Project Managers and 'dumb' risks
Dumb risks are not discussed much. These are the ones you could cut and paste from all your projects, simple entries to kick start the risk register. A dumb risk may be any of Darwin's theory of natural selection activities that stakeholders may successfully experiment with. Yes, if your sponsor is swallowed by a sinkhole you are going to need another - but just stating that if this occurs there will be an issue is not risk management.
How many PM's do you think put plans in place should they themselves be naturally selected or otherwise unavailable? It may be the case you being out of action will have catastrophic consequences, and it is also clear on the occasions when some people may go out of their way to make themselves indispensable for less than altruistic reasons. Making ones' self intentionally indispensable in projects through the various mechanisms available to a PM is irresponsible.
Look at those you see who through their tireless energy, grasp of the subject, depth of knowledge, organisational skills and ability to inspire others and get things done have such an impact that others cannot envisage the project succeeding without their presence. If this is you, the project would be in huge trouble should you not be around.
This is a standard question faced by business, and is dealt with through business continuity (such as a board making decisions until a successor is appointed or installed) and succession planning. Similarly, your PMO would step in and co-ordinate the work and divide accountability between subject matter experts and or team leaders. Just as good managers empower themselves out of a job but are retained because of the high achieving workforce they have developed, you should not fear effective measures for your succession.
The components of effective succession planning involve team empowerment, management artefacts stakeholder mappings, knowledge and information accessibility, operational data and reports and templates, process and methodologies clear and information technology leveraged. In other words, keep your house in order and accessible to others.
How many PM's do you think put plans in place should they themselves be naturally selected or otherwise unavailable? It may be the case you being out of action will have catastrophic consequences, and it is also clear on the occasions when some people may go out of their way to make themselves indispensable for less than altruistic reasons. Making ones' self intentionally indispensable in projects through the various mechanisms available to a PM is irresponsible.
Look at those you see who through their tireless energy, grasp of the subject, depth of knowledge, organisational skills and ability to inspire others and get things done have such an impact that others cannot envisage the project succeeding without their presence. If this is you, the project would be in huge trouble should you not be around.
This is a standard question faced by business, and is dealt with through business continuity (such as a board making decisions until a successor is appointed or installed) and succession planning. Similarly, your PMO would step in and co-ordinate the work and divide accountability between subject matter experts and or team leaders. Just as good managers empower themselves out of a job but are retained because of the high achieving workforce they have developed, you should not fear effective measures for your succession.
The components of effective succession planning involve team empowerment, management artefacts stakeholder mappings, knowledge and information accessibility, operational data and reports and templates, process and methodologies clear and information technology leveraged. In other words, keep your house in order and accessible to others.
- Team empowerment; fostering collaboration and divesting decision making by being part guide on the side rather than sage on the stage is the first step to making the team resilient to your absence.
- Core management artifacts; registers, lessons learned, schedule, updated budget elsewhere than on your local drive.
- Knowledge and information; comprehensive copies of documentation (a physical project folder should always complement your electronic files), good record keeping, informal or tacit information (wiki's really excel for this purpose); minutes, whiteboard pictures, diagrams etc.
- Operational data and reporting templates; data enables status and performance to be rapidly determined, templates present them in a format useful for other consumers.
- Process and methodologies; have these documented (in some form, even if Agile, so it is clear this is the approach) consistent and meaningful so the first thing a successor has to do isn't fix the basics and clear the fog.
- Leverage IT; information and document management, logical information structures, good meta data or tagging in EDMS/CMS or as simple as good folder naming and README's in the root of network drives.
- Communication plans, templates and contact details of stakeholders
- And coming in at the top of the list down the bottom - your RACI or stakeholder mapping.
