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European Banking Forum - Prague
2007-03-27 11:24:00
I was invited to the opening reception for the Euro pe an Banking & Financial Forum last night. It was held in the Rytí?ská branch of ?eská spo?itelna in Prague. A stunning building which matches the splendour of any Royal palace. Sasa Vondra, Jack Stack and others were present along with banking leaders from throughout Europe. The ...
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The 21km Project
2007-03-26 12:43:00
I did the Prague half marathon on Saturday. I’m not much of a runner and I only decided to do this about 6 weeks ago so it was a bit of challenge for me. Especialy as my last half marathon was over 20 years ago! Project -wise, I planned quite well and I had my milestones fixed ...

Show me the money
2007-03-23 16:06:00
As any PM should know, Cost Management is the process of monitoring and controlling costs within a project and it enables you to: - Determine the total cost of staff on the project - Monitor the total actual cost Vs forecast cost - Calculate total cost of undertaking each project task - Identify current and potential overruns - Monitor the ...
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Managing Your Physical Fitness
2007-03-18 16:03:00
From my early teens to my 30’s, I was a competitive international waterskier. Water ski racing is an exceptionally physically demanding sport so it was always critical that I was in good shape. If I wasn?t, I simply wouldn?t have won anything. Working out regularly and taking part in other sport, has therefore been an ...
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Accidental Project Managers
2007-03-15 12:38:00
The term “accidental project management” is becoming more popular as more projects need managing and less PMs are available. In fact, Project Mana gement is one of the most highly required skills in the IT world with opportunities increasing along with salaries and daily rates and there has never been a better time to be a ‘decent‘ ...
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Project Templates
2007-03-14 15:52:00
It’s been a few days since I’ve written a post here as I’ve spent some time on the water ski racing site I manage at www.skirace.net. I’ve also been really busy and on top of that, I’m training for a half marathon. So with my excuses out of the way, I want to write about ...
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Paul Rayner on programme governance
2007-03-10 04:22:05
Paul Rayner is Chairman of Prog M, a Managing Consultant within LogicaCMG, and co-author of the Gower Handbook of Program me Management. He has written an excellent five page article on the subject of programme governance which I became aware of this morning when I received the March issue of the ProgM newsletter. The OGC describes programme governance as being the functions, processes and procedures that define how a programme is set up, managed and controlled. In his article, Paul Rayner says; “for programmes or projects to be delivered satisfactorily, those in charge need to take seriously their responsibility to provide effective, long-term governance.  Governance provides the high-level guidance needed to ensure that the right projects are undertaken and that the programme and its component projects will result in worthwhile benefits. Governance is particularly important for programmes of organisational change. Here, not only must the component projects to be managed well, ...
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Programme Quality Management
2007-03-10 04:22:05
There can be long debates about the term ‘Quality’. Many experts have involved themselves in such debates, papers have been written and tempers have flared. I’m not going into that here but as any PRINCE2 PM knows, from a project management perspective, the UK’s OGC defines quality slightly different to ISO 8402. ISO 8402 defines Quality as totality of characteristics of an entity which bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs. It’s a bit of an unpleasant mouthful isn?t it! Meanwhile, OGC PRINCE2 states that Quality is a question of identifying what it is about the project’s products or services that make them “fit for their purpose” of satisfying stated needs. It goes on to say that projects should not rely on implied needs (as per ISO 8402) because implied needs lead to uncertainly. I know I’m a PRINCE2 guy but I have to say that I agree that from a management perspective, the term ‘implied’ could be...
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2007 PMO of the Year Award
2007-03-10 04:22:05
I wrote about PMOs just a few days ago (PMO - who needs it). Today I came across a PMO award so I thought I’d write a quick post about this, especially as I’m such a big fan of good PMOs. The Center for Business Practices (CBP) is a knowledge centre based in the USA which captures, organises, and transfers business practice knowledge to project stakeholders. The CBP Project Management Office of the Year Award is presented in recognition of excellence and innovation in developing and maturing an organisational structure to support the effective management of projects. It’s a showcase for PMOs that have demonstrated vision and business acumen in implementing new ideas, methods, or processes that led to measurable improvements in project management realising tangible business benefits for their organisations. The closing date to nominate your PMO for this year’s award is 23 March In 2006, an EDS PMO won the award. Having spent time running a programme for EDS i...
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Stakeholder management
2007-03-10 04:22:05
Stakeholder Mana gement helps us ensure successful change. It helps managers assess and manage the environment around the planned programme and brings out the interests of the stakeholders and identifies potential conflicts to assign a level of risk or challenges to the programme?s success. It also helps identify existing relationships between stakeholders that can be leveraged to build coalitions and potential partnerships that go on to build valuable trust and collaboration among the stakeholders. But what is a stakeholder? A stakeholder is anyone who is: - managing the programme of work; - working within the programme of work; - directly or indirectly contributing to the programme of work; - affected by the programme of work or its outcomes. So even the smallest programme will find itself with a long list of stakeholders who need to be managed carefully. Understanding stakeholders as well as their needs, desires, characters, feelings, levels of influence, perceptions, etc is some...
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Clown In Office or Chief Information Officer
2007-03-10 04:22:05
1) Take a look at the world’s most successful organisations and you will find them using best practice frameworks with formal programme and project management in place. 2) Take a look at organisations that flounder around in total chaos with CIOs who seem to have no concept of programme and project manangement and often don’t even know the difference between the two. Enough said - but I’ll add a few words around this. I’ve had the pleasure of working with some exceptionally high calibre CIOs for whom I’ve had great admiration and been inspired by. But I’ve seen the odd circus act too. Isn’t it amazing how so many C-level executives are allowed to run IT in a chaotic fashion? These characters (aka clowns) sometimes fall into a comfortable seat by having a past which looks impressive, but how often is the REAL success of their past assessed before they get hired? And of course occassionally there’s the CEO who happens to be a good frien...
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A culture of process improvement
2007-03-10 04:22:05
The management of IT is all about the efficient and effective use of people, processes and products - products being a blend of tools and technology. I want to write about process improvement here, which in a nutshell is a series of actions taken to identify, analyse and improve existing processes within an organisation; to meet new goals and objectives. These actions often follow a specific methodology or strategy to create successful results. I was interviewed by a PMI journalist last month for an article that will appear in the May edition of PM Network. One of my comments referred to global organisations establishing a presence in the Middle East. Whilst many of these organisations are mature in process in Europe or the USA, some struggle to implement that process in other environments. It’s amazing how culture affects the ease with which process can be poured into an organisation (without it being spat right out). The culture of current and previous working environments ...
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PMI Global Congress
2007-03-10 04:22:05
If you’re a PMI member you might well know about what I’m about to write already. Between 14 and 16 May, the PMI holds its Global Congress a few hours from me in Budapest, Hungary. Unfortunately I’ll be in New Zealand throughout most of May so I won’t be able to attend. One of the 12 areas of focus at the congress will be Communication, which I think is key to successful management. Knowing process off by heart is simply no good without the ability to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively. The 12 areas of focus that will be covered are all topics that any Manager could benefit from and in fact, when I see the list, I’m even more disappointed that I can’t be there. 1.  Project Management Foundation Skills 2.  Advanced Project Management Skills 3.  Project Management Tools 4.  Project Management Issues 5.  New Project Management Trends 6.  Communications 7.  Teaming 8.  General Business Skill 9.  Sales/Marketing Skills 10. Consulting Skill...

Programme Management newsletter
2007-03-10 04:22:05
ProgM is the Programme Management Specific Interest Group of the Association for Project Management and the British Computer Society. I have to say that the March issue of the the ProgM News letter is the best yet. The table of contents includes: - The ProgM Olympics 2012 Event - Partnership Governance: Getting it Right (Paul Rayner) - The Universal Disagreement to Programme Management around the world (Geoff Reiss) - 2007 Local government conference - Improving Project Success through cross project KPI reporting I encourage anyone interested in programme management to visit http://www.e-programme.com/ to learn more. Membership of the ProgM is free and you can apply for membership by mailing info@e-programme.com  
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A PM recruiters world
2007-02-23 04:19:10
I’ve worked as an Interim Manager for quite some time and it suits me well. But in August last year I expanded my business and began recruiting Project and Programme Managers. I was being offered roles that didn’t interest me and I was always passing them on to people I knew. I was also getting asked by clients and associates if I knew of good PMs as they needed new resources. I would pass all this business onto an agent who actually gave me nothing in return so I decided it was time I started enjoying some of the benefits of this business that was falling into my lap and I began recruiting. It’s been an interesting adventure in which I’ve experienced the recruiting world from the other side of the desk. In the past I had used recruiters to find assignments and to find candidates. But suddenly, I was the recruiter. Naturally it has its own set of challenges but to be frank, I haven’t found it very challenging generating good business. It’s basica...
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PRINCE2, APMIC, MSP, ITIL Training
2007-02-23 04:19:10
I’m not on commission or receiving any backhanders, but I’d like to mention some multimedia training that has helped me a great deal in the past. If you’re someone who wants to get ahead, increase your value as a manager and enjoy more choice of work opportunities, read on. The ILX Group in the UK provides some excellent Project, Programme and Service Management Multimedia training. I have the PRINCE2, MSP and ITIL courses and they were great. As an individual student, they allowed me to learn and get certified without having to attend classroom sessions. I did my studying remotely and sat the exams in the UK although there are many options when it comes to exam time, which helps those who aren’t based in the UK. Some companies use ILX courses as part of a training framework, combining their CBT programmes with workshops, allowing training for greater numbers. So from a company perspective, this can result in significantly lower cost and less time away from ...
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PM required in Singapore 6-9 mths
2007-02-23 04:19:10
I don’t normally post jobs on the Blog but this one is based in Sing apore and I don’t have much of a network in that part of the world. Role: Project Manager (Infrastructure) Location: Singapore (frequent travel to India) Duration: 6 - 9 month contract Start Date: ASAP Responsibility The project manager needs to represent IT as a whole to run an IT infrastructure integration project across the work streams in India. The main role is to work out a plan to detach the IT system (from front to back) from the existing IT infrastructure and integrate to the Banks? existing infrastructure. The key challenge would be the telecom connectivity throughout 28 locations in India and the user desktop build/move. The project manager needs to run the project by and large by his/her own with very limited supervision. Travelling is required back and forth Singapore and India for project delivery. Stakeholder management, runs regular steering committee and reporting meeting, generate stat...

PMO - who needs it?
2007-02-20 04:17:02
After I tortured myself at the gym this morning, I had a good chat with a great Architect I once worked with. He shall remain nameless because his son calls me ‘baldy’, but we spoke about the importance of the PMO. A CIO can expect a PMO to operate across the following seven areas: 1. Project support; 2. Project management process/methodology; 3. Training; 4. Home for project managers; 5. Internal consulting and mentoring; 6. Project management software tools; 7. Portfolio management; What Are The Benefits of A PMO? Here are a few which come to mind, but please post any others you can think of in a comment (your entry point James!): Improving project success rates Implementing standard practices Better visibility into project status Tighter change control Higher ROI Fewer failures More projects completed on time and within budget Better risk management Better management of external partners There’s an interesing survey which KPMG carried out in 2002 and the figure...
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Are you really there?
2007-02-20 04:17:02
Yesterday was busy, fun and social, although I did squeeze in two hours of work, but no time for the Blog. I spent a few hours in the morning sunshine sitting outside a cafe beneath Prague’s astronomical clock in the old town square with former colleagues John Watkins and Saloni Seth. We all worked together in Dubai last year. In the afternoon I met Paul Byrne at Namesti Miru who was on a fleeting visit from the UK and who always introduces me to interesting books on programme management and provides unofficial back-ups of other good stuff. Cheers Paul! A phone call from my old friend and current British team captain Tony Williams followed, on how we can establish a full British team to compete at the world water ski championships in New Zealand this May. Tony and I actually won a European silver water ski team medal together in Sicily back in 1991. I even had a full head of hair in those days! Then a fomer two-time colleague in the Middle East Skyped me a business lead (than...
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An interim experience
2007-02-20 04:17:02
When an organisation decides it needs a critical injection of expertise, there is no time to waste and often the expertise required is not sitting within the organisation with enough bandwidth to assist. Finding an Inter im Manager requires a fast and efficient process to identify the right level of experience. Unless the organisation has a good network of interim managers to consider, they will usually seek to use an agent to help get the right person on board. That’s why I always try to ensure that organisations know that I am available for interim assignments, whereas many other interim managers I know will rely only upon agents. Personally I don’t think this is good marketing on the part of the interim, but then again, not everyone is cut out for marketing so the agent becomes their one and only marketing tool. Most people don’t enter the world of Interim Management. Whilst it suits some people (me included) down to the ground, the uncertainly, continuous chang...
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Godfather of PgM Management & Extreme Ironer
2007-02-09 16:13:03
If you don’t know this already, Geoff Reiss is the God father of Project and Programme Management . I’ve cut & paste below, a few lines from his website to highlight some of his achievements. But the punch line comes at the end of this post so read on!   1. He has written four significant books: Project Management Demystified (2 editions, 15 reprints) and Programme Management Demystified have become two of Britain?s best selling books in their topics. One Project Too Many, jointly authored with Geof Leigh, was published in August 2004. He led the six man author team for The Gower Handbook of Programme Management.  2. He co-authored the Apple Project Manager, Pertmaster and Pertmaster Advance project management and Hydra programme management software systems. 3. He chaired the Editorial Board of the ProgM initiative in Project Selection and Benefit Management and was a member of the National Computing Centre?s programme management initiative. 4. He is joint author, wit...
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My media moments
2007-02-09 16:13:03
Years ago when I was a competitive waterskier, I used to appear on TV, radio and the printed press quite often. Those days of sporting stardom are gone and as Communications Director for the world governing body of water ski racing, I now do all I can to help the new stars of the sport enjoy some of the limelight. But it seems I’ve had a few recent media moments. The PMI called me from the USA to interview me for an article in the next edition of their printed magazine; PM Network. In fact it was Vincenzo Torre, the President of the PMI in Italy, who actually hooked me up with the magazine. The article will be about Project Management from an expat perspective and the writer certainly gave me a good grilling. Then last night my girlfriend and I were out to dinner with friends Mike and Olga. Mike runs the Central European operation for Microsoft’s CRM solutions and he showed me a copy of the latest British Chamber of Commerce magazine which covered the Chamber’s Xma...
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Successful consultant stories wanted [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
If you deem yourself to be a successful consultant, www.successful-consultants.com would like to hear your story. In an effort to spread some inspiration to those who aspire to get into consulting or to become more successful at it, there's nothing better than stories from those who have already gone through that journey.
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Why govern a programme? [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
In the IT world, far too many organisations have yet to take Prog ramme Governance seriously. Governance being the functions, processes and procedures that define how a programme is set up, managed and controlled. This article looks at the key factors and benefits of good governance.
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Flogging dead horses [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
We all see the statistics associated with IT project failure. Most project managers are afraid of being labeled as quitters or failures and often flog dead horses. Perhaps it takes more courage to admit that your project is a failure than to accept it when theres's no choice.
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Risk management culture [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
Most well run organisations will have risk managed at four distinct levels which are; Corporate/Strategic, Programme, Project and Operational.
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Top 25 management concepts [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
The latest survey of the 25 most popular management tools and techniques. This is an excellent list of the top 25 concepts that management consultants should be conversant in throughout 2007.
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Work-life balance [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
Are you one of the many whose narrowed view of life consists primarily of work and sleep? Perhaps it?s time to step back, take a good look at yourself and ?get a life?.
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Being an independent consultant [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
Being an independent consultant can be a lucrative business, but are you up to the challenges that go with it? Gone is the corporate cotton wool which comforts us when we're not at our best. Gone are the sick days that we get paid for and gone are so many other creature comforts of being employed. Is consulting and its rewards really for you?
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The cost of living overseas [Digg]
2007-02-09 16:13:03
It's all very well considering that exciting adventure of living and working overseas. Your new found salary might seem as if you've hit the jackpot too. But how does that other country's cost of living compare to yours?
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