Continuous Learning for Sustainability

How do one project manager remains valid in the sea of more experienced project managers?

According to Wikipedia; sustainability is the capacity to endure [LINK].

There will always be projects to be managed. There will always be project managers or project leaders to manage those projects. The question is, how can one project manager be the chosen one?

In my opinion, continuous learning is vital to ensure one’s sustainability in the field of one’s choosing. To be a project manager, you do not need to be the subject matter expert, but you need to know and be familiar with the industry you choose to be involved in.  This remains important especially when one considers to switch to different industry segments.

There are a lot of resources available everywhere, especially online. Some you have to pay, some is for free. You have to know where to look and be diligent in getting the information that you want. While looking for new information, one must also take into consideration the validity and value of the information collected. What I mean here is, you should be able to verify the authenticity of the information; like it or not, there are some funny people out there with funny intentions. Beware that the information collected is still relevant and correct.

When you have passion in what you do, you will find ways to sustain in the field of your choosing. Read an article, pick up a book, join a online forum, attend a seminar, view a webinar, make notes, spark up discussion with colleagues and maybe managers. Do what you have to do, to be visible and to sustain; to endure.

 

[Image from Google]

Webinar Review: Leadership and Communication Skills for Project Managers

Webinar Date: 8/6/2011 (11:00 PM – 12:00 AM GMT+8)
Provider: Corporate Education Group (Website: http://www.butrain.com/)
Speaker: Star Dargin from Star Leadership LLC
(Website: http://www.starleadershipllc.com)
Cost: Complimentary
PDU Count: 1 unit

SUMMARY

• Leadership: involves changes and new directions.
• Leaders: influence people.
• Projects require change; therefore, projects need leadership.
• New areas require leadership.
• Thus, project managers need to have leadership skills.
• There are certain characteristics that differentiate a leader from a manager.

• Leadership attributes change as project progresses.

• A leader must be; amongst others: hones, forward-looking, competent and inspiring.
• A leader must be able to identify cultural characteristics and identify to it so that response can be tailored accordingly.
• To be informed on organisation’s style, check what books, for example, that the CEO reads. Find out who are their role models.
• Different types of leadership:
  • Character – respond to their conscience
  • Analysis – respond to ideas
  • Accomplishment – respond to problem
  • Interaction – respond to people
• Know your strength, know your blindside, know what the project needs
• Emotional intelligence plays an important role to a leader:
  • Self awareness
  • Self regulation
  • Motivation
  • Empathy
  • Social Skills

PMBOK Guide 4th Edition on leadership (pg: 240):

“Successful projects require strong leadership skills. Leadership is important through all phases of the project life cycle. It is especially important to communicate the vision and inspire the project team to achieve high performance.”

 

COMMENT:

The webinar explained a lot of leadership qualities and ways to achieve it. However, it lacked the in depth explanation when it comes to communication skills; referring to the webinar main topic. All in all, it was a great experience and new knowledge gathering session for me.

Project Baselines

There are three important baselines that we need to know about. They are:

• Scope Baseline
• Cost Baseline
• Schedule Baseline

All three baselines are recognised as the Performance Measurement Baseline.
These three baselines are determined early in the project lifecycle. They are defined during the initiation of the project and described (or recorded) in the Project Charter.
As the project goes into execution, monitoring is being done to see if the project is;

• within the scope?
• within budget?
• within schedule

These questions are answered by comparing the current status of the project against the three baselines. The result derived from the raw data collected from these three aspects will determine the performance of the project. They will provide the information whether the project is

• meeting the stakeholders’ expectations?
• spending the right amount of money?
• completing in the allocated time?

Integration Management – Develop Project Management Plan

Develop Project Management Plan is the second process under Project Integration Management knowledge area. The Project Management Plan is the master plan for all the other planning processes. Think of it as a folder which contains all the subsidiary plans.

Project Management Plan needs the Project Charter as the input. Reason? The Charter contains the baselines for scope, cost and schedule, as well as other high level requirements for risks, limitations and assumptions, business cases, etc. (Refer to Develop Project Charter).

The second input is all the outputs from the planning processes.  Besides all the management plans, other project documents should also be included in the master plan.

Again, enterprise environmental factors (EEF) and organisation process assets (OPA) serve as inputs into this second integration process. This is because, you will need the format for the plan which is already being used by the organisation as reference, previous project data as well as reporting format and reporting hierarchy amongst others.

The Tools and Techniques that is being used here is Expert Judgment.

The outcome of this process is the Project Management Plan.

Do not worry so much about the inputs and outputs of the processes. You might feel a bit overwhelmed as you go on, however, the moment you concentrate on the concept and objective of the process, the inputs and outputs will come easily to you. Focus on understanding why the process is created and how the objective can be achieved.

Remember, you know all these answers already. All you need to do is put on your PMI hat, and answer from PMI-world’s perspective.

There are 42 processes altogether under PMBOK 4th Edition. In applying PMI best practices as suggested, you might not be using all the forty-two processes described. You should tailor your project according to the feasibility and needs of your stakeholders and environment.

As a conclusion; The Project Management Plan needs inputs from the Project Charter and all the outputs from other planning processes based on Expert Judgment from respective subject matter experts and/or department according to the organisation’s OPA and EEF.

Popular Terms and Techniques in Time Management

Today is the first installment for external article. Today’s PMP® Exam Tip is the courtesy of PM Podcast. Visit their website for more information on PMP® Exam preparation.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The terms leads and lags are used to identify and control the timing of various activities within the project. It is important to accurately document leads and lags.

Lead Time: Let's assume a project has two pieces that need to be completed at the same time. Work package A will take 4 weeks to complete, but work package B only takes one week. B would show in the project plan as a finish to start (FS) with a one week lead.  This means the B work package component should start one week before A is scheduled to be completed.

Lag Time: Lag time can best be described as a planned or forced delay.  A great example of this is a construction project that involves pouring concrete. The project plan must include a lag time of 2 days for the concrete to dry before the next phase can begin.

Hammock Activity: Hammock activity is also frequently referred to as summary activity. These are activities that are roughly related and are reported as a single activity. Some times the relationship between the activities is clear, other times they may only be related because their completion leads to the same result. On a Gantt chart a hammock activity is usually displayed as a thick black bar above a grouping of lower level activities.

Crashing and fast tracking are techniques used in schedule compression.  Schedule compression is used when the desired result is to create output faster than indicated in the original project, without having to change the project scope.  This is particularly beneficial if a competitor is working on the same type of project and you need to finish first. It may also be a company decision to complete a project more quickly than originally scheduled based on various factors.

The two techniques used for this process are referred to as crashing or fast tracking.

Crashing: When the crashing approach is used, any additional costs associated with rushing the project are reviewed against the possible benefits of completing the project on a faster timeline.  Additional items to consider when using the crashing approach include adding more resources for the project, allowing additional overtime, paying extra to receive delivery of critical components more quickly, etc. Crashing only works, when adding more resources will lead to a faster completion of a project. For instance crashing will not work by adding more resources to "the concrete in the foundation has to dry for 3 days".

Fast Tracking: Fast tracking is applied by re-scheduling various activities within the project to be worked on simultaneously instead of waiting for each piece to be completed separately.  This method is best used when activities can be overlapped. The risk involved is that problems can occur if parallel aspects of the project include dependencies. So if you work on design and production at the same time your risk is that you need to rework production if the design is change half way through the process.

[image source: Google]

News Flash 06/06/2011

Starting from June 2011, this month, I will also include articles and tips from external authors. These articles might be published every fortnightly or once a month. All articles will be related to Project Management or PMP exam. There will also be articles on leadership and management skills.

I am expanding the value of this blog from a mere PMP exam concentrated notes to more exciting topics (I hope!). I sincerely hope this blog will become a venue where ideas are shared and exchanged. I would love to see knowledge being passed on to others. I wish anyone who has interest in Project Management, regardless whether they are thinking of sitting for PMP exam or not, will find the posts in here valuable to them.

Come back often to get new or old information. As knowledge cannot end, it could only serve us lifelong, be it old news, or new.

By the way, if you have any ideas on how to make this blog better, drop a comment or email me directly. I will see what I can do. If you wish to contribute articles, you can also email me directly.

Let’s share!

Contact Hours and PDUs

Contact Hours – These are the hours required as pre-requisite to sit for PMP exam. PMI requires 35 contact hours of Project Management education. These hours can be obtained from attending PMP prep classes; either physically or online. But you have to check that the course you are taking is approved by PMI. Remember, Contact Hours are gained before you sit for your PMP exam. You need to report these hours in your exam application to PMI.

PDUs – Professional Development Units. For every PMP, we are required to report 60 PDUs for every 3-year cycle of our credential. We are required to report this as part of Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) Program. Failure to do so, will cause our credential to be suspended. At the end of suspension period, if we still fail to report the required amount, our credential will be expired. Once expired, we need to sit for PMP exam again. PDUs are reported after you have acquired your PMP status.