The Goldilocks & the 3 bears of project management

No, I'm not blond nor am I talking about bears.  I'm trying to get people to understand there has to be balance in project management.  Once again, one of my son's bedtime stories makes a pretty good analogy.

As I'm reviewing all of the contract deliverables due from the vendor this month, I ask myself if it is really all that necessary.  I don't think so.  What do I mean by contract deliverables?  I'm referring to anything from a high level design (HLD) to detail level design (DLD), an integrated schedule (IS) to a cost performance report (CPR).  That's hundreds and hundreds of pages of documentation, every month, with the expectation the future will be predicted or the past explained.  Organization 1: Too much documentation and process - too little value.

This is actually quite the contrast from where I started as a project manager.

When I started out in project management, I worked for a very small organization that basically flew by the seat of its pants.  Nothing was documented.  If the customer didn't like the change, we'd just redo the work.  There was a considerable amount of waste but we were able to actually delivered some product (value).  In hindsight, if we would have had more documentation and process, we would have had fewer budget and schedule overruns.  Organization 2: Too little documentation and process - too little value.

More recently, I worked for a medium sized organization that was maturing its business practices.  They realized they needed a minimum level of documentation to help lessen waste and manage stakeholder expectations.  The goal?  Have the right amout of documentation and process to deliver the greatest amount of value.  For the most part, there wasn't too little or too much documentation or process and there wasn't too little value as a result.  For the most part, Organization 3 was just right.

In all seriousness, ask yourself the question, "for the task I'm about to commit resources to, is there too little or too much documentation or process for the amount of value I can expect to deliver?"

image courtesy of fcps.org

Never forget moms are stakeholders

I think it is only fitting to write a post about the most important stakeholder on the planet, Mom.  When giving gifts on Mother's Day, as children, we did simple things like made a card by hand, offered breakfast in bed, or picked flowers from the yard.  Our goal, from my perspective, was we tried to deliver what we thought our moms  (stakeholders) wanted.  As a father of a 4-year-old, my perspective of Mother's Day has now changed, though my son views the gifts (deliverables) as I did many years ago. This year, I thought my wife would enjoy some kind of gadget. Perhaps she would enjoy a day at the spa or  some other complicated gift.  What my wife did this year was very apropos.  She proactively said she did not want any gadgets this year, notably a camera, iPad, or something I would like.  Our son, clever as he is, sang her a song and made her a necklace.  Taking his lead, I took the three of us to my wife's favorite place to eat and tried to give her some alone time later in the day.

So, where am I going with this?  Find out what is valuable to your stakeholders and customers.  What you think has the greatest value may not be the same thing.  I know, I sound like a broken record.  But it's true!  Listen to what they say; deliver on what they want or need!

ADD / ADHD Project Managers

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While you’re probably aware that people with ADD/ADHD have trouble focusing on tasks that aren’t interesting to them, you may not know that there’s another side: a tendency to become absorbed in tasks that are stimulating and rewarding. This paradoxical symptom is called hyperfocus.  So writes HelpGuide.org I've spent my whole life with all of the symptoms but never wanted to admit actually having ADD/ADHD.  Perhaps it was out of concern someone would label me and force me to take some drug that would change me.  Though it doesn't help that I drink copious amounts of black coffee, for the most part, I think I've fared pretty well.   I think back to my childhood, remembering every report card included a comment from the teacher.

Derek has a hard time concentrating and talks too much.

Hyperfocus is actually a coping mechanism for distraction—a way of tuning out the crap and chaos. It can be so strong that I become oblivious to everything going on around me.  I still think hyperfocus is an invaluable asset.  How do you think I can sleep for 5 hours a night and get so much accomplished?  From the moment I wake up to the moment I fall asleep, I have a thousand ideas in my head.  I scramble to keep up with them, writing them down or logging voice-notes.  I still really don't like all of the negative connotations associated with ADD/ADHD.  Sure, I have a wicked temper, I'm impulsive, and I'm very forgetful.  But, I don't think the last is an issue thanks to Evernote.  As for the first two, if you cross me, I will write you off and being impulsive just means I seize on opportunities.  Perhaps this is why I'm doing well on my current engagement.  I am asked to focus my attention on specific issues or opportunities and advise.  But seriously, you think of a successful project manager or entrepreneur and you tell me they don't have ADD/ADHD.

I hate to cut this post short but I need to...

Hey, look a butterfly!

(graphic courtesy of meggitymegs )

March PMP Certification Numbers Are In

Every month I get a copy of PMI Today and I annotate 3 data points: New PMP® for the month, new PMPs year-to-date (YTD), and total number of active PMPs. The trend continues, with the new number of PMPs in March totaling 5,344. Year-To-Date total is 12,779. There are a total of 375,959 active PMPs. The current trend predicts PMI will hit 400,000 active PMP credential holders this year.

Though I congratulate those who just got their certifications, I'm still worried we're rapidly reaching a tipping point.  I have two hopes.  [1] These new PMPs continue to look for new ways to provide value to their customers.  [2] That I am wrong about the prediction that so many PMPs in the mix will create a devaluation of the certification.

Personally, I would like to know how many of the PMPs certified in March prepared for the exam via boot camps and how many organically prepared.  Does it matter if someone went to a PMP bootcamp?

What do you think? Let me know.

	December (2009)	January	February	March
New PMPs (Monthly)	5,403	3,714	3,713	5,344
New PMPs (YTD)		3,714	7,429	12,779
Total Active PMPs	361,238	367,619	371,014	375,959

Why the game of Candy Land bothers me

Every child's first game, CANDY LAND is a colorful way for a preschooler to experience the joy of game play. The game teaches color recognition and matching while reinforcing the lesson of taking turns and being a gracious winner or loser. You will love to see the smile on a young person's face as they travel through CANDY LAND. That's what Hasbro has to say about it.  What do I have to say about it?

Every father's first game, CANDY LAND is a colorful way for a parent to tell his child that this is not how life really is.  The game teaches color recognition and matching while reinforcing an attitude that you can still succeed, even without a strategy.  It teaches the lesson of accepting an outcome, when nothing is within your control and everything is left to chance.  You will love to see the smile on a young person's face when you play your first game of chess.

I'm a loving father.  But I'm also insanely competitive.  I don't think we do our kids any favors by teaching them to just throw the dice or spin a wheel and let life hand them a destiny.  I'm going to raise my son to not expect a ribbon for just showing up.  I'm going to raise my son to not expect something for nothing.

I want him to know that there are risks is life but there are also great opportunities.  It might not start with a game called CANDY LAND but it sure will in the game called LIFE.

Do you think everyone should be rewarded for just showing up?

The PMP bubble may be about to burst

Steve Koger wrote a very insightful comment on one of my "Ask Derek" posts titled Required Experience to take the PMP.  In the post, I was trying to assist someone who wants to be a good project manager.  They want to get their PMP but they don't have the required experience to sit for the exam.  I do want to be clear of three positions.  [1] I don't believe you have to have a PMP to be a good project manager. [2]  Though the certification may be used more and more as a marketing tool, just to get to the interview, I would hire the person not the credential. [3] I see more people attempting to game the system and get a PMP by going to boot camps and saying they have experience that they actually don't. What is happening is an every increasing amount of non-qualified people becoming PMPs.  Unfortunately, I don't see PMI taking any action to stop it.

This is what Steve wrote:

...while the PMP is more recognized worldwide, I’m not sure it carries as much weight as it used to… is there a marginalization occurring with the PMP credential?

I absolutely feel there is a marginalization occurring with the PMP credential.  Because PMI is a “for profit” organization, they are motivated to get as many people certified as possible. I know they say they are trying to advance the industry of Project Management. I do believe that but I can’t ignore the marketing machine behind the credential. I’m worried there will soon be so many PMPs, the credential is becoming the next Dutch tulip.

I am of course comparing it to the Dutch tulip bulb market bubble of the 1600's.  This was one of the most famous market bubbles of all time.  Speculation drove the value of tulip bulbs to extremes. At the height of the market, the rarest tulip bulbs traded for as much as six times the average person's annual salary.  (Source: Investopedia)

I see the PMP credential adoption being part supply and demand and part good marketing.  Fact 1: Too many projects fail.  Fact 2: Having a qualified and empower project manager at the project helm "could" lower the risk of a project failing.  Assumption 1: If you have a PMP as your project manager, your project won't fail.

As with the economics of scarcity, the less there is of something where a demand exist, the greater the value. But scarcity and shortage are not the same thing. A shortage is when the demand exceeds the supply, usually meaning the price was too low and the market is not clearing. Scarcity always exists, but a shortage can be fixed. I feel the shortage of PMPs was fixed a few years ago. I see market conditions which indicate the PMP bubble is about to burst.

What I want to see is a limitation put on the number of PMPs certified per year.  I want to see PMI go back and require not only a 4 hour exam but also require everyone pass a practical exam.  I want to know that Project Managers are PMPs, not people collecting credentials.  I want to see the stop of Paper PMPs.

I certainly don't have the answer.  I want to do everything I can to help qualified people get the credential.  But, that will mean nothing if there is a continued devaluation by people who merely pay a fee and pass a test.

Red PM Pill vs Blue PM Pill

Due to a wicked sinus infection, I wasn't at the client site for several days.  I found myself taking pill after pill, trying to get myself back to a condition where I could return to the program and really be effective.  I think I took every colored pill under the rainbow.  I chuckled to myself as I took a blue pill, as I thought about the movie The Matrix. In a memorable scene, the character Neo is faced with a decision.  By taking a blue pill, he could continue believing what he wanted to believe.  By doing so, he was ignoring reality.  The one who was giving him an opportunity of enlightenment was Morpheus.

Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Welcome to the world of project management, Morpheus.  I've learned over time, which of my stakeholders to give the red pill to and which to give the blue pill to.  To be truthful, many don't even want you to offer them a pill.  It's my job to support and advise stakeholders related to the program.  It's not my job to tell a stakeholder which pill to take.

When managing stakeholders, you really need to understand their motivations and expectations.  Not all stakeholders want the program or project to succeed.  Of the ones who do want the program to succeed, I've witnessed complete polar opposites of figurative pill popping.  On one side of the spectrum, I've dealt with a stakeholder who wanted to know every little detail of what was going on with a project.  This micro-manager almost choked on his red pills.  On the complete other side of the spectrum, I've had a stakeholder who showed up for a project charter meeting, swallow the blue pill, and just let everything take its course.

For those in the middle, there is a bit of a punchline.  Mix both a red pill and blue pill and you get a purple pill.  "Purple Pill" is a trademark for a heartburn medication, which is exactly what you'll need at some point of a project.

So, I'm back in the office today.  I sat in a meeting with 50 other people and listened to a monthly status briefing by a vendor.  As I looked around the room and thought about writing this, I muttered to myself.

red-red-blue-red-blue-blue....

Ask Derek - Required Experience to take the PMP

I'm always looking for ways to help others in their quests to be better project managers.  It doesn't matter if it's about getting the PMP® certification, getting PDUs, or even finding good tools to make a given task easier.  I field questions from both emails and Twitter.  Today I read an email that was not unlike others I've answered directly.  But, I thought others would benefit if I answered publicly.  Here is the content of the email:

I read your article about how the PMP certification is commercialized and an example of a PMP holder hiding behind the credential.  I want to become a good IT Project Manager.  I read the requirements to become a PMP. According to requirements, a person needs 3 years exp before attempting this test. My question is, how can I get exp without a certificate or who would give me a job to get the exp as a project manager and thereby attempt my PMP certification.  Can you please help me set my goals in an orderly fashion so I can ultimately become a good Manager?

Does this sound familiar? It's kind of like the chicken and the egg.  First, I would like to say the person asking the question made a statement that resonated with me.  I want to become a good IT Project Manager. I really want to help because if they wrote that, they are half way there.  Let's be clear.  You don't need to have a PMP to be a good PM. I know very gifted people who do not possess the credential.  I would be a liar if I did not believe the deck is stacked against them.  Companies have bought into the idea that good PMs have PMPs.  But I digress.  Back to the question at hand.

It can be a challenge to become a project manager, if you have no experience.  If you have ever lead a team or managed a task, you have more experience than you give yourself credit for.  PMI will recognize that.  Remember, the PMP is not a test about something you are learning.  The PMP is an exam about what you should already know and do, but categorized within the framework of the PMBOK.  Let's say you're a QA Engineer.  I bet you have a lot of experience in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group and specifically in the Project Quality Management knowledge area.  Document your experience around what you know and do.

In order to qualify to take the PMP exam, you do need to have experience in all 5 Process Groups (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing).  Honestly, you could have 99.9% of your experience in one process group and 1 hour in each of the remaining 4.  PMI doesn't care.  You just need to document that you have experience in all.  If you want to be a good PM, I would recommend you get exposure to each of the progress groups. Fewer things are as bad as a PM who does not empathize with all of the functional areas or have experience in the different phases of the project lifecycle.

On a practical note, I recommend you engage others in other functional areas of your current project(s).  Offer to help them in some way.  Don't go in with an ulterior motive.  Honestly, help someone and you'll get the experience you need as a byproduct.  The PMP should be for someone with overall experience. However, I do know managers in specific functional areas who also hold the credential.  I would recommend, if you want to be a good manager, to become educated through practical experiences and not solely through academia.  You can learn just so much from a book.

Did I answer the question?  Is it a good start?

Please post some comments and let me know.