Volume X - Issue III - March 2008
PM Tips and Techniques
Meetings and Meeting Sickness! By Germán Bernate Introduction In order to determine progress of any kind of project or business it is essential for all involved parties to meet and share new findings, discuss plan developments, advancements or delays, validate behavior of the associated costs, purchase or importation status, and, in general, get acquainted with all and every one of the activities and chores that should be considered to achieve goals fulfillment, focusing on the so called “triple constrain” : Scope of the project, product or service; Execution time and Associated costs. PMBOK (Third edition) page 352.
Mission-critical: Why the Kick-off is the Most Important Meeting By Sue Freedman and Lothar Katz In planning the kick-off meeting for her new project team, she decided to hold it in the US and made arrangements for the project team members in India and Singapore to participate virtually. The meeting was scheduled for 8 am. She knew this timing might be a bit inconvenient for Indian and Singaporean team members, so she assured them they could call/log in from home. In preparation for the meeting, Jennie sent a slide set detailing the objectives of the project, the reporting structure, critical milestones, and a tentative list of risks. She had heard of surprises experienced by her colleagues when working with international projects, so she summarized her expectations, making it very clear how much she hated surprises and urging team members to point out any problems right away. During the kick-off meeting, Jennie welcomed everyone to the project and communicated her excitement about the potential results and about working with team members in Singapore and India. She reviewed her successes as a project leader and assured the team that this project would be successful as well. She then went through the slides she sent, reiterated her expectations about speaking up about problems of any kind, and asked for questions. A few on the US team asked questions. There were no questions from India or Singapore. Jennie then addressed those teams directly, asking specifically if there was anything in the material, or in anything she had said, which they did not understand. When no one indicated misunderstanding, she asked if there was anything in the plan they thought should be changed. Since there was no response, she thanked everyone and closed the meeting. About a week later, Jennie received a call from her boss. A colleague of his had just been in Singapore and found that the Singaporean manager who held ultimate responsibility for Jennie’s local team was very upset about the way Jennie handled the kick-off meeting. Investigating further, her boss heard similar comments from the manager of the Indian team. Jennie’s boss wanted to know how she had managed to upset two key business partners, who had no contact with each other, in one short meeting. Jennie, totally confused, wondered the same thing. Read complete paper in English
Motivating Managers Many of us in industry and business often overlook the simple fact that it is Man who becomes Manager. Perhaps semantics of the word is meaningful – it is the aged man who should become a manager. The process of aging brings in various changes in the physiology and psychology of Man and only those who undergo the best ripening process end up as successful Managers. One of the most important factors that will make a good manager is the types of motivation he or she has passed through. But for motivation no one will perform and but for performance no one can become a manager. Motivation and performance being so closely related the real managerial qualities of any manager is directly dependent on the quality of motivation he has received or undergone. Motivation is nothing but an urge or reason to perform. It is always required for any man to perform any task. Thus it is basic to every human action and let us not go into it. What we need to look at a bit more seriously here is the process of motivating intelligent and qualified individuals to become successful managers. It is quite different to perform at different levels and to excel as a manager needs extra-ordinary types of motivation. Many management pundits reach the conclusion that ‘managers are born and not made’ based on their inability to decipher the process of motivation. Managers are born or made, but to become a successful manager needs motivation for the mind, body and spirit. Read complete paper in English
Maximizing Project Investment: By Andrea Nicholas According to a number of surveys, the number of US and worldwide companies that have implemented a centralized project management function has steadily increased since the Y2K readiness projects of almost a decade ago. These centralized project management groups (generically, a Project Management Office or “PMO”) are tasked with the perpetuation of project delivery best practices and increasing the collective project management competency in their respective environments. Corporate leaders too often check off the “improve project management” from their to do lists once the PMO is implemented, only to later find that the company is still failing to reap the financial benefits expected from the projects in their portfolio. Delivering projects better is not enough – not even close. If your company is enjoying improved project delivery performance from its Project Management Office and continuing to struggle with project returns, there are likely two key factors missing from its project management approach: benefit-driven project selection and prioritization and business case value realization. Selecting the appropriate projects to invest in and realizing the business case value of engagements are common problems. According to a Standish Group survey, most technology organizations are realizing only 50-65% of the expected business case value of their projects, and a survey by CIO Insight stated that over half of all CIO’s characterize project prioritization and selection in their shops as a politically-driven, rather than financially-driven, process. So, while implementing a PMO can boost project success rates by 46%, on average, per CIO Insight, these gains are often mitigated by poor project investment choices and low project yields. Read complete paper in English
Personal Recovery: Using Project Management By Michelle LaBrosse, PMP® Life throws us all curve balls. From needing to care for someone you love to dealing with personal crises or emergencies, sometimes it can feel like life is spinning out of control. If you’ve been there before or you’re there right now, here are a few ways that Project Management can help you to transform a disaster into a detour – just another path that you’re going down. Key Questions to Ask Yourself How much time can you reasonably spend on your current project or on your professional commitments? Assess what is realistic for you to achieve or accomplish knowing what is on your plate professionally and personally. Look at your challenge as a project. Think about what you have to manage and how you can do what you have to do well. Sometimes, you have to make a decision to let some of your responsibilities go or make a decision for your career to take a back seat. A good project manager knows when to delegate to other team members or to others in your group of family and friends. How much should you disclose to your project team or peers at work? We live in a culture of reality TV and talk shows where people disclose the intimate details of their lives, so we often become desensitized to what is appropriate to share or disclose. If you’re going through a divorce or if a family member has passed away, you should be honest about what’s happening, but be wary of unloading on your team members. If you’re dealing with an emotionally charged situation, set time aside for counseling. It’s emotionally draining when people treat their coworkers as therapists. Read complete paper in English
The Project Leader’s Credibility! By Alfonso Bucero Introduction Not many organizations have a formal project management selection process in place. But all companies want to have the best project managers ready for managing projects successfully. Managers expect good project results and team members want to have the best project managers to manage successful projects–good leaders that they will follow. Then the project manager must cultivate not only hard but also soft skills to be successful. Most soft skills are linked to people attitudes and behaviors. One of the lessons I learned is that organizations need project managers who are honest and competent and can also inspire people. For example:
How to Choose a Datacenter By Scott Whitney In 2005, notebook computers accounted for 50.1% of all computer sales. In 2006, shelf space for notebooks increased 44%, while desktop shelf space (and sales) went down by 23%. What does this have to do with a datacenter? Everything. At Journyx, where I manage IT, we presently have about 25 employees. Of those, 11 have laptops issued to them as their primary machine. One employee works remotely in another state. Therefore, half of our employees need constant remote access to our business. Well, it’s possible they don’t need it, but they sure do whine about it an awful lot when they don’t have it. So for me, in my little fiefdom known as “IT,” that pretty much amounts to the same thing. As with most companies, we store the bulk of our data internally on our network here at the corporate headquarters, but we also store a fair bit of it at our datacenter. We have software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications which we host for our customers, as well as for ourselves. We have our web site, of course, which must be up and running 24x7 or my CEO calls me up in a panic. We have an FTP server for support, as well as one for the public, etc. You get the picture. We’ve got resources that are needed by our remote employees as well as our customers. In essence, we need a reliable 24x7, redundant, fast way for our people and the world to access our data. If this sounds familiar to you, you might be in the same boat that we were in. We needed a datacenter. I’m oversimplifying our needs a bit, since we are a hosted service provider for literally hundreds of organizations around the world. You see, with the software that Journyx creates, you can either host it locally on one of your own servers, or you can ask us to do it for you, taking away that overhead. Since we host our customers’ data in addition to our own, in different time zones around the world, I was in the joyful, enviable position of evaluating datacenters (again). It was either that or get a root canal, and that was the excuse I used last time, so I decided to man up and take on the challenge.
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