PM

PM NETWORK

NOVEMBER 2010 VOLUME 24, NUMBER 11

NETWORK
MAKING PROJECT MANAGEMENT INDISPENSABLE FOR BUSINESS RESULTS.®
PMI 2010 PROJECT OF THE YEAR

PMI 2010
PROJECT
OF THE
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF ENERGY HITS ITS
The National Ignition
Facility team, from left:
Scott Samuelson, PMP,

YEAR
Edward Moses, PhD,
NOVEMBER 2010, VOLUME 24, NUMBER 11

Bruno Van Wonterghem,

TARGET TO BUILD THE WORLD’S

PhD, Mary Spaeth and
Ralph Patterson Jr.

LARGEST LASER.

PMN1110 Cover.indd 1 10/14/10 3:22 PM

 PM
PM NETWORK

NOVEMBER 2010 VOLUME 24, NUMBER 11

NETWORK
MAKING PROJECT MANAGEMENT INDISPENSABLE FOR BUSINESS RESULTS.®
PMI 2010 PROJECT OF THE YEAR

PMI 2010
PROJECT
OF THE
THE U.S. DEPARTMENT
OF ENERGY HITS ITS
The National Ignition
Facility team, from left:
Scott Samuelson, PMP,

YEAR
Edward Moses, PhD,
NOVEMBER 2010, VOLUME 24, NUMBER 11

Bruno Van Wonterghem,

TARGET TO BUILD THE WORLD’S

PhD, Mary Spaeth and
Ralph Patterson Jr.

LARGEST LASER.

PMN1110 Cover.indd 1 10/14/10 3:22 PM

 Y

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PMI, the leader in project management knowledge, offers world-class professional development events Project Leadership: A Practical Guide to Communication, 4 Days/
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PMN1110 Cover.indd 2 30
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 Y

SeminarsWorld
®
SeminarsWorld® 2011 Courses
Topic Instructor Duration PDUs

Focused, Relevant, Practical Professional Development “Five Star” Leadership for Project Managers Perry Martini, PhD 4 Days 32

Understanding and Applying the PMBOK Guide® Bradley Malone, PMP 4 Days 28

4 Days/
Power, Influence and Politics in Project Management Vijay Verma, PMP, MBA, P.Eng 25/14
2 Days

Evolve Your PMO to an Enterprise Demand Management Office Kent Crawford, PMP, PMI Fellow 4 Days 25
PMI, the leader in project management knowledge, offers world-class professional development events Project Leadership: A Practical Guide to Communication, 4 Days/
Karen Tate, PMP 28/14
known as SeminarsWorld. These highly regarded courses run two to four days in length and are focused Influence and Collaboration 2 Days
Program Management Simulation:
on a specific project management related topic. Skilled instructors bring the value of their real-world From Strategy to Benefits Delivery
Simulation! Michel Thiry, PMP and Larry Suda 4 Days 28
experiences, plus excellent presentation and training skills. Small class sizes support group interaction and Building & Sustaining the Next Generation PMO & Portfolio
Jack Duggal, PMP, MBA 3 Days 21
Management
individualized learning.
Gary Heerkens, PMP, CPM, CBM,
The Project Management MBA: Three-Day Crash Course! 3 Days 21
CIPA, PE, MBA
Whether you are interested in increasing the depth of your technical skills in project management, honing
your soft skills such as teambuilding and communications, or gaining crucial leadership skills to advance The Ultimate Project Management Skills Challenge Simulation! Jesse Freese, PMP, M.Sw.E 3 Days 21

your career, SeminarsWorld gives you useful takeaways. You’ll gain practical knowledge and skills that can Managing Multiple Projects Carl Pritchard, PMP 2 Days 14
be applied immediately back at the office as well as long-term in your career.
Critcal Path: The Game Carl Pritchard, PMP 2 Days 14

Agile Project Management Mike Griffiths, PMP 2 Days 14

What’s New in 2011? New courses being delivered!

New and exciting locations added!
SeminarsWorld is scheduled for the following cities in 2011.
No-Nonsense Advice for Successful Projects Neal Whitten, PMP 2 Days 14

Let’s Talk! Leadership, Accountability and Professional Maturity Neal Whitten, PMP 2 Days 14
Register now for a future SeminarsWorld program. New engaging simulation workshops!
Influencing Without Authority Joe Reed, PhD 2 Days 14

Secret Communications Skills They Never Taught You In School That

Dick Cochran, MBA 2 Days 14
Make Project Teams Really Deliver Results
18-21 July 2011 2-5 May 2011
Philadelphia, PA Required People Skills and Emotional Intelligence for Project Steve Flannes, PhD
San Francisco, CA Held in conjunction with PMI® Managers & Larry Butler, MA
2 Days 14
12-15 September 2011
Las Vegas, NV Global Congress 2011—North America Introduction to Kanban: Improving Economic Outcomes
October 2011 8-11 August 2011 Dennis Stevens, PMP 2 Days 14
Through Evolutionary Change
7-10 November 2011 Dallas, TX Annapolis, MD
Anaheim, CA Advanced Kanban: A Data Driven Approach
Dennis Stevens, PMP 2 Days 14
to Continuous Improvement
11-14 April 2011
12-15 December
Decembe 20111 28 February – 3 March 2011 Savannah, GA Excellent Managers: What They do to be Highly Successful John Mangieri, PhD 2 Days 14
San Diego, CA New Orleans,
le LA Greg Githens, PMP, Men, NPDP,
Mega SeminarsWorld Strategic Initiatives (Program Management)
MBA
2 Days 14
27-30 June 2011
Orlando, FL Project TLC: Teambuilding, Leadership and Communications Lisa DiTullio 2 Days 14

Managing People in Projects Simulation! Randall Englund, MBA, BSEE, NPDP, 2 Days 14
CBM and Alfonso Bucero, PMP
Held in conjunction with PMI®
Global Congress 2011—EMEA
12-13 May 2011
Dublin, Ireland
PMI Also Offers
e-Learning Opportunities!
Project Management Knowledge Anywhere You Have an Internet Connection
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Rita Mulcahy
)5((6DPSOH/HVVRQV$YDLODEOHDWZZZUPFSURMHFWFRP Founder of RMC

web: www.rmcproject.com
Project
RMC Management, Inc. phone: 952.846.4484
™  email: info@rmcproject.com

PMN1110 1-25.indd 18
0082_RMC_NOVEMBER.indd 1 10/12/10
9/21/10 4:12
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>>>OPENING
SHOT
RENDERING COURTESY OF SHENZHEN HUASHI FUTURE

“
[The] design is in line with our

”
concept of green transportation
PARKING EQUIPMENT CO., LTD.

and our vision of the future.

—Wenbo Zhang, head of the science and technology
commission, Mentougou district, Beijing, China, to
The New York Times

O
Beijing, ne of the world’s fast-growing mega-
cities, Beijing is home to 22 million
China people—which translates to a whole lot
of roadway congestion. In August, a traf-
fic jam on a highway leading into the city stretched
100 kilometers (62 miles) and lasted 10 days.
Faced with an increasingly frustrated pub-
lic, government officials launched a project to
develop a fleet of “straddle buses” that zoom
right over traffic snarls. Standing 4.5 meters (15
feet) high, with 2 meters (6.6 feet) of clearance,
the buses bestride other vehicles. And because
they travel on a track at the edge of the road, the
buses can hit faster speeds than current models.
Carrying up to 1,200 passengers, the buses
could reduce traffic in Beijing by 30 percent. They
could also boost the city’s sustainability: The green
machines are powered in part by rooftop solar pan-
els. The infrastructure costs are certainly appealing.
Each kilometer of line runs US$7.4 million—just
10 percent of the price for a subway stretch of the
same distance.
Following a 9-kilometer (5.6-mile) trial slated
to begin by the end of 2010, a 189-kilometer (117-
mile) route connecting the Mentougou district
with the airport is up next.

PMN1110 1-25.indd 1 10/12/10 4:11 PM

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5/3/10 3:00:40 PM
 pg. 32
Unexplored Territory
“ For the National Ignition Facility to succeed, the
quality of the optics had to be higher than anything
previously produced, and all optical materials had to
be manufactured in a shorter time than was possible
with existing technologies.
”
—Ed Moses, PhD, NIF, Livermore, California, USA

contents
features nov10
28
PMI 2010 Project of the year
Sparking Ignition
More than a decade after it began, the National Ignition Facility
project sets a record for laser energy. by Kelley Hunsberger

4
34 The PMO Survival Guide
Things are looking good for project management
pg. 40
offices—at least the ones that can deliver ROI.
by Sarah Fister Gale

-
44 Creative Force

Tired of blank stares and shrugs during
 
brainstorming sessions? Here’s how to get your
team thinking like the true visionaries they are.
by Chauncey Hollingsworth

50
 -

,
Career Track
Mastering the Interview
a closer
Interviews won’t feel like interrogations if you practice look:
all those tough questions ahead of time. Engineering
Ingegneria
by Denene Brox Informatica,
Rome, Italy

54 Under the Gun

With an obvi-
ous need for
Project management is stressful, but the way you handle it doesn’t have structure but
to be. Relax, and you’ll find that your team will, too. by Jenn Danko no budget, a
sprawling IT

58 organization
Special Section: Business & Technology Solutions
Keep It Personal opts to create a
Technology certainly has its place when managing virtual teams, but it’s virtual project
the relationships that truly count. by Manuela Zoninsein management
office.

cover photo by robert houser

0 3:00:40 PM PMN1110 1-25.indd 3 10/13/10 11:29 AM

 PMN1110 1-25.indd 4
0002_PM_SOLUTIONS.indd 1 10/12/10 3:08:57
1/15/10 4:11 PM PM
 pg. 10 Governing the Cloud
“up-front
The risks are lower, there are no big multimillion-dollar
fees, and the IT team can focus on getting value
out of the solution instead of managing infrastructure.
”

nov10
—Paul Turner, NetSuite, San Mateo, California, USA

calendar of events
UPCOMING MAJOR
PMI GLOBAL EVENTS

viewpoints 4-20 November PMI Tour Cono Sur. Six

locations in southern Latin America.

19 From the Top 9-11 May PMI Global Congress 2011—

On Guard
Shelley Hurley, Accenture, EMEA. Dublin, Ireland.
Austin, Texas, USA
Visit congresses.PMI.org for details.
20 Managing Relationships
Anatomy of a Failed Project
by Sheilina Somani, FAPM, PMP,
Contributing Editor November

21 The Business of Projects 5 PMI Central Ohio Chapter Professional

Connecting the Dots
Development Day, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
by Gary R. Heerkens, MBA, CBM, PMP
www.pmicoc.org

22 Career Q&A 15 PMI Munich Chapter PM–Summit 2010,

Do You Have What It Takes?
by Lindsay Scott Munich, Germany.
www.pm-summit.de
24 Voices on Project Management
The End Is Just the Beginning 19-21 Project Management Conference,
by Catalin-Teodor Dogaru, PhD, PMP Mumbai, India.
www.pmi.org.in/conference2010

also in this issue 25-26 International PMI Poland Conference,

01 Opening Shot 66 Help Desk Warsaw, Poland.
07 Feedback 68 Featured Books congress.pmi.org.pl
08 In This Issue 71 Services Directory
10 The Buzz 72 Metrics
27 Behind the Scenes

on the cover
28 PMI 2010 Project of the Year

Winner of a 2009 Honorable Mention for general excellence and

a 2009 Silver Award for a single-topic issue from Association
Media & Publishing (formerly Society of National Association
Publications) for general excellence among magazines with a
circulation of more than 100,000.

3:08:57 PM PMN1110 1-25.indd 5 10/12/10 4:11 PM

 pMnetwork
PMI Staff Contributing Editors
THE PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE

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PMN1110 1-25.indd 6 10/12/10 4:11 PM

 >>FEEDBACK
UTE
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS WIDE, WIDE WORLD
The article entitled “Scholarly Pursuits” in the June issue was I would like to offer some comments about “Career Quanda-
oject
hics, especially interesting to me. I am currently employed as a full- ries” in the August issue. Columnist Lindsay Scott provides
3299
ster: time software project manager at Lockheed Martin, and I’m also some wonderful advice about presenting ourselves in a positive
uare,
a distance-learning adjunct professor in the graduate school for light during interviews. Nonetheless, I would like to suggest
mong
with
industrial engineering at New Jersey’s Science & Technology that future articles, both in this column and throughout PM
ging
d are
University. Since 2005, I have taught Project Control, a core Network, raise awareness of differences between cultures. I
course for the engineering management master’s program. have noticed a move toward more global articles and sources
nual
the Networking was my portal into teaching—but it wasn’t throughout the magazine over the past few years and would like
at an
or to voluntary. After finishing my master’s program, I was laid off to see this continue.
from my position at the time. While looking for employment, I Please note that two of Ms. Scott’s recommendations about
communicated with my résumés are very culturally specific. The first of these concerns
graduate school advisor length. She mentions a limit of three pages, yet I’ve had North
about seeking a teach- American recruiters ask me to include the details of position
ing position. Because responsibilities and achievements that expanded my résumé to
t
I’d maintained a good seven pages. A European manager, on the other hand, asked me
/ relationship with him to summarize everything in two pages.
and a good GPA, I Similarly, the suggestion of removing a date of birth may
73;
eventually networked be appropriate in some areas of North America or Europe,
my way into the job. but it would immediately disqualify a job candidate from
I believe it was also many Asian companies. In some parts of the world, photos
helpful that my career and marital status are commonly expected to be included
included a significant on résumés.
amount of project management and project control experience. Please understand that I do not propose that the Viewpoints
 It’s unfortunate that the competition for full-time academic columns or articles in PM Network address all of the variables
positions favors only those who come up through the academic throughout the world. I merely ask that suggestions or com-
ranks with a lot of research experience. In many of my full-time ments be qualified with the cultural or geographic environment
pen-
ment positions, my ability to research new solutions to complex to which they apply.
ment
onal business problems would equally match the research abilities I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the effort taken to ensure
PMI-
arks developed in academia. a high quality of articles. I look forward to a continuation of
MP)”
ates Carrying professional experience into a full-time academic posi- your good work for many years to come.
tion adds much value to the educational experience of students.
s are
ndee Unfortunately, the passage of time can make that valuable source —Monica Semeniuk, PMP
you
PMI.
of real-world information stale. This is why I favor the part-time Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
More
-PM-
teaching role while still working. I do not have to make extra effort
azine to find fresh, on-the-job examples to reinforce teaching points. Lindsay Scott responds: Those are great points about cultural
mage,
The advantages of the dual approach to working and teaching differences. The key to successful job hunting is always about
have become apparent over time. The title “adjunct professor” has making sure your résumé is relevant—that your skills, capabili-
n to
nline added a valuable credential to my professional résumé. It has also ties and experiences match those required. Relevancy also obvi-
allowed me to sample the institutional culture incrementally, which ously includes getting the cultural nuances right, too.
ment will aid a decision process should I choose to pursue a complete I will be addressing this in more detail in an upcoming column.
must change of career.
org/
d or
Finally, the IT I work with daily has
lud-
tem,
enhanced my abilities to perform my teach-
ing responsibilities.
cting CORRECTION
bers Maintaining a professional career while
As many of our readers pointed out, the
the teaching part time is a best-of-both-worlds
em- image shown in the September Opening
dent approach.
Shot was the Manhattan Bridge, not the
0 or
Brooklyn Bridge discussed in the story.
—Harris Snyder, PMP
n be
or to
Here’s the correct photo.
Moorestown, New Jersey, USA
their
ders
PMI

NOVEMBER 2010 PM NETWORK 7

PMN1110 1-25.indd 7 10/12/10 4:11 PM
 57

44

28

In This
19

Issue 38
46

Project Management
Around the Globe

People
page page

56 T
 homas Alby, PMP, Uniquedigital
Moonlighting as a rock ’n’ roll musician allows Mr. Alby to escape from the
intense demands of his fast-paced profession.
40 Maria Cristina Barbero, PMP, Nexen Business Consultants
38 Ivo M. Michalick Vasconcelos, PMP, M2 Consultoría
To help a mining company’s project managers trim the fat from their
lengthy executive summaries, Mr. Michalik Vasconcelos developed a
graphics-driven report template based on key performance indicators.

52 James Berkeley, Berkeley Burke International 29 Ed Moses, PhD, National Ignition Facility & Photon Science Directorate

60 Dana Brownlee, PMP, Professionalism Matters Inc. 47 Kate Nasser

40 Giuseppina Copetti, PMP, Engineering Ingegneria Informatica 52 Don Paullin, Hiring Firing Experts Inc.

36 J. Kent Crawford, PMP, PMI Fellow, PM Solutions 37 Mark Perry, BOT International

33 Thomas D’Agostino, National Nuclear Security Administration 37 Z

 afeiris Konstantinos Petalas, PhD, Barclays
Dr. Petalas runs the portfolio management office at the financial services giant.
36 Rogério de Mello Pires, PMP, Itaú Unibanco
57 George Pitagorsky, PMP, Pitagorsky Consulting
56 Michiko Diby, PMP, Verdi Consulting
56 Ademisiku Shyllon, Globacom Ltd.
37 Donna Easterday, PMP, National Institutes of Health
46 M
 ário Henrique Trentim, PMI-RMP, PMP, Department of Airspace
44 C
 hris Eichenseer, Someoddpilot Control, Brazilian Air Force
Mr. Eichenseer tears down the cubicle walls—literally—at his design agency Creativity must be a structured process, Mr. Trentim says.
to encourage innovation from his project teams.
57 Vijay K. Verma, PMP, PMI Fellow, TRIUMF
60 D
 eborah Fishman, PresenTense Group
Ms. Fishman runs a magazine entirely in the cloud. 52 Kelley White, Evergreen Solar Inc.

47 Steve Flannes, PhD, Flannes & Associates 52 Monica Yao, Mercer

47 Dan Fletcher, Firebrand Games 46 Alan E. Yue, PMP, PreNetSys

19 Shelley Hurley, Accenture 61 Y

 an Zhang, Meiloo.com
The founder of this healthcare provider referral website relies upon instant
60 Jessica Lipnack, NetAge messaging, as voice over Internet protocol and even e-mail haven’t caught
60 Tom Mattus, Successful Strategies International Inc. on in China, he says.

8 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 1-25.indd 8 10/12/10 4:11 PM

 47
37 56

61
40

60
52

56

organizations
page page

19 A
 ccenture, Austin, Texas, USA
The global consulting giant has created an organization-wide risk-management
framework to fully understand its projects’ risk profiles.
37 Barclays, London, England
52 Berkeley Burke International, London, England
37 BOT International, Orlando, Florida, USA
46 Department of Airspace Control, Brazilian Air Force, Recife, Brazil
40 Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Rome, Italy
This group of 11 companies has 40 branches and 6,300 employees. To create
t. a standard project management methodology—while lacking a devoted budget—
the organization decided to develop a virtual project management office.
52 M
 ercer, Shanghai, China
Mock-interviewing helped Monica Yao land a job at this financial services
consultancy.
28 N
 ational Ignition Facility & Photon Science Directorate,
Livermore, California, USA
It took 13 years to build this governmental complex and develop the technology
that aims to achieve a nuclear reaction known as ignition. Coming in early and
under budget, the team won the PMI 2010 Project of the Year award.
37 National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland, USA
30 National Nuclear Security Administration, Livermore, California, USA
60 NetAge, West Newton, Massachusetts, USA

52 Evergreen Solar Inc., Dedham, Massachusetts, USA 41 Nexen Business Consultants, Rome, Italy

47 F
 irebrand Games, Glasgow, Scotland 57 Pitagorsky Consulting, New York, New York, USA
Specializing in racing video games, the company encourages team mem- 36 PM Solutions, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, USA
bers to find any flaws they can during a pre-project brainstorming session. 46 PreNetSys, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
47 Flannes & Associates, Oakland, California, USA 60 PresenTense Group, Jerusalem, Israel
56 G
 lobacom Ltd., Lagos, Nigeria 60 Professionalism Matters Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, USA
The telecom titan was the first in the country to launch per-second mobile billing.
44 Someoddpilot, Chicago, Illinois, USA
52 Hiring Firing Experts, Inc., Libertyville, Illinois, USA
60 Successful Strategies International Inc., Port Jefferson, New York, USA
36 Itaú Unibanco, São Paulo, Brazil
57 T
 RIUMF, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
t 38 M2 Consultoría, Belo Horizonte, Brazil This national laboratory is a leader in subatomic physics.
61 Meiloo.com, Beijing, China 56 Uniquedigital, Hamburg, Germany
56 Verdi Consulting, Vienna, Virginia, USA

november 2010 PM NETWORK 9

PMN1110 1-25.indd 9 10/12/10 4:11 PM
 thebuzz
in these pages
12 Turning Brown to Gold
14 India on the Move
16 European Renaissance
See the latest news about project, program and
portfolio management online at www.PMI.org/PMport.
10 PM NETWORK May 2008 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 1-25.indd 10
by Sarah Fister Gale
Submit news to pmnetwork@imaginepub.com. All monetary figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
Cloud
Control
Lured In by the promise of lower
IT costs and willing to mitigate secu-
rity risks, more governments are invest-
ing in cloud computing, using hosted
software applications managed by
third-party vendors.
“When government budgets are
tight and capital expenditures are
scarce, cloud computing projects are
attractive,” says Paul Turner, senior
director of product marketing at Net-
Suite, a cloud-based planning software
provider in San Mateo, California,
USA. “The risks are lower, there are
no big multimillion-dollar up-front
fees, and the IT team can focus on
getting value out of the solution
instead of managing infrastructure.”
IT research giant Gartner issued a
recommendation that all government
organizations launch pilot projects
using public cloud services to cut costs.
“The sluggish recovery in some
countries and the significant level of
debt require continued and increasing
cost-containment discipline and are
forcing government organizations to
illustration by keith negley
explore new avenues of cost reduction,”
said Andrea Di Maio, vice president at
Gartner, in a statement.
Reducing hardware and software
costs ranked as the top two reasons
for moving to the cloud, according to
10/12/10 4:11 PM
 The 2010 Symantec Break in the Clouds Report, a
June survey of 202 federal IT decision-makers.
Gartner recommended that agencies in all coun-
tries challenged by budget cuts adopt cloud comput-
ing on non-mission-critical applications. Those test
projects can then be used to determine whether the
benefits and security align with organizational goals,
before moving on to more weighty initiatives.
In India, the government is looking at cloud
services for a megaproject to issue unique iden-
tification numbers to the nation’s 1.2 billion
residents. Cloud computing would give the gov-
ernment a way to store the huge amounts of data
and easily cross-check the database for authenti-
cation from remote locations.
Public-sector agencies across Asia Pacific should
be pursuing the technology, according to Looking
Ahead: Articulating Cloud Competencies for the Asia/
Pacific Public Sector, an August report from IDC
Government Insights, an IT advisory firm.
“Governments should take an active change-
management stance to address the people and pro-
cess aspects of cloud implementations,” says senior
market analyst Gerald Wang, the Singapore-based
author of the report. “All the stakeholders involved
need to internalize the value and application of the
cloud model so as to truly realize a continued and
successful e-government transformation.”
Leading the Cloud Revolution
While other governments are still scrambling, the
United States is charging into the cloud, with gov-
ernment leaders publicly touting the benefits.
“When we think about IT and the potential
of cloud computing to lower the cost of govern-
ment operations, drive innovation and funda-
mentally change the way we deliver technology
services across the board, we recognize that this
is an amazing time in the very early days of
cloud computing,” said Vivek Kundra, the first
U.S. federal CIO, in an April speech.
His support of cloud computing could have
global implications; with a budget of $79 billion, the
U.S. federal government is the largest IT spender in
the world.
Twenty-three percent of U.S. government agen-
cies have already implemented cloud technology
projects, according to the Symantec survey, and 35
percent are planning to begin cloud projects soon.
PMN1110 1-25.indd 11
The U.S. General Services Administration >>Check out
recently migrated 15,000 e-mail addresses to a PMI’s Voices
cloud-based service, and the Federal Labor Relations on Project
Authority has launched its own cloud-based records- Management
management system. blog for
The cost savings for government agencies is coverage of
between 25 percent and 50 percent, delivering pow- U.S. CIO
erful savings during dire economic times, according Vivek
to an April report by The Brookings Institution, a Kundra’s
not-for-profit public policy organization. address at the
Much of these savings come from the elimi- PMI Global
nation of poorly utilized data centers. The U.S. Congress
government has more than 1,100 centers, many of 2010—North
which are filled with servers running at a fraction America.
of capacity—a huge waste of capital investment.
That many data centers “defies logic,” not only
in terms of energy consumption, but security, Mr.
Kundra told the San Francisco Business Times. “The
more data centers we put up … the greater our vul-
nerability when it comes to cybersecurity.”
A Matter of National Security
Security concerns are one of the biggest obstacles
to cloud computing projects by Asian government
agencies, Mr. Wang says. The Symantec study
shows that 80 percent of U.S. government agencies
think encryption should be required.
To mitigate the data-security dangers, most gov-
ernment offices are beginning with low-risk cloud
initiatives.
Mr. Kundra is also pursuing projects to develop
clouds that would be owned and operated by the
U.S. government to maintain greater control over
data. In response, tech titan Google plans to create a
government-only cloud.
Governmental agencies must also try to prevent
people from launching rogue apps, Mr. Turner says.
“Cloud applications can be deployed very easily by
end-users,” he says. “It’s important for IT teams to
be involved in coordinating these deployments.”
That means partnering closely with end-users
to define requirements, perform due diligence and
assess the value of different solutions before they’re
rolled out.
“You need experienced IT project managers
to establish protocols and set criteria for moving
into the cloud,” Mr. Turner says. “That’s how you
empower end-users and get these projects success-
fully up and running.”
november 2010 PM NETWORK 11
10/12/10 4:11 PM
 thebuzz
Turning Brown to Gold
Brownfield projects often used
to be more trouble than they were worth.
But a combination of tax credits, stimulus fund-
ing and good, old-fashioned competition is making
the redevelopment of sites marred by hazardous sub-
stances, pollutants or other contaminants a poten-
tially lucrative proposition.
There’s no doubt brownfield projects benefit
the greater good. They alleviate toxic chemicals in
the environment, reduce blight and take develop-
ment pressures off greenfields—land that isn’t
developed or used for agriculture. But the cleanup
is usually a complicated and costly process, and
without proper planning and management, it’s
difficult to get a decent ROI.
That’s where governments are stepping in, dan-
gling grants, tax credits and other incentives to com-
panies willing to take on the projects.
The European Union’s Structural and Cohesion
Fund, for example, has set aside $404 billion in
grants to support projects that advance the public
interest, including brownfield sites.
In the United States, the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated $100 million for
brownfield cleanup and assessment activities, along
with ongoing tax credits. As of early September, the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had ear-
marked $75.7 million in stimulus funding for 173
brownfield assessments and related projects.
12 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 1-25.indd 12
With that kind of money on the line, brownfield
projects certainly become more appealing.
“Many sites that are contaminated are in
great locations,” says Mark Dickinson, owner of
Quincy, Massachusetts, USA-based Dickinson
Development, a real estate development and proj-
ect management firm with more than a decade of
experience in brownfield projects. If the sites can be
redeveloped within a reasonable budget, companies
can see a big payoff.
That’s transforming brownfields into a hot proj-
ect investment. For example, ICICI Venture, one of
India’s largest private equity firms, is currently put-
ting together a billion-dollar fund to support energy
and transportation infrastructure projects, with a
focus on brownfields.
Here’s the Catch…
Despite all the potential, it’s not mere happen-
stance that governments are sweetening the pot
for companies willing to take on brownfield
projects.
“The risk of developing a brownfield project is
obviously much higher than the risk of developing
a greenfield, and the often-limited available data
makes it hard to correctly assess the remediation
costs and feasibility,” says Peter Roose, head of busi-
ness development at DEME Environmental Con-
tractors, Zwijndrecht, Belgium.
The projects often hide a host of unknown
problems that can dramatically influence project
schedule and budgets. “Managing this uncer-
tainty is the biggest challenge,” he says.
Project managers are often working with land
that has been poorly managed and polluted with
who-knows-what.
Mr. Dickinson recently completed the first
phase of a $35 million retail development project
on the site of a 14-acre (5.7-hectare) abandoned
mill. The soil on the land was contaminated
with low levels of asbestos and other industrial
solvents. Although his project team felt the con-
tamination could be safely contained beneath
asphalt, environmental regulators required that
the topsoil needed to be removed to a landfill.
“Instead of spending $100,000, we spent
$500,000 to clean up the site,” he says. “That’s
a $400,000 delta, which is part of the risk when
you do deals like this.”
10/12/10 4:12 PM
 thebuzz

>>No matter how good the intentions are, unless the

developer manages the many risks and constraints
diligently, there could be serious issues.
­—Peter Roose, DEME Environmental Contractors, Zwijndrecht, Belgium

It takes a talented team to deal with those
kinds of risks.
“A good plan is half the work, but a good
project manager and good project management
in general remains crucial,” Mr. Roose says.
“No matter how good the intentions are, unless
the developer manages the many risks and con-
straints diligently, there could be serious issues.”
With due diligence and effective collabora-
tion, though, many of the risks on brownfield
projects can be mitigated.
“The key to success is the degree to which the
remediation designer and contractor are able to
interact with the architect and contractor,” Mr.
Roose says. “Sometimes relatively small changes
to the development design, such as the location
of the buildings, reuse of site infrastructure, or
synergies in the remediation or building work,
can all have a serious impact on cost and timing
and therefore the feasibility of the project.”
If companies find the right site and the right
team, brownfield projects can be a lucrative, sus-
tainable direction to head in a tough economy.
“You can take a good location with a prob-
lem and turn it into something productive for
the community, while making money in the
process,” Mr. Dickinson says. “It’s a nice way to
leave your mark on the world.”

Do your projects need a better planning

and control structure?

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0082_ALPHA_DO_YOUR_PROJECTS.indd 1
13
9/24/10 10:44:01 AM
november 2010 PM NETWORK

PMN1110 1-25.indd 13 10/12/10 4:12 PM

 thebuzz
India on the Move
India is poised to take on the role of global
economic powerhouse. All it needs are the roads
and rails to take it there. Though the country
pulled through in the 11th hour to open October’s
Commonwealth Games on time and with a mini-
mal amount of disruption, the uncertainty leading
up to the event shows that age-old obstacles remain.
The country’s economy is steadily accelerat-
ing, incomes are rising and it emerged from
the global recession ahead of many developed
nations. But until India’s transportation infra-
structure reflects its global ambitions, Asia’s
third-largest economy will remain stuck in
emerging-market limbo.
To reach its goal of a 10 percent annual GDP
growth rate by 2014, India must invest heavily
in infrastructure projects, a group of the nation’s
economic secretaries and industry heads con-
cluded at a July meeting.
The aging or complete lack of transporta-
tion avenues makes travel in India expensive and
prohibitively time-consuming. It can take weeks
to transport goods the 1,407 kilometers (874
miles) between Mumbai and New Delhi due to
the backlog of train traffic on the government-
owned Indian Railways.
Few would argue the country’s state of infra-
structure is stifling economic growth and spook-
ing potential investors. Yet infrastructure projects
in the country have historically been hampered
by budget and schedule overruns, accidents and
stakeholder protests.
Corruption also remains an issue. India rated
only a 3.4 out of a possible 10 last year in a global
report on corruption by the not-for-profit coalition
Transparency International. The country ranked
85 out of 180 countries, based on factors such as
stock market fraud, bribery and corruption.
On the Right Track
India has targeted $514 billion in infrastructure
projects for the five-year period ending in March
2012. Transportation officials have set an ambi-
tious goal of building 20 kilometers (12.4 miles)
of new roads a day, for example. And it won’t stop
there. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
has indicated that the country aims to double
spending on infrastructure projects to $1 trillion
from 2012 to 2017. Backed with a more-developed
regulatory framework as well as tax incentives,
Mr. Singh said he hopes private companies and
public-private partnerships will make up at least
half of that investment.
Many infrastructure
projects are well under-
way, with others in the
planning stages. Along
with the Commonwealth
Games, another project
getting attention is the
metro rapid-transit system
being built by the govern-
ment-owned Delhi Metro
Rail Corp. (DMRC) under
the direction of Elattuvala-
pil Sreedharan, PhD.
The master plan for
the metro project includes
photo courtesy of wikipedia

construction of 414 kilo-

meters (257 miles) of
rail line by 2021. The
$2.2 billion first phase
included construction
of 65.1 kilometers (40.5
miles) of lines. Phase two

14 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 1-25.indd 14 10/12/10 4:12 PM


is expected to wrap up on schedule by the end of
the year, by which time DMRC will have a net-
work of about 190 kilometers (118 miles), accord-
ing to Dr. Sreedharan. His team has submitted
plans for phase three of the megaproject, to add
69.6 kilometers (43.2 miles) of metro lines.
The team has consistently hit key milestones
on time and on budget, which Dr. Sreedharan
attributes to a disciplined approach to project
management. His team members divided the
project assignments, allocating teams of engi-
neers to execute the work. Separate chief project
managers supervised each stretch of track, and
deputy chief engineers managed sections within
those segments. “This decision ensured that the
work continued simultaneously on all the under-
construction corridors,” Dr. Sreedharan says.
He also relied on fast-paced decision-making
aimed at eliminating red tape.
“Rather than relying on excessive paperwork,
I stressed meeting my officers regularly and mak-
ing decisions on the spot,” he says. “Even today,
we have a weekly meeting of all heads of the
departments, where we make many major deci-
sions. By doing so, we have cut short the time
taken by unnecessary paperwork.”
Still, the metro project has been far from
trouble-free—more than a dozen workers have
been killed in the past two years due to structural
collapses. The latest came in July 2009, when at
least seven workers died in three accidents during
a 10-day span, prompting concerns that safety
standards were being compromised in the rush up
to the Commonwealth Games.
“I would hope that at the end of all of this,
India would have learned a great lesson,” the
Commonwealth Games Federation’s president,
Mike Fennell, said at a press conference.
Problems of the Past
Despite the tremendous progress India has made,
project leaders remain saddled with a lingering
perception problem.
“Unfortunately, Indian infrastructure projects
were earlier known only for their time overruns
and budget escalations,” Dr. Sreedharan says.
“The successful implementation of the Delhi
Metro Rail project has shown to the world that
infrastructure projects can be competently com-
PMN1110 1-25.indd 15
thebuzz
pleted in India within stipulated time limits and
without budget escalations.”
Indeed, the metro megaproject has drawn
attention and investment to other infrastructure
initiatives across the nation.
“We have been able to change [this negative]
image, and as a result investors, both foreign and
Indian, are now showing much greater faith and
confidence in Indian infrastructure projects,”
Dr. Sreedharan says. “The metro system, which
was considered an unviable option for congested
Indian cities, is going to become a reality now in
many Indian urban centers.”
The Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar metro rail
project, for example, is currently being con-
sidered by several global infrastructure firms,
according to The Times of India.
In addition, the Bangalore metro project, which
started in 2007, is slated to begin operation of
its first rail lines next month. Yet that effort also
has run into trouble. The 7.5-kilometer (4.7-mile)
stretch of railway missed its three-year target by
eight months due to protests that erupted when the
project team, accompanied by a police escort, pre-
pared to demolish commercial buildings as well as
residences to make way for the rails.
“We were given no notice,” Chandra V., owner
of Shanti Sagar Hotel, told The Hindu newspaper.
“All of a sudden, the officials came with earthmov-
ers and started throwing furniture and other valu-
ables on the road. We have incurred a huge loss.”
Stakeholder flare-ups aside, infrastructure
projects are clearly impacting the lives of millions
of Indian citizens, Dr. Sreedharan says.
“Urban transport infrastructure facilities and
services are among the most important factors
for the development of the urban economy,” he
explains. “Economic activities flourish in areas
where accessibility is good and mobility is fast.”
The metro not only benefits Delhi, but also
its satellite cities, including Noida and Gurgaon.
“The extension of the Delhi Metro has now
ensured seamless connectivity of these cities with
Delhi. As a result, more companies are now invest-
ing in these cities,” Dr. Sreedharan says. “The leg-
acy of DMRC’s success has given the country the
faith that public-sector projects can be completed
and operated properly—if there is a dedicated and
honest team running them.”
november 2010 PM NETWORK 15
10/12/10 4:12 PM
 thebuzz
European Renaissance
It appears reports of Europe’s economic
demise have been greatly exaggerated.
Despite a wobbly economic recovery and
mountains of debt, the European Union (EU) as
a whole seems to have survived the worst of the
recession. Many member countries are now invest-
ing in projects across sectors. And organizations
are hiring—much to the surprise of economists
who only a few months ago were predicting a com-
plete meltdown.
As recently as May, the Greek debt crisis
threatened to take down not only that econ-
omy, but also those of several fellow EU mem-
bers. A series of emergency measures by the
European Central Bank seems to have staved
off that nightmarish scenario.
Instead, signs of recovery are already evident.
In August, the bank declared that Europe’s third
quarter was better than anticipated, with Germany
leading the unexpected rebound with a predicted
GDP growth of 3.5 percent in 2010. Steadily
declining unemployment and a rising demand
for industrial products have made the nation the
EU’s symbol for recovery, sparking confidence and
investment in major projects across the region.
José Manuel Barroso, president of the Euro-
pean Commission, looked to spur further opti-
mism by calling for the creation of EU bonds to
kick-start infrastructure projects and alleviate
unemployment across the region.
>>Infrastructure projects within IT
and construction are popular actions
for governments after a financial
deficit as we all have seen in
Europe. I believe we will see more of
those projects in the near future.
­­—Mattias Georgson Petrén, PhD, PMP,
Jayway AB, Malmö, Sweden
16 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 1-25.indd 16
“The economic outlook in the European
Union today is better than one year ago, not
least as a result of our determined action,”
he said in his first State of the Union address
at the European Parliament in early Septem-
ber. “The recovery is gathering pace, albeit
unevenly within the Union.”
Germany may be flying high, but Spain,
Italy and Greece, among others, remain mired
in an economic funk.
Mr. Barroso argued that EU bonds will help
bolster growth more evenly across member
states and raise their project budgets to achieve
greater results.
“We will only succeed if, whether acting
nationally, regionally or locally, we think Euro-
pean,” he said in his speech. “Pooling money
at the European level allows member states to
cut their costs, avoid overlaps and get a better
return on their investment.”
Stimulating Projects
The economic turnaround is good news for
project managers, particularly those in the
high-tech mechanical engineering, research and
IT industries, says Volker Gottwald, PMP, a
project management trainer and consultant at
Kreartiv, an international project management
consultancy in Waldems, Germany.
“In these sectors, projects that have been on
hold or postponed are coming back,” he says,
with initiatives focused on cost savings and
productivity likely to be the first to launch.
Governments across Europe have done their
part to boost the fragile recovery with stimulus
money.
“Infrastructure projects within IT and con-
struction are popular actions for governments
after a financial deficit as we all have seen in
Europe,” says Mattias Georgson Petrén, PhD,
PMP, vice president of project management at
Jayway AB, a software development consul-
tancy in Malmö, Sweden. “I believe we will see
more of those projects in the near future.”
He predicts opportunities for project man-
agers will arise in outsourcing projects, too.
Not all EU nations are faring equally,
though. “Germany is driving growth,” Dr.
Petrén says.
10/12/10 4:12 PM
 thebuzz

Although some countries

have been hit harder by the
recession, he’s optimistic
about the growth of project
management opportunities
across Europe.
Sweden in particular
avoided the worst of reces-
sion-related cutbacks and
ranks as “one of the strongest

Photo courtesy of European Union

economies in Europe due to
a government that has been
careful with spending,” he
says.
The Swedish government
is currently pursuing many IT
infrastructure projects in the
public sector. And the capi-
tal city of Stockholm has an
especially strong demand for “The recovery is gathering pace, albeit unevenly within the Union.”
project management expertise, —José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission
Dr. Petrén says.
Poland—the only EU country to avoid
recession in 2009—expects to see continued
growth. And that should lead to more projects,
says Mariusz Kapusta, PMP, senior project
management expert at the Leadership Center,
a project management consultancy in Warsaw,
Poland.
He sees an especially lucrative niche in help-
ing out the big guys.
“It’s a great opportunity for freelance project
managers and small consulting companies to
deliver professional services for bigger enter-
prises,” he says, adding that the IT sector will
likely offer the most positions. “Project manag-
ers who know their job and can adapt to new
challenges will have no problems finding inter-
esting jobs in Poland.”
Under the Microscope
Even amidst the good news, there will be much
greater pressure on project managers in the EU
to deliver results than there has been in the
past, Mr. Gottwald warns.
Forced to contend with thin margins and
an uncertain future, companies are demanding
greater accountability.
“Projects will be more strictly controlled,
sponsors will have a closer look at their projects,
and project managers need to acquire much bet-
ter skills to manage their projects successfully,”
he says.
During boom times, stakeholder manage-
ment was often neglected or poorly managed,
which allowed projects to veer off course.
But that’s likely to change, Mr. Gottwald says.
“If you do not talk to your stakeholders, you
will not uncover all your risks and you won’t
fully understand your risk assessment.”
To leverage the economic recovery for maxi-
mum career benefits, project managers must go
in armed with project management skills, expe-
rience and, increasingly, a Project Management
Professional (PMP)® credential.
“Companies understand that they need
special knowledge in project management to be
more successful, and more and more customers
require certifications in their tenders for proj-
ects,” Mr. Gottwald says.
“Career opportunities for project manag-
ers have been increasing in the past, and will
increase even more in the future,” he says.
“Certified, well-educated project managers
have better career opportunities and much
more secure jobs.”

november 2010 PM NETWORK 17

PMN1110 1-25.indd 17 10/12/10 4:12 PM
 Earn PDUs and Save Up to $699
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™  email: info@rmcproject.com

PMN1110 1-25.indd 18
0082_RMC_NOVEMBER.indd 1 10/12/10
9/21/10 4:12
5:21:48 PMPM
 Shelley Hurley, Accenture,
Austin, Texas, USA
fromthetop
8V

8V
On Guard
Even the safest-seeming projects can veer
woefully off track. By identifying project risks
early on, teams know what to look for. And that
means potential problems—and opportunities—
are spotted earlier.
8V “Companies that are able to proactively assess,
analyze and manage risks are better equipped to
effectively manage uncertainties,” says Shelley
Hurley, leader of the risk-management practice
for the resources operating group of global con-
sulting giant Accenture.
A 30-year veteran of risk management, she
helps the organization and its clients develop
project and portfolio risk-management practices.
8V What’s Accenture’s approach to
risk management?
We believe an organization-wide risk-management
framework is necessary to fully understand a
project’s risk profile and to position yourself
to achieve business objectives. That framework
includes a robust, proactive risk assessment,
analysis, reporting, feedback and monitoring
process.
By standardizing the process, we integrate
risk-management assessments into all strategic
business decisions and align our risk appetite
and tolerance with our business objectives.
What part does project management play
in risk management (and vice versa)?
Having a strong project management process
that integrates with risk management makes
it easier to embed risk management into the
culture of the organization, and the business
is more open to seeing
both the upside and the
downside.
Project management,
on the other hand,
benefits from a strong
risk-management framework, as it improves the
chances of successful delivery of a project.
Has the recession affected risk management?
>>Sometimes
Risk management has always been important to organizations
the planning and implementation of projects,
but it has gained more traction in the current
treat risk
economic climate. management
Businesses are becoming more watchful
and want to understand the risks that they’re as if it’s a box
taking when planning new growth strategies, to be checked
operational improvements, or other key busi-
ness and technology initiatives. But it’s also on a list. But
important for companies to recognize that risk it is impera-
management is central to a company’s ability
to grow its business. They have to understand tive that risks
their risk-tolerance level and manage within are reviewed,
that. Generally, a company able to responsibly
manage more risk than its competitors will managed and
have an edge in the market. evaluated on an
How can executives incorporate risk manage- ongoing basis.
ment into their overall strategy?
Sometimes organizations treat risk management
as if it’s a box to be checked on a list. But it’s
imperative that risks are reviewed, managed and
evaluated on an ongoing basis, providing yet
more data that can be factored into manage-
ment decisions. PM

november 2010 PM NETWORK 19

:21:48 PM PMN1110 1-25.indd 19 10/12/10 4:12 PM
 viewpoints
Anatomy of a
M a n a g i n g R e l at i o n s h i ps
Failed Project
It’s often the mistakes that teach us the most.
by Sheilina Somani, FAPM, PMP, Contributing Editor
S
ometimes there comes a point when you know
you have to kill a project. You followed best
practices, implemented solid processes and
employed consistent communication—but
you’re still forced to hit the stop button.
I was recently involved in shutting down a project
within the program I’m running. The experience was both
uncomfortable and disappointing. The sponsor bought into
the project with a clear commitment—contributing time,
prompt decision-making and, of course, funding. The spec-
ifications were clearly defined, completion criteria specified
and agreed upon, and a budget and timeframe secured.
As the project commenced, though, a significant change
request was implemented due to external economic factors.
The sponsor accepted the additional 20 percent time delay
and 10 percent cost increase.
Although the project team was clearly experienced and
hard-working, the initial results were not good. A review
was undertaken during this first phase, and areas for
improvement were discussed, agreed to and documented.
Toward the end of phase one, though, quality was deteri-
orating and the schedule was slipping further. At this point,
I requested a pause for a formal review of work done so far,
achievement of targets and quality of output delivered. The
conclusion was that despite our best efforts, the project was
not delivering to an acceptable standard.
>>Danger Ahead
Some closures can be anticipated. Effective risk
management reveals indicators and allows expectations
to be managed for a healthy, swift termination. However,
there are times when the absence of indicators creates
a false sense of security, an expectation of success.
Project managers must remain vigilant and on the
lookout for symptoms of impending project failure:
n Constantly changing scope
n Poorly defined requirements
n Changes in resources (both material and personnel)
n Stress and tension caused by anticipated change
20 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 1-25.indd 20
Looking for an objective assessment, I decided to call
in a third-party subject matter expert (SME). But first, I
discussed the matter with the project manager to help with
the decision-making and selection process.
The SME, main contractor, project manager and I con-
cluded that the best option was to work together to com-
plete phase one and then close the project. This enabled
the project to meet some criteria, which led to a cleaner
handover to a new team to attempt phase two.
Softening the Blow
It’s rare that I’ve had to kill a project. When it does happen,
adequate documentation and communication must take place
throughout the process.
The sponsor, initially disheartened, was protected from
unnecessary stress and frustration through honest, consis-
tent communication—both of progress and concerns. Bad
news is never easy to deliver, but it’s much more palatable
when done in “digestible amounts” rather than as an over-
whelming surprise.
The end-users were protected from the effects of the
unsuccessful project by the team carefully managing their
expectations via regular progress reports, quality concerns
and intended processes for resolution.
Project managers should also make sure that lessons
learned are communicated along with recommendations for
similar projects in the future. Hold people accountable for
their tasks and commitment to excellence.
It takes a lot of courage to stop a project. Good relations
between the project and program manager made my situation
a team effort free of accusations and defensive posturing. Of
course, everyone wanted the project brought to its proper con-
clusion. But the ongoing trust, integrity and confidence shared
from this interaction was more than we could have gained in a
year of successful project delivery. PM
Sheilina Somani, FAPM, PMP, is the
owner of U.K.-based Positively Project
Management, which provides consulting,
mentoring and development services.
10/12/10 4:12 PM

Connecting
the Dots
A metric called NPV will help you pick the projects that make the
most business sense.
b y G a r y R . H e e r k e n s , M BA , C B M , P M P
T
here’s just no question about it: Projects are
connected to your organization’s bottom
line. They are tied to considerations such as
earnings, profit and loss, and cash genera-
tion. This is true for any company in the business of
making money. It’s also true for not-for-profit entities
that seek to demonstrate fiscal responsibility by execut-
ing projects related to cost-
effectiveness or cost savings.
Sadly, this fact seems to
go unnoticed (or unappre-
ciated) by some organiza-
tions. It’s easy to tell who
they are—the ones that
actively argue against the
use of financial criteria as
a method to evaluate, jus-
tify and ultimately approve
projects.
Let’s be clear: I’m well
aware of the challenges
associated with converting
certain kinds of benefits into dollars, euro, yen, etc. I’ll
address the process for converting so-called “soft” or intan-
gible benefits into monetary value in a future column. But
this month I want to discuss why companies should try to
make that conversion.
It all begins with market value added (MVA), a company-
level wealth metric that shows the difference between the
market value of a company and the capital contributed by
investors. A positive MVA means the value of manage-
ment’s long-term actions and investments are greater than
the value of the capital that has been contributed to the
company.
Among the contributors to a positive MVA is eco-
nomic value added (EVA). Developed by former Chase
executive Joel Stern, EVA is a calculation of how much
wealth a company has generated above and beyond the
PMN1110 1-25.indd 21
viewpoints
Th e B u s i n e s s o f P r o j e c t s
cost of capital, recognizing that a company’s use of capital
comes at a price. That price is determined by blending the
required return on borrowed money (debt financing) and
the return required to keep shareholders happy (equity
financing). In many ways, cost of capital is similar to the
cost associated with taking out a personal loan—that is,
the loan amount multiplied by the loan rate.
And now we arrive at
the net present value (NPV)
metric.
While EVA expresses
how much wealth an
entire company has gener-
ated above and beyond the
total cost of invested capi-
tal, NPV does the same
thing at the project level.
If a project generates more
positive cash flow than the
capital required to sup-
port it, the NPV will be
positive. Such a project is
financially justified, and it would make good business
sense to approve it. If a company has numerous financially
justified projects, it makes good business sense to pursue
the ones with the largest NPV. This is one of the tenets of
financial-based project portfolio ranking.
If you learn the business concepts behind aligning proj-
ects to the bottom line, you can help the executive suite
prioritize the company’s project portfolio. And helping
your organization get ahead will help you get ahead. PM
Gary R. Heerkens, MBA, CBM, PMP,
president of Management Solutions Group
Inc., is a consultant, trainer, speaker and
author with 25 years of project manage-
ment experience. His latest book is The
Business-Savvy Project Manager.
november 2010 PM NETWORK 21
10/12/10 4:12 PM
 viewpoints
Do You Have
Career Q&A
What it Takes?
To get ahead, keep up your skills, market yourself and be ready to make the jump.
by Lindsay Scott
Q. I’m looking for a new position and
have noticed certain certifications are
required. Should I take a course to help secure a
new job?
A: The most frequently asked question I receive from
project practitioners looking for a job is, “Which training
course will help me find a new position?”
Investing in education is a great idea as you head into
the job marketplace, but you might be late to the party.
Your rivals may have been racking up the courses and cre-
dentials months or even years ago.
Continuing professional development sounds like an
obvious thing to do. Yet with the economic downturn, it
was easy to put it on the back burner. The trouble is, you
never know when you may be vulnerable to staff cuts.
Project managers should also recognize that profes-
sional development is more than just earning credentials,
though those certainly can be great door-openers. You
must commit to lifelong learning.
Take the time to plan and seek out development that
aligns with your personal aspirations—even if it doesn’t
necessarily apply to your current organization. If you look
back at your development over the last five years, how
much has been undertaken on internal courses? If your
recent development has only related to your organization’s
internal project management standards and methods, you
may struggle when entering the marketplace, as your train-
ing is driven by your employer rather than the profession.
Don’t treat learning and development as someone else’s
issue or a last-minute “smash and grab.” Spend time each
year carrying out a skills-gap analysis, researching the
wider project management marketplace and understand-
ing where the profession is heading. No one wants to be
one of those desperate job hunters who realize too late
they have nothing to differentiate themselves within the
marketplace.
22 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 1-25.indd 22
Q: What’s the best way to convey project successes
on my CV?
A: Develop a section purely focused on them—and put it
right at the top. The idea is to draw readers in as soon as
they glance at the document. Include four or five successes
in bullet points, all targeted to the job you want.
n 
Make them clearly understandable to any reader. Avoid
specifics, deliverables, acronyms and jargon that have no
bearing on the role. Remember, not every organization
is familiar with project management!
n 
Include the budget, team size and details of the success—
i.e., money saved, revenues generated, benefits delivered
and how your actions led to the success.
n 
Highlight situations where you personally were
instrumental, not those attributed to the project team.
After all, an employer is hiring you, not your whole team.
n 
Take the top five job requirements and formulate your
successes so they correspond to each. To keep them
relevant, tweak the order of the bullet points or come
up with a new set, if necessary. Don’t make the mistake
of listing impressive implementations, complex projects
and huge budgets without giving thought to what the
employer wants to hear.
Q: I currently work in a project support role and
would like to become a project manager in the near
future. How can I plan for this change?
A: Making the move from project support to project
manager is easier to achieve in your current organization.
It’s much more difficult to find your first project manager
position in the open market because a) no one knows
your track record, and b) there are few project manager
positions for people with minimal (or no) experience.
To gain the all-important firsthand experience of manag-
ing projects, tap into opportunities within your current role
as well as within the wider organization. Find out if there’s
10/12/10 4:12 PM

>> Head to PMI’s Career
. Central for a podcast with
Ms. Scott offering tips
for those starting out in project
management.
a chance to lead a particular work package or workstream
under the guidance of your project manager. Approach him
or her about becoming your mentor. This valuable relation-
ship will not only enable you to gain assistance while you
make the transition, but the project manager could become
your number-one advocate in the organization as well.
Don’t stop there, though. Widen your own network
within the organization’s project environment. Find out
where other opportunities exist: Are there large projects
PMN1110 1-25.indd 23
viewpoints
Career Q&A
or programs that need an additional resource? Are there
smaller, low-risk projects being launched? Is there a
project management community with regular meetings
or forums you could ask to attend? Inquire about other
project management training options, too.
If there aren’t any opportunities at your current
organization, look for a new project coordinator posi-
tion where the responsibilities show management of
small projects. You may find that your skills and expe-
rience in a supporting role will help you to make the
short list. PM
Lindsay Scott is the director of program
and project management recruitment at
Arras People in London, England. Please
send your career questions to pmnetwork@
imaginepub.com.
november 2010 PM NETWORK 23
10/12/10 4:12 PM
 viewpoints
The End is Just t
voices on project management
Post-implementation reviews can reveal some tough truths—which is
why they’re so necessary. b y C a t a l i n - T e o d o r D o g a r u , P h D , P M P
T
he need for post-implementation project reviews
seems rudimentary.
Every outcome, be it a product, process or ser-
vice, should be compared with the initial concept.
We analyze the deliverables of a project or program and issue
a conclusion—namely, was it a success or a failure?
Why, then, do we so often need to justify post-
implementation reviews to stakeholders?
Some of the reasons to support reviews might seem obvi-
ous, but project professionals under pressure to watch the
bottom line need all the ammunition they can find. Here
are some of the areas a post-implementation review can
help analyze:
1. Final deliverables versus initial baselines:
Several months ago, my company, Vodafone, a telecom pro-
vider, launched a new online self-care system. Because of its
complexity, the project had different implementation phases,
each with its own specific deliverables. At the end of every
phase, we conducted a brief evaluation of the results.
We discovered that while working under pressure
(which we all do), my project team and I had approved
change requests that altered the origi-
nal baselines—albeit in a good way.
The result was a very powerful sys-
tem that contained many new features
not included in the initial scope. The
post-implementation review created
the perfect opportunity to analyze the
difference between the original scope
and the end result.
2. The project manager’s
performance: If there’s a discrep-
ancy between what was expected and
what was actually produced, it’s prob-
ably closely related to the project man-
ager’s capabilities.
Many companies—including
mine—realize that project manage-
ment brings benefits, such as increased
24 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 1-25.indd 24
efficiency, improved performance and better monitoring of
the project portfolio. Yet in many cases, product managers or
line managers get appointed as project managers, sometimes
without proper training and preparation.
There’s no need to point fingers or take drastic action. But
evaluating the performance of those in the project manager
role can reveal where there’s room for improvement.
3. Team performance: Even if it sounds a bit harsh,
an evaluation of the team must be done for educational and
improvement purposes. Nobody has to get fired, but maybe
you need better organization or additional resources.
I’ve found the “customer,” especially for internal projects,
often settles for less. Sometimes the marketing department
doesn’t want to upset the IT staff, or vice versa. In such cases,
we project managers risk being “the bad guys,” but we still
have to measure performance.
4. Budget and schedule: Top management is still pri-
marily focused on time and money—understandable, given
the economic environment.
A project may deliver what’s expected, but if it costs dou-
ble the budgeted amount, it might
not be viewed as a success, even if
the expenditures were justified. A
post-implementation review estab-
lishes the facts in an organized and
objective manner.
5. Project management meth-
odology: Vodafone requires sev-
eral project management processes,
including project assignment steps,
phase gates, and specific documents
and approval schemes.
A review lets us see if that method-
ology is working. For example, is the
current project management process
suitable for small projects? Or should
we have a specific flow for so-called
“fast track” projects?
10/12/10 4:12 PM
 viewpoints
t the Beginning

voices on project management

the customer and, if approved, propagate it throughout the
>Join the discussion on the Voices on IT systems. After a post-implementation review, top manage-
Project Management blog at PMI.org. ment realized this application would increase sales efficiency
and offer a better customer experience if it was used at all
The complexities and rapid-fire change of digital customer contact points, including dealers.
marketing has hammered home the need for Evaluating the strategic impact triggered a veritable revo-
project management at advertising agencies. lution in the sales process at Vodafone, as well as a slew of
In “Project Management in Nontraditional Envi- projects to expand the service.
ronments,” Geoff Mattie explores the balance
between creativity and process. 8. Ecological impact: There are many situations in which
the initial assumptions about sustainability are not entirely
accurate. The review process is a great opportunity to take
It’s also a good time to look at templates. The instruments a long, hard look how our projects and programs affect the
used in project and program management need to be recon- environment.
sidered and tweaked as well.
9. The post-implementation
6. The initial idea: In the project planning stage, top review itself: All aspects of
management typically analyzes the original concept. Why the project must be analyzed and
not take another look at it at the end of the project to see updated—and this is no exception.
how it fit into the big picture? Was it actually a good idea?
Did it offer a strategic advantage for the company? Did it Every organization needs a fully
deliver a clear differentiator? functional post-implementation
review to be sure its project man-
7. Strategic alignment: Look at how the project or agement methodology and pro-
program impacted the organization’s objectives. Sometimes cesses are maximizing results. Catalin-Teodor
the bigger projects and programs need to make a U-turn when But how many make the effort to Dogaru, PhD,
it comes to strategy. analyze all of these points—espe- PMP, is a program
For example, based on a request from the telesales depart- cially when some might reveal manager for the
ment, Vodafone recently initiated a project to create an ugly truths about what needs to telecom provider
automated customer-profiling system. In real time and with be changed? Vodafone,
little information, an agent can now build a tailored offer for Is your organization ready? PM Bucharest, Romania.

Raise Your Voice No one knows project management better than you, the
practitioners “in the trenches.” Every month, project managers share ideas, experiences and
opinions on everything from sustainability to talent management and all points in between in the
Voices on Project Management column. If you’re interested in contributing, please send your idea
to pmnetwork@imaginepub.com.

november 2010 PM NETWORK 25

PMN1110 1-25.indd 25 10/12/10 4:12 PM
 PMN1110 26-51.indd 26 1
0071_PMTI_PASS_IT.indd 10/12/10
9/1/10 5:06
3:21:10 PMPM
 <Behind the Scenes>
As owner of the design
agency Someoddpilot in
Chicago, Illinois, USA, Chris
Eichenseer leads projects
to develop websites, brands
and graphic art. Managing a
constantly changing team of
full-timers and contractors,
he finds he must do his part
to encourage creativity.
“An empty desk and a
blank screen never inspired
anything but fear,” he says
in Creative Force. “If you’re
trying to generate ideas, you
need to give the mind some-
thing to chew on.” pg. 44

Keep It Personal
Sparking Ignition details how the National Ignition
> Technology helps project
managers deal with virtual Facility project was headed for trouble—but a massive
teams, but different teams will
have different preferences, overhaul with a new baseline helped it win the PMI 2010
sometimes based on culture.
Project of the Year award. pg. 28
> Project managers can foster
connections among team mem-
bers with small personal details, US$2 million
like photographs.
The amount the project came in under budget
> Virtual meetings should have
the same structure as those
conducted face-to-face.
3 weeks
pg. 58 The amount of time the project was ahead of schedule

The PMO Survival Guide

31 percent
The drop in failed projects at organizations with
project management offices (PMOs)
“ You have to understand—and this is very impor-
tant—that second place in the interview is the
same as last place. The best person wins the job.
You can buy a new suit, but you’ve got to get
with somebody who knows about interviewing
US$567,000 and practice so that you hone your skills.”
The average amount per project that a PMO

”
saves an organization —Don Paullin, Hiring Firing Experts Inc., Libertyville, Illinois, USA,
in Mastering the Interview, pg. 50
pg. 34
Source: The State of the PMO 2010, PM Solutions

november 2010 PM NETWORK 27

:21:10 PM PMN1110 26-51.indd 27 10/12/10 5:06 PM
sparking i
pmi 2 0 1 0 pro j e c t o f t h e y e a r

More than a decade after it began,

the National Ignition Facility
project sets a record for laser energy.
28 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 28 10/12/10 5:06 PM

g ignition
by Kelley Hunsberger photos by robert houser

From left: Scott

Samuelson, PMP,
Edward Moses, PhD,
Ralph Patterson Jr.,
Mary Spaeth and
Bruno Van Wonterghem, PhD

november 2010 PM NETWORK 29

PMN1110 26-51.indd 29 10/14/10 3:25 PM
 US$2 million
n
The amount the
project was under
budget
Nuclear reactions occur all the time in
active stars, but mirroring the reaction
within the confines of a laboratory is
another matter altogether.
On that quest since the early 1970s,
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s
National Nuclear Security Administra-
tion (NNSA) initiated a project to build
the National Ignition Facility & Photon
Science Directorate (NIF) in 1996. Part
of its mission was to provide scientists
with the physics understanding necessary
to achieve a controlled, self-sustaining
nuclear fusion reaction known as ignition.
Such an achievement would be a
major step toward developing inertial
fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtu-
ally unlimited power source, says Ed
Moses, PhD, principal associate direc-
tor, NIF, Livermore, California, USA.
Just opening the facility, though,
took nearly 13 years and more than
US$3.5 billion—along with thousands
of engineers, scientists and technicians.
And then there was the massive restruc-
port systems, precise placement and
alignment of components—despite a
multitude of opportunities for errors
to creep in—and a rigorously accurate
computer timing system.”
To accomplish fusion, the DOE
needed a facility that went beyond
state-of-the-art. In January 1993, then-
U.S. Secretary of Energy James Watkins
approved the statement of mission need
for the NIF, greenlighting what would
become the NNSA’s largest scientific
construction project.
The primary mission was to help the
NNSA gain a better understanding of
the complex physics of nuclear weapons
while maintaining the moratorium on
underground testing.
Four years later, the project team broke
ground on the NIF’s 500,000-square-
foot (46,452-square-meter) facility, com-
prised of three interconnected buildings:
the Optics Assembly Building, the Laser
and Target Area Building and the Diag-
nostics Building.
3 weeks turing of the project plan after signs of
missed milestones and budget overrides.
Inside the Optics Assembly Building,
large precision-engineered laser compo-
The amount of time
nents were assembled under stringent
the project was Shooting for the Stars cleanroom conditions into special mod-
ahead of schedule Dr. Moses calls ignition “an engineering ules for installation into the laser system.
challenge of the first order.” It requires The Laser and Target Area Build-
“rock-solid stability in the optics sup- ing houses 192 laser beams in two

A look down one of the main laser bays.

30 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 30 10/12/10 5:06 PM


identical bays. Large mirrors, spe-
cially coated for the laser wavelength
and mounted on 10-story-tall struc-
tures, direct the laser beams through
switchyards and into a target bay.
There, they are focused at the exact
center of the 10-meter (33-foot)
-diameter concrete-shielded, 130-
ton target chamber.
Getting Back on Track
When the construction phase of the
project began, the team had a hard
and fast deadline of September 2001
to meet its milestones for equipment
installation and testing.
Mother Nature had a different
plan. In 1997, El Niño rains flooded
the work site. To keep the project
on schedule, the team brought in
outside help, including construction
engineers trained to work in inclem-
ent weather.
Construction was again slowed
when workers discovered the re-
mains of a 16,000-year-old mammoth.
An archaeological team from Uni-
versity of California–Berkeley came
on scene to excavate the mammoth,
nicknamed “Niffy.”
By August 1999, the NIF project team
forecast major scheduling delays and cost
overruns. The causes were twofold:
1. 
The team had not planned ade-
quately for the complexity and high
cleanliness requirements associated
with installing the intricate and
tightly packed clusters of lasers.
2. 
The lack of a systems engineer-
ing focus within the NIF manage-
ment hierarchy resulted in managers
who didn’t properly identify the full
scope and greatly miscalculated the
project’s engineering complexities.
Then-Secretary Bill Richardson
announced a series of actions to “get
NIF back on track.” The DOE directed
the project team to develop a new base-
line, which would have to be approved
by the DOE and then by Congress.
“We should have but did not rec-
ognize that the size and complexity of
PMN1110 26-51.indd 31
The Path to Ignition
January 1993 NIF’s conceptual design study approved
May 1997 Groundbreaking ceremony
1997 Construction slowed by flooding from
El Niño rains and discovery of the
16,000-year-old remains of a mammoth
June 1999 Target chamber dedicated
August 1999 Major schedule delays and cost
overruns forecast
August 2000 New baseline and senior management
team established
December 2002 First tests of laser beams
May 2003 World record for laser performance set
July 2007 First laser bay completed and
commissioned
October 2008 Second laser bay completed and
commissioned
December 2008 All 192 target chamber final optics
installed
January 2009 All project performance completion
criteria met
March 2009 Formal certification of project
completion
29 May 2009 Official dedication
Early 2010 Ignition experiments begin
assembling a clean infrastructure for
192 beam lines in a tight space bore
more resemblance to aerospace and
semi-conductor facilities than our pre-
vious experience building laser research
facilities,” Dr. Moses says. “We engaged
an industrial partner and subcontrac-
tors with proven records of constructing
similarly complex facilities to assemble
>> For more about
and install the critical beam path infra- this award-winning
structure. We conducted a bottoms-up project, watch our
reassessment of costs and schedule to
complete design and assembly of opti-
video on NIF.
cal systems, providing the basis for the Only at PMI.org/
project baseline.” PMNetwork.
A new senior management team
was established at the NNSA and the
Lawrence Livermore National Lab-
oratory (LLNL) to provide clearer
oversight and lines of authority. The
formal risk posture was reassessed,
and a revised contingency level was
derived.
november 2010 PM NETWORK 31
10/12/10 5:06 PM
 “
We conducted
a bottoms-up
To ensure the new plan was com-
prehensive and executable, the DOE
arranged for outside scientific and tech-
released a new directive for the acquisi-
tion of capital assets, which relies heav-
ily on concepts and processes outlined
nical reviews of the NIF’s cost and in A Guide to the Project Management
reassessment schedule risk. Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).
“These reviews observed that a tal- The successful turnaround and
of costs and schedule ented management team augmented with completion of the NIF project can be
to complete design industrial partners capable of completing traced directly to the strategic change
the project was in place and that the in approach to project management
and assembly of cost, schedule and contingency for the adopted by the department and the
NIF’s new project baseline was sound and LLNL, Dr. Moses says.
optical systems, appropriate,” Dr. Moses continues.
Additionally, the reviews found that Targeting Innovation
providing the basis an earned value system of cost and With the methodology woes addressed,
for the project schedule management had been put in the project team could focus on its
place and was maturing. next task: building not only the world’s
baseline.
”
—Ed Moses, PhD
“Project management has been
restructured and has demonstrated over
the last six months that it is capable
highest-energy laser but the largest opti-
cal instrument ever built as well.
“For the NIF to succeed, the qual-
of managing a project of this scope,” ity of the optics had to be higher than
Secretary Richardson concluded. He anything previously produced, and all
particularly lauded the use of industrial optical materials had to be manufac-
experts with relevant experience to both tured in a shorter time than was pos-
review and participate in the project. sible with existing technologies,” Dr.
At the same time, the DOE launched Moses says.
several initiatives directed at improving To get the job done, scientists and
management of its project portfolio. It engineers on the project team worked
closely with optics vendors, two indus-
trial partners and the French Commis-
Safety Target sariat à l’Energie Atomique.
The system required more than
Dealing with lasers is dangerous business, making safety manage- 3,000 pieces of laser glass that would be
ment the paramount issue on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) long if placed
project. end to end. Continuous glass melting
To minimize the possibilities of cost increases, schedule delays or, was the only way to produce the large
worse, project termination, the NIF team created a project site safety quantity and high quality of laser glass
program. It instituted job hazards analysis, training and qualification necessary in the time available.
programs, and management and worker commitments to safety. An aggressive construction schedule
“The program provided a uniform and rigorous set of safety require- meant finding a way to rapidly grow
ments with defined roles and responsibilities governing all activities at high-quality KDP (potassium dihydro-
the site,” says Ed Moses, PhD, NIF, Livermore, California, USA. gen phosphate) crystals, which convert
The team called in a consultant to help implement a culture of infrared laser beams to ultraviolet light
safety among the NIF personnel and various subcontractors. and improve the interaction of the laser
An award-winning safety record was maintained for over a beams with the fusion target.
decade—and workers put in more than 5 million hours without illness A new technology had to be devel-
or injury resulting in time off. oped, and it proved amazingly effective:
Crystals that would have taken up to
two years to grow by traditional tech-
>>The Search Is On niques were produced in a couple of
Know of a particularly impressive project? Nominate it for the PMI 2011 months. In addition, the crystals were
Project of the Year Award. Learn more at PMI.org. large enough that more glass plates
could be cut from each.

32 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 32 10/12/10 5:06 PM

 The project used 480 optics from the
rapidly grown KDP, as well as 192 optics
produced from traditionally grown
DKDP (potassium dideuterium phos-
phate), which crystallizes in a similar
form. Once all the optics were complete,
approximately 75 production crystals
were grown, weighing nearly 100 tons.
In the process, the team revolution-
ized the manufacturing of precision
large optics, producing 1-meter (3-foot)
plates of laser glass that could be manu-
factured 20 percent faster, five times
cheaper and with better quality than
previous one-at-a-time processes.
Technology breakthroughs didn’t stop
there. Working closely with a variety of
other partners, the project team devel-
oped pulsed-power electronics, innova-
tive integrated computer control systems
and advanced manufacturing capabili-
ties. More than 12,000 contracts were
awarded to 8,000-plus vendors during
project execution, representing US$1.8
billion of procurements.
Coming Into Focus
Construction, assembly and installa-
tion of the special equipment was
completed US$2 million under budget
and three weeks ahead of schedule. All
192 enclosures for laser beams were
finalized in 2003, and the second of
two laser bays was commissioned in
October 2008.
Construction wrapped up in Febru-
ary 2009, and the next month scientists
at the NIF fired a 192-beam shot deliv-
ering 1.1 megajoules of infrared energy
to the center of the target chamber in
the complex-shaped pulse needed for
ignition. The NNSA certified the facil-
ity later in March.
But all that was just the first phase of
the project. The team also had to dem-
onstrate the facility could operate for
the next 30 or more years. This required
delivering a qualified operations staff,
safety systems, documents and draw-
ings, training materials and qualifica-
tion cards, procedures for operating
and maintenance, work authorization
PMN1110 26-51.indd 33
and control, and configuration-
management systems.
Ready to Rock the
Scientific World
After touring the NIF in Octo-
ber 2009, the new Secretary of
Energy, Steven Chu, called the
facility “a marvel” and an exam-
ple of successful management
of taxpayer dollars and national
security needs. At the NIF’s
official dedication on 29 May
2009, Thomas D’Agostino,
administrator of the NNSA,
cited the NIF as a prime exam-
ple of project management
excellence, and the NNSA’s
NIF project director Scott Sam-
uelson, PMP, received the fed-
eral project director of the year
award last year from the DOE.
The facility experienced its The target chamber containing
first testing success in January, the final optics assembly.
when its staff broke what it calls “the
megajoule barrier”: Scientists hit a tar-
get with a historic level of laser energy
just over 1 megajoule—about 30 times
more than delivered by any other group
of lasers in the world—all in a few bil-
lionths of a second.
“Breaking the megajoule barrier
brings us one step closer to fusion
ignition at the NIF and shows the
universe of opportunities made possible
by one of the largest scientific and engi-
8,000+
neering challenges of our time,” Mr. The number of vendors
D’Agostino says. involved
Its accomplishments earned the NIF
team the PMI 2010 Project of the Year
award.
US$1.8 billion
“We are most proud to have suc- The amount of all the
cessfully completed the project ahead procurements
of schedule and under budget,” Dr.
Moses says. “This was accomplished
by an extraordinarily talented team 12,000+
of scientists, engineers and technicians The number of contracts
supported by an equally talented and awarded for the project
energetic administrative staff. Their
ingenuity, dedication and hard work
have taken us to the verge of a historic
scientific breakthrough.” PM
november 2010 PM NETWORK 33
10/12/10 5:06 PM
 the p
g

34 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 34 10/12/10 5:06 PM

e pmo
survival
guide Things are looking good
for project management
offices—at least the ones
that can deliver ROI.
by Sarah Fister Gale :: illustration by otto steininger

november 2010 PM NETWORK 35

PMN1110 26-51.indd 35 10/12/10 5:06 PM
 IN
what remains a tenuous recov-
ery at best, it’s survival of the
fittest. And project manage-
ment offices (PMOs) are no
exception. When the econ-
omy took a dive, those with
a weak mission and no execu-
tive support were among the
first on the chopping block.
Yet those PMOs with strong leader-
ship and a clear strategy that added
quantifiable value to the bottom line
not only made the cut, they were pro-
gressively thought of as a go-to resource
for the executive suite.
“In today’s increasingly competitive
environment, organizations need to for-
malize and improve the way projects are
conducted,” says Rogério de Mello Pires,
PMP, corporate PMO, portfolio and
program manager at Itaú Unibanco, a
bank in São Paulo, Brazil. “In that con-
text, the PMO is being recognized by a
larger number of organizations to be a
project management business function
structure of increasing importance.”
More than half of PMOs now report
to the highest levels of management,
according to The State of the PMO 2010,
a survey of 291 U.S. project profession-
als across sectors by PM Solutions,
a project management consultancy in
Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, USA. And
they’re working on high-value strategic
>>More than half
of PMOs now
report to the
highest levels of
management.
Source: The State of the PMO 2010
36 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 26-51.indd 36
tasks, including implementing or man-
aging the governance process (72 per-
cent), advising executives (64 percent)
and participating in strategic planning
(62 percent).
Part of the reason they’re gaining
that organizational clout comes down
to performance. PMOs reduced the
number of failed projects by 31 percent,
delivered 30 percent of projects under
budget and saved companies an average
of US$567,000 per project, according
to the report.
It’s a fairly positive picture, but it’s
clear the standout PMOs do much more
than offer standard documentation.
“The PMOs that are seen as merely
administrative support are the ones
that struggle to gain traction within the
organization,” says J. Kent Crawford,
PMP, PMI Fellow, CEO and president
of PM Solutions.
Valuable PMOs set processes and
track projects as a standard matter of
performance, but the advanced PMOs
also deal with governance, resource opti-
mization, performance measurement
and portfolio management, he says.
“You need to make sure that the mes-
sage of the PMO matches the direction
senior leadership is going,” Mr. Crawford
says. “PMOs show the greatest value when
portfolio performance is related to the stra-
tegic objectives of the organization.”
10/12/10 5:06 PM
 Basic metrics aren’t enough.
“PMO leaders can’t just rephrase
data from one document to another.
They have to be able to critically analyze
the problems and be seen as an organi-
zation that can design and implement
solutions,” says Zafeiris Konstantinos
Petalas, PhD, portfolio management
office lead at financial services giant
Barclays, London, England.
“PMOs need to stand up and show
their executive team what they can do,”
he says. “It takes passion and a deep
understanding of how their compe-
tencies link to the larger goals of the
business.”
The trouble is, that’s precisely where
many PMOs fail.
“They have no vision or mission,
and no measures of success,” says Mark There was a lot of
Perry, senior vice president of operations
for BOT International, a PMO software
uncertainty regarding the
provider in Orlando, Florida, USA.
That’s when they get labeled as
value of the PMO until
administrative overhead—and fall prey we ran the initial reports.
to budget cuts.
At that point, it became
Give the Executives
What They Want clear to people what we
The first step in delivering what the
organization needs is to know what the were doing and why we
organization wants.
“A good PMO leader should go to
were doing it.
the executive team and ask, ‘What are —Donna Easterday, PMP, National Institutes of Health,
your top three problems?’ and then Rockville, Maryland, USA
set a mission and goals around solving
them,” says Mr. Perry, author of Business
Driven PMO Setup: Practical Insights,
Techniques and Case Examples for Ensur- federal government agency in Rockville,
ing Success [J. Ross Publishing, 2009]. Maryland, USA was abundantly clear
These goals could include measur- about what it wanted: greater insight
able outcomes, such as reducing fore- into the progress of projects and a bet-
casting errors by 10 percent. Results ter structure around how projects are
should be tabulated and reported back managed.
to the executive team. As chief of human resource systems
“Then at the end of the year, there support and information management,
is no doubt that the PMO was suc- she determined that the best way to
cessful,” Mr. Perry says. “That’s how a deliver on those goals was to build a
PMO survives.” PMO.
When Donna Easterday, PMP, To make her case, Ms. Easterday
joined the National Institutes of Health defined the issues the PMO would
(NIH) in 2009, management at the address, along with quantifiable mea-

november 2010 PM NETWORK 37

PMN1110 26-51.indd 37 10/12/10 5:06 PM

It’s important to talk to
both sides. Executives
want transparency,
and project managers
need an advocate.
That’s the PMO’s role.
—Ivo M. Michalick Vasconcelos, PMP,
M2 Consultoría, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
sures to track outcomes. She also
included data on the long-term impact
of not building a PMO, including
expenses related to inconsistent report-
ing, errors due to inaccurate project
data and higher risks. “I identified the
big problems and put a cost to them,”
she says.
The measured bottom-line tone
of the business case won the execu-
tive suite’s attention. “The leadership
responded very positively,” she says.
Ms. Easterday was given the support,
resources and time she needed to create
a PMO.
Ms. Easterday spent the first four
months defining project management
38 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 26-51.indd 38
methodologies and devising reporting
processes that would give the execu-
tive team the consistent transparency
it sought.
During that time, there was little
evidence of what she would eventually
accomplish, which made some of her
colleagues skeptical.
“This resulted in the need for addi-
tional education and understanding,”
she says. “There was a lot of uncer-
tainty regarding the value of the PMO
until we ran the initial reports. At
that point, it became clear to people
what we were doing and why we were
doing it.”
The reports did more than track
progress. They provided at-a-glance
information about every project in
the portfolio, addressing one of the
executive team’s biggest complaints
about the agency’s project manage-
ment process.
“They were able to see the data that
they had been seeking for years but
didn’t have a methodology to collect,”
she says. “It was a true culture change.”
Stay in Line
For many organizations, PMOs serve as
a powerful force driving organizational
strategy down into the trenches.
At NIH, Ms. Easterday created a
structure designed to ensure all projects
were in sync with business goals. Every
project that moves forward must have a
clearly defined business case that aligns
with organizational strategy, and the
monthly PMO reports map how cur-
rently completed projects meet NIH
objectives.
To deal with issues that might com-
promise the ability to deliver on stra-
tegic goals, all projects develop and
maintain risk registers. These are con-
solidated at the end of each month into
a risk report.
“It forces the project managers and
project leads to think about the impli-
cations of project-related decisions they
are making and to ask whether what
they are about to do aligns with the
10/12/10 5:06 PM
 larger goals of the organization,” Ms.
Easterday says.
The PMO can also act as a bridge
between executives and project man-
agers and their teams, says Ivo M.
Michalick Vasconcelos, PMP, owner
of M2 Consultoría, a project man-
agement consultancy in Belo Hori-
zonte, Brazil.
When Mr. Michalick Vasconcelos
recently worked as a PMO manager
at Vale, for example, he would ask the
mining company’s project managers
to produce an executive summary of
their projects. Instead, they would
inevitably develop two-hour presenta-
tions.
He spent months working with
both senior management and project
managers to create a graphics-driven
template reporting around key per-
formance indicators and measures
of progress. Only one column was
reserved for notes—yet the project
managers still had trouble.
“In the first report, the project man-
agers wrote three pages of text in very
small letters to fit the space,” he says,
laughing. “But eventually they adapted.”
By working across all levels of
the organization, PMOs help project
teams and the company leaders work
in harmony.
“It’s important to talk to both
sides,” he says. “Executives want trans-
parency, and project managers need
an advocate. That’s the PMO’s role.”
With everyone on the same page,
the PMO can ensure it’s getting the job
done.
“When the strategic and impor-
tant projects of the organization are
completed with success and with the
expected return, the value and impor-
tance of PMOs is recognized by all,”
says Mr. de Mello Pires.
Those PMOs that can make that
connection and deliver measurable
results will be viewed as an inherently
valuable thread in the corporate tapes-
try. And that may be the most effec-
tive survival tactic of all. PM
0082_EMBRY-RIDDLE_SOME_THINGS.pdf 1 9/20/10 10:30:27 AM

november 2010 PM NETWORK 39

PMN1110 26-51.indd 39 10/12/10 5:06 PM
 a closer lo o
Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, Ro
photos b y Alessandro Barteletti

Giuseppina Copetti, PMP, and

Maria Cristina Barbero, PMP

PMN1110 26-51.indd 40 10/12/10 5:07 PM

o ok
With an obvious need for structure but no
budget, a sprawling IT organization opts to
create a virtual project management office.

ca, Rome, Italy

W
With 11 companies, 40 branches and
6,300 employees, Engineering Ingegneria
Informatica has a lot of projects going on.
Looking to bring order to a cha-
otic project environment, executives at
the IT behemoth wanted to institute a
standard methodology inspired by PMI
standards to be used for every project
across the organization.
Back in 2006, Engineering had initi-
ated a project to tackle inconsistencies
and inefficiencies with a revamp of
the organization’s project management
training program. Giuseppina Copetti,
PMP, the company’s head of project
management training, worked with
Maria Cristina Barbero, PMP, head of
the IT strategy business unit for Nexen
Business Consultants, part of the Engi-
neering group of companies.
Despite the training, an early 2009
review revealed little progress had
been made. The company’s 200 Project
Management Professional (PMP)® cre-
dential holders were still not following
a standardized project management
methodology.
“Without having the chance to apply
project management best practices to
projects in the real world, the project
management training courses were not
enough to improve quality. Project man-
agers, on returning to their projects,
would progressively fall back into their
previous habits,” Ms. Barbero says. “It
was time for some kind of project man-
agement office.”
It just wasn’t going to be the tradi-
tional kind.

november 2010 PM NETWORK 41

PMN1110 26-51.indd 41 10/14/10 1:11 PM
 August to November February
July 2009 September 2009 2010
The project 2009 The charter is The virtual PMO
is proposed to Meetings with approved and goes live but
Engineering’s managing the project is some sections
CEO. directors take launched. remain under
May 2009 place to obtain Project December construction.
The virtual buy-in. Directors managers meet 2009
PMO concept is select the volun- with the leader- The IT portion
devised. teer project ship team to of the project
leadership team. designate roles. begins.

Virtual Reality ager to adhere to the community, objectives

Ms. Copetti and Ms. Barbero considered
many alternatives, including the most obvious
option of constructing a project management
office (PMO) as a centralized physical unit.
But after interviews with Engineering lead-
ership, the two executives determined that
although project management was a valued
asset across the organization, colocating all
of the project managers wasn’t feasible.
Also, “the time to dedicate to this project
had to be obtained on a voluntary basis,”
Ms. Barbero says.
Based on the limited resources, the
women hit upon an unusual solution: create
a virtual PMO.
Given the circumstances, they knew they
needed backing from executives across
companies.
“It’s harder to retain the leadership and
obtain tangible support, especially without
a clear position in the organizational chart,”
Ms. Barbero says.
Still, Ms. Barbero and Ms. Copetti had
several factors going in their favor.
“I believe it would be more difficult
to secure buy-in for a traditional PMO,
because a traditional PMO implies at least
some organizational changes that not all
stakeholders will appreciate,” Ms. Barbero
says. “Besides that, a traditional PMO gen-
erally does require an initial investment that
is not always simple to justify.”
The scheme worked. The team received
the support needed to give the PMO a posi-
tion of authority and drive accountability
among project managers.
“Once top management is involved and
the decision is made by each project man-
and rules can be defined,” Ms. Barbero says.
In August 2009, she and Ms. Copetti set
out to build a leadership team that included
13 PMP®-certified project managers from
each of Engineering’s business units. The
organization’s CEO, as well as executives
across the companies, were involved in the
process to select the right representatives.
Led by Ms. Barbero, the virtual PMO
leadership team crafted a charter with the
express goal of aggregating all project man-
agement knowledge and acting as an orga-
nizational unit for project management at
Engineering.
A Uniform Method
In many ways, team members focused on
the same activities a physical PMO would.
They built a network to house templates
and standard processes, and to encourage
project management best practices based
on A Guide to the Project Management Body
of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).
“To enforce the idea that the community
is a structure, we insist on working on
tangible and useful things such as forms,
texts to use in answering bids, templates
and subsidiary management plans,” Ms.
Copetti says.
The team also created specific met-
rics around each of the PMO’s charter
goals. For example, to measure whether the
organization’s project management style is
being adhered to, PMO leaders conduct a
regular review of projects. The goal is to
have at least 80 percent of project man-
agers adopting practices aligned with the
PMBOK® Guide by 2013.

42 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 42 10/12/10 5:07 PM


O and Enrico Piccioni, PMP
Aiming to position the PMO as a virtual
community, the site incorporates blogs,
members’ CVs, case studies, a forum for
the project managers to debate what should
be published and a search engine.
Yet the team didn’t want the PMO to
appear to be just a chat room for project
managers. So it implemented clearly defined
structures, goals and guidelines—and strictly
enforced the rules.
Engineering’s PMO resides entirely on
the Internet, but identity management soft-
ware filters access requests and accepts
only select users.
“We decided to restrict access to only
PMP credential holders in order to push
them to be hubs for all of their colleagues
and avoid others downloading materials
without knowing exactly what they need,”
Ms. Barbero says.
To ensure all of the information stays
in line with corporate and PMO policies,
the leadership team created a document-
approval process through which all data
must be vetted before it is posted.
The team has also been working to open
the lines of communication to ensure divi-
sion directors maintain a clear understand-
ing of project progress. Project managers
are expected to produce a status report
PMN1110 26-51.indd 43
From left:
Pasquale Lamattina, PMP;
Giuseppina Copetti, PMP;
Nicola De Leonardis, PMP;
Raffaele Picchio, PMP;
Maria Cristina Barbero,
PMP; Luca Romano, PMP;
11
twice a year, for example. The team also
began educating others in the organization
about project management through formal
meetings and informal conversations.
The number of
Virtual Goes Viral
companies in
Ms. Barbero and Ms. Copetti have found
Engineering Ingegneria
the virtual format to be an effective solu- Informatica
tion—particularly for an organization spread
40
out across Italy and other parts of the world.
They have created a project management
structure that has grown into a viable and
valuable part of Engineering Ingegneria Infor- The number of branches
matica.
6,300
Although its limited financial options
prompted the virtual PMO, team leaders are
seeing benefits far beyond lower costs.
“The virtual PMO focuses on proj- The number
ect management excellence rather than of employees
on generic project management compe-
€0
tencies,” Ms. Copetti says. “That delivers
greater business enhancement.”
In fact, the project has spawned a larger
trend.
The budget for creating
“Virtual communities are growing inside
the Engineering group around other dis-
a PMO at Engineering
ciplines and areas of management,” Ms.
Barbero says. “They are taking inspira-
tion from how we are leading the PMO.”
—Sarah Fister Gale
november 2010 PM NETWORK 43
10/12/10 5:07 PM
creative
fo
photos courtesy of Chris Eichenseer

PMN1110 26-51.indd 44 10/12/10 5:07 PM

ve
force
Chris Eichenseer,
Someoddpilot,
Chicago, Illinois, USA

PMN1110 26-51.indd 45
f
Tired of blank stares and shrugs
during brainstorming sessions?
Here’s how to get your
team thinking like the true
visionaries they are.
by Chauncey Hollingsworth

november 2010 PM NETWORK 45

10/12/10 5:07 PM
 46
t >TIP
Though it has been studied and dis-
cussed for centuries, the creative process
remains largely shrouded in mystery.
Equally as cryptic is the project manag-
er’s role in nurturing innovation among
team members.
This is no esoteric question for
scholars to ponder. All teams depend on
bursts of original thinking—whether
they’re designing special effects for a
video game slated for a holiday release
or figuring out how best to install a
next-gen e-mail server with a minimum
of system downtime.
Tapping a team’s collective power of
innovation can improve morale, slash
costs, save time and turn limited resources
into renewable fountains of plenty.
Sometimes, though, teams get stuck
in a rut. They fall into the same rote
protocol, with brainstorming sessions
leading nowhere and all those attempts
at cutting-edge initiatives seeming stale.
So how can project managers help
break their teams out of the doldrums?
“Project leaders can motivate
unconventional thought first and
foremost by creating the environment
where creative thought can flourish,”
says Alan E. Yue, PMP, president of
PreNetSys, an IT and project manage-
ment consultancy based in Honolulu,
Hawaii, USA.

Encourage “crazy” ideas, suggests

Kate Nasser, an independent trainer and coach in
Somerville, New Jersey, USA. One option is to take
an object or subject team members are familiar with
and ask them to generate a bunch of what-if questions
about it. “Don’t go analytic and start to problem-solve,”
she says.
Choose one of the what-ifs and ask for 10 answers—
the more off-the-wall the better. Give prizes for the
three most ridiculous ideas.
What’s the goal of this exercise? “Surprise!” Ms.
Nasser says. “Valuable ideas emerge.”

PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 46
Innovation and creativity must
be structured processes, says Mário
Henrique Trentim, PMI-RMP, PMP,
Department of Airspace Control, Bra-
zilian Air Force, Recife, Brazil. “Brain-
storming is a technique and should be
used with focus and purpose. Project
managers can motivate their teams to
think outside the box by inspiring them
to participate and contribute to the
project planning.”

Feed the Mind

Bereft of stimuli, creativity suffers. So
it’s no surprise that a paucity of imagi-
nation often afflicts the typical office
cubicle farm. Fortunately, that particu-
lar malady can be fairly easily addressed.
“The first thing I’d do is rip down the
cubicle walls, push the desks together,
make a couple extra desks available
and stock them with sketchbook paper,
paints and all kinds of utensils ready
to go for an art desk,” says Chris
Eichenseer, owner of the design agency
Someoddpilot, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
For about 10 years, he has followed
clients’ sometimes vague directives on
website projects—from identification
of brand directives to final site delivery
and implementation—with milestones
connected to specific deliverables and
client sign-offs. And he does so with an
ever-varying team comprised of some
full-timers as well as a collection of
contractors.
Sometimes developing that creative
genius takes an innovative workspace
solution.
“Get your people to start talking
a lot and putting things up on the
wall. Encourage everybody to bring in
their favorite artwork and prints,” Mr.
Eichenseer says. “You may need to tear
the place apart so the environment fits
the work that needs to be done.”
You can’t just stand in front of an
empty whiteboard and expect team
members to lob brilliant ideas your way.
“If you’re going to encourage people
to think creatively, you have to provide
some kind of input,” Mr. Eichenseer says.

10/12/10 5:07 PM
 “An empty desk and a blank
screen never inspired anything
but fear,” he says. “If you’re try-
ing to generate ideas, you need
to give the mind something to
chew on. That could mean going
outside with a camera and taking
a bunch of interesting photos or
going to a rock show and letting
ideas come—whatever you can
do to feed the brain.”
Encourage project teams to
read books or articles from pub-
lications they might not ordinarily
peruse, and scan the web for blogs,
articles and videos. Good ideas are
often a product of connecting two
or more disparate concepts.
“The key ingredient is for the
project manager to model risk-tak-
ing and the willingness to verbalize
ideas that are partially formulated,”
says Steve Flannes, PhD, principal
of Flannes & Associates, Oakland,
California, USA, and co-author
of the book Essential People Skills
for Project Managers [Management Someoddpilot studio, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Concepts, 2005].
Get people to think about atively, position it from the start as a col-
questions such as, “If money was not lective contribution,” says Kate Nasser, Get your people to
an option, what is the very best solu-
tion that we can come up with?” he
an independent people-skills trainer and
coach in Somerville, New Jersey, USA. start talking a lot
suggests. “What is the most off-the-
wall idea that you can imagine that
“Most brainstorming and innovative ses-
sions start with individual contributions
and putting things
might solve our problem?”
Sometimes kick-starting creativity is
that begin to spur other ideas. Soon you
realize that all participated in the chosen
up on the wall.
as simple as giving someone a new role.
“I once had a team with a very quiet
idea—even those whose ideas were not
singularly implemented.”
Encourage every-
team member,” Dr. Flannes recalls. “She Producer Dan Fletcher throws him- body to bring in
said little in meetings but appeared to self into the mix whenever there’s a new
know her stuff and did good work. Her project at Firebrand Games, a video their favorite
creativity really surfaced when I asked
her to serve as the facilitator for a couple
game developer in Glasgow, Scotland.
Mr. Fletcher sits the team around the artwork and prints.
of team meetings in which she was asked table, lays out a problem and offers a
—Chris Eichenseer
to play the role of subject-matter expert. possible solution.
Given this permission to be ‘the expert,’ Then he lets his team “rip it to
she came forward with contributions shreds before coming up with a better
that she might not have otherwise.” solution,” he says.
Creativity has to be seen as a team
effort. The Right Environment
“If you are undertaking this challenge Whatever methods they choose to
of encouraging everyone to think cre- inspire innovative thinking, project

november 2010 PM NETWORK 47

PMN1110 26-51.indd 47 10/12/10 5:07 PM
 Too Creative?
As with most aspects of work, there’s a time and a place for visionary thinking.
“Creative thought offered at an inappropriate time or in an inappropri-
ate venue, such as in a meeting with multiple stakeholders present, can
introduce threat risk to project efforts,” says Alan E. Yue, PMP, PreNetSys,
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
“Project leaders who encourage teams to think creatively must also
coach teams on how and when to offer creative suggestions. Like any skill
or ability, creative thought must have discipline and be applied in ways that
minimize threat risks and maximize opportunities.”
Before you encourage your project teams to let loose whenever the
mood strikes, keep stakeholders in mind.
“The danger would be to encourage team members to be creative on
a project where the sponsoring executive does not want or can’t afford
innovation, and instead just wants a cheap and easy solution,” says Steve
Flannes, PhD, Flannes & Associates, Oakland, California, USA. “Encourag-
ing creativity in those settings sets the team up for failure.”

managers must recognize what team
members will respond to—and what
will fall flat.
“I’ve used both mind mapping
software and team exercises success-
fully in the past, but the key thing
is to get to know your team and
understand what they’ll buy into,”
Mr. Fletcher says. “If someone has a
predefined response to something like
a team exercise and they don’t buy in,
it’s not worth doing. So adapt and
think of other things.”
To keep those creative juices flow-
ing, project managers have to create
a welcoming space “in which people
are affirmed and treated with respect,”
advises Dr. Flannes.
And that’s where project manage-
ment becomes more art than science,
says Mr. Fletcher.
“It’s more about culture, and that
needs to be bred over a long period,”
he says. “It’s done by trying to fos-
ter an atmosphere of positivity rather
than negativity, an atmosphere that
encourages the inquisitive mind and
discourages, where possible, the focus
on deadlines and checking boxes of
completed items.”

>TIP
Creative genius starts
with you. “Think about inspiring, not motivating,”
says Kate Nasser, Somerville, New Jersey, USA.
“Inspiration comes through asking for outside-the-
box thinking more than once. You must appreciate
this thinking when it is offered—even if the idea is
not used—and modeling the behavior by doing it
yourself and expressing the value in it.”
Project managers can illustrate the
value of creative thinking with real-
life ROI.
“In construction, for example, think
of all the modern advances that have
accommodated persons with disabilities
or innovative answers that allow build-
ings to be built on tough terrain,” Ms.
Nasser says. “Most people relate to true
stories closely connected to their work,
so comb the web and your colleagues
for great examples.”

48 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 26-51.indd 48 10/12/10 5:07 PM


No Such Thing as
a Bad Idea
With all those ideas floating around,
it’s inevitable that some concepts won’t
be quite relevant to the task at hand
or can’t be implemented for whatever
reason. That leaves the project manager
in an awkward position.
“Team members commonly have
good ideas but they don’t share them
because they are not encouraged to do
so,” says Mr. Trentim, who is also the
director of iPM Consult, a project man-
agement training and consulting com-
pany in Recife, Brazil. “They feel like
their contributions won’t be accepted or
that they could be criticized.”
Ideas, no matter their value to a project,
have tremendous intrinsic worth to those
who came up with them. And people often
feel very protective of them. It’s up to the
project manager to make sure everyone
understands that his or her contributions
are valued even if they’re not used.
“Team members who experience
positive feedback when they offer cre-
ative thought will then be prone to
continue providing creative thought,”
Mr. Yue says.
When people feel their ideas are con-
stantly brushed aside, frustration is inevita-
ble. Project managers must tread carefully
so team members don’t get discouraged.
PMN1110 26-51.indd 49
>TIP Settle clashes quickly.
“Conflict must be actively addressed,
because the presence of unaddressed
conflict stifles anyone’s willingness
to extend themselves into creative
thinking,” says Steve Flannes, PhD,
Flannes & Associates, Oakland,
California, USA.
“Avoid any disparaging remarks,”
Ms. Nasser advises. “Outside-the-box
thinking is psychologically risky for
some. Remove the risk by never criticiz-
ing the ideas.”
Even the most out-there
suggestions could be used on
another project. Kick-Start
“Ideas that may not seem
immediately valuable may
Creativity
become invaluable at some To nurture creativity, try the following,
point in the future,” Mr. Yue suggests Alan E. Yue, PMP, PreNet-
says. “Ideas should not be dis- Sys, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA:
carded, and should be kept as n Have an open mind.
a part of the project archive.” n Listen actively.
Tight budgets have a way of n Appreciate inquisitiveness.
quashing creativity, but resist n 
Acknowledge and recognize when
the urge to kill ideas outright creative thought is offered.
based on the inevitable econo-
mies of time and money.
“It’s important to ensure that within
a naturally creative environment such
as the gaming industry, the lines of
communication are always open,” Mr.
Fletcher says. “It’s best to avoid having
designers and programmers dwell too
much on achievability within the cost
or timescale of a project. It’s better to
let the ideas flow and think about the
practicality of implementing those ideas
at a later date.”
Just consider it part of the creative
process. PM
november 2010 PM NETWORK 49
10/12/10 5:07 PM
 >> By Denene Brox

Mastering the in t
PMN1110 52-72.indd 50 10/12/10 4:37 PM
 careertrack

Interviews won’t feel

like interrogations if you

n terview>> practice all those tough

questions ahead of time.

PMN1110 52-72.indd 51 10/12/10 4:37 PM

 All that time you devoted to
networking, combing job listings
and crafting your résumé
finally paid off: You’ve landed
a job interview.
“If they’ve brought you
in for an interview, they’re
already interested in your background,”
points out Kelley White, Dedham,
Massachusetts, USA-based onsite pro-
gram manager for recruiting and human
resources at Evergreen Solar Inc., a solar
panel manufacturer.
But your work is just beginning.
With the official date on the calendar,
it’s time to seriously start preparing.
“Don’t enter the interview and try
to ‘wing it’—even if you are a very
experienced project manager,” says James
Berkeley, director of Berkeley Burke Inter-
national, an employee rewards consul-
tancy and executive coaching firm in
London, England.
Being able to hit all your career
highlights and still come off as charm-
ing and natural is an art form that takes
some practice.
“Study the company, the technologies,
the job description and potential inter-
view questions so every answer is right at
the tip of your tongue and you never feel
like you’re under the gun for an answer,”
says Ms. White, who is also a senior
technical recruiter at Advantage Technical
Resourcing, an IT and engineering proj-
ect management consultancy. “If you’re
well-prepared, you will feel much more
confident during your interview.”
Lack of preparation is the top reason
people fail in interviews, says Don Paul-
lin, president of Hiring Firing Experts
Inc., Libertyville, Illinois, USA. He rec-
ommends mock interviews with a job
coach or professional colleague.
“Very few project managers have
actually role-played before going into
an interview,” he says. “You have to
understand—and this is very impor-
tant—that second place in the interview
is the same as last place. The best person
wins the job. You can buy a new suit, but
you’ve got to get with somebody who
knows about interviewing and practice
so that you hone your skills.”
Most issues can be corrected through
practice—if project managers know about
them. Mr. Paullin gives the example of a
project manager who had great creden-
tials, “but he kept saying ‘you know’ and
‘like’ during the interview. If he were to
practice with someone who knew what
they were doing, that would have been
something he could have eliminated and
won the job.”
Without that knowledge, candidates
may be doomed to keep failing. “If you
repeat the same mistakes, you’ll never get
hired,” he says.
Monica Yao used mock interviews to
help her land her current position as a
Shanghai, China-based project manager
and team leader at Mercer, a financial
services consultancy.
“It helped me examine my weaknesses
when being interviewed and also helped
me think about the types of questions

>TIP Let recruiters leave a message. The job interview

starts from the first phone call, and you can’t afford to fumble through your first
impression. If you’ve submitted résumés and know organizations may be calling,
let your calls roll to voicemail so you’re not caught off-guard.
“Most companies call for a phone screening,” says Don Paullin, Hiring Firing
Experts Inc., Libertyville, Illinois, USA. “Leaving your answering machine on gives
you a chance to hear the name of the company so you can look it up before you
call them back. By then, you’ve had time to refresh your memory with the details
and can come across as much better-prepared.”

52 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 52-72.indd 52 10/13/10 11:03 AM

 they would ask and prepare my answers,”
she says.
The Big Event
Your résumé obviously caught the hiring
manager’s attention. Consider the inter-
view as your time to bring those words
to life with great tales of struggle and
triumph.
“I’ve heard a lot of project manag-
ers talk about things like difficulty with
scheduling or getting international teams
scheduled,” Ms. White says. “They need
to talk about how they handled that and
how they did a good job at what they
needed to accomplish.”
Highlight timelines, the number of
people you led, and budgets and sched-
ules in terms of delivery. For example,
you were able to complete a project
three days ahead of schedule or 10 per-
cent under budget.
“If candidates are vague, it’s not
going to bode well for their candidacy.
You want to talk about numbers and
specifics—things like what your role was
in the team, the scope of the project, proj-
ect size, technologies used, specific mile-
stones, achievements and things you’re
proud of,” Ms. White says.
In today’s climate especially, focus-
ing on ROI makes you look good while
showing people why offering you the job
will make them look good. You want the
interviewer to walk away thinking you’re
the best candidate to help the organization
achieve its strategic goals.
That often means tailoring your
approach based on your audience. You
might be really excited about risk reg-
isters or work breakdown structures,
but hold back on the nitty-gritty details
if your interview includes time with
executives.
“Senior management wants to hear
about results,” Mr. Berkeley advises. “Only
mid- and lower management get excited
about your methodologies or approach.”
No matter whom you’re talking to,
keep the focus on how your skills align
with the specific job you’d perform.
“When an interviewer hears these types
PMN1110 52-72.indd 53
of things, it translates to ‘I should hire this
person,’” Mr. Paullin says. 10B43>=?<1>:–6D834
Learned Behavior
Obstacles come with the territory in
project management, of course—and the
Lead
interviewer will ask about them.
Go in armed with ready answers to
tough questions: “How have you handled
working with someone who has a difficult
personality?” “What has been the most
challenging project you’ve led, and how
did you deal with it?” Or the dreaded,
“What’s your biggest weakness?”
“A potential response could be some-
thing like, ‘I tend to take a lot of tasks
on myself and become so incredibly
focused on a project that I have difficulty
shutting off at the end of the day,’” Ms. ONE UNIVERSITY
White says. offers a career-relevant
There are worse things than being
viewed as a workaholic. Master of MIS
Known as behavioral questions, this
interviewing technique can often be the with a concentration in
deciding factor in whether you get the
job. “Interviewers will ask behavioral
IT Project Management.
questions just to see how you’ll react to
them,” she adds. Emphasis is placed
Under no circumstances should you be
the slightest bit negative in your response, on knowledge areas
she warns. And don’t make the mistake specified by the Project
of complaining about former employers.
No one wants to hire someone who’s Management Institute.
perceived as cynical, bitter or a “loose can-
non,” Mr. Berkeley says.
Instead, give even the worst situation >=;8=4
a positive spin.
“You could say, ‘One manager felt
that I had spent too much time on the Xc_\QT[[TedTTSd
client’s website and needed to spend more
on preparing for our presentation,’” Mr.
Paullin suggests. “You can point out that
the client felt you knew more about them
and their concerns—and that you were
able to gear the presentation to their spe-
cific problems.”
Finally, realize it’s just an interview and Real Learning for Real Life
it won’t be the end of the world if you
don’t land the position. “If they want you, '&$%&(!
it’s great,” Ms. White says. “If they don’t, Accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and
it’s their loss. Consider that interview 6FKRROVfZZZQFDKOFRUJff%HOOHYXH8QLYHUVLW\Goes not discriminate on the basis of age, race,
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5(3ORJRLVDVHUYLFHPDUNRIWKH3URMHFW0DQDJHPHQW,QVWLWXWH,QF30%2.LVDUHJLVWHUHGWUDGHPDUNRIWKH
good practice for the next interview.” PM 3URMHFW0DQDJHPHQW,QVWLWXWH,QF 
0082_BELLEVUE_MAG.indd 1
november 2010 PM NETWORK 53 9/20/10 6:49:21 PM
10/12/10 4:37 PM
 Under
Gun
the

by Jenn Danko

Project
management
is stressful,
but the way
you handle it
doesn’t have
to be. Relax,
and you’ll find
that your team
will, too.

54 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 52-72.indd 54 10/12/10 4:37 PM

 november 2010 PM NETWORK 55
PMN1110 52-72.indd 55 10/12/10 4:37 PM
 L Like many project managers, Thomas
Alby, PMP, lives in the fast lane.
Hectic days are part of the job as
the director of search at Uniquedigital,
a performance marketing company in
Hamburg, Germany. But he makes sure
he starts the morning with a run and rocks
out with his band two nights a week.
“When I play the drums, I forget about
everything,” he says.
Music soothes the soul, as they say,
and for Mr. Alby it’s a way to leave
behind the daily stresses of what tends to
be a quick-paced profession.
“As a project manager, it’s not like
you get to sit around and wait for stuff
to happen or someone to tell you what to
do,” says Michiko Diby, PMP, program
manager, Verdi Consulting, a financial
management and enterprise solutions
firm in Vienna, Virginia, USA.
Adhering to the pressures of tight
deadlines and long hours is just the
beginning, says George Pitagorsky, PMP,
chief consultant at Pitagorsky Consult-
ing, a management consultancy in New
York, New York, USA.
“Lack of certainty about what is
expected, fear of punishment for not
achieving what is expected, having no
“Urgent problems arise mostly due
to defects in risk management,” Mr.
Alby says.
Once you’re in the trenches, try to
zero in on what truly should take prece-
dence. Faced with an excruciatingly long
to-do list, some project managers have a
tough time prioritizing tasks.
“The problem I have seen too often is
that project managers do the most urgent
things first,” Mr. Alby says. “But these are
probably not the most important things
to do.”
Poor time management leads to pro-
crastination on other important tasks.
“It’s very easy to wind up doing what you
were going to do during the day at night
or on the weekends,” says Ms. Diby.
When stress levels do spike, make
certain you know how to keep your cool.
“You need to have a working system for
managing all of the input that is bombard-
ing you every minute,” Mr. Alby advises.
Sometimes you just need to walk away
and do something completely unrelated
to work. Tennis and swimming are the
preferred ways to let loose for Ademisiku
Shyllon, head of marketing and strategy
operations at telecom company Globa-
com Ltd., Lagos, Nigeria. He finds sports
outlet for anger and frustration—these are especially beneficial when he’s working on
the real stressors of the job,” he says. a project away from home. “Being in a
foreign country can be stressful due to cul-
Leading the Charge tural changes and challenges,” he explains.
To effectively field the demands of the Other project managers look within
profession, try reducing stress before a to decompress. Mr. Pitagorsky meditates,
project even begins. Feeling prepared which he says helps increase concentration
for any contingency can keep anxieties and mindfulness. “This leads to the ability
under control. to be objective and to stop being driven by

Consultant Counseling
Do stress levels impact consultants and practitioners differently? Absolutely, says
Michiko Diby, PMP, Verdi Consulting, Vienna, Virginia, USA.
“When you are a consultant, you are less directly impacted by stress imposed by an
organization—meaning away from silos and corporate politics,” she says. Then again,
you must be more mindful of how you handle client criticism and offer advice.
“If I point out a problem onsite, someone on the client side could say, ‘I don’t like
that consultant’ or ‘I don’t like the fact that she is pointing out issues I don’t want to deal
with,’” Ms. Diby explains.

56 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 52-72.indd 56 10/12/10 4:37 PM

 unconscious mental models and negative
emotions,” he says.
Then there’s good old-fashioned
R&R—rest and relaxation.
“I used to put it on myself to get every-
thing done,” Ms. Diby says. “Now I make
sure to take time for me. I know how
important it is to get a good night’s rest, to
eat healthy food and even keep the house
clean. These are the things that slip first.”
The Trickle-Down Effect
Stressed-out project managers only
compound any strain on the part of
their teams.
“As a project manager, you are not
only responsible for the work results, but
you also have to take care of the team
members,” Mr. Alby says.
Not everyone deals with stress the
same way, of course.
“There will be bullies, narcissists,
wimps and perfectionists,” Ms. Diby says.
“And guess what? Whatever traits that you
have will interact with traits of others for
quite interesting combinations.”
The pressure’s on. “You’d better drive
the train or you’re out of a job,” she says.
Justified or not, team members will
blame their project managers for adding
to their stress levels by failing to plan
and lead properly.
Spending time getting to know your
project team should help you realize when
they’re close to overload.
“The project manager needs to sit
down informally, one-on-one with his
or her teams and try to identify what the
challenges of a project are—both person-
ally and professionally,” Mr. Shyllon says.
“Continually chat with your team
members so they can see the big picture,”
he says. “When there is a project slippage,
all hands must be on deck to meet up
with the new deadline.”
But setting unrealistic goals just because
you’re stressed-out won’t help matters.
“Don’t resort to scare tactics,” Mr.
Alby says. “If you tell your team mem-
bers that their jobs are at risk if the job
cannot be delivered in time, you will lose
the best team members during or shortly
PMN1110 52-72.indd 57
after the project. And this will result in
even more stress for everyone.”
High stress often leads to high tem-
pers, but project managers must learn
to remain levelheaded. Mr. Pitagorsky
learned his lesson early in his project
management career.
“Some years ago, working on a very
complex, politically charged project, I
vented my anger and frustration on
a co-worker who was obstructing the
>TIP:
process,” he recalls. “This caused him to
break into tears and become even more
of an obstruction.”
Handling the stressful situation
through anger only made matters worse. Close loose ends on
Several days later, after he regained his
composure, he apologized to his col- a project as soon as
league. “Eventually, my apology cleared
the air and allowed us to collaborate more possible. Leaving projects
effectively,” Mr. Pitagorsky says.
not quite finished will
Keeping emotions in check helps
reduce stress, but sometimes project man- cause more stress down
agers may want to offer team members
some nice perquisites. the road, says Vijay K.
“Make sure your work environment
Verma, PMP, PMI Fellow,
supports productivity, be it good chairs,
fast computers, free soft drinks and coffee, TRIUMF, Vancouver,
or a free lunch or dinner,” Mr. Alby says.
Stress comes with the territory for British Columbia, Canada.
project managers and their teams. But
sometimes it’s nothing that a cushy
chair or a little band practice can’t help
alleviate. PM
What’s So ‘Good’
About Stress?
Stress isn’t inherently evil. Sometimes it can actually improve performance.
“There is definitely some good stress,” says Thomas Alby, PMP, Uniquedigital,
Hamburg, Germany. Some tension allows people to identify the goals at hand
and take the steps necessary to achieve them. Team members who simply “go
through the motions” will never feed off of the excitement of a project.
Still, stress affects team members in various ways, says George Pitagorsky,
PMP, Pitagorsky Consulting, New York, New York, USA. Know what works for
your team and what doesn’t.
“One person breaks down under the stress of uncertainty or tight deadlines
while another comes alive and excels,” he says. “Clearly, it is not the stress that
is bad. What makes it have an unhealthy effect is the way it is perceived.”
november 2010 PM NETWORK 57
10/12/10 4:37 PM
 keep it
personal Technology certainly has its place
when managing virtual teams, but
it’s the relationships that truly count.
b y M a n u e l a Z onin s ein

58 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 52-72.indd 58 10/12/10 4:37 PM

l

november 2010 PM NETWORK 59

PMN1110 52-72.indd 59 10/12/10 4:37 PM
 W
When it comes to managing virtual teams,
technology comes with the territory. A
project manager obviously needs a way to
communicate with team members—and
hopping on the next flight to a project
site halfway around the world isn’t always
an option.
In today’s ultra-connected world, being
a frequent flier isn’t even necessary. Teams
have a full arsenal of virtual communica-
tion tools at their disposal: e-mail, texting,
collaboration software, instant messaging
(IM) and video conference calls, to name
just a few.
Deborah Fishman, network anima-
tor for PresenTense Group, a training
not-for-profit in Jerusalem, Israel, helps
edit a magazine published three times a
>>Whether they use year that’s produced entirely in the cloud
online communities of by a geographically dispersed team. Ms.
Fishman uses free IM and collaboration
practice, chat rooms software to run the program, allowing the
or wikis, organizations editorial team and contributors to com-
ment on articles in real time.
must have a place Whether they use online communi-
“where we can all ties of practice, chat rooms or wikis,
communicate and organizations must have a place “where
we can all communicate and know what
know what we’re we’re being evaluated on,” says Tom
being evaluated on. Mattus, founder and president of Suc-
cessful Strategies International Inc., a
—Tom Mattus, Successful Strategies training company in Port Jefferson, New
International Inc., Port Jefferson,
New York, USA York, USA.
Still, technology must serve a greater
purpose in making the team feel united
toward a common goal.
“Technology helps, but it’s the depth
of honest communication that really mat-
ters,” says Jessica Lipnack, CEO of IT
consultancy NetAge, West Newton, Mas-
sachusetts, USA.
Even at companies with teams in all
corners of the world, though, keeping
a diverse and dispersed group of team
members on the same page remains a
consistent challenge.
“Organizations are still struggling to
get the right information to the right
people at the right time—and find ways
for people to seamlessly share what they
have when others need it,” says Ms. Lip-
nack, coauthor of Virtual Teams: People
60 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 52-72.indd 60
Working Across Boundaries with Technology
[John Wiley & Sons, 2000].
It’s a Small World
The lack of face-to-face contact among
virtual team members can obviously cre-
ate a barrier. It’s up to project managers to
find ways for their virtual teams to get to
know each other beyond just a name on
an e-mail or IM.
To create some camaraderie, have team
members send their photos to each other
and display people’s pictures on the com-
puter screen during conference calls.
It may seem frivolous, but encourage
everyone to share something personal.
“When people mention a favorite
travel country or something else in com-
mon, it becomes a bonding experience,”
says Dana Brownlee, PMP, founder of
Professionalism Matters Inc., a training
firm in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
“The more connections you build on
a team and the more you strengthen the
relationships, the more productive and
effective that team will be,” she says.
Video conferencing works great for
one-on-one conversations.
“We look at each others’ faces and
talk about problems and the situation
in the project we’re working on,” says
Mr. Mattus.
Another means of engagement is to
have team members record themselves
discussing the project on a video camera.
“They can talk about what they think
the main criteria for the project is or how
they will work for the project, then send
it off,” Mr. Mattus says. “It’s goofy, but
it works.”
The videos can then be posted for
other team members on a shared site.
Meeting of the Minds
All project teams have meetings, and
those working virtually are no exception.
Indeed, there may even be more—it’s
not as if you can just yell over the cubicle
wall if your team’s in another city. But it
can be tougher to keep everyone on track
when you’re not all huddled in the same
conference room.
10/12/10 4:37 PM
 Sometimes it’s best to have an upfront
discussion of productivity pitfalls, Ms.
Brownlee says. Don’t just raise potential
issues. Work with the team to come up
with ways to deal with problems. Then
“it’s not just the project manager who
comes in and imposes the rules,” she
explains. “This leaves the project manager
in a position to more easily enforce the
group’s rules.”
Take the dreaded rambling team mem-
ber as an example. If a project manager lets
someone drone on without interjecting,
other people on the call will lose interest
and might start checking their e-mail or
making a to-do list. This can erode the
project manager’s legitimacy, leaving team
members wondering why the offender
wasn’t cut off.
Ms. Brownlee urges project managers
to authorize the group to self-monitor.
She tells team members to hit the pound
key during conference calls if the speaker
is straying off-topic or needs to refocus.
“This works particularly well in virtual
settings,” Ms. Brownlee says, “because it’s
totally anonymous.”
To keep meetings on track, Mr. Mat-
tus suggests sending out an agenda 48
hours beforehand. During the meeting,
designate someone to take notes and
have him or her send the minutes within
48 hours.
Conversely, there may be team mem-
bers who just won’t speak up. In those
cases, project managers need to proactively
solicit constructive feedback from them.
During weekly status calls, Ms.
Brownlee includes an item on the agenda
she calls “The Vent,” dedicated to letting
people share their biggest concerns about
the project, team or client. The meetings
provide valuable feedback, simultane-
ously building a culture where it’s okay
to speak up.
“We’ve all been part of the ‘meeting
after the meeting’ which usually takes
place in the breakroom or on individual
follow-up calls where people share what
they really think,” she says. “The Vent is
a great way to encourage people to share
their honest views on the call.”
PMN1110 52-72.indd 61
Connecting Across Cultures
It’s one thing if your virtual team is across
the country. It’s a whole other thing if
you’re dealing with team members on the
>TIP
other side of the world or who speak a dif-
ferent first language.
In those cases, time-zone differences
can’t be viewed as just affecting meetings
and phone calls; they should be a major Try the old stand-by and
schedule driver, Mr. Mattus says. “Some-
bring everyone together.
times I just have to suck it up and be
working at my desk at a time that works Though often costly,
for the team,” he says.
nothing improves a virtual
Language barriers can also leave proj-
ect teams working across borders tongue- project team’s chance
tied. Even if all team members speak
English, don’t assume everyone is speak-
of success better than
ing the same version, Mr. Mattus warns. occasional colocation,
In many parts of the world, people’s
understanding of particular words and
says Tom Mattus,
enunciation varies. Successful Strategies
Even technology faces cultural barriers.
In China, for instance, many organiza-
International Inc., Port
tions use IM for internal communications, Jefferson, New York, USA.
says Yan Zhang, founder of Meiloo.com, a
healthcare provider referral website based
in Beijing, China.
Such real-time exchanges are a part of
doing business in certain markets. “Real-
time, frequent communication is impor-
tant in the local startup environment,
because people in China aren’t used to
e-mail culture,” he says.
But Mr. Zhang has found that other
parts of the world don’t consider IM
appropriate in the corporate environment.
Some companies even block it.
Similarly, voice over Internet protocol
(VoIP) hasn’t caught on everywhere. “In
China, many employees haven’t worked
in multinational environments where
global VoIP calling is standard,” Mr.
Zhang explains. “People are still reluctant
to call Shanghai from Beijing on an office
line, even if the subject of the call is com-
pany business.”
No matter where virtual teams are
located, technology is only a means to an
end. It’s how project managers and their
teams use all those high-tech tools and
toys that will determine whether their
teams emerge as a truly united force. PM
november 2010 PM NETWORK 61
10/12/10 4:37 PM
> > > specia l ad v ertisi n g sectio n

Reduce Costs,
Increase Performance
A new software solution enhances project team collaboration
and improves business results.

E
very company has unique needs it must
address to thrive in the marketplace. At the
same time, nearly every organization must What Customers Say
overcome similar challenges to stay produc-
tive, efficient and profitable. These may include: “I love the new timeline view above the
n Maximizing ROI Gantt chart. It will enable one view of the
n Bringing products to market faster project’s life cycle.” —Tomer Simon, Amdocs
n Staying on track, on budget and in scope

n Improving business outcomes “Project 2010 integrates all areas of the proj-
That’s why Microsoft has designed Microsoft ect life cycle in one tool: demand manage-
Project 2010 with the flexibility to enable project ment, portfolio management and enterprise
managers, teams and organizations to select the project management. Along with the col-
right projects, optimize scarce resources and exe- laboration features of Microsoft SharePoint
cute work effectively. Server 2010, we have a comprehensive plat-
From the bottom up to the top down, Project 2010 form covering nearly all requirements of our
improves how your work force does business, provid- project management business.” —Andreas
ing easy-to-use tools that help simplify project and Huber, Siemens
portfolio management. Built on Microsoft SharePoint
Server 2010, Project 2010 delivers a powerful single- “With the portfolio integration, [Project]
server solution with intuitive experiences from the 2010 has now become the control tower of
desktop or browser. project management.” —Eric Alsac, Nagravi-
Project 2010 is the most significant release for sion S.A. Kudelski Group
Project in more than a decade. This end-to-end solu-
tion helps individuals, teams and organizations priori-
tize investments, better manage resources and gain n Objectively prioritize competing projects from mul-
control across all types of work, from simple tasks tiple dimensions
to complex projects and programs. And because n Drive accountability and performance
Project 2010 works well with your existing Microsoft n Find the right people for a project
technologies, you can enjoy additional value from n Simplify and enhance team communication and
your investments within a familiar and connected reporting
platform. n Manage both simple tasks and complex projects

For both the professional and occasional project Experience the power of the Microsoft Project
manager, Project 2010 provides a range of features 2010 family of products. Choose from a wide array of
and benefits, including the ability to: flexible work management solutions.

Microsoft
www.microsoft.com/project

62 | november 2010 | business & technology solutions | www.pmi.org

PMN1110 52-72.indd 62 10/12/10 4:38 PM 0082_M

PMN1110 52-72.indd 63
0082_MICROSOFT_ALL_TOGETHER_NOW.indd 1 10/12/1010:32:30
9/20/10 4:38 PM
AM
> > > s p e cia l a d v e rti s i n g s e cti o n

Taming an Unruly
Schedule !
Combining metric analysis with a revolutionary method of flattening and
simplifying project data allows for improved schedule quality and on-target
and on-budget project completion.

S 6
eeing the forest for the trees when plan- >> Ribbons are a means of flat-
ning and controlling projects during execu-
tion is a key step toward successful project tening hierarchies to show a
management. Yet it’s one that is often a
challenge.
simplified, continuous sequence
Today, dealing with a project plan containing sev- of work through a project.
eral thousands of activities is commonplace in capital
expenditure projects. With so many activities, simple
objectives, such as highlighting the critical path, still Flattening what would normally be multiple rows
result in an unmanageable number of activities to within a Gantt chart makes walking through the
track and report against. sequence of work and comparing these sequences
In a similar manner, tracing logic through large
schedules is extremely difficult. Worse, gaining an
understanding of the big picture in terms of logical
between disciplines extremely straightforward.

Metric Analysis
/
sequencing of disciplines, locations, subcontractor The main driver behind project simplification through
performance, cost overruns, logistical bottlenecks, riskribbons is the ability to analyze these groupings of
hotspots and simultaneous operations clashes all are activities through the use of metrics. Metrics are tests
common reporting challenges. In short, true insight and thresholds applied to the project to give insight
into large, complex projects is challenging. into its health and schedule quality. Metrics can be
in the context of schedule, cost, risk, earned value,
Project Ribbons execution performance or any type of project data
These challenges can be resolved using a concept that is useful to analyze.
called ribbons. Ribbons simplify how work within a
project is grouped together and displayed to the proj- Tying It Together
ect team. Most projects contain some type of hierar- Project assessment through the use of metrics is not a
chy and grouping (such as work breakdown structure new concept. However, simplifying projects through
or discipline). Ribbons are a means of flattening such the use of ribbons, and subsequently applying met-
hierarchies to show a simplified, continuous sequence rics to these ribbons, provides a unique and insightful
of work through a project. Creating a project ribbon, means of pinpointing project issues. Analysis through
or flattening the entire project into a single ribbon ribbons, phases and intersections of the two brings a
without any grouping, allows the team to visualize three-dimensional perspective to project assessment
the sequence of work for all disciplines and see which that is not possible using traditional project manage-
periods of time carry a high density of work. ment reporting techniques.
Taking this a step further, “ribbonizing” by disci- Acumen Fuse is a project-assessment tool that
pline provides a much clearer, more simplified view as assesses schedule quality, cost forecast accuracy, risk IN
to when work is scheduled for each of the disciplines. model realism, earned value and project performance.

$
Acumen
www.projectacumen.com/fuse W
#
64 | november 2010 | business & technology solutions | www.pmi.org

PMN1110 52-72.indd 64 10/12/10 4:38 PM 0071_AC

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PMN1110 52-72.indd 65
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8/25/10 4:38 PM
PM
 HELPDESK
>>Blog Roll
Project management
blogs have certainly come a long
way since their humble beginnings.
While there are still plenty of
stream-of-consciousness diatribes
about misbehaving sponsors or
projects run amuck, many blogs are
emerging as go-to venues for up-to-
the-minute knowledge sharing. Here
are the blogs that rise to the top in
covering project management trends
and processes.
66 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG
PMN1110 52-72.indd 66
1
Agile Blog
rallydev.com/agileblog
There’s no shortage of talk about agile in the blogo-
sphere. One standout option is Rally Software’s Agile
Blog. Despite the occasional self-promotional moment,
regular contributors like Rally founder Ryan Martens
and agile fellow Jean Tabaka have a handle on topics
4
from best practices to agile culture. Q&As with “agilis-
tas” bring new voices to the blog, and posts such as
“10 Steps to Successful Marketing Using Agile and
Lean Practices” discuss topics you likely won’t find
2
elsewhere.
The Critical Path
thecriticalpath.info
Opinionated without verging into tirade territory, Derek
Huether, PMP, offers his take on project manage-
ment topics and trends of the day, including the art of
empathizing, certifications and
kanban. He’s also one of the
few people who could explain
project assumptions and con-
5
straints in the context of pick-
ing out where to eat lunch on a
Sunday afternoon.
What’s best about this blog
is that Mr. Huether doesn’t
treat it as a one-way street.
He actively responds to com-
ments and engages in con-
versations with his readers. In
some instances, Mr. Huether
has even followed up com-
ments and conversations with
3
full posts of their own.
6
drunkenpm
drunkenpm.blogspot.com
Posts on this blog by Dave
Prior, PMP, can be somewhat
sporadic. But those that do
appear are, more often than
10/12/10 4:38 PM

Whether you want agile, sustainability or a dash of Zen,
these nine blogs are worth following.
not, worth a read—or worth watching, as the case
may be. Many posts include video interviews with
fellow project professionals and bloggers, includ-
ing Project Shrink’s Bas de Baar, a PMI New Media
Council member.
The blog covers a variety of topics, including the
ever-popular agile, which he manages to put his own
spin on.
4
EarthPM
earthpm.com
As the tagline says, the blog is “at the intersection of
green and project management”—with some posts
leaning toward the former and others toward the latter.
Bloggers Rich Maltzman, PMP, and Dave Shirley, PMP,
cover sustainability in a style that’s down-to-earth (no
pun intended), and their passion for the topic is easy
to see.
The pair readily tackles current events, with one
highlight being an in-depth look at the BP oil spill off
the U.S. Gulf Coast. Posts on the event covered scope,
integration, requirements, cost, communication, risk
and procurement management.
5
A Girl’s Guide to Project
Management
pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com
PMI New Media Council member Elizabeth Harrin
has received many accolades for her blog, which is
chock-full of personality. Ms. Harrin has declared
2010 the year of project social media, and many of
her posts revolve around the subject.
Along with intriguing posts—like the one on zom-
bie project managers who follow the plan regardless
of the changing environment—there are lots of book
reviews, too.
6
pmStudent
pmstudent.com
This blog should be required reading for those starting
out as project managers. Posts by Josh Nankivel, PMP,
span everything from PMO best practices to career
PMN1110 52-72.indd 67
b y K e l l e y H u n s b er g er
advice for “newbies.” He offers good advice about what
to do and what not to do in the profession.
Mr. Nankivel has a cheeky sensibility and illustrates
many posts with amusing graphics. He’s also not afraid
to rant every now and then. In fact, several posts have
the word rant right there in the title.
7
The Tao of Project Management
thetaoofpm.blogspot.com
Semi-retired project manager John Carroll makes
observations about life and project management and
how it relates to the Taoist philosophy.
What qualities make up a wise project manager? Mr.
Carroll muses upon that question, tying each post to an
excerpt from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching. You just might
finish reading this blog feeling a little more enlightened.
8
Voices on Project Management
pmi.org/voices
Yes, we’re biased—but with good reason. For more than
two years, PMI’s blog has gathered project management
leaders from around the world to participate in a lively
online discussion. Topics cover the gamut, including
leadership, teams, careers, communication and stake-
holder management.
Like any good blog should, posts encourage interac-
tivity. “Unselfish Networking” by Jim De Piante, PMP,
and “Why I Like Being a Project Manager” by Dmitri
Ivanenko, PMP, for example, have sparked passionate
debates and thoughtful commentary.
9
Zen, Project Management,
and Life
zen-pm.blogspot.com
Many of the posts by Bob Tarne, PMP, center on per-
sonal stories and experiences, which makes his blog
so relatable. At the same time, it offers solid project
management advice on topics like cross-cultural teams
and project challenges. Posts such as “Re-imagine
your failures” and “Anatomy of a project delay” offer
thought-provoking takes on how to become a better
project manager.
november 2010 PM NETWORK 67
10/12/10 4:38 PM
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ELIZABETH HARRIN
Social Media for Project Managers
What exactly are microblogs, pod-
casts, vodcasts and wikis, and what
do they have to do with project
ROSEMARY HOSSENLOPP, PMP, EDITOR
Organizational Project Management:
Linking Strategy and Projects
Organizational project management
is a tool that aligns project deliv-
GERALD BRADLEY
Benefit Realisation Management: A
Practical Guide to Achieving Benefits
T
T
Through Change—Second Edition
This new edition offers expanded guid-

management? Many companies that
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erables with organizational strat-
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ance on benefits realization for portfolio
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management. of industries, offer valuable insights In a step-by-step
As team leaders, on how organizational project man- approach, the book
project managers agement can give any company a explains how to:
■ Define projects
have to decide competitive edge. Those who direct
whether project- projects, fund projects or perform and programs by
based social media project work mapping results
■ Produce convinc-
is right for their will learn to
team, and if their improve busi- ing and accurate
team is ready for ness outcomes, business cases
■ Communicate
social media. Ms. better align
Harrin’s book addresses these issues project work the benefits and get all stakeholders
and helps project professionals take with strategies, on board
■ Identify the measures necessary to
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communicate in the ever-changing and organize encourage desired behaviors and mea-
realm of social media. project work. sure progress
■ Integrate this approach into organiza-

tional culture and systems

Project Management Institute, 2010, ISBN: Management Concepts, 2010, Gower, 2010, ISBN: 9781409400943,
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Member, $39.95 Nonmember. $34.20 Member, $36.00 Nonmember. $124.95 Nonmember.

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Quick Quizzes for Project Managers

This handy book allows you to test your project management knowledge and expand your
skills through questions about situations faced every day by project managers in the field. Each
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Every tip is educationally sound and consistent with the concepts and terminology found in A Guide
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Project Management Institute, 2010, ISBN: 9781935589105, spiral-bound, 218 pp., $31.95 Member,
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PMN1110 52-72.indd 68 10/12/10 4:38 PM

CE FEATURED BOOKS
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The Virtual Edge: Embracing
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This edition is particularly geared
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Brick and mortar walls no longer define
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Time-zone differences no longer hamper
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For project mangers, working with dis-
persed teams can be challenging, interest-
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bers? What are the challenges and com-
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In her book, Dr. Mayer interviews busi-
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Managing diverse global teams requires
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The Virtual Edge
delves deeper
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and how case-
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accompany working with people scattered
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The second edition of The Virtual
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The book is divided into three main
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■ The implications of global distributed
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■ Case-study research
■ Technology for global communications
These sections identify opportuni-
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unique to global project leaders.
Project managers leading global teams
must be able to use technology to leverage
team members’ experience and add value to
the process. They must be willing to make
the extra effort required.
NOVEMBER 2010 PM NETWORK 69
10/12/10 4:38 PM
 0008_ PMI

PMN1110 52-72.indd 70
0082_CHEETAH_GET_ON_TOP.indd 1 10/12/10
9/29/10 4:38
1:56:30 PMPM

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10/12/10 4:48 PM
 metr1cs
Added Security Lacking Confidence

11.3% 13%
The forecasted
The portion of Australian
increase
business managers who said
in security they were confident about
software managing critical projects in
revenue over “the most efficient way”
2009

US$16.5 billion
The amount that worldwide security software
28%
The portion who have fully
revenue is expected to reach this year integrated IT systems for
Source: Forecast Analysis: Security Software Markets, Worldwide, 2009-2014, 2Q10 Update, Gartner project management
Source: International Project Management
Association. Results based on a study released
in September of Australian CEOs, COOs and
On the Lookout project managers from 54 companies.

“Companies
that cut staff
23
percent
Good Things Come
in Small Cities
or implemented IT labor
The portion of U.S. IT managers
hiring freezes are planning to increase staff size in costs are at
realizing they need the next year least 35%

43
employees now cheaper in
to help upgrade smaller U.S.
cities than
IT systems and in major
prepare their
firms for potential percent urban areas

growth.” The portion of those IT managers

—Dave Willmer, executive
director of IT staffing services
firm Robert Half Technology
planning to hire who said they’re
seeking candidates with project
management skills

Source: McKinsey & Co. Based on an analysis

Source: Forecast 2011, Computerworld. Results based on a survey of 209 U.S. IT professionals conducted released in August of 2007 U.S. Bureau of
in June and July. Labor statistics.

72 PM NETWORK november 2010 WWW.PMI.ORG

PMN1110 52-72.indd 72 10/13/10 11:05 AM 0082_W

PMN1110 52-72.indd 5
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9/23/10 4:44 PM
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 1Management
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90 of the 100 Top Engineering & Construction Firms

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