You arrived early to avoid traffic jams or other obstacles in order to get a great first impression. You’re are a seasoned Project Manager with the necessary paperwork and track record to proof you’re up to the task. They asked for a PM with Scrum and minimum of 5 years’ experience. The meeting went fabulous and you’ve got the assignment.
After some days you realize that the Scrum-method is still to be implemented over the organization, basic data is kept in various systems, data quality is not always reliable… Now the real job starts. How to get all Project Teams aligned, get accurate data for the Steering, get control over progress, problems, and solutions?
Mixed Methods in your Project, Program or Organization: What recipe works?
The first part is that we never fight complexity with more complexity! Keep it as simple as possible. Always.
Second part is to acknowledge that we Project Managers, navigate on 3 basic things;
Scope, Time and Budget. No more, no less.
Sounds easy enough but then reality kicks in (again). The majority of your teams are from external parties, the teams work in different countries and maybe in their time zone, and last but not least the level of maturity differ extremely. It is time to call in the troops…
Your team! Find a timeslot that works for all project leads and invite them to the Problem Review Board. Every workday e.g. at 12h the group spends 30 minutes where all answer briefly to “What is your problem? Who or what do you need?”. The match between problem and solver is made and you move on to the next participant. All the details will be worked out outside the PRB. The sole purpose of a PRB is to match the problem with the solution/solver.
Up till a group of 20 this works great.
There you have it. Your basic recipe. Now it is up to you to extend it to your needs, your situation, your skill level.