ZachEvans

Believer. Husband. Dad. Coach. Healthcare Thought-Leader. All-Around Good Guy.

Business

Project Initiation & Closure

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Project governance is neither a fun nor a simple concept to implement. Some organizations do this very well and have elaborate, multi-level, processes that ensure proper vetting, prioritization, oversight and funding. Other organizations have little-to-no governance and do everything by the seat of their pants with varying levels of success. Most IT professionals will tell you that some level of governance is necessary and those same professionals will be happy to share at least one (or perhaps many) examples of a time where the governance process ground their project to a halt for no viable reason.

I am one of those that believe some level of governance is needed for successful project implementation and have developed a short-form Project Initiation and Project Closure document that I have found useful when organizations do not have (or do not want) a full-scale governance process.

Project Initiation Document – A two-page template that lays out the very basics of the project: details, team members, objectives, success metrics, scope, and a signature block. The template does not include assumptions, risks and mitigation plans, project plans, or resource plans. It is assumed that those are being handled in other forms or may not be deemed necessary.

Project Closure Document – A two-page template that lays out the same basics as the Project Initiation Document but adds options to identify if objectives and success metrics have been met by the project.

No project documentation should be used as a club to beat a colleague or client over the head with (although some project managers do just that) but, rather, should signify a meeting of the minds and an agreement on how to define and measure the success or failure of a project. Neither should project governance be viewed as red tape that adds no value to the operations of an organization.

Related files: Project Initiation Document; Project Closure Document

Project Scorecard

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In my professional life, I serve as a consultant on several projects at any time. Part of my role in relation to the management of this project portfolio is to provide input on prioritization. All organizations have limited resources to spend on projects and analytical tools can help inform decisions leaders are faced with in regards where to allocate these resources.

One such tool that I developed and have used successfully is a project scorecard that analyzes several dimensions of a project, assigns a relative weight to each dimension, and provides a recommend project rank based on the overall score of a project. This particular scorecard looks at the following project dimensions:

  • Number of departments impacted
  • Revenue impact
  • Quality impact
  • Safety impact
  • Project sponsor
  • Projected cost
  • Urgency
  • Priority
  • Budgeted
  • Security
  • Interfaces
  • Existing installations (in other divisions of the company)

Based on your needs or organization, the dimensions analyzed would vary greatly, but the value behind the tool would not. Furthermore, I would not recommend making decisions based solely on a tool such as this, but would use its outputs as one data point (although, perhaps, one that carries a great deal of weight).

Are you in need of having a tool like this built for your organization or do you have other questions as to how a tool such as this could be implemented? Please contact me for more information.

Related files: Project Scorecard

Relative Medium Positioning

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For a recent consulting meeting I needed a graphic that could describe the relative positioning of content delivery mediums that would help my client understand the impact of their medium choices.

I wanted to represent the difference in production costs, the frequency versus the depth of the content being published, and whether or not the medium was best suited for push- versus pull-publishing. While perhaps not perfect (certainly my handwriting is not perfect), I believe the resulting graphic is intriguing enough to share:

Relative Medium PositioningOne point of clarification: The category of micro-blogs is meant to include mediums such as Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and other similar outlets.

Customer Service Satisfaction

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Throughout my career I have been blessed with opportunities to join organizations that are in need of a fresh set of eyes to evaluate their processes and are poised to make a leap to a higher level of productivity and service. When presented with such an opportunity, I typically start with uncovering and mining data that allows me to set benchmarks for how the team is currently performing. Customer service satisfaction rates is one such metric that I try to wrap my arms around as quickly as possible.

I have learned on more than one occasion that satisfaction questions have never been asked. Anecdotal evidence may be available that points to a team delivering on their service promises but very little hard information is available. I have developed, over time, a basic satisfaction survey that helps me to  understand current service levels and set benchmarks, around which future goals can set. You can view the survey that I use in one of three formats:

  1. Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (.docx)
  2. Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (.pdf)
  3. Customer Service Satisfaction Survey (SurveyMonkey)

I have added, depending on whether or not I am using my survey to poll internal- or external-customer, a Net Promoter question to my survey but the above-mentioned samples do not include this. (I have found that using a Net Promoter question for internal-customers–those that have very little choice when it comes to using your service or not–is not as valuable as using a Net Promoter question for external-customers).

As with any survey, you need to use the information produced as only one data point in your decision-making process. You also need to understand the dangers associated with being driven to perfection.

Successful Transitions

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Transitions at work are never easy or simple. They are, however, a fact that every individual and organization will have to deal with at some point. Employees leave your team or organization. You choose to leave your team or organization. As the saying goes, the only constant in life is change.

When you are the individual making the move, I have found it to be helpful to create transition documents for both the position you are leaving and the position you are moving in to. The outgoing document will help the organization you are leaving know where you are leaving the work you were being paid to do and the incoming document will help you stay focused on creating a solid foundation for success in your new role.

Related Files