PREFACE_______________________
This book is primarily for practitioners of project management at all levels who want to improve the practice in their organization by deploying better habits. In a constantly changing project environment, use of every possible tool, process, principle, and habit is critical. Inasmuch as there is nothing particularly revolutionary about the nine habits presented in this book, experience gained in executing scores of complex, high-value projects around the world have confirmed that when applied together, these habits positively influence project outcomes in very significant ways. Each habit's simplicity is powerful and easy for any project management practitioner to adopt. Business reasons behind adopting these common-sense habits lead to excellence in executing small or large projects and are presented through the authors’ personal examples as well as stories shared by the project managers they interviewed.
First of all, what is a habit? Simply put, a habit is a behavior pattern that is regularly followed. In his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey defines a habit as the intersection of three dimensions: knowledge (what to do and why), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do). Transforming a behavior into a routine habit requires conscious effort in all three dimensions: Our recognition of the need and associated reward, an understanding of how to exhibit the behavior, and most importantly, the willingness to change. The knowledge, skill, and desire are typically acquired and developed through experience and shaped by our own sense of ethics, values, professionalism, style, responsibility, and fairness. In short, habits shape our character.
According to Stephen Covey, management is primarily a left-brain activity, whereas leadership is an art and primarily a right-brain activity. The proposed habits make use of the right brain by enhancing one's soft skills. While Covey's habits are universally applicable across all professions, we have identified habits that are specifically tailored to the field of project management. In today's project management environment, just using the project management tools and processes does not necessarily achieve all of the project or organization's goals. Measurable improvements come from positive changes in how people work, interact, and grow together. Therefore, conscious adoption of even the smallest number of proposed habits can reap big benefits in the quality of our daily work and lead us on the path to achieving our professional and project goals.
Let's first clearly understand the title of the book:
9 HABITS
These habits were selected from interviewing more than 50 senior project managers/directors/core team members who were responsible for executing technically complex projects all over the world. Data were collected spanning a more than 30-year career in project management and included a diverse set of industries, such as electric power, telecom, mining and metals, public infrastructure, IT, defense, oil and gas, healthcare, and education. Appendix B delineates how data were collected through observation, questionnaires, and interviews. The gathered information was further scrubbed, analyzed, and synthesized through additional discussions with leading project practitioners to arrive at the nine habits.
PROJECT
One must clearly understand the nature and definition of what constitutes a project. As defined by the Project Management Institute, “a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result” (2013, p. 5). Unique essentially means that it has never been done before, which further means that there are uncertainties or risks associated with such an undertaking. Beginning and end mean that, to a large extent, it is temporary in nature. At some point, the team performing the project has to be disbanded and the resources have to be redeployed. These characteristics add the need for “soft skills” in handling projects.
Further, projects can be internal or external. Internal projects mean that the customer is your own organization. For example, if a project is about adding another power plant to the utility's own system and is engineered by its own engineering department, then the engineering scope is an internal project. If the construction of the same power plant is awarded to an outside contractor, then that scope is an external project.
PROJECT LEADER
The profession of project management is evolving. Globalization, advanced technology, a diverse workforce, and megaprojects (i.e., over a billion dollars and over 10 years in duration) are shaping the new generation of project managers. According to Peter F. Drucker, “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” By the same logic, project managers do things right, but project leaders do the right things. The latest trend calls for broadening the role of project manager to that of a project leader. Managing the traditional triple constraints (scope, schedule, and cost) is no longer enough. Today's project managers require a more strategic perspective that is accountable for the project's financial performance, benefits realization, customer satisfaction, and project team happiness. The nine habits identified in this book, when added to a project manager's tool box, will help him or her become a project leader.
A NEW MODEL: PM3
While the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) is a recognized PMI tool for assessing organizational capabilities, we suggest a Project Manager Maturity Model, or PM3, as a tool to assess the progressive development of a practicing project manager. Figure 1 delineates three levels of project manager maturity. We estimate that it takes about five to 10 years on average for a foundational project manager to become a business-savvy project manager and to finally develop into a project leader. However, the number of years will vary for each project manager partly based on the organization that he or she serves.
A Foundational Project Manager focuses on delivering a well-defined project on time and within budget. Extensive use of technical skills and subject matter knowledge is generally needed to be a successful foundational project manager. We believe it takes about five to 10 years to become a foundational project manager after starting a career in project management.
A Business-Savvy Project Manager focuses on delivering a project that ensures business value. They understand the business side of a project (i.e., its financial significance to the organization). A project is not just handed to them for execution. They participate from the project selection stage onward. Business value has two components—strategic value (competitive position, image and reputation, new business opportunities) and financial value (return on investment, payback period, cost/benefit). It takes about three to five years for a foundational project manager to become a business-savvy project manager.
A Project Leader focuses on delivering a project by ensuring that ALL stakeholders are engaged and contribute to project success. They inspire, motivate, and strengthen the project team. They improve the organization's reputation and financial performance. And they enhance customer satisfaction for repeat business. They use considerable soft skills and comprehensive use of the nine habits described in this book. We define the project leader as someone who has the far-reaching goal of achieving a triple win. A win for their project team. A win for their organization/executive management. A win for their customer. It takes a business-savvy project manager approximately another three to five years to become a project leader.
A NEW CONCEPT: TRIPLE WIN (WIN-WIN-WIN)
We believe that in the world of project management, a win-win just between the customer and the project manager is not good enough. A project leader needs to strive for the art of the triple win: win-win-win.
Figure 2 depicts these three distinct groups of stakeholders with different expectations. In the first win, project team members are looking for career growth, training, and meaningful work. In the second win, the organization is looking for maintaining reputation, delivering as sold, and maximum gross margin. In the third win, the customer is looking for quality and on-time delivery without rework or legal hassles. All three sets of stakeholders act as “special forces” on each other. The job of a project leader is therefore extremely challenging.
A typical project manager has the role of delivering a project of some defined scope within budget and on time. The focus has been largely on cost and schedule management. As long as the project manager is able to meet the schedule and keep costs within budget, the project is considered a success. According to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), project success is measured in terms of completing the project within the constraints of scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk as approved between the project manager and executive management (PMI, 2013). For many large projects, the definition of project success includes factors such as worker safety, economic sustainability, and environmental considerations.
The current trend in project management is to develop project managers into project leaders. The role of project leaders is to influence and win over the three different sets of stakeholders. The win-win-win approach is a must for the project leader, and our hypothesis is that deploying these nine habits helps a project manager become a project leader. Smart organizations are embracing the development of project leaders to stay ahead of the curve. Project leaders are essentially people leaders. Their job is to coordinate the skills and energy of the project team toward the project goals. Key here is to understand and agree on project goals early on. How the project leader defines project success is important.