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For our 100th episode we are leaving the realm of “traditional” project management. We are taking a one-legged sideways step into the music business but we will still keep one foot firmly grounded in our own art. I am extremely pleased to welcome Alan Parsons (www.alanparsonsmusic.com) on our show today. Alan is a record producer, audio engineer and musician, who is probably best known for his engineering work on Pink Floyd’s legendary Dark Side of the Moon album and of course he is the founder of the Alan Parsons Project. From the late 70s to the late 80s the group produced 10 successful albums and their most played song is probably Sirius. Alan and I discuss the roles & responsibilities of a record producer in the production of an album, how the role has changed over the years, we discuss the processes involved in creating a successful album and you’ll be very surprised to hear what Alan thinks is the most important skill on the job.

As part of today’s 100th episode we are giving away two Alan Parsons Project CDs: The Turn of a Friendly Card. Listen to the episode to learn how to participate.

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Today’s overtime is with Stacy Goff. In last week’s episode Stacy and I discussed his paper titled “Measuring and Managing Project Quality”. And he mentioned during that interview that “My favorite Quality Indicator is the Planned versus Actual Cumulative Review Count”. So I gave Stacy another call to talk about these reviews in particular. We will learn all about the dos and don’ts of these reviews. And we will also look at the Periodic Table of Project Management Competence Elements.

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Several Quality-related problems are unique to projects. For one, it is difficult to measure. In fact, often key stakeholders cannot evaluate the true quality of the results until the delivery day, and then it is too late to do anything to resolve gaps. Also projects often produce something new. So there are few standards against which to evaluate “good” results. This means we are faced with the problem of having to measure something that is difficult to define and nobody has seen before. It's a problem. Stacy Goff, president of Project Experts (http://www.projectexperts.com), recently wrote a paper on exactly this issue. We welcome him back on the program to discuss his definition of quality, how using measures and indicators can help, learn about his favorite quality indicator and you'll hear a number of tips from his quality management toolkit, enabling you to measure quality on your projects.

In our Gizmos section we look at Insight Tree and we announce the winners of Jack Ferraro's book The Strategic Project Leader .

Read Stacy's paper titled Measuring and Managing Project Quality (*.pdf)

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In this episode Jerry Manas gives us additional insights into the gray areas. Because his book is called Managing the Gray Areas, we are concentrating on the actual management process. The tools that Jerry recommends and which we discuss at length are

• Ideals - Standing for something
• Leading by Questioning
• Systems Thinking
• Empathy and Cultural Awareness

Since these are mostly tools from the softer end of managing the gray areas we then go ahead and also spend time looking at a number of hard tools.

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Carrying on our series of leadership podcasts, we continue our discussion with Jack Ferraro on Strategic Project Leadership. We look at The Platinum Rule behavioral compatibility assessment and The MyProjectAdvisor Leadership Competency Pyramid. In particular we discuss the characteristics of a project leader and how we translate the theoretical knowledge from these tools into our daily lives. Jack also discusses how a strategic project leader uses efficiency, customization, foresight and connectedness in order to manage a successful project.

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This is a special Episode of The PM Podcast in which we introduce you to a new project management related podcast called PMPOD, hosted by Sebastian Stücker at www.pmpod.de. Here is what Sebastian writes about this episode:

Today the PMPOD features its first interview, which I am very proud of. Also it is the first english episode. To all german listeners, who might be surprised, I explain everything in Episode 3. The topic for todays interview is Project Blame Management. Payson Hall, a management consultant based in Sacramento, California, proposes this as new knowledge area for the PMPOK Guide.

I had lots of fun doing the interview with Payson and I hope you have the same while you listen to this episode.

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Have you ever managed a project where everything was either black or white, yes or no, approved or not approved? You probably haven’t. If your projects are like mine then most decisions that are made are a compromise. You give a little here, you take a little there. In project management nothing is really ever black and white. So don’t adjust your project plan, for you have entered the gray areas. And “Managing The Gray Areas” is the title of the new book written by Jerry Manas, PMP, who joins us on the podcast today to talk about these gray areas and all the tradeoffs that we project managers have to make every single day.

In our Gizmos section we introduce you to a new project management podcast called PMPOD. You can find it at www.pmpod.de .

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In addition to overseeing projects, today's project managers are expected to provide creative input and use their leadership to create an environment that can respond rather than react to changing parameters. And then there are also these continuously moving objectives and requirements that need to be managed. According to Jack Ferraro, this new landscape calls for a service based project manager, which he discusses in his book titled The Strategic Project Leader.

In our interview with Jack we explore the attitudes and behaviors that define successful leaders, the importance of a service view in project management and most importantly we discuss and give you tools & tips on how to go from being a certified project manager to the point where you are a strategic leader. In this one of our leadership podcasts you'll pick up some actionable advice on how to grow your leadership skills.

Click here to read Jack Ferraro's white paper titled Self Directed Leadership Development (*.PDF)

Our other features: In our Gizmos section we introduce you to Processes On Demand by BOT International, a tool that will help you set up your Project Management Office (PMO) and improve your organization's project management maturity. We announce the winners of the giveaway of Jerry Manas's book Managing the Gray Areas . And we also start a new book giveaway for Jack Ferraro's book The Strategic Project Leader .

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In this episode we continue our discussion with Lee Fischman on experimental projects. However, we shift our focus a bit and discuss successful team management. Lee argues that in order for an experimental project to be successful your team will need to perform a number of roles or "themes". He identified 7 such themes that will make you successful and we are going to look at all 8 of them. And no, that wasn't a typo. Even though we discuss project team management in the context of experimental projects, Lee's findings and recommendations are applicable across the board. Managing teams would be a lot simpler Especially his recap at the end is excellent advice for managing your teams.

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Have you clearly defined what sets you apart from other project managers? Do you understand how your own behaviors make others understand you as a brand? Can you "reap" the benefits of others promoting you instead of having to do it yourself? You will be able to answer all of these questions with a resounding "yes" if you are clear about who you are as a professional. If not, then others will make up their own image for you. Then they will broadcast that image. Wouldn’t it be better if you took control? To help you out with this we are extremely happy to bring back Margaret Meloni to discuss "Your Professional Brand" and how you can quite easily influence how others see you and help promote you. We give you a definition of the professional brand, we talk about the importance of having one, what benefits you will receive from it and most importantly, Margaret opens up her toolkit to you and gives you a step-by-step overview of how you can manage your own personal brand.

And here are the winners who each receive a copy of Hans Jonassons's book Determining Project Requirements: Adam Torres (Premium Podcast Subscriber) and Michael Potter (Free Podcast Listener).

We are also starting a new giveaway where you could win a copy of our brand new PMP Exam Formula Study Guide. Listen to this episode to learn how.

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Search for "Experimental Projects" on your favorite search engine and you will find millions of entries. However, most of us "corporate" project manager types will probably never have been involved in this branch of project management. On experimental projects, the outcome is uncertain, the road is bumpy, you will probably take a few detours and failure is part of the plan. Lee Fischman joins us on the program today to discuss not only the concepts behind experimental projects but also to take a look at how you can improve their outcomes. Put your brain into overdrive... especially if you have never been confronted with an experimental project.

And here are the winners who each receive a copy of of our brand new PMP Exam Formula Study Guide: Don Ellis (Premium Podcast Subscriber) and Ozeas Santana Filho from Sao Paulo in Brazil (Free Podcast Listener).

Click here to download the PDF presentation that Lee Fischman gave at the NASA Project Management Challenge in 2006...

If the above link does not work, you can download it from the website of Lee's employer...

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This episode is a few days late because I have been on a week long business trip. I am now all relaxed and ready to once again face my colleagues at work. But of course, in the first meeting that I have to attend today, there is the (grrrr) jerk who every time manages to push my buttons. If there were only a way to deal with this guy!

Well… we have all been in this situation on our projects and luckily, there is help there is help just around the corner. And that help comes to you in the form of Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP. She has been a regular guest here on the Podcast and because all of us know a jerk or two (or have sometimes been a jerk ourselves) Margaret is going to open up her resource toolkit for us and help us deal with the jerk on our project team.

We also take a quick look at Margaret’s two blogs and we announce the winners of two copies of the PM Lecture “Dealing with Difficult People”.

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In the last episode, Margaret Meloni, MBA, PMP and Cornelius Fichtner, PMP explored how to keep your cool when you are dealing with Jerks at work. However, there is an increasing focus on project managers in regards that they are now expected to become project leaders. This means that you not only have a lot more responsibility but you also will need different skills. So we are now going to jump a lot deeper into this subject and look at this topic from the point of view of a project leader.

We look at how you handle jerks on your projects in such a way that everyone can walk away feeling good.

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Are you by any chance a member of a PMI Specific Interest Group (SIG)? If so, then you will definitely be interested in what today’s interview guest has to say. We had a chance to speak with Brantlee Underhill at the PMI® Global Congress 2008 in Denver, Colorado. Brantlee heads up the PMI’s Virtual Communities Project. In a nutshell, this project aims at creating a unified and centralized infrastructure for all SIG activities. The bold step that the PMI is taking in creating this centralized approach is that the independent SIGs will be dissolved and reintegrated into the PMI itself.

As you can imagine, there are many viewpoints on such a move depending on which side of the fence you are on. Some think it’s a good idea and some don’t.

The voice that you hear today is that of the PMI. We also had a chance to speak with a board member from one of the SIGs that is affected by this move and we’ll get to hear him in part 2. And there will probably be a part 3 and 4 as we look for other voices on this topic..

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In part 1 of this Podcast you heard the voice of Brantlee Underhill, who heads up PMI's Virtual Communities Project. Since this project aims at replacing the current SIG structure with a centralized model and thereby dissolving the SIGs this means that the one voice we definitely want to hear is that of the SIGs.

That is why we got together with Derry Simmel, who is the PMO SIG’s Vice Chair Membership. We met Derry at the PMI® Global Congress in Denver and - as you might suspect - we get to hear a slightly different view of the VCP project than in part one.

If you happen to be a board member of another SIG and you would like your voice heard then please let us know. We’ll be happy to put you on.