PM Karma

Setting up Project Portfolio Management

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 06:37:00 +0000

Project Portfolio Management or "PPM" as it is known, is a hot subject among organisations who are engaged in Project Management / execution activities.

PPM helps organisations to avoid 're-inventing the wheel' every time. According to Wikipedia definition:

"Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is the centralized management of the processes, methods, and technologies used by project managers and project management offices (PMOs) to analyze and collectively manage current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics. The objectives of PPM are to determine the optimal resource mix for delivery and to schedule activities to best achieve an organization’s operational and financial goals ― while honouring constraints imposed by customers, strategic objectives, or external real-world factors.
PPM provides program and project managers in large, program/project-driven organizations with the capabilities needed to manage the time, resources, skills, and budgets necessary to accomplish all interrelated tasks. It provides a framework for issue resolution and risk mitigation, as well as the centralized visibility to help planning and scheduling teams to identify the fastest, cheapest, or most suitable approach to deliver projects and programs.
"

Thankfully there are well developed on-line tools and expert support readily available to those who are aiming to set-up PPM in their organisations. ITM Platform is one of the industry leaders in this segment.

ITM Platform offers practical and powerful project management solutions. Besides being an intuitive project management software, it offers portfolio management , projects programs, services and resources. ITM Platform is 100% scalable, which enables organizations to manage projects, tasks and staff as needed.

Portfolio management and strategic planning integrates naturally with the daily operations of project management and online services, offering an effective mechanism to control the planning and implementation of projects. It is one of the best solution for managing online projects: for performance, usability and scalability .

FREE WEBINAR with ITM PLATFORM:

ITM Platform is organising a free webinar to those want to know more about PPM and how to set it up in their respective organisations.

ITM Platform has implemented our project management solution in over 300 organizations. And want to share the lessons they have learned with you to help you develop and improve your project-oriented organization.

What you will see during 45 min?

• Design of a project-driven organization.
• Change Management.
• Basic Configuration of ITM Platform.

When? JUNE 16th at 10 am (Boston, Eastern Tine Zone)

How to register? Click Here:https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/regist…/9108160085963125507

Its a great opportunity for learning and I recommend PM Karma readership to attend.
Please let me know your reviews in the comment box below. Thanks!

The 5 Goals of a project manager - Guest article by Jason Westland

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:20:00 +0000

As a Project Manager, you need to manage people, money, suppliers, equipment—the list is never ending. The trick is to be focused. Set yourself 5 personal goals to achieve. If you can meet these simple goals for each project, then you will achieve total success. So read on, to learn...

The 5 Goals of a Project Manager

These goals are generic to all industries and all types of projects. Regardless of your level of experience in project management, set these 5 goals for every project you manage.

Goal 1: To finish on time

This is the oldest but trickiest goal in the book. It’s the most difficult because the requirements often change during the project and the schedule was probably optimistic in the first place.

To succeed, you need to manage your scope very carefully. Implement a change control process so that any changes to the scope are properly managed.

Always keep your plan up to date, recording actual vs. planned progress. Identify any deviations from plan and fix them quickly.

Goal 2: To finish under budget

To make sure that your project costs don’t spiral, you need to set a project budget at the start to compare against. Include in this budget, all of the types of project costs that will accrue, whether they are to do with people, equipment, suppliers or materials. Then work out how much each task in your plan is going to cost to complete and track any deviations from this plan.

Make sure that if you over-spend on some tasks, that you under-spend on others. In this way, you can control your spend and deliver under budget.

Goal 3: To meet the requirements

The goal here is to meet the requirements that were set for the project at the start. Whether the requirements were to install a new IT system, build a bridge or implement new processes, your project needs to produce solutions which meet these requirements 100%.

The trick here is to make sure that you have a detailed enough set of requirements at the beginning. If they are ambiguous in any way, then what was initially seen as a small piece of work could become huge, taking up valuable time and resources to complete.

Goal 4: To keep customers happy

You could finish your project on time, under budget and have met 100% of the requirements—but still have unhappy customers. This is usually because their expectations have changed since the project started and have not been properly managed.

To ensure that your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders are happy at the end of your project, you need to manage their expectations carefully. Make sure you always keep them properly informed of progress. “Keep it real” by giving them a crystal clear view of progress to date. Let them voice their concerns or ideas regularly. Tell them upfront when you can’t deliver on time, or when a change needs to be made. Openness and honesty are always the best tools for setting customer expectations.

Goal 5: To ensure a happy team

If you can do all of this with a happy team, then you’ll be more than willing to do it all again for the next project. And that’s how your staff will feel also. Staff satisfaction is critical to your project’s success.

So keep your team happy by rewarding and recognizing them for their successes. Assign them work that complements their strengths and conduct team building exercises to boost morale. With a happy motivated team, you can achieve anything!

And there you have it. The 5 goals you need to set yourself for every project.

Of course, you should always work smart to achieve these goals more easily.

Jason Westland has 15 years experience in the project management industry. From his experience he has created software to help speed up the management process. If you would like to find out more information about Jason’s online project management software visit ProjectManager.com.

New interviews of mine in "Stepping into PM"

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 02:03:00 +0000

Soma - a promising and creative new generation blogger has posted another interview of mine here : titled as "Sneak peek into the life of Project Manager's- Pt 1"

The second part of the interview is given here: Sneak peek into the life of Project Manager's- Pt 2

(Many project managers have been interviewed here by Soma and mine is located at the bottom most of each page)

These were posted some where in January.. how ever I could not update my readers any time earlier.. sorry for that.

Enjoy the interview!

Caution - Twitterholic crossing!

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:12:00 +0000

Readers - Thanks to all those who commented/mailed/tweeted me their comments on my Twitter-Toons.

Here comes the last one.

I dont really wanna make tonnes of them... so here we go:

{Click the image to enlarge}

Enjoy!

Becoming a better PM with Twitter for Dummies!

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Click the image to enlarge, I'm sure you will enjoy it.

{Cartoon by Sreejith Kesavan , source image credit: free online grafix- various sources}

Enjoy!

Is Twitter doing any value addition to you?

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:50:00 +0000

Are we doing too much of social networking? How many different networking websites can we 'manage' to use? Specialised websites or 'One-Stop-Shop' ?
An average techie will be (atleast) using the following websites on a day to day basis:

Office mail
Personal Mail (Gmail / Yahoo)
Blog (Blogger / Worldpress)
Social Networking (Facebook / Orkut)

I wont dare to list all other web activities, one may carry out.. since there are lot many to metion if I attempt to do that!: Chat, tweet,photosharing ..etc
The question is : considering the fact that social networking not being the main or solo purpose of life , how much time can be allocated to such activities on a day to day basis with out affecting productivity (Or simply put, "Productivity = Performance in the job which is paying us" !)
Remember , there are still avenues for communication left which are inevitable; like personal meetings, telephone and SMS. A portion of available time shall be allocated for these activities also.

Companies like Google are coming up with a single user account for multiple services. Yahoo! also provide similar service, but not as good as the way Google does it! I am a Google user and I do like their approach. I have chosen Google as my preferred service provider for:

E-Mail (Gmail)
Chat (Gtalk or Chat inbuilt with Gmail)
Networking (Orkut)
Blogging (Blogger.com)
Photo sharing (Picasa)

Now with a single Google user ID , I can log in and use all these services! Amazing isnt it? Another thing which make it more exciting is, data sharing between Google Apps. Some one I have added in Orkut is accessible through Gmail and vice versa. In short Google is making social networking more easy and productive.

Now , I must agree that Facebook is far advanced than Orkut. It has developed itself as a robust platform.Features and applications are incredible. How ever , too many features may turn any application annoying. Thankfully Facebook provide great tools for managing features and applications.

Now, back to the Twitter business. What special Twitter is offering, which others dont ? What value addition it is providing to our daily lives? Are we using it just because its free and many of our friends got it?

The honest answer from me is Twitter is just another tool for status update/messaging and its not inventing anything! Status updation and notification is available in most of the platforms : Google & Facebook. I think Facebook offer the best 'Status updation' and feed in social networking industry. This make Twitter, just a 'Sub-Application' in social networking.

Take a look at status updation service in some of the websites, which I am using.

1) Gmail:

Very simple status updation. Links can be used and visible to any one who is in your 'Contacts' using Gmail / Gtalk.

2) Orkut:
Simple status update text box provided on the top pane of Orkut. Links and smilies are allowed. (Links are controlled by Orkut script, though). Published updates are visible to other buddies as given below:

3)Facebook :

The best status update available among all networking websites. There is an option for you and your friends to discuss on the update as well.

And it is presented in a neat & tidy manner. Take a look:

I am sure Google & Facebook guys can very well provide (I think they may already have) API's to transmit such feeds to other applications - most importantly - including mobile devises (Like iPhone).

I started using Twitter and started following a few. To be honest, I am not able to follow or read all the tweets. It is too much information which is piling up and i dont wanna spend all my time reading all these stuff. Personal messaging is the best way for me to reach people and if at all I wanna know what our buddies are doing , I can just check out their Google/FB account status update.

I am not against Twitter , but I just cant see any value addition from Twitter to my daily life. If anybody ask me what will I suggest for networking websites,my reply would be "Building a common platform for data sharing (atleast status updates)".

Tech Gurus shall think about "Universal user ID's" which can be used to login to mail application provided by any. Like 'Internic' a global body can be formed where master user login data is stored.

Possibilities are unlimited, its upto the innovators to get the best deal out of them!

Lets stay finger crossed to see what 2009 has to offer for the web arena!

PMK on PM Blogsphere

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:32:00 +0000

Today I was Googling for some stuff and got surprised to see my name in some blogs and checked them out.
I would like to mention 2 major ones.
The first one is Mr.Paul Ritchie's PM blog "Crossderry" .Mr.Ritchie is Head of Global Project Management Operations at SAP. He is discussing about my article on skills of Project Managers, here.

My blogger friend Alec has mentioned about my blog and my recent presence in 'Twitter' here. He has mentioned me under "Project Managers to follow in Twitter" along with Raven.
{ I think , I should also write something on Twitter and Tweets ;) }

Thanks Ritch and Alec for linking to my blog.

Project Management in Times of Crisis

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:38:00 +0000

I was honored when I received an invitation from ICFAI University Press to write an article for their prestigious magazine "Projects & Profits". Even though many of my articles are getting published electronically, I was thrilled to see me in print.(I think the last time I was on print was in the final year college magazine!!)

I managed to write a small article by squeezing out some time from this relatively busier period of life (Strangely or unusually I got busy all of a sudden ... well just being busy for a change!).I dont know whether this article will add any value to you , but I am just posting the link here. You can risk reading it !

(I thank the editorial board for the appreciation letter and invitation for writing articles for future editions.)

ICFAI University is a part of The Association of Commonwealth Universities, UK & European Foundation for Management Development,Belgium

Visit ICFAI University Press Here

Somashree Bhattacharya interviews me on her blog

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:11:00 +0000

Young aspiring project manager and promising PM blogger Somashree "Soma" Bhattacharya was generous in posting some good words about me & my blog. She interviewed me and the same has been posted in her blog.

It was a great surprise to note that she is a regular reader of PM Karma and never missed any of the article published!

Recently I have received a CV from a candidate for the position of Planning engineer in my organisation and I was amazed to see "4D Graphing Techniques for KPI visualisation" as one of the skill mentioned. If you are readers of my blog , you may be aware that this term was coined by me in one of my previous articles. It is good to see that some people are making use of the stuff which I am publishing !

Being Busy

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:15:00 +0000

"Sreejith , are you busy now?"

"Oh no, never, go on"

This was used to be typical communication pattern in my life....

Well, things got changed in last few months... I broke my wow to my friends of not saying "I'm Busy!"

I must confess that I have told many people that "Oh god I'm busy like hell!" ..in last few weeks.

Being readers of PMK , you might have observed that last 2 months were the period when I was least active in blogsphere!

My view on being busy and working overtime is :

You are highly unproductive
There is some serious resource deficiency in your company/department

Even if you beat me to death I wont agree that I am unproductive in my work ;)

So the second one is the only left out option .. and its true.

Business scenario can change dramatically at any time. You may win new contracts or venture into new business avenues. Recruiting right talent for the new assignments may take months. Apart from the responsibilities of setting up systems and managing learning curve , managers may have to take up some additional load to make up the resource deficiency.... well read it as "rolling up sleeves and taking shovel by oneself " ;)

Dont take this note as a notion that I got free from the seasonal load and back to usual stuff. I anticipate couple of hard months ahead.

I have lots of pending commitments including few software review and magazine articles.

I have also found few people mailing me asking for detailing some of the techniques detailed in various articles. I request all of them to discuss such things in the "Comment" section , so that others also will benifit from the same. I really dont have time for 1-to-1 consultancy. You may also catch me up on "Planningplanet.com"

Promising all my readers that I will come back soon with some interesting articles.

Till then , signing off!

Cheers!

4D Graphing technique for KPI visualisation

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:32:00 +0000

Data visualisation techniques have been an area of research since so many years. Veterans like Dr.Edward Tufte have written several books on these subjects.

Most effective data visulaisation technique will use minimum ink, represent maximum amount of data and convey the message EFFECTIVELY to the viewer with out third party explanations. In other words, the graph will speak for itself. Simplicity and pleasing appearance (Shapes & Shades) are icing on the cake.

Graphs are to be chosen on case-to-case basis. It is up to the data visulaiser to decide what he wants to convey and choose the graph accordingly.

Those who are lazy and those who don’t care about the end users will supply them with a standard table. Most users, especially senior management won’t be interested in reading and apprehending long data tables. Even if they go through the table table taking lot of time, they may not be able to come up with some conclusions, which fail the basic intention of reporting itself!

Lets take a business case in Project Management. Earned value management (EVM) is one of the greatest tools in Project Management which allow project team to assess project performance, draw conclusions and implement remedial actions for slips and overruns. It is kinda ‘Early Warning System’. CPI (Cost Performance Index) and SPI(Schedule Performance Index) are two major indices measured in EVM.

Business Case:
In company XYZ Inc, there are lots of projects executed simultaneously. Contract value of these jobs differs significantly. Profitability of the company greatly influenced by few major jobs. Now XYZ Inc has got a very good system to monitor progress & costs for each project. CPI was reported on weekly basis for all the projects by the Project Control Engineer in the following format:

There were 100’s of ongoing projects in the company and hence the table was too big. A small decrement in CPI of a big job has serious effect on overall performance of the company. How ever such critical jobs lost somewhere in the crowd of 100’s of jobs and often left un-noticed! Several bad performing small jobs also affect the profitability if not controlled on a 1-to-1 basis.

So what is the solution, which shows the ‘SIZE & SEVERITY’ of each job in single graph?

Solution:
PM Karma has a solution for this. Take look at the 4D-Graph for KPI’s given below:

The bubble plot is an X-Y graph , but here it is not just showing 2 –parameters like an ordinary X-Y graph or 3 –parameters like a bubble graph. Each point in the above graph bears 4 parameters:

1.    Project ID (Y-Axis)
2.    Progress % (X-Axis)
3.    Budget value in $ (Size of bubble)
4.    CPI (Colour of bubble)

Result :
Now the management will never miss a big job with a bad CPI , since it will be represented as a ‘Big’ bubble with red colour ! The relative sizes of bubbles & colours aid the senior management to zero in ‘real trouble makers’.

While the first graph (Bubble graph) represent snapshot ‘at the moment’, the line graph given at the bottom provides trend over a period of time (weekly, as given here).

Technique:
The above graph is generated using Microsoft® Excel ™. I have given different colours to bubbles by creating ‘Series’ with ranges.

Footnote:
The above technique can be used for other KPI’s also like SPI, Productivity ...etc. Spread your imagination, you may be able to find better ways. If you have something better , please share.
Of late, I have been doing a lot of research on unconventional data visualisation techniques. This again goes with my strategy

“If everyone were doing things in the same way others did, the world wouldn’t have been progressed , ever!’

Disclaimer: XYZ Inc ,job numbers and budget values are imaginery and real life situations may need alternate representation/customizations.

Aftermath of global recession hype

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Image Credits : http://cache.daylife.com

Is recession conveyed by the media is on its right size? People are still debating over it. Some people feel its about right and some feel its exaggerated.

But one doubt is still haunting me. Is there exploitation happening globally taking advantage of the “Recession” buzzword? I feel it's true.

It was not only the banks who met bankruptcy responsible for the huge unemployment generated worldwide, recently. Almost every sector is cutting down their staff.

It is a true fact that companies increase their manpower while they perform well. The increases in the manpower usually lower the work load of the employees and even create some idle / low-productive labour. A significant percentage of the additional recruitments done in past few years in large corporations are mainly to meet future business demands , for establishing systems par with global standards and contingency.

I think CEO’s are using this time for self examination of the organization. They have come out of the ‘feel good’ environment. Now the focus is on cost cutting and productivity improvement. They are raiding each and every square inch of their organisations for idle and unproductive labour. This is the "Flush out hour” ! If you are out of the job in this so called ‘recession’, understand that a ‘credit crunch’ resulted from the inability of some banking majors to repay their customers is not the reason for your job loss. It’s the ‘Organisational Restructuring Time’! CEO’s are sitting back and thinking about lean production models and all are arming themselves to reap the best results of ‘SEVERE COMMODITY CRUNCH’ which is going to emerge somewhere in the middle of 2010 !

I think I am talking sense. Did we all stopped going out? Are we not eating as much as we did last year? Aren’t we gonna purchase good cloths for our kids? Aren’t you gonna go for a vacation or a party? No , we have not changed .. as much its hyped.. but we got scared ..with some fear which don’t have any substantial back up. We are going to live the same way once we come out of this silly fear.

Oil producing countries have cut down production and delayed further expansion plans. All industry sectors reduced production. Real estate has moved to a slow pace.

Yes, we all need a break. A pause to think and re-examine ourselves, our goals and targets.

The entire world is doing that … and some people are exploiting that as well!

HR departments in all organisations will now have a good excuse for not giving you a salary hike or even a New Year bonus! They may ask you “How dare you ask for a hike when you know the whole world is going under a recession” . The poor you may think “But where all the money has gone???” When some one loses, somebody else should gain! That is the logic of universe. Now the banks have a reason for non payment of the investment to the investors and also for sacking employees. It’s always the common man who suffers at the end! Huge accounting scandals happen all the time. If you steal 10 dollar, you are a thief and if you steal 1 billion, you are genius (or a corporate business guru) !

Rules of the world are strange!

COMMODITY CRUNCH IN 2010:
The common man, who lost his salary increment or even his job, may suffer again in 2010. Heavy production cuts are soon to build up a situation where there is shortage of essential stuff. This will obviously boost inflation – read ‘high cost of living!’.

“If you plug the canal, it will burst on your face one day… just like cannon!”

Are you prepared to face the ‘Commodity Crunch’ after the ‘Credit Crunch Season’? ... If not better be!

Dr.E Sreedharan on cover page of PMI’s Pm Network Dec ’08 Edition

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:35:00 +0000

I was overjoyed when I received last month’s PM Network from PMI. The most respected and admired “Champion of Project Managemet” – Dr. E Sreedharan is filling the cover of December edition! I have previously written an article on the unique project management model established by Dr.Sreedharan and his miracle of completing all the projects several months AHEAD of schedule.
I recommend readers of PM Karma to grab a copy of the same which is available for PMI members in Print & Electronic format.

Electronic format can be accessed here:

http://www.pmnetwork-digital.com/pmnetwork/200812/?sub_id=puGXsH65qK2Q

Those who have missed my earler article on Dr.Sreedharan may check that out now!

Cheers!

5pm™- online project management application -Review

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:40:00 +0000

It was Mr. Sergei Podbereschi of 5pm™ asked me to review the flagship product of QG software - 5pm™. 5pm™ is a web based Project Management tool built with common ‘Web 2.0’ features. The PHP scripted website powered with AJAX, functions as good as a desktop application.

Basically 5pm™ helps Projects Teams to plan, execute and control projects in a ‘collaborative’ way , no matter the team members are present physically in one location or not.Virtual ‘teams’ or groups formed can manage single or multi-projects (project Groups),seamlessly.

1) No hardware / software set up is needed

2) Web based PM environment help teams to operate form anywhere

3) Simple user interface (Learning curve is almost nil)

Web based project management is quite an old subject. Even most of the leading packaged desktop PM application vendors (Primavera, MS Project) have web interface.
Check out this page in Wikipedia , which list out major Project Management software.
dezinerfolio.com also lists a comprehensive list of web based PM tools in this article.

So what is the USP for one more web based PM tool?

I would say its simplicity!

5pm™ is a very basic PM tool. The concept and the interface planning is good and bears a lot of scope for additional features and enhancement. I am not going to list out what is missing in 5pm™, since while comparing with products like Primavera, it is better to list out “what it has got”!

Again going back to the USP, simplicity is the key word. Not every one in the industry needs a fully equipped PM tool like Primavera. As I wrote in one of my previous articles, there is more number of ‘small projects’ globally than large and medium scale projects combined!
What they need basically is a tool to make a basic plan (a gantt chart) , record activity progress, communicate via e-mail /messages and share documents. 5pm™ provides these features.

I have found many companies implementing enterprise project management package and use it solely for making gantt charts which can be created using numerous free tools available online !

I have tried the application today and I am going to write a fully blown review here. To assist ‘busy’ people who are not interested in so many details, let me put the summary right here:

Overall Outlook:
Nice initiative but quite preliminary. Good for small – low critical projects with limited team size only.
Ideal for companies who require a simple project management tool which can be implemented and operated with minimum administrative effort.

Pros
•    Easy to use - simple user interface
•    Very fast
•    Good collaborative features (Sharing, notification..etc)
(Rest of the features are generally expected from any web based PM tools, so I am not listing them)

Cons
•    Very basic (Even task dependency feature is missing! – so planning is quite manual!)
(‘Very basic’ comment is applicable to all the aspects of the application starting from planning, monitoring, controlling, reporting and data handling)

Getting started with 5pm™:

1)    Creating online Pm portal with 5pm™
Route your browser to http://www.5pmweb.com/ which will open the home page of 5pm™.

5pm™ gives the following usage plans:

Free trial option comes with following features:

Validity : 14 Days

Number of user accounts : 1000

Number of Projects : 1000

Storage space : 15 MB

Features: Full features enabled

This means, prospective customers can take full assessment of this tool at absolutely no cost with out compromising anything!
Click the “Sign up” tab to follow a simple registration process. You may have to provide a ‘name’ for the portal which will help you to designate a third level domain ID to operate your account (yourcompany. 5pmweb.com). Apart from ‘name’ , you may have to provide your valid e-mail ID & password. This user will be powered with “Admin” rights, how ever the same can be degraded once other user accounts are created and should you require transferring admin rights to another user.
2) Logging in and experimenting with 5PM user interface :

Once the account is created you can route your browser to yourcompany. 5pmweb.com. Login with the given e-mail & password.

Valid login will take you to the welcome page ("Projects" Tab):

User interface is pleasing and well arranged. Split pane interface design is implemented with “List” and “Preview” panes. The right pane lists out Groups, Projects and activities under hierarchal way. The elements can be filtered for own activities, group’s or the entire company’s. Elements can be sorted based on the following parameters:

Click the “Settings” link on top header to launch the General settings dialog.

3) Create our first project

The hierarchy followed in 5PM is Groups >Projects>Activity

There is an auto reminder option, which can alert you task deadlines. An option for calendar settings also provided. Once you are happy with the general settings, click “OK” to apply them and get started.
Groups can be edited by right clicking over “All Groups” and selecting “Edit Groups”.

Lets go ahead and add a project. In the left pane under “Projects” tab , click “+Add”. Select “Project” , to launch the “Add Project” dialog box:

The project can be created under any group (Eg: API Division) if you wish, or you may leave it under “no group” as I did here. “Project Team” can be formed by adding user profiles to Project team list box. Start & Deadline dates can be selected using a date picker:

Date picker does not provide facility to “Jump” to any specific Month or Year. This is a serious draw back.

Select other parameters appropriately and click “OK” to create your first project in 5PM.

Now its time to add activities to the project. Click “+Add” button again and select “Activity”

A “Task team” can be formed by adding available profiles (users) to Task team.
Repeat this again to add some more activities to the project. Select notification options as you wish. I got this notification in my Gmail, when I added the above activity:

Activities can be easily edited by right clicking them and choosing the appropriate menu item.

We can either record progress by adding a progress note or simply mark it as done , once completed. Progress recording is limited to 10%, 25%, 50%, 70%, 90% and 100%. Activities can be duplicated by selecting ‘Clone”

There is a field “Time Spent”, but I am not sure whether it is total effort in the activity or just duration. Maximum 100 hours 45 minutes are allowed to book per activity.
Messages can be posted to any activity or project:

Files can be added to “The whole Project” or to the specific “Activity”. For this, select any project or activity from the left pane and click “+Add” and select “Files” from right pane.

This file will be accessible to the project team under the selected activity. Addition of new file can be notified to Project Team / Task team or client.
“Files” tab in right pane shows list of files uploaded under selected project / activity.

The “Info” tab in the right pane gives summary of the selected Project or Activity

Any items / files added by a specific user can be found under the “My Stuff” tab in the left pane.

Now let’s take an overall look at the control panel:

Now lets move on to the “Time Line” tab in the extreme left of left pane.

4) Project Gantt Chart in 5PM

Time line / Gantt chart is basically an Adobe Flash™ application. It provides common features like “date range”, “Daily view”, “Weekly View” and “Monthly View”. Panning is possible with “hand tool” provided, how ever zooming facility is not there.

Current date is highlighted in orange colour. Project horizon (Period between project start date and deadline date) is highlighted in dark blue.This helps to identify any activity falling outside the deadline. I have not inspected the calendar capabilities, how ever I assume the gannt chart is taking care of the calendar preferences (Otherwise it is a serious flaw!).

Projects and Activities can be stretched or dragged to change the start & finish dates. Early completion is marked as green and “Lagging” or trailing activities are marked red.

Thatz all about the time line / gant chart application in 5PM. Now lets move to reporting section

5) Reporting in 5PM
Reports are basically extracted from the daily logs for the selected period.

I have found very minimal reporting features in 5PM, as follows:
a) Time Report :

Time report is not providing any facility to book time spent by each person in performing an activity. Such feature is common and help in claims and client billing , is absent.

b) General report:

There is an option to export the report to Excel (.CSV format).The out put may look like the following:

6) Profiles

The bottom most tab in the left pane is “Profiles”. This is where you can find various people in your network. “Latest Activity” [sound ‘Twitte’r ? ;) ] , contact information and security level are displayed. This information will be handy for team members for communication.

Users can be added , deleted or modified:

There is an option to add multiple users at one shot.
A facility to import contacts from external mail like Gmail also provided under “+Add” menu.

7) Search facility

Search facility is provided and it can be accessed from the “Projects” tab in the left pane.

8)Data Security
Now this is a big deal. Security of data. Projects can be secretive and even can have proprietary or confidential information which possess potential business risk.
Data communication is encrypted by 256-bit High-grade Encryption authenticated by Thawte Inc. 5PM also use independent security audits to check our servers and keep them secure. Data backup is done nightly to two different offsite locations.5PM has chosen LiquidWeb(tm) for their hosting needs. 5Pm also claim to monitor their servers with a third-party server monitoring service.
They process payments through "Pay Pal" and dont store customer credit card information.

9) Getting Help

~~5PM claims they have "Heroic Support® engineers". I really dont know whether they act in films ;). Jokes apart, 5PM provides demos & FAQ in their website. They also claim to have 24 X 7 help desk.~~ (Paragraph deleted after receiving clarification about support services from 5PM)

5PM Provides demo videos in their website for basic & advanced features of the application.They also claim to have a fast and responsive help desk. "LiquidWeb" , who provide the hosting service, supports 5PM with their dedicated engineers titled "Heroic Support® engineers".

10) Summary

I believe, I have reviewed most of the features and quite enjoyed doing that!
Web based applications are becoming more and more complex and they may replace many of the common desktop applications. Google is already moving confidently with this strategy. Document processing, image manipulation, database applications ... you name any domain of enterprise desktop software, there is a web equivalent. With ajax , now web applications have user controls similar to their desktop counterparts. Recent advancements in internet bandwidth facilitate heavy data handling through network giving the user ‘realtime’ experience!

I wish all the best to the 5PM team for their effort and as I indicated in the overview, the software is in very basic stage and there is a lot of scope for improvements. I hope the 5PM team will closely work with clients (from a range of industries practicing Project Management) and upgrade the application based on the user feed back.

It is an application worth trying and you have the luxury of using it fully featured for 14 days.

Not in the mood for working? Dont worry 5PM website has got an answer for that also. They have a Flash based game called "Office Space" which can be accessed from here.

A new year day ~ just another day…

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:32:00 +0000

Photo Credits: http://www1.istockphoto.com
A New Year day is just another day. But it’s a milestone day. A day which reminds us to change calendars, open new ledgers and account books, day to keep the promises , day to look for promises others made for us and making for us.

No one shed skin and become a whole new person when the calendar changes to 2009… nothing magical happens… if at all, the probability for that is same as for any other day!

NEW YEAR DAY = HOPE … that is the simplest way it equates to our lives!

It is the day which we dream to get a box which opens to a whole bunch of happy surprises. It is the day which everyone awaits eagerly for and at the end of which say “oh, thatz all it was!”

So, lets live this year and see what it brings for us!

PM Karma wishes all its readers a very happy, successful and prosperous New Year!

Bidding adieu to another year…

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:58:00 +0000

Image Credits: http://tekybala.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/good_bye.jpg

We are on the last day of 2008.
Nobody can change past, but past gives knowledge which we call ‘experience’. The call of New Year at the door makes us to think about our experiences in the year just going to expire. Success and failures, happy moments and sad ones… every one has something to say about the year passed… and every one has got some expectations from the year which is standing at their door step.

Learn form success & failures... believe that it was all for good.. make some ‘bullet’ points for the next year… these ‘bullets’ are gems of hope, which keep us ticking. We have wish lists, things which oneself has to do and things which the world shall do for us.

I wish if I could…
•    Wake up a bit early every day
•    Look after my health in a better way and regain my trim physique which I lost a year back!
•    Reduce internet usage by 50%
•    Improve book reading and clear backlog
•    Attend and succeed in all the certifications which I planned for 2009
•    Keep all my friends at least as close as I kept them last year
•    Do some touring which I missed in 2008
•    Find a life partner!

When I look at this list … I feel like some of the items in the wish list appeared in last year also!

I wish if others could…
•    Stop bullying
•    Stop killing
•    Stop being destructive
•    Start being less selfish
•    Start smiling from heart
•    Love unconditionally, for a change!

Last year was professionally good for me. But I missed my home country, my friends, all the partying we had and touring.

I felt lonelier last year because I had plenty of time and no friends (geographical issue! ;)! I felt richer last year because of fallen rupee (better exchange rate!). I felt older than any other year because of the weight I have put on me and the new spectacles!

If you are reading this… and if you feel that this blog has something to keep you linger around for few minutes, then say cheers to year 2008 – the year when I pushed myself to start writing here!

Project Management Tribes

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:16:00 +0000

50 years back , a Project was construction of a dam or factory and a Programme was a 'Space flight'. Primavera & MS Project were the early players who supplied computerised solution for the CPM and PERT scheduling , which were getting popular in industry. Project Managers were not the guys who sat infront of computers for most of the office hours and attended series of meetings. They were actually , dynamic people who were actively present at construction site , coordinating consultants, contractors and suppliers! A smart executive with safety helmet on his head and a rolled drawing in hand was the icon for project managers in those days.
Over the years service industries started making bigger presence than conventional industries (Despite of the fact that, conventional industries were the core of the client circle of service industries !). Now in this new millennium, when we hear the term project manager , it quickly reminds us some one dressed in designer suits sitting in a swanky office in the middle of gadgets! The helmet and drawing disappeared!
It is true that number of IT projects are more than number of infrastructure projects worldwide. How ever in terms of financial value and manpower, infrastructure projects are far ahead of IT projects.

Where technology is the major concern of project managers in IT , managing huge labour force and suppliers are major concerns for construction PM's. Despite of the fact that there are several similarities in managing projects in both of these industries, how ever role of 'physical effort' and 'hardware' plays major role in construction than IT.

In IT & service projects , the team members are generally educated and are able to plan their work themselves. Scene is different in construction projects. I would say , a construction project manager will be / has to be more 'multi skilled' than an IT project manager! Where as a young little experienced(years of experience not expertise) software engineer can manage even complex IT project, construction project management demands some 'years' of hands-on experience! A software engineer can create 'n' number of projects with out significant cost implication and gain experience (Especially due to the wide spread availability of pirated software) unlike a conventional industrial engineer , to gain experience, has to work in a 'real life' project which involves substantial financial investment.

Me, worked in both IT & construction projects (a rare opportunity, indeed!) can say without doubt that construction projects are not a bit less in technical complexity in comparison with IT projects! In fact sometimes technical complexities in association with challenges opposed by mother-nature make life of PM quite miserable in construction projects. 'Experimentations' are generally not allowed and always possess heavy financial risks! (Much higher than IT projects, where manpower is the only major cost factor). The relationship matrix in construction industry also used to be quite complex involving client, consultant, contractors, sub-contractors and suppliers.

Super skills and tough work environment does not entitle construction project managers to earn salaries equivalent to their IT counterparts. This has resulted in substantial imbalance in engineering professionals working in both the fields. Senior construction professionals feel great difficulty in recruiting skilled talent in construction project management. Lack of skilled & talented engineers in construction filed has already shown its symptoms.

Landslide of IT & service sector jobs due to recession may trigger flow of some fresh talents to more stable conventional industries including construction. Lets see how a sweating construction PM with muddy boots can feel high with better perks like his IT counterpart in 'Armani Suite' sitting in his swanky office surrounded by gadgets !

(Can we call this Project Management 2.0 in 2009, like much hyped virtual 'Web 2.0' in 2008 ?)

Back to Firefox !

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 05:57:00 +0000

For a change, lets discuss something different from Project Management.
A browser is something which is integral part of my daily life. 80% of the time which I spent on computer was nothing but using browser. Till 2006 , I was dedicated user of IE. For very short period I have tried Netscape & Opera but went back to IE. Like many other, what attracted me towards Firefox was its tabbed browsing feature. I used to have 10- 20 windows open simultaneously and it was crowding the task bar. Tabbed browsing was available in many amateur browser projects (VB6 code projects) and I quite liked it! Through out 2007 and till middle of 2008 I stuck to to Firefox.
Glaze & Blaze of Chrome!
I am a hardcore fan of Google products. Always their products carry an USP, technical and/or user interface.
I started using Google Chrome since the day it was available to download. I have personally tested it against Firefox for speed and it was found much faster , indeed! Speed & simple interface of chrome (Especially ,I liked those webpage thumbnails in the the start up). How ever , I started facing technical problems with many websites (Many of them were my regular sites - opened at least once in a day!). After few months of dedicated Chrome use, I started using Firefox parallel for sites which were not properly displayed by Chrome.Chrome was surprisingly lacking the 'Autofill' facility- a must for regular users. As time passed, I found it difficult to maintain 2 browsers, and started feeling my immense love to Firefox again!

So, I am back to Firefox and I am happy !

Chrome reminds me a 'thin glass panel' and it feels me like some girlfriend who was in my life for a short period ;) . Well, I shouldnt be talking about her since I am back with my old GF !!

The saga of Indian Project Management

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:05:00 +0000

Evolution of a new PM generation in India

“The team is fully geared and motivate to commission the refinery ahead of its initial schedule of December 2008. RPL is thus poised to create a new world record for project implementation in the global refining sector,” - Mukesh Ambani (RPL chairman) New Delhi, 22-July -08

Today, 25-Dec-08 , Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) of

India

has announced that the ‘World’s BIGGEST Refinery’ at Gujarat ,

India

, is all set to start on 28-Dec-08 on the birth anniversary of it’s founder chairman.

A remarkable project which attracted world attention for its size, complexity, low cost and above all project management excellence is getting completed.

Combined with the existing facility, the total production capacity of RIL-Jamnagar will be 1241000 barrels per day (bpd) which is 1.32 times bigger than the one next to it, which is Paraguana Refining Complex at

Venezuela

A Project Progress Report published by the company in 15-Jan-2008 indicated 82% completion, ahead of schedule in just 2 years since kick off! The Engineering efforts (Basic & Detailed Engineering) for this project were completed in less than 2 years which has set a global record in refining sector.

Completing a sophisticated project of this size in just 3 years is just incredible! All credits go to visionary management of RIL and dedicated PM professionals and labours at the Jamnagar site!

I would recommend you to visit this page in the reliance website which talks about “Innovation @ Reliance”

I think the black mark on Indian project managers caused due to severely mismanaged public sector projects, which were famous for over-runs and ‘never-ending’ behaviour, is an old story now. Cost effectiveness, speed of execution, technical expertise and quality are the trademarks of the new generation Indian PM’s.

Efficiency of Indian PM’s came to world’s attention only after the IT revolution. MNC’s employed Indian professionals at their development & research centres abroad in huge quantities. Every IT major has started facilities & operations in

India

, leveraging on the technical/managerial expertise and cost effectiveness. It is to be noted that much before the IT revolution, many large corporations in the

line NASA & IBM had employed Indian professionals in large numbers.

What Europe is for IT Project Managers, is Middle East for Industrial/Infrastructure Project managers from

India

. Millions of Indians work in various countries in infrastructure & industrial projects including thousands of Project Managers in various disciplines. The knowledge earned from international projects may help Indians to better PM practices in

India

Where Indian Project Managers are lacking?

(This section focus on Construction projects only. Project Management in service & IT sectors are much better organised in

India

)

From my personal experience I have found that Indian project professionals are hard working (Veterans of execution) but lack the following:

Still many of the major projects lack proper ‘Formal’ planning

Project planning is still in its infancy in

India

. A preliminary schedule prepared in MS Project (or sometimes in MS Excel!) which hardly gets its update is all about the construction project management in many projects. Many senior officials in Project management sector don’t understand the formal planning concepts. S-Curve, Resource Histograms, cost baseline & EVM are just alien terms for them. There is always a hurry seen in starting execution before the formal planning is completed and performance measure & control systems are created. I heard many people saying “Erect the big structures and equipments first so that we can show some really nice early progress”. Effective sequencing of activities was often not done resulting re-work. Planners are not really respected and execution team always dominates and does not give proper inputs to Planning & Project control. Many people don’t understand the big truth that planning coordinates everyone’s efforts thus reduces duration and rework.

Shortage of ‘Trained’ professionals in Project Management are the reason for sidelining the planning function in Indian Project Management Scenario.

Documentation is not up to international standards

One of the major characteristic of international projects is extensive and comprehensive documentation. Projects documents can generally be classified as:

Technical / Engineering documents
Quality documentation
Planning & general project management documents
Procurement & finance/Cost related documents
Project communication

In Indian industrial projects, ‘a’ and‘d’ are found to be maintained reasonably well. How ever the remaining 3 types of documents ( ‘b’,’c’ and ‘e’) are not really maintained well!

A properly documented project ensures smooth execution and helps the project team by functioning itself as a guide for future projects

Safety is not meeting international benchmarks

Safety is talked every where unlike olden days where execution was the only concern for construction professionals. How ever safety standards in Indian construction projects, especially civil, are far below international benchmarks. In one of the large projects which I have worked, the civil contractor ruled out usage of safety shoes for civil labour saying that ‘Rural labour force used were not comfortable in wearing heavy safety shoes and denied repeated instructions for usage of the same” They used low quality slippers and helmets made of recycled plastic ! Attempts for strict implementation of proper PPE on them drastically reduced project progress and at a critical stage, the site management team relaxed the PPE norms for the civil construction team!

Scaffolding, scissor lifts and even proper ladders are still ‘Luxury’ for Indian construction. A standard Indian supervisor will encourage the worker to perform a “Ripley's believe it or not” act if a proper safe working way is ‘too costly”. There are lots of ‘Safety Training Institutes’ mushrooming in

India

. How ever none of these professionals can find a job market with in

India

No formal project closing

I was not fortunate to see a formal project closing in

India

which is limited maximum to a cocktail party in the nearby hotel! We don’t have to search for another reason for repeated over-runs in schedule & cost projects after projects.

I would like to quote a catching line for the Relience website "First time it is learning. Second time it is a mistake." – and it explains all !

But Why ?

The answer is money!

Projects in India are executed in tight budget
Salaries of PM & construction professionals are relatively low
Lack of trained PM professionals in construction filed

The third point can be related to the second one since, many of the educated and trained professionals opt of jobs abroad which give better financial benefits. Apart form this, basic change of mindset is to be done, which focus on only 1 (Execution) and nearly ignores /dilutes rest of the 4 Project management process groups (Initiation, Planning, Monitoring & Control and Closing).

Where to look for examples?

I feel British are the people who respects planners most! I was amazed to experience this myself.

Indian PM’s can learn a lot form the commitment and importance which British PM’s give to planning, systems, quality and safety.

Americans focus greatly on cost control. NASA has set lots of standards for Project & Programme management. PMI, a

based Project Management organization is considered as the largest project management organisation in the world.

Japanese are real hard workers and focus greatly on productivity. They are not less than anyone in creativity or innovation also.

Final thoughts

Indians possess a right blend of hard work and intelligence. If the raw talent, which is abundant, subjected to formal training (by those who are experienced from international projects) can do wonders for the PM scenario in

India

. Recent establishment of an Indian subsidiary of PMI (the one & only wholly owned subsidiary of PMI

USA

) in New Delhi can be seen as the realisation of PM potential of

India

Industrial production decides the progress & wealth of the nation.

Well executed projects (schedule, cost, quality & safety) will have serious positive impact on Indian economic scenario. In the age of recession, ‘effectiveness’ and ‘efficiency’ matters lot!

Links

http://reliancepetroleum.com/pdf/projectprogress2nd_2008.pdf

http://www.ril.com/html/aboutus/innovation.html

http://www.pmi.org/aboutus/Pages/Customer-Care.aspx

http://www.pmi.org/PDF/ap_meetingminutesmay07.pdf

http://pmkarma.blogspot.com/2008/08/esreedharan-undisputed-guru-of-project.html

Construction slowdown amid global financial crisis

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:22:00 +0000

The second half of 2008 was not very pleasing. Global financial crisis & terror attacks are undoubtedly the highlights of the second half of 2008. Biggest names in financial sector fell in just few days and it did spread the panic in the construction industry as well. Financial institutions put a break on lending and started cutting jobs as a primary step to reduce operating costs. Many other industries followed (or misused) the trend from financial institutions and started cost cutting initiatives including axing of jobs.

It is a fact that global funding has been reduced. How ever there is a wide spread opinion that the ‘Crisis’ is over hyped.

It wont be an exaggeration, if I say Middle East is the ‘Construction Capital’ of the world (at the moment) ! The only way this region can be affected financially, is fall of oil prices.

Credit : http://www.wtrg.com/daily/clfclose.gif

The above graph shows heavy drop in oil prices by atleast 65% , which directly axes the revenue of GCC countries by 65% !

Many of the leading construction companies and clients are state owned and hence the effect of this drop is clearly visible in Middle east projects.

Go through the following news articles in “ArabianBusiness.com ” , which emphasise this fact.

“Dubai-owned real estate developer Nakheel is delaying several of its flagship projects, including the Trump International Hotel and Tower, in addition to axing 500 jobs amid the global financial crisis, the company said late on Sunday.”

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/539942-nakheel-puts-hold-on-trump-tower

“Azizi Investments, one of the Gulf’s fastest growing real estate developers, has announced it will not launch any new development projects in light of the global economic crisis.

The company's announcement follows news that Palm developer Nakheel was also considering scaling down some of its projects as the global economic downturn continues.”

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/538873-developer-puts-new-projects-on-hold-amid-global-crisis

“Travel has become more localised within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and there is a shift away from business class use, as travellers respond to fears of a recession, according to YouGovSiraj's latest travel tracker.”

http://www.arabianbusiness.com/540086-business-class-travel-falls-in-mena-region---survey

Another indicator of recession is house rent & property rates. Most of the Middle East magazines and news papers have reported downward trend in demand of properties and housing rent rates.

Steel import price can be seen an important index of the “demand” from the construction industry. The following graph from “ME-Steel.com ” speaks by itself :

It is noteworthy that the steel prices has come down by almost 50% in just 4 months!

I don’t think the slow down in the construction industry stay for long term, especially in Middle East, since this region is in the development phase. Countries like UAE have been seen developing fast to the living standards of rich European countries, in the past. To keep the pace of this development, they surely have to go ahead with infrastructure & industrial projects.

And, now, thatz a good news for project management professionals in the Middle East region!

The Battle of Standards

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:55:00 +0000

The latest news in PM circle (Especially those who aim at PMP certification) is about the new Body of Knowledge (BOK) from Project Management Institute (PMI) scheduled to release in December 2008. PMI has already published the key changes in the new standard – PMBOK® Guide 4^th Edition. You may find the link here . (Thank you Rich for the link!). One of the major changes which I have noticed is the change in the process nomenclature to ‘Verb-Noun’ format. Even though there won’t be drastic changes in the PMP exam pattern, I expect many people to stay away from applying for certification during the transition period. People may consider preparing for the PMP based on latest standard (4^th edition) , so that it will help in re-examinations if any one fail to make it in the first attempt.

More over, PMP exam goes wery much with terminologies and hence candidates may have a fear of getting confused with outdated terminology (if any) in case if they need to study the new standard while re-appearing.

Standards are to be revised to keep them aligned with the technological and conceptual changes happening in the industry from time to time. How ever, existence of many standards for the same purpose sometimes makes practitioners life difficult. (Especially who are working with international projects). For mechanical items we have already British, American and Dutch standards(BS-IS, DN, API, ANSI..etc) . I think ISO has succeeded to great extent in uniting various standards and arriving with widely accepted standards. The best examples are ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. I have involved in Quality certifications in present and previous employments and recently got certified from Bureau Veritas (Certified Internal Auditor for Integrated Management System). All these standards and the audits associated with them go behind the ‘Standard Terminologies’ and ‘Methods’ to great extent.

Back to Project Management standards. BSI has got BS-6079-1-2002 , as the standard for Project Management. I have read it a couple of times and found it as very much lighter than PMI’s PMBOK® 3^rd Edition(PMBOK is ANSI/PMI 99-001-2004). PMI has taken very extensive approach (may be because they are focused on PM only) than BSI in the development of the standards. There were no revisions to BS 6079 after 2002 , how ever PMI has released 3^rd edition to PMBOK in 2004 and kept the pace of up gradation steady by conducting several studies, research work and discussions. They have now come up with PMBOK® 4^th Edition, which they claim to “ reflect the evolving knowledge within the profession of project management”.

It was a year back; ISO has announced commencement of the work on a new international standard for Project Management (ISO 21500). BSI released a new letter in this regard (read it here), which claim ISO 21500 as an extension of BS-6079-1-2002. How ever in the ISO news letter regarding the same subject (read it here) there is no mention about BS-6079, other than a mention of BSI, who was the host to the kick off ceremony (held in London).

I am not aware about the involvement/contribution of PMI in the development of ISO 21500 (My search for ISO 21500 in the PMI website returned no results! ) I would like to hear from anyone who knows about this.

I have checked for the cross reference of the BS, PMI & ISO standards in their respective websites and the following are the results:

I hope ISO 21500 is expected to release some where in 2010.

The following powerpoint presentation gives a good insight into the release and contents of ISO 21500.

http://www.acs.org.au/nsw/sigs/pm/2008_03_19_ACS_Presentation_v4.ppt

Take a look at the possible structure of ISO 21500, as per the above mentioned presentation:

PMBOK® 3^rd Edition, focus on 5 key processes in 9 Knowledge areas.

5 Project Management Process Groups
9 Knowledge Areas
44 project management processes

Check out this link: http://www.viva-it.com/ipm/pmbok.htm

How many standards do we need?

Well my answer is ‘One’. Standard stands for ‘standardisation’ or ‘uniformity’. Now world is like a global village. People are working in multi ethnic – multi national teams. A project happening some where in middle east can have a German consultant working for a British client employing an American contractor. Project Management itself is an evolving profession and any one can say undoubtedly that PMI has played the main role in bringing up identity for that. The certifications, standards and marketing initiatives by PMI have made project management, a widely discussed and distinguished topic.

A new ISO standard for Project Management is always welcome, but it shall absorb all the good features of PMI & BS standards. I hope the standard committees are working in a collaborative way and we can expect release of ‘ONE’ standard, which is accepted by all PM organisations and PM practitioners across the world by the end of first decade of this millennium.

By the way, I am already sitting cross legged to watch the new PMBOK 4^th edition and kept my desk ready to keep a copy of ISO 21500!!

Links:

Ancient project management

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 10:53:00 +0000

Any one who is on tour to historical monuments, old temples, churches and palaces wonder how those were built during a period when construction machineries, computer and communication devices were not available. I have wondered every time I visited thousands of year old temples in

India

how they were built during those days. Beautifully carved single stone structures, each weighing several tonnes placed at enormous heights. There is no way they can be built with out precise planning and execution. Because they are sophisticated by their construction and the locations where they built are challenging.

I have searched a lot to find a piece of graphic which illustrates the planning done on any of such great projects. But sadly I couldn’t find any! When history of project management can’t look beyond 1900, what is the purpose of searching for PM documents dated several thousands of years back!

Construction of some of the outstanding historical structures like The Great Pyramid of Giza) is believed to be employed several lakhs(1,00,000) of people. There were extensive studies on the methodologies used for construction (in the absence of machineries) , especially on Egyptian Pyramids. How ever I couldn’t find any research on the project management and labour co-ordination techniques used. A video on ‘Construction of Persepolis’ (built 2500 years back, known as the richest city under the sun !) in ancient Iran indicate that there was proper construction organisation with titles similar to managers and supervisors. Archaeologists have recovered proofs indicating wage system for labourers. Giza Pyramid construction workers were believed to be lived near the construction sites in so called ‘Labour camps’.

When archaeologists & scientists are working hard to reveal the technologies (and techniques) used in these ancient ‘Great Projects’ , no one seem to be working on the project management and planning perspective of these jobs.

All the results of my searches related to project management constrained to 19^th century. Does this imply that no project management and planning techniques were used in all those magnificent projects which may be extremely challenging even if executed these days?

Well, the socio-economic conditions prevailed in those days were different form today. Most of the ancient great projects were result of an instruction from the ruling King. The most skilled crafts man was chosen to take care of the construction and it was his responsibility to recruit best talent to work under him. Messengers were sent to each village to reach the message of the new project and great crafts men reported the King or his designated Master craftsman.

Motivation? Fear or respect to the King or a mix of both! [Build it , or you are killed ! – haa haa]
Fund ? Unlimited funding from the King’s treasure!
Quality ? The king won’t compromise for a low grade product! – So best of its kind!
Schedule? Yep , there would have been , because the King want to see the result before he dies and probably he want to enjoy the fame of the great creation for as long as it can be !

Some records show details of labour allocation into gangs. An ancient version of Organogram !

Check out the crew allocation diagram for ‘Giza Pyamid Construction Project’:

But how they managed the big picture? Those were not random creations or activities. Coordinated efforts/activities to achieve a well defined outcome. Look at the magnificence and symmetry of great old temples in

India

! It is evident that a lot of planning and activity sequencing might have taken place. But how they did those? No one knows!

Most of such temples possess the following characteristics:

Challenging locations
Enormous sizes
Overall symmetry in site installations
Symmetry in individual structures
Minute art works in elements of individual structures

Indian art generally seems to focus on symmetry and detailing. The same reflects on old constructions as well. More over ancient artists/crafts men are fathers of modern engineers! Even renaissance engineers like Da Vinci and Michael Angelo were outstanding artists also apart from being engineers and inventors.

The reason for the non availability of the details of execution of these projects can be:

Educated upper society was only interested in the beauty and magnificence of the structures. In short the focus was on design & architecture and not in the methodology of construction.
Execution was the responsibility of craftsmen who were generally uneducated.
Secrecy: Several techniques were kept as secret among certain ‘Gothras’ or tribes who were specialised in crafts. These techniques were only transmitted from one generation to the next of the same ‘Gothra’
It is also debated that rulers kill the creators/crew of great structures once it is completed so that similar kind is not built again (How ever , this is not a proven fact!)

It will be great , if premier PM organizations like PMI take up some research projects on ‘Ancient Project Management’ and extend the history of PM beyond 19^th century. It may also bring out some theories which can contribute to modern project management.

If you have few more moments to spare, just have a look at these outstanding ancient projects. I also recommend you to visit the external links provided at the end of this article.

You may find that ancient Hindu temples tops all the great constructions in terms of beauty , attention to details and sophistication!

2570 BC Great pyramid of Giza

208 BC The first major construction of the Great Wall of China, circa 221-206 BC

The Colosseum

The Taj Mahal ,

India

1631-1654

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus

Persepolis

Lighthouse of Alexandria

Stonehenge in England, built in several stages from 2800 - 1800 BC

Petra, the rock-carved city in

Jordan

, 6th century BC

Parthenon in Athens,

Greece

, 477 to 438 BC

Mayan Temples at Tikal, 700-900

Angkor Wat in

Cambodia

, 1113-1150

Cathedral of Chartres,

France

1194 to 1260

Machu Picchu, Inca city in

Peru

, circa 1400s

Madurai Meenakshi temple, India

Khajuraho Temple, India

Sun Temple, Konark, Orissa-

India

Prambanan Temple,

Indonesia

Nanjundeswara Temple, Mysore, India

Somnatha Temple, Karnataka,

India

Links:

http://www.lessons-from-history.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_project_management

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giza

http://www.fsteiger.com/

PM Karma Community

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:54:00 +0000

Dear fellow PM bloggers !
It is my greatest pleasure to roll out the 'PM Karma' community. It is aimed at forming a friendly and collaborative group of PM enthusiasts who share our knowledge and contribute to each other's professional growth. Basically this will be a group of PM bloggers , who are linked to me (and linked by me). We will be actively discussing on the topics of our interest (which we publish through our blogs). Effectively , this will increase the traffic and visibility of our blogs and will also help us to know each other more. This will help us to share information, help each other in making our jobs better (or a better job !).
How to join PM Karma Community (PMKC):
Its' easy , just comment below this post & I will add you to the community. Please provide the following info as well:

Your full name
Your profile link
Your blog / web address

You are also requested to provide a link in your blog to mine (How ever this is not a mandatory requirement to join the community. But it is highly recommended since we will keep informed about each others postings, thus keeping our community closely connected)
Where can I find the community members?
I will add a member page , after receiving sufficient number of requests.
What about adding a thumbnail of member? Please let me know.

Rules?

Keep your blog clean (You know what I mean!)
No abusive comments

Note:

Also read about the 'Link Exchange Initiative' here

(PM Karma Community is an extension of PM Karma Link Exchange Initiative )

Welcome to PM Karma Community !

Thanks & Regards,

Sreejith

PM Karma Link Exchange Initiative

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:32:00 +0000

Dear Readers,
At the outset , let me thank each and every one of you for your support and inspiration. My vision while launching this blog was to share the bits and pieces of knowledge which I have gained from my Project Management profession and through reading and acquire additional knowledge by collaborating with other PM bloggers.
I also aimed at forming a community of people who are interested and believe in the 'Value' of project management. It will be my all time effort to expand this community by 'Linking to' and 'Linked by' other PM bloggers.
Its my pleasure to roll out the 'PM Karma Link Exchange Initiative' today

How to Link?
Its easy, if you have a website or blog. You may add 'PM Karma' Some where under your menu structure (Example: "Favourite Blogs", "Links", "Blog Roll" ..etc)

You may find some of the fellow bloggers have already linked their blog with mine.
(Also check out the PM Karma Community initiative here )
Once you become the PM Karma community member , you may use the PMKC logo on your site which link to http://pmkarma.blogspot.com/
Requesting PM bloggers to make this initiative a grand success by providing PM Karma link in your blog.

Thank you,

Sreejith

Dashboards and the hottest trends in executive reporting

sreejith.gce@gmail.com (Sreejith Kesavan) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 17:16:00 +0000

If you browse through my previous blogs and profile, you will easily find that, I am a person greatly interested in graphical representation of ideas & data (Drawing, charting, visual thinking ...etc). I have a nick name in my office (Present and even previous jobs!) – “Mr. Colour”!

This is because of the colourful reports which I produce week after week, as part of my job. Being a planning professional , I produce a lot of reports every week (Project specific & organisational).

Microsoft Excel is my all time favourite tool. It is a blend of an ultimate data processing/ analysing tool and a nice data visualisation tool. Excel is the little big thing that makes my life much easier by automating several reports. I have a hell lot of data to process every week and report. I have made some standard templates which make data entry and reporting quite easy. Infact I only make the re-usable templates. The required data fields are filled in at the end of the week and reports are generated. The interface is designed in simple manner so that data entry is minimum. I extensively use formulas and macros to impart ‘intelligence’ and automation.

There are some great websites which give me tips & tricks on advanced excel data processing & charting.

If you are a frequent browser in excel based reporting techniques, you may find the following as the hottest topics or say ‘hottest tags’:

HOTTEST KEYWORDS IN EXECUTIVE REPORTING

Dashboards
Incell charting
Sparklines
Bullet graphs
Heat maps
NY Times info-graphics
Edward Tufte

I am afraid that the love for incell charting is going beyond limits! People may soon start qualifying dash boards based on the number of incell charts used! (I hope I am allowed to use humour in blogs!) My understanding is that, growth in the financial analysis process in previous years has resulted in such a huge attraction towards dash boards and incell charting. Finance, especially stock market is one place where you have quantum of data which changes every second. To analyse and report such ever changing complex data, innovative dashboards evolved. This has obviously spread into other sectors as well, but finance professional are the one’s who use dashboards extensively. The second position will go ‘Marketing & Sales’.

“Google analytics” is one of the best examples of clever implementation of online dashboard concepts (Or in general ‘Dashboard concepts”). I think NY Times Online really rocks in the domain of info-graphics!

Dashboards are mainly meant for decision makers who don’t have time to go in detail but can’t miss trends and alerts. This provides a challenge for the executives to prepare ‘effective’ dashboards (usually single page) which give the ‘whole idea of the thing’ ‘at a glance’!

Crystal-Xcelsius Dashboard :
Crystal-Xcelsius provide a great tool to produce Adobe Flash based interactive dashboards easily.As their website say "Xcelsius 2008 is the first and only dynamic and customizable data visualization software that enables users of different skill levels to create insightful and engaging dashboards from any data source with point-and-click ease. Xcelsius 2008 offers a comprehensive set of new features and integrations with Crystal Reports 2008, BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.0, and other market-leading products—making it easier than ever to put the power of relevant intelligent information into the hands of business users."

Toolkit for great dashboards:

Good quality data, nicely arranged in table (Usually against a timeline)
MS Excel (Preferably Version 2000 or above)
Some nice web icons and textures
Paper & pencil (If you have the habit of planning interface layouts)

Steps for getting started

Identify the critical information to be displayed
Decide mode & unit of representation
Plan the lay out
Implement dashboard in excel by drawing charts / tables and linking data
Review & get approval
Release

You may find several innovative and creative experimentations in Excel charting, online. But my advice is never design your dashboard around a new charting concept. (Or simply, never include a graphical element in your report just because it looks cool.) Always design your dashboard around your data.

Identifying what really management want to know or need to know. Those should be in your dashboard. Selection of the type of chart & colours also does matter. Be consistent with colours (If you use green for + , never use red for + elsewhere!)

Project managers can impress senior management and clients by producing ‘Project Dashboards’. You may include standard and project specific indicators.

PROJECT DASHBOARD

I ) Textual/ Tabular

Major milestones achieved (Show with time line & thumb nails of progress pics, if possible)
Activities progress during reporting period
Major issues, risks
Billing history

II) Graphical

Project S-Curve (Planned, actual, forecast)
Manpower histograms (Planned , actual)
Cost curve (Planned , actual, forecast)
Earned value analysis charts
CPI & SPI graph
Productivity curves
Analysis of head count , trades ,manhours( Normal hours v/s overtime) – Pie Charts
Safety reports (LTA ..etc)

If you have a good IT department with some skilled web developers, you may think about developing a web based project reporting system. This can be data driven (Database at the back end). The advantage of this feature is accessibility form anywhere for project team, clients and senior management.

You may check out some websites which provide some of these facilities for free. But suitability and effectiveness will depend up on the way project team utilise, the given facilities on these websites and nature of your project.