January 31, 2024 • 27 mins
Unlock the full potential of your project management skills with insights from Mounir Ajam, a seasoned expert with over three decades of experience. This episode is your ticket to understanding the intricate dance between methods and methodologies in the realm of value delivery. We promise you'll come away with the knowledge to tailor methods that guide projects from their tentative first steps all the way to triumphant completion. Hear Mounir dissect the layers of project management, emphasizing why a value-centric approach is the game changer every project manager needs.
It's all about the journey, not just the destination—Mounir takes us through the project lifecycle's critical 'gates', ensuring alignment with business goals and market tides. You'll learn to flexibly apply the URUK platform to your organizational needs and discover how project management waltzes with product management to spotlight successful outcomes. Whether you're a veteran project manager or new to the field, this episode is an indispensable resource for those aiming to place value delivery at the heart of their projects.
Explore more project management insights at www.urukpm.com
Connect with Uruk Project Management:
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Good day, howdy, and welcome to the 4PM podcast.
My name is Munir Ajam.
My core passion is projectmanagement in community.
I come to you with at leastclose to 35 years of experience.
My eagerness to share knowledgeand to mentor and coach groups
help organization transform theway they manage project to a
(00:32):
higher level.
4pm's tent in this case isshortened for us for what we
call value, which means project,program, product and portfolios
, so a lot of our topics will bearound this 4PM.
Let's get going.
Welcome to the 4PM podcast.
(00:59):
We're about to start our episodenumber five, which is focusing
on the value deliverymethodological process.
A quick recap of what we havedone before, because you know
these episodes are somewhatintegrated.
In episode two, we talk abouttransforming project management,
and then we made the case whydo we need to transform project
(01:21):
management?
In episode three, we stressthat they need to understand our
domain and respect ourdiversity as a community of
project management before we canstart a transformation journey.
And then in episode three, westart to talk about the approach
, how to do the transformation,and we talked about different
levels In today of projectmanagement.
(01:43):
The last episode, we talkedabout the first aspect of
transformation, which is how tobuild and sustain an
organizational projectmanagement system.
That lead us today to talkabout the second aspect of
building, of transformingproject management, which is, in
a way, part of the OPM.
However it's, we want to focuson value delivery.
(02:07):
Now, what do we mean by valuedelivery?
What do we mean by amethodological process?
We will cover in this episode.
So we will talk about what isthe PM method.
We will talk about the PM level, a refresher which we covered
in, I think, episode three.
We will talk about why do weneed level five, which is a
(02:31):
value delivery model, and thenwhat is level five, and we
finish with what is unique aboutlevel five.
So five.
This episode has five parts, solet's go through part one.
Part one is about what is a PMmethod.
(02:56):
We often confuse the word methodwith methodology and some other
videos we have produced in ourYouTube channel.
We clearly talk about the findthe difference between method
and methodology.
Actually, interesting enough,one of the most viewed videos on
our YouTube channel is thedifference between method and
methodology, so we'll advise youto visit and check it out.
(03:17):
But a method typically is veryspecific.
Just a summary here a veryspecific way of doing things.
Our methodology is typically aset of methods, the science of
studying method, and so, as aresult, a methodology could be a
foundation, like a framework,and from there we can develop
numerous tailored methods.
That is the philosophy and theapproach we follow in Aruq
(03:39):
project management.
So how do we use?
When we say the word method?
Unfortunately, today there'speople depend on your background
.
You might have different viewor a different mindset of what
that word mean.
For example, in projectmanagement, we have something
called critical pass method, sothe word method is there.
However, that is a techniquethat is specific to scheduling.
(04:00):
We have earned value method orearned value management.
Sometimes we use the wordmethod, sometimes we don't.
Again, that is very specificabout assessing progress on a
project.
We might have some riskassessment methods.
We might have some stakeholderidentification or exploration
for their input or how we engagethem.
(04:21):
There might be method andtechniques and approaches In
those situations.
The word method is typicallyvery narrow, very specific to
some action that we can dowithin a project While we are
managing a project.
We can use earned valuemanagement, we can use critical
pass method.
We can use risk managementidentification techniques.
(04:42):
We can use many, many, manyother kind of method and
technique while we are managingproject.
So when we hear the word method, yes, we understand some people
will think based on what I justdescribed.
However, in a root projectmanagement, when we talk about
method, we typically meansomething like a tailored method
(05:03):
.
That means a method that isspecific to manage a project
across the entire� life cycle.
So we send the Rook method youmight be using the critical pass
and their own value on, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
So, from that perspective, whenwe talked about APM method in
(05:25):
this episode, we are talkingabout methodological process
method to take a project fromstart to finish.
Now, where is that start andwhere is that finish?
That might be a good time toshift into part two of this
episode, which is the refresherof the project management level
we discussed before.
(05:46):
As we start with part two,which is a refresher on the PM
level that we discussed in anearlier episode, if you remember
or if you have not listened tothat episode, the way we talked
about it is when we talk aboutthe level from level one to
level five, is that, as thenumber goes up from one to two
(06:09):
to three to four to five, ourattention to the project, the
area of the project that wemight be managing get broader.
Just think about, you know,like my hand are, you know,
touching, and then now I amspreading by hand away from each
other and growing the gap.
(06:29):
So in level one our focus mightbe very narrow.
Level two would be slightlybroader.
Level three would be even morebroader.
So when we talk about spanbroader, that means we're
talking about span of time.
That mean the beginning and anend.
There is a beginning and an end.
So most method, if we definethem that they are about
(06:54):
managing a project, it dependson that lifecycle or the method
that we are following.
So it has a beginning and anend.
So basically, in that case, aproject and that definition have
a beginning and an end.
Now where we don't often agreeis where is that beginning and
(07:15):
where is that end?
So on level one we talked aboutbasically these are mostly task
management.
So in the beginning and end,you know we have a list of tasks
.
We go through them one by oneuntil we finish.
So that is beginning and end Inthe stage we start with, when
the stage is authorized andinitiated.
(07:36):
We finish when we deliver on thestage output.
That's done when we go to levelthree, which is technical
project management, similar towhat PMI and other literature
advocate.
We start with a charter, we endwith an output.
So that is where we talk aboutthe levels.
Where do we start and where dowe end when we talk about level
(07:59):
four and five?
I will save it for later inthis episode, because this
episode is about level five.
So the question is in part threeof this episode is why do we
need level five?
Well, before we answer thisquestion, maybe we should think
(08:21):
about is level five better thanlevel three?
Not necessarily.
It all depends on if you weprobably advise you to go back
to episode three is that who areyou and what type of
organization you work for andwhat type of mandate you have,
maybe all what you can do inyour organization.
You're designed to me manageproject at level three, which is
(08:43):
perfectly acceptable as long asif you remember probably the
last episode, we talked a lotabout competence as long as you
are competent in managing thework, whether at level one,
level two, level three, levelfour or level five, it doesn't
really matter.
So it's important to managewith competence.
So in that case, why do we needlevel five?
(09:03):
Why do we say level five may bedifferent than level three?
Because if you are a projectowner remember it depends on who
you are If you work for aproject owner organization the
organization that is launchingthe project and want to benefit
from its outcome they want toachieve some results, some
benefit, right Then in that caseyou are better to consider
(09:27):
working at the minimum, as wesaid in an earlier episode, at
level four, but ideally you wantto go to level five, which is
the value delivery model.
So why did we call it valuedelivery?
Because if I'm a project owner,I'm not doing project because I
like to do project.
I'm not in the business ofdoing project, I am in the
(09:49):
business of getting benefit.
I might be a hotel companyright, I derive value from
operating hotel that give mesome profit.
If I'm the petro chemicalindustry, I derive value for
petrochemical product that Isell.
If I am a software solutionprovider, like Uruk, I get value
from the subscription that weget to our platform and from the
(10:13):
consultancy and other servicesthat we sell.
So from that perspective, weare not necessarily looking at
project as the end or theultimate objective.
Project are the engine to drivesuccess.
They are the mechanism to helpus achieve our objective and
(10:34):
deliver value.
So if I am an ownerorganization, I must think along
the line delivering value,otherwise I might not be
sustained in my business.
So the next part of this episodeis okay.
(10:55):
What is level five?
Well, for this, we will adviseyou to definitely go to our
website and go to the knowledgetab, and you can find our blog
site and you can find ourYouTube channel and you can find
links to articles or videoswhere we can even show you some
graphics, so you will be able tosee the graphics that might be
(11:17):
related to this.
So at least you have a betterunderstanding with visual.
Now I will try to be maybe likea sports illustrator, try to
describe the game blow by blow.
Well, maybe I'm not good at it,but I'll try.
So what is level five?
Well, first, it's a projectlifecycle model We've been
talking about all levels havesome kind of a lifecycle, has a
(11:40):
beginning and has an end, so weneed to start at least to define
.
It is a project lifecycle model.
However, it has what we like tocall the stage gate or decision
point.
Some people say, well, we don'thave stage gate.
I am sure everyone that work inproduct management.
Even if you never heard orstage gate, you have stage gate
in your company.
(12:00):
Why do we say that?
Too arrogant to say that?
Well, no, because that'sreality.
You have decision point.
A decision point is a gate bydefinition.
Some people don't like to usethe word gate, unfortunately, or
fortunately, I don't know.
It's important to understandthat along any project there are
decision points and thosedecision points are gate.
(12:23):
So we must have a project lifecycle.
That typically would mean whenwe say the word project life
cycle, that mean is divided intostages and then every stage
have a gate in order to verifythat the work that was done
before satisfy our requirementas a company policies guideline.
And then we shift to questionnumber two does it still make
(12:47):
sense to continue with thisproject or do we stop Right?
That's the purpose of the stagegate.
So do we progress, verifyingthe work that was done before is
good, and then do we still wantto proceed?
Maybe because the condition andthe market change, even though
everything looks good, maybethere is becoming harder to
justify continuing the projectand we'll have to stop it.
(13:09):
That is first two point projectlife cycle that has stages and
every stage must have a gatestage.
Gate Now, level five, becausewe're talking about value
delivery.
It must focus on the entirevalue delivery life cycle.
Now, what does it mean?
Remember, every life cycle havea beginning and an end.
(13:29):
So where is the beginning?
In this case, the beginning isthe idea, the product vision,
the asset vision, the venturevision, whatever you want to
call it.
Right?
We want to launch a new hotelchain in Timbaktu.
We want to have a series ofclinic in Houston.
(13:52):
We want to have X, y or Z,right?
So, from the time thatstrategic planning department
was in a company or a group ofinvestors or anybody that had,
look, we want to do somethingthat will deliver value and
benefit.
Right.
(14:12):
Whether the value and thebenefit are measured in monetary
terms, you know, return oninvestment, net present value,
whatever, or services to thecommunity or services to the
citizen, there has to be somekind of a value.
So, from the point at IZEA,come about.
We consider the project lifecycle started Now, I'm not going
(14:36):
to talk about the stages yetand then we have to stay.
Obviously, we I will mentionthat we will go through the
different stages until we reachthe end.
Now, where is the end?
That's very tough question inreality.
Some might say projectcompletion and we do project
closure.
Well, that's the common view.
(14:56):
For us, that is level four,that is a product delivery model
.
We deliver the product, we gothrough some closure and we do
some proper closure.
However, in value deliverymodel, we want to validate that
the product work.
So we must do that in two steps.
First step is we need to gothrough some kind of an initial
(15:18):
operation period to make surethat everything is working
according to the specification,the design, the quality, the
objective that we establishedthe project to do.
And if all is well, then wemight do some closure.
However, in a Rook we areprobably quite unique in this we
don't close the project at thatpoint.
We do what we call PLC closure.
(15:41):
So we are only closing the lifecycle, because the team that is
working on the project willprobably need to demobilize and
go on to do something else.
That's why, for us, that meansat that point the project is
complete but it's not closed.
So what does it take to closethe project?
(16:02):
In our value delivery model,what it takes to close a project
is to do the final successassessment, because one of our
four-dimensional project success, which is a topic for the next
episode, is to talk about theobjective success.
Often enough, objective successcannot be measured at
(16:25):
completion.
We might have to wait weeks,months or even years before we
can determine how did we do interms of our objective, in that
case, the project.
For example, in our ARUKplatform, the project will go
into the completed list ofproject and program and will
(16:45):
stay there until the PMO, the PMdepartment executive, have
determined that this would be agood time for us to assess for
final success and close theproject.
So our life cycle model, thevalue delivery model, starts
with the product vision and endsup only after we assess how did
(17:08):
we perform in line with thebusiness objective and the
business case.
Now the project life cycle isbasically what we emphasize in
ARUK is that it must be tailoredmethod.
So we start with amethodological process and then
we tailor based on the need,which means a life cycle for
some project could be fourstages, some project could be 15
(17:31):
stages.
Usually our standard model isnine stages, some could be six
or seven.
So all depend on the nature ofthe organization, the sectors,
the domain, the vertical, theproject type, the project size,
the project complexity wouldhelp us design a unique or at
(17:52):
least a very specific tailoredmethod for that type of project.
So in that case we need to havethe project life cycle and we
need to tailor it.
We already talked about thelife cycle start and end and as
a result of that, it covers theentire life cycle.
(18:12):
So I think that is clear by now.
I think it's becoming clear.
There are many stages.
Now maybe here I need to touchon one last point in this
section on what is level five isthat in the way we do it in
ARUK platform is that we havetotal flexibility on designing
(18:33):
tailored method, which means wecan control the number of stages
and whether those stages aresequential or overlap, and we
can control the number of gate.
And we can control whether youwant to use agile development or
what we call big bankdevelopment.
We can control what is theoutput of every stage, which
(18:53):
means the stage deliverable,what is the content of every one
of those stages.
We can have the stage gates andthe stage gate criteria.
All of that is adaptive.
All of that is we can tailor inthe platform.
We come to part five in thelast part of this episode, which
(19:19):
is what's unique about thelevel five.
I think over here I probablyexplain everything, so maybe
it's just a matter ofre-emphasizing the key point.
The focus is on the product andthat way we can integrate
product management with projectmanagement.
We have not talked about producttoday much as a product
lifecycle.
Most models on productlifecycle consider usually for a
(19:42):
new product or for product ingeneral.
There are five stages or fivephases of product.
The first one might beacquisition and then you might
have growth, maturity, decline,withdrawal.
Each stage could have adifferent name depending on the
industry.
However, for example, if we are, let's say, building a hotel,
so the product is a hotel.
(20:03):
The acquisition phase of thathotel, product life, the hotel,
because as a physical entity itprobably has a 25 to 30 years
life, useful life that's a termwe use sometimes.
Basically, the first phase ofthat is the acquisition phase,
which means it's a project.
It goes through the vision, thebusiness case, the feasibility
(20:25):
requirement, design, engineering, construction, commissioning,
all the way until it's fullyoperational.
Now that is typically whereproject management happen, in
the acquisition phase, inparallel to product lifecycle.
Then, of course, during theother phases of the product,
during the growth or thematurity or the decline.
We could implement many otherprojects.
(20:45):
It could be upgrade project,maintenance project, expansion
project all they could berelated project and software.
We might have increment,upgrading technology, whatever
the case might be, after theinitial product is acquired and
it is in the market.
We can do many, many, manyprojects down the road With the
(21:07):
4pm remember we talked aboutproduct being part of this 4p's
so project program, product andportfolio In a value delivery
model.
Our focus is not technicalproject management.
We view project management asthe engine of project success.
You probably have seen our logowith that slogan, basically to
(21:28):
indicate that we use projectmanagement, learning, project
management competence, projectmanagement process to deliver
success.
Of what?
Of the product?
We're not only concerned withproject management success.
In this case I repeat myselfmaybe for the third or fourth
time today the focus is on theproduct.
(21:50):
That is one thing that isunique about level 5.
Another point it integrateproject management with business
aspect.
In a way, we have a way tostart to break down the silos
between business and project.
If you think about the projectoften enough, that might start
(22:12):
with a division within thecompany, hr marketing, whatever.
Then it might go to some kindof project management group or
project execution group.
Then it might go to anexecution group like an IT or
engineering or construction.
You notice there are manyinterface points there.
The advantage of a productdelivery methodological value
(22:34):
delivery model is that weintegrate.
In this case, projectmanagement is not just over the
fence.
We must use project managementeven in the discovery phase of
the project, where typically thebusiness people operate without
project management support orinput or knowledge or competence
.
As a result, whatever theyproduce end up being set in
(22:55):
stone, which is almost difficultto change.
What we are saying.
We must introduce projectmanagement even in that phase,
in the discovery phase, whenwe're doing the business case,
when we're doing the analysis,when we're doing the feasibility
.
In that case it's not just wehave one department doing work
(23:15):
and then we shoot the ball overthe net or over the fence to IT
or engineering or construction.
We integrate project managementwith that business side of the
organization, which typicallycould be, if we are an internal
team, is an internal customer orcould be a external customer.
Also, what we've seen often wefail in project and we've seen
(23:39):
this even on mega project.
Project people are designed tothink.
You know, in a way.
Sometimes we joke about ITpeople think zero or one, and
project management people, in away, think zero or one, but in a
not in the technology aspect.
We are engineering orconstruction or working on
facilities project.
We think about building.
You know all what we care aboutbuild it right.
Let's get going.
(23:59):
Let's build it right.
Let's start to get digging holein the ground.
Sometimes you might hear someconstruction people and when
they get frustrated, when theyare in the office too much and
they will probably joke aboutyou know, we just need to start
digging some holes.
That is part of our focus andmaybe our DNA in project.
You know the people who trainedin traditional project
management or what they thinkabout getting things done.
(24:21):
Well, however, we got thingsdone.
We built that hotel, we builtthat museum.
What's next?
We don't know.
Well, we need to hire people,we need to train people, we need
to do things like this.
That is what we call operationalreadiness.
That is also often ignored inmost literature on project
(24:42):
management.
So what we are saying, thatmust be an essential part Now in
bigger organization and biggerproject.
You could have two teamsworking in parallel.
You might have an operationteam and you might have the
technical team that is doing theengineering and building right.
That's fine as long as we havea cohesive leader leading both.
To get to the point when we areready to hand over the facility
(25:07):
, the operation, people areready to accept it, test it,
commission it and to start tooperate it.
That is another area where weare, when we start to shift from
level three of technicalproject management charter to
output, where we're saying waita minute, we have to go even
before to integrate with thebusiness side and then, in
(25:29):
parallel, we have to considerthe operational readiness side
until so we can make sure thatwhen we finish we can achieve
success.
And of course, when we talkabout operational readiness, we
also have what I mentionedearlier initial operation stage,
where now we are, we go into anoperation, maybe like a pilot
(25:53):
or soft operation or just youknow, we start to operate, but
in a way in the testing mode, tomake sure, to validate that we
are able to produce.
If it's something that is aproduction facility, we are
producing to the capacitydesired and the quality desired.
In the software there are othercriterias and marketing there
(26:14):
are other criterias.
So depend on the nature of theproject that initial operation
criterias could be different,and we have to make sure we
understand it.
Now, in parallel to all of that, we must implement what we call
the four dimensions of projectsuccess, which we are also
building into a Rook platform.
(26:35):
Again, that will be the topicfor next episode.
So time to wrap it up and closethis topic.
We talked about the differencebetween method and methodology.
What does the word method meanin project management?
What is the refresher of the PMlevel?
(26:56):
What is level five?
What is unique about level five?
We covered all of these topics,so we let you to ponder until
we meet again.
Do you measure project successon your project, since that is
going to be our next episode?
If you do, how?
And the only thing left to sayis we wish you success today,
(27:18):
tomorrow and always.
Good day, howdy, and welcome to the 4PM podcast.
My name is Munir Ajam.
My core passion is projectmanagement in community.
I come to you with at leastclose to 35 years of experience.
My eagerness to share knowledgeand to mentor and coach groups
help organization transform theway they manage project to a
(00:32):
higher level.
4pm's tent in this case isshortened for us for what we
call value, which means project,program, product and portfolios
, so a lot of our topics will bearound this 4PM.
Let's get going.
Welcome to the 4PM podcast.
(00:59):
We're about to start our episodenumber five, which is focusing
on the value deliverymethodological process.
A quick recap of what we havedone before, because you know
these episodes are somewhatintegrated.
In episode two, we talk abouttransforming project management,
and then we made the case whydo we need to transform project
(01:21):
management?
In episode three, we stressthat they need to understand our
domain and respect ourdiversity as a community of
project management before we canstart a transformation journey.
And then in episode three, westart to talk about the approach
, how to do the transformation,and we talked about different
levels In today of projectmanagement.
(01:43):
The last episode, we talkedabout the first aspect of
transformation, which is how tobuild and sustain an
organizational projectmanagement system.
That lead us today to talkabout the second aspect of
building, of transformingproject management, which is, in
a way, part of the OPM.
However it's, we want to focuson value delivery.
(02:07):
Now, what do we mean by valuedelivery?
What do we mean by amethodological process?
We will cover in this episode.
So we will talk about what isthe PM method.
We will talk about the PM level, a refresher which we covered
in, I think, episode three.
We will talk about why do weneed level five, which is a
(02:31):
value delivery model, and thenwhat is level five, and we
finish with what is unique aboutlevel five.
So five.
This episode has five parts, solet's go through part one.
Part one is about what is a PMmethod.
(02:56):
We often confuse the word methodwith methodology and some other
videos we have produced in ourYouTube channel.
We clearly talk about the findthe difference between method
and methodology.
Actually, interesting enough,one of the most viewed videos on
our YouTube channel is thedifference between method and
methodology, so we'll advise youto visit and check it out.
(03:17):
But a method typically is veryspecific.
Just a summary here a veryspecific way of doing things.
Our methodology is typically aset of methods, the science of
studying method, and so, as aresult, a methodology could be a
foundation, like a framework,and from there we can develop
numerous tailored methods.
That is the philosophy and theapproach we follow in Aruq
(03:39):
project management.
So how do we use?
When we say the word method?
Unfortunately, today there'speople depend on your background
.
You might have different viewor a different mindset of what
that word mean.
For example, in projectmanagement, we have something
called critical pass method, sothe word method is there.
However, that is a techniquethat is specific to scheduling.
(04:00):
We have earned value method orearned value management.
Sometimes we use the wordmethod, sometimes we don't.
Again, that is very specificabout assessing progress on a
project.
We might have some riskassessment methods.
We might have some stakeholderidentification or exploration
for their input or how we engagethem.
(04:21):
There might be method andtechniques and approaches In
those situations.
The word method is typicallyvery narrow, very specific to
some action that we can dowithin a project While we are
managing a project.
We can use earned valuemanagement, we can use critical
pass method.
We can use risk managementidentification techniques.
(04:42):
We can use many, many, manyother kind of method and
technique while we are managingproject.
So when we hear the word method, yes, we understand some people
will think based on what I justdescribed.
However, in a root projectmanagement, when we talk about
method, we typically meansomething like a tailored method
(05:03):
.
That means a method that isspecific to manage a project
across the entire� life cycle.
So we send the Rook method youmight be using the critical pass
and their own value on, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
So, from that perspective, whenwe talked about APM method in
(05:25):
this episode, we are talkingabout methodological process
method to take a project fromstart to finish.
Now, where is that start andwhere is that finish?
That might be a good time toshift into part two of this
episode, which is the refresherof the project management level
we discussed before.
(05:46):
As we start with part two,which is a refresher on the PM
level that we discussed in anearlier episode, if you remember
or if you have not listened tothat episode, the way we talked
about it is when we talk aboutthe level from level one to
level five, is that, as thenumber goes up from one to two
(06:09):
to three to four to five, ourattention to the project, the
area of the project that wemight be managing get broader.
Just think about, you know,like my hand are, you know,
touching, and then now I amspreading by hand away from each
other and growing the gap.
(06:29):
So in level one our focus mightbe very narrow.
Level two would be slightlybroader.
Level three would be even morebroader.
So when we talk about spanbroader, that means we're
talking about span of time.
That mean the beginning and anend.
There is a beginning and an end.
So most method, if we definethem that they are about
(06:54):
managing a project, it dependson that lifecycle or the method
that we are following.
So it has a beginning and anend.
So basically, in that case, aproject and that definition have
a beginning and an end.
Now where we don't often agreeis where is that beginning and
(07:15):
where is that end?
So on level one we talked aboutbasically these are mostly task
management.
So in the beginning and end,you know we have a list of tasks
.
We go through them one by oneuntil we finish.
So that is beginning and end Inthe stage we start with, when
the stage is authorized andinitiated.
(07:36):
We finish when we deliver on thestage output.
That's done when we go to levelthree, which is technical
project management, similar towhat PMI and other literature
advocate.
We start with a charter, we endwith an output.
So that is where we talk aboutthe levels.
Where do we start and where dowe end when we talk about level
(07:59):
four and five?
I will save it for later inthis episode, because this
episode is about level five.
So the question is in part threeof this episode is why do we
need level five?
Well, before we answer thisquestion, maybe we should think
(08:21):
about is level five better thanlevel three?
Not necessarily.
It all depends on if you weprobably advise you to go back
to episode three is that who areyou and what type of
organization you work for andwhat type of mandate you have,
maybe all what you can do inyour organization.
You're designed to me manageproject at level three, which is
(08:43):
perfectly acceptable as long asif you remember probably the
last episode, we talked a lotabout competence as long as you
are competent in managing thework, whether at level one,
level two, level three, levelfour or level five, it doesn't
really matter.
So it's important to managewith competence.
So in that case, why do we needlevel five?
(09:03):
Why do we say level five may bedifferent than level three?
Because if you are a projectowner remember it depends on who
you are If you work for aproject owner organization the
organization that is launchingthe project and want to benefit
from its outcome they want toachieve some results, some
benefit, right Then in that caseyou are better to consider
(09:27):
working at the minimum, as wesaid in an earlier episode, at
level four, but ideally you wantto go to level five, which is
the value delivery model.
So why did we call it valuedelivery?
Because if I'm a project owner,I'm not doing project because I
like to do project.
I'm not in the business ofdoing project, I am in the
(09:49):
business of getting benefit.
I might be a hotel companyright, I derive value from
operating hotel that give mesome profit.
If I'm the petro chemicalindustry, I derive value for
petrochemical product that Isell.
If I am a software solutionprovider, like Uruk, I get value
from the subscription that weget to our platform and from the
(10:13):
consultancy and other servicesthat we sell.
So from that perspective, weare not necessarily looking at
project as the end or theultimate objective.
Project are the engine to drivesuccess.
They are the mechanism to helpus achieve our objective and
(10:34):
deliver value.
So if I am an ownerorganization, I must think along
the line delivering value,otherwise I might not be
sustained in my business.
So the next part of this episodeis okay.
(10:55):
What is level five?
Well, for this, we will adviseyou to definitely go to our
website and go to the knowledgetab, and you can find our blog
site and you can find ourYouTube channel and you can find
links to articles or videoswhere we can even show you some
graphics, so you will be able tosee the graphics that might be
(11:17):
related to this.
So at least you have a betterunderstanding with visual.
Now I will try to be maybe likea sports illustrator, try to
describe the game blow by blow.
Well, maybe I'm not good at it,but I'll try.
So what is level five?
Well, first, it's a projectlifecycle model We've been
talking about all levels havesome kind of a lifecycle, has a
(11:40):
beginning and has an end, so weneed to start at least to define
.
It is a project lifecycle model.
However, it has what we like tocall the stage gate or decision
point.
Some people say, well, we don'thave stage gate.
I am sure everyone that work inproduct management.
Even if you never heard orstage gate, you have stage gate
in your company.
(12:00):
Why do we say that?
Too arrogant to say that?
Well, no, because that'sreality.
You have decision point.
A decision point is a gate bydefinition.
Some people don't like to usethe word gate, unfortunately, or
fortunately, I don't know.
It's important to understandthat along any project there are
decision points and thosedecision points are gate.
(12:23):
So we must have a project lifecycle.
That typically would mean whenwe say the word project life
cycle, that mean is divided intostages and then every stage
have a gate in order to verifythat the work that was done
before satisfy our requirementas a company policies guideline.
And then we shift to questionnumber two does it still make
(12:47):
sense to continue with thisproject or do we stop Right?
That's the purpose of the stagegate.
So do we progress, verifyingthe work that was done before is
good, and then do we still wantto proceed?
Maybe because the condition andthe market change, even though
everything looks good, maybethere is becoming harder to
justify continuing the projectand we'll have to stop it.
(13:09):
That is first two point projectlife cycle that has stages and
every stage must have a gatestage.
Gate Now, level five, becausewe're talking about value
delivery.
It must focus on the entirevalue delivery life cycle.
Now, what does it mean?
Remember, every life cycle havea beginning and an end.
(13:29):
So where is the beginning?
In this case, the beginning isthe idea, the product vision,
the asset vision, the venturevision, whatever you want to
call it.
Right?
We want to launch a new hotelchain in Timbaktu.
We want to have a series ofclinic in Houston.
(13:52):
We want to have X, y or Z,right?
So, from the time thatstrategic planning department
was in a company or a group ofinvestors or anybody that had,
look, we want to do somethingthat will deliver value and
benefit.
Right.
(14:12):
Whether the value and thebenefit are measured in monetary
terms, you know, return oninvestment, net present value,
whatever, or services to thecommunity or services to the
citizen, there has to be somekind of a value.
So, from the point at IZEA,come about.
We consider the project lifecycle started Now, I'm not going
(14:36):
to talk about the stages yetand then we have to stay.
Obviously, we I will mentionthat we will go through the
different stages until we reachthe end.
Now, where is the end?
That's very tough question inreality.
Some might say projectcompletion and we do project
closure.
Well, that's the common view.
(14:56):
For us, that is level four,that is a product delivery model
.
We deliver the product, we gothrough some closure and we do
some proper closure.
However, in value deliverymodel, we want to validate that
the product work.
So we must do that in two steps.
First step is we need to gothrough some kind of an initial
(15:18):
operation period to make surethat everything is working
according to the specification,the design, the quality, the
objective that we establishedthe project to do.
And if all is well, then wemight do some closure.
However, in a Rook we areprobably quite unique in this we
don't close the project at thatpoint.
We do what we call PLC closure.
(15:41):
So we are only closing the lifecycle, because the team that is
working on the project willprobably need to demobilize and
go on to do something else.
That's why, for us, that meansat that point the project is
complete but it's not closed.
So what does it take to closethe project?
(16:02):
In our value delivery model,what it takes to close a project
is to do the final successassessment, because one of our
four-dimensional project success, which is a topic for the next
episode, is to talk about theobjective success.
Often enough, objective successcannot be measured at
(16:25):
completion.
We might have to wait weeks,months or even years before we
can determine how did we do interms of our objective, in that
case, the project.
For example, in our ARUKplatform, the project will go
into the completed list ofproject and program and will
(16:45):
stay there until the PMO, the PMdepartment executive, have
determined that this would be agood time for us to assess for
final success and close theproject.
So our life cycle model, thevalue delivery model, starts
with the product vision and endsup only after we assess how did
(17:08):
we perform in line with thebusiness objective and the
business case.
Now the project life cycle isbasically what we emphasize in
ARUK is that it must be tailoredmethod.
So we start with amethodological process and then
we tailor based on the need,which means a life cycle for
some project could be fourstages, some project could be 15
(17:31):
stages.
Usually our standard model isnine stages, some could be six
or seven.
So all depend on the nature ofthe organization, the sectors,
the domain, the vertical, theproject type, the project size,
the project complexity wouldhelp us design a unique or at
(17:52):
least a very specific tailoredmethod for that type of project.
So in that case we need to havethe project life cycle and we
need to tailor it.
We already talked about thelife cycle start and end and as
a result of that, it covers theentire life cycle.
(18:12):
So I think that is clear by now.
I think it's becoming clear.
There are many stages.
Now maybe here I need to touchon one last point in this
section on what is level five isthat in the way we do it in
ARUK platform is that we havetotal flexibility on designing
(18:33):
tailored method, which means wecan control the number of stages
and whether those stages aresequential or overlap, and we
can control the number of gate.
And we can control whether youwant to use agile development or
what we call big bankdevelopment.
We can control what is theoutput of every stage, which
(18:53):
means the stage deliverable,what is the content of every one
of those stages.
We can have the stage gates andthe stage gate criteria.
All of that is adaptive.
All of that is we can tailor inthe platform.
We come to part five in thelast part of this episode, which
(19:19):
is what's unique about thelevel five.
I think over here I probablyexplain everything, so maybe
it's just a matter ofre-emphasizing the key point.
The focus is on the product andthat way we can integrate
product management with projectmanagement.
We have not talked about producttoday much as a product
lifecycle.
Most models on productlifecycle consider usually for a
(19:42):
new product or for product ingeneral.
There are five stages or fivephases of product.
The first one might beacquisition and then you might
have growth, maturity, decline,withdrawal.
Each stage could have adifferent name depending on the
industry.
However, for example, if we are, let's say, building a hotel,
so the product is a hotel.
(20:03):
The acquisition phase of thathotel, product life, the hotel,
because as a physical entity itprobably has a 25 to 30 years
life, useful life that's a termwe use sometimes.
Basically, the first phase ofthat is the acquisition phase,
which means it's a project.
It goes through the vision, thebusiness case, the feasibility
(20:25):
requirement, design, engineering, construction, commissioning,
all the way until it's fullyoperational.
Now that is typically whereproject management happen, in
the acquisition phase, inparallel to product lifecycle.
Then, of course, during theother phases of the product,
during the growth or thematurity or the decline.
We could implement many otherprojects.
(20:45):
It could be upgrade project,maintenance project, expansion
project all they could berelated project and software.
We might have increment,upgrading technology, whatever
the case might be, after theinitial product is acquired and
it is in the market.
We can do many, many, manyprojects down the road With the
(21:07):
4pm remember we talked aboutproduct being part of this 4p's
so project program, product andportfolio In a value delivery
model.
Our focus is not technicalproject management.
We view project management asthe engine of project success.
You probably have seen our logowith that slogan, basically to
(21:28):
indicate that we use projectmanagement, learning, project
management competence, projectmanagement process to deliver
success.
Of what?
Of the product?
We're not only concerned withproject management success.
In this case I repeat myselfmaybe for the third or fourth
time today the focus is on theproduct.
(21:50):
That is one thing that isunique about level 5.
Another point it integrateproject management with business
aspect.
In a way, we have a way tostart to break down the silos
between business and project.
If you think about the projectoften enough, that might start
(22:12):
with a division within thecompany, hr marketing, whatever.
Then it might go to some kindof project management group or
project execution group.
Then it might go to anexecution group like an IT or
engineering or construction.
You notice there are manyinterface points there.
The advantage of a productdelivery methodological value
(22:34):
delivery model is that weintegrate.
In this case, projectmanagement is not just over the
fence.
We must use project managementeven in the discovery phase of
the project, where typically thebusiness people operate without
project management support orinput or knowledge or competence
.
As a result, whatever theyproduce end up being set in
(22:55):
stone, which is almost difficultto change.
What we are saying.
We must introduce projectmanagement even in that phase,
in the discovery phase, whenwe're doing the business case,
when we're doing the analysis,when we're doing the feasibility
.
In that case it's not just wehave one department doing work
(23:15):
and then we shoot the ball overthe net or over the fence to IT
or engineering or construction.
We integrate project managementwith that business side of the
organization, which typicallycould be, if we are an internal
team, is an internal customer orcould be a external customer.
Also, what we've seen often wefail in project and we've seen
(23:39):
this even on mega project.
Project people are designed tothink.
You know, in a way.
Sometimes we joke about ITpeople think zero or one, and
project management people, in away, think zero or one, but in a
not in the technology aspect.
We are engineering orconstruction or working on
facilities project.
We think about building.
You know all what we care aboutbuild it right.
Let's get going.
(23:59):
Let's build it right.
Let's start to get digging holein the ground.
Sometimes you might hear someconstruction people and when
they get frustrated, when theyare in the office too much and
they will probably joke aboutyou know, we just need to start
digging some holes.
That is part of our focus andmaybe our DNA in project.
You know the people who trainedin traditional project
management or what they thinkabout getting things done.
(24:21):
Well, however, we got thingsdone.
We built that hotel, we builtthat museum.
What's next?
We don't know.
Well, we need to hire people,we need to train people, we need
to do things like this.
That is what we call operationalreadiness.
That is also often ignored inmost literature on project
(24:42):
management.
So what we are saying, thatmust be an essential part Now in
bigger organization and biggerproject.
You could have two teamsworking in parallel.
You might have an operationteam and you might have the
technical team that is doing theengineering and building right.
That's fine as long as we havea cohesive leader leading both.
To get to the point when we areready to hand over the facility
(25:07):
, the operation, people areready to accept it, test it,
commission it and to start tooperate it.
That is another area where weare, when we start to shift from
level three of technicalproject management charter to
output, where we're saying waita minute, we have to go even
before to integrate with thebusiness side and then, in
(25:29):
parallel, we have to considerthe operational readiness side
until so we can make sure thatwhen we finish we can achieve
success.
And of course, when we talkabout operational readiness, we
also have what I mentionedearlier initial operation stage,
where now we are, we go into anoperation, maybe like a pilot
(25:53):
or soft operation or just youknow, we start to operate, but
in a way in the testing mode, tomake sure, to validate that we
are able to produce.
If it's something that is aproduction facility, we are
producing to the capacitydesired and the quality desired.
In the software there are othercriterias and marketing there
(26:14):
are other criterias.
So depend on the nature of theproject that initial operation
criterias could be different,and we have to make sure we
understand it.
Now, in parallel to all of that, we must implement what we call
the four dimensions of projectsuccess, which we are also
building into a Rook platform.
(26:35):
Again, that will be the topicfor next episode.
So time to wrap it up and closethis topic.
We talked about the differencebetween method and methodology.
What does the word method meanin project management?
What is the refresher of the PMlevel?
(26:56):
What is level five?
What is unique about level five?
We covered all of these topics,so we let you to ponder until
we meet again.
Do you measure project successon your project, since that is
going to be our next episode?
If you do, how?
And the only thing left to sayis we wish you success today,
(27:18):
tomorrow and always.
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