Is your Marketing Skills Modern enough for Future Generation Consumers?

By Quinn Cooley

Digital marketing has evolved rapidly and social media, mobile devices, and the way customers shop, have turned traditional marketing on its head and brought in new best practices.

This wouldn’t be a problem if marketers were prepared for these changes, but many are not. Over 75% of marketers do not believe their departments are modern or nimble. If you and your company aren’t up to date on what the newest generation of buyers (Generation Z – born 1996 – 2010) wants from their online experience, it may be time to modernize and update your marketing skills.

Many of the members of Generation Z aren’t yet able to make their own purchases, but they account for 22% of the US population. They have a big influence (up to $333 billion) in household spending. Younger consumers are digital natives, and it’s crucial to meet them on their own preferred platforms and devices.

Marketing in 2018 has to combine multi-channel approaches with big data, SEO, and exciting new mediums for content. Content marketing has become a long-term must for everything from branding to loyalty. The catch? Young readers need a hook, and they like a variety of written and visual mediums. Beautiful designs, videos, interactive content—marketers have the challenge of creating fresh content that has a consistent voice and message at all times.

The modern marketer needs a wide range of skills, particularly in a smaller company. Strong writing and social media skills, the ability to shift between long and short-form content, design, analytics and more. As if the creative aspects of marketing weren’t enough, marketers also need to have strong operational skills. Being able to keep on budget, keep the goals of the department aligned with the company goals, and measuring relevant metrics and ROI are all key for ensuring that digital marketing has a long-term eye toward profits. It’s all about the numbers, especially as companies move toward lean initiatives.

September 10, 2018September 11, 2018 Linky

How to Make a Project Proposal Your Best Sales Tool

When you are part of a service based business, your project proposal is your sales piece that will sell your services to the prospective client.

A project proposal needs to address the four key questions a prospective client has:

Do they understand what I need?
Do I trust them to deliver?
Can I afford them?
Can I work with them?

To accomplish this, your project proposal should have the following 10 key elements:

1. Client’s Requirements and Goals

The summary of the client’s requirements and goals is a critical part of your project proposal. Take the time to really understand what your prospect is looking for to ensure a better outcome. Furthermore, by showing how well you’ve paid attention to your prospect’s needs, you’ll set yourself apart from your competitors.

2. Tasks Involved and Your Fee for Each

List down the main tasks you’re going to do, along with the fee you will charge for each. Provide enough detail that anybody will be able to say when you have delivered or completed the task.

3. Breakdown of Each Task with Costs

It’s not enough to simply say what big tasks you will do. Break them down so your prospect appreciates how much work and skill it takes to complete each one.

If you offer different options, indicate the likely results they can expect from each option.

4. Priority and Delivery Schedule

Indicate which of the goals have the highest priority. Make it clear how long it will take you to complete each task and how milestones should be approved by the client.

5. Work Process

Describe how you usually work with clients. Will you have a meeting after the client approves your proposal? Describe how you will to track all client communication. Be specific now so you and your client won’t be in for surprises later on.

6. Mode of Payment

In this part, specify how you want to get paid. Do you require a deposit or full payment before starting on a project? Describe means of payment for example, electronic bank transfer.

7. Samples or Proof That You Can Do the Job

Make it easy for prospects to decide that you’re suitable for this project. Attach samples of work, or links to samples that show how you’ve completed similar projects in the past. Also give references of where you’ve worked successfully before.

8. Clear Indication of the Next Steps

Tell your prospect clearly what he should do if he either wants to proceed with the project, or if he has further questions before he can make a decision. Say something like, “If you need clarification on my proposal, please email your questions to me.”

9. Invoice for First Payment

Obviously, you should include an invoice only if you require a deposit before you start a new project.

10. Contact Information

Make sure your project proposals include your name and contact details–including your email address even if you are emailing your proposal. Don’t assume your prospect will simply hit the “reply” button, or take the time to find your contact information if he doesn’t see it right away.

In conclusion, for a successful project proposal, it should perform the following:

show that you understand what the client is looking for
prove that you are the best person for the tasks at hand
convince the prospect that either they can afford you or they cannot afford not to hire you

Always ensure that your project will deliver as per client requirements and outline that clearly in your project proposal.

By Linky van der Merwe
PS: Pictures were taken during our holidays in Botswana and the Bushveld, South Africa.

I’ve created a free Project Proposal Guide to remind you of the 10 key elements to include!
Click below for a free Project Proposal Guide.

August 30, 2018August 30, 2018 Linky

What’s the Future of Project Management?

By Linky van der Merwe

“We live in a world where change is not just constant but its continuous.”

This is according to an article in Toolbox, called: “The Future of Project Management” by Bryan Campbell.

The impact on how we do projects is tremendous. The planning and budgeting cycle of 12 months is becoming old as deployments become continuous.

Mr Campbell states that the traditional definition that a project is done when all of its scope is completed within schedule and budget needs to be re-assessed. In this new paradigm, projects end when they stop delivering more value than the next viable alternative. Budget and schedule are superseded by the value that projects deliver. This means that trying to fix a schedule and budget on a project is less important than understanding the value that the project is delivering.

Continuous delivery

What we’re heading towards is that Projects will eventually transition into continuous value delivery mechanisms and the roles of the project manager will change from monitoring schedule and budget to one focused on the continuous delivery of value.

In his talk at PMXPO2018: “Planning for the future of Project Management”, Dr Harold Kerzner makes several observations on the differences between PM 1.0 and PM 2.0 that I find fascinating. Here are a few:

Project requirements have evolved from well-defined to evolving and flexible.
Number of constraints moved from triple (time, cost, scope) to competing constraints.
Scope changes from minimum with low customer tolerance to possibly continuous with a high tolerance
Amount of documentation is changing from extensive to minimal
Project health checks, once optional, are now mandatory and so is customer involvement
Project management area of emphasis has changed from planning, measuring and controlling to benefits realisation and value management

Lastly, according to Dr Kerzner, the metric categories have changed as well.

FROM

Time

Cost

Scope

Quality

Resource usage

Stakeholder satisfaction

Project performance

Number of deliverables

Business profitability

Portfolio health

Portfolio benefits realization

Portfolio value achieved

Portfolio selection and mix

Resource availability

Capacity utilization

Strategic alignment

Business performance

Trusted Global Network

Another interesting perspective comes from Ray Granger, CEO of Mavenlink. He talks about a transformation where organisations change their processes and structures to align with a global, networked landscape.

“Work is being delivered in open and collaborative environments, with large groups of people from both inside and outside the organization”, according to Mr Granger.

This means that on any given project, you may be working with internal talent, external service providers, specialists, and even clients from around the world. I’ve experienced this phenomenon on recent software implementation projects which requires you to engage and mobilize larger and larger numbers of participants, and facilitate much more complex coordination of expertise and activities. Part of the complexity lies in the challenges around collaboration with virtual team members across different time zones and having to keep all stakeholders aligned.

These are just a few directions that give us an indication of where Project Management is heading. We need to ask ourselves: “Am I keeping up with the pace of change, adapting my skills and leadership abilities to stay ahead of the curve, to be future fit?”

Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss any future tips and articles!

August 22, 2018 Linky

How to Manage Different Generations at Work

By Linky van der Merwe

We all will soon find ourselves in the situation where there are 4-5 different generations in the workplace. Are you ready for that future at work?

Managing the mixture of ages, faces, values and views is an increasingly difficult task. According to the book: “Generations at Work: Managing the clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers and Nexters in your Workplace”, the authors R Femke, C Raines and B Filipczak describe it as:

“diversity management at its most challenging.”

It helps to understand the impact of having different generations in the workforce. Know who they are and what motivates them and prepare for that future workplace. From Baby Boomers, to Millennials, to Generation X and Y.

Watch this video and let me know what you think in the comments.

August 15, 2018February 14, 2022 Linky

Productivity Experts’ Views on Peak Performance

By Linky van der Merwe

Recently I attended the Peak Work Performance Summit hosted by Dr Ron Friedman. Ron Friedman, PhD, is an award-winning social psychologist who specializes in human motivation and he’s author of the book: “The Best Place to Work”.

In the previous article: “What I Have Learned About Peak Work Performance” I shared some great takeaways from the speakers who were interviewed. In this article I’m going to share more views from well-known productivity experts.

Building an external brain

I was really impressed with how much I’ve learnt from David Allen, author of “Getting things done”. Here are two highlights.

He explained how we are bad at remembering, but good at recognizing. We need to clear internal mental space to make room for good ideas. Our head is for having ideas; not for holding them. That’s what he means by building an external brain – objectify it; get your head empty.

He’s also of the opinion that you shouldn’t take notes on a laptop. It’s better to write things down and to see lists visually rather than digitally.

Combat procrastination

People procrastinate because they feel out of control or uncertain about what to do or where to start. If tasks are described on a physical level of what to do next by using verbs, it’s much easier to have a kick-start. if not, you procrastinate and you have the nagging feeling of ‘when will I do this?’ So remember, put them all on your list with next actionable steps and review it regularly.

Essentials only

A few valuable lessons can be learned from Greg McKeown on determining what is essential and eliminating everything else. He authored the book: ‘Essentialism – Disciplined pursuit of less.

He explained that if you want to become distinctive; find out what makes you really good. Choose to be an Essentialist at work. Saying NO is a very important skill; but do it in a very polite way. Focus on what is essential, concentrate on getting that done well, as that will add most value.

Don’t use busyness as a badge of honour. When you are asked: ‘How are you? – choose to respond differently.

Instead of stating how busy you are and doing a million things, rather share a story from your life – like what you did yesterday with your children. Busyness may let other people feel you are more important, but could also make you look like you’re not in control.

Practices for the Essentialist

Create space to explore what is essential.
Every day write down the 6 things you want to do for the day; prioritise the list, cross off 5; focus on nr 1. Only work on what’s important now. When done, take the next thing.
Reallocate resources to the one thing that should get done; make it as effortless as possible

He’s starting a movement on how to become an Essentialist – so watch that space.

How to coach your teams

I want to conclude with the work of Michael Stanier, author of “The Coaching Habit”.

Learn how to coach your teams better by doing the following:

Listen a bit longer
Be slower to rush to action and advice
Probing more to find out what’s below the surface
Ask a question like: “what’s the real challenge here for you?” It puts the emphasis on the person, rather than the problem.

Look for leadership where you empower people to solve their own problems, and to be self-sufficient.

Have a few good questions. For example, in response to what a person is saying, encourage them by asking: “yes and what else?”
Understand the dynamics of behaviour change – habits are the building blocks.
Overcome the urge to give advice. Rather use the question: ‘what else?’ instead of telling the person what you think.

If you like the Peak Performance ideas and you want to know more, I have good news for you.

You can get Lifetime access to the ‘Peak Work Performance Summit’. You will have unlimited access to interviews with people who are sharing valuable information based on years of research for books and based on their real life experience.

Click here for the Peak Work Performance Summit Lifetime Pass.

August 9, 2018April 11, 2022 Linky

What I Have Learned About Peak Work Performance

By Linky van der Merwe

We all want to become healthier, happier and more productive, but we seldom address these desires consciously on a day to day basis. Recently I was so fortunate to attend the Peak Work Performance Summit hosted by Dr Ron Friedman. Ron Friedman, PhD, is an award-winning social psychologist who specializes in human motivation and he’s author of the book: “The Best Place to Work”.

Since I’ve learnt so much from each interview that Ron so masterfully conducted, I have decided to share a few takeaways with you. By simply applying some of these principles, I believe it has the potential to transform your life!

Find a 2nd article on Peak Work Performance here.

Pre-mortem instead of post-mortems

I loved this idea from Dan Pienk, an idea I have come across before, but I’m now more motivated to apply it at work as well as for personal growth.

He recommends doing a pre-mortem every six months asking:

What do I want to learn?
What do I want to achieve?
What are the pitfalls?

Like you can imagine, this can lead to much better goals that will be easier to achieve, since you are already addressing anticipated challenges even before they appear.

As for starting a new project, it’s a good idea to start with a pre-mortem so that the project can be setup for success, because it helps to think through what success will mean and it will identify possible risks or obstacles that may be blockers to successful delivery. Then a project manager and team can purposefully go ahead with the intention of solving possible problems even before they occur and continue to follow the markers identified for success.

Find out more in Dan Pink’s book: Drive by clicking on the image.

Reduce your focus to achieve better results

What Jay Papasan shared about the one thing that high performers do differently, is that it helps to reduce your focus to achieve better results. What does he mean by that?

It means that you focus on your one thing – the 20% that give 80% output. By doing one thing only, it could throw other things off and it may seem like the balance can go off, but in reality you are focusing on the one thing that will yield the biggest results. This can be applied at work, but also to your health, finances and family life.

Another interesting point he made, was to put being a husband or wife first, before being a parent, because you want to role model being good in marriage. Where else will our children learn to stay committed in marriage?

Find out more in Jay’s book: The one thing by clicking on the image.

For good fruit to grow, you need to be pruning

Todd Henry, who writes about creativity, productivity, and how to find passion for your work, shared an important principle. For good fruit to grow, you need to be pruning, like for a vineyard.

According to Todd, it’s important to learn to say NO to things. Build good practices around the domains you need to excel in. For example, establish blocks of time for study, reading or for writing, whatever it may be that you are doing.

Innovation happens in the gaps, in the quiet times. Create space in your life to bring the best of who you are to what you do. Personally, I loved this statement and as a working mom of 3 children, I constantly have to remind myself to carve out space in my life in order to be my best self.

Read Todd Henry’s books to find out more.

“The accidental creative – How to be brilliant at a moment’s notice”
“Herding Tigers – Be the leader that creative people need”
“Louder than words – Harness the power of your authentic voice”

Pillars of Success

Craig Ballantyne, coach to high-performing entrepreneurs and executives to get more done, have massive impact, grow their influence, and have a personal life, shared ideas to help you ‘own the day and control your life’. He shared five pillars of success:

Do better planning and preparation than ever before
Have a measureable outcome; have action points at the end
Positive social support – engage with people around you for support
Meaningful incentive that will motivate you
Self-imposed deadline and the power this has to help you stick to what you’re doing

Read his book: “The Perfect Day Formula” for more ideas on how to have the perfect day.

If you like the Peak Performance ideas that I shared in this article, I have good news for you.

Click here for the Peak Work Performance Summit Lifetime Pass.

August 1, 2018August 2, 2023 Linky

5 Tech Tools for Agile Project Management

By Brian Thomas

Agile is taking the project management world by storm, and for good reason. Traditional methods of project management that rely on rigid timelines tend to break down when things change. On the other hand you have the Agile project management system that’s actually designed to handle change. With Agile, teams can easily adjust to any issues, setbacks, or new priorities that might arise throughout the process. Change happens all the time, even within Agile itself, so it’s best to make sure your team is prepared for it.

Using the Agile framework and being prepared for when things go awry is great, but you’re going to need to leverage technology to keep everyone on your team in the loop. Check out the top tech tools to keep your agile project on the right track!

Trello

Trello is a good option for getting your whole Agile team on the same page. One of the great things about Agile is that it encourages face-to-face team engagement, which often leads to the use of physical whiteboards. Since Trello functions similar to a classic whiteboard, it makes keeping your physical documentation up with your project management tool simple and effective. Once in Trello, you’re able to set up boards for you and your team. Within each board you can create lists, and then nest individual tasks underneath those lists. The flexibility Trello provides for users makes it perfect for Agile.

Asana

If you’re looking for a project management solution that’s simple and to-the-point, then check out Asana. Asana is an easy-to-use task management system to track progress on all of your team’s projects. Similar to Trello, you can set up task sections for your backlog, current sprint, complete, and any other grouping you might need.

Proggio

Instead of centering your Agile team around the tasks that need to be done, Proggio puts the focus on the actual team members themselves. Proggio makes it easy to visualize workflows to see what tasks need to be done, when they need to be done, and most importantly, who’s responsible for doing them.

Proggio’s ability to visualize how the team is functioning as a whole helps the team members understand why the work they’re doing is important and help the team build momentum to operate efficiently.

Proofhub

ProofHub is a comprehensive project management and collaboration tool designed to streamline workflows and improve team productivity. It offers a wide range of features, including task management, document sharing, team collaboration, time tracking, and more. It has been trusted by thousands of businesses and teams worldwide.

Binfire

Binfire is another Agile project management software tool that allows teams to seamlessly collaborate on projects and tasks in a simple and concise manner. Much like Trello and Poggio, within Binfire you and your team can use visualization tools such as a digital whiteboard to map out your systems and processes. However, with Binfire you can also utilize additional types of charts, markup PDFs, and chat on your team message board among other features.

Drag

Last but not least is Drag. Drag is a free chrome extension that lets you turn your gmail inbox into projects and their accompanying lists of tasks. If your team works within a single email account, such as the company’s “info@company.com” email, it’s perfect for organizing your gmail inbox into its own Agile system. Or if you’re just a big Agile fan and you want to turn your own personal inbox into an Agile workspace, you can do that as well!

There are many more great tools out there to help Agile teams maximize the efficiency of their workflows.

Find a great resource of curated and reviewed project management tools that is best to use for different industries such as creative, design, marketing, developers and other areas! Click here.

*****************************************************************

About the Author:

Brian Thomas is from Enlightened Digital, a digital magazine dedicated to the top tech and business news, updates and analyses from around the web – your guide to everything at the cutting edge of technology.

July 26, 2018 Linky

Is your company striving to break the glass ceiling?

Companies striving to break the glass ceiling can deploy several tactics to promote transparency in hiring and retaining women and minority employees. Large public companies including Facebook, Microsoft, and Google have led the way in this promotion by revealing internal data concerning the racial makeup of their workforce.

One of the key ways that corporations can remove the glass ceiling is by demonstrating behaviors that value diversity. This can be accomplished in three steps.

To respect cultural, religious, gender, and racial differences.
To manage and work with individuals from different racial or cultural backgrounds.
To promote overall demographic balance within an organization; one that relates to the demographic makeup of a company’s broader geographic area.

Being a diverse company has several tangible benefits. Ethnically diverse companies are 35 percent more likely to outperform non-ethnically diverse companies, and gender diverse companies are 15 percent more likely to outperform their non-gender diverse counterparts. Studies also indicate that a company’s earnings rise 0.8 percent for every 10 percent increase in racial and ethnic diversity they deploy.

The University of Ohio in the United States has produced an interesting Infographic about The Glass Ceiling frustrating Women and Minorities in Business. Although statistics pertain to the US only, it’s very insightful, especially the reference made to the Success Stories of the Tory Burch and Sheryl Sandberg Foundations. Sandberg’s book, Lean In, made a big impression on me when I read it a few years ago and it’s a book I would recommend to all young professional women.

The Glass Ceiling

July 18, 2018July 18, 2018 Linky

Top 10 Checkpoints for a Business Case

Are you facing the challenge of writing a business case? A business case explains why your organisation will invest time and resources into a project. Without a rock-solid business case your project is unlikely to get a return on investment.

Below is a short video giving you a checklist of questions to ask before you submit your business case for approval.

Here’s the checklist of 10 questions to ask yourself before you submit your business case to your sponsor for approval.

Have the reasons for the project been specified and are they consistent with any corporate strategies?
Has the preferred business option been stated?
Has it been explained why the preferred business option was recommended?
Are the benefits clearly identified and justified?
Have both the project timescales and the benefits realization timescales been identified?
Is it clear how and when the benefits will be realized?
Have both the project costs and the ongoing operational and maintenance costs been specified?
Have the funding arrangements been specified?
Has the investment appraisal used the organisation’s recommended standard?
Have the major project risks been stated, together with any proposed responses?

A good business case helps you or your organisation take sensible decisions about committing time and resources to a project or activity – make sure you get it right.

Click here for more details on how to write a Business Case and to download a simple, but comprehensive business case template with compliments from Knowledge Train, a Project Management Training Company.

July 11, 2018 Linky

Are you Facing these Agile Challenges?

It’s only in recent years that I started working on Agile projects following the Scrum approach. And what a journey it has been so far! Challenging that traditional way of working mindset of being a PMP (Project Management Professional) for 14 years working mostly on ‘waterfall’ type projects.

You find yourself facing common struggles while going through the motions of changing your mindset which really is essential for successfully adoption an agile approach.

Companies who provide consultation and training around Agile, realise that teams are faced with many challenges when making the transition to Agile. At Knowledge Train they have published an e-book with stories from Industry experts who shared about their challenges with Agile and the solutions they use to overcome it.

Below is an Infographic with some of the most common challenges!

Please click on the Infographic to reach the article where you may download the e-book: “The Challenges with Agile”.

July 5, 2018 Linky

Social Media as a Customer Service Tool

Social Media on projects

On the Virtual Project Consulting blog we have discussed various topics around social media and it’s uses for project management. Lately, we looked at use cases and research about shaping social media for better collaboration on projects and using it to make project management more future fit.

However, social media have multiple purposes in the business world, especially as a means for customer service that will serve companies well.

Customer Service Channel

Social media is a unique customer service channel because it allows you to engage with consumers in a way that was previously impossible, and despite this marked advantage, the technology is easy and cost-effective to implement. Moreover, leveraging social media for customer service allows you to build a strong relationship with your audience and discover previously unnoticed market opportunities.

As more people take to social media platforms, enterprise customer service activities will become increasingly transparent. As a result, it’s important to make sure that you get it right so that you don’t lose brand credibly or alienate your customers.

Social Media Customer Service in Practice

When using social media as a customer service channel, it’s important to make sure that your staff members are well-versed in using designated platforms as well as your product or service offerings and company policies. You should start your social media customer service initiative by clearly defining what services your organization will provide and estimating how much traffic volume your employees will manage. By establishing initial parameters, you’ll have a foundation to measure the performance of your new initiative. Furthermore, if your team meets their assigned goals, you’ll have quantifiable proof of your return-on-investment.

To learn more, view this Social Media Infographic, created by USC’s Online Master of Science in Applied Psychology program.

It covers different use cases for social media as a customer service channel, reasons for using it and the benefits you can expect.

June 18, 2018April 19, 2020 Linky

5 Project Management Trends shaping 2018

By Ashley Lipman

Project Management isn’t an industry that stays the same for a long period of time. It’s unpredictable, versatile, and subject to various trends at any given time.

Some of the trends influencing Project Management in 2018 may be old; others may have just emerged. However, the ones to look out for are those that are the most influential.

Want to know what these trends are?

Knowing about the emerging trends will help you manage your projects and get things done more efficiently in 2018:

1. Artificial intelligence is here to stay

AI, short for Artificial Intelligence, is no longer a concept dreamt of in science fiction. Technology like Siri, Echo, and Home are the most popular kinds, but AI is also the base of several PM applications.

Repetitive tasks have been automated and AI software has been applied to PM management more and more over the months.

Project managers are now making use of AI programs to enhance the efficiency of their projects. This includes dealing with resources, streamlining workflow, and giving valuable insights into future plans.

It’s also used in centralising data that could immensely help your team work together even from remote locations. Application performance management and server monitoring | AppOptics is just another example of how AI is becoming entrenched in this industry.

2. Embedded technology leads to faster project delivery

Source: Pixabay

We know that technology has become highly portable, even to the point where you can wear a smartwatch to replace your phone, computer, and tablet to some extent. As a project manager, wearable technology enables you to track and enhance your productivity at all levels.

Using smart glasses, head-mounted displays, and smartwatches can enhance the efficiency, safety, and the accuracy of any team. What’s more, the data from such wearable devices can help managers learn what makes team members tick.

Once project managers start paying more attention to what their team members need, they will better know how to motivate them and to create a culture that encourages and rewards high performance.

3. Remote workers are expanding the workforce

Source: Pixabay

Project managers don’t require the whole team to be co-located, in fact virtual teams and outsourcing specialist skills has become quite the norm.

With team members working from home or from remote locations, more flexible work hours make for a higher productivity level. Hence, project managers need to be aware of this and improve their skills around managing virtual teams.

4. Hybrid management is the next big thing

Project managers now have to embrace the fact that cookie-cutter solutions (read methodologies) are out of date. They may have followed a traditional waterfall type methodology in the past, but now, it’s time to tweak this according to their clients’ project requirements.

There are certain processes that can help with this kind of project management. One example of these is following an Agile approach, giving companies the ability for faster time to market.

Hence, a project manager who is comfortable with following a hybrid approach is definitely in order. You need to consider several methodologies for approaching different projects. This sort of personalisation and customisation continue to grow more important as time goes on.

5. Project managers with emotional intelligence are preferred

Gone are the days when solid, technical skills were adequate for a project manager. Soft skills and a high level of emotional intelligence are now highly valued in the PM industry, and with several good reasons.

In 2018, business owners are increasingly looking for managers who can keep their teams happy, satisfied, and motivated. This combination is one of the best ones for making up a highly productive workforce.

Find some more insights from the “Pulse of the Profession” PMI report here.

These 5 trends are by no means a comprehensive list, but certainly trends to acknowledge and consider for a project professional in 2018.