The Project Management Podcast

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Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast. Earn 37 Professional Development Units: It’s imperative that you know your project’s stakeholders. After all, to satisfy a stakeholder need is usually the reason why we undertake projects. That’s why we define stakeholders as a person or organization with an interest in the project’s completion. Think of influential customers, sponsors, the public or your own company that are all involved in the project. Our guest today is Dr. Emad Rahim, DM, PMP (http://www.linkedin.com/in/erahim, @DrEmadRahim) who says that because your stakeholders require you to understand the specifications of a project and to meet their expectations, performing an analysis of who they are is essential. And so our interview focuses on a single activity: Identifying all the stakeholders we have on the project. This is a time-consuming process, and you want to ensure no important stakeholder is missed. And to help you with that, Emad and Cornelius review eight areas that require your attention. You can find the blog post about stakeholder identification here: http://www.coloradotech.edu/resources/blogs/january-2013/stakeholders. 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 # 261. This is the Project Management Podcast at www.pm-podcast.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Nice to have you with us. It's imperative that you know your project stakeholders. After all to satisfy a stakeholder need is usually the reason why we undertake our projects. That's why we define a stakeholder as a personal organization with an interest in the project's completion. Think of influential customers, sponsors, the public or your own company that are all involved in the project. Our guests today is Dr. Emad Rahim who says that because your stakeholders require you to understand the specifications of a project and to meet their expectations performing an analysis of who they are is essential. And so, our interview focuses on a single activity - identifying all the stakeholders we have on the project. This is a time-consuming process and you want to ensure no important stakeholder is missed. And to help you with that, Emad and I review 8 areas that require your attention. And now, you're getting warmer, warmer, oh yeah, you're getting really hot there. You're about to locate another stakeholder. Enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Female voice: The Project Management Podcast’s feature Interview: Today with Dr. Emad Rahim, appointed Endowed Entrepreneur-in-residence for Oklahoma State University and Visiting Scholar at Rutgers University. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Emad and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™! Dr. Emad Rahim: Great to be here! Thank you for having me. Cornelius Fichtner: Oh, you are welcome. Thank you for joining us today! So we want to talk about stakeholders, in particular how to identify stakeholders making sure that we have everybody who is a stakeholder in our project identified. But let's take a step back here first of all and let's define stakeholder. So what is a stakeholder in your definition? Dr. Emad Rahim: Well, stakeholders are people that have a direct or indirect impact on a project. This could be negative or this could be positive. But these people will contribute to the project in some shape or form. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay and why do we need to identify all of them? Dr. Emad Rahim: Well one is to make sure that we have all of the necessary information that is related to the project and also know exactly who are the players are, where the resource is located, who are the clients, what type of materials and content are needed and who do we communicate this information to. So all those things are really needed in order to fully understand who the stakeholders are and the role they play in the project. Cornelius Fichtner: And how time consum

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: It seemed that in the final weeks of 2013, project management was on everyone’s mind. And not in a good way. The roll-out of the affordable care act website really brought to light that substandard project performance can have a disastrous effect on public perception. While we often hear about failed government projects, failed private sector projects seem to fly under the radar. In today’s interview we welcome Todd C. Williams (http://ecaminc.com/ - http://www.linkedin.com/in/backfromred) has spent the past 25 years advising Fortune 500 companies on what to do about projects that are either headed for a cliff or have already gone over. We begin the interview by looking at what makes government projects uniquely susceptible to a higher failure rate than private sector projects and then move into seven steps that Todd recommends for recovering a troubled project. 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 # 260. This is the Project Management Podcast at www.pm-podcast.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Nice to have you with us. It seemed that in the final weeks of 2013, project management was on everyone's mind and not in a good way. The roll out of the Affordable Care Act website really brought to light that substandard project performance can have disastrous effects on public perception. While we often hear about failed government projects, failed private sector projects seem to fly under the radar. In today's interview, we welcome Todd C. Williams who has spent the past 25 years advising Fortune 500 companies on what to do about projects that are either headed for a cliff or have already gone over. We begin the interview by looking at what makes government projects uniquely susceptible to a higher failure rate than private sector projects and then move into seven steps that Todd recommends for recovering a troubled project. And now, motion to move forward with the interview. Seconded and here we go. Podcast Interview Female voice: The Project Management Podcast’s feature Interview: Today with Todd Williams, expert witness, executive consultant, and President of eCameron. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Todd and welcome back to The Project Management Podcast™! Todd C. Williams: Oh, welcome Cornelius. Hope you're having a great day! Cornelius Fichtner: I am, thank you very much. But it seems to me that there are some people out there who are not having a great day because we are hearing a lot about seemingly failed projects especially from the public sector these days and that's why we have brought you on because one of your expertise is turning projects around. So tell me, are government projects more likely to fail than the ones in the private sector? Todd C. Williams: Well, I think in general, no. But they definitely get a lot more visibility. I mean nothing spells a day worse than having CNN at your front door when you get up in the morning which I think has probably happened to a lot of people when we look at healthcare.gov, what's going on with the traffic control, with all the other projects that are out there. But I think that you'll also see that there are other projects that are equally as bad in that it's places out there like the Boeing 787. I mean how many years late was it. Once it got flying then it started having batteries which just kind of spontaneously catch on fire. Those projects do seem to hit both the private and public sector. I think the private sector by just the nature of the name was able to keep it a little more private. Cornelius Fichtner: Are there any characteristics, any components that favor one type of project over the others in regards to success? Todd C. Williams: Well I do think that the private sector projects do have one very nice feature about them and that is that

Play Now: Happy New Year! This is a short notice to all listeners to let you know what's happening to The PM Podcast and our website: Over the coming 2-3 weeks we are going to be completely redeploying our website. After that Cornelius is heading out the door to Philadelphia, Sydney and Manila. We do have a few interviews recorded (they will be published as soon as the new website is up) and we have some interviews scheduled for recording after he returns from his trip. So we should be back to "normal programming" starting March.

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Dave Cornelius was recorded at the Southland Technology Conference 2013 in Long Beach. It is, however, about the presentation he gave at the PMI North American Congress in New Orleans. Dave Cornelius (http://www.linkedin.com/in/daveauck) argues that social media, mobile devices, analytics and cloud computing (SMAC) have combined to create a technology ecosystem that supports disruptive and sustaining innovation. The ready availability of the SMAC ecosystem connects customers to new innovations and supports shopping on e-commerce sites and in brick-and-mortar stores. Importantly, the SMAC application has transcended retail and consumer marketing activities, and also has significant relevance in banking, healthcare, and other business functions. In our interview we discuss SMAC technologies and their use in and impact on various industries. Using the SMAC platform, project managers can develop new products and services by renting technology capability without owning the infrastruc.ture, software, and support staff. Project management information systems (PMIS) can leverage the SMAC platform over a secure Internet connection to support collaboration between team members and enable transparency about a project 's health. Social media, mobile devices, analytics, and cloud computing are the amalgamation of mature technologies for the 21st century. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Dave! Dave Cornelius: Well hello, Cornelius, Dave and Cornelius!. Cornelius Fichtner: Yes! It's always strange when I see you. It's like, do I call you Cornelius, Dave or what? Anyway, so, we're actually not going to talk about the Southland Technology Conference because you and I were scheduled to record an interview about your presentation from the Global Congress in New Orleans where we both were last week and we missed each other and we never got it done and I walked into you here today and I'm like: "Hey Dave! I didn’t know you were going to be at this conference! Let's sit down. Let's do the recording!" Dave Cornelius: Yes, nothing like the moment, isn't it? Cornelius Fichtner: Nothing like the moment, exactly. So your presentation at the Global Congress was "SMAC and Transforming Innovation". Before we look at what SMAC actually means, how did the presentation go? Dave Cornelius: I thought the presentation went really well. One of my friends from PMI-OC as well as from OC Project Masters Toastmasters Club was there and she found my presentation which was excellent. But also just the people who came and participated in the process. There was an interactive process which was really great that people were allowed to apply SMAC to a new innovation that they came up with during that session. So that was really, really awesome and enlightening. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. How many people were at the session? Dave Cornelius: I think roughly around 40 something people showed for that presentation. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright, perfect! Moving on, so what does SMAC, s-m-a-c stand for? Dave Cornelius: Well SMAC stands for Social Media, Mobile technology, Analytic and Cloud Computing. It's the convergence of four mature technologies to give you a great platform to really execute your business and even transform the way you do business as an organization. Cornelius Fichtner: How long has the term been around? Because frankly when I first saw the title of your presentation, that was the first time I came across it. Dave Cornelius: I believe the first time I ran into this acronym was in perhaps 2012 or 2013 by a company called Cognizant. They had a whitepaper on SMAC. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! Just so that you know folks, here at the Southland Technology Conference, there is a whole track about SMAC. So they have 4 tracks here --- Proj

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Mark Layton was recorded at the Southland Technology Conference 2013 in Long Beach. Mark Layton (https://platinumedge.com/) has been an entrepreneur, consultant, and trainer in project management for the last 20 years. (And as it so happens, Cornelius Fichtner was a student in one of his Scrum Master classes.) Mark and Cornelius got together in Long Beach to talk about Agile estimation. Mark says that traditional requirement estimation techniques are a frustrating combination of wild guesses and false precision. While estimates are given down to the exact hour of effort, the accuracy of those predictions vary wildly and provide no opportunity to self-correct based on actual performance. This inaccuracy problem is then intentionally masked by an even more inefficient tool - contingency reserve. In our interview, Mark describes how using agile estimation techniques is faster, easier, more informed, more honest, and ultimately, more accurate than guessing to the hour how long tasks months in the future will take to complete. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: I am still at the Southland Technology Conference 2013 here in Long Beach and this time I welcome Mark Layton from Platinum Edge. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Mark! Mark Layton: Hello! Thank you so much. Cornelius Fichtner: Your presentation earlier today is titled :Agile Estimation: Faster, Easier and More Accurate" How did it go? Mark Layton: I thought it went well. We had a lot of really good audience participation. We had just under a hundred people that were stuffed into the room. All the chairs were taken. People against the wall. So there seem to be good participation and interest so we were fortunate. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah and out of the 300 people attendance, you got a third while there were 3 more people speaking after you. That means, it's a topic that people want to learn about. Mark Layton: It seem to be, yeah. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah! So what is the fundamental difference between estimating under Waterfall and estimating under Agile? Mark Layton: Well fundamental is right. I mean it is a fundamental difference. I mean when you talk about a traditional Waterfall approach, it's premised on starting off with a holistic view of all of the requirements. So at the very start of your process what you are going to do is you're going to sit down and you're going to gather all of the requirements that sound like they are a good idea. And as long as they sound like they're a good idea, they're going to be included in the project itself. Now from that pool of requirements, you're going to look at those requirements and you're going to basically guess at how long it would take to develop all those of requirement and from that guess of how long it's going to take to develop all of that requirements from a time perspective, you will establish how much budget is necessary to be able to do it. When you talk about doing it under an Agile approach, it's actually the exact opposite of that. Under an Agile approach what you're going to do is you're going to start off and you're going to say: "Alright! Well, what is the maximum amount of money that we can spend and still deliver the return on investment that we promised the funding committee when we went before them for approval? What's the maximum amount of money that we can spend and still deliver that ROI?" From that maximum amount of money that you can spend, it's going to buy you a dedicated development team for a set period of time. Under an Agile model, what you're going to do is you're going to start off and say: "Alright! Well what is the maximum amount of money that we can spend and still deliver the ROI that we promised the organization? What's the maximum amount of money that we

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Sarita Maybin was recorded at the Southland Technology Conference 2013 in Long Beach. Sarita Maybin (http://www.saritamaybin.com/) gave us a high energy presentation at this year's SoTeC Conference. We discovered how to get done the things that matter most and set limits with people who make unreasonable demands, including three ways to say “no” nicely. We recorded this interview right after she finished her presentation and discuss: How to determine which tasks are urgent, important…or neither; Three strategies for identifying priorities; How to spend more time on the tasks that relate to your goals; How to identify and eliminate your most common time wasters; How and when you procrastinate; Top five techniques for overcoming procrastination; How guilt, perfectionism and other personal traits stress you out and waste your time; Clues that you are on stress overload…and what to do about it; And some real life stress strategies. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: I am still at the Southland Technology Conference 2013 here at the Hilton Hotel in Long Beach and with me is a fabulous speaker. We have just come out of Sarita Maybin's presentation. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Sarita! Sarita Maybin: Hello Cornelius! How are you? Cornelius Fichtner: I am very well! I'm excited. I'm energized. That was probably the fastest one-hour presentation that I've ever been into and by fast, I mean it was so entertaining and exciting that it went by like [snap] that. Sarita Maybin: And I must say the group was quite enthusiastic and that energy really just made the time fly by. Cornelius Fichtner: Right! Now, the title of your presentation was: "How to get more done with less stress". This is something everyone needs, right? Sarita Maybin: True, true. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah! You started out the presentation by looking at 5 habits that gave us stress. What we decided to do is because we're talking to project managers here, one of these 5 habits is really important for them and we want to help them to overcome it. But we do want to take a look at the other 4 just on a very high level as well. So let's start out with the first one: Perfectionism. What's it with this? Why does it cause us stress? Sarita Maybin: Well you know as I mentioned in the workshop, those of us who are perfectionists, myself included, tend to act as though we have it all handled so people don’t help us. So the biggest challenge for us is to ask for help without looking weak. As you might recall from the workshop, I talked about the importance of focusing on the other person: "You know you're really good at fund raising. We'd love your input in this particular committee." "You know you're really good with people. We'll love it if you could help us with the social event." So focusing on how the other person might contribute rather than:"Oh, I'm so weak. I need your help, help, help" which does not sit well with the perfectionist. So that's the reason that's on the list of stressors. Cornelius Fichtner: Right and then there's something that every project manager pretty much has to do and has to be in and that is trying to fix and control others. How does that cause us stress? Sarita Maybin: Yes, well as we well know, people sometimes don’t want to be fixed or changed. And of course that presents a challenge. I am always reminded of the story I shared with the group which is when my daughter was arriving trying to prepare myself for her arrival by subscribing to the parenting magazine. And in the magazine they said people are pretty much formed by 4 years old. So how does that, in other words, how can possibly expect to change someone who has been that way since they were 4 years old? And for me, that was a wakeup call. The fact that peop

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Jesse Fewell was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. In this follow-up interview with Jesse Fewel (http://jessefewell.com) we talk about two recent publications that he worked on. One is "big" and he was a co-author and the other is "small" and he is both author and publisher. We begin with the "big" one, which is the Software Extension to the PMBOK® Guide Fifth Edition. This PMI reference work brings together the project management approaches from the PMBOK Guide with adaptive approaches such as agile that are more commonly used in software development. We look at how it was developed and what it means for those managing software development projects. Then we move on to the "small" book that Jesse wrote and self-published called "Can You Hear Me Now?". This mini-book fits into the palm of your hand and is a fast read. It walks you through tips and benefits for working with people outside your office. The book is the synthesis of researching today’s trends, together with personal stories from his colleagues and his own experiences of working abroad. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: I am still here with Jesse Fewell and we haven't moved folks. We haven't moved. We're sitting in the same spot here. But Jesse and I decided that the 3 topics that we have and want to talk to you about, we wanted to break them up into 2 interviews. So first, we talked about big Agile and now we're moving on to the software extension to the PMBOK® Guide and also to 'Can You Hear Me Now?'. You'll hear more about that in the second part of this interview here. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: So Jesse, welcome back! Jesse Fewell: Thank you for continuing to sit here and chat. We're having a good time so we might as well keep it going. Cornelius Fichtner: Thank you! Alright! So the software extension to the PMBOK® Guide, what was your role on this? Jesse Fewell: I was part of the core team that was headed by Dr. Dick Fairly from the IEEE Computer Society and then the Vice Chair from the PMI, my colleague, Dennis Stevens. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! Jesse Fewell: They ran the team. It was a joint effort between the PMI and the IEEE Computer Society and I was part of that core team. Cornelius Fichtner: When did it come out? Jesse Fewell: About a month ago, in September of 2014. It's been out for a month. You can buy it on Amazon and the PMI Market Place, member, PMI members in good standing can download a free copy from the website. Cornelius Fichtner: I'll get my free copy then. Question: When I hear PMBOK® Guide and software extension, I'm thinking: "Okay. Is this another academic text that when I read it, I feel, okay, this is now so dry, I have to read it 3 or 4 times to understand it." Jesse Fewell: I'm going to say, a… Cornelius Fichtner: A little bit? Jesse Fewell: Maybe, yeah. It is absolutely, it is a standard. Cornelius Fichtner: It is a standard. It is not intended as an entertaining book. Jesse Fewell: No! It's not the Harry Potter of project management if you will. It's pretty academic especially when you think about the brain power that was brought to bear on the problem at hand. So yeah, it's a process book for process people. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. What does it teach me? Jesse Fewell: Well the problem that I somewhat alluded to is that the PMBOK® Guide is often misinterpreted depending on the context of project managers working. PMI has already launched specific extensions that are industry specific. PMI has already launched industry-specific extensions to the PMBOK® Guide. For example, the government extension is a set of practices and recommendations about how to implement a scope management in a government environment. Construction is another one of the extension

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Jesse Fewell was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. One of the stereotypes for agile approaches is that they only work for small projects. Ten or 15 years ago, that might have been the case, but things are vastly different today. In this interview with Jesse Fewell (http://jessefewell.com/) we discuss how Agile techniques now are used as part of day-to-day project operations, from the largest telecom in Europe to the largest DotCom in the United Kingdom. But how does self-organization work for a thousand people? How can you possibly run a large program without any documentation or architecture? Jesse Fewell gives us the answers by looking at recent trends as well as actionable tips for growing out of small agile to big agile. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Welcome back everybody to the PMI Global Congress 2013 here in New Orleans. Jesse Fewell is with me. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Jesse! Jesse Fewell: Hello! Cornelius Fichtner: And you will be speaking tomorrow on the topic of "Big Agile: It's Not Just for Small Projects Anymore". Why is it not just for small projects anymore? Jesse Fewell: Well, it's becoming mainstream. I would say that in the 12 years since the formalization of the Agile movement with the Agile manifesto, what was originally considered to be a group of rebellious trend buckers developing a set of practices for their own niche situations has moved from the innovator stage to the early adapter stage and now very deeply into the early majority where the vast majority of global 1000 companies are absolutely using Agile methods somewhere within their organization. I would say, just about single one of the large organizations that I've talked to whether they're based in the US, the UK or in the east are very much using some of these methods in a variety of different capacities including what's most interesting is the trend for larger programs, larger projects, larger initiatives that are trying to use these methods to achieve results. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay! I'm a small company. We use Agile internally because we're a small company. Of course our projects are small in size so my experience with large Agile projects is absolutely zero. You're going to have to guide me through this. Jesse Fewell: Okay. Cornelius Fichtner: The first thought that I have is: 'Wait a minute.' We're talking about it's not just for small projects anymore. Usually Agile teams are small and nimble. So we're talking 5, 7, 10 people maximum, right? Jesse Fewell: That's correct! Cornelius Fichtner: How am I going to have a large project with 5 to 10 people? Jesse Fewell: By having more teams. The sweet spot for teams based on management science and research is that magic number of 7 plus or minus 2. That's the number of nodes in the system where you have the subtle point between too many nodes in the system, too many arts of communication versus not enough skills that you bring to the table in order to get something meaningful done out of a team. So if I have a project of 700 people and the sweet spot is 7 plus or minus 2 people on each team, then I'm going to have a hundred teams. Cornelius Fichtner: Oh okay! Sounds like an administrative nightmare! Jesse Fewell: It absolutely is and it's for that reason that we find that the larger the program, the larger the organization that tries to implement methods, the harder it is. Interestingly enough, the harder it is, the more important it is because the larger the organization, the more difficult it is to turn on a dime, to pivot - to borrow the Lean Startup terminology. What we're seeing in the modern global economy, companies like Microsoft for example are they're complacent. They are ready to move forward witho

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP Exam: Note: In the opening I say "Welcome to episode 246". Don't worry... it's 255 and I simply mis-spoke. Sorry about that... According to Harold Kerzner 90% of what we project managers do is communicating. And a lot of this communication is done during project meetings. It can sometimes feel like you are running from one meeting to another and that your time is often wasted. Meetings don’t start on time, the issues aren’t dealt with, there is no agenda, there is no focus, nobody assigns any follow ups or tasks and of course then they also don’t end on time. But what if there were a way to make meetings much more productive? Jeffrey Steinke (http://www.lessmeeting.com) thinks there is and he has a lot of good suggestions for you. It all starts by not having a meeting at all and taking things offline. And then if you need to actually have a meeting, it requires planning and follow through. You can look forward to our usual bucket full of recommendations that you can apply on your project meetings tomorrow. 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 #255. This is the Proejct Management Podcast at www.pm-podcasat.com and I am Cornelius Fichtner. Nice to have you with us. According to Harold Kertzner, 90% of what we project managers do is communicating and a lot of this communication is done during project meetings. It can sometimes feel like you are running from one meeting to another and that your time is often wasted. This episode is sponsored by The Project Management Podcast™. Yes, The Project Management Podcast™ is sponsoring The Project Management Podcast™ today because we wanted to remind you that as a certified PMP, you can earn 30 PDUs from us here at absolutely zero cost. All you have to do is simply listen to our interviews and then claim your PDUs with PMI. To find out more, please go to www.pm-podcast.com/pdu and please do tell your project management colleagues about us. So back to our interview. So they don’t start on time, the issues aren't dealt with, there is no agenda. The meetings have no focus. Nobody assigns any follow ups. So tasks and of course then meetings also don’t end on time. But what if there were a way to make meetings much more productive? Jeffrey Steinke thinks there is and he has a lot of good suggestions for you. It all starts by not having a meeting and taking things offline. And then if you do need to actually have a meeting, it requires planning and follow through. You can look forward to our usual bucket full of recommendations that you can apply on your project meetings tomorrow. And now, do you have your doughnuts ready? Let's go have a meeting. Enjoy the interview. Podcast Interview Female Voice: The Project Management Podcast's Feature Interview: Today with Jeffrey Steinke, former project manager and the co-founder of Less Meeting. Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Jeff! Welcome to The Project Management Podcast™! Jeffrey Steinke: Hey Cornelius! Thanks so much for having me! Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! How are you doing in Atlanta? Jeffrey Steinke: I'm doing fantastic. We have a nice 80-degree days so it's not that typical hot and humid you'd expect. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright and just to make everybody jealous. I'm out in California. The weather is as always beautiful. Jeffrey Steinke: I think you still beat me. Cornelius Fichtner: So we want to talk about meetings. We're having a meeting right now, a sort of, over Skype. But why do you say that meetings are the number one time waster? Jeffrey Steinke: You know, where do I begin with this one? I don’t think this is going to surprise too many people. There's a laundry list of reasons. They run off-topic. They're not planned well. They run late. There is often no purpose. People aren't prepared. All these different things that cre

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Jack P. Ferraro was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. In his congress paper and presentation, Jack P. Ferraro, PMP (http://www.myprojectadvisor.com/) argues that due to three, seemingly beneficial policies, some widely accepted project management practices, and the prevailing organizational structure, most businesses that continually share resources across projects experience enough multitasking to cut their productivity in half. In our interview we look at the root cause of project portfolio underperformance and ways to increase the speed of benefit recognition through improved productivity of portfolio components. We start out by looking at what exactly the problem is with multitasking on your portfolio, why it is still so prevalent, how to double your project throughput and we look at the "What You Can Do" section from Jack's paper that discusses what everyone involved on a project can do in order to help achieve this 100% increase in throughput. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Hello everyone! We are still at the PMI Global Congress 2013 here in New Orleans and with me today is Jack Ferraro from My Project Adviser. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Jack! Jack Ferraro: Hello Cornelius. Good to see you. Cornelius Fichtner: You had your presentation yesterday and it is titled "The Real Problem with Your Portfolio Multitasking". How did it go? Jack Ferraro: It went well. We had a good turnout and we were able to present I think some new concepts to the audience. Cornelius Fichtner: Right. The unfortunate bit you mentioned earlier was it was at 4:45, right? Jack Ferraro: Yes, late in the day. Everyone were getting ready, anxious to get out to go to the party afterwards. Cornelius Fichtner: I can imagine. And now, it's early in the morning. You have your coffee. I have my tea and we want to see why multitasking is the big problem here with the portfolio. So what is the problem? Jack Ferraro: Well, I think the problem really started and what got me interested in this was some research that was done on PMOs. I think the industry knows the challenges PMOs have had over the last several years. I saw a stat today in the conference that after 3 years, 75 of PMOs fail. There has been some more research done that basically shows that from 2006 to 2010, 50% of PMOs failed or closed down. And one of the biggest challenges that was cited in this research, even from mature PMOs was that only 37% of them actually have a resource management process for optimally estimating and allocating resources, then only 24% of all PMOs. So basically 3 out 4 PMOs do not have an optimal process for estimating and allocating resources and what they cite in the research is that resource conflicts are probably the greatest challenges for PMOs going forward. So that got me interested and this is something I see every day in the consulting, practice that we run at My Project Adviser is that organizations that share resources across projects and portfolios have tremendous challenge in operating a shared resource system efficiently and there are tools and techniques that we're trying to bring to the community to allow them to more optimally share those resources to improve the throughput of their portfolio. Cornelius Fichtner: When you say resources, are we talking about human resources or any kind of resources? Jack Ferraro: Well it's actually both. It's mainly human resources where you have critical resources, subject matter experts that are needed on multiple projects and often times are needed on at the same time on multiple projects and that causes them to start this multitasking working across various projects without completing work, the task that they're working on. However, there's

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Alicia McLain was recorded at the Southland Technology Conference 2013 in Long Beach. High performing teams don’t happen "auto-magically". Instead, Alicia McLain (http://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciarmclain) says that it takes a nuanced leadership style, consistency, persistence, patience, a structured approach and support to create the team culture necessary to bring the most out of people. In this interview Alicia takes us on the journey through the steps to building high performing teams. We also discuss the important elements that contribute to building and sustaining high performing teams. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  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: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Ricardo Viana Vargas was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. At this year's PMI Global Congress Ricardo Viana Vargas (http://www.ricardo-vargas.com) proposed a mathematical process to turn the results of a qualitative risk analysis into numeric indicators to support better decision making regarding response strategies. It was titled "Adopting the Quadratic Mean Process to Quantify the Qualitative Risk Analysis". Or in short... Quantifying the Qualitative Risk Analysis. We review the five-level scale for probability, the mathematical "quadratic mean" process involved to calculate the numerical exposure, and how you can quite easily apply this on your own projects. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: We are back here at the PMI Global Congress 2013 in New Orleans and with me is Ricardo Viana Vargas. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Ricardo! Ricardo Vargas: Hi! Hi Cornelius. How are you? Cornelius Fichtner: I'm very well, thank you! How is the congress going for you? Ricardo Vargas: Oh yeah, very well, very well. For me, it's a great experience because the first congress I attended was in 1998 long bit. And so far, 15 congress in a row and I have never missed it once. So it's very nice. And now you see people that you met 10 years ago and it's a great opportunity for me to meet people networking, talk to people. Now, so I have the great presentations we are having here. Cornelius Fichtner: And I did not attend last year and I don’t recognize anybody anymore it seems. Ricardo Vargas: It's interesting. There is some core group that is always here. There is maybe a floating group that comes… Cornelius Fichtner: …and goes. Ricardo Vargas: Comes and goes, come not so often. But for me, it's great to be here. Cornelius Fichtner: So we are standing here in the middle of the exhibition hall and you will probably hear dear listeners in the background. Yes, there are still people here. There are still people drinking coffee being served. Exhibitors are showing off their wares and we are in the middle of this hustle and bustle and we want to talk about adapting the quadratic means process to quantify the qualitative risk analysis. And yes when I read this for the first time, I thought: "Oh my God! Why did I ask Ricardo to talk about this topic?" Because it seems extremely complex to convey in an audio-only podcast. But luckily a friend of mine, Josh Nankivel, attended your presentation this morning. And I can tell you, he liked it. So it was a good presentation you gave. And he said: "You know, it's not all that complex." Tell us about it. Ricardo Vargas: Yes, yes, of course. It's very hard to analyze things using the title. So when I created this concept, I was concerned about how we can translate some qualitative into some numbers. And then it was very hard for me to put the title in the proper way. The root of the concept, it's a way of doing the average of the impact. So this what became this title quite complex. But the concept behind is very, very simple. You can use an Excel spreadsheet and do it in 10 minutes. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. Ricardo Vargas: In 10 minutes. So there is no rocket science behind this. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. Just as a reminder for me and the listeners, qualitative risk analysis, high, medium, low. Quantitative, you have a dollar value assigned to it, right? Ricardo Vargas: Yes. Cornelius Fichtner: And you say, this will cost us this much. Ricardo Vargas: Yeah, that's perfect. Let me explain to you: What is the challenge when we use these both methods? Of course when you think about quantitative risk analysis, you see more deep analysis. You get into dollar value. You can have a more valuable approach. But the challenge is that it's mu

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for The PMI-ACP Exam: This interview with Anne Pauker Kreitzberg was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. In this interview with Anne Pauker (http://www.agilecriticalthinking.com/) we introduce you to the Agile Critical Thinking framework.  We discuss approaches and examples of this techniques and how you can use to influence stakeholders, clarify project definition, urgency, risk and impact — particularly when working on a cross-functional or virtual team. And of course Anne alsol tells us how to apply some of the tools to our everyday projects. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: Welcome back everybody to the PMI Global Congress here in New Orleans. I'm sitting here with Anne Pauker Kreitzberg. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Anne! Anne Pauker: Hello! Cornelius Fichtner: So we met over lunch of all places. This is unscheduled interview and we talked about the fact that you were a presenter and you said: "Well, the topic of my presentation was Agile Critical Thinking - New Approaches and Tools to Empower Project Teams." I said: "Wow! What a great topic! Would you like to do an interview?" Here we are already talking about it. I have no idea what we're going to be talking about. But let's first talk about your presentation from yesterday. How did it go? Anne Pauker: Well, it was great. I was really, really happy about that because I suppose we had about 200 people in the room and as a presenter you always get a little nervous when you see a couple of people sneaking out the back way. But I was reassured by others that they only have signed up for 2 sessions. So I was really happy because I saw everybody was very engaged, taking notes and I couldn’t be more happy really. Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! So tell me about the new approaches and tools to empower project teams? What is it all about? Anne Pauker: Okay! Well, I'm glad you asked because we are very pragmatic at our company and in terms of overdoing. What we notice is that teams of any kind especially when they are cross-functional teams, global teams, virtual teams, teams that are working on, even very, very complex systems or even the simplest items are inherently fraught with conflict. I'd like to think about it as conflict because of course that’s very uncomfortable. But the reality is that perceptions are very different from the very start about what this project is all about, why are we doing it, how are we making decisions, how will my time be spent, that sort of thing. And so a number of years ago, Charlie and I, Charlie who is my husband and business partner and also a computer scientist and cognitive psychologist by training and I started talking a lot about the problems that he was having working with diverse project teams and all the personality problems that were coming up. And I said: "No problem! I know how to deal with those. You just need an organizational effectiveness expert and we can fix these things." And sure enough that's really what we did. We came up with this notion of Agile thinking which at its core about learning the techniques of critical thinking whether they apply to decision making, strategic thinking, collaboration or creative thinking. Cornelius Fichtner: Let me just interject here. When you say 'Agile thinking' does it have anything to do with the Agile movement in project management or is it just agility in your thought process? Anne Pauker: That's great question. I sort of opened up with that yesterday because I know this audience is very aware of the Agile software development cycle. And so, we definitely borrowed the terminology from Agile thinking. I think it was a momentary glib. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah, okay. Anne Pauker: So let me just put that together so you can edit it better. Okay. So we know

Play Now: This episode is sponsored by The PMP Exam Simulator: This interview with Samad Aidane was recorded at the PMI Global Congress 2013 North America in New Orleans. Cultural intelligence, the ability to adapt to new cultural contexts, is becoming an increasingly important skill for project leaders. Our interview with Samad Aidane (http://www.neurofrontier.com/) will give you an understanding of the key insights emerging from cultural neuroscience research and their application to leading global projects and designing culturally sensitive change initiatives that stick. We begin our interview with the question of what neuroscience has to do with project management and leadership, and how this understanding will help you in your daily project challenges. Then we discuss how culture impacts how we think & act and how this relates to the team members working on our projects. We close the discussion with several tips from Samad in regards to how you can use the results from this neuroscience research to improve your project successes starting today. Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.  Podcast Introduction Cornelius Fichtner: We are back at the PMI Global Congress 2013 in New Orleans and I am sitting here with Samad Aidane in the PMI® Bookstore. Podcast Interview Cornelius Fichtner: Hello Samad! Samad Aidane: Well hello, thank you. Cornelius Fichtner: How is your conference going so far? Samad Aidane: It's going great. It's really going great. I'm enjoying it. Cornelius Fichtner: Wonderful! Yesterday afternoon, you gave a presentation titled: "Cultural Neuroscience: Cultural Intelligence for Global Project Managers". How did it go? Samad Aidane: It went really well. I've been coming to this event for the last 3 years and I spoke at 2011 and 2012, and I have to say, this is my favorite performance. I feel really good about how I did just because I stuck to the script and I didn’t deviate from it and I had plenty of time given for interaction which is my goal and so I achieved it. And then the audience really responded to this topic. They really enjoyed the insights that were shared. Cornelius Fichtner: How many people were there? Samad Aidane: There was I believe approximately 70 people. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay! Samad Aidane: It was a good turnout. Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah. Now, neuroscience, it's the title. Cultural neuroscience. Neuroscience, it's about the brain. Why? What is it have to do with project management? Samad Aidane: Well for the last 5 to 6 years, I've been really digging deep into looking at what is the research out there about the brain that we can as project managers, we can use to be better leaders because at the end of the day, our business is trying to motivate people, trying to get them to engage, trying to get them to focus, pay attention. All of these processes are brain-based processes. So it makes sense for us project managers to actually understand what is the underlying inputs and outputs to these processes similar to what we do about project managers and understanding how the PMBOK is structured. I believe that we need to focus on the underlying mechanisms that drive behavior and drive thoughts and drive feelings and emotions. And I think this explosion of research is happening in neuroscience and especially in a branch called the social cognitive and affective neuroscience which deals with things such as how people make decisions, what are the drivers for collaboration. What is the underlying neural activations that underlie for example trust. And in general, communication in general. So these things are very important topics that we as project managers can benefit from understanding what is happening in the field of neuroscience. Cornelius Fichtner: Okay. How does this help the project manager out there? Our listeners, they are all project managers. They have projects that they go back to after they fini