Last week I spoke at Madison, WI InBusiness Annual Expo, on the topic of Improving Project Management. Not something I'll do again.
I am writing from the PMI Global Congress in Dallas - first time I've attended one of these without being a speaker. No pressure! This is the PM profession's Big Dance. Watching the PMIEF award presentations now - had lunch with one of the presenters.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Evil Boss Story and PMI NA GC
Want to share a true story of an evil boss while on a break during PMI NA GC:
True Story of an Evil Boss
Someone very close to me works for a major university's school of medicine. She coordinates medical research for multiple doctors. She and her colleagues are highly educated researchers and nurse-practitioners, and their job also involves a lot of project management. She and her immediate supervisor report to the head of the whole school of medicine at this university - a doctor and very demanding boss - how demanding, I am about to tell you.
A couple of weeks ago, the immediate supervisor had acute appendicitis and had emergency surgery when it ruptured. Her appendix ruptured before it could be removed because, despite being doubled over in pain, she did not feel that she could leave work because of her workload and the demands put on her by her boss (the head of the school of medicine).
If your appendix ruptures, you often develop a systemic infection called peritonitis. The ruptured appendix spills poison into your body cavity, and unless immediately controlled with heavy doses of antibiotics, you can die. So, when this gal's appendix ruptured, she had the emergency surgery and was then hospitalized to recover and undergo rounds of antibiotic therapy to fight the infection boiling in her abdomen.
Day after the surgery, this gal's boss, the head of the school of medicine, came up to visit her and see how she was doing. How she was doing was "bad" - imagine having an infection in your guts so bad that the doctors are contemplating putting a drain in you so the goo can seep out. Keep in mind that the boss, the head of the school of medicine, is a doctor. However, seeing that she was conscious and upright, she said "oh, you can work - we should get you your laptop." Fortunately another doctor in the room nixed that idea.
This and the other stories I've heard about this boss (never refusing a new project but won't add sufficient staff, refusing to prioritize projects so that her people are getting barked at equally by all of their study sponsors and doctors) are great reminders that there are still a lot of really clueless people who rise to positions of authority. They have great drive and talent in specific areas, but somehow get the idea that the rest of humanity is there to serve them and their egos.
True Story of an Evil Boss
Someone very close to me works for a major university's school of medicine. She coordinates medical research for multiple doctors. She and her colleagues are highly educated researchers and nurse-practitioners, and their job also involves a lot of project management. She and her immediate supervisor report to the head of the whole school of medicine at this university - a doctor and very demanding boss - how demanding, I am about to tell you.
A couple of weeks ago, the immediate supervisor had acute appendicitis and had emergency surgery when it ruptured. Her appendix ruptured before it could be removed because, despite being doubled over in pain, she did not feel that she could leave work because of her workload and the demands put on her by her boss (the head of the school of medicine).
If your appendix ruptures, you often develop a systemic infection called peritonitis. The ruptured appendix spills poison into your body cavity, and unless immediately controlled with heavy doses of antibiotics, you can die. So, when this gal's appendix ruptured, she had the emergency surgery and was then hospitalized to recover and undergo rounds of antibiotic therapy to fight the infection boiling in her abdomen.
Day after the surgery, this gal's boss, the head of the school of medicine, came up to visit her and see how she was doing. How she was doing was "bad" - imagine having an infection in your guts so bad that the doctors are contemplating putting a drain in you so the goo can seep out. Keep in mind that the boss, the head of the school of medicine, is a doctor. However, seeing that she was conscious and upright, she said "oh, you can work - we should get you your laptop." Fortunately another doctor in the room nixed that idea.
This and the other stories I've heard about this boss (never refusing a new project but won't add sufficient staff, refusing to prioritize projects so that her people are getting barked at equally by all of their study sponsors and doctors) are great reminders that there are still a lot of really clueless people who rise to positions of authority. They have great drive and talent in specific areas, but somehow get the idea that the rest of humanity is there to serve them and their egos.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Fun updates
I'll be presenting Tools and Tactics for Recovering Troubled Projects at the PMI Global Congress later this month. I've been adding more content and activities for Agile projects to this course - I'm looking forward to the latest iteration.
Last week I was at University of Wisconsin E-Business Consortium's annual IT conference. The keynote was the CEO of Macys.com, Peter Sasche. Great presentation - eye-opening in how we as both providers and consumers of information and technology need to adapt, innovate. Very interesting perspectives on the role of IT - yet another senior marketing and technology exec predicting that IT departments will go away and we will see corporate computing as a utility... This has been a prediction for awhile now - unlike power, which does not contain trade secrets and proprietary data, IT does - companies will remain fearful of not having ownership and control on their premises.
Great points on the convergence of search and social media as well as analytics and collaboration. More data, more channels, more ways to interact with customers means more interesting projects.
I'm planning on taking advice from Michael Lopp (Rands in Repose) and staking out turf at a bar at PMI Global Congress, sending out invites through various social media, and seeing who shows up. See you there?
Last week I was at University of Wisconsin E-Business Consortium's annual IT conference. The keynote was the CEO of Macys.com, Peter Sasche. Great presentation - eye-opening in how we as both providers and consumers of information and technology need to adapt, innovate. Very interesting perspectives on the role of IT - yet another senior marketing and technology exec predicting that IT departments will go away and we will see corporate computing as a utility... This has been a prediction for awhile now - unlike power, which does not contain trade secrets and proprietary data, IT does - companies will remain fearful of not having ownership and control on their premises.
Great points on the convergence of search and social media as well as analytics and collaboration. More data, more channels, more ways to interact with customers means more interesting projects.
I'm planning on taking advice from Michael Lopp (Rands in Repose) and staking out turf at a bar at PMI Global Congress, sending out invites through various social media, and seeing who shows up. See you there?
Monday, September 12, 2011
Better doing than writing about it, I guess...
Being way current and visible on all forms of social media is the 2011 equivalent of being all over the Web in the late 1990's. The difference, I am finding, is that I am too busy DOING to write well and meaningfully about WHAT I am doing. And I refuse to Twitter.
As a consequence, my last blog post here was nine months ago. It is interesting to go back and recall what I was up to at that point and what spurred me to write. Glad it mostly passed.
I should be pleased these days. Back in 2006, I started a Project Management Community of Practice at my main job. It took root and was active for about a year or so. Since I was the only one really organizing it, when I became very busy in early 2008, it kind of faded. I and some others had hoped then that it would take root and spur the growth of project management as an important business practice here.
It took awhile, but it seems this has finally happened. The company is continuing to grow and expand physically and into other markets, and our senior leadership is seeing the need to get leverage project management. We've also finished the first phase of our SAP implementation. As a result, we've added project managers in areas that have not had them before.
With all of these PMs around, the CEO sees a need for some common discussions and understanding of how to do project management, and directed a PM in another area (closer to our core functions - I work in IT) to resurrect the PMCOP I had started. Good news.
On other fronts, I am pleased to be busier than ever teaching and speaking. I continue to teach for UW-Platteville in the finest PM master's degree program in the world. It's also great to be back at UW-Madison Exec Ed on a long-term basis, teaching an online course for them as well as developing an Agile Project Management seminar we will start running later this fall.
I continue to work with UC-Irvine and Lakeland College, and periodic SeminarsWorld presentations for PMI rounds out the schedule. I continue to bang away on a book here and there. I've threatened to put some sample chapters out here at some point - watch this space.
As a consequence, my last blog post here was nine months ago. It is interesting to go back and recall what I was up to at that point and what spurred me to write. Glad it mostly passed.
I should be pleased these days. Back in 2006, I started a Project Management Community of Practice at my main job. It took root and was active for about a year or so. Since I was the only one really organizing it, when I became very busy in early 2008, it kind of faded. I and some others had hoped then that it would take root and spur the growth of project management as an important business practice here.
It took awhile, but it seems this has finally happened. The company is continuing to grow and expand physically and into other markets, and our senior leadership is seeing the need to get leverage project management. We've also finished the first phase of our SAP implementation. As a result, we've added project managers in areas that have not had them before.
With all of these PMs around, the CEO sees a need for some common discussions and understanding of how to do project management, and directed a PM in another area (closer to our core functions - I work in IT) to resurrect the PMCOP I had started. Good news.
On other fronts, I am pleased to be busier than ever teaching and speaking. I continue to teach for UW-Platteville in the finest PM master's degree program in the world. It's also great to be back at UW-Madison Exec Ed on a long-term basis, teaching an online course for them as well as developing an Agile Project Management seminar we will start running later this fall.
I continue to work with UC-Irvine and Lakeland College, and periodic SeminarsWorld presentations for PMI rounds out the schedule. I continue to bang away on a book here and there. I've threatened to put some sample chapters out here at some point - watch this space.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Why does everyone think they know how to do my job?
OR "I don't tell you how to declare variables, don't tell me how to quantify schedule risks!"
Rant time! Have you ever noticed that project management is one of those jobs everyone thinks they know how to do? So, I don't tell software developers how to write code, nor do I typically tell my senior managers how to manage (although I've had all their jobs), but I'll regularly get told about where the critical path is, or that my approach to quantifying risks is flawed, or have a group of functional managers looking over my shoulder.
First: In my considerable experience, anytime a non-project manager uses the words "critical path" in a sentence, it is almost guaranteed they've never been in project management or had formal project management training(or they are frustrated aspiring PMs who didn't get the last open PM job).
Next - software developers and creative types hate to be pinned down to commitments to finish tasks, and so when hammering out a schedule, there will always be reasons why the plan you developed is wrong and they will need to redo it for you (instead of writing code).
Lastly, when deep in the throes of developing the latest version of the project plan and schedule, project team members and functional managers alike will pull you aside into earnest meetings on why management's/the team's approach to the project is wrong and will result in disaster (again, instead of making actual progress on their tasks).
My boss says that project management is the hardest job there is, and in some respects he's right! I used to feel mildly guilty about earning what I do for the type of project management work that I do these days, but damn, when I am getting advice, direction or objections from people who all know project management in addition to their own jobs, I earn every penny!
Phillip Diab, MBA, PMP had an interesting blog post recently about PMs getting no respect. In it, he had the following interesting points:
“Management” has to accept some of the responsibility for these challenges. Typically what I’ve seen is that there are contributing factors that cause a lack of respect for PMs and the profession. They stem from:
Lack of understanding what project management is and what the project manager does.
Improper expectations of project managers stemming from the lack of understanding.
Inability to set a clear and communicable strategy and objectives to help drive the organizational projects.
Vagueness in terms of responsibility, accountability, and authority in decision making.
Poor leadership skills in terms of motivating employees and aligning them with proper expectations.
By itself, the PMP certification or other credentials mean little without the braid of experience to back them up. But an experienced PM with a solid PM educational foundation has a real deep bag of tricks to work with, just like an experienced software developer, graphic designer, videographer, etc.
So, if you hire a PMP with a decent resume, consider stepping back and letting her or him do their thing. They might surprise you.
Rant time! Have you ever noticed that project management is one of those jobs everyone thinks they know how to do? So, I don't tell software developers how to write code, nor do I typically tell my senior managers how to manage (although I've had all their jobs), but I'll regularly get told about where the critical path is, or that my approach to quantifying risks is flawed, or have a group of functional managers looking over my shoulder.
First: In my considerable experience, anytime a non-project manager uses the words "critical path" in a sentence, it is almost guaranteed they've never been in project management or had formal project management training(or they are frustrated aspiring PMs who didn't get the last open PM job).
Next - software developers and creative types hate to be pinned down to commitments to finish tasks, and so when hammering out a schedule, there will always be reasons why the plan you developed is wrong and they will need to redo it for you (instead of writing code).
Lastly, when deep in the throes of developing the latest version of the project plan and schedule, project team members and functional managers alike will pull you aside into earnest meetings on why management's/the team's approach to the project is wrong and will result in disaster (again, instead of making actual progress on their tasks).
My boss says that project management is the hardest job there is, and in some respects he's right! I used to feel mildly guilty about earning what I do for the type of project management work that I do these days, but damn, when I am getting advice, direction or objections from people who all know project management in addition to their own jobs, I earn every penny!
Phillip Diab, MBA, PMP had an interesting blog post recently about PMs getting no respect. In it, he had the following interesting points:
“Management” has to accept some of the responsibility for these challenges. Typically what I’ve seen is that there are contributing factors that cause a lack of respect for PMs and the profession. They stem from:
Lack of understanding what project management is and what the project manager does.
Improper expectations of project managers stemming from the lack of understanding.
Inability to set a clear and communicable strategy and objectives to help drive the organizational projects.
Vagueness in terms of responsibility, accountability, and authority in decision making.
Poor leadership skills in terms of motivating employees and aligning them with proper expectations.
By itself, the PMP certification or other credentials mean little without the braid of experience to back them up. But an experienced PM with a solid PM educational foundation has a real deep bag of tricks to work with, just like an experienced software developer, graphic designer, videographer, etc.
So, if you hire a PMP with a decent resume, consider stepping back and letting her or him do their thing. They might surprise you.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
How do they find the time?
I'm a fan of LinkedIn, to a point... It is great to be able to form connections with people that I've known for years as well as people I met more recently in teaching and speaking. Some of the groups crack me up, though. I recently joined one based on the invite from the founder, who is a prominent member of PMI. I need to revisit my settings, because the posts coming into this thing are frequent and loonnnggg.
As I read these well-developed, lengthy philosophical discourses on whether mid-sized projects and organizations require or should use scaled project management approaches, I ask myself "how do they find the time to write this?" I work at a mid-size company - I'm leading a website development project (redoing the whole site, front to back) within the context of a larger ERP implementation, and I sure don't have time to write paragraphs on methodology in the middle of the workday!
I just joined another group, and the first post I saw was something about "what killed waterfall could kill agile." Hello - Waterfall is not dead, will never die - and neither will Agile. Old project management methodologies never die, they just become less sexy. As project managers, do not get tied to a methodology. If you cannot adapt your approach to fit the project, if you cannot flex to apply the best tactics and strategy to the organizational project context, you are in trouble.
A bright consultant I know, Robert Merrill, said something like "the difference between methodology zealots and terrorists is that you can sometimes negotiate with terrorists." That's funny... and too true. Don't be a methodology zealot - you'll be boring, inflexible, and perhaps soon unemployed.
Oh, and I am writing this really early in the morning. Watch for sample chapters from my book soon!
As I read these well-developed, lengthy philosophical discourses on whether mid-sized projects and organizations require or should use scaled project management approaches, I ask myself "how do they find the time to write this?" I work at a mid-size company - I'm leading a website development project (redoing the whole site, front to back) within the context of a larger ERP implementation, and I sure don't have time to write paragraphs on methodology in the middle of the workday!
I just joined another group, and the first post I saw was something about "what killed waterfall could kill agile." Hello - Waterfall is not dead, will never die - and neither will Agile. Old project management methodologies never die, they just become less sexy. As project managers, do not get tied to a methodology. If you cannot adapt your approach to fit the project, if you cannot flex to apply the best tactics and strategy to the organizational project context, you are in trouble.
A bright consultant I know, Robert Merrill, said something like "the difference between methodology zealots and terrorists is that you can sometimes negotiate with terrorists." That's funny... and too true. Don't be a methodology zealot - you'll be boring, inflexible, and perhaps soon unemployed.
Oh, and I am writing this really early in the morning. Watch for sample chapters from my book soon!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Taiwan and NYC
You should have seen the size of the frog's legs I had in Taiwan... my hosts didn't think I knew what they were, but I did. They really do taste like chicken - bad, dark meat, like Copps-broasted fried chicken. I mostly fulfilled my self-promise not to eat anything western while in Taipei, although at the height of Typhoon Megi's torrential rains, so help me I did get Haagen-Daz and Pringles from the 7-11 across the street from my hotel.
Anyway - my students in Taipei all needed this course to graduate with their master's degree in project management from International University of Monaco, and were well-prepared and attentive. It was interesting to see the similarities in project management whether practiced in Taiwan, China or the United States. Seems we all have problems with unreasonable sponsors and stakeholders, challenging team members and how to best balance theory and practical application of the PMBOK process areas.
It was an amazing trip, and a tremendous learning experience. Aside from teaching, my hosts took me to the National Palace Museum. Look this up - the history of this museum is almost too stunning to comprehend. On another scale, the same applies to the 2nd tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. The shopping mall there was identical to any you'd find in, say downtown Chicago, but Taipei 101 is taller than the Sears Tower and truly awe-inspiring, even when the views are diminished by typhoon rains.
Just last week I presented my final SeminarsWorld of the year in New York City. PMI outdid themselves by selecting the Mariott Marquis right on Times Square for the location. Had a full load of 30 people for Tools and Tactics for Recovering Troubled Projects. I hadn't been to NYC since before 9/11, and it was fantastic to be there again, and to get more feedback from a diverse group of students from Colombia, the Netherlands, Norway as well as across the United States.
Closer to home I spoke at Milwaukee PMI's Professional Development Day on November 8. This chapter always draws good attendance for their events, and so we had a large room for my talk on "When Agendas Override Objectives" case study. Time to retire that one, except for when it appears in my book. Yes, I've been working on a book for about two years now. It's a collection of essays detailing my career in project management and providing case studies and lessons learned for many of the more interesting projects I managed along the way. And I've had more than my share of interesting projects.
Anyway - my students in Taipei all needed this course to graduate with their master's degree in project management from International University of Monaco, and were well-prepared and attentive. It was interesting to see the similarities in project management whether practiced in Taiwan, China or the United States. Seems we all have problems with unreasonable sponsors and stakeholders, challenging team members and how to best balance theory and practical application of the PMBOK process areas.
It was an amazing trip, and a tremendous learning experience. Aside from teaching, my hosts took me to the National Palace Museum. Look this up - the history of this museum is almost too stunning to comprehend. On another scale, the same applies to the 2nd tallest building in the world, Taipei 101. The shopping mall there was identical to any you'd find in, say downtown Chicago, but Taipei 101 is taller than the Sears Tower and truly awe-inspiring, even when the views are diminished by typhoon rains.
Just last week I presented my final SeminarsWorld of the year in New York City. PMI outdid themselves by selecting the Mariott Marquis right on Times Square for the location. Had a full load of 30 people for Tools and Tactics for Recovering Troubled Projects. I hadn't been to NYC since before 9/11, and it was fantastic to be there again, and to get more feedback from a diverse group of students from Colombia, the Netherlands, Norway as well as across the United States.
Closer to home I spoke at Milwaukee PMI's Professional Development Day on November 8. This chapter always draws good attendance for their events, and so we had a large room for my talk on "When Agendas Override Objectives" case study. Time to retire that one, except for when it appears in my book. Yes, I've been working on a book for about two years now. It's a collection of essays detailing my career in project management and providing case studies and lessons learned for many of the more interesting projects I managed along the way. And I've had more than my share of interesting projects.
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