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PMOs Shouldn't Forget the Project Manager
A project management office (PMO) usually follows one of three styles:
We aim to avoid direct ownership of projects except in specific cases, such as when the project is located where local project capability is low or the project has gone badly wrong. In this latter case, we aim to "own" the project for as short a time as possible and always develop a transition plan back to the original project manager if possible. The PMO should generally not be considered the "mother of all project managers." Rather, it should be seen as the body that helps develop the best project managers -- the ones who are facing stakeholders on a day-to-day basis, the ones experiencing the meeting of theory and practice. A PMO can:
Let's not forget the project manager. |
Can Agile Conquer the Physics of the Triple Constraint?
| I recently saw a presentation from an advertising agency that claimed it would be able to do what no other company had: It had figured out how to deliver complex projects (in comparison to other digital advertising projects) inexpensively, on spec and faster than any other firm in the pitch. It was more of a tag line, so there was little by way of explanation behind the claim. I held my tongue during the formal pitch, but made a point to ask the presenter a few questions after the meeting. Primarily, I wanted to know if he had heard of the triple constraint. The "iron triangle" as some refer to it, defines three pillars: cost, scope and time. It asserts that you have to prioritize the three with an understanding that trying to have all of them at the same time compromises quality. Some assert that several additional factors come into play when discussing a project's success. I agree with this, but I disagree with removing the triple constraint model from training, as I believe it's such an easy concept to teach, understand and enforce. My confidence in the triple constraint made it hard for me to believe that anyone had truly convinced themselves they could beat what is, essentially, physics. But sure enough, I got a very firm response from the organization: "We are able to deliver this service because we take an agile approach in our production processes, making us more efficient and thus able to deliver more value for the customer." Confused, I pressed a little further. "As I understand it, agile as a methodology does not allow you to overcome the basic physics outlined in the triple constraint. Agile simply prioritizes the tradeoff as one of scope rather than time or quality," I said. Of course, it wasn't a discussion I was going to win in this setting. Looking around, I saw that the speaker's entire management team had bought into the theory and were smiling proudly at their triumph. I let it go. But it struck me how much confusion still seems to be out there around the triple constraint and the ability of newer methodologies such as agile to overcome it. How many of you have had your management tell you to explore agile as a way to get your current project work done faster without sacrificing any of the three pillars? And how many of you still use the triple constraint to help you explain the basics physics around project execution? |
New to the Game? Go Back to the Basics
Categories:
New Practitioners
Categories: New Practitioners
| I remember the first time I went to a supermarket in my new neighborhood. I felt a small sense of familiarity -- yet completely out of place. When I pushed forward to an aisle I assumed would have what I was looking for, I was shocked to find my product wasn't there. I was in a new world. Many new project managers get the same feeling when they start on the job. You sit at your desk and wonder where to even begin. You've organized the office holiday party. You've planned the family vacation. Yet the scale of project management you're tasked with now is much more rigorous. You've been here before in a sense, but not like this. Some of us had never been in leadership positions before the call to manage a project came along. Some of us have never managed other people or someone else's money. More than some of us have never formally run a project. Project managers just starting out or with only a few years of experience may regularly feel out of place in this world of methodologies, frameworks and processes. There are dozens of new terms to learn and discussion about which method is the best. The key is to not let the unfamiliarity overwhelm you. If you focus on what you know -- even in the face of all that you may not know -- you'll be on much surer footing as you move forward. Go back to the basics: You know how to listen, observe and ask questions. You know how to speak to people. You know how to get information and keep that information handy and organized. You may not know what to plug into (BAC - EV) ÷ (BAC - AC) = TCPI or even what any of those letters mean. But until you find out, rely on what you do know. Soon enough you'll be making your way around a project with ease and, in time, the unfamiliarity will start to fade. And you'll feel right at home in your new world. |
Tools for Distributed Teams
Categories:
Agile
Categories: Agile
| It's rare to find project teams that are collocated anymore, including agile teams. People are increasingly working from home, remote locations or overseas. Traditional communication tools like teleconference or e-mail are often insufficient due to a lack of a sense of presence. But a new generation of tools offers better possibilities for teamwork. These new tools aim to provide effective communication and help remote agile teams by simulating a visual environment. 2-D: Tools such as Sococo show the layout of an office floor and represent people by dots. Each team member gets an office. When people visit each other in the same room, voice, audio as well as text messages are limited to that room to indicate who is speaking with whom. They can also share screens easily. 2.5-D: Some tools show static 3-D representations of a space. The pictures do not move, but participants feel like they are at a live event. They can navigate to rooms to attend events of interest and gather with people of similar interest in chat rooms. Unisfair and On24 are examples of this, and have been used effectively for trade shows. 3-D: The next class of tools uses an avatar of each team member in a 3-D space. But many have different features that allow different uses. Most use a stereo sound that fades with distance to highlight who is speaking by reducing the volume of their voice according to distance. Venuegen is designed to get people running quickly and to show body language through common gestures. A variety of settings can be chosen, ranging from an office, war-room, classroom or trade floor. Each contains screens to show presentations, web pages, documents, video and images. Teleplace extends this model by allowing team members to post notes on the wall, display documents, and also to co-edit spreadsheets simultaneously in 3-D breakout rooms. This platform is popular with government teams for training and simulation. Teleplace and graphically rich environments based on the Unity3d toolkit allow importing of professionally created models and settings. 3-D programmable: some platforms allow users to create custom objects with easier modeling tools, or even script interactive behavior. Opensim based environments are popular with universities, and platforms such as the Unity3d toolkit support more advanced programming. No matter which tool agile teams use, many of these platforms create engaging venues for training and collaboration. Seeing visual representations of yourself, others, documents and data allows new ways to erase the distance between today's dispersed teams. Pictured: A sample screenshot from the Sococo tool. The views expressed within the PMI Voices on Project Management blog are contributed from external sources and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of PMI. |
Beyond Superficial Networking
Categories:
Career Development
Categories: Career Development
| In a previous post, I wrote about sincere questions as the most powerful tool for learning about a person. Oftentimes, we stop asking questions too soon. After a few superficial inquiries, we don't start seeing the affinities, so we don't dig deeper. This is exactly the wrong thing to do. Think in terms of layers. The most superficial questions are in the first layer: Where are you from? Where do you work? Where do you live? First-layer questions aren't usually enough to help you find the leads to uncover a real likeness. It's the follow-up questions that allow you to penetrate the next layer. I've found that if you can "mine" a line of questioning down about six layers deep, you will surely strike gold. If you ask someone where they're from, for example, and they say, "Little Rock, Arkansas, USA," you might think, "I have never been there, so we have nothing in common." You might then move on to another superficial question or end the conversation completely. Or, you could reply, "Isn't former U.S. president Bill Clinton from Little Rock?" This might induce a response like, "Actually, he moved there after he became attorney general, but I recently saw him speak at the PMI® Global Congress." Ah ha! You've struck gold. Now you can ask more questions. "You were at the PMI congress? So was I. What did you think of former President Clinton as a speaker? Did you see any other presentations you liked?" By eliciting the simple fact that this person had been at congress, you opened up many more possibilities for deeper questioning. Any of these could be a potential source of further questions. Try it. With practice, you'll start to notice a spectacular phenomenon. You will become quite skilled at sensing where the "gold" lies. And you'll begin to discover you have affinities with practically everybody. |