the work in three weeks. Elena must sign the contract and pay a $5,000 deposit within two weeks to secure Joel’s services.
For a project like Elena’s kitchen renovation, it might be a bit excessive to develop a formal risk register to track each project risk, but Elena is eager to complete this project on time and within budget to impress her family. She lists some negative risks, such as:
Joel doesn’t show up on day one.
ABC Cabinetry’s materials order is delayed, delaying the task’s start.
Raw material prices skyrocket due to a global shortage of lumber.
Joel’s work is of poor quality, despite the positive feedback from his references.
Elena also jots down some positive risks, including:
Raw material prices drop due to a surplus of lumber locally.
ABC Cabinetry sends workers with Joel to help him complete the job faster than the three weeks they quoted.
Her first choice, Erwin, becomes available. His next client cancels their project and he can start the work in four weeks.
Upon closer inspection, the cabinets are found to be structurally sound and only require refacing to fit the updated style of the renovated kitchen, dropping the cabinetry price by $10,000.
Countertops and flooring consume most of Elena’s focus over the next week as she works to line up contractors for those tasks. Elena’s neighbor, Lucas, agrees to paint the kitchen for $300 plus the cost of materials and a constant supply of pizza while he’s on the job.
Week 1 is behind Elena and she begins week 2 by reviewing her risk register. She alleviates some concern by confirming there is not currently any global shortage of lumber. She calls Joel at ABC Cabinetry to touch base, confirm his quoted price and start date are still valid, and let him know she’ll make her final decision in the next week. Before shifting gears back to countertops and flooring, Elena decides to follow up on the positive risk that Erwin might have an opening in his schedule. She knew it was a long shot, but it couldn’t hurt to ask.
What if we told you that Erwin’s next client did in fact cancel their project? It sounds too good to be true, and in the real world it may just be, but continue to suspend your disbelief for the sake of this example, as we are about to get to the point! Erwin’s client does cancel their project and Erwin’s schedule does open up for about four weeks. Erwin could start on Elena’s kitchen in three weeks. Elena informs Joel that she no longer needs his services before the deadline to sign the contract with ABC Cabinetry and pay the $5,000 deposit.
Had Elena not identified, documented, and followed up on the positive risk, or opportunity, that Erwin might become available, she wouldn’t have thought to call him. If she hadn’t called him, Elena would’ve had to pay $5,000 more for Joel to do the same work in twice the time as Erwin. Also, Elena can eliminate the uncertainty about the quality of Joel’s work since she knows Erwin is the best around.
Exhibiting adaptability and resilience
Even with clearly defined requirements, engaged stakeholders, a competent and experienced project team, and sufficient time and budget, you’ll find that projects rarely go exactly as you planned. This isn’t to say that you’ll never come close to your original plan. We are confident that you will, but there will likely be some deviation at some point throughout your project. This is perfectly fine; it is even expected.
Your success as a project manager won’t (at least, it shouldn’t!) be measured by your ability to deliver to the exact plan that you laid out at the outset of your project. This isn’t realistic and, frankly, the purpose of your project isn’t to demonstrate that you can stick to a plan. Your project’s purpose is to deliver value, in the form of your intended outcomes, whatever they may be, as defined by your stakeholders.
Just as no two projects follow the exact same course, rarely are the circumstances around two projects ever identical. If you routinely manage projects to configure, test, and deliver the same software application, your work breakdown structure (WBS) might be very similar, but each of these projects will likely be performed for different clients, or at different times, or with a different project team. At different times of the year, the exact same project may be subject to different resource constraints. For example, you may have more difficulty lining up consistent resources in the summer months when people often go on vacation. You may have similar difficulty during the holidays in December and into the new year.
With different clients come different requirements and expectations. Where one client may want to be hands-off and largely uninvolved until you’re ready to deliver the final product, other clients may want daily meetings to review progress and participate in technical design sessions. All of this boils down to the need to be adaptable when designing your project development approach.
Tailoring is the process of designing your approach based on the context of each project, each set of objectives, each group of stakeholders, and so on. Acknowledging that every project is unique will force you to keep an open mind as you determine the proper approach to each one.
Thinking holistically and enabling change
Projects are fundamentally systems of intertwined and interdependent subsystems or components that must function together and interact as an integrated unit to yield the intended outcomes. Adopting this approach to systems thinking (and helping your team appreciate it) enables the following outcomes:
Flexibility during the project when assumptions and plans need to change
Ability to minimize the overall impact of changing needs and expectations
Better alignment of project objectives with customer and organizational goals and objectives
More comprehensive, informed, and timely risk identification
Ability to realize synergies between aligned projects, project teams, and initiatives
We often discuss change, in the context of project management, as something that needs to be monitored closely and controlled to ensure project success. We do this for multiple reasons, including:
Change in scope can lead to missed milestones and increased costs.
Change that isn’t clearly documented can result in miscommunications and mismanaged expectations.
Change can make people uncomfortable, so we typically strive to maintain the status quo.
