Quoting Verzuh, “The discipline of project management can lead us astray.  With all its structured methods and specialized reports, it can create the illusion that if a person learns the discipline, he or she will surely lead successful projects.”

Clark points out, “… success in project management is determined by the quality of leadership rather than organizational skills or project management knowledge.”

I agree with both Verzuh and Clark.  An understanding of methodology is not the complete answer to successful project management and, as Clark suggests, leading a project team requires leadership skills that are often overlooked by organizations when interviewing people with highly technical skills for important management roles.

“An organization that truly wants to improve project management should be fully willing to consider that poor leadership may be the primary reason for poor project management,” suggests Clark.  “[M]ost companies are poor at identifying the difference between a ‘management’ issue and a ‘leadership’ issue.”

Clark asserts that any analysis of project management should include a discussion of leadership as well.  To be sure, learning the discipline of project management is an important part of project management success, but it’s not the only factor.  As Clark points out, leadership skills ensure that “… the correct perspective be taken and proper decision making can occur …”

To read all of Clark’s article; click HERE.

I must admit that I’m feeling a little bit of withdrawal now that the Olympics have been over for a week or two.  So when I stumbled upon this article by Michelle LaBrosse, I couldn’t resist.  She offers six steps to consider when championing your “players and leading a winning team.”

1. Set the rules—“People need guidelines to keep things running smoothly,” says LaBrosse.

I believe most people want to do a good job and succeed in their careers.  As managers, it’s important to make sure they understand what a good job is and exactly what’s expected.

2. Gather the team for a huddle—According to LaBrosse, “Brainstorming and implementing the rules can be more effective if they are communicated through a well-run meeting.”

3. Make a game plan—LaBrosse offers some suggestions for managers when leading a meeting, which I won’t go into here, but a predetermined timeframe and agenda will help you keep your meetings on track.  Keep them short, is great advice for any meeting.

4. Coach your players—“Provide a safe platform to share thoughts, communicate constructive feedback, and ask questions.  This will encourage the team to meet their goals together and enjoy a shared sense of accomplishment,” says LaBrosse.

5. Surprise the team—LaBrosse suggests the sometimes it pays to “shake things up.”  Change where you have meetings, do some team-building activities, or give team members a few minutes every day to get to know each other better.

6. Review the highlights—It’s important to celebrate the successes as well as address the issues that need improvement.  “Identify what worked and what didn’t work for a lessons learned report,” suggests LaBrosse.  “This can be a living document that evolves as the project moves through its timeline.  It can be used for future forecasting and budgeting, planning, and staffing as well as evaluating process and structure.”

We can learn a lot from how an exceptional coach works with elite athletes to help that athlete bring his “A” game to every competition.  Project Managers can use many of those same skills to help their project teams all become “A” players.

To read all of LaBrosse’s article; click HERE.

Bogorad suggests the answers to these five questions will help you make an intelligent recommendation.  “This guide is strictly a practical tool that is not going to be concerned with how the case should have been written in the perfect world,” says Bogorad.  “…but how to make a decision based upon what you have in front of you (if at all possible).”

1) What is the case all about?
Once you’ve read the summary and reviewed the body, you should “be in a position to reflect on the objective of the proposal,” suggests Bogorad.  “Is there a legitimate business concern or opportunity that it identifies or addresses?  Are you tempted to shake your head [and] say ‘So what?’”

2) How can we get there?
“[T]he business case must be advocating some course of action,” says Bogorad, “but does it discuss alternatives that have been considered?”

There is usually more than one alternative to any particular issue.  If the submitter doesn’t discuss other alternatives—it’s up to you, as the reviewer, to consider them.

3) What are the costs and benefits?
“The business case should present to you a comparative analysis of pros and cons, cost and benefits of each of the alternatives,” says Bogorad.

Bogorad suggests the following key items you should expect to see:

•    Fit with mission, vision, values
•    Fit with strategy and other projects
•    Risk profile
•    Non-economic benefits and costs (qualitative, capacity)
•    Economic benefits and costs

“There are concrete established methods of economic analysis that need to be followed and done well if this important portion of the business case is to be worth more than the paper it’s written on,” says Bogorad.  “The fine details aside, you should expect to see the following two critical points addressed: Assumptions … To judge whether the case is reasonable, you must be able to judge whether the assumptions are reasonable … [and] Sources of Data … You want to know [where] the supporting data has come from.  Otherwise, how can it be trusted?”

4) What is involved?
“If the business case in front of you includes the implementation plan, check it for realism and completeness,” says Bogorad.

5) Is it both legal and ethical?
“I’m not kidding! Check with the legal council if you have any doubts,” asserts Bogorad.

You may never see a “perfect” business case, but if you follow Ilya Bogorad’s suggestions, you’ll be in pretty good shape.

To read the rest of the article; click HERE.

“CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and CFOs constantly complain about not finding enough seasoned IT people—project mangers, developers and architects—who understand business,” says Weinstein.  “Whatever the lingo, the plea is: ‘We need people with business acumen.’  In short, business smarts.”

We regularly discuss in this blog the need for Project Managers to understand the greater business context that projects fall into.  Unless managers have an understanding of how the projects they work on relate to corporate and financial goals—even if their projects are brought to a successful conclusion, they may fail—because they ignore overarching business objectives.

Mark Vickers of ic4p, suggests, “Managers with little or no knowledge of business principles are like lifeguards lacking swimming skills.  It’s dangerous because it can result in the kind of ill-informed decision-making that wrecks businesses.”

You Don’t Have to Buy Business Acumen

Dan Tobin, vice president of design and development at the New York City-based American Management Association, suggests, “… an MBA isn’t essential for building business acumen.”

“An MBA doesn’t hurt,” says Tobin.  “But the proven way to digest these business fundamentals is to be on the scene to observe, participate and most importantly, ask questions.  Ideally, the pursuit of business acumen ought to be a personal quest.  IT people can learn more about business by immersing themselves in the business aspects of the business.”

If you’re lucky enough to work in an organization that is willing to train technical managers in basic business practices, consider yourself fortunate.  Otherwise, it’s up to you to learn everything you can by studying for yourself, paying attention to your company’s unique business practices, or heading back to school to ramp up your business acumen.

“What is business acumen?” asks Weinstein.  “[I]t’s a combination of hands-on experience, book learning and a personal passion to learn everything you can about one of the most important variables that affect your job and future—how well or poorly your organization makes money.”

To read Weinstein’s article in it’s entirety; click HERE.

LaBrosse makes a couple of suggestions that could help you manage conflict on your team:

Conflict Assessment—Sometimes jumping into the fray isn’t the best idea. “[I]f its an enthusiastic conversation about the assignment and the dialog challenges everyone to find the best outcome,” says LaBrosse, “…let it run its course to reach a final solution.”

If the conflict is visibly upsetting the team, and members are resorting to mean-spirited remarks it’s time to intervene with the following suggestions:

Get Everyone on the Same Page—One of the biggest sources of conflict are opposing expectations. Miscommunication between team members, project managers, and stakeholders can cause small issues to explode into larger issues.

Roles and Responsibilities—“Don’t forget to outline roles and responsibilities for every project,” suggests LaBrosse. This will avoid confusion over who is doing what.

Communication Breakdown—Working in a collaborative culture will often resolve these issues. Team members sequestered into a private corner working in a silo and not sharing (or receiving) valuable information is just asking for problems.

“You’ll be surprised how minor changes can have a big impact,” says LaBrosse.

To read the entire article, click HERE.

It wasn’t that long ago that you could know just exactly what product or service every major corporation in the US provided. Those days are gone—or at least going.

Preston asks, “Does UPS deliver packages, or is it a full-service logistics and supply chain management company? Does Amazon.com sell books, music, electronics, and other consumer goods, or is it better positioned as an IT infrastructure provider? Does General Motors make cars and trucks, or is much of its future also in satellite-delivered navigation, safety, and security services? Is Cisco a network systems manufacturer when it doesn’t actually manufacture anything itself?”

Global competition, business acquisitions, and customer demand have certainly changed the way organizations do business today. There are many corporations that have major interests in everything from automobiles to cookies. This puts some pretty impressive demands on IT and organizational infrastructure.

Another InformationWeek writer, Bob Evans summed up the challenge this way, “In 12 months, what business will your customers want you to be in? In 24 months, what business will your customers demand you be in? And is your company nimble and agile enough to move at a pace that will let you change to meet the evolving requirements of those customers?”

If you’d like to read Mr. Preston’s entire article, click HERE.

Over the years I’ve seen a number of well-meaning people make some of these “rookie” leadership mistakes. Weinstein’s list rings true with my experience.

Here’s his list:

1. Bad attitude—You’re so impressed with your importance … you actually think you’re better than anyone else.
2. Make drastic changes without considering possible repercussions—Many new PMs think they should start out with a bang by asserting their authority immediately. Usually all they accomplish with this approach is to antagonize everyone who reports to them.
3. Initiate new projects without getting support from subordinates, peers, and stakeholders—You may have the authority to spend company money on new projects, but it’s not a good idea to push forward without the backing of all the people who will be working on them.
4. Make snap decisions—PMs who make snap decisions before they understand the corporate culture are making dangerous assumptions that are bound to backfire.

What should a new manager’s approach be during the first couple of weeks on the job? Weinstein makes a few suggestions in that regard too:

1. Be humble
2. Keep an open mind
3. Thoroughly understand your role and mission
4. Promote an open-door policy
5. Get to know your staff
6. Identify superstars and overachievers
7. Learn the corporate culture
8. Understand the power structure

The eight suggestions above will help any new manager avoid the four “rookie” pitfalls described by Weinstein. We’d like to hear about your experiences.

To read the complete article, click HERE.

The report entitled, The Agile Impact Report: Proven Performance Metrics from the Agile Enterprise, was commissioned by Rally software, and suggests that project teams were able to maintain normal defect counts despite the compressed development cycle.

The study compared data from 26 Agile development projects to plan-based, or waterfall industry averages in three key areas: productivity, time-to-market, and defects.

“On average, Agile projects measured in the study experienced a 16 percent increase in their team’s productivity—a significant increase given the different variables included in the PI measurement,” reports Projects@Work.

To read the Projects@Work article in its entirety, click HERE.

Rule #1: Make Risk Management Part of Your Project
Rule #2: Identify Risks Early in Your Project
Rule #3: Communicate About Risks
Rule #4: Consider Both Threats and Opportunities
Rule #5: Clarify Ownership Issues
Rule #6: Prioritize Risks
Rule #7: Analyze Risks
Rule #8: Plan and Implement Risk Responses
Rule #9: Register Project Risks
Rule #10: Track Risks and Associated Tasks

“The 10 golden risk rules above give you guidelines on how to implement risk management successfully in your project,” says Jutte. “However, keep in mind that you can always improve.

To read all of Bart Jutte’s article, click HERE.

According to Jordan, executing on projects that align with the goals of the organization on time and on budget is the right answer. Jordan suggests, “Your job is not to micro-manage every task…”

You Don’t Need to Get Bogged Down in the Details (As Much As You Think)

“I know many project managers who spend huge amounts of time building wonderfully detailed work breakdown structures that allow them to see exactly where a project should be at any given point in time—in some cases down to periods of less than an hour,” says Jordan. “Well I’m sorry if this next statement is heresy to some of you but … it’s a waste of time.”

Your job is to deliver the business benefit of the project, not every single task that makes up the project. (Although we agree that accomplishing tasks eventually delivers completed projects.)

“If you aren’t focused on business need—the delivery of the project,” says Jordan. “…you aren’t going to make smart decisions.”

The Big Picture is Important

“The bad news is that all of this doesn’t mean that you now have less work to do,” says Jordan. “It means that you can redirect your efforts into areas that have a bigger impact.”

Take advantage of the software tools available that make it easy to plan and execute on projects, facilitate communication, and make the project team work more effectively. @task, for example, is a great place to look.

“Trust me, no one is going to care if 90 percent of the tasks were late as long as the overall project hit its success criteria and the project team didn’t become casualties in the process,” says Jordan. “So take a moment to reflect on your personal project management style, and the next time you find out that one of your tasks is behind schedule, step back and ask yourself, ‘Does it matter?’”

What do you think?

To read the complete article click HERE.

1. Projects lack the right resources with the right skills
2. Projects lack experienced project managers
3. IT doesn’t follow a standard, repeatable project management process
4. IT gets hamstrung by too much process
5. They don’t track changes to the scope of the project
6. They lack up-to-date data about the status of projects
7. They ignore problems
8. They don’t take the time to define the scope of a project
9. They fail to see the dependencies between projects
10. They don’t consider Murphy’s Law
11. They give short shrift to change management
12. Project schedules are incomplete
13. IT doesn’t push back on unreasonable deadlines
14. They don’t communicate well with project sponsors or stakeholders

Most of these issues can be divided into two categories, a lack of adequate planning and poor communication. Although your organization might not suffer from all 14 of these common mistakes, if you’re like most organizations you are probably fighting with at least one or two.

What are you experiencing in your organization?

If you’d like to read the complete article, click HERE.

It’s no secret that the majority of software projects fail to meet expectations. Quoting the Harvard Business Review, Hughes states, “[T]wo-thirds of TQM programs ‘grind to a halt because of their failure to produce the hoped-for results,’ while ‘reengineering’ efforts experience a 70 percent failure rate. A study by Ernst & Young concluded that over 60 percent of organizations could not determine whether the CRM initiative they’d implemented had affected customer profitability.”

Most of these initiatives have significant investment in their success in terms of resources. According to Hughes, “This suggests the inherent limitation of traditional approaches and the need for a new perspective.”

Track Benefits Not Tasks

“Many companies focus on managing and completing discrete parts of the project,” says Hughes. “…while losing sight of the larger strategic objective of tracking and measuring the initiative’s benefits to the business.”

A Benefits Management Strategy

Hughes outlines, what he considers, a more effective approach.

1. A fact-based analysis of existing operations prior to commencement of the change initiative that clearly identifies and defines the potential improvement opportunity.

2. A dynamic focus on adjusting benefit management in response to internal and external change, to understand how given actions will impact benefit realization in the context of changing conditions.

3. A focus on improvement rather than activity: “reducing cycle times” and “redressing the balance between processing new business and selling new business” are emphasized, rather than “implementing SAP or VISTA” or “offshoring a business process.”

4. Tracking of the impact of decisions throughout the organization.

To read the complete article, click HERE.

Holohan lists the following four principles we can learn from Phelps and company:

1. Stay focused on the task at hand:

“Don’t get distracted by naysayers or detractors that tell you that your project will never succeed,” says Holohan. “Focus only on doing the job that you are getting paid to do and do it to the very best of your abilities.”

I’m sure Alain Bernard wanted to crawl under a rock when his team failed to “smash” the Americans.

2. Don’t focus on your team’s shortcomings:

“Do you and your team members focus on your abilities or your liabilities?” asks Holohan.

The hero of the relay wasn’t Phelps, it was Lezak, the “Old Man,” who came from a full body length behind with the fastest relay leg in history—an incredible 46.06 time. Lezak could have been considered the “weakest” leg of the relay—and I’m sure Alain Bernard and the French team thought they had the race won after the turn.

3. Don’t make excuses:

Holohan asks, “Do you ever find yourself making excuses or blaming others when things aren’t going as well as you would like?”

“When Lezak dove in during the last leg of the relay … it would have been easy for him to make excuses that the US was already too far behind the French to make a difference,” says Holohan. “Instead, he did what he and his teammates set out to do—win the gold by focusing and not giving up!”

4. Stay gracious:

“Do you take the time to appreciate others regardless [of whether] your team is successful or not?” asks Mr. Holohan.

Being courteous to your co-workers will never go out of style.

What do you think? To read the entire post, click HERE.

“If you don’t identify risk areas and have some sort of response plan, then you’re setting yourself up for really tough times,” says Reed.

Reed and Waddell suggest a common-sense methodology for detecting and then verifying risk:

Step 1: Detection

Reed suggests that a solid risk identification analysis begins with a brainstorming session.

“In a good brainstorming session, you want everyone to think of something different,” says Waddell. “The focus is on quantity. The more people you include, the more ideas coming through, the more likely you are to find an uncommon solution.”

Waddell suggests a moderator to facilitate the brainstorm session and act as a recorder to keep track of the ideas that are raised.

Step 2: Verification

“In our projects, we use TBQ, Taxonomy-Based Risk [questionnaire], but that’s dangerous because if you rely [solely] on that, you could overlook things,” says Waddell.

Waddell and Reed suggest using multiple methods for identifying and quantifying risk. And although the object is to identify potential risk as projects start, risk identification is an ongoing process as projects are in process.

“Everyone involved in the project can identify risk,” says Waddell. “Once you have that, you start to achieve cost, schedule, and technical goals on budget and in some cases you can even exceed them.”

What do you think?

To read the complete article, click HERE.

In Part Four, Nankivel talks about Deming’s 8th and 9th points.

Point 8: Fear is Out, Trust is In—I’ve worked in organizations where management felt like a little fear was a good thing. I disagree with this philosophy—and I must be right, because Deming disagreed with it too.

“The manifestations of fear are many, including fear of reprisal … failure … the unknown … relinquishing control … change … and more,” says Nankivel. “If project managers are controlled by fear of reprisal, it is likely that they will withhold or delay revealing negative information. Earned value management data and other types of status reporting can easily be manipulated by crafty project managers to avoid reprisal.”

With any new project, managers and teams are often diving into undiscovered country. If they are afraid to expose the unknowns and explore new ideas, we’ll continue to see project failure statistics that exceed 70%.

“A big part of project management is about dealing with uncertainty, and making the unknowns known,” says Nankivel. “Good project management can alleviate much of the fear associated with unknowns.”

Point 9: Break Down Barriers—“This point is about dissolving the ‘us-versus-them’ scenario that so often exists in one from or another within organizations,” says Nankivel.

When organizations are on the same page, and working for common goals, the “us-versus-them” mentality has no room to flourish. Accomplishing this paradigm requires organizations to choose and manage projects based upon strategic and financial goals—and sharing those goals with project managers and teams so the projects they work on hold real value to them, and their organizations.

Do this, and it makes sense to hold project managers accountable for stakeholder satisfaction—don’t do it, and it makes it more difficult to assign that accountability.

To read Nankivel’s article in its entirety, click HERE.

In an article published on Developer.com, Marcia Gulesian talks about the influx of new communication tools, including blogs, wikis and group messaging software that allow “more spontaneous, knowledge-based collaboration.”

“These new tools may well supplant other communication and knowledge management systems with their superior ability to capture tacit knowledge, best practices, and relevant experiences from throughout a company and make them readily available to more users,” says Gulesian. “Only time will tell.”

I remember when the computer on my desk was a dumb terminal attached to a mini-computer in the phone closet. I’m excited about the pace technology advances to make my job easier. For example, before cell phones, I had to know every payphone in my area to retrieve my messages—and, it was my secretary who gave them to me, not my voice mail.

My first cell phone, the size of a small brick, made it possible to be on the golf course with one client and answer questions from another—all at the same time. However, compared to my iPhone, I was living in the dark ages.

That said, according to Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Can we afford to manage business with the same paradigm that existed even ten years ago, with edicts filtering down from the top of a corporate hierarchy? Like it or not, information technology changes things. Employees and customers are more involved than ever in what happens with the products or services they purchase.

“In my view, the barriers to the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 are as much behavioral … as they are technological,” says Gulesain.

Organizations need to realize that user groups, communities, and forums are nothing to be taken lightly. Listening to your customers is important. Don’t do it, and you’ll be sitting in the phone closet, alone and in the dark.

What do you see in your organization?

To read the article in its entirety, click HERE.

In a recent article published by ProjectSmart, Franklin suggests there is a lot of training available for leadership in general, but the unique nature of projects and those that manage them make project management a little different.

“[P]roject managers often have limited control over resources and don’t have formal line management reporting roles,” says Franklin. “They need to motivate staff working in their teams in a creative way because they probably won’t be able to offer formal rewards such as wage rise or promotions. They have to think of alternative ways to motivate staff.”

I agree with Franklin when she asserts that “…leadership is an intangible human quality that inspires us to follow the direction set by someone else.”

Project managers need the crucial skills associated with bringing projects in on time and on budget along with the ability to encourage, motivate, and inspire others.

To read the entire article by Melanie Franklin, click HERE.

Nankivel asks, “Do all of the project managers in your organization get exposure to lessons learned from other projects?”

If your organization is like most, the answer is probably no. This leads us to Deming’s point #5:

Point 5: Continuous Improvement—Many organizations struggle with making the same mistakes over and over again. “I see so many mistakes that are made again and again, and lessons learned that are either completely undocumented or filed away after a project, never to be seen again,” says Nankivel. “The only way to truly be committed to continuous improvement is to have a common, shared project management methodology in the first place.”

Nankivel is not suggesting that all project managers act as “drones,” but a standard methodology gives everyone an opportunity to work within a structure for making improvements. This is very consistent with “Deming’s Circle,” Plan, Study, and Act.

Point 6: Train For The Job—“A quality organization understands the value of the people who work in it,” says Nankivel. “Training project managers, analysts, and everyone else who regularly works on projects, from the company methodology to soft skills, can bring significant rewards.”

Nankivel suggests that many organizations skirt this issue with what they call “on-the-job training,” but he asserts that it’s not enough. There are a number of ways to demonstrate a commitment to training; Nankivel lists seven of them.

Point 7: Invest In Leadership—“Supervising/managing is simply overseeing and directing work,” says Nankivel. “Leadership is providing guidance to help employees [do] their jobs better with less effort. It’s all the elements of training, example-setting, continuous improvement of systems, etc. together.”

Nankivel suggests that if you want project managers who are good leaders, your organizations need to be training them to be good leaders. It doesn’t just happen.

To read all of the article, click HERE.

Managing projects in a portfolio allows business leaders to sift through the clutter of project requests and focus on those that align best with corporate strategic and financial goals. Berinato suggests that “[i]t will elevate the CIO in other executive’s eyes because he (finally) will be speaking in their native tongue.”

“Of course, the price for that influence is accountability: Portfolio management makes IT completely responsible for its actions,” says Berinato.

Mr. Berinato offers five levels of what portfolio management should be:

1. Put all your projects in one database
2. Prioritize the projects in your database
3. Divide your projects into two or three budgets based on the type of investment
4. Automate the repository
5. Apply modern portfolio theory to IT

By managing projects in a portfolio, Berinato suggests that “[t]he CIO is able to use the same tools as the CFO and have the same accountability as a senior sales executive. The reward for the CIO is clear: a more central and crucial role in the business.”

What do you think?

To read all of Mr. Berinato’s article, click HERE.

Wood suggests that one of the reasons projects are considered outside of the mainstream is because they “…do not follow any prescribed process that is routine or operational in nature.”

“Of course, treating projects as a normal and routine function of the business assumes that there are always projects to be done,” says Wood. “Certainly, if an organization only performs a few projects a year they may consider them as anecdotal to the enterprise and thus outsource the process to consultants and specialists. Nevertheless, for most companies of any size, there seems to be a never-ending flow of projects that need to be justified, planned, conducted and deployed.”

Wood suggests the five following changes organizations need to make to turn project management into a true business function:

1. A change in perspective amongst the project community
2. An acknowledgement that project plans—no matter what the application focus—can be assembled through a set of predefined and predictable tasks and task clusters
3. Adoption of a PMO and PM lifecycle framework that treats projects as a complex set of inter-related transactions
4. Adoption of a more business-friendly terminology for labeling project activities (business plans instead of charters; documents instead of artifacts; procedures instead of tasks; etc.)
5. Deployment of transactions and data repository business applications to track, manage and analyze the project portfolio and underlying projects

Making this a reality will require a paradigm shift, but integrating the project management process into routine business functions could make project management methodology more accessible to organizations that work with defined processes, but don’t necessarily call them projects.

What do you think?

To read Wood’s article, click HERE.

In my opinion, anything that helps project managers keep projects on-time, on-budget, and delivers the desired product is a good thing. And a SaaS solution can do that, provided it’s the right solution.

“There are many aspects of projects that remain to be handled in-house, from project scheduling, data migration, acceptance testing, training, rollout to follow on release planning, etc.,” says Zuckerman. “These steps don’t go away just because the server is in someone else’s data center. SaaS promises quicker deployment times, easier rollout, which means you need to understand what it takes to successfully deploy a solution for your end user.”

Using a SaaS solution as part of your IT portfolio to manage projects could make sense for your organization at a number of levels. Click HERE to read all of Zuckerman’s article and see if a SaaS solution makes sense for you.

“In applying Deming’s management philosophy to project management, leaders and teams are encouraged to improve flawed processes rather than manipulate or ignore them,” says Nankivel. “Likewise, projects aren’t run in silos or monitored exclusively through the lens of short-term thinking, but instead speak to the future of the entire organization.”

Deming’s points 3 and 4 are as follows:

Point 3: Inspection is not punishment
Deming urged us to design quality into processes. Inspection is a tool to learn and measure whether or not we are successful. “Inspecting project performance through the lens of continuous improvement facilitates applying lessons learned to a consistent and ever-improving methodology,” suggests Nankivel.

Point 4: Product Lifecycle Costing
Although Deming wasn’t speaking to project management with this point, if we consider Point 4 in the context of the “big picture,” as Nankivel suggests, I think it applies.

Nankivel argues that we should consider the benefits of a project in terms of how it relates to the entire system, and not just a particular project. He also suggests that we consider costs over the complete lifecycle of the deliverables, not just the duration of any particular project.

To read all of Nankivel’s article and a more complete description, click HERE.

1. Know your goal
2. Know your team
3. Know your stakeholders
4. Spend time on planning and design
5. Promise low, deliver high
6. Iterate, increment, evolve
7. Stay on track
8. Manage change
9. Test early, test often
10. Keep an open mind

To read a complete description of Jenkins’ list, click HERE. Like many complex problems, the answers can often be found by keeping it simple.

In a recent article for Projects@Work, Jim Stroh, CEO of the project management consultancy Proggex, talks about successfully creating a PMO. “Companies need to take stock of their overall business processes and decide where a PMO will fit,” says Stroh. “It’s important that the PMO is in line with the company’s goals so that the projects don’t become shortsighted and collapse due to lack of support.”

Stroh recommends a top-down approach so the PMO isn’t considered “just another bureaucracy.” Here is a checklist of Stroh’s six best practices for creating a PMO:

• Specify the purpose of the PMO in the organization
• Commit to the major cultural change of implementing a PMO
• Make sure the roles of the PMO are methodically defined
• Support for the PMO’s functions must be obtained from stakeholders at all levels
• Regularly conduct a PMO assessment
• Find the right project management tools for your PMO

To read the entire article, click HERE.

“The successful PMO is focused on what is necessary to deliver on time, on scope, on budget and on quality deliverables for all of the projects and programs that it has responsibility for,” says Jordan. “The portfolio management function is focused on ensuring that those deliverables—and the timing that they become available—is aligned with the needs of the business and the environment that the business exists in.”

I think Jordan makes a good case. Portfolio management is more about evaluating projects and potential projects on their value to the organization, while the PMO is responsible for the nuts and bolts of where the rubber hits the road.

“An organization cannot lose site of the fundamental purpose of portfolio management: No matter how the implementation is achieved, the goal is to have an accurate, timely, high-level view of all project information that impacts the overall business and its environment, and to communicate to project teams all of the decisions/changes that the business priorities and environment dictate,” continues Jordan. However, this means that the communications are structured, they have to be effective and efficient—otherwise the value of portfolio management is significantly undermined.”

What do you think?

To read all of Andy Jordan’s article, click HERE.

The PMI suggests that whether you work in the public sector or not, there are five trends that you might want to learn more about:

1. Managing Multiple Stakeholders
2. Adapting to a Political Landscape
3. Understanding Local Politics
4. Dealing With Public Scrutiny
5. Dealing With a Pay Cut

These issues aren’t unique to the public sector. Click HERE to read more about what the PMI has to say about these five issues and how it could relate to your company.

• Is your company running without a CEO?
• Who do your engineers report to?
• Do you have an accounting or finance function?
• Who do they report to?

“Even in this day of flat organizations and multidiscipline teams, almost all of you will have replied that your organization does have a CEO, that engineers report to an Engineering Manager, and that there is a Chief Financial Officer (or similar title) heading up the finance function and watching out for the firm’s financial health and objectives,” says Levine.

Levine suggests that it makes irrefutable sense to maintain hierarchical structures within organizations. “Without defined leaders in these important functions, who will define the department’s mission?” asks Levine. “Who will set the standards? Where will the leadership and mentoring come from?”

Mr. Levine makes a great case for organizations to consider a CPO. Click HERE to access the paper from TechRepublic.com. (NOTE: If you’re not a registered member, you’ll need to create a profile and a FREE membership to view Mr. Levine’s paper.)

Kothari offers a set of Ten Golden Rules and a series of questions to help you access the effectiveness of your projects and your organization’s project management maturity level. Below is a list of the rules, but you’ll want to check out the article to see where you stand.

Golden Rule #1: Develop a Project Organization
Golden Rule #2: Formulate a Team Purpose
Golden Rule #3: Scope and Sell the Project
Golden Rule #4: Insulate Team from Management Issues
Golden Rule #5: Teams Optimize, Individuals Maximize
Golden Rule #6: Encourage & Facilitate Open Communication
Golden Rule #7: Institutionalize Positive Mindset
Golden Rule #8: Remember the Five “R”s
Golden Rule #9: Implement Consistent & Predictable Processes
Golden Rule #10: Transition the Team Graciously

Creating successful teams that get work done doesn’t happen automatically.

“Teams are built around four basic principles that recognize the importance of Team Structure, Team Process, Team Culture and Team Influence,” says Kothari. “Teams must embrace a common purpose, and develop and follow a set of common processes based on a set of values and culture adopted by the team.”

Click HERE to visit the article and see where your organization is right now.

Should you go back to school to get your MBA? Click HERE to read the entire article and see if an MBA makes sense for your career.

The editorial staff at Projects@Work suggest, “Providing a framework for applying emotional intelligence to meet the unique challenges of project managers, the book offers tools, techniques and guidance to communicate effectively with team members and stakeholders; evaluate emotional information to make better decisions; anticipate and avoid emotional breakdowns; deal with difficult team members and manage conflict; and cast a vision for shared project objectives that will energize, inspire and motivate.”

If you’ve read the book, we’d like to know what you think.

Click HERE to read more about the book, Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers.

One in a series of articles about the different roles on software development teams, Bogue discusses the role project management plays in the development process.

“Within the context of the software development process the project management role is responsible for driving the work through the process and to completion,” says Bogue. “Project managers work with both the development team and with business stakeholders to ensure that what is being built will match what the customer expects and that this development occurs within the expected time frame.”

Bogue goes on to discuss the career path for project managers and the skills most project managers share. Like any role, there is good and bad, which Bogue also addresses. However, if you possess the ability to adapt to an ever-changing environment, the right people skills, and the ability to right a floundering project, your skills are in high demand.

Click HERE to read Mr. Bogue’s entire article.

“In these tight economic times, when the perception is that training dollars are where the first and biggest cuts occur, there are a remarkably large number of companies whose employees don’t use all of the training budget that is available to them,” says Jordan. “I want to help you spend the dollars available to you, whether you have a personal budget, a team budget or just a department budget—and I want to introduce you to the project management training triumvirate!”

Jordan’s three concepts are:

1. Project Management Skills: The Basic skills required to run a project—time management, project planning, status reporting, etc.

2. Project Process Skills: The different approaches to project management and its elements—RUP vs. RAD, critical path vs. critical chain, etc.

3. Soft Skills: Personal and team development—effective communication, negotiating skills, leadership, etc.

“The best project managers are the ones who are constantly looking to improve all of these skills,” says Jordan.

What do you think?

To read the entire article, click HERE.

In the first of a six-part series written by Josh Nankivel and published by Projects@Work, Nankivel begins a discussion of Deming’s landmark 14 Points For Management that was originally published in his 1983 book Out of Crisis.

Nankivel does a good job of describing Deming’s first two points and relating them to current project management thought.

1. Improvement From the Top

2. Creating a Cooperative Culture

“Deming … called for a new style of management, and intended to help everyone enjoy their work and produce excellence,” says Nankivel. “[The 14 Points for Management’s] original context was operations, but they are equally applicable in project management, and many of them make a compelling case for project portfolio management and project management offices.”

What do you think?

Click HERE to read Nankivel’s entire article.

It’s not as difficult as some might think. According to Wood, all it takes is the ability to think strategically, financially, operationally, and technologically simultaneously, and in that order.

Wood suggests that successful CIOs, “…set aside the technology and focus on the issues of the organization in terms of what their boss and peers see them to be.” With the CEO, CFO, and COO on your side, “…you are bound for CIO glory,”

To read all of Mr. Wood’s article, click HERE.

An interesting article on ProjectSmart.co.uk proposes, “Success boils down to the character and talent of the person leading the project over and above the mechanisms used to deliver the project.”

Method and process are important tools when used by a project manager who can communicate, motivate, inspire, and lead.

The article goes on to suggest three specific attributes critical to successful project leadership. Click HERE to read more.

What do you think? Are leadership skills more important in successful project management than the methodology, tools, and the process?

It’s no secret that a lot of software projects fail to measure up to expectation or actually fail altogether. Kimmel suggests 4 relatively simple choices for spending your time and focusing your efforts that will make all the difference in the world.

Click HERE to read Kimmel’s article and learn the 4 steps.

Simms boils these three powerful principles down and suggests, “… You need to set the ground rules with your team upfront.”

To read Simms’ complete article and learn the ground rules, click HERE.

How does your project leadership team measure up?

Today, most organizations have a CIO in the boardroom and IT has become a business driver, not just a business tool.

This makes strategic project managers and the teams they lead incredibly valuable too. Panner suggests five steps to becoming a strategic project manager.

1. Change how you think about projects
2. Invest time into understanding the organization financials
3. Learn to analyze projects based upon sound R.O.I.
4. Make the role of project manager a go-to position in your organization
5. Make the board aware of your strategic importance

Strategic project managers do more than bring projects in on time and under budget, they’re generating leads, building customer loyalty, and re-enforcing the company brand. Click HERE to read more about strategic project management and start filling that role in your organization.

“For as long as I’ve been covering tech career trends (about 15 years,) employers have complained about shortages of IT professionals who have the right balance of ‘people skills’ and tech-skills du jour,” says Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, posting for John Soat. “However, now there’s a new skill shortage developing—a scarcity of ‘emotionally intelligent’ IT leaders.”

The book is a fairly academic read that isn’t for the faint of heart, but in a nutshell, emotional intelligence is the ability (or inability) to identify and understand emotions and how they relate to dealing with others.

“Baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Millenials—everyone is trying to work together like one big, happy, dysfunctional family,” says McGee.

Click HERE to read the complete post and learn if you’re an emotionally intelligent leader and if you’ve found emotional intelligence to be an important leadership quality in your organization.

“The results of the study point to a gap between what IT leadership knows it needs to do and what it has accomplished to date in terms of environmental responsibility,” said Derek Kober, Director of the BPM Forum. “In polling the marketplace and talking with industry leaders, we have heard that there are opportunities for those that deliver on the environmental promise to also save substantial costs and drive revenue opportunities through more efficient and enhanced data performance practices.”

Click HERE to read the entire article. You can also download the study for $199.

Project and portfolio management tools allow you to view several projects much like an investment portfolio. “They allow you to monitor projects throughout their lifecycles,” says InfoWeek’s Leon Erlanger. “For each portfolio, they help you balance risky but potentially strategic projects with bread-and-butter, “keep-the-lights-on” projects.”

Looking at the bigger picture of the project portfolio allows managers to keep projects focused on projects that best align with business strategic and financial goals.

To read all of Erlanger’s article, click HERE.

Like the debate over Mac and PC, there’s a lot of discussion in the project management community about Waterfall and Agile project management methods.

“Hi, I’m a PC, er… Waterfall.”

“Hi, I’m Agile.”

“So PC or Mac, what kind of project manager are you?” asks Bob Tame in a recent article for Projects@Work. “Hopefully, you recognize there is value in being both.”

Tame confesses to using a Mac, and earning his Scrum Master Certification earlier this year.

Click HERE to read the entire article and read more about which approach you should take into account for the unique characteristics of your projects.

The “Philadelphia PM Project” will give students a solid introduction to project management. “In addition to the pilot course this summer,” says Cassandra W. Jones, Ed.D., interim chief academic officer for the School District of Philadelphia, “We will have pilots at Philadelphia high schools in the fall of 2008 and the spring of 2009.”

Click HERE to read more about this exciting new program.

In a brief InformationWeek article by Larry Greenemeier, he recaps Allen’s keynote at an InformationWeek Spring Conference held a couple of years ago. “You think about everyone who touched your vehicle,” said Allen. “You can’t help but think about all the things that could go wrong.”

Allen manages over 4,000 contractors for NASA and has some understanding of project management from both ends of the rocket. Project success comes down to preparation and managing risks, whether you’re launching the shuttle into space or managing a new software launch.

To read more of Allen’s comments, click HERE.

“I have heard variations on the theme that a particular technology, or a not-yet-released piece of software, will be the magic ‘silver bullet’ for holes in a project,” says Dickerson. “The silver-bullet approach almost never works … Remember that technology is often like fire—it provides heat, but it can also burn.”

Click HERE to read Dickerson’s column, What Does It All Mean.

Schwab continues, “Too many project management methods—from waterfall to new agile methods—advertise themselves as the one-size-fits-all solution to an organization’s project challenges.”

To successfully manage projects, it’s important to size up your organization to better understand what methods will work the best for you. Schwab suggests the following three interrelated elements of a project’s success:

1- The person managing the project
2- The project itself
3- The organization doing the project

Schwab describes how to evaluate these three areas to ensure that you fit the project management methodology that best fits your organization.

To read the article, click HERE

We all know that failing, or struggling projects are a fact of life; in fact every project manager is going to have his share of struggling projects. In his article Project Triage, Bruce Beer suggests that incorporating the principles of medical triage might help resuscitate a project gasping for breath.

“Remember the TV series M*A*S*H?” asks Beer. “Whenever they had an influx of injuries, the first thing they did was ‘triage,’ which is the process of prioritizing sick or injured people for treatment according to the seriousness of the condition or injury.”

Whether your project is behind schedule, over budget, under resourced, or facing poor quality deliverables, here’s a simple triage that might help save the patient.

1- Evaluate the overall condition of the project
2- Prioritize and tackle the most serious problems first
3- Determine if the project can be saved
4- Decide if you need to cut your losses and move on rather than waste time on fruitless intervention

To read Bruce Beer’s complete article, click HERE.

Cabanis-Brewin suggests that CEOs and financial officers can no longer claim they didn’t know what was going on in their organizations when risky projects, accounting irregularities, and shady deals end up on the front pages of newspapers.

Project managers have wanted more executive-level involvement for years. It looks like Sarbox is forcing the issue. “Project mangers will have all the executive attention they can stand … and then some,” says Cabanis-Brewin. “It’s a classic case of getting what you wished for.”

Managing Risk and Knowing What’s Going On

To effectively manage risk, managers and executives need to know what’s going on within individual projects in their portfolio. Start digging into your projects and you will find that one enterprise issue is connected to another. Cabanis-Brewin asserts that, “The integrative skills that are the souls of project management have never been more needed by organizations; the pressure to perform them effectively never more intense.”

Are you seeing this in your organization? What do you think?

To read the entire article by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin, click HERE.

1- PPM brings realism to the organization’s planning process. Decision makers consider a lot of very worthwhile projects. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have the unlimited resources that would be required to do them all. Effective PPM allows organizations to evaluate and prioritize projects based upon the resources available and how well they align with corporate strategy and financial goals.

2- PPM brings rationality in the allocation of resources, both human and financial. A successful PPM process helps organizations maximize their resources to get the most done with the capabilities they have. Establishing budgets (for both dollars and human resources) is an important part of the process. Cabanis-Brewin says, “For some companies the scarcest resource isn’t money but project managers. A critical factor in project selection becomes: Do we have a PM who can manage it?”

3- PPM brings visibility to project work and project people. It’s very important to know who’s working on what and how they’re doing. PPM software must allow executives and project managers to drill into every project and view project status in real time. “The recent trend toward improved resource tracking and leveling functionality in PM software is a great boon to the portfolio manager,” says Cabanis-Brewin.

To read the complete article, click HERE.