Technology as a Change Agent

A major feature of information technology is the changes that IT brings. Those who speak of a revolution from technology are really talking about change. Business and economic conditions change all the time; a revolution is a discontinuity, an abrupt and dramatic series of changes in the natural evolution of economies. In the early days of technology, change was gradual and often not particularly significant. The advent of personal computers accelerated the pace of change, and when the Internet became available for profit-making activities around 1992, change became exponential and revolutionary…eventually bringing us to where we are today. To a great extent, any study of information technology is a study of change.

In what way can and does technology change the world around us? The impact of IT is broad and diverse; some of the changes it brings are profound. Information technology has demonstrated an ability to change or create the following:

Project management – Online collaborative tools bring diverse and virtual teams close together for productive and team-focused activities. Electronic communication, videoconferencing, web-based meetings, etc. of eliminated distance as a factor bring teams and the customer together on a moment’s notice.

Within organizations – Creating new procedures, workflows, workgroups, the knowledge base, products and services, and communications.

Organizational structure – Facilitating new reporting relationships, increased spans of control, local decision rights, supervision, the formation of divisions, geographic scope, and “virtual” organizations.

Interorganizational relations – Creating new customer-supplier relations, partnerships, and alliances.

The economy – Altering the nature of markets through electronic commerce, disintermediation, new forms of marketing and advertising, partnerships and alliances, the cost of transactions, and modes of governance in customer-supplier relationships.

Education – Enhancing “on campus” education through videoconferencing, e-mail, electronic meetings, groupware, and electronic guest lectures. Facilitating distance learning through online courses, e-mail, groupware, and videoconferencing. Providing access to vast amounts of reference material; facilitating collaborative projects independent of time zones and distance.

National development – Providing small companies with international presence and facilitating commerce.

Technology has been changing the way we live and do business our entire lives and the change pace has stepped up significantly in the last 15-20 years. As project managers, we try to not only use this technology to our customer’s advantage on new engagements but also to our own advantage as we bring our teams and customers closer together in terms of communication, collaboration and overall project strategizing.

We all use web meetings, video conferencing, teleconferencing, and collaborative tools. If there’s anything truly unique that you’ve done or utilized as a project manager in moving your projects forward or bringing your team together, please share it here by commenting.

What is Story Points?

Recently I held a presentation on this topic, and later produced a blog post about it on my Scrum blog http://scrumftw.blogspot.com. I’m very interested to hear from readers in this forum about the subject.

Traditionally, the aim has been to try to estimate time by looking intensely at a problem (or a task, activity, requirement,…) – so traditionally there’s a lot of effort spent on breakdown, analysis & estimation. But at the same time, we all know that estimating time is very hard and often pretty inaccurate – because software development is research-oriented and there are things that surface only once we start digging in, which then change the picture. We all know this – yet those time estimates tend to become commitments down the line.

I argue that it’s not only the problem (task, activity, requirement,…) that is hard to foretell; the environment where we solve the problem also has a significant effect on the amount of time it will take to complete. And often the environment is much harder to foretell than the problem itself. So, in the end it doesn’t matter how long time you spend analyzing, you will still have a large unknown in the shape of the environment.

The point I want to make is that estimating in Story Points is about recognizing that Time is a result of the Size of a problem solved within a certain Context.
Time = Size x Context

Story Points is a unit for representing Size. This way Context becomes something we can grasp by comparing Size to Time – which is why we measure Velocity

Random News Stories

20 Scenes From Project & Portfolio Management Summit

Everything Channel’s Project & Portfolio Management Summit headed to Southern California last week where the hot topics of discussion included the use of PPM technology to help bring IT costs under control. Pictured here are the much-coveted awards. Following are a look at the show highlights and the winners of this year’s Project & Portfolio Management Summit Innovation Awards.

Slides and Images here…

Project Management Institute and FICCI Sign MoU to Advance the Discipline of Project Management in India

New Delhi, India – Project Management Institute (PMI), the world’s leading not-for-profit professional association for the project management profession and FICCI, India’s apex business organization, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to advance the discipline and practice of project management in India. The MoU aims to advocate, promote and institutionalize project management across government agencies, public sector enterprises and organizations.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities -across sectors like infrastructure, engineering, IT, defense and aerospace, pharmaceuticals among others – in order to ensure that the projects are completed and delivered on time and within budget and to meet the objectives for which they were intended.

Project management becomes critical given the Indian government’s focus on fast tracking infrastructure projects and to meet the growth objectives outlined in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The MoU covers developing special training modules for government and public sector units on project management. Further, the MoU will enable FICCI access to PMI’s globally developed project management standards, publications and case studies. The agreement also enables the two organizations to share information, conduct joint research and promote the discipline of project management through joint seminars, conferences and through other platforms.

Read the full story here..

CAT, CMCS tie up to boost project monitoring

The Contracting and Trading (CAT) Group has entered into a partnership with Collaboration, Management & Control Solutions (CMCS) to help enhance project monitoring and control processes throughout its Middle East and global operations.

CAT is a leading general contractor providing integrated procurement and construction services in the Middle East, African and European regions.

The partnership, which seeks to meet the highly demanding nature of complex construction, infrastructure and oil & gas projects of CAT Group, is a strategic move that complements the predicted 33 per cent growth in the oil & gas sector by the end of 2009.

Under the terms of the agreement, CMCS will help provide vital project management software like Hard Dollar Cost Estimation, Control and Management, Primavera Project Portfolio Management and Primavera Contract Management for CAT Group projects that commonly utilize heavy machinery, diverse multiple resources and run over a long period.

Implementation of the different software will be complemented by special training sessions, licensed accreditations, and consultancy services to be administered chiefly in CAT Group’s headquarters in Beirut and its other branches spread across the globe.

The company is currently ranked 95 in Engineering News Record’s (ENR) international list of top 100 contractors.

Read the story here..

Best Practice Showcase: it’s not too late to attend!

The Best Practice Showcase 2009 is taking place here in London at the QEII Centre this month on Tuesday 23 June 2009.  It’s been running for 7 years, and is billed as the UK’s number one event for project, programme and risk managers with over 2800 satisfied delegates to date.

I attended last year and there were many interesting stalls and presenters; the break out sessions I attended were particularly good, although you have to get in early to book a place.  And the best thing is that it’s free!

The organisers have added some new things for 2009:

• 20% more “Birds of a Feather” sessions. A large body of research now recognises that a learning environment with real interaction is far more effective than straight lectures. The “Birds of Feather” workshops at Best Practice Showcase have always been the most popular feature of the event so this year there are five rather than four BoF sessions (and still finishing at the reasonable time of 16:30).

• Repeated BoF sessions throughout the day. Delegate comments from last year indicated that people were often disappointed because two sessions that they would have liked to have attended were scheduled at the same time. To reduce the likelihood of session clashes the programme has been planned this year so that a number of BoF sessions are repeated throughout the day, ensuring that if you miss the first session you can catch the repeat later on.

• Comfortable areas to sit down and eat lunch. In the past they tried to create an easy atmosphere for networking at lunchtime by ensuring that lunch was eaten standing up – but that’s impractical, especially once you have your conference bag in hand.  At the event this year there will be ample space at laid tables for sitting down to eat lunch.

In addition to the BoF sessions this year there will be:

• Over 100 different sessions focusing on project, programme and risk management
• Over 25 training companies, specialist consultancies and software companies in the project, programme and risk management arena
• The opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and share experiences (this is one of the big perks, especially as the event is free)

The full programme is now available – so have a look and if you are in London come along!  Reserve your place now at www.bestpracticeshowcase.com