Project management certification is a tricky subject. There is no doubt that there is a significant amount of value in some certifications, less in others, and some are just not worth it. Today, we’re looking at project management certification and training on Project Management Guide, with a round up of a few posts and articles.

Firstly, we look at Myths of Project Management Certification Debunked by Wayne Botha. His 5 myths hit the spot, particularly number 3: “Certified project managers are always more effective than non-certified and experienced project managers.” While certifications are nice, they are not the true measure of a project manager – only the track record of their projects can be that.

That is not to say there is no point in getting some certification. As John Reiling puts it in Top 10 Benefits to Earning a Certification, ‘While it is said that “experience is the greatest teacher,” a certification “rounds you out.”‘ This is very true. While you will need considerable experience to help you in your project management, sometimes you will run across situations or issues you simply haven’t seen before. As well as applying your experience, it is useful to have some practical advice from elsewhere to fall back on.

It is important, however, not to get too hung up on having a methodology. As Joseph Phillips says in Project Management Models, Certifications and the Pyramids, “here’s what I think: project management is project management. I don’t think it matters what approach you take to complete your projects, as long as you complete your projects.”

Project management is too complicated to boil down to just one set of processes, a book of templates to fill in for each project, or a series of steps to take on every project. It involves hard work, soft skills, a logical mind and a creative spirit. These take time to develop and nurture, and while a particular certification path or methodology will provide you valuable pointers and help, ultimately it is down to yourself to make sure you have the right skills and attributes to deliver your projects on time, and on budget. Certification is one of the pillars that will support you in project management, but it isn’t a magic bullet.

So get out there and yes, read the books, follow the courses, take the exams, but, most importantly, do the work as well!

Just a quick one today, with some more information on the importance of your project’s business case.  As you will recall from Building the Case, the business case should explain why you are doing the project.  This is vital moving forward, and needs to be revisited often throughout the life of the project.

PMHut has an article called Writing an Unbeatable Business Case which gives the PRINCE2 thinking behind it, which I personally find very useful.

Don’t forget you can also download my Business Case template (PDF) to get you started.

Just to show it’s not just the British government that doesn’t seem to handle projects well, I thought I’d post a quick story about the FBI’s new case management system.

While it is currently ‘only’ expected to be $26 million over budget and 6 months late, it is also a replacement project for one that cost $170 million that was abandoned as it was “obsolete and riddled with problems” – so not quite so good.  However, scrapping a project which isn’t going to deliver what you need (instead of letting it drift onwards, not wanting to take the hit for stopping it) is actually good project management, so the FBI get points for that.

Unfortunately, the Justice Department’s inspector general’s report (PDF) says the FBI:

“needs to improve the risk management process it uses to identify, monitor, control and mitigate risks before they negatively affect [the project’s] cost, schedule and performance”.

We now have a project management team and structure in place.  We’re agreed we want to move ahead with the project idea.  We need to put in place what we need to actually carry out the project.  In the previous post in the project management guide, we realised we needed to make sure we planned the project well – and the best way to do that was to plan that planning process.  Today I want to expand on the kind of things we need to make sure we do in the project planning – in other words, what we need to put into the plan for the plan, what we need to have in place so we have the best chance of beginning a successful project.

What do we want?

Earlier, we have created a business case for the project.  This is what we had our project executive agree to, and is the reason for doing the project.  When we move on to the planning of the project, we will start to have a better idea of how much this is likely to cost – which means we must revisit the business case.  In addition, we will also start to get a better idea of what we need to do to achieve the project goals, and we need to expand the business case to include this information.

Here is a Business Case template (PDF), which shows you what you need to start thinking about at this time.  The first four sections of this can be filled in now, at least in some way.  The second four sections we can start to populate once we move into project planning – and that means we need to plan to do this in the next phase of the project.

In that next phase, we also need to come to an agreement on the quality we want the end product to have.  Partly this comes down to a trade-off between time, money, and quality.  However, we also need to look at what is expected at the end.  For example, in a software project, we may only be looking for a proof of concept, or a prototype system, as opposed to a completed package which is ready to be sold as commercial software.  We need to get clear agreement on this at the beginning.  We also need to put down some ground rules on how the quality will be assessed, and by whom.

Finally, we’ll also need to come to an agreement on various project management ‘house-keeping’ issues.  Who needs to know project progress information?  How often?  What level of detail?  What form should this take (e.g. meetings, formal documents, emails, phonecalls, etc.)?  Who will make the decisions about the project?  This isn’t the day to day matters, but the bigger decisions about quality, budget, acceptance of products, and so on.  We have a project executive, but who will also be involved?

All of these issues will need to be considered and decided on in the next phase.  And on top of that, of course, we will need to start to plan the actual project work!  Make sure you realise what an important phase the next one is.  It is the foundation on which the rest of the project rests.  If you get it right, and put in place a clear plan, achievable and desireable objectives, with a strong project management structure and team around them, you will be well on the way to delivering a successful project.

I hope this second ‘Planning the Planning’ post in this project management guide has been useful to you.  What else would you include in the project planning phase?  What tips and techniques have you found useful?  Post below!

Oh, and Happy New Year!

(Image courtesy of perhapstoopink. Some rights reserved.)

As a follow-up to the news reported in The importance of project management, (which was also picked up by CIO, Silicon.com, ZDNet.co.uk, and Ron Rosenhead, among others) it turns out the UK government’s Department of Transport are not the only branch of government failing at project management.

The UK’s National Audit Office has looked at 20 of the largest projects in the Ministry of Defence. They found the projects were on £205 million over budget and 96 months later than initial estimates! Tim Burr, who is the head of the National Audit Office, said:

“Performance remains variable and, until the MoD and the defence industry improve their decision-making processes and show sustained learning from previous projects, value for money will not be consistently delivered.”

To be fair to the MoD, many of these projects are procuring cutting edge technology, and you would expect some problems. However, as the Financial Times reports, the NAO “identified key failings, including shortcomings on project management and the department’s failure to act as an intelligent customer.” That, combined with an apparent ‘lack of realism’ suggests the MoD needs to look again at its project management.

On the last Project Management Guide, we looked at building the business case. Now we have a clear idea of what the project is for, and what it should achieve, we need to look at what we need to get a clearer idea of how to go about delivering it, and how long this may take.

This is not the same as planning the project itself. What we are doing here is having a look at what kind of resource we need to set aside to do that planning. Now, in a relatively small project, this should not take very long at all, and any reporting to the project management team we have created can be informal. However, for some projects, even the work of planning the project is a significant exercise.

For example, imagine a project to design and produce a prototype of a new aircraft. There are a huge number of factors to take into account, and the planning for that project could be considered to be a project in its own right. In that case, it is only sensible that you consider the resources you will need to get it done.

Once you have produced this plan, it is back to the project management team you have put together, especially the executive, to get their approval to move forward. This takes us beyond starting up the project management process, and into building the framework for the project work.

You may ask why we have spent so long in making sure we have a project management structure in place. In practice, this stage can often be very short, but you really shouldn’t be tempted to skip it. The right project management team, and particularly the right executive, can mean the difference between success and failure. Showing the right discipline now in the processes used gets everyone into the right mindset for the project as a whole. And making sure the business case is known and agreed makes sure you know what a successful projct will look like, and what you need to check throughout the project to make sure you are staying relevant to the project and the business needs.

Just in case you were in any doubt about how important good project management is, take a look at the lamentable mess a department of the UK government made of a recent project.

It was an IT project, merging a variety of separate systems into one. With an original budget of £55m, it was supposed to save the department £112m when complete. In fact, it is likely to cost £121m, and save £40m – a nice £81m cost to the taxpayers of the UK!

More information is available from articles in two UK newspapers, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

The Telegraph article has a quote from a British politician who looked at the project:

“The Department must also overhaul its project management capabilities, closely examining the expertise of its project managers, setting up systems for subjecting future plans to rigorous challenge and, crucially, establishing incentives to officials for success and penalties for failure.”

While most errors in projects aren’t as high-profile as this, they could all cause serious problems to your organisation. With a strong project management team, methodology, and skills, along with an organisation truly bought into project management, perhaps this project could have been given a chance of success. That’s why it is important you develop your project management skills, and keep them up to scratch, with project management resources such as this project management guide!

Just a quick one from Project Management Guide today, to point you at a great video on the ZDNet Between The Lines blog – “The top five reasons why project management fails”.

Notice how important it is to make sure the organisation as a whole is committed to project management.  Too often, appointing a project manager completes the tick-box of project management.  In reality, project management is something that must be bought into by everyone connected with the project – from your sponsor down.  You need to make sure everyone has the discipline to follow the project management steps, leading to a more successful project.

Something a bit different today for Project Management Guide, looking at a couple of related project management blog postings out there.

Firstly, Ron Holohan at pm411.org has another great post and podcast, 5 tips to manage your manager:

I am not talking about manipulating your manager, but rather making sure you are successful in meeting her expectations. We usually know what we need to do to get our job done as a project manager, but do we know our manager’s needs? How can we insure that we are meeting her needs?

This is a very important part of what we do. We must be aware of what our manager is trying to achieve, and they are likely to be a stakeholder in our projects. Not knowing what they need to get out of your work is going to cause you a problem, just as not defining what your project needs to achieve will.

Backing this up is a post by Robert McIlree, The Most Critical P-Word Of All:

We focus primarily on what I call P-words: People, Process, Projects, Programs…and yet, there is one P-word missing; and it’s the one that trumps all of the others almost every time:

Politics.

Absolutely true. I remember one project I worked on, when I was instructed to amend a risk report because the person responsible (through inaction) for one of the high impact, high probability risk would “be embarrassed” by it! This was all due to the complicated politics going on at the time (a number of organisations were merging into one).

Politics within the project, and within the organisation, can have a major impact on your project, and it is important you are aware of it. Hopefully this will mean you are able to accurately gauge the various risks associated with it!

Surprisingly, this is a question which isn’t asked enough by aspiring project managers. Everyone thinks they know the answer, but do they really? Let’s look at a few examples:

1. You have just started a new management job. Your company produces a speciality good, and you have to oversee the manufacturing process, and make sure as many are produced as possible.
2. You have just joined a new company. Your first assignment is to ensure every desk in the office gets a new computer on it within 12 months.
3. Your next assignment is to deliver the roll-out of a new communications infrastructure, and maintain it afterwards.

Before we decide, we’ll have a look at a few definitions that are out there. The Project Management Institute says in their guide A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge “a project consists of a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.” The definition used in PRINCE2 (a popular project management methodology in the UK and Europe) says a project “is a management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case.”

In plain English, a project starts to achieve an aim, and finishes when that aim is achieved. The aim can be creating a new product, delivering a particular item, or even just achieving a particular goal. The important thing to remember is that projects are temporary. They do not consist of the same task done ad infinitum.

Given these definitions, we can now decide which of the examples given above are actually projects.

Number 1 is not a project. You will be managing a process that already exists. However, if, for example, you were tasked with coming up with a way to make the process 25% more efficient, doing that task would be a project.

Number 2 is a project. You can see it has a clear aim – to put a new computer on every desk. In addition, it has a constraint, because it all has to be done within 12 months. We’ll come back to constraints in a later project management guide.

Number 3 is a project – at first. Rolling out the new comms infrastructure is a project, with the aim of delivering that infrastructure. Maintaining the infrastructure afterwards is not a project. However, you may want to write the procedures and protocols for maintaining the infrastructure in the delivery project, as an additional product.

The third case is a classic example of how project management can come into many jobs. It is easy to imagine, for example, an IT manager having to project manage the roll-out of the infrastructure, in addition to the day job of maintaining it at the end. If you are in this sort of situation, it is important to realise you need to clearly define what is part of your project, and what isn’t – otherwise your precious project resource may start to get pulled onto day to day tasks, instead of being focussed on delivery.

Remember that projects are temporary, with defined goals. I hope you’ve found this project management guide useful!