There Is No April Fool's Joke in This Newsletter. (Seriously.)

Given the date, it was extremely tempting to launch an elaborate and possibly even amusing practical joke today. (We had some semi-hysterical ideas around "scratch-and-sniff" templates, though maybe that was just the deadline-crazies talking.) But in the end, our practical inclinations were just too powerful, and we would have felt too foolish about hiding this much good stuff under fluff—even funny fluff. (Though the scratch-and-sniff stuff was pretty good…)

So this newsletter is dedicated to the principles of practical project leadership. Leadership is about a lot more than staying on schedule and under budget, and so are these resources. We've got new guidelines to help you be sure you're building what the customers and stakeholders really want, need, and can actually use in the current business environment. Our new step-by-step planning bundle will help you develop a comprehensive project plan (not just a schedule). Alan Koch has practical suggestions for coaxing agility out of waterfall suppliers, and our bloggers are out to help you build charisma, make rain, and stay on track. This is practical, real-world stuff; you're sure to find something below that can help you emerge from your current project smelling like a rose. Or at least more like one.

"We are adopting an Agile method for our internal development projects." This student in my Agile Project Management Boot Camp is really beginning to embrace Agility. But ... "But on my project, some of the development work is being done by an outside contractor who is decidedly non-Agile! How can we be Agile when they are not?"

Agility is relatively easy when you control all of the parts of the project. But when others are involved, barriers to Agility can begin to spring up. The best way to overcome those barriers depends upon your situation. So let's explore options for injecting some Agility in spite of the Waterfall raining down on you from your supplier. Read More »

We're working hard to serve your unique project needs regardless of your organizational environment. That's why we created Template Bundlesâtask-specific groups of templates, along with supporting checklists, guidelines and other content, that address key project management tasks and issues. Like all of our templates, they are broadly applicable across a wide range of projects from a variety of industries. Individual-use bundles are available to members for a modest price, and they're free to our Premium Subscribers. Multi-user licenses for up to 20 users and corporate licenses for unrestricted use are also available. Premium Subscribes also receive a 25% discount on multi-user bundles.

We've revised offerings for several popular bundles, with new pricing and multi-user license packages. License terms are no longer time-limited, giving you an excellent, reasonably priced option for boosting your PMO's library or intranet portal with practical, proven tools that you can customize to fit your project environment.

Watch for additional new bundles to be released in the coming months addressing other key task areas, including Requirements Gathering & Management, Communications, Work Breakdown Structures, and more. Learn More »

NEW – Put Down the WBS and Back Away Slowly – Project Planning and Scheduling Bundle There's more to a project plan than the WBS, especially when the WBS is one of those massive, blood-curdling documents that threatens to collapse under its own gravitational pull. What do you expect to spend? How will you manage the project? How will you manage risks? What are the QA guidelines? When and how should issues be escalated, and to whom? A well-written project plan addresses these questions and more, as well as the WBS and the key schedule milestones. This comprehensive bundle is based on our Planning and Scheduling guideline series, which walks you through you the details from Task Identification, Work Breakdown Structure development, Estimating, and Scheduling through to development of your project plan. The guidelines are complemented by 17 templates and checklists that provide examples and formats for your immediate project use. Free to Premium subscribers, ___

NEW – Rules? We Have Actual Rules? – Business Rules Management Guideline – PREMIUM
Business rules are an important part of the requirements package. They describe the environment and functions that the project's requirements will have to work within; things like restricting system functions to certain users, and common business practices like ship-by times that must be considered when developing the project deliverables. They're obvious to the people following them, but not always to the developers, and it's challenging to write, manage, and maintain business rules without a rules repository. This guideline is designed to help you develop your own approach by providing some basic guidance on business rules and tips for rules organization, management, and change control. Effectively stating, organizing, and managing business rules will help you ensure they can be appropriately applied to the project's deliverables.

NEW – And On Your Left, You See the Interface Requirements – Requirements Walkthrough Checklist – PREMIUM
When it comes to project requirements, you don't want to cheat with the two-penny tour. ("Can you just give this a glance and sign off…") The only way to be sure the requirements are clear, accurate, and well understood is to ask. For most projects, this means holding a requirements walkthrough meeting, or a few of them: at least one with the projectâs primary stakeholders, to get their approval of the final requirements, and another with the team who will develop and test the final project deliverables, to insure they understand and the requirements and are ready to move ahead. This checklist will help you organize productive, efficient walkthroughs, so your team members can move forward with confidence. And we're walking… we're walking…

You'll find tons of great ideas to explore in our blogs this week, and we've linked a few related templates and papers here and on the blogs themselves. Here's to great project leadership!

Ever wondered how to guarantee a response to an email review, or what you can really do to rein in scope creep? Randy Englund offers some eminently practical suggestions for a dozen common management/leadership dilemmas in "Managing with Impact," based on his own lessons learned through managing high-tech projects. There's something here for everyone, whether you're a new PM or a veteran with decades under your belt.

When Force of Will Is Not Enough, Niel Nickolaisen suggests looking to the past, rather than our present greatness. Sometimes, the project needs more than just our personal touch to overcome past failures. Are you learning from all of the lessons that are out there?

Related Items
Stakeholder Analysis Summary Table – SPECIAL
Make sure you know who your stakeholders are, and how much influence they should really have over your project.
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until April 15, 2010

Lessons Learned Meeting Agenda – PREMIUM
If you don't know the lessons from previous projects, put together a meeting and find out what you don't know.

Flexibility Matrix – MEMBER
Where can your project bend without breaking? This small but mighty tool helps your team and your stakeholders see where there is room to maneuver by ranking the most important considerations.

Leadership and the Project Lifecycle – PREMIUM
Leadership means different things at different stages of the project. This guideline provides a succinct review of leadership qualities required at different project phases, to help project managers focus on the skills they need at that moment.

Project Manager/Team Leader Selection – PREMIUM
For project sponsors, this worksheet provides a compact tool for evaluating potential PM candidates for a particular project based on several key skill sets. Make sure you're assigning the best PM for the job at hand.

Are you a charismatic leader? You could be. Alfonso Bucero shares his take on an often-cited and rarely understood leadership quality in Project Management Charisma. His explanation of charisma and how it impacts the people we work with includes pointers, specific actions, and examples of behavior to avoid as well. Use his advice to cultivate charisma to improve your personal leadership and project success.

Related Items
The Impact of Personality Types on Team Interactions – MEMBER
If you're aiming for personal impact, it helps to have a clear understanding of how others perceive you, and how their communication styles differ.

Picking the right project team, by Kent McDonald
Three key words for selecting the best possible project team: Passion, Ability, and Capacity.

How Do I Develop Myself as a Leader? – MEMBER
Provides a detailed survey of leadership literature and some suggestions for practical application.

Margaret de Haan, still on an office cleaning kick, distills the wisdom of another customer-oriented book in How to Become a Rainmaking Project Manager. You may have thought that sales advice couldn't possibly apply to project management, but when you think about it, we do a lot of selling. We sell options and solutions to stakeholders, we sell visions and trade-offs to developers, we sell deliverables to end-users. Rainmaking isn't out of place in this mindset, and there are many good reminders in Margaret's post. (My favorite, as a Californian: Earthquakes don't count.)

Related Items
Project Scope Definition: Deliverables – PREMIUM
Do you know what your project is, and what it isn't? Do your customers? Define these critical requirements up front, to avoid confusion and disappointment later.

Issue Resolution Status Report – PREMIUM
When you're earning customer trust, very little beats open, honest communication about any issues that arise and how you expect to resolve them.

Cost Benefits Analysis – PREMIUM
Make sure your project is really worth the cost, and that you've included all of the long-term costs and intangible benefits in your calculations.

Ann Drinkwater reminds us that shortcuts often make for long delays in Shortcut Shortfalls and urges us to define a plan and stick with it, rather than changing directions on a whim in an effort to save some time.

Related Items
Risk Strategy Selection Matrix – PREMIUM
Why address one risk when the same strategy may address two or more? This risk matrix will help you select the best approaches for your project.

Project Alternatives Tradeoff Table – PREMIUM
This example table shows you how to compare multiple project options from the obvious to the esoteric, and decide which has the best outcome and least impact for your project.

Generic Project Plan Document – PREMIUM
We often say a project plan is more than a schedule. This robust sample document proves it, with a plan that covers all the bases, in a generic format you can apply to most project environments.

Randy Englund reprises his popular "Negotiating for Project Success" presentation for the PMI Silicon Valley Chapter "Tools and Techniques" forum on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Randy shares his passion for developing negotiating skills and ten rules of negotiating.Â The event takes place in Sunnyvale, CA at the Sunnyvale Community Center from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.Â Register at www.pmisv.org.

Kent McDonald is slated to speak at I-BADD in Des Moines, Iowa on May 7th (Central Iowa IIBA) on understanding the problem your project should solve and ensuring that it produces true business value. For more information, check out the I-BADD2010 blog.

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