|
If you've followed me this far down the rabbit hole, you've learned how to apply earned value to your projects and may be inspired to share this technique with your peers and management. Motivating an organization to incorporate earned value into their culture is an exercise in change management. Effectively managing change isn't an easy process--and rolling out EVA throughout an organization can be challenging. Applying the following change management activities to your EVA implementation can help improve its adoption.
Assess the organization's readiness for change Is the organization ready to change? Before initiating an EVA rollout, consider the current state of the organization and determine if the organization is ready to adopt EVA. In order to implement EVA using MS-Project, project managers need a basic foundation in both process and tools. If project managers can not build resource-leveled project plans, do not understand project baselines or tracking project actuals, then additional training is required.
Does the organization have time to change? I haven't met an organization yet that has raised its collective hands and volunteered it is ready for change. However, being aware of any existing organization change initiatives will determine the scope and timing of an EVA roll out. If the organization is restructuring, preparing for an upcoming audit, or is focused on higher priorities, EVA may not be a timely issue.
The key to motivating EVA adoption is to communicate the benefits of objective status reporting. Educating the organization on the benefits of EVA and its ability to improve project health assessment helps prepare an organization to change. Do projects have a difficult time meeting end dates? Do projects suddenly turn red a day before launch? Are project managers following a realistic plan? Applying EVA helps answer these questions.
Communicate a vision
What is your vision for improving your organization's ability to deliver? Implementing EVA across the organization requires you to communicate a vision of improved project control and delivery. I created a presentation that described the current state and the future state with improved project control and awareness. I socialized the presentation with my peers and managers to gain their feedback and support. Sharing the presentation raised awareness of the objective technique that helped determine if a project would complete on time or exceed budget. The presentation became a part of my "EVA Road Show" that I started sharing with other department managers.
In my road show, I communicated a realistic vision of walking down the hall and asking project managers about their current SPI and CPI. The metrics provided a thumbnail sketch of the project status and confirmed the project managers were actively managing the plan. The administrative task of updating the project plan often falls to the bottom of the weekly To-Do list since project managers are busy resolving issues, mitigating risks and communicating throughout the week. Reporting EVA metrics requires the project manager to update the plan and measure progress against its baseline. Communicating a vision and demonstrating how it can be applied will raise the organization's awareness of objective project control techniques.
Develop management support
In order to effectively apply change management, you need senior management support. Grassroots efforts can be effective although they are often slow in adoption. Team members need to know the priority for the multiple requests they receive on a daily basis. The last thing Bob wants to do on Friday afternoon is track another metric if no one is going to use it. If the line management doesn't support your EVA effort, the task will immediately become optional. Depending on your management's understanding of EVA, additional education and convincing may be required. Some managers are familiar with the concept and others view EVA as a burden or a maintenance nightmare. You need to find a champion for your idea who understands the vision and is willing to pilot the technique. You also need to educate your management on the benefits and effort required to implement the technique.
If you can pilot a technique that provides substantial benefit with minimal ongoing effort while improving project management competency, management will sit up and listen. Start small and request to pilot the technique on a few projects. Let the results develop further support for a larger rollout across the organization.
To gain support for my effort, I applied EVA to one project that was described as "one of the best managed plans and currently on-track." After noticing the SPI was .67, the project team investigated the validity of the existing plan and addressed the late tasks. In this project, all of the tasks were not updated and schedule variances were not being tracked. The team was operating off a gut feeling and thought it could still deliver on time. Sharing the results of this pilot project generated further interest in an EVA pilot. Effective change management requires support from management who can influence the change across the organization.
Manage the transition to EVA
Senior management made EVA a priority and started asking for EVA metrics on major projects. Managers understood the benefits of committing to a project baseline and expected project managers to include EVA metrics with the subjective project status. By gaining senior management support, the EVA rollout was made a priority across the department. However, the transition to using EVA on major projects didn't happen automatically. The transition still needed to be managed and supported by project teams.
The transition was supported by conducting a series of workshops, presentations and 1:1 consulting over three months to educate project managers on EVA. Identifying project managers who were knowledgeable in EVA and willing to coach novice project managers helped support the transition and increased awareness. Some project managers responded well to coaches reviewing their plans and others were resistant to sharing plans with coaches from other project teams. Senior management helped overcome these resistance issues by requesting the metrics from each project.
The transition was incremental and the activities evolved over the three-month implementation. The workshops and presentations were refined based on the feedback and lessons learned also identified opportunities to improve the change management process.
Sustain Momentum
A lot of energy can be applied generating change and the effort can fail unless momentum is sustained. The EVA momentum was sustained by providing resources for project mangers. Websites, presentations and key contact lists were used to further communicate tips, tricks and hints to apply EVA and supplemental project management techniques.
After the pilot, the coaches continued to receive requests for assistance and additional information. Momentum was sustained as new EVA enthusiasts shared the benefits with their management and other departments. These departments supported the change by requesting EVA in their status reviews. Individual project managers provided the grass roots support to sustain the change and new project teams incorporated EVA metrics as a communication and project control tool.
Momentum is also sustained by reinforcing the new behavior with reward and recognition. The reward doesn't need to be monetary. Simply recognizing the project managers using the technique in a department meeting reinforces the message. Human nature recognizes the new behaviors valued by the organization and reluctant project managers gradually adopt the technique. Recognizing individuals for their support reinforces the organization's interest and further sustains momentum.
Conclusion
As much as I like to think my EVA implementation achieved a 100 percent adoption rate, I know the improvement of project management processes is an evolving one. Throughout the organization, the level of project management maturity still varies and EVA adoption adjusts with each project manager's skill set.
Some project managers are struggling with building a plan in MS-Project while others have baselined plans and are applying EVA. The capable project managers successfully adopted the technique and started teaching it to other project managers. The novice project managers also recognized the need to understand the fundamentals before moving to EVA.
The significant benefit of the implementation was the increased awareness of advanced project management techniques and the organization's opportunities for improving its project management maturity. Before the implementation, managers were vaguely aware of EVA theory.
The implementation provided an example of how the theory can be applied in practice. Previously, managers never inquired about objective metrics. Today, they ask about SPI and CPI and use EVA as an indicator to take action.
When you discuss EVA with your organization, people won't likely jump out of their seat with enthusiasm. It wasn't until the project managers applied EVA that they saw the value and supported the technique. Educate your teams, encourage them to try it, and continue to be a catalyst for improving your organization's project management maturity.
This article was written by Andy Makar and originally published on Gantthead.com
|
