allPM Today July/August 2008, Issue 102, Judy Umlas and Frank P. Saladis, Co-Publishers

July/August 2008, Issue 102, Judy Umlas and Frank P. Saladis, Co-Publishers

In this Issue:

*allPM Co-publisher's Letter, Judy Umlas

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

*allPM June Poll Results and New Poll Question

*Theme of the Month: Your Career in Project Management
Is Project Management a Dead-End Job?
By Steve Blais, PMP

*How to use the Project Management Process to manage your career path
By Christine Petersen, PMP

*Along Comes Human Change Management
By Cindy Szpanelewski, PMP

*Project Management Career Path
By Greta Blash, PMP and R. Max Wideman

*Positive Leadership in Project Management – Talent Management, The Leadership Edge
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

*Ask Harry! Process Analysis, Problem Solving, and Quantitative Analysis – A Logical Next Step for a PMP
By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma, IIL

*The Microsoft EPM Solution: Blending Tools to Create an Automated Project Management Environment
By John White, MA, PMP, MCTS

*Communications Toolbox™: “Yes Please, Thank You” Ensuring Polished Business Etiquette as Project Managers
By Laura B. Moore, PMP

*Risk Doctor: What Drives Risk Attitudes?
By Dr David Hillson, PMP, FAPM

*Lean Agile PM: Applying Agile and Lean Practices to Managing Projects
By Steve Blais, PMP

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From the Co-publisher's Desk— Judy Umlas

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I really like this description of our current allPM.com theme of the month: “Enhancing and solidifying your career in Project Management: Techniques and ideas to keep your career on the fast track. How to stay current with project management tools and techniques and keep your personal talent capital at its peak.” Leave it to Frank P. Saladis, PMP to crystallize an important topic like this one into thoughtful and actionable words! They make me think about how I got to this career point as the Co-Publisher of allPM.com and author of a book about, and trainer in, the work and life altering tool, The Power of Acknowledgment.

Read more >>

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

The project manager position can certainly be described as unique. Many people find it difficult to understand the role of a project manager. I am sure that many project professional project managers have heard the same question, “What do you do?” Relatives and friends may see a busy person, traveling to several different locations, working an occasional hour or two of overtime (or maybe a bit more), spending hours on conference calls, rushing to meetings, and solving an assortment of problems daily but not really understanding the job or what it takes to be a project manager.

Read more >>

June Poll Results

To whom have you had to sell project management?

a) upper level management - 20.36 %
b) business management - 9.58 %
c) your peers - 6.59 %
d) everyone in the organization - 63.47 %

The July/August poll question is:

As a project manager, which of the following do you enjoy doing most?

a) administrative work
b) technical aspects of the job
c) involvement with people and communication
d) solving business problems
e) none of the above

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

Theme of the Month: Your Career in Project Management
Is Project Management a Dead-End Job?
By Steve Blais, PMP

The American dream: upward mobility. You work hard and become proficient at your assigned set of tasks and you get promoted to the next higher level in the organization. This continues until you reach your maximum level of competence (or incompetence, if you believe the Peter Principle).

How to use the Project Management Process to manage your career path
By Christine Petersen, PMP

If you consider that life is a project, then you may also consider that your career can be seen as a series of interlinking projects. The thing about a career path is that it only ends when we stop working. This means that we will continuously be planning and re-planning our career path, beginning at the start of our working lives, and ending when we retire from work. Throughout our working life, we will be using the “Plan – Do – Check – Act” cycle created by Shewhart (and made famous by Deming) that the PMBOK® Guide method is based on.

Along Comes Human Change Management
By Cindy Szpanelewski, PMP

As if it isn’t hard enough to sell Project Management in your organization, now we have Human Change Management (HCM). What’s that, you ask? HCM is helping people to accept changes that will alter their work environment. HCM is extremely important to the success of projects. The Gartner Group’s research showed that “During a technology-led journey, a company will spend US $3-$10 for every dollar invested in technology to retrofit the technology to the culture if the entire journey is not planned, measured, and executed in a business integration fashion.” That can add up to a lot of money, and quickly.

© 2008 allPM.com

Project Management Career Path
By Greta Blash, PMP and R. Max Wideman

Project Management (PM) has been widely recognized in the fields of construction, engineering and aerospace for years. Recently, the skills required of project managers have been recognized in other fields, notably Business and Information Technology (IT). As a result of the recognition, the need for qualified project managers has greatly increased. Moreover, project management is becoming a popular new career path, complete with recognized certifications and opening up new opportunities for aspiring and seasoned project managers.

© 2008 allPM.com

Read more >>

Positive Leadership in Project Management – Where Have All the Leaders Gone?
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

There is a steady stream of books that shows up on the radar screens of project managers, executives and managers in general. It becomes a real challenge to keep up with this endless supply of information. There is so much useful information that we sometimes find ourselves in a true overload. We deal with email, phone calls, meetings, webinars, news briefs, memos, elevator discussions, pre –meeting meetings and post meeting meetings. The question is, “How does anyone find the time to read the books that could really make a difference?

© 2008 allPM.com

Read more >>

Ask Harry! Process Analysis, Problem Solving, and Quantitative Analysis – A Logical Next Step for a PMP
By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma, IIL

Getting your PMP certification is an extremely smart career decision. After all, the PMP is a globally recognized certification. But, as Bob Dylan so eloquently sang years ago, it’s never been truer that “these times, they are a changing.” The global economy has made competition fierce, businesses are doing everything they can to cut costs, and rough economic times translate to massive job losses. From a career standpoint, it’s scary.

The Microsoft EPM Solution: Blending Tools to Create an Automated Project Management Environment
By John White, MA, PMP, MCTS

The enterprise project management business process encompasses project, program, and portfolio management. Program and project managers concentrate on doing the work correctly, while portfolio managers concentrate on doing the correct work. Project and program managers get the work accomplished on time and within budget to the satisfaction of their stakeholders. Portfolio managers help organizational decision makers select, categorize, prioritize, and control all work across the enterprise.

Communications Toolbox™: “Yes Please, Thank You” Ensuring Polished Business Etiquette as Project Managers
By Laura B. Moore, PMP

Isn’t it often the case that as you are thinking of something, and example of that something often appears? Today I rushed back from another meeting to make sure I was on time for the next meeting, and there I sat … on hold… for about 10 minutes waiting for the call to start. I checked with other call participants to make sure I had the time right, and I did, as they were also waiting. I checked my email to see if a message had been sent regarding a delay or reschedule, but there was no message.

Risk Doctor: Why “Risk” Includes Opportunity?
By Dr David Hillson, PMP, FAPM

Most current risk management standards and guidelines use broad definitions of “risk” which encompass both threat and opportunity. For example the Project Management Institute (PMI®) defines project risk as “an uncertain event or condition that if it occurs has a positive or negative effect on project objectives”. Similar definitions exist widely elsewhere, covering other types of risk. However many people still find it difficult to understand why this position has been adopted.

Lean Agile PM: Applying Agile and Lean Practices to Managing Projects
By Steve Blais, PMP

Accommodating change in the software development process—or in any process—is the nemesis of all projects. The generally accepted practice in linear methodologies to accommodate change is to freeze the accumulated requirements at a specific point in time. Change is not prevented nor are new requirements prohibited. The freeze simply slows down the change process because all changes have to be justified to management before acceptance.