Defending the Project Management Profession

December 21, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

Project management is not just something you do when you cannot get a real job. Project management is a profession and project managers are professionals. I am probably preaching to the choir here, but having recently seen ads for fast, cheap and simple project management training and tools, I felt the need to state firmly my position on this matter.

Project managers must possess a wide range of skills that include technical knowledge, organizational ability, seeing the big picture and most importantly, they must communicate effectively. A project manager achieves job satisfaction through directing others. Project managers must lead, motivate and provide an effective work environment. Behind the scenes, the manager plans, observes, assesses and solves problems both technical and people-related. It is a not a job for the faint of heart.

Becoming a Project Manager
If you aspire to be a project manager, preparation is essential. Most of your project management education will happen outside of an academic classroom. However, in addition to technical classes, a future manager benefits from formal instruction in communication, systems thinking and business intelligence. And, a couple general business classes won’t hurt.

Once employed, pay attention to the behavior of managers you respect and those you do not. Try to find commonalities in skills and personality traits. Compare the skills you admire with your own abilities and seek to enhance areas that are weak.

Learn from practitioners. This can include joining local project management groups, taking PMI or vendor sponsored classes, and reading articles and blog posts by project managers. Beside Fear No Project, I think you will find useful information from the bloggers I have listed on my Blogroll. (also see My favorite project management links and websites)

Because effective communication is essential to project managers, look for opportunities to practice including writing articles and proposals and giving presentations. Ask for feedback and work to improve your communication skills.

Learn to use PM tools including planning, scheduling, costing, tracking and report writing.

Seek out opportunities to practice managing. You can volunteer to lead a special project, assist the lead engineer or PM or even manage projects outside of your work environment. You need to develop the mindset of “thinking like a manager” instead of thinking like a contributor.
Preparing for becoming a professional project manager takes time and seasoning. Most small project managers have 3 – 5 years experience and those managing complex programs often have more than 10 years in the field, at least half of which involved project management of smaller projects.

Whether you pursue a PMP certification or not, be aware and appreciate the skills that define the field. In addition to formal academic and experience requirements, PMPs pass an examination of knowledge on all aspects of project management including initiating, planning executing, monitoring and control and closing a project. In addition, each PMP meets the requirements for continuing education hours in the field.

So whether you want to be a project manager or you are seeking to hire one, do not be mislead by false claims that becoming a project manager is fast, cheap or easy; it is not.

Posted in General Project Management, Personal Thoughts, Professional Development. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments »

Professional ScrumMaster Class Offered in Austin Texas

November 3, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

I have written and spoken in the past about agile and the incremental approaches to building solutions.  I am learning more about SCRUM and how it can improve our ability to be successful in our projects.  Scrum provides a framework for software development that is incremental and iterative. Scrum is based on agile principles that involve planning and implementing software deliverables in short time cycles. As described by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland in “The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game,” Scrum is simple to understand and “extremely difficult to master.”

As with other agile methods, Scrum works well in development efforts where requirements change frequently and objectives can be broken down into tasks that a team can accomplish in days rather than months (and most of us have experienced the constant requirements change problem). The role of a project manager in an agile development differs from the role served by managers operating under traditional waterfall methods, as discussed in Agile and project management – Advice from the warriors and now a formal certification in the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP).

A project using Scrum framework and methods is comprised of a product owner, the execution team and a “ScrumMaster”, who solves problems and facilitates execution. The Wikipedia write up on Scrum states, “The ScrumMaster ensures that the Scrum process is used as intended. The ScrumMaster is the enforcer of rules. A key part of the ScrumMaster’s role is to protect the team and keep them focused on the tasks at hand.”

I am excited to announce that my organization, Cognitive Technologies, in partnership with Improving Enterprises, is offering the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) certification course in Austin Texas. I am planning on going, so that I can increase my knowledge and skills.

The next class is being held in Austin, TX on December 6-7, 2011. Taught by Don McGreal, the 2-day class is the first significant update of the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) course that Ken Schwaber introduced and shared in 2002. As in the original, the framework, mechanics, and roles of Scrum are covered. The course then goes further by teaching students how to use Scrum to optimize value, productivity, and total cost of ownership of systems and products. Students will learn through instruction and team-based exercises, and will be challenged to think on their feet to better understand what to do when they return to their workplaces. If you or your organization is trying to use SCRUM then you need to send someone to a course like this.
Here are some details from the course information:

Structure of the Course

  • Scrum Basics – What is Scrum and how has it evolved?
  • Scrum Theory – Why does Scrum work and what are its core principles? How are the Scrum principles different from those of more traditional software development approaches, and what is the impact?
  • Scrum Framework and Meetings – How Scrum theory is implemented using time- boxes, roles, rules, and artifacts. How can these be used most effectively and how can they fall apart?
  • Scrum and Change – Scrum is different: what does this mean to my project and my organization? How do I best adopt Scrum given the change that is expected?
  • Scrum and Total Cost of Ownership – A system isn’t just developed, it is also sustained, maintained and enhanced. How is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of our systems or products measured and optimized?
  • Scrum Teams – Scrum Teams are self-organizing and cross-functional; this is different from traditional development groups. How do we start with Scrum teams and how do we ensure their success?
  • Scrum Planning – Plan a project and estimate its cost and completion date.
  • Predictability, Risk Management, and Reporting – Scrum is empirical. How can predictions be made, risk be controlled, and progress be tracked using Scrum.
  • Scaling Scrum – Scrum works great with one team. It also works better than anything else for projects or product releases that involve hundreds or thousands of globally dispersed team members. How is scaling best accomplished using Scrum?

Audience
This training is primarily targeted at those responsible for the successful use and/or rollout of Scrum in a project or enterprise.

Prerequisites

  1. Have read one of the Scrum books.
  2. Have studied the Scrum Guide at www.scrum.org.
  3. Understand the basics of project management.
  4. Understand requirements and requirements decomposition.
  5. Have been on or closely involved with a project that builds or enhances a product.
  6. Want to know more about how Scrum works, how to use it, and how to implement it in an organization.

Cost

This class is normally $1,495 for the 2 day class, but Cognitive Technologies is offering a discount for early signup.To sign up for the course go to http://www.cognitive-technologies.com/products/training/scrum.aspx.

It is time for us to get serious about learning new methods for projects so I encourage you to look at all of the methodologies that are out there today. If you have more information about this type of training or Agile methods, feel free to leave a comment.

Posted in General Project Management, Best Practice, Professional Development, Project Management. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Dealing with Angry Clients

July 7, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

Recently, while sharing a quiet dinner at a nice restaurant (in lovely Regina Canada), I could not help but overhear the conversation at the next table. The patron was angry and demanding that the cook re-do the meat because it was not to his liking. I paid attention to this because the customer had already returned his wine as, “inferior” and the atmosphere around that table was toxic.

Now, this person may have just been a jerk or perhaps he had a very, very bad day. However, not all anger is unjustified. People get angry for reasons. Sometimes those people are clients and sometimes they are right.

To be honest, whether the client’s anger is justified is not really the issue. The situation is the issue. You, the project manager or program manager have to deal with it. By “deal with it,” I mean you need to diffuse the situation and move forward. Angry clients or employees often do not keep their disappointment or anger to themselves. They tell friends, co-workers and even competitors.

Reasons Clients Become Angry

  • They can’t get scope changes for free. (Do not be surprised if this anger involves some posturing, since agreeing on cost and schedule is a negotiation.)
  • Your project did not deliver what was promised.
  • The project manager or key personnel changed without notice.
  • Your project missed a milestone or cost bogey (“target” for those non-military types).
  • Some “user requested changes” were over-ridden by the client’s senior staff or the project team.
  • What they want is not possible given project cost and schedule constraints. (the old project triangle theory)

Reasons Staff Become Angry

  • Scope creep: Workers agree to do a certain amount of work within a specific time. Then, customers, clients, senior management – someone – keeps adding tasks without changing the schedule or adding hours to do the work.
  • Organizational change: Events outside of the project alter the organization’s usual way of doing business, which eventually trickles down to the project staff as added training, forms and procedures. (See: “Don’t Take Organizational Change for Granted – Manage it”)
  • Perceived lack of appreciation or respect. (Don’t under-estimate this one!!)

Dealing with Anger

  • Accept that the person is angry. They may be angry with you, your company or your team. They could be showing displaced anger from situations in their lives outside of the project. Alternatively, they may display an angry pose as their way of intersecting with the world. Therefore, acknowledging the anger is a place to begin repairing the situation, if it can be repaired.
  • Clarify the situation. What is the client angry about. If there are several points of anger, write them down on paper or on a whiteboard and address each concern.
  • Be careful of your body language. Relax. A red face, clenched jaw or fist pounding does not help.
  • Some clients express anger or disappointment passively. If a client is consistently slow to return emails or voice messages, misses meetings, stops contributing to discussions, check with them about their state of comfort with the project and ask them if there is a problem. Do not assume they are angry; just give them an opening to discuss their perceptions or concerns.
  • Provide realistic feedback. If you or the project created the problem, acknowledge it and see if there is an acceptable resolution. If the problem itself is not solvable, acknowledge both the concern and the reality of the situation. “I realize you wanted the entire system to be compatible with your legacy software, John, unfortunately that cannot be done because the systems handle data differently. To write a translator would cause the performance to degrade below your minimum expectations …” etc.

Best Practices

  • Whenever possible meet face-to-face.
  • Deal with the situation quickly – do not let anger fester.
  • Stay calm, speak quietly and do not escalate the situation.
  • Invite a senior member of your organization to the meeting to demonstrate your organization’s concern and commitment to improving the situation.
  • Follow up a confrontational meeting with a call or email that describes the resolution and your commitment to meet the new schedule, do the task or just check into current perceptions of the project.
  • When dealing with an angry project staff, follow many of steps suggested above – listen, accept the anger, be realistic and if changes need to be made either make them or make it clear you are working with decision-makers to improve the situation.
  • Keep the end goal in mind, you want to leave the meeting with the anger reduced or hopefully replaced with positive feelings.
  • Monitor yourself – stop breathe and take a pause to think.

Resources:
Seth Godin: How to Deal with an Angry Customer
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/09/how_to_deal_wit.html

Steven Flannes, Ph.D.: Working Effectively with the Angry, Critical Client: Real World Solutions to Help You Get the Job Done

http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi30/107-30.pdf

Bloomberg Business Week: Dealing with Angry Customers

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2007/sb20070620_974061.htm

Posted in General Project Management, Leadership, management, Professional Development. Tags: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

The Importance of Social Networking – How and Why

June 2, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

How many of you thought this post was going to be about Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter, and BLOGS??  Wrong! My thoughts today are about the value of old-fashioned social networking, as opposed to tweeting and posting to online services like LinkedIn and Facebook. Building a network of professional contacts involves personal contact – putting a face, or at least a voice, with a name. Creating your personal network takes place over years and requires a lot of effort from you to maintain.

Why bother with networking?
Let’s say you are at a professional conference (I assume that many of us still go to those). The presentations have finished for the day, your backside is tired from sitting and your brain is in overload. Should you,
(a) Go to your room and take a nap?
(b) Swim or jog for an hour to clear your mind and relax your body?
(c) Attend the optional meet-and-greet in a downstairs conference room? Or
(d) Go and catch up on all the email and work that got assigned to you today?

Given the topic of this post, you can guess that I recommend C – attending the meet-and-greet.

The informal nature of these business/social meetings gives you a chance to know people from other organizations and companies, often geographically dispersed. These people share your professional interests and often possess skills or knowledge that you may need someday. Moreover, these folks want to know you too and for the same reasons. Having a direct contact in an organization or from a location may help you solve a future management challenge or get a trusted recommendation.

Networking inside your organization is valuable also. In larger companies, many people never meet others in the organization that can facilitate solving problems or getting resources. Networking within the organization, by participating in extracurricular activities or just keeping up with folks with whom you worked on previous projects, gives you a starting point when you need help or information. People often return phone calls or schedule meetings more readily with people they already know.

OK, another scenario is that you have been invited to the OnRamp High Tech Happy Hour down on Sixth Street this Thursday at 5:30.  So once again you have to decide if it is worth going.  Or how about the professional association meetings held in your town? We have PMI meetings, ACM chapters, American Management meetings, and many professional get togethers here in Austin.  You have to go and meet people in a social setting or in a mutual interest in order to get to know them.  You will be surprised how many people I meet who later I reach out to for help with a problem that I am having. 

And let’s not forget to socialize with the people in our own organization.  Some of you work for large companies or say the government.  When you have a chance to reachout to people you don’t work with on a day to day basis it helps you form what we call a network. 

Maintaining a social network made easy – well easier
You do not have to spend countless hours on the phone, golf course or at lunch to maintain your social network. You do need to spend some thoughtful time touching base and maintaining the contact. Like what?

  • Share interesting professional articles. Add a short personal note – “thought you might like this”
  • If you happen to hear about an achievement of a social contact – publishing an article, getting a promotion, winning a contract – send a short “Congratulations” note.
  • Try – really try – to remember the names of people in the organization that you interact with occasionally and use their name when greeting them in the hallway, cafeteria or if you happen to run into them outside of the office environment.
  • Create a presence on LinkedIn or other professional association sites and provide brief updates on your activities and interests. Invite those you meet into your list of connections.
  • If you are capable (time and resources) of helping a new contact accomplish an objective, do it. Perhaps you can answer a question or recommend a resource or even complete a task, your assistance will be remembered and valued.
  • Send a note that is not work related, such as a “Happy Holiday” email or share a good joke or cartoon with a member of your social network. Use this sparingly, since the relationship revolves around shared work interests.  If you do not know the person well enough to understand his or her sense of humor or culture, better not to follow this suggestion than offend someone.
  • If you are having a project wrap up celebration, invite some of your inside social network contacts who may have peripherally helped in the project’s success.
  • If one of your network contacts posts a professional blog, send a brief, “saw your blog post on XYZ; appreciated your insight.”

Some additional reading on this subject:

Getting connected is not such a scary thing!  
9 Steps toward effective networking
Professional Networking

If you have additional recommendations on maintaining a professional social network, I hope you will share.

Posted in Communication, management, Professional Development. Tags: , , , , . 3 Comments »
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