|
From the Co-publisher's Desk— Judy Umlas
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Usually when I write this Co-Publisher’s letter I am either very upbeat, or get myself quickly into an upbeat place, just in the process of communicating with you, which I love to do. This time, though, it is taking me too much effort to “get there,” so I’m afraid I will just have to tell you where I am: that I am experiencing deep sadness about having a father in the hospital with serious pneumonia and a mother with severe memory loss issues who has been cared for mainly by my father. So I’m not going to try to pretend to be upbeat. I know I have your good wishes, your prayers and your concern to buoy me up. I really do feel that.
That said, I want you to know how thrilled I was to receive all of your contributions for the Frank P. Saladis PMP Special Edition of allPM Today last month. You will read from Frank about how utterly amazed and surprised he was. In fact, this led to a behavior previously unknown to him, which you will have to read about in his Co-Publisher’s letter. As I have discovered through my work on The Power of Acknowledgment, the ability to organize this issue for Frank – a person I deeply value, admire, treasure my relationship with and respect – was a gift to me! Your jumping on board to participate gave me an incredible excitement and joy. Frank’s thrill and appreciation of what you all contributed just added to the great fun of it. So thanks to all of you from the bottom of my heart for your wonderful contributions – the tributes, the poems, the crossword puzzles, the songs, the anagrams. You are an amazing bunch. As an expression of my personal appreciation, I will be sending each contributor an autographed copy of my book, The Power of Acknowledgment. You are fantastic!
Speaking of fantastic, in the next edition of allPM Today, we will announce the latest list of allPM.com MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals). We are still evaluating the contributions of the people who provide articles, templates, and answers to the questions that are regularly posted on our Forums. Our Forums, I am told, by the way, are the best in the industry! If you haven’t gone there for specific information or inquiries, please go and take part. You can also share your expertise with others who need information that you may have. So stay tuned for the list of new and reappointed MVPs. There is no automatic carryover for these people – they must be reappointed each year based on their contributions. They receive certain awards and benefits for their participation. My personal thanks to MVP Harry Waldron for his ongoing attention to all the dimensions of our web portal. He is sure to send me an alert when someone out there keeps contributing valuable information, in case I might have missed it. We all appreciate your ongoing contributions, Harry.
Now that we have talked about all of this emotional, exciting and touching material, we can move smoothly into the theme of the month for allPM.com: Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers. Not only do PMs need to possess a great many technical and communications skills, but they must be emotionally intelligent as well. What this means in very clear, specific terms has been addressed by Dr. Al Zeitoun, and Anthony Mersino, who in fact just published a book on this topic. We have the Next Generation PM by Jocelyn Davis, who touches on aspects of this subject as well, along with our own allPM.com member Nadia Circelli. I love that Nadia has stepped forward to write about how respect for people (an aspect of emotional intelligence) and PM go together. She writes with head and heart. I am introducing you to Nadia
 |
| Nadia Circelli |
since she is just a member like you who decided she had something to contribute. I want more of that from all of you! So thanks, Nadia. We also have Dr. David Hillson talking about using intuition as a tool in project risk management, and Excel genius Bob Umlas with another tip/trick from the second edition of the upcoming book, “This Isn’t Excel, It’s Magic!” Laura B. Moore adds another quirky and valuable “arrow” to her Communications Toolbox “quiver.”
Now here’s a lovely story (I have decided that I want to be a “Corporate Storyteller,” one of the hottest new titles in industry, when I grow up!). An article about The Power of Acknowledgment appeared in MundoPM magazine, the premier PM publication of Brazil. As a result of this article, I got a wonderful email from Roberto Daniel, Quality Manager of Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group. I then led a closed webinar for his team and he shared the wonderful story about the power of acknowledgment through candy to bring about quality improvements on the assembly line. I think you will love his story, and applaud his team, along with me!
As always, I hope you will both enjoy and benefit from allPM Today, and you know I greatly value (indeed I CRAVE) your feedback about the articles, the theme, the content, etc. So please send some feedback my way. It will be part of your training to raise your EQ (emotional intelligence quotient), by giving expressive feedback to your Co-Publisher. You can write to me at judy.umlas@allpm.com.
I want to close by sharing a poignant lesson I learned from my memory-impaired mother recently. We were riding home from a restaurant a few weeks ago, and we got caught in a terrible traffic jam with miles of red brake lights ahead of us. All of us but my Mom were gritting our teeth, muttering, mumbling and acting extremely short-tempered. She, on the other hand, exclaimed, “Oh, look at the beautiful lights! Aren’t they amazing?!” And she kept exclaiming over their beauty. We were all silent for a moment, and then agreed with her, altering our experience of that traffic jam in one quick second. I understand and appreciate that my Mom is a master of being in the moment and appreciating the “now” of our existence. I still have a lot to learn from her.
Until the next time….
Judy Umlas |
 |
|
|
From the Co-publisher's Desk - Frank P. Saladis, PMP
The Importance of Recognition, Acknowledgment, and Saying Thank You.
Something that has always been in my thoughts, especially while I am traveling and have a few moments of down time, is the basic fact that, in most organizations I have worked with, project managers do not seem to receive fair recognition for the work they do. Certainly the project sponsor and maybe a few stakeholders will offer some type of thanks or appreciation upon the completion of a successful project but generally, the people who are the actual target audience of the project deliverables often go about their daily operations without any thought about how the new system that has improved their well being was provided or how their new cafeteria was designed and built, or their newly expanded parking lot was completed.
There are countless examples of projects that are completed without even a moment’s pause to celebrate the success and thank those who completed the work. As we approach International Project Management Day, 1 November, 2007 it is important to take time and think about the contributions of the many thousands of project managers and teams who work diligently and with care and professionalism to provide us with many items we take for granted. Everyone has gazed in awe at a breathtaking city skyline or experienced the thrill of an amusement park roller coaster or enjoyed a great movie. These are but a few examples of project management that touch our lives daily. Tom Peters, a well know management guru, often stated that “all work is project work.” If you think about your work environment or your home environment you will soon notice that you are surrounded by projects. We initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close (to some extent) just about everything we set out to do.
Of course, not every project is successful, but even in those that don’t meet their objectives, we can find lessons learned and ways to improve. It is my sincere belief that all successful project managers should be recognized for their leadership, ability to create high performing teams, sense of purpose, and willingness to keep moving forward even during the most trying of times. International Project Management Day provides an excellent opportunity to do just that. Recognition of project teams and acknowledgment of people who do great things are key factors associated with the project manager position and I strongly urge all managers, project sponsors, project executives, and peer groups to think of some way, regardless or how simple it may be, to show appreciation for those who deliver on the expectations that have been set.
Speaking about recognition, I recently experienced something unique and completely unexpected. My partner in allPM.com, Judy Umlas, secretly developed a special “Frank Saladis PMP” edition of the allPM newsletter, allPM Today. Judy managed to obtain an assortment of letters, poems, commentary, and other very creative submissions about my involvement and dedication to the project management profession. This was done without even a hint that it was in progress. When I saw the edition, I was completely surprised, a little embarrassed (not too much, but a little), and very deeply touched that so many people actually took the time to write a few kind words. For a brief moment I was actually speechless. Those of you who know me personally may have trouble believing that but it’s true. I was stunned!
I had to read each entry several times and listen to a song that was sung by a great friend and alumnus of the PMI Leadership Institute. I can certainly assure Judi Vincent that I will remember her as well as everyone who contributed to that very special edition. A simple thank you does not seem quite enough to offer to Judy, Dr. Kerzner, Judi Vincent, Laverne Johnson, Greg Woo and the many other people who took a few minutes to offer their thoughts and good wishes. You have all boosted my desire to further contribute to the project management community and to continue to promote the value of the profession. I am sincerely grateful to everyone who had a part in that special edition and I feel extremely privileged to have such great friends and colleagues.
In this month’s issue of allPM Today, we focus on the topic of Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers. I can say without hesitation that I experienced some emotion when I read the comments offered by so many. I even received a congratulatory memo from my daughter, Jennifer, who is aspiring to be a project manager. Emotional Intelligence and EQ – Emotional Quotient, are associated with people’s behaviors, attitudes, interpersonal skills, compassion, humanity and management styles.
I remember my first experiences with several project managers more than 20 years ago and their clearly limited ability to work with people. The priority was the task at hand. Today, interpersonal skills play an integral part in the effective project manager’s profile. Project managers must understand their own goals, intentions, responses, and behavior as well as understanding other people and their feelings, especially their team members. This edition of allPM.com provides an opportunity to further your knowledge about emotional intelligence and to enhance your ability to work with emotions, motivate yourself as well as others, recognize emotional signals in your teams, and manage relationships more effectively. I guess you can say that the value of allPM is how it can help you further define and manage your own values.
Thanks again for your support, your kind words, and your interest in allPM.com!
Frank P. Saladis, PMP
Frank.Saladis@allpm.com |
|
|
|
June/July Poll Results
How does your company handle changes to business?
a) Managing change is not required - No one does it - 17.50 % (14)
b) Business people handle changes - We don’ - 25.00 % (20)
c) We just provide any necessary training - We train - 10.00 % (8)
d) We identify a change agent -We do it all - 47.50 % (38)
Total votes: 80
The August/September poll question is:
How important is emotional intelligence to your overall success as a PM?
a) critically important
b) very important
c) moderately important
d) not important at all
If you have not already done so, please stop by allPM.com and add your opinion today. |
|
|
|
Theme of the Month: Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
By Dr. Al Zeitoun, PMP
Introduction
Project managers make the difference in today's project conscious enterprises. Therefore it is important to know what makes that person the great leader that he/she needs to be. The key focus of this paper is to illustrate that the success of the project managers is very closely associated with how they master the use of the Emotional Quotient recipe.
Thomas Mengel in his 2004 PMI conference paper differentiated between three types of project stakeholders. The first is the expert who is focused on the know-how and know-what. The second is the manager who is focused on the know-where, know-when, and know-who. The third is the leader, who is focused on the know-why. All these types of stakeholders have to combine in the personality of the project manager.
Project Managers’ success then depends on the utilization of four quotients. The Intelligence Quotient “IQ” and Technical Quotient “TQ” create the foundation for the expert and the manager in them. The dimensions of concern to us in this paper and that fulfil the leader side are the Emotional Quotient “EQ” and the Likeability Quotient “LQ”. These last two are tomorrow’s true differentiators for business leaders’ success.
So what does the EQ have to do with it?
The emotionally intelligent project manager possesses mental toughness. Her mind is capable of being balanced under the most difficult of situations, the kind that one sees in the daily realities and uncertainties of projects. This project manager knows the value of inspired leadership and what it could do to the connectivity of globally dispersed teams in every corner of the universe.
It is my belief that unless the project manager is able to go through a personal transformation, that is based on full self awareness and transparency, he will not be able to enable the genuine transformations that are part of what each project is about. Authentic leaders do the hard work required to get them ready for the complicated role at the helm of exciting and energizing people toward achieving common goals.
Understanding EQ
A view of EQ shows that it consists of two groups of skills. The first is the self management skills group and the second is the ability to relate to others skills. The two are fully connected and the project manager would not be able to do well in the second group unless she has a good mastery of the first group.
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
Al Zeitoun (Ph.D., MS, PMP) is Senior Executive of Project Leadership Resources 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 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 Center and the ID Chair of PMI®. |
|
|
|
Emotional Boundaries for Project Managers
By Anthony Mersino, PMP
Overview
The growing body of knowledge in the field of emotional intelligence provides new ways of looking at ourselves and how we interact with others in the workplace. Emotional boundaries is one area of emotional intelligence that speaks directly to our interactions and relationships with others.
Healthy emotional boundaries are necessary for everyone but are particularly important for project managers. Project conflict is often rooted in some type of emotional boundary issue. PMs that understand emotional boundaries will be able to quickly recognize and deal with the underlying sources of conflict. This article describes emotional boundaries and why they are important, some of the issues caused when people don’t have healthy boundaries, and how we can establish healthy boundaries for ourselves and our teams.
Introduction
By now, most project managers and other leaders have heard of emotional intelligence. A definition of emotional is shown below.
“The abilities to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others.”
- Daniel Goleman and Gary Cherniss, The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace
|
One of the more interesting areas of emotional intelligence relates to emotional boundaries. You can think of an emotional boundary as the point where one person's emotions leave off and another's begin. I find emotional boundaries particularly relevant to project management because they are often the area where conflict surfaces between individuals.
Everyone is familiar with the concept of physical boundaries. Physical boundaries range from the Great Wall of China or the Rio Grande all the way to the partition between two office cubicles. Generally speaking, these physical boundaries are visible and clear.
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
Anthony Mersino, PMP is the author of Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers; the People Skills You Need to Achieve Outstanding Results. Anthony has over 22 years of experience in project management. Anthony teaches a variety of project management and leadership courses as well as a series of emotional intelligence workshops that help project managers and emerging project leaders improve their interpersonal skills. He can be reached at Anthony@ProjectAdvisorsGroup.com, www.ProjectAdvisorsGroup.com, or at 847-446-6597. |
|
|
|
How Respect for People and Project Management Fit Together
By Nadia Circelli
What does respect for people have to do with Project Management? Project Management is about managing a project, and bringing a project to success.
Some people think that Project Management is just like when, as children, we were building structures with plastic bricks: one brick here, one brick there and suddenly there is a house and then there is a castle!
But Project Management is much more complex than this; it is more like making an orchestra with all of the different instruments playing. The conductor’s ability to direct all the instruments can make the difference between a series of shrill sounds and a harmonic melody. In the same way, in managing a project we have to harmonize the competencies of everybody -- their abilities, their timing -- and make them express the best of their capabilities.
We often hear the declaration that “people are the most important elements for the success of a project.” But then, when we dive into the modeling of the project and the planning of the activities, we forget this and we decide that one person will do this and the other one should do that and so on. And then we give them our plan and we ask them to do as we have planned. And to be sure they do what we asked them to do, we set controls, checkpoints and checklists, and we add layers of authorizations, validations, etc.
Think how this can be perceived: you know better than they do and you don’t believe the others will do right; that is you don’t trust them. And the others most of the time will perceive it and act accordingly. This will start a negative spiral where all kind of negative feelings will be generated from just doing things because we are told but without any real engagement, to doing it just as we have been told and to point out the flaws, or even to passive (or active!!) resistance.
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
Nadia Circelli is a programme manager at ST Microelectronics, a leading European semiconductor supplier. For the past 10 years she has worked on Project Management focusing on PM methodologies development and optimisation, helping project managers implement the correct PM methodology to improve their projects. She is passionate about ensuring the best conditions for people to enhance their effectiveness and performance. She has participated in the development of courses on Project Management and she is a certified trainer in Project Management and Remote Team Effectiveness within her company.
Nadia comes from Italy and for the past 13 years has lived in France in a beautiful location bordering Geneva.
|
|
|
|
The Power of a Candy Box Delivery as Recognition!
By Roberto Daniel
It all started back in 2003 when I had just been promoted to Quality Manager at General Motors do Brasil, and, in order to break the ice with my new team mates, I wondered whether some `sweets´ could help. At that time I bought a small pack of delicious brownies (not very common in Brazil) and brought it as a surprise to my first staff meeting. Indeed, the reaction to this was positive and helped me to start creating an open relationship with my team.
Almost 18 months later, I was hired by Bosch & Siemens Home Appliances (B/S/H) as a Quality Manager where, in my first days of work, I could notice the teams´ morale being really down, production output below target and worst of all, the quality of our products was literally spoiling our brands´ reputation in the market.
These facts combined made me wonder how to overcome such tough times in a simple, but effective, manner, and recalling the not-so-old-days from GM, it clicked for me that I should go to the supermarket and buy some candies, provided the quality metrics from a specific assembly line would be met in a specific day shift!
Not so long after, more precisely, 2 months after I had joined BSH , one of the assembly lines (at that time back in 2004 we used to have four) surpassed the daily final audit target and I thought to myself: this is the right moment to test out this candy stuff!
The day after was for me something unforgettable! I proceeded to the respective assembly line and a few minutes after their lunch break I stopped it for a 5 minute talk, holding a couple of plastic bags with 6 (six) candy boxes inside (each candy box contained approximately 20 mini candies). All line workers were staring at me wondering what the heck is this tall man wanting from them! After a few seconds, I started talking about the day before´s great performance in quality, highlighting their importance in the whole process and commending them for the great job they did.. Then, as a recognition from my end, I started distributing to each and every line worker a candy, followed by a loud sequence of applauses!
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
Roberto A. S. Daniel is a 15-year-seasoned mechanical engineer, with post-graduation in Marketing, who has been working in product development and quality managementin theautomotive industry, both at suppliers and OEM, andinthe white goods(appliances) industry. He has amonghis strengths, teambuilding and people motivation. |
|
|
|
Communications Toolbox™: A Rose By Any Other Name May Not Smell As Sweet
By Laura B. Moore, PMP
What a wonderful quote: “"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet." (William Shakespeare, From Romeo and Juliet [II, ii, 1-2])
Now if only it were always true… I use to love a muscle car called a Chevy Nova. It was very popular back in the Stone Age when I was in high school (it was an older car then, but very popular). It was surprising to me at first that the car, according to one of my friends, did not sell well in Spanish-speaking countries. Once I took Spanish, it made sense. Nova… or no va, means basically “doesn’t go.” While the car was the same as the popular car in the United States, it would have been prudent for the car manufacturer to do a little research on name interpretations in different languages! But did the name impact the quality of the car (which really, I don’t know if it was a good car or not, it was just a cool car back in the day…)? No, the car was the same. However, the perception of the quality of the car was different and thus the success of the car was not as broad as it could have been. Ironically, though the word Nova may bring to mind thoughts of a brilliant star burst, the actual definition, according to Merriam Webster on-line is: “a star that suddenly increases its light output tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity in a few months or years.” This again indicates that a little further understanding of the definition of the word would have been prudent, because I’m sure Chevy did not want it to fade away to its former obscurity in a few months!
Another example: The other day I found a White Out Pen®. The pen never worked, probably dried out before I even received it from the office supply stash, but I kept it because of the instructions which serve as a reminder to me to be specific when designing requirements. The instructions said “1. Shake, 2. Remove Cap, 3. Replace Cap” Now I think we’re all smart enough to know that at some point in this process we actually need to APPLY the white out to have it work, but nowhere in the instructions does it say to do so.
This may sound a bit extreme, but think about the times you’ve had to design requirements; and now think of the times you’ve had troubles with a project because requirements were misunderstood. Sometimes the most apparently benign aspects of a requirement can become the biggest headache post-launch because they were either overlooked as not important, or assumed to be universally known and understood.
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
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. |
|
|
|
Next Generation PM: What’s in your strategic wallet today?
By Jocelyn S Davis, Nelson Hart LLC
We all know the Capital One credit card advertisement: barbarian hordes pursue the unwary cardholder who lacks a Capital One card. What’s in your wallet today, the advertisement asks making clear that the best protection in the real world of credit finance is Capital One.
So, what’s in your strategic wallet today? As PM’s in the competitive global workplace, focused on projects of strategic importance, what’s in your wallet?
Certainly, PM methodologies, years of experience, corporate level processes and standards, technology knowledge and resources, capital financing for projects fill some of the slots in your wallet.
But, just like the Capital One ad, something is missing that will protect you and yours from the barbarian hordes – psychological capital.
Writing in the book titled Psychological Capital, Luthans, Youssef and Avolio explain that the battleground of competition has moved from who owns the natural resources, to who has the financial capital, to who has the technological advantage, to who has the labor cost advantage, to a whole new arena of competition --- competition for human capital. With the aging of the Boomer Generation in the U.S. (with similar trends predicted in other developed nations) and the predicted shortages of labor as a result, human capital is the one thing you want to be sure to have in your strategic wallet today.
Many efforts, they write, have already been undertaken to attract and retain this human capital in a competitive global workplace: job design, compensation, the emphasis on personal satisfaction and growth, work-life balance and others. Jobs are becoming more specialized and the importance of the person-organization fit has increased.
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
Jocelyn Davis is president of Nelson Hart LLC and cofounder of the Positive Workplace Alliance. Jocelyn’s work focuses on how to create workplaces where individuals flourish. Flourishing individuals yield flourishing teams and organizations. Contact Jocelyn directly at JocelynSDavis@NelsonHartLLC.com.
Jocelyn’s professional background includes time as the chief financial officer for AARP, training and work as an executive coach, service as a board director for a mutual fund and an international health charity, and service as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Clark School of Engineering where she teaches Managing Project Teams to graduate students. |
|
|
|
Risk Doctor: What’s Wrong with Intuition?
By Dr David Hillson PMP FAPM
Human beings are a complex mixture of rational and irrational, a subtle combination of head, heart and guts. But when it comes to making decisions and managing risk, we seem to favour thinking over feeling. We believe that decision-making and risk management should be structured processes, dispassionately considering options, objectively weighing the odds, and reaching a result that can be fully justified and defended. Yet excluding the non-rational can deny us an important source of information, particularly when dealing with uncertainty. Is there a place for intuition in decision-making or risk management?
What is intuition? It describes “instinctive knowing without use of rational processes”, a sense or feeling about something, that can’t be easily explained or justified. Sometimes we “just know it seems right”, or sometimes we consider “it feels wrong somehow”. Should these feelings be dismissed automatically as unreliable and irrelevant, or is there some way we can use them?
Intuition is often the result of extensive experience, the product of embedded wisdom, and the voice of distilled expertise. Someone who has worked in an area for a long time will probably have a deep understanding of the issues and complexities involved, and may form a judgement without being able to explain precisely how they got there. This rich source of experience should not be rejected lightly, but should be used to improve decision-making and risk management. But how? Should we abandon all structured processes and instead just ask experts to tell us what they feel is right?
The right solution is not “either/or” but “both/and”. We should combine intuition with a more rational approach, to get the best of both worlds. This involves the following:
- Listen. Use intuition to validate the outputs of our decision-making and risk processes.
- Learn. Seek to capture the embedded knowledge of experts, and make it available for others to use.
- Grow. Develop our own intuitive skills through practice and feedback.
© 2007 Risk Doctor Limited
Read more >>
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 organisations 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 recognised 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 Project Management Institute (PMI) and was a founder member of its Risk Management Specific Interest Group. He received the 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 past chairman of its Risk Management Specific Interest Group. David is also a Fellow of the UK Institute of Risk Management (IRM), a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), and a member of the Chartered Management Institute.
David can be contacted at david@risk-doctor.com |
|
|
|
Ask Harry! The SIPOC Diagram
By Harry Rever – Director of Six Sigma
Q. - Harry, do you have any suggestions to help the project manager with scoping a project and getting the team working together right from the start of a project?
Project managers obviously face many issues when starting a project. Gaining appropriate sponsorship, acquiring necessary resources, and determining correct customer requirements are the kinds of issues that if not handled correctly can easily result in eventual project failure. Additionally, two important issues project managers face on just about every project have to do with determining the correct project scope and quickly getting the project team working together. Fortunately, there is an effective and often used Six Sigma tool which addresses those two very issues. Project managers can greatly benefit from using the “SIPOC” diagram at the start of every project
As mentioned in the “Ask Harry” column in the May, 2007 allPM.com newsletter, Six Sigma and Project Management are similar in that both disciplines utilize projects to manage and improve results. A Six Sigma practitioner generally works on projects which focus on improving processes; therefore, an understanding of the vital aspects or components of a process is essential for a process improvement project to be successful. A tool which helps the Six Sigma Manager better understand the process, thus helping him or her with project scoping, is the SIPOC diagram. SIPOC stands for Suppliers, Input, Process, Output, and Customer. SIPOC is an easy to use tool which not only helps a team focus but as an added benefit, gets team members working together as a team from the very beginning of a project.
The SIPOC diagram helps a team visualize the five key components of a process which, hopefully, will give them a more comprehensive appreciation for various areas that could very well impact the project if left unaddressed. A picture of a typical process SIPOC diagram is below.
© 2007 allPM.com
Read more >>
If you have a question you would like addressed, send an e-mail to Harry at harry.rever@iil.com
Harry Rever is Director of Six Sigma for International Institute for Learning. He is a dynamic presenter and practitioner of Six Sigma and Project Management with an innate ability to teach the concepts of quality improvement in an understandable and more importantly, applicable manner. With over seventeen years as a project manager, process improvement consultant and trainer, Harry has numerous examples of what works (and what doesn’t) when managing projects and applying statistical process improvement concepts. He has experience leading people including supervising project managers, quality analysts, and sales teams. Harry has trained thousands of employees on Six Sigma, process improvement, and project management and he frequently presents at conferences and seminars. He has certifications as a Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Manager, Quality Consultant, and Project Management Professional. Harry earned his MBA from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas and has Bachelors degrees in Marketing and Management from Texas Tech University. |
|
|
|
Excel Tip: the N-function
By Bob Umlas, Microsoft® Excel MVP
Excel has a function, the N-function, which can be used in an interesting way: documenting or commenting how a formula works. The N-function generally converts non-numbers to a number, dates to recognizable numbers (called “serial numbers”), TRUE to 1, and anything else to zero.
So what can you do with this information? Suppose you have a formula and it isn’t obvious what it’s accomplishing:
=LINEST(B1:B40,A1:A40^COLUMN(A:C),TRUE,TRUE)
You can supply the documentation right in the formula without affecting the result:
=LINEST(B1:B40,A1:A40^COLUMN(A:C),TRUE,TRUE)+N(“This will return the coefficients of a 3rd-degree polynomial best fit for the things in A1:B40”)
The N-function is effectively adding 0 to the result, so the result is unchanged. Now, with the comment, what its doing becomes obvious (!).
Let’s try a simpler example:
Change =VLOOKUP(F12,Sheet2!$A$1:$E$45,5,FALSE) to
=VLOOKUP(F12,Sheet2!$A$1:$E$45,5,FALSE)+N(“Look up the value in cell F12 against the table of values in Sheet2 and return the exact match from column E”).
So in general, you’re using the N-function inside formulas like these to document or explain a part of the formula by effectively adding zero!
© 2005, IIL Publishing, New York
Reprinted from This Isn’t Excel, It’s Magic! with the permission of IIL Publishing, New York
Bob Umlas has been a Microsoft® Excel MVP since 1995. He has been a beta tester for new versions of Microsoft Excel since version 1.5 (on the Macintosh)! He has led several sessions at Microsoft's Tech-Ed: Maximizing Excel development using Array Formulas, and Excel Tips and Tricks. He is also the author of “This isn’t Excel, it’s Magic!” The second edition of this book is being released in October, 2007. |
|
|
|
