AND

Pawel wrote an interesting blog post titled How to Suck as a Project Manager that sparked this topic for  me.  In that post, Pawel spoke specifically about how keeping procedures is the least important part of the project manager’s role.  I have found this to be true as well.

I know many people who believe the “Monitoring & Controlling” parts of project management are the real meat of managing projects.  It’s a piece, but a rather small one in the big scheme of things.

So here is my attempt at a list of attributes you may want to avoid as a project manager.  Please leave a comment and add one of your own!

The Enforcer

Rules, rules, rules.

As Pawel wrote about, the most important thing to you is that people are following the rules.  You may refuse to take action unless someone documents a new process, because without something written down we are powerless.  You care more about whether team members are 5 minutes late in the morning than how effective and valuable they are.  The question of value is secondary, process is primary to you.

If people aren’t following the process, your first inclination may be to add a few extra steps to that process so that people will follow it better.  FAIL

The Modeler

You tend to think the schedules and plans ARE the project instead of just an imperfect model.  You would much rather have reality conform to previous plans than change your plans in adjustment to reality.

Spreadsheets and scheduling tools are your life.  You are very comfortable playing with these models and will massage and tweak them constantly.  This activity takes up most of your day.

Templates are very important to you, to a pathological level.  VERY IMPORTANT.  Everything must be started from a template, and everyone must be using consistent templates.

The Pushover

You react to the world as if things happen “to” you and your project.  Hands get thrown up in the air very quickly when unexpected changes occur.  In some ways you are the opposite of The Enforcer because you will not give feedback or take action to ensure that people do follow the rules which add value.

You will be prone to “fitting in” extra scope from the customer without making sure there is additional money and/or time to carry it out.  Standing up to “the man” on behalf of your team isn’t something you feel comfortable doing.

The Emailer

You really love email, even though you may say you hate it.  Every whim you wish to communicate  makes you click “new” in the email program so you can broadcast the good word to everyone.

Perhaps a few minutes after you’ve clicked “send” you realize the message could have been discussed in the team meeting, or you could have just walked over and chatted with someone for a few minutes.

But you probably won’t.

No, the great thing about email is that you can always search through and find a message from 2 years ago and say “See, I told you so!  I communicated this to you clearly right here.  26th paragraph down, you couldn’t miss it!”

The PMI has done a magnificent job of marketing themselves and one of their certifications in particular, the PMP exam.

If you are relatively new to the career opportunities that revolve around project management and start researching more about the field, it is likely you will know about the existence of the PMP exam immediately.

And that is why I receive a lot of questions about how to pass the PMP exam.

I tend to answer this question with another question, unless I am able to derive the answer from the context of the message.

“Do you have the 3-5 years of project management experience that the PMP exam requires?

by RLHyde via Flickr

Look, I hate to be a party-pooper.  Most of you are hard-working, bright people with the courage to venture into a new area and build your expertise.  I admire that!  You want to build a career you enjoy and can be proud of, and provide well for your family and yourself.  You are my “peeps” and I’m already proud of you.

Here’s the deal.  If you are new to project management, welcome!  Don’t worry about certifications yet. If you do, and go for something like the CAPM or ITIL that require minimal experience be sure to view them as a learning exercise, NOT as a way to land a good job when you complete them.  I wouldn’t give you a job on the basis of having or not having a certification, even if it might increase your chances to get some initial recognition by potential employers.

A Rant Against Many PMP Training Providers

I am happy you found me, because 1) I don’t provide PMP training and 2) I care more about helping make you into a successful project manager than I do about you passing some test.  Unfortunately, I have accumulated hundreds of (anecdotal) reports from people who went to a PMP training provider who happily took their money and gave them training without any regard for their eligibility to take the exam in the first place.  In fact, I have had reports of companies who help people “get creative” with their application forms.

Look, the majority of PMP training providers are great companies who offer great training.  But before you pay any of your hard-earned money on the table, educate yourself about the exam.  Do you meet the requirements to apply?  Is it even a relevant certification in your part of the world and industry?  I set up a free PMP Guide newsletter to help answer these questions and more if you are looking into it.  I can make recommendations for training companies I have personal experience with, but not until you’ve educated yourself on why the heck you’d want to do this in the first place.

“Pass or your money back” Guarantees

This is probably an effective marketing tactic.  But I hate it.  I think it draws in people who are not really ready or experienced enough to even be thinking about taking the PMP exam yet.

Every time I see this “pass or your money back” guarantee I throw up in my mouth a little bit.  Disgusting, I know.  That’s what I think too.

PMP Training Providers:  Offer a “100% satisfaction or your money back” guarantee.  Or a “didn’t meet your expectations” guarantee.  This forces you to set expectations appropriately and have integrity built into your business model.

As an added bonus, it doesn’t make me angry.

If the PMP is Not For You

I specialize in helping new project managers figure things out.  You can ask me a question anytime, read this blog, sign up for my free newsletters, check out my Project Management Career Coaching Course, or trial the monthly pmStudent e-Learning.  I won’t guarantee you a job after you take my training, but if you study and ask questions I can guarantee you will learn many things that are valuable in the everyday life of a project manager.

Hi Josh -

Just wanted to let you know I passed my PMP exam this summer – actually August 6th at around 4:30 pm (est) I believe was when I saw PASS on the computer screen in front of me. Here’s what helped me:

• Your site and advice
• I did order PM Prepcast and honestly got more out of the emails – I did have trouble listening for any length of time
• Attending a 6 session (one eve a week for 6 weeks) study group hosted by my local PMI chapter
• The Rita Mulcahy book
• PMStudy practice tests
• Preplogic practice test
• Q&As for the 4th PMBOK

Admittedly, I’m a neurotic test taker so I probably went overboard. I wanted to thank you for really starting me on my way with your site about 1-1/2 years ago,

Thanks!

Paula, USA

Please enjoy this video from MIT, the first in a series on Lean Six Sigma.  In this video:

• Origins of lean and six sigma
• “5S” lean tool
• Lean, lean enterprise, and stakeholders
• Why lean six sigma principles are being implemented in aerospace
• Lean is a journey, not a state

by goosmurf via Flickr

Hello,
I am a graphic designer in Croatia with 6 years of work experience and a BS in information systems from the US university (it probably does not matter for my question, but anyway). I am in my mid thirties and would like to enter the field of project management.
At the moment I was thinking of getting an MBA in project management in the US and getting a PMI certification. However, the big challenge is the working experience. How will I be employable after that and where would I look for employment (in the US? And I am not even sure what industry I would work in and how you pick that. What kind of advice would you suggest? What is the book you would recommend reading to get me started?
P.S. Before I would start my studies I was thinking about volunteering at the T-mobile corporate office here in Croatia parallel to my work in graphic desing. What kind of volunteering position would you recommend I seek?

Great questions!  I will do my best to answer them for you.

• First, take a look at this list of career articles I’ve written over the years…many will be helpful for you.
• I chose NOT to pursue an MBA myself, as most project management positions are not requiring this and other factors weigh more heavily in my opinion
• The PMP certification from PMI requires some work experience managing projects, just so you know.
• My PM Career newsletter may be of interest to you as well.
• Volunteering is an excellent idea.  Doing it for corporations may be tough unless they have an internship program for management or project management you could fit into….non-profit organizations or project management organizations are other options for volunteering as well.
• My PM Career Coaching Course is designed to answer many of your questions and help you decide on things like industry, company, etc.  I haven’t come across a book I’d recommend on this topic, which is why I put the course together instead.  There are some books out there but they are pretty limited as far as I’m concerned.

I hope that helps.  If you are interested in my course, just check out the full lesson outline the page so you can get an idea of what’s included and see if it’s for you.

Finishing projects on time is very important; but holding yourself accountable to a baseline is only as valid as the change management process you have in place. The definition of “on time” changes based on context and how expectations are managed.

Change happens on projects, and in my experience most of that change is not handled well. When scope increases on the project it only results in scope creep if there is no formal change management in place to update the baseline. As real changes are approved by a valid Configuration Control Board (CCB) and the process around those changes, impacts to scope, schedule, and cost need to be updated in the project baseline.

Here are two scenarios with the inevitable increase in scope as the project progresses:

Scenario 1 – No/poor formal change control

As the project progresses, the customer discovers additional scope that they would like added to the project. The project manager accepts the new scope with the intention of “fitting it in” somewhere. Even if a log is kept that records this additional scope, the customer expectation for delivery date has not changed. They expected the product to be delivered on October 15th. Now when the due date starts getting near, the project is falling behind and either 1) misses the delivery date or 2) cuts corners in testing or other areas to make it on time.

Scenario 2 – Good formal change control

As the project progresses, the customer discovers additional scope that they would like added to the project. The project manager and team work with the customer to fully understand what they are asking for. Additional scope WILL cost more. The customer should decide whether delivering on time is the most important factor (time-constrained project) or if the delivery date can be pushed out to accommodate the additional scope. If the project is time constrained, additional resources (or overtime cost) will be added to the project to finish more work in the same duration.

Working together, the project team and customer do an impact analysis to identify how much additional work is really required, how much longer it will take, and how much more it will cost. Whatever the outcome, the customer expectations have been updated to reflect the NEW baseline delivery date and cost. The CCB can choose to reject the change request and continue as planned, or approve the change request and update the baseline.

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In both of the scenarios above, the same scope was added. In Scenario 1, the project will be delivered late or with an unthoughtful decrease in quality or functionality. Because expectations were never updated, this project is late. In Scenario 2, the project may be delivered later than the ORIGINAL baseline, but because good change control and management of customer expectations is in place, the TRUE baseline has been updated to reflect customer choice and the reality of the project. This project is not late (at least not due to expectation problems).

When you work in aerospace as I do and are working towards a launch date, you must be on time. That is why on a time constrained project it is so important to have effective change management and customer expectations management in place.

Some rights reserved by Rodrigo Baptista

How do you break into another industry as a project manager?

I was recently asked this question by someone coming from the film industry.  The resume I was referred to looked more like a filmography listing for this post-production supervisor.

Similarly, a few years ago I had coffee with a cousin of mine while in Denver for the PMI Global Congress and found out she is an Event Planner.  She told me a bit about what she does, I told her a bit about what I do.  She was a project manager, but didn’t think about her work in that way.  I was in the same place many years ago, running projects without really thinking of them as such…  As far as I knew, I was just facilitating a team of people towards a common goal.

Focus on the CONTENT as well as the CONTEXT

We all have something in common; a focus on the context of our industry almost solely and in exclusion of the content of our daily work.

I’ve written about project management resumes before.  I think the most important thing in this situation is to take a step back and re-evaluate your own experience in project management terms.

“I urge you to take your film experience and re-frame it in terms of project management.  I’ll bet you managed stakeholders including team members, sponsors, and customers.  I’ll bet you managed scope, schedule and budget.  I bet you can probably give a good idea of what the budget you managed was.
I’ll bet you went through initiation, planning, execution – monitoring & controlling, and closing of projects.”

Look, some people have little to no project management experience and act like they do, as in those who pursue the PMP or other certifications without the relevant experience.  (Doing projects around the house do not count as PM experience, sorry!)

Others have 20+ years of experience doing all the things that project managers do, albeit in an environment where they are called by another name.  If you are managing projects, you are a project manager….I don’t care what you call it.

Don’t undervalue or overestimate the weight of your own  achievements and experience.  One of the many topics I cover in my PM Career Coaching Course is how to evaluate your starting point accurately, set a trajectory for your career with plans for achieving your goals, and then executing on those plans.

What about you?  Have you made a transition from an industry like film or events planning into project management?  Are you trying to do so now?

The pre-frontal cortex of our brains can mislead us.  Big time. I am continuing my journey into the nature of project estimation and the irrationality of the human mind, in order to get better at it.  A few of the books I’ve listened to over the past few weeks include:

• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future – Dan Pink
• How We Decide – Jonah Lehrer

There is an example from that last book I want to talk about today.

MIT economists led by Dan Ariely did an experiment with their business school graduates , and later on executives and managers at the MIT Executive Education Program.

It was an auction with various products including wine, a wireless keyboard, and chocolate truffles.

Before they bid on miscellanous items, they were asked to write down the last 2 digits of their social security numbers.

Then, they were asked whether or not they would be willing to pay that amount (the last 2 digits of their social security number) for each of the products.

Finally, students wrote down the maximum amount they would be willing to pay for each item.

Results

It’s obvious that the last 2 digits of your social security number should have nothing to do with the value you place on random objects, right?  Someone with two last digits of 10 and another person with two last digits of 90 might be expected to bid similar amounts on the same item, on average.

Here’s an example of what happened.

For the cordless keyboard, the group who had social security numbers ending between 80 and 99 bid an average of $56.  Those who had social security numbers ending between 1 and 20 had an average bid of $16.

FOR THE SAME PRODUCT ???

In Project Management

This phenomenon is reflected in project estimation.  I’ve recently had short-term estimates turn out to be completely off, and I’m talking about within 2 weeks of actually doing the work.  WHY?

One explanation could be lack of specific information.  With a complex interconnected software system it can be difficult to tell what the “real” impacts of something will be until you get in there and start looking at the specifics.

Another explanation is this anchoring effect.  And anchoring doesn’t just happen when you give someone a number right before they estimate…it can be coming from many sources, with or without your knowledge as the project manager.

I don’t believe this means that expert opinion is useless for estimation; at least not totally.  I’ve been thinking through some techniques that could be used to eliminate the influence of anchoring to a large extent, and if you have any ideas on the topic I’d love to hear them.

I use techniques I learned as a project manager in my everyday life all the time.  Do you?

If you are learning to become a project manager, have you started experimenting with these tools and techniques on your own, so that when you do start managing your own projects you will already be familiar with them?

One of the aspects of managing projects I love is continuously learning about new approaches and figuring out how I can apply aspects of them for positive change.  Kanban and Lean are of particular interest to me right now and I came across this presentation by David Anderson to share with you.

And here is part 2: