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 #33: Business strategy

Following the Monday post with some tips about how to deal with some of the course assignments, it is time to focus on business strategy. This is a key concept which needs to be analyzed or described before checking whether a company's portfolio is aligned with it or not. 

However, when looking for such words in The Portfolio Standard from PMI, they barely appear. So maybe we should try to find some hints about what business strategy is and how it can be described.

There are some good descriptions in several websites, for instance here o here. The basics are shortly described in this post.

Firstly, business strategies can be classified into three levels: 

• Corporate level, which sets the broadest guidelines of what is to be achieved and how it will be done.
• Business unit level, which is a specific strategy depending on the unit of business.
• Functional level, which are specific for the departments within the units, like marketing, sales, operations and so on. 

Then, when the objective is decided, the answers to all W-questions regarding the strategy (what, when, why, how...) should be answered. In order to do that, there are some useful tools such as: 

• Mission, vision and core values. 
• SWOT
• Resource allocation plan
• KPI
• ...

Day #32: Risk management analysis

One of the parts of portfolio management is risk management and their policies. Actually, risk management is a subject itself, with its life cycle, its tools and so on. It is difficult to go deeper without facing complicated stuff, but hopefully there are many resources available to help us.

Today I want to introduce you to one useful document that I found about risk assessment techniques. It is the International Standart IEC 31010. After a short description of key concepts such as uncertainty and risk, the process to implement a risk assessment policy is described in detail. Then, many risk assessment techniques are presented... and here it comes, the part I like the most. There is a categorization of techniques, so that we can quickly see which one is the most suitable for our problem. Besides, we could go for one technique or the other depending on which step of the risk assessment process we are at, and that is also included in the table.

Finally, the las pages are devoted to a thorough description of each techniques, including their limitations. I think that this document is outstandingly useful. I found the full document here, yet when I tried to access it today, I couldnt't... so here is a preview.

Day #31: Determining projects, programs and portfolios

Now that we are more than halfway through the course, it has been time to work on some assignments. Despite having read the recommended literature, sometimes it is difficult to fully gasp all concepts. Specially because in the PMI books there are no examples. Of course, that makes complete sense since it is a guide and not an academic book, yet it can be obscure for people not used to the field. 

One of the first issues I encountered in the assignment was to distinguish between the programs and portfolios in a real company. I have read the differences many times, even watched and posted some videos about it, but I still needed to find some examples to relate (shame on me!).

This is one good example that I found, applied to the aeronautic industry. This is another example with clothes and shoes. And finally this is yet another example with paint. Now it should be easier to apply concepts from PMI to real life... maybe not to those complex multinational companies, but surely at a medium level. Good luck!

Image from inc.com

Day #29: Porter's Five Forces

At yesterday's post we mentioned several analysis tools that were used in the report, like SWOT, PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces. The former two are very well know, or at least more familiar to the reader. The latter is also widely used, but it may be hidden deeper in our memory. So let's review it!

Porter's Five Forces analysis helps to determine the competition level at a certain industry, therefore it is useful when starting a new business or expanding to a new sector. Basically, the state of competition depends on five forces:

• Threat of new entrants, which depends on the barriers to enter a certain industry. For example, such threat is low in the airline industry - important investments are needed - but it is quite high in the app market - almost everybody can launch a new app!.

• Bargaining power of suppliers, which depends on the number of suppliers and on whether it is easy or not for a company to find a substitute supplier and switch. For example, the power of suppliers is high in the airline industry - how many aircraft manufacturers can you think of?.

• Bargaining power of buyers, which depends on how much pressure buyers can put on a company. It is also related to the buyer's sensitivity to price changes and how easy it is for them to switch from one company to another. For example, in the airline industry such power is high - there are a lot of alternatives and the choice tends to be cost-driven -, but for Apple customers it is very difficult to move to another OS once they have become used to iOS products.

• Threat of substitute products, which depends on how many similar products there are in the market which respond to the same customer need. For example, threat of substitute products in the smartphone manufacturing industry can be considered as high - there are lots of brands to choose from!

• Rivalry among existing competitors, which depends on the total number of competitors and what each competitor can do. For example, in the airline industry there is a high rivalry between airlines.

Image from travelandleisure.com

Day #28: Report on Global Project Portfolio Management Market 2019-2028

A new report has been published about the Global Project Portfolio Management Market 2019 Trends, which focuses on the top key players and their framework. There is a quantitative and qualitative analysis, with focus on SWOT, PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces analysis of the global market. Besides, there is a forecast up to 2028.

A sample copy of the report study can be downloaded, where some interesting aspects are developed:

• Competitors analysis of Project Portfolio Management Market
• Market Leading Players
• Market Segmentation
• Product Volumen Analysis
• ... 

Image from business.bell.ca

Day #27: What the Heck is Project Portfolio Management?

The title may sound a bit harsh, but sometimes that is the feeling we have when going through the bibliography. So today's post is a webinar which explains what Project Portfolio Management is. The author is Jamal Moustafaev, president and founder of Thinktank Consulting and a well-known speaker and author of several books about PM. 

The webinar may be a bit long compared to other videos that I have been sharing, but that is because it is full of content. I particularly like the amount of examples he shows from around the world. I think they really help to gain a better understanding. 

First ten minutes of the webinar

As a bonus, I really recommend the website where this webinar is available. I found the video on Youtube, where the first ten minutes of the talk can be seen. But the website is called The Great IT Professional, and it is full of interesting and useful webinars. Some of them are more technical whereas others are more about leadership. In any case, they are worth checking!

Day #25: Agile methodology & Project Management

Agile methodology is a key concept for anyone interested in PM, or working at a big company. In short, agile is a software development methodology which is based on iterative development. Ideas, requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organized teams. Scrum and Kanban are two of the most widely used Agile methodologies. 

Image from spiinc.com

Agile project management is widely used, yet sometimes not in the best possible way. In this article, Beware the dark side of agile project management, some hints are given about how do a useful and correct agile project management, as well as some reasons why it's needed. 

Have a nice weekend!