Practical Project Management

Being Effective at Work

2011-08-04T10:08:00.000+07:00

Here are few steps, which you can use to increase your effectiveness.

Step 1: Identify Priorities; to identify your job's true purpose, this will help you uncover your most important objectives, so that you can start prioritizing tasks effectively

Step 2: Adopt a Good Attitude; focus on adopting a good attitude at work, and make decisions that intuitively "ring true."

Step 3: Build Essential Skills; One of the best ways of becoming more effective at work is to learn how to manage your time more efficiently

For more detail you can read in this link

Lesson Learned #3 - Tracking Issues

2011-08-03T10:52:00.000+07:00

Every project has many issues. Some have a few; can count by the fingers, while others could have overwhelming numbers over the life of a project. Project issues include specific problems that need to be resolved by the project manager, project team, concerns raised by management or external parties that required consideration by the project team, legal compliance issues to be resolved and tasks that need to be finalized prior to Cut-Over (Go-Live), especially if they will be a risk to the successful completion of the project.

Project issues should be discussed, communicated, resolved amongst project team and as a practical project manager; we need to track in some fashion such as Google docs Project Tracking Issue Template

One of key advantages by using Google docs, the issue tracking can be shared and updated real-time by project teams so as a project manager, we can update quickly. With Google Docs, the tracking issue could be updated with new issues and also update for any updates/resolutions to existing issues amongst team member.

Generic entity for project tracking issues such as (with Google docs, the field can be customized as required):

Issue ID
Issue Title / Summary
Description
Date Issue Raised (and possibly who raised the issue)
Priority (e.g. High, Medium, Low)
Assigned to/Responsible Person for resolving issue
Due Date
Status (e.g. New, Open, In Process, Resolved, Closed, Deferred, etc.)
Comments
Resolution Steps

Being practical project manager, we must be able to communicate these issues those who have a material interest in the project including the project team periodically, project management meeting (involve many parties), steering committee meeting. They look to the project manager for a status of the project; communicating issues and the plans to resolve and mitigate issues is of primary importance to these entities.

Since issues is daily bread and even potential showstopper of any project, the key role of the project manager to handle and communicate issues is cornerstone of project management. By successfully addressing and managing issues in a timely manner, the project has a greater chance of success to Cut-Over (Go-Live) and beyond.

How to Choose The Right System – The RFP Process

2011-08-02T14:36:00.000+07:00

Here’s a step-by-step guide, along with some tips to give you a good grip on the process.A request for proposal is generated to invite bids and proposals from vendors, for the purchase of assets or for awarding work contracts. This formalized procedure helps in generating competitive proposals, from amongst which the final choice can be made.

Step #1 – Gathering the Requirements

The process of preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP) begins with gathering requirements of the project. It is better to have template in the sheet (xl/xls format) with several columns, such mandatory or not, part of scope or not, out of the box or not, etc. for easy evaluation so can be easy sort based on various criteria.

Step #2 – Establish Vendor Eligibility

Once you know what the demands of the project are, the next important step is to setup a vendor eligibility criterion. You’ll need to set up some minimum eligibility criteria that will be used to scan and shortlist the vendors. Also, you must clearly specify the additional factors that will get the vendors some added preference

Step #3 – How to invite the Vendors?

You have two options when it comes to invite the vendors, you can either place an advertisement to invite the vendors to submit the proposals or you may only invite the vendors to submit the proposal from a selected list of vendors by contacting them directly. Thus from here the RPF process will vary depending on the choice made. If you’re inviting proposals through advertisement, you can skip the next three steps and move straight on to step #7.

Step #4 – Browse Existing Vendor Database

Every organization maintains some sort of vendor database, and if your organization too has one then that’s the place to begin your vendor search.

Step #5 – Research New Vendors

The list of vendors from your internal database may not be enough. Look up newspapers, Internet, trade journals and business directories to search, ask your friends / colleagues identify and add more vendors to your list.

Step #6 – Scan and Shrink Your List of Vendors

Make a tentative list of potential vendors after scrutinizing each vendor against the eligibility criteria. This is not the final list of vendors, as the final list can be prepared only after internal stakeholders have approved it.

Step #7 – Create a Vendor Evaluation Plan

You need a detailed plan that will be used for evaluating and selecting the vendor. This plan should include the procedure to be followed, evaluation criteria and details about the decision makers. This vendor evaluation plan must be fair and open as it will be beneficial for auditing purposes later.

Step #8 – Draft a Request for Proposal

Here is a brief description for each and any of the common sections of your RFP: statement of purposes, background information, scope of work, deliverables, term of contract, payment term (Payments, Incentives, and Penalties), contractual terms and conditions, how to response (response proposal format from the vendor), evaluation process, time-line, contact person.

Step #9 – Invite Suggestions and Comments on the Draft

The draft that has been prepared in the last step is not the final one. Before we make the final document, the draft must be distributed to all relevant internal stakeholders to generate their comments and suggestions. If you generated a list of vendors in step # 6, this list should also be attached with the draft.

Step #10 – Prepare the Final Document

After making adjustments to the request for proposal draft, by accommodating the inputs received during the above step, the final RFP is on the go.

Step #11 – Send Out the RFP

Once you have the final copy of the RFP document, you need to send it out to the vendors using the preferred media. If you’re requesting proposals from vendors on your list, you can send them the document as a hard copy or in an electronic form. And when requesting proposals in public, the RFP can be placed as an advertisement in some print media such as newspapers.

Step #12 – Receive Proposals

When you receive related proposals form responded vendors (based on advertisement or invitation), organize and file them accordingly for easy scanning during the evaluation.

Step #13 – Evaluate the Proposals

Evaluate all the received proposals and choose the winning vendor. For the evaluation you’ll have to follow the procedure outlined in the vendor evaluation plan that you had prepared earlier.

Step #14 – Award the Contract

Once you reach a unanimous decision on who is the most appropriate vendor, the contract can be awarded to the winner. It is a good practice to request the vendor to sign-off the RFP as part of the commitment that when vendor complies with the requirement and it means truly comply. Remember, ensure all are being documented properly; the evaluation process, the criterion, the reason why one vendor is not selected and one vendor is selected and it is must based o the evaluation criteria.

Step #15 – Prepare a Contract/Work Order Form

A work order form (contract) details out the exact requirements – including qualitative as well as quantitative requirements, list of deliverables and the detailed schedule. As a tip, if vendor signs-off the RFP response, you can make that sign-off RFP response as part of the work order (contract) so it will save time as well. The work order can be act as an abridged version of requirement specification document and the good thing if the Vendor has signed off the RFP, you can use it also as requirement specification documentation.

Cheers.

#2 Lesson Learned – Managing the Perception

2011-08-01T14:39:00.000+07:00

Being a practical project manager is handy if we can manage the perception correctly as it will lead to better decision.

Read this short story:

A person from Indonesia – who usually lives in 27-35 degree – goes to Europe, lands at London, finds that temperature is 10 degree and texts his wife that it’s very cold.

At the same time, another person from northern part of Europe – who lives in 0 to minus 35 degree –lands at London, finds that temperature is 10 degree and calls home saying the weather are very warm.

The fact is, the temperature is 10 degree – you call it cold or warm that depends on the place you live

So when you listen to statements such as ‘It’s very cold’ or ‘it’s very hot’, if you look at it from right perspective, you will end up making better decision.

Remember all the answer is right and depends on the perception. Being a practical project manager, we need to understand the context surround the situation to make good decision.

#1 Lesson Learned – Performance Test

2011-08-01T13:38:00.000+07:00

Albert Einstein said, "Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them."

The idea of lesson learned series is to make a practical project manager becomes genius by reading, listening, and memorizing as much as possible entire lesson learned from various projects.

This is one of the attempts!

Performance Test

Performance test is required to prove that the system can cater the agreed load (e.g. certain amount of TPS – Transaction per Second). During the performance test, two cases are required:

1. Normal test cases; the test runs the positive test cases such as the box can runs 1000 TPS with 20% CPU utilization.

2. Negative test cases; the system must run negative test cases and we need to observe the behavior of the system such as CPU utilization, memory consumption, etc. E.g. the box runs 1000 TPS with 50% of the traffic has low latency and observe what happen with the CPU load.

By performing the above two test cases, we could prevent or minimize unpleasant surprise in the production system, do not underestimate this.

Cheers.

Profiling the users - Used Case for 6 Thinking Hat Technique

2011-08-01T11:58:00.000+07:00

We as a human learn from the pattern and being a practical project manager, learning and remembering the pattern is crucial as by recognizing the pattern, we can recall what action has being taken from past time, what decision is being made, what is the pitfalls, how to overcome it, etc. Pattern can be used also to profiling the user so by recognizing the pattern of the user, project manager can profile the user accordingly; so it can be used to communicate ‘frequency’ correctly to minimize the miss-communication throughout the project.

One of the tools, which can be used to profile the user, is 6 Thinking Hat Technique from De Bono. Usually, people use this technique to make decision, as by applying this technique, the decision should cover 360 degree, it means cover at least most, if not all, the aspect of the decision. In this article, we will use the same method however for different purposes, to profile the user using 6 Thinking Hat Technique and here it is.

1. White Hat; a White Hat people tends to focus data, information, and statistic, Hence if a project manager would like to discuss with a them, it is a must to bring all the on the table in the statistic form, sheet, creating pattern from the information, benchmark, etc.

2. Red Hat; a Red Hat people tends to focus on the intuition, gut reaction and emotion; Hence if a project manager would like to discuss with them, try to emphasize and bring the emotional on the table such as what will be the customer experience if this features/services will be available in the market, what you feel about this project, etc. Remember this Red Hat people are the opposite of White Hat people.

3. Black Hat; a Black Hat people tends to become more careful, judgment, critical, logical, cautious and risk assessment; Hence if a project manager would like to discuss with them, try have more concern on caution and careful. Bring on the table the risks, dangers, obstacles, potential problems and downside of the problem/suggestion/ etc.

4. Yellow Hat; a Yellow Hat people tends to share optimism, positive thinking and constructive; Hence if a project managers would like to discuss with them, treat them as a partner or as a mentor to support and provide optimism and positive atmosphere so s/he can help you to be constructive accordingly. Remember this Yellow Hat people are the opposite of Black Hat people

5. Green Hat; a Green Hat people tend to have creative thinking, suggestions, ideas, proposal, and alternatives; Hence if project manager would like to discuss with the them; use them as source to find the solution as they are full of idea and sometimes comes up with the out-of-the-box thinking which may useful to solve the problem.

6. Blue Hat; a Blue Hat people tend to have organization of thinking and control the other hats; hence if project manager would like to discuss with them is better in the form of escalation that includes summaries, overviews and conclusion so the blue hat people can decide accordingly.

Cheers.

Managing Project Stress - Five tips to manage it

2011-07-28T12:46:00.000+07:00

Managing Project Stress - Five tips to manage it

1. Accept the stress; It is a must attitude to manage the stress, be in at project, work or anywhere else is to ACCEPT it. By accepting it, not denying it, the stress becoming sort of reality instead of un-reality. Then start applying following points in mind.

2. List the stress; to make the stress becomes sort of real; you must be able to list down of the stress. If you are not be able to list the stress, you could also make it a list of things that make you worry, as the source of the stress, obviously, is worry. E.g. in the project to many task and because of it, project manager, in this case you, is having stress. The benefit of list the stress, it, some how, will relief the burden out of the chess. To make your list is not growing, you should start practicing to say ‘No’ smartly.

3. Work out the stress; upon finishing of stress list then you can start workout the stress by planning on how you are going to over-come it. E.g. after you have the task list, you can start putting the timetable and action item to finish it.

4. Observe the stress; this activity is important as it will act as a review checker whether the stress list if correct or not. Correct means you stress level is gone or at least lower and not correct means you are not having a genuine stress list then you need to repeat step 1-3 again.

5. Divert the stress; we need to balance between project (work) and life, during office hours if you feel stress, it is beneficial to divert the stress by doing something else, some companies that have installed games box such as Wii, Xbox or playing table tennis, massage chairs, chill out zone etc. which are pretty effective for project manager to breakaway from work temporary during office hours. After office hours, catching up with friends over a cup of coffee or dinner or devotes his weekends into fun stuff such gardening, cycling, jogging, reading, etc; which is also a good way to shift yourself away from work. In summary anything that requires your immediate focus and full commitment will turn out to be a good activities for you to breakaway from your working routine and unwind.

These tips are actually generic and it can be applied to manage the stress for other areas.

Cheers.

How to gather requirement from user that has no time

2011-07-27T10:23:00.000+07:00

One of the common activities in the project management is gathering the requirement. Gathering requirement is crucial milestone in the project that will drive time/schedule, cost, and surely scope. So it is very important to pass this milestone successfully.

During gathering the requirement, sometimes as a project manager, it will face difficult to gather it if the user has no time for discussion.

Few tips that will help to overcome such situation as below:

1. Ready-made template with relevant content; it is essential to have ready-made template, e.g. in sheet format or table with relevant content between the requirement and the user. By having this template, it will save a lot of time for the discussion.

2. Request other person that has been authorized by the user to have several round of discussion with him/her so we can convey to the user that we only discuss with him/her the thing that needs his/her decision

3. Prepare clear agenda and duration so the user that has no time can see clearly the result of the discussion as people sometimes say has no-time because s/he think the meeting has no clear agenda. It is essential to link the agenda to overall project scope and time so the user can see how important to discuss and get the requirement

4. If the entire above items has been performed and convey to the user and yet the user still says no time, it means escalation is required. During the escalation it is very important to explain that all preparation has been performed hence it is required for an escalation. Sometimes, some users may have different priorities or agendas and by having escalation and normally internal escalation within user organization will help to align the priorities and agendas of the user

Cheers.

Six Thinking Hats - Tools for Project Management

2011-07-26T13:02:00.000+07:00

As a practical project manager, we will face the problem as our daily bread. One of the technique to understand and solve the problem is using De Bono's 6 Thinking Hat.

In summary as below :
1. White Hat - facts, figures, and information
2. Red Hat - the opposite of White Hat - feeling, emotion intuition, and sentiment
3. Black Hat - judgement, careful, logical, critical and cautious
4. Yellow Hat - the opposite of Black Hat - optimism, positive thinking and constructive
5. Green Hat - creative thinking, suggestions, alternatives, ideas, proposals
6. Blue Hat - organzation of thingking, control of the other hats, act as a referee

With this technique as a practical project manager, we can use the hat at one time and be able to see the problem in the same perspective. So, as stated in De Bono's 6 Thinking Hat, it would has power to fully utilized the intelligence, experience, and knowledge of the group and everyone is on the same page to find the solution. It also will save the meeting time, remove all Ego and as a result clear thinking.

To get more detail explanation please go to Project Shrink Web Site that explain this technique in more detail Project Shrink - Six Thinking Hats and Project Management and also we can get presentation from De Bono for better understanding.

Good luck with your Hats.

Problem Solving Tools - Good Guide for Practical PM

2011-07-25T11:37:00.000+07:00

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TMC.htmBeing Practical PM, problem solving is 'the daily bread' for project manager; having a good problem solving tools is good start with. Here's the link from Mind Tool website for Problem Solving Skills

Cheers

Positive Thinking - PM must Attitude

2011-07-25T11:29:00.000+07:00

Being practical project manager, it is essential to master how to harness positive thinking. Here's below the good article from Mind Tools website Using Affirmations - Harnessing Positive Thingking

Cheers.

Onion Peeling Technique - Tip for Troubleshooting Methodolgy

2011-07-21T10:48:00.000+07:00

Onion Peeling Technique

Let’s learn from the peeling of Onion.

“Proceed peeling away onion layers. As you proceed to the center of the onion, they will go from dark, papery sheaves to lighter colored, more flexible pieces. Continue in this manner until you reach a somewhat sticky film on the light colored onion. This is the last layer that you need to remove. You can rub at the edges or get under this layer with the edge of your knife in order to get a hand- hold. Peel this final layer away from the onion and your onion is ready for use”.

This onion peeling technique is very good for troubleshooting. Every projects has challenges, issues, defects, problems, you name it. However, as project manager, we need to see what are the real challenges, issues, defects, and problems in the genuine form, as usually some of them will represent tip of iceberg.

The Onion peeling technique can manifest by asking smart questions several times, discussion with team member several times, looking at the patterns periodically, observing the graph from time to time; bottom line we need to find the final layer, the genuine problem and as we all very well aware, finding the genuine problem is already 50% of the solution.

So let’s peel the onion however for project management, one no needs to cry J.

Good luck

Free PM Forum

2011-07-20T12:08:00.000+07:00

Below is the list of Free PM Forum

1. Allpm
Note: Links to forums below require you to sign up for free membership. Active forum subjects include:

allPM.com also offers a PMs for hire section in which you can post your resume by country, continent or region

2. Gantthead - The Onine Community for IT Project Managers

Being an IT Project Manager can be a lonely job. You are responsible for a project that business people in your organization care a lot about. Someone may have over-committed you, and is now asking you why you're not done yet. You and your staff are working together to find solutions as best you can - but within your organization there is no one you can lean on for the answers you need.

No one is doing exactly what you are doing now within your company. This is why we built gantthead. Our mission is simple: To make IT project managers more successful.

gantthead is the experience bridge that fills in the gaps - providing help to project managers in a number of ways. It is a community, your community, for IT project managers.

Connections - to others who are managing projects like yours
A place to get started - processes that you can customize for your needs
Instant productivity boosts - deliverable templates & examples
Access to experts - real people who understand what you are going through
News that matters - stories that relate to what you are trying to accomplish
Advice you need - tips on the art of managing your effort
'Just-in-time' Consulting - Providing services ranging from answering questions, reviewing deliverables, and participating in meetings remotely. These services can be an hour on the phone with an expert or live consulting on your site, whichever is best for you.

So, please take a look around. Grab whatever you need - that's why we're here. If you don't find what you are looking for, drop us a line. We think you'll be surprised by our response.

3. Program Management Knowledge Base
A Dedicated PM forum and lots of thread inside

Your Next Step

I encourage you right now to visit and join one of these forums. See if you can check in at least weekly. When the time comes for you to get assistance, you’ll know exactly who to ask.

Cheers

Free Materials/Tools for Practical PM

2011-07-20T11:51:00.000+07:00

Free Project Management Book

Free Project Management Tutor

Free Simple Project Management Tool

Grindstone

Dolphinity Organiser

TaskMerlin

Veedid Desktop To Do List Free Edition

Commonly Mistakes in the Project Management

2011-07-19T11:27:00.001+07:00

There are many mistakes in the project management however being a practical project management, we need to be able to summarize it so it will be easier to remember and manage it.

Here’s are the commonly mistakes in the project management:

· Lack of follow up action. The key message of follow up is CLOSE. It is crucial for project manager to follow up issues/action items and close it properly. The tip is every meeting makes Minutes of Meeting (MoM) and include follow up of action items/issues with the resolution date and have a discipline to follow it up, do not leave anything.

· Late escalation. The key message of escalation is TIMELY MANNER. It is crucial as a project manager that s/he needs to escalate in the timely manner. This escalation is the result of follow up that requires higher intervention. Remember there is nothing wrong with escalation however as a project manager, s/he needs to escalate to right time and the right people.

So now let’s apply this into project management role (on time, on budget and in scope). E.g. one of issues that comes out from project meeting that there is one requirement is still not clear whether it is in scope or not. As a project manager, s/he needs to follow this up until it is clear or not by reviewing the requirement specification or have subsequent meeting, the follow up can take in any form of activity so we can see here follow up is crucial activity. Let’s take sample that the result of the follow is confirmed that the requirement is out of scope and user confirm it is required for them. So this situation trigger as escalation to the higher management because it may impact time and budget since the project have more requirement than before. With timely manner escalation, a project manager can get approval or not for budget and time and s/he can inform the user or other project stakeholder about the result accordingly.

Remember, on time does not mean the project runs as per original schedule there always be a situation that the project may runs longer than the original. However, with proper follow up and escalation such deviation is acceptable because it is communicate properly amongst project stakeholder and surely need to be approved. This also applies for other such as on budget and in scope point of view.

So be focus on follow up and escalate properly.

Find the Kingpin

2011-07-19T10:03:00.000+07:00

In the bowling game, Kingpin is the pin at the centre of the triangle of bowling pins and the player hit that pin precisely, it will make the Kingpin and the rest of the pin falls done and get maximum score!

In the project management, there is also a Kingpin whereby as a project manager it crucial to find him/her and use it as a Kingpin. By having Kingpin, the project manager will have better project management.

The Kingpin exists in all level, be it managerial and non-managerial. Obviously in managerial, the ultimate Kingpin is the Project Director or maybe even CEO or CTO or CIO whoever in the highest ranking in the project structure.

The challenge is to find the kingpin in non-managerial level such as project leader, tester, developer, etc. It takes several iterations to find the real kingpin just like in bowling, it requires several strikes to hit it and once it is hit the rest will fall.

Simple hint to find the Kingpin: observe, test few times with real case, find, and use it.

So let’s find the Kingpin!

Coffee Time

2011-07-19T09:09:00.001+07:00

For project management, there is two type of meeting, which is formal meeting and informal meeting. Formal meeting normally such as periodic project meeting, Steering Committee Meeting, etc. The interesting one, during the project, we have also informal meeting, let’s call it “Coffee Time”.

Coffee time is very useful media to interact, communicate, discuss, debate to find solution, conclusion, alternative, comprise that makes project runs smoother. During Coffee time, people tends to relax, loosen up, easy to communicate with, laughable and in that moment as a project manager, we can use it to know more about project team member, their interest, hobbies, make joke out of problem, discuss problems/challenges, solutions, literally anything and that is crucial to make more bonding amongst project team members.

Coffee time does not merely have to be in the coffee shop and drinking a cup a coffee. Coffee time is just symbolic moment that as a project manager can use it, in non-formal mode, to discuss anything to make more bonding amongst project member so the project can runs smoother.

Have a good Coffee Time!

Forrest vs Tree - View Mode

2011-07-18T12:08:00.000+07:00

Many times during the project as project manager, we need to have capability when we need to see 'Forest' or 'Trees'. In project management perspective, Forrest means a project manager sees the project in the global or high-level view. Trees means a project manager sees the project in the detail / meticulous view. Both views are required. Now the question when is the best time to see project in the Forest mode and when is the best time to see the project in the Trees mode.

Sample below will provide clear picture how to use both. In one of implementation time there always be testing period. The critical testing period is the period when user test the system/solution based on user experience, normally it called UAT. UAT has specific period and it is pre-requisites for Go-Live without UAT and approval from user, the system can not Go-Live.

In the Forest mode, a project manager needs to see the progress of UAT periodically to see whether it is on schedule or not (remember project management role), however in Tree mode, a project manager need to see detail project for each subject are of the UAT, say UAT has 8 subjects area. In Tree mode, a project manager need to see the progress accordingly, say using graphical format.

If there is one or more slow progress in the subject area of the UAT, a project manager can easily track that one and can act in the timely manner to solve the slowness of the progress and make the overall UAT schedule back on track.

So as a project manager, we have Forrest and Tree view-mode hence use it wisely.

Project Management Role

2011-07-18T11:06:00.000+07:00

Dear Project Managers
Let me summarize of what exactly the role of project manager and since this blog is dedicated for practical project management so it should be simple and easy to remember. The role is as simple as 1,2,3, as following:
1. Project runs on schedule
2. Project runs on budget
3. Project runs in scope

So everytime you run a project always remember this : on schedule, on budget, and in scope.

Cheers.