Managing Upwards

I am collaborating with Bob McGannon to develop a workshop for the PMOZ conference in Canberra (August 10-12) – Avoiding Project Manglement: Advising Upwards. The workshop brings together three streams of thought; my work on stakeholder management, a collaborative paper with Ken Farnes, From Commander to Sponsor: Managing Upwards in the Project Environment (PMI Denver 2008) and Bob’s work on Intelligent Disobedience.

The workshop will provide a forum for those interested in developing new techniques for managing the expectations and perceptions of important senior managers. The three components of the workshop are:

• Being ready, willing and able to communicate effectively with senior management.
• Being heard.
• Being extraordinary! (for more information visit the PMOZ website…)

If the workshop is as successful as we hope, the ideas will roll forward into a new book planned for 2011.

The Right Way, the Wrong Way and the PMI Way

We are in the middle of a busy training period leading up to the change in the PMP exam. Several candidates have commented on needing to learn the PMI way rather than the real world way for their exam.

The idea that the PMI way is not real world is a very wrong assumption!

There are several factors that may make the PMI way different to your way but they are based on sound concepts. Some of the factors that create a difference are:

• The PMBOK® Guide is a knowledge framework that contains processes that are generally applicable to most projects, most of the time. The consequence of this is the processes need tailoring for specific projects. The PMP and CAPM exams are generic and world wide they focus on answers that are likely to be correct for most people most of the time.
• The PMBOK is developed by hundreds of project managers from around the world. The result is a coordinated amalgam of ideas. The PMP exam is based on the information in the PMBOK and information drawn from a range of text books written by leading authors. All of the correct answers are based on information from people with significant project management know-how. This may be different to yours but it is valid.
• PMI has aspirations for the profession of project management. Some underlying themes found in the majority of questions such as the high level of proficiency of the performing organisation and the professional competence of the project managers may be a stretch based on the culture of your organisation but are highly desirable aims and are not unrealistic.

Building a major oil platform in the North Sea is different to writing a small software patch in Bangalore (and both are projects) so the exams will always contain elements that are not right for your projects.

This does not devalue the way you do your projects. As long as the projects your organisation manages are constantly delivered on time, on budget, on scope and fully satisfying all of the key stakeholders. If this happens,  your organisations approach to project management is obviously right in the context you are working in. It is just your way is different to the generally accepted way most successful projects are delivered world-wide and the PMI exams are focused on this generally accepted view of good practice.

PMI Exam Changes PMP and CAPM

Exam candidates need to know the change dates of 1st July for PMP and 1st August for CAPM are absolute! All examination deferrals and re-sits taken on or after these dates will be based on the new exam.

This policy will involve some extra work for PMP candidates and a complete re-run of your training for CAPM candidates if your training has been based on the current PMBOK® Guide 3rd Edition. The scope of changes between the 3rd and 4th Editions is very significant at the detailed level needed for the examinations (particularly CAPM).

You’ve been warned!!

PDUs and the PMI Examination Eligibility Requirements

Eligible Training hours

There’s a lot of confusion about the role of PDUs and the PMI exam eligibility requirements. The simple fact is PDUs are different to the hours of approved education needed to be eligible to sit for a PMI credential.

Approved education hours are accumulated by completing courses focused on the knowledge framework for the examination (basically the 9 knowledge areas of the PMBOK Guide for CAPM and PMP).  PMI requires the following:

• CAPM 23 Hrs of approved general project management education
• PMP 35 Hrs of approved general project management education
• PMI-SP 40 Hrs of approved education in the specialist area of project scheduling
• PgMP has no formal education requirements.

In the event of being audited, to prove to PMI your training is eligible you either need

• a certificate from a PMI approved Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) such as Mosaic
• or the course transcript showing the course covered the knowledge framework defined in the exam specification.

Eligible training hours are very specific, you can earn them by attending a classroom based course or participating in a web or email based course – it’s the course content that matters.  Eligible training does not have to be an exam preparation course, any combination of courses that cover the required knowledge framework count!

However, there is a significant difference between ‘eligible training’ and ‘effective training’.  Eligible training will allow you to apply for the examination.  To be reasonably sure of passing your examination specific preparation is essential (all PMI examinations have a fairly high failure rate). The purpose of a well structured exam prep course is to align your knowledge with the specific requirements of PMI’s mult-choice exam questions. For more on this see The Right Way, the Wrong Way and the PMI Way.

PDUs

PDUs are completely different – the requirements for PDUs are set out in the PMI Continuing Certification Requirements handbook (CCR). PDU stands for Professional Development Unit.

As a starting point, you can only earn PDUs after you have passed your exam. Exam preparation courses cannot provide PDUs for the credential you are studying towards: you have to complete the course to be eligible to sit the exam and can only earn PDUs after you have passed the exam.

In limited circumstances the study for another credential may earn PDUs; if a person already holds a PMP credential and is undertaking a course of study for the PMI-SP credential, the hours of training for the PMI-SP would earn PDUs for her PMP but NOT for her PMI-SP.

The only way for a PMP to earn PDUs from a PMP exam prep course is to take a second PMP exam prep course after you have passed your PMP. As a training organisation we can see some merit in this ($$$$) but practically there is no point.

The other key difference is PDUs can be earned from a very wide range of activities including attending conferences, participating in webinars, being a volunteer and writing papers as well as attending training courses. Similarly for a training course to earn PDUs it only has to be relevant to your work and associated with project management (eg, an ITIL course). This covers a very much wider spectrum than the focussed training needed to to earn the hours needed to be eligible for a credential.

Click here for more on earning and recording PDUs

Summary

• Most activities that improve your capability as a professional will earn PDUs.
• Only focused training based on the exam specification counts towards the training hours needed to be eligible for a credential.
• You must accrue the eligible training before applying for the credential
• You can only start earning PDUs after you have passed the credential.

For more information see:

• Earning and Recording PDUs
• Overview of the PMI Credentials
• Mosaic’s Mentored Email™ exam preparation courses 

PMP and CAPM Exam Updates

Most people will be aware PMI launched the 4th Edition of the PMBOK® Guide at the end of December. The PMP exam changes to the new PMBOK on the 1st July and the CAPM exam on the 1st August. Until then, the current exam is based on the old PMBOK® Guide 3rd Edition.

We are in the process of starting the update of our course materials and will be offering our Mentored Email™ courses based on the new PMBOK from the end of March. Most people take 3 or 4 months to work through the self-paced materials so this is it…..

The reason for this blog is to alert everyone to the extent of changes at the detailed level in the new PMBOK. There’s not a huge difference between the 3rd and 4th editions at the macro level but virtually every page has been re-written and improved at the detail level.

This means it is critically important for prospective candidates to pick their exam date, select the right version of the PMBOK and study to achieve their target! There will be a lot of work needed to change horses mid-race. You’ve been warned.

To double check the correct version of the PMBOK® Guide for study based on your planned exam date see the PMI Exam Calculator.

PMI Launches ‘PM Teach’

PMI’s new PM Teach is aimed at encouraging Universities and Colleges to teach accredited project management courses. The PM Teach program makes a range of resources available to academic staff interested in developing a PM course and then having the course accredited by PMI.

A key component of the PM Teach program is linking academic institutions with R.E.P.s that have the skills and knowledge to assist in curriculum development. Mosaic has joined this part of the program based on the work of Dr. Lynda Bourne at a range of institutions including RMIT University Melbourne and The University of Sothern Queensland, both in Australia; and more recently the University of Maryland (UMUC).

For more on the PMI program see: http://www.pmiteach.org

Stakeholder Management Workshop Design

One of our trainees asked in a feedback form why don’t we use a ‘real’ case study for out Stakeholder Management and Communication Workshops. A good question deserving an answer:

1. To develop a useful scenario for a short 1 or 2 day workshop you need a few ‘larger than life’ characters – good guys bad guys and some in between. If these were based off a real life situation we could be sued. Most of the characters in the case study are an amalgamation of some people we have met….. but they are designed to highlight characterisations rather than individuals.
2. The scenario needs to be very simple to run through all of the issues involved in managing and communicating with stakeholders. ‘Real’ scenarios are usually far too complex for a workshop (unless you are working inside an organisation and everyone already understands the business).
3. By developing a totally fictitious business in an exotic location, the ‘Paradise Isld. Utilities Corporation’ (PUC) everyone in the class is free to imaging ‘what might be’. If the scenario was too real some people would ‘know the answer’ based on direct experience and others would be left out.
4. When you are dealing with stakeholders, you can never know exactly what their version of reality is! You have to base your decisions on what you think their perceptions of the project are. Your stakeholder management and communication plans are based on your team’s perceptions of the stakeholder’s perceptions. The advantage of a neutral scenario is this ‘fog’ is the same for everyone but the teams in the class can decide exactly what the right outcome should be. We have seen some amazingly different scenarios created in the minds of teams from the same information and the great thing is they are all 100% correct. The learning comes from dealing with the scenario as imagined and crafting effective communication strategies to manage the stakeholders.

So in short, the reason we use a fictitious scenario is we feel it helps us deliver much better training outcomes for public classes and internal workshops already have a built-in scenario in the organisation.

What’s your experience?

Changes to our PMP and CAPM Training Courses for 2009

Mosaic’s Mentored Email™ courses for 2009 have been repriced to manage the transition to the PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition.

From Jan 1st our PMP course will be priced at AU$1200 (plus GST for Australian residents) – approximately US$850*, and our CAPM course will be AU$900 (plus GST for Australian residents) – approximately US$650*.

These price changes are primarily to separate the 10% Australian GST component from our price structure. We are attracting an increasing number of clients from the USA, SE Asia and Europe and we do not have to pay GST tax on these sales.

The increase in the base price is to cover the costs associated with converting the courses from the current PMBOK® Guide 3rd Edition to the 4th Edition. Courses started in January and February will be based on our current 3rd Edition materials. Both courses will be available to trainees starting in March, April and May; their selection will depend on their planned exam date (the PMP exam changes on 1st July, CAPM on 1st August). After June we would anticipate only offering the new 4th Edition course.

We believe our PMP and CAPM courses are still exceptionally good value. The materials are developed in-house by Mosaic’s experienced team of Dr. Lynda Bourne and Patrick Weaver. We develop the materials, administer the Mentored Email™ courses and importantly, provide the one-on-one mentoring to help trainees pass their PMI credential examination. We know the courses work, in 2008 only one trainee needed to ask for our free assistance to help them prepare to re-sit their examination.

You can see how the training works for yourself by registering for a course; you to receive Module 1 free of charge, and only pay the invoice for the course if you decide to continue.

• For more on the PMP exam see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-PMP.html
• For more on CAPM see: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-CAPM.html
• Details of our Mentored Email™ courses are at: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training-Mentored.html
• And to register for one of the courses, go to: http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Training_Bookrequest_ME.html

*Based on current exchange rates, payments by VISA, MasterCard or funds transfer will attract different exchange rates.

PMI Exam Planner

PMI have released a nifty new tool to help candidates for any of the PMI Credentials including CAPM, PMP, PgMP and PMI-SP, determine which of the PMI standards to use for their exam preparation based on the planned date for sitting the exam.

All credential exams reference the PMBOK® Guide to some extent, and PgMP candidates also need to study The Standard for Program Management

Which Edition Do I Study? is an interactive web-based tool that allows the user to select:

1. the exam they are taking;
2. the date they plan on taking the exam and
3. receive a personalised study recommendation

View more information at the following link: http://www.pmi.org/Resources/Pages/2008StandardsUpdate.aspx

As far as we can tell, PMI are still on track for the release of all four standards by the end of 2008, including PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition, and ‘second editions’ of The Standard for Portfolio Management, The Standard for Program Management and the OPM3 Knowledge Foundation.

For more on the changes see our earlier blogs:

• Updates to the PMBOK® Guide and CAPM Exam
• Updates to the PMBOK® Guide and PMP Exam
• The Maturing of OPM3

One of the big jobs in our schedule for the first part of 2009 is the progressive updating of our courses to work in with the changes to the exams….. this is not too hard for our classroom courses but will require careful management with our Mentored Email™ students who can take two to three months (or longer) to work through their CAPM or PMP courses on a very part time basis.

But that’s for later the immediate issue is making sure we take enough time off to enjoy the holiday season but there will be time for at least one more blog before then…..

Surviving the credit crunch

Depending on where you are in the world your economy is either in recession or sinking towards recession, with only a few exceptions such as China where growth has merely slowed to a moderate rate of expansion.

However, after more than 20 years running SMEs (small to medium enterprises) I definitely feel the doom and gloom in the press is greatly exaggerated. To a very great extent, it’s when the going gets tough, the tough get going! Not to build empires, but to position themselves for the inevitable upswing.

This blog is written from the perspective of sole contractors and small professional consultancies and is very much what we are doing in Mosaic Project Services to win through yet another downturn. It’s rather long, but I hope you find it useful.

Unemployment

The first thing to consider is unemployment. In a recession unemployment tends to double and the number of people ‘not seeking work’ also increases. In Australia this means rising from the 2% to 3% range to maybe 4% to 6% an increase of some 4% at the maximum. Double this again for the number of people on the margins ‘not seeking work’ and you could say 8% of people who are likely to have a job in good times won’t have one in a recession. This suggests around 92% of people who are likely to have a job in ‘good times’ still have a job in bad times. Therefore as an individual contractor or small business your challenge is to make sure you are part of the 90% still working – looks at this way, the challenge is not so hard.

Cash Flow

The next issue is cash flow. In the good times we all ran up too much credit and the temptation is to eliminate debt. The bad news is that now is a bit too late! There are several challenges to consider in order:

• The first issue is to minimise fixed outgoings (these are the real break points if your income stops for a period)
• The second is to build up some cash reserves or liquid assets (essential to cover ‘fixed outgoings’ if you income stops for a period)
• Only then should you consider major debt reductions. Remember, one of the good points in a recession is interest rates drop.

We are not in a position to offer financial advice but we have noticed it is much easier to re-engineer your finance if you still have a job and with proper advice there are a range of opportunities ‘out there’ because the banks and card companies are chasing business as well.

Maintaining an income is the other side of cash flow management. This requires a careful balancing act……

• Most employers / clients are feeling the squeeze and will employ the ‘golden rule’ (He who has the gold makes the rules). Don’t let your pride stand in the way of negotiating a rate cut but at the same time make sure you are still being paid at the ‘right rate’ for today’s climate.
• If you are between contracts make sure the rates you are asking for are consistent with ‘today’s market’. Yesterday has gone and tomorrows rates are likely to be lower still.

Keeping a Job

‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ – a moderately paying job now is worth more than the possibility of a higher paying job later. Consider this simple equation: if you turn down a job today at $650 because you feel you are worth $700 per day minimum and eventually after 4 weeks you are successful and win the $700 job you will have foregone 20 days at $650 = $13,000. This means you will be working for the first 260 days in the $700 job before you break even with the income you would have earned at $650 per day. This is 1 year’s work (52 weeks) and in a recession most contracts are for 6 months or less. To make matters worse, if at the end of the day you take a job at $650 or even $600 you never make up the lost income. Unfortunately, the business world will be well into recovery before contract rates start to rise significantly.

Marketing

Keep on marketing. The competition to keep your existing contracts or win new work in a recession is definitely more intense. To keep in front of the pack and minimise reductions in your contract rates you have to be offering a ‘better package’ to employers and really be out there selling your capabilities.

Most jobs go to people who know people they are never advertised, the approximate ratio in ‘normal times’ is 80% to 20%. The reason job ads drop so dramatically in a recession is the fact most businesses can easily fill most jobs by word of mouth and personal contacts. A certain proportion are obliged to advertise (eg, governments) but if there’s no policy in place mandating advertisements, businesses won’t wast money.

The answer to winning jobs before they go to market is networking. Attend meetings, attend workshops and conferences, catch up with old colleagues and be seen. There are two critical rules to networking.

• Start before you need your network and keep networking
• Add value to the network. You must contribute as well as take from the overall network; no one likes a sponge who soaks up everything for his/her self.

There are lots of websites with hints on networking – do your homework.

Developing a ‘better package’ for both individual contractors, and consultants running small businesses, has a range of facets:

• Qualifications help. Organisations have to filter 100s of applicants for each job; the easiest first step is to discount ‘unqualified’ people. More importantly acquiring a relevant qualification shows a willingness to invest in your future. Many employers will read this as a strong positive indicator of your overall willingness to maintain a positive approach to your career.
• Be seen as a useful expert. Useful experts contribute practical assistance to their peers and industry. Write papers, mentor colleagues, assist on committees, etc.
• Be easy to find. People won’t ring back in a recession, email, telephone, social network sites, etc all help you to be easy to find and you distribute these contacts via every reasonable means.
• Have a strong brand. People need to know who you are and what you (or your business) stand for. Reputation really matters.
• Be flexible. Make sure your skills are transferable and within reason you are ‘transferable’ and can go where the work is. This may not be ideal but maintaining an income matters.

A last thought is to strap on your parachute on before you are asked to jump. Almost every item discussed above and particularly networking is easier if you are in a job. Certainly in my experience it is always easier to find another job when you have one. The challenge is to ethically manage your career and survival through the next few months; reputations matter in good times and bad.

The good news is if you manage all of this and come through the recession successfully, you will be ideally positioned to take advantage of the next growth phase and accelerate your career to new heights.

Good luck and good networking.