allPM Newsletter Co-publisher, Judy Umlas

Well, talk about breaking the (unwritten) rules of electronic publishing (as I did last month). At that time, I told you that I was depressed and it was your fault, due to lack of feedback regarding the newsletter and allPM.com itself. This month I will break a few more rules and tell you that I love you all - I received so many emails telling me of the great value you are deriving from being members of allPM.com, how articles you read were helping you get the resources you needed at work, how the Forums were of great value to you in getting information and more...and more... Here's just one of (so) many that I received:

"Hi Judy! Just wanted to let you know that as a person new to the field, your newsletters have been extremely valuable. Myself and another team member were able to use the last newsletter as an anchor to a new Project Office project. Thank you for the valuable information!"
- Karen Lawrence
Business Analyst, Project Office
Chattanooga, TN

And just one more, though I wish I could share them all with all of you:

"I'm trying to start a PMO in my company, we are a Software Factory, working for a Telco in Mexico. Allpm.com tips and articles have helped me to convince some of my fellow workers that project management is not just "overhead".

We have come a long way, we are now CMM Level 3 certified and are in the process of certifying 5 project mangers as PMP's.

I hope you don't stop writing your wonderful columns."
- Ing. Jesús Montemayor Lobo

Thank you Karen, thank you Jesús, and my personal thanks to all of you who wrote, to all of you who were thinking of writing but didn't have the time, and to all of you who are active readers but not writers!! I am still responding to each and every email that I received, so it is taking me a while. And a million thanks for all of the electronic birthday cards and messages you sent from all over the world. I have never had a birthday like this in my life - it was the greatest!

So now that I know you are really present out there, I personally feel an even greater responsibility to deliver what will be most valuable to you. And you need to keep telling us what that is, as well as give us feedback on what we are doing or proposing to do.

For example, in this edition of allPM Today, George Pitagorsky, PMP writes another article on Zen PM, this one called "Zen and the Art of Project Management: Fear, Balance and the Triple Constraints." Past articles he has written on Zen PM have gotten such a great readership (we can track how many of you read each article) that George has volunteered to write a column or lead a Forum on this topic, in which you could pose your questions or bring up issues and he would respond with his "Zen PM Master" advice. SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS IDEA? PLEASE LET US KNOW (this is me asking you for feedback in my "subtle" way) by writing to Judy.Umlas@allPM.com and George.Pitagorsky@iil.com.

In this edition of our newsletter, we have an article on our theme of the month, which is "Knowledge Management, Transfer and Lessons Learned" by Knowledge Management guru Dr. Yogesh Malhotra. The article is entitled "When Best (practices) Becomes Worst" and it will really make you think. Dr. Malhotra is considered one of the world's most influential contributors to the advancement of research and practice in knowledge management and its applications in strategic innovation and e-business. We are honored to have him contribute to our newsletter.

We have an excellent "Spotlight on Government" feature, which we can all learn from - whether we practice our skills in the corporate or government arena - called "Developing PMOs Within the Government Sector" by Sumi Smith, PMP and Judith Thomas, PMP. Our thanks to the PMI GovSIG for making this article available to us.

We are hearing a lot lately about the great need for and interest in the "soft skills" by project managers. So in this edition of allPM Today, we have two such articles. One is "The Leader Side of the Project Manager" by: Dr. Al Zeitoun, PMP, CPO at International Institute for Learning, Inc. This is the first article in a two part series, the second of which will be "The Project Manager's Likeability Factor." Stay tuned for that one next month!

The second "soft skills" article is "We're So Different, We're So Alike - People First, Last and Always" by Sheilina Somani, PMP, Consultant and Trainer, Positively Project Management. Let us know what you think of these kinds of articles - DO YOU WANT MORE OF THESE (feedback please)?

And I am taking the liberty (which I never do, do I?) of shamelessly publishing what I think is an exquisite poem written by Co-Publisher Frank Saladis, called "Ode to Judy." He wrote it after reading both my letter and many of the responses to it last month. Thank you, Frank and to all of you, thanks in advance for your tolerance of my making this public with Frank's permission. This will serve as our "PM Poetry" contribution for the month! And we could use a few more from you as well. (By the way, Co-Publisher Frank Saladis, PMP is on special assignment this month, but will be back next month with more of his creative, down-to-earth and helpful articles and tips!)

We also have an article this month by Keith Ellis on "Tips and Traps in Getting Consensus on Requirements" - a tricky topic with some good, sound suggestions.

So we are getting closer and closer to that 20,000th member! As of today, we have 17,654 members. Remember that the contest winner gets all kinds of cool prizes, including a night on the town (New York City) with Co-Publishers Frank and Judy, a two night stay in the corporate apartment being donated by International Institute for Learning, a seat in Dr. Kerzner's Best Practices live eLearning or traditional classroom seminar and more. So tell your colleagues to sign up now and receive the benefits of being a member of allPM.com (like this never-ending letter...).

So to all of you dear people, I wish a joyful, peaceful and productive month ahead! And keep talking to us at allPM.com!!! We will ALL benefit from your communications.

Judy Umlas
Judy.Umlas@allPM.com

June Poll Results

What criteria does your company use to reward project completion?

A. On time, on budget, within scope: 18.87 % (30)
B. Customer satisfaction, high quality 27.04 % (43)
C. My organization does not offer project rewards 54.09 % (86)

Total votes: 159

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

July's poll question is: How many of you use one of the Quality Management Methodologies below in your company:

A. Six Sigma
B. ISO 9000
C. TQM
D. Others
E. We do not use a QM-Methodology

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

Project Management Poetry

By Frank Saladis, PMP, Co-Publisher, allPM.com

"Ode to Judy"

She's the heart of allpm and she never takes a rest.
She wants our newsletter to have nothing but the best.
Her style may be different and her ideas a little strange,
But she keeps the website growing, ever broadening its range.

Judy adds a special touch that reaches far and wide,
Each month her letter shows us her sincerity and her pride.
She's the force that makes things happen, Judy keeps us all on track
She 's the voice of allPM, and keeps our readers coming back

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.

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

How to display a second field to the right of task bars in the Gantt Chart? MS Project does not allow you to select more than one field separated by a comma, but you can develop a formula that pulls the two fields together into one of the extra fields and then you can display that extra field in the timescale. For example, if you want to show the Resource Names field with the amount of  Work for the resource(s), you could display both using the following steps. Choose Tools, Customize, Fields and select the task field Text1 . Click the Formula button and enter: [Resource Names] & " " & [Work]/60 & "h". The ampersand sign (&) concatenates the two fields. Now proceed to the Gantt Chart and choose Format, Bar Styles , select the blue bar for the  Normal detail tasks and click the Text tab at the bottom left of the dialog. Click in the field Right and select from the list the field Text1 . You should now see the name of the resource and the effort displayed to the right of each detail task bar in the Gantt Chart.

SUBMITTED TO MPUG, March 2002

Eric Uyttewaal (BS, Engineering; MS, Business Administration; PMP) is Director, Microsoft Project Certification, International Institute for Learning, Inc and author of "Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project ® 2000." This tip appeared in the 3/2002 MPUG eZine. 

Featured Article: When best (practices) becomes worst

Written by: Dr. Yogesh Malhotra

How can organizations prevent best practices from impeding their progress during ‘interesting times?' Dr Yogesh Malhotra shares his views:

The current thrust of organizational business and performance management initiatives focus on archiving ‘best practices' so other employees can access them later. Archival and the subsequent referral of information are believed to facilitate efficient problem solving and prevent unnecessary allocation of resources to inefficient search processes. Incidentally, in due course, the archived ‘best practices' tend to define the ‘company way'. Business solutions characterized by memorization of best practices might define the assumptions that are embedded not only in information databases, but also in the organization's strategy, reward systems and resource allocation systems. Within a changing business environment, such organizations may be doing ‘more of the same' better, but with diminishing marginal returns. Just like the boiling frog who is unable to sense the gradual change in temperature and ultimately boils to death, the cycle of doing more of the same tends to result in locked-in behavior patterns causing an organizational death spiral. Yesterday's core capabilities embedded in best practices, could become tomorrow's core rigidities. Institutionalization of best practices by embedding them in information repositories might facilitate efficient handling of routine, linear or predictable situations during stable or incrementally changing environments. However, when change is radical and discontinuous, there is a persistent need for continual renewal of the basic premises underlying best practices. Organizations in such environments need imaginative suggestions more than they do best practices. One possible option for getting out of the status quo often implied by best practices might be to view the following processes as necessary and relevant and occurring in a parallel state. (Most current thinking – based on theory and practice – suggests an oversimplification of what is necessary for sustained competence.)

Dr. Yogesh Malhotra is regarded as one of the world's most influential contributors to advancement of research and practice in knowledge management and its applications in strategic innovation and e-business. He has more than 18 years professional experience as a chief executive, management consultant, and hands-on technology project manager. He has taught on the faculty of Executive MBA programs at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and the Graduate School of Industrial Administration at the Carnegie Mellon University and holds a faculty appointment at the Syracuse University . His keynote speeches and advisory engagements address the concerns of corporate and technology executives between Silicon Valley and Seoul and technology and policy heads of prominent world governments. He is a member of the board of directors of Knowledge Management Consortium International, a founding member and contributing editor of the Ziff Davis Standard for Internet Commerce.

The Leader Side of the Project Manager

Written by: Dr. Al Zeitoun, PMP, CPO - International Institute for Learning, Inc.

Introduction

Project managers create a difference in today's enterprise. Sometimes it is exciting to wonder who that person is that we call the project manger. If we look around organizations today, we could find many ways to describe that person. To start, he or she is a human being. With that comes a set of complex dimensions that affect the surroundings for every human being. To start, the dimension of the socioeconomic factors comes to mind. Legal dimensions and the understanding of the laws and regulations governing doing projects in the environment in which the project manager is operating, are important. There is an ethical dimension that affects the behavior of that human being that we call the project manager. Ethics is an area that could create varied views, which could easily vary across cultures. Speaking of culture, sensitivity to the norms, practices, and approaches followed across differing cultures, becomes a fundamental element in shaping the individual called the project manager.

This project manager human being is put in a position of exposure. This person can make the headlines. If she were lucky, this would be a good thing. This is the case when projects are successful and are meeting the expectations for which they were undertaken. On the other hand, it could be an unfortunate situation and the project manager could be blamed for the failure of this endeavor that we call a project. Organizations today are missing an important realization in the fact that the success of the project manager is a reflection of how successful the organization is.

Al Zeitoun, (Ph.D., MS, and PMP) is Chief Projects Officer for International Institute for Learning, Inc. Dr. Zeitoun's extensive global project management experience encompasses engineering, construction, manufacturing, and product development. He received a research excellence award in 1992 and continues to have his papers published and presented at various PMI global conferences. He has led and chartered PMI chapters and SIGs worldwide and is on the board of the Global Accreditation Council of PMI.

Spotlight on Government Article: Developing PMOs Within the Government Sector

Written by: Sumi Smith, PMP and Judith Thomas, PMP

Any project management professional can tell you a range of possibilities exist when implementing Project Management Offices (PMOs). Whether a project office is created to provide project management templates, coach project managers, assess projects or manage strategic efforts, the ultimate goal is the same – organizations implement PMOs to improve the effectiveness of projects to meet business objectives and organizational goals.

The State of the State

Following the sunset of the State of California's Department of Information Technology (DOIT) in June of 2002, an executive order, under the direction of J. Clark Kelso, the new CIO of the State of California , reassigned responsibilities for information technology management and oversight to the Departments and Agencies within the state. Further, under Kelso's leadership, objectives for statewide project management standards and project oversight were established.

Sumi Smith, PMP, is the Director of the Project Management Office (PMO) for Princeton Solutions Group, an IT and Business Strategy consulting group, and heads up their project management solution offering. She is also the Vice President of Education for the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the Project Management Institute, and serves as Instructor and Speaker for their PMP Preparation Classes and Workshops. With a background in engineering, Smith has more than 12 years of experience managing projects and working in product development and professional services. E-mail Smith at ssmith@princeton-solutions.com.

Judith Thomas, PMP, is Deputy Director of the Enterprise Project Management Office for the Legislative Counsel Bureau, Legislative Data Center.

We're So Different, We're So Alike - People First, Last and Always

By Sheilina Somani, PMP, Consultant and Trainer, Positively Project Management

The key to delivering successful projects, consistently, is people. Project requirements can be defined, deliverables well stated and outcomes predicted. Risk management, project evaluation, and control are all employable processes. The soundness of the project management framework and tools and completeness of documentation rests firmly in the hands of the project team.

Each person fulfils many roles in their life as a human being:

• Job function/title
• Wife/husband/partner
• Parent/child
• Colleague/boss
• Friend/acquaintance

Our success in each role is based on another's expectations and perceptions of our behaviour, presentation and attitude. In turn, we evaluate people based on previous learnings and expectations of what constitutes fulfilment of that role... from our personal perspective. So, what is it that we respond to in people, first?

Sheilina Somani, (PMP) is an internationally recognised project management speaker, facilitator, trainer and mentor. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), Master Practitioner Certification. An active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), UK Chapter and Diversity SIG. Conference Speaker, and recipient of the Palme D'Or in the soft skills track at PMI Europe 2002

Tips and Traps in Getting Consensus on Requirements

Written by: Keith Ellis

The toughest job in the requirements definition stage is to get stakeholder consensus. Yet this sign-off should be a systematic, expected deliverable in the project cycle since it is also absolutely essential for a team to have consensus if it is to lock a requirements specification at a point in time and after that to manage change control against this specification. Below are some tips and traps on how to do this.

Tips:

Stakeholders must OWN the requirements
It's almost trite to say that stakeholders must feel a sense of ownership of the requirements, but we see all too often a process for requirements elicitation that actually diminishes this sense of ownership. A sound process for requirements elicitation includes:

• Holding facilitated sessions where all stakeholders are present
• Using techniques and templates that engage the non-technical participant
• Only focus on the business needs - not technologies.
• Setting the expectation that the stakeholder representatives will sign off on the detailed requirements specification.

Keith Ellis, Pricipal of Digital Mosaic Inc., can be reached at keith.ellis@digital-mosaic.com. Digital Mosaic is a specialist firm in eliciting business requirements. The team works with companies like Transcontinental, Fleet, Hydro One, American Airlines, and Xerox in training business analysts to use the Digital Mosaic methodology and providing consultants to extract requirements in record-breaking time. More papers from this author are available at:
http://www.digital-mosaic.com/download_list_wp1.shtml

For more information on business requirements, please visit
http://www.digital-mosaic.com/index.shtml

Zen and the Art of PM: Fear, Balance and the Triple Constraints

Written by: By George Pitagorsky, PMP

As most of us know, the triple constraints represent the three aspects of project results that most interest sponsors and clients cost, quality and time to completion.

These start as constraints (often expressed as project requirements or objectives.)

PM's seem to constantly face the challenge of starting their projects with constraints that "do not compute."

One sponsor in a product development environment insists on fast, cheap and good. The PM is caught between that demand and the demands of his development team for more time and money or the acceptance of lesser quality.

The master PM knows that it is his/her job to strike the right balance and "sell" it to the various parties - the staff, the sponsor, the client and the product managers.

Clients and products managers want speed and quality and are less concerned with current costs. The sponsor is concerned with current cost and wants to satisfy the client as well. If time is of the essence of client or market needs, then the sponsor wants fast, cheap and good.

George Pitagorsky, (PMP), is Senior Enterprise Solutions Advisor for International Institute for Learning (IIL).  He is an expert in project management, and process improvement and facilitator.  George authored IIL's Project Management Basics™ , a multimedia interactive browser based course, and has authored or directed development of all of IIL's core PM courses.  He has written numerous articles on Project Management, organizational development, conflict resolution and personal development subjects.  George is the author of IIL's IT Project Management System, a multimedia product, and co-creator and director of IIL's The Unified Project Management Methodology (UPMM™) , Web PM knowledge tool.  He is a meditation teacher with over thirty years of experience in Yoga and meditation practice and co-creator of both the Conscious Living and Working Wisely workshops.