PMI Journal April Review

PMI Journal April Review

Forgive me, this ran a little long. Long enough to deal with some criticism and not long enough to deal with some of my thoughts.

This was the first edition of the Project Management Journal (PMJ) for the new editor Hans Georg Gemunden although the April edition was edited by the outgoing editor. I am using my blog to tackle one of two of the articles in the journal and see if I can gleam some practical usability for my students and practicing project managers.  It is the mission of the PMJ to provide value to both theory and practice of project management. It is consistent with this vision that I look at the articles in the PMJ for both their value to enhancing our understanding of project management and providing information that enables project managers is execute projects more effectively and efficiently.

I understand the need for academic writing. The purpose of this style of writing focuses on accuracy and I spent a great deal of time in my doctoral work including my dissertation developing an appropriate writing style. It is a language shared by academicians but often frustrates at least it did for me developing the style and wading through journals. So, I reflect on articles and will provide some thoughts here with my focus more on the applicability of the information provided in the PMJ articles I select.

I am interested in both complex project and risk so I found Hans Thamhain’s article Managing Risk in Complex Projects,in the April edition of the PMJ appealing. The article is a continuation of research done on risk and complex projects done by Thamhain.  He provided a good overview of research on risk and focused on known and unknown risk factors. In describing unknow risk factors he referred to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident in the Golf Coast and described it as predictable and preventable and concluded that our current systems and processes do not allow us to predict and managing these risks. Without much more information, this is a premature conclusion. I believe we have sufficient systems and processes; they were just not applied in this case.

Thamhain’s definition of risk varies a little from PMI even though he references PMI. He also developed four categories of risk uncertainty. I typically use three but four is OK. The same with potential impact, his continuum is divided into four categories rather than the typical three. His model also use Shenar’s work on complexity categorization and uses project, program and array. The use of four categories for uncertainty and impact may bring more clarity but the complexity level is too simplistic.

Thamhain identifies his research methodology as Action Research which, simply put, is a research method for testing a model. There are problems with some of the process such as data collection and analysis but again minor issues only important to research nerds (like me). Although, PMI might want to look at the research methods, clarity of writing as well as the applicability of the findings in solicitation and publications of research. With that said, I am not challenging any of the findings base on research methods.

The major conclusion from the research is that risks do not affect all projects equally. I suspect most experienced project managers would have agreed with this statement but is nice to have your beliefs supported with research. Thamhain presented a method for analyzing risk and I believe that the model will provide value to project managers, once you are able to wade through the academic writing..  What we don’t know about this methodology is it any better than ones we might be using now? We know it is better than nothing. How this approach might compare to others might be a good research topic.

Russ

Third discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Third discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

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

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

Project management and Sustainability

Sivious et al provide a model for exploring sustainability and project management through context of the project within the chartering organization. I saw this as directly correlated to the power or authority of the project manager within the organization.  In other words, my ability to influence sustainability is related to my authority and my power. Although this may seem obvious, Sivious looked at project management processes, project management delivery, and project management life cycle among other concepts.

Let’s take an early project in my career where Bethlehem Steel built a new coal injection plant at the integrated steel plant in Burns Harbor IN. The Board of Directors authorized the new plant to reduce the cost of steel as well as reducing the environmental impact of the steel plant. The Coal Injection plant reduced the need for coke which was both dirty and expensive. From almost every perspective (profit, people and planet) this met the criteria of a sustainable project.  

Bethlehem assigned a project manager to execute the project. The project manager had a deliverable that was sustainable from an organizational context. The project manager also had authority and the power to design the facility and include sustainability within the design of the facility. What is the expected life cycle of the facility, how can I reduce energy usage, what are the most sustainable equipment specifications for this plant. These are major questions that will influence the project costs, operating costs and the sustainability of the project from the plant design and build project perspective.

Fluor was contracted to design and build the new plant based on the specifications developed by the plant project team. The sustainability of the deliverables of the Fluor Project Team was determined by the client’s specifications. The Fluor Team could and did make recommendations relative to the deliverables that would reduce cost, add durability and save time. These suggestions were approved or rejected by the Plant Project Manager. Again, the Plant Project Manager retained the power and authority over the sustainability of the project within this context.

The Fluor Team also explored how to design the plant maximizing the use of electronic files and reducing paper, recycling paper, reducing the need for air travel and various techniques and processes that could be labeled green or sustainable. This was another context for sustainability in project management. Within this context the project manager used the power and authority of the position to execute a green project.

The Project Management Institute and other professional project management institutions have not yet included a sustainability requirement within the code of ethics but I suspect it is coming. How we define sustainability and the role of the project manager will be important is defining the ethical obligations and we are not there yet. Sivious et al and others are providing some models that may encourage this conversation.

Russ

Continued discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Continued discussion of Silvious et al’s book on Project Management and Sustainability

Sustainability in Project Management, 2012

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

Gower Publishing Limited, Surry, England

 

In the second chapter of Sustainability in Project Management, the authors view the development of project management in stages. There was some early form of project management that must have existed in the earliest eras of civilization that accounts for massive projects like the Egyptian Pyramids. The discipline of project management emerged during the 1950s and has been refined with the development of new tools, processes and skills. The authors also stated that as the economy and organizations become more complex, traditional project management does not have the processes, and traditional project managers do not have the skills to successfully manage the new project environment. It is time to develop a modern project management approaches to meet the new requirements.

Research and general observation provides strong evidence that changes in the project environment do require tools and processes to better understand the project, and develop an appropriate execution approach. The approach of the authors to divide project management approaches into traditional project management (that is becoming increasing inadequate), and some form of new project management is problematic. This belief assumes you can define some project management tools and processes as traditional, and yet the authors do not attempt to define traditional project management other than list the tools used to manage project where the scope and project deliverables are not well defined at the beginning of the project.

This view of traditional project and modern project management creates a dichotomous view of projects.  Projects are either traditional or some form of modern project. This approach implies that tools and processes used successfully in the past are inappropriate, or at least insufficient for modern projects. I believe this is a limited view of project management and inhibits our ability to develop greater understanding of projects. An alternative approach focuses on creating a profile of the project and developing the appropriate tools, techniques and skills for that project profile. As I have discussed in other blogs, developing a project profile and appropriate execution approach would serve the authors as a better model for defining and discussing sustainability in project management than the model of traditional versus modern project management. In forthcoming blogs, I will reflect on the role of project management and sustainability.

Russ

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

 

Rookie Mistakes

I was reading my March PM Network today, always a source of thinking about project management. There was an interesting article on the six common rookie mistakes by Ashley Richardson.

Mistake number 3, Skipping the Charter or Initiation Process. I suspect this is not a mistake limited to rookies. Ms Richardson suggests eight questions that should/ must be answered during the early phase of the project:

·         Why are we doing this project?

·         What is the problem?

·         Is this the best way to solve the problem? (for me, if I have been assigned the project manager it is probably a little late to ask this question)

·         What are the risks?

·         Do the benefits outweigh the risks? (again, a little late to ask)

·         Do we have adequate support?  

·         How will success be defined?

I assume that when you’re at the initiation stage of a project, management has already decided the benefits outweigh the risks, it is the best way to solve the problem and the project will have adequate support.

During the initiation I am focused on aligning the project team. I typically pull the team and key stakeholders together for an alignment session. The agenda, length and makeup of the alignment process will depend on the profile of the project. I have participated in alignment meetings that lasted a week and alignment meetings over an extended lunch. The common focus for each of the session was the development of three areas of the project:

·         The development of a common understanding of the project purpose (mission, vision, values, roles, barriers)

·         A common understanding of the means and methods (policies, procedures and major work processes ie change management)  

·         Trust; being the development of team trust and set the stage creating an effective team.

Project alignment and develop trust on you’re a project will be good fodder for future posts.

Best

Russ

Sustainability in Project Management

I had a dialog with my project management sustainability class and I provided the following and thought it might be of interest.

We are looking at sustainability from TWO perspectives in our program. Although sustainability refers to the long term viability in both uses of the term sustainability, two different concerns have emerged and we are addressing both of these concerns in our courses.

1. Project Management/ Stakeholder Management

I was on a PMI committee in the 1980s that was developing what became the 1st edition of the PMBOK. This was a revision of the all the earlier work into one document. I wrote a definition of project management that focused on the satisfaction of the client. The debate at the time was where project success was defined by meeting project specifications (time, cost, quality) or by client satisfaction. Project management at that time was dominated by the engineering profession and focused more on meeting specification. Today, the focused is more on meeting client satisfaction.

For a project to be deemed successful the deliverable of the project MUST meet more than the specifications and meet the long term business need that created the need for the project. This focus on the long term business need is called sustainability although you will not find this word in the glossary of index of the PMBOK. What you will find is a greater emphasis on meeting client long term goals or business goals. especially in the newest edition of the PMBOK. This is the emphasis discussed by our authors (Goleman, Pinto... ) in portfolio management.

2. Sustainability/ saving the planet

A second use of the word sustainability focuses on sustaining the earth. There is a general consensus among scientist (environmental, physicists, climatologist, anthropologist, social scientist, etc) that the carbon based economy and population growth will place so much stress on the earth's ecology that the earth will not be able to regenerate and that changes will occur in the earth's environment that will make human habitation difficult and maybe impossible.

Governments, social institutions and economic entities are all developing the means and methods to operate effectively while reducing their carbon footprint. http://www.carbontrust.com/client-services/footprinting/footprint-measurement

Each of these entities are investing in projects to reduce carbon impact on the environment and human life. Project managers must understand the business drivers of their project sponsor. Although governments, social entities (such as the Rocky Mountain Institute) and economic entities may have different motivations for focusing on sustainability, the project manager must discern and manage the project to maximize the project sponsor’s needs.

This also means we are ethically obligated to manage our projects to meet our client’s business needs and to manage the project in such a way as to minimize the project’s carbon footprint both in the lifespan or the project and the lifespan of the organization.
I am interested in your thoughts.

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

The Honest Truth

The Honest Truth (artilce from PMNET)

I received my March PMNET, PMI’s magazine for project managers. I was attracted to a piece on managing stakeholder relations by Shelinea Somani with a subheading “Do the benefits of open dialog with stakeholders outweigh the risks”?

The simple answer is “of course” and Somani gave an example where the answer applies and, of course, everything turned out for the better. I have known many of project mangers that often shielded important stakeholder from important information. Most of the time it was because the project was slipping, either in cost or schedule and the project manager had every confidence that they had the ability to make up the deficit before anyone would know and just as often they were wrong. The result was a project over cost or behind schedule and a client who had lost trust and confidence in the project manager. On occasion I saw project manager replaced.

Other situations can be more difficult. You have agreed to give an employee who is an alcoholic a second chance after being removed from their previous project for drinking. You discovered that critical material for your project will be late because the supplier has prioritized another project for your company. You agreed that you would be at the remote job site for a month nine months from now and just found out your wife is expecting at the same time. Do you tell your client?

My default position is yes, you tell your client. Trust is one of the most your important assets. Without the trust of your client, your team and your management communication will become very difficult if not impossible. There are always exceptions but those exceptions should always be rare and the kind of exception that is found out, your client would understand.

This is one of those topics that deserves some thought and some real dialog with more difficult choices in the PMNET would have been helpful.

Project Management Journal Feb 2013

 

Project Management Journal Feb 2013

The February edition (vol 44,no 1) arrived today and I took some time to explore the articles and see if I could extract some thoughts.

My first thought is that the Journal is not for project management practitioners. I learned to read and write in a similar style while working on my doctorate and my dissertation. The language used in the PM Journal is primarily used by academics and not by the half a million PMPs out there. If there is a gap between the writing style of academics who do the research and the practitioners who read it, I wonder how we will be able to develop and apply much of the knowledge that is developed.

When doctors read medical journals they often look for applications that affect their ability to provide better care to patients. The articles in the journal do not seem to have a similar focus on practical application. Still, some of the research will have value and as our profession develops, I suspect research will become more focused and applicable.

With this in mind I summarized two articles. I am interested in what you think.

Russ

The first article A Bayesian Approach to Improve Estimates at Completion in Earned Value Management was basically a very complex statistical process of taking expert opinions and generating an estimate of project completion. With 18 charts and the use of 10 different equations, (none found in the PMBOK) the authors demonstrated how they calculated estimates at completion. The authors appear to acknowledge that you would need to be a highly qualified statistician to understand their formulas and I acknowledge that I didn’t. The intent of the article was to provide a foundation for a software package that would be user friendly. The article did not describe how the authors obtained the expert opinion. To me, any output generated from expert opinion, no matter how sophisticated the calculation methods is very dependent on the quality and method of gathering expert opinion.

The article I found most relevant to project management practice was the article by Brian Hobbs (who I have read and enjoy) and Claude Besner of the University of Quebec, Montreal. Contextualized Project Management Practices: A Cluster Analysis of Practices and Best Practices reflected on the data that was derived from a survey with approximately 2,500 respondents. Among the findings I found the link between the projects with well defined definitions and project success intuitive but it is nice to see it confirmed with research. In a gross over simplification of the findings, Hobbs and Besner found that across projects, organizations with mature project management practices that use tools and techniques to develop well defined projects are more successful. They also found five best practices across project contexts; initial planning, use of databases, business case definition, baseline change management, and team management.  I am curious about how we manage projects across different industries and within different contexts and I think this research added to our knowledge. These are incremental steps in our understanding but at this level of research, exploring our advancement of project management knowledge will be incremental.

Project Management for Instructional Designers

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013

Project Management for Instructional Designers

http://pm4id.org/

The link above connects you to the Website by students at Brigham Young University for instructors designing courses for project management. They highlight my book; Project Management from Simple to Complex which I authored with my friend John Preston.

I hope you enjoy

Russ

Table of Contents

About PM4ID

1 Introduction to Project Management

2 Project Profiling

3 Project Phases and Organization

4 Understanding and Meeting Client Expectations

5 Working with People on Projects

6 Communication Technologies

7 Starting a Project

8 Project Time Management

9 Costs and Procurement

10 Managing Project Quality

11 Managing Project Risk

12 Project Closure

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