ICPM

Many companies are finding that they must build project management capability if they are going to meet the business challenges in the future. PMOs are increasingly being viewed as an essential component that enable the success of projects, and hence, the future success of the entire organization.

I wrote this in response to a friends inquiry about Outsourcing. The basic risks, concerns and strategy of outsourcing as I see them today are: The basic risks, concerns and strategy of outsourcing as I see them today are:

1.    Language Barrier - this often makes requirements gathering sessions harder. It takes longer which is more costly both in terms of capital dollars and opportunity costs.

"I wish that my boss could have taken this course." "This is not the way we do project management where I work." These and similar remarks are increasingly being made at the conclusion of much of today's project management training. Indeed, as I write and speak to increasing numbers of project management practitioners at PMI conferences, and as I reflect upon the feedback provided by the thousands of employees who completed project management training and certification at the CIA where I was Director of that program, I see a gap between what increasingly better educated and skilled project managers need for success, and what they are getting from their organizations and their executives. Lets call this the executive gap. Leaders in the project management training industry that I have spoken to about this have offered confirmation for this executive gap; and not just here in the United States, but industry and world-wide. This paper is a shortened version of work that I have been passionately writing and speaking about recently. For more detail you are referred to the reference list at the end of this paper, to the proceedings of recent PMI Global Congresses[1] and to the February 2006 issue of PM Network Magazine.

PMPal is a software tool for software project management and software metricsw tool. I has modules for software estimation (size, effort, cost & schedule), WBS, Defect Manager, Change Manager and software metrics that are adequate for a CMMI level 5 company

A key success factor for excellent project management often relies also upon the people skills of the project manager.

In order to minimize risk and ensure a successful project, project managers must not only deal with the technical project management aspects, but asses leadership skills, cultivate a motivated team, master negotiation tactics to effectively handle conflict situations and communicate effectively. Projects success can be jeopardized by things such as personal agendas, politics, poor communication and team conflicts.

And if you succeed, no matter how "good" you are,  you will never get the credit, if can’t communicate well with colleagues or clients.

Total Participation Starting From the Top

This point speaks to the need for
(1) commitment from top management and
(2) commitment from everyone else in the organization.
Quality is everyone’s job, and if any implementation is not total, it will not fulfill its full potential. 

In project management, I see this point alluding to executive formation and support of a company-wide Project Management Office. That PMO must be the central source of all project management knowledge, under continuous development by the practitioners of project management. Lessons learned and any potential improvements to the project management methodology used by all PM’s in the company should be evaluated, tested, and implemented as a positive change.

Training Not Related to Job/Task

In order for continuous improvement to become organizational culture, it must also become a personal goal for every employee. Self-improvement should not be limited to immediate application, that would be an example of short-term thinking. Employees are the most important assets of an organization, and therefore require effort to retain and enhance them.

Enable Pride of Workmanship

Deming claimed that the sense of having helped other people is the most significant motivator and source of job satisfaction. It is one of the biggest enablers for pride of workmanship.

Of the projects you have worked on, think about the ones you are most proud of. What is it that makes you look back and say, “Wow! Look what we did!!!”

No Slogans or Disingenuous Pep Talks

This point consists of two elements as I see it. (1) Walk the talk, and (2) hold systems accountable.

Walk the Talk

Slogans are phony. The word slogan has a connotation of something that is not real. It sounds like an advertisement, and not something you can really trust in. In a project management organization, it is much better to have published guidelines and a vision that defines your philosophy and practice. Train your project managers and teams on the methodology. Then, let them execute within that framework, and put a system in place so that the practitioners can revise the process and make it better.

Break Down Departmental Barriers in Pursuit of a Common Goal

Many processes are cross-functional. The same is true of projects. {mosimage}This point is about dissolving the “us versus them” scenario that so often exists in one form or another within organizations. In most projects that I work on, there are individuals from departments such as operations, central services and other support functions, MIS, IT, Service Engineering, etc. The “us versus them” attitude comes about when project managers and project team members look at their own interests at the exclusion of others, and instead of working towards a common goal, work towards their own separate and distinct goals.