“A useful metric is both accurate (in that it measures what it says it measures) and aligned with your goals. Making your numbers go up (any numbers–your bmi, your blood sugar, your customer service ratings) is pointless if the numbers aren’t related to why you went to work this morning.” – Seth Godin 

Reporting on cost, schedule, scope, effort, quality etc is pointless unless they directly relate to the business case. This is why it is important to outline and review what metrics you will be using to report the status of the project. Don’t assume the triple constraint(scope, time & cost) is a relevant or an accurate way of presenting a project’s status.

Review how you will be measuring the success of the project or a stage and then come up with some qualitative or quantitative metrics against those measures.

There are a lot of similarities between a project and a start-up:

We start out with an idea for change, create a proposal, then build a business case then we seek funding, hire staff, build whatever it is we’re building or do what we’re doing and eventually we exit via our exit strategy. We have shareholders and investors, plans and budgets. We have the same organization and reporting structure like a lean efficient board and board reports. We run into the same issues, like funding, costs, time to market, finding good staff and customer expectations etc.

Project’s and start-ups share the same success factors, we need a solid business case,  we’re generally taking calculated risks to deliver the changes,  we must understand who were are targeting(our stakeholders) and a huge time/effort investment is usually required. As Seth Godin said “Just about every great new project couples a brilliant strategy with impossible logistics that somehow get handled.”

Project Management isn’t a cookie cutter industry full of schedules, plans, controls and other engineering terms. It has those to help but really it’s an exciting world full of creativity and change. As PM’s, every time we start a new project, we start a new business, to deliver a change to our customers.  We can learn a lot from the world of start-ups, why they fail or succeed and apply it to our projects if we can just let go of our PMBOK’s for a minute.

We’re so used to seeing dates and times and receiving questions like: when can this be done? When will you do this by? When will I realize my benefits? We forget that time is a constant and cannot be changed and therefore planning to time is focusing your efforts on something that you can do nothing about. This I believe to be the single largest factor for why project’s are considered failures.

So instead, I strongly suggest hiding all date related information from your plans when building them. This will help focus your plans on controllable variables such as products (deliverable), resources, effort, costs, risk etc.

Some products require more effort, some are easily repeatable and are therefore individually less valuable.

Time does not equal effort. Effort does equal time but the formula is far more complicated than that.  This is a simpleton’s way of explaining the old way of looking at work and why it needs to change.

“It’s not the person i disagree with, it’s the behavior!”

This is a very important distinction. At work, at home, with your family and friends and pretty much everywhere. It is important to address the behaviour that your disagreeing with, not the person.  People don’t change, behaviors do and it will make your life a lot easier. That means focusing on ways that will deter that behavior, keeping the discussion on track, not bringing up the past and speaking of the behavior as a subject not as part of the person.

As an active person, i find this very well executed on the sports field, “leave it on the court”. After  a game, where the play has been rough or the opponent “got away with one”, it’s ended with a shake of the hands and a smile. Because it’s not the person it’s the behavior.

So next time your at work and your faced with someone being generally dysfunctional remember “It’s not the person i disagree with, it’s the behaviour!”

 “The Project Board Meeting is the primary way that Project Boards function. This post is about making Project Board meetings effective and helpful for everyone involved.

A Project Board cannot be effective if it doesn’t get together frequently. Some Project Boards only meet less or more frequently. I have been on a few Project Boards that meet once a quarter and I encourage those Project Boards to meet over the phone for an update in-between those meetings. I have also been on a lot of Project Boards that meet weekly, I believe these meetings are far to frequent for the Project Board and Project Manager to be effective. I’m a particular fan of the monthly Project Board meeting. The idea is to have one meeting mid month.

Project Board meetings should be discussions. They should be interactive. They should have some structure. But they should not have too much structure. Some Project Managers and Project Board Executives make the mistake of driving the Project Board line by line through the agenda, cutting off meaty discussions in the name of staying on schedule. The purpose of Project Board meetings are to have these meaty discussions not to get through the agenda on time.

I prefer that the Project Board get all “official business” out of the way at the start of the meeting so that the meeting doesn’t have to get cut short to discuss risks, approve changes,  minutes, or some other important but perfunctory Project Board resolution or assurance.

Once the Project Board has done that, the discussions can begin. The Project Manager should tee up the discussions. There should not be too many topics. I think three or four are good. One or two can be tactical items. But most of the discussion items should be strategic and thorny questions that the project must tackle to be successful. Good examples are “Is XXX required for the project to be successful? “Can we conduct both these projects at the same time?”, “Do we have the resources required and do our resources have the appropriate knowledge to be successful?”, and “XXX present an opportunity to save time but presents these risks, is it worth exploring further?”. Note that all of these are questions.

Project Board meetings should last one hour. I think anything less is too short. But more than two hours of intense discussion will turn most brains to mush. So you can’t go on too long either.

There are a few techniques that I’ve observed over the years that I like a lot. The first is that the Project Board status report should be sent out three or four days in advance and it should include all the important financial, schedule, issues, risks and quality results for the Project Board to consume in advance of the meeting. It should also tee up the big discussion items so that the Project Board can start to think about them in advance of the meeting. The Project Board does not need to go through a line by line review of the status report in the meeting. But the Project Manager or Project Executive should ask the Project Board if there are any questions on the report and time should be set aside in the event that the Project Board would like to have a discussion of the status report.

The second technique I like a lot is when the Project Manager puts up a list of the three or four things that are “keeping me up at night” at the start of each meeting. This can be a way of teeing up the discussion items for the meeting. Or it can just be a way for the Project Board to get into the mind of the Project Manager quickly. The best way that I’ve seen this done is the “keeping me up at night” slide shows the items that were on the slide the prior meeting and the items that are on the list currently. That shows what things have been “resolved” in the time since the last meeting, those things that have not been resolved, and the new things that have popped up.

Possibly the most important technique I’ve observed over the years is the executive session at the end of the meeting. This is when the Project Board has a discussion of the meeting and confirms what the key actions are. The executive session can be five minutes or it can be a half hour. Sometimes there is very little to discuss in executive session. Sometimes there is a lot. This is an opportunity for the Project Board to provide feedback to the Project Manager on the business, the team and performance. Project Boards should not miss this opportunity to provide feedback and Project Managers should demand it of them.

In summary, Project Board meetings should not be status reporting sessions with information flowing one way. They should not be for the benefit of the Project Board. They should be for the benefit of the Project Manager and the senior team. I’ve always loved the idea of a “kitchen cabinet” and to me that is what a great Project Board meeting should feel like. The Project Board should be a set of experienced, engaged, and helpful advisers and Project Board meetings should be a place and a time for that group to provide the most help and assistance they can. It is the Project Manager and Project Executive’s job to make sure that happens and it happens on a regular basis.”

A cold autumn day as winter approaches and the Athabasca Glacier in full retreat gets some well deserved replenishment.

We leave Pisco Elqui taking a morning bus ride through the valley back towards the coast. After a couple of hours we arrive the lively fishing town La Serena on the northern coast of Chile.
I think up a hilarious and catchy, or as just puts it super annoying, song called “HEY LA Serena” sung to the tune of Macarena it really only has three words and a prelude of pretending to speak Spanish and anyone can join in. Basically it goes:
Takeabus tothecoast of northern chile
Haveabigheadache cozyoudrinktomuch pisco
HEEEEEEY! LA SERENA!!!
Thankfully one homeless guy thought it was pretty good, he and his toothless grin joined in before falling over.

Anyway, our stay in La Serena is short as we are making our way up the coast to San Pedro de Atacama. So we spend a brief dazed moment at 7am walking around La Serena. Even at this early hour there are people getting about their daily business and painting graffiti on the steep streets that lead down the hill to the harbor. But we have no more time to explore, we board our bus to Calama for our 14 hour ride.

The scenery flies past.

Some of the scenery

By the time we arrive at Calama it’s night time. Calama bus station is small, crowded and dirty. We push through the mob to get our bags and find the next bus to take us to San Pedro. All goes well and we’re on our way for the final leg of our trip.

We sing – “I just spent 16 hours in a f__king bus!” clap-clap.. clap-clap. Sung to the tune of 6 months in a leaky boat by Split Enz.
We get off the bus in San Pedro de Atacama, into the dust bowl of a station. I suppose they don’t bitumen the roads here because it just gets covered in sand nor do they install street lights. So our travel tired bodies trump down the dusty sand roads to find our hostel/B&B. This is harder than you think at night time in a strange place with only the occasional moon and one street light to guide you. I now completely understand how Jesus ended up in a barn.

The streets in the moonlight look peaceful, clean and are lined with the 10ft brick walls that surround the properties here. Probably to keep the street light out I think. We finally find the place after stopping and asking a few stray dogs, all named Baxter because they speak Spanish(Anchorman reference), and helpful locals. Hostel Elim is brilliant, lovely clean and warm. Warm?!? you say, yes warm, at night the desert is below zero.

Hostel Elim and the high brick walls

Jess on sandy streets of San Pedro de Atacama

We wake to the warm sun, beaming through the window, get changed, have breakfast and go for a stroll around the dusty streets. The place resembles something out of Mad Max crossed with Tatooine. The buildings are made from thick clay bricks with flat roofs and the entrances are stepped down from street level. All to ensure that people my height bump their heads into the doorway as they walk in or to ensure the place is as cool as possible or for the amusement of the local shopkeeper who laughs at the stupid tall pale faces bumping their heads. At least I have all my teeth I say to the shop keeper who speaks perfectly good English and charges us a small fortune for Panadol to soothe my sore head.

One shop selling sandboarding tours

Streets of San Pedro

The streets are busy with tourists and lined with restaurants and tour companies all enticing you to visit. Towards lunchtime it’s time to get out of the hot sun so we duck into one of the many café’s. This one advertised smoothies, so naturally wanting to continue my tasting of banana liquardo’s around South America, it was chosen. In through the door and out into semi-covered courtyard. Lunch is super tasty and the banana smoothies are close to the best so far.
San Pedro is well known for its geysers. The afternoon is spent scoping out the tour companies for a trip to the geysers and strolling through the town and its markets.

The markets are colorful and rather quiet with all stores selling practically the same brightly coloured fabrics and other clothing items along with cocoa leaves. Cocoa leaves? We soon discover why, by about 3pm we are shattered and head back home for a sleep. San Pedro is located 2407  metres above sea level and us flat-landers have come straight up from the coast into the altitude causing us to become tired very easily. They suggest chewing cocoa leaves to help increase circulation and assist with the acclimatization. Instead we just pull up a hammock in the shade of a tree and a refreshing beer.
Dinner time rolls around so we head to the outdoor restaurant Adobe. A large dimly lit courtyard with tables set around a large fire-pit. Bellies full, it’s time for bed as we need to rise early 4am for our trip to the geysers.

4am! I don’t mind it myself. Jess on the other hand doesn’t operate until 9am even with coffee. We stand on the curb, outside the hostel waiting for our bus. It’s late, it’s cold.
Finally a packed mini-bus arrives and we board it with all the other half-asleep people rugged up in winter clothes. No one says much, except the occasional “is he always like this” to Jess about my singing, whistling, tapping, talking etc. “Just stare out the window” Jess sternly tells me. I stare out the window, it stares back. It wins.

The bus climbs out of the desert into the hills and down into the crater. We arrive at the geysers, it’s too dark to see anything except a bit of steam rising in front of some headlights so we wait for the sun to rise.

Nothing to see here

It’s only -18 and we’re all standing outside waiting for the guide to setup coffee and cake for breakfast. My hands feel like they’re about to fall off and on fire at the same time. I’m dancing around doing my finest impression of an African Tribal dance. The coffee is warm but hard to hold and the cake froze instantly.

The guide and the geysers

One of the geysers

We’re directed over to a place where you can swim in the hot springs, it’s still -10 or so and they’re nothing compared to springs in Pucon so we pass and instead take the time to wander the geyser fields.

Some didnt pass on the opportunity for a wash

Geyser fields

There a Jess in there…somewhere

The naughty corner

As the sun rises the temperature does as well, dramatically, in the space of an hour or so the temp goes from -10 to + 20. We know this thanks to the running count provided by some nerd in our group with a thermometer.
Back aboard the bus, we’re off to our next stop. A small one street town, the purpose of which is strictly to sell tourists shabbily made junk, charge for toilet use and tasty llama meat kebabs. We find this a lot around South America, the tour bus pulls up in a shanty town to almost guilt the tourists into buying something to support the locals and just adds to the reasons of why we dislike going on organized tours as opposed to the self-guided type of adventure.

Jess checking out the local town lake

Llama kebab

Rock man

The town in all it’s glory

After the kebabs we race another tour group to a small canyon full of cacti. It’s a short hike/walk through the large cacti and down into the canyon which isn’t all that impressive.

Goal! Dockers up by 3

Cacti

Canyon

As we reach the bus, a girl from the other group races off to use the bathroom. In the middle of this cacti desert scene are two open air porcelain toilets. They look extremely out of place. The wooden door swings shut, we board the bus, it starts moving. I notice the guide cracking up with laughter. He explains that the toilets were dumped there and aren’t connect to anything not even a hole, she might as well be behind a bush. Plus, he continues, there’s no front to them and they face the highway.
The bus pulls away onto the highway, sitting there pants around the ankles with a surprised look on her face, she gives the bus a wave as the driver toots its horn.

The next day we wake late and head out for brunch. Funnily enough back to the same café, it was that good. We walk in and to our surprise, sitting at a long table in the middle of the courtyard is Jane and Scott who we met in Pucon a month or so before! What the hell!?! Ok, so Jane and Scott were travelling the other way (anti-clockwise) around South America, we figured we wouldn’t bump into them again but in a small dusty desert town, in a tiny café, miles away from anywhere we do exactly that. We sit, catch up and share stories. Then meet up later for dinner. They tell us of their time in Buenos Aries, the northern part of Argentina which we didn’t get to and the rest of their awesome round the world year long trip. We share plans, there is talk of Arica, Arequipa, Bolivia and Cusco who knows. Again we part ways and wish each other well on the other side of the gringo stump.

The next morning we’re back on the f__king bus, off to the city of Arica home of the famous surf break El Gringo.