Current Articles

Virtual Tools Increase Member Engagement and Project Performance, article by Stacy Goff
PrezSez: Future Trends in Project Management by Dr. Lew Ireland
Finding, Developing and Managing Project Talent, by Stacy Goff

PrezSez: Business Development, The Expanding Role of the Project Manager, by Dr. Lew Ireland
Opportunities In A Problem, by Edward J. Fern, MS, PM
Measuring & Managing Project Quality: If you can't measure it, you can't manage it, by Stacy Goff
PrezSez: Communications—the key to Leadership Effectiveness, by Dr. Lew Ireland
How Words Limit Our Thinking, by Edward J. Fern, MS, PMP

PrezSez: Populating Your Project Management Library, by Dr. Lew Ireland pdf
Th Prls f rbtrry Prjct Cst Mngmnt, by Stacy Goff pdf
PrezSez: Project Complexity: A Brief Exposure to Difficult Situations, by Dr. Lew Ireland pdf
Project Management: The Supply Chain View (Weltanschauung), by Morgan Henrie PhD, PMP pdf
What Is A PM Methodology? A Search for Efficiency, Consistency and Performance, Stacy Goff pdf

Tight, Inflexible Deadlines: Scourge of Projects, Stacy Goff pdf
PrezSez: Trip Report for Krakow— IPMA 2007 World Congress
Communities of Practice as Learning Enablers; Henrie & Hedgepeth
Competing Against Incumbent Vendors and Big Players – Stick To Your Guns, Suresh Malladi pdf
PrezSez: From Project to Patent to Delivering an Invention, Lew Ireland, pdf

PrezSez: Technical Performance and Interpersonal Skills in the Project's Staff, Lew Ireland, pdf
Spreadsheets: The Most Expensive PPM Tool You Didn't Pay For, Steve Chamberlin pdf
Suresh Malladi's insights: Vendor Relationships Managing Earned Value and Value Earned pdf
Jim Baber improves Defense EV: A Knowledge-Based Approach to Program Analysis pdf
PrezSez: Sharing Experiences in Project Management, Lew Ireland, PhD pdf
Project Management: Creating Value, asapm President Lew Ireland and Marketing
       Director Morgan Henrie pdf

PrezSays: Project or Hobby? Lew Ireland, PhD (pdf December 2006)
Some 20 plus years ago the question was posed: “Is this a project or is it a hobby?” The work seemed to take on the characteristics of a hobby more than that of a professional effort to convert resources into a future benefit for the customer. The project appeared to have more benefits for the project manager than for a customer. The traditional cost, schedule, and technical performance measures were rather fuzzy – if defined at all.

This is the introduction to Lew Ireland's latest PrezSays. To see the whole article, click here.

Let's Cure "The Dumbing Down of Project Management", Stacy Goff (pdf December 2006)
In too many Enterprises, the last 20 years has seen the practice and prestige of Project Management lose ground, rather than gain ground. We are in an era when the most effective Enterprises leverage the power of Project Management to its maximum in achieving their Visions and Strategies. The others have Executive groups who too-often perceive PM to be just “something those folks down in IT do”.

What are the forces that have caused so many otherwise-successful Enterprises to ignore or fail to reap the benefits of effective Project Management? Perhaps we should look at our record and practices, and the conflicting forces and faces we present to our stakeholders. And then given that review, let us cure the ailments that infest our practice of PM. That is the theme of this article, based on a comment made by an insightful Manager at one of the Conferences we attended this year. Click to read this article.

PrezSays: Training for Life Skills, Lew Ireland, PhD (pdf October 2006)
Education and training are often interchanged as synonymous words that mean the same.  It is often confusing to mix up the two.  Education is typically that knowledge acquired through a formal school environment to give a person an understanding of a subject or subjects.  Education does not provide the hands-on skills to accomplish tasks

Training, on the other hand, is a mixture of knowledge and skills.  Vendors provide training in different subjects for the purpose of changing behavior – which may be adding to the skill sets or replacing existing skill sets for a specific purpose.  Training is typically limited in scope and close ended.  Effective training, therefore, should provide individuals or teams new knowledge and skills to enhance their capabilities.

That is from the Summary of Lew's latest article. To see the whole article, click here.

IPMA 20th World Congress Paper: Distinguishing PM Competence, Stacy Goff (pdf October 2006)
Everyone appears to be boarding the Project Management Competence fast train (a reference to Shanghai’s MagLev Fast Train). But few people really understand the nature of PM Competence. Some know how to develop it, few know how to assess its presence in a project team or Project Oriented Enterprise, and even fewer know how to adequately certify it.

While professional societies have made significant progress in developing Competence-based Program and Project Manager Certifications, the “forgotten many” stakeholders have been largely ignored. It is not enough to build Project Manager Competence: one must build Competence throughout the team. This paper shares a perspective gained in 24 years of training, coaching, and assessing factors leading to demonstrated Project Management Competence.

The audience of this paper includes Project Managers, their Managers, Team Members, Human Resource Managers, Project Management Training Vendors, and Executives of Project-Oriented Enterprises and professional organizations who intend to improve project performance by improving all stakeholders’ Project Management Competence.

That is from the Abstract of Stacy's World Congress Paper. To see the whole paper, click here.

PrezSays: Project Management Past, Present, Future, Lew Ireland, PhD (pdf August 2006)
Throughout history, from construction of ancient artifacts to modern projects, the major difference in project success has been influenced by the quality of the project team. Individuals may be threatened and coerced into performing certain functions, but the highly motivated individual will provide better results. Integrated teams of willing people provide the optimum solution for most projects whereby all individuals subordinate their goals to that of the team.

Modern examples of teams give rise to the concept that well-motivated volunteers produce the best results. This motivation is derived from a competent project leader who understands the principles of leadership and exhibits traits that builds on team capability. Project success is dependent upon team performance.

That is from the Summary of Lew's latest article. To see the whole article, click here.

PrezSays: Project Manager’s Competence in Emotional Intelligence, Lew Ireland, PhD (pdf May 2006)
Despite the fact that it is a dated concept, we still see frequent talk about projects and the “triple constraint”. In 1994, a project manager mentioned four constraints – cost, schedule, performance, and people. He considered the human factor to be as important as the other three, but project managers may often overlook people as a critical part of their projects. Project management literature gives little or no attention to how people contribute to the success of projects.

That is the lead-in for asapm President Lew Ireland's latest observations, where he goes into the key behavioral factors effective Project Managers demonstrate. How's your Competence in Emotional Intelligence? To find out, click here.

PrezSays: Lew writes about Executive Management's Role in PM, Lew Ireland, PhD (pdf Mar. 2006)
The role of Executive Management in the field of project management has been cussed and discussed over the years and is again receiving attention in the project management community. It appears that few have found an agreeable description of the Executive Management’s project role and in some fashion successfully conveyed that role description to their Executive Managers.

That is the lead-in for asapm President Lew Ireland's latest observations, where he goes into the multiple roles Executive Managers play in effective Project-Oriented Enterprises. Are you assuring all these roles are filled in your Enterprise? To find out, click here.

PrezSays: Lew writes about Leadership and Leading, Lew Ireland, PhD (html Feb. 2006)
Leaders are self-made, not born. Leadership comes in many different styles and is measured on success in creating something of value to society. Leaders are not of a particular race, color, or creed, but surface from all segments of society.

This is the Intro of Lew's latest PrezSays. To go to Lew's latest observations, click this link.

Ed Fern Speaks Out About Getting Value From Your Membership, Ed Fern, MSTM, PMP (Feb. 2006)
asapm Director of Education Ed Fern says... People are joining asapm in record numbers. Sadly, some of them are not renewing their membership for a second or third year. This suggests that some people are having difficulty in getting engaged and finding the value in their membership in our organization. For Project Managers, joining asapm is analogous to renting a storefront on Rodeo Drive. It is certainly the premium address and it will be passed by affluent buyers each and every day. To derive any value, however, we must open the door, walk in, and do some work.

To continue reading Ed's exhortation about volunteering, and other ways to gain value from your membership (or even your readership, for our friends who are not yet members), click here. Note too, that Ed is Sponsor of a new project that is looking for a Project Manager. The project is PMR3, or Project Management Ready Reference Resource, a database of current books and periodicals, mapped to the Elements of the National Competence Baseline.

Morgan Henrie Writes about Supply Chain PM Challenges, Morgan Henrie, PhD (pdf Feb. 2006)
asapm Director of Marketing Morgan Henrie has completed his PhD; congratulations Morgan! And, in his spare time, Morgan had the time to publish again. This time, it is an article on Project Management Supply-Chain Challenges. Here's from the article intro:

Essential to project success is the timely, accurate, and cost effective delivery of materials, supplies, and equipment. Unless project resources arrive when and where required, achieving project success is difficult to achieve. As an example, it has been reported that hurricane Katrina emergency response suffered from a lack of required resources at the needed locations at appropriate times to a point that the mayor of Kenner, LA was famously quoted, "The Red Cross and FEMA need to take a Masters class in logistics and mobilization from Wall-Mart”.

To read Morgan's article (in pdf format), click here. Because Morgan enjoys presenting in International Symposia and Congresses, watch for him speaking on this subject at an appropriate venue.

Globalization and Cross-Cultural PM Issues, Dennis Ballow, Sr. PhD (pdf Feb. 2006)
Dennis Ballow Sr. is an experienced Pacific Rim Project Manager, and has also volunteered to help with PMCert. With a wide range of experiences in IT and engagement management methodology projects on multiple continents, he distills the differences between typical American perspectives, Asian perspectives, and the implications for those who wish to succeed in cross-cultural projects and programs. Dennis has recently left big-business employment, and started his consulting firm, Project Management Knowledge Transfer, Inc. Here's from Dennis's intro:

With hot topics like globalization and cross-cultural opportunities in the Asia Pacific rim, one might think it would be easy to research the implications of cross cultural issues. Rather, what the writer found was a significant discussion all around the periphery but little in-depth analysis. Discussion prevailed on the socio-economic and technological ramifications. Others resources focused on the language issues but little work was intuitively available on the subtleties of cross cultural issues one may encounter.

Based on experience working in the Asia Pacific rim for two years as a PMO Manager, and training PM’s in many European countries, I decided that understanding international socio-cultural issues encountered in business is essentially at the heart of the issues companies will encounter in globalizing operations. To read Dennis' article (in pdf), click here.

Duncan Defines Project Complexity with the CIFTER, Bill Duncan (pdf Feb. 2006)
This article about CIFTER is part of project closure for asapm Director of Standards Bill Duncan. Duncan has spent the last four years working to improve the consistency, traceability and credibility of true competence-based PM certifications. In his last act as Director of Standards before assuming the role of PMCert Chair, he has submitted for participant approval (and asapm has approved it) the final Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards—GAPPS document (available in the Members-Only section. After participant final approval GAPPS will be available worldwide).

GAPPS contributors include representives from several nations, the world's leading professional PM societies, and key companies, all working cooperatively together to improve the verifiable Performance competence and capability of Project Manager certificants.

The CIFTER article deals with a crucial issue in determining certificant level: that of Project Complexity. Without an agreement about the complexity of the project, it is difficult to evaluate performance competence. This is especially important to asapm in helping candidates differentiate between certification levels IPMA-B and IPMA-C.

Read Duncan's Sifting With the CIFTER article here. Click here for examples of CIFTER in use. .

PrezSays: Lew writes about Trust and Commitment, Lew Ireland, PhD (html Nov. 2005)
Successful project managers know their stuff and can talk for hours on the technical aspects of planning a project or implementing components. But is it only the technical part of project management that a person must know to perform effectively? It has been my observation that project management skills alone are only part of the competence that a person needs to be successful. Companies hire individuals for their technical qualifications, but terminate them for lack of interpersonal skills.

Interpersonal skills are extremely important whether a person is the project manger, project consultant, or a project team participant. Skills that assure one can do his or her job in a professional manner without giving offense is important to the productivity of a project. Two of the many skills are perhaps most important — building trust and commitment.

This is part of the Intro in Lew's latest PrezSays. To go to Lew's observations, click this link.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Issue Management, Donna Fitzgerald (pdf Nov. 2005)
Much of the conventional advice given about issue management appears to concentrate solely on the routine issues. The basic advice seems to be that if you write everything down on a list you’ll be 50% of the way to resolution. Unfortunately this ignores the fact that some issues can’t go on a list because they’re too politically sensitive and some issues need resolution so quickly it hardly makes sense to put them on the list.

The best way to handle routine issues is to tailor the tracking and the resolution process to the nature and source of the issue.

This is a teaser for Donna's article. To see the whole article, click this link.

PrezSays: Lew writes about Katrina and PM Competence, Lew Ireland, PhD (html Sept. 2005)
The recent disasters caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have again raised the need for project managers to apply their Competences for disaster recovery from the devastation and human suffering in five or more Southern States — Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Some States were more affected by the hurricanes than others, but all suffered loss of life and property. As individuals, our hearts go out to those suffering from the hurricanes and those who have lost loved ones. As project managers, we need to think about how we could possibly speed the recovery to some normalcy of life for the victims. To go to Lew's observations, click this link.

Risk Management, Key to Project Intelligence, by Stacy Goff, PMP (pdf Nov. 2005)
asapm Vice President 2001-2007 Stacy Goff presented this paper at the IPMA India World Congress this month. The title, Risk Management, Key to Project Intelligence, reflects his work and observations for over 20 years in advancing the re-use of Risks, Responses, and surprisingly related bits of additional Project Intelligence. See Stacy's article here.

Small Project Lessons for Big Projects, by Lew Ireland, PhD (pdf Sept. 2005)
Large projects costing millions of dollars are truly exciting and get a lot of attention. They hold the promise of many benefits for the customer and large profits for the organization managing the project. Those who excel on large projects also gain a reputation that creates an aura of project management expertise. Large projects are often represented by the organization as challenging, but there were no errors that could not be overcome.

We know, however, that large projects have challenges that arise from unanticipated situations that occur in small projects as well. Small projects can provide lessons learned that alerts project managers of large projects of the potential for failure. Simple errors in drawings, for example, can lead to major efforts at rework and costly delays in the schedule. Using the wrong parts or a wrong interpretation of instructions will typically cause rework and additional labor efforts to disassemble a component before the rework.

Editor's Note: We think Lew's story about this special Small Project is your feel-good read of the Summer! Click here to read his article.

Lessons Not Learned? by Ed Fern, M.S. PMP (html Sept. 2005)
Between updating his PM certification prep website and scooting off to Eastern Europe, Ed took the time to opine about the recent storms, and other events. His assertion: we aren't applying our Lessons Learned! See Ed's article here. Gee, maybe we should start a virtual hall of dishonored projects!.

Project Manager Role Models, by Lew Ireland, PhD (html July 2005)
Project management in some form has existed for centuries as evidenced by the number of artifacts around the world. The Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, the Trans-Siberia Railroad, the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike to mention some better-known projects that have constructed well-known products.

There are thousands of lesser-known products that have been constructed over 5000 years such as the Cathedrals of Europe and the Grand Canal of China. Each had one or more “project managers” to lead the effort...

That is the introduction to Lew's latest article. To see the whole article, click this link.

The Power of Permission, by Donna Fitzgerald (pdf July 2005)
Who gives you permission to do your job? You? Your boss? Your company? If your answer is that the company hired you but you define how you do your job, odds are you are working in a company that follows the concepts of Anglo-Saxon Law. On the other hand if you feel that your company tells you specifically how you can do your job you’re most likely working in a company that follows the tenets of Roman law.

This article, by asapm's past Director of Education Donna Fitzgerald, gives you permission to be the best Project Manager you can be.

Project Management as a Core Competence, by Robert Youker (html July 2005)
Bob is asapm's former Director of Marketing, and remains very active in asapm and in the International Project Management Association. He is speaking at an event in Lille, France next month, and has provided his paper for publishing . Project Management as a Core Competence argues the case for savvy CEOs to recognize and grow the effective practice of Project Management as a competitive advantage.

Lew Ireland Writes: Use of Humor in Projects, by Lew Ireland, PhD (html May 2005)
Humor plays a vital role to get a person to laugh at his or her situation that seems overwhelming. One cannot truly laugh and still retain anger or hostility. When a person laughs at a joke, he or she agrees with the basic premise of that joke whether it is a one-liner or a short story.

A joke is often a play on words to give a double meaning to a statement. It is seldom that the denotation of the words that are the joke, but the connotation or some informal understanding that makes the humor. Those understanding both the denotation and connotation or informal understanding will laugh if they agree with the joke.

The information above is from the first two paragraphs of Lew's article. To see how he ties it in to projects, see the article by clicking this link.

Project Report: A Cross-Cultural Joint Venture or Adventure?, by Edward J. Fern, MS, PMP (pdf Mar 2005)
Ed takes us along in his adventure as he explores the start-up of a multi-national joint venture project. In this combined project report (complete with Lessons Learned) and travelogue, he lays out the project that results in a multi-lingual (including Russian and English) PM certification preparation website. He cites the steps ranging from inspiration to celebration, and along the way provides insight to the emergence of new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe.

Ed Fern is one of our favorite deep-thinking rebels (together with Paul Giammalvo). Ed’s PM certification preparation website is www.pm-prepare.com. He expressed concerns about being perceived as selling, versus telling his story, so we are mentioning his website here, rather than in the story. Ed’s last article, Six Steps to the Future: How Mass Customization Is Changing Our World, is the all-time record holder for asapm downloads.

Building Change Tolerance into Your Organization: The Uses of Scenario Planning, by Donna Fitzgerald (Mar 2005)
With perfect timing in preparation for Donna's Agile Portfolio Management Workshop for the April 22-24 asapm Congress, this article illustrates a method that helps improve your options and horizon.

The problem with most planning exercises is that they are both linear and single path. Judgments are made based on opinions or unconscious assumptions and everything flows from there. Using the concepts of scenario planning, a minimum of three possible futures is outlined. The tactical work that the company wishes to accomplish in the next year is then examined against these assumptions.

Does project A only make sense in a steady state environment? Does Project B begin to make more sense in the context of multiple scenarios because while it’s higher risk it’s higher payback in two out of the three possible futures?

Enterprise Project Management: A Strategic View, by Lew Ireland (pdf Mar 2005)
asapm President Lew Ireland shares with us his strategic model for Enterprise Project Management; how the parts fit together. Originally published in a professional Journal in India, and now being published in China, Lew shares it with his friends and followers in the U.S.A.

Simplification as a Key Function of Management, by Ilya Tirdatov (Feb 2005)
In this article, Ilya urges action over waiting for more and more information to confirm a decision. Some decisions must be made with few facts to continue the project. Delaying a decision often does not give more information nor does it change the basic decision. This is Ilya’s second article for asapm; his first, Managing Projects Involving Significant External Threats. We encourage Ilya to do more articles for asapm!

Project Levers and Gauges, by Stacy Goff, PMP (Jan 2005)
Government and Enterprises are trying to do more with less. Focusing on Faster and Cheaper is an attractive theme, but can result in poor project performance without agreement about the priorities among key project factors, and without competent project management to achieve them.

This article points out the flaws of mistakenly attempting to control the project by its gauges, and the benefits of more effectively managing it by the project levers. The result: Project Managers and teams successfully achieve your targets. See the article here.

Prior Articles
Click here for access to our archive of articles from prior years.