The Project Management Podcast

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_247_2013_11_02_-_stephen_townsend.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Stephen Townsend was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. Every project introduces change to the performing organization. It is therefore no surprise, that change management is a concept that we project managers have to embrace and master. PMI's latest publication "Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide" helps us project managers learn more about and apply best practices from this field. Stephen Townsend (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-townsend/5/886/340) is the Director for Global Alliances & Networks with PMI and we met up with him to learn more about the Practice Guide. We learn why and for whom it was developed. We discuss the basics of change management and then look at the characteristics of change management at the portfolio-, program- and project level. And we close the interview with Stephen's recommendations for the #1 thing that you need to apply on your projects in regards to change management. Hurry! Until November 20, 2013 you can download your personal copy of the Practice Guide from the following URL at no cost: http://www.pmi.org/Knowledge-Center/Change-Management/Change-Management-Form.aspx Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: We are still at the PMI Global Congress 2013 here in New Orleans and I am sitting here at the PMI Bookstore with Stephen Townsend from PMI. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Stephen! Welcome. Stephen Townsend: Hello! Thank you!. Good to be here, Cornelius. Cornelius Fichtner: Now, what is your role with PMI? Stephen Townsend: I am PMI's Director for Global Alliances and Networks which means I'm responsible for our registered education program, our registered consultant program and our alliances with other organizations whether they're other professional societies, corporations, government or academic institutions. Cornelius Fichtner: And what is your role when it comes to the practice guide in change management because that's the topic of our interview here? Stephen Townsend: The practice guide in change management was developed as part of PMI's overall program to help organizations improve their ability to successfully drive their strategies through projects, programs and portfolios; and change management is one of the critical elements of that. So my team helps to organize all of our internal resources as well as our external relationships to help drive different activities related to change management. So the practice guide is one of those elements. We also have educational programs that we conduct and we conduct with partners. We also have a series of white papers that are available that focus on different elements of change management. We are expanding our portfolio of e-learning and live learning courses in that area as well. So my team helps to coordinate all of those activities across our organization and with our external partners. Cornelius Fichtner: On the flight here, I was reading the Pulse of the Profession. Would that also fall under you? Stephen Townsend: That is actually a part of our brand group and I thought leadership program under the brand group. But the Pulse of the Profession is a driving force behind our program in change management because it was through the Pulse of the Profession that we identify the change management was one of the critical areas that organizations were struggling to do successfully. And so, it was through that research that we decided we needed to have a committed focus to help the institute build its resources and capabilities, to help both the practitioners and their organizations more successfully implement change management. Cornelius Fichtner: Who's th

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Rich Maltzman was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. Regardless of one’s opinions on green business and climate change, enterprises are now putting significant effort into achieving sustainability goals. Project management is the “business end” of business. In our interview with Rich Maltzman (http://www.earthpm.com/) we learn that we project managers must embrace our role in transforming our organizations to meet these goals in a larger “enterprise” sense. We begin by looking at a definition of "sustainable", why sustainability should really be addressed on a program/portfolio level, how Rich and his co-presenter David Shirley "reinvented the wheel" for sustainability and of course we close with lots of good recommendations on how you will be able to integrate sustainability on your projects starting today. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: We are back live, well sort of live here at the PMI Global Congress 2013 in New Orleans and with me is Rich Maltzman. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Rich! Rich Maltzman: Hello Cornelius. Nice to be here. Cornelius Fichtner: I believe you have been on The Project Management Podcast™ before. A couple of times, yeah! Rich Maltzman: A couple of times. It's great to be back. Cornelius Fichtner: You presented yesterday afternoon on the topic of Project Management Making Ideas into Sustainable Reality and Dave Shirley was your co-presenter. Let's do a definition first of all. Sustainable, what does it mean, sustainable? Rich Maltzman: Sustainable means the ability to last and we're talking here about lastingness in terms of economics, in terms of people, in terms of ecology. So it's not just about green and saving the planet although that's a part of it. It's about lasting economic benefits, lasting social benefits for whatever project that you're working on and in fact our talk was in the track called Benefits Realization, which I think was a very good home for it. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! And how did it go? Rich Maltzman: It went really well. I wish we had more people attend. I think we had about 40 and no one walked out. Cornelius Fichtner: So it's good. Rich Maltzman: In that way, it was sustainable. People sustained their seats and I think their attention and it was a conversation especially towards the end. We really engaged with people and got some good questions so we're very happy. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! So how do I make ideas into a sustainable reality? Rich Maltzman: Well, a lot of the talk was about the definition of success and whether or not success is considered to be long term. As project managers, you can't see my hands here but we tend to put blinders on by definition and for good reason from start to finish --- project start, project finish. PMI tells us a project has a definitive beginning and end but does mean we don’t think about what happens to the product, the deliverable of your project over the long term? We don’t think so. In fact, we think we sometimes rob ourselves of risk identification. We rob ourselves of stakeholder identification and all kinds of things that if they're not even identified, no chance to improve them and to get benefits and also fight threats. They come from those. So that long-term view is a way to bring sustainability thinking inter-project management and that's really our core message --- sustainability thinking in project management doesn’t mean that you have to work on your project for 17 years after you've handed off the deliverable. But when I think about what happens 17 years later, that's going to help you. Cornelius Fichtner: And when we talk about sustainability, we focus more on the product itself. Rich Maltzman: That's correct, that’s correct. Corn

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_246_2013_11_01_-_frank_saladis.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Frank Saladis, PMP was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. The International Project Management Day (http://internationalpmday.org/) is happening every year on the 1st Thursday of November. This is "our" day. But what exactly does it do for us? Why should you care? Frank Saladis (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/frank-saladis/0/226/4aa/) who is the founder of the IPM Day argues that since it was first introduced in 2004 "our" day has grown both in recognition and size. And this increased awareness of our profession has opened senior executives to the notion that we as project managers learn life skills, leadership skills, managerial skill and general business skills that are very portable from organization to organization. You as a project manager are near the pulse of every organization and as such you become more valuable and your career grows with every project that you manage. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello everyone! I am here with Frank Saladis, the founder of the International Project Management Day at the PMI Global Congress 2013. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Frank! Frank Saladis: Hi, How are you? Nice to be here. Cornelius Fichtner: I'm very well thank you. You must be ecstatic! You have just been named a new PMI Fellow last night. Frank Saladis: Yeah, that was kind of a surprise and I felt really good about it. It hasn’t really set in. This award is such a prestigious award and I feel very privileged to be in a company of such great people I'm involved in the evolution of PMI and in project management. So it's a great feeling. Cornelius Fichtner: Well yeah, congratulations from all of us. In the words of Wayne's World: "I am not worthy. I am not worthy!" Alright, but we are here today to talk about your involvement with the International Project Management Day. You're the founder of it, right? Frank Saladis: Yes, I am! Yeah! I created it back in the end of 2004. It was kind of a challenge. I have graduated from the Project Management Institute Leadership Institute Masters Class and our professor, Jerry Brightman said to the graduates to go out and change the world. I thought that was kind of a tall order and I kept thinking about it and I came up with the idea. I said: You know, we have Mother's Day and Father's Day. We used to have Secretary's Day, I think it's call Administrative Assistant's Day and I looked at all these things and I said, you know it's time that we did something to recognize project managers so I came up with International Project Management Day. Cornelius Fichtner: Right and 'change the world' is actually a good segway because we have talked about International Project Management Day previously here on the program. What we want to look at today is more how you have changed the world to see what effect the International Project Management Day has indeed had on the profession, on project managers out there and maybe also on how project managers today can use as part of their daily projects. But first, when is the next one? Which number is it this year? Frank Saladis: Well, officially, this would be the 9th time we've actually done an actual set of events, okay. The first true official event after when I launched the International Project Management Day in 2004 first absolute worldwide event took place in November of 2005. What I did was I picked a day, I was trying to find a day that would work best for everyone and minimize the number of other holidays that are out there. Around the world, everyday is a holiday somewhere, but I picked the first Thursday of November. So it's the first Thursday of November every year. This ye

Click to download the video: {youtube}JEL6C8HMWXc|640|360|0{/youtube} We are at the PMI Global Congress North America 2013 in New Orleans and these are our first impressions. Let us know if you here so that we can meet up...

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Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_244_2013_10_18_-_lindsay_scott.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: The projects we lead are all about a group of people delivering benefits to others, so it's no surprise that the human element is fundamental to project management. Lindsay Scott (www.arraspeople.co.uk) is one of the editors of The Gower Handbook of People in Project Management, which is advertised as a complete guide to the human dimensions involved in projects. It’s a compilation of over 60 chapters about project management roles and the people who sponsor, manage, deliver, work in or are otherwise important to project success. I invited Lindsay to come on the program today and discuss just 3 of these chapters. You can look forward to not only her review but to lots of takeaways that you can hopefully apply on your own projects tomorrow. We discussed the chapters on International Projects, Cross-Cultural Relationships and Managing People in Virtual Organisations.

Click to download the video: {youtube}ISCftgE-ORo|640|360|0{/youtube} Get the Free Agile PrepCast at http://www.agileprepcast.com/free This is a short announcement that The Free Agile PrepCast is now available for subscription via the iTunes store. The Free Agile PrepCast offers several free lessons, interviews and exam overview videos for those preparing for their PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) Exam.

Click to download the video: Get the Free Agile PrepCast at http://www.agileprepcast.com/free This is the Low Resolution version of our announcement about The Free Agile PrepCast and iTunes. (This is the video that will automatically sync to your iPod or iPhone.)

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_243_2013_10_11_-_brian_fee.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: If you want to know what the “best” way is for you to manage cost, time, resources or quality on your project, then you can open the PMBOK Guide or turn to any of a dozen project management methodologies out there and they will guide you. But what about the best for you as a project manager to be productive and organized? Where can that be found? Personally I don’t recall a single PM methodology or framework that addresses your or my work style and gives us the tools to improve. To discuss one possible approach we welcome Brian Fee (www.linkedin.com/in/brianfee37) to the program, who says that having a personal set strategy for collecting, processing, organizing and reviewing information has helped him as a project manager. He believes that it is a worthwhile exercise for other project managers to consider their own strategy for staying organized. This is because there is an assumed level of competence that project managers are expected to just have in terms of personal productivity; and it never seems to be directly taught or addressed in the educational process. We are expected to be able to handle a tremendous onslaught of incoming  information effectively and also be able to perform processes and manage projects. Brian believes that many PMs (and other professionals, too) feel a great deal of stress juggling the information they receive through email, voice mail, hallway conversations, or meetings. This interview is about is his personal experience and many of his recommendations that will help inspire you and you set on the right track to improving your own personal productivity.

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_241_2013_09_28_-_mario_henrique_trentim.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: Recent research shows that project success often hinges on the ability of us project managers to meet and exceed stakeholder expectations. While this may not be a new revelation to seasoned project managers it still means that there is a new focus on stakeholder management in our profession. Mario Henrique Trentim (http://br.linkedin.com/in/trentim/) decided to put his experience and expertise on the subject in writing and wrote the book Managing Stakeholders as Clients. It is a practitioner’s guide that blends theory and practice for the rest of us. I’ve invited Mario to tell us why we should worry about the stakeholders on our project. As always when we have an author on the program we will talk less about the book itself, and focus more on his tips, tricks, best practices and Mario’s favorite tools to get the job done.

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_240_2013_09_22_-_elizabeth_harrin.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This episode of The PM Podcast will be especially interesting for all those among you who want to become better project managers, for those who love to read, or for those who fall into both categories. That is because our guest Elizabeth Harrin will give us her review of 3 books that are related to project management with lots of great takeaways for everyone. The books are Do Nothing by Keith Murnigan Real Influence by Mark Goulston and John Ullmen Strategies for Project Sponsorship by Vicky James, Ron Rosenhead and Peter Taylor Elizabeth also wrote a review for each of these 3 books on her website and I encourage you to stop by at www.pm4girls.com because she does address a few angles on her blog that we did not discuss.

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_239_2013_08_17_-_yaron_sinai.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: What would you say are the top 3 reasons why projects fail? Of course there are many lists out there. Some give you the top 10 reasons, some the top 7 and they include things like lack of senior management involvement, unrealistic expectations, inexperienced project managers, improper delegation of task and responsibilities, failure to communicate and act as a team, or lack of resources. But none of these made it to the list of the top 3 reasons why project fail from Yaron Sinai of Elementool (http://www.elementool.com). And just to give you a little preview here... “Poor requirements” is at the top of his list. And yes, while we review his top 3 reasons in detail, I think the much more interesting bit of the interview is the 2nd half, when we open Yaron’s book The Project Management Formula. In this 120-page book Yaron mostly discusses many best practices and gives excellent advice on managing your projects. However, in our interview we focused on just the last 15 pages where he outlines 5 steps that will help you avoid project failure. The first one is all about defining project objectives and I’ll let him discuss the rest in the interview.

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_238_2013_06_27_-_peter_dakessian.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: Go ahead... ask a few people whether they think that preparing for and passing the PMP exam will actually make someone a better project manager. Most of them will tell you that they think not. I’ve been a PMP trainer for the past 9 years and in all my online classes I have always tried to instill a sense of betterment in my students. Simply because I believe that if you take the approach that you are not just studying for the exam, but studying to improve your project management skills, then you will improve your skills. And guess what? I’ve interviewed Peter Dakessian who recently passed his PMP exam and his approach was exactly that. Surprise. So, if you are preparing for your PMP exam and you would like to follow my school of thought, and use your exam prep to both pass the exam and improve your skills, then Peter is the man for you.

Listen Now: {audio}http://traffic.libsyn.com/pmpodcast/PM_Podcast_237_2013_06_07_-_ten_things.mp3{/audio} This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: Any complex project that a company undertakes has a better chance of achieving its goal, vision and the desired results if team executing the project employs both the science and art of project management. The science you can learn and apply, because there are many courses, books, tools, techniques and software packages out there that help you understand how to manage your project from a methodological perspective. Learning the art of project management on the other hand is a different story, because it takes experience to know what you need to do, when you need to do it and how much of it to apply to a given situation. Luckily for us, there are a lot of experienced project managers out there who are willing to share their experience and Vijayalakshmi Muthukrishnan, PMP (http://in.linkedin.com/pub/vijayalakshmi-muthukrishnan/12/49a/575) is one of them. She has worked as a project manager in both the USA and India. In support of the projects in her company she created a presentation of the 10 things that every PM should know & do. We review each item in her presentation and you will not only hear her explain why each of them is crucial as a PM skill, but more importantly she includes her suggestions, tips, tricks and steps on how to apply them properly. All that remains to do for you is... well.. do them!

Click here to download the PDF... These are the 10 recommendations from Vijayalakshmi Muthukrishnan in PDF form.