Online Resources for Areas of Concern in Project Management

Communicating with Clients and Customers

The Art of Communicating With Clients

In this article, Raphael Lapin provides insightful answers to 20 questions about communicating with customers and clients. Questions range from "Why is listening to clients so important?" to "How do you get clients to open up about their lives, attitudes, and dreams for the future?"

Controlling Scope Creep

Seven Steps for Avoiding Scope Creep

In this article, Shelly Doll illustrates a "scope creep horror story" and then summarily outlines 7 key steps for avoiding scope creep in a web development project. These steps include 1) understand project vision; 2) understand your priorities and the priorities of clients/customers; 3) define deliverables and have them approved; 4) parse deliverables into actual "work requirements;" 5) ID major/minor "milestones;" 6) determine resources and critical path - make assignments (GAANT or PERT charting); and 7) expect some scope creep to occur and be prepared for it.

Changes in the Environment

The Titanic sunk, so what? Project manager response to unexpected events

The authors of this research article present results of a study of multiple project manager's responses to various unpredictable situations in project management. The article is long, but illuminating and utilitarian (not the "gutter" type). Here's the abstract:

"Projects are inherently uncertain and face unexpected events, from small changes in scope to unforeseen client’s bankruptcy. This paper studies how project managers respond to such events and how successful and unsuccessful responses differ from the perspective of the practitioner. We analysed 44 unexpected events faced by 22 experienced project managers in defence and defence-related organisations. The project managers compared two unexpected events that they faced, one that they considered the response successful and the other unsuccessful. We identified three pillars supporting successful responses to unexpected events: (1) responsive and functioning structure at the organisational level, (2) good interpersonal relationship at the group level and (3) competent people at the individual level. The events and respective responses analysed suggest that improvement in project management can be achieved by better managing these three pillars, allowing project and programme managers to 'create their own luck.'"

Staying on Schedule

Project Management 101 - Part 3: Managing Time and Schedule

In this article, John Reh is concise and to the point about how to stay on schedule in project management (I suspect he has his own schedule to keep). He highlights the importance of identifying key tasks, creating a detailed schedule, and identifying a critical path.

Failure to Understand and Sufficiently Appreciate

W.L. Gore and Associates (Gore) is a company that develops medical devices. In reality, Gore is a materials development company (think Teflon, their most famous product), but one division is dedicated to developing applications of these materials to medical devices.

In the early 2000's, the medical device division developed a product aimed at treating aortic aneurisms. This device was a simple long tube of teflon material, with rings to hold the teflon open, like a Chinese finger trap. Along the length of the tube ran a long, thin connecting bar used during the "deployment" of the device into the aorta (these are the really cool devices that are inserted into the heart and blood vessels through a vessel in the leg - in the picture above, the Gore device is on the left and a competing device is on the right).

Because a very similar Gore device was already in use for aneurisms in the abdomen, early clinical testing of the new device didn't include pulse-fatigue testing, where the device is repeatedly bent back-and-forth. Over time, it was discovered that the long connecting bar would break because of the much harsher and more active environment near the heart.

Failure to do the pulse-fatigue testing was a result of a lack of understanding by the engineers on the project of the anatomy and how that area of the body moved. At the same time, the clinical physicians on the project likely knew about the anatomical issues, but had an under-appreciation for them in terms of engineering problems. A related issue leading to the failure of the device may have been complacency on behalf of the project manager and other team members. Because a similar device had been implemented effectively in other areas of the body, it was assumed the new device would work well in the aorta near the heart.

Gore has taken steps to reduce this type of failure by implementing more complex and advanced a priori modeling. In addition, they require project managers to be very well schooled in all aspects of the development process. If the project manager on this particular project had been able to make the connection between the physicians' knowledge and the engineers' knowledge, the failure might have been avoided altogether.

The FDA determined that the breakage of the connecting bar in Gore's device was not "life-threatening." However, Gore has a very conservative policy on all its devices and voluntarily chose to remove the product from the market because they deemed the risk of damage from the broken bar too high. They felt it was possible for the broken bar to gouge or even penetrate surrounding tissues, including the aorta. While legally they could have continued to produce and market the device, they chose to go back and re-design it in order to meet their own standards of safety and to avoid simply producing a "good-enough" product.

This decision, a direct result of failure during initial project management, not only cost Gore a lot of money, it became an emotional struggle for the project members as well. After the product was removed from the market, almost daily a doctor or two would call the company requesting the product be put back on the market ("it's FDA approved") because, they would say, "you're killing my patients by not letting me have your device."

Failure to understand and sufficiently appreciate key aspects of a project often leads to failure to produce or to produce well. Sometimes, as in the case above, it can lead heavy consequences indeed.