Ready to dig in: Program management

The multibillion-dollarCustoms Modernizationproject had alreadybeen years in themaking when it wasawarded to IBM Corp.in 2001.Its goal was clear ?facilitate the tradeprocess, said WoodyHall, who at the timewas chief informationofficer at the CustomsService, as Customsand Border Protectionwas called then."In the beginning, [Customs Modernization] was moreabout speeding up and improving the process for clearinggoods through customs and making sure the appropriateduties were charged and collected," said Hall, now vice presidentof information technology strategy and CIO of GeneralDynamics Corp.'s IT sector.But then came the 2001 terrorist attacks,and the mission of the project changed ascounterterrorism became its primary focus."It still had to do those other things, butthere was a greater focus on targeting high-riskshipments," Hall said. "There was moreinterest around where it was coming fromand who was shipping it and receiving it.Had it been through the proper securityprocesses?"That the project survived and eventhrived after such a shift is a testament tothe project management processes and proceduresthat were there from the beginning,Hall said."Obviously, things had to change, and thatcosts money and takes time?. Those arethings that would often break a program,but it didn't break that program," he said.Good project management is built aroundpeople, process and technology.Processes are needed for scheduling andtracking work, estimating costs, and identifyingand mitigating risks, among othertasks. A variety of technologies are availableto help run those processes and in somecases automate them.The people portion is particularly crucialin the IT world because much of the work,such as writing code or bringing disparatestakeholders together, requires a humantouch.Many company executives and otherexperts interviewed for this story said agood project manager needs to be a politicalanimal. Not political in the sense of partyaffiliation but someone who can work withhis subordinates, customers, company andsometimes his customers' customers tobuild a consensus."The project manager needs the ability totake the different constituencies that areaffected by the project and build consensus,"said Rick Lowrey, executive vice president ofproducts and strategy at Deltek Inc.The project manager also needs to workwithin the context of the customer's statementof work, Lowrey said. "You have toask, 'What does it really mean? What is theend state? What is the vision?'" he said.With that in mind, project managersknow what to manage, what information tocollect and, probably most important, whatinformation the customer needs."Effective communications is probably thecornerstone of what is going to make yourproject successful," said Jim Cockle, a projectmanager at Science ApplicationsInternational Corp.Effective communications can take severalforms. One of the most basic elements isgiving reports to customers in a form theycan understand, Cockle said."In its essence, a project plan isa communications vehicle," saidDoug Clark, chief executive officerat Metier Ltd., an Arlington,Va., provider of project mangementsoftware and services. "It issupposed to tell people what youare doing, when you are going todo it and what you are trying toaccomplish."Program and project managersneed to communicate with theirleadership and corporate supportelements, such as contract offices,accounts payable and receivable,and human resources.Customers are looking forprogress reports, schedule andcost updates, and performancemetrics, Cockle said."One of our goals is no surprises for management,"he said.One of the primary goals of project managementis to keep a project under control andlook for early warning signs that it might begetting off track.The start of a project is often the mostcritical moment, and to get it off to a goodstart, the focus needs to be on the goal ofthe project."The rule of thumb is that if a project isgoing to go off the tracks, it is going to be inthe first 90 days," said Linda Allan, executivevice president at NCI InformationSystems Inc., of Reston, Va. "You really need to engage and understand what your customerwants."Most failed projects can be tracked backto poor development of requirements,experts say."The ability to craft the solution is rarelyever the problem. The problem is not gettinga clear agreement upfront on what it isyou are trying to do," Hall said."You need toknow what the endlooks like," said JimRogers, vice presidentof productmarketing atDeltek's governmentcontractorsector. "You need tobuild a plan. Ittakes time to dothat, but it is worthdoing."Without knowingwhat the endstate should be,there is no way tomeasure progress,said Gary Hobbs, vice president and managingpartner of defense and advanced programsand operations at Unisys Corp.'s federalgroup."You won't know where you are or whereyou are going," he said.One of the reasons projects fail to meettheir goals is that project managers oftenaren't brought into the process earlyenough."As soon as a need or an opportunity isidentified, the project manager ought to beassigned," said Keith Kerr, managing directorof the practice development group atRobbins-Gioia LLC, a project managementconsulting company in Alexandria, Va.A good project manager can be a criticalpart of the design phase of a project byworking with stakeholders, developingstaffing and cost plans, and helping with thetechnical analysis, he said. A project manager can identify the peopleneeded for a project, determine when theyare available and have them ready to go towork as soon as a contract is won, saidSandra Richardson, chief operating officerat Metier. "Resource management is a keypart of project management," she said.Information gathering also starts early.Stoplight charts are one of the tools NCIproject managers use to spot troublequickly."We use a metrics-based project-reportingsystem," Allan said.To complete their monthly reports, projectmanagers answer a series of questions.Depending on the answers, the stoplightchart turns green, yellow or red. For yellowsand reds, project managers complete a onepagePowerPoint slide that has four sections? one to explain what went wrong; a secondfor how they are going to correct it; athird for when they expect it to be corrected;and finally, when they will report on theprogress.The stoplights are an aid to general managers,who may be overseeing as many as 60projects. "They see all these reports coming,so this way they can focus just on the yellowsand the reds," Allan said.Fast access to information about problems,delays or other issues is especiallyimportant for government contractors, whooften operate on small margins, said FrancisCraig, president and CEO at UnanetTechnologies, which develops software forreal-time project management.Managers need to determine how big aproject is and how many tasks there will be.No one task should be more than two weekslong, she said. "You need granularity, particularlyfor large projects."Attention to detail allows contractors totrack the number of hours a task needs forcompletion, and tools from companies suchas Deltek and Unanet can pull informationon hourly costs, billing rates and salaries.Much of that data is critical to meetingrequirements for earned value managementsystems that agencies are asking for todetermine if they are getting a return ontheir investments."The government wants automatedreports and automated metrics. Requiringthat you have transparency and high visibilityinto those things requires that you haveautomated tools," Hall said.Many contractors now hold Six Sigma,International Organization forStandardization 9001 and CapabilityMaturity Model Integration certifications.Many of these certifications focus on therepeatability of processes and work hand-inglovewith good project management principles,experts say."Most companies codify their projectmanagement into a series of practices andprocedures. When I did the work for ourISO-9001 certification, we included projectmanagement," Allan said.The push for processes and procedures isas much for flexibility as for repeatability ofthe processes.The Customs Modernization projectchanged drastically in midstream. Recently,Hall heard the CIO who replaced hisreplacement speak about the project'sprogress.The project management structure was inplace to help the thought process for theshift to a counterterrorism mission. Hallsaid the right questions were asked: Whatdata is needed? What needs to change?Whom does it affect? What are the newrequirements?"I'm two generations removed now, but itfelt pretty good to hear him say the programis viewed as having fundamentally deliveredon its commitments," Hall said.