Review ABC of PM cards

In line with the ABC of ICT card deck, a new deck was developed by Mark Kouwenhoven, Paul Wilkinson and Douwe Brolsma of ABC@WORK to focus on project management specific Attitude, Behavior and Culture (ABC) aspects. It is the ABC aspects that will determine the success or failure of your project management and subsequently the success of your projects. Successfully addressing ABC will ensure: buy-in, commitment, involvement, ownership, self improvement, continual improvement and more importantly a project management organization that can realize business added value, with satisfied customers and employees.

The card deck contains 13 cards (clubs) about Attitude, 13 cards (diamonds) about Behavior, 13 cards (Spades) about Culture and 13 cards (hearts) about stakeholders.

Each card contains a cartoon and corresponding ‘worst practice’ example of attitude, behavior or culture. The aim is to confront people with ABC worst practices that they recognize within their own projects. The aim is to trigger the thinking process of players and open discussion and dialogue about ABC issues within projects in their organization. To help identify the relevance and impact and help prioritize and select improvement needs.

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On each cards you can find a statement related to Attitude, Behavior or Culture. Some examples of the statements on the cards are:

- Three of clubs: Not enough commitment at Executive level (Attitude)

- Queen of Diamonds: The solution the customer sees isn’t the one that the project sees (behavior)

- Jack of Spades: Poor knowledge capturing, no lessons learned (culture)

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The cards can be used to look at specific risks in your project or within your organization. e.g.:

- Gather a team of project managers around a table. Take the User or Sponsor stakeholder card from the deck and place it on the table. Split the team into 3 groups. One group will take the Attitude (clubs) cards, one group the Behavior (diamonds) cards and the last group the Culture (spades) cards. If we were to give these cards to the stakeholders on the table, which cards would they think represents your project? Discuss the findings.

- Imagine you give the customer the ABC cards, which three cards would he or she choose that most typically represent the ABC of PM worst practices in tour organization? Discuss the findings.

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I had the pleasure to work together with Douwe Brolsma. After a presentation to explain attitude, behavior and culture of project management in relation to risk management, we asked a group of project managers from my organization to answer the following question: “which three cards would you choose that most typically represents the ABC of PM worst practices in our organization. Based on the discussion we ended with a list of best practices to be used in our projects. For me the ultimate prove that using these cards could definitely help you to address ABC issues in your organization.

Learning Map Project Management

 

I just received this learning map published by Neuland GmbH. It’s a poster (size 100 x 70 cm) explaining the basics of project management in English, and German on the other side. It uses the example that you are asked to lead a large, important ship expedition. The first topics on the map are related to define what’s a project and project management, than it follows with pictures and less text, the lifecycle of the journey (the project). The start before the start, Good planning is success, The journey is a reward in itself, Set sails and set course and finish with Safe arrival at the destination port. You will get some simple checklists and tips for successful management of projects. Some quotes, e.g. “He who wishes to build high towers must spend a long time on the foundations.” will be found too.

Of course it’s not an extensive explanation of project management but it can be easily use to explain the basics of project management to those who are not familiar with project management.

MSP manual supporting tabs, a helping aid to pass your MSP practitioner exam

I am happy to announce that as of now, MSP practitioner candidates can make use of a simple aid to quickly find your way in the official MSP manual during e.g. your exam. These tabs (place marks) are developed in line with the successful tabs I developed for the PRINCE2 manual. The Best Practices User Group is the publisher of this aid.

You can order your copy at MSP manual suporting tabs

Due to the success of the PRINCE2 tabs the BPUG had already re-printed the PRINCE2 version and I am already aware of the first copycat.

I am looking forward to your reactions and of course a lot of success when you are studying for the MSP Practitioner exams

New book: MSP™ 2011 Edition – Quick Reference Card

Dear readers, I am happy to announce that my new Managing Successful Programmes Quick Reference Card is now available in the bookstores. This sturdy, easy to carry booklet offers a summary of MSP™ 2011 Edition. It gives you the possibility to get, in one glance, familiar with the Themes, the Principles and Process Model of MSP.

It is designed for people familiar with MSP, as a quick reference to MSP themes, processes, roles and programme information products.

• Based on a Transformational Flow it shows how with programmes based on MSP transformation is achieved through a series of iterative, interrelated steps. Each process may require more than one iteration before the next one begins.

• Clever fold out with tabs for each subject;

• Printed on water proof material: it withstands coffee stains, etc.;

• Available as a set of 5 booklets;

• Endorsed by Best Practice User GROUP NL.

Book review: Leading successful PMOs

Just finished reading the book ‘Leading successful PMOs, How to build the best project management office for your business’ from Peter Taylor (author of the ‘The lazy project manager’).
The back cover mentions that Peter outlines the basics of setting up a PMO and clearly explains how to ensure it will do exactly what you need it to do – the right things, in the right way, in the right order, with the right team.
The first chapter explains the meaning and purpose of a PMO. It explains different dimensions of a PMO like type (departmental, special-purpose, outreaching, external, enterprise), and operational method or approach (supportive, controlling, directive or blended). The dimensions are completed with a view on the maturity of the PMO. The chapter ends with a very brief overview what a PMO does (or could do).
Chapter 2, What makes a PMO successful? Is, together with chapter 3, the main part of this book. This chapter gives you a 360-degree assessment looking at the voice of PMO leaders by some short cases studies and interviews, the voice of project managers by analyzing answers from a survey with more than 800 respondents, the voice of the market by analyzing 100 job advertisements for PMO leaders and the ‘C’-level voice to complete the picture.
Chapter 3, Being a successful PMO leader brings together the knowledge from the stakeholder feedback and assimilate it into a competence framework for PMO leaders.
- Be passionate about projects and project management
- Be strong in your communication
- Negotiate well for your PMO
- Be enthusiastic in leading change
- Don’t be afraid to be unique: anything else is probably wrong for you and your business
Chapter 4, Starting a PMO helps you to build the business case for a PMO. The final short chapter is about the final frontier, some final thought on the future of the PMOs. Is a PMO for life? Is the PMO the only answer? Is the PMO the mother of all project managers.
Conclusion. My expectations where very high, due to the fact of Peter’s book about the lazy project manager and to be honest I am not completely satisfied. Why didn’t he go into the details of his own PMO. In his book he showed three times his 5 ‘P’s: People, Process, Performance, Promotion and PMIS with for each P a detailed list e.g. People: recruitment, profiles, training, induction, certification, assessment, teambuilding. Why didn’t he describe the details behind these lists? In my opinion this would have increased the value of this book enormously. But the book will definitely help you to improve your own thoughts about PMOs and helps you to improve and communicate the added value of your own PMO. You will also get some takeaways like a PMO leaders’ checklist and the PMO acid test.

New book: Competence profiles, Certification levels and Functions in the Project management and Project support field.

Together with Jan Willem Donselaar and Bert Hedeman, we wrote the book:

Competence profiles, Certification levels and Functions in the Project management and Project support field.

This professional field continuously broadens and becomes profounder. Therefore, IPMA has extended its attention from project management to program management, portfolio management and project support (PMO).

This has made manifest the need for a reference model in which the various functions and corresponding competences and the relations between them are presented.

Not only for HR managers, but also for project and program managers and PMO heads. In the first edition of this book, attention was given to the regular functions in the project management field, as they are applied in the IPMA 4-level system.

With the publication of this second edition, the wish has been realized to make a complete function building for the project management field available. The second edition of this book does justice to PMO professionals’ needs for recognition and appreciation of their added value for projects, programs and portfolios.

• This is a publication of IPMA-NL. Offers a complete function building for the project management field.
• Explains a reference model in which the various functions and corresponding competences and the relations between them are presented.
• Based on the IPMA 4-level system

to order, please visit: Competence profiles, Certification levels and Functions in the Project management and Project support field

I am looking forward to your reactions. For Dutch readers a Dutch translation will be published next month.

MSP Advanced Practitioner, helping aid 1

When you are studying to pass the MSP Advanced practitioner exam, it’s important to understand the relationship between themes and the transaction flow. The attached scheme shows you all themes and the most related activities within the processes of the transaction flow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MSP (themes – processes, 111117) v1 Sheet1

Een praktisch PMO, de route naar succesvol projectmanagement

Dear all, I am happy to announce that my new book regarding the set-up of PMO’s is now available for the Dutch market. It’s called ‘Een praktisch PMO, de route naar succesvol projectmanagement,’

You can order a copy at Een praktisch PMO, de route naar succesvol projectmanagement

Book review: Passing the PRINCE2 2009 Edition Foundation exam

This book ‘Passing the PRINCE2 2009 Edition Foundation exam’ from Bert Hedeman, Gabor Vis van Heemst and Steffi Triest is a study guide for those who want to pass the PRINCE2 Foundation exam. It will also give you a basic understanding of the method, but if this understanding is the reason for buying I would suggest buying one of the other books from one of the authors. I was in the lucky situation to use a preliminary version of this book during one of my PRINCE2 training classes in Europe. All 20 candidates passed and I will leave it to their judgment if this was due to the trainer or this book. The book follows the structure and the Foundation level learning objectives as described in the APM Group PRINCE2 2009 – Syllabus V1.1.
All 15 Syllabus areas are covered starting with the overview and Principles, followed by the seven Themes and seven Processes.
For each syllabus area you get an overview with learning outcomes. What you will have to know, understand or do in order to demonstrate competency in that topic for each level of examination. The level is the classification of the learning outcome against APMG Learning Outcome Assessment Model. For Foundation this is level 1: knowledge or level 2: comprehension. And finally, a description of all related topics or aspects that a candidate has to master to demonstrate that a learning outcome has been achieved for the foundation level. 
For each syllabus area you will also get the related definitions, an introduction to the area, an explanation per topic and an overview of the roles and responsibilities of the Theme or Process. The syllabus area chapter ends with a set of sample multiple-choice questions covering this area and with at least one question per topic. The book ends with a glossary of all related terms. In my opinion a good book if you just followed a PRINCE2 training class and you want to increase your chance to pass your PRINCE2 Foundation exam.

Book review: The Art of PRINCE2 Survival

I just read the book The Art of PRINCE2 Survival by Colin Bentley. Colin was the lead mentor of the latest revision to the manual, released in June 2009.
The book is very easy to read and Colin included several humoristic drawings to accommodate the text.
It’s not a book to describe the whole PRINCE2 methodology but it gives you a pragmatic, common sense view on several topics related to the Organization, Risk and Issues, quality, Planning, and several documents including examples of very down to earth documents like a Product Brief, a Product Description, a Work Package and a Lessons Report.
When he describes a topic you will not get a list with bullet points but a readable story explaining the specific topic and several times including some one liners or quotes related to the topic. E.g. “If your project has more than one product, more than one version of a product and more than one person working on the project, then you are using configuration management. It’s just a question of how well you’re doing it.”
I really like the examples to simplify e.g. the work package into a one pager. Also his quote “Don’t write a progress report for a busy manager that takes longer to read than the time between his/her phone call – and that is one page.” is exactly what I want to achieve with my book PRINCE in practice, a practical approach to create project management documents; how to avoid bulky, inaccessible, standalone, and illegible documents.
Also his proposal to integrate the Issue Register, Issue Register and Issue Report into one problem report makes sense.
The first chapter of the book is a different one. It gives you an overview of the seven principles on which PRINCE2 is based including simple schemes to show which principles are supported by which processes. Something the official manual will not show you.
In my opinion a good book for those project managers who just passed their PRINCE2 exams and who are now struggling to put the methodology into practice and who are looking for some pragmatic advice.