The PMI Founders

If you were at PMI’s Global Congress North America in the autumn you would have had the chance to meet the PMI Founders in person at a breakfast meeting one day during the conference.  They were very interesting people, and it’s amazing that something that started off so randomly – with little investment or appreciation of what it would become – has grown into the organisation we have now, 40 years on.  If you weren’t able to get to the Congress, you can hear what the Founders have to say about setting up PMI on this video.

Books and Chairs: Industry news

If you have been awaiting the publication of the latest revision of PRINCE2 in your language, you could be a step closer today.  PRINCE2:2009 is now available in French, German and Spanish editions.  It doesn’t look yet as if the Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 book is available in other languages – this is the book for project sponsors and project boards.  However, for project managers wanting to take the PRINCE2 exam, you can now study the Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 book in French, German or Spanish.  They  are available in both hard copy and PDF formats.

The books are:

• Exito en la Gestión de Proyectos con PRINCE2 (Spanish)
• Erfolgreiche Projekte Managen mit PRINCE2 (German)
• Réussir le Management de Projet avec PRINCE2 (French)

And they are all available from the Best Practice website, along with the English versions.

In other news, PMI has announced the re-election of Eugene (Gene) Bounds, PMP, to its Board of Directors, and this year he will sit as the Chair for 2010, after being a successful Vice-Chair this year.  He replaces Ricardo Vargas, who was the first Brazilian Chair.  The volunteer leadership Board governs PMI and is comprised of 15 elected directors-at-large, each serving three-year terms.

“PMI is fortunate to have a board of experienced and knowledgeable individuals who are willing to volunteer their time to advance the project management profession,” said Gregory Balestrero, president and CEO of PMI. “Gene’s extensive experience and steadfast leadership on project management embodies PMI’s philosophy of excellence in project management, and we look forward to his continued leadership over the next three years.”

A retired United States Air Force officer, Bounds has a long history with PMI, since joining in 1989.  He’s travelled about a bit too, being affiliated to the Mile-Hi and Pittsburgh chapters and he’s now with the Washington DC chapter.  “PMI is in a great position to lead the evolution and maturation of the global project, program and portfolio management standards,” said Bounds.  “I am honored to once again be elected to the PMI Board of Directors, and look forward to the opportunity to continue to represent members of our profession.”

I look forward to hearing Bounds speak at Congress next year – in 2010 the North American Congress will be in Washington, so he’ll be on home turf.

Book review: PMP: Project Management Professional Exam Review Guide

PMP Project Management Professional Exam Review Guide has a practical, descriptive title – and it’s a practical, descriptive book.  Kim Heldman and Vanina Mangano have written this book specifically for those project managers aiming to sit their PMP exam.  It’s structured logically, taking you through the project lifecycle.

The book starts with a review of the foundations of a project: all the basics about what constitutes a project and the project environment.  Then it gets into the detail of what PMPs need to know to manage a project from start to finish.  It covers Initiating, has a large section on Planning, followed by Executing, Monitoring and Controlling and Closing.  Finally, the book ends with an interesting section on social and professional responsibility – something all project managers, regardless of whether they choose the PMI accreditation route or not, should be interested in.

Each chapter finishes with review questions so that you can test yourself against what you have learned.  I also liked the ‘Exam Essentials’ boxes that are scattered throughout the text and highlight key pointers essential for exam success.

Overall, the book is graphically very interesting and the authors use a lot of diagrams, graphs and charts to make learning the PMP syllabus more appealing.  However, a lot of the book is made up of lists, especially inputs and outputs of processes.  This is because the book is essentially a review guide, not a comprehensive study tool by itself.  It is a partner text to the Sybex PMP: Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide, which is twice as fat.  As a result, the Review Guide covers the topics in exactly that – review format.  It’s not the most comprehensive of texts, but it is concise, which is perfect if you don’t want to carry your copy of PMBoK or the Study Guide around with you all the time.

It’s difficult to read the Review Guide from start to finish, and it probably wasn’t designed to be used that way.  This is perhaps why it has a fabulous index.  It’s not a habit of mine to praise the index in books, but I did find this one really good!

Overall,  my experience of this book is that it is solid but dry, and the review questions at the end of each chapter are the only place where you’ll find any reference to scenarios or real life.  The bulk of the text focuses squarely on getting a candidate through the exam, and it wiill certainly help do that.  It also comes with a CD, which is another learning aid.

If you are studying for the PMP exam and need a handy reference guide to the key processes, this could be a good book for you.  However, if you want to learn how to manage a project and put those skills to work in the real world, don’t start with this book.  It is good, but only for the right audience – and that’s prospective PMP candidates.

Honouring innovation projects

Mark and Ravi Kant, who collected the award

Some great projects were honoured at The Economist’s Eighth Annual Innovation Awards Ceremony recently, held in London in the Flight Gallery of the Science Museum.

It’s a unique event, focusing on the interface between innovation and business, and of course, projects are at the heart of a lot of business change and innovation.

The event was sponsored by PMI (who invited me as their guest), and Mark Langley, PMI’s executive vice president and COO, awarded the prize for Business Process Innovation to Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group.  Unfortunately, Mr Tata couldn’t be there, so Ravi Kant collected the award on his behalf.

“Innovative ideas are everywhere,” said Mark. “What we salute with the Business Process Award is rarer: the implementation, through effective projects and programs that translates ideas into lasting change. Tata Motors’ Nano challenges the way automobiles have been made and marketed for a hundred years. The application of project management is testimony to Tata Group’s record of refining its processes, from boardroom to manufacturing floor, and promises transformation of an industry facing a billion new customers over the next generation.”

It was a really interesting evening, and we learned about projects to improve water quality in developing countries, to develop sustainable energy sources, and of course the work at Tata that led to them winning their award.  Tata were honoured – with Mr Tata at the helm – for forging a company that is shaping businesses across the globe and changing the way Indian companies conduct business. The company is also responsible for inventing the Tata Nano, the world’s lowest-cost car. Innovative methods through which the car is designed and manufactured enable Tata Motors to offer a more affordable, safe and efficient form of mobility to families in emerging markets.

At the conference we could see one of the first Nano cars, ready to roll onto the streets.  Mark was speaking at the conference too, about the impact that good project management practices can have on being a more successful business.  It’s not just new products and services that move a company forward, he said.  It’s also about new business proceses “to take the friction out of the system.”  Good project management methodologies help by systemising the innovation process – you don’t have to worry about how you are going to innovate, as you already have an approach for moving a project through one phase to the next.  And portfolio management ensures that you are investing in projects that have a good potential return, and that you are using your capital effectively to take ideas to market.

4 Tips for Working with a Virtual Team

A virtual team is one where not all the team members are in the same place.  This could be across several buildings in the same town, or across several timezones.  The most extreme examples would be a ‘follow the sun’ type team, with team members in Australia, the US and Europe/Middle East/Africa.  In this team example, you will find it difficult to get all the team members together as someone will be going to bed just as someone else is getting into the office!  However, you can successfully manage virtual teams.  Here are some tips.

1.   Have a project vision

Discuss the project vision – that is, the goal, objectives, end state – with the team at the beginning of the project.  This is so that everyone understands what it is that they are aiming to achieve, and can see how their part in the project contributes to the overall end game.  This is a really key point: it is a huge benefit to a team to have a common goal, and having everyone pull in the same direction should not be underestimated as a great way to keep the project on track.  Every time someone new joins the team, or if the project vision changes for any reason, have the discussion again to be sure that you are all still aligned.  This is as true for a collacted team as for a virtual team.

2.   Recognise individual differences

Not everyone communicates in the same way.  And in a virtual team, you can guarantee that most of your communication will be in writing – email, fax, documents, IM and so on.  Understand that people are different. Who is not so good in the mornings?  Who doesn’t have English as their first language?  Also take these points into consideration on conference calls, where you can’t see the body language of your colleagues.  As the project manager, make sure that on a call you encourage participation from everyone.

3.   Think about your motivational strategies

How are you going to keep this team together and on track?  People partake in projects for various reasons, most commonly because they think it will be good for their career, or because they didn’t have a choice.  Regardless, you need to consider how you are going to ensure that everyone gets the motivation they require to keep plodding on.  Consider especially those people who find it hard to work in a virtual environment – in Myers-Briggs Type Indicator terms, these people probably have type ‘E’ in their profiles.  If you gain your motivation and energy from being around others, a virtual environment is going to rob you of that contact with your team, so you should work out how else to bring that feeling into your day job to ensure your motivation doesn’t flag.  Talk to your team about how they are motivated – together and individually – to establish how best you can make the virtual environment work for them.

4.   Communicate effectively

This sounds obvious, doesn’t it?  It should do.  Communication across a virtual team is different to in a collacted team.  You can’t just all up and go out for lunch, or sit in a meeting room for two hours thrashing out the finer points of your project requirements document.  Think about the different communication tools that you use, and work out how best to adopt new ones to manage your non-collacted team.  And review constantly:  try something and if it doesn’t work, change it.  For example, pick the best time for your weekly project progress calls, but if it doesn’t seem like the best time for everyone after a couple of weeks, open it up to the team and ask them to suggest a better arrangement. Then act on it!

Tomorrow I will look at three more tips for managing virtual teams successfully.

These tips are based on my notes from a presentation by Dr Ginger Levin, PMP, PgMP at the PMI Global Congress North America in October 2009, with some of my own thoughts thrown in.