From the Editor

Project management is too often written off as meaningless administration, pointless paperwork, useless overhead. It's frustrating, and at times even maddening. But let's be honest: we sometimes bring it on ourselves by being so caught up in our own mindset that we forget to speak in our customers' terms. If we want to convince business execs that project management matters, we should speak in business terms. If we want to convince skeptical team members that project management matters, we need to not just tell them how, but show them how. We prove the worth of project management not by succeeding in our world, but by succeeding in theirs.

This week, we bring you some real world examples of project management that matters. An interview with a former director of an enterprise project management organization reminds us that the secret of PMO success often lies in simplicity. Carl Pritchard reminds us, via front-page news, that earned value management is not just meaningless project management number crunching. And Geof Lory reminds us that if we step outside our own viewpoint and look beyond our preconceptions we may be able to "see the blues and reds in the trees."

Featured Article

Who Am I To Judge?, by Geof Lory

How do you write an article on suspending judgment without sounding like you are judging anyone who doesn't? Sounds like a catch-22, but I'll give it a try if you will read along with a generous mindset.

Part of the challenge with diverse teams—particularly during the early phases of a project when they are going through the forming and storming stages—is our natural tendency to judge others. Most project environments, especially in the beginning, are uncertain enough with poor or changing requirements. In this ambiguity it is comfortable to seek some solace in the certainty of our judgments, especially the judgment of others. Judging others provides the mental illusion of control and clarity and spares us the angst and chaotic morass of the alternative.

But judgment also blocks the possibilities that can come from the creative chaos of the uncertainty. The knowledge of what we believe to be true can interfere with the possibility of what could be true. Read more »

Featured Bundle

Close-out & Lessons Learned

The endgame was chaotic, as usual, and the release and close out have followed the typical "two steps forward, one step back" mode, but it's finally (almost) done. How will you make sure that the hard-won lessons from this project—the things you vowed you'd never forget again—will be remembered in six months? All those lessons from the school of hard knocks don't do your team much good if you just have to re-learn them again over the next project. And if you don't record them where you and others can refer to them, they don't do your colleagues on other teams any good at all. This bundle of closeout resources will help you and your team work through it all, document the results, and share them with everyone who needs to know—which is usually everyone. Find out more »

Featured Article

Earned Value Makes Headlines! (And How You Can Avoid Making Them Too), by Carl Pritchard

For those of you who missed it, earned value made the news last week (June 4, 2008), including front-page articles in the Washington Post. What happened? Lockheed-Martin was called out for failing to live up to 19 of the 32 criteria of the Cost-Schedule Control Systems Criteria (also known as "CS-squared").

Who cares?

We should! As project managers, this has implications that stretch far, far beyond Lockheed and their failings. The U.S. Government has been pushing a lot recently (in the form of Office of Management and Budget directives) for more and better earned value practice, and now, with the spotlight firmly fixed on earned value, the situation is likely to do little else but intensify. Read more »

Interview

NEW - Interview w/Lisa DiTullio -- Serve Vanilla, and be Like Switzerland

Lisa DiTullio, past director of the PMO at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and currently principal of Lisa DiTullio & Associates, isn't a big fan of Rocky Road -- at least not when it comes to project management. Lisa was a key member of the team that orchestrated Harvard Pilgrim's dramatic turnaround from court-ordered receivership to one of the highest-rated health plans in the country. With that large enterprise background, her philosophy on what makes a PMO really successful surprised us. In this interview with ProjectConnections founder Cinda Voegtli she discusses her growth from accidental PM to head of an Enterprise Project Management Organization and why she believes even large organizations should serve vanilla. Read more »

Where's ProjectConnections?

If you miss Carl Pritchard at PMI Austin this Thursday (he'll be at the University of Texas JJ Pickle Center, explaining "Project Presentation Success") you can still catch him at PMI SeminarsWorld in Orlando June 25-26. His Risk Management seminar is part of SeminarsWorld, and he will provide the Breakfast Keynote Address for PMI MegaSeminarsWorld on June 26.

Randy Englund will be participating in a PMO Panel with other thought leaders at the Center for Business Practices "Strategy & Projects Summit" in Scottsdale, AZ, June 24-26, 2008. Plus, start planning now to attend SeminarsWorld in conjunction with the PMI Global Congress in Denver, CO, October 22-23, 2008 (www.congresses.pmi.org). Randy and his co-author, Alfonso Bucero, will present their seminar on "Creating Excellence in Project Management."

Kent McDonald is in Las Vegas this week for the Better Software Conference. Later this summer, August 4-8, he'll be at Agile 2008 in Toronto. In addition to his presentation(s), Kent will be the Stage Producer for the Customer and Business Value Stage, which means it'll be pretty easy to spot him. (You may have heard us mention the part about the waterfall? That just never gets old.)

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