The Project Management Podcast

Play Now: Download Project Management Professional (PMP)® training to your pocket: Darryl Hahn and Cornelius Fichtner NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has worked with PMOs around the United States to define a "best practice" for creating and delivering an annual plan. This interview with Darryl Hahn (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the stimulating Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Our interview presents both strategic and tactical approaches for uncovering your organizations' goals and objectives and for creating the prioritized list of achievable projects. We also examine ways of categorizing and classifying types of work, identifying and weighting priorities and adjusting the completed plan for when it collides with real life. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Male Voice:   In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™, we discuss how NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other top federally-funded research and development centers prioritize and monitor annual plan and portfolios. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the stimulating 2017 PMI® Global Conference in Chicago where I am currently sitting in a completely empty presentation room—it’s Room W180 and the presenter who will be speaking here in about nineteen minutes is Darryl Hahn, sitting with me here. Hello Darryl. Darryl Hahn:   To a completely empty room.    Cornelius Fichtner:   We don’t know that. Oh, somebody just walked in the door so we have at least one person who will be listening to you, Darryl. How are you enjoying the conference so far? Darryl Hahn:   Oh, pretty well. We didn’t get a chance to see a whole lot of presentations yet. We flew in from California last night. We’re actually flying out tonight right after this one. It’s Halloween weekend so I got to get back to the kids so we can go trick or treating. Cornelius Fichtner:   Yeah, that’s also important. Is this your first conference? Darryl Hahn:   No, no. I’ve been to a couple of these. Went to the Gartner ones. I’ve been to a bunch of the other different conferences as well. We went to the PMI® one last year. Cornelius Fichtner:   And when you compare the PMI® to the others—this is specifically for project managers. Do you feel more at home here as a project manager, program manager than you feel at the others? Darryl Hahn:   I think that’s –that maybe a safe bet to say. It’s certainly more specialized to specifically project management stuff that people are interested in in that expertise so there’s usually a bit more specifics to do here than there are in some of the other ones maybe. Cornelius Fichtner:   Yeah, What prompted you to talk about and to speak about the topic of the methods and madness to strategic planning—it doesn’t sound like the sexiest of topics. Darryl Hahn:   No. One of the things that we do at JPL is we chair the Project Management working groups session of all the FFRDCs. FFRDCs are federally-funded research and development facility. We are a full NASA center. There are a bunch of other NASA centers—Ames, Kennedy, a bunch of other ones but we sit down with those folks on a continuing basis and for lack of a better phrase, we share our pain. “Hey what are the other issues that you guys are having today? How do you guys figure out how to attract resources better than anybody else? What are you guys doing when your annual planning blows up and what are the sort of methods that you guys employ to get back on track”—those types of things. We found a lot of value in collaborating with some of the other FFRDCs  and we decided that each of the FFRDCs do

Play Now: Get PDUs on your phone: John Kleine, Global Manager, Product Strategy & Delivery The Project Management Institute (PMI)® has made a number of changes to the Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) in the past 18 months. These requirements define the policies and guidelines that certified project managers must follow in order to earn PDUs and renew their certification. In this interview we speak with John Kleine (LinkedIn Profile) who is the Global Manager, Product Strategy & Delivery, at Project Management Institute. One of John's responsibilities is overseeing the CCR and any changes made to it. We begin by discussing the recertification requirements for a certified Project Management Professional (PMP)® and walk you through many of the updated rules. Of course, the interview is also full with good ideas and suggestions on how to earn PDUs. For example, what would you expect are the most frequently used, and the most under-used PDUs earning activities? Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Male Voice:   In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™, we talk about what’s new and coming regarding PDUs for all those who hold a PMI® certification. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the thrilling 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. With me right now, sitting on the other side of the table is John Kleine who is the Global Managers Certifications at PMI. Good afternoon, John. John Kleine:   Good afternoon, Cornelius.   Cornelius:   We’ve had you on before and every time we talk about the same thing—PDUs, CCRS [laughs] John:   Oh, well it’s a very important topic. Cornelius:   I was just going to say it’s an important topic and a lot of people need to know about it and want to know about it. Yeah. So, the CCR, the Continuing Certification Requirements Program has seen some major changes over the past 18 months. They have been widely publicized and every PMP should know about them by now yet I’m still being asked to explain the new guidelines again and again. So, to get us started, would you please give us a quick overview of what the requirements are for someone who has just passed their PMP exam maybe yesterday. What do they need to know in regards to PDUs? John:   Right. I can tell you somewhere in the world yesterday, someone did pass the PMP. Well, the first thing I would tell you if we were in a hotel lobby or something and we’re limited on time, would be go to www.pmi.org, click on “Certifications” and then click on “Maintenance of Certifications” and that’ll have a much deeper dive than what I’m currently going to give you but I would tell that individual that within a three-year cycle to maintain this PMP certification that they’ve worked so hard for and had earned that over three years, they’re going have to earn 60 PDUs—60 Professional Development Units and those are broken out into two categories. We have Education and we have Giving Back to the Profession. Now within Education, PMI in the new changes stated that you have to have a minimum of 35 PDUs but you could have up to 60—which means in Giving Back to the Profession, you don’t have to have any but you can’t have more than 25 because the whole program’s emphasis is on professional development. And then within the Education, based on research and feedback from organizations, what we’ve done is we’ve now directed the learning into three areas—technical skills, the leadership skills and the business and strategic skills. So, skills and knowledge in all those areas are what we’ve learned from employers that they really want to see development within the project managers and their organizations. And so, from that, that’

Play Now: Get PMI Agile Cerfified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Training on your phone: Betsy Stockdale and Cornelius Fichtner In agile, technically anyone can write user stories. Sounds easy, right? However, many people really do not have a good understanding of how to write high-quality stories or effectively manage the product backlog. In this interview you will learn about the full life cycle of agile requirements, including how to use visual models at each step of the iterative process. This interview with Betsy Stockdale (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the inspiring Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. We explain the life cycle of agile requirements and how to use visual models to identify epics and user stories, and how to write testable acceptance criteria using a variety of techniques. Those currently working on their PMI-ACP training will find this interview valuable for their general understanding of Agile approaches. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Female Voice:   In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™, we will look at the life cycle of Agile requirements and how to use visual models to identify epics and user stories. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the inspiring 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. And with me right now is Betsy Stockdale. Good afternoon. Betsy Stockdale:   Good afternoon.   Cornelius:   How has your conference been so far? You look very chipper. Betsy:   Oh well. Of course. Because it’s really great to be here and it’s really fun to listen to a number of these different sessions and just get inspired on things that I might be able to take back to the office with me. Cornelius:   Wow and I used the word “inspire” just a moment ago. Betsy:   Yes, you did and that was not planned [laughs] Cornelius:   Completely not. So, what have you seen so far?      Betsy:   Oh well, the keynote was awesome, obviously and then there was a couple of others especially around Agile and I’m definitely working in an Agile world these days. So, just you know, attending some of the sessions with regards to Agile and really trying to pick up some tips and tricks that I can take back to my organization and my team. Cornelius:   The energy is really fantastic this year. I’m really excited to be here, yeah. Let’s move on to your presentation. Have you already presented? Betsy:   No, I’ll actually present tomorrow afternoon. Cornelius:   OK. Your presentation is about “Not Your Mama’s Acceptance Criteria: A Guide to Writing Excellent User Stories”. Now at this point, we have to make one thing clear—you’re not a project manager. You’re a business analyst?   Betsy:   I am.   Cornelius:   Yes, you are our backbone. You’re the person we can’t live without. Betsy:   I like to think so.    Cornelius:   Yes, absolutely. [laughs]  Betsy:   [laughs].    Cornelius: “Not your Mama’s Acceptance Criteria—two words—acceptance criteria: A Guide to Writing Excellent User Stories”—how do these four words—acceptance criteria and user stories—how do they match together? Betsy:   Well, it’s –in this Agile world, we really are looking at writing our requirements in a different format so instead of the system shell statements, over and over and a thousand times over, we’re really using much more of a natural language to write our requirements and that’s the user story part. So that’s very helpful in terms of understanding what it is that –who our user is and what are they trying to accomplish but

Play Now: Get PMI Agile Cerfified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Training on your phone: Jesse Fewell, Mike Griffiths and Cornelius Fichtner Work is changing from industrial, routine work to knowledge-oriented work that requires more of an ongoing collaborative endeavor to manage change, complexity, and uncertainty. Learn how project management has evolved to reflect these changes with the publication of the new “Agile Practice Guide,” developed in collaboration with the Agile Alliance. This interview with Mike Griffiths (LinkedIn Profile) and Jesse Fewell (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the splendid Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. We not only discuss the implications that The Agile Practice guide has on the PMI-ACP exam and your PMI-ACP exam prep, we also examine the core chapters of the new guide and discuss application and adaptation implications. We explore many elements of the guide and learn more about its content and use in a variety of domains. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: In this episode of The Project Management Podcast™, we talk about the Agile Practice Guide that was released earlier this year. Hello and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the splendid 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: And sitting with me here at the PMI Bookstore are Jesse Fewell and Mike Griffiths. Hello Mike! Mike Griffiths: Hi, hi everyone! Cornelius Fichtner: And Jesse! Jesse Fewell: Hey, good to be here! Cornelius Fichtner: And listeners of the Podcast, you already noticed this sounds a bit different than normal interviews do. Yes, we are using the handheld mic today because there are three of us. And since I started out with mic, let’s continue with Mike. Mike, question for you. The people, listeners, they have been introduced to PMI before. However, the Agile Alliance was part of the development of The Agile Practice Guide. Who is the Agile Alliance? Mike Griffiths: Sure! So the Agile Alliance is a not-for-profit group that exists to promote and educate people about Agile methods. So Agile is a broad umbrella of methods. People are very familiar with Scrum but it includes other approaches such as XP and Feature-Driven Development and another type there. The Agile Alliance is like I say is not-for-profit group that creates their own conferences and promotes Agile and Agile practices in organizations. So there are resource center. You can go there to learn more about Agile and techniques. Cornelius Fichtner: What was the vision for developing the Agile Practice Guide? Mike Griffiths: So it was really to provide guidance for project practitioners that are frequently in the space of having Agile teams or being asked to spin up Agile teams quite often in less than Agile environments. So we described the hybrid environment being where we have some Agile elements in play but parts of the organization are still traditionally predictive or plan-driver.\ And so the Agile Practice Guide was really the basic steps for project practitioners who are in that space, who would like to become more Agile and perhaps not sure how to do that or what steps to follow. And we wanted to provide a methodology agnostic independent way of providing that guidance. Cornelius Fichtner: And Jesse, even though it’s methodology agnostic, what methodology or framework did you actually follow as you prepared and developed the guide? What is more a plan-driven or was it more an Agile approach? Jesse Fewell: Well Mike would say was a hybrid approach. We had a very firm fixed deadline for the perspective publication. I mean this is a publication project and so there is a fixed deadline that had to synchronize with the publication of PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition. Bec

Play Now: Download Project Management Professional (PMP)® training to your pocket: Jeff Kissinger and Cornelius Fichtner You've been there, right? You've managed a project where nobody on the team reported to you. But what can a project manager do to succeed other than beg borrow or steal in this situation? This interview with Jeff Kissinger (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the superb Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on his presentation "Leading Without Authority: The Project Manager's Dilemma" and looks at what project managers can do to successfully deliver their projects even in situations where they have little or no authority at all over the people on their project. Here is what Jeff wrote about his presentation: Leading project teams without direct authority is a dilemma that many project leaders face. Doing this well is an art. And, like art, it’s often practiced using a mixture of skills, techniques, and tools. Attendees will learn how to identify and resolve authority issues quickly that adversely affect their projects and learn how to lead their project teams successfully without direct authority. You can find the Unified Vision Framework discussed in the interview by visiting http://www.pmobrothers.com/. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Male Voice:   In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™, we discover how to lead project teams successfully without direct authority. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the superb 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. And with me right now is Jeff Kissinger. Good afternoon, I think it is. Hello Jeff! Jeff Kissinger:   Good afternoon. Just turned afternoon. How are you today? Cornelius:   I am doing very well. How is everything going for you, so far? I understand this is what—your eighth day in Chicago? Jeff:   Yes, it is. I’ve been here since Monday. I was here for the PMI Master Class and I graduated with 34 wonderful people that I can see again soon. Cornelius:   Congratulations! Jeff:   They’re all over the world. I hope to see them again, if not next year, sooner. Cornelius:   Yeah. The Master’s Class is a PMI-sponsored program. I think it takes four years in total, right?      Jeff:   Well, it’s one year—they take you, they start you at the LIM. Others at class 2018 started at this LIM that we had—that Leadership Institute Meeting and they had their classes before the LIM and then they have group projects they do and they meet again next year, March or April and then they’ll meet at the next one in Los Angeles for the final classes but they work throughout the year. They’re constantly doing work challenging each other, connecting with each other, learning –it’s intensive. And I really feel grateful I got to go through it. I put my information against all these other people who applied for it and I feel fortunate to have been chosen and I can’t stress enough to anybody who’s a PMI chapter leader just volunteering for the first time if they have an opportunity to apply for the Master Class to go for it. Cornelius:   How are you enjoying the conference? Jeff:   I’m enjoying it. I met a lot of people here that are just very kind, interesting, willing to talk about what they do. That’s amazing when you put a bunch of people who have a lot in common together how much—whether it be commiserating together about things about projects or sharing ideas that I’ve never heard of before but doing this for a while but I can always learn something. It’s wonderful to meet these people and talk about it whether it be at the conference or the L

Play Now: PMI Agile Cerfified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Training on your mobile device: Alicia Burke, Global Product Manager PMI-ACP The Agile Practice Guide was released together with A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition in September 2017. As a result the Project Management Institute (PMI)® wil implement a "lexicon update" to the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® exam om 26 March 2018. This is to ensure that exam lexicon is consistent with the new guide. This interview with Alicia Burke (LinkedIn Profile) was not recorded at the grand PMI Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois because we had scheduling conflicts. So we recorded it via Skype after the Conference. We discuss the how, what, why and when of the changes that are coming to the PMI-ACP exam. Although the PMI-ACP is not a test of the Agile Practice Guide, it will become one of the references for the exam. This means that students preparing to take the exam after the change can expect to see lexicon changes and terminology used within the exam to be consistent with the guide. Students planning to take the exam after the change are advised to use PMI-ACP exam prep materials that are updated to the new guide. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Female Voice: In this episode of the Project Management Podcast, you will learn when, how and why the PMI-ACP® Exam is changing in 2018. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. And I wish that I could say that we are coming to you live from the Grand 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago but schedules change and we could not do it there so Alicia and I are doing this interview over Skype. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: So with me on the line right now is Alicia Burke from PMI! Hello and welcome! Alicia Burke: Hello! Thank you so much for having me. Cornelius Fichtner: Yes, we are very glad to have you. We want to talk about the changing PMI-ACP® Exam but let’s first of all turn to you. What is your role within PMI? Alicia Burke: Okay! Well I’m a Global Product Manager for our certification team. I work of with three of our certifications so I work with PMI-ACP of course. Also with the Program Management Professional (PgMP)® for Program Managers and PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)® which is for business analysis. I’m really overseeing the strategy of those products making sure that we continue to meet the needs of the practitioners, making sure that we are evolving overtime as the profession evolves and I work closely with our exam development team on the actual, you could say manufacturing of the products as we create the examination. Cornelius Fichtner: So the actual question development and the way it will look in the exam room to the people taking the exam? Alicia Burke: Yeah, a little bit of all of that. So it’s a really interesting opportunity. I love having so many different aspects of the process and the products that I get to work with. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! Well then, let’s jump into the PMI-ACP® Exam. On what date is the PMI-ACP® Exam changing? Alicia Burke: It will be the 26th of March, 2018. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. Alicia Burke: So coming up with the end of the first quarter next year. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah and before we go any further, I think it’s good to take a step back to understand PMI processes and publications and how they affect the changing PMI-ACP® Exam. First of all, we have to talk about the PMI-ACP Role Delineation Study. Alicia Burke: Yeah, this is something that all of our certification products go through every few years. So for PMI-ACP, we did a Role Delineation Study when the certification leading up into 2011 and we also did another study 2014 and to 2015 where we worked with a task force of Agile experts fro

Play Now: Project Management Professional (PMP)® Training on your mobile device: Simona Fallavollita and Cornelius Fichtner The exam for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification is driven by current practices in the profession. Because project management is evolving, so is the PMP exam. As a result of the release of the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition in September 2017, the PMP exam will change on 26 March 2018. This is to ensure that exam content is consistent with the guide. This interview with Simona Fallavollita (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the magnificient Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. We discuss the how, what, why and when of the changes that are coming to the PMP exam. Although the PMP is not a test of the PMBOK® Guide, it is one of the primary references for the exam. This means that students preparing to take the exam after the change can expect to see lexicon changes and terminology used within the exam as well as harmonization of process groups, tools, and techniques. Students planning to take the exam after the change are advised to use PMP Training materials that are updated to the new guide. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Simona Fallavollita: In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™, you will learn when, how and why the PMP Exam is changing in 2018. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the magnificent 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. And with me right now is Simona Fallavollita. Good morning, Simona. How are you doing? Simona Fallavollita: Very well. Thank you for having me here, Cornelius. Cornelius: Thank you for joining us today. How is the conference going for you so far? Simona: It’s been wonderful. A great opportunity to meet with lots of practitioners, experience new educational sessions. So overall, ‘been great! Cornelius: How do you think the energy is at this conference compared to last year? Simona: I think it’s been a great better job. I think everyone’s been excited about new things changing at PMI, definitely more Agile influence coming in with PMI so definitely a buzz about the conference. Cornelius: Right.    Simona: Always good to see. Cornelius: One thing that I noticed this year is—I’m a baby boomer so I’m on the older generation. There seems to be a lot of younger presenters and younger attendees here. We’re not just talking generation line. I’m talking millennials in their early 20’s. Simona: How wonderful, right? Cornelius: Yeah. It’s fantastic Simona: It’s very exciting to see the younger generation embracing Project Management and getting into the profession. Cornelius: Yeah. So, please do remind us. What is your role within PMI®? Simona: I am the Product Manager for the PMP certification as well as our CCR Program. Cornelius: Okay. How does that relate to the changes that are coming to the PMP Exam in early 2018? Simona: So as the Product Manager, I oversee the general commercialization of the PMP product and one of the key responsibilities is ensuring that the PMP remains relevant to the profession and reflective of what’s happening in current Project Management world and practices that are going on.   Cornelius: So you’re more involved with the Role Delineation Study then on that side. Simona: Yes. I am a little bit more involved with the role delineation side but when it comes to updates to the PMBOK® Guide, I help to ensure that those are infused into the current version of the PMP Exam. Cornelius: Ok. That’s what’s happening right now. The PMBOK® Guide was updated and that’s where the changes are coming from. Simona: Correct. Recently we released the new version of the PMBOK® Gu

Play Now: Project Management Professional (PMP)® Training on your mobile device: Sara Gallagher and Cornelius Fichtner A large number of projects these days rely on virtual teams. This means that we project managers must master how we communicate in a virtual setting in order to properly lead our teams. But how do you build trust as a leader if nobody can actually see you? This interview with Sara Gallagher (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded at the awe-inspiring Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on her presentation "You Can Trust Me: Communicating When Nobody Can See Your Face" and explores tools and techniques project leaders can apply to improve communication and convey trust even in digital and virtual settings. Here is what Sara wrote about her presentation: Trust is essential to effective communication across your team and your stakeholders - but how can you communicate trust when no one can see your face? This engaging session will examine how the four cores of trust are impacted in a digital, global communication environment. Participants will be given the opportunity to immediately apply what they've learned to improve communication across their teams. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Female Voice: In this episode of the Project Management Podcast, we learned to apply specific tools and techniques to improve communication and convey trust even in digital and virtual settings. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. I am Cornelius Fichtner. We are coming to you live from the inspiring 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: And with me right now is Sara Gallagher. Good morning! Sara Gallagher: Hello, good morning! Cornelius Fichtner: How are you today? Sara Gallagher: I’m doing great! This has been a fantastic conference! Cornelius Fichtner: You are smiling from ear to ear. You have already presented and they invited you back! Sara Gallagher: They do! Cornelius Fichtner: You’re going to have to give an encore presentation. Sara Gallagher: Yes, I’ll be speaking again at 1 o’clock today. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah! So you must be ecstatic. Sara Gallagher: Well sort of. It’s funny right after you present, you’re like: "Ah, finally I can relax.” And then you get the call that you are doing it again. And it all starts again and all the prep work and everything. But it’ll be fun. I’m really excited. Cornelius Fichtner: How do you like the energy at this conference? Sara Gallagher: Energy has been amazing! So I’ll tell you, this has been a different conference for me in that I came alone and I don’t always do that. But I haven’t felt alone. Everywhere I’ve walked, everywhere I’ve gone, people have smiled, introduced themselves, taken me to dinner. So I found friends everywhere and in every industry, every state and many different countries. It’s been amazing. Cornelius Fichtner: So to the people at home who are kind of on the edge: “Should I go to a conference? Should I not go to a conference?” What is your recommendation? Sara Gallagher: Oh absolutely do it. Absolutely do it. My first conference was 2015 and I went in both feet in. I came and I also spoke at two presentations. So it’s a first-time conference experience and a first time speaking-at-a-conference experience, and it was fabulous! I get so many great little nuggets of inspiration and ideas I can take back with me, and a great network I come back with. So definitely do it. Cornelius Fichtner: Your presentation is titled: “You can trust me. Communication when no one can see your face.” Which is something that we are doing right now! Sara Gallagher: It is true! It’s true! Cornelius Fichtner: Nobody can see our faces. Sara Gallagher: Yes. Cornelius Fichtner: What’s the story behind this particular prese

Play Now: For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam get PMP Training on your phone from The PM PrepCast: Marygracesoleil Ericson Advanced product quality planning (or APQP) is a framework of procedures and techniques used to develop products in industry, particularly the automotive industry. This interview about APQP with Marygracesoleil Ericson (LinkedIn Profile) was recorded one day before the excellent Project Management Institute (PMI)® Global Conference 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. Marygracesoleil was an attendee of the congress (not a speaker) who contacted me and suggested that we do an interview on a topic relevant to her industry. She is the PMO manager of a car audio equipment manufacturer, leading a team of program managers who build designs and coponents for the audio divisions in the automotive industry. If you have a premium sound system in your car then you might be using their speakers. For more information about APQP please visit the APQP Wikipedia Page. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Introduction Cornelius Fichtner:   In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™ we look at APQP which stands for Advanced Product Quality Planning. A framework of procedures and techniques used to develop product particularly in the automotive industry. Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com . We are coming to you live and one day before the excellent 2017 PMI Global Conference in Chicago. I am Cornelius Fichtner and with me right now is Marygracesoleil Ericson. Hello, Marygrace. Marygracesoleil Ericson:   Hi, how are you? Cornelius:   I’m doing very well, thank you. And thank you so much for stopping by a day before the conference. Marygracesoleil:   That’s right. Cornelius:   And doing this interview. Marygracesoleil:   I’m very excited. Cornelius:   So, you are the director of Program Management for a car audio manufacturing. Marygracesoleil:   That’s right. Cornelius:   That’s as much as we can say. Marygracesoleil:   Yeah. I lead a team of program managers that builds designs and builds component on the audio division for the automotive industry. Cornelius:   So, anybody listening to this podcast right now, driving somewhere on the freeway, listening it through their car speakers, there is a chance that it comes from your company. Marygracesoleil:   That’s right. Only the good speakers. Cornelius: [laughs] Right. We wanted to talk today about APQP—the Advanced Product Quality Planning. Ooh, that’s a mouthful. What is it? Marygracesoleil:   APQP is basically the disciplined approach to develop PM launching new products. So, it’s the process that we follow from cradle to grave. How do we build components from when we receive the scope from the customer, how we design it, what deliverables we have up until we launch it into mass production. So that’s what we follow. Cornelius:   And when you say the process that we follow, who is “we”? Marygracesoleil:   All automotive industries follow this. All components that deliver to the automotive OEMs need to follow the APQP process. Cornelius:   OK. So, we’re talking Ford, Chrysler, Toyota—whatever car you’re driving. Marygracesoleil:   Yeah. Cornelius:   If you are somebody who delivers components for those cars, that’s the process you follow. Marygracesoleil:   Right. And in some of the Fareast customers—they might not call it the APQP but the deliverables are the same. Cornelius:   OK. And my understanding is that APQP came into being because there are so many suppliers who not only supply to one car manufacturer but to multiple car manufacturers and they did not want to have to follow through your four different set of processes and

Play Now: For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam get PMP Training on your phone from The PM PrepCast: Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP Here are some buzzwords for you: Multi-generational teams. Generational shifts. Inter- and intra-generational communication. Multi-generational workplace. Millennials vs baby boomers. I think you get the idea... right? We’re here today to talk about how old I am... :-) Just kidding... we’re here to talk about generational sensitivity and diversity and how to make the best of it in project management. And in order to explore this generational topic we turn to our "soft side expert" Margaret Meloni (www.margaretmeloni.com). She has been an IT and project manager for some time and has had the pleasure to work with people from many generations. And I’m not saying she’s old either... Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Transcript coming soon! Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.

Play Now: Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP Becoming better at project management and by extension also becoming a better project manager does not necessarily mean learning about and then also implementing the latest tools, techniques or methodologies. Instead, it can simply mean that you start paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally. That’s mindfulness. Mindfulness as a business practice and leadership tool has seen a significant increase in press coverage lately. It originally started out as a means for improving yourself and your interactions with others but you will find that many leadership articles in the large business journals will make reference to it. And so we are very glad to welcome Margaret Meloni (www.margaretmeloni.com) to look at Mindfulness for Project Managers with us today. We will give you a definition, discuss the benefits, but most importantly we go through a number of familiar project management situations to see how mindfulness will help us improve and become better leaders. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner:   In this episode of the Project Management Podcast™, we look at how mindfulness will not only help you to be more in the moment but deliver better projects as a result.   Hello and welcome to the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com . This is Episode #400 and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Thank you for joining us. If you listen to the podcast regularly, then you will probably already have noticed that this didn’t sound like it used to and you would be right. We have decided to make a few minor adjustments here and there in the show’s structure. But of course, we are going to continue to bring you expert guests and quality interviews. The topic today is Mindfulness and our guest is Margaret Meloni. Becoming better at Project Management and by extension also becoming a better project manager does not necessarily mean learning about it and also implementing the latest tools, techniques or methodologies. Instead, it can simply mean that you start paying attention in a particular way on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally. That’s mindfulness. Mindfulness as a business practice has seen a significant increase in press coverage lately. It originally started out as a means for improving yourself and your interactions with others but you will find that many leadership articles in the large business journals will make reference to it. And so, we are very glad to welcome Margaret Meloni to look at Mindfulness for project managers with us today. We will give you a definition, discuss the benefits but most importantly we will go through a number of familiar Project Management situations to see how Mindfulness will help us improve. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello Margaret and welcome to the 400th podcast episode. Margaret Meloni:   Wow! Cornelius, thank you! Cornelius Fichtner:   Mindfulness. What exactly is mindfulness? How do you define it? Margaret:   Simply, and yet it’s not simple. It’s pure awareness. When you first become aware of something, there’s this moment of pure awareness. Before you start hanging all your thoughts and stuff on it, before you start conceptualizing it and framing it. For example, when an idea pops in your head and it feels like it came from nowhere, the moment before you start putting all kinds of mental parameters around it, that’s mindfulness. When out of nowhere you realize why you [audio glitch] the budget presentation, that’s a form of mindfulness. It’s present-time awareness, it’s non-judgmental observation, it’s non-egoistic. So, if you’re aware of something and not putting in the context about how it’s about you and your world and this is an odd one for those of us who are project managers, it’s

Play Now: For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam get PMP Training on your phone from The PM PrepCast: Oliver F. Lehmann, MSc., PMP The one thing I really like about project management is how unpredictable my days can sometimes be. I come to the office in the morning with a clear plan of what we are going to do today, and then something happens. Maybe something breaks, a critical resource is unexpectedly not available today, or -- even more normal -- the customer wants a change and he wants it now. I love this challenge, because as a project manager I now have to re-evaluate the situation and change my plans accordingly. That is situational project management. However, there's more to situational project management than just responding with a knee-jerk reaction. These times demand situational awareness, skill and finesse from us project managers. And so I’m very happy to welcome Oliver Lehmann (www.oliverlehmann.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/oliverlehmann/) who literally wrote the book on this topic. The book is called Situational Project Management the dynamics of success and failure. PDU Tip Most of this interview is on technical aspects, but a little over 15 minutes are on leadership topics. That is why you can claim 0.50 'technical' and 0.25 'leadership' PDUs. Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome to Episode #399. This is The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. The one thing I really like about project management is how unpredictable my days can sometimes be. I come to the office in the morning with a clear plan of what we are going to do today and then something happens. Maybe something breaks, critical resources, unexpectedly not available today, or even more normal, the custom of once a change and of course he wants it today. I love this challenge because as a project manager, I now have to reevaluate the situation and change my plans accordingly. That is situational project management. If you are a project manager who wants to become PMP or PMI-ACP Certified then the easiest way to do so is with our sister Podcast --- The PM PrepCast or The Agile PrepCast and study for the exam by watching the in-depth exam prep video training from www.pm-prepcast.com. However, there is more to situational project management than just responding with a knee jerk reaction. These times demand situational awareness skill and finesse from us project managers. So I’m very happy to welcome Oliver Lehmann who literally wrote the book on this topic. The book is called “Situational Project Management – The Dynamics of Success and Failure”. And now, please get situated. Enjoy the interview! Podcast Interview Female Voice: The Project Management Podcast's feature interview: Today with Oliver Lehmann, Project Management Trainer, Speaker, Coach and Author. Cornelius Fichtner: Hallo, Oliver! [Ich heiße sie willkommen] Oliver Lehmann: Hallo, Cornelius! [Schön dich zu sehen]. Cornelius Fichtner: So to begin, let’s define what we are going to be discussing in this interview. What is your definition of situational awareness? Oliver Lehmann: Situational awareness builds on a very simple observation, the same tools, the same practices, the same behaviors, the same approaches that are successful. And when project situation may fail in another one. So we rely on simple best practices. They may sometimes match the situation and be the right thing to do and sometimes they lead into disaster. So we should always ask ourselves: Am I doing the right thing for the right situation, the right moment, the right environment, context in which we are, and so on… Cornelius Fichtner: And then what do we mean by situational project management? Oliver Lehmann: Situational project management begins with the same observation. The same thing that can lead to success. One

Play Now: For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam Training Susanne Madsen, Author Every project that you and I have ever and will ever manage depends on people’s skills. The sponsor relies on you as the project manager to successfully lead the team, you rely on the team to have what it takes to create all the deliverables at the required quality, and the end user -- the recipient of what you and the team deliver -- must have the skills to use the product you finally give them. But what if the skills don’t match up to the tasks at hand? What if a team member is lacking a skill? What if the technology is so new and different that your users will have a hard time with it? The answer is of course coaching, mentoring and training. And there is no one better than Susanne Madsen (www.susannemadsen.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-madsen-1134312) who coaches and mentors project managers into project leaders to come on the program and help us understand these three similar yet different activities. PDU Tip This interview is 42:34 minutes long. This means that you can "legally" only claim 0.50 PDUs for listening to it, because in order to claim 0.75 PDUs the interview must be 45 minutes long. However... if you first listen to the interview and then also read the following article from Susanne about coaching and project management, then you can go ahead and claim 0.75 PDUs! Click to read the article Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to Episode # 398. This is the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Every project that you and I have ever and will ever manage depends on people’s skills. The sponsor relies on you as the project manager to successfully lead the team. You rely on the team to have all it takes to create all the deliverables at the required quality and the end-user, the recipient of what you and the team will deliver, well, they must have the skills to use that product that you’re finally going to give to them. If you are a project manager who wants to become PMP or PMI ACP-certified, then the easiest way to do so is with our sister podcast, the www.PMPrepCast.com  or the www.AgilePrepCast.com  and study for the exam by watching the in-depth Exam Prep video training from www.PMPrepCast.com, But what if the skills don’t match up to the task at hand? What if a team member is lacking a skill? What if the technology is so new and different that your end-users will have a hard time with it? The answer is of course Coaching, Mentoring and Training and there is no one better than Susanne Madsen who coaches and mentors project managers into project leaders to come on the program and help us understand these three similar yet different activities. And so, let us get going with our training on Coaching, Mentoring and Training. Enjoy the interview.   Female Voice:   Project Management Podcast™ Feature Interview.  Today with Susanne Madsen, Project Leadership coach, author and speaker. Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello, Susanne, good afternoon. Susanne Madsen:   Hello, Cornelius, good morning. Cornelius:   Yes, we have just determined we really seem to be living in an alternate universe while it’s 9 degrees Centigrade here in California, it’s like 13 degrees in London. I’m moving. It’s warmer where you are. Susanne:   Yes. It’s really good because this doesn’t happen that often for us. [laughs] Cornelius:   Yeah. To begin, let’s review each of the terms—a quick definition as it relates to projects. So, what is coaching? Susanne:    Coaching—there are many different ways of describing it but I think for the listeners, it’s useful to think of it as a technique that we can use outside the project or inside the project to facilitat

Play Now: For your Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam Elizabeth Harrin, FAPM There is no doubt in my mind that you have heard the term lessons learned before. It is mentioned extensively throughout A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, (PMBOK® Guide), I teach it as part of my PMP training lessons and my favorite search engine gives me over 51,000 results for the search term “lessons learned in project management”. In fact, as an experienced project manager you have probably participated or even chaired one or two lessons learned meetings yourself on your own projects. But let’s consider the bigger picture around lessons learned. What process do we follow? What management techniques are there for lessons learned? Are all documented lessons learned equally valuable? These questions need answers. And so I’m happy to welcome Elizabeth Harrin (www.girlsguidetopm.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethharrin/ - ) who has the answers for us! Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to Episode # 397. This is the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. There is no doubt in my mind that you have heard the term “Lessons Learned” before. It is mentioned extensively throughout the PMBOK Guide. I teach it as part of my PMP Training Lessons and my favorite search engine gives me over 51,000 results for the search term, “Lessons Learned in Project Management”. In fact, as an experienced project manager, you have probably participated or even chaired one or two lessons learned meeting yourself on your own projects. If you are preparing for your PMP Exam, then the best way to calm the butterflies in your stomach is to take a Practice Exam. Our PMP Exam Simulator offers you nine such exams. To see how it works and take a free test drive, please go to www.freeexamsimulator.com . But let’s consider the bigger picture around lessons learned here. What processes do we follow? What management techniques are there for lessons learned? And are all documented lessons learned equally valuable? These questions need answers and so I’m happy to welcome Elizabeth Harrin who has the answers for us. And now, please pay attention. We’ll be doing a Lessons Learned at the end. Enjoy the interview. Female Voice:   Project Management Podcast™ Feature Interview.  Today with Elizabeth Harrin, author, blogger and speaker.   Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello, Elizabeth. Elizabeth Harrin:   Hello, Cornelius.  I’ll certainly do my best. Cornelius:   [laughs] Oh well, let’s find out because we’re going to be defining our topic first. From your perspective, what are lessons learned? Elizabeth:   They are the bits of organizational knowledge that we pick up as we go through our projects and you’ll typically find them split into things that went well—so all the things that we patted ourselves on the back about— “Yes, we did a great job on that!”—and then the things that didn’t go so well where we have issues and things. The main thing I would say when we’re defining “lessons learned” is that we need to make the distinction between “lessons captured” and “lessons learned” because often on projects and I know we’re going to talk more about the process of capturing output at the end of the project and later on in our discussion today, we often write things down and capture them without actually learning or doing anything with them. So, I suppose the key point for me as we’re starting this discussion is to think we really need to make sure that whatever comes out of our –whatever organizational knowledge we learn as we go, we actually do something with it and it becomes learned.  Cornelius:   And what do we mean by “management techniques” for lessons learned? Elizabeth:   Man

Play Now: For your PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® Exam Joseph Flahiff, PMP, PMI-ACP Are you using an adaptive life cycle to manage your projects? You know, something that falls under the general umbrella of Agile like Scrum, XP, Kanban or DSDM? And if your answer to this question is yes, then think about when exactly you started using these approaches, because that date says a lot about you and your organization. If you started 20 or more years ago then you can consider yourself to be an innovator, but if you started just recently you are a laggard. (And just in case you are wondering, I would put myself in the middle with what is called the "early majority".) But no matter when you started your journey into Agile it might be interesting to know how many of us out there are actually using Agile on our projects. And according to Joseph Flahiff (www.whitewaterprojects.com -- www.linkedin.com/in/josephflahiff) there are more than you would think. How many more? He doesn’t have an exact number, but then again nobody knows how many waterfall-based projects there are either. However, studies done on this subject and a number of other indicators lead him to believe that Agile is now the new normal. The number of Agile projects is massive, which is just one more reason to also get started with your PMI-ACP Exam Prep PDU Tip This interview is 28:59 minutes long. This means that you can "legally" only claim 0.25 PDUs for listening to it, because in order to claim 0.50 PDUs the interview must be 30 minutes long. However... if you first listen to the interview and then also read the article on which it is based, then you can go ahead and claim 0.50 PDUs! Click to read the article Episode Transcript Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner:   Hello and welcome to Episode #396. This is the Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com and I’m Cornelius Fichtner. Are you using an adaptive life cycle to manage your projects? You know, something that falls under the general umbrella of Agile like Scrum, XP, Kanban or DSDM and if your answer to this question is yes, then think about when exactly you started using these approaches because that date says a lot about you and your organization. If you started 20 or more years ago, then you can consider yourself to be an innovator, but if you started just recently, you are a laggard and just in case you’re wondering, I would put myself somewhere in the middle with the early majority. If you are a project manager who wants to become PMI ACP certified, then the easiest way to do so is with our sister podcast, the Agile PrepCast and get your certification training for the exam by watching the in-depth Exam Prep Video Training from www.AgilePrepCast.com . But no matter when you started your journey into Agile, it might be interesting to know how many of us out there are actually using Agile on their projects and according to Joseph Flahiff, there are more than you would think. How many more? He doesn’t have an exact number but then again nobody really knows how many Waterfall-based projects there are either. However, studies done on this subject and the number of other indicators lead him to believe that Agile is now the new normal. The number of Agile projects is massive. Enjoy the interview. Female Voice:   Project Management Podcast™ Feature Interview. Cornelius Fichtner:  Today with Joseph Flahiff, Project Management Author, Consultant and Organizational Alchemist Cornelius:   Hello, Joseph and welcome back to the podcast. Joseph Flahiff:   Hey Cornelius. Thank you and it’s great to be here again. I love [talked over] Cornelius:   Wonderful. We’re happy to have you. Joseph:   Thank you. Cornelius:   So why were you interested in writing an article about how well Agile is implemented around the wo