The Project Canvas

We are witnessing the rise of projects as the main unit of work, as well as the essential model to deliver change and create value for individuals, organizations and society at large. Welcome to The Project Economy!

Yet despite this surge in project activities and project spending, the risk of project failure continues to be huge and will continue to increase unless organizations and governments embrace advanced project leadership practices. In addition, project management will not escape the disruptions that other industries are experiencing.

If we act now, there is a good chance that project management becomes one of the most sought-after skills by organizations in the new world.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

In my career of over 20 years as an executive educator, I have worked with hundreds of leaders who don’t understand, or are not interested in, the day-to-day aspects of managing a project. The trouble is that the existing methodologies and courses are too complicated and train project managers to talk in technical terms about matters that don’t interest the majority of stakeholders. Leaders, and those impacted by a project, primarily want to know the ‘why’ – the purpose, the benefits, the impact and the key elements that will make a project successful – and ‘how’ they can contribute to it.

Faced with the challenges of teaching project management to executives and MBAs, I developed the Project Canvas. If I wanted to keep them engaged and interested for days, I had to move away from the expert jargon – I had to simplify the language and the project management tools and techniques so that everyone was able to understand and apply them.

The framework is based on another premise. Every project – regardless of the industry, the organization (profit or non-profit), the sector (public or private), or whether it is personal or professional – is composed of exactly the same elements, which determine whether the project is a success or failure. If individuals, leaders and organizations focus on these elements and apply the techniques behind them, project success will almost be guaranteed.

The Project Canvas is composed of 14 dimensions – the ones that research has proven to influence and determine project success. These are grouped into four major domains. Each domain, or area of expertise, has a specific weight in the success of a project, which is indicated by a percentage. The four domains are:

• Why: the rationale and the purpose and passion for launching and implementing the project successfully (~20%)

• Who: the accountability and the governance that will ensure the project is resourced and delivered (~20%)

• What, How & When: the hard aspects of projects (definition, design, plans, milestones, cost, risk, procurement) as well as the soft aspects (motivation, skills, stakeholders, change management, communication) (~50%)

• Where: the organization, the culture, the priorities and the context (internal and external) in which the project is being carried out (~10%).

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

The Why dimension covers the triggers and actual meaning of a project (the rationale and business case, and the purpose and passion), which will become the drivers once the project gets underway.

All project management methodologies demand that projects always have a well-defined business case. Experience shows, however, that business cases have biases and subjective assumptions, especially concerning the financial benefits from the project, which often get inflated to make the project seem more attractive to the decision-makers. Have you ever seen a project with a negative or meagre return being presented?

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

People have enormous strengths; when a project they work on is connected to their purpose and passion, they can do amazing things, more than they have ever imagined. The best project leaders know that it is possible to tap into people’s strengths through their hearts. The nice thing is that people don’t have to be great at something to be passionate. Steve Jobs was not the world’s most excellent engineer, salesperson, designer, or businessman. But he was uniquely good enough at all of these things and was driven by his purpose and passion to do something far greater. Conversely, a lack of conviction about a project can quickly be expanded to the rest of the team.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

The Who domain relates to the executive sponsor and governance, and it addresses the elements of accountability and allocation of responsibilities.

Many projects start without it being decided who is ultimately accountable for their successful delivery. As projects tend to go across departments, business units and countries, they are often prone to ‘shared accountability and collective sponsorship.’ As a result, many executives feel responsible, yet no one is really accountable for driving the project to completion.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

The executive sponsor, together with the project manager, should define the project governance. The governance in a project is represented by a project chart in which the various contributing roles and decision-making bodies are defined.

One of the most important bodies in a project is the steering committee, which is chaired by the executive sponsor and run by the project manager. The members and the frequency with which they meet often determine the importance the project has for the organization.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

The What, How, and When domain covers the project's fundamental elements, which can be split into technical areas and people-related elements.

Understanding and agreeing on what the project will consist of and deliver – the scope – is one of the raisons d’être of project management. Other terms for scope include specifications, detailed requirements, design, and functionality.

The scope is the most important element in accurately estimating the project's cost, duration, plan, and benefits. Various tools can be used to try to determine what the outcome of the project will look like, yet this remains one of the most difficult tasks.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

“Time is money”: this famous phrase, attributed to Benjamin Franklin, is an absolute in projects. Time is one of the significant characteristics of projects in that unless there is an articulated, compelling, official, and publicly announced deadline, there is a good chance that the project will be delivered later than initially planned.

Delays in projects mean, besides extra costs, a loss of benefits and expected revenues, both having a tremendous negative impact on the business case of the initiative. A project without a deadline should not be considered a project – better call it an experiment, an exploration, or a daily business activity.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.

The budget in projects is composed mostly of the time dedicated by the project resources. These mainly include the people working on the project plus all other investments (consultants, material, software, hardware, etc.) required to develop the project's scope. Budget is the third main constraint in traditional project management, together with time and scope. Without budget, there is no project.

For additional support related to growing further your competencies as modern project manager, feel free to contact me at antonio.nieto.rodriguez@gmail.com. I am here to help you on your development journey.