Episode 028: Project Management in the Real World with Elizabeth Harrin [35:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2133)

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I recently had the opportunity to speak with author and blogger, Elizabeth Harrin, of London, England.  Elizabeth is the author of the book Project Management in the Real World and has nearly a decade of experience in managing projects. She is a PRINCE2 practitioner and is trained in the Six Sigma process improvement methodology. Elizabeth has led a variety of IT and process improvement projects including those involving e-commerce, communications, and managing business change.  In addition to writing books, Elizabeth also writes the irreverent and popular blog A Girl’s Guide to Managing Projects.

During our conversation Elizabeth and I chatted about her book, her blog, and lots of other great stuff…   like extreme ultraviolet imaging space mass spectrometers!

Project Management in the Real World

Elizabeth decided to write the book that she had wanted to read when she started in the field of project management.  There were plenty of books on theory and techniques, but not too many on real-life experiences.  Early in her career Elizabeth found that by working closely on teams with other project managers, she was able to learn the trade quickly from others sharing their experiences.  So, with the goal of writing a book by the time she was thirty, Elizabeth decided to get information and experiences out of the heads of varios PM practitioners and into a book.  In writing the book, Elizabeth found people rather willing to share their experiences openly.

One particular contributor, who was responsible for managing the assembly of mass spectrometers for measuring ultraviolet light images from space, was focused on directly eliminating every risk his project faced.  When you are talking about a £30 million project, you cannot risk finding a problem once the spectrometer has been assembled and has been launched into space.  However, instead of addressing risks by using a “textbook” approach of looking at the impact and probability of each risk occurring, the team looked at any impact as being unacceptable.  They had to adapt to the need that the impact of every single risk had to be eliminated as long as the probability of its occurrence was greater than zero.

Office Politics and Self Promotion

Office politics, as you can guess, is not something that Elizabeth recommends getting involved in.  Rather, she suggests being “organizational aware;” be astute and understand the background and motivation of your stakeholders, since they are critical to how you manage your project.

Transparency is something that is very important when it comes to projects.  When you and your stakeholders have open communication, it is far easier to get things done.  Unfortunately sometimes you will run into people that have their own hidden agendas or “play people off each other” to get things done.  Stay clear of playing these games.  These behaviors are not good for building team relationships or morale.  Since most project managers have indirect line manager roles, burning bridges now with your team or stakeholders through office politics will only make your job more difficult later on.

Self-promotion is something that Elizabeth feels is tricky to get right.  Project managers are often times the “unsung heroes” of project delivery.  If a project is on time, on budget, on delivery often times the team gets the majority of the credit, or even worse, stakeholders may feel that the team could have been pushed even harder.  In cases where projects do not meet their deliverables, then the project manager is often blamed.  That is just one of the unfortunate truths of project management.  So, it is important to sometimes “blow your horn” by showing that you are a practitioner of project management best practices, you share knowledge with others, and you value learning throughout your career.

Women in Project Management

When Elizabeth was looking to start her project management blog to help promote her book, she found that there were not that many women project managers actively  participating in, as she refers to it, “extra-curricular project management events,” such as blogging, writing, or speaking at conferences.  A couple of notable exceptions include Dina Henry Scott of the Controlling Chaos podcast and Raven Young of the Raven’s Brain blog.  Because of this lack of representation, Elizabeth felt that creating “a girl’s guide” might be an interesting angle to take.  Being male, personally I can say that her blog appeals to either sex and I find it very informative.  I certainly haven’t found any articles on beauty tips.

When asked why more women aren’t focused on promoting their project management skills outside of their jobs, Elizabeth was quick to point out that although there are obviously a significant number of successful women that work in the field of project management, women may not always feel the same need to promote themselves in their field as much as men.  Tying the possible differences in gender back to our discussion on self-promotion, Elizabeth feels that perhaps women may realize that an “in your face” approach doesn’t always need to be taken to show one’s presence, abilities or skills.  There are more subtle ways of showing that you are active in your profession by sharing information gained at conferences or through articles and books with colleagues.

Networking Diaries

Elizabeth keeps a “networking diary” where, in addition to taking notes when meeting with a sponsor, customer or stakeholder, she writes down interesting facts about the person.   It can be as simple as writing down in a notebook, or even on the back of a business card, interesting facts about the person’s hobbies, their spouse, kids, vacation plans, etc.  However, you have to draw a careful line between keeping a networking diary and stalking!  Trying to run a project with restraining orders against you is difficult!  Getting to know your stakeholders in one-on-one meetings also helps you understand what is important to them and helps to build relationships to make your project a success.

Tailoring Your Communications

By meeting with your stakeholders and understanding their needs, you will also better understand how they prefer to receive project updates.  In some cases, stakeholders, especially those in higher levels of the organization, do not necessarily want to have a lot of project details dumped on them.  You shouldn’t push detailed reports on these folks for the sole purpose of showing your attention to detail.  Rather, you should tailor your communication to match the needs of the receiver in order to show your value.

Project Management is Ubiquitous

Whether you are planning a wedding, the delivery of a new child, or even what to plant in the garden this Spring, project management skills are used to insure that the outcome follows the plan.  In cases where there is a fixed date, you must work backwards to meet that date.  I shudder to think what would have happened if I had told my wife when she went into labor with our first child that we couldn’t have the baby yet because I wasn’t done painting the nursery.  I suspect my paint roller would have ended up somewhere that it shouldn’t be.  But, sometimes the same fixed date approach occurs when a promise is made on a golf course to a customer.  Without proper planning and risk mitigation on your projects, you better start thinking about hiding the paint rollers!

You can find out more about real-life projects in Elizabeth Harrin’s book Project Management in the Real World available at Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble.  Also be sure to visit her wonderful blog A Girls Guide to Managing Projects.