allPM Today March/April 2011, Issue 124, Judy Umlas, Editor

March/April 2011, Issue 124, Judy Umlas, Publisher

President and Chief Executive Officer of IIL
E. LaVerne Johnson

Senior Executive
Director of IIL
Dr. Harold Kerzner

View IIL’s Digital 2011 Learning Catalogue

In this Issue:

*allPM's Letter from the Editor, Judy Umlas

*allPM November/December Poll Results and New Poll Question

*Four Easy Steps to Help Your Project Fail
By Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., PMP

*Tips and Tricks for Managing International Projects
By Deasún Ó Conchúir, PMP

*Global Project Management – A Growing Trend
By Hans Jonasson, CBAP, PMP

*Effectively Managing Projects in the International Environment
By Giancarlo Duranti, PMP

*Playing Your Position: The Effect of Status in the Political Game
By Steven P. Blais, PMP

*Ask Harry: What is Quality? Simply Meeting Requirements is Not the Goal!
By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma

*Positive Leadership In Project Management – Managing Organizational Change
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

*When Project Management is Face to Face with Cloud Computing
By Andres Cuevas, PMP

*Risk Doctor: How Mature is Your Risk Capability?
By Dr. David Hillson, PMP, FAPM

*PM Crossword Connections™: Going Global PM with an International Twist
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

Past Issues- Archives

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March/April Theme: Effectively Managing Projects in the International Environment

A Word from Your Publisher — Judy Umlas

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Here is what I wrote in my “last” Co-Publisher’s letter to all of you at allPM.com on March 5, 2009: “When I was looking at all the ways to say good bye in other languages and cultures, since you come from so many different ones, I really liked this one from the Native American Apache tribe: “Ka dish day,” which translates to, “Until we meet again…”

Read more >>

November/December Poll Results

Risk management is clearly supported and required by my organization's executive management:

a) For all projects regardless of size - 49.53%
b) Only for highly visible critical projects - 25.23%
c) Only after a major incident has occurred - 19.63%
d) Not at all. It is seen as an added expense - 5.61%
The March/April poll question is:

How well does your organization understand cloud computing?

a) Clearly understands the concept and application
b) Understanding but continuing to review the concept
c) Very basic understanding. need more information
d) No understanding or not really sure what it is

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

Four Easy Steps to Help Your Project Fail
By Harold Kerzner, Ph.D., PMP

I guess the title caught your attention. Projects do not fail by themselves; they need help. The help they get are called people, more specifically, project managers. Projects that fail can be called people failures; projects do not fail - people fail. When projects fail, we seem to go through meticulous pain to identify every possible cause of failure. A brief list might include:

Tips and Tricks for Managing International Projects
By Deasún Ó Conchúir, PMP

I once had a colleague who described projects as “a social eco-system, with some added technical activities”. What he meant was that the dynamics of projects are determined strongly by individuals, regardless of the business case or rational considerations.

Global Project Management – A Growing Trend
By Hans Jonasson, CBAP, PMP

Project Management has matured greatly over the last 30 years with the help of organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI®), PRINCE2® and the Association for Project Management (APM). A lot of tools for scheduling, estimating, budgeting, risk assessments, etc., have been developed and implemented within organizations.

Effectively Managing Projects in the International Environment
By Giancarlo Duranti, PMP

A couple of years ago a colleague of mine and I had a business trip to Milan. Driving in the car from Rome we started discussing about our experiences abroad. Sharing our experiences, we both discovered something in common in dealing with people. It was people perception of time and as a consequence, a different approach to life and of course to work.

Playing Your Position: The Effect of Status in the Political Game
By Steven P. Blais, PMP

This is the second article in the series of articles on project management politics entitled “Beat ‘em with a STICK”.

There were nine faces staring at me as I stood at the head of the table in the conference room. Some were programmers, testers, designers, a user interface specialist, a DBA on loan for a few weeks, whom I had met, knew of in the company, and some were complete strangers until this morning.

Ask Harry: What is Quality? Simply Meeting Requirements is Not the Goal!
By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma

Let’s say you’re a parent. Maybe you have a teenage son, or daughter, or perhaps both. The teenage years; a lot is going on, an interesting time, that’s for sure. From a parent’s perspective, how well your child does at school is vitally important. Grades; it’s all about the grades because you know that grades significantly impact a kid’s future.

Positive Leadership in Project Management – Managing Organizational Change
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

Change has always been a hot topic among project managers. Developing an agreed upon change control process to prevent scope creep, unauthorized changes in work process, and to help monitor performance is an essential part of effective and successful project management. Included in the change control process is the need for effective leadership and solid, straightforward honest communications.

When Project Management is Face to Face with Cloud Computing
By Andres Cuevas, PMP

Throughout Project Management’s history, there have been changes in the approaches and the needs to manage and control projects. In the beginning, the principal approach was to administer and control isolated projects; subsequently and through the years, this approach evolved and became more complex, especially when organizations realized that their operations not only rely on just one project, but on a group of projects and more important, that these projects coexist between and among them, that they share resources, or that they are part of larger plans, just like programs or portfolios.

Risk Doctor: How Mature is Your Risk Capability?
By Dr. David Hillson, PMP, FAPM

Risk management is clearly an important factor in ensuring business and project success. But how can an organisation tell whether its management of risk is good enough? Maturity models provide a framework to benchmark capability and compare existing approaches with best practice.

PM Crossword Connections™: Going Global PM with an International Twist
By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

(Click here or the image above for a crossword in a new window.)

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