allPM Newsletter Co-publisher, Judy Umlas

Well here I go again, probably breaking one (or more) of the unstated rules of newsletter publishing. I'm about to tell you how I feel - not about any newsworthy PM topic or new column we are launching or world events. No, I'm telling you just how it is for me: I feel depressed. "Why is she telling us this?" you may be asking. I'm telling you because … it's your fault! Now how do you like that?

As of today, we have 16,742 members. The fun of being the Co-Publisher of allPM.com is making our site and newsletter more interactive than any other site you or I have ever seen. And the way I know it is interactive is WHEN I HEAR FROM YOU!!!! And I usually get comments from you on our newsletters - things you like, don't like, want more of, want less of, new ideas for columns or features. But this past month (the April/May edition) I didn't get one email from anyone, except the nice, kind and interested people who had started dialogues with me previously and were now following up on articles we had discussed having them write, etc. NOT ONE PERSON RESPONDED TO THAT MEATY, RICH AND FUN MOST RECENT NEWSLETTER. Sorry for shouting, but I'm upset.

Many of you can attest to the fact that I (try to) respond to every communication I receive from you. Some of you have almost fallen off your chairs when I called you in response to a job opening I knew of when you had posted a resume, or regarding a comment you made about an article. I (almost) always write back, and I have gotten to know quite a few of you personally. AND THAT IS THE FUN AND THE EXCITEMENT AND THE CREATIVITY OF IT (at least for me).

So no more shouting, but here is my email address:judy.umlas@allpm.com. Please let me know what you think of what we are doing. That's a major way to help us in our process of continuous improvement.

This June issue of allPM Today is another "chock full" edition! We are launching our Communications in the Workplace Column by Kate McLeod, PMP. Please remember that all this started when a member, Jovica Riznic, asked allPM.com to sponsor the Student Forum in Project World in Canada. We did, and Kate was one of the two winners of the contest for best PM Papers. She was a graduate student with a full-time job as Information Technology Project Manager for the Canadian Federal Government. We were deeply impressed by her paper and asked her to do a column for us. She agreed and we have the first one in this edition, entitled "Communicating Our Mistakes." So do you get how our interactivity process works? It's for real!!!

Our lead article on our theme of the month, Product Life Cycle Management, will make you think hard about the products you or your company have in any of the phases discussed by the author, D.W. Nesper, PMP Senior Consultant at International Institute for Learning. D.W. is also the author of all of this month's PM Tips of the day on this subject, so check them out.

We have another delightful poem by "allPM.com Poet" Ms. Rachel Goldstein - this one on "Lessons Learned." You may groan a bit when you read it, but you will enjoy it! And that column started when I made a statement that Project Managers don't like poetry - ha, was I made wrong and I love every PM Poem you submit!

Also in this edition, we have another excellent and insightful column on Project Risk Management by Dr. David Hillson, PMP - it is Part 2 of "When is a Risk Not a Risk?" Our Spotlight on Government feature this month is "Implementing Project Portfolio Management in a Government Organization" and it is so information rich, that we are including the picture of the author, David Brandon, PMP so that he can receive proper recognition! He is with the Texas Department of Human Services, MIS Division.

We have a lovely example of a reader who responded to my plea for help in managing change (our allPM.com team had gone through changes and I was adjusting). Change Management expert Russell Roman then sent us an article called "What is Change Management and How Does it Fit with Project Management?" It may even be the start of a series on the subject. So you see how it works to write to your Co-Publishers!

We also have another article on Leadership from Co-Publisher Frank Saladis with an unusual spin to it. Be sure to read it!

Now please remember the fun contest we are having for our 20,000th member - all sorts of goodies, including two nights' accommodations in New York City and lunch with Co-Pubs Frank and Judy. Plus books. Plus a free pass to Dr. Kerzner's Best Practices live eLearning seminar. Plus Plus!!! Get your colleagues to become members. You know they will benefit, as well as be eligible to win the prizes.

So, I'm hoping to hear from at least a few of you this time. Bottom line is, we want to make (or keep) allPM.com the most valuable free information and resource site for Project Managers around the globe. Help us do that by communicating with us!
Okay, so that wasn't the "bottom line" but I'm getting closer: enjoy the beauty of this special time of the year (at least in these parts), stop and smell the June roses and keep on learning. That's one of the most important keys to your project successes. And oh, by the way, my email address is judy.umlas@allpm.com (and my birthday is June 14, to let those of you who made it to the bottom of this letter know!)....

Judy Umlas
Judy.Umlas@allPM.com

From the Co-publisher's Desk- Frank P. Saladis, PMP

Get the product to the market. That's the goal. It's a key part of project management but it's also an area where many organizations struggle. For most project managers the marching orders are "faster, cheaper, better." Competition forces organizations to find way to get their products in the hands of the customers before their rivals do. This means shorter activity duration, less rework, and lots of innovation and creativity. The project manager and project team become nothing less than magicians producing "products" out of thin air. There should be an act in Las Vegas entitled "The Amazing Project Prestidigitator - An awesome and breathtaking display of product delivery!" I wonder if anyone would actually pay to see that.

Organizations rely on project teams to use their talents to complete projects and produce products in record time without sacrificing quality. To accomplish this, the project manager needs the right combination of skills, tools and talent. That's where allPM.com steps into the scene. allPM provides project managers with the "how to skills" and expert advice to produce amazing results. Create results that will dazzle your customers and thrill sales departments. So make some magic. Take advantage of our regular features, the tip of the day, our readers' comments and the expert advice of our contributors. As you explore the realm of allPM's information universe, keep in mind that great products are produced by project managers who apply the right tools, techniques, skills and, maybe, just maybe, a little PM (project magic).

Frank P. Saladis, PMP
Frank.Saladis@allpm.com

May Poll Results

What criteria does your company use to reward project completion?

A. On time, on budget, within scope: 19.79 % (19)
B. Customer satisfaction, high quality 29.17 % (28)
C. My organization does not offer project rewards 51.04 % (49)

Total votes: 96

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

June's poll question is: Does your company formally document and manage knowledge such as "lessons learned" on projects?

A. Yes - department level
B. Yes - enterprise level
C. No - ad hoc only

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

If you had MS Project level the workloads and the resulting schedule finishes later, you are in a resource-constrained project and the Critical Path will be lost or fragmented in your schedule. You have to find and monitor the Resource Critical Path instead of the Critical Path. The Resource Critical Path takes logical dependencies AND resource dependencies into account. A resource dependency between tasks is when they compete for the same resource and are staggered as a result. The Resource Critical Path is that chain of tasks that drives the project end date and explains the project duration.

Unfortunately, scheduling applications do not have Resource Critical Path features yet and you have to find the Resource Critical Path yourself.

SUBMITTED TO MPUG, Jan 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 3/2001 MPUG eZine. 

Featured Article: Product Lifecycle Management
Theme of allPM.com PM Tips of the Day for June

Written by: D.W. Nesper, PMP

Product life cycles are becoming shorter and shorter. Using project management with critical chain thinking has produced a major improvement in getting products to market quicker. This process reduces multitasking, creates a less stressful environment, and enables more parallel projects, leading to more products being completed in the long run.

Organizations increasingly reassess product life cycle costs and revenues as the time available to sell a product and recover the investment in it shrinks. Entirely new industries, such as PDA's and portable global positioning satellite systems, have sprung from technologies that are evolving so rapidly that the products arising from them become obsolete within a few months of their introduction.

D.W. Nesper, PMP is Senior Consultant with International Institute for Learning. He has extensive experience in managing projects for major technology companies. He is the author of this month's PM Tips of the Day on Product Life Cycle Management.

Project Management Poetry

Written by: Rachel Goldstein, allPM.com Poet

Lessons Learned

With all the phases, iterations over, and the project's done,
There is a tendency to wash your hands, look forward, and move on….

 - But -
 
It's important to record, to put down for posterity
While you and your team still possess the clarity
Of laser-beam-sharp, clear and piercing, twenty-twenty hindsight,
A document, a record, of what went wrong and what went right.

All failures and successes, project management lessons learned
Comprise a treasure trove of knowledge, some of which may be hard earned.

I've heard some people put forth that knowledge learned from failure may
Be more valuable than knowledge learned from successes.  And some say,
However, it is best by far to know what worked in projects past
So winning strategies can be saved, and best practices amassed.

Those who don't study history are destined to repeat it.
Project leaders thus can learn from projects well, and poorly, leaded.

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.

Spotlight on Government Article: Implementing Project Portfolio Management In a Government Organization

Whitepaper: by David Brandon, PMP

Implementation Steps to Apply Portfolio Management

Why is it so difficult to implement Project Portfolio Management within a Public Sector organization? There are two key reasons.

First, many organizations attempt to apply Project Portfolio Management (PPM) when the organization has not yet standardized the Project Management process at the Project Level. Project Portfolio Management is very easy when the Project Managers follow standard project management practices (e.g., work planning, scheduling, forecasting and Earned Value Analysis) and use standard tools (e.g., MS Project.) But when Project Managers do not follow the standards or use standards tools, Portfolio Managers are challenged with Managing a portfolio of projects when the projects themselves are not being managed appropriately.

David Brandon is a Project Manager at the Texas Department of Human Services MIS Division in Austin, Texas. He has over 13 years experience directing and managing multiple, simultaneous information technology projects for the State of Texas. He is PMI certified and holds the PMO Certificate of Added Qualification.

He currently serves the PMI GovSIG as Deputy Director for Corporate Communications and is the GovSIG Magazine Senior Editor. Prior to joining the State of Texas, David was an information technology consultant to the public sector.

*New Column: Communication in the Workplace
Communicating Our Mistakes

Written by: Kate McLeod, PMP

Why are we all so afraid to communicate our mistakes? Communications are, to my way of thinking, the single most important element of success in project management. So why are we all: a) thinking we're really good at communication and b) afraid to be honest in some communication? Everyone thinks they are a great communicator, just as most people consider themselves to be "people" persons (personally, I'll take a dog person over a people person any day…but I digress).

People make mistakes all the time - that's what makes us human. We humans are afraid of being caught making a mistake. Part of it goes back to human nature - when things are going well, nobody takes any notice, or congratulates you for maintaining an even keel. But make one mistake and suddenly everyone knows about it, and we're all secretly thinking, "Thank God that wasn't me!"

Kate McLeod is currently working as an Information Technology Project Manager for the Canadian Federal Government. She is a graduate of York University and also has college diplomas in Web programming and Project Management. She received her PMP designation in 2002. Kate lives in suburban Ottawa, Ontario with her husband Brian, two children ages 9 and 10, and two cats. She hopes that when she retires it will be to a place that is warm in the winter.

Positive Leadership In Project Management: What Project Managers Already Know

Written by: Frank P. Saladis, PMP

If you schedule a meeting with a group of project managers to find out more about what project management is all about, and what it takes to be successful, you shouldn't be surprised to hear what they have to say. If you ask questions about what their main issues are and about their job, their environment and their challenges, you will find that they know quite a lot about where the greatest obstacles and challenges exist and what it takes to be successful. Project managers look at their projects from a global perspective, see where the problem spots are and strive to correct the problem. Innovation and creativity seem to be an inherent quality of a successful project manager.

The problem is, project managers know what it takes to succeed and they know what problems will be encountered, but for some reason these problems and challenges continue to appear with almost certain regularity. The question is, if project managers know what can be expected, what risks will be encountered, and what it will take to successfully complete a project, why do we see statistics like this?

Baseline Magazine September 2002

62% of resources are allocated to projects part time

65% of project managers have little or no formal project management training

69% of organizations have no definition of project manager roles and responsibilities

When is a Risk not a Risk? – Part 2

Written by: © 2004 Dr David Hillson, PMP FAPM
david@risk-doctor.com

The last Risk Doctor Briefing addressed the need to distinguish risk from uncertainty. There are an infinite number of uncertainties, but these are only risks if they would affect objectives if they occurred. A risk is "an uncertainty that matters".

Another common challenge in risk identification is to avoid confusion between causes of risk, genuine risks, and the effects of risks. The PMI® PMBoK® Guide (Third Edition Exposure Draft) says that "A risk may have one or more causes and, if it occurs, one or more impacts". In the simplest case, one cause leads to a single risk, which in turn could have just one effect, though of course reality is considerably more complex. How do these three differ?

• Causes are definite events or sets of circumstances which exist in the project or its environment, and which give rise to uncertainty. Examples include the requirement to implement the project in a developing country, the need to use an unproven new technology, the lack of skilled personnel, or the fact that the organisation has never done a similar project before. Causes themselves are not uncertain since they are facts or requirements, so they should not be managed through the risk management process.

What is Change Management and how does it fit with Project Management?

Written by: Russell Roman

Have you ever tried to explain to your parents what you do for a living? I have done this throughout my career, as my parents are retired teachers who have tried to comprehend what I do every day. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a fireman or a professional athlete, jobs that every child and parent easily understand. Eventually, reality settled in that I was not qualified for either job, and my first job out of college was that of consultant with Andersen Consulting's (now Accenture) Change Management group.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Change Management as a discipline, I will explain some of the definitions and principles of it so that you will have a basic understanding of them. Then I will explain how Change Management fits with Project Management so that as many of you as possible can incorporate it into your future projects.

Russell Roman is president of Clifton Heights Associates, a consulting firm that focuses on project management to successfully deliver projects on-time and on-budget. In his career, he has managed projects that generated over $100 million in revenues and were used by over 7 million consumers and 25,000 customer end-users. Mr. Roman holds a BS Degree in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University.