Partial Listing of Upcoming Project Management Events

For a complete listing of events, or to add your own event for free, please visit the Online Calendar at allPM.com

Project RISK Management Parsippany, NJ
January 19, 2004
http://allpm.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Calendar&file=index&type=view&eid=580

IIR's Project Evaluation: A Prerequisite to Portfolio Management
January 21, 2004
http://allpm.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Calendar&file=index&type=view&eid=652

Project Management Certification Program in Raleigh, NC
January 26, 2004
http://allpm.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Calendar&file=index&type=view&eid=326

November Poll Results

Does your organization use a formal configuration management process?

Yes 32.14 % (9)
No 60.71 % (17)
If no, is it considering using one? 7.14 % (2)

Total votes: 28

************

According to the Institute of Value Management, The Value Management Approach involves three root principles:

1. A continuous awareness of value for the organization, establishing measures or estimates of value, monitoring and controlling them;
2. A focus on the objectives and targets before seeking solutions;
3. A focus on function, providing the key to maximize innovative and practical outcomes.

January's poll question is:

Does your organization utilize Value Management?
A. Yes
B. No
C. No, but we are interested in learning more

If you have not already done so, please stop by allPM.com and add
your opinion today.

allPM Today Tips Feature
Top Ten Practical Tips in MS Project 2000, by Eric Uyttewaal, PMP

Tip #3

If automatic leveling extends your schedule too far, you can use the Resource Allocation view to manually solve over-allocations to get a tighter schedule. Choose View, More Views… and select Resource Allocation in the list and click Apply. Resources that are red are over-allocated and in the bottom view you can see which tasks compete for the same resource. The green lines to the right of the task bars indicate how much Free Slack a task has. You can use the Free Slack to solve over-allocations by moving one of the task bars out as far as its Free Slack line extends. You can do this by increasing the Leveling Delay that is already displayed in the bottom spreadsheet. As soon as you do this you will see a brown line to the left of the task bar that reflects the amount of leveling delay.

SUBMITTED TO MPUG, Oct 2001

Eric Uyttewaal (BS, Engineering; MS, Business Administration; PMP) is Director, Microsoft Project Certificaton, International Institute for Learning, Inc and author of "Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project ® 2000." This tip appeared in the 3/2001 MPUG eZine. 

Spotlight on PM in Government: Best Practices on Government Projects

Written by: F. J. "Skip" Philson, PMP

Thoughts on Best Practices
As I sat before my PC wondering how to begin this article, I asked myself the question, "What are Best Practices?" I've seen the term innumerable times. I've heard the term bandied about in conversations. I've seen vendors use the term when referring to their products. If you go to your local bookstore, you will find shelves of books that talk about best practices for this and best practices for that. However, I don't believe I've ever seen a concise definition of "Best Practices". The term seems to be used everywhere, but at the same time, I wonder if those using the term have a real understanding of what it means. It has almost become a mantra or a buzzword that people use without fully knowing what they are saying.

F. J. "Skip" Philson is a Nebraska native. He has over 25 years experience in project management and general management. He works for the State of Nebraska in the Information Management Services department where he is responsible for the Project Office. Skip earned his PMP certification in 2000. He holds a Master of Administrative Arts (MAA) degree from Doane College. Skip is a Charter member of the PMI Mid-Nebraska Chapter and has held the position of VP - Professional Development. In addition to his involvement in his local PMI Chapter, Skip teaches project management at Doane College. Skip is married and has four children.

Project Management Poetry:
Systems Development Life Cycle

By Rachel Goldstein, Newly Appointed "allPM.com Bard"

Information Technology projects
Are often the specialest kind
The people who have to approve them
Are of a more MBA mind.

The programmers sneer at accountants
" What do bean-counters know" they will cry.
While in the bean-counters' sub-culture
Digit-heads aren't rated too high.

The users speak user-speak, all well and good
But the programmers need bits and bytes.
Someone's got to translate and mediate
Or meetings turn into fist fights.

Reqs
And then specs
And development
But it's back to the blackboard you go
When you find users failed to ask for some stuff
That they wanted. But how could you know?

Or the IT folks think that they're listening
But they don't know what questions to ask.
So before they've defined what they're building,
They've already started the task.

The solution's to manage these projects
Use PM methodology.
Then walking the fine line ‘tween user and tech
Could be free of these calamities.

Rachel Goldstein is a Senior Systems Analyst at The New York Times, a member of the NYT Company-wide Project Management Task Force. She has been a Project Manager in IT for close to 20 years, and the poetry and song parodies have been going on for longer than that.

allPM Today Excel® Tip of the Month, by Bob Umlas

Q. I've set up the page headings just as I want, but they only appear on one worksheet. Is there a way to copy these settings to other sheets?

A. Yes. Here's how you do it:

First, select all the sheets you want to copy the settings to. To do this, either press CTRL and click each sheet tab, or right-click a sheet tab and then click Select All Sheets on the shortcut menu. At this point, you should see the [Group] in the title of the workbook.
Then, make sure the active sheet is the one with the correct settings, and click Page Setup on the File menu. Then click OK.
You're done! Now that you've finished copying your settings, be sure to ungroup the sheets. You can easily do this by right-clicking the sheet tab and selecting Ungroup Sheets from the shortcut menu.

Bob Umlas
Excel MVP

If you enjoy Bob Umlas' tips, then you will want to check out Bob's Mastering Microsoft® Excel Program. Even if you are already experienced in Microsoft Excel, you can become a true power user by attending the Mastering Microsoft® Excel, (The Masters Certification in Microsoft® Excel) Program! Visit http://www.iil.com/str_link_all_results.asp?select_cartid=395 for more information. Plus, allPM.com members will receive a 15% discount on the course! Enter the discount code APMXL.

Column: Positive Leadership in Project Management - Tenth in a Series - The Importance of Creativity in the Project Team

Written by: Frank P. Saladis, PMP

Most project managers will agree that the world is continually changing. New technology, new methods of travel, new products, even a new language based on internet chat (example LOL, laugh out loud). New products and new ways of doing something are the result of creative thought, sometimes from an individual and sometimes from a team of people. Creativity is actually a basic ingredient in the search for improved processes, solving problems, and finding better ways to complete assignments. In fact, without some creative thought, life itself would be very bland. In the project environment, creativity plays an important part in completing the project. With tight schedules, limited funding and a lack of the resources needed, the project manager and project team must become entrepreneurs and innovators to complete the project objectives and meet stakeholder expectations. This requires creativity, a skill that should be included in the description of an effective leader and should be encouraged and developed within a project team.

Frank P. Saladis (PMP) is Senior Consultant with International Institute for Learning, Inc. He has been involved in the development of standardized Project Management Guidelines (PMGs) for the AT&T Corporate Information Technology Services (Corporate ITS) organization and is the author of the Project Evaluation Review Process (PERP). He is the former President of the NYC PMI Chapter.

Column: Grade A Risk Responses

Written by: Dr. David Hillson, PMP FAPM

It is easy to understand why some people think that the risk response development phase is the most important part of the risk process. This is where we get the chance to make a difference to the risk exposure of our project. If we design and implement good risk responses to address the risks we have identified and assessed, we will be able to minimise threats and maximise opportunities, and so optimise the likelihood of achieving our objectives. But if our risk responses are ineffective (or not implemented), the level of risk exposure remains unchanged - or may even get worse!

Dr. David Hillson, PMP FAPM FIRM MCMI is an international risk management consultant, and Director of Risk Doctor & Partners (www.risk-doctor.com). His specialty is risk technology transfer, assisting organizations to develop in-house risk processes, and he is a popular conference speaker and author on risk, winning several awards for his papers. He is recognized internationally as a leading thinker and practitioner in risk management, and his recent emphasis has been the inclusion of proactive opportunity management within the risk process, which is the topic of his latest book "Effective opportunity management : Exploiting positive risk", published in 2003 by Dekker of New York.

Column: Creating a Professional Development Program for Project Managers

Written by: Frank P. Saladis, PMP

The need for professional development is certainly not limited to the field of project management. Every industry and every profession requires some continued education and training to stay informed, to remain respected, and to stay employed. There is no age limit regarding learning and self improvement. It is a matter of determining self worth, setting personal expectations, aspiring to succeed, and analyzing not only where improvement is needed but also to expand knowledge.

Frank P. Saladis (PMP) is Senior Consultant with International Institute for Learning, Inc. He has been involved in the development of standardized Project Management Guidelines (PMGs) for the AT&T Corporate Information Technology Services (Corporate ITS) organization and is the author of the Project Evaluation Review Process (PERP). He is the former President of the NYC PMI Chapter.

Column: Graduate Winner of Student Forum Competition!
Surviving the Roller Coaster: Worst and Best Practices in Project Management within the Television Production Industry


Written by: George Brook

Executive Summary:

Despite the fact that the television production industry offers many advantages in the practice of project management, including highly developed methodologies and straightforward (technical) quality management, productions fail or encounter significant setbacks with great regularity. This points to the inherent complexity and difficulty of the production process. This paper identifies commonalties in the project management experience within television production, examining both worst and best practices.

George Brook has enjoyed a varied career in the entertainment industry. He has contributed to the production of film, television, animation, and video games in a number of capacities, including post-production supervisor and audio-post production supervisor. Highlights include a Gemini nomination in the category of "best sound design in a documentary", and a Gemini award for "best practical information program or series". He is currently involved in the award winning home improvement series "The Broken House Chronicles" as co-creator, co-writer, and co-host, and is also finishing up a Master's of Business Administration at the University of Ottawa. George has been studying project management under the guidance of Prof. John Rakos, and is engaged in an examination of how PM methodology can contribute to the television production industry.

Column: Improving Project Performance through the PMO

Written by: Alfonso Bucero, PMP

Introduction

The Project Management Office (PMO) must foster the project manager's ability to keep focused on the client by providing him with the necessary methods, tools and support so he/she can perform high quality project management.

The project manager must be focused on managing customer expectations in order to get things done. To maintain his/her focus, he/she must be relieved of all low value activities so he/she can concentrate on project planning, monitoring and control. Experience and project knowledge are key for the success of consulting organizations and increasing project maturity level is a critical success factor for the PMO. Junior project managers need to be mentored and coached by senior project managers from the PMO during the whole project life cycle.

Alfonso Bucero, PMP (Project Management Professional), is
Managing Director at IIL Spain, he has been Senior Project Manager at Hewlett-Packard
Spain in Madrid office during thirteen years. He is a PMI member, belongs
to the Spanish Professional associations (AEPM (Asociación Española
de Project Management), ALI (Asociación de Licenciados, Ingenieros
y Doctores en Informática), AEIPRO (member of IPMA) and he is an
Advisor of DINTEL (Spanish Association). Alfonso has a Computer Science
Engineer Degree from Politechnical University (Madrid), plus 18 years of
experience in the field of project management around the world, managing
projects in Spain, Italy and Portugal and he was a team member of all the
HP Corporate Project Management Initiatives.

Column: Project Management Leadership Styles

Written by: Kevin Wegryn, PMP

A modern Project Manager needs to be able to display the correct leadership style based upon what the Project Team requires from the Project Manager. The three types of leadership styles for all Project Managers can be put into three general categories, 1) Strong visible Project Manager, 2) Strong silent Project Manager and the 3) the team member Project Manager.

Kevin Wegryn, PMP, MA is a seasoned Project Manager of complex projects, which
have ranged from $4 Million to $73 Million. Bottom-line improvements specialist and
problem solver.