I'm working in an environment where most of the project managers have good grounding on PM mechanics, PMBOK, PM methodology, etc. but lack some of the needed management skills to properly implement larger projects that force organization change upon a company. I'm trying to put together a training plan and would like some feedback from other seasoned PMs.
My question:
What key mgmt skills do you feel are critical for success on projects that involve extensive organizational change (i.e. ERP) and do you train in-house, bring in training consultant, or outsource.
Keith, I would focus on 3 areas: leadership, change management, and business process management. Also, I would offer a number of methods to acquire these knowledge areas, seminars, books, mentoring, and so on. Saving Changes...
To add to that list: communication skills probably rank higest amongst needed PM skills. Plus, don't forget building the soft skills needed for persuasion and team building. Saving Changes...
Prabhas SinhaDirector - Product Management| CAHyderabad, India
Training & Consultants are good but are temporary arrangements. This doesnt standardize your processes. Look at the bigger picture. World is changing and look at the way External Service Providers like Infosys, TCS etc are managing their projects. What you need is repeatability of your organizational processes, again n again n again -- irrespective of people coming in or going out of a project. Have you thought of deploying any tool which would take care of this for you at the same price, probably ? Saving Changes...
I do agree with Prabhas. Repeatability is a must. And, more than that the right cultural approach to "error" or "fault".
Faults are very important. They allow us to understand where we've acted wrong.
Rob
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George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hi Keith,
As you mention that your PMs are familiar with PMI standards like PMBOK, it may be worthwhile to take a look at PMI’s Project Manager Competency Development Framework. First Edition is published, Second Edition is underway and it is a significant improvement. My opinion might be biased because I am part of the Core Team developing the second edition, but we looked at all competency frameworks available and we certainly tried to do better – especially through an extensive approach of behavioural competency, those “soft skills” everybody talks about but are so hard to define and measure, and outlining a competencies development path.
While PMCDF 2nd Edition it is not yet published, the Public Exposure Draft will be available on PMI site sometime in December, and we would really appreciate the feedback from people directly faced with these issues in their activity. You do not have to be a PMI member to review the draft and submit comments, so please check out https://secure.pmi.org/exposuredraft/ in the coming weeks. I certainly hope you will find some interesting thoughts there to help you out, and – as I said – we are welcoming everyone’s input.
Best regards,
George Jucan
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Selva Saravana PuvananthiranDelivery Lead Senior Manager| Accenture Solutions Private LimitedChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
I would recommend the following podcasts:
www.ThePMPodcast.com
www.ControllingChaos.com
These would give them some insight into real world scenarios. The discussions on these podcasts are highly valuable and at the same time entertaining. Saving Changes...
Anonymous
There are so many training opportunties out there, it can be difficult to decide which courses to take for PMP recertification. Saving Changes...
Oops, I had a typo in the link from my previous post. Here is the correct link: The PMO Podcast - Anne
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Take a look at Prodevia Learning for great pm courses (www.prodevia.com). They have pretty interesting topics and you can learn on your schedule. It's a convenient model for PMP recertification.
