This week I really wanted to turn up the volume of things I wrote about.  I have a lot to say (and write) about project management and if you missed reading my blog on a given day and don’t have an RSS feed or follow me on Twitter, you’d have to go searching in the archives to find it.  I don’t think that’s good enough.  I should make it easy for you to read what I write.  Hopefully, this week in review will help you find something new while you enjoy your coffee or tea.

1/28/2010

Seeing Value From The Customer Perspective

I don’t care if you’re using Agile, Waterfall, or other methods to deliver value.  What is important is you understand your process and what mechanisms provide the greatest value to the customer.  Just because a process does not appear valuable to you, it does not mean the process does not provide value…

1/29/2010

Refine Your Process If You Must Deviate From It

If you’re looking for a free Microsoft Visio template of a Sprint process workflow, which you can edit at will, you can download it here.  As I mentioned in my post Seeing Value From The Customer Perspective, if you think you need to deviate from a documented or understood process, rewrite or refine your process to account for the deviations…

1/30/2010

The Impact Of Social Networking On Project Management

Good leaders do not operate in a vacuum. They exchange ideas and information with people. Offer free information and it will come back to you tenfold. Listen to knowledgeable people and then make a more educated leadership decision… In this post I compared the traditional communication paths and how that process is turned on its ear, thanks to social networking…

1/31/2010

This Is How You Know When To Kill A Project

A personal rant about paper telephone books and how I never realized, until now, who the real customer was. There is a very similar parallel between the newspaper industry and the printed phone book industry.  They both believe or promote the scarcity of information.  That scarcity justifies cost.  To the contrary, we now live with an abundance of information.  That information is freely distributed and reaches a broader audience…

2/1/2010

The December Numbers Are In For PMPs

Yes, the December numbers are in.  December 2009 numbers for Project Management Professional (PMP®) certifications were published and it looks like there will be over 400,000 holding the certification in 2010…

2/2/2010

And The Best Methodology Is

I recently commented on two blogs that address similar topics.  Jesse Fewell wants to empower teams to succeed, equip managers to lead, and enable executives to unlock the secrets of high performing organizations.  Jesse wrote a blog post offering the real reasons behind the methodology wars.  It’s an insightful post and I would recommend you go and read it…

The other blog post was from Mike Cottmeyer, someone I turn to on a regular basis to find inspiration and wisdom within the industry.  Mike wrote a blog post asking Why is Agile so hard to sell? Again, it is a very good read and you should set aside some time to read some of his writings…

The Pain Of IE6 And Application Development

There are legacy applications out there that were built on IE6 and it’s not an easy migration.  There are some Agencies which ONLY use IE6 and the users don’t have permissions to install a new browser.  So, what do you do?…

2/3/2010

Updated 10 Step Help To Submit PMP PDUs

All PMPs need 60 PDUs during a CCR cycle so don’t put it off until the last minute.  I document the process on how to claim your require 60 PDUs…

2/4/2010

Using Common Sense With Documentation

Though I really love good documentation, going heavy on it does not guarantee a successful project.  My recommendation is you spend a little time identifying documentation that truly meets your needs.  More importantly, identify documentation that truly meets your customer’s needs…

2/5/2010

Managing Risks and Opportunities

Washington DC is in the process of getting 20-30 inches of snow, over the next 24 hours.  Though I know you can’t foresee all possible issues which may occur over the course of a project, you should make an honest attempt to identify them in order to open a dialog with your stakeholders.  Has weather ever delayed your project or pushed it over budget?…

The question is always asked, which Methodology is best?  It is interesting to see or read the responses from people and their reasoning behind their opinion.  I actually don’t like to use the term Methodology. I would prefer to use the term Approach.  Merriam-Webster defines methodology as a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline; a particular procedure or set of procedures.  An approach is the taking of preliminary steps toward a particular purpose.  THAT is what people do.  If you review the PMBoK or the Agile Manifesto, neither are going to say in the event of A-B-C, in this sequence, do D-E-F.  Life, application development, and project management are complicated enough.  You don’t need to write an algorithm to know the next step needed to accomplish goals.

There is a pain point in the industry that I’ve seen ongoing for several years now.  In this post, I’m not going to say which approach I think is better and why.  It’s really kind of irrelevant.  I think what is important is we ask ourselves and our stakeholder. What IS important?

I recently commented on two blogs that address similar topics.  Jesse Fewell wants to empower teams to succeed, equip managers to lead, and enable executives to unlock the secrets of high performing organizations.  Jesse wrote a blog post offering the real reasons behind the methodology wars.  It’s an insightful post and I would recommend you go and read it.

The other blog post was from Mike Cottmeyer, someone I turn to on a regular basis to find inspiration and wisdom within the industry.  Mike wrote a blog post asking Why is Agile so hard to sell? Again, it is a very good read and you should set aside some time to read some of his writings.

My bridge to both blog posts is identifying Wants and Needs.  Both drive motivations.  Once you understand the motivation, you can answer the question “why?”

Before analyzing why one team likes one approach or has disdain for another, you have to question their motivations. We assume we all desire the delivery of value. That’s not necessarily true. Some are more motivated at protecting the status quo or their position in the program.

The hierarchy of wants, not needs, will commonly differ between teams, if we want to admit it or not.

Image courtesy of quickandirty

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Seeing Value From The Customer Perspective, if you think you need to deviate from a documented or understood process, rewrite or refine your process to account for the deviations. Merriam-Webster defines process as a series of actions or operations conducing to an end.  If you are unwilling to modify your process, the deviation is unworthy of being done.

I’ve had a vendor tell me they didn’t need to document their processes because they were agile.  (Notice the lack of an uppercase A in Agile).  Leveraging Agile concepts does not mean a lack of documented process.  IF the customer tells me they see the greatest value in delivering documentation, what is this vendor going to respond with?  Sorry, we won’t deliver value?  If you use Waterfall, you may be used to generating more paper.  You have to consider documentation on a case by case basis.  Some customers have legitimate needs for documentation and other have wants.  Now go back and read that last sentence again.  Needs…Wants…

I personally like to go light on documentation.  What I need and what the customer needs are usually two different things.  That being said, I like to understand the rules (governance) before I start anything.  The Microsoft Visio document I included in my last post was a good example of a high level governance (functional flowchart) document. After completing the flowchart, I then detail each activity in a separate document.  What is the input and output?  Is there a formal deliverable associated with the activity? The idea behind the separate document is you won’t need the flowchart to describe the process.  For those who have successfully navigated a SOX audit, you know what I’m talking about.  But I digress.  The flowchart activities I documented are not groundbreaking.  The process in this case is an Agile Scrum process with a few defined quality assurance decisions points.  You do not need to go into the Nth degree to understand this process.  Identify some touch points where the vendor and customer interface.  Identity some decision points.  That’s it!

I’ve done these flowcharts for several customers.  I’ve created them for both Waterfall and Agile development approaches.  If you’re looking for a free Microsoft Visio template, which you can edit at will, you can download it here. I zipped it to make downloading easier.  If you’re looking for other free templates or worksheets to use on your project or program, you can download them there.

What do you think?  To document or not document.  That is the question. I welcome your comments or feedback.

Regards,

Derek

I recently sat in a meeting between a vendor and client, where the client was attempting to communicate their need to route new work deliverables to an existing Change Control Board (CCB). The contractor came back and said they believed the CCB in this case would not provide value and perhaps it should be bypassed.

Note to all vendors: Just because a process does not appear valuable to you, it does not mean the process does not provide value. The use of the CCB provides a (formal) control point helping to prevent unauthorized work and cost overruns. This goes further then just having a client billed for unauthorized work. Any work done without prior authorization has a risk of negatively impacting project schedule, cost, or quality. The mere act of doing unauthorized work impacts the scope.

I don’t care if you’re using Agile, Waterfall, or other methods to deliver value.  What is important is you understand your process and what mechanisms provide the greatest value to the customer.

If you think you need to deviate from a documented or understood process, rewrite your process to account for the deviations. If you are unwilling to change your documented process, the deviation is unworthy of being done.

I created the Visio diagram (above) a few months back to help both the customer and vendor visualize what we were trying to accomplish.  The challenge was implementing Scrum in a very formal and controlled environment.

I certainly recognize many don’t have such a formal process.  Instead of CCBs, you may call them Product Backlog Review Meetings.  Counter to this, you may have a very fluid and simple software development life cycle (SDLC).  If so, you still need to understand your process and you still need to communicate with your customer.  Understand what their highest priorities are and deliver.

Today I realized I’ve been supporting and advising a Federal Government PMO for a whole year.  Prior to that, I was the Manager of Software Engineering at an online company that had recently gone public.  I was the sole PMP (Project Management Professional) and  sole Agile Evangelist. Upon my leaving that company, I told my superiors they really needed a PMO if they wanted to offer consistent results, measurable improvements, and increase stakeholder satisfaction.  It was hard at first to shift gears, away from a private profit-driven organization, to Federal governance-driven organization.  At the private company, it was all “being creative” to meet unrealistic goals set by those not versed in best practices.  Since there were no other PMPs, I felt like the lone sheriff in the Wild West.  Now that I’m dealing with the government, I’m surrounded by other PMPs.  There is policy, process, and governance.  Everyone knows their jobs very well.  They know best practices.

So you can differentiate the type of PMO I work in compared to others, I’ve included the 3 basic types below with their definitions.

There are 3 basic types of Project Management Office (PMO) organizations are [1] supportive, [2] controlling, [3] directive.

1. Supportive PMO generally provides support in the form of on-demand expertise, templates, best practices, access the information and expertise on other projects, and the like. This can work in an organization where projects are done successfully in a loosely controlled manner and where additional control is deemed unnecessary. Also, if the objective is to have a sort of ‘clearinghouse’ of project management info across the enterprise to be used freely by PMs, then the Supportive PMO is the right type.

2. Controlling PMO has the desire to “reign in” the activities – processes, procedures, documentation, and more – a controlling PMO can accomplish that. Not only does the organization provide support, but it also REQUIRES that the support be used. Requirements might include adoption of specific methodologies, templates, forms, conformance to governance, and application of other PMO controlled sets of rules. In addition, project offices might need to pass regular reviews by the Controlling PMO, and this may represent a risk factor on the project. This works if a. there is a clear case that compliance with project management organization offerings will bring improvements in the organization and how it executes on projects, and b. the PMO has sufficient executive support to stand behind the controls the PMO puts in place.

3. Directive PMO goes beyond control and actually “takes over” the projects by providing the project management experience AND resources to manage the project. As organizations undertake projects, professional project managers from the PMO are assigned to the projects. This injects a great deal of professionalism into the projects, and, since each of the project managers originates and reports back to the Directive PMO, it guarantees a high level of consistency of practice across all projects. This is effective in larger organizations that often matrix out support in various areas, and where this setup would fit the culture.

Definition Source:  http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Reiling