Introduction

On April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 space mission blasted off from Florida on an ill-fated journey that resulted from an explosion on the spacecraft two days after launch. The crew successfully returned to earth after a now infamous struggle by the crew and ground personnel over the course of four harrowing days.

James Lovell, the captain of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission and Gene Kranz, the flight director at mission control, recently were the keynote speakers at the Project Management Institute Denver Chapter's Project Management Symposium. They shared elements of their story which bore out four lessons that can be applied to gaining value from project management software (and the processes that need to accompany it).

The first lesson relates to people. Mr. Kranz and Mr. Lovell emphasized the importance of leadership, perseverance, hard work, respect, and teamwork. They could have exclusively focused on the benefits of the technology, or the reliability of the spacecraft systems, or on some other technical aspect which was clearly important. They did not. They attributed the success of the Apollo 13 return to the attributes of the teams that worked hard to bring the astronauts back. Often times the emphasis with project management software is on the features, technology, or bells & whistles that the software can perform. There is almost a mentality that good software will automatically help an organization get better at project management. As with the spacecraft systems on Apollo 13, the technical aspects are important, but they are not enough. We must have leadership, discipline, teamwork, and similar attributes to truly gain the strategic value out of project management software. You marry the right principles, processes, and people with the right technology and you can create a significant competitive advantage.

The second lesson is the fact that the unexpected will occur. It clearly did on Apollo 13. And it clearly does in our projects. Implementing project management software is another project. How you utilize it down the road will be different than how you envision it initially. You may have a different organizational plan, different processes, or you may decide to make it more complex or more simple to better match your culture or changing business conditions. That is why it is important that software be flexible enough to adapt, and that the thinking on how to use the software, and the processes to put in place around the software are flexible as well.

The third lesson is that you cannot discredit the technology itself. The entire Apollo program was built on technology, and in fact would not have been possible without the modern technology of the day. So while people and processes are important, technology cannot be overlooked. Project management software has some good technology to bring to the table. It is now possible to centralize (fairly easily) all of the information associated with our projects. That should not be overlooked. In fact, sometimes good technology can even peak interest which can lead to discussions on setting up or improving key processes, whereas an initiative to purely look at processes can fall on deaf ears.

The fourth lesson is that training is important. The Apollo 13 astronauts and controllers simply would not have had a successful outcome if they were not well trained. People must be trained properly on project management software for an organization to utilize it effectively. Put another way, the proper amount of the right training is important to gain value from the technology. There are two key phrases there. "The proper amount" means that people need enough but not too much training. Today, there are tools available that simply do not require days and days of training, but there is a "proper amount" that is needed. "The right training" means to train people on what they need to perform their key processes without teaching them all of the ins and outs of the technology. Most people don't need to know that and it distracts from the value. People need to know how to accomplish their objectives as well as understand the concept of why we are doing this. Once they get all of that, they become effective users of the technology as well as effective project contributors.

How can we apply this, practically speaking, on a day to day basis? Good people with the right attributes are important. To bolster the opportunities for success for your project management software initiative, get key people to join the effort (formally or informally). Be sure that you pick technology that is flexible to adapt to changing needs, and be open to new ways of doing things. Ensure that the technology can grow with you and has the essential features that you need. And give people the right amount of the right training. Don't just train to train. Train strategically.

Put these lessons into place to improve the success of your project management software initiative.