Category: 0 Project management

Effective project management is critical for transformative corporate events such as post-merger integration, global expansion, product releases or enterprise-wide IT upgrades/migrations.

It also can be equally essential at five-minute daily stand-up meetings.

“Walking the Wall” (WTW) – literally covering a wall or two with ceiling-to-floor, Kanban-styled task cards across a timeline-vs.-functional workstream grid – is one highly effective approach to capturing all critical information and engaging key stakeholders throughout project planning and delivery.

The process enables project managers at organizations of all sizes (and at any point in the company’s development) to optimize performance and achieve strategic objectives.

A modified Walking-the-Wall approach also eliminates what can be the endless around-the-room recitations of “what I did yesterday/today” and “what I plan to do tomorrow” that often bog down stand-ups and significantly devalue their worth.

Getting Started

Project Managers begin a WTW initiative – and introduce it to managers – by sharing a formal Work Stream Charter that essentially creates a contract stipulating objectives, guiding principles, assumptions/constraints and critical questions/challenges. It also includes clear descriptions of the scope of the project and identifies those areas that are either in, or out of, scope.

Functional teams, rather than just managers, present their department’s “to-do’s” at a joint session, elaborating on the information in the original charter. It’s during their time at the front of the room, where they are detailing their tasks at the wall, that enterprise-wide clarity and understanding are achieved – and questions and challenges are raised.

Following the meeting, the Project Manager or team distributes to the functional leaders a detailed recap of what was presented (and agreed to), as well as information on ongoing reporting and additional information that might be required.

Most importantly, the entire corporate team is moving forward as a cohesive unit, with a clear understanding of their own responsibilities and those of their colleagues.

Delivering Tangible Benefits

Project Managers driving WTW exercises are able to deliver several benefits (such as identifying synergies in a merger, or achieving appropriate “sizing” estimates for other projects) that can frequently be difficult to identify. A WTW session clearly surfaces opportunities and issues and enables participants to address them on the spot.

These include:

• Alignment. Perhaps most importantly, Wall Walks help to immediately create cross-functional alignment, especially on vision, project requirements and engagement.  They also enable functional leaders and Project Managers (or, often, the Enterprise Project Management Office, or EPMO) to achieve coordination from the outset.

• Interdependencies. The visual, multidimensional aspect of a Wall Walk helps participants to identify and align interdependencies in real time. A critical task in Marketing, for instance, might require added staff when additional budget isn’t currently available. Marketing, therefore, can’t achieve this goal on its own. Importantly, then, responsibility for success expands from Marketing to include Human Resources and Finance.

• Milestones and timeline. WTWs, which generally can be completed in a day, conclude with a clear, and cross-functional, roadmap comprising key milestones viewed against a detailed timeline. The interdependencies also are clearly delineated, as are any go-forward timeline issues that require resolution.

• End state. All too often, functional/department managers confuse strategy and tactics with what success look like. WTW requires a very specific definition of a desired end state for each deliverable.

Learn more with the Institute of Project Management

Importantly, you cannot realise the full potential of techniques such as Walking the Wall until you understand the possibilities of the project management.

The underlying and universal principles of project management can be accessed for free at any time in OPEN, our Online Education Portal: https://open.institute.pm

It is free to create an account and start learning today!

Holding an internationally recognised project management certification may also help get your foot in the door for a key interview or be an influential factor when pitching for a new client.

Project management Certification can also help you to grow your professional network.

To discuss how a project management Certification can future-proof your career, contact the team at Institute of Project Management today.

About the Author

Michael Geczi is a highly experienced editor/writer, based in Los Angeles, whose journalism career included positions at The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, the Associated Press, The Dallas Morning News, the Memphis Commercial-Appeal and The Financial Times of Canada. His articles also have appeared in The New York Times, the South China Morning Post, the New York Daily News, Inc. magazine and The Sporting News. He has more than 30 years of top-flight experience.

In addition to work as a reporter and editor, Mike has been an internal and external communications specialist, author, university instructor and marketing executive. He is the author of “Futures: The Anti-Inflation Investment,” published by Avon Books.

He also has been an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

His most-recent corporate experience was Vice President, Marketing and Communications at Cast & Crew Entertainment Services, Burbank.

Mike has worked in more than 30 countries, and lived/worked in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Moscow and Hong Kong.

While many artificial intelligence (AI) applications address automation, numerous others aim to team with people to improve joint performance or accomplish tasks that neither the AI nor people can solve alone.

In fact, many real-world, high-stakes applications deploy AI inferences to help human experts make better decisions with respect to, for example, medical diagnoses, recidivism prediction, and credit assessment.

It has been demonstrated in a range of settings that recommendations from AI systems — even if imperfect — can result in human-AI teams that perform better than either the human or the AI system alone.

So how can AI add value to your projects and teams?

Project Estimation

Estimating the time needed to implement a project can be tricky. It is also difficult to accurately determine the resources required for each stage. Using AI allows project managers to better estimate and plan their projects.

Systems using this technology can scan large volumes of historic data and perform simulations to help you identify the actual time needed to perform standard project tasks.  They can also assess the resources needed, allowing you to develop ways to reduce costs.

Duplicate and ambiguously defined requirements can also be flagged for improved workflow.

Risk Management

Delivering projects without comprehensive risk management strategies increases the risk of failure. Even at best, it may lead to the loss of time and resources, causing stakeholder and financial problems.

Using AI tools, you can assess the risk associated with ventures in various ways. You can automate risk assessments based on monitored risk indicators and model your risk universe using best practices by mapping strategic objectives to common key risks.

With the information provided by AI tools, you can further develop policies to manage threats with risk indicators and automated reporting. Risk versioning also allows organizations to take automated, periodic snapshots of active risks to track the evolution of risks.

Project Dashboards

AI can provide real time data and project status updates through data visualization.

This can help the team and management to discuss in a more informed way the status of a project, and allows informed decision-making on the project duration, cost, and strategy.

After all, it is not easy to prioritize tasks especially when working in teams.

AI can help the team to better understand the critical activities, their actual priorities, or focus on a particular task.

Team Performance

The growing momentum of AI calls for a diverse, reconfigured workforce to support and scale it.

Despite early fears that artificial intelligence and automation would lead to job loss, the future of AI hinges on human-machine collaboration and the imperative to reshape talent and ways of working.

Typically, AI is used in projects to tackle mundane activities, such as project documentation, data-processing and record-keeping, while employees spend time on more fulfilling high-value tasks. By fundamentally changing the way work is done and reinforcing the role of people to drive growth, AI is projected to boost labor productivity.

Using AI can also unlock the incredible potential of talent with disabilities, while helping all workers thrive.

Learn more with the Institute of Project Management

Importantly, you cannot realise the full potential of artificial intelligence in project management until you understand the possibilities of the discipline.

The underlying and universal principles of project management can be accessed for free at any time in OPEN, our Online Education Portal: https://open.institute.pm

It is free to create an account and start learning today!

About the Author

Camillia N. Shanks is a marketing professional who specializes in taking difficult to understand subject matter and turning it into easily digestible content.

For the last five years of her career, she has lent her services to companies in the IT, software, food retail and lifestyle spaces.

In her spare time she enjoys cooking complex meals in her tiny kitchen, working out and binge watching The Office.

About Jordan

I spent 21 years in the Army, 16 as a Green Beret, working on and leading teams executing projects from the tactical to strategic levels.

My 16 years as a Green Beret were spent on Special Forces’ teams and staff planning and executing training and operations across Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

During that time, I was known for my problem solving, critical thinking, and attention to detail. The time I spent planning and managing operations and projects provided me with a solid grounding in budgeting, logistics, and time management.

My experiences in Special Forces ranged from assisting with neural surgery at the military hospital in Balad, Iraq to conducting combat operations in Afghanistan to training students at the Special Forces school house.

As a leader, what I find most rewarding is mentoring and developing subordinates and junior service members. I believe that providing people with the tools to control and grow their own lives is the cornerstone of a functional society.

Helping people take responsibility for their lives stops them from stagnating due to dependency or acting out in unhealthy ways over perceived injustices of not receiving their due.

What was the biggest project challenge was you’ve ever faced?

During my final deployment in the military, I took responsibility for clearing up historic finance issues with ongoing projects.

As I dug into the issues, I identified a growing list of problems which increased conflict with oversight elements for clearing up the issues and continuing to execute the current projects.

As time passed, it became apparent that the personnel providing oversight lacked experience with and understanding of the activities they were overseeing and policies they were enforcing.

Those individuals also refused to acknowledge their lack of knowledge and understanding or accept attempts to educate them.

By the time I finished my deployment, it became impossible to clear up historic issues or continue current project activities because the individuals responsible for oversight rejected every attempt to provide them with documentation to answer their demands.

Because of their lack of knowledge and experience they could not articulate what they needed and would not accept anything we provided that should have met their needs.

How do you manage the good idea fairy?

My method for managing the good idea fairy is to set limits at the outset for what will be in and out of scope for a project.

While I led my detachment, my guidance to them was that as long as they could articulate how their idea met our end state, they could bring it to me for consideration.

However, if they could not articulate that, it was a non-starter and I would not even consider it.

How would you describe your personal communication style?

I prefer face-to-face interactions whenever feasible.

I also try to avoid addressing performance issues in front of individuals not directly involved in the issue, unless there is a larger teaching point to the issue that pertains to the team as a whole and I am dealing with the issue immediately.

If the issue is being addressed after the fact, my preference is to address it in a private space with only those it directly pertains to.

How do you continually improve as a project manager?

My primary method of continuous improvement as a project manager by executing projects and refining my management techniques.

I also engage in professional development by taking additional training and reading / listening to project management relevant material.

Most of my project management skills were developed in action through trial and error since I hand limited mentorship in the subject area as I rose through the ranks.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in project management?

Be open to advice and new ideas. There is too much information out there for anyone to have all of it.

Things also evolve and change continuously so if you become set in one method you will stagnate and fall behind the best practices, which will lead to poor results in the future.

Seek diverse sources of input and validate their value to ensure what you are getting is of high quality and take input from any source you cannot validate with a grain of salt.

Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-conrad/

Project managers are a vital asset to any business as they oversee the implementation and completion of defined projects or programs of work. While job specifications may differ depending on the industry, primary duties often involve planning interdependent tasks and coordinating teams.

Hiring departments are therefore very observant and thorough when looking for suitable candidates for such positions. If you are currently looking for a job in this field, it is crucial to understand what to expect in an interview for a project management role.

Here, we discuss eight tips that will help you impress the hiring team and land that next big project.

1. Demonstrate Good Communication Skills

One aspect interviewers use to assess job candidates is the ability to communicate effectively. Demonstrate this soft skill in your interview by providing precise and confident answers.

Also, avoid interrupting the interviewers while they speak and refrain from movements that may display poor non-verbal communication.

2. Focus on the Skills Needed

While you may have a broad range of soft skills and expertise, it is crucial to focus on those needed for the role. Before an interview, read the job description several times to identify the expertise the company seeks.

With this information, explain your effectiveness in managing teams and simplifying project implementation. Don’t forget to establish credibility by mentioning your technical capabilities and Certifications.

3. Discuss Your Problem-Solving Skills

As a project manager, you will face situations requiring you to make tough decisions. You will also encounter time and resource constraints during implementation. In your interview, demonstrate the ability to analyze and solve problems by providing real-life examples of problems you solved.

These may include ones from your past job or a current issue affecting a specific firm. Having a high ability to solve problems will increase competence and complement your technical skills.

4. Explain Lessons Learned from Failures

Managing projects is not always a successful job because sometimes you may make decisions that negatively affect implementation. During your interview, do not be afraid to talk about past projects that weren’t successful.

Use them to discuss the lessons you learned from these events and how you might make decisions differently now.

5. Prepare Questions to Ask

Asking questions during an interview indicates an interest in learning more about the company. This practice also shows that you value clarity, which is a vital skill for a project manager.

When preparing for an interview, come prepared with a mental list of questions to ask. Use them to demonstrate your understanding of the nature of the job and preferred project delivery methods.

6. Don’t Bad-Mouth Previous Co-workers or Bosses

While your previous boss or partner may have been frustrating to work with, it is crucial to avoid bad-mouthing during interviews. Always determine a positive way to describe the need to change jobs.

For example, you might explain that you want new career opportunities to challenge your developing expertise. At the same time, assure the hiring manager that you are not a ‘risky’ candidate that will leave quickly when another chance arises.

7. Prepare for Commonly Asked Questions

Preparing for questions asked in project management interviews not only boosts your confidence, it gives future employers confidence in you. Some of the queries you may encounter are:

• Tell me more about yourself and the projects you have worked on?
• What is your personal communication style and how does that impact on your interactions with others?
• What project software have you used and what did you like about it?
• Why should we hire you?

When answering these, ensure that the responses relate to the company’s goals and culture and don’t just end up sounding boastful.

8. Follow Up

After any interview, it is advisable to thank the manager for their time and send a short email to express your continued enthusiasm for the role.

Then, wait for about one week to inquire when you’re likely to get feedback. However, avoid nagging the manager by only contacting them once unless they request following up later.

Certify with the Institute of Project Management

The process of obtaining a project management Certification will help to formalize the knowledge, skills and experience that you have already earned.

Holding an internationally recognised project management certification may help get your foot in the door for a key interview or be an influential factor when pitching for a new client.

Project management Certification can also help you to grow your professional network.

To discuss how a project management Certification can future-proof your career, contact the team at Institute of Project Management today.

About the Author

Camillia N. Shanks is a marketing professional who specializes in taking difficult to understand subject matter and turning it into easily digestible content.

For the last five years of her career, she has lent her services to companies in the IT, software, food retail and lifestyle spaces.

In her spare time she enjoys cooking complex meals in her tiny kitchen, working out and binge watching The Office.

So you want to be internationally Certified as a project manager and have heard about the PMP.

The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification is one of the most widely recognised in the world, but does it make you a better project manager?

About the PMP Exam

The PMP certification exam is based off the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide.

To pass the PMP exam, you need to memorise all of the Guide’s 5 process groups, 10 knowledge areas, 47 processes and several thousand formulas, lexicon terms and ITTOs.

Interestingly, the Guide does not teach you how to manage projects – it really just lists, in mind numbing detail, all the ‘bits’ of project management.

Kind of like getting in the mail the 1,349 bits that make up a washing machine and a manual that labels them all, without telling you how they fit together.

It’s perhaps unsurprising then that the failure rate for the exam is not published, but many industry experts suspect that around half the people who take the exam fail it on their first attempt.

The PMP Prep Industry

For that reason, many people complete a PMP prep course with a private training provider.

Those courses typically cost several thousand dollars and have one goal in mind – and, no, it’s not to teach you how to manage projects.

Their purpose is to teach you how to pass the exam.

The PMP prep course industry is huge – literally millions of people have taken these courses – and still, half fail the exam at the first attempt.

And almost none learn how to better manage projects.

The Cost of PMP

I truly get why PMPs are proud of their certification – it requires a huge amount of motivation, discipline and effort.

It also costs a lot of money.

Because beyond the cost of prep courses and examination, there are membership dues, renewals and continuing professional development programs you need to constantly pay for to keep your certification current.

When you invest that much in a piece of paper you want to make very sure that everyone believes how awesome it is!

But the project management profession’s dirty little secret is that unless you have actual industry experience and can demonstrate your competence in other ways, you are nothing more than a “Paper PM”

A Paper PM is someone good at passing tests, but actually pretty clueless about how to be a good project manager.

That’s because no one – and I mean literally no one – perfectly follows the PMBOK guide when delivering their projects.

Do you know why?

Because the best project managers are creative and critical thinkers.

They draw on their knowledge, experience and skills to identify the best practices for their projects, their clients and the environment they operate in.

A New Approach to Certification

But what if there was a Certification program that recognised your knowledge, skills and experience?

What if there was a Certification that recognised that the right mix of knowledge, skills and experience doesn’t decay – once you have clearly and demonstrably attained a level, you deserve to be Certified for life!

And what if the Certification coursework drew on the global library of good practice – including PMBOK, PRINCE2, Agile and other methods – to teach you how to solve problems, lead complexity and make good project decisions.

Oh, and you were assessed on that with your peers within the coursework; rather than in the sterile isolation of an artificial exam.

You can probably guess where I’m going with this…

Welcome to the Institute of Project Management

Our Certifications are not easy, but our courses do demystify project management, making it easier to understand.

Our Certifications are not cheap, but they are significantly less expensive than the PMP process and do not become a never-ending drain on your purse.

Importantly, though, our Certification coursework is not painful.

It is not obtuse, overly technical or academic. Our resources are fast-paced, engaging, enlightening and fun.

What you learn today you can apply tomorrow, in your current or pretty much any future role.

Here at the Institute we are all about enabling innovation.

For if innovation is successful change, then projects are how we deliver it.

And wherever you are and whatever industry you work in, shouldn’t that be the most important job in the world?

About the Author

Prior to co-founding the Institute of Project Management, Paul enjoyed 15 years of senior management experience across Australia, Asia and Europe in a wide range of project driven businesses.

He currently advises a diverse community of public, private and not-for-profit organisations on management issues relating to strategy, risk, projects, operations, marketing and people.

“The fundamental paradox is that change is essential, and yet stability is necessary.”
C.S. Holling (2000)

If it does nothing else, proactive risk management allows projects and organisations to build resilience to events without becoming defensive or static.

Here’s a ‘thought bubble’ on how – through adaptive resilience – project managers can balance the tension between the needs to simultaneously take and avoid risk.

Through his analysis of the Arts sector, Mark Robinson made a number of observations about the characteristics of resilient organisations. I’ve presented them below ‘as is’, and it is surprising to note their fit to the general paradigm of project risk management.

Resilient organisations share…

• …a culture of shared purpose and values rooted in a strong organisational memory, avoiding mission-drift but consciously evolving
• …predictable financial resources derived from a robust business model and a range of activities and ‘customers’, allowing some financial flexibility to be retained
• …strong networks (internal or external), with an absence of ‘silos’, and collaboration at all levels to make the organisation vital and connected, and
• …intellectual, human and physical assets used to maximise impact in pursuit of core purpose, with appropriate investment in the creation and exploitation of new assets.

Adaptive organisations share…

• …adaptive capacity: innovation and experimentation are embedded in reflective practice, with change seen as natural and actively prepared for
• …leadership, management and governance provide clarity internally and externally, with clear roles and responsibilities and strong improvement focus
• …situation awareness of environment and performance, with good gathering, sharing and consideration of intelligence and information to inform decisions, and
• …management of key vulnerabilities that is regular and integrated into planning and preparation for disruption.

Adaptive resilience is thus the capacity to remain productive and true to core purpose and identity whilst absorbing disturbance and adapting with integrity in response to changing circumstances.

Robinson argues (with strong evidence) that organisations and sectors that consistently display these characteristics will tend to prove more resilient, be more productive and have more impact – and isn’t that exactly want from our projects?

His ultimate argument, as it is translated here, can be essentially reduced to a simple dichotomy: are you, through your projects, only delivering goods and services (outputs), or are you also delivering results (outcomes)?

In other words, does your project actively use its resources to identify opportunities to create new revenue or fresh assets, or does it only do whatever is specified in the statement of scope?

Although we address this issue more completely in OPEN, my contention here is that projects are inevitably much bigger than their moving parts, and that risk (and its complement, opportunity) management is the way we both conceptualise, accommodate and capitalise on this.

About the Author

Prior to co-founding the Institute of Project Management, Paul enjoyed 15 years of senior management experience across Australia, Asia and Europe in a wide range of project driven businesses.

He currently advises a diverse community of public, private and not-for-profit organisations on management issues relating to strategy, risk, projects, operations, marketing and people.

About Angus

Angus Peacock is a Certified Project Trainer at DOL Coach. He has more than 20 years of international project management and executive experience, with some taking place in robust conditions and multicultural locations.

Significant highlights in Angus’ career include projects within international real estate, luxury hotels, governance, charitable and not for profit program development, sports events and tournaments, as well as corporate due diligence and investigations.

Overlaid with this background, since the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, Angus has been working in pedagogical environments, delivering accreditations and intentional learning opportunities through 1: 1 executive coaching, professional training, in person classes, online courses and physical team coaching.

What is the most interesting project is you’ve ever worked on?

Project lead for a supply chain and procurement fraud investigation, inside a foreign country for an international aircraft engine manufacturer.

What’s the one risk you never saw coming?

The company I was employed by did not legally exist in the country where their project was taking place.

Poor initiation by the owners meant that, despite due diligence reporting, they had not achieved even the basic legal requirements for business set up, rendering the project obsolete and my position illegal, from the outset.

How do you manage the good idea fairy?

Ask them how they see their idea being implemented within the framework of what we are trying to achieve. Try to get them to explain or draw out the steps for execution of their idea.

This is a methodology that I have used regularly to engage folks within a project rather than dismiss an idea – it helps them develop valuable skills and executive functioning without feeling the dismay of rejection.

How would you describe your personal communication style?

Open and engaging.

Communications is an ever evolving skill that is bigger than transmitting a message. Overtime I have learned to be a better communicator by learning other languages, understanding how different cultures interact, evolve relevant story telling skills and reflect on experiences to create empathy and understanding.

What advice would you give someone just starting out in project management?

Project management is an ongoing and engaging vocation with opportunities to develop multiple skills and gain knowledge in multi faceted environments.

You will be tested and challenged in many ways.

Project management brings a variety and excitement to your life that many business as usual opportunities cannot compare with.

Connect with Angus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachangus/