Telecommuting Trend Forces Changes in Project Management

Ready or not, telecommuting is fast becoming a reality for more and more companies, and it should only become even more popular as gas prices soar. In fact, many organizations are starting "shared office" programs, where the office mates take turns telecommuting, thus only one office is needed between them.

What does this mean for project managers? It means that it becomes even more important to learn skills at managing virtual teams. This CIO Magazine interview with Jaclyn Kostner, the foremost authority on virtual teams (and author of several great books on virtual team leadership) is well worth reading.

Also, check out the Gartner report below on telecommuting trends...

Teleworking: The Quiet Revolution (2005 Update)

Enterprise Portfolio Management Software Customers Prefer to Start Small

According to Computerworld, customers of project portfolio management software prefer to start small and gradually grow into the product. The key is to start with the basics, such as capturing the full inventory of projects and prioritizing accordingly, and then progress to more advanced features like portfolio balancing and charge-outs. See the full report below...

Portfolio management software users tout a la carte functionality - Computerworld

Project Frontier's Earned Value Maps Part of KIDASA Milestone Professional 2006 Beta

As we reported here several weeks ago, our friend Garry Booker of Project Frontier came up with a revolutionary way to depict Earned Value status in a graphical pattern that goes way beyond Gantt Chart flatland.

Looks like people are taking notice. KIDASA's Milestones Professional 2006 will include these "EV Maps" as part of their product, and they're now looking for beta testers.

Here's the link to the Project Frontier news item, which contains more detail...

News

IT Portfolio Management Maturity Required ...

IT Portfolio Management Maturity Required: Via GCN: Senate passes VA USDA spending bills with IT restraints

Mary Mosquera reports on Senate funding activity, with interesting insight on IT project portfolio management process maturity ...

... "The Senate also will restrict use of IT funds for the HealtheVet project to modernize VA's VistA electronic records system until VA's IT portfolio management process matures to a level that can take on this project with a predictable chance of success. " ...

Project Management: Requirements Delivered? ...

Via Forrester Research: Integrate Requirements Management With SCM To Enable More Informed Project Management

Forrester analysts, Margo Visitacion and Carey Schwaber, recommend integration of requirement management and configuration management tools to ensure deliverables ...

... "Project managers and business analysts, the typical end users of requirements management (RM) tools, often fail to see the value of integrating RM with software configuration management (SCM). These resources focus on goals like schedule, scope, and budget, but they should consider expanding their emphasis from these ends to include some of the means by which they can be achieved. " ...

Process Change or Process Tool First?

Process Change or Process Tool First?: Via Optimal Friction: Tools Stimulating Change ...

We have been on both sides of this debate. Historically, more often implementing the process-enabling tool as a catalyst for process change (with a limited success rate). Michael Mah expresses the concept of flexible tools pacing the cultural / process change in a friendly way. I like the sound of that friction ...

... "It's even better when a manager can prepare a project plan using their way, then having the tool recreate that plan, essentially cloning it, and extending the plan by offering a benchmark of say, the deadline, against industry, or deriving the implied productivity. " ...

Project Management Process Compliance

A familiar question surfaced again recently during an assessment - does a process count towards the maturity score if nobody's following it. Or if only some project teams are? Or if you don't know how many teams are? This presentation gives some useful and interesting pointers for determining process compliance. One key concept is that the process should produce some direct evidence of its execution - a 'tangible artifact'. Gary Natwick then goes on to describe a system for for managing the processes themselves including monitoring compliance.
Automated Monitoring of Process Compliance

Managing Project Risk in Texas

US state IT departments have a complicated customer base and a wide variety of project types to carry out. You can understand why a robust set of project management processes would be important for managing them. This example of a risk management process from Texas is interesting - it is clearly laid out, covers the major activities associated with risk identification and management and gives examples of types of risks and how they might be addressed.
The fact that there does not seem to be a more recent version of this procedure than V1.0 from 2000 invites the question of how actively the process is being followed and refined.
DIR - Guidelines: Analyzing and Managing Project Risk

Project Management Goes to the Movies

I came across this odd, but compelling website called Studio 1151. According to the site, the free online guide is "designed as a road map to be used by teams of teachers and students to develop and produce a compelling web site - from idea conceptualization all the way to promotion of the finished product."

It uses movie production as an example thoughout the guide, since everyone is fascinated by the movie-making process. Some of the links to movie-making sites don't work but the guide is intact and most of the links are fine.

Some very interesting perspectives there...

About the Production Guide

PMI Announces Project Management Research Online Community

PMI recently announced the opening of the PMI Project Management Research Online Community, which allows people to explore and comment on PMI's research events, as well as network with other researchers.

According to the PMI invitation letter, "This is the only PMI online community that allows non-members to join because of their interest in project and program management research."

If you wish to participate, send an e-mail to Eva Goldman at eva.goldman@pmi.org . Eva will send you an e-mail with instructions. If requested, she'll provide an ID and password (PMI members would simply use their PMI ID and password).

Who Says Weather Can't Affect IT Projects?

We've all read about military campaigns throughout history being thwarted by the weather, not to mention construction projects. But weather is something that rarely comes up in any risk plans for IT projects (yes -- some IT organizations actually develop risk plans).

As anyone managing a project with resources in the U.S. Gulf Coast region knows, sometimes even an IT project can be thwarted by weather-- in this case hampered by unavailable resources or facilities.

Yes, even IT risk plans need to consider weather factors.

Project Management IT Skills Critical, Survey Says ...

Via SIM: EXECS PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO CRITICAL IT SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE IN NEW SIM RESEARCH ...

SIM, The Society for Information Management, published preliminary results from research project on future workforce skills in the information technology field ...

... "SIM’s initial exploration investigates critical IT skills. Highlights of this analysis include: Project management related and business domain capabilities topped the list of critical in-house IT skills in 2005; " ...

IT Governance: Board-Level Visibility ...

Via CIOUpdate: IT Governance: The Solution to IT Anarchy?, Part III

Rick Freedman, Intel, discusses board-level involvement in IT governance ...

... "It is the board that is ultimately responsible for enforcing accountability, and so performance measurement, perhaps in the form of an IT-focused balanced scorecard, is a critical component of board-level IT governance. CIOs must make the case for board-level IT governance, since most IT executives are not lucky enough to have a board that comes to that conclusion independently. " ...

Free Online Project Management 101 Class

From Suite101 comes a totally free --no need to register-- online course in project management fundamentals. Of course this is an introductory course, but it still contains some interesting perspectives and even an experienced PM might learn a few things. And did I mention it's free?

See for yourself...

Project Management 101

Project Portfolio Management PPM: Two Models ...

Project Portfolio Management PPM: Two Models: Via Journyx PM Journal: Yes or No - The Two Models for Implementing Project Portfolio Management ...

PPM models discussed ...

... "The budget alignment model corresponds with an operational environment where the value of projects varies, and project costs are expense overhead. Decisions and behavior are driven by the need to squeeze value out of the available budget. Examples of the budget alignment business model include enterprise IT and product development organizations. " ...

Project Portfolio Management: PPM, a Michelin 3 Star Restaurant ...

Project Portfolio Management: PPM, a Michelin 3 Star Restaurant: Via Project Arena: Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Today: An Analogy for PPM

Great analogy for project portfolio management ...

... "The difference between running projects and project portfolio management is the difference between making a meal and running a restaurant. " ...

Michelin Restaurant Rating: The guide awards stars (1 to 3) to a small minority of restaurants of special gastronomical quality.

Project Management: Organization Model Barriers

Project Management: Organization Model Barriers: Via Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Today: Future States Section 2 (Job Description Syndrome)

Demian Entrekin, CEO of Project Arena, writes about the challenges of hierarchical organizational models (departments) and discusses the barriers associated with projects and project management. Combine these organizational barriers with the murkiness of resource availability and no wonder why project success rates are weak ...

... "Projects typically engineer change. They are transformative by their very nature. Whether the goal is a new product (or service), an enhancement to an existing product or a new customer, projects drive change. The goals of projects can be difficult to define in a way that clearly aligns with the goals of the departments. " ...

Transformation Project: Work Plan and Tasks ...

Transformation Project: Galvin Electricity Initiative

Transformation project with work plan and tasks ...

... "The Galvin Electricity Initiative officially announced its mission to create an actionable blueprint for transforming the U.S. electricity supply and service infrastructure into a resilient and adaptable system that can perfectly meet the needs of the rapidly evolving digital economy and society. The fundamental principle guiding this Initiative is that raising the quality of the nation's electricity supply system will create substantial cost savings for all consumers and society at large. ...

The project work plan, including descriptions of the project tasks ... " ...

Project Management Information Improvement: WBS Standards ...

Via SpaceRef - Your Space Reference: NASA Internal Memo: Message from the Administrator: Project Management Information Improvement ...

NASA's project management information improvement initiative phases in starting FY 2006. This should create a powerful dataset across common WBS standards ...

... "To ensure sound financial and program management, which is critical to NASA's mission success, the agency's Integrated Enterprise Management Program has initiated the Project Management Information Improvement (PMII) project. This vitally important project is designed to improve how we manage project information by aligning NASA's many technical and financial work breakdown structures into a single data management structure. " ...

IT Project Business Case: Managing the Front-End-Load ...

Via CIOUpdate: Making the IT Project Business Case

Jeff Monteforte, president of Exential IT consulting firm, discusses best practices associated with business case preparation. This mirrors the discussions we have been having about planning and tracking of the front-end-load of IT project management which culminates in the evaluation of the business case in context of the portfolio at governance. Also, validates the process of governance / selection of the most promising candidates for business case development, given the resource investment required to generate a high-quality business case ...

... "The development of the business case is itself a mini-project and should be governed by the same investment justification process as the real project. There should be a defined schedule and budget for creation of the business case. Ideally the business case development process follows a spiral, incremental and iterative process. " ...

IT Governance Repeatable Processes ...

IT Governance Repeatable Processes: Via Bluedust on IT Governance: IT Governance Do's and Don'ts ...

... "Approach IT governance as an investment in repeatable, reusable processes; it's a mind-set that extends from management through planning and into development. " ...

IT Governance Road Map ...

Via Graziadio Business Report: The IT Governance Road Map ...

... "IT governance is typically the primary responsibility of the board of directors and executive management (including the Chief Information Officer). It is an integral part of enterprise governance and consists of the leadership and organizational structures and processes that ensure that the organization's IT sustains and extends the organization's strategies and objectives. " ...

IT Governance: Value and Cost Measurement ...

IT Governance: Value and Cost Measurement: Via Tekrati Weblog: Tooling Up to Measure IT Value and Cost: Butler Group Votes for IT Governance

... "92 percent of IT budgets go to initiatives that bring little competitive advantage or value to the enterprise -- is the announcement of a Butler Group report intended to to provide readers with an informative guide to measuring both IT cost and value, in part by deploying IT governance. " ...

Prioritising projects

Portfolio management is really taking off as a concept. Methods vary. The degree of integration with corporate strategy, appetite for risk, balance between different lines of business all appear as evaluation criteria in assessing project candidates as part of a portfolio. This article includes an intersting example of a scoring mechanism for rating projects. To anyone who has used the Kempner-Tregoe method for selecting between candidates when doing package evaluation, the approach will be familiar. The success of the method depends on the evaluation criteria and the weighting factors and frequently the real value is that it prompts discussion of the candidates.
Applying scores based on a method like this gives a satisfying feeling of being to rank all the candidate projects. But dynamic portfolio management needs the scores to be reassessed frequently and a method for including evaluation of projects that are already under way.
Just Too Much To Do

Portfolio Management Software ...

Portfolio Management Software: Via Shared Spaces Research & Consulting: Shared Spaces Briefing, Sep 21

... "Green Array announced its namesake product for portfolio and project management, business process and collaboration. Integrates project methodology, project management tools (resource planning, surveys, critical task management, document management), and browser-based dashboards to give an overall picture of the health of a portfolio of projects. " ...

Group Project Management Via Corporate Wiki ...

Via Socialtext -- Enterprise Social Software: Evolving Collaboration Video ...

Wiki used for group project management ...

... "Wiki while you work James Hilliard looks at the corporate wiki, an editable Web site designed for quick and easy group project management. " ...

Art of Project Management: Soft Skills ...

Art of Project Management: Soft Skills: Via Computerworld Singapore - The consultant is in

Ken Ko writes about the art of project management and the "soft skills" needed in the repertoire of the successful project manager ...

... "Beneath all project methodology, certain attitudes and personality traits come into play. Without awareness of them, anyone leading or managing a project is at a serious disadvantage. " ...

Project Management: Offshore Partners ...

Project Management: Offshore Partners: Via Line56.com: Selecting an Offshore Partner ...

John Mallon and Narayan Rajagopalachari discuss offshoring and selection criteria for future partners ...

... "Does the offshore resource have a strong grasp of project management? Will they provide documentation, test plans, and clear metrics to assure project success? Will they meet milestones on time-sensitive projects? " ...

Project Metrics: Process Improvement ...

Project Metrics: Process Improvement: Via Builder AU: Manage: Project Management: Use project metrics to improve processes and declare success ...

Tom Mochal, TechRepublic, discusses the tracking of project management process metrics ...

... "Examples of these types of metrics include the time required to complete an iterative development cycle, the effectiveness of team meetings, the percentage of deliverable reviews that are successful the first time, and how closely you are hitting interim milestones. Gathering these types of metrics is applicable only on medium and large projects because there is enough time to capture the data, analyse the results, and make appropriate changes." ...

PM Forum Reports: Quartier International De Montreal Wins PMI's Project of the Year

Talk about a great case study. The Quartier International De Montreal project is an excellent example of using leadership and innovation to rise above multiple challenges to bring about a stellar, exciting result.

And PMI isn't the only organization to recognize this project. The project has received over 20 additional awards from all over the world. This Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the project.

For the news article about the PMI award, see the PM Forum link below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management - Breaking News

Project Management Lessons Learned; Think Practical!

I've already written about the foolishness of documenting lessons-learned without having an up-front project management process to review prior lessons-learned. Think of the adage, "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody's there to hear it, did it make a sound?"

Assuming you do have such a process to review prior lessons-learned, it's also necessary to think about how one would go about doing such a review. Chances are, you're not going to begin a project and say to yourself, "Let me look up some lessons on Earned Value Reporting." More likely, you'll want to look up lessons for the type of project you're managing or product you're developing. Maybe later during the project, you may want to look up lessons on certain project management questions.

The key here is categorizing your lessons-learned properly. If you add keywords or categories that are product (or project type) specific, along with any relevant project management process areas, you'll be more likely to have a useful format for researching these lessons. Of course some lessons are simply process related. But we need to try to include product or project type related lessons as well, in order to have a truly practical repository.

For more info, see my post from yesterday on Project Management Categorization. Meanwhile, I'd be interested in hearing others' experiences on categorizing and reviewing lessons-learned.

Business Risk Innovation and Edges

Business Risk Innovation and Edges: Via The Daily Innovator: Clear thinking about risk ...

Jeff De Cagna explores innovating at the risky edges of business ...

... "In the process, they can redefine not only their businesses but also the operating environment itself. While the short-term goal is to minimize the impact of risk on the organization's strategy and operations, the long-term goal must be to leverage risk to gain strategic advantage. " ...

Project Management Podcast: Hosted PM ...

Project Management Podcast: Hosted PM: Via Blogarithms: IT Conversations News: Jason Fried BaseCamp Podcast ...

... "Jason Fried - Basecamp. Ride with Jason Fried of 37signals as he takes us through the lessons learned while building Basecamp, a hosted project management tool that is extremely popular among its thousands of users. Jason shares his experiences about what works and what doesn't in web development and how the unconventional development methodologies followed by 37signals give it an edge. " ...

Lean Project Management in MSF ...

Lean Project Management in MSF: Via Agile Management: Innovation in MSF v4.0

David Anderson describes key innovative highlights of MSF, such as lean project management, governance ...

... "Lean Project Management: Project management in MSF using Team System takes a Lean approach. The flow of value creation through a lifecycle of progressive functional steps is tracked and managed by monitoring the queue of work at each step. The Work Remaining report uses a cumulative flow chart developed for Lean Manufacturing. " ...

Project Management Profession: Domain Convergence Enables Success

Project Management Profession: Domain Convergence Enables Success: Via Herding Cats: Inhibitors to IT Success

Glen Alleman discusses convergence of domain and project management expertise as key enabler to success ...

... "We'll want to be recognized as professionals without an actual problem to solve - until we connect the practices of project management with the specific domain of the project. " ...

Project Management Categorization; One Size Does Not Fit All

The most forward-thinking organizations are developing project management frameworks that vary based on certain project criteria. A key element of this is the project's classification.

Some thought leaders in this are Lynn Crawford, Brian Hobbs, and J. Robert Turner, whose book, Project Categorizations Systems, comes out this fall from PMI. Also, Russell Archibald's report on the 2003 IPMA Global Survey on Project Categorization (reported in Budapest in 2004) is well worth reading (click on the PDF link for best readibility).

NASA has decided to embrace project categorization, and has recently put together an initiative to develop a scalable project management framework that can adapt to certain project classification criteria (for example the complexity, urgency, and technology aspects as well as certain product types). Below is the full report (again, click on the PDF version for best readibility).

Identifying NASA Specific Project Types

MultiProject Critical Chain System ...

MultiProject Critical Chain System: Via Realization Technologies: Leading Organizations Share How They Are Doing More Projects Faster Using Critical Chain Project Management: Realization Technologies’ Execution System is Key to Outstanding Successes

Execution using Goldratt’s theory of constraints / critical chain methods enables doing more projects faster ...

... "He (Dr. Ajai Kapoor) also stressed that customers in the process of implementing should follow eight easy steps to mirror the fast implementation times and results of successful organizations.

1. Analyze and create management consensus on business needs.
2. Get buy-in on the improvement potential.
3. Get buy-in on the 3 Rules and set ambitious targets.
4. Design the solution (project architecture, processes and policies).
5. Create a pipeline plan and validate it.
6. Establish task management.
7. Establish surrounding processes.
8. Continue improving using the Theory of Constraints and Lean. " ...

Realization Technologies defies conventional wisdom, both business- and product-wise. Used by over 135 leading organizations throughout the world, its Multi-Project Critical Chain system, based on Critical Chain and Lean principles, breaks old management rules instead of blindly automating them. Unlike traditional project management software that is heavy on planning and tracking, this system changes the rules of execution. Realization also offers fixed price implementations, with 90 percent of its fees tied to improving customers' bottom lines. Realization is headquartered at 2 N. First Street, San Jose, Calif. 95113.

Project Management Kick-Start; Embracing that One Big Project

If an organization is looking to give project management a kick-start, it helps to have that one big project that the whole company can focus on. Jack Welch recognized this when he launched one major initiative after another at GE (as opposed to trying to do it all at once).

This article from Computerworld talks about how to recognize that "one big thing." ...

One Big Thing - Computerworld

IT Strategy: Motorola Exec Podcast ...

IT Strategy: Motorola Exec Podcast: Via SATN.org: Podcast with Motorola executive ...

Dan Bricklin posts podcast by Motorola exec ...

... "Toby Redshaw of Motorola. ... Toby has a strong Enterprise IT background (he was a senior IT person at Federal Express before Motorola and is corporate vice president, Corporate IT Strategy, Architecture and e-Business at Motorola) and talks about cell phones from that perspective. He also talks a lot about building systems and their experience with Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). " ...

Dan Bricklin is also best known as the co-creator of VisiCalc. He is currently founder and CTO of Trellix Corporation.

Business IT Strategy: Successful Alignment

Business IT Strategy: Successful Alignment: Via CIO insync: The two common traits of successful IT/business alignment

... "First, the CEO takes a genuine interest in and makes an effort to understand IT. Second, the two leaders spend time discussing high-level business-IT strategy. This approach facilitates better understanding of underlying issues and problems and ensures the top executives are on the same page. " ...

Are Your Project Managers Slowed Down by Bureaucracy? Consider Adding a Project Administrator

So many project managers get bogged down in administrative details that it dilutes their efforts on focusing on their three most important roles--communicator, planner, and leader.

Some organizations "get it" and assign a Project Administrator to address procurement management, financial management, project setup, timesheet processing, travel arrangements, and other administrative functions that will slow down the project manager.

As I mentioned in a previous post, some organizations even appoint an additional person as Project Control Specialist, to maintain the project schedule, risk list, issues list, etc.

I've seen both of these roles used with great success, and it showed in the project manager's ability to focus on the key issues facing the project. Unfortunately, these important roles are often overlooked, and the project manager attempts to do it all to the detriment of the project.

I'd be curious to see how many others use a Project Administrator and/or Project Control Specialist, and the impact it's had on your project (or how these roles might help your projects).

Addressing Microsoft Project's Gaps

Looking for an inexpensive and quick way to address the major gaps with MS/Project, such as issues and risk management, scope management, documents and templates, etc.? Project Perfect, out of Australia, has a product that'll do just that, extending MS/Project's capabilities to be more useful for PMOs and those looking for a broader solution.

In addition, they have an excellent website with links to white papers and a good project management blog. Check it out...

Project Management Software, White Papers, Methodology, Consulting, Issue Management Software, Issue Tracking Software. Project Perfect Australia

Thoughts on Project Time Tracking

In a couple of recent consulting engagements, the subject of time tracking has come up. For the organisations that have never required people to report time worked, there is an instinct that it is too much of an imposition on the work force and it would distract from getting the work done. There's an interesting reference to this in this article about Microsoft's use of MS Project from a couple of years ago.
gantthead offsite content
For organisations with a business model for delivering services (as opposed to a pure cost centre model), the idea of recording work done as a means of justifying billing is acceptable and may already be established.
The step to full task work effort recording against a baseline needed for Earned Value calculations can be too big a cultural step for some organisations. This is particularly true for those that already have some form of time recording - typically at the general activity type (vacation, project x, project y, administrative) - using a system that is already integrated into an accounting or payroll system.
One strategy that is often proposed is to use the EPM (Enterprise Project Management) system's task time tracking functionality as a front end to the legacy time reporting system - or vice versa. Designs for this kind of integration requires that key fields are present in the source system for matching records in the target system.