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This episode is sponsored by The PMP Exam Simulator:

What would you say is the single biggest change that has occurred in the area of Program Management between 1981 and now? Did it make a difference if you had a PM certification in 1981 and wanted to get a program management job versus today? What skills did a program manager need in 1981 then and today?

Well... if you think that these are some more questions out of Jeff Furmans "Project Management Answer Book" that we discussed in our last episode, then you'd be... wrong.

Instead, these are the questions that I asked Scotty Bates. Scotty currently works for Robbins-Gioia (www.teamrg.com) and he has been actively involved in project and in particular program management for the last 30 years. So let's look at what these changes are and learn how they influence how much better (or worse) we manage programs today.

I also wanted to thank everybody who participated in our 20-books giveaway. We had purchased 20 copies of Peter Taylor's latest PM book "The Lazy Blogger" and we had an incredible number of people signing up to win one of them on our Facebook Fan Page. I'm not going to read out the names of the winners here, but we had 10 winners from among our free listeners and we had 10 winners from among our paying premium subscribers. The winning names have been published on our Facebook Fan Page.

This episode is reserved for subscribers of the Premium Podcast. Learn how to subscribe to the Premium Podcast to access this interview and transcript...

In this episode we are going to tackle a subject that I don't think we have looked at previously: Ethics in Project Management.

To shed more light on this we are talking to Jeff Furman who has a whole section of ethics in his Project Management Answer Book. We're starting out by looking at ethics in general, move on to ethics & legal aspects and then carefully tread our way though a number of interesting ethical situations.

Would you like to win a copy of Jeff's Book? That's easy! As always we are giving away 1 copy to our paying premium Podcast listeners and 1 copy is up for grabs. All you have to do is go to our Facebook Fan Page, find the notice about the book giveaway and leave a comment. We will draw the winners around the 9th of Feb 2011. So make sure you stop by before then.

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This episode is sponsored by Wrike:

Have you ever wondered what the formal definition of a project is? Or what the main elements of a project charter should be? How software can assist you in project management? What you should include as part of your PM Planning toolkit? If there are times when the baseline doesn't refer to the complete project plan? What the most effective group creativity techniques are in eliciting requirements? Or what the best way is to avoid scope creeep?

I could go on and on and on with questions like these, because I have a copy of The Project Management Answer Book, written by Jeff Furman. It's full of questions and answers like these. Jeff intended and wrote this book as an easy-to-use Q&A reference, that explain key project management concepts in bite-size pieces, including hundreds of hands-on tips and best practices for us PMs. He included diagrams, study aids and Top 10 lists to help PMs prepare for the PMP® & related certification exams.

In his foreword, Andy Crowe says the following about the book: The Project Management Answer book covers an amazing breadth of topics. The advice it offers is concise and straightforward. It is brimming with wisdom from someone who faced these questions in the real world and has sifted through the various theories and practices to find what works.

With the Project Management Book of Knowledge 7th Edition being worked on, it's always good to stay up to date with the basics.

Would you like to win a copy? That's easy! As always we are giving away 1 copy to our paying premium Podcast listeners and 1 copy is up for grabs. All you have to do is go to our Facebook Fan Page, find the notice about the book giveaway and leave a comment. We will draw the winners around the 9th of Feb 2011. So make sure you stop by before then.

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This is a "special" episode of The PM Podcast in which we announce the giveaway of 20 books.

Peter Taylor (The Lazy Project Manager)[Update: the website is no longer available, so we removed the link] wrote a new book called The Lazy Blogger, focusing on various stories from his project management career. This book is for sale on Peter's website and costs £3.50 [Update: the website is no longer available, so we removed the link] out of which £3.00 are donated to the UK Cancer Research.

We have purchased 20 copies of this book in support of Peter's effort and we are giving away this book to our listeners. 10 copies go to our paying premium subscribers and 10 copies go to the free listeners.

To participate in this giveaway please go to The PM Podcast Facebook Fan Page, look for the 20 books giveaway announcement and leave a comment. The winners will be drawn on January 31, 2011.