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About this lesson

Depending upon your organization's culture, compliance may be a primary value or it may only be treated as a minor element of project management. In this lesson, we discuss the compliance mindset and multiple methods for strengthening compliance on your project.

Quick reference

Achieving Compliance

Achieving compliance comes about through creating a mindset for compliance and then tracking the effectiveness of compliance activities

When to use

This best practice applies at all times during the project. 

Instructions

Achieving compliance on a project is strongly related to the attitude of the project team towards compliance.  Normally the activities are not difficult, but they need to be prioritized and supported.

This starts with the expectations set for the project team by senior management.  They need to know and follow the project management methodology.  In addition, they should ensure the team has the support from the organization to address and resolve compliance risk. In addition to senior management, the project leader, scrum master, and product owner need to set an example of placing a high priority on compliance activities.  They need to be certain the compliance tasks are fully staffed and they should track compliance risks as major risks to project success.  

A compliance mindset can be summed up with the phrases, “Do the right things, not wrong things,” and “Do things the right way, no shortcuts.”  The project team should discuss compliance when forming at the kickoff meeting and team-building sessions in order to establish team norms around compliance.  Compliance then becomes an article of trust among the core team members and they will help compliance through peer pressure among team members.  The team should prioritize compliance issues to the top of the agenda in status meetings, not be afterthoughts. Finally, storytelling is a great way to personalize compliance.    

Some specific actions team can take include:

  • Ensure all government and industry standards are flowed down onto the completion criteria of tasks and story cards
  • When a revision is issued to a government or industry standard that is a compliance document on the project, evaluate the revision and update as applicable.
  • Ensure there are clear completion criteria or definitions of done for each task or story card.  If applicable, include the standard reference in the note section of the task or story card.
  • If it is necessary to not follow a provision of a compliance document due to the unique nature of the project, process a deviation or waiver to the compliance document.  Ideally, this is done as part of the tailoring process.
  • At the end of each phase, do a compliance audit to find and fix issues before they grow into major risks.

Hints & tips

  • At the beginning of each phase, review the applicable compliance documents and submit your deviations at that time for that phase.
  • As with any bad behavior, you can destroy a long string of good behavior, such as a compliance mindset, with one example of cutting corners.  So be careful to not undermine your compliance program by your own sloppiness.
  • Beware of “hybrid” project management methodologies.  The appearance is often that they are cutting corners and comprising compliance.  Pick a methodology and then tailor it a little. 
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  • 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 And continuing our discussion about compliance,
  • 00:07 let's consider some best practices for achieving compliance on your projects.
  • 00:12 >> No surprise that on something as important as compliance,
  • 00:15 senior management sets the tone that is adopted by the whole organization.
  • 00:19 This starts with how well they know the project management methodology and
  • 00:23 any associated standards and whether they adhere to that methodology.
  • 00:27 Are they trying to cut corners, or do they recognize the value of the methodology?
  • 00:31 Do they help to resolve risks, or do they just brush it off?
  • 00:35 Do they work with other support functions to provide the resources needed to resolve
  • 00:39 compliance risks?
  • 00:40 The answer to these questions sets a tone for
  • 00:42 the organization with respect to compliance.
  • 00:45 Specifically within the project, the project leader, core team leads,
  • 00:49 scrum master, and product owner set the tone for the project.
  • 00:53 They make sure that someone is assigned responsibility for
  • 00:56 compliance related tasks and deliverables.
  • 00:58 They aren't afterthoughts, but are considered significant tasks.
  • 01:02 Also, compliance risks make it onto the risk register are evaluated
  • 01:06 with an appropriate level of risk.
  • 01:08 That means that compliance risks are monitored and tracked at status meetings.
  • 01:13 A compliance mindset is the underpinning of organizations that routinely
  • 01:18 achieve compliance.
  • 01:20 It starts with an attitude of doing the right thing.
  • 01:23 That doesn't mean we can't be creative, but
  • 01:25 creativity is focused on finding the best way to do things, not looking for
  • 01:29 shortcuts and ways to get around the compliance requirements.
  • 01:33 In fact, it is a good idea to set the compliance mindset as a team norm or
  • 01:37 standard during your early team building.
  • 01:40 Make sure everyone knows that you take it serious and expect them to do so also.
  • 01:45 When it becomes a team norm there will be both subtle and
  • 01:48 open peer pressure to ensure compliance is taken seriously.
  • 01:52 In fact, it becomes an article of trust among the core team,
  • 01:55 team members don't let each other down by compromising on compliance.
  • 02:00 A great technique to personalize compliance is through storytelling about
  • 02:04 the impact of compliance and non-compliance.
  • 02:07 I have a story I like to use about a plant manager I know
  • 02:10 who cut corners on some compliance paperwork related to environmental waste.
  • 02:15 Now in this story there was no violation of any actual physical waste being
  • 02:20 disposed of improperly, but because the paperwork was not kept current,
  • 02:24 that former plant manager is now also a convicted felon.
  • 02:29 Another good way to establish the compliance mindset is to prioritize
  • 02:33 compliance activities and discussions to the top of the list and
  • 02:36 not treat them as an afterthought in meetings.
  • 02:40 Now for some best practices.
  • 02:41 Ensure that all the government and industry standards that apply to work
  • 02:45 being done in the project are flowed down to the task or
  • 02:48 story card level requirements.
  • 02:51 That means the core team members of the product owner need to become familiar with
  • 02:55 all applicable standards.
  • 02:57 Also, if a standard is updated or revised, check with the appropriate subject
  • 03:01 matter experts on your team or within the organization to understand the impact.
  • 03:06 You want to catch those revisions as soon as possible to minimize the impact.
  • 03:11 We have talked before how every task needs an endpoint, and
  • 03:14 every story card needs a definition of done.
  • 03:16 When evaluating these endpoints, check that the applicable government, industry,
  • 03:21 customer, user, or internal standards and policies are reflected in the definition.
  • 03:26 And then of course, be sure the task or story is fully completed.
  • 03:29 If there are changes in standards or
  • 03:31 if you know you can't meet a compliance requirement, use your organization's
  • 03:35 waiver deviation process to maintain control of expectations.
  • 03:39 This will provide a record of the decisions made to deviate and
  • 03:43 the reason for the deviation.
  • 03:45 Another technique that is gaining in popularity is to conduct a compliance
  • 03:49 audit by the project team at the end of each phase.
  • 03:52 This will help you catch problems and give you time to clean them up before the end
  • 03:57 of the project, when you're now facing either a major non-compliance or
  • 04:01 a major project delay and overrun to go back and redo portions of the project.
  • 04:06 Again, this audit can be done by the project team or
  • 04:08 an informal audit by the PMO.
  • 04:10 The purpose is to identify issues early for resolution.
  • 04:14 >> Achieving compliance is not an optional activity.
  • 04:17 In today's business world, compliance is expected.
  • 04:21 It must be present just to get into the game, so
  • 04:24 make sure you've embedded it in your project.

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