Applying project management to an election run (part two)

In my previous article, I provided an overview of my current personal project of preparing for and running for election as one the city councilors in Welland, Ontario.

With a good understanding of the constraints for this work, this week’s article will focus on three key knowledge areas, namely scope, schedule and cost and how those will be managed over the life of the project.

There are three key deliverables for this project: candidate registration, the campaign itself and the post-campaign financial report.

The first and last deliverables are well defined as the requirements for those are specified by the city’s election officer and by the provincial guide for municipal elections. The first required me to get 25 endorsements from local residents, pay a nomination fee and complete some paperwork. The last will require me to complete a formal financial summary of campaign contributions and expenses and to submit it to the city by a specified deadline. As such, a predictive approach can be used for the management of both of these deliverables.

Not having run for public office before, it would be unwise for me to attempt to define the full scope of the campaign deliverable up front. Based on the time and budget remaining, certain work packages may be added, dropped or reprioritized. Therefore, an adaptive approach will make the most sense for completing this deliverable.

Outside of any restrictions imposed by the city or province, I have significant latitude on how to proceed. I have three objectives:

1. To increase resident awareness of the upcoming election and the importance in their voting
2. To create or increase awareness of myself as a candidate
3. To convince a majority of eligible voters within my ward to vote for me

Given the limited budget I have set for the project, the specific levers I use will be based on maximizing the “bang for the buck”. I’ve reviewed the financial statements from the candidates in the most recent election as well as solicited ideas from my volunteer team.

I have elected to go with:

• A campaign website
• Lawn signs
• Door hangers (i.e. one page cardboard brochures which can be hung off front door handles)
• A one time advertisement in our local newspaper
• Door-to-door introductions

These tactics will leave me with just under 25% of my budget. This will be kept in reserve to be used for any cheap, quick wins which are identified closer to the election date.

Each of the deliverables has a set time window.

Candidate nominations can be submitted anytime between May 2 to August 19. Campaigning can commence anytime from the time when nomination papers have been filed and formally accepted to the election date which is October 24. Signs can be placed on lawns from September 9 and must be removed three days after the election date. And financial statements for the campaign are required to be submitted no later than March 31, 2023.

Having these key dates defined up front simplifies the planning process. For example, the constraint on how early signs can be placed will also set the date for when I’d need to have door hangers and lawn signs available to be given out.

Cost management is quite simple as I will only be paying for the procured campaign products or services. My time and that of my volunteer team is not being estimated, tracked or expensed.

In next week’s (final) article of this series, I will cover the key project risks as well as the responses implemented to address them.

(If you liked this article, why not pick up my book Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice which contains 100 other lessons on project leadership? It’s available on Amazon.com and on Amazon.ca as well as a number of other online book stores)

Applying project management to an election run (part one)

Last year I wrote three articles about the project management tools and techniques I used for managing our inter-city relocation. Every four years, the municipalities within the province of Ontario hold elections for city council, the role of mayor, school board trustees and regional councillors. With the elections coming up this October, I decided a few weeks ago to run for one of the two city councillor roles within my ward in Welland (for more information about my platform, feel free to visit my campaign website at kiron4welland.com).

This initiative would meet most operational definitions for what constitutes a project. It is time-bound as election day is October 24. It is a unique endeavor as running for office is different each time one does it. And it will (hopefully!) produce the valuable result of my receiving the most votes by my neighbors within my ward.

As I’ve written previously, it is important to understand what constraints exist on a project as well as which constraint is the most critical. In the case of this project, many usual constraints apply including:

Time: the main accomplishment for the project will need to be completed no later than the end of election day

Cost: election rules mandate the maximum amount which a candidate can contribute towards their campaign or can spend as expenses. Given that there isn’t a significant financial return on investment for this project, I have set a modest limit on personal contributions and campaign expenses which is well within the limits set by the rules. As such, there is some flexibility for cost.

Scope: there is quite a bit of flexibility regarding both what you can run for (e.g. mayor, city councillor in one of multiple wards) as well as how you go about convincing citizens to vote for you.

Quality: the election rules do provide clear guidance on the types of activities which are not permitted such as paying people to vote for you or using city resources to further your campaign. There are also municipal by-laws for street signs which provide quality requirements such as content, size, placement, and timing for placing and removing signs.

Resources: while there aren’t any constraints on materials or equipment (so long as they will fit within the costs allocated), people’s time is the primary resource constraint for this project. However, as I do have a few neighbours who have indicated that they would be happy to support my campaign, there is some flexibility here.

Knowledge: while knowledge is an enabler, limited knowledge can act as a constraint. There are two limits which apply to this project:

• My limited first-hand knowledge of running for office. While I was elected three times as a director on the board of the PMI Lakeshore Chapter almost twenty years ago, the complexity of that project was much lower and the odds were much more in my favor than this project.
• The knowledge which my ward’s citizens have about the upcoming municipal elections in general and of me, specifically, as I’ve only lived here for a year.

The good thing is that while knowledge constraints are a major limiting factor, reducing their impact is quite achievable within the time line of this project.

Having provided my analysis of the constraints I’m facing, next week’s article will cover the approach I’m using to manage the different PMBOK knowledge areas for this project.

(If you liked this article, why not pick up my book Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice which contains 100 other lessons on project leadership? It’s available on Amazon.com and on Amazon.ca as well as a number of other online book stores)

Hybrid is the norm, not the exception

I frequently see questions asked in project management discussion groups about hybrid projects. As I wrote in last week’s article, projects themselves can’t be waterfall, agile, traditional or hybrid but how we approach them can be.

But what does “hybrid” really mean?

The Oxford English Dictionary’s first definition relates to the zoological use of the term which isn’t too helpful, but the second is: “A thing made by combining two different elements; a mixture.” In the context of projects, the most common usage relates to the combination of predictive and adaptive approaches.

Using this definition, we can see that there are quite a few ways in which a project can be delivered using a hybrid approach including:

• Using a life cycle which uses both predictive and adaptive phases. An example of this is “Water-Scrum-Fall” which is a common interim step which some teams adopt when moving from a predictive to an adaptive life cycle.
• Using different life cycle approaches to complete different deliverables within the overall project scope. For example, the automation of an existing business process might involve an adaptive approach for the business process and the supporting system whereas the change management deliverables such as end user training materials might be produced in a predictive manner.
• Using a combination of methods drawn from predictive and adaptive toolkits. For example, we might use a work breakdown structure to help define project scope to a manageable level of detail, but then use work boards and hold daily coordination events to support the delivery of that scope.

Given that there are so many ways of being hybrid, it is a reasonable assertion that the majority of projects will in fact follow a hybrid delivery method. Predictive and adaptive approaches are just extremes on a continuum and most projects will fall somewhere between those points.

So when someone asks the question “What is hybrid project management?”, the answer should be the same as it would be for any project management approach. Tailor your approach to fit the needs of the project drawing on predictive, adaptive and any other applicable toolkits while remaining aligned with enterprise standards and policies.

(If you liked this article, why not read my book Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice which contains 100 other lessons on project leadership? It’s available on Amazon.com and on Amazon.ca as well as a number of other online book stores)