Project Pre-Check Fastpath: The Project Manager’S Guide to Stakeholder Management

PROJECT PRE-CHECK 

 FastPath

The Project Manager’s Guide to Stakeholder Management

R. Andrew Davison

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© Copyright 2012 R. Andrew Davison.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

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ISBN: 978-1-4669-1873-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-1874-0 (e)

Trafford rev. 04/19/2012

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Contents

Part I   Introduction

Why PM’s Need to Read This Book

How This Book is Organized

Acknowledgements

I’d Like to Hear from You!

Part II   Overview

Why Projects Succeed

How FastPath Helps

Project Pre-Check Building Blocks

Part III   Stakeholders

Managing the Stakeholder Group

Coping with Stakeholder Change

Joining an In Flight Project

Part IV   Fastpath Process

Identify Stakeholders

Engage Stakeholders

Assess Decision Areas

Monitor Agreement

Guide Completion

Managing the Process

Using with Other Standard Methods

Leaving a Legacy of Lessons Learned

Part V   Decision Framework

Change Domain

Environment Domain

Assets Domain

Project Domain

Appendices

A.   Decision Area Sources

B.   Additional Sources

About The Author

Notes

Figures

Figure 1—Project Pre-Check Building Blocks

Figure 2—Stakeholder Roles

Figure 3—Project Pre-Check FastPath Process

Figure 4—Project Pre-Check Domains

Figure 5—Decision Framework Domains & Factors

Figure 6—Mapping Best Practices to Decision Areas

Figure 7—FastPath Domains, Factors and Decision Areas

Figure 8—Building Blocks Working Together

Figure 9—Creating the Stakeholder Group

Figure 10—FastPath Process

Figure 11—Using Fast|Path with Other Standard Methods

Figure 12—FastPath Decision Framework

Figure 13—FastPath Domains, Factors & Decision Areas

Figure 14—Change Domain Factors 120

Figure 15—Environment Domain Factors

Figure 16—Assets Domain Factors

Figure 17—Project Domain Factors

Figure 18—Profile Chart

Tables

Table 1—Classic Mistakes and Best Practices Matrix

Table 2—Stakeholder Accountabilities by Domain & Factor

Table 3—Sample FastPath Questionnaire

Table 4—Sample FastPath Assessment Consolidation

Table 5—Sample FastPath Scorecard

Table 6—Sample FastPath Completion Questionnaire

Table 7—Sample FastPath Consolidated Completion Results

Table 8—SMART Practice for Requirements Definition

Table 9—Economic Impact Values

Table 10—Competitive Advantage Values

Table 11—Strategic Fit Values

Table 12—Competitive Risk Values

Table 13—Project Risk Values

Table 14—FastPath Stakeholder Accountabilities

In Recognition

To all project managers who work tirelessly to build and watch over the capability of the stakeholder group

PART I

Introduction

•   Why PM’s need to read this book

•   How this book is organized

•   Acknowledgements

•   I’d like to hear from you

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit

Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

Is it possible for a project to prosper and be acknowledged as a resounding success if it exceeds initial estimates, takes longer to deliver than first planned, and delivers less functionality than originally hoped for? Absolutely! Can the stakeholders in such a venture enjoy their just rewards? Of course! Is it possible for a project to miss all of its initial targets and still be considered a triumph? Without a doubt! The answer to this paradox lies in the decision-making process and who gets to call the shots.

Change is amorphous. The exact end result is a dream. The way to that dream is a cauldron of competing interests, perceptions, personalities and priorities. A change doesn’t come out of someone’s head fully formed. It doesn’t emerge from a planning meeting signed, sealed and delivered. It has to be molded, shaped, poked and prodded into its ultimate form by the people who have to live with the results—the stakeholders. What’s a stakeholder? In the context of Project Pre-Check, it is a decision maker who:

•   Directs an organization that initiates, is affected by or is charged with managing all or part of a change,

•   Has the authority and responsibility to set direction, establish priorities, make decisions, commit money and resources and

•   Is accountable for delivering the planned benefits on budget and on plan.

Stakeholder involvement and commitment is one of the most important ingredients for successful business and technology change. Without it, a project is doomed. The Standish Group has been looking at the factors which most contribute to project success since 1994. In their CHAOS studies, they have found two factors always at the top:

•   User Involvement!

•   Executive Management Support!

User Involvement and Executive Management Support have alternated as number 1 and number 2 from 1994 through 2011. There is no doubt what is needed to ensure a successful change! Interestingly, Clear Vision and Objectives has been in the number three spot for most of those years. And, where do clear vision and objectives come from? User Involvement and Executive Management Support!

That’s why Project Pre-Check and Project Pre-Check FastPath are based on three building blocks fundamental to project success: active and ongoing stakeholder involvement and agreement, a Decision Framework that helps stakeholders form and articulate a common vision for the planned change, and processes that map the way from inception through completion.

Professor Ryan Nelson of the University of Virginia has been studying project performance results over a number of years. In an article published in the June 2007 issue of the MIS Quarterly Executive, he identified the top ten reasons for failure garnered from 99 project reviews. He also identified well established best practices that would have helped the projects avoid their dismal fates.1 His findings are summarized in the table below. The Project Pre-Check FastPath column is mine.

Table 1—Classic Mistakes and Best Practices Matrix

Notice that Ineffective stakeholder management is number 2 on the list, Insufficient project sponsorship is number 7 and Lack of User involvement is number 10. In terms of the best practices that can be leveraged to help avoid the classic mistakes, FastPath addresses them all, and a wealth of others besides. No wonder! Project Pre-Check is designed specifically to help stakeholders leverage best practices to deliver major change successfully.

Let’s look an example that illustrate the power of engaged stakeholders. For those of you who have had a house built from scratch, and for those that haven’t, you know there are thousands of decisions that need to be made, from the fundamental ones dealing with location, lot size and shape and the size and structure of the buildings to selection of hardware for the kitchen cabinets, lighting fixtures and door hardware and everything in between. Every one of these decisions can influence the final cost by thousands of dollars, up or down. The examples below are real life situations. Just substitute your project of choice for the house building exercise to relate them to your own major change experiences.

Couple A, who I’ll call the Dissatisfieds, went through the building process and was very unhappy with the end result. Couple B, the Satisfieds, went through the building process and was thrilled with the results. In both cases, the final cost was well over budget but work was completed on target. The Dissatisfieds received everything they wanted in terms of the specified form and features. The Satisfieds actually ended up with a somewhat smaller house than originally planned. Why the difference in attitude towards the final outcome? Stakeholder involvement in the decision-making process from the beginning to the end made all the difference!

There were seven stakeholders involved in both projects: the homeowners, husband and wife (sponsors), the architect and contractor (change agents) and the neighbours on either side plus the building inspector (targets). In the Dissatisieds’ situation, most of the decisions were made by the architect and implemented by the contractor. They involved the owners minimally and the neighbours not at all. The owners didn’t ask, the architect and contractor didn’t tell! When the over budget bills started coming in, the owners directed their wrath at the architect who blamed it on the contractor. The neighbours directed their wrath at the owners for the constant noise, dirt and dust and the location and size of the buildings. One of the neighbours actually sold their house and moved away. The building inspector lost most of his hair and spent many sleepless nights trying to deal with and resolve issues after the fact. Relationships were frayed all around. It was not a successful result!

In the Satisfieds’ situation, the owners were actively involved with the other stakeholders from the planning stages on. When there was an issue that could affect the cost, environment or delivery date, they were all engaged and a collective decision was made. Yes, they spent more than planned and delivered less than planned. But, they could point to the incremental costs and smaller house with confidence that they had, collectively, made hundreds of right decisions along the way leading to the end result that they wanted. The builder was pleased with the process and the outcome and used the Satisfieds as a reference for prospective clients. The neighbours were involved throughout and happy with the result. The building inspector was a constructive and contented partner. And of course, the owners were ecstatic! Active stakeholder involvement! It made all the difference.

How do you go about creating that winning stakeholder group? There are thousands of organizations that focus on effective project and change management, lots of books and a veritable avalanche of periodicals and articles about both subjects. But there are few, if any, tools that focus exclusively on stakeholders!

The original Project Pre-Check provided a unique practice for stakeholders to build an effective stakeholder group. It was easy to learn, easy to apply and quick to deliver value. Stakeholders could garner meaningful insight into a project’s strengths and weaknesses in a matter of days. The results provided a comprehensive platform for both pro-active and remedial collective action that ensured the focus was always on the real goal—delivering targeted benefits to the organization.

Project Pre-Check FastPath builds on that legacy but focuses more on change agents or project managers, a stakeholder role, and one of the key positions charged with navigating the treacherous and turbulent waters of project delivery. Project Pre-Check FastPath provides a streamlined, five step process that can be used effectively on new projects and in progress initiatives, a compressed Decision Framework covering the 50 most frequently relevant Decision Areas and real life case studies to illustrate how best to apply Project Pre-Check to deliver optimum value.

I refer to both Project Pre-Check and FastPath in this book. Project Pre-Check is generally used in reference to the overall principles and practices. Project Pre-Check FastPath, or just FastPath, is used to refer to features and characteristics unique to the practice.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it

From The Life of Reason by George Santayana

Project Pre-Check FastPath supplies history’s wisdom to project managers managing major business and technology changes.

Why PM’s Need to Read This Book

If you are a project manager, or change agent, you are a key decision maker and thus a project stakeholder. Also, you may be the only full time stakeholder on the project. All the other stakeholders undoubtedly have day jobs in addition to their project responsibilities. In fact, that’s why they are sponsors, targets and champions. If they didn’t have responsibility for the organizations, people, processes and functions involved with and affected by the planned change, they wouldn’t be stakeholders.

Along with the other stakeholders, as a PM, you are responsible for making sure that the project progresses smoothly to a successful conclusion. That entails developing, guiding and manipulating a myriad of factors including:

•   The project plan

•   Time and cost estimates

•   Skill numbers and needs

•   Resource acquisition and assignment

•   Quality plans

•   Risk plans

•   Change requests

•   Project issues

•   Progress tracking and reporting

•   Etc., etc., etc.

You know the challenge! In fact, the original Project Pre-Check Decision Framework includes 125 Decision Areas as a starting point for guiding stakeholder decision-making on major business and technology changes.

The interesting thing about project dynamics though, is that you as a PM can only decide HOW to deliver. Decisions relating to what the change or project is trying to achieve and what’s impacted as a result, when it needs to be delivered, who is affected, why it’s needed and where it will be implemented are usually in the sponsor’s hands, with assistance from the other stakeholders.

So, you as a PM need a heap of help from the other stakeholders to be successful. In fact, as mentioned, stakeholder engagement and user participation are at the top in the vast majority of top ten lists of factors that contribute to project success.

I’ll go even further and suggest that projects that screw up one way or another (over budget, late, incomplete functionality and/or poor quality) do so because their stakeholder groups were ineffective, not because the PM blew it or because of a technology problem or whatever other excuses are offered for project failure. Where I do hold the PM accountable is in facilitating the formation and operation of the stakeholder group. In my view, that is the PM’s number one challenge!

Yet, many project managers are reluctant to demand the necessary time and attention from the senior executives who usually fill the sponsor and target roles. However, that’s exactly what has to happen! For projects to be successful, sponsors, targets and champions, along with the change agents, need to allocate appropriate amounts of their time, attention and effort. That’s what Project Pre-Check FastPath is designed to do—to help project managers get stakeholders involved, engaged and collaborating from project inception to the completion celebration.

Project Pre-Check FastPath gives project managers the tools to:

•   Ensure the active involvement and agreement of stakeholders.

•   Leverage industry and organizational best practices quickly and effectively.

•   Evolve to take advantage of new industry or organization learnings that can improve future project performance.

•   Define and implement the change to maximize the value delivered.

How This Book is Organized

This book is organized to help project managers understand Project Pre-Check FastPath, apply the practice to their projects and adapt it to the unique needs that are almost always a part of project life.

There are a number of case studies throughout the book to help you apply the FastPath practices. The case studies have a shaded background to help you identify them quickly.

Part I—Introduction, describes the rationale for the book, its organization, the players that will benefit from the material presented and the events and people that shaped the ideas and content.

Part II—Overview, describes the context for Project Pre-Check FastPath. It includes opinions on what makes projects successful, how FastPath can help, an introduction to the Project Pre-Check building blocks and how they can be used to ensure project success.

Part III—Stakeholders, offers guidance on forming and managing the stakeholder group. It also provides tips for coping with stakeholder changes and what to do if you join an in-flight project.

Part IV—the Project Pre-Check FastPath Process, provides step by step coverage for each of the five steps—Identify Stakeholders, Engage Stakeholders, Assess Decision Areas, Monitor Agreement and Guide Completion.

Part V—Decision Framework, includes a subset of the Project Pre-Check Decision Area catalogue which describes the Domains, Factors and Decision Areas that stakeholders need to consider when assessing, planning and controlling a change.

Appendices—include listings of a variety of industry sources and best practices that provide the foundation for this book.

Online—Excel templates of the forms and questionnaires referenced in this book are available for download at www.projectprecheck.com. Also, use the site for information or