IT Project Management, The Beatles, and KM

If you are in IT, and you haven't subscribed to Gantthead, I recommend it. It is a great community for IT Project Managers. I don't think Jerry promoted his recent Gantthead article on PMThink! so I'll shamelessly promote it for him. It is called "The Extreme Beatles: Seven Steps to Self-Mastery."
One of the board members at my local PMI chapter called this article "awesome" although it is possible she may be more of a Beatles fan than a Jerry Manas fan. :o) So we reprinted the article, with Jerry's kind permission, in the PMI Tulsa Chapter August newsletter...which was released today.

http://www.pmitulsa.org/files/PmiTulsaNewsletter.2007.08.pdf
See pp. 4-5.

Oh, and while you've got this newsletter open, there is a great summary article called "Managing Knowledge and Learning in IT Projects" from Blaize Horner Reich, PhD. See pp. 8-10. It is a summary of her popular paper from PMI's research quarterly PM Journal (June 2007).

The Thinking Person's Guide to Leadership

Every once in a while, I come across a website that's a goldmine of information. Fred Nickols' "Skullworks" is a good example. He has a wealth of thought provoking articles, by himself and others, in areas such as consulting, organizational development, training & performance, strategy, and more.

One article I found particularly interesting is the one on generalists vs. specialists, which happens to be one of the topics on my upcoming book (more on that soon).

As many knowledgable leaders know---and Fred Nickols is no exception---leadership and management are by no means simple. They require serious thought and carry significant responsibility. Reading just one or two of these types of articles a week can help make the difference between being a good leader and a great one.

Nickols runs a consulting company called "Distance Consulting," which focuses on helping organizations help themselves, a noble cause indeed. Here's the link to his articles.

Articles by Fred Nickols

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

Olympic IT Project: Risk Management Challenge

Atos project team will manage the Olympics IT project for Vancouver games. It manages risks by leveraging accumulated knowledge and experience forward. Lesson learned, knowledge transfer, sustaining core team members, and scaling high-performance teams are all ingredients of successful Olympic technology events. ...

... "In June 2006, only months after completion of the Torino 2006 Winter Games, Atos Origin dispatched IT managers and engineers to already start working on the Vancouver project. Currently the size of the Atos Origin IT team in Vancouver is around 15 but the team will grow rapidly over the next couple of years. During the 2010 Winter Games, Atos Origin will manage the technology consortium team estimated at 2,000 staff, including 400 Atos Origin experts, made up of locally hired staff, local volunteers and overseas Olympic Games technology experts.

The complex, massive IT infrastructure of the Olympic Games is deployed by large teams of people into different cities in different countries every other year. Such a major task is all about risk management capitalizing on the knowledge gained from previous Games Operations. This knowledge and experience transfer is critical in keeping costs down and in lowering the risk of future Olympic Games. " ...

Via Atos Origin: Atos Origin IT Team already in place for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games

Microsoft enters the project certification arena

This press release from Microsoft, timed shortly before the PMI Global Congress, announces a certification programme for users of Microsoft Project 2007. The new version of Project Server is due to be released in the New Year and aims to integrate further with other organisation systems and processes. Offering a standard for training does seem like a good idea. It will be interesting to see how the new certification from Microsoft, which has a reputation for setting its own standards, aligns with the PMBOK.
The announcement says the "training and certification product lines ... were developed after consulting the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ...".Microsoft Advances Its Project Management Technology and the Project Management Profession

PMI Announces Program Management Certification: Bring On the PgMP

PMI has finally announced the certification for program managers ---- the Program Management Professional or PgMP (the "sm" after the designation in the press release is for the service mark). It'll be available in early 2007.

The title is probably a good choice and has good synergy with the existing PMP designation. Of course, it's the same designation as the Program Management Plan (PgMP) from the Army Core of Engineers, so hopefully that won't cause confusion in those circles.

As I've mentioned before, the rigor of the PgMP requirements should give organizations a pretty good feeling about taking on program managers with this certification. It's based heavily on experience in the real world and feedback on results as opposed to pure knowledge.

Also, one needn't have a PMP certification to apply for PgMP certification. Here's the press release...

PMI to launch credential for program management practitioners

Talent Management: Readiness Survey Results ...

Interesting results of recent talent survey ...

Knowledge Infusion performed the 2010 Talent Readiness Survey in the early summer of 2006 to understand the talent gap to be left by retiring Baby Boomers. The study evaluates when people will leave the workforce, if there will be talent shortages that impact business outcomes, the steps organzations can take to find, develop, and retain the critical skills required for success. ...

The survey validates these findings:

Larger organizations are likely to impacted the most by the retiring workforce.

By 2010, a significant portion of the eligible workforce will retire.

To get ready: You must understand the impact on your organization. What percentage of your workforce could retire in four years? If succession planning at your company is focused more on the executive ranks, now is the time to apply succession modeling to your critical skills. Take a skills inventory. Understand the skills across the workforce demographics. Develop a plan to attract and retain the critical skills for your organization.

And, of course, digitizing your talent data enables your organization to provide visibility to this critical workforce information. Cornerstone OnDemand provides integrated on-demand solutions for talent management.

Via Cornerstone OnDemand : Managing Talent in the Face of Workforce Retirement ...

Einstein Project Management Tip #5: Imagination Counts

Our next project management tip from our Einstein series regards the need to challenge the status quo----to think out of the box. Consider this quote:

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances in science."

Of course, Einstein also famously said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." To a project manager, who's typically focused on things like scheduling, monitoring, reporting, and driving the team to completion, this can be a particular challenge. But it's important nonetheless.

Imagination is required in many situations, including (but not limited to):

• Achieving success when the odds are against you
• Conceptualizing ways to achieve the objectives more effectively
• Brainstorming solution ideas and possible risks
• Overcoming barriers, whether political, technical, or physical
• Improving the cusotmer experience

For some practical advice on building the right team for innovation, see my blog series on Tom Kelley's The Ten Faces of Innovation.

More to come.

ITIL CMDB: Survey Insights ...

Evergreen shares insights on aligning data center projects with creation of a configuration management (CMDB) database, which is a core component of ITIL. Current state information is needed to jump-start the CMDB, but the data must be maintained through change management to sustain its value to the enterprise. ...

... "As companies are gathering this data, Evergreen suggests that they adopt a CMDB approach to 1) aid in the execution of the data center initiative itself and 2) ensure that this critical data is kept current and made available to the rest of the organization. Key benefits of capturing and maintaining this data in a CMDB include better capacity and resource planning, reducing risk associated with failed change (and a lack of configuration knowledge), and better IT operations in general due to more current, accurate, and useful data. As a core component of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a CMDB contains relevant information about IT Configuration Items (CI’s) as well as their dependencies on and relationships with each other. A CMDB can include data specific to IT hardware, software, applications, documentation, personnel, and business domains. " ...

Via Evergreen Sys: Evergreen Systems Suggests Organizations Utilize Data Center Initiatives to Drive CMDB Adoption ...

Talent and Project Management

I received the latest PM Network magazine from PMI the other day, and several things jumped out at me, especially following my last blog post on the winds of project management changing.

First, Neal Whitten had a great article about how a project analyst (what I've often called a "project control specialist") can be a valuable aid to a project manager by taking on the responsibilities of: project tools management, plan development, sub-plan collection, project support, supporting project tracking meetings, filling in for the project manager at times, and other areas that can free a project manager up to actually lead the project.

It got me thinking about the talents needed for the project manager role, the project analyst/specialist role, and any other roles needed on the project. But more than that, it got me thinking about talent management in general, and what it means to the project management industry.

Just look at these headlines, all from this month's issue:

• Attracting--and Keeping--top talent
• Executive Identity: Project managers should learn to think like executives
• A People Person: Succeeding in project management---and getting what you need from thise around you---requires a well-honed set of people skills
• Virtual Reality: Dispersed project teams are sparking shifts in management and leadership styles

Clearly, the talents needed to manage projects go way beyond schedule, budget, and cost control. Notice I said "talents" as opposed to skills or knowledge. As Marcus Buckingham points out in his excellent book, First Break All the Rules, there is a huge difference between skills, knowledge, and talent. The first two can be taught. The last one--talent--is innate, and cannot be taught.

This becomes clear when you apply Buckingham's definition of talent as "ANY recurring patterns of behavior that can be productively applied." Everyone has talent. It's just a matter of discovering it and matching them to the right role. The key point is that a person's nature cannot change that much, so it's important to select someone with the right talents (i.e. innate traits). Once that's done, you need to set clear expectations, motivate the person (through praise and recognition of their strengths), and ultimately develop the person (building on the strengths that already exist instead of fruitlessly trying to fix weaknesses).

So what does this mean to the project management field? Everything. It means we need to begin thinking about these innate talents when we hire and assign project managers, when we staff the project, and when we consider how to motivate the team. The talents needed for each role will be different. And, based on the nature of the project and the stakeholders involved, the talent required to manage each project may be different. There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to talent selection.

It's not that skills and knowledge aren't important, but these two items without the correct talents will not bring about success.

What I like about Buckingham's book is that it's based on facts---years of research with the Gallup organization. Anyone who selects and manages people should read this book. And when you do, think about the diverse talents needed for each person on your team, and for the project manager role for each individual project.

Is the Role of the Project Manager in Jeopardy? - An Editorial

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the new Program Management credential from PMI. In it, I referenced PMI's definition of a program manager vs. project manager in their FAQ page.

A project manager, according to PMI, has the following responsibilities (I've put some of the key points that jumped out at me in bold):

• Perform their duties under general supervision and are responsible for all aspects of the project for the life of the project
• Lead and direct cross-functional teams to deliver projects within the constraints of schedule, budget and resources
• Demonstrate sufficient knowledge and experience to appropriately apply a methodology to projects that have reasonably well-defined project requirements and deliverables.

A program manager, according to PMI, has the following responsibilities (again, I've bolded the key points):

Under minimal supervision, program managers are responsible and accountable for the coordinated management of multiple related projects directed toward strategic business and other organizational objectives. These programs contain complex activities that may span functions, organizations, geographic regions, and cultures. Program managers build credibility, establish rapport, and maintain communication with stakeholders at multiple levels, including those external to the organization.

Clearly, a program manager must be closely tied to the strategic goals and benefits, monitor the program accordingly, and have a strong connection to senior management. And I also feel that the new credential seems on the surface to set the bar appropriately high.

But I can't help but feel that, in contrast, the PMP credential is losing steam. First, there are myriad organizations virtually guaranteeing an "instant-PMP" after a crash course and some tweaking of one's background experience (although PMI is now doing audits of work experience).

Second, a project manager must, in many cases, go beyond the PMP/tactical focus and possess the same traits and skills that PMI has designated as requirements of a program manager, especially in the case of an enterprise and/or global project, such as a business transformation effort. I realize PMI's role definitions are a way to differentiate and justify the new certification and I suppose one could organize their effort into a "program" to qualify for that certtification, but in these changing times (and with greater challenges for project managers), I think PMI needs to evaluate and revamp the PMP certification as well.

When I do presentations on principle-based leadership training, I have a slide where I present what I call "The PM Challenge." I present it as a boxing match. In one corner, we have a project manager, armed with MS/Project and the PMBOK, but lacking:

• Business Acumen
• Leadership Skills
• Conflict Management Skills
• Negotiation Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Communication Skills
• Strategic Intuition

In the other corner, we have the "challenger," represented by "the project," with the following characteristics:

• Global, virtual team
• Complex technology
• Complex change
• Multiple vendors
• Offshore resources
• Conflicting Stakeholders
• Scrutinizing Executives

Such a project manager, without the appropriate leadership and soft skills, doesn't stand a chance. Wouldn't a person with the skills PMI describes as a "program manager" be more apt to have success?

In the latest PM Network magazine from PMI, there are not one, but TWO articles that illustrate this point. One is titled "Project Management 2.0: Project Management is at a Crossroads," by Peter Fretty. The other is titled "No Limits," by Marcia Jedd, and talks about what project managers must do to crash through the glass ceiling and elevate it from the tactical trenches.

Perhaps a start would be to take a new view of project management beyond just "executing to a set of requirements to deliver on-time and on-budget." The current tactical focus might explain the consistent failure rates of projects. One problem is that PMI has traditionally "followed common good practices in the field," which of course is what a standard is supposed to do. The problem is that common practices have brought common results, which aren't all that good. Time for an upheaval. Perhaps they need a section, apart from the "standard" itself, for "new frontiers in project management," which could outline those who are breaking the mold with good results.

I'd be interested in others' thoughts on this topic. Who knows---It just might help drive requirements for the next version of the PMBOK and/or PMP credential.

Move Over PMP: PMI Announces Program Manager Credential

As reported in PM Forum, PMI has announced their new Program Manager credential, which looks to be like a PMP on steroids.

Earning the new credential will be like passing the seven trials of Hercules, with education reviews by PMI staff, reviews of experience by a panel of program managers, a multiple-choice scenario-based exam, and an assessment by a team of raters selected by the candidate to rate them during on-the-job program management performance.

Any guesses as to what the new credential will be called? How about PME (Program Manager Extraordinaire) or KOAPM (King of All Program Managers - oops, that wouldn't work for female program managers). Maybe SPM (Supreme Program Manager)? Hey, we get enough jokes about the PMP acronym, why don't they continue the trend and use PMS (Program Management Specialist)?

I better quit while I'm behind.

In all seriousness, it's good that the credential will require such a rigorous application process. With so many organizations virtually guaranteeing "instant PMPs," this one should have quite a bit of prestige.

While the PMP certification assures a solid foundation of project management knowledge, this one should give organizations the confidence that the certified program manager is indeed worthy of managing large programs (although nothing is foolproof).

Here's the full article on PM Forum, where they list PMI's stated qualifications for certified program managers. One might argue that a senior project manager should have the same qualifications (although PMI's FAQ page attempts to distinguish the project manager role from that of the program manager).

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PMI INTRODUCES PROGRAM MANAGER CREDENTIAL

PMO Process Primer

Last month, I mentioned a four-part series on Projects@Work about establishing PMOs. The first installment was on defining the role of your PMO up front.

Not sure what took so long for the second installment, but it's finally here and worth the wait (maybe it's a monthly series). This installment talks about the types of processes your PMO might undertake, and offers some food for thought with each process area. According to the article, a PMO might consider:

Project Processes (including demand management, approval, portfolio management, project/application lifecycle, and risk mitigation)

Analysis Processes (including business analysis, business case development, and process redesign)

Planning Processes (including planning and tracking, and capital planning and budgeting)

Administration Processes (including methodology management, training, tool development/ownership, and knowledge management)

To date, this series is an excellent primer on PMO startups. It's insightful and obviously written by someone who has had some varied experience in PMO implementation. I'm looking forward to the remaining two parts and will be sure to post the links here.

Kudos to the author, Ted Stephens, an associate principal at Intellilink.

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/231627.cfm

IT Project Missing Ingredient: Professionalism?

UK computing leader sees genuine professionalism as key ingredient for transforming IT project success rates. This is a good thing, if interpreted as developing our talent in the industry. Is industry accreditation the answer? It should not be a substitute for creating leadership in achievement in an enterprise, where an environment of continuous improvement supports learning from lessons, improving processes, and expanding the knowledge of project management practitioners. ...

... "It would make my day if somebody brought me a failed IT project that had failed for novel reasons. Of course, nobody ever did, because his contention is that we understand why IT projects fail, and we keep making the same mistakes. " ...

Why IT must get more professional: Via ZDNet Asia ...

Management vs. Leadership - Revisited

From Bold Vision Business comes a great article on management vs. leadership.

I've written several times here on that topic, where I often say "there's no difference if either is done right." I mean that facetiously of course. Management and leadership are indeed two separate disciplines---but they need each other.

My point is that in order to manage well (assuming one is managing people), leadership skills are essential. And in order to lead well, knowlege of project management techniques (or at least the assistance of someone with that knowledge) is critical if those bold visions are to be realized safely.

In that sense, leadership and management are two-halves that make up a whole.

For an excellent writeup of the need for leadership, not just management, read on ...

Bold Vision Business!

Project Risk Assessment: Timesheet Data ...

Curt Finch, Journyx, discusses simple measures to assess project risk for short-duration projects where timesheet data is available. ...

... "If your projects are short-lived, technical or are mostly based on human labor or knowledge work, tracking employee time is probably all you'll ever need in terms of risk management. " ...

Project Risk Assessment: Timesheet Data: Via SmartBiz: Managing Project Risk–The Easy Way ...

Join the Project Management Revolution; The SOPM Model Takes Shape

OK, I've been fleshing out the Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM)™ model, and have come up with a more memorable and catchy representation of the four steps, although the actual content is pretty much the same.

The acronym for the four phases is UP-IT (which can symbolize "upping" the level of customer service, saying "up yours" to old ways of doing things, or "upping" the success rates of IT projects---in which case the "it" stands for "IT").

Ready??? Drum roll please......

The four phases are:

• Understand
• Prepare
• Iterate
• Transform

Here's a revision of my previous post on the topic...

1) UNDERSTAND ... Develop an understanding of the problem being addressed, the goals, constraints, the internal environment, the external market, benchmarks, the people and subject matter involved, potential solutions, risks, benefits/justification, and any other knowledge necessary for success. Most of all, understand the customer and what they need to be successful.

2) PREPARE ... After helping the customer obtain approvals if needed, prepare the project organization (resources, roles & responsibilities), operating principles, the infrastructure and tools needed to run the project, organizational alignment, preliminary training needed, communication, and anything else needed for a smooth road ahead.

3) ITERATE... Using the axiom, "Think bold, implement safely," plan, design, build, test and pilot the solution before attempting a full scale implementation. Encourage innovation. Implement in phases to achieve quick wins, earlier benefits, and greater customer satisfaction. Consider iterative prototypes during the design phase. Don't forget additional training needed.

4) TRANSFORM... After each project phase and at the end of the project, evaluate and document lessons learned, customer satisfaction, and benefits achieved (vs expected) for the purpose of transforming yourself and the customer for the better. This includes guiding the customer to help them achieve maximum results with the product or service delivered, and laying the groundwork for their continued success.

Now that I have the framework locked in, I'll complete the model around these four phases. I am absolutely convinced that this model can help increase customer satisfaction and the general success rates of projects.

SOPM; A New Project Management Methodology

Service Oriented Project Management (SOPM) is taking shape as a methodology that fills the gaps in traditional project management, namely a RELENTLESS customer focus and the all-important analysis and benefits evaluation after the project has "completed."

As I fine tune the model, I'll post the iterations here, as a methodology in progress.

The four high-level steps in SOPM are as follows:

1) UNDERSTAND ... Develop an understanding of the problem being addressed, the goals, constraints, the internal environment, the external market, benchmarks, the people and subject matter involved, potential solutions, risks, benefits/justification, and any other knowledge necessary for success. Most of all, understand the customer.

2) ENABLE ... After helping the customer obtain approvals, prepare the project organization (resources, roles & responsibilities), operating principles, the infrastructure and tools needed to run the project, organizational alignment, preliminary training needed, communication, and anything else needed for a smooth road ahead.

3) ITERATE... Plan, design, build, test and pilot the solution before attempting a full scale implementation. Implement in phases to achieve quick wins, earlier benefits, and greater customer satisfaction. Consider iterative prototypes during the design phase. Don't forget additional training needed.

4) EVALUATE... After each project phase and at the end of the project, evaluate and document lessons learned, customer satisfaction, and benefits achieved (vs expected). This includes evaluating how the customer can achieve maximum results with the product of the project, and laying the groundwork for their continued success.

By using an UNDERSTAND, ENABLE, ITERATE, and EVALUATE process, with COMMUNICATE as an overarching activity that extends across all four steps, we adopt a much more holistic and customer-centered approach to project management.

A few key points... Customer satisfaction should be measured at milestones throughout the project, not just at the end. It's as important as monitoring cost and schedule (i.e. Earned Value performance).

Imagine seeing an S-Curve showing Planned Value, Earned Value, Actual Cost, and Customer Satisfaction. Maybe your project is on schedule and on budget, but the customer isn't satisfied with the results (or with the project communication, or a whole host of other issues).

A narrow focus on cost and schedule takes too much of an inward view. Besides, measuring customer satisfaction throughout a project allows for corrective action instead of managing in the rear view mirror.

More to come.

NOTE: I have since revised this model. See my updated entry.

Project Portfolio Risk Management ...

Intellilink shares method for calculating the overall risk on a project portfolio. It is critical to assess the risk of the project portfolio to understand trends and also to determine if additional risk is appropriate, as higher value opportunities are usually associated with greater risk. ...

... "Intellilink, a boutique consulting firm specializing in automating knowledge worker organizations, hosted a workshop outlining its innovative project portfolio risk calculation methodology at the 4th annual IT Financial Management Week 2006 conference at the Wyndham Miami Beach Resort, Miami Beach, Florida which ran from April 3 to April 6. The workshop, which was oversubscribed by nearly 40% of pre-conference registration, presented a simple and practical methodology for calculating the risk of an IT project portfolio. Titled IT Portfolio Risk Management: A Methodology for Calculating the Risk of Your IT Portfolio, the Intellilink workshop was jointly lead by Intellilink's CEO, Patrick Boylan, and Managing Director, Fumiko Kondo. The risk calculation methodology was developed in response to organizations expressing the need to improve their understanding of risk across the IT portfolio. " ...

Project Portfolio Risk Management: Via Intellilink: Intellilink Hosts Project Portfolio Risk Calculation Workshop at IT Financial Management Week 2006: The firm's innovative project portfolio risk calculation methodology was well received by a full house of senior IT financial executives ...

eProject Launches eLounge

There's another project management community on the internet, and this one's from eProject, the leading web-based "on demand" project management tool.

eLounge is eProject's online community, open to anyone with an interest in project management.

This is from their press release:

"We've created the premier destination site for portfolio, program and project managers who want to interact with industry peers, share knowledge, learn best practices, find out what's new, or just get up to speed quickly on the topics and issues most important to them," said Christian Smith, eProject vice president of sales and marketing. "eLounge is unmatched in the industry in terms of original content, downloads and the stature, knowledge and experience of our guest bloggers," continued Smith.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to be part of their expert panel of contributors, so I occasionally post there (so far, my posts have been a variation of my PMThink posts or similar material---my way of spreading good ideas more broadly). Are they competition? Someone once told me that on the internet, there is no competition, only cooperation. We're all in this together.

Dave Blumhorst, ex PMO Director for PeopleSoft and now CEO of Effective IT Group, is a regular contributor, and I must say I completely agree with his philosophies on PMOs. See his blog "Do PMs Really Hate PMOs" and "Common PMO Mistakes" in their Project Management Trendwatch section.

Here's the link to the eLounge home page...

eProject eLounge - Project Management User Community

Project Management Exam Prep ...

Upcoming PMP exam prep course ...

March 16-18: The Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of the Project Management Institute will conduct a three-day project management professional exam preparation course from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 800 Eisenhower Drive, Kimberly. The course is designed to tutor attendees through the PMI Project Management knowledge areas and code of professional conduct with the focus of helping students prepare to pass the PMP exam.

Project Management Exam Prep: Via Appleton Post-Crescent: Business planner ...

Project Stage-Gates: NASA Improvement Opportunity ...

NASA receives recommendation to improve project management quality through stage-gate approach (knowledge points) to the project lifecycle and solution maturity. ...

... "A report released today by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that additional decision reviews are needed to ensure that NASA's projects meet their performance, cost, and schedule goals. ...

GAO’s recommendations include requiring that NASA projects demonstrate: that key technologies have reached a high maturity level before approving the projects for transition from the formulation to the implementation phase, that the design is stable before approving the projects for transition from the design phase to the fabrication, assembly, and test phase; and that the design can be manufactured within cost and schedule and meet quality targets prior to any decision to enter into production. " ...

Project Stage-Gates: NASA Improvement Opportunity: Via Democratic Caucus, Committee on Science, U.S. House of Reps: Gordon, Udall Urge NASA to Heed GAO's Project Management Recommendations ...

PMP Exam Prep Course ...

PMP Exam Prep Course upcoming ...

... "March 16-18: The Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of the Project Management Institute will conduct a three day Project Management Professional exam preparation course from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Liberty Hall, 800 Eisenhower Drive, Kimberly. The course is designed to tutor attendees through the PMI Project Management knowledge areas and Code of Professional Conduct with the focus of helping students prepare to pass the PMP Exam. " ...

PMP Exam Prep Course: Via Appleton Post-Crescent - Business planner

Agile Software Development: New Project Management Paradigm ...

According to article, traditional project management methods must be transformed to enable agile software development and service-oriented architectures. This new paradigm requires an organization that shares knowledge freely and quickly. An organization's readiness to work in the new paradigm of open collaboration is an indicator of success with agile software development methods. ...

... "Contrast that view with ASD, where scope creep is a given, changes happen often, developers respond quickly to those changes and, consequently, knowledge must be on hand at all times. Add in the service-oriented application method, where applications come together via units of work to be performed by a person, computer or team, and suddenly knowledge must not only be available, it needs to be shared freely and viewed as just one more piece to maneuver on the chess board. " ...

Agile Software Development: New Project Management Paradigm: Via Knowledge@W. P. Carey: Ready or Not, New IT Paradigm Requires Knowledge Sharing -- Part 2 ...

ITGovernance: Software Quality Assurance ...

Paul Krill reports on the next wave of software capabilities planned by Compuware and NextWave. ...

ITGovernance: Software Quality Assurance: Via Computerworld: Ajax, app quality enhancements are readied ...

... "CARS 5.1 has been integrated with the Compuware Changepoint IT governance solution. A subset of Changepoint capabilities for request management, knowledge management, and reporting are featured in CARS 5.1. " ...

Compuware introduces IT governance solution that provides metrics for software development: a quality index. ...

Via Compuware: CARS 5.0 Provides Maximum Business Value to QA Organizations Through the Implementation of Effective Governance Models to Deliver Reliable Business Applications ...

... "One of the major challenges facing CIOs today is maximizing the business value of IT investments. CIOs know that business value means shareholder value, and increased shareholder value means revenue growth and/or improved operating margins. Previously, these types of goals were left up to the business managers to accomplish through business initiatives. Now business is increasingly looking towards IT to not only be linked with these initiatives, but also to be an enabler to accomplish these goals. With CARS 5.0, Quality Governance™ enables IT organizations to deliver the processes, systems and metrics to accurately assess the value, cost, risk and performance of the services they provide. By integrating with Compuware IT Governance by Changepoint, project portfolios that contain development projects will benefit from new metrics that communicate a software quality index. This integration not only increases the accuracy of tracking and evaluating a project’s health and risk, it also reduces the administrative burden of collecting and entering data into multiple systems for reporting. CARS provides CIOs with more detailed metrics about the quality of the application portfolio. This improves decision-making, and allows for better alignment with the business. " ...

EPM Tip; Processes and Tools are Equally Important

Process and tools must be integrated.

I'll say it again.

Processes and tools must be integrated.

I just love when people talk about rolling out an EPM Tool and not expecting to have to revisit, reinvent, or recreate their project and portfolio management processes.

I also love when people take the opposite approach and try to define all their processes (i.e. "the what") in isolation from how they'll be implemented, and expect that any tools will fit nicely on top.

It's fine (and even beneficial) to define processes up front, but don't expect that they won't need to be changed a bit when an EPM tool is rolled out. Ideally, the "what" should be defined with the "how" in mind, as opposed to defining processes in isolation.

In fact, processes should include the "how" as part of the design, from a high level anyway. That's why IDEF (the de facto standard for process design, originally developed by the US Air Force and now maintained by Knowledge Based Systems, Inc.) stands for Integrated Definition.

The operative word is "integrated."

In fact, IDEF integrates Inputs, Outputs, Controls, and Mechanisms. If one of these is missing, it's not a complete process design.

Incidentally, this is also one of my beefs with the latest PMBOK (Third Edition), which lists the "tools and techniques" in the Knowledge Area section, totally separate from the "standard," which only contains inputs and outputs.

Let me repeat it one more time... Processes and tools must be integrated.

IDEF0 Overview

Theory of project management

There's a lot of meat in this paper that Peter Morris delivered as a lecture to the British Institute of Civil Engineers. The annual James Forrest Lecture presents contributions of science to civil engineering.
One of Morris' conclusions is there is, and cannot be, a single theory of project management - rather a collection of theories applying in different areas of project management. One reason for this is that managing a project demands such a wide range of capabilities and must address such broad issues that a single scientific theory can not be applicable. This reinforces the view of a project manager as an expert integrator and not an expert in all the detailed activities required for executing a project.
In discussing different definitions of 'what is a project', an interesting observation is that a project involves a life cycle. Relatively few definitions of a project include a specific reference to a 'cycle' although all methodologies refer heavily to a project life cycle.
This paper is well worth reading for thought provoking assertions and references. We shall be returning to it to pick out further discussion points.
Science, objective knowledge and the theory of project management

PMP 2005 Exam Information & PMBOK 3rd Edition Changes

If you haven't already heard, the exam to become a Project Management Professional changed in 2005. It is based on the new Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK 3rd Edition).

According to the link below, the passing score is now 81.7%, the number of processes increased from 39 to 44, process flow diagrams were added, there were several changes to existing processes and even more has changed (not to mention, the book is just BIGGER!).

For more info about what's new in the 3rd addition see: Link

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