Decision Making

Quick reference

• 00:04 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 I'd like to talk to you about one of the most important aspects of project
• 00:09 execution and that is decision making.
• 00:12 I'll start with the characteristics of good project team decision making process.
• 00:16 The process focuses on the goals to be served by that decision.
• 00:20 Second, the process uses available data, it does not just rely on opinion or
• 00:25 tradition.
• 00:26 Third, it takes into consideration the project and
• 00:29 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 of
• 00:39 the decision making process.
• 00:41 It identifies the existing risk, and recognizes any new element 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 the decision have confidence that the process
• 00:55 is fair, and will yield a good result.
• 00:58 Finally, it respects and develops team members through the process so
• 01:03 that their decision making gets better and better over time.
• 01:07 Project decisions can involve many people, but
• 01:10 also must be decided quickly to maintain the project schedule.
• 01:14 Different decision processes have various levels of project team engagement and
• 01:19 time requirements.
• 01:21 When there is very little time, the leader just decides.
• 01:24 This also requires very little involvement, so
• 01:27 the leader loses the benefit of insight from the other team members.
• 01:30 The leader also loses the ability of gaining buy-in from the other team
• 01:34 members.
• 01:35 When there's more time, the leader can check with some other team members and
• 01:38 ask their opinion about the decision.
• 01:40 After listening to several members opinions once again,
• 01:44 the leader makes the decision.
• 01:46 When there is even more time available,
• 01:48 the leader can call the entire team together, and let them debate the issue.
• 01:53 Each individual has an opportunity to present their position, and
• 01:56 to discuss the merits or defects of the other positions.
• 02:00 At the end of the debate, the leader decides.
• 02:02 The leader may decide that they'll use a vote from among the team members, but
• 02:06 the point is, the leader sets the rules.
• 02:09 The final technique is where the entire team gathers together and
• 02:12 debates until they reach a consensus.
• 02:15 This will often take a long time.
• 02:17 It may lead to the best decision, although it may also lead to a stalemate and
• 02:22 no decision when there are two or three irreconcilable positions.
• 02:26 In that case, the leader has to step in and decide anyway,
• 02:30 often leaving the team feeling frustrated with winners and losers.
• 02:34 Let's talk about the confidence we have in these decisions.
• 02:38 The confidence is based upon the stability the information used
• 02:41 during the decision making process, and the reliability of that information.
• 02:46 Reliability is based upon whether it's fact-based or opinion-based.
• 02:50 And stability is based upon whether the information is still changing, or
• 02:54 whether it's become fixed and stable.
• 02:58 Ideally, key decisions in the project are made based upon fixed facts.
• 03:03 These decisions should be a final decision, and
• 03:06 not revisited multiple times.
• 03:08 Sometimes, especially on development projects, we don't have any facts.
• 03:13 We only have the expert judgment that is the opinion of our subject matter experts,
• 03:18 but they may all be in agreement.
• 03:21 In that case, we can decide on a direction.
• 03:23 We can decide what we think should be done, we should make that decision, and
• 03:27 then move quickly and efficiently on that path.
• 03:30 However, at some point in time, we need to confirm that decision with actual facts.
• 03:35 Now, sometimes we have some facts, but the facts are few and far between.
• 03:42 The situation is still somewhat fluid and
• 03:44 each new fact adds another significant piece of information.
• 03:49 When that is the case, we can usually decide on some of our boundaries.
• 03:54 What I mean by that is that we can eliminate some of the options.
• 03:58 Let's say we were looking at five different ways to go forward on
• 04:01 the project, but based on a few facts that have come in,
• 04:04 we can now eliminate two of those options.
• 04:07 However, we still need to consider three more options until we get more facts.
• 04:12 We definitely are not able to make a final decision at this point.
• 04:16 And then finally, sometimes there are no facts and
• 04:19 there's no agreement among the subject matter experts.
• 04:22 When that's the case, all you can decide on is to do something next.
• 04:27 Hopefully, that something will lead to facts or an agreement of opinion.
• 04:31 You move forward rather than sitting and doing nothing.
• 04:35 Sometimes bad decisions are made on a project.
• 04:38 The typical cause for bad decisions on the part of senior management is ignorance.
• 04:43 They don't understand how this project is interacting with other projects, so
• 04:48 the decision that is made that is good for one project is devastating to the other.
• 04:52 Or the project definition and goals are sometimes unclear.
• 04:56 Senior management may have project in their mind and
• 04:59 they confuse which project is which.
• 05:01 Third, they may not understand the demand that each project is making on the same
• 05:06 pool of resources.
• 05:07 Because of this, they overcommit the organization.
• 05:10 All of these are based upon ignorance,
• 05:12 not based upon bad people making bad decisions.
• 05:15 The core team, including the project leader,
• 05:18 can also make bad decisions from time to time.
• 05:21 Gaps in accountability and empowerment lead to a core team members not engaging
• 05:26 with the rest of the core team.
• 05:28 Sometimes, the problem is that the functional strategy does not align with
• 05:32 the project goals, and
• 05:34 the core team member feels like they are caught in the middle.
• 05:37 They just pick one, undermining the other,
• 05:40 and don't find a way to actually meet both objectives.
• 05:43 Of course, on any project, there can occasionally be some planning gaps.
• 05:48 And finally, they may underestimate or fail to recognize risk, which will then
• 05:53 often lead to a bad decision that must eventually be corrected.
• 05:58 The third group that sometimes makes bad decisions with respect to projects is
• 06:02 the functional managers.
• 06:04 These are people who are assigning and supervising many of the resource pools
• 06:08 that are used for doing the work on the project.
• 06:11 One of the challenges that they face is over commitment.
• 06:14 They strive to make sure that they have work for everyone in their department and
• 06:18 end up taking on more than they can actually do.
• 06:21 Also, they often are not aware of unique project requirements due to
• 06:24 a communication breakdown between them and the core team members.
• 06:28 Therefore, they assign the wrong resources for the project.
• 06:32 Decision making is a key element on any project.
• 06:35 Making wise decisions is crucial to project success.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.