Author: Linky

Linky

Project Success Story – Let the Ships Sail

Success Stories Shared
Success Stories Shared

Another project success story from an experienced project manager about the development of a new Forecasting system for the international Shipping giant, Maersk.

The project goal was to provide an electronic system to forecast and plan Maersk’s shipping schedules and cargo loading. The development team needed to understand a myriad of information for the cube to be developed. This included international port laws, time-zones, currencies, and the algorithms required behind the scene to create system intelligence that would enable Logistics Managers to accurately forecast, plan and schedule.

The project achieved its objective within two years of reducing the time spent on forecasting and making it more accurate. A centralised system, called Forecast, could be accessed from different countries and ports to streamline all forecasting processes in a fairly complex world.

To read more about the project challenges the team faced, what worked well and the lessons learnt, click on Success Stories Shared.

Please subscribe (top right) not to miss any future project management stories, tools, tips and more! Also have a look at the newly published Podcasts!

Linky

Project Manager versus Change Manager Skills

change manager skillsMost experienced project managers will know that effective Change Management has become essential in delivering successful projects. The question is what type of skills does a Change Manager need to be effective and how are those skills different from project manager skills?

The answer can be found in a report published by Afro Ant, as the outcome of a conversation attended by change managers and project managers in September 2014. You will find the summary of the change manager skills as well as a comparison of different focus areas between project and change managers.

Definition of Change Management

Change management is a combination of science and art – in the practice of change management, the “what” is often a science, but much of the “how” will always remain an art, as much a function of who you are than of what you know.

How does the role of a Change Manager typically differ from the role of a Project Manager?

The main differences lie in their focus areas. The project manager will focus on delivery on time, within budget, of specified quality and to the satisfaction of stakeholders. The change manager will focus on systematically managing the change as to minimise the impacts and to maximise the benefits. Project are ultimately about change in order to deliver benefits. See the comparison at the end.

Skills of a Good Change Manager

Operationally a change manager requires a very  good understanding of change management principles and associated theory, methodology, techniques and tools, and the ability to apply these in a practical and flexible manner.

Then facilitation skills, influencing skills, strong conceptual and analytical thinking skills need to be present.

Change managers need to quickly understand what their projects are about and develop appropriate change management strategies and plans. You need to translate the real change into communication that all stakeholders will understand. You need to engage with the project team in a constructive manner.

With project management and planning skills, you also need Business acumen: demonstrated ability and experience in understanding business strategy, structure, processes and enabling technologies.

In addition, a change manager must have the ability to handle significant pressure and to persevere, meaning to stay focused and to maintain a positive energy level despite setbacks. You need the ability to learn from problems and to see tasks and projects through to completion.

Passion and Maturity

A change manager will have passion to deliver to standards of excellence. You need a proven ability to manage quality of own and others’ work. You need appropriate and effective prioritisation and self-management. This includes the ability to work to deadlines and a commitment to deliver on time.

A change manager will be decisive and assertive, innovative with problem solving skills, as well as administrative skills. You need to be able to manage ambiguity and to create order and structure.

People Skills

A change manager definitely requires above average ability to work with people, to have empathy and to establish trust and rapport. You need insight into individual and team dynamics and the ability to establish trust with senior leadership.

Effective conflict resolution and negotiation skills are required to build relationships, to establish rapport and relate to people in an open, friendly manner while showing sincere interest in others. You will have the ability to build and maintain mutual trust.

Communication

You need proficient language skills, the ability to recognise and use the appropriate interpersonal styles and communication methods to ensure understanding acceptance of a change, idea, plan or product.

For communication you need business writing skills, effective listening, presentation development and delivery. Effective use of tools like MS PowerPoint, Word, Excel and Outlook. Even some-time learn the basics of pogrammes like Frontpage or Access.

Other skills would include:

  • Self-starter, being self‐motivated
  • Resourceful and crea7ve
  • Ambitious and hard-working
  • Strongly disciplined
  • Achievement orientated
  • Assertiveness
  • Reliable
  • Practical and pragmatic
  • Flexible /adaptable
  • Reasonable and open-minded
  • Energetic and positive

Passion

Above all a change manager needs to be passionate about the work they’re doing. The ability to engage authentically will bring you far. That means to bring yourself into the work that you do. It requires honesty, openness, congruence, self-insight and that you are okay enough with whom you are to share that with the people you deal with in your work as a change manager.

Change manager vs Project manager skills
Change manager vs Project manager skills

Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting (top right) not to miss future articles.

Linky

2015 – Project Managers are you up to a great start?

At the beginning of the year, we are motivated for new beginnings. We want to do new things, or we want to do things that worked in the past, even better.

sundowner-Sedgefield
Sunset beach picnic, Sedgefield, South Africa

After a period of holiday fun with the family doing camping, swimming at the beach, hanging out with friends and enjoying our wonderful summer weather, it’s time to get back into gear. Sometimes you have a slow start, other times you hit the road running.

I look forward to many challenges at work and initiatives from Virtual Project Consulting this year. We will launch our very own Podcast series in 2015! I am a contributing author to a book on “Social Media and Project Management” to be compiled by Prof Silvius of the University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. Also look out for guest post contributions from well-known project professionals.

When you’re responsible for projects you work with people and to have great results you need to be a good leader. In a recent article I discovered these leadership lessons learned from nuns, which touched my heart. I want to make it part of my path to success in 2015:

  • Love the journey.
  • Live and work your passions.
  • Always be grateful.
  • Make mistakes.
  • Integrity is your most powerful asset.
  • Vision, no matter how right, can only be delivered through relationships.
  • Success is only success if everyone feels the win.

At Virtual Project Consulting we are working full swing on making new things a reality. To help with two of the most pressing questions project managers have, this is what we cater for:

  1. Where can I find the best project management training, software, products, books etc?
  2. How do I become a Project Manager, a PMP or maintain my certification?
Knysna, South Africa
Knysna, South Africa

Take a look around and discover:

Please let me know in the comments what specific topics you’re interested in? What would benefit you in your search for information about project management?

Linky

Infographic: Project Manager Salaries

For existing project managers it’s interesting to compare your salary with industry trends from this research shared by Learnthat.com.

For aspiring project managers this is very important information to understand what you will earn once you embark on this career path.

Important to remember is that your job title, role, location, and project-size all influence your salary.

 

Courtesy of: Learnthat.com
Linky

Wishing you a Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous New Year

Merry Christmas

 

 

To all the people in my community, the loyal subscribers, friends, colleagues, clients and  blog visitors, I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas.

May the message of Christmas fill your life with joy and peace. Best wishes to you and your family during this holiday season. May this wonderful time of year touch your heart in a special way.

As you look forward to 2015, remember that the New Year is an unwritten book, so choose your actions and words wisely and fill it up with pages that are worth reading by the end of the year.

Holidays

Linky

For Project Managers who are Job Hunting

Do you need to change jobs or make a career move?

This year I had to switch between companies and was in the market to find the next ideal position.  When you find yourself looking for another good job opportunity, you need to have a really good resume. Perhaps one that would help you to stand out from all the other applicants.

The purpose of this article is to share a new type of resume, called the One Page Resume or CV. Recruiters are overloaded with resumes on a daily basis and you want your CV to stand out for the right reason by following a different approach. It’s built around a timeline and you could use it as a cover to your existing CV.

Click on the sample below for more Project Manager career tips.

One-page resume

 

 

Linky

Portfolio Management Definition – Infographic

Today I would like to share this very informative Infographic from Knowledge Train on the Definition of Portfolio Management.

As per the PMI definition:

Portfolio Management is the coordinated management of one or more portfolios, a component collection of programs, projects, or operations, to achieve organizational strategies.

In order to cope with the more complex and unpredictable world we live in today, you need portfolio management.

Visit the blog listed below for an interesting article about portfolio management.

Knowledge Train’s blog – portfolio management

Linky

Planning for Project Success

When looking at Project Planning, an important output of the planning process, is the Project Management Plan. This article will discuss what the Project Management Plan is, why fully understanding the Project Management Plan is essential to both project success and PMP Exam success,  what subsidiary plans and documents are, and once approved how changes are made to the Project Management Plan.

What is the Project Management Plan?

project planningAccording to the PMBOK® Guide, the Project Management Plan is “the document that describes how the project will be executed, monitored, and controlled.” Objectives of the Project Management Plan include documenting assumptions and decisions, communicating how the project will be executed, and documenting high level goals, costs, and milestones. The Project Management Plan is much more than a single document that is created and set aside. It integrates subsidiary plans and documents, it is created during the Planning Process Group and is expected to be updated as the project progresses. It is a living document.

Why the Project Management Plan is essential to both project success and PMP Exam success?

That is because it is the “go to” document used to answer questions during the project, and understanding what kinds of questions it may answer is vital to both project and PMP Exam success.

The Project Management Plan should be able to answer why a project was sponsored and what problem it is expected to resolve or what value the project is expected to add. It should describe the work to be performed and what the major deliverables or products are. It should identify who is involved in the project and what their responsibilities are and how they are organized. It should define how the work is to be executed in order to meet project objectives and how any changes will be monitored and controlled. If all of these are included in the Project Management Plan, then you will be able to answer the why, what, who, when, and how type questions that may arise during a project.

What are subsidiary plans and documents?

These are most often outputs of the other Planning Processes. For example, the Cost Management Plan is an output of the Plan Cost Management Process. It describes how project costs will be planned, structured, and controlled. It is considered a “subsidiary plan” to the overall Project Management Plan. Subsidiary plans are all of the “plan” outputs from the Planning Processes that include Scope Management, Requirements Management, Schedule Management, Quality Management, Process Improvement, Human Resource Management, Communications Management, Procurement Management, and Stakeholder Management. The subsidiary plans may be defined at a high or detailed level depending on the type of plan, the specific needs of the project and the requirements of the performing organization.

Subsidiary documents are the baselines developed as part of the Planning Processes. They include the schedule baseline, cost performance baseline, and scope baseline. Don’t forget that the scope baseline also includes the scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary.

How are changes made to the Project Management Plan?

Changes to the Project Management Plan are made through a Change Control System. This system consists of methods to request, review, and approve changes. When Requests are done, they are reviewed by the project manager, project sponsor, select set of stakeholders, or change control board. Once a change is approved the Project Management Plan is updated. Changes that are not requested through the Change Control System or approved should not be implemented. Including unapproved changes will let the project go out of control.

The Project Management Plan is a vast topic. There are many other facets such as the other inputs besides subsidiary plans and documents, how it is used to communicate how the project will be executed and controlled, the importance and usage of a Project Management Information System, and the formality of the Project Management Plan all of which are vital to know and understand for the PMP Exam.

A few additional aspects to keep in mind when studying the Project Management Plan are that it is typically a formal written document, that it guides project execution and control, that it is approved by the project stakeholders, and that the project cannot start until the Project Management Plan is approved.

In order to understand this topic completely read the Develop Project Management Plan section in the PMBOK® Guide. Then explain what a Project Management Plan is, how it is developed, and how it is changed to a friend who is not a project manager. Because if you can explain it clearly to them, then you fully understand it yourself; and use a Project Management Plan for your projects because practice makes perfect when it comes to the PMP Exam.

Linky

The African Storybook Project

This is an inspiring story about teaching young children a love for reading!

African storybook projectThe African Storybook Project is an initiative of Saide, the South African Institute for Distance Education. Saide is a registered Non-Profit Organisation, based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The first four years of the project (2013 to 2016) have been funded by the UK based funder, Comic Relief.

Saide’s task is to contribute to the development of new models of open and distance education practice, that accord with and take forward the values, principles, and goals of the evolving education systems in the Southern African region. It has also paid particular attention to the appropriate use of technology in education.

The African Storybook Project aims to address the shortage of books in local African languages for early reading. The main reason why there are so few stories in local African languages is that it is not cost effective to publish and print stories for reading in languages that have a small readership. But if the stories are on the internet, and also can be translated by people themselves into local languages, the challenge can be overcome. Therefore a website was created for people who work with children in African contexts.

The purpose of the African Storybook Project (ASP) website is to provide stories in African languages as well as in English for young children as they are learning to read. It’s aimed at parents and people working with children (such as teachers, librarians, community workers) in African contexts.

African Storybook Project website

On the African Storybook Project website you can:

  1. find, read and download or print stories that you can use with children,
  2. write comments on the stories that you find and read,
  3. translate stories into an African language that is familiar to the children,
  4. adapt stories for the level and context of the children, and also
  5. create new stories in one of the templates.

African folktaleYou do not have to register in order to find, read, download, print stories or write comments on other people’s stories. You need to register if you want to translate, adapt, or create stories.

The stories on the African Storybook Project (ASP) website are openly licensed. An open licence means that you can read, download, print, copy, adapt and translate stories without asking for permission, and without paying a fee.

But you must acknowledge the writers, illustrators, translators of the stories, and the people who hold the copyright. This means that you must list these people and their contribution on the story itself when you adapt, translate or copy/print the story for use.

The project reach

The project is working with teachers and librarians and community workers in fourteen pilot sites across Kenya, Uganda and Southern Africa. The sites are community libraries, ECD centres, primary schools, located in both rural and urban contexts.

Book Dash Event

Book Dash is a voluntary organisation that creates open-licensed children’s books with top creatives. Their vision is that every child should own a hundred books by the age of five according the Book Dash founder, Arthur Attwell. All Book Dash books are freely available for any person or organisation to download, translate and distribute, according to a Creative Commons license.

On Saturday, 30 August 2014, thirty authors, illustrators, and editors have collaborated to write ten biographies of extraordinary South African women in one day. The event was sponsored by SAIDE, The African Storybook Project, and Rock Girl, with the support of Five for Change, and with in-kind donations from Hemelhuijs, Spier Winery, La Cuccina, Pick and Pay, and with the support of World Design Capital Cape Town 2014 and the Cape Town Central Library.

In September, these girls distributed biographies to learners around the Western Cape, encouraging them to both read and to follow in these women’s footsteps.

Rock Girl Wonder Women Project

The books will be available online as part of the Rock Girl Wonder Women project, a World Design Capital initiative that will see statues of some of the women featured in the biographies installed around Cape Town. Rock Girl is a grassroots organisation, founded by grade 5 learners from Manenberg in 2010, that creates safe spaces for girls, and for everyone.

Distributed to schools

African storybook projectThe books will also be distributed to schools around Cape Town, and the Rock Girl learners will visit schools encouraging them to both read and to follow in these women’s footsteps.

Volunteers, sponsors, and literacy organisations can find more information on the Book Dash website at www.bookdash.org.

Linky

Communication Challenges for Virtual Project Teams Part 2

Have you ever worked with virtual teams as a project manager? (Click for related articles) From my experience of working with virtual teams who are distributed and working remotely, we have to overcome the communication challenges by using tools like tele-conference facilities, instant messaging and email.

This article is Part 2 of a discussion of research findings about the challenges virtual teams face, communication preferences and recommendations. It is based on an online survey done by Software Advice’s Noel Radley (*) with professionals who regularly work on virtual projects, and who had an opinion on the challenges of virtual projects.

Virtual Team Members’ Preferred Communication Channels

Virtual team's preferred Communication channels

 

Preferred Communication Tools

The survey confirmed recent reports that email usage has not yet declined to the extent some predicted. To the contrary, 41 percent of virtual team members surveyed selected email as their most preferred communication tool. However, it was also stated as problematic by some (23%) due to long email threads.

After email, phone was selected by 36 percent of those surveyed as their preferred communication channel perhaps due to the benefits of a “real-time” collaboration tool. Surprisingly, tools designed for online collaboration were selected by the fewest respondents. Only 12 percent selected virtual conferencing as a preferred communication channel, and discussion forums and chat rooms were selected by just 10 percent.

Miller recommends instant messaging (or chat) as one of the more effective real-time communication channels for virtual teams. It’s a much better way to collaborate on something that’s in active progress, or to reach a final decision on an issue. It can also be used to link directly to Web pages or relevant documents that may come up in conversation.

When facing virtual workers who prefer traditional communication channels, managers may need to push adoption in order to help bridge the gap between the tools team members are accustomed to and the tools that help them collaborate most effectively.

Communication Channel Preferences by Age

To add further complexity, our findings revealed a shift in communication preference based on age. Generally speaking, the preference for digital mediums (such as email) decreased with age, while the preference for analog communications (namely, phone) increased with age.

Demographics: Communication Channel Preferences by Age

Preferred communication tools by age

 

 

 

Email preferences were greatest among the youngest team members surveyed: nearly half of those aged 25-34 had a top preference for email (46 percent). This preference was slightly less for 35- to 44-year-olds (41 percent), and lower still for 45- to 54-year-olds (36 percent).

The greatest preference for phone was held by team members in the 45-54 age category, at 41 percent, while 34 percent of the 35-44 age bracket and 29 percent of the 25-34 age bracket preferred communicating by phone.

These trends change when it comes to video conferencing and discussion forums and chat. The 35-44 group is less likely to prefer virtual conferencing and more likely to prefer chats and discussion forums than both the older and the younger age groups.

These differences may mean that companies with trans-generational teams run into subtle misunderstandings, as diverse communication preferences result in people not answering the phone or not replying to emails. To keep distributed teams on the same page, Miller recommends a “multifaceted” approach.

Recommended Solutions

In addition to using instant messaging, also consider mailing lists, a project wiki, and a project blog. A conference or face-to-face sessions where active project members are invited to get together is also a good solution. This works well at the beginning and end of projects.

Successful virtual projects, therefore, require more than just selecting the right communication tool for your team to use. Managers and project leaders for remote teams should supplement communication channels with engaging online information, collaborative environments and even perhaps in-person events to ensure that all team members stay in the loop.

Conclusions

Effectively managed communication will be more of a solution than a problem for a variety of issues, such as task management and team members with commitments to multiple projects.

Moreover, a multi-pronged approach, including instant messaging, agile project management tools, blogging and wikis, should be used to engage teams and foster effective communication. When confronting teams with diverse preferences, a comprehensive communication strategy involving a variety of tools and techniques can help solidify team connections, as well as improve project visibility.

According to Miller it’s important to keep enthusiasm and engagement high, and to make sure that team members’ direct managers or sponsors have easy access to meaningful information showing the value of the work and the overall return.

For reference, you can find the full report here:

http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/project-management/survey-communication-virtual-projects-0714/

(*) Software Advice is a company that researches and evaluates project management technology.

Linky

Communication Challenges for Virtual Project Teams Part 1

Have you ever worked with virtual teams as a project manager? (Click for related articles) From my experience of working with virtual teams who are distributed and working remotely, we have to overcome the communication challenges by using tools like tele-conference facilities, instant messaging and email.

This article is discussing research findings about the challenges virtual teams face. It is based on an online survey done by Noel Radley of Software Advice (a company that researches and evaluates project management technology) with professionals who regularly work on virtual projects, and who had an opinion on the challenges of virtual projects. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 is about the main challenges virtual teams are faced with and task management as a top threat to effective project communication.

Top challenges

  • Thirty-eight percent of team members said communication was difficult on virtual projects, making it the top-cited challenge.
  • Poor communication regarding task management was perceived as the top threat to project success, selected by 41 percent of team members.
  • Email was a preferred channel for 41 percent of respondents—though 23 percent noted long email threads were a communication pitfall.
  • The lack of the right software or technology was given by 33 percent.
  • A lack of productivity was seen as the biggest threat to project success by 28 percent, since many team members believed those who work remotely are held less accountable.

In addition to communication challenges there are also others based on feedback from Matthew Miller, a project leader at the open source technology company Red Hat who has worked with thousands of contributors on open-source operating system called the Fedora Project.

A deeper challenge of most remote teams is the fact that members are typically “drawn from other teams,” and thus have only partial responsibility to their virtual projects. Miller said that typically there’s more work that needs to be done than time to do it, and often commitments to virtual teams are the easiest to break. In view of the productivity challenge stated above, the issue may simply be that they have other commitments that take priority. Managers may need to consider analyzing the scope of a team’s commitments when assigning tasks or attempting to pinpoint problems.

Virtual Team Members’ Top Project-Communication Problems

Virtual Team Members’ Top Project-Communication Problems

Task Management

When analysing the top communication-related challenges of remote projects it was found that approximately 41 percent of respondents answered that the failure to clearly assign and update tasks, was the top threat to effective project communication.

For 23 percent of respondents, long email threads were the top obstacle to communicating effectively. For others (19 percent), they most experienced trouble scheduling virtual meetings and conference calls. And 16 percent of virtual team members experienced confusion about which communication channel—phone, chat or email—to turn to for which tasks.

Many turn to software solutions for task management. Software Advice found in a recent report that 52 percent of project management software buyers were seeking a task management application.

Although tools are important, Miller emphasized the importance of having established processes in place for your team, like regular group interactions for shared tasks for example.

For reference, you can find the full report here:

http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/project-management/survey-communication-virtual-projects-0714/

Please subscribe (top right) not to miss Part 2 and future articles!

Linky

Secrets to Planning and Preparing Powerful Presentations

As Project Managers we all need to use Presentations as one of the channels we communicate with. As part of our daily job, some project managers become really good at it and know how to engage with their audience through powerful presentations.

For most people the ability to deliver great presentations starts with practice that comes from experience, but also from adequate planning and lots of preparation.

Below is an ebook consisting of advice from experts who share their secrets to giving powerful presentations that will get people to take action.
Enjoy the read!