From the Co-publisher's Desk— William Sand
One of the most fascinating things to think about is how we think. And the debate between reason and emotion — philosophically, personally, professionally, and, ultimately, practically — continues every day.
"I think, therefore, I am," Descartes reasoned in France in the 17th Century, popularly proclaiming the primacy of the intellect. Spinoza, his contemporary philosopher in Holland, wasn't so sure — arguing in "The Ethics" that reason and emotion, mind and body, cannot be separated. They function jointly.
This debate led Ambrose Bierce, American writer, to quip two centuries later: "I think I think; therefore, I think I am." And today modern neuroscience seems to be splitting the difference. Armed with brain scans and an array of technological tools, scientists today are beginning to approach consciousness as a complex and indivisible mind-brain-body system. (This is not to mention the eternal, ontological question of spirit; what it is, where it comes from.)
The July issue of allPM TODAY does not propose to solve the riddle. But we will try to provide you some thought-provoking reading and practical advice on harnessing your own thinking and directing your professional actions toward better results.
For many of us (all too often), the first step ahead is simply taking our minds off "autopilot" and resisting the urge to do what is most natural, easy and self-centered. … Watching the third game on Sunday. Eating the fourth sandwich. … Or simply doing what is best for "you" at the moment rather than the greater good of the project, the group or the shared future.
This entire area — and what you can do about it to make yourself a better professional — is the subject of Bill Richardson's ambitious piece — "The Tyranny of the "Fifth Constraint": Taking Your Thinking Off Autopilot." (See co-publisher Frank Saladis' letter below for a more insightful and detailed analysis of Bill's article from the perspective of a professional project manager.)
Happily this month, it seems Balasubramaniam Vedagiri, an EDS program manager in India, was thinking in a parallel with Bill. Bala contributed a very relevant article, "Mental Minefields for Project Costing," on just the way our behavioral and thinking preconceptions may cost us money in financial decision-making.
In her entertaining "Communications Toolbox: Motivating in Tough Times," Laura B. Moore picks up on a similar theme as well — providing hands-on advice on how to harness team thinking and energy by empowering others. And as always, Laura's article is not only informative but fun to read, the secret weapon for some of us in building not only joie de vivre, but awareness.
Speaking of joie de vivre, or at least the Gallic spirit, Dr. David Heleschewitz and Patrick Bergeot, of Alcatel in France, write an extremely well reasoned and researched piece on "Project Management and Post-Commissioning Activities" raising the question, "Is It an Oxymoron?" David and Patrick dive into this little-explored area with real rigor of thought—and bring discussion of the mind-body continuum full circle by illustrating that disciplined, objective thought truly is powerful and can be applied to any area one choses.
Co-publisher Frank Saladis turns his attention to retaining your key employees in his excellent monthly discussion of positive leadership. Frank focuses this month on the importance of establishing an environment that will assist you in retaining your team members and keeping them involved and motivated in your project and your organization.
Completing the more "serious reading," Dr. David Hilson's "Risk Doctor Briefing" also stays in the realm of thinking dynamics by examining how to use "risk metalanguage" to separate cause-risk-effect to best define and respond to risk.
But fun isn't far away. Judy Umlas, allPM co-publisher emeritus, playfully explores the anxiety of getting ready for summer vacation in her "Heart of PM" column. In poetic parody, Bob Mittlesdorf delivers a Shakespearean witches brew in "MacProject—Act IV" that plunges all those black-hearted bosses and other "whiners" and "moaners" foolhardy enough to venture into the team's conference room after dark into the age-old cauldron of workplace venom. Of course, Zen Tips from George Pitagorsky as always provides some philosophical leavening to help make our days pass a little more pleasantly and productively. And finally, co-publisher Frank Saladis continues to use his multiple talents in structuring another challenging crossword.
So do some serious reading and have some fun at the same time. … It's a good recipe for summer (if that's what your calendar says in your part of the world).
And remember, with Bastille Day coming July 14, you may want to participate in the discussion with Jerry Manas, author of "Napoleon on Project Management," on the ways the great general and leader might have approached practical PM problems. So far allPM MVPs and stalwarts Harry Waldron and Tom Welch have been adding their always cogent comments to those extremely well-reasoned ones of project managers from around the world including Mira, JMay and Sadie.
Finally, looking ahead to autumn, the second annual International Project Management Day — November 2, 2006 — is shaping up to be a major opportunity to stop, learn, appreciate the profession and celebrate. This year will feature the first Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year Award. (Nomination and general information is available at www.iil.com/ipmday2006.) A global eConference including six webinars will be broadcast. And in the first of many local activities unfolding around the world, two New York high school students will receive Kerzner Best Practice Scholarships. So get ready and get involved.
With that, regards from New York—
Bill Sand
Co-publisher allPM.com
bill.sand@allPM.com
From the Co-publisher's Desk - Frank P. Saladis, PMP
 In the beginning there was the Triple Constraint depicted as a triangle connecting Scope, Time and Cost baselines. Later, depending on who you may talk to, a fourth element was added: Quality, or Customer Satisfaction. There are also other versions of this concept. These ideas were presented in a parallelogram.
Now, Bill Richardson introduces the Fifth Constraint — Thinking on Autopilot, a self imposed constraint that basically prevents a project manager from actually seeing a problem. If a problem cannot be seen, how can it be solved? The lack of a process, personal bias, and emotions also add to the constraint.
This may not be true for all project managers but if you work on similar types of projects for long periods of time, you may slip into an autopilot method of thinking and doing. In this case, according to Richardson, you have a tendency to forget information that does not support your personal thinking and remember only those things that do. This is a type of information blocking where you eliminate anything that disagrees with your thought process.
The constraints described by Richardson are things we may actually be actively engaged in: thinking within a very narrow point of view; thinking that something is true because we believe it to be true; feeling superior because what we know is the truth; ignoring flagrant inconsistencies between what we profess to believe in and the behaviors we actually display. Project managers are in a unique position and great demands are placed on them by their sponsors and their teams.
According to Richardson one can conclude that becoming aware of the Fifth Constraint is critical to a project manager's success. Without this awareness, the project team may lose its enthusiasm, the project manager may not see the warning signs of problems within the team, overall performance of the project will decrease and unseen risks will appear more frequently.
The idea presented by Richardson is simple, yet not obvious. How we think determines how we feel and our thinking impacts our motivation. If we allow our egocentricities to govern our thinking, we will miss (actually not even look for) the critical realities and issues that may have a significant impact on our projects or even our personal lives.
The answer, according to Richardson is to start "thinking about thinking" and turning off the autopilot that may keep us on the wrong track (a track that we created ourselves).
To bring the concept of the Fifth Constraint into focus, Richardson introduces the Critical Thinking Maturity Model : Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. The idea behind the CTMM is similar to the CMM (capability maturity model) or PMM® (Project Management Maturity Model). There is a basic starting point (novice) that addresses unreflective thinkers who are not fully aware of the role thinking plays in their lives and advances to the master level where people are aware of their limitation and the need to continually grow.
The article is truly insightful and will assist you in developing your own strategy for advancing through the steps to Critical Thinking Maturity. It may have been difficult managing to the Triple Constraint but the greater view of what is now a pentagon or a polygon (many-sided figure) may be more of a challenge to master but will greatly increase the chances for success by increasing our ability to think more clearly about what we think.
Reading allPM is also a source of expanding your knowledge and gives you an opportunity to review the thinking of others. We hope you enjoy this issue as well as our previous issues. They are designed for the "thinking project manager". (At least we think so!)
Frank P. Saladis, PMP
Frank.Saladis@allpm.com
June's Poll Results
From your experience, at what point is it best to bring the project manager on board?
a) Soon after the project request is submitted - 56.91 % (140)
b) After the business case has been approved - 28.46 % (70)
c) Once an approved charter exists with goals, etc. - 14.63 % (36)
Total votes: 246
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The July poll question is:
The ability to think effectively is:
a) 100% innate and 0% learned
b) 0 % innate and 100% learned
c) 50% innate and 50% learned
d) 25% innate and 75% learned
e) 75% innate and 25% learned
If you have not already done so, please stop by allPM.com and add your opinion today.
Theme of the Month: The Tyranny of the "Fifth Constraint" — Taking Your Thinking Off Autopilot
By Bill Richardson, PMP
With our highly evolved state of Project Management discipline, the time, cost, scope and
quality constraints have been long understood and targeted as the "road to project
management excellence." So, if this is true, why does the Standish group continue to report a large percentage (66% was the last report) of projects as being not successful? The reason is
what I refer to as the silent and unseen "Fifth Constraint" — thinking on autopilot.
Unlike the other four constraints — time, cost, scope and quality — this one is self imposed and most of the time invisible. More important, its effects can be seen clearly when problems suddenly spring up due to such things as invalidated assumptions that destroy a project estimate, a premature conclusion that derails a test plan, an undetected risk that destroys a budget and my favorite, a bad decision that creates unwelcome stress on a project team.
Ironically:
- It isn't that PM's can't see the solution. It's that they can't see the problem.
- It isn't that they don't have the time. It's that they don't have a process to deal with the issues.
- It isn't that thinking is complicated. It's that it is taken for granted.
© 2006 allPM.com
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 As a top tier project management coach, Bill Richardson specializes in helping and championing project managers to their personal best. Inspiring greatness for individuals, teams, communities and organizations, Bill raises the bar for top performance.
Bill is PMP certified with extensive hands-on experience in leading major technological and change initiatives in the financial services industry. He has managed several large-scale project management teams in the IT environment including the setup and day-to-day management of centralized PMO functions. Having worked in a major Canadian Bank in senior positions, Bill brings the unique blend of account management, project management and process management to the realm of maximizing the ROI of projects, program portfolios and people.
As an accomplished speaker, facilitator and trainer, Bill brings years of accumulated corporate experience and know-how to project management organizations, leaders and practitioners, strengthening vision and competencies, and delivering the right solutions for winning products.
Communication Toolbox: Motivating In Tough Times
By Laura B. Moore, PMP
I work in an environment where the projects I receive are all fire-drills. I fix things that have not been successfully resolved via normal processes — the hot and heavily impacting issues.
This adds excitement to the work, but also lends itself to innate difficulties. The major one is that I have no assigned project teams. When a problem hits, I have to pull together experts from throughout the business to strategize and resolve the issue quickly, while still allowing team members the time to complete their normal, everyday work.
Usually, motivation exists in the form of everyone wanting to resolve the issue. But motivation can also become complicated when organizational changes are occurring that could impact the jobs of those in the group.
© 2006 allPM.com
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Laura Moore (PMP, M.A. Social Psychology) has an eclectic background that includes not only project management, but clinical research and social work as well. Currently, she works as a Senior Project Manager in the telecommunications industry and does, what her team calls "guerilla project management", that is, taking urgent, high impacting issues and resolving them within a matter of days. Laura lives in California with her husband Lorin, and their two amazing daughters Lily Faye and Layla Blue.
Project Management and Post-Commissioning Activities:
Is It an Oxymoron?
By David Héleschewitz, PhD, PMP
and Patrick Bergeot, PMP
Once your deliverables have been accepted, it is likely the end is near for your project: objectives have been reached and operations and maintenance can probably start now. Most people will tell you, you are no longer in a place for project managers — you have now entered the dull and repetitive realm of post-commissioning. But are we so sure? Are we sure those two are worlds apart?
This is what this paper would like to address and understand: how post-commissioning activities may link to project management. Although a certain amount of literature may already exist on the topic, we have chosen to conduct the discussion progressively, based on our industrial experience related to telecommunications but not limited to it. We are convinced that our conclusions can also be applied to many other industries.
The paper is organized into the following parts:
- starts by defining what we mean by post-commissioning activities.
- explores why post-commissioning activities can be considered as pure operations.
- adopts the opposite viewpoint and outlines the project aspects of post-commissioning activities.
- uses the conclusions of sections II and III to provide best practices-based recommendations.
© 2006 allPM.com
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Patrick Bergeot, left, and
Dr. David Héleschewitz |
David Héleschewitz joined Alcatel in 2001 as presales engineer on Intelligent Networks. At the creation of the Fixed Solutions Division in 2003, he was placed in charge of the presales and tendering team for France, Africa, Middle-East and Indian subcontinent. In 2005, he then moved to Program Management for French and Indian customers. Dr. Héleschewitz graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Ingénieurs Electriciens de Grenoble (ENSIEG) in 1996 and obtained a PhD in Signal Processing from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) in 2000. Now, he is in charge of Risk Management at Central Treasury of the group. He can be reached at Alcatel-Compagnie Financière, 54 Rue La Boétie, 75008 Paris; e-mail: david.heleschewitz@alcatel.com
Patrick Bergeot joined Alcatel in 1996, responsible for first-off installations and support for transmission networks. In 1997, he was put in charge of the support and maintenance team on Alcatel transmission network management. From 1999 to 2000 he was an advanced studies group leader for network management and co-authored three patents. In 2001, he took the direction of support, maintenance and training of the Alcatel network management platform. Since 2004, he has joined the Fixed Solutions Division as Program Manager for post-commissioning activities on Fixed Networks (applications, core and access) in France, Africa, Middle-East and Indian sub-continent. Mr. Bergeot graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications (ENST) in 1990. He can be reached at Alcatel-CIT, Fixed Solutions Division, 7/9 Avenue Morane Saulnier, B.P. 57, 78141 Vélizy Cedex ; e-mail:
patrick.bergeot@alcatel.fr
Mental Minefields for Project Costing
By Balasubramaniam Vedagiri, PMP
Have you ever clung to a project that slipped to a good degree in the hope that it will recover before the project completion?
Didn't you hope to correct any cost anomalies of a new project which was similar to an earlier unsuccessfully completed project that concluded with Sunk Cost?
Have you ever felt happy about your project because it is 'doing well'?
If you answered 'yes' to any of the above, you are only human, falling into some common behavioral finance traps. Behavioral finance - a relatively new branch of economics that studies the application of psychology in financial economics - is now proving that the shortcuts we take and our preconceived attitudes induce us to willingly and repeatedly do things that cost us more money than originally estimated. Behavioral finance is rapidly rewriting rules on the rational aspect of traditional economics.
© 2006 allPM.com
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 Balasubramaniam Vedagiri (or Bala in short) is a Program Manager at EDS (Electronic Data Systems) in India. He holds a masters degree in computer application and a certified PMP. His current responsibilities include application delivery and people management for a business critical telecom application portfolio of a major Australian client. In his current role, he handles the project and program management that comprises a virtual team across two countries and four cities.
Bala has over 16 years of IT consulting experience focused on solutions and services and has managed projects at global level. He brings extensive knowledge on offshore program oversight, resource management, technology leadership, ISO/CMMI process implementation, vendor management and sales enablement. Overall, he focuses his abilities on planning, deploying and governing a well-structured global delivery program.
Positive Leadership in Project Management Series: Retaining Your Key Team Members
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP
There are many characteristics of a leader but there is undoubtedly one skill that every leader must possess to remain a leader: the ability to keep the key players. It's one thing to build a team, a formidable challenge depending on the situation and the environment, but it can be an even greater challenge to sustain a team and keep the team members focused on objectives.
There must be a willingness among all team members to continue to work together toward greater goals and higher levels of accomplishment. If you think of high-performance teams that you have been a member of or have observed in action you will notice the strong sense of direction and purpose. There is a desire to succeed but an even greater desire to work together.
Great teams achieve their greatness by building trust among one another, by demonstrating to each team member that everyone is important and creating a sense of personal value and contribution.
© 2006 allPM.com
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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 immediate past President of the NYC PMI Chapter.
Napoleon Marches on—Timeless Lessons in Planning, Execution and Leadership
By Jerry Manas, PMP
Napoleon had it easy. He had an ambitious vision of a free and united Europe unconstrained by monarchy—and that vision jelled perfectly with the desires of the French people. In the chaos following the French Revolution, with rebels and royalists still battling, the people were more than ready to accept someone who could give them a sense of order and hope and yet still meet their needs for equality. And this was precisely what Napoleon offered. After all, it was Napoleon who said, "A leader is a dealer in hope."
PUZZLER #3: WHAT WOULD NAPOLEON DO???
You've been given the lead to select and implement a new ERP system. Many users, and even some managers are questioning the need to spend a fortune on the new system, when the current one "works just fine." With the company under pressure to cut costs and people losing their jobs, they can't imagine spending hundreds of millions on new software. Clearly you need to get people on board, since you'll need their cooperation in transforming the organization. How would you make an effective, passionate appeal to your stakeholders to get them to understand the need for the new system? Thinking like Napoleon, what would you do?
© 2006 allPM.com
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 Jerry Manas, PMP, has provided project management, leadership, training, and product development services to the information technology sector for a wide range of organizations, from small domestic businesses to international Fortune 500 companies. He has managed projects of all types, from small software development projects to large-scale, global projects spanning Europe, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and North America. Jerry is president of The Marengo Group, LLC and cofounder of PMThink! (www.pmthink.com), a thought leadership Web site, where topics such as Project Management, Portfolio Management, and Governance are discussed.
To stay abreast of the ever-changing industry, he remains actively involved with the Project Management Institute, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for PMI's Aerospace and Defense SIG. He has also contributed to several of PMI's international standards, including their Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3), where he assisted with the integration of the model and helped define the glossary; and the new Program and Portfolio Management Standards, where he was recruited to help lead the program (consisting of more than 300 volunteers around the world) as part of a small leadership team.
Jerry's goal is to open new perspectives about project management and leadership: that, to do either well, both are required. His affinity for history, his pursuit of fresh perspectives on leadership, and his understanding about the effectiveness of simplicity create a powerful approach to understanding the complexities of today's leadership issues, especially in project management. Underlying all of this is his strong belief that some of the most relevant lessons for today's project managers and leaders can be learned from an exploration of historical figures—their triumphs and their failures.
Using Risk Metalanguage to Develop Risk Responses
By Dr. David Hillson, PMP, FAPM
In order to understand a risk fully it is helpful to identify its causes as well as its effects. Risk metalanguage can help by separating cause-risk-effect in a three-part description, such as “Because of <one or more causes>, <risk> might occur, which would lead to <one or more effects>.” This structured description not only ensures clear definition of the risk, but can also be useful when developing responses.
There are four basic types of risk response:
- Aggressive responses, either to avoid a threat by making it impossible, or to exploit an opportunity by making it definitely happen.
- Involving a third party to manage the risk, either transferring a threat, or sharing an opportunity.
© 2006 Risk Doctor Limited
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 Dr. David Hillson (PMP, FAPM, FIRM, MCMI) is an international risk management consultant, and Director of Risk Doctor & Partners ( www.risk-doctor.com ). His speciality 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.
David is an active member of the global Project Management Institute (PMI) and was a founder member of its Risk Management Specific Interest Group. He received the 2002 PMI Distinguished Contribution Award for his work in developing risk management over many years. He is a Fellow of the UK Association for Project Management (APM) and a Fellow of the UK Institute of Risk Management (IRM), as well as being a member of the Chartered Management Institute.
To provide feedback on this Briefing Note, or for more details on how to develop effective risk management, contact the Risk Doctor (info@risk-doctor.com), or visit the Risk Doctor website (www.risk-doctor.com).
The Heart of PM™
By Judy Umlas
So the winning title of the "name Judy's column" contest is: "The Heart of PM," submitted by John Ritchie, Systems Engineering Manager of Reutech Radar Systems in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Congratulations, John! His prizes are: an autographed copy of the ninth edition of Dr. Harold Kerzner's book, Project Management, A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling; an autographed copy of my soon-to-be-published book (working title: Flick the Switch! Use the Power of Acknowledgment to Turn on the Light in Others); and dinner and a Broadway show with Co-Publisher Frank Saladis and me the next time John comes to New York!
My deepest thanks to all of you who submitted such wonderful column titles as "Speak to Me!" and "Connections" and "Let's Have a Squizz." All of the seven semi-finalists I mentioned in the last edition of allPM TODAY will be given an autographed copy of my book when it is published in the Fall.
© 2006 allPM.com
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 Judy Umlas, allPM co-publisher emeritus and continuing columnist, remains the heart and soul of this community and invites you to correspond. Her professional accomplishments are many.
Project Management Poetry™: Double, double, toil and trouble
By Bob Mittelsdorf, PMP
(with apologies to Wm. Shakespeare)
MacProject - ACT IV
THE SCENE:
A darkened conference room, with three unhappy team members
complaining about their PM. In the middle of the table, a coffee pot is
boiling.
FIRST TEAM MEMBER:
Thrice the disgruntled user hath moaned.
SECOND TEAM MEMBER:
Thrice; and once the sponsor whined.
© 2006 allPM.com
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Bob Mittelsdorf has over 20 years of experience in project management. His background includes experience in project definition, start-up, planning, execution, monitoring and close-out on a variety of multi-million dollar developments throughout the Asian region.
He has extensive experience in organizing and leading multi-discipline and multi-project teams to achieve project success. He works as a consultant on various development and project management, quality assurance and quality control issues, and is involved in presenting adult education courses on various project management topics. He is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI) of the USA.
PM Crossword Connections™: PMO TO GO
By Frank Saladis, PMP
(Click here or the image above for a larger, printable crossword in a new window. )
Across
3 Harmonize, balance, organize
6 Obtain the greatest benefit
7 Manage closely
8 To offer guidance
11 A store of support or talent
13 Provides for common and repeated use
14 Devices or mechanisms, apparatus
15 Devices or mechanisms, apparatus
16 Efficient method
17 Current information
19 Provide vision and direction
20 Records, files, procedures
22 Person impacted by a project
24 Follows a track or to teach
27 Rank order
31 To obtain another viewpoint
32 To combine or bring together
34 Measured goal or desired end
35 Generally ongoing
36 An organized format
Down
1 Computer application
2 Defined procedure
4 Entire organization
5 Predefined format
9 To place in one location
10 Storehouse of information
12 Determining which projects to choose
17 To add resources
18 Long term view
21 A way to do something
23 To arrange, form or plan
25 Organize resources to follow a direction
26 A stage or solid formation
28 Desired traits and performance
29 To promote or strengthen
30 Has a start and an end
33 To modify
© 2006 allPM.com
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Click here to view/print the crossword solution: http://www.allpm.com/Crosswords/July2006answers.htm
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