For all my students and anyone who has heard me talk about this topic, I’ve been promising this article since there were only three Cs of PM, and now there are five!Well, the wait is over.Hereare my dashboard dialsfor tuning project managementtone,rigor and focus to the right project the right way.As a master class topic, the 5 Cs do assume that the table stakes of project management techniques and skills, no matter whichmethodology, are in place.The 5 Cs confirm that you’re aimed true for THIS project.Solet’s get into it!
The 5 Cs of managing projects,Complexity, Criticality, Compliance, Culture and Compassion,tell you how much and how often to do the things we do.There are five, they fit on your hand, and they go in order.The first three, complexity, criticality and compliance, are about the work, and that's where we begin. From there, we expand our view to Culture and Compassion to tune to the team, the organization, and the day.
1. Complexity: how intricate is the work?
Complexityis the first dial, and of course, the more complex the project, as in moving parts, tight dependencies ormultiple constraints, as examples, the more attention to planning details you need to pay.The simpler the project, or the more familiar the team is with the work and what it takes to get it done, the lighter touch the PM can take.This goes for any method, including how rigorous an Agile team manages ceremonies and how short sprints may have to be to maintain consistent velocity.Complexity can also come in the form of risk profile, in that the work itself may not be a heavy load, but externalities or dynamic environments can require diligence and a watchful eye on risk triggers and solid risk response plans in place.In general,higher complexitymeanshigher requirements for focused project management.
When we think about complexity, we're also thinking about how the work needs to be done. Complexity drives your method, as well. If your complex project allows the team to make mistakes or take chances and learn from them, iteratively or incrementally, anywhere along the way, then you know you can use more agile methods to guide and frame up that specific set of outcomes or activity set. When you have one time to get it right, you know a more traditional approach of practicing and simulating, then doing it once with a lot of structure and support, calls for a waterfall mindset of more linear progression. The complexity of the work at each point across a project's life cycle defines how we craft hybrid project approaches, a mix of both incremental/iterative and linear methods, that work best for most projects PMs manage now.
2. Criticality: howimportant are the outcomes?
Criticalityis sometimes confused for complexity, but it’s very much it's own beast.Criticality defines how important the project or effort is to its stakeholders.Criticality can be about the impact the project has, even saving lives or changing communities, where risk management is an essential PM technique set to tap into.Criticality can be about the level of visibility the project has compared to other work,aleadership priority or an effort thatlays the foundation for significant change to come.In this case,criticality steersthe PM efforttowardcommunication, facilitation and making sure that decision-makingin the face of risksis in good shape, even if the work itself doesn’t requireheavy project management technique.
As a refinement to technique and methodology, criticality can point the way to using a gated methodology, an approach that explicitly carves out milestones of approval that greenlight forward. Depending on the visibility and importance of the project, analyzing criticality of the work helps you refine your approach to its complexity, adapting to how leadership needs to engage and confirm decisions or agree on success criteria in support of the team and required outcomes. Criticality focuses on impact of the project, before, during and after, on participants, the teams that support the project, and the wide range of other stakeholders who are impacting or impacted by it.
3. Compliance: how externally constrained are we?
Compliance is not an optional consideration on any project, whether considering the defined right thing to do or internal and external stakeholders to please.Compliance impacts projects from the outside, imposing constraints in methods and scopeby prescribing definitions of success.Whether the projectis implementing a new health care product, a credit card, or afinancial system, compliance with regulatory agencies, industry standards, financial requirements, or even internal policies,are part of the job.Compliance is acore element of scopeand requirementsdefinition and quality management.The good news is that project managers can bake experts into resource needs to make sure thatbenefitsofappropriatecompliance outweigh costs.
Wait, that sounded fishy, didn’t it?Well, here’s the hard truth.There ARE times when the cost of non-compliance is LESS than the cost of compliance.Doing the right thingisalways as a default, and managing compliance is absolutely not about sacrificing ethics ormorals, and we're not digging into regulatory compliance here. It's a little more generic to standards or rules that we understand have penalties if we can't get to the targets. Consider an example ofpaying a vendor penalty for not being able to participate inreal time order management because it’sless expensive than replacing internalsystems to eliminate batch processing altogether, at least for now given other priorities we may have.As PMs,compliance considerations require ustogain complete agreementon how we will meet requirements and when, taking risks and costs of both compliance and non-compliance into account.
4. Culture:what are our norms and values?
So, complexity, criticality and compliance are the three Cs about the work itself.But project management is about the concentric circles of the work, the team, the organization, and the environment. We need two more dials to make sure we fit there too, and that's where Culture and Compassion come in.Culture captures the default values and behaviors of the organization in which the project exists.A project manager adapts to the inherent culture in how sheengages stakeholders, with what level of formality, what level of detail, and what level of structure.While project management standards in place before your project ever got started might be pure technique table stakes, how you use them to achieve the goals of THIS project might be reflecting more on the culture of the organization than just the day-to-day PM job. Do I actually NOT produce a weekly status report on a project at a certain point because I need manage data addiction and establish what slow looks like, so I can leave room to ramp later when we hit a more active phase with tighter milestones? I can use the existing culture as a baseline from which to guide the team on this specific effort.
Elevating from tactical culture adjustments on how I run my project, culture is a fundamental component for defining my project's organizational change management work, too. The trick is totune the culture of the project somewhere between where the organization is now and whereweneed to be after the project is implemented.If the projectdoesn’t introduce significant organizational change, like releasing a new version of a current product line, then the culture of the project should tune right in to the organization.If the project is going to drivea newway of interacting, between functions or processes,then the project should start to feel that way, introducing more cross-functional sessions to define requirements, develop solutions, etc.Thecollaborative culture of the projectwill enable flexibility when roles and responsibilities need to shiftto new normsas part of the project's outcomes, or when we nimbly need to define a train-the-trainer education approach in the face of project constraints.
5. Compassion: what current events are impacting us?
Compassionis about a point in time.A project manager practices with compassion when he tunes his project approach to respect impacts of current events outside the projecton the team.While culture isrelatively stable over a several yeartimespan,events usually introduce change.Those events, when they happen, need a different response, understanding that there will bea period of timebefore the culture itself responds creating new norms.Even so, operations operate, and initiatives need to make good on their value proposition.A project manager who understands the basics of compassion knows not to schedulea standing project meeting after acompany-widetownhall announcinga significant change in leadership.APM alittlemore savvyon the compassion spectrum will also know to push a little harderaftercelebrating anachievement to take the win asmotivation for alittle acceleration.
Taking PM skills further,compassion on a project also reflects the degree to which the team, this team at this time, is prepared to do the workat hand.Levels of experienceof team members, strategic importance of the projectwithin the enterprise portfolio, perceived value by sponsoringleaders,stakeholderanalysis takes all of these into accounttodefinesuccess based on what we can reasonablyand respectfullyachieve together now, givenall the factors thistime and place introduce.Depending on the other fourCs, compassion may not have the weight to have a major impact on project approach, but actions and tactics allowit to color your project appropriately.From recognition programs encouraging positive motivation to increasing the frequency of retrospectives to encourage open communication, compassion-targeted tacticsare the team heartbeat that builds strengthand project resilience.
Applying the 5Cs toolset
To put it all in context, the 5 Cs are like photo editing tools.When a PM applies the 5Cs to a PM basic, likecreating a workplan or capturing a requirement, or even managing a vendor,she adjusts the brightness of detail based on complexity, or the colorcontrastof communication based on criticality.Applied to a broader context of project approach or method, the 5Cs help frame, center, focus, and tone check the project to manage it for the most potent impact for investment made.
Want to get started?Think about your next team worksession or workshop you want to conduct.You know what you want to achieve.You know the players.You want to get the most from it!
Now, apply each one of the 5 Cs:
- Howcomplexis theworkof this project, this workshop?Moving parts or lots of personalities?Do you need to put a bit more structure in tostay focused on intended outcomes?What tools in the room? How closely are you managing to a defined agenda?
- How visible is the project?How many people are impacted by it?Do we need to make sure that oversight ofcriticalcomponents, defined by roles and by processes, isreally clearto all participants and subsequently informed stakeholders? Does the agenda leave room for the human elements of awareness and commitment to guide decision making?
- Controls orcomplianceexpectations?What elements of the workshop may be impacting or relying on internal or external controls?Is there any education needed on those implications? How can we get advice on details?Does that add new participants or stakeholders?
- For thisworksession,how does ourculturedriverequiredbehavior norms?Do we pre-socialize agendas with participants?Do we send pre-reads?Are there formalities we need to follow for decisions to stick?If this is a new way to introduce a subject or get work done, do we need to create a bridge from our norms to this new thing?
- And finally,how doescompassiontell us to respond tocurrent eventsimpacting the team?From global events to companyhappy hours,how do we need torespond differently today, of all days, given who’s in the room and the role they’ll each play to achieve this agenda? From as simple as whether snacks will create a proper social mood to choosing a room that's neutral territory for all, are there adjustments this point in time requires? And of course, in what way do we show gratitude or appreciation for contributions, in context?
Using the 5 Cs as a dashboard to check your PM fitmakes sure that you’re tuned to right now, the right way.
Jennifer Diamond is a sustainability and delivery management practitioner and educator with a passion for turning ambitious ideas into extraordinary outcomes.
