Welcome to the asapm February 2010 Newsletter! Welcome to the asapm February 2010 Newsletter!
This is an Opt-in Newsletter from asapm, the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management. We are the USA member association of IPMA, the International Project Management Association. Enjoy!
In This Issue
1. Change Agents: President's Message, by Stacy Goff
2. The Breakdown Structure; Getting It Right: Part 2, by Simon Harris
3. Event Updates: ExpertSeminar Looming, IPMA Istanbul Congress Call For Papers
4. Is Project Management a Core Skill and No Longer a Niche Capability? By Peter Taylor
5. Hear William Duncan's Podcast on Success Factors and Other Topics
6. Is an Agile PMO Possible? By Curt Finch
7. IPMA 2010 PM Perspectives, 4Q Newsletter, and IPMA Journal Renewal
1. Change Agents: President's Message, by Stacy Goff
Our Change Agents blog embraces the change that the practice of Project Management brings to the USA, and to Society. We post below teasers from each of this month's blogs; click a bold, italiicized heading to see the whole entry.
Most of What Got You Here is Wrong for Performing Here!
This article is for those who are “moving up” in their project-oriented organization, or and for those who wish to. Not that everyone must do so; in fact, some of the most-competent, highest-performing contributors are those who are so good at what they do (and receive the recognition needed to sustain it) that they have no desire to do anything different. For the rest of us, however, there can be both excitement and danger in “moving on up”. We explore some of those factors here.
From Team Member to Project Manager
Team Members who are high-performers sometimes have the opportunity to “move up” to Project Team Lead or Project Manager. The expectation is that your high performance will “rub off” on others. Sometimes that works, sometimes not, depending in part on your interpersonal skills, or as the USA-NCB (National Competence Baseline, based on the IPMA Competence Baseline) terms them, your Behavioral Attributes.
The challenge for this repositioned high-performer is that it is easier to do the toughest jobs yourself than to coach others through them. Not only that, but those of us who have been addicted to the adrenalin rush of significant accomplishment feel starved by the delayed trickle of appreciation that a Project Manager receives. Why? Your organization just expects that level of accomplishment from you.
The actions that brought you notice and acclaim as an individual contributor are the wrong things for you to focus upon as a Project Manager. Instead of brilliantly achieving, you must now carefully delegate, coach and nurture. Not at all the same set of competences, are they?
From Small to Medium to Large Project Manager
Often, the progression as a Project Manager is to move from Small Projects, to Medium, and then to Large ones. And yet, the most-important competences that you demonstrate in Small Projects are the least important in Medium projects. Then in Large projects, they significantly change again. More ...
Is Project Management Strategic?
On the surface, this is one of those questions with an obvious answer: Of Course It Is! However, the question goes much deeper than that, and deserves more exploration. The topic came up in a discussion with a friend and associate, Alex Jalalian (hailing from Iran and Canada) at last Fall’s IPMA Council of Delegates meeting. Alex is considering studying for a Doctorate in Strategic Project Management. While I encouraged him in his pursuit, the question came up: What books, research, and indeed, published practices support such a discipline?
One source that came to mind was the Cleland/Ireland book, Project Management, Strategic Design and Implementation (Fifth Edition). One reason we like this book is its span of the topic, from high-level strategic positioning down to the details of steps and relationships of successful projects. But perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Are Project Managers Strategic?
That is a different question than the one above. While strategic vision and thinking must occur in the project environment for project performance to be maximized, that thinking may not necessarily come from the Project Manager (PM). Sometimes it is best if it does not, such as in cases of massive organizational transformation. In that case, the Strategic Vision, and drive for change should be managed by a Sponsoring group, who will reinforce the vision and sustain the change, once the PM goes off to another series of projects.
Some Project Managers are strategic, and some are not. This depends to some extent on their preferred style, the size of projects, the nature of the projects, whether others in the organization take on the role, the training of the individual, the rewards received for demonstrating needed traits, and whether the PM is even capable of doing so. We believe the answer to this question is that some are, some are not. Perhaps a more important question is, can your Project Manager be strategic, when needed? More ...
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2. The Breakdown Structure; Getting It Right: Part 2, by Simon Harris
Editor's Note: This is part 2 of a two-part analysis by Simon Harris. We recommend that you read part 1 first. It is relatively rare for a practitioner to demonstrate deep knowledge about two diverse standards; we are fortunate to have Simon write for us. Because Simon contributes his insights from the UK, we have left his article in classic British English. To our dear readers who are a bit confused by the British spelling, welcome to the International World of Project Management! Thank you Simon!
First Concept (and subsequent concepts)
The first concept to grasp is that projects revolve around a motivated team with shared understanding of the project’s scope. The second concept is that scope in the eyes of the customer is “result achieved” and in the eyes of the team is “actions taken”.
Each Perspective On Scope Needs Tools & Techniques To Manipulate It
Scope has many manifestations and breakdown structures (plural) are a family of tools to deal with each perspective. Use of the wrong tool for the conversation at hand is a mistake that encourages the wobbles that eventually cause project stress – perhaps to the point of failure.
In contrast the use of the correct tool allows us to cope with even the worst uncertainty within the definition of the project. For example the use of an activity oriented breakdown structure after results definition allows specification of the actions that will achieve the result. Gaps in knowledge or understanding will be highlighted and can then be dealt with.
Both ‘result’ and ‘actions to achieve them’ are “scope”. The actions side of scope consumes ‘time’ and ‘resources (cost)’ to perform. Actions are only ever ‘in scope’ because of the results that are ‘in scope’. More ...
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3. Event Updates: ExpertSeminar Looming, IPMA Istanbul Congress Call For Papers
IPMA ExpertSeminar, Zurich, Switzerland, February 18-19, 2010
Gee, we just looked at Kayak.com, and saw some great airfares to Zurich, so there's still time to attend the Expert Seminar! What prompted our search was the final schedule for this event. You can download the schedule here. Or, here is the background information on ExpertSeminar 2010. We had a great time last year, and Zurich was warmer than Colorado in February!
24th IPMA World Congress 2010 in Istanbul, November 1-3, 2010
Those planning on speaking at The 24th IPMA World Congress 2010 in Istanbul need to submit your Abstracts for the Call For Papers. The Abstracts are due 15 May, and the full papers are due 30 July. The theme of this Congress is today's Challenges and Opportunities, then to identify the changes that need to be made to tackle them.
The topics that will be established in the Congress Streams include:
We attended the IPMA Council of Delegates meeting in Istanbul two years ago, and, having long wanted to see it, arrived early to spend extra time touring the exquisite history of Istanbul. It was well worth it! We'll see you in Istanbul!
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4. Is Project Management a Core Skill and No Longer a Niche Capability? By Peter Taylor
Project management is fast becoming the preferred way for companies to get things done. In a global economy project management will make a company more competitive than the traditional methods of managing work.
So for all managers there is now the need to understand the dynamics of projects together with the skill and process of project management in order to make the most out their organization’s investments.
The Question
Is Project Management therefore no longer a niche capability, the home of project management office members and external contractors; is it now a core skill that all executives and senior management need to understand?
In a recent survey conducted by Peter Taylor (www.thelazyprojectmanager.com) through a LinkedIn survey (poll ) That very question was asked, ‘Is Project Management a core skill and no longer a niche capability?’ to see what a wider community of business people thought.
347 people responded to the survey and I am grateful their time and consideration, as well as the follow up comments that many people left for me to review. More ...
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5. Hear William Duncan's Podcast on Success Measures and Other Topics
Certification Chair William Duncan sat down for a Podcast interview in late December with Andy Kaufman, President of the Institute for Leadership and Development. Duncan opined on a variety of topics, including PM Standards development, Success Measures, Advanced PM Certification, and others.
We think Andy did a great job of capturing the essence of Duncan! Here is the page, see if you agree. Note that the actual link is near the bottom of the page; and, note too, that there is about a 45 second intro--we listened through this because these podcasts are providing a service, and it is worth a bit of time to hear their offerings. We enjoyed listening to the podcast, and learned a bit we didn't know about Duncan.
For more on Duncan's efforts, don't forget to visit his regular blog, on the asapm website.
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6. Is an Agile PMO Possible? By Curt Finch
It often seems that a lean, agile development environment will always be at odds with the structure and constraints of the PMO.
Yet it does not have to be this way. The agile PMO can bridge the gap between these two very important groups and help organizations to execute projects more successfully. While it does require a bit of change management, it is not as impossible as it seems and the benefits far outweigh the effort. First, let's look at the skills and strengths that each team brings to the table.
The Benefits of Agile
Agile development has exploded in recent years for a number of reasons. For one thing, it encourages constant communication with customers throughout the development process, which helps to minimize scope creep. I recently spoke with an executive at a well known financial institution who believes that this is one of the key benefits of agile. It allows customer advocates to see what you are developing very early in the cycle, and you can then correct as needed before it's too late. This also enables companies to adapt themselves to the needs of the market very quickly. In a 2008 article, “The Agile PMO Role,” Tamara Sulaiman asserted that “agile teams are cross-functional, self organizing and self managing.” With characteristics like these, it's not difficult to see how agile development teams can be extremely effective...
The comments we have received so far are not only useful and encouraging, they are coming from some of the most-savvy people in PM practice. Such comments as "elegant and useful" to "how do we sign up?" show that the team has a winner. Another observer commented that many available pm models appear to be a view of the organization from just a project managers' perspective. More ...
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7. IPMA 2010 Project Perspectives, 4Q Newsletter, and IPMA Journal Renewal
2010 Project Perspectives
IPMA's Annual publication is always one of the richest resources for practicing Project and Program Managers--and their Executives. Blending Academic Research with practical experience, we have already targeted five articles we want to read soon. This publication is produced by the Finland Member Association (thank you!), another example of the benefits of the IPMA Family. Finland was the host for the 2009 IPMA World Congress, and some of this edition's articles are from popular papers at that magnificent Congress. The 2010 Project Perspectives is a must read!
IPMA 4Q Newsletter
The latest IPMA Newsletter is now available for download. It leads with the press release announcing asapm's grant from IBM, It then continues with a range of Nations' news including Austria's first Project Manager of the Year; an article exploring how Agile Methods are great for the children of the 80s; Symposia and Conferences in Italy, Poland and Croatia; and Australia's Life Fellowship Award for Lynn Crawford. Congratulations Lynn!
IPMA Journal Open Subscription Period
The International Journal of Project Management (IJoPM) is the premier, juried journal for International Project and Program Managers. It is available to paid-up and current asapm members at a significantly discounted price. You can subscribe or renew during the February sign-up period by clicking the link at the beginning of this item. Sorry, but this is a members-only benefit. On the other hand, asapm membership plus the subscription is only half the price of the normal subscription price!
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