Get Project Partner Skin in the Game

Check your selection criteria on IT project bids, don't over-emphasize low cost, and revise those contract terms to get the implementation partner's skin in the game. ...

... "Most important to ensuring IT project success is binding services vendors into the agreed-upon schedule and budget; that's called skin in the game. " ...

Via ZDNet: ERP project amazingly on-time

Virtualization: IBM Intel Collaborate

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

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

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

Project Management System: Stakeholder Visibility

Transportation industry project management system enables visibility through the project lifecycle to stakeholders. NJIT research team collaborates with users in Houston to customize the system to its needs. A number of installations have been completed across the country. ...

... "The Houston program provides detailed and easily accessible information on transportation projects in the region for TIPs and regional transportation plans. With TELUS, the process is open to citizens and stakeholder groups, not only for project selection, but for tracking project schedules, funding commitments, and related issues. " ...

Via NJIT: NJIT Researchers Help Texans Employ Transportation Technology ...

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.

Elusive IT Project Value: Book Tells How To Achieve It

I've just finished reading an excellent book on achieving value from IT projects, The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology, by John Thorp and the Fujitsu Consulting's Center for Strategic Leadership.

Thorp and company claim that today's IT projects are evolving more and more from simple automation efforts to complex "information" initiatives, and even further---to complete business transformation initiatives. This calls for a different approach and requires IT and Business collaboration.

As the book points out, the classic "let's buy a product and assume it comes with automatic benefits" approach doesn't work in today's more complex arena (and in fact it probably never did). In a complex business transformation initiative, trying to assume that an IT project in isolation will deliver value is wishful thinking.

The book also points out the four critical dimensions of complexity, which it says are blind spots in traditional thinking:

1) Linkage - to other related initiatives and to business strategy
2) Reach - those areas of organizational structure or supply chain processes that may be impacted by the change, or that need revisiting in order to bring about the benefits
3) People- those affected by the change and/or that need to be engaged (i.e. proactive change leadership and stakeholder analysis)
4) Time - the time it takes to manage the overall initiative, including the above dimensions, to fully realize the benefits (most companies grossly underestimate this)

Unfortunately, many IT projects just focus on on-time and on-budget delivery (resulting in a situation that the book describes as, "the operation was successful but the patient died"). Thorp and company refer to this as "investment myopia."

Instead, a committment to business value, ongoing process improvements, frequent iterations of delivery, and better project selection techniques are key. Most of all, we need to be aware of the blind spots mentioned above.

The book goes on to describe how a system of program management, portfolio management, and governance, with a focus on benefits realization, can bring about results. It also cautions about the dangers of treating selections as a one-time annual event, making selections in isolation (instead of in the context of investment programs), and not looking at all aspects of value (i.e. going beyond simple financial measures).

I highly recommend the book for those struggling with determining the value of IT, or trying to bring about collaborative change in their organizations. If you look at any major successful transformation, it was brought about by a marriage of technology, business process, and organizational change, and with full backing from senior management. This book can go a long way toward helping make this happen.

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.

ERP Justification: Is it Worth it?

There's a discussion on IT Toolbox about the benefits and disadvantages of ERP solutions that is worth examining.

Some key points this jogged for me (and a few I've added) are:

• ERP improves enterprise visibility, collaboration, and integration. That's the chief selling point of ERP. If that's what your organization needs, ERP sounds like the right solution.
  
• ERP does NOT typically improve individual efficiencies, and should not be sold as such. It's important to set the right expectations up front on just what an ERP system will offer the company and what it will not offer most individuals.
  
• ERP can help achieve cost reduction IF it's replacing many manual steps.
  
• It's not a bad idea to offer SOME predetermined set of key pet reports to decrease resistance. Aside from that, scope should be kept tight.
  
• It's important to have someone running the ERP project with the clout to say no when everyone wants to retain their current way of working (getting past the "I've always done it that way" syndrome).
  
• It's important to ask: Does the company want and need to operate as an enterprise? In most cases, the answer is yes.

However, until the organization reaches "enterprise maturity," chances are it won't realize the full benefits of ERP. On the other hand, an ERP system can help facilitate an organization's maturity in that direction, if that's where they choose to go.

Just some food for thought. I'd be interested in others' experiences and thoughts on the topic.

ERP benefits and disadvantages - ITtoolbox Groups

IT Strategy: Customer Focus SOPM ...

Marc Puich discusses the opportunity for information technology in the biopharmaceutical industry, advocating a simplified enterprise application architecture and a gradual, disciplined approach to operations excellence. I especially like his thoughts on customer focus and feel this spirit should be reflected in the principles of the service-oriented project management methodology that we are developing. SOPM should be customer-centric and its critical path should focus on the essential deliverables for customer success. ...

... "Begin with the customer. Developing an IT strategy should begin with an external focus. This process requires taking a critical look at what functionality is truly necessary to support your customer, versus what would be nice to have. The goal of a system is not to remove people from a process, but to provide the customers with what they need. " ...

Via BioPharm International: Operations Excellence: Perfecting IT Management System Selection for Biopharmaceutical Organizations - Proper application of an IT system can be a critical component to driving efficiency and reducing waste ...

PPM Software Evaluation Tool; Don't Get Stuck Without It

Yesterday, I posted a link to an excellent article on a software selection process. Now Projects@Work has just announced their PPM Software Evaluation Tool, a downloadable tool that offers "a comprehensive set of questions and parameters for organizations to consider when selecting a project portfolio management solution."

Here's an excerpt from the accompanying article (which is valuable in itself) ...

Don’t settle for presentations and proposals. Regardless of how you proceed through the procurement process, make sure to get your hands on the solution before you make a decision... An ideal, but time-and cost-intensive approach is to pilot the software on one or a subset of live projects before you commit to a full-scale implementation. While this last option will require you to invest in training and a limited installation of the software, if the solution turns out to be the wrong one you have minimized the cost of a failed implementation.

This is sage advice, as many of these tools look great in a demo---or even a brief conference room pilot---but until you experience how easy or difficult it is to actually configure the tools, you don't really know what you're getting yourself into.

As the saying goes, "Fail fast, fail cheap."

Link

Software Selection Process; Everything You Need to Know

There's a good writeup on ProjectPerfect offering guidelines and principles for selecting software---from the gathering of internal support through the evaluation and selection process itself.

It's definitely a valuable read for anyone involved in the software selection process.

Here's just a sampling of some of the great tips in the article...

• Tell the vendors at the start what the process for selection will be. They will appreciate knowing what the path is, and how you will reach a decision. It assists their planning as well. You will get far better service if they know when you are going to make a decision.
• Consider an external person to do the negotiation. If negotiations are tough and the vendor feels they have been squeezed dry, it is better for the person who did the squeezing to be gone so that there are less lingering traces of animosity.
• It is a bit like herding cats but you need to keep a single point of contact with each vendor. If vendors can see a chance to influence people at different levels you will soon find all sorts of pressures being applied to you.
• Treat it as a team selection decision, and make sure your team know the process. If you set the path and the criteria from the start, it will help manage expectations internally.
• It is useful to get written agreement from each vendor to comply with the process as a condition to being considered.
• Beware the trap of having their top technical person available all through the sales cycle only to be replaced at the point of implementation by someone who has been with the company for a week. If the vendor is also involved as an implementer, have the implementation team named in the contract.
• The purchase process should be costed into the budget just as the cost of the software and implementation are costed. There can often be many man months of effort required to manage the process and, if not done effectively, will cause major cost blowouts when the wrong software is purchased.
• Another factor touched on a number of times is that much of the work is sequential. There will be gaps in the process – for example between requesting a demonstration, and organising the people to participate. During that lull in proceedings, other work can be done that will contribute to later activities. A software purchase can result in a very complicated schedule.

Here's the full article...

A Software Purchase Process

Vendor Management: Part of Project Lifecycle

More often, we have been encountering IT projects where vendor management is a key enabler of the project lifecycle. Vendors are involved in the option evaluation, assist in development of the solution architecture, and are critical in the implementation and ongoing support. Selection, negotiation, and management of vendors as partners is a competence that CIOs and IT organizations are developing. Gregory Smith, CIO, World Wildlife Fund discusses his take of vendor management in information technology. ...

... "Drawing on these business capabilities, CIOs are developing best-practice vendor-management functions that are part of the IT-governance framework. CIOs with solid vendor-management functions in their organizations can often tip the scale in their favor ... " ...

Vendor Management: Part of Project Lifecycle: Via Optimize Magazine: Do Customers Have More Clout Than IT Vendors? ...

Recovering Troubled Projects; Seven Steps to Turn it Around

I just read a good case study about rescuing a troubled project, written by Jim Stewart on Chief Project Officer (which, incidentally, has a nice selection of articles).

Here are seven tips Stewart suggests:

1) Don't continue down a failed path. It's never too late to add controls.

2) Don't be afraid to cut your losses and terminate a project that's not generating value.

3) Be sure you have experienced, trained project managers. Keep the good, trainable ones. Reassign the others.

4) Be prepared to make tough decisions. Bypass groups that'll slow you down. Remove troublesome spots (or people).

5) Have adequate and appropriate resources. Allow project managers to focus on project management, not day-to-day technical details or deployment.

6) Don't hesistate to reconsider everyone's role. Avoid redundancy and joint-leadership situations.

7) Re-plan the project with team input. Avoid an unrealistic plan set by management. While management input is valid, only the team knows what's wrong with the project and how long everything should take. Getting team input insures a realistic schedule and garners team buy-in.

Here's the full case study with the lessons...

Chief Project Officer: Case Study: Recovering a Troubled High Tech Project

Project Management Course ...

... "Project management course, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., March 7, 14 and 21, Center for Research and Innovation, Bemidji State University. Three-day course will provide instruction in the management tools necessary to ensure successful project implementation and will cover topics including project selection, life cycle, scope planning, work breakdown structures estimating costs, execution and control and risk management. " ...

Project Management Course: Via Grand Forks Herald: LOCAL BUSINESS CALENDAR

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 Portfolio Management: Monitor Investment Value ...

Patrick Durbin, Planview CEO, explores the integration of IT strategic planning and project portfolio management to drive the value from information technology investments. Alignment of IT with business strategy creates visibility to value opportunities. Portfolio-based investment analysis enables objective selection of the best mix of investments. And, active management of benefits increases the likelihood of realizing the targeted value. ...

... "Discretionary, strategic investments to grow the business or transform the business can take years, involve thousands of person hours and cost millions of dollars. Organizations must carefully choose which of these investments to pursue and then regularly monitor them on a periodic basis to ensure that the business value is still relevant. " ...

Project Portfolio Management: Monitor Investment Value: Via DMReview: Chart Your Course to Strategically Align Business and Technology

ERP Project: Benefit Opportunity Analysis

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

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

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

Earned Value Management System: Risk Perspective ...

ASC will identify, manage and mitigate risks on its military projects using Welcom's software, which complements its existing use of the earned value management capabilities. ...

Earned Value Management System: Risk Perspective: Via Welcom: Australian Submarine Builder ASC Pty Ltd Chooses WelcomRisk ...

... "ASC has been using our Cobra project cost and earned value management system since 2002, and we see the selection of WelcomRisk as a further endorsement of WST Pacific and Welcom's project portfolio management solutions, said Steve Cook, president of Welcom. " ...

WelcomRisk is a formalized risk management tool for the proactive identification and mitigation of business risk, both threats and opportunities. WelcomRisk combines a user-friendly interface with a higher level of flexibility and granularity than other products. Its flexible integration capabilities and tight security provide companies with a better solution across the enterprise. WelcomRisk is part of WelcomSuite™, a comprehensive solution that supports portfolio analysis, project collaboration, planning and scheduling, and cost and earned value reporting.

IT Portfolio Management Tools Not a Panacea

There's an excellent article in Computerworld on how IT portfolio management tools alone will not decide which projects get done. Politics, organizational dynamics, and subjective opinion still need to play a role, even with the best of software.

People have this picture in their mind that tools can be used to calculate ROI and magically align projects with strategic need according to a perfect formula. Voila! Automatic project prioritization and selection. The fact is that this is a myth. Tools can absolutely help, and can offer a first pass view of where projects line up. But ultimately, people must make decisions----and whenever people are involved, a myriad of other issues come up, including conflicts that must be resolved.

Here's the article at Computerworld, that rightfully talks about these tools as enablers and not the be-all, end-all ...

What IT portfolio management tools can't do: Stop politics - Computerworld

Project Management: Spiral Development Definition

Project Management: Spiral Development Definition: Via Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council: Development and Acquisition Glossary: Spiral Development Definition ...

... "Spiral Development: An iterative project management model that focuses on the identification of project and product risks and the selection of project management techniques that best control the identified risks. " ...

Additional spiral project management references:

Spiral Development: The spiral model encompasses features of the phased life cycle as well as the prototype life cycle. However, unlike those life cycles, the spiral model uses risk analysis as one of its elements. ...

System Life Cycle (SLC) is defined as a structured development approach with defined activities, phases, products, and reviews that provide a standard to support the development of systems from identification through implementation, operation, maintenance, and eventual retirement. The systems life cycle process is a basic requirement for systems development. There are a variety of life cycle models, such as: waterfall, spiral, evolutionary, decomposition (or stepwise refinement), and formal transformation. The choice among the models is made based on the specific project. ...

SDLC Process: Discusses the application of software assurance best practices in the context of various SDLC methodologies, including RUP, XP, Agile, Waterfall, and the Spiral Model. ...

Buridan and portfolio management

From one of those interesting search chains, Buridan's Ass came to our attention. Buridan's Ass refers to a paradox based on the impossibility of choosing between two equally appealing alternatives. The research theme was portfolio management and the process for prioritisation and selection.

For making a choice within a project, for instance between two packages, there are some well established evaluation techniques such as Kempner Tregoe. These depend on evaluation criteria than can be compared across alternatives - cost, performance, functionality, user acceptability, regulatory compliance, etc.
Portfolio selections frequently don't have such easy measures for comparison which is why clarity of portfolio goals is so important. This is where tying in to corporate goals is crucial and strategies such as balanced score card help to integrate performance goals with portfolio decision making. This paper gives some interesting descriptions and refrerences in this area.
Decision Model based on Balanced Score Card

IT Project Business Case: Managing the Front-End-Load ...

Via CIOUpdate: Making the IT Project Business Case

Jeff Monteforte, president of Exential IT consulting firm, discusses best practices associated with business case preparation. This mirrors the discussions we have been having about planning and tracking of the front-end-load of IT project management which culminates in the evaluation of the business case in context of the portfolio at governance. Also, validates the process of governance / selection of the most promising candidates for business case development, given the resource investment required to generate a high-quality business case ...

... "The development of the business case is itself a mini-project and should be governed by the same investment justification process as the real project. There should be a defined schedule and budget for creation of the business case. Ideally the business case development process follows a spiral, incremental and iterative process. " ...

Project Management: Offshore Partners ...

Project Management: Offshore Partners: Via Line56.com: Selecting an Offshore Partner ...

John Mallon and Narayan Rajagopalachari discuss offshoring and selection criteria for future partners ...

... "Does the offshore resource have a strong grasp of project management? Will they provide documentation, test plans, and clear metrics to assure project success? Will they meet milestones on time-sensitive projects? " ...

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. " ...

Project Management: Partner Selection ...

Project Management: Partner Selection: Via Local Tech Wire: Choosing a Top Technology Integrator ...

William B. Riddick, president of Computer Service Partners, provides guidance on selecting a technology integration partner and increasing your odds of project success ...

... "It is well documented that the majority of IT projects fail to meet expected outcomes. Ask for assurances that your project will be well-managed, will produce planned efficiencies, and remain in-scope and within budget. " ...

Governance Alignment: Project Portfolio Management (PPM)

Via IBM: Project Portfolio Management (PPM): Aligning business and IT

Alignment of business and IT through a meaningful governance process enables selection of the right projects from the portfolio. Ashok Reddy, IBM, explores investing in IT like managing a financial portfolio of investments ...

... "Governance relates to the most important questions for software development and IT managers: Are we working on the right things, and are we building the right system? If their teams don't get this right, nothing else matters. A project might be successful from a schedule, budget, or scope perspective, but if it fails to meet business objectives, it fails overall. Efforts to align business and IT objectives are often thwarted by governance issues... " ...

From CIO Magazine - A Cry for Full-Cyle Governance

Rather than governing a project once with a one-time approval process, current thinking shows that full-cycle governance from project selection through benefits followup is critical to success. For more, check out this article from CIO Magazine.


A Cry for Full-Cycle Governance - Leadership Research Center - CIO

Project Selection: Financial Return ...

Project Selection: Financial Return: Via Best Practices, LLC: Best Practice Summary: Benchmarking Project Management: Performance Measurement, Processes and Tools

Financial returns are prevalent criteria for project portfolio prioritization and selection, according to study ...

... "Based on a survey of 20 organizations, this 22-slide presentation identifies how to understand project management operations at companies with renowned project management operations. ... Companies can use this information to understand the best methods for project management and high performance rate. Specifically, the study found that financial impact, including revenue generation and cost savings, are primary factors companies consider when prioritizing projects. " ...

Best Practices, LLC was founded in 1992 by a group of service professionals with roots at the Harvard Business School. Our founder and CEO, Christopher Bogan, is the author of the influential book Benchmarking for Best Practices: Winning through Innovative Adaptation, published by McGraw-Hill.

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. " ...