Tag: Team

Only the Certifiable Gets Certified?

Written by Hans Jonasson on October 21, 2009. Posted in Articles. 10 Comments on Only the Certifiable Gets Certified?

Not real sure what that heading means but I liked the sound of it. I get a lot of questions in the classroom about the value of PMI certification. And since it is a big undertaking for most people to get certified, it is a question worth thinking about. Normally I tell people that if you think you may be looking for a job in the near future or if your company puts a great value on it, then it is a no-brainer, just do. However, if neither of those reasons is true, it is a tougher call.

I do hear a lot of practitioners say that being certified does not show that you can run a project. And that is of course true. Just like having a driver’s license does not prove that you know how to drive a car (as proven by the %*!&><# who cut me off on I-75 yesterday!). Still... I do prefer that the other drivers around me have licenses. While it does not prove that they are great at what they are doing, I think it improves my odds. And it shows that they care enough about being behind a steering wheel to try to improve.

So maybe the most important part about becoming certified is that it shows that you are certifiable. In other words, it tells me that you have some level of experience (since you could sit for the exam), it shows that you have some training on the subject of your profession, and it shows that you can answer some basic theoretical questions about your job. And it shows potential customers and employers that you care a bit.

So, next time someone tells you that a PMP exam means nothing, ask if they would use a lawyer who flunked the bar exam. Or a doctor who skipped the medical board review. Would they send their kids to unlicensed daycares? Nothing guarantees competence, certainly a PMP title does not, but success is also not guaranteed by bringing on the guy that runs his project on gut feeling and a fly-by-night approach. PMI’s way is not the only way. There are other ways to run projects. But PMI’s way is “a way,” and not a bad way. It is better than “no way.” So my recommendation is, if you can get certified, do it; if you can find a mentor, get him or her to support you; if you see an interesting book, read it. In other words, use all means available to improve your skills in your profession. That may be what sets you apart from your competition. And, like it or not, you are in a competition!

Don’t forget to leave your comments below

Getting PM Training without Breaking the Bank

Written by Kevin Aguanno on October 7, 2009. Posted in Articles. 15 Comments on Getting PM Training without Breaking the Bank

In these troubling economic times, companies are slashing their training budgets as a means of getting costs under control and more in line with dramatically-reduced revenues. Classroom training opportunities are being cancelled every day, with the excuse that tuition, travel costs, and lost productivity makes the whole exercise financially unviable.

Yet, project managers still need ongoing training. People new to the profession need basic training; new hires need training on specific company management policies, practices and systems; and experienced managers need ongoing training to keep their skills current as the processes and tools they use evolve over time. Without training, an organization’s capacity quickly diminishes, eroding the project delivery team’s ability to successfully deliver new projects. We cannot allow these training budgets to be cut any further; or we won’t be positioned well to take advantage of the economic recovery that will eventually come our way.

So, how do we balance the company’s need for cutting costs while still preserving training opportunities for our staff? Well, many companies are turning to remote training offerings as the compromise between these two extremes. Webinars, teleseminars, and e-courses are training offerings that eliminate travel costs and generally cost only a fraction of their classroom equivalents. On top of that, by breaking courses down into small bite-sized modules, students can choose which modules they need, reducing the amount of unproductive time spent sitting in a class reviewing material that the students already know.

Teleseminars are lectures and group discussions delivered on a group conference call over the telephone. Some of them have web interfaces where students can type in questions for the speaker or click a button to “raise their hand.” They are generally the cheapest of the three remote training offerings. Calls may be recorded allowing for later playback.

Webinars are like teleseminars that have a visual element. Often, these visuals exist as slides in PowerPoint or a similar application. As the teacher is presenting the slides, students can see them change automatically through a web-based online interface. The student view changes in synchronization with teachers. Many of these systems allow for online messaging (chat) between students or with the instructor. Some also have the ability for one participant to take notes that can be shared with the rest of the participants. Students hear the instructor speaking either over a telephone line or through their computer speaker or headset. In some systems, the students can even ask questions via their headset microphone.

The “poor man’s webinar” is a teleseminar where the PowerPoint presentation is distributed to participants in advance, and the students follow along with the teacher by manually switching slides as the teacher announces the slide changes.

E-Courses are online course modules with both audio and visual elements, typically without an instructor, that students can take at any time. This ability to take the course modules at any time is one of the most powerful features that distinguish this option from webinars, which are pre-scheduled events. E-Courses may also have tests, simulations, and other interactive features that can improve the learning experience.

Major project management training providers have been offering all three options for years, with more and more getting on the remote training bandwagon. Thousands of project management-related webinars and teleseminars take place each year. Some are free, while others have a registration fee. It pays to research the training provider. Many vendors of products offer webinars or similar events on general PM topics that are thinly-disguised advertisements for their products. Also, you tend to get what you pay for; meaning, free training often only gives very high-level overviews of topics where the real meat of the subject is delivered via follow-on offerings that have a cost associated with them. Training companies use these free training events as teasers to attract students who can sample the quality of their instructors. Some of the viewers will buy the follow-on training offerings.

Don’t get me wrong – many excellent inexpensive or free training offerings are available. For years, the PMI ISSIG (www.pmi-issig.org) has been offering top-notch webinars free to its members. Other non-profit groups such as the Project Management Association of Canada (www.pmac-ampc.ca) offer high quality but low-cost teleseminars and webinars. There is no comprehensive central directory of project management remote training providers, but a simple Google search will reveal many available offerings.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below

Getting High Performance from the Middle 80% of the Project Team

Written by Jean Corson on September 16, 2009. Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Getting High Performance from the Middle 806 of the Project Team

Even if you haven’t reached official management status, you’ve probably had the opportunity to take the lead and be in charge of others-managing a project or serving as team leader. Looking back, did you find yourself investing 80% of your time with just 20% of the people you were leading? Did you find yourself immersed in micromanaging the bottom 10%-your problem children-while spending the rest of your time catering to the needs (and whims) of the 10% who were your star performers?

It’s tempting to give all of your attention to people at the top and the bottom of your team: But don’t do it. Your success-and the success of your company-depends on developing and motivating the other 80%. You need a tool that helps you engage the “middle 80”-helping them develop their skills while improving team performance… coaching is that tool.

Coaching Focuses on Developing, Not Fixing

Coaching is a fluid relationship that can be initiated by either the person who sees an opportunity to help or by the person looking for help. It can be done at any time and doesn’t require a manager/subordinate relationship to be effective. In a coaching relationship, both parties decide if the relationship should continue. Coaching focuses on developing, not “fixing”, the person being coached-creating individuals with improved skills who can contribute more effectively in a team environment and on their own.

Coaching is much more than just an informal conversation with another staff member. It depends on clear expectations that are communicated well and supported with timely oversight. Regardless of whether you’re a manager coaching a new employee or team member coaching a peer, formalising some of the coaching process is useful. When goals and expectations are clearly defined, employees in the middle 80 are given the tools to perform above their previous potential.

Implementing Coaching

Before effective coaching can take place, a Coaching Development Plan must be established that you and the person you’re coaching co-create. The key term in the previous sentence is co-create. Rather than your writing a plan, both of you need to jointly identify a set of goals and activities. Co-creation ensures that both parties will be invested in the plan’s success (think about how dedicated you’ve been to anything that you’ve helped create). Co-creation also moves you away from the boss/employee relationship and towards the peer-to-peer relationship of coaching.

Your Own Coaching Needs

You may need some coaching on the skills that a coach requires. For example, one of the keys to successful coaching is the ability to foster self-motivation. This requires a coach who understands the elements of motivation and de-motivation and their impact on behaviours. If this is an area where you lack skills then you may want to seek out a coach for yourself.

By moving to a coaching role for the middle 80, you begin developing your next generation of leaders, since individuals who have experienced the benefits of coaching will look for opportunities to assist others in their growth. As successful coaching collaborations grow and thrive, your work becomes more productive and less stressful, knowing that all of your employees are being given the tools and support they need to take the organisation to the next level.

Seven Steps to Building a Coaching Development Plan:

1) Set the tone. If you’re initiating the relationship, establish that coaching isn’t a sign that the other person is lacking in some critical skill or doing something wrong. In fact, coaching means that you see untapped potential in the other person and are invested in that person’s success at work.

2) Establish the goals. You and the other person must set the goals for the relationship. As the coach in the relationship, you have two responsibilities in goal setting. One is to identify the goals you would like to see the other person achieve. The other responsibility is to solicit from the other person what goals they want to work toward. Without your active solicitation, you may end up being the only person setting the goals, which moves you back to the boss/employee relationship.

3) Set responsibilities. The two of you must then decide how you can help each other develop. As a coach, you have an additional responsibility beyond what you agree to in this part of the plan. You must also model the desired behaviours you want to see-you must “walk your talk.” If you don’t model the behaviour you want to help develop, then your credibility and your e”ectiveness as a coach are diminished.

4) Define the process. At a minimum, the two of you must decide when, where and how often you’ll meet to check in with each other. One caveat: coaching isn’t about friendship. You can be friendly, but coaching is about improving performance at work. As part of deciding how you’ll work together, you must also decide how you’ll address conflict (and there will be conflict).

5) Acknowledge what you will get. You’ll probably learn a great deal from the coaching relationship. Make sure that you acknowledge the benefits that you expect to get. For instance, being able to conduct “difficult” conversations (conversations that include criticism) is an invaluable skill. If you intend to develop that skill as part of this coaching relationship, point out that you will be using this opportunity to practice in a safe environment.

6) Establish benchmarks. The plan must include clear “measures of progress” and a schedule of when those measures will be met. Benchmarks provide both of you with markers to determine how well things are going. However, be aware that not reaching the benchmarks isn’t a sign of failure-it just means that a timetable adjustment or course correction may be needed.

7) Review the relationship. When looking at a course correction or the achievement of a major benchmark, take the time to assess if the coaching relationship should continue. If you decide to discontinue the formal coaching relationship, be sure to debrief both the work you did together and how the coaching experience played out for each of you.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below

Jean Corson of CorsonWolff Consulting is an organizational behaviour consultant specialising in executive coaching, developing emerging leaders and building high-powered teams by focusing on workplace behaviour, communication and performance. She teaches Learning Tree’s Course 224, “Coaching Employees to Their Potential,” Course 904, “Responding to Conflict,” Course 294, “Influence Skills,” and Course 292, “Communication Skills.” [email protected]. Learning Tree International is a leading global provider of truly effective training to management, business and information technology professionals. Since 1974, over 13,000 public and private organizations have trusted Learning Tree to enhance the professional skills of more than 1.9 million employees. For more information, call 1-800-843-8733 or visit www.learningtree.ca.

Building Your Virtual Team

Written by Cynthia Low on July 8, 2009. Posted in Articles. 13 Comments on Building Your Virtual Team

Globalization has changed the nature of how businesses function. What is has not changed are the requirements for success. A dedicated team of skilled employees guided by expert managers is crucial to any corporation. Communication is paramount, more so today than ever before. Pulling together a seamless business team on-site is a challenge in itself. Trying to rally employees from distant locals can be daunting, at best. A successful “virtual team” can bridge the distance, but with any team – virtual or traditional – communication is the key to productivity.

Fostering Collaboration

According to Dr. Tom Allen, author of Managing the Flow of Technology, people are not likely to communicate or collaborate very often if they are more than 50 feet apart. How then, do we foster communication and collaboration when people are geographically dispersed?

As a professional corporate trainer who has coached over 1,000 project managers across North America, I have found that the most effective starting point when it comes to opening the lines of communication is to create a Team Operating Agreement.

A Team Operating Agreement (TOA) guides the team’s actions and interactions.

A TOA is the set of behavioral norms that the team agrees to abide by. They can be formal or informal. If a team does not deliberately create them, they will develop on their own…which may be problematic. Geographic, ethnic and cultural differences impact on the effectiveness of how individuals and teams operate. Awareness of these differences is vital if communication is to be clear, honest and properly directed.

A TOA can be as inclusive as a team chooses it to be. The more inclusive it is the less chance for miscommunication, conflict and lost opportunities. Ideally, the TOA should be created at the beginning of a project or when a new team forms.

A TOA may include the following categories:

Meeting Protocols

Meetings begin and end on time
We attempt to schedule meetings to accommodate people in different time zones
We take into consideration holidays of the different cultures
We respect and listen to what other people are saying on the call and we don’t hold sidebar conversations
We communicate delays in dealing with an item no later than one business day
An agenda will be issued via email one week ahead of time

Communication

We check e-mails twice a day
We have a no scroll policy on all emails
Once a communication has started the parties will not allow interruptions
We handle conflict directly with the person concerned and work to resolve it
We identify and communicate possible conflicts clearly and immediately
We give feedback in a timely manner, respecting cultural sensitivities
We will not make commitments or make decision for other professionals in our team or my project manager without first consulting them

Implementing the Team Operating Agreement

How can these objectives be realized? Use the following steps to implement a TOA on your virtual team.

Brainstorm: Have each team member list what they would like to see become part of the TOA
List all ideas on a document camera, whiteboard or flip chart
Clarify. Ensure team members thoroughly understand each statement
Prioritize. Choose the top five or six items for your list
Discuss. Modify, remove or live with each statement
Adopt. What has been tabled at the “official” TOA; laminate it and display it in your virtual meeting room
Adapt: Review and adapt as required by the team
Evaluate. Assess the effectiveness of the TOA

Over the years of teaching the principles of the Team Operating Agreement, the questions that have come up most often are: “How do we create true buy-in for the TOA?” and “What if you have people on the team who do not abide by these principles?”

Since you are part of a team, it is your responsibility to determine as a group what actions to take for non compliance. It can be as simple as:

having the person be the one taking the minutes
assigning that person to being the time-keeper at the next meeting
fining that person money and use the money towards charity or an office event

Deciding on what the consequences for non-compliance are for the team is important and the course of action should be recorded as part of your TOA.

It is critical to note that the TOA is not a stagnant document; it can, and probably should, be modified during the course of a project.

Virtual teams are the way of the future…but they use many of the features of successful business units of yesterday and today. To find out how to create an organization-wide Team Operating Agreement, please send an email to [email protected].

Claire Sookman specializes in helping virtual teams maximize their potential through training, coaching and consulting. She can be reached at [email protected] or at 1-877-497-7749 which is also the number to call for a free Virtual Tips CD.

Managing Scope for Project Success

Written by Cynthia Low on June 24, 2009. Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Managing Scope for Project Success

Ever start a project without a stable foundation for scope? How did it go? To ensure project success, it is essential that scope be unambiguous and carefully managed. This can be accomplished with the Scope Management Process, which provides a formal set of procedures for planning, executing, monitoring and controlling scope.

The project manager, sponsor and stakeholders use the Scope Management Process throughout the project life cycle to:

Communicate project scope so the sponsor and key stakeholders reach the same conclusion about what is and is not in scope. It is normal for different people to read the same documents and have varying, yet valid, interpretations of the scope. To prevent this, scope must be documented, and more importantly, discussed. The scope statement should contain sufficient detail to be able to establish cost, schedule and deliverable-acceptance criteria.
Monitor and review the project to identify unplanned impacts on scope, cost, schedule or deliverable-acceptance criteria. Would anyone be concerned if the deliverable-acceptance criteria changed, but there was no change to cost or schedule? The answer is yes. The project manager has agreed to deliver something of value to the sponsor that is of sufficient quality to yield business benefits. If that criteria changes in some way, the change should be agreed to and documented so the project manager can later demonstrate the deliverables meet the quality standard.
Raise scope-related issues and recommend appropriate actions or changes to scope or baseline documents.
Formalize approved adjustments to scope documents and cost, schedule, deliverable-acceptance criteria, and other elements of the project management plan.

The Scope Management Process is a set of steps designed to set, track and control scope throughout the project. Key participants in the process include primary stakeholders and resource providers. Basic functions in the Scope Management Process include:

Reviewing the project charter and other documents such as the contract, statement of work and request for proposal. Identify and characterize scope elements and drivers for the project in enough detail to establish scope, cost, schedule and deliverable- acceptance criteria.
Discussing the proposed scope baseline with key stakeholders and reviewing data, assumptions and constraints to resolve misunderstandings and gain approval of the scope baseline. Document the scope baseline and distribute it to stakeholders.
Monitoring scope elements and drivers throughout the project for possible changes that impact the baselines. The project manager and team are proactive and address scope issues before they become critical. Team leaders and staff should review their scope elements and drivers regularly.
Reviewing project progress regularly to identify variances that are possibly caused by scope element or driver changes. This is reactive because the project manager did not see it ahead of time, and the project cost and schedule have already been impacted.
Processing scope change requests using a standard procedure agreed to by the sponsor and key stakeholders. This normally involves analyzing the impact of the change request on the project’s triple constraints and proposing several alternative solutions to the change control board.
Updating baselines and other parts of the project management plan based on approved changes to scope. This should include updating the work breakdown structure, activity list, resourcing, procurement and communication plans.

The preceding discussion has involved addressing scope factors found in proposals, contracts and records. There are other scope factors the project manager must also plan for and manage, such as the skill and experience level of the project managers and staff working on a project. At the extreme, a very inexperienced team might take nearly twice as long as a highly experienced team. The project manager needs to make assumptions about the level of skill and experience of the project team. If the assigned team is less skilled or experienced than assumed, the team should begin mitigating the unfavorable cost and schedule variances they will likely face.

Another factor is the relationship between project staff and the client or sponsor. Project performance is impacted by the level of cooperation versus confrontation, eagerness versus resistance, collaboration versus isolationism, and creativity versus mediocrity. The project manager needs to monitor whether these factors are shifting and how they will impact project performance. The organization performing the project should contractually position itself to defend against a client’s unreasonable interference or constraints to progress. If it does not adequately protect itself from client scope factors through contracting, it will likely end up absorbing cost and schedule variances that should have been transferred to the client.

Tom Grzesiak, PMP is an instructor for Global Knowledge and is the president of Supple Wisdom LLC. Tom has over 20 years of project management and consulting experience with IBM, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and dozens of clients. He has trained thousand of project managers and consultants. Global Knowledge is a worldwide leader in IT and business training. More than 700 courses span foundational and specialized training and certifications. For more information, visit www.globalknowledge.com