May 2016

About the PMI Asia Pacific e­Link

Feature Articles

Article #1 How to Impress Your New Boss

Killing the Weekly Status Meeting

Project Highlights

What is Lean UX and Why Should YouAdopt it for Your Start­Up?

Grassroots Community Leaders UndergoLocal Project Monitoring and EvaluationWorkshop

Community Buzz

Upcoming Events

PMI South Korea 4th International PMIConference 2016 – Seoul, 13 May 2016

Asia Pacific Calendar

You're in Good Company

Membership

Certification

Videos

Project Management Culture ­ A SuccessFactor

Culture is a vital factor in developing a winningstrategy required for the successfuladvancement and implementation of a project.Learn more about:

1. Foundations for project managementculture

2. Project management cultureconstituents

3. Maximizing factors4. Benefits achieved with culture

Click here to watch the webinar.

In The News

Still Confused Over the PMI TalentTriangleTM?

Leverage Your PMI Membership to EarnPDUs

Marketplace

Requirements Management: A PracticeGuide

Collaboration Tools for Project Managers:How to Choose, Get Started andCollaborate with Technology

Asia Pacific Regional Service Centre

Contact Information

Do you have a successful project, a great lesson learned or a specific topic inproject management you would like to see published in the PMI Asia Pacific e­Link?

Send us your idea!

Feature Articles

How to Impress Your New Boss

Meeting project goals and being a valued team leader is a great way to get ahead. But to stand outfrom the start, focus on communication and be assertive.

Once you’ve landed a new gig, you’ll only get one shot at making a first impression. While managers willjudge you by your project performance in the long term, your softer skills take centre stage from the start.

Thoughtful communication can help you connect with your new supervisor—and as a project manager,you’ll have more than one. Being assertive can also strengthen all of your reporting relationships bysending the message that you have what it takes to deliver results.But, a good working relationship doesn’t always happen naturally. Here are three ways to start off on theright foot with your new supervisor.

1. Listen Up

Make it your mission to learn the primary goals of executives and stakeholders—and then make sure yourefforts align.

“Communication is what makes a career successful, and it should start with your boss,” says MercedesSoria, PMP, director of software engineering at Knightscope Inc., a security robotics company in MountainView, California, USA. Highly effective communicators are five times more likely to be high performersthan minimally effective communicators, according to PMI’s Pulse of the Profession® In­Depth Report:The Essential Role of Communications.

Ms. Soria suggests setting up an exploratory meeting to discuss projects in the works and get some facetime with your new supervisor. This will give you a chance to showcase your business savvy. Sherecommends that you ask a new boss to highlight critical milestones and deliverables, and the results thatare communicated to upper management. Initiating these conversations shows that you have businessacumen and want to deliver on the organisational strategy, Ms. Soria says.

“This shows your new boss that you care about helping to achieve his or her goals, and it also shows thatyou want to be in charge of your career.”

2. Demonstrate Diplomacy

Even the best business relationships are bound to hit a few bumps. But, clashing with a new supervisor’smanagement style shouldn’t mean you have to suffer in silence.

“If you find the new style a challenge, be open and honest. Let the new boss know that you’re findingthings difficult and want to work out ways to address this,” says Chris Williams, PMP, project manager,SAP, Perth, Australia.

Mr. Williams recommends seeking out common ground. If you share a similar professional background, forexample, ask your boss about how he or she got ahead. This conversation can create an opportunity toshare your own experiences—and discuss your personal work style.

3. Assert Yourself

Although you might be inclined to stay quiet when you’re adjusting to a new role and a new supervisor,don’t be afraid to take the initiative. It can be tempting to wait for your supervisor to define your role andresponsibilities, but blending into the background isn’t always the best way to get ahead, says WendyRobins, a project manager at Innovative Learning Group, a training company in Royal Oak, Michigan,USA.

“I used to think that if I did a good job and kept quiet, I would get recognised for my performance,” shesays. “But that wasn’t necessarily true.”

Ms. Robin’s outlook changed after a former boss told her she needed to speak up if she wanted to standout from the pack.

“I began to be more assertive and proactive,” she says. “I proposed new project ideas and then executedthem. And I took on additional tasks and responsibilities if I wasn’t busy enough.” Taking charge of thesituation helped her showcase her skills and earn the recognition of her manager.

Knowing how to put your best foot forward with a new boss helps you build a productive workingrelationship—and prove your value from day one.

This article was first published in the 16 March 2015 on Career Central.

Back to Top

Killing the Weekly Status Meeting

By Donald Charles Wynes, PMP

One of the most common—and commonly hated—traditions of project management is the weekly statusmeeting. The objective is sweetly innocent: Let’s all get together and share. And in a perfect world, that’sjust how it would work. Here in the real world, the weekly status meeting is often seen as a black hole thatsucks time, energy and enthusiasm out of the project team.Ask yourself the hard question: Is your status meeting truly a benefit to your team members? If not, switchto a new approach that uses today’s communication tools (think Skype and YouTube) to give teammembers the freedom to choose when and how they participate, just as Netflix and DVRs give them a newway to manage their TV viewing.

Get Asynchronous

Time­shifting a meeting is using technology and ingenuity to allow participants to come togetherasynchronously. This means I can choose to participate at the time and place that’s best for me, even ifthat’s a different time or place than anyone else. Time­shifted meetings let teams have deeper, morefruitful conversations by letting members communicate when they can give project issues their completeattention. This schedule flexibility also relieves a bit of frustration for busy folks, which is never a bad thing.

How to Kill Your Status Meeting in Four Easy Steps

1. Break the chains of time and spaceStart thinking of your meeting as what happens, not where and when it happens. Your meeting is thestatus update from a project leader, a reminder of approaching milestones, the recognition of teammember accomplishments and the helpful advice shared to overcome challenges. It’s also a social event;a team is more than a group of individuals. One way strong bonds are built is through regular contact andcommunication. None of this requires that everyone be in the Oakdale Conference Room at 10:00 a.m.every Monday.

2. Change the environmentChange the meeting location from a conference room to a video conference. Every participant joins fromhis or her chosen location. Do not let everyone at headquarters join from a single conference room; puttingeveryone in their own video window levels the playing field and creates a better environment for sharing(and makes multitasking embarrassingly obvious). Your team members are probably already using a freetool like Skype or FaceTime. Another option is Blue Jeans, a paid service that adds some nice features.Record the meeting. If you can’t attend live, you can watch the recording. This lets those with timeconflicts stay in the conversation. And because you’ll be cutting the meeting time down to no more than 30minutes (see the next step), the task of watching this week’s status meeting is doable. Recorded videomeetings are far more engaging than their audio­only cousins.Set the maximum meeting time to 30 minutes. Time­shifted meetings can be shorter, because somepresentation­type content is shifted off the agenda into pre­meeting videos. See the next step for details.

3. Preview and promoteMake a trailer. Do you have a lot to say on a specific topic? Say it before the meeting and share it online.Think of the coming attractions you see at the movie theatre. In a few minutes, you can see what a two­hour motion picture is all about. You can do the same thing by spending a few minutes to organise yourthoughts and use tools like Prezi and Camtasia to produce a pre­recording that shares them in anengaging format. Think of that four­minute YouTube video that helped you fix that leaky faucet; it doesn’ttake a lot of time to deliver a lot of information.

Be social. The real meeting environment is no longer the conference room, or even the video conference“space.” It’s the place where you share your trailers, the meeting recording and any supporting documentsor deliverables—with plenty of room for team members to add their own comments, questions and insightsto any of these items. Tools like Jive or Yammer deliver social collaboration within an enterprise,connecting the people and technology that constitute the project’s working environment.

4. Rock their worldNow that you’ve created this amazing new project communication environment, teach your team how touse it. Start with your video conference environment. Schedule a special meeting to introduce it and leteveryone click all the buttons to see what happens. Make it a safe and fun time to get the camera andsound working, and see how the darn thing works. Seem like a distraction? Think of it as today’sequivalent of figuring out how to adjust your chair in the conference room. Let people experiment, sharewhat they learn and share a laugh about the mistakes they make.

There will be a learning curve as people become comfortable with the new tools. And there will be someresistance to change. Plan activities that let people play with the new environment and share their tips.Encourage adoption by focusing on team members’ WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?).

Don’t be surprised if some team members are reluctant to appear on camera. This is very common,especially from home­based team members who may dress casually. People working from their cubical inthe office may be challenged by their open environment (a headset may fix this). Be patient, but persistent.Consider a team policy that no one is required to be “camera ready” and can opt to join via voice whenneeded. You’ll have eager early adopters, too—the people who join via smartphone from the airport.

Like their face­to­face cousins, time­shifted meetings aren’t without their drawbacks. You can help yourteam minimise their impact by facilitating the adoption of team best practices to address the way you usethis technique. Discuss expectations for “attending,” especially for those who can’t join the meeting event.Agree on standards for setting the agenda, sharing pre­meeting videos or how to conduct sidebarconversations so that all who are interested can join. Leave time in each meeting for discussion of anynew issues or ideas about the new format.

That Sounds Like a Lot of Work…Well, no one ever said project management was easy. In truth, some aspects of this approach requiremore effort from the leader, such as producing the weekly pre­meeting video. But, the results are worth it.It’s an overall reduction of time spent in meetings for the team (multiply that half­hour by the number ofinvitees to see your net time savings). The real benefit is what happens when you turn a communicationblack hole into a shining star that guides your team to an easier and more effective way to share the ideasneeded to make your project a success!

This article was first published in the 1 March 2016 post of ProjectManagement.com blog.

Back to Top

Project Highlights

What is Lean UX and Why Should You Adopt it for Your Start­Up?

User experience design (UXD) was traditionally governed by wireframes, prototypes, experience maps,visual mock­ups and others. But, in today's constantly changing world, designing products at a faster pace iscritical. The need of the hour is “Lean UX.”

What is Lean UX?

Read more…

Back to Top

Grassroots Community Leaders Undergo Local Project Monitoring andEvaluation Workshop

Grassroots, community and civil society organisation (CSO) leaders recently raised their concerns that localgovernment project indicators may vary during the project implementation stage and that monitoring andevaluation of their undertakings often becomes subjective and flexible.

On the second leg of the three­day training workshop on Project Development Management hosted by theDepartment of the Interior and Local Government DILG from 21­23 March at the Estancia Resort Hotel,CSO leaders presented this difficulty in their stakeholder analysis, as well as their concerns that argumentsover any project are bound to happen.

Read more…

PM Port® helps you keep in touch with your profession through PMI’s online global news service poweredby LexisNexis.

Back to Top

In The News

Still Confused Over the PMI Talent Triangle™?

The PMI Talent Triangle™ represents the skillset that global organisations have deemed as critical forproject practitioners. The PMI Talent Triangle illustrates the three skill areas employers need.

They are as follows:

Technical Project Management: Knowledge, skills andbehaviours related to specific domains of Project,Programme and Portfolio Management.Leadership: Knowledge, skills and behaviours specific toleadership­oriented, cross­cutting skills that help anorganisation achieve its business goals.Strategic and Business Management: Knowledge of andexpertise in the industry or organisation that enhancesperformance and better delivers business outcomes.

Still confused as to how to appropriately allocate PDUs across the PMI Talent Triangle™ in CCRS? Clickhere to see how three practitioners followed the PMI Talent Triangle™ to earn their PDUs.

Learn more about the CCR programme updates from the CCR Handbook.

Back to Top

Leverage Your PMI Membership to Earn PDUs

Members can access over 1,000 webinars on ProjectManagement.com, addressing topics ranging from risk,agile and scheduling to human resources, communications and much more — all available to help you makemeaningful contributions to the projects you lead or work on.

Earn PDUs quickly, and at no cost, by attending webinars: 1 hour of webinar equals 1 PDU. PDUs aregenerated automatically and members can log in with their pmi.org username and password.

Access the webinars now to improve your skills and earn PDUs.

You can also sign up for live webinars athttp://www.projectmanagement.com/webinars/webinarMainLive.cfm.

Didn’t find a topic that interests you? We welcome your recommendations. Submit your ideas toPMIWebinarSeries@pmi.org.

Back to Top

Community Buzz

Upcoming Events

PMI South Korea 4th International PMI Conference 2016—Seoul, 13 May2016

The PMI South Korea Chapter is thrilled to host its 4th International PMI Conference 2016 on Friday, 13 Mayat The­K Hotel, Seoul.

This annual event has been celebrated by Project Management Professionals (PMPs)®, project managersand all professionals and students who are enthusiastic about project management—both within andoutside of Korea—as an excellent opportunity for connecting with each other and sharing their experiencesand knowledge. Now in its fourth year, the event will be packed with sessions by esteemed internationalspeakers who will present and discuss under this year’s topic, “Value Creation with Project ManagementUnder Uncertainty.”

In these challenging economic times, everyone is seeking to create new value for their customers. Aspractitioners of project management, PMI members already understand that skills and expertise play a vitalrole in developing products and services with better value. Through expert presentations and livelydiscussions, this year’s conference aims to spark new ideas that will help our members maximise the valuewe create, and help our friends to better understand the importance and benefits project managers bring tothe value creation process.

However, focusing on value creation alone is not enough. All the efforts and skills poured into developingproducts and services with value may become all for naught if both internal and external risks are notidentified, managed and mitigated appropriately. And due to ongoing global climate change andinternational turmoil, managing risks as a part of project management has become more critical than everbefore. This year’s conference also brings extraordinary insights from professionals that have successfullyfaced risks that we deal with every day, risks that develop under some extreme circumstances, and evensome risks that may not exist yet. Through such insight, the 2016 South Korea PMI Conference also aims tohelp attendees to be ready for whatever obstacles lie ahead.

So, join us in celebrating and promoting project management and meet some of the best people ourprofession has to offer! Project management practitioners will be able to earn 8 Professional DevelopmentUnits (PDUs) by attending this single­day event.

Registrations are now open! Click here to register!

For more information, please visit the conference website at http://pmikorea.kr/wordpress/conference2016/.

For enquiries, please email PMI South Korea Chapter at pmikorea@pmikorea.kr.

Back to Top

Marketplace

Title: Requirements Management: A Practice GuideAuthor: Project Management InstitutePMI Member Price: US$27.95

You save US$7.00 by being a PMI member.Description: Organisations continue to experience project issues

associated with poor performance on requirements­

related activities. Requirements Management: APractice Guide provides you with the tools to excelin requirements development and management.

This practice guide is a bridge between A Guide tothe Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK® Guide) and Business Analysis forPractitioners: A Practice Guide.

Developed by leading experts in the field, thispractice guide describes requirements work andidentifies the tasks and essential knowledge neededto perform requirements management efficiently.Applicable to most programmes and projects, theconcepts and techniques in this practice guide canbe used to develop solutions that meetexpectations, improve performance, deliver benefitsand achieve outcomes.

This practice guide:

Provides a practical discussion ofrequirements workDefines “what is” the work of requirements(the tasks, knowledge and skills)Discusses why the work is importantProvides a description of the activitiesperformed

Title: Collaboration Tools for Project Managers: How toChoose, Get Started, and Collaborate withTechnology

Author: Elizabeth HarrinPMI Member Price: US$31.95

You save US$8.00 by being a PMI member.Description: Today’s project leaders face the challenge of

managing projects effectively using tested andreliable methods, while innovating with newmethods to meet the demands of their global andtechnology­savvy team members and stakeholders.

Information travels faster than ever before. Socialmedia and online communication tools such asFacebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have rapidlychanged our world outside of the workplace.

Since project managers rely on communication andeffective team management skills, they need tokeep up with the fast pace of change, technologicaltrends and the latest business drivers that helpmove organisations forward.

In Online Collaboration Tools for Project Managers,Elizabeth Harrin builds upon her 2010 book, Social

Media for Project Managers, by providing the latestinformation, success stories and an easy­to­followguide to implementing online collaboration tools andhelping to overcome obstacles.

Back to Top

You're in Good Company

Membership

There are 79,776 members in the PMI Asia Pacific region as of March 2016, representing 16.6 percentof the total PMI membership.

Certifications and Credentials

There are 251,539 credential and certificationholders in the PMI Asia Pacific region as of March2016, representing 32.9 percent of the totalnumber of PMI credential and certificationholders.

PMP®: 243,415CAPM®: 4,097PgMP®: 268PMI­RMP® : 588PMI­SP®: 228PMI­ACP®: 2,773PfMP®: 56PMI­PBA®: 115

Add another PMI Credential to your name!

Welcome New R.E.P.s in Asia Pacific:

CICOM BRAINS Inc. – JapanArulc Consult Sdn. Bhd. – Malaysia

There are currently 333 R.E.P. organisationsenrolled in the PMI R.E.P. Programme in the AsiaPacific region.

Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s) areorganisations approved by PMI to offer projectmanagement training for professional developmentunits (PDUs) to maintain your PMI certificationsand credentials.

View the R.E.P. web pages on PMI.org to learnmore about R.E.P.s or log in to the new CCRSystem to find a provider of project managementeducation activities and products in your country.

Need a Project Management Consulting Firm? Project management consulting firms can help you driveimprovements in your business performance, and the PMIConsultant Registry is an easy way to find them.

A complimentary resource, the registry lists detailed contactinformation and provides information about each consultant’sofferings, saving you valuable time. You can search bygeographic location, view case studies listed by area ofexpertise or industry, learn more about their competencies, andcontact them for more information.

Meet and exceed your business objectives with the PMI Consultant Registry — your one­stop resource tofind the project, programme or portfolio management consulting firm that’s perfect for your organisation.

Back to Top

Asia Pacific Calendar

EventsIf you are organising a PMI event in the AsiaPacific region and would like us to list it in the e­Link, please contact: SoHyun KangManager, Chapter DevelopmentAsia Pacific

13 MayPMI South Korea 4th International PMI Conference2016 Seoul, South Korea

30–31 May PMI Australia Conference 2016 Adelaide, Australia 9–10 JulyPMI Japan Forum 2016 Tokyo, Japan 6–8 SeptemberPMI New Zealand Conference 2016 Auckland, New Zealand

*The above listed events are the only confirmedevents up to date. Stay tuned for more eventsto be listed!

ExaminationsPMI's certification and credential programme is aninternationally recognised, globally accreditedprogramme that is transferable betweenmethodologies, standards and industries. Theprogramme applies valid and reliable ways to assesscompetence and is designed by project managers forproject managers

All candidates for Project Management Professional(PMP)

®, Certified Associate in Project Management

(CAPM)®, Program Management Professional

(PgMP)®, PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI­SP)

®,

PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI­RMP)® and

PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI­ACP)® must first

meet specific educational and experiencerequirements and then pass an examination.

Back to Top

Asia Pacific Regional Service Centre

Contact the PMI Asia Pacific Regional Service Centre at:

Email: customercare.asiapac@pmi.org (preferred method)

Telephone: +65 6496 5501Fax: +65 6496 5599

The Asia Pacific Service Centre is open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Singapore time(GMT +8).

The Asia Pacific Service Centre will be closed on the following dates due to public holidays in Singapore:

2 May21 May 6 July 9 August12 September29 October

Labour DayVesak DayHari Raya PuasaNational DayHari Raya HajiDeepavali

25 December Christmas Day

Check out our social media page

Back to Top

© 2016 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

"PMI", the PMI logo, "Making project management indispensable for business results", "PMI Today", "PM Network", "Project ManagementJournal", "PMBOK", "CAPM", "Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)", "PMP", "Project Management Professional (PMP)", thePMP logo, "PgMP", "Program Management Professional (PgMP)", "PMI­RMP", "PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI­RMP)", "PMI­SP","PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI­SP)", "OPM3", "PMI­ACP", "PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI­ACP)", the PMI Educational Foundationlogo and "Empowering the future of project management" are marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.