Project Decision-Making

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:06 I'd like to talk with you about one of the most important aspects of project
• 00:09 execution, and that is decision making.
• 00:14 I'll start with the characteristics of a good project team decision making process.
• 00:18 The process focuses on the goals to be achieved by that decision.
• 00:22 Second, the process uses available data.
• 00:25 It doesn't just rely on opinions and tradition.
• 00:28 Third, it takes into consideration the project and
• 00:30 the organizational constraints.
• 00:31 The decision is realistic for the project situation.
• 00:35 Fourth, it addresses the risks associated with that decision as part
• 00:39 of the decision making process.
• 00:41 It identifies the existing risks and recognizes any new elements of risk or
• 00:45 risk mitigation that occur because of the decision.
• 00:49 It also follows a reasonable process.
• 00:51 Team members involved in making decision have confidence that the process is fair
• 00:56 and will yield a good result.
• 00:58 Finally it respects and develops the team members throughout the process, so
• 01:02 that decisions would get better and better over time.
• 01:06 Project decisions often can involve many people, but
• 01:09 also must be decided quickly to maintain the project schedule.
• 01:13 Different decision making processes have
• 01:16 various levels of project team engagement and time requirements.
• 01:20 When there is very little time, the leader decides.
• 01:23 This also requires very little involvement, and
• 01:25 the leader loses the benefit of insight from other team members.
• 01:29 When there is more time, the leader can check with some other team members and
• 01:33 ask their opinion about the decision.
• 01:35 After listening to several members' opinions, once again the leader decides.
• 01:40 When there is even more time available,
• 01:42 the leader can call the entire team together and let them debate the issues.
• 01:46 Each individual has an opportunity to present their position and
• 01:49 to discuss the merits or defects in other positions.
• 01:53 At the end of the debate the leader decides.
• 01:56 The final technique is when the entire team gathers together and
• 01:59 debates until they reach a consensus decision.
• 02:03 This will often take a long time.
• 02:04 And it may lead to the best decision although it also may lead to a stalemate
• 02:09 and no decision when there are two or three irreconcilable positions.
• 02:13 In that case, the leader has to step in and decide,
• 02:16 often leaving the team feeling frustrated with winners and losers.
• 02:20 Lets talk about the confidence we can have in those decisions.
• 02:25 The confidence is based upon the stability of the information used during
• 02:28 the decision making process and the reliability of that information.
• 02:32 Reliability is based upon whether there are facts or opinions.
• 02:36 And stability is based upon whether the information is fixed or still changing.
• 02:41 Ideally, key decisions on the project are made based upon fixed facts.
• 02:47 These decisions should be final decisions and not revised multiple times.
• 02:52 Sometimes, especially on development projects, we don't have any facts.
• 02:57 We only have the expert judgment that is the opinion of the subject matter experts.
• 03:01 In that case, we can decide on a direction.
• 03:04 We can decide what we think should be done.
• 03:06 We should make that decision and then move quickly and efficiently on that path.
• 03:11 However, at some point in time, we need to confirm that decision with actual facts.
• 03:16 Now sometimes we have some facts, but the facts are few and far between.
• 03:21 The situation is still somewhat fluid, and
• 03:23 each new fact adds another significant piece of information.
• 03:27 When that is the case, we can usually decide some of our boundaries.
• 03:32 What I mean by that is we can eliminate some of the options.
• 03:35 Lets say we're looking at five different possible paths forward.
• 03:38 But based on the few facts we have, we can now eliminate two options.
• 03:42 However, we still need to consider three options until we get more facts.
• 03:47 We definitely are not able to make a final decision.
• 03:50 Now finally, sometimes there are no facts and
• 03:52 there's no agreement between the subject matter experts.
• 03:56 When that's the case, all you can decide on is to do something next.
• 04:00 Hopefully that something we lead to facts or an agreement of opinion.
• 04:04 You move forward rather than sitting and doing nothing.
• 04:08 Sometimes bad decisions are made on a project.
• 04:11 The typical cause for bad decisions on the part of senior management is ignorance.
• 04:16 They don't understand how this project interacts with other projects.
• 04:19 So a decision that is good for one project is devastating on another, or
• 04:24 the project definition and goals are sometimes unclear.
• 04:27 Senior management has many projects in their mind, and
• 04:30 they confuse which project is which.
• 04:33 Third, they may not understand the demand that each project is making on the same
• 04:38 pool of resources.
• 04:39 Because of that, they over-commit the organization.
• 04:42 The core team, including the project leader, often make bad decisions for
• 04:46 different reasons.
• 04:47 Gaps in accountability and
• 04:49 empowerment lead to the core members not engaging with the rest of the core team.
• 04:54 Sometimes the problem is that the functional strategy does not align with
• 04:57 the project goals, and
• 04:59 the core team member feels that they are caught in the middle.
• 05:02 They just pick one and undermine the other without finding a way to meet both.
• 05:07 Of course, on any project there can occasionally be some planning gaps.
• 05:11 And finally, they may underestimate or fail to recognize risk, which will
• 05:15 then often lead to a bad decision that must eventually be corrected.
• 05:20 The third group that sometimes makes bad decisions with respect to projects
• 05:23 is the functional managers.
• 05:25 These are the people who are assigned and supervise many of the resource pools
• 05:29 that are used for doing the work of the project.
• 05:31 One of the challenges they face is over-commitment.
• 05:34 They strive to make sure they have work for everyone on their department and
• 05:38 end up taking on more than they can do.
• 05:39 Also they often are not aware of unique project requirements due to
• 05:43 communication breakdown between them and the core team members.
• 05:49 Decision making is a key element on any project.
• 05:51 Making wise decisions is crucial to project success.

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