The "Movement" of a Projet

Now that we have the “shape” of a project, it is time to consider its “movement”.

Movement is the status of the work - a simple example is shown below.

In this case, there are three statuses: “To Do” “Doing” “Done”

If the project is in the “To Do” status, that means work has not started on it yet:

When the project is in “Doing” status, work is actively being performed:

When all the tasks have been completed, the project can move into a “Done” status:

 These examples intend to show one way that status or movement can occur for bodies of work.

At a high level, there are two schools of thought when it comes to the movement of work:

"Traditional / Waterfall" or "Agile". Many resources are available that go in depth around both methodologies, and there is a spectrum of combinations in between as well.

Project Phases:

The last two Project Management Offices that I have launched utilized a hybrid approach between Waterfall and Agile. This "Phase Gate" model is a good place to start if your organization is early in the maturation model for work governance.

My "Phase Gate" model is:

Additionally, the phases of Paused, Blocked, and Cancelled are also used to capture the realities of work challenges.

The definitions of each phase are:

Going back to our example of a “shaped” project, the collection of projects an organization has in their portfolio can be viewed like this:

In the Explore Phase, the high risk or unknown tasks are shown in red. These are critical items that will determine what the shape of a project is. The goal of the explore phase is to address these tasks in the fastest, lowest cost way possible. This utilizes concepts from the Agile methodology like "Fail Fast, Fail Cheaply".

Once the red items have been clarified in Explore Phase, the Plan can now be fully created by answering the 5 questions: Why, What, Who, When, How Much.

In Execute, the tasks start to be performed and completed.

In Monitor, the tasks are mostly done. The remaining item is to monitor the actual results to see if they match the intended results.

Once Monitor is complete, the project can be moved into Close and the resources are released. A lessons learned can be the last activity for that project.

Deliverables for Each Phase:

A "charter" is a traditional concept from the Waterfall methodology. There are many definitions of what a charter should be, but as a first step in a maturity journey I recommend focusing on 5 basic questions: Why? What? Who? When? How Much?

Leadership “Gate” Reviews:

Leadership can use the concept of “gates” in the movement of a project. The primary point is to communicate the project is ready to move so we are checking in.

An executive leadership team may choose to perform gate reviews during a monthly cadence, or ad hoc as a project is ready to move forward.

Summary

A "Project Management Office" (PMO) can take many forms, from quite simple to complex. Understanding your organization's maturity journey and culture is foundational to selecting the right governance model.

In this model, a hybrid approach is used that blends some Agile concepts with traditional Waterfall phases. Let's talk about your organization and explore which model is right for you!