INTERVIEW WITH ERIK - PROJECT MANAGER AT PHPRO

Today is international project management day! But project management, what does it all mean? And what does a project manager actually do? We asked our own project manager!

HOW DID YOU END UP AT PHPRO?

Through a LinkedIn recruiter. I was working at another company at the time and I wasn't very happy there. The atmosphere there was not good at all. I then started talking to PHPro and it turned out very well. During this conversation, the very human aspect of PHPro came up and that is what convinced me to make the switch.

WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?

I am currently working on several projects, namely: Hopper (Scouts&Gidsen Vlaanderen), PizzaHut, Mundero, Vinetiq, KBC, VLIR en Wandelsport Vlaanderen. 

THERE ARE A LOT OF WAYS TO DO PROJECT MANAGEMENT. WHICH METHODOLOGY DO YOU PREFER TO USE?

We work fairly Agile here, but not 100%. We use the points that are applicable when working with PHPro. I think it's a good methodology because you can keep your finger on the pulse with the team through the daily stand-ups and every two weeks we take the time to do a retrospective where everyone can have their say. So then you do have set moments to sit down with your team, as a group, and respond to the needs of the project. And ultimately the framework in itself doesn't matter, if your team doesn't support it then it won't work - and vice versa.

AS A PROJECT MANAGER, IT'S IMPORTANT THAT YOU KEEP AN EYE ON THE SCOPE & BUDGET SO AS NOT TO MISS ANY DEADLINES. IF ONE OF THOSE THINGS GETS COMPROMISED, HOW DO YOU PRIORITIZE TASKS?

If I notice that one of the things in the project is in danger of being compromised, I will always escalate it internally first and have a quick spar with other colleagues to see how they would handle it. It is also important to inform the customer as early as possible. With a very active project, ideally you would have a meeting every month with the steering committee and all stakeholders, which the sponsor would also attend. During such a meeting, it is important that everything is then mapped out very clearly: What has been spent? What do we still need to spend? If something does not go according to plan, we can intervene quickly, for example by releasing extra budget or taking something out of scope. 

HOW DID YOU EXPERIENCE YOUR ROLE AS PM DURING THE CORONA CRISIS, WHEN MANY PROJECTS DID BECOME A BIT MORE CHALLENGING?

In the end, we did very well during the pandemic. The work of developers was prepared, and they could finish it very autonomously. Questions could be asked via Teams.

But admittedly: For myself, as a project manager, I still had a harder time. I like to have a lot of contact with people. I often have to go from meeting to meeting, and during the pandemic these were often very long days of 9 to 10 hour long calls. For me, that was really tough.

Technology allows it and it is 100% possible to work from home. But I personally find social contact very important as a project manager, and that was still more difficult during that period.

AS PM, YOU ARE NOT ONLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PROJECT ITSELF BUT ALSO FOR THE TEAM AND THE VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS. HOW DO YOU KEEP ALL PARTIES HAPPY?

That's a challenge anyway. As a project manager, you have the “official meetings” and the “unofficial meetings.” You have to see that your meeting is done even before the official meeting starts. You still have to try to get an informal conversation in between here and there. For example: When I have prepared slides for a presentation, I often call the manager beforehand to go over them together, that way you already have buy-in from the customer. But that is of course very intensive, you have to contact a lot of people by calling them or making team calls.

SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THE “MORE DIFFICULT” PEOPLE IN A PROJECT?

In project management, new things are often implemented and that creates fear in some people, causing them to act more difficult. With these people, you sometimes tend to procrastinate and push back bad news. But it's by actually approaching them proactively that you often get them on board. Just approach them very correctly and factually and, above all, don't make any promises you can't keep.

You must always realize that as a project manager you are never alone. If you don't get it resolved yourself then you can always escalate something in the team and management is definitely going to help too.

AS A PM YOU CAN'T DO EVERYTHING YOURSELF SO SOME DELEGATION IS ALSO NEEDED. WHICH TASKS DO YOU HAVE A HARD TIME DELEGATING?

That is one of my pitfalls, that I want to do as much as possible myself. Technical analysis, I prefer to outsource that as much as possible. I'm not an expert at that and others on the team are much better at that. But the functional analyses and validation, I still like to do that myself whereas I should entrust that more to my colleagues, who are better at it.

HAS IT EVER HAPPENED THAT YOU ARE REALLY OVERWHELMED BY A PROJECT? IF SO, HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?

Sometimes it happens, when you have many projects running in parallel. Then everything comes at once. Purely mathematically, all those projects are manageable, but in reality, for example, all the customers come at the same time with all their questions or you have a lot of coinciding deadlines. And that can sometimes be overwhelming and you can no longer see the wood for the trees.

But you are very well supported at such moments by your colleagues, the other project managers, your project team, the managing partners, and so on. You can always turn to someone for sparring. So far it has never happened that a situation cannot be solved. There is always someone who can help you when you are at a loss. So I can only give one tip: Don't get stuck with things like this because you will drown in the long run. But step up to your colleagues and look for solutions together.

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST CHALLENGING PROJECT AND WHY?

I have had several challenging projects, but if I had to choose one it would be the project at Vinetiq. That was a Magento project and also my first Magento project for me. Magento was a completely new platform for me, I had absolutely no experience with it. There were also two interns working on the project and a junior PO. So we were basically all rookies, in a platform unknown to me. So that made it enormously challenging. In addition, Vinetiq was still a start-up with little budget at the time which made it extra challenging to be able to execute the full scope within time and budget. But it worked out in the end. It was sweating, but then the victory is doubly sweet!

HOW DID YOUR LAST PROJECT END?

My last project was only recently delivered but was a hit! That was PizzaHut's technical migration from the old framework to Symfony. Thanks to the team, it was a great success. On this project we stayed nicely within time, within budget and within scope. Full credit goes to the team.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN OR REFINE?

What I would like to learn is change management. That is always a challenge in projects. Customers often want a lot of new things, but once those new things are in place, too much changes and it becomes difficult. So I would like to learn more about the process of change management and how to persuade customers to go along with it.

Also, people management is one of my strengths, but I would like to improve on that.

AFTER A LONG DAY MANAGING PROJECTS, WHAT MAKES YOU RELAX AND RECHARGE?

Sports mostly. I've always played basketball, although an injury has taken me out of it for a while now. But besides that, I go to the gym or swim fairly often. I also like to go on city trips or enjoy a concert and relax especially with lots of music. And of course organizing fun things for PHPro!