The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - Effective Tools and Techniques to Monitor Project Progress | PPP #34

Episode Date: June 28, 2020

Part 4 in the series, where I compare the parallels between the seven Monitoring and Controlling tasks from the PMP exam with the daily work Emergency Managers and Incident Management Teams do.

Please silence your cell phones, hold all sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we will get started with People Process Progress in 3, 2, 1. Hey everybody, welcome back. Welcome to People Process Progress 34 PMP Equivalents, Monitoring and Controlling Tasks Performed by Emergency and Incident Managers. Monitoring and Controlling on the PMP exam, the current version right through the end of 2020, is 25% of the exam. So quite a chunk. So we have initiated things. We have planned a whole bunch of stuff. We are doing the work. Monitoring and controlling is kind of an overlay kind of phase, right? Because we're executing while we're also monitoring and controlling. We touched on some

of those in the previous episode in 33, looking at executing tasks that emergency managers and incident managers do. So now we're going to look at the seven, again, seven monitoring and controlling tasks outlined for the PMP exam. So the first one is we're going to measure. So we're going to measure things, manage them. We're going to monitor and review. That's what this whole deal is about, monitoring and controlling. So task one, measure project performance using tools, right? Quantifying variances, all that kind of stuff. So we're going to do our reporting.

We're going to see if things are slipping in either cost or schedule or scope or quality, right? The big things. And part of our helping keep those tasks like we were in executing is we're going to monitor. But we're going to use tools, whatever tools you use. Online tools, spreadsheets, just, you know, look at the charts on the whiteboard, whatever. Emergency managers, certainly they look at the updates in the WebEOC or a similar online tool. Situation units and incident management teams are tracking, you know, how many injuries, how many calls for service, what's the weather like, what are the, you know, GIS locations of vehicles, all those kind of things.

So very similar, some of the same tools even, right? Like office suite type stuff. There's some maybe more specific things in emergency and incident management, particularly with GIS and vehicle tracking and handheld radios versus online systems and spreadsheets and Gantt charts and all that kind of stuff with project management, but very similar, right? We're going to monitor and control things for projects to make sure they stay on time, on budget and quality. And for events and incidents, we're going to monitor and control things for projects to make sure they stay on time, on budget, and quality. And for events and incidents, we're going to make sure for safety and that we're using resources as effectively as we can.

The second task in monitoring and controlling for the PMP exam is managing that change, that change management plan. That's big, huge in the exam, huge on change management. So you'll see that if you're taking a bunch of practice questions now, which I highly recommend. Change management, control boards, processes, all that kind of stuff is very big. It's great. So make sure you're familiar with that per PMBOK. The goals remain aligned with business needs is also part of this task too.

So we're managing changes so we don't blast the goals with the scope and all that kind of stuff. And same for emergency managers in particular, right? How are those emergency support function partners going? Are they adjusting their staffing or resources as needed? Are they sending more people? Are they saying, hey, we can't send anyone now because of our day jobs or what's going on there? For incident response, kind of ground level tactical stuff, if you will, operation section, the operation section chief is going to look at any tactical changes, right? They're the ones that made the plan.

They were tasked with, hey, see these objectives from the incident commander. You figure out the people and the stuff and the facilities and whatever we need to make it happen. So if there's any changes there, your change control board for resources for an incident is operations. And then planning can help make changes

both in the planning and the resource check-in and logistics can help get them. But the sign-off or the one that is to make the changes is operations. And task three for monitoring and controlling, we're verifying those deliverables, right? Are we meeting those quality standards in that quality management plan,

but really deliverable focus? So are we working toward and making progress against those things we said we were going to, that we were going to work toward? And so similar for emergency and incidents, you know, for operations, whether we're supporting people in the field from an emergency operations center or an incident command post, we're going to have constant communications with operations and they're going to tell us what progress they are making on sandbagging because of flooding or triaging the patients or whatever it is, right? So again, those are our deliverables is triage as many people as possible as quickly and treat and transport, right? If we're doing the emergency medical system focus kind of example here, just like for a project, the deliverables could be a new system that shares this data with

this place kind of thing. Task four for monitoring is we're going to monitor and assess the risks, right? So we're going to keep track of those. So while we're doing work, new risks could pop up, we could have new strategies, new solutions or new problems or risk-attended issues. So we got to stay on top of those. Similar, kind of like we've mentioned executing, so safety and medical unit, big time, we're going to be looking at those kind of things. What's getting better? What's getting worse? Are we seeing more injuries? Are we seeing people getting sick? And all those kind of things. And then again, other risks to his folks and operations should be working very closely with those folks because they're their people, right? That's the boots on the ground

in operations. So just like in a project, we're going to look at what risks are happening that could affect the outcome of the project. In emergency and incident management, we're really looking at what may be affecting the safety and welfare of our people, but also infrastructure and other stuff like that impacts. Test five, monitoring and controlling. Under the PMP column, we're going to be always looking at that issue log. We're going to update the issues, any actions, key decisions, tools, and techniques. But for the exam, it's the issue log. It's to update it. It's to determine corrective actions. What tools and techniques do we need to

minimize the impact on the project? So remember, an issue is something that pops up that maybe we didn't expect, whereas a risk is something we look at earlier ahead of time that we can kind of guess from either lessons learned or, you know, just where we're at or feedback we've gotten from other people. For the emergency and incident manager folks, the medical unit that has that log, you know, they can be telling you whether people are getting hurt or getting sick. We can be reviewing people's 214s those those sheets we fill out to track kind of big interactions you know grievances or something like that throughout the day by the supervisors each day they could look at those how are people doing and then that open it open incident tracker which is really like a task list whether it's for logistic requests or requests of the whole team

just some kind of system some kind of request request system. We're always looking at that. And I mentioned those, that web EOC system or another online system for people, those emergency support functions to request things of the EOC or the EOC to request them from somewhere else. Task six, monitoring and controlling in the PMI column. We're going to capture, analyze, and manage lessons learned, right? So we've heard lessons learned quite a bit, and I talked about that both for the exam and, excuse me, for real life. We should be gathering those all the time, right, doing continuous improvement. Just like I mentioned for task five and task six, there's lessons learned, there's 214s, there's logs we need to look at so we can see trends. Are we having a lot of folks that are bumping heads from these different groups? Are we doing after action briefings after every operational

period, not just at the end of the week when we've been in one place, but always doing that at the end of our shift and it's always hard when we're tired, but we want to get this when it's fresh in people's mind. Also, we want to get feedback from incidents or even people leaving the Emergency Operations Center when they demobilize or when they leave. Like, do you have a survey form or do you have a quick, you know, can you give me three up and three down, right? What are three strengths? What are three areas for improvement?

And then put those together and always do that improvement planning, after action improvement planning. So that's the verbiage to, right? Emergency and incident and incident command does after action reporting and improvement planning, whereas projects and in the project management world often is called lessons learned, although I've certainly mixed those in recent weeks, the verbiage there. The last task, task seven under monitoring and controlling for the PMP exam and just PMBOK is to monitor those

procurement activities. So, you know So we're using people's time or maybe we're paying for training or we're getting more equipment. Just goes to figure we need to be monitoring how we're buying things, what we're paying for. Are we within budget? Almost exactly the same for emergency and incident management.

So if you're an emergency manager and you're looking at the burn rate, working with finance of the people that are coming in your emergency operations center, are you having them at the burn rate working with finance of the people that are coming in your emergency operations center, are you having them sign in so you can track their hours, you can use kind of standard costs, right? So when you go to put in for reimbursement for that event or incident, you can have an idea of how much people's time you spent, let alone the stuff you bought, the food, the equipment, all those kind of things, right? Also, more practically,

you want to start looking at the work rest ratio. So do you have people that are trying to be superheroes and work 16 hour days every day, and sometimes, you know, early on, you can try and do that, but you're going to get burnt out, you're going to be ineffective, it's going to be unhealthy. And so a way to do that is to be looking at, you know, it's not necessarily a procurement thing, but it's monitoring the cost of maybe people's work, people's hard work, and the cost of the emergency and incident management work on that person, not necessarily cash, right? So kind of a different way to look at that, I think, but I think similar. And again, practically people's time costs money. So that's all the tasks for monitoring and controlling. Again, big part, it's a quarter of the exam, it's 25%, right? And so a lot of

knowledge and skills. This is the part where PMI recommends or states really on the exam. And to know this is where you have to learn your formulas, right? Your earned value, your PERT formula, trend analysis, those kinds of things. So this is where you need to get into that, your lean, your six sigma, those kinds of things. So monitoring and controlling gets into a lot of formulas, a lot of data analysis, quality best practices, quality measure tools, flow charting, those kinds of things. So that's where you're going to have to get into really digging in and learning more what those tools are and how they work and less on the concepts of them. And emergency and incident managers use things like this all the time too, right?

They have graphs that show who's on the scene or big maps, call reviews, regular wellness checks, those kind of things. So a lot of skills. Again, you'll see this when I post and share the table that I put together that kind of maps these so you can get a little more detail, but a lot of crossover. Again, hopefully this episode, this monitoring and controlling where really we're looking at how are we doing or not doing what we plan for and what we should be executing right now. So that's what monitoring and controlling generally is or really is and is important. And we can do that. I've seen it. It's not kind of its own fit where it goes initiate, plan, execute, monitor, control, close, right? Monitoring and controlling has some crossover. Say if in the planning you had to spend

money and do training before you could execute, before you could get your technicians to actually work on the devices as part of execution, then you're going to monitor and control how that spending went, right? So it's a, you know, it's kind of a moving slide above the other kind of big four of initiating, planning, executing, and closing, if you will. At least that's the way I look at it. So I hope you all looked at this episode and it was helpful. I think it's interesting to always compare processes right across different industries. And again, parallels I've seen from living in both emergency management, incident management, and now project management industries. Thank you again so much for staying with me on this five episode track of, you know, the

equivalence between project management stuff and emergency and incident manager stuff. I hope it's helpful, insightful for anyone looking to make a transition or just curious or trying to stand something up in their world where maybe there's not project management or they're going from project management to emergency and incident management, right? Could be the other way around. I really appreciate every listen, subscribe, download, email, connection on LinkedIn. It really means a lot. And I appreciate y'all's feedback. I've

learned a lot from you all as well from feedback I've gotten from conversations I've had. So thanks again. I really appreciate this medium. Also going to share that I really appreciate Todd Cochran, the CEO of Blueberry, who's the host of my show, host this podcast, rather the files and all that for having me on podcast insider. So I'll link to that. If you haven't listened to it, please do so I talk about why and how I started this podcast at first when I started between the slides and why I transitioned into here. So a great conversation, a great series taught out Todd highlights podcasters regularly on that show. So go check out podcast insider on blueberry as well. Thank you all again for coming by listening. Stay safe. Wash those hands. Godspeed.