Program and Project Management.

    			 
             Trudy Soucoup - USA
  	       
  		     Tracking Policies and Procedures.. Without the Big Bucks
  	  		 "Any recommendations on how to track the progress of policies and procedure that are being updated or written... Without using the big dollar programs? We have over 200 policies and procedures that we will be updating for an upcoming accreditation and I need a fool-proof way to keep a handle on where they are in the process."
  			   
    	  		 5

    			 
             Arthur Rowland - USA
  	       
  		     Proposal for Project Downsizing
  	  		 "I have recently been tasked to come up with a proposal from the prime contractor (we are subs) that will significantly cut my team's hours. What is the best way to comply with the request without making my team's resources seem irrelevant."
  			   
    	  		 5

    			 
             Nigel Chetram - Guyana
  	       
  		     BIG Picture Focus
  	  		 "A PM can only be successful if he keeps the BIG picture in focus.  The big picture is the goals and objectives that he sets out to accomplish. Loose sight of it and you're doomed."
  			   
    	  		 10

    			 
             Atba Bouchaib - Morocco
  	       
  		     Responsibilisation of the Project Team
  	  		 "How can the project manager/director make every member of the project team feel responsible for his mission in the project and for the whole results of the project?"
  			   
    	  		 7

    			 
             Kenyi David Clement - Southern Sudan
  	       
  		     Ownership in Project Management
  	  		 "In my opinion, for every project to succeed as planned, the beneficiaries have to be oriented from day one to assume to the ownership. I have witnessed in my country that the majority of managers mishandle this important aspect of ownership. Yet it is pivotal for the sustainability of projects."
  			   
    	  		 5

Best User Comments

    			   
                 JM DE JAEGER - France
  	         
  				   Project MANAGEMENT
  				   "In my opinion the most important thing in Project Management that many people overlook is in the word MANAGEMENT. Project methods and tools are useful in Project Management to Organize, to Plan, to Follow-up, to Report but they represent no more than 30% of the difficulties you face. The other 70 % concern the management of the Project Team, integrating the project into the overall management of the firm, the management of the stakeholders, and of course the management of the client relationship."
    			   
        	  		 66

    			   
    			     David - UK
  	         
  				   Five Crucial Project Conversations
  				   "The success or failure of major projects can be predicted by examining the quality of 5 crucial conversations that must take place, yet which are often neglected:

1. Are we planning around facts? (or are milestones unrealistic or predetermined)

2. Is the project sponsor providing support? 

3. Are stakeholders faithful to the process? 

4. Are the progress and risks honestly assessed? 

5. Are all team members contributing? 

There are 5 supporting best practices to foster a culture of candor and rapidly improve project execution: 1. Make the case for the 5 issues; 2. measure project performance; 3. make it easy to discuss, 4. make it safe to discuss; 5. influence by teaching (train soft skills).(Source: MIT Sloan Management Review Summer 2007, David Maxfield, Joseph Grenny and Andrew Shimberg)"
    			   
        	  		 47

    			   
    			     Karen RyanCowell - Australia
  	         
  				   Project Implementation
  				   "If you have achieved Project Support, and you have a good leader managing the project through to delivery that's great.  But, often the acceptance of the change is only achieved when the project has become part of the operational way of 'doing business'.  The most successful projects are those where the transition into the operational activities of the business has been taken up and owned by the people who receive it."
    			   
        	  		 33

    			   
    			     Mads - US
  	         
  				   Dont ignore the basics
  				   "While I agree with the previous reviewers in most of their comments - I do feel that we tend to overstate the complexities in project management. I have seen project managers become very successful with nothing more than diligence in the basics - like collecting status, providing updates, periodic communication, appropriate escalation, reviewing progress, when appropriate asking for several opinions, treating your customers and team members with courtesy, etc. In most projects 70-80% of your challenges can be overcome through a steady focus on the basics - typically everybody else pretty much falls in line. Tasks perceived to be more complex - such as customer management, team management, vendor management, motivating team members,  etc will all become much easier if you can simply focus on the basics."
    			   
        	  		 31

    			   
    			     Michelle Breslin - USA
  	         
  				   Criteria Program Vs. Project
  				   "I am trying to develop a general criteria for determining if a group of projects should stay projects or if there is enough interdependency to make them a program or one large project. Anyone having  theory or guidance on what type of criteria or questions to use to help make this determination?"
    			   
        	  		 28

    			   
    			     Guus - Nederland
  	         
  				   Build Project Support first
  				   "An often overlooked fastpath to failure of any major project is to not (properly) assess the support for the project beforehand (using Force Field Analysis or similar), or to neglect to act upon it before kicking off the project (if the restraining forces for the project are bigger then the driving forces). Don't let your sense of urgency fool you, and do not assume you can always build the support later on."
    			   
        	  		 21

    			   
    			     Telva Sosa - Panama
  	         
  				   Project Lessons Learned
  				   "One of the greatest contributions of PM to an organization is the set of lessons learned. After every project concludes, a formal meeting with all of the team members should be conducted and both good and bad experiences should be duly written down in a document that should be a part of the project. But it does not end there. There should be a kind of library of lessons learned from each project implemented in the organization, to save time and effort and implement best practices born from within the organization."
    			   
        	  		 20

    			   
    			     Saeed Nadjariun - USA
  	         
  				   Project Expectation Management
  				   "In managing a project, one of the critical factors that doesn't get enough attention is EXPECTATION management. No matter what method or process you use to deliver, you must realize that your project will have far reaching impact on many lives. Everyone will have their own perception of what's being delivered. As a project manager, one must make sure that everyone's expectation is managed appropriately. This will help keep everyone's focus on the mission, objectives, and deliverables of a project. COMMUNICATION is at the heart of expectation management, which helps us with establishing a balance between expectations and realities surrounding a project."
    			   
        	  		 11

    			   
                 Zafar Deen - Sri Lanka
  	         
  				   Project Management Basic Steps?
  				   "Can someone help me answer the question, please: What are the basic elements while implementing a new project?"
    			   
        	  		 7

    			   
    			     Gary Rosenfeld - US
  	         
  				   Missing - Critical Chain
  				   "Partly in conjunction with Scodanibbio's comment about Lean PM missing, we are missing a topic on Critical Chain. In conjunction with Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints, Critical Chain is a valuable approach to executing projects quickly."
    			   
        	  		 7

    			   
    			     chowdary - USA
  	         
  				   PMP Certification
  				   "Hi All,
I am new to 12manage.com, I would like to prepare for PMP certification, can someone please let me know how to proceed and what needs to be done to get certified."
    			   
        	  		 7

    			   
    			     Khaiyek - Bangladesh
  	         
  				   Objective of Project Management?
  				   "I want to get some formulation of the objective of project management... Thanks"
    			   
        	  		 7

    			   
    			     Adrian Cresswell - UK
  	         
  				   Project Delivery
  				   "Many PM's have become blinded by paperwork and process. Having witnessed time and again large failures in government and industry the cause is often the same. The best processes in the world will NOT deliver the programme/project. It takes someone to shoulder responsibility and DRAG the project kicking and screaming through the process and deliver the result. The ability to push on regardless of the process is critical. Once enough inertia has been gathered the programme/project becomes unstopable. THEN there is time to go back and shuffle the mountain of paper that no-one bar audit ever reads. Priority 1. DELIVER !"
    			   
        	  		 7

    			   
                 Chris Lim - UK
  	         
  				   Managing Virtual Project Teams
  				   "I'm conducting a research on the main issues in managing virtual project teams.  Please note that a virtual team is not necessarily an offshore outsourcing team but simply one that has one or more team members working at a distance.  If you wish to participate please follow the link below, it will take less than 5 minutes of your time.  Thanks. 
surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5CD5_2bG_2fo9_2bf49Ivv_2boSF6A_3d_3d"
    			   
        	  		 6

    			   
    			     Scodanibbio - S Africa
  	         
  				   Missing: Lean Project Management
  				   "Very comprehensive indeed, with one exception: to my opinion the "Lean Project Management" methodology in general and, more specifically, the "Last Planner" approach to assured project works flow are missing and should be included."
    			   
        	  		 6

    			   
    			     Rod Chambers - USA
  	         
  				   Project Leadership
  				   "Many project managers fall back on the word "management" and think it a panacea for all that ails their projects. "If it's not working, let's manage better." I challenge all project managers to manage less and lead more. I know of no more successful people in history than Ghandi, Churchill, Washington, and current business leaders such as Gates and Welch who managed less and led more."
    			   
        	  		 4

    			   
                 Karrim - South Africa
  	         
  				   Earliest Event Time Definition
  				   "Does anyone have the definition of "Earliest Event Time", unfortunately I can't find it anywhere. They do have Earliest Start Time, Earliest Finish Time, but not event time. Can anyone please help me.
Thank you."
    			   
        	  		 3

    			   
                 Denis Schmidt - Luxembourg
  	         
  				   Hierarchy in Project Management
  				   "Hello, to close a long discussion between management and my PMO, could you please tell me if a document to demonstrate the hierarchy, if any, between a project manager, a project coordinator, business analyst, sponsor .... wholesaler who supervises whom exist? thank you"
    			   
        	  		 3

    			   
    			     Peter Olonapa - Kenya
  	         
  				   Community Development Approach
  				   "Many development workers do not empower communities to be more proactive in implementing their own development programs while I see a very good community empowerment approach here."
    			   
        	  		 0

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	└► Atba Bouchaib (Morocco)	Tracking Policies and Procedures ... Processes, Process Indicators and Improvement Journals	"Policies and procedures related to the same activities are often, or should be at least, gathered into processes. In periodical meetings each process is to be controlled / improved. The aim of these meetings is to gather all actors of the enterprise who are involved in the process, so as they can exchange about the current functioning of the process: positive and negatives performances, problems, improvement actions to carry out... Of course, the meetings proposals are summarized in "improvement journals" which are used, besides the process indicators, to measure the performance / evolution of the process..."
	└► Elle Billingsley (USA)	Tracking Policies and Procedures	"The team may want to consider to include your legal department in the decision to keep old policies and procedures. There is more than one thought on archiving old policies and procedures from a legal prospective."

                     
                      └► Gopalakrishna Bhat (India)
                      
                    Proposal for Project Downsizing
                    "You can have two approaches. This is what I do in such situations.

1. Justify the "value add" you team is doing to the project and try to convince the prime contractor.

2. If the contracor has already decided to cut down the hours of your team, you do not have any option other than deploying the excess team to some other project."

	└► Mursal Bashir (Kenya)	Project Management	"While I agree with most of the comments made so far, I think there is no general theory or method of application to all situations. Understanding of project objectives, their commitment to achieving the objectives and the environment within which they operate will contribute to success or failure."
	└► Fahad Abu-haimed (Saudi Arabia)	Project Management is Situational	"I just want to say that PM is only successful when done when you take into consideration the circumstances surrounding the project. I mean the culture, the processes, the mentality of management. There is no one correct way of doing project management. You have to adjust your knowledge with the circumstances."

└► Wayne Welcome (Australia)	Achieving Responsibility of Project Team	"I have always provided a complete vision to my team at the start and obtained buy-in from the senior management team to add to and own the vision. I then empower the SMT to operationalise the vision and create the ownership of the team to its delivery."
└► Atba (Morroco)	SMT	"Hello, Wayne. Can you give more details about the SMT that you expérience to operationalise you vision? Thank you!"
└► Fulvio Polo (Italy)	Responsabilisation of the Project Team	"I think an important tool is the "Managing with Objective" method. People prefer a concrete recognition by money of their work when the objectives are reached."
└► Akash Deep (India)	Focus of Project Manager	"The PM should focus on the framework and the manageable components in concatenation with triple constraints. The project success is not the success of the PM."
└► Atba Bouchaib (Morocco)	Focus of Project Manager - Constraints?	"What are the constraints the project manager should focus on? May be: cost, duration and final objective of the project??"

└► Craig (S-Africa)	Project MANAGEMENT	"I agree with your point(s) and feel that management is the pivital point in the process of delivering on the agreed/proposed objectives. One thing I feel in within the project "phase" is that people/teams/companies fail to take responsibility for their part in the plan... I believe that the BSC, coupled with SMART and MANAGING the latter will ensure efficient resource management... Nice one."
└► Hussam Mandil (Sudan)	Project Management	"From my point of view Project Management and Management can not be separated from each other , I mean that we can not run a project or even initiate it unless we do manage all the components that help in achieving the desired deleverables. Even the deliverables must be planned for, that is to run a market research and manage the results to be reflected in the project."
└► Elvira M. Rodriguez (California)	Project Management	"I could not have said it better. Management is in the words project management. Which is a skilled tool learned to oversee or/and identify sources and to prepare and apply proposals to secure it's 30% and 70% resources/objectives."
└► Linda Juspandi (AUSTRALIA)	Cross Functional Activities	"I totally agree. However, Management of CROSS FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES are the hardest thing and are often missed... For Examples, Security Requirements (physical & electronic) often come from the client security department and not the accomodation property group. If it does come from the property group...it is a matter of them forwarding the brief directly to us. The thing is that some of the reqs are actually in conflict with one another...but unless we go through them in fine combs...we won't know. It is so time consuming (in particular with door schedules etc etc)... Anybody ever experience this...??"
└► Marcelo Quidiello (Argentina)	Project Management	"It happens, but the question is if such requirements were part of the scope... If yes, the client must solve the problem without impact for the project, but if not, it will be necessary to manage a change request. In both cases it will be a good opportunity for the PM, to show his negotiation skills."
└► David Dicanot (France)	Project Management	"Hi I share the fact management is a main part of a project success. I would ask you what is the percentage of projects which failed or delayed because of the management? I think the main causes are inaccurate definition of objectives, the pressure of business to get all in the shortest time and bad load evaluation. The management will help to save a project or help to lead the project but root causes are in the project definition and the resources choice."

└► Jasmine (China)	Project Management Process	"I want to know how to do well with project management, what's the process?"
└► Tom (Canada)	Fvie Crucial...	"This is dead on. Basic questions that are often the cause of failure."
└► Mike Deveria (Netherlands)	Risk management	"David Interesting article. What I'm missing from this site is information and advice on Risk Management. I've been in QA for many years and now find myself as QA manager for EPC contracts. I'm not delighted with their risk management approach and don't want to start implementing BS 25999. Can you give me a lead on this?"

	└► Doug Fitzgerald (Australia)	Project Success	"The first level of success of a project - delivery of fit for purpose products on time and within budget - is only useful to the business if it also achieves three other things. User acceptance - people use it to support their day to day work. Business improvement - the product improves efficiency and makes a return on the investment made in its development. Strategic advantage - use of the products gives the organization an edge against its competitors. Project managers can only directly achieve the first level of success. The other levels are achieved by good design and implementation - aspects within the control of the project manager but whose effects will not be achieved during the life of the project."
	└► Brendan Dunphy (France)	Beyond Project Management	"I think we need to recognise that the decision to implement a project is a corporate one and thogh the project manager plays a key role that he/she is not responsible for that decision or the ultimate outcome. Research shows that most projects (regardless of size or type) do not deliver the corporate benefits predicted for a variety of reasons and poor projec management is only one."

└► Codrin Nicolau (Romania)	Same Processes, Stakeholders, Governance	"Very interesting issue. Having in mind that in a program benefit management, stakeholders management and governance should count first (see PMI Program management standard), I think that research should focus on similar/same processes found in particular projects in the group, in order to "standardize" them and transform the group in a program. Find also if projects are conflictual or synergetical in respect to resources or results. Through this optimization benefit can start to be managed (this is particular to programs). Second, see if it is about same/similar stakeholders and the same "project marketing". Third, see if the same governance schema can be applied. Of course this is more to say, but this is a start."
└► Jean-Michel de jaeger (France)	Same High Level Objectives	"In my opinion, to make it as simple as possible, if we go back to basics program caracteristics, if the group of projects have the same high level objectives and finality then, you can manage them as a program."
└► Dennis van der Spoel (Netherlands)	Programme or Multi-Project	"A programme consists of various activities, including one or more projects, that contribute to attaining a common Goal, i.e. the outcomes and benefits of the activities reinforce each other for greater impact towards the same (strategic) objective. A Multi-project environment is a collection of projects that draw from the same resource pool or the same budget, which therefor calls for priority ranking between projects. Project portfolio management is the art of selecting the right projects and prioritize accordingly."
└► Ilango Murugesan (India)	Program Management	"Primarily, all the projects that can be grouped to form a program, whose end objectives shall have a commonality and their objectives shall be aggregated to make it a program objective."
└► Dennis van der Spoel (Netherlands)	What is a Programme?	"A program is more than a collection of projects towards a common goal. First, a program consists of various and different activities, some of which are projects. But there will also be other activities such as improvisations and unplanned processes concerning change, negotiations, conflict management, consulting and decision making that have an unpredictable outcome and therefor cannot be embedded in a project. Most program managers will also manage routine processes temporarily, such as a program support office or a key department."
└► Dave T (UK)	Program v Project	"Yes, a Programme concerns the management of a portfolio of projects, the combined outcomes from which the business benefits are derived. You need to measure if your projects (or are they work-streams) related or not. If they are related work-streams then it could be said they form a programme. All feedback on this is really stating the same thing."
└► Mellacheruvu (India)	Criteria for determining the project Vs Program	"Following are some of the criteria/guidance that would help determine this decision: What is the ultimate goal Vs our organization goal? By executing these projects are we going to get there as per our vision and strategy? Are all or group of your projects related? What are we achieving by executing these projects? Who are the beneficiaries? What are they achieving? What are the business drivers? What is the business value? What are the various technologies that should be leveraged? What are the CSFs? What kind of dependencies (resources, technology etc.) exists between projects, can they be executed in isolation? Can these projects be executed separately – identify the risks (if any) Identify all the assumptions and constraints "
└► Fulvio Polo (Italy)	Criteria Program Vs. Project	"Hi Michelle an idea may be: - Find the projects terms, items, components analyzing every project. - Try to give them a numeric value or qualitative attribute - Use a tecgnique like a clustering analysis or similar, in order to group together the projects. - Probably every group generated can be an unique project."

└► Paolo (Italy)	Rushing brings no results	"I agree with you Guus, having experienced this the hard way. In the past, I allowed the urgency of a particularly important project in the organization to influence me too much. I managed the project in a hurrying style. But overrushing turns agains you, because after some initial succeses you will find yourself the only one pushing forward, while the rest of the organization is actually pulling you and your project back."
└► Sharon Zeilstra (USA)	Communications and Stakeholder buy-in	"I think the most important gauges of project success are communications and stakeholder buy-in. Regardless of the software tools and tables, charts and schedules we maintain, nothing else will result in true success for the team. The stakeholders and staff directly affected must willingly embrace and implement the necessary changes in their process and flow."
└► Klaver (Netherlands)	Creating Sufficient Supporting Area	"Guus, I also agree with you. It is paramount to communicate with all parties involved and try to analyse where they stand (support the project, neutral, opposed). By communicating with all members involved (BUS = Business, Users, Suppliers) from the start you will get a clearer picture on how much resistance you may encounter."

└► Jim Combs (USA)	Project Lessons Observed?	"Does anyone have a proven successful way of incorporating lessons learned? Seems projects continue to make the same mistakes again and again."
└► E.M. Rodriguez (Del Norte)	Project Lesson Learned	"Debriefing with team or community partner valuates best practices"
└► Sam Abiem (Nigeria)	Project Lessons learned	"Lessons learned is an important component of PM that is often overlooked by many organizations. Though outside the project design cycle, it needs to be incorporated in the evaluation phase. It is also critical at the closure of project. This prepares managers to better manage subsequent projects building on such lessons, whether positive or negative. Every project has lessons that an organization can build on in subsequent projects."
└► Sankar (India)	Recording, Storing and Retreiving Project Lessons	"Recording lessons learned is one aspect, and equally important is the storage and retrieval mechanism. I personally think an organization should give the right emphasis to knowledge management and project lessons should be part of managing this knowledge, with the right categorization."

└► Bill Collins (USA)	The Project Management Triangle	"Use a Project Management Triangle: Scope along one leg, Cost/resources along 2nd leg, Time along the 3rd leg. Rule: Change one of the legs and you must change the other(s)."
└► Mohammad Sarwar Munis (Afghanistan)	Basic Steps of Project Management	"Thank you for mentioning this question. I also have problems in this topic."
└► Ekundayo Taiye Peter (Nigeria)	Some of the Elements to Consider in Implementing a Project	"1. You must have basic knowledge of what you want to do. 2. You must see the interest of the organization as your priority. 3. Documentation should be made. 4. Time frame of each phase of the project should be defined. I.e. the life cycle of the project. 5. Breakdown of each schedule and expenditures should be made available. Well, to me there are a lot to consider, not to be a full time risk taker."

└► Harsha v GK (Australia)	PMP	"First of all put in your application for exam with PMI read PMBOK, buy books and CDs .i.e "Rita" give your best go, Good Luck"
└► CHOWDARY (USA)	PMP	"Thanks Harsha...insted of applying for Exam right away, first i would like to read PMBOK and then proceed for the Exam ..what is your openion."
└► Harsha v GK (Australia)	PMP	"An important thing to remember is, there is now PMBOK version 4, this is new version. Buy books or CDs related to version 4 not PMBOK version 3. I took 3 months to prepare, took all possible test on internet, books and CDs. Your application preparation takes a month or two, then your PMI exam application will be valid for year. You should have a very good preparation for the exam and it is 4 hours exam. You should have a plan as a project manager and execute it, you should be doing fine :-)"
└► Pedro Freitas (Brazil)	Preparing for PMP	"1. Rule of 3 - try to read 3 times the PMBOK and a prep book, like Rita Mulcahy or Kim Heldman, both are great. 2. Practice! - look for different exam simulation software, do not study only one (pmstudy.com + headfirstlabs.com + Rita FastTrack) 3. More than 20% of the exam questions are related to process. Try to memorize all 42 process and also the IN/OUT/T&T. I hate memorize, but think that you can get lots of questions knowing it. The last important thing I'd like to say is to be focused on your studies and do not let the time go. Schedule your exam about 3 months and study hard. Do not take too long, the average time to study is 2-3 months and if you are taking more than this it means that you are not studying regularly and probably may forget the subjects you studied in the beginning. If need more tips, send me an email or a message. BR."

                       
                        └► Codrin Nicolau (Romania)
                        
                      Objective of Project Management
                      "Support the concretization of a business idea."

└► Saurabh Surwade (India)	Project delivery	"Very true"
└► Andy Jaeger (UK)	Project delivery	"I couldn't agree more!"
└► Jombo Douglas (Nigeria)	Project Delivery slowed down by added Activities	"Hi all, yes delivering a project is the focus but a whole lot of activities are now added that end up slowing the process down. Still on this matter, how is the issue of funding being handled in your area in the light of the global melt down. Over here it is herculian to say the least"

	└► John Burrows (UK)	Event Time	"We handle logistics for all events and earliest event time would depend on when the goods or service is required for each event. The venue would control earliest start time and finish time."
	└► Richard Tod (UK)	Earliest Event Time	"This term is used when the activities are not being planned, only "events" (states) and it's chronological dependancies. e.g. (Programme Evaluation and Review Techniques) see:- informatik.uni-bremen.de/gdpa/methods/m-npt.htm"

	└► EL RHATRIF Abderrahmane (Morocco)	Hierarchy Project Management	"Hello, there is no general answer to you question, applicable to all cases. Each project has its proper management plan, where a specific procedure, defines roles and responsibilities of the project team members, as well as the relationship/interaction between all contributors and stakeholders."
	└► John M Gushue (USA)	Hierarchy	"Sponsor is at top of the triangle supported by Project Manager who directs the Project Coordinator. Business Analyst is a satellite outside the pyramid feeding information to both the Sponsor and the Project Manager while not reporting to either as the analyst provides infromation that the Sponsor and Project Manager weights with other information when making project decisions."

                       
                        └► Salvador P. Malto (Philippines)
                        
                      Comprehensive Community Development Program
                      "Perhaps we can start from development of family. Know their individual problems as parents, they knew better on how better approach or necessary approach to be used in applying this to their respective member of the family. From here, we can move forward in a bigger application to a community...If I can request from you a reading on the effective training program in this particular subjec matter...Family/Community Development Program..."