Pre- New Year Resolution Post

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Planning is not enough.

I never had a problem planning things or writing to-do lists. I like getting things done. It makes me feel accomplished.

That doesn't mean I never fail my new ears resolution, in fact I do a lot.

So, this year instead of writing more lists I took the time to understand why I fail them and how to set a goal.

My lists are random, it’s a mixture of personal and professional goals. It’s more of a wish list than a resolution.  

I have already set myself for failure from the way I usually write my list. There is a loose deadline (the approaching next 12 months) and no follow ups or plans on how to get it done.

If you see, the New Year mostly starts with high energy levels equipped with a long to do list. In a week, the energy level is dwindling and by the end of the month the list has become just another New Year resolution.

The reason behind it if you think is we fail to create a habit out of it. We try it out and then just give up one day.

And that’s precisely what I wanted to change. So, I thought what action I can take that ensures I won’t give up. I decide not to have a new year’s resolution at all. Instead I just have one item in my list.

Just one. I have made it simple. I can only change or inculcate one habit of mine at a time. And I want to focus all my energy in it. 

I focus on these 9 things-

1. Remember it on time- I don’t want to think of my goal throughout the day. I only think of it at a specific time of the day, when I will be working on it. And I decided on the time based on my availability (I need to be free and nothing else should come up).
2. Give ample time to yourself- I have a window of 2 hours within which I have to get it done everyday. Telling myself I have to do it at 6 pm might not work, just in case I can’t make it at 6 and then my mind automatically pushes it till tomorrow. The 2 hour window helps and I haven’t missed a day.
3. Do it everyday- I can do something every day, it’s easier for me than doing it on alternate days. Once you have the habit formed, you can decide which days you want to do it. I didn't want to leave much fodder for my mood that day- I knew I just had to do it everyday no matter what.
4. Don’t think much- I really don’t and this has been working. Instead of thinking about doing the new task, I just go ahead and do it.  
5. Enjoy the rewards- I don’t buy myself a gift because I have been keeping my goal, I simply focus on the feel good factor after getting it done. And I repeat it the next day again. That allows me to focus on the goal and not anything else. keeping the resolution is my reward.
6. Use the 80-20 rule- Don’t allow yourself to think slipping a day is okay- its not. However, once in a while just do something you would like to do and still continue with your new habit. Don’t skip it. That allows you the freedom to have fun but also work on your schedule. Like you can have a cheese cake but still exercise.
7. Don’t share publicly- There are lots of studies that say, sharing your goal/resolution/new habit with your friends, makes you more accountable and that leads to lesser chances of failures. Doesn't work. I tried, I shared and hey I failed over and over again. So, I don’t believe in the disclosure and it’s the feel good factor that will keep you going.  
8. Feel the changing environment- Truth be told, one new habit can change a lot more. I have one goal and the feel good factor of keeping it makes me happy. So I work on the other areas too that extend and doubles up my feel good factor and I use it back to pursue my goal. My life is more organized and I am definitely happier. I still have only one resolution.
9. Give yourself a head start- Don’t wait till January to begin, give yourself a head start and start from December.  By the time its new year, you have already created a habit and maintaining your new resolution will be much easier. Cheers to that!

Have a good weekend!

Pic Courtesy- Pinterest

Adopting Agile Pt 1- Three things to consider when moving into Agile

Moving into the Agile way of working is a life changing decision.

• Don’t move to Agile because everyone is- IT’s a trend and everyone is working the Agile way and so should you- is the wrong way to approach Agile. Sometimes even client requests and management interest force team members to move. Changing overnight is tough especially when you have been comfortable working a certain way. If transforming into Agile is the agenda, read some blogs, attend training's, look up articles, ask people who have been working in Agile. Then decide if you really want to make the move and simply start with pilot teams.

• Don’t look for tools immediately- start slow and stop adopting tools immediately. A white board in the team area will just work fine. If you have distributed teams, use simple tools like Linoit  or Trello .  Tools should encourage more communication not replace it. 

• Don’t expect a miracle in your first sprint- Make smaller changes before you transform completely, start with a daily standup or writing user stories. Every sprint introduce something new and work within the comfort levels of the team, this will make your new adoption easier than being messier. Not all teams adopt as easily or work as smoothly, what you will notice is more and more internal problems surfacing and that’s a good sign. Try working out the problems and watch the team perform better.  

This is a 5 part series on Adopting Agile. 

(Pic Courtesy- Google images)

News for you and more

While I join back work,  am incredibly lucky to still have the time to blog- thanks to my amazing support system of friends and family.

In the last 3 months from doing the obvious, I also have managed to read a couple of books and I think you should definitely give it a try-

• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Management 3.0 Workout by Jurgen Appelo
• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (ongoing)

Not entirely related to project management but hey we do need to make a lot of decisions at work and knowing how and why we do its essential in breaking the bad habit and create some new. 

Anyways this year I decided to think about my new years resolution a bit early and while its still on the works,  I do know that I am thinking of them as more of things to implement than  keep them in the list that after a month lands into the trash can. 

It might be a good time for you to start thinking as well. 

Meanwhile, I have news for you. 

A 4 part series on new resources for project management community will be coming up soon and yes I do have a big hairy goal for next year and that involves you too! More on this soon. Plus if you haven't received any newsletters recently that's because I haven't been doing any, although I do enjoy reading the ones i subscribe too. So, the newsletter will be up and coming from December again! 

Stay warm and happy this November.

SIPM

The SIPM community platform is still running and if you notice, it doesn't have ads running all over and run on its own merits.

It's meant to be a platform that helps connect newbies in project management with the experts. As far as I know it's one of  a kind. It's FREE. Word spreads just by word of mouth and if you like it, let your friend know.

Recently there's been too many of fake sign ups and  I think it's wrong on the part of those who are doing it. Please understand the site was build as a way to give back to the project management community and allows and encourage interesting discussions, finding mentors and a way to find your next job or internship. So, if you have nothing to learn or offer, please don't malign the interest of the site and this community.

Enjoy your week

The Challenges of International Projects

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Harrin.

The world of business is continually shrinking: we work in an environment with real-time audio visual communication with colleagues on the other side of the world and online translation tools. Even small companies can operate internationally with outsourcing agreements and partners overseas, which means that project managers in organisations of any size face the challenges of managing international projects.

And that means far more than just calculating that when it’s 9am in ‘my’ London it’s 4am in London, Ohio. International projects come with two main challenges: the people you are working with won’t necessarily work in the same way as you, and the people you are working for won’t necessarily want the same things.

Having an open mind about these challenges is the first step in being able to address them on an international project team. You need a pragmatic approach, especially as national culture plays a big part in how we act, and we can’t change who we are – we can just learn how to make those differences work for everyone concerned.

This can be difficult for project managers to get their heads around. Once you are in the position of managing an international project, you may well be one of the more senior project managers in your team. You have gained that position through hard work and successful project delivery. You expect your project team members to behave in certain ways and people from different cultures won’t always behave the way you expect. As you can imagine, that causes problems and conflict on projects.

Making international working easier

Project managers taking on international projects face a variety of practical challenges. For example, time zones are important. How will you conduct real-time team meetings? Who is going to be the person who gets up in the middle of the night for a call with the Brazilian development team to go through the testing results? In the absence of incentives for the project team, the project manager will find it difficult to recruit volunteers.

Protecting the interests of the UK-based team also falls to the project manager. A project sponsor who doesn’t appreciate that you have just spent half the night on a web conference with the manufacturing supplier in New Zealand won’t look favourably on your request to send everyone home at 3pm. Project managers with international components to their teams not only have to educate team members in how to work well together, but also have to manage upwards and ensure that senior stakeholders understand the constraints of this type of project. In reality, international projects take longer and involve higher travel costs than projects where the entire team is co-located – and that isn’t always a welcome message to the executives.

Practical suggestions aside, the easiest way I have found to work with international teams is to build cultural understanding. As I found when living and working in France, you can be linguistically literate without being culturally literate. At a pub quiz I couldn’t answer the questions about children’s TV programmes or what was found under the streets of Paris (I think, if I remember rightly, that it was the river). But the pub quiz was in an Irish bar, and there weren’t many of them around so that was a change of environment for many of my Parisian colleagues.

Cultural understanding relies on the emotional intelligence of the project manager, his or her leadership skills, adaptability and ability to inform and train the teams.

Using software to help international communication

Aside from cultural understanding, your next challenge is communication. Successful communication relies on the soft skills that a project manager brings to the table. These are the ability to listen, hear the unspoken concerns and messages, and respond clearly in a way that the other person can understand.

Being able to put those soft communication skills into practice is something that can be helped by technology. People need to be able to hear and speak to each other in some format before the project manger’s emotional intelligence can be put to good use. Technology can help with the challenges of international projects, even if we have to accept its limitations with regards to the interpretation of messages communicated using it.

There are lots of technologies available to project managers with virtual teams, whether they are based all over the world or in multiple offices in the same time zone. Instant messaging gives project teams the ability to connect informally when their status is shown as online. This can promote collaborative working as team members can quickly and easily ask questions of their colleagues instead of waiting for a scheduled formal meeting. In general, the more communication the greater the bonds and understanding between team members, so provided this facility is not abused, it can help improve working relationships. In practice, it works best when all users are in similar time zones where the difference is only a few hours.

The next step up from one-to-one messaging is web conferencing, where multiple users join the same online conference. Applications such as WebEx allow you to hold a virtual meeting with the team. Web conferencing means you can make changes to documents in real time or show product demonstrations to the rest of the team without having everyone in the same room – lower travel costs and a reduction in time spent out of the office even if you don’t have the international element to contend with.

Instant messaging and web conferencing allow synchronous communication, but asynchronous communication is also useful for project managers with international teams. You could opt for something as simple as a shared calendar, where team meetings and project milestones are recorded for everyone to see. When you connect from a PC configured to a different time zone, Outlook will automatically show the meeting at the correct time where you are. However, I have been caught out by the same feature in Google’s calendar, which didn’t seem to adjust for daylight savings time for some reason – and I missed my conference call.

Whatever software you choose to use to manage your project, you will quickly realise its limitations. A good project manager knows when to use the tools, and when to set the tools aside and lead with understanding and instinct.

Spending some time with your team members overseas is the best way to understand how they work, but desk research before you go (or if budget constraints mean you can’t go) will be beneficial. You will find out a great deal about how team members will most likely react in the project environment if you see them react, but that of course relies on you having the time to do that period of ‘getting to know you’.

Even if you don’t have lots of time, be curious in the time you do have. Many people love talking about how their countries work and a short discussion early on in your project can make a big difference. This knowledge provides you with a framework to manage the differences that will occur and also the confidence that you can develop an appropriate way of working together. In a shrinking world, projects are expanding, and the keys to success in international projects are shrewd use of the available technologies and excellent cultural awareness.

 This article has been adapted from material published on A Girl’s Guide To Project Management and is reprinted with permission.

(Pic Courtesy: Google images)

Friday- Top 3

Here are 3 articles that are sure to make you a better professional:

• Why networking is of importance 
• 23 daily habits that will make you smarter 
• How you can become so good that you can’t be ignored 

What inspires you and keeps you going?

Introducing Project Rio

Introducing Rio, my latest project and clearly the reason I have been offline or a while now.

He has happily taken over in the last 20 days my entire calendar and finding time for myself has been nothing but luxury.

Thank you for being so patient with me for a while now.

Will Power and free resources for wannabe Project Managers

You never know where inspiration comes from

.

I have been doing random stuff to keep myself going and one of it has been watching youtube videos. I recently watched a TED talk by Kelly Mcgonigal and that led to watching more talks by her. This one is my favorite.

It talk about Will power and what we can do to attain it and how smaller interventions actually change the way we think.

I also read up her “how I work” series in LIfehacker  as it seems very natural to see how she does it in real life. I hope this video gives you the will power you need to pick up or face a storm in your own work space or life .

 By the way if you haven’t noticed, there’s a new e-book in town by Geoff Crane where he has gotten 52 project managers from all over the world talk about their initial experience into the work life and profession. Its insightful and a must read for all including seasoned players- there’s something in it for everybody. And am more than honored to be part of his project. 

52 Tips to Break Into Project Management from Geoff Crane

 

Leadership

Pic Courtesy: Pinterest

Guilty as charged

I multitask and can do it well. Really well.

I put hours at work, I blog, I write, meet lovely friends, keep in touch with everybody and barely give anyone the chance to complaint.

The last few months, I have stopped multitasking. Not really deliberately, it just happened. Work was crazy and by the time I was home I didn't feel like doing hundred more things. I wanted time for myself, sometimes doing nothing.

And I felt guilty, especially about not being able to meet friends or writing my blog like I used to do. I wanted to be away from my laptop. I even stopped browsing. I stepped away.

I probably haven been writing but every day I am full of guilt that I haven’t been doing what I should have. I see other bloggers or professionals who are doing well, so inspired, so full of energy and I still don’t feel like writing.

It could be writers block, it could be doing the same thing for so many years now or it can be just wanting some time for myself.

Today, I browsed through some articles and wanted to know if there are more people like me who feel the same. Or am I just losing my fire?  

I read about mothers feeling guilt , about difference in the way men and women approach work  and multitude of other stuff.

Bottom-line, yes we should be responsible in what we do but I just feel sometimes it’s okay to do random stuff out of the daily routine. It’s okay to want some time for yourself to get recharged and then be back or choose not to be. Enough of guilt!

So yes I have been spending some time doing nothing except regular work. And to my all my readers if you have expected articles and seen the same one and no new updates over and over again- I was busy in my balcony looking at the mango tree and sky and birds. I was spending more time with myself than with anything else, definitely not my laptop.  

Have you been through same situations may be in different context?

I am hoping I will be writing very soon, but bear with me if it takes time- blogging is tough.  Meanwhile enjoy your schedule and what you are happy doing and if you are not- take a break minus the guilt.  It will certainly help!

(Pic Courtesy: Soma)

Scrum Team has stabilized- what next?

Most transformations start with the basic idea of either getting teams to start working in Agile or streamlining their existence process.

At a certain point, teams stabilize, velocity improves, quality soars and things look up.

Is the goal to repeat the same cycle day after day or is there more to work through once the team stabilizes? I have always though that the trying to get teams working in Agile is more like a bicycle- if you stop pedaling, it stops.

Here are 5 things to consider as next steps to keep the team going:

• Baseline velocity- Always know your baseline velocity, when you started and ways you can work on it.
• Focus factor- when the team stabilizes, it’s a good idea to know if the team has the right focus. Its velocity/work capacity. For more info read Jeff Sutherlands article here .  
• Failure trends and patterns- The commitment made by the team always doesn't match the outcome. Looking into why stories fail and trying to identify a pattern might lead the team to understand the underlying problem. It could be user stories that require infrastructure, it can be kind of stories that haven’t been worked on, it can be a story requiring a new technology.  Once you have identified the pattern, it becomes quite easy to find a resolution.
• Estimations- If in every sprint more than 20 percent of stories remain not done, along with other factors you might want to have a look at the way estimation is being done by the team. Some teams commit more by underestimating stories in trying to please the management and keeping to the team’s velocity. Of course by the end of the sprint teams fail to deliver. There are more managers and Product Owners who always push the team to commit more, so they have enough work on hand ever sprint fearing lesser work meaning team members might be free most of the time. Bottom-line, under estimating doesn’t help as much as over estimating doesn't.
• Linking and tracking the layers- Stop looking only at team levels and start looking at the bigger picture, look into the your program and portfolio management and how it  is coming down to the team. Look into the quality of the user stories and how everything is affecting the team.

(Pic Courtesy: Google Images)

To learn about how to get into project management read my book Stepping into Project Management (Welcome to the #PMOT World). To connect with experienced Project Manager's from all over the world, get mentored or shadow for a day see the SIPM Community.

Interview with Siddharta Govindaraj

Today we interview Siddhartha Govindraj, who specializes in Lean/Agile processes for software development. He has also contributed in the book "Beyond Agile: Tales of Continuous Improvement" published by Modus Cooperandi Press, Feb 2013 and Published in the March 2011 issue of the Cutter IT Journal on "Use of Kanban in Distributed Offshore Environments". An occasional organizer of events as a part of Chennai Agile User Group and speaks in conferences in India and abroad.

He was nominated for the Brickell Key award in 2011, an award given by the Lean Software & Systems Consortium for recognizing achievements in the lean-agile industry and is also a Fellow of the Lean Systems Society.

He is very interested in the behavior of decentralized and distributed systems.

Agile becoming mainstream now, how do you think the world of project management has changed?

In one way, yes….. definitely more and more organizations are seeing the value of agile in terms of incremental development and faster time to market. However, there are a few aspects where agile is still to make a significant mark. First, the people aspect of agile has still not fully permeated into the culture of many organizations. The idea that motivated, self-organized teams can deliver better software is not yet in the mainstream. I also think that many companies need to invest in the technical environment. The third aspect that companies often neglect is looking at delivery as an end to end system in the organization. Agile is often applied at the team level, and systemic impediments are not fixed. So there is still a long way to go. 

While older companies have a tough time with transformation, the good news is that newer companies like Facebook have been agile right from the start. Over the next decade, success of these newer companies will establish the culture for the whole industry.

As someone who creates tools for Agile and Lean project environments, please tell us what according to you is the most important: the tool or the expertise of the project manager?

Of course the expertise of the people in the project is the primary criteria for success. Where tools will help is in aiding decision making so that people (both within the team, and management) have better insights to take better decisions. 

This questions also leads to an interesting difference between agile project management tools and traditional project management tools. In agile, a lot of decisions are taken by the self-organized teams. Hence the tools need to be able to support the needs of the team. If the team decides that the tool is an overhead or is not adding value to them, then it becomes worthless. By contrast, the primary need of traditional tools is targeted towards managers, who are the decision makers to micromanage the team. 

A big problem is when an agile tool is used in a traditional way – i.e. the team does not feel the value, but is forced to use it so that the managers can micromanage them. My personal opinion is that tools that encourage this behavior rarely lead to truly agile culture. 

Tell us why you decided to create your software and did you use agile way of managing it while n development?

The previous answer has some insight into why we launched our tool. We saw that many organizations implemented tools which support agile mechanics, but not the agile mindset. Such tools get deployed, teams hate to use them but are forced to do so because the management doesn't trust the team and wants to control exactly what is going on in the team. Well, guess what? The team only updates the tool rarely and the data is unreliable so it helps nobody. This does not help build an agile culture. 

What we wanted to do was to build a tool that a team will find easy to use and useful for their own self organization. Basically, we took traditional, proven methods that teams use in a physical space -- card walls, task boards, story maps and so on, and made them available in an electronic format. This gives the benefit of electronic tools, while still being in a format that teams find useful for themselves. 

What according to you are the 3 qualities that every Agile Project Manager should have?

First, curiosity to keep learning. Secondly, soft skills to connect with people (within the team and outside) and build relationships. Finally, the ability to influence people and drive change and improvement. 

I haven't said anything about knowledge of agile. This is easy to learn, and anyone can learn what a product backlog is and how a particular process works. But the qualities above are difficult to train, and very crucial for agile success.

If someone new, stepping into Agile Project Management asked you about the 3 books to read, what would you recommend?

My favourite three books are:

1. Agile Software Development -- Alistair Cockburn (Quick note: This book isn’t about agile, but methodologies in general. It’s a great background about how and why agile works, but perhaps not what you are looking for if you want to know specific mechanics like how to story point a story)

2. The principles of product development flow -- Donald Reinertsen 

3. Kanban -- David Anderson

Where can someone find the link to your software and your books?

My site is at http://toolsforagile.com. I blog at http://toolsforagile.com/blog/ , 

I've also been a contributor to this book - http://amzn.to/beyond_agile

Thank you very much for your time.

Does Agile mean NO Managers?

In trying to move in the right direction Agile-wise too soon, there are organizations who will consider removing managers or team leads completely from the equation.

However, removing the title doesn't mean, the role or the job has been removed and these management positions are simply disguised via different names. There are scrum masters sometimes who are actually functional managers for the team.

I think the reason these roles overlap is because sometimes organizations don’t realizes the role of a scum master.

A scrum master is the facilitator for the team and does not make decisions for the team. I think this is the trickiest factor that no management realizes. Scrum master isn’t the decision maker or someone who will appoint stories or tasks to the team. So a manager cannot disguise himself into this role.

So, one way to resolve this problem is to never merge both of these roles. Scrum master and the functional manager shouldn't be the same person. Even by overlapping roles for one team, you send out the wrong message to the other teams.  

The managers can happily co-exist with the agile teams and they can be great blocker resolvers. They should be the one helping teams deliver more by removing all impediments, looking into the patterns and trend of all teams and see what can be done to minimize the recurring causes of the issues.  

If management interferes and spoon feeds teams in every chance they get, teams never come close enough to becoming self-organizing teams and making their own decisions. Management can choose to either make teams adopt Agile better or make decisions that messes it u for the organization. 

(pic courtesy: google images)

3 Simple Rules of Life

(Pic Courtesy: Pinterest)

Interview with Laura Dallas Burford

I hope all of you are having an amazing year 2014, today we interview Laura Dallas Burford; who is a vision mover with domestic and international experience who focuses on partnering with management by aligning strategy and projects. She has experience with big four consulting organizations; was a managing director at a start-up international technology consulting organization; and currently is the owner of LAD Enterprises, a management consulting company. Over her career, she has worked for or provided consulting advice to several Top 100 corporations and led numerous large multi-million dollar information technology and business improvement programs, outsourcing efforts, start-up initiatives, and project turnarounds. Currently, she provides project related services and training to assist organizations in realizing their goals and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP®

Please tell us how you became a project manager?

I became a project manager early in my career. I was in a management-training program at top US Corporation and working as a programmer/analyst when a project manager resigned. Because of my experience, Management felt I could do the job and assigned me the role of project manager for a cost accounting system. It was great experience but in the early 1980's, project management was not a specialized field of study. Outside of information for engineers on managing projects, there was with limited information for business or technical project managers so much of my project management training was on the job.

What has been the most challenging for you as a project manager? 

This is a tough question because every project has its own challenges. Two common project management issues that I continually struggle with are estimating the level of effort and duration when working with a team of all part-time team members, a topic discussed in the book, and working with first time project team members with limited or no project management knowledge, which is one of the reasons for the book.

However, as a project leader, I have found the most challenging aspect of project management is the building a productive and high quality team. Every project manager has been trained to build a team with the right skills and knowledge. Every project manager strives to have a team that works towards a common goal. However, building the right team is more than assigning people with the right skills and knowledge because the best teams are those where all team members feel that they are making a meaningful contribution and are satisfied with the job. To create such a team takes time and requires communication, collaboration, and compromise with a project sponsor, potential team members, functional managers, and even corporate human resources. Not assigning a person to the team, even if they have the right skills and knowledge, can be the best and right option for both the person and project.

What was the most challenging project you even managed and why?

My most challenging project was writing and getting Project Management for Flat Organizations published because I moved from the role of project manager, managing my writing efforts, to becoming a client of the publisher with client expectations. I was looking at the production effort as a project, a unique event with a specific start and end date while the publisher considered the effort an operational activity. As the book progressed through the production process, different people became involved and the understanding of expectations changed highlighting the importance of communicating.

 
Your recent book "Project Management for Flat Organizations" is one of ten winners of the 2013 Small Business Book Awards. Why did you decide to write the book?

The idea to write this book developed over time and is based on experiences with client projects and project management courses I teach. The attendees in the courses vary but tend to be new project managers with little or no formal training in project management, project team members, business leaders, functional managers, and project sponsors—all of whom are looking for something to assist them with their job so that they can successfully define, plan, and work a project.

Among all the available project management books, why do you think this is the one that will help newbies understand what they need to know about project management?

My book provides a simple, no-nonsense, cost-effective approach to project management. It explains the fundamentals of project management and then walks the reader through the entire project life cycle from management concept to completing the project. The book focuses on three critical activities: the first key activity is the defining of the project outcome and the recording of that definition in a scope statement (or project definition); the second activity is to plan what needs to be done and create a project plan documenting what needs to occur to accomplish the outcome; and the third activity is to “work the plan,” successfully delivering the outcome with the aid of a status report.

The book does not focus on nor was it written for people focused on sitting for a certification examination; rather it is a basic book that a person new to project management can understand and use as a reference tool when managing any type of project.

It appears that the 7 sections and 22 chapters cover everything that a person working on a project needs to know about project management.  Was this your goal? 

Use of the work “everything” suggests comprehensive coverage of project management. This was not my goal though I intended to provide a comprehensive introduction to project management for novice readers. The book builds on three critical activities—defining the project; planning the project; and working the plan—and is divided into 7 sections with 22 chapters. Each chapter is short and easy to read enabling the reader to focus on the chapters that are important to him or her without reading the entire work.

The beginning of each section provides an overview of information to be covered, a brief explanation as to the importance of the section, and a description of each chapter within the section. Each chapter starts with a list of the subjects covered, and ends with a review of key points and step-by-step instructions. The theory of the subjects is introduced and then, using examples, visual aids, tools, and techniques, the chapter walks the reader through applying the theory. Included in the chapters are short stories, scenarios, suggestions, reference tables, questions to consider, and guidelines intended to illuminate the subject, issues, or skills.

Where can your book be found, if someone wants to purchase.

The book is available from J. Ross Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and any Indie Book Store. Reviews of the book can be found on Amazon’s site .

A downloadable copy of Chapter 7: Define the Project Scope and three free downloads, known as WAV files, associated with the book:
•Project Management Word Templates (templates that are referenced throughout the book)
•Selecting a Project Management Software Application—A Whitepaper
•Ten Steps to Create a Project Management Methodology—A Whitepaper
are available at J. Ross Publishing Sign-in is required for the WAV files.

Additionally, the book is available as an e-book (i-bookstore)

Thank you Laura.

Merry Christmas!

Why Agile Transformation Fails?

Originally published at Xebia Blog

Organizations move into Agile because it sounds cool, team’s wants to transform and deliver more, have collaborative culture and make work fun. Very few actually look into the changes that will be required to bring in to make the transformation successful.

The first resistance initiates with the need to change. Change means new learnings and probably more of un-learmings.  

Most successful projects need a shift in cultural mindset; everyone wants the change but no one wants to work for it. Even in the best of conditions and work environment, very few organizations can bring in the culture of constant learning and improvement and keep everyone motivated.

To know why transformation is not the most popular thing at ground level:

• Disrupts the comfort factor- change is never comforting because it requires everyone to work for it. Most senior members and managers are more resistant to change than new members. Why try out new thing when he old one works fine.
• No zeal and capacity- its proven that just being intelligent isn’t enough for achieving higher things  . The zeal and capacity that are required from every team member to make teams successful is very difficult to inculcate unless they are inherently in the person. 
• The Dunning Kruger Effect- where individuals think they are better than the rest and hence no need to change. In situations like these where the resistant to change increases, transformation is more and more difficult to bring about. 
• Not praised for the effort during the process of transformation- 50 milliseconds after a mistake (which aren’t uncommon during new learnings), the first reaction called Error related negativity which is an involuntary reaction shows up. It’s been proven that just by praising the effort of an individual, chances of them choosing tougher task hence more learning is achieved. How the mistake is used by an individual whether for learning or withdrawal makes a  difference.
• The big bang approach- though some cater to this approach of changing things for once and for all, sometimes it might be difficult for an organization to go through this because of the fear of retention of employees. The sudden change can bring in the fear of transformation as to what lies ahead and why none of them are being considered allies and instead being push to do things. It’s opposite to the much formal ad gradual method that Shu-ha-ri or the Dreyfus model talks about.   

So, the transformation is a complicated phenomenon to achieve and a success deserves every bit of the celebration. 

Happy Weekend

Fish Philosophy

Last week  I spoke in Agile Tour Hyderabad, traveled for work and came back home with fever and cold.

2 days later I was happily back at office though still sick. Loving what you do is the best way to keep yourself inspired.

If you are into project management, read 6 things you should know about being one 

I think so much has been said about the fish philosophy already, there’s not really much to say about it. The core belief is perhaps the same: enjoy the work you do and be involved in it because it shows.

It’s much easier to spot people who don’t like what they do than it’s to spot people who don’t enjoy their work. And no matter what you are, unless you enjoy your work, you will find it increasingly difficult to inspire others.

Given below is a short video of the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, spot their energy, love of work and their unique ways to keep onlookers happy and involved.

I am back!

A lot has happened since my last post and I apologize for leaving without much notice and keeping the blog almost empty for months now.

I have reached one of my major goals and it has taken a chunk of the time. Plus work keeps me really busy along with travelling.

I have also started delivering training's and attending and presenting in seminars which takes separate time to prepare and deliver. To be honest its scary because the feedback is so immediate.

Nothing has changed much, other than trying to manage my time better and trying to fit in a lot more things. So, hopefully I will be back writing here from now on.

I hope things have been wonderful with you.

(Pic Courtesy: pinterest)

Happy Diwali!

What does project management mean to me?

Project management for me as with everyone else is all about managing projects.

Obviously how projects are managed and how you want to reach your goal depends on how you look at it.

Project management has always been a journey for me, where I have learned every single day from my work, from my team and from my mentors. It’s been more about people for me than managing work through tools.

    

    

When I started working in project management for the first time, I was part of a small service based IT organization in Chicago (US). I soon learned that people management skills were the most useful because it helped me create the connection with my clients and more trust I had from them, I could understand the expectation and always deliver more. I also knew that it also helped me work better with my offshore team, one I knew the local language and second I ensured everyone felt I was one of them. This allowed me to get to know of the real problems and not sugar coated facts when required. In return I could manage my requirement, delivery and clients better.

The way you treat your team always is the way team will treat you. When we worked under tight deadlines, team members took the initiative to stay back and get the work done. Not because they had to because they felt they were part of a bigger picture. Plus working in a small organization also means there is lesser capacity and always more work to be done. Handling situations specially tough ones, teach you a lot more because you are forced to think out of the box.

Agile project management which has gained much popularity talks so much about the transparency, efficiency, collaboration, cultivating team environments and adapting to the need- this is how I have always run my team and projects. And definitely this is the way I have learned from my mentors.

Project management for me is being successful and helping others become successful at what they are doing. It’s about understanding what makes everyone click and create amazing team dynamics where everyone grows and trusts each other.

It’s about taking the stress, so your team feels secure. It’s about creating an environment where there is lesser politics and more appreciation. It’s about supporting your team members no matter what. And it is about accepting the challenge and knowing that it won’t be easy and get up every morning and be happy to take up the role. It is about the stress, the tight schedule, the pressure to deliver, to handle problems, to be responsible, to be accountable for all failures, to work on weekends, to have sleepless nights, to smile and assure even when you are paranoid, to be there when all you want is to go home and still keep the role.

P.S. This post is published as part of a first ever project management related global blogging initiative to publish a post on a common theme at exactly the same time. Seventy four (74!) bloggers from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and the USA have committed to make a blogging contribution and the fruit of their labour is now (literally NOW) available all over the web. The complete list of all participating blogs is found here ...so please go and check them out!

(Pic Courtesy)

PM Flashblog : Sept 25

The time is set to  25/09/2013 @ 01:00GMT and posts will be tagged on social media with #pmFlashBlog. To know more read Shim Marom's post here.

On September 25, 96 PM Bloggers from all over the world will participate in a flashblog.
You can see the teaser here

So, while you enjoy your weekend, I am traveling again tonight and the stress to pack over and over again has considerably reduced.

To learn about how to get into project management read my book Stepping into Project Management (Welcome to the #PMOT World). To connect with experienced Project Manager's from all over the world, get mentored or shadow for a day see the SIPM Community.

7 Tips: When travelling for work

Travelling can be fun unless you are doing it way too much.

I still love it and the challenges it brings with it, over the past few months I have learnt the art of  packing mostly over terrible mistakes.

• Always pack in your own shampoo- The hotel shampoo might leave your hair so limp that you wished you had your own.
• Always have an extra pair of clothes in your handbag/backpack- I keep one in my laptop backpack just in case my luggage doesn't arrive. 
• Travel Light- I carried more than I should initially, now I just pack right most of the time.
• Keep a list- It helps every time.
• Be comfortable- I carry one thing with me that will make me comfortable and keep me relaxed: a magazine, iPod, a good book.
• Try local cuisine- This is my favorite part of travelling, I might not get the time to try out sight seeing always but at least I get to try the food.
• Learn everyday- There's so much to learn by just observing people or while travelling. We get used to the same set of people so much that a change while travelling gives us a better opportunity to learn when we travel.

So, while I'm leaving for the airport in the next 30 minutes- I hope you get the chance to travel and say yes to it!

How should teams be build?

When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, “It’s in the script.” If he says, “But what’s my motivation?” I say, “Your salary.”

                                                 —Alfred Hitchcock, filmmaker (1899–1980)

Jim Collins talks about getting the right people in the bus in his book “Good to Great”. And we all agree- but how do you decide who are the right people?

Hiring happens based on the core competency, but when you put them as part of the team, how do you know they will work out?

Does team dynamics matter to you or your organization? Do you think it changes the quality of delivery?

The common failings for any team at organization level usually comes down to:

·       Develop empowered people working together to serve the best interests of the organization, and

·       Create an environment in which every employee contributes all of their talents and skills to the success of organizational goals.

To ensure we get individual players be and feel part of the team- is there a way to create teams at the first place differently? Like do you think, if teams are created based on their compatibility or interest, they will perform better OR do you feel any team if mentored and trained in team/organization culture will perform at their highest level?

To think about creating the right team, I think we should first think why teams fail at the first place? Why do teams not perform the way they should be? Is it a bad apple? Is it lack of proper management and setting the expectations? Is it freedom without no boundaries and when things go wrong, blame the team? Here are 20 mistakes that employers make.

Are we aligning people with their interest and what they want to do or do we just not hear what they have to say and push them into any role and any teams?

The hedgehog concept talks about looking into 3 aspects before putting the right people in the right role

By considering:

• What are you passionate about?
• What can you best in the world at?
• What drives your economic engine?

This definitely brings out the best in individuals but how do we ensure the best is brought out at team levels also?  What if you got the right person in the right role and then had a bunch of laggards as team mates. Do you think we have set the right environment for him/her to grow and contribute to the best of ability?

How does your organization formulate teams? What do you fee is the right way to do it? 

(Pic Courtesy: Google Images)