Good Lesson !!! :-)

One of my colleagues sent this to me today.. Though we cant stick to the rule... Its a good lesson I should say :-))

If you want to look out for opportunities to work in a PMO

Its nice to hear there are many good and established companies looking for Head of Project Managers and concept of Project Management offices in order to get their multiple projects on track.

Last Sunday Observer there was an add from a reputed Software company for a Head of Project Managers and Im sure its going to be a quite challenging and interesting Opportunity. Other than that lately I got many requests from some reputed Tele communication companies for the position of Project Management Officer ( They called it ) ..

Quite Nice to see that organizations are getting more focused on Project Management .. instead of that stupid attitude of remote controlling project managers like toys by some functional managers or top management who has no idea what Project Management is ..(these guys love Project failiures.. and they deserve it.. You cant help that.....). But I hope these comapnies will set up real PMOs which really deliver results instead of just name sake PMOs

Any Idea of Project Governance? Any body knows any Sri Lankan Company who has implemented that ? I have few friends in US and Canada who worked for such projects ( Very large scale projects for Governments and Banks)and seems its quite interesting…

Apprentice and Project Management....

Quite a lot to write about though I don’t have time right now..:-) I’m really enjoying the show… Sri Lankans can watch it through STAR channel at 9.PM

One inch away from Project Management

Once you finish the project and complete the project closure you are very happy.. Specially when its marked as a successful project.. You are on Budget .. Within the time.. Quality standards are met and great teamwork.. Everybody talks about you.. WOW What a Project Manager…..!!! You celebrate with your team.. Awards from the management and customers.. Big launch to go live … Its like Christmas…

Your duty is over.. But the system should run.. everyday.. it needs care.. So who is going to do that? It’s the poor “maintenance team”… After going through many large scale projects.. Over and over its proven to me that this maintenance of a delivered project is a critical problem.. When you don’t do proper maintenance there can be amny frustrating issues in the system and the users loose faith on the system.. so they decide to kill it and install a new system and the cycle continues…

I have observed many reasons which causes these maintenance problems..

1. Huge knowledge gap between Development team and Maintenance team
2. Customers are reluctant to spend much on maintenance and they think when the system is delivered that’s it. Most of them see the maintenance fee is as a waste till there is a real problem
3. Allocating less time for user training than required due to budgetary issues.
4. Loosing trained people in the long run. The new people have no idea about certain “Underhand” techniques and assumptions done by previous guys
5. Loosing Management interest
6. Software companies always hire low caliber , cheaper resources for maintenance teams than the resources they hire for development teams
7. Lack of Project office involvement at Maintenance phase
8. Some times customers decide that they will maintain the system by themselves without getting support from the vendor. But in the long run they realize that its impossible for them to do and at that time the whole system is in a mess.
9. Incomplete documentation of the system.
10. Assumptions made in the initial stage are no more valid and forgotten by all the parties.
11. Politics ( if the New IT manager joins , sometimes he will stress the senior management even about minor issues of the current system and he will try to initiate a new project under his full control.
12. Remote support – Some times when you have support teams remotely, the time to solve takes quite longer times. And it needs more time to communicate the problems clearly and simulate the problems in another location. Then apply them in the live version is another hectic task.
13. No proper management and methodologies practiced during System maintenance.
14. Lack of Local support and support is always needed from overseas parties.
15. Misunderstandings between support parties and customers

These are few of the points which I have seen occurring in many systems time to time.. This is a serious issue to think about.. Once you complete the project and wrap up, your job is finished as PM.. But then…….

Some Experience…

Time to time something happens to me to deviate from my topic Project Management. Today I experienced something which I have never experienced in my life before..

There is a sub power plant 4-5 houses away from my home. Around 2AM today morning there was a huge noise of a blast and our house vibrated for a moment and electricity went off. I couldn’t realize what was happening. But I have experienced bomb blasts before and I thought it must be one.. But never faced it this closer before.. I was wondering where it could be... …And then one of our neighbor friends called and said his house ceiling is damaged due to vibration and definitely it should be a bomb. So there was no power till the morning. No TV No news to check what it was..

Early morning I heard from our caretaker that the blast has taken place in the power plant closer to home. He has got to know from somebody around the area. Any way I had to get in to the office on time due to a meeting scheduled with an important customer.. But when I came out of the house only I realized that the road is closed and I had to take a different route to the main road. How ever due to my delay I couldn’t make it to the meeting

Till Morning they didn’t confirm it’s a LTTE terrorist attack and investigations were going on. But I saw in a web site just now., that its confirmed as a LTTE attack.

Its very sad that these incidence happen frequently which really disturb civilians lives. Lately there were bombs in 2 buses and lots of innocent civilians died.

So no matter from which part of the world they are.. Terrorism is bad.. Stop Funding Terrorism.. Directly or indirectly….Because tomorrow they can take your loved ones away from you…

If you have been falsely accused ????

Yeah it’s really a bad feeling..You will ask yourself 1000 time.. have I done something wrong… ? I was accused by somebody for using his site feed for projectized.org blogrol saying Im using his content for commercial use with no permission. so far Projectized.org is not used for any commercial use., and I do not even have one single advertisement there.. its mainly a free Project Management blogrol with so much more nice plans..

I never ever thought somebody will go against it .. as it gives so much benefits to the contributors .. It definitely bring more readers to those blogs. Intact The person who accused me for using his blog for commercial purpose has attached his site license policy in his email. That clearly says ,

“ You are free:

• to Share -- to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work
• to Remix -- to make derivative works

Under the following conditions:

· Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. “

I can think why he thought that this is a commercial site.. I had a problem with the blogroll to display only a part of the post in the blogroll. I’m using wordpress and I had some technical problems with Summary Option. So the whole post is displayed some times.. In Dina’s Controlling Chaos blog, she has put the PM Prepcast advertisement in the body of her content.. so that comes automatically to projectized.org. (Im just trying to fix this problem ASAP.)That’s the only explanation which I can think as the base for this complain. Any way very big thank to other contributors who decided to stay with projectized.org without getting mislead by some false comments..

Free Scrum tool - Great

This is really a great tool for Scrum. I just went through the features and its quite good. Thanks to my colleague who sent me this link.

http://danube.com/sw_flash/SWB_Demo.html

But ….remember. Tools will not manage your projects.. Its you who should manage the project.. These are just “ Tools” and that’s why they are called “ Tools” when all the methodologies and tools are failed.. its you who make the project a success…

I have come across with many project managers who just spend their whole time to manage the tool instead of the project. Having the best hammer in the world doesn’t make you a good carpenter or having the best cricket bat in the world doesn’t make you a good cricketer. Coz they are tools to help you to perform your tasks. That’s you who make it happen…

Google Project Managers Search.

I have created a Google Project Management Search. I will be linking it to this blog and many other Project Management sites in the future so that readers of this blog ( Ofcouse Project Managers and Potential Project Managers ) can get more targeted /specific results instead wasting time to go through hundreds of unrelated sites.

If you have a blog or Project Management site, or any other related resource, Please send them to me.( thush.ksnz@gmail.com), It will help for me to build the Searcher better and your site will be listed in my Google “Project Managers Search”.

Check this cool thing at http://search.projectized.org

Following sites are already fed in to the searcher..

agilemanagement.net

controllingchaos.com

pmbits.blogspot.com

projectnumbers.com

projectmanagementblog.com

projectized.blogspot.com

reformingprojectmanagement.com

thepmpodcast.com

aboutpmos.blogspot.com

Im sure you will contribute to this.. Its really helpful for all of us.

Help !

Lately I noticed that my blog has been taken out from Kottu blog roll.( It’s a Sri Lankan Blog roll.. the most happening one I should say…. ) The reason has been that my blog is too technical for the audience.. But upon my request, Indi was kind enough to add it again.. So Im writing this none technical post to be fair for them…

(I love to make excuses….)

To be very frank, I couldn’t find time to write anything new.. So busy at work with projects and busy at home with my research work. I found another very helpful person for my research. He has gathered lots of research data already for his research in Software Implementation problems in Sri Lanka… Somebody very helpful ( I have always been lucky with helpful people.. I don’t know why .. ) he went out of his way to introduce my research to his doctor too..

So why not me helping others.. today one of my colleagues said that he wants to follow the same path as me. He wants to do a Mphil and then he wants to convert his research to a PHD. That’s nothing about Project management. his research interest is "High performance content oriented middleware for gaming and multimedia". Im sure he will register for Mphil with no much problem as he has an IT degree with a first class.. So I just asked my doctor at UCSC for some help for him.. Im sure he will help him too…

Think.. its all about helping each other. When you see an opportunity
to help somebody,,, don’t ever think twice….
Do it..  That’s the real path to be a successful person. 

Do we really practice what we preach?

Yes Project Management is all about better communication and being aware of what’s happening in your project and what’s happening around you.. If you dont... you will face the consequences badly...

There is very unfortunate incident happened with one of my colleagues who is going to sit for the PMP exam this time. No offence please.. Whole objective of this post is to pass this message to other people who will be sitting for PMP, Organizing PMP or any other exams in the future.

In Sri Lanka , we don’t have online PMP exams yet. So its paper based exam. We don’t even have exams every year. So its very important to get your registration process right for the exam you are preparing for,. If you miss that, you will have to wait a long time period for another exam or go to another country to sit for online exam.

Ok…. coming back to this incident. My colleague went for preparation classes held at Singapore Informatics. Upon completion, he submitted his application for the upcoming November exam. According to him, he was advised from the chapter that the closing date is on 20^th Oct. So he has submitted the application on 18^th Oct.

PMI has accepted his application form and informed him to pay online., As its paper based exam he had to enter the “ Testing Group No” which is issued by PMI., When he entered the number, he found out that the Number is invalid and he is too late in his application submission;

This has happened to many students who have been in this batch. It’s very sad that they have no chance to sit for the exam though they have submitted the application before 20^th.

I just called PMI customer care behalf of my colleague, whom we sent for the course though our project office;

The support executive’s answer was;

1. We have clearly instructed your Local chapter to inform students that they need the payments to be processed before 20^th. ( Not the application Submission )
2. The Student guide book clearly says the instructions.. ( I just checked the student guide book and it only says it takes 5 days to process the payment . It doesn’t talk about the application submission date and deadlines.)

Then I called the SL exam coordinator in the local chapter and his answer was that he has informed all the students by email that the application submission (???) should be completed before 20^th. (Unfortunately many people have not got that email)

So isn’t this all about effective communication?

May be Im wrong.. But what I think is that,

1. As the exam coordinator, If I knew the 20^th deadline is for processing payment and not for the application submission., , I could have informed the students that the deadline for application submission is on Oct 14^{th .} .. or so., So I’m sure that they will do the submission on time .. Even if they do it on last date, still they have time to process the payment before PMI deadline.

2. When you define a deadline., it should clearly specify whether the deadline is for application submission or payment processing. ( for PMP the payment can be made only after the institute approve your application)

3. As the certified institute. Singapore Informatics should also take part of the responsibility. They should have created a student contact base at the time of registration and should provide it to the chapter or exam coordinator for communication.

4. Students should be more participative.. ( Comm…ooo…n you guys are Project Managers… ) They should have the responsibility to confirm what they hear and double confirm it… (Won’t we do that all the time as PMs ??? )

So I think now it’s the part of Damage Control .. If PMI SL chapter can appeal PMI to consider this as an exception and allow the people (who have submitted the application forms before 20^th ) to do the exam.. I think that’s the best…

When I sat for my PMP exam.. 5 students didn’t have admission including myself. But My lecturer who was the former chapter CEO ( Ms. Madhu Fernando ) and the former course director ( Chandana) did everything what they could do for us to sit for the exam. Finally they managed to get permission for us to sit for the exam…Still Im so thankful to them for going that extra mile for us... I’m sure the current board will also do their best for these students….

End of Story.. It proves how important it is to communicate effectively, accurately and efficiently..

Preparing for PMP?

I hear that SL is going to have another PMP exam very soon.. Today I got to know about this POSDCAST which helps PMP candidates to prepare themselves for the exam..

There is something what I always keep in my mind…
“When the exam is closer , 1 minute is 1 mark for you….
This keeps me focused on my subject matters and studies.. Im afraid to waste time when the exam is closer.. As much as I waste time without studying.. I will be loosing marks…

So isn’t this very cool.. Now you can be prepared for the PMP exam while traveling to office or home.. Or when you are at the Gym.. or where ever you carry your iPod.. Isnt that cool…???

SEARCC Conference 2006 – Research paper Presentations

Research Paper presentations were held on 12th and 13th of October., But due to heavy office work, I managed to participate only on 13th. I will be presenting a paper hopefully by next year so it was very important for me to get a real look and feel of Research Paper defense and how it is done by other researchers.

I expected many Research Degree level Papers , But on 13th , the most of the paper presentations were done by undergraduate students except one PHD candidate from India and another one (MBA) from Moratuwa University. May be I have missed the most important part on 12th.
But, I must say that most of the research paper presentations were really good . It was hard to believe that some of the research papers were done by undergraduate students.

One Researcher who presented the paper on Secure Cheque Payment protocol had few concerns and had some conflicting areas in her concept. It’s better if she could have run that paper through some of the industry experts before presenting it. ( Ok I went to learn by other peoples mistakes :-) ….. ) Still I’m thinking of that paper and seems she has missedout some concepts of bank transferring and already available alternatives and technical concerns. But again for the undergraduate level, its good… More than anything her presentation skills were cool and she knew how to escape from difficult situations at the time of the defense. Hats off to her for that talent!!!

Some other Research papers such as Inventing a fire robot, Graphic algos, email security ….were presented.,
Out of all these the most important one for me was the Implementation failure research paper presented by Dinesh Asanka as its more related to my research area.
Overall it was a useful day......
One of my colleagues who went to see the exhibition said that, quality of the exhibition reduces every year ......drastically.. But I can’t comment on that as I couldn’t see the exhibition.

BIT Project Management Vs. PMP.

Last few days I went through almost all the PM past papers of BIT ( Bachelor of Information Technology – External) in order to make me understand what UCSC ( University of Colombo School of Computing ) will expect out of a student studying for Project Management.

I saw many similarities and differences between BIT PM paper and PMP exam papers. I think its worth to write some comments on that., so this post will help a student who wish to sit for PMP exams in the future.

First of all., PMP is totally a MCQ paper ( Don’t think its easy.. Its not) while BIT is totally a written paper., BIT PM knowledge areas are centered around Summerville’s Software Engineering Book as far as PMP exam questions are based on PMBOK guide.

How ever, I see major improvements on BIT PM exam papers over the years., 2005 Paper had many improvements and it covered many practical aspects of Project Management than its previous year papers.

When you look at the main difference., More than Anything .. BIT PM paper is only based on Software Project Management.( Ofcourse its an IT degree), But PMP is generally “ Project Management” which can be applied across the industries.

When you look at the syllabus., BIT PM Syllabus addresses all the Knowledge areas listed in PMBOK.

Except to PMBOK knowledge areas, BIT PM expect you to know the Software Development models and Software Configuration Management in detail.

When you consider individual questions, BIT PM expect you to have a wide knowledge and understanding of concepts in each knowledge area., As an Example., you need to know what EVM calculations are., how they can be used in a project., and what do they mean., But in PMP, you need very detailed knowledge in application of EVM formulas., sometimes you get very tricky questions to calculate values. BIT PM does not expect you to calculate the values using formulas ( At least up to this year).

I find cost management is quite different too.. BIT –PMs favorite costing model is COCOMO model and you need to know all the equations to calculate COCOMO model in your projects., I noticed that almost every year there is a question in BIT PM papers based on COCOMO. ( Do we ever use this method to calculate cost in our real Projects??? I have never..) For PMP., they do not expect you to know those models in details in order to answer questions., But you have to have a very clear idea of different techniques which can be used for project costing and pluses and minuses of each of these techniques.

Time Management , Risk Management and Quality management are almost same in both, But in Quality Management, BIT expect you to have a very detailed understanding of ISO900 Process. PMP consider it as just another quality standard.

Which I couldn’t understand in BIT PM paper is that questions regarding MS Project tool. Its just a another tool which helps project managers., But I found few BIT questions which goes in to detailed features of MS Project Software.. Its bit puzzling…

BIT PM does not touch any specific agile methods or any process driven PM methods., neither it talks about PMO concept in organizations.

Overall BIT PM is a very good start and a base for a student who expect to sit for PMP exams in the future.

How to understand your Project Manager

One of my colleaques sent this funny email today about Project Managers Vocabulary :-)

Enjoy…..

This is how you should listen to your PM :-)………

LETS USE AGILE FOR THIS PROJECT

We are so scared to commit on deadlines and we have no experience in planning a project properly.

CLOSE PROJECT MONITORING
We know who to blame.

I WANT TO BE A PMP
Fastest way for me to look like a PM

I AM A PMP

Though I don’t know to write one line of code, I can sit damn 4 hours in one place

A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES ARE BEING TRIED
We are still pissing in the wind.

EXTENSIVE REPORT IS BEING PREPARED ON A FRESH APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
I just hired three kids fresh out of college.

MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH
It works OK, but looks very hitech.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IS DELIVERED ASSURED
We are so far behind schedule.. the customer is happy to get it delivered.

PRELIMINARY OPERATIONAL TESTS WERE INCONCLUSIVE
The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch

TEST RESULTS WERE EXTREMELY GRATIFYING

Me and my team is so surprised that the stupid thing works.

THE ENTIRE CONCEPT WILL HAVE TO BE ABANDONED
The only person in the team who understood the thing quit.

WEEKLY REPORT
I can get all of you responsible for unseen problems in this project.


IT IS IN THE PROCESS
It is so wrapped up in red tape that the situation is about hopeless.

I WILL LOOK INTO IT
Forget it! I have enough problems for now…

PLEASE NOTE AND INITIAL
Let's spread the responsibility for the project screw up.

GIVE US THE BENEFIT OF YOUR THINKING
We'll listen to what you have to say as long as it doesn't interfere with what I've already done.

GIVE US YOUR INTERPRETATION
I can't wait to hear this bull!

SEE ME or LET'S DISCUSS
Come into my office, I'm lonely.

ALL NEW
Parts not interchangeable with the previous design.

RUGGED
The devise we manufactured is too damn heavy to lift!

YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT
One finally worked.

LOW MAINTENANCE
Impossible to fix problems and customer will have to pay for re-writing the whole applciation

some interesting stuff

It’s a great day today.. Last few weeks I couldn’t write anything important. Today when I checked my blog.. there are 2 new comments in my blog with links to 2 interesting blogs.. I was so happy to read them..

First one…

How to manage a camel :-). It’s a Project Management Blog.. Still couldn’t figure out who is the camel in a project :-) Seems an interesting blog and I will read it bit later for sure… ( I know Im heading for disaster.. hey team.. I didn’t mean that you guys are camels!&^#@^)

Second one..

Very nice Scrum Blog and the author of the blog is a Scrum Master… Im sure that’s a very informative blog too..

Thanks guys.. for networking…

The most interesting news is that.., PM Podcast is celebrating it 1^st Year Birthday.. I really cant believe doing a podcast every week.. continuously for 1 year.. Its such a lot of work…That’s a real great podcast .. Its doesn’t give only knowledge. Believe me… it really helps Networking PMs all around the world… Thanks Cornelius for Great Work and.....

Happy B’ Day PM Podcast and I wish all the success…

Are you in the right place?

Today, One of my colleagues sent me a funny mail.. But this has something to think about…..

Are you in a place where you can really use your talents? Or do you feel the same like this baby camel in this story.??. Think….

Moral of the Story ???

But in the same time., I have seen people who use their talents to the fullest potential no matter where they are..