Okay. I’ll admit it. It was nearing the 11th hour and I was suffering from a mild case of writer’s block. Actually, there may be another term for it. It’s not that I couldn’t think of things to write about, rather, it’s more like I have had too many ideas and not enough uninterrupted time to focus on any one topic. Thoughts would shoot through my mind and quickly fade – it kind of reminds me of the Perseid meteor showers in mid-August where you see a bright meteor streak across the sky and if you blink, you could easily miss it. That’s the way my creative thoughts have been. Clearly it was time to grab the running shoes and sneak in a short “wog” (walk-jog) to see if I could collect my thoughts.
So what’s been on my mind? It’s simple –risk management and lessons learned. Woo WOO! (Now there’s some subject matter for you!) I’ve been immersed in the start-up of a new project, and as any project manager knows, start-up is a busy time. With my latest project, we went from initiation to planning and to executing – all during a 3-week stretch. If you follow the DFCI Project Management Methodology (PMM), then you know that initiation and planning involve lots of activities – creating the project charter, identifying resources, scheduling meetings, setting up a document repository and time reporting, completing various planning documents not the least of which is the project schedule. And oh, lest I forget, it’s highly advisable to squeeze in some risk planning.
Risk schmisck! Why is it that every darn project I manage has some unanticipated issue pop up – something I could not have thought of in a million years? Or could I? When you think about it, risk management is supposed to head off issues at the pass. According to Rita Mulcahy, author of Risk Management Tricks of the Trade for Project Managers, your team should brainstorm about possible risks until it gets stupid. Let’s see . . . My project might fail because my entire team may quit and join a circus. Well maybe not that stupid, but you get the idea.
So let’s say we are pretty good and, might I add, prolific at identifying risks. This is all well and good, but if we don’t do a good job with plans for mitigating risks that exceed the risk threshold, then what’s the point? You might as well not bother with risk assessment! Go big or go home, as they say!
I have been a project manager for, ahem, a couple decades, and at Dana-Farber for less than two years. One would expect that I have seen it all, when in fact, just when I think I have seen it all, the project gods throw something else my way. Add to that the fact that during my 20 years BD (before Dana-Farber), the organization where I worked was not as sophisticated as Dana-Farber (yes, a big Fortune 20 company was a wimp when it comes to PMM) and didn’t do squat about risk management, and even less about lessons learned.
I have always preferred to learn from my past mistakes, and even more so from the mistakes of others! I have come to realize that when I kick off a project, it is a good idea to allow some extra time (cut into that 90% that we project managers supposedly spend communicating) to take a peek at risks and lessons learned for past projects; better still, try to find similar projects to analyze. Talk to other project managers if necessary.
A review of past lessons learned may include problems that were encountered but perhaps never made it to the risk list. For example, when UMass Amherst built their 28-story library, it never occurred to them that there was a risk that bricks would pop off the sides once they loaded the books. Lesson learned –factor in the weight of the books when you design a library. Another example was when they built the steam plant to heat the UMass campus, they built it on a hill. Lesson learned – sad but true – steam tends to go up hill, not down. Note to self: The next time I manage a project to build a steam plant . . .
The project management profession, aligned with crazy advances in technology, has come oh-so-far since the days of dumb terminals, no internet, no Microsoft, and of course no PMI. How on earth did we manage projects back then? The fact is we didn’t come close to what we do today. I am thankful to be working in a Project Management Office (PMO) that has developed great tools to help with risk management and documenting lessons learned. I don’t mean to sound self-congratulatory – I absolutely cannot take credit for this stuff – but the DFCI PMO BDZ (before Deb Zaino) has created some pretty amazing tools to help me do my job.
So if you passed me tonight running and walking up Oak Street in Holliston, I’ll bet you never guessed what was swirling around in my mind. I even thought for one moment about the government’s failed project to convert the US to the metric system. I imagine that if they had succeeded, this blog would have been called The 5K Blog! LOL! (Did I tell you that I laugh at my own jokes?)
Anyhow, I hope you consider kicking up your risk management efforts, and don’t forget your lessons learned.