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U.S. CIO Vivek Kundra Says Process Continues to Trump Outcomes
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
| The US$80 billion U.S. federal IT project portfolio needs to escape the "deadly loop," said Vivek Kundra in the government keynote address at the PMI Global Congress 2010 -- North America. Too often, people are spending more energy preparing reports than on executing, he said. As the United States' first CIO, Mr. Kundra is charged with the strategic direction of IT coordination across the entire federal U.S. government. On his first day on the job, Mr. Kundra remembers being handed a stack of PDF documents covering the government's vast array of IT projects, some of which dated back to the early 1970s. It wasn't that many were millions of dollars over budget or months behind - they were billions of dollars over budget and decades behind schedule. The U.S. government was making massive capital investments that didn't produce business results. The Department of State, for example, has spent US$133 million on security documents for 150 major IT systems in the past six years, he said. The documents comprise 95,000 pages and 50 feet of shelf space. They cost US$1,400 per page. Mr. Kundra joked that reports were filed away more securely than the very systems they were supposed to protect. "The government has created a culture where process continues to trump outcomes," he said. The U.S. government has focused on a three-step strategy to improve the process behind government IT projects: 1. Shine light. "For too long, we've tried to sweep these problems under the rug," he said, but unless CIOs and project managers have candid conversations there will never be solutions. Government must move away from "faceless accountability," he said. "Because everyone is responsible, no one is responsible." The Obama administration is taking that directive figuratively as well as literally. It went so far as to put up pictures of every CIO responsible for an IT project along with the project status. "Very quickly, we started seeing change and people started focusing on those investments," he said. Successful projects should get their share of the limelight, too, so best practices can be shared and simulated. Mr. Kundra called for the creation of a community where our project managers can "practice" in the same way a pilot might go through flight simulation. It starts from the top. U.S. President Barack Obama, for example, is committed to making sure IT investments are producing dividends promised at the beginning. Mr. Kundra even posted a picture of the president monitoring the government's IT project dashboard. 2. Make tough decisions. After identifying where problem projects are, the government has to be ruthless in deciding which projects to pursue, Mr. Kundra says. It "should not continue to throw good money after bad money." Instead, it must terminate projects that won't deliver dividends and focus on turning around troubled projects. "People are too afraid of the color red. It's okay -- red is actually a nice color," he said. But project managers and CIOs must embrace and take on challenges --not pretend there aren't issues. "The goal is not to be green, the goal is to drive outcomes." 3. Reform federal IT. The U.S. government must rethink how it manages IT projects. It will look at structural challenges for how it funds and forecasts -- making sure project outcomes are customer-facing and have shorter deliverables. Mr. Kundra said he'd like to introduce the threat of Darwinian pressure seen in the commercial sectors -- where IT companies are just one click away from extinction. No matter what sector you're in, the pressure's on -- and the United States' first CIO is no exception. "If we can manage this $80billion portfolio effectively, we can solve a lot of problems." |
Learning From The Best
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
| Structure, talent and fun -- those were the success factors behind the three finalists for the 2010 PMI Project of the Year. Last night at PMI Global Congress 2010--North America in Washington, D.C., USA, the National Ignition Facility was named PMI Project of the Year. Ed Moses, PhD, principal associate director at the facility, said the 12-year nuclear fusion project to build "a miniature star on earth" could not have been possible "without strict adherence to the basic tenets of project management." "It was one of the most complicated projects ever undertaken by the federal government. Just about every step of this project was unprecedented in scope, scale and complexity," Daniel B. Ponemon, Deputy Secretary of Energy said last night. And still, the project managed to come in "just under budget and just ahead of schedule," he said. The two other finalists were the Dallas Cowboys Stadium Project, built for the U.S. football team in Texas, USA and the Norton Brownsboro Hospital Project, Kentucky, USA. This morning, we heard more about all three projects in a panel discussion. Joining Dr. Moses were Mark Penny, project executive for Manhattan Construction Company, which worked on the project to build the Dallas Cowboys stadium, and Janice Weaver, associate vice president, enterprise program management office at Norton Brownsboro Hospital. Ms. Weaver credited structure and clear roles and responsibilities for helping the team bring in the project on time and on budget. Dr. Moses agreed with the need for process, but also said you need people to make it happen. And Mr. Penny called for a dash of fun -- the team stuck to process and hired experts, but was determined to have fun, too. Stakeholder management emerged as one of the key challenges for all three projects. For the hospital team, it was the surrounding community. "The pressure was on from the beginning. The community was watching," Ms. Weaver said. And the stakes were high. "If you don't do it right, it's really a matter of life and death," she said. "It's a new perspective for project management." Dr. Moses was contending with an ever-changing lineup of government agency leaders, congress and scientists. The project endured nine congresses, three administrations and seven secretaries of the Department of Energy. Project managers can't look at politics as something they stay out of -- you have to find a way to make stakeholders happy, he said. And for Mr. Penny, it came down to one stakeholder: the "very engaged" team owner Jerry Jones, who decided to add features that took the project from US$650 million to US$1.5 billion. "All the enhancements were from the owner, so did we stay in budget? Absolutely!" Look for more awards coverage -- including the full list of winners -- on PMI.org. |
How Project Managers Can Help Their Communities
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
| Tonight, I accepted PMI's Community Advancement Award--Organization category at PMI Global Congress 2010--North America. Being the former president of the Institute of Taiwan Project Management, I feel very grateful. Unlike other personal awards, this award honors an organization, which gives recognition to the efforts made by ITPM, a collective labor made by 300 volunteering project managers. Community work enables people to live better lives. For project managers who enthusiastically dedicate themselves to their communities, project management tools and techniques can help them be more efficient and productive. Po-Jen Huang, PMP, project manager and architect at Far Eastern Technical Consultants Co. Ltd., for example, volunteered to help re-build five village schools that were destroyed around Taoyuan in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Every aspect of the reconstruction work -- collecting and analyzing requirements, time and budget control, risk management and quality assurance -- was completed under stringent project management methodologies. The team reached its goals within budget, without significant delays while delivering quality outcomes. Here are some ways project managers can use their skills to help their communities: Effective communication: Using their team-building and conflict-resolution skills, project managers can help communities bring their ideas together. Project managers can also help their communities identify problems, set priorities, develop confidence and solve problems together. Process management: Tapping into their shared language and knowledge of project management skills and practices, project managers can effectively establish guidelines and procedures. Project managers are very aware of the different categories of risks, risk triggers, and the procedures for quality assurance and quality control. The response to a community effort can be more efficiently guided, and the transition to different phases of community work or reconstruction can be managed smoothly. Solid execution: Project management skills and practices ensure community work or construction is carried out quickly and efficiently. Minimal delays rest with what all Professional project managers are good at resource allocation, time and budget management. If they stick to that, the project should have minimal delays. |
Networking Tips for Congress
Categories:
PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
Categories: PMI Global Congress 2010 - North America
| Learning is one reason for attending PMI® Global Congress 2010--North America. But there's another good reason to go, and I'm convinced it's the best one: to meet people and network. The things I've learned in congress sessions have been valuable and helpful, certainly. But some of the people I've met have had an even more profound effect. For example, as a result of meeting certain individuals at the PMI Global Congress 2006--EMEA in Madrid, Spain, a roundabout sequence of events led my wife, our five children and me on a two-year assignment to Rome, Italy. I'm often asked, "What did you learn at congress?" But no one has ever asked, "Whom did you meet?" Yet I'm sure that the people we meet have far greater potential to radically change our lives than the content of even the best presentations. Networking is about meeting people. Getting to know each other, finding common ground, staying in touch and, eventually, helping each other. Here are 10 suggestions to help you maximize the value of networking at this year's congress: 1. Bring plenty of business cards. Have them handy, but not too handy. You want to be prepared, but not seem overly eager. 2. Go through business cards from previous congresses. This will refresh your memory so if you run into previous acquaintances, you'll remember their names. 3. Consider contacting people you've met at previous congresses. If they're returning, make plans to reconnect. 4. Go on the congress web site and visit the Meet Attendees section. Look for people you might know and set up a date to meet in person. 5. Practice your elevator speech. Be able to describe your job briefly and succinctly -- short enough to deliver in the course of an elevator ride. 6. Attend the networking events and resolve to meet new people. Avoid hanging with the same people all the time. Give lots of people the pleasure of meeting you. 7. Take a genuine interest in others. When you engage in conversation, you'll learn more about them and uncover points of common interest. Ask questions and listen for the answers. (Learn more about dealing with people in my session.) 8. Don't hesitate to ask for a business card. If there's something you want to remember about that person, note it on their card right away. 9. Don't squander the opportunity to meet people. Your e-mail will be there for you to read at the end of the day. Don't let it prevent you from meeting the person who could change your life -- or whose life you could change. 10. When you get home, follow up. After a few days out of the office, you might feel like you need to get right back into work, but set aside a few minutes to reach out to the people you met. Long after this congress is over and much of what you learned in the sessions is long-since forgotten, you can still have a game-changing relationship with some of the people you met there. |
Making the Most of Team Differences
| Some teams crash when there are differing personalities -- especially those teams that transition to agile methods. The adaptive mindset is different than what many people are used to, and different than what some personalities may prefer by nature. Team members come in with different skills, work styles and views of the world. When teams don't understand this, fights can erupt over simple issues. But when these differences are recognized, the team can leverage the diverse perspectives for better results. People often view situations through a combination of four basic personalities, according to David Keirsey's temperament sorter: Artisans prefer to use their skills to adapt to the situation at hand. These are all legitimate approaches to situations. But strife may occur in teams that don't understand people are born with different inclinations. What happens, for example, when someone asks a guardian to change a plan? What happens when one asks an artisan to plan too far ahead? Can the facts-based view of the rational inadvertently miss something or trigger some discord? Can an idealist's sensitivity miss a key fact? All these scenarios are valid, as change, schedule, facts and feelings play out in a business situation. Everyone must realize their teammates may start at a different position when working problems together. Rather than being a source of friction, though, these different positions can be an asset, bringing all the options to light. |