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The Capability Maturity Model Integration is known to most simply as CMMI. It is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes. The goal of CMMI was to improve the usability of maturity models by integrating many different models into one framework. It was created by members of industry, government and the SEI. Our guest today is Jeff Berkel from Metafuse, Inc (www.projectinsight.net). He and his team have lead projects helping their customers implement CMMI. We start out by giving you a CMMI overview, learn how it compares to other capability maturity models and then take you step by step through the general process of a CMMI implementation project.

We also announce the winners of our 100th episode giveaway who both win a copy of the Alan Parsons Project CD The Turn of a Friendly Card, and we have a new giveaway starting and you can win a copy of Insight Tree. Listen to the episode to learn how to participate.

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For our 100th episode we are leaving the realm of “traditional” project management. We are taking a one-legged sideways step into the music business but we will still keep one foot firmly grounded in our own art. I am extremely pleased to welcome Alan Parsons (www.alanparsonsmusic.com) on our show today. Alan is a record producer, audio engineer and musician, who is probably best known for his engineering work on Pink Floyd’s legendary Dark Side of the Moon album and of course he is the founder of the Alan Parsons Project. From the late 70s to the late 80s the group produced 10 successful albums and their most played song is probably Sirius. Alan and I discuss the roles & responsibilities of a record producer in the production of an album, how the role has changed over the years, we discuss the processes involved in creating a successful album and you’ll be very surprised to hear what Alan thinks is the most important skill on the job.

As part of today’s 100th episode we are giving away two Alan Parsons Project CDs: The Turn of a Friendly Card. Listen to the episode to learn how to participate.

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Today’s overtime is with Stacy Goff. In last week’s episode Stacy and I discussed his paper titled “Measuring and Managing Project Quality”. And he mentioned during that interview that “My favorite Quality Indicator is the Planned versus Actual Cumulative Review Count”. So I gave Stacy another call to talk about these reviews in particular. We will learn all about the dos and don’ts of these reviews. And we will also look at the Periodic Table of Project Management Competence Elements.

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Several Quality-related problems are unique to projects. For one, it is difficult to measure. In fact, often key stakeholders cannot evaluate the true quality of the results until the delivery day, and then it is too late to do anything to resolve gaps. Also projects often produce something new. So there are few standards against which to evaluate “good” results. This means we are faced with the problem of having to measure something that is difficult to define and nobody has seen before. It's a problem. Stacy Goff, president of Project Experts (https://www.projectexperts.com), recently wrote a paper on exactly this issue. We welcome him back on the program to discuss his definition of quality, how using measures and indicators can help, learn about his favorite quality indicator and you'll hear a number of tips from his quality management toolkit, enabling you to measure quality on your projects.

In our Gizmos section we look at Insight Tree and we announce the winners of Jack Ferraro's book The Strategic Project Leader .

Read Stacy's paper titled Measuring and Managing Project Quality (*.pdf)

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Carrying on our series of leadership podcasts, we continue our discussion with Jack Ferraro on Strategic Project Leadership. We look at The Platinum Rule behavioral compatibility assessment and The MyProjectAdvisor Leadership Competency Pyramid. In particular we discuss the characteristics of a project leader and how we translate the theoretical knowledge from these tools into our daily lives. Jack also discusses how a strategic project leader uses efficiency, customization, foresight and connectedness in order to manage a successful project.

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In addition to overseeing projects, today's project managers are expected to provide creative input and use their leadership to create an environment that can respond rather than react to changing parameters. And then there are also these continuously moving objectives and requirements that need to be managed. According to Jack Ferraro, this new landscape calls for a service based project manager, which he discusses in his book titled The Strategic Project Leader.

In our interview with Jack we explore the attitudes and behaviors that define successful leaders, the importance of a service view in project management and most importantly we discuss and give you tools & tips on how to go from being a certified project manager to the point where you are a strategic leader. In this one of our leadership podcasts you'll pick up some actionable advice on how to grow your leadership skills.

Click here to read Jack Ferraro's white paper titled Self Directed Leadership Development (*.PDF)

Our other features: In our Gizmos section we introduce you to Processes On Demand by BOT International, a tool that will help you set up your Project Management Office (PMO) and improve your organization's project management maturity. We announce the winners of the giveaway of Jerry Manas's book Managing the Gray Areas . And we also start a new book giveaway for Jack Ferraro's book The Strategic Project Leader .

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In this episode Jerry Manas gives us additional insights into the gray areas. Because his book is called Managing the Gray Areas, we are concentrating on the actual management process. The tools that Jerry recommends and which we discuss at length are

• Ideals - Standing for something
• Leading by Questioning
• Systems Thinking
• Empathy and Cultural Awareness

Since these are mostly tools from the softer end of managing the gray areas we then go ahead and also spend time looking at a number of hard tools.

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Have you ever managed a project where everything was either black or white, yes or no, approved or not approved? You probably haven’t. If your projects are like mine then most decisions that are made are a compromise. You give a little here, you take a little there. In project management nothing is really ever black and white. So don’t adjust your project plan, for you have entered the gray areas. And “Managing The Gray Areas” is the title of the new book written by Jerry Manas, PMP, who joins us on the podcast today to talk about these gray areas and all the tradeoffs that we project managers have to make every single day.

In our Gizmos section we introduce you to a new project management podcast called PMPOD. You can find it at www.pmpod.de .

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In this episode we continue our discussion with Lee Fischman on experimental projects. However, we shift our focus a bit and discuss successful team management. Lee argues that in order for an experimental project to be successful your team will need to perform a number of roles or "themes". He identified 7 such themes that will make you successful and we are going to look at all 8 of them. And no, that wasn't a typo. Even though we discuss project team management in the context of experimental projects, Lee's findings and recommendations are applicable across the board. Managing teams would be a lot simpler Especially his recap at the end is excellent advice for managing your teams.

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Search for "Experimental Projects" on your favorite search engine and you will find millions of entries. However, most of us "corporate" project manager types will probably never have been involved in this branch of project management. On experimental projects, the outcome is uncertain, the road is bumpy, you will probably take a few detours and failure is part of the plan. Lee Fischman joins us on the program today to discuss not only the concepts behind experimental projects but also to take a look at how you can improve their outcomes. Put your brain into overdrive... especially if you have never been confronted with an experimental project.

And here are the winners who each receive a copy of of our brand new PMP Exam Formula Study Guide: Don Ellis (Premium Podcast Subscriber) and Ozeas Santana Filho from Sao Paulo in Brazil (Free Podcast Listener).

Click here to download the PDF presentation that Lee Fischman gave at the NASA Project Management Challenge in 2006...

If the above link does not work, you can download it from the website of Lee's employer...

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Today we continue our discussion with Margaret Meloni on your Professional Brand as a Project Manager. We discuss that actions will speak louder than words when it comes to your professional brand, how to ask feedback from others on your professional brand and we also want to know from Margaret if this whole concept really works and ask her to apply it in an example. As part of this episode you will also receive Margaret's white paper titled "Own Your Reputation. Own Your Brand". In it, Margaret gives you the 11 steps necessary in order to define your professional brand.

And if you listen closely you can hear me say "personal brand" instead of "professional brand" several times during the interview. Margaret says that it's a common mistake. But I make it up to her at the very end of the episode... ;-)

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Have you clearly defined what sets you apart from other project managers? Do you understand how your own behaviors make others understand you as a brand? Can you "reap" the benefits of others promoting you instead of having to do it yourself? You will be able to answer all of these questions with a resounding "yes" if you are clear about who you are as a professional. If not, then others will make up their own image for you. Then they will broadcast that image. Wouldn’t it be better if you took control? To help you out with this we are extremely happy to bring back Margaret Meloni to discuss "Your Professional Brand" and how you can quite easily influence how others see you and help promote you. We give you a definition of the professional brand, we talk about the importance of having one, what benefits you will receive from it and most importantly, Margaret opens up her toolkit to you and gives you a step-by-step overview of how you can manage your own personal brand.

And here are the winners who each receive a copy of Hans Jonassons's book Determining Project Requirements: Adam Torres (Premium Podcast Subscriber) and Michael Potter (Free Podcast Listener).

We are also starting a new giveaway where you could win a copy of our brand new PMP Exam Formula Study Guide. Listen to this episode to learn how.

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In his fabulous book Determining Project Requirements Hans Jonasson, PMP included a chapter on the Enterprise Analysis. He writes "Enterprise analysis is perhaps the fastest growing area of business analysis. It provides the context and the link between projects and the business. [...] The pre-project activities tend to give the analyst the most organizational visibility through dealings with the upper level of the organization. If the business analyst is successful in this area, it can be a great career enhancer; if unsuccessful, it will be noticed." In today's Overtime, we bring Hans back on the program to discuss the relationship between business and enterprise analysis, how to perform an enterprise analysis and what we expect to find in it.

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At the beginning of 2008 we put up a survey and wanted to know from you what you considered to be your Project Management Hot Topics for 2008. Requirements Management received 70 votes and landed in second place. We looked around and are happy to bring to you today an interview with Hans Jonasson (www.jtcunlimited.com). Hans is the author of a fabulous book called Determining Project Requirements and in our interview today we will be looking at how you should be determining your project’s requirements. I promise, you are going to like this one. You will learn not only about the process of properly determining requirements and the tools that are required for it, you will also be able to win a copy of his book.

In this interview Hans Jonasson and I discuss requirements gathering best practices as well as many of the tools of the trade. I would like to know how close your company comes to this ideal state. Please leave a comment below.

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Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology which combines tools from both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Lean manufacturing focuses on speed and traditional Six Sigma focuses on quality. By combining the two, the result is better quality faster. I recently had the opportunity to attend a one week seminar on the Lean Six Sigma methodology from my employer. In this episode I will give you an overview of what I took away, we will talk about the acronyms DMAIC, DIRFT and SWIM and I will give you my conclusion of what I feel is important about Lean Six Sigma.

And here are the winners who each won a copy of Brian Irwin's book Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects: Alfredo A. Guillen (Premium Podcast Subscriber) Karthik Surya (Free Podcast Listener).

Are you using Lean Six Sigma in your daily work? How is it working for you? Where are its weaknesses and strengths? Please leave a comment below.

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Today we are starting a new series of episodes. My plan is to go back to the basics of project management and revisit books and teachings from the great names in project management. The reason for this is because I feel that we loose ourselves way too much in the detailed nitty-gritty of our methodologies. Agile, Waterfall, RUP, Scrum and Extreme Project Management are all good methodologies, but in order to be able to apply them properly, you have to first understand the underlying fundamentals of our profession. And there is no better way to do this than by going back to the basics. I have a list of great names in project management in mind. And today, we are starting out with the name that ranks at the very top and that is the world-famous singer, songwriter and project manager Mrs. Britney Spears.

How do you feel about the project management abilities of Mrs. Britney Spears? Do you read her books? Do you apply her best practices on your projects? Please leave a comment below.

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Project Politics are very likely the "ugly stepchild" of project management. We know that we have them, but we try to ignore them as best as we can. Because of that we can be sure that they will bite us. And instead of blaming ourselves for not managing them properly, we blame the elusive "company politics" for the fact that our project just failed. This is where Brian Irwin, PMP can help. He wrote the book Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects, which will help you not only understand the dynamics of politics in a company but will also help you manage it. In our discussion with Brian we focus on one important part of managing your politics, and that is your stakeholders. They say that the only project where you don't have politics is a project where you have only one person participating. But since all of us usually have more than one stakeholder we have to know how to manage their project related expectations properly.

We are giving away two copies of Brian's book. Listen in to learn how to participate in this giveaway.

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In Episode 62 we spoke with Thomas Cutting, PMP about "How to become a Project Manager". In today's interview with Nehme E. Abouzeid we will be looking more at the middle of your career. You are now an established project manager, you have managed a number of projects, you are (hopefully) respected in your company and you are thinking about your future. Where can you go? What is there waiting ahead of you? Nehme makes the case that because you are a project manager, because you meet and have to work with people from various departments and divisions in your company and because you have seen so many different aspects of the company's processes and workflows you are an excellent candidate to become an executive officer in your company.

And here are the names of the winners of our Leap Year Giveaway: They are Patrick O'Neill (from among the subscriber of the Premium Podcast) and Rajeev Kumar Sharma (from among the registered users of our website). Each has won a license of The Project Management PrepCast™, which will help them prepare for the PMP® Exam.

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The business environment is changing quite dramatically and also quite rapidly. We project managers are facing new challenges like globalization, more complex projects or shorter project schedules. Often this is a result of a changing global marketplace, which changes our company, which in turn changes the way we run projects. Stefan Hagen is the managing director of Startup Euregio Management GmbH, a full service provider for project and process management, and he has taken the traditional organizational approaches and theories and combined them with business process management and the processes needed to run enterprise wide projects. The result is the IPPM Organization®. We discuss this model and how it supports projects in large companies.

We also announce the winners of the Mind Manager Pro 7 giveaway and remind you of our Leap Year Contest.

Download Stefan Hagen's PDF presentation on the IPPM Organization®...

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In January of 2008 I went on my first cruise, which took me to the Mexican Riviera. Of course, I never leave home without the podcast recording equipment, so it is no surprise that I took a few moments on the ship to record a couple of short episodes for you. This is the first one and I am introducing you to a book titled Getting Things Done by David Allen. This book is all about productivity and how to get your to-do-list under control. However, this is not meant to be a book review in the traditional sense - in this episode I present to you my journey over the past 3-4 months of how I used and implemented this book in order to get my hundreds of tasks under control.

Buy David Allen's Getting Things Done from Amazon...