Project Leadership

TEST

2009-04-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

wiki style projct managment

2008-05-26T08:45:00.001-07:00

Streber is a free wiki driven project management tool written in php5. Freelancers and small teams can easily setup projects and keep track of tasks, issues, bugs, efforts etc. Project-User-Rights can be adjusted e.g. to provide clients a limited view of the current project state.

this is an interesting app that i must review in more details. not sure how the app handles security for resources and workflow. however , as an open source app, Streber requires a PHP5 enabled web server + MySQL as the databbase.

PMXPO 2008:

2008-04-14T13:41:00.000-07:00

All project managers face challenges that seem insurmountable, but Russell Brice and his team face the world's highest peak. Success for this project team is literally a question of life or death. Hear how Russell has applied his project management experience to conquer Mt. Everest time and time again, and find out how to manage your biggest, scariest, most challenging projects with the same principles.

Russell Brice, CEO of Himalayan Experiences, has been leading expeditions to the Himalayas since 1974. He now has a regular team of sherpas who are, without doubt, the most respected in Nepal. He has led clients to the summit of Everest and Cho Oyo, and also Himal Chuli (7,540m), Shishapangma (8,046m) and Ama Dablam (6,856m).

In 1991 his ability to manage a team and overcome extreme technical difficulty at high altitude triumphed as Project Coordinator for the successful Star Balloon Over Everest Expedition.

Individually, he has the world record for the fastest single solo ascent without oxygen of both Cho Oyo and of Ama Dablam. In 1988 he was the first climber to cross the infamous Pinnacles of the NE ridge of Everest. He is now widely reputed as one of the most professional leaders of all guided expeditions to the Himalayas and has earned worldwide recognition through Discovery Channel's Everest: Beyond the Limit, now in its second season.

This is sounds an interesting seminar to attend

Being a Green PM !!

2008-04-10T17:29:00.001-07:00

I just got a very interesting read. To me this is a new dimension of awareness that a project Manager and EPM folio also needs to consider while going thru thier day to day work That is, Being a GreenPM.

"Similarly, if you're practicing GreenPM, you should first look to see if your organization has an environmental management policy or something similar. If so, then you should make sure your project aligns to these environmental policies and standards as well.

The second aspect of quality is the specific quality criteria that make sense for your specific project. The project's quality management plan focuses on the stakeholders' expectations (i.e., requirements) of quality, and the resulting activities needed to meet these expectations.

If a project manager is practicing GreenPM, he or she should seek to expand this discussion of quality to discuss the environmental considerations of the project. This doesn't mean that every project will have environmental considerations.

However, if you start to ask the questions and start to raise awareness, you might be surprised to learn that there are green areas of interest to your stakeholders."

To the best of my knowledge the PMI is not promoting this to within their methodolgies practices. This Consideration certainly falls under the Quality management. However, what are the question that need to be asked by a PM when engaging and becoming active as a GreenPM ? I'll cross post this question on Linkedin

[update] Posed question on Linkedin and got a couple of response

alternatives to Basecamp

2008-04-01T16:39:00.001-07:00

Nice list 9 (Via Anu)

Goplan
Unfuddle
OnStage
Harvest (time tracking and invoicing)
TeamWorkLive
ActionThis
5pm
DeskAway
Collabtrak
ActiveCollab (self hosted)
ProjectPier (fork of older version of ActiveCollab, selfhosted, opensource)
ClockingIt (timetracking, opensource)
Lighthouse
Copper
Wrike
Intervals

IT cost Cutting as per the Bible of Gartner

2008-02-26T16:20:00.001-08:00

"Gartner believes that as concerns increase for the near-term health of some of the world's largest economies, those responsible for IT budgets can expect to receive mandates from senior executives to cut IT costs as part of an enterprisewide cost-cutting program. It recommends that organizations begin establishing ground rules for complying with such a cost-cutting mandate by following a six-step plan" [ source ]

What are these 6 steps ?

Don't Wait for the Cost-Cutting Mandate from Management
Choose the Best and Brightest IT People for the Team
Don't Allow Finger-Pointing or Second Guessing
Report Results on a Weekly Basis
Identify a Liaison from the Legal Department
Enlist an Internal Auditor as Scorekeeper

My question is if Gartner is sending out such messages, this will certainly impact the innovations space. Less thinkers and developer's make the Enterprise move behind the eight ball and leaves the market open to geolocations like Singapore, India and Russia. After all, IT has to perform and produce, they just do it by outsourcing now- at a lower cost. However, the consequences is the innovations is now driven externally !!

Project Management Job listings translator

2008-02-25T15:55:00.001-08:00

This is a classic fro PM who are looking for gigs' ! Thanks to Nick Matteucci for making my Day /evening :)-

Project Management Job listings translator

Job posting says:	What they really mean is:
Competitive Salary	We remain competitive by paying project managers less than our more successful competitors.
Join our fast-paced company	We have no time to train you or send you to PM conferences. Please introduce yourself to your project team members and co-workers as well.
Immediate opening	The project manager who used to have this project gave notice and left the company a month ago with no information on what they did or how they did it. We're just now running the ad.
Self-motivated	Project sponsors won't answer questions or provide requirements.
We offer great benefits	We'll allow you to fund your own 401(k) if you survive the 3 year project that got the last PM fired.
Seeking enthusiastic, fun, hard working, people	Looking for young project managers with no training, certification, or experience who won't mind our internship-level salaries.
Casual work atmosphere	We don't pay enough to expect that you'll dress up.
Dynamic environment	Your project team will be yanked from your project every 3 months or 3 weeks before a major deliverable (whichever happens first)
Fun work environment	Your project team members will be insulted if you don't go out and buy them drinks 3 nights a week.
A drug-free work environment.	We booze it up at company holiday parties and base bonuses on ability to hold one's liquor.
Must be deadline oriented	Your project will be four months behind schedule on your first day.
Some overtime required	Some overtime each night and some overtime each weekend will be required.
Requires team leadership skills	You'll have the responsibilities of your boss without the pay or respect.
Good communication skills.	Management communicates what they want from your projects in vague terms that are impossible to decipher, you listen, figure out what they want and do it under budget and ahead of schedule.

PMBOK + Agile

2008-02-25T15:46:00.001-08:00

THe 4th edition of the PMBOK is coming out and a draft edition was made available. Some interesting tidbits were picked up from Section 2.1.3-2:

"An iterative relationship, where only one subset is planned at any given time and the planning for the next period is carried out as work progresses on the current deliverable. This approach is useful in largely undefined, uncertain, or rapidly changing environments such as research, but it can lead to rework and reduce the ability to provide long term planning or scope control for the project. It also entails having all of the project team members (e.g. designers, developers, etc.) available throughout the project."

There are changes on the horizon and PMI is in the process of forming an Agile Project Management SIG .

PMI/PMBOK is all about defining, organizing, planning and executing predictive project. Agility is intended to address inventive projects by defining a high-level big picture and taking a few steps at a time to ensure the project brings real business value.

The convergence of PMI and Agile is a welcome thing !

Stakholder trust models

2008-02-19T08:38:00.001-08:00

This is critical for a PM to understand- the Stakeholder trust model are different in each organization, let alone the person themselves. This is a must read from a Harvard White paper

"Employees that don't trust their organizations are less loyal, less motivated, and less productive. Customers who perceive a breach of trust are more likely to switch to a competitor.
When trust is lacking in supplier relationships, more resources need to be devoted to contract enforcement and monitoring, the result of which is increased transaction costs. Organizations that lose the trust of their investors may be the quickest of all to perish."

SO go read and don't Perish :)-

Promote Teamwork over Politics

2008-02-19T05:59:00.001-08:00

Excerpted from Cutter's Enterprise Architecture advisory service. Five strategies for improving teamwork:

Build cross-functional teams. IT teams, in particular development and maintenance teams, should be cross-functional. Each team should have a variety of people from different professional backgrounds, including business stakeholders. Technical team members should ideally be people who are already generalizing specialists or at least willing to become so. A generalizing specialist with one or more specialties, plus a general software process knowledge, plus a good knowledge of the domain that they're working in, plus a willingness to collaborate with and learn from others is far more effective. This is supported by Larry English's work in information quality transformation -- one of his 14 points is to break down barriers between staff areas
Promote non-solo development. Doing IT work is a lot like swimming; it's very dangerous to do it alone. Agilists have discovered that both quality and productivity increase when people work together collaboratively, often in pairs. Agile methods include practices such as pair programming and modeling with others to enforce this approach. When people pair together, and particularly when they swap pairs regularly, they learn new skills, get the job at hand done more effectively, and build better bonds with their coworkers.
Promote training, education, and mentoring. One way to improve teamwork is to ensure that people have a wide range of skills and thereby can relate to the issues that their coworkers are focused on. When developers understand the fundamentals of data architecture, management, and governance, then they would likely recognize the value that data professionals have to offer and would more likely be able to find ways to work with them effectively. Similarly, if data professionals understood modern development techniques and methods, then they would be in a better position to work in a more responsive manner.
Promote explicit team-building workshops. They're a bit goofy, but my experience is that workshops that are specifically focused on team building can work wonders (although I'm still not that sure about those exercises where you fall backwards into other people's hands).
Break bread with "those other people." It's amazing how quickly you'll build bonds with someone over good food, good drink, and good conversation.

Hat Tip to Dennis Crowley for these points !! I have always found that breaking bread and drinking wine is THE most powerfull Team builder effort. Dont take em out for dinner and drinks just to celebrate, rather just hang out together and watch a foot ball game or play pool or something like that once every two weeks. Better still is to have a Pot luck once a month- its amazing how they all work out something to feed themselves !! Once they learn to feed each other literally, they also learn to feed the project too :)-

PM tragedy in five limericks !!

2008-02-16T04:40:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Kailash Awati who manages IT development at a multinational in Australia. This (reproduced below) come as part of my alert systems and I nearly split my coffee on my laptop- LMAO .

Hey Mate, this certainly will call for a Fosters on met when I am down under :)-

Others in PM interests, take time to visit his blog :)-

With many changes we had to cope
Deadlines near; no money, no hope.
There was no way to wrangle,
with the iron triangle
of budget, time and scope.

The project was in a mess.
The reason I could only guess
was the carefully constructed
schedule was busted,
thanks to a dodgy WBS.

When called to explain the delay
I told the sponsor to pray.
When he asked, "But, why?"
I said with a sigh,
"On the critical path the tasks lay."

He said to me, "This can't be true.
There must be something you can do."
Shaking my head
in sorrow, I said,
"All that remains is review."

And now, I'm not in his pay,
You see, I was fired that day.
So, I exhort you all,
to stay on the ball,
and don't run your projects this way.

Talent Management & HR

2008-02-15T09:37:00.001-08:00

A good point of contention ; Talent Management Project : Is it a HR function?

This AM , I had a good conversation with Shawn T of MISCONSULTING, which gave me a different insight of Talent Capital - from acquisitions , development and retention strategies. The core question I have always asked myself during the Project Life cycle , is what am I teaching to my team members, what is their takeaway ? Have they engaged on the knowledge trajectory ? Does this seem to be a HR question or a Project Management Question ? and what is cross docking synergies between PMO and HR that can be leveraged ?

The McKinsey Quarterly article on "Making Talent a Strategic Priority" ; conducted a survey of 98 business/HR leaders that yielded obstacles to effective talent management. This is a very important read for me today ( thanks to Shawn for getting my juices going !!)

The key here is "Manager's who aren't interested in "development of people's capabilities and careers" aren't really managing at all"

The top three data points (out of 7!!)

1. Senior managers don't spend enough high-quality time on talent management

2. Organization is "siloed" and does not encourage constructive collaboration, sharing of resources

3. Line managers are not sufficiently committed to development of people's capabilities and careers.

Take time to digest all the Metric's (Exhibits) in the report. This a must read for people who mentor and interact with knowledge workers.

BA and PM synergies

2008-01-29T06:58:00.001-08:00

This seems to be a very interesting read that I must digest. It's written by Ben Snyder, CEO of Systemation on his blog PMhut

Part#1 - Time to Bring Back the Soft Skills
Part#2 - Hard Data on Soft Skills
Part#3 - Using soft skills to your advantage
Part#4 - Building relationships to increase project influence

I think by the the middle of the year, I should have enough information that can move me to re-invent the wheel on this map that was brought to me by Bryce Johnson

Personally, I think the fine line between a project manager and the BA is diminishing and a new breed of workers will need to be engineered.

[series#1] - You know something's wrong when...

2008-01-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

Heres a couple of fun and real stuff that has come my way. All based on personal experience.

You know something's wrong when.. series :)-

You know somethings wrong when.. 14 out of the 23 employees in a company have resigned /dismissed.....within a 5 month period ! [ Employee retention vs Employer Mngt]
You know somethings wring when.. the sale's guy has not converted a single $ in the last 6 months ... and plays hockey with a Sr.Executive Brother [ Productivity vs preferential treatment]
You know somethings wrong when... a 10day change order valued at 10D effort and 10K value suddenly becomes 40D effort valued at 13K. [ Business Cost vs Project Profitability]
You know somethings wrong when... at first glance an application value should be about 150-200K ..but the project billing is actually 400K [Profits vs Billing]
You know somethings wrong when... when the customer yells at you and take's you to court because the software delivered is not functional as per their expectations. [Expectations vs Deliverables]
You know something wrong when.. the Sr.Tech lead wants to please a customer by way of creating a company and completing a project by way of quoting less. [Ego vs Team Play]
You know somethings wrong when ..Sr Tech Lead is promoted to Solutions Manager and still yeilds CRAP (Configurations Rarely Applied by People) !! [ Feature vs Scope]
you know somethings wrong when.. there are no artifacts to a project and you tasked to implement change orders on the software [ Discipline vs project rigor]
You know somethings wrong when... nobody knows the customers staging /UAT zone, including the customer !! [ knowledge vs artifacts]
You know somethings wrong when .. there are 6 managers and 4 developers !! [Resources vs Talent]

yep more follows.. stay tuned !!

5PM application

2008-01-21T15:55:00.001-08:00

Oh I get another app via courtesy of Ian McKenzie from Messy Desk

5PM looks to be a good web enabled online app for the community. Small and medium size folio's should certainly look into this application. However, I don't see any baseline functionlity and I did not delve deep into the reporting function. I'll sign up and try the 14 dy trail. BTW, its completely SaaS'ified and the mothership appears to be GQ software

Eh !! 10user/20 projects/250MB/ $24Month , what does this mean ? 20 projects per month or year or what ? There needs to more upfront details for the community. But it's worth taking time to see what it delivers for ($2.40 / user) :)-

The Interface is sleek and neat, I kinda already like the app, just because the UX appears great !!

A Critical Look At Executive Decision Making

2008-01-21T08:10:00.002-08:00

"What failed and why ? " is a question most PM's ask ourselves, it's part of learning and growing.

Recently I went thru a bad experience , which made me think. So while laying back and in introspection ( yes, I literally had to lie flat on my back - I am suffering from Fibromylgia - a chronic illness where the muscles on the lower back are inflamed/swollen) . I did a lot of thinking and rethinking on the critical node between businesses and projects.

So therefore , I was asking myself- what are the signs of a failed process or a failure node. The reality, is that for many projects, failure is dialed in from the beginning. The greatest challenge that organizations face is not how the project is managed, or who manages it — but simply how the choice is made.

My operating belief in the organization was that by hiring better project managers and establishing better project processes, improved project results were attainable. Arguably, it was a desire for improvement in project performance that led the organization to adopt a new project management framework in the first place, so this objective should not on the face of it seem unreasonable. At the same time, senior management within the organization clearly believed that whatever choices they made regarding the projects that they chose to initiate were fair game — that the decision-making process was separate and distinct from what was required to successfully deliver them. I call this the ultimate dichotomy of business and project decision making.

Possibly the simplest explanation is 'because they can', but that doesn't really speak to the underlying motives that actually leads them to make the decisions they do. They continue to "dial in" project's with lack of awareness on the critical nature of the their decisions and moreover, continually keep doing the same and expecting different results. I call this the ostrich syndrome. (if you stick your head deeper into the ground, the further away the problem seems to be !!). Or maybe is just plain madness- continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different result at each iteration. And yes, just because "because they can" - its also called as "corporate version of frying the ants"

Decisions made at the outset or during a project life cycle can have the impact of effectively handicapping a project and /or short-circuiting the impact of any attempts to apply proper project management.

Through this introspection, I hope to be able to inject some much-need rationality into a process. Many may view as overly irrational (yeah, I am on med's :); and reactionary to bad experiences. Nevertheless, without leadership and proper executive decision making skills, the nodes between businesses and projects will fail to connect and that is irrefutable !!

Learn from project-management blunders

2007-11-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

I like this on the best.. I have seen this foo hit the ceiling :)-

" Don't underestimate people issues"

I had a project that nearly came apart because I underestimated the impact of people issues within the project team. We had quite a few new developers, a few more experienced folks, and several contractors. The existing folks were part of a strong union and had adopted the "work to job description" mantra, whereas the contractors generally did whatever it took to get their deliverables done. This created a lot of tension within the team as the staff members felt the contractors were overstepping their boundaries (and really they were, in order to get stuff done), and the contractors felt they were carrying the "slackers" (and really they were, in some areas). A complete mess. However, none of it was obvious until the tension started to come to the surface. By then, the schedule was compromised and had to be reworked a lot."
Keep a better handle on the personal issues within the team. Ask more questions, more frequently, to get at them."

Via : ZDnet

The Furture of Projects ?

2007-10-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

" SaaS-style application solutions remain niche-focused and otherwise experimental. Nevertheless, we believe that now is the time when enterprise IT departments should begin planning for the growing influence of SaaS in their business practices; establish in-house understanding of the opportunities, challenges and best practices of SaaS; and begin to track the involvement of their technology providers in SaaS-related industry initiatives."

Via :Gartner

Intersections, Innovations and Konvergance

2007-08-29T18:17:00.001-07:00

"For most of us, the best chance to innovate lies at the intersection. Not only do we have a greater chance of finding remarkable idea combinations there, we will find many moreoif them. To be specific, stepping into the intersection does not mean simply combinining two different concepts into a new idea. These type of combinations are part of a directional and interrsectional innovation. Instead, the Intersection represents a place that drastically increases the chances for unusual combinations to occur".

--
Peter Dawson
http://peterdawson.typepad.com
PeterDawson Home of ThoughtFlickr's
"This message is printed on Recycled Electrons."
R : 905 270 2025
C : 416 689 7383
E : slash.pd@gmail.com
Skype: Slash.pd

People vs Process

2007-08-17T09:16:00.001-07:00

"It's about the people...not the processes or tasks. You treat your people right, they'll make sure the project is right."

A nice list of stuff of PM think

Re: 300 interview questions

2007-08-07T17:02:00.001-07:00

oh heres a nice list of questions that a PM will need to answer

My fav's so far..

There was a situation where more than one-way to accomplish the same task. Your onsite tech lead and offshore tech lead has different opinions about doing this and the feelings were very strong. Both are very important to you. How do you react to this ?

MSFT EPM in the magic quardrants

2007-07-03T17:57:00.001-07:00

Microsoft Office Project Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant for the 2007 IT Project and Portfolio Management Applications Magic Quadrant

"Microsoft Corp. , a leading provider of project and portfolio management (PPM) software, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner Inc. in the "Leaders" quadrant in the 2007 IT Project and Portfolio Management Applications Magic Quadrant report. The report evaluates services and products that include the Microsoft(R) Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution."

Via : CNN

In the Beginning -The Risk meeting

2007-07-03T08:18:00.001-07:00

In the Beginning...

The opening moments of an effective meeting are a very big deal. You have the opportunity to win hearts, change minds, or at least ensure that others are listening in the opening 20 to 30 seconds. This is vital time. This is where participants decide whether or not they will be players in this event. Consider four simple approaches to get things started more effectively:

Open with a promise -- By the time this meeting is over, we will have solved the XXXX problem, one of the great concerns facing our organization today.
Open with something they'll get from the gathering -- When we're done, you're going to have four new tools to work with to overcome the range of risk challenges we face.
Open with a short story -- If you read this morning's paper, you know that wildfires are burning just 40 miles away. We're going to take something away from the lessons those firefighters are teaching.
Open with a challenge -- You have an opportunity over the next 45 minutes to create an indelible mark on the project, but that means I'm going to put you to work for the next 45 minutes....

To ensure that sense of accomplishment, meeting facilitators need to identify the following:

What will be done with the information
What the next steps are for the participants
What they've accomplished
When those actions will be evident

Facilitating meetings is challenging for some of us, as we believe there's just information to be shared and everyone should be willing to share it. That's not as common as it might sound. In many instances, introversion, fear of rejection, or simple impatience drives participants to remain as silent partners in the overall meeting experience. There are ways to drive that out of the risk discussion. The keys are a sense of safety and a sense of value-added.

Via: Cutter

No Task Longer Than 80 Hours and Not Shorter Than 40

2007-06-28T13:41:00.001-07:00

Raven points me to some interest truths of Projects. I actually I prefer tasks that are no longer the 40 hrs and no shorter then 20 hrs.

Kinda 1 work of 1/2 a work week seems ok with me.

"So treat your people right and remember to focus on your soft/interpersonal skills and you'll be more successful as a project manager" - totally agreed Raven !!

death by meetings

2007-06-15T13:56:00.001-07:00

Randy recaps the pain point of org meetings !!

"Most every meeting in every company that I've worked for is scheduled in the hours before or the day before the meeting actually takes place. Quite often, attendees don't show, because they are unaware of the meeting or had previous commitments. This leads to meetings which start one half hour to an hour late, as attendees are rounded up. This means that several people are sitting around for up to an hour with better things to do. Sometimes, key attendees don't show and the meeting turns into a complete waste of everybody's time. All meetings (except emergencies) can easily be scheduled with 2 business days of notice, thus giving all employees adequate time to reschedule and prepare for the meeting. If you improperly organize a meeting where 8 people waste one hour, then you've effectively wasted an entire man-day of work. In other words, had you just stayed home that entire day and not wasted those 8 people's time, then your company would be no worse off."

estimation blues

2007-06-14T10:20:00.001-07:00

"Accuracy of estimation is directly related to the parameters you consider in estimations "

Rajesh actually nails that pretty well in his posting !!

I would also like to add, that most PM forgot the talent management aspect during estimation. How much of time do I need spend to convert "a resource" and obtain a buying during project execution. Normally resources are thrown in and then management of these resources are based on time/cost parameters and hardly any consideration is given to the fact that one needs to develop the resource towards the ultimate goal of the the project and vision statement of the project.

Keeping talent development as a parameter fosters a culture of growth on every project. Thus leveraging the business Mission on the long run. And, that's strategy execution alongside projects :)-

Something to think about

2007-06-14T06:41:00.001-07:00

The idea is that software development lifecycle events have import, not only to project management, but change management of the IT infrastructure as well.

There's a new Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) offering with Microsoft Project Server !!

Working the 20 somethings !!

2007-06-13T18:42:00.001-07:00

It could become a little tricky when dealing with new age talent !!

"Nearly every businessperson over 30 has done it: sat in his office after a staff meeting and - reflecting upon the 25-year-old colleague with two tattoos, a piercing, no watch and a shameless propensity for chatting up the boss - wondered, What is with that guy?!"

This is a must read article for all Project Manager's who factor in talent capital across multiple countries, cultures !!

--
Peter Dawson
http://peterdawson.typepad.com
PeterDawson Home of ThoughtFlickr's
"This message is printed on Recycled Electrons."
R : 905 270 2025
C : 416 689 7383
E : slash.pd@gmail.com
Skype: Slash.pd

MSFT Escrum v1.0

2007-06-13T18:36:00.001-07:00

Kewll..need to play with this !! :)-

"eScrum is a Web-based, end-to-end project management tool for Scrum built on the Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server platform. It provides multiple ways to interact with your Scrum project: eScrum Web-based UI, Team Explorer, and Excel or Project, via Team Foundation Office Integration. In addition, it provides a single place for all Scrum artifacts such as product backlog, sprint backlog, task management, retrospective, and reports with built-in context sensitive help"

Download available here and Steve has more info

project rules ( simple version )

2007-06-12T11:55:00.001-07:00

In his recent IEEE Software column, "Ship Effortlessly" J.B. Rainsberger has a gem:

I start each project with two rules: all source files must be in a version control repository, and the build must be fully automated at all times.

Does your project follow these rules? If not, what would you have to do?

How do you get a team to develop a clear and elevating goal?

2007-06-12T06:56:00.001-07:00

The truth is, I don't know for sure. No one does. If we did, we'd be mass-producing winning teams instead of writing about them. But here's my 2 cents worth

1. First and foremost, a team's clear and elevating goal as described above is never the goal you gave it.

That's your goal, not theirs. To the team, it's a task, a project, or an assignment. What's the difference? One is inherently motivating; the other isn't. One is something for which the team is willing to take 100% responsibility; the other is something you will hold it accountable for.

2. There is no recipe or formula you can apply to a team that will result in a clear and elevating goal each time.

The highest-leverage activity a leader can accomplish is to catalyze a team around a clear and elevating goal. If I could bottle that skill and develop it in leaders, I'd be running a skill-building production facility (and you'd be in line!). But that doesn't mean it has to be a random happenstance. It means that crafting a clear and elevating goal is a design issue rather than a formulaic process. And what you are designing is a set of conditions that encourages a team to explore what it wants (rather than what its employers want).

3. There is, however, a set of initial conditions that you can design and influence.

Unfortunately, while most leaders would kill for teams with clear and elevating goals, what they are killing are the conditions that support them. The single most important variable I've discovered is that the team's larger operating environment supports the team in thinking about what it wants out of a project the team has been assigned to. Organizations have a way of systematically extinguishing the wants of team members, while simultaneously calling for passion and commitment. We tell people what they should want. We tell them our goals and our parameters and then we tell them to get busy. As I ask folks on client sites what they want out of a project, more frequently than not I hear "Gee, no one's ever asked me that before."

The leader who understands clear and elevating goals will invest in creating a culture of responsible leadership that acknowledges intrinsic motivations and supports personal freedom and choice. Then, he or she will make room in projects for team start-up processes that truly engender ownership within the team for the project.

4. You can challenge the team to discover such a goal and even invest time in that discovery process.

Ttreat the clear and elevating goal as one of five conversations a team must have (in fact, that a high-performance team will naturally engage in). But it's not the first conversation I would encourage; it's the fourth. There are three other things I would do first to give the team the best chance of reaching high performance.

5. It's always a nonlinear process, a lateral-thinking process, and a surprising result

Most leaders make the mistake of challenging teams to "choose a number," meaning setting as its goal a performance metric for the business, project, or technology. That's frequently misplaced MBA-speak. Clear and elevating goals are usually qualitatively different than the assigned task while beautifully supporting the task getting done. For instance, a team assigned to launch an Internet banking service created the slogan "we're reinventing banking" and envisioned itself on the cover of its industry's trade journal. The team designed hotel-like hangers for its doorknobs that said "Do Not Disturb. Busy reinventing banking."

6. It usually happens coincident with breaking through conflict

Clear and elevating goals seldom emerge until well into the project. In the forming-storming-norming-performing metaphor of team development, I've found that the storming phase is often resolved by the emergence of a clear and elevating goal, which then guides the norming and performing phases. You can support this process by helping the team develop healthy ways to disagree and stay committed to each other as a team.

Hattip : Christopher M. Avery, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

project Leadership

2007-06-12T06:55:00.001-07:00

Nice read here

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First Steps

2007-05-17T15:51:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked by a friend, "How can I get the company to execute projects on time within budget - all the time. What are the tools and culture needs, where do I start ?. We need project excellence "

To me that was a very opened ended question- which I will address to the best of my abilities;

To get Enterprise Project Management going is no easy task. One needs over mature of time , in this thought process. Baby steps are always called for. The cost of doing it wrong is dollars wasted or opportunities could be lost. The key is to identify the Business processes, people and tools that one has. Once this is understood, then the framework for "Organizational readiness" can be created.

These are are my first steps, My 10 point programme to create this framework would be ;

1) A Comprehensive strategy for Process Oriented Project Implementation.
This area would delve deeply into the motives of the company, what do they want, eventually. Who will lead the charge, what resources can be allocated, etc. The Essence of this Phase would be to ensure that EPM is really what is wanted and an overall EPM Mobilization efforts charter is created. This also could considered as complete business plan. After all, this is a new business practice and investment. Like all other investments a due diligence process needs to be done.

2) Best Current Practice review
Review all the Best Current Practices within the organization's current Project portfolio. Identify short coming and areas for change. Ear mark those practices that have worked well. Look for the practice that are not used anymore, ask why these practices failed or not used. Look at the lesson learnt from past projects. Follow the rigor of historical analysis.

3) Project Management Office (PMO) creation.
Create a central control zone for managing the creative processes that are needed to sustain the EPM efforts. Executive sponsorship is required. There's the saying, that those who care -- will be there. Once a new entity /department is created within a Enterprise, everyone goes gung ho and wants to be, a part of it or just shut themselves out. This is just normal human reaction. Executive leadership will ease the concerns and bridge management tiers. By showing strong support, they tell the Enterprise - this is something that is important to the business mission.

4) Validation/Communication Strategy
Identify with all partners, stakeholders and resources criteria that will ensure that the value pathway being created is within the boundaries of strategy. This will help in ensuring that PSI ( Project Success indicators) are being fostered at the early plan stage. Remember, even at this junction of the programme, the initiative is creating a method of partnership, feedback, communication that will sustain long term benefits once EPM is deployed.

5) Orientation of PM and resources
Getting the grass root level people on the same page is vital and critical. No amount of technology investment will sustain ROI's unless there is a complete buying by the grass root level folks.

6) General Management orientation
As the Mobilization efforts are in play, take time to speak to the other people within the Organization. Create an Orientation session or just a brown bag session. Let them know what is happening and how things are going. This is an across the board initiative, let all who have ears hear. Transparency and info sharing always pays off.

7) Getting IT/Technical Support in the loop
As the the technology is IT related, the IT department has a lot to contribute to the initiative. They need to understand the ramifications of the technology platform , networking, component infrastructure and support needs for an EPM solution. They are just as critical as the business owners. Seek to be known, just like you would like other to know thee !!

8) Risk Matrix
Once you gone thru at least one iteration of the above 7 steps, you would have bundles of information to created a first cut Risk Analysis. Never go to the next step till this done. Project Management is all about Risk evasion. Period !!

9) EPM Build 1.0 documentation
This is first cut on what,when, how and who will eventually need to get things done to successfully implement and deploy EPM. This is the end state for EPM mobilization efforts. What begins as a 2-4 page project Charter, now will have an end state of about 100-200 pages document. This becomes the bible for next phase.

10) Road Map
Personally I always like to create a roadmap of what the folio may need to be with lets say 5 years time. So even if a phased in or turnkey method is used. One can review holistic viewpoint and milestones across the time line. This also permits a company to project deep into what may be termed as a future folio. Immersive technlogies like HALO and Telepresence will certainly have impact in EPM in terms of Global Service Delivery of Projects. We should must always keep the eyeballs on progressive and emergent areas. Thats how one is alwasy leading and not following !!

Innovations is Hard

2007-05-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

If you have a good idea, then 5 people have already thought about.
If you have a great idea, then 10 people are already doing it.

This is the innovations curve and where does it start and how does one get to the top ?
A small premier for you to enjoy.

Knowlege Manifesto !!

2007-05-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

Some Time ago, I created this and now am sharing. Enjoy !!

Seven tips on how to run a successful community.

2007-05-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

If you're building a Project community you have to love what you're doing and be the best member of it. It takes great care and patience to create a space others will share and you have to nurture it and reward your best contributors. It's a decidedly human endeavor with few, if any, technical shortcuts

1. Take emotion out of decisions
2. Talk like a human, not a robot
3. Give people something they can be proud of
4. Bring users in during community decisions
5. Moderation is a full-time job
6. Metrics spread the work out
7. Guidelines not rules

This is a good cull of information from Fortatious !!

How Adobe is leading the way into India !

2007-05-17T02:58:00.000-07:00

A key element of what has been called "web 2.0" -- along with ideas such as user-generated content and social networks -- is the concept of "rich Internet applications" (or, as Microsoft recently termed them, "rich interactive applications"), which use the web as a platform for new types of online experiences. From delivering browser-based software that functions like a traditional desktop application to providing immersive video experiences online, a new generation of Internet-connected applications is beginning to evolve.

Adobe president and COO Shantanu Narayen talks about the key role that India will play in the company's global growth strategy. Some highlights of the article and strategy

What is Adobe doing in India, and how does that fit into the company's global strategy?
India is a huge market vis-à-vis ensuring that the publishing industry uses our product. Whether it's for newspapers or magazines or film, our products are used around the world.

What did you initially decide to do in India, and how has your strategy evolved?
Naresh Gupta, our managing director in India. In 1997 he was thinking of going home, and he talked to [Adobe co-founder] John Warnock, who said, "Why don't you set something up for us in India?"

What are examples of the kind of work that's being done there?
The [Adobe] Reader for mobile devices was completely done in India. We actually now have a full-fledged business unit there.

What are some of the challenges of operating in India, and how have you tackled them?
Hiring people poses greater challenges. The evolution and the maturity of our processes allow us to do research and development around the world. I think we have matured our communication and understanding of best practices quite well.

How does India compare with China, Eastern Europe or other emerging markets?
The other thing that's exciting is that I think India can be one of the places, [like] China, with a number of people who will access the Internet using a non-PC device rather than a PC. There's going to be new market development that happens in some of these emerging markets.

From what I gather here from their product strategy article is very simple. India is worth investing in. The challenges are high, but every emergent market space is challenging !!

Via [ Knowlege@Wharton]

Testing Beta Blogger

2006-08-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

Testing Beta Blog Platfrom using a Google account.