http://pm411.org project management internet radio show, templates, and webtools Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:37:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 The pm411.org Project Management Podcast is dedicated to help you at your job as a Project Manager or Program Manager, regardless if you have years of experience, or if you are just starting on your journey in Project Management. pm411.org is a place where you can come to find the latest in PM tools, PM Templates, PM tips, and PMI (PMBOK) methodologies that have been found to help others. It is a place where discussions can be had with project managers from around the globe and in every industry where project management permeates in our Project Management discussion forums. It is a place where you can find the best Project Management links to other sites dedicated to our wonderful profession. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no Ron Holohan, MBA PMP show@pm411.org show@pm411.org (Ron Holohan, MBA PMP) 2007-2012 Ron Holohan Project management internet radio show, discussion forum, methodology, templates, and webtools project, management, pm, prepcast, management, manager, pmi, pmp, team, management, schedule, budget http://pm411.org/wp-content/uploads/pm411logo_itunes.jpg http://pm411.org/category/pm-topics/cost-budgeting/ http://pm411.org/2011/01/14/podcast-episode-067-stop-playing-games/ http://pm411.org/2011/01/14/podcast-episode-067-stop-playing-games/#comments Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:23:39 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=1786 http://pm411.org/2011/01/14/podcast-episode-067-stop-playing-games/feed/ 6 Do you ever get tired of playing games? - No. I’m not talking about Scrabble or poker or even Dungeons and Dragons Online in which incidentally, I am a current fourth level paladin. No, rather I’m speaking about the games that we get to play every... Do you ever get tired of playing games? No. I’m not talking about Scrabble or poker or even Dungeons and Dragons Online in which incidentally, I am a current fourth level paladin. No, rather I’m speaking about the games that we get to play every day as project managers. What games you ask? Oh, you know the ones like “The Pricing Game,” “Guess the Truth,” and “Grapevine.” Well, lucky for us, Rick Morris, PMP, provides some strategies on how to win at these games. Rick Morris is the best-selling author of the book Stop Playing Games: A Project Manager’s Guide to Successfully Navigating Organizational Politics. This book, from the author of Project Management That Works and The Everything Project Management Book, dives deep into topics of gaining buy-in from upper management, accurately estimating timing and cost, controlling project communications, managing within a corporate culture, taking care of your team, and more. The Inspiration Behind the Book Frustration was one of the factors that inspired Rick to write Stop Playing Games. Frustration often occurs when project managers are ask to try to beat impossible deadlines with budgets and dates that they didn’t help set and without the authority to be successful.  Then, often we get to take the blame for when it all goes wrong! Luckily, Rick has worked with a lot of executives, both as a consultant and as a project manager, and has been able to help many see that their team leaders actually share the same goals that they have. In the end, we’re all people and we all want to be successful. By applying tips from Rick’s book, project managers can help their executives look so much better than they do today. In the long run, together we can stop playing these games and just have an honest relationship and become successful together. So, who's ready for a hug? The Current Status of Project Management Rick contends that the current status of project management is that a lot of people want a “quick fix” to improve corporate efficiency and they think that Project Management might be able to provide that, but they don’t want to put in the needed work to make the process changes to truly get the benefit of doing it the right way. One of the reasons we try to play “games” is because, just like when "Six Sigma" was new to organizations ten years ago, Project Management is new to a lot of organizations today. If you remember when Six Sigma became so prevalent, you had stories of Motorola and GE getting all these gains and successes from implementing Six Sigma. They had these results that suggested that if you brought a certified "Master Black Belt" in, your organization would suddenly become tremendously more efficient overnight. Although organizations are starting to recognize that Project Management does bring dividends, they still don’t know exactly how to help project managers do their jobs succesfully. What’s happening is they think “Oh, we just established a Project Managemetn Office (PMO), now we’re finally going to have better project predictability.” Unfortunately, the problem is that organizations don’t want to put in the effort to really change any of their processes. Perhaps they read some journal article that said, “Hey, if you hire a project manager, you can get results.” So, they go and hire a PMP. But they don't provide the time or budget to effectively plan and execute the project. Soon the top floor wants to know “Where are these results we were promised?” As a result, in many cases project managers simply end up being big paper pushers and additional money gets spent to bring in consultants to figure out that the organization's processes and expectations never got changed to allow projects to come in under budget, under schedule, and within scope. When I grow up, I want to be a Project Manager Most of us really didn’t plan to become a project manager. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no 26:05 http://pm411.org/2010/03/28/podcast-episode-057-tom-peters-speaks-out-about-toyota-recalls/ http://pm411.org/2010/03/28/podcast-episode-057-tom-peters-speaks-out-about-toyota-recalls/#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 02:21:41 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=1117 http://pm411.org/2010/03/28/podcast-episode-057-tom-peters-speaks-out-about-toyota-recalls/feed/ 5 al dunlap,apple,authors,auto manufacturers,chevrolet,Chrysler,Ford,GM,google,Honda,ibm,in search of excellence I was recently joined by best selling author and Management guru Tom Peters to discuss his perspective on the Toyota recalls. Tom and I also talked about where other major companies such as Dell, Starbucks, Nike, Apple, Google, GM, IBM, I was recently joined by best selling author and Management guru Tom Peters to discuss his perspective on the Toyota recalls. Tom and I also talked about where other major companies such as Dell, Starbucks, Nike, Apple, Google, GM, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and Honda fall on that elusive spectra known as "Excellence". By the way, if somehow you have not heard of Tom Peters: Simply put, Tom Peters is the last of the still living and truly great 20th Century management thought leaders and, incidentally, is more relevant in today's business environment than ever before. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no 31:36 http://pm411.org/2010/03/28/the-5-goals-of-a-project-manager/ http://pm411.org/2010/03/28/the-5-goals-of-a-project-manager/#comments Sun, 28 Mar 2010 05:55:23 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=1107 http://pm411.org/2010/03/28/the-5-goals-of-a-project-manager/feed/ 2 http://pm411.org/2008/04/28/podcast-episode-029-project-cost-budgeting/ http://pm411.org/2008/04/28/podcast-episode-029-project-cost-budgeting/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:59:02 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=204 http://pm411.org/2008/04/28/podcast-episode-029-project-cost-budgeting/feed/ 0 furniture VidenovToday, I have a special treat in store for you.  Today I am going to let you preview one of the 89 PM PrepCast episodes that we offer through The pm411.org Project Management Podcast!  Today's episode is on Project Cost Budgeting w... furniture VidenovToday, I have a special treat in store for you.  Today I am going to let you preview one of the 89 PM PrepCast episodes that we offer through The pm411.org Project Management Podcast!  Today's episode is on Project Cost Budgeting which is, of course, one of the many PM processes within PMI's Cost Management Knowledge area.  During this episode, Cornelius Fichtner, of the PM Podcast, walks us through the difference between Cost Estimating and Cost Budgeting. Then discusses using the project schedule, the WBS, parametric estimating, the cost baseline, project funding requirements and other topics you need to understand to successfully pass the PMP. Cost Budgeting is concerned with rolling the cost of individual work packages up to a total project baseline cost that can be monitored as part of the project's overall performance. Cost Budgeting Process Inputs In order to estimate the project budget needed successfully, Cost Budgeting uses several process inputs including: The Project Scope Statement The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) The WBS Dictionary Activity Cost Estimates Activity Cost Estimate Supporting Detail Project Schedule Resource Calendars Contract And the Cost Management Plan Each of these inputs are required when using the tools and techniques to estimate the overall project cost. Cost Budgeting Process Tools and Techniques Some of the tools and techniques used in Cost Budgeting include Cost Aggregation, Reserve Analysis, Parametric Estimating, and Funding Limit Reconciliation. Cost Aggregation is simply estimating the cost estimate for each of the project schedule activities and work packages.  These can then be rolled up and "aggregated" to various cost management levels by using the WBS and combining the various related work package costs.  These are then further rolled up into the various control accounts and finally the overall project cost.  Simple enough, huh? Reserve Analysis creates emergency or contingency reserves.  An example of such a reserve is the Management Contingency Reserve.  These reserves are for unplanned, but required, changes to project scope and cost.  These reserves are used for risks to the project that have been identified as "unknown unknowns".  These reserves are not part of the project cost baseline, but should be included in the overall project budget.  Since they are not considered a part of the project cost baseline, they are not used for earned value calculations.  Think of Reserve Analysis as your extra money you keep in your checking account to prevent you from accidently bouncing checks to pay for your daughters highly variable wireless phone bill.  So, BTW did or didn't Bettylou break up with her b/f?  Parametric Estimation always reminds me of using a cookbook recipe and changing it slightly to either feed more or less people.  Basically you use an actual measurement from a similar previous project to estimate the cost of the current project.  For example, perhaps a previous project had a labor rate of $40/hr for 2500 hours for a total project labor cost of $100,000 .  You estimate through Cost Aggregation that this new project will take approximately 4000 hours.  By using parametric estimation with the same labor rate, you estimate the total labor cost for the new project to be approximately $160,000.  That's a lot of pies! Funding Limit Reconciliation is about "smoothing" out project expenditures to prevent sudden periodic over expenditures from occurring.  Fund disbursement is discussed early with the customer to determine the when exactly work can be scheduled to prevent over spending during a particular period.  If it is determined that Cost expenditures are constrained, then the Project Manager needs to know what effect this has on the overall project schedule and resources. Cost Budgeting Outputs The outputs generated by the Cost Budgeting Process include the project Cost Baseline, Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no 28:11