Day #44: See you soon!

This is the last entry of this blog - at least on such a regular basis. Maybe in future courses I will find things worth sharing - hopefully!

I have gone through lots of videos, articles and blogs to create my own. First posts were more about my opinion, but since the content got more technical, more references were needed. I think I developed a good combination of short news, fun facts and videos, so that any frequent reader could find something interesting here. 

The topics I have tried to cover were:

• Digitization, digitalization and digital transformation. 
• Project, program and portfolio management.
• Gender equality in PM
• Benefits Realization Management
• Experiences from the real world of PM
• Inspiring talks from experts in related fields
• Information and spreading of PMI

I hope you could see that throughout the reading. Have a nice autumn!

Day #43: Gender Pay Gap

We are almost at the end of the blog... so it's time to bring up again an important subject: the gender pay gap. To do so, we will use an article from the Financial Times which uses data for masters in management rankings over the past decade, for alumni three years after graduation. Some facts illustrated with figures:

• Three years after graduating with a masters in management, the median salary for men is higher than for women in every sector of employment. Healthcare and finance have the greatest gender pay gap.
• When the pay of men and women is compared by seniority, women are ahead only in mid-level management positions.
• Finance and consultancy have always been the top destinations of Masters in Management graduates. Together, they represent 45-50% of the alumni.
• Law, finance and consultancy are the sectors with the highest salaries.
• Most alumni who moved to a different country after graduating in MiM see a rise in salary, specially in healthcare. Law is the only sector where movers see a lower mean salary.

Image from ft.com

Day #42: Processes flow in PM

This week's video is not as funny as the procrastination monkey - you enjoyed it, didn't you? - but more academic instead. Side note: if you don't know what the procrastination monkey is, go check the post from last Friday. Everything else can wait!

Today's video shows the elaboration of the PMBOK processes flow, so it is very helpful to understand how that works. Besides, we can jump to the process group we are interested in: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling and closing. Besides, there are links to Ricardo Vargas website - he is the Youtuber - where we can download the processes flow in different languages and in the simplified or complex version. Very useful!

Day #41: 7 Things Project Managers Should Never Say in a Job Interview

Apparently, we had a really nice time last week going through lists and rankings... so let's continue. It makes sense, in some way, since short lists with appealing titles are extremely good click-baits. Maybe not the 130 influencers in PM in 2019, but anyway.

Today we have 7 things project managers should never say in a job interview. First, I will list them all so that you can reflect on them. Then, a short explanation about why these are not convenient things to say.

1. “How do I go about creating a project plan? I start by gathering the requirements, then I analyze product feasibility and user needs…”
2. “Every project I’ve managed has come in on time and under-budget. After all, I have five certifications, so I’m bound to be successful.”
3. “The most complex project I have managed had a schedule comprised of three to four activities.”
4. “My last project failed because the company had bad processes.”
5. “I usually hand off final issues such as bugs, integration problems or emerging regulatory issues to another team once a project is completed or begins the closing phase.”
6. “If the CIO personally selected me to manage an important new project, I would say ‘yes’ no matter how many projects are on my plate.”
7. “If one member is dragging down the team’s performance, I would compare their performance to the stated goals and expectations and possibly put them on a performance improvement plan.”

Image from forbes.com

Answers...

1. Bad terminology! You shouldn't use lifecycle terms to describe an approach to projects, instead of PM terms such as scope, budgeting, scheduling...
2. It's impossible that all projects are successful... That's life!
3. Complex projects have schedules comprised of 300 or more activities, so you are lacking a couple of zeroes. 
4. Take responsibility!
5. Again, take responsibility. Closing a project is important.
6. That doesn't say much about your workload management.
7. Emotional intelligence and empathy would be welcomed here.

Day #40: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

As you already know, there is no better way to start the weekend than watching a fun video. This is one of my favourite TED Talks ever. I just love it! And I think it can be applied to everyone, not only project managers. 

By the way, we are starting the countdown towards the end of the course (and the blog!). Next Thursday will be the last day... so no more Friday videos. That is another reason to double enjoy Tim Urban's procrastination monkey!

Day #39: 7 Things Project Managers Should Do Every Quarter

Some weeks ago, I found this interesting article, 7 Things Project Managers Should Do Every Quarter. I liked it because the beginning is very captivating. It talks about how members of choirs learn by repetition, even if they are not extremely accomplished musicians. This method works for PM as well: there are some activities that should be repeated to achieve harmony in the management routine. Here they are:

1. Tend your email: answer, forward or delete... at least two thirds can be deleted!

2. Update yourself on the project's status

3. Learn from our successes or failures

4. Don't hide from problems

5. De-clutter your personal space: a cluttered desk is the sign of an organized mind? Not true!

6. Communicate with everyone

7. Show appreciation

I think that everybody, not only project managers, can make use of the advice!

Not a sign of genius... Image from rightattitudes.com

Day #38: Mission, Vision, Core Values and Goals

Last week we were discussing different concepts useful when it comes to finish the second assignment of the course, ie. the evaluation of a real company. One of the basic ideas is the mission/vision/core values/goal statement, yet some companies have not devoted enough time to it and they may have mixed ideas. Other times, their mission and vision is not easily available for the potential customers! 

But for academic purposes and for our own good, let's try to clarify using the ideas from this blog. 

Mission is what a company does, and it should be short and easy, instead of using big fancy words. For example, Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accesible and useful. 

Vision is what your company aspires to be, which should help driving decisions at a strategic level. For example, Disney's vision is to make people happy.

Core Values shape the culture and describe what is important in the company. They should be limited to five, otherwise they start to be  difficult to remember... Some examples are honesty, efficiency, open-mindedness...

Goals are the objectives of the company, and they shouldn't be too vague, like have the best product ever, or create a nicer product. Some better examples could be open a office in New York, add one developer with expertise in Java  and so on. 

In my opinion, the most problematic is to keep these statements simple, with a reduced number of words. People want to say much and present themselves as fancy companies, but in the end nobody understands what they are saying. And if they do, they won't probably remember!

Disney wants to make people happy! Image from elespanol.com

Day #37: 130 Top Project Management Influencers of 2019

It looks like this week is all about rankings! Today we bring a list of 130 Top Management Influencers of 2019, from the expert website The Digital Project Manager. According to them, this list includes the brightest minds and influential thinkers who are shaping the PM industry today. 

In my opinion, a list like this is too long. Do we really need to keep track of 130 brilliant mind each year? However, it can be good to keep as a reference and tool for future investigation in the field. For example, it was nice to find Jennifer Bridges in the 12th place. She is the director of ProjectManager.com, whose videos I have shared a couple of times in this blog.

But even nicer for me was to find Carlos J. Pampliega, from Spain, in the list. Actually in the 6th place! One tends to think that this kind of new sectors mostly appear in the US, yet there are powerful thinkers from all around the world and at local scales.

Long rankings are a bit too much, but there is always valuable information in them. Image from universityintheusa.com

Day #36: Top 50 Most Influential Projects of the Last 50 Years

A couple of weeks ago, PMI announced the top 50 notable and influential projects of the past 50 years. It is the first time that PMI publishes a ranking of this kind, and the goal is to highlight the relevance of PM.

The idea was to recognize projects that have transformed their sectors and the business landscape, from healthcare to technology and from entertainment to finance. There are iconic achievements such as Apollo 11 or the Human Genome Project, but the top place of the list is for the creation of the World Wide Web.

50 projects were chosen from more than 1,000 projects identified by 400 experts in PM, including PMI members, academic and industry experts. The list is part of the PMI 50th anniversary celebration, and there are some extra runner ups apart from the main list. 

More information together with the full list can be found here, but some of the most "unexpected" ones are:

• Alibaba® Singles Day – For creating the largest e-commerce day in the world and fundamentally shifting how people shop.
• Burj Khalifa – For standing tall as a symbol of economic diversification in the Middle East
• Harry Potter® Books – For making reading cool – and that’s just the beginning of the magic
• Chernobyl Cleanup – For mitigating the world’s worst nuclear plant disaster – twice

and one that we already mentioned in this blog!

• E-Estonia – For building the world’s first digital country

Sydney Opera House, one of the awarded projects. Image from tripadvisor.com

Panama Channel, one of the awarded projects. Image from britannica.com