The Critical Path

How did you become a project manager? Chances are you “stumbled into it” in the course of your job, but now it’s become your career.

As we move through this uncertain time and into what the future holds, project managers will continue to be in high demand as corporate and government entities plan projects to adapt to new ways of working and living. That’s why its more important than ever to understand how PMs become PMs, and how they progress in their career paths.

The latest issue of the Project Management Journal takes a close look at project management careers. It features research that identifies how project managers enter into, and progress within, the profession. The journal is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Project Management Institute (PMI). 

The April 2020 issue of the journal opens with what we know about the project management career path, and why we need to know more. Project manager careers are often accidental, cross-occupational, and eclectic. Building our knowledge helps PMs plot more productive and satisfying career paths, and helps organizations foster their talent in order to benefit from more successful projects. This opening editorial is open access, which means it is available for anyone to read.

Articles in the issue investigate: the benefits of integrating project management with career studies; students’ readiness for project work; graduates’ readiness for project work; project manager competencies; factors that predict career success among project managers; and factors that stall careers. If you’re a member of PMI, access to all content in the journal is a benefit of your membership. Many universities and other academic institutions also have subscriptions to the journal.

You can find this special careers issue of the journal at https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/pmxa/51/2

SeminarsWorld is not your typical virtual meeting

Let’s face it, we all need career boost every once in a while. Now more than ever it’s important to grow personally and professionally, building skills in leadership, communication, agile methodology, and beyond. Well here’s your chance. You have an opportunity to attend a highly intensive immersion in learning, offering significant PDUs, and rich interactions with your instructor and classmates all from home. You can take part in small group classes online and gain the capabilities and skills you need to turn ideas into reality.  

Join us for PMI® SeminarsWorld® Virtual which will be held 18 - 21 May 2020 from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. EDT. 

Why attend?  

Our real-time virtual meetings are available to support professional development at all levels for anyone managing projects, programs, or portfolios. Not only is it a hub of creative, passionate individuals but you are able to learn in a casual, collaborative virtual environment. It’s a space where you can share insights with other professionals and learn from their experiences and accomplishments. You’ll be able to connect in real time to your instructors and your classmates while you discuss your current challenges. 

What will you learn at SeminarsWorld? 

Seminars include topics in advanced leadership, portfolio management, program leadership, how to think strategically, and team member engagement. Choose from a wide selection of online training classes. See the full schedule here. 

Join our talented industry professionals for live, highly interactive, one-to-four day small group online workshops and gain insight into today’s hottest topics and toughest challenges. 

Register Now!

Can’t make in May? No problem, view our upcoming SeminarsWorld events. 

SeminarsWorld is open to both PMI members and nonmembers, although members receive significant discounts on registration. Group discounts and government rates also are available. 

If you have questions, or need assistance with an existing registration, please contact us at [email protected]. 

Thank you all, and we wish you well!

In response to these uncertain times, PMI and our communities around the globe are in a unique position to help. Knowing the power project managers have to make ideas a reality, we are launching a new social good campaign starting 29 April – PMImpact. 

This initiative aims to make a positive impact throughout the world by encouraging and empowering you, our global community of passionate project professionals, to use your skills to aid communities and individuals impacted by COVID-19.  

Visit our new PMImpact microsite to see how you can volunteer and share your own unique stories of volunteerism and positive impact.  

You can contribute in two ways:

1.  Complete a quick submission form 
2.  Share your story on social media using the hashtag  #PMImpact 

We’ll be selecting stories to share on our PMImpact microsite, and resharing on our social media channels.  

As project managers, we get stuff done and in times of crises, we roll up our sleeves to do whatever we need to help. Every little bit helps.  

If you have any questions, please send an email to [email protected].  

We can’t wait to hear your stories!

by Nick Clemens, PMBOK® Guide–Seventh Edition Development Team member

Focus is a key part of successfully leading project teams and managing projects. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide®)–Seventh Edition outlines eight interdependent areas of focus or performance domains that combine to form the project management delivery system. Through this system, projects deliver outputs (products and services) that provide benefits and deliver value to our customers and organizations. These performance domains cover, Stakeholders, Teams, the Life Cycle, Planning, Project Work, Delivery, Uncertainty, and Measurement. Let’s look more closely at the Project Delivery Performance Domain.

The Project Delivery Performance Domain focuses on meeting requirements, defining scope, and quality expectations and driving results to meet intended outcomes. It is the correct elicitation and interpretation of requirements that lead to good scope definition and meeting customer quality expectations. In the next few paragraphs, I will briefly look at each of these elements focusing on requirements.

As project managers, we not only want to “build the product right,” i.e., building our deliverable correctly or according to specification, but we also want to “build the right thing,” i.e., deliver the output that enables the outcome expected by our customer. By building the right thing, we deliver what our customers need, which then drive the benefits to value delivery train. Requirements fall into two broad categories, those dealing with managing the project and those associated with defining the deliverable. Here I will focus on requirements related to the deliverable.

First, every project creates something unique. There are always unknows at the start of any project. The amount of unknows and the deliverable drive the type of project approach used. Under a predictive project approach, most product requirements are defined near the beginning of a design effort. On the other hand, most agile approaches use multiple deliveries over time, where requirements are also defined over time with each iteration. In both cases, the goal is the same, to deliver or build the right thing to meet our customer’s needs and expectations.

Second, building the right thing is the hard part of interpreting requirements. Language and meaning may not always be precise.  I may express what I want, but the person I am talking to may not understand precisely what my needs are. For example, I may express to my associate that all effort should be taken to deliver the new product by the end of the quarter if practicable. In this case, complete understanding rests with how my associate interprets the words “if practicable.”  I may express what I want, but my associate may interpret those requirements through a different lens than mine.  We may think we have a common understanding but find that we mean different things. The same is true of our project teams, and the situation is made more complicated by the fact that we usually deal with multiple individuals and customer teams from different organizations.

Lastly, we need to understand that not all requirements are the same. Some requirements are high-level and relate to the project’s business case. Other requirements are user-level or related to customer needs and wants. Finally, requirements may also be at a lower or design level. These lower-level requirements deal with product design and specification. Building the product right relates to meeting these low-level specifications and standards. Usually, a good design team will get this right. However, a quality control effort should be in place to assure adherence to standards. As outlined above, making sure you build the right thing relates directly back to understanding your customer needs and desires. Here is where user or product level requirements come in. At this level, the project manager and the team deal with customer expectations. The customer’s expectation of our deliverable defines how our product is perceived, and hence it’s level of quality as seen by the customer.

When the overall quality of the product is tied to our customer’s expectations, the strong link between building the thing right and especially building the right thing is clear. A good quality control effort assures quality production or building the product right. However, building the right product or meeting customer expectations may only be achieved thorough a continuous elicitation and cross-checking of customer needs and desires throughout the project. There should be no surprises with delivery, whether that delivery is iterative or singularly based.  

If I had to sum up what I believe constitutes the Project Delivery Performance Domain in four bullets, I’d say:

• Understand the intended outcome, not just the desired result. Build the right thing!

• Building the product right and building the right product realizes the intended outcomes.

• Quality derives from customer expectations being met.

• Customer expectations are understood through requirements elicitation and interpretation.

These are surreal times that we are living in right now. The COVID-19 global health crisis is taking a toll on everyone. Some are personally affected by the virus. Some are on the front lines battling this pandemic. And many of us are charged with ensuring that work continues to move forward for our organizations and those that we serve.

Personally, it hasn’t been easy. I’m grateful that I am able to get work done and find ways to maintain some sense of psychological and emotional balance while ensuring that my team (and all of you!) still feel like someone is there for them. That is invaluable during this time. However, that’s not always the case for many.

Here are a few things to remember for yourself while you’re trying to get through.

Check-in with yourself

It’s ok to not be ok. And it’s easy to stuff those feelings down and tuck them away in order to make sure that others feel cared for. But the fact of the matter is that it’s not helping anyone if you don’t address your own feelings. If you’ve ever taken a plane ride anywhere, what’s the first thing the flight attendants tell you about the oxygen mask? Put the mask over your own face before trying to help your neighbor. If you need a break or help or someone to talk to, seek that help and give yourself room to breathe so you can be of help to others when they need it most.

Stay active and eat well

Taking care of our bodies is essential to supporting our own care. Studies have shown that regular exercise and maintaining a healthy diet can have positive impacts on the brain and its chemistry, relieving stress, improving memory, and lending to a good night’s sleep. Even when we aren’t in times of crisis, physical well-being and mental well-being go hand in hand and are essential to ensuring that you feel some balance. And just because we’re social distancing right now doesn’t mean you have to skip out on physical activity and healthy diet. There are plenty of apps available that can help you get a 30-minute cardio session in or create a culinary masterpiece that will have your taste buds dancing!

Take a break

This is easier said than done if you have a team of people helping you move work forward. If you are a team of one, look for ways to get what you can done and set the expectation with stakeholders that you may be unavailable for a few days just to reset, if you have the luxury of doing so. It’s okay to unplug and not be connected for a period of time to allow yourself room to breathe. In fact, it’s almost a must. You can’t be any good to anyone else if you’re not allowing yourself a little breathing room (see the oxygen analogy under “Check-in with yourself”). I also think it’s extremely important to note here that if you have a team, you need to make sure they have the opportunity to take a break, as well. I cannot stress this enough. This isn't an easy time for any of us. Give them time outside of the weekends to recenter. Insist upon it. Let them take care of themselves, too.

Talk to someone

There are a thousand different ways that publications and journals will tell us to make sure we take care of ourselves during uncertain times. And there will be times when it seems like none of it is working. Reach out and talk to someone. That someone can be a counselor, a best friend, someone in your network, or a support group. If you’re having a hard time coping, acknowledge it and find someone you can safely express your concerns to. Don’t feel like you have to hold it in.

Continuing to operate "business as usual" isn't easy during a crisis. It’s even more difficult when we’re not sure how we’re going to get through it. But it can be done. Take care of yourselves – first and foremost. And then make sure others have what they need to keep moving forward. 

To all of those on the front lines and deemed essential during this pandemic - THANK YOU. Your work is not in vain and we're here to support you.