Significant digital transformation projects require superior project managers. Here’s a tool to help you identify them.
Bruce Mark is an independent project management consultant who has been asked to lead a project to introduce artificial intelligence to improve scheduling of one of the automotive manufacturing plants of a leading parts manufacturer. The company insisted that Bruce see the project as not just installing the technology but also making sure that the technology adoption would deliver business benefits: shorter lead times, more deliveries made on time, lower inventories, greater scheduling flexibility and continuous improvement in scheduling activity.
In previous projects, Bruce’s role only included the technical installation and the cutover to the new system. Now, the operational contribution of the new technology was the main objective – ensuring that digital transformation achieved business strategic objectives. Bruce considered what this meant for management of the project in a way that would ensure the radical changes desired would be achieved.
We know that most organisations have never managed radical change. Their business success depends on reliable, repeatable activity that effectively meets their customers’ needs. This requires significantly different skills. For project managers, skills that worked in the past, may not be enough for the future.
The PMI Talent Triangle
The Project Management Institute is the leading global organisation of project managers. They provide professional designations that are internationally accepted as proof of project management capability. As technology has enabled change in organisations in recent years, the PMI has tried to ensure that their designation requirements change in response.
The ‘ideal’ skills that the Project Management Institute believes are required for most projects are described in their Talent Triangle which has three elements:
Ways of Working: There are now various ways of managing projects, including predictive, agile and hybrids of these. Project managers need to understand them and be capable of their application when needed.
Power Skills: People skills including communications and empathy that can be applied in managing project teams and stakeholders.
Business Acumen: Understanding the organisation that the project is taking place within and how the project contributes to its strategic objectives.
All projects require these project manager capabilities to be applied in ways that are appropriate for that specific project. All projects are unique and the project manager needs to select and apply the appropriate skills from their skills toolbox.
Why Are Digital Transformation Projects Different?
Significant digital transformation projects require super project managers. The PMI’s Talent Triangle provides a good broad categorisation of the skills that project managers need for most projects. Digital transformation projects require a high level of capability in their application.
Digital transformation projects that are intended to achieve radical change often involve new work processes, new products and services, new business models and new business eco-systems. Projects will vary in the extent to which they involve each of these areas but managing projects that involve substantial change in business activities, in human resources (new skills, people and ways of working), operational processes etc. requires a high level of skill in a range of disparate areas. A technology project in a more slowly changing organisation is usually much less complex.
The PMI Talent Triangle provides a useful framework for understanding how radical digital transformation requires higher project management skill levels.
Ways of Working: There are a wide range of tools and techniques available to project managers today from predictive and agile methodologies. Complex digital transformation projects require a high level of skill in selecting and applying appropriate tools to each part of the project. For example, agile tools may be used for technology development activity while a predictive approach may be better for managing data migration.
Power Skills: The impact of digital transformation on people in the organisation can be substantial and difficult to manage. Establishment of new roles and skills and elimination of others, new processes and working practices and changes in management practices and organisational culture require skills in communications and managing change, along with knowledge of good job design and modern approaches to management.
Business Acumen: Digital transformation is undertaken in pursuit of business strategic goals which today often involve fundamental changes in operations, products and services, business models and business eco-systems. The change that is being made is not just technical but involves the whole business. The digital transformation project must be managed to ensure that it is fully aligned with the business transformation. The project manager needs to have both a good understanding of the business and the changes it is making, along with how the technology contributes to this. Systems thinking to understand the integration of activity throughout the project is critical.
The project manager in a digital transformation project requires a high level of skill that is not usually required to the same extent in many other projects. Their knowledge of and ability to apply a wide range of project management tools, their ability to work with people and their business knowledge and skills are critical to project success.
Project managers who have this combination of skills are rare, so it is important that the skills in the project team complement those of the project manager where needed.
Assessing DX PM Skills
We have developed a tool to assess the capability of a project manager for a digital transformation project, for the participants in our University of Waterloo, Watspeed online Digital Transformation Certificate Program. It can be used to consider candidates for project manager roles, to understand the capabilities of existing project managers and where support may be needed to ensure project success.
In each of the sections below, first determine the extent to which each capability is ‘Needed’ in your digital transformation project by rating these on a scale of 1 (not needed) to 10 (expert capability). Next consider the capabilities of your project manager in the ‘Assessed’ column on a scale of 1 (no capability) to 10 (expert capability). The final column allows you to record any action you wish to take, based on the assessment. In each category, the final row allows you to total your assessment scores and develop a summary of capability in each of the PMI Talent Triangle elements.
The Digital Transformation Project Management Assessment Tool
Managing a significant digital transformation project requires capabilities in a range of areas that are often not sufficiently considered in project manager and project team selection. This simple tool is intended to help you focus on and improve the project management of your digital transformation projects.
