the smart pms blog http://thesmartpms.posterous.com Most recent posts at the smart pms blog posterous.com Mon, 25 Jun 2012 17:04:00 -0700 Work to Live or Live to Work? http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/work-to-live-or-live-to-work http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/work-to-live-or-live-to-work

Working with multigenerational project teams has taught me that commitment is a common attribute for team members of every generation. 

But every team member approaches commitment in a different way. Different generations place different values on pursuing work-life balance. 

A strong work ethic is a characteristic of the older members of the project team, part of the silent generation. Members of this generation tend to want to work a reduced number of hours to be able to devote time to personal activities.

Baby boomers, the generation referred to as workaholics, consider work a high priority and greatly value teamwork. In my opinion, they are focused on their achievements and are willing to work long hours to achieve project success. 

Generation X is good at controlling their time. This generation has a desire to control and set a career path, personal ambitions and work time. 

Generation Y is driven by a strong preference for work-life balance. Many Gen Yers look for jobs that provide them great personal fulfillment.

In my opinion, one of our tasks as project managers is to find ways to shed the stress in our project team members' lives. Part of that is to better understand the work-life balance needs of team members from different generations. 

To bring a better work-life balance to any generation, define more accurate project schedules based on flexibility, telecommuting and time off.

Tell us about actions you have adopted to meet project goals and still accommodate team members' work-life balance needs.

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Sun, 17 Jun 2012 09:04:00 -0700 Fill in the Blanks for Junior Project Team Members http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/fill-in-the-blanks-for-junior-project-team-me http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/fill-in-the-blanks-for-junior-project-team-me

The other day, a member of my project team e-mailed me and proposed that we consider starting a new project. The new project would complement a project we are currently working on.  
 

Eventually, I learned that the project board had rejected this proposed project before. I discovered that a stakeholder who had pushed to start the project several times -- despite the fact that the board discarded it -- approached my team member, who happened to be a junior member and new graduate. 
 

As a new member to our team, I had to explain the project selection process of our organization. The board selects projects from a business-oriented approach. Under this direction, projects produce business benefits that will contribute to achieve organization's strategic objectives. The proposed project did not fit this mindset, but as a new project team member, how could he have known?

I explained further to this project team member that in this mindset, project professionals must wear a business and technical hat. Depending on the situation, project managers must ensure that their project teams deliver projects that will produce the benefits and results that the organization is looking for.

This is just one example of how project professionals will need to be able to coach "multi" teams, especially those made up of new and young project members. You can't assume that everyone on the team shares your same knowledge. 

Eventually, the junior team member understood why only projects that will help the organization fulfill its intended purpose should be selected. A few days later, we met with the stakeholder to ask for specifics about the project with regard to the organizational benefits.

How do you coach junior project team members when they are less knowledgeable?

 

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Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0700 Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret to Better Work http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/shawn-achor-the-happy-secret-to-better-work http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/shawn-achor-the-happy-secret-to-better-work

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.

https://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

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Thu, 17 Nov 2011 18:35:00 -0800 Winners of 2011 PMI Distinguished Contribution Award http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/winners-of-2011-pmi-distinguished-contributio http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/winners-of-2011-pmi-distinguished-contributio

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Mon, 16 May 2011 18:36:00 -0700 The Value of Project Management in the New Millennium http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-value-of-project-management-in-the-new-mi http://thesmartpms.posterous.com/the-value-of-project-management-in-the-new-mi

Conrado Morlan, EzineArticles.com Basic Author

Technology in the first decade of the second millennium supplied a large variety of project management tools targeted to Project Management Offices (PMO) and Project Management professionals.

Some organizations opted to use those tools under the traditional approach to training, improving processes and project or followed guidelines to achieve the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3).

Despite the availability of technological tools and best practices, the reality was that many projects were unsuccessful under the traditional approach because either they exceeded project budget or did not meet the proposed schedule. As a consequence business goals were not achieved.

The traditional approach to project management may consider projects as independent units and its success or failure is based on metrics usually associated with financial ratios. A new approach is being adopted by organizations in which projects are no longer independent units but are tied to the business strategy. This may sound simple, although there is no framework or best practice available to apply the new approach.

The organizations are looking to become more competitive, efficient and profitable and they will need a business and project management experts working together to attain the business goals. Both, business and project management experts will work towards the integration of projects into the business strategy.

Under the new approach, new metrics to define project success or failure need to be in place. Project must deliver benefits to the organization and budget or schedule variations may be justified by slight changes in the business strategy. There will be no room for projects originated in functional areas if they are not aligned to the business strategy. Project managers and their teams must become more strategic and take responsibility to deliver results during and at the end of the project.

What is the value for the organization to aligning projects and business strategy?

According to a research study published in 2008 conducted by Athabasca University and sponsored by the Project Management Institute, there are tangible and intangible benefits for the organization when projects are aligned with the business strategy.

The research was conducted in more than 60 organizations around the world and had the cooperation of more than 45 researchers who conducted over 400 interviews. The research results showed that among the tangible benefits the organizations:

  • Saved money and resources
  • Increased profitability
  • Retained customers
  • Increased market share

Among the intangible benefits, the organizations:

  • Attained strategic goals
  • Improved corporate culture
  • Innovated
  • Improved quality of life of their community

The research highlighted that intangible benefits have a direct relationship with the maturity level of project management. Project financials and financial metrics were not available or were not provided by the surveyed organizations.

As a practitioner who had the opportunity to work under both approaches, you may experience that under the traditional approach your role as project manager was more challenging and functional areas' resistance to change was higher. When projects are aligned to business strategy, the majority of the functional areas are engaged and willing to participate in the project to produce the expected benefit and achieve the business goals.

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