The Project Management Podcast
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If you work in a small company then it is quite likely that your project portfolio application is just a list of current projects in Word, Excel or even handwritten on a napkin. But once you outgrow this stage you are going to be faced with a myriad of project portfolio tools with an even more confusing array of features that you may or may not need.
My guest today, Curt Finch, is going to make this a lot easier for you because together we are going to look at the 6 top criteria to consider when shopping around for a project portfolio application. We'll be starting out with a more general look at what PPM solutions are and we'll end with looking at which of these criteria companies usually have most problems with during the actual implementation of the software.
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Let's do the following exercise together: Today or tomorrow when you get to your office I want you to take a look at your organizations portfolio of projects. Obviously, the more project management maturity your company has, the more detailed this will be. However, what you will see in most companies is that the portfolio usually only contains the large, important or strategic projects. But what about the smaller ones? You know... those 30 projects which individually don't look like much but when you look at them as a whole they become a sizable chunk.
Often they are missing in the portfolio. So because they are "not important", would take too much time to keep track of, have too small a budget or a million other reasons they are not on anyone's radar. But small projects, while often overlooked, are still crucial to a company's success and will cost you a lot of money if managed improperly.
This is the premise of our discussion today with Curt Finch, CEO of Journyx (http://www.journyx.com). We discuss how he defines a small project, why we tend to ignore the small ones, how he recommends that we manage all of these small projects, we look at the 3 key best practices that we must implement on a small project to be successful and what you can do today to improve overall management of small projects in your area of influence.
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This is a Premium Episode that is available to everyone. Normally, our Premium episodes are only available to our paying premium subscribers. A paid subscription gets you
- Access to all episodes starting from #1
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Every now and then, we release a premium episode for everybody, so that free listeners can hear what they are missing from the premium version. This is one of them.
In this interview we meet once again with Brian Weiss (PMI's Vice President Product Management) and Mark Emery (he is the business owner of the new CCRS). The reason why we meet them again is a simple one: Have you ever wondered how PMI manages their internal projects? I mean we all heard the old saying that "The cobbler's children have no shoes". This saying refers to the fact that a busy cobbler will be so busy making shoes for his customers that he has no time to make some for his own children.
So the question is then... does PMI get so busy defining and publishing standards in project management that they forget to apply these standards on their own projects?
Let's find out in our interview.
The PM Podcast has partnered with the PMI Munich Chapter to promote the PM-Summit 2010 which is put on under the heading of "Clever Achievement of Milestones".
"Clever" means to implement project management methods in the most effective way and to apply project management tools & techniques intelligently to be successful.
The symposium is targeting project managers from any and all industries and projects. Junior project managers, who are gathering their first experiences are welcome as well.
The summit will take place on Monday, November 15th, 2010 from 9:00am - 5:00PM at the Hilton Munich Park in Munich, Germany. Here is what we know about the agenda so far:
- Keynote speaker
- 5 tracks with 35 presentations by PM Experts
- 1 track with 10 presentations by tool- and service-providers
- Exhibition hall for sponsors, tool- and service-providers
Until the event takes place we will keep you updated on the podcast. You'll hear a short interview with one of the organisers of the event and we also hope to invite to event speakers as interview guests and get a glimpse of their presentations.
Check out the PM-Summit website at http://www.pm-summit.de/
This episode is sponsored by http://www.pdu-insider.com:
Do you hold a PMI Certificate like the PMP, PgMP, PMI-RM or PMI-SP? If you do, then you know all about PDUs (Professional Development Units). In a nutshell, PMI's Continuing Certification Requirements System (CCRS) says that your certificate is only valid for 3 years and then you will have to apply for recertification. But that doesn't mean that you have to take your test again. It means that you have to earn and then claim a predefined number of PDUs, pay a fee, and voila... your certification is good for another 3 years.
A little while back, PMI gave their CCRS system a major facelift. In our interview you will meet Brian Weiss (PMI's Vice President Product Management) and Mark Emery (he is the business owner of the CCRS). Both have been involved in the project from the start. In our interview we look at why PMI decided to upgrade the system, who has to use it, some of it's features and we also discover our guest's favorite ways to earn PDUs.
Brian Weiss, Vice President Product Management, serves on PMI’s Executive Management Team. In his role, he provides overall leadership, planning and oversight of PMI’s worldwide products for organizations and project management practitioners. Certifications, implementation of new and updated standards, career framework, Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) products and services, SeminarsWorld® training courses and PMI’s Global Congress programs are critical offerings within his area of responsibility..
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In the 2009 PM Podcast Listener Survey you (the listeners) told me that you would also like to hear book reviews. So we teamed up with The PMI Los Angeles Chapter's Book Club and we bring you today the reviews for 2 books:
- “Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable about Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business” by Patrick Lencioni - reviewed by Joel Fleiss
- "Why should Anyone Be Led By You?” by Rob Goffe and Gareth Jones - Reviewed by Hiba Hamdan
And here are the winners of our latest book giveaway. We have 2 copies of Terry Doerscher's Taming Change with Portfolio Management. As always, one copy goes to our premium listeners and one goes to our free listeners. And the winners are
- Premium Listener: Don Brown, Mesa, AZ
- Free listener: Benoit Ben
Congrats to both of you.
Click to download the PDF file...
Download and print the Category 2-SDL PDU Logfile to keep track of how many hours of The PM Podcast you have listened to. Every time you listen to a new episode simply take out a pen and fill in the next line. Print a new page when needed. Once you have reached the minimum number of listening required (watch episode 150 to learn how much that is...) then you can claim your PDUs with PMI. Keep your handwritten notes in case you are audited by PMI after claiming the PDUs.
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This episode of The PM Podcast is titled “Earn 15 Free PDUs” because we want to show you how to do exactly that simply by listening to The PM Podcast. Here's how in a nutshell:
- It’s very simple to earn these 15 Free PDUs.
- Just keep doing what you are doing right now:
- Listen to (or watch) The PM Podcast regularly
- Claim 15 cat 2 SDL PDUs from PMI
Many of you may already be aware of this and also how it is done, but in the last 2 months I have received an large number of emails from listeners out there asking me about how exactly to claim these cat 2 PDUs that I have decided to make this into a podcast.
We are extending the promotional giveaway of Terry's book "Taming Change with Portfolio Management": To win a copy of Terry's book: Go to our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pmpodcast find the announcement of this book giveaway and simply add a quick comment (Deadline is July 21 2010).
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Last week we spoke with Terry Doerscher from Planview and he gave us an introduction to project portfolio management. This week we are going to where the rubber meets the road. We want to learn in what steps exactly PPM can be introduced in an organization. We'll look at this from various angles and we'll specifically discuss the following types of assessments that Terry recommends that you perform in your organization before you even get started
- A general operational assessment
- An organizational assessment
- A functional assessment
- A technological assessment
The information we talk about was taken from Terry's book "Taming Change with Portfolio Management" and to win a copy of Terry's book: Go to our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pmpodcast find the announcement of this book giveaway and simply add a quick comment (Deadline to participate extended to July 21 2010).
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The PMBOK® Guide defines Project Portfolio Management as "The centralized management of one or more portfolios, which includes identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing, and controlling projects, programs, and other related work, to achieve specific strategic business objectives." As always with definitions from the PMBOK® Guide, they are straightforward, dry, to the point and they give you a good idea what the term is all about. But they are usually also lacking in regards to telling you much about how Project Portfolio Management is performed out in the world.
But that's where The PM Podcast comes into play. We bring you the real life experience and explanations about Project Portfolio Management with one of the big names in Portfolio Management: Terry Doerscher from www.planview.com.
Terry recently published "Taming Change with Portfolio Management", a book that he wrote together with Pat Durbin. I have taken this book release as an opportunity to bring Terry on the show to look into the basics of Project Portfolio Management. You'll hear his definition, the 4 core portfolio management information structures, how portfolio management enhances the value we deliver to our organizations and more.
Win a copy of Terry's book: Go to our Facebook Fan Page at www.facebook.com/pmpodcast find the announcement of this book giveaway and simply add a quick comment (Deadline to participate extended to July 21 2010).
Here are the winners of our PDU Podcast giveaway. The PDU Podcast is our sister podcast which helps PMPs and PgMPs earn at least 1 PDU every month. All you have to do is to watch the video webinars and you have just earned a PDU. You can find it at www.pducast.com. And the winners are
- Premium Listener: Keith Hopkins from Fullerton right here in California
- Free listener: Ilias Biris from Espoo in Finland
Congrats to both of you
Oh... and just in case you are now completely confused about the difference between The PDU Insider and The PDU Podcast... The PDU Insider is a newsletter in which I give you inside tips about earning PDUs. And The PDU Podcast is a videocast where you can watch webinars and earn PDUs.
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Part 4. This episode of The PM Podcast is a 4-part webinar presented by Andreas Heilwagen on the topic of Risk Management. He stipulates that it is a critical success factor for your project success. We look at a definition of Risk Management, present the value that it offers to your projects, go through the processes offered by The PMBOK Guide, take a look at the free risk management templates offered by Andreas and the look into the success factors that will make your internal risk management approach a winning activity.
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Part 3. This episode of The PM Podcast is a 4-part webinar presented by Andreas Heilwagen on the topic of Risk Management. He stipulates that it is a critical success factor for your project success. We look at a definition of Risk Management, present the value that it offers to your projects, go through the processes offered by The PMBOK Guide, take a look at the free risk management templates offered by Andreas and the look into the success factors that will make your internal risk management approach a winning activity.
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Part 2. This episode of The PM Podcast is a 4-part webinar presented by Andreas Heilwagen on the topic of Risk Management. He stipulates that it is a critical success factor for your project success. We look at a definition of Risk Management, present the value that it offers to your projects, go through the processes offered by The PMBOK Guide, take a look at the free risk management templates offered by Andreas and the look into the success factors that will make your internal risk management approach a winning activity.
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Part 1. This episode of The PM Podcast is a 4-part webinar presented by Andreas Heilwagen on the topic of Risk Management. He stipulates that it is a critical success factor for your project success. We look at a definition of Risk Management, present the value that it offers to your projects, go through the processes offered by The PMBOK Guide, take a look at the free risk management templates offered by Andreas and the look into the success factors that will make your internal risk management approach a winning activity.
This episode is reserved for subscribers of the Premium Podcast. Learn how to subscribe to the Premium Podcast to access this interview and transcript...
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Let's continue our look at How to become a project manager.
And because Josh and I realize that many of you may already have some seniority under your belt, we are also going to take this to the next level: How you can help someone - maybe a junior project or even someone who is just now starting to think about going into project management - how to help this someone as a mentor and assist them with tips and tricks. So don't dismiss this discussion, simply because you are farther along in your career. Listen to it and use the discussion to help others.
Josh is the man behind PM Student and PM Student eLearning, which you can find at www.mypmstudent.com.
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Here is a question that I have received from quite a number of podcast listeners in the past few years: How do I overcome the Catch 22 situation of getting into project management, that in order to get assigned a project you need to have experience as a PM. And in order to get some experience as a PM you first need to have a project assigned. Is there a way around this?
This and may other questions about how someone who is interested in becoming a Project Manager can get started in our profession are at the center of my discussion today with Josh Nankivel. You will hear how both he and I started our careers as project managers, what books to read, what training to get and what websites are great places to start.
Josh is the man behind PM Student and PM Student eLearning, which you can find at www.mypmstudent.com.
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At this year's PMI Atlanta Chapter's Professional Development Day, Tom Mochal, PMP (www.tenstep.com) presented a 2.5 hour long workshop. It was simply called "Successful Project Management" and was based on the premise that the days of the monolithic, complex, multi-year project are over. Tom says that they are just too hard to plan, manage and complete within expectations. He argues that the better approach is to break large initiatives into multiple smaller projects. These smaller projects are easier to manage and they each have a much better chance to be successful.
Of course, if each project was managed independently, the entire initiative would be at risk of losing focus and getting out-of-control. So... Enter the Program.
A program is the organizational structure that is established to coordinate and guide a large initiative made up of multiple related projects. The program provides an umbrella structure over the entire initiative and has the high-level visibility and continuity to guide all of the underlying projects toward overall success.
Shortly after the workshop ended, I had a chance to sit down with Tom and discuss his approach to project, program and portfolio management. And we even manage to sneak in some career advice for you as well.
W also announce a giveaway where one lucky PMP out there is going to win a copy of The PDU Podcast. The PDU Podcast is our sister podcast and you can learn more about it at www.pducast.com. It's a convenient way for PMPs and PgMPs to earn their PDUs through webinars that are delivered to you as a Podcast. Listen to the first 5 minutes of this episode to learn how to participate.
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On May 1st of this year I was in Atlanta, Georgia where I gave a presentation at the PMI Atlanta Chapter's 2010 Professional Development Day. I must tell you that I was blown away by the professionalism with which this event had been set up. As you walked in the building there were volunteers everywhere pointing out the way to walk and offering to help you. Check-in was a breeze and then it pretty much continued in this well-oiled-machine fashion throughout the day.
So I wanted to know... how do you plan, organize and execute such an event year after year?
I had my recording equipment with me and I got a chance to sit down with Charles Galoppe, who is the event's project manager and we were joined by Dean Gudlauski, VP of Marketing and Promotions for the PMI Atlanta Chapter.
The most requested template from The PM Podcast series is a document offered by Sabrina Mancini in Episode 017. This template is intended to help you turn your job search into a project. unfortunately, Sabrina doesn't have this template anymore. Neither do I.
Do you have it?
If yes, then please send it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so that we can once again offer it on The PM Podcast.
Thanks!
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On May 1st 2010 I presented "The 4-week PMO" at the PMI Atlanta Chapter's Professional Development Day. This video gives you a few impressions from the event.
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A little while back Bill Duncan published an article on the importance of clearly (and I really mean clearly) differentiating between the terms scope and work.
Everyone seems to agree on the importance of scope, but there is much less agreement on what it is and where to find it. By focusing on a project’s “product” (whether tangible or intangible), project managers create greater clarity around the implication of all changes.
His reasoning was that by doing so you get greater clarity in regards to what changes on your project should be considered as scope changes, you improve your communication with your customer and by applying "discover-define-deliver" you add another layer of clarity.
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Earlier this month, the ASAPM (The American Society for Advancement of Project Management) released their latest standard. It's called "aPro: asapm Performance Rated Organization". You can find it at http://apro.asapm.org/.
My guest today Bill Duncan, who serves as the Certification Chair on the board of directors of the ASAPM. Many of you will recognize his name, as he was the primary author of the original PMBOK Guide. But that's a story for another time. Today, we're discussing the purpose of the aPRO standard. We'll look at what organizations should consider being rated in this way, benefits and competitive advantage of this rating, how you actually get certified and much, much more.
This episode of The PM Podcast was supposed to feature an interview with a representative from PMI to talk about the recently updated CCRS. That's their Continuing Certification Requirements System.
However, 24 hours before we were scheduled to do the interview we became the latest victim of Murphy's Law: I got a phonecall from PMI letting me know that my interview guest has a bad case of laryngitis. So he can't really participate in a spoken interview. So the #1 law in project management - Murphy's Law - strikes again to bring heartache, pain and tears to a project manager. Me in this case.
Well... that got me thinking about all the various laws that we have in project management. So we will be reviewing the following laws together: Murphy's Law, Boyles laws, Brownian Motion Rule of Bureacracies, Laws of computer programming,The Peter Principle, The Pareto'Principle, Old Engineer's Law, Gordon's First Law, Golub's Laws of Computerdom, Horstman's Law of Project Management, Klipstein's Laws, Ninety-ninety Rule of Project Schedules, Parkinson's Law, Q's Law, Vance's Rule of 2 1/2, The Student Syndrome, Parkinson's Principle of Non-Origination, Theory of the International Society of Philosophic Engineering, Brooks's Law and The Law of diminishing returns.
We also announce the winners of The PDU Podcast promotional giveaway.
Question of the Week: Did we forget to review any important laws and principles of project management? Please leave a comment and let us know!
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Now it gets interesting
Last week we learned about PM Simplicity from Sean Henriques. We talked about the basic building block of his approach to managing projects. Now it's time to look at how he uses and implements this approach on his projects. We begin with project initiation and end... you guessed it... with project closing.
The PM Simplicity Guide is available for free at www.pmsimplicity.com.
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In Episode 140 I spoke with Jerry Manas on how to manage complexity on projects. We discussed his general approach and then (in the premium episode) we looked at a case study and learned how Jerry actually does it. We saw here how he uses simplicity, clarity and focus not just in theory but on his projects.
But Jerry is not the only project manager out there who feels that we need more simplicity.
Sean Henriques MBA PMP, feels exactly the same way. In fact, he feels so strongly about it, that he went ahead and wrote The PM Simplicity Guide at www.pmsimplicity.com and makes it available to everyone for free. Sean and I discuss the concepts and philosophies behind PM Simplicity and how you apply it on your projects.
| Today's episode is sponsored by the 7th Annual Project Management Conference for the Drug & Device Industry. The conference takes place from April 12-14 2010 at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center in Orlando Florida. Learn all about cutting-edge tools and techniques to help you lead your team confidently and walk away with clear strategies for achieving project, program and portfolio success. To learn more, please visit www.iirusa.com/pdd. |
I have a confession to make, and that is that I have moved over to the "dark side" of project management.
Don't worry - I'm neither wearing a black suite, cape or breathing apparatus, nor do I now call myself "Darth Cornelius".
But I have moved from being a Project Manager to the dark side and I'm now... a Project Sponsor. So let's take a look at my very first experience as a project sponsor and to keep it interesting we will hear from 10 other people what they love and hate about their own project sponsors.
Question of the Week:
Do we project managers make good or bad project sponsor? Please leave a comment and let me know!
Do you have a PMP or PgMP certificate? Then this announcement will interest you!
As a PMP/PgMP you have to earn 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) every 3 years. Here at The PM Podcast you can earn 15 of these PDUs for free. And starting on April 2nd 2010 we are going to offer The PDU Podcast at www.pducast.com. With this new podcast you will be able to earn 20 PDUs per year.
The benefits for you are obvious! You already know how to use a podcast and now with The PDU Podcast you can sit back, relax and let the PDUs come to you. Month after month.
Listen in for the details and get a 20% discount on The PDU Podcast.
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Last week we heard how Jerry Manas uses simplicity, clarity and focus to approach managing the ever increasing complexity in business processes. This means that project management processes consequentially are getting more and more complex as well. And we project managers need to be able to handle them.
But what does this approach actually look like in real life? What exactly does he do and how does he do it? Where does he begin his work and what hands-on advice does he have for us. In particular I want to know from him what the first 3-4 steps are that we should take when we begin working on a complex project.
Click "Read more..." below to read the transcript.
Are your projects complex?
And if your answer is "Yes of course they are complex" then how do you first of all measure this complexity and second and more importantly how do you manage project complexity?
Is it just a question of using standardized project management approaches, PM processes or maybe a project management office (PMO)?
These are some of the basic questions that I discuss in this episode with Jerry Manas. Jerry Manas has been a guest previously on our show about various project management topics. Today we discuss how to successfully manage complex projects with simplicity, clarity and focus.
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In this special episode we introduce you to PM War Stories - a podcast for the experienced, senior project manager. The show is hosted by Wayne Thompson and here is what he writes about this particular episode:
Project managers face and overcome risks and uncertainties frequently in their projects. Creating a project management office (PMO) is no different. It requires securing a large commitment on the part of the organization, obtaining buy-in at all levels, actively managing stakeholders and sponsors, and carefully gauging, and in some case disregarding, risks and uncertainties.
Success is not achieved merely with the creation of the PMO itself. In fact, 25% of PMOs typically fail in the third year of their existence. To build a PMO that will last, project managers need the proper infrastructure, processes, people and tools. Implementing a project portfolio management (PPM) strategy is an important early step as it helps tie those pieces together in building a PMO. Additionally, it helps drive the sustainability and success of the PMO by providing the necessary system of checks and balances that ensure projects are on track and in alignment with the organization’s goals.
This is the third podcast in a series on project management offices, sponsored by Oracle Primavera. In this episode, we will examine how to overcome the risks and uncertainties in creating a project management office and more importantly, how to successfully maintain it.
To do this, I’m sitting down with industry insider, Beth Partleton who has more than 30 years of project and portfolio management experience in manufacturing and construction. During her illustrious project management career, she was the Director of Strategic Projects for Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; she was a founder, charter member, and president of the Milwaukee/Southeast Wisconsin PMI Chapter; she was Chair of the PMI Educational Foundation Board of Directors and lastly she served on the Board of Directors for PMI’s Manufacturing specific interest group. Today she will be sharing her insights and war stories around the importance of PPM to maintain a successfully operating PMO.
We are pleased to announce that there will be three more chances to win a netbook. The next drawing will be held on February 19, 2010. To register for your chance to win, please click here - Netbook Contest. Members are limited to one entry per month so don’t forget to visit our site and complete an entry form today. Good luck and thank you for listening.
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In this Premium episode of The PM Podcast we welcome back Peter Taylor, PMP who is the author of The Lazy Project Manager.
We Talk about his lessons learned in setting up a Project Management Office (PMO). You may recall that he is the PMO Manager for the Siemens PLM Software PMO and in this episode he tells us what he has learned in the 3 years since the PMO's inception.
Click "Read more..." below to read the transcript.
This episode is sponsored by:
Setting up a Project Management Office (PMO) is one of the toughest assignments that many project managers will ever work on.
PMO projects have a high-visibility, dozens of stakeholders, tight budgets and sometimes even customers that want you to fail. So it's always refreshing to be able to talk to someone who was successful in this endeavor and learn from their hands-on experience how they did it. Peter Taylor is the PMO Director at Siemens PLM Software and he has a successful PMO story to tell.
You have already met Peter previously on the program. He is the author of The Lazy Project Manager. In the discussion today we are going to take a look at his journey of setting up this PMO. From inception, to what it is like today, to where he wants to take it in the next years.
And Peter spontaneously and generously offers to give away two more copies of his book. Listen all the way to the end of the presentation to hear how to participate.
Click "Read more..." below to read the transcript.
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In the 2009 listener survey you asked us to include more products into our programming. This episode is the 2nd episode in which we introduce a product to you.
We are welcoming back Dux Raymond Sy who is the author of the book “SharePoint for Project Management”. In the coming months Dux is holding a series of Worskshops titled: Delivering SharePoint Success: Mentoring Workshops. Every PM Podcast listener will receive a 25% discount by using the appropriate coupon code and one lucky winner will even be able to get in for free. Listen to the interview to learn what coupon code to use and how you can win.
But we aren't just talking about the seminars. We also want to help ensure that your SharePoint projects get started the right way. So in this interview we not only discuss how SharePoint can help you increase worker productivity, improve business process efficiency and streamline business processes but we also learn what Dux recommends as the first 3 steps to take if you are going to implement SharePoint in your organization.
And as always we have reached out to our followers on Twitter and will be answering these questions as well:
- @Habib_Schems - I've just bought his book! I'd like to know how we can implement pmbok processes in sharepoint workflows! Thanks!
- @ryanendres: - What SharePoint PMO plug-ins do you like? (ie: EPM Live; pmPoint...)
Finally - here are the resources that Dux mentions in the interview or recommends that you check out:
- Articles:
- 5 Reasons Why Executive SharePoint Ignorance is Not Bliss : http://bit.ly/7tKkKz
- How to Prioritize Business Needs Before Implementing SharePoint : http://bit.ly/8sCiVR
- Screencasts:
- How to Build a Change Control System with SharePoint : http://bit.ly/2SJEXz
- SharePoint Worst Practices: 5 Common Mistakes in Deploying SharePoint : http://bit.ly/2oXk4i
- Best Practices in Gathering Requirements for SharePoint Projects : http://bit.ly/10lJUk
Click "Read more..." below to read the transcript.
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There are two big changes coming your way with this episode of The Project Management Podcast:
- We are officially launching our new website at at www.project-management-podcast.com (or www.pm-podcast.com for those who want to type less... ;-)
- Premium subscribers now receive an episode transcript along with the audio.
So if you are a premium subscriber and you use iTunes or a similar software then a PDF transcript of the episodes will automatically download to your computer. I expect that the transcript will be available about 3 days after the audio version of the interview is published.
In today's interview we are once again welcoming Michael Aucoin (www.leadingedgemgmt.com and www.right-brain-leadership.com) back to talk more about the right side of our brain and project management. In particular we want to talk about Chapter 18 of his book Right Brain Project Management, which is titled The Hero in us all – The moral of the story. Michael suggested this chapter for a more detailed look because so many people enjoyed this chapter and thought that it brought much value to them.
Click "Read more..." below to read the transcript.
The PM Podcast presents: The new PM Podcast by Josh Nankivel and Cornelius Fichtner called Not The Status Report:
Find out more about this new podcast at Not The Status Report...
The PM Podcast presents: The new PM Podcast by Josh Nankivel and Cornelius Fichtner called Not The Status Report:
Find out more about this new podcast at Not The Status Report...
The PM Podcast presents: The new PM Podcast by Josh Nankivel and Cornelius Fichtner called Not The Status Report:
Find out more about this new podcast at Not The Status Report...
The PM Podcast presents: The new PM Podcast by Josh Nankivel and Cornelius Fichtner called Not The Status Report:
Find out more about this new podcast at Not The Status Report...
This episode is sponsored by:
Here is a quiz for you: What do projects and your brain have in common? Well... they are both very unique from other projects and brains, they use soft skills and hard skills to work and they all have a definite beginning and a definite end.
I recently came across the book "Right Brain Project Management" and was intrigued. It is written by Dr. Michael Aucoin (www.leadingedgemgmt.com and www.right-brain-leadership.com). He calls it "A Complementary Approach" and it is intended to help us project managers learn to use the right side of our brain better.
When I originally heard the title of the book I thought to myself... "Yeah Right". But then I found that Michael Aucoin was making a lot of sense and I found that I had instinctively implemented many of his suggested approaches. That was more than an excellent reason to bring Michael onto the program. In our interview you'll learn about why we should use the right side of our brain in project management, how it helps our projects to be more successful and how we can use the tools of Emotion, Pattern discovery, Non-verbal communication and Intuition towards the same end.
This episode is sponsored by:
In the 2009 PM Podcast Listener Survey you told us that you wanted a) More product reviews and b) More PM soft skills. In this episode we combine these two requests in about 30 minutes.
I'm welcoming Margaret Meloni, PMP who has been a guest many times on our program before. And from those interviews you know that Margaret is a great teacher of project management soft skills. In January of 2010 Margaret is offering almost all of her products with up to a 50% discount. So this episode is a combination of a) product review and b) discussion of PM soft skills. We talk about Margaret's products, interjected with a lot of soft skills talk.
In particular, during our discussion Margaret answers the following questions sent in live from Twitter:
- @bba747: q for margaret: what are her top 3 techniques to quickly identify the motivating agents of project team members?
- @tcsprasan: Which is the most important soft skill a PM must have?
- @splett: is there any chance of success in project management without Knowledge - just pm by Social skills? #mm {Note:Margaret's answer to this question is at the very, very, very end of the podcast. So listen all the way to the absolute end.}
And Margaret also gives us an overview of EQ - Emotional Intellingence.
This is the very first time that we are producing a show that has a strong focus on products for you to buy and improve your skills. Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on the result.
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If you are a student of The PM PrepCast then you will appreciate this... a video with bloopers from The PM PrepCast. Enjoy.
It's absolutely amazing but another year has gone by at light speed.
Many of you will have had challenging, aggravating, boring, or exciting new projects. And some of them may even have been completed successfully. It has been my pleasure to interview the project managers involved and discover the methodologies and processes they used for you.
Now it’s time to end the year with a bit of PM fun. This means that I am opening up the vault of recordings that didn't go as planned and in the next minutes you'll hear all the things that didn’t go as planned during the production of the PM Podcast.
Yes, this is the bloopers show, in which I lay bare all the ah, uhm, coughs and times when I stumbled over difficult word combinations.
In this episode of The PM Podcast we are going to take a close look at something that is near and dear to myself: The PMP Exam. In particular we will talk about how to prepare for and pass the pmp exam. But there would be nothing more boring if I just began reading all the tips and tricks I have in my arsenal for this. So in order to make it more interesting, I have invited Bill Rouck, PMP to be on the program.
Bill is one of my PM PrepCast student and has passed his PMP exam just this year. So what you hear from him is pretty much the latest information in PMP exam preparation. We talk about the following topics:
- His reasons for taking the PMP Exam
- We explore if the PMP certificate is a must in today's marketplace
- Recommended PMP exam prep materials
- PMP exam study recommendations
- Tips for taking the actual PMP exam
- What happened before, during and after the exam
We also announce the winners of our book giveaway. They each win a copy of the “Project Management Communications Bible”
This episode is reserved for subscribers of the Premium Podcast. Learn how to subscribe to the Premium Podcast to access this presentation...
How many times have you heard anyone say that “Project Management consists of about 90% communication?”
Over time, this little saying gets more and more boring but also more and more true. Project Management is all about communications and ensuring that you communicate the right information to the right people at the right time using the appropriate tools and methods.
Let’s talk about these tools & methods and also about what some of the common project management communications problems are.
To do this I welcome Bruce Taylor and Bill Dow, the authors of The Project Management Communications Bible. Together we aim another spotlight onto the importance of proper project communication.
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Communication is a critical, but often overlooked, component of successful project management. This means that we project managers must strive to becoming better communicators. But you cannot do that just by reading the PMBOK Guide. It takes years of practice!
Enter Bill Dow and Bruce Taylor. Together they have over 60 years of project management experience and so they decided to write the “Project Management Communications Bible”. It contains many tools, techniques, and best practices in the area of project communications that you need to successfully execute projects, keep your team and customers fully apprised, and deliver crucial information in a timely manner.
Together we are going to take a look at a survey that was done in 2007 to determine the "Top 9 Reasons Why Projects Fail". Go ahead... guess... what might be #1?
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In the 2009 PM Podcast listener survey an overwhelming number of respondents said that they would like to see product reviews as part of The PM Podcast. We listen and here is the first such in-depth review of Josh Nankivel's WBS Coach - a training program intended to help both beginners and advanced project managers in employing the WBS to support the success of their projects. The following is in our video:
- WBS Coach overview
- WBS Coach content
- How to download / unzip / use the training
- Listen to a minute of the original audio training
- Watch a minute of the original video training
- The PM Podcast Critique
- The PM Podcast Verdict
And without taking anything away we are happy to say that we give Josh without hesitation 4.5 out of 5 stars for the WBS Coach. Josh created a highly professional and practical training and put all of his experience it. Take a closer look at it by going to www.mywbscoach.com. If you decide to buy it then The PM Podcast will receive a commission from your purchase which we can use to cover our production cost.
This episode is reserved for subscribers of the Premium Podcast. Learn how to subscribe to the Premium Podcast to access this presentation...
Last week, Josh Nankivel, PMP and I looked at some basics of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and we identified how it will help you make your project better.
However, one of the biggest issues that you will be faced when using a WBS on your project is that you need to first create it. And as you are creating it, you will need to answer the following questions:
- How do I structure the WBS?
- Do I include internal work?
- What about phase 2 and 3 of the project… how will I include that?
- Do I present it graphically or as a simple list
These are the questions that Josh and I are discussing. And at the conclusion of the discussion Josh tells us his favorite way of creating a successful WBS.
You can find out more about Josh's WBS Coach Training Program at www.mywbscoach.com and if you decide to buy then The PM Podcast will receive a commission from your purchase which we can use to cover our production cost.
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- Episode 132: A WBS Can Make Your Project A Success
- Episode 131 PREMIUM: PMO Assessment Tools and Techniques
- Episode 131: PMO Assessments. A Waste of Time?
- Episode 130: Gartner's Audrey Apfel on PMO, PPM and Governance
- Episode 129: PPM Solutions Overview
- Episode 128 PREMIUM: How PPM Tools Increase Project Success
- New: Yearly Premium Subscription - Get 2 Months Free
- Episode 128: PPM and Agile don't mix... right?
- Episode 127: Project Portfolio Management from PMI's Point of View
- Episode 126 Premium: The 4-Week PMO
- Episode 126: Project Management In Ethiopia
- Episode 125 PREMIUM: How to Implement Green on your Projects
- Episode 125: The Green Wave...how ALL projects need to be green
- Episode 124 Premium: Virtual PMO Roundtable
- Episode 124: PMO Roundtable
- Episode 123 Premium: How to be Lazy 70% of Your Project Time
- Episode 123: The Lazy Project Manager
- Episode 122 Premium: Establishing a PMO Architecture
- Episode 122: Business Driven PMO Setup
- Episode 121 PREMIUM: Project Management 2.0 and Social Media
- Episode 121: Everything a Project Manager should know about Social Media
- Episode 120: Sustainability... Why Bother?!
- Episode 119: SharePoint for Project Management
- Episode 118 PREMIUM: The Cultural Mirror
- Episode 118: Cultural Awareness and Cultural Intelligence
- Special: German PM Podcast #3: DHL Air Hub Leipzig
- Episode 117 Premium: The Value of the PMO
- Episode 116 Premium: PMO 1.0, PMO 2.0 and PMO 3.0
- Episode 116: The PMO 2.0 Survey Report
- Special: Manager Tools - Horstman's Law of Project Management Part 4 of 4
- Episode 115 Premium: The Fine Art Of Failing... And Living To Tell About It
- Episode 115: Leadership Challenges of Complex Projects
- Episode 114: Congratulations You're Out of Work (Part 2)
- Episode 114 Premium: A Conversation with Margaret Meloni on Managing Being Laid Off
- Episode 114: Congratulations You're Out of Work
- Special: Manager Tools - Horstman's Law of Project Management Part 3 of 4
- Episode 113 Premium: Revisiting "Getting It Done"
- Special: Manager Tools - Horstman's Law of Project Management Part 2 of 4
- Episode 113: Dealing with Layoffs and other Team Transitions
- Special: Manager Tools - Horstman's Law of Project Management Part 1 of 4
- Episode 112 Premium: Kanban - A Case Study
- Episode 112: Kanban - An Introduction
- Episode 111 + 11/11th: The 2008 Bloopers Episode
- Episode 111 Premium: There is no PMI Project Management Methodology
- Episode 111: PMO Summit 2008
- Episode 110 Overtime: Review of the PMO Summit 2008
- Episode 110: The Advantage of Leadership
- Episode 109: The Value of Project Management
- Episode 108 Overtime: How to Avoid Robot Project Management
- Episode 108: How Peer Reviews will Keep You Honest and Your Project on Track
- Episode 107 Halloween Overtime: The Creepy Scope Creep
- Episode 107: The PMI's Virtual Communities Project (Part 2)
- Episode 107: The PMI's Virtual Communities Project (Part 1)
- Episode 106 Overtime: Dealing with Jerks as The Project Leader
- Episode 106: How to Control Yourself when Working with Jerks
- Episode 106 will be a few days late...
- Episode 105 Overtime: Web Meeting and Web Conferencing Services
- Episode 105: Using Teleconferencing as an Effective PM Tool
- Episode 104 Overtime: How Projects fit into an Organization
- Episode 104: The Role of your Boss in Project Management
- Episode 103 Overtime: Learning from Problems on other People's Projects
- Episode 103: Improving Project Team Performance (And Their Morale, Too...)
- Episode 102 Overtime: An Overview over 10 PM Methodologies
- Episode 102: Five Steps to Implement a Project Management Methodology
- Episode 101 Overtime: Implementing a PM Methodology Tool
- Episode 101: How to Manage a CMMI Implementation Project
- Episode 100: Alan Parsons - The Alan Parsons Project
- Episode 099 Overtime: Project Quality Reviews
- Episode 099: Measuring and Managing Project Quality
- Episode 098 Overtime: Project Leadership Tools
- Episode 098: The Strategic Project Leader
- Episode 097 Overtime: How to Manage the Gray Areas
- Special: PMPOD.DE Episode 4 - Project Blame Management
- Episode 097: Managing The Gray Areas
- Episode 096 Overtime: Team Management on Experimental Projects
- Episode 096: Improving Outcomes on Experimental Projects
- Episode 095 Overtime: Margaret Meloni - More on your Professional Brand
- Episode 095: Your Professional Brand, Guard it With Your Life!
- Episode 094 Overtime: Hans Jonasson on the Enterprise Analysis
- Episode 094: Determining Project Requirements
- Episode 093: Lean Six Sigma Overview
- Episode 092: Ten Things you can Learn about Project Management from Britney Spears
- Episode 091 Overtime: Brian Irwin on DTAB
- Episode 091: Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects
- Episode 090: Project Management - Your first step to becoming the CEO
- Episode 089: Integrated Process and Project Management Organization
- Episode 088: Getting Things Done - Get your To-Do-List under Control
- Episode 087: A PM Conversation with Mike Graupner, PMP
- Episode 086: Four Hotel & Casino Projects
- Episode 085: A PM Conversation with Ron Holohan, PMP
- Special: PM411.ORG Podcast on PM Web Resources
- Episode 084+5%: Out Takes
- Episode 084: A Small, Troubled Project and What to do About it
- Episode 083: A PM Conversation with Thomas Cutting, PMP
- Episode 082: Monkey Management for Project Teams
- Episode 081: The PMO - A Business Solution
- Episode 080: Ron Holohan on studying for and passing the PMP Exam
- Episode 079: A Project Management / Auditing Conversation with Joy Gumz, PMP
- Episode 078: The Fiddler on the Project
- Episode 077: A PM Conversation with Randy Magdaluyo
- Episode 076: A PM Conversation with Cindy Sabin, PMP
- Special: The PM411.ORG Interview with Cornelius Fichtner, PMP
- Episode 075: Project Monitoring
- Episode 074: A PM Conversation with Shawn Futterer, PMP
- Special: PM411.ORG Podcast on Engaging China
- Episode 073: Managing a large, international project
- Episode 072: Authority
- Episode 071: Effective Virtual Management
- Episode 070: Everyday, Real Life Project Management
- No Episode This Week...
- Special: The PMO Podcast Episode 100
- Episode 069: Six Sigma... at a Bank?
- Episode 068: There is a Project Management Book Inside of You!
- Special: PM Lessons Learned Episode 4 on Scope Control
- Episode 067: PMI's PDU Secrets
- Episode 066: I hate my project - I hate my colleagues. Please motivate me!
- Episode 065: BS and MBA in Project Management
- Special: Controlling Chaos Pocast Episode 032 on Agile Estimating
- Episode 064: Avoid Communications Chaos - Use the Communications Plan as a Strategic Tool
- Episode 063: How do Risk Attitudes Affect your Project?
- Episode 062: How can I become a Project Manager?
- Episode 061: The Value of Quality
- Episode 060: Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome
- Episode 059: Overcoming Team Dysfunction
- Episode 058?: Out Takes
- Episode 058: Service Oriented Project Management
- Episode 057: Critical Chain Project Management
- Episode 056: The Boeing C17 Single Line Project
- Episode 055: What`s better: Competence or Knowledge Based PM Certifications?
- Episode 054: Gathering Requirements: Go Away Please!
- Episode 053: "Simple" Earned Value Project Management
- Episode 052: Project Management Methodology for Software Projects
- Episode 051: Staff Augmentation Through Off Shoring
- Episode 050: Project management basics typically overlooked
- Episode 049: Gathering Requirements on a Multi-Cultural Project
- Episode 048: Managing a PMO in Sri Lanka
- Episode 047: Scalable Project Management Methodologies Part 2
- Episode 046: Scalable Project Management Methodologies Part 1
- Episode 045: International Project Management - Japan
- Episode 044: Should you use Agile or Plan Driven Methodologies?
- Episode 043: Project Portfolio Management Tools Part 2
- Episode 042: Project Portfolio Management Tools Part 1
- Episode 041: Improve your PMO with The PMO SIG
- Episode 040: International PM Credentials
- Episode 039: Organizational Project Management Maturity Models (OPMMM)
- Episode 038: PRINCE2?, PMBOK?, PMP? and Controlling Chaos
- Episode 037: Project Politics? We don't have no Project Politics!
- Episode 036: Who you gonna call? The eBusiness SIG!
- Episode 035: Improve your Team's Skills with CAPM? - Interview with Frank Reynolds
- Episode 034: Interview with Kristine Hayes Munson on Getting It Done
- Episode 033: Methodologies and Templates
- Episode 032: Interview with Gerard Hill on Project Management Methodologies
- Episode 031: The PMI Consulting SIG
- Episode 030: Applying the Triple Constraints (All four of them)
- Episode 029: Conflict Resolution
- Episode 028: Interview with Frank Parth on PMOs
- Episode 027: No Earned Value? No Problem!
- Episode 026: Don't Use Email
- Episode 025: Introduction to Earned Value Management (EVM)
- Episode 024: PMO Trends
- Episode 023: Fast Track One
- Episode 022: Soft Skills III - Interview with Steve Kaye on Meetings
- Episode 021: Interview with Dale Brown on becoming a PMP
- Episode 020: Risk
- Episode 019: Soft Skills II - Interview with Moty Koppes
- Episode 018: Soft Skills
- Episode 017: Interview with Sabrina Mancini
- Episode 016: Harry Fisher on Groupware Solutions
- Episode 015: Status Reports
- Episode 014: Interview with Robert Perrine on ITIL
- Episode 013: More on Methodologies
- Episode 012: Goals
- Episode 011: PM Methodologies
- Episode 010: PM Training
- Episode 009?: International Project Management Day
- Episode 009: PM Techniques
- Episode 008: P? M? O?
- Episode 007: I Got A New Project
- Episode 006: Interview with Kristine Hayes Munson
- Episode 005: Podcast Reviews
- Episode 004: PMI 2005 Leadership Meeting Part 2
- Episode 003: Project Failure
- Episode 002: PMI 2005 Leadership Meeting Part 1
- Episode 001: Introduction
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