Episode 011: PM Methodologies

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Following the news, there are three segments in today's episode: Harry Fisher (author of Microsoft Visual Basic.Net) recounts his experience and success in implementing a workflow tool. We'll take a Tour de Project Management Methodologies and I give you my review of The Vision Thing Podcast [Update: The web page is no longer available so we removed the link.].

Project Management in the News

- Project Management Methodology soon to be released
- Swedish Railway Administration, Banverket, Selects IFS Applications
- NASCIO Releases Findings From State IT Project Management Survey
- CSIRO tames project management risks
- Survey: States need tighter project management practices
- Time and project management course for Maltapost staff [Update: The web page is no longer available so we removed the link]
- AADO convenes, discusses IT project management

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks.

Cornelius Fichtner (00:10):

[inaudible] you are listening to the project management podcast. We bring project management topics to beginners and experts. Find us on the web at pmpodcast.blogspot.com or send your emails to pm This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Hello, and welcome to show number 11. I am Cornelius Fichtner. Now this is the project management podcast for the 12th of November, 2005. And today we are going to be looking at an overview of project management methodologies to start out. The show is every week, here are a few announcements and just things I want to get off my chest. First of all, reader feedback. Many of you have been writing to me over the past few weeks and making suggestions to part towards possible topics that I could talk about here. Theory of constraints, critical chain, how to balance several large projects simultaneously. You name it. I can promise you that I am going to try and get all of your requests into the show into time, but please remember that project management is a very vast field and there is a lot that I can cover here and that a lot that I want to cover.

Cornelius Fichtner (01:31):

So I will not be able to get to your subject within the next one to two weeks. Give me some time. And I'm sure that we are going to cover here. The topic that interests you. I also wanted to mention again, that this is not a PMP exam preparation podcast. If you are listening to this podcast and you are currently studying for the PMP exam, and you're trying to pass the PMP exam, please don't listen to this show and hope to learn something that will help you to pass. You see, in order to pass the exam, I really suggest that you attend a PMP preparation seminar that is offered by either your local PMI chapter or by one of the many, many professional or for profit. Shall we say training organizations out there? There are also quite a few excellent online training courses and self study books that you can use, but this podcast, however, is definitely not the way to go.

Cornelius Fichtner (02:41):

It's not going to help you and not going to give you any support in passing the PMP exam. Some of you have also been writing to me and ask whether or not listening to the project management podcast is a qualifying activity to gain professional development units, stats PDUs. And if you are a PMP, you know that every three years you have to gain 60 PDUs in order to maintain your certification. And of course the best way to do that is to get trained. Well, I don't know. So what I did is I got in contact with the people who should know, I wrote to the PMI and they're working on it and they're going to let me know. So keep your ears open and I will be able to hopefully tell you in a few weeks, whether or not listening to this show here will be helping you with gaining your PDUs.

Cornelius Fichtner (03:43):

And while we are talking about the PMI here is announcement and announcement from them. And the announcement is the fact that the registration for the PMI global Congress, 2006 in Asia, Pacific is now open. And they write that the project management institutes global congresses are created with the goal of providing project managers and team members with the highest quality learning experience needed to stay ahead of the project management pro fashion. And this Congress, uh, the PMI global Congress, 2006 Asia Pacific will take place from the 27th of February to the first March, 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand. And of course, Bangkok, Thailand that brings back that good old song from Murray had Oriental sitting in the city. Now the city is the creme de LA creme of the chess world and a show with everything. All right? And before we move on to the news, here is a word from our sponsor. This episode of the project management podcast is sponsored by project load. Project load is a web based project management and time tracking tool, project load, lets teams maintain and forecast their own tasks helps project managers track their projects, gives PMOs one place to you, all projects and provides executives, valuable insight into exactly where their organization is spending their time. You can find project load at projectload.com.

Cornelius Fichtner (05:38):

I once again have several very interesting news items for you here this week. The first one is from November 8th. It comes to us from Sweden and it's titled the Swedish railway administration bank. Vericut selects ifs applications. They write bank Vericut industrial division, which supplies, railway systems and related services in Sweden and other parts of Europe we'll implement the ifs applications. The business software will enable bank of America, industrial division to streamline management of a range of internal and external processes. I am now not mentioning this because I like this ifs application. I don't even know it, but I'm mainly mentioning this because of what they say, why they are implementing this particular application or a particular application. They say since 2001, the market we operate in has been fully open to competition. So efficiency is crucial to the development and survival of our operations. And that's a Ingamar fried shallots who set that he is a project management manager at the bank.

Cornelius Fichtner (06:59):

Vericut industrial division. He says the implementation of ifs applications is part of a major change program. The solution will give us the tools we need to streamline our processes. For example, it will be easier to plan and control our complex entrepreneurial projects. And he continues our core business consists of complex entrepreneurial projects, but we also weld rails and manufacturer signaling equipment and technical cabin in a traditional industrial environment. To me, this means that the Swedish railway administration realizes the important part that project management plays in an ever changing and extremely competitive marketplace. They are embracing project management and pardon the pun are moving full steam ahead with it.

Cornelius Fichtner (08:00):

Our next news item is along the same lines as the one that you have just heard. It is from Thursday, November the 10th. And it comes to us from multi-car, which is an Island just South of Sicily in the Mediterranean. It is titled time and project management course for multiple hosts staff. And you can read that the human resources department of the multiple most recently organized a short training course in time and project manager, project management for its senior staff and the project management module provided the participants with the awareness of appropriate tools and techniques for planning, organizing, scheduling, and controlling of projects. And of course also the critical people management skills for achieving a project result. And they write here that a total of 32 line middle and senior management staff attended to this training course, which was held at the multiple post training center.

Cornelius Fichtner (09:07):

Okay. Big deal. You might say. So 32 people from multi-hour went to a project management seminar. Well think again, these were not 32 project managers. These were 32 line, middle and senior managers. And if you go back in a about two weeks ago in my show, then I had an announcement or a news item from Russ Archibald. He was at the seminar that they had in Moscow, and he had predictions for the year 2010. And what he said then is that project management will merge into the general management practice. And project management will become a required competency for executives. And this is exactly what's happening, or what's starting to show here in this news item, executives, managers taking project management seriously and actually getting trained on it.

Cornelius Fichtner (10:13):

Our next item is a survey that has just recently been released. This is from the November 9th, 2005, and it's titled NASCIO releases findings from state it project management survey. And NASCIO is the national association of state chief information officers, I assume by national, they mean U S a national of course. And this survey is the result of 34 state project management offices that had participated in this self-assessment, which happened between August and September of 2005. And throughout the report, as you can read, you will find that there are several core themes, which emerge as recommendations for success in initiatives, in it initiatives on a state level. And they are a, that there is a value in adopting an enterprise approach towards it investment. So take a look at your whole enterprise when you do 80 investments. They also say that given the complexity of implementing it projects both within and across state agencies clarifying the governance structure during the initiation phase of the project is, is essential.

Above are the first few pages of a computer-generated transcript with all its computer-generated quirks. A human-generated transcript is available to Premium subscribers starting with episode 136.