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Are you currently studying for the PMP Exam? Then try our PMP Podcast:

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Show notes: Dale Brown is an IT Executive who decided to become a PMP. In our interview we discuss his motivation and schedule as well as what and how he studied in order to take and pass the exam. The following books are mentioned in the interview: Outercore's Achieve PMP Exam Success, Sybex's Sybex's Project Management Professional Study Guide, 3rd Edition and Rita Mulcahy's PMP Exam Prep, Fifth Edition.. You can contact Dale at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at +1 949 387 2508. We are also announcing the winners of our software giveaway for VIP Team To do List and we are reviewing a new podcast by Jerry Manas that talks about (you guessed it) project management.

Jerry Manas's Podcast on Project Management:

Update: Jerry has in the meantime fixed the issues with publishing his episodes as separate podcasts. Here are the updated subscription links for you. To subscribe to Jerry's podcast, simply click on one of the following links (actually... you have to drag & drop the second one into your podcatcher software): [Update 2019: Unfortunately the podcast by Jerry Manas is no longer available so we removed the link.]

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Show notes: In this week's show, we feature an Interview with Frank Parth, President of Project Auditors (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Frank's career as a project manager has spanned the world in many well known organizations. Most importantly, Frank has been involved in the setup of four PMOs. In today's interview, we review these PMOs, how Frank's team approached setting them up and Frank will give us his lessons learned. Like every week, we also take a look at the news, the PM events from around the world and at several helpful resources. This is also your last chance to participate in our book giveaway of two copies of Jerry Manas book titled Napoleon on Project Management - good luck to you!

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Show notes: As a project manager you will face conflict in your projects. Period. In today's episode of The Project Management Podcast we take a look at the fundamentals of conflict resolution and we feature an interview with Anthony Chan, PMP, who is talking to us about the conflict situations he had to face in his career, how he solved them and what his lessons learned are. These lessons learned and his key findings to resolving conflicts are available as a PDF document. Like every week, we have several great helpful resources and we announce the winners of our book giveaway.

And the winners of our giveaway of two copies of Jerry Manas's new book Napoleon on Project Management (Amazon Link) are: Mariusz Matrejek from Poland and Eric Vale from Brazil. Congratulations!

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If you look up the Triple Constraints in project management methodology books, you will find that they don't agree on just three, but that they list cost, schedule, quality and scope. In today's episode, we don't look at these from a purely theoretical point of view, but from the point of view of how you as a project manager can use the Triple Constraints to manage your customer's expectations. Like every week we have several great resources for you and our tip of the week tells you what you are supposed to do with your PM methodology book.

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The Project Management Podcast now has a phone number where you can leave your feedback that will be played on the show: +1 206 339 6520. The phone number is also listed under "Contact Us" on the left hand side on the blog.

The PMI's Consulting SIG is today's main topic. A SIG is a Specific Interest Group, which brings together project managers from all over the world who share a common interest. The PMI currently has about 30 SIGs. We interview the chair of the Consulting SIG, Frank Parth, PMP (President of Project Auditors). We discuss what the SIG does, how it overcomes the obstacle of having a worldwide membership and what benefits you receive in becoming a member of the Consulting SIG. In our weekly segments we look at four great helpful resources and the Tip of the Week was sent in by Sai Prasad, PMP, from Chennai in India.

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Allright... you are a Project Manager. What now? In today's episode of The Project Management Podcast™ we look at how you can increase your value as a PM. And that of course translates into training, followed by a recognized PM certification. But which certification? We are giving you an overview of the most common and some not so known PM certificates and training opportunities from around the world with a particular focus on the PMI’s brand new Program Manager Certification. We also have a new giveaway contest and you can win a copy of the professional services automation software allocPSA (www.allocpsa.org)

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If you have ever worked in a PMO you know that it can be a lonely job because you are the only one in your company doing exactly what you are doing. You also know that working for or running a PMO is a very challenging task. You need to develop strategies and processes for your company that work and you have to get the buy in from all your stakeholders. It can be difficult to say the least. Joining the PMI's PMO SIG is not only a great way of improving your own skills in regards to PMOs but also opens the doors to thousands of PMO managers around the world to you. We explore what the PMO SIG can do for you with our interview guest Derry Simmel, the PMO SIG's Vice Chair of  Membership. We also continue our software giveaway for 10 copies of the professional services automation software allocPSA ( www.allocpsa.org)

(Read Thushara Wijerwardena's comment about the announcement we made in this episode about Sri Lankan blogs... )

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In this week's episode The Project Management Podcast™ welcomes David L. Davis, PMP to discuss Project Portfolio Management Tools. We define what portfolio management is, we look at ease of implementation of modern tools and their benefits, at what company size these tools make sense, best practices for implementation and more. Part 2 of the interview will be available next week. We also announce the winners of the software giveaway for the professional services automation software allocPSA (www.allocpsa.org)

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This week The Project Management Podcast™ continues our discussion with David L. Davis, PMP on Project Portfolio Management Tools. We look at Dave's blog , his passion for project portfolio management, some great implementations he has seen and we discuss Dave's predictions for the future of PPM. We end the interview (of course) with our standard 10 questions. A special welcome goes to all our new listeners who found us through the recent article in PM Network Magazine.

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What's better - Agile or Plan Driven Methodologies? If you look around and read articles in magazines or on websites the answer almost seems like a religion. This week The Project Management Podcast™ discusses the question of the "correct" approach with Craig D. Wilson, IT Management Consultant. His conclusion will surprise you! A special welcome goes to all our new listeners who found us either through the recent article in PM Network Magazine or our sponsorship of the August PMNetwork Newsletter . Welcome and keep on listening.

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Project Management is not just different from project to project or company to company but also from country to country. Kay Beewen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) has worked as a PM in France, Germany, Japan and the USA. We discuss his experience in general, talk about cultural differences, where to put your focus as a PM in Japan and his advice to foreign PMs working in Japan. While the interview only represents one PM's experience working in a different culture, it will nevertheless give you a glimpse into what hurdles and culture shock you will have to overcome if you leave your own culture and begin working in another. And those lessons learned are valuable whether you are a German PM going to Japan or a Japanese PM going to Namibia. In our Helpful Resources segment  we start looking at the upcoming launch of The Project Management PrepCast™ by introducing you to three websites that offer free PMP exam preparation information.

In the interview we refer to this drawing Kai created as an analogy of how projects move in the western world vs. his experience in Japan (click to enlarge):

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A project management methodology can be defined as "A documented process for management of projects that contains procedures, definitions and roles and responsibilities". But what do you do, if your company has small projects, medium sized projects and large projects? Do you need three separate methdologies? Our interview guest Tom Mochal, president of www.tenstep.com answered this question several years ago, when he developed the scalable TenStep methodology. We discuss the value of PM in general, the results that companies should expect when implementing a project management methodology and of course the benefits and characteristics of scalable PM methodologies. Our weekly Helpful Resources complement this interview by offering links to various methodology related sites.

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This week The Project Management Podcast™ continues the discussion on Scalable Project Management Methodologies with our interview guest Tom Mochal, president of www.tenstep.com. We look at the TenStep line of products, look into the future of project management methodologies and Tom gives us his in-depth answer to our "Final 10" questions. Our weekly Helpful Resources will introduce you to two brand-new project management podcasts that are freely available.

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In this week's episode The Project Management Podcast™ welcomes Thushara Wijewardena, PMP (http://projectized.blogspot.com) who is the general manager of a PMO in a software development outsourcing company in Sri Lanka. We discuss the challenges that she faced in initially setting it up and how she addresses today's needs of her worldwide clientele who require her to utilize multiple project management methodologies concurrently throughout the company. We complement the interview with a look at 3 helpful resources that will make your project management office shine. You will also hear listener feedback from our feedback phone at +1 206 339 6520 and we answer a listener question about the required 35 contact hours needed to apply for the PMP® exam.

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One of the most difficult tasks project managers and business analysts face is obtaining customer requirements. Even when business customers and the business analyst work in the same building, misunderstandings are bound to arise. It’s a challenge to ask the right questions, get the right people involved, and document unambiguous requirements, regardless of the backgrounds of those participating. When the project includes multi-cultural stakeholders, particularly if they comprise a virtual team working in geographically dispersed areas, the job becomes much harder. On this week's episode of The Project Management Podcast™ we hear from Richard Larson, PMP, and Elizabeth Larson, PMP, of Watermark Learning (http://www.watermarklearning.com/) what interpersonal skills, approaches and tools you as a project manager can utilize to address these issues.

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Happy Birthday Project Management Podcast™! Today we are publishing our 50th episode and are also celebrating one year on the air. To celebrate, we invited former PMI president and chairman of the board Max Wideman. Mr Wideman has been in the business for quite some time. He has been involved in a lot of projects, from big ones running many years to little ones lasting only days; in many different types from heavy engineering to building construction, to social and environmental impact studies, to information systems and software. The Project Management Podcast™ first recommended Mr Wideman's website www.maxwideman.com back in episode 7 as one of the leading project management reference websites today. We welcome Mr Wideman to discuss the topic "Project management basics typically overlooked". You will also hear Helpful Resources that are recommended by listeners, a  congratulatory voicemail from the Controlling Chaos Podcast and we are giving away two copies of the book Introduction to IT Project Management by Cynthia Snyder, PMP, and Frank Parth, PMP.

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In today’s episode of The Project Management Podcast™ we continue our look at international and intercultural project management. In episode 48, we heard about the issues that the manager of a PMO in Sri Lanka was faced with in regards to all the customer requests she received. But what about the other end? What about the customer? What issues does a customer face who has chosen to augment their staff through off shoring? This is the discussion that I had with Eric Smith and I have to admit, that I was genuinely surprised by what I found. We also continue our book give away of two copies of the book "Introduction to IT Project Management" by Cynthia Snyder, PMP, and Frank Parth, PMP, and we share a number of helpful resources that were recommended by listeners.

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About a year ago I was asked to take over a troubled project in our company. From one moment to the next, I went from using project management software and being the project manager in charge of organizational change projects to being a PM for a software development project. While I had been working as a PM on website development before, dealing with software development in a controlled environment is a different beast. The dynamics were and are completely different. And what is it like to manage software projects? “Surprise! Now you’re a software project manager” is the title of the book written by Bas de Baar (http://softwareprojects.org).

Of course, we will not be discussing his book as such but that there is a big difference between a SW development methodology and project management in software development where the PM methodology is used to manage technical projects. Today is also the day that we announce the winners of our book giveaway, we start a new book giveaway, we have a listener comment, a seminar announcement and a few more helpful resources that were recommended by our listeners.

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The Project Management Podcast™ is pleased to welcome Quentin Fleming (www.quentinf.com [Update: The web page is no longer available so we removed the link]) as our interview guest this week. Mr Fleming is an author, instructor and consultant to management, with over three decades of project management experience within private industry. He has particular expertise in the design of and the assessment of project management control systems and is the co-author of the best-selling book "Earned Value Project Management". We discuss the history and the the basics of earned value management as well as his approach to "Simple" Earned Value which he outlines in an article that he wrote together with Joel Koppelman. The 10 steps, which the authors define are:

• Step 1: You must define the scope (objectives and deliverables) of the project.
• Step 2: You must determine who will perform the defined work, including the identification of all critical procurements.
• Step 3: You must plan and schedule the defined work.
• Step 4: You must estimate the required resources and formally authorize budgets.
• Step 5: You must determine the metrics to convert planned value into earned value.
• Step 6: You must form a performance measurement baseline and determine the points of management control referred to as Control Account Plans (CAPs).
• Step 7: You must record all direct costs by project consistently with the authorized baseline budgets, in accordance with the organization’s general books of accounts.
• Step 8: You must continuously monitor the earned value performance to determine cost and schedule departures from the baseline plan: both schedule variances (earned value less the planned value) and cost variances (earned value less the actual costs).
• Step 9: Using earned value data, you must forecast the final required costs based on actual performance and keep management apprised so they can take corrective actions if necessary.
• Step 10: You must manage the authorized scope by approving or rejecting all changes, and incorporating approved changes into the project baseline in a timely manner.

This is the perfect episode to listen to after our introduction to earned value management, so if you haven't heard that one yet, make sure to add it to your podcast player. 

We also continue our book giveaway of two copies of Bas de Baar's book "Surprise! Now you are a Software Project Manager" and we have an announcement from PM Lessons Learned [Update: The web page is no longer available so we removed the link].

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Today's episode of The Project Management Podcast™ is focused on project management methodologies. I speak with Gerard Hill from The Hill Consulting Group. Gerard and I both share a passion for PMOs and project management methodologies. Following his success with The Complete Project Management Office Handbook, Gerard has developed the ProjectPRISM™ Methodology for Project Management as his latest in a line of several methodology development efforts. We discuss project management methodologies in general and how his new methodology differs. You will also learn, how you can win a copy of his PMO book and how you can get a free and complete copy of the methodology (single-user license). In our weekly segments we look at four great helpful resources and you will also get a Tip of the Week.