When running a company, it is important to have precise and correct information on how our business is being operated. A large part of business management is focused on the strategic approach to that business. However, implementation that follows the defined strategy is just as important as having a good strategy in the first place.

It is in the areas of implementation and control where the most serious problems often arise. It is therefore highly important to have mechanisms that simply and effectively allow us to ensure that our actions are following our strategy.

We will now take a quick look at a simple and useful model that has been in use for some time to classify business goals into the following categories:

• Running the business: in other words, our day-to-day operations, what we need to do to keep the business operating.
• Growing the business: in other words, increasing our operations, selling more or having more clients, achieving a larger turnover.
• Transforming the business: in other words, changing our business, having things done in another more efficient, more effective way.

Given the recent economic climate, a new type of business goal has been clearly defined. It has always existed but was sometimes simply considered as part of running the business:

• Reducing costs: in other words, increasing the profitability of our business by reducing the cost of our operations.

All the activity within an organisation can be classified according to these criteria. The projects, services and, generally-speaking, any activity by the organisation can be assigned to one of these goals. It is regularly suggested that practically all projects, services or processes within an organisation can be assigned to more than one of these goals, but such an approach often brings with it a degree of complexity that not only fails to help but can also be somewhat counterproductive.

If we classify our projects and services into these categories, we can obtain a clear picture of what the efforts and resources of our organisation are being used for. We will often be surprised to see that, although we may have grand strategic plans to transform our business, in actual fact most business activity is focused on the day-to-day and not on transforming the organisation.

Setting the right balance among business goals is a critical issue if we want to control our business not by randomness, inertia or whatever other external driving force.

Defining how we want to balance each one of these goals is crucial to taking our business where we want to go and ensuring that our organisation is not steered by chance, momentum or any other uncontrolled force.

In any event, having clear, effective and updated control over where our organisation is heading is fundamental to effective governance within an organisation. ITM Platform enables activities to be classified and analysed using this system and is therefore a highly useful tool for providing the information necessary for corporate governance.

It makes good sense for you as a project manager to take a defensive posture in most areas of risk. If the client is inclined to vacillate, you take pains to nail down the product specifications; if a contract vendor tends to “forget” promises, you publish minutes after each meeting. These are common risk mitigation techniques a project manager should use. There is one area, though, where defensiveness will always backfire: You cannot protect yourself against your own people’s incompetence. If your own people are not up to the job at hand, you will fail.

Of course, if the people are badly suited to the job, you should get new people. But once you have decided to go with a given group, your best tactic is to trust them. Any defensive measure taken to guarantee success “in spite of them” will only make things worse. It may give you some relief from worry in the short term, but it will not help in the long run, and it will poison any chance for the team to gel.

Project managers who do not trust their own people are afraid they might deliver something that is wrong to the client. They are worried that mistakes may reflect badly on them. Only their own judgment is competent; they are more experienced and have a higher standard of excellence. At any point in the project where they do not interpose their own judgment, team members are more likely to make a mistake.

So what? Let them make some mistakes. You can always override a decision (very occasionally) or give specific direction to the project. But if staff come to believe they are not allowed to make any mistakes of their own, the clear message you are sending is that you do not trust them. There is no message you can send that will better inhibit team formation.

Most project managers grant autonomy to the team while everything is running smoothly, but that is not true autonomy. The team will only feel free if it is allowed to proceed down a different path to the one set by the project manager. Only he with the right to err is truly free. If the project manager interferes in every technical decision or prescribes a methodology applicable to each task, then the team will not feel trusted, and will have little inclination to bond together into a cooperative team.

Game Rule No. 1: Commit to the project

• I am placed in command of a critical project. I have had the team, objectives, budget, deadlines, and have several responsibilities assigned to me.
• This is a good thing: Your business trusts you. You have a challenge ahead and a lot to learn and demonstrate.

Game Rule # 2: Manage the restrictions

• Beginning to see barriers, what do I do?
• As said Randy Paush : "The walls are there for a reason. They are not to keep us out, but to give us the opportunity to show how much we want something. The walls are there to stop people who do not want something enough blocks are there to stop the other”.

Game Rule No. 3: The ends justify the means

• There are many things that are out of my control, what do I do?
• Often, a project manager must question and challenge the limits in order to get things done in an environment of uncertainty. For the benefit of the project, other stakeholders understand that certain project managers skip authority levels, or not do it all by following all procedures to the letter. In this profession, sometimes the end justifies the means (always within reason, of course). Remember the letter to Garcia . The term "take a letter to Garcia" is widely used as an example of when it comes to getting things done in an environment of uncertainty, acting outside our circle of influence.

Game Rule # 4: Always work with an updated and realistic plan

• After analysing what has been promised to the customer, it may seem impossible to meet the objectives.
• Make a realistic plan, put forth alternatives, involving others in the problem and looking for the solution to them.

Game Rule # 5: When you are unsure, make assumptions

• Too many things are unknown. It seems impossible to estimate detailed timelines, budgets, resources, etc. What do I do?
• Make incremental planning, and for what you do not know, make assumptions. You could say, for example: Assuming that the vendor delivers the server that date, assuming that the technicians have this productivity rate, assuming that the client assumes a key personnel who need to validate requirements from such date, assuming I can... then estimated as date of delivery between April 20 and May 15, with a confidence of 65% . These assumptions have to be monitored continuously. Keep updated on the planning as you discover new information about the project.

Game Rule # 6: If you can only manage one thing, manages risks

• This project has many risks. I do not do anything other than talk about them, but everyone seems to ignore them. When problems materialize who gets the blame.
• The words are gone with the wind. Risk management is contrary to crisis management. It is the only way to anticipate problems. As project manager, you want trouble, not scares. When problems appear, you give a professional image if you saw them coming and had already prepared the answer. At each follow-up meeting devote a special issue to manage risk (it may suffice to review the most important). Each risk presented indicating the exposure involved in euros. If the answer is to assume, write the date and the decision maker in the risk register.

Game Rule No. 7: Adapt communication to the recipient

• The boss of my boss wants to be aware of everything that happens, but does not come with any follow-up meeting. One day I will call the customer with a complaint, he will not know what to say, and there will be a cascade of reprimands to me. How do I prevent this?
• It is normal that senior executives do not have time to go to follow-up meetings, but not the only way to inform. The communication must be tailored to the recipient. In these cases comes in handy to send a periodic status report summarized, publish scorecards to colour light indicators, timetables, milestones, etc.

Game Rule No. 8: Practice iterations to mitigate risks

• I think the customer does not know what you want, what you ask is too general and ambiguous. When we deliver it, will they say no to everything? What can I do?
• Practicing iterations, delivering every time, first the most important part, which can be progressively validated. Perhaps the first instalment reject it, will rework, defects were corrected. In all likelihood, the second instalment will not be rejected entirely and may serve to validate the first delivery to 100%. This dynamic of successive validations allows customers go modelling their product vision.

Game Rule No. 9: Fight against scope creep

• The client wants changes continuously.
• We must not allow that. If the scope changes daily, there is no way to manage the project. It is what is known as degradation scope (scope creep). It's the worst thing that can happen to a project manager. The most effective technique against scope creep is a change management system.

Game Rule No. 10: Trust your team

• Team members assigned may not have much experience in something, and have never worked together, will I have to do everything?
• Of course not. We recommend a situational leadership, adapted to the maturity of the team, then assign roles and understand the why of activities (let mistake), then I will only be needed occasionally and from a certain point will be self-sufficient. They have become a true asset within the organization.