In a previous post (http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/10/which-project-management-skills-should-i-be-learning-right-now/), we told you about a handful of skills that today’s project managers should be learning. Below are additional areas where savvy project professionals are boning up their talents.

Long-term planning. No longer is it OK to assume that an organization will have the resources necessary to address issues that come up 4 or 5 years from now. Instead, companies are looking for PMs with the expertise to proactively examine market pressures, industry trends, and other information, and use that data to develop useful long-range plans.

Risk management. Successfully identifying potential problems and developing mitigation strategies becomes increasingly important as organizations are less willing to accept (or less able to absorb) risk as a normal part of doing business. Areas of focus include risk modeling, response control, and mitigation strategies.

Resource tracking and oversight. As companies continue to rely heavily on outside resources—consultants, strategic business partners, etc.—your ability to accurately forecast the need for external support and effectively use those assets will be valuable. Become familiar with technologies that can help you track resources, and learn best practices on using them successfully.

Change management. Along with beefing up your budget management prowess, being more adept at controlling change—and how it affects your project—will also serve you well. Improve your ability to spot potential needs for change early in the process, better control how changes are reviewed and approved, and minimize the impact of change on your project’s budget, deliverables, and end user satisfaction.

Social networking and media. Not only are PMOs more frequently turning to social media to keep stakeholders, end users, and the community updated on project status and news, but companies are increasingly using social networking platforms to engage with job candidates and see what potential hires have been up to.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

It may seem as though there’s very little “collaboration” with an executive team—they say, you do. But in reality, your PMO and the executives have a two-way relationship. At any given time, the executive team might be your stakeholder, your project’s biggest supporter, the last stop for funding approval, and sometimes even your end user. Developing a good partnership between your PMO and the executives will help achieve objectives on both sides.

Why you need them: The executive team will have varying levels of influence depending on the company and the project. They may give final approval on project scopes and budgets, determine which group of stakeholders a project will serve, and even assign project teams or leaders. They might also be in a position to gain community support or legislative approval when it’s needed for your project to move forward.

DO keep the executives informed when managing a project that directly involves them. Find out if they want to receive communications directly or if an admin or other delegate will track your progress.

DO contact your executive team early if you anticipate needing approval or funding support on a project. Their schedules often book far in advance, and rushing through the process is unlikely to give you the result you want.

DO ask the executives for an updated strategic roadmap when developing your PMO’s annual budget and project workload. You want to be sure your efforts are in line with the company’s plans.

DON’T assume the executive team is interested in the minutiae of every project you’re managing. Unless they’ve asked for more detail, provide them with quick, high-level overviews.

DON’T use the executives as a last-ditch appeal board every time the normal project approval process gives you pushback. You’ll quickly wear out your welcome with this tactic.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

Keeping your team motivated requires a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach. But when your organization’s resources are thin and traditional incentives like bigger salaries aren’t in the cards, you need to look for innovative ways to reward your team’s hard work and inspire them to continue reaching for success. Below are five incentive ideas that’ll make your team feel appreciated without breaking the bank.

1 – Better workspaces. If you have access to slightly more enticing space—bigger cubes, private offices, or even just a desk with more natural light—it could be a powerful perk. Mind the costs to move and outfit your new digs.

2 – Flex time. Some employees find the ability to strike a better work/life balance to be worth more than a fat raise. Allowing workers to shift their hours to accommodate family or personal schedules could boost staff retention and snuff out malaise.

3 – Remote work arrangements. This won’t work in every organization, but if you can support telecommuting—even on a limited basis—you may find your employees are happier and more productive. Beware potential expenses if your company doesn’t already have the technology infrastructure in place to allow working remotely.

4 – New titles. It’s a strategy that’s especially effective if your organization is cash-strapped and unable to pay the top-tier wages of others in your area or industry. Keep titles realistic and relevant, but allowing a little leeway or individuality (maybe your senior project coordinators become Masters of End User Experiences) can be a fun perk.

5 – More vacation. While not technically a freebie, a little extra paid time off can work wonders for employee productivity and morale, while helping the team to avoid project burnout. Stagger days off and be sure that everyone gets (and takes) their share of downtime.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

In an earlier post (http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/03/delegation-101/) we covered some delegation basics, including how and why to assign tasks to others in your group and what to keep for yourself. Now let’s look at five common signs that you still aren’t delegating enough.#mce_temp_url#

1 – You’re busy but your team isn’t. When you’re swamped it can be easy to overlook the fact that everyone else seems to have plenty of spare time. Constant chatting in the hallways isn’t always a performance issue—it could signal that you’re hoarding work while your team’s collective talents are going to waste.

2 – You can’t identify the strong performers on your team. Every PMO has high achievers, but it’s hard to spot them when they aren’t being challenged. Maybe you’re not delegating enough work to keep good performers focused, or perhaps you aren’t giving them the tasks and responsibilities that will force them to really apply their skills and wow you.

3 – Your employees never need direction. It sounds like a dream, but in reality this is a classic sign that your team members don’t have enough stimulation in their workload. It’s likely that you aren’t handing off tasks that require them to stretch their knowledge and gain new expertise.

4 – You never get pushback on deadlines, workload, or expectations. Project professionals usually have enough going on that they need to negotiate within the team on occasion—asking for extra time to finish a presentation, requesting administrative help during busy times, or clarifying what you expect from them. Never being asked to prioritize or examine your team’s operations is a sure sign they don’t have enough to do.

5 – Your PMO is a revolving door. Most strong performers enjoy being challenged, and if you aren’t pushing them to succeed they’re likely to find someone else who will.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

Question: What’s worse than a project that failed? Answer: Not learning anything from that failure. Examining failures, dissecting their causes, identifying ways to avoid repeating mistakes, and implementing better project management practices are some of the most important methods available to us in our quest to become better project managers. Here we’ve rounded up some of the most common reasons that even seasoned project professionals don’t always learn from their mistakes.

1 – We don’t recognize the project’s failure. Think you know when a project has failed or succeeded? Think again. It’s not uncommon that others (usually end users) see a host of unmet objectives while you move on to the next project thinking you accomplished everything you set out to do. The causes behind this lack of recognition are often tied to either poor planning (you didn’t set the right objectives in the first place) or lack of good follow up efforts (things were left uncompleted but you never checked back with end users to be sure their needs were met).

2 – We assume the failure was out of our control. While circumstances do occasionally make project success difficult or even impossible, it’s rare. Instead, it’s more likely that potential outside influences weren’t properly identified, investigated, and accounted for during the planning phase. Even if issues crop up after initial planning has been completed, your team needs to take ownership of managing—and possibly modifying—expectations so you and your stakeholders continue forward on the same page.

3 – We pin the failure’s cause on another group. PMOs will forever rely on other departments or business partners to get things done. No matter if your collaborators are internal groups or external providers, they depend on you to clearly set expectations and define the project’s parameters. Whether Purchasing is unable to negotiate prices that fit your budget or Real Estate is delayed in securing the lease on a new space, pushing the blame for project failure onto them is usually just a reflection of inadequate oversight on your part.

4 – We don’t take the time to identify where the project broke down. Chalking up a project failure should immediately set you on a course to pinpoint how you missed your target and where things started to go off-track. Simply moving on to the next project without conducting a thorough post-mortem—either because you’re too busy or don’t feel you can do anything about the failure’s triggers even if you identify them—is setting yourself up to the repeat the failure in the future.

5 – We blame the failure on a lack of funding or other necessary resources. Good project planning doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Your objectives and timeframe must work in concert with the resources allocated to you. You may occasionally face a situation where funding was initially approved but has since been cut, forcing you to curtail or even cancel your project. That type of situation is likely something you couldn’t have foreseen and which may indeed lead to a failed project. However, setting objectives at the outset without the funding or other resources to back them up is a planning mistake that shouldn’t happen, and one that’s squarely in your power to correct.

6 – We see failure as unavoidable. An organization’s politics, culture, or methods of operation are sometimes viewed as recipes for project disaster. Instead of addressing these issues, PMOs may see ongoing failure as their lot in life. In this scenario, your ability to influence a bad situation through the use of good project management practices may be your only defense.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

Project teams rely on a number of internal groups, not least of which is IT. Anyone whose laptop has died on a business trip knows how important the IT team is to keeping your PMO and its technology components running smoothly. Follow the guidelines below to maintain good communication with IT and ensure their technical resources are there when you need them.

Why you need them: IT support is key to most of your group’s technology tools, including software, computers, mobile devices, and remote access. They also facilitate other services, such as online conferencing and document sharing, compliance with regulatory mandates (e.g., HIPAA), and recommendation and/or approval of department- or project-specific software or network-accessible equipment your team may want to implement.

DO consult IT before you introduce new technologies to the internal network. Rogue software could create conflicts with existing programs, and devices that access your organization’s infrastructure may inadvertently open up security holes or trigger other concerns.

DO work with IT to create budgets for any project with technology requirements. Vendor-supplied pricing may not incorporate the need for upgrades to internal platforms or hardware, and your IT group might be able to negotiate better price levels based on site-wide licensing or service packages.

DO include IT in early-stage planning and strategizing efforts. Their expertise can help spot potential problems with existing infrastructure capabilities or project assumptions that are incorrect or outdated.

DON’T commit IT resources to a project (such as meeting attendance or consultation services) without getting the OK first. Their budgets and staffing are often lean, and are usually based on the workload of approved projects.

DON’T expect IT to support unauthorized software or equipment. They have a process for reviewing and approving everything associated with the network, and their resources rarely allow for support outside of that.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

Are you a project manager with a job you love but a bunch of coworkers you can’t stand? Maybe they’re a tightly knit group that’s slow to accept outsiders, or perhaps they expect you to shoulder more than your share of the workload. Whatever the reason, it’s a drag to go into the office every day knowing your best shot at happiness is to avoid everyone you work with. Rather than let a bad team vibe ruin an otherwise great job, we’ve put together some tips to help you keep the peace, remain politically neutral, and learn to love (or at least tolerate) your coworkers.

The unwelcome wagon. Occasionally you find PMOs that have been together so long they act like a secret society, keeping to themselves and shunning new employees.

What to do: Stop trying to become part of the crowd—the more effort you put into it, the more they’ll close ranks. Instead, cast a wider net with your interactions (end users, stakeholders, internal partners, outside collaborators) to ensure your efforts aren’t buried by someone inside the group. Seek support from outside the team for project objectives and budget requests. This will keep the focus on the overall plan, while also neutralizing any politically-motivated actions that seek to discredit or further alienate you.

The teachers. You’re new, so you must not know anything about project management, right? Don’t worry—they’ll take you under their collective wing and show you the ropes, all while quietly undermining your confidence and professional image.

What to do: Be confident in the skills and expertise you bring to the team. If people have implied that your performance or experience is lacking, check with your boss—that’s where legitimate job feedback comes from. Gain knowledge where you can, but beyond that you’ll need to firmly (and tactfully) keep unsolicited mentors at arm’s length. Remember that many of these folks mean well, while others are simply trying to cover their own lack of performance with passive aggressive “kindness.”

The gossips. There’s a lot to do in your new PMO, but apparently there’s also a lot to gab about. The gossip is everywhere—in the halls, during meetings, maybe even in your office when they can’t pin you down somewhere else—and it’s disrupting the entire team’s productivity.

What to do: A trivial amount of office chatter is normal and innocuous, but it’s critical that you don’t fall into the gossip trap. Feel free to exchange quick pleasantries when you visit the snack machine or pass each other in the corridors, but be sure to extricate yourself at the first opportunity. Make a point of checking your watch, then let the talkers know that you must get back to work/a conference call/a meeting/the project that’s due this afternoon. You’re unlikely to change their behavior, but by accomplishing your own objectives you’ll shine come review time.

The slackers. Now that you’re on board, they’re happy to hand over their entire task list (which they probably weren’t getting through, anyhow). You suddenly have more on your plate than you can handle, and the team vanishes when you ask for help.

What to do: First, work with your boss to clearly delineate your responsibilities. Then, take a look at what kind of duties your team members are trying to unload. If there’s something you can successfully adopt that will help bolster your chances for recognition (or even promotion), don’t hesitate to give it your all. It’s important to carefully manage your workload, though—taking on additional responsibilities will reflect poorly on you if you fail to meet your objectives.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

Find out if your project was doomed from the beginning. Listen to the following signs that your project is just not doable.

Contact PMAlliance to find out how our Project Management Consultants can make your next project doable from the get go.

Visit our website

Video Production by Petit Robot Media in Seattle, Washington

• No Related Post

PMOs often face obstacles when trying to gain approval for consultants, niche experts, vendors, and other outside services. As organizations continue to face lean budgets and leaner staffing, how can you successfully negotiate for the outside help you need? We’ve put together a strategy to help you demonstrate your external support requirements, reinforce the value of your internal strengths, and evaluate alternate solutions that will still allow your PMO to accomplish its objectives.

Prepare an executive summary of your project’s scope

Your negotiation efforts could be undermined early in the process by an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of your project’s objectives, so your first order of business should be to lay out the details of what your project is expected to accomplish and when. Once your stakeholders and executive staff understand the scope of the tasks in front of you, they’ll be more likely to give your request for outside support a serious listen.

Highlight your internal strengths

Of primary concern to many PMOs is the perception that a need for external support points to a lackluster or inexperienced internal team. Of course this isn’t the case, and you’ll want to put that fear aside as quickly as possible. The best way to face that worry head-on is to show your stakeholders and executive team the depth of the talent and skill that resides within your PMO.

Demonstrate the need for outside help

Once you’ve laid out the strong framework of skills provided by your internal team, it’s time to pinpoint those areas where an outside partner is needed to fill in the gaps. Be ready to respond to some of the questions commonly posed by reluctant executives: How do other companies in your industry handle this? How much will it cost? Is this something your PMO should bring in-house? Your stakeholders may have a clear understanding of your team’s internal strengths, but you’re still likely to be presented with questions. Good preparation is the key to successfully defending your request for outside help.

Provide internal vs. external resource comparisons

It may be worthwhile to seriously explore bringing the expertise you need in-house. Is this a skill set you’ll need on an ongoing basis? If you’re looking for a mix of skill sets or expertise, are you likely to find one person with everything you need? Once they understand the challenges presented by this alternate scenario (increased salaries, delays while you recruit someone with the necessary expertise, training costs, etc.), your executive team can decide which route—internal or external—is the most effective way to go.

Offer an endpoint

Because many of your external needs will be project-specific, you may be able to identify a date after which each outside service is no longer needed. Recurring short-term needs can also be addressed during this discussion, as there will be significant stretches of time when they aren’t required, either. This information will dovetail with your internal vs. external resource comparison, and will help to demonstrate that your finite needs are better filled by outside partners, rather than staff members who will continue to be on the payroll after the need is met or the project is completed.

Discuss alternatives

Even if you’ve clearly demonstrated that your PMO needs external support, your organization may still withhold approval for any number of reasons (cost, access to outside resources, a desire to internalize specific functions, existing obligations that limit your ability to seek new vendors, etc.). Be ready to discuss the likely impacts on project objectives, timeframes, end users, business collaborations, and even competitive advantages if the right outside support isn’t made available.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post

Now that you’re in organizing mode, plan some time to tackle these other important housekeeping items that will help keep your team productive and efficient.

Space management

Review your conferencing space. Is there enough of it? Do you have a workable selection of room sizes? Are the areas tidy, well-stocked, and comfortable enough for a day-long session? Does the equipment meet your needs? If you answered “no” to any question, contact your building services team to inquire about having wobbly table legs fixed, adding communication jacks, replacing too-small screens, and installing room dividers—whatever will make your team’s and your visitors’ meeting time more productive. You may not get everything you ask for, but do what you can before things get any busier.

Now evaluate your team’s work area—is it organized and efficient? Get rid of unused filing cabinets (you can get more later if you need them) and clear stray chairs out of hallways. You might also consider moving folks around if the team structure has changed or if functional groups will be shifting to support new projects.

Personnel management

Go through your team’s personnel records and make sure that any necessary forms—training documentation, copies of certifications, performance evaluations—are complete and filed per your organization’s HR policies. Missing items should be captured and added as soon as possible. This is also a good time to cull any old information that’s past its scheduled retention time or is no longer applicable.

Finally, create files for new positions you plan to add, as well as promotional opportunities that have been authorized for the coming year. By pulling this information together in a cohesive way, you can approach recruitment efforts and mentoring programs with clearly defined objectives, and work with HR to identify potential candidates early in the process.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

• No Related Post