I recently attended this training on Sales Advantage conducted jointly by PMI, India and Dale Carnegie Training. It was a long time since I had been a part of a classroom setting and I shamefacedly admit that there were moments when my attention wandered. Luckily the capable delivery by the facilitator and the stimulating discussion in the group steered my focus back to the session. But the most inspiring moment, almost my “ah moment” was the conference on how I, as a training provider, am contributing to the returns of my client organization. My contribution to the client’s returns? How on earth does that even take place? Until then, I was convinced that I was providing a training program to the client- that was it. A simple but effective training program.

What I had totally missed out on was seeing the bigger picture, taking the story a bit further. How does one decide if my training program is effective or not? Obviously by measuring its impact, the changes that it engenders in the participants against some set goals. These goals are no doubt a part of a wider organizational strategy and their evaluation takes into account the effort invested in order to attain them. So if my training program successfully routes the participating individuals towards the goals, then I have most definitely contributed to organization’s performance!

It was indeed amazing how this simple realization had got past me; it was equally exciting when the truth dawned on me. We all know the necessity and the advantages of having a broad vision, but more often than not, we forget to do so. Amid the mundane daily routine of meeting schedules and adhering to budgets and attending to half a dozen other purportedly important things, we slip to focusing only on the current time, the task at hand and the result that it will yield. What gets ignored is the analysis and realization of where my task fits into the global scheme of things, into the bigger picture. What difference, if any at all, am I making to a wider audience, a diverse profession, a deeper need.

Coming back to the real significance of project management training, a closer look at the different aspects covered reveals that the topics are actually aligned to principles of general management – finance, HR, operations. Thus these programs not only train individuals to become better project managers, they actually groom them into tomorrow’s business leaders. Further constant training ensures constant improvement and innovation. Over time, even the most mature of professionals may turn into “a frog in the well”. Having displaced the ability to see the bigger picture, he / she may be content, even possessive about their performance. Training on new ideas and techniques forces them to question and evaluate their performance as well as come up with better and more efficient way of doing things.

Sadly during tough economic times, training initiatives are among the first to be axed. Organizations begin to cut corners in their attempts to derive more from the same and therefore either defer or worse, do away with training and development programs. Instead this time can be effectively used to build the organizational repository of skills and expertise needed to carry the enterprise forward when conditions improve. It is proven that organizations that maintain a consistent focus on training and development not only fare better in the market but are actually chosen by individuals as a preferred place of employment. Any organization developing strategies for long term sustainability will want to ensure its employees are well equipped for the uncertainties ahead. Project management training fits the bill.

I have been in the IT industry like forever. All my career highs & lows, all my professional achievements & misses have taken place in this domain. Over the years of my association with some of the strongest Indian brands in this field, I have worked & delivered projects following the Waterfall model. As you are probably already aware, this is practically the cornerstone of the software industry, a phased process going from requirements specification, design, development to review & testing and deployment. From an academic perspective, we were educated about other development methodologies like the Agile method of software development and project management, but on the shop floor, we stuck to the tried & tested phase wise model. Recent curiosity spurred me to learn more about the Agile methodology. Thus enlightened, I began wondering why the Agile model of project management has not witnessed greater acceptance in the IT or the overall professional community.

Traditional project management draws a great deal from the construction and manufacturing industries. A part by part approach is crucial in these domains and most of the time, the preceding phase feeds its successor. Given this, it is desirable to plan out the entire project upfront in great detail at the very onset of the work. Such a plan can exactly state what features and what tasks are planned, say six months or a year down the line. Typically such predictive project planning includes a change approval & control mechanism to ensure that only the most critical changes go through. Such a rigid model leaves little scope for the constant adaptability which is the key feature of Agile methodologies.

Hold that thought for just a minute. Haven’t most business leaders repeatedly stressed the need for organizations to constantly innovate & adapt to the environment? Do we not all believe that change is inevitable and the smart ones are those that can at best anticipate change or at worst accept it and modify their workings accordingly? So why are we ruling out Agile methodologies altogether? It is common knowledge that no process is singularly suited for project management. In our daily lives, we constantly make choices based on the situation at hand – should I take the bus or drive down, should we launch brand A now or three months later? So why not apply a similar analysis to our choice of management style taking the best of both methodologies depending on the project needs and on the ground situation?

So how do we marry traditional management principles with Agile methodologies? Again, the decision depends on your situation at hand and may differ from what I say here or even between your own different projects. However a common complaint is that Agile methodologies breed an atmosphere of chaos. The discipline of iterative development core to this stream of thought strikes at the very heart of the established philosophy of project management which assumes increased control results in increased order and that rigid procedures are required to regulate change. And names such as eXtreme Programming, one of the many Agile methodologies, do little to help the situation! Before you panic and discard this line of thought completely, ask yourself “How critical is this project? What are the needs of the customer?” If it is a known product that your team has built before and detailed procedures are available for the same, maybe its easier to follow the traditional path. If the customer wants a detailed sketch of what he is going to get when, that is what you have to give him. If on the other hand, it is a new product and the customer needs to experience it before he can decide what he wants, successive iterations may help define the product quicker than an elaborate requirement solicitation phase.

The world has never been as small as it is today. Most of our work is carried out in large geographically dispersed teams. Months pass before team members even see each other as development continues within the confines of a cubicle. Also most communication today is need based and either electronically enabled or via the telephone reducing the need for face to face interaction. My work day could have ended when my client gets into his office. After the initial phase of requirement solicitation, I probably interact with the client only periodically giving him the status of the different deliverables. So how does one apply the Agile methodology where daily face to face communication is the norm in this situation? How does one accommodate roles such Product Owner, a dedicated and co located customer representative for each agile team? Our project teams may be large and spread across the world. But even within these, we do have smaller co located groups that carry out one particular function or work on one feature. What is to prevent them from interacting on a daily basis? Basic communication theory suggests that choice of email as the communication medium is best suited for broadcasting information. In case of discussions or feedback, face to face conversation is the better option. Even if the user cannot be involved in the development full time, they can definitely plan for their presence in discussing prioritization of deliverables and during testing.

Perhaps the greatest roadblock to the acceptance of the Agile philosophy is the human factor. Quick adjustment to changes requires the team to be extremely knowledgeable. This is far from the ground reality that most of our projects are staffed with people who have the basic know how and are smart enough to learn the rest in the course of their work (or so we hope!) . Expectation of a quick turn around from them would be foolhardy. And even if some stroke of luck brings a fully qualified team to our project, where does that leave us project managers? We are used to the role of a task master, laying down elaborate plans and telling each person exactly what to do. If the team manages its own plans with the customer, where are we to go? The answer is in a concept taught at most business schools – the difference between a manager and a leader. The answer is that we need to evolve into being leaders from being managers. Because every project needs a leader, one who can inspire the team, who can stay focused on the final outcome & promote the team to collaboratively work towards the same. Once the team starts performing on its own, not only is the risk due to absences and attritions minimized, but also the manager is free to concentrate on higher goals.