ICPM

We have all been on projects where an understanding different stakeholder groups becomes a ‘touchy-feely’ process.  You have a gut feel for their tolerance for change, commitment, ability to influence and what they view as important.  Most of the time we are wrong but if we had some real data for these areas, then we could establish effective communications and begin to understand what challenges faced us during our project time line.

Ethics has been the topic of several separate conversations I have had recently.  One friend expressed near outrage about a discussion she overheard between two of her managers.  It ended with one saying, “Well, your ethics aren’t necessarily mine!”  Another friend found it amusing that he was able to avoid the company ethics meeting by lying about already attending. 

People living in the LA area are big on perception.  Billy Crystal used to say, “It is better to look marvelous than to feel marvelous.”  Sometimes this works to your advantage.  When I was in my early 20s my hair started turning grey around the temples.  This gave me the appearance of being older and wiser and others took me more seriously as a consultant.   

The feature story in the March 2007 edition of PM Network, titled "Bridging the Gap", is a look at some of the differences in style and communication that newer professionals and project managers have compared to veterans. I enjoyed the article and found some points to agree with and some in conflict with my personal experiences.

In the article there is a quote from Dave Davis, PMP, asserting that "the younger generation doesn't grasp the value of face time and the importance of building a team identity...They avoid social time and group meetings and end up identifying more with the tasks than the team."

Improving the accuracy of schedule estimates

There are a few ways that you can increase the accuracy of your estimates for task duration in your project schedule.
 
One way is to use your own past experience and the past experience of others who have done something similar in previous projects.   For example, you could ask questions related to past projects, such as:

Whether conflict has a net positive or negative effect on a project and its parent organization depends on how the project manager handles it. PMI® recognizes five methods for dealing with conflict:

Recruiting Team Members - The project manager has to follow the rules of the host organization. The PM must be aware of, and work well with, the levels of authority. If the PM is working within a Functional matrix, then he must be prepared to allow the employee’s functional manager to determine things like availability and the PM must provide feedback to the functional manager regarding performance. The PM has little authority to perform these tasks.

The PMBOK defines quality planning as “identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them”. A key output of the planning process should be the quality management plan for the project.

Cost-Benefit Analysis - This is the process of determining the pros and cons of implementing any process, product, or activity. When it comes to project management, cost-benefit is concerned with the benefits of quality management activities versus the costs of the quality management activities. There are two major considerations with the benefit/cost analysis in quality management:

Constraints are factors that may limit the project management team’s options, whereas assumptions are factors that for planning purposes may be considered to be true, real, or certain. Understand the differences between constraints and assumptions, and be able to recognize examples of both. 

The PMBOK®Guide defines project management as “ . . . the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements”. Although this definition may sound pretty straightforward, you will find that the skillful application of those skills, tools, and techniques will come only after you’ve had a significant amount of education and on-the-job experience.

Managing a Project includes Identifying requirements, establishing clear and achievable objectives, balancing the competing demands for quality, scope, time and cost and adapting to the different expectations of the various stakeholders.

Problems, needs, and opportunities continually arise in every organization. Problems like low operational efficiency, needs like additional office space, and opportunities like penetrating a new product market are just a few of a nearly endless number of situations that management must address in the process of operating an organization or company. These problems, needs, and opportunities give rise to the identification of solutions. Executing those solutions entails a change for the organization. Projects are generally established to carry out this change and there’s always someone responsible for the successful completion of each project. As the project manager, you are the primary change agent, and your guide for carrying out the change is the project management process.

 

PROJECT TOOLS

     A. Unique to the project
          a. Work Breakdown Structures
          b. Critical Path Analysis
          c. Earned Value Management

     B. Multiple applications
          a. PMBOK
          b. Standards and Regulations
          c. General Management skills
          d. Interpersonal skills

PROJECT WORK VS. OPERATIONAL WORK
For the exam you should know the similarities and differences between Project Work and Operational Work.

1. Similarities
      A. Performed by People
      B. Constrained by limited resources
      C. Planned, Executed and Controlled

2. Differences
      A. Projects end while operations are ongoing
      B. Objectives are fundamentally different
      C. Projects attain an objective and then terminate.
      D. Projects are bound by multiple constraints

The project manager is a professional who has a responsibility to have a good education, a good understanding of the practice, and experience in the respective field. The PM will play a series of roles: project manager, integrator, communicator, team leader, decision maker, etc...