Dear PM Advisor. Sep 15, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

What improvements you have experienced with IT Projects using PMBOK as a reference?

Lighter side in Calcutta

Dear Lighter side,

While I can't claim to be there at the beginnings of PMI, I was one of the first people in my industry to have received the PMP credential. I have seen it become more familiar and progress to the point where people are requesting the credential amongst new hires and even long-term employees. 

Along with this change there there has, naturally, been a greater knowledge of and use of the PMBOK guide. More people are referring to the PMBOK and using the terminology within. So the biggest improvement I have found is the standardization of language. 

Remember that the PMBOK is not a methodology. It tells you what to do, not when to do it or how a particular tool should be used. So the greater improvement I have seen has come from the use of various Project Management methodologies. People go out for training or send their entire team out to the same course and they come back fired up with the way to make projects work more efficiently within their organization. Even better is when a methodology is brought in-house and taught to the entire organization at various levels. 

All these training courses seem to have embraced the PMI terminology so there is more consistency between the courses as to what they call each tool. 

So the real advantage is that PM knowledge transfers easily between companies and even industries due to the standardization of terms championed by the PMI. You can learn your PM skills at one company and move to another without encountering a huge learning curve in these skills. 

Good luck,

PM Advisor.

Send you questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

PMO Creation - Week 5

This week we worked on more of the templates and Mike got the change control system working within SharePoint.

I started choosing members of the steering committee. My preference was to have representation from all the functions of our organization. So I started with IT, Operations, Finance, Quality, Marketing and IT QA.

I immediately received resistance from the CEO who wanted a small team. He saw no reason to include anyone other than IT and IT QA. He isn't understanding that projects from other areas are taking resources away from the IT projects he cares so much about. But he trusts me and is willing to give it a try in the first meeting.

Meanwhile he argued with me on some of the PMO rules so I adjusted them a little, mostly to give him veto power over some steering committee decisions:

The QPharma PMO will abide by the following rules and norms:

1. The PMO will operate under full transparency, sharing information with all interested parties
2. Escalation principles will be published and followed
3. Nobody works on projects past the research phase until the project is authorized by the steering committee
4. Projects can be authorized outside the steering committee meetings by approval of a majority of members – or just by PDB.
5. All projects within commercial operations require a charter. Professional operations can use a Statement of Work or Signed Contract as their charter
6. Project Managers will hold weekly status meetings with their teams that last 30 minutes or less
7. Project Managers will use Earned Value calculations to report on budget – commercial projects will use hours rather than dollars to determine Earned Value.
8. Project Managers will provide a weekly status report to the PMO every Wednesday – status reports should be updated weekly and available always on SharePoint.
9. Schedules require level of effort to be calculated for each activity
10. The PMO will provide a monthly dashboard showing all project status to the steering committee prior to their monthly
11. The steering Committee will meet monthly
12. Change control will be managed by the steering committee. The PMO head will facilitate the steering committee but the signatures of the majority of members or Pat DenBoer are required to approve a project change
13. PMO will meet weekly every Friday at 10 AM
14. Bruce will publish PMO status reports via e-mail and place them on SharePoint
15. PMO members will obtain their PMP certification by the end of 2014

Dear PM Advisor, Feb 17, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I’ve been taking practice PMP tests and struggle with ones where they ask me something is a tool or technique in one of the processes. Other than memorizing every single tool, technique, input and output in every process, how am I supposed to know these?

Feeling like a tool in San Diego.

Dear Tool,

And I mean that in the nicest sense of the word. There are a few tricks I’ve discovered to help you with this problem. The first one is, as you’ve suggested, memorizing every input, tool, technique and output in every process. I have a cheat sheet that you can memorize linked here. 

It will take a normal person about five hours to do so. If you are willing to spend the time on this, bring it with you in your mind and spend the first 10 minutes of your four hours taking the test transcribing this on the pieces of paper they give you. Then, when you are faced with these questions, look them up and you know you got another question right.

For those who’d rather spend their time doing other things, here are some hints:

Quite often, the test will ask you which of the following is not a tool or technique in a particular process. The first thing you need to do is decide if one of the answers is not even a tool or technique. You can determine that by looking at these two rules:

• Tools or Techniques = doing something
• Inputs or outputs = something you can hold

So if you look at an option, picture it in your mind. Is it something you do or something you can hold after someone has done something? If it is the former, it's a tool or technique. If the latter, its either an input or an output. 

Let's look at an example randomly flipped to in the PMBOK. Here is the Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis Process.

Inputs 

• Risk Management Plan
• Scope Baseline
• Risk Register
• Environmental Enterprise Factors 
• Organizational Process Assets

Tools & Techniques

• Risk Probability and Impact Assessment
• Probability & Impact Matrix
• Risk Data Qualification Assessment
• Risk Categorization
• Risk Urgency Assessment
• Expert Judgment

Outputs 

• Project Document Updates

Do you see how the Tools and Techniques groups are things you do? Assessments, Filling out a Matrix, using Expert Judgment, Categorizations. 

This trick won't help in all cases but it should narrow your choices to one in half of those types of questions. 

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

Dear PM Advisor, Feb 10, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I struggle with all the Earned Value Formulae. Any hints for making this portion of the PMP test easier to study for?

Can’t see the value in Albuquerque

Dear Can’t,

Once you struggle with the more philosophical questions on the PMP exam you’ll see the calculations like those Earned Value ones as a breath of fresh air. But first let me give you some hints to make these easier for you.

You are usually given some numbers and asked to calculate the rest. I’m going to assume you know some elementary Algebra before you take the test. Here are the three numbers you are usually given: Planned Value (PV), Actual Cost (AC) and Earned Value (EV). If they are evil they will give you one of the below calculations and you will need to use that basic Algebra to determine the missing number from above. Either way, you’ll need to remember the following formulae and below I’ll show you the easy way to do this.

There are four rules to remember:

1. EV always come first in the calculation
2. AC goes with anything that says Cost
3. Negative Variances are always bad
4. Indexes less than 1.0 are always bad

So let’s use these rules. You are asked to calculate Cost Variance. You get Variances by subtracting one number from another. Rule 1 says EV always goes first. Rule 2 says AC goes with any Cost calculation.

Thus CV = EV –AC  Simple, right?

What does that leave you with for Schedule Variance?  EV goes first, Rule 2 is not in effect so the only thing left to put in the equation is PV.

Thus SV = EV – PV

The same two rules apply for the Index calculations.

Cost Performance Index requires EV to go first, only this time the EV goes in on top of the line. We’re talking about cost so AC goes on the bottom.

Thus CPI = EV/AC

Schedule Performance Index, SPI, must use PV since that’s all that’s left.

Thus SPI = EV/PV

Rules 3 and 4 help you convert formulae into reality. If you have a negative SV, you are behind schedule. A negative CV means you are OVER budget. Don’t get confused by the negative number. Negative is bad, being over budget is bad.

Same with the indexes. Less than 1 is bad so a SPI of 0.8 means you are behind schedule. Over 1.0 is good so a CPI of 1.2 means you are UNDER budget.

Remembering these hints will help you with about 5 of the 200 questions you will be faced with. For the one or two questions that require TCPI or ETC, you just have to memorize the formulae. More on these in a future post.

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

Dear PM Advisor, Feb 3, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

What’s a WBS Dictionary and how do you use it?

Poor Speller in Chicago

Dear Poor Speller,

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the oldest tool in the Project Manager’s toolkit and one of the more graphic ones. It is the first opportunity for the PM to express his style as he shows the way he intends to organize the project. Will he organize it by phase, function, or deliverable? How many levels will he go before work starts to be done? I always love watching the way a PM drafts his WBS; it is a look into his mind.

One thing about a graphic tool such as a WBS: there is no room for paragraphs or even sentences. Nouns and adjectives are all you have room to work with. And sometimes a chunk of work requires more than that to allow those executing the work to know what needs to be done. That’s where the WBS Dictionary comes in. It is a tool that provides more detail around a piece of work that is in the WBS. Not every WBS element must be defined, just those that need it.

I don’t strictly use a WBS Dictionary as a stand-alone tool. But when I enter WBS elements into the Gantt chart, I’ll use the Notes tab on that line to enter additional details.

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

Dear PM Advisor. Jan 20, 2014

Dear PM Advisor,

I'm looking at the different organizational structures in the PMBOK and I'm having a hard time distinguishing between weak, strong and balanced matrix. They all look alike to me.

Stuck in the Matrix. Hartford, CT.

Dear stuck in the matrix,

They do look similar so let me highlight the differences for you. First you need to recognize the PMI's bias on this. That's important since they wrote the PMBOK and write the test questions pertaining to this topic. They believe that in the best possible world, every organization has a PMO, a Project Management Office staffed with fully trained Project Managers. Thus, in Matrix organizations, the best or strongest version has the PMs coming out of the PMO. Like this:

The other extreme, as far as the PMI is concerned, is when a person is in a functional department not called a PMO, like R&D or Marketing, and she doesn't even have the title of Project Manager. That they consider a Weak Matrix:

In between the two extremes is a balanced matrix structure where the person managing the project doesn't report to the PMO but at least has the title of Project Manager:

The PMI uses different terminology than I, referring to the level of authority and influence wielded by the Project Manager. But if you're trying to pass the PMP exam, my explanation might work better. 

Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

PMBOK 5th edition exam aid

Back in 2011 I posted some aids to help you study for the PMP exam. But the cheat sheet I asked you to memorize and recreate once you get into the exam room has been significantly obsoleted by the fifth edition of the PMBOK.

So I've created a new one for you. You need to print out page one on legal size paper. A3 should work for Europeans.

Get access to a word version of it by clicking on this link:

Dear PM Advisor. Oct 7, 2013

Dear PM Advisor,

I feel dumb asking this question but I've never heard a satisfactory answer. What is a stakeholder?

Ignorant in California

Dear Ignorant,

I can't resist answering your question with the one carrot top style joke I use in my project management class. With a broad Australian accent, I hold this up and say: 

"Stakeholder. Australian for fork."

I know it's corny but it gets a laugh and keeps my students interested. 

But let me give you a serious answer. I'll start with the official PMI definition and then I'll tell you what it really mean.

Stakeholder: Person or organization that is actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution or completion of the project. A stakeholder may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables. (PMBOK 4th edition)

Not very useful. The fifth edition doesn't make it much clearer:

An individual, group or organization who may affect, be affected by or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of a project. (PMBOK 5th edition)

Here is what I teach in my class: 

Stakeholders are people who care about your project. They come from five different groups. Four are easy to determine, the fifth is what makes your life difficult.

• Project Manager
• Team Members
• Customer
• Sponsor
• Functional Management 

One of your more difficult jobs will be to determine which of the many functional managers, directors, vice presidents etc. care about your project and are going to actively involve themselves in its success or failure. (Yes, some may lobby to have your project fail. Think about projects where the goal is to transfer production from one facility to a cheaper one or the shutdown of a facility.)

Your sponsor is the first place to start when identifying all your stakeholders. He/she can tell you the political climate surrounding your project and who cares about it, what power they wield and how to satisfy them. 

Add to this list the managers of each of your team members and ask them who they know who might be concerned about the project. 

Those combined lists become your list of identified stakeholders, the only thing other than creating a project charter that you need to do during Project Initiation.

Next week I'll talk about how to deal with this group.

Good luck,

Dear PM Advisor.

Send your questions to Bruce@RoundTablePM.com

PMBOK 4 versus 5

So the PMBOK standard changed again, like it does every four years. Any major differences?

Looks like they made it bigger, no surprise there. 618 versus 497 pages. But the big difference can be spotted on the map. The matrix that shows the processes in Process Groups versus Knowledge areas has changed: See the new one below:

PMBOK edition 5. 2013

Compare this to the fourth edition:

PMBOK edition 4. 2008

So they have decided to add another knowledge area: Stakeholder management along with a couple more processes within this knowledge area.

They also added the plan process for the knowledge areas that lacked this in the past: Scope, Time and Cost. So I suppose it has become more standardized though I question if all these planning activities were needed in the first place. Do we really need to plan how to plan?

They did change some of the names of the processes so that it's easier to see that they fall under Monitoring and Control. Control Quality, Control Communications and Control Procurements versus Perform, Report or Administer.

But the tools, inputs and outputs have been radically changed. See this link to a new cheat-sheet for studying for your PMP exam. They have added 'Meetings' to the list of tools in about half of the processes. Really? Like we don't already have too many meetings? 

Anyway, prepare to take the new test starting in August. 

PMBOK Process map

The latest PMBOK has a real lousy process map so I created my own. Here is a link to the PowerPoint version. Enjoy.

Dear PM Advisor. March 4th, 2013

Dear PM Advisor,

I'm sitting for my PMP test soon and can't get straight which processes fit into the Execution group and which in Monitoring and Controlling. I've been a PM for a long time and know they both happen at the same time. But PMI want's you to know the difference. Do you have any hints for getting these questions right? I've taken a few practice tests and keep getting them mixed up. 

Executioner in Branchburg, NJ.

Dear Executioner,

I like to use homonyms to help me remember things like this. In this case, I remember that Measure starts with an M just like Monitor. So if the process includes some kind of measurement, it must fit in the Monitoring and Controlling group. You have to Measure in order to Report Performance or Verify Scope so it must be in this group. The other word is Control and that encompasses all the other processes like Control Costs, Schedule and Scope.

Execution consists of doing the work you planned in the previous phase. Monitoring and Controlling consists of Measuring the output of that work and Controlling the constraints. Of the six constraints on any project: Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Resources and Risk, all but Resources have a Control Process in this group. I guess the PMI realized there is no controlling of resources.

So look for any aspect of Measurement within the tools used or the word Control within the process and you can be sure that the work falls in the Monitoring and Controlling Group. Otherwise, you are just doing the work, Executing.


Good luck,

PM Advisor

Send your questions to bfieggen@gmail.com

Dear PM Advisor. February 11, 2013

Dear PM Advisor,

I'm reading my PMBOK and it seems that every process has the same two inputs added to each: Enterprise Environmental Factors and Organizational Process Assets. As far as I can tell, these equate to Miscellaneous. What am I supposed to do with these? And how am I supposed to place these in my memory while I study for my PMP exam?

PMP Student in Manhattan, New York.

Dear PMP,

These two inputs are how PMI categorizes a lot of tools used within the organization and outside that are used on projects. The way you can think about them are that the Organizational Process Assets are tools that are stored within the Project Management Office (PMO) and  Enterprise Environmental Factors are stored outside this group. (My nemonic is Organizational = O = PMO and Enterpise = E = External)

What does this mean to you? Whenever there is a tool that should be stored by the PMO (assuming your company has such an entity or by some knowledgeable person if no PMO exists) this is an Organizational Process Asset. Examples of these would be templates for a Charter or Risk Register, WBS and Gantt charts from previous projects, lessons learned.

When the tool comes from outside the company, it's an Enterprise Environmental Factor. So government regulations, industry groups, etc. are clearly from this group. It gets confusing when it's a tool from within the company but outside the PMO, especially when you don't have a PMO. So picture yourself as a hoarder of project data, templates and processes. Would you keep this tool? If so, its an Organizational Process Asset. If not, it's an Enterprise Environmental Factor.

Another question that may come up on your PMP test regarding these may ask you if either of these is a tool in some process, an input in another or an output in a third. Remember that it is always an input. An output might be an update to one or more of these tools.
Good luck,

PM Advisor.

Send your questions to bfieggen@gmail.com

Dear PM Advisor. February 4th, 2013

Dear PM Advisor,

What is a 'Work Package?' Different people within my organization call it different things. Is it a part of an activity or a big collection of activities within the Work Breakdown Structure?

Two Minds in Brooklyn, New York.

Dear Two Minds,

The Project Management Institute has made a change in the last few years on its definition of a Work Package. The levels of a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) used to be titled this from top to bottom:

Level 1: Project Name
Level 2: Tracks
Level 3: Deliverables
Level 4: Tasks
Level 5: Sub-tasks
Level 6: Work Packages

Now that they want you to conduct the Work Breakdown Structure and then define activities as a second step, here are the new levels:


Level 1: Project Name
Level 2: Tracks
Level 3: Deliverables
Level 4: Work Packages

Then you break down the Work Packages during Activity Definition into Activities. PMI doesn't want these activities showing up on the WBS so they define the Work Package as the lowest level on the WBS.

I'm not sure why they did this. But that's the way the PMI now wants it so, if you want to pass your PMP test, you need to know this terminology.

I still do my WBS the old fashioned way as shown above and do it in one shot unless the project is huge and needs to be broken down by different groups. Here's the method I use.

Good luck,

PM Advisor.

Send your questions to bfieggen@gmail.com

PMP Exam aids

A lot of my friends have asked advice about passing the PMP exam. One of the best pieces of advice I have is to memorize all the Project Management Processes, all the inputs, tool and techniques and outputs for these processes. This will get you 20% of the answers on this test.

To make it easier, I developed a cheatsheet that has all these handy. I ask people to transcribe this many times until they can do it from memory. Then they can transcribe it as soon as they get into the exam room onto the sheets of scratch paper the exam provides. After that, whenever you get some crazy question along the lines of : Is Risk Identification an input to Risk Monitoring, a tool and technique in Risk Identification, an output in Risk Qualification of all of the above, one can look at the sheet you transcribed and find the answer.

Help yourself to a copy of the full sheet here

A friend of mine, Brian O'Driscoll, created a set of flashcards to help memorizing the various formulae you'll be tested on. He has agreed to let me post these here also for your use.