Tuesday, May 30, 2006

PMO Objectives - 1

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We talk a lot about setting up a PMO and running the PMO. Have we ever realized that the expectation of a Project Office is vary from organization to organization?

Some Organization try to depend on PMO for all the responsibilities of Project Management while some other organizations expect PMO to operate as a reporting center.

When you are not clear with the expectations of PMO of your organization, what happens is that after some time, you will face lots of problems and its very frustrating. Before you star the project office, understand the organization culture, management and find out why your Organization needs a Project Office.

Is it only because other companies have project offices and you don’t have it? or do you have clear expectations out of a Project office?

If you need the management buy-in to initiate a PMO , 1st what you should do is , you got to study the day to day project issues of your organization., You got to analyze the Project failures. How many projects had cost overruns and Schedule overruns? How many p[projects were neglected due to lack of management interests? Analyze the capabilities of your Project Managers. Do you have qualified PMs? or one techie in the team mange your projects ?

Once you gather all these information, Build a case, present it to the management. And explain what’s the PMO concept is and how you could overcome the current problems and improve PM activities through PMO and how that affects the “Bottom line” of your organization. Talking about numbers( Even I hate it ..:-)) is very important as you need a so called “Sponsor” for your PMO

List down all the PMO expectations and align them with your organization goals. Create your Mission Statement and the objectives list., Define roles of your PMO and define responsibilities. You can start a “big” Project Management Office at once which handles all the project activities or you can start small. See how many PMs you need to meet the expectations. Do you have them internally or do you have to recruit them? How to improve their knowledge.?. Plan it and Cost it. Its ok to go through text books to get some guidelines to form a PMO ., But be practical. You need to get that knowledge, But apply your common sense.. That’s the key.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Jokes are So real

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Some times Jokes are So real :) But still we call them Jokes.. this is one example … (Sumudu I copied this from your blog.. Hope you don’t mind…These days I have no much time to write PM stuff.. So this is what I do :-)



Read the Following Case........

Programmer to Team Leader:
"We CAN NOT do this proposed project. It will involve a major design
change and no one in our team knows the design of this system. And
above that, nobody in our company knows the language in which this
application has been written. If you ask my personal opinion, the company should
never take these type of projects."

Team Leader to Project Manager:
"This project will involve a design change. Currently, we don't have
Any staff who has experience in this type of work. Also, the language is
unfamiliar to us, so we will have to arrange for some training if we
take this project. In my personal opinion, we are not ready to take on a
project of this nature."

Project Manager to 1st Level Manager:
"This project involves a design change in the system and we don't have
Much experience in that area. Also, not many people in our company are
appropriately trained for it. In my personal opinion, we would need
more time than usual to complete it."

1st Level Manager to Senior Level Manager:
"This project involves design re-engineering. We have some people who
Have worked in this area and others who know the implementation language. So
they can train other people. In my personal opinion we should take
this project, but with caution."

Senior Level Manager to CEO:
"This project will demonstrate to the industry our capabilities in
remodelling the design of a complete legacy system. We have all the
necessary skills and people to execute this project successfully. Some
people have already given in house training in this area to other
staff members. In my personal opinion, we should not let this project slip
by us under any circumstances."

CEO to Client:
"This is the type of project in which our company specializes. We have
executed many projects of the same nature for many large clients.
Trust me when I say that we are the most competent firm in the industry
For doing this kind of work. It is my personal opinion that we can
Execute this project successfully and well within the given time frame."

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Lost and Found..

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This is not something related to Project Management at all..

I lost my mobile phone some time back.( may be 2months ago ) The last day I used it was when I was at Waters Edge Microsoft Partner Conference. My customers use this number to call me so I was quite upset that I lost it., But I never thought that I lost it there., I thought I have left the phone in my car when I put it to the service center and somebody must have robbed it .I tried to call the number ., but nobody answered. So I had no choice, I was thinking of disconnecting the chip, But as usual I have been postponing this.,

Today, Suddenly , I just thought of calling my Number., And Somebody answered from the other side., I asked his details., but he was not happy to give his details to me., After talking to him for a while ., I got the truth out of him ( I made him scared saying that I will go to Police )

According to him that I have left the phone at Waters Edge Hotel., So this guy’s cousin ( His name is Chanaka) working in the restaurant has found the phone and sold it to him.

I cant believe this., Waters Edge is such a nice hotel with lot of prestige., When a guest misplace something their employees rob it .. is this their employees attitude?

Im going to tackle this with the guy and get my phone back, Or disconnect it .As I promised him I don’t go to police and put him in trouble.. I’m so sad that the guys working there are such people., I don’t know whether I should complain this to the Hotel Management.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Consolidations in the BI industry (Out of Topic - But interesting)

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Microsoft acquires ProClarity

On April 3, 2006, Microsoft announced that it had agreed to acquire the privately held ProClarity. The price was not disclosed, but we speculate that it was close to or just below $50m, which is lower than ProClarity had been seeking in 2005. Subject to regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close in May 2006. The OLAP Survey 5 found that ProClarity was the most widely used third party front-end for Analysis Services, which may be one of the reasons for this acquisition.

Business Objects acquires SRC

Having previously derided Cognos for diversifying into planning and consolidation applications, Business Objects reversed strategy and followed suit by acquiring SRC Software. The purchase agreement was announced on July 20, 2005, and the price is $100m cash. This is a high price to pay for a company with revenues of only about $26.5m in 2004 and 135 employees, though SRC’s 2005 run rate was probably closer to $35m. Business Objects expects to take a $5m charge on the conclusion of the deal.

PwC divests Cartesis

PwC has divested Cartesis, the French consolidation system vendor, to a venture capital consortium led by Apax Partners Funds. This move was forced by the Sarbanes-Oxley rules which were preventing corporations audited by PwC from doing business with Cartesis. The other members of the consortium are Advent Venture Partners, CDP Capital Technology Ventures and Partech International. The price was not disclosed. The effect of Sarbanes-Oxley had been hurting Cartesis for some time, so it was widely rumored for months that PwC had put it up for sale.

Business Objects buys Crystal Decisions for $1.2bn

In the largest BI consolidation so far, Business Objects announced on July 18 2003 that it was to buy its fast growing competitor, Crystal Decisions, for approximately $820m, based on the July 17 BOBJ closing stock price ($300m in cash and 26.5m BOBJ shares). The deal eventually closed on December 11, and the rise of the BOBJ stock price since July raised the net value of the deal to $1.2bn, by far the largest BI acquisition to date.

Hyperion Solutions buys Brio

As part of the consolidation rush in the BI industry, Hyperion Solutions announced on July 23 that it was to buy the fading Brio Software. The deal closed in mid-October.

Brio had been struggling for some time and was unable to compete against Business Objects, Cognos, Crystal and MicroStrategy so it is no surprise to see it being acquired. Hyperion had often been rumored as the buyer, so this is also no surprise. Hyperion is paying approximately $142m in another mixed cash/stock deal. The shrinking, loss-making Brio had revenues of $101.8m in the year to June 2003.

Geac buys Comshare

The Canadian ERP vendor Geac announced on June 23, 2003 that it was buying Comshare, for $52m in cash. The deal closed in mid August.

Comshare, the longest established BI vendor, was formed in 1966 and had revenues of $58.3m in the year ending March 2003. Geac is buying Comshare for its MPC product, the development and marketing of which will continue under the new ownership. However, the tarnished Comshare brand is expected to be dropped soon.

Cognos buys Adaytum

Cognos announced on December 19, 2002, that it was acquiring Adaytum Software, and the transaction closed on 13 January 2003. The final consideration was $157.1m, slightly lower than the $160m initially announced. Cognos views this as a business, not just a technology acquisition, and hopes to maintain Adaytum’s high growth rate, using Adaytum’s existing sales and marketing machine. It views this as justifying the high price paid — the technology alone would not be so valuable to Cognos, which already had products that overlapped all of Adaytum’s.

You can view the full report from http://olapreport.com

Monday, May 22, 2006

Something Stupid

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Im just concerned with the Keele University MSC which I have selected., It’s a General IT MSC and I don’t know whether I will be wasting my money and time with that., So far it doesn’t look very impressive to me., So I was thinking why wont I study for a PHD in Project Management., Which seems quite interesting with my Project Craziness.

So I consulted Google today to get some info., I found 2 Universities , One is NUS – Singapore and the other is an Australian University which offers PHD in Project Management., I don’t know whether I can do it from here., But any way I just sent them some queries. Nothing to loose.

But I know its hell of a work load as there should be mentors, research papers etc. and the bad part is that it takes over 3 ,4 years to complete it seems.. I wish this will be financially affordable too. I will do more research on this., Anybody has any idea how to do a research based degree in Project Management., Please help me with some information.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

PMO Tool Kit (ISBN 0814406637)

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Today I received the book I ordered through Amazon, “Project Management Office Toolkit” A step by step guide to setting up a project Office.

I ordered this book due to some recommendations I saw in PM sites and Blogs., I just went through it roughly ., and Im sorry to say that Im not that impressed with my selection.

The book is written in a simple way and its not boring at all to read., But for a experienced PM there is nothing much new to learn., I have already setup my project office and what I wanted to know was how to improve it., I think in this case this is not the right book I have selected., There are quite lot of templates given with the CD., But Im not impressed with most of the templates either.. Some templates looks very boring..

Im not saying this book is bad., I didn’t read it in detail., I will post my comments about this book again once I go through it in detail. Otherwise its not right. What I say is that this book is good for somebody who is new to set up a project office. In that case this would be ideal. But as I said about the templates … Thinks twice..And improve on it.

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