In This Issue:
From the Editor
Cinda Voegtli: Perfection Not Required, Flexibility & Fit a Must
Carl Pritchard: The Tao, the I Ching, and a Little Non-Western Project Management Attitude
New Template Bundle: Project Test Plans and Tools Where's ProjectConnections?
This month, in New York City, Toronto, and Cedar Rapids
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From the Editor
Do you have to be a technical person to manage a technical project? And what does it really mean for a project manager to be "a good leader"? This week, Cinda Voegtli tackles two of the most common and most challenging questions for project managers trying to sort out what it takes to stand out. Plus, columnist Carl Pritchard addresses the value of Eastern philosophy in project management—appropriate, given that many of our members have told us in the past that yoga is one of the most valuable skills they've learned as a project manager. Both challenge us to take a long, thoughtful look at our expectations and what we see on the surface, and to consider carefully what it really means for a project manager to be technical enough, vocal enough, or right enough to help others get the job done.Featured Article
Perfection Not Required, Flexibility & Fit a Must, by Cinda Voegtli
A friend of mine is an IT director at a major computer company. He has a phrase: "I have no use for content-free project managers." He has a group of 300 developers and works with project managers both inside his group and outside. His pet peeve is project managers who come and say things like, "The schedule says you're supposed to be 40% complete by now but you marked your task 35% complete. When are you going to be back on track?" In his mind, that project manager is doing no one any constructive good, and they get a reputation as being a paper-pushing status person. Even if someone else in the company has set that poor project manager up in a status-reporting-only role, that PM has lost all credibility with this pretty influential IT director.
My friend stated further that he ends up with a real staffing and resourcing problem with content-free PMs. "We have to attend intense planning meetings where we're mapping out releases that touch 30 different systems. We're trying to budget and coordinate and plan releases that make sense. Sometimes the architecture and interrelatedness of these systems dictates what can and can't be put together into a release. If my PM doesn't understand at least enough about the systems to understand and speak up about potential mismatches—release plans that wouldn't make sense—then I have to put two people in that 4-hour planning meeting: the PM to understand the schedule aspects, and someone else to cover the release plan sanity check stuff. I don't have two people!"
...Now, does all this mean you can't be a great project manager if you're not an engineer? Read more »
Related Items:
The Medal-Worthy PMs Executives are Desperate to HireMore on what Executives are thinking when they say, "Now that's a great PM."
Career Management as Personal Marketing - MEMBER
There's more to getting the next cool project than resume puffery.
Priorities, Goals, and Actions Alignment Worksheet - PREMIUM
Having goals doesn't mean much unless they're in line with your priorities you're actively working toward them.
Project Manager Development Profile Form - MEMBER
For those managing project managers, here's a condensed way to think about which ones are best suited to new opportunities and where to focus personnel growth efforts.
Leadership and the Project Lifecycle - PREMIUM
What it means to be an effective leader depends on what is going on in the project.
Featured Article
The Tao, the I Ching, and a Little Non-Western Project Management Attitude, by Carl Pritchard
Those of you who actually know me personally know that I am firmly rooted in my opinions, energized in my public demeanor and unashamed of my fundamental role as "geek extraordinaire." Thus, any discussion on the contemplative, meditative, and introspective practices of classic Eastern thought might seem out of place. But just as Nixon was the right guy to go to China, I may be the right guy to bring this sense of equilibrium to the table for project management.
For those who have never done any homework in the I Ching (which translates to the Book of Changes), it's often referred to as a fortune-telling device. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's actually a tool used to assess one's own attitudes in a context that had not previously been considered.
In project management, we are often called upon to take on the role of prognosticators, as well as the role of seers of our own environment. And we are asked to cope with change. What better place to start than with the ancient Book of Changes? Read more »
Want to hear from Carl in person? He'll be providing the keynote address at the PMI Region 5 Symposium April 5, at the University of Maryland Campus in Adelphi.
Related Items:
Managing Projects Under Uncertainty - MEMBERThe authors of this paper propose that projects facing different types of uncertainty need different kinds of management (and managers).
PRE-EMPT Conflict: How to Actively Prepare for, Engage, and Overcome Project Conflict - MEMBER
Conflicts are inevitable, so it pays to prepare for them ahead of time.
Project Flexibility Matrix - MEMBER
A very simple but extremely effective tool for thinking through the supposedly impossible choices and changes your projects will throw at you.
Project Alternatives Tradeoff Table - PREMIUM
For times when you're facing more complex tradeoffs -- like differing approaches to solving the same problem.
New Template Bundle
Testing 1, 2, 3 - Project Planning and Tracking BundleIf alpha and beta are testing your patience, we have tools and techniques that can help. This bundle of over a dozen test-oriented templates and guidelines will help you avoid embarrassing and costly issues at the customer, and late (and also costly) surprises during development. Correcting issues gets progressively more expensive the closer you get to delivery; so the earlier you are in your project, the more money you can save with test planning. These resources show you how to test at each stage of development, then test the whole system from the customer's viewpoint. Get these 14 valuable testing plans and tools in a single bundle, even if you don't have a Premium subscription, and put them to work on your project right away.
Want to license these templates for your organization? Contact us for licensing terms.
Where's ProjectConnections?
When they're not writing for ProjectConnections, our expert contributors and columnists keep a pretty busy calendar. We thought it was high time you all knew what they're up to, so you can have the opportunity to see them in person. The following appearances are not associated with ProjectConnections, but we think you ought to know about them anyway. These folks are worth hearing.Columnist Kent McDonald will be demonstrating his devotion to Agility in a pair of presentations on April 15: Agile Project Leadership Network NYC at 8:30 a.m., and Agile Philly at 6:30 p.m. In keeping with the spirit of agile development, he'll be speaking on his "newest favorite topic" at both events: "Helping Product Owners Define Value and Prioritize Requirements."
Alan Koch, our resident Quality advocate, can be found in Toronto at around the same time: April 14-18 at Project World Canada. His tutorial and track presentation are both titled "BA (Business Analysis) Tools of the Trade: Process Modeling Techniques."
ProjectConnections President and CEO Cinda Voegtli will be describing leadership skills and team techniques for The Business-Savvy Project Manager at the IEEE Cedar Rapids Section Professional Development Conference on April 29. She'll also be leading a workshop on coaching and supporting people managing projects, "Becoming Great Project Managers." Information and registration available at the IEEE Cedar Rapids Section website.
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Want your team members to have their own access to templates and how-to resources for their project work? Need to share documents and deliverables beyond your project team? We make it easier with affordable corporate subscriptions and licensing. Detailed information regarding corporate options is available online. Give your whole team, or even the entire organization, cost-effective access to our comprehensive online library of resources. You already know how helpful it's been for you. Now it's time to share with everyone else. Find out more »Not sure if corporate terms apply to you? Check out our licensing terms at the top of our Terms of Service page, in refreshingly ordinary, everyday English.