March 2013 Webinar Alert - The Illusion and Promise of Self-Organizing Teams

Teams and teamwork are the heart and soul of every project. This is especially true for agile teams. It is not the individual performance or accomplishment that counts but that of the team. Just like in team sports the team succeeds and fails together. Interestingly Agilists propose self-organizing teams. But what does "self-organizing" mean? If teams are self-organizing why do so many teams and projects fail?

This lecture sheds light on self-organizing teams. It explains what distinguishes them from manager-led and self-governing teams. It then outlines the ingredients that self-organizing teams need in order to develop and prosper.

Self-organizing teams have an immense potential for achieving powerful results on a project. However, there is no guarantee that self-organizing teams will form and be able to sustain themselves. This is particularly the case in non-agile organizations. Under those circumstances it is important to know common pitfalls of self-organizing teams and learn to overcome them. The lecture will discuss difficulties in developing and nurturing self-organizing teams. And it will show what it takes to master these challenges. This is not an easy task. The returns, however, are multifold and worth the investment. Self-organizing teams can thus become a cornerstone of project success.

You can Register and login to the webcast.

Source:  PMI Information Systems Community of Practice (ISCOP)

 

Reducing the Estimation Gap

Based on a Knowledge Shelf article by Hrishikesh Karekar, PMP

Your project is going deeper and deeper into crisis as time goes on. Costs spiral upward; milestone due dates are pushed back ever later.   
We all know that cost and time overruns can lead to project cancellation or failure. Yet these overruns continue to happen. Why is that, and what can you do about it?

Why Do We Overrun?
Often, cost and time overruns are blamed on forecasting errors — imperfect techniques, inadequate data, honest mistakes, lack of experience by the forecasters, etc.
But were the planned budget and timeline correct and realistic? Or were they underestimated and impractical from the beginning?

PMO Survival — Can Charters Help?

Credit: PMI 

PMI’s Pulse of the ProfessionTM report showed that the number of project management offices (PMOs) is increasing, but it also found that simply having a PMO does little to improve project success rates.

It’s not surprising, therefore, that many PMOs have a short “shelf life.”

How do you resurrect a failing PMO? What can prevent it from failing? Should a PMO ever close?

We posed these questions to discussion participants on the PMI Career Central LinkedIn Group, as well as the PgMP Credentialed Networking Group on LinkedIn. The discussions centered on what can be done at the start, long before the PMO gets in trouble. Gaining executive buy-in, chartering the PMO and mandating a review after a set period of time were popular ideas.

Project Management Professional Study Strategy Part 2

PMP CERTIFICATION STUDY STRATEGY PART 2[Continued from the previous PMP blog]


Now if you map this as a graph, you will be getting the Bell Curve shape.

Hence, you will begin to understand the mindset of the examiners. I bet you, it has been one of my
best wisdom of getting away with any exam – finding out what the mindset of the examiner is. This
help me map the exam framework and hence focus my energies where they matter most while leaving
the “ less weightier matters of the law”

My prognosis and diagnosis of the CAUSE of failure revealed to me as it will reveal to you that my
energies were focused at the wrong places , so while I scored high at those less weightier areas my
cumulative average ended me being below the “Average” or “Proficient” scale. I quickly realised that
if I needed to PASS the exam all I needed was to dimension my study time so that I will put 30% of
my PM FASTrack revision time on Executing which became my number 1 area of focus; 25% on
M & C which became my number 2; 24% on Planning which became my number 3 and I must have
acquired sufficient confidence level or score level on these domains before I could then lastly touch
Initiating, number 4 and Closing number last.

The PM FASTrack tool was cool for me as it gave an option to test myself using the DOMAIN areas.
See the snapshot below


[To insert picture here]

All I did was put in more test time for Executing, Monitoring & Controlling and Planning as my
priority and tada! I made it very well at my second and last attempt!
Why is this so? Because , the Bell Curve of PMP exam questions frequency histogram showed
me that the highest number of questions would come from Executing, next M & C, Planning and
Initiating while Closing will be very few. They even have made you know that your success is based
on the more questions you answer accurately!
Now follow me...let’s do a simple math. So PMI says that total number of questions would be 200
abi? And about 25 questions will be diagnostic and wouldn’t count towards your score.
What are they testing you on? 200 minus 75 = 175 Questions

That means that, for Executing,
30% of 175 = approx. 53 Questions!
For Monitoring & Controlling
25% of 175 = approx 44 Questions!
For Planning,
24% of 175 = approx. 42 Questions
For Initiating,
13% of 175 = approx. 23 Questions
For Closing Process Group,
8% of 175 = approx. 14 Questions

Now, if your final score is an average of everything you answered correctly, then will notice that
Executing plus M & C plus Planning = 139 Questions
Let’s assume you answered Ex + M&C + P = 130 Questions right,
130 divided by 175 and multiplied by 100 equals 74.28% which already is above 67% which is the
PMI benchmark or “Proficient” level.
I believe you have seen the trick to pass your PMP exam on first attempt.

If this piece of information was useful to you then, drop me a few lines or comments.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL (PMP) EXAM PREP STRATEGY

What is the PMP certification?

According to PMI, the Project Management Institute [insert pmi.org link],  the PMP® certification “demonstrates that you have the experience, education and competency to lead and direct projects.” You can find that on their website.

Hence, lots of professionals cutting across myriads of industries and marketing sectors desire to be PMP certified since this is likely to increase their recognition or remuneration base in their respective organizations.

Truly, the PMP certification is a really desirable accomplishment for any professional seeking the earlier mentioned plus more importantly the PMBOK framework helps a person to imbibe the attitude and mindset of a project manager. However, it better to seek knowledge than to crave for mere certificates. I have seen lots of so-called PMP-certified individual who flunk on very critical projects, especially those where their organizations have invested lots of project capital and funds. Before you take the exam it is better to ask yourself whether your purpose is just to add another acronym behind your name or to improve yourself as a person involved in handling critical projects. Hence, your objective should be to excel at your role of being a custodian of scarce resource, rather than just cram up your brains with jargons since your ambition of reaching increased pay may hit the rocks.


According to PMI, in order to qualify to sit for this test, a candidate must have the following

"■A four-year degree (bachelor’s or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education.

 OR

 ■A secondary diploma (high school or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects and 35 hours of project management education."

 You can visit their website for more information on these. They have a handbook that details the exam eligibility requirements.


My main gist in this blog is not to talk about PMP exam eligibility requirements but to help those who wish to succeed at their first attempt of this important exam. To be candid, I did not make it at my first attempt. Why? You are about to find out.

At my first attempt, having prepared for about over 3 months and having seen my confidence level rise to the skies, I sat at the end of my CBT test to an appalling result – a FAIL! I was surprised just as many of you who must have put in lots of time studying Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Prep 6^th edition. In fact, I studied using a combination of PMBOK 4^th edition, Rita and the PM FASTrack v.6. After more than 3 months of intensive study I only got a FAIL, it was almost demoralizing but there are few of us there who understand that a FAIL on paper isn’t really a fail in LIFE! Praise God.

One good thing about the new PMP CBT exam is that you will get a feedback at the end of the exam across the five(5) domains of the PMI project management life-cycle or phases, namely, Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring & Control, and Closing. A snapshot of my first attempt looked like you see below

1.      Initiating – Proficient

2.      Planning -  moderately proficient

3.      Executing – Moderately proficient

4.      Monitoring & Controlling – below proficient

5.      Closing – Proficient

And at the end, the computer computes and averages across the five domains and assigns a FAIL.
I believe many of us would have faced similar disheartening feedback and a few of us geniuses made it on the first attempt. Kudos to the whiz kids amongst us!
My objective for writing this blog is to help those of us who are a bit weak at exams-like-this preparations and I hope this insight would help us. If you find my tips helpful simply send me feedback.

My first attempt pushed me to find out why my result was bad. The feedback from the computer directed me to an important piece of document which I FAILED to look at while preparing for my PMP exam. What is this piece of information booklet about? You are about to find out...

Take a wild guess . I took my time to read thoroughly the feedback note from PMI on my result. You will most likely see it as the last sentence. It directed me to look into the “PMP Examination Content Outline” which many of us do not ever mention while discussing about the PMP exam! It takes more than reading or studying to be successful after FAILING. You need to diagnose yourself and be courageous to make another attempt. It isn’t easy you might say. Of course and who promised you that achieving some useful endeavour in life is that easy?

Through this important piece of document, I discovered that the effort you require to put in to pass the PMP exam should not be the same for all the domains. Hence, I needed to put in more study time in certain domains or project phases that the others! It doesn’t matter how much time you put in totally to study for this exam, to be successful you have to exert your energies in the right direction and right proportions. This is a key for being successful at the first attempt.

From the PMP Exam Content Outline, you will find out like me that just like a real project, the efforts which a project manager is expected to put in throughout the Project life-cycle takes the form of a BellCurve.

The snapshot below will show you in percentages the amount of preparation efforts which PMI expects you to exert at each domain area.

to be continued....