People, Planet, Profits & Projects

Here is a short blog post just to point out sometihing of interest to those most focused PMs - the ones who read the PMBOK(R) Guide.

The 5th Edition of this guide has been out for a little while now, and the new PMP(R) exam based on this version will begin starting on 1-August 2013.

As some of our readers will know, we worked with a "crowd" of about 200 other PMPs to 'crowdsource' 18 changes to the PMBOK(R) Guide.  Most of these changes were 'deferred' to the 6th Edition, one was accepted after an appeal process.  In other words, most of our ideas to integrate sustainability into the PMBOK Guide did not get in this version.

However, as we study the guide further, we noticed that - whether we had anything to do with it is up for debate - but we noticed that one process name changed along the lines of our suggestions.  To quote PMI:

"The Verify Scope process was renamed to Validate Scope and the text was reworked to add emphasis that this process is not solely about accepting deliverables but validating that the deliverables will deliver value to the business and confirms that the deliverables, as provided, will fulfill the project objectives, as well as their intended use to the project stakeholders."

There are some pretty key words in there.  First of all, the main word - "validate'.  We are constantly preaching about the need for the PM to be connected to the organization's mission, vision, and values.  Well - the word validate, at least as we see it, is an affirmation that we don't just veirify scope, we test it against the project's, and as PMI says, the connection to the 'value to the business' and (shudder) 'intended use'. 

Do they mean 'long term' use?  Well, they don't say so explicitly, but they do say "use'.  And use refers to the steady state, to operations.  And that's a major message of our book.

We don't care how it got in there.  It got in there.

And that's what we call valid.

The year: 413 BC.

A fleet of Athenian vessels forms a blockade at Syracuse.  It's critical that they have the light of the moon to work and patrol.  One fateful night however, there is a full lunar eclipse and half of the huge 130-ship fleet is destroyed by the Spartans.

The Greeks realized that knowing when eclipses were coming... well, that just might be important. 

Flash forward to 1901.  A sponge diver discovers a wreckage of a Roman ship which clearly was full of Greek artefacts when it sunk, at some point probably around 65 BC.  Amongst the items in the wreckage is a small, laptop-PC sized chunk of corroded bronze metal which clearly is composed of gears.  Lots of gears.  Lots of very small, intricate gears that until that time, nobody thought the Ancient Greeks were capable of making.  Some of these gears even had pin and slot and other sophisticated mechanical 'tricks' to account for the eliptical and changeable orbit of the moon.  It's really quite an amazing device.

What drove them to invent this device, called the Antrikythera Mechanism, was a need for long-term planning.  Turns out that this device was actually a sort of astronomical clock/computer which could forecast not only the timing of the eclipses (both solar and lunar) but even the colors and directions of shadow which would be seen on them.  Pretty amazing stuff.

If you are interested in this story and the Antikythera Mechanism itself we strongly encourage you to watch this video and perhaps the entire episode of NOVA which covers the story (it's called 'Ancient Computer').  You may also like this video:

Our points here are simply these:

• Necessity is the mother of invention... and disaster is the grandmother of invention
  • (In a related but little-known sub-theory from project management, scope creep is the 3rd cousin of invention, and contingency reserves are the crazy uncle of invention, but it turns out that the risk register is only a close friend)
• The need to think long-term can be driven by disaster (such as melting ice caps, increasingly intense weather patterns, and so on) but it's better if it becomes routine and integrated into planning
• Project managers - driven by the constraints of time, resources and meeting the immediate scope or their projects - are not prone to integrate long-term thinking into their projects

Taken together, the Antikythera Mechanism can serve as a symbol for you and your project.  Did you think about the kinds of things that happen when your project is in its steady state?  Have you thought at all about the product of your project while it is in operation?  And - perish the thought - have you considered what happens to the product of your project when it is disposed of? 

All of those should not be 'Greek to you'.  We assert that they should be fundamentally part of your project planning process.

So - go out there and "gear up" for long-term thinking.

 Stay tuned here and also visit EarthPM for more posts like this.

Our little company is called EarthPM.  It's named that way so that it's clear that we are about the intersection of project management and sustainability, but also with the intended double-meaning that we are here for the project managers of our rock - the third rock from the sun - Earth.

So why the heck are you looking at a Mars bar? 

Well, we wanted to familiarize you - or perhaps refamiliarize you - with the concept from our book called "A Rainbow of Green".  The idea (although you need to read the book to fully understand) is that projects which are focused directly on sustainability - that is, those whose project product is a reduced impact on the environment or an improvement in CSR metrics, for example, are on the "green by definition" end of the spectrum, and that new Release 8.3.4.3.6b of your company's accounting software would be on the other end of this spectrum.

At a meeting of our local sustainability professionals tonight, the meeting, which took place at local non-profit consulting firm FSG, was kicked off by Special Projects Coordinator Mary Light, who gave us an example of one of their projects - one which involved the Mars Company.

To quote from FSG's web page:

"70% of the world’s cocoa supply originates in West Africa with Côte d’Ivoire as the world’s largest producer. Cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire is grown by more than 700,000 small holders who farm, on average, approximately 3 hectares each. Production volumes and quality have been constantly declining over the last decades due to a multitude of economic, social, and environmental challenges. The underlying problems include: fluctuating weather patterns, low incomes, weak rural infrastructure, lack of improved planting material, aging farms, loss of biodiversity leading to exposure to pests and diseases, deforestation, and declining soil fertility. Without urgent action to address these challenges, the cocoa sector faces the risk of collapse."

That is the challenge.  To address it, the project put in place is described this way:

"The analysis revealed a high potential for shared value creation — Investing in a comprehensive sustainability program in Côte d’Ivoire will help ensure the long-term success of Mars’ chocolate business and at the same time improve economic, environmental, and social conditions in cocoa-growing communities. The goals of the “Vision for Change” program in Côte d’Ivoire thus address all three levels of sustainability including:

1. Economic: Improve Farmer Incomes. Helping farmers to make their farms more productive and to increase the quality of their crops will improve their income and allow them to better cover their family’s needs and reinvest into their farms.
2. Environmental: Improve Environmental Management. Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) will increase soil fertility, and more productive farms should reduce expansion of cocoa farming into protected forest areas.
3. Social: Invigorate Rural Communities. Empowering local communities will lead to improved living standards in cocoa-growing communities.

Mars understood early on that the challenges within the Ivorian cocoa sector are too complex to be tackled by Mars alone. The “Vision for Change” initiative for Côte d’Ivoire outlines a multi-stakeholder Collective Impact approach, combining pre-competitive public goods investments with supply-chain investments. Mars has proactively engaged with other interested stakeholders and sector investors including the Ivorian government, national institutions, the World Bank, bilateral donors, commercial suppliers, certifiers, and NGOs. FSG has facilitated a partnership between Mars and the Ivorian government, national agricultural institutions, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). In March 2010, Mars and the government of Côte d’Ivoire signed an MOU as the basis for future collaboration.

Most recently, FSG has been assisting with the implementation planning of the “Vision for Change” program including developing action plans, orchestrating and facilitating meetings and communication among existing and potential partners, and providing continued strategic advice to Mars as the catalyst of this Collective Impact initiative."

This is about as far to the "Green By Definition" side of the spectrum as you can be, and still be on Earth.  And in fact, maybe it's not so coincidental that it's the Mars company that's doing it.  But we jest - the idea is that more and more of these proejcts need to be launched, and even better, managed by project managers with an improved sense of, and understanding of sustainability issues.

We encourage you to read more about the efforts of Mars, by following this choclatey link....

And, of course, we encourage you to read more about this in our book and by following us on Twitter and EarthPM's own blog.  Thanks!

...but perhaps not for long.

At least...not without the help of many water-related projects and project managers with sustainability awareness in their arsenal of talents.  Read on - you will find that as a project manager, you may be a strategic asset!

According to a U.S. State Department document released on World Water Day last year, the need for fresh water will exceed the supply by 40 percent by the year 2030.

The document contains this interesting graphic, so if you learn nothing else from this post, here is one takeway with the latest facts:

From this, we see that only 2.5% of the world's water is fresh water.  And in turn, that is used for all of the items shown on the right part of the chart - agricultural, industrial, residential.

All of this points to shortages that concern us not only from an (important) ecological and business perspective but even as a security issue for the US.

Quoting from the document:

We assess that during the next 10 years,

"Water problems will contribute to instability in states important to US national security interests. Water shortages, poor water quality, and floods by themselves are unlikely to result in state failure. However, water problems—when combined with poverty, social tensions, environmental degradation, ineffectual leadership, and weak political institutions—contribute to social disruptions that can result in state failure."

In other words, it can bring down whole governments.

Back to the U.S. State department report.  As a project manager, ever felt "strategic"?  Well, perhaps you should.  Here's a gem for you:

"we assess that states will also use their inherent ability to construct and support major water projects to obtain regional influence or preserve their water interests.". 

Where does that 'inherent ability to construct and support major water projects" come from?  Well of course, partially from the natural resouces of the state, but also, from....YOU.  You - as a PM - are part of the states' ability to support the projects.  So congratulations on your newfound strategic value!

Read more here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/03/22/world-water-day-a-forceful-reminder-that-the-u-s-is-running-out-of-fresh-water/

People always ask us, "do I need to be an expert in a field to manage projects in that practice area?".   Our answer is, of course, 'it depends'.  But if pushed, the answer is no.  No, one doesn't need to be an expert.  But what one needs is something critical and that is conversancy.  One needs to be able to talk intelligently and to know how to find out more and to find the expertise, even if it isn't directly part of your own capability.  I suppose we could say that one doesn't need to be an expert, but one needs to be able to apply expert knowledge.

To that end, we'd like to help you take advantage of some recent research which will provide you with increased conversancy on the topic of clean energy, improving your knowledge not only of the technical aspects of this area but an advantage in terms of knowing where the PM jobs are - and will be - as the green economy grows.

After all, Green Project Management, as we've written about in our book, is about the altruism of doing the right thing.... about PMs being the change agents and the ones who can help apply sustainability prinicples on their jobs... but it's also about the other green.  The money, the opportunity, the growth, it provides for your PM career.  And there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing the right thing for yourself, your career, your discipline of PM.

"Clean Energy Trends 2013" was just released by CleanEdge.  You can download the entire document here.

The 5 trends they identify in this brand-new report are:

• Smart Devices and Big Data Empower Customers, Open New Chapter in Energy Efficiency
• Distributed Solar Financing Comes of Age
• Under the EV Radar, MicrohybridT echnology Saves Big on Fuel Consumption
• In the U.S. and Overseas, Geothermal Picks up Steam
• Perfectly Natural: Biomimicry Makes its Mark on CleanTech

Here are some highlights from the report that shows a project manager how to "follow the money" in terms of clean energy project management opportunities:

• "Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel) reached $95.2 billion in 2012, up from $83.0 billion the previous year, and are projected to grow to $177.7 billion by 2022. From 2011 to 2012, global biofuels production expanded from 27.9 billion gallons to 31.4 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel. Market size growth over the next decade is expected to be driven by added production, but also by modest price increases.
   
• Wind power (new installation capital costs) is projected to grow from $73.8 billion in 2012, up from $71.5 billion the previous year, to $124.7 billion in 2022. Global wind capacity expanded by 44.7 gigawatts in 2012, a record year led by more than 13 GW added in both China and the U.S., and an additional 12.4 GW of new capacity in Europe.
   
• Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation) decreased from a record $91.6 billion in 2011 to $79.7 billion in 2012 as continued growth in annual capacity additions was not enough to offset falling PV prices. While total market revenues fell 19 percent – the first PV market contraction in Clean Energy Trends’ 12-year history – global installations expanded to a record of 30.9 GW in 2012, up from 29.6 GW the prior year. Germany remained the top market, adding 7.6 GW in 2012, followed by strong growth in China, Italy, and the U.S., which each added more than 3 GW. By 2022, solar PV revenues are expected to grow to $123.6 billion.

Together, we project these three sectors will continue to grow over the next decade, nearly doubling from $248.7 billion in 2012 to $426.1 billion in 2022."

Here's a graphic from the report for those visual thinkers out there:

So if you're interested in building your conversancy in the area of clean energy, have a look at the report.

Do yourself a 'career favor'.