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/risk-management/ http://pm411.org/2011/09/25/we-don%e2%80%99t-do-project-management/ http://pm411.org/2011/09/25/we-don%e2%80%99t-do-project-management/#comments Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:53:08 +0000 BrendaHernandez http://pm411.org/?p=2544 http://pm411.org/2011/09/25/we-don%e2%80%99t-do-project-management/feed/ 12 http://pm411.org/2011/03/05/podcast-episode-070-the-schedule-killers-presentation-part-3/ http://pm411.org/2011/03/05/podcast-episode-070-the-schedule-killers-presentation-part-3/#comments Sun, 06 Mar 2011 03:34:50 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=1861 http://pm411.org/2011/03/05/podcast-episode-070-the-schedule-killers-presentation-part-3/feed/ 5 delay,durations,estimation,late,PM Video,presentation,procrastinating,procrastination,ron holohan,schedule killers,schedules,student's syndrome This is part 3 of a video presentation I gave on The Schedule Killers last summer. In Part 3 I discuss the first real Schedule Killer, Student's Syndrome. Back in Episode 045, I went into great detail on Student Syndrome, This is part 3 of a video presentation I gave on The Schedule Killers last summer. In Part 3 I discuss the first real Schedule Killer, Student's Syndrome. Back in Episode 045, I went into great detail on Student Syndrome, which is a really nasty way projects miss their deadline... Usually 1 day at a time! The other Schedule Killers will be presented in the next few episodes. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no http://pm411.org/2011/01/22/uncomplicated-ways-to-understand-the-complex-world-of-project-managers/ http://pm411.org/2011/01/22/uncomplicated-ways-to-understand-the-complex-world-of-project-managers/#comments Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:15:39 +0000 BrendaHernandez http://pm411.org/?p=1808 http://pm411.org/2011/01/22/uncomplicated-ways-to-understand-the-complex-world-of-project-managers/feed/ 12 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/2010/05/31/podcast-episode-060-rats-snakes-and-complex-projects-with-geoff-crane/ http://pm411.org/2010/05/31/podcast-episode-060-rats-snakes-and-complex-projects-with-geoff-crane/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:57:28 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=1444 http://pm411.org/2010/05/31/podcast-episode-060-rats-snakes-and-complex-projects-with-geoff-crane/feed/ 3 complex projects,Geoff Crane,papercut,papercut edge,papercut pm,planning,Risk Management,scope I once described Geoff Crane's Papercut Edge blog like this: "Imagine if Project Management rode the scary rollercoaster and then threw up... That's what Geoff Crane's blog is like." And Geoff just so happens to also an expert on complex projects. I once described Geoff Crane's Papercut Edge blog like this: "Imagine if Project Management rode the scary rollercoaster and then threw up... That's what Geoff Crane's blog is like." And Geoff just so happens to also an expert on complex projects. Especially those projects where the exterminator needs to be called in. And lucky for us, Geoff is willing to share some of his tips on managing complex projects. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no 23:44 http://pm411.org/2009/10/24/podcast-episode-049-event-chain-project-management/ http://pm411.org/2009/10/24/podcast-episode-049-event-chain-project-management/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 03:50:44 +0000 Ron Holohan, MBA PMP http://pm411.org/?p=785 http://pm411.org/2009/10/24/podcast-episode-049-event-chain-project-management/feed/ 2 bayesian,event chain,intaver,lev virine,mitigation,monte carlo,risk,riskyproject,software Today we talk with Lev Virine, PhD. Lev is president and co-founder of Intaver Institute, a Calgary (Canada) based research, software development, and consulting company. Lev has twenty years of engineering and project management experience in informat... Today we talk with Lev Virine, PhD. Lev is president and co-founder of Intaver Institute, a Calgary (Canada) based research, software development, and consulting company. Lev has twenty years of engineering and project management experience in information technology and construction industries and is author of more than thirty scientific papers and patents. Lev's current research interests include decision and risk analysis, project management, and their applications. And much of his writing is on the topic of Project Management using Event Chain Methodology, which differs substantially from Critical Chain methodology which we have talked frequently about on the show in the past. So, we talked with Lev to find out more about what exactly is Event Chain methodology. The Intaver Institute First, a bit about Lev's company.  The Intaver Institute Inc. is a leading innovator in the field of project management software, offering their clients "unique, cost effective software solutions to their project and portfolio management challenges." Intaver Institute was founded in 2002 by respected technology executives, mathematicians, economists, and computer scientists. Intaver Institute Inc. develops commercial software, provides training and consulting services, and performs scientific research in the area of project decision and risk analysis. Event Chain Methodology According to Lev, event chain methodology is an uncertainty modeling and schedule network analysis technique that is focused on identifying and managing events and event chains that affect project schedules. Event chain methodology can help to reduce the negative impact of psychological heuristics and biases, as well as to allow for easier modeling of uncertainties in project schedules. Event Chain Methodology Objectives: There are three main objectives of utilizing Event Chain methodology. 1. To mitigate the effect of motivational and cognitive biases in estimating and scheduling. In many cases, project managers intentionally or unintentionally create project schedules that are impossible to implement. 2. To simplify the process of defining risks and uncertainties in project schedules and particularly to improve the ability to provide reality checks and visualize multiple events. 3. To perform more accurate quantitative analysis while taking into account such factors as relationship between different events and actual moment of the events. Event Chain Methodology Principles There are also several priniciples to be followed. 1.) Moment of risk and state of activity An activity (task) in most real life processes is not a continuous uniform procedure. Tasks are affected by external events, which transform an activity from one state to another. One of the important properties of an event is the moment when an event occurs during the course of an activity. This moment, when an event occurs, in most cases is probabilistic and can be defined using statistical distribution. 2.) Event Chains Events can cause other events, which will create event chains. These event chains can significantly affect the course of the project. Lev provides the example of requirement changes that can cause an activity to be delayed. To accelerate the activity, the project manager allocates a resource from another activity, which then leads to a missed deadline. Eventually, this can lead to the failure of the project. 3.) Monte Carlo Simulations Once events and event chains are defined, quantitative analysis using Monte Carlo simulation can be performed to quantify the cumulative impact of the events. Probabilities and impacts of risks are used as the input data for Monte Carlo simulation of the project schedule. In most real life projects, it is necessary to supplement the information regarding the uncertainties expressed as an event with distributions related to duration, start time, cost, and other parameters. 4. Ron Holohan, MBA PMP no 38:07