Project Manager

Whitepapers

• Psychology and Project Management—Raveendran Ranganayagalu & Dr Manikantan Poonkundran

  

  Psychology and Project Management
  Project Management usually has a framework and methodologies which are being followed for successful project management. While the framework and methodology is vital for project management, the human aspect of the project management too has to be taken into consideration since this human aspect has an important role to play in the way the projects are managed.

  Projects are managed by individuals who are unique in themselves and hence each individual manages his or her project in his or her own unique way. A same project if given to two individuals will be managed in two different ways. This is because the psychological aspects of the individuals such as perception and emotions vary hugely and play a pivotal role in many processes like problem solving and decision making which affects the way the projects are handled in the real world. This aspect may sometimes result in the difference between success and failure of the project. This paper aims to study the relationship between the psychological aspects of the individuals and how it affects the way the projects are being handled by different individuals in the world of project management.

  Author: Raveendran Ranganayagalu & Dr Manikantan Poonkundran
  Review status: Version 1, IBM India

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  Whitepapers
• Internal Work Package Handovers and Effective Knowledge Transfer—Russell Dunn

  

  Internal Work Package Handovers and Effective Knowledge Transfer
  Work-packages are often handed over or transferred internally peer-to-peer within the project team, such as when team members leave the project, or when management re-shuffles responsibilities. This paper reflects on the apparent shortcomings experienced by the author when using traditional dot-point style handovers, by identifying and analysing the knowledge transfer process at play. The distinction is made between information and knowledge when considering the underlying importance of harvesting the team member’s tacit knowledge obtained from in-depth involvement and association with a particular work-package. When attempting a smooth transition or handover of a complex work-package, context and purpose are found to be key elements required to be explicitly conveyed in order for the receiving peer to achieve empowerment with actionable knowledge and the capacity to act. A pragmatic approach is taken to develop high level tools and recommendations that could be implemented within a project team environment when aiming to optimise a smooth and effective transition while mitigating the adverse effects of lost project knowledge due to poor knowledge transfer practices.

  Author: Russell Dunn
  Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

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  Whitepapers
• Learning through Reflection while implementing an Agile software development methodology—Beatrice Ngo

  

  Learning through Reflection while implementing an Agile software development methodology
  This reflective report explores the topics of ‘reflection’ and ‘learning through reflection’ within the context of the project environment within one of Australia’s major telecommunications companies (hereby referred to as ‘The Company’).

  The project was to develop and deploy a comprehensive new software development methodology within The Company; a methodology based on the Information Technology paradigm of ‘Agile Software Development’.

  Implementing Agile methodology within The Company involved:
  —Industry and vendor engagement to develop a comprehensive ‘best practice’ Agile methodology and framework which also met the specific needs of The Company.
  —Training for staff within the large Information Technology department of The Company.
  —The implementation of new metrics and measures to reflect on, and validate the success of, the new methodology.

  The Agile methodology implemented within The Company incorporates a significant amount of reflective practice in the form of ‘retrospectives’. A retrospective is “a meeting held by the project team at the end of a project or process to discuss what was successful about the project or time period covered by that retrospective, what could be improved, and how to incorporate the successes and improvements in future iterations or projects”. The retrospective process:
  —Is an example of Social Learning.
  —Is an example of Experiential Learning.
  —Is not an example of Problem-Based Learning.

  The Company achieved several benefits through the use of reflective practice in the form of these retrospectives – such as:
  —Increased trust within the project team.
  —More effective reflection on work performance.
  —More effective project debriefings.

  Through reflection over time, The Company learnt various lessons in terms of ‘common ailments’ regarding their Agile projects, and suitable cures for each issue.

  ‘Learning through reflection’ could have improved the outcome of this project in various ways, such as:
  —Allowing the project team to achieve ‘double-loop learning’.
  —Allowing team members to learn from their failures.
  —Slowing the pace of learning, allowing proper comprehension.
  —Allowing ‘deep’ learning to take place.

  Author: Beatrice Ngo
  Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

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  Whitepapers
• Reflective Practices in Agile development of the On-Demand Virtual Lab—Phi Bang Nguyen

  

  Reflective Practices in Agile development of the On-Demand Virtual Lab
  The focus for this paper is to investigate reflective practices in an Agile software development project – The On-Demand Virtual Lab. It aims to understand how Agile development has been used in a technically complex ‘proof-of-concept’ project.
  This paper uses a systems thinking approach to understand the components of this On-Demand Virtual Lab. Both using a hard systems approach to understand the technical issues, as well as a soft systems approach to understand the personal issues.
  The investigation found that there were weaknesses in understanding the complexity and length of this project. There was a lack of support from management, as well as a lack of knowledge transfer.

  Finally, the paper presents two reflective tools, known as Agile-Jazz and Agile-ECG that have been demonstrated to be beneficial for teams involved in complex projects. Agile-Jazz is an enhanced management structure, which brings stakeholders together to reflect and understand the problems, and seek solutions together. Agile-ECG classifies the reflection into Emotions, Cognition and Growth – providing a convention to reflection and aiding discussion within the team.

  Author: Phi Bang Nguyen
  Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

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  Whitepapers
• Juggling client expectations and internal ROI—Dean Lewis

  

  Juggling client expectations and internal ROI
  All businesses strive to manage their resources as efficiently as possible. But for a professional services firm where skilled staff such as project and engineering consultants represent both their biggest cost and biggest source of revenue, effective resource management is critical to creating client value, enhancing profitability and maintaining a competitive edge.

  Clients want to know that their investment will improve their business, whether by lowering costs, enabling efficiencies or expansion into new markets. They also need assurance that a project will complete on time, on budget and within the agreed parameters. If a deliverable does look likely to slip, then they expect to be informed as early as possible.

  As such, professional services firms need complete visibility across their business. Projects must be planned, resourced and executed in a way that allows a firm to find the right combination of team members and skill-sets to maximise billable hours at lowest cost and achieve the best possible margin.

  They also need to be able to bid for contracts safe in the knowledge that they have the headroom to deliver on what they have set out within the tender. This is particularly challenging in the current economic climate, where headcounts have been reduced and recruitment programs frozen. The more prospective projects there are in the pipeline, the greater the risk that resources will be overstretched.

  Author: Dean Lewis
  Review status: N/A

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  Whitepapers
• Wrapping PRINCE2 around Agile—Roger Fance

  

  Wrapping PRINCE2 around Agile: You can, but should you?

  Over the years, many organisations have invested heavily to increase the chances of project success by establishing project management frameworks, methodologies, processes, tools, templates and training to support their project managers and teams and improve project management maturity.

  However, an ever increasing speed of change as a result of competition and technological innovation presents a serious challenge to business. It compels the need for continual re-evaluation of the project methods employed to ensure that organisations are responsive and adaptable enough not only to simply survive, but prosper. Some organisations have turned to Agile project management in an effort to improve their response to business change. In the right circumstances, Agile offers an effective way to rapidly react to change, indeed embrace change, through a range of management techniques. Some may be tempted to combine their original investment in traditional project management techniques like PRINCE2 with the benefits that Agile can bring.

  This paper suggests two ways that PRINCE2 and Scrum as an Agile framework could be combined and compares the characteristics of each approach in relation to governance, planning, risk, change and value delivery. It poses some questions that organisations should consider before trying to combine these two approaches.

  Author: Roger Fance
  Review status: UXC Consulting

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  Methodologies, Whitepapers
• Peaks and troughs of consultancy—Dean Lewis

  

  Coping with the peaks and troughs of consultancy

  Responding to ebbs and flows in market demand presents a continuous challenge for consulting firms tasked with creating bespoke solutions for project delivery. Client extensions, change requests and other project ‘peaks and troughs’ also make managing resources across multiple bids and engagements a complex task.

  Author: Dean Lewis
  Review status: N/A

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  Whitepapers
• Project-Space—Greg McMahon

  

  Project-Space: A new doctrine for warfare

  Managers have long drawn concepts from the military in meeting business challenges, from marketing to leadership. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how some project management concepts might assist the development of military doctrine for modern war.

  Developments to date in military doctrine appear most sophisticated at the conventional warfighting end of the Spectrum of Conflict models used by most defence forces. The doctrine at the ‘peace’ end of the spectrum appears less so.

  Project management concepts, a ‘Project-space’ if you like, to accompany the Battle-space concepts in military doctrine, is discussed, using the examples of integration and stakeholder management as leads.

  Author: Greg McMahon
  Review status: Presented at the 2011 IPMA World Congress

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  Whitepapers
• The State of Alliancing—Alain Mignot

  

  AAA: Focus on State of Alliancing and 2011 Highlights

  Collaborative contracting is alive and well, adapting to meet the changing policy landscape while continuing to tackle project complexity through relationship skill and enhanced productivity. Public sector agency representatives are actively applying and developing the principles of collaborative contracting and shared their perspectives with local and overseas peers at the Alliancing Association of Australasia’s (AAA’s) 2011 national convention in Brisbane in October 2011. Alliancing practitioners related their experiences over the past twelve months in applying alliancing to meet the challenges of delivering difficult infrastructure projects, including in disaster-torn communities in Christchurch and Queensland.

  Authors: Alain Mignot, Frances Walker
  Review status: N/A

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  Whitepapers
• Simulation and Industry Mentors—Weterman, Hogan

  

  Simulation and Industry Mentors as a pathway to learning ‘near world’ Project Management

  Students are increasingly finding it difficult to learn project management in a classroom environment that is conducted using a traditional teaching approach as it lacks the complexity to bring real-life project experiences to life. Simulation is a widely accepted technique to create models that resemble the real life business context and can be very useful for teaching and learning project managzement. Expert project managers can also share project management scenarios with the students and successfully mentor them during their learning process. This paper brings these two techniques together and presents an alternative teaching methodology for project management that uses latest simulation technology and involves industry mentors to generate ‘near world’ project knowledge and a positive learning experience in a stimulating, enjoyable and engaging learning and teaching environment.

  Author: Linda Weterman, Frank Weterman, Tania Hogan
  Review status: Presented at the 2011 PMOz Conference (PMI endorsed)

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  Whitepapers