The End is Nigh

By Chris Grey

What does that mean? Basically it means that the end is upon us, but not quite yet. This has particular importance when the end of a project is reached because in my experience many project manager's interpretation of that all important phrase "when the project's objectives have been met" falls short of the real world need.

I have seen many project plans where the final milestone is linked to some element of the project plan such as QA sign-off or, slightly better, Customer Acceptance sign-off. This falls short because this is often indicative of a complete lack of knowledge transfer.

Oh yes, many plans include training but this is not the same as knowledge transfer. Only a very few products, especially IT related products and definitely a tiny percentage of internal IT products, can be released into the wild with a simple training event. Most require the end users to be supported by the real knowledge holders for some time after delivery and this is inevitably the project team.

So there needs to be a definite resource allocation and planning for this knowledge transfer activity. Allocate a reasonable amount of time and a mix of resource (team members, including yourself) to knowledge transfer after sign-off. Don't forget to ensure that the appropriate processes and procedures are created to ensure that the full time support team benefit from this team's knowledge. Do not close out the project until this element has been completed, there may be lessons learned elements that only come to light through the knowledge transfer activities. But do ensure that those not involved in the knowledge transfer activities complete their close out tasks (they may have forgotten all about the project by the time you get to finish the knowledge transfer).

“Chris Grey is a versatile Project Management professional with in excess of eight years experience combined with a proven track record in the successful completion of projects relating to IT, business process re-design, software design/development and turnkey deployment of software solutions. He is dedicated to promoting Project Management through the provision of solutions based on formal methodologies combined with mentoring of existing staff”.

If you would like to contact Chris about the article please get in touch:tipoffs@projectmanagementnewsletter.co.uk

Back to the Future

By John Gough, Director of Diabolo

It looks like all of us will now be working into our seventies, as we all realise that our retirement income is just totally inadequate. Forget the halcyon days of the 1970's when everyone assumed they would retire at 55 and spend more halcyon days sailing around the Med' or wedded to the golf course.

To some who have never saved a bean that may not come as a surprise, the state pension has never offered a profligate lifestyle, but to others who have religiously stuffed money into pensions it's a bit disappointing to say the least, so who do we blame for this rum state of affairs. A recent government enquiry headed by Sir Derek Morris the former head of the Competition Commission puts the blame squarely in the hands of the actuarial profession.

Sir Derek found that actuaries 'substantially' underestimated the scale of contributions needed for adequate pensions and that although the industry could not be blamed for failing to forecast the future, they were slow to adapt to a changing economic climate and 'they remained too locked into the environment of the 1970's and 1980's…..they were not sufficiently innovative…and were too persuaded by their own abilities'

Actuaries are trained for years and paid a fortune, but even they cannot get anywhere near predicting the future. So is a wrong forecast better than no forecast? I was at a presentation last week where the Finance Director congratulated the business for achieving costs that were below budget, and sales that were above forecast. Well who set the budget and the forecast, because it was plainly wrong and yet this was OK, because the actuals fell the right way.

Most businesses have given up those big 5 year plans, they may have strategic direction, but planning in detail based on spurious projections is a thing of the past. Ironically, this in turn has led to more short term thinking, we cannot predict the future so why bother.

New year is traditionally a time for looking forward, but as none of us can predict the future, it's surely a waste of energy pouring too much time into budgets and forecasts, they are after all just a device to determine the winning post. Instead there is real value in spending more time understanding what is changing around your organisation, because it is these changes that will shape the future.

Organisations must remain acutely aware of what is going on around them, their collective antennae should bristle, otherwise they risk following the actuarial profession and getting locked into an environment of now. Too many organisations live for the day to day, but to survive, organisations must proactively manage their reaction to the change.

An effective way to do this is to simply ask 'what if' questions, followed by 'if so why and if not, why not':

What if healthy eating cuts into the burger and fries business?
What if music downloads affect CD sales?
What if there is a consumer backlash against off-shoring?
What if the trend to work life balance leads to fewer office hours?
What if Chinese 'IBM' PC's lower the cost of world PC production?
What if blogging replaces traditional journalism?

Maybe we cannot see the future, but we can at least listen out for change.

About Diabolo

Diabolo promotes an innovative dynamic approach enabling change in organisations by connecting hard-headed business skills with the human spirit and values. Combining our collective knowledge and experience, we have created some powerful frameworks for business thinking. We call these Diabolo Journeys. We use a highly visual technique to guide clients through complex processes with clarity of thought. By combining tried and tested coaching and consulting practice with graphics, we have developed a suite of Diabolo Journeys covering many business issues.”

John Gough is a Director of Diabolo

Careers: Objectives and the CV

By Lindsay Scott, Arras People

Arras People receives hundreds of CV's every month from people all across the project management spectrum - from people applying directly for advertised posts or through our registration process. Hundreds of CV's using different styles - layouts sourced from books, friends, the company standard or specialist CV service providers.

What do you think is the most underused and undervalued space on your CV? In a poll of 100 CV's we currently hold on record only 5% use the CV to show a prospective employer what it is they're looking for. The objective also often gets confused with the personal profile so what exactly is it?

The objective is "a statement of what you want to do for an employer", for example:

"Objective: To obtain a challenging project co-ordination position within a public sector organisation which will allow me to continue developing my project management skills, with a long-term aim to progress to the role of Programme or Project Office Manager."

Anything written in the objective must also be clearly backed up in the rest of your CV and this can take the form of a personal profile and then the normal chronological layout of your works experience.

So why do we encourage people to spend time writing their objectives? For a number of reasons; it makes your application stand out from the 100's of others the client may be reviewing, it shows the employer you've taken the time to think about your application and above all else it makes you the most ideal employee on paper!

So what do you need to think about when putting together an objective? Here's a list of some of the do's and don'ts:

• Don't be too general - there wouldn't be much point in including an objective in the first place
  
  
• The objective should take into consideration your skills, abilities, aspirations, education and interests
  
  
• Write a new objective for each position you apply for - difficult when there's a limited advertised job specification but make the effort
  
  
• Remember to tell the employer in your objective exactly what it is that you can do for them
  
  
• Be realistic and sensible in your aspirational goals
  
  
• Take time to do the objective properly and get friends or family to review it

This article was written with reference and thanks to M Owens at Job Locator

Roles and Responsibilities: At last a comprehensive guide

Reviewed by: Lindsay Scott

In our last edition of tipoffs we featured a new book recently published called "Project Management Roles and Responsibilities".

The book released by the Center for Business Practices(R) (CBP), focuses on the core responsibilities and competencies of project personnel across a variety of roles. So lets get down to basics, why should you buy it?

Straight away it's become a well thumbed copy at Arras People because its a great source of help when defining roles or key skills for some of our project management roles (especially some of the more obscure roles we are asked for help in providing). But what information would this book provide you?

Preparing the Project Initiation Document
Use the role descriptions to help you in putting together the roles and responsibilities as required in the PID or any other project communication documentation

Use it for a career development checkpoint
Each job title is broken down into Role Overview, Suggested Duties and Responsibilities, Suggested Knowledge, Skills and Abilities, Suggested Background, Experience and/or Education. Some of suggestions are more aimed at a US audience but it is minimal. You can use it as a mental checklist to see how you compare and highlight your strengths and weaknesses.

Prepare your own job specification
If you're preparing for an annual apprasial use the lists to generate your own ideas on where you should be improving your skills or even gaining new skills. Be ready to talk to your boss, armed with good research.

Get better resources in your project team
Use some of the suggestions to assist you in complying new role specifications for existing or new team members. The roles covered in this book help generate ideas about what you do or don't have covered in your project team

Keep up to date
Project Management, Project Offices, PMO's, Centres of Excellence etc etc, things keep moving on all the time in this field and the book, in addition to the roles and responsibilities, also covers "Strategic Project Office", "Building Project Manager Competency" and "Project Control Functions"

Positions described in this book include:

-- Project Portfolio Manager
-- Strategic Project Office Director
-- Manager of Project Support
-- Manager of Project Managers
-- Project Management Mentor
-- Program Manager
-- Project Manager
-- Project Team Leader
-- Project Support Team Member
-- Project Controller
-- Project Planner
-- Project Scheduler
-- Project Estimator
-- Risk Management Coordinator

PM Solutions - Rationale Behind the Book

More and more organisations realise that today's project managers will, in the future, rise through the ranks and bring the same set of skills to bear when effectively managing enterprise-wide project systems that they now use to manage individual projects. To position themselves to take advantage of this situation, companies must look hard at their division of responsibilities, their ability to leverage projects for competitive success, and their commitment to project-centered role design.

According to co-author J. Kent Crawford, CEO of PM Solutions, "Most of the reasons projects fail are management related. Most enterprises have no processes in place to ensure that project managers are appropriately trained and evaluated." With Project Management Roles and Responsibilities, companies can identify their project management needs, streamline management, reduce bureaucracy, facilitate the development of intellectual capital, and remain focused on their strategic goals.

Project Management Roles and Responsibilities describes not only the duties associated with each position, but also the rationale for their existence, and the knowledge and skill sets necessary in any candidate. These project management descriptions have been developed over several years from a review of actual job descriptions used by companies in a variety of industries around the world.

This 102-page paperback book is available for purchase at www.cbponline.com. The list price is $19.95 USD per copy, but is currently being offered for a special introductory price of $17.95 USD.

Read a good project management book lately? Tell us about it tipoffs@projectmanagementnewsletter.co.uk

Thanks to Mary Yanocha at PM Solutions

New Roles from Arras People

For all our current live vacancies see the website at www.arraspeople.co.uk/jobs.php

Hot Jobs! We have a number of on-going recruitment campaigns for a number of clients:

Project Management Careers Clinic Timings for February 2005

Career clinic timings over the coming month:

Project Managers - 09/02/05

Project Support / Project Office - 23/02/05

Programme Managers/Executives - 09/02/05 & 22/02/05

> Book now

Recent feedback - From a candidate wanting to discuss "testing my expectations of my market value" - Recommendation to others to use the service "Absolutely - the session matched my expectations completely, and the format was practical."

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