1. GRIEF CYCLE / PROJECT PHASES / FACING REALITY
PROTRACTED PROJECT INITIATION (Quite often more true than many people realise, or would like to admit)
A HARD LESSON IN REALISING & FACING REALITY
PROJECT
STAGES
PLANNING
EXECUTION
ASSUMPTION
THAT NORMAL
PROJECT
MNGMNT WILL
OCCUR
UNCRITICAL
ACCEPTANCE
ASSUMPTION
Excessiveness
THAT ALL WILL BE happiness, new job,
WELL
excitement.
DENIAL
SHOCK
ANGER (I)
ANGER (II)
Kick-off Meeting, Press Release, Party, Announcements
Team assembled and given a deadline, Work Starts - Just Do It
WILD
ENTHUSIASM
"It's early in the Project"
"All jobs start of badly"
"Things will get better, they can't get
worse…"
N/A
New people working together, Use of last job experience/systems/processes/methods
No time planning just doing - "action without a plan is a nightmare"/ fail to plan - plan to fail
Borrowing previous methods and 'adapting' to suit, no project plan developed,
Wading into the swamp rather than planning how to drain it
DISILLUSION MENT
"How did this happen'
"Surely we have a process/procedure for this"
"But all these experienced people, surely we can…"
"What did we do on the last job?"
CHAOS,
CONFUSION
DISORDER
"Who put the bid/contract/proposal together?"
"Who costed / resourced / negotiated the job"
"Who was meant to be reporting / managing / checking this project"
Senior management made to be made
aware.
DEPRESSION
BARGAINING /
DIALOGUE /
DISCUSSION
"We need to do an audit, compliance matrix"
"I will need to send a report to the Board/Director"
"What do we need to do and what contingency do we have'
"Can we provide some alternative solutions?" "What experienced people are out there who can fix this"
ACCEPTED
NORMAL
PROJECT
BEHAVIOUR
PLANNING AS PER
Requirements, Work B'down Structure, Organisational B'down Structure, Cost B'down Structure, Risk B'down Structure
RECOGNISED
Schedule and Sequence, Dependencies, Formal Plan and Baseline
NORMS
EXECUTION AS
PER NORMS
IN A HOLE
DO
IN A HOLE
AND
DIGGING
Client / Team sense that problems occurring. Inconsistencies
SEARCH FOR THE in work, targets not being met, quality not being met, resources
CHECK
not being provided.
GUILTY
Senior management ignoring issues
PUNISH THE
INNOCENT
Execution using Plan - Do - Check - Action / Milestones (Inchstones to put job back on-track)
NOT WELL
BEGUN NOT 1/2
DONE
DO
Client complaints as no visible order process.
Duplication of effort, gaps in work,
Somebody, Everybody, Anybody and Nobody blame each other.
Work is not being done and absence of a tangible plan becomes evident
"Why didn't Mr. X raise this issue earlier / before"
"Who reported this…why didn't they make it more apparent there was a problem"
"The report should have been sent formally, not just by email / verbally / in a meeting"
REMARKS
DO (No formal RUSHING TO
Plan)
WAIT
Finding that you are surrounded by alligators rather than draining the swamp.
Lack of Admin support / No process for reports-documents-purchases-etc
No start up plan - new people 'lost' in the aftermath of the initial wild enthusiasm
"We have to do what?!" "How on earth can we explain this to the Management"
"We need who on the team/…do you know there charge rate!"
"They want what, when, "
"You mean all of this is deemed to be included"
"They want what codes/standards/methods used"
'GOOD' PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
DEMMING
CYCLE
PROJECT PHASES (Sad but true of many Projects, the time frame can be short or long depending on when reality is faced)
GRIEF STAGES
CHECK
DEFINITION OF Reading of contract,
CHECK
REQUIREMENTS requirements
PROMOTION OF
NON-INVOLVED
HERO TRIES
/ EGOTIST
HIDES
HERO DIES,
EGOTIST
BLAMES
REALITY
FACED
ACTION (I)
AUDIT BY
NEW STAFF
WITH A
MANDATE
PLAN (II)
FORMAL
PLAN (7Ps)
RECOVERY
PLAN
DO
NEW
BEGINNING