Featured Articles

Featured Article August 2020

Rethinking Business And Revenue 

The year 2020 has undoubtedly been one of the most difficult in recent memory. As the world navigates... [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.forbes.com

 

Featured Article July 2020

Ready, set, go: Reinventing the organization

The need for speed has never been greater. Here are nine ways companies can get faster.  [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.mckinsey.com

 

Featured Article June 2020

4 Agile Leadership Competencies

Even before Covid-19,  many businesses were operating in a world of continual change. [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.forbes.com

 

Featured Article May 2020

The Number One Skill Leaders Need

There are several skills that leaders possess that are helpful in a crisis.  [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.forbes.com

 

Featured Article | April 2020

Business Development Leaders

Business is an ever-evolving beast and as a result, business leaders need to stay ahead of the curve to remain noteworthy.  [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.forbes.com

 

Featured Article | March 2020

CIO, Transformed

While there has been plenty of talk of making the "i" in CIO or IT stand for "innovation," perhaps imagination would be more fitting... [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.forbes.com

 

Featured Article | February 2020

The Identity Crisis of a PMO

The role of a project management office (PMO) has always been to assist project managers with organizational methodologies, practices and tools... [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/ www.forbes.com

 

Featured Article | January 2020

The-C-in-CIO-Stands-for-Changes 

Chief Information officers say their role has become more strategic and will continue to evolve in that direction in the near future...  You may be a new project manager, but you have already been given a lot of training, guidance and coaching around how to build a project plan. It’s a big part of basic PM training... [More]  Source permission: courtesy of flipboard/www.wsj.com

 

Featured Article | December 2019

Where's Your Plan B? 

You may be a new project manager, but you have already been given a lot of training, guidance and coaching around how to build a project plan. It’s a big part of basic PM training... [More]  Source permission: www.projectmanagement.com

 

Featured Article | November 2019

Create Content, Leverage Content

This article is about project management social media. How it is generated by and for the benefit of the project management community.  [More]  Source permission: www.projectmanagement.com/ 

 

Featured Article | October 2019

People Transform Businesses

Company office buildings do not morph into new shapes overnight, transforming the business within them. Instead, organizational change is first mental, then we can change strategy and start doing things differently. So, business transformation is about changing minds and then actions. Yet, what do we really know about changing minds? ... [Read more]  Source permission: www.projectmanagement.com

 

Featured Article | September 2019

PMI in the News

A wide variety of online and print media sources throughout the world are sharing articles about Project Management Institute.

For articles click here

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PMP: Everything You Wanted to Know
Prof. Dr. Te Wu, PMP, PfMP, ITIL

The Project Management Professional (PMP) is the most recognized certification for project managers worldwide provided by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI provides a certification program that suits practitioners of different education levels and experiences. To illustrate the fast growth, consider these numbers. When I became a PMP in July 2003, there were about 7,500 active PMPs in the world. Fast forward 16 years - today there are over 914,000 PMPs! This steepness of the curve reflects the popularity of PMP today.

Why is it important? What are the values?

Nowadays, companies use projects as a tool to reach their objectives. Hence, successfully delivering projects affects a company’s viability significantly. PMP offers a well-established project management methodology that can be applied in various industries. It provides a base for the project management office to operate projects in a systematic and more organized way. In addition, PMP provides a substantial advantage in annual salary. According to a recent salary survey, certified PMPs earn 25% higher in the United States and 40%+ higher in countries like South Africa versus those who are not certified (PMI, 2018).

What’s the history of PMI?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a nonprofit organization for all people working in the project management field worldwide. It offers training, certification and guidance for over 2.9 million professionals globally. It has nearly 570,000 members in 208 locations around the world, with 300 chapters and 10,000 volunteers (PMI, 2019). 

Back in 1981, Matthew H. Parry initiated an assignment for developing standards for project management, ethics, and accreditation to his team. After two years of hard work, they published an Ethics, Standards and Accreditation (ESA) report in August 1983 asking for the creation of a certification program. In 1984, PMI held the first certification exam in Philadelphia where forty-three individuals passed and became the first group of PMP holders.

What are the qualifications?

To acquire the PMP certification, you must have the following educational background and professional experience:

• A secondary degree (a high school diploma, associate degree or the global equivalent)
• 7,500 hours leading and directing projects
• 35 hours of project management education

or

• A post-secondary degree
• 4,500 hours leading and directing projects
• 35 hours of project management education

Hence, you must organize  your work experience to account for the hours required.

Project management experience would definitely be a plus for better absorbing the concepts and methodologies; however, it is not necessary to have the role of the lead project manager for the project. Witnessing the five stages of the PMI project management methodology (Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling and closing) would be a great basis for pursuing certification.

The PMP certification must be renewed every three years by earning 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) which can be earned from different sources, such as managing projects, delivering training, attending project management-related webinars or reading PM-related books.

How to prepare for the PMP exam?

The first step in preparation for the PMP exam is documenting all prerequisite educational background and experience by submitting the PMP application and passing the auditing process. The auditing process acts as a checkpoint for the data (mainly experience) listed in the application. Auditors choose random applicants to provide evidence of the provided info. Once an applicant is approved they must complete a 35-hour training course. Many applicants spend additional time studying and preparing before they sign up to take the exam.

The PMP exam is a  four-hour, 200 question, multiple-choice test. There are many online resources that give an overview of how the exam would look. The primary source is the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) as it is the official guide provided by PMI. 

What are the biggest challenges?

There are many challenges to preparing for the exam.  The top four challenges include the following:

1. Knowledge, both depth and breadth 
2. Experience disparity 
3. Time pressure 
4. Test preparation and test-taking strategy

On knowledge, the current PMBOK® Guide, sixth edition, is over 700 pages (not including the Agile Guide). Considering the first edition was about 100 pages, the rapid growth and development of PMBOK® Guide is staggering.  PMP candidates need to master the knowledge and application of five process groups, ten knowledge areas, 49 processes, hundreds of inputs, outputs, tools, and techniques. 

On the balance, having solid project management experience is a MUST to pass the exam, but there is a concern of experience disparity between an individual’s practical experience and PMI’s view on project management. In some ways, the more experience a person has, there are more likely areas of misalignment between one’s experience and PMBOK® Guide, which can create conflicts.  Thus, experienced professional may have to “unlearn” their knowledge, at least temporarily, until they pass the exam.

The time pressure of the exam is well documented.  There are 200 questions to answer within 240 minutes. The average reading speed of most people is around 150 words per minute (WPM) for casual reading, 80-100 WPM for technical reading, and (by our estimation) about 60 -80 WPM for thoughtful reading, interpretation, and analysis as required on multiple-choice exams. The problem is that most questions and the four answer choices are about 100 words. Thus, in the allocated time, it’s a challenge just to read and comprehend the question.

The final challenge is developing a workable plan for both preparing for and taking the exam. Most project professionals are busy people. Carving out an average of 10 hours per week to study for three to six months can be daunting. Worse, without a “Sherpa” or guide, you can easily get stuck on questions.  Fear could be also a factor. The fear of failure can play a role in lowering your productivity and target. Finally, given the constrained time, overwhelming quantity of knowledge, and potential confusion between your experience and the knowledge required to pass the PMI, it is essential to develop a test taking strategy and practice it many times before the actual exam. 

What are the ways to prepare for the exam?

Maintaining a steady pace is one of the best tricks, and your preparation does not have to be a competition. Taking time and planning well are the best tips. Practice tests can also be very beneficial to test your timing and performance. It is always better to know if you took the wrong path earlier than later when taking the test. Professionals can prepare for the PMP exam through self-study, study groups, or focused boot camps. 

Self-study is obviously the least expensive option, but likely also the longest option. If you are an experienced and self-motivated professional who has a good mentor to address difficult questions and challenges and you have enough time, then self-study may be the best option. Plus, you can complement self-study with any number of good books (such as from Amazon.com) and you can purchase inexpensive eLearning from sites such as Groupon.

Study groups are a great motivation opportunity, and the collaboration helps in understanding the concepts and overcoming certain challenging topics.  Effective study groups meet regularly, with an authoritative source for addressing challenging questions. But since most study groups are organically organized, participants do not earn the required educational units prerequisite to sit for the PMP exam.

People with time constraints should consider taking a boot camp from a reputable company that can accelerate the learning curve.  These training companies should be authorized by PMI as a Registered Education Provider (PMI R.E.P.). Courses from a PMI R.E.P. also earn the required 35 educational hours.  There are many good PMI R.E.P.s available, and professionals should compare them closely on the attributes that they value the most, such as quality of the trainer, reputation of the company, type and length of support, money-back guarantee, availability of a test simulator with a large test bank, simple and measurable methods to assess readiness, and price.

What is our recommendation? 

As the PMBOK® Guide has grown to more than 700 pages, it is becoming more difficult for an individual to self-study, but self-study remains a viable option. The five biggest challenge with self-study are 1) maintaining motivation, 2) time, 3) measuring progress, 4) fulfilling the 35 hours of education, and 5) finding a credible source to provide definitive answers. Study groups can be hugely helpful addressing 1, partially 2 and 3, and maybe 5.  But most study groups organized by PMI chapter volunteers that we have seen typically lose momentum after a few weeks or months. It can also be difficult to join them given all the schedule constraints. Effective training courses or boot camps can address all of the five challenges, especially with accelerated learning and measuring progress (with some R.E.P.s that offer exam simulators).  

 

Good luck with your studies.  If you have any questions about PMP boot camps or training, feel free to email us at [email protected].  For more information, visit us at www.pmoadvisory.com.  

References:

Armshaw, D. (n.d.). Big Benefits from Project Management Basics. Retrieved March 27, 2019, from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/big-benefits-project-management-basics-7584

PMI Project Management Salary Survey (2018). https://www.pmi.org/learning/careers/project-management-salary-survey

PMI Today, June 2019. PMI Fact File. 

Project Management Professional (PMP). (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2019, from https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp

Webster, F. M. (n.d.). Project Management Certification - History of Development. Retrieved March 27, 2019, from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/project-management-certification-history-development-4941

Weber, J. L., & Weber, J. L. (2018, December 27). A History of PMI & Its Role in Project Management. Retrieved March 27, 2019, from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/history-of-pmi

www.pmi.org

Featured Article | August 2019

Project Management Institute Announces Acquisition of Disciplined Agile

The Disciplined Agile toolkit is the world’s only comprehensive agile body of knowledge (BOK) that provides straightforward and practical guidance to help project managers, teams and enterprises choose their “way of working” in a context-specific way... [Read more]  Source permission: www.pmi.org

 

Featured Article | July 2019

A Winning Operating Model for Digital

Digital is driving major changes in how companies set and execute strategy. New survey results point to four elements that top performers include in their digital-strategy operating model. [Read more]  Source permission: www.contentgems.com/   | Publication: mckinsey.com

 

Featured Article | June 2019

Eight Actions You Must Take to Create a High-Performance Project Team

Project teams do not spontaneously emerge as productive, high-performance groups. Rather, they are the output of the deliberate actions of the leaders and team members to create and reinforce an environment where the right behaviors flourish, and the wrong behaviors die of oxygen deprivation..  [Read more]
Source permission: www.contentgems.com/   | Publication: thebalancecareers.com

 

Featured Article | May 2019

Project Managers' Dilemma: Are Your Third-Party Vendors Cyber-Secure?

PMINYC Blog by Mark Schleisner, PMP

A Project Manager's myriad set of duties may often include finding, hiring and/or managing Third-Party Vendors. Outsourcing is a fact of life in the American economy. But your vendor may be the one who allows your company to be hacked. Over half of U.S. business' data security breaches occur because their cyber-insecure Third-Party Vendors are used by cyber-thieves as a
back door.

A famous example is the 2013 data breach at Target, where thieves entered the company's network through a vendor named Fazio Mechanical, a refrigeration contractor. A phishing email was opened by a Fazio employee, allowing a trojan malware to find Fazio Mechanical's login credentials to the Target network. The vendor had little to no malware detection software installed, so the trojan had all the time in the world to find the credentials and the Target port used by Fazio to enter the Target data network. The rest, as they say, is history.

Steve Durbin, managing director of the Information Security Forum, says "Hackers will seek the weakest link, and that link is often a third-party provider. A company's robust internal practice and policies may be futile if that company's vendors are not secure."

Target's Achilles heel was an HVAC vendor. But what about your company's other professional services suppliers? Your lawyers, accountants, IT servicers, and office supply merchants are all third-party providers, and they all have access to at least some portion of your company data. Before you give any of them the keys to the data kingdom, you must do your Project Manager due diligence before hiring one.

First, understand what your company's sensitive data is and where it is located on the network. Talk with the company's network administrators, cybersecurity specialists and database analysts. Learn from them how the data is segregated and protected, so you understand how to restrict a vendor's database access based on "need to know." Ideally, your company's network will also have internal sector firewalls, so that even if a cyber-thief hacks into your system through a third-party vendor, the thief can't easily romp through the entire database.

Second, insist on safety features like two-factor authentication for vendor logins to your data, and restrictions on when the vendor can access it. Many vendors do not need 24/7 data access – why give it to them? Limit the portals through which a vendor (or the person who hacked your vendor) can enter your network. Limit your company's email recipients who the vendor can communicate with – it also limits the recipients the hacker of your vendor's email can try sending malware to. And of course, be sure that company's malware protection software is focused on all interactions with your vendors.

Third, it's critical to understand the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between your company and the potential vendor, including the consequences for providers and vendors who fail to comply. The third-party vendor must be made to understand the contract's legal obligations regarding the security, confidentiality, and treatment of the data. And don't forget to be clear on what your company defines as a data breach, as well as the vendor's obligation to report and manage any breach that might occur. If it's within your power as a project manager, you may even insist on the vendors' installation of certain malware-prevention software on their networks and email.

Project Managers cannot completely eliminate risk when they grant a third-party access to your company's sensitive data. But with careful attention to detail, both on your end and your vendor's — you can greatly reduce the possibility of a vendor becoming the back door to a cyber-attack.

 

The Digital Transformation is Disrupting Technology 

Every sector is touched by digital transformation ...[Read more]

**

 

PMO Advisory | April 2019

Addressing the Problem of Fuzzy Front End on Projects

Prof. Dr. Te Wu (PfMP, PgMP, PMP, PMI-RFP)

What is the Fuzzy Front End?

The Chinese have an old proverb: “a thousand-kilometer journey starts with the first step.” But what is the first step? How do you know it’s in the right direction? What are the prerequisites that must be dealt with? What if the destination itself is rather fuzzy?

Projects, especially complex projects with high uncertainty as in the case of innovation, often have many if not infinite approaches. One of the first and perhaps most challenging project management activity is to find the optimal approach to address the challenge.

Anatomy of the Fuzzy Front End

The fuzzy front end is defined as the period between the project initiation as an idea and when it is ready for development. In this critical phase, all customer problems, issues, process gaps, untold opportunities, future upgrade plans and friendly chitchats happen. They may be not formally documented or identified as future sales opportunities. However, they are said and should be taken advantage of. The real strong customer relationship starts here. In addition, the potential of project success also starts here. At this very beginning, customers are usually in a messy state of mind. They have no defined requirements and there are no clear timelines for them to have hopes for. All this needs to be determined. To benefit the project the most, and avoid derailment, organizations should retain project experts to develop a well-organized approach to project execution.

These are just some examples of common challenges at the initiation of projects. There are potentially endless lists of factors contributing to and aggravating the “fuzziness” of the projects at the initiation and planning stages. Below are three main categories of factors

1) Project Factors

Project deliverable itself is poorly defined or understood (e.g. technically difficult to specify the details or lacking internal expertise to fully define the deliverables) or pin down (e.g. as there are multiple conflicting factors)

Innovative projects, especially those at the bleeding edge, are by definition implementing new and often unproven technology. This creates additional uncertainties such as stability, quality, functionality, and potential integration issues with the rest of the systems and processes.

2) Organizational Factors

The project team’s maturity and cohesiveness are important factors to consider. With a high performing team with a strong understanding of project management, most of the lesser challenges would essentially go away through superior problem solving and teaming skills. But the same issues confronting a less mature team would often result in bigger obstacles.

The sponsoring organization’s culture, processes, and competencies are important considerations. The “fitness” and “alignment” of decision making and governance can have a major impact. For example, if key decisions take weeks or months to make, then iterative approaches like Scrum are likely to be sub-optimal and directly impact the time required to make key decisions at the start of the project.

3) Environmental Factors

Environmental factors are considerations external to the project and the organization working on the project, which on a large and complex project can be quite numerous. For well-defined projects in which the underlying technology is mature, the environmental impact can be well estimated and managed. But for projects that are truly innovative or with a high degree of competition, environmental impact can be more significant.

Examples of environmental factors include:

- Social/economic – Such as society’s acceptance of artificial intelligence in driverless vehicles, even if the technology is proven, or the state of the economy.

- Industry and competitive – The amount of competition in an industry.

- Regulatory – Governmental involvement, regulations, guidelines, and even industry standards can impact how projects are defined and thus create additional concerns at project initiation.

Implications if not Handled Correctly

Activities in the fuzzy front end are usually difficult to anticipate, understand, and determine. Some project managers underestimate the seriousness of fuzzy front ends. Their attitude may be to under-emphasize planning since it’s so chaotic. They may not have a vision for the project flow or create a full project plan to deeply understand customer needs and requirements. Some may even hide behind the “agile” methodology so there are excuses for weak analysis, little documentation, everything “goes” attitude toward scope definition, and ultimately a poor foundation for the project. This can surely cause serious gaps and misunderstandings of customer needs. Accordingly, potentials risks and issues are not identified well. And project delays, risk mitigation alternatives and resource allocation are not done properly either. As a result, chances of project failure and customer dissatisfaction are high.

Good Practices for Handling the Fuzzy Front End

With often many choices to make at the onset of projects, project managers should drive to a degree of certainty as quickly and as efficiently as possible. Here are five good practices to consider – to drive toward stability and certainty:

Vision – Develop a clear direction and compelling future for the outcome for the project. Having a strong vision anchors the project team toward a common set of objectives

Champion – Seek one or more change champion(s) who can engage key stakeholders, develop them into willing and collaborative partners, drive them toward achieving the vision, and fight the good battles.

Sponsorship – Make sure there is executive management involvement that provides coverage on contentious issues. For larger projects, consider establishing robust governance to guide key decisions

Customer – Involve customers and end users early on, to refine product ideas and project implementation processes

Process – Identify and implement a project management approach early on, to instill process rigor early. But also be willing to change as innovative projects can have many detours

[Note: The full article contains five more good practices. Scroll to the bottom to see the link to the full article.]

Six Steps for Managing the Fuzzy Front End

There are many ways to manage challenging projects. The six steps below provide a simplified overview of managing projects with fuzzy front end problems:

1) Evaluate project situation

2) Determine project success criteria, and consider developing three sets of success criteria:

- Minimum threshold for success

- Realistic criteria for success

- Stretch goals or wildly successful

3) Collect customer / sponsor insights

4) Develop strategic foresights and prioritize requirements

5) Determine implementation approach (e.g. waterfall, agile, process rigor)

6) Execute the project plan

Conclusion

To be able to manage fuzzy front ends, one must be able to ask the right questions and be able to absorb the value behind large amounts of collected qualitative and quantitative data. The uncertainty and complexity of this early stage makes “Fuzzy Front End” a very descriptive expression and a complicated phase for project managers. This article introduces the concepts, provides an anatomy of the situation, discusses the implication of poorly managing the problem, suggests good practices to address the problem, and prescriptively outlines a method of tackling the problem of the fuzzy front end.

References

1) Frishammar, J., & Florén, H. (2014, March 24). Achieving Success in the Fuzzy Front End Phase of Innovation. Retrieved February 25, 2019, from http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2010/10/20/achieving-success-in-the-fuzzy-front-end-phase-of-innovation/

2) Mootee, I. (2011, March/April). Strategic innovation and the fuzzy front end. Retrieved February 25, 2019, from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/strategic-innovation-and-the-fuzzy-front-end/

3) Evans, G. (2013, January 28). Project Management in the Fuzzy Front-End. Retrieved February 25, 2019, from https://www.slideshare.net/gmevans1/white-paper-pm

4) Managing the Fuzzy Front End of Projects. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.sandboxmodel.com/content/managing-fuzzy-front-end-projects

If you enjoyed this article, please join us for a webinar on April 24th, 2019. For more information, visit: www.pmoadvisory.com/webinar/fuzzy-front-end

In addition, the article published here is a “shortened version” in the interest of brevity. For a full-length article, visit: www.pmoadvisory.com/blogs

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