October 2009 Archives

Forty-two percent of people polled think it would be "very difficult" to find a new job in today's economy, according to a survey of more than 2,5000 LinkedIn users by Right Management, the talent and career management arm of Manpower.

With those kinds of numbers, it's no surprise that the job market seems to be top of mind with just about everyone these days. Whenever I interview people for stories (or even when I'm just having a casual conversation with project managers), the topic seems to weave its way into the discussion.

It was a subject that came up a lot at the PMI global congress a couple of weeks ago. At one point I was talking to Al Zeitoun, PhD, who was representing his organizations Booz Allen Hamilton in the PMI Career Center.

He told me project managers looking for work need to make themselves relevant--to the work they're doing and the industries they're serving.

But what does that mean and how do you do it?

Mr. Zeitoun went on to explain that your experience and background have a lot to do with it, but it's also about being able to relay these experiences in an interview, to an executive, etc.

I didn't really give this second point too much thought until I started talking with Stewart Kidd from CSC and he said something very similar. He told me project managers have to be able to describe their experiences and skills--from the basic information (the number of direct reports you've had, the industries you've served) to the more thoughtful (how you've overcome challenges).

That got me wondering: How are people keeping relevant in today's job market? And then, what are some good tips for selling yourself and your experience as a project manager?

Recently I had the opportunity to put together a "sales pitch" presentation to inform a potential customer about a latest and greatest widget. The audience included a vice president, a manager, some end users and a finance analyst. Since this presentation could potentially bring in a sizable amount of work for our team, I was nervous from the start.

Throughout the briefing, there were a healthy amount of discussions going back and forth between our team and our potential customer. Momentum was high after I concluded a few live demonstrations.

However, toward the end of the presentation, the infamous question came up, "How much is this going to cost?" My manager was the intended receiver of the question. There were some initial unintelligible hums followed by a long pause.

Then I interjected and started to describe a comparably scoped project that we'd done and how much resourcing it took to complete. I pointed out the similarities and proceeded to work with the audience in flushing out a detailed project scope. We concluded the briefing with a favorable impression and an agreement to continue our engagement.

As we traveled back to our office, I realized in answering for my manager that I'd decided to act on the notion that it's easier to ask forgiveness than to request permission. I am curious to know what my fellow project managers thing of this idea ...

In my case, my manger made a comment later that he would need to add "Pitch Man" to my current title. To my relief, he was smiling.  

Part four of my taking-on-the-myths series will challenge our statistically minded segments: the risk managers.
 
Myth 4: Using Monte Carlo simulations to generate contingency budgets or schedules is an appropriate approach and should be more widely adapted.
 
Truth: Monte Carlo simulations are needlessly complex and shouldn't be used.
 
Of the three most common risk analysis methods used in creating a contingency schedule or budget--risk classification, decision tree analysis or Monte Carlo analysis--the latter is by far the most complex, so naturally it has the reputation for being the most robust.
 
But is it really?
 
Consider the data points your Monte Carlo simulation driver asks of you: original budget (or duration), one or two "things-going-wrong" alternatives, their odds and costs, and at least one "things-go-great" scenario, with its odds and estimated costs.
 
This is the exact same data set that would support a single-tiered decision tree analysis, except that the Monte Carlo version invokes a random-number generator to fill in hundreds (or even thousands) of other data points, which can then be used to analyze confidence intervals--at least supposedly.
 
But all of these other data points are artificial! The ensuing confidence intervals are far from reliable, hoopla notwithstanding.
 
Myth 3: Risk management is so important to project management that it should be employed throughout the project's life cycle.
 
Truth: After the baseline is set, formal risk management is pretty useless.
 
This last assertion is guaranteed to invoke a passionate debate, but consider your personal performance. Do you function better when you are confident or when you are worried? And what does formal risk management bring to the table once the project is underway, other than institutional worrying?
 
Analyzing ominous trends or performance information indicating a problem in order to head off threats to project success is what project managers do on a daily basis. Spending excess time quantifying those threats doesn't improve your odds of success.

Effectively planning a project timeline starts with gathering the appropriate inputs to develop schedule process. And spending the time to carefully plan the activities, sequence them, define durations by gathering this data from performing resources, build resource calendars and get estimates is critical to the project.

It ensures a great start, good data and estimates that are better than just an educated guess.

But, I often find many holes in the scheduling exercise.

You have to deal with a lot of details about the activities being planned, the maintenance windows, resource availability (or unavailability), the timing and sequencing of activities, the amount of detail we have vs. the amount we actually need, etc.

I find it helpful to map out key activities on a wall, with the critical path being set and clear. Then I break the activities down and put the similar chunks of information together.

You don't always get a complete picture of the schedule--it's a progressive process. And you sometimes you miss some things when you don't visualize all the steps that you have to go through. But it fleshes out the dependencies and the risks.

Of course a lot depends on the project itself, how much information is already available and how much knowledge the person who does scheduling has about the technical side of the project itself.

Many project managers tend to bypass this process or minimize it and leave it to the day-to-day "figuring out" process, rather than planning the scheduling sessions with the team. That reduces the quality of the overall plan and forces the project to go through more changes than it has to.

Controlling the project schedule is a process that is done a lot easier when the upfront
work is done. Coupled with accurate reporting on project status, the schedule
can be easily adjusted and kept up to date and relevant, without constantly
re-baselining the schedule.

I had the honor of presenting on the power of acknowledgement at PMI Global Congress 2009--North America in Orlando, Florida, USA last week. Whether it was a long presentation or a booth demo, people told me they were inspired into action.

I got into a deep conversation on acknowledgement with Efrain Pacheco, a senior project manager at the U.S. Department of Justice and assistant vice president of the Chapter-to-Chapter Outreach Program for the PMI Washington, D.C. chapter.

Efrain shared something poignant. He told me he's humble by nature and this is the way he was brought up in Ecuador. And as a result, he has difficulty accepting acknowledgements.

At the Executive Office for Immigration Review where he worked as project manager for the information systems and IT support, for example, Efrain was given an award for turning around project.

It was given to him in from of his whole office. So he smiled, but he told me he couldn't say anything or even let himself feel anything because he felt so strongly that his entire team should have received the award.

Efrain's story brings up two important issues: the need to accept acknowledgments with grace and appreciation, and the positive value of wanting to share the glory with one's team members. I am going to focus on the first now and address the other in a future post.

Here's the deal, folks. When we don't accept an acknowledgment graciously, it's as if that person gave you a gift, and you said, "No thanks. I don't want or need that. I don't even like it."

That's what an acknowledger is left with when the acknowledgee says, "Oh, it was nothing" or "It was no big deal." Or as in Efrain's case, when he just smiled but didn't express his appreciation and allow himself to feel the joy that comes naturally with being acknowledged. He just couldn't let it in. Instead, he kept a wall around himself.

When I told him he was rejecting a gift, he was shocked. He had never thought of it that way. He is now committed to working on accepting the precious gifts of acknowledgment.

Remember, someone who acknowledges another in a heartfelt and authentic way is making himself or herself vulnerable. They are trusting that the person will fully receive their gift.

Don't disappoint them.

We've been getting a major dose of the future with the release of PMI's Project Management Circa 2025. And even though it does seem a little odd to be envisioning what a profession will look like when some of its future practitioners are only about 10 years old right now, some of the shifts are already happening.

Just in the past few years, we've watched sustainability become ingrained in projects. Or as Anne Larilahti, head of the environmentally sustainable business program at Nokia Siemens Networks, so eloquently put it in a sustainability panel at congress last week, companies are going to start considering the planet as "a stakeholder in its own right."

Dave Prior, PMP, of Valtech, bemoaned the lack of any new project management tool since the emergence of critical chain--before Google, the iPod or the Agile Manifesto.

"Our entire profession has been spun on its head--that demands new tools," he said.

For him, that means mashups--"blending things that don't necessarily go together to make something better." He cited Danger Mouse's The Gray Album that blended The Beatles and Jay-Z, but argued that it's not just for hipsters. Mr. Prior, for example, relies on his own mix of the Art of War, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai and A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide), with a dash of agile.

He also talked about teams collaborating and using tweets, yamms and IMs for status reports because they all offer built-in meeting minutes.

Some of the Circa 2025 authors also offered up some predictions:

Dorothy Tiffany, PMP, predicted even more virtual offices and a lessons learned database "that comes to you instead of you going to it." Like iTunes offers up songs you might like, the project database would track data that details what your project is going through, and offer solutions and recommendations based on past initiatives.

David Pells, PMP, PMI Fellow, spotted new opportunities in emerging fields. Nanotechnology, for example, will "require many programs and projects with new dimensions of complexity." The transition to alternative energy also will "require a lot of investment--and a lot of programs and projects." And climate change is another big field, "affecting everything from agriculture to tourism." Project management hasn't traditionally been embraced in scientific developments, he said, but there needs to be more multidisciplinary collaboration.

Tim Jaques, PMP and Jonathan Weinstein, PMP, made several predictions about the future of project management at the state level. For example, megaprojects would span state lines, and project management offices would start operating more and more at the state level.

Stakeholders must be important. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide)--Fourth Edition has over 380 separate references to the word "stakeholder."

But the thousands of managers struggling today to meet stakeholder expectations may be interested to know that only a few years ago no one bothered. The whole concept of business or project stakeholders is a relatively new phenomenon.

The legal concept of a stakeholder is not new. Neither is the concept of "having a stake" in something.

One must also presume the concept of delivering a quality product to meet the needs of the end user, customer or client is not new.

In fact, many 19th century businesses had enviable reputations for customer service. Which leads to the question: What changed?

The origin of a business stakeholder in management literature can be traced back to 1963, when the word appeared in an international memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute. Stakeholders were defined as "those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist."

The concept of business stakeholders was also a core part of the work on systems analysis in organizations conducted by researchers at the Tavistock Institute in London, England in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The concept has since grown from those beginnings.

During the last 30 years, the people and organizations covered by the term "stakeholder" have continued to expand and evolve. Stakeholder theory now includes the concepts of corporate social responsibility, organizational theory, systems theory, customer relationship management and governance.

And in the last few years, stakeholders have come to encompass anyone with an interest in or who is affected by the work of an organization or its deliverables, or as someone who contributes to the work or its outcome.

Now that the idea of a stakeholder has come of age in the project world, the new challenge is stakeholder relationship management maturity. Organizations that develop this capability quickly are likely to have a significant competitive advantage--at least until their competitors catch up.

Project managers are in for some big changes. Coming in on schedule and within budget is all well and good--but it's not enough.

That's been the running mantra for a while now, but it seems to be gaining even more traction as Harold Kerzner, PhD, explained in the first-ever closing session at a PMI global congress in North America.

"Time and cost used to drive all decisions," said Dr. Kerzner, senior executive director, project management at the International Institute for Learning Inc. "Now we're saying, 'Wait a minute, are we providing value?'"

Without that, the project will be axed.

"If management doesn't see how a project will deliver a value, that project will be canceled even if it's meeting time and budget constraints," he said.

Not all constraints have equal value, Dr. Kerzner said.

That's quite a mind shift for project managers--and it's going to take a whole new skill set.

Indeed, Dr. Kerzner boldly predicted earned value management will be "obsolete very shortly," upstaged by value measurement methodologies that consider intangibles such as goodwill or reputation.

And while a mastery of technical knowledge use to suffice, that's now considered "old school."

"Project managers must understand business," he told the crowd.

They will also need an understanding of politics, culture/religion, stakeholders and people. And Dr. Kerzner predicted a new wave of certifications in complex projects, virtual teams, cultural differences and morality and ethics.

Project managers who go in armed with those skills will find a receptive audience in the executive crowd.

"The biggest change in the last several years has been in senior management support of project management," he said. "Senior management no longer views project management as a career path. It is now viewed as a strategic competence necessary for survival of the company."

Do you agree with Dr. Kerzner? Are you seeing increased demand for business understanding--or should project managers stick to what they do best?

The economy has taken some pretty heavy hits, but companies also know they need good project managers--and let's face it, the congress is a good place to find them. Now they have a place to meet: the PMI Career Center.

Several organizations spanning sectors have set-up shop in the center of the exhibit hall and are looking for capable project managers. While not all of the organizations have specific roles to fill, they are here to find top talent and to lead presentations covering different career-related topics.

"We value the capable project manager," says Kevin McDevitt, a senior program manager at Siemens and chairman of PM@Siemens USA Community.

"Sixty percent of our business is through managing customer projects. The better we do at that, the more of that money we get it keep. [Project management] is a core competency."

Some of the organizations in the Career Center are leading workshops as well. Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton led one on talent management, for example.

Al Zeitoun, PhD, PMP, senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and former PMI Board member, says his company is on an ongoing search for the best in the field--at every level.

"We are a firm that hires because of capability. We're growing continuously," Dr. Zeitoun said.

Software developer CSC isn't messing around. If you meet the company's criteria, it will scan your congress identification card and send the information right to its human resources department.

Stewart Kidd, head of enterprise learning and talent development, Organizational Capability Center of Excellence, CSC, said the company is looking to put the right project manager on the right project.

He says potential candidates need to be able to describe their skills and experience in very real, very convincing terms.

If you're a project manager looking to make yourself more marketable to organizations, Mr. Kidd suggests a couple of tips:

•    Be able to take your project management skills and transfer them from industry to industry
•    Get involved in local chapters
•    And network--who you know is almost as important as what you know. 

This morning, with the rest of the early risers at PMI® Global Congress 2009--North America,  I had the opportunity to attend the Monday Morning Breakfast Panel on sustainability. Moderated by PMI president and CEO Gregory Balestrero, the panel included:

Ellen Jackowski: Lead of HP Environmental Sustainability Corporate Governance process and the Environmental Sales Enablement initiatives
Anne Larilahti: Head of the Environmentally Sustainable Business program at Nokia Siemens Networks
Sandra E. Taylor: Vice president of Starbucks' corporate social responsibility (CSR) endeavors from 2003-2008 and now president and CEO of Sustainable Business International LLC

Here are some of the highlights:

•    Ms. Taylor said that more and more organizations are starting to understand the business case for CSR--it can be profitable, good for attracting and retaining employees, and more attractive to consumers interested in sustainability. CSR strengthens the supply chain, reduces operating costs and can lead to better brand reputation.

•    Ms. Larilahti said that Nokia has not had to stop any of its sustainability projects because of the economy. The company's projects have to meet organizational goals, including lowering costs, differentiating Nokia from the competition, building the brand and delivering cost savings to the customer.

•    Ms. Jackowski believes we are about to face a bigger environmental crisis than our current predicament because we don't have the tools to turn back. But at some point  we will start treating the planet as a stakeholder in our projects.

•    Five years from now, social responsibility will be an integral part of the business, not just an add-on, Ms. Taylor noted.

All three of the panelists challenged attendees to consider their organization's daily business operations. How do you actively prioritize your organization's sustainability practices?

While it might sound simple, a little operational change can reduce your company's environmental impact--and contribute to its bottom line.  

For example, both Nokia and HP hold as many meetings as possible virtually. And HP has recently challenged its offices to lower energy use. The prize? The winning office is rewarded with an ice cream party.

"It sounds small, but ice cream is a huge motivator," Ms. Jackowski said.

Sustainability, alternative energy, the environment, oil--all hot topics in the world at large and in the world of project management.

And all were topics covered by PMI® Global Congress 2009--North America keynote speaker T. Boone Pickens, entrepreneur and author.  

"The age of alternative energy must begin immediately," he said to the crowd of more than 2,000.

His address focused a lot on The Pickens Plan and on H.R. 1835, which is a U.S. House of Representatives Bill also known as The Natural Gas Act.

The bill is being considered by the U.S. Congress to help the U.S. to reduce its dependence on foreign oil.  "People want it. They want to go green. They want renewables. They want to get off foreign oil," Mr. Pickens said.

It's not just a U.S. concern, of course.

PMI President and CEO Gregory Balestrero reiterated the need to act on global sustainability, saying project, program and portfolio managers have a critical role to play.

The importance that project management will play in the future was a theme discussed by PMI Chair Ricardo Vargas in his opening remarks as well.

"It's time to show the real value of project management," he said.

Mr. Vargas challenged attendees at the opening session to go back to their organizations and offer something new, something better.

"We need to return back and deliver a very positive message," he declared.

To get there, however, we must face many challenges, (or opportunities as Mr. Vargas asked us to think of them), including:

•    A global economy in recession
•    Trillions in economic stimulus allocated by governments often without mature project management
•    The urgent need for disciplined, innovative project management

If you attended the opening session, what did you think of Mr. Pickens' address? And how can are you going to meet Mr. Vargas' call to action?

Project managers can't escape the buzz about social media, but is it really something they need to worry about? The answer is a resounding yes, according to the session "Why Should You Care About Social Media" led at congress on Sunday morning by PMI's New Media Council.

There was a lot of great information (and thankfully, some creativity and humor) packed into this hour-and-a-half session so I'll just run down some of the highlights.

First of all, they previewed a lot of good collaboration tools that you and your team can start using now:

Skype: Free calls over the internet
Vidyo: High-speed video conferencing
Vyew: Collaboration and web conferencing
Wrike: A web-based project management software good for those looking to reduce administration
Yammer: Microblogging for your organization

(For more information on these and other collaboration tools, read "Tools for Teams" on PMI.org.)

Chalyce Nollsch, PM Bistro, provided some great words of caution when entering the world of social media:

•    New media never sleeps.
•    Without business value, new media is just more noise.
•    Suddenly, everyone is an expert.
•    Not everyone wants to participate.

And Dave Garrett reminded us, "None of it matters if you don't get the right people to listen."

All of the new media council members can be found on Twitter, so be sure to look them up if you have more questions about the use of social media for project managers.

There's a lot of celebrating going on at the PMI Global Congress 2009--North America in Orlando, Florida, USA.

To mark its 40th anniversary, PMI is spending some time at congress looking back at not only the history of the association, but the history of the profession as well. At the same time, PMI Is also looking forward and celebrating the launch of a new book, Project Management Circa 2025.

But most importantly, PMI is celebrating the project professionals and members that make the profession what it is today.

It all kicked off Saturday night with the PMI Awards Ceremony, which recognized the people, projects and organizations in both the PMI component and professional worlds.

Drama was the overriding theme, from the exciting (and very flexible) Cirque Odyssey performers to the Academy Awards-styling of the ceremony (with teasers for the Project of the Year award like the Academy Awards Best Picture teasers and then the big announcement).

Everyone seemed to be having a good time--especially the award winners.

In the end, the Newmont TS Power Plant Project, led by Fluor Enterprises Inc. and Newmont Nevada Energy Investment Ltd., was named the PMI 2009 Project of the Year. And seven new PMI Fellows were named.

I got a chance to speak with a couple of the honored recipients; here is what they had to say:

"I have aspired to that recognition for as long as I can remember. But knowing who else had already been named [PMI Fellows], I gave myself little chance.

-Lee R. Lambert, who was named a PMI Fellow during the awards ceremony

"I feel so proud. I'm happy, we never expected it. I was driving between Miami and Orlando to take my kids to the parks when I heard about [winning the award] and I almost crashed the car because I was so excited about it."

-Roberto Toledo, managing director of Alpha Consultoria, which was presented the award for PMI Continuing Professional Education Product of the Year Award (Individual/Business Provider Category)

"It's just a fantastic experience. A really, really special moment."

-Iain Fraser, group managing director (CEO) at Project Plus in New Zealand, who was named a PMI Fellow during the awards ceremony

Look for more awards coverage--including the full list of winners--on PMI.org.

I had a boss once who was constantly telling me to "think outside the box" and to "push the envelope." It made me want to scream. Seriously.

I'm not doubting the importance of innovation. Indeed, it's the best way to for companies to break out of a slump. But there's something about the subject that makes people talk in a constant stream of mind-numbing and hazy clichés.

So it was with slight trepidation that we started in on the October issue of PM Network®, completely devoted to innovation.

What we found, though, is a lot of companies--and project managers working at those companies--with solid examples of projects and processes that are truly cutting-edge.

In our Case by Case section, we take a deep dive into four projects to show how innovation can take many forms. Sure, IBM's 3-D avatars were the kind of super cool, whiz-bang technology that screams innovation.  But the team also backed it up with truly innovative processes.

Let's face it, some people think all of the processes that go along with project management just get in the way of innovation. But it can actually facilitate it.

"The crux of the issue is how do you right-size project management without squashing the innovative process. It's a delicate balance that exists between the two extremes," says Andy Bowen, who's working on a submarine project and was featured in the magazine's The End Result column.

And in our Voices on Project Management PM Network column, David Gardner from Facebook talks about the need to for clear communications and sophisticated scheduling. But he also acknowledges the need to have a little fun--even as you roll out a bleeding-edge technology.

Tell us what you think.

In my last post challenging project management myths, one responder noted that I was unclear about what part described the myth and what part described the challenge statement. Here are numbers 5 and 6 on the hit parade, with the parts a bit better defined.

Myth 6: Complete and detailed procedures are an essential part of a successful project control system implementation.

Truth: Writing procedures are generally a waste of time and they don't help advance project management maturity.

Think about it, is there anything in the universe easier to ignore than a document? But the myth persists that procedures by themselves can advance an organization's project management capability.

Usually these procedures are signed by  a high-ranking member of the organization, who is attempting to compel obedience or participation in the project control system.

But unless the organization has authorized someone to actually  fire or demote others for failure to comply with the document--which happens rarely if ever--then the procedures themselves won't help.

Myth 5: If a schedule based on the critical path method isn't available, a good interim step to manage a project's schedule is to create a list of milestones or action items and meet to review them on a regular basis.

Truth: Action item lists and milestone databases are essentially polls and have no place in legitimate management information systems.

I once worked on a major program in which participants entered project data into a milestone database and provided monthly updates to those milestones.

At the beginning of the year, all of the milestones were scored "green," meaning the milestone would be met on time.

Byabout the ninth month, a few "yellows" would show up in the status column, indicating a possible delay.

More yellows would show up in month 10, followed by even more in month 11 along with a few "reds," indicating the milestone would be missed for that fiscal year.

By the last month, easily half of the milestones were either red or yellow. Lots of scolding and badgering would then ensue, followed by a new "baseline" for the next fiscal year, and-- shazaam!--all the milestones would be green again.

Asking participants what they think of their performance is not a performance management system -- it's a poll. And polls are not substitute for real management information systems.

I look forward to your responses because I know a whole bunch of people are going to disagree with these two.

I've been discussing stakeholders and communication for some time now without focusing on the key question: Why do stakeholders matter? Well, on most projects, stakeholders equate to risks.

There are a few risks that don't involve people--inclement weather, for example--but 90 percent of the risks on most projects are caused by one or more people:

•    Quality risks  almost always occur because people do not follow or not understand processes.

•    Design risks are usually the result of people not communicating.

•    Time and cost risks typically tie back to the performance of people doing the work.

•    Even inclement weather is influenced by people's perceptions--what's deemed "too wet to work" in a temperate climate may be seen as okay in a tropical monsoon climate.

People also determine if a risk is acceptable or not. Whether a risk is perceived as acceptable or not is 100 percent inside a person's mind.

As project managers, our job is to reduce risks to a level that gives the project the best overall chance of success. Yet extreme risk aversion will kill a project more effectively than a gung-ho attitude.

Of course, what constitutes a sensible level of risk is totally dependent on the perceptions and risk attitude of your key stakeholders.

That's why a central part of effective stakeholder management is ascertaining the risk attitude of your stakeholders. And then you must either adapt the project to fit within these parameters or provide the necessary information to help the stakeholder change his or her perceptions of what is acceptable.

The more that people feel they understand a situation, the more willing they are to accept risks.

Similarly, if you have a trusting relationship with someone, you're more likely to rely on their capability to safely manage risks on your behalf.

The most useful risk management strategy you can use on your project is effective stakeholder management supported by good communication. What has your experience been?