Upon reviewing a vendor's Integrated Master Schedule, created in MS Project, I noticed something very peculiar. Where some tasks could clearly be marked as Fixed Duration, everything was Fixed Units. I think there are two answers for this. Either there was a misunderstanding about the work to be performed or the person doing the schedule needs some help understanding task types. I believe working with MS Project can make your eyes bleed if you're not used to it. But if you're armed with just a little information about task types, it can be a whole lot easier. I would love to go into a detailed explanation about Fixed Work, Fixed Units, and Fixed Duration. If I did, however, you'd probably leave my site never to return. Instead, I found a very helpful video on YouTube. Why go hunting for this stuff when you can just find it here?
The FedGov Fail Day 3
As we enter the 3rd day of Washington DC being shut down, I ask myself why. It's 2010, for crying out loud! You'd think they would find a way to keep things operational. Just because government employees can't report to physical locations, doesn't mean they can't work, right? From the OPM.gov website, Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are CLOSED.
This means...
- Federal agencies in the Washington, DC, area are closed. Nonemergency employees (including employees on pre-approved leave) will be granted excused absence for the number of hours they were scheduled to work. This does not apply to employees on leave without pay, leave without pay for military duty, workers' compensation, suspension, or in another nonpay status.
- Telework employees may be expected to work from their telework sites, as specified in their telework agreements.
- Emergency employees are expected to report for work on time.
- Employees on alternative work schedules are not entitled to another AWS day off in lieu of the workday on which the agency is closed.
Now, this post isn't necessarily about government employees, a majority of whom will just stay at home and get paid. Don't get me wrong, I care a lot about my government counterparts. Some of them work darn hard and are up late at night keeping things running. This is about all of us who support the government. In a day and age when the government needs to be nimble and innovative, I sit here knowing I'm not necessarily going to get to bill an hour of my time, while the Federal agencies in the Washington DC area sit idle. No, I certainly can't do 100% of what I was hired to do but I have things I could have caught up on. I have a constant rotation of priority deliverables that arrive in my inbox, ready for my review and recommendations. I don't need to be on site to read a document about cost and schedule variance on CLIN 123, in order to deliver value. But guess what, that's exactly the case. If I'm not physically on site, I have to get special approval to do any work and bill any time.
As Jhaymee (@TheGreenPM) Wilson tweeted today, the recent Snowmageddon in DC brings visibility to the Federal Government's lack of a risk management policy, which includes teleworking. I believe the policy should include contractors. My FedGov PMO identified a strategy to keep us operational, in the event H1N1 hit the agency. The strategy was a mandate from higher in the government. So why then wouldn't there be a plan to keep us operational in the event of inclement weather? This just proves, in cases like this, the Federal Government doesn't plan to fail; It just fails to plan.
My Big Fat Greek Project
Today my wife looked at me and said, "ya know, you're like that guy on My Big Fat Greek Wedding. We talk about something, anything, and you tell me how it relates to Project Management." You know what? She's right! We talk about snow removal...Agile. We talk about getting through the honey-do list...Kanban. I asked her what I should write this post about. She said, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
The person she was referring to was Gus Portokalos. He said, "Give me a word, any word, and I show you that the root of that word is Greek." Oh Gus, you wise man. Recently, I decided I was going to write a lot more. That leaves me with a bit of a challenge. I don't want to produce garbage just for the sake of publishing something. I see people like James Rich, a blogger I follow, push a volume of product but his quality hasn't gone down. As a result, I find myself not only internalizing project management but also verbalizing it at every turn.
Yes, I absolutely believe if you give me a topic, any topic, and I will show you how that topic relates to project management. So, if by chance you read my blog one day this next week and I'm ranting about how a particular restaurant could offer better service if they employed Agile Methods instead of following a Waterfall Process, you'll be forewarned.
Remember, there are two kinds of people - Project Managers, and everyone else who wish they were Project Managers.
Snow Removal From an Agile PM Perspective
This weekend, our house at the lake received about 30 inches of snow. It was pretty overwhelming. Our HOA at Lake Linganore did a very good job and I'm going to tell you why. Two significant snowfalls ago, we waited 2 days before we saw the first snowplow. We didn't hear anything out of the HOA. Days later, the residents got an email from the HOA saying threatening telephone calls and emails didn't help and to please refrain from doing it in the future. They believed they did the best they could with the resources they had.
I thought they could have done better. I sent a very pleasant email to the HOA thanking them for their efforts. A few days later, I sent a followup email with a proposal: At the next snow storm, I recommended the HOA send out emails, informing the residents of the progress being made. Whenever I don't like how a product or service was provided to me, I try to offer constructive feedback. The next storm came, and this time, so did the emails. There were only a few but they were very clear. They outlined the priorities of the snow removal. Main arteries were of highest priority. The side streets would be tended to when they could. This time, some residents got stuck before making it to their homes. They abandoned their vehicles, and unfortunately, a group of vehicles got hit by a snowplow.
Though it took a few days, the HOA came and plowed us out. Other than those who had damaged vehicles, the tone in the neighborhood was very much improved. We understood the priorities and respected them. The communications is what we valued the most.
This weekend, we had an even bigger storm then the last. This time, the HOA revised their process. We got emails a day before the snow arrived. They advised us to get off the roads by a certain time and identified where to park to avoid getting hit by a plow. We were also provided a list of the highest priorities in order of importance and grouped by need to have and want to have. Lastly, we received regular emails notifying us of progress or impediments and who could expect to be plowed out next.
Here are a few successes
- They listened to customer feedback
- The process was refined, based on user feedback
- A list of objectives was made and circulated, identifying items of greatest value
- Regular communications
We received a status report this evening. In it, we were advised another storm is on its way. Though the community will be completely plowed by the time it arrives, we were assured the HOA will keep us informed. They added, snow removal operations will be reviewed to see what went right and what when wrong this time around and apply those lessons learned to the next storm.
Did your snow removal go as smoothly this time around?
I would love to hear your comments or stories.
Regards,
Derek
The Critical Path Week in Review
This week I really wanted to turn up the volume of things I wrote about. I have a lot to say (and write) about project management and if you missed reading my blog on a given day and don't have an RSS feed or follow me on Twitter, you'd have to go searching in the archives to find it. I don't think that's good enough. I should make it easy for you to read what I write. Hopefully, this week in review will help you find something new while you enjoy your coffee or tea.
1/28/2010
Seeing Value From The Customer Perspective
I don’t care if you’re using Agile, Waterfall, or other methods to deliver value. What is important is you understand your process and what mechanisms provide the greatest value to the customer. Just because a process does not appear valuable to you, it does not mean the process does not provide value...
1/29/2010
Refine Your Process If You Must Deviate From It
If you’re looking for a free Microsoft Visio template of a Sprint process workflow, which you can edit at will, you can download it here. As I mentioned in my post Seeing Value From The Customer Perspective, if you think you need to deviate from a documented or understood process, rewrite or refine your process to account for the deviations...
1/30/2010
The Impact Of Social Networking On Project Management
Good leaders do not operate in a vacuum. They exchange ideas and information with people. Offer free information and it will come back to you tenfold. Listen to knowledgeable people and then make a more educated leadership decision... In this post I compared the traditional communication paths and how that process is turned on its ear, thanks to social networking...
1/31/2010
This Is How You Know When To Kill A Project
A personal rant about paper telephone books and how I never realized, until now, who the real customer was. There is a very similar parallel between the newspaper industry and the printed phone book industry. They both believe or promote the scarcity of information. That scarcity justifies cost. To the contrary, we now live with an abundance of information. That information is freely distributed and reaches a broader audience...
2/1/2010
The December Numbers Are In For PMPs
Yes, the December numbers are in. December 2009 numbers for Project Management Professional (PMP®) certifications were published and it looks like there will be over 400,000 holding the certification in 2010...
| December Totals | |
| New PMPs (December 2009) | 5,403 |
| New PMPs (YTD) | 75,107 |
| Total Active PMPs | 361,238 |
2/2/2010
And The Best Methodology Is
I recently commented on two blogs that address similar topics. Jesse Fewell wants to empower teams to succeed, equip managers to lead, and enable executives to unlock the secrets of high performing organizations. Jesse wrote a blog post offering the real reasons behind the methodology wars. It’s an insightful post and I would recommend you go and read it...
The other blog post was from Mike Cottmeyer, someone I turn to on a regular basis to find inspiration and wisdom within the industry. Mike wrote a blog post asking Why is Agile so hard to sell? Again, it is a very good read and you should set aside some time to read some of his writings...
The Pain Of IE6 And Application Development
There are legacy applications out there that were built on IE6 and it’s not an easy migration. There are some Agencies which ONLY use IE6 and the users don’t have permissions to install a new browser. So, what do you do?...
2/3/2010
Updated 10 Step Help To Submit PMP PDUs
All PMPs need 60 PDUs during a CCR cycle so don’t put it off until the last minute. I document the process on how to claim your require 60 PDUs...
2/4/2010
Using Common Sense With Documentation
Though I really love good documentation, going heavy on it does not guarantee a successful project. My recommendation is you spend a little time identifying documentation that truly meets your needs. More importantly, identify documentation that truly meets your customer’s needs...
2/5/2010
Managing Risks and Opportunities
Washington DC is in the process of getting 20-30 inches of snow, over the next 24 hours. Though I know you can’t foresee all possible issues which may occur over the course of a project, you should make an honest attempt to identify them in order to open a dialog with your stakeholders. Has weather ever delayed your project or pushed it over budget?...
Managing Risks and Opportunities
Washington DC is in the process of getting 20-30 inches of snow, over the next 24 hours. The forecast hasn't changed all week. If anything, it's gotten worse! At no time did the weather service say this weather event was going to miss us. The Beltway has been in the cross-hairs of this system since the computer models discovered its formation. That leads me to write about risks and opportunities. Actually, for today, it's just risks. When working on a larger project, you should always have a discovery session early on that will capture potential risks and opportunities. Once these events are identified, you should quantify their values. You'll also want to capture the probability of each.
Once you've captured a risk (or opportunity), its value, and its probability, you'll know better if you'll be planning acceptance, avoidance, mitigation, or transference. I'll save that process and definitions for a later time. Right now, I want to talk about snow.
Yesterday at the meeting I hosted, we discussed our contingency plan for today. Even before the meeting, we knew we were going to get hit with this weather system and it would impact the schedule. This was no longer a risk but an issue. The issue was relevant because our vendor has a contract deliverable due today. Inclement weather was not annotated in their risk register so it was up to us tell them how this would play out.
Though I know you can't foresee all possible issues which may occur over the course of a project, you should make an honest attempt to identify them in order to open a dialog with your stakeholders. Local schools systems plan for snow days. They have documented strategies to deal with these events because they've learned their lessons. Shouldn't your projects as well?
This snow storm is going to mess with a lot of people and a lot of projects, over the course of the next few days. I hope we all learn a lesson from it.
Has weather ever delayed your project or pushed it over budget? I would love to hear about it.
Regards,
Derek
Using Common Sense With Documentation
Though I really love good documentation, going heavy on it does not guarantee a successful project. At my last engagement a product manager asked why she had to go back and complete a business case, a feasibility study, and a charter when her team was already several months into development of the current release. She was being consumed by back-filling this documentation. I believe this was a poor business decision by someone higher in the organization. They did not "get it". Documentation is nothing more then a communications tool. When improperly used, a tool will not necessarily give you the benefit you need. Need to drive in a nail? You wouldn't use a screw driver, would you? Then why would you ask someone to use their valuable time and energy to create a document for the sake of creating the document? Use the appropriate tool at the appropriate time to get the appropriate results. If there was a 1 year project with a requirement stating there had to be a feasibility study, then you better have one. You should have done it at the inception of the project. But, if you have a project that is only 1 month long, use some common sense.
My recommendation is you spend a little time identifying documentation that truly meets your needs. More importantly, identify documentation that truly meets your customer's needs. You're not impressing anyone with a SharePoint site or filing cabinet filled to the brim with documentation nobody ever looks at. One good example of a document that provides value is a Project Charter. I know, there are hundreds of you out there rolling your eyes. You figure your stakeholders are not going to sign this document (though they should), formally authorizing a project or a phase. But, this same artifact does document initial requirements that satisfy the stakeholder’s needs and expectations. Having this document and answering those questions is going to increase the probability of you having a successful project. Use it as a communication tool!
Since a majority of the search results coming to this website are from people looking for Free Project Management related templates and worksheets, I decided I better give my readers what they are looking for. You are my customer! You have expressed a need or want for templates and worksheets. I should make it my goal to satisfy those needs.
I'm currently working on a new business case template. What will be in it, you ask?
Project Overview
- Problem Statement
- Project Description
- Project Goals and Objectives
- Project Scope (what's included and what's excluded)
- Critical Success Factors
- Assumptions
- Constraints
Authority and Milestones
- Funding Authority
- Project Oversight Authority
- Major Project Milestones
Project Organization
- Project Structure
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Responsibility Matrix
- Project Facilities and Resources
Points of Contract
Glossary
Revision History
Appendices
Did I miss anything? Give me a few days and I'll have it done.
I welcome any feedback or comments. Just post them below.
Regards,
Derek
Updated 10 Step Help To Submit PMP PDUs
I'm in the process of helping my client make their submissions for PMI Professional Development Units (PDUs). All PMPs need 60 PDUs during a CCR cycle so don't put it off until the last minute. In this case, my client participated in a workshop. If you want to collect PDUs, you're going to need some kind of evidence. It might be a program agenda, copies of a publication, transcript, certificate, registration form... do I need to go on? This is actually for you in the event PMI audits you. In this case, participating in a workshop, the evidence is not required to actually complete the PDU request online. Because PMI has updated their website, I think it's important you know the new process.
Know your PMI ID #, Cert #, and Last Name on file with PMI.
Step 1: Log into the PMI homepage. A Membership Status box will appear in the left navigation menu with the following data: PMI ID No.: Member Since: Expires:
A Certification Status box will also appear in the left navigation menu with the following data: PMP No.: Earned: Renewal Date
Within that Certification Status box, at the bottom, is a link titled "View PDUs" (If you follow the link before logging in, you'll be asked to do so at that time)
Step 2: Select the "View PDUs" link Step 3: In the left navigational column, select Report professional development units (PDUs) Step 4: Select a PDU category and sub-category (if applicable) ("2e" for participating in a workshop) Step 5: Select the Next button Step 6: Complete the entire form (know the knowledge area and process group) Step 7: Select the Next button Step 8: Review for accuracy and enter the number of PDUs (if given the option) Step 9: Select the Next button Step 10: Select the checkbox, agreeing to the accuracy of the claim and Select the Submit button
Go back and review your Online Transcript in a few days to verify your submission was successful.
See, it's not as hard as you thought!
I welcome any questions you may have about the process.
Regards,
Derek