Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM) Podcast Interview

As mentioned, I recently did a webinar on Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM) for Mindjet, makers of MindManager software. In addition to that, Cornelius Fichtner just interviewed me about SOPM for his latest episode on The Project Management Podcast. It was a fun interview, as Cornelius always has interesting questions. Hope you enjoy it.

Here's the link to the podcast.

The Project Management Podcast™ - Episode 058: Service Oriented Project Management

PS: I'll be resuming my podcast series again shortly as well. I took a hiatus while I was tied up with speaking engagements and seminars over the last few months. Stay tuned for details.

eCustoms Project: Tracking Beer

Pilot project, called the Beer Living Lab, will track shipments of Heineken beer in cargo containers in the supply chain from Europe to the United States using satellite and cellular technology. The objective of the project is speed the delivery process and lower international trade costs through a paperless documentation system. ...

... "In this project, Safmarine will ship up to 30 containers of Heineken beer from the Netherlands, through Dutch Customs Authorities, to the Heineken distribution centers in England and the United States. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will coordinate the project and provide best practices documentation to share across the European Union. " ...

Via IBM: Heineken, IBM, Safmarine and University of Amsterdam Launch Wireless Beer Living Lab ...

Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM): Free Webinar and White Paper

For those interested in learning more about the Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM) framework I introduced here on PMThink several months ago, you may want to check out the free webinar I did with Mindjet software on the use of their MindManager product with SOPM.

As many of you know, I'm a big proponent of mind-mapping software for brainstorming, organizing, and presenting, and it's invaluable when used with SOPM. The recorded version of the webinar is available on Mindjet's webinar archives page (below), and a free white paper on SOPM is available there as well.

Enjoy...

Mindjet: Webinars

New Ethics Standard Announced

As reported in PM Forum, to stay up to date with current thinking in ethics and to adapt to a more global presence, PMI has announced a new revision of its ethics standard. See below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PMI® Announces New Ethics Standard

Clarifying Requirements vs. Faster, Better, Cheaper

There's a thought-provoking article on Projects@Work about the need to examine tradeoffs and dive deeper into the "real" (and often unspoken) requirements, especially when faced with demands of "faster, better, cheaper."

The author, Doug Cretsinger, raises some excellent points about the misinterpretations and assumptions when given fuzzy requirements. What may seem like a straightforward request could be interpreted six ways to Sunday if not carefully evaluated.

The "Make a baby" example in particular illustrates the need to think about the implications of "faster, better, cheaper," even bringing up considerations like total cost of ownership (so much for "cheaper"!).

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/234376.cfm

Project Weekly Tasks: Google Personal Homepage

Neat widgets to webify your project tasks and maintain visibility to your weekly work plan, if you use Google's homepage and personalize it. ...

... "You can now review your tasks alongside your calendar, mail, weather forecasts, and feeds (you can choose from hundreds of gadgets to personalize your page). " ...

Via Remember The Milk - Blog: Track Tasks with Google Homepage

Data Security Breach: High Impact Public Event

UCLA deals with painful security event in open, transparent way. The security investigation shows that the security breach was exploited to seek Social Security numbers and started as early as October 2005. The university has established a website specifically to handle this event. ...

... "UCLA is alerting approximately 800,000 people that their names and certain personal information are contained in a restricted database that was illegally and fraudulently accessed by a sophisticated computer hacker. " ...

Via UCLA: UCLA Warns of Unauthorized Access to Restricted Database

2006 Geminid Meteor Shower: This Wednesday

If you are blessed with a clear night, these are fun to watch. Take a respite from your project to check it out. ...

... "Try watching late at night on December 13, or around midnight. " ...

2006 Geminid meteor shower

Growth: Enabled By IT Strategy

Even non-profit orgs have growth plans enabled by IT strategy. ...

... "But his IT strategy doesn't sound much different from those in the for-profit world: Expand globally, improve mobility, drive growth. " ...

Via InformationWeek: College CIO

Robotics Advancements

Advances in robotics ...

Managing Small Projects: A Playbook

Wherever I go, I hear the same thing: Project Management methodologies are overkill for small projects or work requests (the threshold for which I've heard defined anywhere from 80 hours to 500 hours---I tend to lean toward the larger number).

Even with that, I still believe that the same "thinking steps" and phases should apply no matter how large or small the initiative. With that in mind, I typically like to have the same high level framework for any size initiative, and let the details scale up or down based on the size (with more or less formality accordingly).

Let's face it, you still need to understand what the goals and objectives are, you still need to provide an estimate, and you still need communicate well and deliver in an organized fashion.

When challenged that the same steps aren't applicable across projects and work requests, I typically respond with, "Which of the steps do you believe aren't necessary and why?" Often, it turns out that most of the steps are still needed, they just need to be scaled back or made less formal for smaller efforts.

Tom Barnett has a nice writeup in Computerworld about a "playbook" approach he uses for the smaller projects (which he defines as 120 hours or less). It's basically a spreadsheet with tasks, owners, issues, and deliverables----in essence combining a task list, issues list, and RAM (responsibility assignment matrix) in one document.

It's not a bad approach for keeping the smaller projects under control, and is an effective way of keeping track of things. I'd still use it within the context of a high level framework, but overall it's a good idea. Check it out...

A Small-Project Playbook

CIO Focus: Replenish Talent, Plan Succession

With the perfect storm of aging demographics heading toward us, CIO's need to assess their talent, plan for career development of their staff, and create a map for succession. ...

... "Top of the list is the need to address the imminent loss of senior members of IT departments. With many CIOs due to retire in the next few years there will be a huge loss of knowledge and wisdom ... " ...

Via Silicon.com: Link

Critical Chain Insights

There's a good article on Projects@Work about Critical Chain Project Management, with some insights from the field.

Still, organizations are slow to adopt it. The biggest roadblock is getting management to change their mindset, especially when it regards avoidance of multi-tasking and not focusing on task completion dates.

It's not foolproof, and makes some generic assumptions (i.e. assuming everyone pads their estimates), but certainly there are some valid points of CCPM that should be considered. Even if an organization doesn't buy into all its philosophies, they shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Here's the article...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/234283.cfm