February 21, 2024 • 29 mins
Unlock the secrets to unparalleled project management success as we sit down with Mounir Ajam, the mastermind behind Uruk Project Management's revolutionary approach. Our enlightening chat traverses the intricacies of the four dimensions of project success, shedding light on how they serve as pillars for not just projects, but entire organizations looking to thrive. Discover the innovative solutions from Sukad Corp, including the digitized CAMP methodology on the Uruk platform, and learn how they're changing the game in project, program, product, and portfolio management.
Mounir Ajam challenges the notion that project acceptance is synonymous with project success. With his seasoned perspective, he delineates the importance of measurable, quantifiable criteria in gauging technical project performance and the pivotal role of project management plans in setting cost and schedule frameworks. This episode is not just about reaching the finish line; it's about redefining it through a robust assessment against the project management baseline, capturing success in a nuanced, multifaceted light that extends beyond technical achievements.
Step into the world of project management excellence as we dissect the critical stages of concept and feasibility, scrutinize the value delivery model, and address the overarching objective success that often comes to light long after a project's completion. Mounir illustrates how recurring dilemmas in any dimension of project success might hint at underlying systemic issues within your organization's practices. By embracing comprehensive portfolio management, we empower ourselves to spot trends, make informed improvements, and pave the way for exemplary performance. Join us for a session that promises to elevate your approach to managing projects, setting a new standard for success.
Explore more project management insights at www.urukpm.com
Connect with Uruk Project Management:
Uruk PM | Blog
Uruk Project Management | LinkedIn
Uruk PM | Twitter
Uruk PM | Facebook
Uruk PM | Instagram
Uruk PM | Youtube
#UrukPM #ProjectManagement #Podcast
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
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 organizations transform theway they manage projects to a
(00:30):
higher level.
4pm's tent in this case isshortened for us for what we
call value, which means projectprogram, product and portfolios.
So a lot of our topics will bearound these 4pm.
Let's get going.
Good day, munir Ajam.
(00:54):
Founder and CEO of Rook ProjectManagement.
Welcome to another episode fromRook Project Management about
project management, education ingeneral and along the topic of
the 4pm.
Remember, 4pm stands forproject programs, product and
portfolio management.
Today's topic is about projectsuccess and this goes along what
(01:19):
we call the Rookway, the fourdimensions of project success.
I will elaborate on the Rookwayinside this session With this.
Let's get going.
Let's shift now to talk about.
(01:39):
We made an introduction, weidentified the gaps, we
identified the current state ofpractice.
So what is the four dimensionof project success?
In 2007, while at Sookat Corp,which we were based in Dubai at
that time, we launched a projectmanagement innovation program.
(02:02):
So basically, we started today,2007,.
We started to do some researchand development work.
So basically, the projectmanagement innovation was mostly
about identifying issues, gaps,and innovate Come back with a
new idea to deal with some ofthose gaps we were identifying.
(02:23):
So it was a research anddevelopment program and its
purpose was to address thevarious gaps in practice left by
the community and what we sawas professional association did
not cover.
So we felt we need to do somework in that area.
So our work led to fivesolutions.
We called them five innovation,innovative solution or five R&D
(02:47):
solution, whatever you'd liketo call them and let me just
briefly introduce them.
I'm not going to explain themall.
We will be publishing a blogarticle and maybe some other
materials and on our website tocover these topics.
So I will not go into detailhere today, but I'll just list
(03:08):
them and briefly introduce them.
So the first one is we look atan organization, how do we?
And there were maturity modelout there.
Many professional societies andassociation have maturity model
.
However, you know it's moreabout they were more about
assessment.
So we started with something wecall the seven element of
(03:30):
project management maturity,which was basically about what
are the seven elements that wethink are extremely important to
help us build an organizationalproject management system, and
obviously that includes themethodologies.
So that was more of a startingpoint and then we the main.
The solution that we work onwas the customizable and
(03:53):
adaptable methodology formanaging project, and we've had
videos on this and obviously ourroot platform started with the
idea of converting thiscustomizable and adaptable
methodology.
Camp is from a from paper to adigital solution.
To support camp, we created thefour dimensional project
(04:17):
success, which is today's topic,and we also have two other
areas related to performancemanagement and project control,
which is the four controlreference points for dimension,
for control reference pointsthey are similar concept and the
six steps of performancemanagement how do you assess and
forecast project and you assessperformance on project.
Again, this presentation isonly about project success.
(04:41):
The other topics is they willbe, they are addressed via
separate videos or articles orother content.
What I want to stress here andthis is my one minute or 30
second of marketing all of thisis being built into the or
already been built.
Some of it already been built,like camp, is already been built
(05:04):
into the root platform.
So the digital solution we'reworking on as a root project
management, the root platform.
It's basically the 4pm kind ofa platform that focus on
managing project program andportfolios.
So basically the projectmanagement element is based on
(05:25):
on camp.
The four dimension is alsorelated to camp and that is
being part of it has been hasbeen built in already and the
other part we are building inwithin the next few weeks.
And the seven element, which isbasically about the
organizational projectmanagement system.
These processes basically,which mean policies, guideline
(05:47):
processes.
They are built throughout theplatform and the other two areas
here about project performancemanagement are being built as
well.
So technically, all of theseare in.
The work that started back in2007 is now being converted into
a digital solution to helporganization lead project
(06:08):
program in their portfolio.
So what are the four dimension?
The first dimension Now maybe Ishould say here why the four
dimension?
If we work on a given project,every one of these dimension can
give us an insight aboutsomething specific about the
(06:29):
project.
So that's good value on aproject.
However, these become much morepowerful and valuable when we
look at the portfolio level.
As a portfolio level, forexample, if we see that most
projects are doing well, exceptin the area of technical success
do you want, for example?
Or they're doing very well,except in D2 or D3 or D4, one of
(06:51):
those four dimension.
So that indicate to us thatthat is a problem area for us
that we need to fix, because inother areas we're doing well.
Maybe that is the area where weare weak.
So, in a way, at the portfolioon a project by project level
doesn't tell me much, just tellme how am I doing on that
project or program.
However, when I look at it as aportfolio level, it indicate
(07:13):
where we might have, as anorganization, consistent problem
.
Now you understand what I wassaying earlier.
The objective is not to findthe guilty and penalize people.
The objective is to find wherewe might have systematic gaps as
an organization so we canimprove.
So that is one of the reasonswhy we have the four dimension.
(07:35):
So now, if we look at dimensionone, now if you look at the
horizontal, the concept stage,visibility stage, this is what
we call our camp standard model.
So basically, when we saystandard model, that does not
mean set in stone or one sidefits all.
It means this is a standardmodel.
(07:57):
And if you go back to ourvideos and episode on
methodology and the valuedelivery model.
The idea behind this is need tobe tailored, so from this
methodology we can developtailored method.
Those tailored methods could befour stages, could be 10 stages
, could be 15 stages.
Well, maybe 15 is too much, butdepend on the size of the
(08:20):
project and the complexity ofthe project and the type of the
project and the industry.
The number of stages would bedifferent and the circle with
number are gate.
Of course every stage has agate.
So if we have four stages, wewill have four gate.
If we have 10 stages, we'llhave 10 gate.
In this model we have ninestages.
(08:40):
The first five are what someorganizations, especially in the
capital project industries,they might call them the front
end right, because at gate fivetypically where management make
the final decision to implementthe project.
So maybe a wake up call formany of us who work on
(09:01):
construction project or softwaredevelopment projects.
The bad news, guys, is that youprobably were not involved or
did not exist before gate five.
Most likely, when the projectreach gate five or I mean if it
is a small micro project, itwould be gate two right, when
(09:22):
the project reach that approvalgate and you work on the
implementation work or thesoftware development or the
actual construction.
That means a lot of work shouldhave been done already, right?
So you might only be working inthat area and the
implementation stage.
Again, it doesn't matter whereyou are or where you are.
This is more, for if I am theproject owner, if I am, my
(09:46):
organization is the projectowner organization.
I probably see this entire lifecycle.
So now, with this introductionthat is applicable to all
dimension, let's go intodimension one.
Now we said we make usually thefinal approval to go into
implementation at gate five.
So usually at that point wewould have a project detailed
(10:08):
plan and the name of thedetailed plan could be different
from industry to industry.
In industry or project, theymight call it feed front and
engineering design andinfrastructure, they might call
it preliminary engineering andreal estate, they might call it
architectural design andsoftware, they might call it the
backlog or the development planor the product vision, whatever
(10:29):
the case might be.
That means when we reach thatpoint, that means we already
have what we maybe simplifiedlycall it a scope, well-defined
scope to implement.
So we've reached a point wherethe product scope is
well-defined and now we areready to go start to implement
(10:53):
it.
Whether we build it in Big Bangor we're going to build it
incrementally or theoretically,it doesn't matter.
We have a technical scopedocument, details, of course,
the details that we need tobuild.
So we have that and typically,if organization follows some
(11:14):
good quality principle, theywould probably have the quality
standard established as well todo that.
So the project detail planinclude many, many, many things.
However, the main thing that Iwant to focus on here is that it
include the product scope,baseline, what need to be built,
and so when we are finished,when we go through this, when we
(11:39):
implement it and we go tooperation rather than this and
when we do some initialoperation and we do some testing
before, at gate eight, in thismodel, when we issue the final
acceptance typically, which meanwe have verified or validated
that we have done the technicalwork Now I use the word
(12:03):
technical success on thehorizontal arrow, but does it
mean successful?
I don't know or what it mean.
Is that in this model, at gateeight, when I do the final
acceptance, testing to acceptthe final product and remember I
can accept the final productwith problem?
Ideally we shouldn't, but thereality is we often enough
(12:27):
finish project with too manygaps and too many problems and
too many errors.
So we do, we still accept it.
This is why acceptance wealways stress in our literature
and in my writing and my work.
Acceptance does not meansuccess.
Acceptance that mean look, I'mgonna accept this product, good
or bad, I have no choice.
(12:48):
Obviously, if achieveeverything I wanted, great.
If it didn't, we still have toaccept it.
What do we do?
So acceptance is not success,so we meet.
But, however, at that point wecan assess success.
Now, how do we assess success?
Remember, we shouldn't have acriteria.
If we don't have a criteria,then it's a matter of opinion.
I ask my customer the customeris happy, or so, so or whatever.
(13:12):
That's not good enough.
We need quantifiable measures.
So, basically, meaning thescope and usually this item is
the primary focus of thisdimension is about technical
success, which means scope andquality.
Did we deliver?
In other words, did we deliverthe product scope as designed,
(13:35):
to the quality standard?
And the answer is never yes orno.
It's always there are somerange.
Right Now, if you included someclear, quantifiable criteria
with some kind of threshold andmaybe an error margin, you might
(13:55):
be able to depend on the natureof your project you might be
able to define, to determinewhether you have success or
failure or somewhere in between.
I don't talk about it in thissession.
However, we actually have amodel as well that, okay, how do
we grade a project success orfailure?
(14:16):
We can have failure, we canhave success and we can have
maybe something in between rightand one or two.
Anyway, that's not the topictoday, so let me leave it.
The organization can decide howthey want to assess.
You could choose zero or oneright, fail or success, or you
could use also some intermediatedimension to determine, because
(14:38):
it's never, I think, perfect.
There's always some issues.
So the question is what is yourthreshold, what is the margin
of error you're willing to allowand to consider that something
is successful?
Moving on to notice, we'regetting bigger now as a project
(15:00):
management success, now projectmanagement success.
In our model, again in yourmethodology, it might look a
little bit differently.
We define the projectmanagement plan in the strategy
stage before gate four, and wemight do some updates on it
before gate five.
However, the primary managementplan or execution plan, or
whatever you might want to callit, is done typically around
(15:23):
gate four or before gate four,and with some minor update at
gate five, and that include costand schedule parameter, right?
So the project management planmostly about, in a group PM,
three things Cost duration nowtime we break time into two area
(15:44):
duration and completion date.
So with that, that is typicallydefined with the project
management plan.
Now there might be otherfactors that we consider in the
project management plan, butright now let me leave it just
as the cost and time relatedmeasures or parameter.
(16:05):
Now again, here it's easier.
Now this is more easily, it'smore readily quantifiable
because we can say, for example,you must come below budget,
right?
So if you are 100 and 0, 1%over budget, that means you fail
.
You can do that if you want.
However, usually you shouldleave some parameters, typically
(16:28):
plus or minus, 5% or 10% orsomething like this, whatever
suits you.
Again, we're not deciding whatwe're selling.
What we are trying to advocatehere is you should measure that
success.
How you measure it is up to you.
We have recommendations.
You can accept them or you canchoose your own.
So we define the projectmanagement plan that become the
official project managementbaseline and then usually, when
(16:52):
we are finishing the project orcompleting the project during
the PLC closure stage beforegate nine we would be able to do
to assess that performance.
So, those two they mentionedone and they mentioned two they
are already built into the Oroplatform because they happened
during the life cycle.
So you can see, while we arestill in the life cycle, which
(17:15):
means the project manager andmaybe some team member are still
on board.
However, the challenge comesthat okay, and I'm sure many
organizations do this.
So the question when we seeonline posts on talk about
project success, what are wetalking about?
Are we talking about projectmanagement success, technical
success or something else?
For us there are two more,something else.
(17:40):
Okay, so let's see the firstone here.
The first one is at gate twoafter just maybe, maybe it's
good to give you some referencehere.
In the concept stage, wetypically develop the what and
why and where of the project.
So that's, the business case isat the concept stage and then
(18:03):
in the feasibility stage, wherewe conduct a detailed
feasibility assessment todetermine whether it's the
project is feasible and weshould continue to go, proceed
with it.
And notice we separate thebusiness case from feasibility.
A business case that meansabout there is a need for the
project.
Feasibility is okay, we knowthere is a need, we have proven
(18:25):
that right Now can we deliver itsuccessfully and if we can't we
should cancel the project.
So in a way, the feasibilitystudy is the first kind of risk
assessment exercise we do on theproject.
Overall, however, let's say wego so usually with the
feasibility study.
If it's done and here wherereferences like the POMBAC guide
and ISO and others, they say weissue a project charter, we
(18:49):
call it the projectauthorization document at gate
two.
So typically that first part,which we call the discovery
phase, in most of theseliterature it doesn't exist.
For us it does exist.
So here, what we are saying,here we have the sponsor or the
project owner, the ownerrepresentative, let's put it
(19:10):
that way is basically publish aproject authorization to
authorize the project team to goadd and do the project, and
usually they put some criteriaand specific what need to be
done.
So in this case we have alreadydecided we have a product, a
solution that we want to work on, and that's what we call it the
product delivery success.
(19:32):
Now, when can we measure this?
Well, obviously, at gate ninein this model we would know
whether we have achieved B1 andD2.
So, on some project achievingB1 and D2, that may be all what
we need.
We can say D3 is alreadyachieved.
However, in some situationsthat may not be the case and we
(19:53):
might not be able to decide onsuccess on this one until a
short period after thecompletion of the project.
So it depends on what youinclude in this measure.
It could be measured at gatenine or slightly after or
sometime in the future, weeks ormonths after completion of the
(20:15):
project.
Again, it all depends on whatyou include and the type of the
nature of the project.
The most important dimensionfrom an owner organization
perspective is the SLAST.
1.
Is what we call objectivesuccess.
(20:35):
Notice, we shifted the project,now the starting point, instead
of being the charter or theproject authorization, because
the project authorization is howthe sponsor visualize the
product that need to be done,whereas in the concept include
the business case and theobjective and the business
(20:57):
objective of the project.
That is what we document.
We call it project brief.
That is the ultimate objective.
Why are we launching theproject?
What are we expecting toachieve?
What are the benefits that weanticipate to realize?
All of these things are definedusually in the business case, in
(21:17):
the project brief, and againsomething like this for sure we
will not be able to assess inmost cases at project closure.
Most of this have to be sometime and maybe even years in the
future.
And this is why we believe nowI don't have any empirical
evidence to prove it where webelieve many organizations do
(21:40):
not do this, they mightindirectly do it.
Why?
Because obviously the projectteam is gone and it might be
months or a year after theproject is complete.
People had forgotten and we areoperating already.
We might not be able to do it.
They may not be specificexercise that the organization
(22:03):
does to determine, because itmay become part of the
operational aspect of theorganization and the operational
profitability.
In this case.
This is the most critical for aproject owner and it's about
value.
At the end of the day, this isa value delivery model.
(22:24):
Now, looking at all fourtogether, remember we have
technical success, projectmanagement success, product
delivery success and objectivesuccess.
Now again, I remind you, I'mnot getting into the actual
determination of success, thecriteria we use, because that is
totally dependent on the vector, sector, domain, industry,
(22:47):
thumb, organization, preferencesof an organization.
So we cannot really get intothose areas.
So there are three things whenwe talk about project success,
the other four dimensions thatwe included here there is a
criteria which we cannot talkabout because that's highly
sensitive, and there is agrading measure.
How do you grade success?
How do you determine how or so?
(23:09):
Basically, like in college, wehave ABC or D or F, right, and
here you could do ABC, d or F,or you can do fail success, fs,
or you can have, as I saidearlier, failure successful and
then maybe one or two datapoints in between criteria.
So they are.
It really means you think aboutthree things right Again, four
(23:31):
dimension criteria and the guidefor scoring.
So what you can see here, Imean remember, on project by
project, that's good to know Allthese dimensions give us good
enough information about how arewe doing as a project.
However, as an organizationremember, my objective in my
business is not only one project, they are multiple project and
(23:54):
program.
So the value of something likethis if we do portfolio
management and if we capture thedata from all the project, it
can tell me if I have a problemin technical success.
Maybe every project.
Hey, we do something.
We have a great projectmanagement team.
We always finish on time onbudget.
However, we might besacrificing quality or
(24:17):
sacrificing scope Remember thetriple constraints we keep
talking about sometime or wemight say no, quality and scope
is most and, as a result,project management costs and
schedules suffer.
We need to know that.
If that happened on one project,it's anomaly.
It's basically saying that wedo.
There may be projectcircumstances have to push us in
(24:40):
one direction or another.
However, if we are consistentlyseeing problem with D1 or D2 or
D3.
Now why D3,?
If it is a problem, what doesit mean?
That mean we as an organization, the team that is working early
on in the project, in thediscovery phase, stage one and
two, they are not doing good joband defining the product that
(25:03):
align with the objective Right.
I mean the team.
They could deliver the projectwith D1 successful, meaning what
they have achieved technicalsuccess.
They achieve quality success.
They achieve D2, projectmanagement success.
So as an organization, we canhave done a great job in
delivering the project on time,on budget or within the
(25:25):
parameter we set for on time, onbudget, on quality, on scope
but we delivered the wrongproduct.
Think about that.
Let it think in.
We could have done a great jobin the Liberty project on time,
on scope, on quality, on cost,but we deliver the wrong product
.
That means we misunderstand themarket.
(25:46):
We don't.
In startup now I'm learning newterminology as a work in startup
, we call it product market fit.
We are right now as company orRook, right now we are going
exactly through that.
Right now that is the part ofwhere we've reached the level
where we have built, we think, agreat product.
(26:07):
We have getting to the pointwhere now we need to verify the
vision that the product we builtis fit the market needs.
Maybe we, when we are in thiscase, made a mistake, maybe we
assumed or we made the wrongmistake.
(26:27):
If we don't get the productmarket fit, maybe we built the
product that nobody needs, or itcould become a wonderful and
everybody would be jumping on aRook platform and save them a
lot of money, millions andbillions of dollars.
As a community, of course, webelieve in that.
Otherwise we would not exist.
(26:48):
I gave that as an example, as apersonal example, because it's
very powerful in my view,because often enough, how do we
translate the vision into aproduct?
We might not do it very well.
Ideation, innovation, whateveryou call the practices we use.
At that time we have a visionof achieving certain benefit.
(27:09):
That is what the realizedbenefit we anticipate, which we
do with the project brief.
However, when we translate thatinto a specific product, we
might not do it very well.
As a result, we don't get theproduct market fit, we don't get
the benefit we expect.
(27:30):
In that case, we look at thoseareas that mean.
Again, on project I repeatmyself multiple times because I
want to emphasize upon on aproject by project basis.
This is a good information tohave the power of this when you
use it as a portfolio, part ofthe portfolio management,
because you can start to see if,on average, 50, 60, 70% of your
(27:54):
project struggle with D3 or D2,or D1 or D4, that mean that's a
major area that hindering yourperformance in becoming a center
of excellence or becoming whereproject management could be a
highly competitive advantage toyou as an organization.
That allow you to see the gapsthat you must pay attention to.
(28:19):
Just another way of looking atthe four dimension, and with
this we say thank you.
Please follow us on.
You can subscribe to ourYouTube channel.
You can you subscribe to ourblog site.
(28:42):
You'll find all thatinformation from our group PM.
Thank you and wish you successtoday, 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 organizations transform theway they manage projects to a
(00:30):
higher level.
4pm's tent in this case isshortened for us for what we
call value, which means projectprogram, product and portfolios.
So a lot of our topics will bearound these 4pm.
Let's get going.
Good day, munir Ajam.
(00:54):
Founder and CEO of Rook ProjectManagement.
Welcome to another episode fromRook Project Management about
project management, education ingeneral and along the topic of
the 4pm.
Remember, 4pm stands forproject programs, product and
portfolio management.
Today's topic is about projectsuccess and this goes along what
(01:19):
we call the Rookway, the fourdimensions of project success.
I will elaborate on the Rookwayinside this session With this.
Let's get going.
Let's shift now to talk about.
(01:39):
We made an introduction, weidentified the gaps, we
identified the current state ofpractice.
So what is the four dimensionof project success?
In 2007, while at Sookat Corp,which we were based in Dubai at
that time, we launched a projectmanagement innovation program.
(02:02):
So basically, we started today,2007,.
We started to do some researchand development work.
So basically, the projectmanagement innovation was mostly
about identifying issues, gaps,and innovate Come back with a
new idea to deal with some ofthose gaps we were identifying.
(02:23):
So it was a research anddevelopment program and its
purpose was to address thevarious gaps in practice left by
the community and what we sawas professional association did
not cover.
So we felt we need to do somework in that area.
So our work led to fivesolutions.
We called them five innovation,innovative solution or five R&D
(02:47):
solution, whatever you'd liketo call them and let me just
briefly introduce them.
I'm not going to explain themall.
We will be publishing a blogarticle and maybe some other
materials and on our website tocover these topics.
So I will not go into detailhere today, but I'll just list
(03:08):
them and briefly introduce them.
So the first one is we look atan organization, how do we?
And there were maturity modelout there.
Many professional societies andassociation have maturity model
.
However, you know it's moreabout they were more about
assessment.
So we started with something wecall the seven element of
(03:30):
project management maturity,which was basically about what
are the seven elements that wethink are extremely important to
help us build an organizationalproject management system, and
obviously that includes themethodologies.
So that was more of a startingpoint and then we the main.
The solution that we work onwas the customizable and
(03:53):
adaptable methodology formanaging project, and we've had
videos on this and obviously ourroot platform started with the
idea of converting thiscustomizable and adaptable
methodology.
Camp is from a from paper to adigital solution.
To support camp, we created thefour dimensional project
(04:17):
success, which is today's topic,and we also have two other
areas related to performancemanagement and project control,
which is the four controlreference points for dimension,
for control reference pointsthey are similar concept and the
six steps of performancemanagement how do you assess and
forecast project and you assessperformance on project.
Again, this presentation isonly about project success.
(04:41):
The other topics is they willbe, they are addressed via
separate videos or articles orother content.
What I want to stress here andthis is my one minute or 30
second of marketing all of thisis being built into the or
already been built.
Some of it already been built,like camp, is already been built
(05:04):
into the root platform.
So the digital solution we'reworking on as a root project
management, the root platform.
It's basically the 4pm kind ofa platform that focus on
managing project program andportfolios.
So basically the projectmanagement element is based on
(05:25):
on camp.
The four dimension is alsorelated to camp and that is
being part of it has been hasbeen built in already and the
other part we are building inwithin the next few weeks.
And the seven element, which isbasically about the
organizational projectmanagement system.
These processes basically,which mean policies, guideline
(05:47):
processes.
They are built throughout theplatform and the other two areas
here about project performancemanagement are being built as
well.
So technically, all of theseare in.
The work that started back in2007 is now being converted into
a digital solution to helporganization lead project
(06:08):
program in their portfolio.
So what are the four dimension?
The first dimension Now maybe Ishould say here why the four
dimension?
If we work on a given project,every one of these dimension can
give us an insight aboutsomething specific about the
(06:29):
project.
So that's good value on aproject.
However, these become much morepowerful and valuable when we
look at the portfolio level.
As a portfolio level, forexample, if we see that most
projects are doing well, exceptin the area of technical success
do you want, for example?
Or they're doing very well,except in D2 or D3 or D4, one of
(06:51):
those four dimension.
So that indicate to us thatthat is a problem area for us
that we need to fix, because inother areas we're doing well.
Maybe that is the area where weare weak.
So, in a way, at the portfolioon a project by project level
doesn't tell me much, just tellme how am I doing on that
project or program.
However, when I look at it as aportfolio level, it indicate
(07:13):
where we might have, as anorganization, consistent problem
.
Now you understand what I wassaying earlier.
The objective is not to findthe guilty and penalize people.
The objective is to find wherewe might have systematic gaps as
an organization so we canimprove.
So that is one of the reasonswhy we have the four dimension.
(07:35):
So now, if we look at dimensionone, now if you look at the
horizontal, the concept stage,visibility stage, this is what
we call our camp standard model.
So basically, when we saystandard model, that does not
mean set in stone or one sidefits all.
It means this is a standardmodel.
(07:57):
And if you go back to ourvideos and episode on
methodology and the valuedelivery model.
The idea behind this is need tobe tailored, so from this
methodology we can developtailored method.
Those tailored methods could befour stages, could be 10 stages
, could be 15 stages.
Well, maybe 15 is too much, butdepend on the size of the
(08:20):
project and the complexity ofthe project and the type of the
project and the industry.
The number of stages would bedifferent and the circle with
number are gate.
Of course every stage has agate.
So if we have four stages, wewill have four gate.
If we have 10 stages, we'llhave 10 gate.
In this model we have ninestages.
(08:40):
The first five are what someorganizations, especially in the
capital project industries,they might call them the front
end right, because at gate fivetypically where management make
the final decision to implementthe project.
So maybe a wake up call formany of us who work on
(09:01):
construction project or softwaredevelopment projects.
The bad news, guys, is that youprobably were not involved or
did not exist before gate five.
Most likely, when the projectreach gate five or I mean if it
is a small micro project, itwould be gate two right, when
(09:22):
the project reach that approvalgate and you work on the
implementation work or thesoftware development or the
actual construction.
That means a lot of work shouldhave been done already, right?
So you might only be working inthat area and the
implementation stage.
Again, it doesn't matter whereyou are or where you are.
This is more, for if I am theproject owner, if I am, my
(09:46):
organization is the projectowner organization.
I probably see this entire lifecycle.
So now, with this introductionthat is applicable to all
dimension, let's go intodimension one.
Now we said we make usually thefinal approval to go into
implementation at gate five.
So usually at that point wewould have a project detailed
(10:08):
plan and the name of thedetailed plan could be different
from industry to industry.
In industry or project, theymight call it feed front and
engineering design andinfrastructure, they might call
it preliminary engineering andreal estate, they might call it
architectural design andsoftware, they might call it the
backlog or the development planor the product vision, whatever
(10:29):
the case might be.
That means when we reach thatpoint, that means we already
have what we maybe simplifiedlycall it a scope, well-defined
scope to implement.
So we've reached a point wherethe product scope is
well-defined and now we areready to go start to implement
(10:53):
it.
Whether we build it in Big Bangor we're going to build it
incrementally or theoretically,it doesn't matter.
We have a technical scopedocument, details, of course,
the details that we need tobuild.
So we have that and typically,if organization follows some
(11:14):
good quality principle, theywould probably have the quality
standard established as well todo that.
So the project detail planinclude many, many, many things.
However, the main thing that Iwant to focus on here is that it
include the product scope,baseline, what need to be built,
and so when we are finished,when we go through this, when we
(11:39):
implement it and we go tooperation rather than this and
when we do some initialoperation and we do some testing
before, at gate eight, in thismodel, when we issue the final
acceptance typically, which meanwe have verified or validated
that we have done the technicalwork Now I use the word
(12:03):
technical success on thehorizontal arrow, but does it
mean successful?
I don't know or what it mean.
Is that in this model, at gateeight, when I do the final
acceptance, testing to acceptthe final product and remember I
can accept the final productwith problem?
Ideally we shouldn't, but thereality is we often enough
(12:27):
finish project with too manygaps and too many problems and
too many errors.
So we do, we still accept it.
This is why acceptance wealways stress in our literature
and in my writing and my work.
Acceptance does not meansuccess.
Acceptance that mean look, I'mgonna accept this product, good
or bad, I have no choice.
(12:48):
Obviously, if achieveeverything I wanted, great.
If it didn't, we still have toaccept it.
What do we do?
So acceptance is not success,so we meet.
But, however, at that point wecan assess success.
Now, how do we assess success?
Remember, we shouldn't have acriteria.
If we don't have a criteria,then it's a matter of opinion.
I ask my customer the customeris happy, or so, so or whatever.
(13:12):
That's not good enough.
We need quantifiable measures.
So, basically, meaning thescope and usually this item is
the primary focus of thisdimension is about technical
success, which means scope andquality.
Did we deliver?
In other words, did we deliverthe product scope as designed,
(13:35):
to the quality standard?
And the answer is never yes orno.
It's always there are somerange.
Right Now, if you included someclear, quantifiable criteria
with some kind of threshold andmaybe an error margin, you might
(13:55):
be able to depend on the natureof your project you might be
able to define, to determinewhether you have success or
failure or somewhere in between.
I don't talk about it in thissession.
However, we actually have amodel as well that, okay, how do
we grade a project success orfailure?
(14:16):
We can have failure, we canhave success and we can have
maybe something in between rightand one or two.
Anyway, that's not the topictoday, so let me leave it.
The organization can decide howthey want to assess.
You could choose zero or oneright, fail or success, or you
could use also some intermediatedimension to determine, because
(14:38):
it's never, I think, perfect.
There's always some issues.
So the question is what is yourthreshold, what is the margin
of error you're willing to allowand to consider that something
is successful?
Moving on to notice, we'regetting bigger now as a project
(15:00):
management success, now projectmanagement success.
In our model, again in yourmethodology, it might look a
little bit differently.
We define the projectmanagement plan in the strategy
stage before gate four, and wemight do some updates on it
before gate five.
However, the primary managementplan or execution plan, or
whatever you might want to callit, is done typically around
(15:23):
gate four or before gate four,and with some minor update at
gate five, and that include costand schedule parameter, right?
So the project management planmostly about, in a group PM,
three things Cost duration nowtime we break time into two area
(15:44):
duration and completion date.
So with that, that is typicallydefined with the project
management plan.
Now there might be otherfactors that we consider in the
project management plan, butright now let me leave it just
as the cost and time relatedmeasures or parameter.
(16:05):
Now again, here it's easier.
Now this is more easily, it'smore readily quantifiable
because we can say, for example,you must come below budget,
right?
So if you are 100 and 0, 1%over budget, that means you fail
.
You can do that if you want.
However, usually you shouldleave some parameters, typically
(16:28):
plus or minus, 5% or 10% orsomething like this, whatever
suits you.
Again, we're not deciding whatwe're selling.
What we are trying to advocatehere is you should measure that
success.
How you measure it is up to you.
We have recommendations.
You can accept them or you canchoose your own.
So we define the projectmanagement plan that become the
official project managementbaseline and then usually, when
(16:52):
we are finishing the project orcompleting the project during
the PLC closure stage beforegate nine we would be able to do
to assess that performance.
So, those two they mentionedone and they mentioned two they
are already built into the Oroplatform because they happened
during the life cycle.
So you can see, while we arestill in the life cycle, which
(17:15):
means the project manager andmaybe some team member are still
on board.
However, the challenge comesthat okay, and I'm sure many
organizations do this.
So the question when we seeonline posts on talk about
project success, what are wetalking about?
Are we talking about projectmanagement success, technical
success or something else?
For us there are two more,something else.
(17:40):
Okay, so let's see the firstone here.
The first one is at gate twoafter just maybe, maybe it's
good to give you some referencehere.
In the concept stage, wetypically develop the what and
why and where of the project.
So that's, the business case isat the concept stage and then
(18:03):
in the feasibility stage, wherewe conduct a detailed
feasibility assessment todetermine whether it's the
project is feasible and weshould continue to go, proceed
with it.
And notice we separate thebusiness case from feasibility.
A business case that meansabout there is a need for the
project.
Feasibility is okay, we knowthere is a need, we have proven
(18:25):
that right Now can we deliver itsuccessfully and if we can't we
should cancel the project.
So in a way, the feasibilitystudy is the first kind of risk
assessment exercise we do on theproject.
Overall, however, let's say wego so usually with the
feasibility study.
If it's done and here wherereferences like the POMBAC guide
and ISO and others, they say weissue a project charter, we
(18:49):
call it the projectauthorization document at gate
two.
So typically that first part,which we call the discovery
phase, in most of theseliterature it doesn't exist.
For us it does exist.
So here, what we are saying,here we have the sponsor or the
project owner, the ownerrepresentative, let's put it
(19:10):
that way is basically publish aproject authorization to
authorize the project team to goadd and do the project, and
usually they put some criteriaand specific what need to be
done.
So in this case we have alreadydecided we have a product, a
solution that we want to work on, and that's what we call it the
product delivery success.
(19:32):
Now, when can we measure this?
Well, obviously, at gate ninein this model we would know
whether we have achieved B1 andD2.
So, on some project achievingB1 and D2, that may be all what
we need.
We can say D3 is alreadyachieved.
However, in some situationsthat may not be the case and we
(19:53):
might not be able to decide onsuccess on this one until a
short period after thecompletion of the project.
So it depends on what youinclude in this measure.
It could be measured at gatenine or slightly after or
sometime in the future, weeks ormonths after completion of the
(20:15):
project.
Again, it all depends on whatyou include and the type of the
nature of the project.
The most important dimensionfrom an owner organization
perspective is the SLAST.
1.
Is what we call objectivesuccess.
(20:35):
Notice, we shifted the project,now the starting point, instead
of being the charter or theproject authorization, because
the project authorization is howthe sponsor visualize the
product that need to be done,whereas in the concept include
the business case and theobjective and the business
(20:57):
objective of the project.
That is what we document.
We call it project brief.
That is the ultimate objective.
Why are we launching theproject?
What are we expecting toachieve?
What are the benefits that weanticipate to realize?
All of these things are definedusually in the business case, in
(21:17):
the project brief, and againsomething like this for sure we
will not be able to assess inmost cases at project closure.
Most of this have to be sometime and maybe even years in the
future.
And this is why we believe nowI don't have any empirical
evidence to prove it where webelieve many organizations do
(21:40):
not do this, they mightindirectly do it.
Why?
Because obviously the projectteam is gone and it might be
months or a year after theproject is complete.
People had forgotten and we areoperating already.
We might not be able to do it.
They may not be specificexercise that the organization
(22:03):
does to determine, because itmay become part of the
operational aspect of theorganization and the operational
profitability.
In this case.
This is the most critical for aproject owner and it's about
value.
At the end of the day, this isa value delivery model.
(22:24):
Now, looking at all fourtogether, remember we have
technical success, projectmanagement success, product
delivery success and objectivesuccess.
Now again, I remind you, I'mnot getting into the actual
determination of success, thecriteria we use, because that is
totally dependent on the vector, sector, domain, industry,
(22:47):
thumb, organization, preferencesof an organization.
So we cannot really get intothose areas.
So there are three things whenwe talk about project success,
the other four dimensions thatwe included here there is a
criteria which we cannot talkabout because that's highly
sensitive, and there is agrading measure.
How do you grade success?
How do you determine how or so?
(23:09):
Basically, like in college, wehave ABC or D or F, right, and
here you could do ABC, d or F,or you can do fail success, fs,
or you can have, as I saidearlier, failure successful and
then maybe one or two datapoints in between criteria.
So they are.
It really means you think aboutthree things right Again, four
(23:31):
dimension criteria and the guidefor scoring.
So what you can see here, Imean remember, on project by
project, that's good to know Allthese dimensions give us good
enough information about how arewe doing as a project.
However, as an organizationremember, my objective in my
business is not only one project, they are multiple project and
(23:54):
program.
So the value of something likethis if we do portfolio
management and if we capture thedata from all the project, it
can tell me if I have a problemin technical success.
Maybe every project.
Hey, we do something.
We have a great projectmanagement team.
We always finish on time onbudget.
However, we might besacrificing quality or
(24:17):
sacrificing scope Remember thetriple constraints we keep
talking about sometime or wemight say no, quality and scope
is most and, as a result,project management costs and
schedules suffer.
We need to know that.
If that happened on one project,it's anomaly.
It's basically saying that wedo.
There may be projectcircumstances have to push us in
(24:40):
one direction or another.
However, if we are consistentlyseeing problem with D1 or D2 or
D3.
Now why D3,?
If it is a problem, what doesit mean?
That mean we as an organization, the team that is working early
on in the project, in thediscovery phase, stage one and
two, they are not doing good joband defining the product that
(25:03):
align with the objective Right.
I mean the team.
They could deliver the projectwith D1 successful, meaning what
they have achieved technicalsuccess.
They achieve quality success.
They achieve D2, projectmanagement success.
So as an organization, we canhave done a great job in
delivering the project on time,on budget or within the
(25:25):
parameter we set for on time, onbudget, on quality, on scope
but we delivered the wrongproduct.
Think about that.
Let it think in.
We could have done a great jobin the Liberty project on time,
on scope, on quality, on cost,but we deliver the wrong product
.
That means we misunderstand themarket.
(25:46):
We don't.
In startup now I'm learning newterminology as a work in startup
, we call it product market fit.
We are right now as company orRook, right now we are going
exactly through that.
Right now that is the part ofwhere we've reached the level
where we have built, we think, agreat product.
(26:07):
We have getting to the pointwhere now we need to verify the
vision that the product we builtis fit the market needs.
Maybe we, when we are in thiscase, made a mistake, maybe we
assumed or we made the wrongmistake.
(26:27):
If we don't get the productmarket fit, maybe we built the
product that nobody needs, or itcould become a wonderful and
everybody would be jumping on aRook platform and save them a
lot of money, millions andbillions of dollars.
As a community, of course, webelieve in that.
Otherwise we would not exist.
(26:48):
I gave that as an example, as apersonal example, because it's
very powerful in my view,because often enough, how do we
translate the vision into aproduct?
We might not do it very well.
Ideation, innovation, whateveryou call the practices we use.
At that time we have a visionof achieving certain benefit.
(27:09):
That is what the realizedbenefit we anticipate, which we
do with the project brief.
However, when we translate thatinto a specific product, we
might not do it very well.
As a result, we don't get theproduct market fit, we don't get
the benefit we expect.
(27:30):
In that case, we look at thoseareas that mean.
Again, on project I repeatmyself multiple times because I
want to emphasize upon on aproject by project basis.
This is a good information tohave the power of this when you
use it as a portfolio, part ofthe portfolio management,
because you can start to see if,on average, 50, 60, 70% of your
(27:54):
project struggle with D3 or D2,or D1 or D4, that mean that's a
major area that hindering yourperformance in becoming a center
of excellence or becoming whereproject management could be a
highly competitive advantage toyou as an organization.
That allow you to see the gapsthat you must pay attention to.
(28:19):
Just another way of looking atthe four dimension, and with
this we say thank you.
Please follow us on.
You can subscribe to ourYouTube channel.
You can you subscribe to ourblog site.
(28:42):
You'll find all thatinformation from our group PM.
Thank you and wish you successtoday, tomorrow and always.
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides.  Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer  Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.