This month I had my first meeting with a new mentor.  We met after work at the Radiance tea house in Manhattan.  The location was convenient.  The atmosphere was soothing, quiet and conducive to the kind of focused and relaxed conversation which marks good mentoring.  I left feeling hopeful, inspired and ready to act.

Have you ever thought of working with a mentor?  Here are some guidelines.

1.    What is mentoring

A mentor is a wise counselor or teacher.  In a mentoring relationship the mentor shares knowledge, skills, information, and perspective  to foster the personal and professional growth of the mentee.

Structured mentoring programs bring people together using a formal process to meet the goals of an organization.  While there are benefits to this kind of mentoring program, you would do well to focus on creating your own informal mentoring program.

Informal, or casual mentoring is arranged directly by the people involved, and can take a number of forms.  Peer Mentoring, either structured or informal involves two or more people coming together to provide mutual support and advice.

Informal mentoring between an experienced person and one with less experience is what is discussed in this chapter.

2.    Why have a mentor?

Mentoring provides you with the benefit of someone else’s experience.  The guidance you receive can shield you from having to reinvent the wheel as you grow in your career.  Being able to see yourself and your situation from another viewpoint can greatly increase your effectiveness.

To make the most of the mentoring relationship, it’s important to be clear as to what you want you are trying to achieve.  On which areas of your career would you like to focus?  (Some examples: stakeholder relationships, managing conflict, setting up your plan to land your next position).

Having a clear goal for what you are trying to achieve will make it easier for you to approach potential mentors.

3.    What’s in it for the mentor?

One of the great pleasures in life is to share the benefit of one’s experience with others.  Most working professionals have relatively few opportunities to do this.  For busy leaders, the time spent mentoring can provide a refreshing break in the midst of all their other activities.  This is especially true if you enter into the mentoring relationship with the intention of acting on the ideas the both of you discuss.

4.    What to look for in a mentor

Once you are clear as to what you want to achieve through your mentoring, you can begin to think about possible mentors.  It may be best to identify at least 3 people.  Some potential mentors will not have the time.  Others may not be interested in mentoring.  Don’t take this personally.  Just be courteous and respectful to everyone you speak with.  There will be someone out there more than willing to mentor you!

Your mentor may be in a different position, role or even field from your own.  This need not be a concern, as long as they have experience in the area or areas in which you are seeking mentoring.  What is important is that your mentor has these characteristics:

• Know what they are doing
• Respected by people at all levels (peers, direct reports, their leadership)
• Have skills and qualities you admire
• Demonstrate integrity (e.g. they do what they say)

5.    How to ask to be mentored

When you approach a potential mentor, be calm, confident and respectful.  If they do not know you, introduce yourself, give a brief description of your role, and explain that you are looking for a mentor to help you with the issue you are looking to address.

Let the mentor know exactly how much time and effort will be required.

For example, “My name is Joanne Wilson.  I’m a business analyst here at JJK.  You were recommended by Mary Hines as someone with a great deal of experience with project stakeholders.  I’m looking for guidance in this area, and wondered if you’d be interested in exploring a mentoring relationship.  If we decided to work together the time involved would be not more than a half-hour every three weeks or so.  What do you think about mentoring?

6.    Mentoring session

Whatever format your relationship with your mentor takes, it’s crucial that you show courtesy for your mentor by coming prepared to each session.  This means that you have a clear topic or agenda for the meeting, you show up when expected and keep to the allotted time.  Don’t contact your mentor between meetings unless your mentor has invited you to do so.

7.    Further Resources

• How to Find a Good Mentor by Ellesse Chow on Goal Setting College
• How to find and utilize a mentor no matter what you’re doing by Trent Hamm on Simple Dollar
• How to find a mentor by Roman Rytov on Roman’s Miles
• Finding a mentor on Inc. Guides
• The value of a mentor by Katharine Hansen on QuintCareers

(Photo credit: lebenszentrum adelshofen)

Originally posted 2009-08-25 08:45:47.

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

Mentoring how to: Mentor and be mentored! is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

During the process of moving this blog from Typepad to WordPress, I had the opportunity to communicate with developers, designers and blog experts.  It was a remarkably pleasant experience which got me to thinking about the things that we as project managers can do to help make our project teams the kind of places people want to join.

Why this is important for you as a Project Manager

Each person on your project team has an intrinsic desire to feel valued and connected with others.  The more they experience this in working with you and on your team, the easier time you will have in guiding your project to a successful delivery (on time, on budget and within scope).  In addition, it’s good to remember that

• people are smart
• people talk with each other
• your reputation as a leader and facilitator will be known fully in time

The best people in any organization usually have some say in what projects they work on.  If you consistently create project teams with a sense of community, you will have no problem attracting this talent.

Here are some things you can do to create community on your project team

Be genuine

You have to truly care about the people on your team, and the community, or none of this will work.  If you are fake, or are trying to manipulate in any way, people will know.  Your efforts will come to naught.

Always respond

If you receive an email, IM or other communication from a team member who needs something, it is incumbent on you to answer in a timely way.  Either provide the help requested, or connect the person with someone who can help.

You’ll get extra points if you follow through a few days later to ensure that the issue or question has been resolved.

Pay attention to stress points

If you know that your team has been working tight deadlines or under other pressures, anticipate stress points.  This means that you are ready when your lead developer and quality assurance analyst begin to squabble.  Your team members don’t expect you to be perfect or know everything.  But they do expect you to show that you can help them work through difficult situations.  They also expect you to care about their best interests at least as much as those of the project.

Be kind

Be liberal with praise and stingy with criticism.  The words coming out of your mouth should put people at ease.  This is especially true if things are not going according to plan, and even more so if you feel out of control.  It goes without saying that any blame you imagine you have for you team is really a condemnation of your own leadership abilities.  At least that’s what your executive management will think.

Never criticise a team member publicly unless they have done something to damage the sense of community on your team.  You should never be seen to tolerate shaming, public criticism, racial, ethnic, or sexual joking, or any other action which creates a chilled, fearful and closed atmosphere.  Your team (and project) can recover from almost everything that happens.  But trust between team members, once lost, is very difficult to find again.

Some extra things to think about when working with remote teams

Most of us are now or will soon be working with geographically diverse teams.  A good sense of community can still be created with a little effort on your part.  Work especially on your consistency in these areas:

• Do your meetings, conference calls and online collaboration settings start on time?
• Do you send out your agenda and all necessary background materials a few days in advance to give everyone time to prepare?
• Do you make an effort to address each person by name?
• Can you distinguish each person on your team by voice?  If not, what’s your plan for knowing who’s saying what?
• Do you have a primary communications contact at each distinct physical location?  (This is the person responsible to be your direct two-way communications channel for all people at that place.)
• Have you spoken to each team member one-on-one at least a few times to introduce yourself, to set the tone for the project, and to learn a little about them?

These are some of the very basics of creating a community feel on your projects.   No doubt you have others.  What are the most salient characteristics of the groups in which you enjoy participating?
(Image by goatopolis)

Originally posted 2008-09-29 07:30:27.

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

Creating a Sense of Community on Your Project Team is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

Why do you prepare status reports? If your only reason for doing so is because your manager requires it, then you’ll want to read on.  Well done status reports serve an important function and can improve your ability to guide your project to successful completion.

Why this post

Not too long ago a project manager explained to me that he never spent more than 5 minutes on a status report.  This was fascinating and slightly horrifying to me, as this was coming from a competent, experienced PM working in a PMO which required weekly status.  When I asked him to elaborate, his explanation was clear and to the point.

I don’t put time into doing things which have no meaning. -PM Anonymous

Audience and Assumptions

This post is targeted for project managers working in corporate and government settings requiring some form of structured system development lifecycle (SDLC) process.  This is usually associated with waterfall development.  Such environments usually project managers to prepare and deliver weekly status reports.  The degree of rigidity around these status reports varies.  My experience in multiple shops has shown that you as a PM have the ability to bend the rules around status reports such that they do achieve their purpose.   If you do status reports right, they will have an impact.

What is a Status Report?

A status report is a clear summary of how a project is progressing against its schedule, scope and budget.  If it is working correctly, the intended reader can tell instantly if anything is off plan and what’s being done about it.

8 Marks of an Effective Status Report

1. Short. If printed, 1 page maximum.
2. Targeted. If you’re creating only one status report, write it for your executive stakeholder.  If you believe this is too high-level for others, then you should segment your audience and create separate reports for each.
3. Well-written. There is no excuse for sentences which make no sense.  Every person who’s received status reports knows what a poorly written one looks like.  Don’t perpetuate this insult to your readers.
4. Attractive. Make it pretty.  Use a format that makes sense.  The easier and more pleasant it is for your reader to find the information on your project, the more likely your report is to be read.
5. Newspaper-order. It used to be that reporters structured articles in such a way that the most important information came first.  Less important details were listed further down.  You’d do well to follow this advice when preparing your status reports, too.
6. Risks and Issues. Make sure to include the big risks and issues that could burn your stakeholder.  Follow the guidance an old consultant told me years ago. “If you bring up a problem, make sure you provide the solution.”
7. Milestones. Include not less than 3 and not more than 7.  Keep a few that you have achieved to show that progress is being made.
8. Status Summary. Some stakeholders will only read the 2 or 3 sentences you include here.  Make them count.  Make sure you update them on every report.

How to Deliver the Status Report

Most status reports are emailed.  You should always when possible copy and paste the content of the status report into the body of the email.  It’s good when you do this to attach a Word or PDF copy of the report for those people who use BlackBerries or otherwise prefer a formal copy.  Status reports sent in the body of an email are 95% more likely to be read than those that are simply sent as attachments¹.

Example

You are free to use this status report example on your projects.  Some points which may make it easier for you to customize:

• Word Tables are used
• Word Styles are your friend.
• To change a cell color to RED, YELLOW, or GREEN
  • Select the cell
  • Change the style to Cell Red, Cell Yellow, or Cell Green
  • Type Red (for red), Yellow (for yellow), or Green (for green)
• Add or remove rows as needed for additional risks and milestones

This status report example is provided as-is.  However if something seems very strange, let me know.  I’ll help if I can. Enjoy!

Download an Example

Have a better example?

If you disagree with these points, or have a better example you’d like to share with others, sound off in the comments.  Thanks! Alec

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

8 Tips for an Effective Status Report is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

1. This is a made up statistic. :)

What Happened

Tuesday I found myself in the cardiac care unit of NYU Langone Medical Center.  On the way to the emergency room I wondered for a few minutes if I were on my way to meet my old friend John Harrell on the other side.

Almost no one wants to be in the hospital.  If you’ve never been a patient, know that it’s no vacation.  You have by default abdicated basic control of your body.  You can expect to be poked and prodded, hooked to machines, dressed in a sheet, and woken repeatedly throughout the night for blood to be taken. You are surrounded by strangers, away from familiar settings, and probably scared. You’re moved by wheelchair or stretcher and discouraged from walking.  The experience is profoundly unsettling. It’s also necessary – these people you’re trusting are working to restore your health and perhaps your life.

Thank goodness my colleague recommended NYU hospital.  The place is well run with caring, respectful, happy staff.  The doctors spend significant amounts of time with patients.  The food is made on site and surprisingly good.

I’ve always considered myself relatively healthy.  I neither drink nor smoke and have been a vegetarian for nearly 20 years.  My heart attack scare arrived out of nowhere.  The sharp, pressing chest pain intensified steadily over the morning hours and began to radiate leftwards down my back, side and arm. It left me in unfamiliar territory with a renewed appreciation of life’s fragility.  It certainly wasn’t on my agenda for the week.  As the Yiddish saying goes, “Man plans and God laughs”.

Lessons Learned

Here are 7 lessons from this week’s wild ride.  They’re presented to both inspire and encourage you to listen to your own heart as you progress on your work/life journey.

1. Listen to your heart

My heart’s been trying to talk to me for months now.  I haven’t been listening.  It finally found a way to get my attention.  When our bodies take direct action to get our attention, it’s seldom pleasant. Is there anything your heart’s trying to tell you that you’re doing your best to ignore?

Do yourself a favor. Listen.

2. Value your work community

The night before my scare I mentioned to my wife that on the previous 2 days I had experienced more positive interactions at work than I could remember in any comparable period over the previous six months.  On Monday I had had a delightful lunch with a Hindu friend who graciously shared some of the precious and hard-won lessons from his life.  In a different conversation a coworker described his hunger to experience the vast open spaces which connect him with the sense of something greater than himself.  His fear of this epiphany was only slightly exceeded by his longing.  On Tuesday morning a coworker casually asked about a book on listening he had seen on my desk.  Our resulting conversation invigorated his natural curiosity and marked an instant of mutual respect and genuine connection.  As social creatures we desperately need these moments.  Over time the moments become threads, the threads networks and the networks communities.

These are your lifelines.  Value them.

3. Let yourself accept help

Super-achievers are excellent at both helping others and doing things for themselves.  We’re often less skilled at accepting help. When my chest pain expanded past my ability to ignore it, I had to make a conscious choice to disregard my programmed do-it-myself response.  I approached a colleague my gut told me I could trust, and asked for help.  She listened in a calm, matter of fact way.  After truly hearing, she got the insurance company nurse hotline number and suggested I call right away.  When the insurance company instructed me to waste no time in getting to the hospital, my colleague respected my desire for privacy by not broadcasting the situation throughout the office.  She dropped what she was doing, got me to a close hospital, accompanied me to the emergency room, stayed with me, and provided a much needed anchor.

Let yourself accept help.

4. Care as much about your health as you do about your company’s or project’s success

For many of us solving problems, organizing teams and being part of the solution are essential to our self-image.  Many US companies have fired so many people that those left have job responsibilities too broad for one person to achieve.  As heroes and good corporate citizens, we fill in the gaps.  Such behavior can kill you.

Better is the attitude and behavior of my friend Sara.  When asked to take on yet another project by her manager, she replied, “I am doing A, B, C and D.  If I add E which would you like me to move to the bottom of the list?”

It’s easy to believe in your physical invulnerability.  Even if we’ve seen or heard about a coworker fall to stroke or heart attack, we never think it could happen to us.  Let my experience be a lesson for you.  Decide the limits of your work, and keep to them. Few jobs are worth giving your life for.

Care as much about your own health as you do about your work.

5. Accept that sometimes failure is the best option

Once a project leader I know sent around an email to his team which read, “Failure is not an option.” Do you think this is true? I used to believe it, but now I’m not so sure.

Some projects are doomed.  Even if a project has hope of success, sometimes the project manager has her hands tied in ways that almost guarantee the project won’t succeed.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Have other PMs failed on this project before you?
• Is this project continuing down the same path as others that have not worked well?
• Are your proposed risk solutions consistently ignored?
• Have consultants walked away from the organization or the project?

Sometimes superhuman efforts won’t work.  Be conscious of the danger to your health of trying to prop up an effort that the organization has already doomed to failure.

Sometimes failure is the best option.

6. Take 100% responsibility for your situation

It’s very easy to fall into the habit of blaming others for our unhappiness.  This sense of powerlessness over our work affairs can be subtle or not so subtle.  However it manifests, the result is a de-energizing, de-humanizing pain.  As the DC psychologist and radio talk-show host Pamela Brewer used to say, “If it’s unacceptable, it’s unacceptable”.  No matter what craziness exists in your work life, you must take the stance that you are 100% responsible for what happens to you.  If you have done everything in your power, and you know that you can’t succeed, then you must redefine your work until you can be successful.  If your employers will not support you, then you know what you have to do.

Take 100% responsibility for your situation.

7. Resist the urge to move into your zone of incompetence.

Both Gay Hendricks and Robert Biswas-Diener use similar models to group the skills we each use at work.  These are the zones of genius, excellence, competence and incompetence.  (To learn more get a copy of  The Big Leap or contact  Robert Biswas-Diener).

The zones of competence and incompetence contain those skills we use to do things at work in which our results are not so good. These are tasks we don’t enjoy doing, are not natural to us, and often take us more time and effort than they would for someone else to do.

Think about the things you do at work which cause your heart to drop when you think about them.  It’s likely that these are in your zones of competence or incompetence.  Get rid of them all.

Resist the urge to move into your zone of incompetence.

Conclusion

Without love, nothing that we do has any real meaning.  Value the people in your life and especially your coworkers.  Let them know you appreciate them in a way that they will understand.  Buy them coffee.  Bring in candy or treats.  Smile because you mean it.

Treat yourself with respect.  Don’t wait for your workplace to appreciate you.  Take 100% responsibility for your health and well being.

My story had a happy ending.  It turned out not to be a heart attack.  Nevertheless the heart attack scare was a real wake up call.

Have you been through anything similar?  Has it changed you in any way? Your feedback or suggestions will be appreciated.

Image: rescue 911

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

7 Lessons Learned from a Heart Attack Scare is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

Have you ever been in the midst of a project or task and thought to yourself, “There has got to be a better way?” If so, you’re not alone. Leading projects is a complicated business. The longer you’re at it the more you can learn and the better you can get.

This list is intended for beginning to intermediate project managers.

It’s written from an Information Technology perspective, and should be applicable to other sorts of projects.

Even pros should find something of value.

Here are 72 project management tips designed to help you lead your projects with skill, authority and grace.

Something missing? Add it in the comments. Here’s to your project success!

Quick start: Meetings and Status.

Tip Categories

Starting the Project | Organizing Yourself | Cost and Budget | Planning | Project Scope | Risks and Issues | Schedule and WBS | Project Management Plan | Requirements | Doing the Project Work | Meetings | Status and Communication | Testing | Closing the Project | Lessons Learned | Customer Satisfaction Survey | Project Closeout

Starting the Project (Initiation)

Initiation is the first phase of the Project Management Life Cycle. In the initiate phase you define the project objectives, purpose, scope and deliverables, and get people and other resources for your project.

1. How will you know if your project is a success? Can you state the success criteria in a few words or sentences? In other words, how will you know when you are done?

2. Are you doing a project?  A project is a temporary endeavor with a specific result or objective. If your project has no end in sight and/or no clear scope, then what ever it is you’re doing may be important, but it’s not a project. You’ll have a hard time showing your team that they’re being successful.

3. If you’re project has no end in the next 3 to 6 months, can you split it into multiple projects?

4. Are you thinking about the triple constraint?

5. Do you have a project charter/project definition? If not, write one for your own benefit.  Having a charter can eliminate many opportunities for confusion during the project.

6. Who are your primary stakeholders? Who are your other stakeholders?

7. If you have more than one stakeholder, how will differences between stakeholders in regard to the project scope, timeline, budget or deliverables be resolved? If you’re not sure, then this is a good discussion to have with them.

8. Do you have a roles and responsibilities chart?  Who’s on the team? Who’s not on the team?

9. Do all core team members understand their roles and agree to them?

Organizing Yourself

Go to top of list
10. Do you have a portfolio of templates? If not, start one.

11. Do you keep a collection of really good project documents written by you and others? If not, start one.

12. How are the project deliverables, documents and notes being managed on your project? Is there one master place where things are being kept? Does everyone on the project team know this?

13. Are backups being done (documents, deliverables, code, etc.)? When was the last time you tested the backup? Try it today and see what happens.

Cost and Budget

Go to top of list
14. What’s your approved budget? If you don’t know, how can you find out?

15. Who’s responsible for tracking the budget? If it’s not you, can you negotiate access to invoices as they are submitted and payments as they are made?

16. What’s your method for reporting spending against budget?

17. How much have you spent? If you think you’ll be more than 10% over budget by the end of the project, what are you doing about it? Can you get more money? Can you trim scope? Have you told your stakeholders?

18. Is your budget up to date?

Planning

Planning is the second phase of the Project Management Life Cycle. You’ll set the plans needed to manage time, risks and issues, changes, quality and everything else that will be done during project execution.

Project Scope

Go to top of list
19. Do you have a signed project scope?

20. Does your scope include what’s not in your project?

21. Is the scope written in language that anyone of reasonable intelligence can understand? Are all acronyms explained?

Risks (and issues)

Go to top of list
22. Do you have a risk log or register?  This is one place where you are tracking potential events which would have a positive or negative impact on the project if they were to occur. If not, why not? (Email me if you would like a sample template of a simple excel based risk log.)

23. Are you spending a few minutes with your team every week or two identifying new risks and working to mitigate or otherwise handle the existing ones?

24. Are you communicating significant risks (high likelihood, high impact) to your stakeholders well in advance so that they are never surprised?

25. Are you keeping records of everything you and your team plans to do, is doing, or has done in regard to the risks and issues on your project? This is extremely valuable information for use on future projects.

Schedule and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Go to top of list
26. Have you identified all of your deliverables for the project?

27. Are you including your team in identifying the steps needed for each deliverable?

28. Did you use PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) or another method to come up with your time estimates? Did you come up with time estimates? Did you validate them with the people who will actually do the work?

Project Management Plan

Go to top of list

PRINCE2 (Projects in controlled environments) defines the project management plan as, “a statement of how…a project’s objectives are to be achieved.”

29. How will important project information be collected? Disseminated? Email? Meetings? Wiki? Twitter? Casual conversation? This is sometimes known as a communications plan.

30. How will risk be identified, quantified, monitored and managed on your project? Will you have a risk log? When will you inform others? How will they be informed? This is sometimes known as the risk management plan.

31. How will changes to the project requirements or scope be handled? If there is an overall change management process, how do changes to the project relate to that process? This is sometimes known as the change management plan.

32. How will purchasing decisions be made on your project? How will you identify potential sellers? Will you use a Request for Proposal (RFP) process? Does your organization have a set standard? This is sometimes known as the procurement or vendor management plan.

33. How will team members, clients and stakeholders be brought to competency level on project’s product? Do any team members need support to complete their project responsibilities? How will training be delivered? Online? Through printed guides or manuals? Train-the-trainer? Classroom training? This is sometimes known as the training plan.

34. How will the solution be moved to production or otherwise delivered? Will there be a go/no go checkpoint? What are the steps? Who does what? What other groups or organizations will need to be involved? Are there time windows which must be honored? This is sometimes known as the implementation plan.

35. How will ongoing support be addressed after the project has completed? Who will be responsible to maintain the project’s product? Who will help with any user issues or concerns? How will enhancements or fixes be reported and incorporated? What preventive maintenance will be needed? This is sometimes known as the maintenance transition plan.

36. What issues are likely to arise after the product is deployed? Are there any steps which can be taken to minimize likelihood and/or severity of these potential issues? This is sometimes known as the disaster recovery plan.

Requirements

Go to top of list
37. Do you have some sort of grouped requirements for your project?

38. Do you know when what you are expected to deliver expands? How do you handle this natural event?

39. Are these requirements used as the basis for design and testing? If not, why not?

40. Is the whole project team involved in and kept informed about the requirements? How can you involve development? How can you involve testing?

Doing the Project (Execution)

Execution is the third phase of the Project Management Life Cycle. This is where the actual work of the project gets done. This is the longest and most costly phase (or should be).

Meetings

Go to top of list
41. Are you keeping your meetings as small as possible? Past a certain point, the more people, the less work gets done.

42. Do you allow people the right to opt-out of meetings? (Hint: use optional in the invite whenever possible.)

43. Do you have a clear agenda for every meeting? Do you send it out in advance, include the purpose of the meeting, intended outcome, expectations of participants, content and reference info (if needed)?

44. Do you make sure everyone understands the purpose of the meeting?

45. Do you make it easy for people to participate?

46. Is there an appointed note taker for every meeting?

47. Is there a clear facilitator for every meeting? Few people are naturally good facilitators. If your meetings are generally less effective than you think they could be, what are your plans for getting trained?

48. Are meeting notes sent out within 3 days. A week? Ever? Do they include all decisions reached and tasks assigned? Are they sent to everyone in the meeting and who will be impacted?

49. Do you schedule meetings for 30mins?

50. Do you schedule (or change days and times) a week in advance except in case of emergency? (Emergencies happen once or twice a year.)

51. Do you always start on time? Starting late rewards latecomers and disrespects those who arrive on time.

52. Do you always end your meetings on time? If not, why not?

Status and Communication

Go to top of list
53. Does your status reporting communicate anything of value?

54. Is your status report read? How do you know?

55. If you have one status report, is it aimed at the level to satisfy your project team, your active stakeholders, or executives? Would it make sense to create different reports for different groups?

56. If you expect reports from your team members, vendors or others, are you getting them?

57. If you’re getting them, do they tell you anything of value? If not, how can you change them such that they are of value to you?

58. Do you have weekly status meetings? Can you structure them such that people can be released without staying for the whole meeting?

Testing

Go to top of list
59. Are your test cases completed prior to development beginning? This can greatly shorten the test cycle. If not, are you willing to try this on a future project?

60. Do your stakeholders know how to conduct user acceptance testing? What are you doing to facilitate a speedy UAT?

61. Can you outline the testing strategy and work with them to define exactly what will be tested?

62. Can you agree with your stakeholders as to specifics needed for a successful UAT before UAT testing begins?

63. Is your project susceptible to the terrors which come from the two fatal philosophical testing errors: (a) In search of the bug free release and (b) Good testing means finding the highest number of bugs?

64. Do your developers communicate with your testers? (This applies even if you have an outsourced test team.) In the least effective software shops quality assurance (QA) and development never communicate before testing begins. Don’t let this happen to you.

Closing the Project

Close is the last phase in the Project Management Life Cycle. Here you formally close your project and report the overall level of success to your stakeholders.

Lessons Learned

Go to top of list
65. Do you look at lessons learned as a means to improve future project efforts? Or rather is it a way to get justice by beating up on the guilty parties?

66. Can you create an open, safe place for people to give honest and sincere feedback on the project? If not, is there someone else in your company or outside who could do the lessons learned for you?

67. When was the last time you did a lessons learned?

68. Why not start on this project?

Customer Satisfaction Survey

Go to top of list
69. Do you ask for feedback from your customer, client or stakeholder? An example question might be, “What could have been done better on this project?”

70. If you ask for feedback, are both basic and loyalty questions included? An example of a basic question is, “How satisfied are you with what the project team delivered?” An example of a loyalty question is, “How willing would you be to work with this project team again?”

71. Would you be willing to send out an anonymous survey to your project team?  Some questions to ask: What went well on the project? What could have gone better? What would improve your experience on future projects? How could the project leader be more effective?

Project Closeout

Go to top of list
72. A project closeout document is a formal, signed email or one page document which officially closes the project and releases the team. Have you ever seen one? What will you do to make sure that you use one on your project?

Creative Commons Images from top: mnandi, ND, Leo Reynolds, armigeress, factoryjoe, Robyn Gallagher

Any of these ideas help on your projects? Something missing? Let people know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and wish you well.

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

72 Project Management Tips is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

Bad project management offices (PMO)s are easy to describe.  You may have had to work with one at some point. Notice the words, had to work with one.  People will do anything possible to minimize their interactions with a bad PMO.  Poor PMOs don’t care. They have little contact with the people in the organization actually doing the work.  Their focus is on compliance by force. Communication flows one way – from them to you.

Great PMOs are Good for Executives, Project Managers and You

It’s been said that all happy couples look the same.  All of the best PMOs share certain characteristics which endear them to management and the project managers they support.

1. Projects Align with Organizational Goals

At some level, every project is conceived to provide some benefit to the organization.  The business case, charter and scope ideally describe this in an understandable way.  A good PMO ensures that all projects worked in an organization have benefits that truly align to the most important needs and objectives of the business. If the nature of the business environment changes significantly, a good PMO will decide what impact if any this will have on the active projects.  Sometimes projects need to be redefined, shelved or even cancelled.  If a project’s benefits are no longer benefits, it makes no sense to continue working the project.

2. Project Success Rates Increase

A good PMO ensures that all needed resources are available and allocated before the start of the project.  The PMO monitors the project plan and budget throughout the lifecycle to ensure that the project remains on track, and that resources are available as needed. As large risks present themselves, the PMO may help in brokering solutions which are best for everyone involved. These activities increase the number of projects completed on time, on budget and in scope.

3. Project Management Competence Increases

Organizations with good project management offices find that the skill and competence of project management activities improve over time.  PMP Certification is common.  As important is the establishment of formal or informal mentoring programs for all project managers. Mentoring increases networking relationships, provides practical guidance for newer project managers, and contributes to a team culture in the organization.

4. Standards and Templates are Developed and Improved

A good PMO provides useful, practical and helpful project templates. These templates are revised as often as necessary to ensure that the right type of documentation is being created.  Clear guidance is provided to ensure that the minimum number of documents are created for any particular project.

5. PMO Tone is Inviting

The PMO is considered a partner and resource rather than a bully. The compliance aspect is deemphasised.  Learning and Improvement are embraced.

6.  Training is Available

A good PMO offers more than one class a year.  Free training is available in multiple formats and in various ways.  There may be online sessions.  Classroom training may be provided.  An open door policy may be in effect for a few hours every day. There may be a constantly monitored IM (instant messaging) or chat account available to any PM with a question at any time.

7. Learning is Embraced

The PMO members seek out feedback and incorporate it into project management office policies and activities.  Lessons learned are included in projects and in the PMO itself.  The PMO looks for ways to continually increase its value up (to management) and down (to project managers).

Do you have a World Class PMO?

(This post was previously published on the Strategic IT Planning Blog as 7 Marks of a Best PMO).

(Photo credit: kool skatkat)

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

7 Marks of a Great Project Management Office is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

This article was previously published as Need work?  How to find your next IT Job with Social Media

If you’re looking for work right now, you’re not alone. While Todd Thibodeaux, president of the Computing Technology Industry Association claims that there are 300,000
well paying IT jobs available now, LinkedIn groups and online forums are filled with posts from highly skilled project managers, technical leads and database administrators who are struggling to find work. Can both sides of the debate be right?  The truth is that the technology job market is broken and desperately in need of repair.  You can choose to:

• (a) Complain about it
• (b) Work to fix it
• (c) Roll up our sleeves and do whatever is necessary to find appropriate work for yourself

This post is about option (c).  Let’s get to work.

My credentials to write this guide

This post was originally written for Bas de Baar’s Project Shrink website.  Bas is one of my PM role models.  We share 3 passions: belief in people, belief in the value of good project management, and desire to give back to others. Though I consider myself a small business owner/consultant/contractor, the nature of finding clients is in most ways analogous to finding a full-time job with an employer.  When he suggested I share my latest job search experiences with you, I readily agreed.

Over the last few years, I’ve finally accepted that the job search methods you and I have used throughout our careers no longer work.  In this post you’ll learn what you can do to shorten your search by getting noticed by the people who need what you have to offer.  It’s written from a U.S. perspective and should be useful to you wherever you may be.

Recruiters

(cc Photo credit: Wisconsin Historical Society)

First let’s take a brief look at what won’t work for you.  Recruiters.

Recruiters in the old days (1990s) used to develop personal relationships with their candidates.  When you signed up with them you could expect a thorough pre-interview. This information was used to make sure that you were technically qualified. It was also used to make sure that the recruiter’s submissions to hiring companies were appropriate.  This screening process was a main part of the value recruiters offered to employers.

Today the situation is different. Other than a few exceptional firms such as Kim and Greg Shand’s Vega Consulting in New Jersey, most recruiters rely on resume sifting programs to choose candidates. Few of these recruiters have ever personally met the people they submit to employers as candidates.

More and more companies are discounting the value added by such recruiting companias and are choosing to bypass them entirely. Nevertheless, most IT job candidates are still looking to recruiters as a primary source of possible jobs. If you rely on recruiters, you are playing a numbers game with odds not in your favor. It could take you a very long time to find a position.

Job Board Postings

No matter how qualified you are, when you submit a job board application, you become one out of a vast multitude. Even worse, you have no easy way to tell if:

• The job is still open
• The job actually exists
• The person screening the resumes understands the job requirements

If you’ve been posting to job boards recently, you’ve no doubt learned not to expect any confirmation that your submission was received.

According to a friend of mine who happens to be a recruiter (not with Vega Consulting), each position posted on one of the big job boards can cost $400. In
a time of cost savings this creates a built-in incentive to leave a filled position up as long as possible. Doing so is a cost free way for the recruitment
firm to gather huge numbers of resumes.

It’s good to scan and answer ads. But treat them like a
lottery rather than a sure thing.

To get the jobs that are out there, you’re going to have to find ways to separate
yourself from the pack. You will have to act differently from most others. You will also have to present yourself with more focused materials than you may have used in the past.

What Works

Depressed yet? Don’t be. There are jobs out there, and you can be one of the people who lands one. Here’s what you can to do to differentiate yourself.

For you to start getting offers, you need to have a prep-packet ready with a few key items. All of the items need to be consistent with each other. They need to be truthful. And they need to give a clear and accurate representation of what makes you relevant and of value to the
hiring manager of a company you’d want to work for.

Items in your Prep Packet

(cc Photo credit: Bohman)

Warning!

What you are about to read may sound like salesmanship. Many of us techies have spent years feeling superior to the business and marketing folks.
It’s time for that attitude to change.  You already know that you have to present yourself to others. Why not learn how to do it in an honest, ethical way that is as painless for you as possible?  The good news is that what you have to do is probably less than you think. It also gets easier with time and a little practice.

1. One line verbal pitch

The one line verbal pitch is sometimes called an elevator speech. It’s a clear, easily understood answer to the question, What do you do?

Your pitch should be:

• One sentence – one idea only
• Simple to understand – jargon free
• Geared to the other person

When someone hears your pitch, their response should be some sort of dialogue. If your one line verbal pitch bores you, it will bore them and conversation will stop. That’s not what you want.

You can have a few variations of your pitch to use depending on your audience..

One possible example:

I help people resolve difficult issues on their
technology projects.

2. One line written pitch

The written pitch is intended to be read. This means it can be more
detailed than the verbal pitch. You will use this one line pitch in
all of your written and social media profiles (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn,
twitter).  You should consider including keywords which match your
areas of focus. If you assume that everything online is indexed
and searchable, including these keywords may bring you to the attention
of someone who needs you. The art is writing this in a way that
still sounds understandable.

Different services have different character limits. LinkedIn allows 120 characters.

Here’s an example:

PMP project manager who resolves quality, delivery and morale issues on PMO projects. SDLC, Virtual Teams, Social Media.

LinkedIn also allows you to include an additional status message. This is a good place for you to indicate that you are actively looking.

Seeking PMO or IT PM position with multiple projects in an energetic environment. NYC or up to 50% travel.

3. One paragraph written description

You’ll use your one paragraph description in many ways. If you are
answering ads, it will be the body of your email response. It is the first section of your resume. It should include:

1. Your one line written pitch (What you do)
2. A few of your biggest accomplishments or strengths (What
   you’ve done)
3. Your additional status message (What you’re looking for)

4. Resume Fashion

(cc Photo credit: Felish Humanus)

Discard everything you know or think you know about resumes.

Is it really so hard to believe that resumes follow fashion? A 1980s resume or cover letter won’t get you laughed at. You’ll just be ignored.

A 21st century resume needs to be prepared for electronic use.
That means it needs to work in Microsoft Word format, Adobe PDF format, and plain text.  No images, pictures, or photos.  These may work in Europe, but
in the U.S. any resume with a photo attached will be screened out on general principle. If you’re smart, you’ll look at your resume as a group of successive screen pages. Each press of the page down key should provide your
reader with something interesting.

Your resume has to be accurate and respectful. Your meaning must come across quickly and clearly. This is most important of all.

Resume Sections

The first section, Professional Summary,
is your one paragraph written description. You can add bullet
points of actual, measurable achievements as long as they are easy to
understand and support your one paragraph written description.

The next section, Experience
Highlights, includes 3-5 specific, measurable recent
achievements.

Follow with the rest of your resume content (i.e. Education, Professional Experience, etc.).

A note about cover letters

Forget them! They waste your time and the time of the person who receives them.

One high level finance person who deals with many candidates spoke of his disdain of cover letters. He hated most of all receiving them as separate attachments in email.  His recommendation: send a one paragraph email with your resume as an attachment. Simple, clean, polite.

Social Media

(cc Photo credit: Additive Theory)

Social networking is about helping others. In the social media world, your true nature will quickly become apparent. Start with a positive attitude and your reputation will be stellar.

For you to gain social network visibility, you will need to be active in a few places.
As a minimum you should have complete LinkedIn and Facebook
profiles. twitter may also be useful for you.  Some people say it’s best to keep away from MySpace.

From this moment on, assume that everything you do on a computer is public
knowledge. If this assumption turns out to be wrong, all the better. But if it turns out to be true, you will be in good shape.

On your profiles you must include a photograph. A flattering one is best. Even a mediocre one is better than none at all. If you don’t have a picture, find a friend to take one. If you don’t have any friends, pay a photographer!

People without photographs on their profiles look like stalkers or people with something to hide. This is not the impression you want to give.

Make a habit of adding connections on LinkedIn with people you like.
You don’t need 500 or 5000 connections. Better to have 5 or 25 connections with people you enjoy staying in contact with than a collection of people you don’t even know. Recommendations will come with time. It’s not necessary to focus on them.

Building your social networks is a long-term, career proposition. Steady effort over time will provide you with something that adds real value to your life.

Groups

This is a cornerstone of your social media job campaign.

LinkedIn

To start, identify LinkedIn groups which are related to the specific job/function you are targeting. To the left of the search box is a drop down.
Select “Search Groups”, enter your keyword (e.g. project management) and go. Pick a few of the resulting groups that look interesting.  After joining, monitor the discussions daily.Whenever you have something of value to contribute, do so. As you get to know people, add them to your LinkedIn network.

Facebook

Next, look for Facebook groups related to your target job. Join one or two and monitor in the same way as with the LinkedIn groups.

Meetup

Finally, look for local meetup
groups related to your job target. These will enable you to have face to face meetings with people in your area and will help you start to get a sense for what companies may have opportunities.

Networking and Direct Contact

Networking may be defined as a mutually beneficial connection between two people who know each other. Possibly you have already contacted all the
people you know and told them exactly what you do, what you’ve done and
what you’re looking for. Consider contacting them again with your new one paragraph description. Ask them for names of one or two people they know who might know someone who hires people like you. These names are like gold.  Check your LinkedIn network to see if you can find these people.
If you have an email address, send them a quick note with your one paragraph description. You can also contact them through LinkedIn.

Summary

These are the very basics of adding social networking to your job search.
Follow these steps and you will be well on your way to your next assignment. More importantly you will have a good foundation for not only your next job, but the ones after that.

My wish for you is that your job search may be short,your happiness broad, and your friends many.

With kind regards,
Alec Satin

(cc Photo credit: Michael Marlatt)

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

IT Job Search with twitter, linkedin, facebook is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

Are you out of work now?  Working but concerned about the security of your job?  If so, you’re not alone.

Social Media Networking has been the key to my current job search.  I believe it can help you, too.

You may be thinking:

• I have no time to learn one more thing.
• I’m already on LinkedIn
• I can always use Dice, Monster or CareerBuilder.
• Recruiters want my skills.
• I’ve never had trouble finding a job before.

Times have changed.

I’ve written up the very minimum you need do to position yourself well using social media.  It appears today as a guest post on Bas de Baar’s Project Shrink site.

Take a look: Need work?  How to find your next IT Job with Social Media

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

Need work? How to find your next IT Job with Social Media is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

Jump to free downloads

Does PMP certification make a better project manager? When Raven Young asked this question, opinions varied.

Does Microsoft Project, the de facto project management software standard, improve IT project performance? I challenge anyone to show me proof of a strong correlation between how good you are as a project manager, and the cost of the tools that you use.

Some of the best project managers use the simplest tools. Many of us who are efficiency software and tool junkies have come full circle and selectively reincorporated paper-based task systems into our personal workflows.

As part of the primary mission of this blog, I seek to provide you with tools and techniques which can increase your real skill as a project manager.  This post is about Paul O’Brien’s Promise Keeper, a simple tool which can:

1. Improve team communications
2. Facilitate efficient meetings
3. Save you time

You can start using your own Promise Keeper today.   Best of all, it’s free.  The author and creator, Paul O’Brien, has given permission for you to use or modify it as you see fit.¹  If you decide to try it, please leave a quick comment below.  Paul will be monitoring the list, and would be glad to hear your thoughts.

What is the Promise Keeper (by Paul O’Brien)

Several people asked about the Promise Keeper and the Delivery Matrix²   These are quirky little tools I have created just for myself. I only explain them here because several people asked.  They are not part of any methodology – I just made them up myself to help me do my job.

Project management (or all management now I think of it) is all about setting up an environment where busy people can make good promises and then keep them. A good promise is one where they are motivated to do the task, have not under-estimated it and the promise is made and recorded in ‘public’. If they can’t keep the promise I need to know in time to deal with it. I find the most important thing here is to eliminate all fear and anxiety from the environment – otherwise you get bad promises and poor promise-keeping.

I have a simple spreadsheet list with persons name, date of next review, what the promise is and the final deadline. I sort this by persons name so I can batch by person and remind them of all their promises. I use conditional formatting to highlight the ones that are due for review or completion.

How to Start

The best way to start using your own version of the Promise Keeper to to start a spreadsheet like the example at the top of this post.  Include columns for:

1. Person who made the promise
2. Status (In Progress, To Do, Done)
3. Due Date
4. Next Review Date
5. (Calculated Field) Days to Due Date.  Negative if due date has been missed.

Start with the current items you are tracking.  If this seems onerous to you, an alternative way to begin is to bring an empty sheet to your next team meeting.  You can then fill it in with your team.

In future team meetings or status updates, this promise keeper can be one of the main exhibits updated and used as a basis for the agenda.

I have started using a promise keeper myself, and am impressed with its elegance and clarity.

Thanks Paul, for your generosity in sharing.  Paul’s delivery matrix will be presented for you use in a future post.

Downloads

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

Free Project Management Tool – The Promise Keeper is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process

1. Please do not publish it elsewhere without his express written permission.  Thanks!
2. Will be presented later this week in a follow up post.

Mindmapping is a technique that can be helpful to you as a project manager or IT professional.  Mindmaps are most valuable in notetaking, brainstorming by yourself or with a team, and in preparing well organized documents and presentations.  If you like making lists or outlines, you may not immediately see the benefit to mindmaps.   This post may provide you with some ideas on how and why you might want to create some mindmaps for yourself.

Try out Mindmapping

The best way to see the value of mindmapping is to try it out in the next 3 or 4 meetings you attend.  You don’t need any special software to start.  Just use a clean sheet of paper.  Place a circle or square in the center and label it with the name of the meeting and date.  Each time a new subject is introduced, write two or three words max to describe each and place these in a new circle near the original one.  If there are sub-topics for a subject, add these in the same way, but this time around the subject.  After you’ve practiced a few times, you’ll be able to tell if this is a process that could fit in with your particular style.

Background

1. Wikipedia article on Mind Maps.
2. Joyce Wycoff’s paperback Mindmapping: Your personal guide to exploring creativity and problem solving is highly recommended.
3. Tony Buzan video describing mind mapping.

How to Mindmap

1. Susan Dunn‘s explanation of how to create your first mindmap.
2. Celine Roque‘s quick overview of mind mapping techniques.

Advanced Mindmapping

1. Advanced mind mapping study skills.
2. How to use mind mapping to enhance speed reading.

How to happily waste hours and hours of your time

Arthur Sachs

1. Mappio – library of thousands and thousands of FreeMind, MindManager and JPG mind maps to browse and download.  Take a look at Mind Mapping for Dyslexics, Edward de Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats, Mind Mapping v Mind Mapping Software, or Affirmation Tree.

Blogs

1. Mind Mapping Software Blog – Read The real value of mind mapping software for project management.
2. IQ Matrix – Accelerating Your Learning Potential Blog –  Read Adam Sicinski’s Becoming a person of influence.

Tools

Creating mindmaps on paper is an excellent way to go.    If you would like to use software to create, save and share your mindmaps, you can choose between online and software based solutions.  Here are some places to start.

Software tools

1. MindManager – The standard by which all other mind mapping tools are measured.  If you want the best, this is it.
2. MindVisualizer – Read review.
3. Freemind – free, open-source tool written in Java.

Online tools

1. bubbl.us – Web based mind mapping.  Completely free.
2. MindMeister – Web based Ajax tool.  Collaboration possible.  Free version is limited.

I have gone back and forth with using mindmapping as a tool.  Currently I’m back on the wagon and very much enjoying MindVisualizer on my Ironkey USB Flash drive.  Do you mindmap?  If so, what sources have been helpful to you?  Let me know in the comments.
(Communication mindmap by fabi k) (Topic image by edmittance) (musicophilia mindmap from wikipedia commons) (GTD mindmap by tanja de bie)

Free newsletter and eBook by email. Why subscribe?

Learning Mind Mapping Linkfest is a post from: Alec Satin on People, Projects and Process