Technical PM

PMOs Should Speak the Language of Business – interview with J. Kent Crawford

Where companies are doing PPM without the PMO, I wonder: are they managing the portfolio strategy? I would contend they are not; I would contend that’s part of the execution of the strategy. The strategy, the strategic objectives, the goals, for what comes in the future year, should be generating the drivers, the determinants for what then you use to structure the portfolio. Then the project management office or demand office, or whatever we call this, uses these drivers to build the business cases. Some organizations have great alignment for organizations between strategy and execution but where that is lacking, we’ve got to fill the gap. The steps that come after the identification of the strategy and the initiatives that will fulfill it, those steps are not really performed in a strategy office. The PMO needs to cover that.

How to Elevate Collaboration Between PMO and Project Managers? – interview with Bruno Morgante 

PMOs exist for a reason and the reason is not always the same. It might be very different between companies and between industries but I would go at the organizational level because even in the same industry you might find two companies that from the outside are doing the same but they do it in a very different way. So it’s not industry-driven, it’s organizational-driven in my experience. 

Project Management in Clinical Trials – a Healthy and Sustainable Future – interview with Agata Bloswick

Clinical project management uniqueness lies in its specific application within the drug development industry.  Our focus is on testing new medicines on patients, involving human experimentation. As a result, we must adhere to a multitude of ethical and regulatory principles alongside the standard project management principles.

Thriving in Chaos: Unlocking the Secrets of Strategic Luck in a Disruptive World – interview with Jonathan Brill

We’re clearly moving into a world that is more disruptive and where there’s more randomness in our businesses and our lives. And that means that we need to think differently about how we interact. With the world moving forward, instead of focusing first on optimization and efficiency, we need to focus first on resilience and flexibility because when you do that, you create dramatically better outcomes over time. There are three basic things that you can do to increase your resilience and flexibility. The first and most important thing is to become aware of the range of things that are possible. If you believe that the range of things that are possible are only those that you’ve experienced in your lifetime, then we’re in for a big Surprise!

Name an Industry and Agile Is There – interview with Mohamed Khalifa Hassan

For me, Agile is a mindset. This is what the PMI insists to say in their new standard. Agile as a mindset more than tools and techniques. For sure there are different methodologies coming from the same mindset. If you look at Lean for example, Lean is considered as Agile methodology. However Lean was created long time ago. It’s not from 2001 when the Manifesto was made and the Agile principles were created. Agile principles were in use before the software development. That’s why Agile is definitely more mindset than a technique. This is what I want to say first.

Are You Implementing Scrum in Your Company? Don’t Miss It!

Scrum is a framework that allows an organization to improve their project development and delivery significantly. In order to achieve that it requires most organizations to change their approach towards software development. A cultural change is needed in the way requirements are gathered, no longer all upfront, but when they are perceived to add value to the actual development effort that will deliver actual value to the end user. Many organizations are either not aware nor willing to change that approach and try to implement Agile Scrum on top of an existing Waterfall approach. If not done carefully many organizations fall back to what they know best (e.g. waterfall) and assume that Agile is not for them.

Leading Projects with Data – How to Effectively Transition to Data-Informed Project Management – interview with Marcus Glowasz

Despite all the hype about data, analytics, and primarily AI, it must be clear that people remain the key factor in projects. AI has zero value without data, and data has zero value if people are not bought into data as a concept. In the end, data is produced through people’s activities. That could be project plans, RAID logs, stakeholder maps, etc., but also presentations, meetings, reports, lessons learned, and so forth. Everything is data that we as people produce and need to feed into a data ecosystem for us to make continuous use of growing information and knowledge. And with such a workable data ecosystem, meaningful analytics can be applied that produce valuable insights for our project decisions.

Leading Through Inspiration – interview with Uruel Wernars

Inspiring others has recently been recognized as one of the most important interpersonal skills of project managers and, broadly, leaders. Why inspiring is so crucial in contemporary project management? In my view it is important to realize that to be successful in these challenging times it is not only about the tools and technical knowledge but more importantly the personality and soft skills or capabilities of our people. Focusing on developing that area will help you to really engage your teams, building-up strong relationship with your stakeholders, overcome challenges and be great. Move from project managers towards great project leaders.

What the heck is wrong with SAP? Dlaczego tak trudno wdrażać SAP-a? – wywiad z Waldemarem Falińskim

Poprosiłem o rozmowę, ponieważ zajmuję się zarządzaniem zmianami w organizacjach i w ostatnim czasie kilkukrotnie byłem proszony o pomoc i konsultacje przy wdrożeniach systemu SAP. Lista trudności, o których słyszałem przerażała. A że o trudnych tematach najlepiej mówić prostym językiem, więc zacznijmy od podstaw – czym jest SAP? Zacznę może od tego, że SAP nie jest trudno wdrażać, są dobre metody i narzędzia i wystarczy tylko robić to tak, jak należy. Kłopot w tym, że, jak się okazuje, najtrudniej jest to robić właśnie tak, zgodnie ze standardami. Ale nie uprzedzajmy, po kolei… Poza tym nie przesadzajmy z tymi trudnościami, jest wiele znakomitych projektów, ale one są „ciche”. Zwracam uwagę, że specyfika domeny, o której mówimy jest bardzo emocjonalna i nawet osoby na wysokich stanowiskach są skłonne do opowiadania i wiary w bajki.

Megaprojects Should Focus on Sustainability – interview with Virginia A. Greiman

The Big Dig was the largest project in the United States, it was 15 billion dollars upon completion, although originally estimated at 2.5 billion. And the primary reason for the growth was the fact that design development had not evolved until later on in the project. The Big Dig was a concept that was originated by 2 designers in the Massachusetts State Transportation Authority who had a vision about the future of Boston. In the 1950s when the interstate system was being funded in Massachusetts by the federal government they were funding 90 percent of our state highway projects. Unfortunately, when the interstate reached Boston it went above ground, because we did not have the technology in the 1950s to put highways underground through an inner city.