Program and Advanced Project Management Techniques

Twitter for Business

David Long — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:11:50 +0000

Twitter In-depth Introduction for Business

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A comprehensive guide to using Twitter in your business.

What Are You Doing With The Time?

David Long — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:29:43 +0000

Seth Godin hits it one more time. I’d write more but I feel guilty spending any more time than necessary.

Everytime You Drift Along

David Long — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:56:24 +0000

Sometimes it seems like Seth Godin is my personal motivation coach leaning over my shoulder. Just about the time I find myself just drifting along, taking it easy, just putting my feet down and picking them up, he comes along with another inspirational blog. The most recent that got me is titled “The world’s worst boss”. Of course, the punchline is that it is you. You are the worst boss. Too often, we end up our day just going through the motions and not really thinking or planning what we are going to do next. Then we wake up days, weeks, years later and wonder what happened to the time. Read Seth’s blog and see if it doesn’t also cause you a few twinges. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/12/the-worlds-worst-boss.html

Your Work Versus You

David Long — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 17:11:49 +0000

I don’t think it is really necessary to add much to Seth’s post which I’ll reproduce below – but here I go. Sometimes we forget that all the schmoozing you think you need to do is just a waste of time. I’m not saying that you don’t need to be cordial and try to get along with those who control your fate. However, I am saying that if the command comes down from on high that staff needs to be reduced, the mere fact that you are friendly with your boss by itself probably won’t save you. Just ask yourself two questions, “Would my boss be any good if he or she really let their friendships decide who stays and who goes rather than look at the work that the person produces?” The second question is, “What criteria would I use if I were in their position?”

From Seth’s 11/17/2010 blog

It doesn’t really matter if we like you.
It matters if we like your work.
[Surprisingly, the converse of this rule also works].
Sometimes it seems as though people who are really concerned about one would be better off focusing on the other.

Synchronizing MS Project and MS Outlook

David Long — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:49:09 +0000

I had a colleague just the other day ask me a question I hadn’t thought about for a while. The question was basically this, “Is there a way to coordinate tasks created in project and schedule it in my outlook calendar?” It had been a while but I knew that I have used this ability on occasion. Once you learn how to do it, it becomes a real time saver.

So a little background about why this ability is useful. Let’s face it, the reality is that most people are not going to begin on their assigned tasks until right before they are due. Until prodded into action, we all have other things to work on and other priorities. Part of your responsibility as a project manager is to provide the nag factor when it comes to upcoming tasks. However, as project managers, we are usually charged with keeping track of numerous tasks ourselves. What could be better than have Outlook prod us about upcoming tasks? We can then turn this information around and aid our project resources in getting started on their own tasks.

It turns out that MS Project has had the ability to coordinate project tasks with resources for a while. Here’s how you put it into play.

There are two ways:

If you are running MS Project Server, it is a built-in function. However, since most people aren’t running that server or have it set up, look at option #2.
MS Project will coordinate with your personal Outlook out of the box.
- What you need to do is set a “reminder” in MS Project, which will then set a “reminder” in your Outlook.
- You can then either leave the reminder alone or assign it to someone else.

How to Do:

Turn on the Tracking Toolbar:

Go to “View/Toolbars” and click on the Tracking Toolbar to turn it on
You should see the reminder bell which is defaulted to the second to last icon. When you hover over it says “Set Reminder”. If you don’t see the bell, look at the bottom of this email on how to add it.
Select the task you want the reminder set for.
Click on the “Set Reminder” bell and indicate the time in advance for the reminder.
The reminder will appear in your Outlook calendar (“Tasks/To Do List”)
Either keep the reminder or assign it (it is really a task reminder) to someone else.

If you don’t see the reminder bell on the Tracking Toolbar:
Please note that the default installation for MS Project includes the Tracking Toolbar which also includes the Set Reminder bell.

Go to “Tools/Customize/Toolbars”.
Switch to tab “Commands”.
Select “All Commands”.
Scroll to “ReminderSet”.
Drop the toolbar button on a toolbar of your choice.
Click “Close”.

That’s all there is to it. Once you’ve set the reminder, Outlook will continue to monitor it for you. Once the task is completed just go back into MS Project and mark it complete.

Musings on a Friday Afternoon

David Long — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:59:16 +0000

You know how you feel when the week is finally winding down, you’ve completed the last of your project status reports and all you want to do is head home for the weekend? Well, now is probably one of those pivotal moments when what you really need (yes, absolutely need) to do is stop and take stock of where you are going and what are you doing.

As project managers, it is so easy to get caught up the activities that make up our day to day lives that often times we forget that both our personal lives and our projects could use a little “thinking about what it is we do” time.

There are a couple of blogs that I’ve read this week that had me reflecting about what exactly should I be doing and how the projects I’m in charge of might benefit.

Seth Godin started me off with his blog on June 10th with the following. “What would happen if you were prohibited from working more than five hours a day. What would you do? How would you use those five hours to become indispensable in a different way?”

That’s an interesting thought. So often it seems that in the middle of running from one meeting to another, preparing yet another status report and perhaps preparing another report that you know no one will ever look at, that we don’t look at what are the key functions that we need to perform. So, if you only had five hours to complete what needed to be done next Monday (or whatever the next workday is when you read this), what would you do? What activities would cut out that are just exactly that….activities, not accomplishments.

At least two companies for which I did consulting work had a very detailed list of the project documents that were to be completed as one progressed through the project. At the very end was the “project closeout and lessons learned” exercise. So I duly prepared that final documentation and then checked about setting up a lessons learned meeting with the project clients. Along the way, I asked about the document library so that I would know where to store the results. “Oh, we don’t have a project document library” was the answer. You can see me shaking my head right then, can’t you? Here was hours and hours of time invested by numerous individuals preparing something that was supposed to help future projects and yet the total value was to end up in someones inbox to be filed away. Both companies were simply going through the exercise because that’s what was supposed to be done rather than taking a few moments and thinking about what they were doing.

Seth’s blog go me thinking about another of my favorites, Tom Peters of In Search of Excellence fame. So I went looking for what Tom had to say. Tom makes several good points in musing into the same area . Tom goes on to say, “To even survive professionally, I believe we each must, to steal the words of the immortal basketball coach, John Wooden, “make each day a masterpiece” …. or, usurping the phraseology of guru and pal Mike Ray, “make your life itself a creative work of art.” That requires busting a gut, immersing oneself in the moment, digging deep if necessary for an attitude fix, appreciating the marvels of the world around us and our mates within it, and devoting the day to an at least modestly ennobling purpose and project … beyond merely scoring another checkmark on life’s short-timer calendar.”

Finally, I should expand this to bring in another thought. I know this is going to sound so trite but, here goes. Go beyond making sure that your professional work counts. Make sure that you are making every day count for you. Mitch Albom ascribed to his mentor Morrie Schwartz in Tuesdays with Morrie the following thought. “Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, ‘Is today the day [that I will die]? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?”

A New Challenge from Seth Godin

David Long — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:12:02 +0000

I wholeheartedly believe that if we are going to progress as project managers we have to do it better, more thoughtfully (thanks Tom Peters), and with more impact. Sometimes this means going back and pondering just exactly what we are trying to accomplish. This involves taking a good long look at where we are and where we are going. To quote Mark Twain, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Seth Godin’s latest blog (6/2/2010) seems to drive this point home for me. Rather than show a link to his blog, I’ve reproduced it entirely below with a link. If you don’t “take a dose of Seth” everyday, I’d highly recommend adding him to your daily routine.

16 questions for free agents

If you’re starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you’ll make is: what to do? As in the answer to the question, “what do you do?”

Some questions to help you get started:

1. Who are you trying to please?
2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?
3. How will the world be different when you’ve succeeded?
4. Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?
5. Do you want a team? How big? (I know, that’s two questions)
6. Would you rather have an open-ended project that’s never done, or one where you hit natural end points? (How high is high enough?)
7. Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?
8. Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?
9. If you take someone else’s investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?
10. Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?
11. Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask…
12. How long can you wait before it feels as though you’re succeeding?
13. Is perfect important? (Do you feel the need to fail privately, not in public?)
14. Do you want your customers to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?
15. How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we’re on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)
16. What does busy look like?

In my experience, people skip all of these questions and ask instead: “What can I do that will be sure to work?” The problem, of course, is that there is no sure, and even worse, that you and I have no agreement at all on what it means for something to work.

Get more Seth and see the original blog here: Link to Seth’s blog.

An Amazing Message and An Amazing Presentation

David Long — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:20:12 +0000

Not only will this presentation give you something to really think about but it is done in an amazing manner!

As Mark Twain said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Tom Peters and Excellence

David Long — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:45:13 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately from Tom Peters and Seth Godin and both of them seem to be setting the same tone. In today’s world, you must push yourself to provide your very best effort for each and every thing you produce. Not only that but you should stop and be THOUGHTFUL before you start that “each and every thing”. Are you producing the finest but it just keeps the status quo in place or are you trying to really contribute to making your business or organization truly successful. There are too many businesses out there any more that just don’t seem to get the not only are they playing the wrong strategic game on the field but someone moved the game to a different ball park.

Everybody Loves 10 Rules Posts- Not!

David Long — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:20:41 +0000

I looked at the article Ten New Rules for Project Manager by Hal Macomber, Project Reformer with a slightly cynical eye thinking to myself, “Oh, well. Here’s another writer who is going to give his version of the golden rules for project management.” Until I realized that he was actually talking about relationships. To me, at least as important as what you stick in your project plan, are the relationships you build on your team, with your peers and, of course, upward. See what you think, I’d love to have your comments.

Adopt practices for exploring a variety of perspectives.
We think we see what we see, but we don’t. We really see what we think. Remember the blind men and the elephant. Make it your habit to inquire what others see. You’ll see more together.
Stay close to your customer.
Clients’ concerns evolve over the life of a project. Take advantage of that to over-deliver. Stay in a conversation with your client to adjust what you are doing.
Take care of your project team.
We’ve come to accept that the customer comes first…the customer is always right. We can’t take care of the customer if we first aren’t taking care of our project team. It’s a challenge. While there are some things we can do for the whole team, it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individual that he or she is. And to make it more difficult, then we must bring their various interests into coherence.
Keep your eye on the overall project promises.
Project work can be difficult. It is easy to loose sight of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Remind your team and yourself of the overall promises and how you are doing fulfilling those promises.
There is far more that we don’t know and can’t know than what we can anticipate.
Build relationships intentionally.
Project teams come together as strangers. To do great work…innovation, learning, and collaboration…all take people who like and care for each other. Don’t leave that to chance. Start your projects by building relationships among team members.
Tightly couple learning with action.
Projects are wonderful opportunities to learn. Don’t put that off for the after project lessons learned. Make it your habit to incorporate learning loops in all your project activities. Your team will appreciate it. Your customer will benefit from it. And best of all, it will make your job easier.
Coordinate meticulously.
A project is an ever-evolving network of commitment. Keep that network activated by tending to the critical conversations. See that people are making clear requests, promises that have completion dates, and share opinions that advance the purposes of the project. Without attention to those critical conversations the project will drift.
Collaborate. Really collaborate.
Make it your rule to plan with those people who will be the performers of the plan. Don’t wait ’til the project has gone south to get their help. Start out that way. Continue collaborating as the usual way you work through the project.
Listen generously.
People are able to say what they can in the moment. For the most part, people are well-intended. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Take the time to listen. Ask questions. Seek others’ opinions. And while you’re at it, don’t be so harsh on yourself.
Embrace uncertainty.
Expect the unexpected. There is far more that we don’t know and can’t know than what we can anticipate. Be resilient to what life throws at you. Anticipate that your team will learn something along the way that can and should change what you have promised and how you can deliver on your promises. And when you take a set-back — we all do sometime or another — review the other nine rules for how you can work your way out of it.