The Critical Path

First and foremost, I know that the entire world may in a state of uncertainty and/or anxiety. This feeling only demonstrates that we are all human, something we all have in common. As Coronavirus causes the usual delivery of programmes around the world to be disrupted, we here at PMI are working hard to support the ProjectManagement.com community through this period of uncertainty. As we embrace this uncertainty together, I urge you all to “March On” and Remain Strong! We have valuable resources and information here on the site to keep us informed and up to date, so I encourage you to keep tabs on the on goings within this fabulous community, solely comprised by YOU! So, let’s begin!

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.  Given that action, you may be required to work at home given the continued spread of the coronavirus-19.  There is little doubt that is putting remote work to the biggest stress-test ever. Continue reading Kevin Coleman’s Blog post that reveals how this virus-related work at home experience of employers and employees will influence the future of work forever.

Can You Believe It? The PMXPO 2020 Virtual Event is just two weeks away!!! So that means there’s plenty of time to register for this live, FREE event on 26 March! Whether you’re a seasoned PM or new to the field, it's your opportunity to learn, network with thousands of your peers, earn PDUs and a badge, and broaden your perspective on project management—all from the comfort of your home or office. And best of all, it’s all free! You definitely don’t want to miss our Keynote Presentation—Building Unstoppable Teams: How a House Built a Family, presented by Cara Brookins. Register Now for PMXPO 2020!

REMINDER: Our virtual Ask the Expert Webinar Series will focus on the Healthcare industry with the first webinar scheduled Monday, 16 March 2020. Our Experts are: Lori Wilson and David Davis. Register here so you don’t miss out on this important topic!

Did you miss our most recent “Ask Us Anything” series on 27 February 2020?  If so, no worries, you can now watch it On-Demand! This webinar, “We Are Many, We Are One! Discover The Face To Face Community Aspects Of PMI: It’s 300+ Global Chapters!” explored the value of PMIs 300+ chapters across the globe to learn how you can benefit from engaging with the one close to you. Face to face exchange with your PPPM peers - close by - in your language - relevant to your career, your industry and your market. You will also learn how chapters align to and deliver on PMIs strategy, how they are created and run, and how you can get involved even as volunteer! Check it out!

Check out PMI’s new offering, the PMI Ascent Certificate.  With 4 clear, practical, actionable tools, this course will teach you how to build a shared vision with your agile teams, lay the foundation for a productive collaboration and create project plans that enable agility and ensure success for your projects. Click here for detailed information and FAQs.

Ambassadors Program Reminder: Our Community Ambassadors, Emily Luijbregts and Andrew Craig, are here to help you – ask them about anything from navigating the community to networking to career advice! Please feel free to reach out to Emily & Andrew with a direct message via the Inbox.

That’s all for now, we encourage you to check back for future updates within the Critical Path blog. Thank you for all of your feedback and engagement and keep up the good work!

During 2019, PMI’s Digital Communities team worked on a number of initiatives to increase engagement, enhance the sense of community, and bolster programming within its online community. Check out the Ask Us Anything webinar series to learn more about PMI; talk all things ProjectManagement.com on the Community Central discussion board; or seek guidance from one of our Ambassadors. We look forward to continuing such efforts in 2020 and beyond in order to advance the community!

The community’s evolution has led the team to reevaluate the Influence Score, which was launched in September 2014, and the purpose that it currently serves on ProjectManagement.com. Much has changed over the last five years - we have discovered that there are likely better ways to gauge and encourage engagement within the community.

As the community grows, we would like to find more useful ways to recognize all of the effort that community members put into engaging with each other, lending expertise, and enhancing the community’s vibrancy. For this reason, the Influence Score will be retired as of 30 March 2020. While you will no longer see the Influence Score (blue dialogue box) on your profile, the scores for topic areas (innovation, strategy, change management, agile, etc.) will remain. This functionality offers valuable insight into domain expertise within the community. You will also still be able to view the list of Active Members on the ProjectManagement.com home page.

We are certainly evaluating ways to continue to recognize community members’ contributions and demonstrate your helpfulness, impact, and leadership within the community – stay tuned for updates! As always, please reach out to a Product Specialist if you have any questions.

by Maricarmen Suarez, PMBOK® Guide-Seventh Edition Development Team member

At the center of every project effort, we find people. Stakeholders in various positions can and will impact the outcome of our endeavors. As practitioners, it is essential to engage these stakeholders early and often to understand their needs and interests. Active engagement will be a critical success factor in realizing the intended value of the project. Simply put, choosing whether or not you want to engage stakeholders is not an option—engagement is a must!

An example that comes to mind is a project to contain the further spread of a virus outbreak. There are certainly millions of stakeholders that would have to be considered in this case. A public health crisis not only impacts patients and healthcare workers on the front lines, it also includes the media, medical supply providers, and many others inside and outside of the healthcare industry. Think about the supply and demand challenges should manufacturing plants have to close for an extended period of time. Yes, an outbreak has the potential to disrupt entire markets, and the stakeholder impacts are immense. This can be overwhelming!

While planning the stakeholder engagement, it is crucial to recognize that the stakeholder landscape is rarely static. Individuals or organizations will morph throughout the life cycle of the project; new actors will appear while others move to the background. Their degree of influence will also have ebbs and flows. Focusing on the response to the virus outbreak, we can identify the World Health Organization as a stakeholder with a high degree of influence. This specialized agency is concerned with global public health and leads the collaboration of many other segments to ensure the highest possible levels of health around the globe. Understanding the influence a stakeholder has can help us develop a specific engagement approach.

Another criterion to consider is the impact or the degree to which a stakeholder can effect change. In our example, think of the clinicians and public health officials. They can positively impact the outcome with their clinical management decisions or their ability to share clinical data in a timely fashion. Project leads can act as a force multiplier by being aware of stakeholders’ needs, interests, and opinions. This will allow the project lead to facilitate a shared solution, focusing on delivering value.

People fuel project delivery. Often we can think of this in terms of the “what” and “how” of efforts. The “what” is the result that the project aims to deliver, the outcome ultimately leading to value. The “how” is the behaviors or skills that foster a collaborative stakeholder landscape. Some tools that would help a practitioner in this area include:

• Interpersonal skills: Things like integrity, honesty, and respect are essential to fostering healthy relationships.

• Communication: Open and transparent, a practitioner should be able to flex their style as needed to ensure everyone is engaged and informed.

• Collaboration: We win or lose as a team. Being able to function in a cross-functional environment and craft shared solutions is pivotal to success.

Ultimately, the impact of engaged stakeholders can lead us to develop better response strategies and project outcomes. In our example, engagement can lead to better understanding, carrying out a plan, and communicating effectively. These are certainly steps to achieve the outcome of containing the spread of a virus!

Over the years, I have shifted my perspective from stakeholder management to stakeholder engagement. Humans, unlike widgets, can’t be managed, and attempting to do so is an exercise in futility. They can be engaged within the context of the project type, industry, environment, or delivery approach. Correctly engaging stakeholders, understanding their individual needs and levels of influence, and aligning the project efforts to support those needs is essential. This critical focus area will lead to the achievement of a much stronger outcome. This is why I believe stakeholder engagement is an essential project performance domain for all projects regardless of type and approach.

Change is in the air at PMI and within the online community!

Over the coming months ProjectManagement.com will be undergoing a community transformation and we want to make sure you are up to date on the latest information while also giving you an opportunity to provide your feedback as we move through the process.

As part of this transformation we will be migrating our current community to a new community platform and making updates that ensure that we continue to deliver the experiences you love within the online community (active discussions, the ability to connect with like-minded individuals, access to resources and information), while using the feedback that you have offered us as input to enhancements that will make connecting with each other and the resources you need and want easier. And while there may be some interruption to your current experience as we get further along in the migration, we want you to be assured that any changes to that experience will be communicated in advance to the extent that we can, and that ultimately our goal is to support the features you currently use, while benefiting from new and exciting features that will be available to you as part of our new enhanced platform.

This is your community, so your input is important. We’ve already been speaking with a few of you to gain your insights on what will be meaningful to see in the future. And we want to make sure that we continue to hear from you. We are in the beginning stages of this work, but please stay tuned to this space for future updates and for ways that you may be able to get involved and lend your voice.

This is an exciting time for PMI’s online community and we hope you're as thrilled as we are about the possibilities of what's to come!

Stay tuned to The Critical Path blog for regular updates!

The PMI Sponsored Research Program awards grants of up to US$50,000 per project to support research whose themes and perspectives have direct application to theory and/or practice of project management.

The 2021 call for proposals is now open through 25 April 2020.

We encourage proposals on research involving multi-disciplinary teams of investigators or teams consisting of academics and practitioners who bring new ways of thinking and related bodies of literature to the field of project management. Investigators are welcome from both within and outside the field of project management, including management, organizational psychology, sociology, education, linguistics and others.

To learn more about the program, including eligibility criteria, submission guidelines, key dates, and more, visit https://www.pmi.org/learning/academic-research/sponsored. You will also find published research from past PMI Sponsored Research Program-funded projects at https://www.pmi.org/learning/academic-research/published.

Proposals can be submitted directly at https://pmi.submittable.com/submit.