Archive for Project Management
Can you have Agile Marketing?
Posted by: | CommentsRecently, I’ve become quite intrigued with agile project management. It was developed in the software arena in an effort to replace the traditional project management methods of define, design, and build to one based on adaption. They moved away from that linear thinking to a more adaptive culture allowing continuous innovation throughout the development process.
Jim Highsmith, the author of Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products (2nd Edition)
“The departure from which additional phase names such as initiate, plan, define, design, build, test is significant. First, Envision replaces the more traditional initiate phase to indicate the criticality of vision. Second, a Speculate phase replaces up plan face area words convey certain meanings and visual images that arise from systematic use over time. The work plan has become associated with prediction and relative certainty. Speculate indicates that the future is uncertain. Many traditional project managers faced with uncertainty try to plan that uncertainty away. We have to learn to speculate and adapt rather than plan and build.
Third, the actual project management model replaces the common design, build, test phases with explore. Explore, with its iterative delivery style, is explicitly a nonlinear, kind current, non-waterfall model. Questions developed in the speculate phase are explored. Speculating implies the need for flexibility based on the fact he cannot fully predict the results. The APM model emphasizes execution and his exploratory rather than deterministic. A team practicing EPM keeps his side of the vision, monitors information, and adapt to current conditions therefore the adapt phase. Finally, the APM mode ends with a close phase, in which the primary objectives are knowledgeable transfer and, of course, a celebration. To sum up, the five phases of agile project management are: envision, speculate, explore, adapt, and close.”
I think this style of thinking lends itself to the marketing process very well. Traditional marketing systems resist the linear thinking approach of a traditional project management process. Agile projects develop value quickly and incrementally during the life of the project. Capturing value like this early in the process can significantly improve buy-in and utilizing iterative principles then improve on the process during delivery. 
I have constructed an agile marketing development diagram that probably goes against many of the agile principles since I am incorporating the DMADV process of Six Sigma. But this is actually my intermediate step in applying agile to marketing. Since my roots are in the Six Sigma process and in linear thinking that jump to collaboration and iterative principles is quite a chasm to cross. DMADV is my bridge for the present as I learn and apply Agile Project Management thinking to the marketing process. It is also interesting to note that many of the principles have developed from the Lean thinking process. It kind of reminds you of a U-shaped work cell doesn’t?
Photo Credit: by rAmmoRRison
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If you are the facilitator of the Kaizen event you do your pre-event planning, you get the right people there, and the event goes off without a hitch. Good ideas were given, documented and ready to be enacted now it is time to close out the meeting and yes, pass the baton. But who do you pass the baton too?
If you look at most books, review the last section and see how in depth they go into the implementation part of the process. It is actually the only thing that counts and it is typically the shortest chapter in the book, literally.
How do you take all the good work that has been accomplished and move it into a successful implementation. It really is a matter of good project management skills, nothing more and nothing less. If you review the Ten Step Project Management Process it gives you a solid outline for project implementation:
1. Define the work
2. Build the schedule and budget
3. Manage the schedule and budget
4. Manage Issues
5. Manage Change
6. Manage Communication
7. Manage Risk
8. Manage Human Resources
9. Manage Quality
10. Manage Metrics.
However, we are talking about wanting to take a new approaches, new ideas from an event to implementation. I have become quite intrigued with Agile Project Management and feel that there are some great possibilities for using this type of approach for implementation after a Kaizen Event.
From Wikpedia: Agile methods break tasks into small increments with minimal planning, and do not directly involve long-term planning. Iterations are short time frames (” timeboxes”) typically last from one to four weeks. Each iteration involves a team working through a full software development cycle including planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing when a working product is demonstrated to stakeholders. This helps minimize overall risk, and lets the project adapt to changes quickly. Stakeholders produce documentation as required.
Agile methods generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. Conceptual foundations of this framework are found in modern approaches to operations management and analysis, such as lean manufacturing and Six Sigma.
I discuss both of these process, because the true way to implement something new is with a project management system that you are familiar with or have a facilitator on board that is familiar with the process. Don’t leave good ideas fail because of a poor plan. If you want to change your planning process have a separate Kaizen event to install a new project management system.
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Basics Of Project Management for Marketing
Posted by: | CommentsThe last several posts have discussed several products and resources for project management. Good project management has to occur throughout your organization to be successful. Your company probably has a great deal of knowledge and is already using a software package for scheduling such as Microsoft Project. I want to reiterate the point I made before, Scheduling is not Project Management.
I use Microsoft Project Standard 2007
An Affiliate resource of mine, Systems2win has a very unique set of Project Management tools that are templates for Microsoft Excel. They are part of his Kaizen Bundle offering, and if you understand Kaizen you understand why they are bundled there.
Below is a minimum outline for Project Management in a Marketing Process:
Calendar: Yes, we still could use a graphical list. Some people just have to see it that way to understand it.
Gantt Chart Project Plan: A graphic way for a Project Leader to manage tasks assigned to team members. This is an important tool to and the way I view project 90% of the time.
Project Cost Estimate Worksheet: To estimate project costs.
To Do List: A simple way for a Team Leader to manage tasks assigned to team members. Meeting Agenda & Minutes template: To prepare for and get the most from team meetings
Priorities Consensus Worksheet: To evaluate & prioritize strategic initiatives
Decision Matrix (with Impact Effort PICK Matrix): Provides a visually graphic depiction of the trade-offs between the impact that an alternative will probably have toward resolving the problem, and the effort required. I love Matrices.
Issues Worksheet: To organize and resolve issues faced by a project or team and to identify and approve potential software customizations
Organization Chart: To define both formal and informal work group structures
Ground Rules for Working Together: Covenants for mutual respect and productive work habits
Change Management Worksheet: To prepare a Communications Plan and other approaches to help people embrace change
Team Members, Roles & Responsibilities: A concise way to summarize who is responsible for what.
Team Support Roles: Clear responsibilities for the Teams that support various project teams
Project Team Facilities Worksheet: To identify facilities needed, and track status of providing them.
The descriptions of these items were furnished by Systems2win. Their Project Management templates included each one of these and more in a Microsoft Word or Excel Template.
Small Project Management: As you become familiar with Lean and the Lean Marketing concept, you will learn about A3 reporting. An A3 Report is a single-page storyboard that is used to systematically identify problems and stimulate creative problem-solving. It is also used for proposals and guidelines for the work that needs to be done. It could also serve as a small project management form if so constructed. However most of the time it will consist of several of the items above embedded into one sheet.
There is so much to learn in project management that I have chosen to create numerous resources in lieu of blogging about the basics. Our journey will now start in Project Management for “Leaner” Marketing and there will be a fair amount of blogging around that subject.
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