Welcome to the asapm March 2010 Newsletter! Welcome to the asapm March 2010 Newsletter!
This is an Opt-in Newsletter from asapm, the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management. We are the USA member association of IPMA, the International Project Management Association. Enjoy!
In This Issue
1. Change Agents: President's Message, by Stacy Goff
2. aPRO Update: Exposure Draft a Great Success!
3. asapm Blue Team Signs Up, Starts Up
4. Demand Better Instructional PM Learning Objectives!
5. asapm Webinar Series Planned
6. The PRINCE2® Processes in 666 Words, by Simon Harris
7. Young Crew-USA News: Congratulations Jhaymee!
8. Project Success Plans: Planning for Success; by Byatt, Hodgkinson & Hamilton
9. IPMA News: Global Project Management Survey
1. Change Agents: President's Message, by Stacy Goff
Before moving into this month's Change Agents blog posting, we have an Editorial note: Frequent readers may note that the last several Change Agents blog posts have included insights for the Managers who are above Project and Program Managers (PM). Why the audience shift, some people have asked? This is actually a turning point for asapm: We are completing two major initiatives, our performance-based Advanced certification program, and aPRO, our organizational assessment and certification program. We are now focusing on the next opportunities for significantly advancing the practice of project and program management.
You might even say that asapm's combination of Advanced individual PM certification with the aPRO organizational certification is the "ultimate killer application" for the project-oriented organization.
There is more work to be done to continue to advance the practice of PM. For many organizations, the next effective action they can take to improve PM performance lies not in continuing to further improve their PM talent, but in improving the climate in which that PM talent operates. This involves enhancing the PM-related interactions of each organization's Line, Staff, Functional, and Resource Managers. Expect to see more asapm emphasis on enhancing "the rest of the story:" advancing PM, while improving organizational PM Performance. And now, our latest Change Agents blog post.
Our Change Agents blog embraces the change that the practice of Project Management brings to the USA, and to Society. We post below a teaser from this month's blog; click the bold, italicized heading to see the whole posting.
Who Really Manages Your Projects?
In many organizations today, competent and experienced Project Managers, Senior Project Managers and Program Managers (all referred to as PM or PMs in this article) have the responsibility and authority to deliver the organizational changes and benefits expected by Senior Managers, Executives, and internal and external customers. Those PMs are a credit to their organizations, those Managers and Executives are incredibly effective, and those organizations (Government and Enterprises) thrive as a result. We shall call this phenomenon Exhibit A.
The asapm Advanced PM certification program, based on IPMA’s World-recognized offering, is perfect for those competent and performing practitioners. And our aPRO program, asapm Performance Rated Organization, is a perfect match for the Exhibit A organizations.
And then we have the other organizations, that we shall call Exhibit B. In the Exhibit B organizations, it is usually several layers of Managers, rather than the nominal Project Managers, who are directing Time, Cost, Scope and Talent, leaving the PM to be a mere controller; despite his or her best efforts. The result: Poor PM Performance, and Executive Managers who blame the practice of PM, rather than the misplaced authority.
Who Sets Time, Budget, Scope and Talent?
Some of those Exhibit B organizations depend more on team heroics than deft management; project managers are identified after timelines and budgets are set; scope is never quite “nailed down”, and promised talent never appears, while cherished talent disappears. Much to the chagrin of PMs, requests for some flexibility somewhere are met with the classic excuse “we just have to do more with less” which almost always results in delivering far less with less.
We cannot solve this problem by sending PMs or team leads to yet another class. What we must do, is:
That target audience for the second action listed above may be one, two or three levels "up" from the PMs, and unless we close that gap, improving the PM competence and effectiveness of those levels, everything else you do might just be a total waste of funding and time ... more
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2. aPRO Update: Exposure Draft a Great Success!
The Exposure Draft of the aPRO standard (asapm Performance Rated Organization) was released in mid-December. By the time the comment period closed on February 10, we had received 279 individual comments from 45 reviewers in 15 countries. The comments ranged from the relatively small (one paragraph had a larger font size) to the fairly significant (several reviewers thought we should use a rating system rather than pass/fail). Approximately 200 of the 279 comments were unique.
In addition to the formal comments recorded on the submission form, the development team got quite a few kudos as well:
"I like the standard. I am also pleased that it is short."
"Overall, great job."
"I enjoy the design and the way the units are presented."
"Nice standard. Nifty."
"Wow! That is a fabulous document!"
"I think the tool is excellent."
"Nice job. This is a missing piece of the PM puzzle."
"It's cool how the standard is independent of organization structure and culture yet entirely relevant."
"I thought the standard was very well done. I could tell a lot of thought had gone into it. I'm sure it
will prove to be very valuable."
"I'm really impressed with the work done so far. I like the structure, conciseness and completeness of
the framework. I think the assessment can be very useful for many organizations, including those
that want to improve on Project Management."
All but a few of the comments will be incorporated, and version 1.0 will be a significant improvement over the Exposure Draft. Here are some of the major suggestions that the development team has accepted:
-- The "definitions" have been relabeled "explanatory statements" to more accurately capture their purpose.
-- Substantial additional text will be included in the introductory sections to help make the document more
useful to those unfamiliar with performance based competency standards.
-- Additional text will be included in the introductory sections to explain the value of the pass/fail approach.
-- An appendix will be added with a sample section from the Assessor Guide to help readers understand
the depth of the assessment process.
As announced, the adopted aPRO Standard will be available at its special section of the asapm website April 5, 2010. And, the aPRO team is developing the Recognized Assessor training and registration process, to assure that consistent results are achieved, across many different organizations using the assessment. Finally, asapm is beginning a research database of assessment results that will be available to Universities and other researchers, to correlate rated PM Performance to Project Success, both in project measures, and business/government results.
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3. asapm Blue Team Signs Up, Starts Up
Editor's Note: As mentioned in the first item above, asapm is in the process of completing, two major multi-year initiatives. And, as posted in our January 2010 Change Agents blog (State of Our asapm Society), we have delivered and/or influenced many of the agenda items we established for our founding, nine years ago. We have had a significant role in changing the market for competent, performing project and program management.
All the more reason to re-dedicate our energies to new challenges, challenges we originally overlooked, or challenges that have emerged because of our successes. Our founding group had a clear idea of our audiences, their unmet needs, and how our philosophy and approach fit. We also understood our differentiation from other organizations, some of which many of us contributed decades of effort, and still support today. All this is prelude to the creation of Blue Team, a project team who will take a fresh look at asapm's current role, our new opportunities, our areas of effectiveness, and our strategic positioning.
We sent the notice below to asapm members several days ago. Former members (graduates) of asapm also receive this newsletter; if you are interested in adding your vision to the Blue Team, you may also contact Thomas Keenan, our project manager, and tell him how you would like to participate. The asapm board encourages you to participate in this important, short-term project! Wouldn't you rather work on a small project for a change?
To asapm members and friends:
We have an immediate need for asapm member volunteers who are willing to devote two hours a week for eight weeks on an exciting, new, short-term asapm project.
Our "Blue Team" is a creative team of asapm Volunteers, established in a project that is sanctioned by the Board of Directors, to help sharpen asapm's (IPMA-USA) Value Proposition in the Market.
If you have experience in Sales or Marketing, this team will not be complete until you respond to this call for assistance. It's that simple.
Thank you for taking the time to read this note. If you are interested in volunteering for this initiative, contact Thomas Keenan. Make an impact in your PM Community; come join the asapm Blue Team today!
Thomas Keenan, for the asapm Blue Team
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4. Demand Better Instructional PM Learning Objectives! By Stacy Goff
In recent articles we have discussed the need for Closing the Gap Between PM Training and PM Performance, and
the difference between knowing and performing. These topics may appear to be oriented more towards Managers and
HR specialists than towards Project and Program Managers (PM), but they are key for PM as well. After all, if your
team and team leads cannot or do not perform, they damage your results, too. We have explored the difference between
training and learning, between knowledge acquisition and true PM Performance, and assert that most real learning
does not really happen in the classroom, but in the workplace environment, as classroom exposure turns to applied learning.
Consistently, one boon to learning is the use of clear Learning Objectives, also often called Performance Objectives. Some classes and workshops to which you send your Project Managers and project teams have great Learning Objectives, that tell you exactly what your talent should be able to do, given that they actually apply the content within that two to six week half-life of newly-acquired, but not-yet-applied knowledge). By the way, that is one reason why some classes that Managers send their PM talent to tend to have no beneficial impact on project success. Some workshops have Learning Objectives that are weak, or very weak. And some workshop vendors merely post their lecture topics; perhaps that is the best testimony they can give for their lack of savvy about true learning and development.
We continue our initiative to improve PM Competence, Performance, and your learning Return on Investment. In this article we support workshop development, evaluation, and measurement with Learning Objectives that are useful for a range of purposes. Those include being a foundation for Instructional Design for adult learning, a basis for scope measurement of a learning experience, and for evaluation of the effectiveness of the learning and its on-the-job application.
About Learning Objectives
What: A Learning Objective, also called a Performance Objective, identifies what a learner should be able to do, upon
completion of a learning event. It may also include conditions, and criterion for measuring performance. This article does
omits several important aspects of good Learning Objectives, focusing more on aspects that help in measurement and
evaluation... more
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5. asapm Webinar Series Planned
One of asapm's goals for 2010 is to establish a webinar series, with the events discounted or free for asapm members. The seats will be limited in numbers, and the topics range from insights about asapm and our areas of differentiation, to exciting discussions about new standards and guidelines. Some of the topics we are discussing include:
If you have a candidate topic that is related to asapm's unique strengths, then let us know! We are in the midst of selecting the webinar technology we will use, and will announce the first webinars soon.
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6. The PRINCE2® Processes in 666 Words, by Simon Harris
Editor's note: It would not do to have the teaser for this short article exceed the length of the article itself. Simon Harris, who enthralled us with his insights on breakdown structures for the last two months, has sent us a short and timely article summarizing PRINCE2. This is important because of IPMA's Strategic Agreement with APM Group, who offer testing and certification for PRINCE2 practitioners.
“These next 666 words cover the entire process model in the 327 pages of the 2009 PRINCE2 manual. Of course brevity is at the price of a little lack in detail.
As the picture in the article introduction shows: PRINCE2 has some structure, some sequence, some players and some output triggered by arrival of the ‘project mandate’. Perhaps less obviously from the picture is that the mandate is from the organisation’s Corporate or Programme Management ... more
PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries
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7. Young Crew-USA News: Congratulations Jhaymee!
Great news on the Young Crew front includes the nomination and appointment of Ms. Jhaymee Wilson as a Board Member for the IPMA International Young Crew organization. Jhaymee has been a primary driver in the development and roll-out of Young Crew in the USA. Her appointment is featured in the latest Young Crew International newsletter, available here on the asapm website. Congratulations Jhaymee!
As Jhaymee posted on the asapm LinkedIn group: "It is with great pleasure and excitement to announce that I have been elected to the IPMA Young Crew Management Board! I'm deeply humbled and privileged to serve as the US representative on the Board. I hope to help elevate project management education and support for young and emerging project managers across the globe, and I look forward to connecting and networking with young PMs worldwide!"
That newsletter also points out that IPMA-Australia, introduced into the IPMA Family last year, is considering establiahing a YC-Australia. Hopefully they will be up and running by the time of the 2012 IPMA World Congress, in Brisbane, 4th Quarter. G'day, mate!
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8. Project Success Plans: Planning for Success; by Byatt, Hodgkinson & Hamilton
“A Project Success Plan can be a platform for ensuring all project stakeholders start off, and continue on, the right footing.”
Setting up projects to succeed in the view of the customer/stakeholder is a critical part of the Project Manager’s role. We suggest that, as part of project planning activities in the early stages of your project, you should hold a Project Success Plan (PSP) meeting with all key team members to agree on the project’s goals, and to discuss the emotional success factors that will ensure the team gels successfully to deliver the required outcomes.
A Project Success Plan (PSP) is different from a Project Management Plan (PM Plan), which is sometimes referred to as a Project Execution Plan (or PEP). A PM Plan is typically produced by the Project Manager to describe how the project will be managed and controlled in its delivery/execution phase, whereas the PSP is a documented meeting convened by the Project Manager to discuss and agree “what success means” to all key stakeholders. The PSP (like a PM Plan) should draw from project artifacts such as the Project Charter and/or the Customer Brief.
Point 1: Project Success Plans can help the team to “gel”
Have you ever managed or been involved in a project where, at one point or another, you felt that you were not on the “same page” as other team members? Ensuring everyone on a project team is continually pulling in the same direction can be a challenge. A Project Success Plan can help you to set a solid foundation for stakeholder interactions throughout the project, and to ensure you can detect and rectify any occurrences where stakeholder views and actions start to deviate off plan. In order to ensure everyone starts off “on the right foot”, it is important to kick off your project communications strategy properly. By this, we mean ensuring that everyone’s interpretation of success and their assumptions about the project are aired and discussed in an open group forum, which can be documented and evaluated in a Pareto-type chart format to indicate importance. This is the essence of the Project Success Plan... more
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9. IPMA News: Global Project Management Survey
GPM, Germany's IPMA Member Association, has posted a survey to study the competences needed for Global Projects, and seeks your participation. A Global Project is one that involves team members or strategic partners from different countries, participants with different cultural backgrounds, or buyer/seller relationships that cross national borders. The information below is from the survey website,
What this survey seeks to answer:
Besides external factors to be evaluated, it is also the consideration of different culture-motivated approaches and working styles in projects, which eventually helps us to understand the vital factors in doing projects successfully. Therefore, the objective of this research is to get a picture of the overall status, cause-and-effect relationships, and success factors of project management in organizations.
Who should participate?
What is the participants benefit?
Participants of the survey will receive the survey report free of charge. The report contains:
asapm encourages all qualified members and friends to participate in this useful survey. Thanks!
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asapm, the USA Member of IPMA, is the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management. We are a not-for-profit organization, staffed with volunteers who are dedicated to improving Performance Competent in Program and Project Management. asapm is a registered trademark of the American Society for the Advancement of Project Management.
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