Project Management Practitioner

A good kick-off meeting with all key stake holders will be an ideal start to any successful project. Bit of homework coupled with proper planning helps to organize a better kick-off meeting and stamp a great impression about the PM with all stake holders.

Kick-off meeting is indication of the project commencement and strongly recommended to set the stage and not to find solutions. It can be effectively used for any of these purposes.

1. Establish good rapport with all stakeholders

Good relationship among all the stakeholders is the basic requirement and a face-to-face kick-off meeting can be effectively used to leave a positive impression for all.

2. Showcase the leadership & PM qualities

Demonstrate your leadership qualities to the project stakeholder and establish yourself as a natural leader.

3. Understand the background of project initiation

Set the priority to collect background and necessities which triggered the project rather than requirement gathering. These trivial information will be vital to set the three major constraint of the project.

4. Key information gatherings

Other key information’s such as resource availability plans, planned holiday, any special requirements such as the use of non-standard h/w or s/w should be collected.

5. Set the expectations and ground rules

Define the ground rules and set the expectation to all the stakeholders. This helps to bring standard and common expectations during the course of the project.

Finally, follow-up with a well summarized MOM(Minutes of Meeting) at the end of the meeting to communicate the same to all.

-Dhanasekaran

Project communication involves interaction in 360*. Clear communication is a must for the successful PM to convey his/her messages to the relevant parties. A Project Manager to employ various communication styles while communicating with different level of stake holders.

Higher/Senior Management
This group prefers bottom lined, brief and crisp communication as they may not have adequate time to read bigger emails. Bigger emails. Marking them in TO column and addressing them clearly in the mail beginning, will grab their attention for their action items listed in the mail. Any failure to do so, will not warrant their attention and result in wasting precious time line.

They like the over all project status at higher level and focus on show stoppers to act on.

Middle Management
Majority of the project communication will be exchanged between this category stakeholders for status reporting and escalation. Better structured email will yield the desired results. Most commonly used email structure is

a. Solution/Action Items/Status
b. Issue/Background
c. Supporting documents

This group more interested in the period project progress and proactive measures to handle issues and risks. Issue management and escalation must be promptly made to this people.

Technical/Ground level team members
This group of stakeholders expects very detailed emails contains micro level details. They are one of the toughest group to handle as often miscommunication will occur at this level.

Always they focus on their tasks & activities and tend to act on. Constant reminders and better encouragement will help to perform.

-Dhanasekaran

Processes are mostly hated by almost everyone in all organizations. People always use their innovative skills to come up with various justification to  support their stand. Everybody have their own share to merit their claims.

However on the other hand, organizations emphasis on following processes and procedures. There will a dedicated unit tasked to continuously focus and  refining them.

What is the rationale for this direct conflict between them?

What is the purpose and objective of processes & procedures?

1. Quality
2. Efficiency & Productivity
3. Simplicity
4. Documentation & Archival

These are some of the key reasons for companies to enforce them. Lets dig into little further to understand them better.

Quality
An universal process across the company will ensure the level of quality among the work done by them. Also it allows them to refine the process to enhance  the quality.

Efficiency & Productivity
Improves the working methods and shortens the entire life cycle. Increases the productivity and efficiency to perform the activity in a better manner.

Simplicity
Reduces complexity and confusion. Creates uniformity among all to perform the activity in the same simple manner.

Documentation & Archival
Helps to document the processes and its results for the future reference and audit purposes.

Overall, Processes and procedures helps companies to perform their functions in an efficient, orderly manner to achieve their desired end results. They will  train their employee to follow their in-house process and ensure they adhere to them.

-Dhanasekaran

We often heard the term whenever deal most of the global IT vendors. Some of us may wonder what the hell is this???

Here you can find a dummies for CMMI… This will give a brief idea about CMMI… but you must do your own homework to know the complete picture of CMMI.

Do we really need these processes?

I  hate to follow these troublesome processes! !

We often hear these statements in the cooler talks. Lets take peep into this.

Who says No..
1. I know what to do
2. Processes are time consuming and delays my delivery
3. It requires documentation, I will better use time for my project
4. Its too complex and I’m confused
5. My boss need this by yesterday

Who say Yes…
1. Process framework provides guidelines for the activities
2. Approval mechanism allows the management stakeholder to aware of this initiative
3. Gives accountability and ownership
4. Provides history and trail for the future
5. Gives greater visibility to the higher management

Most of the organization have processes and some of them give greater emphosis on processes. Are they yield any benefits to the organizations?

Yes, is the answer if they have simple, constantly updated and easy to follow processes and management support to ensure the processes. In my 15 yrs of experience, I saw the benefits of following the processes and i favours to follow the processes for the guaranted success.

- Dhanasekaran

Estimation plays a very important role in the success of any projects.

Project estimation focuses mainly on the following aspects.

1. Cost
2. Schedule
3. Resource

An accurate estimation greatly helps the PM to deliver the project on time & budget with little deviation.

Too generous estimation will translate into cost & schedule wider under-run and stingy estimation lead to cost & schedule wider over-run, both are the indicators of the poor estimation and dent your PM credentials.

How to do proper or more accurate estimation?

A detailed WBS will help the PM. Put on more efforts in creating a very detailed WBS which covers each and every aspects of the project. Discuss with all project team members, stakeholders and ensure everything is captured. Revisit couple of time and validate. Add a reasonable buffer for the unknowns and surprise elements.

Prepare the Project Scope with the list of all project deliverables. Again ensure with the stakeholders to confirm the deliverable list.

Prepare Level-1 estimation with the help of the WBS & the list of project deliverables.

If required, get the quotation from the external vendors for the procurement of services/products. Ensure all quotations are inclusive of various taxes, delivery charges, service charges if any. Revise the Level-1 estimation and prepare the most accurate Level-2 estimation.

Make sure the Level-2 estimation covers all the aspects and some buffers.

This homework will certainly help to prepare more accurate estimation.

-Posted by Dhana

Process Group     : Closing
Knowledge Area   : Integration Management
Process                : Project Closure

A type of project ending where the financial or human resources assigned to the project are diverted or reassigned elsewhere in the organization.

This would occur after the project ends or closure in the middle due project to discontinuity. However project closure is mandatory irespective of the reasons.

-Posted by Sundar

Refer Exam Tips 3 - Key terms for PMP Exam for more key terms

Process Group    : Executing
Knowledge Area : Human Resource Management
Process             : Acquire Project Team
Type                 : Tools and Techniques

Virtual teams are teams that don’t necessarily work in the same location but all share the goals of the project and have a role on the project. This type of team allows the inclusion of resources from different geographic locations, those who work different hours or shifts from the other team members, those with mobility limitations, and so on.

-Posted by Dhana

Refer Exam Tips 3 - Key terms for PMP Exam for more key terms

Signals are symptoms or warning signs which prompts the risk event is about to occur.

A good PM will sense the trigger events early to identify the upcoming risks. This help him/her to prepare for the risk response.

-Posted by Dhana

Refer Exam Tips 3 - Key terms for PMP Exam for more key terms

Process Group    : Planning
Knowledge Area : Risk Management
Process             : Risk Response Planning
Type                 : Tools and Techniques

Transfer is one of the Strategies for Negative Risks or Threats which is a tools and techniques of Risk Response Planning.

Transfer is to transfer the (project) risk and the consequences of that risk to a third party. In this case, the risk wasnot gone away, but the responsibility for the management of that risk now rests with another party. Usually the risk is transferred by paying some money as premium to the third party.

A best example for Transfer is all type of Insurences. We pay premimum to transfer our risks such as Personal Accident, Healthcare, Home Protection and so on to the insurence company. Buying insurence will not eliminate the risk from occuring, but it helps to manage the damages.

-Posted by Dhana

Refer Exam Tips 3 - Key terms for PMP Exam for more key terms