PM Network

Once you are done reading about The Rolling Stones—and I know that with those guys on the cover, that’s the February PM Network story you’ll read first—kindly turn to page 38. Here you can learn about the all-important customer experience. It’s essential in this rapid-paced-feedback world of social media that your project incorporates customer needs and desires from start to finish. If you don’t, you will hear about it quickly enough and loyalty toward your product and organization might take a crippling hit.

The article provides hints on how to interview and/or observe customers to gain insights into customer “pain points.” Experts say feedback data is also highly valuable for project teams to assess customer needs. A sidebar touches on how project teams can change their mindset to be more customer-centric.

For those looking at bottom-line value of bringing customer into the process, the article cites a McKinsey study: Bring customer experience into product development, the study said, and see revenue go up by 5 to 20 percent and costs go down by as much as 25 percent, all within two to three years.

How do you bring your customers into the process? How do you identify them and figure out their needs? Please share your stories in the comments below.

The World Bank predicts global GDP growth of 2.8 percent, up from 2.4 percent in 2016. While this should bring lots of opportunities for project managers, not all countries will share in that. PM Network’s annual jobs report focuses on the economic outlooks for India, Germany, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, the United States, China, United Kingdom and Brazil. Practitioners give their thoughts on how the role of project manager will evolve in 2017. Also learn about five emerging economies—Vietnam, Mexico, Indonesia, Colombia and Botswana—with good project management opportunities.

Do you think your country will have economic growth in 2017? Please let us know in the comments.

The Agile Manifesto is 15 years old, and the debate is on: Is the agile approach being diluted? This is the subject of a feature article in December PM Network, and we want your opinion.

There is no denying that agile approaches have spread beyond software development to other industries and organizations large and small. Some experts complain that agile is used as a “smoke screen” for project managers who don’t bother defining product features and a vision of the solution. Others say thought must be put into how agile approaches relate to waterfall. In sidebars, two manifesto co-authors give their take on the state of agile today.

What do you think? How does your organization use agile approaches? Do they work in providing customer value and bringing successful strategic outcomes? Please let us know in the comments below your experience and opinion on the agile debate.

We don’t often show children on the cover of PM Network. In this month’s cover story, kids are essential stakeholders in a project to build a beautiful new Sandy Hook Elementary School on the site of one of the deadliest shooting tragedies in the United States. Project managers rose to the task of sensitively considering the needs of the students, their parents, teachers, school administrators and the community.

Continuing its series of in-depth PMI Project of the Year finalist case studies, PM Network details the initiative to consolidate and centralize pediatric health care services in Queensland, Australia. The challenge was to cut down medical risks that came from shuttling patients among several facilities. Two existing public hospitals were merged and shut, and services from a private hospital were incorporated.

Next time you raise a glass of “suds,” consider the fact that the beer industry is a growing project hotbed, anticipated to have US$688 billion in sales by 2020. Trends include consolidation of larger brewers and growth and even globalization of smaller craft breweries—witness a U.S.-based brewery setting up shop in the beer haven of Germany. Plus, have you heard about the Belgian brewer connecting brewery and bottling plant via pipelines under the streets?

So you want to switch industries…what can you expect? A PM Network article tells you—expect to do a lot of learning. You need to acquire industry-specific jargon and learn about the new competitive landscape, as well as figure out what the priorities are in the field.

The global market for 3-D printers is forecast at US$41 billion by 2020. This potentially disruptive technology is making certain business activities, such as prototyping, much faster and easier. Project managers in a number of fields from biomedical engineering to construction will need to know the ins and outs of 3-D printing.

Where are the opportunities? PM Network’s Edge section lets you know. Learn about stadium-building projects, cloud-seeding initiatives, the government IT landscape and the challenges of modernizing old legacy systems. An infographic compares 10 countries in terms of factors related to the cost of doing business. We examine the risks connected with holiday retail projects and look into the future with a report on solar-powered aircraft. Did you see our highlight video this month? You’d see an animation related to yet another Edge story—creating extra-sensitive prosthetic arms.

PM Network taps into a wide network of practitioners and experts for more great tips about projects and managing them. Topics from our “Getting It Done” practitioners this month are working large construction projects and managing big data projects. Subject matter experts present their thoughts on making portfolio management more mature; improving communications by recognizing that what you think are shared understandings may not be; and how an enterprise project management office can fend off downsizing attempts. Plus there’s an interview with a Doctors Without Border official on why his organization launched a PMO and tackling resistance to that change.

Did you know…if your native language is español or Português and you are a member of PMI, we have you covered! You can read the current and recent issues of PM Network in your language.

Just a couple of weeks back, PMI bestowed its 2016 Project of the Year Award to a team from the U.S. Department of Energy. Their project, the National Synchrotron Light Source II, is a game-changer for scientists. This month’s PM Network takes a look at this project, which created the world’s most powerful photon microscope.

The device is allowing scientists to develop, understand and manipulate nanoscale materials at a single-atom resolution. The project team took advantage of global advisory committees to help them identify potential design problems and mitigate those risks. Sizable contingency budgets were set aside to cover procurement risks. The initiative closed six months early and delivered additional scope.

Speaking of awards, the 2016 PMO of the Year will be awarded next month at the PMO Symposium. This issue of PM Network previews the three finalists. These PMOs (from BC Hydro, Entel and Parker Aerospace) are relied upon by their organizations to meet their strategic goals.

Airports are the venue for many new IT upgrade projects. Requirements for these initiatives relate to security, reliability and ease of use, as well as ensuring that technology adheres to global safety and technical regulations. Nothing can be shut down for upgrades, even for a day. It’s critical to include all stakeholders, even minor ones such as airport store managers.

Trouble for a project manager can come from a team member’s negative behavior. A PM Network feature describes hotheads (easy to anger), credit hogs, chatterboxes, lone wolves (who hesitate to engage with the team) and minimalists (who only do what is assigned). It offers tips on how to deal with each of these characteristics.

The virtual reality platform has taken off, with sales of VR devices projected to hit US$40 billion by 2020. Software developers are finding agile approaches work best in an environment rife with untested technology and still-in-development hardware. Project managers sometimes have to decide between missing deadlines for the sake of quality or possibly reducing quality to make tight deadlines.

Design thinking is a process for generating creative solutions. It is being used more and more by organizations seeking to innovate while growing into new markets. Integrating design thinking and agile approaches helps organizations find and build the right customer-focused solutions. Those who have integrated the two approaches say design thinking can help passionate, energetic agile teams do what they’ve always wanted to do—create clever and relevant deliverables.

Follow the trends affecting your profession with PM Network’s Edge section. This month, Edge includes reports on governments adopting building information modeling for its construction megaprojects, projects that aim to save coral reefs, and initiatives in the growing waste-to-energy market.

PM Network’s Voice section speaks to you with practical advice from practitioners, subject matter experts and executives. In October, Voices includes the popular “Career Q&A” column, with recruiter Lindsay Scott answering reader questions on increasing experience in project initiation and planning, describing classified projects on a résumé without sharing sensitive information, and getting the most out of PMI membership. Practitioners are “Getting It Done,” sharing with you tips on bringing order to a project in chaos and how to deal with managing more than one project at a time.

Did you know…if your native language is español or Português and you are a member of PMI, we have you covered! You can read the current and recent issues of PM Network in your language.