Tools of decision-making as a manager

Making decisions in an organization is partly an art but also a skill that can be perfected over time. A quick recap one of my previous posts, where I explored decision making in organizations and the conditions necessary for making sound decisions. These conditions were named as evidence, authority and process. From the executive to the components and to employees, this is something that an organization should be keen to enforce in its company-culture. PMI advocates for the use of Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to instill confidence in project management and help leaders make sound and wise decisions without compromising their integrity, PMBOK 4th Edition (2017). The complexity of decisions made in an organization scales with the management level in an organization. At the portfolio level, it is critical that the portfolio manager makes the right decisions when pairing projects to organizational strategies and choosing the right projects. As a project manager, it is also important that the right decisions are made in the management of projects. Employees should also make the right decisions when executing their job to safeguard the quality of the product or services they are working on.

To make a decision, one should evaluate on the nature and significance of the problem at hand. Programmed decisions are routnious in nature and are taken within the specified procedures. They are made with regard to

routine and recurring problems which require structured solutions. A manager is not expected to go through the problem solving procedures continously make programmed decisions. On the other hand non-programmed decisions are associated with unique problems that are non-repetitive. There are zero to very limited information and knowledge about such decisions. These kind of decisions are made under unfamiliar circumstances using new techniques. The standard and pre-determined procedures and rules are rendered ineffective because every decision will have to be taken separately. Such types of descions are meant for solving unstructured problems which keep on changing from time to time.

There are quite a number of tools and techniques that can be used in decision making that PMBOK suggests, which can come in handy. Some of the most effective and popular decision making tools include:

Cause and effect diagram: Also known as a fishbone diagram. It is very effective when the casue of a problem is to be found out In IT industry it focuses on the Big-5 M namely: Machine, Methods, Material (cosumables/information), Manpower and measurement.

Scatter diagram: This is a simple but also effective tool that is used at varying relations between 2 variables to support a decision. In case of investing how they relate, correlation may be deduced from such a graph.

Benefit/Cost ratio: An effective decision tool where finance is involved and there are alternatives. The benefits are calculated and divided with the costs. There is a coeffecient for each alternative and the one with the highest coeffecient is the best alternative. The problem associated with this tool however is that some benefits are not easily calculated such as customer satisfaction.

Histograms. These are used for showing a graphical representation of numerical data especially when there is need to view the number of defects per deliverable, a ranking of the cause of defects, the number of times each process is noncompliant or other representations of project or product defects

Some other effective tools include: weighted scoring models, Net Present Value, Opportunity Costs etc. As a project manager, the tool you choose and the method applied should be guided by code of ethics to improve transparency on the decisions made.

Decision making in project management

Making sound and well informed decisions is critical in project management. It is one of the tools a project manager should have in their back pocket, ready for use at anytime.

Organizations are now getting more corncerned with project managers who are able to make decisions in complex problems. The challenge faced

by most organizations is that it is not easy to define a good decision as the right decision. It is not possible to have a proper vision on whether the decision made will turn out to be the most feasible or not, but a project manager should be able to know whether it is a good decision or not. It is therefore of utmost importance that project governance structures integrate conditions for good decision-making as part of the company culture. These conditions are but not limited to;

Evidence

For project managers to be good decision-makers, they should have access to the correct data and contact to the right people in the organization. Having access especially to unadultereted data is key to knowing how any situation started and give them a better chance to assess the current situation and know the developments that have taken place since then. Any processing of the data risks selecting which data to emphasis, and introducing a bias in the way it is presented. If every decision-maker gets the same processed data, they are all subject to the same bias which may not necessarily be what is intended. For instance, a new member in the team who is told that it is routine for us to work this way, may be limited to the team’s work process. A good project maanger will let the new team member unleash their potential in a guided manner to know how this can be applied in the team’s working formula.

Authority

The project manager should be empowered to have the full authority needed, to make and commit to the decisions that they make. This is majorly about legitimacy and the established status, but also partially about the intellectual authority. Do they have the experience and expertise to make a sound decision? Project managers should also learn how to engage the other stakeholders and delegate powers to team members as long as they retain the ultimate authority.

Process

The process of decision-making can embed faulty analysis and bias; or it can counter them. So training is vital, to help decision-makers understand how to structure their process. This includes creating proper objectivity, and the need to balance data gathering, analysis, and exploration, against the need for timely decisions.

Good decision making skills are not easily achieved just by experience. Projects are in nature not always deterministic and they will be different challenges experienced in project management. PMI advoacates the usage of Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct for project managers to help them instill cofidence in making wise decisions. The project managers should also often seek the advice of operational managers who are in charge of running businesses in their organization as advided by PMBOK. By wielding the power to make decisions the project management should exercise authority within the governance framework of the company but still be guided the profession’s ethics especially when they are asked to compromise their integrity

Understanding governance in project management

I recently read an article on the power of governance in project management and what id actually means from projectmanagement.com. I could not agree any more with Mike Clayton’s article on the efficacy of governance in streamlining projects in an organization within the portfolios, program and project initiatives. Governance in a project management perspective should be understood to be the side rails through which a project framework is administrated. It facilitates efficiency in the initiating, execution and controlling of projects by providing an oversight authority role which remains active throught the project life cycle. As PMI states, it is however not a fit-all solution that is ready to use off-the-shelf, rather it should be customized based on the needs and project-approach culture of an organization. Companies with a culture of strong project governance can forsee when the project is derailing and guide it back to the right course. Likewise, they are able to realize emergent benefits and tap on them to realize more value from the projects, thereby achieving organizational strategies and priorities.

According to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition (Project Management Institute, 2017, p. 79), project managers ought to “know and understand where responsibility, authority and accountability reside within an organization”. This knowledge is necessary as it gives them power to use their competence and influence within the governance framework to ensure that the project is successfully completed within the defined time frame and scope. As a project manager, one should realize that a project is surrounded by lots of risks and the business processes do not always integrate well with the project as expected. The project managers are tasked with mitigating these risks and ensuring minimal interruption to ensure that projects deliver outputs. The decision-making ability of the project, program or portfolio manager is key to this success. Often, there are major decisions which require input from a group of authorized people rather than an individual. But let’s be realistic, it is not always that easy as a project manager to make the correct decision especially in the face of time constraints, compliance issues, meagre resources and executive expectations. It is therefore important that there should be clearly spelt out governance guidelines which integrate good decision making.

The Governance of Portfolios, Programs, and Projects: A Practice Guide
brings forth governance framework on the pillars of four domains namely; alignment, risk, performance and communications. I have expounded these four factors to give them an understanding of how a project manager can use them to establish the right governance structure. The PM should seek to:

Understand the governance model of the company if it exists. This should be a clear guide on what works, who should authorization be sought from when guidance is needed or in cases of a dead lock and who can help to fasttrack a project. A case in point is the Apple company. As the CEO, Steve Jobs entrusted the managers to make the right decisions so much, that whenever the managers needed to motivate their employees or push them to meet deadlines, all they needed to do was to onvite Steve Jobs during a sprint review. Well, maybe they had ill intentions but it worked well for the company and rarely were deadlines missed without a good reason, especially for big projects.

• Project managers should continously involve stakeholders during the project lifecycle and conduct risk assessment. This gives them good overview of the project and puts them in a good position to communicate status updates and changes made. It also boosts stakeholder confidence to know that there is someone is in good control of the project. I would actually advocate for project managers to be in the habit of allocating time during projects, to plan for the governance processes and also for those involved to prepare thoroughly

• It is quite common to see unambigous situations, where roles and responsbilities overlap each other without a proper defition on what the project manager should be accountable for. Within a good governance framework, this is replaced with clear functions and processes that guide project management activities to deliver deliverables which meet organizational strategies and goals.

• The project manager should lead from the front, set the right agenda during the meetings and ensure that they help the team to achieve their goals during the projects iterative cycles. It is also important that they have enough documentation and know which reports they are responsible for, review or expect. This helps to streamline activities especially when transiting from one cycle to another one or tracking a project’s success.

• While reporting is essential within the project initiative, it is equally important in the program and portfolio initiatives. The project manager should remain alive to the fact that the project is well tracked in accordance with the project charter and project management plan. This not only keeps it in sync with the expected output, but also gives the program and portfolio managers an assurance on the project’s status. Prioritizing strong record keeping creates transparency, accountability, and a reliable source of good data to help oversight and decision-making process function robustly

• Continous monitoring and control: What project metrics are the prject manager accountable for, have an interest in and monitor? These should be to monitor the KPIs and help the team to deliver. The PM should as a better practice establish a stage gate process in the prjects to ensure consistency and efficiency, bearing forth good results.

In the second part of this article, we seek to understand which roles are responsible for maintaining and establishing project governance in organizations.