Project Management

Posting about Project Management

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10 Ways to Build an Exceptional Brand as a Project Manager

exceptional branding

Recently I came across an interesting article by Karin Deacon, Managing Director of PMideas. She talks about professional Project Managers creating their own exceptional personal brand.

E-X-C-E-P-T-I-O-N-A-L Branding

When the word exceptional is viewed as an acronym, it contains several clues about how to set oneself apart.

1.      Education and Experience make you ‘Xcel’

Project managers can excel through education and experience. According to Deacon, education develops “figure-it-out” resourcefulness and experience reduces risk, as project managers can apply the lessons they’ve already learned.  Therefore, project managers should never stop acquiring new knowledge and skills in their quest for an exceptional brand.

2.      Excellent Communicator

Communication has been identified as possibly the most important reason behind a project’s success or failure.  Project manager should always be aware of the conversational styles of other parties, cultural issues, relationships, personalities as well as the overall context of the situation.

3.      Being Ethical

The question of ethics is really all based on who you are when no one is looking.  Some questions to ask are: “Am I treating others with respect?”; Am I being honest with myself and others?”

4.      Being Passionate

Great leaders do only demonstrate passion, but they also connect their passion to their purpose with the end result always being greater performance.  This is the role that passion plays in building an exceptional brand.

5.      Team-builder

Project managers who are team builders, create teams that are motivated by the right things, challenged, have the ability to gain mastery over their set tasks and who are self-directed. You know you have built a great team when you see synergy from team members working together to achieve greater results as a team than they would have individually.

6.      Influence and Power

Influencing is a strategy focused on the sharing of power and reliance on interpersonal skills to influence other to co-operate together to achieve certain goals.  Exceptional brands influence their teams by leading by example, clarifying how decisions will be made while using flexible interpersonal styles that adjust to suit the audience.

7.      Organiser

A project manager must be organised with the ability to handle multiple tasks with the appropriate focus.  There needs to be a balance between being people- and task orientated when organising your time and attention.

8.      Effective Networker

Building effective networks is also an important part of the job.  A true networker stays connected, in tune and in touch at all times.

9.      Awareness

Applying cultural, political and environmental awareness are also key to success.  The skilful use of politics and power helps project managers to be effective.

10.  Leadership

Project leadership is all about focusing the efforts of groups/teams towards a common goal and enabling them to work as a team. It also translates into the ability to get things done through others and builds respect and trust. Emphasis is always placed on communicating the vision, as well as motivating and inspiring the team to achieve high performance.

Journey from Mediocre to Exceptional

The journey from being mediocre (just another project manager) to being exceptional is purely a matter of choice and discipline.  Start with the personal brand you wish to live and breath.  Lastly, remember that the exceptional brand is a journey and not a destination.

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How To Setup a Project Governance Framework as a Best Practice

A more recent article on Project Governance can be found here:

Best Practice: Project Governance Framework

Wikipedia defines project governance as follows:

“Project governance is the management framework within which project decisions are made. Project governance is a critical element of any project since it provides a framework for the accountabilities and responsibilities associated with an organisation’s capital investments (projects).”

Therefore, the role of project governance is to provide a decision making framework that is logical, robust and repeatable to govern an organisation’s capital investments. In this way, an organisation will have a structured approach to conducting both its business as usual activities and its business change, or project, activities.

Absence of Governance

In today′s business world, the absence of “governance” is equal to fraud, mismanagement and even scandal.
Project governance is fundamental to ensuring project success and control.

A Project Governance Framework

Guy Jelley, CEO of Post Vision Technology, believes that the most desirable scenario is creating a project governance framework that allows projects to be fluid and move ahead – as opposed to those that are hindered by too much red tape and unnecessarily scrutinised at every opportunity – but, to implement this framework together with a mechanism that provides visibility on current projects and their governance status, so as to understand and manage risks.

“The framework should provide a logical, robust and repeatable management decision making process, with the purpose of governing an organisation’s projects. And, although I advocate that project governance should be simple and straightforward in order for projects to flow, its importance must not be underestimated,” he says.

According to Jelley, project governance is underscored by the overall strategy of a business and, consequently, project managers must understand the objectives and vision of a business in order to understand and appreciate the project governance framework.

“That is, analyse what the governance processes should be delivering and measure these against the business value that the implementation and monitoring of these provide. The bottom line is, your project governance framework is dependent on your organisation’s holistic requirements and should thus be business- and not technical oriented,” says Jelley.

“Important, however, is to be aware that project governance is not a part of IT governance, but is a set of rules and regulations under which projects fall, irrespective of their type,” concludes Jelley.

Elements of good project governance

Wikipedia lists elements of good project governance which include:

  • A compelling business case, stating the objects of the project and specifying the in-scope and out-of-scope aspects
  • A mechanism to assess the compliance of the completed project to its original objectives
  • Identifying all stakeholders with an interest in the project
  • A defined method of communication to each stakeholder
  • A set of business-level requirements as agreed by all stakeholders
  • An agreed specification for the project deliverables
  • The appointment of a project manager
  • Clear assignment of project roles and responsibilities
  • A current, published project plan that spans all project stages
  • A system of accurate status- and progress-reporting including time records.
  • A central document repository for the project
  • A centrally-held glossary of project terms
  • A process for the management and resolution of issues that arise during the project
  • A process for the recording and communication of risks identified during the project
  • A standard for quality review of the key governance documents and of the project deliverables

The setup of a project governance framework during the Initiation Phase of any project, is considered a Best Practice to ensure project success.

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Working with Virtual Teams: Critical Success Factors

As part of the Virtual Project Consulting blog series about “Working with Virtual Teams”, we discussed Collaboration and Communication tools, as well as techniques to achieve maximum efficiency from virtual teams. Beyond tools and techniques there are some critical success factors that determine the effectiveness of virtual teams.

  • Technology and Infrastructure – Apart from the strong business justification that drives the implementation of virtual teams, it is the technical infrastructure that is a key enabler.Without this rapid growth and general availability of technology, the implementation of virtual teams would have been limited to large organizations only. The infrastructure availability, including network technology, drive the success of implementing and working with virtual teams.
  • Security – Information and data security is the next most critical factor that effects virtual teams. Teams exchange a lot of data and information between them. Security measures, standards, processes including audits must be in place to ensure the security of the information that is exchanged. Protecting an organization’s intellectual property against security threats and data loss is vital.
  • Management and Leadership Support – The mere implementation of virtual teams might not be enough or effective unless there is a strong management and leadership support for this. The executive team, Project steering committee or the project leadership team, must walk that extra mile to support and help the extended teams and stakeholders understand the justifications and benefits of implementing virtual teams. They must address any concerns arising due the implementation of virtual teams.
  • Project Management –  the ability of the project manager to lead and influence a team that he or she might not have met personally is critical. Hence having a seasoned and a experienced project manager is a critical success factor. As a project manger who is working with virtual teams he or she needs to be proactive and be able to build the relationship with each team member.

Tools and techniques are great , but knowing when and how to apply them effectively when working with virtual teams makes the difference. Every project or a program is unique and hence there is no one fixed method of applying the tools and techniques discussed.

Do you have experience working with virtual teams? What are the critical success factors based on your experience? Got feedback? Please comment and share it here…

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About the author: Sam Palani, (PMP), is a Senior IT Project / Program Manager and Technology Management consultant. He specializes in managing enterprise projects and technology initiatives. Sam blogs about his experiences in project management, technology and other things that help you be more effective on his blog www.aroundthechaos.com. You can also follow him on twitter: @samx18

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Working with Virtual Teams – Techniques for maximum efficiency

Following on from the previous post about useful tools for working with virtual teams, this post is about useful techniques to make working with virtual teams more efficient.

techniques for working with virtual teams

The techniques for working with virtual teams are less tangible than the tools. Now, let’s look at some techniques that are useful when working with virtual teams.

Techniques for working with virtual teams

Techniques are the application of knowledge, tools and procedures that enable and achieve maximum efficiency from virtual teams.

  • Competencies and skill – As with any other team the structure of the virtual team should factor in competency and skills that are required to accomplish the project. Competencies and skill should be balanced to ensure that there is no polarization.
  • Feedback – Since the team seldom meets face to face, there is a possibility that some of the team members become passive with respect to feedback. As a project manager working with virtual teams it is important to encourage and provide timely feedback. Feedback also helps uncover hidden risks and opportunities of improvement. Feedback should always have a follow-up action plan associated with it.
  • Roles and responsibility clarification –  Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities can creep up very quickly in a virtual team environment. Establishing ownership and accountability is critical to avoid conflict and ensure the team’s effectiveness. Implementing a project responsibility assignment matrix and publishing it can help mitigate this risk.
  • Multicultural sensitivity – Virtual teams are usually spread across geographies. Team members may come from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. In such cases it is helpful to understand these uniqueness and values beforehand and make the teams aware of it to avoid potential disasters. Casual socialization meetings like during a project kick-off are excellent times to initiate such awareness.

Do you have experience working with virtual teams? What are the tools and techniques that you have found most effective? Got feedback? Please comment and share it here…

The next post on “Working with virtual teams” will focus on the critical success factors that determine the effectiveness of virtual teams.

Please subscribe to the RSS feed of Virtual Project Consulting not to miss future posts.

About the author: Sam Palani, (PMP),is a Senior IT Project / Program Manager and Technology Management consultant. He specializes in managing enterprise projects and technology initiatives. Sam blogs about his experiences in project management, technology and other things that help you be more effective on his blog www.aroundthechaos.com. You can also follow him on twitter: @samx18

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Working With Virtual Teams – Useful Tools

Working with virtual teams is a challenge that many project managers are facing today. Virtual teams are individuals or groups who dispersed geographically, but work together to accomplish a common goal or a project scope. These teams may have limited or no face to face interactions. Though the team members may be physically located in different geographies, they share a common goal and have roles and responsibilities defined like any other project teams.

virtual teams
Working with virtual teams is rapidly becoming a standard and is no longer an exception. Although the cost benefits of having virtual teams is a primary factor and business justification for working with virtual teams, knowledge availability is also a key driver. Sometimes the required knowledge and skills might not be available locally or at one place. In such cases a virtual team might be a very good option. Similarly, virtual teams are also created to address time zone related requirements i.e. where round the clock work is required. Then work is shared between teams located in different time zones.

Tools (Technology) for Virtual Teams

Let’s look at some tools that facilitate working with virtual teams. Useful tools include software, hardware and the underlying technology that supports or enables them. The tools also include the innovations in network infrastructure which is the backbone for virtual teams enabling organization to operate in a true border-less ecosystem. These tools are primarily technology driven and facilitate collaboration and communication between teams.
Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools enable virtual teams to accomplish the common goal. Virtual teams need to interact in the same manner as

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Business Analysis: Simple Tool Called ANS

ANS does stand for ANSWER!

Being a Business Analyst at heart I strongly believe in a tool called A.N.S. Let me explain.

A – APPLICABLE

I always advocate that while doing any business analysis, the information gathered, analysed and kept on record must be applicable to the topic that is being discussed or investigated. Anything outside of this is superfluous and irrelevant. The beauty of this is that it allows for the necessary focus on the topic.

N – NECESSARY

Everything that we do in business analysis should be based on this also, “Is this necessary?” If it is, then it must be included in what we are investigating, if not then LEAVE IT OUT!

S – SUFFICIENT

Once we have sufficient information, STOP! We are now in a position to build our system. This is easier said than done and will take quite a bit of practice to get used to. The main problem is our own depth of involvement in what we are doing. It requires that occasionally we step out of this focus and have an overall look at what we are doing. Normally it comes as an “AHA!” moment when we realise that we have arrived and the system is ready to be done.

This ANS tool or acronym will prevent what we all dread.

ANALYSIS PARALYSIS or documentation overload!

All too often the Corporate Environment implements a methodology and allows this to lead a self limiting situation by insisting that “This type of project MUST have the following in it:” They then go ahead and present the shopping list of what they insist on, without considering ANS. This leads to extreme bloating of the business analysis results and in many case facilitates the usual breakdown in communication between all the team members.

ANS also provides a self-cross-check. An example would be that it will not allow for anything to be left out, because if the information is not yet SUFFICIENT, then it cannot be seen as finished. It furthermore forces the information to remain in context by being Applicable.

Our lives as Business Analysts and the rest of the ‘Associated Project People’ can be made so much easier by applying this tool to our everyday work.

ANS is an ANSWER to a really difficult problem in our professional environment!

About the Author: Vernon Zwiers, founder of DenVer Project Management, is a Versatile and very successful Project / Programme Manager Professional (PMP®) and Business Analyst (IIBA) with a wealth of technical and commercial skills acquired across a wide range of demanding roles with over 20 years experience within the IT industry.

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Understanding Business Analysis

In today’s corporate environments, business analysis is key to the implementation of successful projects that deliver business value and create long lasting benefits. Therefore the role of the business analyst has evolved alongside that of the project manager, to initiate and complete increasingly complex projects in today’s business environments.

For a good understanding and appreciation of business analysis and the business analyst (BA) role, let’s look at some definitions:

“Business Analysis is the process of understanding business change needs, assessing the impact of those changes, capturing, analysing and documenting requirements and then supporting the communication and delivery of those requirements with relevant parties.”

Source: Business Analyst Solutions Ltd

There are at least four tiers of business analysis:

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Motivational Theory – What is the Relevance in 2010

What motivates people? As a project manager, it’s very important to understand what motivates your team members for high performance and satisfaction.  If you understand these intrinsic motivating factors, the best you can do is to create the environment where such a person can motivate him/herself.

What really motivates us

Most of us believe that the best way to motivate ourselves and others is with external rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, Daniel H. Pink says in, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, his persuasive new book. The secret to high performance and satisfaction is the deep human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

According to Dan Pink there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Looking at the results from scientific research on human motivation, the carrot and sticks methods worked successfully in the 20th century, but it’s the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. Extrinsic motivators may still work as a motivator for many kinds of simpler tasks with a simple set of rules and a clear destination to reach. But it certainly doesn’t work for most project tasks and for creative solutions type of work.

Research has proven that financial incentives can cause poorer performance. Rewards narrow our focus and concentrate the mind. Rewards also restrict our potential and harms creative thinking.

I’m sure you can see the problem here. But what is the solution?

Intrinsic motivation

There is a whole new approach built around intrinsic motivation. This relates to the desire to do things because they matter, because we like it, because they’re interesting and because they’re part of something important.

According to Dan Pink the three elements of true motivation are:

  1. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
  2. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters
  3. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in service of something larger than ourselves.

An example of these motivators in action is ROWE (results only work environment).

People show up when they want and they don’t need to be in the office at a certain time. They just have to get the work done. How, where and when they do it, is totally up to them.

Where ROWE is implemented, the results are interesting.  Productivity goes up, worker engagement goes up, worker satisfaction goes up and turnover goes down.

In projects it could be called DBOE (Deliverable-based only environment). This means that team members are managed based on their output.

I have been part of this type of work environments and I can testify that it works. Working in an autonomous environment allows the worker to draw on internal motivation to perform well. In this environment I also manage project team members based on their deliverables and the quality of the output.  I fulfil the role of a facilitator and a leader more than a manager. Motivated workers really manage themselves.

A good real life example of this is at Google where workers may spend 20% of their time per week, usually Fridays, to work on anything they want. They have autonomy over their time, their task, their team and their techniques. About half of Google’s new products are birthed during the 20% time, e.g. Gmail, Orkut.

If high performance and job satisfaction is what you are after for your team in 2010, it is best to create the environment where intrinsic motivating factors drive teams’ performance and creates a sense of satisfaction.

About the author: Linky Van Der Merwe is a Project Management Consultant and an IT Project Manager with 15 years IT industry experience and 12 years Project Management experience.

Video: The surprising truth about what motivates us – adapted from a talk by Dan Pink.

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Project Management – Web-based Project Management Software

With a wide array of proprietary project management software available, it can be overwhelming for small to medium businesses to decide which project management software is right for them and what they can afford.

I recently discovered this information from GetApp that can be used to supplement the project management function in your business. It provides a complete list of Web-based Project Management Software links.

With the detailed description of each type of software, it should help you choose the best tool for your business needs.

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Comparison of Project Management Software

Today I would like to make a comparison of different project management software that is out there. I must admit that being in the corporate environment for most of my career, I am an expert at using Microsoft Project as a project management software, but I have little experience with any other project management software.

I would like to encourage the reader to contribute to this article by making a comment about your favourite project management software and tell us why you prefer that software.

Wikipedia list

I have discovered this article on Wikipedia about a “comparison of notable project management software“. As an experienced project manager, I found it interesting to compare the software, that I use most often with every noteworthy software available.

The comparison is made based on collaboration, issue tracking, scheduling, project portfolio management, resource management, document management and if it’s web based.

If you are using any of the project management software on the list, please share with us your experience with that software and what you like about it in the comments section. I look forward to receiving your input.

Project Management Methodologies

I would also like to refer you to an article that I did in December 2009 about project management methodologies and standards. There you will find a short description of a number of project management methodologies which you may find interesting. You are also welcome to contribute in that comments section about project management methodologies that are not mentioned in the post or comments yet.

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Project Management Lessons From FIFA World Cup

After all the Soccer excitement from the FIFA World Cup passed and things were returning to normal again in South Africa, I came across this very interesting article by Romin Irani where he shared his views about what the FIFA World Cup 2010 teaches us about Project Management.

For those of you who are soccer supporters and who can appreciate the art of project management, will certainly enjoy his interesting perspectives and comparisons.  Here are some highlights:

  • do not depend on a star performer in your team
  • an effective technical person does not necessarily make a great (project) manager
  • there is no substitute for planning
  • to err is human
  • address the root cause of the problems and not the symptoms
  • every-one needs to perform and know their role
  • past performance is no guarantee of future performance
  • you need to have luck on your side sometimes
  • early setbacks can be a blessing in disguise
  • respect your opponent (competitors)
  • you need support from all levels
  • play to your strengths

When I started the series of project management posts relating to the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, I didn’t realise that there would be so many lessons to learn from one of the biggest sport tournaments in existence.

Click here to read the full article on What the FIFA World Cup 2010 teaches us about project management.

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I Want To Be A Project Manager When I Grow Up Part 2

Take Project Management Out-of-the-box

project manager

This post is aimed at existing project managers. There is a growing trend worldwide, where children are encouraged to take their parents in to school to talk about their jobs. I have never been asked to go in to my children’s school!

They have had a policeman in who no doubt talked about road safety and not talking to strangers, they have had a nurse in who talked about healthcare issues and how to look after yourself, and they have had a fireman in to explain about the dangers of fires and what to do if you are in such danger. These are all important and seemingly (to children) exciting jobs. But project management is neither apparently exciting nor does it have a uniform (something I note that the people who have gone in to school have in common).

How do we make some-one with authority, accountability and responsibility for managing a project to achieve specific objectives, sound exciting?

Should we perhaps design a uniform for project managers? We know we are exciting already. We can easily state that “doctors make people better”, that “policemen catch bad people”, but we can’t say: “project managers manage projects” because that doesn’t tell people anything. We all know what it means but my children don’t and my friends don’t know either.

The current situation of project managers

Project managers can be summarised as follows:

  • We are generally good at what we do
  • We are generally successful in our endeavours
  • We are getting better all the time
  • We do deliver “exciting things”
  • (We are mostly nice people I‟m sure)

So how can we get “out of that box” and be exciting to the world in general so that they can understand us and appreciate what we do?

Be proud and be happy

All in all we have a lot to be both proud and happy about. The role of a project manager is a great job, whether you intend on pursuing a project management career or whether you intend to move in to a business role within a project based business. Projects should never bore you, they are all different and each day will bring new challenges and interests. You will never stop learning those lessons and building those relationships.

Finally reach out with what you do

Consider doing some or all of the following in order to help yourself (and project management in general) out of the box:

  • Tell people you are a project manager. Don’t be shy; be brave and come clean about your job, that you should be loud and proud of.
  • Have that ’elevator’ speech ready when people ask you what you do. But don’t say “I’m a project manager, I manage projects”. I recently asked the question “How would you explain project management to an Alien from outer space” and one of my favourite answers came from Penny Pullman “Getting something new and exciting done with a group of people!”
  • Speak at non-Project Management events. People like what they hear about projects, project management and project managers.
  • Network with a broad group of people, again outside project management.
  • Start some LinkedIn discussions and get some great interaction with people from all over the world.
  • Twitter and Blog and Facebook and any and every social networking mechanism that works for you.
  • Offer your services outside of your work, you will find that many volunteer organisations are crying out for your projects skills – even if they don’t know what they are.
  • And finally why not scare your kids and go to that school or college day and talk about your exciting role of being a project manager. Make sure children know what project management is by the time that they leave school and that they had some exposure to projects being done.

“Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand” Chinese Proverb

Source: “Getting Project Management ‘Out of the Box’” by Peter Taylor, Author of ‘The Lazy Project Manager’.

About the author: Linky Van Der Merwe is a Project Management Consultant and an IT Project Manager with 15 years IT industry experience and 12 years Project Management experience. She consults with small-medium business owners and service professionals about project management processes and tools, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com