Matt Morey | PMP, CSM | Dir., Delivery Operations, SIS LLC
This week I sit down with Matt Morey, PMP CSM, and Director of Delivery Operations for SIS LLC to talk about his revolutionary look at Project Management through the eyes of Hotshot wilderness firefighters. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you are very familiar with this unrelenting team of firefighters called Hotshots. If you watch ‘Virgin River’ on Netflix™, you see Hotshots first-hand in operations. Matt has taken the concept of jumping into the chaos and applied it to ERP project management. Here we talk about what that means.
Q: Matt, how did you get into Dynamics Project Management?
A: I started my career in Project Management as I exited my position in the United States Army. I originally interviewed for a Sales job at a Fortune 300 company in Oil and Gas (O&G) and was offered a Project Management job because “your resume and personality scream that you’re a person who can get from A to Z while making sure B through Y are taken care of.”
While working at the O&G company I established a reputation for not only surviving, but reviving disaster projects. My military background and combat experience supplied the experience to cut to the basic requirements of a project and the drive to move a team to completion of the mission (project), especially ones that are already in trouble.
As my career progressed in Project Management, I moved into an Oracle R12 implementation for the company before returning to the design and construction of oil rigs. Several years later when the price of oil dropped, I found myself enlisted into an AX2012 Dynamics 2012 Project as a Project Manager. I’ve been in ERP implementations for nearly a decade now, working with a variety of clients across a range of industries, including Oil and Gas, Alcohol Manufacturing, Clean Energy, and Design and Construction.
Q: How did the Hotshot Project Manager Program Develop?
A: After I established a reputation for project recovery, the Houston Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter approached me to develop a program based on the steps I use to recover projects that are burning down. As I explored the approach and how to convey the process I used, I was stuck for how to make it interesting. Fortunately, I had a friend with a story.
One of the soldiers I deployed with became a firefighting hotshot. This is group of firefighters who are called when the massive wildfires burn out of control in the Rockies, California, and basically the entire Western United States lately. Their job is to hike into the raging inferno of these out-of-control wildfires and start the dangerous process of containing them and brining them under control.
After sharing a few stories with my friend, I realized that the approach the hotshot firefighters use can equate to the process I use when approaching a new project that is already engulfed in flames and burning down. Thus, was born the Hotshot Project Manager.
Q: What are the steps for a Hotshot Project Manager (PM)?
A: At the highest level the Hotshot PM starts with Recon:
- A Map Recon = Review of the project plan and/or business case to determine initial success criteria and the “lay of the land”
- An Arial Recon = Interviewing the main players of the project to learn what is really going on and see which way the fire is really burning
Once those steps are complete, the project manager will work through additional steps to ensure the right people and equipment are available to combat the fire, trekking to the outskirts, setting rally points, establishing firebreaks, dousing, setting counter-burns and dealing with or maybe celebrating the aftermath of the project. Each of these steps equate to key activities the Hotshot Project Manager will work through to contain and control the raging inferno of an out-of-control project.
As you progress through these steps, it’s important for the Hotshot PM to operate “in the black.” To hotshot fire fighters this means staying where the fire has already burned, so that you don’t get caught by changes in the weather conditions and get into trouble. To the Hotshot PM this means operating in the planning and definition of the project rather than jumping into solutioning. If the replacement PM gets involved in solutioning too early, before completing the appropriate steps, it is too easy for that PM to be burned by the project they are trying to control.
Q: Does the current Project Manager stay in place through this turnaround process?
A: In most cases no. The current PM is usually already singed if not outright burned by the project. He/she will not be a benefit to the turnaround process but instead be a hinderance, or worse, a Firestarter in the background.
In an ideal situation, the current PM will be in place for the “Aerial Recon” portion of the recovery process, providing some control (hopefully). As the initial Recons are taking place, I highly recommend that you are not recognized as the new PM. If at all possible, you want to be performing a Project Audit until the Recon steps are complete. The driving factor for this is that people will share more and better information to someone performing an audit then they will to the new boss. This approach also makes it a lot easier to stay “in the black.”
In nearly 15 years of Hotshot PMing, I’ve only ever had 1 project where the existing PM stayed on the project. He changed positions to assistant PM and Lead Engineer on the project, and he is still a friend today. This is definitely the exception rather than the rule.
Q: How useful is the existing implementation plan if a project is engulfed in flame?
A: The current project plan is one of the last things a Hotshot would look at, along with the most recent status reporting. The reason is that if either were useful and not already burned to charcoal by the project then a new project manager wouldn’t be necessary. There may still be salvageable pieces to the plan and reports, but it shouldn’t influence your initial recons/reviews.
Q: What does a project on fire look like?
A: Most times the project goes from green status report to red with no yellow between updates. In many cases this becomes apparent after the project has spent 2/3rds the original budget and a testing cycle results in a 70% or less pass rate. One clear indicator of a project engulfed in flames is if the project team is spending more time in meetings to determine why the project is in trouble than actually working on the project! This happens typically when upper managers realize that the project is falling behind and decide to get more involved. Then all the focus moves from completing milestones to reporting why milestones are becoming embers and ash. Sadly, in many cases, the very effort by upper management to salvage the project pours lighter fluid onto the fire, causing it to burn all the faster.
Q: Do you have a good problem/solution story?
A: The most dramatic example of a problem/solution story is from the O&G days. I’ll change the names to protect the innocent:
Brad and James worked on several projects before and established a “good working relationship.” On this particular project Brad works on the project design team and James works for the client. James has a lunch with Brad and comments “can we change the piping size from 10 inches to 12 inches?”
Brad is a piping engineer and knows the project is still in design phase. The AutoCAD drawings are still being refined and the steel structure space allows for the piping size increase. He goes into the associated drawings and makes the change. 20 minutes later the updates are done. No problem.
EXCEPT… the piping size change means that the pumps moving liquid through the pipes needs to increase in size. The increase in size means the motors for the pumps needs to be bigger. The motors draw more power, which means that circuit breaker panels need to expand. The larger draw also means that the generators need to grow to meet the power needs. All of these items happened because Brad decided to help James without telling anyone.
What if I told you that the circuit breaker panels and the generators had a 2 -3 year long lead time and had already been ordered based on the existing parameters? That no problem update caused a potential $1.6 million dollar impact to the project. Talk about burning down the budget!
In an ERP project, this can look like the addition of a table embedded in a module that could impact project categories for purchasing and project accounting that impacts how the costs are represented in ledger entries. A “small tweak” can dramatically impact the ability for the business to run month end close!
Q: I can see how your eye is keen to find these discrepancies in construction.
A: There are a lot of similarities between building an ERP like Dynamics and a construction project. Dynamics consists of separate specialties (Accounting, Procurement, Projects, HR, etc.) that all have to play nice within the same structure, similar to how construction requires separate specialties to play well within the same construct. Piping, electrical, HVAC, steel support, concrete, finishing, all need to come together to create the finished product. Understanding the interplay and relationships between the different specialties is a must for a Hotshot PM, regardless of the type of projects he/she is working in.
Q: What if a project isn’t on fire yet? What are you doing to project the zone?
A: The first step is your key deliverables. What are the “must haves” for a successful project, usually identified in the Scope of Work, Work Order, or Business Case. Knowing what these are (the lay of the land from the Map Recon) means you understand the terrain and what you need to deliver. You can’t navigate, woods or project, until you know the lay of the land. And having a previous project to build from can be helpful, but it isn’t enough. A map of New York while in Boston will only get you lost faster!
Second, create good communications both to your project team (the fellow firefighters) and to your upper management and client. Upper Management so you can call in air support and perform Dousing (another step in the Hotshot program), and the client to be aware of the challenges and changes that occur within the project. The more open the communication the less likely the project will catch fire and the quicker everyone can respond to sparks that could cause problems!
Third, do you have the right people and tools (Gather The Tools)? D365 can incorporate Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) solutions, which provide specialized solutions. If there’s a gap in D365, is there an ISV that can be used to close the gap? Do you have the right number of environments for the plan you are executing? Do you have the right people with the right knowledge for the modules/areas of the project? Having the wrong people or tools can be like throwing water on a grease fire… you burn your kitchen down!
Other steps involve setting Firebreaks (proper scope definition) and Counter-Burns (removing scope creep items) to better contain the parameters of the project. These activities help to control the chaos and prevent the spread of fire.
One final thought around protecting the project. Keep an eye out for your pyros. These are the people adverse to change or trying to influence the project to jump the Firebreaks and overrun the Counter-Burns. These people can be the biggest headache for the Hotshot, because they can go behind and relight fires that were already extinguished, or fan flames to spread faster.
Once you have these people identified the primary step is to identify their interests and work to remove the flammable objects around them. Sometimes that means upper management performs a Dousing, sometimes that means reinforcing the Firebreaks and Counter-Burns with written agreements or strategically defined milestones. The situation will dictate the approach.
In a best-case scenario, the pyro will work with you to set the Firebreaks and Counter-burns and may even help contain other pyros. That’s fighting fire with fire!
Unfortunately, in the harder scenarios the Hotshot PM will need remove the pyro from the team or work with upper management to remove the person.
Worst-case, unfortunately, means that the politics, knowledge, or some other factor is preventing the previous scenarios. This result means more Firebreaks, more Counter-Burns, and constant vigilance to quickly extinguish the sparks this person creates.
Q: What you describe is a beautiful scenario to stop or even prevent fires. But aren’t people angry this happened? Or angry about the approach? Where does this factor?
A: Of course people are angry or frustrated (or both) about the situation and what is happening. In many cases when a Hotshot PM joins a team he or she will cause a few sparks themselves. They will be setting new standards and expectations that will not be well received by everyone.
The project team may not like the new standards. The client may not like that you are extracting the tinder of scope creep or trying to better control it by creating new change orders. Upper management is already frustrated because the project isn’t delivering on the desired results.
There are opportunities for a wise Hotshot PM in those areas. The project team may be worried about the project stopping or losing their jobs, so setting new standards may be difficult but welcome. The client may have a timeline or budget constraint, so removing the scope creep will make the project leaner and timelier. Upper management will become more comfortable as they see a plan (or a plan to get to a plan) being defined and executed well.
These factors will become apparent during the Aerial Recon, and be incorporated into the other Hotshot steps like Treking to the Outskirts and Setting the Rally Point (among others).
The amazing thing about all of this? The first 2-3, maybe even 6 months will be difficult, depending on the size of the project. Once that is done, though, the project recovery will become apparent, like fresh growth in a burned area. It can even look picturesque if everyone can move together for the right result. And in the end you will be the Project Manager that all future Project Mangers for your team are compared to.
