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The international project management day on November 3, 2005, is intended to encourage project based organizations worldwide or organizations who utilize project management methodologies to schedule some type of recognition event within their organizations or coordinated locally with others to truly demonstrate appreciation for the achievements of project managers and their teams.

Visit The International Project Management Day website.

Here is what you can do to support the day...
Individually:
Thank your project manager or teams by phone, email, card, or in person
Take a project manager to lunch
Ask how a project is going and show interest in results
Wear a t-shirt that reads "Kiss Me - I'm a Project Manager"

Organizationally:
Recognize the PMO for their contributions to the organization
Set up a scheme for project manager coaching and mentoring
Communicate and celebrate project successes
Sponsor a project management “coffee break”
Reach out to project managers in emerging positions such as those in the role of project manager in SAFe agile and bring them together into a community of practice
Share some news from social media for project managers that they would find relevant (what about something from our social media channels?)

Locally:
Attend a project management association meeting
Schedule a recognition event for project managers
Publish an article in a local newspaper or newsletter

Internationally:
Attend a special webinar hosted by The International Institute for Learning
Join a project management association
Observe and learn about international projects that impact your community or quality of life

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 1 (00:10): [inaudible] you are listening to the project management podcast.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:14):

We bring project management topics to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at pmpodcast.blogspot.com or send your emails to pmpodcast@gmailcom.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:28):

Hello, and welcome to the nine and a half show. I am Cornelius Fichtner. This is the project management podcast for the 1st of November, 2005. And all I want to do today is talk about the international project management day. Now you may say why an international project management day. No, let's change the question around. Let's ask why project management to start with what good does project management really do in companies? Most of my listeners here are going to be project managers. So I probably am not going to have to tell you what good project management does for your companies. You are aware of it. I mean, you know, that project management gives you repeatable processes, that it makes it measurable, that you will be able to learn. You will be come as a company, more mature as you move along the line because of project management. But what about management?

Cornelius Fichtner (01:37):

What about other people out there? Well, there are in fact studies out there that indicate that project management does in fact add significant value. An example for this is the study, which was conducted by the center for business practices, which is the, the research branch for PM Solutions incorporated. And this particular study States that out of more than a hundred senior level project management practitioners, which they asked 94 of the respondents indicated that project management did in fact add value to their organization in areas such as financial measures, customer measure, and process measures. So people at the senior level up there realize or begin to realize at least that project management has value, but there are also still many skeptics out there who think that project management is just something anyone can do. It's plain luck, it's smoke mirrors, fancy charts, Gantt charts, and everything that we project managers do.

Cornelius Fichtner (02:56):

And it's not really anything that lends value to the business. Well, we know that's not true, but many people out there still believe it. So therefore the dream from Frank P Solartis grew, Frank is the president of the PMI New York chapter. And here's what he says. The dream as conceived by the PMI 35 years ago has not yet been achieved until project management becomes accepted as a strategic necessity and perceived, and is perceived as the ultimate method to promote collaboration, improve productivity and increase efficiency. The work is not done and there is nothing more fun than doing that work. So that's what Frank said. It's actually a quote made by bill Gates, which he modified for project management. That's what he said. And based on that, he created the international project management day. He dreamed that up. Now the goal of the international project management day.

Cornelius Fichtner (04:10):

And of course there is a website it's called international PM day.org. It's one word international PM, day.org. And the goal behind it is the worldwide recognition of the many project managers and project teams in every industry, including nonprofit organizations and healthcare who contributes their time, energy, creativity, innovation, and plus hours to deliver products, services, facility, and provide emergency and disaster recovery services in every city and community around the world. The international project management day is intended to encourage project based organizations, worldwide or organization. We'll utilize project management methodologies to schedule some type of recognition event within their organizations to, or coordinate locally with others to truly demonstrate appreciation for the achievements of project managers and their teams. So there you go. That's the goal of it all. So in other words, do something, give some visibility to project management in your company, in your team, in your PMO yeah.

Cornelius Fichtner (05:29):

In your local practice national organization, but there is more of that they, right, because there is also a purpose. What they want to do is also to integrate crease the awareness of the value of project management within the large businesses, government, small business and social communities, and promote project management as a true profession and key business strategy. And to me, those two lost are really well key, promote them as a true profession. And as a key business strategy, project management today is not really recognized as a true profession. And it needs to be project management in some businesses is recognized as a key business strategy in some it isn't. And it really should because if you have a dream as a CEO of a company, how do you turn that dream into reality? Well, you call over a project manager and you say, here, this is my dream. Do this, implement the following. And the project management will go off and do it. So a highly important well profession that is needed. And of course this includes,

Cornelius Fichtner (06:52):

But the whole purpose includes all the industries out there. Construction information, technology, entertainment, government, aeronautics, healthcare, ecology, you name it, social disaster, recovery, community improvement, quality of life projects, you name it. Now what they did This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. is they organized various worldwide events. And one big thing is a webinar that they're going to have hold three times on the 3rd of November. Oh, by the way, did I mention

Cornelius Fichtner (07:36):

Until now? I don't think so. So

Cornelius Fichtner (07:39):

Let me state this, the international project management day is on the 3rd of November. Okay.

Cornelius Fichtner (07:47):

So

Cornelius Fichtner (07:50):

Should've probably mentioned that at the very opening when it is so 3rd of November, and that's when the international project management days happening. And that is also the day when they're going to have these various events around the world, we're going to get to that. And they're also having a, a webinar, which they're going to have three times during that day to accommodate all of us around the globe. So we can visit this webinar. It's going to be opened by a keynote speaker, and then there are going to be various presentations. And the whole thing is approximately 90 minutes in duration. And believe it or not, you're even going to get PDU for watching that. I will be putting a link up on my blog. And by the time you hear this, it's already up there. So go to my blog PM, podcast.blogspot.com, and you'll be able to just simply click and it'll take you right to this free webinar that you can watch and gain a couple of people use.

Cornelius Fichtner (08:50):

I think it's about one and a half or two PDUs for attending this particular webinar online. Now the participants, there are quite a few big names here. Uh, all pm.com is sponsoring this. I L Institute for learning incorporated is the international. Pardon me Institute for learning incorporated is, uh, also by a participant it's a sponsoring organization and the IRL is actually hosting the webinar. Then there is the PM forum where you can get lots and lots of good news about project management. And then there are various chapters, PMI, mosques, golf course sued Yugoslavia, Delaware, New York city, the PMI itself, the IPMA the international project management association is also joining in and a company. I do not know MTC integration is also a participant in this all now, what do they do? Well, here we go. The PMI Delaware Valley chapter is presenting a project management tools conference. On that particular day. MTC integration corporation is going to be sponsoring a reception for local project managers who live and work in the Frederick Maryland area. So you may want to get in touch with them. If you want to get involved with that particular event, the PMI Moscow chapter, they will be doing the project management is jazz reception, and I bet you they're going to have a live jazz band right there. And the PMI false'hood is going to do the [inaudible].

Cornelius Fichtner (10:42):

And it's going to be on the Theme of Lazarus, young days, excisions, which is if my French 'suffit la gestion des exigences'. So if you're in France, if you are in France sued, um, you may want to be joining in on that particular event. All right, what can you do? Well, if this is something that interests you, if you want to help promote the importance of project management, well, it's probably a little bit late, but there is still something that you can do. Let's start on the big picture here. Let's start international internationally. You can attend that very particular webinar that I just mentioned, or you can personally join a project management organization, easy you can observe and learn about international projects that impact your community or quality of life. I mean, so far on the web, look what there is. What kind of project management events are available, what project kind of project management is happening in your neighborhood in internationally, locally?

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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As always, I get a few things off my chest before the main section of the show. Today, we continue my "Dear Diary" and you can hear what went wrong on my projects this week. That's followed by Chuck Tomasi, who gives us more insights of a junior project manager. Then we discuss several useful and not so useful project management techniques. Furthermore, I humbly apologize to the PMO SIG, the Project Management Office Specific Interest Group, whom I completely forgot to mention during the last show before I finally review the Project Execution Cycle of Cygnet Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

Today's show links:

Project Management in the News

- Application Lifecycle Management - A Technology Evaluation and Comparison Report
- China’s Project Management Rules Have Foreigners Fuming
- Making IT Development Visible to Higher Business Management is Another Benefit of New Generation Application Lifecycle Management
- International Project Management Day To Be Observed Around The World
- Linn Wheeling Departs PMI For Applied Systems Client Network

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Good: [Links have been removed per request of Cygnet Infotech Pvt. Ltd]

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 1 (00:00:10): [inaudible]

Cornelius Fichtner (00:00:10):

You are listening to the project management podcast. We bring project management topics to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at 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 the ninth show. I am Cornelius Fichtner. This is the project management podcast for the 29th of October, 2005. And today we have a nice mix of subjects for you at the center of today's show are a few project management techniques. Some are for you and some are for fun, and it's going to be your job figuring out which ones are for real, but we feel we do that. Uh, here are a few items that I'd like to get off my chest. First of all, a quick Gmail reminder, and the last show I offered to you that if you want a Gmail account, just drop me a mail and I will be more than happy to send you an invitation and I'm extending this.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:01:14):

So if you want an email, let me know, and I will invite you to email, uh, as long as my supplies last with these invitations that I have from Gmail themselves, then a quick followup on the very last thing that I said in the show. Number eight last week, if you listen to the show to the very end, you will notice that at the end, I put in a little bit of wisdom, the last golden nugget of the show, so to speak. And last week I said that you should never forget to communicate with your stakeholders. Well, as so happens this week, I have found that this is very true on another project. In my company, the project manager there let communication with the stakeholders, slide on his project, and then he sent out an email to them and, uh, you have to do communication, right?

Cornelius Fichtner (00:02:16):

He sent out this email with the subject line in all upper capitals. So big, big letters, and it read immediate response required. Well, that was not the right thing to do. The customer was very unhappy about that, especially because this email was sent to senior vice presidents. So, um, I have to amend my golden nugget there and it should now say something along the lines of, and don't forget to not stop communicating with your stakeholders. And when you communicate with your stakeholders, do it right. Then I also want know a little bit more about you. I am planning to put up a little survey within the next two to three weeks, and I would be delighted if you would take that survey, it's going to be a really short one maximum of 10 questions, a point and click so that I know who you are, where you live, and you will also have an opportunity there to tell me what you're interested in and what kind of subjects you would like to see on my show.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:03:32):

So look out for that. That's coming. And if you've been to my website lately, you will have noticed that there are Google ads on the left hand side of the website. And then occasionally I click on them just to see what kind of companies actually advertise on my site, so to speak. And I came across the website of expert rating, project management certification, actually the company's called expert writing, and they were pointing towards their project management certification page. Here's what they say because a certified project manager give you a career and job prospects. It's a boost, the expert, the project, no, the expert rating project management courses are well-researched 250 page online course that has been developed for people who would like to boss the science of project management. And they also say that it has been designed so that it's easily on the stood both by beginners, uh, by beginners and people new to projects.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:04:36):

So I looked at this for a little while thinking, Oh, this looks nice. And, um, as I moved on, I realized, okay, you know, this certification costs $99 and 99 cents. And it's an online certification. It's an online course. And frankly, I don't think that's a good deal because if you are new to project management, if you are a beginner, you don't want to sit at home at your computer and just read a few words on pages on a website. If you are new, you want to be able to ask questions. You need to be able to sit in a classroom with a teacher who goes through the basics of project management. So here's my a suggestion to you. If you are new to project management, if you're a beginner and you have $99 and 99 cents that you want to spend, I would spend it on an, on, not on online training, but on an in class project management, maybe try to find a community college in your area, but don't do something like this online certificate.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:05:46):

And just to make it clear, I'm not putting down the folks here at expert rating. I'm just saying that if you're new to project management, if you're a beginner, you don't want to do this online. You definitely want to do this in a classroom. That's my opinion here. All right, then I have a three quick project management Institute, PMI related items. If you are a PMP and your certification cycle ends this year on the 31st of December, then you have to make sure that you report your PDU by year end. So go online and report European news. Make sure that you don't let your certification lapse here. The PMI also announced that it is racing towards its 250,000 member. Wow, early this year, we didn't even have 200,000 member. And now we're already heading towards 250,000. That's just great. The PMI is also making the following announcement, the PMI educational foundation, 2006 student paper of the year award call for entries. And this is for graduate or undergraduate students who are also project managers. And the call is for them to hand in their papers for the 2006 student paper of the year award. And this one recognizes research and creative efforts directed to advance the concepts, tools, and techniques of managing project oriented tasks. All right, these were the items that I wanted to get off my chest this week. And now let's move forward with the news.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:07:52):

We'll continue with the PMI here with the first news item, just a quick one. It's from Thursday, October 27th, and it's titled Lynn Wheeling, departs PMI for applied systems, client network, Lynn wheeling. She's the a component and community relations department manager of the PMI. Uh, she joined the PMI in 2000 and has left them to become the executive director of applied systems, client network, A S C net, which is the user group for applied systems, agency management technology. I met Lynn for the first time at the 2005 leadership seminar until mom Toronto a month ago or so, uh, really liked her and absolutely sorry to see her go.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:08:45):

Second news item is from October 19th, 2005, and it's titled making it development visible to hire a business. Management is another benefit of new generation application life cycle management. That's a long one. This is all about a report that has come out and that's from research and markets research and marcus.com. And they have announced the addition of application lifecycle management, a report to their offerings. And this is a technology evaluation and comparison report. Let's see what they say. This report looks at the reasons why application development projects often go so badly wrong. That's a good thing. And why so many efforts to correct predictable problems also fail. One of the most important reasons is that there is an enormous gap between the developers who work on application projects and the managers who set the goals of the projects, regardless of how good the technology may be. That is being used.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:09:56):

If these two groups doing all talk to each other, Oh, wait, that's supposed to be the job with the project manager. Isn't it? Hmm. Okay. So if these groups do not talk to each other, the project is at risk of failure and most project managers. Oh, here we go. Most project managers seem to be at a loss, how to deal with this problem. Oh, okay. Best practices designed to manage the above issue along with other related problems along the whole application development life cycle are provided throughout this report. Well, sounds like an interesting report, right? Yup. Probably is. However, you're going to have to be willing to pay 1,495 euros for this one.

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:

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.

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:

• 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.