Beware - Project Power Shifts
Bob McGannon, PMP

Engaged project managers who employ strict change processes, in addition to other management disciplines, control their projects in great detail. They confirm requirements, run regular status meetings, and confirm project status is being reported accurately. They employ detailed test planning – even utilize detailed process modeling to ensure technical tools and business process changes are in alignment – and yet the project fails miserably. What is this mystery project killer? The power shifts that result from implementation of project deliverables.

Power shifts – changes in responsibility, accountability, or altered decision making as a result of implementing project deliverables, will often catch major stakeholders unaware. This occurs even if the same stakeholders approved the project requirements. The result of this “surprise” for major stakeholders is a lack of buy-in when the project’s product is implemented. This in turn creates confusion, finger-pointing, and a lack of business benefit realization. There are techniques a project manager can employ to avoid this project doomsday event. A look at some of the common causes of power shifts, and the ways to avoid their impacts, follows here.

Changes in responsibility

Senior managers that serve as sponsors of projects often enthusiastically approve of projects that implement new tools and/or processes with substantial ROI potential. Often, in the time constrained world of executives, emphasis is placed on the content of the end product, but not always on the context or the impacts of that end product. As a result, many signed and approved project charters end up creating a product that has unintended – or misunderstood – responsibility changes amongst a management team. At times, this is due to a lack of attention to detail, other times it is a misunderstanding of the proposed solution. Regardless of the cause, the resulting shift in responsibility makes the senior manager uncomfortable and significant (sometimes fatal) issues result for the project manager.

Another frequent cause of this problem is when a project is plagued with an inadequate sponsor. Only an appropriate sponsor will have the authority to enforce business process changes that result from the deliverables provided by the project team. The inadequate sponsor cannot dictate the implementation of project deliverables. As a result, a partially implemented solution creates process inconsistencies for the organization. The sponsor’s organization adopts the change, but the remainder of the organization does not recognize the benefits of the change and resists - thus compounding the effort required to implement the solution.

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