Advanced Techniques in Project Management Overview

NK Shrivastava and Phillip George, RefineM LLC

Experienced project managers, especially those who have earned the Project Management Professional
(PMP), may be wondering about the next steps in their project management journey. Project managers
need to dedicate themselves to constant learning. In this article, we introduce a series of techniques that
project managers can apply to take their skills to the next level. Technical skills such as stakeholder
management, scope and change management, Earned Value Management (EVM) and advanced risk
management are discussed in this article. In addition, we touch on key leadership skills, including
effective communication and conflict resolution, and managing stress on your projects. Mastering these
skills will help project managers take the next step in their careers.
Many project managers find themselves hitting a plateau at some point, whether its after several years
on the job or after earning a certification. Constant learning and continuous improvement are the ways
to ascend this plateau and keep performing at a high level. What should project managers focus on,
though, in order to be most effective? In this article, we examine key technical and leadership skills that
constitute advanced techniques for project managers. Future articles will explore each skill or technique
in depth. By paying attention to these skills and techniques, project managers can improve continuously
and stay relevant into the future.
Technical Skills
Project managers need to excel at technical skills across all ten of the knowledge areas. Within the
knowledge areas of stakeholder management, scope management, and risk management, along with
Earned Value Management, we have found advanced techniques that project managers can start
practicing to improve their skillset. Many of the advanced techniques combine several knowledge areas;
for example, advanced stakeholder management techniques integrate with communication
management in order to maximize communication and stakeholder engagement. Seeing how
knowledge areas connect, rather than seeing them as separate, is an important step in a project
managers journey. The advanced techniques described in this section fall under technical skills.

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1. Stakeholder management. Effective stakeholder management helps project managers win

support for their projects, while ineffective or no stakeholder management causes
problems. Many project managers keep stakeholder registers and measure stakeholders
influence, interest in the project, and current and desired levels of engagement.
Two advanced stakeholder management techniques are using Net Promoter Score (NPS)
and integrating the stakeholder register and communication plan. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
is a powerful tool to collect feedback from a variety of sources. By using Net Promoter Score
to capture the opinions of client stakeholders, project managers can determine where effort
needs to be driven in order to satisfy key stakeholders.
Once stakeholder analysis is complete, project managers should update the communication
plan with any new stakeholders. Project managers can use the stakeholder register and
communication plan processes together to ensure that communication is taking place and
stakeholders are satisfied. Performing both processes for each stakeholder in the project
will help project managers leverage communication to gain and keep support.
2. Scope and Change Management. Effective scope management goes beyond merely setting
up a work breakdown structure (WBS). It requires monitoring work to see where scope
might be deviating, performing variance analysis to gauge the magnitude of deviation from
scope, and taking corrective action as needed to keep the scope on track. Some red flags or
signs that scope changes might be coming include the following:
The team is spending too much time on one deliverable or milestone. If the team is
struggling to finish a deliverable, a new approach might be needed.
Key stakeholders have been missed. If there is no representation from the legal
department, for example, then they may have changes later that have to be made.
There is inadequate testing and quality control, which increases the risk of defects
and critical issues that have to be fixed.
Project managers can make use of several tools to minimize scope changes:
Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). By using a RTM, project managers can
pinpoint the origin of requirements and leverage the documentation and
stakeholders involved to guard against unnecessary scope changes.
Change management / change control board. By using effective change
management, project managers have greater capability to resist changes. The more
process that is built around making changes, the less the chance of unnecessary
changes getting through.
Variance analysis. Project managers perform variance analysis by examining planned
versus actual scope and documenting the magnitude of deviation from the plan. By
doing this, project managers can locate areas where the scope may have changed
drastically.

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3. Earned Value Management (EVM). Project managers can use EVM to become powerful at
predicting outcomes of projects. They can use EVM to integrate scope, schedule and
resources, objectively measure project performance, and forecast future outcomes1. EVM
only requires a few items, including a project plan that identifies the work to be
accomplished, valuation of planned work (PV) and actual costs (AC), and earning rules for
accruing earned value (EV) on the project. With these items in place, the following metrics
can be used to control cost and schedule:
Cost Variance (CV) and Schedule Variance (SV) track the difference between
planned and actual cost and time spent.
Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) track the
performance of a dollar or day spent on the project, respectively.
The following metrics can be used to forecast future performance:
Estimate at Completion (EAC) projects the cost of the project work once its
complete.
Estimate to Completion (ETC) projects the cost to finish the remaining project work.
To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI) projects the efficiency required to finish the
remaining project work.
By setting up the project and combining these metrics, project managers can track
performance achieved to-date and provide forecasts of where the project is going. These
reports can be used to make important decisions about scope, schedule, and resources.
4. Advanced Risk Management. Project managers can use two advanced techniques to take
their risk management to the next level. First, they can calculate Expected Monetary Value
(EMV) for each risk by multiplying probability percentage of a risk occurring by the
anticipated impact in days or dollars. EMV is a powerful tool because it provides a strong
sense of a risks real impact. For example, a risk that carries 20 percent probability and
$20,000 expected monetary impact may not seem bad, but with an EMV of $4,000, the
team may want to revisit the risk and come up with a response.
Expected Monetary Value is also the backbone of the risk contingency reserve, a reserve or
days and dollars set aside to address known unknowns on a project. For example, if the total
EMV of all risks is $20,000 and 5 days, then those dollars and days are combined with the
project estimates to come up with the cost baseline for the project. The cost baseline is then
combined with management reserve to form the project budget.

1 Project Management Institute (2011). Practice Standard for Earned Value Management. Second Edition. Newtown Square, PA: Project
Management Institute.

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By using risk contingency reserve, project managers can dramatically improve the
predictability of project outcomes. Project managers can achieve this improved
predictability through remaining risk contingency reserve as it is spent in terms of extra
money or time on a project. Figure 1 shows where the risk contingency reserve fits into the
overall cost of a project.

Figure 1. Risk Contingency Reserve rolled up into the cost baseline.

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Leadership Skills
Where advanced technical project management skills rest on a foundation of seeing how knowledge
areas and processes can work with each other, advanced leadership skills rest on a foundation of
emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence hinges on the ability to manage ones emotions and how
they are expressed, as well as master social awareness and social skills. The following leadership
techniques described in this section can all be enhanced by strong emotional intelligence.
1. Developing Clarity and Focus. A project managers first job as a leader is to help develop
clarity and focus on the team. To achieve this goal, the project manager must first seek and
achieve full understanding of the project, its relation to key business objectives, its
requirements, and its success criteria. From there, the challenge becomes relaying this
understanding to the project team so they can buy in to the project. Three types of clarity
are needed for teams to function effectively:
Clarity of plan: What is the plan?
Clarity of purpose: Why are we carrying out this plan?
Clarity of responsibility: What is each members role in the plan?
By helping team members gain clarity of plan, purpose, and responsibility, project managers
can effectively secure their focus on key milestones and deliverables. Once the team is
focused, the project managers primary activity is monitoring and controlling to ensure team
accountability for meeting the projects objectives.
2. Inspiring and Motivating. Motivational leadership is a leadership style based on vision,
integrity, courage, realism, and responsibility2. Motivational leaders use their personal style
to energize people into increasing their commitment to a project. Project managers who
want to inspire their team can do so by showing them what the end goal looks like. Specific
actions like displaying mockups or progress maps can help team members stay committed
to the end goals of the project. Once this clear picture of the end goal is in mind, celebrating
accomplishments in the form of milestones achieved helps keep the team energized.
3. Effective communication. The majority of a project managers job is communication, not
only with the team but also with stakeholders. Effective communication is more than verbal
and written communication; it also is comprised of body language and other non-verbal
cues. Effective communication helps build bridges between different departments, team
members, and stakeholders and unifies the team toward a common vision.

2 Zenger and Folkman (2011, 4 October). The 16 days of competencies: #10 inspires and motivates others to high performance. Accessed 10
February 2016 from http://zengerfolkman.com/the-16-days-of-competencies-10-inspires-and-motivates-others-to-high-performance/

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Effective communication starts with the following steps3:

Presenting information in the right format at the right time, to the right audience,
and with the right impact.
Questioning and probing to get to the heart of messages.
Engaging in active listening, which means acknowledging the message and sender,
clarifying the message through questions, and confirming understanding.
Negotiating through seeking mutual gains rather than win-lose situations.
4. Relationship building. Relationship building emphasizes a key difference between leading
and managing. Whereas managing is often short-term to get the most out of a team, leading
is more long-term; leading behavior seeks to develop team members for the future. By
forming new relationships, getting to know people well, and cultivating bonds based on
common ground, project managers sow the seeds for long-term development of team
members.
5. Developing others. Along with relationship building, developing others is another long-term
leadership skill in which future investment is emphasized4. Developing others requires a lot
of communication between mentor and mentee, or coach and team member, which inspires
further growth to take place among the overall team. Effective leaders develop others by
exhibiting the following behavior:
Helping team members identify their strengths and weaknesses
Helping team members identify their career goals and build a plan to reach them
Clarifying roles and responsibilities
Giving steady instruction and feedback
Accepting short-term struggle in exchange for long-term gain
Developing others relies on strong feedback. Project managers and leaders can improve
their feedback by making sure it is direct and precise. Feedback does not always have to be
positive, but it should also not be entirely negative. Having clear separation between
positive and negative feedback helps the message come through more clearly.
Along the lines of conflict being inevitable, negotiation is also inevitable in environments
where different people who have different priorities are all trying to win. Instead of shying
away from negotiations, project managers need to see them as opportunities to deliver
mutual benefit5. For more effective negotiation, project managers need to plan carefully
and determine what they need out of a negotiation.

3 PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition.

4 Goleman, Daniel (2000, March-April). "Leadership that gets results." Harvard Business Review.
5 Verma, Vijay (1996). Human resource skills for the project manager. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

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They can then approach any negotiation with the end goal in mind, helping them craft
effective criteria for what constitutes a win for either side. This approach results in
successful negotiations because, while everyone may not leave fully happy, each side has
gotten something, and mutual trust has been maintained.
6. Managing Stress on Projects. Yet another inevitable fact about projects is that they are
stressful. When a project team is working on building something unique, they are stretching
their skills to the limit and operating under what is often a tight deadline. The pressure on
project teams to perform can lead to a lot of stress, and by diffusing this stress wherever
possible, project managers can build trust.
The first step in stress management is to identify the overall level of stress. Some stress is
good for a team because it keeps them motivated and engaged. However, too much for too
long will lead to burnout and additional conflict. If there is too much stress on a project,
then project managers need to find and address root causes and come up with a plan to first
prevent further stress and then reduce the stress level. Some factors that could be root
causes of stress include6:
Long work schedules to meet tight deadlines.
Team members participating in multiple projects.
Lots of changes adding time and cost onto the schedule.
Conflicts over resources and priorities.
Organizational factors such as workplace conditions and policies.
The second step is preventing further stress. Project managers can start by grounding
themselves in the current project situation. Are any tasks slipping? Are any risks becoming
issues? Are there any stakeholders who are not satisfied? Taking this step helps project
managers alleviate their own stress by establishing a big-picture view of the project and
determining what stress factors can be controlled. For example, can negotiations with a
stakeholder result in an extended timeline or more resources to free up pressure? Can
teams be co-located to reduce their time spent in meetings?

6 Verma, Vijay (1996). Human resource skills for the project manager. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

Finally, stress management techniques can reduce the teams overall stress level. One
method for reducing work environment stress is PERKS:
Participation: Team members feel less stressed when they feel like theyre
contributing.
Environment: The project environment needs to be respectful and inspire
motivation.
Recognition: Team members need to be praised for their achievements.
Knowledge: Team members need to be able to expand their professional
development.
Style: The work environment should be known for open communication and trust.
Conclusion
Mastering the key techniques of advanced stakeholder, scope, earned value, and risk management,
along with the leadership skills described in this article, puts any project manager in a strong position to
manage and lead any project, even a large or complex one. Along with mastering these skills, mastering
the mindsets behind them will also help project managers chart their career path upwards. An
important step for project managers is finding opportunities to use the processes together and seeing
them as integrated parts rather than separate techniques. For example, advanced stakeholder
management combines aspects of communications management, and advanced risk management and
EVM incorporate scope, schedule, and resource management. Likewise, key leadership skills depend on
mastering the foundational skills of emotional intelligence and effective communication. By building on
the foundations of technical and leadership skills, project managers can increase their project delivery
capability.
For more about the advanced techniques discussed in this article, visit RefineMs blog. We also offer
project management consulting and project management training.
References
1. Business Productivity (2013, 16 September). Communicate effectively leveraging DISC profiles.
Accessed 10 February 2016 from http://www.businessproductivity.com/communicateeffectively-leveraging-disc-profiles/
2. Goleman, Daniel (2000, March-April). "Leadership that gets results." Harvard Business Review.
3. Project Management Institute (2013). Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK Guide). Fifth Edition. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
4. Project Management Institute (2011). Practice Standard for Earned Value Management. Second
Edition. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

5. Verma, Vijay (1996). Human resource skills for the project manager. Newtown Square, PA:
Project Management Institute.
6. Zenger and Folkman (2011, 4 October). The 16 days of competencies: #10 inspires and
motivates others to high performance. Accessed 10 February 2016 from
http://zengerfolkman.com/the-16-days-of-competencies-10-inspires-and-motivates-others-tohigh-performance/

www.refineM.com [email protected] 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762