Day 2 of PMINAC

And so concludes my second day at the PMI North American Congress.  Again, it was an awesome day. I went to 4 different Agile centric sessions.   Titles included

Why Failing Early in Agile is a Good Thing!

An Agile Simulation in 75 Minutes

Agile PM Mastery in 60 Minutes, Guaranteed!

Beyond Backlog and Burndowns: Complementing "Agile" methods with EVM for Improved Project Performance.

I really enjoyed the Agile Simulation, presented by Brian Bozzuto, MBA, PMP, CSP and Giora Morein, PMP, CSM, CSP, CST.  Check them out at BigVisible Agile Training.  Yes, we who work in this industry enjoy having a lot of letters after our names. But seriously, these guys earned every letter. Though a few people struggled with the simulation, most got it.  I saw several light bulb moments from session attendees. It's exciting when someone looks you right in the eye and says "I think I get it!"

Later, I had lunch with Michele Sliger and Lisamarie Babik.  I had such a blast sitting with these two and just enjoying myself.  Sure, I was enjoying the Congress but this was fun!

I wanted to make a special note about my final session of the day.  It was about Agile and EVM.  The material was presented by a PhD and a colleague who had working with EVM for over 20 years.  The response to their presentation was mixed at best.  For those in the audience with an Agile background, it was a challenging topic to cover.  But, it was still interesting.  To counter that, several with EVM backgrounds were acting like 3-year-olds and that we were trying to steel their teddy bears away.  Some people got up and left the session, the guy next to me chewed on his finger nails until he fell asleep, and some in the audience just wanted the microphone to argue about the 32 points of EVM criteria.  But let's move on.

After the sessions had ended for the day, I had the honor and privilege to meet a few people that I've known through blogs and the Twittersphere.

I hung out with Brian Bozzuto and Bob Tarne.  I then met Elizabeth Harrin, resulting in remarks about the coffee at the PMI Congress. Forgive me Elizabeth, I was in the moment.  I then I went off to have drinks with Bas De Baar, Josh Nankivel, and Cornelius Fichtner.

So, I'm off to bed.  Day 3 will be a long one.

Day 1 of PMINAC

And so concludes my first day at the PMI North American Congress.  It was an awesome day.  It started with the morning presenter, Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer of the United States.  I originally didn't plan to see this him speak.  I'm very glad I did.  I was really surprised when he talked about being more agile and stated

We're not just looking at Agile methodology, we're also moving to Agile management.... & EVM is not a silver bullet.  In addition, he said process will no longer trump business outcomes.

Immediately following the presentation, I met up with Michele Sliger, author of The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility and someone I've admired for a while.  Shhhhh don't say anything.  She might think I'm a groupie or something.

Off we went to have some lunch.  Let's skip the details of lunch.  It was OK but I was more interested in hanging out with Michele.

Just before we went to the first presentation, we stopped off at the tag and ribbon table.  It had buttons from all of the Community of Practices.  But the one Michele and I were looking for was missing!  Where was the Agile Community of Practice!?  The same happened for the Agile CoP ribbons.  Come to find out, they ran out.  I guess that's a good thing.

Sunday was going to be limited to just 2 presentations.  I chose Growing Up Agile: the Next Generation of Project Managers, presented by Lisamarie Babik, PMP.  My second presentation was 5 Years of Teaching Agile PM or PMI: Lessons Learned and Recurring Resistance by Mike Griffiths.

I enjoyed both sessions a lot and if you were on Twitter, you probably saw Michele, or Jesse Fewell, or myself doing real-time tweets.

The day concluded with the key note address by President Bill Clinton.

All in all, the day was full of surprises.  So, some may ask, are you Agile?

Thank You Guys and Agile Community of Practice

I was asked the other day if it was worth being a member of PMI.  I wasn't completely sure.  See, you can be a PMP in good standing but not have to be a member of PMI.  It's strange to me but true.  Granted, as a member, you get discounts to attend events and go to networking events (if you're into that).  But, was there real value to me? Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out with Mike Cottmeyer, Jesse Fewell, Brian Bozzuto, and Dennis Stevens.  They were all in Washington DC, attending the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting (LIM) and representing the PMI Agile Community of Practice (CoP).  Now, I will be at the PMI Global Congress Sunday through Tuesday but these guys are in town this week.

Well, last night I spent 6 hours with them.  So, ask me again if it's worth being a member of PMI. My answer is now a confident yes.  I say yes, not so much for being a member of PMI but rather being a member of the Agile CoP.  These four fellows are the kind of Agile thought leaders you want to talk to, if you ever need some inspiration.  If these four are what you get when you team PMI and an Agile CoP, I see a great future.

I was going to go into some details of our conversations, but it would probably be 5-pages of me ranting about stuff with stopping points when one of the guys hands me another beer.

I genuinely had an awesome time and am inspired by each of them.

If you are a PMP and are passionate about Agile, I would strongly recommend you get involved with the PMI Agile Community of Practice.  Not sure quite yet?  Then at least do yourself the favor of looking these guys up, read what they have written, go listen to them speak, or get some training from them.

If you're reading my blog and you're in need of some Agile Training, Agile Coaching, or Agile Transformation, send me an email and I will reach out to my ever-growing Agile circle of friends.

Feedback is Good Against Zombies

I know people who basically show up at the office and get feedback from their superior once in a great while.  When they do get feedback, it's usually negative because they are not doing what the boss wants.  People, you can't expect your team to operate in a vacuum.  Don't let an annual review be the only time you talk to your team and rate performance.  If you do rate performance regularly and provide feedback, there will be countless opportunities for improvement.  There should be a constant exchange between managers and subordinates.  As a manager, you should be constantly asking people if they have everything they need.  Ask them how you can help them do their job better. We all know that only zombies come programmed to know exactly what to do.  They eat brains.  That's what they do.  They don't need to read a how-to-be-a-zombie handbook, provided by management, to find out what is expected of them.  They already know!  You can't say the same for non-zombies.  Give your people feedback and do it often.

Bob, you're doing a good job nailing that plywood over the windows.  Now, don't forget to cover that cat door.  We don't want any midget zombies getting in here.

See, that wasn't so bad, was it?  If you had waited until Bob's next annual review, you'd be overrun by midget zombies within a day.  That would be a clear failure of leadership.  You should feel obligated to provide continual feedback to your team and not become a zombie snack.

Like the image?  Find it at Pictofigo

Why Ask Why

Before you spend the next week, redesigning the TPS report, you need to stop and ask yourself a simple question.

Why?

Why are you doing it?   If you can not map the task back to a stakeholder or customer objective/requirement (goal) you better stop now.  Some people call this gold-plating.  Additionally if you can not map the task back to one of your personal goals, you better stop now.  I call that flushing time down a toilet.

Do you sometimes feel like you're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?  Are you spending all of your time doing stuff that is not getting you any closer the real goal?  Well, stop for a minute and pretend you are a 5-year-old.

Whenever you ask a 5-year-old to do something, they never seem to do it without first asking why.

Go sit down Why?

Because it's dinner time. Why?

Because you need to eat your dinner. Why?

Because I don't want child protective services saying we don't feed you. Why?

Because we're trying to get you to adulthood without scarring you too much.

What's our main personal goal as it relates to our son?

Goal 1: Get him to adulthood without scarring him too much

Now, as project managers and leaders, what are your primary goals? Is it keep the project on schedule? Is it keep the project from going over budget? Or, is it one of the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto?  Whatever your answer(s), when asked to do something, keep asking why until you reach your main goal(s).

We want to add this change to the next deployed version Why?

Because it is now a priority Why?

Because it will either save time, money, or both

What's one of our documented goals related to our project?

Goal 1: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Like the image?  Find it at Pictofigo

Evernote Site Memory

If you're like me, you're getting older and your memory is starting to slip.  So, to combat that, I added a new feature to The Critical Path site.  It's call Evernote Site Memory. I've been a long time Evernote user.  They just created this new product called Site Memory, which allows you to clip an blog post or web page.  I hope you find it useful.

To start, get yourself a free Evernote account.  Click on the Elephant icon on my page that is labeled "clip".  It will grab the blog post or page and add it to your Evernote account.

Enjoy!

August PMP Certification Numbers

I know what you're thinking.  Derek, why oh why do you post these PMI numbers ever month?  Where's the value? Well, I'm kind of fascinated by a theory called diffusion of innovations. It's a theory of how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures.

There was a book published in 1962 by a fellow named Everett Rogers, who defined an adopter category as a way to classify individuals within a social system.  The adoption of an innovation follows an S curve when plotted over a length of time. The categories of adopters are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards(Rogers 1962, p. 150)

Innovators

Innovators are the first individuals to adopt an innovation. Innovators are willing to take risks, youngest in age, have the highest social class, have great financial lucidity, very social and have closest contact to scientific sources and interaction with other innovators. Risk tolerance has them adopting technologies which may ultimately fail. Financial resources help absorb these failures. (Rogers 1962 5th ed, p. 282)

Early Adopters

This is the second fastest category of individuals who adopt an innovation. These individuals have the highest degree of opinion leadership among the other adopter categories. Early adopters are typically younger in age, have a higher social status, have more financial lucidity, advanced education, and are more socially forward than late adopters. More discrete in adoption choices than innovators. Realize judicious choice of adoption will help them maintain central communication position (Rogers 1962 5th ed, p. 283).

Early Majority

Individuals in this category adopt an innovation after a varying degree of time. This time of adoption is significantly longer than the innovators and early adopters. Early Majority tend to be slower in the adoption process, have above average social status, contact with early adopters, and seldom hold positions of opinion leadership in a system (Rogers 1962 5th ed, p. 283)

Late Majority

Individuals in this category will adopt an innovation after the average member of the society. These individuals approach an innovation with a high degree of skepticism and after the majority of society has adopted the innovation. Late Majority are typically skeptical about an innovation, have below average social status, very little financial lucidity, in contact with others in late majority and early majority, very little opinion leadership.

Laggards

Individuals in this category are the last to adopt an innovation. Unlike some of the previous categories, individuals in this category show little to no opinion leadership. These individuals typically have an aversion to change-agents and tend to be advanced in age. Laggards typically tend to be focused on “traditions”, have lowest social status, lowest financial fluidity, oldest of all other adopters, in contact with only family and close friends, very little to no opinion leadership.

Certification as an Innovation

So, what does a certification have to do with innovation?  I'm trying to draw a parallel between the industry adoption of the credential compared to diffusion of innovation.  Every month I get a copy of PMI Today and I traditionally annotate data points.  I have them as far back as September 2006.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

New PMPs (Overall)

3,714

3,713

5,344

4,718

3,985

4,630

3,687

3,965

Total Active PMPs

367,619

371,014

375,959

381,111

385,096

389,726

393,413

397,378

When I look at the data from the last 4 years, the certification velocity has remained relatively consistent. (send me an email if you want the spreadsheet) For the month of August, those with the PMP certification increased to 3,965. There are now a total of 397,378active PMPs.

The questions that I pose to you, the reader, are

Where do you think the PMP credential is on the chart listed above?

Where are we on the bell curve?

Is the PMP in the early adopter, early majority, or early stage of the late majority?

Zombie (Team Member) Motivation Techniques

What skills do you need to lead your zombie army?  Sorry, what I meant to ask was, what skills do you need to lead your team?  Motivation techniques can be as unique as the individual. There are a lot of people out there who identify themselves as project managers, those tasked with managing inanimate resources (time, scope, budget...zombies). Though those skills are necessary, there is a need for skills to lead teams and manage stakeholders.  I'm talking (soft) skills to lead, manage, and inspire human resources.

Provide Feedback

You can't expect your team to operate in a vacuum.  As a team member, imagine if your manager provided an annual review and then didn't provide feedback to you until the next annual review.  That would be a clear failure on the part of the manager or leader.  I believe managers and leaders are obligated to provide continual feedback to the team.  Now, if managing a zombie team member, no feedback is needed.  They'll keep searching for brains until someone either shoots them in the head or decapitates them.  Either way, providing feedback will probably only result in you being chased by a horde of flesh eating zombies.

Recognize Performance

Let's look at this from both a positive and a negative perspective.  If your team is not doing a good job, you need to recognize their performance (both as a group and individually) and give constructive feedback so they can meet your expectations.  If they are meeting your expectations, you need to reinforce what you like so they can continue to meet those expectations or exceed them.  Recognizing zombie team performance is like watching someone win a pie eating contest.  They eat (brains).  Put another brain in front of them and they'll eat it.  Repeat ad nauseum.  How well they perform is limited by nothing but time.

Negotiate

Don't be an unreasonable person.  Recognize that some team members will not feel comfortable with some goals set for them.  Win-win negotiations should help you arrive at the desired outcome.  With constant feedback and motivation, believe any team member can reach any goal you set for them.  Note, don't set the bar too low and give them a false win.  Do not believe in "stretch" goals.  Negotiate realistic outcomes.  Most importantly, don't negotiate with zombies!  Zombies are like terrorist, except they have a green skin tone and look at you like an opened can of Spam sitting in the hot sun for a week.

Motivate and Persuade

Have you heard the idiom you can catch more bees with honey than you can with vinegar?  Get to know each of your team members personally and find out what motivates them.  What's important to them; coffee, family time, or recognition?  You may buy one team member a coffee gift card, tell another to go home early, or thank another publicly in a meeting.  Everyone has something that motivates them.  If you ever order lunch for the team, make sure you consider everyone (individually).  When you set schedules, try to consider individual family obligations.

Respect

Respect is fundamental in any relationship.  You will get the very best from people if you have mutual respect.  I once had a superior ask me if I wanted my team to respect me or to like me.  My response was OR?  Why can't they do both?  Teams will respect you if they know you would never throw them under the bus to protect yourself.  Take the hits from management if you don't reach a goal.  Protect the team at all costs.  As a result, the team should do everything they can to prevent that situation from happening.  Zombies are not team players.  They want your brains and they will throw you under a bus at the first opportunity.  Don't judge them. They know not what they do.

Summary

If you're going to be a project manager who is managing people, you need to have good soft skills.  That is, you need the ability to engage and interact effectively with your team, obtain acceptance, build consensus, and provide assistance, direction and leadership.

I'm a strong believer that if you treat people with honesty and respect and your motives are good, it will come back to you.  That means be genuinely concerned about the well-being and happiness of your team.  Listen to them and guide them.  Whatever the business side expects of you will get taken care of.  Your team will rise to the challenge.  I've known project managers who lacked some of these skills.  Either they didn't provide feedback to their team or they were unreasonable or demanding.  The team was miserable, productivity went down, and that manager blamed the team.  It was a vicious cycle.

Sometimes, you just have to do what you know is right and face the consequences.

Sometimes, you have to fight the urge to eat brains.

Photo: flickr user frogmuseum2