Twitter and a Challenge to Communicate

Twitter allows us to share the time and prevents us from trying to explain how to build the clock.

This morning, Dave Garrett, CEO of Gantthead.com and I were attempting to communicate via Twitter on the topic of PMI and Agile Scrum.

We were both finding it difficult to compress everything we wanted to say into 140 character posts.  I highly doubt Twitter is going to replace the telephone or email as a central method of communications.  It is, however, a great tool to capture the timeline and get your thoughts out quickly to like-minded people.  Regardless of the constraints, it's always good to read Dave's viewpoint or see what he'll post next.  If you want to find an excellent Project Management resource, I recommend you check out and join Gantthead.com.  If you want to see the world from Dave's perspective, minute by minute, I recommend you follow him on Twitter.

140 characters aside, we were able to get our points across to one another.

(Image courtesy of Twitter)

Helpful Hints For Project Meetings

People generally go to meetings because they are asked to attend. With a simple click of the mouse, they accept. Rarely do they respond to your request with the why did you invite me question. Some accept and just don't show up. These are contributing factors that sway a meeting from productive to unproductive.  I sometimes see people go an entire day and only attend meetings. When do they get actual work done? We all know that answer. Here are a few helpful hints for the next meeting you organize. [1] Write out the purpose of the meeting with actionable events in mind. e.g. "Provide an updated status, identifying risks and opportunities, and identify new action items."

[2] Identify your attendee list but only keep those you can map to the actionable events listed in step 1.  There is a difference between an attendee list and a communications distribution list.

[3] Create an agenda.  Do not ever arrange a meeting without a written agenda.  Your meeting will suffer scope creep in the worst possible way.

[4] Identify who will run the meeting and who will take notes.  It should not be the same person.

[5] Circulate the completed agenda and collateral documentation prior to the meeting.  Have some on hand in the event people don't bring their own copies to the meeting.

[6] Provide different means of attending the meeting.  e.g. In person, via telephone, via web meeting.

[7] Start every meeting on time.  If you don't start on time, how do you expect to finish on time?

[8] Ensure discussion points align to the agenda.  If they don't, recommend taking the topic to another forum.

[9] End the meeting by having the note taker read back the discussion points and the understood action items.

[10] Send out the meeting minutes within one to two days.

Here are a few helpful hints for the next meeting you are invited to or attend. [1] Upon receiving an invitation, ask yourself if it is really necessary to attend this meeting.  It could be you just need to be kept informed.  Ask to be included on the meeting minutes distribution list rather then attending.

[2] If you are going to attend, arrive on time!  It is rude to walk into a meeting after it has started.  Have a little respect for the other attendees.  They found it important enough to arrive on time, why can't you?

[3] Know which agenda items pertain to you prior to coming to the meeting.  Be prepared.

[4] Verify the published meeting minutes for accuracy.

I hope this helps you get the most out of your project meetings.  As an added bonus, I am including a link to my free Meeting Minutes Template.  You can also find it by navigating to my Free PM Templates page.

I welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Regards,

Derek

Kobayashi Maru for Projects

Without trying to appear to be too much of a geek, I sometimes code-name a project as Kobayashi Maru. For those out there who are not Star Trek geeks, Kobayashi Maru is a test in which command division cadets at Starfleet Academy are presented with a no-win scenario as a test of character. I use the term for a project in which management gets involved and I'm presented with a no-win scenario.  I doubt they are trying to test character. Rather, it's an example of their lack of understanding project management. I'm sure there are PMs out there who have had management redirect resources from your project to others, only to refuse to narrow scope or push out a delivery date. That is a Kobayashi Maru.  Just because I have a PMP®, don't expect me to pull a rabbit out of a hat.  On a previous program, I've looked management in the eye and reminded them that something will have to give.  Narrow scope, extend the deadline, lower quality expectation, or increase the budget.  Do something or this will be a no-win scenario.

Image from : drexfiles.wordpress.com

What is missing from a Cost Performance Report

I recall a very positive meeting where we exposed several non project management team members to a Cost Performance Report (CPR) for the first time. A CPR addresses project performance through a defined period of time in relation to contractual requirements.  The CPR details budgeted work scheduled and performed, actual cost work performed, and the variance in both schedule and cost.  All of this is itemized per Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) element for both the current period and the cumulative to date.  The last values you see are the budgeted, estimated, and variance at completion of the contract. There were a lot of questions as to why one WBS element has a positive or negative cost variance and why it may have a positive or negative schedule variance.  Trying to explain this to those without a project management background can be a challenge.

I was having a sidebar conversation with one team member who could not understand how the element that pertained to him could be both ahead of schedule and below budgeted cost. The answer came from across the room in the form of a question.

"Is there any way this report captures quality?" The answer was no.

That my friends is called Triple Constraint.  We know the Scope, Time, and Cost within this report.  What we don't know is Quality, Risk, or Customer Satisfaction.  That's ok.  This is the CPR, not a Total Project Status (TPS) Report.

By not committing the scheduled time and budgeted dollars to complete the task to a level of quality that meets the customer's expectations, the contractor looks good only on paper.

Triple Constraint

Triple Constraint

With Project Management, you must understand that EVERY project has constraints.  Unfortunately, project managers tend to ignore this and it will come back to haunt them time and time again.  Constraints include time, scope, cost, quality, risk, or any other factors that will limit what your options are when managing a project or deliverable. "Triple Constraint" is a term that originally included time, scope, and cost.  Newer definitions include customer satisfaction, risk, and quality.  If you're preparing to take the PMP® exam, include both the original and newer definitions.  Sextuple constraint just doesn't quite role off the tongue. I try to stress to stakeholders every time they try to expand scope that it will directly impact the other constraints.  If you expand the scope, you will either have to expand cost or time.  If you don't expand either of these two constraints, you're going to increase risk and lower quality.

You'll first read about constraints in section 1.3 of the PMBOK®.  PMI will only refer to them as constraints at that time.  Y0u'll find them referenced at other locations within the PMBOK as project constraints.  What you will not find in the PMBOK 4th edition is an actual definition in the glossary.

PERT Formula

PERT - Program Evaluation and Review Technique.If you’re going to take the PMP exam, you MUST remember this formula.  I’ve used it countless times in the real world and it works with surprising accuracy.

Formula: (P+4M+O)/6

Optimistic time (O): the minimum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything proceeds better than is normally expected. Pessimistic time (P): the maximum possible time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything goes wrong (excluding major catastrophes). Most likely time (M): the best estimate of the time required to accomplish a task, assuming everything proceeds as normal.

How does it work?

Obtain three time estimates (optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely) for every activity along the critical path.  Plug your numbers into the formula and then sum the totals.  Though people will challenge you, you WILL have a more accurate critical path estimate.

I will speak to “Standard Deviation of an Activity” and “Variance of an Activity” at a later time.   They both leverage the same values but in different formulas.

Finding the critical path

Critical Path Method includes determining the longest path in a network diagram and the earliest and latest an activity can start and the earliest and the latest that activity can be completed.  Here are a few basic things you need to think about.

• It is the longest duration path through a network diagram and determines the shortest time to complete the project
• It helps prove how long the project will take
• It helps the project manager determine where best to focus his or her efforts
• It provides a method to compress the schedule during the project planning phase and whenever there are changes
• It provides a method to determine which activities have float and can be delayed without delaying the overall project.

The easiest way to find the critical path is to identify all paths through the network and add the activity durations along each path.  The path with the longest duration is the critical path.