PMI Presnetation at Charleston Chapter meeting

Frinday in Charleston

Yesterday I made a presentation at the PMI Charleston Chapter. It has been a couple of years since I had been to a Charleston Chapter meeting and I ended up at the wrong place. A short call to Nicole got me to the right meeting location well before the meeting start. It was great catching up with some old friends. (the friendship was enduring, not that the people were old)

I talked about one of my favorite topics; profiling projects (you thought I was going to say ME).

Although this is a personal blog I do try to add something about project management. Below is the outline I started with as I prepared the presentation. I stretched and talked about research and our profession.

Heading down to the beach

Russ

1.      Five Assumptions

a.       Project by definition are unique

b.      Projects also have common characteristics (each has a scope, schedule, etc)

c.       These project characteristics can be grouped into project types or profile

d.      There is a management approach that is appropriate for each project profile

e.       The application of the appropriate management approach, tools and skills will have a positive impact on project performance

2.      Project profiling history

a.       PMI Taxonomy Project with Gregory D. Githens

b.      Crawford, Hobbs & Turner, PMI Initiatives

c.       Aaron Shenar

d.      Robert Yonker

e.       Ruth House

f.       Construction Industry Institute   Project Definition Rating Index (2010)

g.      Stretton, (2011)

h.      Stacy Goff

3.      Darnall Preston Project Complexity Index (DPCI)

a.       DPCI Overview

                                                              i.      Project Complexity, Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)

                                                            ii.      Stress Points

                                                          iii.      Gathering Data

b.      External Dimension

                                                              i.      Size

                                                            ii.      Duration

                                                          iii.      Resource Availability

c.       Internal Dimension

                                                              i.      Clarity of Objectives

                                                            ii.      Clarity of Scope

                                                          iii.      Organizational Complexity

                                                          iv.      Stakeholder Agreement

d.      Technological Complexity

e.       Project Environment

                                                              i.      Ecology

                                                            ii.      Cultural Complexity

                                                          iii.      Legal Complexity

4.      Implication of Project Profile for Execution Approach

a.       Leaderships: styles, knowledge skills abilities.

                                                              i.      Myers Briggs

                                                            ii.      Emotional Intelligence

                                                          iii.      Project Organization/ Span of Control

                                                          iv.      Project Lifecycles

b.      Alignment

                                                              i.      Common Understanding

                                                            ii.      Means and Methods

                                                          iii.      Trust

c.       Use of Goals

d.      Schedule development and control, use of milestones

e.       Cost estimating and control

f.       Risk analysis and mitigation

g.      Quality defining and managing

h.      Scope development and control

i.        Team building, managing

j.        Communication plan, processes

                                                              i.      Listening

k.      Managing client expectation

l.        Measurement

m.    Project culture

5.      Conclusions

Sustainability as a Project Management Ethical Obligation

 

Sustainability as a Project Management Ethical Obligation

 

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

Silvius, G.,Schipper, R., Planko, J., Brink, J., Kohler, A.

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

I read and developed comments on Sustainability in Project Management, a book by Silvius, Schipper et al for the Global Sustainability Community within the Project management institute. I often take a very critical view of books on project management, challenging academicians to make their work relevant to practicing project managers and challenging project management writers to show the research or the data that backs up their assertions. Sustainability in Project Management has a good balance of research based information and practical implications for project manager.

 

The forwards in the book set the stage. Nelmara Abrex, Deputy Chief Executive at the Global Reporting Initiative provides context when discussing the earth as a provider of natural resources for the generation of wealth. A generator that regenerates itself until we extract more resources than the earth is able to regenerate. At this point we begin to denigrate resources and the capacity to regenerate.

 

All countries and all businesses plan to grow. It is a model based on unlimited resources and a model inconsistent with our reality. This is the business case for the book. If our current economic practices are unsustainable, how do we change?

 

Projects by their nature enable change. Projects will be on the leading edge of whatever our new models become. As project management moves from a focus on the technical deliverable of the project to understanding and meeting the business need of the project, the skills and methods for project managers will change. This change in focus is best reflected in the new revisions of the PMI Body of Knowledge. 

 

Sustainability in project management suggests that project managers must also be responsible for driving sustainability on their project. The authors provide a good review of the literature that indicates that businesses have begun a new sustainability paradigm and are making changes in their organizations and developing reporting that parallels financial reports on performance.

 

The authors argue that this makes good business sense. They also argue the project managers have an ethical obligation to plan and execute their project sustainability. The books explains what this means, but that is for a later blog. I am interested in the ethical obligation of the project manager within the context of sustainability.

 

While Director of Sustainability of a college I attended a Sustainability Conference at Furman University. Five university presidents, who had all signed the American College and University Presidents’ Commitment to Climate Change, http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org, made a compelling argument for the university’s role in creating a more sustainable economy. One speaker declared that government was too political to make significant changes and business was to short term focused. Universities were uniquely positioned because all teacher, lawyers, scientist, bankers and business people spend time at our campuses. He argued forcefully that University Presidents have an ethical obligation in lead in developing a new economic paradigm that respects the regenerative ability of the earth.

 

I believe there is a more compelling ethical argument that says project managers have an ethical obligation create a new project management paradigm that inculcates sustainability into purpose of every project. If this is true we have a lot of work to do to develop new methods, new tools and new skills.

Russ

 

Walden University receives PMI Accreditation

This week Paul Thomas, VP at Walden University sent an email to faculty formally announcing the PMI Accreditation of MS in Project Management. See programs accredited by PMI; http://gacpm.org/Directory-GAC-Accredited-Degree-Programs-NA.html

Although it was a grueling process, it was also enjoyable. It was grueling because of the detailed documentation of all our processes. Fortunately, Kathy Simmons the Masters in Project Management program director, led the effort and in her typical organized approach gathered all the needed information and developed the reports needed by the PMI Accreditation Team. It was enjoyable because I got to meet for three days with the Accreditation Team totally engrossed in the details for teaching project management at the master’s level.

The accreditation team from PMI was led by LuAn Picacard from the University of Alaska and included Kristine Hayes and Timothy Muth. We spent three longs days reviewing all aspects of the program including interviewing alumni, current students, industry advisors, faculty and administrators. At this stage we had the easy part; answering questions and discussing the various project management classes. The accreditation team had to also review learning goals, syllabi and all the course work for every course in the project management program. Most evening I saw them huddled up going over paperwork as I went for late dinner and back to my room to cover my classes.

The final evening we ordered in pizza and discussed the committees until late into the night. I was surprised at the atmosphere of this discussion. The accreditation team helped us understand ways in which we could improve our program. It was a collegial conversation about how the future of the project management profession and our role in preparing future project managers. I felt we were among friends whose focus was the love of project management.

The highlight of the accreditation process was the next days when the team presented their initial findings. We already know the areas we needed to improve from previous conversations so these discussions did not catch us off guard.  It was when the team shared comments made by our students about the positive impact on the program on their lives that made us all reflect on our chosen profession. It was a powerful experience and even our University President, Cynthia Baum, said it brought tears to her eyes.

The PMI Accreditation brings creditability to a degree program assuring students and employers that program meets the highest standards and prepares graduates with the knowledge they need for a successful project management career.

Russ