Great session this morning – lots of Q&A… lot’s of value! Here’s the presentation Mike used — special thanks to Bill Muirhead, PMP of Alpine Electronics – who had a last minute conflict (and thanks to Mike for stepping up on short notice). Ed mentioned keeping the conversation going — feel free to comment and share with those who could not attend.

Handouts & Other Tools:

• Project Risk Threshold
• Risk Response Plan Template
• “Project Risk Management Bible” – Risk Management, Tricks of the Trade — Rita Mulcahy

Our culture loves the idea of revolutionary movements — perhaps because it was the foundation of our country?  Revolutions are powerful and from time to time necessary… but it is disruptive to everyday life as it shakes foundations.  Consider an alternative – “fast evolution”, “rapid proto-typing” or “iterative design” for designing new products, services and processes.  Listen to David Kelley of IDEO talk about this concept.

Thanks for a great presentation Mike — great reviews all around.  We’ll work on getting a portion or all of the video up soon.  For now here is the presentation for further review and discussion. See the end of the slide deck for some of the resources Mike mentioned and used in creating this presentation.

PRE SESSION

Mike Krouse has led many meetings in his roles at Lincoln — along the way, he’s learned many valuable lessons.

Join us at this session:

http://bit.ly/DHk8L

July 30th, 7:30 – 9:00

TQM Training Center
825 Barr Street, Fort Wayne, IN

Check back after the event for higlights of the session!

Other David Allen Resources:
Twitter Time Management

Defining the roles, understanding the role responsibilities, and agreeing on who will handle that role is an essential first step in any project. Clearly defining employee roles on your team is vital to project efficiency and success. When team members understand their roles, they will be more productive and have a greater sense of buy-in and accomplishment. Role definition is particularly important with “virtual” project teams – working together but not in the same state, country or even continent — where lack of cohesive culture, body language and non-verbal cues to enhance communication are missing.

When:
Team leaders/project managers may want to predetermine each team role and responsibility prior to selecting the team member to fill that position. Or make assignments in the initial team meeting, taking time to assign roles and tasks to each member.

How:
Don’t assume team members understand how to do the role they are assigned. Take time to clearly communicate expectations, boundaries, responsibilities and goals to each team member. Allowing plenty of time for questions and clarification.

Why:
Understanding the boundaries and expectations of a role provides support and accountability for team members in performing their tasks. Pre-defined roles also help to avoid conflicts, misunderstandings, and turf battles between team members and other employees. In recent research (Feyerherm, A. E. & Rice, C. L.:Emotional Intelligence and Team Performance) team members generally report a greater sense of motivation, job satisfaction, and team cohesiveness when roles are defined.

See other articles by Deb at www.deborahcmiller.com

I passed the PMP Exam recently, and wanted to share my experience in general. For those opposed to the PMP exam, please read before commenting, you may be surprised.

In general:
* Many questions involved picking the “best” of several correct answers
* The technique of eliminating 2 answers first didn’t work in some cases…for many there were 3 correct answers to choose the “best” one from
* I don’t remember any questions that involved picking which answer is NOT correct
* There was a calculator program built into the CBT software, was not allowed to bring in my own calculator (it may be different for you, I suggest you check with your examination place beforehand)
* I brought bottled water and some light snacks, and took a break at least every 45 minutes. It was good to just stare out the window and clear my mind of PMP-related thoughts for 5-10 minutes.
* It took me only 2 1/2 hours, but I could see how if you are not a native english-speaker it may take longer to interpret the questions properly.

My preparation:
* PM Prepcast (comes with some sample questions, study guide, etc.)
* PMBoK Guide (reference only, I never read through it)
* Using the concepts whenever possible on my project
* 2 weeks before the test, no more studying. Only sample questions. All the free sample questions I could find plus the ones I got with the PM Prepcast

I listened to the PM Prepcast on drives to and from work, and because he gives so many examples of real-world situations it helped me “internalize” the concepts so I really understood them. I didn’t spend any time trying to memorize inputs and outputs, etc. If there was something I needed to see, I made a mental note and then when I got to work or home I’d pull out the PMBoK guide and reference the section in question to better understand it. For the most part, I just used the graphics and flowcharts in the PMBok guide for reference.

Author & His Son

No, the majority of employers who know anything about what the PMP is are screening for it, not against it. Therefore, it is important to me from a pragmatic standpoint that I put myself in a position to best support my family with the value I bring to the firms I work with. The PMP is but one of many things I’ve done and continue to do in order to market my skills and value effectively. I understand that this certification does not certify me as a project manager, nor does it certify any level of competency. I think it’s a signal that I have a minimum level of knowledge about project management and have some familiarity with formal practices laid out in the PMBoK standard.

Now, the primary benefit I’ve received was NOT as a result of earning the certification. It was during the process of studying for it and applying the concepts in my day job, alongside other frameworks and methodologies and specific processes necessary for my project’s situation. When I wrote a management plan that was not in line with the PMBoK, I understood exactly how and why, and that there’s nothing wrong with that. I can’t stress enough the value I received from the PM Prepcast. I paid less than $50 for it, and it was worth at least $500 to me. It was so much better than any boot camp, training class, or prep book. Those things mostly focus on memorization or take a lot of time and money. I studied while I was driving and got lots of real-world examples to bring the concepts to life. I’m confident that if I took the PMP exam again a year from now, I’d pass it with no problem because I know this stuff, I didn’t just memorize it.

Executive managers ask for reports that show performance measures. Technical or key performance indicators are often displayed using dashboards and scorecards as a means to evaluate the health of the strategic plan. The problem presented in this article is that most organizations have a disconnect between corporate strategy and day-to-day activities. Therefore, organizations can measure performance, but they can’t manage it.

Breakthrough Business Performance indicates that some attributes that lead to the failure of executing strategy are poor definition, non-tangible, not clearly communicated, and measurement not focused on key drivers. Organizations are invited to adopt a discipline that links strategy execution with key business processes through the management of 1) objectives, 2) initiatives, 3) resources, 4) risks, and 5) incentives. The theory is that organizations can manage performance by tying performance metrics, initiatives, resources, and risks to strategic objectives.

Some projects are required to use Earned Value Management (EVM) to manage performance on large scale high risk endeavors. EVM is a methodology used to integrate scope, schedule, and budget and uses objective performance measures to monitor progress. There are two types of effort that are measured, level of effort and discrete. Level of effort is often the administrative support such as general project management and other overhead type functions. Discrete effort involves the more tangible key drivers or objectives required for delivery at the end of the endeavor. A well designed earned value management system requires the responsible control account managers to clearly define the initiatives by depicting the particular objectives in a work breakdown structure dictionary. The dictionary will also house some of the high level risks or assumptions that may impact the outcome. The resources are presented in a basis of estimate artifact that explains the rationale behind the costs related to the initiatives. All of the appropriate scope, schedule, and cost artifacts are captured into one project management plan and performance measurement baseline as the basis for performance.

Using project management software tools such as Primavera P6, Deltek Cobra, and other enterprise systems have proven useful to organizations to obtain a more formal method of achieving best practices for measuring and managing performance. One caveat is that investing in a specialty tool sets also means that organizations must invest in specialty experts to operate and maintain the system. The trick is striking the right balance between measurements vs. management. Integration management just happens to be one of many hats that project managers wear throughout the life of a project
References

Breakthrough Performance Management: Tying Performance Metrics To Business Strategy.

(2005, January). Business Credit, Retrieved October 12, 2008, from EBSCO MegaFILE
database.

Author, Network Member, Deb Miller

Projects come in all sizes and shapes.  Some projects are highly complex and require a lot of effort to keep them on track.  Less complex projects still require a certain level of communication and planning.  Regardless of the complexity, project planning is a step-by-step process.  Every project follows the same steps, the project complexity determines to what extent.

Step 1:  Define the Project

If this step is not carefully undertaken, the end result may be disappointing at the very least, and expensive at its worst.  Goals are defined in measurable terms.  Business Needs are analyzed.  A Project Charter is written to reflect business need and goals, along with costs, deliverables, available resources and the schedule.  Stakeholders are clearly identified.  Stakeholders may include users, support personnel, managers and champions.

Step 2:  Plan the Project

Many projects get bogged down here.  Either the organization spends too much time worrying about the details or not enough.  Effective project design depends on a balance of both.  A good project design will: satisfy the business requirements, meet quality standards, and fulfill time and budget constraints.

Step 3:  Execute the Project Plan

But no plan is worthy without execution.  Or in terms of the Nike commercial, “Just Do It!”  This step requires skillful coordination of people and resources.  Progress is carefully tracked.  Deliverables are produced as promised.

Step 4:  Analyze Results and Implement Controls

And no plan is flawlessly executed.  Unforeseen difficulties will arise.  In this step, problems with the implementation and design are identified and corrected.  Once the project is determined to be effective, controls are put into place to ensure continued success.

Step 5:  Close the Project

Closing out the project includes gaining formal acceptance of the project results, archiving the files and documenting lessons learned.  Then communicate it to all stakeholders.

• Accident Investigation
• Ergonomics Issues
• Blood-borne disease
• TRIZ
• Value Stream Mapping
• FMEA
• Legal Issues of Employment
• 7 Habits for Highly Effective People
• Execution; Getting Things Done in the Real World
• Competing For Top Talent – Recruiting & Retention
• Event Prep & Facilitation
• Advanced Team Building Tools
• Power, Position & Influence in Teams
• The Power of Listening
• Risk Communication
• Telephone Tactics
• How to Communicate Effectively – Even With Jerks!
• How to Get Heard in a Meeting
• Effectively Communicating Strategic & Tactical Change
• Creating Win-Win With Customer Problems
• Building Customer Value & Loyalty
• Mapping Customer Value
• When Customer Service Service Goes Wrong – How to Bounce Back
• Dealing With Project Road Blocks
• Defining, Prioritizing & Matching Projects & Tools
• Establishing & Validating the Benefits of Projects