Lee's Latest

noreply@blogger.com (Lee's latest) — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:31:00 +0000

You're a PMP, But...Are You a Project Management Professional?
By Lee R. Lambert, PMP, CEO
Lambert Consulting Group

Originally published in PM WORLD TODAY – VIEWPOINTS – MAY 2008

In the last five months I have had the opportunity to speak to over 2,000 Project management Professionals (PMPs) in Anaheim, Hartford and Orlando. During those sessions I conducted non-scientific polls to determine the depth and breadth of the application of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) standards to which this group had been tested for this prestigious professional certification.

Frankly, I was shocked with the results of my simple survey. Fundamentally, I sought two pieces of input: 1) how many of the PMPs were consistently utilizing the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) as described in PMBOK on their projects and; 2) how many were implementing the Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) using the WBS Work Packages to determine logic relationships/work flow.

When asked to simply raise their hand if their response to my verbal query was affirmative, the data distribution among the 2,000 plus respondents was as follows:

WBS--a total of 31 (less than 2%) PMPs raised their hands
PDM--a total of 19 (less than 1%) PMPs raised their hands

Interpretation: As a profession, we’ve got a problem! We have far too many individuals who have worked hard, attended the best project management training and invested time and money in earning their PMP credential but now are admittedly not adhering to the very standards to which they were tested and should be held accountable.

The reason I chose the WBS and PDM as the basis for my study was that these two concepts are at the heart of successful project management. Without proper and dedicated attention to developing these two "products" from the myriad tools and techniques available to today’s project management professional in planning and executing a project, the reality is the rest may well be "smoke and mirrors."

First, let’s examine the potential of the proper use of the WBS.

Most PMPs would admit that one of the biggest challenges facing them in successfully delivering the traditional triple constraint is the lack of clarity of scope definition and/or requirements clarification. The careful use of the WBS concept will reduce or eliminate this problem by providing the framework to decompose the work/deliverables to a size that significantly enhances the clarity and articulation of expectations among all involved parties--thus creating the basis for one of the most important components of PM--measurement of status/accomplishment over time. The smaller the work package, the more precisely status can be measured based upon objective indicator milestones with designated completion criteria.

Additionally, the more clarity in the work content/requirements the more effectively "skill set match" can be achieved and the impacts of skill set mismatch caused by resource capability/availability constraints can be evaluated and the impact on the project’s timing and cost can be calculated using:

Duration Impact: (Effort/Productivity) divided by Resource Availability Cost Impact:
Effort/Productivity X Resource Rate

The benefits of the well developed WBS are not limited to an individual project. The Enterprise Project benefits become obvious as individual project data can be "merged" to facilitate project prioritization based on resource capacity and work load conditions which can be quickly assessed and vital decisions made as to resource assignments based on mission critical projects criteria. Add to all of these advantages of the effective implementation of the WBS concept the significantly improved ability to identify and manage change as it occurs on the project and you can begin to see why the WBS is at the heart of productive use of the project management process.

Now, let’s examine the benefits associated with the appropriate use of the PDM concept. The only way to reliably determine the duration of any project is to develop a realistic work flow built upon the WBS work package output. The PDM allows the project manager to articulate the output-input relationships of all work content. Once the basic "logic" of the work flow is established, estimated durations are assigned to each work package (based on the resources assigned or the best resource assignment assumptions) thus enabling a forward pass/backward pass to be completed. PDM is NOT a Bar Chart. Bar Charts are created as an output of a well developed PDM!

Once the "foundational" logic network is created, the ability to optimize work flow relationships and assess impacts of resource "bait and switch" decisions, modification of logic relationships-- such as overlapping or fast-tracking is obvious. Additionally, the impacts of the work package’s actual status as the project evolves can be input and a meaningful "cause and effect" analysis can be accomplished to determine the need for further optimization or corrective action to assure the project’s schedule remains achievable. These actions include decisions regarding the determination of float utilization and the assessment of the potential for any given float path becoming a NEW critical path.

Add to these benefits, the Enterprise advantage of being able to significantly improve the ability to manage a fixed resource base in a multi-project, shared-resource and or constrained resource environment that results from the "merging" of individual project PDM information into an Enterprise-wide resource utilization data base. Using the WBS and PDM tools of our trade is NOT an option! If we are to provide the perceived (expected) benefits associated with the earning of the PMP designation, then we must practice what we preach. We must become proactive in proving the value of using the tools of the trade--not just talking about them.

PMPs must lead the way in transforming great training into even greater action on their projects. The PMP must make a concerted effort to educate up the organization to assure the critical decision makers are aware of the substantial benefits to be realized from using the fundamental tools of the profession--the WBS and PDM.

PM Unplugged

noreply@blogger.com (Lee's latest) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 04:10:00 +0000

Project Management Unplugged
Unplug the amps and get back to our roots.
By Lee R. Lambert, PMP, CEO

In 2000, the soundtrack from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? captured the attention of the listening public, earning award after award. Although the music was old-style, grounded in our heritage, the sounds were new to today's sensibilities and soothing to our ears. People who had listened to and come to accept hard rock hype, pyrotechnics, and amplification in their music tuned into the back-to-our-roots acoustic sounds of Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Dan Tyminski and bluegrass music icon Ralph Stanley. The popularity of O Brother led a resurgence in this type of music and proved that it wasn't necessary to rely on bells-'n-whistles to get your message across, that you can be just as effective without the plethora of automated gadgets.

So what does music have to do with project management, and whether or not it is plugged in (amplified) or acoustic (basic)?

During my 40+ years in the profession of Project Management everything has changed and yet everything has stayed the same. When I started my career as a team member on cryogenic liquid storage tank projects for Chicago Bridge and Iron in 1966, I was required to prepare my task list and estimate how much effort it would take and how much money it would cost to complete each assigned task. Today, every project manager prepares a task list (Work Breakdown Structure) and estimates how much effort it would take and how much money it will cost to complete each task.

In 1966 I was required to establish a workflow (precedent diagram) to define what tasks must be completed before other tasks could begin so that I could determine a project delivery date. Project managers today are asked to do the same: take the WBS tasks that must be completed before other tasks can begin and create a workflow that will identify a project delivery date.

In 1966 the output of all this definition and planning was a timeline for the completion of individual tasks and a projected end date for each stand-alone project. Today, the project manager's effort in this area produces a timeline for the completion of individual tasks and a projected end date for each stand-alone project. During the past 36 years the entire world around the project management process has experienced incredible change, primarily brought about by the introduction of personal computers and the advancements in information technology, but in the world of project management process, everything has actually stayed pretty much the same.

The Powerful Amps Around Us

In 1966 we did project management the old-fashioned way--manually, acoustically. We worked for what seemed endless hours preparing project plans, gathering actual information, projecting outcomes, and finally making well-thought-out decisions, which sometimes led to needed changes. Now, 36 years later, these painstaking chores have been all but eliminated. Today we have the power of automation and amplification to take away the drudgery of the manual preparation and manipulation of data that project managers translate into the information necessary to support the project management decision-making process.

But also, thanks to computers and the myriad software options that continue to increase at an exponential rate, we have empowered ourselves with the ability to prepare and deliver bad project information faster. Some might say, the only thing that has really changed is that automation has provided us with the opportunity to create the illusion of efficient and effective project management--more data, faster data, colored data. Every experienced project manager knows that a mess automated is nothing more than an automated mess. You can plug in the amps and rev up the sound and still not have good music. And a fool with an automated tool is still a fool!

Is automation the silver bullet in the project manager's arsenal, as many choose to believe? Experienced, battle-tested project managers would suggest, perhaps even confirm, that there is no silver bullet. But, even if automation were this proverbial magic bullet, my observations indicate that we might very well be using it to shoot off our own project management "foot."

The Bigger, Basic Power Within Us

I think it is time to implement a novel approach to project management in the 2000s. I believe it is time to go back to our roots, back to the basics, back to using our brain to solve problems--back to acoustic project management.

I am convinced that until we realize that project management--especially the definition and planning of projects--is time-consuming, hands-on, hard work that demands realistic, thought-provoking, considerations by real, live people with relevant experience, we will not school ourselves to think through our processes before we make project management decisions. If what appears almost to be an obsession with automation continues uncontrolled, the plight of the new-age project manager may well be attempting to make sense of beneficial business decisions based upon bigger and bigger automated messes!

In our rush to embrace the concept of data automation as the answer to our project management woes, an unusual phenomenon seems to be evolving: The more comprehensive and feature-rich the automated system becomes, the more excuses project managers find not to use it; or worse, they find opportunities to blame the software for failing to properly manage their project. So, if automation, amplification, is not the silver bullet for saving our errant projects, neither is it the cause of all our problems.

Project managers must accept accountability for the project's success and admit that automation only provides the potential for basing project decisions on more timely, accurate, and meaningful information.

In real estate we learned that there are only three things that matter: location, location, location. In project management the same concept should be considered. For those in the project management profession there are only three critical words that matter: think, think, and think. A computer and its software can't think for us. Computers take the output of people and then organize it, manipulate it, and report it. Once the computer has done "its thing," it is time for people to think, re-think, and then think again about whether the computer's determination is right or wrong for their projects.

Herein lies the essence of the problem. In many organizations vital "Think Time" is clearly and consciously a discretionary activity. It seems the project philosophy of many organizations has rapidly gravitated to: "We don't have time to do it right, but we will have time to do it over, and over, and over." The interpretation here is that we create a cloud of dust, look busy, and the perception will be that progress is being made. In many organizations management looks upon thinking as nonproductive use of time, in essence sending the message to "Stop thinking, we've got work to do!"

Let's not work so hard to create the perception of project management at the expense of sound, comprehensive, and realistic planning. It's time to take the time to do it right the first time.

Project thinking is analogous to a decision to invest in the simple lubrication maintenance of your car's engine. You can choose to invest a little time and money in an oil change now and save a lot of headaches later, or you can choose to ignore the need to change the oil and pay a lot later, when your car's engine stops running. It seems like common sense to use your brain's power to think about and properly plan and manage your projects, so why is it so uncommon?

In the past 20 years I have spent a good portion of my professional time training project management professionals in 22 countries. To date, nearly 25,000 students have asked to harvest the fruits of my applied experience and have had an opportunity to seriously consider my candid opinions as to what enables the project management process to work... and what doesn't.

Most of the "students" already know the answers. I just help confirm how smart they really are. In fact, the feedback I get from these critical cogs in the project management machinery often indicates that perhaps the wrong people are in the class. In the students' opinion, their bosses are the ones who need to hear this "think" message. Thousands of times I have heard comments to the effect that, "The same people who paid my tuition to attend this training are the same people who will not allow me to use what I have learned here when I get back to the job." Isn't this the ultimate irony?

Innovation and change have provided the project management profession with countless powerful and potentially beneficial techniques and the automated tools to support them--the amps of the business, so to speak. If the modern-day project manager would just incorporate the time to think--using back-to-basics acoustic intelligence--to those tools that are eventually selected to help manage a project, I believe perception could become reality, and we will become project managers who are actually managing projects. We can unplug the amps and still create something worth listening to. Think about it!

PDU... PDU... PDU... SHOULDN'T IT BE... PDYOU ??

noreply@blogger.com (Lee's latest) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:08:00 +0000

You studied hard. You spent good money to assure you were properly prepared. You ignored your friends and family. You stressed for weeks in anticipation. Still doubting your preparation, you faced the inevitable: the PMP Exam. After as many as four grueling hours you were totally spent. You hesitated, for one last review. But the time had come. You pressed the "Finished" key and began the wait. It was only seconds on the clock, but in your mind it seemed like an eternity. But there it was on the screen, the reward for all of your efforts: PASSED!!

The wait was over. Now you could join the over 220,000 people who have experienced the same feeling of relief when that simple word: PASSED flashed on the screen. Now you could return to the office proud of your achievements. You were proud to be among a very select group of professionals who hold the distinction of being a Certified PMP.

Once you got the PMP credential, one of the first orders of business was to plan your strategy for keeping it. After all, you NEVER want to have to sit for the PMP Exam a second time! You realize that over the next three years you will need to collect a minimum of 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs). This expenditure of time and money will demonstrate to the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the world that you are not just a "paper" PMP. You are determined to operate on a Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement by participating in sanctioned training events and/or a variety of volunteer opportunities afforded by your local PMI Chapter--all for the purpose of PDUs and maybe ---just maybe!--- improving your performance on the job.

But, alas, it suddenly becomes a numbers game. You spend time counting PDUs you have earned and planning the next time you can get some to add to the total. The three year clock has started. Like most project management professionals, you are busy and your management isn't willing to give you the time or money to get the PDUs (or learning for that matter) you need.

You NEED PDUs. You become obsessed. Like a drug addict looking for the next "fix", you gotta have PDUs. You can't face that Exam again!! You WON'T face that Exam again!! You become desperate and cry out for help, anyone, anyone? Please, help me! I can't survive without PDUs. Suddenly it seems PDUs have become the end rather than the means to an end. Sad!

During the first eight months of this year, Lambert Consulting Group has provided PDU-worthy project management profession training to 1,477 men and women in nineteen different locations. But, it should be noted that the basis for our very existence in the training arena isn't the infamous PDU. It is, and always has been, about Professional Development for YOU (PDYOU).

We have a "learning obligation" to the students, and we work very hard to assure we deliver. But, the students have an obligation, too. Their responsibility is to take what they learn back to the work place and make a difference. The students need to take charge of their careers. They must find and attend learning programs that will translate to "value-add" on the job. They must look to achieving a level of performance that separates them from the "paper" PMPs.

The truth: it is not about the PDU. It is actually about PDYOU. Think about it. It's your career-why not manage it?

Originally posted on August 29, 2007