The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - How to Initiate a Project Now that It's Approved | PPP #31

Episode Date: June 28, 2020

We are kicking off Part 1 in a 5-part series paralleling phases from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) to the Emergency Management world. In this first episode, we cover the eight tasks from the Initiating domain of the PMP exam to work being performed by Emergency Managers and Incident Management Team members.

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 to episode 31, PMP equivalents, initiating tasks for emergency managers and incident management team members. And this is the first in a five-part series where you'll see the title for the next 32, 33, 34, and 35 episodes. The only part that's going to change is we're going to go from initiating to planning to execution to monitoring and controlling and closing. Those are the domains that currently exist for the project management professional exam

and are outlined in the project management body of knowledge. What I want to help with is how can I say as a PMP that came from the emergency and incident management world, say, here's what's in these domains, here's what's for the exam, here's what's for real life, and here's what you're already doing that you can use for your experience to make a transition to stand up project management in your space if you're not doing it. So hopefully this helps. And like I say, we're not going to do one super long episode with a whole bunch of details and comparisons. So we're going to break these out. So today we're going to start with initiating. And before we initiate this episode,

if you could initiate a subscribe to the People Process Progress podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, go over there, give us a rating, reach out to me, peopleprocessprogress at gmail.com. Check out the peopleprocessprogress.com website. There's templates. I'll put this comparison table actually out there so you all can see it. So you can have an idea of what I'm talking about visually, maybe to take a look at that. So let's get into the initiating. So there's eight tasks in initiating, just as an FYI, if you're studying to take this year's exam, it's 13% of the exam. So definitely got to know initiating. It's a huge part of project management. That's the beginning, right? It's 13% of the exam, so definitely got to know initiating. It's a huge part of project management that's the beginning. It's when you get the information, you have vetted folks.

Hopefully there's some sort of intake process that your organization uses to vet all the projects and weigh them against each other to have the business plan or analysis for it. And now we're getting into, okay, we're going to go through this assessment. So how I'm going to do this is I'm going to go through the PMP exam knowledge area piece, and there's eight tasks. And then I'm going to talk about what happens or what's similar to this or the same in emergency and incident management. So the first task under initiating is to perform project assessment based upon available information, lessons learned from previous projects, and meetings with relevant stakeholders in order to support the evaluation of the feasibility of new products or services within the given assumption and or constraints. So should we do this project?

What did we learn from previous projects? How feasible is it due to the projects? And what are we going to take forward from other projects? Right. So from that, I mean, some of those are super obvious. And so in the emergency management world and in government and public safety and incident management, after action reviews and improvement plans, AARP is exactly that. You're doing those all the time.

You're looking at what did we do last time? What do we keep? What don't we keep? Assessments, what's feasible? So we do THIRAs, right? Threat and Hazard Identification Risk Analysis. So if you're doing THIRA assessments, you're doing like what the show's all about.

You're getting people together. You're performing a THIRA process and assessment. What's feasible? What could happen? And hopefully making progress because you're either gonna change some workflows or you're gonna get some more stuff to shore up equipment, PPE, go figure.

I would imagine people's thyroid and continuity of operations is going to change quite a bit. You're going to review your emergency operations plans, right? So what plans do we already have and are they feasible? Are they actionable? Are they usable? We've talked about that. Review any incident briefings you've done. There's incident command system form 201s, right? So what did we do with this before? What resources did we have? What organization do we use? Did it work? And then of course, kind of the bigger version of that is the full incident action plan. So look at your incident action plans from previous events, previous incident responses, and all that will factor into like this task one looking at, okay,

we're getting ready to kick this thing off. Let's look at what we did before, what worked, what didn't, should we do this? What are our exceptions? What are our assumptions and constraints, right? What could stop us? What could help us? And just look at those things. So tons of equivalents to task one right out of the gate. I mean, just tons of them. Task two, under initiating, identify key deliverables based on the business requirements in order to manage customer expectations and direct the achievement of project goals, right? So we're going to look at really defining what are we trying to get out of this? What are we trying to deliver? That's not necessarily all the technical specifications right out of the gate. It's

hard to do that early, but you can have a pretty good idea and we really need to meet the goals of our customer, right? What is it we're trying to do? I talked about in previous episodes about meeting objectives, right? The seven efficiencies for project managers. And so those objectives. So are we addressing the issues that the customer wants us to meet through the goals of the project? So if we are really doing good emergency management, in particular, really coordinating across all partners, we are working with all of those emergency support functions. So when we are gathering requirements from our ESF partners, all the various ones that are law enforcement based, public health, utilities, logistics, we are gathering requirements for things that we need ahead of time of responses. We're working with agency administrators, which is the equivalent of like a project sponsor

or business owners, and we're creating those smart objectives. So hopefully for any planned event, any no notice incident, even emergency management and emergency operations plans, we are using objectives. We are setting goals, right? So some great parallels there. Task number three, we're going to evaluate our stakeholders.

For the PMP, we're going to look at what tools and techniques we need to use and then get support going and kind of align that soon. So same thing, if you're an emergency manager, you're usually a pretty standard setup that I've seen is you're the emergency operations center manager or the incident commander, right? So in those positions, you are looking at all your stakeholders or planning section chief in particular, right? Remember I talked about to the incident commander is certainly in charge, but the planning section chief is bringing everyone together, getting them on a tempo, coordinating a whole lot of stuff. But if you are the emergency manager and you're in charge of the EOC, you're coordinating it. If you're the incident commander and you're officially in charge, you're going to look at all your stakeholders that are of the same level as you, excuse me, or your unified command that are in the other sections below you, outside there, and all that. You're going to work with those key partners and identify issues,

and then you're going to work with them to make those objectives. So again, stakeholder analysis for the PMP exam, what tools and stuff do we need? Same thing if you're pulling folks together in an emergency operations center or you're managing an incident. You got to look at who's involved, who needs to be involved, who doesn't need to be involved, what stuff do we need to work together. Task four, high-level risks, assumptions, constraints, kind of a standard out of the box. We want to look at what could happen with these risks and then what are we going to do about them? Do we accept them? Do we mitigate them? Try to avoid them? What assumptions do we have? We assume everyone's going to be available, we're going to work together, we're going to do what we need to do. I'm not a huge fan of

assumptions. I know it's a standard kind of thing. To me, the assumptions are super straightforward a lot of the time. So it should just be to me a part of doing business. Constraints, different thing. What are things we already know of, like in the healthcare space, visitation limited or change or something like that, based on the current environment. So COVID-19 is a perfect example from the project management world. Huge impacts to supply chain, to the environmental aspect of where you work or don't work because you're remote, getting back to where you're going to work.

Organizational factors, historical data, expert judgment, and then implement a strategy. So we're looking at all these things, these risk assumptions, constraints, what's going on in the environment, what organizationally are you having change in your org? Are people leaving? Are they coming on board? What historical data? So some of those lessons learned from that first task. So if we're looking at these from the emergency and incident management perspective, we're aligning these strategies, right? Based on those smart objectives, we're going to help those emergency support functions, those ESFs or operations section chief to create tactical objectives, right? So we're going to look at all these things. We're going to work

with our key players. And if it's in the emergency management world, it's the folks in our emergency operation center. You could have an ICS-based setup there versus an emergency support function. I'm a huge fan of the emergency support function incident command system hybrid for emergency operation centers. Worked with great people who did that and part of that, and it seems very efficient. And then it is a management team focus aligned with that task force from initiating and project management. We're creating those tactical objectives, right?

So we're going to look at all those factors, and it's, we're creating those tactical objectives, right? So we're going to look at all those factors, and it's up to ops once the overall objectives have been created to then say, okay, how do we solve this problem, and what do we need to do it? Task five under initiating for the P&P exam knowledge area is to obtain, sorry, to participate in the development of the project charter, right? So we're starting to put together that key document I've talked about a whole lot that helps us get people together, look at the org chart early. But officially it's so we're gonna compile and analyze,

gather information in order to ensure project stakeholders are in agreement on its elements, right? So to me, if there's an early document that's critical to project success, it's the charter because it's not the document itself, like any other plan we've talked about. It's the process you get and the progress you can make in creating it. You're going to get together early with the stakeholders, with the sponsor, with the business owner, with the program managers, project managers, resource managers, kind of get an early feel for how long we think this is, what are the project objectives, what are we supposed to be doing here, what are some risks

we already know of. So all those things in task four, the risks, assumptions, and constraints, you're going to have those there, you're going to reference them and start looking at that. And that brings people together, that gets conversations happening, that starts to build the org chart. And for emergency and incident managers, we're going to create a clear introduction, purpose, and scope in your emergency operations plan, right? So for emergency management, the emergency operations plan is equivalent to a project management plan or a charter, depending on the size of the plans. But to me, the emergency operations plan is the equivalent of the combination of all the stuff in the charter,

right? The org chart, the objectives, the constraints, the equivalent of the combination of all the stuff in the charter, right? The org chart, the objectives, the constraints, the risks, the potential schedule, budget, those kind of things. Along with, you know, schedule management, scope management, all that is rolled into an emergency operations plan because emergency operations plans are usually big. You know, ideally, for me, at least, I like them kind of more SOP, standard operating procedure base. But there's some legality and things you have to do to have emergency operations plans in a certain format in some places. So I get it. It has to be a little bit longer. The other thing you're going to do in the incident management side of that, aligning with Task 5 and the PMP,

is you're going to review it and receive approval for the SMART objectives. So when you make smart objectives, you're already looking at what are the problems you're trying to solve? What are the issues you've combined into objectives? How could these translate into real tactics? You know, you don't want to make objectives that are just off the wall bonkers, too unachievable, because that takes away the R realistic from smart objective, right? But again, making those objectives also brings people together, gets people thinking about which direction are we headed. Just like the stuff in task five, you're starting to participate in the development. We're starting to pull those objectives together.

Task six is obtain the charter, get it approved from the sponsor. You got to formalize authority right in this for the project manager and gain commitment acceptance. This is huge for project management because it is these days, you know, an electronic signature, sometimes an actual, you know, pen to paper signature and track it. Who signed it? When did they sign it? Share that with everybody else. Hey, we're waiting for two more people. Here's everybody that has signed it. But what it does is once those goals, objectives, risks, all the stuff in a charter, whatever charter format you use is signed by the sponsor, the ultimate person in charge and responsible for the project. It says, hey, everyone,

here's what we're working towards. So when any question comes up about a task, is it related to the objective or not? Is it within scope? Is it within budget? And someone wants to creep the budget or the schedule or the scope, you can reference it and be like, remember, we all agreed on these. This is the expectation of our leaders. This is what our team should focus on. Then you can go down different paths on changing that. And from the charter equivalent, and we touched on this in task five, when you're starting to put the charter together, but here we're formalizing and approving it in task six and initiating. In emergency management, you have to get emergency operations plans approved and adopted sometimes formally or

often formally or all the time formally by the government leaders where you are at local and state and even federal level. So you've gotten people together, you've updated things, contacts, what are the all the different emergency support function partners going to do annexes put in there and just there's so much work that goes into that and hats off. I've worked on some of that myself. It's a lot of work, but you have to get it approved and adopted by leadership. The emergency operations plan, same exact thing for a coordinating action plan. So this was a great idea that I saw with a good friend of mine and mentor and friend that instead of an incident action plan for the emergency operations center, it's a coordinating action plan, right? Because remember, emergency operations centers are support for people in the field,

you're not an incident commander, you're not doing an incident action plan. So make it a coordinating action plan. Now, having said that, if you are part of the incident management team, you are going to get formal approval and signature for your incident action plan, right from the incident commander for whether it's an incident response or an event, whether it's a quick verbal, because you're at a high, you know, a fast-paced incident, or it's an event, you're going to get that formal signature. So this task six alignment has so many parallels between a charter approval and the project management PMP world and emergency management with that emergency operations approval plan and adoption or a coordinated action plan or an incident action plan.

Same, same to me. Those are so similar, which is great. Task seven initiating on the PMP side of the house is you're going to conduct that benefits analysis with stakeholders. You'll validate that this project is going to align with the organization's strategy and it's going to give you business value, right? So you should be doing this pretty early before you start putting a lot of people and money and stuff towards it, right? So does this make sense for our organization? Does it fit with our values? Does it fit with the direction we want to go? Or are we putting something old in even though we're going to replace a whole new system in six months, right? You have to look at that. You have to see what benefits you're going to get. And so to me, for instance, management, if you have an emergency operation center activation

phase, like based approach for your emergency support functions and resource needs, that's the same kind of thing. So you're looking at, are we going to go, hey, everyone, we're just kind of an increased rate and we just need a couple extra people. Then we're in response. We need everyone, right? So you're looking at what are the potential impacts? What's the strategy for us standing this up? Do we have guidance on money we can or can't spend? How much can we spend? So this gets into really that business piece of emergency management, kind of like the project is looking at the business value. So you may know, hey, you can spend up to $5,000 through logistics in the emergency operations center, anything above that you have to come to finance, right?

But you have to get that stuff going. You have to plan it out. You have to discuss it. And if you're an incident management team member, you may get that same guidance from the AHJ or agency having jurisdiction because you can't just go there and start trying to spend other people's money. And of course, an incident command system, that's the finance slash admin section chief's job.

So that person should be tied in or even from that locality or working in the emergency operations center there from the finance department. So task seven initiating, we're really looking at that benefits analysis and business value. Similar for emergency management, how do we spend the money or not spend the money? How are we going to phase this stand up and resource needs in the emergency operations center from each of our emergency support function partners? And how are we going to work with stand-up and resource needs in the Emergency Operations Center from each of our emergency support function partners, and how are we going to work with finance and admin section for an incident management team. Task eight in this initiating domain for the P&P exam is to look at and inform stakeholders of the approved charter to make sure they understand it, what are our deliverables, milestones, and their roles and responsibilities.

So we've done quite a bit of work, had really good discussions, gotten folks focused, made an org chart, objectives, goals, again, whatever kind of format your charter has. And we've done that, and we've communicated it. So this is where we've done that work, had those conversations, coordinated the process, and said, all right, hey, everybody, here's what it is. So just probably like you all expect, in emergency management, you're going to present the emergency operations plan for adoption to leadership, right? You're going to invite those VIPs from different, you know, from the government, from private sector partners, because, you know, in emergency

management for a whole locality, and really in the US, private sector owns most of the infrastructure, right? And so invite all those partners, you know, present it, cover the highlights. You know, I'm going to make an assumption. I know what making an ass assumption is, that most government leaders don't read the entire emergency operations plan. That's, you know, three, four, 500 pages long or however long their plans are. Some could be shorter, that's right, but probably don't. So the emergency managers present, hey, here's updates to the plan.

Here's the basic outline of it. Here's what's in this thing. So you have to do that, show it off to the VIPs, the agency administrators, and other stakeholders. For incident management, all hazards planning, incident command, this is the planning meeting. So if you're participating in the planning meeting, you've already gotten your objectives, you've done your tactics meeting to figure out what we're going to do, how much people and stuff do we need. Now everybody's

going to get back together and operations is going to say, hey, here's the plan. Here's what we're supposed to, here's what I'd like to do. Here's where I'd like to do it, the hours. And then everyone's going to support it. And then the incident commander is going to approve it, right? So just like in Task 8 for the PMP exam, and also in real life, you're going to present the charter almost in a review or a kickoff meeting, maybe even, and even send it around and get it signed off. You can do the same thing for an emergency operations plan or an incident action plan, the IEP in particular in the planning meeting. So that's a super quick run through of parallels from PMP stuff and initiating, which again is 13% of your exam,

to what folks are already doing in emergency management, incident management. If you're thinking about that, if you're standing up project management in the public safety world or public health more, or just anywhere where it doesn't exist, but more in emergency and incident management equivalent focus. And here's some knowledge and skills. So here's kind of bonus things that the PMP exam for initiating and the PMBOK recommend or that you should have in these phases or know. So in the PMP side of the house, these knowledge and skills are analytical skills, benefits analysis techniques, elements of a project charter, estimation tools and techniques, and strategic management. All good project management, project manager skills, all good, really team-leaded skills, right? But in particular,

project management, because we're talking about the PMP exam. For the emergency and incident management equivalents, this is my two cents on what I think. Got to understand the political environment, right? You're largely in government if you're new in emergency management, or you could be doing that for private sector. Still, politics matters. Be aware of the environment in the emergency operations center, right? Are there people there that don't like each other? Is everybody stressed out? How's everybody getting along with the planning? Are they communicating?

Got to keep looking at that. Just like a project manager, just like a planning section chief, just like a liaison officer, we need to look at the tempo of the people in emergency operations center. And so emergency managers are keen to do that. Beware the dynamic on the incident management team. How's that going? Are they communicating? Are people being respectful of each other, even though we're tired? Are we using that unity of command? Is someone that's a section chief from somewhere else going straight to someone that's in a unit in a different section and just telling them what to do? Are they working on a previously agreed on process to fund things,

or funnel requests and coordinate? Got to work that stuff out. Got to understand that that FIRA process and the tool, there's there's many tools to do that, that threat hazard identification risk analysis. One that I've used was the Excel spreadsheet drop downs, you go through how likely is it for this to happen? How often? And you kind of go through that, but you need to understand that, right? Kind of like knowing the tools and techniques for project management, got to know how to do a Thyra, or at least look at the template, you can figure it out. It's pulling people together, getting a meeting, getting experts, local experts to talk about it. And be familiar with financial practices,

right? If you're an emergency manager, you definitely need to know what your spending rules are. You need to know how to write grants. You need to know how to word them. There's a whole so much material out there on grant writing, but it's a skill. It takes practice, just like doing a podcast or writing a paper or anything else. So those are my equivalents for initiating from project management to emergency and incident management. I hope this provided kind of a neat parallel. I know it was a good exercise for me to think about that.

So remember, if you're in emergency management, all hazards, incident management, doing incident command, public safety, public health, whatever, and you're not kind of working formally as a project manager, but you're doing a lot of this work, you're doing project management, right? Project management is just like the name of the show, being able to get people together, following a process, and having everybody make progress toward meeting those goals or objectives. That's all it is. There's documents, there's nuances of experience, like having the tough conversations and all those kinds of things that, you know, come with experience and practice. But

that's the great thing about it is, if you're looking to stand up project management in your fire department, police department, public health department, you know, somewhere in government that doesn't have it, just practice doing it. If you're given an assignment, run it as a project, right? Do kind of a quick intake form, put together some sort of scoring matrix, look at the goals, put together a charter. I'm happy to share some great elements of it. Also go back and listen to Between the Slides episode 22, where I actually share key elements of project charters and just start doing it.

That's the only way to get going. So thanks again for coming by, for listening. Stay tuned to the next episode, the People Processil Process Progress, Episode 32, PMP Equivalents, Planning Tasks for Emergency Management and Incident Management Teams. As always, stay safe out there, wash your hands, and Godspeed.