The Importance of Continuing Your Project Management Education

November 5, 2009 — Bruce McGraw

New project managers can learn to be good project managers and good project managers can learn to be better. And PMO staff members should continuosly find out what the latest tools and techniques are in the industry!  I believe this because I have seen it and I have practiced it.

This coming weekend—November 8-10) is a terrific opportunity for project managers and PMO directors to learn from the best at the 2009 PMO Symposium. The theme of this year’s symposium is “Building the Framework for Success” and it is being held at the five-star Intercontinental Buckhead Hotel in Atlanta near Lennox mall.

Symposium attendees will gain insight into issues facing PMOs across a variety of organizations and guidance on establishing and building an effective PMO. Symposium attendees may earn up to 20 PDUs by attending PMO Symposium sessions.

The conference begins with an opening presentation by the PMOSIG Board of Directors and invited guests who will discuss PMO challenges, opportunities, and best practices. Following the group opening presentation are breakout sessions—three each hour—from PM professionals and vendors. This is a great opportunity to learn from the experience of others. Each session has time for questions built-in, so you can get specific consultation on your project management and PMO.

I am especially excited about the keynote address on Monday morning because it focuses on a topic of professional interest and relevance to project managers operating in today’s tough economic climate. Kent Crawford, founder and CEO of Project Management Solutions, Inc. and PM College, will be discussing how to align the PMO with business needs. Kent is a PMI Fellow and a knowledgeable and interesting speaker.

The Tuesday morning keynote follows the theme of improving and demonstrating the organizational value of an active PMO. Craig Symons, vice-president of Forrester Research, focuses his research on PMO business alignment and running IT like a business. You can see additional information on all the topics and speakers on the symposium’s agenda page.

Networking opportunities with other project managers and presenters is available each evening at receptions following the formal presentations. My company is an exhibitor at the conference and we hope to meet and talk with you there! In fact, please be sure to come by our booth to register for the Xbox 360 and PGR4 racing game we will be giving away.

Cognitive Technologies is a Gold Sponsor for the 2009 PMO Symposium.

Posted in Best Practice, project management office. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

Collaboration tools for Virtual Project Teams

July 24, 2009 — Bruce McGraw

Wow – lots of feedback on the last week’s post “Project Management: Keys to managing a remote project team”!  Thanks for all the comments and stories.  Based on the questions I am expanding on the topic today.

As I mentioned last week—and it is worth repeating—the key to successfully managing remote or virtual teams is COMMUNICATION. That includes voice, texting, and email and also sharing documents, project history, and status information preferably in near-real-time. I am impressed with the myriad tools available on the web to support team collaboration. Many of these tools are free or cost little compared to traveling to sites or leasing office space for everyone on the team.

That having been said, there are some useful cautions on collaboration tools as mentioned in Wayne Turmel’s article “Remote Working: The Truth about Collaboration Tools” posted on BNET. A couple of important observations in Wayne’s article:

  • Technology rarely solves a business problem by itself
  • Everyone on the team needs to know how to use the tools—what you like is what you know how to use
  • The collaboration tools won’t help if they are not used consistently and frequently

Here are some resources I have looked at to get you started in finding the set of collaboration tools to facilitate communication on your project:

1.  SharePoint is the premier tool from Microsoft. Microsoft’s Office SharePoint Server 2007 called “MOSS” is an integrated server platform that provides web content management, enterprise content services, and enterprise search features. It provides an integrated suite of server capabilities for sharing and managing information. A sub-set of SharePoint is included within the license of Windows Project Server. Another great feature of SharePoint is that it supports the creation of websites, wikis, and document sharing.

I have personal experience in managing all sizes of teams using SharePoint and love its flexibility and scalability.  It also provides a good structure when utilizing data and collaborating among many teams and projects.  ToolBox for IT summarizes SharePoint as follows: “SharePoint Portal Server is a portal server that connects people, teams, and knowledge across business processes. SharePoint Portal Server integrates information from various systems into one secure solution through single sign-on and enterprise application integration capabilities. It provides flexible deployment and management tools, and facilitates end-to-end collaboration through data aggregation, organization, and searching. SharePoint Portal Server also enables users to quickly find relevant information through customization and personalization of portal content and layout as well as through audience targeting.”

SharePoint Server is neither inexpensive nor is it easy to learn and integrate into your development and information sharing processes. However, those professionals who use it regularly and comment on various IT blogs say positive things about MOSS’s contribution to communication and productivity. SharePoint is powerful and supported by Microsoft Partner companies and Technical Services.

2.  Campfire is a web-based group chat tool. Unlike traditional chat or IM that is designed for one-on-one communication, Campfire supports interaction among several participants. The service provides password-protected chat rooms for intranet and extranet communication. The service works through your web browser, so there is no special installation or configuration required. Campfire is iPhone compatible.

Features of Campfire include: multiple rooms that may be organized by project, task, or topic. Permission for each room can be set and you can invite an outsider for temporary access to any room. You will see who is in chat mode in any room to which you have access. You can also have an audio alert when someone is active in one of your chat rooms. A chat history is maintained so that you can go back and review chats when you were not on-line. Campfire also lets you upload files for sharing and images can be placed directly into the chat.

Campfire has a four level pricing model:

  • Basic is $12 per month supports 12 chatters with standard security and 1 Gigabyte of storage
  • Plus for $24 per month supports 25 chatters with enhanced security and 3 Gigabytes of storage
  • Premium for $49 per month supports 60 chatters with enhanced security and 10 Gigabytes of storage
  • Max for $99 per month supports 100 chatters with enhanced security and 25 Gigabytes of storage

3.  Basecamp is brought to you by the same folks as Campfire. Basecamp supports document sharing across a single or multiple projects. Basecamp supports a message board, project document sharing, time tracking, milestone tracking, a project dashboard and shared to-do lists. Like Campfire, there are four pricing models in Basecamp ranging from $24–$149 per month, covering 15–to an unlimited number of projects, and supporting between 3–50 users. All pricing options except Basic support time tracking.

4. Zoho Office Suite: According to Wikipedia, The Zoho Office Suite is a Web- based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, CRM, project management, invoicing and other applications developed by AdventNet Inc., an Indian-based company. Some applications, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Projects, require a fee to be used; other products may be used with only registration. Zoho Office Suite includes the following tools: Writer, Sheet, DB and Reports, Show, Projects, CRM, Creator, Wiki, Planner, Notebook, Mail, Chat and Meeting.
Users can collaborate and edit documents with Zoho and then store and manage them in Microsoft® SharePoint®.

More tools for collaboration and communication:
5.  EditMe  lets users create, edit and share websites in minutes including support for wikis, web publishing, and online documentation. EditMe has pricing options that range from $4.95 per month to $49.95. Each plan allows unlimited users but varies on the storage space and traffic per month.

6.  PBWorks  offers collaborative page editing, document management and file sharing, history and audit trail, automatic backups, enhanced security including: access controls, page and folder-level access, IP white-listing and black-listing; search across pages , point-and-click editor that supports images, files, colors, and fonts  with the ability to edit the page source and customize HTML. Project collaboration using PBWorks costs @20.00 per month per user.

7.  Approver.com lets users view documents, create a document online, upload a document from your computer, create a workgroup, publish documents online and link to documents from your intranet. Cost? But registration is free.

Useful Links:
Well I could continue but I think you get the point – there are tools to help you collaborate effectively.  Here are a few other links I haven’t called out which might be of use.

Wayne Turmel’s article “Remote Working: The Truth about Collaboration Tools” in BNET.
ToolBox IT answers 50 questions users and potential users of Microsoft SharePoint may have.
SharePoint 2007 Review – Six Pillars of MOSS from CMS Wire
How to’s for SharePoint from Microsoft Technical Services
Campfire  home
Basecamp information on sharing document and project information
Summary of features for: Zoho Office Suite on Wikipedia
Zoho Company information
“25 Web Sites to Watch” according to PCWorld – see comments on Approver
The Online Collaboration Tools Guide from ReadWriteEnterprise compares Zoho, Google Docs, Syncplicity, and Box.

Thanks for all the suggestions – for everyone reading this I encourage you to leave a comment with a tool name or your experience in collaborating on a team.

Posted in General Project Management, project management office, Tools. Tags: , , , , . 15 Comments »

What’s in a name—job title inflation hits project management

May 8, 2009 — Bruce McGraw

Today I am pleased to have a guest post on a very interesting and appropriate topic for the current business climate—job title inflation.  Dr. McGraw has been looking at human performance and job competencies for many years and we are pleased to have her share thoughts on this subject as it applies to the project management, PM and IT.

Job Title Inflation

Guest Post by Dr. Karen L. McGraw, CEO, Cognitive Technologies

Depending on your company’s culture, job titles may be just a string of words that are basically irrelevant to the real world outside of human resources or they may signal responsibility, pay, and perks associated with a position. When should a project manager or PM care about job titles? I can think of three situations where job titles and especially the inflation in job titles matter to Project Managers.

  • When other people in your organization care
  • When you are hiring a project manager from the outside
  • When you are compiling your resume

I did a quick and admittedly informal and not-comprehensive search of job titles used in the marketplace for positions that most of us would think of as project managers. What I found was fascinating and a bit disturbing. Here’s a quick list of some of the descriptors and qualifiers:

Implied level of responsibility and authority

Optional Qualifiers
Deputy IT
Associate Software
Principle Systems
Assistant Director
Senior Group
Lead Development
Supervising Supervising
Chief Product

There are no laws or universal rules about job titles for project managers.  Unfortunately, they vary both across and within organizations.  Are you an Associate Project Manager, a Task Lead, a Project Manager, a Sr. Project Manager, or a Program Manager?   What differentiates each of these titles? Is it random, is it time in the actual role, is it the number or size of projects managed, or is it based on clear job definitions and competencies that require different levels of skills by job role or title? I have assessed many organizations and job positions. In one particular organization we analyzed exemplary project managers and unfortunately found that competencies and skills had little to do with the title. Instead, people had come into the organization with a particular title and no one questioned if that level of title was appropriate to the job to be done in the new organization.  Job title inflation requires that you carefully consider not just the past title on a resume, but the outcomes that person actually produced in a previous project manager position. You may find that the Assistant Software Project Manager was in reality the code developer who took notes during staff meetings.

How did this title inflation come about? Betsey Stevenson, professor of business and public policy at Wharton suggests that job title inflation, “seems to go hand in hand with the flattening of the organization. People want to be distinguished in some way from everyone else, but in a flat organization there is less hierarchy and therefore less opportunity to be distinguished.”

You can learn some fascinating facts and insightful observations about how job title inflation came to be in “Chief Receptionist Officer? Title Inflation Hits the C-Suite”.  

The HR Capitalist suggests that job title inflation may occur if:

  • Limited funds
  • Retention Concerns
  • Customer Clout 
  • Internal Equity

Job descriptions and competeny models that support job titles can go a long way to removing job title inflation for project management. We use a tool called Project DNA to analyze project manager performance and document the important competencies and behaviors for each project title. When you are looking to hire or contract with a project manager from outside your organization, use the model that you have developed as a benchmark to look for job responsibilities or duties that closely mirror the outcomes you expect the project manager to produce. Do not be sucked in by a similar title, believing that implies similar capabilities.

Some companies care little about job titles, but in a company that does care, being simply a “project manager” may place you in a disadvantageous position when you are competing for resources against someone else with an inflated title. In terms of your organization, figure out how important job titles are in gaining resources and perks for your team and play the game by their rules. But document the capabilities, competencies, skills and outcomes you expect from each title to ensure that the people you staff can deliver performance and projects on time and on budget. 

About the Author:
Dr. McGraw is the founder and CEO of Cognitive Technologies. Dr. McGraw has extensive experience in technology-based performance improvement solutions ranging from the design and implementation of computer-based learning and learning management systems, to expert systems, performance support systems, intelligent interfaces, and knowledge management systems. Dr. McGraw is a co-developer of the Performance DNA toolkit for analyzing human performance to diagnose improvement opportunities. To learn more about Cognitive Technologies, visit www.cognitive-technologies.com and to reach Dr. McGraw directly, contact her at kmcgraw@cogtechinc.com.

 

Posted in Best Practice, General Project Management, management, pm, project management office, staff. Tags: , , , . 7 Comments »
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