At the beginning of the year we are greeted with the annual list of hottest “project management trends” prognostications. We are now three months into the year and I think it worthwhile to note the latest developments that have come up in project management meetings, conferences, and in the field. Some of these are in alignment with what you may have seen in some earlier articles, but these are four that I find to be most significant thus far, and there may be a couple of surprises for you here.
(more…)integrated project management
IMPish Grin — The Connection for Technical Measures (and everything else)
Glen Alleman at his Herding Cats blog has posted his presentation on the manner of integrating technical performance measures in a cohesive and logical manner with project schedule and cost measurement. Many in the DoD and A&D-focused project community are aware of the work of many of us in this area (my own paper is posted on the College of Performance Management library page here) but the work of Alleman, Coonce, and Price take these concepts a step further. I wrote an earlier post about the white paper but the presentation demonstrates clearly the flow of logic in constructing not only a model in which technical performance is incorporated into the project plan through measures of effectiveness that are derived from the statement of work, but then makes the connection to measures of progress and measures of performance, clearly outlining the proper integration of the core elements of project planning, execution, and control.
(more…)Ace of Base(line) — A New Paper on Building a Credible PMB
Glen Alleman, a leading consultant in program management (who also has a blog that I follow), Tom Coonce of the Institute for Defense Analyses, and Rick Price of Lockheed Martin, have jointly published a new paper in the College of Performance Management’s Measureable News entitled “Building A Credible Performance Measurement Baseline.”
The elements of their proposal for constructing a credible PMB, from my initial reading, are as follows:
(more…)More on Excel…the contributing factor of poor Project Management apps
Some early comments via e-mails on my post on why Excel is not a PM tool raised the issue that I was being way too hard on IT shops and letting application providers off the hook. The asymmetry was certainly not the intention (at least not consciously).
When approaching an organization seeking process and technology improvement, oftentimes the condition of using Excel is what we in the technology/PM industry conveniently call “workarounds.” Ostensibly these workarounds are temporary measures to address a strategic or intrinsic organizational need that will eventually be addressed by a more cohesive software solution. In all too many cases, however, the workaround turns out to be semi-permanent.
A case in point in basic project management concerns Work Authorizations Documents (WADs) and Baseline Change Requests (BCRs).
(more…)Let’s Get (Technical) — The Crux of Predictive Measures
For many years since the publication of my various papers on technical performance measurement, I have been asked to update my perspectives. Over the years I largely declined, mostly this was due to the fact that I had nothing of importance to add to the conversation. I had staked out what I believed to be a reasonable method of integration between the measurement of technical achievement in human effort and the manner in which the value of that achievement could be documented, along with a reasonable model of technical risk to inform us of our ability to achieve success in the next increment of our technical baseline. A little background may be helpful.
(more…)Synchroncity — What is proper schedule and cost integration?
Much has been said about the achievement of schedule and cost integration (or lack thereof) in the project management community. Much of it consists of hand waving and magic asterisks that hide the significant reconciliation that goes on behind the scenes. From an intellectually honest approach that does not use the topic as a means of promoting a proprietary solution is that authored by Rasdorf and Abudayyeah back in 1991 entitled, “Cost and Schedule Control Integration: Issues and Needs.”
(more…)I Can’t Get No (Satisfaction) — When Software Tools Go Bad
Another article I came across a couple of weeks ago that my schedule prevented me from highlighting was by Michelle Symonds at PM Hut entitled “5 Tell-Tale Signs That You Need a Better Project Management Tool.” According to Ms. Symonds, among these signs are:
a. Additional tools are needed to achieve the intended functionality apart from the core application;
b. Technical support is poor or nonexistent;
c. Personnel in the organization still rely on spreadsheets to extend the functionality of the application;
d. Training on the tool takes more time than training the job;
e. The software tool adds work instead of augmenting or facilitating the achievement of work.
(more…)I Can See Clearly Now (The Risk Is Gone) — Managing and Denying Risk in PM
I just returned from a project management conference, and among a very distinguished venue of project management specialists, one of the presentations that really impressed me by its refreshingly candid approach was given by Dave Burgess of the U. S. Navy Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) entitled “Integrated Project Management: ‘A View from the Front Line’.” The charts from his presentation will be posted on the site (link in the text on the first line). Among the main points that I took from his presentation are:
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Life, Project Management, and Everything 