What Drives the Business? Technology, or a Phone Call?

So far, I have spent a good portion of my career in Information Technology settings. First as a software trainer and customer service specialist, then as an HTML developer and trainer, and more recently as a project manager, I never wanted for anything I needed to improve my technological environment. Software, hardware, training--all were at my fingertips. Technology drove the business, so it was always worth the investment to get me what I needed.

When I went to work for a public relations firm about three years ago, I was faced with technology challenges like I had never faced before. Although the digital revolution is forcing every kind of business to rethink their technical strategy, some industries have more work to do than others. We had trouble getting basic equipment, software, and training expenses had to be approved by the General Manager. Instant Messaging was against corporate policy, and working from home via non-company issued laptop was impossible. Beyond that, there was an inherent anxiety about the digital products we offered within the company itself, which made it very challenging to sell them externally. I was new to public relations, and new to agency work in general, so one of the first things I learned was that technology does not--or has not until very recently--drive the public relations business. The phone call drives the business. Before you can move forward with technology plans, conversations must be had to make sure everyone involved has achieved a universal comfort level with what it is you are trying to accomplish, and whether or not it will ultimately be profitable.

Having lived on both sides of the technology costs coin--the Anything Goes side (IT) and the Who's Paying for it? side (PR)--it seems like a combination of good communication and a well-stocked technology arsenal should be the goal. I have worked on projects in an IT environment when cost didn't even seem to be a consideration, and then the product ended up not marketable because the technology wasn't available to the client. On the PR side, the digital revolution is so demanding, and so expensive in environments that are not working with standard equipment, a bit more liberality with technology spending would have grown the digital business we were building far more efficiently.

SEM is the New Black

I attended a breakfast meeting of the St. Louis Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) last week. The presentation was called "20 Tidbits about Search Engine Marketing" and was presented by the very able and impressive Kelly Kochert of NSI.

As a senior project manager familiar with digital technology, I knew many of the tidbits--not all--and learned enough to consider myself more knowledgeable after the presentation, and probably more dangerous. The thing that impressed me the most, however, was how ravenous people are for SEM information. At my table alone there were bankers and corporate trainers and car rental company representatives--all salivating to hear the secrets of SEM and how to apply them to their online challenges. As I was leaving the meeting I overheard one attendee remark, "I'm ready to hire her."

Regardless of the business, professional role, and technical acumen, it seems that everyone needs SEM. Kelly's presentation is downloadable from the IABC web site.

Digital in Advertising

I find this NYT article about enormous changes in the advertising industry due to the digital revolution to be very telling. I think it demonstrates how difficult it is to change the way we think about media, but also how inevitable the rethinking is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/business/media/30adco.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=telling%20the%20heavyweights%20they%20have%20to%20be%20agile&st=cse&oref=slogin

Project Management Basic Definitions

What is a Project?

A project grows out of the wants and needs of the organization that are not being met by normal operations. It is unique--not done before, temporary (maintenance is not a project), shares operational similarities to other work done within the organization, requires strategy, and represents a progressive elaboration on the work that has been done to-date.

What is Project Management?

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), project management includes the carrying out of five basic processes: initiation, planning, execution, control, and closure. It requires a project team to manage the work of the project which includes identifying requireements, and meeting the various needs and expectations of the stakeholders. Project Management involves the application of knowledge and skills using whatever tools and techniques are available to project activities to meet project requirements.

Business Leadership and the Movies

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20000301/17290.html

This is a great reflection on leadership styles illustrated in movies by Mike Hofman from Inc.com, published in March 2000 (due for an update exploring leadership in more recent movies, I expect). My favorite is this excerpt that describes the character development of Queen Elizabeth in "Elizabeth" and how she learned that governing with her personality was ultimately more effective than using royal authority.

Elizabeth (1998)

Newly minted CEOs who worry that leaders are born, not made, should find the 1998 movie Elizabeth reassuring. The woman responsible for England's golden age starts off with the fierce independence of any company founder, refusing her dying half-sister's demand that she uphold the Catholic faith and declaring that "when I am queen, I promise to act as my conscience dictates." But thrust into a maelstrom of politics and religion, when Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) does take the throne, she frets, hesitates, and falls back upon the wrongheaded counsel of others.

Defeated in battle and with England's powerful bishops aligned against her, Elizabeth laments that she will never equal her father, Henry VIII, at running the family business. But slowly she grows comfortable in the ruler's skin, learning to win by using the force of her personality rather than the power of her position. (The scene in which the new queen sways a hostile Parliament by combining calls to conscience with sly, self-deprecating humor is a masterpiece of meeting management.) As betrayal is heaped upon betrayal, she becomes a shrewd judge of people, learning to trust only herself and the sole nobleman loyal enough to kill for her.

Elizabeth's decision to renounce romantic love in favor of total devotion to her subjects could resonate with anyone trying to satisfy the demands of a family and a business. Yes, her sacrifice appears extreme. But it's hard to argue with success: Elizabeth ruled for more than 40 years, and at her death England was the most powerful and prosperous country in Europe.

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20000301/17290.html

Reporting Relationships for a Director of Project Management

The DPM should be the person the CEO can rely on to give impartial advice about what commitments are safe to make, as opposed to what commitments would be wishful thinking from sales. In general, the DPM is there to facilitate negotiations between sales and operations, and as such, would need to be operating from neutral ground, which is only possible if she is a direct CEO report.

My previous experience includes a variety of reporting relationships. When the PMO reports to product management, they are inclined to overcommit, and end up in conflict with operational people over "non-delivery." This is not productive.

As far as reporting within the PMO itself, I have worked primarily in matrixed environments in which the resources I am relying on do not report to me. I find this arrangement manageable, although not ideal. It is a fairly typical scenario for Project Management to work this way, since resources often report to operational leadership and have multiple deliverables. Depending on the amount of authority the PM has, this situation is known as a "weak matrix".

Ideally, the PM has authority to make decisions about staffing their projects and have dedicated resources to work with. This is more expensive than a matrixed environment, and therefore quite rare. This is known as a "strong matrix".

A "balanced matrix" provides the PM with good, although not complete, authority with team members who are allocated to his or her projects but not 100% dedicated.

The First 100 Days for a Director of Project Management: Low Hanging Fruit

"Instead of keeping his mouth shut for the first 100 days, he jumped right in and started telling everyone what to do."--overheard in conversation regarding a management change

"There's a difference between playing nice and being ridiculous." --overheard in conversation regarding internal corporate politics

There is a fine line between doing too much and too little in the first days after starting a new management position. My philosophy is to show as much progress as quickly as possible without ruffling any feathers. For the first 100 days the following projects might be the lowest hanging fruit:

--Roll up my sleeves and help with the day-to-day activities
--Working with leadership, create a list of things NOT to try to change in the first couple of months
--Research client relationships, complete client audit looking at which clients are extremely happy, which are not and why.
--Schedule and carry-out one-on-one interviews with everyone I would be working with
--Create a complete list of ongoing projects
--Institute schedule and budget tracking of ongoing projects on a weekly basis
--Choose 2-3 major projects in the beginning stages to which to apply more formal project management methodologies

What I Do to Get Projects Done On Time and Under Budget

There are many project management methodologies available to the practicing or new project manager. Preparing for my PMP certification exam, I studied the intricacies of the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge), an international standard of project management practices so broad that it applies to construction as well as software development. PMP project management includes process groups (initiating, planning, executing), knowledge areas (such as Scope, Time, and Risk Management), and processes (inputs, tools, and outputs).

As a Project Manager for a public relations agency, I used my PMP training, but with little of the formality suggested by the methodology due to time constraints. On occasion I worked on projects due in a matter of hours. By the time I had measured the risk, the project was out the door. For longer projects--a web site or flash piece with a week to a month lead time--I used the following general steps as a guideline. It never does any good to insist on any of these without flexibility in an agency:

Research (PM)
Questions (PM/Client)
Budget Approval (PM/Client)
Kick Off Meeting (Client, PM, Designer, Developer)
Project Set Up (PM)
Architecture (Client, PM, Designer, Developer)
Design (Designer)
Design Approval (PM, Client)
Development Meeting (PM, Designer, Developer)
Development (Developer)
Development Review (Client, PM, Designer, Developer)
Testing/QA (PM, Developer)
Implementation/Delivery to Production (PM, Developer)
Follow-up (Client, PM)
Archive (PM, Designer, Developer)