Network Project: Large Multi-City WiMax Implementation ...

GlobeTel Communications will implement a large WiMax wireless communications network in 30 cities throughout Russia, which will provide broadband, VOIP and other services. This large project will be implemented in phases. ...

... "GlobeTel Wireless has entered into an agreement with LLC Internafta (Internafta) of Moscow, Russia, whereby Internafta will pay to GlobeTel Wireless a series of four construction payments totaling US$600 million for the installation of an array of proprietary networks to be installed in Russia's 30 largest cities, starting with Moscow and St. Petersburg. GlobeTel Wireless will both manage the completed network and will retain an ongoing 50% shareholding in the operations of the network, allowing the Company to enjoy the significant benefits of the recurring revenue stream. GlobeTel plans to roll out the network in 3 stages, comprising 10 cities each, over the next 27 months. " ...

Network Project: Large Multi-City WiMax Implementation: Via GlobeTel Communications Corporation: GlobeTel Wireless to Install $600 Million WiMax Wireless Network in 30 Largest Russian Cities ...

Earned Value Management Deadline Looms for U.S. IT Projects

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has given government agencies until December 31, 2005 to develop a a plan for implementing Earned Value Management (EVM) for all of its IT projects. The IT industry in general has been slow to adopt EVM, and this is especially true in government agencies.

To assist with this, the CIO Council released a framework earlier this month for organizations to use for implementing EVM.

As reported on Government Computer News, "The guidance comes after a recent report by EVM software developer Primavera Systems Inc. of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., found that many agencies will struggle to meet the upcoming milestone because many agency senior managers have not embraced the concept. "

I think that's true for many senior managers in general, not just in the government. With the deadline a day away, let's hope the template has been of assistance. Meanwhile, check out the information below about the CIO Council's framework for implementing EVM.

CIO Council releases guidance on EVM plans

ITIL Service Desk: California Consolidation ...

California Department of Technology Services provides update on their ITIL transformation of the service desk ...

... "Currently, ITSM solutions are being incorporated into the Service Desk area and future plans include the implementation of these practices in other units within the department. To learn more about ITIL/ITSM activities, visit the DTS Online Guide. " ...

Via CMO Bulletin: Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) / Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) ...

ITIL Managed Services: Security Outsourcing ...

Firm sees growth opportunity in recurring revenue for ITIL-compliant managed services in security. ...

... "Complexity has reached a point that you need to unify criteria, you need a security policy, then you need an administrator with expertise in ITIL for all of this. So the companies are now saying it is cheaper to outsource all this and not worry about security than to train and maintain such a person, Vuoso said." ...

ITIL Managed Services: Security Outsourcing: Via Business News Americas - Latin America's Business Information Leader: Etek unit: Service revenues to match consulting in 2006 ...

PMI Work Breakdown Structure Practice Standard Available for Review

As reported by our friends at PMForum, PMI has announced the exposure draft of their long-awaited revision of their Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures. Below is the link to PMI's website, where you can review the practice standard and provide comments.

It's a great opportunity to have input to what will no doubt be a valuable document. All you need to do is agree to a license agreement and sign an "assignment of copyright" for your contributed comments.


PMI Online Exposure Draft(Welcome Page)

The value of Project Management

One of the regular discussion points during consulting engagements is the value of project management. The engagement sponsor usually gets it - otherwise the consultants would not be there at all. However it is common to find other staff who, for a variety of reasons, argue that 'we don't need project management here'. We are faced with the old dilemma - 'for a believer, no evidence is needed; for a non-believer, no evidence is sufficient'. But there are many people who can be convinced by good evidence and this particularly includes managers with some responsibility for performance and the bottom line. The survey statistics in this paper relating to benefits realised in IT organisations make impressive reading.
Value of Project Management in IT Organisations

SOX 404 Solution: IT Controls Automation

New software release incorporates controls automation, testing, and reporting in a comprehensive library of business processes. ...

... "With the new release, MetricStream Design now enables users to identify any control as a process-level application control or a process-level general IT control or a process-level manual control. In addition, MetricStream Design now enables users to capture general IT controls by defining IT as a separate function with various processes such as acquisition, change management, service level monitoring, security, incident management etc and enabling customers to easily comply with COBIT, ISO17799 and ITIL standards. MetricStream Assess now provides a framework that automates the testing of process level application controls and reports the results for the entire test - including manual and application controls, in an integrated manner and also provides an out-of-the-box library containing more than 1500 tests for automating the testing of application level controls in general ledger, procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, inventory / cost Accounting, asset management and payroll processes. " ...

SOX 404 Solution: IT Controls Automation: Via MetricStream: MetricStream adds full support for IT Controls and Automation of Application Control Testing in its SOx 404 Solution ...

For Project Success, Ask Plenty of Questions

Tell me about your father and your mother. Did they feed you often? ... What were some of your other memories growing up? How about...


OK, so maybe we don't want to overdo it. But it's vital that we not hesitate to ask questions during preliminary project research, at status meetings, and behind the scenes.

This is one of the most frequently cited problems with rookie project managers. They hesitate to ask questions for fear that someone will think them incompetent, and as a result they appear incompetent.

In fact, I've noticed that the more experienced a project manager is, the more questions they tend to ask. I once knew a manager who purchased pens as promotional gifts for all of his staff with nothing but the company logo and a question mark on it, as a reminder for everyone to never stop asking questions. This really got the point across, and helped build the culture of a learning organization.

Project De-Motivators; The Trouble With Criticism

Charles Schwab once said, "I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism."

When trying to encourage our teams or mentor project managers, we need to understand the natural learning progression (see my previous post). Many organizations resort immediately to criticism and judgment. They don't realize that this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, and serves no purpose other than to de-motivate employees.

Let's take heed of Dale Carnegie's advice; "The resentment that criticism engenders can demoralize employees, family members, and friends, and still not correct the situation that has been condemned."

So, next time you feel compelled to criticize or judge someone, don't forget to think twice about the consequences versus the results you're hoping to achieve. Instead, think of ways to boost the learning progression through support and positive reinforcement.

Project Management Competency; Using the Learning Ladder

I was recently reading Peter Fogel's If Not Now, When, a humorous book about reinventing yourself, and he referenced the four stages of learning any new skill. It reminded me how valid this is in organizations trying to implement project management.

I've seen these stages also referred to as the "learning ladder" or "The Four Stages of Competence." It's not clear who created it. Some sources date it as far back as Socrates or Confucius, but its modern form has been in psychology books since the 80's.

The four stages are as follows (I'll paraphrase the explanations):

1) Unconscious Incompetence - Eveyone knows you're clueless except you. You don't realize why or when you're not achieving results, and are surprised when people complain.

2) Conscious Incompetence - The light bulb goes off. You suddenly "get it" and realize you need to do something different. You begin taking actions to change.

3) Conscious Competence - You're becoming more confident, and accomplishing goals through checklists, reading, learning, and mentoring. Things don't feel totally natural yet, nor should they, but you're achieving small successes.

4) Unconscious Competence - This is the ultimate goal. Some call it situational awareness. The French call it coup d'oeil. It's like riding a bike or driving a car, and only happens with adequate experience, and some trial and error.

This is funny, but very true---perhaps still the best example of a maturity model I've seen to date. Unfortunately, many organizations think they can mandate this fourth level. The fact is that it can only be reached by progressing through the paths above. You can't just jump levels, although good principles and an adequate support system can speed the path forward.

The bottom line is that we must allow time to progress through the levels and not criticize too harshly. Secondly, we must seek ways to provide principles and support to ease the transition through these levels.

Criticism is not the way to promote maturity. More on this coming up...

Project Innovation: Beware The Devil ...

This article resonated with me. While the devil's input is necessary, it can really take the wind out of the innovation sails. The gang at Ideo know how to cultivate the magic of innovation through the concept of innovation personas to control the devil. ...

... "The devil's-advocate gambit is extraordinary but certainly not uncommon since it strikes so regularly in the project rooms and boardrooms of corporate America. What's truly astonishing is how much punch is packed into that simple phrase. " ...

Via rediff: The 10 faces of innovation

ITIL: Proactive Problem Resolution through Problem Review Board ...

Incident management systems are a tremendous source of data for proactive elimination of problem root causes. Want to have a significant impact on your IT organization's performance. Combine the problem volume data with effort hours to generate a pareto analysis of effort intensity of incidents. Fix the root causes of the top ten effort-intensity problems and good things will follow. George Spafford explores the role of problem review boards in the resolution process. ...

... "The goal of the PRB is to govern problem management reactively and proactively. This is done through analyzing incidents as they happen, reviewing historic trend data and staying abreast of current industry news and vendor updates. " ...

ITIL: Proactive Problem Resolution through Problem Review Board: Via DataMation: Effectively Using Problem Review Boards



Additional resources on problem review boards:

Anatomy of a Major-Incident Postmortem: "Once sponsorship has been secured, the first step is to create a problem manager role and establish a problem review board to serve as a process development group. "

Data Quality Problem Report: "Site OPS is not close at hand. Setting the status to Pending PIF elevates the problem to the level of being placed on the Problem Review Board's (PRB) weekly agenda for their attention and further handling. The status is set to Pending DQR for the following situations."

Neuma White Paper: Integrated Problem Tracking in Enterprise Software Configuration Management: "Screening of problems will always be necessary to ensure proper routing of the problem report and proper interpretation of the data fields. It is recommended that a Problem Review Board be established to help review problem data. "

Project Perception is Reality; Don't Let 'em See You Sweat

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!


When it comes to project success, perception is more important than reality. That's not to say you should lie or cover up anything, merely that your stakeholders don't need to know (nor do they care about knowing) all the little difficulties and issues you're experiencing in the project.

Keep project status reports brief, listing a short status, the key milestones, the top 3 issues, and what's being done to address them. Paint a positive picture of events, even regarding the issues being addressed. Project team members and stakeholders must feel that the project is well under control.

Of course, if huge barriers exist, or major issues arise, address these immediately with whatever team members and/or managers you need to resolve the issue. Management needs to know these things. But if you reach a point where you must communicate bad news more broadly, try to focus on the positive side of things (everything has a positive side if you look hard enough). Public relations experts have taken this approach for years with great success.

Even a project where it makes sense to cancel it, maybe because it no longer will bring the expected benefits, should be seen as a good thing, as it means the system is working. Remember, keep it positive!

Do Project Managers Have to Know the Subject Matter?

It has long been a source of debate whether a project manager must understand the subject matter of the project they're leading.

In my experience, it's not absolutely necessary, but it definitely helps. I've managed plenty of projects successfully where I didn't know the subject matter all that well. But even then, I made it a point to learn enough about it so that I understood the issues. And I had people on the project who were subject matter experts, and I made sure to ask questions.

If we look at leadership in the truest sense of the word, it means to "lead" -- to be out in front. General Patton likened it to a piece of cooked spaghetti. You have to pull it, you can't push it.

Also, consider this quote from Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, a French labor reformist who took part in the barricades of 1848: "There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them."

You can almost picture Groucho Marx saying this as he chomps on his cigar. However, funny as it is, it's really not a bad way to approach managing projects where we're deficient in the subject matter. We need to learn enough to be able to lead the effort and resolve issues.

Project Manager Tip: Do What You Do Best, Delegate the Rest

Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a project administrator!


One thing project managers must come to terms with is what they're good at and what they're not. That's not to say you shouldn't build skills in deficient areas, but nobody can be good at everything. The key is to delegate what you're not good at. This was one of Peter Drucker's key points in The Effective Executive, one of the best management books of all time.

For instance, to really focus on the leadership of a project, delegate the project accounting and administration to a "project control specialist," something we've suggested here at PMThink for a while now. A tip from "The Motivational Manager", from Ragan Management Resources (fast becoming one of my favorite newsletters), is to even delegate employee regonition if you're not good at it or too tied up to do it effectively.

Employee recognition is such a critical part of project success, and so often overlooked. It should ideally be done by the project manager, or better yet, senior management. But as a last resort, why not make employee recognition a formal part of someone's role on a project team or in a department. Of course, even then the recognition should be acknowledged by the overall manager.

Food for thought.

For Project Success, Every Job Counts

One thing project managers (and senior managers) often overlook is the importance of the value EVERY team member brings to the project. We need to recognize, cherish, and reward these efforts. But often we don't. Perhaps it the American culture.

Consider this intriguing statement from the chairman of a Japanese electrical manufacturing firm, courtesy of Louis E. Boone's Quotable Business...

"The U.S. puts its best young minds to work in staff jobs and has for years. Bright people have gotten the message. They avoid line jobs. Japan, on the other hand, wants its brightest men [and women] in line jobs. After all, that is what manufacturing is all about. Our people understand that while we may rotate them from line to staff, and vice versa, line jobs are critical for what you in America call fast-track executives."

While project managers need to work within the culture of the organization, the one thing we do have control over is the approach that, when it comes to our project, every job counts.

Implementing Project Management Policy; Making it Stick

According to Albert Mehrabian, a UCLA professor, within 30 days, people forget 90 percent of what they have learned unless it is repeatedly reinforced.

This is why it's futile to roll out project management policy, or even processes, unless there is some facility to repeatedly reinforce it. How do we do this?

Let's look to Dale Carnegie for advice. According to Dale Carnegie, there are only three ways we memorize something:

1. Impression - Visual impressions work best, since the nerves leading from the eye to the brain are twenty-five times as large as those from the ear to the brain. Use pictures to get people to remember things.
2. Repetition - Practice makes perfect. Work with people, coaching them regularly. But don't expect miracles up front. It must be done in iterations, getting one part right at a time. With practice, and some mistakes, the new way will become second nature.
3. Association - Create associations that will make things easy to remember. Try to make connections with some "easy-to-remember" fact, or even an acronym of some sort.

Having a policy manual can help people up front, but it typically gets put aside and ignored within a few months at best. To really make important policies and processes stick, conduct frequent project reviews and proactive coaching. Use the above tips for helping to reinforce new methods. But above all, don't expect overnight results. Focusing on one area at a time will increase chances of long-term success and increase morale as well.

To implement an entire new way of working and attempt to hold people to it on "day one" is counterproductive, de-motivating, and futile.

Leadership Tips of the Day

Good leadership should be positive, participative, and supportive. Here are some great quotes on the benefits of of these leadership styles, to get everyone thinking as we approach the new year, courtesy of "The Motivational Manager" newsletter from Ragan's Management Resources ...

"If you lead through fear you will have little to respect; but if you lead through respect you will have little to fear"
- Anonymous

"The leader must have infectious optimism... The final test of a leader is the feeling you have when you leave his [or her] presence after a conference. Have you a feeling of uplift and confidence?"
- Field General Bernard Montgomery

"The key to success is to get out into the store and listen to what the associates have to say. It's terribly important for everyone to get involved. Some of our best ideas come from clerks and stockboys."
- Sam Walton

"You do not lead by hitting people over the head--that's assault, not leadership."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Someone once defined the manager, only half in jest, as that person who sees the visitors so that everyone else can get the work done."
- H. Mintzberg