Green Computing Project

Project looks to target significant energy efficiency in computing. ...

... "Dubbed Green Shift, the project will replace energy-absorbing PCs with greener alternatives in up to 10 cities by the end of 2009. " ...

Via Belfast Telegraph: Green Project

Project Dark-Porcelain: Get Connected

Tired of you current ISP? Here's an alternative ...

... "The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system. " ...

Via Google Press Center: Dark porcelain project offers self-installed plumbing-based Internet access

Innovate: Monday Morning Plan

Here's some ideas to jump-start your innovation tommorrow (Monday). Make some time for brainstorming. Don't penalize mistakes. Get folks interacting. Read on. ...

... "Creative or alternative thinking does not mean playing with brightly coloured balls all day long. It means selecting appropriate techniques and methods from as wide a variety as possible and matching them to the task in hand to get the best results possible. " ...

Via Derek Cheshire's Creativity and Innovation: Monday's Plan of Action

Study for the PMP Exam on Your iPod

Cornelius Fitchner, the project management podcasting pioneer (see The PMPodcast.com), has done it again. This time, he has created The Project Management PrepCast(tm), a new and unique way to study for the PMP exam. For those on the go who are studying for the exam, this is a great method to learn (and as it says on the website, probably a darn sight more entertaining than simply studying the PMBOK).

There's a free version available now, and a premium version coming in January 07. The prices aren't listed yet, but it'll probably be much more affordable than alternative options.

Here's the link...

The Project Management PrepCast™ - Home

Public-Sector Projects: AFP Shares Responsibiliy ...

Canadian government gets creative with infrastructure projects through its AFP approach. Project responsibilities are shared between public and private sectors, seeking to leverage strengths. ...

... "With AFP projects, there is a clear division of responsibility to deliver projects on time and on budget. The private sector is responsible for construction, management, operation and financing. The public sector is responsible for establishing the scope and purpose of the project and paying for it with a long-term stream of payments, a bit like paying a mortgage. " ...

Via Government of Ontario: PIRNetNews Vol.1No7: Alternative Financing and Procurement explained ...

PMO as a panacea?

It seems that everywhere you turn, someone is recommending a Project Management Office as the solution to an organisation's project management woes. This 2003 article from CIO magazine makes a familiar point and provides some statistics that still have validity. Office Discipline: Why You Need a Project Management Office
The reason for bringing up the topic again now is that I recently came across a situation where a client was planning to implement project management tools - and to leave the project managers to use them as they saw fit.
McHardy's conjecture states that 'for business processes, whatever is not deliberately held together will fly apart'. In project management process terms this applies when artifacts - tools, procedures, templates, guidelines, etc. - are made available without any mechanism for coordinating their use. This is the 'discipline' referred to in the article. Without the requirement to apply procedures consistently, individuals will tend to develop their own solutions and approaches that are reasonably tailored to their own circumstances. Sometimes this will be based on tool preferences, local reporting habits, work profiles or requirement to conform to alternative procedures.
PMOs can take various forms but one common requirement is for the PMO to provide the glue to hold the processes and their use together. Even if there is no formal PMO there needs to be some cohesive mechanism to make sure the expensively acquired assets areused.

Project Planning Tip: Facts are More Important Than Theories

When planning your project or solving a problem, always remember that facts are more important than theories. This means that agile approaches, rolling wave planning, prototyping, etc. should be used where appropriate, in order to base decisions on facts. The alternative is to plan all future phases in detail up front, which is tantamount to basing your decisions on pure theory.

Likewise, the project approach itself should be based on a visit to the customer to see how things are currently done, and get a true understanding of what is needed. Often, what's really needed isn't what is stated in the project request.

In A Scandal in Bohemia, Sherlock Holmes (by way of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) said, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

This is sage advice for project managers as well.

Project Management "Storyboarding"; A New Way to Plan?

Sometimes, ideas come from the strangest of places.

A few years ago, while storyboarding a screenplay idea (which I still have waiting in the wings as a future project), I came across a piece of software that I realized could be equally valuable in project management. It's called Writer's Blocks.

It's sort of an electronic version of the "Cards-On-The-Wall" approach used by project managers for network diagram sessions. Since using cards on the wall doesn't work when your team is virtual, this could be an interesting alternative in those cases. It's extremely intuitive and allows you to capture ideas along with notes, move them around in different sections, link them, etc.

Alternatively, it could be used to actually "storyboard" your project, offering much more elaborate text than just a few words on a card. Certainly worth further exploration. I posted this find (along with Mind Manager from www.mindjet.com) on Edward Tufte's forum on information presentation. It's in the project management thread - which has incidentally been running for four years - possibly the longest thread in history.

Meanwhile, here's the link to Writer's Blocks.

Writer's Blocks 3 Writing Software

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: 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. " ...

Be a Project Manager, Not a Project Reporter; Learn the Subject Matter

There's been some debate as to whether a project manager needs to know the subject matter of the project they're managing. While I agree that a project manager can be effective without knowing the subject matter in depth, they at least need to get a basic understanding of the subject and issues at hand in order to make decisions when needed.

For example, if a project manager is leading an IT development project, it's ideal if they've programmed in the past. But even if they do not have IT expertise, they need to at least read up on the basics and terminology and make sure they understand the issues at hand so they can't be snowed. After all, the project manager is accountable for the success of the project.

Likewise, if an IT project manager is leading a logistics project, they need to get a basic understanding of logistics terminology and process flow, and what the product of the project is intended to do. This is the all-important preliminary research that should go into any project. Furthermore, they need to lead the initiative to collect the business drivers, objectives, and requirements to the point where they understand what the intent of the project is.

Too many IT project managers attempt to lead a project not really understanding what the drivers are, and thus are unable to offer alternative suggestions or really drive the project. Instead they become a project "reporter" and not a project manager.

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM); The Betamax or DVD of Project Management?

Remember when videotape first came out on the market? Sony had Betamax, but the VHS format took off and got a jump on the market. Betamax actually had better quality, but it didn't matter. Now DVDs have all but eliminated VHS. DVDs look here to stay for a while, although a high definition version will soon take its place.

Now let's look at Critical Chain. No doubt it has been proven to pay back in dividends in those organizations who have tried it. Arguably, it's a more effective method than the traditional critical path approach for improving throughput. But many haven't adopted it, for the same reason they resist disruptive technology. They won't change until they're backed into a corner and have no choice, or until everyone else uses it to achieve better results and they need to change to keep up.

So will Critical Chain become like Betamax and fizzle out, save for the purists that have already adopted it? Or will it slowly become recognized for its results and be adopted by a larger market? Will it become the DVD of project management, or will some totally new methodology that assimilates the best of Critical Chain and Critical Path become the de facto standard?

Hard to tell. It's a good sign that PMI recognizes Critical Chain as a legitimate project management alternative to Critical Path. Or maybe some PMThink reader will be inspired to devise something new that replaces both! The goal is to keep evolving and not remain stagnant. We all need to keep thinking.

ITProject Manager Alternatives to PMP ...

ITProject Manager Alternatives to PMP: Via IT Project Management at tribe.net

Alternative(s) to PMP certification for IT project managers ...

... "There is also the Project+ Certification. It costs far less, doesn't have all the persnickety rules, doesn't sunset, seems more focused on IT, and I particularly appreciate the focus that Element-K and other Project+ curriculum give to the Project Manager's role in creating the project charter. " ...

No Earned Value Acronyms for Management

There's a good post on the Defense Acquisition University's EVM (Earned Value Management) Forum suggesting a good format for management reporting.

The submitter, Mr. Roger Mandel, makes a good case for protecting management from the details and acronyms inherent in Earned Value and offering the basics in a report.

Check out his recommended format. Looks pretty good to me...

1. Summary Status: (Stated here are the major facts in bullet format. Statements shall be clear and concise.)

2. Major Achievements & Future Scheduled tasks: (List those major milestones that have been accomplished during this past performance period and those that are schedule for the current or near term performance periods.)

3. Trends: (Stated here are the major trends, as the data indicates. Emphasize the present major problem. Phrase the statements in the form of a question. In a few cases, there may be more than one problem. A good problem statement will be concise, usually only one sentence.) Graphic figures should also be used.

4. Projections: (List the possible projections to the major trends. Develop alternative ways to solve the problem, generally more than one possible solution. Briefly note the advantages and disadvantages of each possible solution. State the projected completion period and total final cost.)

5. Choice and Rationale: (State choice from among possible solutions and the detailed reasons for that choice. State why certain alternatives were not chosen.)

6. Areas of Concern: (List cost accounts of task items that are prominent schedule or cost drivers that could cause significant variances.) Some form of a Stop Light chart could be used for a quick overview.

7. Validity of Data: (Comment of noted discrepancies within the submitted report and any concerns for the validity of data presented.)

See below for the full posting...

ACC: Acquisition Community Connection

Project Management Approaches; Not One Size Fits All

While seemingly basic, this project management Wikipedia section from Answers.com is surprisingly robust, with good explanations of critical chain, WBS development, Earned Value, etc.

Best of all, it explores various approaches one can take to managing a project, including "extreme project management."

The best project management metholodogies do not take a "one size fits all" approach, but instead offer multiple approaches, depending on the nature of the project, and the circumstances. This site is a good place to start for those exploring alternative approaches.

project management: Information From Answers.com

PMO Best Practices - Research Results

Although it's from 2003, I suspect that this CIO research report on PMO best practices is still valid today.

As an example, the study reports that key PMO challenges reported were as follows:

52% Unreasonable workloads
43% Lack of PMO authority to carry out objectives
42% Support from business unit management
34% Conflicts over project management ownership
30% Support from senior executives
18% Temporary nature of PMO undermining its effectiveness

The high listing for "unreasonable workloads" suggests that development of demand management and governance processes should be a key initiative for PMO startups. It also suggests that a Critical Chain approach should be considered, as it has been proven to increase project throughput while recognizing constrained resources.

An alternative that some organizations are considering is staff augmentation for project management, as the demand reaches certain peaks. Just be sure it's only for peaks and not the norm. The bottom line is that the key is finding the right balance between supply and demand, just like any organization.

For the full report, check out the link below:

Best Practices for Project Management Offices - Research Reports - CIO - Research - CIO