January 2009 Archives

Roger Chou, Taiwan-based CEO of Advanced Business Consulting and founder of the Institute of Taiwan Project Management, recently became the first person in Asia to receive PMI's Program Management Professional (PgMP®) credential. We recently discussed what earning the certification means to him and what it could mean for the region.

Why did you pursue the PgMP credential?
    Over the last three years, I have trained over 2,300 [Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential holders], boosting the number of qualified managers in Taiwan to 5,388. This brought us into the top eight countries of PMP-certified project managers in the year 2008--overtaking Germany and Great Britain, which were originally the 8th and 9th place.
    But I wondered if the PgMP [credential] could help Taiwanese enterprises cope with the worldwide economic downturn. I observed successful international enterprises survive previous economic hardships--what strategies did they use? I analyzed what they had done, and found they had produced synergies between their projects through portfolio strategies. Soon I realized these were lessons learned from PgMP [credential].
    We can see the PgMP credential philosophy behind such successes as Nintendo's new Wii video game console, Sony's range of stylish consumer electronics, like Vaio laptops and Bravia digital TVs, and Apple's iPhone, combining mobile phone, PDA, music player, video player, and digital camera functionalities all into one.
    Unlike the PMP [credential], whose target audience are project managers, the PgMP [credential] is aimed at senior managers, such as company CEOs. The PgMP [credential] exam is concerned mainly with how to do things in the most effective way (especially with large programs), ... improve competitiveness, and, more importantly, guide business leaders on how best to coordinate projects to produce the greatest synergy.

Why is continuing education and training important to you?
I think if you want to stay on top of the world, you should always work to improve yourself by accepting challenges, which will certainly help you survive this economic downturn.

How does it feel to be the first Chinese manager in Asia with this certification?
It is absolutely an honor. It is almost an impossible mission for Chinese managers to obtain PgMP certification. I have read through 13 textbooks in English, which is a tough challenge even for native English speakers.
    My mother tongue is not English, and passing an exam that even native English speakers find difficult means a lot to managers throughout Asia. It signifies that as long as we are willing to make the effort, and use the right method, we can do anything.

Editor's Note: Find out more all of PMI's credentials by visiting PMI.org.

What kind of picture would you paint if you were asked to see yourself being a project manager in the defense industry?
    I work in that industry and I see a culture where the pace of progress is slow due to rigid processes and traditional pyramid organizational structure.  
    In the same setting, projects are managed through the waterfall process. And although things are changing due to the current economic situation, the planning phase spans multiple years and then you move on to development, testing and deployment. And because these project budgets are in the magnitude of millions and billions of dollars, there is no incentive to "do more with less."
    I can recount the theme of the conversations I've had with more experienced project managers. They would tell me that in the old days companies earned their profits by the number of heads they staffed on projects. (Note: Cost plus contract was a popular vehicle for funding many defense projects.)
    Fast forward to present time. Cyndee Miller recently blogged on the top 10 project management trends for 2009 from ESI International. I agree with her that Leveraging Communities of Practice To Hone Skills and Navigating Virtual Teams Through Change as being nothing new to project management communities in general.
    But in the defense industry, that is not reality. What is happening at the project management frontline for defense industry is as follow:

•    Unable to come up with coherent vision and strategy, senior executives believe there is a technology silver bullet to leveraging communities of practices. Inevitably, huge enterprise knowledge tools (i.e., Sharepoint sites, wikis, engineering blogs) sit idly because no one wants to use them.
•    The idea of having virtual teams on a project meant for example that this brief work proposal is no more than 6 weeks and the company planned on temporarily co-locating the entire off site team to the main facility to work.

    In my humble opinion, there are huge opportunities for project managers to be the change agents within the industry. As long as you don't mind playing catch up, you could be the one managing projects that would safeguard our future.

I'm always looking for the good news these days. Here is something I thought might be encouraging ...
    Baseline.com listed project management and project portfolio management as No. 9 of 10 on its list of IT trends for 2009. The article said:

In today's time-sensitive and budget-conscious world, getting projects finished on time is paramount. Not surprisingly, more and more organizations are turning to structured systems and software to track all the details. Consequently, project management (PM) and project portfolio management (PPM) have moved into the spotlight.

    This sense of hyper-efficiency taking over the business world (mostly in response to what else, but the global economic crisis) could open a lot of doors for project professionals.

Friends and colleagues, I hope 2008 was a productive year for you. No doubt some of us are already feeling the need to take another break.
    With the pressure of the economic downturn, many companies are looking for leaders who can see the big picture and motivate the mass with clear visions. I want to share a story with you. Ten months ago in a large defense company, the vice president of engineering declared that the focus for the year was going to be on defect prevention. Everyone was to do their part to ensure that quality is priority number one when products are delivered to the customers.
    The strategies to enable the vision included:
1. Adhering to rigorous formal inspection process for all product development
2. Following an extensive automated test regimen
3. Implementing additional gate reviews to ensure product quality
    Project managers soon found themselves guiding/mentoring teams on following processes, ramping up quickly on expensive software tools, and spending more time conducting "mission assurance" activities.
    All would have been well except that in the same timeframe, the vice president of the product line also announced the vision for the year: "First to market; driven business with agility." And to meet the challenging business climate, everyone needed to be focused on generating value.
    The strategies to enable the vision included:
1. Adopting the use of lean Six Sigma to increase efficiency for all product development,
2. Relying on the use of rapid prototyping--which requires early customer/stakeholder feedback--to ensure customer satisfaction
3. Less gating reviews.
    The end result was disastrous. Project teams created sophisticated enterprise applications that are still waiting to be used. Employee morale suffered because there was a constant tug-of-war between the mandates to implement more processes versus generating revenue faster.
    Sensing the frustration of their team members, project managers united to present their case to senior management on why a new direction is needed. Heeding the wise counsel of the project managers, the vice presidents made changes.
    This year, the vice president of engineering shared her vision of business success through innovation where everyone plays an important role in contributing to the bottom line of the company. Ironically, the vice president of product line decided to share his vision as well. Due to poor ratings from customers in the previous year the vision is defect prevention.   

The 2010 Winter Olympics project team got some bad news last week, thanks mainly to the growing worldwide recession.
    Toronto, Canada-based telecom company Nortel filed for bankruptcy after posting a CA$3.14 billion loss last November. As of now, however, the company is saying it will remain a sponsor.
    Also, earlier last week, the host city of Vancouver, British Columbia, also had to seek out CA$450 million from the government to help with over budget projects, including the athletes village.
    All that negative press led to the resignation of Jody Andrews, deputy city manager for Vancouver in charge of the Olympic Village project.
    And the Vancouver Organizing Committee board held a special meeting to create a new recessionary budget.

Editor's Note: This post is part of a yearlong series on the 2010 Olympics. For more information, read past posts and checkout PMI.org/features.

I came across a reassuring quote I wanted to share.
    It comes from Vijay Kanabar, a Westford, Connecticut, USA-based project manager, professor at Boston University and author of Project Risk Management:
    "In today's turbulent economy becoming a project manager is a great career choice."
    I know some projects are being put on hold, but there's still the promise of more to come. Countries around the world are turning to infrastructure projects as a way to get out of this economic crisis.
    And then there is the innovation factor.
    Even when this whole recession mess started months ago, innovation was brought up time after time as part of the solution. A McKinsey Global Survey from November reported that 65% of executives saw innovation as one of their top three priorities.
    That rallying call doesn't seem to be dying down any either.  
    U.S. automakers bailed out by the government were challenged to become relevant again through innovation.
    Companies like Samsung, American Express and Nokia have all sustained their commitment to innovation.
    "These companies are not cutting back on innovation ... We're not just talking about products and services, but about customer experience," said George S. Day, co-director of Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation in the article Finding Money for Innovation: Develop Those People Skills.
    And even venture capitalist companies are playing their part. Just this week, the London,    England-based Balderton Capital announced a new £285 million tech and media fund to capitalize on promising business plans.
With innovation comes implementation.
    And like Gregory Balestrero said: "... We need innovation as a strategy, especially to tackle our problems. And we need project management to make sure that we deliver on this strategy..."

Last week, ESI International revealed its list of the top 10 project management trends for 2009. Here's what made the cut:

1. The Sandwich Generation: Middle Managers' Emerging Role in Change
2. Navigating Virtual Teams Through Change
3. Sharper Distinctions Between Project and Program Management
4. Leveraging Communities of Practice To Hone Skills
5. Strategic Selling of the Project Management Office (PMO)
6. Back to Basics for Successful Project Portfolio Management
7. Right-sizing Staff with Demand Driven Resource Management
8. Improved Requirements Metrics
9. People Will Come Before Technology
10. Risk Management for Governance

Most of these seem spot on to me. They reflect today's turbulent global economy and talent needs--and echo the things I am hearing from project managers I talk to. Probably the one that struck me the most was Sharper Distinctions Between Project and Program Management. I think any program manager--or even project manager--would agree that you can't simply be promoted to program manager. It is a different skill set.
    On the other hand, two of ESI's trends struck me as nothing new: Leveraging Communities of Practice To Hone Skills and Navigating Virtual Teams Through Change. Project management communities of practice have been around for a while now. Take a look at LinkedIn, Facebook or Orkut. Some of those project management communities have over 1,000 members.
       PMI is even getting into the mix with its new Virtual Communities project that will help users build a global knowledge base and create a community where users can network and exchange ideas.
    And virtual teams? This discussion has been happening for years as well. Perhaps it is just the necessity is growing?

What do you think? Any trends missing?

As the United States inches closer and closer to inauguration day, President-elect Barack Obama is making one thing clear: This country is project ready.
    His proposed economic stimulus plan (said to total $775 billion), if it passes through U.S. Congress, would reinvigorate "shovel-ready" projects around the country that were stalled due to lack of funding.
    And that has politicians around the country making out their wish lists.
    Last December, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Ready to Go, a 1,559-page report outlining 15,221 local infrastructure projects in 641 cities can launch as soon as federal funding becomes available. The report claims the projects will produce more than 1.2 million jobs in 2009 and 2010.
    Projects in the report include:
•    An expansion of the Port of Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska
•    The construction of an animal-control facility in Bessemer, Alabama
•    A carbon-footprint reduction project in Citrus Heights, California,
•    Solar power grid installations in Cocoa Beach, Florida
•    Low-income housing construction in Jackson, Mississippi
•    Roadway improvements in low-income neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio
•    Structural improvements to library branches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
•    Construction of a water treatment plant in La Barge, Wyoming
    Although many see infrastructure as a necessity for getting out of the country's current recession, government watchdog groups like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) are crying foul.
    In response to the mayor's report, CAGW president Tom Schatz said: "It is outrageous that the mayors would use this economic crisis as an opportunity to obtain federal funding for these wasteful, low-priority projects, which apparently offer excellent photo opportunities for them, but will do nothing to stimulate the economy in the long term."
    While there's nothing wrong with a little healthy skepticism about wasteful spending, the economy clearly needs some help these days--and this just might do the trick.

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, will become the 21st city in the world to host the Winter Olympic Games in February 2010.
    And while I am sure the city sees it as a great honor, it is also a major undertaking of projects--with a very firm deadline. The operating budget for the event is well over CAD$1.6 billion--CAD$580,000,000 of which is devoted to the construction of venues.
    With only a little over a year left to get it together, much of the project work has been completed or is nearing completion.
    There are a total of 15 competition and non-competition venues in four cities for the 2010 Olympics. A few of the major venues have already been completed, including the home of speed skating, the Richmond Oval, indoor competition venue, UBC Thunderbird Arena and a figure skating venue called Pacific Coliseum at Hastings Park.
    Sustainability has been a big part of many of these projects. For example, during the construction of Whistler Olympic/Paralympic Park, the site of the biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and ski jumping competitions, recyclable materials were used as much as possible, while over 75% off construction waste materials were diverted from a landfill and either reused or recycled and natural light was used as much as possible to minimize lighting requirements.
    "Every design decision and every construction technique utilized were measured against a series of questions: What is the legacy benefit of this decision/technique? What is the best practice? Can we think of another way which offers a better cost/benefit result? How does this fit into our schedule and budget?" said Vancouver Organizing Committee executive vice president, construction, Dan Doyle.
    And sometimes the project schedule takes on a life of its own. A light railway project in Vancouver had been in the works since the late 1960s, but it took on an added urgency as the city realized it probably didn't want an active construction site in the center of all the Olympic activities. So the city launched it with a deadline of November 2009--and the team is ahead of schedule.
    So far, things seem to be going well for these games when compared to the recent Olympics in Beijing (which were tarnished by environmental concerns, protests and reneges on guarantees of full press freedom) or even the planning efforts for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London (which is facing big budget problems thanks to the global financial crisis).
    Following the release of latest quarterly report last month, John McLaughlin, CFO for the Vancouver Organizing Committee said, "In light of the world's current turbulent economic outlook, we are fortunate to remain in a sound financial position as 2008 comes to an end. We have secured the majority of the funding commitments we require and our venue construction is largely finished. Looking ahead we must continue to remain prudent financially, and this discipline will be reflected in our revised budget to be released in early 2009."
    We will be following the progress--good and bad--as the final preparations are made for these Olympic Games. You can check for project profiles, interviews, etc., here on Voices, on PMI.org/features and in PM Network (Passing the Torch.pdf).  

I'm not gonna lie. I hadn't the foggiest notion of what upgraded slag (UGS, to those in the know) was. It sounded vaguely unpleasant, certainly nothing I particularly wanted to study up on. Alas, all that changed when I started reading about the expansion project at the QIT-Fer et Titane plant. It turns out UGS is quite the hot commodity these days, used as a white pigment in products such as paint and plastics.
    To answer demand, QIT teamed up with its long-term partner Hatch to boost production by more than 20 percent--while the plant was still up and running. And in the 525,000 hours worked on the project, not a single lost-time accident occurred.
    With those numbers, it was named the PMI 2008 Project of the Year.
    Learn all the nitty-gritty details in the January issue of PM Network. And look for features on the Project of the Year finalists in the March and May issues.

Since its launch in March 2003, the Iraq War has sparked a global dialogue on the rationale for the invasion and its long-term effect on the world. No matter what your thoughts on the debate, the facts on the ground undeniably show a need for rebuilding the country. And that's going to take project management.
    An article published 29 December on the News Blaze website reports that Baghdad leaders from the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team (HBCT), 1st Infantry Division and supporting elements recently attended a project management class at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.
    According to Maj. Andrew Attar, Joint Project Management Office, 2nd HBCT, project management will facilitate capturing and keeping the often-referred-to hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Coalition forces are engaged in projects addressing sewer and electrical problems, healthcare needs and school security.
    "We help to try to turn around these neighborhoods through these projects, to give people hope in the Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces," Maj. Attar said. "We want to make sure we are achieving the desired effects that our commanders need through these projects and becoming better project managers."
    Participants in the class are learning file management, quality assurance, how to write scopes of work and bills of quantity, and various contracting methods.
    In the middle of a war, a nation is in need of transformation, and project management is assisting a superpower and its allies in moving toward that goal.