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Guest post from Dr. Paul Giammalvo
Have you ever wondered what professional level credentials are available for project/program managers to choose from, and how these various project management certifications compare against one another?
This was the subject that evolved from a lengthy and sometimes heated debate…
11 Comments Continue readingGuest post by Dr. Paul Giammalvo
Dear Colleagues,
PTMC is pleased to announce that Bali, Indonesia has been selected as the site of the next Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) workshop, http://www.globalpmstandards.org/ where we will be FINALIZING the development of PROGRAM MANAGER competency standards for release as an exposure draft. http://www.globalpmstandards.org/index.php/program-manager-standards/current-status.html .
This 3 day event is scheduled for 5, 6 and 7 February, 2010, Kuta, Bali. (See below for detailed itinerary)
For those not familiar with the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards, we are an Australian based, globally recognized NOT FOR PROFIT professional organization, http://www.globalpmstandards.org/index.php/about-us.html dedicated to creating COMPETENCY standards for project http://www.globalpmstandards.org/index.php/project-manager-standards/download-latest-update.html and program managers which are INDEPENDENT of any single body of knowledge, methodology or organization.
But more importantly for Indonesia, China, India and other developing nations, we have put these standards into the “public domain” under “open source” or “creative commons” license, meaning anyone is free to download them and use them at any time, at NO COST. (See page 2 of the standards for the copyright agreement) http://www.globalpmstandards.org/index.php/project-manager-standards/download-latest-update.html .
For background information, the work GAPPS is doing is supported by Motorola, Shell Oil, American Express, NASA Academy, ESC Lille, UTS Sydney, Bond University, University of Maryland, Cambridge University, South African Government, Queensland Government, International Project Management Association (IPMA), Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International (AACE) and many other academic, professional, governmental and private sector organizations. Several leading ASEAN practitioners from Indonesia and Singapore have played a active role over the past 10 years in developing these standards and making them available at no cost. http://www.globalpmstandards.org/index.php/current-members .
We truly hope that Asian and other interested academics, practitioners, companies, NGO’s, professional organizations and Government representatives, especially those from the developing nations, will join this 3 day workshop.
For more information or to register for this program, email Ms. Yani Suratman, yanis@ptmc-apmx.com OR Ms. Melody Framp, GAPPS secretariat, secretariat@globalpmstandards.org
Feel free to pass this along to anyone/everyone in your network who may be interested in attending.
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta
Workshop #18 Venue
Ramayana Hotel http://www.ramayanahotel.com/
4 star hotel- 10 minute walk to Kuta Beach; 5 minute walk to spa , shopping and both local and western bars and restaurants.
For the guys, there is a LARGE sports bar right in the hotel complex!!
For ladies, there is a SPA in the hotel
COST: US $80/night NET including breakfast for 2 people (Deluxe Room) and internet USD15 for 24 hours
NOTE: To get the USD $80 per night rate, you must mention PTMC Corporate Account. No corporate discounts available for other hotels.
ALTERNATE ACCOMODATION 1- 5 star HOTEL
Kuta Paradiso Hotel Bali http://www.kutaparadisohotel.com/
5 star hotel- Across the street from the Ramayana Hotel (<5 minutes walk)
COST: USD110/night plus 21% government tax and including breakfast for 2 people (Deluxe Room) and Internet USD6 for 24 hours
ALTERNATE ACCOMODATION 2- 3 star HOTEL
Adhi Jaya Hotel htpp://www.adhijayahotel.com/
3 star hotel- 15 minute walk to Ramayana Hotel
COST: US $60/night plus 21% government tax and including breakfast for 2 people
ALTERNATE ACCOMODATION 3- Bed and Breakfast
Tanaya bed and Breakfast http://www.tanaya.com
Brand new, VERY clean and nice Bed and Continental Breakfast Only, located about 10 – 15 minute taxi ride if not traffic from the Ramayana or a 30 – 45 minute walk. (~ 1.5 mile).
COST: US $30/night plus 21% government tax, INCLUDES free WiFi.
DETAILED ITINARY- Work Shop #18
Day & Date: Thursday, February 4, 2010-
City: Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Venue: Ramayana Hotel http://www.ramayanahotel.com/
Agenda: Speakers from above fly to Bali. All other participants arrive in Bali and get settled
Supper: To be determined, but there are plenty of restaurants close to the hotel Ramayana , pay your own way
Day & Date: Friday, February 5, 2010-
City : Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Venue: Ramayana Hotel http://www.ramayanahotel.com/
Agenda: Day 1 of the GAPPS Workshop #18
Supper: Papa’s Café- Good choice of food from around the world, reasonably priced. Well within the budget. http://www.papascafe.com/
Day & Date : Saturday, February 6, 2010-
City: Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Venue: Ramayana Hotel http://www.ramayanahotel.com/
Agenda: Day 2 of the GAPPS Workshop #18
Supper: Fresh seafood barbecue on Jimbaran Beach
Day & Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010-
City: Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Venue: Ramayana Hotel http://www.ramayanahotel.com/
Agenda: Day 3 (last day) of the GAPPS Workshop #18
Supper: Kudeta Traditional Australian fare right on the beach with great wine and a fabulous sunset view. http://www.kudeta.net/
Day & Date: Monday, February 8, 2010- to whenever………
City: Bali, Indonesia
Agenda: For those who have to leave, transfer to airport and fly back to wherever/For those who wish to stay and shop or golf or surf or fish or SCUBA dive or whatever, PTMC Team will help make arrangements.
At Last: IEEE Approves 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard After 7 Years; and Institutions vs Collaboration video
0 Comments Continue reading
The Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) has announced that it will be conducting its next workshop in the Washington, DC area in the USA. The US workshop has been scheduled to allow for more participation by US Government Agencies. The workshop will be held during 23 to 25 October, 2009 in the Glenn L. Martin Engineering Building at the University of Maryland, Washington DC, USA.
4 Comments Continue readingThe results were:
Illustration 1 shows those attributes or Essential Traits that were reliable predictors of success within the Project Management Template. (other templates or profiles would have different attributes) That is, ALL of the 28 people in the pilot study scored high in these traits. To explain a bit:
Subsequent partial studies have validated that in fact, people who score high in these attributes (and did not score low in the other areas) are highly likely to make successful project managers.
Then there was a second grouping of attributes, called Desirable Traits. Where, if a person scored low in these, it would detract from their overall score. Explained another way, it was not important that they scored high in these traits, only that they DIDN’T score low or negatively otherwise it would lower or reduce the probability that they would be successful as a project manager.
As noted above, scoring high (to the right) was not important but IF they scored to the left, it would lower their overall suitability (see Illustration 4)
This part of the research proved to be very interesting, because when I first started out, I expected that Organized, Planning, Handling Conflict, Managing Stress and Systematic would be the top ranked predictors.
Lastly, there is another set of attributes that were “killers”. That is, IF a person scored to the left on any of these, it would be unlikely that they would succeed as project managers…….
If a person scores even moderate to strong to the left, it is unlikely he or she will succeed as a project manager. While these traits are pretty obvious, and would probably be unacceptable to anyone working in a management position, the primary impact would be to lower the overall score.
Illustration 4 shows the overall score, which includes all of the pluses from the Essential Traits, less the minuses from the Desirable and Negative traits, to provide an overall score.
Since developing this profile, it has been validated twice, both by large telecommunications companies in SE Asia. One of them is an equipment manufacturer and systems installation contractor and the other is a major telecommunications services provider. Because of Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA’s) I am not able to disclose the specific results, but suffice it to say that the preliminary evidence supports the validity of the pilot research.
Thus having already validated this with 28 people in the pilot study, what we are hoping for next is a company that is willing to work with us to extend this validation by expanding the research population. By selecting a larger sample group including their average project managers as well as their successful project managers and to validate the Negative behavioral traits by selecting another group of marginal or poor performing project managers. Unfortunately, while all the companies want to test for their superstars, few of them are interested in testing the average or below average performers.
If there are any questions or people would like to learn more or to test themselves or their team against this profile, email me, pauldgphd@gmail.com or John Suermondt, john@harrisonassessments.com
Paul D. Giammalvo, CDT, CCE, MScPM
http://www.getpmcertified.com
I am a lifelong project manager with some 40 years of project management experience under my belt, most coming from construction project management.
Over the years, I had noticed that some people are just naturally better project managers than others. Looking back over the years, it didn’t seem to matter whether they were engineers, nor did it matter if they were men or women, and having spent most of my life working around the world, it didn’t seem to matter what country they called home or what language they spoke or how they worshiped their God. It also didn’t seem to matter what astrological sign they were born under, nor did it appear obvious that those who were naturally good carried lucky talismans.
And most certainly, it didn’t matter if they did or did not have their PMP, PRINCE2, MBA or PhD behind their name!!
So what was that elusive “something” that made some people just “natural” project managers?
As I began my PhD research, trying to answer the question “Is project management a profession? And if not, what is it?” I intended to include part of that research a chapter on behavioral attributes, but as with most projects, time and quality constraints won out and I had to “descope” and the part that got descoped was the research about behavioral attributes.
But that was only a temporary diversion, and now, PhD in hand, I am resurrecting my interest in the behavioral attributes.
To start with, I relied on previous research done by my good friend and mentor, R. Max Wideman. Max chose to use Myers Briggs, and his research proved not to be sufficiently detailed for the work I had in mind. http://www.maxwideman.com/papers/profiles/myersbriggs.htm
So my quest for something more granular finally turned up a Dr. Dan Harrison, and his Harrison Assessment. http://www.harrisonassessments.com/ Unlike Myers Briggs or Kiersey, the HA Instrument tested for some 155 different behavioral attributes. Furthermore, HA has a feature that measures the CONSISTENCY of the responses, which provides and accurate measure of how truthful the respondent is being, or are they trying to game the system. Having found what I was looking for, I contact Dr. Dan and he suggested I contact his regional representative, Mr. John Suermondt, john@harrisonassessments.com and work with him at least in setting up a pilot. John is originally from the Netherlands, a former commercial diver, now living in Perth, Australian and a really dynamic and cool global kinda guy. And with over 19 years working with Harrison Assessments and was just as excited as I was to pilot this.
All of the participants in the pilot study came from people in the various in-house classes that I teach for our Fortune 500 clients. These classes were either the PMP or CCC/E Prep, or in my graduate level university classes at either ESC Lille Masters of Science in Project Management http://esc-lille.audaxis.com/en/Programmes/MS_MSc/Project_Management_Supply_Chain_Organisation/Specialised_Master_in_Project_and_Programme_Management or the University of Western Australia’s Masters of Energy Systems or the Masters in Petrochemical Engineering degree. http://www.blendedlearning.ecm.uwa.edu.au/
What I did was select a pilot group of 28 practitioners who were deemed “successful” project managers. In order to be deemed “successful” they had to pass three tests:
This initial pilot study group of 28 consisted of:
The industries they represented were:
The test was facilitated by John and administered on line (it only takes about 20 minutes) and in all cases, it was conducted in English, although the instrument has been translated into some 15 languages.
Tune in tomorrow for the second part of this series, with the results including predictors, desireable traits, and undesireable traits for project management success!
Dear Travis, Glen et al,
Here is how we in construction use ABC.
Step 1- We either purchase or develop a cost estimating database which is DELIVERABLE or SYSTEM based. In the example below, I have used Cubic Yards of Concrete, (Unit Pricing) from RS Means Facilities Cost book, but I could have also used an assemblies estimating method as well. Or, I could have developed a similar looking in house cost estimating system, but it would look very similar to this.
Figure 1- RS Means Estimating Database
As can be seen from the above example, you can use either commercial databases or develop your own. RS Means currently uses CSI’s Masterformat (Unit in Place) or Uniformat, (Assemblies) however; these seem to be giving way to Omniclass, as we move towards Building Integrated Modeling (BIM)
STEP 2- The second step in the process is to convert the unit price estimate into an activity based costing model. From the quantity take off (“Bill of Materials” or BoM) we know that we have 200 cubic yards of concrete beam to form, pour and strip.
Figure 2- Basic Activity Based Costing Model by Gary Cokins
We now have the Activities (in this example, “Form, Pour and Strip 25′ of 5 Kip Beams”) and knowing that the crew assignment is a “C-14″ we can identify what resources are needed and what each of those resources costs us.
Figure 3- RS Means Standard Crew Composition
So we now have the activity and the resources needed to execute that activity, and knowing the costs, we also can project how much that activity will cost us, both “bare” (direct) and “fully loaded” including all overheads, contingency and contractor profits.
STEP 3-
Knowing the crew size and costs, knowing the unit costs and the unit productivity, and the total units required (200 CY) we are now positioned to calculate the duration of our activity and the total cost of that activity.
To calculate the duration, we know from our database that the daily output is 18.55 CY per day. And knowing from the quantity take off that we have 200 CY, by dividing 200/18.55 = 10.78 or 11 days duration.
Figure 4- RS Means Data merged with Activity Based Costing
Taking the same approach with the costs, we can see that if you are doing the work yourself (either as an owner or contractor) your COSTS should be 200 CY X $635.50 = $127,100, and if you are a contractor, for the purposes of using Earned Value, your “Schedule of Values” for this activity would be $179,000.
Obviously enough, as a contractor, I would have to have an in house accounting system capable to allow me to charge not only the direct costs, (i.e. concrete, equipment, labor) but also my INDIRECT (overhead) costs to this activity.
To conclude, what I share with you is not new. As a building contractor, I have been using this method since I got out of school during the 1960′s, and it was in use long before then. The challenge is how to get IT, Telecommunications, the Banking and International Development Sectors to adopt the same fundamental tools and techniques that construction has been using for well over 60 years now.
If anyone has any questions or better yet, would like us to conduct a 2 day course on integrated Activity Based/Earned Value Management, “have computer, will travel”- and there is NO place we won’t go. (Even Iraq, Iran and far-away places with names that end in “stan”,)
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta