delay’. So what if it sounds like another big project that not only may again run into time and cost delays but also degenerate into a blame game with no accountability ever being fixed? And what alternative is available really? Bringing in professional project management consulting and assistance will most likely only complicate matters. Approaching these large projects in a scientific and disciplined manner is obviously going to add to the workload of the custodians of the government charged with serving the country. Centralized Large Scale Project Management Offices, inclusion of domain field experts in project teams, installation of impartial and rigid project governance, providing an option to the professional and certified project managers to make a difference, even through compulsion if necessary – all very high-profile ideas and next to impossible to implement – right? It makes more sense to add to the already corpulent list of committees that consume perishable resources and help provide charges to be tossed among sides for years to come. And “minor” slippages can hardly be circumvented in a large project. As long as the project is deemed complete, how does it matter when and what cost it gets done? Wonder why a well-known national figure was of the opinion that the ‘means are, after all, everything’, that ‘as the means, so the end’?

From,
Another “Project Management” Freak

Prioritization – an indispensable skill for all individuals in every sphere of life, but of particular advantage to a project manager. As practicing professionals, we not only work our way through a host of activities in a day but also face the widest variety of time parasites – tasks that raise their heads out of nowhere and demand our attention and effort. There are various examples of projects and individuals that have stumbled, even failed simply because the team and the manager tried to do too much at the same time and ended up doing little of importance to the project success.

Whether it is because doing too many things portrays us as busy or that we simply lack prioritization skills, it is amazing how many managers suffer from the illusion that the more tasks they get done in a day, the more successful they are in time management. They could hardly be far from the truth; time management is not only about efficiency, but also about effectiveness. At the end of the day, it is about how much value your activities have added to the project and the organization. And difficulties in achieving this value are compounded by the fact that time is a scarce resource. Hence managing time effectively as well as achieving the desired value calls for prioritization skills.

Just as most skills do, prioritization has a certain personal aspect to it; what works for one person may or may not work for another. Most managers work with a daily planner and a to do list that could be anything between a few lines scrawled on a piece of paper and a sophisticated software enabled calendar. While these tools are helpful, I think they are simply lists of what needs to be done. These say nothing of the criticality or value add of any task. Without taking these factors into consideration, we are again drawn into trying accomplish everything on the list and may end up doing almost nothing of significance.

There is a gamut of literature available on the different techniques of prioritization. At the core of each of these is an evaluation of each task on parameters that are vital and crucial to the project. The entire process can be built upon this base by following some simple steps.

1.Start with a simple To Do list that includes all the tasks that you think need to be completed in the day. Things that come up during the day also need to be added into this and planned for as the day progresses.
2.Identify the significant parameters for yourself, your project and your organization. Remember these are the factors on which you will evaluate your tasks and so they need to be significantly important and measurable. Another point to bear in mind is that you cannot have less than two or more than six such parameters. Any number outside this range calls for deeper analysis.
3.The ideal situation would be that you come up with two key parameters, the most common ones being importance and urgency or value and effort. Although the members of each pair are commonly mistaken to be interchangeable, more often than not a distinction is required. All that is important may not have to be completed within the next few hours. Likewise all tasks that may add benefits to the project may not require a great deal of effort.
4.A 2×2 matrix with one end of the scale representing Low and the other High can now be easily used to slot each task into a suitable compartment. Once this is done, it is easy to identify the sequence in which one should go about their tasks (High urgency, high importance or High value, low effort followed by others). Notice how this not only ensures that you get tasks done but actually ensures that the more valuable tasks get done.
5.In case of more than two key parameters, one would have to employ a rating of each task on each parameter and arrive at a cumulative or weighted score for each to decide on how to order them. Personally, I find this actually takes long and may actually end up being another task that you have to prioritize! Too many peas in this pod may mean similar and confusing factors that should be further rationalized. For me, the Urgent – Important matrix works best and has gotten me through some of the toughest projects.

Of course, in the end, you need to be careful that this carefully done exercise does not remain on paper while you give into the urge to carry out activities as you wish or as your boss wishes of you. Also make sure that you do not spend more than the necessary time on this exercise (depending on the volume, I would suggest 10 minutes at the start of the day followed by 2 to 3 minutes for each new task). Over time as you get comfortable with the process, you will use it without even thinking twice and in most areas of your life. However the few moments you spend on this simple exercise will offer long lasting benefits of better results and less scope for burn outs.

This piece of code was supposed to be developed 3 days ago. Delay in code delivery has resulted in delay in testing & all subsequent phases.

I had no idea that this piece of work has started and that my task was to follow its completion. No one ever tells me anything!

Why bother completing this piece of work today? I still have 2 days before the scheduled deadline.

Sound familiar? As project managers, we have all encountered situations where one cog in the entire wheel of operations gets stuck resulting in the complete project coming to a grinding halt. Prevention is any day better than cure, so is there any way that we can avoid getting into this messy situation? The good news is yes, it is indeed possible and has actually been done! Wondering how? Read on.

Ours was a typical software development project with the usual phases of design & specification, development and testing. Despite being a co located team, we frequently battled with delayed deliverables. The domino effect was irrepressible – one small delay in one step and the entire block came tumbling down. So what did we do to overcome this ripple effect?

Who’s next in line?

Imagine a relay race. Each runner after the first sees his partner approach him with the baton. He is well aware that his partner’s round has come to an end and that he has to carry the baton for the next leg of the race. So much so that he gets ready by getting into the running position so that minimum time is wasted before he takes off.

We applied the same principle to our project – Forewarned is better prepared. Based on the project schedule, we knew the dates when each step was to be completed. A few days before the completion of a particular step, a mail would go out to the individual(s) responsible for the next step informing of his imminent task (this was carried out using a tool, but can well be achieved using less sophisticated means). Such prior information served two key purposes – one, it gave the individual sufficient time to wrap up the present task that he was engaged in & free himself up for the upcoming activity. This is in keeping with the philosophy of Critical Chain Project Management – Focused effort on the task at hand is better as compared to multitasking. Secondly, it also allowed the individuals to prepare themselves for the new task by seeking out relevant information and also carrying out some tasks that are independent of the completion of the previous task. For example, preparation of test data for a piece of software code may be completed even before the development is complete.

Beware the student syndrome

We have all been guilty of this at some point or other as students and probably even as professionals – the tendency to keep at a particular task until its due date even though it can well be completed before. You may ask “Where’s the problem in this if the task is getting completed on its due date?” The answer again lies in Critical Chain Project Management which advocates that projects be leveled at “50% probability” duration and that buffers be used only for critical chain activities. Student syndrome not only provides a gap where other distractions can sneak in but also eats into the buffers built into the task estimates. And no one can deny that if finishing a task on time feels good, finishing it before time feels great!

So how did we achieve this in a practical scenario? At every meeting – formal or informal, early completion of tasks was encouraged. Team members who finished their tasks early were recognized and a special mention was made in all team gatherings. Also these individuals were encouraged to take up other tasks in the time that they have managed to save. This allowed them to pursue activities like training, paper writing etc. that may not be directly linked to the project but necessary for career development.

OK, the worst has happened!

It’s not as if all was hunky dory by the use of the above methods. Despite our best efforts, things still went out of hand and individual tasks still slipped up. To prevent this, we borrowed a concept from our manufacturing counterparts. A status mail would go out every evening to all team members and project managers highlighting any task that was dangerously close to slippage. The response to this was varied – while some team members took it seriously and worked hard to ensure that they did not miss their due date, others responded with reasons as to why the task had missed its due date. Whatever be the case, this ensured that immediate attention was focused on this task & all efforts were made to bring the task back on track. Also the relevant stakeholders could be easily informed and any action needed from the client’s end was arranged for.

So did these steps eliminate all delays in our project? YES! We went from a team notorious for delayed deliverables to one that was recognized and commended for its consistent on time performance! In addition, by minimizing the cascading effect of problems in one area on others, these steps allowed us to focus our attention on other important tasks. Further team members not only co ordinated better but also found the incentive to complete their task earlier and use the additional time for non project related important tasks. This effect on team & individual morale was an added bonus!