Too many projects? Practical suggestions about handling on overload of projects

1. 2009 Resource Planning Summit
YOU WANT TO ADD A NEW PROJECT!
WHICH OF THE 29 EXISTING PROJECTS DO YOU WANT TO STOP?
Charles Howell, PMP
IT Director
Floyd Medical Center
Rome, Georgia
June 30, 2009

2. You want to add a new project?
 The Floyd System
• Floyd Medical Center, a 304-bed non-for-profit community
hospital with Behavioral Health Center , Outpatient and Hospice
Services, 21 Primary Care offices and 5 Urgent Care centers
• Largest employer in Floyd County with over 2,000 employees
• Ranked No. 27 among the Top 100 Best Places to Work in
Healthcare by Best Companies Group and Modern Healthcare
• Named 2008 Large Hospital of the Year by Georgia Alliance for
Community Hospitals.
• Floyd President and CEO, Kurt Stuenkel, named CEO of the Year
by Georgia Alliance for Community Hospitals.
 Information Technology Department
• IT Staff of about 50 employees.
• Four Project Managers and Seven IT Managers often acting as
Project Leads.
• Currently implementing Cerner Millennium clinical system, a three
year, multi-million dollar project.

3. You want to add a new project?
The Agony of Project Gridlock
Is this the image you
think of when trying
to manage your
project portfolio?
Traffic jams and
projects have a lot in
common.
Photo Courtesy Atwater Village Newbie http://www.flickr.com/photos/atwatervillage/842866223/

4. You want to add a new project?
Project Gridlock is a Powerful Enemy
How did we get into this mess?
Project Plans Developed in Isolation
 Planning under the “cone of silence” leads to issues later.
 Project “A” doesn’t account for the impact of Project “B”, “C” and “D”.
Priorities Change Too Frequently
 Priorities are rarely unambiguous and stable.
 Priorities - “they’re all important… all #1”.
Just One More Project…
 Just like on the freeway, that one additional project can put you into
gridlock. You immediately know when you get there!

5. You want to add a new project?
The Future: Project Nirvana
Project Gridlock keeps your Organization from
operating in Project Nirvana

6. You want to add a new project?
Project Nirvana
“If the 1980’s were
about quality and the
1990’s were about re-
engineering, the
2000’s will be about
velocity”
-- Bill Gates
How do you get to
Project Nirvana
fast?
Photo Courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/splorp/4151207

7. You want to add a new project?
Reduce Gridlock – Eliminate Chaos
 Chaos comes from one of two sources:

8. You want to add a new project?
Unexpected Projects
• “How long have you known about this?”
• “Fix on failure” policy results in unexpected projects.
Unplanned Work
• Emergency changes: something breaks or lack of planning.
• Poorly tested changes: most common source.
• Unauthorized changes: off the radar screen changes.

9. You want to add a new project?
Looking for Chaos Relief?
 1: Know the Demand and Your Capacity
 2: Start Well - Prep for the Next Project
 3: End Well - Manage Existing Projects

10. You want to add a new project?
 1: Know the Demand and Your Capacity
 2: Start Well - Prep for the Next Project
 3: End Well - Manage Existing Projects

11. You want to add a new project?
Know the Demand and Your Capacity
Be pessimistic in planning, optimistic in execution.
• People are usually overly optimistic and will underestimate the time
required to get a specific task completed.
• “Aggressive Schedule” = No One Believes It!
• TAKEAWAY: Hold some resources in reserve to meet unexpected,
legitimate demand.

12. You want to add a new project?
Know the Demand and Your Capacity
Avoiding Fragile Artifacts
• A system without upgrades will over time become an issue in the IT
environment, aka “Fragile Artifact”.
• Proactive scheduling of these upgrades as projects will avoid turning
systems into fragile artifacts no one is prepared to touch.
• Fragile artifacts can impact other systems and one may be your project.

13. You want to add a new project?
Know the Demand and Your Capacity
Projects Beget Projects
• Another car on the thoroughfare…
• One major project may identify the need for multiple follow-on projects.
• For example, a new system implementation may generate the need for an
upgrade and sometimes immediately after the system is live.

14. You want to add a new project?
Know the Demand and Your Capacity
Know the Stakeholders
• Know the customers
»Customers have choices and their future choices may not
include us if we are not responsive.
• Seek them out early and before they ask.
»Meet with them regularly. Get to know their perspective.
»Share the project list with dates, resource requirements and
possible conflicts to gain their participation in the planning
process.

15. You want to add a new project?
 1: Know the Demand and Your Capacity
 2: Start Well - Prep for the Next Project
 3: End Well - Manage Existing Projects

16. You want to add a new project?
Start Well - Prep for the Next Project
Phase Zero
Phase Zero is the time from contract signing to project kick-
off. It’s purpose is to:
 Complete high risk, low resource tasks early
»Key Hardware up and running
»Third Party contracts in place
»Interfaces spec’d and ready for coding

17. You want to add a new project?
Start Well - Prep for the Next Project
Phase Zero
 Review the scope of the project
»Predecessor projects seem to always pop out at the last
minute .
 Review / Start a System Context Diagram
»These are drawings of the environment from the perspective of
the application.
»Identifies dependencies, possible stakeholders and risk.

18. You want to add a new project?
 1:Know the Demand and Your Capacity
 2: Prep for the Next Project (Start Well)
 3: Manage Existing Projects (End Well)

19. You want to add a new project?
End Well - Manage Existing Projects
• Change Management ensures success.
• Ensure operational staff are ready for their support roles so the
project can better close out without support issues.
• Gate Reviews at key milestones identifies issues early.

20. You want to add a new project?
This Project Needs a Gate Review!
This was a project status report issued 3/2/2009. Project started more than
two years ago, has no end date and the project closeout was six months
back. The project health indicator is only yellow!

21. You want to add a new project?
Conclusions
• Build “The List” of Projects.
• Search Out Fragile Artifacts.
• Have a bias against project estimates: Be pessimistic in planning so
you can later be optimistic in execution.
• Hold some resources in reserve.
• Get a Running Start with Phase Zero to reduce risk.

22. You want to add a new project?
Contact Information:
Charles Howell
chowell@floyd.org
Join me on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesrhowell