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PM NETWORK AUGUST 2011, VOLUME 25, NUMBER 8 THE ACCIDENTAL PROJECT MANAGER M P NETWORK MAKING PROJECT MANAGEMENT INDISPENSABLE FOR BUSINESS RESULTS. ® AUGUST 2011 VOLUME 25, NUMBER 8 Did You Choose This Career? > Selling the value of a PMO > How to increase your portfolio’s profit IT success rate on the rise The phenomenon of the accidental project manager
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Transcript of Pmnetwork201108 Dl
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MP NETWORKMAKING PROJECT MANAGEMENT INDISPENSABLE FOR BUSINESS RESULTS.®
AUGUST 2011 VOLUME 25, NUMBER 8
Did You Choose This Career?
> Selling the value of a PMO
> How to increase your portfolio’s profi t
IT success rate on the rise
The phenomenon of the accidental project manager
PMN0811 Cover.indd 1 7/12/11 11:14 AM
If your team looked like this, any PPM solution would work.
Daptiv, on the other hand, is a PPM solution designed for
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To learn more about the PPM solution that adapts to
your needs - and those of your team - visit daptiv.com D e s i g n e d f o r P e o p l e
PMN0811 Cover.indd 2 7/12/11 11:14 AM
T he last free-flowing river in China could soon be dammed as part of an ambitious hydropower program to boost the country’s non-fossil
fuel energy output to 15 percent by 2020.Hydropower has no carbon emissions, a
powerful counterpoint to the highly pollut-ing coal plants in the region. Yet the plans for a reservoir and four dams on the Nujiang River could mean displacing up to 60,000 human residents as well as more than 7,000 plant and animal species in the area.
There are also questions of whether the dams—to be located in a seismically active
region—could withstand an earthquake or other natural disasters like those that sparked Japan’s recent nuclear plant emergency.
“Project developers should bear in mind that these geological conditions also pose business risks to them,” said Zhang Xing-sheng, managing director of The Nature Conservancy’s North Asia division, in China Daily.
No dam projects in the region should be approved without scientific appraisal, Mr. Zhang told the newspaper—but he added that the process is “next to nonexistent in the current dam-building sprees.”
Nujiang River,
Yunnan, China
>>> OPENING SHOT“
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”We have to conduct thorough [research] on ecological and environmental fac-tors, as well as on impacts on countries in the lower reaches of the river.—Bai Enpei, Secretary of the Communist Party of China Yunnan Committee, in China Daily
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Average business improvement because of project management training initiatives.*26%
pmcollegepmcollege.com I 888.619.2819
PM College provides corporate project management training for clients around the world.
FREE REPORT
Project management training is worth the investment.*Our latest research report, The State of Project Management Training, proves it. So how are firms achieving these business results?
Instructor-led classroom training is by far the most used and most effective method of project management training. Contact us at PM College to learn more about developing a successful training program for your organization.
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The State of Project Management Training» A P M S O L U T I O N S R E S E A R C H R E P O R T
Sponsored by
Download your copy at www.pmcollege.com/trainingresearch.
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career track
the accidental project manager
Even as the profession grows, many are still thrust into it. Learning from peers is the way to go. by Kelley Hunsberger
the pmo: Something of value
The key to securing ongoing stakeholder support for a proj-ect management office? Relentlessly measure progress and broadcast its success. by Sarah Fister Gale
Staying power
A Finnish company branches out to Singapore and discovers a high-level talent pool to fast-track a biodiesel refinery megaproject. by Manuela S. Zoninsein
BooSting the Bottom line
Benefits realization and business cases all add up to increased profits. by Sandra A. Swanson
Special Section: education and training
team Spirit
Although people are unpredictable, with the right training, team members will embrace collaboration. by Cindy Waxer
pg. 44
contents
Rapid Adaptation“We knew there would be some modifications during execution but still had to be able to run it as a fast-track project. Traditional approaches to project management with well-defined periods for all steps couldn’t be followed strictly.” —Petri Jokinen, Neste Oil, Singapore
features
a cloSer look: SiemenS, munich, germany Two-year stints help an engineering conglomerate’s thousands of project management offices con-stantly prove measurable bottom-line results.
pg. 40
aug11
Average business improvement because of project management training initiatives.*26%
pmcollegepmcollege.com I 888.619.2819
PM College provides corporate project management training for clients around the world.
FREE REPORT
Project management training is worth the investment.*Our latest research report, The State of Project Management Training, proves it. So how are firms achieving these business results?
Instructor-led classroom training is by far the most used and most effective method of project management training. Contact us at PM College to learn more about developing a successful training program for your organization.
© 2
011
Pro
fess
iona
l Dev
elop
men
t Sol
utio
ns, I
nc.
The State of Project Management Training» A P M S O L U T I O N S R E S E A R C H R E P O R T
Sponsored by
Download your copy at www.pmcollege.com/trainingresearch.
12619_PMC_PM_TRAINING.indd 1 6/27/11 2:07 PM PMN0811 1-23.indd 3 7/12/11 11:58 AM
Don't get left behind! Discover what all of the buzz is about in the Agiledevelopment world. IIL offers two new courses that explore Agile approaches:
Agile Development and Project ManagementLearn the who, what, when and how of Agile IT projects and find out which practices translate into a more flexible approach to managing projects. Find out how Agile development relates to project management and get an overview of common practices across a range of Agile methodologies.
Implementing Scrum for Agile Software DevelopmentGet serious about Agile development using the fastest growing specific methodology. Learn how to plan and run a sprint, how to estimate and prioritize user stories andhow to introduce Scrum to your organization.
To register for these classes or to view our digital catalogue please visit:
www.iil.com.
International Institute for Learning, Inc. 110 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1380 USA Phone: +1-800-325-1533 or +1-212-758-0177
IIL Companies All Over the WorldBangalore · Beijing · Budapest · Dubai · Frankfurt · Helsinki · Hong Kong · London · Madrid · Mexico City · New York · Paris · São Paulo · Seoul · Singapore · Sydney · Tokyo · Toronto
Project, Program and Portfolio ManagementMicrosoft® Project and Project ServerLean Six SigmaBusiness AnalysisPRINCE2®ITIL®Leadership and Interpersonal Skills
Training, Consulting, Coaching and MentoringCustomized Course DevelopmentAssessments
INTELLIGENCE, INTEGRITY AND INNOVATION
Get Agile!Collaborate. Adapt. Iterate.
It’s Time to
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01 Opening Shot 08 Feedback 09 In Memoriam10 The Buzz26 In This Issue
10 IT Success Rates on the Rise28 Did You Choose This Career?34 Selling the Value of a PMO50 How to Increase Your Portfolio’s Profit
66 Help Desk68 Featured eBooks71 Services Directory72 Metrics
18 From the Top A New Prescription Joel Verinder, PMP, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, Texas, USA
20 Thinking Positive The Enthusiasm Factor by Alfonso Bucero, MSc, PMP, Contrib-uting Editor
21 The Agile Project Manager 3 Solutions for Your Offshore Problem by Jesse Fewell, CST, PMP
22 Career Q&A Climbing the Ladder by Lindsay Scott
24 Voices on Project Management From the Bottom Up by Phil Patrick, PMP
viewpoints
UPCOMING MAJOR PMI GLOBAL EVENTS
22-25 October PMI Global Congress
2011—North America, Dallas/Fort Worth,
Texas, USA.
Visit www.PMI.org for details.
AUGUST8-11 SeminarsWorld, Annapolis,
Maryland, USA.
www.PMI.org
15-17 PMI São Paulo Chapter International
Seminar, São Paulo, Brazil.
www.pmisp.org.br/11seminario
25-26 4th Pernambuco Project
Management Congress, Recife,
Pernamubuco, Brazil.
www.pmipe.org.br
SEPTEMBER8-10 Project Management National
Conference 2011, Bangalore, India.
www.pmi.org.in/conference2011
>> DOWNLOAD THE PM NETWORK APP and read the magazine on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
calendar of events
also in this issue
on the cover
Turning a Corner“Companies today are adopting the principles of project management much more readily than they were in the past.” —Jim H. Johnson, The Standish Group, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
aug11
Don't get left behind! Discover what all of the buzz is about in the Agiledevelopment world. IIL offers two new courses that explore Agile approaches:
Agile Development and Project ManagementLearn the who, what, when and how of Agile IT projects and find out which practices translate into a more flexible approach to managing projects. Find out how Agile development relates to project management and get an overview of common practices across a range of Agile methodologies.
Implementing Scrum for Agile Software DevelopmentGet serious about Agile development using the fastest growing specific methodology. Learn how to plan and run a sprint, how to estimate and prioritize user stories andhow to introduce Scrum to your organization.
To register for these classes or to view our digital catalogue please visit:
www.iil.com.
International Institute for Learning, Inc. 110 East 59th Street, New York, NY 10022-1380 USA Phone: +1-800-325-1533 or +1-212-758-0177
IIL Companies All Over the WorldBangalore · Beijing · Budapest · Dubai · Frankfurt · Helsinki · Hong Kong · London · Madrid · Mexico City · New York · Paris · São Paulo · Seoul · Singapore · Sydney · Tokyo · Toronto
Project, Program and Portfolio ManagementMicrosoft® Project and Project ServerLean Six SigmaBusiness AnalysisPRINCE2®ITIL®Leadership and Interpersonal Skills
Training, Consulting, Coaching and MentoringCustomized Course DevelopmentAssessments
INTELLIGENCE, INTEGRITY AND INNOVATION
Get Agile!Collaborate. Adapt. Iterate.
It’s Time to
12619_IIL_ITS_TIME_TO.indd 1 6/22/11 9:51:26 AM
pg. 10
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The mission of PM Net work is to facilitate the exchange of information among professionals in the field of project and program management, provide them with practical tools and techniques, and serve as a forum for discussion of emerging trends and issues. All articles in PM Net work are the views of the au thors and are not nec es sar i ly those of PMI.
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*Use the toll number (+31 320 239 539) from mobile phones in these countries
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Publications Mail agreeMent #40030957 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Circulation Department / P.O. Box 1051 / Fort Erie, Ontario L2A 6C7
© 2011 Project Management Institute Inc. All rights reserved.All rights reserved. “PMI,” the PMI logo, “Making project management indispen sable for business results,” “PMI Today,” “PM Network,” “Project Management Journal,” “PMBOK,” “CAPM,” “Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM),” “PMP,” the PMP logo, “PgMP,” “Program Management Professional (PgMP),” “PMI-RMP,” “PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP),” ”PMI-SP,” “PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)” and “OPM3” are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc. “Project Management Profes-sional (PMP)” is a service mark of Project Management Institute, Inc. in the United States and/or other nations.
PM Network welcomes story ideas and/or suggestions about sources. Our stories are written by pro-fessional journalists. Please contact Imagination editorial director Cyndee Miller or PMI editor in chief Dan Goldfischer with your ideas and suggestions. If you are interested in submitting articles for the PMI Knowledge Shelf, located at www.PMI.org/Knowledge-Center/Knowledge-Shelf.aspx, please contact Dan Goldfischer. More information can be found at www.PMI.org/en/Knowledge-Center/Publications-PM-Network.aspx . Published articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or the Project Management Institute. PM Network is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to unsolicited manuscripts or other material.
Digital eDitionA digital edition of this issue is available to PMI members by logging on to www.PMI.org and selecting Knowledge Center, then Back issues in the online library. The digital edition of PM Network is also accessible on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, via the PM Network app.
reaDer servicesFor placing orders or for inquiries, please contact PMI Publishing Department at [email protected]. Permissions. Requests to reprint articles published in PM Network must be made in writing to the publisher using the online form at www.PMI.org/Forms-Permissions.aspx. No part of PM Network may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ ing photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.Back Issues. Back issues may be purchased when available by contacting [email protected]. Pricing varies with number of copies, and members receive a discount.PDF Files. Articles in PDF format are available for download from the Marketplace at www.PMI.org. The most recent five years are at no cost to members; older articles are US$10 each for members and US$5 each for student members. Non-member price for all articles is US$15 each.Glossy Reprints. Requests for glossy reprints of articles in quantities of 100 or more can be sent to [email protected] Copies of Current Issue. Copies of the current PM Network can be obtained in quanti-ties of 25 or more. Orders must be placed 40 days prior to date of issue. The cost is US$5.50 per copy plus shipping.Change of Address. Members can edit their demographics, including their addresses, by logging onto www.PMI.org and accessing “My PMI.” All readers can send change of address information to [email protected] or call PMI customer service at +1 610 356 4600 option 8.
12345_PMTI.indd 1 6/7/11 11:13:33 AMPMN0811 1-23.indd 6 7/12/11 11:58 AM
T H E P R O F E S S I O N A L M A G A Z I N E O F T H E P R O J E C T M A N A G E M E N T I N S T I T U T E
Publication & MeMbershiPPM Net work (ISSN 1040-8754) is pub lished month ly by the Proj ect Man age ment In sti tute. PM Net work is printed in the USA by Quad Graphics, Sussex, Wisconsin. Pe ri od i cal post age paid at Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 and at ad di tion al mail ing of fic es. Canadian agreement #40030957. Post mas ter: Send ad dress chang es to PM Net work, 14 Campus Boulevard, New-town Square, PA 19073-3299 USA. Phone +1 610 356 4600, fax +1 610 482 9971.
The mission of PM Net work is to facilitate the exchange of information among professionals in the field of project and program management, provide them with practical tools and techniques, and serve as a forum for discussion of emerging trends and issues. All articles in PM Net work are the views of the au thors and are not nec es sar i ly those of PMI.
Sub scrip tion rate for mem bers is US$42/year and is in clud ed in the an nu al dues. PMI is a non prof it pro fes sion al or gan iza tion ded i cat ed to ad vanc ing the state of the art of proj ect man age ment. Mem ber ship in PMI is open to all at an an nu al dues of US$119. For in for ma tion on PMI pro grams and mem ber ship, or to re port change of ad dress or prob lems with your sub-scrip tion, con tact:
Proj ect Man age Ment in sti tute 14 Campus Boulevard / Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA Tel +1 610 356 4600; Fax +1 610 482 9971E-mail: [email protected]: 1 855 746 7879 (United States) / 1 855 746 7879 (Canada) / 1 800 563 0665 (Mexico)
PMI Asia Pacific Service Centre Singapore Tel: +65 6496 5501 / E-mail: [email protected]
PMI Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) Service Centre Lelystad, Netherlands Tel: +31 320 239 539 / E-mail: [email protected]
Toll-free Numbers00 800 7464 8490: Austria, Belgium*, Bulgaria*, Czech Republic*, Denmark, Estonia*, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia*, Lithuania*, Luxembourg, Malta*, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic*, Slovenia*, Spain, Sweden*, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City00 800 4414 3100: Cyprus, Greece07 810 800 7464 8490: Russia*+31 320 239 539 (toll number): Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine
*Use the toll number (+31 320 239 539) from mobile phones in these countries
PMI India Service Centre New Delhi, India Tel: +91 124 4517140 / E-mail: [email protected]
other locations Beijing, China; Washington, D.C., USA; Shenzhen, China; Mumbai, India; Bengaluru, India; Sydney, Australia; Montevideo, Uruguay; Porto Alegre, Brazil
See www.PMI.org/AboutUs/Customer-Care.aspx for contact details.
Publications Mail agreeMent #40030957 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to: Circulation Department / P.O. Box 1051 / Fort Erie, Ontario L2A 6C7
© 2011 Project Management Institute Inc. All rights reserved.All rights reserved. “PMI,” the PMI logo, “Making project management indispen sable for business results,” “PMI Today,” “PM Network,” “Project Management Journal,” “PMBOK,” “CAPM,” “Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM),” “PMP,” the PMP logo, “PgMP,” “Program Management Professional (PgMP),” “PMI-RMP,” “PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP),” ”PMI-SP,” “PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)” and “OPM3” are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc. “Project Management Profes-sional (PMP)” is a service mark of Project Management Institute, Inc. in the United States and/or other nations.
PM Network welcomes story ideas and/or suggestions about sources. Our stories are written by pro-fessional journalists. Please contact Imagination editorial director Cyndee Miller or PMI editor in chief Dan Goldfischer with your ideas and suggestions. If you are interested in submitting articles for the PMI Knowledge Shelf, located at www.PMI.org/Knowledge-Center/Knowledge-Shelf.aspx, please contact Dan Goldfischer. More information can be found at www.PMI.org/en/Knowledge-Center/Publications-PM-Network.aspx . Published articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the magazine or the Project Management Institute. PM Network is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to unsolicited manuscripts or other material.
Digital eDitionA digital edition of this issue is available to PMI members by logging on to www.PMI.org and selecting Knowledge Center, then Back issues in the online library. The digital edition of PM Network is also accessible on iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, via the PM Network app.
reaDer servicesFor placing orders or for inquiries, please contact PMI Publishing Department at [email protected]. Permissions. Requests to reprint articles published in PM Network must be made in writing to the publisher using the online form at www.PMI.org/Forms-Permissions.aspx. No part of PM Network may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, includ ing photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.Back Issues. Back issues may be purchased when available by contacting [email protected]. Pricing varies with number of copies, and members receive a discount.PDF Files. Articles in PDF format are available for download from the Marketplace at www.PMI.org. The most recent five years are at no cost to members; older articles are US$10 each for members and US$5 each for student members. Non-member price for all articles is US$15 each.Glossy Reprints. Requests for glossy reprints of articles in quantities of 100 or more can be sent to [email protected] Copies of Current Issue. Copies of the current PM Network can be obtained in quanti-ties of 25 or more. Orders must be placed 40 days prior to date of issue. The cost is US$5.50 per copy plus shipping.Change of Address. Members can edit their demographics, including their addresses, by logging onto www.PMI.org and accessing “My PMI.” All readers can send change of address information to [email protected] or call PMI customer service at +1 610 356 4600 option 8.
12345_PMTI.indd 1 6/7/11 11:13:33 AMPMN0811 1-23.indd 7 7/12/11 11:58 AM
Whic h of the following social media vehicles do you use to support your profession and/or career?
LinkedIn: 63%Facebook: 12%Twitter: 4%Other: 2% All of the above: 19%
VOICES ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT BLOG
The cover story in the April issue of PM Network (“Control-ling Chaos”) promised to tell us how to protect our projects against a flock of “black swans.” While much of the advice is useful , it has little to do with the true black swan idea.
Events or circumstances with extremely low probability and extremely high impact are in fact just risks, and they can and should be tackled through the normal risk process. There is no useful reason to give them the special name of black swans. Unfortunately, the risk process cannot address these unpredictable events.
The black swan is a valuable concept that warns us to expect the unexpected. We should be careful to use the term prop-erly and not dilute it through misuse or laziness. If we mistakenly think that risks with very low probability and very high impact are black swans, then we are likely to remain blind to the existence of truly unpredictable shocks. Instead, we should use the risk process to address known unknowns, and rely on business continuity and resilience techniques to protect us from the attack of the black swan.
—David Hillson, PMP, PMI FellowPetersfield, Hampshire, England
What’s your take? Continue this discussion in the Project Risk Management Community of Practice. >> Visit risk.vc.pmi.org for more information.
We love to hear from you! Write us an email at [email protected]. >> FOLLOW US on Facebook: www.facebook.com/PMInstitute.
Daniel Hill, PMP, asks: What is a project manager’s most important personality trait?
NK Shrivastava, PMI-RMP, PMP, responds: Listening and communicating is the most important personality trait for a project manager. Remember what the PMBOK ® Guidesays — More than 90 percent of a project manager’s time goes into communication. To be a good communicator, you need to be a good listener first.>> Join the discussion in the PMI Career Central group.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
FEEDBACKProject Managers in the C-SuiteJim De Piante, PMP, writes: For me, career growth means managing projects that are more important, more valuable, more interesting or just more fun. Often, this can mean bigger teams and bigger budgets, but for me, that doesn’t necessarily translate into bigger thrills. Career growth does not mean at all that I need to become an executive to feel fulfilled. I see project management and executive management as complementary, but very different, skills. To me, that means that the two fields will appeal to two very different kinds of people, depending on individual temperament.
Saira Karim, PMP, commented: It would be fantastic if executives had more project management training, but I do believe each role needs its own set of personalities and skills. Project managers are doers/constructors, whereas the executives are more of the painters and creators. Both need each other and are complementary roles, and there should be some proj-ect management representation in executive management.
Matt Kirchman, PMP, commented: Project managers, through ensuring that their projects are strategi-cally aligned, are more tactically oriented. I think of accomplished proj-ect managers as the non-commissioned officers in the military. They are the ones that help a unit (or team) accomplish a particular goal, and their effectiveness is based on respect for what they can do, not for their rank. I think it will continue to be rare for project managers to move to the upper echelon of management, and I’m OK with that.
PMI members can access a related research report, Project Man-agers as Senior Executives: Volumes 1 and 2, at www.PMI.org/Knowledge-Center/Research-Completed-Research.aspx
>> Join the discussion at PMI.org/Voices.
A Swan by Any Other Name
From the Voices on Project Management blog at PMI.org
PMN0811 1-23.indd 8 7/12/11 11:58 AM
august 2011 PM NETWORK 9
In MeMorIaM
In 1997, Dr. Goldratt expanded TOC in his book Critical Chain, which provides the basis for critical chain project management. Critical chain project man-agement emphasizes resources rather than scheduling
or cost. This methodology is claimed to enable 10 to 50 percent improvement in project speed. Seven of the eight largest U.S. military air depots reportedly have used its techniques to improve fleet availability while cutting costs.
One cannot overstate Dr. Goldratt’s influence on thousands of managers around the world, and it will only grow with time.
Sanjeev Gupta is CEO of Realization, a critical chain project management software and services provider in San Jose, California, USA.
Eliyahu M. Goldratt, PhD 1947 – 2011
Eliyahu M. Goldratt, PhD, author of The Goal and creator of the theory of constraints and critical chain project management, passed away at his home in Israel on 11 June. He was an iconoclast who also established new methods for managing manufactur-ing, supply chains and projects.
After obtaining a doctorate in phi-losophy from Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Goldratt left the academic world to pursue a career in business. He joined Creative Output in 1979, which became the number-six company on the Inc. 500 list in 1984. Its optimized production technology software was the precursor to manufacturing and supply chain optimiza-tion, which became a multibillion-dollar industry in the late 1990s.
Dr. Goldratt became recognized as a business thought leader with his 1984 bestseller, The Goal, which introduced the world to the theory of constraints (TOC). It is among Forbes’ list of business bestsell-ers and is required reading in almost every master of business administration program, though the book’s influence is best captured in a quote from The Economist: “A survey of the reading habits of managers found that though they buy books by the likes of Tom Peters for display purposes, the one management book they have actually read from cover to cover is The Goal.” Even though it was privately published, it has sold more than 5 million copies in 35 languages.
The underlying principle of TOC is that optimizing local efficiencies creates artificial constraints that prevent an organization from realizing its full potential. Dr. Goldratt famously proclaimed that cost accounting is the “enemy number one” of productivity. By keeping the focus on the ultimate goal, organizations can increase their speed and throughput. TOC has been adopted in a wide array of private and public organizations worldwide.
Project Managers in the C-SuiteJim De Piante, PMP, writes: For me, career growth means managing projects that are more important, more valuable, more interesting or just more fun. Often, this can mean bigger teams and bigger budgets, but for me, that doesn’t necessarily translate into bigger thrills. Career growth does not mean at all that I need to become an executive to feel fulfilled. I see project management and executive management as complementary, but very different, skills. To me, that means that the two fields will appeal to two very different kinds of people, depending on individual temperament.
Saira Karim, PMP, commented: It would be fantastic if executives had more project management training, but I do believe each role needs its own set of personalities and skills. Project managers are doers/constructors, whereas the executives are more of the painters and creators. Both need each other and are complementary roles, and there should be some proj-ect management representation in executive management.
Matt Kirchman, PMP, commented: Project managers, through ensuring that their projects are strategi-cally aligned, are more tactically oriented. I think of accomplished proj-ect managers as the non-commissioned officers in the military. They are the ones that help a unit (or team) accomplish a particular goal, and their effectiveness is based on respect for what they can do, not for their rank. I think it will continue to be rare for project managers to move to the upper echelon of management, and I’m OK with that.
PMI members can access a related research report, Project Man-agers as Senior Executives: Volumes 1 and 2, at www.PMI.org/Knowledge-Center/Research-Completed-Research.aspx
>> Join the discussion at PMI.org/Voices.
B y S a N J E E v G u P T a
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10 PM NETWORK May 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
The reporT card for IT proj-ects is in—and things are looking up as companies step up their project management maturity to better handle scope, risk and change.
after years of abysmal failure rates, the number of projects delivered on time and on budget is increasing, according to Chaos Manifesto 2011, a new report by The Standish Group.
The survey of 10,000 projects conducted in 2010 around the world revealed:n 37 percent of IT projects were suc-
cessful, coming in on time and on budget.
n 42 percent were “challenged,” arriv-ing over budget, late, or with less-than-required features and functions.
n 21 percent failed completely, can-celed prior to completion or deliv-ered but never used.
Those numbers compare favor-ably on all fronts to the 2008 survey results, which showed that only 32 percent of IT projects succeeded, while 44 percent were challenged and 24 percent failed.
The 2011 results represent the highest success rate in the history of the
12 project Managers Like This14 Mass destruction 16 Building a New africa
IN ThEsE PaGEs
Failure rates Finally Drop
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the rising success rate also stems from the types of projects being launched. The Standish research found fewer big organization-wide enterprise resource planning (ERP) system rollouts in the last two years. “We saw a lot more moderate projects, with companies revamping or upgrading existing systems,” Mr. Johnson says. “Those projects are smaller and easier to deliver.”
And those companies that did roll out new ERP system projects in 2010 fared poorly, according to the 2011 ERP Report by Panorama Consulting Group. The survey of 185 organizations from 57 countries revealed 61 percent of ERP projects in small and mid-sized companies took longer than expected—compared to 36 percent in 2009. And nearly three-quarters exceeded their budgets, up from to 51 percent in 2009. On the plus side, the data shows an increase in the number of compa-nies that realized significant business benefits from the project investments, indicating that companies prioritized results over maintaining budget or schedule.
Such life-cycle management is vital for projects to deliver bottom-line value, and is a sign of the increasing complexity that project managers face in managing risks on big IT projects.
“Most project managers still look at risk as a problem to avoid, but there are types of risks that add value,” Mr. Johnson says. “You have to look at risk and value together to increase the ROI.”
Otherwise, those IT project success rates may start to slide back. —Sarah Fister Gale
Chaos survey, which The Standish Group has been conducting biannually since 1994. After years of poor showings—in 2004 only 28 percent of projects were considered a success—the recent uptick indi-cates that the IT world may have turned a corner.
AheAd of the CurveOne of the most obvious reasons for the increase in successful projects is the economic recovery tak-ing root in many markets, says Jim H. Johnson, chairman of The Standish Group, Boston, Massa-chusetts, USA. That shift, albeit slow, means fewer projects are being shut down or failing due to finan-cial constraints.
But it’s more than that. Organizations are approaching IT projects in a new way. “Compa-nies today are adopting the principles of project management much more readily than they were in the past,” Mr. Johnson says. Tasks such as estimat-ing and risk management are more thoughtfully addressed earlier on, reducing errors and improving on-time delivery rates throughout the project life cycle. More companies are also developing project management offices (PMOs), which drive project management maturity.
IT project teams, in particular, tend to be ahead of the curve because they work in a much more dynamic environment and need to be able to deal with problems and turn things around more quickly than in other fields, says Ricardo Viana Vargas, PMP, a past chair of the PMI Board of Directors and CEO of Macrosolutions, a management con-sulting firm in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
“Because IT projects are shorter and more time-sensitive, IT project managers are adept at making faster decisions and using smarter team-work,” he says.
Certain IT project management concepts, such as Agile, may not be a good fit for sectors outside of IT. But Mr. Vargas says other industries can pick up some tips on preventing project failure by using hallmark IT approaches such as prompt decision-making and straightforward communications.
“Make precise decisions quickly and be ready to change directions if need be,” he says. “The one who moves fastest to market gets a huge advantage.”
SmAll SCope, Big pAyoffNo doubt the increasing maturity is helping, but
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37%The portion of successful IT projects in 2010, coming in on time and on budget
32%The portion that was successful in 2008
28%The portion that was successful in 2004Source: The Standish Group
>TIPBridge the divide. Despite the growing adoption of project management in IT, there remains a discon-nect between project managers and senior management. Execu-tive sponsors don’t always understand the strategic impact that effective project management can have at an organizational level and don’t always see the value of critical project management processes, says Jim Johnson, The Standish Group, Boston, Mas-sachusetts, USA. And project managers don’t always do the best job of conveying that value. “Executive sponsors need training on project management, and project managers need training on how to communicate with executives,” he says.
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FACEBOOK, TWITTER, BLOGS, WIKIS and other social media tools haven’t quite reached the exalted status of Gantt charts and work breakdown structures in the project man-agement profession.
But they’re gaining ground. More than 75 percent of project managers
said social media improves the way they manage projects, according to the 2011 Social Media in a Project Environment survey by London, England-based Elizabeth Harrin, author of Social Media for Project Managers [PMI, 2010]. No on-the-sidelines observer, Ms. Harrin is also author of the blog A Girl’s Guide to Project Management, a founding member of the PMI New Media Council and head of IT program delivery at Spire Healthcare.
The survey, which included 181 respon-dents from more than 30 countries, found that LinkedIn ranked as the most popular tool for business use among project professionals. That was followed by instant messaging, blogs, Twit-ter and wikis.
“Wikis have a very low barrier to entry in that they are very easy to set up. Wikis are also easy to use, and they are excellent for capturing les-sons learned and project information,” says Ms. Harrin. “At the end of the project, a wiki can be passed on to the operational team as a great source of organizational knowledge.”
Podcasts and video podcasts (vodcasts) were among the least-used tools, according to the sur-vey. But Ms. Harrin sees a missed opportunity for project management office professionals looking for training and education tools.
Nearly half of all respondents employed social media tools for document sharing, while 27 per-cent used them for project status updates, and a quarter said they actively used them for managing
their teams. By far, though, the most popular use of social media was to stay in touch with friends and colleagues, cited by 85 percent of the respon-dents. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they used social media to communicate with team members, and 24 percent said they used it to reach stakeholders. That conversation, however, should be one with give-and-take.
“Social media is not just a tool to blast your message, but to really understand what it is that people want to talk about, what gets them most engaged,” says Vickie Smith-Siculiano, PMP, an Internet marketing and search engine optimiza-tion specialist at Marketview Research Group, Edgewater, New Jersey, USA.
Before project managers start tapping into social networks, she recommends defining the most influential stakeholders so the right content reaches the right channels.
SOCIAL BOUNDARIESSimply declaring that social media has hit critical mass doesn’t begin to capture its true reach.
More than 500 million people actively use Facebook, logging more than 700 billion minutes per month on the website. Twitter sees an average of 140 million messages sent out per day, adding up to 1 billion tweets per week. More than 100 million people use LinkedIn to network with col-leagues past and present. And more than 80,000 companies—up from 10,000 just a year ago—use the corporate social network Chatter.
With that kind of adoption, it’s hard for any organization to resist social media’s pull. Yet extolling the wonders of social media and actu-ally implementing these tools to benefit a project team are two entirely different things.
Many organizations jump into the fray with no clear strategy, which can be detrimental in
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How Project Managers Use Social Media
85% 48% 36% 27% 25% 24%
stay in touch with friends and colleagues
document sharing
project status updates
communicate with team members communicate with stakeholders
managing teams
SOURCE: Social Media in a Project Environment
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Mr. Wyatt suggested establishing clear policies tailored to each network. For example, project managers and their teams need to know when it is—and isn’t—appropriate to share pho-tos of a project on Flickr or discuss its progress on Twitter.
The New SocialiTeSOne of the most common concerns with adopt-ing social media comes from senior managers and project team members fretting it will mean more work. “The best way to tackle this is to do what you can to manage stakeholder expectations,” Ms. Harrin says. “Try to find out what people believe about social media and address any myths.”
From there, she suggests starting small. “Intro-duce new functionality slowly and take the time to train people properly,” Ms. Harrin says. “Con-sider how, if at all, you are going to track the benefit of your social media implementation.”
Having a social media champion on the team can help, too. This person can show the way by demonstrating the tools to their full capac-ity and coaching other team members on the do’s and don’ts of social behavior. “I would like to hope that usage will be self-regulating, with team members managing their own interactions,” she says. “However, if that doesn’t work, an alternative is for the champion to step in to ensure that guide-lines and policies are adhered to.”
Security also needs to be addressed from the start. Organizations must treat social media as they would any other business tool—with the proper access controls and protocols in place. It helps to have a frank discussion with the IT department about what your team is trying to achieve by using social media, Ms. Harrin says.
People of all ages rely on social media, of course. Yet as younger people weaned on Facebook and Twitter make their mark in the workplace, many of the barriers slowing down social media’s full integration will be broken down. It will be “a gradual shift,” however, Ms. Harrin predicts. “And until we have confidence and policies supporting the use of these tools from the IT departments, we won’t see wide-scale adoption.” —Kelley Hunsberger
the long run. “Just because the whole team is on Facebook and Foursquare doesn’t mean that they will know how to get the best out of these tools in the workplace,” says Ms. Harrin. “What is appropriate for personal use is not necessar-ily appropriate for work. We need to get this bit right to see the growth in the use of social media tools on projects.”
That means setting standards—which most companies have failed to do thus far. Almost 39 percent of 1,038 U.K. employees said their orga-nization had no social media policy, according to the 2011 Social Media Survey, a new report com-missioned by consulting group Protiviti. Twenty-four percent said they were simply unaware of whether there was a policy or not.
“It’s extremely worrying that only a quarter of workers have been provided with any real guidance regarding the use of social media sites,” Jonathan Wyatt, Protiviti managing director, said in a press release.
“Many senior managers assume that their less-experienced colleagues would not post inap-propriate comments online and that they would think about the risks involved, but time and time again they are proven wrong,” he added. “We’re seeing a growing number of cases where firms have vague or out-of-date social media policies that are unenforceable if inappropriate activity takes place.”
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Most popular social networking tools
Least popular
instant Messaging
wikis
Podcasts
Video Podcasts
Twitter sees an average of 140 million messages sent out per day, adding up to 1 billion tweets per week.
Source: Social Media in a Project Environment
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14 PM NETWORK august 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
The race to build chemical weapons once drove countries apart. But projects to destroy the leftover stockpiles are now bringing gov-ernments together as they share knowledge across the global community.
Political leaders around the world agreed to ban chemical weapons from the battle-field in 1997. Under the chemical Weapons convention (cWc), no new chemical weap-ons would be created, and all existing stores would be destroyed by 2012. angola, North Korea, egypt, Somalia and Syria were the only holdouts.
In the 14 years since, teams worked to develop project plans, facilities, tools and tech-nologies to safely eliminate the deadly agents.
They’ve made impressive progress: as of May, more than 65 percent of the 71,000 tonnes of declared existing chemical weapons had been destroyed, according to the Organisa-tion for the Prohibition of chemical Weapons (OPcW), the independent organization that oversees the convention. albania, South Korea and India have already completed destruction of their chemical weapons. The russian Federa-tion has destroyed more than half of its stock-pile (20,000 tonnes), and the United States has destroyed more than 84 percent of its supply (23,406 tonnes).
But there’s still a long way to go.
Missed deadlinesNeither russia nor the United States—which together possessed 90 percent of the world’s
stockpile of chemical weap-ons at one time—will meet the 2012 deadline.
For russia, money has been the biggest obstacle. “The implementation of the [chemical weapons destruc-tion] program has been hampered by the global financial crisis, which threw it back two to three years,” Konstantin Kosachev, chair-
man of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, told russian news agency rIa Novosti in June. The country now predicts a 2015 close.
In the United States, progress has slowed in part due to the strict regulatory environment. although the country is currently constructing two facilities to destroy its remaining supply, those projects aren’t anticipated to be com-plete, with the plants decommissioned, until possibly 2021.
Neither country is being punished for miss-ing the deadline because of the sheer complex-ity involved in delivering the projects. “The reason why the United States and russia couldn’t ... make it by april 2012 is not bad will,” Sergey Batsanov, director of the Geneva office for the Pugwash conferences on Science and World affairs, told Global Security News-wire in april. “Simply, the process turned out to be much more complicated, much more resource-intensive.”
That teams are dealing with highly sensi-tive materials has to be foremost in every deci-sion, says Douglas Omichinski, engineering giant Bechtel’s project manager for the design, construction, systemization, operation and closure of the Pueblo, colorado, USa-based Pueblo chemical agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PcaPP). With construction of the plant more than 77 percent complete as of July, destruction of chemical weapons stored at the U.S. army Pueblo chemical Depot is slated to begin in early 2015.
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the pueblo Chemical agent-destruction pilot plant, pueblo, Colorado, usa
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weapons destruction programs. “The United States began with a much larger stockpile than most other countries, but we’ve been successful in attaining nearly all international treaty milestone dates,” Mr. Levi says.
“We have benefited from a work force with a great deal of chemical weapon demilitarization experience, historical knowledge and practical les-sons learned on our team,” says Mr. Levi.
Along with delivering their own projects, Bechtel and the U.S. government have worked closely with project teams in other nations, pro-viding technologies, processes and funding.
The U.S. government, for example, is participat-ing in a technology transfer with Russian teams over-seeing projects to destroy chemical weapons facilities, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Even after all the weapons are wiped out,
many team members will be able to tap into their experience and move into other complex projects at nuclear facility construction and utility com-panies, says Mr. Omichinski. “When you work in such a highly regulated procedure-driven envi-ronment, there are a lot of places you can go.” —Sarah Fister Gale
It’s one of the last two remaining U.S. proj-ects, but the team knows it can’t be rushed.
“With projects like these, safety, quality and environmental compliance come well ahead of budget and schedule,” Mr. Omichinski says.
As part of the CWC guidelines, OPCW has treaty personnel at the Pueblo plant monitoring compliance. Tracking by various international, federal, state and county regulators, coupled with the strict regulations associated with the construction and operations of a hazardous waste-treatment facility, means every aspect of the project is carefully scrutinized. “From a project management perspective, it adds a lot of time to the overall process as compared to commercial construction,” Mr. Omichinski says.
Adding to the challenge is the vast array of stakeholders involved in these projects, says Wal-ton Levi, the U.S. government’s acting site project manager. Gov-ernment officials, local community members, environmental activists, and the international community are all closely watching project progress, requiring transparency and regular feedback. “The best lesson we’ve learned is the importance of communication,” Mr. Levi says.
To keep the public informed, the Pueblo team sends its mes-sage through a variety of channels. Along with hosting monthly project update meetings with community stakeholders, it produces videos explaining how the technology works and shares that information via YouTube, social networking sites, newsletters and other media outlets. “We want to be sure they understand why we choose the equipment or processes we do and to show them that we have the documentation to support our decisions,” Mr. Omichinski says.
Crossing BordersEven with all the scrutiny, the experience gained at Pueblo and other sites has helped the United States safely ramp up its position in international
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at the pueblo plant, one of three distillate carbon filters is being staged on site to await permanent placement.
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AfricA’s woefully inAdequAte infrastructure con-tinues to hinder the continent’s great eco-nomic promise. And it’s clear the sub-saharan nations can’t do it on their own—paving the way for new alliances with the private sector.
looking to improve the dire traffic jams in its commerce capital of lagos, nigeria joined forces with local African development Bank. the resulting $400 million project to rehabilitate and widen the city’s expressway marks the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP).
And in south Africa, which has implemented many successful PPPs over the past decade, the Gauteng provincial government teamed up with Bombela, a canadian-french consortium, for an 80-kilometer (50-mile) rapid-rail link to connect Johannesburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg’s or tambo international Airport. the nearly $4 billion project, which began construction in 2006, was slated to debut in July.
the simple truth is that without adequate roads, telecommunications lines and other pri-mary infrastructure, the sub-saharan region can’t build its industrial base and lure future investors.
yet most African nations lack the financial resources and expertise to close this yawning gap. even after spending nearly 12 percent of its collective GdP on infrastructure, the conti-nent requires nearly $93.3 billion more to meet current needs, sanusi lamido sanusi, governor of the central Bank of nigeria, reported at the west Africa Global trade and investment forum in June.
enter the private sector—always on the prowl to stake a claim in new markets.
Bringing in ExpErtisE—and MonEyPPPs create new avenues for financing while providing governments with much-needed project management knowledge. the influx of private-sector money and expertise drives more cost-efficient projects, reduces risks and fosters best practices while developing the skill sets of the local population.
that added project management capability is particularly valuable on large cross-border projects that face increased structural and reg-ulatory complexities, says Adama deen, head of infrastructure programs and projects at the Johannesburg, south Africa-based new Part-nership for Africa’s development’s Planning and coordinating Agency.
“PPPs give these countries the capacity they need to manage and implement cross-border infrastructure projects,” he says. “it is the way forward for Africa.”
the Kenyan government, for example, is looking to finance as much as 80 percent of its infrastructure projects through PPPs by 2030.
nigeria estimates it will need between $12 bil-lion to $15 billion annually for the next six years to meet its infrastructure demands. to reach those numbers, the urban development Bank of nigeria plc (udBn) and the development
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gautrain rapid rail Link, south africa
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more complex struc-tures, often impact-ing negatively on implementation,” according to a report from the online busi-ness publication How We Made It in Africa. “A fair amount of education and communication in both the public and private sector must be encouraged.”
For the PPP project model to flourish in the long term, govern-ments need their own project man-agement experts to help guide the process. That will ensure they under-stand their responsibilities and risks as they move forward on projects that can take years or even decades to bring to financial close.
Project plans also need to account for infra-structure operation once construction is complete, said George Mahlalela, director-general of the Department of Transport for South Africa, in a June interview with Mon-eyweb.
“Our interest is not only just getting foreign investors to come into South Africa. We see the creation of jobs in local industries as important,” he said. “Part of what we’re going to be talk-ing about is how do they transfer skills and transfer technology into South Africa so that for future development … we have that kind of capacity here.” —Sarah Fister Gale
Bank of Southern Africa signed an agreement in March with “the express goal of improv-ing the capacities of both public and private sectors to deliver infrastructure,” said UDBN managing director Adekunle AbdulRazaq Oyinloye in a press release. They will share ideas and technical expertise for infrastructure development, including guidance for project structuring, financing options, funds mobili-zation, bid management, and evaluation and negotiations.
OvercOming rOadblOcksAlthough PPPs bring the promise of much-needed development and investment in Africa, they also add complexities—and complica-tions.
To begin with, Africa’s public sector leaders must define the optimal amount of private-sector participation in any project, André Pot-tas, infrastructure advisory leader for Africa at Deloitte, wrote in an article for Independent Online, a South African news outlet. One of the biggest challenges facing project leaders is deciding which partner takes on the respon-sibilities and associated risks of each project phase, including design, finance, construction, operation and maintenance.
“The shape of that risk allocation deter-mines the structure of the partnership and the costs,” he wrote. “Agreeing [on] this risk-sharing allocation has often been a stumbling block.”
Governments also struggle to bring funda-mental project planning and execution capabil-ities to a point at which the private sector has the confidence to invest, says Mr. Deen.
“Many projects are not ready for PPPs because they have not achieved bankability,” he says. “The risks are elevated for the private sector when a country can’t provide security guarantees.”
Assuming teams can get a project off the ground, a lack of local project management and technical expertise can still hinder their progress—or force private companies to bring in talent to take on leadership roles.
“The result is often a vehicle which is top-heavy with international advisers and perhaps
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>> after spending nearly 12 percent of its collective gdP on infrastructure, africa
requires nearly $93.3 billion more to meet current needs
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refinement of a strategic IT council. The council includes an executive representative from each hos-pital, along with several physicians, and a few other IT representatives to provide technical direction and answer questions.
Now, the council considers every project pro-posal and ranks it against the current portfolio and existing resource constraints. The PMO also pres-ents monthly data to the council about resource availability. Before a project is approved, business owners must bring their case to the council and be able to define the anticipated ROI, whether it’s financial, regulatory or patient safety. Every busi-ness case is expected to have metrics to define suc-cess. And six to nine months after implementation, business owners must report back on the results to the council.
What kinds of results have you seen?Today, we support 85 projects, and overall IT morale has improved. But it took some time. In the first couple of council sessions, it was a struggle to prioritize projects. Eventually, with all the talk about healthcare reform and new reimbursement models, people started to understand the resource constraints we face.
We’re taking a more holistic systems approach, with the goal of meeting the needs of all the hospi-tals in the network. And because business owners are now presenting project results to the council, it gave visibility to some of the small projects that have delivered tremendous ROI.
What lessons have you learned that might benefit other PMO leaders? The most important aspect of project management revolves around change management and how you communicate that change to your stakeholders and project teams. If you can’t translate your vision to the organization, that’s a risk. And if the business owners don’t see value in what you are doing, you won’t exist for long.
SOME PROjEcTS just shouldn’t make the cut, espe-cially in an industry facing severe financial restraints. But at Texas Health Resources, every project requested of the IT department was approved—until joel Verinder, PMP, stepped in as portfolio management office director.
Leveraging experience gained across sectors rang-ing from airlines to telecom, he has transformed the existing portfolio management office (PMO) into a business-driven one aimed squarely at helping ensure each of the not-for-profit’s 14 hospitals ben-efits from the organization’s limited IT resources.
How has the organization’s approach to portfolio management changed?The PMO’s initial charter focused on people, process and tools, but the executive leadership wanted increased adoption and business value. When I came in, I swung it around to focus on business needs first, and figure out how project management processes and templates can help solve problems. We got some quick wins early on, which helped us gain momentum. Eventually we evolved to focus on resource planning and prioritization.
Why did the PMO focus on resource planning?Texas Health supports 14 hospitals with a central-ized PMO and a single IT group with 575 people. There’s always a big need for our services, and we were often overwhelmed with requests. The IT team members had developed a “just get it done” mentality, and they didn’t feel like they had a voice. It caused us to start asking questions about whether we were working on the right projects and whether we could do a better job.
We worked with the IT governance team to create a prioritization model, which included the
A New Prescription
Joel Verinder, PMP, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, Texas, USA
>> As the PMO, we provide
transparent data to the executive
decision mak-ers. This infor-
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is aligned with the strategic
direction of the organization,
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refinement of a strategic IT council. The council includes an executive representative from each hos-pital, along with several physicians, and a few other IT representatives to provide technical direction and answer questions.
Now, the council considers every project pro-posal and ranks it against the current portfolio and existing resource constraints. The PMO also pres-ents monthly data to the council about resource availability. Before a project is approved, business owners must bring their case to the council and be able to define the anticipated ROI, whether it’s financial, regulatory or patient safety. Every busi-ness case is expected to have metrics to define suc-cess. And six to nine months after implementation, business owners must report back on the results to the council.
What kinds of results have you seen?Today, we support 85 projects, and overall IT morale has improved. But it took some time. In the first couple of council sessions, it was a struggle to prioritize projects. Eventually, with all the talk about healthcare reform and new reimbursement models, people started to understand the resource constraints we face.
We’re taking a more holistic systems approach, with the goal of meeting the needs of all the hospi-tals in the network. And because business owners are now presenting project results to the council, it gave visibility to some of the small projects that have delivered tremendous ROI.
What lessons have you learned that might benefit other PMO leaders? The most important aspect of project management revolves around change management and how you communicate that change to your stakeholders and project teams. If you can’t translate your vision to the organization, that’s a risk. And if the business owners don’t see value in what you are doing, you won’t exist for long.
Joel Verinder, PMP, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, Texas, USA
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20 PM NETWORK august 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
vators. I’m always looking for new projects and initia-tives that help me feel alive and happy. Develop your enthusiasm and apply your passion to managing the people involved in your projects.
Start the day focused on your blessings, and you will react to your issues with a more positive approach—and your enthusiasm will never die. PM
Alfonso Bucero, MSc, PMP, is an inde-pendent consultant who manages projects throughout Europe and Asia. He is the author of Today Is a Good Day!: Atti-tudes for Achieving Project Success.
When I looked for ways to motivate myself early in my career, I saw every project not only as a learning opportunity but also an opportunity to make people happier. And
the key to doing that was fostering enthusiasm. As a project manager, there’s a way to develop
enthusiasm so meaningful and profound that it will not decline no matter what strain it is put under: 1. Decide what particular personal characteristic you
want to strengthen. 2. Develop it by acting as if you already possess the
desired characteristic. 3. Believe and repeatedly affirm that you’re in the
process of creating the quality you’re working to develop. If you want to be a more enthusiastic, for example,
you must act with enthusiasm! Another practice to foster an optimistic attitude is
that of “mental ventilation.” Clear your mind of the gloomy, foreboding thoughts that prevent the cheerful and spirited thinking that stimulates enthusiasm.
Getting up on the Right Side of the BedA vital element in developing enthusiasm as a project manager is the manner in which you start the day. Approaching each morning with enthusiasm can set the tone for the entire day—despite any disappointing news you may face.
I always read some positive sentences after having my breakfast. Regardless of how busy my day is going to be, for those few minutes, I don’t permit any hurry or haste, even in thought.
As you progress in your career, many things conspire to dull your enthusiasm: disappointments, project fail-ures, frustrated hopes, unmet ambitions and the inevi-table energy drain. But such deterioration of your life force happens only if you allow it. If you make a real effort, you can remain an enthusiastic project manager.
To maintain enthusiasm, you must find your moti-
The enThusiasm FacTorYou can go from apathy to eagerness with the right motivation. b y A l f O N s O b u c E R O , M s c , P M P , c O N T R I b u T I N G E d I T O RT
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reveal problems and opportunities earlier in the game. If it reveals a slew of defects, the sponsor can reprioritize debugging over adding new features. If an incremental deliverable is built to off-target specs, the sponsor still has the opportunity to swap some of the pending features for the needed refinements.
3. Waste some money.The most successful teams build an additional 1 to 2 per-cent into their budgets for micro investments that yield high strategic value. One example would be sponsoring some advanced technical training for team leads at the offshore site. Even if you have to use your own budget, investing in better engineering practices can dramatically reduce the quality risk on your deliverables. Many execu-tives may yell at you for spending “unnecessary funds”—but US$10,000 out of a US$1 million budget is a small price to pay for project success.
Projects are hard enough as it is without adding the extra pain of coordinating teams across cultures, countries and continents. But as global projects become more the rule than the exception, the modern project manager needs to be vigilant in improving communication, quality and satisfaction. Agile can help achieve that. PM
Jesse Fewell, CST, PMP, is the managing director for offshore Agile projects at Ripple-Rock India and founder of the PMI Agile Community of Practice. He can be reached at [email protected].
the honeymoon is over. Looking to deliver more while spending less, just about every large com-pany has engaged in distributed offshore proj-ects over the last several years. But organizations
are discovering that outsourcing carries more pain than was promised. More project managers are suffering from quality issues, language gaps and woefully unmet expecta-tions. So what can we do? Here are some ways that Agile can help you overcome some of the side effects of running offshore projects:
1. Stop emailing and start collaborating.Agile project management places a strong emphasis on collaborative colocated communication. Using written English can sometimes mitigate language issues, but email takes too long, and large documents can be stale the moment they’re sent. Instead, we need to augment project communications with modern online collaboration tools such as Google Docs, instant messaging, discussion boards and Skype. Some teams have always-on webcams so each side can see what’s happening on the other.
You can’t have successful projects without some kind of interaction. If time zones make that inconvenient, share the pain, with each worksite taking a turn after-hours. In short, work hard to communicate in real time. You’ll develop stronger collaboration, which will yield greater understanding and more innovative results.
2. Get bad news early.A mentor once told me, “Never surprise your boss.” Simi-larly, a good project manager wants bad news as early as pos-sible. One of the greatest pain points for distributed projects is unmet expectations. Sponsors can spend significant time and money generating rigorous requirements, wait a year to see any output and then receive a single large deliverable that simply misses the mark. If iterative-incremental deliv-ery is a good risk-management practice for local projects, then it’s absolutely vital for distributed projects.
A monthly demo using a virtual meeting platform can
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n Find people in the business willing to mentor you in their area of expertise.
A show of commitment to self-development may also create wider opportunities for you as you come into con-tact with members of the business team. Your visibility will almost certainly be raised, and that may put you in a better position to practice your enhanced knowledge.
I recently signed up on LinkedIn to reconnect with people, but how else can it help me in my career development?
With Facebook seen as a personal channel, LinkedIn is widely rec-ognized as the leading profes-sional social networking tool. Used proactively, three areas are particularly valuable:
1. Networking: Keep in touch with those with whom you already have a working relationship—current and past team members, peers, managers and vendors. These are the people who may someday be able to provide you with new career opportunities.
Be sure to also use LinkedIn to follow up with the project man-agers you encounter at meetings, conferences and seminars—espe-cially if you’re looking for a win-dow into project management careers in sectors and industries other than your own.
It’s worth noting that 80 percent of career opportunities don’t come through career or corporate sites, but rather from personal recommendations and referrals. Make those connec-tions work for you by staying visible and proactive.
I’ve been a Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification holder for a number of years. However, I want to ensure my career-development plans include additional business skills useful in a senior role. What should I be focusing on?
Your current experience, skills and certification in proj-ect management have provided a solid foundation for your career so far. To take it to the next level, you need to consider the wider business environment in which you operate.
Business management, com-mercial awareness, financial management, organizational strategy and business change are just some of the business areas that directly relate to project managers. Widening the focus to include organizational and human resources management, marketing, operations, and leadership will give you a well-rounded skill set. That, in turn, boosts your chances for moving up the career ladder.
All this may sound like the blueprint for a master’s degree in business administration, but your development doesn’t have to take such a formal (and expensive) route. The key to building additional business skills is choosing the learning that best suits you and your industry. Here are some ways to get started:n Engage your manager and
explain your objectives.n Identify target areas in which
you’re looking to increase your knowledge.
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can opt in or out of email alerts, allowing you to choose your level of involvement in each group.
3. Job searches. LinkedIn has emerged as the recruit-ment tool of choice for many companies looking to draw quality project professionals. That means even if you’re not seeking a job, you could receive new career opportunities at any time based on your profile. If you are actively looking for work, update your LinkedIn profile both in the ”status” and “add a current position” fields. These are the main areas that organizations use to search for new talent.
The LinkedIn setup also means you’ll see organiza-tions that are recruiting. These targeted ads show up on your page, and you only see opportunities that match your profile. PM
Lindsay Scott is the director of program and project management recruitment at Arras People in London, England. Please send your career questions to [email protected].
2. Groups: There are more than 3,000 project man-agement-related groups on LinkedIn, covering a variety of specializations, regions and industries. The groups are an opportunity not only to connect to others in your field but also to share knowledge.
Discussion boards and links to resources such as webinars and conferences are excellent ways to seek spe-cific advice from the enormous pool of knowledgeable people within your chosen groups.
You can be a member of up to 50 groups at any one time. That could lead to information overload, but you
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Want more career advice? Head to Career Central at PMI.org or check out the PMI Career Central group on LinkedIn.
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schedule was our initial focus. Naturally, the team’s enthusiasm grew as we began to see how our work would improve the organization. The initial scope was cost savings for one specific region, but senior managers agreed to expand the scope to the entire enterprise and requested an action plan.
3. Present a compelling action plan.When the time came to put the enterprise-wide action plan in front of management, the goal was to cover all bases. I didn’t expect many follow-up opportunities to impress. The action plan targeted senior management in all relevant depart-ments and included material for finance management and customers. Senior managers had to have a firm enough grasp of the activities and benefits to be able to convey the value proposition to others. As a practical matter, they also needed to understand how the benefits (e.g., cost savings, increased productivity, improved quality, etc.) would be measured and statuses tracked.
I used my understanding of governance processes and interdepartmental relationships to develop a resource model encompassing project team members throughout the organi-zation. The IT structure was dynamic, so I continued to share the resource plan with team members to ensure accuracy.
The action plan was developed with three principal goals:1. Provide sufficient background to understand what was
required to complete the key milestones and demon-strate command of the technical tasks
2. Explain the total quantitative and qualitative benefits3. Specify the resources required We developed an easy-to-follow, leave-behind document
after each meeting with management to facilitate their com-munication with others.
4. Obtain organizational buy-in.There’s an old saying that goes, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” But while leading change as an individual contributor in a large organization, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. For example, I relied heavily on the vice president of network services to lead a coalition of senior managers over vital engineering resources. I struggled with how and when to follow up with executives to whom I rarely had exposure.
It all began with a chance elevator pitch.At the not-for-profit healthcare consortium Kaiser
Permanente, projects are evaluated at monthly meetings to address the need for additional resources, funding and
the like. After a presentation in 2009, I ended up alongside the senior vice president of the infrastructure management group. I seized the opportunity to tell him about an idea that could save substantial infrastructure operating costs. At the organization, innovation and creative solutions have become part of the culture, but its sheer size can make escalation and implementation challenging.
That brief exchange blossomed into an action plan for a multi-year, multimillion-dollar cost-savings initiative that is helping achieve one of the organization’s key strategies.
1. Align with the executive vision.As in many industries, executives in healthcare are tasked with doing more with less. Improving cost structure was a recur-ring theme in our CIO’s message at town hall meetings. I saw value in reducing operating expense tied to that vision—and therefore determined my idea would likely be welcomed by the senior leaders governing project funding.
I began discussions with project team members about details. There would be a high level of complexity and risk in dismantling a large, restrictive-legacy, private wide-area net-work. It had been patched with hundreds of expansions span-ning more than a decade and equipment made by a bankrupt supplier. After preliminary analysis, we began to see scenarios in which the network cost savings would indeed be substantial and new patient care technologies could roll out much sooner.
With that preliminary analysis and an informal vote of confidence from the senior vice president, we intensified the effort.
2. Assemble a skilled exploratory team.Leaders at the bottom of the org chart can be highly influ-ential. You make the first move, and others gradually join in. My team pulled a few people together for weekly strategy meetings. I began by reminding everyone that our mission was tied to the CIO’s vision of reducing operating expense. Quan-tifying cost savings, scope of work, resource requirements and
From the Bo ttom UpHow a team of individual contributors came up with a strategy that saved millions and delighted executive management.b y P h I l P a T R I c K , P M P
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members, business partners and customers.
I also chaired weekly analysis meetings with technical resources to discuss schedule issues and review network analysis proposals to maximize savings.
In the first year, our custom-ers began expressing approval as they began to see cost benefits. Monthly commitments were consistently met or exceeded. The annual savings commitment was exceeded two-and-a-half months early by 155 percent, translating into additional savings of several millions of dollars—confirmed by the PMO.
Competitive ForcesWithout leaders at every level, organizational transfor-mation becomes impossible. Rapidly changing market conditions and fierce competition pose unprecedented challenges to an organization’s market standing—and perhaps survival. Action plans and strategies from organization-savvy workers paying attention to executive vision enable energies to be channeled into projects with the most benefit.
Sometimes the great ideas come from a project manager at the bottom. Such opportunities are rare—so when a promis-ing idea comes your way, be ready to start the party. PM
Review meetings with senior managers in other departments sailed along smoothly, though.
Buy-in from the finance department was a whole differ-ent matter. Like most successful companies, my organization requires solid financial justification before bringing on addi-tional resources.
Because of the scale, developing the spreadsheets with finance to validate the short- and long-term financial benefits took an enormous amount of time. The scope of this program impacted more than 1,000 locations in eight regions of the country, and the resources to support the work were spread throughout 10 departments.
5. Build high-performance project teams.Once the business case was finally approved, it was as if a party that started in my garage had morphed into a full-blown ballroom gala. The project management office (PMO) was brought on board to track the financial benefits. Eventually, we welcomed its tracking and reporting because it was an independent validation of millions of dollars in savings.
The first challenge in the execution phase was how to structure more than 20 project managers into manageable teams so that hundreds of planning and analysis meetings with specialized technical resources were conducted in an organized fashion. Looking at the entire organization, we created focus groups, and established regular status and planning meetings with project managers in different regions to discuss schedule, budget and change requests for more funding when necessary.
Furthermore, if project managers were going to replicate this effort and build support, they needed to be trained to present the project objectives and key milestones to their team
Raise Your Voice No one knows project management better than you, the prac-titioners “in the trenches.” So PM Network launched its Voices on Project Management column. Every month, project managers will share ideas, experiences and opinions on everything from sustainability to talent management, and all points in between. If you’re interested in contributing, please send your idea to [email protected].
Phil Patrick, PMP, leads a network strat-egy team at Kaiser Permanente informa-tion Technology in Pleasanton, califor-nia, uSA. He can be reached through his blog at leadfromthe-bottom.blogspot.com.
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<In This Is sue>the accidental project manager pg. 28
>> the phenomenon of the “accidental project manager” doesn’t seem to be going
anywhere anytime soon.
>> those thrust into project management roles must quickly develop the neces-
sary skills, including how to effectively identify and communicate with spon-
sors and stakeholders.
the pmo: something of value pg. 34
>> Quantifiable metrics can help persuade skeptical executives to support the
project management office (pmo) model.
>> communicating results in simple reports will demonstrate a pmo’s value to the
organization and the bottom line.
staying power pg. 44
>> governmental partnerships and incentives persuaded an energy company to launch
a biodiesel refinery project in singapore.
>> a well-established talent pool allowed the project team to fast-track the initiative,
while meeting the desired certification standards.
Boosting the Bottom line pg. 50
>> By building a compelling business case based on metrics, portfolio decision-makers
can convince finance managers that the potential for profit outweighs the risks.
>> from the first planning session to the harvesting of end results (sometimes years
after project close), benefits realization reveals just how profitable an endeavor was.
team spirit pg. 56
>> without team collaboration, projects won’t run smoothly.
>> training in effective listening, expected behaviors, conflict resolution and coopera-
tion can get teams working well together.
key takeaways
““Without delivering tangible demonstrable return on investment, you aren’t doing what you need to do to achieve success.“—Steve Clark, Siemens, Norcross, Georgia, USA
More than 50The percentage of Siemens’ annual revenues that come from managing and delivering customer-facing projects
40
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<In This Is sue>>>Project professionals need to work to create an environment where accidental project managers can recognize the change in their role and openly seek assistance.—James Bosak, PMP, CA Technologies, Cary, North Carolina, USA
PG. 28
augusT 2011
“
”
I have seen very positive relationships with the finance department when the project manager or PMO establishes, manages and tracks the project and the business decision throughout the project life cycle.—Caroline Leies, Morgan Franklin, Washington, D.C., USA
PG. 50
“Without delivering tangible demonstrable return on investment, you aren’t doing what you need to do to achieve success.“—Steve Clark, Siemens, Norcross, Georgia, USA
august 2011 PM NETWORK 27
James Bosak, PMP, CA Technologies ............ 30
Steve Clark, Siemens .........................................40
Michael Cooch, PwC ........................................... 36
Neil Denny, The Wilsher Group.. ...................... 58
Clive Enoch, PhD, PMP, Standard Bank ........ 52
Patricia Ensworth, Harborlight Management Services................................................................. 30
Shoshana Faire, Professional Facilitators International.. ........................................................ 59
Gary Furlong, Agree Dispute Resolution.. ..... 58
Joe Gartrell, PMP, USAA .................................. 33
Martina Huemann, WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), Vienna University of Economics and Business .................................................................31
Petri Jokinen, Neste Oil .....................................45
Edwin Kapinus, PMP, DM Petroleum Operations Company .......................................... 36
Denise Keller, Benchmark Email ..................... 54
Caroline Leies, MorganFranklin ........................ 53
Tammy Lenski, Ed.D., Tammy Lenski LLC ..... 59
Craig J. Letavec, PMP, PgMP, Siemens IT Solutions and Services ......................................40
Matti Lievonen, Neste Oil ...................................46
Kevin McDevitt, Siemens ...................................40
Eric Morfin, PMP, Pfizer .................................... 37
Diego Nei, CEACRE (Centro Evangélico de Apoio e Acolhimento) ......................................... 32
Yvan Petit, PMP, Université du Québec à Montréal ..................................................................51
Matt Rawson, Practicus ..................................... 53
Steven Romero, PMP, CA Technologies..........51
Raed Skaf, PMP, Deloitte ................................... 36
Jen L. Skrabak, PMP, WellPoint........................51
Terry Tanner, City and County of Denver ...... 38
Joel Verinder, PMP, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, Texas, USA .........................................18
Todd Williams, eCameron Inc.............................53
PEOPlE PagE PEOPlE PagE
ORgaNizaTiONs PagEAgree Dispute Resolution, Dundas, Ontario, Canada ........................................................................ 58
Benchmark Email, Los Alamitos, California, USA .............................................................................. 54
CA Technologies, San Francisco, California, USA .............................................................................. 30
CEACRE (Centro Evangélico de Apoio e Acolhimento), Salvador, Brazil ............................. 32
City and County of Denver, Colorado, USA .......37
Deloitte, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia .............................. 36
DM Petroleum Operations Company, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA ........................................ 36
eCameron Inc., Camas, Washington, USA...53
Harborlight Management Services, New York, New York, USA...31
MorganFranklin, Washington, D.C., USA ........... 53
Neste Oil, Espoo, Finland ....................................... 45
Pfizer, La Jolla, California, USA ............................37
Practicus, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England ....................................................................... 53
Professional Facilitators International, Sydney, Australia .......................................................................59
PwC, London, England ........................................... 36
Siemens, Norcross, Georgia, USA ......................40
Siemens, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ...... 26
Siemens IT Solutions and Services, Waynesville, Ohio, USA ..........................................40
Standard Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa ........................................................................... 52
Tammy Lenski LLC, Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA ........................................................59
Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada ........................................................51
USAA, San Antonio, Texas, USA......................... 33
WellPoint, Los Angeles, California, USA .............51
The Wilsher Group, Monkton Combe, Bath, Avon, England ........................................................... 58
WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria .......................................................................... 31
ORgaNizaTiONs PagE
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by Kelley Hunsberger // illustration by Otto Steininger
ccid nt la aeproject manager
the
Even as the profession grows, many are still thrust into it. Learning from peers is the way to go.
caREERtrack
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by Kelley Hunsberger // illustration by Otto Steininger
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“When I grow up, I want to be a project manager.”
That’s not a line you hear too often. Most kids tend to dream of one day being a firefighter, actress or football star.
But the project management profes-sion is growing exponentially world-wide, and more and more institutions of higher education are offering courses covering its processes.
Despite this, many professionals still find themselves working as project managers—without ever having applied for the position.
“At the beginning of their careers, typically people don’t have a burning desire to become project managers,” says Patricia Ensworth, author of The Acci-dental Project Manager: Surviving the Transition from Techie to Manager [John Wiley & Sons, 2001]. “They start out doing something else—marketing, social work, biochemical engineering—and after acquiring subject matter expertise and leadership skills, they are promoted into the role of project manager. Some accidental project managers accept their new responsibilities enthusiastically, some reluctantly.”
Whether enthusiastic or not, so-called accidental project managers find themselves with a host of new responsi-bilities as part of their workload—and that means they need to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of project managementJames Bosak, PMP, fell into manag-ing projects while working as an out-
side plant supervisor for a telephone company where he was responsible for complex installations. While he had the technical expertise for the position, he lacked any formal project management training. “There are too many organiza-tions that expect people with technical expertise to just know how to formally manage a project,” he says.
The hardest part about moving from delivering a technical solution to man-aging a project is accepting that there may be a better way of doing things, says Mr. Bosak, director of program management at the IT management software giant CA Technologies in Cary, North Carolina, USA. “People want to believe that they have been doing a good job. And they may have been—but that does not mean that it can’t be improved,” he says. “There is always room for improvement. Intro-spection takes time and a willingness to change once you see a better way, and that is not always easy for people or organizations.”
It wasn’t until he began reading proj-ect management books and speaking with successful colleagues that Mr. Bosak discovered he hadn’t put enough impor-tance on documenting, tracking and estimating. “When I realized all of the elements that I had always glossed over in my projects, I was stunned,” he says.
“Accidental project managers are often able to achieve a technically per-fect result that is not what the sponsor had in mind,” he adds. “Or they may not meet the budget or timeline. The trained project manager understands that knowing how to deliver the result
>TIPJoin your local PMI chapter. No matter where you are in the world, chances are there’s one nearby. It’s one of the best ways to connect with your peers face-to-face and gain valuable knowledge of the profession.
PMI also offers virtual communities of practice for a variety of industries and topics. When something stumps you at work, post a query on the community site—and gain insights from more experienced project professionals.
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is only important if the result supports the requirements and is delivered when needed. There is a direct line from the requirements to the activities to the result to customer satisfaction.”
Mr. Bosak then took his proj-ect management career to the next level by acquiring the Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential.
The trick is finding a good bal-ance between your old and new job responsibilities. “I am still in a technical field, getting projects delivered but managing different aspects, such as project selection and funding priorities,” he says. “I enjoy the challenge as well as the advancements in technology.”
the PlayersOften, the background of an acci-dental project manager is loaded with technical experience and expertise, says Martina Huemann, associate professor of project man-agement at WU (Wirtschaftsuni-versität Wien), Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria. “So they might be used to thinking very much in detail, providing expertise and concentrating on their technical task,” she says.
In their new role, however, these employees will need to start considering the big picture. That includes leading others, designing collaboration processes and understand-ing how the project fits into the larger organizational landscape.
One of the first things new project managers need to learn are the different roles people play in the project. “I think accidental project managers know that they are doing the project for ‘some-one,’ but they don’t have a solid concept of sponsor versus stakeholder, and they always miss some stakeholders,” Mr. Bosak says. “This results in incomplete requirements and rework. A trained
project manger knows to find the spon-sor and get requirements in writing, and hold sponsors accountable for the final decisions on things. And they also know to make a list of stakeholders and actually search for other stakeholders.”
Then it’s time to communicate effec-tively with the various constituencies. Sometimes that means taking on the role of entrepreneur when dealing with the sponsor and other senior managers, says Ms. Ensworth, president of Har-borlight Management Services, a proj-ect management consultancy in New
As project management continues to gain in popularity at organizations around the globe, will this trend of the accidental project manager begin to wane?
Don’t count on it, says Patricia Ensworth, author of The Accidental Project Manager. “Accidental project managers are not only here to stay, but also tend to increase in numbers when an organization formalizes project man-agement as a core competency.” She says these accidental project managers will continue to head up small efforts where they can transition more easily into the role and learn about the position.
A lot of it comes down to where you live.“The profession of project management is in very different stages in dif-
ferent countries,” says Martina Huemann, WU (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien), Vienna University of Economics and Business, Vienna, Austria. “In countries where there are education programs established and universities that offer project management programs, there is a higher likelihood that the career of a project manager is a planned rather than accidental one.”
Expect to see an increase in accidental project managers for internal projects, such as development or change efforts, which are often done on an ad hoc basis, Ms. Huemann says. That’s the case even in industries who utilize project management and have professional project managers estab-lished for external projects.
The accidental project manager’s future depends on how sponsors view the role, says James Bosak, CA Technologies, Cary, North Carolina, USA. “There will always be accidental project managers, and certified project managers need to recognize that fact. Project professionals need to work to create an environment where accidental project managers can recognize the change in their role and openly seek assistance.”
Organizations must understand that when they assign a resource to deliver a project, they are creating a project management position. As such, they need to train their resources appropriately, he says. That way they are creating project managers—and not of the “accidental” variety.
Companies can also benefit from the establishment of a PMO (program management office). “There will still be accidental project managers, but there would be a resource to reach out to them and assist them,” Mr. Bosak says.
Accidents Will Happen
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York, New York, USA. “Sometimes one must make a sales pitch for the project to obtain approval and initial fund-ing,” she says. “And always, throughout the project life cycle, it is necessary to gather high-level information about the political and financial climate and to reassure senior stakeholders that the project is a good investment.”
the Learning ProcessYour boss pats you on the back and says, “Congratulations! You’re manag-ing this project.” Now what?
Don’t just stand there wide-eyed and panicked. Learn from your peers by net-working with other project managers inside and outside of your organization, suggests Ms. Huemann, adjunct profes-sor of project management at SKEMA Business School in Paris, France, and a project management trainer and con-sultant at Roland Gareis Consulting in Vienna, Austria. Ask them what
methods have and haven’t worked for them and any tips for successfully lead-ing teams.
Talk to veteran project profession-als “not only about the appropriate tools and techniques, but also about the informal network of political influence and the unwritten rules that determine how things actually get done,” she says.
Take their advice—and don’t view suggestions for improvement as a sign of mistrust in your ability, says Diego Nei, project manager at CEACRE (Centro Evangélico de Apoio e Acolhi-mento), an orphanage in Salvador, Bra-zil. “People can unintentionally sound as if they are bragging or complaining when actually they are just trying to pass along information about what has worked in their experience.”
Help from peers will only take new project managers so far, however. You must also learn skills that can be paired
We posed that question on the PMI Career Central group on LinkedIn. Here’s how project professionals responded:
As long as organizations want to embrace change, they will have to initiate projects—whether they call them that or not. And since experi-enced project managers are always in short supply, there will always be people with no direct authority, who never expected to be placed in that position, managing projects. For many of them, it will be a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime experience; for others, it will be the beginning of a new career. —Dave Gordon, USA
My background has been identified as a good fit for project man-agement. I’ve been a web developer, technical business analyst and an executive officer for a state agency. Those experiences have been
invaluable with being able to communicate well with both technical and non-technical people. —Brent Laning, PMP, USA
I became a project manager by accident. I was in estimation and tendering and I submitted a tender. After the contract was awarded, I got involved in the project initiation, and the client approached our top management for me to continue as a project manager until the end of the project. Since then, I am on two “boats” (i.e., estimation and tendering, and project management). Sometimes I feel it is good for me. But when I am overloaded, I feel I should choose a single boat. —Nadeem Arshad, PMP, Qatar
Is the “accidental project manager” a relic of the past?
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with your technical expertise. “Take a PMBOK® Guide project
management course, take an Agile proj-ect management course, then decide where on the spectrum of formal meth-ods the project lies,” Ms. Ensworth advises. “Obtain a project management software tool and learn how to use it to create a work breakdown structure, a network diagram with a critical path and a Gantt chart.”
Courses on negotiation, presenta-tion skills and public speaking can also be beneficial.
Once you have educated yourself and sought the counsel of more expe-rienced professionals, the next step is to garner as much “in the field” experi-ence as possible, says Joe Gartrell, PMP, San Antonio, Texas, USA-based process engineer at USAA, a financial services company for those who have served in the U.S. military and their fami-lies. “Keep going, get as many projects under your belt as possible and start down the route to earning your PMP® credential,” he says. “Experience is para-mount. However, most employers use the PMP credential as an initial screen, especially in today’s difficult economy where you may be competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other project managers. Detail your accom-plishments with measurable results and develop the ability to translate your experience into any industry. In essence, how does your experience transfer to the job you’re applying for?”
Making these strides will help impress your team members and senior managers, Mr. Nei says. “If new proj-ect managers can show people how dedicated they are and that they can perform as well—if not better—than anyone, they will earn their peers’ respect soon enough.”
When seeking educational opportu-nities inside the organization, start with the project management office (PMO). If there isn’t one, see what lessons learned have been documented by more experienced project managers.
The organization should also be involved in educating accidental project managers on their new responsibilities and how to carry them out. To do so, project management processes should be ingrained in the corporate culture.
“Accidental project managers are more likely to hit their stride and stay in the race when their organizations take project management seriously as a profession, a body of knowledge and a skill set,” Ms. Ensworth says.
That means defining project man-agement as a human resources job cat-egory, as well as developing clear criteria for evaluating the role’s competencies. In addition, project status should be reported to, and monitored and con-trolled by, executives at the managing director level and above.
“Most important,” she notes, “proj-ect managers should feel that they belong to a community of practice. A formal PMO can establish this struc-ture, but it can also be created through peer-to-peer centers of excellence.”
should You staY or should You go?Not everyone who falls into the role of project manager will remain there. A lot of it depends on personality.
“All types of management require one to accomplish things through the efforts of other people, so accidental project managers who want to be in the spot-light or to take pride in the craftsman-ship of their own work products might not enjoy the role,” Ms. Ensworth says. “Moreover, project managers often need to accomplish things through borrowed resources, so accidental project managers who prefer ticking off checkboxes over hustling for favors will become frustrated by their lack of results.”
However, those who do stick with the career path may find themselves becoming more visible and more influ-ential within their organization—and as a result, their stars can rise faster than those of managers who remain in purely operational roles. PM
Accidental project managers are more likely to hit their stride and stay in the race when their organizations take project management seriously as a profession, a body of knowledge and a skill set.—Patricia Ensworth, Harborlight Management Services, New York, New York, USA
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The PMO:SOMeThing Of Value
The key to securing ongoing stakeholder support for a project management office? Relentlessly measure progress and broadc ast its success.
by SaRah fiSTeR gale :: illuSTRaTiOn by MaTT kenyOn
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august 2011 PM NETWORK 35
The PMO:SOMeThing Of Value
The key to securing ongoing stakeholder support for a project management office? Relentlessly measure progress and broadc ast its success.
by SaRah fiSTeR gale :: illuSTRaTiOn by MaTT kenyOn
PMN0811 24-49.indd 35 7/12/11 11:24 AM
years the project management office (PMO) has struggled to be taken seri-ously. In the early days, many PMOs failed due to lack of executive support, vision or expertise. And even though the model has matured and more PMOs are proving their value as critical drivers of business improvement, fighting the history of failure makes it that much harder to secure buy-in and resources from wary executives. To overcome this skepticism, PMO directors need to be certain from the start that they have the tools, resources and plan to achieve their goals.
“Fifty percent of PMOs fail the first time around,” says Michael Cooch, director of global project and portfolio management propositions at the con-sulting giant PwC in London, England.
That alarming statistic is backed up by research performed by Gartner at its 2010 ITxpo, as well as PM Solutions’ The State of the PMO 2010 report.
“To reduce that level of failure, PMOs need a business case that is underpinned by solid measures and metrics,” Mr. Cooch advises.
The best PMO business case has a clear vision for what it will accom-plish, and aligns its goals with the broader goals of the business, says Raed Skaf, PMP, consulting manager at the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “A PMO has to address specific problems that the organization is facing to be relevant,” he says.
PMOs are not one-size-fits-all, agrees Mr. Cooch. “If you don’t match your mission with the objectives of the organization, the likelihood of PMO failure increases significantly.”
Whether an organization has trouble meeting schedules, staying on budget or managing unanticipated risks, these issues should set the framework for a PMO’s charter and be a primary measure of progress, Mr. Skaf says. “Measuring the current situation and maturity gives the PMO a baseline for goal-setting, and helps in choosing the right PMO model and proving results.”
SWOT TeamA baseline is just the beginning, though. PMO leaders need a plan to prove they are delivering results, says Edwin Kapinus, PMP, PMO manager for DM Petroleum Operations Company, the management and operations contrac-tor for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on the strategic petroleum reserve project headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
In 2008, Mr. Kapinus created a PMO for the organization, based upon the results from an enterprise-wide SWOT analysis—assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the organization.
“An emerging theme from the SWOT analysis was a need for bet-ter planning, control and execution of projects through the utilization of proj-ect management principles and tech-niques,” he says. “Thus, the PMO was created to begin the process of creating that vehicle towards better project and corporate performance.”
The results suggested that more rig-orous project management principles on all projects would help reduce risks and unexpected costs, as well as add efficiencies to the operation through better communication and more formal processes and methodologies.
“The DOE relies on our company to have a vision for the successful integra-tion of projects where cost, schedule, quality, safety, operability, security and environmental effectiveness are all key considerations of the project plans,” Mr. Kapinus says. “We see the PMO as a hub to establish policies and proce-
Fifty percent of PMOs fail the first time around. To reduce that level of failure, PMOs need a business case that is underpinned by solid measures and metrics.—Michael Cooch, PwC, London, England
FOr
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dures, to act as a single point of contact for the planning and support of project execution, to mentor new project man-agers and to assist project managers with the recovery of troubled projects.”
Mr. Kapinus and his team created a more formal project management gov-ernance process, set stage gate reviews and are building a lessons-learned pro-cess for issues and best practices that arise in projects. The PMO also imple-mented bi-weekly team meetings on major projects to update everyone on progress, and to address any problems as soon as they arise.
“Without frequent discussions, problems might not get resolved and it could easily become chaotic, result-ing with impacts to the project,” he says. “All of these processes will help create the desired disciplined approach required to effectively manage projects as well as deepen the roots of a culture change for using project management principles.”
The PMO is already seeing improved results, thanks to more formal key milestone reviews. On a current engi-neering project, a separate contrac-tor was hired to create the detailed designs. First, though, the PMO and the assigned project team conducted a review of the project scope statement and discovered it contained several incomplete and non-compliant items that did not align with project objec-tives. These inconsistencies were then logged and tracked to resolution to avert a potentially large impact to sub-sequent project phases.
“If we hadn’t done that review, it could have cost a lot of money in claims and procurement issues down the line,” Mr. Kapinus says. “But by being proac-tive, we solved the problems before we put it out to bid.”
Mr. Kapinus is currently tracking the success of that and another big project at DM Petroleum Operations, which he will use as an example to showcase the value the PMO brings to the organization.
>>Proving its WorthIt’s not enough to just be successful as a project management
office (PMO). To win stakeholder support and secure the budget and
resources necessary for the organization to mature, PMO leaders
have to set goals, measure results and communicate those results
relentlessly across the organization.
Here are five tips to make your PMO value statement heard:
1 Define quantifiable measurements to prove what you’ve accom-
plished. Like every business unit, the PMO must set a baseline
for the current state, define goals for improvement and measure
results, says Eric Morfin, PMP, Pfizer, La Jolla, California, USA.
“When you can back up your value statement with factual data, you’ll
win stakeholder support.”
2 set a realistic time frame for results. When Terry Tanner took
over as head of the PMO for the City and County of Denver,
Colorado, USA, he made it clear to the CIO that it would take
18 months before he could make a positive impact. “Leadership needs
to be disabused of preconceived notions that progress will happen
right away,” he says. “Even if one or two projects succeed early on,
you need sustained delivery to prove the change will be consistent.”
3 Be sure you have the resources necessary to achieve your
goals. When the leadership team doesn’t understand the value
proposition of a PMO, it won’t provide the necessary budget,
support and talent it needs to succeed, says Michael Cooch, PwC,
London, England. “This lack of investment ultimately increases the
chances of PMO failure, making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
4 Establish credibility throughout the organization. If you rely
on the support of one or two stakeholders to keep your PMO
going and they leave the organization, you’ll be in trouble, Mr.
Tanner says. As a city employee, his leadership team changes with
every election, so he knows he must have a broad support base to
remain relevant. “Building advocacy at the workplace level for the
PMO buys dividends with new leadership.”
5get the best people on your team. You can have the best
methods, standards and practices in the world, Mr. Tanner
says, “but without quality project managers, a PMO won’t
deliver value.”
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OvercOming a Legacy Of faiLureEven when a PMO has a solid plan for success that includes quantifiable measures, though, it can falter early on without committed support from the executive team.
Having a champion is especially important if you are trying to get past the notion that PMOs tend to fail, says Terry Tanner, IT services PMO director for the City and County of Denver, Colorado, USA. Mr. Tanner joined the governmental agency in 2009 after it had tried—and failed—to implement a similar PMO a few years before.
Denver initially had small IT shops set up in every agency across the city and county, with no centralized office to oversee them. In 2003, the new CIO consolidated them all under one PMO, with the goal of creating a homogenous system and interface for IT services.
“The PMO was put in place as a response to the ‘next big thing’ syn-drome,” Mr. Tanner says. “By that I mean the next solution that will fix all that ails an organization or agency, without understanding anything about the solution, what it takes to imple-ment, the timeline before results can be expected, etc.”
As a result, the executive team had unreasonable expectations concerning the time it would take before results could be delivered, and did not under-stand what would be required from a leadership perspective at the PMO level as well as their own involvement and support.
“If management is not fully commit-ted to the PMO and providing active support and guidance, then I believe it’s doomed to mediocrity at best, and failure at worst,” he adds. “That PMO lasted two years.”
A couple of years later, another CIO was appointed—and this one under-stood the value a strong PMO could bring to the organization, he says. The
office was resurrected, and Mr. Tanner was brought in to help make sure it avoided the mistakes of the past.
“When I arrived, the organization was chaotic,” he says. Though there were many professional project man-agers on staff, they had no repeatable processes, and every project leader mea-sured progress in his or her own way based on personal experiences.
Mr. Tanner’s team members estab-lished formal project planning and implementation processes for all IT projects, created standardized meth-odologies, rules and regulations, and developed a charter and road map for improvements that included key per-formance indicators for the coming 18 months. They also implemented tools to measure overall portfolio progress, and created a centralized database for project information, enabling the PMO staff to run reports that communicate measurable value in terms of time saved and resources used.
Today Mr. Tanner can show that 95 percent of the projects over which his staff has control meet their schedule goals; schedules controlled by third-party vendors are less consistent, he admits. He has also reined in control of scope creep and cost overruns, which,
>TIPWhen launching a PMO, start with the OPM3 ProductSuite®, recommends
Raed Skaf, PMP, Deloitte,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “Frequent
assessments are essential to
measure the project management
processes’ maturity, the
organization’s improvement and
alignment with business strategy.”
>>True ValuePMOs contribute directly to the following performance improvements:
Decrease in failed projects:
31%Projects delivered under budget:
30%Improvement in productivity:
21%Projects delivered ahead of schedule:
19%Cost savings per project:
17%Increase in resource capacity:
13%uS$ 567,000The cost savings per project a PMO provides
Source: The State of the PMO 2010, PM Solutions
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he says, enabled the IT group to deliver 30 more projects in 2010 compared to 2009—with fewer staffers and a smaller budget.
“These measures show definitively that we add value to the organization,” Mr. Tanner says.
the Best MeasuresBeing able to demonstrate tangible measures of success through reports and project case studies is vital to winning over skeptical executives who question the value of the PMO. But these tools only work if those measures align with the organization’s goals, says Eric Morfin, PMP, senior director of the oncology business unit at the phar-maceutical giant Pfizer in La Jolla, California, USA.
The key is determining what lead-ership values the most right now, and recognizing that the things it values will change along with the business.
“A lot of PMOs make the mistake of thinking time is the most important driver, when it’s often more valuable to focus on resource allocation,” he says. Figuring out ways to work smarter through more efficient processes can lead to better on-time delivery while managing costs. This, in turn, creates a more appealing business case for execu-tive leadership.
Recently, Mr. Morfin helped the National Cancer Institute develop a PMO. In his evaluation of its project management process, he found that teams working on early-phase drug-development projects start from scratch with each project plan, even though 80 percent of what they do is fairly standard: recruiting staff, developing protocols and identifying data. Mr. Morfin helped develop a work break-down structure template to streamline this process.
In the old system, teams would participate in 16 four-hour meetings to create a project plan, he says. With the new template, it now takes only four meetings. “By focusing on resource use,
we reduced the time it takes to develop a clinical plan by 75 percent.”
He’s currently working on a PMO project at Pfizer, focusing on achieving similar capacity improvements across the oncology project portfolio.
If he had tried to sell resource alloca-tion as a model for PMO success a few years ago, it would have fallen flat, he says, because at that time quality output and compliance were the driving focus. “You always have to ask yourself what it is that the executive team values today, and how you can demonstrate that value through the PMO.”
Once you have determined organiza-tional goals and achieved results, make sure senior management knows what has been accomplished, Mr. Morfin says. Those in charge of the PMO must generate regular reports that demon-strate their successes. Those reports must be in the language of the execu-tive suite—using simple clear measures that show the impact of the PMO to the business. Mr. Morfin confines his reports to one-page summaries with sharp graphics that tell a story at a glance. “Keep it short and simple,” he advises.
PMO directors should also encour-age key stakeholders to talk up their successes to other executives, Mr. Skaf advises. “It’s easier to build support for a PMO when it’s championed by senior management,” he says. “People listen to those whom they trust.” PM
A lot of PMOs make the mistake of thinking time is the most important driver, when it’s often more valuable to focus on resource allocation.—Eric Morfin, PMP, Pfizer, La Jolla, California, USA
6-9 November PMO Symposium 2011, Orlando, Florida, USAPresented by the PMI Program Manage-ment Office Community of Practice, this four-day event is the largest international conference devoted to the topic. More than 30 presentations, workshops and networking opportunities will be offered.
>>For more information, visit www.pmosymposium.org.
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a closer lo oksiemens, munich, Germany
Steve Clark, Siemens, Norcross, Georgia, USA
iFIf only it were always this easy. The project management offices (PMOs) at
Siemens, the global engineering and electronics powerhouse, have little trouble gaining stake-holder support for their endeavors. At any given time, the organization has several thousand PMOs doing everything from overseeing massive programs to establishing enterprise-level stan-dards and best practices for project management in individual business units and across the entire company.
“Project management is a core competency at Siemens,” says Kevin McDevitt, senior program manager of enterprise processes, and project and risk management at Siemens in Philadelphia, Penn-sylvania, USA. He notes that more than 50 percent of the company’s annual revenues come from managing and delivering customer-facing projects.
But more than just offering a project man-agement framework, PMOs at Siemens enable the company to advance its methodologies and strategic management maturity, says Craig J. Letavec, PMP, PgMP, Waynesville, Ohio, USA-based director of the North America solutions PMO for Siemens IT Solutions and Services, which was acquired by Atos Origin.
“Many PMOs get mired in the tactical man-agement of projects and programs,” says Mr. Letavec, author of The Program Management Office: Establishing, Managing and Growing the Value of a PMO [J. Ross Publishing, 2006]. While that may be a fine place for a PMO to start, it’s not a sustainable long-term model for most large organizations. “You’ve got to elevate what you do so that the PMO structure is seen as continually driving value across the business,” he says. “You’ve got to get your arms around the tactical issues, then move on to the more strategic goals.”
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a closer lo okTwo-year stints help an engineering conglomerate’s thousands of project management offices constantly prove measurable bottom-line results.
photo by stan kaady
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PMOs at Siemens begin with standard-ized principles and guidelines that are the same across the organization. However, PMO directors are encouraged to tailor their processes to meet their group’s unique needs. “Siemens provides the framework, and we implement it in a way that makes sense for our organizational needs,” Mr. Letavec says.
But with that freedom comes responsi-bility and accountability. Every PMO must be able to demonstrate the value it brings to the organization through measurable results based on the goals laid out in its charter. “If you don’t have measures, you don’t know your value,” Mr. McDevitt says.
That value must be delivered in a set time frame. At Siemens, it’s recommended that every PMO be chartered for two years. At that point, executives reevaluate the PMO’s mission to be sure it has delivered the benefits it set out to provide, and that it continues to drive value.
“Most of our PMO leaders go in under-standing they have about 24 months to deliver benefits,” Mr. McDevitt says.
If the reviews show that the PMO has met its goals, senior management then decides to either disband the office, or set new goals and expectations for the next 24 months.
“It keeps the PMOs aggressive, so they are always going after new benefits,” Mr. McDevitt says. That may mean focusing on Six Sigma training or lean principles,
or continuing to make its business unit’s processes more efficient.
“Our PMO model is dynamic, and it is driven by continued process improvement,” he adds.
A Course in FinAnCeWhen the organization’s project manage-ment methodologies aren’t followed, non-conformance costs accrue.
Mr. Letavec came up with a strategy to combat this: He puts his project managers through financial lessons.
“Many of our project managers have bottom-line responsibility for executing projects to schedule and profit targets, so they have to understand their costs and what will impact those costs,” he says.
Finance lessons help them make the connection between project decisions and bottom-line results. Mr. Latavec also part-ners project leaders with a financial profes-sional and/or a quality manager on major initiatives, so that together they can make decisions that balance quality, cost and schedule goals.
The PMO also tracks historic occur-rences of issues that cause nonconformance on projects, and the costs of those issues. Then it creates process-improvement strat-egies to avoid repeating those mistakes. Having that baseline enables the PMO to identify opportunities for improvement that will deliver the most value, and track the actual monetary value of those efforts.
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>TIPCreate case studies
that will help future
PMos define their own
charters, goals and
measures of success,
suggests Steve Clark,
Siemens, Norcross,
Virginia, USA. “It helps
other divisions see the
benefit of going down
this path.”
PMN0811 24-49.indd 42 7/12/11 11:24 AM
For example, the IT teams had a recur-ring issue with an online interface, leading to project delays. By identifying the cause, Mr. Letavec’s team members identified technology as the driver of the problems and updated it to eliminate the problem on future projects.
Then they tracked the trend over time, showing the history of nonconformance costs before and after the solution was implemented.
“When you have that kind of data, it’s easy to see the value of the PMO,” Mr. Letavec says.
Filling in the gapsOver in its industrial automation division, Siemens launched a PMO in 2008 to deliver three benefits:n Improved customer satisfactionn Managed growth of profit marginsn Standardized processes for reliable proj-
ect deliveryThe PMO started with a staff of one full-
time employee and one half-time, as well as team members in each business unit within the division. That lean operation oversaw a range of projects, from small US$100,000 equipment installations to US$100 million multi-year custom plant operation systems.
Despite limited resources, in the first 18 months, projects supervised by the PMO measured a 6.5 percent improvement in gross margins.
“That translated to a nine-to-one return on the improvement program to create the PMO,” says Mr. McDevitt, who acts as a coordinator and mentor over the U.S. network of PMOs at Siemens. Ongoing measures show that the industrial automa-tion division has maintained an average of 5 percent improvement on 2008 project margin baselines for the last 12 quarters.
The improvements came through sys-tematically identifying gaps in the project planning, delivery and risk-assessment pro-cesses that led to problems and noncon-formance costs down the line, says Steve Clark, the Norcross, Georgia, USA-based
manager of the industry automation divi-sion PMO.
For example, an issue arose when a customer chose a business interface solu-tion within its price range but inadequate for its facility. Because the Siemens team agreed to the choice without determining whether the solution would work properly, it was held accountable when the solution didn’t meet the client’s needs.
“It cost US$175,000 to fix that problem, which came right out of our bottom line,” Mr. Clark says.
Those nonconformance cost items are managed in a common tool and loaded into the lessons-learned database. Now all project team members in the division can review the database, see if they are dealing with a similar situation and receive help in determining whether a solution is the right fit. They can also make clear to custom-ers exactly what the technology can do for them—all before an agreement is signed. By tracking similar projects before and after the new processes were implemented, Mr. Clark’s team can show reductions of these kinds of problems, which ties directly to improved profit margins.
“The good news is that we hear fewer and fewer of these stories,” Mr. Clark says. “We’ve seen a steady reduction of noncon-formance costs, improved reliability and improved project delivery thanks to better communication and process improvements.”
spreading the WordMr. Clark’s PMO went through its two-year renewal in 2010, and the charter remains the same going forward.
“Our vision is benefits-based, but we are continually looking for ways to refine our processes as we achieve greater project management maturity,” he says.
And at Siemens, benefits realization is the driving principle for each and every one of its PMOs. “Without delivering tangible demon-strable return on investment,” Mr. Clark says, “you aren’t doing what you need to do to achieve success.” —Sarah Fister Gale
august 2011 PM NETWORK 43
Despite limited resources, in the first 18
months, projects supervised by an industrial automation
PMO measured a 6.5 percent improvement
in gross margins.
>
PMN0811 24-49.indd 43 7/12/11 11:24 AM
A Finnish company branches out to Singapore and discovers a high-level talent pool to fast-track a biodiesel refinery megaproject.
OWER
Petri Jokinen, Neste Oil, Singapore
by Manuela S. Zoninsein * photos by Jonathan Danker/PixSync Photography
stayingP
PMN0811 24-49.indd 44 7/12/11 11:24 AM
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F
46 PM NETWORK august 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
For the city-state of Singapore, innova-tion and enterprise are key components of national government policy. From enticing the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile to set up its first night-time Formula 1 racecourse along its shores to embracing foreign venture start-ups, the island nation welcomes top-notch know-how from all over the globe. It has also demonstrated a com-mitment to environmentally sustain-able technology, including clean water projects, LED (light-emitting diode) lighting experimentation and solar cell production facilities.
These factors, combined with the fact that Singapore is a major oil refin-ing center, put the nation on Neste Oil’s radar when the Finnish refining and marketing company looked to expand its renewable fuels business abroad.
“The government played an impor-tant role in promoting our investment,” says Matti Lievonen, president and CEO of Neste Oil, Espoo, Finland. “Singapore has fulfilled all our expectations.”
The €550 million megaproject’s plan consisted of designing and con-structing a renewable diesel production plant, including a process plant, a utili-ties system, a tank farm, an operations center, and maintenance and adminis-tration buildings.
Internal studies for the project began in 2006, and by November 2007, the company’s board of directors greenlit the investment.
One of the project’s first steps was to partner with a local governmental agency. Neste Oil worked closely with the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), which helps companies establish operations domestically.
“This cooperation provided excel-lent support for us in finding a suitable plant location, all permitting activi-ties, recruitment and training of local personnel,” says Petri Jokinen, manag-ing director of Neste Oil’s Singapore subsidiary.
The EDB, for example, helped the company find a suitable plot of land
free of any local opposition to the plant, “so the process went smoothly,” he says. The project team broke ground in March 2008 at a greenfield site in Tuas, an undeveloped part of the island.
Creating a Clean FuelTo reach the plant’s desired capac-ity of 800 million kilograms (881,849 tons) of renewable diesel per year, the organization relied upon its proprietary and newly developed NExBTL (next-generation biomass-to-liquid) process technology. The plant converts a variety of renewable feedstocks, in particular vegetable oils and waste animal fats, into renewable diesel. Because it essen-tially creates a sulfur- and aromatics-free fuel, it’s one of the cleanest diesels in existence.
The first part of the project was aimed at perfecting the NExBTL process—making certain that it met stringent demands of each particular market in which the company operates or plans to operate.
“The biofuels legislation is frag-mented at the moment in Europe, as it is around the world,” Mr. Jokinen explains.
The company needed to address two main categories: greenhouse gas reductions and feedstock sustainability requirements. “Both of these have been confirmed by performing life cycle cal-culations according to methodologies required by regulators,” Mr. Jokinen says.
In addition, NExBTL technology development focused on product qual-ity and feedstock flexibility—two fac-tors that differentiate it from other fuel production.
The biodiesel is produced by hydrotreating vegetable or waste oils by removing sulfur. The end result is a product the company says combusts efficiently, keeps engines clean and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 80 percent. It can be used in modern diesel engines without modification, works in airplanes and is available to be used as part of a fuel blend.
4,800 At its peak,
the number of construction team members working
on the project, hailing from 13
countries
13.8 millionThe total hours
spent on the construction portion
of the project
PMN0811 24-49.indd 46 7/12/11 11:24 AM
august 2011 PM NETWORK 47
In January, the refinery received International Sustainability & Carbon Certification, confirming that the plant meets the sustainability criteria of the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive and the product is suitable for meeting Germany’s bio-content man-dates. Given that Europe is a key mar-ket for the company, and that Germany in particular is a major consumer of biofuel, Neste Oil focused on attaining this certification.
same same but DifferentNeste Oil already operates two renew-able diesel plants that came on stream in Porvoo, Finland in 2007 and 2009. But launching a project in a new part of the world required significant groundwork to develop contact with local authorities, talent and partner organizations.
“The two Finland plants were our first commercial NExBTL plants, so of course there was a lot of learning,” he says. Those lessons proved vital when the project team drafted its plan, espe-cially concerning process equipment and plant operations requirements.
The previous experience didn’t trans-late 100 percent to the Asian initiative, though.
“Some solutions in the earlier plants were not repeated in the same way in the larger, scaled-up facility,” Mr. Jokinen says.
While the process technology is the same, there were differences in its implementation. The project team had to adapt to a whole new set of chal-lenges, including a different business culture and new regulations, legisla-tion and governance. Permitting for the facility in Singapore required nominat-ing various independent professional engineers who had to perform reviews of the structural designs and conduct verifications during the construction phase. Though this requirement neces-sitated additional quality-control steps, it “also helped assure that the construc-tion conforms to the design require-ments,” Mr. Jokinen says.
Additionally, the entire project had to be accomplished within a tight three-year schedule. Neste Oil management had put in place an aggressive growth strategy for increasing production capacity of NExBTL renewable diesel.
“We knew there would be some modifications during execution but still had to be able to run it as a fast-track project,” Mr. Jokinen says. “Traditional approaches to project management with well-defined periods for all steps couldn’t be followed strictly.”
So Neste Oil established key criteria and relied heavily on a skilled project team, most of whom had been involved in the previous two refinery projects.
2006Research phase initiated
november 2007Project greenlit by board of directors
march 2008Construction started
november 2010Operations began
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48 PM NETWORK august 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
Project team members “had good access to detailed infor-mation about the technol-ogy and the kind of solutions that are available,” as well as those elements to be avoided, Mr. Jokinen says. This was accomplished through the establishment of a process licensor team that provided all required support and back-ground information for the technical and project manage-ment team during design, con-struction, commissioning and facility start-up.
singapore’s got talentWhile Neste Oil owns the process technology, it sought a contractor for developing an engineering package.
The organization sent out an RFP (request for proposal), and following a competitive bidding process, the Italian company Technip was chosen as the EPCM (engineering, procurement and construction management) contractor.
As for operations and maintenance, Neste Oil’s proj-ect leaders chose to recruit
and build that team using Singapore residents. Technip also dipped into the local talent pool for its construction contractors.
A skilled worker base cemented Neste Oil’s decision to build up a permanent division in Singapore, Mr. Jokinen says. “As the country has a significant amount of oil refining and petrochemical industry, there are already a lot of professionals with the right type of education and industrial experience,” he explains. “In other places in the world, not having that kind of established industry in place would mean the company would have to invest much more in training per-sonnel.”
In Singapore, rather than worrying about building up appropriate techno-logical and managerial competencies, “we were able to do hiring in a market-place where the right kind of personnel exists,” Mr. Jokinen says.
“The talent pool in Singapore is absolutely first-class,” Mr. Lievonen agrees.
Forward MotionThe project team addressed safety with execution design reviews of the plant’s hazards and operability. Safety require-ments were included in contracts, and contractors received specialized train-ing. A behavior-based safety system was also implemented, covering all safety concerns and procedures that could arise, with the goal of decreasing the number of work-related injuries. Those results were discussed monthly by senior management, and all recordable safety incidents were investigated for-mally. Technip and other contractors were then required to propose actions to rectify problems.
IT systems needed during the con-struction phase fell under Technip’s domain. Neste Oil ran a parallel sub-project to define and implement all telecommunications, IT network infra-structure and business applications according to the organization’s corpo-rate practices.
The construction team discovered that different methods had to be used compared to projects in Europe, for example. Much less pre-cast concrete structures were used, while more activi-ties were performed with manual labor.
Construction completed on sched-ule and on budget last year, and com-mercial operations began in November.
Today, the Tuas refinery produces 1 billion liters (2 trillion gallons) of diesel fuel per annum.
Next up for the company is a similar-sized facility in Rotterdam, Netherlands as well as a change in the variety of feedstocks used in the biodiesel creation process. PM
AddING FuEl TO ThE FIREPrior to launching the refinery megapro-ject in Singapore, Neste Oil had established cooperative agreements with suppliers to source feedstocks for its home-base plants in Finland.
On the new, larger initiative, the com-pany had to expand that operation, and further develop the sustainability practices to meet the most stringent regulatory requirements.
That process was all the more impor-tant because the cultivation practices of palm oil, one of the main ingredients in NExBTl creation, have caused contro-versy among environmentalists worldwide. The vast majority of the world’s palm oil comes from Southeast Asia—but the same lowland forests that provide palm oil for production are the only remaining orang-utan habitat.
Managing this outspoken group of stakeholders has been eased by the cre-ation of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a not-for-profit organization with the objective to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.
Now, Indonesia, as the world’s largest palm oil producer, is becoming a bench-mark for emerging markets to adopt sus-tainable practices, with new regulatory and legal certifications passing into protocol.
I would recommend PMstudy Classroom Program to anyone wanting to ensure the best preparation for the PMP certification exam. I followed the instructions provided by PMstudy; took the course, completed my homework, scheduled the exam the day after completing the training, did not study 12 hours prior to the exam, and PASSED the exam.
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I would recommend PMstudy Classroom Program to anyone wanting to ensure the best preparation for the PMP certification exam. I followed the instructions provided by PMstudy; took the course, completed my homework, scheduled the exam the day after completing the training, did not study 12 hours prior to the exam, and PASSED the exam.
Kudos to PMstudy! Thanks,
Barry L Herman, PMP
study is a PMI Global Registered Education ProviderPMI, PMP, CAPM, PMBOK and the Registered Education Provider logo are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
Classes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami,
San Francisco,Washington DC, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary
and other cities in US and Canada. For details about corporate classes,
please visit www.PMstudy.com
Still evaluating? Try our full-length simulated test at PMstudy.comFREE
® ® ® ®
®
40 PMI PDUs: Understanding PMBOK Guide - Fourth Edition $ 125 only
25 PMI PDUs: Program Management Course $ 150 only
25 PMI PDUs: Six Sigma Green Belt Certification $ 225 only
20 PMI PDUs: Human Resource Development Certification $ 205 only
20 PMI PDUs: Risk Management Certification $ 300 only
08 PMI PDUs: Improving Negotiation Skills $ 600 only
For Continuing Education PDUs
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'Train the trainer' option is available for in-house PMP Exam Prep training conducted by
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Most effective - 4 Day class – pass PMP®
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PMI approval required to take the PMP® exam (subject to meetingother requirements set by PMI).
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boosting
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august 2011 PM NETWORK 51
by SaNdRa a. SWaNSONboosting Benefits realization and business cases all add up to increased profits.
the bottom line
n tough economic times—and the world has seen its fair share of late—many organizations’ knee-jerk reaction to maintaining profits is to cut under-performing projects (and the teams running them).
But that’s hardly the only path to profitability.“It’s just as important to define the right proj-
ects based on a holistic vision as it is to kill projects that don’t demonstrate measurable value,” says Jen L. Skrabak, PMP, Los Angeles, California, USA-based committee chair to update The Standard for Portfolio Management. She’s also the director of operational excel-lence at the healthcare company WellPoint.
Although profitability is a highly desirable outcome, it represents a complicated issue for project professionals.
“As a project management office (PMO) director, I had little exposure to the profitability of projects once they were completed and handed over to a receiving organization,” says Yvan Petit, PMP, associate professor in the management and technology department of the Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The focus, he says, was primarily on keeping the project cost within the approved budget.
The best way to ensure the highest profitability of portfolios is through the decision-making process, says Steven Romero, PMP, IT governance and port-folio project management evangelist at the software company CA Technologies in San Francisco, Califor-nia, USA.
i
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oversight. The best committees assign one of their members or another high-ranking executive as the “value moni-tor” of the project, Mr. Romero says. “While the effort is underway, this executive is responsible for working with the portfolio manager and PMO director to ensure the project is on track to deliver value.”
The leadership team should con-tinue to monitor results, including post-implementation one year later—or even two to three years later—because that’s how long it may take to deter-mine whether the project was profit-able, he says.
“This benefits realization is rare, and neglecting it contributes greatly to enterprise inability to monitor previous investment decisions,” Mr. Romero says. As a result, those organi-zations miss the opportunity to learn from past projects and improve deci-sion-making. “This is a great way to ensure the profitability of innovation efforts,” he says.
the Case of the Multiplying MarginsOrganizations that want their project
Innovation projects are some of the most profitable, but they can also carry the most risk. In the midst of economic turmoil, organizations tend to be wary of these initiatives. But by using metrics to build a compelling business case, project decision-makers can convince finance managers that the benefits out-weigh the risks.
Most steering committee and invest-ment governance committees do a decent job of vetting projects and pro-grams best aligned with enterprise strat-egy, Mr. Romero attests—but they fail to pose other critical questions:n Can we? Does the organization have
the time, money, resources and moti-vation to undertake an innovative, potentially profitable initiative?
n Are we? Is the project on track to deliver the profit that prompted its approval in the first place—or are potential benefits eroding?
n Did we? Did the project lead to the envisioned profitability?
Executives must use portfolio man-agement processes to conduct ben-efits realization—and not just after the fact. To some degree, this should be achieved through project execution
“CFOs are there to stop money from being spent. Per-suade them other-wise by speaking their language at the end of each project phase. Demonstrable mile-stones are key.”—Matt Rawson, Practicus, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England
A TIME fOR PEAcEAt many organizations, project man-
agers regularly clash with the finance
department. Is there a way to improve
that rocky relationship so the two
groups can work together with more
harmony and less head-butting?
Project managers and financial
managers see the world very differ-
ently, says clive Enoch, PhD, PMP,
Standard Bank, Johannesburg, South
Africa. “One is focused on execution
and the other is focused on assess-
ing performance retrospectively. As a
result, the one will always believe that
the other doesn’t know what they are
talking about,” he attests.
friction between the two groups is
often due to their differing perceptions
of time, says Yvan Petit, PMP, Univer-
sité du Québec à Montréal, Montreal,
Quebec, canada. Project managers
think of a project as an endeavor with
a start date and end date. financial
departments tend to conceive of time
as being cyclical, with yearly budgets
and reporting periods.
“In their dialogue with the project
manager, finance departments are
likely to require forecasts for each
calendar year,” he says. “Such infor-
mation is typically not relevant for the
project manager.”
To help strengthen that working
relationship, project and program
managers should learn to speak the
finance department’s language when
proposing projects. Knowing how to
calculate ROI, net present value, pay-
back and internal rate of return will do
more than determine the right finan-
cial calculations to support the busi-
ness case and obtain funding, says
Jen L. Skrabak, PMP, WellPoint, Los
Angeles, california, USA: “It will help
design the right approach and value
drivers to initiate the right project.”
finance managers typically ask
probing questions to determine the
hard benefits the organization can
book savings against, she adds. That
means project managers should be
armed with background informa-
tion and prepared to substantiate all
assumptions about a project.
When significant financial report-
ing is required, the best option is to
allocate a representative with the
appropriate expertise and charge his
or her time to the project, says Todd
Williams, president of ecameron
Inc., a project audit and turnaround
company in camas, Washington,
USA. “This allows executives to see
the actual cost of these functions,
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august 2011 PM NETWORK 53
portfolio to play a bigger role in driv-ing profits should require their project managers to create robust, fact-based business cases for all endeavors, sug-gests Caroline Leies, managing director at MorganFranklin, an IT consulting firm in Washington, D.C., USA.
“Many times projects only come up with subjective or qualitative ben-efits,” she says. It’s all too easy to focus exclusively on timelines and risks, and forget about the numbers behind the business decision.
“I have seen very positive rela-tionships with the finance depart-ment when the project manager or PMO establishes, manages and tracks the project and the business decision throughout the project life cycle,” Ms. Leies says.
Avoid the pitfall of rushing the planning phase. Organizations that force the creation of a business case before the true scope and level of effort for the initiative are known end up with meaningless numbers.
In her experience, the PMOs that played an important role in increasing profits have adhered to the following processes:
n Business cases were developed to obtain project approval and included a timeline for benefits realization.
n After the business requirements were finalized, a stage-gate decision was made regarding how to proceed with the project. This required the business case to be updated and approved before the initiative moved into technical design and build.
n After implementation, benefits were tracked and reported to executives for eight quarters.
n The project manager and the project leads from business and IT had their bonus compensation tied to the real-ization of the project benefits.
As the sponsor of a project to rede-sign a provider portal, Ms. Skrabak “ensured that the key project objec-tives were translatable into metrics that added the most project value, and ones that we can book hard sav-ings for.”
seemingly small mistakes Cost BigAlthough finance managers and project managers have different perspectives (and pressures) within an organization,
A TiME fOR PEAcETo help strengthen that working
relationship, project and program
managers should learn to speak the
finance department’s language when
proposing projects. Knowing how to
calculate ROi, net present value, pay-
back and internal rate of return will do
more than determine the right finan-
cial calculations to support the busi-
ness case and obtain funding, says
Jen L. Skrabak, PMP, WellPoint, Los
Angeles, california, USA: “it will help
design the right approach and value
drivers to initiate the right project.”
finance managers typically ask
probing questions to determine the
hard benefits the organization can
book savings against, she adds. That
means project managers should be
armed with background informa-
tion and prepared to substantiate all
assumptions about a project.
When significant financial report-
ing is required, the best option is to
allocate a representative with the
appropriate expertise and charge his
or her time to the project, says Todd
Williams, president of ecameron
inc., a project audit and turnaround
company in camas, Washington,
USA. “This allows executives to see
the actual cost of these functions,
requiring them to justify them,” he
says. “in addition, it frees up the
project manager’s time to manage
the people on the project rather than
build a series of reports, and fosters
a cooperative relationship between
the project team and finance.”
Above all, try to get the chief
financial officer on your side,
advises Matt Rawson, director
of program, project and change
management at Practicus, a Hen-
ley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, Eng-
land-based consulting firm focused
on change management. “Remem-
ber, cfOs are there to stop money
from being spent,” he says. “Per-
suade them otherwise by speaking
their language at the end of each
project phase. Demonstrable mile-
stones are key.”
The way data are conveyed is
just as vital, Mr. Rawson empha-
sizes. “The project manager has to
get out from behind the computer
and remember that communication
cannot take place via spreadsheet,”
he says. “Project managers must
engage with financial staff, and
understand what data and informa-
tion they need, in what format and
by when.”
>TIPMonitor projects from concept to cash, suggests Caroline Leies, Morganfranklin, Washington, D.c., USA. “Benefits realization after the project is completed is not only a program management best prac-tice but also establishes a culture of accountability.”
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for a project to be done or redone, the more expensive it becomes. If com-pleted on or ahead of schedule, there can be significant dollars saved, which hits the bottom line.”
Her team members use a web-based project management tool to see all project-related communications and updates in real time, as well as the status of open tasks and milestones.
But when one individual recently bypassed the system, the results were costly. A server migration project brought together programming teams from three time zones. In the interest of saving time, a team member emailed instructions and updates directly, rather than using the project manage-ment software.
“As a critical piece of info was not communicated to the entire team, we missed our window to migrate one of our relay servers,” Ms. Keller says. “This resulted in us having to extend our contract for another month on one of our servers, and it proved to be an expensive bypass. The workaround ended up costing us an additional US$10,000.”
Another common mistake organiza-tions make is being too rigid.
“The portfolio should not be expected to remain static, but should be modified when changes occur,” Mr. Petit says. “It could actually be a good thing to stop projects if this means doing the right projects at a given point in time.”
PMO directors must closely moni-tor a given program’s status so they can respond rapidly to requests for new projects, he says. This requires constantly updated information on the comparison of resource needs versus availability, for example, and the depen-dencies between projects.
Failure to do so can lead to authoriz-ing more projects than the organization can handle, Mr. Petit warns.
And mistakes like that can mean the difference between being in the black—or in the red. PM
they do share overarching goals when it comes to the organization’s health. To increase profit and productivity, both disciplines must start by estab-lishing clear strategies and objectives, says Clive Enoch, PhD, PMP, head of the enterprise portfolio management office at Standard Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Without this, any initiatives run in the organization will be misdirected,” he says. “Even if the organization does increase profit, it will not be as much as it could have been if the initiatives were strategically aligned and the strat-egy was clearly directed toward increas-ing profit.”
Due to the recent credit crunch, his organization has had to consider its strategy carefully, and make a concerted effort through the definition of its strategic objectives to reduce cost and increase productivity.
Project management practitioners can help contribute to the bottom line by finding ways to improve efficiency.
“Time is money,” says Denise Keller, COO and founding partner of Bench-mark Email, a small-business email marketing company in Los Alamitos, California, USA. “The longer it takes
ThE “FOuR Cs” OF COMMuNICaTIONWhen approaching the finance depart-ment about projects, Jen L. Skrabak, PMP, WellPoint, Los angeles, Califor-nia, uSa, suggests that you ensure your business case is:
Clear. The project scope and approach should be in layman’s terms, without acronyms and technical terms that may be unfamiliar to your audi-ence.
Concise. Prepare an elevator speech on the what, when, where, why and how of the project.
Concrete. Make your case based on facts and data, not guesses and theories.
Compelling. The ROI should speak for itself.
EaSIER SaId ThaN dONE“Benefits realization management is an elusive ideal that I’ve never seen completely successfully applied,” says Calum Roberston in the PMI Pro-gram Management Office Community of Practice:
The three main challenges I come across are:1. Governance. Who is responsible for realization of business benefits?
The project manager? The project sponsor? The PMO? Of course it’s the sponsor, but they often seek to avoid this accountability.
2. How do you manage realization of benefits? When a project “go live” has been achieved and the team disbanded, the spotlight moves to other projects. The project manager is usually redeployed to other projects and no one is driving the benefits.
3. How do you ensure benefits are delivered? The only way I have found is to transfer expected business outcomes into the project sponsor’s personal objectives. Failure to achieve benefits means no bonus. The added advantage is that it encourages greater reality when stating business case benefits.
>> Join the discussion at pmo.vc.pmi.org.
PMN0811 50-72.indd 54 7/12/11 11:17 AM
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Team Spirit
Although people are unpredictable, with the right training, team members will embrace collaboration.
by Cindy WAxer
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58 PM NETWORK august 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
prepared. They get upset and often take an adversarial approach. Conversations to deal with the problem tend to go badly.
One useful tool is reality testing. This is often used by mediators to get team members to question and chal-lenge their perception of the problem or the position they are taking. Training in this technique helps people adjust their position and become more flexible.
“Some training in questioning skills that engage people in problem solving, along with effective listening and real-ity testing can minimize the adversarial approach and keep everyone working together,” he adds.
Lesson Two: Brainstorm behaviors.Group brainstorming sessions can explore the kinds of behavior that help team members achieve greater col-laboration.
In workshops, Mr. Denny has proj-ect managers and team members iden-tify obstacles or challenges they are facing. Next, he forms mixed teams that select one challenge and discuss it for 10 minutes.
“When it comes to the debrief, the group is asked questions such as, ‘How did you approach and debate the issue?’ rather than concentrating on the specific issue itself. This focuses on the ‘meta-conversation’ or ‘how we talk about what we are talking about,’” he explains.
As a result, “the group is often able to identify for itself behaviors that assisted conflict resolution, such as listening to others, not talking over people, not rushing to conclusions or solutions and asking questions,” says Mr. Denny, who also serves as an associ-ate at the training and coaching consul-tancy The Wilsher Group in Monkton Combe, Bath, Avon, England.
Training can go one step further to “align and harmonize everyone’s expec-tations with a team-developed set of team values or ground rules,” Mr. Fur-long says.
orld-class project managers can deploy sophisticated strat-
egies, organize scarce resources and excel under tight deadlines.
But possessing the right skills doesn’t mean much if they can’t
build a cohesive team. “A project manager isn’t just
there to run a Gantt chart,” says Gary Furlong, partner at Agree Dis-
pute Resolution, a consulting firm in Dundas, Ontario, Canada. “As a project manager, you must get things done through other people. That’s the defini-tion of the role.”
However, galvanizing the troops requires a project manager to act simul-taneously as army sergeant and amateur psychologist—a no-nonsense leader with an iron fist and a silver tongue.
Failure to create collaborative teams can have a disastrous impact on a work force’s morale and an organization’s bot-tom line.
“There are four costs of conflict: time, energy, money and reputation,” says Neil Denny, author of Conversa-tional Riffs: Creating Meaning out of Conflict [Sunmakers, 2010]. “When we encounter conflict in organizations, we expend massive resources under all of these headings, which leads to incom-petent teamwork.”
Class Is In sessIonTo prevent such losses, project manag-ers who undergo training can become true leaders, capable of clearing up employee misunderstandings, more effectively handling difficult team members, negotiating sensitive issues, assigning responsibilities and holding people accountable.
Lesson One: Start with communication skills.“Typically, team members are so wor-ried about staying positive that they avoid difficult or crucial conversations,” Mr. Furlong says.
When something unpleasant rears its head, many team members aren’t
WThe group is often able to identify for itself behaviors that assisted conflict reso-lution, such as listening to others, not talking over people, not rushing to conclusions and asking questions.—Neil Denny, The Wilsher Group, Monkton Combe, Bath, Avon, England
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august 2011 PM NETWORK 59
By doing so, project managers can get their team members “on the same page and define what everyone means by respectful behavior, as well as a clear process for how issues will be resolved,” he adds.
Lesson Three: Break out the board games.Lessons on effective listening and group brainstorming sessions often get tense. Project professionals can lighten the mood by employing some fun-filled techniques to convey similar messages.
“There’s a wide range of off-the-shelf games available that concentrate on cooperation and cooperative behaviors,” Mr. Denny says.
A particular favorite of his is Pan-demic by Z-Man Games, which has easy-to-grasp rules in which team mem-bers work together to save the human race from deadly diseases.
To make the most of board games, “leave teams to read through the rules themselves,” Mr. Denny suggests. “Even then there’s the need for teams to col-laborate when deciding who is going to read and explain the rules. See who takes the lead. How are queries dealt with and resolved? How does the team commit to learning together?”
It’s gonna get MessyCollaboration training should “focus on the relationship-building and effective-communication part of what it takes to get people working together effectively,” says Shoshana Faire, director of Pro-fessional Facilitators International, a conflict resolution consultancy and coaching firm in Sydney, Australia. She’s also coauthor of Everyone Can Win: How to Resolve Conflict, now in its second edition [Simon & Schus-ter, 2006].
Project managers shouldn’t view team-building training as a panacea, though—or assume that because they’ve participated in a group session that teamwork will come easily.
In fact, “collaboration is messy,”
warns Tammy Lenski, Ed.D., founder and principal of the conflict resolution consultancy Tammy Lenski LLC in Peterborough, New Hampshire, USA. “It requires the right amount of space for people to make mistakes and for the organization to be forgiving of those mistakes.”
Mr. Denny goes so far as to suggest that some friction is better than none in the work-place. “We need to give permis-sion for conflict to be spoken about so that team members can provide honest feedback,” he states.
And that’s where a trainer, mediator or third-party facilita-tor comes in handy. In addition to training project managers how to foster collaboration, consultants can also create a safe place for project team members to air grievances.
“I don’t want to imply that mediators don’t have their own baggage,” Dr. Len-ski says. “But mediators don’t have baggage associated with your particular problem or the people involved—a key factor in why mediation can be so useful. They bring a fresh set of ears and eyes. Plus, skilled orga-nizational mediators understand how the human brain works and how conflict is caused in systems.”
An outside perspective could be just what’s needed to smooth tensions.
“When people begin shut-ting off from each other and it gets a bit too emotional, a mediator can get a conversation happening between two people,” Ms. Faire says.
Project managers can have the meth-odologies down pat, but without a cohesive team, a project won’t meet its goals. Team-building training can help manage the always-complicated people side of projects. PM
ThE PROjEcT MaNagER iN ThE MiRRORit can be a bitter pill to swallow, but sometimes project managers them-selves are inadvertently contributing to the friction between feuding teammates.
“Project managers have to learn how to manage their own emotions and reac-tions to be able to best help others in tense moments,” says Tammy Lenski, Ed.D., Tammy Lenski LLc, Peterborough, New hampshire, USa. “They have to be able to maintain their own balance in order to help others.”
Some project professionals are scheduling masters or agile whizzes—but just don’t have the knack for under-standing team dynamics.
Most people can develop team-building competencies with the right training, though, attests Shoshana Faire, Professional Facilitators international, Sydney, australia. “You can learn the skills for emotional intelligence,” she says.
That’s provided, of course, you have patience, an eagerness to be trained—and a willingness to step outside your comfort zone.
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In today’s competitive project management world, having high-quality credentials from a top-ranked university like Drexel University
gives professionals an edge. After all, Drexel is repeatedly ranked among “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S.News & World Report.
But who has time to go back to school? Thankfully, Drexel University Online has it all fig-ured out.
Offered 100 percent online, Drexel’s cutting-edge master of science degree in project manage-ment can be completed in just two years without stepping foot on campus. This 45-credit, part-time program teaches students the business, commu-nication, global and leadership skills they need to manage projects, programs and portfolios in a demanding project-driven environment. It’s perfect for busy professionals who want to get ahead with-out interrupting their careers.
Giving graduates an even further advantage, the Drexel program’s curriculum is aligned with PMI’s internationally recognized A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and is designed to support the completion of the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification.
Even if students haven’t homed in on a specific industry, Drexel Online’s M.S. in project manage-ment still offers a powerful career boost. That’s because project management competency can be applied to a variety of fields, including defense contracting, engineering, financial services, gov-ernment, IT/software development, and media arts
and design. This is a far-reaching degree that offers a lot of career value.
When it comes to academic excellence, Drexel is certainly a leader. Founded in 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, Drexel is one of the nation’s top institutions of higher education. In fact, it’s one of the largest and most prominent private, not-for-profit universities in the United States. And this quality is carried through to its online offerings, as all of Drexel Online’s pro-grams offer the same excellent curriculum, highly regarded credentials and outstanding faculty as its on-campus programs.
To find out more about Drexel University Online’s M.S. in project management degree, visit us online at www.drexelproject.com or call 1-877-215-0009. Applications are now being accepted for the fall 2011 term.
M.s. in Project Management onlineWorking professionals choose academic quality and convenience.
Drexel University Online+1-877-215-0009www.drexelproject.com
60 | AUGUST 2011 | EDUCATIOn & TrAInInG | WWW.PMI.OrG
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It’s perfect for busy
professionals who
want to get ahead
without interrupting
their careers.
Drexel Online M.S. in Project ManagementWorking Professionals Choose
Academic Quality and Convenience
U.S.News & World Report
Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ®
® *
Visit DrexelProject.com
*”PMBOK” and “PMP” are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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How can professionals in project manage-ment set themselves apart from the crowd? Their ranks are growing rapidly, and their abil-
ity to outlearn the competition is probably the only sustainable advantage. They need to become masters of project management knowledge. The A. James Clark School of Engineering’s project management program offers technical professionals the chance to gain that knowledge from anywhere in the world.
It was the sixth program worldwide accredited by PMI’s Global Accreditation Center. The program is also designated by PMI as a Global Registered Education Provider, and in 2004 it became a founding member of the International Project Management Educational Union.
The project management program at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, USA offers courses on campus and online, and strives to differentiate itself from other graduate programs in project management.1. The program is designed by and for engineers,
architects and other technical professionals. It resides in the Clark School of Engineering, while most other project management programs are in business schools or continuing education programs.
2. The program was designed in response to sig-nificant input from customers. The school also evaluated:n Other graduate-level programsn A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)n Literature reviewsn Input from practicing professional project
managers
n The Clark School faculty.3. The program has a continuous improvement mechanism built into routine operating procedures.4. The student population is from around the world. Their diverse educations, backgrounds and experiences contribute in a meaningful way to the classroom discussions and team projects.5. The faculty brings extensive real-world experi-ence to the classes and is devoted to teaching excellence, working with students and the pursuit of knowledge through research.
online Master’s in project ManageMentThe professional master of engineering in project management is available online. It is a practice-oriented, part-time graduate program designed to assist engineers and technical professionals in their career development and to provide the expertise needed in the rapidly changing business, govern-ment and industrial environments.
Students in the program have the opportunity to enhance their knowledge in their discipline and, in some cases, launch a new career path.
The online program uses digital technology to capture classes on campus and make them available online. In addition, weekly teleconferences provide live interaction between students and professors.
core coursesn Introduction to project managementn Management of project teamsn Project cost accounting and financen Project performance measurementn Legal aspects of engineering design
and construction
Beyond pMp® certificationThe University of Maryland’s Clark School offers one of a handful of programs accredited by the PMI Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs within an engineering school.
University of Maryland, A. James Clark School of Engineering+1-301-405-0362www.oaee.umd.edu/go-beyond.html
62 | AUGUST 2011 | EdUCATIOn & TRAInInG | www.PMI.ORG
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Learn more today!www.oaee.umd.edu/learn-more.html
Learn More and Go Further with a Pro fess iona l Mas te r o f Eng ineer ing degree i n P ro jec t Management from the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Our academic pro-grams have been designed by engineers for engineers and are offered from one of the nation’s leading graduate engineering schools.
With the rapid acceleration of technology and the higher demands of working in a global environment, there is an increas-ing demand for well-educated engineers with the experience and training to deliver on their projects. The University of Maryland’s Professional Master of Engineering and Graduate Certificate in Engineering programs provides you - the practicing engineer - with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to meet the challenges of tomorrow while helping you advance your career today.
Learn from the Best- developed by faculty from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering- subject areas (project cost accounting, legal aspects of engineering design, management of project teams, project performance measurement, advanced scheduling, decision and risk analysis, workplace optimization, web-based project management, IT project fundamentals- only engineering school in U.S. accredited by PMI- learn about the latest research methodologies in applied positive psychology, distaster management, and energy/sustainability infrastructure manangement
Online Graduate Program Highlights - completely web-based - no thesis/research requirement - 10 courses to complete a Master’s degree - 4 courses for a highly focused Graduate Certificate - GRE not required for admission - faculty available via e-mail, chat sessions, teleconferences - online library and full technical support available to all students
Project ManagementEducation at the University of Maryland
®
The “PMI Global Accreditation Center Logo” and “PMI” are registered trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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Beyond PMP® Certification
PMN0811 50-72.indd 63 7/13/11 2:10 PM
While organizations may take the time to prepare for, attend and even measure the impact of training, many struggle
to ensure newly learned skills and knowledge are applied on the job. Why? They are missing the fun-damentals: an overall adoption plan, a strategy for reinforcing the application of learning post-training, a clear way to measure learning application, and manager involvement pre- and post-learning.
According to ESI research, organizations start out “hopeful” that they are fully committed and engaged in the transfer of learning. But upon further questioning, ESI found that hope and reality are two very different things.
esi 2011 global survey highlights:n three strategies identified as most important in
the transfer of learning: Trainees have the time, resources and responsibility to apply learning; their managers offer support; and the instruction approach simulates the actual work environment.
n One-third of respondents do not have a formal pro-cess/system for ensuring that training is applied successfully within the organization. although two-thirds indicate that they do have a formal process, subsequent answers cast doubt on that figure.
n For those who indicated they have a formal process for learning, 60 percent say the primary method for proving or measuring this estimate of learning transfer is either informal/anecdotal feedback or “simply a guess.” These self-contra-dictory responses call into question their certitude about having a formal learning transfer system and its success rate.
ConClusion 1: employees need to be motivated the right Way Survey responses downplay the role of financial incentives to motivate employees’ learning adoption, noting the greatest incentive is the “possibility of
more responsibility.” Many indicate no rewards or negative consequences as the “motivation.” Might these incentives be out of line with today’s work force? Organizations may have to reexamine their strategies for motivating an evolving work force.
ConClusion 2: manager engagement is CritiCal Securing manager support was the second-most important strategy in the transfer of learning—but managers must do more than simply endorse the program. Managers must be expected to have con-crete responsibilities and provide tactical support every step of the way, including developing a plan for learning transfer, holding formal pre- and post-training discussions, and ensuring reinforcement. ConClusion 3: a Formal, proven proCess is laCking For transFer oF learning While many say they have a systematic approach for ensuring learning is applied on the job, this assess-ment is often highly anecdotal or “simply a guess.” Organizations must formally assess, evaluate and report on trainees’ success at applying learning to the workplace.
ConClusion 4: post-training reinForCement is leveraging neW soCial, inFormal Communities Organizations are leveraging an expanding array of tactics to recall trained knowledge and increasing their use of “just-in-time” tools for its on the job application, including more flexible, community-based support such as communities of practice, peer coaching and social networks.
For a full copy of the research report, visit www.esi-intl.com/learningtransfer.
To learn how ESI can help your organization ensure learned skills are applied on the job, call +1 (877) 766-3337.
applying training in the WorkplaceAn ESI study provides insight on how to turn hope into reality.
ESI International+1-877-766-3337www.esi-intl.com/learningtransfer
64 | AuguST 2011 | EducATIOn & TrAInIng | WWW.pMI.Org
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+1 (703) 558-3000 Americas
+44 (0)20 7017 7100 EMEA
+65 6505 2040 APAC
+91 80 41141344 India
of driving project results that accelerate your career.When economic patterns change, so do the expectations for project leaders. Prepare yourself for these new realities with ESI’s learning programs. From gathering better requirements, to solid risk analysis to increasing your cross-functional capabilities, ESI provides the assessments, online resources and instructor expertise you need for your projects—and career—to thrive.
Discover how ESI’s learning solutions can drive your performance forward. Learn more today at www.esi-intl.com/career.
Discover ESI in Booth #707 atPMI® Global Congress 2011 – North America
12619_ESI_ADVERTORIAL.indd 1 7/11/11 4:28:51 PMPMN0811 50-72.indd 64 7/12/11 11:18 AM
Applying Training in the Workplace
+1 (703) 558-3000 Americas
+44 (0)20 7017 7100 EMEA
+65 6505 2040 APAC
+91 80 41141344 India
of driving project results that accelerate your career.When economic patterns change, so do the expectations for project leaders. Prepare yourself for these new realities with ESI’s learning programs. From gathering better requirements, to solid risk analysis to increasing your cross-functional capabilities, ESI provides the assessments, online resources and instructor expertise you need for your projects—and career—to thrive.
Discover how ESI’s learning solutions can drive your performance forward. Learn more today at www.esi-intl.com/career.
Discover ESI in Booth #707 atPMI® Global Congress 2011 – North America
12619_ESI_ADVERTORIAL.indd 1 7/11/11 4:28:51 PMPMN0811 50-72.indd 65 7/12/11 11:18 AM
b y K e l l e y H u n s b e r g e r
66 PM neTWOrK august 2011 WWW.PMI.Org
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>>StrEaming StatuSWhen software meets social media, the result is activity streams with real-time updates and user-friendly interfaces.
No doubt about it: We live in a Facebook world. Social media channels, large and small, have revolutionized communication—changing the way we connect with oth-ers and transforming the very way organizations do business.
Project professionals are no exception, of course. So vendors are now incorporating Facebook-like activity streams into their project management software.
If you’re looking for ways to make your project management more social, here are four tools tapping into the trend:
LiquidPLanner 3.0: The latest version of this web-based project management tool adds social activ-ity streams to its existing tracking, reporting, organizing and scheduling features. Users can collaborate in real time with features such as @replies, comment streams, “watched” items and change notifications. The main workspace for each project has a Facebook feel to it.www.liquidplanner.com
sPrintr: Mendix, the company behind Sprintr, bills it as a lightweight tool “that’s sort of Facebook meets Microsoft Project.” Recently introduced in beta, this col-laboration software is designed for Agile teams, with the name stemming from the short sprints of development work. The home page is a general activity stream—each project gets its own equivalent of a Facebook wall. Users can also create project “stories,” which their collaborators can then comment on.www.sprintr.com
Wrike: This online project management tool added activity streams to its list of features last year. The stream is similar to a Twitter feed and can only be seen by a select group of users. When a team member finishes a task or makes an update, it automatically shows in the stream. The software also integrates with outside tools such as RSS feeds, Microsoft Outlook and Google Docs. www.wrike.com
goPLan: Activity streams started showing up in this online project management software more than two years ago. The feature replaced the software’s real-time chat functionality, which some people found obtrusive. Users can check a teammate’s sta-tus by visiting the update page and can revise their own status by using the form at the top of each page.www.goplanapp.com
You’ve distinguished yourself as a Project Management Professional (PMP®) with sought-after expertise in your field. But with career success comes increased demands on your time. Thanks to Villanova University’s convenient 100% online certificate programs, you can seamlessly maintain your PMP®
certification without interfering with your work responsibilities.
Villanova’s advanced project management programs are the ideal way to expand your knowledge, satisfy your PDUs requirement and acquire an updated credential from the university ranked #1 for nearly two decades by U.S. News & World Report*.
Whether you choose the Advanced Master Certificate in IS/IT Project Management or the Advanced Master Certificate in Applied Project Management, you will gain cutting-edge project management strategies that you can implement immediately,
from planning and tracking to evaluating risk management and minimization techniques. Plus, this comprehensive content is conveniently delivered via state-of-the-art technology that efficiently helps you reach your goals:
• Video-based eLearning lets you “attend class” at the office, at home or wherever it’s most convenient.
• Virtual classroom tools include two-way voice over IP, instant message and shared whiteboards for maximum interaction with classmates and faculty.
START EARNING YOUR PDUs AND SAVE 15%CLASSES FILL QUICKLY!866-301-6682 | VillanovaU.com/PDU
TRADITION. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE. ONLINE CONVENIENCE.
PMP®
CertificationSETS YOU APART.Villanova’s Advanced Master CertificatesKeep You There.
Maintain Your Edge While Satisfying Your PDUs Requirement – 100% Online!
PMP and the PMI Registered Education Provider logo are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.© 2011 All Rights Reserved. Made Available by University Alliance® – The Nation’s Leading Universities Online. SC: 197765zv1 | MCID: 10913
*Villanova has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the #1 Regional University in the North for nearly two decades.
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>>Streaming StatuSWhen software meets social media, the result is activity streams with real-time updates and user-friendly interfaces.
You’ve distinguished yourself as a Project Management Professional (PMP®) with sought-after expertise in your field. But with career success comes increased demands on your time. Thanks to Villanova University’s convenient 100% online certificate programs, you can seamlessly maintain your PMP®
certification without interfering with your work responsibilities.
Villanova’s advanced project management programs are the ideal way to expand your knowledge, satisfy your PDUs requirement and acquire an updated credential from the university ranked #1 for nearly two decades by U.S. News & World Report*.
Whether you choose the Advanced Master Certificate in IS/IT Project Management or the Advanced Master Certificate in Applied Project Management, you will gain cutting-edge project management strategies that you can implement immediately,
from planning and tracking to evaluating risk management and minimization techniques. Plus, this comprehensive content is conveniently delivered via state-of-the-art technology that efficiently helps you reach your goals:
• Video-based eLearning lets you “attend class” at the office, at home or wherever it’s most convenient.
• Virtual classroom tools include two-way voice over IP, instant message and shared whiteboards for maximum interaction with classmates and faculty.
START EARNING YOUR PDUs AND SAVE 15%CLASSES FILL QUICKLY!866-301-6682 | VillanovaU.com/PDU
TRADITION. ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE. ONLINE CONVENIENCE.
PMP®
CertificationSETS YOU APART.Villanova’s Advanced Master CertificatesKeep You There.
Maintain Your Edge While Satisfying Your PDUs Requirement – 100% Online!
PMP and the PMI Registered Education Provider logo are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.© 2011 All Rights Reserved. Made Available by University Alliance® – The Nation’s Leading Universities Online. SC: 197765zv1 | MCID: 10913
*Villanova has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the #1 Regional University in the North for nearly two decades.
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
The Standard for Program Management—Second Edition
This document continues to recog-nize good practices for managing multiple projects and programs successfully. With 14 new processes and nine new Knowledge Areas, including program financial man-agement, stakeholder management and program governance, the The Standard for Program Manage-ment—Second Edition helps ensure proper metrics are developed so organizations can success-fully manage large and com-plex programs.
EDITED BY DAVID I. CLELAND, PhD, PMI FELLOW, AND BOPAYA BIDANDA, PhD
Project Management Circa 2025
PROJECT MAN AGEMENT INSTITUTE
The Standard for Portfolio Management—Second Edition
Continuing to recognize and guide practitioners on generally recognized good practices in the discipline of portfolio manage-ment, the latest edition features two new Knowledge Areas: port-folio risk management and port-folio governance. This standard helps portfolio managers “do the right work” and raises awareness of the opportunity costs through-out the process and an increased focus on delivering results.
Sharpen your organization’s focus on portfolio management as it relates to program and project management. PMI’s The Standard for Portfolio Manage-ment—Second Edition will help you achieve better project performance.
EDITED BY FRANK T. ANBARI, PhD
Q&As for the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition
68 PM NETWORK AUGUST 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
Those who want to learn more about the profession, as well as those who want to fine-tune their development skills, will find in this book: ■ A straightforward question-and-answer
format with 200 multiple-choice ques-tions covering key project management themes and concepts of the project man-agement framework and the nine project management Knowledge Areas in the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition.
■ Questions and answers derived from and categorized by PMI’s bestselling global standard, the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)—Fourth Edition
The PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition is the preeminent global standard for proj-ect management. Like previous editions, it represents generally recognized good practices in the profession while reflecting project management’s continually evolving knowledge.
The PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition continues the tradition of excellence in project management with:■ Standard language throughout to aid
reader understanding■ Data flow diagrams that clarify inputs
and outputs for each process■ Greater attention on how Knowledge
Areas integrate in the context of initiat-ing, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing process groups
■ Two new processes: identifying stake-holders and collecting requirementsA strong project management foundation
is key to your success, so use PMI’s global standards to make sure you get it right.
PURCHASE FOR:
PURCHASE FOR:
PURCHASE FOR:
>>>PMI eBooks Make project knowledge more accessible.Use reader apps to access PMI ebooks on your Mac, PC, smartphone or tablet.
PMN0811 50-72.indd 68 7/12/11 11:18 AM
AUGUST 2011 PM NETWORK 69
What is the future of project manage-ment? What changes can you expect, and how should you plan for growth?
Drawing on the collective experience of project management leaders from around the world, Project Management Circa 2025 develops and explores sce-narios for project management in the year 2025. Editors David I. Cleland, PhD, PMI Fellow, Bopaya Bidanda, PhD, and 39 authors identify and eval-uate the likely future of project man-agement, exploring key issues that will affect everyone involved with project
management, from the theorist to the practitioner.
The 29 chapters examine the state of project management in a specific industry or environment then forecast the expected technological, economic, social, political and competitive character of the profession.
Get industry and geographic predic-tions. See how management systems and processes may change. And learn how project management’s growth could lead to new frontiers, such as sustain-able manufacturing, climate control and nanotechnology.
EDITED BY DAVID I. CLELAND, PhD, PMI FELLOW, AND BOPAYA BIDANDA, PhD
Project Management Circa 2025
PROJECT MAN AGEMENT INSTITUTE
The Standard for Portfolio Management—Second Edition
Continuing to recognize and guide practitioners on generally recognized good practices in the discipline of portfolio manage-ment, the latest edition features two new Knowledge Areas: port-folio risk management and port-folio governance. This standard helps portfolio managers “do the right work” and raises awareness of the opportunity costs through-out the process and an increased focus on delivering results.
Sharpen your organization’s focus on portfolio management as it relates to program and project management. PMI’s The Standard for Portfolio Manage-ment—Second Edition will help you achieve better project performance.
EDITED BY FRANK T. ANBARI, PhD
Q&As for the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition
Those who want to learn more about the profession, as well as those who want to fine-tune their development skills, will find in this book: ■ A straightforward question-and-answer
format with 200 multiple-choice ques-tions covering key project management themes and concepts of the project man-agement framework and the nine project management Knowledge Areas in the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition.
■ Questions and answers derived from and categorized by PMI’s bestselling global standard, the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition.
■ An answer section with reference page numbers and relevant quotations from the PMBOK® Guide—Four th Edition to help you enhance your breadth and depth of knowledge in a specific area.
Once you’ve read the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition, you’ll want to test yourself with this useful complement. How much do you really know about project manage-ment? Whether you are a seasoned profes-sional, novice, student or instructor of project management, you should appreciate Q&As for the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edi-tion for its rich content and ability to test your skills and knowledge.
PURCHASE FOR:
PURCHASE FOR:
PURCHASE FOR:
Make project knowledge more accessible.Use reader apps to access PMI ebooks on your Mac, PC, smartphone or tablet.
PMN0811 50-72.indd 69 7/12/11 11:18 AM
© 2011 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved. “PMI” and the PMI logo are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.teP M st agPRA-322-2011 (6-2011)RA
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Invest in your career and sharpen your project management skills. Register now for
PMI® GLOBAL CONGRESS2011—NORTH AMERICA22-25 October 2011 | Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Keynote speaker
MALCOLM GLADWELL The best and most effective managers are often said to be intuitive in the sense that they have the confi dence to act on instinct.
What is this instinct? And how can this intuition be developed? Author Malcolm Gladwell draws lessons from the world of professional athletes, surgeons and musicians to understand the components of intuitive expertise and help decision makers tap into that powerful resource.
Join us for one day, two days or a full multi-day program to:
Make your professional development dollars count and earn PDUs
Stand out to employers with newly gained knowledge from over 150 educational sessions
Take back insights from notable speakers
Network with peers and industry leaders in a breathtaking location
Register now and get the latest details at PMI.org/NA2011Reg
For exhibit and sponsorship opportunities please visit PMI.org/Exhibit
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PMI® GLOBAL CONGRESS2011—NORTH AMERICA22-25 October 2011 | Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center | Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Keynote speaker
MALCOLM GLADWELL The best and most effective managers are often said to be intuitive in the sense that they have the confi dence to act on instinct.
What is this instinct? And how can this intuition be developed? Author Malcolm Gladwell draws lessons from the world of professional athletes, surgeons and musicians to understand the components of intuitive expertise and help decision makers tap into that powerful resource.
Join us for one day, two days or a full multi-day program to:
Make your professional development dollars count and earn PDUs
Stand out to employers with newly gained knowledge from over 150 educational sessions
Take back insights from notable speakers
Network with peers and industry leaders in a breathtaking location
Register now and get the latest details at PMI.org/NA2011Reg
For exhibit and sponsorship opportunities please visit PMI.org/Exhibit
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www.umtweb.eduUMT, a PMI Global REP since 2000. PMI Registered Education Provider logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
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72 PM NETWORK august 2011 WWW.PMI.ORG
“”
Companies across Europe are outsourcing in ever greater numbers. In addition to the established U.K. market, we are seeing increased outsourcing activ-ity across Northern Europe, especially in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and France. As a result, average contract values for those deals entirely new to the market in EMEA [Europe, Middle East and Africa] increased by a very healthy 40 percent.
–Duncan Aitchison, partner and president, TPI EMEA
Source: Quarterly Index, TPI
Less than 50 percentThe portion of government organizations in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) with an official strategy in place to overcome informa-tion security threats
29 percentThe portion of respondents who ranked human error as the top danger, followed closely by increased proliferation and sophistication of threats
PMOs undEr PrEssurE
60%15%40%Source: The Global State of the PMO: Its Value, Effectiveness and Role as the Hub of Training, ESI International. Results based on a March 2011 global survey of 3,740 senior-level project and program managers across industries.
thE PLaCEs tO BEThe top five IT job markets in the United States, based on such factors as job openings, industry growth and demand for talent:
houston, texas
Washington, d.C.
Columbus, Ohio
detroit, Michigan
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Source: Modis, May 2011
FuturE FOCusThe top five areas of focus for CIOs over the next three to five years:
The portion of senior-level project profession-als who reported their project management office’s (PMO) value has been questioned
The portion who reported they track ROI and benefits realization
The portion who said their PMO is operating to a fair or poor extent
12345
Source: Information Security in the Public Sector: Avoiding the Risk of Non-Compliance and Political Embarrassment, IDC Government Insights, June 2011
although there is continued pressure to reduce the costs of public administration … the risk of non-compliance with increasing regu-lation and legislation as well as the risk of politi-cal embarrassment are sufficient to warrant ongoing investment [in information security].
—Jan Duffy, EMEA research director, IDC Government Insights
Source: The Essential CIO, IBM. Results based on a global study of 3,018 CIOs conducted between November 2010 and February 2011.
InSIght and IntellIgence clIent IntImacy PeoPle SkIllS
Internal collaboratIon
and communIcatIonS
rISk management
saFE and sOund?
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