Scope crêpe

EarthPM

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:49:00 +0000

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Most of my recent blog posts have been put on our EarthPM site.

We also now blog for Projects at Work.

Visit those two links above and you can keep up with me more regularly.

Just to see if you're all paying attention, I may still blog here on general PM topics from time to time...

Think Tragically

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 00:33:00 +0000

Not a major post, just a passing thought.

I was listening to an interview with the author on this story about the middle east.

The article is interesting, but what caught my attention in particular was a phrase he used and its applicability to risk identification:

"the way to avert tragedy is to think tragically".

It's important to be a "Debbie Downer" when you're identifying risk. It's a certain skill to be able to be really negative and identify all things that can go most horribly wrong and then turn around and be optimistic about the project.

But develop that skill, and you'll serve your project better.

On another note: please click on the adverts on the page and help me support this blog?

Thanks.

And now...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:04:00 +0000

"And now for something completely different..."

This was the way the chaps over at Monty Python's Flying Circus used to segue from sketch to sketch when they had no idea how to do it smoothly.

And this is a blog post which I cannot segue to, or otherwise connect properly to project management other than my work over at EarthPM, and yet somehow I felt that this post belonged here at ScopeCrepe.

So anyway...now for something completely different - A history of the world in 100 objects.

I simply want to recommend this excellent BBC series, available for free by podcast. This site uses objects to tell a history of the world. You’ll find 100 objects from the British Museum and hundreds more from museums and people across the UK (and the world).

The connection to project management?

Well, there isn't one, unless you think of the evolution of humans as a project... which is indeed something completely different.

Seriously - check out the podcast, you'll be glad you did.

Be a project LEADer

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 03:29:00 +0000

If you're a PMI member (and who isn't...) you should consider taking advantage of the community.

What community? Well, there are a bunch, but at this point I want you to follow LEAD.

LEAD is the acronym for the Learning And Education Development community, and you can find that here: http://lead.vc.pmi.org .

Besides some interesting discussions and blogs, you will also find some very good webinars. The next one, "Project Manager's Guide to Dealing w/the Difficult Sponsor" comes up quickly, 30-July.

Check it out here:

http://lead.vc.pmi.org/Calendar/tabid/1084/vw/3/ItemID/166/d/20100730/Default.aspx

Enjoy!

PS: try the other communities, too!

We just ain't that good at risk

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:48:00 +0000

One of the things that has always fascinated me as I've studied project management is the aspect of risk.

Risk is the engine of projects. Think about it. Without risk, projects would be planned, everything would go as planned (no threats...no opportunities) and we, as project managers, would be responsible only for checking boxes on a checklist.

How boring.

But of course (witness exploding and leaking oil wells!) threats do occur. Projects do go off course. We do need to deal with uncertainty.

In fact, it's probably the only thing that IS certain about a project - the uncertainty, that is. And that keeps us, well... employed.

All of this said, it's also interesting to note that humans are not built well to deal with risk. In fact, there are huge monuments to this disability located all over the world. They're called casinos. Logic would tell us that if the organizations that build these things are rich enough to make them look like they do - with extravagant waterfalls, marble foyers and gold statues - they are most likely winning while we are losing. Yet we go back again and again.

I'd like to share with you a snippet from a great book I'm reading called "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwartz.

Imagine that you have decided to see a concert where admission is $20 a ticket. As you enter the concert hall, you discover that you have lost a $20 bill. Would you still pay $20 for a ticket to the concert?

Answer honestly.

Now scroll down for what people say in general - and another scenario.

Almost 90 percent of respondents say yes.

Now try this one:

Imagine that you have decided to see a concert and already purchased a $20 ticket. As you enter the concert hall, you discover that you have lost the ticket. The seat was not marked and the ticket cannot be recovered. Would you pay $20 for another ticket?

Answer honestly again. Then scroll down.

In this situation, less than 50 percent of respondents say yes.

Kahneman and Tversky(two scientists who've studied human behavior in uncertain conditions) suggest that the difference between the two cases has to do with the way in which we frame our "psychological account. Suppose that in a person's psychological ledger there is a "cost of the concert account. In the first case, the cost of the concert is $20 charged to that account. But the lost $20 bill is charged to some other account, perhaps "miscellaneous. But in the second case, the cost of the concert is $40; the cost of the lost ticket, plus the cost of the replacement ticket, both charged to the same account.

---

So what's the lesson here?

Acknowledge that we're not good at managing risk with (only) our gut.

Acknowledge that the tools and techniques given to us by our PM books and mentors are worthwhile. Don't try to manage projects ONLY with your gut. Your gut is fine, but not all by itself. Look what it's done for the casino business!

Spaced-out project teams

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 01:37:00 +0000

One of my favorite podcasters and all-around good guys is Wayne Turmel.

Besides running a business which reduces a whole lot of unneeded carbon footprint (http://greatwebmeetings.com) he hosts a great podcast called "The Cranky Middle Manager".

On a recent episode (number 240, I think!) he interviewed Charlie Pellerin, formerly of NASA.

I won't give away too much of the podcast, and urge you to listen to it (link here).

The reason I'm posting is to also point you to the resources available on Charlie Pellerin's company's site.

You'll find Powerpoint presentations to download which vibrantly illustrate the concepts of social context and how that can have just as much - if not more - impact on your project as the technical aspects. Have a look.

An upcoming seminar on Project Risk - Mark Your Calendars

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:14:00 +0000

The Gulf oil spill crisis is in day 58. Debate continues on the amount of oil leaking from the Deepwater Horizon well, but it's clear that this disaster easily beats the Exxon Valdez.

And BP has now pledge to pay $20B (yes Billion) to a fund that will support the Gulf. See this link.

What type of project risk identification, analysis, planning, and response did the responsible (and I use that word lightly) parties have?

We'll be discussing this and much more in an inexpensive 2-day seminar run by yours truly for EPM Solutions.

The seminar, entitled "A Question of Balance", runs two nights, and is given via Webinar. The schedule calls for it to run on 27 and 29 July (Tuesday and Thursday nights, 6PM to 8:30PM Eastern US time.

It'll earn you 5 Professional Development Units (PDUs) from an REP (Registered Education Provider).

Details are here:

http://www.enterprisepmsolutions.com/?p=979

The webinar will allow you to:

Gain a deeper, more integrated understanding of how risk affects a project
Translate this into how this affects the planning of your projects
Collect, understand, and use advice and tools for risk identification
Improve your capabilities in risk analysis
Expand their capabilities of developing effective risk responses
Reaffirm the importance of continuing, ongoing risk management

Don't risk missing it!

Promoting PM amongst our younger students...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 03:50:00 +0000

I recently (today, actually) had a chance to represent the profession of Project Management at the Coolidge Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts.

In three 30-minute sessions, I used an interactive presentation to brainstorm the project of developing and making available to the market, a green (ecologically, that is) car. My audience was the 6th, 7th, and 8th graders (one grade at a time).

Although I was in competition with a policeman in full uniform and other "cooler" jobs, I think things went swimmingly. I enjoyed it, and my daughter, an English teacher at the school, tells me that from her perspective in the audience - it worked. I had fun, they had...well, perhaps "fun" is too strong of a word, but they seemed to "get it" when I asked them what they picked up from the session.

I used three exercises:

1. A brainstorming session to identify stakeholders
2. A live WBS creation session
3. A brainstorming session to identify risks and then treat the risk, "the car is ugly"

I closed with some examples of PM jobs and an actual snippet from a job posting site showing all of the PM jobs available.

I think this worked much better than lecturing to them.

If any of you PMs who end up getting invited to a Career Day would like a copy of the presentation, I'm glad to make it available to you. Actually I am working with the LEAD Community of Practice of PMI to see how I can share the document within their structure. If that fails, I'll make it available right here on the blog. If you need it right away, contact me through the blog.

Let's keep PM vital by making its wisdom available to our youngest students!

Will the PMP Credential Bring You Fame and Fortune? Or...at least fortune? Maybe...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 04:17:00 +0000

One of the things we study in preparation of the PMP exam is "correlation". It's important for PMs to know how to quickly judge the relationship of two variables, say, for example, vendor performance on one deliverable versus overall project performance. As we know, pairs of variables can be highly correlated, unrelated, or negatively correlated, such as a higher budget overrun and your manager's level of happiness.

Well, as you see in the chart, there is a correlation between not only the years of PM employment and Salary, but if you look at the vertical distance between the two curves, there's also a consistent correlation of Salary depending on whether or not the population has a PMP(R) credential.

Say what you will about the exam, the process, even the PMI itself. In very practical terms - money - the PMP credential does seem to make a difference. Remember, this is a readout of population and not an individual statistic. So don't bring this into your boss' office and expect a raise if you just got your PMP. It's just as we said at the beginning - this shows that the PMP and Salary are related - not just friends or acquaintances.

Although this graph is US data only, we encourage you to read the entire story here at the PMI Today link

When is a "Pass" not a "Pass"?

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:47:00 +0000

I know this looks like a posting about football And it is. A little. But it's really about the PMP(R) Exam. Let me explain.

In American or Canadian football, when a Quarterback (as in Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, above) throws the ball, it's a pass. Plain and simple. No controversy. Right?

Not exactly. There are all kinds of rules, it turns out. Did the arm move forward?

See this entry from Wikipedia:

In American and Canadian football, a forward pass—usually called simply a pass—consists of one offensive player throwing the football towards another downfield in the direction of the opponent's end line. This is permitted only once during a scrimmage down by the offensive team before team possession has changed, provided the pass is thrown from in or behind the neutral zone. An illegal forward pass incurs a 5 yard penalty and the loss of a down.

If an eligible receiver on the passing team legally catches the ball it is a complete pass and the receiver may attempt to advance the ball. If an opposing player legally catches the ball (all defensive players are eligible receivers) it is an interception. That player's team immediately gains possession of the ball and he may attempt to advance the ball toward his opponent's goal. If no player is able to legally catch the ball it is an incomplete pass and the ball becomes dead the moment it touches the ground. It will then be returned to the original line of scrimmage for the next down. If any player interferes with an eligible receiver's ability to catch the ball it is pass interference which is a foul.

The person passing the ball must be a member of the offensive team, and the recipient of the forward pass must be an eligible receiver and must touch the passed ball before any ineligible player.

The moment that a forward pass begins is important to the game. The pass begins the moment the passer's arm begins to move forward. If the passer drops the ball before this moment it is a fumble and therefore a loose ball. In this case anybody can gain possession of the ball before or after it touches the ground. In Canadian football, if the passer drops the ball while his arm is moving forward it is an incomplete pass (unless someone catches the ball before it hits the ground in which case it is a completed pass or an interception). Under American football's tuck rule, if the quarterback is attempting to bring the ball back to his body after starting a passing motion, a lost ball may be considered an incomplete pass even if the quarterback's arm is moving backward at the time.

The quarterback generally either starts a few paces behind the line of scrimmage or drops back a few paces as the ball is snapped. This places him in an area called the "pocket" which is a protective region formed by the offensive blockers up front and between the tackles on each side. A quarterback who runs out of this pocket is said to be scrambling. Under NFL and NCAA rules, once the quarterback moves out of the pocket, and there is no good option for a forward pass, the ball may be legally thrown away to prevent a sack. NFHS (High School) rules do not allow for a passer to intentionally throw an incomplete forward pass to save loss of yardage or conserve time, except for a spike to conserve time after a hand to hand snap. If he throws the ball away while still in the pocket then a foul called "grounding" is assessed. In Canadian football the passer must simply throw the ball across the line of scrimmage—whether he is inside or outside of the "pocket"-in order to avoid the foul of "intentionally grounding".

My point: what seems like a simple concept - throwing a ball - is not actually so simple. And learning how to throw the ball (in other words, to pass) is more complex than you'd think.

That's the connection to the PMP exam. You'd think that what it takes to pass the exam, even the percentage you must achieve to pass, would be simple to find out. In fact, PMI used to say that it was a 61%. But then all references to a passing score number were removed from PMI literature and we seem to be left to guess at the passing score.

A unique online journal (blog) has come up with some insight that I urge you to look through, if you are going for the PMP certification. In three postings they reveal what they think PMI is up to. The bottom line is this: each exam iteration is different. A unique set of questions is given to each student, so each exam is of VARIABLE difficulty and thus the passing score is adjusted commensurately. So each student really gets their own test with their own passing score!

Start by looking at these three postings from Deep Fried Brain (yes - that's the name of the blog). It's put together very well and may just help you understand how to prepare for passing the exam more effectively.

http://www.deepfriedbrainpmp.com/2009/12/popular-myths-pmp-exam-pass-score.html

http://www.deepfriedbrainpmp.com/2010/04/best-kept-secret-of-pmp-certification.html

http://www.deepfriedbrainpmp.com/2009/11/pmp-exam-passing-score-number-game.html

Enjoy your studying. And we hope you "touchdown" safely!

Getting the science right -->

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:01:00 +0000

...and when I say getting the science right, I could mean, getting it correctly, or I could mean getting it more to the political right.

Please see this posting on our sister site, EarthPM.com, to find out what I could possibly be talking about...

Click here, if you dare.

Rising to the top

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:24:00 +0000

As we approach our 100th posting, Scope Crepe is also getting some recognition out there.

It turns out that we're listed number 8 in the top 100 Project Management blogs. Now, to be fair, the list is categorized, and general PM blogs come first, so the 8/100 ranking is probably a little inflated, but hey - we made the list. The awarding agency is a construction management journal. The listing is very nicely categorized by topic, you should check it out and bookmark it as a resource.

See the entire list of top PM blogs here.

New PMO Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:24:00 +0000

Just a short-t0-the-point post this time, folks.

Here's a resource for those of you curious about the art and science of forming and effectively operating a PMO.

Can't spell PMO? This site will give you the basics, too.

Click here to visit Mel Bost's PMO site.

The Cost of Community

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:57:00 +0000

I'm in the midst of teaching Managing Project Quality at a local college and I had a small realization I thought I would share.

First of all for those not familiar with the principles of Cost of Quality (CoQ), here is an excellent, concise description from the American Society for Quality:

The "cost of quality" isn't the price of creating a quality product or service. It's the cost of not creating a quality product or service.

Every time work is redone, the cost of quality increases. Obvious examples include:

The reworking of a manufactured item.
The retesting of an assembly.
The rebuilding of a tool.
The correction of a bank statement.
The reworking of a service, such as the reprocessing of a loan operation or the replacement of a food order in a restaurant.

In short, any cost that would not have been expended if quality were perfect contributes to the cost of quality.

So I was thinking about this while working to establish and build a Community of Practice (CoP) at a different enterprise (in other words, not the college). And perhaps it's the fact that alphabetically, CoP and CoQ are only one letter away...but I realized that some of the pushback I was getting from the enterprise about establishing the Community of Practice was in the following form:

"We're too busy"
"We don't have time"
"All our projects are in crisis mode"
"We keep making the same mistakes"
"We're just too busy"
"We're really just too busy", and just for good measure,
"We're really just too %*#&@ busy"

In other words, I realized, they didn't want to invest 'cost', in the form of time, into Community because they weren't seeing the value the Community would provide, just as some manufacturers don't see the value that Quality can bring, so they just keep producing junk, servicing it, getting complaints, getting sued, and continuing the "We're too busy" refrain as they death-spiral out of existence.

So think about it. If you have a community of project managers, you may easily have thousands -perhaps tens of thousands -of years of experience to draw from, and more realistically, you have hundreds of project artifacts, templates, and just plain old "don't step in that!" types of warnings to benefit from. With not-too-much investment, you can tame that information into knowledge and wisdom from which you will greatly benefit. And guess what? You will actually have MORE time. Time spent up front saves much more time later.

That's the Cost of Community (or Community of Practice) equation.

Don't get caught on the wrong side.

The soul of PMI

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:13:00 +0000

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has approved (via its recent Board of Directors meeting) a revitalized set of core values. These actually are the essential principles which guide PMI. These were recently shared in PMI Today's January 2010 issue, in which they even go as far as to say that these values are the "soul" of the organization.

Given that these are so fundamental, underlying, and soulful, we thought we'd share them here, add a comment, and ask your opinion.

The PMI Core Values

At PMI, we believe in:

Project Management Impact
Project management is a critical competence that has a positive influence on organization results and society.

Professionalism
Accountability and ethical behavior ensures our commitment to PMI stakeholders.

Volunteerism
Volunteers and effective volunteer partnerships with staff are the best way to accomplish the Institute’s goals and objectives.

Community
Bringing members of the global project management community together is the best way to advance the project management profession and facilitate their growth.

Engagement
Encouraging diverse viewpoints and enabling individuals to contribute to the project management profession and to the Institute.

These are refreshingly short-winded and to-the-point. And so we will be with our comment. We're glad to see that the first value is "Impact" of project management, and we're particularly happy that they end with "a positive influence on organizational results and society". We think (and hope) that this includes the aspects of project management and sustainability and the environment. This is something we're focusing on over at our 'cousin' site http://earthpm.com .
What do you think of the values? Did PMI hit the target? Do you interpret that first value the same way?
Play it, Steve.

Ancient discovery of agile PM from 2600BC?

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:07:00 +0000

In Dahshur, Egypt, you will find one of the most interesting of all of the (already interesting) pyramids. It's called the "Bent Pyramid", and it was built for a king named Sneferu (pictured below).

What's interesting about this particular pyramid is that its slope suddenly and dramatically changes from 52 degrees to a much lower slope of about 43 degrees, about halfway up the height of the pyramid.

Why?

What happened?

Two theories abound, both of which are definitely all about our profession and discipline.

Theory 1 says that there were collapses and problems (risk triggers and risk occurrences) that indicated the slope was too steep for the materials they were using so the design was changed on the fly to the softer slope.

Theory 2 says that the death of the pharaoh was more imminent than originally expected (schedule pull-up) and they needed to finish more quickly.

Either way, the project engineers were dealing with another pyramid of sorts, or at least a triangle - the ancient triple constraint. This has fallen from favor in the PMBOK(R) Guide, replaced on page 6 with a listing of Scope, Quality, Schedule, Budget, Resources, and Risk, but however you look at it, the project manager adapted and showed his or her agility with the change in slope midway through the project.

Today, much is being made of agile PM, mainly in the area of software development. To some PMs, agile seems like a pyramid scheme (sorry for that lame reference, but I simply had to do it); to others, it is the new way and the only way to do things.

The PMBOK(R) guide does not feature agile PM techniques per se - it does not even show up in the index. However some authors and speakers have done some excellent work on how agile PM can be linked to the PMBOK(R) Guide. Check out this site, from Michele Sliger of Sliger Consulting, it's loaded with some great presentations on the subject.

To me, and this posting, it's really just a reminder of how proud and ancient our job is. As evidenced here, we've been dealing with change requests for thousands and thousands of years.

Now for those of you who have been following ScopeCrepe from its ancient beginnings, you know this isn't my first posting about pyramids, nor will it be the last.

If the idea of pyramids intrigues you, you may want to go back to Akapalah Pyramids, now a classic, for sure, and read that one!

Looking past "The End of the Beginning"

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:04:00 +0000

As project managers we think (and often dream) about the end of our projects. And what is that end?

It's the successful turn up of a computer network. Or, it's the availability of a new service. Or, perhaps it's the readiness of a new bridge, a new building, a new drug, a new electric toothbrush.

Do you note a pattern here?

When we're done, something else, usually something bigger, is starting.

We often limit our thinking as project managers to the lifecycle of our project and don't think enough about the lifecycle of the product of our projects. For those of you who weren't paying attention, that's the "bigger thing" that is enabled by your project.

This concept reminded me (or perhaps it's the other way around) of a book and movie which I've always enjoyed. Both the book and movie share the title, "The Discovery of Heaven". Do yourself a favor and rent this film or read the book. It's by famed Dutch author Harry Mulisch, and it's not known so well in the USA but is throughout Europe. Here's the trailer.

From wikipedia, here is the synopsis of the book:

The Discovery of Heaven tells the story of an angel-like being, who is ordered to return to Heaven the stone tablets containing the ten commandments, given to Moses by God, which symbolise in the book the link between Heaven and Earth. The divine being, however, cannot himself travel to Earth, and on several occasions in the book resorts to influencing events. He affects the personal lives of three people (two men and one woman) in order that a child will be conceived. This child would then have an innate desire to seek out and return the Tablets.

The book consists of four parts (dubbed "The Beginning of the Beginning", "The End of the Beginning", "The Beginning of the End", and "The End of the End"). In between these four parts, the angel-like being discusses "The Plan" with his superior, who is supposedly an archangel.

The inspiration for the posting comes not from the religious theme of the book, but rather the way the book is organized:

The Beginning of the Beginning
The End of the Beginning
The Beginning of the End
The End of the End

Now back to project management and our way of thinking. We don't realize it when we plan our projects but we only work on the first two parts: The Beginning of the Beginning, where we Initiate and Plan the project, and The End of the Beginning, in which we execute, monitor and control, and close the project. We don't look ahead - often enough - to what happens in the "life and death" of the bridge, the building, the drug, the computer system - even the electric toothbrush.

And that brings me to Life Cycle Analysis, something my partner and I at EarthPM are asserting that we'd better start looking at as PMs - and not just for the very valid environmental reasons, but because it helps us understand the project, its product, and its products' customers more effectively.

I won't detail this here because it's something we'll be covering in our upcoming book, but I would like to reference you to the EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) site that covers this. They provide an excellent set of PDF training on the subject.

Here's a link to the basic training page of the EPA. There's more, much more to be learned on this subject and we will be covering it in our upcoming book, but I wanted to share this with you here first. Learn more on EarthPM.com.

And go rent that movie!

Oh, chute!

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:30:00 +0000

I'd like to share an analogy I use in my Project Management courses to explain the often misunderstood difference between secondary and residual risk.

Secondary risks are those which are caused by the treatment or response to the risk.

Residual risk is the risk which remains even after you have treated or responded to the risk.

So here goes the analogy.

You are jumping from a plane. Yep. That's a situation which clearly has some threat to it. It also has opportunity (in this case a thrill). But let's focus on the threat. How do we respond to the threat of severe injury or death that we will encounter if we simply fall to the ground from several thousand meters (or feet, it really doesn't matter)?

Well the answer is that we mitigate the risk with a parachute. That's our risk response. So let's go through two scenarios in which the parachute doesn't work exactly like it was designed.

Scenario 1: We pull the cord, and the parachute deploys but due to air currents, the force of the "tug" when it deploys causes you to sprain your shoulder. Oh, CHUTE! Ow! That hurts. That is an example of secondary risk. The risk response (the chute) caused a new risk.

Scenario 2: We pull the cord, the parachute deploys smoothly, and we cruise to the ground but for whatever reason it does not provide us a slow enough descent and, Oh CHUTE! Ow! we sprain an ankle when we land. That's an example of residual risk - a threat that remains even after we have responded to the risk.

I hope that helps clear up the difference.

Whether or not this cleared things up for you, at least get a laugh out of this posting. Have a look at this humorous video from Dutch insurance carrier Centraal Beheer, involving... you guessed it, a secondary risk from a parachute. Click here for the video.

Happy landings!

"The danger of the single story"- Chimamanda Adichie

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:13:00 +0000

You know that I've blogged before about the danger of PMs taking a single-point estimate. I want to draw your attention to a nice talk given by Chimamanda Adichie (shown on the left) called, "The Danger of the Single Story".

I'd like to acknowledge Pervez Mohammed of VISIONS non-profit group for making me aware of this video.

It takes the idea of a single-point estimate to a whole new level.

Listen to her. The video is about 20 minutes and is located HERE.

Then think. Or maybe reflect is a better word here. Think about using this as you identify risks, as you build your teams, as you take inputs from contributors. Don't rely on one source. As a PM you need to be unbiased and open to wider sources of information and willing to listen to alternate versions.

This talk may help you with that.

Enjoy.

Bored --> Board --> Exciting

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Today, I'm very happy to announce that I've become a Distributor for a tremendous product that brings fun, intrigue, and yes, even thrills to the world of learning about project management. Thus the image above.

Project management learning should be a little more like that, don't you think? Well, it can be, with a board game that takes project managers on a bit of a roller-coaster ride through a project and teaches them about risk and much more.

The board game, which was carefully developed over a nine year period by Kay Wais at Successful Projects can now be obtained via my company, Exclaim!PM.

See the press release HERE.

This game and supporting materials - although focused on project risk management - really uses the "churning is learning" philosophy that Kay and I agree is so basically important to the way adults learn about project management in general.

I plan to use adopt it in my series of courses that make up a Master's Certificate in PM, and if you are an educator or student of PM and would like to do the same, please contact me for information and availability of the materials.

Here's a picture of the game:

There's a video of the game here.

For more about the game, contact me directly at exclaim@verizon.net

Thanks!

Free WBS tool for download

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:37:00 +0000

Here's a very small program with a very specialized task: make quick work out of genrating a WBS.

It's free, fairly intuitive, and does its task well.

Check it out here:

http://www.wbs-tool.net/

Get SMARTER

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:49:00 +0000

Some of the "more seasoned" of us may recall the old TV series, Get Smart, and the more youthful readers will certainly know the Get Smart movie that came out a few years (based on that original TV show). The title, and most of the writing, was very clever, and 'played with words'. Smart was the name of the agent, and the bad guys were always trying to 'get' (as in capture) Smart. But it was of course also a reference to getting smarter - as in 'gaining intelligence or wisdom'.

To remind you of the show, click here to see the opening music and credits which were a thing of beauty in and of themselves.

And most of us in the wonderful world of management will recognize the acronym SMART for dealing with goals and objectives. Remember?

S - specific, significant, stretching

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational

A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T - time-based, tangible, trackable

Well, we here at ScopeCrepe, and also at EarthPM, our related endeavor, would like to say that the time for getting SMART has passed. It's gone. It's fizzled. It's deceased. Would you believe that it was at least getting old?

Instead of just getting SMART these days, we think we need to be SMARTER. How, you ask, can we be SMARTER?

Glad you asked.

We can be SMARTER by adding two more letters to SMART. Of course, those two letters are E and R.

E - Environmentally

R - Responsible

In other words, it's not just enough to set our project goals and objectives as we said above, we also have to consider the effectiveness of the processes of the project itself, and its own waste and inefficiencies, we also should consider the end-product and its disposal or re-use.

If this intrigues you at all, or even if it annoys you, you should find out more about what we're saying and how you can add those two little - but important- letters, by visiting EarthPM - http://earthpm.com .

And while you're at it, Get SMARTER!

Don't miss it, even by that much.

Take a guess. No googling allowed, though.

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:13:00 +0000

Okay, here's a quick question for you. Without going online or doing any research, just off the top of your head, how many computers do you think are disposed of daily? To answer, fill out the POLL on the left top side of the blog. I will have the answer - as well as your guesses - on an updated version of this posting within 2 weeks.

In the meantime, if you're interested in project management (and you ARE, by virtue of your being here) and the environment (which you should be, as a resident of this particular planet), have a look at a website devoted to the intersection of those two things - EarthPM. Visit http://earthpm.com .

5 seconds of your time...please?

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:26:00 +0000

Please follow the link below to answer a 1-question poll about how your organization deals with... with... well, you have to go to the poll to find out.

This is the link below that I was talking about above:
OK, I will give you 5 seconds!

Choices...choices...

noreply@blogger.com (Rich) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:27:00 +0000

As a project manager - even if you ended up in the career, as many of us did, as an accident - you will be making lots and lots of choices. Add more resources to this task? Use the Jones company or the Smith company as your subcontractor? Have an on-site project kickoff meeting or a virtual one?

I just listened to an excellent podcast on the subject of choice. It was on NPR's Radiolab, one of my favorite podcasts and one I would highly recommend you subscribe to.

It's brain food. Eat well.

In the podcast was something interesting about the way our mind works. A psychological study was referenced in which people were given numbers to memorize - numbers which were short, like "23" or numbers which were long, like 034789328. The people went into a room, were given the number and were told to memorize it and move to another nearby room down the hall and repeat the number there. That was their only task.

On their way, they were interrupted by a woman with a pushcart who said something like, "excuse me, as part of your participation in the study, you get a snack; would you like a slice of chocolate cake, or a fruit cup?".

Here is the interesting part.

Participants who were given the longer numbers (like 034789328) were much, much, much more likely to choose the chocolate cake, and those given short numbers (like 23) were much more likely to pick fruit.

So what?

Well, it turns out (according to the continued research) the rational part of the brain that needs to process the analysis/memorization of the number is the same part which would make the rational decision that the fruit was the healthy, better choice. However, while occupied with the number, it was distracted, and the more emotional part of the brain, the one that says, "mmmm, gooey, yummy chocolate", takes over and makes the decision.

The connection to PM? When you need to make choices like the ones I mentioned at the opening of this posting, you may want to be sure that the rational part of your brain is free -- or you may be making a "chocolate cake" decision.

If this tickles your interest, see an article from Stanford University here.

And please - add RadioLab to your list of podcasts!