Tips, hints, links, and helpful information related to the discipline of Project Management.
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Sunday, November 23, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Project Failure
Project Failures are everywhere. Below is a list of project failures taken from an article that appears on the Lessons-from-History website. You can read the full article here.
Why are there so many project failures? My therory is it they are many times a result of a combination of several things:
Weak project management
Poor or non-existent project sponsorship
An organizational culture that severely disfunctional
Incomplete and/or inaccurate requirements
Some Notable Project Failures (from Lessons-from-History.com)
The following list of failures happened within the project itself supporting the Standish claim that close to 50% of projects are seriously challenged:
- The IRS project on taxpayer compliance took over a decade to complete and cost the country an unanticipated $50 bn.
- The Oregon DMV conversion to new software took eight years to complete, the budget grew by 146% ($123m) and public outcry eventually killed the entire project.
- The State of Florida welfare system was plagued with numerous computational errors and $260m in overpayments!
- August 2008 Unencrypted memory stick lost with names/dates of birth of 84,000 inmates, England 's entire prison population. Home addresses of 33,000 who had six convictions.
- Feb. 2007 £20bn UK NHS computer system 'doomed to fail‘a senior insider has warned.
- 2007 laptop with records of 600,000 recruits was stolen from Royal Navy recruiter's car
- In September 2006 Department of Homeland Security admitted project failure and closed the Emerge2 program $229m (a new financial IT system).
- In May 2006 the disastrous Seasprite helicopter program for the Australian Navy, with $1bn spent, the helicopters were grounded due to software problems.
- In April 2005 inter-departmental warfare played a significant role in the failure of a $64m federal IT project.
- In 2005 British food retailer J Sainsbury had to write off $526m it had invested in an automated supply-chain management system.
- In 2005 US Justice Department Inspector General report stated $170m FBI Virtual Case File project was a failure, after five years and $104m in expenditures. Over one 18-month period, the FBI gave its contractor nearly 400 requirements changes.
- In 2005 the UK Inland Revenue produced tax payment overpayments of $3.45 bn because of software errors.
- May 2005 major hybrid car manufacturer installed software fix on 160,000 vehicles. The automobile industry spends $2 to $3 bn per year fixing software problems.
- July 2004 a new government welfare management system in Canada costing $200m was unable to handle a simple benefits rate increase. The contract allowed for 6 weeks of acceptance testing and never tested the ability to handle a rate increase.
- In 2004 Avis cancelled an ERP system after $54.5m is spent
- In 2002 the UK government wasted £698m on Pathway project, smartcards for benefits payments, & £134m overspend on magistrates' courts Libra system.
Mini nuclear plants to power 20,000 homes
From the Guardian
Nuclear power plants smaller than a garden shed and able to power 20,000 homes will be on sale within five years, say scientists at Los Alamos, the
The miniature reactors will be factory-sealed, contain no weapons-grade material, have no moving parts and will be nearly impossible to steal because they will be encased in concrete and buried underground.
The
Monday, November 03, 2008
Quality Improvement – Six Steps to Improving Quality
What key activities should be undertaken?
Collect data on all aspects of the theme (all problems)
Clarify the problems from various viewpoints
Select a problem collected in the previous step
Identify what the customer wants (their requirements)
Write a clear statement of the problem
Utilize data to help establish a target
Present the problem statement to management or your project sponsor
Tools You Can Use:
Checklists
Graphs
Pareto Charts
Control Charts
Histograms
Problem Statement Matrix
Note – Step Three will be coming in the next few days
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Quality Improvement – Six Steps to Improving Quality
Step 1 - Reason for Improvement
Objective – Identify the Problem (Theme).
What key activities should be undertaken?
Research for Theme(s) (Problems)
- Review key processes and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
- Survey internal/external customers
- Identify what the team knows (brainstorming)
- Conduct interviews
Determine Process Ownership (related to problem/improvement)
- Document the “As Is” processes
- Determine customer needs
- Determine what improvement is needed using available data
- Show likely impacts of the solution/new process
- Get to work on the new solution/activities
Tools to Utilize
* Control Charts
* Brainstorming
* Process Maps
* Relationship Interaction Diagram
* Variance Analysis
Key Questions to Ask
* What do we produce? (Work products)
* Whom do we do it for?
* How well do we do it?
* How do we know we are doing it well?
*** Note: The other five steps will be posted in the coming days.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
General Colin Powell and Leadership
The PMI website summarizes General Powell's remarks below.
“Leadership is leadership is leadership,” says General Powell, who served as a U.S. National Security Advisor for former President Ronald Reagan and held executive positions at several organizations.
“At the end of the day you have to convince a bunch of followers to do what you want them to do—and [convince them] that they want to do it.”
The goal, he says, is to make sure every member of the team knows what is expected of them and to create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. That means providing support, plus clear, concise missions and inspiration.
“The leader’s passion has to be the example of excellence in the organization and people will want to follow you,” he says.
Sometimes, though, the difference between a good leader and a bad leader is as simple as the ability to recognize when an employee is worth the investment—and when they are not. While it’s important, General Powell says, to capitalize on strengths and build on weakness, leaders can’t “carry dead weight.”
Saturday, October 18, 2008
In Denver,CO and a Mile High!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
See You at the PMI North American Global Congress 2008
I'm traveling to Denver on Saturday to attend the PMI Global Congress. Anybody else going? Want to meet up? E-mail me at sfseay(at)yahoo.com
PMI North American Global Congress 2008 Announcement
PMI is proud to host its Global Congress 2008—North America in Denver, Colorado, USA. The city of Denver is the largest city in Colorado and is also the state’s capital. The nickname of "the Mile-High City" was given to Denver because it is situated at an elevation of one mile above sea level. Denver has the largest park system in the U.S. and experiences more than 300 sunny days in a year, which makes it sunnier than San Diego or Miami Beach. Because of this and its proximity to the mountains, Denver has gained a reputation as being a very active, outdoor-oriented city for skiing, hiking, climbing and camping.
Denver lies at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and experiences a semi-arid type of climate. Autumn (October through December) has a warm climate with sunny days and cool nights. The climate of Denver can be quite unpredictable and does experience frequent weather fluctuations. A popular saying in Denver is that if you don’t like the weather, just wait a minute; it will change.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
John McCain shows he is a Statesman.
Monday, October 06, 2008
Principles and the Leader
I believe a most of our problems in society come from the fact that many of our leaders don’t live principle-centered lives.
What are principles that are easily recognized? These are a few: Patience, Kindness, Tolerance, Integrity, Honesty, Encouragement, Empathy…
Principles should guide our conduct, and when they do, they are easily recognizable by others. When our leaders decide to reject principles in order to gain power, influence or money, the organizations they lead are in deep trouble.
Many times leaders attempt to put aside principles to get short-term gains. They believe by making speeches filled with empty promises they will gain the trust of others. This happens all the time in our organizations and results in the same mistakes repeated over and over. Having said that, we keep electing the same people to office over and over, don’t we? Where has this gotten us?
Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”. To solve the tough problems we need to look at our paradigms and habits and be willing to change them. Sometimes this means firing (not re-electing) our current leaders.
Do we really think we can just buy our way out of the current mess on Wall Street without fundamentally changing the way things work (paradigms and habits) and putting principled leaders in place? Can you or your organization really change things for the better without focusing on principles and rethinking your paradigms and habits? Do organizations really believe that layoffs alone change anything when their current broken paradigms and habits are left intact?
I have seen the results of unprincipled leadership, and the behaviors these “leaders” exhibit can have a profound, lasting, and negative influence on others. The sad part is these leaders believe they are part of the solution, however we know better. You can’t lead your way out of a problem that you don’t fully understand, and if you try to do it without principles the results are easily predicted. DISASTER!
Big problems cannot be solved by small people and small mindedness. Remember, principles aren’t values. The Mafia has values, but their practices certainly aren’t related to principles. As Stephen Covey say’s “Principles are the territory. Values are the map”.
Friday, October 03, 2008
The Bailout is a Crime!
Give the Public $600 Billion By John C. Dvorak
The administration talks a big game about economic stimulus packages and claims that the public is the winner when taxes are low or they are simply given a handout to spend. So take $600-plus billion and give each man, woman and child $2000 each. That will distribute all this money. A family of 5 would have a nice $10,000 nest egg for a down-payment or to rent a house and pay off their credit cards thus sending the money back into the system.
The trickle-down bail-out is designed to go to the same people who gave themselves huge salaries and ran these firms into the ground? It gets them off the hook. They can then slither out of town when they all should be tarred-and-feathered.
Why not let the public buy up the mortgages at these low-ball prices and move in? Why can’t that be arranged? Use the FHA to do it if the banks cannot. Why do the crooks get to re-buy the bad mortgages at the low price? So they can gouge later?
There has never been economic stimulus from the top down when the money is given to these weasels. These are people who will sell dollars and buy Euros, or horde the money or move to Switzerland to spend the money there. All of the CEO’s of these failed companies have offshore villas. The average Joe spends his money in the USA, not Europe. It stays in circulation. Good things happen.
According to the pro-bail-out “experts” the economy should have melted down on Tuesday hurling us into a depression. Instead the market went up. So how does that work?
Start looking at this bail-out and you start to see that it is an exit strategy for Paulsen and his friends at Goldman, Sachs. There was a need to rush it through before anyone discovered what it was all about.
No oversight, a finance Czar, more free reign than ever.
Exactly why is there such a rush? It’s like the sleazeball salesman telling feeble-minded customers that they MUST buy now. It just makes no sense.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Destructive Leadership Behaviors Are Killing Good Organizations
One bad leader can poison an organization. Have you seen the destructive behaviors listed below?
Here are some of the "bad leader" traits that I have witnessed.
treat people as things or objects
rarely arouse, engage or inspire
aren't good at fixing problems, but excel at assigning blame
are great delegators, but don't like to follow-up
don't trust people that aren't in their close knit group (sometimes their close knit group is them)
believe in a sense of order, as long as they define the order
are greedy (more power, success, money)
believe people are easily expendable (they often have a history of failed personal relationships, marriages, business relationships, etc.)
don't have many (if any) true friends and close business relationships
aren't trustworthy and don't usually trust others
don't possess a common code of decency that others can easily recognize
consistently put their needs above those of their followers
aren't satisfied with what they have (jealousy and envy often drive their behavior)
take advantage of others in a way that can be personally destructive
usually can't create or implement lasting beneficial change due to non-involvement, personal courage, and conviction
are unwilling to have a personal stake in outcomes
often have personalities traits that are out of sync with mainstream thinking (this can also be a positive leadership trait)
often possess an uncanny ability to have both a blind eye and a deaf ear when dealing with others
take personal credit for group accomplishments or the accomplishments of others
are deceptive or intellectually dishonest. They muddy the truth with distorted language or they change the subject to attack your beliefs
rarely give public praise to another
aren't specific or can't be pinned down regarding their position
often leave others asking them to clarify their remarks or explain their position (often a hopeless cause)
love to communicate via e-mail to avoid facing others
often don't understand that the big picture is sometimes just one of the snapshots
use politics to gain power in a way that is unethical, unnecessary, and unwelcome
are self-centered vs. organization centered
often leave their followers "hung out to dry"
say one thing while actively planning to do something different
are poor role models
often make important decisions based upon sketchy information, emotion, or something out of the latest trade journal
believe they are smarter than everybody else
don't like to debate or participate in brainstorming sessions (this is beneath them)
are as transparent as a sheet of glass
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Ten Words for Thoughtful Planning
To help fix your organization in a small way, think about these ten things (I like the letter "S") to help you regain your planning focus:
______________________________
Strategy - Where are you going? Why do we need this? What is important?
Scrub - Scrub your data, scrub your processes, scrub your silos and across the silos to understand how things are managed and how work is accomplished.
Sort - Think about how work is done and who does it. Sort the work into distinct areas or functions. Plan for rework.
Scrutiny - Carefully review all information. E-mail isn't always your friend.
Sacrifice - Be willing to go to extraordinary lengths to have project success. Take your project's success personally.
Systems - Routines and processes for managing systems of things.
Strength - Focus on relationships. Focus on your strengths for each project.
Standards - Procedures that are followed. Continuous process improvement.
Stand - Be visible. Let the project members know where they are going and why. Lead!
Success - Define success for the project, and define success for your team.
The Measure of a Project Manager
Project management by the numbers