Bloomport U

Ok, if you are like me, you have likely pondered the fact that Y2K was nine years ago and we are just 365 days short of closing out the first decade of 2000.  Considering how far we have come in the past 10 years from a PM perspective, I came up with three New Year’s Resolutions for Project Managers to give a fresh perspective for 2009.

1. Reapply, don’t invent (still)

During A project I managed in EMEA, I remember a plant manager (customer) asking why one service line used an “issues list” while the other service used an “action list”.  His premise was pretty basic, “this is one project so why do I have to look at two different lists?”

For sure this might sound logical, but if you wander across any number of project repositories and look at the “team roster” document you will see there is still room for improvement. 

This makes sense from the customer and the operations perspective.  Our customers are likely to participate in several projects and may even be participating in several at the same time.  By using the same tools and techniques, we build “Project Management” brand familiarity across our service lines and where one customer is participating in several projects, they don’t find themselves asking “why do these tools look different?” 

From a service perspective, our PM operations should be built with the “Lego World” concept where we can quickly plug in resources where needed.  If the newly plugged resource has to spend time adjusting to newly-invented tools and techniques, our ramp-up time increases.

So the next time you are staring at a blank excel sheet or word document ask yourself “has this been done before” or “do I really need to start from a blank sheet?”  A quick check on the listed sites and you might find just what you are looking for.  Try <<link removed>> <<link removed>> or if you cannot find what you are looking for, try to Google your document at <<link removed>>

2. Learn to use collaborative tools

There are two levels to this resolution; let’s call them “basic” and “advanced”.

First, if you are a PM that struggles with checking-in and checking-out documents on SharePoint, this one is for you.  As a PM, the effective use of collaborative tools like SharePoint as a PMIS (project management information system) is a requirement as your projects get larger and resources/customers become more geographically diverse.  For those of you in IT, I would suggest the mastery of SharePoint as a PMIS is key as we move into web-based project and portfolio management tools.  These tools will enable “project dashboard” visibility that our customers and leaders crave.  If you need quick help in this area, Maxtrain has an online course for $25 USD that has been customized.  Regardless of your location, you should be able to take this training on your schedule to improve your skills.

Second, for the PMs inside the IT community, if you cannot articulate what the “Web 2.0” concept is, this one is for you as well.  Blogs, wikis, discussion groups, and video sharing are all components we need to continually evaluate inside the work environment.  The question for the PM is, what are you doing to leverage/evaluate Web 2.0 tools and concepts in your project?

Why?  Looking from the outside-in, you only need to see the explosion in Web 2.0 products (Youtube,  Facebook,  Linkedin, groups.yahoo) to see how the world is changing for the customer.  If you are not evaluating these tools (or even aware of them), how are you keeping your skills relevant as the world changes around you?  Still not convinced?  Looking forward, it’s only a matter of time before the Millennials move in and help us adopt.

3. Get PMP certified

Let me add some urgency to this one.  While I have not found the official news release, rumor has it that the PMP certification exam will be updated in June 2009.  If this is anything like the other exam updates, it will likely not be made easier.  Certification tips and tricks can be found at <<link removed>>  under <<link removed>> 

Why does certification make sense?  From an internal perspective,

1. Certification builds our competency to a professional level,
2. Standard processes help create the “PM culture”
3. Our competency is built on PMI standards
4. PMP certification is a requirement to move into the “advanced” PM level,
5. Most importantly, it enables the “Lego world” of standard processes, tools, & techniques.

Looking at the bigger picture, certification is all about using the best business practices to make our projects more efficient / successful enabling us to delight our customers.

Thanks for reading and I would love to hear your thoughts on these ideas.  For now, I am going back to figuring out where the last eight years went and eliminating “o-ten” from my vocabulary.