Project Milestones

Create good project milestones with bite-sized tasks and celebrate them routinely to create high-performance teams. ... Via Tom Peters: http://bit.ly/alY5fC

Want Fries with that Data Center

A sign of the times ... Syracuse works with IBM to create efficient data center with cogen facility. The University will use the facility to lead and to learn. ...

... "SU will manage and analyze the performance of the center, as well as research and develop new data center energy efficiency analysis and modeling tools. IBM will provide more than $5 million in equipment, design services and support, which includes supplying the electrical cogeneration equipment and servers such as IBM BladeCenter, IBM Power 575 and an IBM z10 systems. " ...

Via IBM: Syracuse University Data Center

Performance Benchmarks

Activity in benchmarking energy consumption is increasing, as business seeks to understand their performance versus peers and to highlight leadership positions with management. ...

... "We’re beginning to wrap up the data collection phase for data centers and we will begin exploring the development of a data center energy performance rating. " ...

Via CoStar Group: ENERGY STAR

Project with Short Term Benefits

Advice on information technology is mixed, as we head into this economic storm. For some enterprises, shifting to short term payback may be necessary to emerge from trough of this economic cycle. However, the some companies will use this environment to implement transformations and shift their position in the marketplace. Whichever path you take, now is the time to revisit your project portfolio and pipeline and readjust priorities. ...

... "Hackett recommends that companies reevaluate any IT projects currently underway and consider eliminating those that are unlikely to generate short-term performance improvements ... " ...

Via Smart Pros: Strategies to Weather the Storm

Take Business Risk During Downturn

Cisco leaders discuss their financial performance and the strategy going forward. They will align on key strategies, shift resources, and take on some business risk. The company uses governing councils to prioritize accordingly. ...

... "Aggressive in strategy. Prioritize and Execute. Fourth, we will also be bold in taking good business risk during this downturn to build on market transitions, opportunities, and put our many assets to use in existing and new markets as the recovery occurs. We will prioritize the top five objectives of both the company and each of our councils and boards. We will then align resources to these top objectives. " ...

Via Cisco: CEO John Chambers on 2009 Performance

Project ReBaseline

Statistics on IT projects are not flattering and may be obscured by manipulating baselines. Baselines on budget, schedule, effort, etc. are tools for assessing progress against plan. Re-baselining is appropriate for significant scope changes. For multi-year projects, it may be worthwhile to baseline and track performance against scope / work packages, which can be useful for showing improving project / team efficiencies. What are your experiences with baselines? good or bad. ...

... "As the report points out, rebaselining can be used to mask cost overruns and missed deadlines. Of course, there are legitimate reasons for rebaselining ... " ...

Via Information Week: Success Of An IT Project

Project Management Opportunity to Differentiate

Tata shares results of IT project performance survey and the results aren't flattering for the info tech profession. This consistent trend of non-performance offers companies that perform well to differentiate from the pack --- and, maybe, even achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. ...

... "Yet despite these worrying levels of failure to deliver, 43% of organisations say that their business managers and the Board accept problems as the norm. This attitude is especially common in Europe (44%) and AsiaPac (48%). Despite the general poor performance of IT projects globally, such results do not evoke a sharp reaction from management. " ...

IT Project Underperformance is the Norm

Communities of Interest Improve Project Performance

DOD sees project performance benefits after engaging stakeholder communities in the process. Benefits accrue when the community provides input and shares the change among its membership. ...

... "As part of its network-centric data strategy, DOD requires that COIs are part of all of its major projects. And the directive is clearly beginning to pay off ... " ...

Via Government Computer News: Community of Interest, COI

CRM Projects: Stick to the Basics

Position yourself for success in the customer relationship management space. Do the project management basics - build a case, detail the plan, and check a few performance indicators after the implementation stabilizes. ...

... "Of respondents that have created only a project plan, 50% reported a successful implementation, 60% of those that did an ROI analysis reported CRM success, and 70% that did a post-project review saw success, according to the survey. " ...

Via SearchCRM: CRM business success

Service Desk System Tracks Performance

Ryanair uses service desk software to manage its processes, and sees performance soar. ...

... "We run weekly reports and measure satisfaction levels which are amazing considering we have 22 staff to run the IT department of a GBP 2bn-revenue company with 135 locations, he said. " ...

Via VNUnet: Ryanair IT

Perform to Schedule

Performance to schedule is critical to manufacturing processes. This same discipline needs to extend to project schedules. However, not all projects and tasks are as repeatable as manufacturing steps. And, people aren't machines. ...

... "At the manufacturing level, processes are expected to be adhered to with clockwork precision to meet defined deadlines. With over 6 lakh cars a year from three assembly lines in Gurgaon and 1 lakh from a plant in Manesar, the shop floors need to produce exactly to a plan. " ...

Via InfoWorld Nederland: IT on wheels

Project Lessons from Napoleon at National Summit on Project Excellence

For those interested, I'll be delivering the keynote on day two (July 26th) at this year's National Summit on Project Excellence for Government, hosted by The Performance Institute, a private, nonpartisan think tank for excellence in government.

The topic will be Criteria for Successful Project Management---A Look at Napoleon, based on my book, Napoleon on Project Management.

There are quite a few interesting presentations and learning opportunities at the event, which is July 25-27 in Arlington, Virginia. It looks especially valuable for anyone managing PMOs or large programs. Here's the info (which also contains a downloadable PDF brochure).

The Performance Institute - Transferring Knowledge to Transform Goverment

PMO Success Metrics: Proceed With Caution

Based on Benjamin Disraeli's well-known statement about the three types of lies, "lies, damned lies, and statistics," Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin wrote an interesting article in Developer.com about the many faulty assumptions people make based on so-called statistics about PMOs.

Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief for PM Solutions' Center for Business Practices, so she's seen her share of statistics. Some key points:

- There are many interpretations on what constitutes a PMO, so many statistics on PMOs are skewed from the start.

- Some reports indicated high project failure rates in organizations with PMOs. That's likely due to the fact that organizations without PMOs don't tend to measure project success. Without measures, there are no failures.

- Many surveys are poorly designed and miss crucial clarifying questions.

Cabanis-Brewin recommends going to the source and digging into the supporting details to draw your own conclusions. She also reminds us that surveys usually do not contain the definitive answer, but rather serve as a starting point for more research. Finally, she cautions us to beware of the Hawthorne Effect, which states that the act of observing often changes the observed.

I would add that it's also important to be careful what you ask for. Many organizations want to begin using metrics, but are surprised to see success rates so low. They pressure project managers too soon and expect success rates to instantly soar to above 90%. It's vital to give the organization time to address problem areas and develop maturity.

Yes, it's important to capture metrics, but it's equally important to create a blameless reporting environment, by which people will report accurate data without fear of retribution. It's also critical to think about how you measure success. True success doesn't always correspond to on-time and on-budget. But that's another story.

Here's the article...

Lies, Statistics, and the PMO

Leadership Wisdom : Pig Style

I recently came across an excellent leadership blog site called PigWisdom. It's run by Jack Hayhow, author of The Wisdom of the Flying Pig, and it's full of brief little stories and tips that can energize and enlighten any leader.

I noticed one of the chapters in Hayhow's book borrows it's title from the old adage, "Don't try to teach a pig to sing---it wastes your time and annoys the pig."

It's a cute saying, but many leaders try to do just that by having employees work out of their natural area of strength. As gurus from Peter Drucker to Marcus Buckingham have preached, this is not a wise use of our resources. Plus, it annoys the human.

Meanwhile, here's the PigWisdom blog site. Enjoy.

PigWisdom.com

IT Org Model Seeks to Integrate Distributed Teams

Government reorganizes IT leadership in order to increase performance on key projects and initiatives. ...

... "The idea is for the governor's respected Chief Information Officer Michael Locatis to forge better collaboration and expertise-sharing among information technology teams now scattered across 20 agencies ... " ...

Via GovExec: Reorganizing for IT Project Success

Project Penalty: Two Minutes For High-Sticking

Poor project performance and audit findings lead to changes, that may include project penalties. ...

... "The audit found numerous projects simply poured more money into projects that were delayed, rather than penalizing contractors for taking longer than expected. " ...

Via Wisconsin Radio Network: IT Project Fixes

IT Roles in Sustainability Initiatives

The I in information technology gets emphasized when sustainability is considered. ...

... "For example, IT is charged with creating databases to track environmental activity - measuring our emissions, tracking the safety and performance of our carriers, and managing our contractors. IT not only manages the information but it serves as a watchdog. " ...

Via CIO Asia: The Green Information Technology Role

Project Team Motivators: Pay 4 Performance Bonus

Looking for ways to motivate your team through financial compensation? Performane bonus may do the trick, according to research results. ...

... "However, if the same money was applied to pay-for-performance bonuses, the analysis suggests a performance increase of better than 15 percent. Indeed, the results suggest that providing a strong pay-for-performance link for bonuses rather than raises had the greatest potential benefit ... " ...

Via Cornell Hotel School: Compensation Study: Performance Impact

Board Level View of IT

What is the right level of board involvement, awareness of IT, and influence on IT strategy? Boards are definitely concerned with business strategy. What is the right equilibrium for board-level IT discussion - %of time and frequency? Are the amounts in the referenced survey out-of-whack? I'm not sure ... I would want the board to focus on business strategy. And, if IT were aligned with it, would a lower frequency and amount of discussion be ok? Maybe, if the quality of the minimal discussion was high. What are the thoughts in the blogosphere? ...

... "Yes, directors say the right things about the importance of IT, and make the by now obvious connection between effectively executing IT strategy and better financial performance. But their lack of attention to IT ought to concern CIOs and shareholders. " ...

Via CIO Insight: Survey of Board Views on IT

IT Talent: Business Career Path

The conventional IT career path ladder has faded away to a zig-zag path across business and IT roles. Careers will be much more exciting and business acumen will be natural. ...

... "What really matters, then, is knowing how to apply technology to improve business performance. " ...

Via Computerworld: Link

Customer Communication: JetBlue CEO on Service Orientation

JetBlue CEO uses virtual medium to connect with customers to affirm committment to service after abyssmal performance. ...

Just the Facts: Evidence-Based Management

I recently read an enlightening book by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, titled, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management.

The premise of the book is that many organizations follow the guru du jour, or manage according to the book of "someone said so." As the book points out, if we only looked at the evidence, we'd see that may of these so-called truths are anything but.

Here are some examples of the lessons the book has to offer, always supported by evidence:

1) Forced ranking of employees doesn’t work, especially where people’s performance depends on interdependence with others. Furthermore, a survey of over 200 HR professionals by the Novations Group found that forced ranking (employed by more than half of the companies) resulted in lower productivity, injustice, skepticism, less employee engagement, reduced collaboration, lower morale, and mistrust in leadership.

The authors add that, if an organization trains people right and places them in an effective system, there’s no reason why 10 or 20 percent would automatically become incompetent every year.

2) Beware of your biases as a manager. Studies of NBA drafts showed that players picked earlier and paid more were less likely to be traded and had longer careers, regardless of their actual performance.

3) In the war for talent, don't forget that bad systems cause far more damage than bad people. Try redesigning systems and jobs before judging individuals. And don’t give people objectives unless the system and staffing can support it.

4) Watch out for dangerous incentives. One organization's salespeople shipped too far ahead of schedule just to win a prize. Some salespeople would hold customer returns in the trunk of their car so they still get their commission for that period. Others opened bad credit accounts because any order counted as a good order. In another company, incentives to complete truck routes early led to increased accidents and overloading of trucks to avoid multiple trips.

5) Strategy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Operational execution often has a greater impact on performance. The CEO of Wells Fargo once said, “I could leave our strategic plan on a plane and it wouldn’t make any difference. No one could execute it.” In U.S. football, virtually every play is designed to go for a touchdown. Unfortunately, reality gets in the way, as do mistakes in execution.

The authors point out that time spent pursuing strategic options could be better spent solving operational problems or focusing on customer needs. Organizations such as eBay and Intel use a “learn as you go” approach, putting something in the market and tweaking accordingly. Doing the right things is important, but not at the expense of doing them effectively.

6) Many changes, including mergers and acquisitions, ERP implementations, Six Sigma programs, Business Process Reengineering, cost cutting initiatives, and others, carry risks that outweigh the benefits and can be easily misapplied. People tend to underestimate the costs and overestimate the gains.

However, if it is determined that the change is still needed, the authors suggest we:

a) Ensure dissatisfaction with the status quo (i.e. the burning platform)
b) Communicate the same message repeatedly about the need for the change
c) Express extreme confidence in the change, but listen to concerns and adjust accordingly
d) Expect setbacks, errors, and miscommunication; Learn from it and revise processes. Never point fingers.

7) Based on proven evidence, in order to gain respect and trust, leaders should:

a) Act "as-if" - Be sure to act and talk like a leader
b) Have some sense of modesty. Understand the difference between knowledge (knowing things) and wisdom (knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know).
c) Know when to get out of the way.
d) Above all, be an architect of systems, teams, and cultures.

These are but a few of the valuable nuggets in the book. The book offers additional tips as well, plus loads of supporting stories, examples, and research. Perhaps most valuable is the chart on the various types of changes and risks associated with them. I highly recommend this book to all leaders.

MS/Project is Dead: Long Live MS/Project

As reported in Computerworld and discussed here, Microsoft has announced MS/Project 2007, a new version that offers some usability and performance enhancements.

Perhaps the bigger news is that Project Portfolio Server 2007 has been announced, leveraging UMT's technology (which Microsoft acquired last year). It has the requisite bubble charts, strategy alignment tools, and what-if simulations. It even includes governance workflow, something long missing from the Microsoft suite. This should give the other big EPM tools a run for their money.

One thing worth noting about the Computerworld article (below) is the 20 million user base for MS/Project. Considering that the most frequently used project management tool is still MS/Excel, and that there are plenty of other project managers using non-Microsoft products, it gives a sense of how many project managers there are in the world. The last estimate I had heard several years ago was 16 million. That number is most likely quite a bit higher now, perhaps double.

Microsoft Looks to Boost Project Software’s Appeal

Project Management: Definition of Success

Is cost performance or estimate accuracy the measure of success for your project? What about usage, adoption, or percent of target value achieved? ...

... "when we talk about a project failing when it cost more than somebody said it would cost, or takes twice as long, how can we be sure those estimates were anywhere near the right ball park in the first place? " ...

Via CIO Austalia: Define Success

Technology Investment: Time Is Ripe

Implementation of IT strategy requires fresh approach: New standards of performance and greater accountability for achievement. C Davis Fogg discusses actions needed to emphasize a bias for action and points out the potential of IT to innovate. ...

... "IT is such an underutilised power in the marketplace, I would expect right now is a very good time to be thinking about powerful investments to improve market position and efficiency. Particularly if you have cash and your competitors don't. " ...

Via CIO Australia: Implementation of IT Strategy

Management Truths: Can You Handle It?

Jack says you can't handle the truth. But if you're ready, I highly recommend Stephen Robbins' excellent book, The Truth About Managing People... And Nothing But the Truth.

Robbins has sold over 2 million copies, and I can see why. In plain, simple language, Robbins outlines 63 truths, supported by evidence, stories, and examples. Each truth is only a few pages, so you can open the book up at almost any page and find a gem. The whole book is under 200 pages in a small paperpack format.

The 63 common-sense truths span the areas of hiring, motivation, leadership, communication, team building, conflict management, job design, performance evaluation, coping with change, and managing behavior.

A few good lessons (paraphrased):

1) Productivity usually breeds satisfaction, rather than the other way around.

2) When interviewing, don't go on traits. Instead probe about past behaviors (i.e. "Tell me about a time when you ....")

3) Put people in jobs that match their personalities.

4) Out of all the traits people have, conscientiousness is the most frequent predictor of success.

5) Specific stretch goals produce higher output than generalized goals like "do your best."

6) Not everyone wants to participate in setting their goals. It depends on their nature, ability, time available, and other factors.

7) Judge behaviors, not people.

8) There's something to be said for "looking the part of the leader."

9) Expect the best and people will deliver. Expect the worst, and people won't dissapoint.

10) Experience isn't always a good indicator of success.

11) There's no ideal leadership style. Directive or supportive styles can work in different situations.

12) Teams often create negative synergy. Beware of loafers. Be sure to identify and measure individual efforts as well as team efforts.

13) Honor the work-life balance. Give flexibility and options.

14) Beware of the quick fix. What works for one company or problem doesn't always work for another.

For many more, and further explanations and examples, read the book!

Virtualization: IBM Intel Collaborate

IBM, Intel collaborate to further the advancement of virtualization technology. The two companies are working on benchmarks, sizing tools, selection guides, etc. to simplify the process of virtualization design for IT managers. ...

... "One of the first tools to emerge from this joint initiative is a new virtualization benchmarking methodology called vConsolidate that runs multiple instances of consolidated database, mail, Web and JAVA(1) workloads in multiple virtual CPU partitions on Intel-based System x servers to simulate real-world server performance in a typical environment. IBM and Intel are contributing the vConsolidate methodology to an industry standards body for consideration. ... " ...

Via IBM:IBM and Intel Initiative Accelerates Virtualization on Multi-Processor Servers

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

IT Project Dashboard

Anecdote on IT project performance with mention of top 5 root causes. Chevron referenced for its management practices that focus attention on the highest value projects in its portfolio. ...

... "According to Accenture, the average IT project exceeds its projected cost and schedule by 56 percent and 84 percent, respectively. " ...

Via ITBusiness Edge: Link

Project Controls Governance: Michigan Recognized ...

State of Michigan recognized by State CIO Association for excellence in governance and project controls. Executive sponsorship embraced project oversight and a project office established the performance control standards and monitored status independently and objectively. ...

... "Michigan's child support enforcement system (MiCSES) is an excellent case study of how a large failing project can be transformed into a successful one with the aggressive application of project management processes. " ...

Via NASCIO: Awards

CIO CFO CEO Reporting Relationship Affects IT Performance ...

Good article shows the stats for CIO's that report to CFO's. I wonder, though, how much of this is related to the CFO's own (in)ability to align with business strategy and position the company for success --- ultimately relegating the IT organization to a utilitarian role. Good leadership whether in finance or IT needs to enable business success, not impede it. ...

... "Running projects--More CIOs who report to the CFO spend time running projects (49%) than those who report to CEOs (39%) " ...

Via CIO Blog: CIOs reporting to CFOs: The Numbers Do the Talking ...

SOX IT Compliance: Verizon Exemplar ...

Verizon honored as an exemplar in IT SOX compliance. The company was noted for their use of work process and systems to enable the high-level of performance through its SOX program office. Best practices cited: strong finance dept partnership, leadership committment, and proactive auditing. ...

... "Verizon Business strives to be a role model in IT governance and compliance, said Judy Spitz, Verizon Business chief information officer. Spitz heads the company's Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Program Office, which is responsible for maintaining and improving IT controls and monitors more than 30 of the company's largest revenue and transaction volume applications. " ...

Via Verizon Business: Verizon Business Honored With Prestigious Technology Managers Forum Award ...

Influence the Culture: Achieve the Goal ...

More evidence that influencing culture is the strongest lever in positioning an organization for success, however it is defined. ...

... "The chief executive knew he could not personally cause the needed innovation, but he could help create a culture and lead his managers in a way that would foster innovation - a culture that encouraged the traits of Adaptability and Involvement. " ...

Via Inc: Building a High-Performance Culture

Project Risk Management

Oil production company, Venture Production PLC, uses risk management software to model project scenarios to select optimum schedule while balancing risks, costs, and time performance. This seems a worthwhile approach, when large investment is at stake and time to value is critical. ...

... "Using Pertmaster, Venture's project management team was able to add a risk dimension to plans built in its Primavera P3 scheduling solution. Venture then analysed the schedule-risk of multiple scenario options to look at the most probable outcomes of each, in terms of both timescales and costs. This enabled the best options to be highlighted when considered from both likelihood of risk occurrence and degree of impact and enabled management to take well-informed decisions. " ...

Pertmaster Helps Bring Venture's New Oil Field On Stream ...

Venture Operated Goosander Field On Stream: "Goosander has been developed as a sub-sea tieback to the Venture operated Kittiwake platform utilising two subsea flowline bundles totalling 12 kilometres in length. The bundles were manufactured and installed by Subsea7 from their construction site in Wick and have been designed and engineered to accommodate future production and water injection wells and the potential for re-use on future subsea tie-backs. "

Project Framework Leverages ITIL Provides Common Status View ...

ITIL-capable service solution is implemented as a management framework across multiple implementations to enable a common performance status view. ...

... "Aspiren has selected Infra's IT Service Management solution, infraEnterprise, to support the rollout of a new National Performance Management Framework (NPMF) to local authorities across the UK. The infraEnterprise implementation will ensure that all procedures associated with deploying the initiative are fully compliant with IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practice. Aspiren is using infraEnterprise's Workflow module to automate the management of 400 local authority technical installations, and to provide managers with one common view of the status of the implementation project. " ...

Aspiren Puts Infra To Work On New National Performance Management Framework ...

NPMF - What Is NPMF?: "The project has successfully established the first truly national template for a performance management framework in Housing Benefit departments. Essentially it brings together in one place all the key components of a world class performance management framework ... "

Talent Strategy: Workplace Flexibility ...

Article discusses forms of workplace flexibility that range from flexible working hours to career flexibility, such as sabbaticals or special assignments, which when implemented well can be a significant boost to an organization's talent managment business strategy. ...

... "Workplace flexibility is no longer just an employee accommodation; it is a key management strategy that can positively affect employee performance and can improve an organization's financial performance. " ...

Via CCH: Workplace flexibility is more than just an accommodation; it’s a business strategy

Einstein Project Management Tip #4: Think Value

And so we continue our series on project management tips from Albert Einstein. Here's another...

"Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value."

This sums up perfectly the problem with most projects today. They focus on "success" without fully defining what success means. Project managers and PMOs track schedule and budget metrics. Then, at the end of the project, some capture customer satisfaction, almost as an afterthought.

What really needs to happen is to insure value to the customer, and this usually goes way beyond being on time and on budget. We spoke about the need for clear goals. Surely that's part of it. We also need to deliver in small, frequent iterations to provide the quickest value and get more immediate customer feedback.

Customer satisfaction should be measured and tagged as an index throughout the life of a project, just as Earned Value uses indices to track cost and schedule performance. This allows course correction to be made in areas such as goal clarification, communication, and other areas needed to provide good value.

And when the product has been delivered, be sure that the customer can maximize the benefits of the product through proper training, tips & techniques, next steps, or any other items that will help them get the value expected.

These are the very items I've attempted to address with my Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM) framework, with its four phases of Understand, Prepare, Iterate, and Transform (UP-IT).

More Einstein tips coming soon...

ITIL Service Delivery Software ...

Software category continues to improve at ITIL service delivery processes ...

... "Targeted at distributed and disparate environments, Vigilant's Get Aware Suite offers a complete set of comprehensive ITIL based processes for service delivery and incident management. The foundation of the enhanced suite is a methodology based on results-oriented processes that assist IT organizations in correlating information and diagnosing root causes." ...

ITIL Service Delivery Software: Via Vigilant: Vigilant Technologies Enhances Powerful Suite for IT Performance and Operations Services ...

Performance Management: Super Metrics ...

Definition of a super- or banner- metric, in combination with incentives, can galvanize the workforce to successfully navigate through a transformation and align towards the common goal. The super-metric is usually simpler to communicate than a collection of inter-related measures. ...

... "Some firms direct their strategy with one primary measure. We call it a Super-Measure. A Super-Measure aligns the behaviors and actions of the various parts of a firm with its customers' needs. A Super-Measure focuses a firm more intensely on its strategy than would a complex set of measures. " ...

Performance Management: Super Metrics: Via Babson Insight: Aligning Strategy through Super-Measure Management ...

ITIL Measurement: Upper Quintile Performance for Local Authority ...

Local authority recognized as a service management Center of Excellence ...

... "The UK Society of IT Management's recent benchmarking survey of more than 200 local authorities ranked Bridgend Council's IT Department in the top 20% of the authorities surveyed. The survey also confirmed a 23% improvement in Bridgend's user satisfaction since the equivalent survey two years before. " ...

ITIL Measurement: Upper Quintile Performance for Local Authority: Via SourceWire: Bridgend County Borough Council is first Datawatch Centre of Excellence and the only one in Wales

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

ITIL Implementation: Cultural Change ...

IT manager laments the cultural challenges associated with implementing ITIL in an IT organization. This is a classical situation. Can a burning platform for action be created? Is there a baseline of performance data that compares unfavorably to industry benchmarks? Do competitive forces exist in the marketplace that indicate ITIL will help differentiate the organization? If the ITIL implementation cannot be aligned to the business strategy, why do it? ...

... "About a year ago I launched a serious attempt to institute ITIL throughout the IT organization I lead ... The short version: We've had a very hard time making it stick. Employees give it lip service, but that's about it, and our front-line managers haven't been much better. " ...

ITIL Implementation: Cultural Change: Via Advice Line by Bob Lewis: InfoWorld: Making ITIL happen ...

Inverse of ITIL Compliance Described ...

Description of service desk that fits the "inverse of ITIL" performance capability. George Spafford shares experience of what not to do and what could be better. This poor level of service is pretty common, not just in IT service desks, but especially acute in retail businesses. Good customer service is a differentiator, and it is not hard to differentiate yourself in that space, given the overall poor performance in many industries. ...

... "From an ITIL perspective, the Service Desk (SD) function is a vital one. It should serve as the single point of contact with customers and users to collect and distribute information both reactively and proactively, plus it should own the incident tickets to make sure they are properly managed. " ...

Inverse of ITIL Compliance Described: Via Datamation: Customer Disservice

IT Strategy: Transform to Value-Add from Cost Center ...

PharMerica CIO changes perceptions of IT through transformation of helpdesk performance, leveraging a common standardized architecture, and understanding costs and value of IT services. ...

... "So he was determined to demonstrate financial discipline by managing IT strategically, correcting inefficiencies to cut costs before he was asked to. " ...

IT Strategy: Transform to Value-Add from Cost Center: Trimming for Dollars: Via CIO ...

Via AmerisourceBergen: AmerisourceBergen Reports Record Operating Revenue of $14 Billion and $0.61 Diluted Earnings Per Share from Continuing Operations for the March Quarter: "PharMerica's revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 was a record $412.7 million, a 6 percent increase over the previous year's second quarter. Operating income for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 was $16.2 million, compared to $32.0 million for the same quarter last year, reflecting increased bad debt expense and the cost of implementing Medicare Part D. Operating income as a percentage of revenue was 3.92 percent in the second quarter of fiscal 2006, below expectations. The second quarter of the previous fiscal year benefited from a $4.0 million reduction in sales tax liability. The Company continues to expect operating margins to be in the 4 percent to 5 percent range for fiscal year 2006. "

One-Page Project Status Report; Keeping it Brief

There's a great writeup in Projects@Work about project status reports, including tips on meeting format and frequency as well as a format for a one-page status report.

According to the article, there are 5 Project Status Best Practices:

1. Consistency — The status process should be basically the same for large and small projects, and consistent with their measures of success
2. Escalation — The status process provides a mechanism for escalation of key issues.
3. Simple — One page with the ability to drill down for details when necessary
4. Public — Status is available to all (as appropriate) in order to communicate issues, risks and corrective action measures
5. Inclusive — All projects are required to provide status on a consistent set of metrics

For busy managers who see loads of project status reports, it's much easier to have a consistent, brief summary of what's really happening on each project. They don't need a dissertation on all the details, nor will they get a clear picture just looking at performance metrics. Much like on a business case, most just want the executive summary. Simpler is better. Less is more.

For those looking to improve their status reports (and their credibility with management), read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/231704.cfm

Projects: Cost Management

Lack of project management methods result in poor cost performance. ...

... "Although the scheme's implementation has gone well, the Countryside Agency should have put effective risk and project management procedures in place earlier, he said. " ...

Via BBC: Costs double for roaming scheme ...

Project Accomplishments Recognized: KC MO ...

Kansas City recognized for its accomplishments in project management methods and delivery. ...

... "The City was awarded a regional APWA Management Innovation Award for the development of the Capital Improvements Management Office. The office was created as a partnership with MWH Americas Inc. and Burns and McDonnell to re-engineer the City's delivery processes and reinvigorate its backlogged capital improvement project portfolio. CIMO has used inventive corrective strategies and industry best practices to create a centralized, more efficient approach to capital project delivery and accountability. Additionally, three of the division's capital improvement projects were named regional APWA Projects of the Year. These awards recognize projects that exemplify outstanding project execution through project management; timely execution; safety performance; community relations; and quality control, construction innovations, and time and/or money-saving techniques. " ...

Project Accomplishments Recognized: KC MO: Via Kansas City Mo: News from City Hall: City receives four regional public works awards ...

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.

Business Reengineering: Motivate through Recognition ...

Need to motivate people during a challenging reengineering effort? Understand your context and adapt your recognition techniques. Bob Nelson offers guidance. ...

... "Has there been a merger, acquisition, or down-sizing? Is any business-process reengineering occurring? All these factors can hamper the reception of recognition in your organization. " ...

Business Reengineering: Motivate through Recognition: Via The Business Journal of Phoenix: Return on People: Avoiding Motivational Sabotage ...

Business Process Reengineering Project: Assessment Guide Reference ...

Here are sample screening criteria from GAO guide, when considering whether a business process reengineering project should be undertaken. ...

... "Is the process of strategic importance to the agency's mission? Does the process urgently need dramatic improvement in order to meet the agency's own performance goals?

Is there a high level of customer and/or stakeholder dissatisfaction with the process (quality, timeliness, cost)? Does the process have a long cycle time with many sequential activities, multiple hand offs, checkpoints, and significant waiting time between work steps (e.g., processing a benefits claim)?

Did benchmarking show that other organizations can do the same (or analogous) process much better? Is the process highly dependent on information, so that information technology might be used to speed the work flow, collapse work steps, and improve real-time decision-making? " ...

Business Process Reengineering: Assessment Guide Reference: Via GOA: Framework Part A

Fixing Performance Problems; Bud Bilanich Tells it Like it Is

Fixing Performance Problems, by Bud Bilanich (AKA “The Common Sense Guy”), is one of those books that every leader should have, whether they think they have performance problems to fix or not.

Subtitled “Common Sense Ideas that Work,” that’s just what the book offers. And we all know how uncommon "common sense" really is. As others have noted, it’s refreshing that someone with multiple degrees, including a doctorate from Harvard, can sidestep the usual consultant-speak and get right to the heart of the matter.

In addition to being packed with relevant quotes (there are some real gems there, including General Pershing’s “A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops” or the Chinese Proverb, "If you are patient on one moment of anger, you can avoid a hundred days of sorrow"), the book offers plain answers to eleven key problems, with a handy summary chapter at the end.

The eleven problems are:

1. People don't know what they are supposed to do.
2. People don't know why they should do what they are supposed to do.
3. People don't know how to do what they are supposed to do.
4. People think the prescribed methods will not, or do not work or believe that their way is better.
5. People think that other things are more important.
6. People think they are performing in an acceptable manner.
7. Non-performance is rewarded.
8. Good performance feels like punishment.
9. There are obstacles to performing that the individual cannot control.
10. There are no positive consequences for good performance.
11. There are no negative consequences for poor performance.

Most of all, I like the fact that the book focuses on the things leaders need to do differently, and doesn’t jump to conclusions that performance problems are the fault of the employee. In fact, in many cases it’s not, and issuing negative consequences for poor performance is only suggested as a last resort (#11 in the list). Even in that case, Mr. Bilanich suggests that a gentle nudge will often do the trick.

Rather than a book on “correcting bad employees,” it’s the ultimate handbook on motivation, positive reinforcement, goal setting, communication, and all the things we need to do to proactively avoid poor performance. I highly recommend it to leaders at all levels.

Application Development Projects: Automated Monitoring ...

FDA uses automation to monitor the performance of distributed application development project teams and provide measures to sustain productivity. ...

... "CAST Application Intelligence Platform is not a burden to the development teams – all analysis is automated. CAST provides the FDA with an automated analysis and monitoring system that delivers productivity benefits to the developers while providing objective information back to management. When selecting a solution, the FDA found that CAST had the only product on the market that can analyze all the languages used in their application portfolio. With the insight provided to IT management on what is happening in application development, and the productivity gains that development can get using CAST, the FDA now sees a way to deliver immediate gains across the organization and turn development into a predicable business process." ...

Application Development Projects: Automated Monitoring: Via Cast Software: US FDA and DTCC Select CAST’s Application Intelligence Platform to Provide Better AD Governance ...

More Earned Value Woes for IT

I mentioned the other day that the IT industry has been struggling to adopt Earned Value Management. There's a three-part series on Projects@Work on Earned Value that illustrates the trials and tribulations thus far. This first part is based on a survey from Primavera that demonstrates just how far behind the IT industry is.

Ironically, this is especially so in the US government (the focus of the Primavera study), despite a mandate from the OMB (Office of Management and Budget) that any IT organization that wants to get their project approved must use Earned Value for tracking cost.

According to the article:

Respondents cite three big EVM challenges:

• 25 percent say they are unfamiliar with EVM;
• 24 percent say they lack personnel trained in EVM; and
• 21 percent say they lack senior management interest.

As the article points out, the latter is the most suprising, considering the OMB mandate. It just goes to show that these things must be driven from the top if they are to be effective.

I suspect part of the problem is that the concepts need to be made simpler for management to embrace it, or at least the focus should be directed at the ultimate EVM figures management would care about, such as "Estimate at Completion," as opposed to the more cryptic Cost Performance Indices (CPI) - although they're valuable as a project manager's tool.

If you really want to turn a senior manager off, just show them an Earned Value metrics chart. Better to sell them on the concepts first and give them the resulting target estimates and planned corrective actions rather than the nuts and bolts of EVM metrics.

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/230677.cfm

Collaboration and Openness Business Model ...

In continuation with previous post on collaboration and openness, IBM releases study that supports the business model for transparency and collaboration to drive innovation and, ultimately, revenue growth. ...

... "In terms of how to drive innovation, the study found that 76% of CEOs ranked business partner and customer collaboration as top sources for new ideas. This greatly contrasts with internal R&D, which ranked eighth as a source for new ideas -- cited by only 14% of CEOs. Despite the value they place on collaboration, many CEOs are still in the planning stage. While 76% of CEOs say that collaboration is critical, 51% say their organizations currently collaborate extensively. Interestingly, this is exaggerated in emerging markets, where 73% are collaborating, compared to 47% in mature markets. The study also suggests a link between collaboration and financial performance. " ...

Collaboration and Openness Business Model: Via IBM: Majority of Global CEOs Plan Fundamental Change and Expect New Forms of Innovation to Drive Growth, According to IBM Study ...

ITIL Implementation Webcast Advice ...

Recent webcast by Managed Objects validates the hype associated with ITIL implementation. Some good advice was shared: Adopt ITIL in small pieces with a focus on top business services and their key performance indicators. Avoid the proliferation of tools to support ITIL adoption. Some not-so-good advice was evident: Select tools first and then automate processes.

I would recommend focusing on the process first, redesign as necessary, train and support people in their roles, and then implement tools in stages consistent with your desired change in process maturity. ...

... "Over 500 registrants for the webcast validated that the ITIL adoption topic is top-of-mind for many enterprises today. In fact, according to Forrester Research, with in the past year ITIL adoption of $1B+ revenue companies has increased from 13% to 20% , with that number projected to grow to 60-70% by 2008. " ...

ITIL Implementation Webcast Advice: Via Managed Objects: Business Service Management Required for Successful ITIL Adoption: Independent Research Firm tightly links BSM and ITIL Best Practices during recent Webcast ...

Innovation: Influence Culture to Succeed ...

Jeffrey Phillips explores the innovation culture: free flow of ideas and people open to collaboration. Should compensation systems be changed to influence the culture? What works best? I've seen researchers share in the patent filing (prestige) and receive a modest reward from revenue performance (financial). ...

... "We've grown our cultures to assume that if it needs to be done, I'll do it myself. Basically, in many firms, we encourage competition and knowledge/information hoarding. " ...

Innovation: Influence Culture to Succeed: Via Innovate on Purpose: Biggest roadblock to corporate innovation ...

IT SOA Strategy: Form Architecture Group ...

What is the role of an IT architecture group with regards to SOA? Ajit Sagar shares his experiences with developing the architecture organization. He recommends a more formalized architecture function to support SOA standards and performance agreements. I like his ideas regarding a more active and involved architecture team that interacts regularly in projects, in addition to traditional roles, such as publishing reference architecture documents. Good advice ....

... "One of the main responsibilities is also to align with the business to define the IT strategy for SOA and to provide an implementation roadmap, including the migration of existing applications towards a service-oriented paradigm. " ...

IT SOA Strategy: Form Architecture Group: Via Sys-Con Italia: Architecting for SOA ...

Project Strategy Weakness Hampers Mine Cleanup ...

Deficiencies in project management strategy contribute to poor remediation performance. And, you thought IT project management was lacking ....

... "An overall project strategy for assessing the site and evaluating remediation is completely lacking, resulting in hasty and reactive ineffective efforts at the site, said the memo entitled Anaconda Copper Mine Site " ...

Project Strategy Weakness Hampers Mine Cleanup: Via Las Vegas SUN: EPA criticized Nevada for slow cleanup at mine, contact with Arco

Project Management: Virtual Decision Making

Struggling with enabling and sustaining project decisions? Bill Thomas promotes effective decision-making through a process that considers the level of decision-making participation and measures performance. The decision roles of participants should be understood, documented, and monitored (helpful with compliance, such as SOX). Graphical visualization of key measures is recommended, in combination with the appropriate commentary to provide the color and texture of the business context. ...

... "Effective group decision making within performance management has always been a challenge, but traditional decision-making approaches do not consider the speed and complexity of dynamic virtual work teams regularly employed at this time. They also neglect recent compliance regulations that have a direct impact on defining current business processes. Ten years ago, an organization could employ loose guidelines and/or project management techniques because group decision making was less complicated. " ...

Via Business Intelligence Network: Decision Making and Risk within the Performance Management Process ...

IT Governance: Centralized or Distributed ...

VA CIO seeks centralized IT governance model to further influence and control software investment performance and operations ...

... "McFarland has oversight and funding powers over development projects, but not direct control. It's no secret, he says, that he favors further centralizing the IT governance structure. " ...

IT Governance: Centralized or Distributed: Via GovExec: Systems Doctor ...

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 ...

Risk Analysis

Oil exploration is a notoriously risky business. Add in the physical risk of deep water drilling and you can easily understand why risk analysis and management takes on a really high profile in the off shore drilling industry.
DNV is a long established maritime certification organisation and, with the North Sea oil boom, has moved naturally into the off shore oil exploration risk management and certification business.
This paper describes an approach to risk management for deep water exploration. It is written with a general approach and is adaptable to other styles of project and product.
A couple of perspectives that make it particularly interesting:
The risk analysis - and management plan - will be different for the organisation executing the project and for the contractors;
The categorisation of risks by Economy, Time and Performance - equivalent to Cost, Schedule and Scope. The familiar Probability/Impact matrices are represented for each of these and the authors use an interesting method of plotting the effect of risk mitigation plans on the analysis.
There is also extensive discussion of the risk management process, use of the risk register and communication. It ends with a couple of case studies that illustrate the approach nicely.
DNV Risk Analysis

ServiceOriented Architecture SOA Governance: Market Consolidation ...

Mercury acquires Systinet to extend its reach into the service oriented architecture SOA market. It further expands the footprint of their integrated business technology suite. This market space is ripe for consolidation as major information architectures transition to the services model. ...

... "Mercury Interactive Corporation, the global leader in business technology optimization (BTO) software, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Systinet Corporation, a privately held company, for $105.0 million in cash. Systinet is a leading provider of service-oriented architecture (SOA) governance and lifecycle management software and services. Customers use Systinet technology to manage SOA business services and to build secure and reliable Web services. Systinet technology, when combined with Mercury BTO Enterprise offerings, will help enable customers to take a lifecycle approach to optimizing the quality, performance and availability of SOA business services.

Systinet SOA products provide a system of record and a set of governance and lifecycle capabilities that help provide the visibility, control, quality and integrity critical to SOA success. Systinet products deliver capabilities for publishing and discovering business services; creating, managing and enforcing policies; and managing the full lifecycle of business services and other SOA assets. " ...

ServiceOriented Architecture SOA Governance: Market Consolidation: Via Mercury: Mercury to Acquire Systinet to Capitalize on High-Growth SOA Market ...

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

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 Portfolio Management: Don't Forget to Kill ...

Enjoyed Richard Jones' post about exploiting internal resource management to drive innovation rates, which requires killing low potential projects. One of the first steps is to improve visibility to resource utilization (knowing what resources are doing) and to improve visibility to active projects (increasing opportunity to see project kill candidates). This visibility combined with effective governance of the project portfolio (the killer mindset) could move the bar in performance. ...

... "Companies can be outstanding at generating new ideas - I mean really world-class and yet they struggle. The simple reason is they don't have the resources to exploit them. " ...

Project Portfolio Management: Don't Forget to Kill: Via Innovation to Products to Ventures :: Dead project walking -why you have to kill projects to be successful

Earned Value: Government EVMS Progress, Targets Raised ...

OMB provides status update for agency progress against electronic government targets. Metrics show modest progress in adoption of earned value management system, EVMS. 2006 targets raise the bar to drive further adoption. ...

... "As of September 30, 2005, 28% of agencies have fully implemented EVMS (7 out of 25) and on average are achieving at least 90% of their cost, schedule, and performance goals. Another 52% of agencies are using some level of EVMS (13 out of 25) to track the cost and schedule status of their major investments and do not have cost overruns or schedule delays exceeding 30%. Those agencies are taking the appropriate actions, including developing comprehensive agency policies and incorporating requirements into contracts for using EVMS, to bring the management of all of their major IT development efforts into full compliance with the industry standard for EVMS. Together these two groups of agencies account for over 75% of Federal agencies being able to measure progress toward milestones in an independently verifiable basis, in terms of cost, capability of the investment to meet specified requirements, timeliness, and quality. The remaining six agencies have a plan of action and milestones to incorporate the use of earned value management into their Capital Planning and Investment Control Process.

For FY 06, the goal is for at least 50% of the agencies managing their IT portfolio in accordance with the standard and averaging 10% of cost, schedule and performance. " ...

Earned Value: Government EVMS Progress, Targets Raised: Via OMB: Expanding E-Government: Improved Service Delivery for the American People Using Information Technology ...

ERP Project: Benefit Opportunity Analysis

Nice example of opportunity analysis used to define benefits of an ERP project, ahead of vendor selection. ...

... "Among other benefits, the opportunity analysis process resulted in a series of easily measured KPIs (key performance indicators). For example, building error-checking tools into the data entry system would increase accuracy from 95 percent to 99 percent, reducing billing mistakes. " ...

ERP Project: Benefit Opportunity Analysis: Via CIO Today: Proving Your Project's Worth - Infrastructure ...

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. " ...

Business Intelligence Project: Prince2 Methodology ...

Business Intelligence Project: Prince2 Methodology: Via Computing: Mayor's office testing performance software ...

... "The LDA is using the technology as part of a data warehousing and business intelligence project run under public sector best-practice methodology Prince2. " ...

Business Performance Management: IT Project Challenges ...

Project managers need to pay special attention to requirements definition when involved in business performance management, or BPM, initiatives. Craig Schiff discusses the challenges associated with business performance implementations. ...

Business Performance Management: IT Project Challenges: Via DMReview: Maximize Business Performance: Don't Underestimate the Potential Impact of BPM

... "Underestimating BPM's possible payoff goes hand in hand with inadequate sponsorship and support from senior management that relegates BPM to a small IT project to be dealt with in the back office. This tends to result in failure to involve end users in the early stages of requirements definition and a poor grasp of the business issues. " ...

Project Portfolio Management: Business Intelligence Enables Visualization ...

Project Portfolio Management PPM vendors are increasingly bundling business intelligence components in their offerings, such as Business Engine's collaboration with Cognos. ...

Project Portfolio Management: Business Intelligence Enables Visualization: Via Business Engine: Business Engine Teams with Cognos to Deliver Business Intelligence Tailored to IT and Engineering Organizations: Global 2000 Companies Gain Greater Insight into Project-based Portfolios with Advanced Metrics, Dashboards and Reporting ...

... "BEN Business Intelligence embeds industry-leading business intelligence technology from Cognos, including Cognos ReportNet and Cognos PowerPlay, to provide IT and business users with powerful reporting and OLAP analysis through easy access to timely and accurate information. Business Engine recognizes the strategic importance of business intelligence and corporate performance management in helping enterprises gain greater value from their IT investments, align business goals and ultimately deliver solid results, said Ted Jandl, Area Vice President of Strategic Partners at Cognos. Coupling Cognos with Business Engine's leading Project Portfolio Management solution gives savvy corporate leaders the ability to make informed decisions about their business and technology investment portfolio while helping to drive enterprise agility in the face of a shifting economic landscape. " ...

Project Management Graphical Innovations

I've posted in the past about the limitations of current project management reporting (are Gantt charts really the best we can do in the 21st century?).

PCF has some intriguing reporting alternatives on their site for project schedule, resource, and earned value tracking, as well as high level program performance.

Check it out...

PCF Ltd - Giving You Complete Control

PMI Reviewing New Exam Questions; Clarification of Rumors

Rita Mulcahy at RMC Project Management (and creator of an excellent PMO Exam Study course) posted a clarification on her site of PMI's recent announcement regarding the review and possible revision of new exam questions.

PMI's normal process is to review the performance of questions after new exam is released, and as such they are doing it with this exam. They may remove or rewrite certain exam questions as needed, and would adjust the score of those who have taken the exam accordingly.

Apparently, rumors have gotten out of hand, and Rita clarifies them below...

Clarification of PMI Announcement Regarding PMP Exam: Are the Rumors True?

Innovation Metric: The UnBalanced Scorecard ...

Balanced scorecards enable an enterprise to measure performance against its strategy. With innovation on the mind of most companies today, what metrics can support and sustain innovation? Geoffrey Moore shares insightful comments on shifting the balance of emphasis to clear areas of differentiation to create an imbalance in the marketplace and sustain that imbalance for competitive advantage. ...

Innovation Metric: The UnBalanced Scorecard: Via Dealing_with_Darwin: Unbalanced Scorecards, Please ...

... "I think they should call for an unbalanced scorecard, not a balanced one. Our work in innovation makes clear that unless companies differentiate beyond the norms of the competitive set in which they participate, they cannot get paid a differential return. " ...

Project Status: Traffic Light Dashboard ...

Dashboards provide line-of-sight to executives and enable the ability to understand and respond to problems in near-real-time, if built on an accurate set of timely data. David Crain, Camp Inc., provides insights on the development and use of executive dashboards, including common visualization techniques, such as the project management status traffic light. ...

Project Status: Traffic Light Dashboard: Via Crain's Cleveland Business: An eye on the dashboard ...

... "The Red / Yellow / Green traffic light approach is one used commonly in project management as it is a color theme everyone is familiar with. " ...

People-Focused Project Management; Parkinson's Law Repackaged

Maybe you've heard of Parkinson's Law; "Work expands to fill the time alotted." In other words, if you give someone 10 days to complete a task, they'll take the full 10 days, either by adding unnecessary features during the leftover time, or by waiting until the last minute to complete the work (also called "Student Syndrome").

Well, the same thing applies to the roles we brand people with. We can repackage Parkinson's Law as; "Performance Expands to Fill the Role Alotted." If we give people stretch goals, and brand them with a role or image that is slightly ahead of where they are, they'll stretch to live up to that role. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true.

If we pidgeonhole someone into the role they've always filled (or worse, a less important role), they'll usually limit their performance accordingly.

It's important for morale, employee retention, and the good of the project, to give people goals that will stretch them a little. But this doesn't mean to throw them at the wolves and see if they emerge with their limbs intact. It mean we need to offer the guidance, coaching, and tools for them to be successful.

I've seen too many organizations focus on tools and processes, and only give lip service to their people. They either brand people with an image based on some preconceived idea of their ability, or they give people stretch goals without any guidance or coaching whatsoever. I'd be hard pressed to say which is worse, but neither are good.

Let's remember that it's people that can make or break an organization, even with the best tools and processes. Let's give them the attention and support they deserve.

Earned Value Management: The Performance Baseline ...

NASA provides nice tutorial on the earned value program management technique, EVM. It emphasizes establishing the performance measurement baseline which becomes the reference to which progress is tracked. ...

Earned Value Management: The Performance Baseline: Via NASA: EVM Tutorial - EVM: Earned Value Management

... "Earned value provides an objective measurement of how much work has been accomplished on a project. Using the earned value process, the management team can readily compare how much work has actually been completed against the amount of work planned to be accomplished. All work is planned, budgeted, and scheduled in time-phased planned value increments constituting a Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB). " ...

Earned Value Management EVM Principles ...

The Earned Value Management methodology enables visibility into cost, schedule, and technical progress on projects to measure and manage performance. ...

Earned Value Management EVM Principles: Via DOE: EARNED VALUE MANAGEMENT APPLICATION GUIDE ...

... "Principles of Earned Value Management (EVM): All work is planned to completion; The work is broken down into finite product-oriented components that can be assigned to a responsible organization; The scope, schedule and cost objectives are integrated into a plan by which progress can be measured; Actual costs are recorded; Performance is objectively measured; Variances and deviations are analyzed, impacts are forecasted and estimates at completion are based on the actual performance to date; Changes to the performance measurement baseline are controlled; " ...

EVMS Earned Value Management: Federal Agencies Lag Behind

Primavera studies the adoption and implementation of earned value management processes and systems (EVMS) in federal information technology organizations. Current assessment shows that agencies lag behind on implementation versus their EVMS targets. ...

EVMS Earned Value Management: Federal Agencies Lag Behind: Via Primavera: Study Reveals Disconnect Between Perceived Merits of Earned Value Management and Federal Agencies Readiness to Implement ...

... "Specifically, the study indicates that the federal IT community agrees with OMB that EVM delivers improved project outcomes, with 60.6 percent of respondents reporting that EVM is very or somewhat important to achieving their capital investment goals. Despite this value perception, results do not demonstrate agencies movement from belief to action, with only 37 percent currently utilizing EVM and even fewer prepared to train or hire personnel skilled in EVM within the next 12 months. Respondents cited their top challenges to EVM implementation as unfamiliarity with EVM and lack of trained personnel. These findings indicate that agencies will not only have difficulty developing EVM implementation plans in time for the December 31 OMB deadline, but also will face challenges implementing documented plans. EVM processes, systems, and software enable the continuous assessment of project performance and status - providing a methodology that can help agencies effectively measure project alignment with resources and goals by comparing status to original plans and end goals. EVM can help agencies achieve green marks on the President's Management Agenda scorecard. To achieve and maintain this high score, agency projects must stay within a 10 percent variance from their cost, schedule, and performance goals. Further, OMB issued a memorandum in August 2005 requiring agencies to utilize EVM Systems (EVMS) on all new major IT projects. The memorandum requires development of written policies outlining agency-specific plans for EVM implementation by December 31, 2005. Agencies must also evaluate exiting, cost, schedule, and performance of ongoing IT projects and take any necessary corrective actions by March 31, 2006 and before devoting any FY06 funds to associated projects. In support of this effort, OMB is working with the Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council to develop a model agency EVMS policy for IT projects ... " ...

IT Governance: CA Enables Optimized Resource Management: Clarity ...

CA provides improvements to Clarity IT governance software that enable optimized resource management. ...

IT Governance: CA Enables Optimized Resource Management: Clarity: Via Computer Associates: CA Delivers Enhancements to its Clarity IT Governance Solution, Enabling World-Class IT Performance

... "To be effective, IT organizations must be able to quickly and appropriately allocate the right resources to the right projects. Clarity now allows this optimized allocation process to be performed dynamically - even as project plans and schedules are being changed - by empowering resource managers to shift resources based on evolving requirements. Clarity also now supports withholding certain functionality (such as access to project documents and time recording) from resources until they are formally assigned to a project, enabling greater process control. In addition, Clarity's enhanced organizational breakdown structure (OBS) and reporting structure filtering ease the complexity associated with juggling demand across teams. IT department managers can use a variety of powerful resource analysis screens to zoom in on the capacity and demand for the specific needs of a particular part of their organization, for a certain line manager, and for custom groupings such as application area, customer or project type. " ...

Clarity, the industry-leading IT Governance solution, enables IT organizations to achieve world-class performance by improving the quality of their engagement with the business and enhancing their ability to run at peak efficiency. The Clarity system features integrated portfolio planning, demand management, project management, resource planning, and time and cost management. More than 425,000 users at 425 companies depend on Clarity to govern IT and, increasingly, to manage new product development. The Clarity Division (formerly Niku) is part of CA's Business Service Optimization (BSO) unit, which offers leading systems for service, asset and change management and provides a comprehensive framework for delivery of world-class IT services.

IT Balanced Scorecard BSC: On IT Governance Roadmap ...

Measuring the performance of IT governance, the project management office (PMO), and individual projects is critical to understanding your current capability and to chart a future course of action. Shashwat Singhal explores the IT governance roadmap and the use of an IT balanced scorecard (BSC) to ensure that decisions are made in the interests of shareholders. ...

IT Balanced Scorecard BSC: On IT Governance Roadmap: Via Express Computer: Implementing IT governance ...

... "The IT balanced scorecard is an important mechanism for managing and aligning IT. Therefore, step 11 of the implementation road map refers to the establishment of an IT balanced scorecard. " ...