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Story Mapping is an agile technique that finds itself applicable in the delivery of a new product or new feature in an already established product. Created by Jeff Patton, this method allows for a customer to visibly navigate through all of the user tasks it takes to utilize a product from the beginning till the end. The assignment of these tasks are ordered in such a way that brings the most value to the customer. Nicholas Muldoon, the Co-Founder of Easy Agile, describes this process as “a facilitated, curated conversation” that essentially gathers everyone involved to navigate through it. A user story mapping can be used whenever you need to create understanding of the future releases of your product while simultaneously maintaining the current state of the product vision. The process of the agile user story map is most beneficial for agile teams. It is a useful tool in agile planning that assists in development and allows for the team to be able to receptively respond to change. When developing story maps, an agile team would take into consideration of the Agile Manifesto values that communicate the importance of collaborating with a customer in place of the negotiation of a contract and responding to change instead of following a plan. These values creates the environment for the team to maintain flexibility as well as prioritizing the customer journey for a viable product. Flat Product Backlog vs Story MappingFlat product backlog is one of the most common tactics utilized in agile software development. It is essentially developed as a “to-do” list of things to cross off that will essentially bring value for a customer. It is designed with a top-down approach in mind which places the most valuable items at the top of the list with the least valuable items at the bottom. This allows for things to be crossed off in order of priority. This differs from story mapping as story mapping contextualizes each list item into a bigger portion of the development task. Story mapping established the entire picture of a product while flat backlog simply does not. Flat backlog makes it difficult for a product manager to make a determination of whether or not their team identified the necessary user stories. It also doesn’t give product managers the ability to explain how the system works and what it does. User story maps creates a visual that allows for the agile development team to focus on the customer outcomes that are desirable. Agile teams are able to identify and execute a variety of features based on how each customer responds as well as track progression. This also produces less waste with improved outcomes for the entire product in contrast to flat backlog. Creating User StoriesOne way to begin creating a user story would be to define what your goals are. The best way to initially format the user story would be to think about product interactions from this perspective: As a [type of user], I want to [action] so that [benefit]. A few user story examples of this would be:
According to the Jeff Patton, creating the user map in done is six steps:
It is important to first approach developing a backbone in your story to describe high-level tasks or high-level features from beginning to end. These steps creates the building block to producing a collaborative approach for the story map. Walking Skeleton
The walking skeleton is in essence the core of a user story and one of many parts that creates the entire story map. It is utilized to give a visual representation and descriptor of essential components that are required to release a valuable product. They are stories provide a user experience with tasks that they can perform throughout the product. This particular set of stories allow for the product to be functional at the bare minimum and are interchangeably known as minimum marketable features. Combining the walking skeleton with other user persona type like the backbone and other stories underneath the walking skeleton, you will then have a full story map. INVEST CriteriaCreating and assessing the quality of a user story in the initial story map is traditionally done through the INVEST criteria. If there is any part of a story that does not meet any of the criteria, it would be important for the story to either be readjusted or reworded. Independent – every user story should represent independent business values so that they can deliver those values if they were to be released alone. Negotiate – The method to achieving each goal should have the ability to being negotiable. Regardless of who is involved in the transaction. This could be between the product owner and the customer, or the product owner and the development team. Stakeholders can also find themselves involved in the negotiation process. Valuable – Each story should represent some form of value to any specific user type. Estimate – There must be enough information readily available so that the story could be appropriately sized so that the plan can be properly implemented and there is commitment to completion. Small – Small stories are preferable for user stories so that they are able to be completed within a single sprint. Testable – The entire team should be able to utilize precision as a means of verifying the completion of a user story. 3 C’s in User StoriesHaving an established approach in creating user stories is beneficial to this agile format. The most common approach is the Three C’s approach. This approach was coined by Ron Jeffries in Extreme Program Installed. The Three C’s specified are card, conversation and confirmation. Jeff Patton also discusses this approach in more detail at Flowcon. Card This is a collaborative exercise that is implemented by throwing out any information that comes to mind, including potential titles of the stories themselves. Be mindful that stories should be written in a manner that creates a statement of value and intent. This is known as user voice. Conversation Confirmation Advantages and Mistakes in Agile Story MappingBenefitsThere are direct advantages of story mapping in the agile processes. Story maps allows for everyone in the development team to understand the entire construct of the application, especially the parts that finds itself to being the most difficult. This process also allows for your team to have a complete visual of the product, solving a major complaint that exists in agile teams. Teams are able to see where each part fits into the entire system. One additional benefits of user stories is that it assists teams in identifying what areas to develop first. If it appears when developing a website that the user journey of a website finds itself focused on a specific section of the about me page more often than other web pages, then it would be most beneficial to begin building upon it first. MistakesIt is important for product managers to be mindful of common mistakes that occur through mapping. A common mistake that occurs in utilizing user story maps is that teams can find themselves working with a customer that is not familiar with their product. It is vital to have someone familiar so that you will have more certainty in the value that they provide when navigating. Not keeping the story map visible to your agile team is another mistake that appears in development. The story map is a reminder for the entire picture of an application. If it is not seen clearly and often by the team, a lot of goals can become lost in the process. Tools for creating agile story mapFinding the right tools is vital to creating an agile story map. Jira is considered one of the most useful tools for developing the map. Here is a list of mapping programs that integrate with Jira: 1. Easy Agile 2. Bauer 3. StoriesOnBoard 4. Cardboard 5. FeatureMap Via https://pm-training.net/agile-story-mapping/
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The main aim of progressive elaboration is to enable a team to solicit and receive feedback from a range of stakeholders at each stage of a new project. This often leads to a modification of project requirements, and it gives the team the facts, insight, and knowledge it needs to see the project through to a successful completion. As a Agile project manager we expect change as we are innovating and a lot of the time are dependent of user feedback to make educated decision on how best proceed. There are instance in traditional project management where there are unknowns and it makes sense to mitigate these risks by taking a rolling wave planning approach. This way of planning can be very useful on extremely complex projects. It is a way of ensuring that people are not overwhelmed by the enormity of the tasks, and that they are able to do one thing at a time—and do each thing well.
PMBOK 6th Edition mentions two types of progressive elaboration; rolling wave planning and prototypes. Progressive Elaboration in Waterfall Project LifecycleProgressive elaboration is a process of the Project Planning Process Group set out in the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge. It involves the continual improvement and development of a plan as more details about it become available. The waterfall method is stricter. It flows from well-defined project requirements; and it is designed to move sequentially as follows: requirements-design-implementation-verification-deployment-maintenance. 
The waterfall method is most suitable for projects in which the requirements are known and unlikely to change, and in which there are a great many dependent tasks and specific deployment dates. This method is easy to understand and manage. There are usually few production issues, and there is better budget management. Change Requests as a Result of Progressive ElaborationThe employment of one of the above progressive elaboration methods may result in a change request. If the process has yielded new information, insights, and facts, the project manager may be compelled to ask for a change to the initial plan. This can lead to more work for the project manager which is a tradeoff for mitigating the risks involved. Agile has a principle of less documentation as they embrace change. Agile Project ManagementThe agile method gives teams the power to adjust the project mid-course to address customer needs or to solve problems that arise. It works best on projects without known deadlines or a full scope of requirements. It tends to require a smaller budget and is perfect for projects that are more experimental in nature. 
Rolling Wave Planning and Progressive ElaborationRolling wave planning is a technique of progressive elaboration. It consists in planning at a very detailed level the activities that are closest to you in time, and planning in a less detailed way the operations that must be undertaken later in time. This is one of the more flexible ways of project management. It allows your team to put their focus of effort on what is immediately before them. 
Prototyping vs Iterations in Iterative processThe language of manufacturing design has made its way into the professional management industry. There is no mystery as to why this is the case. The methods required to design a product that is usable and safe can be applied to an organization that similarly wants to create an effective end-product. The iterative process is a repeated cycle of designing, prototyping, testing, and refining multiple versions of a product. Rather than working in distinct stages, the project management team makes small adjustments to the proposed end-product in real-time. It allows the team to identify problems, get stakeholder feedback, and come up with innovative ideas as they go along. It is a more intuitive way of managing a project. When using an iterative process, you should never have to start from scratch. You are constantly refining at every state of the process. Benefits of Progressive Elaboration PlanningThese are some of the pros and cons of using progressive elaboration: 1. Efficient Project Goal SettingThe projects most likely to succeed are those with clear and firm goals. Progressive elaboration makes it easier to set SMART goals. The acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. SMART goals will help you deliver the project on time and on budget. 2. Better communications with Progressive ElaborationProgressive elaboration makes it easier to manage stakeholders who are critical to project success. It gives project managers the ability to build and keep their teams together. The method is also helpful in enlisting the help of organizational experts and getting feedback from frontline workers. 3. Accurate Project Risk AssessmentProgressive elaboration allows organizations to identify the biggest risks of undertaking a project before you even start it. Doing so will enable you to plan for such contingencies and make better decisions when problems emerge. 4. Avoiding Rigid PlanningThere is also the risk of becoming too rigid in the execution of plans, which can create a stressful environment in the organization. The iterative process is a repeated cycle of designing, prototyping, testing, and refining multiple versions of a product. Rather than working in distinct stages, the project management team makes small adjustments to the proposed end-product in real-time 5. Identify Problems + Incorporate Feedback Earlier.It allows the team to identify problems, get stakeholder feedback, and come up with innovative ideas as they go along. It is a more intuitive way of managing a project. Via https://pm-training.net/progressive-elaboration-agile/ Maximize the effectiveness of your project management skills by using lessons learned templates. A lessons learned document is a simple breakdown, written by the project manager, of every potential and existing problem that has been found within a project. An effective lessons learned report will also have proposed solutions to these problems. Now, the reason why we’ll be focusing on a template, is so that one won’t be starting from scratch with every report they write and it’s done right. Creating Your Lesson Learned Template Steps
Google Docs Lesson Learned TemplatesWe converted these templates from Word because Google Docs are collaborative compared to having local version and sharing via email. Google docs you are sharing links making it quicker and easier to complete the lessons learned templates. Top Tips for Creating Lessons Learned Documents
How to Create a Lessons Learned TemplateTo begin your lessons learned template there are a few things that you will need to keep in mind:The best way to begin is by analyzing past lesson learned document to understand what I was required and get one in the mindset of analyzing the failures and the accomplishments as seen in the project. By seeing what has been done successfully one is better able to assess the task at hand. All documents that represent the major ups and downs throughout the project should be collected and used during the lessons learned analysis. It’s easy to forget the little things when looking at the end of a project, but it’s a little things that make a big changes and affect the outcomes. A project survey will need to be completed by everyone working on the project so the better insight can be had into the inner workings of the day-to-day tasks completed in order to provide results. This survey should ask questions about all different parts of the project so that a better understanding can be had by all. You’ll need the change log, or the record of every change requested, made, and suggested for the project in question. This contributes insight to where things started out, and what changes could be made, could not be made, and potentially should’ve been made. It’s important to note that though they are similar, the lessons learned report is different from the project closure document. The project closure document is an overall assessment of the project and, as stated in the name, can only be completed once the project has ended. The lessons learned analysis takes place to show what was done correctly, what was done incorrectly and seeks to provide a heuristic benefit. Lessons Learned Templates in Google SheetsWhen accessing a Google Sheet to edit you need to go: File / Make a Copy. This will only be available of you are logged into Google. Lessons Learned Templates in PDFThis is a platform one should use if using an existing template or lessons learned example. This is also a perfect platform to use when the analysis is fully completed and one wish is to share their findings with others, but while creating an analysis this might not be the easiest technology to use.
Lessons Learned Template Online Software / ToolsLet us know what you thought of this article! If you found it helpful please reach out to us in the comment section and let us know! I’m glad that I was able to write this because I know when I was first faced total with the lessons learned document I was completely confused. Hope this was helpful if so please let us know Via https://pm-training.net/lessons-learned-template/ It is costly mistake choosing the wrong outsource software development model. As a project manager or product manager you want to always be delivering value to the customer. You don’t care about software engineering practices. Its outcomes you want not outputs. The software development model will determine how you will communicate with the team going forward. It manages expectations and set ground rules for ways of working. we know communication is the reason most projects fail. Choosing the right outsource software development modelIf you plan to have a long standing relationship with the software development team it needs to be an agile approach. That is an absolute MUST HAVE. The real decision is to choose lean project management vs agile methodology such as scrum. Lean Software Development focuses on delivers outcomes When you should use lean is you want to have your development team part of the mission to service your customers. You need to provide them with your problems not requirements. The last thing you want is to spoon feeding the development team requirements as this just leads to poor results. You want the team to be focused on delivering outcomes. Scrum focuses on delivering outputs When you should use other Agile methodologies such as Scrum Agile Framework work is when you are outsourcing your software development. You need to realize though what you are doing is staggered waterfall not Agile per se. Scrum gets lost in following the framework vs delivering value. If you want your IT department to be a cost center and think its okay you should read LeanEssays: The Cost Center Trap. Avoid Feature Factories John Cutler came up with the term feature factory as he saw some companies become more interested in completing story points than learning what types of functionality users actually wanted. John viewed these organizations as factory workers assembling features without thinking about what they contributed to the product. 
We discuss how you can avoid this by implementing a lean methodology vs agile in our latest blog post. Via https://pm-training.net/outsource-software-development-model/ Lean project management vs Agile isn’t the question you should be asking. It is if lean vs scrum or XP. This is because in my opinion lean empathizes what Agile set out to do. It is product management at its core. There is no bigger waste than building features that a user won’t use. Lean is focused on addressing this. 1. Outcomes vs OutputsAs a business owner or product manager you want to always be delivering value to the customer. You don’t care about software engineering practices. Its outcomes you want not outputs. The IT department plays a critical role in the success of your business. You will be investing a lot of money for them to help you deliver strategic plans and revenue for the company. It should be deeply integrated with business functions. How to do this is by having product teams. When you should use lean is you want to have your development team part of the mission to service your customers. You need to provide them with your problems not requirements. The last thing you want is to spoon feeding the development team requirements as this just leads to poor results. You want the team to be focused on delivering outcomes. Lean focuses on delivers outcomes When you should use other Agile methodologies such as Scrum Agile Framework work is when you are outsourcing your software development. You need to realize though what you are doing is staggered waterfall not Agile per se. Scrum gets lost in following the framework vs delivering value. If you want your IT department to be a cost center and think its okay you should read LeanEssays: The Cost Center Trap. Scrum focuses on delivering outputs 2. Lean Project Management & Agile Have Same PrinciplesLean is actually the most Agile of all methodologies if you look at the principles. I have attempted to map lean principles to agile principles below. There is a comprehensive overlap. Why I favor lean over other Agile methodologies is the acceptance that there is waste in Agile methodologies and we should look at reducing it. Lean focuses on delivering value to customers faster by identifying and removing waste from a manufacturing process, or (put another way) by reducing lead times through optimization of the value stream. Lean primarily focus is reducing waste. Scrum focuses on user centered product. There are 7 types of waste in lean product development. Maybe you don’t need a estimation session every week so you have a backlog of story points for the next 18 months. This is why I feel other Agile methodologies hide behind the framework which can quickly turn into a staggered waterfall approach vs agile project management.
DevOps is mainly geared towards the first 3 principles of Agile:.
3. Lean Product Development vs ScrumLean project management was first crafted by Mary and Tom Poppendieck by taking lean manufacturing techniques and using them for software. The wrote the book “Lean Software Development”, which utilized Lean values, practices, and principles to the software industry. 
Scrum is the Agile methodology of choice used by large enterprises. They are utilizing Scrum as a hybrid project management as staged project management vs staying true to Agile principles. Methodologies such as SAFE and LeSS are a high contributing factor to this. The core idea of Scrum was to release small increments of value to the customers. This works well in small companies. Unfortunately, in large companies, it’s not so easy when you have multiple layers of people acting as the customer. You are reporting and gathering feedback from managers and there is a large disconnect in the entire process. Scrum has clearly defined ceremonies to enable these 9 principles from Daily stand-ups, planning, sprints, estimation, refinement and retrospectives but these are number 4 to 12 in the 12 Agile Principles. A lot of these software development processes such as daily stand-ups are great to increase communication. Having retrospectives and review sessions are essentials forums to gather feedback and improve as a team. A couple of issues I found with Scrum, which I personally found anti-agile were:
The role of Product Owner is one of the main issues with the Scrum framework. They are the linchpin in Scrum. In my opinion the business has a product owner in place to be the project manager to give status updates, the team expect them to be a business analyst being bale to prepare detailed stories and specs. Mary Poppendieck discuses this problem very well.
4. Lean Avoids Feature FactoriesIn theory it might seem they are applying Agile principles but what they are really doing is building endless backlogs and feature factories. John Cutler came up with the term feature factory as he saw some companies become more interested in completing story points than learning what types of functionality users actually wanted. John viewed these organizations as factory workers assembling features without thinking about what they contributed to the product.
I have a similar opinion to John as team leaders are more interested in burndown charts and hitting sprint goals than the business outcome achieved. This is how success is measured. It can be argued other Agile methodologies such as Scrum which are centred around software development teams and processes. Even though most companies I have worked with, have implemented Scrum, some better than others. There was always a disconnect to actually releasing due to testing and scheduling etc. After reading The Phoenix Project it gave me a new understanding of these struggles but from Ops team point of view instead of the feature team. Simply because a feature has been “released” from a sprint doesn’t mean that it actually goes “Live” into a production environment. I admit I took for granted the struggles of deploying code into new environments and never really understood the struggles that the development team were protected from. The Phoneix Project teaches W. Edward’s Deming ‘appreciation for the system’ which highlights the need to ensure the fast, predictable, and interrupted the flow of planned work that delivers value to the business while minimizing the impact and disruption of unplanned work, so you can provide stable, predictable and secure it service. Lean project management puts the customer first. 5. Lean Project Management is Based on Toyotas SuccessThe phrase Lean Project Management is adoption from lean manufacturing which is focused in eliminating waste. Lean Manufacturing methods were developed by Toyota from studying the work process in supermarkets fulfilling stock needs. The supermarkets were able to fill the shelves with just enough product to keep the consumer happy and enough stock to keep shop owner happy. 
Toyota wanted to replicate this in their factories so they assigned Taiichi Ohno one of their engineers to implement it. This is in turn created lean manufacturing and the word Kanban was used by Toyota to describe the process. The word Kanban translates to signboard in Japanese (). When working in a start-up though we avoid this issue by working in teams that have full end to end accountability for delivering business outcomes. The product and tech team are actively reviewing data to make decisions to help deliver the outcomes. Lean Product Development ExplainedProduct management is critical to developing the right thing at the right time for the right people. 6. Lean Recognizes 7 Types of WasteThe 7 types of waste in lean product management include task switching, defects, waiting, extra processes, not finishing work. 
I feel lean is the perfect Agile methodology if you want to be a user centered organization. At its core its about providing value to the end user. The core lean tools such as Kanban Boards, Value Stream Mapping, A3 for PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), Devops as Software development all incorporate lean thinking. 7. A3 for Easy Planning and AnalysisA3 a structured way to learn about a dilemma and explore options for improving the situation. It can include value stream maps. 8. Kanban Framework for Improved Ways of WorkingThe core principles of Lean Product Management were created by Mary and Tom Poppendick inspired by Lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing used Kanban boards such the Toyota system. Kanban is a framework for managing flow of materials or information. Kanban matches amount of work to a teams capacity giving them more flexible planning options, faster output and transparency throughout the development cycle. Kanban has one main tool the Kanban Board, which augments the traditional Iteration Backlog with additional detail by including the development steps/processes as well as introducing work limits per queue.
Even though Kanban doesn’t define a full agile life cycle it has gained popularity as it replaces the Iteration Backlog and can adapt to change a lot quicker. It is also been used by companies new to Agile as it can fit in with their current process without much interruption. 
Most project can be viewed as a process to achieve a desired result. Kanban is a tool for managing the process and manage the optimal flow of work within the project. There are 3 rules to implement Kanban.. Rule #1: Visual WorkflowA visual representation of the process is key for success especially with more complexed processes. To create the visual representation you need to determine the workflow of the tasks to complete the project. For software development a simple example workflow would be… Analyse -> Design -> Develop -> Test -> Release These would then get their own columns in the Kanban board. After you have created the Kanban board you need to set limits to each column. Rule #2: Limit Work in Process (WIP)
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| Agile Team Role | Role Description Responsibility |
|---|---|
| Product Owner | – Creating, Ordering and clearly communicating Product Backlog items; – Ensuring that delivered features meet user needs |
| Technical Lead | – Delivery of agreed sprint work and ensures definition of done has been met by team members – Identifying and clearing technical roadblocks for team |
| UX Designer | – Works with product owner and tech lead to create mockup designs |
| Developer | – Works on prioritized work by product owner in the sprint |
| Tester | – Work with Product Owners to define Acceptance Criteria and the Definition of Done. – Measuring and reporting test coverage across all applicable coverage dimensions |
| DevOps | – Version control, testing, security, integration and deployment method |
| Architect | – Defining and maintaining the structure of the solution, and ensuring that it will meet the requirements |
| Scrum Master / Agile Coach | – The removal of impediments to the Agile Team’s progress – Ensuring that all ceremonies take place and are positive, productive, and within the timebox. |
| Project Sponsor / Stakeholders | – Project sponsor empowers the product owner to act on their behalf – Stakeholders work with the product owner who manages communication with project team |
| Agile Project Manager | – Responsible for planning, leading, organizing, and motivating Agile project teams |
| Product Manager | – Identifies the customer need and the larger business objectives that a product or feature will fulfill. |
Thinking of Agile Roles Differently using Jobs
Agile by Design propose that you define a small number of overarching jobs descriptions made up of lots of narrow and overlapping roles and behaviors. All of the different things people can do are captured as behaviors. Behaviors are identified by people in teams, and required behavior can and will change based on the emerging needs of the team.
In tech organizations the 3 jobs. Every one fits into one of those three jobs. Every possible permutation of what people can do to create value is slotted into one or more of these jobs. We empower people to flesh out the details in terms of level, behaviours, roles, etc. But official job titles are limited to these three.
Product people focused on achieving market success with our technology solutions.
Delivery people that assist and facilitate the delivery of our technology software.
Agile by Design propose team members to refine their job and role description in terms of what behaviors are core to their job (what they are accountable for), and what behaviors are adjacent to others. Try to move as many behaviors as you can into the adjacent bucket. Keep revisiting until the team becomes more comfortable into letting the “play determine the role”.
I will need to do further research into Agile by Design approach but from the above images you can see there is a clear benefit of encouraging team members to do more but making it clear who is accountable.
Via https://pm-training.net/agile-team-roles-defined/
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Welcome to another edition of Weekly PMT, my free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to grow your Project Management Career
After recently joining a startup one of the key tasks I set out to do was bringing some order and process to the product development process.
In my opinion it wasn’t clear who was doing what and how it all worked. We had multiple projects in play. Lots of opinions on what was most important and how to do it. Worst of all we had zero to no budget to grow the team.
There was an immediate need to learn who were the key stakeholders and their needs and wants. I use 3 tools to help me accomplish this:
- Stakeholder Map
- Dangerous Animals
- Build a RACI Chart
I’m not one to jump in with my bright ideas and tell everyone they are wrong. I take couple of weeks to get an understanding of the internal workplace dynamics especially. This helps avoid cognitive bias from only speaking to select set of peers.
Stakeholder Map
Firstly, I started my stakeholder map so I could identify who were the key stakeholder in the company. I kept this simple and just had it on the back of my notepad as it was a personal opinion than a project specific.
If in a project environment I would look at creating a formal stakeholder map using Miro or something similar.
Included with the titles I added the peoples names to help me remember. One of the first was the CFO and understanding his needs.
CFO Needs…
- Health of company
- Revenue
- Market share
- Average order size
- Profitability
- Return on assets
- Health of finance
- Order to cash cycle
- Accounts receivable
- Accurate and timely financial reporting
- Borrowing costs
As the weeks fly by I will look at doing the same with the other executives and key stakeholders.
The Key Stakeholder Disruptors
Secondly, started identifying the various characters in the company. The 4 common people I run into as a product manager is the HIPPO, the RHINO, the WOLF, and the ZEBRA.
These are common across businesses especially in small companies where opinions run riot. I quickly started assessing and put tactics in place to tame them.
Printing out the below and putting up on a wall is a great way to get people to identify which animal they are being Hopefully they have the self-awareness to realize what they are doing is being disruptive and look at improving their behaviour.
Finally, after identifying the key stakeholders, some of the key disruptors and attending some sessions I quickly realized that the team were not clear and who was accountable for what.
RACI Matrix for Stakeholders
Working in a small company this can be pretty tricky as people double and triple job the lines can easily get very blurry.
For example we need user guides. Ideally we would have a technical content creator or product marketer than can could oversee this piece of work. We had no such person but the task had to be done.
Instead it would fall to the Product Owner, Designer, Team Lead and Digital Lead. It was just not clear who was ultimately responsible for the success of delivering this output.
This why I held a roles and responsibilities session where the output was a RACI chart. Firstly, we identified all the roles we would expect if we had unlimited budget.
Secondly, we listed all stakeholder across the top of our RACI table. Complete the cells of the model identifying who has responsibility, accountability and who will be consulted and informed for each task.
We ensured every task had at least one stakeholder Responsible for it.
No tasks had more than one stakeholder Accountable.
As we went through each task we resolved any conflicts where there is more than one for a particular task. Read more about creating a RACI chart here.
Conclusion on Stakeholder Management
All of the above was very much step one of identifying stakeholders and putting some guard rails in place to help the project run smoothly but that’s just the start.
My attention will swiftly switch to improving communication channels within the company and stakeholders which I will cover next week.
Kind Regard,
Shane Drumm
Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail
Founder PM-Training — Helping Project Managers Further Their Careers
Via https://pm-training.net/startup-stakeholder-management/
Power Dynamics in the workplace can be tricky grounds to navigate especially if you are lacking expert power as a project manager. The authority you will have as a project manager will be determined by the organization structure you are working within. The power you have will be determined by the characteristics you have as a project manager.
Relying solely on expert power as a having experience in the area or being a subject matter expert can be a cortical mistake. We outline the other types of power a project manager can use to successfully deliver a project. Specifically reward power can be used so easily and effectively its silly not to use it.
A great project manager can utilize different types of power depending on the situation regardless if they work in functional or weak matrix organizations. They will look at their skills of building relationships in the workplace to achieve the desired results.
Having expert power is always a bonus to come across as an authority in the subject and avoids relying on other expert opinions but this can be hard to be avoided depending on how technical the project can be.
In some organizations they will choose a project manager based on their knowledge of the area already. Then the project manager will be able to utilize their exert power to influence the project. They are a source of knowledge which others in the workplace are then coming to them for help which provides leverage and good working relationships.
Power Dynamics per Type of Organization for Project Managers
There have 5 types of organizations that a project manager will find themselves working in. The different organizations provide formal authority which is legitimate power from French and Ravens 6 basis of power. With expert power in any organization it will give you an advantage.
Power and authority are both methods of influencing other people. Power is a personal trait derived from knowledge and expertise, while authority is a formal title or position given by an organization or another personal. Authority is legitimate and formal, while power is neither.
Difference Between Power and Authority (with Comparison Chart) – Key Differences
| Type of Organization | Implications for Project Manger |
| Functional Matrix | All project team members report to a functional manager with little to no authority. |
| Weak Matrixed | Project managers do have some authority; but not over the resources on a project. |
| Balanced Matrix | Project managers share authority with the functional managers. |
| Strong Matrix | Project managers have more authority than the functional managers as focus is on the delivery of the project |
| Projectized Organization | Project manager makes all of the decisions about a project’s schedule, quality, and resources. |
Understanding the type of organization gives you a better a footing on what actually authority you have over the project tram and management. This said you don’t need to just use your authority to deliver a project.
A project manager should have a charisma to influence managers decisions in their favor, motivate team members to work harder, gather information for their team members and proactively get in front of issues. These are all examples of power.
6 Types of Power by French & Raven
R.P French and Bertam Raven studied the subject of power and determined 5 basis of power. Dividing it up in 5 separate categories. They identified those five bases of power as coercive, reward, legitimate, referent, and expert power. Informational power was added after.
| Basis of Power | Further Differentiation | Project Managers |
|---|---|---|
| Coercive Power | Using threats or force to get stakeholders. Very similar to bullying in workplace. | Project managers usually avoids using coercion as it is unlikely to win respect and loyalty from employees for long. |
| Reward Power | Motivate colleagues by offering raises, promotions, and awards. | Project managers lack the power to use monetary incentives but can report performance to line managers |
| Legitimate Power | Formal Legitimacy (position power), Legitimacy of Reciprocity, Equity and Dependence (Powerlessness) | Project managers, especially in a matrix environment, lack this power. In a strong matrix though they will have legitimate power to command stakeholders. |
| Expert Power | Positive and Negative Expert. Experts need to continue learning and improving. | Project managers are often chosen for these characteristics and they gain considerable power in this regard |
| Referent Power | Referent Power is the ability to convey a sense of personal acceptance or approval. It is held by people with charisma, integrity, and other positive qualities | Project managers have certain characteristics that make people want to follow them. |
| Informational Power | Informational Power is where a person possesses needed or wanted information. This is a short-term power that doesn’t necessarily influence or build credibility. | Project manager may have all the information for a specific project, and that will give her “informational power.” |
Important Power for Project Managers
Referent Power
A project manager should have the ability to lead people regardless of authority. The ability to build relationships with team members by having humility, caring, approachable, friendly personality helps project manager get people to like them. People are more inclined to follow people they like. People also will follow decisive leaders who aren’t afraid to make decisions.
Reward Power
Team embers who perform well should be rewarded and recognized. It doesn’t have to be a bonus or monetary terms which will not be available to the project manager.
HBR share new research on the power of symbolic awards such as thank you notes, public recognition, and certificates. They find that these simple interventions can significantly improve employee motivation, but clarify that to maximize their effect, it’s essential to customize these rewards to your unique context.
Saying thank you doesn’t cost anything. It will make the person feel appreciated. You don’t need to think too outside the box to utilize reward power.
Every project manager should look at incorporating reward power into delivery strategy. From calling people out in lessons or daily standups just thank people.
Expert Power
One of the most powerful of the 7 types of power is expert power. It will give you give instant rapport with team members and organizational leaders. You will instamtly understand what the project team are speaking about and be able to provide valuable insights based on your experience.
When reporting to leadership team you will easily instill confidence in your ability by having an in depth knowledge of the subject matter. This will ease any concerns the leadership team might have about certain aspects of the project. That said just expert power without project management training will not ensure a successful delivered project.
Expert Power Pros and Cons
- Seen as an authority on the project by default as team members will look to you for guidance either technically or based on past experience
- Don’t need to rely on others for advice or to help remove blockers from the team.
- It takes experience to build up expert power which means some project managers might struggle attain this if they switch between industries
- Can require outside of work time to keep up skill level within an area or subject.
Gaining Expert Power
Coercive Power
Project managers should avoid coercive power as much as possible. The use of threats is not a practice that should be used in a healthy project management environment.
Conclusion of Expert Power Dynamics in Workplace
Relying on just expert power can be a critical mistake for a new project manger. Not only will they will still need to utilize project management skills such as project planning, managing risks, communicating changes, managing updates, informing stakeholders but they should look at improving their reward and referent power too.
As in modern project management a project manager will utilize various types of power. They should not be held back based on the organization they are working within. It is good to recognize the type of organization you as a project manager are working within. From weak matrix to fully projectized environment. It helps to understand power dynamics between you and functional managers within an organization to determine who has authority and not.
Having the skillset to deliver projects regardless of organization is the test of a true project manager. Having the ability to leverage expert power requires lots of time but can be critical to building confidence in your ability. A quick win that every project manager should look at utilizing is reward power.
Recognizing team members or stakeholders efforts with a simple thank you can be instrumental to build up a relationship and happy team member. It cost nothing to say thank you. You can go above an beyond by having printed certificates or simple thank you notes. It all makes a difference.
Project Management Templates
To help you become a better project manager we have gathered some useful templates you ca use in your day to day.
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Use the right concept map format, style, and tool to get your point across effectively. From collaborative online workshops to complex systems we have examples…
Virtual brainstorming is hard. It relies on people working together in sync. The team needs to be able to contribute an collaborate at the same…
Via https://pm-training.net/expert-power-needs-reward-power-in-2021-workplace/
Having a stakeholder map template is a critical tool for any project or business owner to understand the key stakeholders they must interact with. Recently when I joined a new company I utilized a stakeholder map to understand the importance of the different stakeholders within the company. It provided me with the information on who I need to meet one to one, who I should try keep informed, what are their interests and how can they affect my project positively or negatively.
Identifying Stakeholders
Firstly, do you know what a stakeholder is?
Stakeholders are individuals (or groups) that can either impact the success and execution of a product or are impacted by a product. The first “upstream” category includes everyone who must contribute to or approve of the activities required to design, build, and bring the product to market. The second “downstream” batch includes both those who purchase or use the product, as well as those who must support, sell, and market it.
What is a Stakeholder? | Definition, Strategies, and Overview (productplan.com)
Simply a stakeholder is an individual you need to work with during the project or product or process. There are two types of these stakeholders you need to be familiar with.
Internal Stakeholder: The people who work within your company. Your colleagues, your boss, their boss, customer support, the receptionist, people working in your companies shop. When tryin to identify stakeholders use artefacts such as company organization charts, speak to people within your department to help you.
External Stakeholders: The customers and external agencies such as suppliers of goods. It can also be a bank clerk, investors, competitors. When trying to identify external think who will use the product, who will it effect. Ask who in the community is interested in this? Are there any third parties who I need to interact with or are interested in this?
Categorizing Stakeholders
Once you have completed identifying stakeholders the next step is to start ranking them. I create a list of all stakeholder in a table and start brainstorming all sorts of stakeholders. Ideally you want to eliminate as many low interest, low power people as possible so you can focus on key stakeholders you should engage with.
| Type | Stakeholder | Interest (1-3) | Influence (A-C) |
| Internal | John (Receptionist) | 3 | C |
| Internal | James (Marketing Manager) | 1 | A |
| External | Mary (Customer) | 1 | A |
Mapping Stakeholders
The next step is to start mapping the stakeholders visually. If you have created a table ranking them already this step is a lot easier and more of a job of visualizing to double check and make it clear for others more than anything else. It can also help categorize the various stakeholders by drawing further pictures of what the stakeholder groups are. The main benefit of a stakeholder map is to get a visual representation of all the people who can influence your project and how they are connected. You have a variety of tools available to help you.
List of Free Stakeholder Map Templates
We have gathered a list of the top free templates you can use but sometimes it simply comes down to what tools are you familiar using. If you don’t have a Microsoft license you would be better using an online tool or google free tools. If you are not tech savvy just look for a PDF that you can print and use physically.
Microsoft Word Stakeholder Templates
- TemplateLab: Free Stakeholder Map Template
- StakeholderMap: Download free Word template
Powerpoint Stakeholder Templates
- Slideteam: Requires sign up to download the ppt
- 24Slides: Sign up free to download
- StakeholderMap: Free download zip file
- WordLayouts: Free download zip file
Google Slides Template
- SketchBubble: 2 colour themes to choose from.
Online Tools to Create Free Stakeholder Templates
This list of online tools have a collection of maps for you to use easily. For cresting stakeholder maps in particular this is my prerefence:
- Visual Paradigm Online – No signup required just edit very easily straight away.
- LucidSpark: Use a stakeholder map to plan communications with stakeholders based on their role and interest in your project.
- Miro: Understand the people who have influence over your projects, so you can get their support.
- Moqups: Stakeholder mapping template will help you identify, prioritize, and understand your project’s key stakeholders
- Mural: This template helps minimize confusion of who is who, provide clarity of responsibilities, and ultimately catalyze a transition for stakeholders from strangers to collaborators.
- Milanote: By visualizing people on this matrix will make it easier to see where everyone fits on your project, and the level of communication you should be delivering to each person
Stakeholder Mapping Step by Step Instruction Video
@Lauren Kress, The Business Scientist explains the role of stakeholders in this short video on stakeholder mapping. Learn how to identify the people who will be affected by what you say and do (they have an interest in your activities) – and who will have an affect on what you can say or do (they have influence on your activities) and find a place for them on your stakeholder map.
Benefits of Stakeholder Mapping
The benefits teams can enjoy when the stakeholder mapping techniques include:
- Shared understanding of the key players
- Create team level communication and engagement strategy.
- Prioritizing stakeholders according to their roles.
- Avoid stakeholders feeling unheard.
Project Management Template Archive
We have created a a collection of other templates you might find helpful to deliver your project successfully:
Scope of Work Templates is a critical piece of the Statement of Work (SOW) document project manager need to kick off projects and avoid scope…
Use the right concept map format, style, and tool to get your point across effectively. From collaborative online workshops to complex systems we have examples…
Virtual brainstorming is hard. It relies on people working together in sync. The team needs to be able to contribute an collaborate at the same…
Via https://pm-training.net/stakeholder-map-templates/
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