Robert Cooper to Keynote at PMI Global Congress 2007 North America

Robert Cooper, the author of Get Out of Your Own Way: Five Keys to Exceeding Everyone’s Expectations and The Other 90%: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential for Leadership and Life will be the keynote speaker at this year's PMI Global Congress North America.

Cooper, touted by Stephen Covey and Ken Blanchard for his unique insights, is best known for his inspiring works on achievement, practical use of emotional intelligence, and the neuroscience of leadership.

With project management being mostly about people, this should be an exciting and valuable presentation for anyone attending. Project managers will no doubt come away with some fresh perspectives.

New Ethics Standard Announced

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

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

Extreme Project Management: Reality Rules

I just finished reading Doug DeCarlo's book, Extreme Project Management. I met Doug at a recent PMI event we both presented at. Not only is his keynote presentation a crowd pleaser (hint: he plays the drums to illustrate the pace of a typical project and uses Noah's Ark as a sample project from the "ultimate Sponsor"), but his book is chock full of practical, immediately usable ideas.

I was amazed at how much his philosophy mirrors my own, with a focus on simplicity, value, results, and the understanding that change is inevitable. A key point of Extreme Project Management is that reality rules. Plans are nice, but then results must drive further planning instead of assuming reality will yield to the plan.

As an example of simplicity, consider what he calls "The Four Business Questions":

1) Who needs what and why?
2) What will it take to get it?
3) Can we get what it takes?
4) Is it worth it?

As another example, check out his "Three Sentence Project Skinny":

1) Who will do what for whom?
2) This project will be considered completed when: ___
3) Why? This project supports the organizations objective to: ___

The book also offers handy checklists (such as what to ask the sponsor during the first and secend meetings, etc..), the 4 Accelerators, the 10 Shared Values, the 7 Win Conditions, and more.

Although the book is the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica, it's extremely readable and has diagrams that bring together all the concepts in the book. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book grounded in reality as opposed to academic theory. Above all, this will help project managers succeed where the rubber meets the road---communicating and dealing with stakeholders.

Amazon.com: eXtreme Project Management: Using Leadership, Principles, and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility: Books: Douglas DeCarlo

Singing for Project Management

In honor of International Project Management Day, held on November 2nd, the PMI GovSIG produced an entertaining musical video called Big Results. I can see the followup to "High School Musical" already.

The sound is a little out of synch from the video, making it sort of like "Godzilla Meets Project Management," but still entertaining.

Check it out below...

International Project Management Day November 2, 2006

Comedy Keynote at PMI Tools Day

The Delaware Valley Chapter tools day on 4th November got off to a good start. Don McMillan describes himself as an engineer-turned-comedian and had the audience laughing out loud for an hour. His take on work, job types, marriage and life generally overlaid a serious theme - effective communication is vitally important. Humour can make the communication more effective - and poor use of PowerPoint can make it less effective. There is more on Don McMillan at his web site at
Technically Funny

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 Project of the Year: From Wasteland to Wildlife

I was recently in Seattle for a PMI leadership meeting as part of the core team for the Program and Portfolio Management Standards program. First, I was impressed by the beauty and cleanliness of the city, and the friendliness of the people. And of course I had to grab a coffee at the first Starbucks and see the guys at the famous Pike Place Fish Market throwing fish to each other. But I digress.

What really floored me was being at the PMI Awards presentation and seeing the short film on the project of the year---the Rocky Flats Closure project. This was a former nuclear weapons facility (and wasteland) that had to undergo an immense cleanup, including nuclear deactivation and material removal. Except the result wasn't a mere cleanup---the site was turned into a beautiful wildlife refuge, and will soon have a public space for hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

It demonstrates what can be achieved when you blend passionate leadership and sound project management. The project's website is below...

Welcome Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Main)

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

Leading and Influencing: The Project Manager's Secret Weapon

There's an excellent article by Frank Saladis on allPM about how to lead and influence others. Topics such as boosting your credibility, practicing empathy, and maintaining organizational awareness are discussed, as well as some good tips for engaging team members and obtaining buy-in.

From my experience, these are the things a project manager needs to get right. The rest is just details.

Here's the article. Well worth reading.

Positive Leadership in Project Management – Team Building, Influencing and Leadership By Frank P. Saladis, PMP :: ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Articles -PMI

PMPort Announced; PMI's News Aggregator

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has just announced PMPort, an news aggregator that pulls to gether project management related news feeds on a daily basis.

I think they might need to flesh out the search criteria, but looks like it could be another interesting source of information.

PMport - Keeping stakeholders in touch with project, program and portfolio management around the globe - every day

IT Purchasing Standard: A New Tool for Project Managers

As reported in Computerworld, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) issued a preliminary report on IT best practices on acquiring hardware, software and services, covering the entire procurement process.

This will extend SEI's Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) as a new global standard for IT acquisition. The effort is being backed by GM and the U.S. Department of Defense, who will be piloting the standard.

The Computerworld article (link below) includes a link to the SEI preliminary report. It'll be interesting to see how this integrates with project management methodologies and PMI processes. It should be a welcome addition to the project management toolset.

GM backs IT purchasing standards

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

Test Your Project Management Savvy

Riddle Me This, Project Managers!!

For those who like puzzles, they're running a program on AllPM this month based on Napoleon on Project Management by yours truly. Each week or so (through June and into July), I've been asked to pose some challenging scenarios to be discussed on the AllPM forum.

After each puzzler runs for a week or so, I then respond with what Napoleon might have done (at least, as far as I know, since he's unavailable for comment).

Check out puzzler#1 for an example (it generated some good discussion in the forum). Then take a shot at discussing your thoughts on puzzler #2.

Best of all, the folks at AllPM are having some fun with this and will be offering some free French wine to at least one "winner," to be announced on Bastille Day, July 14th. Join the fun! Here's the link...

ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Articles -PMI

The Making of a PMI Standard; Behind the Scenes

For those who wondered what goes on behind the scenes of creating a PMI global standard, there's a nice writeup in the latest PMI Community Post, which gets sent to all certified PMPs.

In the article, titled Evolution of a PMI Global Standard, PMI reveals the standards creation process, from the project approval and charter through the team selection, standard development, and exposure draft process.

Having served on the leadership team for PMI's new Standard for Program Management and Standard for Portfolio Management, I can say that volunteering on a standards creation project is very rewarding.

It's an opportunity to work with the best in the business and get involved in a large virtual project with people from all over the world. I definitely recommend the experience. Plus you get to earn PDUs if you're a certified PMP.

For those interested in volunteering, here's PMI's Volunteer Opportunity website, which has a link to the Opportunity Page. Tell ' em PMThink sent you.

Project Management Institute: NA Congress ...

PMI NA Congress this fall with Microsoft as hosting sponsor. ...

... "Project Management Institute (PMI) will hold its North America congress in Seattle, Washington, USA, 21-24 October 2006. PMI Global Congress 2006-North America is the major project management educational and networking event of the year. " ...

Project Management Institute North American Congress to be Held 21-24 October in Seattle, Washington: Via Yahoo! Finance

Project Manager Development: Negotiation Skills to Build Bridges ...

Upcoming PMI training event focuses on building bridges through the art of negotiation ...

... "April 20-21: The Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of the Project Management Institute will hold its second annual professional development days at Liberty Hall, 800 Eisenhower Drive, Kimberly. The first day will include two tracks of short project management programs for anyone interested in the field. The second day will feature a full-day seminar from Dr. Becky Stewart-Gross on Mutual Gain Negotiations. " ...

Project Manager Development: Negotiation Skills to Build Bridges: Via Appleton Post-Crescent: Business planner ...

Building Bridges: "Dr. Becky Stewart-Gross founded Building Bridges: Your Bridge to Better Communication in 1987 ... "

PMOs; Where's the Value?

A contributor to eProject's eLounge mentioned this excellent article from Chief Project Officer. It's written by Tom Westcott, founder of Project Solutions Group. Several years ago, I saw him speak on scheduling techniques at the PMI Delaware Valley Chapter's Annual Workshop, and was very impressed with his dynamic style and pragmatic approach.

In the article, Westcott talks about how PMOs must demonstrate value if they are to survive, and offers some good tips on how to do just that. Specifically, he says they must create strategic alignment, deliver real value, and communicate frequently.

Here's an excerpt on what he has to say about delivering value:

PMOs must deliver value to survive. Value is not templates, tools, methodology, processes, training; these are means to driving value. Value is gaining efficiencies, achieving cost savings, increasing customer satisfaction, reducing time-to-market, increasing revenue and profit, reducing deficits, or increasing competitive advantage. Too many PMOs wrap their whole mission and existence around the services they provide instead of their impact on the business. Executives buy value.

Too many PMO directors are former project managers who see their role as project management evangelists. This
leads to a myopic view, and often they are ill-prepared or unable to work strategically with executive management. PMO directors need to speak and think in business terms, financial and organizational. Nix the "project-management speak." How does this project benefit the organization and support our strategy? And how can we get it done as quickly and inexpensively as possible? That's what they care about.

For the full article, read on...

Chief Project Officer: PMO or Bust?

Project Management Checklists; Expand Your Toolbox

AllPM is one of the more content-rich project management sites. And best of all, the tools are all free.

One of the many useful areas on their site is their checklists section. I particularly liked the Consultants Methodology checklist, which I think is valuable for any project manager.

It's concise, simple, and correctly focuses on the up-front goals and solutions analysis, before getting into the actual exectution of the project. It's a 60,000 foot view, which is just what's needed before getting into the fine details.

Check it out...

ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Articles -PMI

PMI to Introduce Program Manager Credential in 2006

As reported in PMForum last week, Iain Fraser, PMI's Chair, discussed PMI's key initiatives for 2006 at their Asia Pacific Global Congress.

Most importantly, he announced that PMI will be introducing a new certification for program management to go along with the current PMP and CAPM certifications.

The new standards for program and portfolio management will be released at PMI's European Global Congress in Madrid in May.

For more about Iain Fraser's comments, read on...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PMI CHAIR IAIN FRASER ANNOUNCES PRIORITIES FOR 2006

Free PMP Exam Video Lecture Series from TSI

As reported in PMForum, TSI (True Solutions, Inc.) is now offering a series of 47 videos as part of a "PMP® Lunchtime Lecture Series." It's completely free, and is geared toward those studying for their PMP or CAPM exams, or those already certified that are looking for tips or refreshers. Even the companion documents are free.

For anyone studying for their PMP exam, it's bound to be an excellent resource.

PMI PMP Training, Exam prep courses

For Project Management State of the Art, Attend the PMI Research Conference 2006

At PMThink, we're committed to researching the latest methods in project management, portfolio management, and governance.

Whether it's Agile Scrum methods, more focus on conceptual phases, or the latest innovations in organizational leadership, we're always looking for new and better ways to manage projects.

One good way to find out the latest and greatest in the field is to attend the PMI Research Conference 2006, which will be held at the Centre Mont-Royal in Montreal on 16-19 July 2006. Between the speakers and the attendees, it should be quite informative. Registration begins March 1st.

Here's the info...

Research Conference 2006

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 ...

PMI Highlights Project Management Case Studies

In an effort to provide more value to project managers, PMI now includes project management case studies on their web site. Check it out...

PMI News Room - Case Studies

PMI Code of Professional Conduct Available for Review

As reported in PM Forum, PMI has made their new PMI Code of Professional Conduct available for review.

Also, you have until Monday, January 30th to review the exposure draft of PMI's Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures.

See below for both of these documents...

PMI Online Exposure Draft(Welcome Page)

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

Project Management Conference Asia: PMI Global Congress 2006 - Asia Pacific Upcoming ...

PMI's Asia Global Congress is upcoming ...

... "PMI Global Congress 2006 - Asia Pacific: 27 February-1 March 2006, Shangri-la Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand: Registration. " ...

Via PMI: PMI Global Congress 2006 - Asia Pacific

Scheduling is Dead, Bring on Chaos; So Says A Foremost Scheduling Expert

Project scheduling has no future whatsoever, and this comes from no less than Murray Woolf, the Managing Director of the PMI College of Scheduling's Scheduling Excellence Initiative (SEI).

This article, posted at PMForum is one of the better ones I've seen in a while (possibly because it's aligned with my philosophies). The premise is that, in today's day and age, the industry is headed toward more of a "give the people objectives and let 'em work it out" philosophy, which is completely opposed to the old "build a detailed schedule and make 'em follow it" mentality.

This is completely aligned with a value system that I've long subscribed to (and had posted on here at PMThink), and that is: To foster passion and accountability, we need to provide:

- Autonomy and Trust
- General Guidance and Principles
- Support and Removal of Barriers

This, of course, must be supported by having clear objectives.

Through all this, we also need to send a message that results are more important than blindly following rules. This doesn't mean that we needn't have processes, as people need a system in order to achieve consistent results; merely that we should give project managers the freedom to bypass certain processes if it's necessary to achieve good results. "Good" is the operative word here. Just meeting a date is not "results."

I believe that Mr. Woolf's article endorses my approach, and acknowledges that the following is where the future of project management is:

More organized chaos than it is controlled components.
More project facilitation than it is project scheduling.

This doesn't mean that planning isn't important either; merely that the act of planning shouldn't be confused with rigidly following the plan/schedule. As Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "Plans are nothing; Planning is everything."

As it is, and as Mr. Woolf rightly points out, project managers and "schedulers" are so bogged down in details and administrivia that they become more project reporters than managers. We need to observe where the future is headed and free project managers from the burdens of such fruitless details.

Instead, their efforts should be spent on adequate preliminary research, communication, facilitation, risk awareness, and other traits necessary to effectively manage a project.

For the full article, which I highly suggest reading, see Mr. Woolf's paper below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management - Papers

Project Manager Certification: PM3 Level

Alcatel advocates PM3 level and beyond for project manager certification for complex project engagements. Alcatel plans to sustain project management training and to certify 30 project directors per year and 200 project managers. The company is committed to develop project management as a core competency. ...

... "During an official award ceremony at Alcatel's headquarters in Paris recently, the 2005 certified top project directors of Alcatel have been welcomed by the board of directors. Two years ago, Alcatel launched an innovative accreditation program for its project managers. This program, which includes the Project Management Institute (PMI) certification, enables the project managers of the Group to continuously improve their skills in complex project management. At the end of the program, the candidate receives Alcatel's accreditation.

Beyond the PMI certification, Alcatel proposes the PM3 and PM4 levels. Four levels of competence along a career path are clearly defined: project leader (PM1), project manager (PM2 or PMI equivalent), project director (PM3) and executive project directors (PM4). The PM3 accreditation allows Alcatel to identify a key competence and to ensure that all the project directors within the Group have the same language and share the same strategy. In front of the customer, the business skills of the project managers are today a key criteria in the selection process of a vendor. The PM3 accreditation permits the customer to assess the competences of the project director, which will be its interface in a complex project. " ...

Project Manager Certification: PM3 Level: Via Alcatel: Alcatel launches an accreditation program for its employees awarding the management of complex projects ...

Project Failure Rates Soar; Blame the Estimates

How many times have you heard these statements from management?

"I didn't call this meeting to discuss whether we can meet the deadline. We're here to decide how we're going to meet it."

"What we've got to do now is to roll up our sleeves and do whatever it takes to get the job done!"

"I agree with you in principle, but this project is so urgent that we just don't have the luxury of doing it right."

These statements are all referenced in an excellent article by Conrad Weisert, titled "The Burden of Proof in Estimating." He attributes it to the fictional "Management By Cliche Handbook," but the statements and the poor results they usually lead to are anything but fiction.

With project failure rates not much better than they were five years ago, this article validates what I've been saying for a while: Most projects that run over budget do so because the original unrealistic estimate was provided under pressure from management.

It's critical that a project manager defend the right plan and negotiate tradeoffs in scope, time, or cost accordingly. Perhaps the best approach, and most consistently effective one, is to timebox the scope, aiming for realistic, phased deliverables.

It's also important when submitting a budget estimate, that the correct level of accuracy is stated (i.e. plus/minus 25%, or whatever is appropriate). PMI offers some guidelines, but those are just that---guidelines. A detailed bottom-up baseline estimate should only be provided after a detailed schedule is developed.

The bottom line is this. Weisert has a very simple principle: "In assessing the credibility of a project estimate the burden of proof falls on those who claim it can be done." This is sage advise. For the full article, read on...

Burden of Proof in Project Estimating

PMI Establishing Communities for Better Crosstalk

As reported on PMForum, PMI's Community Transformation Project (CTP) is moving full steam ahead, with the full kickoff scheduled for January 19th. PMI appears poised to establish a common framework and infrastructure across the various geographic, industry, and specialty communities, allowing for better leverage and crosstalk. With all of this coming up, it's no surprise they've suspended the creation of any new SIGs or chapters.

For more info, see the PMForum news brief below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PMI'S CTP STEERING TEAM MEETS IN WASHINGTON DC

PMI Work Breakdown Structure Practice Standard Available for Review

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

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


PMI Online Exposure Draft(Welcome Page)

Project Management Processes vs. Methodology

People tend to confuse processes and methodology. A set of project management processes is not a methodology. A methodology is how we "operationalize" our processes.

PMI offers processes for project management. PRINCE2 from the UK offers a full methodology, with stage gates, work authorization forms, and so on.

The trick is to keep our methodologies lean. I look at processes as a toolbox. They are the best practice inputs, outputs, and tools/techniques for the various elements of managing a project. And, if we follow IDEF process design standards, they also include controls.

But the methodology selects from among these processes and includes forms, templates, stage gate processes, and so on, so that project managers can have a basic foundation from which to manage all projects. Applying Jack Welch's organizational approach (see my previous blog), these methodologies MUST be lean, if project management is to come across as an enabler and not added bureaucracy.

Results vs. Process; Which is More Important?

In the project management world, we've all been hearing about "process" for years, and of course most of us have been indoctrinated in PMI principles. And process is important, because it gives us a roadmap to follow and allows for continuous improvement (provided we learn from mistakes and tweak our processes accordingly).

But as the saying goes, the map is not the territory. Ultimately, in order to achieve results on a project, we need to know when to streamline certain processes, or even break the rules entirely, especially when faced with day-to-day challenges.

Companies like Toyota live by processes (even over short-term results), and do very well. But that is organizational strategy -- and a good one at that. The idea is that if processes are monitored and improved over time, then long term results will ultimately be realized. With project management, on any given project we cannot afford to wait years to see the fruit of our process improvement labors pay off. We're on a limited timeline, and must show results.

Granted, we still must conduct lessons-learned sessions and regularly revise gaps in our project management process (constantly looking to streamline), but from a tactical project management standpoint, results must come first.

This is why I conclude that, when it comes to managing a project, results are more important than process.

But there's something even more important than results, and that's people.

Ah, but that's the subject of another blog (to paraphrase the ending of the film, "The Jungle Book" -- the Sabu version, not the Disney cartoon).

Project Management Heresy; Is Gold-Plating Really that Bad?

PMI has drilled it into our heads for years about the perils of gold-plating, and how we need to focus on just meeting requirements, yada yada yada.

Yet, when I think back to the most exciting work that I had done (years ago), it was when I had met with a client (a customer service specialist) to look into a simple request to develop a few reports. She needed this so she could have more information readily available to solve customers' problems. I watched this person work for a while and felt immediate pain at what she had to go through to resolve customer problems and take orders over the phone.

She had to make a zillion phone calls and run back and forth to the plant flooor to see the status of an order, most of the time calling the customer back hours or days later. I went back to my team, and we decided it would be just as easy to give her an online "dashboard" right from her primary order inquiry screen (this was before dashboards were popular).

From there, she could see inventory allocation, and at what point material would be in stock to complete the finished products for the order, as well as other related info. She could track the customer's products from order through manufacturing. This saved her daily walks to the plant floor. Not only that, she could now address her customers' problems while they were on the phone!

Upon seeing the impact this made, we then asked if she'd also like to be able to look up shipping information, delivery tracking, and accounts receivable as well, and of course she was overjoyed. The system revolutionized customer service for this company.

One might call this gold-plating, but I call it excitement. We were excited about making a huge difference in the ability of the client to solve problems, and the client was excited to offer this benefit to her customers. Of course, I first watched the client in action so I could easily tell what was needed, so this was still a pragmatic approach.

As long as innovations have a practical use, then it's not really gold-plating. It's gold.

In our relentless pursuit of "meeting requirements" and "attaining better efficiency", let's not forget that passion and excitement can energize teams and customers, and often leads to further innovations. Above all, it leads to action and movement! Ironically, this critical mass can increase throughput even better than traditional efficiency and scheduling methods. Bottom Line: We need to bring passion and creativity back into the workforce!

PMO Lessons From Toyota; Support Project Managers First!

More great lessons from Toyota. This report from F.R. Parth of Project Auditors shows how Toyota Financial Services learned from previous false starts at Toyota in creating a PMO and finally figured out the right way to do it. Some key lessons are:

1) A PMO must begin by supporting project managers first, and management second (this is consistent with the philosophy of my colleague on the PMI Program and Portfolio Management Standards leadership team, Claude Emond, who has made the same statement quite often).

2) Like anything of lasting value, a PMO is not created overnight. Full maturity can take up to 3 years, and full benefits can take up to 5.

3) Organizational resistance can be expected to be high. First solve project managers' pain points and develop basic project management processes (with their input). Gain support and credibility at the operational levels, and then evolve to auditing projects and supporting executives with strategic portfolio management and metrics.

By starting with a traffic cop or cost control mentality, you might as well pack it up now because the PMO won't get past the initial resistance.

Here's the full report, which not only outlines how this PMO is achieving success, but also shows why the earlier ones failed...

Frank Parth Publications / project management articles / white paper

PMI Lowers Passing Score on 2005 PMP Exam; Breaking News

Point Advantage, a PMI education provider of PMP exam prep courses, project management training programs, and learning tools, announced on their website that PMI has lowered the passing score on the new PMP exam from 81.7% to 61%.

We reported the other day that PMI was reviewing the exam questions, as they usually do after releasing a new exam, and this is the result. Of course, they'll retroactively adjust the scores of those who have already taken the exam.

More details below on the Point Advantage site...

Project Management Certification Training PMP Exam Prep Courses

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?

Communications Newsletter for Project Managers

Since we all know from PMI that communication is 90% of a project manager's job, why don't more project managers focus most of their self-improvement efforts in that area?

Several months ago, I subscribed to an excellent communicatons newsletter from Ragan Management Resources. It's an 8-page newsletter chock full of tips, anecdotes, and ideas for anyone who needs to communicate in their jobs--and that certainly applies to project managers.

I've found it invaluable, and among all the project management publications I read, this is where I get most of my ideas from.

The website is below. You can view a sample issue and test out a trial subscription. The full subscription is $109, but well worth it. And no, this is not a paid advertisement.

Communication Solutions

Project Management Seminar: High Costs of Turnover ...

Project Management Seminar: High Costs of Turnover: Via Appleton Post-Crescent - Business planner

... "Dec. 13: The Northeast Wisconsin Chapter of the Project Management Institute is holding a seminar led by Thomas Mattus from Successful Strategies International on the High Costs of Turnover Within Projects. The event will be held at Liberty Hall, 800 Eisenhower Drive, Kimberly. A social will be held at 5 p.m. with a dinner and the program to follow. " ...

Extreme Project Management (XPM): When Under the Gun, It's the Only Way

I must confess I'm a big fan of Extreme Project Management, otherwise known as XPM or Agile Project Management, in the right circumstances.

This is not the antithesis to traditional PMI processes; it merely takes a more realistic approach to project situations where there is great uncertainty (like many IT projects) or a severe time constraint (like many IT projects).

The key to making it work is a heavy focus on stakeholders and constant communication. It is anything but a "wing it" approach, as I've written about on PMThink several times. As opposed to "mechanistic" processes, which is the focus of typical Business Process Modeling (BPM), it relies on human interaction management, which addresses "human-driven" processes.

Here's the Wikipedia entry on Extreme Project Management, for more info. Also, be sure to check out the link to Human Interaction Management for examples of human-driven processes.

Extreme project management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Earned Schedule instead of Earned Value?

This presentation from PMI conference in UK this year describes the problems with Earned Value Management. One is that Earned Value is useful only in the early stages of a project for providing schedule management information - the SPI will always be 1.00 at the end of the project. Another is that most people don't understand schedule in terms of budget - and the use of accounting practices in project management probably has a lot to do with that!
The proposed approach uses the same basic information as SPI but expresses a Schedule Variance in terms of time rather than money. The SV(t) is the difference in time between the the status date and the date for BCWS equal to the current value of BCWP.
Earned Schedule

Earned Value - why does it have to be so difficult?

This paper from the recent PMI-SAC conference describes how to apply a simple approach to Earned Value Management for IT Projects. It starts with the question 'why is EVM so little used?' and puts forward 4 of the more common reasons. The author goes on to describe what was originally used as a paper based method. It exploits the natural structure of IT projects, frequently formalised in some form of stage gate process. Industry norms for the relative breakdown of costs by stage and activity or phase within the stage are used to compare to actual costs.
This approach implies that you do not need a detailed bottom up cost and activity tracking in order to calculate the earned value. Of course, it would mean that you don't have much earned value information during phases and breaking the phases down into very small units may stretch the applicability of the statistics used at the outset.
Of course, the method still requires some work, project structure and some organisational discipline. This can be one of the most difficult of the original four reasons to address - Because sometimes management doesn't really want to know!
Earned Value Management for IT Projects

Project Management Professional Certifications

There are several well-respected Project Management Professional Certifications to note:
1. Association for Project Management (APM)
2. Australian Institute of Project Management
3. IPMA Validated Four-Level Certification Programme
4. Project Management Institute (PMI)

1. Association for Project Management (APM)

APM has a progressive structure of qualifications from the Introductory Certificate in Project Management through to Certificated Project Manager. Your level of experience will give you an indication of which level is appropriate for you; Introductory Certificate is for those with no project management experience. APMP is for professionals with more than two years, Practitioner Qualification is for project managers with at least 3 years experience and Certificated Project Manager is for senior professionals with extensive experience. There are also two Risk Management qualifications.

For more info see: http://www.apm.org.uk/

2. Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM)

This certification system is available in Australia currently, and will shortly be available everywhere else. The AIPM certification is available at three levels - project team member, project manager and program manager.

For more info see: http://www.aipm.com.au

3. International Project Management Association (IPMA) Validated Four-Level Certification Programme

IPMA has been in existence for forty years and is based in the Netherlands. The four certification levels are:
A. Certified Projects Director
B. Certified Senior Project Manager
C. Certified Project Manager
D. Certified Project Management Associate

For more information see: http://www.ipma.ch/
The USA Affiliate of the International Project Management Association is the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management (asapm). See http://www.asapm.org for more.

4. Project Management Institute (PMI)

Here at PMThink! we reference PMI a lot. Some of us are Project Management Professionals (PMP)’s, the highest level certification offered by PMI. There is also the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM).

For more about both the PMP and CAPM certifications see: http://www.pmi.org/

Are there others that you believe are well-respected? Tell us!

Government Projects: Higher Spending and Delays ...

Government project culture needs an infusion. ...

Government Projects: Higher Spending and Delays: Via Business Standard: Economy & Policy: Govt spends 42% more on project delays ...

... "Even in the information technology sector, only a third of all projects are completed on time and within budgets, and give the originally anticipated value, says Gregory Balestrero, global CEO of Project Management Institute (PMI). " ...

Project Management Jobs

Looking for a job in project management?

Post your resume for free on the Project Management Institute (PMI)'s website.
Browse jobs by state, province, or industry without logging in!
The site has about 3,700 resumes, 200 job openings and over 4,000 registered employers that search the site.
There are also career links, tips and tools.

Happy hunting!
Go to Link

Source: Nov 2005 edition of PM Network (PMI's mag)

PMI Delaware Valley Tools Conference

An interesting morning on Saturday at Valley Forge for the Delaware Valley Chapter 2nd annual tools conference. Apart from chatting to a number of interesting people with a variety of project management tales to tell, there were the presentations.
Ken Barnhart gave the keynote address. His opening story about planning and executing an attack through a minefield against vastly superior numbers and with a number of strategic constraints during the first Gulf War gave a real world perspective to the phrase 'mission critical'.
One of his views that really resonated was dislike of the need for heroics. When the heroes are doing their stuff - commandeering resources, breaking rules, ignoring risk management - the rest of the organisation has to suffer all the disruption and clean up afterwards. The overall theme was 'Value Recovery' with a strong emphasis on doing the work that adds the most value.
And then there was the closing quote 'the man who says he can - and the man who says he can't - they're both right'. Deeep!
For the tools presentations, one could choose three out of seven presentations. The Planisware, Primavera and Microsoft Project (by Ken Barnhart) sessions were all interesting and well presented. Eventually one was left with a sense of deja vu.

Project Management Event: Business Development ...

Project Management Event: Business Development: Green Bay Press-Gazette - Upcoming meetings and seminars ...

... "Project Management Institute-Northeast Wisconsin Chapter meeting: 5:30 p.m. social at Rock Garden/Comfort Suites, 1951 Bond St., Howard. Ginger Levin, UW-Platteville, discusses the link between business development and project management. " ...

Project Management News: PMI Releases Update on Crisis Rebuild Methodology and Training

PM Forum reported today that PMI has issued an updated summary of its methodology and training initiative for post-disaster rebuild situations.

The official project is now called, "Project Management Methodology for New Practitioners in Crisis/Disaster Rebuild Situations." Now, say that three times fast.

Here's the full report from PM Forum...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PMI RELEASES UPDATE ON POST DISASTER REBUILD METHODOLOGY AND TRAINING PROJECT

Earned Value Major Event November 7-9

It's not too late to register for the 17th Annual International Integrated Program Management Conference, scheduled for November 7-9 in Virginia.

Earned Value enthusiasts rejoice! The topic of this year's seminar is: EVM is Everywhere - "Let's do it!"

Presenters will discuss EVM best practices and tools. Here's the info...

PMI College of Performance Management

Top 5 Characteristics of a Great Project Manager

What are the top characteristics of a great PM? (Fem or otherwise?) What traits do you look for when you interview project managers?

This article claims the top 5 are:
1) Interpersonal skills
2) Organizational skills
3) Communication skills
4) Problem-solving skills
5) Professional training
(and this includes experience if the person is PMI-certified, as the article suggests)

What do you think? Let us know!

Read more at:
Top Five Characteristics of a Great Project Manager

Evaluating Project Tradeoffs: Some Guidelines for Success

Anyone familiar with PMI principles knows the triple contraint of time, cost, and scope, and the fact that it can be used when negotiating tradeoffs. You're probably also familiar with additional tradeoffs, such as quality/grade, risk, customer satisfaction (if that's even a variable), etc.

When negotiations come to a grinding halt, we also have some other proven tools to keep in our back pocket, including:

• Fast Tracking (doing some tasks in parallel that would usually be done sequentially, which of course should be used carefully since it can add risk)
• Crashing (loosely defined as analyzing alternatives to compress the duration for the least amount of additional cost, but typically interpreted as adding resources or forcing overtime, which carries risk and adds more cost than people realize)
• Time-boxing (reducing functionality for the first release and moving it to a future release)
• Problem solving (i.e. considering other approaches to solve the root problem)

In my experience, the two methods that work best by far are time-boxing and problem solving, usually in that order, and often in combination. I also find that time tends to be the most frequently stated hard constraint, with scope and even cost somewhat more flexible (although the requester rarely admits that).

Usually, scope is the most flexible (some argue over semantics of scope vs. features/functions, vs. deliverables vs. sphere of implementation, but I tend to lump it all under "scope").

And of course, when it comes to overarching priorities, I always fall back to my own tried and true "two-sentence principle", which I stated a few weeks ago:

Speed is more important than cost. And success (in whatever form that takes) is more important than speed.

In countless IT projects, these guidelines have served me well. I'd be curious about others experiences when making tradeoffs, especially in other industries.

Increase IT Career Opportunities with Certifications & Education

This July 2005 article titled, "IT Certification: Increasing Women’s Career Opportunities" really could apply to anyone who may feel they aren't being taken as seriously as they should be. Some key points:

• For whatever reasons, there are STILL few women in senior IT and business roles
• Respected and relevant certifications/education can help to establish credibility and increase leadership opportunities (the key words are respected and relevant - if your company doesn't respect a Master's in Liberal Arts from City College, it probably isn't going to get you the corner office at THAT firm, but it may help you find your next job at a firm that values education in general; perhaps a Master's in Comp Sci or a certificate in Project Management from PMI (yes I am biased) would be more respected by your firm and relevant to your job, for example, and hey, it doesn't take as much time to achieve either)
• Most respected certification programs demand continual education and training for retaining the designation (PMI's Project Management Professional (PMP) is no exception)
• IT security and governance programs are reaching the top levels of organizations today - who are they going to choose to lead these important efforts? Someone with a string of respected and relevant certifications or not?

The answer is clear. Eat your alphabet soup - but pick out only the respected and relevant letters.

CertMag.com IT Certification: Increasing Women�s Career Opportunities

The Future of Project Management

PM Forum reported this week that Russ Archibald, one of the founding fathers of modern project management, announced his predictions for where project management will be in the year 2010. He offered these predictions as part of his address to the second annual international conference of the PMI Moscow Chapter.

Some notable predictions included:

• Portfolio management will be used to better integrate project management, operations, and strategic management.
• Project Management lifecycles will include the concept phase and benefits followup.
• Critical Chain will, unfortunately, still not be widely applied.
• Project management capabilities will become a standard requirement for general senior management
  
  Read the full PM Forum report below...
  
  PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PIONEER ANNOUNCES PREDICTIONS FOR 2010

Program (Programme) Management Definition(s)

If you ask 9 different people, "what is a PMO" you will get at least 10 different answers. However, the definition of program (or programme) management seems to be much more straightforward.

"Programme management involves pulling together a number of different projects into a single initiative reflecting a broad business goal. Launching a new product, for example, may involve a research and development effort, a training project for sales staff and a marketing communications campaign, all of which may be separate projects with a common goal (a programme)."

This definition is quite close to the Project Management Institute's version but PMI adds an important clarification. There should be benefits to managing the projects together under a program that would not be gained by managing the projects separately.

This article explains at least one version of what a PMO could be, and more about Programme Management, however you spell it...

PMO: What is it and do you need one? - silicon.com

Earned Schedule; Making up for Earned Value's Shortcomings

Back on August 12th, we posted a link to a great writeup on Earned Schedule by Walt Lipke, one of the creators of Earned Schedule.

The Sydney PMI chapter has a whole list of articles on Earned Schedule, which, if you're not familiar with it, introduces "duration" into the mix to give better schedule data and facilitate more accurate predictions than traditional EVM.

Here's another good writeup, from Ray Stratton, of Management Technologies (it's a PDF, so you'll need the Adobe reader, which is free from Adobe.com).

Project Managers: Staying Positive

Project managers are continually faced with a significant amount of pressure (on-time?, on-budget?, on-scope?, team dynamics, sponsors, stakeholders). The best project managers thrive under pressure and embrace the adversity with confidence. Upcoming PMI seminar focuses on Staying Positive ...

Project Managers: Staying Positive: Via Green Bay Press-Gazette - Upcoming events and seminars ...

... "Project Management Institute-Northeast Wisconsin Chapter meeting: 5:30 p.m. social, 6 p.m. dinner at Liberty Hall Banquet & Conference Center, 800 Eisenhower Drive, Kimberly. Dr. Bill McConkey presents Staying Positive. " ...

Project Manager Development: Business of Innovation

Via Arizona Reporter: Oct. 20 Event Explores the Business of Innovation

... "Project Management Institute (PMI) Phoenix Chapter today announced that Nationally recognized innovator, entrepreneur and business advisor, Joan Koerber-Walker, will explore the secrets behind The Business of Innovation, Oct. 20, 2005 at Doubletree Guest Suites in Phoenix. " ...

PMP eLearning Alliance Drives Project Manager Development

PMP eLearning Alliance Drives Project Manager Development: Praxis and Measure Twice Announce Alliance: Via Praxis Learning Network

Praxis Learning Networks and Measure Twice, creator of the PM Final software testing tool for project managers, create alliance to advance project manager development for the PMP exam ...

... "Praxis will develop and maintain the question bank used in PM Final to test project managers in preparation for the Project Manager Professional (PMP) certification exam. Measure Twice will focus on further developing the PM Final tool to provide greater capability for individuals and training organizations to track exam results, test by knowledge area, and build comprehensive content exams. The Praxis question bank has been completely redeveloped and aligned with the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge, Version 3.0. " ...

Conquer the Project Communication Conundrum

My favorite project-related formula explains clearly why as a team grows, it gets harder to keep everyone "on the same page."

# possible communication channels = n(n-1)/2
where n = the number of people on your team

In other words, if there are 3 people (n=3), there are only 3 possible communication channels. (Hint: picture drawing as many lines as possible between 3 points - you get a triangle – only 3 paths).
Increase the number of people (or points) to 5 and suddenly there are 10 communication paths.
Increase the number of people to 10 and WHOA, there are a whopping 45 communication paths!

No wonder keeping everyone on the same page is so hard!

What's the answer to managing this communication channel explosion? A few thoughts that may help:

1. Divide the work into "bite-size chunks" that small teams can work on (for those of you from PMI-land, this could equate to work packages in your WBS)
2. Collocation (yes, I spelled it right) i.e., physically getting everyone to work in the same room for the duration of the project; with collocation, communication is:
• Faster - less meetings are needed - just turn your chair around or walk across the room
• Easier (to keep everyone on the same page) - everyone can hear everything and jump into a conversation in midstream if the message seems wrong
• Better - as people get to know one another because they are "living" in the same space, they learn how to more effectively communicate with one another
3. Build and follow a communications plan (see also my post from 10/03/2005, Project Communication Handbook & Tools)
4. For people who can absolutely not be in the same room, first, get to know one another in person (highly recommended although not always possible); then use the phone and instant messaging to keep in close contact
5. Schedule time for team fun! (Highly important!) People that have fun together perform better and are more willing to communicate. We are human after all.

Hopefully these ideas are helpful to you and your project. Let us know your tricks for conquering the project communication conundrum!

Project Communication Handbook & Tools

Communication is key on every project. Sounds like a cliche doesn't it?
Since by definition a project is temporary and unique, that means that:

• A lot of communication needs to happen in a finite period of time
• Between people who probably never had to communicate as a team
• Around something that has never been done.

No wonder projects aren't easy (and why project managers - the communication facilitators - get paid the big bucks)! [Note: that was an attempt at humor.]

PMI says that 90% of a Project Manager's job is communication, so check out these communication handbook and tools from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to help you in your quest to have effective communications on your project.

Caltrans - Project Management - Guidance - Communications

Project Management Coalition Aids in Katrina Rebuilding

PM Forum reported today that a Project Managers' Disaster Recovery Coalition (PMDRC) has been formed by several PMI Chapter officers to aid in the overwhelming rebuilding efforts following Hurricane Katrina.

For the full story, see the PM Forum link below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management - Breaking News

Management UpSkilling: Project Manager Event ...

Management UpSkilling: Project Manager Event: Via NE Ohio PMI: Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Project Management Institute Announces Professional Seminar, Management Skills: More Than Just Bringing Donuts ...

... "The Northeast Ohio Chapter of the Project Management Institute, announces its Fall Professional Development event Management Skills: More Than Just Bringing Donuts. Internationally acclaimed speakers Peter de Jager, Lee R. Lambert, and Rick Brenner engage you with their expertise and humor on how to harness the dynamics of change, create an inspired workplace, and effectively communicate to transform your organization, your project teams, and your career. The seminar takes place on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 from 7:00 am to 2:00 pm ... " ...

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

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

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

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

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

PMI Announces Project Management Research Online Community

PMI recently announced the opening of the PMI Project Management Research Online Community, which allows people to explore and comment on PMI's research events, as well as network with other researchers.

According to the PMI invitation letter, "This is the only PMI online community that allows non-members to join because of their interest in project and program management research."

If you wish to participate, send an e-mail to Eva Goldman at eva.goldman@pmi.org . Eva will send you an e-mail with instructions. If requested, she'll provide an ID and password (PMI members would simply use their PMI ID and password).

PM Forum Reports: Quartier International De Montreal Wins PMI's Project of the Year

Talk about a great case study. The Quartier International De Montreal project is an excellent example of using leadership and innovation to rise above multiple challenges to bring about a stellar, exciting result.

And PMI isn't the only organization to recognize this project. The project has received over 20 additional awards from all over the world. This Wikipedia entry gives a good overview of the project.

For the news article about the PMI award, see the PM Forum link below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management - Breaking News

Project Management Categorization; One Size Does Not Fit All

The most forward-thinking organizations are developing project management frameworks that vary based on certain project criteria. A key element of this is the project's classification.

Some thought leaders in this are Lynn Crawford, Brian Hobbs, and J. Robert Turner, whose book, Project Categorizations Systems, comes out this fall from PMI. Also, Russell Archibald's report on the 2003 IPMA Global Survey on Project Categorization (reported in Budapest in 2004) is well worth reading (click on the PDF link for best readibility).

NASA has decided to embrace project categorization, and has recently put together an initiative to develop a scalable project management framework that can adapt to certain project classification criteria (for example the complexity, urgency, and technology aspects as well as certain product types). Below is the full report (again, click on the PDF version for best readibility).

Identifying NASA Specific Project Types

Managing the Front-End of Projects; Is it Part of the Project?

There has been some good discussion as a result of my post on September 15th on the "impact of initiation and planning on the project budget." Managing these early phases well is truly a gap in the project management field and there doesn't seem to be industry consensus on whether these phases (known as Front-End-Loading or FEL) should be part of the project or not. Traditional thinking seems to place FEL outside the realm of project management, as a separate entity, with project management only getting involved once the resulting charter is established. Yet, this is odd, since Front-End-Loading plays such a significant role in project success.

The paper below, from the proceedings from the 2005 PMI Global Congress in Edinburgh (be sure to click on the link for the PDF version for best readibility), makes a good case for including FEL as part of the project. At the very least, we need a way to better integrate these strategy, conceptualization, governance, and early planning activities with the project itself.

Managing the Front-End: how project managers shape business strategy and manage project definition

Project Management Professional Development Days ...

Project Management Professional Development Days: Via Kansas City Star: BUSINESS CALENDAR ...

... "PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAYS: The Art & Science of Project Management. KC Mid-America Chapter of PMI hosts. Registration 7:30 a.m., conference 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Sept. 19-20, Overland Park Convention Center, 6000 College. " ...

Project Management Job Fair ...

Project Management Job Fair: Via Charlotte Observer: On The Move

... "Metrolina SkillFest Job Fair. Sponsored by the Metrolina Chapter of the Project Management Institute. 6:30-9 p.m., Sept. 23, Embassy Suites Hotel, 4800 S. Tryon St. " ...

2005 Project ofthe Year ...

2005 Project ofthe Year: Via PMI: Quartier International De Montreal Project selected as 05 POY

PMI recognizes 2005 Project of the Year ...

... "Project Management Institute (PMI), the world's leading not-for-profit professional association for the project management profession, announced the selection of the Quartier International De Montreal Project, sponsored by the PMI Montreal Chapter, as the winner of its 2005 Project of the Year Award. ... The Quartier international de Montreal (QIM), Montreal's international district, is a 66-acre urban revitalization project in the heart of downtown Montreal. The goals were to restore communication between the two city sectors, which were targeted as dysfunctional due to an expressway that created a literal trench between Old Montreal and the business core, and revitalize the third sector, the international district, to showcase Montreal's new dynamism and know-how. " ...

PMI NYC Chapter Reports on 9/11 Rebuilding Efforts

Since it's September 11th, it's only fitting that we reflect on the tragedy that shook the U.S in 2001. Yet with an eye toward the future, we should also examine the rebuilding efforts that are under way.

PMI's New York City Chapter has a website dedicated as a 9/11 Memorial, and they have a nice page outlining the rebuilding effort going on. Check it out...

Rebuilding

Project Blogs; The New Standard For Project Communications?

According to PMI, project communications is 90% of a project manager's job. And what better communications tool do we have today than weblogs (or blogs)? Imagine everyone on your project team, and all project stakeholders, entering daily updates in a vibrant project blog site.

What better way to communicate project status to a broad group-- not only adding blog entries for periodic status reports-- but having entries with links to project documents, entries for issues, updates, or anything else going on with the project. It also allows for reader subscriptions, easy searches, and categorization of information. Best of all, with today's tools, it's a cinch to create.

More and more project managers are starting to create weblogs for their projects, and have been reporting great success. For more info, check out this article from InfoWorld on publishing a project weblog...


Publishing a project Weblog InfoWorld Column 2003-03-28 By Jon Udell

PMI Announces New Leadership Institute

If you're a volunteer leader working with PMI, either with a chapter, SIG, or PMI program, you'll be interested to know that PMI just announced a new Leadership Institute. The new institute will include online training and face-to-face leadership conferences.

Read more about it at PM Forum...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management <$BlogPageTitle$>

PMI's Program Management Standard and Portfolio Management Standard Coming Soon!

Move over PMBOK. For those who haven't heard, PMI will be releasing the Program Management Standard and Portfolio Management Standard mid-year 2006.

I've been fortunate enough to be serving on the leadership team for the two standards and they'll both be worth the wait.

While the PMBOK Guide has traditionally focused on managing individual projects, these standards will be a fitting complement, with the Portfolio Management Standard bridging the gap between project portfolios and organizational strategy, and the Program Management Standard addressing those issues that are unique to managing a group of related projects.

Stay tuned...

PM Network to Publish Project Management's Power 50

According to the latest PMI Today newletter, PMI's PM Network Magazine will publish project management's "Power 50" next month, recognizing those who have championed the project management profession.

According to PMI Today:

"The article will profile these 50 executives-- the 'Power 50'--including their business philosophies and how their investment in the project management profession boosts the bottom line."

Should be an interesting issue.

Project Management Maturity - Pick your industry

Of course, one size does not fit all. In this presentation there is both an useful round-up of many project management maturity models and an interesting analysis of how things vary by circumstance. In particular, which industries tend to use how many metrics in assessing and managing their processes.
This leads to another interesting question - how many of these metrics are related to the type of product that the industry's projects usually produce as opposed to the pure management of the project.
For instance, the pharmaceutical industry pays a lot of attention to the process for clinical trials when druges are tested. The quality of the trial results depends on the processes for selecting patients, administering the drugs, recording results, etc. Let's call these 'product related' processes that have to be executed by the project team. Then there are the 'project management' related processes that are carried out by the project manager and team members. These would include the processes recognisable from PMBOK and elsewhere. In some project management environments, these two types of processes can get very closely intertwined.
Which brings us back to the original point. A maturity assessment can be very context sensitive because of the pervasiveness or otherwise of the product related processes.
Measuring Organisational Maturity

PMI Condolence Message for Hurricane Katrina Victims

As expected, PMI is responding to the disaster in New Orleans, rallying the project management community to join in support, and offering contributions of their own.

In case you haven't heard, PMI is near completion of a Post Disaster Rebuild Methodology and Training project (which project manager Wanda Curlee will be speaking about at PMI's Glboal Congress in Toronto), spurred on by the terrible Tsunami in Asia. We can be sure that this methodology will come in handy in New Orleans.

Also, see PMI's condolence message to the victims of Hurricane Katrina...

PMI Condolence Message for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Maturity Models - Projects, Programmes and Portfolios

After the success of the Software Engineering Institute's Capablity Maturity Model, the methodology is now being applied to other areas. Project Management has recently seen the publication of the OPM3 model from PMI. The paper in the link below is from the UK Government OGC. It is described as a draft but has some very valuable contents, particularly the descriptions of the five maturity levels.
OGC - Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3)

Instant PRINCE2 Methodology on the Web

There are several web-based project management offerings available, but ProjectProgress stands out as a good example of a web-based tool that adheres to the PRINCE2 methodology. While popular worldwide, PRINCE2 hasn't taken off in the U.S. as quickly as elsewhere.

Part of that is the misconception people have the PRINCE2 is meant to replace the popular PMBOK Guide from PMI. On the contrary, PRINCE2 is a project implementation methodology (with templates, forms, stage gates, etc.) , whereas PMBOK is a project management standard (with processes, inputs, and outputs). There are some differences, but each has some benefits that the other does not. They are not mutually exclusive and can be used synergistically, as some forward-thinking organizations are doing. For a good comparison of PRINCE2 vs PMBOK, see Max Wideman's report in PMForum.

It remains to be seen if the OGC's ITIL's wide acceptance in the U.S. as an IT services standard opens people's eyes to their PRINCE2 methodology. At any rate, here's a web-based tool that offers the full PRINCE2 methodology online--no hardware needed...

ProjectProgress: Overview

Enterprise Project Management Tool Launch: PMComplete ...

Enterprise Project Management Tool Launch: Via TSI: TSI TO LAUNCH PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOL AT PMI GLOBAL CONGRESS: TSI Anticipates PMComplete™ will Revolutionize Enterprise Project Management ...

... "TSI, a leading Project Management consulting firm headquartered in Dallas, announced the North American release of PMComplete at the PMI Global Congress 2005, North America in Toronto, in early September. PMComplete is a project and program management software developed and originally marketed in Australia. The enterprise-level solution facilitates the management and control of an organization's project portfolio, and offers comprehensive, integrated tools for program and project management. TSI is the first authorized U.S. distributor for PMComplete. TSI not only sells the product, it uses PMComplete to manage both its education and consulting practices.

TSI will demonstrate PMComplete at the PMI Global Congress in Toronto, September 10-13, 2005. " ...

Project Portfolio Management Made Easy

Harvey Levine, past president of PMI and author of Practical Project Management: Tips, Tactics, and Tools, has written an excellent article on Project Portfolio Management and its integration with PPM tools. Well worth reading for a concise, yet thorough overview of PPM...

Integrating Project Portfolio Tools with Traditional Project Management Tools

Project Management Wisdom from Max Wideman

Max Wideman is to project management what Eric Clapton is to guitars. He's a fellow of the Project Management Institute, past president and chairman of PMI, and developed the 1987 version of the PMBOK.

On his web site, he has a library of "Issacons" (an abbreviation of Issues and Considerations), which is a concise, indexed list of questions and answers by topic. It's an invaluable resource for any project manager. Check it out...

Issacons - general

New 2005 PMP Exam

The new PMP exam is coming! Here's the quote from PMI's website.

PMI officially announces that it will deploy the updated PMP credential examination (referred to as the “2005 Examination” for purposes of this communication) globally at 14.00 GMT on 30 September 2005. Five days prior, a “black-out” period (beginning on 25 September 2005) will commence during which the PMP credential examination will be unavailable.

See the PMI wesbite below for more info:

New 2005 PMP Exam

Need a project management crystal ball? Watch the Aerospace & Defense Industry

The Aerospace and Defense industry was the first to use PERT, Earned Value, Critical Chain, and now Earned Schedule. It was also the first to use IDEF for process modelling. In fact, mostly every advanced project management method and technique originated from the defense industry.

To stay in touch with the latest news on industry best practices, check out the PMI's Aerospace and Defense Specific Interest Group. I did, for that very reason, and now serve on their Board of Directors.

PMI Aerospace & Defense Specific Interest Group

For Well-Rounded IT Project Management - Learn ITIL and PRINCE2

ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is to IT Services what the Project Management Institute's standards are to project management. It has become the de facto standard for IT service delivery worldwide.

Established by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), the same people that brought us the PRINCE2 methology for project management, ITIL allows organizations to achieve excellence in IT services management. The standard metrics that ITIL provides also allows organizations to benchmark against other organizations.

The savvy IT project manager will want to learn about ITIL, as it makes an excellent compliment to project management skills (be it PMI or PRINCE2).

As an aside, PMI's PMBOK is meant to be a standard, whereas PRINCE2 is a methodology, complete with templates and predefined stage gates.

Check out the OGC's ITIL website...

OGC - IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

Project Management Conference Upcoming: PMI Global Congress 2005

Project Management Conference Upcoming: Via PMI > PMI Global Congress 2005 - North America

... "PMI Global Congress 2005: Toronto, Canada, 10-13 September 2005 It's ALL About ROI! Two of PMI's key program areas that focus on advancing the profession will host open working sessions at PMI Global Congress 2005-North America to access the collective knowledge and wisdom of those in the profession. " ...

Project Portfolio Management Seminar: At PMI Congress ...

Project Portfolio Management Seminar: At PMI Congress: Via PMI > PMI Global Congress 2005 - North America > Seminars > Seminar 16: Project Portfolio Management: A Practitioner's Approach

Prasad Kodukula, PhD, PMP presents project portfolio management seminar at the upcoming PMI congress in September ...

... "learn best practices, tools and techniques that will help you with project assessment, prioritization, selection, tracking and termination. This how-to seminar presents a step-by-step approach to managing a project portfolio using hands-on practical tools and case study exercises. " ...