Six tips for a successful project manager transition The idea of losing the key project manager on a critical project is an unwelcome one, but it happens from time to time. These tips will help your next transition be a smooth one. Even though changing project managers during an in-flight project can add new risk, it is a realistic situation that occurs in our field. The transition can be more of a challenge for the incoming project manager, as the exiting project manager no longer has the same motivation since that person is headed for new glory. Below are some useful tips for the outgoing project manager on how to make the transition a success. 1: Review the project kick-off presentation deck If you've developed a kick-off presentation, it will provide an excellent orientation to the incoming project manager on the goals, objectives, scope, timeline, and major deliverables. 2: Provide a project schedule deep dive A detailed review of the project schedule is a must. 3: Review the financial management processes
Benefits to Having Your PMP January 7, 2013 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Certification, PMP Benefits to Having Your PMP By Amanda Alderman - Global Knowledge Instructor For the last five years I’ve told myself, “I will get my PMP this year,” but I have yet to make the time for it. Over the years I talked to many, many people who went through the PMP process. There really are many benefits to having your PMP certification. Here are a few: Gain confidence as a project manager. Almost 40% of projects don’t meet their purpose or goals. According to the lateset IT Salary and Skills Study conducted by Global Knowledge and Tech Republic, adding a project management certification to your IT certifications can increase your pay by 12% and have other benefits: Certified PM professionals are more apt to say their certification has been beneficial to their career path and that it has had a positive impact on their salary vs. certified IT personnel. So, if you meet the qualifications, why not get it? No comments yet.
Agile Project Management: Agile Basic Training - What is an Acceptable Level? January 5, 2013 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Agile Project Management Agile Project Management: Agile Basic Training - What is an Acceptable Level? By Bob Galen The agile methods are deceptively simple and common sense oriented. In many ways, that’s one of their great strengths, but its also one of their fundamental weaknesses. I typically categorize these teams as “bad agile” teams in that they adopt a small, superficial, and somewhat trivial set of the core agile practices and then think they’re agile. Ken Schwaber coined the term ScrumBut to capture this common anti-pattern, as in—“We’re doing Scrum, but…”. One of the core drivers for this is that teams don’t receive sufficient agile training from the right level of experienced coaches and trainers. In this post I want to explore what sorts of training are sufficient to get agile teams up and going. Agile “Spaghetti” Certification Choices Most often the recipe is study a set of materials, then take & pass a requisite test.
Credible Estimating Processes Lynda Bourne has a nice post titled Prediction is Difficult. In the end she speaks about the human failings of predicting and the difficulties of getting senior management is accept these predictions. First I'd like to suggest a change from prediction to forecasting. How To Speak About Project Numbers When we speak about cost, schedule, and technical performance it MUST be in the following manner: We have a 70% confidence in completing on or before September 13th, 2013Our cost for this project has a 70% confidence of be $1.6M or lessThe sustained throughput of the data channel will be 950Mb other the Time Triggered Gigibit bus with a 80% confidence. How Do We Develop These Confidence Discussions? The very first we DON'T, as Lynda suggests is ask some subject matter expert. We've done the 17 times before and have a statistically sound basis of our estimate, and have a 80% confidence that this time the duration will be 18 weeks or less.
PMBOK Guide Changes January 10, 2013 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: PMBOK, PMP PMBOK Guide Changes By Samuel T. Brown, III, PMP, Global Knowledge Course Director and Instructor On December 31, 2012 the fifth edition of the PMBOK® Guide was released, and once again the profession of project management moved forward. As we wrapped up the four-year review cycle and anticipated the new, refreshed outcome, we had an opportunity to identify what had changed and how it may affect the professional practice of project management throughout the world. The PMBOK® Guide has been around for a long time and has followed a pattern of updates approximately every four years. As we begin to identify and examine the specific changes between the fourth and fifth editions of the PMBOK® Guide, it is appropriate to take a moment to remind ourselves of the intention and focus of the guide. The PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition was only one of several updated standards scheduled for release at the end of 2012. Harmonization
Unrealistic Cost and Schedule Estimates There is a popular notion that project and program overruns come from some core unprofessional behaviour of those involved in constructing the estimate. That there is some basic malfeasance afoot in the cost and schedule business. This conjecture usually comes from those on the outside (far outside) looking in. An April 18th, 2011 report discovered some interesting facts in the US DOD domain... The source of these problems is not unprofessional or incomplete cost estimates. One example is the current poster child for cost and schedule overrun - the F-35, Joint Strike Fighter The bad assumptions (postulates) include: The state of the art was much more mature than it actually was. The core issue is there are deeply held programmatic assumptions about getting things done by specific Milestones. The source of these problems starts with the missing basics. Missing or poorly developed requirements -This includes immature requirements. These are inspired by Mr.
Sub-Contractors - Part of the Project Management Team? January 21, 2013 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Procurement Management Sub-Contractors - Part of the Project Management Team? By James Clements During the development of Bids & Proposals and in the Planning phases of any Project you will undoubtedly be faced with decisions on the scope of work that will be undertaken in-house by your project management team and wider organization, and then, what scope of work will be outsourced to third party vendors and suppliers. In its purest form, you will need to undertake make or buy decisions and this is a key project integration management process, particularly as you develop the roles, responsibilities and interfaces between your team, organization and the suppliers. Inside this broad ‘Team’ we usually have, at the core of the onion, the Project Management Team proper, comprised of the key project specific decision makers and manager’s and those assigned to the project on a full or near full time basis and who are usually co-located. Time & Trust
The Real Value of Understanding Communication Styles As a leader, communication skills rank near the top of our list of important skills. Because of their importance, these skills are talked about and written about a lot. Much training takes place every day, designed to help leaders get better at these important skills. One of the reasons communication is difficult is that not everyone communicates in the same way, with the same tendencies or styles. This isn’t news; you already knew that. The existence of these style or tendency differences hasn’t been lost on the assessment, training, and learning communities over the past 50 years. These assessments are popular training tools – they garner high marks from participants because they are interesting and fun. The problem with these activities doesn’t lie with the assessments themselves. Where does all of this leave a leader in regards to understanding and using these assessments to become a better communicator? Whatever your first step, take one. Your leadership success depends on it.