If the Old Spice Guy was a Project Manager

Hello, stakeholders, look at your PM, now back to me, now back at your PM, now back to me. Sadly, he or she isn't me, but if he or she stopped making things up as they went along and switched to proven methods, he or she could deliver results like me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re in a meeting with the PM your PM could deliver results like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s a a signed SOW with two features you love. Look again, the features are now delivered. Anything is possible when your PM uses proven methods and not make them up. I’m on a horse. Thank you to Old Spice and the Old Spicy Guy for this inspiration.

Hello, ladies, look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped using ladies scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady. I’m on a horse.

Domain specialty is good in project management

Shortage of specialized project managers

If you're a general project manager, and you're looking for work, you're probably not finding as much available work or noticing people are not willing to pay you as much as they used to.  With an increased amount of people choosing project management as their profession, you need to find a way to stand apart from them.  If you focus on a niche market or vertical or refine your skills in a particular knowledge area, you may find yourself in great demand and commanding a much higher rate.

Lindsay Scott asks some excellent questions.

Think about your own situation and circumstance; if you were to market your own specialism what would it be?

What areas of business and industry are looking for your particular specialism?

How can you work the current marketplace demands to your advantage?

To get more on this topic, read more from Arras People and Lindsay Scott.

The debate about the PMP losing it's value

People are getting their PMP® (Project Management Professional) certifications at a breakneck pace.  This year alone, new PMPs are averaging  just under 4,300 a month.  You would think this would be great for the industry, having more qualified project managers engaged on projects.  Instead, the question is being raised if people who should not be PMPs are in fact being certified.  Are hiring managers creating an environment for those with no project management experience to game the system? Geoff Crane sees a pattern.

• A new credential is created
• The credential is marketed, making success promises to hiring managers
• Hiring managers make the credential a requirement
• Shortage of credential-holders increases perceived value of the credential

Get the complete list and what comes next at Papercut Edge.

The painful reality of many meetings

I'm rereading (listening) to Rework for the 3rd time.  It's been about a month since I last absorbed this artfully crafted piece of wisdom from Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of 37Signals.  People who read my blog know that I hate meetings.  I'm ok with the 5 minute stand-ups.  I'm ok with the 22 minute meeting, when necessary.

The painful reality is one poorly organized meeting can suck more time and energy than a week of good meetings. How many meetings do you go to in a week? Do you really need to be there? Is there a published goal-based agenda?  Not going to meetings is like not watching CNN for a week.  If it's really important, someone will tell you the news.  Otherwise, you find yourself commonly hearing the same old thing over and over again.  Your time is more valuable than that.  Go do something else.

Know how to say no in negotiations

We've all had it happen to us. We were able to get a signed agreement in hand, identifying agreed upon scope of work. Everything for a fleeting moment is right in the world. Then it happens. That one stakeholder (you know who they are) comes to your desk and asks. "Can we add this one little tiny feature?" or "Can we make this one tiny little change?" Are you kidding me? This reminds me of when my son asks if he can have dessert when he hasn't eaten his dinner. Though you can't be as abrupt with a stakeholder like you can with a 4-year-old, the answer should still be the same. No.

Though you should not be an obstructionist, we could all learn a little from Dr. Cox in this case.  His (command) mitigated speech is all he needed.  In the real world, stride to be a win-win negotiator and be aware of the mitigated speech being used to conduct your negotiations.

We didn't learn our lesson

As the project I support enters a new period of performance, I reviewed the lessons learned documented a year ago and compared them to the documented lessons learned from a few weeks ago. To be identified at any point of a project lifecycle (PMBOK page 437), all project managers should collect and document lessons learned.  In reality, everyone on the project should be collecting and documenting lessons learned.  But, as many will attest, you need to be able to implement approved process improvement activities (PMBOK page 83) or you will just continue to revisit history at the end of each cycle or project.  If that is the case, you really didn't learn your lessons.

Do you learn from your mistakes?  You should be able to at least be aware of them.  Document your mistakes and revisit them at the beginning of the next project or cycle.  Group them into three categories: Correct Actions, Preventive Actions, and Defect Repair.

Corrective Action: Document your direction for executing future project work. Bring expected performance of the project work in line with the project management plan.

Preventive Action: Document your direction to reduce the probability of negative outcomes associated with project risks.

Defect Repair: Document a defect in a project component with the recommendation to either repair it or completely replace the component.

Though the process of documenting, reviewing, and implementing lessons learned may differ between Waterfall and Agile projects, the process still needs to happen.

Again, don't just document lessons learned.  Act on them!

Graphic: Flickr: sopheava

Awesome Scrum Intro Video

As I was reading tweets over the weekend, I discovered an awesome video by Hamid Shojaee, Founder and CEO of Axosoft. It's an 8 minute introduction video on Scrum.  With background music sounding a bit like Block Rockin' Beats by The Chemical Brothers, this video is to the point and completely awesome.

I think this type of video is necessary to show to stakeholders, who have not had an introduction to Agile or Scrum.  In this ADD world we live in, I think we need to deliver some information in the same way we would deliver features in a Sprint.  Go for the items of highest value and deliver them in a short period of time.  Additionally, deliver the information is a way that it can stand on its own.

I remember getting 50 government people in a room with an experienced Scrum Trainer, to introduce them to Scrum.  After several hours, some still didn't grasp the basics.  If they were forced to watch this video in the first 8 minutes of the training, I bet the day would have gone a lot differently.

Looking for Partnerships in Project Management

We are happy to announce, upon partnering with a London-based project management firm, that we launched the future site for Prince2 Flashcards.  Currently, there is just a sign up form, for those who wish to be informed when our product is about to launch.  Additionally, we launched the future site for our PMP Exam Simulator. Again, sign up if you want to be informed when our product is about to launch.  Both the Prince2 and the PMP Exam Simulator sites are project management exam preparation websites that should help us expand our reach in the market. So, what makes this blog post different from others?  Back in March, we launched our PMP Flashcards site.  This was the first site to use our HueCubed flashcard engine.  We've gone through several iterations of the engine and it just gets better and better.

What we're looking for now are some affiliate partners for the PMP Flashcard website.  Do you like what we have created? Want to make some extra money, along with us?

Sign up as a HueCubed affiliate!  As we launch each of the sites, we'll make affiliate links and buttons available.  All affiliate accounts will paid by HueCubed.

Disclaimer:  The Critical Path, HueCubed, and all of the mentioned product sites were designed and developed by me and my development team.

Thank you to everyone for your support,

Derek

Graphic from Flickr: Spring Stone