Obtaining Tool Adoption (aka Fan Cleaning)
Have you ever wondered how people adapt to paying high gas prices, having one child and then two more or changing careers after 20 years? It’s cultural adoption and it is part of all aspects of life! In some cases, it is forced upon you and in others it is welcomed, but in all cases it required transition.
For the past several years I have been concentrating my efforts on web based applications for managing corporate strategy, project and budget portfolios. Today we are going to discuss a phased approach to cultural adoption. Achieving cultural adoption is critical to the success of your implementation of any tool in an organization. It is extremely difficult to achieve, but if done correctly can be very rewarding for you business and for your managers.
As we talk about cultural adoption we need to think of ourselves as change agents. We are attempting to change an existing culture into a more standard and consistent culture for some gain. It is very exciting and important to change in order to be innovative and competitive in todays market. It could be as simple as introducing calculators for the first time and putting a plan together to get the organization off paper and pencil and on the new tool.
Now, as change agents there are some things that I need to share with you. This is exciting stuff because in doing these things achieving cultural adoption has become much easier and I am no longer viewed as someone outside of reality. I have gained respect and have proved myself effective in moving organizations forward, quickly.
Here’s how you can jump start cultural adoption in your organization:
- First, is to educate yourself. The goal here is to find that passion and power to KNOW everything about where you are going and where you have been.
- Second, obtain experience by doing what you are teaching. You gain credibility when you can relate to your users.
- Next, get out of the box! You will be the target for all complaints. Expose yourself to what is true and myth. You can learn from your competitors and others using the tools and processes successfully. Know first hand what does and does not work.
- Finally, be effective! Be influential! Do this by recognizing small wins and delivering on each deliverable and recognizing the successes.
Let’s get into the project plan. The scenario is that you are responsible to implementing a new web application for project, resource managers to manage their work, resources, budget, portfolio, strategy and cost.
First, recognize you dilemma. There is a reason that a web application is being introduced. We recognized that there were the common fears of change. There are process and communication challenges. There are data integrity issues with data in multiple locations, numbers not agreeing and numerous hours and costs reconciling that data. There are also numerous tools performing the same function causing increased spending and more incomplete information.
Now we had to determine what the goals are for the organization. Achieving visibility into IT spending was a big one for us and the driving factor for this implementation. Additionally, we wanted to align our strategies and our resource capacity. We wanted a way to manage our work and resources in a common tool with visibility into status and streamlined processes. Finally we wanted to enhance our financial planning.
Identifying an approach was important for us to communicate to our stakeholders to obtain approval. Resources, money and time would be required to make this successful. Our approach included four steps as bases for the phases to achieve cultural adoption.
We started with communicating ‘what’ is expected for project and resource managers and contributors – providing consistent roles that apply the Enterprise requirements and any additional requirements by specific divisions. You can’t help someone if THEY don’t know where THEY are going!
‘How’ to do what’s expected – project and resource manager training classes and workshops. Designed to communicate ‘why’, ‘when’ and the impacts.
Apply practices and training to “their” work.
Quality monitoring to ensure accuracy of all work, resources, budgets and schedule are available in web app.
Our scope included all associates and we also included contractors. However, we did break up subject areas of concentration. We included Portfolio, Project and Resource Management. Within in each area, we broke down even further to ensure all topics were covered to enhance knowledge. In portfolio management, Methodology, Schedule and Budget definition are included. In project management, methodology, governance, budget definition, resource leveling and resource assignments are included. And in resource management, utilization, forecasting, budget definition, assignments and time entry.
As in any project, assumptions were made. Because we are introducing a tool for managers to use, we assumed that the PM knowledge and skill are in practice. We assume that managers are:
- Creating and tracking assignments
- Managing resource capacity
- Managing schedule dates and impacts
- Recognizes variances
- Communicates with project schedules
We also assumed that we have executive level by in. They must support the tools and processes presented and proposed and that they have no interest in becoming part of the popular statistics around project over-runs, unfunded projects and out dated deliverables.
Finally, what you have been anxiously waiting for! The phases. The phases model our approach. These iterative phases are more effective because they allow you to deliver on each phase and show success.
- Roll Out Kick off Communication – High level of what is expected
- Foundational knowledge – Details of what is expected, when and why – Methodology, governance and budget – includes responsibilities and Gate instruction. Foundational knowledge is the bases of all adoption. When you plan to build a building very tall and strong, you start with a very deep and strong foundation. This should be thought of the same way.
- Training – Functional demonstration – ‘how to’ and identifying potential interdependencies for resource and project management and contributors.
- Utilization and status reporting
Supplying objectives allows you to stay on track and informs your audience what you intend for them to take back from your effort. An example of objective for the foundation knowledge is to understand the Governance process.
Have a general understanding of Change Control Process. Have a general understanding of how the new web app will be used to support the processes.
Focusing now on the Training phase – because it is the very key to ensuring cultural adoption, let’s break the training phase into some manageable pieces. Identify your audience, determine the capabilities and the organizational readiness of your users. You may find that hands on training will be more beneficial than a presentation. You may find that your users are more successful with job aids than 400 page manuals. Determine what kind of support they will need and that you can provide. This could include mentoring, coaching and reviewing schedules for guidance and workshops.
All of the training classes should have a purpose. Beginning with the foundational training – the purposed should be to bridge the gap between project/resource managers and the governance process to promote cultural adoption. Provide an overview of the budget and how it impacts schedules and resources. Training for project managers and resource should also bridge gaps. Providing skills, techniques and practice will also stimulate cultural adoption. Providing purpose to the mentoring sessions will also ensure cultural adoption. Bridge the gap between knowledge and reality. Address real life issues and situations. This will require that YOU are educated and have experience!
The Implementation schedule should be very lean. Dragging out an implementation can make the organization anxious and frustrated with duplicate work. The roll out should only last 6 months. Realize and communicate, however, that cultural adoption is a personal process and the time it takes to be adopted cannot be mandated. This will be dependent on attitudes by all. Be prepared to be a cheerleader.
Finally, monitor and measure your success. Monitoring can be as simple as randomly selecting schedules to:
- Review task list for traceability
- Review the use of resources
And randomly selecting resource utilization screens to
- Review Utilization by team
- Review assignment by team
Our measurement was based on a 2 sigma quality goal. We plan to have:
- 95% of project schedules have manageable task lists in PV
- 95% of resources level loaded 3 months out
- 95% of projects baselines are within 15% of last approved budget
Some of the successes that we have experienced are: that a group of 3 people were able to train 400 users (PM, RM, contributors and budget coordinators) that impacted 267 projects. This was in one state and our most recent merger. It took 6 months from charter to triage.
Instantly we had increased visibility into work that was being performed, but was unfunded and not approved.
- We are getting better/more accurate data on actual costs related to our work.
- Gained global visibility into work schedules.
- Eliminated need for PM to provide copies of their schedules to managers.
- Managers have more accurate and up-to-date data.
- And for our PMO, we have identified project management skill and process gaps.
Both of which are initiatives for the PMO to ensure better processes and concentrate on enhancing PM skill.
I want to thank you for allowing me to share my success in obtaining cultural adoption. I hope that my suggestions enable you success as well. Remember, that a little risk planning will save a whole lot of fan cleaning!
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