In a previous post, I mentioned that I had attended the 2008 PMI Mile High Project Management Symposium in Denver, Colorado. We were there as a vendor, exhibiting our project management software, EnterPlicity, and services. The keynotes were James Lovell, the captain of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and Gene Kranz, the flight director. I sat in on their talk and despite already knowing the story, I found it interesting to listen to their personal tale of events. I also thought about some facets of their story that illustrate principles that underscore the value of project management software in general and the importance of other factors in making it successful.
Let me start with a quick recap of the story. Apollo 13 was the third flight intended to land men on the moon. On its journey to the moon, an explosion in an oxygen tank crippled the vehicle resulting in a crisis that fortunately resulted in the safe return of the three astronauts on board. For a little more of a synopsis, I found this post on TechJunction:
http://eequalsmcsquare.com/technews/2007/04/13/back-in-time-april-1970-apollo-13-tells-houston-weve-got-a-problem/
Here are some thoughts.
First, Mr. Kranz and Mr. Lovell emphasized the importance of key attributes such as leadership, perseverance, hard work, respect, and teamwork. They could have focused on the benefits of the technology, or the reliability of the spacecraft systems, or on some other technical aspect which was clearly important. They did not. They attributed the success of the Apollo 13 return to the attributes of the teams that worked hard to bring the astronauts back. Often times the emphasis with project management software is on the features, technology, or bells & whistles that the software can perform. There is almost a mentality that good software will help us get better at project management. As with the spacecraft systems on Apollo 13, the technical aspects are important, but they are not enough. We must have leadership, discipline, teamwork, and similar attributes to truly gain the value out of project management software. You marry the right principles and processes with the right technology and you create a significant competitive advantage.
Second, the talk made apparent the fact that the unexpected will occur. It clearly did on Apollo 13. And it clearly does in our projects. Implementing project management software is another project. How you utilize it down the road will be different than how you envision it initially. You may have a different organizational plan, different processes, or you may decide to make it more complex or simple. That is why it is important that software be flexible enough to adapt. And that people are as well.
Third, we cannot discredit the technology itself. The entire Apollo program was built on technology, and in fact would not have been possible without the modern technology of the day. Project management software has some good technology to bring to the table. It is now possible to centralize (fairly easily) all of the information associated with our projects. That should not be overlooked. While the process side of things are equally important, the technology itself can drive important changes. In fact, sometimes it is easier to drive software than to drive a lot of process improvement. Ideally, an organization will work out its processes and then implement the tools to support them. However, sometimes it is realistic to get people on board with using technology, and then use that technology to drive the processes. It's a little backwards but sometimes in the real world it works. The point is that while technology itself will not solve anything, good technology can be a driving force for positive change and accomplishing new goals.
Fourth, training is important. The Apollo 13 astronauts and controllers simply would not have had a successful outcome if they were not well trained. People must be trained properly on project management software for an organization to utilize it effectively. Put another way,
the proper amount of the right training is important to gain value from the. There are two key phrases there. "The proper amount" means that people need enough but not too much training. Today, there are tools available that simply do not require days and days of training. It should be much simpler than that. However, there is a "proper amount" that is needed. "The right training" means to train people on what they need to perform their key processes. Everyone does not need to know the ins and outs of the technology. Some people do. Most people just need the right training to perform their processes. They also need the "conceptual" training to understand why they are doing what they are doing. They need to understand why we break out work and not simply how to move boxes around. Once they get all of that, they become effective users of the technology as well as effective project contributors.
technology
I hope these "off the top of my head" thoughts inspire some thinking on your part. I'll pass more along as I think about them. We'll resume are postings shortly on the various project management software categories out there.