Project Management Forces

Project managers keep your team on task

Case is made for focusing team members on as few tasks as possible ... ideally, the critical path. ...

... "Studies have shown that our brains switch between one activity and another (called executive control). We really don't do two things at once very well. " ...

Via Teamwork and Leadership Blog: Multi-tasking?

Project management maturity assessment

Agile Team Lead Role

The Agile PMBoK

Project Management via Web

Collection of online project management tools are reviewed ...

... "web-based project management software that can help you stay organized and on top of your work. " ...

Via Digital Inspiration: Online Project Management Apps

Insights into Agile Software Release Management at Salesforce

Insights into the monthly software development rhythm at Salesforce.com which drives their three releases per year ...

Project Turnaround

Experience Matters

Government technology organizations are learning (the hard way?) that experience matters. A project organization should have a mix of experience and skills, so that a pipeline of talent is being developed by more senior staff and there is adequate diversity of situational experience. ...

... "The latest Lessons Learned report from the Office of Government Commerce focuses on experience from the office's Gateway Reviews, which are the government's official assessments of its own projects and how they should proceed. " ...

Via Computerworld: IT project chiefs need experience

Innovative Projects Recognized

Textron Chairman and CEO publicly recognizes its top innovators annually. ...

... "Three very different solutions. What they have all have in common is innovation by Textron employees. They were among the 13 projects honored last month with Chairman’s Awards for Innovation by Chairman and CEO Lewis B. Campbell at the Roger Williams Park Casino in Providence. This was the ninth year of the awards. " ...

Via Textron: Chairman’s Award

Project Leadership and Management

Shrink Those Project Conflicts Through Leaning

Project Management Model Positioned for Business Success

Lowe's adapts its project management model and tests it as a customer experience differentiator, to position the company for success as the business cycle evolves. ...

... "One of the ways we are doing that is by testing a centralized project management model that will enable Lowe's to capture an increased share of project revenue while providing an experience that will differentiate Lowe's. We will provide more details as this test continues but we are optimistic these changes will position us very well for the eventual increase in project demand when economic conditions improve. " ...

Via Seeking Alpha: Lowe's Earnings Call

Project Managers Specialize in the Project Management Lifecycle

US News builds on a NYT article regarding Tim Geithner's role as Treasury Secretary, which got me thinking about parallels to the project management space. ... Should the project manager who started the project in the front-end load part of the lifecycle be the one to finish it? ...

Normally, I would answer this with a firm yes, unless the project was running off the rails. A project manager should experience the full life cycle of the project and finish what they have started. It serves the person well and provides continuity to the project, the team, and ultimately to the enterprise.

However ... I have collaborated with project managers who are great starters, working in the front-end to understand business challenges, consider alternatives and navigate the politics to create a compelling business case that is sponsored for governance. And, I have also worked with project managers that are stellar finishers, who thrive on organizing and driving a concept to reality. Often, these project managers are not the same person. And, each part of the project lifecycle requires different skills to be successful. ... As this article suggests - that Geithner is not our finisher for various reasons ... Should we cultivate great starters and finishers in the project management discipline? organizing them into starters and finishers or openers and closers. ... Or, should we strive to build end-to-end process and people excellence?

What do you think about project manager specialization in the project lifecycle? ...

... "It's not even that Geithner was the wrong man for the job. He wasn't. He's just the wrong person to finish it. " ...

Via US News and World Report: Tim Geithner Should Go

Global Perspectives on Project Management

Project management interview, web-chat style ...

Work Breakdown Structure for Innovation

Here's a WBS for creative work. ...

... "It is a rather complex tool/technique, but it is very effective in breaking down a very complex problem and getting manageable work packages out of the other end. " ...

Via Think For A Change: Creativity

Risk Analysis for Projects

Agile Techniques Discussed

Navigate Project Minefield

The CIO agenda and the underlying IT project portfolio can benefit from navigating the political waters in an enterprise. Project managers should tap into the cross-line of business and function perspective provided by the IT organization to sense and respond to developing situations - ultimately doing what's right for the enterprise and adding value. ...

... "CIOs could use their cross-disciplinary view to understand the different agendas in play. Very often they will discover the different agendas have more in common than they thought, she said. " ...

Via ComputerWeekly: Office politics

Learn Through Conflict

Recent PMI presentation ... nice discussion about the opportunity that conflict presents ...

Agile Scope Management

Insurance company uses agile methods to limit scope of software requirements and then increases frequency of releases to build out the appropriate business capabilities, giving IT's customers an opportunity to iteratively describe their key requirements. ...

... "Keith Young, IT director at Standard Life, oversees approximately 500 programmers, and said the agile approach minimises the risk of an application not meeting business requirements. " ...

Via ComputerWeekly: Agile software development

SAP Project Managment Matures

SAP uses customer input to shape the future of its project management software capabilities in cProject module. ...

... "When it comes to functionality, cProjects 4.5 is a winner in the areas of multi-project and resource management. For example, the new Multi-Project Monitor displays several projects, including their relationships, in graphical form and therefore portrays the business dependencies, for example between the main project and sub-projects. " ...

Via SAP INFO: Ramp-up process for cProjects 4.5

Visualize Project Schedule in Excel

Tips on visual techniques of project gantt charts in Microsoft Excel. ...

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

Business Games Teach Project Best Practices

Nothing creates understanding like a good game. Here's a novel approach to disseminating best practice process in project and service management. ...

... "Both simulations are high impact, interactive business games, developed to address the process and cultural challenges of implementing IT Project Management and Service Management best practice. This unique approach to business learning brings Project Management and Service Management best practice to life in the context of realistic and exhilarating scenarios. Participants quickly experience breakthrough understanding of best practice processes and methodologies resulting in improved individual, team and business performance. " ...

Via G2G3: Turkish delight

Project Management on One Page

I just picked up The One-Page Project Manager by Clark Campbell. I'm always looking for ways to simplify things, and am a big proponent of "one-page" type solutions. I've use a one-page business plan, a one-page charter, a one-page business case, and other such tools, always with good results.

Needless to say, I was intrigued by the concept when I saw the book. And I was not disappointed.

Not only does the book offer some good insights, but it offers step-by-step instructions on how to complete a visually appealing, one-page project overview and status for senior management that includes:

- The project's key objectives
- The major tasks and schedule dates
- How the task align with the objectives
- Project cost and schedule status
- Key resources and priorities
- Intangible key criteria
- A brief summary of the project status
- Basic descriptive information

Best of all, as noted in the book, the templates are available as free downloads from the book's website (below). I still recommend reading the book as opposed to just winging it with the template, as the book offers further explanation.

The author notes that this is not meant as a replacement for MS/Project, Primavera, or any other tool you may be using. Instead, it is used in addition, as a way to communicate with senior management, the project team, or anyone else that needs to know the relevant facts about the project without reading a fifty-page report.

Check it out...

OPPM -One Page Project Manager

Project Education at Doctoral Level

Can't get enuf project management? Try getting your doctorate. ...

... "The school's PhD in Information Technology program has two new specializations, Project Management, and Information Security, and the PhD in Organization and Management program also has a new Project Management specialization. Capella now offers six Project Management specializations, allowing students at the bachelor's, master's, and PhD levels to choose either a business or IT project management focus. " ...

Via Capella Univ: New Specializations

What is a Project? Think Again!

Max Wideman’s very impressive Comparative Glossary of PM Terms contains 23 different definitions of the word project – all written by very knowledgeable people. Creating a sticky definition of the word “project” (a sticky definition is one that can be easily memorized by a general audience) requires battling the Curse of Knowledge. The Curse of Knowledge is the result of forgetting what it’s like NOT to know what you know. The more you know, the stronger the curse. That’s why truly sticky ideas often come from unexpected sources, and different fields. (Unexpected is one of the Made to Stick principles.) In my opinion, the very best definition of the word project comes from personal productivity guru David Allen, in his brilliant book Getting Things Done. Here it is...

• A project is any outcome you’re committed to achieving that will take more than one action step to complete.

Why is this a great definition?

(1) This definition is water tight. Unlike the other 23 definitions, I can’t think of a single exception to this definition. (If you can, please post a comment.)

(2) The word outcome covers a lot of PM territory. The word outcome includes the concepts of “deliverables” and “creating unique products, services or results.” It applies to your garage project and it applies to “landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.”

(3) The word action captures an essential element of every project – making progress one discrete step at a time.

(4) The word committed filters out activities that are not projects.

(5) The three key words outcome, action, and committed are simple and concrete (two more Made to Stick principles).

Most of the definitions in Widemans’s glossary define projects as the way very knowledgeable people LIKE TO MANAGE projects, especially large ones. Knowledgeable project managers like clear specifications (or user stories), they like budgets and change control, they like project-friendly cost accounting, they adore network schedules (or iterations), they like to manage risk, they manage resources, they create return on investment in their project portfolio, etc. There's nothing incorrect about any of these ideas, but these XL clothes don’t fit very well on small projects. After all, small projects are projects too, and there are far more small projects than there are large ones!

Example: If we are visiting a science museum (just a casual visit) it is certainly not a project. However, if we are committed to organizing a safe, enjoyable learning experience at the science museum for a large group of Third Graders, our project is the set of actions that we take to achieve this intended outcome. It isn't about abstractions like temporariness and uniqueness. This project does not have a budget, it doesn’t have a logic-driven schedule network, there’s no accounting system, there are no deliverables, we might repeat the adventure every school year, and it isn’t formally risk-managed or resource-managed. But anybody that has organized a major field trip for a large group of kids knows that it is indeed a project! Why? Because it has an intended outcome, it has action steps, and it requires commitment.

David Allen's definition deserves to be in the Hall of Fame of Sticky Ideas.

P.s., Thanks for reader Kurt U. for prompting this post.

IT Project Management: NASA Perspectives

Project management insights from NASA exec ...

... "He also knows there's no need for rocket science in managing an IT project. Project management must be kept simple, says Phelps ... " ...

Via InterGovWorld: NASA IT project management

Project Managers and the Law

In class last week, the discussion turned to the topic of Gentlemen's agreements and their place in project management. The formal answer is that there is no place for them - only what can be referenced in the contract should be done, and done as specified. But the conversation covered some of the greyer areas - suppose it's an internal customer, suppose you have a good long term relationship with the client, isn't the effort of drawing up a contract sometimes greater than the risk of not having one?
It does seem that the constant reference to what's legal does tend to slow down one's ability to deliver. And, as we see from political life, following the boundary between what's legal and what's not does result in a less congenial society. People of good will who want to do a good job and expect others to do the same often find the additional legal processes very burdensome.
So it's as well to be reminded sometimes what the consequences can be of not having the insurance that the law provides. This paper from 2002 by Frances Fowler gives a couple of interesting short case studies. It also gives some guidelines about a project manager's conduct to avoid getting caught on the wrong side.
Legal Aspects of Project Management

Critical Success Factors at the World Bank

With all the news about the World Bank recently, it is interesting to take a look at Critical Success Factors for their projects. A lot of the comments from the pundits have focused on the importance of the leadership in being able to carry out the World Bank's mission.
This paper lists 10 CSFs for Project Management. Many of these are familiar but the kind of international development projects that the World Bank carries out involve some less obvious ones. For people new to international projects, particularly involving developing countries, it makes interesting reading. One expects things like culture, technology and management to figure. But corruption - an estimate of 10% of project cost in one example, and, even in 2002, the importance of environmental factors might not have made one's personal top 10 list.
Critical Success Factors in Internation Development Project Management.

Financial Services IT Software Projects: Seeking an Edge

Financial firms are looking for methods to accelerate the delivery of their software projects. ...

... "Why so much interest? IT project management is an area many companies are weak in, says Forrester's Cullen. It's the No. 1 gap for all firms. " ...

Via Wall Street & Technology: Accelerate Software Delivery

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

Cancel Project: Not At Pain Point

Ten insights on dips, or inflection points, and what to do about them. Don't cancel your project when it gets tough. Use your dips wisely. Thanks Guy and Seth. ...

... "What's the worst time to quit? When the pain is the greatest. Decisions made during great pain are rarely good decisions. " ...

Via How to Change the World: The Big Dip

Need to Shape Up For Summer: Try IT Project Management

Weight Watcher's IT managers shares his perspective on IT and projects in Australasia region. ...

... "What is the most exciting IT project or implementation you have been involved in? My first major installation at Weight Watchers was a VPN across every branch in Australasia. Having just arrived in Australia this was an exciting journey especially since I was the only person on the project. " ...

Via Computerworld: Weight Watchers IT Manager

Business Analyst Body of Knowledge: Help at Last

AllPM has a great theme going this month. It's all about the integration of business analysis and project management. As it points out, especially during the early phases of a project, the project manager often works very closely with business analysts.

Three years ago, an organization called the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysts) was formed to do for business analysts what PMI has done for project managers. It has grown to 3,500 members in 62 countries. They now have a certification exam as well, plus their own "Body of Knowledge" (BABOK).

The article below from AllPM outlines the relationship to project management. Well worth reading...

Theme of the Month: From Project Management (PM) Certification to Business Analysis (BA) Certification By Greta Blash, PMP :: ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Ar

Project Failure Brings Great Lessons

Andrew Makar has an excellent article on Projects@Work outlining key lessons from a prior project failure. I even like his tag line stating that he is "focused on effectively translating project management theory into actual practice." Indeed, that's where the real lessons are to be found.

It looks like it's part of a series---at least a two-parter. This one has lessons about defining clear roles up front, keeping the same project manager throughout the project, maintaining a "living schedule," prioritizing elements in project scope shoulud tradeoffs be needed, and establishing a clear change control process.

I couldn't agree more. Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/235962.cfm

Who Should Manage IT Projects?

Who should manage the big projects? Professional project managers and management methods are a step in the right direction. We need to make this happen and embrace this specialization. ...

... "IT professionals should not be allowed to manage these projects. Traditionally, the IT professionals have come up through the ranks ... Leave the task of running one of these huge projects to specialists, just like everything else we do these days. " ...

Via Computerworld: Action

Project Sabotage

If you wanted to sabotage a project even if leadership showed support for it, what would you do? Leadership support is necessary, but not sufficient. Look out for these signals. Have a strong change plan than purely compliance-driven, unless absolutely necessary. ...

... "Confuse meetings with plausible, but pointed, questions. Be too busy to do what's expected of you, e.g., fail to supply data or other resources. Or send a subordinate in your stead " ...

Management Support: Panacea?

Project Visibility and Transparency

Don't let doomed projects proceed in secrecy. Make the truth transparent and visible. Identify an action list to deal with the issues or prepare recommendation for cancellation. ...

... "The sad part is that often the people working on these projects know that they will fail, and yet, they are afraid to voice their opinion to the people in charge. " ...

Via Tom Peters: Doomed Projects

The Five-Minute Project Manager

Sometimes the best project management tips come from other fields, such as this free "Five Minute Guide to Project Management" from a creative arts website.

Simple, to-the-point, and yet quite effective, this brief guide reminds us of the basics that so often get forgotten in the midst of earned value, critical path, and other favorite topics of PM nerds.

As the article discusses creating a project plan and formally managing subsequent revisions as part of a "contract" between you and the sponsor, let's not forget the importance of defending the right plan.

I was having lunch with a group of CIOs the other day (following a presentation I had done), and all agreed that the number one killer of projects was an unrealistic plan, often agreed to under duress by an intimidated project manager.

Several CIOs present shared success stories of making a case to other senior executives by way of a high level project schedule, outlining the steps needed to achieve results. Often, that's all it takes. Some people I've spoken with have had some luck backwards-scheduling as needed from a given target, either to demonstrate the futility of the desired target, or to raise discussion as to which items can be eliminated.

Anyway, I digress. Here's the article about the PM basics ...

creativepro.com - The Art of Business: Project Management for Creative Professionals

Project Management Makes Hot IT Skills List

IT organizations need project managers now, according to recent survey. ...

... "Forrester's November 2006 survey of about 280 IT decision-makers revealed that project management is a missing skill set in some 55 percent of respondents' IT organizations. " ...

Via Computerworld: IT Hot Skills

Child's Play: Project Management Lessons From the Classroom

Ah, there's someone else that finds project management lessons in everything. It's a sickness I tell you.

Elizabeth Harrin has an article on Projects@Work about project management lessons she extracted from teaching a group of nine year olds in Paris. Whether it's the importance of giving clear instructions, understanding your stakeholders' environment, or negotiating win-win solutions, everything you need to manage a project you probably learned in kindergarten.

Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/235373.cfm

Project Management and Driving: Staying Tuned In

It had occured to me the other day that project planning is a lot like driving a car. If you constantly look down at the road in front of you, you won't be prepared if traffic suddenly stops or changes pattern. It's better to look out at the near horizon.

And if you listen to the radio for the traffic reports, you'll be able to avoid problems before you even see them.

It's the same with project management. We need to focus on the current planning horizon as far as we can reasonably see (usually we can only see three-to-six months out with any degree of accuracy). And it's equally important to stay "tuned in" through networking, reading what's happening in your organization and the world, visiting your customers and stakeholders, and practicing MBWA (Management By Wandering Around).

The more we're tuned in to internal and external activities that could impact the success of our projects, the better position we'll be in to address problems proactively and head off a traffic jam or a change in pattern.

Project Operations: Lost in the Shuffle

Yesterday, I posted a review of the book, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half Truths, & Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management, by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton.

As I pointed out in the review, the authors caution that too much focus on strategy often happens at the expense of effective operational execution. The same is true in project management, especially with PMOs.

While it's rewarding to implement portfolio management and strategic alignment of initiatives, it's equally important to tidy up the operational aspects of project management, such as better estimating, effective work breakdown structures, up-front problem analysis, better scope management, and so on.

If these fundamentals aren't correct, you can end up doing all the right work the wrong way.
Also, getting these fundamentals right doesn't happen overnight. It's an evolution. Often, senior management doesn't recognize this and they expect too much too soon from PMOs. The PMO graveyards are full of PMOs that weren't given an opportunity to grow.

Federal-IT Project Management Progress

Feds make progress on the IT project management front, close gaps in security, and have more work to do on talent. ...

... "OMB also reported that, based on current agency submissions, 83 percent of major IT investments have qualified project managers compared with approximately 70 percent reported in last year's submissions. " ...

Via GCN: IT Perspective on the Federal Budget

Project Controller: The Project Manager's Best Friend

Halleluyah! Finally, there's an article saying what I've been saying for years. With projects becoming more and more complex, and leadership and stakeholder management requiring more attention than project managers have time for, there's a need for another role to manage the "control" aspects of the project.

This article by Robert Wourms on Projects@Work details how organizations such as State Farm have had success doing just that. Bring on the Project Controller. As a member of the leadership team for PMI's new standards for program management and portfolio management, I witnessed first hand how valuable this role was, as it freed the program manager up to actually lead the program.

The article shows how the project controller's role can include tasks such as:

1) Educating the team on processes
2) Facilitating Planning and Control sessions
3) Developing the project schedule
4) Controlling progress
5) Tracking and analyzing costs
6) Managing Issues, Risks, and Changes
7) Documenting and delivering status information

So what's left for the project manager to do? Plenty. Supporting this, the article offers a valuable table outlining the role of the project manager vs. the program controller. Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/221443.cfm

Executive Support

Continuing the series of posts on Critical Success Factors, we get to Executive Support. This topic is easy to understand. It's also easy for people charged with establishing a PMO to blame lack of executive support for problems they encounter. The fact is that the kind of executive you would want as a sponsor is high enough in the organisation that they will be too busy to give detailed support. So it is essential to have a common description of the relative roles of the change management team and the executive sponsor.

Some commonly quoted expectations for executive support are:
- Visible enthusiasm within the organisation for Project Management philosophy
- Advocacy between organisational groups
- Creation of, or active support for, a vision for the organisation with engrained project management processes
- Removal of barriers to change
- Assurance of funding for the implementation and continued operation of the PMO
- Enthusiasm for the use of project management information and involvement in the processes

It's important that the support should be actionable at a working level. For instance, providing some high level design principles but not insisting on detailed design approval. Or, issuing a public announcement which would then be followed up by detailed posts about specific topics from the team.

This paper describes a sponsor's role in developing project management maturity.
The Executive Sponsor - the Hinge upon which Organisational Project Management Maturity Turns?

Learning from experience

We've discussed the value of sharing lessons learned before. Here is another good example of a team that took the time and trouble to write up their experiences from real life. Earthquake monitoring is, by its nature, a very distributed activity and a project to support the service involves a very widely distributed set of stake holders.
Lessons learned from the NEES Cyberenvironment project

This paper really points up several critical aspects. Everyone will find something of value. For me, the section on the criticality of effective communication contains some quotable nuggets. For instance "We recommend, in fact, that on the very first day of the project, the project team should make a "mockup" - in as simple a form as a set of presentation slides - available to the user community". The effective use of prototypes as a communication tool across the stakeholder community is described well.