Forward Momentum: Delivering Results

by Darrell Glen Stiffler, PMP

Victor Vroom’s Expectancy theory has been around about 46 years now and is consider one of staples of Motivational Theory. The subject pops up a lot when studying project management. Although Vroom’s Expectancy theory is not mentioned in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide), it is rumored to be asked about on the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification test. 

The theory is quite simple and deals with motivation and management. According to Wikipedia, “Vroom’s theory assumes that behavior results from conscience choices among alternatives whose purpose it is to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Vroom suggested that the relationship between people’s behavior at work and their goals was not as simple as was first imagined by other scientist. Vroom realized that an employee’s performance is based on individual’s factors such as personality, skills, knowledge, experience and abilities.” 

It has been my observation over the years that, some Individual Contributors (ICs) just don’t know what motivates them. Oh, sure you can talk money, title, time off, more discretionary choices regarding work, etc. Most ICs will assure you that one of the standard “motivations” listed will do the trick for them. That is until you try to motivate them with one of the “motivators”. After agreeing with the IC which one of the “motivators” is the key, the IC still does not perform as agreed. They will say that they changed their mind and what they really wanted was something different. When that happens, the relationship between manager and IC goes south.

What can be done to prevent this chain of events? My approach has been not to suggest any possible motivators. Let the IC come up with a written list of top five motivators for them. It has always surprised me how many people cannot come up with three. Once the motivators have been established, be sure to set roles, responsibilities, expectations and, most importantly, metrics. Be very specific as to what the reward will be if they perform as expected. “I’ll give you some time off” is not specific enough and will create a problem later on. Never give a range of rewards, for example. “You do a good job and I’ll make sure you get a 4% to 6% raise next anniversary”. That statement is a going to cause problems. First, “good job” is not specific enough because of lack of metrics. Secondly, The IC just heard the manager say they would get a 6% increase on their anniversary, and the manager thought he said that the IC would get a 4% increase on the anniversary.

I think Victor Vroom has a good idea, but it, like many things in project management, is situational. If you have ICs that don’t know what their motivations are, be patient with them. If you both keep on trying, you’ll find something someday.

What are your top 5 motivators?

By Darrell G. Stiffler, PMP

When battling through a project, the Project Manager’s (PM’s) closest ally should be the Project Sponsor (PS).  However, there is confusion when talking to different people in exactly what the responsibilities are for the PS. When the PM turns to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), the confusion just gets worse. We forget that the PMBOK is a GUIDE to Project Management. It is neither an all-encompassing document nor an instruction manual. It is, at best, a suggestion on how to manage a project. However, since many PMs have to pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) examination and the PMBOK is the source for MOST of the answers, we tend to assume that the PMBOK is more of a cookbook than what it turns out to be. For example, when looking for the answer on what the PS is responsible for in the PMBOK 4^th edition, go to page 25, and you find:

“Sponsor. A sponsor is the person or group that provides the financial resources, in cash or in kind, for the project. When a project is first conceived, the sponsor champions the project. This includes serving as spokesperson to higher levels of management to gather support throughout the organization and promote the benefits that the project will bring. The sponsor leads the project through the engagement or selection process until formally authorized, and plays a significant role in the development of the initial scope and charter.

For issues that are beyond the control of the project manager, the sponsor serves as an escalation path. The sponsor may also be involved in other important issues such as authorizing changes in scope, phase-end reviews, and go/no-go decisions when risks are particularly high.”

1) My first surprise is that the sponsor can be a group as well as a person. OK, I can understand that a little.

2)  Next is “provides the financial resources, in cash or in kind”.  Now I’m not sure what “kind” is. I don’t think it means “being nice and generous”. One of the dictionary definitions is “a: goods or commodities as distinguished from money <payment in kind> b: the equivalent of what has been offered or received”. I’m getting confused now. Does that mean the PS is wheeling and dealing, like “ I’ll trade you two wooden desks for a DBA service for two weeks” or “I’ll trade you my executive parking spot for a month for use of a server of a month”? J This all sounds too much like bartering.

3) Serving as a spokesperson to the higher levels of management to gather support sounds reasonable. So does the PS lead the group in spiritual séances when it gets into trouble as well?

4) I have always interpreted the statement “For issues that are beyond the control of the project manager, the sponsor serves as an escalation path” to mean that when the PM is having difficulty getting cooperation from Functional Managers that the PS steps in and gets the Functional Manager in line. However, I have seen test questions that state that if the PM is having difficulty getting resources from Functional Managers that the PM goes to Senior Management. Therefore, this leaves me confused.

Another quote from the PMBOK confuses me on page 74, which reads:

“Projects are authorized by someone external to the project such as a sponsor, PMO, or portfolio steering committee. The project initiator or sponsor should be at a level that is appropriate to funding the project. They will either create the project charter or delegate that duty to the project manager. The initiator’s signature on the charter authorizes the project. “

1) The line “sponsor should be at a level that is appropriate to funding the project”, confuses me. Does that mean if this is a major project and requires approval by the CEO or CFO of the organization that they will be the PS? If this is true then on a small project that requires little funding that a junior programmer could be the sponsor.

Another quote from the PMBOK on page 75 states:

• “The statement of work (SOW) is a narrative description of products or services to be delivered by the project. For internal projects, the project initiator or sponsor provides the statement of work based on business needs,……….
• Name and authority of the sponsor or other person(s) authorizing the project charter.”

1) The statement “authority of the sponsor or other person(s) authorizing the project” would allude that there are others authorized to initiate a project and sign the Project Charter.

On page 125 the PMPOK states:

“Deliverables that meet the acceptance criteria are formally signed off and approved by the customer or sponsor. Formal documentation received from the customer or sponsor acknowledging formal stakeholder acceptance of the project’s deliverables is forwarded to the Close Project or Phase process.”

1) The PS signs off on approval of the deliverables.

Page 215 of the PMBOK states:

“The project management team is a subset of the project team and is responsible for the project management and leadership activities such as initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing the various project phases. This group can also be referred to as the core, executive, or leadership team. For smaller projects, the project management responsibilities can be shared by the entire team or administered solely by the project manager. The project sponsor works with the project management team, typically assisting with matters such as project funding, clarifying scope, monitoring progress, and influencing others in order to benefit the project.”

1) I like this statement, it let’s me know that the PS is the go-to-person when you need guidance.

The wording in the PMBOK on what the PS is really supposed to do still confuses me. One thing I know for sure; if you have any question what the PS is responsible for, ask them and they can clear up exactly what they think their responsibilities are.

By Darrell G. Stiffler, PMP

If you can have your cake and eat it, too, why can’t you have multiple PowerPoint slides and your notes ON ONE PAGE? YOU CAN!

When using PowerPoint, have you ever wanted to print multiple slides on one page with the notes associated with the slides on the same page? If you have, you have probably thought you have tried everything under the sun and ended up frustrated. (I know I did.) The PowerPoint standard print options do not allow you to print multiple slides and notes on the same page. If you print the notes associate with a particular slide, PowerPoint print options only allow you to print the one slide at a time.

You’re thinking it would make preparing for a presentation so much easier if you could see both slide and note at the same time plus see the upcoming slides on the same page. It would make publishing handouts much more economical, especially if you can duplex print,

If this describes you, you have come to the right place. I have the answer for you. However, there are some good news and some limitations. First, the good news. PowerPoint will automatically print three slides per page and if the notes exceed the space for notes associated with the slide, the note area expands to accommodate the space required to print all the notes. With long notes, you may only be able to get one slide per page. More good news is if the slide appears smaller than your liking, you may adjust the margins and expand the slide size to your liking. The limitation is that you must do this by hand and that can be very time consuming.

OK, here comes the magic.

If you are using PowerPoint 2003:

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation and select File from the Main menu.
2. Select Send which opens a secondary menu.
3. Select Word. It will then copy the PowerPoint presentation to a Word file.

If you are using Office 2007 the process is a little different:

1. Select the Office Button (upper left hand corner).
2. Select Publish from the menu.
3. Then select Create Handouts in Microsoft Word and make the appropriate choice from the pull down menu.
4. Once the selection has been made, PowerPoint will open the Word document and copy the information automatically.

Even with the limitation noted above, I have found this feature extremely useful. It would be even better if Microsoft would provide more flexibility to the PowerPoint/Word master template.

Yes, I know you are grateful. And just think, you didn’t have to spend a penny for this wisdom.

Good luck and enjoy.

By Darrell G. Stiffler, PMP

For years, the Project Management Institute (PMI) has been touting the virtues of the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) as the method to use in the Critical Path Methodology (CPM) construction of a network diagram. The network diagram uses boxes or rectangles, referred to as nodes, to represent activities, and by connecting the nodes with arrows it illustrates the logical relationships that exist between the nodes. However, the illustration of a network diagram in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is OK, but the nodes illustrated are poor. In trying to perform the forward pass, backward pass and calculating float the illustration has no value. Because of the PMBOK vacuum of detail and poor illustration of the diagram node, others have used their own style of node for the critical path calculation. There are many different ways to display the node, and un-standardization has allowed the whole subject to become confusing. I propose that PMI publish in the PMBOK a standard node. This would establish a standard and make it easier for all those creating a PDM much easier.

One of the simpler nodes that I have encountered is what I call the 5 box node (see Figure 1.0). This node model is easy to use if you are experienced in crafting network diagrams. This node contains the minimum of data. The drawback of this model is that information must be written outside the node, such as slack and float and if you are transitioning from a many-to-one relationship the transitioning number must be written on the diagram and then erased after the proper value has been transferred.

Figure 1.0

Another popular node that I have been exposed to is what I call a Vertical 7 box node (see Figure 2.0) The information for the Early Start and Late Start and the Early Finish and Late Finish is entered by either going down or up in the boxes. For example, when you are performing the forward pass, if you are calculating Late Start you enter the Early Start data, add the duration to the Early Start and enter the sum into Late Start, which is the box below the Early Start. Conversely when you are performing the backward pass you enter the data into the Late Finish box then subtract the duration and enter the data in the box above which is the Late Start box. To me this is counter intuitive. When I think in terms of forward pass and backward pass, I don’t think of going up and down. Additionally, when calculating slack and float, there is nowhere on the model to enter the information.

Figure 2.0

I propose that the PMI and the PMBOK use the model seen in figure 3.0. When performing a forward pass or a backward pass, values are calculated left to right or right to left, following the flow of the node and the diagram. All information necessary to make decisions would be recorded within the node. Students find this model much easier to use. Another reason I suggest this model as the standard is because when a practitioner or student decides that they want to create the network diagram this model is available in Visio, with slight modification (switching the Task ID and Duration labeling).

Figure 3.0

If you agree with me, that figure 3.0 is the best approach to illustrating a PDM CPM, let the PMI know. PMI is a great institution and listens to those that are involved. Now if we could just get other organizations to follow that philosophy.