I have always respected Pawel Brodzinski for his pragmatic style and views on software development.

Recently, I started to get very interested in Kanban and have spent some time researching the topic since it is something I have not yet used in practice.  Shortly, I came across this excellent series by Pawel on his struggles and process of implementing Kanban with his team.

Then, I came across this video of Pawel presenting on the topic and just had to share it with you here.

Pawel, thank you so much for your contributions, this is really great stuff!!!

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Going to an existing project team is a unique challenge.

Doing it twice in a few months makes you reflect on lessons learned.

There are a whole new set of stakeholders, and whole  new team.  Every individual has their own history, contributions, and incentives in relation to the project at hand.

I have said for a  long time that the primary quality I respect in other project managers and try to develop in myself is empathy.  My lessons learned of late are in accordance with this insight.  Empathy is really about trying to fully understand where your stakeholders are coming from as human beings as well, not merely their “role” on the project.

Team Empathy

You may be able to look at a schedule and see what your staff is working on, but until you speak with them directly and ask them with sincere  interest what they are working on, you won’t really know much about their role.  These people are not cogs in the machine, they have unique skills, aptitudes, and motivations.

You may discover that Joe has experience with a type of work that Matt is doing, and Matt is really struggling with it.  Joe was never asked and never volunteered this information, but now that you’ve spoken with him on a human level you understand this and can make positive changes as a result.

Customer Empathy

Whether it is one individual representative or a myriad of end users and managers, understanding how they feel about various aspects of the project is critical.  Requirements can be interpreted many ways without this context, and there are usually design preferences that it will benefit you to understand.

In a complex project environment, you may have multiple key stakeholders as customers and their expectations from you as the project manager will vary widely.  Some may expect meticulous reporting, some may not care.  Preferred communication methods and styles vary from person to person.  The list goes on and on.

Sponsor Empathy

Your sponsor will also be coming at this project with a unique set of goals for you and the project itself.  If you have a relatively “hands off” sponsor they may give you lots of room to breathe.  On the flip side, there can be a striking lack of autonomy or just  a big chunk of your time taken up by a sponsor who wants to be constantly informed of every little detail or has you running on wild goose chases all the time.

It’s important to know where your stakeholders are coming from very early on so you can be proactive.

Build trust early by:

• Showing sincere interest in their perspective
• Help them understand your perspective
• Taking action to accommodate their interests and assuage their fears

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Glen Alleman recently pointed me to a paper by Jorge Aranda among other material on software estimation.

I sat down and read Anchoring and Adjustment in Software Estimation and it was well worth my time.

To cut to the chase, the subjects were tasked to give estimates for software tasks in a controlled manner, in 3 groups with various “anchoring” methods being used.  The only difference between the groups was the expectation statement by the manager before estimation.

Group 1 (control – no explicit anchor given)

“I’d like to give an estimate for this project myself, but I admit I have no
experience estimating. We’ll wait for your calculations for an estimate.”

Group 2 ( ’2 months’ condition)

“I admit I have no experience with software projects, but I guess this
will take about 2 months to finish. I may be wrong of course, we’ll
wait for your calculations for a better estimate.”

Group 3 (’20 months’ condition)

“I admit I have no experience with software projects, but I guess this
will take about 20 months to finish. I may be wrong of course, we’ll
wait for your calculations for a better estimate.”

You will need to read the full paper to see all the goodies (and to determine if you think it is relevant to your domain), but I would like to summarize some of the results I found striking.

These were the results among all participants, and there are other slices of the data available in the paper including only experienced participants and also by estimation method chosen.

’2 months’ condition

• mean – 6.8 months
• median – 6 months
• standard deviation – 3.7

control – no explicit anchoring

• mean – 8.3
• median – 7
• standard deviation – 4.4

’20 month’ condition

• mean – 17.4
• median – 16
• standard deviation – 5.6

The results in general coincide with my own experience on this matter.  An important point to note is that even though they were supposedly estimating the exact same software requirements, it is very likely that the ’2 month’ group would have produced a significantly different product than the ’20 month’ group.

Food for thought.

When you and your team are putting together estimates, what influences are creating these anchors?  From my experience there are many of them, some of which are likely to be arbitrary or set (even inadvertently) without sufficient knowledge or experience.  They may be coming from stakeholders, sponsors, the project manager, or even a team member/lead.

My favorite example of this is when a team is asked to provide a “back of the envelope” estimate without really understanding the scope yet.  It produces a bad estimate and sets a rather arbitrary anchor for future estimates.

What do you think?

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Project estimation can be a headache for new project managers.  There are lots of opinions out there and not much that weighs various methods…rather you find people who feel strongly about one way or another.  To give a quick overview of some ideas and then call for your input, I recorded this video.  Please leave a comment and share your thoughts on this topic!

• GAO Cost Estimating and Assessment Guide
• 2008 NASA Cost Estimating Handbook
• Why 3 Point Estimates Create False Optimism
• Estimating Effort: Part 3

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Social media/networking is awesome.  Here’s an example.

1. Last week I received a question via Facebook looking for PMO resource material, specifically PMO best practices.
2. So I published a post called PMO Best Practices with some that I knew of and asked for more from the readers, which I got.
3. Then today I see Ron Rosenhead on Twitter referring to a post on the Four Archetypes of a PMO by Glen Alleman.  I re-tweet it because that’s what you do with stuff you like on Twitter, share it with others.
4. I check it out and like it, and see he references this post by Mark Mullaly.  It is one post among the multitude that I had suggested looking at in my original post at Gantthead.com.
5. And now this process has spawned a new post by yours truly due to the questions it stimulated in my mind.

See?  AWESOME.

Now here is my question for anyone reading this who has an opinion on the matter.

What Impact Do the “People In Charge” Have On the Archetype?

Looking at the four, I can identify with one of them in particular, but with some elements of another – perhaps even all four.  This leads me to ask what kind of PMO I would establish had I the choice.

Mark’s article speaks to the need for the archetype to be in alignment with the organization.  While this seems like a reasonable goal to me, I am questioning it’s validity and perhaps you can help me think this through.

To some extent, the industry and organizational culture play a role.  Certainly.  If you are running projects in relation with the nuclear power industry you have a completely different set of processes that emphasize control and adherence to standards among other types of rigor.  A company producing software may be completely different.

To me, the main driver for these archetypes is going to be those PEOPLE who have influence over the PMO.  If this person (or small group of people) tend to be the quarterback, perfectionist, scorekeeper, or facilitator they will focus on the aspects and process that are important from the perspective of their world view.

For instance, when I look at those four archetypes the one I identify with is “facilitator” with a leaning towards “quarterback”.  That’s how I manage projects and (of course) how I would like a PMO to run.  As long as there are no external constraints (as in the nuclear example given above) I venture to hypothesize that the personality and approach of the PMO director (and higher management that enable it) will determine the archetype more than anything else.  We’re talking about a matter of management style.

So, if I were an executive looking to hire someone to lead a PMO for my organization, an analysis of the best archetype for the organization is very useful.  I argue however it’s not a matter of picking the best candidate in general to lead a prescribed PMO; I want someone who is qualified, experienced AND also has a management style and organizational process mindset that is in harmony with the PMO archetype that will best serve my company.

Thoughts?  Comment, tweet, facebook, or whatever you like.

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My team does a daily tag-up (Scrum-ish in nature) and just started going outside now that it’s feasible for us to quickly get to our meeting spot. We meet in the cafeteria area when it’s not so nice outside, and I think either way it’s good to get out of a conference room and offices.

I feel refreshed and focused when we are able to meet in the sunshine, and I can see the difference in morale with lots more smiles and laughter throughout the meeting and the rest of the day.  If you can find a way to make work more enjoyable for everyone, go for it I say.

(I was itching a bit in the video due to mosquitoes about.  Don’t worry, I shot this miles away from where my team meetings are held and this was right next to a river.  Don’t take your team to a location where they are apt to be eaten alive!)  :-)

Do you take your project teams outside on a regular basis?  If so, do you get weird looks from other people in the organization since this is not considered “normal” team behavior in many companies?

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We’ve all been there.

• Your company doesn’t seem to know what structured project management is all about or why it’s important.
• They don’t care to know.
• Your department or manager doesn’t see the need to provide ongoing training in project management.
• Your co-workers aren’t very interested in discussing best practices.
• You can’t seem to find anyone who might serve as a mentor within your organization.

When I started blogging at pmStudent.com part of the motivation for me was to see if anyone else cared about project management as a formal discipline as I was starting to.  Until that time, I had just barely heard “project management” be referred to as a formal discipline and most people I worked with who also managed projects either (1) didn’t do it as their primary job or (2) managed their projects fairly helter-skelter and mostly with an operations paradigm.  It wasn’t so much “plan the work, work the plan” as “get it done when you can, in addition to your regular job.”

None of them wanted to discuss the details of how to influence people who don’t report to you, the theories and practices involved, approaches to requirements and scope definition, etc.

When you feel all alone and like no one else cares, what can you do?

Find Other Zealots

The great thing about being obsessed with any given discipline is that there are plenty of other people who are just as crazy as you are.

About the topic, I mean.

The problem is, they may not be in your department or even your organization.  If so, it’s time to branch out.

Local project management groups are out there waiting for you.  If you live in or near a city, chances are there is a local group of project managers meeting at least once a month.  If not, why not start one yourself?  You can use sites like Meetup.com to find other people who are interested in project management.

See the video I recorded on finding local project management organizations at http://pmstudent.com/getinvolved

Go online!  Using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools can be a great way to find people who share your interest in project management.  You could conceivably form a local group just meeting at a coffee shop or pub with the contacts you’ve made online.  I don’t recommend meeting at someone’s home (because that’s a bit creepy unless you already know them well); keep the venue at public locations.

In the end, you can start creating interest in project management within your own organization or department, or end up being so well connected and informed that you’ll know which organization to move over to when an opportunity presents itself.

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This is a question I’m starting to get more often now.  I do not focus on the PMO or PPM areas, but wanted to offer up some helpful resources for you, and ask YOU the reader for your recommendations too.

Dear Josh!

I am writing to ask your help and advise on PMO topic. I am going to write my MBA final thesis about the “PMO best practices”. I am looking for PMO related websites, communities, books, web articles, podcasts etc.

Your help would be highly appreciated!

Best Regards from Budapest

Here is a list of resources I can recommend on the topic. Leave a comment and add to the list of recommended resources regarding PMO Best Practices.

Podcasts (links point you specifically to PMO-related shows)

• The PM Podcast
• PM411 – The Complete PMO
• The PMO Podcast

Blogs/Articles

• Gantthead PMO Department
• ESI PMO Perspectives
• Mel Bost – PMO Expert
• Book Review by Max Wideman

Standards and Resources

• The Portfolio, Programme, and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3)
• AACE International Recommended Practice
• The Standard for Program Management (downloadable for PMI members*)

* To download, follow these instructions at PMI.org:

1. Log in with your account
2. Mouse over the “Resources” on the top menu bar
3. Under Standards click “Library of PMI Global Standards”
4. Click “view details” next to Programs
5. Click “Access the latest edition of this standard”

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New project managers send me this question a lot, and I think some people struggle with this because they jump right to task definition with a leap directly over figuring out what to deliver first.

When you start a new project and need to break down the work into manageable pieces, how do you go about it and what are the things to watch out for?

In this video, I discuss the mindset I use when facilitating my teams through breaking down our work.  If you want to learn more about my Work Breakdown Structure course, you find out more here.

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I received a question from Inside pmStudent e-Learning about getting feedback from your project team and stakeholders.  It’s important to have an open environment where team members and stakeholders feel comfortable to give feedback in person, but surveys can be useful as a way to allow for an extra channel of communication.  For those not inclined to speak up it can be helpful, especially since it’s anonymous.

I recorded a video earlier about how to use PollDaddy.com to conduct an anonymous survey and referenced that video in this one.

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