Tag Archives: PMO

New PM Articles for the Week of November 11 – 17

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News boy in bootsNew project management articles published on the web during the week of November 11 – 17. We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to! Recommended:

Must read

  • Kailash Awati examines the gap between the idealized representations of business processes we design into our enterprise systems and actual day-to-day work patterns.
  • Ugo Micoli recaps an unscientific (but still interesting) survey and comments from a LinkedIn group: What is the top reason for unsuccessful projects?
  • Elizabeth Harrin interviews Bjarte Bogsnes, VP of Performance Management Development at Statoil, on applying the principles of Beyond Budgeting.

The PMO

  • PMI has published a series of research reports related to making the PMO a strategic force. Called “Strategic Initiative Management,” it’s definitely worth a read.
  • Cyndee Miller reports from the PMO Symposium 2013 in San Diego.
  • Andy Jordan contemplates the Enterprise PMO – a shared-services model – and what it means for IT and the rest of the organization.
  • Henny Portman share a quick reference chart showing how a number of standards, frameworks, and other references models are related.

PM Best Practices

  • Andy Makar summarizes a project schedule quality assessment prepared by the Defense Contract Management Agency.
  • Glen Alleman notes a problem with emergent design: letting capabilities emerge is not the same thing as letting requirements emerge. The traditional term is a “scope change.”
  • Allen Ruddock extols the virtues of presenting progress in terms of milestones.
  • Philip Smith offers a model for how resistance to change evolves over time, and some of the factors that drive resistance.
  • Anya Faingersh recaps the finer points of delegating.

Podcasts and Videos

  • Samad Aidane interviews Dr. Barbara Trautline about her new book, Change Intelligence. Just  45 minutes, safe for work.
  • Cesar Abeid interviews Nancy Duarte on how to create presentations that resonate with your audience. Just 33 minutes, safe for work.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Rich Maltzman on sustainable project management. Just 15 minutes, safe for work.
  • Michiko Diby shares some thoughts on the Agile state of mind, as an introduction to a presentation on Agile leadership by Paul Ellarby.  Just 53 minutes, safe for work.

Agile Methods

  • Cyrille Dupuydauby notes that Agile is failing organizations, because the goals of the organization are not addressed by Agile methods.
  • Chuck Snead describes an effective application of Agile, where Scrum provides a framework for structuring Extreme methods, within the context of a project.
  • Pawel Brodzinski examines the “context switching tax” paid by teams working on multiple simultaneous projects.
  • Terry Bunio returns from the SDEC13 conference in Winnipeg with enough new information to make a more nuanced assessment of #NoEstimates..

Pot Pouri

  • Venkat Rao weaves together a thesis of emancipation and self-limiting aspirations, based on Tolstoy and Checkov.  Excellent, but not for the casual reader.
  • John Goodpasture summarizes General Colin Powell’s approach to “consuming analysis,” as recounted by a former intelligence community executive.

Enjoy!

New PM Articles for the Week of October 14 – 20

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of October 14 – 20.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

Must read

  • Harvard Business School Professor Michael Wheeler shares some lessons in negotiation, based on the recent U.S. government financial cliffhanger.  Parts one and two.
  • Elizabeth Harrin reports on Andrew Hubbard’s presentation at Conference: Zero.  Andrew is the editor of the APM’s Project Magazine.

The Strategic View

  • Johanna Rothman reflects on how Sony lost their mojo (and market share), and what project portfolio managers can learn from their sad experience.
  • Peter High reports on the top ten strategic technology trends for 2014, as envisioned by the Gartner Group at their recent ITxpo in Orlando.
  • Ron Rosenhead recounts a conversation with a retiring Director, who admitted that their perceived success in project delivery wasn’t accurate.  And what he should have done about it.
  • Daniel Burrus recommends a consultative approach, using knowledge and wisdom to add value.

PM Best Practices

  • John Goodpasture points out that, due to limited historical data, most projects live in a One-Sigma range, where RMS is the analytical tool of choice.
  • Andy Jordan explains the right way to use historical data.
  • Cesar Abeid interviews Erik Fisher, podcaster and author of “Beyond the To-Do List.”  Just 48 minutes, safe for work.
  • Bernardine Douglas lists some steps to take to get your project out of the ditch.
  • Nate Crews gets us up to speed on stakeholder management, as described in the PMBOK, Fifth Edition.
  • Allen Ruddock looks at the mix of methodologies, tools, and procedures we’ve adopted to manage projects, and decides the silver bullet is the people.
  • Cornelius Fichtner interviews Lindsay Scott on three chapters of her new book, “The Handbook of People in Project Management.”  Just 30 minutes, safe for work.
  • Kerry Wills shares the eight principles described in his second book, “Applying Guiding Principles of Effective Program Delivery.”

Agile Methods

  • Glen Alleman explains what risk management is, and why Agile and #NoEstimates are not risk management.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Agile!
  • Peter Saddington provides the Agile Coach’s take on making effective decisions.
  • John Reiling wonders if the problems in the initial roll-out of www.healthcare.gov will renew federal government interest in Agile project management.

Pot Pouri

  • Tatiana Czuchnowsky sings the praises of mobile apps Genius Scan, Evernote, and Dropbox.
  • Will Kelly has lined up six SaaS tools for distributed teams.
  • Brian Tullis tells of his experience so far in a graduate-level course in personal learning networks.
  • Kailash Awati shares a satirical parable of ABSERD customer service.
  • Shim Marom offers some well-known examples of brevity, and obscure verbosity.

Enjoy!

PMI Announces a New Professional Credential for Portfolio Managers

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PMI has announced that they are developing a new professional credential: Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP).  As you might guess from the name, this certification is directed toward project portfolio managers. For more information on eligibility, check the PfMP Certification page on the PMI web site.

PMI says that the PfMP Exam Content Outline will be made available later this month, and they expect that the pilot test will be available late in 4Q13.  At a guess, the Standard for Portfolio Management, Third Edition will likely be a key resource.  However, I expect that PMI will list a number of other references.

Note that nearly four years after it was introduced, there are only 939 active holders of the Program Management Professional (PgMP) credential.  I don’t know how many portfolio managers PMI expects to attract with this credential, but I’ll bet the initial interest will come almost entirely from people who already hold two or more PMI certifications.  I’ll report on this again later in the year, as news becomes available.