PMI Global Insights

By: Scott L. Bain

A developer was working for a large financial company. The company leaders had an idea for a new product that would allow their customers to participate in foreign stock exchanges without having to stay up all night to time their transactions.

There would be many things to develop. A website that allowed customers to enter buy, sell, limit, and margin orders throughout the day to be transacted later when the foreign markets were open. A database would store all these accumulated transactions. Marketing would have to come up with a plan to promote this new product. Also a component, running on the server, would trigger at midnight to access a web service and commit these transactions as a batch.

The developer in question was assigned to create that timed component. The requirements seemed rather simple: The component would run on the main server and watch the system clock.  At midnight it would activate, retrieve all the transactions that had been stored throughout the day, open a connection to the external service, commit the transactions in the order they were entered, receive a confirmation code from the service, and write a log entry into the company’s daily activity log that included that code.

They knew how to open that web service connection, what the correct logic was to “commit” a transaction, and how to access the company’s logging API. Of course, they knew was “midnight” was. They met with the database administrator to learn the exact nature of the SQL table that would hold the transactions and what key to use to retrieve them in order. All of this seemed relatively familiar and straightforward and so they gave a low estimate on time and effort needed to get the work done.

Indeed, they got the component finished well within that time frame and checked the code in. The website and marketing were still in development and so they moved on to other work.

A few weeks later, the rollout of this new service was scheduled for a Monday. The day arrived and the product launched. It was immediately popular; many transactions were entered all throughout the day and everyone was enthusiastic about the product. The developer went home at the end of the day confident that the component would trigger at midnight and process the orders.

In the wee hours of the morning, they received a text. Disaster occurred; everyone was being called into the office. None of the transactions had gone through and they were anticipating many unhappy customers, perhaps even some legal action taken against the company. The developer went into work feeling a sense of puzzled dread.

What had gone wrong?

The transaction batch did not commit on time. It was too late. An SEC rule stated that if not every transaction was committed then none of them could be as a matter of fairness, so the external service had rejected the entire batch. Massive financial implications were the result.

This developer was relating this story to me a couple of years later.  I knew this person because they had been a student in several of my courses and in them had studied design, analysis, and testing.

“I didn’t know there was a deadline, a window past which the transaction would fail,” they said.

“An unasked question; that’s often the problem,” I replied. 

“Sure,” they said, “but then I realized something.  Even if I had known what that window was, I had accepted the requirement that the batch commit had to happen at midnight.  At midnight.  Nothing can happen at midnight.  Midnight is an infinitely short period of time and computers are not infinitely fast, and neither are internet connections.  Once it is midnight, it is immediately after midnight, right?  So what did the requirement actually mean?  By midnight?  Then how long before midnight should or can I start?  Starting at midnight?  Then how long do I have?  Also, this SEC regulation about all-or-nothing was something I had no idea about.”

“It sounds like this was not your fault,” I said.

“I guess not,” they replied, “but I realize that now, today, the way I work would have prevented this.  Today I would be driving everything from tests and the tests themselves would force me to ask the questions I didn’t.  The acceptance tests would make me ask ‘how will I know if I’ve failed?’ because I would need to start with a failing test.  Also, I would have realized the SEC was a stakeholder to my work and I would have included someone who understood their perspective.  The unit tests would force me to think carefully about the design of the component itself so I could do things like test it without having to execute the test at midnight in my pajamas.”

“Separation of concerns,” I said.

They smiled.  “Exactly. I now know how to achieve that without overcomplicating my designs.  But the real crux here was the fact that I didn’t understand what the requirements really meant, because the communication and collaboration had failed.  I lost that job as a result.”

This is not uncommon, unfortunately.  Communication, especially between technical and non-technical people is extremely unreliable.  Even when everyone intends well, there are too many mismatches among perspectives and too many questions that are missed.

Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) seeks to address this problem in a fundamental and comprehensive way.  How can we achieve a complete, meaningful, shared view of the product that is being proposed?  How can we record the results of the collaboration in a way that can be validated against the actual work as it is completed?  How will we know when we’ve succeeded?  How will we know when we’ve failed?

ATDD is a framework for highly effective collaboration across all parts of an organization.  It produces tests, but is not a testing activity.  It is a way to ensure that a product’s requirements are fully understood, including everyone’s perspectives. 

It is not a difficult framework, but it is essential if you want to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the work to be done will be in complete alignment with the business value that drives it. It is something that everyone needs to know how to do.

Join me at PMI Training 17-18 April for NEW! Acceptance Test-Driven Development: Improving Communication, Empowering Collaboration, and Creating a Shared Specification for New Products with Scott Bain (pmi.org). 

Interested in learning more about trainings specifically developed by project management experts for project managers in a small group setting? Check out the PMI Training website for upcoming offerings. 

By: Carlene Szostak
Quintina Solutions, LLC

Hybrid? Virtual? Face-to-face? We do 'em all!

The rise of remote work has caused a dramatic shift in how we collaborate and stay connected with our teams. With so many of us now working differently than ever before, it's essential to have the right tools and strategies to ensure everyone stays productive and connected. The question one must ask is, "How do you know how to choose?"

In this blog, we'll touch on a few of the best tools and strategies to ensure that you and your team can work both efficiently and effectively from wherever you are. So, what's the solution?

The short answer is C.A.T.

No, not the feline sort, but rather three distinct and needed steps for connectivity and productivity. First, there is "C" for celebration. Let me start with the end in mind. When speaking of celebration, it means something different to everyone.

Some team leaders might say that the success of a project well done should be celebration enough. This may have been true 40 years ago, but now generations matter. It has been learned that the younger your team demographics, the more expectation to celebrate. Big or small, a celebration is an expected part of the new normal. If you still need to make the time to celebrate, join us to learn some of the best practices.

Let's move to the letter "A." Assessing. Now that we have been virtual for a while, spend a few minutes assessing the tools selected by the company. Does it meet or exceed your needs? If so, great, don't change a thing. If it is difficult to use or has limitations, the chances of changing it might be slim unless you are the decision maker but know that you can enhance the tool with outside apps (assuming H.R. approves). Jack Box and Kahoot! are just a few app activities to help with team engagement. Integrate these tools within online meetings using Microsoft Teams, Zoom, GoToMeeting, etc., or create custom sessions around them.

What about fun? Try to build fun into meetings and brainstorming sessions as often as possible. These virtual events can be used to both collaborate and build camaraderie among team members. Assigning team members unique roles in meetings help too, such as assigning one person to facilitate the meeting, one person to note key points, etc. Finally, check in with team members frequently, even if it's simply a quick chat between formal meetings, so everyone feels heard and seen in the remote environment.

To get the most out of these meetings, it's important to ask questions that allow team members to share more than just task updates. Questions can include things like, "What's been your greatest accomplishment since we last spoke?" or "What challenges have you faced lately?" Asking these questions can help team members open up and ensure everyone stays connected despite being in different offices. Scheduling regular and consistent check-ins also give teams structure and keep them organized, which helps ensure tasks remain on track. Keep an open communication policy so any queries or concerns can be addressed quickly. Furthermore, give your team autonomy over how they plan and carry out tasks instead of micromanaging them. This will help create an environment of trust and collaboration between team members.

Mix it up. Not all teams need to be together all the time. Look at your world. Is there a natural break that will allow others to work together? Possibly, a sliver of a project that touches someone else. Or partner with others to create a new project paradigm.

The final letter is "T" for talk. Talk to me...no, really talk to me. The most significant barrier identified over the last 3+ years is associate retention. Employee satisfaction decreases significantly when it is limited or has no consistent face-to-face interactions. It could be as simple as associates feeling that out of sight is out of mind. Or you may be dealing with more complex issues like cultural differences, or lack of consistent collaboration.

The challenges are real. So, what do you do? Take a breath, devote specific time, and listen. This means providing communication channels where team members can feel comfortable expressing themselves and speaking up when necessary. Have clear communication guidelines such as an agreed-upon way to raise issues and resolve them quickly, decide who should take the lead on tasks, etc. Everyone should know how decisions will be made, who will make them, and how frequently meetings will occur.

Not to be overlooked is to establish ways to socialize with one another virtually —  virtual coffee chats, team happy hours — so there can be some level of human connection among team members. Give team members guidance on how best to communicate their ideas online.

C.A.T. is only the tip of the connected and productive iceberg. Interested in learning more and furthering the dialogue? Join me at the upcoming PMI Training 2023 events for Critical Tools and Strategies for Virtual Teams scheduled July in Boston, September Virtual, & October in Atlanta. We will cover steps to ensure sustainable success with virtual teams. We will discuss how to set expectations, use effective communication tools, and take a deeper dive into recognizing individual contributions. 

By: Kim Essendrup
Founding Partner, RAID Log

I had the amazing opportunity to speak about RAID logs at the 2022 PMI Global Summit. My talk was called, Show me your RAID Log, and provided some background on this “old-school” project management tool and highlighted how it is still very relevant for today’s project leaders.

There seems to be huge interest in RAID logs. To my surprise, even though we had a session late in the day on the last day of the conference, we had a full session – the line to get in went all the way down the hall!

Figure 1: Show Me Your RAID Log Session

As part of my talk, I asked participants to complete a quick survey about RAID logs to better understand their awareness and usage of RAID logs. The survey link was available to attendees prior to the session to help avoid any influence my talk may have had on responses. In this blog post, I’ll share the results of that survey and offer some commentary. At the end of the article, I will have a link for an infographic we made containing all the survey results.

Question 1: Have You Ever Used a RAID Log Before?

In speaking with Summit attendees during the conference, we found that about 25% of attendees were not immediately familiar with the term, “RAID Log” but were familiar with the concept of tracking risks and issues in a Risk Register or Issues Register. Our survey results found that over 70% of attendees have used a RAID log before – demonstrating that, at least among my session attendees, there is broad usage of this tool.

Question 2: Are You Using a RAID Log Currently for a Project You are Managing?

Knowing about a tool doesn’t mean you actually get use out of it, so next we asked how many attendees currently use a RAID log. We found that over 57% of our audience were currently using RAID logs. This represents over 80% of attendees who say they have ever used a RAID log, indicating that it is a high value tool for those who use them.

Question 3: What are the Top Benefits You Get from Using a RAID Log?

This was a fun question. Although as PMs we intuitively know there is value in using RAID logs to keep our projects on track, it was interesting to hear about the specific benefits that PMs get from this tool.

By far, the #1 answer was, Keeps me organized. In fact, 93% of all respondents who say they use a RAID log listed organization as a key benefit. When we talk about RAID logs, we talk a lot about the benefits of managing risks and issues, keeping projects out of trouble and of communicating with stakeholders and team members. But it’s interesting to see that our attendees felt the most common benefit of using a RAID log was to keep them organized as Project Managers. Even in a world of literally hundreds of tools for project management and personal organization, the simple RAID log seems to still provide strong value.

When coaching PMs, I actually see this quite often. RAID logs are the tool PMs use to manage the day-to-day operations of their projects. They are very flexible and extensible, making them a great tool for tracking and organizing the many things a PM has to stay on top of. This is particularly true when PMs manage have to manage multiple projects. Having a tool that orients you when “task switching” from one project to another is incredibly useful.

Question 4: What are the Greatest Challenges You Have Using a RAID Log Today?

The top answer to this question was not much of a surprise, as it is one that I think we all have struggled with: Self-discipline to keep it up to date. As great an organizational tool as it is, the discipline to keep it up is key to its success. In my session, I shared some techniques for keeping on-track and up to date with our RAID logs. But based on this survey, we will be developing more content and tools to make it easier for project leaders keep their RAID logs up to date.

Interestingly, nearly a quarter of respondents felt like they lacked enough knowledge about RAID logs to use them effectively. Although some of the components of a RAID log, such as a risk and issue register, are a core part of the PMI body of knowledge, RAID logs are more than their sum of their parts.

Take-Aways

Though the scope of this survey was limited to PMI Global Summit attendees, there are still some useful take-aways we can gain from this survey:

1. RAID Logs are a common and important tool: over 70% of our respondents having used them.
2. RAID Logs are great organizational tools: over 93% of those who use RAID logs cite “keeps me organized” as a key benefit.
3. The main challenge is keeping them up to date: something we all struggle with. Although we covered some tips for keeping them updated in our presentation and in our book, this is an area we will continue to explore and share best practices.

If you would like to download and share an infographic on our findings, you can find it here.

I had a great time presenting, and the full presentation will be on demand through 31 January 2023.  Visit 
Global Summit for more details.

By: Louise Fournier
PMI Montreal, Executive Director

By: Laurent Bour
Director of Project Portfolio and Investments, Société de transport de Laval

Who are our members and how can we reach the “Accidental” Project Managers? How PMI-Montreal used design thinking to understand and create content for a specific segment of PMs.

Working with design thinking method, PMI-Montreal analysed its membership and its content offer.

We discovered a new brand of project managers, working in the creative industries: Museum, Circus, large festivals, Gaming and Apps as well the Innovation and Start-up environments.

Using the Osterwalder and Pigneur Business Canvas Model, our team identified how to engage this ecosystem focused on creativity.

Our mission was to show them strong advantages to implement change via project management’s best practices and thus create a community.

Interested in learning more and furthering the dialogue? Join Laurent Bour and I on Thursday, December 1st at 2:00 p.m. PST at the Global Summit event for this presentation and take part in the question and answers with us and the rest of the PM community.

Looking forward to meeting you!

By: Kim Essendrup
Founding Partner, RAID Log

“I've made all the mistakes I'm going to try to help you avoid today" ~ Kim Essendrup, PMP

Often times, project managers get to a point in their career where they are trusted to go in and rescue projects that are in trouble – something like “the wolf” from Pulp Fiction. This is a tough job, but one that is, unfortunately, far too necessary. The Standish Group’s CHAOS report finds that 31% of projects fail – which is a lot of projects that need help. And with $1.7 trillion in annual capital spend in the US, according to the US Census Bureau, that’s a lot of project investment on the line.

Like many other project managers, I’ve had to play the role of the cleaner many occasions and sort out broken projects.  It is a tough job, but one which presents a unique opportunity to learn from projects as they are in the very process of failing.

RAID Me Not

There are of course a lot of lessons to be learned from these failures; what causes projects to fail, what things do and do not work to fix a broken project, and when it is time to make the hard call that a project is not worth rescuing. These are very important lessons because *none* of us wants to be in a position where our projects need rescuing, nor do we want to have to need someone come in and save our projects for us.

Of all the lessons I’ve learned from working with troubled projects, the one that is most actionable is this: I have never had to save a project which had an up-to-date RAID log.

That’s not to say that simply keeping a RAID log will solve all your problems. But it may be that using a RAID log will help you manage those problems well enough that you don’t need rescuing.

What is a RAID Log?

A RAID log is a simple but powerful tool for managing the delivery of work. The origins of RAID logs are lost to the dust of time - they were old-school 20+ years ago when I first learned about them. In its original and most simple form, a RAID log is a spreadsheet with four tabs; one each for tracking Risks, Action items, Issues, and Decisions (R.A.I.D.) for a project.

RAID logs are not the project plan. They are the tool you use to execute your project and manage your plan to success. While it seems like there is a new project management app released almost every week, nearly all of these tools focus on tasks management – whether they have GANTT charts and Kanban boards with bright colors, most of these tools focus on task management, with a few going beyond to do some resource and financial planning as well.

But unfortunately, the plan is not where projects go wrong. Projects go wrong because of unmanaged Risks, out of control Issues, forgotten Action items and poor Decision making. And the best tool to manage risks, actions, issues and decisions? The simple RAID log.

But I work Agile. Why would I need RAID?

Agile ways of working have significantly impacted project delivery for the better. Prioritizing people over processes, focusing on deliverables over documentation, being open to collaboration and responding to change all improve the efficiency of delivery. But does that mean there are no more risks? Does that mean issues are a thing of the past and that action items and decisions are no longer relevant? Of course not. A RAID log is just as useful and relevant whether you follow an agile methodology or a more predictive “waterfall” methodology.

In one of the few books on the topic, “Agile Risk Management” by Dr. Alan Moran, the author recommends an approach that is in-line with traditional project risk management. This includes analyzing organizational tolerance for risk and developing a “Risk List,” which is simply the beginning of a RAID log.

RAID Now.

Although it’s an “old school” tool, a RAID log is a critical tool for all project managers. This is why I’ll be speaking about RAID logs at this December’s PMI Global Summit. In this talk, I’ll talk in more detail about what goes into a RAID log, how to use one if you are new to RAID, and some new ways to use a RAID log that I think will be interesting for even the most experience project managers. I’ll even share a couple horror stories about how RAID logs saved the day on some of my project rescue missions.

Are you interested in learning more and furthering the dialogue? Join me on Saturday, 3 December at 9:45 AM, 45 mins at the Global Summit or Virtual Experience Series for this presentation and take part in the question and answers with me and the rest of the PM community.