Merry March & thank you again for being Members of the ProjectManagement.com community!

This month, in addition to our usual "template release", we are including 5 NEW templates from our friends at PMI as well as 2 of our own new templates!

Download these quick before they're back in the PREMIUM library! These are all examples of premium content available 24/7 to our Premium Members. However, they are free to every registered member through Thursday, March 21st. We hope these make your life a bit easier – helping us fulfill our mission of making YOU more successful. If you are not already a Premium Plus member but would like to be, Premium Plus membership is available at a $50 discount using the code "KEEP50".

The following premium templates are available to all ProjectManagement.com members until 3/21. We hope you find them useful.

Bottom-Up Cost Estimating Worksheet (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)

Bottom-up estimates are detailed estimates done at the work package level. Detailed information on the work package and other direct/indirect costs are used to determine the most accurate estimate possible. Use this worksheet to help you keep track.

Cost Estimating Worksheet (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)

A cost-estimating worksheet can help you develop cost estimates when quantitative methods or bottom-up estimates are developed. Quantitative methods include parametric estimates, analogous estimates and three-point estimates.

Cost Management Plan (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)

The cost management plan is a component of the project or program management plan that describes how costs will be planned, structured and controlled. It includes a description of how costs will be estimated and budgeted, and helps define the methods used.

Change Management Plan (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)

The change management plan is a component of the project management plan. It describes how change will be managed on the project. Use this template to help guide the process.

Communications Management Plan (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)

The communications management plan is a component of the project management plan. It describes the communication needs of the project including audiences, messages and methods and is a vital component of stakeholder management.

Sample Weekly Status Report (NEW THIS MONTH!)

Stay on top of your project with this weekly status report template, which helps you track issues, delays, key accomplishments, planned activities and risks.

Sample Program-Level Status Report (NEW THIS MONTH!)

Keep track of major departmental projects using this sample status report, which helps you keep track of progress and risks.

Project Management Roles and Responsibilities

A PMO, Project Managers and Mentors must all act in concert to ensure that projects are executed efficiently and effectively. These role descriptions and matrices help clarify who does what.

Post-Mortem Documentation

Make sure no post-mortem details escape you by using this analysis form, designed to help you avoid potential problems with future projects.

Problem Escalation Matrix

There are always issues with projects and things are much easier if you know what your next option is for moving things along. This matrix offers a process for resolving various types of project problems and delays.

Prioritization Criteria Template

In order to resolve the defects inherent in most initiative prioritization efforts, there needs to be a pragmatic set of criteria against which each initiative can be ranked. This template can be used to help accomplish this objective.

Risk Evaluation Matrix

Once you know which factors are considered risks to yor project, arrange these factors into a risk evaluation matrix. Don't worry. We'll walk you through it.

Have you seen our new Requirements Management Practice Area? It's full of tips and templates to help you define the work that you are engaged in now. Take a look around and let us know what you think. 

We hope you are having an amazing year so far and thank you again for being a ProjectManagement.com member! We sincerely appreciate your support and are completely committed to your success. If we can help with anything project related, please let us know atcontactus@projectmanagement.com.

How do you steer a portfolio managed by a "mostly accidental" group of Project Managers?

PPM Software is becoming more "accidental-friendly" and Brightwork is a great example of that. Recently we spoke with Eamonn McGuiness, CEO of Brightwork to get his perspective on how to best manage those who consider PM a role they play rather than a profession. Here are his responses to our questions...

Dave:  Give me three words (not phrases) to describe Brightwork.

Eamonn:  Oh man, only three words… you’re breaking my heart!  But if I have to give just three, they would be:

Projects, Success, Easy. 

Hopefully you can see how those go together to create the BrightWork vision.

Dave:  What type of business and/or end-user is Brightwork MOST useful for? (e.g. - Small Business vs. Large, PM Mature/Not PM Mature, Line of Business Projects/IT Projects, Professional PM/PM as a role, Industry, Large/Complex One-offs vs. highly repeatable small projects)

Eamonn:  These classifications are very good, so let me talk a little bit about these in relation to BrightWork. 

• 50% of our customers would be divisions within large enterprises who use our software for their project work.  The other half of our customers are small to medium-sized businesses, who use BrightWork extensively across their entire business.
   
• The organizations that use BrightWork might have a few formally trained PMs who are leading the charge for project management, but they are not available to all projects. By and large, the majority of the folks are what we call P-MBAs – or “Project Managers by Accident.”  The idea behind our template driven approach to project management on SharePoint is to bridge that gulf in maturity and give project teams a fast and easy place to start, with the amount of project management that the entire team is ready and able for.
   
• BrightWork can be deployed for use in any number of business areas.  Many of our customers do use it to manage IT projects, but we also have customers using BrightWork in other areas as well such as product development, professional services delivery, marketing projects, and more.
   
• BrightWork is used by organizations across all industries.  If you check out the case studies on the BrightWork website, you will see that we have lots of customers across several different verticals. A neat thing about BrightWork is that it can be configured to match local or industry standard practices.
   
• Finally, we have customers using the product to manage large complex projects, as well as more routine, repeatable projects.  When I explain our templates later, I’ll give an example of how this works in the product.

So to summarize the answer, the real strength of BrightWork is that we specialize in the mix of project management scenarios.

Dave:  How would you compare Brightwork to Microsoft's Standard Sharepoint offering?  How does it compare in terms of both collaboration and PPM/EPM functionality? In terms of price? 

Eamonn:  When you think of SharePoint you think collaboration.  It does just what the name says – it is a place to bring your team together to work, share and collaborate.  But for those organizations that want to go a step further using SharePoint to manage projects and across portfolios, they will note that there are boundaries to the out-of-the-box project management functionality. 

Microsoft has built SharePoint as a platform that is designed to be extended. So where SharePoint is collaboration, BrightWork adds project and portfolio management functionality, such as:

1. Best practice templates to consistently initiate, plan, track and control all projects
    
2. Portfolio management templates and dashboards for visibility across many project sites
    
3. Status reporting, project metrics and KPIs for quick views into project health
    
4. Template design sync to easily configure and replicate best practices
    
5. Enhanced sync with Microsoft Project

SharePoint has a free version, called SharePoint Foundation and there is also a version that you can pay for called SharePoint Server.  Now SharePoint itself does not include PPM, but that functionality can be obtained through licensing a third party tool such as BrightWork on premise, or in the cloud paying per user per month. BrightWork pricing can be found on our website.

Dave:  Does the Brightwork Portfolio Management offering work best in a loosely structured or tightly structured environment?

Eamonn:  BrightWork is uniquely qualified to fit a mixed structure environment, so let me explain that. We have developed a really simple framework for project and portfolio management on SharePoint that allows organizations to start in where they are ready, and then add more process as needed, or use some combination of the two.

Here is a really simple spectrum we like to share.  Across the top of the diagram it goes from left to right, starting with a little bit of project management, to a lot on the right.  Then down left hand side, you see we have four workloads such as managing projects, managing portfolios, managing demand and managing work. Then we said well, you could manage projects with a little bit of project management or a lot, so we built templates for each.  You can manage portfolios with a little bit of project management or a lot, and we built templates for those too.  So all combinations of work and process are built into the product as SharePoint templates. 

It’s a very simple approach that we encourage our customers to use and adapt to their own situation.  For example, they might have several routine projects in a Project Lite template, a few complex projects using the Structured template, and then you manage across all those projects with a semi-structured Project Office.

Dave:  How do your best practices templates work? Are they based on proven methods and how does one decide if a particular template might work for them?

Eamonn:  The idea behind the templates is that they allow you put in whatever project management practices you desire and give that to the project team as a starting point.  You give the people a SharePoint site that is a set of rail tracks to guide project managers and teams.  It is a very pragmatic approach to getting started.

The SharePoint templates are based on project management best practices, and are intended to give organizations a fast starting point to manage their project work.   The templates enable teams to get started quickly with the amount of process that is necessary for the project at hand.  The choice of which template to start with is governed by two main factors.  One is the amount of project management that the project needs to be successful and secondly, the amount of project management that the team is capable of absorbing.  The templates are also designed to help you to evolve your project management maturity to where you want it to be.

Dave:  What percentage of your portal customers customize the application to integrate with their internal systems?  What are the drivers behind that decision?

Eamonn:  This would not be the primary concern for the majority of our customers. Most of them are more concerned with getting project management up and running really well, as opposed to integrating with financial, budgeting or other internal systems right off the bat.  That type of integration would typically occur in a later iteration.

Dave:  You talk about having a structured approach to implementation and rollout.  In your mind, what are the three most important factors when rolling out any sort of Project or Portfolio Management toolset?

Eamonn:  I think you might expect me to call out factors like: a commitment to project management, the aptitude of project management resources and the availability of training.  And those are three factors that are very important to the process.

But at BrightWork we like to use a quote from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, and that is: “That which we learn to do, we learn by doing.” So the best way to get good at project management, is to practice project management.  With that in mind, here is our approach:

1.      Start quick – with the amount of project management your team needs and is able for, and get some quick wins. 

2.      Stay relevant – decide the amount of project management you aspire to achieve, and then gradually build up to it bit by bit as needed.

3.      Evolve at pace – make the deployment process a series of projects itself, in which you deliver an amount of project management quickly, get feedback from the team, and build that into the next iteration.

Happy February & thank you again for being Members of the ProjectManagement.com community!

This month, in addition to our usual "template release", we are including 5 NEW templates from our friends at PMI as well as 3 of our own new templates!

Download these quick before they're back in the PREMIUM library! These are all examples of premium content available 24/7 to our Premium Members. However, they are free to every registered member through Friday, March 14th. We hope these make your life a bit easier – helping us fulfill our mission of making YOU more successful. If you are not already a Premium Plus member but would like to be, Premium Plus membership is available at a $50 discount using the code "KEEP50".

The following premium templates are available to all ProjectManagement.com members until 3/14. We hope you find them useful. 

Assumption and Constraint Log (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
You can incorporate this log into the Scope Statement, or let it stand alone. For planning purposes, assumptions are factors that are considered to be true or real without proof; while constraints are an applicable restriction or limitation (internal or external to a project) that will affect the performance of the project or process. 

Project Scope Statement (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The project scope statement details your project's deliverables and describes the major objectives, which includes measurable criteria for success. Use this template to document the six essential elements. 

Project Charter (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The Project Charter formally authorizes a project or phase. It defines the reason for the project and assigns a project manager--and the PM's authority level. The content of the Charter should describe the project in high-level terms. 

Stakeholder Management Plan (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The Stakeholder Management Plan is part of the Project Management Plan and identifies ways to effectively engage stakeholders. This template allows you to track each stakeholder and formulate a plan to work and communicate with each of them. 

Inter-Requirements Traceability Matrix (NEW THIS MONTH FROM PMI!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
One way to use a requirements traceability matrix is to trace the relationship between categories of requirements. An Inter-Requirements Traceability Matrix can be used to capture this information. 

Process Development Plan Template (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This template provides a step-by-step guide to developing a new organizational process. It is intended to be completed in conjunction with the development of the process and serves as a checklist for the completion of the work. 

Stakeholder Management Strategy (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This template helps the owner of a stakeholder relationship to determine the best approach to managing that stakeholder. This template may not be appropriate for all stakeholders, but should be used for major ones. 

Stakeholder Management Register (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
How important is the stakeholder? Can they drive change, cancel it, approve budgets? This template is a simple stakeholder register for identifying and scoring stakeholders based on importance and influence, and also has fields for major concerns and relationship owner. 

Project Plan/Project Definition
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Behind every successful project is a rock-solid, detailed project plan. This template defines every aspect of your project. The final product can be used to make what you are doing clear to all project stakeholders. 

User Story Template
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
User stories can help you efficiently and effectively describe what knowledge management should look like for your unique organization. This template provides insight on how to use user stories to help you define your KM universe. 

Methodology Implementation Project Charter
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This is a high-level example of a Project Charter for implementing a methodology, but the structure and approach will work for many projects. This example is heavy on risks and assumptions, light on budgeting, role descriptions and conflict resolution. 

ezEVA Template
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The ezEVA template is a historical earned value tracking tool used to measure current progress and forecast future project performance. Use this in tandem with our EVA series of articles. 

Risk Reviewer Job Qualification and Candidate Evaluation Checklist
PREMIUM CHECKLIST
Are you staffing your risk management team? This candidate evaluation matrix (Excel) coupled with the sample job description document (Word) will point you in the right direction for finding the ideal risk reviewer. 

Project Sizing Template
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The purpose of project sizing analysis is to determine the appropriate level of formality for a project in regard to structure and tools based on four key criteria: Stakeholder Impact, Risk, Project Responsibility Level and Organizational Level Impacted. It is inspired by the article Determining the Appropriate Level of Formal Documentation with Project Sizing. 

Sample Project: Effort-Based Project Forecasting
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Use this plan in conjunction with the effort-based project forecasting article and workbook. 

Design Milestones Review Checklists
PREMIUM CHECKLIST
This Design Milestones Review Checklist contains four worksheets: Design Milestones, High-Level Pre-Design, Technical Requirements, and Documentation and User Interface. 

According to the recently released 2014 PMI Pulse of the Profession report, only 63% of projects have active sponsors. However, Active Project Sponsorship was again listed as the TOP DRIVER for project success.

Just in case you are having some issues (or just want to tune things up), here are a few resources on the site that could help:

• Peter Taylor's blog post "The Campaign for Real Sponsors", gives you a list of job responsibilities for Project Sponsors. You can easily use this list to do a quick gap analysis, then politely suggest changes to your Sponsor.
• If you want to dive a little deeper, our Sponsor & Change Agent Toolkit gives you a number of awesome resources to help transform your Sponsor into a Change Agent. That helps you AND could help further their career. Bringing them this toolkit might score you some serious brownie points!
• There's also quite a bit of practical insight in the Enroll Sponsor section of Project Headway (our PM Process), including questions you would ask yourself when identifying your sponsor in the first place.

Best of luck and may you have better sponsorship than a European soccer player.

Happy December & thank you again for being Members of the ProjectManagement.com community!

Download these quick before they're back in the PREMIUM library! These are all examples of premium content available 24/7 to our Premium Members. However, they are free to every registered member through Wednesday, December 18th. We hope these make your life a bit easier – helping us fulfill our mission of making YOU more successful. If you are not already a Premium Plus member but would like to be, Premium Plus membership is available at a $50 discount using the code "KEEP50".

The following premium templates are available to all ProjectManagement.com members until 12/18. We hope you find them useful. 

Project Sizing Template (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The purpose of project sizing analysis is to determine the appropriate level of formality for a project in regard to structure and tools based on four key criteria: Stakeholder Impact, Risk, Project Responsibility Level and Organizational Level Impacted. It is inspired by the article Determining the Appropriate Level of Formal Documentation with Project Sizing.

PMO Business Planning Template (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This template is intended to help the PMO produce its annual business plan. Ultimately, your organization likely has its own template that you need to comply with, but this template is intended to help with the thought process and ensure that all of the key elements have been identified. It is inspired by the article PMO Business Planning.

Business Case Review (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This document is intended to help individuals generating business cases to validate their work using historic project information. It is inspired by the article BI and the Portfolio: Improving Annual Planning.

PMO Justification Checklist
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
If your company has a lot of projects going on, it's a good idea to have a central Project Management Office (PMO) to coordinate project teams and make sure everything gets done properly and on time. Use this checklist initially to assess whether you need a PMO. As projects progress, it can also be used to ensure that the PMO is effective.

Meetings Checklist
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
If you're working on a project, you're going to hold meetings. Use this checklist to help you keep yourself and everyone else focused on the business at hand.

Quality Assurance Program Checklist
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Quality assurance is a big part of successful software development. Use this checklist of eight questions to make sure you're producing quality work.

Project Continuation Checkpoint Checklist
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Is your project accomplishing its objectives? Perhaps it's off track. Don't waste resources and money. Instead, use this checklist to see if it should continue into the next phase and what you need to do to ensure its success.

Sample Project Risk Register Template and Guide
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The risk register records details of all the risks identified at the start and during the life of the project, their grading in terms of likelihood of occurring and seriousness of impact on the project, initial plans for mitigating each high level risk and subsequent results.

Are You A Valuable Team Member?
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Every project manager wants a dream team of competent, pleasant, reliable people who can be counted on to produce and work independently. Give your team members this checklist to monitor their own performance and inspire them to meet the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of doing the project well. (That includes pleasing you!)

Issue Tracking and Resolution Form
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Use this form to formally identify, track and resolve an issue related to a project. Complete directions are included.

The Seven Win Conditions
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Win Conditions address how success will be measured. How do you stack up when it comes to stakeholder satisfaction, your schedule, scope, quality, budget, ROI and team satisfaction? This templatehelps you rank priorities, and provides areas for metrics and descriptions.

Project HEADWAY Resource Management Plan
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Estimating resources on a project, be it people, equipment or materials, can often be a difficult challenge for a project manager. The purpose of this template is to allow the project manager to identify, document and estimate the specific resource needs of the project along with detailing how those resources will be managed.

Project Viability Checklist
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This checklist will help you decide whether your project is an idea whose time has come--or something better left undone. Call it a reality check!

Self-Assessment Checklist for Managers
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
It's time to be brutally honest with yourself and see where you can improve your skills as a manager. Take the test and see how you measure up. Go ahead, no one is looking.

How to Put Together a Zero-Based Budget
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Use a zero-based budget (ZBB) to establish priorities and the bottom line for a changing project. Of course, we'll walk you through how to do this.

Have a wonderful holiday season & thank you again for being a ProjectManagement.com member! We sincerely appreciate your support and are completely committed to your success. If we can help with anything project related, please let us know at contactus@projectmanagement.com.