Here is a wonderful story about a College Professor from Canada who cares so much about his project management students, that he compiled a special gift for them. An ebook called: 52 Tips to break into Project Management. You will find contributions from project managers all over the world who are passionate about projects. It’s a privilege to participate in such an endeavour – well done Geoff Crane.
Enjoy the read and please subscribe to my blog (to your right) for more project management gems!
Many people believe that an effective Change Management process, has become essential in delivering successful projects and getting a return on investment. This is part 3 in the series about change management. This article will look at the negative effects of insufficient change management as well as the barriers to a successful implementation of change. Click Part 1, Part 2 to read previous articles before this one.
Barriers
Common barriers to the successful implementation of change, include the following:
Lack of shared vision and an understanding of what needs to be accomplished
Change fatigue
Timing
Lack of leadership support or alignment
Sustainability of the project
What is happening outside and in parallel to the change
Not enough understanding of how to measure the value of a benefit.
Negative Effects
When change management is insufficient, it can have some negative effects. Let’s look at a few.
Employee retention levels may drop
During times of change, especially when the people component is being neglected, it may bring about the loss of key staff. If people are not being heard or equipped to manage the change, people may choose to move onto another environment.
Insufficient focus on managing the impact of change on people
The objective of change management is to minimise the impact of a project and to support the realisation of benefits and to embed the change. Without sufficient change management the focus on the people aspects of the change is neglected and all benefits reliant on people will not be realised.
Risks may not be highlighted
One of the roles of a Change Manager is to highlight the risks that would impact on people. A lack of risk management, may also have an impact on the project timeline.
Drop in customer service
If users who are going through a change experience a productivity dip, or an inability to use the new system or any other negative side effects, it will have an effect on the customers they deal with. It can result in loss of customers and damage to an organisation’s reputation.
Increased resistance to change
People who are not involved in the change process and having change forced upon them, often shows signs of active resistance or even anger. Often just by engaging with employees and allowing them the space to raise and address concerns, can provide a platform for resolving their issues before they impact on project success.
Lower adoption or adaptation to change
Without managing a change properly there may be an increase in resistance and a greater likelihood of impacted staff not adopting a new system or new way of working. Change Managers often play the role of a bridge between the solution and the users and without this bridge there may be poor or no adoption.
Lack of ownership or shared vision
A project or change initiative has an end date. This means that after project completion some-one will need to own the change and ensure its sustainability going forward. During the course of the project there needs to be alignment and shared vision. When perceptions and visions aren’t aligned and no-one is taking ownership of the success of the implementation, the benefits will ultimately not be realised.
Negative impact on productivity
Productivity dips can be caused by factors such as a lack of planning, duplication of effort, despondent employees, ill-equipped stakeholders and business as usual versus project responsibilities overlapping. By equipping the individuals with the knowledge, skills and abilities they need to cope with the change, the dip in productivity can be minimised.
In addition to this, the issue of role uncertainty can negatively impact the individuals within the project team and stakeholders involved. When people are unsure or what they’re supposed to be doing, they can swing from either doing nothing or doing too much of the wrong thing.
We hope that you have enjoyed this series about Change Management. Please subscribe for more updates in future. (top right)
An excellent Leadership ebook has been released by AtTask containing lessons from well-known Project, Program and Portfolio Management experts about making the transition from project management to project leadership.
Gartner predicted a massive change in the world of project management—a change that is forcing project managers into a greater leadership role and requiring them to work closely with senior executives. Making the shift from project management to project leadership isn’t easy, but the rewards can be significant. Read the stories for inspiration to become a better leader.
There are many useful tools that Project Managers (PMs) use in their day to day work. You may have heard that Microsoft Project is THE tool that PMs should use to manage projects.
But what if you don’t have $300+ to spend on MS Project or then spend countless hours learning how to use it properly?
To use MS Project effectively you may have to spend a considerable amount of time to set up the tasks, resources and schedules. Then you would spend a lot of time to maintain the file with the numerous changes that would occur on any large scale project.
MS Project is a great tool if you have a large project but for smaller projects, it may be an overkill. You want to have a tool that doesn’t cost too much, is relatively easy to learn and commonly used. That tool could be another Microsoft product – Excel.
With Excel you have a tool to do scheduling, budgeting, charting, create checklists and much more. You don’t need to be an Excel expert to create useful files for communicating with stakeholders. It has robust charting capabilities to create effective graphs and flow charts that can be done up fairly quickly. However if you wanted more complex applications, you can even use Excel to create advanced dashboards to show performance metrics.
It is fairly affordable depending if you buy it as a standalone software package or part of the Microsoft Office bundle. It may already be part of the standard software your organization puts on your desktop or laptop computer.
Ask most PMs and they would say that they have worked with MS Excel. So if you wanted to collaborate with others, most of the time you already have an audience that is familiar with the tool and could work with you on updates. So what if you wanted to increase your skills on Excel or just learn a few tips….where should you go?
If you don’t have MS Project and would like to consider Excel as an alternative project management tool, here are some quick video tutorials that will help (and they are free!). Just go to Excel for Project Management video tutorials.
About the author: Doug Hong is a business analyst for a Fortune 500 technology company. He was a former PMP certified practitioner and now focuses on metrics dashboards and visualization using advance Excel features. He shares his knowledge with training videos on his Excel Training 101 site. He also has an extensive list of training videos where you can subscribe to on YouTube.
In the difficult economic times we live in today, organisations are faced with the challenge to continuously adapt to the changing environments in order to survive and prosper. For most companies project management has become part of their competitive advantage strategy. The question is if there’s a relation between project management maturity and project performance?
This question was answered by the results from the survey done by Price Waterhouse Coopers:
“Global Insights and Trends – Current Portfolio, Programme and Project Management practices”
PM Maturity and Performance
Project management maturity is measured by evaluating projects on 5 performance indicators:
Delivering projects on time;
Within budget;
To scope;
To quality standards;
With the intended business benefits
Project performance is evaluated around 4 core elements:
Processes
Organisational structure
People
Systems and tools
The survey results were analysed to determine the current state of project management maturity and the characteristics of higher performing projects. This article will highlight some of the key findings.
Processes
When a systematic and organised set of processes exist for project management, or in other words when a well-defined repeatable PM process is in place (can be grouped into a PM methodology) the chances are better to deliver consistently high project results.
Organisational Structure
When looking at organisation structure as an influence on PM performance the following aspects are considered:
Resource ownership
Definition of clear roles and responsibilities
Support from senior management
Use of a Project/Programme Management Office (PMO)
Results indicated that project management is critical to business performance and organisational success. Where suitable project organisational structures exist on project(s) it clearly outlines the project team and reporting relationships.
Senior management support of projects is a contributing factor to project success especially for projects that are expanding from departmental to national and international levels.
Established project management offices result in projects with higher quality and business benefits. Employing a PMO is one of many methods to institute standardized project management processes and project controls in an organisation.
People
Well-developed people management skills are fundamental to a high PM maturity level. Aspects considered in this area include: project staff skills and experience; development and training programme; and an emphasis on PM certifications.
They found that engaged, experienced staff leads to project success. Training and staff development in the field of project management has grown drastically. More PM certifications have become in demand.
Systems and Tools
Organisations purchase and create systems and tools to automate and support their PM processes. This includes the use of software for PM, Portfolio Management and Agile, as well as Earned Value Management, which is more relied on in the US as a useful tool.
The use of Portfolio Management software drives higher levels of portfolio performance and greater satisfaction with an organisation’s project management practices.
Portfolio Management
When implementing PfM, the survey results indicated that the three largest ways to be more successful include aligning the portfolio with the organisation’s strategy; using an enterprise PMO to manage the portfolio; and conducting monthly reviews. There are also several benefits to implementing Portfolio Management like:
Adoption of PfM has positive effects on both project performance and performance of the overall portfolio.
Two thirds of respondents that employ PfM reported that more than 90% of their organisation’s projects perform to expectations on the five key performance indicators. In contrast, seven out of ten organisations that do not employ PfM reported that less than 10% of their projects met the key performance indicators.
In summary, it was found that higher maturity lead to higher performance within the five key performance indicators. However, most organisations still desire a higher maturity level. To read the full PWC Global Project Management Report, click here.
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Whether you’re a project manager, supervisor or just one of those people who make the world go round – then from time to time you’re going to stumble across a method or process that you know – will benefit others if only they’ll adopt it. You’ll then discover, to your surprise, that your enthusiasm isn’t shared by those around you.
Welcome to the very common problem of implementing a Change of any sort.
As a project manager for any length of time, you’re well aware we repeat certain processes time and time again and these patterns of process evolve. Good PMs understand the need to identify, categorize and generalize these patterns and use them consciously.
There is a flip side to this, there are also patterns of failure, ‘solutions’ we try time and time again, that don’t lead us towards our goal. In a sense, that’s why we attempt to categorize those that work, because this knowledge helps us avoid the ones which don’t. Good PM practices steer us towards successful processes by steering us away from bad processes. Do this consciously, and we end up with something like Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3).
Get buy-in
The “Buy-in” strategy is a perfect example of a commonly used unsuccessful approach to a common management problem. Yes, I’m well aware that questioning the value of a commonly held belief is heretical, but it is an accurate assessment of the efficacy of “buy-in”.
Typically, when we find a good, new solution we get enthusiastic about it. Let’s assume we’ve glommed onto OPM3 as our most recent discovery. Our immediate strategy is to try and convince others that OPM3 is the answer to all our PM problems. We want them to ‘buy-into’ the new idea, after all, we know OPM3 works. It’s a recognized best-practice standard for assessing and developing capabilities in Portfolio, Program and Project Management and it’s published by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
Our approach is to concentrate on the benefits of implementing OPM3. Our goal? To get our audience or organization to adopt this proven way of doing things. And then we’re surprised when they respond with the annoying question… “Why?”
It doesn’t matter what new idea we’re trying to implement, it could be OPM3 or a new way to tie our shoe laces, we will always encounter this well meaning “Why?” We then incorrectly, in my opinion, label it as ‘resistance to change’. We also mislabel this phenomenon as being ‘negative’ and perhaps even as an ‘obstacle to progress’.
Solution to creating change
The problem we’ve created is this: We’re selling a solution, before we agree on the problem.
Here’s an experiment, one with ‘convincing’ statistics, that was performed by Dr. Robert Cialdini (Described in his book, “Influence: Science and Practice”)
This experiement was conducted at a busy photocopier. The researcher stepped to the front of the queue and asked: “Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” The result was that 60% of the time she was allowed to make her copies.
On the next trial she asked instead: “Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” This increased her success rate (immediately making copies) to 94%.
The initial request with no reason given is 60%, adding even the flimiest of reasons, ‘because’ to the unspoken ‘Why?’ increases that success rate to 93%.
So… what is your answer to the reasonable question ‘Why?’ going to be? That this “idea” of ours is better than what we’re currently doing isn’t enough. That’s basically what we’re saying when we’re enthusiastic and merely sing the praises of a new solution.
What people need to hear is a description of the problem that the new idea is supposed to solve. You cannot sell anyone the benefits of anything until they agree that the benefits are necessary.
So? What problems does OPM3 solve? What are the failings of your existing process? Can you point to specific failings which everyone agrees need addressing?
And remember… “OPM3” is best considered a place holder for ANY change…
You have been using the Agile methodology on projects for one year or longer and you would like to become Agile certified. Here you will find 7 tips to ensure you are prepared to meet the exam head-on and achieve optimal results both on exam day and in your future career.
The Project Management Institute (PMI®) has developed a set of criteria and credentials for recognizing project management professionals who use Agile methodologies in their project, the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® certification. Your credentials need to include: 2,000 hours or twelve months of general project management work experience, 1,500 hours or eight months of Agile specific project experience, and 21 hours of training in Agile specific practices.
The amount of material that is covered by the PMI-ACP Exam is extensive and can seem overwhelming, but the following tips will help you be successful.
#1 PMI-ACP Handbook
The PMI-ACP Handbook gives you all the details of the PMI-ACP Exam process including exam policies and procedures. The first two sections are a must read for anyone considering PMI-ACP certification. These sections cover the must know basics such as exam eligibility requirements, how to complete the online application, the payment policy, and the PMI-ACP Exam blueprint. The PMI-ACP Handbook is available for free online at: www.agileprepcast.com/
#2 Time
The material covered by the PMI-ACP Exam is extensive, detailed, and spread throughout many sources of reference material. This is not an examination you can “cram” for in a couple of weekends or simply rely upon your experience and pass. Plan to take the exam after spending 10-12 solid weeks of studying for an hour or two just about every day. Of course you will need to develop a schedule that is flexible enough to fit in with the rest of your responsibilities and commitments.
#3 Study Plan and Schedule
Use your valuable planning and scheduling skills to create a study schedule for a 10-12 week period that fits well with the rest of your responsibilities. Depending on your job and household commitments, you may need to schedule more or less time. Take a practice exam to identify the areas that you need to spend more time focusing on during this 10-12 week period. Make sure your schedule is realistic and set weekly goals to track your progress. Also include time in your schedule to take breaks and participate in activities you enjoy.
#4 Study Materials
The PMI-ACP Exam, unlike the Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam, does not have a primary publication for examinees to study. Instead, PMI provides a list of reference materials.
A second source is the PMI-ACP Examination Content Outline. This document covers information about the Agile tools and techniques as well as the Agile knowledge and skills that will be covered in the PMI-ACP Exam. I recommend that you ensure that any PMI-ACP courses or books you purchase cover all the items listed in here.
#5 Self Study Course
With the great number of material covered by the PMI-ACP Exam another option is to enroll in a self-study course. The latest generation of self-study comes to you in the form of Agile Podcasts / Videocasts. These can be downloaded to your smartphone, laptop, tablet, computer, or other portable media device. This makes your PMI-ACP Exam training portable, allowing you to listen or view whenever you have some free time.
Self-study Agile Podcasts cover agile frameworks, tools and techniques, knowledge and skills, and methods required for the exam in everyday English. As an added bonus, taking your lessons in this way can count toward the required 21 contact hours of Agile specific training.
#6 PMI-ACP Exam Prep Book
There are a wide variety of PMI-ACP Exam prep books available, which are also sometimes called “study guides”. They explain the concepts covered in the PMI-ACP Exam and can be a great addition to the reference materials suggested by PMI. Go to your local bookstore and select one that fits with your style of learning and covers a variety of high- and low-yield topics.
#7 Questions, Questions, Questions
A large number of free PMI-ACP Exam sample questions are available from a variety of resources on the internet. Free questions are a good place to start, but will only go so far for you. You will also want to subscribe to an online PMI-ACP Exam Simulator in order to access the highest quality of sample questions.
Your study plan must include answering as many practice questions as possible and taking several complete 120-question practice exams. This type of preparation will allow you to evaluate your study progress and prepare you for the format of the real thing. You will be nervous on exam day, but being familiar with types and formats of questions will help reduce anxiety and prepare you for success.
In conclusion: preparing to pass the PMI-ACP Exam can be a stressful process, but with these seven items you will reduce anxiety and exam day stress. Study hard and good luck!
To all project managers who want to make a career move, or for contractors who need to move to new project management contracts, there are a few important things to consider.
You need to have an updated resume and a good LinkedIn profile. In addition, you need to be prepared for Interviews that are part of this process.
Today I want to share two great resources to assist you in your journey.
“Interview Advice and Tips” is a curated list of articles, by Patricia D. Sadar. It contains several great articles covering Interviews from every possible angle.
One Page Resume
Let me know in the comments what you think of these resources.
Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss future articles, tips and success stories!
The opportunity to participate with other project management bloggers globally has come again with the second Project Management Flash Blog (#PMFlashBlog), organised by Mark Phillipy, author and host of the Sensible Project Manager. The theme for this #PMFlashBlog is “Project Management around the World” and I will be writing about my perspective of project management in South Africa.
The project management professionals has a professional body in Project Management South Africa (PMSA) as the governing body to confer designations in line with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) framework. They look after the interests of project, program and portfolio management practitioners by hosting a National Conference every two years, Regional Conferences and Branch meetings monthly in most cities. The Project Management Institute (PMI) is also represented locally in the PMI South Africa with local Chapters.
Project management is covered as Programmes and Master degrees at most universities. For Engineers separate Programmes in Project Management are offered to equip them with sound skills to work with the big budget projects in the infrastructure – and other industries.
Over the years South Africa has become known for some wildly successful projects.
King Shaka International Airport at Durban, a mega engineering project which opened on 1 May 2010. There were 2,100 contractors and subcontractors on site along with 200 earth-moving machines involved in the construction of the airport which finished on time.
Another noteworthy event was the Soccer FIFA World Cup of 2010. The main benefits included a catalyst for creating jobs and skills while expanding infrastructure; invaluable lessons were learnt in how to deliver on major projects; an economy boost, as well as a massive international image boost which was a huge injection for tourism in South Africa. See series of posts published about these projects here.
Then there was the Gautrain Project, the largest Public Private Partnership (PPP) yet launched in South Africa. It linked private enterprise and government in a project designed to become the central hub of a future integrated transport system for South Africa’s commercial heart. With a project value of about R20 billion, the Gautrain project was led by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) and was structured to ensure that the government and the concessionaire, the Bombela International Consortium, operated within a strict set of financial and time parameters.
A last interesting project worth mentioning is the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project, divided between Africa and Australia, with all dishes to be built in Africa. Currently the MeerKAT telescope is under construction in the Northern Cape Province which will be the largest, most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, utilising ground-breaking science. The project is destined for completion in 2024. Read SKA AFrica for more interesting facts.
Other Mega projects, too many to detail here.
Given our country’s history of inequality and part of the working population that are not well educated, unemployment is a huge problem. This is being addressed by Government by using projects, especially investments in huge infrastructure projects as an opportunity to create jobs and to build skills.
Some more challenges we are faced with in South Africa are transformation, transition and sustainability. Project managers require an understanding of the real needs of business from a participating resource in the business context to become a more active business leader in the project delivery. South African project practitioners are compelled to take ownership of and responsibility for the impact of our projects by overcoming these obstacles through our daily activities and practices. Projects are critical to business for growth, innovation and change and can be positioned to influence sustainability by focusing on strategic initiatives and providing support to core business in achieving their production goals.
Project management as a career has grown tremendously in the past 20 years across all industries. The same can be said for project management services companies who offer training, software, products and consulting on project management.
It was fun sharing my opinion of project management in SA!
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa
The first ever PM FlashBlog was coordinated by Shim Marom in September 2013. More than 70 project managers from around the world shared their thoughts on what Project Management meant to them. Many stories were collected in a free ebook which you may download when you subscribe to my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter and discover the other participating bloggers using the #PMFlashBlog.
Footnote: This blog is part of the #PMFlashblog Round 2 2014, with a topic of “Project Management Around the World”. Starting March 3, 2014 blogs will be released every Monday morning for 7 weeks, beginning with North America, followed by Europe and Australia, South America, Asia and Africa with each week representing one or more countries.
Check out the 50+ outstanding bloggers participating in this flash blog by adding the #PMFlashBlog tag to your social media streams – there are some wonderful posts!
Also join Mark’s outstanding Google Plus #PMHangout and talk with our featured bloggers each week – a fabulous opportunity to join the PMFlashBlog conversation!
It all started with the belief that a contribution can be made to the project management profession! From the context of “learning, earning and returning”, it was time to return. It was fuelled by my strong desire to help people.
That was the birth of Virtual Project Consulting 5 years ago. The company would only consist online with its presence on a website or blog with the same name: www.virtualprojectconsulting.com
It was targeted initially at small business owners who didn’t have project management competencies or capacity within their own businesses and who would benefit from advice and guidance about project management, leadership, best practice tools and processes, as well as other related topics. This community was served through a product called, ‘The Project Management Toolkit’, guiding users about the application of project management on small projects. Coaching was also provided to aspiring project managers.
It was quite a journey. While figuring out ways to market Virtual Project Consulting online, I had to learn about Internet Marketing practices, as well as social media marketing and apply that to my online business. This contributed to the creation of another website at linkymerwe.com, which was complementary and all about integrated online communications.
Over the course of 5 years the target audience has changed to aspiring and existing project managers who are now also served by comprehensive lists of recommended resources for project management practitioners who are looking for products, software, training, websites and books. My social media community has grown on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Every year brought about some ‘recalculation’ in terms of what to focus on both professionally and personally. To me it meant reassessing my goals, direction and my view of what success means. Towards the end of 2013, this process of recalculating lead me to refresh the website, as well as to make a conscious decision to focus on one community only, instead of different audiences through additional websites. It’s about growth, perspective and new possibilities.
With a constantly moving landscape in which we operate today, being flexible, adaptable and responsible are key to success in a changing world. Success requires that one be nimble and ready when opportunity knocks. But opportunity favours those who are prepared rather than surprised.
Some highlights that caused me to celebrate over the years were:
Publication of articles in the Project Manager Magazine and associated website; contribution to articles in PMI’s PM Network magazine.
Being interviewed various times by international contacts for contribution to Webinars, training, surveys, research and for blog articles
Awards of being in Top Ten list of favourite project management bloggers more than once
Success Stories Shared initiative whereby experienced project managers share their stories about challenges and lessons learnt on projects. One of these stories was used as a case study in a printed text book for Operational Management. It also lead to talks at national conferences as well a local chapter meetings.
Participation on global initiatives like the PMFlashBlog when more than 80 project management bloggers contributed stories about “what does project management mean to me” by publishing them on the same day at the same time. Many stories are collected in an ebook that’s available for down-load here.
Excellent guest authors who have contributed blog articles over the years
I’m celebrating the opportunities of meeting wonderful new people every year and being able to participate in so many creative initiatives that contribute to the growth of our profession. It is still an honour to be around and to be able to serve people and to make a difference in many small ways. I am truly blessed and enriched by this experience and wish to continue sharing, enabling and growing.
Thanks for reading and sharing my 5 year celebration!!!
Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see more of as resources and information for PM’s.
Please subscribe to my blog to become part of our community and let me know how you want to collaborate.
If you would like to contribute to Virtual Project Consulting as a guest author, please send me a mail: linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com
An announcement from the Project Management Institute (PMI):
Submit a qualified nomination for the PMI Award for Project Excellence, PMI Project of the Year Award, or PMO of the Year Award before 1 April 2014!
A PMI Professional Award will help you gain new business, recognition from your colleagues, peers, current and future employers and the personal gratification of being recognized for excellence in project management. Plus, you’ll gain visibility among more than 700,000 PMI members and certification holders – the largest professional network of project managers in the world.
Award recipients will be honored among their peers at the 2014 PMI Professional Awards Ceremony preceding PMI® Global Congress 2014 — North America in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Please visit PMI Professional Awards for a complete list of all the PMI awards.
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