The Critical Path

PMI and ProjectManagement.com want to know how YOU use your project management skills in your everyday life!

Examples might include a video of your awesome vacation planning spreadsheets or a photo of your family’s Kanban chore board.

Or just tell us, by photo or video, how you “geek out” on project management when you’re off the clock. 

How to enter:

• Upload a video, photo or text story at pmi.org/myprojectlife for a chance to win OR submit your video/photo on Instagram using the hashtag #MyProjectLife.
• In your description, include your first name, PMI certification (if applicable) and let us know if you're a PMI member.

Tell your story by 15 November 2016 and you could win an Apple Watch® Sport.

We are excited to announce the ProjectManagement.com September book club!  The book club provides an opportunity to participate in webinars and discussions around selected books relevant to the overall practice of project management.  The book club occurs in three parts:

1. Opening pre-recorded webinar which will be used to introduce the book. During this 30 minute pre-recorded webinar, the author will provide a high level overview of the concepts in his/her book, familiarizing participants with the information.
2. Discussion thread on ProjectManagement.com with input from the book club host and author.  During the last week of the discussion, questions will be collected to present to the author in the closing webinar.
3. **PMI-member exclusive** Closing Q&A live webinar with the author responding to questions submitted both through the online book club discussion thread and during the webinar.  The webinar will be a panel style discussion with open dialogue between the moderator and the author.

The first 25 PMI Members registered for the closing book club webinar will receive a complimentary copy of the book and will be notified via email.  Additional participants will have the opportunity to purchase a copy of the book at their own expense.  All community members will be able to view the book club opening webinar and participate in the discussion forum.  PMI members will be able to participate in the book club closing webinar.  We will evaluate the content of each opening and closing book club webinar to determine the eligibility and breakdown for PDUs.   

Our book club book for September is The Optimistic Workplace: Creating an Environment That Energizes Everyone by Shawn Murphy. 

Shawn Murphy is CEO of Switch & Shift, an organization that helps improve the quality of employees’ lives through positive business practices and leadership development. He has over 20 years experience as a culture change practitioner, workshop facilitator, and speaker. He was handpicked to be part of IBM's elite New Way to Work futurist group.

Shawn has a MBA from Drexel University and a Bachelor’s in Organizational Behavior from University of San Francisco.

Shawn’s debut book, The Optimistic Workplace: Creating an Environment that Energizes Everyone, is out now. Read Shawn’s weekly column, “Positive Business,” on Inc.com.

About the book:

Should we be working harder…or working happier?

When it comes to work these days, we’re expected to do more with less—but is this nose-to-the-grindstone philosophy the best way to run a business? Alarmingly low employee engagement numbers indicate otherwise.

So, if pushing everyone harder isn’t the path to productivity, what is? Supported by the latest research, this eye-opening book argues that our best work is the product of a positive environment. That’s good news for you as a manager. While you can’t personally transform the corporate culture, you can influence the workplace climate and create meaningful and lasting change.

Advocating a steward model of management, The Optimistic Workplace reveals how to:

• Explore personal and organizational purpose—and align them for astonishing results
• Overcome resistance and skepticism
• Build camaraderie and deepen loyalty
• Increase intrinsic motivation
• Help your team find meaning in their work
• Identify goals collaboratively and track progress
• And more

Examples from companies large and small demonstrate how this people-centric focus ignites employee potential, increases innovation, and catapults the organization to new levels of performance. Far from being a wish-upon-a-star discussion of workplace happiness, this book presents an array of surprisingly simple strategies as well as practical 30-, 60-, and 90-day plans designed to focus your actions and make employee optimism not just a worthy goal—but a real and measurable result.

Our 2016 book club host is Tolitha Lewis, PMP.  Tolitha has been a PMI Volunteer Leader since 2008.  She was elected as a Director to the PMI Information Systems Specific Interest Group (PMI-ISSIG) in 2008 and served until the completion of the transition to a Community of Practice (CoP) in 2011. In 2012, Tolitha was appointed to the Leadership Team of the Consulting CoP, now referred to as the Consulting practice area, and has been a leader in the webinar program ever since.   Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Tolitha is a Sr. Project Manager.

To register for the closing live book club webinar, please visit the webinar page on ProjectManagement.com, find the book club closing webinar and click on the “Register for this webinar” link.

Please visit the book club information and discussion on the Project Management.com books page. 

For additional questions, please visit the ProjectManagement.com Book Club FAQ page.

Would you like expert advice about a specific project management practice or program? Did you know you can meet with a subject matter expert one-on-one and gain the insights needed to solve your unique challenges as a part of your PMI Global Congress experience?

ProjectManagement.com will be connecting attendees with community experts to discuss project issues, career moves, brainstorm for ideas, and much more! Attendees will have the opportunity to schedule 15 minute sessions with our top community subject matter experts, to seek project management career advice.

Who can you speak with? A distinguished list of experienced experts from multiple fields including Dr. Deepa Bhide (PMP), Karen Chovan (PMP), Lawrence Cooper (PMP, PMI-ACP), Dr. Dan Furlong (PMP, PMI-ACP), Gary Hamilton (PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP), Sandra MacGillivray (PMP, PMI-RMP), Dave Maynard (PMP), Michael O'Brochta (PMP, PMI-ACP), Michelle Stronach (PMP), Sherri Thomas (PMP), Mario Trentim (PMP, PMI-RMP, PfMP), and Nadia Vincent. 

Are you going to Congress and want to lock up time with one of the experts? Sign up on the Congress website today and ensure you have time with an expert before arrival in San Diego! You can view the availability by date on the Congress website:

• Sunday, 25 September 
• Monday, 26 September 
• Tuesday, 27 September

If you can't go, or your favorite expert is all booked up you can still gain access to their insights and experience on the PMI Congress Insights blog today!

The complete Organizational Agility Conference Agenda is now available for download on the event page. If you’ve signed up for this PMI Member-Only virtual event you can use agenda to get a timeline of all the events and presentations and plan out your day.

If you haven’t yet signed up, it’s not too late! You can register directly on the event page and earn PDUs while participating in these sessions. Don’t miss out on your chance to better understand why your agile transformation might fail, gain tips on how to accelerate your transformation, how people and connections are key to Agile 2.0, how to develop leaders into transformation agents, and more!

If you would like further information, each of the session abstracts are available below, as well as in the agenda on the event page.

Session Abstracts from the Org Agility Conference Agenda

Keynote Address — Why Your Agile Transformation Might Fail with Doug Rose.

Many agile transformations fail. It’s not because of lack of effort but because organizations underestimate the radical changes needed for a more agile mindset.

During this session, Doug Rose goes over three problem areas to watch for when starting your agile transformation.

1. Does your organization has a solid understanding of the agile mindset? There needs to be a consensus on how your organization will operate after the changes.

2. Does your organization has to have a frank assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your corporate culture? There are several different kinds of corporate cultures and you need to find out where your organization falls.

3. Does your organization have a realistic change management plan for how to adapt your culture to embrace a more agile mindset? Some organizations will have a more difficult time accepting agile than others. If you understand your organizational culture and how to make the changes then you have a better chance for success.

Rapid Experimentation in Value Streams - Tips for Accelerating Your Transformation with Horia Slușanschi.

How do you transform your organization into a better version of itself?

This session will share the journey of transformation and highlight some effective techniques that helped accelerate the rate of learning and improvement across the enterprise. 

It will cover:

• Benefits of identifying “Value Streams” and then structuring work around them.

• Tips on ways to use the A3 thinking process to discover and guide the experiments most worthy to be run

• A simple, easy-to-understand explanation of advanced (and highly beneficial from an economic standpoint) backlog ordering techniques involving calculations of “Cost of Delay” and CD3 (Cost of Delay divided by duration).

Plus, it's all organizational agility focused - it's not IT-centric.

Agile 2.0 – It’s About People and Connections! It’s Not About Scaling with Todd Kamens.

What does Bloat, the Puffer fish (played by Brad Garret) in the movie Finding Nemo, have to do with Agile? Find out in this session. 

• How do we move beyond training on the methodology and focus on the behavior and people interactions?

• How can we be more aware of ourselves, our surroundings and our situations to remember what’s important, leading us to deliver greatness?

• Could the use of mindfulness help people be more focused on the present and thus devote more of their attention to their immediate situation?

Agile 2.0 moves past training on the methodology and focuses on the people and connections we make that will deliver an amazing product. 

A Transformation Path to the Strategic and Agile Project Portfolio Management Office. With Sara Nunez.

Changes in today’s market place, technology, digital business, new regulations and people expectations (just to name a few)— are all challenging the way we do business. They have created an accelerated environment where we need to be more strategic and agile in order to deliver with excellence.  PMO leaders need to bring “to the table” extensive knowledge and experience transforming their functions and aligning with the business during this critical time.  PMO is the critical function that enables excellence and agile execution to accelerate business results. 

During this session, learn the characteristics of the Agile and High Performing PMO and a transformation approach to support the business.

Servant Catalysts: Developing Your Leaders to be Transformation Agents. With Skip Angel.

Are your leaders actively involved and engaged in your transformation towards greater organizational agility?  The success or failure of your transformation could be determined on how you answer that question.

This session will focus on how to shift your leaders from having a passive “checkbook commitment” mindset to actively providing guidance and direction as part of the change efforts.  We will talk about how to get greater leadership engagement:

• Why should your leaders be involved?  What could happen if they are not?

• What do (executive) leaders really care about?  (hint: it’s not learning what Agile is)

• What mindset is needed by leaders and how will that affect their behaviors and actions?

• What are some known patterns (good and bad) that have been seen with Agile transformations and what do we do about them?

• What’s the future of management in an organization that has transformed and matured in their capabilities towards greater agility?

Connect the Dots: Linking Strategy to Execution. With Dr. Gail Ferreira.

During this session, we will discuss the connection between strategy and execution to create portfolios for enterprise agile projects.

Enterprise portfolio management is a tool-supported process for selecting initiatives and managing project portfolios for generating the greatest value. Value is measured by finding what results each project will generate, with executives selecting projects that will produce optimal results.

For enterprise portfolio selection in agile projects, strategic tools can be used to help formulate vision and strategy, which in turn can generate strategic themes that move into a funnel for prioritization and selection.

We’ll cover:

• Overview of Strategic Planning Tools (Hoshin X, Balanced Scorecard)

• The role of strategic tools to help select strategic themes for enterprise projects

• Linking strategy to execution.

• Overview of Scaled Agile Framework (4.0) portfolio layer.

As you can see, you'll have access to fantastic speakers and many great sessions as a part of the Organizational Agility Conference. Head over to the event page to learn more and register!

Did you know that 2016 will be the fifth year that PMI is hosting the PMO Symposium? This event brings together PMO leaders and organizational executives to share insights and strategy for effective organizational project management (OPM). The event in 2015 brought together over 450 organizations and 500 plus PMO leaders from 30 different countries.

Focusing on the needs of PMO leaders and senior decision makers, PMO Symposium 2016 will take an in-depth look at benefits realization management and PMO actionable insights enabling PMOs to demonstrate value. In addition to informative breakout sessions, thought provoking keynotes, offsite learning excursions, the 2016 event will provide ample opportunities for knowledge hub small group discussion. Knowledge hub small group discussions are highly interactive, audience-driven sessions that enable attendees to share ideas, challenges and solutions with the help of a subject matter expert facilitator. An OPM theme is given to encourage and focus conversations. Come with a list of questions you want to ask other attendees and be prepared to share your own experiences and tips. Selected themes are repeated throughout the event to enable attendees to choose and participate in various time options with different facilitators.

Below are thoughts from speakers who will present at the 2016 event.

Keep it Real – Metrics for the Real-World

Catherine Tonne – Senior Director, Visa, Inc.

Why should senior professionals attend the PMI PMO Symposium? Well for several years I asked myself the same question. I have attended more PMI conferences than I can count – starting with San Francisco in 1988!!   I was a bit jaded to say the least. Then through various PMI activities I started talking with like-minded senior professionals and they enlightened me. The PMO Symposium by PMI is different. It focuses on seasoned PMO professionals and their needs. The topics are the most current trends, the idea and experience sharing and learnings between attendees is stellar. I attended my first Symposium in 2014 in Miami. I was thrilled with the outcome and am excited to attend this year’s event in San Diego. In fact, this year I am presenting a breakout session on PMO metrics, Keep it Real – Metrics for the Real World.

Ah, metrics! Very tough to develop sometimes but we cannot live without them. They enable PMO leaders to answer tough questions.  How to prioritize/rank the portfolio? What projects best enable the fulfillment of corporate strategic initiatives? Which projects should be funded or not? How to identify project complexity to determine optimal staffing and workload? Metrics can be very complicated and require all kinds of fancy tools and software to calculate – or they can be simple and super easy to use with a calculator or maybe Excel the only tools needed.

For my presentation, I will share practical, proven metrics for the real world that attendees will be able to use the day they get back to their offices. Metrics are pivotal for identifying and enabling delivery of projects with the highest return on investment and potentially improve one’s market positioning.

In addition to my metric presentation, I will also facilitate a knowledge hub small group discussion focusing on integrating agile methodology and the PMO. The discussion will focus on how PMOs can support agile teams and methodology and how PMOs can adapt to evolving needs of projects, teams and organizations.

I hope to see you at the PMO Symposium, in San Diego, 06 – 09 November, 2016.

Benefits Management in an Agile World

Matt Williams, HSI Associate

In a global economy characterized by rapid, sometimes unforeseen and disruptive change, organizations are forced to adapt quickly to mitigate the risks of such volatility. Just as importantly, change presents an opportunity to strengthen an organization. Examples include the implementation of new technology, lean techniques and, adopting new organizational structures that can consistently and efficiently deliver strategic business objectives.

The conventional role of project management has been to produce deliverables, for which proven processes, techniques and tools are in use. However, whilst most organizations recognize that projects are undertaken to deliver benefits and drive increased business value, the responsibility for doing so is not always well-defined and understood. Therefore, executive sponsors and project managers need to work collaboratively to ensure that project deliverables are deployed in a manner which produces benefits that align with business strategy. There is an increasing awareness that benefits realization needs to be an integral component of project management.

The use of an Agile management approach has been adapted to many non-IT applications and therefore has potential applicability across all organizational units, in a diverse range of industries in both the private and public sector.  Its use facilitates early and incremental delivery of business value, as opposed to all of the value being realized at the conclusion of the project, as is traditionally the case.

The use of Agile approach to the delivery of business value helps project managers to:

1. Identify opportunities to deliver value as early as possible in the project lifecycle
2. Review benefits delivery performance to date, relative to the forecast delivery identified in the business case
3. Analyse whether the initiative remains viable; and if additional investment may deliver a greater overall return or; if the funds being invested will produce a better ROI if redeployed to other initiatives

Join me on Wednesday, November 9 at my session at the PMO Symposium 2016 in San Diego, or my knowledge hub sessions November 7 and 8, where I will be discussing this topic in more detail.

Those that attend can expect the following takeaways:

1. Use Benefit Mapping techniques to identify and measure strategic contribution for all project initiatives
2. Identify and track Value Drivers to focus on the contributors of business value creation
3. Incremental Benefits Realization techniques

As an Associate at Human Systems International (HSI), I am a subject matter expert responsible for undertaking diagnostic assessments of organizational project management capability to produce actionable roadmaps of improvement initiatives. HSI holds over twenty years' data on the actual practices of leading project-based organizations - the world's largest database of its kind. HSI is a member of the PMI family.

PMO Symposium is a unique executive event for organizational leaders and those who direct an organization’s portfolio of projects, programs and initiatives. This 2016 PMI event will be in San Diego, 06 – 09 November, at the Hotel del Coronado.  Reserve your place among the world’s PMO leaders today.