The key objectives of a Project Health Check include:

To determine the current state of the project and detect problems early enough so that the project team has the capacity to deal with them.

To identify factors that will enable or disable the potential of delivering the anticipated outcome and benefits of the project. Key areas under review include the following:

· Completion and clarity of Business Case / Benefits Realisation Plan

o Sufficiency of analysis and translation to definition of project outcomes

· Adequacy of Stakeholder Commitment & Support

· Adequacy of Project Initiation Process

· Adequacy of Scope Definition & Verification

· Adequacy of Requirements Definition & Verification

· Appropriateness of Project Approach

· Appropriateness of Project Organisation Structure & team

o Skills, knowledge and experience of Project Manager / Team Leaders

o Demonstrated competency of Project Manager / Team Leaders

o Skills, knowledge and experience of project team

· Adequate and timely risk identification, analysis , management and control

· Realism & Executablility of Project Plan (schedule) taking into account:

o Completeness of Project Plan

o Appropriate level of work decomposition

o Appropriate work steps such as:

§ Project Initiation / Problem Definition

§ Requirements Definition

§ Analysis /Design (System Performance, System Capacity, IT infrastructure)

§ System Development/Testing (Conversion, Application Security, Interfaces, Testing Co-ordination, Functional Testing, Business Acceptance Test Planning, Regression Test Processes, Integration Test Planning)

§ Process Development/Testing (internal controls in process design)

§ Change Management (Organisational Impacts, Communication and Training)

§ Implementation Planning including Support Planning

o Reference to appropriate IT standards, processes and methods

o Sequencing of tasks in a logical sequence to deliver desired outcomes instead of silos of work by functional area

o Dependency definition ( doing the right tasks at the right time)

o Appropriate sizing of work into manageable packets of work

o Accuracy of work effort and duration estimation

o Adequacy of resourcing levels and appropriateness of types of resources applied

o Sufficiency of contingency planning

o Inclusion of checkpoints linked to appropriate implementation of deliverable (document) review sign off and management

o Appropriateness of wording in plan to enable its use as a communication document and management document

o Ability to baseline project plan and manage variance to plan

· Communication Planning

o Thoroughness of Stakeholder needs assessment

o Appropriateness of Information distribution

· Adequacy of Project Monitoring and Control

o Accuracy, adequacy and timeliness of performance reporting, replanning and change management

o Implementation of appropriate inclusive project status and team meetings

o Implementation of appropriate Steering Committee

o Adequacy of Issue Management and appropriate scope change control

· Adequacy of resource procurement process vendor and contract management

· Adequacy of Financial Management including:

o Development of project budget and expenditure forecasts

o Implementation of adequate, accurate and timely processes to manage and report project cost

To analyse findings and present detailed recommendations addressing each of the issues identified.

Overall, this helps to ensure a shared understanding and commitment between the project team & the ultimate business stakeholders to a realistic and executable strategy to resolve issues as agreed.

]]> http://klinikservo.wordpress.com/?p=784 Fri, 16 May 2008 11:36:11 +0000 Klinik S.E.R.V.O http://klinikservo.wordpress.com/?p=784 Mari kita berasumsi bahwa anak remaja Anda telah melanggar suatu batasan yang telah Anda tetapkan.

• Apakah tindakannya ini disengaja atau hanya kebetulan saja ?
• Penjelasan apa yang bisa diberikannya atas tindakannya ini ?
• Apakah ia benar benar merasa tidak enak atas apa yang telah terjadi atau apakah ia tidak peduli ?
• Apakah ia menyesali perbuatannya atau hanya menyesal karena tertangkap ?

Pertimbangkan semua pertanyaan ini sebelum menentukan konsekuensi atas perilakunya.

Jika akibatnya tidak terlalu parah, Anda bisa meringankan konsekuensinya.

Tetapi jika ia tidak menganggap serius tindakannya, mungkin Anda harus memeprtimbangkan alternatif lain yang lebih membatasi.

Dan jangan terkecoh oleh penampilan luar. Banyak remaja bisa meneteskan air mata buaya saat mereka ditegur, tetapi dua menit kemudian mereka mentertawakannya bersama teman teman mereka. Air mata dan permintaan maaf tidak selalu beararti anak Anda benar benar menyesali perbuatannya.

Sumber : Bagaimana Cara Membuat Anak Remaja Anda Terhindar dari Masalah dan Apa yang Harus Anda Lakukan Saat Usaha itu Gagal, Dr. Neil I. Bernstein, 2006

Ingin Cepat Berubah ? KLIK Disini >> sKlinik SERVOs !

Fortunately, most conference call services provide a free trial for their services. Many others provide demos. However, there’s really no substitute for using a service as you would in an actual business setting. One thing to be aware of is that many of the free trial conference calls require that you provide your credit card information when signing up for the free trial. They will not charge your card during the free conference call trial period. However, you then will need to cancel your subscription before the trial period expires or your card will be charged for the next billing cycle of the conference call service. This usually isn’t a problem provided you remember to cancel the service if you don’t wish to become a long-term subscriber.

Once subscribed to the free trial conference call service, you should take advantage of the opportunity. Put the conference calling service through its paces. Spend some time on the vendor’s Website learning about the features of the service. Then recruit some participants from your organization to help evaluate the service by taking part in a conference call.

In order to keep things manageable you should probably take on one free trial conference call evaluation at a time. It may prove helpful to setup several conference call sessions with each service to get used to the service and try out all of its features. Of course, if after the first session you realize that the service just won’t work for you, then by all means, cancel your free trial and move on to the next free trial conference call evaluation.

As more businesses look to increase opportunities for collaboration with employees and partners and to better connect with prospects and customers, they will be turning to conferencing solutions. It pays to make the investment in time and effort to evaluate potential conferencing solutions. The service provider offers the free trial conference call, but it’s up to you to take advantage of it.

Conferencing Service Providers’ are vendors whose business framework is premised on audio, video and web conferencing services. It is likely that a provider will offer additional capabilities in terms of audio, video, integration with instant messaging systems and mobile support. Vendors in this category include: Adobe, WebEx, Citrix,

It is important to note that a Conferencing Service Providers might represent one business unit for a vendor that also delivers solutions in other market segments. For instance, Adobe, Cisco, IBM, Eagle Conferencing, and Microsoft all deliver on-premises solutions for web conferencing in addition to a business area that behaves as a Conferencing Service Providers.

Even though all these provide the same service but what matters is the kind of service they are going to provide. Some may be good in connecting the lines, some in voice clarity. Make sure that you are aware of all the facilities that they are going to provide and all the terms and conditions they apply providing the service.

Conferencing services

Conferencing offers a range of services, which enables meetings to occur without having to travel. Conferencing is becoming a key asset in companies' communication networks, both internally and externally. With an increasingly dispersed workforce, organizations are finding that it is much more cost effective to use conferencing services.

Conferencing is an outstanding real-time voice communication tool. With any conferencing we can get Audio conferencing that’s clear and reliable. Audio conferencing services give us an alternative to the increasing costs of travel and lodging, as well as lost productivity. Communicate with individuals and groups, around the corner of India. 

Ok. There are solutions for managing files. They are called document management systems or project banks or something like that. And they are great, at least most of them. But no matter how good you document handling system is, there will be numerous versions of the files.

Do you ever think about whether this is the latest version of file? If there is a newer version, it's just not in the system yet? I know. So do I.

Then, if the information is created by another program, it's likely that the file format is different. Just for the sake of it. "Our software, our file format!"

Wrong.

This should be "Dear customer, our software tool is so easy, transparent and compatible, that you and your team don't have to worry about the file and file compatibility".

If an architect adds an extention to the building design, the effects should be visible immediately to the other team members. The owner and project manager should see how it affects the cost and schedule, logistics should be able to see the estimated material schedules, procurement should automatically be able to check the availability of required materials when required and the city planning department could comment to the look of new and planned extentions.

But no. Dozens of file revisions, file transfers, manual editing, faxes, meetings, emails etc. etc. The whole thing stops because of files.

That's why I hate files. If I am to work with information delivered to me by someone or something, why do I need to worry about the validity of that information? Why can't I just get the information right away when it's created?

Can't someone just come up with a project system, that instantly stores, transforms and delivers information to right people?

Please.

I always smile when a person stops at that line item, I'm pretty sure I know where they are going to take the conversation next.

I've seen so many people fumble around with this question that I just had to write a post about it. 

I want to start off by saying that I think Project Management is very important to the success of a project.  Additionally, I have been in many conversations where people have suggested "rolling the PM hours into the other tasks", and I want to publicly say, I think this is horrible idea.  First of all, this is an attempt to avoid answering the question, "What is the value of Project Management, and why should I have to pay for it?"  Secondly, it's not very honest.  I am a fan of transparency, and I think everything on the project should be clearly laid out and well described.

Here is what works for me.  The first key is understanding the value of Project Management, and for many software engineers/developers this may not be an easy thing to do.  Second, learn how to articulate the value of project management.  Then, during the discussion, I usually say something along these lines:

The role of a Project Manager is to focus on three primary aspects of the project:

• Budget
• Schedule
• Solution (Functionality, Quality, Outcome, etc.)

Their responsibilities include the following:

• Daily communication with the development team
• Status updates and communication with you
• Budgetary management and invoice reconciliation
• Identification and mitigation of project related risk
• Ensuring that the solution meets your described needs and is of acceptable quality
• Understanding what the team needs and removing roadblocks so that they can stay focused and productive
• Reviewing progress with you and advocating your needs to the development team
• and more

If you would like to forgo the costs associated with Project Management, I would be willing to discuss this you, however I need you to understand that we would no longer be responsible for the management of this project and therefore would not be managing its Budget, Schedule, and Overall Solution.  The success of the project requires these responsibilities, and I am uncomfortable moving forward without it.  If you or someone on your staff wants to assume all of these responsibilities.... we can talk about it, but I highly recommend using our project managers for this role.

I have never had the "Project Management Inquiry" conversation gone beyond something similar to the above.  The customer sees the value, and isn't willing take the risk.  Secondly, they have a better understanding of what the project manager can do for them, and this often encourages them to build stronger relationships with the project manager.

The PMI Global Congress 2008—EMEA is the leading project management educational and networking event in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This three-day event is your chance to gather the know-how and inspiration needed for project management success. The congress is also a meeting place for experts to discuss the most challenging project management trends.

Drew will be presenting, "Filling the Baby Boomer Vacuum" which focuses on the use of project management to build an effective bridge between your retiring employees and the next generations to ensure organization continuity and ongong success. 

The International Rescue Committee in Liberia has been programming on
preventing violence against women and girls since 2001. Today, IRC
Liberia implements Gender Based Violence (GBV) prevention programs in
Montserrado, Lofa and Nimba Counties. The goal of the GBV Program in
Liberia is to enhance and encourage the ability of the Ministry of
Gender and Development and local community structures to prevent and
respond to GBV, put GBV issues on the national agenda, and create social
change toward safe communities, social justice and equal rights for
women and girls in partnership with men and boys.

Currently, GBV staff provide case management services for survivors in
Montserrado, Lofa and Nimba counties and work to enhance local capacity
to prevent and respond to GBV through awareness-raising, training,
male-involvement and coordination of all actors in close collaboration
with the Ministry of Gender. The GBV Coordinator will be responsible for
providing strategic direction, leadership and overall technical and
management assistance to the national program, developing new
initiatives and liaising with key donors and stakeholders and
transitioning the program from an emergency response program to one
implemented within a community development framework.

REQUIREMENTS for this position include: Minimum five years' overseas
work experience administering large-scale community participatory
development and local governance projects and the ability to provide
strategic leadership in complex post-conflict development environments.

TO APPLY: To learn more about this position and to apply please visit
www.ircjobs.org.

The International Rescue Committee currently seeks a Senior Gender Based
Violence (GBV) Coordinator for its Sudan program, based in Khartoum.
The geographical coverage of this position will include the established
GBV Program in West Sudan (Darfur), the new start-up program in Southern
Sudan as well as the development of any additional GBV interventions
throughout Sudan.

Primary duties will emphasize strengthening the GBV sector across Darfur
and Southern Sudan and technical oversight of the GBV program in Sudan.
The GBV Senior Coordinator will be responsible for strategy development,
program design, implementation, standardization, and establishing
systems for monitoring and evaluating all GBV-related activities. In
collaboration with field staff, other program sectors and the Deputy
Director for Programs, the GBV Senior Coordinator will oversee the
development of new GBV initiatives and ensure that they are designed and
implemented in accordance with the country strategic plan, IRC's program
framework, the IRC GBV Global Strategy and accepted international
standards. The Senior Coordinator will represent IRC's GBV activities at
the national level. S/he will identify gaps in services and take
necessary steps to address those gaps. S/he will provide technical
oversight and support to all field-based, Khartoum-based & South
Sudan-based GBV staff, with an emphasis on providing support and
ensuring professional development.

REQUIREMENTS include: a graduate degree in, public health, social
sciences or relevant field; minimum of 7 years experience in GBV program
management including implementation, staff recruitment, training,
supervision and team building; and minimum of 3 years experience in
conflict-affected countries.

TO APPLY: To learn more about this position and to apply please visit
www.ircjobs.org.

Senior Technical Advisor, Health

Portland, Oregon

Department: International Programs
Reports to: Director, Technical Services
Supervises: Community Health/Child Survival Specialists/Regional Advisor

Oversee quality development, technical implementation and evaluation of MTIâ€^TMs health program portfolio. Effectively represent MTI in professional and donor networks. Supervise and build capacity of team of health advisors.

This Portland, OR-based position provides vision, direction and technical guidance to MTIâ€^TMs health program growth, quality implementation, reporting, and evaluation. The portfolio covers four regions and includes privately-funded holistic Community Health projects and USAID-funded Child Survival projects. This person liaises directly with donors such as the USAID Global Health Bureau and MTI program leaders such as Regional and Country Managers and Health Project staff. The position supervises the Community Health and Child Survival Specialists who make up the Health Unit within the Technical Services Group and supports a growing cadre of field health program managers.

Performance standards include assuring quality and state-of-the-art practices in health projects, developing solid project designs and proposals, facilitating growth of health portfolio, and effectively managing a collaborative and strong team in the health unit.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide vision, direction, technical guidance and best practice application to lead and manage MTIâ€^TMs health project portfolio. This includes significantly strengthening holistic health programming at MTI as well as providing oversight of the technical backstopping & reporting for child survival projects.
• Supervise and mentor the Health Specialists in the Unit and develop a strong team. Develop vision for the Unit and develop and manage work plans and staff development goals for the staff.
• Coordinate technical assistance. Guide and facilitate input from Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, Community Health Specialists, regional advisors, and consultants.
• Ensure timely submission of quality reports based on donor guidelines.
• Represent Medical Teams International and network at AERDO, CCIH, USAID Child Survival, CORE, Global Health and APHA conferences and meetings.
• Identify niche and opportunities and grow the health project portfolio in strategic areas. Write multi-lateral and bi-lateral grant proposals.
• Train health unit staff, regional technical advisors, health project managers and health volunteers in state-of-the-art practices.
• Incorporate evidence-based child survival techniques into Medical Teams International health program designs. Remain current in best practices, current issues and trends in child survival, reproductive, and international health.
• Document results and lessons learned for broader dissemination.
• Collaborate with other Senior Advisors and participate in the leadership of the Technical Services Group.

Desired Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's in public health with strong international health emphasis. MD, RN or PA preferred.
• At least five (5) years of successful experience in health program management with large grants. Proven experience with Child Survival programming a plus.
• Strong skills in designing, monitoring, and evaluating health interventions in the field and in a headquarters advisory position.
• Proven experience in training international health professionals in community health/child survival tools and methodologies.
• Experience interfacing with donors, partners, volunteers, and government and NGO agencies.
• Excellent problem solver, a self-starter, ability to work independently and mentor/manage staff; develop and achieve vision and plans.
• Africa experience highly desirable. Fluency in second language (French preferred).
• Strong oral, presentation and written communication skills.
• Willingness to travel 20 percent time.
• Proven ability to write project proposals and meet deadlines under pressure.
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, & Epi Info.
• Commitment to the mission statement of Medical Teams International.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position; applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V. We maintain a drug-free workplace and perform pre-employment substance abuse testing.

To Apply, please send resume, cover letter and salary history to Jill Solomon, Global Recruitment Specialists: Jsolomon@globalrecruitment.net

Research Analyst III

Salary (semi-monthly): $1,508.50 - $2,156.00

Section of Epidemiology for Public Health Practice

Chronic Disease and Nutritional Epidemiology Response Team

This is a highly responsible position requiring research, surveillance, statistical, and analytical skills.  This position serves as data manager and analyst for Show Me Healthy Missourian (SMHM) screening programs that include the Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Project, the WISEWOMAN Program, and the Colorectal Cancer Screening Demonstration Project.  The Data Manager works with both program staff and the Information Technology Services Division (ITSD) at multiple levels of SMHM database use, maintenance and development.

Responsibilities are to monitor program data to assure compliance with funding sources' data requirements, informing the program manager when data do not meet minimum standards; develop Crystal Report queries to extract data from the MOHSAIC database; work with ITSD personnel to assure data integrity and that Minimum Data Elements are being submitted successfully; participate with program strategy team to improve program efficiencies, including identifying performance barriers and priority target populations for program services; and assist with long-term program evaluation efforts.  In addition, this position involves the design and implementation of surveys and process evaluations; development of reporting forms/procedures to gather data; assisting with grant applications and evaluating/monitoring progress on grant objectives.

We are seeking candidates with a background in data collection and management, statistics, research methods, and health information analysis and presentation as well as familiarity with computer languages and data warehouses and how the two interact.  Proficiency with statistical software packages (preferably SAS) is highly desirable.  Familiarity with PC desktop resources and Microsoft Professional Office software is expected. Successful candidate must possess strong written and oral communication skills.

Candidate must meet the qualifications for the Missouri Merit System classification of Research Analyst III.   To review the qualifications, please go to www.oa.mo.gov/pers/ClassSpecs/List_A-F.htm/

Hours are from 8:00 to 5:00, Monday through Friday.  Flex time may be considered.

If interested in this position, go to www.ease.mo.gov and apply on-line for Research Analyst III by June 1, 2008.  Please complete and return as instructed with the Department application, any transcripts and current resume.  The Department of Health and Senior Services is unable to sponsor candidates or employees in their application for work visa thru INS.

AA/EEO Employer

After a long period of dissappointment for the associates with the chapter's management, a new management has been determined in the last elections at the start of this year. As a result of that, the event had a large attendance and with the great enthusiasm that characterizes any project startup.

Apart from various announcements that were made, we had two interesting lectures: "The value of project management" by Ricardo Vargas (PMI board member) and "Executive management support for project management" by Alfonso Bucero (president of Madrid's PMI chapter)

In this case, I would like to share with everyone some notes and opinions about the first of these lectures.

One of the first points stressed by Ricardo was the fact that projects are determined to failure. The entropy forces that rule our world determine that, if we don't act against them to make things happen as planned, projects will end up in failure. In fact, one of the famous Murphy's laws says: "if something can go wrong, it will go wrong".

This is much more certain nowadays because the projects that we face are more complex every day, and we also have fewer resources and time, all of that inside an environment that gets more competitive day after day.

In this scenario, to achieve success with our projects doing things right is not enough anymore... but doing the right things, which several times we have to be able to determine every moment.

Ricardo also shown several figures related to cost overruns and delays in projects along the last years, and the figures were always around a 50% for cost overruns and around a 70% for time slips. He also commented about the criticality of project management in several projects where there are much more risk factors that are not so easily mesurables. On the other hand, he commented that management costs are usually around 2% of the project budget, what strengthens even more the value of a successful management.

Therefore, project management has to evolve from being considered as a technical discipline into a strategical discipline. Quoting PMI's future vision of project management: "Worldwide, organisations will embrace, value and use project management, and will attribute their success to it".

I would like to finish with a reference that Ricardo made to Jim Collins's book "Good to Great", where he compares organisations with a bus, where we need to get the right people in before deciding where to drive it.

Taking into account that we have a laboral market in which there is a lack of skilled professionals, I believe this last issue is specially crucial for the success of any objective that we want to achieve... even though unfortunately in many organisations these ideas are not more than a mere marketing claim.

The disastrous debut of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 was a nightmare experience for all involved, but for Gabriel Mesquida it has proved a valuable live case study for his MBA dissertation.

Mesquida is a programme manager for Aena, the Spanish equivalent of British Airports Authority, that is in charge of the expansion of Barcelona’s airport. He is responsible for the coordination of projects in the information systems, communications and security programmes. His dissertation for the distance-learning MBA that he is doing at Henley Management College is on managing airports for the future, so he is watching carefully how the Terminal 5 saga unfolds.

He says: “Our terminal is similar in size to Heathrow, which is considered the plane capital of Europe, and I visited T5 several times when it was under construction. I was impressed, at the time, by how much detail they were going into over safety and they were scrupulous about everything.”

But when the terminal opened it became apparent that there would be other useful lessons to be learnt – including how to manage a meltdown. “An MBA has a foundation of theory but it should be practical, so having a live case study means you can watch events as they unfold and draw conclusions from them.”

The conclusions may be different when the case study is current rather than from a textbook comments Dr Richard Barker, director of MBA programmes at Judge Business School. He says: “One of the benefits is that you don’t know the outcome, which simulates the management situation more effectively. With a five-year-old case study there’s a result to the story which is difficult to escape. You can look at different options that management had at the time but knowing what happened influences your ability to assess the case.”

Mesquida is already putting into practice some principles of leadership from his MBA that were highlighted in the Terminal 5 episode. He says: “Resources are important, but people are far more so and leadership is everything when you have a flock of people wandering around a huge new infrastructure. However carefully you prepare, the unexpected can happen, and that is when your staff should have the flexibility to use their initiative. If the company has a blame culture people will be reluctant to take risks or do anything except cover their own backs.”

Durham University Business School uses live case studies in boardroom simulation exercises where students focus on a real company. Dr Julie Hodges, director of MBA programmes, explains: “They look at the strategic data, where the company is now, what challenges and issues it’s facing, then students come up with recommendations based on the information.” But textbook cases also have their value. “These give an historical perspective so that the issues can be put into context. More data is available and we can identify the medium and long-term lessons.”

Textbooks’ case studies are polished, tried and tested so they are easier from a teaching viewpoint. Barker points out that they are also pigeonholed into subject areas. “They may be labelled a strategy or marketing case, which isn’t always obvious when you’ re trying to deal with something in the boardroom.”

He can predict some of the labels that will be put on Terminal 5. “I see it as an operations management case – make sure your operation works before you start overloading it, or a people management case – train your people properly and handle recovery situations effectively.”

Mesquida agrees that more lessons will emerge from Terminal 5 as time goes by, but together with his MBA learning, it is already shaping his decisions for Barcelona airport. He says: “We need performance indicators and a more systemic approach. Stakeholders and users shouldn’t have the impression that you’re out of control or they’ll feel abandoned. They must be kept fully informed of what’s happening and how you plan to remedy the situation.”

Terminal 5’s launch onto the world stage may have been a fiasco but, clearly as a learning resource for business students, it will run and run.

Thank-you Widget :)

How do you specify time estimates for project activities?

From analysis,usually, single-point, most-likely estimates are used for activity duration estimating. But these estimates does not represent accurate information and it may lead to schedule overrun situation.

Project manager's ultimate goal is to create a realistic project schedule that provides a basis for monitoring project progress for the time dimension of the project. Adapting better estimating technique is needed for project success.

Three-point estimating is one of the general estimating methods that helps project managers produce better estimates. Instead of providing discrete activity duration estimates like 3-weeks, 2-days, etc., the accuracy of it can be improved by considering the amount of risk in the original estimate.

Three-point estimates are based on determining three types of estimates: optimistic, most likely and pessimistic. (i.e. Optimistic - 2 weeks, Most Likely - 4 weeks, Pessimistic - 6 weeks)

* Most likely(approx. realistic scenario): The duration of the schedule activity, given the resources likely to be assigned, their productivity, realistic expectations of availability for the schedule activity, dependencies on other participants, and interruptions.

* Optimistic(best-case scenario): The activity duration is based on a best-case scenario of what is described in the most likely estimate.

* Pessimistic(worst-case scenario): The activity duration is based on a worst-case scenario of what is described in the most likely estimate.

An activity duration estimate can be constructed by using an average of the three estimated durations. Three-point estimates are needed for PERT estimates and Monte Carlo simulations.

The PERT is a more rudimentary approach to quantitative risk analysis. PERT applies a weighted average favoring the most likely outcome: (O + 4M + P)/6

Luego de un largo período de disconformidad de los asociados con la dirección del capítulo, a principios de año ha habido elecciones y se ha renovado la dirección. Fruto de ello, el evento contó con una nutrida asistencia y con el entusiasmo de todo proyecto que comienza.

Aparte de varios anuncios que se han hecho, han habido dos charlas muy interesantes: "The value of project management" por parte de Ricardo Vargas (miembro de la junta directiva del PMI) y "El apoyo de la dirección al project management" por parte de Alfonso Bucero (presidente del capítulo de Madrid del PMI)

En este caso, me gustaría compartir con todos algunos apuntes y opiniones sobre la primera de las charlas.

Uno de los primeros puntos que comentó Ricardo fue el hecho de que los proyectos están destinados al fracaso. Las fuerzas de la entropía reinante en nuestra realidad cotidiana hacen que, si no se interpone ningún medio para que las cosas sucedan de acuerdo a lo planificado, los proyectos terminarán en fracaso. De hecho, una de las famosas leyes de Murphy dice que: "si algo puede ir mal, saldrá mal".

Esto es más cierto hoy en día dado que los proyectos a los que nos enfrentamos son cada vez más complejos, contamos además con menos recursos y tiempo, y todo eso en un entorno cada vez más competitivo.

En este escenario, para lograr el éxito de los proyectos ya no es suficiente con hacer las cosas correctamente... sino el hacer las cosas correctas, las cuales habitualmente debemos ser capaces de descubrir sobre la marcha.

Ricardo enseñó varias cifras relativas a los sobrecostes y los retrasos en los proyectos a lo largo de los últimos años, y los valores se situaban en torno a un 50% de exceso de costes y un 70% para el exceso de tiempo. También comentó la criticidad de la gestión de proyectos en muchos proyectos donde hay muchos más factores de riesgo no tan fácilmente cuantificables. Como contrapartida, comentó que el coste de gestión en promedio para un proyecto es del 2%, lo cual refuerza enormemente el valor de una correcta gestión.

Por lo tanto, la gestión de proyectos debe evolucionar de ser considerada una disciplina técnica a una disciplina estratégica. Citando explícitamente la visión de futuro del project management del PMI: "Globalmente, las organizaciones adoptarán, valorarán y utilizarán la gestión de proyectos, y le atribuirán el éxito de dichas organizaciones".

Quisiera terminar con una referencia de Ricardo al libro de Jim Collins "Good to Great", donde se plantea el símil de las organizaciones con un autobús, en el cual debemos conseguir primero a los profesionales más capacitados y luego podremos llevarlo a donde queramos.

Contando con un mercado laboral donde hay tanta escasez de recursos capacitados, creo que ésto último es especialmente crucial para el éxito de cualquier objetivo que se quiera conseguir... aunque lamentablemente en muchas compañías esas ideas no van más allá de un simple mensaje de marketing.

My offer was something like this:

I can get someone on my team to help out, but the only people with availability within this timeframe have limited to no experience with the technologies or client you are working with.  I want you to know that you will be taking on some risk.  You have estimated the effort without our involvement, and I cannot commit to having someone complete the effort in the estimated time.  Additionally, you will need to incur some overhead because this person does not have domain knowledge and they are not familiar with some of the technologies used.

The person that I was working with seemed to get perturbed and I think they thought that I was being unhelpful.  I told them that any overages due to the stated risks would need be incurred by that project.  I got the sense that they felt I was being unreasonable and that I should pay for the overhead due to new technologies with my training budget.  I disagreed.

After the meeting, I felt a sense of guilt, and wondered if I was somehow being unhelpful.  I thought about it some more and I'm sticking to my guns, I think I did the right thing.  In my opinion, too often people get themselves into trouble by not having difficult conversations like this one.

I think the best thing in this situation would be something along the lines of this:

Inform the customer that we have someone with availability to get this feature complete within their timeline, however they are new to the project and some of the technologies.  They have the core skill set and foundation to complete the work, but we need to understand the risk... this may cost more than originally estimated.  If they are uncomfortable with this, we have several options:

• Push the date back until the person originally planned to do the work becomes available
• We can pay for x number of hours of overage incurred to compensate them for this discomfort
• We can validate the estimate with the new person and provide them with an estimate that we can commit to
  

I think the worst thing to do is, not communicate the risk and cross your fingers.

Pamiętam, że wydawała mi się skomplikowana - te koszyki, skrzynki, konteksty. Dziś mam inne podejście - to nie metoda jest skomplikowana - to my ją komplikujemy.

Zaczynając od początku, czyli od skrzynek, w których gromadzimy spływające informacje. Ideałem byłaby jedna, ale w dzisiejszym świecie to nierealne - korzystamy z maila, z komórki, mamy rachunki, dokumenty, pomysły... Tylko, że sami je mnożymy. Zastanowiłam się ile mam adresów mailowych... 6. Przerażająca liczba. Ale jeden jest prywatny, o takim samym adresie od 10 lat - mają go wszyscy moi znajomi ze studiów i część ze szkoły średniej jeszcze. Inny ma oficjalny adres - do kontaktów służbowych. Jeszcze inna - półoficjalna - bo jej adres jest w różnych miejscach, więc zagrożona spamem... Na szczęście pocztę ze wszystkich ściągam do jednego programu pocztowego. Ale to działa tylko na moim prywatnym komputerze, ale już na wyjeździe nie.

A co mają zrobić osoby, które mają 12-15 adresów mailowych? Nie wierzycie? Sama znam taką osobę, więc podejrzewam, że jest ich znacznie więcej. Po co aż tyle? Osoba, o której napisałam, odpowiedziała, że właściwie nie ma pojęcia, jakoś tak samo wychodziło.

Do tego dodajmy kilka komórek (na szczęście posiadam jedną tylko :D), w każdej włączoną skrzynkę głosową. Komunikatory, gdzie każdy może zostawić nam wiadomość tekstową (a w niektórych także głosową). A to przecież nadal nie koniec - każdy dostaje tradycyjną pocztę - rachunki, listy, pocztówki. Szczególnie o tych pierwszych nie możemy zapominać...

A przecież dla niektórych z nas to nadal nie koniec - Blip, który niemal bez przerwy dostarcza wiadomości (dlatego nie mam obserwowanych osób tam, wolę czytać jak tradycyjny blog - inaczej można śledzić bez przerwy), RSSy, które czasem można przeczytać i zapomnieć, ale czasem wymagają reakcji. O czymś zapomniałam? Na pewno tak - w końcu nie korzystam z każdego źródła informacji...

Jak wspomniałam - zaczynam ograniczać swoje skrzynki. Co ciekawe - niektórych z nich mi nie brakuje. Miałam jeden adres mailowy, który służył mi tylko do newsletterów. Zlikwidowałam, gdy zorientowałam się, że większości z nich zupełnie nie czytam - 3 z nich były powieleniem RSSów, które są dla mnie znacznie szybszym i bardziej klarownym czytnikiem, z pozostałych czytałam tylko 1, który przeniosłam na inną skrzynkę. A zaprenumerowanych było... 16! W części z nich nie mogłam sobie nawet przypomnieć czemu je zaprenumerowałam kilka lat temu...

Skrzynka na rachunki to pomysł sprzed wielu lat mojego Męża - wszystko co jest rachunkiem, wpada od razu do specjalnej przeźroczystej szufladki, którą sprawdzamy raz w tygodniu, ustawiając od razu płatności z konta (bank daje nam możliwość ustawienia płatności na wiele dni naprzód - pieniądze są zablokowane, ale równocześnie są wliczane do salda). Dzięki temu - jeśli tylko poczta dostarczy nam rachunek, na pewno jest on zapłacony na czas i nie zastanawiamy się nad nim.

Natomiast na końcu zbieram wszystko w koszyk. Od kilku tygodni takim koszykiem jest dla mnie iGoogle. Mam tam kalendarz, listę Todo, widżet Toodledo (testuję go na razie, ale jak dotąd robi na mnie bardzo dobre wrażenie), notatnik klasyczny i notes na hasła - Pin a Note (brak mi tu skalowalności tego narzędzia, jak znajdę lepsze to chyba zmienię). To wszystko + Thunderbird + zwykły papierowy notes zaczyna mi coraz lepiej zbierać i panować nad różnymi spływającymi infomacjami i rzeczami do zrobienia.

So, lets get to the project management part! A playground had been reconstructed as it had been falling apart and carpenters had build a nice construction for kids to climb on and in. Now it needed paint! I volunteered without knowing what I got myself into.

Leadership Lesson number 1: Sometimes you have to go with a hunch, an intuitive itch, whether it makes sence at the time being or not.

I arrive at the playground expecting plenty of other people to be there already. Nobody is there! What to do? I found the caretaker and got the materials needed for the job from him. Then got to it my solitude.

Project Management Lesson 1: Leadership is about doing, or action. People do not do what you tell them to do, they do what you do.

I started with a few minutes walking around getting an image of what color to use where. I figured since I would be on my own I might as well put my creativity to work here. Then I stood, sat and climbed there for about 30 minutes on my own. I used the time to focus on the sunshine, on the beauty of the surroundings and the good feeling of doing a community project that kids would benefit from.

Leadership Lesson number 2: Be prepared that there will be times when you need to go somewhere where there is nobody to follow. Where you need to turn to your inner wisdom, character and drive to succeed.

All of a sudden I jolt! A man appears with the words: "I saw you out here working and thaught I would come to help". We say hello and he grabs a paintbrush. Two men of few words we get down to business with a sense of creating great things.

Leadership Lesson number 3: You might have to do it on your own for a bit, but if the task is worthwhile and makes sense, people will show up to follow you whether they know you or not.

I take the man around the construction we are decorating and share my ideas on what color to put where and why. I ask him for any input and if he agrees with the plan. He likes the concept.

Project Management Lesson 3: Involve people in the project. Do not just tell them what to do. Create mutual ownership.

Five minutes later a woman shows up and asks to be put to work. All of a sudden I develop into a project manager. Hey, I just volunteered to hold a brush, now I am some sort of a leader here. I take her around and share my plan which by now has grown to a vision for this new part of the playground. I ask her for any input and agreement. She suggests a color modification, I go with it and she agrees to get going.

Project Management Lesson 4: Sharing a vision can be a great way to lead and to get people to feel like contributing even more.

20 minutes later there are about 10 adults, of which 8 are working with me and at least a dozen kids buzzing around. I stick around for the whole day as everybody refers to me as the guy in charge and follow my lead.

Leadership Lesson number 4: It is better to prepared and not have an opportunity, than have an opportunity and not be prepared. You never know when you get promoted to leadership for a group of ten or more.

My personal approach to IT management centers around success. Most IT projects fail. Some quite spectacularly, but most in a quieter way. I believe these are the three leading contributors to failure:

Poor Project Plans and Resource Allocation

My personal experience is that most IT departments do not have a good sense for the amount of time they have to spend on IT projects. All of the data I have collected since I have been studying this suggests that only 15% to 25% of total staff time is available to work on new projects. If organizations take on more work than they can complete, everything proceeds at a snail’s pace and nothing ever truly gets done.

The only way to manage resources in a large organization is to have detailed plans for every project and to look at the resource requirements across all of your plans.

Vendor Performance

Just as IT departments over-allocate their resources, so do vendors. Vendor performance issues are usually more related to them not providing services in the time expected (or not having a common expectation with the vendor) than bad software. However, sucky software is still an issue.

Lack of Clear Expectations

If someone’s goal is just to implement some software than, in my opinion, they have failed by default. Each IT implementation should have clear business benefits and those benefits need to remain insight throught the effort.

Am I missing other common contributors to failure?

In Delphi Techique, the participants dont usually know each other, nor they have to be present at the same location.

A Moderator or project Manager will usually communicate with the participants to identify the Risk and consolidate all the risks identified by them.

This is one of the best technique of Risk identification, as the participants (not necessarily be only from project team) would not be influenced by other participants, as they usually do not know each other.

-Posted by Sundar

1. Lose focus on who the real customer is and what will make them happy. You need to be relentlessly focused on who your customer is and what they demand. In both small and large projects, it is easy to fall into the trap of internal objectives, scope decisions that are not what the customer would do. This is a common mistake of great PM's. When project success matters, it serves me to focus the team and project relentlessly on what the customer is asking for.
2. Communication flow in all directions through team, stakeholders, customers, sponsors. For successful communication plans, it is important to collaborate with the project team, customers, end users, sponsors for all impacted groups and type of information that needs to flow. It is not always your job to push communication but bottom line is you are responsible to make sure it happens and its timely and effective. It is proven statistic that it takes multiple times, in multiple methods to get the message across. Error on the side of too much than not enough as it only builds trust and alignment and contributes to gaining successful support along the way.
3. Jump into execution mode without gaining alignment, common expectations and creating plans. This is often the default for new PM but even the most experienced can fall victim. Take the time to map out the "board" of decision makers, who has influence and what you need to go to gain support. Build relationships and alignment to the project goals so there are common expectations and clear objectives. The next step is to build a plan. Taking the time to plan will reduce time later that results in thrash in implementation activities.
4. Lack of focus and strategic priorities agreed to. This can lead to trying to do too much at the same time. As the leader of the project it is your job to keep focus of the team on the right areas, remove obstacles and ensure successful payoff at end of project. This takes ruthless prioritization, this means working with the customer to be realistic when you see conflicts, making trade-off decisions and driving clear priorities that are aligned.
5. Lack of anticipation of change, future needs and the inevitable change that will occur in any project. Every project has changes, but it is easy to get caught up in the great plan that you have developed rather than all the factors that impact it. Take the time to brainstorm, gather feedback from experts on where trouble areas may be, what scenarios could occur, and anticipate what alternatives would be to stay on track. Your customers are depending on it and being prepared with a plan is critical.

What other problems have you encountered along your project journey's?