Overcoming the Professional PM Objections
In part one of this three part series, I made the case for why companies should view professional project managers in the same way they view certified public accountants. That even though the basic elements of accounting are understood by the average businessman, they recognize that engaging a certified public accountant is good business practice. In the same way, even though the basic elements of project management are understood by most businessmen, there are many similar business reasons to engage a certified project management professional.
In this article I address the most common objections to engaging a professional project manager. They are:
- Our projects are too small to warrant professional PMs
- We can’t afford a professional PM
- We don’t want to lose our entrepreneurial spirit
Let’s look at each of these in more detail.
Our projects are too small to warrant professional PMs
This objection in many cases could well be true. For some projects, there are simply not enough interdependencies, not enough stakeholders, little or no risk, a small team and too short a time frame to warrant a professional PM. Yet, as soon as one of these attributes changes, the need for a professional PM begins to rise. Change two or more of these dimensions and a professional PM should not just be considered but be considered the best practice for good business management.
Let’s consider a 1 month project that only requires 2 resources with the objective of implementing a new government regulation. At first glance we would not consider a professional PM. Then we learn that each month the company is not in compliance will cost the company heavy fines. We also learn that these regulations are far different than anything the company has had to deal with in the past. The manager responsible to run this project is not even sure where to begin.
All of a sudden the Risks have gone through the roof. Missing the deadline will be extremely costly and the unknowns just grew exponentially. Here is where a professional PM would add significant value; this is the kind of challenge they have been trained to address. They are adept at crashing schedules and fast-tracking activities. They are skilled at quickly developing plans and getting resources engaged immediately. The professional PM would have the project well underway, while the internal manager would still be trying to figure out where to start.
The other consideration is the number of small projects a company is managing. It is not unusual for there to be dozens of small projects that are bumping into each other and competing for resources, so that it seems hardly anything gets done. I would rather have a single large project than dozens of smaller ones. At least with a large project there is one project manager who has the authority to coordinate all of the activity. Many small independent projects are like the many headed hydra with each head competing with the other.
This is another ideal scenario for the professional project manager. They thrive on bringing order to chaos. They are adept at creating project analytics to prioritize the most important projects which determines where to apply the limited resources. They are proficient at applying resource management tools to keep track of everyone’s assignments. They understand the principles of finding synergies among the many projects in order to bring efficiencies and savings.
We can’t afford a professional PM
This is a fat slow one right over the middle of the plate: The issue isn’t whether you can afford a professional PM; the real question is whether you can afford not to engage one. The math is pretty easy to do. The equation is to compare the costs of your risks if they are realized against the cost of hiring a professional PM.
There are two types of risks with any project. Those risks that can be controlled by a project manager and those that cannot. The former are risks such as completing the project on time, keeping the project within budget, managing stakeholder expectations or dealing with major change orders. The latter are things such as government regulation changes, weather or other natural disasters, or changes in ownership or sponsorship. A good project manager will be able to make a significant impact on either the likely hood of the risk being realized or the ultimate cost of mitigating or reacting to the realization of the risk event.
First, add up the potential costs of all risks that could be controlled by a PM. Assume that a professional PM will prevent 50% of those risks from occurring. Then, take all of the remaining risks and add those costs. Assume that a professional PM will be able to save 25% of either the cost to mitigate these risks or the cost of the contingency plan. If the sum of these two costs are more than that of hiring a professional PM, then you should make the hire.
We don’t want to lose our entrepreneurial spirit
This is the most interesting objection. I think it comes from a fundamental disconnect between the need to be entrepreneurial and the need to still be accountable and organized. Projects are fundamentally entrepreneurial activities. “Extreme Project Management” has become a recent term used to describe projects that are so cutting edge that you must plan as you go and every day you may need to change your plan.
Look more closely under the covers of Extreme Project Management and you will still find the fundamentals of scope management, resource management, risk management, cost management and communication management. You will still find the basic plan, execute, control and close phases. You are just doing these in an extreme waterfall fashion. You may go through an entire lifecycle of a project in a single day.
What often happens in these extreme cultures is that communications gets the short shrift. People are often wondering what the latest state of the situation is. They may not be aware of the latest developments that have just made what they were doing obsolete. This results in a tremendous amount of wasted effort.
The other aspect of these extreme cultures is the loss of visibility into the impact of any decision on the overall costs and schedule of the project. The entrepreneur who is running at 90 miles an hour doesn’t know the true impact of their decisions.
Today’s project managers have been dealing with extreme project management for 20 years, it just wasn’t given a name. Today’s modern business climate has forced PMs to adapt and fine tune their skills to be able to maintain order in the midst of chaos; to keep the project train moving forward in the general direction of the ultimate goal, while recognizing it will take many side tracks along the way.
The modern professional PM can provide information to help the entrepreneur make a more informed decision when they want to head south rather than north. The professional PM can effectively communicate with staff the latest plan and what activities they should be working on today versus what the plan told them yesterday.
The bottom line is that the entrepreneur will crash and burn without the aid of a professional PM keeping track of the details while they are off climbing the next mountain.
In Part 3 of this series I will present a new model for providing professional project management that is analogous to the CPA model. I am calling it professional project management as a service.
Part 1 - The Case for Professional Project Management
Part 3 - Professional Project Management as a Service