MSU, Learning, and Skill Development

I just completed a very fun PMP exam prep course (Project Management Professional certification for those outside of the project management realm) here in the Chicago suburbs. Aside from the PM discussions, we had some great discussions concerning education and training.

One of the acronyms I learned was MSU. While I can’t give you every word it represents, the M stands for Make and the U stands for Up. I hope you can figure out the middle word. The other one I learned was GTS. The S represents the same word as it does in MSU. The G stands for Google and the T stand for The. As I heard these (enjoyed with appropriate humor), I couldn’t help but think of the many students who tell me they don’t need skills, they can just Google whatever information they need to solve whatever problem they face.

My mind went and combined all these discussion (as it usually does) to an interesting, but not surprising conclusion.

When I first entered this business (seminar training and consulting), basic PM courses were 4-days long. In that time, we had the opportunity to challenge students to evaluate situations and attempt to apply the material they just learned. Now, it seems that they can’t “afford” to be out of the office that long, so we’ve whittled courses down to 3 and even 2 days. Because of this change, we only have time to shovel information down their throats but we don’t have the time to challenge them to apply the material in the classroom Rather, we hope they can apply it at work under even more challenging situations with people who didn’t attend the class. While I’m delighted at the e-mails I receive from students indicating they’re applying some of the tools, I can’t help but think we could improve things with a bit more critical thinking.

For example, ask yourself what the best tool is for negotiating with senior management to get resource in a project? What’s the best tool for gaining acceptance of a deliverable with a client or customer? What’s the best way to build a strong project team in a matrix environment? How can I make sure functional managers give me the resources I need for my project? We throw a ton of tools at you but don’t allow you to work these out in your head so you can pick the best one on the fly in the middle of a difficult project. The result, I frequently get students (usually from other classes) that tell me they create Gantt charts and issues logs but their projects are still challenging and frequently late.

It’s glibness! I’m continually amazed at the people with PMPs that can’t manage projects. Having a large tool chest is absolutely a benefit, but knowing how and when to apply the right tool is what makes projects work. For example, I (almost) never negotiate for resources with a Gantt chart if I have a large issue log, I would know my communication strategy was at fault.

Project management is a vast topic covering a substantial range of topics. Knowing how all the pieces interact, knowing which tool to use when, and knowing how to apply the tool is the key to project (or any other management discipline’s) success.

Go ahead and GTS and MSU when you must, but don’t just leave it at that. Keep a log of what works and what doesn’t. Watch how decisions affect peripheral issues, not just the immediate issue. Keep your own lessons learned and eliminate the glibness.

Honesty

If you think honesty, integrity and fairness are really nice but there’s little place for them in business, then we’re not the company for you. Let’s start with honesty. What’s honesty? Honesty is telling the truth. It’s not padding estimates. It’s not hiding real problems. Certainly, no one should broadcast every problem they have to everyone; but deliberately hiding problems, padding estimates, forcing a bad decision onto a subordinate or simply disguising issues and concerns to make yourself look good doesn’t do anyone any good.

As a manager, I need to make decisions. What do I use to make those decision? Information! So we set up a culture where people have to pad estimates to protect the constant multi-tasking, we hide problems to make yourself look good in front of bosses who control our salaries and we cover it up with 70-hour weeks, constant fire-fighting and a feeling like we didn’t accomplish anything.

Not in my company. Here, we tell the truth. I need to make decisions and if the only information I have is lies, then I can’t make the right decisions. If you screwed up an estimate, tell me; we fix it. If the technology you selected didn’t work; tell me, we’ll fix it. And DON’T PAD ESTIMATES. That means you’ll be late sometimes. That’s okay, it also means you’ll be early sometimes. The aggregation of all those late and early finishes balance out and we get stuff one faster!

I don’t embrace honesty because it’s nice. I embrace it for pure greed! It makes me richer!

Lean Project Management?

A colleague of mine recently told me she was approached to help with lean project management. Seriously? I’m challenged to think of anything more redundant.

The whole lean movement is based on reducing or eliminating non-value-added steps and reducing the costs of the value-added steps. But isn’t that what project managers do every day? Recall the role of the work breakdown structure (WBS): to identify ALL the work required and ONLY the work required to make the project successful. Don’t we constantly balance resources, sequence activities and handle risks to bring the project in as fast and inexpensively as possible?

Hmmmm, maybe I should sell “Lean Project Management”. I don’t have to change a thing except my marketing strategy.  We’ll promote that we eliminate any activity that doesn’t help the project. We’ll promote that we find the best resources to do the activities as inexpensively as possible. Yes, I can do this!

Cheers, all

The Mind of the Project Manager, Part II

In my seminars, I frequently ask people what aspects of the project the project manager owns. The concept of ownership is one of the critical tools I use to run a successful project. Remember: we are not necessarily subject matter experts (SME’s) in the discipline of the project, we are SME’s in project management.

So, I’m curious what aspects of the project you think project managers own. If you don’t mind, let’s do a short poll. I’ve randomized the answers to avoid any prejudice.

I’ll post my choices in a few weeks.

The Mind of the Project Manager – Part 1

One of the difficulties with learning project management is understanding the project manager’s mindset. Many people think project managers should be savvy in the field involving the project. Others disagree. Some even believe the PM should be a subject matter expert (SME).

The truth is, we are SME’s, but not necessarily in the field involving the project. We are SM’s in getting things done! We understand how to write goals. We understand how to develop a plan to achieve those goals. We are skilled in developing work plans. We know how to develop accurate estimates for work, create deliverables and manage stakeholders. We know how to build strong, reliable teams. Those are our skills sets.

Does a PM need to be a skilled IT professional or marketer? The pure answer is no, as long as the team has sufficient expertise and loyalty. Personally, I prefer not having any expertise. It forces me to rely on my team… which is the right way to do it. It forces me to rely on project management skills and that’s what gets things done.

Innovation may be returning!!!!

I’ve been watching the markets recently. With an immanent attack on Syria, the Fed tapering on Quantitative Easing, a looming debt ceiling debate and dwindling overall economy (not shrinking, but also not living up to expectations), the stock markets have been shaky at best.

Today is one of those days when the market doesn’t quite know what to do. So … here’s its delightful reaction:

Tesla (symbol: TSLA) – a highly innovative electric car company is down only slightly after a staggering run-up. Actually, at the exact time of this writing, it just turned positive again.

3-D Printing (symbol: DDD)  – a 3-D printing company is up sharply for no apparent reason

Lenovo Group (symbol: LNVGY) … the makers of the ThinkPads and other devices is up sharply today.                       …

Maybe, just Maybe the entrepreneurial spirit is returning!

FORGIVE ME … the entrepreneurial spirit of this country never left … it’s just been a really long time since it’s been rewarded.

Maybe … now we can get back to business!

ps. Yes, I know the Loveno Group is a Chinese company (that’s an interesting fact by itself). I’m just delighted the market’s starting reward innovation!

Dear Classic PM Trainers:

Okay, it’s your turn.

As the Project Management Institute (PMI) released the latest edition of their project management (PM) standard (PMBOK Guide), the classical PM training organizations have updated their courseware. Sadly, I’m finding a scary trend. Courses are becoming more academic, more occluded with useless issues such as with mapping concepts into Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and less concerned with teaching people how to run a project.

No wonder the Scrum people are blasting us. We’ve stopped teaching people how to run projects and are more concerned that they pass a test. We’ve stopped showing seminar attendees how to keep a team focused on their activities, but hope they understand the relationships among 10 knowledge areas and how they map into Monitoring and Controlling.

Fundamental PM courses are just that — fundamental. Attendees want to know what to do at work next week to their project stays on track, not write text books on the intricacies of PM theories.

Scrum trainers … you’re forgiven.

A letter to Scrum trainers and the world of Agile

Dear Scrum Trainers:

I know how proud you are of your wonderful methodology (that you claim isn’t). I know you built Scrum to find a new way to do software projects that works … and it does. However, I have to admit I’m getting tired of you bad-mouthing classic project management.

If I put the same conditions on a classic project as you put on Scrum, I’d be just as successful. Classic project management does NOT dictate that project managers should be split among dozens of projects. Classic project management does NOT state that project team members should be pulled in 20 different directions. Classic project management does NOT dictate that the plan should never change.

These are conditions incompetent executives force on us. This is NOT a defect of the discipline, rather a circumstance of the business society and culture.

Now, allow me to offer a truce. While learning Scrum, I’ve discovered that the same technique you use to be successful are the same ones I used (as long as 30 years ago) to be successful. I learned Bruce Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development by watching teams some 25 years ago and design my project around it. I can’t remember a basic PM seminar I’ve run that I didn’t pound “the definition of done” into the attendees heads. I and my students embrace change in classic project management … we just make sure it’s change that adds value, and I get to adjust my time and cost accordingly. I have a single-point-of-contact (SPOC) for my client, you have a product owner.

And … I DON”T have to have a daily meeting to run a team. My 7-minute weekly meetings run just fine.

So, I have an idea … instead of bad-mouthing us which only forces me to push back, why don’t we work together to the common good? Why don’t we find those concepts that work well in both Agile and classic PM and promote (dare I say) best practices.

It’s uneducated and incompetent executives we need to address, not each other.