Month: March 2011

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Project Management Announcement: PMI Launches AGILE Certification

Agile is a topic of growing importance within the project management industry, and more project managers are embracing Agile as a technique for managing their successful projects including PMI who is launching an Agile Certification.

Growing Demand For Application Of Agile Practices

A recent statistic which emerged from PMI’s latest Pulse survey is that standardized project management practices result in better project performance. Many project managers who use Agile techniques for managing projects have seen the value of quicker delivery of projects to clients.

PMI research has revealed that 68% of organizations using Agile practices would find value in an Agile certification for project management practitioners. In addition, 63% of hiring managers would encourage their project managers to pursue an Agile certification.

Organisations have reported that the use of the Agile techniques have resulted in the following:

  • Early and continuous customer feedback – because the customer is continuously involved during development, resulting in an end-product to their satisfaction.
  • High visibility and influence over the project highlights problems earlier in the project.
  • Early measurable return on investment – allowing for reporting on defined deliverables early during the process.

Who Should Obtain PMI Agile Certification?

All PM Practitioners currently applying Agile practices in their projects or organizations who are adopting the Agile approach to project management are all excellent candidates for the PMI Agile Certification. Earning the Agile Certification could:

  • Demonstrate their level of professionalism in Agile practices to employers
  • Increase professional versatility in both project management tools and techniques
  • Show their project management leadership capacity by holding a more credible certification than training-only or exam-only based training

PMI serves the project management profession by providing practitioners with a toolbox of selected tools and techniques—and Agile is one of those tools. For example, those who have the PMP® and are working in an organization that is using Agile techniques, the Agile Certification provides an applicable knowledge base of Agile principles and concepts.

Important Dates For Agile Certification Launch

  • May 2011 – Candidates for the Agile certification will be able to submit an application for the pilot.
  • August 2011 – Pilot testing is scheduled to begin.

If you have questions that cannot be answered by the information on PMI.org/Agile, please contact PMI Customer Care based in your region:

North America/Latin America at customercare@pmi.org

EMEA +31-320-239-539 or customercare.emea@pmi.org

AP+65 6496 5501 or customercare.asiapac@pmi.org

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Understanding PRINCE2 and How to Implement

Today is the second article in the 2-part series for project managers to understand PRINCE2 and how it can be implemented. Now that you know that PRINCE2 is a process-based approach to project management, you may be interested in the history of PRINCE2.

What is the history of PRINCE?

PRINCE stands for Projects in Controlled Environments. It is a project management method covering the organisation, management and control of projects. The Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now part of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), first developed PRINCE in 1989. The intention was to produce a UK Government standard for IT project management.

Since its introduction, PRINCE has become widely used in both the public and private sectors and is now the UK’s de facto standard for project management. Although originally developed for the needs of IT projects, PRINCE has also been used on many non-IT projects. The latest version of the method, PRINCE2, is designed to incorporate the requirements of existing users and to enhance the method towards a completely generic, best practice approach.

How is PRINCE2 implemented?

The most important prerequisite to implementing PRINCE2 is awareness and buy-in at the most senior level of the organisation. Once this has been achieved, project staff (from sponsors right through to team members) can be trained to a level of competence appropriate to their individual roles. This training also provides staff with the skills necessary to oversee the PRINCE2 implementation, though often it is recommend to use an external consultancy. This can inject in-depth knowledge not just of PRINCE2, but of the ways in which both the method and the organisation’s existing business processes must be married together to create an environment in which PRINCE2 can deliver maximum benefit.

PRINCE2 training

There are different levels of training available for PRINCE2.

Overview: Aimed at managers new to formal project management methods, plus senior managers and executives considering the introduction of PRINCE2 into their organisations.

Foundation: For those who will be involved in projects, but not necessarily in a leading role, such as project support staff.

Practitioner: For anyone requiring an in-depth understanding of PRINCE2, particularly current or aspiring project managers.

Both Foundation and Practitioner training lead to optional examinations that will provide successful delegates with an internationally recognised qualification.

Visit the AFA PRINCE2 Training for more details if you’re interested. Also visit the Resources page for more training providers in the project management space.

Remember to subscribe to my RSS feed for future project management articles that will help you become the best project manager that you can be.

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Understanding PRINCE2 in the Project Management Context

Any project manager will come across many different project management methodologies and frameworks during their careers. Today I want to write about one such method, Prince 2 to help you understand it better in the project management context of achieving all of the project goals and objectives while adhering to classic project constraints – usually scope, quality, time and budget.

What is PRINCE2?

PRINCE2 is a process-based approach to project management providing an easily tailored and scale-able method for the management of all types of projects. Each process is defined with its key inputs and outputs together with the specific objectives to be achieved and activities to be carried out.

The method describes how a project is divided into manageable stages enabling efficient control of resources and regular progress monitoring. The various roles and responsibilities for managing a project are fully described and are adaptable to suit the project’s size and complexity and the skills of the organisation.

Project planning using PRINCE2 is product-based which means the project plans are focused on delivering results and are not simply about planning when the various activities on the project will be done. Driving any PRINCE2 project is the business case, which describes the organisation’s justification, commitment and rationale for the deliverables or outcome. The business case is reviewed regularly during the project so as to ensure the business objectives, which often change during the life-cycle of the project, are still being met.

Why usePRINCE2?

PRINCE2 provides organisations with a standard approach to the management of projects. The method embodies proven and established best practice. It is generic, non-proprietary and widely recognised. PRINCE2 also offers benefits to the organisation as a whole. These are achieved through the controllable use of resources and the ability to manage business and project risk more effectively.

PRINCE2 enables projects to have:

  • a controlled and organised start, middle and end
  • regular reviews of progress against plan and against the Business Case
  • flexible decision points
  • automatic management control of any deviations from the plan
  • involvement of management and stakeholders at the right time and place during the project the necessary controls and breakpoints to work successfully within any required contractual framework
  • a common language across all interested parties thereby ensuring effective communication channels between the project team, project management and the rest of the organisation

Please comment about your experience with Prince2 or any other methodology that is worth sharing.

Remember to subscribe to my RSS for the next article on Prince2.

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5 Tips For Better Project Reporting

Every good project manager knows that communications management is an essential part of effective project management. Project reporting is about providing progress feedback to the project stakeholders.  This post will provide 5 tips for reporting on projects to ensure you are efficient in how you provide the necessary feedback about your project.
Project reporting

1.    Project status: Create a weekly Project Status Report to show your actual vs. planned effort, percent complete and actual vs. forecast spend. Specify the number of open risks, changes and issues, and state whether action by your Sponsor is required to resolve them. Also show the forecast amount of time, effort and money required to finish the project. Always try and forecast as accurately as possible. Never forecast optimistically, always conservatively.

2.    Task completion: You need to regularly show your Sponsor your progress against the tasks listed on your schedule. Create a summarized view of your project plan and update it to reflect the percent complete for every task. Then append this summary view to your Project Status Report. This way, your Sponsor can drill down to see further information about each task, if they want to.

By offering your Project Sponsor both summary and detailed information weekly makes them feel like your project is an “open book”. They will have all of the information about your project and you will get more buy-in from your Sponsor and more support when it’s needed.

3.    Milestones: You need to add Milestones to your project plan to show when the major project deliverables will be produced. You then need to report on the progress of each milestone to your Sponsor. Show the percent complete of each milestone, and again, forecast the completion dates.

Here’s another tip: You will get more out of your team if you motivate them to complete milestones, as opposed to tasks. That’s because people are usually proud of the things that they have achieved in life (i.e. milestones), as opposed to the things they have done to achieve them (i.e. the tasks).

4.    Getting help: Project Sponsors don’t always want to hear “we’re on track and under budget” in their project reports. They just want to hear the truth. So if you’re behind schedule and you need help to get back on track, then tell your Sponsor about it in your project reports.

State exactly what you need from them. Show them that you’re doing the best you can and that you’re the best person for the job, but that you still need their help to deliver the project. If you need more time, money or resources, then ask for it. Don’t be afraid. And remember, the best time to ask for help is before you really need it. This gives you contingency, because it always takes time for help to arrive.

5.    One version of the truth: Your project reports need to depict “one version of the truth” to your team. Keep them 100% accurate and be as open as possible about real issues that are affecting your team. Remember that if you communicate an issue to your Sponsor, then it becomes their issue to fix as well. Reporting issues is a great way to share the responsibility for fixing them.

The Project Status Report becomes the window to the world to share what is going on with the project on the inside. It also validates your position as project manager that you are actively managing and controlling the project activities to successful completion.

Please leave a comment and share any other useful tips for project reporting. Also subscribe to the RSS feed or to the Blog (to the right) for future project management articles.