Project Management Inefficiency: Manual Crisis Management ...

Tim Kaufmann explores the response of the Office of Personnel Management to the Katrina disaster and how inefficient IT systems project management requires the agency to employ manual and outdated techniques during a time of crisis. ...

Project Management Inefficiency: Manual Crisis Management: Via Federal Times: Hurricane pulls benefits manager out of retirement ...

... "OPM has been working for years on a system to convert paper files now stored in agencies' headquarters offices to an electronic database. Developing and deploying the system is behind schedule due largely to inefficient project management, the Government Accountability Office said in February. " ...

PMThink! resources on business continuity and disaster recovery projects:

• Business Continuity Project: Key Part of IT Strategy ...


• IT Risk Management: Disaster Recovery Planning: Forward Placement


• Project Manage Business Continuity Events

IT Portfolio Management Tools Not a Panacea

There's an excellent article in Computerworld on how IT portfolio management tools alone will not decide which projects get done. Politics, organizational dynamics, and subjective opinion still need to play a role, even with the best of software.

People have this picture in their mind that tools can be used to calculate ROI and magically align projects with strategic need according to a perfect formula. Voila! Automatic project prioritization and selection. The fact is that this is a myth. Tools can absolutely help, and can offer a first pass view of where projects line up. But ultimately, people must make decisions----and whenever people are involved, a myriad of other issues come up, including conflicts that must be resolved.

Here's the article at Computerworld, that rightfully talks about these tools as enablers and not the be-all, end-all ...

What IT portfolio management tools can't do: Stop politics - Computerworld

IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Common Language ...

The role of IT governance is to establish an enabling framework of decision-making for information technology investments. Those involved in the orchestration of the governance process need to support a balanced view of the program management and enterprise architecture spaces. This can be accomplished through a clear view into the information technology portfolio, which should highlight the major strategic programs, but be clear about the architecture investments necessary to build or sustain the targted business and technology capabilities. George Paras, VP Troux Technologies, explores enterprise architecture and program management disciplines in the public sector and discusses bridging the barriers between the PMO and the enterprise architects. ...

IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Common Language: Via Federal Times: Enterprise architecture: Seeing the big picture

... "Develop a common language on IT governance, portfolio management and enterprise architecture. An important focus of this common language will be to educate executives about the relationships between the program management and enterprise architecture groups. " ...

PMThink! resources on Enterprise Architecture:

• Centralized IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Modeling Tool


• Does Architecture Visualization Enable ITGovernance?


• Enterprise Architecture PMO: Common Framework For Investments


• Information Technology Architecture: Operational Excellence Projects ...


• IT Governance Role: Architecture

Project Benefits Realization; Early and Ongoing Tracking Key to Success

All too often, benefits are only discussed at the beginning of a project and possibly again after the project is over (if an organization even performs benefits followup after their projects).

The real value is in trying to drive and track benefits much earlier, throughout the project's lifecycle. There is much lost money in waiting for the end of the project to derive benefits.

Here's a great article from Optimize Magazine that talks about this very need...

Optimize Magazine > ROI Valuation > Spending A Dollar To Get A Dime? > May 2003

Software Product Design; Beware of a Potemkin Village

For some software projects, the developers create this wonderful prototype or fancy design, but the code behind is is buggy, lacks validation funtionality, or just simply doesn't work. Some go so far as to do this intentionally during software reviews.

While look and feel is important, what we really need to do is focus on substance and make sure the stuff actually works. Otherwise, we end up with a "Potemkin Village." For those unfamiliar with the term, it means to create a facade with nothing behind it. It's roots go back to Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who created an elaborate village to impress Catherine the great during her tours of Ukraine. The catch was that the village was just a facade (Blazing Saddles anyone?).

Here's the official definition on Barleby.com...


Potemkin village. The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

Project Management System: Army Real-Time Financials

U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center implements management systems, such as project management to drive real-time financial visibility. Their efforts are recongnized with recent award. ...

Project Management System: Army Real-Time Financials: Via Army Corps: Ordnance detection helps Army lab earn top award

... "ERDC established a virtual private network for the entire Corps of Engineers, including the Corps Gulf Region Division in Iraq, and installed a Corps-wide active directory with an online address book for 37,000 Corps employees. ERDC is also leading the Corps-wide implementation of a project management system designed to drive the Corps real-time financial system, officials said. " ...

Photo courtesy of USArmy. Lt. Col. Doug Gabram, commander of 1st Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, completes a preflight check on his AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopter prior to a mission from Forward Operating Base Speicher, Iraq. This photo appeared on www.army.mil.

Disciplined Project Management: Competitive Advantage at Exxon Mobil ...

Exxon Mobil cites their disciplined project management system as a competitive advantage in their marketplace: exploring, extracting, and delivering crude to the marketplace through capital investment projects. ...

Disciplined Project Management: Competitive Advantage at Exxon Mobil: Via Exxon Mobil Corp.: Exxon Mobil Corporation Announces Estimated Third Quarter 2005 Results ...

... "ExxonMobil continued its active investment program in the third quarter, spending $4.4 billion on capital and exploration projects, bringing the year-to-date spending to $12.4 billion, an increase of $1.7 billion versus 2004. Our disciplined project management systems remain a competitive advantage, delivering new supplies of crude oil to the global market. " ...

Project Management Solution: Multi-Enterprise

Project management solution leverages portal framework to enable multi-enterprise project management in distributed environments. ...

Via Trilog Group: Trilog Group Announces General Availability of ProjExec™ 3.0 For IBM® Workplace™ and Open Standard Platforms: Multi-Enterprise Project Management Solution Unveiled at Project Summit New England; Offers Superior Project Execution Portal for Distributed Teams ...

... "Trilog Group, Inc., a pioneer in secure multi-enterprise project management offerings and the established provider of distributed collaborative business process solutions, announces the immediate availability of ProjExec 3.0. Designed to solve the many challenges presented by the use of separate and distinct communication and project management tools in highly distributed project environments, this innovative solution provides a single collaborative process portal environment with a common infrastructure for execution and management of multi-enterprise projects. ProjExec 3.0 is now available in two editions. The version branded as ProjExec 3.0 for IBM Workplace is optimized for IBM Workplace and IBM WebSphere Portal. ProjExec 3.0 Standard Edition supports any J2EE-compliant web application server. " ...

ITIL ITSM Software Market Competition Grows: Maximo ...

Software vendor MRO Software repurposes their Maximo solution to support IT service management based on the ITIL principles. Competition in the ITSM software market continues to grow as firms shift their products to address this hot space. ...

ITIL ITSM Software Market Competition Grows: Maximo: Via MRO Software: MRO SOFTWARE'S MAXIMO ENTERPRISE SUITE ON DISPLAY AT GARTNER'S 2005 SYMPOSIUM ITXPO: IT Service Management Suite Shows Early Momentum ...

... "MRO Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: MROI), the leading provider of asset and service management solutions, today announced that the company's Maximo Enterprise Suite (MXES) will be on display at the Gartner Symposium ITxpo. MXES combines asset and service management functionality with an IT infrastructure library (ITIL)-based solution for IT Service Management. Companies are shifting from simply managing assets to managing the service they perform and the strategic contribution they make to the business. MRO Software's Maximo Enterprise Suite builds on the Company's core expertise in asset management to deliver an expanded, comprehensive IT Service Management solution encompassing IT Asset Management and Service Desk functionality. " ...

MRO Software is the leading provider of asset and service management solutions. Maximo Enterprise Suite, the Company's flagship solution, is delivered on a web-architected platform and increases productivity, optimizes asset performance, and service levels, reduces costs and enables asset-related sourcing and procurement across the entire spectrum of strategic assets. The Company's asset management solutions allow customers to manage the complete lifecycle of strategic assets including: planning, procurement, deployment, tracking, maintenance and retirement. Using MRO Software's solutions, customers improve production reliability, labor efficiency, material optimization, software license compliance, lease management, warranty and service management across the asset base. MRO Software (Nasdaq: MROI) is a global company based in Bedford, Mass., with approximately 900 employees, and more than 300,000 end-users. The Company markets its products through a direct sales organization in combination with a network of international distributors. MRO Software has sales offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America.

Ten Steps to Project Success

While we're on Top 10 lists, here's a good list of Ten Steps to Project Success, from Jo A. Boettcher at Project KickStart.

About the only thing I'd alter slightly is step #9, which proposes that we gain consensus from all stakeholders before making decisions. I'd alter it to say to gain input from all stakeholders before making decisions.

If we wait for total consensus, we could get derailed. It's critical to solicit input and attempt to cater to the majority, but ultimately we as leaders need to make the final decision (at least with backing from the sponsor). We just need to realize that any decision that goes against the majority must be made with good reason and would be done at a very high risk.

Neal Whitten talks about the need for "input" versus "consensus" in his most recent book, and I have a section on that very thing in my book. I'm in complete agreement with Neal on that point.

Aside from that minor alteration, this is a worthy list of steps.

Ten Steps to Project Success

Top 10 Project Management Quips

It's not quite David Letterman, but here's a top 10 list of project management one-liners, selected from office-humour.co.uk.

1) If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.

2) Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get them they don't want them.

3) A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.

4) Some project finish on time in spite of project management best practices.

5) The person who says it will take the longest and cost the most is the only one with a clue how to do the job.

6) The nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.

7) The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of making a date is forgotten.

8) What you don't know hurts you

9) A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would anyway melt when heat is applied.

10) You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it.

For more of these, see the link below...

Jokes, Photos, Funny Stories and Office Humour - office-humour.co.uk

Project Management Collaboration: Google Methods

Insights on collaboration and project management methods at Google ... Dan Farber explores insights from a recent talk by David Merrill, Google IT exec, about their practices. The Google internal organization promotes openness, has a flat structure, and sustains transparency. The workforce can allocate 20% of their time on personal projects. The project portfolio is dominated by small projects with short cycles of three months and fast resource turns, where employees change projects frequently and rotate departments every year. A project database is used as a reporting system at Google. A culture of innovation is fostered through iterative designs, continuous improvement, and data-based decision making.

Project Management Collaboration: Google Methods: Via Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog

... "What particularly struck me is the simplicity of the company's process for sharing information among the many projects it has under way at any given moment. " ...

Knowledge Management: IT Service Delivery Capability

Leverage of a strong knowledge base is a key component of IT service desk delivery. Partnership serves to integrate IT service desk solution with powerful knowledge management capability. ...

Knowledge Management: IT Service Delivery Capability: Via Axios Systems, the leading ITIL based Help Desk and IT Service Management solution: Axios leverages expert Knowledge to push boundaries in IT Service Management ...

... "Knowledge is the life blood of any organization. In today's complex business environments, managing the combination of legacy IT systems and increasing adoption of new technologies, the duties of the IT Service Desk have never been more challenging. Accurate knowledge of these business critical applications and systems is a necessity, with correct and swift knowledge retrieval essential to ensure customer satisfaction, business efficiency and profitability. Axios Systems partnership with Knowledge Powered Solutions (KPS) and Right Answers enables Axios to provide a fully-integrated Knowledge Management solution with RightAnswers knowledge content delivered through KPS leading-edge search technology. " ...

Outstanding Project Heritage: PACCAR ...

Interesting anecdote on an outstanding accomplishment by PACCAR: 4600 Six Sigma projects. This project management heritage is enabling strong corporate performance. ...

Outstanding Project Heritage: PACCAR: Via PACCAR Inc: PACCAR Profits Surge 24 Percent: Best Quarter in Company’s 100-Year History: PACCAR Announces Stock Repurchase ...

... "PACCAR's geographic diversification, disciplined business practices and innovative product breadth have been key success factors in the company's outstanding financial performance, added Pigott. Over the past 10 years, PACCAR has invested over $1.5 billion to fund capital projects which have enhanced the company's technology leadership, resulting in the highest product quality and customer satisfaction in the industry. In addition, completion of 4,600 Six Sigma projects has contributed to the company's record manufacturing efficiency. " ...

When is SAP Project Complete?

Recent, Dupont announcements show that, even though an SAP project go-live is complete and stabilized, business value must be driven through follow-on projects, using methods such as Six Sigma and lean supply chain techniques. ...

When is SAP Project Complete?: Via DuPont.com: DuPont Announces Actions To Increase Shareholder Value ...

... "DuPont will accelerate work already underway to standardize and simplify its operating processes and will reduce its functional support costs to externally-benchmarked top-quartile standards. This work will make full utilization of the investment in new state-of-the-art information technology for business and financial systems (SAP) implemented over the past five years. Building on its well-established Six Sigma base, the focus will include lean global supply chain practices to strengthen service, reduce costs and reduce inventory. " ...

Project Management Process Head Start

Need a head start defining your project management processes; or just want to get some methodology ideas? Check out TenStep.com, which offers a full project management methodology free on their website. It also offers some good comparison charts, comparing their model to PMBOK, PRINCE2, SIx Sigma, and Agile methodologies. Some interesting stuff here.

Home - TenStep Project Management Methodology

Why SAP Projects Fail

With the recent report of the Irish government canceling two runaway SAP projects, I decided to do some research on what make SAP projects fail (not that they all fail, but when they do, they fail big, since the product is so complex).

Here's a good report from ITToolbox on why projects fail in general, and some feedback comments on why SAP projects fail in particular. As expected, the focus is on lack of communications and cultural change leadership abilities (which I'd say is true of any large project).

To their report, I would add lack of scope change management abilities as well, which ultimately relates to cultural change management. These products are massive, and unless there's a strong leader that can withstand the demands of the organization wishing to make SAP mimic their old processes, it's a scope-creep situation waiting to happen.


Project Management SAP Failure

Top 5 Characteristics of a Great Project Manager

What are the top characteristics of a great PM? (Fem or otherwise?) What traits do you look for when you interview project managers?

This article claims the top 5 are:
1) Interpersonal skills
2) Organizational skills
3) Communication skills
4) Problem-solving skills
5) Professional training
(and this includes experience if the person is PMI-certified, as the article suggests)

What do you think? Let us know!

Read more at:
Top Five Characteristics of a Great Project Manager

SOA Implementation: Governance and Project Management: Seminars

Seminar series by Cape Clear addresses project management and governance best practices for implementation of a service oriented architecture, or SOA. ...

SOA Implementation: Governance and Project Management: Seminar: Via Cape Clear Software: Cape Clear Provides Practical Guidance for SOA Implementations with SOA Architects' Forum Seminar Series ...

... "Cape Clear Software announced details for the company's latest series of SOA Architects' Forums - free, interactive workshops that provide practical guidance for Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementations. Cape Clear's interactive workshops are designed to simplify the often complex and confusing process of moving SOA initiatives from hype to reality. Seminars will cover: Organizational, governance, and project management best practices; Identifying and prioritizing projects, and determining ROI for implementation success; ... " ...

Cape Clear Software provides the fastest, simplest, and most proven way to implement a Service Oriented Architecture, delivering enterprise SOA projects in 20% of the time and cost of alternative approaches. With over 200 customers, Cape Clear is the proven leader in Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) software. Cape Clear's True ESB software is based completely on open standards, works with your existing infrastructure, and enables business users to flexibly align their business processes with their infrastructure. Founded in 1999, Cape Clear Software is a privately held firm with headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts and offices in Atlanta, San Mateo, Dublin, and London.

Project Management Software: Ivis xProcess Tool

Ivis opens up distribution channel with Programmer's Paradise for xProcess software ...

Project Management Software: xProcess Tool: Via Ivis Technologies: Programmer's Paradise Adds Ivis Technologies' xProcess Software to Its Process and Project Management Offerings ...

... "Programmer's Paradise, Inc. (NASDAQ: PROG - News), a leading independent marketer of software tools for technology professionals, today announced an agreement with Ivis Technologies to market and to distribute their newly updated enterprise process management tool, xProcess. xProcess is a live, service-oriented, server-based environment that brings flexibility, control and visibility to process management enabling agile planning, project execution and process improvement across the enterprise. " ...

Evaluating Project Tradeoffs: Some Guidelines for Success

Anyone familiar with PMI principles knows the triple contraint of time, cost, and scope, and the fact that it can be used when negotiating tradeoffs. You're probably also familiar with additional tradeoffs, such as quality/grade, risk, customer satisfaction (if that's even a variable), etc.

When negotiations come to a grinding halt, we also have some other proven tools to keep in our back pocket, including:

• Fast Tracking (doing some tasks in parallel that would usually be done sequentially, which of course should be used carefully since it can add risk)
• Crashing (loosely defined as analyzing alternatives to compress the duration for the least amount of additional cost, but typically interpreted as adding resources or forcing overtime, which carries risk and adds more cost than people realize)
• Time-boxing (reducing functionality for the first release and moving it to a future release)
• Problem solving (i.e. considering other approaches to solve the root problem)

In my experience, the two methods that work best by far are time-boxing and problem solving, usually in that order, and often in combination. I also find that time tends to be the most frequently stated hard constraint, with scope and even cost somewhat more flexible (although the requester rarely admits that).

Usually, scope is the most flexible (some argue over semantics of scope vs. features/functions, vs. deliverables vs. sphere of implementation, but I tend to lump it all under "scope").

And of course, when it comes to overarching priorities, I always fall back to my own tried and true "two-sentence principle", which I stated a few weeks ago:

Speed is more important than cost. And success (in whatever form that takes) is more important than speed.

In countless IT projects, these guidelines have served me well. I'd be curious about others experiences when making tradeoffs, especially in other industries.

Optimize IT Business Outcomes: Seminars ...

Upcoming seminars by Mercury on the business outcomes of information technology: Enhance the end-user experience. ...

Optimize IT Business Outcomes: Seminars: Via Mercury: Mercury Announces Seminar Series on Optimizing the Business Outcomes of IT ...

... "Mercury Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ: MERQE), the global leader in business technology optimization (BTO) software, announced a new application management seminar series to help customers optimize the business outcomes of IT. The series will provide a world-class forum for the exchange of ideas and advice on making the end-user experience the metric for managing IT change and optimizing the business outcomes of IT. " ...

A Project Manager's Wish

A project manager and two programmers are working on an urgent project. One day they decide to walk to the nearby beach during their lunch hour.

Halfway up the beach, they stumble upon a lamp. As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says “normally I would grant you 3 wishes, but since there are 3 of you, I will grant you each one wish.”

One of the programmers goes first: “I’d like to spend the rest of my life living in Hawaii, in a huge house, with no money worries and surrounded by beautiful women who worship me.” The genie grants his wish and sends him off to Hawaii.

The other programmer goes next: “I would like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean, with no money worries and surrounded by beautiful women who worship me.” The genie grants his wish and sends him to the Mediterranean.

Then it’s the project manager’s turn. “And what would your wish be?” asks the genie.

“I want them both back after lunch” replies the project manager.

Thanks to anxietyculture.com for the joke!

Project Managers: Importance of Human Capital ...

Project Managers: Importance of Human Capital: Via Huntsville Times: Networking opportunities

... "Tuesday: The Project Management Institute will hold its monthly luncheon meeting from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bevill Conference Center (550 Sparkman Drive N.W.). Theresa Washington, director of the Office of Human Capital at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, will speak on The Importance of Human Capital to Project Managers. " ...

Project Management: Spiral Development Definition

Project Management: Spiral Development Definition: Via Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council: Development and Acquisition Glossary: Spiral Development Definition ...

... "Spiral Development: An iterative project management model that focuses on the identification of project and product risks and the selection of project management techniques that best control the identified risks. " ...

Additional spiral project management references:

Spiral Development: The spiral model encompasses features of the phased life cycle as well as the prototype life cycle. However, unlike those life cycles, the spiral model uses risk analysis as one of its elements. ...

System Life Cycle (SLC) is defined as a structured development approach with defined activities, phases, products, and reviews that provide a standard to support the development of systems from identification through implementation, operation, maintenance, and eventual retirement. The systems life cycle process is a basic requirement for systems development. There are a variety of life cycle models, such as: waterfall, spiral, evolutionary, decomposition (or stepwise refinement), and formal transformation. The choice among the models is made based on the specific project. ...

SDLC Process: Discusses the application of software assurance best practices in the context of various SDLC methodologies, including RUP, XP, Agile, Waterfall, and the Spiral Model. ...

Project Management: EVO Evolutionary Method ...

Upcoming seminar on Evo project management evolutionary method ...

Project Management: EVO Evolutionary Method: Via UNICOM Seminars: The Agile Evolutionary Project Management Process ...

... "Evo Project Management Seminar, with Tom Gilb: Evo is the most successful alternative project management method, if you look at practical experience, and is now a mandatory guideline at US DoD. Event Date: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 ...

Evo has major impact on the whole way in which systems engineering is carried out. All systems engineering processes (requirements, design, build, test, and quality control) are suddenly encapsulated into an early and frequent evolutionary result delivery step. If you know what you are doing you will soon produce results for stakeholders. If not, you won't; and must consequently fix your engineering processes and designs. " ...