The Critical Path

Making connections on ProjectManagement.com is an easy way of building your network of professionals in the industry.  A professional network, it can be compared to LinkedIn but targeted to project managers.  When you make a connection, you will begin seeing the connected member’s activity in activity feeds on site (and they will see yours). This is a great way to drive awareness to your profile. You can converse with members through our private messaging system, although we do not permit the messaging system to be used for solicitation, self-promotion or advertising. So if you connect with someone you’re interested in following up with on a particular matter, you can click on their image/profile and send them a message.

What you do with your network is entirely up to you. Some members use it as a way of having a contact at a particular company to get information about employment opportunities or getting advice on how to handle a project (if they don’t feel comfortable posting about it publicly in the forum boards).  Some members collect connections simply to collect them (just like many people do on LinkedIn). Others prefer to only connect with persons they’ve actually met or had contact with.

Making connections and participating in the discussions on ProjectManagement.com is much like in any other online community – what you get out of it depends on what you put into it or what you are looking to accomplish by participating.  I use my connections to help curate content and facilitate member introductions if someone is requesting help.  The opportunity to continue to build a network in alternative forums is inherently valuable. But that’s just our opinion.  Whether you’re a seasoned PM or just starting out, you’ll find that making connections can help you develop yourself at every stage of your career.

To help build you network based on industry/filters, check out the Build Your Network Page.  To search through your network by name or date added, click on “Network” (it’s under your name in the gray navigation bar after “Profile” and before “Inbox.”

We encourage all of you to spend some time looking at the Build Your Network Page and making connections!

Congratulations community members! You had an amazing year in 2015!  Your community here on ProjectManagement.com saw INCREDIBLE growth in terms of contributions and engagement.

Check this out:

• Almost 400 of you contributed knowledge and content to the community in the form of a webinar, article, whitepaper or download!
• Over 15,000 of you interacted with the community by either rating content or posting comments, blogs or discussions!

Wow!!!

These numbers prove what a strong community you have built and continue to build upon every day. We are learning from each other, responding to each other and respecting each other. That in itself is invaluable!

One of our goals for the future here at ProjectManagement.com is to encourage more individuals to contribute by sharing their perspectives, project stories and lessons learned. This community is all about learning from each other and becoming better at what we do. Each new voice is another opportunity for us all to learn and grow.

If you are interested in contributing content please contact us via our Contribute Content page. If you are unsure, but want to discuss the possibility of contributing, please feel free to reach out to a community engagement specialist. That’s what we’re here for!

Going forward, there will be even more opportunities to contribute to the community. Be sure to create a profile in the Volunteer Relationship Management System (VRMS) to keep track of potential community content creation opportunities, as well as other PMI volunteer opportunities. An important point of note is that you do NOT need to be a PMI member to sign up in the VRMS! There are opportunities for everyone to get involved!

We thank you all for your contributions and look forward to continued success in 2016! Great job!

You know the saying, "I'm a Project Manager - I chase storms to relax!" Well this phrase aptly describes January's Member of the Month, Priya Patra. Priya works for an IT services company, CapGemini, in Mumbai, the financial capital of her home country, India. She is an active contributor to ProjectManagement.com and was featured in the Ask the Expert series at North America Congress 2015.

When she is not managing projects at work, she is busy managing her home and her two hyper-energetic kids, son -  Rishabh ( 15 ) and daughter -  Rishima ( 8 ).

How did you get involved in project management?

Project Management fascinated me always. My dad was a manager in a public Services Organization in India. I grew up watching him meticulously planning his day’s work while having his morning cup of tea. When I look back I can connect the dots, he was actually planning his day and  his TO DO list. Next day he was evaluating and knocking off the closed items from the list and adding newer ones. As I grew up I started assisting him in tracking his TO DO list.

Today he has retired from work, but still has a diary where he keeps his notes, TO DO list, tracking his finances etc. I think that is how I got first introduced to project planning, tracking, monitoring and closing.

At work, I guess it was a natural evolution. I have a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science, plus an MBA degree. As a fresh graduate, somehow I was always offered a technical job, maybe back in those days I did not have enough experience to be  a manager. Today when I look back, those job roles have actually helped me in planning, tracking, monitoring my projects more efficiently. Over the years, I have evolved from a software developer, project lead to a Project Manager, this where I am right now.

Who or what inspires you to be the best project manager you can be?

Who: My Team and my projects

I strongly believe whatever I am is because of my team; a project success and failure depends on the team you have! Every interaction I have with my team and every project I executed has been a skill enhancement and learning experience.

What: The fact that I am doing my bit, making a difference to my projects, my account, my business unit, my organization, the project management profession inspires me to even contribute more.

What is one thing you wished you'd known when you first started out in project management?

I wish I knew the Agile concepts of project management, continuous delivery, Business value and Minimum Viable Products when I started out with project management. I think these concepts would have helped me to take better decisions and provide more business value to my stakeholders and sponsors.

You come in Monday morning to find that your most productive project team member is no longer with the company. You have been working together on a project for six months. What are your next steps?

First of all:

1. Go for a walk outside, trying to sink in the news
2. Come back and check the status of the work that was assigned to him/her
3. Check who would be the best fit for the person who has left
4. Closely monitor the unfinished task and the assigned resource to ensure that the tasks are completed on time

You get a call from your project’s sponsor. You've been working on the project for a year and the two of you have a good business relationship. You're 2 months away from the project deadline and she wants the deadline bumped up by 3 weeks and indicates that this is a critical need. What do you do?

Since I would have executed this project in an agile for the last two years, I would have delivered all business critical features in the previous iterations. Looking at the situation I would however:

1. Introspect on the critical need, if it is a new regulatory or legal condition we may need to take it up
2. Check with the product owner and see if we can prioritize the items critical for business for the current delivery and check if the rest can be taken in the next phase
3. Check if any tool usage / automation can help in meeting the schedule deadline
4. Check if the project can be fast tracked
5. Evaluate risks associated with point 4
6. Calculate trade off and the business value
7. Communicate the above to all stakeholders, sponsors and project team

Please introduce yourself to Priya in the comments below and take some time to add her to your network! 

Is there a community member who you think deserves some recognition for their contributions to the community? Let us know! Email the member’s name and a brief explanation as to why you think he/she should be featured in our Member of the Month to [email protected].

This week's blog is dedicated to introducing you to the people who are running the behind-the-scenes action here in the community. By now I'm sure you've seen us out and about in the community forum boards, chiming in on threads and keeping the community a productive, safe space for members to convene.

I thought it would be a good idea to start off 2016 by giving a "behind the scenes" look at the Community Engagement team members who are keeping the community "always open."

I've (Rebecca) had the opportunity to personally speak with many of you in the community, but what you may not know is that for 12 years I practiced as a criminal defense attorney. Going from law to community management was a big leap. It was partly inspired by becoming a part of the dog owner community in Philadelphia where I learned about the value of connectivity and benefit of a close-knit community. When I'm not obsessing about online communities, I'm hanging out with my two dogs, Imogene and Dash, and volunteering my time with various pet rescue groups. If you haven't already reached out to connect, please do so and tell me a little bit about yourself!

Marjorie started with PMI in 2008, making this her 8^th year with the organization (has it really been that long already?). She is a proud ISTJ and thinks she’s really got a handle on the introvert piece of that personality type. She enjoys a good bottle of wine and she has been told that she’s pretty good at impressions; however, she shouldn’t quit her day job!  She believes in the saying “early to bed, early to rise” and can usually be found in the office way earlier than anyone should be allowed. One day, Marjorie hopes to finally find the answer to the age-old question: who let the dogs out? Be sure to connect with her here on ProjectManagement.com so you can be the first one to know when she finds out!

Kristin is extremely passionate about people, learning, family and fun. Although she is from the Philadelphia area, she considers herself a citizen of the world. She has been lucky enough to travel to 16 countries outside of her home country, the United States, and spent extended time in Jena, Germany completing her college degree. She speaks English and German and enjoys learning about languages and cultures at every opportunity.

Kristin is the proud mother of two children, a 2 ½ year old boy and a 4 month old girl. Her children have given her an energy and drive to live life in the present for which she is incredibly grateful.

Kristin lives by three mottos:

1. “Live life to the fullest”
2. “Everything happens for a reason”
3. “Life is too short to buy cheap olive oil”

Be sure to connect with her here and share your words to live by!

Carrie is the newest member of the engagement team, joining PMI in October of 2015. Prior to joining PMI, Carrie served as a Content Lead with Drug Information Association (DIA). In that role she was responsible for developing content strategy, as well as development and design of educational programs. This included providing input to the content strategy process regarding performance of content activity and collaborating with content teams to identify/discuss content opportunities and delivery methods.

Carrie is a relatively new mom to a furry baby, Bella, who she adores. She loves reading and prefers a paper book to the electronic version. She hopes to someday have a library in her house. She’s a huge fan of Billy Joel and has lost count of how many times she’s seen his shows. She’s also a big fan of ice hockey (Philadelphia Flyers)! She’s a big believer in the saying that “Life is a Journey, Not a Destination.” Be sure to check out her profile and connect with Carrie today.

After being out of the office for two weeks, I just knew that my first week back would be completely hectic going through hundreds of unanswered e-mails and just trying to catch up to start the new year. When the expected mayhem of being out of the office for any extended period of time was avoided, I could have done a cartwheel past my boss's office (although, she would have been very curious as to why that was happening and we probably would have had a conversation around what is and is not appropriate in the workplace). 

However, what made me the most excited was coming back and seeing that our community was still incredibly active during the holidays. Our community members were still connecting and helping one another find solutions to issues. The passion that we all share for the profession and what we do is not like anything I've seen anywhere else. It's exciting, rewarding, and always keeps me looking forward to the next day.

All that being said, we're very excited for 2016! There's a lot we're looking to accomplish to make our community even better. If you are looking for ways to get involved in the community, make sure you visit the discussion boards and participate in conversations. Also, feel free to collaborate with one or more of your fellow community members to create content.

Thank you all for being a part of our ever-growing family of professional project managers and here's to a successful 2016!