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Created on Friday, 25 June 2010 16:25

Before you say 'I do' as a project manager to a new project assignment it is best to ask a simple but very important question.

WHY?

You need to ask the project sponsor what the business justification of the project is. Does it make sense? You really need to consider saying 'NO' if the project sponsor can not make clear what the business justification is. If the why does not make sense the likely hood of achieving success is greatly reduced. The reason being that a lot, if not most, of the people you'll have to work with during the project will know/sense that and as result will will be less motivated to work on the project. Who wants to be associated with silly projects?

In the wake of the big WHY question follows a set of equally important question:

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Created on Friday, 27 November 2009 17:52

We've all seen the job adds that ask for experienced Project Managers (or any other function). The thinking behind this is clearly that an experienced project manager can hit the ground running and be of value to the organization immediately.

In a very interesting and sort of disturbing article in the Harvard Business Review the authors discuss a so-called Experience Trap.

They found, through various software development project simulations in which both experienced and junior project managers participated, that although the experienced managers had encountered similar situations on their jobs in the past, they still struggled with them in the simulations. As a result the authors came to the conclusion that they had not really learned from their real-life project work, either.

In the context of the project simulation three possible reasons are given for why the learning breaks down:

• Time lags between causes and effects.
• Fallible estimates
• Initial goal bias

In all three cases the separate simulations they ran clearly show that experinced managers do not learn from past mistakes or past experience.

As a result the authors conclude that that managers find it difficult to move beyond the mental models that they have developed from their experiences in relatively simple environments or that have been passed on to them by others. When complications are introduced, they either ignore them or try to apply simple rules of thumb that work only in non complex situations.

This has significant implications for the organizations these experienced managers work for they argue:

• Impressive backgrounds have little bearing on project results
• Since it does not matter whom you put in charge managers will ascribe responsibility for failures to other factors and not their own decisions.

Fixing the learning - doing gap

The authors provide the following 5 approaches to fix the learning doing cycle:

• Provide more cognitive feedback
• Apply model-based decision tools and guidelines
• Calibrate your forecasting tools to the project
• Set goals for behaviour, not targets for performance
• Develop project-flight simulators

All in all a very good and sobering article. My experience is not worth anything if I don't fix my own learning - doing cycle.

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Created on Thursday, 10 December 2009 23:45

Projects don't exist in a vacuum. On the contrary, projects are part of an organizational continuum. Therefor the purpose of a project is not the project itself nor is the the sole creation/production of the project deliverable(s).

What ever gets created/delivered by the project has a purpose in that continuum. When starting up and initiating a project don't focus on the output alone, ask yourself:

"why do we/they need that project (output)?"

Below is a diagram that shows the relation between the project output, what you as a project manager are expected to deliver and the project benefits, what your project sponsor wants to achieve with it.

If you make it a habit to draw this simple diagram at the start of each project and discuss it with your sponsor, project board/steering committee and your team then it will be much easier to avoid scope creep and keep your team focused.

It will also be valuable after the project in assessing the success of the project.

See also:

• Business Case Checklist;
• Project Business Case Template;
• Benefits Review Plan Checklist;
• Strategic Decision Checklist;
• The most important question(s) to ask before starting a project;
• Initiating a Project Checklist;
• TheBrain Context Diagram Example

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Created on Thursday, 26 November 2009 04:03

"PM-Tools: Does Project Management Certifications like PMP/PRINCE2 help you in your job?"

Was a question we recently saw on LinkedIn.

As with all jobs there are two sides to it.

• Getting it
• Keeping it

A certification can certainly help in getting a job. in North-America the PMP certification is the most sought after by both PM's and HR managers alike.
In Europe Prince2 is well known and sought after.

Keeping a job has all to do with how well you perform. End this is where a certification alone will not be enough. It will certainly (but on a limited basis) help you to understand what is required to do a job. Being able to do the job is something completely different. That's where competence is required. Competence is a combination of skills, knowledge, expertiece, experience and attitude.

None of the certifciations mentioned provide that. Currently the only certification that is competency based is the IPMA certification (see ASAPM in the USA and PMAC-AMPC in Canada for IPMA based certifcations)

Although PMI has begun to increase the experience requirements to become a PMP certified PM one can still get that designation without ever having managed a full project from start to end. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Prince2 is a very solid project management methodlogy that can certainly help in managing projects. I got my first practioner certification in 1997 and haved used (elements of) Prince2 in a lot of my projects. But Prince2 is just that, a best practice (now in a new refreshed 2009 version) methodolgy that does not tell you how to act as a PM, or how to apply certain PM techniques, or how to communicate, or how to deal with difficult situations.

As I always say: "A fool with a tool is still a tool, worse, a dangerous fool"

See also PMP Certification is irrelevant!, Which Project Management Diploma have you chosen ? (PRINCE2 ? IPMA ? CAPM ? PMP ? and Why) and So you want to become a real Project Manager?

Love it!! RT “@ambidexterman: "A fool with a tool is still a fool. A dangerous fool" - Erik Hamburger #management”

— beckdiane (@beckdiane) April 24, 2013