Thoughts of a Project Manager; Ryan Endres, PMP

Knowing When to Kill a Project

2012-02-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

This is a hard topic because every project starts as an idea and someone with that idea had the passion to get the ball rolling in the first place. Project management tools help us to see which projects are at the bottom of the bucket. The tools typically are a ranking system and also allowing us to see what was the original baseline of the project and where we are today. In some cases projects are killed due to the market place; there is no reason to keep developing something that no one is going to buy.

The last thing we want to do is to toss the project out with the bath water, but in some cases you have to, because it may be destroying your whole organization.

I’ve seen this before and it is sad sad thing. A project that is deemed a must have to keep future clients at the organization because competitors already have a solution in place. The project had no timeline and no tracking of what was spent (I know you are thinking, well it isn’t a real project then, right?), it was the Cadillac of all solutions with everything you could want. As the months turn into years the clients give an ultimatum, do it or I walk. So a side project is started to come up with the quick fix with a short timeline. The quick fix works and the client is happy so the original project (Cadillac) keeps chugging on for future clients.

Two more years pass. The original project with no timeline and no tracking of what was spent is still ongoing. The plan now at year four is to reduce scope. In the meantime business has dried up as their clients go elsewhere. The organization slides further and further into the red, but the project keeps moving on, still with no timeline and no budget.

This is pretty sad, because they used no tools to show them what reality is and the end result could be some pretty drastic measures to help them get out of the red. The real question is will they kill the project?

Don’t let this happen to your projects or your organization! Have a plan and stick to it. Have a schedule to review all ongoing projects and keep your resources on the right projects and have some serious discussions about the ones that need to be killed. It is hard to kill someone’s pet project, but when that pet is literally killing your organization you need to let it go.

Lesson Learned:

Have a plan and stick to it ...

Sh*t Project Managers Say

2012-01-19T16:44:00.001-08:00

Watch this youtube video and count how many phrases you have used in the last month ...

The 3 A's of awesome

2012-01-17T19:44:00.000-08:00

Neil Pasricha is so inspiring that I have watched this multiple times over the past year. Take some time to check it out.

How do your team members see each other?

2011-12-11T10:41:00.000-08:00

Recently http://quantmleap.com posted a funny photo about how our project team members see each other (note this is for a software development project).

Check it out and laugh a bit …

Your Project Management Knowledge Cloud

2011-12-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

Have you ever attended a meeting or discussion that someone gives a presentation, uses a cool tool or ice breaker and you think to yourself, “I’m going to use this someday too!” Then months go by and that thought leaves your head, or that extra handout or copy of the presentation you took somehow found its way to the trash can.

Early in my career I started a project management binder with copies of articles, presentations and so on, that I may want pull out later (like an ice breaker game). Recently I moved away from the paper binder to using box.com (in the cloud) to house my PM knowledge.

First I just used it to store my resume online and I installed the box.com Linkedin app on my Linked in profile (now others had easy access to a Word copy of my resume). Now as I find those interesting PDFs or presentations I can toss them into my box.com site.

Box.com offers 5 gigs of storage for free, and it allows file sharing links and access to your files via their mobile app. If you upgrade to a business account you can then use it with your project team members as a common location for project files.

"Reliability and high performance is key, and our enterprise solution with Box delivers." — MTV Networks

Technology changes so fast and we must keep up with the latest trends and monitor them to see if they are a good fit for our organizations. The same goes for the knowledge you gain as a PM, you need a place to store it or it will be forgotten.

Here is a great example … A Norwegian company has built a USB thumb drive sized computer that has a dual core processor, runs Android, a slot for a memory card, Wifi, Bluetooth and you can connect it to any computer or TV (if TV then you need a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse).

Entire Computer Built Into USB Thumb Drive

A pretty amazing piece of technology! So where will you store your PM knowledge?

A new Tool for your PM tool box

2011-11-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

For the on the go PM they need a box full of tools. From laptops, to smart phones to various software packages to help manage the project and even for communication.

There is a growing trend for PMs that travel a lot to use Skype to call into meetings. As long as you have a decent internet connection it works great, so no more dropped cell phone calls as you are sitting in your Vegas hotel room. Most laptops have a built in microphone, but a headset with a built in microphone seems to be the best thing to use.

If for some reason you would like to record a call there is a product out there made by Jiteco titled Riviera for Skype, which offers a free 14 day full use trial, or $9.99 for the full product.

Why might you want this? Maybe you are listening in on a meeting and you need to take a call on your cell phone (or run off to the bathroom). Or maybe you want to record the meeting and upload the MP3 to your project page to allow members to listen to the meeting at a later date. Or use it for creating interview podcasts!

Let’s take it for a spin …

It is super easy to download and install. After it is installed launch the program and Skype will prompt you to authorize it to connect.

Then when you send or receive a call it asks you if you want to record the call.

After you are done your MP3s are ready to listen to or move them to your project site or webpage.

This is a super tool to have in your PM tool box and at only 10 bucks it is a super deal!

PMP Project Management Professional Practice Test

2011-11-13T14:52:00.000-08:00

Recently I had a chance to check out the full version of the PMP Practice Test that UCertify offers.

It was very easy to install and easy to just jump right in and start using it.

Pros:

1. The interface is simple and intuitive

2. One click dashboard makes it easy to find what you need

3. Guided learning steps you through the process of learning

and test preparation, including crucial information about

the exam format and test preparation tips

4. Numerous study aids, including study notes, flash cards,

pop quizzes and more

5. Customize your tests – decide how many questions,

combine one or more topics of your choice, quiz yourself

on a study notes, increase the level of difficulty based on

your performance at any point in time

Cons:

1. The study aids are very short and to the point. It is basically set-up with each section with the definition of the words in each section

2. There are only 3 technical articles included

Overall if you all looking for +800 PMP exam questions that is setup like taking the actual test, then this might be for you. If you want lots of learning material you may be better off buying a book and make yourself read the PMBOK.

I have a Zombie in my Project!?!

2011-10-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

It is the season for Zombies and unfortunately they make their ways into our projects. Zombies feed on processes rather than brains. They think project management and organizational processes are like a cook book and they need to be followed. The Zombies drag others down with their one way ideas.

Zombie protection kit:

1. Get input from all team members on projects they have been on in the past that were successful and determine why it was sucessful

2. Define what done means, or your project may never die

3. If you have a process that is not working well change it

4. Don’t feed the Zombie, point it in another direction to get it away from your project

From PM 4 Girls Blog

So, what is Zombie PM? Does this sound like someone you know?

They do exactly what they are told without challenging anything
They don’t come up with original ideas
They don’t suggest ways to improve the project management processes
They don’t follow up on actions – they simply assume they will get done
They update and issue the plan in a format that most of the team can’t read or understand
They work on projects that deliver no business value
They go through the motions of being a project manager but without any critical thinking applied

If this sounds like someone you have worked with – you know what Zombie PM is about.

Box out your resources!

2011-10-09T16:28:00.000-07:00

Currently I have 3 projects I'm managing. One is the in initiation stage. One in controlling. And one in the closing.

For each of these projects I have different concerns with my resources.

For the project that I'm initiating I'm working with the resource managers to make sure I'm on their plan to have the resources I need based on my project requirements. I keep them in the loop if things slip a little or if it looks like we may be adding scope.

For my project that is in the the controlling phase I have to box out my resources as others try to "get a little of their time". There is a fine line with this, because many times you need to trust your resources to manage their own time so they can help out on other projects too.

In my project that I'm closing out I've kept the resource manages in the loop as to when I was going to release the resources so they could be assigned elsewhere.

This is a delicate yet complicated dance that we do as Project managers. The key to this is communication with the project team and the resource managers.

Look ahead for your needs or you will be behind before you know it ....

SharePoint Document Library Setup?

2011-09-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

There are multiple ways to setup document libraries in SharePoint and you need to consider what is the best approach for your organization. Here are some examples:

Using folders in SharePoint. Since the days of DOS we have used folders for separating out our files. You can do this in SharePoint, but the intent of SharePoint is to have enough meta data tagged to your file so you can search or filter for the file you are looking for (just like you search for something on Google) instead of having them in folders. The other downside of folders in SharePoint is that it makes security of libraries more complicated.

The second option is to have multiple libraries. An example of this is having a library for each department in your organization. Again you can get into the issue of folks using folders again (you need to train people on what SharePoint is and can do, before you set them free using SharePoint). If you can get them to not use folders, they need to get use to entering in a description for each file, and/or add your own columns of data you would like to capture (kinda like folder names, but now you can filter for those documents). The issue with this is that we are so use to doing a save as, and drag and drop to a folder that this new step of adding meta data is a hard one to get folks to get use to.

Next, taking the concept from above you can create “views”, which is nothing more then a filter. At a previous organization I worked at we had 45 SOPs but not every person needed to read and understand all of them. So we added a column to the library to indicate which job titles needed to review each SOP. Then we created a View for each job title so they can see just their SOPs. The nice thing about views is it really just ends up being a link to a webpage to the specific data you want to view. So you can email this link or embed it in another webpage (so if we add SOPs to your link, it is okay, no need to update the link the new SOPs will just show up). If you have files in folders within this library, you can forget using views to try to pull files from the folders.

When creating a document library you need to keep security in mind (who needs access?) and do you want version control turned on? For those sensitive HR documents you can only allow a few key folks access to that part of our library or you can drill it down just to one document. Version control, if it is on with 2007 every time you save the document it will create another copy of it once you check it back in (for some organizations they may have space concerns). And with 2010 (I think) it will only save the new piece you updated (so, taking up less space then resaving another copy of the document).

Alerts. If you want you can set up email alerts be sent out when a new document is added and or changed. Example: you have a project with a library and a view named Meeting Minutes. When you add minutes to that view it will automatically send out an email to let your team members (you setup the users) that a new set of minutes has been added. Or you can be that controlling person that wants to make sure no one is monkeying around with your files (so you receive and email when anything changes).

Document Library template. Yes, if your organization agrees to a new methodology for document libraries you can create a template for all to use.

Final thoughts …

So it is up to the users on how they want to use SharePoint, but you need to make sure they are aware there are other ways to do things in SharePoint than using folders.

A Beginner’s Guide to Document Management and Workflow in SharePoint

7 ways to effectively use a SharePoint document library

Top 10 Reasons IT Projects Fail

2011-08-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Several months ago I started a new job and at my desk I found this top 10 list from Price Waterhouse Coopers:

No clear objectives or benefits
Lack of user commitment from business community
Not managing the project proactively
lack of coordination across change initiatives
Optimistic deadlines and lack of contingency plans
Not testing thoroughly
Too many package software modifications
Expecting people to develop and use a new system without adequate training
Resource constraints
In appropriate software and hardware selection

So what do you think is missing?

What is in a Project Charter?

2011-07-17T16:53:00.000-07:00

Recently I gave a short talk about project charters and I thought I would post my presentation here.

All projects, big or small, need to have a charter. It functions as a summary document at the start of a project. If you cannot summarize things at the start you could be headed down the path to failure ...

Project Chater

More PowerPoint presentations from Ryan Endres

Some other good links on charters:
http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/5161.aspx
http://blog.method123.com/2009/06/03/create-your-project-charter/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J7urtEex6c

Project Management Forums:

2011-06-19T18:00:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a good list of project management forums check out the following link:

http://mastersinprojectmanagement.org/top-30-web-forums-for-project-management-professionals.html

Career Development as a PM

2011-06-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

About a month ago my company sent out an email looking for employees to submit short 5 minute videos about what they did to develop their career. So I thought I would record one!

Here it is below:

Other links on PM career development:

http://pmstudent.com/how-to-focus-your-project-management-career/

PMI Madison Professional Development Day 2011

2011-05-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended the Madison PMI Professional Development Day at the Monona Terrace. The theme was Great Leaders Building Strong Teams.

I attended many excellent talks and here are my thoughts on them.

The first keynote speaker was Barry Alvarez, Athletic Director at the University of Wisconsin. Barry told many stories from his career as the Head Football coach starting with the challenge of changing the culture of a losing team to moving the mind set of his team to see it was not just Ron Dayne going for the Heisman Trophy but the whole team. Finally he mentioned how he kept his team focused on achieving the WIN (What’s Important Now).

Lesson Learned: If you are tossed into a loser ongoing project gather the troops and focus on what done is.

Next I attended at talk titled: Positioning Your PMO as an Organizational Alignment Engine by Terry Doerscher

Terry is the author of Taming Change with Portfolio Management (checkout my book review) and he started out his talk with some stats from a survey he has conducted a couple of times over the past couple of years. The biggest eye opener in the survey was that organizational alignment was the biggest issue.

Lesson Learned: If you don’t focus on alignment your organization and projects will continue to flop around.

Then I attended a talk titled: Implement a PMO – Lessons Learned by Mark House

Mark went over two examples of PMOs that he created. He came from a very structured PMO with State Farm and then he moved on to take on a job with the state of Illinos to help one of their departments create a PMO. Mark came in with a tool box full of templates, policies and how to’s, but quickly found out it wasn’t going to work. He stepped back and slowly rolled things out like an agenda template and status reports. Also he found out the super formal way that worked for all projects at State Farm wasn’t going to work, so they came up with a PM Light version of their PM process and trained all project members on project management.

Lesson Learned: Adapt project management to the organization, then adapt the organization to project management.

Then I attended a talk titled: Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project by Ted Barth

Ted went over the basics of using Microsoft Project. From setting up a calendar to making sure you build your timeline like a network diagram (you need a start task and an end task).

Lesson Learned: If you stick with the basics your timeline work correctly.

Then I attended a talk titled: Influence and Persuasion skills for Project Leaders by Chris Hinrichs.

Chris reviewed his views of project leaders which included those who know how to inspire, influence and impact others in a constructive and supportive way often go the furthest and the highest.

Lesson Learned: Practice the fundamentals of leadership and you will be in a better position to excel.

Finally the second Keynote speaker Mark Johnson spoke. Mark was on the 1980 US hockey team is the current UW Women’s hockey coach. Mark Reviewed his career in Hockey and told some stories on how he motivates his team.

Lessons Learned: Even if you are a coach, sometimes you need to be a cheerleader.

Review of Planning Force Project Planner …

2011-05-07T21:53:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I reviewed a project planner so I thought I would take Planning Force for a spin.

On their main page there is an 8 minute video that gives a nice overview of the product and there are several other short videos on their YouTube page (I’m not sure why they want you to register to view their youtube videos on their own webpage or why many of their videos have no sound just a person clicking around in their application, or why you have to register to review their forums).

Their express planner is a free download (100 meg file). Many other applications like these are cloud based. The main issue I have with stand alone products are updating them.

After I had it installed I started clicking around and checking it out. Overall it is a very very basic project planner with resource allocation capability. The planner is pretty straight forward to use and the resource planner is too. It also will allow you to see the resources from multiple projects saved in one file (they must assume companies only have 1 PM running all of their projects?).

It has a resource leveling function that will give you options before you move forward with their suggestions. No clue as to how it works, but most projects I have ever worked on the resources don’t have the knowledge to jump in if they have some free time. It does have a calendar feature so you can track your staffs vacation (or holiday) time.

At the task level you can do some very basic things, number of days (or 0.5 for 4 hrs), start and end dates, predecessors (lead, lag if needed), percent completed, add notes to the task and the resource name. What it is missing from this section … costs for the task planned and actual (not all projects track this… but if you are looking to do a little earn value analysis…) and how about I can create a column and let me name it myself?

Pros to Planning Force:

Free
Resource tracking so you can see if you are over allocated across all projects (keep in mind all of your projects are in one file)
Basic project planning
has some basic KPIs

Cons:

Very very very basic
Probably not that useful for projects with staff that work outside of your office (all projects have some basic documentation (SOW, charter, WBS, requirements, Risk log, budget info …) and this application doesn’t allow you to store that type information.
No communication tracker … message board, or a newsfeed type of feature (@task has this and you will see more and more PM software adopting this soon).

How do you continue to grow as a Project Manager?

2011-04-29T20:54:00.000-07:00

So you are a PM and have been for years right? You have your PMP certification and you are always on the lookout for PDUs, right? Then maybe you obtained a Six Sigma certification or some other certifications … now what is next?!?

If you find yourself in this rut here are my tips:

Start up a PM Knowledge Book. It can be a binder or an electronic means to capture information. Save interesting articles, links, how to’s or even fun games you have tried out in some of your classes you have attended. Another possible way to do this is start a blog. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve gone back to my blog to review something I wrote up after someone asks me a question on a certain aspect of project management (all of those links to other good pieces of information are also very helpful).

Get more training. Look for different classes in things like communication, finance, business and taking a refresher course in Microsoft Project every couple of years cannot hurt!

Read blogs, books, magazines, listen to podcasts, and try out new trial versions of PM management tools. This will help you to keep up on the ongoing trends in project management. But when will you have time to do this? Schedule time for yourself and pick a couple of blogs or podcasts to review every week. After you do it for awhile you will start to get use to your new routine. And you may surprise yourself as your thoughts flow out into the comments of blogs you’re reading (see you are now really getting involved).

Network with other PMs, ask them how they manage their projects. You can learn a lot of things from seasoned PMs.

Review profiles of PMs on linkedin and see if you can find new ways to build your profile (or resume), or you may find out about classes others have taken or purpose a question to the community for feedback.

Finally, give back. Whether it is mentoring a PM, working with your local PMI chapter, or donating your time to manage a community project. Once you get to this stage that PM Knowledge Book you have been keeping will really pay off!

Notable quote:

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
-Benjamin Franklin

Mentoring Project Managers

2011-04-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

Over my career I’ve had several opportunities to mentor project managers and recently my local PMI chapter put together a mentor/mentee program. I decided to toss my hat in the ring as a mentor and shortly after that they matched me up with Joe.

My first meeting with Joe was super informal. It was a meet and greet where we went over our backgrounds, what was going on in our lives and what we were expecting out of this program. Like any good meeting we both left with a “to do” list for our next meeting.

At our next meeting we started with a little show and tell with what was on our “to do” lists, came up with some things for next time and ended with a little coaching on how to persuade the deciders on doing things a new way (new PM process).

I do truly enjoy the opportunity to work with others to see how their organizations are running projects and hopefully I can learn something and they can too.

My tips for mentoring PMs:

Feedback! Ask them to request feedback from their team members and information on how the project management process is going in their organizations.

Roll play! All PMs have team members that will be confrontational on an issue. My suggestion to help them is to find someone to roll play with so you can practice on how the decision will go down.

Crisis! When the big issue comes up in your project, take a deep breath and then get the right people in the room (on the phone) to discuss it.

Communication! You need to be a master of communication and if your team is not aware of what is happening in your project you need to come up with new way to communicate project details.

Training! If you are new to project management or you already have your PMP or other project management related certifications you need to keep building your knowledge and keeping it fresh! There are a ton of classes, books, podcasts and blogs out there to help you with this. Many times scheduling a class for a PM will keep them focused on building their career with their current organization.

Note able quote:

"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi

Too many projects … not enough resources

2011-03-16T08:08:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of months I have had several discussions with companies and groups about their list of ongoing projects. Some of the questions I asked them are:

Do you have a list of all of your projects (you would be surprised how many said no …)?
Do you rank your projects, and if so how are you ranking them?
Do you really have enough resources for all of your projects? If not, why are you trying to do them all at the same time?
Do you review your projects, let’s say, quarterly to make sure you are focused on the right ones and to cut the ones where the market place has changed?
Do you have this list in a common location for all to see (again, you would be surprised how many said no to this … really?)?

The key to making this ranking system work is having the correct ranking criteria for your organization prior to sitting down with the ‘deciders’. The ranking criteria will include things like project performance indicators, business value indicators, looking at the resources needed and finally things that are deemed important by your organization. Here is a short presentation that I put together using some of the concepts from a presentation by Barbara Schrage.

Project Ranking

More PowerPoint presentations from Ryan Endres

Once you have your rankings in, the debate is on to see if everyone agrees. The key is you want to have a balanced score card for your organization. Glen Alleman recently posted an excellent presentation on this topic:

The key to making this work is having something in place to rank your projects and a reason why they are ranked the way they are. Otherwise the top projects in your company will be someone’s pet project which may not help the strategic vision of your organization (I like to call these the chest thumper projects or the, whoever is the loudest has the highest ranking project).

How to do you measure the maturity of a SharePoint implementation?

2011-03-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

So your organization is thinking about taking the leap, or already has, into launching SharePoint. When you started on this adventure you treated this as a project, right? Or did you just turn it on and send out an email stating, “SharePoint is now available”.

If you don’t treat it as a project you are headed for an early disaster and users won’t want to use it.

Five most common mistakes when rolling out SharePoint:

1. Lack of proper planning

2. Showcasing Features; not building solutions

3. Undefined business case

4. Poor understanding of SharePoint

5. Unrealistic Staffing

The key to adoption of SharePoint is to start out small with one department and bring in those team members that are typically the early adopters. As you build up the first site you will also need to build your training documents and start to train the people that will use the site. Then you need to continue training, re-training, start to add articles to your company’s newsletter or blog about SharePoint and finally if it is a requirement to move away from the old paper way, monitor your staff to make sure they made the switch.

Once you get to the point that your company is making the switch over to SharePoint we need some metrics to determine how SharePoint is maturing within your organization. About a year ago some of the big name advocates of SharePoint started this discussion. And recently Sadie Van Buren has been giving talks about how she determines the maturity of a SharePoint system in an organization. Below is her template to determine the maturity of a SharePoint system.

And here is her presentation that shows some examples of 100 and 500 level SharePoint sites, and she also gives an overview of each area and what she thinks is a 100-500 level of maturity.

The SharePoint Maturity Model - as presented 1 March 2011 for Nothing But SharePoint

View more presentations from Sadalit Van Buren

Also, recently Dux Raymond Sy brought together 4 SharePoint advocates (including Sadie) to discuss “Understanding the SharePoint Maturity Model”

SPBizChat Ep2: Understanding SharePoint Maturity Model from Dux Raymond Sy on Vimeo.

In my own organization I’ve seen our SharePoint sites go from only a couple hundred clicks a month to now over 130,000 clicks per month. That is a pretty impressive jump and we are only at about the 300 level of maturity.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler

Captain Kirk reviews his ship's status on a dashboard made in SharePoint

Project Management is about the People not the Tools

2011-02-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

This past week I attended my local PMI monthly chapter meeting where Bob Baim gave a talk titled, “Predictive Project Management, Strategies for Avoiding the OS Phase” (Bob also has a book with the same title).

Bob (a very energetic speaker) gave us many examples of big name projects that hit the OS phase, and in many cases, they hit it again and again. One of his take home messages was that projects do not fail, processes do, and if you do not fix them you will fail, again and again.

The following slide sums this up nicely:

You see it is not all about the tools. To be a truly effective PM you need to be a people person and you need to be an expert in all types of communication. Reading the PMBOK and being able to quote the page number where they talk about the WBS doesn’t mean you are an effective PM.

Josh Nankivel, from the PM Student, had a recent quote that I think sums it up nicely,

“I think many project managers tend to focus on tools and techniques far too much, and not enough on the people aspects of managing projects. By far these relational aspects of project management are the most important ones.”

Final thought on this. Please keep in mind the people in your projects are what make your PM tools useful. If you spend all your time with your tools you will probably be headed to the OS phase …

Project Planning Poker

2011-02-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

Last week I attended a meeting with the group Agile Madison where our topic of discussion was determining the duration for each sprint item. My input on this was that a plan is a strategy for the successful completion of the project and a schedule will tell us when things will be completed. I also reviewed some ways to determine the schedule (or duration) for tasks in a project (Agile or any other type of project management methodology). The classic PMI ones are: historical information, 3-point analysis and Monte Carlo analysis.

The one that was introduced to the group was Planning Poker. Here is how it works.

If you have a project with a group of developers (or testers, or data engineers) each developer is given a stack of cards that have the following on them: ?, 0, 1/2, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100, infinity. The PM (or scrum master) reads off the sprint item and then the developers pull out their cards on how long it should take and then they flip them over at the same time. You may see instances where they all closely agree and other times one person is way off. This will help them to open the channels to discuss why they picked there duration (maybe one of them had a similar task in the past and knew it was a lot more work then it was first predicted).

Why does this work?

It works because it allows you to bring together a group of experts to discuss each task and in many cases you may end up averaging the numbers to come up with your best guess as to what the reality may be.

So the next time you find yourself in a situation like this, think about pulling planning poker out of your PM toolbox.

Five tips for managing worldwide project teams

2011-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

Recently I attended a talk titled: How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams by Wayne Turmel and I thought I would write up my top 5 things to keep in mind when you come into this situation.

1. Use Web 2.0 technologies

In order for your team to use these web based technologies they need the right equipment to do their jobs (high speed access, laptop, cell phone …). Without the right tools they will not be able to complete their job.

Pick the right technology for managing web meetings, documents, communication, timelines and if necessary timesheet tracking. Not only is it important to have the right technology you need to train your team members and make sure they are using it correctly.

2. Pick the right team members

Granted, many times you don’t get to pick your team, but if you do, focus on people that are self motivated, have good communication skills and are result driven. By picking people that are open go-getters it will help increase the chance of having a smooth project.

3. Determine your team's purpose

With team members all over the place you need to define your team’s purpose and set the ground rules. You can do this with a Team Charter. The Team Charter is a document that defines the purpose of the team, how it will work, and what the communication expectations will be (maybe each team member needs to update the project site daily on what they are working on).

4. Reward Performance and give feedback

Have you ever been on a team and feel that they forgot about you? Multiply that by 10 when you have offsite team members. To help combat this, you the PM, need to set up regular reviews of your team members and if possible try to call them up once a week to chat.

If your budget allows it, setup a rewards system, but make sure it is fair for all team members. Many times these rewards are setup for project goals and it will help keep the project on track.

5. Incorporate some team bonding

If you have the budget the best way to do this is to have a several day face-2 face meeting that includes some offsite fun. If there is no budget, then it could be something as simple as having a page within your project site with photographs of the team members (maybe you mix it up and ask them to include a photo from grade school), a bio, and links to things like their pages on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter or even YouTube.

Agile Will Be Seen for What It Is…and Isn’t

2011-01-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

A new year is here and one of the top trends for 2011 will continue to be where Agile project management is going.

In a recent blog post by Bernardo Tirado his top trends in project management for 2011 includes a statement about Agile software development:

Project management organizations embracing Agile software and product development approaches will continue to grow while being faced with the challenge of demonstrating ROI through Agile adoption. In addition, they will need to disabuse their stakeholders and executives of the expectations set by IT consultants, the media and the vendor community that Agile is the next “silver bullet.” Organizations that do it right – including selecting the right projects for Agile – will reap significant rewards.

The key is selecting the right projects for Agile project management … but how?

Recently, I attended the Madison PMO Manager forum where we discussed this topic. One member mentioned that his organization completes a risk assessment on the project to determine if it is the right fit for Agile project management. Others indicated that it works well for small projects (making a web app) with small teams that are co-located.

You selected a project but how to you measure it?

This is where it gets interesting. A PMO has many metrics it tracks its projects for, but with Agile project management you typically only have a burndown chart that is really nothing more than a chart showing 100% down to 0% complete.

We want more, right?

One way to make measurements is to use the Agility Measurement Index which scores developments against five dimensions of a software project (duration, risk, novelty, effort, and interaction).

A second way to is track the goals that are set for the project. Without objective measurements you are just guessing!

Why does Agile project management work?

1. The stand-up meetings holds your team accountable.

2. Rapid development of semi-functional software allows you to keep the project going in the right direction and there is less of a chance of it going down the wrong path.

3. Having experienced developers that have coded similar items and expert users as your primary stakeholders will help to keep the project focused.

4. Do the right things! If the post-it notes methodology works and is appropriate for your project stick with it. If you are developing software that is regulated and you need some or a lot of documentation, make sure you create the necessary documentation. You cannot have a one-size-fits-all Agile process.

Notable Quote:
“The agile processes that are successful have players that "know" what to do from skill and experience.” -Glenn Alleman

Even with a 3 ton elephant in the room we can still be Agile ...

2010-12-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Jason Hoffman, a Scrum master, to see if I would be interested in meeting up with others in the Madison area that run Agile projects, work on Agile projects or folks who are just interested in hearing more about Agile. Previously Jason use to attend meetings like this when he lived in the Twin Cities and he wanted to start something up like it in Madison, WI.

This past week we had our first meet-up with 5 people in attendance. We spent the first 90 minutes with each person talking about their backgrounds, how they are using Agile in their organizations and what some of their frustrations were.

Some of the discussions we had were:

1. How do you pull out traditional project management metrics to feed the PMO?

2. How do you get buy-in to start your first Agile project.

3. How you can blend the SDLC process along with using Agile techniques.

Okay, so let’s take #3 for a spin … One of the attendees Brice Ruth is a contractor at American Family Insurance. Brice indicated that AmFam has an internal website dedicated to Agile SDLC software development projects. It is great to see an organization that is willing to blend the two together.

Brice stated, “if you are worried about all the documentation that is needed for SDLC process, you can still have all the documents you want. You just need to add a backlog item to your last sprint which is to create all the necessary SDLC documentation.”

In the last 30 minutes of our meeting we brainstormed some topic ideas for future meetings. The next topic will be “Tools you use when managing Agile projects”. Meeting date is 11Jan2011.

If you are interested in attending these meetings and receiving updates on them please join our Linkedin group: Agile Madison

Help! My team members are in multiple locations!

2010-12-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

1Dec2011: Please click above if you want the most recent Blog posts^.

Recently I had a short discussion with Kara Rose the current President of the PMI of south central/ Madison Wisconsin chapter about issues the board members were having with document reviews, and having a place to have online discussions.

She indicated to me that they were currently using yahoo groups and it was clunky and not user friendly. She also mentioned that they were looking into setting up a SharePoint site, but was not sure who would host it.

After this I mentioned to her a few online applications that exist, and that I would think a bit about their issues to see if there is a good cheap product out there on the interweb to fit their needs.

What will work...

I checked my notes on online PM applications and I think that an application from Teamworks may fit their needs.

Getting users in the system...

This was very easy to do and you can use an outside email address (any email address will work).

Then you can determine if you want the system to send them a generated password or create one for them (the user, when they log in, can then change their password).

Next you can set up their permissions (sorta like SharePoint):

Overview...

You would then create a project (I’ll review that at in another post), and below is what you would see from the top level of a project. The key tabs for this discussion are: Files and Messages (also, I noticed that there is a news type feed that shows all the recent updates and a section to set up a RSS Feed).

Messages...

Within the Message section it is a normal message forum with one twist. It will allow you to indicate who you would like an email sent off to let them know that you posted a comment (much like you can in SharePoint).

File review...

Easy to upload, determine who can see it, add notes to the file. Version history. If someone downloads the file, edits it and uploads it in the same spot it creates a new version of it. Comments section for each file (again with a notification feature), which is nice to see.

The Cons to the file review section is that 2 people could take the file out at the same time so your versioning won’t be correct. No file review workflow with a must be completed by date followed by automated emails to the users that have not completed the task (all things that SharePoint has).

Pricing...

This is the most competitive pricing structure I’ve seen, because they base their prices on the number of projects and gigs of data with unlimited users. Now for the PMI board their best option may be the one in the small print. 2 projects and 5mb of storage. One project for PDD and one for general items. Hey, you cannot beat free, but if you need a bit more space and a few more projects $12/month is not that bad either. So for basic needs of a small committee of people TeamWorksPM.net may fit your needs (I’ll find out more in the next month if it truly has many of the common items we need to help us communicate out the on-goings of our projects).

Review of Project Centeral 2.0

2010-11-18T09:09:00.000-08:00

Recently I had a chance to check out Project Central 2.0, a SharePoint plug-in From Bamboo Solutions. Bamboo offers many project management related plug-ins for SharePoint.

When you log in there is a nice dashboard of information of all the projects in your portfolio. My only issue with this first screen is that you have to scroll to the right to see all the information. Within this view you will find all the common tabs you would need to quickly jump to.

Setting up a project

When setting up a project there is a great summary screen for the project, where you can define your team, see upcoming tasks, announcements, recently updated documents, and so on. These are typical things you would expect to see when developing a dashboard within SharePoint. I do like the idea of an icon that you click that will send out an email to all on the project (no need to bother IS admin to set up a universal mailing list within Outlook).

Updating the GANTT chart

You can enter the items into your project timeline. Each new item has a ton of information that you can enter that will feed the other parts of the application. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t see a button to import a Microsoft Project document into the system (you have to purchase an additional add-on for this).

They do offer different views, and an option to baseline the project, but I didn’t see anything for viewing the critical path.

Resource management

There is a section on resource management, it is nice to have this option so you can easily see if a person is over allocated and when you add a person to a project you can put in what percentage of time they will have on the project.

Risks

There is a full section on risks, and each risk you enter has all the key pieces of information you would normally collect, which is used to determine its spot on the impact and probability chart.

Summary

Pros:

Easy to use if you are familiar with SharePoint

Excellent dashboard views

Easy to input data, add more data views, and easy to get data out if you want to build offline reports

Easy to lock down using SharePoint’s built in security rules

Easy to track risks, issues, resources and costs

The ability to add a percentage of time a person will be assigned to the project

Standardized way to seeing a project site (stops PMs from making up their own sites)

One time fee

Cons:

Have to purchase an additional plug-in to import Microsoft Project documents

Discussion board is just a plain old discussion board with no tie into a task within the project

No project news feed type of feature (i.e.: task was completed, new discussion added, new document added)

No place for a team member that are assigned a task can give an update on the task that is tied back into the task

No templates, it would be nice if they had a section on Agile management with burn down item logger and a burn down chart.

Possible issue if you have outside team members, possible security concerns

Overall I think it is a great application at a fair price. Could you ask your companies programmers to build an application like this? Sure. But it is much more cost effective to purchase this one so you have all the key items you need to help capture the needs and the plan of the project.

iPad in the Enterprise

2010-11-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I attended a presentation titled: iPad in the Enterprise presented by Jake Scherrer of Centare. Link to his presentation.

In the presentation Jake went over Apple’s mobile devices and where the future may lead too.

Apple’s 3 main mobile devices are the iPhone, iPod touch and the iPad. Currently there are many new companies that are popping up to help you create apps that work with mobile technology to help you access your data basically anywhere. There are many professions today that this will be huge help to speed up workflows and getting data to the masses quicker.

One of the first hurdles will be the enterprise concerns with security (if I lose my iPhone will the finder now have access to my email and custom built apps?). Apple seems to have this locked down pretty well with the ability to lock and format and push new updates to the iPhone remotely).

Another hurdle is, how the heck do you get Apple to okay your custom made application for your client. Apple is getting much less restrictive of this and their review process.

What is the future?

Any type of data you have access to on your PC you should be able to have access to on your mobile device.

An example they gave was an app for collecting names of interested clients at a trade show (you know, you have a booth and folks drop off their business cards in a fish bowl which is replaced with an iPad app).

Rewards for service. Remember the days when you were with an organization for 5 years you received a tie tack, and 20 years you received a watch? How about after 2 years you receive an iPad with some custom apps for your company to help you keep track of what is going on in the office from the road or at home.

Some others I’ve thought about recently are:

1. Realtor app so they can look things up and take notes.
2. Project app so you can see project details or look at shared documents (like box.net has).
3. Trade show booth, to show videos about your organization, or give the user hands on access.
4. Doctors, who can re-view images from anywhere to give input on diagnoses.
5. Police reports, with dictation ability.

This could be so much more than just email! Think about the data you capture and how you could use it to help your organization work more efficiently!

http://www.cio.com.au/article/366255/ipad_enterprise_invasion_security_risks/?fp=4&fpid=51241

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/28/report-ipad-infiltrating-enterprise-it/

http://gigaom.com/mobile/the-ipad-as-enterprise-tool/

http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-for-business-2010-10

Continuing Education

2010-10-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

Several weeks ago I attended a 2 day class at the Fluno Center (University of Wisconsin Madison) on Project Portfolio Management. The class was taught by Barbara Schrage, PMP , who previously was Vice President of a centralized PMO in a Fortune 500 company.

The topics she covered were:

Clarify definitions, similarities/differences: Project, Program & Portfolio Management

Program management processes

Project portfolio Management processes

Out of Scope for the class were: PPM software applications (which made me a little sad, but I have a pretty decent grip on what there is out there).

During the first day we went over what a portfolio is and some of the challenges of implementing them. Here I saw all the basics including having staff that are unable to understand resource capacity. We also spent a lot of time on governance.

During the second day, we talked about integration and strategic processes, mixed in some hands on items (using a pre-made Excel file to help select the right projects; screen shot below) and spent a decent amount of time getting input from the students as to what they see in their own organizations.

I really enjoy attending the classes offered at the Fluno Center. Not only do I learn from the teacher, I learn from the people in class.

The Project Portfolio Management class is an excellent class for an organization that is thinking about starting up project portfolio management, or for the person that is currently doing it as a refresher course. Check it out!

Corasworks review part 2

2010-10-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended a webinar presented by Corasworks on their updated Project Portfolio manager that integrates with SharePoint (PPM v.2.0). This past winter I reviewed their application and they have many new useful updates.

They have included several new templates for managing projects using PMI or Agile methodologies and a custom template to make your own.

Microsoft Project documents still have the ability to push and pull from the product.

New edition to the timeline view includes the ability to see the critical path (many portfolio software apps do not have this).

The ability to take snapshot of the timeline (so you can look back to see where you were at, at a certain point of time, much like baselineing).

GANNT chart view with the ability to move items by dragging and the ability to link items via this view too.

A community board for project team members to share updates (which includes a rating system, and the ability to tag items so they are easier to find). I really like this because it could take some of the email discussions out of email into your project site (great place to have all that key communication in one spot).

Section to submit project proposals that will move through an approval workflow.

Updated Risk tracker to easily move a risk to the issues log.

A mobile app so you can see some project metrics, or see all of your tasks.

Link to the video on the mobile app: http://www.screencast.com/users/CorasWorks/folders/CorasWorks%20Mobile%20Adapter/media/f48ecb71-3e91-443d-b58f-12fad3f9660c

The mobile app is cool but the ability to update from it is very limited. In the video it gives examples of clicking on an open task which automatically moves it to 5% (what if I’m at 50%?). Also you can move KPI to green, yellow or red. Typically these move based on project metrics you set up, if not and you do it manually that is fine too. If you move an item to Red I would like the ability to write why it is red.

The mobile app needs more functions like box.net (the ability to view documents) to really be useful and needs a project newsfeed (more below).

Other things I would like to see…

eSignatures for sign-off on sections within the project and on any documents that have signature lines (we currently have a 3^rd party app that does this for us).

They talk about web 2.0 social media parts (community part), but I think they need to expand this. @task is coming out with a new update soon that will include a newsfeed for your project.

I would imagine the project newsfeed would include things like.

“New document, project requirements, has been added” 20Sep2010

“Task, sign off document, has been completed” 20Sep210

“Question titled, help with code for jump uploader, has been added to the community board” 20Sep2010

“New photo titled, here is where we are 20sep, has been added” 20Sep2010

“New video titled, software in use, has been added” 20sep2010

Then you can control this by turning updates off that you are not interested in (say you don’t care when documents are added or updated).

You would see the updates for your project and there would be a view for updates for all projects flowing into one newsfeed.

Also how about a section for what a person is working on for the day? Nice way for managers to check up on staff (and a great check-up of Agile projects).

Overall Corasworks is doing an excellent job of listening to their customers and bringing in the standard items we need to manage projects. The key to making this work is having experts in your organization that use the application and training, re-training and offering plenty of training on the application. Without this you could buy something that no one uses… Have a plan in place before you implement it …

Agile moving forward

2010-10-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

My first experience of trying an Agile methodology was a hit, but we needed to fine tune our process a bit before we tried it again.

Our first step was to put together a template within SharePoint to help us gather and track the project information.

Here it is.

At the top there is a link to the Charter, which is just a Word document that captures things like:

Scope, Business need, Goals, Product description, Assumptions, Constraints , Who’s on the team and their role, Issue, risk and change management, Test plan, Communication strategy, What does done look like

Below that is a list of the most recent documents in the document library (this is also where you will find a Microsoft timeline).

Below that is the project discussion section we used to capture meeting notes in (microblogging).

On the left hand side a link to the backlog:

Here is the information we were capturing in the backlog:

Each backlog item has some key pieces of information which helps us put it into the right sprint and allows the developer to capture notes.

An Issues log. As changes were made, and testing happened, if we ran into an issue we tracked it here.

Finally there is the test plan section that pulls the short description from the backlog item.

1 … 2… 3… go!

So with this in hand we started up our next Agile project, which was v.2 of our first Agile project. There was one big difference with this project in that there was a constraint of 6 weeks to complete v.2 (which included a whole new section to the website, some code fixes, moving data to SharePoint to create a digital workflow with alerts). And finally the killer … we had to use a QA representative to create a formal test plan.

We put together a small team. 3 expert users. 2 programmers (one php expert and one SharePoint expert). 1 QA rep. 1 PM/Scrum guy (me, it is funny how these mission critical projects keep landing in my lap).

We started out with normal Agile methodology telling stories and breaking them down into backlog items (remember the backlog items are now in SharePoint). Then we put together the timeline (keeping that must end by date in-mind). Meetings were scheduled for the duration of the project which included Mon, Wed, Fri 15 minute status updates (what I did, what I’m going to do and a little show and tell) and one 1 hour meeting on Thursdays (short update, but more show and tell, workflow, reviewing requirements, reviewing documentation, expanding timeline tasks as needed).

Again all of the meeting notes were captured within SharePoint discussion board and any changes to the requirements were also updated.

Part of our communication strategy was a short weekly update email (by me) sent to the executives (to calm their nerves about hitting the timeline). Once we had a working prototype I included a short 5 minute video of the product in use (so they could really see we were making progress); this is a great example of using web 2.0 technologies to communicate the project status.

The project was a success! We came in 2 days early and our client was happy with the results! And yes, we did get cake!

Lessons learned. …

There were many email discussions about various parts of the product that were not tied back into the project site (it is possible within the SharePoint discussion boards to have an email address assigned to a project to capture project related email).

Timeline is still in Project. For a project this small it wasn’t really an issue (20 tasks versus the normal 1000 I’m use to).

Small team of experts and many meetings was the key to the success of this project. If we used waterfall methodology we would of blown by the “must end by date” before one line of code was written.

Project size. Again this was a small project using experts who have coded similar products in the past. This was key for the project to hit the end date or come in early.

Celebrating with the Team:

“The agile project management approach ensures constant communication and faster, transparent decision making.” - Why Agile? And Why it is Not a Silver Bullet WHITE PAPER

Here is a nice overview of Agile:

http://www.projectmanagers.net/profiles/blogs/what-is-this-thing-called

Book review: Empowered: Unleash your Employees

2010-09-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

Dux Raymond (@meetdux) recently tweeted that FREE copies of “Empowered” were available for the Kindle via Amazon. My favorite “F” word is free so I downloaded it.

I was a little concerned about spending time reading it knowing that there are hundreds of social media books out there and many of them are outdated the day they are printed. Luckily it was a great book and will be a benchmark social media book for at least the next year (why does technology move so fast?).

In "Empowered" the authors Josh Bernoff and Ted Shadler not only discuss using social media in an effective manner for your business, but expand upon this premise:

"Your company is not and cannot be nimble enough to serve them. With your established processes and departmental boundaries, you move too slowly. Only your employees can help. And only if you unleash them." Further: "To succeed with empowered clients you must empower your employees to solve customer problems."

They also have many case studies (Dell, Ford, Best Buy, NHL, Quickbooks, E-trade, UPS, Black and Decker, Eagles Stadium and others) to show a bottom up flow of ideas from people they call HEROes (Highly Empowered Resourceful Operatives) who are key to making these ideas work. The HEROes are driven by a desire to create improvements on their own initiative rather than to live with the status quo.

Many of the examples in the book revolve around customer service. You know, those clients that can blog or tweet and bring you thousands of negative impressions over-night.

There is also an excellent section in the book on selection criteria for selecting HERO projects and tips for creating governance boards and teams for internal monitoring and gaining buy-in from senior management.

They also touch on things like SharePoint (it could be a HERO idea to have a document repository or workflows). Did you install it and send out the company wide email and saying, “please use it” only to find out that no one is using it? As with any new application people hate change. If you won’t put the effort in training and re-training and keeping it in their faces they will never use your new HERO application.

Overall I thought the book was easy to read and understand (with the real world examples mixed in) and it has a nice flow on how the process works. So if you are looking to add a little social media to your organization, this is a great book to start with.

Where did the term “software bug” come from?

2010-09-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

Recently one of my co-workers gave a presentation on software bugs. Typically “bugs” are a negative thing but here is story that will help you to keep it simple during your bug search.

So where did the term software “bug” come from?

Back in the 1940’s the first computer was built for the military to calculate ballistic trajectories.

It weighed 30 tons, took up 15,000 sqf, had 19,000 vacuum tubes, 100’s of mechanical relays, and cost $500,000 to build. To put this into perspective, a common calculator you use today is more powerful than this machine.

When the machine started to have errors an inspection was done and Admiral Grace Hopper team found a moth in relay #70 as she noted in her lab notebook (and she even tapped the moth to the notebook page!).

“From then on, when anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it.” - Admiral Grace Hopper

So the next time you stumble upon a bug think of Grace and that moth!

Are you looking to obtain your PMP?

2010-09-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

When I made the decision to move forward with obtaining PMP status I put together a game plan.

First I needed 35 contact hours worth of class time. Check! I had already completed my master certificate in Project Management offered at UW Madison at the Fluno Center. I had plenty of project time already under my belt. Check! So then I was ready to apply and study a bit before taking the big test.

My study materials included the PMBOK (yes it is a hard read but it is full of information), Rita Mulcahy PMP prep book, and various websites that offered practice exams. After a couple of months studying I took the test and passed!

Now we fast-forward to today … what would I have done differently? If I needed the 35 contact hours I would have liked to have purchased some webcast or video webcast that I could view, take notes and then review whenever I wanted. There are so many classes out there that cost $700-$2000 that give you 35 hours but when you walk out the door you are on your own!

Welcome to the new age!
I was recently contacted by the folks at PM Prepcast (created by Cornelius Fichtner, PMP) about reviewing their Prepcast videos. They have it set up with videos you can view on your PC or your ipod. There are 120 videos to download and you can go back to them anytime to review them. I have viewed several of them and have also slipped my ipod into my pocket and have gone jogging with them (I know … I’m a Project Management Geek).

The PM Prepcast is just one more tool you can use to help study for the PMP exam. If you are more of a visual type of learner this is the product for you!

Also, the product comes with a practice exam. Some of my best learning was done taking practice exams.
Cost? $99.97! That is a bargain! And it includes your 35 contact hours and you can review the videos again and again.

So if you are a visual learner and/or you need 35 contact hours the PM Prepcast may be one more tool to help you obtain your PMP status!

Agile Manifesto:

2010-08-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Recently I read an article titled:

Considerations for Using Agile in DoD Acquisition

The article is an overview of Agile and how it may work within the Department of Defense and how it could be incorporated into a PMO setting. Within the article there is a small part that mentions that the Air Force has tried Agile methodologies for a couple of small projects and they have come up with their own Agile Manifesto (here is part of it):

THE FIST MANIFESTO (Fast, Inexpensive, Simple, Tiny)

System development projects should be done by the smallest possible team of talented people, using a short schedule, a small budget and mature technologies to deliver innovative solutions to urgent needs.

This approach is called FIST: Fast, In-expensive, Simple, Tiny.

Short timelines increase agility and stabilize requirements, technology, budgets and people. Short timelines also force accountability, ownership and learning. To maintain short timelines, a project must also exercise restraint over budgets, complexity and size. Increases to the project’s budget, complexity or size inevitably reduce its speed.

Accordingly, the FIST approach advocates the following:

Minimize team size, maximize team talent.
Use schedules and budgets to constrain the design.
Insist on simplicity in organizations, processes and technologies.
Incentivize and reward under-runs.
Requirements must be achievable within short time horizons.
Designs must only include mature technologies.
Documents and meetings must be short. Have as many as necessary, as few as possible.
Delivering useful capabilities is the only measure of success.

Is On Time Often Over-rated?

2010-08-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

Is delivering something on time more of a goal for most of your projects?

Many projects never set firm end dates because they understand that the project requirements may change throughout. When the project ends, typically past the original end date we celebrate! Right? Yes! Cake for everyone because we knew upfront the date would slide.

Now what about the project that has set requirements and you blow by your initial end date by months and the product is full of bugs? Cake for everyone! Why? The project needed to be completed and the lessons learned were that we didn’t have the right durations for the timeline.

Now what about an end date constraint? We hit the end date, but several of the requirements needed to be dropped to meet the timeline. Cake for everyone!

Many times on time is defined by the organization. Many organizations understand that dates may be pushed, or requirements dropped or added, or finished software may have bugs. If this is business as usual then you may be eating a lot of cake!

The true indicator is how risk adverse the sponsor is to a slipping timeline? They may be the first to market for a product so they may have a low threshold for slippage. Or if they are building a software package that is a must have for the business, but they have an older system in place that is working fine, then they may have a higher threshold for the timeline to slip.

How do we control this slippage? Make sure you have all of the right stakeholders at the start to define the requirements and build the timeline. Bonus structure. I’ve seen and have worked for organizations that have given a bonus to the PM (and sometimes other stakeholders) for meeting a milestone like the end of the project on time. Communication! Remember 90% of managing a project is communication. Or you can “Let them eat cake”!

Related links:
http://pmtoolsthatwork.com/does-anyone-care-if-your-project-is-on-time/

http://pmtoolsthatwork.com/is-your-project-on-time/

Decision making tools

2010-07-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended a seminar on team facilitation at UW Madison, and one of the topics we covered was decision making tools.

One of the tools we reviewed and tried out was dot voting.

Dot voting can be used on items such as identifying which projects to start first, which issues to address first, ranking items within a burn down chart, or simply using it after brainstorming to help select the items you want to focus on to move forward.

Steps to the method

1. Each person is given a 10 dots (or post-it notes work well too), and they are instructed to indicate their priorities, they are to use all their dots, but no more than 4 on any one item (4 = their top priority).

2. The items are posted on a flip chart (you may need multiple flip charts, or give participants more dot) and the participants place the dots on their priorities.

3. When everyone has placed their dots, count the dots, and typically there are a few clear winners.

4. Now the discussion starts on which projects (or items) should be ranked the highest.

This method is a good visual aid, gets people out of their seats, and should help to limit discussions on picking the top ranking items.

Book review: Taming Change with Portfolio Management

2010-07-17T14:54:00.000-07:00

Recently I received an advance reader’s copy of Taming Change with Portfolio Management: Unify Your Organization, Sharpen Your Strategy and Create Measurable Value which is now on available at Amazon (and available on the kindle).

Pat Durbin and Terry Doerscher (both from Planview) have developed a guide for managing change within the modern portfolio management that provides organizations of all types and sizes a way to effectively manage changes impacting all areas of the organization.

The book covers concepts like adapting to change:

“If you look at every change as a single, isolated event that threatens your survival, the people in your organization might respond like five-year-olds on the soccer field, “buzzing” around the ball like a swarm of bees. Using portfolio management, you will be able to see individual changes from a broader perspective and respond with fluid adjustments to your game plan. Once you understand that change is the nature of the game, it becomes a strategic tool.”

To operational planning concepts:

“A formal operational planning process establishes a methodical, consistent planning approach at the highest levels of the organization, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.”

To operational planning process:

“Successful organizations are not only open to new ideas; they also make a formal commitment to an effective and sustainable idea nurturing process.”

They also cover:

Implementing portfolio management
Managing work intake
Leveraging technology to help run your portfolio
… and many other portfolio topics

I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how portfolio management can be integrated into a program for effective project control.

Prototypes during software projects

2010-07-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

Recently a colleague of mine told me about a short video by Tom Wujec on team building. Tom has conducted this exercise over 70 times with groups from kindergartners to CEO’s and has some pretty interesting results.

Exercise:

20 pieces of spaghetti
1 yard of tape
1 yard of string
1 marshmallow

Teams of 4 have to build the tallest tower they can within 18 minutes and at the end you measure from the bottom of the structure to the top of the marshmallow.

This forces people very quickly to collaborate. One of the interesting findings he has seen during these tests is that kindergartener’s tend to make prototypes and on average had taller structures than CEO’s. Where as adults would discuss, jockey for power, build and then at the very end put the marshmallow on top and hope it would stay standing.

Lesson learned:
Learn from the kindergartners and prototype your software development projects. This is especially important during long complicated builds.

Link to the Video:

A Social Project Management Platform

2010-06-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

@task has a new application they are developing to try to tie in some social media communication within their application. The application is what it was before with tasks but it is now in a more user friendly platform with drag and drop capabilities and communication at the task level.

Some of the items I like about it are:

1. 1. You have the ability to track tasks to the person assigned to them (maybe this is incorporated into their yearly review).

2. You can be part of a project and see the news feed type of updates as things are completed, comments or things are updated.

2. 3. The users have the ability to type in status updates and suggest when they think they will be done, and they can prioritize their own lists (so you can see when they may work on your task next).

3. 4. Shows baseline, what people are planning to do on a task, and highlights the critical path.

4.

5. You can attach files to tasks (maybe a mock-up of a screen shot).

5. 6. If someone reply’s to your comments you are notified.

6. 7. Has dashboard views you can customize including % complete, EV and comments on the project.

Overall it looks to be a pretty simple to use product that looks like it would work well if one was running a project in an Agile environment.

There is a 3 part demo of the product; part 1:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pCm-iYN5dA

Social Media Policy for your workplace?

2010-06-10T16:56:00.001-07:00

Just what we need is another policy right? Social media looks like it is powering on and is capturing more users’ everyday including at the workplace. GASP! Not at your office, right?!? In a recent study as many as 50% of companies have put the lock down at the firewall level to stop employees from accessing places like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. And Palo Alto Networks is coming out with new software that will give Facebook the ability to create groups in the office to determine who can write messages or give a group the ability to read only.

Do you really need a policy?

If you are worried about your company’s image out on the interweb, as represented by employees within your organization, then I would say yes. Also, it may be nice to set some guidelines up on how it may be used within a project (you may want to include this in your communication plan within your project).

Are you monitoring the buzz about your company on the web?

If you are not, you better start. If that one negative review is the first thing that pops up in a google search you better know about it! Monitoring can be done by opening a google alerts account that will notify you if your keyword (company name) is found in a website. Or you can purchase software to do this from organizations like Networked Insights.

What is in a policy?

1. Don’t forget your day job. You need to have a statement like this within the policy if you plan to have an open network (no locking down of social networks). You may want to take it to the next level about reserving the right to remove or limit their access or possible termination if they are abusing it (not getting their work done).

2. Rules for engagement. Include items like not discussing confidential information and if you would not say it to your grandmother you probably should not be writing about it.

One of the best policies I’ve read is from the company RightNow. They used social media policies from Intel, Sun Microsystems and IBM to development theirs. If possible, try to steer clear of writing it up like a legal document (social media policies for states and cities are like this).

Notable quote:

“Be real and use your best judgment.” -Zappos (a one line social media policy)

Link up:

http://www.mindsaw.com/how-to-write-a-social-media-policy

~100 social media policies from different industries: http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

PMI Madison Professional Development Day 2010

2010-06-01T15:08:00.000-07:00

Recently I attended the Madison PMI Professional Development Day at the Monona Terrace. The theme was Going the Distance with Project Management and 2 of the keynote speakers were tri-athletes.

I attended many excellent talks and here are my thoughts on them.

First was key note speaker: Sarah Reinertsen. At the age of 7 Sarah had her left leg amputated due to proximal femoral focal deficiency in a hope to improve her quality of life. Sarah went through her personal timeline from that point forward to when she crossed the finish line of the Ironman in Hawaii where she finished in 15 hours and 5 minutes.

Lessons Learned: even if you loose your leg the project must go on.

Next I attended a talk titled: Measuring the value of a PMO – The PMO Scorecard: by Tom Mochal;
Link to the presentation

Tom’s key points about PMO score cards were that you should pick items for it that match up to the goals of your company and that you should tie them into the performance of your project managers.

Lesson Learned: monitor your PMO and your PMs.

Next I was off to a talk titled: Introducing Agile to an Organization Through Projects – Experience Report: By Luis Murgas
Link to presentation

Luis wants you to answer 3 questions before you jump into an Agile method of software development.

Are your software development projects on time?
Does your software do all of the things you requested at the beginning of the project?
Do people like your current methodologies for developing software?

If you answered no to these then an Agile methodology may be for you. You should not just turn all of your projects over to an agile method. Start with one project, be successful with it and do it again and again until someone notices.

Lesson Learned: This agile thing isn’t going away so we better embrace it.

At lunch Mark Allen a +15 year tri athlete who has competed in 12 triathlons and has won 6 of them went through his career of competing in the Ironman in Hawaii.

Lesson learned: Are you willing to give 100% on your project even if the goal looks impossible?

Then I was off to a talk titled: Leveraging New Social Media Relationship tools in project management by Wendy Soucie
Link to presentation

Wendy’s main take home point was that you need to develop a social media policy at your office. Mayo Clinic has their policy available for download.

Lesson Learned: This social media thing is not going away so we better plan for it, control it and embrace it.

Finally I ended the day with a talk titled: The changing world of work – what it means to PMs and their companies by Wayne Turmel

Wayne took us through the latest ways virtual teams are being assemble and suggested some tools to use. Wayne ended with an eye opening story about his 14 year old daughter a cheerleader. Her cheer team made it to the next round of a competition and they had 1 week to come up with a new routine. The planning happened in his living room. Only half the team could make it, but within 1 hour the girls had downloaded the new songs, shot a video of the new moves, posted it to youtube and sent out a text message to the missing team members with a link to the new routine so they could practice.

Lesson Learned: Gen Y is ready to roll over the Boomers with technology to get the project done!

Managing Stakeholders:

2010-05-14T06:16:00.000-07:00

When managing stakeholders keep the following in mind:

Who are the stakeholders?

You need to identify all of the stakeholders at the start of the project or you may have additional requirements revealed in as stakeholders are added after the project has already started.

What are their requirements?

You need all of the requirements at the start of project (and what requirements which will not be included). Without them your project may have delays, cost overruns or possibly fail.

How to communicate to them during the project?

This needs to be defined at the start of the project. Determine what the frequency of communication and what it will include (typically it is concise and brief and focused on progress and value). If including project metrics, all measures of the project elements must be meaningful to the project stakeholders.

Keep the project vision visible!

Keeping the project vision accessible allows everyone involved in the project to stay focused on what's important. The benefit is that it helps reduce the chance of scope creep.

Keep them involved!

It is important that during the project the stakeholders are kept involved by things such as: being a risk response owner, engage them in problem solving, reviewing new requirements and creation of lessons learned.

What is done?

Stakeholders need to agree what done looks like. If they don’t, the project may be off track before it starts.

Movement to Agile software development…

2010-05-02T09:04:00.001-07:00

Recently at my organization there was a need for a new piece of software and a very short timeline to develop it. The Executives came to me about making sure the project was completed on time. I had 2 requirements before I would accept the project: 1. I would not use our Software Development Life Cycle process (SDLC); 2. I would manage the project with a co-manager who heads up our network systems group.

So why would we ditch our predefined SDLC process?

Our SDLC process has many excellent documents and procedures on the process, but the issue with using it for this project was a short timeline and we wanted to review the software as it was being built (which helped us determine those requirements that we were not sure of at the start). So I wanted to move forward with an Agile method.

Why have a co-manager?

I wanted this so we could develop our own documentation templates that we could use for future projects and hopefully after several projects we can prove to the executives that an Agile method is an acceptable method for us (we would need to calm their fears about FDA reviews).

Let’s get it started!

We started by first selecting a team of expert content users (the stakeholders). Many times I’ve seen software development projects where the executives sit in each meeting. Why? I understand why they are there for the kick-off, but if they are not going to use software (so they are not expert content users, but they are a stakeholder) we spend a lot of our time in meetings explaining how things work to them. Having the right team is critical for this process to work (Jesse Fewell recently wrote an article about this: Tail of two teams).

Next we had our kick-off meeting where we told stories about what we wanted the software to do. From these stories we pulled out the requirements and came up with 3 stages (or sprints) for the project. The requirements were documented within their stages and we also included acceptance testing within it. We did not put this into a burn down chart (improvements for next time) and I recently read an article about making screen shots to add to your stories (link)

You want to meet again?!?

The key to making this work is frequent face-2-face meetings for the team to report what they have done and what they are doing next (helps to keep people on track) and this is an opportunity for show and tell of the software. Agile methodology recommends daily meetings, but we stuck with meeting 2-3 times a week. During these show and tell times some new requirements came out and we determined if they were within scope of the project and, if so, what phase to put them in and determined if there was any effect on the timeline (changes are welcome). Now, this is in contrast to the SDLC or waterfall model is its inflexible division of a project into separate stages, where commitments are made early on, making it difficult to react to changes in requirements as the project executes. This means that the waterfall model is likely to be unsuitable if requirements are not well understood/defined or change in the course of the project.

Success!

Our lessons learned from this process was that it was key to only have the expert users at our meetings and having more than 1 meeting a week really kept the project moving along.

Checkout the application in use!

Notable Quote

In most organizations, a stakeholder's attention span is pretty short. Long projects that require a lot of stakeholder patience tend to falter and ultimately fail. Providing value regularly, at short (3-4 week) intervals, keeps stakeholders engaged and interested. -@task blog

Going forward …

Determine other organizations using Agile methods who are submitting to the FDA:

http://rdn-consulting.com/blog/2007/07/22/agile-development-in-a-fda-regulated-setting/

http://www.klocwork.com/blog/2009/08/agile-2009-day-4/

http://thetestking.com/content/software-life-cycles-fda-regulated-companies

http://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/deviceregulationandguidance/guidancedocuments/ucm085281.htm

http://thetestking.com/content/software-life-cycles-fda-regulated-companies

http://thetestking.com/content/does-agile-software-development-mix-well-fda-regulations%C2%A0

projectmanager.com review:

2010-04-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

Recently I had a chance to take projectmanager.com website for a test drive and here are my thoughts:

Pros:

Easy to use

Nice for team members in multiple locations

Has notifications

Fair pricing

Has issues and risk tracking

Has dashboard views

Cons:

Tight structure. What they have is what you get. No more. No less.

Resource tracking over multiple studies is a bit clunky

Would not recommend it for a large company

No document workflow tracking
No critical path
No forecasting

Notable post about Web base PM tools like this:

Check out the ~6 minute video of the application in action (narration by me) make sure you maximize the video so you can see what I'm clicking on:

Red, Yellow, Green Project status

2010-04-01T09:04:00.001-07:00

Over the past month I’ve read several interesting articles on status reports and I thought I would expand on an old post of mine (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue project status).

Obviously there is some common ground when it comes to status reports, but if you are going to have a status report or dashboard view of projects and you want to use the stop light approach as part of your information how would you define what Green, Yellow and Red means and for what?

Let’s start with the basic way:
It is the old triple constraint: Scope, Time, Budget.You could have a stoplight for each one (Scope, Schedule and Budget). Then you need a method of how to determine what Green, Yellow, Red means.

Here is an example for Scope:
Green - We are on track to deliver committed scope by committed deadline with committed resources/funding.
Yellow - We are not on track to deliver committed scope by committed deadline with committed resources/funding, but we have a plan to get back to green.
Red - We are not on track and we need a plan to get the project back on track.

Here is an example that brings in a couple more data-points and shows a bit of the history of the project over the past 4 months:

Okay, so that is a general overview, but we all know as project managers we hate it when our projects slip into the yellow/red areas.

I’ve seen some organizations let the PM pick the color of the status in which yellow and red was meant to raise a flag that something is going on (using a reference as to when to change the color). I’ve also seen organizations that uses metrics pulled out of project documents along with the PM answering some questions on a rating system which then the dashboard crunches the numbers and selects the color rating.

What are some other metrics to follow?

How about a stoplight for risks?

If you capture a 1 to 5 rating for probability and impact multiply the two and if it reaches a certain level it will = yellow or red. This measurement isn’t meant to take the place of a full-blown weighted risk-assessment methodology, which should be calculated separately for larger projects.

How about a stoplight for resources?

Do you monitor your resources? If your resource are over allocated by 5-9% for the next report period it turns it yellow. If 10% or more it turns red. If you are tacking this in Project it should be easy to mine this data.

How often do we do this?

It depends on your organization and types of projects. You may have some mission critical projects that you want the PM to update the dashboard weekly. Or smaller side projects that a monthly update is okay. This is something that should be decided at the beginning of the project and I personally like to see this indicated in the project charter.

How about just one stoplight for the entire project?

Yes, this is possible if you set up metadata to output one rating number or leave it up the PM to decide on the color.

Finally, stoplights give us a quick view into a project and are an effect way to view project information as long as the team member or executive can drill down further into your project to see what is going on as to why things are yellow or red.

Working the system

The dashboard data is as good as the project data compiled to create it. Recently I spoke with a friend about her PMO and the stoplight concept. She was aware that PMs in her organization know how they can fool the system to keep their projects green (including just resaving the previous month update so it looks like it was updated). Knowing this is it important for the PMO to periodically check the status of their projects to make sure the PM is not trying to work the system (a mature PMO should conduct monthly analysis of a part of their PM process to make sure their PMs are in check).

Things to keep in mind

A red project does not = failure on the PM. It indicates that they are managing risks appropriately and requesting the appropriate degree of support to move projects back to green.

Noteable link:

http://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/10/status-reports.html

How to use social media to help manage a project?

2010-03-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

This post is an elaboration of my interview conducted by PMI which will be featured in the upcoming March 2010 issue of PM Network magazine (PMPs on FB OMG!).

I see social media as a new communication/team building tool that all Project Managers, at some point in the future, will have in their PM toolbox. This concept has been named Project Management 2.0 (or Enterprise 2.0) which means project managers will use Web 2.0 concepts to manage parts of their projects.

I think the 4 main areas where this will be most effective are:

Project status updates
Discussions
Team building
Process management

Project Status updates

How about a blog which is open to all team members who weekly post their project updates. This would be useful for international teams.

A Twitter like function that can send out a short update or link to a photo of your project progress (maybe it is a construction project) to your team and it would also keep your updates in one location for all of your team members to view later if needed.

A Wiki that is open to all team members to insert lessons learned throughout the project. Currently, VistaPrint is using a Wiki to capture their programming issues and government agencies, like the CIA (tied-in with others), are using Wiki’s to track “persons of interest”.

Or how about team members giving their updates via a video? I honestly don't think this one would work ... yet.

Discussions

After that face to face discussion to gather requirements, put it in a discussion forum and send a link to the team to continue the discussion. This will allow team members to enter items on their time (you just never know when you will have that ah-ha moment). You can also use it to discuss potential risks, develop budgets, propose questions to the team or even brainstorm about solving project issues.

Team building

If each team member has a profile photo and a short bio it may help your team members learn about their team. This is especially important with international teams. Or have a link to team members that have a linkedin page, Facebook page (oh look! My team member Bobbie went to Vegas this last weekend! We will have to chat about that at our next project meeting) or blogs. Currently Serena Software is using Facebook and is seeing many positive results with their international teams. Also, NewsGator offers a Facebook like plug-in for SharePoint.

Process Management

How about we use a little web 2.0 technology to management scope change requests? The old way was to formally present (or complete a change request form) to the executive staff the change and the impact on the project. If we use an application like SharePoint we can quickly create a workflow that includes the change, impact and then each Executive can review, comment and then check yes or no and signoff (digital signature). When a comment is entered the PM will be notified by email. Now you have a full discussion and documentation on the decision instead of meeting minutes that would of said, “the additional requirement was approved” (how boring).

Some of the naysayers of PM 2.0 think these tools would never work with projects like a “$200M ERP rollout, or a manned space flight avionics program, or maybe an interstate highway project”. Companies like Pfizer are already using these concepts for managing the development of new drug products and medical devices (from a concept to a product typically takes ~1 billion dollars which includes clinical trials at hundreds of clinical sites in multiple countries). Oh yeah, I almost forgot … NASA is currently investigating social media too (checkout the slides).

The key to making this work in the future will be one stand-alone system that will have all of these features in one place. This will allow a one stop shop for PM’s to turn items on and off and for team members to get project information from one place and updates from their projects on one page (just like Facebook). SharePoint has many of these features (or if they are not there you can buy plug-ins from vendors). I would prefer to run my projects within SharePoint then having all the project information within the head of the PM.

Slide show:

What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later

Notable Quote:

PM 2.0 is nothing more then a new communication tool. Will 2.0 help with the 4 area's above? Maybe or maybe not, but it may open up communications to help discuss about them. –Ryan Endres

SharePoint PMO Plugin Corasworks

2010-02-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

On October 8, 2010 I reviewed the newest version of Corasworks: click here

So far I have reviewed two PMO plug-ins for SharePoint:

pmPoint by Brightworks and EPM Live.

Today I checked out Corasworks

http://www.corasworks.net

Again, here are the basics we are looking for:

1. ~4 templates for 4 different types of projects (SDLC, smaller software projects, clinical trials, R&D projects)

2. Pull information from the templates into a dashboard for organization and executives review

3. Must be able to view and pull data from Microsoft Project documents within SharePoint

Corasworks offers many different plug-ins for SharePoint (they even have an Apps store just like itunes) and some of them are even free. My adventure started when a representative from Corasworks contacted me after reading my blog (great to see a company with their ear to the interweb). We set up a time to review what they had to offer. After the demo I requested to have a sandbox set up (my own personal test site) so I could play around.

Project set-up is easy. They currently have only one template, but it is easy to customize it and then save that template for future projects (in my case we are looking 4 different types of projects). If you are not up to customizing the template then Corasworks will work with you to set it up to fit your needs.

Cost: A onetime fee plus a yearly maintenance fee after the first year. The costs I was quoted included as many users as you want and I think are very reasonable for medium and larger organizations.

Pros:

Still have all the normal SharePoint features we are use to.

Have builder wizards to update their templates to make universal changes to templates already in use. I love this part because currently if I make a change to a template I have to make the change to all the projects that are using it.

It is possible to share a task across multiple projects.

Users can see their assigned tasks, risks … within their own view.

You can edit Project documents within SharePoint or it has a 2 way-sink with Project if you wish to edit that way.

If you like to use the Calendar view you can unselect grouped items to make it less cluttered.

Within many of the datasets you can turn on the filter bar (commonly used in Excel) to filter for certain items or to filter for items that are not contained in the column (I’ve seen this type of filtering in Excel, but not within SharePoint). This is the first PMO plug-in I’ve seen that has this function.

They have an approval workflow with Email updates as the process moves on (this may be a plug-in or request that it is added to your system). Currently in my organization we have two types of approval processes that we could use this with, 1 taking on a new study and 2 when a sponsor requests a milestone. Currently we use a Word document and it is less than efficient.

Has the normal dashboard views with project and the PMO view.

They have a blog that they update frequently with what is going on at Corasworks and they have a message forum for folks to ask questions (I see this as great product support). Also, they have an excellent help text to help with any issues that may come up.

CONS:

Currently it is not able to view over allocated resources across multiple projects, but they are planning on including this in the next update within a month.

Only offer 1 template but it is customizable by the end user or work with Coraswork to edit it for you.

May be cost prohibitive for smaller organizations.

Out of the 3 PMO plug-ins for SharePoint I’ve reviewed I think this is the best one, to date, for the following reasons:

1. Cost

2. Excellent help text and folks at Corasworks ready to help you customize the app and when a good customization request comes in they roll it out in an update to everyone

3. Easy to use and well thought out placement of items within the product

Other Reviews on Corasworks:

http://www.sharepointreviews.com/component/content/article/63-sharepoint-platforms/186-CorasWorks-Workplace-Suite.html

Enterprise 2.0 book review

2010-02-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with my theme of Web 2.0 in my last few posts I thought I would review the book titled Enterprise 2.0.

The book uses case studies of organizations using social media; it goes over the benefits and pitfalls and how best to approach their adoption.

Enterprise 2.0 definition:

Is the use of emergent social software platforms by organizations in pursuit of their goals.

The book presents a road map for success concentrating on the roles played by business leaders-managers and executives outside the HR department. These leaders are the most important constituency for successful use of the newly available technologies of Enterprise 2.0.

The book includes 4 case studies from organizations that are actually using social media. Here are a couple of examples:

1. VistaPrint had a shared hard drive which people saved documentation and other reference work, but most people felt that it was disorganized and hard to search. The president of the company felt that as workers left VistaPrint the knowledge left with them and he felt that many time workers were trying the reinvent the wheel with projects. To solve this they installed MediaWiki with the goal of getting the company’s engineers to enter their accumulated knowledge into it. The end result was an easy to read, navigate and searchable system.

2. Serena Software is using Facebook to help build a stronger and more consistent corporate culture. They brought in staff members kids (many times high school and college aged) to teach people how to use the application. It was an immediate hit because it allowed people to keep up with strong and weak ties and in many cases allowed user to see what some of their project team members actually looked like.

Overall I think the book is a must read for anyone who is thinking about introducing web 2.0 concepts to their organization to address the fear that people won’t use the newly available tool and fears that they will.

The book is available at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-2-0-Collaborative-Organizations-Challenges/dp/1422125874/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

The future of project communication…

2010-01-27T15:35:00.000-08:00

History has shown us that communication in project management has changed over the years and it will continue to change.

If we look back 25 plus years, project management was mainly done by face to face meetings and telephone calls. Project information was kept in a “Project Room” that held items like the WBS, Gantt chart and other paper project documents.

Approximately 20 years ago we saw internal company emails start up and then email escaped from the walls of our offices to the outside world in 1993. This was a new form of communication which led us to share our thoughts, project updates and share project documents with our team members. Here we saw the naysayers who thought email was counterproductive, impersonal and would lead to a higher rate of failed projects.

About 10 years ago we started to see the beginning of social media growing in blogs, discussion boards and social connections (classmates.com comes to mind). In 2001 I lead a project to develop a web based project dashboard which had project sites that PM’s could post updates, issues log, risk log, action log and a document library. We also had discussion boards within our Lotus email system and we created a section for employees to add a headshot, their background and their hobbies. This allowed us to run our projects more efficiently since our company employees were located in 4 countries.

And here we are today.

Again, just like 20 years ago there are the naysayers of using new technologies to manage our projects (Glen Alleman who blogs at Herding Cats is a firm believer that the Project Management 2.0 is “IT centric, and marketing hype” and “Project communication is NOT done through the narrow pipe of a 128 character half duplex ASCII character set messaging system”). It seems like this email thing has caught on? But will project members really prefer to have a common location to get status updates, project discussions, information on team members and project documents? Or will they prefer to continue to have project documents in a shared drive on a network you may not have access to and critical project information which is only in the head of the PM who is on vacation?

My prediction is the “New Generation of Project Mangers” (Gen-Y and part of Gen-X) will expect Web 2.0 type of communication in their projects because they have grown up with the internet and can see the power of collaboration applications like Facebook, wiki’s, blogs and discussion forums.

Notable Quote:

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." - Alvin Toffler

EPM Live review

2010-01-03T17:39:00.000-08:00

In my first PMO plug-in review I checked out pmPoint by Brightworks. Today I was able to take EPM Live for a test drive.

PMI awarded EPM Live their project of the year award in 2006 and 2007.

What we are looking for:

1. ~4 templates for 4 different types of projects (SDLC, smaller software projects, clinical trials, R&D projects)

2. Pull information from the templates into a dashboard for organization and executives review

3. Must be able to view and pull data from Microsoft Project documents within SharePoint

EPM Live was built on the familiar SharePoint features, the EPM Live solution delivers an integrated framework of Feature Rich Web Parts, Microsoft Office Add-ins, Pre-Built SharePoint Applications, Industry Best Practices SharePoint Templates, all of which are designed to work together to help the end user work smarter and more effectively.

You can start your free trail at:

http://www.epmlive.com/trial.aspx

I entered my information, to start my free trial, then it is a bit of phone tag with an EPM Live rep to set up a phone conference with a shared desktop demo.

After the demo then you can make the decision if you just want to test it yourself on a trial site that is refreshed nightly (pmPoint trial site refreshes every 30 days) or pay for a couple of users for a couple of months (no refreshing of the site). I went the free route knowing that if I spent a couple of hours building up a site that the next morning it would be gone (keep this in mind if you are planning on showing anyone your hard work). If you are planning on buying the application they also offer a hosted service to use their product on their server or you can install it on your own server.

Once logged in you enter the Project Center there is a drop-down to create a new project. Enter in a project name, select one of their 9 templates (they probably have more on their normal version; one of the templates is a PMBOK one) and enter the website name. Then it takes you to another screen to enter in some more project information to add data to help you select different types of projects within the overall PMO view.

Each template has its own dashboard view of a project. If you don’t like what is in it you can edit it (turn things on/off; add any other normal SharePoint bits and pieces). The above template has a lot of the items one would need for a normal project (risks, issues, status, documents ….); if you have a software development project you may want a different template with bugs listed on the main view.

Within most templates there is a task tab that is your timeline. You can upload your standard Project timeline in. You can use their Planner to update tasks, enter tasks (change column widths, change views, create views) or open with Project if you like. There are views built in or build your own (tasks for the next 7 days, just your tasks …). Using Project with it is seamless (edit, save and you are ready to roll).

Also, if you have a task that needs to occur across multiple projects you can share a resource.

Within each project there are Reports (issues, risks, budget, resources …). I really like the way their reports are set up, because I can select the report I want to view instead of the having the screen covered in 20 different metrics (If I like to look at two or three reports to see how things are going I can). Also, the reports use SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) so you can select the data set you want to see. It was nice to see this because we are already using SSRS within my organization to look at clinical data (quick and easy to get to the information you want to obtain). Some of the reports include graphs and charts and others are just columns of data.

Now if we take a step back … once we have multiple projects under the PMO, the PMO site has all the normal dashboard views one would want including views for team members on multiple projects so they can see their tasks across multiple projects.

Pros to the product:

1. If you use SharePoint already you have the skills to use EPM Live (if you like email alerts or any other normal SharePoint features it is there)

2. Edit your Project timelines within SharePoint or within Project (seamlessly)

3. Tasks have predecessor numbers within timelines; just like we are use to

4. Customizable; if you have SharePoint skills you can fix things to your liking

5. No clunky feel to it, I do not feel that a +500 task project would be to much info for this application

6. One task across multiple projects

7. Easy to use and read reports

8. Reports for the individuals within your organization

9. They also offer a timesheet application if you need to track that for billing issues

10. If your organization lives and breathes the PMBOK their project template includes suggested templates to use to capture project info (their document library includes documents in folders with the 5 process groups).

11. Monitor your resources across multiple projects

Cons:

1. It may take a bit more customization (with EPM Live support) to get the reports customized for your needs and reporting info to your dashboards.

2. It may take a bit of training of PMs (and monitoring) to get them up to speed.

3. Cost. If you are a large company the cost will be a drop in the bucket of your IS yearly costs. If you are a small company it may be to costly of an application.

Overall, EPM Live looks to be a very robust application. I’m sure it would take a few months to get it up and running with the right templates for your organizational needs, followed by several more months of moving existing data sets into the new system. If money was no object, I would choose EPM Live.

Links on other reviews:

http://www.sharepointreviews.com/component/content/article/43-sharepoint-management/248-EPM-Live-for-Enterprise-Project-Management.html

http://biztech2.in.com/india/news/enterprise-solutions/epm-live-v22-to-offer-new-sharepoint-resource-mgmt-capabilities/55082/0

http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/news/product/read/EPM_Live_Unveils_SharePoint_Workforce_Management_252262

Review on pmPoint

2009-12-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

Many PMO's have turned to SharePoint to help manage their projects, but in order to have a fully functioning SharePoint environment lots of customization is necessary to work with ones project management process within their organization. To help reduce the development time it may be prudent to see if there are off the shelf applications that will plug into SharePoint to help you down this road of a PMO managed within SharePoint. Currently my organization is doing just that. We are evaluating some of these plug-ins and the first one we reviewed was pmPoint by Brightworks.

What we are looking for:
1. ~4 templates for 4 different types of projects (SDLC, smaller software projects, clinical trials, R&D projects)

2. Pull information from the templates into a dashboard for organization and executives review

3. Must be able to view and pull data from Microsoft Project documents within SharePoint

I started reviewing pmPoint which is an application created by BrightWork which is a SharePoint plug-in. pmPoint includes a set of project management templates, web parts, dashboards, tools and lists that mimics the project management process found in most organizations.

You can start your free trail at:
http://www.brightwork.com/pmpoint/evaluate.asp

Enter your information and it immediately sends an email with your username and password.

There is a guide to help you with the basics:
http://www.brightwork.com/UA/PDF/v8/pmPoint_v8_TrialZone_Sandbox_Guide.pdf

Within the guide the 1st step is to setup the PMO (basically you are just installing a template); then under that you insert your various projects (they offer over 15 different templates including one on Agile for capturing the phases, bugs requirements, documents . They also have other templates (with videos about them) listed on their website). http://www.brightwork.com/templates/
Within the PMO view you can customize the views if you like and install other SharePoint features (alerts, discuss boards, doc libraries ...).

I installed 3 projects and then made a couple of changes to the PMO reports. The PMO reports pull from the timeline or task information to give you graphs and charts of all of the project metrics at once.
Within the projects there is a link named “Project Statement” that has some of the info that will be pulled into the PMO dashboard. They also offer links to roles, team members, issues, risks and all of the other normal SharePoint items you can build in like: wiki’s, discussion boards, document library, build your own data capture form, email alerts and so on.

For each project there is a dashboard to look at planned cost, current cost, actual cost, planned worked actual work, resource charts, issues, risks, and so on (In the PMO view it shows all the projects at once). It pulls data from your timeline to populate the dashboard.

To build a timeline you have 2 options. One, enter in tasks (these are the normal SharePoint type of tasks). Or two, upload your Microsoft Project timeline. I uploaded one of my Microsoft Project timelines into a project (~500 tasks). It was able to import it (as an XML file) and you can view it but there are some cons:

1. If you have longer task names it doesn’t wrap the text, and you cannot resize the columns (it may be a trial version issue or I was not able to make it work)

2. You cannot just upload a Project document it needs to be an XML file; so that means if you update your project document that lives within SharePoint via Project, you have to save as a XML file and upload into SharePoint every time you change the timeline (this is a big negative). After a bit of research I found out that SharePoint 2010 will offer synchronization that will solve this problem.

3. Tasks have no numbers (which I’m use to)

4. If you tie in one task to multiple tasks there is just the text of the task, not the task number of the predecessor

5. If you have more than 50 tasks it is just too clunky to think about editing it within SharePoint

6. When editing within SharePoint if you open one task to edit there is no budget information for the task (I bet you can turn this on)

7. Doesn’t import calendar settings, but it will pick up a custom SharePoint calendar

Pros:
1. Allows users without Project the ability to view the project and filter for their tasks, or tasks coming up in the next 7 days

2. If you don’t have Project you can just create tasks (which is fine for a small project with less than 50 tasks)

3. Within the PMO view, with the projects under it, you can view all of your tasks for just your projects you are associated with

4. If you use SharePoint making changes to reports within pmPoint will feel familiar

Conclusions: I think that pmPoint will work very well for smaller organizations with smaller projects. For larger organizations there may be a few hurdles to jump:

1. If you have multiple PMO’s then you would need the folks at pmPoint to do some customization to allow you to have, let’s say, 4 tabs for 4 PMO’s and 1 tab to bring in all of the PMO’s information into one dashboard

2. Getting PM’s use to uploading the XML file into their projects when they make a change to their Project documents (non-issue if you have SharePoint 2010)

The key to make this more user friendly would be a flash based Project editor within SharePoint (are you listening Microsoft?). This will allow the PMs that have been using Project for +10 years the ability to edit and save it in one place, and will allow the users to have the same look and feel that we have seen from Project.

Links:
Other reviews on pmPoint:
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/102052/review-pmpoint-70.html
http://www.gantthead.com/discussions/discussionsTopicContainer.cfm?ID=13605
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=172947071049

What type of Leader are you?

2009-12-14T10:39:00.000-08:00

This past week I gave a talk on Leadership titled: What type of Leader are you?

Prior to the talk I sent out a link to an online survey which was meant to determine who in history you would be matched up to with their leadership styles. I received some positive and negative feed-back on the survey. Try it and see what you think.

During the presentation I talked about the traits of leaders, mixed in some video's from youtube on leadership, and ended with a little CHARCOAL.

(if you want to embed youtube videos into your powerpoint presentations visit AuthorStream for their free app; you will need a live internet connection to make the videos play while you are presenting. If you do not have a live internet connection then try Media Converter. Their app will download the video file from youtube, which you can then link to or embed into your presentation)

Link to the Presentation (links to the youtube videos are embedded into the slides; view it in presentation mode)

What is Leadership?

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Facebook Ads for your job search

2009-11-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

In a recent tweet from Dan Schawbel he included a link to a blog post about using Facebook Ads to promote yourself to try to find a job. It sounded like an interesting idea so I tried it out for 4 weeks.

Setting up the ad was easy to do. I set my limit at spending $1.00 a day (this was research after all) and would pay $0.50 every time a person clicked on my ad. Then I selected 9 companies in my area to target and limited it to within 25 miles of my city, which gave me 2780 Facebook users who may see my ad. If you want to, you can further filter for keywords in Facebook users accounts.

I linked it to my personal webpage (alternatives could be your Linkedin page, blog or your resume online). In the first 2 weeks I had over 13,000 impressions; yet this only yielded 5 clicks.

The next 2 weeks I changed my ad to include the header: UW Health, and then only selected Facebook users who work at UW Health (270 users possible) within 10 miles of my city. Here is my second ad:

During this 2 week period I had over 12,000 impressions; yet this only yielded 5 clicks.

So out of the 10 clicks, I didn’t receive any emails or phone calls, but it does seem like an excellent cheap way (my test cost me 5 bucks for the month) to market oneself.

For local companies this may be an excellent way to try to select just the right Facebook users who may be interested in your product, website, event or restaurant. Give it a try and see what happens!

A link to another blogger who tried this out

Get my files into SharePoint!

2009-11-19T07:33:00.000-08:00

This past week I attended the Madison PMO Managers Forum where two members showed their live project SharePoint sites. It was great to see a behind the scenes look at others SharePoint sites. One member of the group vented his frustration about moving existing files into a document library within SharePoint. I too had issues with this since it seems you can only upload 1 file at a time, but there is a solution to this!

Open your file library and click on Actions, select "open with Windows Explorer" and like magic you have a file browser that looks like the one you are use to using in Windows. Now you can create folders or drag and drop (or copy and paste) files from the old location to the new location.

The advantages to using the document library in SharePoint 2007 are:
1. You can turn on versioning; so every time you update a document the old one is still accessible.

2. Easy editable permissions. No more asking IS to lock down folders when you can do it yourself!

3. It treats it as a database that you can add columns of data to it, like a description (that is searchable).

4. Document checkout; you can have a team work on a document, by having one person “checkout” the document to work on it.

5. Email notification if someone adds or edits a document.

Process Improvement Video

2009-10-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

This past week I gave talk on Process Improvement at my Company. We walked through the DMAIC of the Six Sigma process. Even though time was short I was able to get my point across to the attendees on the importance of Six Sigma using a real life example within our organization.

Watch the video and open the PowerPoint and click along.

Link to the PowerPoint file

Process Improvement

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Celebrate project success

2009-10-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

After you formally closeout your projects don’t forget to celebrate! This is an important final step for all projects to thank your team for all their hard work. If possible include some funding for the celebration within your project budget.

Here are some possible ways to celebrate:

Bonuses
Head to a go-cart track or mini golf for some youthful fun
Get together for cocktails and dinner
Cake in the conference room
For on the cheap you can print off certificates of thanks for your team members

Don’t forget to publicly thank each of your team members and summarize the project for the organization. Finally, if possible due to the number of team members, take some time to stop by each person’s desk or give them a call to thank them (don’t forget the softskills)

Links:

http://www.builderau.com.au/strategy/projectmanagement/soa/How-to-celebrate-team-success/0,339028292,320269905,00.htm

http://ryanendres.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-to-keep-project-managers.html

http://thesavvypm.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/how-to-celebrate-success-throughout-your-projects/

Should I put PMP after my name?

2009-09-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

Once one obtains their PMP, also known as Project Management Professional status, the question is how do I let others know I now have this status? The 4 main places are:

1. Your business card. Once you obtain your PMP status order up some new business cards

2. The signature line in your email address. I would also recommend including an embedded hyperlink to your linkedin page:

Ryan Endres, PMP
Lead Program Manager
Fundus Photograph Reading Center
406 Science Drive, Suite 400
Madison WI, 53711
Phone: 608.263.4074
Fax: 608.263.0525
rendres@rc.ophth.wisc.edu
http://eyephoto.ophth.wisc.edu

3. The signature line or username on various websites you visit (message boards, linkedin, Facebook, Twitter….): How to add PMP to your Linkedin profile

4. In your resume after your name, and within the education section.

PMP status not only means you passed a test, it means you have been managing (or working as a team member) projects for several years and that you are willing to continue with continuing education to keep that status. This is also part of branding yourself. If you were looking to hire a Project Manager or are working with one, wouldn’t it be nice to know that they have PMP status?

Notable Quote:
“Organizations will not be able to compete globally without putting in place project management processes and continuing to develop their project managers to become leaders within the organization.”
Gina Westcott

I'm certified now what?

Lessons Learned, where to document it?

2009-08-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Part of the Project Management process is to document lessons learned throughout the life of the project. Sometimes it means having formal meetings to discuss them and other times things just happen that should be documented (remember not all lessons learned are negative). Link to Lesson Learned Questions

So where should you document the lessons learned? A Word document? A custom built database? How about a wiki or even a blog? The concept of a blog may be new tool to document the lessons learned that happen and if it is open it will allow others to document their own findings. You can group them with meta tags to make it easier to group like posts, and include links to lessons learned surveys conducted on your PM process.

Times are changing within Project Management and web 2.0 phenomenon is starting to creep into our project management processes….

Notable Quote:

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
Alvin Toffler