The Practicing IT Project Manager

New project management articles published on the web during the week of August 22 – 28, 2011.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

• Harold Schroeder says the project management profession isn’t ready for the “new normal,” which must define project success in terms of value added, rather than “on schedule and on budget.”
• Elizabeth Harrin continues her Summer of Books 2001 series with an interview with author Joanne Flin, and reviews of Rick Valerga’s “Projectegrity” and John Estrella’s “Lessons Learned in Project Management.”
• Ted Hardy on creativity, new technology, and the iPad.  Quoting Alan Cooper, “You can’t save your way to creativity.”
• John Reiling on Vincent Viola, right-brain skills, and “mental endurance.”
• Kerry Wills notes that surprises can make stakeholders into “stake holders.”  Think Van Helsing, the vampire hunter …
• Brian Egan argues that quality control shouldn’t be the factor blocking delivery of something of value – be prepared to selectively adjust acceptance standards.
• Brad Egeland says that independent project managers shouldn’t take on every project.
• David Blumhorst writes about “the adoption paradox,” where people recognize the need for change, but refuse to spend the time needed to ensure success.
• Bruce Benson writes about the S-curve in adopting change, and the dip in productivity that always comes prior to the long-term improvement.
• John D’Entremont interviews Leen Zevenbergen, CEO and author of Rip Off Your Necktie and Dance, about building a creative and enjoyable work environment.
• Derek Huether asks, do you lead or do you manage?  You remember Theory X and Theory Y, right?
• Joel Bancroft-Connors and his imaginary gorilla, Hogarth, discuss emotional maturity, per Stephen Covey.  “Between stimulus and response lies the ability to choose.”
• Jorge Valdes Garciatorres relates an anecdote about facilitating meetings, and the need to learn by doing.
• Peter Saddington gets a look at the pre-Beta version of Opzi’s new online collaboration tool, Blackcomb.
• Patrick Richard missed the PMI Agile Community of Practice webinar on 8/22, so listened to the recording.  Too bad he couldn’t have made these comments when it was under way.
• Johanna Rothman contemplates Scrum-but, which isn’t a rash, but the practice of Scrum without a Product Owner.  Which she argues is neither Scrum nor Agile.
• Dick Billows shares a video of five presenters, and comments on their body language, delivery, and effectiveness.  Four minutes, safe for work.
• Bas de Baar contemplates a “map of you,” depicting your past, present (in the context of your relationships with the team and the project), and future.
• Bob Weinstein offers some thoughts on job interviews, “gotcha” questions, and the need to be your competent, thoughtful, cogent, and ethical self.

Enjoy!

From dodgy surveys to well-designed academic studies, a lot of energy has been devoted to the study of project failure, with the results reported as “failure rates.”  And those rates are high enough to cause a lot of concern.  Lately, I’ve seen a lot of articles, blog posts, and discussions on LinkedIn on the subject, contemplating failure in abstract terms. So, I’d like to contribute a case study that might help put things in focus.

The Fontainebleau Las Vegas is an incomplete $2.9 billion, 3,889-room, 68-story hotel/condo/casino development, situated near the north end of the Las Vegas Strip on the 24.5-acre site previously occupied by the El Rancho and Algiers hotels.  Construction was begun in early 2007, and the tower was topped out in November, 2008.  However, with the collapsed economy came significantly lowered gaming revenue and visitation to Las Vegas; Bank of America, the largest lender on the project, refused further funding.  Construction was halted when the project was 70% complete, and after nearly two years of legal maneuvering, Carl Icahn paid $150M for part ownership.  In October 2010, Icahn ordered the furnishings sold off.

While the Fontainebleau project was on schedule, on budget, met all regulatory, quality, and functional requirements, and would have produced a world-class resort, there is no conceivable definition of “successful” that would apply.  In retrospect, the project should never have been approved, in a city that already had too much capacity, with the impending mega-recession.  Call it a failure of portfolio management; call it a failure by Nevada Gaming Control for approving yet one more mega-casino; call it a zoning failure by Clark County.  But it is indubitably a failure.

If you’re managing a project, you need to have a solid understanding of how success will be judged.  Don’t assume that delivering on time, on budget, on scope, with the required quality level is the definition of success.  Understand the business case, the operating environment, and the stakeholders.  Understand who actually controls the financing, and what might be competing for the remainder of your funding. Understand the life cycle of what you’re building, and how it might be impacted by external and internal events.  And be prepared to recommend the project be halted, if it’s going to fail, because the only thing worse than failure is throwing good money after bad.

New project management articles published on the web during the week of August 15 – 21, 2011.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

• Vincent McGevna continues his series on realistic schedules.  “… a properly created schedule is based on the entire project plan — that it must reflect risk, quality and procurement.”
• Elizabeth Harrin reviews two more books: “Leadership Principles for Project Success,” by Thomas Juli, and “Rescue the Problem Project,” by Todd Williams.
• Barney Austen observes several ways in which we dig ourselves into holes, as project managers.
• John Reiling suggests we focus on our strengths, rather than our weaknesses.
• Kerry Wills has been peeking over our shoulders, and reports on three common ways we manage out Emails.  I’m the “taxonomy” type; your mileage may vary.
• Robbie Mac Iver reports from the Agile2011 Conference in Salt Lake City.  Sorry I missed it.
• Johanna Rothman was also a presenter at Agile2011, and she says she failed miserably.  All because a simulation failed, which, let’s face it, is why we do simulations.
• Craig Strong argues that the path to product success is not a straight line.  “Why do so many stakeholders and project managers get so caught up in sticking to the original plan at the cost of change.”
• Geoff Crane explains that “negotiation is never about you,” in several parts.
• Bruce Benson shares a tale of two cell phone manufacturers and their respective CEO’s responses to observations about whose phones their folks were using.
• Rick Freedman offers some tips on migrating from PMBOK, CMM-style software development to Agile methods.
• Peter Saddington reports on the mix of Scrum and Kanban in use at Wooga, developers of Online games.
• Balraj Bipat has published a short description of his study of public sector IT projects and “the influence of political involvement [on] project managers’ adaptive behavior.”  In other words, how we respond to opportunities and threats.

Enjoy!