A single blog post cannot describe the intricacies of Project Management and the framework in developing a structure to make it successful. These AFFILIATE links are just the best of the processes and information I have used in developing a solid Project Management background.

I have for years followed the Ten Step Project Management philosophy for Project Management. It is carefully thought out and is a proven method of Project management.

If you choose to just to learn a little about Project Management and the Terms used in this field Click here to download a free ebook!

Out of all the books that I have read on the subject and used, the one I would recommend starting with is Lean Project Management: Eight Principles For Success by Larry Leach(Amazon Link).

A quick Summary of Larry’s First Principle:

It’s the system! You must design and implement an effective project delivery system appropriate to your projects, organization, and environment.

The project system consists of people, process, and the product, and the relationships between them.

Some of the basics of project management are essential to all projects, but few are necessary for every project.

The project leader must sort out what matters most for the project at hand.

Any project worth doing is worth doing fast.

Critical Chain Project Management gives you the tools to do projects, in half the time, all the time.

The Lean Project Management approach will include:

More successful projects (satisfied customers and project team, full-scope, on-time, under-budget).
Faster project completion.
Simple project status.
Reduced unnecessary project paperwork.
Clear signals on when to take action on the project.
Reduced pressure on project team members.
Reduction of the waste that causes project delays: multi-tasking, queuing, Student Syndrome, Parkinson’s law.

Learn more and download a free chapter if you go to the E-book section in the TenStep Store for templates, eBooks and many other project management products., under the title Lean Project Management: Eight Principles for Success.

Technorati : Lean, Marketing Calendar, Project Management, Ten step

An excerpt from the TenStep Project Management Ebook on Options for Obtaining a Methodology:

To successfully implement a project management methodology, first convince yourself that there is value if the process is applied and utilized correctly. In fact, all projects use a methodology of processes, procedures and templates. If you don’t think you have one, it really means that you have a poor and informal one.
If you need a good project management methodology, there are two major sources.

Build one yourself. You can build a custom methodology that perfectly reflects the philosophy and best practices of your organization. Many companies continue to do this today.

Buy one. If you build a methodology, you might be surprised to learn that it ultimately looks similar to most other project management methodologies that people use. No matter how you structure it, you still need to plan, build a workplan, manage scope and risks, communicate, etc. Therefore, many companies choose to buy or license a pre-existing methodology. These pre-built methodologies usually have everything your organization needs to be successful.

Of course, if you buy a methodology, you still may need to customize it to meet the specific needs of your organization. This gives you the benefits of option 1, while also taking less effort and cost, which is the major benefit of option 2.

TenStep, Inc.©

The TenStep website is one of the most content driven websites on Project Management. It is great place to learn the basic, intermediate and advanced structure and terminology of the business.

If you choose to just to learn a little about Project Management and the Terms used in this field Click here to download a free ebook!

Learn more about the Ten Step Management Process at the TenStep Store for templates, eBooks and many other project management products.

P.S. I am an affiliate of this product.

Related Post: The Death of the Marketing Calendar – Part1

Technorati : Marketing calendar, Methodology, Project Management, TenStep

Deskpad to take notes.
Video on how to create one.
Google calendar for my site.
Uhm – a give-away for branding purposes.

It is like wearing a watch anymore. I have the time on my phone and a calendar that I do not use. What is the purpose of a marketing calendar? The only thing that I know it can do is make a visual list. However, let’s step it up notch and find out what you should be doing.

If you watched my calendar video you see that I construct somewhat of a Value Stream Map initially out of all the events a customer has scheduled. I like to organize it bu utilizing a computer projected on the screen or with paper taped to a whiteboard. But before the Value Stream is created, I create an Influencer diagram.

An Influencer diagram is much like a mind map, with a central theme, and components surrounding it. When used in marketing, I will start with maybe a certain campaign, strategy or event and surround it with the different marketing aspects. You should group each by the strongest relations that they have to each item. Now step back from it for a moment and consider the influence each item had on another. Lightly pencil in an influence let’s say that a direct mail piece or press release had on an event. Place an arrow on the end showing the direction of influence. If the influence was reciprocal, place an arrow on each. If the influence was greatly unbalanced in one direction, two arrows are typically used with one being a much heavier weight. For better visualization, you can draw circles around different groupings. That can be quite interesting because you can rate somewhat of a Venn diagram in the process.

Influencer diagrams can be rather revealing. The first thing they do is typically cause great debate. During the debate, it will become much clearer where the influences are the strongest and also the kinds of influence that are created. There can also be influences that happened outside of the groupings. As you explore the diagram, lines may be added and even removed. This exercise creates thinking about how your marketing structure actually operates in contrast to the typical flow diagrams. You may even add a few notes about the line to substantiate your decisions of the influencers.

In today’s marketing, I do not believe that one single event or action really works anymore. My philosophy of marketing states that is the strength of the connection between each of these events or actions that will determine the degree of success that you will have. This simple diagram highlights the gaps in that type of thinking. Also, look for the existence of tails, components out of limb, which have no leading or leaving them. These components are certainly ones that need to be debated and the question asked why they are there? Another use would be for a new event. See how existing influencers can play a part in developing the structure for this new venture. It also can be quite useful in planning for resource and budgeting.

I encourage you to try this type of diagram. This is one of the most useful and simplest tools that I have utilized and the one that has created the most activity and discussions. If you would like more information on this subject, a great resource is Thinking Visually: Business Applications of 14 Core Diagrams.

Related Post: What is your Present State?

Technorati : Influencer Diagram, Marketing Calendar, Thinking Visually, Value Stream Mapping

Depending upon the scope of the team responsibility, they should be part of creating the implementation phase which would include a detailed project plan or schedule. The purpose of the plan is to coordinate activities and resources and form a baseline from which to manage the project. This gives everyone involved the same reference point.

In marketing it always amazes me the lack of project planning. Most marketers resist the idea, misunderstanding the role of detailed planning for marketing projects. They assume that the purpose of a detailed plan is the same as it would be for other repetitive activities like manufacturing. The purpose of a project plan in marketing is to coordinate many of the uncertain activities that happen. Maybe more importantly, a good project plan will coordinate the activities of your resource requirements. Not everything will be predictable but even if we can make some of the predictable, predictable  we will increase the likelihood of success.

Photo courtesy of Systems2win.

Within a project plan we can establish over all and individual process metrics. We will need metrics to produce information quickly so that they may be acted on in the middle of a project rather than at the end. The value of these types of metrics is that will allow you to take action during a project where you can still influence its success. These metrics should already be identified in your value stream map. Measurability is perhaps the most important feature of the project plan.

Once a schedule is completed it should be posted or made available to all stakeholders of the project. Constant updating should appear and be visible to all parties. This is an active document, and should be used to manage the process. A schedule is the translation of the project plan into individual tasks, identifying durations, responsibilities, start and finish dates, resources, flow and milestones. It is very easy for a team to want to jump straight in, generate a schedule and get on with the project. There is more to project planning than this.

Project management is the whole aspect of planning, which leads to a realistic schedule, which in turn requires control. If you have completed your Value Stream Mapping Process, a project plan will be relatively easy to complete.

Related Posts:

Ten Step Project Management

Technorati : Project Management, Project Plan, Value Stream Map, Value Stream Mapping

I remembered a section of in the Systems2win Value Stream Mapping training section about a FIFO lane. In seemed like the designation that I needed: First In, First Out was not far from how the prospects’ needs were described. In the Value Stream Mapping process a FIFO lane is used for the unusual stuff that often involves unique processing instructions. The problem with using it in marketing is that everyone could be a FIFO.

This is how we went about determining how to set up our FIFO prospects. We created certain signals in our other Value Streams to determine that this may be a FIFO customer. As information was gathered on demographics, psychographics and other criteria it would create signals for us. The signals were acted upon manually, much like a Kanban system would be. The information was transmitted for further investigation and qualification to be put into the FIFO Lane. One of the typical problems with a FIFO lane is that it acts like a chute and can only hold, a specific amount of prospects. You have only a certian amount of resources. We determined if the FIFO chute is full, you must prioritize and remove a prospect and put them back into another marketing segment.

Depending on how your FIFO lane is constructed, here are some examples of how to use your FIFO Lane:

1. This could be your “A” list or the one that marketing and/or sales people create personal contact with and nurture.

2. Special offers could be created that would result in longer or shorter trial efforts, payment terms and delivery. Since these people have been separated and are being handled by more seasoned professionals it does not create such a burden on the rest of the organization.

3. Sequencing into another marketing segment for certain steps so that the others that are managing the process can return the prospect to FIFO when completed.

4. Use it for resource leveling so that customers are never waiting on you. If other steps in the marketing process are backed up (a constraint) use the FIFO Team to manually relieve the bottleneck. (You may even discover new marketing opportunities this way.)

I think the FIFO lane can create novel solutions for your prosepct/customers and maximize the use of your personnel. A seldom used Lean tool that could be a critical component in your marketing management process.

Technorati : Lean, Marketing Funnel, Marketing Hourglass, Sales Pipeline, Value Stream Mapping. FIFO

Michael responded: “I don’t know if you know this Zen story: when you haven’t studied Zen, you see the mountain as a mountain. Then if you really study Zen very hard then you no longer see the mountain as a mountain. But when you understand Zen, you see the mountain as a mountain. I feel the same thing about the tools.

When you first study lean, you start with the tools. Then you study it more and you get into something that is about thinking, or philosophy, or whatever. But when you do it a lot, you forget about the tools. I think the tools are essentially very important. However, I have a different take on what the tools mean.

The way I see lean as a management system is essentially a knowledge transfer system; it’s a training system. So what the tools are, the tools to me are self?study exercises to understand your processes better, it’s like a microscope or a telescope. The tool is a way to look into problems and they never solve problems by themselves.

Many people have used the tools or have wanted to implement some sort of solutions to these tools thinking it would make them better. I think that’s kind of beside the point. What makes you better is using the tool rigorously, so you understand your problems, and your own processes and then, with hard work, take the time to figure out how to solve them. It’s this process, it’s the process of solving your own problem that empowers you and which leads you to create better and more performing processes.”

I think the trend right now is to discourage the use of tools and treat Lean as a culture. I believe we are not seeing the mountain. I believe we should be embracing technology. Lean and Six Sigma has the best set of tools of any methodology. When used correctly, I think Michael is right and leading with the tools and embracing them will empower us to do greater things. They are meant for us to see deeper, not less. We need to see the mountain again.

Related Posts:

Using Value Stream Mapping Software

Why would you use Value Stream Mapping?

Technorati : Lean, Lean Manager, Lean Tools, Six Sigma, Value Stream Mapping

As a managing partner of ESG Consultants, Michael coaches executives in obtaining exceptional performance through using the lean tools, principles, and management attitudes. His main coaching technique is the “Real Place Visit,” where he helps senior executives to learn to see their own operational shop floors, teach their people the spirit of kaizen and draw the right conclusions for their business as a whole. He has assisted companies in their lean transformations in various fields such as manufacturing, engineering, construction, services, and healthcare.