To all project managers who want to make a career move, or for contractors who need to move to new project management contracts, there are a few important things to consider.
You need to have an updated resume and a good LinkedIn profile. In addition, you need to be prepared for Interviews that are part of this process.
Today I want to share two great resources to assist you in your journey.
“Interview Advice and Tips” is a curated list of articles, by Patricia D. Sadar. It contains several great articles covering Interviews from every possible angle.
One Page Resume
Let me know in the comments what you think of these resources.
Please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting not to miss future articles, tips and success stories!
The opportunity to participate with other project management bloggers globally has come again with the second Project Management Flash Blog (#PMFlashBlog), organised by Mark Phillipy, author and host of the Sensible Project Manager. The theme for this #PMFlashBlog is “Project Management around the World” and I will be writing about my perspective of project management in South Africa.
The project management professionals has a professional body in Project Management South Africa (PMSA) as the governing body to confer designations in line with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) framework. They look after the interests of project, program and portfolio management practitioners by hosting a National Conference every two years, Regional Conferences and Branch meetings monthly in most cities. The Project Management Institute (PMI) is also represented locally in the PMI South Africa with local Chapters.
Project management is covered as Programmes and Master degrees at most universities. For Engineers separate Programmes in Project Management are offered to equip them with sound skills to work with the big budget projects in the infrastructure – and other industries.
Over the years South Africa has become known for some wildly successful projects.
King Shaka International Airport at Durban, a mega engineering project which opened on 1 May 2010. There were 2,100 contractors and subcontractors on site along with 200 earth-moving machines involved in the construction of the airport which finished on time.
Another noteworthy event was the Soccer FIFA World Cup of 2010. The main benefits included a catalyst for creating jobs and skills while expanding infrastructure; invaluable lessons were learnt in how to deliver on major projects; an economy boost, as well as a massive international image boost which was a huge injection for tourism in South Africa. See series of posts published about these projects here.
Then there was the Gautrain Project, the largest Public Private Partnership (PPP) yet launched in South Africa. It linked private enterprise and government in a project designed to become the central hub of a future integrated transport system for South Africa’s commercial heart. With a project value of about R20 billion, the Gautrain project was led by the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) and was structured to ensure that the government and the concessionaire, the Bombela International Consortium, operated within a strict set of financial and time parameters.
A last interesting project worth mentioning is the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project, divided between Africa and Australia, with all dishes to be built in Africa. Currently the MeerKAT telescope is under construction in the Northern Cape Province which will be the largest, most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, utilising ground-breaking science. The project is destined for completion in 2024. Read SKA AFrica for more interesting facts.
Other Mega projects, too many to detail here.
Given our country’s history of inequality and part of the working population that are not well educated, unemployment is a huge problem. This is being addressed by Government by using projects, especially investments in huge infrastructure projects as an opportunity to create jobs and to build skills.
Some more challenges we are faced with in South Africa are transformation, transition and sustainability. Project managers require an understanding of the real needs of business from a participating resource in the business context to become a more active business leader in the project delivery. South African project practitioners are compelled to take ownership of and responsibility for the impact of our projects by overcoming these obstacles through our daily activities and practices. Projects are critical to business for growth, innovation and change and can be positioned to influence sustainability by focusing on strategic initiatives and providing support to core business in achieving their production goals.
Project management as a career has grown tremendously in the past 20 years across all industries. The same can be said for project management services companies who offer training, software, products and consulting on project management.
It was fun sharing my opinion of project management in SA!
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa
The first ever PM FlashBlog was coordinated by Shim Marom in September 2013. More than 70 project managers from around the world shared their thoughts on what Project Management meant to them. Many stories were collected in a free ebook which you may download when you subscribe to my blog. You may also follow me on Twitter and discover the other participating bloggers using the #PMFlashBlog.
Footnote: This blog is part of the #PMFlashblog Round 2 2014, with a topic of “Project Management Around the World”. Starting March 3, 2014 blogs will be released every Monday morning for 7 weeks, beginning with North America, followed by Europe and Australia, South America, Asia and Africa with each week representing one or more countries.
Check out the 50+ outstanding bloggers participating in this flash blog by adding the #PMFlashBlog tag to your social media streams – there are some wonderful posts!
Also join Mark’s outstanding Google Plus #PMHangout and talk with our featured bloggers each week – a fabulous opportunity to join the PMFlashBlog conversation!
It all started with the belief that a contribution can be made to the project management profession! From the context of “learning, earning and returning”, it was time to return. It was fuelled by my strong desire to help people.
That was the birth of Virtual Project Consulting 5 years ago. The company would only consist online with its presence on a website or blog with the same name: www.virtualprojectconsulting.com
It was targeted initially at small business owners who didn’t have project management competencies or capacity within their own businesses and who would benefit from advice and guidance about project management, leadership, best practice tools and processes, as well as other related topics. This community was served through a product called, ‘The Project Management Toolkit’, guiding users about the application of project management on small projects. Coaching was also provided to aspiring project managers.
It was quite a journey. While figuring out ways to market Virtual Project Consulting online, I had to learn about Internet Marketing practices, as well as social media marketing and apply that to my online business. This contributed to the creation of another website at linkymerwe.com, which was complementary and all about integrated online communications.
Over the course of 5 years the target audience has changed to aspiring and existing project managers who are now also served by comprehensive lists of recommended resources for project management practitioners who are looking for products, software, training, websites and books. My social media community has grown on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Every year brought about some ‘recalculation’ in terms of what to focus on both professionally and personally. To me it meant reassessing my goals, direction and my view of what success means. Towards the end of 2013, this process of recalculating lead me to refresh the website, as well as to make a conscious decision to focus on one community only, instead of different audiences through additional websites. It’s about growth, perspective and new possibilities.
With a constantly moving landscape in which we operate today, being flexible, adaptable and responsible are key to success in a changing world. Success requires that one be nimble and ready when opportunity knocks. But opportunity favours those who are prepared rather than surprised.
Some highlights that caused me to celebrate over the years were:
Publication of articles in the Project Manager Magazine and associated website; contribution to articles in PMI’s PM Network magazine.
Being interviewed various times by international contacts for contribution to Webinars, training, surveys, research and for blog articles
Awards of being in Top Ten list of favourite project management bloggers more than once
Success Stories Shared initiative whereby experienced project managers share their stories about challenges and lessons learnt on projects. One of these stories was used as a case study in a printed text book for Operational Management. It also lead to talks at national conferences as well a local chapter meetings.
Participation on global initiatives like the PMFlashBlog when more than 80 project management bloggers contributed stories about “what does project management mean to me” by publishing them on the same day at the same time. Many stories are collected in an ebook that’s available for down-load here.
Excellent guest authors who have contributed blog articles over the years
I’m celebrating the opportunities of meeting wonderful new people every year and being able to participate in so many creative initiatives that contribute to the growth of our profession. It is still an honour to be around and to be able to serve people and to make a difference in many small ways. I am truly blessed and enriched by this experience and wish to continue sharing, enabling and growing.
Thanks for reading and sharing my 5 year celebration!!!
Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see more of as resources and information for PM’s.
Please subscribe to my blog to become part of our community and let me know how you want to collaborate.
If you would like to contribute to Virtual Project Consulting as a guest author, please send me a mail: linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com
An announcement from the Project Management Institute (PMI):
Submit a qualified nomination for the PMI Award for Project Excellence, PMI Project of the Year Award, or PMO of the Year Award before 1 April 2014!
A PMI Professional Award will help you gain new business, recognition from your colleagues, peers, current and future employers and the personal gratification of being recognized for excellence in project management. Plus, you’ll gain visibility among more than 700,000 PMI members and certification holders – the largest professional network of project managers in the world.
Award recipients will be honored among their peers at the 2014 PMI Professional Awards Ceremony preceding PMI® Global Congress 2014 — North America in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Please visit PMI Professional Awards for a complete list of all the PMI awards.
As a professional project manager you are concerned about your career growth and the future of your profession. You enjoy your work and receive much satisfaction from completing projects successfully. Yet the economy is not growing as expected and more people are reported to be part of the unemployment statistics.
How is the project management profession impacted by this?
A report published by the Project Management Institute called: “Project Management Skills Gap Assessment”, looks at Project Management between 2010 and 2020. (you need to be registered to view the Report)
The forecast is that between 2010 and 2020 15.7 million new project management roles will be created globally across seven project-intensive industries, along with tremendous growth in salaries. This enormous anticipated growth, along with higher-than-average salaries, will make the next seven years an opportune time for professionals and job-seekers to build project management skills.
Rising Salaries
It is said that this high demand for project-oriented professionals is reflected in both average salary and salary growth. Project Management Professional (PMP) ® credential holders in the U.S. earned an average of 16 percent more (approximately US$14,500) than their non-credentialed peers in 2011.
Growing Industries
Currently, project-intensive industries in the U.S. that support the greatest number of project management roles are business services and manufacturing, with 2 million and 630,000 project management jobs, respectively, in 2010. However, business services and healthcare (not currently a project-intensive industry) are expected to lead the pack in terms of growth between 2010 and 2020. In particular, the healthcare industry is projected to increase project management roles by 30%.
In 10 countries with established or quickly developing project management industries, project management roles are expected to increase by over 13.4 million between 2010 and 2020, to over 41.5 million. In addition, the economic output of the profession in these 10 countries will increase.
China and India will lead the growth in project management, generating approximately 8.1 million and 4 million project management roles through 2020, respectively. Total employment for project managers will increase in nine of the 10 countries.
The 10 countries with established or quickly developing project management industries are:
Australia
United Kingdom
Canada
Germany
Japan
China
India
Brazil
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
Conclusion
The rapid growth of demand for project professionals and the exceptional salary levels make the project management profession highly desirable to job seekers. Currently, demand for project management professionals is not matched by availability of resources with relevant project management skills. This means that job seekers will find the next 7 years to be an unparalleled opportunity to build project management skills and enter this flourishing market.
The report results point to immense growth of the profession globally. If you are an existing project management practitioner or an aspiring project manager, please take a look at the many project management resources listed on Virtual Project Consulting. You will find recommended training, products, software or valuable websites that will enhance your growth as a project manager.
Since September 2013 PMSA has been recognised as the professional body for project management in South Africa.
This means that PMSA has the sole right and the responsibility to confer the designations of Project Manager (PM), Senior Project Manager (Sr.PM) and Professional Project Manager (Pr.PM) according to criteria specified by PMSA, and in line with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) framework.
If you as project management practitioners have any questions in this regard, please visit the dedicated FAQ section on the PMSA website.
It is such an honour to be listed as one of Knowledge Train’s favourite project management bloggers for 2013. It is at times like this that one is grateful that your contribution is seen, shared and appreciated.
Please check out the recommended websites from the project management bloggers below. Also connect with them on social media and become part of our global community.
Managing projects can be hard for project managers who try to keep track of each and every process and operation in a project. Even if they have the required skills and capability to deal with projects, problems and issues may arise which could lead to projects getting delayed or even failing.
Fortunately many concerns can be addressed through the use of enterprise web based solutions. These web-based solutions are specifically devised to augment the human capability over managing projects and help them improve management of multiple projects. These tools enable easy description and documentation of various processes and operations that constitute a project.
A further benefit is that they enable fast and accurate communication and collaboration among team members which proves to be an asset for those organizations whose team members are situated at geographically different locations. They can easily communicate and collaborate over important matters and resolve them through purposeful interaction. They can remain in touch with their projects from any device whether it is a desktop, tablet, laptop or mobile.
The time spent over performing various tasks can be accurately documented which helps in true assessment of individuals’ performance while performing them. Moreover, organizations can bill their clients accurately by considering the number of hours spent over processing their orders. Even new projects can be easily planned and executed by referencing time related entries from old projects if the new projects are on the same lines of the already executed projects.
The important milestones and events can be properly highlighted and tracked through the calendar feature which helps to know exactly when a particular event needs to be staged, so appropriate resources can be arranged. Thus important milestone dates will never be missed.
Any problems or issues cropping up in a project can be tracked early and resolved effectively and quickly through mutual collaboration and active intervention. The progress of a project can be better tracked through the Gantt chart which helps to know if the project is on the right track or not. The level of completion of various tasks can be accurately gauged through this enterprising feature.
By using these tools, the processes and operations of a project can be better organized and scheduled and can be executed as per project plan. A project manager gets freed up from the burden of performing routine tasks like documentation, arranging meetings and tracking as most of the activities get automated. Thus he can better focus on the project affairs and ensure their timely resolution and execution. This saves time, costs and efforts over a project. This hugely facilitates its smooth execution and it gets successfully completed within the stipulated time frame with optimized usage of resources.
The use of an appropriate enterprise project management tool can indeed be a blessing for project managers who can get quality results with less work, and by focussing on the right things.
Author Bio: Sharon is a Business manager of ProofHub, a web based project management software that facilitates management and completion of projects as per schedule. It enables the team members who are spread out in different locations in the world to collaborate over project matters. With its use, organizational objectives can be achieved effectively along with the generation of intended gains and assets.
It has always been difficult to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) of investing in corporate training. Through the Infographic below corporate business leaders will see the various training fields where they can invest their money. Look how ROI has been categorized for different training areas. This will help business leaders take training decisions wisely.
The Infographic is supplied by Protential Human Capital Development, a leading provider of world class employee development training. Protential have over a decade of experience in training and consultancy in the United Kingdom, and other regions like Europe, Asia and North Africa.
The 5th of December 2013 was a tragic day for South Africa, the passing of Nelson Mandela at the age of 95. He has changed the course of modern history because of his fight against apartheid, the 27 years spent in prison and serving as our nation’s first black president of a democratic elected government.
As a leader he will always be remembered for his passion to fight for his vision, his willingness to forgive, freedom for all and reconciliation.
Nelson Mandela was born the son of a tribal chief in Transkei, a Xhosa homeland. Many South Africans of all races call him by his clan name, Madiba, which means “reconciler,” as a token of affection and respect.
Imprisonment
A statement made during the sabotage trial in 1964 by Mandela showed his ideal:
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
He was sentenced to life in prison, which he spent mostly at Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town.
In his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” he would write about his life after prison:
“As I finally walked through those gates … I felt — even at the age of seventy-one — that my life was beginning anew.”
President of first democratic elected government
South African President Nelson Mandela takes the oath
When Mandela became President in 1994, he closed his inauguration speech with:
“Let freedom reign. The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement! God bless Africa!”
Mandela celebrated holidays and hosted friends among the huts of rural Qunu in a replica of the prison guard’s home where he lived during his final days of confinement. Qunu is also where he was buried on 15 December 2013. About 5,000 people attended the state funeral, and millions more watched it on television.
Father of the Nation
Nelson Mandela is known as the father of the nation. This is evident when looking at new banknotes, released by the central bank in 2012, showing his face. Mandela statues are in front of buildings and squares; places are named after him. South African Airways even emblazoned his silhouetted image on planes.
There are some famous projects associated with the Nelson Mandela Foundation. From the Centre of Memory a $1.25 million project to digitally preserve a record of Mandela’s life, went online last year. The project by Google and Mandela’s archivists gives researchers access to hundreds of documents, photographs and videos.
The Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (NMCF) is a charitable organization founded by Nelson Mandela. Its mission is to help individuals from birth to age 22, and particularly orphans of the AIDS crisis. The fund currently has offices in Johannesburg, South Africa (Head Office) and in London, United Kingdom, which focuses on fundraising.
The ‘Nelson Mandela Day’ project is to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better, and in doing so build a global movement for good. Ultimately it seeks to empower communities everywhere.
Mandela’s last public appearance was in 2010. It was during the Soccer World Cup 2010, hosted by South Africa at the Soccer City stadium when he smiled broadly and waved to the crowd during the closing ceremony of the World Cup.
The other unforgettable appearance during a sport event was during the 1995 Rugby World Cup, hosted by South Africa, when he appeared at the final in Johannesburg, wearing a Springbok jersey to congratulate the victorious home team.
Visionary leader
He will be remembered as a visionary leader who managed to unite South Africa and who set an excellent example to leaders. As stated by Joyce Banda, the president of Malawi: “Leadership is about loving the people you serve and the people you serve falling in love with you. It is about serving the people with selflessness, with sacrifice and with the need to put the common good ahead of personal interests.”
That is what Nelson Mandela stood for and how he has won the hearts and minds of many people not only in South Africa, but all over the world. He was truly inspirational as captured in many of his quotes:
“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination”.
“When people are determined they can overcome anything”.
Thanks Madiba for the legacy that you are leaving behind…
Recently we spoke to a project manager, Simon Murison, who is a Management Consultant at IQ Business. Simon managed a 180 degree turn around on a troubled project and this is his story:
The project
It was a multi-year development project, IT focussed and in the energy management and information domain of the retail sector. The client wanted a system to help them monitor and understand their energy usage.
How a project in trouble was turned into a success story
There were two main areas of difficulty that Simon confronted when he took on the project. Firstly, his company was unfamiliar with energy management and that made them very reliant on the client for guidance. Over time, the project team realised that the solution specification and development required an in-depth knowledge of the topic and that generic systems development skills simply weren’t enough.
A second complication was that interaction with the client stakeholders was difficult and often highly confrontational. Simon found that the client did not have a comprehensive picture of what they wanted and that the resultant scope definition was broad and subject to interpretation. This had resulted in a number of conflict situations and a relationship which was fundamentally lacking in trust.
Turnaround and Impact
It was, in retrospect, a bad decision to fix the price of the project. When the project ran into problems, the contract put them under pressure from a delivery and timeline perspective. The client was unwilling to renegotiate on cost so it was ultimately the quality and timing of delivery that suffered. This put even more pressure on the project team resulting in decisions to augment and rotate resources on the project.
Simon had initially been brought in to help out with the business analysis but, after the protracted difficulties in overall delivery, took over the management of the project. This had a negative impact on the project budget, but it was believed that Simon could restore credibility and trust with the client. If the project had failed it would have had a very negative impact on a number of other client projects and future work.
The project team ultimately managed to address the issues with the work that had been done to date and, as a result of the earlier decisions and improved delivery success, Simon and his senior management were able to revitalise and refresh the client relationship.
All about relationships
They communicated that the project was running at a significant loss for the service provider, and that this was unsustainable. Once that understanding was reached, the client was more open to change and they were able to renegotiate the contact terms – a Time and Materials based pricing was adopted and the project operated more profitably going forward. The effect of this was a better relationship, improved trust with the client, a more profitable project and a project team that was under considerably less pressure.
The decisions made to turn around a trouble-some project proved effective. Through an open dialogue with client representatives, they could negotiate a way forward that worked for all parties.
Lessons Learnt
The initial decision to contract on a fixed price basis was as a result of ineffective risk management prior to signing. A proper risk analysis was needed before deciding on a pricing approach and they have now put a Risk Analysis framework in place for all stages of the project lifecycle. This process is now institutionalised and, if risks are identified up-front, the team now adjusts proposals and contracts to include the time, resources and/or costs needed to address them.
Profit margins can be negotiated down with the client; but risk margin cannot. You should never reduce the risk margin unless the risks themselves are transferred, mitigated or eliminated completely.
It’s important to document the assumptions made during contracting as they are often an articulation of the risks that may end up detrimentally impacting the project. If possible, a project manager should be brought in prior or during contracting process.
As far as software development is concerned, don’t fix the price unless you know the topic. If it’s a new area for you – if none of your PM’s or BA’s have had some experience in the field – consider contracting on phase by phase basis or use an Agile approach, not SDLC with fixed price.
Lastly, client relationships can be the turn-around. Focus on improvement of dialogue. Clients need to work with you as a partner to ensure successful delivery.
Simon Murison is a Project and Programme Manager with over 14 years’ experience in the Consulting industry. He has worked extensively with clients in the Retail and Financial Services sectors.
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