Your Brain On Multi-tasking

We've been hearing/reading more and more about how multi-tasking actually reduces productivity. This is counter intuitive to what we've been told in the past as project managers, or general managers in business for that matter - the more you can get done, the more you can juggle at any given time, the better equipped you are to handle the job, right? Mmm.. wrong! At least according to a host of research (read here, here, and here for starters).

Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying PMs shouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time or do more than two things at once. I just think at some point we as a general society became intensely focused on doing SO much that we are no longer paying attention to the details and things are falling through the cracks in this multi-tasking focused society.

Check out the 2.09 minute video below from http://www.brainrules.net/. It's a humorous look at how too many tasks can overwork your brain into an unproductive state. Ok, so let's hope you're not as bad as the guy in the video, but it IS supposed to be funny!




Did you learn anything, dog? anyone going to buy the Dander500?

From an article titled "The Myth of Multitasking":

In one of the many letters he wrote to his son in the 1740s, Lord Chesterfield offered the following advice: “There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” To Chesterfield, singular focus was not merely a practical way to structure one’s time; it was a mark of intelligence. “This steady and undissipated attention to one object, is a sure mark of a superior genius; as hurry, bustle, and agitation, are the never-failing symptoms of a weak and frivolous mind.”

I do hurry, hustle and bustle - agitation is something I try very hard to avoid these days (thank ye maturity!) though if I'm in my vehicle... I'm still working on finding my patience <>

As always - Enjoy!

8 Tips For Saving Your Next IT Project

As project managers we're all looking for ways to help increase efficiency on our next project. I'm constantly clicking links - looking for that special tip or trick that will will save me or my team time by shaving off minutes here or there, sreamlining that process, or perhaps helping the team communicate better..

I just finished an article by Elizabeth Bennett over at Baseline with eight great tips in one spot: 8 Ways To Save Your Next Project.

This piece is focused on tech projects and their trend of being delivered late and over budget. Bennett actually cites "49 percent of organizations have suffered from budget overruns on IT projects and 62 percent have experienced schedule delays". Sad numbers - and another interesting quote reads"47 percent of respondents have experienced higher-than-expected maintenance costs and 41 percent said IT projects failed to deliver the expected business value and ROI."

What does that say about IT projects? Well, if you read the next line in the article, you'll find they don't have a very high success rate:

"In short, IT projects are a chronic disappointment."

Fear not PMs! Bennett put together a helpful article with a few other industry experts, and that means you'll find eight solid ways to save your next IT project. Realistic tips, sound advice and a good start on keeping yout IT projects on track.

Note that items below are truncated. Go to the article for complete detail! Emphasis mine

1. Get your head out of the software
Most project managers spend too much time in their project-planning applications and not enough time doing the briefing and communicating for which they are solely responsible. You should be spending the bulk of your time talking to and corresponding with project constituents – your team, the stakeholders, vendors, consultants and key end-users. The "soft" skill of communication is integral to project success.

2. Plan and define as much as possible—but don't go overboard
A key component of project management is the thorough and meticulous planning of every aspect of a project, but a perfectionist could spend all his or her time in the planning stage. There's no way to anticipate every variable so at some point, you have to pull the trigger...

3. Manage scope creep—for real
Like a turkey on Thanksgiving, you can rely on the fact that the project you think you're heading for may bare only a passing resemblance to the one you end up with. With the increasing complexity of data centers and the Pandora's box of surprises once you get under the hood, it's advisable to game out and document the potential sources of scope creep...

4. Don't be lazy with risk management
If you need 200 servers delivered at the same time for a worldwide mail server upgrade, it's not enough to know what the risk is if the vendor doesn't deliver. It's time to manage the risk by deciding ahead of time that, as reliable as your vendor has been in the past, there's little margin for error...

5. Get a grip on expectations
Ask vendors and consultants for the best, most likely and worst-case scenarios and then use your own resources to calculate the aggregated risk so you can determine the probable outcome.

6. Govern with strength
Even with all the good work you did up front, problems and roadblocks will surely arise. Don't blow it when it comes to actually addressing the problems. To the degree you can, refer to the approaches you documented and discussed with your team. If planned properly, your team should be able to tackle the problems early on before they become major hindrances.

7. Prepare for intervention
If your approaches are better in theory than in practice, it might be time to intervene with the project plan. Create an intervention plan before the project starts and communicate the plan to everyone directly and indirectly involved. The plan may include steps to take when adding resources, for assessing project-management and even changing the project leader.

8. Drive behavior to use the technology
Whatever you do, don't rest on your laurels when the technical aspects of the project are completed. Creating a plan to ensure that people actually use the technology you just spent 18 months implementing will serve you well. If you and your organization want to see your expected return on investment, make sure you have a hand in educating and training users.

Read more here: http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Enterprise-Planning/8-Ways-To-Save-Your-Next-Project/

As far as tips for working on projects in the real world, these are some pretty good ones. Yes yes, you can always add more - please do in the comments section. I love hearing from you!


image courtesy: www.secretsofsuccess.com

Can Your Project Make It to The Finish Line?

I read an interesting article from Michelle LaBrosse over at ComputerWorld titled Get ready, get set, go! Getting to the project finish line. It's a good piece outlining what you need to do to be prepared for the last stretch of your project. Here's the intro:

Every race to the finish line begins with similar instructions: “Get ready, get set, go!” Every race, that is, except the race to the deadline assigned at work. In business, the starting gun is sometimes shot without any heads up ("get ready" or any project planning ("get set"). People seem to run with it, but not successfully.

But if you take just an hour out of your schedule to "get ready" and "set," you'll get to the finish line faster and without stumbling. Before starting a project, you must first gather all of the information so you can assess what needs to take place.

LaBrosse even includes a nice timeline broken into a one-hour chunk that you can follow to help keep you on track during this planning process:

An hour of your time
30 minutes — Identify deliverables and acceptance criteria
10 minutes — identify processes
10 minutes — identify conflicts
10 minutes — tree diagram
20 minutes — milestone reviews

Read more here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=Project+Management&articleId=9131617&taxonomyId=73&pageNumber=2

I liked this article because it talks about an often neglected area of project management - the end game. We focus on planning, kicking off the project and post mortems - how often we forget that final stretch of making it to the finish line. Get more prepared - check out the article!

If you liked what you read, you should check our Michelle's blog: http://www.everydaypm.com/ or follow her on twitter @michellecheetah.

It's time for a Project Management Linkfest!

I'm digging out from my recent braincation. I had an awesome time relaxing but I'm still working my way through a t-o-n of email. There's also a backlog of interesting pm & related articles to be read. Since I'm short on time, I thought I'd share some of them with you and have a Project Management Linkfest!

• Positive Leadership in Project Management – Leading Through Difficult Times - By Frank P. Saladis, PMP
• Risk Doctor: Keeping “Business–as–Usual” Risks out of the Project Risk Register - By Dr. David Hillson, PMP, FAPM
• Championship Teams Don't Waste Time! Fear of Conflict - By Tom Sheives, PhD, PMP
• The Future Of Knowledge Technologies - Elizabeth Harrin
• Why You Should Use Twitter Style Communication In Your Project - Bas de Baar
• Early stakeholder involvement in projects - By ing. M.D. Tammer
• Rescuing Failed Projects - By Greg T. Rogers, PMP
• Project Management Career Path and Technical Skills - PM Student
• Project Portfolio Management - The Art of Saying "No" - By Jeff Oltmann , PMP
• No PM, No Strategy - Bruce McGraw
• PMO 101: Getting Started - George Hunte
• Risk Analysis Basics - Johanna Rothman, via StickyMinds
• Scope Keep, Not Scope Creep - Ellen Gottesdiener
• The Wisdom of Deming - Bob Tarne
• The importance of project failure - Ron Rosenhead
• Managing Stakeholders: The Myth and the Reality - Mark Mullaly, PMP
• Looking into the brain of a Project Manager - Soma
• Back To Basics: Increasing the Probability of Project Success - Glen Alleman
• Chaos Report 2009 - Pawel Brodzinski
• Does Reliability Matter in Project Planning? - Hal Macomber
• The Virtual Project Management Office (PMO) Webinar (Archived) - From Jerry Manas

Leadership/Personal growth / Professional development

• 10 No Bull Tips on How to Lead a Team Meeting - Dan McCarthy
• Dynamics of Decision Making - from MindTools
• How I learned about Feedback - Ola Ellnestam
• Leadership Skills: A Quick Primer on Conducting Effective Performance Discussions - Marian Cook, via WITI
• Being a Boss is Two Jobs in One - Wally Bock
• Ignite Your Energy of Success - Prasanna Gunturi, via WITI
• Self confidence built through action - Bud Bilanich
• What, Really, Is Employee Engagement? - Steve Roesler
• Be a Deskless Manager: Ho‘o! - Rosa Say
• No Communication = No Leadership - George Ambler

I had a bunch of folks follow me on twitter while I was offline - thanks!! - and now I must get back to tweeting to catch up on things in twitterland. Life, work and the kitchen sink should be back on track by Monday. Until then - enjoy the linkfest!

It's time for a Braincation!

My apologies for not posting regularly this month, I've been busy juggling elephants. When I mentioned this on twitter last night, @skipangel, a wondeful Agile evangelist in the Seattle area, asked how one actually "juggled" an elephant. I quipped something about it being easier than managing stakeholders and he replied with a thoughtful tweet - yes, in under 140 characters! Who says twitter isn't useful to project managers??

@ravenyoung I would rather give stakeholders a chance at early feedback of something working than a signoff of something not yet built.

Well said Skip - and I did quote you on it!

But before *I* can be useful, I need to recharge. I feel like a literal bird brain, beyond baked or fried - perhaps mashed potatoes. It's time for some rest and relaxation - and so I am going on a much needed braincation until next week. I'm about to load up the SUV, pack up the pups, pick up my partner from work and hit the road. Got my motor running, heading for the highway..

We all need downtime - are you taking care of your mind, body and soul? It's important to give yourself time to chill, think about nothing - or let your mind wander where it wants - brainstorm, get creative, read a book, listen to music or pick up a neglected hobby that brings you enjoyment. When you're driving pedal to the metal ALL the time you WILL crash and burn if you don't call a time out. If you're heading for the exploding head zone, please be sure to pull over and take a break before you have a dangerous accident!

I'll be back next week and update everyone on things then.

It's Here - The Big Agile Practices Survey!

Are you an "Agile Practioner?" (Hint: if you have no idea what that phrase in quotes means, you can probably safely say No..). If so, take a look at The Big Agile Practices Survey Jurgen Appelo is running. He needs mass participation to get the best results. Here's a clip from the post:

There are several agile surveys, most notably those of VersionOne and Scott Ambler.

However, while those surveys are very useful, neither of them has given me an answer to some very important questions.

Questions that I care deeply about...

1. Which practices are the most important for agile projects?
2. Which practices are most often linked to agile development?
3. Which practices are most widely applied in agile projects?

Those are the questions I want to find an answer to. Some practices are considered "agile" by everyone, but nobody is applying them. While other practices are not really considered "agile", yet most people seem to be using them. Things like that are what we all want to know, right?

Read more here: http://www.noop.nl/2009/04/the-big-agile-practices-survey.html

The best part about participating in the survey is that you'll be helping the agile comunity better understand the questions Jurgen asks above and the information will be shared and distributed. The more people that take the survey the better the results - please help spread the within your agile network!

Project Management and Twitter: A quiet roar

Twitter has been around for a few years now, but only recently have the words "twitter" and "tweets" crept (taken over) into mainstream media. Now I can't get away from them. Even my morning news anchors are telling me to "follow them", as if I should join their morning news show cult, and it seems everyone is rushing to twitter to find out what all the buzz is about - And project managers are joining like crazy. Run PM Run!

What IS all the buzz about? It depends on who you ask at this point because feelings are still mixed on it's usefulness to project managers. Some feel it will find its place, other's seem to think it's lacking a real connection.

Personally I'm finding it quite rewarding. I've connected with amazing authors, bloggers, industry leaders and gurus - amazing people I never would have thought I'd have this level of connection with. I send updates out - thoughts, links, responses to people I've met all over the world. I will say that you do need to manage your time or you'll spend your days lost in all the great stuff you'll inevitably find!

PMs are writing about twitter:

• Dave Garrett Why Project Managers Should Twitter
• Bob Tarne Twitter Me This
• Jerry Manas Twitter for Project Managers: What's the Buzz?
• Sreejith Kesavan Is Twitter doing any value addition to you?
• Trevor Roberts The Social Media Project Manager - A slide show

My recent post Project Management Hash Tags On Twitter needs an update, but I am waiting for a bit of wiki work before I publish it. I'm learning the PM community on twitter is self organizing. We're reaching out and trying to build it and I believe the "quiet roar" will become the run of the bulls (a stampede perhaps?) at some point, though who am I to predict?

Are you a PM using twitter - What are your thoughts? Are you a PM not using twitter for a particular reason - please share. Also, if you've seen any numbers, stats on twitter usage and project management - I'd love to hear from you!

Image via: brycej

Recent Clippings

I feel so guilty clearing my cache of links to good articles, blog posts and podcasts each day. Here are some good ones I saved before I send to recycle:

• Project Managers: Study for PMP with Easy Crosswords, over 30!
• For PMs Free Webinar: The Virtual Project Management Office (PMO) from Jerry Manas
• Project Management Slideshow:10 Brutal Realities of Project Management
• Is Project Management a Profession? - Not Again!
• Prepare for PMI certifications with slides

• For Techies: 10 things you can do as a developer to make yourself more visibly valuable, which may keep you off the RIF list. From Esther Derby
• For Techies: Career Development for Computing Nerds
• Things not to say - “We don’t have time” from Scott Berkun
• Hey IT - Forget ITIL, Say Hello To BDIM!

• Professional Development: How do you find a mentor?
• Detoxing Your Team
• Is Leadership a Calling? - Fabulous post, passionate comment from Rosa Say
• Accountability Begins at the Top
• The Ethics of Work-Life Balance
• Three Leadership Career Killer Personality Traits

My Article "Four Keys To Successful Project Management" posted at PM Bistro

My article Four Keys To Successful Project Management has been posted at PM Boulevard's new blog PM Bistro.

Here's an excerpt:

One question I get asked a lot is, “what does it take to be a successful project manager?” It’s as if there’s a secret recipe for being successful in the field of project management. Some would argue that nothing but experience counts; others favor formal training and certifications. Perhaps the best answer is to have a balance of both real-world experience and training.

But still—what does it take to make it in the world of project management? Why do some folks fall right into the groove where others struggle and gasp for air? Though there are a whole host of skills, knowledge areas, methodologies, etc. to consider, I think being a successful PM comes down to your ability to do a few key things really, really well:

• Communicate
• Organize
• Solve Problems/Make Decisions
• Build Good Teams

Communicate Effectively
Communication is critical to project management and a skill any successful project manager has mastered. It’s important to note that communication doesn’t mean “talking” or even “presenting.” Communication is about transferring knowledge, sharing ideas, solving problems and providing new or updated information. Yes, we speak (and write) in order to communicate, but to master this skill we need to look deeper.

A PM should be able to communicate effectively in written form whether writing emails or producing project documentation, plans, specifications, reports, agendas, status updates and such. Equally important is the ability to verbalize your thoughts and get important points across clearly. Whether your audience is your project team, executive staff, external customers, etc., you need to be able to communicate your ideas and ensure they are understood, rather than simply heard.

The bottom line is this: If you can’t get your project team to buy into your ideas, if you can’t produce high quality written documentation and get the right information to the right people at the right time, you probably aren’t as successful as you could be. Take note and work on your communication skills—it’s arguably the most important skill needed as a Project Manager!

Read the rest of the article here: http://projectmanagementonline.blogspot.com/2009/04/four-keys-to-successful-project.html

Project Management Hash Tags On Twitter

I've been bugging Alec from Making Project Management Better ever since I joined twitter and he's been kind enough to help me out time and again. Today we scrounged the depths of twitter (ok, really, we just used the search functionality) for common project management hash tags in order to better categorize our PM tweets - there are more than I thought!

I'm writing this post in hopes of spreading the word and getting some feedback, either here or within twitter, on how we can keep this list updated (or stored somewhere else) so that PMs can have access to the list of hash tags and know how to better tag their tweets to make them more searchable.




Several PMs have asked about hash tags - what they are, how/when to use them, etc. Here are a few links to hopefully answer those questions, and also a list of what I believe is a start at some popular PM hash tags currently being used now by project managers on twitter:

About Hash tags:

What are Twitter Hashtags (#)
Hashtags Introduction
Twitter Hashtags: A Quickie

Popular PM hash tags

#agile
#aopm
#gepm (for German project management links and discussions, requested by @projektlotse)
#lastplanner
#lean
#leanproject
#metrics
#opm3
#pm
#pmot (project managers on twitter)
#pmi
#pmiagile (for the agile community being formed at PMI)
#pmo (usage rare)
#pmp (project management professional)
#pmv
#project
#projects
#project-management
#projectmanagement (usage rare)
#projektmanagement
#report
#risk
#scrum
#webpm

Other business/tech related tags:

#business
#budget
#developer
#development
#leadership
#management
#prodmgmt
#requirements
#socnet
#software
#tech
#technology

Have info on one of the tags above? Better yet - have one to add to the list? Leave a comment or send me a tweet and I'll update this post: @ravenyoung.


If anyone has a suggestion for a better place to store this info for easier access to the PM community on twitter - let me know!