A discussion on management plans started by my friend on Govloop recently about management plans got me going.

My thinking on the topic of documentation in general has matured over the last few years. I don’t think I know everything though, far from it.

What Makes Project Documentation Suck?

There are several common problems people fall prey to when it comes to project documentation.

• All text, very little visuals
• Documents are longer than most short books
• In the weeds – over reaching the intended scope
• Assumes the person reading the documentation is a chimpanzee
• Describes a theoretical alternate universe which has no correlation to reality
• Written for the wrong audience – trying to please management instead of making it useful for people who actually need it

Who Falls For It?

Three types of people in my experience:

• New project managers, who think templates and paperwork is what project management is all about. Analysis Paralysis is prevalent.
• Veteran project managers who have become detached from the technical aspects of their teams’ work, and retreat to documentation land.
• Project managers who go with the flow and don’t question the organization’s tendency to have management plans with 1,000 pages that no one will ever read.

What About Standards?

I’m speaking mostly of management plans now. I like standards and best practices documents. Travis listed some good ones:

• PMI’s The Standard for Program Management
• PMI’s PMBOK
• DI-MGMT-81334B
• MIL-STD-881
• INCOSE SE Handbook
• ANSI

But starting with standards is a mistake.

The starting point should be the reality of “how things get done around here.” That’s not going to be easy – usually there are many processes which are not well defined in any organization, and half your time will be spent interviewing people who actually do this stuff on a day-to-day basis and consensus-building for those processes which are not well defined and/or have contention among staff on the best method.

Seldom is there no organizational or project history to draw on; If this isn’t your first project in a start-up company you can start by mapping reality. After you’ve made a baseline document, then you can start incorporating ideas from standards and best practices (internal and external).
When you start with standards:

• The plan is great in theory, but not in practice (reminds me of a Yogi Berra quote)
• The plan doesn’t resemble how things actually get done, and so lacks credibility with staff
• The plan employs a lot of fancy language and references to standards no one understands but the author, adding to the probability it will not be read or followed

When you start with reality:

• You facilitate the writing, but the primary source is the stakeholders of the processes ( = buy in! )
• You gain a deep understanding of how things actually work in the current state – this deep knowledge of the domain is the only way to write a credible plan
• You start with a credible and accurate plan, and can iterate from there – knowledge of the standards out there can now be useful…it’s only useful if you’ve gained the deep knowledge of the processes in your specific context

Furthermore:

• A plan without majority input from the staff who will carry it out is doomed to failure
• Attempts to change and dictate new processes in a document are doomed to failure; that’s doing it backwards. Unfortunately that’s exactly what most organizations do, especially in government in my experience. First, gain understanding and build consensus through conversation, drafting visuals of processes, etc. Then document it as concisely and clearly as possible.

Changes follow the same process:

1. Understanding
2. Discussion/drafting
3. Document

How To *Gasp* Make Documentation Valuable

With process documentation and management plans you must always ask what adds value in the majority of cases, and what doesn’t. It’s the 80/20 rule.

After deep domain knowledge of the processes in use is gained, you’ll know what the most critical processes are, and which scenarios happen most of the time.
Don’t bother trying to account for every possible scenario. It’s muda (waste) in my opinion.
Guidelines from my perspective:

• Must be less than 10 pages in length
• Must be primarily visual with supporting text, not the other way around
• Highest Effective Level of Detail – in the weeds is not where you want to be, document at the highest level possible that still gives appropriate guidance and answers the right questions for actual users of the process.
• Don’t assume the users of processes are nincompoops – I’ve seen too many plans like this – assuming people won’t know how to tie their shoes unless they reference the plan is a good way to make it unusable and even insulting – users are smart in general

What do you think? Am I dead wrong, or do you agree with some of this philosophy?

Original link: How To Create Project Documentation That Doesn’t Suck

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How much time do recruiters or hiring managers spend reviewing your resume, on average?

Studies have previously come out with results of 4-5 minutes, when you ask hiring managers how much time they spend.

That’s self-report data. Is it reality?

It’s BS

A recent eye-tracking study found something a bit different.

That’s right.

Especially when there are tons of candidates, you’d better not be under the delusion that the fine points of your work experience buried deep in a paragraph are going to be noticed. They are not.

Formatting Matters

This is the reason why formatting matters.

If this blog post were one big paragraph with no headings or white space, nothing to break it up, would you be reading this? No!

Check out this composite eye-tracking heat map from the report and notice:

1. Attention shifts from section to section when clear indicators exist.
2. Easily seen headings guide viewers down the page.
3. Long blocks of text cause fatigue, with the result of viewers giving up before the end.
4. The shorter, the better. A 1-page resume is better than a 2-page resume.

Leave a comment or question, and check out my online project management career training, where I teach you about this stuff.

Original link: Your Resume Has 6 Seconds To Live

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How do you make a great impression on a hiring manager?

A question I saw recently on a message board asked what to do when you are able to network effectively enough to take someone out for coffee, someone who could potentially hire you in the future for their organization.

There were some great answers about how to display your knowledge, skills, and accomplishments. Those are good things that you should be prepared to be able to demonstrate to a potential employer, whether out for coffee or in an interview setting.

They are necessary, but not sufficient.

Trading Places

Imagine you are a hiring manager. You’re on your 6th interview with candidates for a project management role today. In any process to get someone new on board, there will be a range of candidates.

From my experience, some will have made it to the interview stage because they look good on paper, but you find out they don’t really meet the expectations the paperwork or initial screenings set. Some will be so-so, and some will be people you think could do the job well.

You are very cautious though, because you’ve hired some people in the past who you thought were great hires at the time, and now you rue the day you brought them on board. I mean, you hate working with these people.

Others have worked out great and become star team members.

Either way, your guard is up.

Tough Crowd

How do you win someone like this over?

Let me tell you something. Making a great impression with a hiring manager isn’t as much about accomplishments and showing how smart you are. Not as much as you think it is.
Just like networking, an interview is about relating to another human being.

Do you know who hiring managers want to hire yet?

People They Want To Work With

That’s right. If a hiring manager can’t feel good about the thought of seeing you every day, trusting you with important projects that will reflect on them, they won’t hire you.

It won’t even be conscious usually. Subconsciously, human beings start finding ways to get away from people we don’t like. I don’t care how many degrees and certifications you have, if you are obviously going to be painful to work with, you don’t have much of a chance.

If you want to give yourself the best chance of success you must realize one thing.

It’s Not About You

Luckily, there are some really simple things you can do to help hiring managers like you. Different lines of research show there is a critical point within 6-10 seconds and also within the first 90 seconds of meeting someone new that can help predict whether they end up having an affinity for you or not.

Ask a Question

You’d be surprised how many candidates don’t ask a question. There’s no better way to show interest in a person in the first few seconds than with a sincere question.

It’s more common to get a ‘nice to meet you’ which doesn’t have the same impact unless it’s used alongside a question.

• If it’s a Monday, ask them how their weekend was.
• If you’ve networked like I teach, you probably know something about their interests outside of work. Ask an intelligent question about them, especially if it’s a shared interest. – “So Jane told me you like to golf. Been out lately?”

It may just be nerves, or you may not naturally do this when you meet new people. Start today, with hiring managers, people at the grocery store, everywhere you meet new people. At the very minimum you can ask “How’s your day going?”

Ask More Questions

When asked specific questions in the conversation you should of course be prepared to answer them. But you should also seek the opportunities to interject your own questions into the mix. The smartest questions to ask show your interest in them as individuals, the team and/or department they work with, and lastly the company as a whole.

After answering a question they’ve ask you, related questions should be popping into your head if you are truly interested in working for this person and this company. The candidate who asks me insightful questions, especially one that asks me about what I’m interested in, gets my attention.

• “That reminds me, I was going to ask about how projects are generally managed on the teams. Have you got some Agile or Lean going on out here?”
• “I’m curious about the organizational structure. Can you tell me a little more about your role in the department?”
• “What would your ideal hire do after coming on board? What challenges would I have the opportunity to tackle?”

I could go on and on, but this is all situational. Don’t fake it either, sincerity is a must. All of these questions have one thing in common. You are showing interest in them. You are showing an interest in solving their problems, in the work they do, in the work their teams do.

If you sit there and go on bragging about how great you are the entire conversation, what do you think is going to happen? Would you like the person on the other side of the table who can’t stop talking about themselves?

And that’s how to impress hiring managers. Comments or questions?

Original link: How To Impress Hiring Managers

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There has been a change made to the PMP Handbook.  The handbook was last updated on April 17, 2012.

Dr. Paul Giammalvo alerted me to the change. I still have a communication from PMI I’m expecting back soon, but in the meantime I’ll share what changed with you and my initial thoughts.

Interpretation

I have had many spirited debates on the topic about what the PMP eligibility requirements truly mean. My interpretation has not been shared by all.

I have always interpreted the phrase “leading and directing project tasks” as managing projects. It’s true that this phrase is pretty wide open for interpretation though.

So here’s the change:

Changing From: “leading and directing project tasks”

Changing To: “leading and directing the project”

I *think* the new wording is closer to my interpretation, but who knows. It certainly seems to be saying plainly now that you must have been the project manager in order for the experience to count.

Here are screen shots from before and after the change:

Prior to April 17, 2012

After April 17, 2012

What Does This Mean?

I have no idea.

Hopefully when the PMI gets back to me I’ll have a better idea of what it really means.

Another thought Dr. Paul threw out was if this changes anything for people who already have their credentials.

I doubt it. Just as with any other standards change, it’s going to be tough to make thing retroactive. When a university upgrades their standards, it doesn’t mean that alumni must go back and complete the extra required course or else their degree is null and void.

What I Do Know

What I do know is this; if you stick with the interpretation I’ve always held, you can’t go wrong. Before you apply for the PMP exam, I recommend you have those hours of experience as the project manager, managing project teams to produce a product or outcome.

What other questions do you have? What are your thoughts on this change?

Original link: PMP Eligibility Requirements Changed on April 17, 2012

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This is a departure from my usual writing about project management, but I’d like to tell you about something else I’m doing.

You may not know I’m active in advocating for people with disabilities. I volunteer often for different organizations and was appointed by the Governor of my state to our state’s Council on Developmental Disabilities. I’m also graduating next weekend from South Dakota Partners in Policymaking, a wonderful program that has been both educational and exhausting at the same time.

My wife Tamara and I are also walking on June 9, 2012 to raise money for Autism Speaks, a wonderful organization who knows how to apply resources appropriately towards research. There are a lot of organizations out there I would classify as ‘crackpot’ too, so it’s great to have one that does a good job.

Recent studies have shown that 1 in 88 children (8-year olds) in the US have autism, and while numbers vary this is a world-wide challenge. It’s critical that we discover causes so preventative measures can be taken for the children of the future. We also need to continue to improve and understand the effective therapies and adaptations so individuals with autism can reach their full potential in our societies.

Tamara and I have three wonderful boys: Mazaryk, Draven, and Ryker. They are awesome children with all of the pleasures and challenges a 7, 5, and 3-year old provide, with some additional challenges. All three have developmental disabilities, the younger two with autism.

So you can see why this is important to me; why I’m “interrupting the scheduled broadcast” for this message.

If you would like to support Autism Speaks with me, please consider donating by sponsoring me using the link below.

http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/southdakota/jnankivel

And please leave your name when you donate, I’d love to thank all of you who helped me reach my fundraising goal!

Thank you!

- Josh

—————————-

Thank you for taking an important step in the fight against autism.

Donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Autism Speaks 501 (C)(3) Tax Id #: 20-2329938

Matching gift program: Many companies provide their employees with matching gifts. Please consult your employer on its matching gift guidelines and attach matching gift forms accordingly.

Original link: Walking for Autism Research – How You Can Help

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Do you struggle with this too?

It can take different forms:

• ‘Doing it yourself’ when it would be better to let someone else handle it.
• Gold plating, which is adding more features because you think they are ‘cool’.
• Putting extra effort towards something other than your product without any potential value to the customer.

And more..  Heck, I’ve caught myself doing a few of these just recently. The other day I received an email from a new student of my online project management training. There were warning messages showing up all over the place, and she never received her login details after purchasing access to the course.

I jumped in right away and fixed it as soon as I could. It turns out my web host had upgraded their versions of PHP and mySQL, and the software I purchased to deliver the training was using some old, deprecated PHP functions.

But as I was sitting there debugging the code a question crossed my mind.

Why am I doing this?

Doing It Yourself

I resolved the issue. I can debug php code on my own server. But should I be?

Should I even be hosting this on my own server where I’m responsible for all of the configuration, design, etc?

Would this problem have happened in the first place if I didn’t insist on ‘doing it myself’ and let a team of people who are really good at avoiding problems in the first place do it?

The answer is no, it wouldn’t have happened. My students would receive a better experience and I could have spent more time developing new training material or writing to help more people, instead of debugging code.

So I’m looking into migrating my training courses to a new platform, hosted by a company who knows what they are doing.

I just freed up a few hours per week of my time to do more teaching and writing. Sweet!

Gold Plating

Sometimes as developers we think we know what the customer wants better than they do.

It’s true that sometimes they don’t know what they want until they see it. There have been several occasions in my career where I had my teams develop prototypes ‘on the down-low’ to show to a customer because we knew they’d love it when they saw it, and authorize us to proceed. And most of the time, we were right.

But gold plating occurs when you go further and fully develop new features in a product without the requisite assessment of need/value from the customer and without accounting for the additional work in your schedule and budget.

And yes, I’m guilty of this too. There are several aspects of my online training that I spent considerable time on that no one uses. If they were scaled-down features to be used for experimentation to gauge student interest that I could enhance later if the need was justified, excellent. That’s iterative development, and is wonderful. But I spent a long time on some of these features that are now happily hosting a family of pet dust bunnies.

Fluff

New project managers fall into this trap all the time with documentation. I know I did.

You spend tons of time on a project management plan because you want to make sure an auditor who might review your work would say “You get a gold star for making it look important, especially with all the flowery language and the fact that it’s 300 pages.”

Yea! You can knock someone down by throwing your plan at them.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned and want to convey to you about documentation:

1. Identify the ‘customer’ of your documentation clearly
2. Every word must add value to the people you identified in # 1
3. The shorter and more concise, the better. The people in # 1 might actually read it.

If you can play bull$#!t bingo as you read through your documentation, try again.

Better yet, put your bull$#!t detector hat on as you are writing it in the first place.

Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

What are your examples of doing something you shouldn’t have?  

Come on, it’s very therapeutic.

It’s easy, just start with something like “Hello, my name is Josh. And I’m a gold-plater.”

Original link: Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should

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