PMO Focus + Flexibility = Value

How project management offices (PMOs) function differs as widely as the organizations they serve.

A PMO may oversee and execute projects, implement process improvements, serve as a center of excellence, or align projects to the organization’s strategy.

The consensus seems to be that the more focused and flexible the PMO is, the higher the chances are that it delivers value to the organization—and that is the ultimate goal.

Read more...PMI - Community Post

Scrum Values Framework Rules

Run the Business IT Services Add Value

IT professionals may provide support services, instead of working solely on projects, over their careers. Support work is important to keeping the business or enterprise running, requires a substantial percentage of the IT budget, and is under constant pressure to demonstrate efficiencies, ie: cost savings. It is a perennial challenge to tell the holistic IT value story and even more challenging to describe and defend the support space. Business leaders identify with project work, which generally targets improving, growing or innovating -the-business. And, support work, sometimes referred to as run-the-business, takes a back seat. I'm always on the lookout for strategies that improve the articulation of IT value. Here's an interesting development in the ERP space worth watching.

SAP is taking a step forward in the support space, by aligning its mandated maintenance cost increase (think unhappy customers) with demonstration of business value drivers, as defined by an index of key performance indicators. The index will be measured at a representative short-list of customers and shared with the all. This work could be helpful to IT professionals and CIOs in articulating how support costs align with business value. And, SAP's maintenance fee increase is contingent upon demonstrating the defined value KPIs. ...

... "This effort will help customers by providing a transparent mechanism to link their support investment to the value delivered. SAP has agreed to postpone the subsequent price increase schedule until the targeted improvements measured by the SUGEN KPI Index are met. Successful delivery on KPIs is expected to demonstrate tangible cumulative cost savings for customers. This value delivery is targeted to be fully realized within the four-year time frame of the benchmarking program. " ...

Via SAP: Enterprise Support Value Index

Green Networks and Devices

Devices connected to networks are a significant source of energy inefficiency. Cisco targets energy monitoring and building management through its intelligent network offering. Sustainable IT needs to look beyond the data center. ...

... "Cisco EnergyWise is part of the company's technology roadmap for changing the value-chain of information technology (IT) by placing the intelligent network squarely at the center of how companies reduce greenhouse gas (GhG) emissions across their entire organization. " ...

Via Cisco: Green Network

Valuing IT Assets

Researchers exploring ways to make the information technology asset life-cycle conversation more meaningful for business leaders. ...

... "Executive management and CEOs don't have the language, models and tools to have a business-oriented value conversation around their IT infrastructure, says Peppard. We're also trying to think about how an organisation might put a value on legacy [past IT] investments. " ...

Via The Irish Times: IT project value

Value of Research

Microsoft SVP of Research, Rick Rashid, offers insights into the value of basic research, which is having the capability to confront and solve future challenges. ...

... "If you go back to the writings of Vannevar Bush that really were the basis of what became the U.S. investment in the National Science Foundation and the sort of research and development infrastructure that we have today, what he wrote about wasn't the technologies that would come out of research that you invested in, it was having a basic research infrastructure so that if something went seriously wrong, you had a new war or you have famine or you had a disease, that you would have the infrastructure of smart people and the wealth of technology you built up over the years that would let you address those issues, let you deal with them, let you survive. " ...

Via Microsoft's Rick Rashid: Day 3 Keynote at Professional Developers Conference

IT Value Metric: ROA

Here's an interesting proposal for valuing IT investments using return on assets, similar to capital intensive industries such as the oil industry. ...

... "Kyte contended that IT should now value its investments based on a different metric: return on assets. ROA would enable IT departments to measure success based on the return it gains from assets already deployed in the infrastructure and help IT better plan for future assets going forward. " ...

Via Computerworld: Gartner on technology

Communicating IT Value

Nice tips on transforming the IT value discussion, such as leveraging the role of the business sponsor and integrating IT initiatives in the business agenda. ...

... "burden of defending IT initiatives as standalone project is eliminated; instead the business leader adopts the IT project as a core enabler of the business strategy. " ...

Via CIO Asia: Tips for communicating value of IT

Project Connections

Connections are key to project success. Team members connect to build project performance. Tasks and activities are connected to create a realistic project schedule. The project's deliverables are connected with the goals and objectives of the organization. And, those goals will have a connection to the strategies of the enterprise. ...

... "When people know how a project affects their corner of the company, they develop a personal stake. But they also have to see how an IT project affects the bottom line, so that they fully grasp how the IT strategy plays into the health of the business. " ...

Via CIO Asia: Make the connection between IT and business strategy

Project Investments During Economic Uncertainty or Contraction

Here's some tips regarding investments during uncertain economic times. This quote makes sense in that ... there's quite a bit of effort necessary to adopt and sustain a new performance level after an IT project go-live. This period of stabilization, adoptions, and maturity is a worthwhile investment after the initial capital investment is made. ...

... "Real, long-term value comes from recognizing at the outset that growth, evolution and value-generation require sustained sponsorship, attention, maintenance and marketing. " ...

Via B-Eye: Smart Investment

Project Business Case: Shock and Awe with Value

Enhance your business case with a compelling story and value statements in the language of your business. While the solution is important, keep the technical details to a minimum. ...

... "Decision makers don't want to hear about bits and bytes. IT managers need to talk to them in terms of achieving business value and reducing risk, said John Cash ... " ...

Via IT Business, Canada: Project Approval Process

Link Innovators for Happy Surprises

You can't force innovation. But, you can stack the deck in your favor. Link creative people together. Create a sense of purpose. Sprinkle in some data and information. Provide some funding. Step aside. Check back at stage-gates to see how things are progressing. ...

... "Creating a network of innovators who can identify trends and connect important dots across the business will create value on an even broader scale, and may bring some new insights and opportunities back into your team or function. " ...

Via Innovate on Purpose: Managing innovation

Methods to Value IT

Insights on valuing IT and its investments range from tracking benefits, articulating the intangible benefits, and beating benchmarks. Traditional measures are shifting to options valuation. And, portfolio management could benefit from program management. ... All interesting perspectives. ...

... "In other words, looking at relative IT spending does not tell you whether a bank is an advanced or an inefficient consumer of IT. That's the economic theory. " ...

Via CIO Asia: IT Value

Project Forecasting: More Lessons from Driving

A while ago, I entered a post about the importance of staying tuned in, drawing an analogy to driving. Well, another driving analogy had occured to me, this time about the need to focus on remaining time.

Let's put it this way. If you're driving from Philadelphia to New York City and you're at the entrance to the New Jersey Turnpike, what percent complete are you on your trip?

Some of you may guess certain percentages based on distance, but that's as foolish as basing project percent complete on the percent of budget or time that's been spent, without regard for work accomplished.

The quick answer is: Who cares what percent complete we are? What we really should be concerned with is how much time is left, assuming we care about what time we arrive to begin with.

But let's say that we DO care (i.e. schedule is a priority for us, as opposed to some other success factor). How can we measure whether we'll be there on time?

Simply using a percent complete tells us nothing. It's too subjective. What we need to know how much time is remaining. And that will depend on how fast you're going, how many miles are left, what barriers may arise (i.e. road closings, flat tires, etc.), how many stops you make, and a number of other variables. It's no different for projects.

For project schedule control, capturing percent complete is too theoretical, so that's not of much use to us. And capturing time spent tells us very little, except perhaps how long it took us to do prior work, which may not be an accurate indicator of future work. Besides, we can probably determine future work estimates more accurately through expert opinion and/or statistical sampling (combined with good planning).

Of course, there's no harm in entering time spent as long as people are disciplined to always include time remaining. Then a percent-complete can be calculated based on that. But the percent-complete itself is not a leading indicator, so is still of questionable value.

If we focus instead on time remaining at the task level, and combine that with barrier removal, risk planning, and regular reforecasts, we'd have much better control over whether we "arrive on time."

We can improve our ability to estimate in the future by capturing lessons learned, doing spot checks, and using the information to create project schedule templates and checklists, so future projects can avoid running over the same potholes.

Some may say, "Oh, we still need the percent-complete for Earned Value calculations."

Do we really? By putting a dollar amount to the time remaining, we can solve the same problem in a simpler fashion, answering the question: How much is it going to cost us to complete this project and what's our estimated time to arrival?

Just some food for thought. See my followup post on Project Forecasting and Uncertainty as well.

Personal Brand: Your Value-Add

Hugh Macleod explores the concept of the unique personal currency that each of us brings to the table. How do you differentiate yourself and add value in your marketplace with your micro-brand? ...

... "Whatever business you work in, whether you're an employee or have your own business, you have a currency that you trade in. " ...

Via Gaping Void: Personal Currency

All About OPM3

PMI's Organization Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) is not without controversy, and things are heating up more than ever. Some tout it's ability to help organizations navigate a growth path and others claim it's too focused on academia and doesn't hit on real world issues facing project managers.

Here are a few recent articles that show the good and the bad ---- all you need to know to decide if OPM3 is for you.

First, this month, AllPM is highlighting articles on OPM3, including the following:

The Essence of OPM3

The Business Value of Maturity Assessment

OPM3 and your 'C' Level

Comparing CMMI and OPM3

For another perspective, there's a very insightful critique of OPM3 on Projects@Work:

Assessing OPM3

Of course, we need to keep in mind that it's the first iteration, and will evolve over time. I do know that there are major improvements in store for the next release. It'll be interesting to weigh in after the product matures. Meanwhile, it's a tool, and, like any other, can easily be misapplied or overused.

Project Management Imperatives: Ten Keys to Success

Someone recently asked me what I felt the critical success factors were for any project (i.e. what were the top "must do's"). Although I can think of many more, here were what I felt were the top ten:

1) Get the roles right. (Insure accountability; use a RACI chart or Responsibility Matrix so roles are clearly defined. Insuring people understand their commitments up front will avoid problems later.)

2) Get the goals right. (Make sure all the key stakeholders agree on the goals. I've seen more projects go wrong for this reason than any other. Time spent here will pay dividends later.)

3) Get the current scope right. (I say "current scope," because change should be expected. Projects by default contain change because they are unique in nature. It's not whether you'll experience change, it's how you analyze the potential impacts and manage the approval of the change that counts. Agreed-upon and approved scope changes are perfectly acceptable, with one caveat: It's often wise to set a limit to the number of times scope can be changed for the current product release, and defer some changes to a subsequent release, else value gets delayed.).

4) Obtain commitment from the business, customers, and other stakeholders as to their part in the success of the project. (Many projects derail because the customer doesn't live up to their side of the bargain, doesn't understand their side of the bargain, or some other necessary constituent isn't cooperating for various reasons. Obtain the right commitment up front, starting with senior management.)

5) Determine the critical success factors and risks. (Critical success factors and risks go hand in hand. Many people ignore this or sweep it under the rug, and accept any related risks as a given. The critical success factors will identify related risks and help set expectations).

6) Set expectations. (This is frequently overlooked and is a key cause of failure. The sponsor, customers, and anyone impacted by the project must be given realistic expectations for what is needed from them, how long the project will take, how much it will cost, what the uncertainty factor is, what the available resources are, and anything else necessary to avoid surprises and/or an under-equipped effort.)

7) Beware of conflicting directives. (I call this the "Robocop Syndrome." In the film, Robocop, the titular robotic policeman goes on full tilt when he encounters directives that conflict with his primary directive. I see this happen often in organizations where a project sponsor demands something that is in conflict with other key stakeholders' wishes and/or top organizational directives. This could be covered under "goals" or "expectations," but it's so important that it warrants its own point. The project manager must head this off at the pass before the project goes down a rat hole it won't recover from.)

8) Plan Collaboratively. (The act of planning is not an isolated exercise. It's a collaborative exercise and should be done with the project core team and subject matter experts via some sort of facilitated brainstorming session---possibly with sticky labels on a wall.)

9) Beware of unilateral and granular "one-size-fits-all" solutions. (This is often ineffective, both as a project management methodology and a process implementation policy. Look at the big picture, and the potential variations. Keeping a framework high-level can allow for greatest flexibility and adaptability. Aim for principles over rules wherever possible. Use rules when safety is involved, regulatory requirements exist, or exact accuracy is needed---per Marcus Buckingham's guidelines from "First Break All the Rules.")

10) Don't let rank set you off course. (Often, a senior manager pulls rank and makes requests that are either detrimental, unwise, or in direct conflict with organizational goals. When this happens, see rules 6 and 7. It is the project manager's responsibility to set the right expectations, warn of potential risks, and head off potential conflicting directives at the pass.)

There it is. My list of "must do's." Project management isn't rocket science. In fact it's not a science at all. It's more of an art. Hopefully, the guidelines above can serve as a useful palette.

Leadership Practices: Sound Advice

There's an excellent article on leadership practices in this month's CIO Magazine from Susan Cramm, an executive coach and president of the coaching firm, Valuedance.

Cramm lists a number of things that IT leaders can do to practice "safe leadership." It seems like motherhood and apple pie, but it's a good reminder of the basics that we so easily forget. This includes the following (I've paraphrased the descriptions in parenthesis):

Foster good relationships (Learn the business and get around more among your customers.)

Forge a shared IT vision, strategy, and tactical objectives (Co-create this with your customers and other IT leaders. Agree on decision responsibilities. Understand the appropriate technical and business areas involved.)

Deliver on time, on budget (But beware of big, waterfall-style projects. Limit the number of projects. Less is more.)

Develop quality solutions (Have appropriately scaled methodologies, frameworks, policies, and tools, but beware.. It's easy to lose credibility here.)

Realize business value from IT investments (Use operational measures meaningful to the business. Measure during and after the project to insure business value is achieved. Hold business partners accountable for insuring benefits realization.)

Here's the full editorial...

Leadership Under the Influence - Editorial - CIO

IT Innovation: Balancing Act

The debate on IT innovation continues... Latest insights from SAP research leader are particularly interesting. I agree with the concept of thinking enterprise, but allowing investment in interim or temporary solutions to either reap quick value or offer time for the solution to flourish / die on its own. ...

... "The smart innovators realize there's nothing wrong with transient systems or investments that let you constantly add value in small increments." ...

Via techWeb: IT Innovation ...

Influencing People: The Project Manager's Secret Weapon

I recently attended a presentation on self-awareness and influence by Dr. Charles Dwyer, Academic Director of the Aresty Institute’s Leading and Managing People program in the Wharton School. I was so impressed with the presentation that I bought his book, The Shifting Sources of Power and Influence.

This book was a real eye-opener, and a jewel for anyone in project management. In the book, Dwyer states three major challenges we all face:

• Dissonant Value Systems (i.e. people’s conflicting value systems, made even more visible by the advent of the media, internet, etc.)
• Diffused Power (i.e. power being spread around in a matrix fashion, with more and more decentralization and special interest groups, etc.)
• Limited Resources (We all face a limited set of resources, made even more challenging by our lack of a mindset geared towards accepting tradeoffs, or a good mechanism to guide operational priorities)

Sound like any projects you know?

Dwyer goes on to caution that public statements, such as vision, mission, organizational values, etc. may be useful for articulating the values of the leadership or giving people a sense of structure, but do not in themselves change anyone’s value systems. Many leaders assume they can use these statements to change people’s value systems to match organizational values, but this is a myth.

What is needed instead is the ability to influence others by getting them to change their behavior to match your values. To do this, have a clear picture of what you want the unit to look like; set specific, measurable objectives; and insure that people have a way of achieving those objectives.

According to Dwyer, some tried and true methods include asking people for help, offering or implying something in return, or influencing indirectly (i.e. working through someone else who’s in a better position to influence).

Dwyer points out five guidelines for influencing people (I’ve paraphrased them):

1. Insure they have adequate capability (Do they know what to do, have the competence and self-confidence to carry it out?)
2. Address their perception of “Potential Value Satisfaction” (WIIFM or “what’s in it for me”)
3. Address their perception of the probability of value satisfaction (i.e. Do they trust you? You must build trust through visible examples.)
4. Address their perception of cost (Do this by giving them alternatives or a sense of options, and helping them understand the costs and implications.)
5. Address their perception of risk (Try to assume or distribute some of the risk. Don’t ignore it.)

These are the five things everyone weighs in their mind when someone attempts to influence them. In essence, the five elements (four of which are perceptions) make up an equation for behavior. We can influence people’s behavior by addressing this equation (I’ve paraphrased for simplicity):

Behavior=Capability + (Perceived Value * Trust factor) – (Perceived cost and risk)

These are just some of the gems of wisdom in Dwyer's book. He offers reams of memorable examples, often with a humorous style. With 90% of a project manager's job being communication (including influence), I highly recommend Dwyer’s book for project managers, or anyone in a leadership position for that matter.

Robotics Advancements

Advances in robotics ...

Traditional vs. Agile Project Management: All You Need to Know

Here's the best article series I've seen to date comparing traditional "plan-driven" PMBOK practices to Agile "value-driven" approaches. It's a four-part series by Michele Sliger on StickyMinds.com.

Enjoy...

Column info : Relating PMBOK Practices to Agile Practices - Part 1 of 4

Managing the Grey Areas: Lessons from the Leadership Quadrant Seminar

On November 15th and 16th, I conducted a seminar with productivity consultant Jerome Jewell called The Leadership Quadrant: 4 Ps for Organizational Excellence. The 4 Ps are Principles, People, Productivity, and Process. It was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and we incorporated the museum’s rousing multi-media show, Freedom Rising, into the seminar.

The seminar participants came from the healthcare, criminal intelligence, and manufacturing sectors, which led to some fascinating discussion and dynamics. With any seminar, the value to all in attendance is magnified by the contributions of the participants, and this was no exception.

In the seminar, which included sections on principles, emotional intelligence, systemic thinking, talent management, innovation, project management, and more, the collective group highlighted a number of “grey areas” that a manager must frequently weigh when making decisions.

Some questions arose, such as:

"What if someone no longer likes a role they excel at and prefers a role they're poor at?"

"Do people always need to see the big picture?"

"Should one person be expected to serve the role of a manager, leader, and administrator? A strategist and tactician? A generalist?"

"How do you strike a balance between effective time management and remaining available to your staff?"

"Are recurring meetings effective or are they time wasters?"

In line with these questions, below are some of the factors that managers must consider:

• People’s individual needs vs. organizational goals
• Big picture inclusiveness vs. security (or the desire to give people narrow focus)
• Using generalists vs. specialists (and where the specialty should focus – on a functional area or on a particular skill)
• Effective time management vs. flexibility and being available to your staff’s needs
• Recurring meetings vs. consideration for people’s time
• Informing vs. influencing (for deciding whether to email or meet; even then, the decision is not always straightforward)
• Innovation vs. execution (knowing when to move from ideation to “getting things done”)
• Systemic (whole view) thinking vs. systematic thinking (routine, repeatable process)
• Vigilance vs. delegation (how much is safe to delegate, and to whom?)
• Firm principles vs. ethical dilemmas (should a firm principle ever be bypassed?)

In all of these cases, the group determined that the answer isn’t always black and white, and that each situation requires weighing these items. The trick is to observe, orient, decide and act quickly (referencing Colonel John Boyd’s OODA principle).

On the item of firm principles vs. ethical dilemmas, the group applied lessons from various cases throughout history where the US Constitution was challenged. It was obvious that there was no “one size fits all” answer.

With more recent events, consider OJ Simpson’s book. If you manage a bookstore with a principle of defending freedom of speech, do you carry O.J. Simpson’s new book, even though it is "ethically challenged," to say the least? Most large-chain bookstores creatively tried to satisfy both sides of the equation by donating all of the proceeds to the victims’ families. Of course, in the end, the book was canceled, but for a while, this was a real challenge to bookstores.

All of this reaffirms that management is abstract, not concrete. Managers cannot have all the answers; but they can and must insure that the right questions are considered, and they must have the courage to make decisions.

IT Project Dashboard

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

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

Via ITBusiness Edge: Link

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

Earned Value Lies and Truths

There was a great quote from Benjamin Disraeli in David Hillson's letter to the editor in the latest PM Network Magazine.

Disraeli allegedly* said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."

* As an aside, there's apparently some debate over the actual origin of this phrase.

In any case, Hillson's interesting letter was cautioning those who frequently misapply statistics, and offered some clarification the terminology----specifically, the mean (average), mode (most frequently occuring item), and median (the middle item if all were lined up in order).

I find that many misuse Earned Value statistics the same way. The intent of EVM is to be an early indicator of a potential cost or schedule overrun (and I personally feel that it's better at predicting cost than schedule). However, much like the Ghost of Christmas Future, it's not set in stone. There are many things a project manager can do to get things back in order. More importantly, sometimes there are reasons for the apparent variance that indicate that the variance is explainable and not a concern at all.

The key with EVM (much like any metric) is to not take the statistics at face value, and to use them as a trigger to do further subjective examination. It's a tool, and organizations often overuse such tools (much like they do with Six Sigma). If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Quality vs. Quantity: Is it Really a Choice?

There's an article in CIO magazine about how business leaders are beginning to choose quality over quantity (although the evidence seems to be to the contrary). The article refers to quantity as faster, more, cheaper, etc. But is it really a choice?

With adequate up-front research, phased deliverables, frequent communication, and good change management practices, we can achieve both. Phased deliverables provide earlier benefits (i.e. speed), fact-based learnings, less resistance, less rework (i.e. cheaper) and many other benefits. Change management practices insure that the rollout of any new feature or product won't break something (the level of change management needed must of course be appropriate to the type of product and industry).

And so what if it turns out through the early phases that requirements must change or more features are needed? As long as the change impact is managed and the change is agreed-upon, that's perfectly fine. These value-based course-corrections are another advantage of phased deliverables.

These precautions are the difference between speed and haste. As Patton said, "Haste is speed without planning." Indeed, we can achieve quantity and quality.

Here's the CIO article...

Getting Quality Over Quantity Better the First Time Around - Business Pulse - Leadership RC - CIO

Strategic Portfolio: High Value Differentiated ...

Chevron has created a governance framework for actively managing its high-value enterprise-level projects, differentiating from its volume of small projects. The high-value portfolio is also where most of the investment is aligned. ...

... "it's a strategic framework for the company's biggest and most important IT projects. It's intended to ensure that the projects with the biggest benefit to the company as a whole get the right funding at the right time, and that they get special management attention. " ...

Via Computerworld: Chevron: Where Size Is Opportunity

Hug a Project Manager Today ...

Fun video .......

Theory of Constraints case study

Still on the hunt for examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the Critical Chain approach, I came across this example from South Africa. Petrochemical plant examples are usually 'significant projects' and this one illustrates the point well. Included is the requirement - and challenge - of integrating vendors into the process.
APPLICATION OF CRITICAL CHAIN ON HIGH VALUE PETROCHEMICAL PROJECTS

CRM Project: Old Hat?

Interesting article explores current evolution of CRM projects, which have been bolstered by on-demand-software, integrated view of the customer, efficient training delivery options, and referenceable value benchmarks. ...

... "As far as business cases go, start early and establish your baseline before you start seeing a return from the tightening-up of the business processes in preparation of the application installation. " ...

Via TechLinks: Hal Harz on The State of CRM ...

Technology Evolution: Call to Green Action ...

As computing density increases, power consumption is spiraling out of control. It is time for the Information Technology industry to do its part in energy conservation and management. ...

... "Chief information officers need to wake up to the issues of spiralling energy consumption and environmental legislation, and develop greener approaches to IT, according to Gartner. " ...

Via ITNews Australia: Gartner urges IT to go green ...

A green strategy can include server virtualization which increases asset utilization and lowers the energy footprint of the datacenter ...

IBM VIRTUALIZATION SERVES UP COOLER SYSTEMS FOR US OPEN TENNIS EVENT: "Virtualization technology, which IBM has been providing to clients since before Arthur Ashe won his first US Open title in 1968, allows many computing resources to act as one and, more commonly, one computer, storage device or server to divide its own workload and act as many different resources. By reducing the number of computers and servers in use, virtualization helps minimize the often strenuous and expensive power and cooling demands of datacenters and eliminate unnecessary maintenance expenses. "

IT Governance: Firing on All Cylinders ...

An IT Governance Practice Director offers some good insights on successful IT governance, which requires progressing your maturity across multiple dimensions of management: portfolio, project, resource ... leading to the end game of transforming IT into a powerhouse of value creation. ...

... "Successful IT Governance requires effective portfolio, project, process, financial, resource, risk, and communication management. It requires the IT organization to switch its mentality from that of a cost center - We're just here to keep the lights on - to that of a profit center ... " ...

Via ITworld: Getting Started With IT Governance

Branson Climate Change Investment

Coverage of the Branson investment at the Clinton Global Initiative ...

IT Project Management Book For the Ages

For those managing IT projects, an invaluable resource is Jolyon Hallows' comprehensive book, Information Systems Project Management. Be sure to get the 2nd edition (link is below). It's a bit expensive, but Amazon has it used as well for less money.

Even though I've been managing projects for years, I always like to check out various books to gain new perspectives. This one is exceptional. It offers practical advice with"what if" situations covering most political quandaries, handy checklists (there's a great one on scope considerations), and concise "real word" tips on using various methodologies.

If you're an IT project manager and only buy one book this year, this is it. Of course, if you buy two books, you can check mine out as well. :-)

Amazon.com: Information Systems Project Management With Infotrac: How To Deliver Function And Value In Information Technology Projects: Books: Jolyon Hallows

Virtual IT Infrastructure: Small Business ...

Nick Carr shares further evidence of the emerging shift to a virtual infrastructure, referencing fresh insights that make this IT model the smartest choice for small businesses. Meanwhile, salesforce.com (software-as-a-service model) continues to create value in its on-demand CRM service: Salesforce.com Previews New Winter 07 Analytics and Dashboard: "Salesforce.com announced additional new customization features of Winter 07, including delivering full componentization of its analytical dashboards - allowing customers, developers, and partners to create, share, and combine new components that analyze and present data from Salesforce and partner solutions. " ...

... "the highest IT costs aren't component costs but labor costs, maintenance costs, electricity costs, and other secondary expenses ... " ...

Via Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: An IT sea change for smaller companies

Project Risk Management

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

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

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

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

PM Lessons from Einstein: Summary

Here's a summary our project management lessons from Einstein (with links to the original posts) ...

1) Goals Rule ("Confusion of goals and perfection of means seems, in my opinion, to characterize our age.")

2) Think Flexible ("As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.")

3) Silence is Golden ("If A=Success, then the formula is A=X+Y+Z. X is work. Y is play. Z is keeping your mouth shut.")

4) Think Value ("Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.")

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

6) People Matter ("Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.")

7) Focus on Strengths ("Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.")

8) Think Simple ("Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius---and a lot of courage---to move in the opposite direction." BUT... ""Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.")

Passion for Profession: We'll Miss Steve ...

Steve Irwin was a passionate professional. He will be missed. ...

Einstein Project Management Tip #4: Think Value

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Einstein tips coming soon...

ITIL CMDB: Survey Insights ...

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

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

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

Agile Project Leadership ...

Agile network sustains mission with election of new board members. I like the relentless focus on value and all of the core principles. Worth a quick check. It's valuable to anchor back to principles periodically. ...

... "Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) New Officers and Board Members: The Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), a partner non-profit organization focused on making people great project leaders by focusing on value, teams, context, customers, individuals and uncertainty also named several new officers to its roster. APLN was founded in 2004 by individuals active in writing about, practicing and evangelizing the movement toward fast, flexible, customer value-driven approaches to leading projects of many types. Although the organization is separate from the Agile Alliance, the group's aim is to work closely with the Agile Alliance to help them become better Project Leaders. " ...

Via Yahoo Finance: Agile Alliance and The Agile Project Leadership Network Announce New Board Members and Officers for 2006-2007 ...

PPM / EPM Software Market: HP Acquires Mercury ...

HP acquires Mercury and creates a $2B software line of business. The software LOB seems like a complementary fit - infrastructure software and application management / EPM governance software. It was inevitable that Mercury would be acquired, given the consolidating EPM market. HP paid a sizable premium - a nice bonus for Mercury shareholders given delisting. Mercury customers should be delighted - some stability - and likely continuing investment in the application suite. ...

... "HP announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Mercury Interactive Corp., a leading IT management software and services company, through a cash tender offer for $52.00 per share, or an enterprise value of approximately $4.5 billion, which is net of existing cash and debt. " ...

PPM / EPM Software Market: HP Acquires Mercury: Via HP: HP To Acquire Mercury Interactive Corp.

ITIL Business Case ...

Evergreen offers whitepaper on the business value associated with ITIL implementation, with benefits seen in operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and risk minimization. ...

... "The white paper references a number of data points taken from current research and enterprise IT process improvement case studies consistently documenting a 20-40% reduction in the effort required for ongoing IT operations, powered by the implementation of ITIL process improvements. The same research clearly links ITIL with strategic gains in customer service quality, accuracy and efficiency and IT risk and compliance work. The development of an ITIL strategy is also discussed and an incremental approach is recommended, one which starts with small steps but shows measurable gains quickly. " ...

Evergreen Systems Releases White Paper on Building the Business Case for ITIL ...

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.

Earned Value Wikipedia: Your Chance to Contribute

Our friend Garry Booker of Project Frontier has revised the Wikipedia entry for Earned Value Management and is looking for feedback.

Feel free to check it out and update as needed. Also, here's Garry's introductory statements in the topic's discussion page.

His revisions have added some clarity, plus information on making EVM scalable to various size projects. There are some good diagrams and links as well.

Here's the link...

Earned value management - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

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

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

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

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

Strategic Value: Measuring the Human Resource Function ...

Craig Schneider, CFO Mag, explores the tactics needed to create differentiation in the human resource function. Metrics are needed to establish a foundation of value. Partnering with the finance function is seen as a way to accelerate the measurement initiative. A quantitative approach should be balanced with the art of "resources human", since people and talent should not always be boiled down to a number. ...

... "The human-resources department is in survival mode. As outsourcing the function becomes a more-prevalent option for companies, HR managers know that if they are going to endure, they have to deliver strategic value, and that value has to be measurable. " ...

Strategic Value: Measuring the Human Resource Function: The New Human-Capital Metrics: Via CFO

Change Management: IT Leads Insurgency ...

Robert Reich challenges IT leaders to embrace change and lead the insurgency brought about from the mega-trends confronting us. He highlights the importance of adding value and ignoring past models for success. ...

... "Organizations that will thrive in the global economy will be driven not by the short-term expectations of Wall Street, Reich suggested, but by his so-called change insurgents. These educator-executives can persuade managers to develop strategies that comprehend the structural economic change brought about by globalization, technology and the graying of the baby boomers. " ...

Via Search Oracle: Robert Reich tells CIOs: Rise up and adapt to global change ...

Earned Value EVM Adoption Growing?

Earned value management is seeing adoption outside of traditional user base, through mandates and associated success stories. ...

... "So EVM tells you — by planning and setting the milestones — whether you got the value for what you're paying for. I think people are starting to understand that. " ...

Earned Value EVM Adoption Growing?: Via FCW: Making EVM matter ...

Make or Buy: The Jury is Out

There's a good article in InfoWorld about the age old IT dilemma of "build vs. buy." The consensus seems to be to buy when automating commodity processes and build when dealing with core differentiating processes (a la Wal-Mart). SOA seems to have made the "build" option more palatable.

The worst of both worlds is to buy a huge system and then heavily modify it to match your old systems and processes.

Another up and coming choice for many organizations is hosted solutions. Many companies are doing "all of the above," with a mix of packaged products, in-house offerings, and hosted solutions for a best-of-breed mix.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Everybody knows that the more standardized you are and the more you buy off-the-shelf, the more cost effective it will be for both implementation and ongoing maintenance,” says Mark Lutchen, former global CIO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, now head of the firm’s IT Effectiveness practice.

On the other hand, executives such as Bob Laird, IT chief architect at MCI (now part of Verizon Business), sing the familiar refrain of in-house
development: “Where we tend to invest is where we can get incremental revenue … or competitive advantage,” he says.

As with many modern enterprises, Laird and team have recast their in-house development efforts within an SOA, enabling them to reuse rather than build from scratch. “Part of the decision is to look at your legacy applications and analyze what legacy you have that still has business value,” he says.

For more, read on...

To build or to buy IT applications? InfoWorld Analysis 2006-02-13 By Polly S. Traylor

Dealing With Primadonna Software Developers; Are Project Managers Worth Their Salt?

OK, I'm sure many of you have dealt with software developers who feel that a project manager adds no value to the "war effort." Often, they view the project manager as a burdensome pain in the butt that keeps pestering them for completion dates, but has no understanding of the "real work being done."

Here's a great article that not only addresses just what an important role the project manager plays (above all, an ability to see the big picture, remove barriers, and proactively solve problems), but provides a good roadmap for project managers so they don't become what the software developers accuse them of being.

At any rate, it's a good list for all project managers to show developers when they question what value the project manager provides.

Ode to Project Managers

PMO Success Story: A.G. Edwards Case Study

There's an excellent article in CIO Magazine this month showing how A.G. Edwards reinvented its PMO to bring their projects to an 88% success rate (from about 50% originally).

Some key lessons:

• They created a 25-step project management high-level framework of just the high level activities common to all projects. They didn't inflict a detailed application development methodology and left the "how" flexible, as long as the "what" was satisfied. At a more detailed level, they used Primavera for project tracking and dashboard metrics.
  
• They provided leadership training to boost the confidence of their PMs
  
• They moved the project managers from the PMO to the functional areas to encourage collaboration and better align the PMs with the business.
  
• They offered project planning services to assist the distributed project managers with using the new framework effectively (allowing them to use the planning tool of their choice, be it Excel, MS/Word, or a whiteboard). The 25 framework touchpoints, however, are common to all projects for cross-project comparison purposes (I assume enabled in Primavera).
  
• They redefined "success" as "projects that deliver business value." This gives customer satisfaction and business value even greater priority than being on-time and on-budget (note: they still improved their schedule and budget statistics anyway).
  
  This is the essence of the new model and bears repeating. The customer defines success. Under this model, it's quite possible to have a project that is late and over-budget and seen as a raving sucess.
  
• They tirelessly met with stakeholders in individual and group settings to offer the benefits and ask for their support. They used a subtle soft-sell approach with the "bad actors."
  
• They first involved the PMs receptive to new ideas as part of a pilot and them used them to "spread the gospel"
  
• They measured success rates and publicized them in quarterly reports to senior management.

These are all powerful and valid ways to make a PMO successful, and are philosophically aligned with the Service Oriented-Project Management (SOPM) model I've been developing. In this case, these changes collectively served to boost IT's credibility at A.G Edwards significantly.

Here's the full article. Don't miss the sidebar "8 Steps for Improving Project Management."

When Failure Is Not an Option - Editorial - CIO

Project Management Holy Grail; Keep Searching

With all the hoopla over the DaVinci Code, I figured I'd share this insightful article from Max Wideman on what many have considered the "Holy Grail" of project management---the ever elusive set of "best practices."

Wideman rightfully argues that any list of best practices is likely tainted, because who'd want to share anything so groundbreaking that it gives them a competitive edge---and if it was so groundbreaking, it would most likely get lost in the survey process that looks for frequently used practices.

So, instead of best practices, we end up with "common practices," which in many cases are extremely flawed.

Better to break new ground and look for unique approaches that fit what you are trying to accomplish, or look for the best examples of what some other organizations are doing. But beware of surveys that claim they show "best practices."

When it comes to project management, you'll just need to keep looking for the Holy Grail. Better yet, try to create one, as I'm attempting to do with my new Service-Oriented Project Management (SOPM)™ model, and others are doing, such as Garry Booker with his Streamlined Earned Value model and his other creations. But you won't see any of these on any "best practice" lists.

Here's the full article...

Max's Musings - The Fallacious Argument of Best Practice - Or the Holy Grail of Project Management

The Many Roles of a PMO

There's a great new series in Projects@Work about establishing PMOs. The first installment talks about the importance of defining the role of the PMO right up front.

Here's an excerpt...

"The scope of a PMO's activities can range from a set of limited support roles all the way to decision-making about project priorities, financing, and other governance functions. Defining those roles is the necessary first step in the creation of a PMO that will carry out its mission smoothly and deliver its full value to the business."

It seems so obvious, but many organizations begin implementing a PMO before fully defining, and obtaining organizational buy-in, for the role that the PMO will serve. I'd also add that many organizations begin with too broad a scope and in doing so, form a wall between the PMO and the est of the organization. It's OK to have a multi-tiered vision, with an initial state for the PMO and a longer-term, broader vision.

Here's the full article (the next installment is on PMO processes)...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/231325.cfm:

SOPM; A New Project Management Methodology

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More to come.

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

Service Oriented Project Management (SOPM); Bridging Three Worlds

With all this talk about Business Process Reengineering (BPR), and the latest industry focus on innovation, I've been piecing together a model that brings together the best of BPR, Innovation, and Project Management (and even borrows elements of ITIL). I call it Service Oriented Project Management or SOPM. I believe the term has been used, but not in this context, and not as a formal model. I think it's important enough that it needs to be formalized.

There are some that view these three disciplines as separate, or even mutually-exclusive, but they're not. In fact, to be successful, these disciplines need each other. It should go without saying that BPR needs innovation in order to break new ground (resulting in dramatic and radical change, as opposed to incremental change). And project management skills are needed to keep a team on track and manage risk.

Certainly, there are situations where incremental change is quite appropriate, and, for these cases, process "improvement" disciplines such as Six Sigma and TQM are fine. But especially when radical change is needed, we need a superstructure of good project management to lead all phases of a BPR initiative, from the as-is state exploration, through the to-be state development and validation, and to the actual implementation of the initiative.

Likewise, project management in general needs the strong customer focus that BPR brings (usually sorely lacking in most projects). Almost any project can benefit from a BPR-type approach of getting to the root of the customer's problem first-hand, and bringing about dramatic results through innovative thinking. This also takes project management beyond the realm of simple "execution and control".

Using a BPR lifecycle, innovative thinking, and an overall project management approach, we get a holistic methodology that uses the best of each. And, if this is driven by overarching principles from all three disciplines, we can boost our chances of success exponentially.

And finally, there's the customer. EVERYTHING in all of these disciplines must have a relentless focus on the customer. With any initiative, the glue that holds all of this together is a service owner--- someone who understands the customer's needs (and their business) and owns the initiative from cradle to grave (just like an ideal order fulfillment process should be, according to Michael Hammer, the inventor of BPR). Whether or not this should be the project manager is a whole subject in itself, but it should be someone.

If the project manager does assume this role, then they had better have a strong customer and business focus, and be relieved of any project administration duties that aren't adding value to the customer (which can be assigned to a project accountant). In many companies, the project managers may not have the right skills for this role, but that's not to say that shouldn't change.

More to come, as I flesh out and develop the model. Meanwhile, I'm open to your thoughts on this.

High Risk and Reward Projects Enabled through Partnerships ...

Oil and gas company, Encana, manages risks in unlocking the value of hydrocarbons from oilsands bitumen. The company will partner to realize the value of its assets from high risk / reward projects. ...

... "Regrouping from that defeat, EnCana is busy on Project Apple, with associated files codenamed Granny Smith, McIntosh and the like. The company has said it assessed more than 20 proposals from potential partners. " ...

High Risk and Reward Projects Enabled through Partnerships: Via globeandmail: EnCana puts the polish on Project Apple ...

Earned Value Management Trends, Best Practices, and Pitfalls

A few weeks ago, I commented on Part 1 of a three-part series on Earned Value Management on Projects@Work.

While Part 1 set the stage and illustrated some of the challenges of EVM, Part 2 of this excellent series offers some excellent case studies and learnings.

For instance, the US government agency, OPM (Office of Personnel Management) cites the following critical success factors:

- Continuous executive sponsorship (not just up front)
- Committment to funding for adequate tools and training
- Adequate allocation of project managers' time to manage using this system
- Piloting EVM in a small group of projects to illustrate success and fine tune the details
- Not underestimating the culture change management required, involving employees, managers, and timekeepers. Regularly maintained training and job aids are critical.

Another organization, Inter-Coastal Electronics, cites having shallow, simple WBS templates in their ERP system as a key success factor. They claim that a WBS that's too granular becomes too difficult to manage. I couldn't agree more.

I highly recommend this series to anyone attempting to introduce Earned Value Management in their organizations.

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/230753.cfm

Project Burn Charts; A New Way to Look at Earned Value

Alistair Cockburn (pronounce "Coburn") has a nice article about Burn Charts, which are an effective way to show progress (or lack thereof) on your project.

I particularly like the chart on figure 3-19. It's a variation of the traditional line chart, in that it shows the actual deliverables on a timeline.

Here's the article...

Cockburn - Earned-Value and Burn Charts

Personal Value Proposition: Assess Your Business Impact ...

Nice article, by Pete McGarahan, challenges the reader to assess how they contribute value to an organization and be accountable for their future by taking risks, learning, and owning their personal development. Quick and worthwhile read ...

... " ... a business mentor once asking me, What's your value proposition to the organization? I was taken aback by the question and began rattling off what I did for a living. He quickly stopped me and said, No, Pete, what value do you provide to the organization on a daily basis? " ...

Personal Value Proposition: Assess Your Business Impact: Via CCN: Being the CEO of You (PDF) ...

Study Shows No Consensus on PMOs

Having trouble getting consensus in your organization on the value and structure of your PMO? If so, you're not alone.

As reported in PMForum, the research team that has been studying how PMOs are used has released its interim findings.

The findings, based on the 500 companies studied, show that there is wide variation in the perceived value of PMOs, the structure of PMO's, and in the functions PMOs deliver.

In addition, there appears no be no pattern whatsoever in one industry or region versus another. At the least, it'll make it difficult to come up with any kind of "standard PMO design."

It only makes sense that a PMO's charter could vary based on the culture of the organization, the project management maturity of the employees, the committment of senior management, what the organization is trying to get out of the PMO, and a host of other variables.

Maybe the lack of agreement, and the resulting organizational maelstrom caused when many PMOs are launched, is the reason why two-thirds of PMOs fail. Studies have shown that the PMOs that begin by insuring the success of project teams and providing portfolio management services---and then progress to becoming a center of excellence---seem to have longer-lasting success than those that try to do too much too soon.

Meanwhile, it should be interesting seeing the final results of this particular study. The PMForum report is below...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: REALITY OF PMO'S STUDY: INTERIM RESULTS RELEASED

Leadership Character: The Waiter Test ...

Planning to interview a candidate soon? Assessing the competition? Get out of the office and to a restaurant to assess character. Try the waiter test. ...

... "Why would people treat me differently? Your value system and ethics need to be constant at all times regardless of who you are dealing with ... " ...

Leadership Character: The Waiter Test: CEOs say how you treat a waiter can predict a lot about character: Via Yahoo! News

Project Portfolio Risk Management ...

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

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

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

Technology Progress ...

Two steps forward, one step back ...

Project Management Book Giveaway

I donated two copies of Napoleon on Project Management to Cornelius Fichtner to give away on his Project Management Podcast series.

If you'd like an opportunity to win one of them, check out his April 8th episode (and while you're there, learn something about how to monitor your projects without the sophistication of Earned Value!!).

The contest will take place on the April 8th episode and the one after, with the two winners being announced in the third episode.

Not only will you have a chance to win a book by listening to a free podcast, but you'll be sure to learn something. Cornelius's podcasts are always enlightening. The link is below...

The Project Management Podcast

More Earned Value Woes for IT

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

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

According to the article:

Respondents cite three big EVM challenges:

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

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

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

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

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

PMO Startups; Help from the Blogosphere

There's a new addition to the blogosphere, and it's a good one for anyone implementing a PMO.

All About Project Management Offices is a fairly new blog from Derry Simmel, who happens to be a PMO Director and is also on the board of PMI's PMO SIG.

Already there's some excellent content on there that should prove valuable to PMO Directors or anyone in the process of implementing a PMO. For instance, there are posts on selling your PMO, demonstrating value, building a PMO, recommended books on PMOs, and more.

Check it out...

All about Project Management Offices

IT Strategy: Infrastructure Services Outsourced ...

Asian insurance company outsources infrastructure services to IBM Asian operations and also procures strategic planning services from IBM. No company is immune from the possibility of outsourcing. ...

... "Under the terms of the 10-year agreement which has a total contract value of approximately 340 million US dollars, IBM will provide IT strategy consulting services to help develop and advance KYOBO's IT vision and strategy. IBM will also manage the company's servers, storage systems, network and desktop computers and operate its data and disaster recovery centers. Additionally, IBM will provide IT skills development and IT management training services, called IT University, for KYOBO's employees. " ...

IT Strategy: Infrastructure Services Outsourced: Via IBM: KYOBO Life Insurance Signs a 10-Year Outsourcing Contract With IBM ...

Earned Value Management; Important for IT

There's a nice little writeup in Computerworld about Earned Value Management and its increasing use in IT.

The article offers the basics of EVM, along with the challenges in getting it widely used IT industry, particularly since EVM assumes that there's some sort of disciplined project management approach to begin with---which many IT organizations are still behind on.

It rightly positions EVM as a valuable tool for predicting budget overruns early in the project.

The article is below (there are a few good sidebars on EVM as well) ...

Earned Value Management - Computerworld

Earned Value Management EVMS Convergence? ...

Feds prodded to standardized earned value management systems, EVMS, to enable supplier efficiency. ...

... "The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) recently urged acquisitions regulators for defense and civilian agencies to reconcile differing draft requirements for federal IT contractors to establish Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS) for IT projects. " ...

Earned Value Management EVMS Convergence?: Via ITAA: Defense, Civilian EVMS Rules Heading Down Different Paths ...

Organizational Project Management; Why Should CEOs Care?

Paul Dinsmore and Pedro C. Ribeiro's article in Chief Project Officer talks about why CEOs should care about project management. He lists several areas where project management can directly impact the bottom line, including working capital, sales growth, and profit margins.

People are beginning to realize that project management is much more than managing individual initiatives; it's about transforming everything an organization does into a project-based approach.

In the article, Celina Antunes, CEO South America Region for Cushman & Wakefield Semco comments:

“For decades, project management has been a discipline in engineering, construction and other industries, where a key management skill has always been the ability to complete a job on time and on budget. Yet it's only been in recent years that the discipline has moved to its current status as one of the leading reasons for success in some of the world's best companies. When you need an outcome done right, on time, and within a budget, you definitely need project management to assure results”

Of course, to be truly effective, this requires a strong committment to becoming a "learning organization." Here's an excerpt from another quote, from Robert Cook, former CEO Latin America for Unisys Corporation:

“The importance of excellence in project management could not be over rated. I would guess that all of us as senior operations people have been involved in projects that have created shareholder value and those - that have reduced
shareholder value... We need to be in a continuous learning process. A well structured lessons learning process in project management is key to seamless execution and ensuring that the direction of the project is correct from the beginning of the effort”.

For the full article, read on...

Chief Project Officer: Why Should Project Management Matter to CEOs?

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

Microsoft Project 2007

Thursday's Microsoft Webinar was the latest event in the gradual unveiling of the future version of Project. It now has a name - Project 2007 - not really more imaginative than the development name of P12 but it does give a clue as to the intended release date. After the news about the postponement of Vista's release date, one can believe that Microsoft would tend towards caution rather than optimism in deciding a release year.
The product itself still shows its credentials as a beta release. The demonstration of the client functionality suffered from a couple of minor glitches. The functions shown include some which will be popular with people who have struggled with some of the constraints of earlier versions of MS Project.
The multi-level undo feature - instead of the current single step undo - gets a lot of attention. It does seem to have been a major technical challenge to provide the function and now one can afford to be a little less careful about keeping track of changes as you go through an editing session.
A neat feature is change highlighting. This is the one that shows what dependencies cause a task date to be the way it is. Useful when you have a lot of predecessors, calendar constraints and other factors.
Anyone who has finally mastered the nuances of Outline codes and custom fields will have a new learning experience. Outline codes are no more. They are just treated as another variants of custom fields with fixed value lists.
And more functions for organisations that track costs - resources can be flagged as budget resources and assigned at the project summary level.
Something that sounds like a good idea but will probably take a bit of getting used to is the notion of team resources. Resources are defined as belonging to a team using a custom field value - and the team resource is assigned to the task. Sounds like you need to be careful about working with max units, particularly if a team member could be on multiple teams.
Plenty to get familiarised - and plenty of time to get familiar before the roll-out.

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?