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I start the show by giving away some free stuff and talk about a few items on my chest. I introduce a new show segment "Project Management in the News" (links below) and then move on to the main topic: My experience with PMOs. You'll hear what I learned during setting up three PMOs and I call for you to write in and give me your definition of what P?M?O? actually stands for. Send me an email with your most outlandish, funny or real definitions of the acronym PMO.

Project Management in the News
Project Management Fundamentals: An Intensive Program
New Book Project Management in Construction
IBM donates project management code to open source community
Manchester City Council to build a Project Management Intranet Website
Boosting Business Performance Through Programme and Project Management
PMI Moscow Conference Attracts Almost 200 Participants
Project Management Pioneer Announces Predictions For 2010
Pmi Fellows Refuse To Evacuate Houston For Hurricane Rita

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:11):

You are listening to the project management podcast. We bring project management topics to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at pmpodcast.blogspot.com or send your emails to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Hello, and welcome to show number eight. I am Cornelius fish. Now this is the project management podcast for the 22nd of October, 2005. And today we are going to test your creativity. Tell me what the letters P M O stand for. But before we do that, there are a few things I want to talk about. Let me start out the show today by giving away some free stuff, but don't get too excited because it's nothing project management related a little while ago, travel indoors. A listener from Australia asked me if I could invite him to a gmail account, because obviously he can't just sign up to a gmail account. Didn't know that, but g-mail seems to be by invitation only if you do not have a gmail account.

Cornelius Fichtner (01:23):

And if you would like to have a Gmail account, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. And I shall send you an invitation. This offer is of course good, as long as supplies last, but as far as I understand, Gmail is rather good. Once you're using up a few, they fill up the bucket quite quickly for you. Again, next, if you are listening to my show via a subscription, you don't have a problem. You won't miss a show like you're using iTunes or iPod or, and you subscribe to it. And as soon as I update my RSS file, the show gets downloaded automatically to your iPod or MP3 player. No problem there, but for those of you out there who are listening to the show, shall we say manually, you go to the blog every week and you click on the sh on the link that says, click here to listen to the show.

Cornelius Fichtner (02:19):

You may miss a show. So I put up a sign up for a new show notification. And when you go to my blog, you will see on the left hand side, it reads, don't miss a show, sign up to receive a new show notification. And when you sign up through there, you can sign up for other things too, like for the newsletter or when I have free stuff to give away. At some point I will send notifications out so that you won't miss any of that. Next. I have some reader feedback. Let me see, where is it up here? It is. It is from Christian, from Bucharest in Romania. And he writes Cornelius. I have been listening since the beginning, and I am glad to say that your podcast is getting better each episode, both in content and in audio quality. Thank you very much, Christian.

Cornelius Fichtner (03:16):

Really appreciate this feedback right here. And another thing I want to talk about is the value of the PMP certificate. I spoke to a colleague of mine here in California. Her name is Cindy Ferguson, and she recently got her PMP certificate and we were talking on the phone and she told me that people have at work. We're kind of looking down at all, three of them who got the PMP certificate at the same time. Yeah, people were saying some things along the line, Oh, look, you got a little Mickey mouse certification there. In the meantime, her company has gone through a reorganization and people are suddenly realizing the value of the PMP certificate, where Cindy is working Cindy and her colleagues have now been asked to work on PM policies and procedures, as well as taking the PMBOK guide and modifying it so that it can be used as the internal, the internal operating guide for their project.

Cornelius Fichtner (04:29):

That's additionally, there will, it'll be an internal requirement for all project managers, right. To take the certification. Okay. It's wonderful for me to see that companies like Cindy's see the value of the certification and use the PM piece to their extent. Yeah. And while we're at it, here is some information about project management [inaudible] and this is from the PMI and they are offering an intensive course in project management fundamentals. Let me quote from this one here, Thursday, October 27th begins the final 2005 term of the PMI E seminars, world course, project management fundamentals and intensive program component members who are new to project management or who seek a more formal approach to project management would benefit from the program as would functional managers and staff in technical leadership roles. The program runs through the 2nd of December, 2005 and consists of five courses, introduction to project management, defining the project schedules and budgets, estimating, and risk and team dynamics. So you or

Cornelius Fichtner (05:58):

Anyone in your company or anyone that you know is looking for some P M fundamentals that this here might be a good place to start, go to my blog. I'll put up the link to this one, and now let's get the show rolling. There was so much in the news this week about project management that I decided, you know what, this calls for a new segment right here on the project management podcast. So here we go with the news of the last two weeks, and it's a bit longer than you can expect in the future, but there were so many good news stories that I just wanted to get them your way. So here's what the new set

Cornelius Fichtner (06:40):

First news item I have is IBM donates project management code to open source community. This is from the 12th of October, 2005. I quote IBM is donating some of its rational project development technology to the open source eclipse foundation to help improve software development. IBM says it's donating 3000 lines of code. Well, as I'll throw mystic as this may sound from my point of view, IBM is in a market to make money. And the only reason I can see for IBM to make this donation is if it actually benefits IBM. And I bet that IBM is banking on the eclipses foundation to include a very strong re-upped support, enter their software. Well, we'll see where this one goes.

Above are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks. A human-generated transcript is available to Premium subscribers starting with episode 136.

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 Tons of "Golden Nuggets of Wisdom" in today's show! Following some listener feedback at the start of the show, I am introducing three new show segments:

• Simon Says: Chuck Tomasi from www.chuckchat.com has recently moved into a junior project manager position. Whenever Chuck shares his experiences on his own show, I will cut & paste that segment into The Project Management Podcast, so that you are able to hear his insights right here. Today, Chuck learns about letting the experts talk for themselves.
• Dear Diary: I got a new project this week and this is my audio diary. I will talk about my approach, my successes, my failures and about all the crazy stuff that happens on a small IT project. Today, things go wrong even before we get to the kick-off meeting.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: This is my review segment in which I will review PM related website, podcasts, books, newsletters or anything else that is reviewable and comes across my desk. If you have a suggestion, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Today, I am reviewing the excellent website of Max Wideman at www.maxwideman.com.

And I also mention that the cost-saving early registration of the PMI Global Congress 2005 - Latin America has been extended until October 21, 2005.

Play Now:

Tons of "Golden Nuggets of Wisdom" in today's show! Following some listener feedback at the start of the show, I am introducing three new show segments:

Kristine Hayes Munson is the Chair of the Project Management Institute, Orange County Chapter. Amongst other topics, we talk about her career as a project manager, what the benefits of being a PMI member are, how she became chair of the chapter, her involvement in the PMI Leadership Institute and about why you should become a PMP. And you definitely don't want to miss The Final 10, the ten questions I ask at the end of each interview.

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:11):

You are listening to the project management podcast. We bring project management topics to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at pmpodcast.blogspot.com or send your emails to PM This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Hello, and welcome to show number six. I am Cornelius Fichtner. Now the show is recorded on the 8th of October, 2005. And today I have my first guest on the show. This guest is Kristine Hayes Munson, who is the president of the project management Institute, orange County chapter, the PMI-OC, I asked Christine to be on the show today because I have had several email conversations with listeners regarding the PMI. They ask questions, like, why should I join the PMI? What skills can I learn as a PMI volunteer? Or what will the PMP certification do for me? And I figured rather than me pontificating about this subject, I want to bring someone on the show who knows the PMI inside out and who can back up her views on the PMI with personal experience. It did not take me long to decide who I wanted to talk to because whenever I have a PMI related question, Christine is usually my one stop shop. She knows the PMI inside out. So one day at the office, I got up, I walked over to my boss and I said, Hey, Christine, how would you feel about doing an interview on my podcast? She said, yes. And here it is

Announcer (01:47):

The project management podcast feature interview today with Kristine Hayes-Munson chair of the project management Institute, orange County chapter in California.

Cornelius Fichtner (02:09):

Kristine Hayes Munson joined the PMI in 1999, but wasn't very active until she found the PMI-OC in 2001, Christine says choosing to become a PMI-OC volunteer was one of my best personal and professional decisions as a volunteer. She is privileged to work with and learn from countless other PMI-OC members. Christine has served as vice president of communications, vice president of professional development, and is the current chair slash president on the board of the PMI-OC. Professionally, Her project management experience includes a wide range of business process improvement and information technology projects in the finance printing and construction industries.

Cornelius Fichtner (03:04):

Currently, Christine oversees a team responsible for project portfolio tracking, project management, methodology development, standard operating procedure, documentation, audit, compliance, oversight, resource utilization, division intranet development, and senior management reporting for 145 member financial services technology department, Christine lives in Vista, California with her husband and their three children. Okay. Christine, even though we've been working together for a long time, we've known each other for about what two and a half years now, something like that. The one thing I never ever asked you is you've grown up in Idaho on the farm. How on earth did you ever end up in one of the oldest financial institutions of the United States as a project manager?

Kristine Hayes-Munson (04:02):

Well, first off, I didn't really grow up on a farm. My father taught school until I was 14 and my mother, um, chose not to relocate to live on the farm. So we stayed in the big city of American falls, which had 3,600 people. Huge, huge, huge city. There's actually stoplights there. Acacia curious. Um, I went to college and was an English major, gotta be any English and found that it was a very marketable skill I could work at McDonald's. I go work at burger King. I chose Kinko's because I would not smell like food after I was through actually I had gone to Kinko's to copy my resume and they had the big help wanted sign. And I'm like, well, you just cough you know.

Cornelius Fichtner (04:47):

So what kind of job did you take at Kinko?. Probably not as project manager to start you off.

Kristine Hayes-Munson (04:51):

No, I worked at the front counter at, Kinko's making $5 an hour

Cornelius Fichtner (04:56):

Here. I need 20 copies of that.

Kristine Hayes-Munson (04:58):

Absolutely.

Cornelius Fichtner (04:59):

Okay.

Kristine Hayes-Munson (05:00):

And then from there, I just kind of accidentally fell into working in the desktop publishing area, which is my first introduction to technology beyond just using my PC at home. And so I did desktop publishing for three or four years using a Macintosh. So I'm a huge Mac fan. I have two of those at home. And from there I just kept climbing the Kinko's corporate ladder and looking for new opportunities to improve what I was doing and to challenge myself and to explore new options. And one of the options that I was able to uncover was the opportunity to go work at Kinko's corporate office and manage the program around the operations manual. And I probably I'd always had always been using project management skills, but I didn't really know what I was doing as a project managers till I went to work at Kinko's corporate office, and I had.

Cornelius Fichtner (05:58):

Using project management skills. I didn't know what it was until I started getting into the profession and getting training. Yeah.

Kristine Hayes-Munson (06:04):

Yeah. I had a title. I didn't know what it meant basically. So big, this thing happened, I understood that part, but I didn't know what, what a program project manager was. And I was working for a woman who understood that and pointed me to UCSPB university of California at Santa Barbara. They had an extension program where they were teaching project management. So I basically took, there were a bunch of us who took it together and a night class on project management. One-on-one from everything on how to write a schedule and use Microsoft project to more in depth project management topics. And that lasted about 18 months. And that was the first time I really understood what a project manager was. And through that involvement, I ran into some people who were active in the PMI LA chapter, and they started talking very highly of the project management Institute and what it had done for them and were trying to get me involved in that chapter.

Above are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks. A human-generated transcript is available to Premium subscribers starting with episode 136.

Play Now:

Today I am reviewing five project management related shows of other podcasts and tell you which ones are worth listening to. Here are a the links to the shows:

• The Internet Show with Tony Fraser:
  No longer available
• The FoxShow by Andrew MacNeill:
  Website - MP3
• The Business Intelligence Network's Solutions Spotlight with Claudia Imhoff:
  Website - [Update 2019: Unfortunately the audio by Claudia Imhoff is no longer available so we removed the link.]
• The Marketing Edge with host Albert Maruggi:
  Website - MP3 [Update 2019: Unfortunately the audio by is no longer available so we removed the link.]
• The Cranky Middle Manager Show hosted by Wayne Turmel:
  Website - MP3

I am also reading a few emails from listeners and I mention the Troubled Projects Specific Interest Group as a follow up on Show #3 in which I talked about project failure. 

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:10):

You are listening to the project management podcast. We bring project management topics to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at the PM. podcast.blogspot.com or send your emails to PM This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Hello, and welcome to the fifth show. I am Cornelius Fichtner. This show was recorded on the 30th of September, 2005. And today I will give you my review of five project management related podcast shows out them. However, before we do that, I want to read a few emails that I have received over the past couple of weeks. The first one is from Chuck Tomasi. He writes, hello. I found your podcast on the front page of iTunes being a new project manager for our it group. I thought I would look for any and all resources. Since I am familiar with podcasts, I do a couple of shows myself and find the medium terribly convenient. I thought I would start with your show.

Cornelius Fichtner (01:17):

I am just getting through the existing material now. Well, thank you very much, Chuck, for telling me about the iTunes from page, I was quite happy to see my show announced that, and please keep listening because I will use the questions which you have asked at the remainder of your email in my interview that I will be doing next week with the chair of the local PMI chapter. Next is an email from Jennifer Kelly. She writes great show. I tuned in shortly after you started your podcast. And as someone who is considering project management as a career switch, your shows have been very helpful. Keep up the great show. Well, thank you very much, Jennifer. And also thank you to Andrew Smith from Auckland New Zealand who writes hi, Cornelius, just listened to your intro podcast. You did well and captured my interest. I wait with interest for your next shows.

Cornelius Fichtner (02:21):

Finally, I got an email from Daniel [inaudible]. He writes from Brazil, and that is in response to my show on project failure. I think that was shown number three. He writes, I was listening to your third show about project failure at lunch. And oddly enough, early that day, the key project which I was working on was declared a failure first by me, then my superiors. He continues to explain how he deals with failure. This is going to be interesting for you folks. First, I blame myself. I keep looking back and seeing the all so obvious signs that things were going wrong. Then I blame the others. What do I have staff for? Are they so up to use that they couldn't see what was going on? Do they care so little about anything else than their paychecks? After this? I blame my superiors for awhile thinking that they could be more supportive.

Cornelius Fichtner (03:32):

This lasts for a day or two. After that, I start thinking where the relations between the people involved in the project started going bad. He finishes by saying personally, I blame a failure of a project on my lack of ability to manage people and make them get involved. And I very much agree with Daniel here because the P in P M stands just as much for people management as it stands for project management. Oddly enough, those stages that Daniel went through, they reminded me quite a bit of the five stages of grief. You know, the five stages that someone who receives devastating news has to go through before they can accept that news. And those five are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It's kind of the same kind of feeling here. Daniel also asks if it is wise to almost immediately try and revive a field project.

Cornelius Fichtner (04:44):

Now, from what I can tell Daniel's project failed because the software vendor pulled the plug. Personally, I have to say, no, you probably want to give the project some rest to regroup. And most importantly, however, you need to bring everyone involved to the table and do a lessons learned because before you revive a project, you definitely want to know why it failed and what you can do better next time. Otherwise you'll just repeat the same mistakes. And I can tell you, this is exactly what happened to me. There was no lessons learned, done, and that is why the project that I was talking about in show number three, why it had failed. And in order to get that lessons learned, you want to bring everybody on the project onto the table and listen to what they have to say. Definitely. Oh, and you probably also want to surf over to the troubled projects, specific interest group folks.

Cornelius Fichtner (05:47):

There is such a thing. You can find them at www.ppsig.org. There'll be a link on my blog for that, but now onto today's show in which I will be giving you my review of five other shows that I have found out there. And these five shows are the internet show with Tony Fraser, the Fox show by Andrew McNeil. Then there is the business intelligent network solutions spotlight with Claudia Imhoff, the marketing edge with host Albert Maroji. And then there is the wonderfully named the cranky middle manager show, which is hosted by Wayne terminal. Please keep in mind that these podcasts, they are regularly scheduled shows, but they don't always talk about project management in each of these podcasts. Just the shows that I'm reviewing here today do talk about project management. Let's get started.

Tony Frazier (06:59):

It's the internet show with Tony Frazier. I love this thing. I love the show. I love being in the air. I love having my own radio show. Absolutely fantastic.

Cornelius Fichtner (07:12):

The internet showl with Tony Frazier is a podcast of a radio show from radio K L a V 12:30 AM in Las Vegas. Here's what Tony says about his mission. There's a lot of bad business and technical information about the web floating around causing people to lose zillions of dollars a year in wasted capital and human confusion. We hate that our mission is to stare, stare straight in the face of all those topics that seem like rocket science, break them down and protect you from having the wool pulled over your eyes. So he's focusing mostly on internet issues. And in this show here, he talks about project management. This show was recorded on March 9th, 2005, and it is 54 minutes long, including all the radio ads. Tony's guest is Marcus hammer. And Tony says about Marcus in addition to being a startup expert and striking it big with some really interesting statistical software.

Cornelius Fichtner (08:23):

Marcus happens to be the one single guy I trust to run a monster project. If I needed to go off, if I needed it to go off without a hitch, learn how to successfully manage a technology project from the best of the best. And in the first 20 minutes of the show, they start out by talking about the basics of project management. Then Marcus goes into a very, very good overview of project management methodologies and best practices. There are lots and lots of golden nuggets of wisdom in here. Even if you are already a project management expert, two statements from Marcus here that I disagree with. First of all, he says that companies in the U S don't require certification while companies in Europe do my opinion is that us companies in fact are requiring certification job ads, no longer say that PMP is preferred preferred.

Cornelius Fichtner (09:28):

Instead they say PMP required. And his second statement, that was a bit odd. He mentioned that in his opinion, Microsoft project is the most mature project software out there. He doesn't really qualify it much more than that. So I disagree with the statement the way it just stands right there. And I would have to hear Marcus speak more on that topic to understand exactly why he sat this. As you are listening to the show, you will also notice the stark difference between the project management know how of the host, Tony Frazier and his guest Marcus Pema. Marcus really, really shines while Tony seems to be fighting for words during the whole show, my verdict of the show, skip the first five minutes, then settle down and enjoy a really, really interesting show with the musings of Marcus Pema. This is a good show for every project manager.

Andrew McNeil (10:36):

Hey everybody, this is Andrew McNeil, I'll be your host for the next little bit. As we talk about official Fox pro database blogs, RSS, pretty much anything else I want to get off my chest about Business for the real man. So you sit back and enjoy the ride.

Cornelius Fichtner (10:57):

The Fox show is hosted by Andrew McNeil. Here's what Andrew has to say about his show Fox pro news interviews and more about database database design, software development and business hosted by Andrew McNeil. Of course, the episodes that we're looking at today is Fox. The Fox show number four recorded on Friday eight, April, 2005. It is 13 minutes long. Andrew is a very entertaining host. Andrew is Canadian, and he talks in a wonderfully off the cuff way about the topics on his show and this his Fox show. Number four, he focuses on project management. Of course he focuses on project management in a Fox pro environment, but his musings nevertheless are applicable in other software development environments as well. And in case you don't know, and I didn't before listening to the show, Fox pro is a Microsoft tool set, which enables you to create 32 bit database applications.

Cornelius Fichtner (12:08):

From what I can tell, Andrew is a self employed software developer. And during his contracts, he not only develops the software, but he is also the technical project manager. So he manages the project and he also manages the people on his teams. The show is very entertaining. He gets up during the recordings. He walks over to his bookshelf to pick up a book that he just remembered and wants to talk about. And at one point he even sneezes right into the microphone. So it's quite entertaining. It's very, very, just spontaneously dumb. The whole thing, my verdict of the show, it's a very entertaining and brief look at project management in a Fox pro environment. You only need to listen to about the first 15 minutes of the show and when it comes to project management, because after that, he wanted us off into Fox pro land and he kind of lost me there. FoxPro show number four is recommended. If you want to hear about project management from a PR practitioner out in the field

Announcer (13:20):

Your tuned into the business intelligence network, your stores were business intelligence, data, warehousing, business, performance management, and information, quality news, and commentary.

Announcer (13:38):

Welcome to another edition of the BI networks solution spotlight

Cornelius Fichtner (13:42):

The business intelligent networks solutions spotlight. Here's what they have to say about themselves. The business intelligence network delivers industry based content hosted by domain experts and industry leaders. The business intelligence network includes horizontal technology coverage from the most respected thought leaders in business intelligence, business, performance management, data, warehousing and data quality. The business intelligent networks serve these communities with unparalleled industry coverage and resources. And if you follow my link, you will see what they mean. They really, really have a lot of good business information out there. The show that I like to review today, didn't have a date on it. And it is approximately 20 minutes long in this program. The host, uh, Claudia Imhoff is speaking with Michael Mah, who is the managing partner of QSM associates. And they discussing the need for utilizing effective negotiation techniques for software project management that provides the ability to measure an estimate software product in days not weeks.

Cornelius Fichtner (15:04):

What that means is they're talking about estimating it software projects, and this show is of course, for all those among you, who have to estimate the cost on projects. From what I understand out of this show, QSM associates has a tool which contains a database in which they have over 7,000 projects. And this tool supposedly allows you to estimate your projects with up to 90% of accuracy. And again, of course, we're talking 80 projects estimating here, and the tool is also best suited for that. Nevertheless, the basic concept that Michael Mah talks about in the show are applicable in other industries as well. Just how do you properly estimate a project? The sound quality is quite good on the show. If you consider that both speakers are using a phone, my verdict, if you are currently looking for an 80 project estimating tool, or if you just want to listen to a few concepts of how good solid IT project estimation has done, give this episode a shot.

Announcer (16:17):

The marketing focus interview section today features Bridget Hayes, vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for team direction. Team direction is a project collaboration and tracking tool that operates on

Cornelius Fichtner (16:32):

The marketing edge. They say about themselves, short, crisp, insightful ideas on marketing processes and societal change from brand creation to lead generation public relations, to podcasting all with a twist of humor and dollop of common sense, hosted by a former television anchor and press secretary of the Republican national committee. Albert Mergey. The show that I'm talking about here is recorded on June 12th, 2005, and it is 12 minutes long. The title of the show is remote marketing project tracking with team direction. And this show is an interview with Bridget Hayes, who is the vice president of marketing and strategic alliances. 14 direction team direction is a project collaboration tool, which runs on the Mac O S groove platform. The tool is about three to four years old. And of course the tool, the show is mostly a review of this tool and how it can be implemented for project management in a marketing environment.

Cornelius Fichtner (17:48):

An interesting statement, the show was when the host mentioned that the Gantt chart in this tool is a really, really wonderful tool to work with, to a project manager. It seems to me that again, chart is probably the most basic tool there is, but if you keep listening and you actually believe what Bridget has to say here, then they are Gantt chart. And this team direction tool is much, much easier to use than what MS Project offers. And there is no learning curve to it. I have to see it to believe it. My verdict of the show, this interview seemed very faked and stiff. The sound quality of the interviewee is almost painful. You can hardly understand what Bridget has to say. At some point you can hear background noises like phones going off and other people talking. And it even seems that the host was working on his computer and reading his emails while he was doing his recording. So this Paul cost will really only interest you if you are in marketing and are currently in need of a tool that helps you manage your projects. Otherwise don't bother

Above are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks. A human-generated transcript is available to Premium subscribers starting with episode 136.