Scope crêpe

EarthPM

2011-09-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

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Most of my recent blog posts have been put on our EarthPM site.

We also now blog for Projects at Work.

Visit those two links above and you can keep up with me more regularly.

Just to see if you're all paying attention, I may still blog here on general PM topics from time to time...

Think Tragically

2010-08-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Not a major post, just a passing thought.

I was listening to an interview with the author on this story about the middle east.

The article is interesting, but what caught my attention in particular was a phrase he used and its applicability to risk identification:

"the way to avert tragedy is to think tragically".

It's important to be a "Debbie Downer" when you're identifying risk. It's a certain skill to be able to be really negative and identify all things that can go most horribly wrong and then turn around and be optimistic about the project.

But develop that skill, and you'll serve your project better.

On another note: please click on the adverts on the page and help me support this blog?

Thanks.

And now...

2010-08-02T12:04:00.000-07:00

"And now for something completely different..."

This was the way the chaps over at Monty Python's Flying Circus used to segue from sketch to sketch when they had no idea how to do it smoothly.

And this is a blog post which I cannot segue to, or otherwise connect properly to project management other than my work over at EarthPM, and yet somehow I felt that this post belonged here at ScopeCrepe.

So anyway...now for something completely different - A history of the world in 100 objects.

I simply want to recommend this excellent BBC series, available for free by podcast. This site uses objects to tell a history of the world. You’ll find 100 objects from the British Museum and hundreds more from museums and people across the UK (and the world).

The connection to project management?

Well, there isn't one, unless you think of the evolution of humans as a project... which is indeed something completely different.

Seriously - check out the podcast, you'll be glad you did.

Be a project LEADer

2010-07-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

If you're a PMI member (and who isn't...) you should consider taking advantage of the community.

What community? Well, there are a bunch, but at this point I want you to follow LEAD.

LEAD is the acronym for the Learning And Education Development community, and you can find that here: http://lead.vc.pmi.org .

Besides some interesting discussions and blogs, you will also find some very good webinars. The next one, "Project Manager's Guide to Dealing w/the Difficult Sponsor" comes up quickly, 30-July.

Check it out here:

http://lead.vc.pmi.org/Calendar/tabid/1084/vw/3/ItemID/166/d/20100730/Default.aspx

Enjoy!

PS: try the other communities, too!

We just ain't that good at risk

2010-07-11T06:48:00.000-07:00

One of the things that has always fascinated me as I've studied project management is the aspect of risk.

Risk is the engine of projects. Think about it. Without risk, projects would be planned, everything would go as planned (no threats...no opportunities) and we, as project managers, would be responsible only for checking boxes on a checklist.

How boring.

But of course (witness exploding and leaking oil wells!) threats do occur. Projects do go off course. We do need to deal with uncertainty.

In fact, it's probably the only thing that IS certain about a project - the uncertainty, that is. And that keeps us, well... employed.

All of this said, it's also interesting to note that humans are not built well to deal with risk. In fact, there are huge monuments to this disability located all over the world. They're called casinos. Logic would tell us that if the organizations that build these things are rich enough to make them look like they do - with extravagant waterfalls, marble foyers and gold statues - they are most likely winning while we are losing. Yet we go back again and again.

I'd like to share with you a snippet from a great book I'm reading called "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz.

Imagine that you have decided to see a concert where admission is $20 a ticket. As you enter the concert hall, you discover that you have lost a $20 bill. Would you still pay $20 for a ticket to the concert?

Answer honestly.

Now scroll down for what people say in general - and another scenario.

Almost 90 percent of respondents say yes.

Now try this one:

Imagine that you have decided to see a concert and already purchased a $20 ticket. As you enter the concert hall, you discover that you have lost the ticket. The seat was not marked and the ticket cannot be recovered. Would you pay $20 for another ticket?

Answer honestly again. Then scroll down.

In this situation, less than 50 percent of respondents say yes.

Kahneman and Tversky(two scientists who've studied human behavior in uncertain conditions) suggest that the difference between the two cases has to do with the way in which we frame our "psychological account. Suppose that in a person's psychological ledger there is a "cost of the concert account. In the first case, the cost of the concert is $20 charged to that account. But the lost $20 bill is charged to some other account, perhaps "miscellaneous. But in the second case, the cost of the concert is $40; the cost of the lost ticket, plus the cost of the replacement ticket, both charged to the same account.

---

So what's the lesson here?

Acknowledge that we're not good at managing risk with (only) our gut.

Acknowledge that the tools and techniques given to us by our PM books and mentors are worthwhile. Don't try to manage projects ONLY with your gut. Your gut is fine, but not all by itself. Look what it's done for the casino business!

Spaced-out project teams

2010-06-26T18:37:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite podcasters and all-around good guys is Wayne Turmel.

Besides running a business which reduces a whole lot of unneeded carbon footprint (http://greatwebmeetings.com) he hosts a great podcast called "The Cranky Middle Manager".

On a recent episode (number 240, I think!) he interviewed Charlie Pellerin, formerly of NASA.

I won't give away too much of the podcast, and urge you to listen to it (link here).

The reason I'm posting is to also point you to the resources available on Charlie Pellerin's company's site.

You'll find Powerpoint presentations to download which vibrantly illustrate the concepts of social context and how that can have just as much - if not more - impact on your project as the technical aspects. Have a look.

An upcoming seminar on Project Risk - Mark Your Calendars

2010-06-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

The Gulf oil spill crisis is in day 58. Debate continues on the amount of oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well, but it's clear that this disaster easily beats the Exxon Valdez.

And BP has now pledge to pay $20B (yes Billion) to a fund that will support the Gulf. See this link.

What type of project risk identification, analysis, planning, and response did the responsible (and I use that word lightly) parties have?

We'll be discussing this and much more in an inexpensive 2-day seminar run by yours truly for EPM Solutions.

The seminar, entitled "A Question of Balance", runs two nights, and is given via Webinar. The schedule calls for it to run on 27 and 29 July (Tuesday and Thursday nights, 6PM to 8:30PM Eastern US time.

It'll earn you 5 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from an REP (Registered Education Provider).

Details are here:

http://www.enterprisepmsolutions.com/?p=979

The webinar will allow you to:

Gain a deeper, more integrated understanding of how risk affects a project
Translate this into how this affects the planning of your projects
Collect, understand, and use advice and tools for risk identification
Improve your capabilities in risk analysis
Expand their capabilities of developing effective risk responses
Reaffirm the importance of continuing, ongoing risk management

Don't risk missing it!

Promoting PM amongst our younger students...

2010-06-11T20:50:00.001-07:00

I recently (today, actually) had a chance to represent the profession of Project Management at the Coolidge Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts.

In three 30-minute sessions, I used an interactive presentation to brainstorm the project of developing and making available to the market, a green (ecologically, that is) car. My audience was the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (one grade at a time).

Although I was in competition with a policeman in full uniform and other "cooler" jobs, I think things went swimmingly. I enjoyed it, and my daughter, an English teacher at the school, tells me that from her perspective in the audience - it worked. I had fun, they had...well, perhaps "fun" is too strong of a word, but they seemed to "get it" when I asked them what they picked up from the session.

I used three exercises:

1. A brainstorming session to identify stakeholders
2. A live WBS creation session
3. A brainstorming session to identify risks and then treat the risk, "the car is ugly"

I closed with some examples of PM jobs and an actual snippet from a job posting site showing all of the PM jobs available.

I think this worked much better than lecturing to them.

If any of you PMs who end up getting invited to a Career Day would like a copy of the presentation, I'm glad to make it available to you. Actually I am working with the LEAD Community of Practice of PMI to see how I can share the document within their structure. If that fails, I'll make it available right here on the blog. If you need it right away, contact me through the blog.

Let's keep PM vital by making its wisdom available to our youngest students!

Will the PMP Credential Bring You Fame and Fortune? Or...at least fortune? Maybe...

2010-04-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

One of the things we study in preparation of the PMP exam is "correlation". It's important for PMs to know how to quickly judge the relationship of two variables, say, for example, vendor performance on one deliverable versus overall project performance. As we know, pairs of variables can be highly correlated, unrelated, or negatively correlated, such as a higher budget overrun and your manager's level of happiness.

Well, as you see in the chart, there is a correlation between not only the years of PM employment and Salary, but if you look at the vertical distance between the two curves, there's also a consistent correlation of Salary depending on whether or not the population has a PMP(R) credential.

Say what you will about the exam, the process, even the PMI itself. In very practical terms - money - the PMP credential does seem to make a difference. Remember, this is a readout of population and not an individual statistic. So don't bring this into your boss' office and expect a raise if you just got your PMP. It's just as we said at the beginning - this shows that the PMP and Salary are related - not just friends or acquaintances.

Although this graph is US data only, we encourage you to read the entire story here at the PMI Today link

When is a "Pass" not a "Pass"?

2010-04-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

I know this looks like a posting about football And it is. A little. But it's really about the PMP(R) Exam. Let me explain.

In American or Canadian football, when a Quarterback (as in Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, above) throws the ball, it's a pass. Plain and simple. No controversy. Right?

Not exactly. There are all kinds of rules, it turns out. Did the arm move forward?

See this entry from Wikipedia:

In American and Canadian football, a forward pass—usually called simply a pass—consists of one offensive player throwing the football towards another downfield in the direction of the opponent's end line. This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed, provided the pass is thrown from in or behind the neutral zone. An illegal forward pass incurs a 5 yard penalty and the loss of a down.

If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball it is a complete pass and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball. If an opposing player legally catches the ball (all defensive players are eligible receivers) it is an interception. That player's team immediately gains possession of the ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent's goal. If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground. It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down. If any player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which is a foul.

The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team, and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player.

The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game. The pass begins the moment the passer's arm begins to move forward. If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball. In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground. In Canadian football, if the passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is an incomplete pass (unless someone catches the ball before it hits the ground in which case it is a completed pass or an interception). Under American football's tuck rule, if the quarterback is attempting to bring the ball back to his body after starting a passing motion, a lost ball may be considered an incomplete pass even if the quarterback's arm is moving backward at the time.

The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the line of scrimmage or drops back a few paces as the ball is snapped. This places him in an area called the "pocket" which is a protective region formed by the offensive blockers up front and between the tackles on each side. A quarterback who runs out of this pocket is said to be scrambling. Under NFL and NCAA rules, once the quarterback moves out of the pocket, and there is no good option for a forward pass, the ball may be legally thrown away to prevent a sack. NFHS (High School) rules do not allow for a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass to save loss of yardage or conserve time, except for a spike to conserve time after a hand to hand snap. If he throws the ball away while still in the pocket then a foul called "grounding" is assessed. In Canadian football the passer must simply throw the ball across the line of scrimmage—whether he is inside or outside of the "pocket"-in order to avoid the foul of "intentionally grounding".

My point: what seems like a simple concept - throwing a ball - is not actually so simple. And learning how to throw the ball (in other words, to pass) is more complex than you'd think.

That's the connection to the PMP exam. You'd think that what it takes to pass the exam, even the percentage you must achieve to pass, would be simple to find out. In fact, PMI used to say that it was a 61%. But then all references to a passing score number were removed from PMI literature and we seem to be left to guess at the passing score.

A unique online journal (blog) has come up with some insight that I urge you to look through, if you are going for the PMP certification. In three postings they reveal what they think PMI is up to. The bottom line is this: each exam iteration is different. A unique set of questions is given to each student, so each exam is of VARIABLE difficulty and thus the passing score is adjusted commensurately. So each student really gets their own test with their own passing score!

Start by looking at these three postings from Deep Fried Brain (yes - that's the name of the blog). It's put together very well and may just help you understand how to prepare for passing the exam more effectively.

http://www.deepfriedbrainpmp.com/2009/12/popular-myths-pmp-exam-pass-score.html

http://www.deepfriedbrainpmp.com/2010/04/best-kept-secret-of-pmp-certification.html

http://www.deepfriedbrainpmp.com/2009/11/pmp-exam-passing-score-number-game.html

Enjoy your studying. And we hope you "touchdown" safely!

Getting the science right -->

2010-03-08T12:01:00.000-08:00

...and when I say getting the science right, I could mean, getting it correctly, or I could mean getting it more to the political right.

Please see this posting on our sister site, EarthPM.com, to find out what I could possibly be talking about...

Click here, if you dare.

Rising to the top

2010-02-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

As we approach our 100th posting, Scope Crepe is also getting some recognition out there.

It turns out that we're listed number 8 in the top 100 Project Management blogs. Now, to be fair, the list is categorized, and general PM blogs come first, so the 8/100 ranking is probably a little inflated, but hey - we made the list. The awarding agency is a construction management journal. The listing is very nicely categorized by topic, you should check it out and bookmark it as a resource.

See the entire list of top PM blogs here.

New PMO Blog

2010-02-22T20:24:00.000-08:00

Just a short-t0-the-point post this time, folks.

Here's a resource for those of you curious about the art and science of forming and effectively operating a PMO.

Can't spell PMO? This site will give you the basics, too.

Click here to visit Mel Bost's PMO site.

The Cost of Community

2010-02-09T20:57:00.000-08:00

I'm in the midst of teaching Managing Project Quality at a local college and I had a small realization I thought I would share.

First of all for those not familiar with the principles of Cost of Quality (CoQ), here is an excellent, concise description from the American Society for Quality:

The "cost of quality" isn't the price of creating a quality product or service. It's the cost of not creating a quality product or service.

Every time work is redone, the cost of quality increases. Obvious examples include:

The reworking of a manufactured item.
The retesting of an assembly.
The rebuilding of a tool.
The correction of a bank statement.
The reworking of a service, such as the reprocessing of a loan operation or the replacement of a food order in a restaurant.

In short, any cost that would not have been expended if quality were perfect contributes to the cost of quality.

So I was thinking about this while working to establish and build a Community of Practice (CoP) at a different enterprise (in other words, not the college). And perhaps it's the fact that alphabetically, CoP and CoQ are only one letter away...but I realized that some of the pushback I was getting from the enterprise about establishing the Community of Practice was in the following form:

"We're too busy"
"We don't have time"
"All our projects are in crisis mode"
"We keep making the same mistakes"
"We're just too busy"
"We're really just too busy", and just for good measure,
"We're really just too %*#&@ busy"

In other words, I realized, they didn't want to invest 'cost', in the form of time, into Community because they weren't seeing the value the Community would provide, just as some manufacturers don't see the value that Quality can bring, so they just keep producing junk, servicing it, getting complaints, getting sued, and continuing the "We're too busy" refrain as they death-spiral out of existence.

So think about it. If you have a community of project managers, you may easily have thousands -perhaps tens of thousands -of years of experience to draw from, and more realistically, you have hundreds of project artifacts, templates, and just plain old "don't step in that!" types of warnings to benefit from. With not-too-much investment, you can tame that information into knowledge and wisdom from which you will greatly benefit. And guess what? You will actually have MORE time. Time spent up front saves much more time later.

That's the Cost of Community (or Community of Practice) equation.

Don't get caught on the wrong side.

The soul of PMI

2010-01-16T22:13:00.000-08:00

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has approved (via its recent Board of Directors meeting) a revitalized set of core values. These actually are the essential principles which guide PMI. These were recently shared in PMI Today's January 2010 issue, in which they even go as far as to say that these values are the "soul" of the organization.

Given that these are so fundamental, underlying, and soulful, we thought we'd share them here, add a comment, and ask your opinion.

The PMI Core Values

At PMI, we believe in:

Project Management Impact
Project management is a critical competence that has a positive influence on organization results and society.

Professionalism
Accountability and ethical behavior ensures our commitment to PMI stakeholders.

Volunteerism
Volunteers and effective volunteer partnerships with staff are the best way to accomplish the Institute’s goals and objectives.

Community
Bringing members of the global project management community together is the best way to advance the project management profession and facilitate their growth.

Engagement
Encouraging diverse viewpoints and enabling individuals to contribute to the project management profession and to the Institute.

These are refreshingly short-winded and to-the-point. And so we will be with our comment. We're glad to see that the first value is "Impact" of project management, and we're particularly happy that they end with "a positive influence on organizational results and society". We think (and hope) that this includes the aspects of project management and sustainability and the environment. This is something we're focusing on over at our 'cousin' site http://earthpm.com .
What do you think of the values? Did PMI hit the target? Do you interpret that first value the same way?
Play it, Steve.

Ancient discovery of agile PM from 2600BC?

2009-12-12T18:07:00.001-08:00

In Dahshur, Egypt, you will find one of the most interesting of all of the (already interesting) pyramids. It's called the "Bent Pyramid", and it was built for a king named Sneferu (pictured below).

What's interesting about this particular pyramid is that its slope suddenly and dramatically changes from 52 degrees to a much lower slope of about 43 degrees, about halfway up the height of the pyramid.

Why?

What happened?

Two theories abound, both of which are definitely all about our profession and discipline.

Theory 1 says that there were collapses and problems (risk triggers and risk occurrences) that indicated the slope was too steep for the materials they were using so the design was changed on the fly to the softer slope.

Theory 2 says that the death of the pharaoh was more imminent than originally expected (schedule pull-up) and they needed to finish more quickly.

Either way, the project engineers were dealing with another pyramid of sorts, or at least a triangle - the ancient triple constraint. This has fallen from favor in the PMBOK(R) Guide, replaced on page 6 with a listing of Scope, Quality, Schedule, Budget, Resources, and Risk, but however you look at it, the project manager adapted and showed his or her agility with the change in slope midway through the project.

Today, much is being made of agile PM, mainly in the area of software development. To some PMs, agile seems like a pyramid scheme (sorry for that lame reference, but I simply had to do it); to others, it is the new way and the only way to do things.

The PMBOK(R) guide does not feature agile PM techniques per se - it does not even show up in the index. However some authors and speakers have done some excellent work on how agile PM can be linked to the PMBOK(R) Guide. Check out this site, from Michele Sliger of Sliger Consulting, it's loaded with some great presentations on the subject.

To me, and this posting, it's really just a reminder of how proud and ancient our job is. As evidenced here, we've been dealing with change requests for thousands and thousands of years.

Now for those of you who have been following ScopeCrepe from its ancient beginnings, you know this isn't my first posting about pyramids, nor will it be the last.

If the idea of pyramids intrigues you, you may want to go back to Akapalah Pyramids, now a classic, for sure, and read that one!

Looking past "The End of the Beginning"

2009-12-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

As project managers we think (and often dream) about the end of our projects. And what is that end?

It's the successful turn up of a computer network. Or, it's the availability of a new service. Or, perhaps it's the readiness of a new bridge, a new building, a new drug, a new electric toothbrush.

Do you note a pattern here?

When we're done, something else, usually something bigger, is starting.

We often limit our thinking as project managers to the lifecycle of our project and don't think enough about the lifecycle of the product of our projects. For those of you who weren't paying attention, that's the "bigger thing" that is enabled by your project.

This concept reminded me (or perhaps it's the other way around) of a book and movie which I've always enjoyed. Both the book and movie share the title, "The Discovery of Heaven". Do yourself a favor and rent this film or read the book. It's by famed Dutch author Harry Mulisch, and it's not known so well in the USA but is throughout Europe. Here's the trailer.

From wikipedia, here is the synopsis of the book:

The Discovery of Heaven tells the story of an angel-like being, who is ordered to return to Heaven the stone tablets containing the ten commandments, given to Moses by God, which symbolise in the book the link between Heaven and Earth. The divine being, however, cannot himself travel to Earth, and on several occasions in the book resorts to influencing events. He affects the personal lives of three people (two men and one woman) in order that a child will be conceived. This child would then have an innate desire to seek out and return the Tablets.

The book consists of four parts (dubbed "The Beginning of the Beginning", "The End of the Beginning", "The Beginning of the End", and "The End of the End"). In between these four parts, the angel-like being discusses "The Plan" with his superior, who is supposedly an archangel.

The inspiration for the posting comes not from the religious theme of the book, but rather the way the book is organized:

The Beginning of the Beginning
The End of the Beginning
The Beginning of the End
The End of the End

Now back to project management and our way of thinking. We don't realize it when we plan our projects but we only work on the first two parts: The Beginning of the Beginning, where we Initiate and Plan the project, and The End of the Beginning, in which we execute, monitor and control, and close the project. We don't look ahead - often enough - to what happens in the "life and death" of the bridge, the building, the drug, the computer system - even the electric toothbrush.

And that brings me to Life Cycle Analysis, something my partner and I at EarthPM are asserting that we'd better start looking at as PMs - and not just for the very valid environmental reasons, but because it helps us understand the project, its product, and its products' customers more effectively.

I won't detail this here because it's something we'll be covering in our upcoming book, but I would like to reference you to the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) site that covers this. They provide an excellent set of PDF training on the subject.

Here's a link to the basic training page of the EPA. There's more, much more to be learned on this subject and we will be covering it in our upcoming book, but I wanted to share this with you here first. Learn more on EarthPM.com.

And go rent that movie!

Oh, chute!

2009-11-17T20:30:00.000-08:00

I'd like to share an analogy I use in my Project Management courses to explain the often misunderstood difference between secondary and residual risk.

Secondary risks are those which are caused by the treatment or response to the risk.

Residual risk is the risk which remains even after you have treated or responded to the risk.

So here goes the analogy.

You are jumping from a plane. Yep. That's a situation which clearly has some threat to it. It also has opportunity (in this case a thrill). But let's focus on the threat. How do we respond to the threat of severe injury or death that we will encounter if we simply fall to the ground from several thousand meters (or feet, it really doesn't matter)?

Well the answer is that we mitigate the risk with a parachute. That's our risk response. So let's go through two scenarios in which the parachute doesn't work exactly like it was designed.

Scenario 1: We pull the cord, and the parachute deploys but due to air currents, the force of the "tug" when it deploys causes you to sprain your shoulder. Oh, CHUTE! Ow! That hurts. That is an example of secondary risk. The risk response (the chute) caused a new risk.

Scenario 2: We pull the cord, the parachute deploys smoothly, and we cruise to the ground but for whatever reason it does not provide us a slow enough descent and, Oh CHUTE! Ow! we sprain an ankle when we land. That's an example of residual risk - a threat that remains even after we have responded to the risk.

I hope that helps clear up the difference.

Whether or not this cleared things up for you, at least get a laugh out of this posting. Have a look at this humorous video from Dutch insurance carrier Centraal Beheer, involving... you guessed it, a secondary risk from a parachute. Click here for the video.

Happy landings!

"The danger of the single story"- Chimamanda Adichie

2009-10-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

You know that I've blogged before about the danger of PMs taking a single-point estimate. I want to draw your attention to a nice talk given by Chimamanda Adichie (shown on the left) called, "The Danger of the Single Story".

I'd like to acknowledge Pervez Mohammed of VISIONS non-profit group for making me aware of this video.

It takes the idea of a single-point estimate to a whole new level.

Listen to her. The video is about 20 minutes and is located HERE.

Then think. Or maybe reflect is a better word here. Think about using this as you identify risks, as you build your teams, as you take inputs from contributors. Don't rely on one source. As a PM you need to be unbiased and open to wider sources of information and willing to listen to alternate versions.

This talk may help you with that.

Enjoy.

Bored --> Board --> Exciting

2009-10-19T11:39:00.001-07:00

Today, I'm very happy to announce that I've become a Distributor for a tremendous product that brings fun, intrigue, and yes, even thrills to the world of learning about project management. Thus the image above.

Project management learning should be a little more like that, don't you think? Well, it can be, with a board game that takes project managers on a bit of a roller-coaster ride through a project and teaches them about risk and much more.

The board game, which was carefully developed over a nine year period by Kay Wais at Successful Projects can now be obtained via my company, Exclaim!PM.

See the press release HERE.

This game and supporting materials - although focused on project risk management - really uses the "churning is learning" philosophy that Kay and I agree is so basically important to the way adults learn about project management in general.

I plan to use adopt it in my series of courses that make up a Master's Certificate in PM, and if you are an educator or student of PM and would like to do the same, please contact me for information and availability of the materials.

Here's a picture of the game:

There's a video of the game here.

For more about the game, contact me directly at exclaim@verizon.net

Thanks!

Free WBS tool for download

2009-10-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a very small program with a very specialized task: make quick work out of genrating a WBS.

It's free, fairly intuitive, and does its task well.

Check it out here:

http://www.wbs-tool.net/

Get SMARTER

2009-09-10T22:49:00.001-07:00

Some of the "more seasoned" of us may recall the old TV series, Get Smart, and the more youthful readers will certainly know the Get Smart movie that came out a few years (based on that original TV show). The title, and most of the writing, was very clever, and 'played with words'. Smart was the name of the agent, and the bad guys were always trying to 'get' (as in capture) Smart. But it was of course also a reference to getting smarter - as in 'gaining intelligence or wisdom'.

To remind you of the show, click here to see the opening music and credits which were a thing of beauty in and of themselves.

And most of us in the wonderful world of management will recognize the acronym SMART for dealing with goals and objectives. Remember?

S - specific, significant, stretching

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational

A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T - time-based, tangible, trackable

Well, we here at ScopeCrepe, and also at EarthPM, our related endeavor, would like to say that the time for getting SMART has passed. It's gone. It's fizzled. It's deceased. Would you believe that it was at least getting old?

Instead of just getting SMART these days, we think we need to be SMARTER. How, you ask, can we be SMARTER?

Glad you asked.

We can be SMARTER by adding two more letters to SMART. Of course, those two letters are E and R.

E - Environmentally

R - Responsible

In other words, it's not just enough to set our project goals and objectives as we said above, we also have to consider the effectiveness of the processes of the project itself, and its own waste and inefficiencies, we also should consider the end-product and its disposal or re-use.

If this intrigues you at all, or even if it annoys you, you should find out more about what we're saying and how you can add those two little - but important- letters, by visiting EarthPM - http://earthpm.com .

And while you're at it, Get SMARTER!

Don't miss it, even by that much.

Take a guess. No googling allowed, though.

2009-08-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, here's a quick question for you. Without going online or doing any research, just off the top of your head, how many computers do you think are disposed of daily? To answer, fill out the POLL on the left top side of the blog. I will have the answer - as well as your guesses - on an updated version of this posting within 2 weeks.

In the meantime, if you're interested in project management (and you ARE, by virtue of your being here) and the environment (which you should be, as a resident of this particular planet), have a look at a website devoted to the intersection of those two things - EarthPM. Visit http://earthpm.com .

5 seconds of your time...please?

2009-07-28T05:26:00.001-07:00

Please follow the link below to answer a 1-question poll about how your organization deals with... with... well, you have to go to the poll to find out.

This is the link below that I was talking about above:
OK, I will give you 5 seconds!

Choices...choices...

2009-07-12T08:27:00.001-07:00

As a project manager - even if you ended up in the career, as many of us did, as an accident - you will be making lots and lots of choices. Add more resources to this task? Use the Jones company or the Smith company as your subcontractor? Have an on-site project kickoff meeting or a virtual one?

I just listened to an excellent podcast on the subject of choice. It was on NPR's Radiolab, one of my favorite podcasts and one I would highly recommend you subscribe to.

It's brain food. Eat well.

In the podcast was something interesting about the way our mind works. A psychological study was referenced in which people were given numbers to memorize - numbers which were short, like "23" or numbers which were long, like 034789328. The people went into a room, were given the number and were told to memorize it and move to another nearby room down the hall and repeat the number there. That was their only task.

On their way, they were interrupted by a woman with a pushcart who said something like, "excuse me, as part of your participation in the study, you get a snack; would you like a slice of chocolate cake, or a fruit cup?".

Here is the interesting part.

Participants who were given the longer numbers (like 034789328) were much, much, much more likely to choose the chocolate cake, and those given short numbers (like 23) were much more likely to pick fruit.

So what?

Well, it turns out (according to the continued research) the rational part of the brain that needs to process the analysis/memorization of the number is the same part which would make the rational decision that the fruit was the healthy, better choice. However, while occupied with the number, it was distracted, and the more emotional part of the brain, the one that says, "mmmm, gooey, yummy chocolate", takes over and makes the decision.

The connection to PM? When you need to make choices like the ones I mentioned at the opening of this posting, you may want to be sure that the rational part of your brain is free -- or you may be making a "chocolate cake" decision.

If this tickles your interest, see an article from Stanford University here.

And please - add RadioLab to your list of podcasts!

Greenality

2009-07-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Greenality. You probably never heard that word before. But we want to change that. We want you - project managers - to take the lead in making projects more green.

If we want to measure how green a project is, we need a word. If you want to check how original an idea is, we look into its originality. So if we want to check how green a project is, we've decided to coin the term greenality.

You can actually help. My colleague Dave Shirley, PMP, and I have placed the word greenality in Urban Dictionary and in Wikipedia. All we'd like you to do is go to THIS LINK and vote thumbs up on the word. Also if you have comments about expanding and illustrating greenality on wikipidea, just look it up first by clicking HERE and comment to this blog posting with your ideas.

Thanks for your help!

A "Car Talk" puzzler becomes a lesson in Risk ID

2009-07-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite radio shows is "Car Talk" on NPR (National Public Radio in the US). You don't have to be in the US to receive it, by the way. You can get their podcasts free of charge at http://www.cartalk.com .

Car Talk is a show which is incredibly entertaining even though it is made up mainly of people calling up the two hosts seeking help with car troubles. The hosts, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, also often have a "puzzler" or brain teaser, usually related to auto maintenance or something to do with cars. This most recent one, however, reminded me that we can learn a thing or two about project management wherever we are, even if it is listening to a podcast while sitting at a beach on Cape Cod Bay.

I suggest you read the transcript below and do two things:

1. See if you can solve the Puzzler

2. See if you can catch the connection to Risk Identification (answers below - DON'T CHEAT!)

------------------

RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and of course, the answer to last week's puzzler.

TOM: Yes, the dimly lit Quonset hut.

RAY: Anyway, this was sent to us by someone named Tom Clemala from cyberspace, I guess, and I'll set the scene. You ready?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: It's just as he did.

TOM: As he did. Go ahead.

RAY: Don't get too excited. The answer's not that good.

TOM: I love it. But the question is great.

RAY: An RAF airfield north of London, a dimly lit Quonset hut, filled with air crews just returned from bombing runs over Germany.

TOM: Dimly lit Quonset Hut.

RAY: All right, shut up will you? The meeting opens with the chaplain leading the men in prayer for their lost comrades. He's followed by the flight operations exec., who begins the debriefing by asking the airmen, "From what direction were you attacked by the German fighter planes?" Without hesitation or dissent, the reply was, "From above and behind." The flight operations exec hastily scribbles the information on the back of a top secret map, hands it to a junior officer and says, "Get this information to the departing air crews; it may save their lives."

TOM: Here comes the good part. This is the good part.

RAY: As the junior officer turns to leave the dimly lit Quonset hut, from the inky shadows, a hand grasps his arm.

TOM: Can you just see it, man? Was it Humphrey Bogart?

RAY: This was a nice, brief little puzzler, before you started repeating all the lines. Anyway, as the messenger turns to leave, from the inky shadows, a hand grasps his arm and he hears these words, hold that order. Or, hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't. Hold that order, the information you're about to give may lose lives, rather than save them. What did the guy from the inky shadows know that the flight exec didn't?

TOM: That's not the right question.

RAY: It isn't?

TOM: Well, I bet, I don't think. I mean doesn't the flight exec know the same information that this guy in the inky shadows knows?

RAY: Well, he should.

TOM: He should.

RAY: What mistake did the flight exec?

TOM: Yeah, that's better.

RAY: What mistake did the flight exec?

TOM: Exactly, and did he lose his job over it?

RAY: No. He should have.

TOM: He should have, huh?

RAY: Yeah, well.

TOM: You don't know the answer, by the way.

RAY: Basically, it was a case of poor sampling. You see the only information that the flight exec had in the dimly lit Quonset hut.

TOM: Stop it, stop it.

RAY: Was from the guys who survived, from the guys who came back. The guys who came back were all attacked from above and behind, but it may be that those weren't the fatal attacks. The fatal attacks were from some other direction, and those people, those airmen, had no advice to offer, because they didn't come back.

TOM: Exactly.

RAY: So that's why --

TOM: So, we don't even know what he wrote on the back on the map.

RAY: I'm assuming he wrote hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, the attacks are coming from above and behind.

TOM: Back and to the left.

RAY: When, in fact, that information --

TOM: What he wanted to know was the information from the guys who weren't at the meeting.

Did you guess the answer?

And did you see the connection to Project Management? Here, at least, is what I saw.

We need to identify a full contingent of people to interview when discovering (identifying) risk on our projects. Hopefully we don't face the same issue here, in which the identified risks are missed because of fatal incidents. The point is that we need to look for the identification of risk to come from a full spectrum of sources or we end up with Risk Identification bias.

In your projects, make this analogy. Think of where you may be getting information that's simply too optimistic (or pessimistic) because the folks who might have that information simply are not present and accounted for.

And for goodness sake, listen to at least one episode of Car Talk!

Is the world ready for earthpm.com ?

2009-06-30T19:55:00.000-07:00

Are you ready?

Are you - and your project - green?

Today, my colleague Dave Shirley, PMP, and I are proud to launch a new website, EarthPM, which is focused on all things you might find at the intersection of all things 'green' and all things Project Management.

We're just getting started, but the site already has some interesting articles and is about to be supplemented with interviews and other resources related to how your project can be more earth-friendly.

You may just be curious. You may just be an expert. Either way, we would like your feedback and opinions and input. It's your earth. It's your project. Here's where they come together.

Relax, have a seat in your comfy chair, and enjoy 'The Lazy Project Manager'

2009-06-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

Now, here is a book that is in harmony with the postings on this page and also written in a style that accommodates my sense of humor and philosophy of project management.

The Lazy Project Manager, a brand-new book by Peter Taylor, is, by his own admission, not a methodology nor a replacement for a PM book, nor a preparation for the PMP Exam. It is, however, written by a gentleman who is a PMP and who has a great deal of real-world PM experience. So you should pay attention regardless of what the book isn't.

What the book is, instead, is a collection of wisdom and coaching about how to manage projects in such a way that you are active and assertive as a PM when you need to be and only when you need to be. The author, a fan (like me) of Monty Python (see the Comfy Chair sketch by clicking here), and silliness in general, adapts one of Python's gimmicks as the common thread throughout the book: "a project is thick at one end, much, much thinner in the middle and then thick again at the far end". This is the opposite of a dinosaur, as theorized by Anne Elk (brackets, Miss, brackets) who stated, in her very own theory, which was hers, "all brontosauruses are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle, and then thin again at the far end".

Brontosauruses aside, the concept is that projects have the most need for attention and assertiveness by the PM at the starting and ending stages and in the middle need communication and management, yes, but in a much 'lazier', more monitoring and controlling fashion.

In his coaching and advice, the author tackles the usual suspects, feature and scope creep, the evils of email, reporting not being the same as communicating, dealing with a wide variety of project sponsors, and all cleverly illustrated not only with illustrations (the author is fond of two-by-two grids) but also illustrated with stories from his own experience and with jokes or brain teasers thrown in here and there.

Taylor does something that I have done on my blog and in my own writing - he gives you a chance to cheat. By cheating, I mean that he levels with you, the reader, the busy reader, the lazy reader, and says something like, "look, if you want to get to the bottom line, skip over to the last chapter now. You will miss some stuff but ... you'll get the idea". In fact, he even uses this principle of cheating itself to help explain the Pareto principle - a tactic I thought was particularly ingenious.

Another interesting thing about this book is the author's use of footnotes. Where many authors rely on footnotes only to reference their sources, Taylor instead takes the opportunity to provide a variety of other things in the footnotes. Don't skip them - or you will find yourself missing a recipe for a virgin bloody Mary.

So don't be lazy - get a hold of this book and read it, perhaps on a lazy summer afternoon.

Poignantly perpetuate your project's purpose

2009-06-12T07:18:00.000-07:00

This is a not a book review.

I tend to review PM books, but also read some general management books and note their applicability to project management. That's the case with Nikos Mourkogiannis' Purpose. I heard about the book on several podcasts and decided it would be a good read - and it was.

What I would like to do in this brief post is to share a couple of takeaways from the book for project managers.

The book is about how organizations can "purpose" themselves for success, and one of my assertions about project management has always been that it is a microcosm for organizations in the larger sense. But, as we all know, there are also differences - significant ones - between projects and operations. So one must look carefully for the gems in books like this that can be adopted and molded a bit to fit into the context of a project.

One such gem is Mourkogiannis' determination of the sources of energy for the company - or in our case, sources of energy for the project.

The four purposes which I think you can apply to a project (just as the author applies to great organizations) are:
Discovery, Excellence, Altruism, and Heroism

Mourkogiannis' point is that although no two companies are alike, successful ones have excelled by drawing on one of these philosophies and "applying it with integrity". There is an undercurrent in the book about morality, one which makes even more sense in light of the recent embarrassing and shameful stories from financial and "insurance" companies such as AIG and the Madoff schemes*. This seems to make the book and its ideas even more relevant now. But I digress, I want to tie this to PM.

Below is what is in effect the heart and soul of the book. I still recommend that you read it but this captures the main idea.

I suggest that PMs could do best by focusing on the chapter, "The Real Value of Purpose", in which the author gives examples of how each of these moral purposes were "put to work" to build the culture for success at the companies he uses as examples. I think that PMs could model some of these purposes to infuse their projects with the same kind of culture and focus, paying attention to which one suits their project most aptly.

Check it out for yourself by going to the author's web-based purpose profiler.

And you can order the book from that same page. On purpose.

*AIG (as are other companies who were mired in greed and a lack of Purpose) is so embarrassed, in fact, that they are removing their own name from their own employees' badges and corporate buildings. I'm not kidding: see this article from today's news:
AIG Said to Remove Logo From Employees Badges.

Go Banana Slugs!

2009-06-04T11:29:00.001-07:00

I never would have believed it unless I looked it up. And I did.

The official mascot for the University of California Santa Cruz is the ... Banana Slug. You can see one in action here.

What does this possibly have to do with project management? Not too much, but a little. I was asked to guest blog on the UCSC Silicon Valley Extension project management page, and I happily accepted. And this is before I knew about the Banana Slug logo.

So if you want to have a look at some posts - they may look familiar because some of them were re-treaded versions of ScopeCrepe postings, then you should slither over immediately (or whenever your sluggish activity gets you there) to:

http://svprojectmanagement.com

...and have a look at my three postings. But don't stop there, you will also find (or perhaps instead find) excellent material from other PM personalities. Give it a shot, ya big slug!

Let's Go Banana Slugs!!!

Getting better all the time?

2009-05-17T13:37:00.000-07:00

So....

You see the smiling, optimistic, fresh faces of the Beatles in the previous post? I want to believe, really, really want to believe, the numbers from PMI's survey. And I do, to some extent.

However, I wouldn't be "fair and balanced" if I didn't provide some recent news which seems to contradict, or at least contrast strongly against the PMI survey.

I'm referring to CHAOS. Not the top-secret bad-guy organization that Maxwell Smart (Agent 86, see recently-declassified photo on left) is always fighting along with his colleagues from CONTROL, but rather the reports issued periodically by the Standish Group of West Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

The latest report - in quite some contrast to the PMI report - shows a sustained upward trend in failed projects. The report organizes 'finished' projects into 3 categories, Successful (on time, under or at budget), Challenged (missed either the time or budget constraint, or both) and Failed (canceled and/or did not provide the scope they promised).

A press release about this from the Standish Group is here: http://www.standishgroup.com/newsroom/chaos_2009.php . What you see above is my representation using their published data. You'll note that the percentage of failed projects not only increases, but kicks up in slope in this last measurement - which is, as my Ducth friends would say, niet goed!

This begs the question: why the disconnect? I really don't have the answer, although I have some very strong beliefs (which I will share later) about the reason for this uptick in project failures, beginning around the year 2002.

It also begs another question, one on which one of my blog viewers has already commented: can one be very "mature" in PM and still have a high failure rate? And, if so, what does that tell us about the value of PM Maturity?

I know I raise more questions than answers here, but I would like to challenge folks to reconcile the different views of PM that these sets of data represent?

Thoughts?

Getting better all the time...

2009-05-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

"I used to get mad at my scope, my PMO just didn't cope. Holding me down, turning me 'round, right at the end of my rope.

Now I admit, it's getting better, it's getting better all the time..."

...apologies to The Beatles, from their song "Getting Better All the Time". To see (and hear) the real version, go here.

Why the flashback to the Sixties? Just got my latest edition of PMI Today. The feature story is about the latest survey on project performance, and there is the reason for the flashback - it's getting better all the time. What is? Project performance. A little better. Projects finishing on time moved up from 53% to 55% and projects finishing within budget edged up from 55% to 58%. The glass, however, is still just barely over half-full. These numbers are not great. Some other numbers were more impresive - 65% of respondents reported an increase over 2006 in projects meeting goals and business intent.

How about scope creep, the namesake of this blog? Well, unfortunately, that little slug is doing just fine, and is quite healthy, thank you very much. 51% of projects experience it, say the respondents. So....more work needed there.

What's nice about the survey is the positive correlation identified between PM maturity or project management culture (centered around a PMO) and project success rates. For example, One chart shows that if an organization has high PM maturity, on-time-ness and on-budget-ness go from 43% to 75% and 48% to 73%, respectively. And strikingly, scope creep affects 36% of projects for organizations that have achieved higher maturity levels but over 59% for those that have lower levels of PM maturity.

And how about this one - the frosting on the cake and a good justification in and of itself - for efforts in PM maturity: the increase in percentage of projects that met their goals (in other words, the whole reason for doing the project in the first place). It goes from 51% for low-maturity organizations to a whopping 80%, for those organizations with high PM maturity levels. Speaking of "being mad at your school", that's like going from an F to a B. Okay, a B-minus, but hey - it's still a B!

I'm trying to find a direct link to the survey, but in the meantime, you can go here to read the article. If you're pushing for increased PM maturity at your organization, this is good backup data for you.

So hopefully, for you as well, it's getting better all the time...

Hubba Hubba

2009-04-05T19:48:00.000-07:00

The hub. That's Boston's nickname. Its origin is interesting but basically it's because we think (and you can hate us for it or love us for it) that we are the center of everything.

Find out more about this colorful nickname at this link.

You can actually see it illustrated right there (on the right) in the logo of the Boston Bruins, our NHL (ice hockey) team. In fact, this is a year of resurgence for the Bruins, they are headed to the playoffs with a top seed, and lots of momentum.

So what does this have to do with project management, you ask, somewhat impatiently?

Hold on...I'm getting there.

There's a source for science and business information to which I would like to direct you called Bright Hub. Okay...there's the connection you were craving...

Bright Hub describes itself this way:

Bright Hub’s goal is simple: share knowledge about how the simplest scientific idea evolves into tomorrow’s technology.

With an expert writer network and an active community of life-long enthusiasts Bright Hub provides a level of technology transparency rarely seen in high tech. The team of writers and managing editors utilize deep domain expertise to focus on creating valuable information for both novice and advanced consumers. With a content inventory of thousands of science and technology articles, software and hardware reviews, buyer’s guides, blog entries and forum discussions, Bright Hub is able to provide readers with a dependable resource to make informative technology decisions.

I signed up to write some articles for Bright Hub and have now just published my sixth one. I'd like to ask that you visit the articles and also poke around (given the "hub" analogy, I suppose I could ask you to "spoke" around) for the rich information that is there.

Bright Hub's categories are here:

Computing & Hardware

Education

Engineering Technology

Environment

Health & Wellness

Internet

Mobile

Money & Finance

Multimedia

Office Productivity

Science Technology

Video Games

And you can find my articles here:

My latest one, "Watch your language" is here.

If you want to bookmark a place to always find all of my articles, go here.

Enjoy.

And....GO BRUINS!

Are your project teams - inspired?

2009-04-03T14:06:00.001-07:00

Perhaps your project teams are in the doldrums. Pehaps they are good folks, but are acting, shall we say, lethargic.

How do you get them more active, more motivated, more... inspired?

We know from our experts in psychology that it can't be achieved just by cash, and we know that people don't always respond to threats of punishment or consequences. So what is a project manager to do?

Well one thing a PM can do is to make themselves a more informed - and inspiring - leader by visiting Michael Greer's blog and podcast, to be found at http://www.inspiredprojectteams.com/ .

Michael has recently added the podcast feature and I've reviewed a few of them. I found them easy to listen to, full of good information, and very well-referenced, so that if the posting leaves you hungry for more, there will inevitably be a book or link which will feed that hunger.

Direct from the website, here are the objectives of the podcasts:

Each audio will contain the same content as the printed posts, namely:

Quotations that might inspire project managers or project team members.
Reflections to think about… as project manager or project leader.
Team Challenges – Questions and suggestions to challenge your teams to stretch and grow.
Project Manager Challenges – Specific actions for project managers or team leaders.

Check these out. I think you'll like them.

Then go get your team inspired!

evorpmI ruoY Xobni

2009-03-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

That's Improve Your Inbox, backwards.

Xobni is Inbox - spelled backwards.

As a project manager, communications makes up a huge portion of your work, and nowadays, email is often, like it or not, the bulk of that communications.

So wouldn't it be nice if someone came along with a program which improves your Outlook inbox, makes it fun to use, adds instant new angles to how you view people, including instantaneously extracting phone numbers, pictures, even histograms of when they are more responsive to emails?

And wouldn't it be cool if the program were eerf? Um, I mean free?

Well, that's the case with Xobni. Xobni is an email add-in for Outlook and although I have only been using it for a short time, I see it as a very nice addition for project managers in particular.

Below is a link to an introductory video on Xobni. It describes it much better than I can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amRkMds177A

If you want to check it out for yourself, go to the Xobni website, http://www.xobni.com .

The download is fast and the installation is simple.

If you don't trust my opinion, here is a review of Xobni from PC World Magazine: http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/31773/review/xobni.html

Your comments about Xobni would be detaicerppa. I mean, appreciated.

Since I only just started using Xobni a few days ago, and since it's such a new add-in, I'd like your comments and feedback.

Do you like it in general?

Do you find it particularly useful for PM applications or PM reasons?

Thanks in advance for your comments here.

Form a line for this book!

2009-03-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, so my last posting had a bowtie and what appeared to be an invitation to a wedding (or other formal event), and now I move from "formal" to "forms".

Cyndi Stackpole, who was the project lead for the 4th Edition PMBOK(R) Guide - on which I was also proud to work - has written a companion book which, for people like me, who are visual and practical, brings the PMBOK Guide to life with a set of forms and the instructions for completing them.

Yeah, I know.... A book of forms is exciting to me. How telling is that? But wait, there's more!

One of the things I always had expected of the PMI was a little more assertiveness when it comes to guidelines, forms, and methods. I know the PMBOK Guide is not a methodology. Still, there seems to be (my opinion) too much vagueness in the PMBOK Guide, where I think there is an opportunity at least to show examples, and get folks moving in similar directions...

This book is extremely straightforward in its approach. After literally only one page of introduction, in which she discusses the intent, the audience, and the organization of the book, Cyndi gets right to it.

As she says, the audience is for PMs, with new PMs being able to use the book as a guide for how to collect and organize information, while experienced PMs being able to use the forms as a template to save them from rebuilding new forms every time a new project starts up. She also addresses the PMOs so that they can share the forms across an organization to yield some standardization and a more "repeatable approach".

The advantage of this book over similar books or packages is that it is very tightly connected to the PMBOK Guide's latest edition. The forms are organized by Process Groups and in the case of the forms from the Planning process, there is description of inputs and outputs for the form, so that you can put it in the context of the project.

For example, the Probability and Impact Matrix (pictured below) takes input from the Risk Register and the Probability and Impact Assessment, and gives information to the Risk Register. In fact, this is a good example of what I meant before when I said that I always hope for a little more from the PMBOK Guide. Her Probability and Impact Assessment form, which suggests specific scales for Scope, Quality, Schedule, and Cost impacts, and a definitive 5-point scale for Probability: Very Low, Low, Medium, High, and Very High (for example, Low is 21% to 40%). This will perhaps bring some standardization across industries and give some common ground for folks involved (like myself) in developing PM training courseware. Instead of "making stuff up", we can all go to these scales, at least for starters.

The book comes with a CD that contains completely editable versions of all of the blank forms, in MS-Office format.

You can find this really fine book at PMI's bookstore site, as well as Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

If you are curious, here are the forms included:

2. Initiating Forms.

2.1 Initiating Process Group.

2.2 Project Charter.

2.3 Stakeholder Register.

2.4 Stakeholder Analysis Matrix.

2.5 Stakeholder Management Strategy.

3. Planning Forms.

3.1 Planning Process Group.

3.2 Requirements documentation.

3.3 Requirements management plan.

3.4 Requirements traceability matrix.

3.5 Project Scope Statement.

3.6 Assumption and constraint log.

3.7 Work breakdown structure (WBS).

3.8 WBS Dictionary.

3.9 Activity list.

3.10 Activity attributes.

3.11 Milestone list.

3.12 Network diagram.

3.13 Activity Resource Requirements.

3.14 Resource breakdown structure.

3.15 Activity duration estimates.

3.16 Duration estimating worksheet.

3.17 Project Schedule.

3.18 Activity Cost Estimates.

3.19 Cost estimating worksheet.

3.20 Cost performance baseline.

3.21 Quality management plan.

3.22 Quality metrics.

3.23 Process improvement plan.

3.24 Responsibility Assignment Matrix.

3.25 Roles and Responsibilities.

3.26 Human Resource Plan.

3.27 Communications Management Plan.

3.28 Risk Management Plan.

3.29 Risk register.

3.30 Probability and Impact Risk Rating.

3.31 Risk data sheet.

3.32 Procurement management plan.

3.33 Project management plan.

3.34 Configuration management plan.

3.35 Change Management Plan.

4. Executing Forms.

4.1 Executing Process Group.

4.2 Team member Status Report.

4.3 Change request.

4.4 Change Log.

4.5 Decision log.

4.6Quality Audit.

4.7 Team Directory.

4.8 Team operating agreement.

4.9 Team performance assessment.

4.10 Team member performance assessment.

4.11 Issue Log.

4.12 Procurement Criteria Evaluation.

5. Monitoring and Control Forms.

5.1 Monitoring and Controlling Process Group.

5.2 Project Performance Report.

5.3 Variance Analysis.

5.4 Earned Value Status Report.

5.5 Risk Audit.

5.6 Contractor Status Report.

5.7 Product acceptance Form.

6. Closing.

6.1 Closing Process Group.

6.2 Procurement Audit.

6.3 Contract Close Out.

6.4 Project Close Out.

6.5 Lessons learned.

Enjoy.

The line forms on the left (or in the British-influenced countries, on the right, and I suppose it would be a queue, not a line).

Nice guys...Cranky Managers...Weasels....Jerks

2009-02-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

Here's an ecclectic and short posting mainly meant to get you to take advantage of what appears to be an interesting book and what I have come to find as a wildly entertaining and interesting podcast.

The book is Nice Guys Can Get the Corner Office - Eight Strategies for Winning in Business Without Being a Jerk by Edelman, Hiltabiddle and Manz, and it was the subject of Mr. Wayne Turmel's Cranky Middle Manager podcast. This podcast, although about general business stuff, is appropriate listening for project managers. And this episode is of particular interest because PMs - as managers - need to know how to get things done, if possible, without being a jerk.

I told you this would be short, so I will, without further blabbing, just send you there. Go there. Here's the link. Listen to this particular episode, but also bookmark and subscribe to the podcast. It will unweaselify (new word of the year, so far) your iPod or other MP3 player. Guaranteed.

Enjoy!

And as Wayne says, "Don't let the weasels get you down".

Survey SAYS!

2009-02-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

I got to meet Terry Doerscher at the PMI Summit in Coconut Grove, Florida, at which he presented some preliminary results from the PMO Survey 2.o. That's not Terry on the right there - that's a guy I recognize from Hogan's Heroes or Family Feud - Richard Dawson. And he was famous for saying, "Survey Says?!" at that point in the show when the contestants' guess for some question was matched with the response of a survey to see if they aligned. If you're an international reader or a US reader who has lived inside a tree stump for the past 20 years, you can learn about this show here.

Terry has a really nice blog also, called the Enterprise Navigator. Visit that right here.

Back to the survey.

What do PMOs do?
What industries are they in?
How old are they?
Where do they fit in the organization?
What size are they?
Are they growing?
What kind of success are they having?
What celebrities are they dating?

Almost all of these questions can be answered if you look at the survey results.

The full version of the presentation is now available in presentation format.

If you're involved in your company's Project/Program Management office, you may find this interesting. If not, just watch an old episode of Family Feud.

Click here to register for the survey presentation.

Here's the detailed full link:

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=130306&sessionid=1&key=B56DB34EEDE4C55688E616BF392795B8&sourcepage=register

Enjoy!

Identify your Stakeholders: by Heineken

2009-01-24T17:43:00.001-08:00

The new PMBOK(R) Guide has a new process called, Identify Stakeholders.

I am going to write much more about that but for now, I just really have to share with you an example of Stakeholder Identification that ought to make you laugh.

It's a Dutch commercial, so there is no English in it at all. Still, I would be amazed, truly amazed, if even my English-speaking audience cannot get a chuckle out of this one.

The link to project management? Well, I advise that you watch the video first and then come back here.

Watch the video before reading the rest of the po st!
Just click on the link above or the can below.

Make sure you have your sound turned up.

OK. See the video?

Whoever built the house had to first identify the needs of key stakeholders, in this case "she" and "he", and had to listen carefully to their needs. Although my guess is that the "resources" aspect of this project was least constrained, it appears - and especially sounds - like the project was a success.

----

Update 2 March 2009: Bavaria has spoofed the Heineken commercial quite nicely.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcm9oGBrNKA

Moody Blues = PDUs ???

2009-01-21T12:43:00.000-08:00

You choose: Is this news? Moody Blues = PDUs.

Just don't snooze...

________________________________

What can an early 1960's rock-and-roll band tell us about Project Risk Management?

Turns out: quite a bit indeed.

I'll be leading a seminar entitled, "Managing Risk - A Question of Balance" on March 24 and 26, 2009.

Here's the teaser:

Some contend that a project manager’s core work is as the risk manager of the project. Even if you don’t believe that, it’s clear that as a PM you constantly deal with risk. Using the concept and theme of balance throughout, this course takes the participant through the processes of risk management – risk planning, risk identification, risk analysis, risk response, and monitoring and control of risk – never losing sight of the project context. Peppered with class discussions to get the most from the attendees’ varied backgrounds (and to provide more balance!) it is also enhanced with interactions that engage all participants. This journey through the world of uncertainty will reinforce basic risk courseware you may have had and will leave you with some thought-provoking concepts but also with down-to-earth tools to use on real projects.At the end of this course, class participants should be able to:

1. Gain a deeper, more integrated understanding of how risk affects a project

2. Translate this into how this affects the planning of their projects

3. Collect, understand, and use advice and tools for risk identification

4. Improve their capabilities in risk analysis

5. Expand their capabilities of developing effective risk responses

6. Reaffirm the importance of continuing, ongoing risk management.

To register for this session, follow this link:

http://www.enterprisepmsolutions.com/

or in particular...

http://www.enterprisepmsolutions.com/training.html#19

After suffering through this, er...I mean, after enjoying this great course, it you will have earned 5 PDUs, for only $89.00!

Hurry, obviously you risk missing this if you don't take action soon. In some days, the future will have passed (an inside joke for fans of the Moody Blues).

Hope. Scope.

2009-01-20T16:14:00.001-08:00

I couldn't resist.

Today was the inauguration for (now) President Barack Obama. Those readers in the US will undoubtedly be familiar with the above poster for candidate Obama, using a saturated red/blue/yellow format. The campaign and the inauguration all seemed to be about HOPE. Without getting overly political, I must say that it was an impressive day - and I believe a good one - for America. The speech was a good one. If you missed it, you should either hear it or read it. You can read a transcript here, courtesy of NPR.

I found a site called obamicon.me which allows users to upload a picture and "Obamify" it.

So, given the theme of the blog, and the propesity for PMs to be all about Scope, I had to create a version for my readers.

I'll close by saying that it's clear that Presidant Obama has a huge scope of work to accomplish and that I hope he's able to get it done with all the grace and success of the world's best project manager!

Jump start your brain in 2009

2009-01-18T09:25:00.000-08:00

It's 2009.

You've made your New Year's resolutions. Right?

Hopefully one of them was to further your thinking in Project Management.

If not, make it one. If so, well, here's a nice little item that will help you do just that.

The folks at Lucidus Consulting of the UK asked me to have a look at their book - pictured to the right (or, perhaps since it's from the UK, it's on the other side). Just a little driving humor...

In any case, what you'll find here is a collection of 50 postings that can also be found in downloadable format at http://www.lucidusconsulting.com/ . Still, it's nice to have the book. Something about the tactile turning of pages and ability to touch the pictures that makes it more satisfying...

The book is divided into five chapters, organized loosely around these themes:

ONE: What you know and applying it in the real project world

TWO: The positives from old-school project management - things that worked then and still should now

THREE: Re-tooling some of the basic, older tools of PM

FOUR: Decision-making and risk

FIVE: Collaboration and the human element in Project Management

With 50 thoughts to think about, I can't even think about thinking about sharing those thoughts with you.

So what I'll do instead, is just encourage you to get the book (find it here) or at least see the articles on the website, and tell you that it will be woth your while. It will jump-start your brain for 2009.

Five Grand

2009-01-12T14:20:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a year's worth of blogging, or just about that. I started in January 2008. And today I checked the stats and ScopeCrepe has received (by the time you read this, at least...) 5,000 site visits, and approaching 8,000 page views.

That's a bit reaffirming for me, so thanks if you've been one of the visitors. Wait. If you're reading this you ARE one of the visitors, so definitely, thanks! As the famous nacho chip advert used to say, "keep crunching, we'll make more".

A handbook worth reading

2009-01-10T09:02:00.001-08:00

I can tell when I like a PM book after I'm done with it, and I don't mean from a kinesthetic standpoint, I mean from a physical standpoint. When a Project (or in this case, Program) Management book gets to me, it has dog-eared corners, drawings, notes, and yellow highlighter marker all over it.

And this book is one of those that has a whole mess of bent corners, drawings (one of which I actually will share with you), and it caused the demise of my trusty yellow marker. May it rest in peace.

Dr. James T. Brown has written the book to which I refer, "The Handbook of Program Management". As you can tell, I like the book even though I disagree with Dr. Brown on some points. One of those points is the title. First: the word "Handbook". This book was better than a handbook, at least how I think of handbooks. It read very well (unlike my stereotype of a handbook which a choppy, reference guide) and was full of "gems" from real example projects and programs. The other word is "Program". While it's of course true that the book focuses on Program Management, my issue is that it is an excellent book for Project Managers, as well. This is covered in the subtitle, "How to facilitate project success with optimal program management". I know it's long, but perhaps that - or some shorter version of it, like "Project Success through Optimal Program Management" - should have been the title! I guess I just don't want to see Project Managers miss out on the good things in this book - and this is one of the reasons I am blogging about it on a Project Management post.

I really liked the way in which Dr. Brown distinguished project and program management. For example, there is this:

Typically, the project manager is and should be more delivery and execution focused whereas the program manager has to also be concerned with the overall health and effectiveness of the program over the long term.

When he talked about the way that program manager and project manager view the projects they oversee, it actually inspired me to create a figure for the book:

Program managers see the projects in their context, where as project mangers may not necessarily see this - they instead see each as an independent entity. In fact, I personally think the more effective, enterprise-oriented project managers do take on this program view. Which is why I think this is an important book for project managers, not just program managers.

But here also is one other area where I found myself disagreeing with the author. He says that "Project management offices that establish policy as a primary function should be scaled down or phased out when that policy is mature. ". I agree that the push to follow the policies should be phased out, but not necessarily the whole PMO, and that the phase-out doesn't begin when the policy is mature, but rather when the project managers understand it, are following it, and it is reaping the benefits it intended. It's a matter of PM Maturity, which is always about more than the policy itself.

I point out this difference, but generally I found myself often shaking my head (vertically in agreement, that is) as I read the book. In fact, in some cases, especially in the excellent section on Program Communications Processes, the text was exactly in line with the kind of advice and consulting I have been giving PMs for the past decades - the author and I are definitely in tune on this whole section. In particular, his guidelines on p"Presentation Basics" is a great read not just for program managers, but for ANYONE who has to make a presentation, which, these days, seems to include almost everyone of nearly adult age.

One other example of violent agreement: the section on Identifying Stakeholders. I have already blogged about this and will undoubtedly blog about it again. But Dr. Brown eloquently put into words how important this is but how to do it with these guidelines to fully identify stakeholders:

Follow the money! Whoever is paying is definitely a stakeholder. Also, if the program produces savings or additional costs for an organization then the organization is also a stakeholder
Follow the resources. Every entity that provides resources, whether internal or external, labor or facilities, and equipment, is a stakeholder. Line managers and functional managers providing resources are stakeholders
Follow the deliverables. whoever is the recipient of the product or service the program is providing is a stakeholder.
Follow the signatures. The individual who signs off on completion of the final product or service (or phases thereof) is a stakeholder. Note: this may or may not be the recipient referred to in the previous bullet. Often there may be more recipients than signatories.
Examine other programs stakeholder lists. Include active programs and completed projects.
Review the organizational chart to asses which parts of the organization may be stakeholders.
Ask team members, customers, and any other confirmed stakeholder to help you identify additional stakeholders.
Look for the "Unofficial People of Influence". These may be people who are trusted by high-level leaders or who wield a lot of power through influence and not position.

The sections of Dr. Brown's books which cover Risk, Execution, Communication, and Team Building are extremely well -assembled and illustrated with "tips", "keystones", and actual snippets of program and project best-practice documents. Many of these are gems and are the cause of the folded-over corners and the death of my highlighter. Importantly, they are a great read not only for Program managers, but for Project Managers as well.

Upcoming review:

50 Lucid Thoughts: Shedding Light on Current Project Management Practice, by Ruth Murray-Webster & Peter Simon

Not yawning. Neither doing cartwheels.

2009-01-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Taking advantage of the social networks that we PMs have started to form on LinkedIn, I did some polling over the past few days to gauge the interest level (see post below) in the brand-spanking-new PMBOK(R) Guide.

Using a completely non-scientific scale that I made up in 17.4 seconds, and asking the question on the larger LinkedIn Groups (including my own - LinkedIn Bloggers), I got about 80 responses over the past few days.

I was particularly impressed with the time people took to write very intelligent commentary. I think I touched a nerve with regards to the PMBOK Guide. People wrote to compare it with PRINCE2 and ITIL. People wrote to praise it, to tear it down, to exalt the PMI and to lambaste the PMI. But they did it all with a sharp wit and a deep insight that provided me with a mini "pulse" of the PM population with respect to the PMBOK Guide specifically, PMI standards more generally, and the PM discipline overall.

If you were one of the respondents, thank you. If you were one of the many who not only gave me your evaluation along my scale, but also wrote a paragaph or two, or a whole chapter, my hat is really off to you. Thanks. Really, thanks.

Now, to the results.

Remember that this was not - repaeat not - an anonymous survey. So people who were giving scores of a 5 (effectively yawning out loud at the PMBOK Guide update) were willing to make that statement in public with their name on it.

Only one person of the eighty respondents said that they were exhilirated and overjoyed at the arrival of the new PMBOK Guide. That's an outcome, I think, of my silly scale. Still, I thought we may have seen a few more of these folks pipe up.

On the other end, we did have 5% brave souls say that this "doesn't mean anything" to them.

In the middle, we had over 50% say that they were mildly interested or had a passing interest in the new PMBOK Guide. And about a quarter were excited or very interested.

Regarding the comments, one recurring theme was that those who gave the lower scores (i.e. showed more interest) were those who had some connection to the training, caring, feeding, etc., of Project Managers. Here I count those who create PM courseware, PMP-prep materials, or oversee the 'soft skills' piece of their PMOs.

To me there are a few lessons learned here:

1. There is a great value in these PM social networks in terms of getting a pulse of the community. At the end of the posting I will put some links to these groups in LinkedIn. I suggest you check them out and join. Take advantage of the power of the (your) network.

2. There is a good deal of pent-up frustration out there with the PMI, although there seemed to be a common feeling that this new edition was a step in the right direction.

3. At least a subset of the community of people who work on PM education/training/certification are paying attention. They realize that - like it or not - the new PMBOK Guide has to be reckoned with.

Here are some links to the LinkedIn groups I mentioned above:

PM Bloggers
For those (crazies) who blog about PM
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=72053
472 Members

Global Project Management
6,828 Members

PM Link
15,998 Members

PMI Certified PMPs
6,746 Members

Project and Program Management Professionals
1,057 Members

Project Management Networking Group (PMNG)
25,619 Members

Project Managers Group
6,232 Members

sDB+PM Group
412 Members

After looking at these, by the way, I had the same thought that I did when I saw my Alumni's networking groups all fractured into 5 or 6 pieces. That thought: why can't these be combined in some way? There may be some distinctions (like my group, PM Bloggers, which focuses on a particular aspect) that make sense, but having all of these groups is fragmenting the possibilities of a really large vibrant community. Any comments on that?

In any case, happy new year to everyone; let's hope 2009 is a huge improvement!

The new PMBOK Guide is here! What's your "care" level?

2008-12-31T12:25:00.001-08:00

The new PMBOK(R) Guide comes out today! THE NEW PMBOK(R) GUIDE COMES OUT TODAY!

So...

Do you care? I am running some surveys about this on various PM LinkedIn groups. But perhaps you'd like to respond anonymously?

So I ask that you do so here and I will report the results. Here is the poll:

Regarding the new (4th Edition) PMBOK Guide, I would like to know if you *care* about this, and your reasons for caring or not.

Using the following scale:

1. Exhilarated, Overjoyed
2. Excited, Very Interested
3. Mildly interested
4. Passing interest
5. Doesn't mean anything to me

...please provide your rating number and a very quick rationale as to why you chose that number. Do you refer to the PMBOK Guide often? Are you using it to study for the PMP Exam and wonder how the test changes?

You can either comment here, or vote using the panel to the left. Or both.

VOTING CLOSES on 10 January 2009.

I appreciate your help. Happy New Year!

EXTREME active risk acceptance

2008-12-28T21:05:00.001-08:00

For those of you who follow The Onion, a website which provides an ironic/sarcastic view of the news, you know that they have a talent for covering stories with a certain, er... flair.

So although this one is a bit morbid, I think it makes an excellent point about accepting risk - in this case, accepting it a bit too eagerly.

You'll see what I mean - but remember, this is not for those who are easily offended.

Here is the link:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/preemptive_memorial_honors_future
WARNING: some viewers may find this a bit disturbing. Remember, however: this is sarcasm.

The punchline: when you identify risk and decide that it is going to be accepted, remember that you have two choices of risk acceptance:

-passive acceptance, in which case you decide to just let it happen (perhaps the impact is very low, the probability is tiny, or both)

-active acceptance, in which case you make a contingency plan for the risk occurring

Normally, active acceptance would mean, for example, having money and/or time set aside for the occurrence of the risk.

When you decide to accept risk, think carefully. Is there some way to prevent it from happening? Is it really the kind of risk that should be accepted?

In this case...well... just see the video...and I'd appreciate your comments.

In the zone

2008-12-19T20:07:00.000-08:00

I've had a chance to review a collaborative project management tool called Planzone.

Although this won't be an exhaustive review, I can tell you that this is a package which is easy to use, has a very "soft" and inviting interface which is intuitive and straightforward, and has quite a bit of functionality for this type of package, even in its free edition.

The "Free Trial" edition is really not a trial, since it has no time limit. In fact I think they shoud remove that nomenclature because it sounds like it has a time period associated with it - and it doesn't. The free edtiion is somewhat limited in capability (two projects and a limitation of 25MB of storage space) but it provides the same functionality as the full package.

Really what sets Planzone apart - in my humble opinion - is the look and feel, as well as its ability to create Gantt charts very easily.

Here's an example:

To see more examples, you can visit their collection of screen shots here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29982622@N05/

Planzone provides the project team with a wiki, a to-do list, a schedule (i.e. Gantt chart), document sharing, discussion board, and in-project email. The Gantt chart is very cool, but I missed the ability to make tasks dependent on each other. I've been assured that the folks there will have that in an upcoming release Pricing for packages which allow unlimited numbers of users, larger amounts of projects, and gigabytes of storage space start at around $12 per month. See their homepage - http://www.planzone.com for more details.

I like this package. Your project team members will be able to learn it on the fly because the interface is so well-presented.

Other reviews:

http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/10/20/planzone-a-collaborative-tool-that-makes-juggling-easy/

http://profy.com/2008/11/23/planzone-online-project-management-software-10-free-subscriptions-to-profy-readers/

If you would like ScopeCrepe to review your book, product, or service, drop me a line here.

Thanks.

Nerds in "charge"

2008-12-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

Later today (Eastern US time), US President-elect Barack Obama is to announce the appointment of Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy.

What's interesting about this to me as a project manager is that soon-to-be Secretary Chu is a certified nerd. He comes from a Bell Labs heritage and is a scientist with a significant research background in energy.

The past few Secretaries of Energy have been mostly lawyers, military people, even dentists (!).

I have nothing against dentists, in fact some of my best friends (literally) are dentists. However, just as I would not want a quantum-theorist to be drilling in my mouth, I don't think dentists should be running the Department of Energy. At this point in human history, the US Department of Energy is not a position to be trifled with. That job belongs to someone who has the scientific interest, background, and experience for the position. Here we have a Nobel-prize-winning scientist. Hmmm, maybe he should should have a shot at this work.

Professor Steven Chu
(not a dentist)

The other thing that's "cool" (excuse yet another energy pun here) is the 'underdog' angle of Professor Chu. Note this clip from the Straits Times news service:

"He was rejected by the Ivy League colleges because his grades were relatively poor but was accepted at Rochester University in New York. By comparison, his older brother went to Princeton, and his two cousins got into Harvard." Read the breaking news story here.

Isn't it nice when the Rochester University guy makes a bigger impact than the Princeton and Harvard folks? I think that's tremendous (nothing against you Harvard and Princeton people).

In any case, this posting is just a brief applause for Obama's appointment of Chu and looking forward to the progress - and set of productive projects - that I predict it will bring.

Oh, and if you didn't get the word play in the title...for you word nerds, "charge"....energy.... get it....?

Doctor, doctor, give me the news

2008-12-04T07:48:00.000-08:00

Are you sick over risk? Are you addicted to risk? Is it just time for a general risk checkup?

I'd like to point you to a great resource regarding project risk management: The Risk Doctor.

The Risk Doctor is David Hillson.

Dr. David Hillson is an international risk management consultant and a popular conference speaker, and a founding member of the Risk SIG (special interest group) of PMI. He also has written (along with Peter Simon) a very readable and useful book called "Practical Project Risk Management" (see reference below). In particular, I'd like to send you to a page from his website which has free PDF downloads of his recent articles on project risk management. That link is here:

http://www.risk-doctor.com/publications-papers_rd.asp

His latest article connects the theories of Abraham Maslow to risk attitude. Very interesting reading for those like me who like to understand the human element of dealing with risk and uncertainty. Maybe you like that, too. Maybe not. I'm uncertain.

It's a case of the doctor giving you the news....like that 1999 Robert Palmer song.

If you have a look at the articles and like his writing, you may find his book also to come in handy. I've found the sections on formulating risk statement, identifying stakeholders' attitudes to risk, and "selling" risk management to upper management to be particularly helpful in both my work and in the classes that I teach on the subject of risk.

Here is a link to the book (just click on the book to get sent to its Amazon page):

Just to influence your risk attitude about this, I have no interest in promoting the book or the site other than the fact that I think there's good information for you there.

So, see your doctor. Have a glass of red wine each week. Get some exercise. Read a good book. Reduce stress. And cut down on those fatty foods!

Psst! Did you hear the one about the three nuns and the project manager?

2008-12-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

The Boston Globe Sunday magazine has a great feature story (link below) about Mount St. Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts and their dream project to put up a wind turbine to provide 75% of the abbey's electricity. And thanks to Governor Deval Patrick's Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, projects like this one are sprouting up all over the state. Ok, so it's a Commonwealth, like Virginia, not a state, but you get the idea.

The new state law says that owners of large turbines up to 2MW (about 440 homes worth) can sell excess power back to their electricity provider, something that was not allowed previously.

This will trigger lots of 'smaller' wind projects. Freelance PMs may want to keep an eye open for situations like this, and rather than working on gigantic power projects, it may be more interesting and productive to work on a bevy of medium and small projects like this one.

Here is the link to the article. The Globe does not always leave the articles up for long, so read it while it's there:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/30/higher_power/

In a related story, from today's news, by coincidence, there is this story (link below) also from the Boston Globe, about the Cape Wind project finally getting some wind in its sails. It appears that the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior is about to release a favorable report which would allow the project to lease Federal property for the wind farm.

Here's a map of the Cape Wind project.

And...here is the link for that story:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/articles/2008/12/02/us_backing_of_wind_farm_could_come_this_week/

In order to avoid being long-winded... I will stop here. Enjoy.

Risk Board

2008-11-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

When some folks, at least those of a certain age, hear the term RISK, they think of a board game. RISK was a game introduced in 1957, as La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World), in France.

So it fits fine here on Scope Crepe, n'est pas?

My son introduced me to an online version of the game - an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game, called Conquer Club. If it's time to [A] have a little fun and [B] learn some strategy, perhaps you can give it a try. The game has over 100 maps (not limited to the original basic map-of-the-world). I show the map example in the posting of BeNeLux, with provinces of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemborg in play. You can choose any of these 100+ maps and you can play against over 200,000 other registered users. It's free for basic membership.

The site is http://www.conquerclub.com/ . I have no afflilation with the site or the game nor do I receive any benefit - other than getting some other players on board who are even newer and perhaps worse at it than I am...

This idea of having "fun" with "risk" reinforces an idea that co-author Ranjit Biswas, PMP and I will be pushing in our upcoming book The Fiddler on the Project. We will assert there that one of the things that makes project management necessary as a discipline and makes the job interesting - and even fun - for PMs, is the introduction of uncertainty in their projects. We all know the equation Risk Score = Probability x Impact, which means that a given risk's overall attention should be based on both the likelihood and the consequence of that risk on the project's objectives.

In the book, we'll mathematically prove that risk=fun. You'll have to wait for the book to find out how. For now, you can at least have some fun with risk using the board game!

And now for something completely different

2008-11-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

This has not much to do with Project Management. However, I did enter a contest regarding a fable with a moral. And I decided to use this space to post it. Hey - it's my blog.

So without further ado, here is a children's story I am working on in the form of a poem, which is also a story, which does have a moral.

It involves a sandwich, two teachers, and a stunning revelation which turns the whole story around. Okay, so maybe that's overstating it. It only has 250 words, for goodness sake!

------------

Copyright(C) 2008 Rich Maltzman

Linda Meltzer Ate My Lunch

I work with Linda Meltzter
We teach at the same school
We teach the little children
Who think we’re pretty cool

I liked to work with Linda M
Right up until that time...
When Linda Meltzer stole my lunch
A nasty, awful crime

Yes, Linda Meltzer ate my sandwich
I know that this is true.
She ate my peanut butter sandwich
And my banana, too!

Linda Meltzer ate my sandwich
She took it for her lunch
She had my chocolate chip granola
It’s much more than a hunch

I had my brown bag labeled
I neatly wrote each letter
Nobody should have taken it
They’re teachers, they know better

But somehow Linda grabbed it
She’s got me really MIFFED
I’m going to have to yell at her
She owes me a big gift!

But wait, my husband’s calling me
To tell me something funny
I blush, I gasp, I sit right down
And say “oh thank you, honey”

It seems he found a little bag
With letters square and neat
He’ll bring it by the school, he says
So I’ll have lunch to eat

And what of Linda Meltzer?
Not guilty after all...
I’m glad I figured out the truth
Before I made that call

I guess I learned a lesson:
Before you think the worst
And when you’re blaming "Linda Meltzers"
Please check the mirror first

Linda Meltzer ate her sandwich
It was a BLT
But I’m guessing that she’ll never know
How much her lunch taught me.

Europeana - "A victim of its own success"

2008-11-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

Just a brief posting this morning, my Project Management peers.

I was intrigued by an article from The Boston Globe, taken from the International Herald-Tribune, about the European digital libarary, Europeana. The library, a website including over 2 million documents, audio and video clips, and images, completely crashed after being on line for just a few hours.

The site was inundated with hits, receiving a factor of 3 times more than the 5 million per hour that were forecasted.

I tell my PM students to ask this question: "What happens if success breaks out?". This was an example of an organization not really asking that question - or at least not prepared to answer it. The site was "a victim of its success", said Martin Selmayr, a spokesman for the EC, responsible for the project.

So if you are a PM planning a website, a bridge, a product - whatever, think freely and openly about the POSITIVE side of risk - opportunity. In this case, not thinking about opportunity yielded a threat. The site will now be down for at least a month, and after a very public introduction, this was an embarrasing failure.

To see the evidence, just go here: www.europeana.eu . Note that if you do this after mid-December, you run the risk of finding a perfectly operating, cool, full-fledged, and rich website. But you planned for that success, didn't you?

This Risk Register Has Sharp Edges. DO NOT TOUCH THE EDGES OF THIS RISK REGISTER.

2008-11-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

We all know that the single thing that makes projects "fun" is uncertainty. If we could simply write a plan, schedule our resources to show up, and everyone (and everything-including the weather forecasters) did what they said they would do, we could simply adjust the master project control dial to "cruise" and we could have a snooze. Or do whatever we choose. Maybe buy some shoes...drink some booze...

As we say here in New England: Yah, right!

So uncertainty, which manifests itself in projects as risk, which, like The Force, has a good side (opportunity) and a dark side (threat), is the provider of "fun" for our projects and what makes our jobs, shall we say, interesting.

We know that besides being 'good' and 'bad', risk falls into all kinds of categories, and that those categories themselves vary from industry to industry. So where a pharmaceutical industry could be heavily invested in regulatory risks, a new product team may be more interested in technological or competitive risks. And even those will vary depending on the type of pharmaceutical or the type of new product.

On top of that, entire cultures vary tremendously in terms of risk tolerance. Fascinating studies have been done to show how Asian, African, American, European, Latin American, and Australasian cultures traditionally view risk, based simply on their proverbs.

And of course, within a culture, there is wide diversity amongst individuals in terms of how they view risk - and even THAT changes over time.

The sign pictured above is a great example of a person or organization having a little sarcastic fun in terms of how risk is communicated. The bottom line (literally) is that the bridge is out. However, the signmaker gets your attention by posting about the edges of the sign.

So EVEN IF we have a good handle on risk, there can be variability in the way it is communicated.

Phew!

We can see that there is very little structure, it would seem, about risk.

The only place to find sanctuary from all of this variability is a single document called the Risk Register.

Lately, I have been zeroing in on this document to try to find examples of good ones. Not only templates, but actual, live, filled-out Risk Registers, with the intent to use them as a way to share success (and failure!) stories. My feeling is that if people in the organization see that they were used and see how they were used, their use would increase. And, if they're used more, there's a greater chance that the risks - and their responses - and the success of their responses - would be able to be shared. I realize from the opening of the blog that this will require the PM who is taking a lesson learned from a prior project to think about how that risk is different than their current risk. But I also trust in the imagination and intelligence of the PMs to know that each project is unique and to take the lesson learned as input to their own planning.

I'm looking for volunteers out there who are willing to share a Risk Register of which they're proud. You can sterilize the risk register - take out the proprietary stuff. Just leave the format and the main gist of the document alone. Send it to exclaim@verizon.net . I will post some of the top ones (with the sender's permission, of course) here on the blog in a future post.

The incentive: a new copy of "Earned Value Project Management" by Fleming & Koppelman will be given away to the best submission. Deadline for all inputs is 31-December-2008.

Just one more thing: please sand the sharp edges of your risk register, mitigating the probability and impact of a paper cut...

You're not quite done voting...

2008-11-18T10:48:00.001-08:00

Change we need.

We need change.

Between the voting and the economic crisis, we have heard a lot of both. Bankers asking for change, carmakers asking for change, quite a lot of change. Politicians asking for votes, politicians asking for change...

Thought you were done? Not quite.

I'm asking if you'll take a moment and provide a vote, also. Our book, The Fiddler on the Project, has been submitted as a "Manifesto" at the ChangeThis web site.

You can help us out - and help PM as well by going here and with one click, you have voted: http://www.changethis.com/proposals/1430

What is "Change This"? Have a look at the first couple of FAQs from their site:

What is this? Where am I?

ChangeThis is a new kind of media. It's calm and thoughtful and direct and transparent. And unlike almost every other form of media, it reaches people through community. If an idea is a good one, it'll spread, because people like you will send it to their friends. Unlike a broadcaster, we're not using FCC frequencies to send our ideas to people who don't want to hear them.

Unlike a book or a newspaper, it's free. And there are no ads.

Unlike a web site, we're not a place you go to. You're more likely to get a manifesto from a friend or find one on a blog. (But if you want them before anyone else, sign up for our once-every-two-weeks newsletter.)

The ChangeThis website is our archive, our info center and an easy place to subscribe.

Who are you?

ChangeThis was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu and Michelle Sriwongtong. You can read their bios in this blog entry. The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin. You can read about him on his website.

In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling business books, they keep ChangeThis up and running with their love and tender care. To learn more about 800-CEO-READ, read their daily blog.

So please do my co-author, Ranjit Biswas, and myself a favor and give us your vote. Thanks!

PM-Oh My!

2008-11-14T06:24:00.001-08:00

I have been lucky enough to be chosen to speak at not one, but two PMO (Project Management Office) conferences in the current timeframe. I spoke already at the PMO Symposium in San Antonio, and will be speaking at the PMO Summit in Florida.

I was very impressed with the First Annual PMO Symposium. With well over 200 attendees and a nice selection of topics, I think folks got a great value and were able to take advantage of excellent networking opportunities. The session was extremely well-organized and one could simply not tell that this was a "first" of its kind. It was memorable. And so was the Alamo, and all of San Antonio. What a great city!

The PMO Summit also promises to be an excellent take. Visit them at their website. This runs from 8-10 December in Coconut Grove, Florida, and is focused on the soft-skills of program management but also will have case studies on how PMOs have successfully been built and operated.

See you there?

An important and historic week...

2008-11-03T21:28:00.000-08:00

Yes, this week will contain a momentous date. One that is the culmination of months and months of planning, involving people of all creeds, honoring the right we all have to express ourselves and to be recognized. A time for change! A time for hope!

I speak not of the US Election for President, although that could also be described this way. I speak instead of International Project Management Day! It's bigger than the US Election because it's international. It's better than the US Election because it has much fewer accusations, costs much less, and although it generates many fewer editorials, it's all about us - the project managers of the world.

Go visit http://www.internationalpmday.org to see what is going on in your neck of the woods on 6-November or the surrounding days!

UPDATE:

This letter just came in from Frank Saladis - the originator of International PM Day:

INTERNATIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT DAY - 6 November 2008

Dear Colleagues,Something that has always been in my thoughts, especially while I am traveling and have a few moments of down time, is the basic fact that, in most organizations I have worked with, project managers do not seem to receive fair recognition for the work they do. Certainly the project sponsor and maybe a few stakeholders will offer some type of thanks or appreciation upon the completion of a successful project but generally, the people who are the actual target audience of the project deliverables often go about their daily operations without any thought about how the new system that has improved their well being was provided or how their new cafeteria was designed and built, or their newly expanded parking lot was completed.There are countless examples of projects that are completed without even a moment's pause to celebrate the success and thank those who completed the work. As we observe International Project Management Day, 6 November, 2008 it is important to take time and think about the contributions of the many thousands of project managers and teams who work diligently and with care and professionalism to provide us with many items we take for granted. Everyone has gazed in awe at a breathtaking city skyline or experienced the thrill of an amusement park roller coaster or enjoyed a great movie. These are but a few examples of project management that touch our lives daily. Tom Peters, a well know management guru, often stated that "all work is project work." If you think about your work environment or your home environment you will soon notice that you are surrounded by projects. We initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close (to some extent) just about everything we set out to do.Of course, not every project is successful, but even in those that don't meet their objectives, we can find lessons learned and ways to improve. It is my sincere belief that all successful project managers should be recognized for their leadership, ability to create high performing teams, sense of purpose, and willingness to keep moving forward even during the most trying of times. International Project Management Day provides an excellent opportunity to do just that. Recognition of project teams and acknowledgment of people who do great things are key factors associated with the project manager position and I strongly urge all managers, project sponsors, project executives, and peer groups to think of some way, regardless or how simple it may be, to show appreciation for those who deliver on the expectations that have been set.There's a wide variety of ways to observe International Project Management Day. On the one hand these can include formal events like internal company meetings, presentations about the value of project management, recognition breakfasts, lunches or receptions honoring project teams, local government recognition or proclamation, coordinated professional association events or recognition at a previously scheduled project management event. On the other hand, informal events can also be meaningful and enjoyable. For example, you could just go out to lunch with other project managers you work with and talk about what contributions project management has made to your organization and what positive steps you could take to advance its practice and contributions. However large or small, elaborate or simple an observation may be possible in your circumstances, we urge you to find some way to recognize the value that project management and project managers make to your enterprise on International Project Management Day 2008.

Frank P. Saladis PMP

AAAAAAAA! The new PMP Exam is coming!!!

2008-10-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween.

A scary poem.

The PMI has indicated,

That there's a brand new Guide

To the body of the PM knowledge

Which we must know inside.

That new Guide lurks around the bend,

It's coming by end of year.

And then soon after, an exam

For which we must prepare.

Where is the information

That tells us what to do?

Where will we all find out about

This potent PM stew?

Double bubble, toil and trouble...

Can I find this all in ink?

It's all in the form of Q&A

And Scope Crepe has the link!

http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/StandardsFAQs.aspx

Don't be too.... SCARED, now.....

-Rich

The WBS: Wall Street's Breakdown Structure

2008-10-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

<*UPDATED 30-OCT-08*>
---see update at the end of this posting---

This entry is about the current worldwide economic crisis. It's an entry about ethics. And it's about simple, simple things that we all need to do properly, simple things that even a baby does: naming things.

A baby learns to speak by social contact and noticing things and giving them names, and with the help of their parents, grandparents, doting uncles and aunts, babysitters, and other children, they learn to name things based on feedback. BBC News has a great story on the way babies learn language here. The bottom (excuse the reference to a baby's bottom) line is that babies name things that they see, and they do it honestly and logically, based on social feedback.

Not quite the same for some bankers, it seems.

I urge you to see this story from American network CBS' "60 Minutes" news show. It discusses the "shadow market" on Wall Street. The mortgage securities that were traded showed very poor judgment and I'll cover that below. But I'd like to start with something even more flagrantly wrong and something from which Project Managers can take a lesson.

It involves something called "Credit Default Swaps". Let that name roll around in your head for a few seconds. Yes, let it swirl around up there. Good.

Before we say what they are, let's discuss how BIG they are. The expert on 60 Minutes had this to say about the market size for Credit Default Swaps: "Well, we really don't know. There's this voluntary survey that claims that the market is in the range of 50 to 60 or so trillion dollars. It's sort of alarming that, in a market that big, we don't even know how big it is to within, say, $10 trillion." Plus or minus $10 TRILLION dollars? How's that for a "ballpark estimate", fellow project managers?

Anyway, Credit Default Swaps. What are they and what do they have to do with babies and naming things?

From the 60 Minutes show, here is University of Maryland Law Professor Michael Greenberger: "A credit default swap is a contract between two people, one of whom is giving insurance to the other that he will be paid in the event that a financial institution, or a financial instrument, fails," he explains.

"It is an insurance contract, but they've been very careful not to call it that because if it were insurance, it would be regulated. So they use a magic substitute word called a 'swap,' which by virtue of federal law is deregulated," Greenberger adds.

"So anybody who was nervous about buying these mortgage-backed securities, these CDOs, they would be sold a credit default swap as sort of an insurance policy?" Kroft asks.

"A credit default swap was available to them, marketed to them as a risk-saving device for buying a risky financial instrument," Greenberger says.

But he says there was a big problem. "The problem was that if it were insurance, or called what it really is, the person who sold the policy would have to have capital reserves to be able to pay in the case the insurance was called upon or triggered. But because it was a swap, and not insurance, there was no requirement that adequate capital reserves be put to the side."

"Now, who was selling these credit default swaps?" Kroft asks.

"Bear Sterns was selling them, Lehman Brothers was selling them, AIG was selling them. You know, the names we hear that are in trouble, Citigroup was selling them," Greenberger says.

Ah. So this smells like insurance. It walks like insurance. It talks like insurance. As project managers we know that risk transfer is tantamount to insurance. So we're in line with the babies here. But the Wall Street executives went ahead and called it a "swap". Sounds like a nice thing that nice country-bumpkin folks go and do with antiques, doesn't it? Nice and clean. And by naming it something that it isn't, it allows them to work without the restrictions and laws that it would had it been named what it was: insurance.

To me the connection to Project Management is the Work Breakdown Structure. When we need to identify all of the pieces of work in a project we do this same kind of naming. We usually don't have world economies hinging on this, but we still need to be careful at this critical stage of a project. Name those pieces of work accurately, honestly, and in ways that people will understand.

===

Now let's talk a little more about the other financial instruments - like the subprime mortgages, and how bad judgment reared its head here. Again - a lesson learned for PMs. In this case, it has to do with leaving out the human element. Automated systems are great, but do not - I repeat - do not forget the people that are involved in your projects or you will face dire consequences. With respect to the subprime instruments, here's a segment from the 60 Minutes show:

These complex financial instruments were actually designed by mathematicians and physicists, who used algorithms and computer models to reconstitute the unreliable loans in a way that was supposed to eliminate most of the risk.

"Obviously they turned out to be wrong," Partnoy says.

Asked why, he says, "Because you can't model human behavior with math."

"How much of this catastrophe had to do with the instruments that Wall Street created and chose to buy…and sell?" Kroft asks Jim Grant.

"The instruments themselves are at the heart of this mess," Grant says. "They are complex, in effect, mortgage science projects devised by these Nobel-tracked physicists who came to work on Wall Street for the very purpose of creating complex instruments with all manner of detailed protocols, and who gets paid when and how much. And the complexity of the structures is at the very center of the crisis of credit today."

So as we all struggle with the stresses of this crisis, let's redouble our efforts as PMs to call things what they are. Let's redouble our efforts to consider actual humans (and their non-mathematical behavior) in our project planning and execution.

And let's hope our banking executives start acting more like smart babies instead of stupid criminals.

<*Update*>
Excellent story on Credit Default Swaps here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96333239

-Rich

Deftly do due diligence

2008-10-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

I've come across an excellent posting and a really nice resource for PMs, and I'd like to share both here.

In the PMBOK(R) Guide, a recurring theme, especially in the first few chapters is that of "due diligence" - applying just the right amount of PM science for the size, type, and complexity of the project. It's a great concept but I have always felt robbed of at least some basic techniques, considerations, or guidelines as to HOW to size the PM effort based on what you know about the project.

The posting, by Nathan Ives, is here. It's called The Project Management Intensity Continuum. He's actually since followed up with comments and has promised to follow up with further postings on the site.

The chart above (readable on the site) shows the basic shape of a curve whic plots cost applied to project management against value creation. As you can see, there is a point at which there is actually a decline in value creation as more money is spent. Obviously you want to avoid going past that point. It's still more of an art than a science, but it makes sense to put some effort into this to avoid going over that point.

In summary, Nathan suggests that you ask these questions:

--What value does the project’s output quantifiably offer in both objective and subjective terms?
--What is the current cost of the applied project management?
--If a project management component was eliminated, what would the corresponding change in cost and value be?
--If a project management component was added, what would the corresponding change in cost and value be?

In a follow-up to his posting he mentions these specific considerations:

1. Capital requirements (aligned with the organization’s expenditure approval thresholds)
2. Personnel resource requirements in person hours (correlated on a labor-cost per hour basis to the expenditure approval thresholds)
3. Regulatory risk
4. Business risk
5. Complexity (number of stakeholders – focusing on internal cross-functional and external stakeholders)

Have a read - it's a good posting.

The resource is the site from which this posting is taken: it's called StrategyDriven. The link (here) is the StrategyDriven blog, but they also operate a podcast. Consider both.

So when you have your hand on the PM throttle (that's the reason I used the image above), consider the advice given by Nathan Ives.

And the scrappy winners are...

2008-10-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

On your right you will not see the winners of the First Ever Scrappy PM Contest. You will not see them because this was a virtual contest conducted completely via email and US Postal mail. So, although these people took all the time to get dressed up, and are smiling widely, they are from some other award ceremony somewhere else in the world and have nothing at all to do with this award. But, there were four of them, they were dressed nicely, were smiling, and are holding awards, and that's good enough for me. Another thing about these four people: all though they appear to be happy, they are clearly not as scrappy as the real winners, whose entries are summarized below.

Winners submitted a brief summary of an aspect to their projects in which they demonstrated scrappiness in their projects and the top stories received a free copy of Kimberly Wiefling's "Scrappy Project Management" book. These are now on the way to the deserving winners, each illustrating their scrappiness in different ways, and in different environments, although all challenging.

Below are slightly-edited versions of the submissions.

Prabhu of Texas, USA says:
I had been a tech for nearly 15 years before taking on a formal PM role in mid 2006. When I started executing my first project, there was a contract project team member who felt insecure dealing with me, given my technical and product knowledge. The person was disrespectful, and used to blatantly ignore my email and telephone messages. They didn't consistently report status, and generally made project life difficult and frustrating for me. I never caved in, didn't escalate, and the troublesome team member chose to draw a line in the sand. She went to management, saying "it's him or me". Management, even with only a short sample of my work, let the unhappy team member go.

Sindhu of France says:
I am currently working on a portal project which involves a very aggressive and demanding customer. I'm an Indian PM working in France. My team is 80% french and 20% American, and the customer is a global organization. Cooking with these ingredients for the recipe is a mean chef's job. The minority American team will do only what they feel is right, and the majority will work only from 9 to 12 and 2-6 (note the 2 hour lunch). As the PM, I am having to coordinate team effectiveness with all of these constraints in the scrappiest way I can!

Phillip of California, USA says:

We had a project to replace a vendor’s GUI. Three outside consultants were trying to sabotage the project. The PMO threatened to cancel it unless I took it over. My boss was chagrined. He though the project could only fail. I warned the consultants to “cease and desist” or they were gone from all contracts in the county. In 2 weeks we were on track and completed the project on schedule successfully. Sadly it was not used. A major upgrade was starting and our interface was so much better it was certain the users would not accept the upgrade version.

Stephanie of Florida, USA says:

A former director consistently complained about our projects’ time and expense requirements, yet refused to take advantage of emerging technologies that would’ve eased both – claiming that there was “no guarantee of return on investment.” I decided to purchase a web-based application myself, using it to create modules that communicated project updates and training details, which stakeholders could review online at their own pace. This lowered the time spent on communication, and significantly reduced expenses since we no longer had to travel to multiple sites to provide training. From that point forward my director’s mantra became “No risk, no reward.”

Thanks to author Kimberly Wiefling, and of course to all of you who submitted entries. May you have contiued scrappiness and happiness!

Knotty, knotty project!

2008-10-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Living near Boston (and Cambridge) Massachusetts in the USA, I'm right nearby Harvard University (perhaps you've heard of this institution). Recently the Ig Noble awards were given out there. The Ig Nobel Prizes are a parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October — around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced — for ten achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think." Organized by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), they are presented by a group that includes genuine Nobel Laureates at a ceremony at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.

You can read about the various discoveries on the "improbable" website.

This year, one of the prizes was given to Dorian Raymer of the Ocean Observatories Initiative at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, USA, and Douglas Smith of the University of California, San Diego, USA, for proving mathematically that heaps of string or hair or almost anything else will inevitably tangle themselves up in knots. They took lengths of string and shook them up in specifically-sized boxes at specific vibration levels and sure enough, knots "spontaneously" formed. In fact, they even plotted the probability of knots against the length of string and got this nifty result:

As project managers, we don't need charts or experiments.

We know this to be true.

We feel it in our gut, we believe it with every fiber of our being.

A project left unmanaged - like wire or string or even garden hose -will tie itself into the tangliest of knots without the key communications, the change management, the people skills, and the ability to (excuse the pun) tie it all together, the talent we provide as project managers.

So although we may not deserve the Nobel Prize, or even one of these Ig Noble gag prizes, we should take pride in seeing one of the truths we hold to be self-evident to be proven mathematically.

I sure hope I didn't string you along too much with this thread... I hope knot....

War - hnhhhh - what is it good for?

2008-09-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay... I am not getting political here, just a little philosophical. I'm also reminiscing about the old Edwin Starr song, War. But all of this comes to mind because war (not actual fighting, per se, but but war in the sense of fighting real project managment battles) does yield lessons learned.

And lessons learned is the theme of PM War Stories, a series of inteviews in the form of a blog and podcast. I suggest you take advantage of the lessons others have learned in "battle" and march over to that site and have a look. Hup, two three four, hup two three four!

Actually, if you go there now, you'll get to listen to an interview with yours truly. I was lucky enough to join Wayne Thompson in a recent discussion and that discussion happens to be Episode 19 of PM War Stories. So give a listen!

Enjoy the interview!

Peace!

PS: If you watched the Edwin Starr video, did I spell hnhhhh right?

Feel, felt, found

2008-09-17T20:26:00.001-07:00

In today's posting, I would like to accomplish the following objectives:

1. I'd like to steal from Sales - now, admit it, how often, as a PM, have you wanted to do that? I mean, the stuff they promise...and force you to deliver... they deserve it, right?

2. I'd like to pass along to you a technique (stolen, as I mention above, from the world of Sales).

3. I'd like to make sure you're aware of a podcast which, although not devoted entirely to PMs, is almost always chock-full of great ideas and techniques.

So, on to accomplishing these objectives (in no particular order - get your sequencing software outta my face!).

There is an excellent podcast which I try to catch whenever I can, called Manager-Tools. You can find them (duh) at http://www.manager-tools.com/ or simply subscribe to it with your MP3 player of choice. If you get nothing else from this posting, at least visit their site and subscribe to their 'casts. They are outstanding. Don't be a PM snob - just because the word "project" isn't in their title it doesn't mean you cannot apply their techniques. Au contraire, mon ami, I assert that Project Management is really a core sample, a veritable microcosm of general management, and that's what the guys at Manager-Tools talk about all the time.

Their most recent post (as of this posting) is one covering "Feel, Felt, Found". It's a tried and true technique coming from the world of sales, in particular, used by sales folks to overcome objections. You've probably been a victim, er... recipient is probably the better word, of this, and you may not even have known it. That speaks to its effectiveness. And although it's used to fight off objections, it's not a big leap to adapt it to low-level conflict. In fact, what is low-level conflict but an objection, or vice-versa?

Here are two quick scenarios, roughly carried over to ScopeCrepe from the podcast, and translated into project-ese by me.

Scenario 1: A project team member, we'll call her Melissa, has come to you to complain that a person they count on for a deliverable -we'll call him Mike - has failed to provide that deliverable. She's upset, and she's complaining about it to you about Mike, saying that she won't be able to provide her deliverable to you.

You respond: Melissa, I respect how you feel here. When others don't provide me with the deliverables needed for my project, I have felt just like you do; what I've found is that you may need to test whether the request to Mike is really clear to him, and to document any problems in collecting a commitment from him.

Scenario 2: You are working with Kavi on a presentation for your Project Director Sal, for whom you've worked a few years longer. Kavi calls and says that he has seen the presentation and disagrees with the approach - it's too wordy and not focused enough on key project milestones.

You respond: Kavi, I hear you and can see why you feel that way. I actually have had that exact same reaction myself with this Director. What I've found, though, is that when I push for a presentation like you describe, it didn't connect with Sal, which is why I chose this approach. Let's talk about ways to at least get closer to our approach.

You catch the theme. It's all about loosely connecting a flow that acknowledges the feeling of the person raising the conflict, then expressing that you have felt this way yourself - or something like this, anyway, and that in your experience, you've found that there was a way to deal with it or a reason to explain it, or whatever applies in the particular situation.

I won't go into more detail, because I really want you to listen to the podcast, in which they even go into helping coach you on what gestures can be used to amplify the technique, and when to use it most effectively.

So - bottom line - please visit www.manager-tools.com and check out this podcast as well as scads of other gems there which do apply to PM in most cases.

-----

Two reminders:

REMINDER: Less than two weeks left in the Scrappy PM Contest (see posting below)

REMINDER: If you are in LinkedIn and a PM Blogger yourself, please join the 400+ other colleagues who are LinkedIn Bloggers! Click HERE, now, to do so!

Can we see that again?

2008-09-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

To your left, you see a nice photo of a friendly "discussion" between a baseball player and the umpire (the equivalent of a referee or 'official'). The two are likely not talking about the weather, their hobbies, or the latest fashion trends. No, they're most likely 'discussing' a slight difference of opinion over where a ball landed, such as whether it landed in fair or foul territory, or whether or not it cleared a line indicating that it was a home run. You don't need to be a baseball fan to know that there is sometimes controversy in sport. And, looking at the picture, you can tell that the result of a missed call can result in some, let us say, heated discussions.

Whatever our favorite sport, or, even if we don't particularly care for sports, we all can gain a bit of wisdom by observing what has recently happened with the introduction of "instant replay" in baseball.

I was actually going to blog about this, but someone - Kent McDonald, in particular, beat me to the punch. So, in the spirit of Web 2.0, I will simply point you to his short but powerful piece which teaches a few quick lessons in project management that come from the way that this new technology was introduced just a few days ago into Major League Baseball. I realize that baseball is not a global sport, but bear with the story, it has some nice takeaways.

One in particular is the setting of milestones. Don't let ego be the driver when it comes to setting miletones. Set them based on the natural flow of things, such as your customers' requirements, or ends of natural cycles (like the end of a fiscal quarter). In this case, why in the world would Major League Baseball experiment with a rules change at a time of the season just before the playoffs - when it could change the course of results at an extremely meaningful time? Why wouldn't they introduce it - since it is admittedly an experiment - at the beginning of a season? I think it's because someone in power had it in their heads that they were going to do it this year, period, and by getting it done by the end of August, they were still technically in 2008...

In any case, I don't want to steal Kent's thunder - have a look at his very nice article...

Click on this sentence to get Kent McDonald's posting on how MLB implemented instant replay.

Enjoy!

Don't live in a global vacuum.

2008-08-27T16:41:00.001-07:00

Just a quick one. As I organize a global conference for the PMs in my company, with the theme, "Project Management - A World of Difference", I am reminded of how important it is to be aware of the global nature of business, of projects, and of the interdependencies we all generally have on each other as humans.

To illustrate (in a rather sarcastic way) what can go wrong if you do NOT gain this awareness, I send you to a special video on the subject. Thank goodness this is sarcasm. I hope.

To see what happens if you do not know your world, see this video.

Late Summer tips for Spring Chickens

2008-08-27T16:33:00.001-07:00

The term "spring chicken" has been used since the early 1700's as an expression meaning "very young". It's usually used in the negative, as in my case: "I'm no spring chicken", meaning I'm not so young anymore.
What the cluck do chickens have to do with Project Management? The current issue of PM Network magazine has an article called "Next in Line" regarding young PMs and it's to them that I dedicate this posting - a quick summary of that article. Much of the information from the article came from interviews with brand-new, young PMs in organizations sharing their learnings. For example, Mr. J. Zammar of Dubai has the following observations:
"It is not always easy for young workers to earn the trust of their seniors. They should start by being sharp observers. It is important to stay away from confrontational approaches, to be concise and constructive, and to show cooperation while trying to be creative. Anticipate questions, and evaluate the impact of your ideas on the project cost, quality and risks."

How about what NOT to do?
Here's a quick list of DO NOTs:
Avoid the following:
--Using slang in business meetings
--Calling people by their first name before being invited to do so
--Writng memos as if chatting on the phone
--Asumming that text messaging is an appropriate way to communicate with clients, team leaders or managers

In terms of Communications, there are also some simple rules:
Watch and learn: Study how veteran employees communicate - then follow their lead
Target your style: Leave the text talk, casual abbreviations, and poor grammar for chats with friends.
Tie your ideas to the company's needs: A great solution is one that's aligned with the strategic goals of the business and the client.
Be proactive: Don't point out a problem unless you have a solution that you're ready and able to implement.
Back it up: Have facts and figures to support how your idea will directly impact project success.
Seek out constructive criticism: Find a mentor and get feedback on your communication style and performance.
Just ask: It's better to pose what seems like a stupid question than to risk not finding out the answer.

Also interesting in the article was a review of mechanisms that Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) uses when recruiting and hiring new workers. In many cases, recruitment and even some training begins while the candidates are still in University. One piece of this training which I particularly liked had to do with communications. They teach new workers to ask themselves three questions whenever communicating:
-What do I want to communicate?
-How do I want to communicate
-Who is my audience?

This fits in exactly with my mantra for blogging and presenting: Intent and Audience. Intent and Audience. Intent and Audience. Breathe out.... Ahhh....

I always repeat that to myselfe three times before starting a posting or a presentation. What do I want to say, and what's the takeaway message, and for whom is this message intended?

In any case, the the article is a good one, and it's worth a read, as is the interview with another non-spring chicken, Colin Powell, in the same issue. Check out August 2008 PM Network at http://www.pmi.org/ .

Hopefully, the article will not ruffle your feathers and will help you reach beak performance in the pecking order....sorry for all of the fowl puns....

Scrappiest Project Management Contest Ever

2008-08-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

So - the first order of business is defining "scrappy". The dictionary says scrappy means "having an aggressive and determined spirit". Another word for it is 'feisty'. In sports, this is usually the smaller player who makes up for their size with speed, craftiness, cunning, heart, assertiveness, focus, intensity, and just plain old willpower. For me, Boston Red Sox player Dustin Pedroia comes to mind, so I'm using his picture to represent the posting. There he is on the left, flying through the air after avoiding being "taken out" by a runner sliding into second base and still making a good throw to first base. We're also seeing some of this scrappiness in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As PMs, we know we need this scrappiness - because we don't always have the positional power in an organizational structure, yet we're fully accountable for the success of gigantic, important projects. We have to be scrappy. Not scrappy - not happy.

In my previous post, I review the "Scrappy Project Manager" book. Well, I was able to speak with its author, Kimberly Wiefling today and have arranged for her to ship a few gratis copies of the book to me for distribution in a 'creative' way to a few deserving PMs . To do that, I've decided to run a small contest - a scrappy contest - to give the books away. Try to control yourselves - we're talking, after all, about a US$19.95 value here!

I would like to give the books (one each) to the three most deserving, most Pedroia-like PMs. So all you need to do to win one of the books is to provide a brief, 100-word-or-less description of how you've demonstrated scrappiness to solve a project problem. That's it. Just plunk that in an email to exclaim@verizon.net by 30-September-2008, using 'Scrappy Contest Entry' as the subject line in the email.

I will go to a blue-ribbon panel of world-renowned experts (ha!) to judge the entries, and after their careful consideration I will ship a book to the winner(s). The decision of this blue-ribbon panel is final. I'll also post the best descriptions (anonymously, if you so indicate) here on the blog.

Good luck, and may the scrappiest PMs win!

The Anti-PMBOXidant

2008-08-17T17:42:00.000-07:00

Look at (almost) any beverage label these days, or walk down the vitamin aisle of your pharmacy (chemist), and you’ll see it – “Contains Powerful Antioxidants”. What are these? Antioxidants help to fight and eliminate free radicals (oxidants) in our bodies. Free radicals are considered a major component in aging and disease progression. Research has shown that rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue, and even certain types of cancer are the direct result of free radical damage in the body.

OKaaaay, Rich, you’re saying, so what does this have to do with Project Management? Well, I just finished Kimberly Wiefling’s “Scrappy Project Management”, a skinny (and scrappy), but powerful book, and the way I see it, it’s the anti-PMBOK® Guide, or perhaps, at least for the sake of this posting, the Anti-PMBOXidant. Please note that I have nothing against the PMBOK Guide – in fact I was honored to work on the 4th Edition recently as an editor – but to bring its concepts home, you need a supplement, something to ground it in hard-fought, real-world, teeth-gnashing, stomp-out-of-the-room, knee-deep-in-dirt actual projects. Since I consider the PMBOK guide to have the solid foundation in theory and a to be a good tour of PM’s body of knowledge, but not a how-to book, I’m always on the lookout for the “anti-PMBOK”. Not something that opposes or contradicts the PMBOK Guide, but rather something which connects it to your PM life.

Scrappy Project Management does that. In fact, starting in September, I will be using the unlikely combination of the PMBOK Guide and Scrappy PM for my Essentials of PM course at my local community college. The free radicals will be together with the antioxidants. Sounds like college from the 60's!

Kimberly’s approach is very earthy (what do you expect when you “ground” something), yet she’s peppered it with lofty quotes from people like Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, and has done her research to back up her bold, brash banter. It’s loaded with tips and tricks, many of which concur with advice I’ve been giving out as well, so we seem to be on a similar wavelength. For example, we have both been preaching the idea of writing certain emails but not sending them, if they contain (and I quote) “emotional vomit”. The idea of writing the email to get out the emotion – and then deleting it rather than sending it - is one I have suggested for my peers and students for many years. I just never described the contents as – ahem – colorfully as Kimberly.

I found great value in the Scrappy Project Management Checklist, which also serves as the chapters of the book:

--Be completely & unrepentantly obsessed with the “Customer”.
--Prioritize ruthlessly, choosing between heart, lungs & kidneys if necessary.
--Provide shared, measurable, challenging, & achievable Goals as clear as sunlight.
--Create viable Plans & Schedules that enjoy the team’s hearty commitment.
--Explicitly identify and plan to mitigate detestable Risks & delectable Accelerators.
--Assure that Roles & Responsibilities are unmistakably understood and agreed by all.
--Challenge Assumptions & Beliefs, especially insidious self-imposed limitations.
--Manage the Expectations of all stakeholders: under-promise & over-deliver.
--Anticipate and accommodate necessary and inevitable Change.
--Engage in effective, vociferous & unrelenting Communication with all stakeholders.
--Practice an “Attitude of Gratitude.” Celebrate success, and some failures, too.
--Learn from experience. Make new and more exciting mistakes next time!

People seem to like Kimberly’s book: there are 22 reviews on Amazon, and the average rating is 5 (out of 5). Granted, one of the reviewers is indeed the author, but to me, that’s just another illustration of scrappiness.

So, if your diet could use some Anti-PMBOXidants, have a look at Scrappy Project Management .

A, B, C - Easy as 123, simple as do-re-mi...

2008-08-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Keeping the same theme as the previous post (Everybody Ning Along), I evoke the sweet sound of the seventies and Michael Jackson before he weirded out on us.

Yes, remember that song, "ABC"? It was about how easy it was to fall in love. Basic, essential, is love, n'est pas? And basic and essential is what this blog post is all about.

With all of my work in PM education and training focused on the PMBOK(R) Guide, and in helping people get their PMP credential, and now looking at the new credentials (PMI-SP and PMI-RMP, about which I also plan to post), I had forgotten something that PMI had introduced a long time ago. Not so far back as the seventies, but back in, say, 2002.

I speak of the Basic Knowledge Assessment, or BKA. If you'd like the latest on the BKA, go to the PMI web site segment on this by clicking here. What is this thing called the Basic Knowledge Assessment? It's a 100-question, multiple-choice, assessment designed to help you measure your project management knowledge. No designation or credential is earned for completing it, but it is a way for you to begin mapping a career in project management. You can do this with little investment (US$35) and you get to see your results right after taking the test.

This is not a PMP-Prep test, and the questions are not (necessarily) the same questions you'll get on the PMP exam. However, if you want to try your hand at your PM knowledge without putting in the investment of time and study, and just want to get a basic reading on your knowledge, you may want to consider this route. And now I leave you with the sophisticated lyrics of the Jackson Five. I know - it's not The Dark Side of the Moon, but it's basic and essential...

Shake it, shake it baby, come on now, Shake it, shake it baby, oooh, oooh, Shake it, shake it baby, yeah, 1 2 3 baby, oooh oooh, A B C baby, ah, ah, do re mi baby, wow, thats how easy love can be, A B C its easy, its like counting up to 3, singing simple melodies, thats how easy love can be, teachers gonna teach you how to sing it out, sing it out, sing it out baby ...

Everyone join the ning-along...

2008-07-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, Project Managers, don't be a lone wolf. Join the pack. Everybody ning along.

I'd like to introduce you to a social networking site made just for Project Managers. I just joined and became member number 2467, and you can see my initial profile here: http://projectmanagers.ning.com/profile/RichMaltzmanPMP . This is an example of social networking from Ning. Ning, Chinese for 'peace', was launched in October, 2005 and was established as an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks. And, on Ning, there are several networks for PMs, the largest of which appears to be the Professional Project Managers Networking Group. To sign up, go to this site: http://projectmanagers.ning.com/ . Once you do, you can take advantage of what appears to be a very active forum, join subgroups, even look for job opportunities.

So don't solo, ning along! Don't worry. You won't have to buy one of the outfits shown above.

Have a little look-see.

2008-07-16T12:13:00.000-07:00

This is a posting that I'm very excited about. I think it's partially because it is beyond "pure" Project Management but brings empowerment to Project Managers.

I begin with the bottom line, and my premise: as a PM, or as a business person in general, clear, concise communication is a big part of what you need to get the job done. Often, you are solving problems and selling ideas.
If you disagree with that, stop reading, shut off your PC, and go home. If you work at home, go to the gymnasium or a restaurant. But you can definitely stop reading this posting, it will be a total waste of your time.

If, on the other hand, you agree, read on.

Speaking of reading, I've just finished a tremendous book which really is the inspiration of this posting. The book is called "The Back of the Napkin", by Dan Roam. I am going to highly, highly, recommend that you read this book. Highly. Please get a hold of this book and read it. Could I be any clearer? I don't think so.

The subtitle of the book - to my assertion above - is "Solving problems and selling ideas with pictures". It's about visual thinking and it's power in business.

In his book, Mr. Roam makes the point that we can solve any problem with a picture. I will not attempt to explain this with words - I think you can get the best idea of what he's talking about by going to his fabulous website http://thebackofthenapkin.com/ .

When you get there, click on the A, B, C, and D drawings on the napkin in the center of the page (go sequentially, A, then B, then C, then D). For each, you will get a nice animated summary of Dan's major ideas from the book.

On his site you will also find some downloadable tools.
These form the heart of his book and are available for free:

The visual thinking toolkit:
http://thebackofthenapkin.com/pdf/TBOTN_suiss.pdf

The visual thinking codex:
http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/pdf/TBOTN_codex.pdf

One of my favorites, the SQVID:
http://thebackofthenapkin.com/pdf/TBOTN_sqvid.pdf

The 6x6 rule:
http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/pdf/TBOTN_6x6.pdf

This is not a soft, touchy-feely type of book. It flows nicely and contains a scientifically-based, but pragmatic set of tools that you can use to help communicate, and if you remember way back to the beginning of this posting, my assertion is that communication is a big part of a PMs job - really anyone's job.

There is nothing motivating me to write this other than the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed "The Back of the Napkin" and want to share it with my PM colleagues because I think it will make them better PMs, better communicators and better problem-solvers.

You can also check out Dan's blog at http://digitalroam.typepad.com/ - where you can see clips of recent interviews he's had with FOX news, MSNBC, and other news agencies.

I've spoken with Dan (via email) and he agrees that the application of his philosophy and techniques to PM is significant. I think we - as PMs - deserve the power of Visual Thinking.

Have a look-see!

Interest of Conflict

2008-07-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

...a bit of a play on words... "Conflict of Interest" is an expression used to describe an ethical problem, like hiring your brother-in-law as a consultant for your employer and sharing the fee. And yes, PMs need to be aware of Conflicts of Interest. But that is not the subject of this posting. Here, I'm talking about the interest PMs need to have in conflict.

<* WARNING *>

This posting is chock full of some good links, so read carefully and be prepared to bookmark, listen to a podcast or two, and even order - or borrow - a book...
One of my favorite blogs is Anthony Mersino's EQ4PM (Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers). One of my favorite postings on that blog is this one: "Nobody Really Manages Projects" http://eq4pm.typepad.com/eq4pm/2008/01/nobody-really-m.html .
In this posting, Mr. Mersino says:
----
Nobody Really Manages Projects - Not Even You
That's right, I said it, nobody really manages projects. Not even project managers. Not even you. In fact, the term project manager is a misnomer.

--Project managers do not manage scope
--Project managers do not manage time
--Project managers do not manage costs
--Project managers do not manage projects

They also don't manage integration, risk, quality, communications, procurement or any of the other nine knowledge areas of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) save one. There is really only one of the nine knowledge areas that the PM actually does manage.

So what is that one thing that project managers do manage? Project managers manage only one thing; people. It is through people that all of those other things are managed.
----

Okay. Since managing people is the way you get your projects completed satisfactorily, and since people do not always do everything the precise way that you expect them to do them, you are going to have to deal with conflict. And since you have to deal with conflict, I thought I would also pass along today an excellent podcast and some resources on that subject.

The podcast I refer you to is The Cranky Middle Manager - a fanciful one which you can find at this link: http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/

In one episode of The Cranky Middle Manager, Wayne Turmel, the irreverent host of that podcast, interviews Gini Graham Scott, PhD.
Gini has a very pragmatic model of conflict called E-R-I: Emotion, Reason, Intuition. You can actually learn alot about this model by reading sample chapters of her book, "Disagreements, Disputes, and All-Out War: 3 Simple Steps for Dealing with Any Kind of Conflict". These are available at no cost at http://www.workingwithhumans.com/ .

Below is some descriptive text on the E-R-I model:

---

How the E-R-I Conflict Management Model Works
The basic way to use the emotional-rational-intuitive approach to managing conflict is to look on any conflict situation as a problem or potential problem to be solved. First, you must get past the emotions involved, so that you can use your reason and intuition to deal with the core problem. Then, you select the appropriate problem-solving techniques from an arsenal of possible strategies for dealing with the conflict. The strategy you select will depend on the stage of the conflict (potential conflict, developing conflict, open conflict), the importance of a particular resolution to you, an assessment of what the other person needs and wants, and the types of emotions released by the conflict.
Once you select the appropriate technique, you then determine the best way to apply it. The optimal choices depend on your ability to assess the situation and the alternatives rationally, your ability to intuit what option is best for the situation, and your ability to put that choice into action.
Whenever you find yourself in a conflict or potential conflict situation, go through a quick "self-assessment" like the one that follows. Depending on your answers, choose the appropriate response. Give yourself time to learn to do this, because at first you will have to think through your reactions. But in time, as you use this approach regularly, the choices will come to you spontaneously. It will be like flashing through all the options in your mind in a moment, then intuitively choosing the ones you want to employ in that situation.
The following chart, which is adapted from my out-of-print book Resolving Conflict (originally published in 1990 by New Harbinger Publications, Inc., Oakland, CA), describes the questions to ask and strategies to use. Subsequent chapters describe how and when to use each of these strategies in more detail, so when you are in a conflict situation you can review your options and decide the best ones to choose.

Questions to Ask ...followed by... Strategies to Use
1. Are emotions causing the conflict or standing in the way of a resolution? If yes: What are these emotions?
1. No matter what the emotions, there are techniques to calm feelings, both your own and the other's, so that solutions can be worked out.
ANGER? If so, whose?
a. The other person's?
a. Techniques to cool down or deflect the anger, such as empathetic listening, letting the other person vent his or her anger, soothing hurt feelings, and correcting misunderstandings.
b. Your own?
b. Techniques to channel or control your anger, such as short-term venting, deflection, and visualization to release anger.
MISTRUST? If so, whose?

a. The other person's?
a. Techniques to cool down or deflect the anger, such as empathetic listening, letting the other person vent his or her anger, soothing hurt feelings, and correcting misunderstandings.
b. Your own?
b. Techniques to channel or control your anger, such as short-term venting, deflection, and visualization to release anger.
FEAR? If so, whose?

a. The other person's?
a. Techniques to reduce fear.
b. Your own?
b. Techniques to assess the accuracy of this fear or to deal with it openly and productively.
OTHER EMOTIONS (jealousy, guilt, etc.)?
If so, whose?
a. The other person?
a. Techniques to calm the other person.
b. Your own?
b. Techniques to calm yourself.
2. What are the underlying reasons for the conflict?
2. Ways to search for the true needs and wants of both parties.

WHAT ARE THE OTHER PERSON'S TRUE NEEDS AND WANTS?

Direct communication, asking the person to outline reasons, needs, and wants.
Intuitive and sensing techniques to pick up the underlying reasons if the person isn't willing to speak or isn't self-aware enough to recognize these underlying needs and wants.
WHAT ARE YOUR OWN TRUE NEEDS AND WANTS?

Self-examination to determine your real desires and needs if you aren't already clear about them.

Intuitive and sensing techniques to consider your underlying goals.

Contrast these statements: You Statements (shown in red) , I statements (shown in blue).

You Statements (sound accusatory)
I Statements (express feelings, make requests, are solution-oriented)

"You never call me to go somewhere or do something until the last minute."
"When you call me to make plans at the last minute, I'm not always free, although I would like to go with you if I could. I sometimes feel hurt that you wait so long. I would appreciate it if you would call me earlier so we can make arrangements in the future. "

"Why do you always interrupt me?"
"When you try to talk to me while I'm talking, I can't really pay attention to what you're trying to say because I'm thinking about something else. I'd really appreciate it if you could wait until I've finished talking, unless it's really important and you feel you have to interrupt right away.

"You don't respect me. You never remember my birthday."
"When you don't remember my birthday I feel like you don't care about me or respect me. I would like to feel that you care."

"You are annoying me with all your questions."
"When you ask me questions while I'm doing something else, I feel distracted and irritate, because I'm not really ready to pay attention to them. I'd appreciate it if you could ask me these questions again at a more convenient time, such as" [you specify when].

"You never do what I want; always what you want."
"When you make a decision for us without asking for my opinion, I feel hurt and I feel that you aren't interested in my ideas. I'd like it if we could discuss these things so we could do what we both want."
---

Enjoy these valuable resources and remember that you simply cannot get your projects done on your own. Admitting this, you will need to deal with people, and thus with conflict. Developing a mastery of dealing with conflict will enable you to reduce stress and get more done through others. It's a soft skill with a hard result.

Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'

2008-06-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Well, summer is finally here in Massachusetts. And for me, that means I will get to spend some time on Cape Cod. Cape Cod is a beautiful arm-shaped peninsula of land that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, offering miles of beaches and dunes, salt-water taffy, bike trails, interesting birds and sea life, crazy traffic, and it serves as a holiday destination for people from across the US and Canada and increasingly (with the favorable exchange rate) Europe and elsewhere.

It also brings me into an area which is swirling (you'll get the pun later) in some controversy. At issue is a project called Cape Wind, and there is a real lessons-learned here for Project Managers. The lesson is regarding identifying your stakeholders properly. We hear a lot about managing your stakeholders - but guess what? You cannot manage them if you don't know who they are first.

If Cape Wind is successful, it will generate about 3/4 of the energy consumed by Cape Cod with renewable, clean energy. It will generate 600 to 1,000 jobs in the area. But it is not loved by everyone.

Observe this snippet from today's issue of Business Week: "the first large-scale effort to harness sea breezes in the U.S. hit resistance from an army led by the rich and famous, waging a not-on-my-beach campaign. For almost eight years the critics have stalled the project, called Cape Wind, which aims to place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound about five miles south of Cape Cod. Yet surprisingly, Cape Wind has largely defeated the big guns. In a few months it may get authorization to begin construction. "

The entire article - worth a read - is attainable right here.

Eight years! The project lost eight years of delay and millions and millions of dollars spent in advertising and studies, and continues this battle today.

My point, whether you agree with the Cape Wind supporters or the people opposed to the effort, is that as a PM we need to identify all stakeholders up front and focus not only (as is tempting) on those who will support the project but to think as broadly and deeply as possible about all of those who might stand in its way.

In this case, Cape Wind was surprised, and ill-prepared, in my opinion, about a very unlikely (but in fact plausible) collection of organizations who came together to oppose the project - environmentalists, landowners, fishermen, birders - people you might think would normally amd naturally support a green effort (I think I am showing my leanings here). I think that they should have thought longer and harder at the beginning of the project about identifying how these individuals (some of whom are very powerful, with surnames such as Kennedy) were stakeholders in this effort and how they may have aligned against it.

Take a lesson from Cape Wind. Identify your stakeholders - even opponents, maybe even especially opponents - early on, and manage them continuously.

Ask yourselves:

--Who might be opposed to my project?
--Why?
--What are their relationships with us?
--What are their spheres, and levels of power and influence?
--What are their relationships with each other?
--How might opponents work together in unexpected ways to impede progress?
--Are there ways to arrange a win-win?

Asking these questions now - and knowing your stakeholders and their needs - will improve your chances of "clean energy" on your project.

Show us your blogs!

2008-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

After only a couple of months of being active, the PM Blogger group on Linked In has swelled to a membership of 300. Yep, that’s three hundred of you who claim to be blogging about Project Management.

I’m thankful and impressed at the volume of interest. I’d like to take this to the next step by calling you to action in two ways:

Way 1: I realize that some of the members may only be thinking about blogging, and some of you may be blogging in an environment (like an intranet or military network) which would not allow you to share your blog with the PM Blogger group. But even if I skim off 40%, that leaves 60%, or 180 of you who have actual blogs about Project Management which could be promoted and shared. I’d like you to respond to this posting with a comment that provides the link and some basics of your blog – or at least as much as you’d like to provide. I’ll collect this info and put it up on Scope Crepe and the PM Blogger discussion group.

Way 2: I’d like to see a much greater participation level on the PM Blogger community discussion board. From our PM theory we know that the number of interactions we could have in a 300-person community is almost 45,000! And if we get up to 450 members – certainly foreseeable in the next month or two, we would more than double the number of interactions and be up towards 100,000. So get on board – don’t just randomly join a LinkedIn group – make use of it! Visit the discussion board here.

Are they M&Ms, or little circular windows into our inner being?

2008-06-12T12:05:00.001-07:00

In a very intersting posting, Kimberly Wiefling discusses how you can use M&Ms as a team exercise to determine which of nine "strategies" people use to get things done. And what are project managers all about? Junk food! No, wait. I meant to say, of course, getting things done.

The theory of nine strategies is from a tool called the Enneagram. At the end of the posting I provide some links to this tool. I think the important thing for PMs - and for that matter, managers of PMs - to understand, is the importance of EQ (Emotional Quotient) for project managers. I have already blogged about Anthony Mersino's excellent book on this topic and again point you in his direction for a wonderful treatment of this topic.

The point of using any of these tools is to understand the propensity your project team members will have for behaving in certain ways. The problem most left-brain thinkers have with these tools is that they dismiss them because they expect them to work like a regular tool, like a level or a hacksaw. These tools are different. Where a level shows whether your picture (or PMP Certificate!) is truly mounted properly, an Enneagram, or DiSC, or MBTI analysis illustrates the propensity for someone to act in a certain way most of the time, under most conditions. Just because it is not perfect indicator, it should not be left out of the toolbox.

Think in terms of a barometer. It does actually measure pressure, but only gives a predictor of upcoming weather. Low pressure usually means precipitation is coming but it does not guarantee it. Similarly, these tools (and I am not endorsing any one in particular) indicate the propensity for someone to - for example - be interested in a "Being Secure" strategy and will likely follow instructions carefully. This happens to be the "SIX" strategy of the Enneagram.

So, I will not (at least in this little posting about snack foods) teach you how to use the Enneagram, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP), or the Moldavian Violin Technique (I made that one up). Here, I just implore you to learn about them, and consider their use at the beginning of your project, if for no other reason than to do some teambuilding and the mass consumption of cocoa butter.

Bon appetit!

Oh...the Enneagram links....

The Enneagram Institue

The 9 Types

Enneagram Central

The Moldavian Violin Technique

Muggling your way through PM

2008-06-07T19:22:00.001-07:00

I was lucky enough to attend the commencement ceremonies at Harvard University a few days ago. The speaker for commencement was none other than J. K. Rowling, celebrated author of the Harry Potter books.

I suggest that you spend a moment and read (or listen to) her entire speech. You'll find a video of her speech here. And you can read her entire speech right here. What's the connection to project management? I think you'll see. Read on.

Her two main points were:

1. The benefits of failure

2. The importance of imagination

In terms of the benefits of failure, we all know as project managers that what doesn't kill you - makes you stronger. Lessons learned play an important role in our own set of potions and wands. Here's how J. K. Rowling summed it up:

"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned."

In terms of the importance of imagination, we know that as a PM we are constantly needing to understand the worldview of all of our stakeholders to be able to understand their needs, to negotiate more effectively, and frankly, to get people to do what we want for the benefit of the project. I like the way J. K. Rowling put this into more dramatic terms:

"Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places. "

Rowling's speech focused intensely and passionately on the need for human compassion, also an important PM attribute, but for that flavor, I ask that you listen to, or watch, or read her entire speech. I just wanted to share these two main gems with you.

Since we don't have a magic wand, or an invisibility cloak, or a broom to fly around on, we need all the help we can get as regular muggle (non-magical) PMs.

Project Management found on Mars!

2008-06-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

As you probably know, NASA's Phoenix lander has started to send images back from the red planet. I have been carefully examining the extremely high-resolution versions of the imaging results and have come up with an astounding discovery. I see what appears to be a Critical Path diagram subtly drawn on the surface.

PMI and NASA are working together to determine any negative float, and PMI is already considering a new certification: The PMI-ET(SM) Certification, for extraterrestial PMs. A sample question from the upcoming PMI-ET exam:

You and your team have just fnixed a schnultio after glaarning over 30 xnoxes. The SPI of the project is 1.1. What can be said about this project?

A. The project is ahead of schedule, but behind on xnoxes

B. The project is behind schedule, but should not be fnixed again

C. There should be an increase in Interplanetary Process Assets

D. The Chief Project Glaarnner should be retained for lessons learned.

The answer is B. See section #, sub-paragraph z..

Look at the image below and see if you, too, can find the evidence in the martian soil.

With this discovery, the lander is now on the lookout for other PM artifacts, such as Gantt Charts, Pareto Diagrams, or perhaps a rock with the Earned Value equations etched on its surface.

Only further testing will verify if this Critical Path discovery are the results a random rock formation or the careful work of Martian PMs. Follow this development at the joint NASA-PMI website: www.martianPM.com .

Of course, this is all made up for the sake of comedy, but just imagine... if there is ice on Mars, the leap to Project Management is not that large...

New Kids on the Blog

2008-05-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

This posting will have some answers...but mostly it's about one question I have for YOU. Yes, I mean YOU. So I am going to want your responses here - in the form of comments.

I chose the cartoon character Richie Rich to represent the PM as the "New Kid on the Blog". I think the PM is a person who - almost by definition - is a change agent. PMs - again, almost by definition - are all about synthesizing and promoting data into knowledge and wisdom. So I see the PM as having a lot to offer. Blogs are all about sharing that knowledge and wisdom. So they're ringing that doorbell bearing gifts. I also thought that the imagery of Richie Rich 'knocking at the door' was symbolic of the opportunities that blogging provides project managers and the organizations in which they work.

PMI.org has an article on the business of blogging. Have a look: http://www.pmi.org/Pages/Blogging_for_Business_Results.aspx

Also, you can find some interesting findings and a presentation from Dennis McDonald on this blog posting.

I think of blogging as giving organizations the opportunity to do what I call real-time lessons learned. So I am hoping to encourage Project Managers to blog their projects. I realize that PMs are busy and cannot be bothered to keep an online diary of what happens on their project on a moment-by-moment basis.

So here is my question - or rather set of questions:

Does your organization use blogs within the firewall to share project progress?
How do you encourage the PMs to blog?
What roadblocks have prevented blogging by PMs?
How have you got those roadblocks "outta the way"?
What are the results - how has this helped the blogger and your PM community?

Please help here, this is something in which I'm very interested and I am counting on the community of readers to provide some insight.

Thanks in advance for your comments. Yes, YOURS. Come on, now, you KNOW you want to do it...

Big Dig Ducts Dumbly Dodge Dough

2008-05-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

The headline in the Boston Globe was not as catchy as this blog posting - the Globe's headline reads: "Big Dig's $13.9m ducts go unused - cellphone firms bypass conduits".

For those of you unfamiliar with the Big Dig, it is a $15B system of roadways and other infrastructure improvements to downtown Boston which is so over budget and so late, and so frought with problems - major, ongoing problems - that it will be used in project management textbooks for many, many generations as an example of how not to manage a large project. Ranjit Biswas and I will cover this project in our upcoming book, due to our proximity to the Big Dig and our experience - as customers and drivers as well as 30-year PMs in the Boston area.

So what's all this about ducts? It seems the designers of the Big Dig thought they were smart to invest millions of dollars building hidden ductwork into the Big Dig's tunnels, which would ostensibly contain utility cables, cellphone, fiber, and so on, for a fee. And they were smart to come up with the idea. But they failed a basic premise of project management - stakeholder analysis and communications. The problem is that the conduits the designers used are too narrow for the cables. Even if they were not too narrow, the utility companies say, they've found it cheaper to drill their own new passages through the (already leaking) walls or to affix their cables to the inside walls of the tunnels.

The Big Dig Ducts were installed at a cost of $13.9M, with the anticipation that rent money from the cellphone and other utilitites would pay for their construction and then offer income to the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (MTA), which operates the tunnels.

In any case, as PMs we know the root cause of this problem: ironically, it's communications. Here we are talking about cellphone ductwork, but apparently nobody from the company selected by the MTA used one of those cell phone devices to call the cellphone companies and ask them how the design would best accomodate their network. And now, according to the Globe, that company is actually suing the MTA because they are not getting revenue from the cellphone companies. Even the Massachusetts Legislature got in the act, passing a law that required the cellphone companies to provide service by the end of 2006. We're almost halfway done with 2008 and and - no dial tone. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.

It's sad because there is still no promise date from the cellphone companies as to when there will be service in the tunnels. Sad, because - amazingly - the design of the duct system mirrors the "epoxy-bolt" design of the ceiling (which I will blog about later) which had a failure causing a fatality in 2006. It can't get much sadder than that.

Here's a picture showing the Big Dig under construction:

You can read the full, sad story here. And look for more coverage of the project management aspects of the Big Dig in our upcoming book, The Fiddler on the Project.

One Hundred Fiddlers

2008-05-16T20:28:00.000-07:00

100 Fiddlers!

The original rationale for publishing this blog - or at least one of the main motivations for doing so, was to get traction on an idea a colleague and I had to collaboratively write a PM book called, "The Fiddler on the Project". Part of that effort, in turn, called for a minimum of 100 collaborators to participate in the wiki, writespace, and survey that we made available several months ago.

We recently passed that 100 milestone and have 100 contributions to the book!

Does this mean we are turning off our input? No. In fact, we're both excited (and a little nervous) because this means we have to get very serious about writing the book now that we have this input. By the same token we are energized by the contributions, and want to see them keep on coming. So if you would like to participate in this, your comments and insight are still quite welcome.

Visit our wiki at http://fiddlerontheproject.wikidot.com/ .

From there you can go to our Writeboard page:

http://123.writeboard.com/14463be4d2e60e841/login

...where you can log in with the password "tradition".

We look forward to your participation. Fiddle away!

-Rich Maltzman, PMP

-Ranjit Biswas, PMP

Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day - May 15

2008-05-14T07:59:00.001-07:00

Thursday, May 15, 2008 is "Bloggers Unite for Human Rights" day. I decided to participate by asking Project managers to try to remove a consraint. We all deal with them every day - but this one is about life and death for thousands of people. In Burma/Myanmar, people are suffering the results of the recent Cyclone Nargis, but the government is restricting access to aid arriving from other countries. You can help simply by clicking on this link and expressing your concern globally and demanding that the government of Burma/Myanmar assure that the aid is not held up for any political reasons. No money is required, you're just effectively signing a giant internet petition. Please take a moment and do this.

If you do choose to donate, Google has facilitated that process with this easy link.

The Big Yellow Taxi of Project Management

2008-05-11T13:46:00.000-07:00

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone...". These words, from a Joni Mitchell song of 1970, and re-popularized by the Counting Crows more recently, should strike a resonant note with PMs. Why?

Well, when you as a project manager are assessing your risks, you need to ask - repeatedly - how each risk could add to (as in opportunity) or take away from (as in threat), your project objectives. Sometimes PMs start their risk assessments before they really know what those objectives all are. If that's the case, you don't know what might be taken away, and therefore you don't really have a good shot at identifying all of the projects risks (positive or negative).

I certainly don't mean to take away from Joni Mitchell's lyric ability, but perhaps she should have said, "you don't know what might be taken away, until you know what your objectives are". But...then again, to be fair, (1) Joni did not have access to the 3rd Edition PMBOK(R) Guide, and (2) I don't think this lyric would be very marketable.

A new book by David Hillson and Peter Simon, "Practical Project Risk Management" does a great job of explaining this and actually in coaching you how to create Risk Statements. Risk Statements are highly-structured sentences, with an "if-then" flavor, which convey clearly what the risk at hand is all about. Each risk statement should include a Definite Cause, an Uncertain Event, and an effect on a Project Objective.

So, for example, we could state the following for a positive risk:

Because we are doing this project simultaneously with 2 others (Definite Cause), we could use staff as available from other projects (Uncertain Event), which could save project budget (Effect on Project Objectives).

or, for a negative risk (threat):

Since we are working in caves infested by venomous bats (Definite Cause), we may have staff members bitten (Uncertain Event), which could cause illness or death (Effect on Project Objectives).

To quote the book: "Risk can only be defined in relation to objectives, which means that one cannot identify any risks until objectives are defined and agreed". Sounds just like Joni Mitchell, n'est pas?

So enjoy this posting. You don't know what you've got 'til it's....GONE.

Project Managers: Don't Get the Point!

2008-04-28T17:24:00.001-07:00

Sometimes Project Managers just DON'T GET THE POINT. And in this case, that's a good thing.

Mind you, I'm not referring to "getting the point" in the sense of understanding, rather I'm referring to getting point estimates. Here's the deal. You have a project in its planning phase. You are getting estimates from a supplier. You're interested, of course, in how much the widgets will COST, and how long it will take to provide the widgets. The communication goes like this:

1. The supplier (and keep in mind that this could be an internal supplier, like an software developer or manager!) knows you are approaching them for an estimate. They think of their suppliers, their risks, their environment, their experiences, and develop (consciously or subconsciously) a range of numbers for both cost and time. That's the key here - they are working from a range.

2. The supplier may next add some cushion in both time and money and finally thinks of a point estimate for each. Keep in mind that to this point (sorry for the pun), nothing has yet been spoken!

3. After all of this consideration, they declare, for example, "it will cost $13.50 per item and it will take us 5 weeks to deliver".

4. You - smart PM that you are - know that these points are selected from a range. So you do not say "thanks" and walk away at this juncture, nor do you try to negotiate these points. Instead, you ask the supplier if there is a range involved, and specifically what could modulate the price and/or the delivery date around.

If you are able to get this information, not only are you better-informed about the range of numbers you may be dealing with - and thus the risks, you also know the risk drivers involved. You may even be able to remove threats, or enhance opportunities, by helping the supplier if, for example one of their sources of variance comes from the project, which is entirely possible.

The takeaway lesson here: don't settle for a point estimate. Push back - not from a stubborn/negotiation standpoint, but for more wisdom. More wisdom is a good thing for project managers. Get the point?

-----

Note: this gem comes from my recent 'Question of Balance' seminar. Of course, if you took the seminar, this came with an enhanced, animated slide that showed the whole transaction in full animation.

A Question of Balance ????

2008-04-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

Colleague PMs:

You choose: Is this news? Moody Blues = PDUs. Just don't snooze...

What can an early 1960's rock-and-roll band tell us about Project Risk Management? Turns out: quite a bit indeed.

I'll be leading a seminar entitled, "Managing Risk - A Question of Balance" next week, from 6PM to 8:30PM, on 22-April and 24-April, 2008.

Here's the teaser:

Some contend that a project manager’s core work is as the risk manager of the project. Even if you don’t believe that, it’s clear that as a PM you constantly deal with risk. Using the concept and theme of balance throughout, this course takes the participant through the processes of risk management – risk planning, risk identification, risk analysis, risk response, and monitoring and control of risk – never losing sight of the project context. Peppered with class discussions to get the most from the attendees’ varied backgrounds (and to provide more balance!) it is also enhanced with interactions that engage all participants. This journey through the world of uncertainty will reinforce basic risk courseware you may have had and will leave you with some thought-provoking concepts but also with down-to-earth tools to use on real projects.
At the end of this course, class participants should be able to:

1. Gain a deeper, more integrated understanding of how risk affects a project
2. Translate this into how this affects the planning of their projects
3. Collect, understand, and use advice and tools for risk identification
4. Improve their capabilities in risk analysis
5. Expand their capabilities of developing effective risk responses
6. Reaffirm the importance of continuing, ongoing risk management

To register for this session, follow this link:
http://www.enterprisepmsolutions.com/training.html#19

It will earn you 5 PDUs.

Hurry, obviously you risk missing this if you don't take action soon. In some days, the future will have passed (an inside joke for fans of the Moody Blues).

As the crêpe turns...

2008-04-14T20:30:00.000-07:00

Scope Crêpe has turned 1,000! Over one thousand unique site views, that is, just about a week ago. I've been very busy preparing some seminars- some PMP(R) prep, some focused on continuing education for PMP-certified folk. This has caused a slight lull in postings, but at the same time it's given me some great material for posting in the near future. You should see a great one coming up on managing proejct risk based on one of these seminars. This posting is a brief thank you for the 1,000 milestone. There is one more - The Fiddler on the Project survey is nearly at its full size of 100. My co-author and I have decided to re-energize the book once we have 100 co-authors via the comments on the survey. I just checked, and we're at 97, so if you want to add your voice to this collaborative book project via the survey, just visit the survey site now. The Fiddler wiki will remain open indefinitely, but the survey closes when we get to 100, and we are just about there.

Much more to come, I just wanted to share those two milestones with you and thank you for your participation!

A verse on risk

2008-03-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

...actually, it's more like prose...

We start with a story from the 30-March Boston Globe Magazine, in honor of the opening week of baseball!

NOTE: I know that many of my readers are from outside the US and/or are not fans of baseball. I also know that the rules of baseball are a bit...shall we say...eccentric.

For that reason, if you want to learn about baseball before (or after) reading this snippet, click HERE. To see a short video of the featured player stealing a base, click here.

---

On June 30 of last year, a call went from Boston to Pawtucket, (note: his means from the Red Sox' major league franchise to the minor league franchise) and Jacoby Ellsbury became the first person of Navajo descent to play Major League Baseball. A few days later, in only his third big league game, he hit a single in the bottom of the fourth. When he stole second, that energized the fans who had heard about this kid from the minors with lightning in his feet. But he was just getting warmed up. With Dustin Pedroia at the plate, and two outs, Texas Rangers reliever Willie Eyre hurled a pitch that hit the dirt, bounced off the catcher, and shot toward the visitor's dugout. Ellsbury had taken his normal jump for third, but when he saw the ball bounce, he thought to himself, "Oh, I might have a shot at this." He flew to third and kept going, not even looking at the third base coach for instructions but instead relying on the instinct inside him that told him to keep charging home.

"Ellsbury to third," play-by-play announcer Don Orsillo said, his voice rising. "He's going to try two bases, and SCORE!"
With two outs, Ellsbury's brash base running could have easily ended the inning. And that prospect - probability even - would have been reason enough for most big leaguers to put the brakes on, never mind a guy who could claim exactly two games of Major League experience more than the kids hawking overpriced hot dogs to fans in the stands.

After getting called up, most rookies approach their early games with the baseball equivalent of that famous medical maxim foremost in mind: First, do no harm. Don't risk anything that might prompt a quick return to the minors. To Ellsbury, that cautious approach couldn't be more wrong.

---

So we could say that Jacoby Ellsbury is a Risk Seeker. And project managers should be aware that there is an entire spectrum of risk behavior, with risk-averse (or here even "risk-paranoid) being at one end and risk-seeking (or even risk-addicted) at the other. See the following chart in which we move from low levels of uncertainty on the left to high levels of uncertainty on the right, and on the vertical axis we see the person's resulting comfort level. In the baseball scenario above, the speedy Jacoby Ellsbury was comfortable stealing two bases and risking his team an out - but even more significantly, risking his own chances and future in a lucrative career in Major League Baseball - for the opportunity he had to steal those bases and the 'gut feeling' he obviously had about his ability to get home and safely score a run.

In a project, we need to first identify the full complement of stakeholders - anyone who is a participant or otherwise affected by the project - and after that we need to know some key attributes of each one of these stakeholders, including communications needs and their risk attitudes. The chart above illustrates the variety of risk attitudes than can exist amongst stakeholders.

And here's a handy table of sorts that can help you identify how some of the more common risk attitudes affects stakeholders' behaviors for your project.

Risk Averse:

can't stand ambiguity

wants facts more than theories

may over-react to threats

may not react fully to opportunities

good person to have when you are identifying project risk

Risk Tolerant:

Will take uncertainty in stride

May not connect the project objectives to the threats and opportunities (it's your job as a PM to help them do that!)

Will be unlikely to be proactive - will wait to react

Risk Neutral:

Capable of thinking abstractly, willing to create without consideration of uncertainty

Balanced and reasoned approach to risk

Longer-term thinking

Risk Seekers (like Jacoby Ellsbury):

Adaptable and resourceful

Casual approach towards threats

Thrill of hunt outweighs potential for danger during hunt

Will NOT be good at identifying project threats

A new book on Risk has just arrived at my desk. I'm in the midst of reading it. I like what I see so far very much. Risk attitude is covered . The book is by David Hillson and Peter Simon, and it's entitled, Practical Project Risk Management - the ATOM Metodology. You can click on th title to have a look at it on amazon.com.

So...play ball. May the best team (it happens to be the one with Jacoby Ellsbury on it) win (again) this year!

New LinkedIn Group Established - PM Bloggers

2008-03-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you out there - like me - who enjoy blogging your PM experiences, and who want to be "linked in" with each other, I have established a new LinkedIn group called LinkedIn Bloggers. If you are interested, please go there. I am maintaining the group.

We can use this newfound community to share ideas and bring new bloggers on board. I'm sure there are other things we can do as a community; this is just a starting point.

UPDATE:

April 12: we're up to well over 150! I am impressed with the response and think we really have something here. Or will soon, anyway. I've added a discussion group for PM Bloggers. http://pmbloggers.proboards84.com/ . The discussion group already has new ideas and tools submitted for your consideration to use on your blog. You will need to register and then you're set to discuss PM Blogging ideas, issues, and intrigue. Thanks!

Scope crêpe

EarthPM

Think Tragically

And now...

Be a project LEADer

We just ain't that good at risk

Spaced-out project teams

An upcoming seminar on Project Risk - Mark Your Calendars

Promoting PM amongst our younger students...

Will the PMP Credential Bring You Fame and Fortune? Or...at least fortune? Maybe...

When is a "Pass" not a "Pass"?

Getting the science right -->

Rising to the top

New PMO Blog

The Cost of Community

The soul of PMI

Ancient discovery of agile PM from 2600BC?

Looking past "The End of the Beginning"

Oh, chute!

"The danger of the single story"- Chimamanda Adichie

Bored --> Board --> Exciting

Free WBS tool for download

Get SMARTER

Take a guess. No googling allowed, though.

5 seconds of your time...please?

Choices...choices...

Greenality

A "Car Talk" puzzler becomes a lesson in Risk ID

Is the world ready for earthpm.com ?

Relax, have a seat in your comfy chair, and enjoy 'The Lazy Project Manager'

Poignantly perpetuate your project's purpose

Go Banana Slugs!

Getting better all the time?

Getting better all the time...

Hubba Hubba

Are your project teams - inspired?

evorpmI ruoY Xobni

Form a line for this book!

Nice guys...Cranky Managers...Weasels....Jerks

Survey SAYS!

Identify your Stakeholders: by Heineken

Moody Blues = PDUs ???

Hope. Scope.

Jump start your brain in 2009

Five Grand

A handbook worth reading

Not yawning. Neither doing cartwheels.

The new PMBOK Guide is here! What's your "care" level?

*EXTREME* active risk acceptance

In the zone

Nerds in "charge"

Doctor, doctor, give me the news

Psst! Did you hear the one about the three nuns and the project manager?

Risk Board

And now for something completely different

Europeana - "A victim of its own success"

This Risk Register Has Sharp Edges. DO NOT TOUCH THE EDGES OF THIS RISK REGISTER.

You're not quite done voting...

PM-Oh My!

An important and historic week...

AAAAAAAA! The new PMP Exam is coming!!!

The WBS: Wall Street's Breakdown Structure

Deftly do due diligence

And the scrappy winners are...

Knotty, knotty project!

War - hnhhhh - what is it good for?

Feel, felt, found

Can we see that again?

Don't live in a global vacuum.

Late Summer tips for Spring Chickens

Scrappiest Project Management Contest Ever

The Anti-PMBOXidant

A, B, C - Easy as 123, simple as do-re-mi...

Everyone join the ning-along...

Have a little look-see.

Interest of Conflict

Big Wheels Keep on Turnin'

Show us your blogs!

Are they M&Ms, or little circular windows into our inner being?

Muggling your way through PM

EXTREME active risk acceptance