Meeting Agendas – Perception of Professionalism

 I remember the first project that I managed.  It was an ERP project for a client and the existing project manager was leaving to take a position with another company.  At about 9:00 in the morning the PM said “Since I am leaving, why don’t you run the status meeting today?”  The meeting was for 10:00 and I said “sure, no problem”.  Well, the managing V.P. from my firm was in attendance that day.

 We had the usual 30 person status meeting.  I was a little nervous, but I felt the meeting went well.  After the meeting, the VP wanted to meet to go over how the meeting went and for me to get his feedback.  Well, it was a meeting I would not soon forget.  He read me the riot act!  He let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I NEVER conduct a meeting without a meeting agenda.  The perception was that I, and the firm, where unprepared.  He stated that there was not the FLOW of a properly prepared meeting.

 I learned my lesson that day, and he turned out to be one of my best mentors.  He was right, of course.  The next meeting, I had the Agenda prepped days in advance and ran it by him just to make sure that it was appropriate.

• What is an agenda?
  • It is a list is a list of the individual items that need to be discussed to achieve the meeting’s broad aims
  • Agendas may be drawn up and circulated to all participants before the meeting, or they may be agreed at the actual meeting.

 

• Why is an agenda important?
  • Helps you prepare
  • Communicates expectations for the meeting
  • Provides a mechanism for order and control
    • Limits the tasks and participants
  • Helps measure success/failure of a meeting
  • Describes your objective(s) for the meeting and creates an outline of the steps to get to the goal
    • Assigns time buckets and set time limits
    • Schedules items in order of importance

 Here is the Mind Map template that I use for any meeting:

 

My Meeting Agenda Template

 All this will fill out a standard  Meeting Agenda template:

 

Meeting Agenda

I know this may seem simplistic, but this will make your meetings more efficient and will give the attendees a feeling of confidence in the meeting organizer.  As a PM, you represent not only yourself, but also the organization.  The perception of professionalism is built at the start and it is up to you to maintain it.

Preparing Project Charters

I come from a consulting background where you were paid proportionately to the volume of paperwork that you produced.  Half joking aside, I have produced Project Charters that were well over 30 pages in length.  This begs the question, who truly reads them and what value does it bring to the project, team members, project sponsor and the steering committee? 

When I was the PMO Director of a Fortune 500 company, I created a template for Project Charters that would produce a 2 page document (3 pages if there were a lot of signatures).  The concept was that the document truly had to mean something to all of the people involved.  It had to lay bare the scope of the project . . .

So here is the process:

After assembling the team (and preferably the project sponsor) I would attach my computer to the projector so that all could see.  I would start up my Mind Mapping software (more on that later).   

It came down to a filling out a 6 step process template in order to create the Project Charter:

  

Project Charter Template

 

• Step 1: Project Name
  • Process
  • Code Name
• Step 2: Overall Understanding of the project

Instead of one overall Charter and individual Charters per phase, put all into one.

• Define Phases
• Define stages within Phases
• Sub-projects
  • Define
  • Assign Leaders
  • May need separate Charter
  • Time Targets
  • Org Changes
  • Process Changes
  • Software tool
    • Define all Systems
    • Define all Vendors
  • Project Admin
  • Communication
    • Marketing of Project
  • Metrics
  • Rollout
    • By System
    • By Geography
• Step 3: Objectives
  • Answer the WHY?
    • Understand Why the Company is doing the Project
  • Metrics
    • Measure

Measurability is a characteristic of the Objectives

• Delta may need to be determined
• Standardization
  • Ease of Use
  • Speed
  • Cost Reduction
    • Overhead reduction
  • Process
    • Refine answers
    • Increase productivity of operations
• Step 4: Scope
  • Answer the WHAT?
    • Deliverables

Tie Scope to Deliverables

• Step 5: Assumptions, Concerns and Constraints
  • Assumptions
  • Concerns
  • Constraints
• Step 6: Stakeholders
  • Include people for political purposes
  • Program vs Project (or sub-project)
  • Customers
    • BU Manager
    • Division Presidents
  • Sponsors
    • Director
    • IT Working Council
  • Project Manager

Program Leaders

• Could be Project Leader

May not do the Admin part

• Project Analysts

To do the Admin part

• Team Members
  • Own the task

 The process at first may seem hard to follow for some of the team members, but after a while, they get it and they are enthusiastic to participate.  The mind mapping software that I use is Mindjet Mindmanager www.mindjet.com .  I will provide future articles of my use of mind mapping in project management.

I take the results of what is created and produce a 2 – 3 page document.  We all agree to the Charter, because we all had a hand in its creation.  The process takes between 1 – 3 hours depending on the participative mood of the team and the level of depth of the project scope.  Then while everyone is in the room, I get all the team members signature as well as that of the project sponsor.

I would like to add the Mindmanager file *.mmap file but WordPress does not recognize this as a file for upload.  If anyone knows how I can do so, please comment on this site.   Thank you, Greg Cimmarrusti, PMP

The 3PM Twibe

First of all if you are into Project, Program or Portfolio Management (3PM) and are on twitter, then you need to join the 3PM twibe:  http://www.twibes.com/3pm .  This particular site captures all of the members tweets that have #3PM, #Project, or #PM in the text.  This way you can view in a captured mode all of the tweets for later review.

 

The site is dedicated to Project Management, Program Management and Portfolio Management. It includes tweet entries that are new issues or products in the PM world. It is intended to be informative to all project managers.

 

Definitions:

• What is a Twibe?  A Twibe is a group of Twitter users interested in a common topic who would like to be able to communicate with each other.  On each twibe’s page, there is a list of twibe members.  There is also a tweet stream that lists tweets from Twibe members which contain key word tags. Tags are set by the Twibe founder and are listed just above the tweet stream.  You can browse through Twibes that have already been created by going to www.twi.bes.com/twitter-groups
•  How do I join a Twibe?  Anyone who subsequently tweets http://twibes.com/3PM will also join the twibe.  Be sure that the full URL is included in the tweet. Please note, some desktop applications through which Twitter users tweet may filter the URL, and thus cause an error. 
•  How can I communicate with my twibe members?  In order for you to tweet directly to your fellow twibe members, they must choose to follow you. There will soon be the option to “Follow All” in a twibe or follow members individually.  Also, using one or more of the search tags in your tweets, will allow your tweets to show up in the tweet stream on your twibe page where they can be viewed by your twibe.

PM Tools: Freeform Databases – OneNote versus Evernote

When I first started managing projects, I knew the importance of keeping all of my project information in an organized tool.  Particularly email, notes to myself, copies of memos, status reports, team info, etc.  I first started with a product called Infotree from Nextword http://www.nextword.com/Index.htm .  This allowed me to capture my emails (incoming and outgoing) by cut and pasting them into a tree-like hierarchy.  I did the same for nearly every document I created.  Worked well, outside of the manual cut and pasting.

 

Problem occurred when I was on a project that the client would only allow us to use their computers (due to security reasons).  Well I wasn’t going to install my program on their computer.  That is when I came across a program called Treepad http://www.treepad.com/ .  Same concept as Infotree, but the business edition allowed me to run it off of a thumb drive.  Problem solved.  Matter of fact, I had even upgraded to the Enterprise 12 GB version.  Knowing that my 8 GB stick could hold a lot of info, plus it allowed me to open 5 files at a time and search between them.  I created the following databases:

• Client database with a tree structure for email (inbox and outbox), files, memos, status reports, issues and resolutions, risk, etc.
• PM database with PM articles and PM templates that were instantly available to me.
• Administrative database with info from the firm I worked at
• Software database with particulars on the software we were implementing, usually large ERP projects.

 

Then I started playing with Microsoft OneNote (see http://www.iheartonenote.com/index.php ) the biggest OneNote fan site.  This is probably one of the most under rated products by Microsoft.  Just a fantastic program.  It allowed me to setup a Project notebook with individual folders relating to project specific needs.  But the biggest time saver was the OneNote icon in Internet Explorer and Outlook.  I could just click the icon and my email would be automatically saved, same with any page in Internet Explorer.  It also could capture audio and was easily used within the Microsoft office suite.

 

But once again, I could use it on my laptop, but not necessarily on the client’s computer.  Then I found Evernote http://evernote.com/ .  Evernote gave me the ease of copying info from Outlook, Internet Explorer, but also MS Word, it could find text in graphics and pictures.  But most important of all, it could run from my thumb drive, Internet Explorer, even an iPhone (if I had one).  When I posted the Question “OneNote versus Evernote” from a PM perspective, I received the following tweet from Stan Scott, Twitter: twitter.com/stannyc “Evernote lives everywhere (PC, Mac, Web, iPhone), not OneNote. I find ON’s hierarchy confusing. EN’s tags and notebooks work”.  From Dan Fernandez on Twitter: twitter.com/ag92 stated “At present I have only used Evernote for personal stuff. I really like OneNote’s canvas approach for content.”

 

Now the question is to you, what are your thoughts OneNote vs. Evernote for the Project Manager?  Or is it one of the other tools that I have mentioned, or something different altogether?  Now I am referring to tools for just you as the PM, not Sharepoint for the whole team.

My PM “Piece de Resistance”

Have you ever thought back on your project management career and find that one project that just rings true?  That it was because of your efforts, ideas and fortitude that you were able to motivate the team and through a “Team Effort” bring the project to a successful completion.

Well, I looked back at a troubled project that I was brought in to rescue.  The client laughed when I asked if I could see the last 3 months of status reports, it had been months since one went out.  The project plan had not been updated in the same period of time.  I thought to myself that this is definitely a ship without a rudder.

It was time to go “Old School” on the team.  My favorite project management approach is to take brown butcher paper and tape it on a wall (or in this case I used several of the large flip chart pages taped together).  I brought the team in to the room and had them sit down.  I told them that this is a team building event.  It was up to us to bring this project in on time and together we were going to work out the details.

I told them that we were going brainstorm and come up with all the tasks that needed to be done and that I was going to write them down on multi-colored 3 inch post-it® and stick them on the wall.  A different color would represent the different process streams (e.g. light blue = functional, green = technical, purple = training, orange = communications, magenta = conversion, etc.)  Each post-it was then had a line 2/3rds the way down and then again 2/3 the way across that to form 3 sizes of boxes on each post-it®.  In the large box I would write down the task that needed to be completed.  In the second largest box I would write down the “responsible party” – this is the person reporting back to me on the status of the task and not necessarily the person or team doing the task).  In the small box I would ask for the duration of the task and not the effort.  Knowing that many of the people on the project had “other” work to do, I was more concerned with how many days a task would take to complete (e.g. an 8 hour task being done in 3 days due to other obligations).

After the team brainstormed all of the multicolored tasks, I put a yellow post-it® on a 90 degree angle on the left side of the assembled flip chart paper and wrote the word “Start” and another on the right side of the paper and wrote “Finish”.  I looked at all of the colored notes and asked the question “if we were to start today, what would be the very first thing we could do?”  After hearing a couple of the responses that represented different process streams, I took each of those notes and placed them to the right of the “Start”.  I then drew lines from the “Start” task to these tasks.  I asked “are there any other tasks that could be started.  And a few more suggestions went up.  I then repeatedly asked “what is next?”  I would put the task up on the sheet and draw the appropriate lines.  Of course, one task could have several lines drawn from it to represent the one-to-many relationships or the possibility of many task lines to one task (many-to-one).

At first I saw some confused faces, I could tell that they did not know exactly what we were doing, but before long, I had several people up and putting the tasks on the board and drawing lines to make the connections.  I had them write on the lines if the relationships between the tasks are F/S (Finish to Start), S/S (Start to Start), or F/F (Finish to Finish).  Before long we had our network diagram completed.

I then had everyone leave while I then put the network diagram that we just completed into MS Project to determine the critical path as well as the estimated completion date.  We then met the next day and I had the project plan up on the projector with the critical path highlighted.  I said this part will require some more attention to detail.  Our “plan” had us finishing in over 60 days and I told them our goal is to compress the plan to what is truly realizable.  We looked at the critical path at the largest duration task.  I asked if we could make this in 10 days versus 13 days.  The conversion team agreed to this.  Recomputed the plan and now we took a look at the next biggest duration task . . .and so on and so on.  We finally got the plan down to 45 days and we all agreed that this was realistic.  With big smiles, we had our plan and I managed to that plan.

 Everyone enjoyed the experience, they felt committed to the project, and we used that same process for the detailed cutover plan.  We put the cutover plan on the wall of the “War Room” and would put a “/” through the post-it® when we started the task and an “X” when we completed the task.  Everyone could visually see where we stood on the cutover process, what the next task to be done and if we were on schedule.  This type of planning works and I try to use it on all of my projects. 

I was proud of the project, the team, and myself to make it the success story that it was.

Agile Project Management: The New Software Methodology?

This is my impression of Agile Project Management:

Agile Project Management . . . What is it?

Agile programming breaks down an application development project into smaller modularized pieces.

»      Each piece is addressed one at a time in a very short time frame (called a sprint). This adds to the application and represents a complete part of the functionality.

»      You can deploy the application and expect people to accomplish some amount of work with it, even if the application does not do everything that is intended upon full completion.

For example, if you were creating a word processor, one iteration might be its spellchecker. The spellchecker adds functionality to the word processor, but it affects only one aspect of the application.

Before the developers create the iteration that handles spelling, users can work with the word processor without that feature in place.  They simply cannot perform a spell-check on what they write.

Reasons to use Agile Project Management

Businesses need a way to reduce development costs, improve software reliability, decrease time to development and ensure applications actually work with the users, rather than against them.  Reducing the number of errors developers make when designing and building applications.

In addition, Agile programming techniques can eliminate that most expensive development cost of all: the failed application.  Source: www.CIO.com : ABC: An Introduction to Agile Programming

Agile Project Management  :  A Scrum Iteration Example

 

Scrum (the word “Scrum” comes from a terminology in Rugby) is a management-focused agile methodology that is straightforward and can be used in a wide variety of project environments. The Scrum methodology provides the guidance necessary to direct a project in an environment of high variability and where some departments within the customer may have conflicting or competing interests.  Of all of the Agile methods, SCRUM appears to be the most popular.  The daily communication engages the stakeholders. Scrum requires that the customer not meddle with the team while in sprint and accept that the team may alter sprint goals as required by the difficulty or ease of its tasks. Scrum out-of-the-box is formulated for smaller teams. However, it comes packaged with a scaling strategy, based on a Scrum of Scrums, that is claimed to have been applied to an 800-person project

Product Backlog: team converts the features requested by the customer into a list called the sprint backlog of specific and estimated tasks

Sprint Planning Meeting: The sprint planning meeting is actually two meetings that are timeboxed to four hours each and meant to be completed within the same day. In the first meeting the team assists the customer (called the product owner in Scrum) in selecting the functionality for the upcoming sprint. In the second meeting, the team converts the features requested by the customer into a list called the sprint backlog of specific and estimated tasks

Sprint: Timeboxing is an important feature of the 30-day sprint. This forces tough decisions about functionality and design. The more things different customers request at once, the longer it will take for the project to produce anything of value; meanwhile, there is always a more elegant design solution if the programmers would keep looking. The timeboxed sprint keeps the team from entering into such low-productivity quagmires by forcing the customers to agree on the features the team will produce in the next 30 days and by giving the team a hard deadline to deliver as much of those features as possible.

Daily Scrum: Scrum uses the daily Scrum meeting (short in duration), which facilitates daily communication from the programmers on the project to the otherwise unengaged stakeholders. This meeting ensures that the team communicates frequently, that no one ever wanders far off course, and that customers are made aware of roadblocks in a timely manner.

I hope this was informative in giving you a look at Agile Programming. 

First Post

As my first post, I believe that it would be good to talk about my mission statement for this blog.  I would like to discuss first hand accounts of projects gone well as well as those that propose more of a challenge.  I want to bring the latest news in the world of Project Management, Program Management, and Portfolio Management (3PM).

I have had my PMP since 2003.  I remember the studying and rote memorization of the different aspects of the PMBOK.  I was fortunate enough to take a prep course (Chetah Learning) and would highly recommend this route for those seeking to take the PMP.  A good friend of mine, Cornelius Fitchner, hosts the PMP Prepcast www.pmprepcast.com and I would recommend that people access this also.  Cornelius is the owner and host of the Project Management podcast www.pmpodcast.com as well.  This is probably the most listened to podcast for Project Management.  With well over a 100 episodes of all phases of project management, he continues to push the knowledge envelope for PM’s.

I look forward to this journey with you and may we both be better because of it. 

All the best,

Greg Cimmarrusti, PMP