Results Without Authority by Tom Kendrick

These are the notes I took while reading Results Without Authority by Tom Kendrick. Oren Shatken has long recommended this book as one PM’s should read.

Additional notes I’ve taken while reading other books can be found here.

Effective Communication

Either project leaders are good communicators, or they are not project leaders for long. Communication is the one absolutely undisputed responsibility owned by the project leader, regardless of project type, other responsibilities, or authority. To succeed and retain control, you must manage information and always communicate effectively.

Control Through Process

Proven project practices give your team structure and guidance. Good processes that team contributors understand, it keeps the project moving in the right direction.

Keep your organization’s requirements for project documentation. Be as clear as possible in the following areas.

• Project objective statement => High level description of the project deliverable, deadline and anticipated cost or staffing
• Project priorities => Rank ordering among scope, schedule and resources
• Project benefits => Business case or ROI analysis
• Available information on user or customer needs
• Scope definition listing all anticipated project deliverables
• Goals for cost and timing
• Significant constraints and assumptions
• Descriptions of dependencies on other related projects
• High level risks, new technologies required and significant issues

An unambiguous, easily accessed description of the project approved by your sponsor and others in authority is a powerful tool to keep the project under control.

Change Requests

Rejection should always be the default decision applied to all change requests for which the analysis fails to provide a compelling, credible business case.

Control Through Influence

You are the world’s foremost authority on your project, and it can be very useful to diplomatically remind people of this at appropriate times during your project.

Investing in team building, information communication, and establishing a basis for mutual trust can provide the project leader a good deal of power - a type that is particularly useful in times of stress and trouble.

What most people know about any project is based on what they hear from the project leader.

Recognition is one of the most overlooked techniques that a project leader can use to maintain control and increase motivation.

Projects don’t succeed because they are trivial or easy. They succeed because the team care about them.

Getting Through Giving

Successful influencers approach others one to one, as equals, leveling any differences in organizational power and authority.

Successful influencers identify and use common ground and shared interests early.

Good influencers are also generally well liked. They are friendly and helpful.

Project Work Considerations

• Ownership: Every activity in a project needs an owner. Delegation of responsibility is a powerful motivator.
• Autonomy: Ensure team members have as much control over methods, timing and other aspects of the work as possible.
• Preferred Work: Whenever possible, delegate activities to contributors who have expressed interest in them and who enjoy doing work.
• New Skills: There are generally opportunities for contributors to build new proficiencies.
• New Technology: Sell the excitement of being on the bleeding edge.
• Uniqueness: Play up the elements of your project that differentiate it from other projects.
• Challenge: Outline the risks and difficult aspects of your project to contributors who thrive on a challenge and are bored with the mundane.
• Visibility: The opportunity to be noticed within the organization.
• Reputation: Even for high risk of failure projects, others may be simply impressed by the attempt.

Lead by Example

At HP, all the managers supported extraordinary effort with a nightly competition to see who could find and deliver the best food for those working late.

Dressing for Success

Dressing neatly and similarly to those in your organization with the level of formal authority that you would like to have helps close the gap between their influence and yours. When you look the part, people may be less likely to notice you actually have little real power.

Control Through Project Metrics

The Goal Question Metric (GQM) Approach

1. Define the desired outputs and results.
2. Questions through which you can determine whether you have achieved these objectives.
3. Measures that can be used in answering the questions.

Sole Focus

The sole focus test asks what would happen if this were the only measure you used or if the measure were emphasized substantially more than other metrics.

Project Priorities

The old project management adage - “fast, cheap good - pick two.”

• Would it be better to extend the project by several days or drop a feature expected in the deliverable?
• Would you prefer to add an additional staff member to this project or let the schedule slip slightly beyond the deadline?
• Would you consider a small increase to project budget to protect the project scope?

Initial Scoping

One of the most important objectives in initiating a project that you can control is getting an early, solid fix on what “done” looks like.

Confirming Roles

• Responsible: The responsible party makes a commitment to do the work.
• Accountable: The accountable party has the ultimate decision authority and bears consequences related to the objectives. There can only be one “A,” and this role may be combined with “R.”
• Consulted: Any stakeholder is consulted who could participate in planning and decision making.
• Informed: Informed parties are regularly provided status on progress, decisions and other information to coordinate related work and facilitate collaboration.

Learning From History

Accurate estimates are always derived, in one way or another, from history.

In Extreme Programming, this estimating principle is referred to as yesterday’ s weather, alluding to the fact that the statistically most accurate forecasting method predicts that today’s weather will be the same as it was the previous day.

Building Control Through Project Planning

Whether you think you can do a thing or not, you are probably right. -Henry Ford

Your team members need to believe that the course of action they are choosing makes the most sense. Show your plan can meet the project objective.

Preparing Your Information

Summarize the consequences of not making the changes. Use monetary terms whenever possible. Money is the most effective way to get the attention of your managers. You can also use the impact on customer or user satisfaction or organizational reputation.

Management by Wandering Around

Management by wandering around originated in the early days of HP.

He [David Packard] found that working with people directly and getting to know them was essential to resolving difficult problems with manufacturing on the factory floor. Identifying and correcting inadequate, incomplete and sometimes incorrect documentation required a level of interaction and trust that was impossible except through one on one discussion and personal involvement.

Packard stressed the need for “frequent, friendly, unfocused and unscheduled” interactions to seek out people’s thoughts and listen to their opinions. Anyone can do it - you just have to make the time for it and do it willingly.

It’s about building a long-lasting relationship based on trust, openness and mutual respect.

Written Communication

Don’t force your correspondents to guess what you mean. State things clearly. Avoid sending incomplete information that forces people to seek clarification.

Scope and Specification Change Management

Failing to control scope is the most common reason projects fail to achieve their objectives. When scope is able to meander, the results aren’t good.

Draft a process that has a default answer of reject for changes. All changes are treated as unnecessary until proven otherwise. This includes explicit criteria to be used in making a decision for each change. The more specific the criteria, the more useful it is in controlling project scope.

Issue Management

Control issues by catching them while they are small and before their effects become unmanageable. Ignoring issues and oping they go away is never healthy for a project.

Increase the visibility of current issues for your team by creating a list and maintaining it in a public place.

Track open issues and follow up on items on your list that are approaching (or near) their due dates. Use issue status reporting to publicly recognize prompt resolutions and to highlight and delays.

Medical Triage

• Problems you must address immediately
• Problems you must address soon
• Problems you will be unable to solve (if there are any)

Project Status Reports

Reporting is a central part of your information management process. Done effectively, it enhances your influence, and it is the primary conduit for conveying project diagnostic metric analysis.

When no one on the project has specific formal authority, whoever takes the initiative to manage the flow of project information is seen as the leader by default.

In written communication, never miss a chance to recognize contributions and teams of contributors - both within and outside your team. Recognition is motivating. Naming names and making contributions visible can substantially improve your chances of getting cooperation.

Project Reviews for Lengthy Projects

Automobiles need periodic maintenance. The same is true for longer projects.