Maven's Blog | PPM Capability Building - Business Transformation

Including change agents into project teams

2011-10-21T11:06:00.000+01:00

A very popular subject right now is how to integrate change managers into project teams. This is driven by the growing importance of managing the implementation and transition to new ways of working as a result of the project. Unlike a project team where there is broad agreement on the roles and responsibilities, organisations are still deciding what roles are associated with managing change. The names, position in the organisation and what they are expected to be responsible for is different in every situation, influenced by:

· organisational culture,

· the type of change – usually divided between technical changes to procedures or systems and behavioural changes i.e. how people approach their work

· the professionalism of the project and programme management environment

· the perceived strategic importance of the changes being planned by the organisation

Before deciding on what change roles should be included in the project team I use my knowledge of organisational change to identify the most important change roles as the basis of mapping these responsibilities into project and programme teams. For example:

· Change Sponsor - Has the authority to make the change happen, has control of resources and has a clear vision of what the change needs to be

· Local level sponsor – responsible for change in their division or section of the organisation

· Change agent – facilitates the change by acting as a bridge between the Sponsor and the implementer. Helps to plan the change, liaises with the project teams to ensure deliverables are ready for use by the Implementers, motivates and persuades Implementers to become involved in the change by identifying and encouraging Advocates

· Advocates – enthusiastic about the change and highly motivated to make the change happen

· Implementer – makes changes to their ways of working that makes the desired change a reality

For more information on this subject have a look at Managing Business Transformations: A Practical Guide OR http://www.maventraining.co.uk/change-management-explained/

Blackberry failures teach us how to manage project sponsors

2011-10-17T09:04:00.000+01:00

The crisis at Research In Motion (RIM) reminded me how important it is to fully involve the sponsor when projects are going wrong. I speak from some experience about what the teams are going through at the data centre in Slough as in a different life I was global head of crisis management for a large bank (definition of crisis: anything which made the senior management team shout!)

One of the most important lessons I learnt was that to manage the crisis you (in your role as project or programme manager or head of the PMO) have to create enough space between the sponsors and executives and those with the technical skills who can fix the problem.

When things go wrong the executives are the people who are ultimately going to have to take responsibility for the failure (and possibly issue the apologies to affected customers) want to know what's going on, how long the fix is going to take, how it went wrong in the first place and they want answers to all these questions at a time when the specialists are still defining the problem and identifying possible solutions.

Senior managers find it very hard to act as by standers, twiddling their thumbs waiting for information which is why they keep jumping in demanding answers. My technique relied on distraction - give the sponsors and senior executives something to work on over there so that the specialists can fix the problem over here. Senior managers do have skills and experience that can be used effectively in a crisis. Define your desired communications and get them out there delivering your message. It keeps them busy and it adds value as they can manage the repetitional risk aspects better than anyone and gives you the time to manage and support your team when they need it most.

Coaching for Project Managers

2011-10-14T12:29:00.000+01:00

I have carried out several coaching sessions this week for project managers who are under pressure to deliver against very tight deadlines. Although they feel they have so little time they have decided that it is worth spending an hour with me to review their project and to decide on next steps, which has made me think about the benefits of hearing the views of an independent, objective observer.

1. Someone with no specialist knowledge about your project can be very useful in assessing whether or not the objectives, scope and intended deliverables of the project described in the project brief are as obvious as the project manager believes them to be:

a. When I am given a project brief to read I invariably have questions about what I think the project is going to deliver which surprise the project manager because they think they have been so clear. This week I was reviewing a project which changes the way customers submit applications to a licensing body. By not knowing any of the detail I asked very basic questions which identified that the project had failed to include any acknowledgements back to the customers or any updates about the progress of their applications

b. A lack of specialist knowledge makes it easy to spot risks because I don’t have the technical expertise to make me believe things won’t go wrong and there is no voice in my head telling me ‘that would never happen’

c. Because I am not caught up in the enthusiasm for the project that helped get it off the ground in the first place its easy for me to ask ‘why are we doing this’ and be honest about whether I think the benefits are strong enough. I always ask two things: Would I spend my own money on this? Would I allow my staff to spend time working on this? No to either of these tells me that the benefits need to be strengthened. That means asking questions about whether this is a ‘vanity project’ i.e. its being done because its subject is important to someone with enough authority to authorise the work or whether the project is solving a problem that doesn’t really need a solution, because the problem is not that important or does not affect enough people.

2. An experienced project manager who is not responsible for your project can provide a useful quality check for your project plan:

· Identifying tasks that you may have forgotten but that they know are essential enablers to getting other things done. I looked at a project that is reworking how an organisation calculates pricing information for its sales team. The plan assumed that pricing information was pre-checked by the finance department, but there were no tasks involving the finance department in the plan – so it appeared on paper as if the pricing information magically appeared!

· Questioning whether all the interdependencies have been captured. I know that asking my project managers simple questions about the inputs to a particular task quickly identifies that the activity to create those inputs has been left off the plan.

It is not always possible to recruit a project assurance resource or hire an external consultant to provide this objective viewpoint, but its worth considering if other project managers in your organisation could act as the critical friend for your project if you return the favour.

Trends in project management 2011

2011-09-30T12:31:00.000+01:00

I gave a free briefing on the future of project management today that identified key trends for the project management profession:

Portfolio Management

Portfolio management techniques are being used by senior management to create an organisation wide summary of all the projects and programmes that are taking place, usually with the intention of removing a larger number as part of their cost cutting or efficiency initiatives.

This means that senior managers are starting to define criteria against which they will evaluate projects before deciding if they offer sufficient value to be authorised. I think this creates an additional pressure for project managers because we now need to ensure that not only are the benefits of our project greater than the costs but we also need to ensure that they are strategically important benefits.

In the briefing we a agreed that project managers need to get in the habit of describing how their projects contribute to strategic objectives because it is the achievement of these objectives that senior management are evaluated against, and they have a strong interest in keeping their jobs!

Benefits Realisation

We recognised that benefits realisation has become a widely recognised term and that senior managers are more likely to talk about achieving the benefits than worry about what is actually being delivered.

We discussed how important it is for project managers who are delivery focused (deliver on time, on budget and to the required standard of quality) to understand how benefits can only be realised if there is successful implementation of what has been delivered.

Change Management

We examined this model to see how knowledge of change management techniques is becoming increasingly important for those working in project management:

Aligning project management and change management is a hot topic. At the conference for the Association of Change Management Professionals in Copenhagen last week there were a high number of project managers in attendance, wanting to know how they could improve their project approach to include more motivation and persuasion activities to encourage operational staff to use the new systems and procedures that they have created.

Do you agree with the conclusions of those attending my briefing? Are you involved in realising benefits or portfolio management? Get in touch and let us know your thoughts.

New book launch

2011-09-22T15:16:00.001+01:00

Very exciting - my new book Managing Business Transformation: A Practical Guide has just been launched.

Buying this book gives you access to a ready made business change lifecycle, describing lots of change activities to move you from initial idea to successful implementation.

The change lifecycle has 4 steps:

- Understanding the change
- Planning the change
- Implementing the change
- Embedding the change

There is also a chapter on how to align the change lifecycle with a project lifecycle as I wanted to acknowledge that projects deliver change (new processes or systems etc) but that they don't usually go as far as ensuring that everyone has integrated these deliverables into how they work and therefore realised the benefits of the project.

I wrote the book because I wanted one source that would give me a change management equivalent of the project management books that explain what to do and how to do it. To buy the book go to http://www.itgovernance.co.uk/products/3561

I have had lots of positive feedback about the book, with a number of people saying they are already using some of the ideas. Jessica Wharton, APMG-International comments, “Managing Business Transformation is an easy and enjoyable read. I would happily recommend this to both experienced managers and those just starting out. As Melanie points out, even if you don’t deal directly with business transformation, knowledge on how to successfully handle it is priceless in any managerial role.” For her full review go to http://blog.apmg-international.com/2011/09/21/managing-business-transformation/#more-1944

Aligning project and change management practices

2011-09-21T13:35:00.000+01:00

Have just spent 2 days with 150 project managers and change managers at the Association of Change Management Practitioners European Conference. Key topic has been the integration of change management into project management.

Although effective project managers accept that making sure what they deliver is successfully implemented is within the scope of the project lifecycle a lot of project management frameworks don’t have any formal activities or processes for encouraging this. There are also practical considerations which push change outside of the remit of the project managers:
• It is not cost effective for project teams to remain in place once development and testing of the deliverables has been completed.
• Change activities can benefit from the knowledge of the project team, but individuals cannot outsource implementation and embedding, they have to make the changes for themselves.
• Projects are expected to deliver on time, on budget and to specific quality criteria, but the pace and scope of changes that individuals adopt cannot be constrained in this way.
• The objectives of project and change activities are different. Project activities deliver the potential for change: the new processes, systems, organisation structure etc.; change activities create the persuasion, motivation and leading by example that results in the new business environment.

Organisations are now starting to address these issues and some of the actions organisations are taking include:
Renaming all project managers to change managers – as the name reinforces their responsibilities for implementation
Establishing the role of change manager and making sure that there is a change manager for every project
Defining what the change activities are and making sure the cost of them is included in the business case for the project
Building a central ‘business support function’ that is staffed by project managers and change managers who work together on projects
Changing the remit of the PMO to become a centre of excellence for project delivery and the implementation of change

Back to work and under pressure

2011-09-13T12:23:00.000+01:00

There is a real ‘back to work/rushed off our feet’ buzz at Maven this week so we are trying to work smarter to fit everything in. One technique is to move as much as possible into ‘housekeeping mode’ i.e. turn tasks into regular actions that are carried out in the same way every time. The reason for this is that I want to reduce the time we take to do simple tasks so that we free up more time to be creative – to dream up new products and services, to spend more time with our clients and to look towards the future.

This approach is backed up by psychological research which explains that once we have learnt how to perform a task, our brains need less conscious thought (short term memory, which has limited capacity) to carry it out, and if we do it enough times it will move the task into our subconscious (long term memory, with lots of spare capacity).

This means that our conscious mind can spend time on more worthwhile tasks such as paying attention to what we are doing, focusing on a task, having new thoughts that lead to new ideas, learning new skills and being more innovative about how we approach things.

Although projects are all about doing new things and therefore, using lots of our conscious mind, we can make project management easier by transferring as many project tasks as possible into regular activities carried out by our subconscious. For example, logging, analysing and reporting on risks, issues and change requests, producing progress reports, sending out information to stakeholders.

By carrying out these basic tasks regularly we free up more time to spend identifying new ways of working that overcome the risks, or incorporate the requests for change. We can spend more time engaging with stakeholders, addressing their concerns and helping them to champion the project.

I believe that the methodologies offered by the Office of Government Commerce (PRINCE2; MSP; MoR; MoP; ITIL) are so effective because at their core they try to regularize as many project, programme and portfolio tasks as possible.

The methodologies set out what documents to use, in what order tasks should be carried out and which roles should perform them. This leaves managers with plenty of capacity to fully engage with their projects and programmes, managing them actively, rather than having to use their conscious brain to decide how to do basic tasks when they should be working at a higher level of creativity.

Get to know these methodologies (http://www.maventraining.co.uk/quick-guides/) to simplify your management tasks and give you the freedom to be innovative about how you tackle more challenging activities.

Building enthusiasm for the return to work

2011-08-31T08:43:00.000+01:00

Now that the Bank Holiday is over I feel a sense of ‘back to workness’ that is making me organise what I need to get done between now and Christmas (only 15 weeks to go!).

It’s a good time to plan some activities that will help you learn more and develop your skills so have a look at our new download http://www.maventraining.co.uk/latestnews/your-chance-to-organise-your-q4-diary/

It is also a good time to look back on the year to see all of the extra things you have done to increase your knowledge and make sure you keep a record of them. It is always useful to have an update list of all your development activities – for your CV or to bring up at a performance review.

The sorts of activities to look for include:
• On the job training
• Participating in workshops and briefings
• Holding a coaching session
• Mentoring a colleague
• Attending exhibitions and seminars
• Formal training courses
• Acquiring qualifications
• Delivering presentations
• Undertaking research assignments

All of these activities contribute to your continual professional development. If you want to read more have a look at our quick guide http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/19/619-introduction-to-the-structure-and-benefits-of-cpd.pdf or our new whitepaper http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/16/816-continual-professional-development-1.0.pdf

Is new X Factor judge a natural leader?

2011-08-22T10:10:00.000+01:00

Watching X factor last night was an interesting example of leadership. Louis Walsh, the only remaining judge from previous seasons could reasonably have been expected to take the 'head judge' place at the table and show the 'newbies' how it is done. However, from the first audition it became apparent that Gary Barlow was the true leader of the judges, with a range of actions and behaviours that led all of the other judges, Louis included, to follow him:
- He sat in the end seat previously occupied by Simon Cowell
- He sat back from the table, turned slightly away from the stage and towards the other judges in a casual gesture that indicated he was in control of the situation. This was in marked contrast to the other judges who all sat straight to the table facing the stage.
- When he disagreed with the views of the other judges he asked 'what are we doing' indicating that he expected their judging to fit with the previously stated objective of finding a 'global superstar' and indicating disdain for their childish endorsement of a clearly tone deaf Tai Chi instructor.
- He voted against the other judges in this situation clearly defining his willingness to be 'his own man' and not be swayed by the group
- During the breaks the other judges looked to Gary for leadership when returning to the stage much as the judges had previously waited for Simon Cowell to be ready before going back on stage.

Leadership is authority and control of a situation. You can decide if you want to take a leadership position in any given situation but your role will only be confirmed if others involved in the situation decide to follow you.

If you want to know about leadership, especially in the context of leading change within your organisation sign up for our change management course http://www.maventraining.co.uk/course-detail/_/change-management-foundation-practitioner/7/ and develop your leadership ability to rival that of Gary Barlow (even if your singing is not up to much!)

New resource materials

2011-08-15T12:23:00.000+01:00

August can be a useful month for taking stock on the achievements of the year and catching up with all the research and latest trends in our areas of business. For those of you involved in project, programme, portfolio, risk and change management I thought I would share some of the most useful articles I have been reading lately – I hope you enjoy them and that they provide food for thought:

The 5 Essential Metrics for Managing IT
This article has some useful ideas for those responsible for identifying which benefits to measure for their programme or what benefits to track within the portfolio. It also has some useful ideas about how to categorise initiatives within the benefits between discretionary and mandatory projects:
http://img.en25.com/web/CitrixOnline/Forrester%20Five%20Essential%20Metrics.pdf

Risk Management Comes of Age
This is a useful article for anyone who is involved in improving their organisations approach to risk management and is looking for evidence to support their cause.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2011/08/10/risk-management-comes-of-age/

Building Organisational Capability
This is a series of 4 thought leadership pieces from the APM Benefits Management Specific Interest Group and I thought the second one examining the journey to effective change management was particularly interesting:
http://www.apm.org.uk/news/delivering-benefits-investment-change-creating-organisational-capability

What Successful Transformations Share
This report summarises the results of the McKinsey Global survey on transformational change, and makes some very clear points about what drives successful large-scale change
https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/What_successful_transformations_share_McKinsey_Global_Survey_results_2550

Using programme management to deliver strategic objectives
This paper explains the case for using programme management as a structure that brings together project and change management into a cohesive approach that will successfully deliver the strategic objectives of the organisation
http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/92/792-using-programme-management-to-deliver-strategic-objectives-1.0.pdf

Project activity increasing for September

2011-08-09T08:14:00.000+01:00

Tonight I am watching two news items: rioting in London and Birmingham; heightening of tension in the financial markets in Europe and the U.S. Part of my job is to try and predict the future and work out what organisations will be concentrating their efforts on in the next 12-18 months.

Given the news coverage it is hard at times like this not to be pessimistic and think that the immediate future will be dominated by restructuring and redundancy programmes. However, I am cheered by the number of organisations that are rushed off their feet this August as they cope with 'opportunity overload' - holding workshops now to plan and define new projects and programmes so that the work can start as soon as everyone returns (although the amount of holiday being taken this summer is definitely lower).

This stream of new initiatives provides lots of opportunities for getting involved and making lasting improvements in our approach to work, our levels of innovation and customer service. If you are not sure how to get started have a look at the guidance I have put together to explain project, programme and change management: http://www.maventraining.co.uk/project-management-explained/, http://www.maventraining.co.uk/change-management-explained/ and http://www.maventraining.co.uk/programme-management-explained/

Using performance management to increase project success

2011-08-02T18:39:00.000+01:00

One of the most interesting aspects of my job is explaining the relevance of project management to those who are not directly responsible for managing projects. This week I met with an HR Director was fed up with projects which she saw as creating more problems than solutions as staff struggled to adopt the new deliverables.
We discussed the need to manage the implementation of what projects deliver as closely as we manage their development during the project lifecycle. Whilst PRINCE2 and other project approaches mention the need for effective implementation and handover, the activities are often specified as project closure activities rather than being embedded in the project from the beginning.
The HR Director asked me to include updating the performance management system as a standard project activity in her organisations project methodology.
Her reasons for this are simple. We know that people prioritise the tasks for which their performance is measured so if we want to drive use of project deliverables after we the project has closed and the project team has disbanded then we should plan for this. We can use performance management to ensure that the new ways of working are identified during testing and training and new performance metrics agreed and incorporated into job descriptions. We have to pass on the responsibility for use of the project deliverables as well as project deliverables that meet the user requirements.
Not unsurprisingly the HR Director said that this was such a simple step, she did not understand why it wasn’t mentioned in project management guidance. My answer was to explain that as project managers many of us do not have extensive experience in performance management because we are not line managers (I have built a career around avoiding the need to line manager large numbers of staff!) so the need to develop job descriptions, performance metrics and carry out staff appraisals is not in our DNA.

No summer slow down this year

2011-07-25T09:01:00.000+01:00

Today is the start of the school summer holidays, and traditionally many of us would be jetting off for a couple of weeks in the sun. However, this year there are lots more people who are using their holiday entitlement to go on training courses and get new qualifications. Those that have a job want to make sure they keep it by enhancing their CVs (in some cases they are paying for the courses themselves) and those looking for work are keen to make sure they don't lose time over the summer and are fully qualified and ready for job hunting during the busy September period.

This atmosphere has also extended to a significant number of our clients who are holding training events during the normally quiet August period, ignoring the 'summer slowdown' and just getting on with the work. It doesn't appear that anyone has the time to take a break.

Certainly the Maven workload reflects this - we have so many pieces of work that we need to have ready for September when everyone is back to work that the next 6 weeks are going to fly by.

What is your experience of the summer this year - are things going to quiet down in the next 6 weeks, or are we all going to maintain our manic pace, with no let up on deadlines and the need to get on and deliver?

Agile project management

2011-07-20T18:53:00.000+01:00

I was going to post a thought leadership piece about closing projects but I have had so many requests for our new Quick Guide on Agile Project Management that I thought I would just post this up again for you all to access - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/65/765-agile-quick-guide-1-0.pdf

If you want to book the next course its on the 22nd August - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/course-detail/_/agile-project-management-foundation-course/63/

Chief Programme Officer

2011-07-11T18:03:00.000+01:00

I was really interested to see an advert for a Chief Programme Officer in the Appointments section of the Sunday Times yesterday. This is still a rare event, but this job role is becoming better known and I think reflects the changes in how project and programme management is seen within organisations now.

In the last five years there has been a growing recognition that programmes and all the projects and change initiatives that they deliver are the mechanism for realising the strategic objectives of the organisation. This recognition is driving a change in the perception of the importance and relevance of those that manage these significant transformational change programmes.

At board level there are well understood processes for strategy formulation, backed up by lots of executive training in the models and theories of strategy including evaluating the environment, identifying target markets and setting quantitative targets.

Setting objectives and working out how they will be realised are very different disciplines. Who should be responsible for identifying what the organisation should do and how it should do it is not as clearly defined.

The board needs to ratify the decision on what programmes are required. However, the reporting lines between those who scope the programmes (programme managers) are not formally represented on the board. There is a gap that is usually filled by the CIO or COO, which is an imperfect situation.

Programmes are cross functional and to imply they sit within the remit of either of these directors is not strictly true. The remit of the programmes is transformational change, touching every part of the organisation and cannot be pigeon holed as either the responsibility of operations or IT.

By trying to funnel the responsibility for cross functional programmes into one functional reporting line the organisation creates a management structure that runs counter to the matrix management environment that it is asking its staff to embody.
Forward thinking organisations are now addressing this gap in their management hierarchies by creating the role of Business Transformation Director, Chief Programme Officer or Chief Projects Officer.

This role is a board level appointment that complements the more traditional CIO, CFO, COO roles by creating a ‘single version of the truth’ regarding the progress of all the change activities that are taking place, irrespective of the business function that is sponsoring them.

It is an important piece in the career path for those interested in a long term future in project and programme management. If you want to plan your career path, view this link for ideas on the different types of roles available: http://www.maventraining.co.uk/career-development/

Popularity of business transformation

2011-07-06T15:37:00.000+01:00

Continuing my theme, I was researching most popular project and programme management jobs currently being advertised in the market and the most common term amongst all the job adverts right now is business transformation. If you are looking for your next role, check your CV against the terms on my wordle diagram (the biggest words are the most popular), drawn from 50 job adverts posted this week for project and programme management roles earning over £40,000 per annum.

Business Transformation

2011-07-01T11:20:00.000+01:00

I went to a meeting of the Change Management Institute on Tuesday night which included a presentation from Simon Moran, the Head of Process and Change at London Underground. imon described how over the last 6 years he had been building an internal capability for managing and effectively implementing change. Simon and his team support change initiatives by helping staff understand how people react to change, and providing them with a lifecycle model so that they can clearly see the steps that will take them from the current state to delivery of the change vision. I thought it was really interesting that London Underground have had this team in place for so long, because many organisations that Maven are working with are just beginning this journey. There is definitely a demand from organisations to get better at implementing change, and a realisation that this capability does not happen by accident. If you are facing a similar challenge, have a look at this Quick Guide for ideas on how to get started in managing change: http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/39/639-how-to-get-started-managing-a-change-initiative.pdf If you are interested in formalising your knowledge about change management, have a look at this Quick Guide: http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/73/573-change-management-quick-guide-2-0.pdf

APM Qualifications

2011-06-27T14:57:00.004+01:00

I regularly receive so many questions about the differences between PRINCE2 and the APMP that I have put together a couple of quick guides to these different sets of project management qualifications.

Pls share the links with any of your colleagues who are thinking about career development:
http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/51/751-apm-quick-guide-1-0.pdf
http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/77/577-prince2-quick-guide-2-0.pdf

Our career development pages also provide guidance if you are checking which qualifications are right for you:
http://www.maventraining.co.uk/career-development/

2011-06-23T18:01:00.002+01:00

I went to a meeting of the APM Portfolio Management SIG last night, where we discussed how to get portfolio management accepted into organisations. Go to this link for a summary of the discussion and ideas for how to implement portfolio management http://www.maventraining.co.uk/media/48/748-ideas-for-implementing-portfolio-management.pdf

2011-06-08T17:16:00.003+01:00

I was in a department store last week and overheard a conversation between one of the sales assistants and her manager about career development. The sales assistant was expressing her desire to get on in the company, and was explaining the extra responsibilities that she had recently taken on and how she was enjoying the experience. Her manager replied that her enthusiasm was great, and that all she needed to do for her career was keep working hard as she was doing.

I was so annoyed I nearly interrupted her because I felt the managers advice was just plain wrong. I think staff development is a combination of hard work, continually increasing experience by taking on new work and studying for qualifications. Studying enables employees to stretch their own thinking about how best to perform their role, see links between their role and other parts of the organisation and identify how they can make a wider contribution and increase their career satisfaction.

I think the discipline of studying and gaining qualifications is so important that I don’t even think it always has to be directly relevant to the role that an employee is currently performing. Studying is about stretching the mind and developing an ability to analyse and process new information and draw conclusions. These are skills that are transferable in any role.

If this has prompted your own interest in gaining further qualifications, you might find the paper I have written about project, change, programme and risk qualifications of interest - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/whitepapers/

Let me know your thoughts

Creating the right environment for change

2011-05-24T11:19:00.004+01:00

So much of the work that I am currently doing is about transformational change - helping programme managers to define their programmes of transformational change, and helping to establish what needs to be in place for change to happen. One of the critical success factors to effective change is encouraging an environment that encourages everyone to participate and ensures that they are supported during the stress and difficulties of learning to do things differently. To summarise some of the most important criteria for this environment, I have written a new web page:

http://www.maventraining.co.uk/principles-of-prince2-msp-mop-and-change-management/

If you are interested in transformational change and are in London this week, come to my free briefing on Thursday afternoon - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/course-booking-form/?id=662

Career development through business transformation

2011-05-09T05:56:00.001+01:00

Business transformation is gaining momentum. As firms emerge from recession they are committing to radical change that meets the needs of a price sensitive market place which demands even higher levels of added value than was the case before 2008.

If you are in a project management role, business transformation is very relevant to your career development. Projects and programmes do not spontaneously occur in organisations. They are commissioned in response to the need for change. Not all projects will be part of a wider transformation agenda as some change will always be relatively small scale and contained within an individual department. However, with the increase in enterprise wide technology solutions (SAP, PeopleSoft etc) departments and functions do not operate independently of one another, so any change has a domino effect, impacting on the next process and team in the chain i.e. it is large-scale transformational change even if that were not the intention.

Business transformation aligns the organisations improvements in people (staffing levels, roles and responsibilities, training and development remuneration and reward), process and technology to the business strategy.

For me, business transformation brings together excellence in a number of critical management disciplines:
- Strategic and commercial understanding - appreciation of the customer, technology and regulatory environment and ability to conceive of changes that exploit opportunities in these offered as these environments evolve
- Change management - ability to plan and implement the required changes (www.maventraining.co.uk/change-management-explained/
- Project management - ability to deliver new capability upon which the changes are based (www.maventraining.co.uk/project-management-explained/
- Stakeholder engagement - ability to communicate the reasons and benefits for the changes in a compelling and exciting way, answering the question 'what's in it for me?'

This range of skills is reflected in the job specifications that recruitment agencies are posting under the heading of 'business transformation':
Strategic and commercial understanding
"Develop and implement strategies and solutions to meet organisational business goals and objectives."
"You will be the owner of the strategy space, defining the roadmap and blueprint of the strategic vision."
Change management
"The main purpose of this role is to act as the point of reference and centre of expertise in managing and implementing process improvement changes across the organisation."
Project management
"You will drive delivery via the application of strong project management processes, ensuring that requirements are analysed for their benefits, risks and costs and that project plans to deliver these requirements are clear and have the agreement of all their stakeholders."
Stakeholder engagement
"You will shape all communications and engage change champions across multiple business units to transition and embed the change to the new operating model."

If you want to find out more about this topic and you are in London on May 26th, come along to my free briefing where I will be looking at how to get started in change management http://www.maventraining.co.uk/course-detail/_/free-briefing-how-effective-is-our-change-management/72/

New Quick Guides launched

2011-05-05T15:08:00.003+01:00

I get so many questions about how to get started, either by those asked to manage a project for the first time, or those that have been given a change management assignment and are looking for clues about what to do first that I have created a couple of Quick Guides - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/quick-guides/

These guides are simple slide presentations that explain the basics, the most common mistakes and some solutions for avoiding the mistakes - I hope you find them useful, but as ever, I would love to hear your comments.

Planning the future

2011-04-26T13:07:00.004+01:00

One long weekend gone, one to go! It might seem strange to be talking about work during what feels like a holiday week, but its a great time to think about the future, and that includes career planning.

As the head of a training company, I spend my time with senior managers who are responsible for succession planning across their teams, units and departments. One of the things I have noticed is that those they single out for additional training, inclusion on development programmes and for promotion are those that are already taking a very proactive approach to their own development. The irony is that those who don't search out training opportunities are often the ones left out. If you want to get ahead, either in your current organisation or up against the competition when applying elsewhere, make sure you have a good answer to the question "What do you do to develop your knowledge and skills?"

I have put together a short presentation explaining the basics of CPD - continual professional development. I hope you find it useful - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/project-management-explained-action-plan/

2011-04-04T16:08:00.002+01:00

Today all the excitement in the office is about launching our new free briefing – “How effective is our approach to change management?” http://www.maventraining.co.uk/course-detail/_/free-briefing-how-effective-is-our-change-management/72/

It has been designed for people who want to find out:
-How to baseline your organisations readiness for change
-How to create a change management framework and apply it across your organisation
-What actions you can take now to improve how change is implemented in your organisation

For an informative session on effectively managing change, come and see us at 1.30pm on the 26th May at the Maven Centre, 8th Floor, Aldermary House, 10-15 Queen Street, London EC4N 1TX.

2011-03-28T08:13:00.001+01:00

I was watching George Osborne deliver his budget speech on Wednesday, trying to be a super cool executive with my iPad propped up on my desk, happily multitasking by sorting my emails, updating a report, painting my nails and eating a cheese sandwich (that list is a powerful argument against open plan offices!)

Anyway, I was half listening/watching George at work and it reminded me of the worst type of project management meetings that I attend as a Project Sponsor. They are bad because the project manager delivers a speech, doesn't draw breath for my questions and tries to sum up each point with a sound bite as if he/she is being interviewed by Sky News.

If the project is being managed by a less experienced Project Manager then I have a degree of sympathy. Talking at someone is a sign of insecurity, not stopping for questions is driven by fear of not knowing the answers to the questions. When it's an experienced Project Manager I think it's a warning sign that they will rush through their presentation, never staying long enough on one topic for penetrating questions to be asked.

If this applies to you either as a Project Sponsor or a Project Manager my recommendations for a meaningful two way exchange of information, opinion and decisions are:

If you are the Project Manager:
- Give the progress report using milestone reporting - don't give a blow by blow account of every activity but concentrate on the results of that activity I.e. Milestones
- Keep your information factual and in a way that enables each piece of information to be compared. For example, report each milestone as on or over schedule, the reasons for this and what you are doing about it
- Check that there is agreement with your actions (don't forget that this is a chance to ask for advice and guidance)
- Identify when a milestone has been reached and closed off, in contrast to those milestones that are reached but in doing so have identified interdependencies and knock on effects to the next period of activity
- Check that there is agreement with your assessment of the interdependencies (again, don't be afraid to ask for guidance - use the experience of others to check your assumptions and your analysis of the situation)

If you are the Project Sponsor:
- Remember that aggression or impatience generally leads project managers to reduce the information they provide for fear of criticism
- Ask questions that enable you to ensure four outcomes:
o Understanding and agreement of the progress made so far
o Clear instructions on any rework or amendments that are required and the resourcing of these activities - are you prepared to delay other work in order to fix something, or will you authorize overtime, temporary staff etc?
o Agreement to the work proposed for the next period
o Clear instructions on any reductions or increases in expectations for this next period and their impact on resource plans
- Use your experience of other projects to give advice and guidance to the Project Manager

Creating a compelling change story

2011-03-22T10:06:00.001Z

At Maven we have a reputation for continually growing and changing and the number of new products and services that we create for our customers is high.

As we get ready to roll out a new accredited course in Management of Portfolios (MoP) I have been thinking how we ensure that all parts of the company hear the same message about this latest change.

Its my job as the sponsor for the MoP project to make sure everyone is excited and engaged with each launch that we do, and so this is the check list of points I use when creating a ‘change story’. I hope you find it useful, as ever, I welcome your comments:

Sense of urgency – why this change is needed now
 Describe the problems that the change will fix
 Explain the opportunities that can be exploited as a result of making the change
 Outline the risks if the change is not successfully implemented

Desirable outcomes – positive description of the result of the change
 How it feels to work for the organisation
 What type of work the organisation does
 How it is viewed by customers and suppliers
 The reputation it has with regulators and media

Impact – an acknowledgement of the scale of change
 List the biggest changes
 Identify those who will be impacted the most

Call to action – how employees can participate
 Brief description of key actions that senior management are taking
 Options for activities that employees can become involved in

Red Nose Day campaign

2011-03-14T11:49:00.003Z

Just launched campaign http://www.maventraining.co.uk/courses-list/_/promotions-and-offers/12/and have given the team red noses and deeley boppers to wear throughout the week. Bought the 'Giggler' which is a soft nose that laughs whenever its picked up - definitely going to drive us crazy by the end of the day, with a good chance its dropped out the window before Friday

Using change management to scope my project

2011-03-07T09:51:00.002Z

I continue to write the new book on how project management needs to take the lead in managing change if projects are ever to realise their benefits. This week I am putting together a series of Mini Workshop Guides to help project managers address the key issues of change management including:

1. Understanding the context for the change i.e. seeing the bigger picture by asking how the change will contribute to strategic objectives, who is driving the change that the project will support, who are the likely winners and losers from these changes, how time sensitive is the delivery of the benefits from the change

2. Understanding the detailed changes that the project is supposed to bring about including changes to information used for a process, the process itself, the outputs including information used for the next process, the decisions that need to be taken, the reports that are produced etc, changes in the size and make up of the teams involved in the process, changes in the level of authority and reporting line for each team member

3. Understanding the communication that is required to ensure everyone is informed about the proposed changes and has a chance to comment on them and engage with them prior to the changes taking place

I am interested in how these 3 areas fit with the scoping and the requirements gathering that project managers are responsible for at the start of the programme, but also how this information needs to be reviewed and updated as the project progresses and how this can lead to requests for change.

What are the most important questions you ask before getting started on a project – do you ask about the bigger picture, do you get to know the winners and the likely losers before you plan the project? As ever, all comments and emails welcome.

How do I implement change?

2011-02-28T11:27:00.001Z

Maven is getting ready to change its booking system over to a new learning management system. We have piloted it with a few of our courses, but we are now planning the full launch. As a company that trains change management courses I feel the pressure to get this change right, which I think means that no-one outside of the company notices any differences and it feels just like business as usual.

One guide I use when planning any change is the warning I was given by one of my first managers “people don’t leave their jobs, they leave their managers”. Although it’s the managers at Maven who have identified the need for the new system, decided the high level functionality and selected the supplier, everyone in the company will be using it. Failure by the management team to involve, engage and inspire people will lead to failure in the adoption of the system.

That’s why this week we are busy putting up posters with quotes from staff about why they think the system is going to make things easier, and why we are putting up a chart showing our progress through each of the baby steps we are taking between now and Easter to get the system up and running. Every time we achieve one of these tasks we cross it off this ‘journey planner’ as a visual guide to how close we are to success.

We are using the information we gained from a survey (http://www.maventraining.co.uk/change-management-knowledge-centre/) we did last week that asked everyone in the office to rate from low to high their level of annoyance with the current system, their level of excitement for the new system and their level of confidence with our ability to move to the new system. This generated lots of points from people which were very relevant to their jobs but which had not been fully appreciated by the project team – we will do this survey again before we go live so we can check out any more comments, concerns and ideas.

What do you do to make change feel real and exciting and in your office – as ever let me know your thoughts.

MSP made easy?

2011-02-22T08:20:00.001Z

Today I had to try and explain MSP to a group of senior managers who have no formal experience of Programme management - I say formal because anyone who has reached a senior position will have had experience of managing multiple initiatives and delivering strategic outcomes. Anyway, I was trying to explain how the structure of MSP can help make sure that any piece of work stays on track. By using the governance themes we have a ready made agenda for testing viability and progress. See below for my agenda for any decision point:

People:
• Organisation – ensure that the roles, responsibilities of the programme remain fit for purpose (too many people involved, overly bureaucratic application of responsibilities stifles action and progress)
• Leadership and stakeholder engagement – ensure identification of stakeholders and their level of influence and the amount the programme is impacting them is current
Outcome:
• Vision – ensure that vision remains aligned to strategic objectives of the organisation and that nuances in drivers for change are communicated to the programme manager
• Blueprint – ensure that further details are added as more is known and that there is challenge of the blueprint in line with changes to the vision/strategic direction of the organisation. Ensure that current and next tranche of the blueprint continue to ‘make sense’
Rationale:
• Business case – ensure that analysis is reworked on the basis of changes to resources, duration of activities, risks and activities elsewhere in the organisation
• Benefits realisation – ensure expected benefits are challenged against changes to strategic objectives, drivers for change and programme progress. Ensure that measurements of ‘As Is’ have been recorded as evidence base for success of programme
Mechanism:
• Planning – ensure alignment with other areas of the organisation including: Financial control, Resource planning and protocols for use of external resources
• Risk management and issue resolution – ensure that information from the programme is being escalated and communicated across the organisation and that impacts from other initiatives are being drawn into the programme (prevent programme becoming too internally focused)
• Quality management – ensure that quality processes are aligned with overall strategic direction

Change your location, change your motivation

2011-02-14T08:27:00.001Z

As always I have too much work to do and not enough time to do it, and recently its got to a point where I go home after a really busy day, not having done anything on my To Do list – which is becoming such a size that its now a database rather than a list!
This week I hit a wall – too much doing X not enough thinking = no productive work!

So I took the advice of some of my learners on a recent Project Leadership course – remove yourself from your current environment, your location, the people you are with, the systems you are using. Change your physical perspective to change how you feel. By changing your perspective you break the negative cycle which in my case was being busy on all the wrong things because I could not see the wood for the trees.

Of course, being me I followed the advice to the max and booked myself into a hotel on Park Lane! But it definitely worked, a swim, some sleep, some room service and I got my motivation back and could take a more analytical approach to prioritising my work.

So what works for you – where do you go when you need to change your perspective? As ever, let me know, I love hearing from you.

What can portfolio management do for you?

2011-02-08T16:17:00.004Z

I have just attended the MoP launch http://www.maventraining.co.uk/news/ which included two useful presentations from people who are applying portfolio management:

David Pitchford is the Executive Director of the Major Projects Directorate (Cabinet Office) and is responsible for creating the portfolio of major projects for the UK government. He started his presentation by explaining that in common with many organisations the UK government does not have a complete understanding of all the major projects planned or already underway. Different government departments run multiple projects and change initiatives and whilst some of these are already visible because of their impact on society or their political sensitivity/media interest there are many more that are not included in the wider view of everything that is happening.

From a cost saving perspective this is interesting because research shows that merely by forming a portfolio an organisation can expect an upfront cost saving of 20% to 30% by removing duplication and stopping low value initiatives.

David made a strong case for the benefits of establishing a portfolio and how this is essential in ensuring transparency of where money and effort are being spent.

Paul Hirst is Head of Project and Programme Management at HMRC. He explained how HMRC have completed the ground work for making portfolio management work. Part of their planning included the creation of a governance structure where responsibilities, levels of authority and relationships with other groups has been agreed, overseen by the Senior Responsible Owner who is also the Chief Executive (I cannot think of a more effective way of gaining senior management commitment to the portfolio that putting the CEO in charge).

Paul talked about the reality of the austerity measures and the need to cut as a result of strategic need and not sentiment. He was very clear that authorisation of each element of the portfolio will be driven by evidence based evaluation of project ideas and the era of ‘pet projects’ has ended. Whilst this might seem a threatening message for some, in common with David’s first speech, Paul believes that the transparency offered by portfolio management is an essential element of getting a grip on expenditure and is a strong force for good in any type of organisation.

If you are interested in finding out more about portfolio management download my free whitepaper http://www.maventraining.co.uk/whitepapers/ or sign up for the Effective Portfolio Management Workshop on the 30th March http://www.maventraining.co.uk/course-detail/_/portfolio-management/20/

Become a Registered Project Professional

2011-01-26T19:36:00.001Z

Last night I went to a presentation by the APM about their new standard called the Registered Project Professional (RPP) which hopes to be the forerunner of the Chartered Project Professional (ChPP). RPP has been introduced because the APM are still waiting for their status as a chartered body to be awarded which they hope will be soon.

To become an RPP you will have to demonstrate the capabilities of a responsible leader, have the ability to manage a complex project and the ability to use appropriate tools, processes and techniques.

To demonstrate your capability you will need to evidence that you have knowledge and experience across 29 core competencies. This might sound like a lot but there are 47 competencies defined by the APM as important for effective project management!

To demonstrate your knowledge you will need to evidence the qualifications that you have in project management and related skills ensuring a breadth of coverage across all the areas. PRINCE2 alone does not provide this so if you have not yet upgraded your qualifications to include the APMP now is the time to do so - remember if you are a PRINCE2 practitioner then you can take the APMP with prior learning which takes 3 days instead of 5(http://www.maventraining.co.uk/courses/apm/apmp-with-prior-learning/).

To demonstrate your experience you will need to put together a portfolio of evidence which is a brief description of how you have led and managed others in different project situations. I did say to the APM last night that I wished they had not called it a portfolio just when we are launching the new Management of Portfolio (MoP) course!

The total fees for becoming a Registered Project Professional are £595, paid in two parts, when you first submit your portfolio and again when you attend the interview to discuss your experience with 2 assessors, trained by the APM.

I spoke to several people who had undergone the application process during the RPP pilot and they all said that it was a really useful process for reviewing their career and helping them to identify all of their achievements. One of them also mentioned how rare it was to look back and really ask themselves ‘what bits didn’t I do so well, and how can I improve my approach?’

Tony Caccavone was one of the successful RPPs presented with his certificate last night, and he explained that it took about 35-40 hours to complete the portfolio of evidence and putting together the whole application. His approach was to ‘brain dump’ every project experience he could remember for the last few years, and then go back and assign the different examples to the different competencies. Tony has young children so he found it easier to come in early and stay late in the office to complete the application, but even then, it only took a few weeks, not a few months.

To maintain your status as an RPP you will have to commit to doing 35 hours of continual professional development each year but this is no different to the current recommendation from the APM for all of its members.

Applications for the RPP begin in early March, so I will be putting more information up about it then. Meanwhile, please post a quick comment to let me know whether you think it’s of interest as I am always keen to find out if what the professional associations are developing for us are really what we in the profession want/need.

2011-01-24T08:19:00.002Z

Michael Porter (famous management guru – Porters 5 forces) has written an article in this months Harvard Business Review setting out how he believes companies should operate using long term value and not immediate profits as their goal.

Part of his argument is to stress the importance of the social value of an organisation i.e. what it offers its customers, the environment and the world around it. To me, social value is about the bigger picture, and how we are offering something more back to our customers i.e. added value.

As a company training company, our value is our specialist knowledge and all the tips, techniques and practical advice we offer to our learners. To me, social value is about how we make as much of this available to our economy as possible because ultimately, making things better is what drives everyone at Maven. We want to ensure that our clients improve their ability to manage projects, implement changes, control risks and deliver benefits.

That’s why we put so much effort into developing pre-course materials that allow you to prepare ahead of your course, so that when you are with us you are getting as much as you possibly can from the service you have paid for. We want to interact, to discuss your issues, and help you see them in the context of the best practice that’s available.

We believe that project management touches every area of our lives, and that if we improve the ability of everyone to deliver projects successfully then we are improving our environment. Ultimately, it’s this drive to pass on our knowledge (learned by making countless mistakes) that is the core of our value to you.

That’s why we make so much of our knowledge available to you – go and look at www.mavenprojectmanagement.co.uk to see the free stuff that we regularly post for you to use. I hope it helps and keep the link close to hand as we are adding to it all the time. Or if you want to hear it first hand, come to my regular free briefing held every fortnight in London - http://www.maventraining.co.uk/courses/free-briefings.cfm

The future of project management...

2011-01-17T09:00:00.002Z

Rather portentous title but I was at a lunch on Friday where part of my role was to explain where next for our industry. The imminent launch of the best practice guide for Management of Portfolios (MoP™) from OGC is leading us to question what happens next.

I think we are coming to the end of the development of best practice which dominated the last decade and a half, starting in 1996/1997 with the launch of PRINCE2, leading to the creation of guidance on risk management (MoR®) and Programme management (MSP®) and now finally MoP™.

I think that how best practice is applied and evidence of the improvements it creates has been a focus for several years and effective application of best management practice will continue to dominate the thoughts of those responsible for the operational management of our organisations. I am being specific about operational managers because I think there is still a distinction between these leaders and chief executives who operate strategic leadership, often in an unstructured way, but implicitly relying on the underlying management infrastructure, which is where best practice comes in.

I think organisational governance is growing in recognition and importance - probably becoming a senior management discipline for this decade.

Organisational governance has many definitions but I think it has two components - a structural/procedural piece and an interpersonal component which is the leadership ability of senior management to sell the benefits of applying the governance structure to everyone in the organisation, whatever their grade or length of service.

We need to explain how organisational governance is a key contributor to organisational excellence and how the best practice established at project (including technical and interpersonal skills), Programme (encompassing change and benefits management disciplines) and portfolio management (evidence based judgement and decision making) are interlinked.

I think this gives those of us involved in delivering projects and change initiatives plenty of scope for getting involved in shaping how our employers operate, and will ensure project management becomes embedded as a mainstream management discipline.

As always, let me know what you think, but if you want to want to know more, please go to http://www.maventraining.co.uk/white-papers.cfm or come and here me speak at one of my free briefings http://www.maventraining.co.uk/courses/free-briefings.cfm

Latest on MoP exams

2011-01-10T11:20:00.001Z

Last Friday, along with 15 of my Maven colleagues, I sat the new Management of Portfolio (MoP) qualification. OGC are about a month away from launching their latest best practice management guide for identifying, prioritising and planning all the projects and programmes needed to achieve the organisations strategic objectives.

The guide will form the basis of a course and there will be a chance to sit a Foundation qualification and later in the year a Practitioner qualification. It is aimed at all those involved in the selection and delivery of business change initiatives including: members of management boards and Directors of Change; Senior Responsible Owners (SROs); portfolio, programme, project, business change and benefits managers.

Taking the exam reminded me how important it is that as trainers we repeat the instructions, help people stay calm and provide as much exam technique as possible to help people cope under these stressful situations.

I cannot believe how many mistakes I made on my application form, because although I thought I was really concentrating, a large part of my brain had gone into ‘panic mode’. The mistake that made my colleagues laugh the loudest was that I couldn’t even get my name right – I wrote my husbands name instead of mine!

Taking the exam itself was stressful as I never feel I can give as much time to each question as I want to, because I am worrying that I have not got enough time. I should have worked out how many minutes I had for each question and stuck to it which would have helped.

One thing that I do at the start of every exam that I do is to write a quick list on the question paper of the processes, or definitions or roles and responsibilities that I think I might need before I start answering questions. This reassures me that I do know what I am talking about and gives me something to check my answers against, particularly if I am starting to doubt the answer or it’s a sequence type answer where I need to get the information in the right order.

We won’t get our results until later this week, so wish me luck, and I hope it gives you some comfort to know that your trainer has suffered just as much exam stress as you are going through!

The importance of project management skills

2010-12-29T11:02:00.002Z

I am on holiday and still reading books about project management – well, to be fair, this book was a pdf that I downloaded from the lazy project manager (www.lazyprojectmanager.co.uk); it only cost £3.50 with the proceeds donated to Cancer Research UK. The book is a collection of lots of short stories about project management. Actually they are each a mini 'lesson learnt' and 'food for thought'. As with all advice the bits you remember are those most relevant to the projects you are currently involved in. Peter tells a lovely story about a warning light on his car dashboard and the project dashboard that his PMO uses to control over 250 projects simultaneously. I am currently managing a portfolio of over 40 projects and am well aware of how difficult it is to balance the need for reporting to satisfy my project sponsorship responsibilities with the need to minimise the amount of reporting that my project managers do so that they can get on with the real work. I also really enjoyed Peter's views on the contribution that project management makes to industry and the results of his survey assessing the importance of project management skills to career progression. To be honest, I probably enjoyed this bit of the book because it endorses some of the things that I have been writing about this year:

(http://www.mavencapability.co.uk/downloads/Building-Capability-Whitepaper-1-July-2010.pdf)

Let me know if you download this book from Peter’s site and what your favourite stories were.

Happy New Year

Season's Greetings

2010-12-24T07:34:00.003Z

From all at Maven Training - Happy Christmas!

Holidays - a time to read

2010-12-20T09:09:00.004Z

Christmas is always a time for taking things easy and reading a good book and I have kicked off my holiday with a look at "Social Media for Project Managers" by Elizabeth Harrin.

Obviously I am a user of social media (otherwise I wouldn't be writing this blog) but I don't regard myself as an expert. Elizabeth's book is an easy to use guide, really well indexed so it's easy to jump to the bits you need. The concept of the book is how social media can be used as the mechanism of project communication and how this can strengthen relationships within the project team and with other stakeholders. The book has lots of examples and explanations from a range of experts which brings the subject alive and they are nicely spaced throughout the content.

For the projects I am currently working on, the chapter on the benefits of Wikis and how to set them up is very relevant and I have picked up some good tips on what steps to take. There is also some really useful guidance on security issues, and guarding the content of project documentation. Elizabeth makes the very valid point that security controls can be used to guard access to information, but that can also provide the structure for controlling information flow throughout the project.

What books are you reading this holiday season, and what are the key actions that you are going to take as a result? Let me know

Planning for 2011

2010-12-13T08:39:00.000Z

This week I am preparing to go on holiday - 2 weeks on a beach in Thailand, so plenty of time to think about the future and plan the next steps for Maven. Like many senior managers I need to ensure I know three key pieces of operational information:
• What are all the initiatives that we have completed this year and what has been their effect? I need to know what capability we have now, what areas of the business we have improved, what areas we have strengthened. Knowing this enables me to eliminate them to an extent from next years’ plans, which for a company as ambitious as Maven is really important as we always have more ideas than we have resources for.
• What initiatives do we still have underway, how near to completion are they and how many resources are they using? This helps me understand our capacity for new ideas and hopefully stops me falling into the trap of trying to launch all of the new initiatives in January, overloading the business with change in February and driving everyone crazy by March!
• Finally I review our strategic goals and use these as the basis for identifying the key areas for development and improvement, and then I break these down again into outcomes (programmes) and outputs (projects). This analysis is undertaken with my management team and we run our own portfolio management workshop to identify as many ideas for the next year as possible. Some of the techniques that we use to plan the portfolio of all our projects and programmes are the same as the techniques we use for project management I.e. Product based planning, activity based planning, scheduling and resource smoothing. I will run this workshop before I go away and then I can review our plans and finesse the for early January.

Wish me luck and let me know what you are doing to plan your work for 2011.

No email? Fantastic!

2010-12-07T07:21:00.001Z

I have just spent a day without access to email and I loved it!
This weekend the utility company cut off our office power supply for emergency works which meant our email server was shut down. I worked from home on Sunday designing a planning workshop for a client (that must be delivered before Christmas so it's fairly urgent). Normally when I am working I will periodically check my emails (maybe once an hour) but inevitably I read things that need to be actioned and so I am effectively changing from subject to subject, with only short bursts of time on any one issue. Without email I was amazed how enjoyable it was to lose myself in one subject, and how much more relaxing it was to fully engage with the task in hand and not try to ignore other issues and problems. Now that power is restored of course things are back to normal but I am going to try and turn my email off, block out several hours in my diary and really concentrate next time I have a complex task to do, because I want to retain this feeling of relaxed accomplishment. As project managers we are frequently praised for our ability to multiple-task, but perhaps we don't need to manage every task simultaneously, and a little bit more linear progression will speed up our progress through our To Do lists.

Let the Countdown Begin

2010-11-30T14:52:00.005Z

I hate to mention it but there are now less than 4 working weeks to Christmas.... For me this means I am reviewing schedules, balancing priorities and clarifying which activities really will get done before the holidays and which ones we will have to push out into January. It's always difficult to move items into a whole new year because the perception that the projects are slipping is so much greater, rather than the reality of simply moving things a week or two.

Going through this process also helps us decide when the New Year really begins: as the first working week of January 2011 starts with a Bank Holiday, many suppliers are telling me that they do not come back to work until January 10th. This leaves 3 whole weeks of holiday time and I for one am taking advantage of it as it means fewer meetings and plenty of time to get the things done that I am too busy to sort out the rest of the year. It will allow time for a well earned holiday and to write my next book! I also hope to get the time to spend on my own development and read Elisabeth Harrin's new book: Social Media for Project Managers (and so pleased by her recent award http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/11/19/243977/The-IT-Blog-Awards-2010-winners.htm )

We also know from past experience how many of you struggle to fit your personal development into your schedule, so this year we're open as usual over the holiday season and we are offering courses in the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve and just after New Years day - so you can fit in a spot of professional me time along with your mince pies.

Tomorrow the countdown begins .... http://www.noradsanta.org/

PRINCE2 in Top 20 of IT Training Skills Watch

2010-11-19T13:26:00.003Z

As a barometer of what's hot and what's not in IT, the IT Training Skills Watch table is based on what's flying off the bookshelves as the IT industry bring themselves up to speed with new products and services. Interestingly then, the positioing of PRINCE2 2009 at #12 amongst a list of technical titles could be a reflection that the method for delivering new technology is as critical as knowing the new technology..... you can read the full IITT article here

Assurance.... next on the agenda?

2010-11-15T08:27:00.003Z

Has sponsorship or assurance grown in importance in your organisation? I ask because we're seeing a significant demand for sponsorship training from senior managers as their perception of the importance of project management grows. Up until a few months ago, training for members of the project board was organized by those managing the projects who felt that they were not getting the support they needed. Concerns by project managers included senior managers failing to keep up to date with the progress of the projects they are responsible for or not prepared to take the tough decisions during the life of the project as issues and risks demand attention.

Now we are seeing demand from managers who recognise that they must give their projects serious attention. The financial environment means that all organisations are keen to control expenditure. Projects are a source of discretionary spend and it seems senior managers have decided to find out how to get control and start governing this work.

In predicting trends in PPM the next logical step would be an increased interest in project assurance. After all, effective sponsorship means knowing if the project team are doing the right things in the right way, but few organisations have the funding for internal assurance services so, as the pressure increases to ensure project delivery is timely and appropriate, focusing on assurance would seem likely.

BTW, thanks to all who attended the briefing on Friday 12th - it was a great session! If you missed it, check out our new schedule and join us.

Project Completion is not Project Closedown

2010-11-10T08:02:00.004Z

Over the weekend, Maven completed a series of office moves that has seen us relocate our training centre and co-locate our administrative offices. The project was forced upon us by the discovery earlier in the year that the Crossrail project was going to leave us working next to a building site for the next 6 years - hardly conducive to effective learning!

Now that all of the crates have been unpacked and people have worked out how to log back on we can settle back, safe in the knowledge that the project has come to a close...well, that's one view anyway.

In project management terms, we have completed the deliverables (slightly under budget, on time and having exceeded the quality expectations of the Board). However, we are still experiencing the impact of change - on each of us, and as an organisation. Individual experiences of change have included learning a new route to work, remembering to carry security passes and finding where the best local coffee shops are. As an organisation, the process of change is harder to define, but it is a powerful force nevertheless. The main impact is the speed at which things get done in the first few days after a move as all the things we need to do the job are not as easily to hand, telephone extensions have changed and remembering where the contents of a particular desk have ended up can be a challenge.

The critical thing for our Board to remember is that the benefits of our move will not be felt for several months. The financial business case will only be realised as we stop paying for services in the old office, and start seeing the reduction in costs from our new building. The strategic benefits of co-locating to fully exploit the potential for efficiencies, will only be felt once everyone has got used to the new situation and have formed new teams and working relationships.

We have scheduled a post implementatation review in 6 weeks, but I am conscious that this will only be a meeting to sign post that we are on course to realise the benefits, not that we have data to prove that we have realised them - that will not be available until the early part of the new year. The thing we must remember is that these benefits management responsibilities are still with us, and even though the project manager has been released to manage the next big project she will have to schedule some time for the review to finally consider the project closed - and be able to enjoy that large gin and tonic.

Be Kind to your Sponsor

2010-11-01T15:22:00.002Z

This week my attention has been focused on how to explain the role of Project Sponsor to senior managers. As a project manager myself I am well versed in how an effective sponsor can really move the project forward, and how a disinterested sponsor can slow things down…

When I deliver project sponsorship coaching, it’s very common to have to start with the basics of the project lifecycle - because this is new territory for the manager. It’s not because they are stupid, it’s because they have not been expected to understand the details of project management before, and they are concerned that on top of everything else they have to do, they are expected to learn a whole new language.

In my experience, sponsors are not being deliberately obstructive when they don't read the project reports, or fail to turn up for meetings, it’s just that the project (your project!) is just one of many initiatives they are involved with so it’s up to you to capture their attention, explain to them what you need from them - and possibly, be prepared to explain how you are managing the project.

I have been putting some of my thoughts together on the new website www.mavenprojectsponsorship.co.uk - have a look and let me know how you help your sponsors.

Are you adding value?

2010-10-25T12:50:00.003+01:00

There was lots of press this weekend about job stability in the UK. Many people working in the service industry (public and private sector) are concerned about losing the jobs or not having their contracts renewed. It has made me think about the criteria I use for continuing to use contractor resources.

The harsh reality is that doing your job is not enough. Fulfilling the job description is just the minimum requirement that I expect from everyone, it’s what I am paying for. It's the added value that makes you indispensable. To me, added value means delivering new ideas, improvements to existing processes and the way in which business is conducted. It’s an attitude of continual improvement of what you deliver and how you deliver it. It implies a forward momentum in the role, and a commitment to the future.

These innovations and improvements are delivered via projects, so alongside the skills and experience for which you were originally hired, there is an implied demand for project management skills. Your ability to deliver improvements on time, on or under budget and in a way that meets or exceeds requirements makes you an invaluable resource. If you want to keep yourself up to date on what is happening in project management, have a look at the white papers on www.mavencapability.co.uk/resources.html - I hope you find the information helpful, and please email me your comments and views.

Focus on Portfolio Management

2010-10-18T10:04:00.000+01:00

Portfolio management is the new arrival in the project management world. Portfolio management provides the structure for merging all projects, programmes and change initiatives at the organisational level, so that the total impact of change can be understood and the total cost and overall level of risk can be calculated.

This is certainly an idea whose time has come as the volume of projects and changes taking place in any organisation at any one time has grown to such a level that everyone is involved in projects to some degree.

The October edition of Project magazine is dedicated to portfolio management and there are some useful articles. One of the most interesting comments was that "A portfolio management role is a great way to get a broader perspective on your company or business activities; understanding 'what' you deliver and 'how' it is delivered really contributes towards your business goals, objectives and success."

Maven are often asked by Project and Programme managers how they can develop their careers and understanding portfolio management is a relevant starting point. There will be a new course and set of exams available in the new year but if you want get ahead of the curve, download our paper on portfolio management and let us know what you think - www.mavencapability.co.uk/resources

Research, Procrastination & Doing Project Management

2010-06-30T14:43:00.000+01:00

I have just been completing some research that is helping me to identify and analyse the possible scope of a project that I will be managing later this summer. During this research, one of the most difficult things has been knowing when to stop reading about the subject and when to start thinking about it. There comes a time when continual research is interesting, but is procrastination - I am reading because I don't want to start the difficult process of sifting through all of the information and coming to a conclusion. the infinite number of information sources available to me via Google, Yahoo etc means that deciding when enough is enough is an act of self discipline. This wasn't always the case. At the risk of sounding very old, when i became a project manager 20 years ago, the research I could do on the possible scope and deliverables of any of my projects involved a visit to the company library, reading professional journals and talking to friends in the same industry. Ultimately, there was never very much about the specifics of my project (usually my project was to launch a new IT systems and changing internal working practices to accommodate them, so fairly specialised).

Anyway, this 'self discipline' made me wonder how I know when I have enough information. Ultimately, it comes down to my level of expertise and the experience I have built up over the years. I use the PRINCE2 methodology for the basis of my projects and I use the skills I have been taught through various APM courses (their APMP qualification primarily) to define the requirements and scope my project using techniques including work breakdown structures, bottom up estimating, analysis techniques and the ability to sift for information on risks and the likely bottle necks of resources involved.

I think project managers are under more pressure than ever to speed through the planning stage of their projects, and to agree with senior management what will be delivered, so that their organisations can show that initiatives are under way and that progress is being made. Therefore, hitting the mid point between too much research and insufficient detail to create a workable plan is going to become a key determinant of whether project managers are seen to be contributing to the business or holding it back.

2010-06-25T11:59:00.000+01:00

One of lead trainers has just sent us this despatch from foreign parts ... read on - a heart warming story

"Im in Slovakia this week, one male delegate calmly informs me at the start of the training on Monday his wife was called to hospital that morning as she was 2 weeks overdue with their first baby.
Midway through the morning of day 2 the call comes..... labour has started. He calmly picks up his books , makes a polite apology and leaves.
5 mins later we see his car pull back into the car park, he walks into our room and calmly asks me 'what is the homework for tonight please?'

Now that's commitment.

He turned up the next day 9am prompt, after supporting his wife through a 12hr labour and without fuss sits his foundation exam in the afternoon and scores the joint 2nd highest score out of 10 people

Mother and baby Victoria are doing well.

Best wishes
Justin, Maven Training

2010-06-11T11:55:00.000+01:00

Maven was at the PPOSIG London Group event event with Melanie Franklin last evening. It was very useful for Maven to learn more about PMO and their interface with PM's. An excellent presentation on Service Menu from head of PMO at AXA - plus a Q & A session facilitated by Lindsay Scott of PPO SiG highlighting what's missing in existing P30 manuals as a new manual is being written. Good to meet so many dedicated PMO's and learn so much too.

Chartered Status remains top priority for APM

2010-03-11T09:12:00.000Z

Interviewed in the March issue of APM’s Project magazine, CEO Andrew Bragg confirms that APM is committed to achieving chartered status for the Association in as short a timescale as possible.

The in-depth interview explains the rationale for the continuing ‘dignified silence’: to allow for due process of consultation amongst the Queen’s Advisers. Bragg acknowledges that progress of the application has been slower than initial planning assumptions. These were based on the highest levels of support from leading organisations across the public and private sectors that any association has ever achieved for its campaign for chartered status.

The article confirms that, in response to demands for a single professional standard, APM is to launch a pilot in April 2010 for its project professional standard. Created by an expert, pan-sector working group the standard will be rigorous, whilst the routes to achievement will be diverse and flexible, reflecting the wide range of career paths by which professional competence in project management can be achieved.

Referring to APM’s ‘professionalism’ agenda, Bragg says:

“We are determined to maintain the huge momentum for raising professionalism within project management that the chartered campaign has created. In APM, we now define project professionalism as comprising five dimensions: breadth of knowledge, depth of competence, achievement through professional qualifications, commitment through CPD and accountability through adherence to a code of professional conduct. We are committed to increasing awareness and achievement of these five dimensions across the many organisations intent on improving project management capability.”

Enquiries: Please contact Heather Krobok, PR and Marketing Manager on heather.krobok@apm.org.uk direct line 01844 271632

Why are you waiting to speak?

2010-02-09T10:26:00.000Z

By Emma Altman, Training Consultant at Maven Training

The internet. Wow! What a bargain!

I’ve just read an article on someone’s web page about listening (I was looking for a listening quote when I stumbled across it) and I really like this guy’s way of thinking;

One of the challenges that gets in the way of good listening is a habit many of us fall into; waiting to speak. We know we do it – but it’s quite a hard habit to change. Well this guy said you should “listen without thinking about how you’re going to respond”. It’s a subtly different way of looking at the problem - and I like it. In all my efforts to improve my listening, this is my biggest challenge – thinking about what I’m going to say next.

Sometimes I think of a funny anecdote that relates to what they’re telling me. Other times I’m trying to contribute or be helpful at work or at home and I’m thinking about how I see that issue or what the solution might be, or I’m training people and I’m thinking about what information is going to help this person.

Either way – part of me stops listening and begins composing a response – sometimes it can be as early as part way through the first sentence.

And when I read that statement; “Listen without thinking about how you’re going to respond” suddenly, I got it!

1. I don’t need to compose my response while they’re still talking – I can make time for that when they’ve finished.
2. I don’t have to worry that I’ll forget what I want to say – if it’s important enough, I’ll remember it later – and if not, it wasn’t that important in the first place
3. I need to trust myself to come up with the right response when I need it (rather than rushing ahead) and to take the time to ask more questions or summarise what I think I’ve heard in order to come up with the right response.
I think I’ve always been so busy focusing on the task of coming up with the right thing to say in response – that I’ve been busy trying to get ahead with that instead of listening.

So I have taken the usual steps to change this habit;

1) Admit I have a problem or there is room for improvement
2) Identify when I do this
3) Be aware of when I am doing this
4) Choose to concentrate on listening – and forming my response after

The result? I’ll report back in a couple of weeks…

Maven Training launch P30 - Portfolios, Programme and Project Office

2010-01-29T10:08:00.000Z

OGC'S PRINCE2, MSP and M_o_R all touch on the need to provide adequate support structures for these best practices. However, currently there is no single source of this information that either organisations or individuals can go to find guidance or advice on setting up or running an effective delivery support office in alignment with OGC's Best Practice guidance.

This guidance brings together a set of principles, processes and techniques to facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management through enablement, challenge and support structures. These structures also bridge the gap between the strategy/policy makers and the delivery arm of the organisation.

The purpose of the P30 is to provide universally applicable guidance that will enable individuals and organisations to successfully establish, develop and maintain appropriate business support structures that will allow:

- Informed senior management decision making on strategic alignment, prioritisation, risk management, optimisation of resource etc to successfully deliver their business objectives (portfolio management)
- Identification and realisation of business outcomes and benefits via programmes
-Successful delivery of project outputs that enable benefits within time, cost and quality restraints.

The guidance will provide:

- An introduction to P30 - discussing why, when and how to use P30 models including the difference between portfolios, programmes and project environments and their different requirements
- Value - what value P30 can bring to the organisation including a business case, funding models and performance measures
- Model - an overview of the different P30 models with examples
- Functions and Techniques - details on the functions/services and techniques/tools used by units of a P30 model

For dates and prices please visit our website

Project, Programme and Change Management Free Briefing

2010-01-20T10:26:00.000Z

At the Maven Training Centre Friday 29th January, London

Here are Maven HQ we are always looking for ways to help you keep up to date with the latest developments. This month we are launching a new range of free briefings designed to help introduce the qualifications that are essential to today’s professionals. We give a brief over view of suitable methods, framework and show under what circumstances each is appropriate.

The Project Management Free Briefing overviews PRINCE2 ®, APM Introductory Certificate, APMP and P3O®.

Programme Managers Free Briefing looks at MSP®- Managing Successful Programmes and M_o_R - Management of Risk.

Change Management Free Briefing takes you through the salient points of Change Management and discusses when it is useful and how to implement it within your organisation.

Book your place today

Building Organisational Culture of Capacity

2010-01-11T10:00:00.000Z

Capacity is having sufficient quantities of appropriately skilled resources to meet business need. Capacity is built by mapping resources and then building a community where your staff are proud to hold their skills.

To build capacity in your organisation carry out the following:

• Resource Gap Analysis
• Build a Resource Database
• Build a Community
• Community Peer System
• Build a Brand for Your Community

Resource Gap Analysis
To build capacity, this initial picture must be mapped against planned resource usage, using knowledge of future business plans, intended strategic direction of the organisation and the projects and programmes already in the pipeline for delivery.

Build a Resource Database
Building capacity requires a fully populated resource database that captures current skill levels for each individual along with their experiences and preferences so that they can be assigned as opportunities present themselves.

Build a Community
To build organisational capability, the organisation needs to create an environment where having capability means that an individual is part of a community. There needs to be an explicit message that without capability, they cannot join the community.

Community Peer System
Individuals need to know that being a member of this community is advantageous and positive, that it is meaningful and desirable. The community has to have values and exhibit behaviours that they ascribe to or that they aspire to.

Build a Brand for Your Community
In some cases, development of a brand for this community can be helpful in developing a positive view of it. A brand is more than just a logo and a name, it encompasses the fundamental principles of the community. Anyone who hears about the community understands its purpose, its values and behaviours.

If you would like Maven Training to help you build staff capability and organisational resource capacity please call our team on 020 7403 7100

Maven Training Accelerated Learning in new APM courses

2010-01-05T10:25:00.000Z

Are you a Latte or Americano?....join Maven Training’s new cafe style APM courses.

Maven Training brings it’s renown passion and experience to the Association of Project Management range of Certificate courses launching in January in London. These courses showcase the new accelerated learning techniques that help delegates learn quickly and efficiently so that they are ready to use their new skills when they return to the office.

Maven Training is not selling coffee but they do use the Cafe Style Learning in their new APMIC and APMP. You may think that you are going to spend a the time sitting quietly making notes while your trainer works through the syllabus. But on a Maven APMIC and APMP course you have to do a bit more which helps you to learn faster and better.

Just as we all like our favourite style of coffee, we all have different learning styles. You may already know whether your style is visual, aural, read/write or kinaesthetic. All of these learning styles are catered for with cafe style course where the delegates sit in small groups so that they can discuss the life-like exercises with their co-learners and then report back their findings. This satisfies the audio and kinaesthetic learners as they can and be involved with discussions about what they would expect to deal with in the scenario given.

You may not be Picasso but if your learning style is visual then your drawing skills will be used to help you to study and understand the structure of leadership and management. The APMIC and APMP courses are unique in that it allow delegates to gain practical skills for how to implement their project. Married with practical training techniques this course is an enjoyable and effective way to increase the effectiveness of Project Managers.

APMIC is the Association of Project Management Introductory Certificate which combined with the Practitioner qualification, covers project lifecycle, Project Management as a job, feasibility analysis, business case and risks, project planning, scheduling, quality and change control, documents, deliverables, people, sign off, hand over and lessons learned.

APMIC and APMP is an established qualification but Maven Training gives it a fresh approach by introducing these accelerated learning techniques to help delegates enjoy their course and quickly gain skills that will be invaluable in their workplace.

The industry's view of Maven’s APM courses :

• "We are thrilled to bring our expertise and skills in accelerated learning to the APM qualifications ." Melanie Franklin - CEO – Maven Training

• "Our approach to the APMIC and APMP qualifications is to give the delegate a clear understanding with experienced trainers and well laid out and clear course notes.” Lisa Peacey - Senior Course Developer – Maven Training

Please check our website at www.maventraining.co.uk for further information on these courses.

Building Individual Staff’s Capability

2010-01-04T14:55:00.000Z

Capability is having the ability, potential, aptitude, facility, and qualifications to meet the needs of business today. We expect staff to continually develop new abilities and aptitude at a pace that matches the transformational change taking place within our organisations.

To build capability in your organisation:

• Identify Skills Gap
• Individual Development Path
• Individual Development Plan
• Training Needs Analysis
• Implement Learning Interventions
• Post Learning Activities
• Performance Support
• Give long term support
• Build a Community

Identify Skills Gap
To build capability, this initial picture must be mapped against the required skill set for effective project, programme and change management.

Individual Development Path
To move towards the required skill set involves creating individual development paths as each person starts from a unique position and will have their own desired state – some will wish to develop greater technical ability and others will search for further management opportunities.

Individual Development Plan
A personal development plan cannot be imposed upon someone. Building capability must be a joint effort between each individual and the organisation. Individuals supply the willingness to learn new skills and the organisation provides training courses, management support and practice opportunities in the form of secondments, transfers to new projects and increases in responsibility and authority levels.

Training Needs Analysis
A training needs analysis identifies required training courses and events based upon any skills gaps and for each course pre and post course support activities can be identified. These include briefings by managers to their staff before a course begins to identify with the individual their personal objectives for the course and the objectives that the manager seeks to fulfil on behalf of their team, department and organisation overall.

Implement Learning Interventions
There are many learning options available, you may decide that your staff would learn well on a bespoke training course which can then be followed up with a workshop where your staff can work through real life examples. Senior staff or those on high profile programme or projects may benefit from one to one coaching or mentoring to help with and developing a blueprint and mapping out specific issues.

Post Learning Activities
Post course activities include developing communities of practice and performance support. Communities of practice are effective if they provide access to best practice and a supportive environment in which individuals can share their difficulties in applying new skills and share ideas for how problems can be solved.

Performance Support
Performance support gives help at the point of need. Often, these are short interventions which answer specific ‘how do I?’ type questions. Building capability means that the organisation allows people to practice and accepts the risk that on their first attempts they might get it wrong and resists the temptation to blame them for their early mistakes.

Build a Community
Building capability requires organisations to commit long term effort, investing time and energy in encouraging staff to learn new skills, work in different ways and adopt new technology. They must also provide relevant support as individuals practice these new approaches until they become second nature.

If you would like Maven Training to help you build staff capability and organisational resource capacity please call our team on 020 7403 7100

Develop Staff Skills Resource and Build a Community Where Capability is Respected.

2009-12-22T12:13:00.000Z

Staff need to be able to adapt to new situations quickly, in fact they need the capability to perform many varied tasks. But how do you give them the tools, skills and environment they need to the capable in the situations that they face? And how do you ensure that your organisation has the capacity to meet the demands of modern business?

Capability and resource capacity can be purchased via recruitment of permanent and temporary resources to meet immediate needs. However, it is far more cost effective for organisations to have development programmes in place that grow from within, using resources that already know and understand their business.

Investment in training and development are also an important differentiator for staff satisfaction and impacts successful staff retention and lower recruitment costs as these activities mark the organisation as an employer of choice.

The WorkTrends Survey KRI 2007 shows that employee motivation and their ability to execute tasks can be improved by:

• Setting a clear career path programme
• Goal development and monitoring
• Regular feedback sessions with managers
• Tracking Progress

The survey also shows that by focusing on talent management organisations in six countries* questioned showed their employees were more engaged and more satisfied with their jobs and employer companies over all.
*Countries surveyed UK, USA, Brazil, China, Germany and India.

Use your staff’s potential combined with a programme to build a capability community and your business will see a return on investment and reap quantifiable rewards in terms of an efficient and able workforce.

Building both capacity and capability begins with a common step ~ understanding the current level of skills, knowledge and ability for each employee.

If you would like Maven Training to help you build staff capability and organisational resource capacity please call our team on 020 7403 7100

Project Management 2010 Benchmark Report

2009-12-16T09:34:00.000Z

As a valued partner of Arras people (Project Management Recruitment) we are helping promote their ‘Project Management Benchmark Report for 2010. This report covers the project management industry in areas such as salaries, rates, gender, current climate, and specific project management areas like professional bodies, competency and the outlook for 2010.

The kind of questions which are to be asked are based around current issues and hot topics within the PPM arena including statistics on salaries, remuneration and day rates so that a database can be created so comparisons can be drawn on last years statistics.

To take part in the survey please visit:
http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/PMReport/

2009 Survey Highlights

Recession has hit the project management market, with the majority of professionals fearing redundancies and cuts

Over a third of all respondents said they were ‘worse off’ last year and 22% of freelancer experienced decreased rates, with a significant number (11%) experiencing cuts of more than 10%

Employees feared better than contractors with salary expectations being met in 2008

Project Managers are a resilient lot. Despite the widespread doom and gloom, only 8% described their personal situation as ‘gloomy’, 63% described their situation as ‘steady’ and 18% as ‘neutral’

A massive 84% of Project Management Professionals believe they have a significant role to play in helping the UK economy out of its current difficulties

Public sector employees are better protected than private. Twice as many private sector employees and 5% more contractors expect rewards to fall in 2009

The gender pay gap is not closing

For previous reports please visit: http://www.arraspeople.co.uk/projectmanagementsalarysurvey/2010/projectmanagementbenchmarksurveyreport2010.html

I’ve heard change management is beneficial, but I don’t know how it works. What does it involve?

2009-12-08T10:26:00.000Z

Change Management involves analysing the current capability for change; identifying any resistance and barriers to implementing the change; and then determining an appropriate approach and plan for implementation. The aim is to minimise the level of disruption that individuals, teams and the organisation as a whole experience when the change is introduced. Organisations that are skilled in successfully delivering change will benefit from a decrease in the cost and time required to action the change, together with an increase in the probability of the change being accepted by stakeholders.

For Change Management to be successful an appropriate approach to implementation needs to be in place that focuses on delivering change in a visible, controlled and orderly fashion. Some of the factors that need to be considered in determining the best implementation approach are:

· Investigating and defining the change: Do we know the true scope of the change? Are we clear on what the change vision is? What resistance can we expect, from who, and when? What are the key activities that we need to include in our Change Plan?

· Developing the change: Do we need the support of certain influential stakeholders to ensure successful delivery? Is there support for the change at all levels of the organisation (executive through front line management)?

· Transitioning the change: What training and coaching will be offered to those affected? How will stakeholders be supported through the transition? How will successes be celebrated and new behaviours rewarded? When and how will the newly embedded behaviours, attitudes and beliefs be measured?

Carving the right approach to change requires a sound understanding of Change Management principles. Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of employing exceptional change teams to deliver successful change – which could explain the increased interest in developing Change Management intelligence.

Maven Training have launched their new Change Management Foundation and Practitioner courses - click here for more information

Project, Programme and Change Management Xmas Free Briefing

2009-12-04T11:57:00.000Z

Do you want something to talk about over Christmas lunch? Are you short of ideas for your New Year’s Resolutions?

Join Maven Training in the last few days of 2009 to hear how you can plan your career development through 2010 and beyond by using accredited qualification to professionalize your CV. In addition to getting the opportunity to work with Melanie Franklin, the acclaimed Maven in the Project and Programme Community, you will receive up to 3 PDU units towards your professional development and also get plenty of Christmas cheer with mince pies and refreshments.

Attending will be members of the Maven team who you can ask in detail about all the courses available and which ones are suitable for you. Bring your CVs as there will be an opportunity to speak to recruitment specialist Matchtech about the current state of the market place and how best to represent your professionalism to the market place.

Comments from previous attendees include: “a rousing presentation” to “inspirational…I will be writing my own development plan this weekend” and “Melanie is a powerhouse of ideas and enthusiasm – my whole team was energized by her delivery”.

Further information

CV requirements in the job market

2009-11-24T13:46:00.000Z

Minimum requirements have increased across all sectors, due to increased supply of candidates on the job market. Therefore recruiters can expect more qualifications and experience from candidates. This is the direct consequence of the increase levels of relevant and skilled candidates. Even if the specified requirements are not needed, these qualifications/skills provide reassurance to the employer.

However whilst expecting more, the stats indicate that average salaries for Project Managers have begun to rise again. The average salary for a Project Manager is £47,500 compared to £45,500 a year ago. Programme Manager average salaries are static at £70,000.

The CV is greatly underestimated by candidates. Even with the right skills and experience – if it is not presented in the right way then recruiters may not include you in their shortlist as the key areas will not stand out. With increased competition, the CV is a candidates most important sales tool, yet interestingly over 75% of candidates do not have their CV professionally reviewed, even those applying for high level roles. Projectmanagerjobs offer candidates a free CV review: http://www.projectmanagerjobs.co.uk/info/your-cv to help get the most relevant job for candidates.

BPUG Members Annual Conference, 11-12 November 2009

2009-11-17T13:19:00.000Z

By Melanie Franklin, CEO at Maven Training

Best Practice User Group Members Annual Conference took place at the Mercure Holland House Hotel & Spa, Bristol on 11-12 November 2009. The Conference Theme was 'P4: People, Portfolios, Programmes and Projects'.

Conference delegates enjoyed two days of valuable discussions, presentations and ideas generation across the whole range of OGC PPRM guidance, with special emphasis on 'people' aspects. Past delegates of BPUG conferences have praised them for their wide spread of topics, the quality of the session leaders and the opportunity to network amongst others in similar work circumstances.

I gave a presentation on the importance of emotional intelligence in achieving project success. There was broad agreement in the room at the start of the presentation that building capability and being able to answer the question ' how do we things well' is more important these days than sorting out 'what we do' which results from the implementation of methodologies. That is not to say that the methods offered by PRINCE2 and MSP are not important for project and programme management, its just that many organisations have implemented these now, and are looking to upskill their workforce for successful project delivery, and not just successful following of a methodology.

Interpersonal skills and technical skills combined deliver this 'how to' knowledge. Excellence in interpersonal skills are a result of developing 'emotional intelligence' which involves self awareness - an unflinching assessment of our strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes and how we demonstrate these through our personality and self management - a willingness to tailor some of our personality traits to the situation. We discussed how emotional intelligence grows over time, as we learn from our mistakes, and therefore, it is essential to constantly ask ' how could i have done that better' when engaging with people. We all agreed that we would never get anything done on a project if it weren't for the people around us, so increasing our ability to inspire, motivate, delegate and manage is not optional, its mandatory.

There were a number of questions at the end including the importance of building personal relationships if we are to get the most out of some of our more impersonal meeting formats such as teleconferenes, virtual teams, webinars and email. The removal of face to face communication presents us with even greater challenges for which emotional intelligence gives us a number of solutions

If anyone attended the conference over the two days it would be great to hear your thoughts!

London Project and Programme Management Forum

2009-11-16T13:50:00.000Z

By Melanie Franklin, CEO at Maven Training

The event was the London Project and Programme Management Forum. This even happens twice each year and on this occasion was hosted at the London Borough of Lewisham. The event is designed to bring Project and Programme Managers from London Local authorities together to share ideas, best practises and success stories. The focus was on Change Management and there were about 90 people in attendance most of whom are from Local Authorities, Met Police and the Fire and Ambulance Services.

I was really pleased to be asked to speak at this event, as embedding change is a subject we are repeatedly asked to design workshops for. Many of our clients are currently planning and implementing change programmes and are keen for practical guidance on how to make the change relevant to all who are impacted by it. It is this relevance that drives their involvement enabling individuals to see a reason for becoming involved and for adopting the change for themselves.

In my presentationg I explored a range of different perspectives that individuals typically take when evaluating an organisational change. The first evaluation is always how it will impact them and their position within the organisation, with pessimists often seeing the change in a negative light, seeing it as a criticism of the work they do today. Optimists can see the change as a way to fix current problems and provide them with new career development opportunities, but can sometimes lose heart when they realise the change does not offer them all of the advantages they had originally associated it with.

In order to address these extremes of view, and all points in between, all activities and communications about the change need to target how people learn, their preferences for receiving information and where they are in their own 'cycle of change' remembering that some people adapt to change very quickly, constantly seeking out the next change and how they can become involved in it, and others will be slower as their resistance to change is much greater.

During my presentation there was lots of notes being taken and at the end there were a number of questions about how to practically address those that resist change, clearly indicating that this is the biggest challenge that we face in change programmes.

Other speakers included Barry Quirk – Chief Exec at Lewisham, Steve Gough – Director of Programme Management and Property at Lewisham, Stephen Jenner – Director, Criminal Justice I.T, Tim Ellis – Kensington and Chelsea and Richard Caton – LB Hackney. Outperform also gave an update on the London Programme Management Methodology.

Project Management in the Transport Industry

2009-11-09T14:08:00.000Z

Maven Training along with sponsor Matchtech and partner WTS London (Women in Transportation) present the event 'Project Management in the Transport Industry', a unique opportunity to hear from leaders in Project Management recruitment and training and representatives from the transport industry. Melanie Franklin, CEO of Maven Training, a leading training provider, will speak about opportunities for individuals and companies to build capacity in their teams, through project and programme management training and identify how qualifications can be used to further your career in project management in the transport industry. Matchtech, sponsor of WTS London, and recruitment specialist for engineering, science, construction and professional services, will present an overview of what it is employers are looking for in a project manager: What type of qualifications are expected? What types of roles are available in the transport industry? We will also hear from a project manager within the transport industry - what their experiences are and what they think are the key qualities and qualifications that have helped them succeed in their role.

WTS London will be offering members the opportunity to undertake a Prince 2 qualification in Jan 2010, so ensure you come along to this exciting event to find out more about project management in the transport industry and your potential to advance your project management skills. Further information and the ability to sign up to this course will be available on the night.

Places are strictly limited, so ensure you don't miss this great event by registering now.

Venue: Maven Training Centre Location and Map
Date: 26th November 2009
Time: 6:30pm (arrive at 6:15pm) for a 8:30pm finish
Cost: FREE
Bookings: info@maventraining.co.uk (please email us with your name and contact details so we can confirm your place)

Light refreshments will be offered throughout the day and you will be given the chance to network with trainers and fellow peers.

The Project Management job market

2009-11-02T11:59:00.000Z

By Nicholas Tipping, Marketing Executive at Maven Training

I thought I would just spread the word on some interesting markets research into the job markets. This was found on the website ITjobswatch.co.uk and I have looked for figures and statistics on the term ‘project management’. I have outlined the main parts below but for more information please click on the links.

As you can see, the statistics of searches on their website matching 'project management' with permanent IT jobs has dropped from '17499' in 2007 to '5030' in the 3 months leading up to the 2nd November 2009. Saying that, the average salary quoted was more than £30,000 which accounted for 90% of the jobs, interestingly for 10% of the jobs, the salary has increased by up to £10,000 over the last 2 years.

Please click here for the full report

Project Management Histogram

The below chart provides a salary histogram for IT jobs citing Project Management across England over the 3 months to the 2nd November 2009. As you can see the average salary tends to lie between £30,000 to £55,000 which has also remained fairly steady over the last 2 years.

Project Management top 30 related IT skills to 'job titles '

For the 6 months to 2 November 2009, IT jobs across the England region citing Project Management were grouped by job titles in order of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of IT job ads sampled that cited Project Management.

Project Management top 30 related It Skills to 'Methodologies' and 'Processes'

For the 6 months to 2 November 2009, IT jobs across the England region citing Project Management were grouped by Methodology and Processes in terms of popularity. The figures indicate the number of jobs and their proportion against the total number of IT job ads sampled that cited Project Management.

Feel free to check out the ITjobswatch website for more information on these statistics as well as other keywords such as 'PRINCE2', 'MSP', ITIL, Change Management, APM and 'M_o_R.

2009-10-26T14:13:00.000Z

Interview with Lisa Sherwood, MSP delegate with Maven Training

On the week commencing the 19th October, Lisa Sherwood, a programme manager in the public sector took the MSP Foundation course at our Maven Training centre. A few questions were posed afterwards to find out her thoughts and opinions on the qualification so take a look at what she said about it.

1) Who do you think it is so important to have the MSP qualification?
MSP is the most widely recognised programme management qualification in the UK, and it's an indication of your committment to managing business change so that you realise the benefits.

2) How does the MSP qualification complement PRINCE2?
Well, it's from the same best practice stable as PRINCE2 so it allows PMs and PgMans to talk the same language when discussing their management areas.

3) How does it prepare you for going back to the office after gaining the qualification?
I feel much more confident now that I know the language of programme management and understand it's principles, governance themes and processes.

5) What level do you feel the course is aimed at?
MSP isn't for the faint hearted - there's a lot of information here and a lot of detail to absorb, so if reading isn't your thing, it probably isn't for you. Similarly I think it helps if you have had exposure to some level of PgMan before, either as a project manager or as a programme manager, or you've been part of the business change team in your organisation. Senior business leaders would also benefit - those who will be part of sponsoring boards or senior responsible owners, so they can understand their roles and those of the team around them.

6) What is the next step after an MSP course?
To use the new skills! I'm already trying to apply what I've learned to a new programme of work that I'm responsible for. I'd also like to expand my knowledge of P3M3 and programme offices. Future training course possibilities include Change Management and Management of Risk (M_o_R).

7) How do you implement MSP into organisations when you are the only person accredited with the qualification?
Well, I think you have to communicate, communicate, communicate. Part of your return to work should be to brief your colleagues on what you've learned and plan the implementation according to what you've learned. If your organisation doesn't use any form of methodology to manage the change - it would seem a very good time to start!

8) How has it helped you individually and what part of the course has interested you the most?
I'm more confident now with the differences between projects and programmes as well as understanding how important it is to align to the corporate strategies that drive your business. MSP & PRINCE2 help you to do that by ensuring the reasons for doing the programmes and projects remain sound.

Thank you for answering our questions Lisa and we hope to see you again soon.

New style Practitioner results letter from Maven Training

2009-10-21T14:19:00.000+01:00

For all examination based courses, Maven is moving to a new style of results letter for the Practitioner results. The new style will be a pdf version of the letter, which can be emailed to each of our delegates. The reason for this change is twofold. We are protecting our delegates from the impact of the proposed mail delivery strikes, as we know that waiting for results can be nervewracking and we have always sought to notify delegates as soon as we are given the results from the examination bodies. Secondly, we know that many of our delegates keep records of their achievements, and whilst the printed certificates are great for framing and displaying, the new version of the results letter can be used as an attachment when sending on-line applications for association memberships, job applications etc. This approach ties in with our commitment to supporting the launch of the new Chartered Project Professional status from the Association for Project Management, where the application will be on-line, and evidence of success in our project, programme, risk and change management examination courses will be a valuable achievement towards chartered status.

The emailing of results will be a permanent change, and is in line with our environmental policy, which seeks to cut down on paper and ink usage wherever possible.

The APM Project Management Conference - Delivering Projects Professionally

2009-10-14T08:30:00.000+01:00

Maven Training is going to be exhibiting at the APM Conference so make sure you come down for a chat on our latest products and range of bespoke services. We are re-launching our APM Introductory Certificate course and would be keen to hear from past delegates or potential new delegates on their thoughts on the project and programme management environment at present. We are happy to discuss how their individual organisation is operating and working to combat the different problems that have arisen.

Location: The Brewery, London, EC1Y 4SD, Wednesday 21st October 2009

The APM Project Management Conference 2009 is an interactive forum bringing together project management professionals and key decision makers across the public and private sector. It aims to set out and debate key subjects on the national project management agenda.

It will address issues including project sponsorship, training and development, growing the skill-set of project professionals and the benefits of the new chartered status.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The importance of qualifications for long-term contracting success

2009-10-12T09:48:00.000+01:00

Employers want recognised, up-to-date qualifications plus relevant experience from their contractors. But, as many successful contractors will testify, taking time out to get training or to re-register their qualifications can be the last thing on their minds – especially when another contract beckons.

So it happens that the most experienced consultants can find themselves without the qualifications that are deemed necessary in the first round of assessments – which are often done by HR people. With 2012 and all the opportunities presented by the Olympics, contractors need to make sure they don’t miss out on opportunities to win the best contracts just because their CV doesn’t make the grade.

Richard Rose is a trainer of PRINCE2®, who also works as a consultant, so he understands the pressures that contractors face. “Many of the candidates I see are hoping to improve the balance of their CVs with a recognised project management qualification. Often, these are very experienced people but there is an expectation these days that you need to have passed the exam to get considered for the jobs, so contractors are under pressure to conform.”

Richard says many organisations - and particularly local authorities - insist that both potential employees and contractors are PRINCE2 qualified. “Organisations view it as proof of the candidate’s capability,” he says, “and if you haven’t got it, they often won’t even look at your CV.”

Jan Eldon has been contracting since 1997 when he set up his own IT support consultancy. With clients mainly in the IT, insurance and Telecoms industries, Jan has also worked for publishing companies and pharmaceutical giant Unilever.

Jan decided to take a project management course with Maven Training. “With contracting you’re not pigeon-holed exactly, but you can get over specialised when one particular type of contract leads to another of the same kind. In order to be able to break out of this pattern you’ve got to demonstrate skills in other areas and until you’ve got the right blend of skills, qualifications in the area you want to move into can help.”

Taking time out of work and funding courses can be difficult, Jan says. “You’ve got to think about the long term in order to justify taking time out of work and the expense of the course, but to continue to attract the right sort of contracts it’s a worthwhile exercise.”

Richard agrees: “It’s important that contractors invest in their own development. Employees are offered training throughout their careers, but contractors need to think about their aspirations, what they want to achieve in the long term and set out plans to achieve this. They should think not just about the contracts they can and do attract, but what they hope to do in the medium to long term and endeavour to ensure their skill set is updated to ensure they do achieve their goals.”

“It can be frustrating for experienced contractors who think that qualifications are just a badge – they don’t prove you are competent in your field of work. However, what they do signify to employers is that the contractor they’re getting speaks the same language and has a similar mindset to other contractors and employees working in the organisation. This is important to employers because they’ll want their contractors to start adding value from the very start of their contracts.”

Another point to be aware of, Richard says, is the importance of Re-registration. If your PRINCE2 or MSP™ Practitioner qualification is more than five years old, you should renew it. “It’s not so important for employees because their organisations know how they’ve gained experience, but for contractors competing for work, re-registration is vital. This is because the methods are updated and anyone whose qualifications are more than five years old could have gaps in their knowledge. Contractors also need to demonstrate their commitment to their own CPD and re-registration is the best way to demonstrates to employers they are serious about keeping their knowledge up to date.”

Many contractors find it difficult to take time out of work to fit in time to attend courses or to re-register their existing professional qualifications. Some training companies, such as Maven Training, offer flexible courses running at the weekends so contractors don’t have to take too much time out of work.

For further details visit www.maventraining.co.uk

Project Challenge Review

2009-10-06T12:15:00.000+01:00

By Nicholas Tipping, Marketing Executive at Maven Training

I attended my 4th Project Challenge last Wednesday the 30th September (2nd in Olympia) as a Maven Training exhibitor and I have to say it turned out to be a great day with many interesting conversations. I managed to get to the exhibition around 8:30am and so had a chance to grab a coffee and have a little walk round and chat to some familiar faces. As the time was approaching for the grand opening at 9:30am, everyone awaited in anticipation for the delegates to come rushing in through the door. Unfortunately people can only access the exhibition by the lifts and I heard through the grapevine that queues were mounting outside! Apart from that there were no other hiccups and after half an hour or so, anyone and everyone who wanted to come were safely inside the building.

As the day ran on, I spoke to some of our long term clients and discussed how our current partnerships are progressing; this was met with some fantastic feedback and it is great to see how organisations are reaping the benefits from project and programme management implementation techniques we have worked on together. With our unique approach to building capability and capacity in organisations, we have developed many collaborations and tailored services to which we can work with different organisations with. If you would like to take a look at our range of services please visit our Business Solutionswebsite section which will give you a great insight in to what we can do.

It was interesting to hear from a lot of individuals who had come to the exhibition in search of more information on changes in the industry. There seemed to be a fair share of project managers attending to catch up with the latest news in the project world and attend the seminars to sound out new angles on the subject. At 12:15pm on the Wednesday, our CEO Melanie Franklin presented in Zone A on ‘Building Business Capacity in Project and Programmes’. This presentation was met with loud applause and many delegates I spoke to in the afternoon had great words to say about the presentation which focused on building individuals and organisations capacity to produce maximum productivity (email info@maventraining.co.uk if you would like further information on the presentation).

Other conversations were also based around delegates who had taken mainly PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner courses and were looking at up skilling by attending additional courses. These were usually in the form of the MSP Foundation and Practitioner and Change Management courses in which we received a high response to. It is great to know in this economical downturn that people are still looking to increase their skill set and qualifications and tie in other methodologies with the project management methodology to give them a greater overview and understanding of the subjects. Whether this is for people needing to combine the skills for their jobs or have the qualifications for their CV, it is very popular to have 2/3 of the courses under your belt nowadays and this trend was very apparent.

All in all a fantastic day and by 5:00pm everyone looked pretty tired and worn out. We hope everyone enjoyed this event and if anyone has any feedback on it, on us or any presentations it would be great to hear about it.

See you all soon

Interview on PRINCE2

2009-10-05T12:27:00.000+01:00

Our friend over at PM 4 Girls Elizabeth Harrin has a very interesting blog post which is centred around the PRINCE2 methodology. The questions range from the methodology's origins and background to the positives/negatives and then how it compares to the PMBOK framework overall.

When commenting on the project management statistics, it is interesting to let people know that the methoodlogy is used in 160 countries. As Elizabeth also reiterates, it is available in 9 languages and the manuals are available in 7 languages. There are over 250,000 qualified candidates and 2,000 exams taken per week around the world. There is also a 20% growth year on year.

When we look at another type of certification like PMP (Project Management Professional) we see there are nearly 350,000 PMP'S and the PMBOK Guide is published in ten official languages.

On an additional note, it should be noted that PRINCE2 is not a membership like PMI where you have a subscription side to it and formalised groups but if you wish to network on this subject, then using like minded blogs like Elizabeth's and ourselves it helps spread information and advice on such methodologies.

To read the full interview click here

Project Challenge Exhibition

2009-09-29T10:33:00.000+01:00

On the 30th September and 1st October Maven Training will be exhibiting at Project Challenge in Olympia, London.

With around 80 exhibiting organisations, and more than 40 free presentations, this un-missable event provides an unparalleled opportunity to learn from leading industry experts. You will get right up to date with the latest tools, solutions and services at this project event.

If you have previously taken a course with Maven Training, it would be great for you to come and meet us and talk about how everything has been since implementing what you have learnt from your course into your organisation. We can discuss different issues in your organisation at present and find solutions to your needs, just come to stand 29 for a chat about what we can do for each other.

On the 30th September at 12:15pm Zone A, our CEO Melanie Franklin will be presenting to an audience (so get there early) on 'Capacity Building in Project and Programme Management'. This lively, interactive and engaging presentation will focus on increasing individual capacity and maximising available resources to reach and exceed expectations. Then Melanie looks at developing capacity for an organisation as a whole and bringing it all together.

Come and take a seat for an innovative approach to buildiing capacity within organisations where you can hear her views on increasing individual productivity and maximising output.

Building high performing project, programme and portfolio support offices

2009-09-22T09:54:00.000+01:00

By Melanie Franklin, CEO at Maven Training

The PPSO Sig is an opportunity for those performing support roles to meet with their colleagues from other organisations and industries, to debate key issues. I attended the dinner at the end of day one, and gave a presentation on building high performing project, programme and portfolio support offices the next day. One of the things that really struck me about the attendees at this event was their strong desire to really get something out of their 2 days, and to make sure that the event was not just a talking shop.

As it was such a tough audience, I was really grateful that my slot was so well received, with lots of comments on email afterwards saying very similar things "Fantastic presentation at the PPSO group, really like your style!"

For my presentation, i took a client centric view of a support office, as I am currently relying on the PMO at a client to help me deliver a business critical programme against very tight deadlines. I used my current experience to set out what I need from a PMO, and then showed how I thought a highly effective team could help me achieve these requirements. I based the development of a highly effective team on Tuckmans model of team formation, and the group and I explored how the development of a team charter for the PMO can help the team form and storm as quickly as possible, so that the team reaches its 'norming' phase as early as possible. I divided the attendees into small teams, and each of the teams had to build their own charter, and then display them around the room so that the learning could be shared by each of the other teams. After that, we looked at how teams moving from Norming to Performing by sharing capability and each of the teams was invited to create their own ideas of how best to develop capability in their own environments. There were a lot of very creative and innovative ideas, and this session was run as a competition, with the best idea (judged by a PPSO Committee member) winning a very high quality box of chocolates - which I am relieved they decided to share, so I could have a couple!! The winning idea from the capability activity was 'pass it on, pass it back' which describes how experiences of service delivery by one member of the PMO can be shared with others - passing it on, with a feedback loop from other team members - passing it back. So one team member explains their experience to 3 others, they each explain it to 3 others until everyone that would find the experience useful has been informed and had a chance to comment on it.BY

PPSO SIG Conference

2009-09-15T09:52:00.000+01:00

In 2008, P3O, the new Portfolio, Programme and Project Office framework was launched to thePMO community. In September 2009, the ppsosig launches its new conference "From Acorn to Oak: PMO Maturity in your Organisation, Your Team and You" focused on the next steps in growing your PMO.

This two day conference, being held on the 16th & 17th September 2009, will move from awareness to a greater understanding of the current guidance and tools available to assess your organisational and PMO maturity.

Establishing a PMO Team

Melanie Franklin, our CEO at Maven Training identifies and reinforces the key issues in establishing a PMO team. Melanie’s engaging and high energy session will look at the goals of your PMO, roles and responsibilities, the work of the PMO, the skillsets required (hard and interpersonal), working arrangements, abilities and experiences and certification & training for the team.
The session will leave delegates with an overview of the challenges of bringing individuals together in a PMO and address the following topics;
• Support, encourage and control of the members
• Working with Programme and Project staff
• Focus of promoting the benefits of the P3O to the organisation stakeholders
• Developing P3O services and functions
• Developing the use and application of appropriate tools and techniques
• Training and development

Please make sure you register your interest pretty quickly for this unmissable event!

Working across the Public Sector

2009-09-08T10:42:00.000+01:00

Maven Training has worked with a diverse range of public sector organisations, many of whom have become long-term associates because they trust us.

The project, programme and change management training we provide to public sector organisations prepares staff for their roles and gives them a methodology which they can apply to the contractors engaged in the delivery of the products and services being commissioned.

The delegates attending our courses come from a variety of management and specialist backgrounds and are often managing multiple projects. Susan Stevens, Maven Training’s Associate Trainer, has developed courses for clients such as Hackney Council, the Financial Services Authority and the Security Industry Authority.

Susan says, “Although clients operate in different environments, they can face very similar issues. For example many clients need help with leadership issues, working effectively in teams, and influencing stakeholders,” she says.

Maven Training can also adapt its range of courses to suit a client’s specific needs with regards to their own Frameworks. For example for Leeds PCT we developed a project and programme management framework, based on the principles of best practice including PRINCE2®, MSP™ and M_o_R®.

The project and programme frameworks were supported by the development of pages for the NHS Leeds intranet site, providing guidance, examples, templates and points to consider when using a project or programme management approach to work. The training courses provided experiential learning opportunities, where delegates had a chance to practice applying the frameworks using relevant NHS Leeds examples, but in a risk free training environment.

Sometimes the work we’re doing is so well received, new initiatives spring from it. For example, Maven Training’s CEO Melanie Franklin recently spent the day working with young people at Knowsley Council, where we have been helping project management staff get to grips with PRINCE2.

Melanie was aware the young people involved in this process were giving up their time for their community, so she decided to do the same. “It was a real pleasure because all the people involved were so dedicated to the vision of what’s possible,” she said.

Skype with Maven Training

2009-09-01T15:16:00.000+01:00

If you want to contact Maven Training from home or abroad for free then here are a few tips for you to get up and running!

All that you need to place calls using Skype is the following:

- A working Internet connection
- The Skype software download here
- A headset or handset
- Click the contact button at the top of skype

In the list find the person you wish to call, for Maven training type in 'MavenTrainingSales' as your contact.
You will see their details in the main window.

Click the green Call button. You should hear ringing. If you don't hear the other person or they can't hear you, click the call quality icon at the top of your call window.

To hang up, click the red End call button.

Get started now - it really is as easy as that!

Tailoring for your organizations wants and needs!

2009-08-27T11:22:00.000+01:00

By Andre Palmer, Client Relations at Maven Training

I was at dinner at a random restaurant in central London recently and my friend was asking about project management training for his team. A guy sitting at the table beside us leaned forward and asked whether we were talking about PRINCE2 by any chance and what our thoughts on the methodology were. At that point, it dawned on me that when people talk about project management, they automatically think about PRINCE2.

For the fact that PRINCE2 is easily the most recognized project management method this side of the Atlantic, organizations have put entire teams through PRINCE2 training over the last few years with Maven with the aim of making them more competent. Companies are also taken in by the formal qualification that comes with the training – they see the ‘badge’ as value for money. When all this is stripped away though, organizations have to contend with the fact that a PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner qualification per se does not necessarily make project staff manage projects more effectively.

For this reason, more and more corporate clients have been moving towards investing in specially tailored project management workshops/courses to support embedding the PRINCE2 methodology and best practice. Corporate clients are beginning to realize that while PRINCE2 can be used to manage any project under the sun, the real benefits come from its effective implementation in the organization. To this end, organizations are appreciating the section in the new version of the PRINCE2 manual that addresses ‘tailoring’ for example.

We at Maven have been one step ahead of the game for a long time though and have developed hundreds of bespoke events to support the use of PRINCE2 in different project environments for both the public and private sectors. These events have been specifically designed working closely with each client in order to fully understand the level of maturity in the particular project environment so that we are able to yield the greatest possible return on the investment.

We see the PRINCE2 qualification as just the beginning and gone are the days when ‘sheep dipping’ the whole organization was perceived as an effective approach to project management. The real test is whether projects are being delivered on time, within budget and with the forecasted benefits. If an honest assessment shows that your company is ‘failing the test’, then the expertise of Maven training is just what you need.

Current Professional Opinions on Project Management Training & Qualifications

2009-08-21T09:34:00.000+01:00

Our friends at Arras People – project management & project office recruitment specialists – Carried out a very interesting survey over the last week through the help fo twitter, Linkedin and their blog asking how project management qualifications relate to project management job roles.

The survey was both a mixed open and closed affair giving people the freedom to comment on what their thoughts were on the importance of project management qualifications.

When asked "Please pick a statement that closely matches your motivation for taking a qualification", over 85% of respondents gave answers that reflected on the enhancing virtues a PM qualification provides (i.e. 'Gives me an advantage when applying for new roles', 'Shows that I am a fully competent PM professional').

Perhaps most intriguing were the responses to the question, "Has the qualification been beneficial to you in any tangible way?" Nearly 60% of respondents answered 'Yes', while 18% answered 'No' and 23% stated they were 'Unsure'. Some 'Yes' responses would seem to speak to the importance of project management hiring personnel place on qualifications.

To read the full article and explore the other survey results such as 'missed opportunities from not taking qualifications' and 'biggest motivator in not taking the qualification' please click here

Fancy a career move into programme Management?

2009-08-19T15:59:00.000+01:00

Project managers wishing to take their careers to the next stage often think about becoming programme managers. Although it can be a successful career move, it’s important to understand the differences between the two disciplines. Some people mistakenly believe that programme management is about running groups of projects, but programmes and projects are quite different by nature and require distinct skill sets.

As programmes are concerned with transformational change, they are ongoing and do not have a definite duration like projects. Project managers wanting to move into programme management must be prepared to be less hands-on.

While projects focus on outputs and have a controlled start through to controlled end, programmes focus on benefits and will be disbanded once these benefits have been realised.

Melanie Franklin, CEO, Maven Training, has helped many public sector organisations improve their project and programme management capability. Some of the organisations she has worked with include Knowsley Borough Council, the Children’s Work force Development Council, the London Pension Funds and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Melanie says: “Projects are about doing things right, whereas programmes are about doing the right things. Projects are expected to deliver outputs, deliverables or products to time, cost and quality. On the other hand Programmes are about leading and embedding change, and they introduce new ways of working.”
She says it’s valuable for project managers and programme managers to understand how their roles complement each other.

"Programme managers who have taken the PRINCE2® qualification are able to communicate with and understand project managers more easily. Projects are usually part of a programme, whether project managers know it or not, so the MSP™ (Managing Successful Programmes) qualification gives project managers a breadth of understanding. It helps them recognise how their hard work on a project fits into context.”

Maven Training partner with Women in Technology

2009-08-14T14:47:00.000+01:00

We are please to announce that Maven Training have become official partners with Women in Technology. Our relationship has gone from strength to strength in 2009 with Women in Technology heavily supporting our 'PRINCE2® for Girls Initiative' which was an astounding success.

In accordance with this, we are now offering a 10% discount to members of Women in technology in gaining crucial priject and programme management qualifications to secure that next job opportunity.

Abit more information on Women in Technology
womenintechnology.co.uk is a networking and recruitment organisation committed to helping women build successful and satisfying careers in the technology profession and since their launch in 2005, they have grown into a network of over 5,200 individuals. They run regular networking events and training courses, host an online job board and provide a recruitment service for employers and job seekers.

Partnerships
Lastly we would like to say to any organisations who are in support of personal development and education/training to give us a call or drop us an email in becoming an official partner of the future!

BCS Interview – Melanie Franklin and Emma Jones on the PRINCE2® 2009 changes»

2009-08-11T09:56:00.000+01:00

The recent refresh of PRINCE2® has led to changes in the content of training courses and exams. Maven Training’s CEO Melanie Franklin and the Chief PRINCE2® Examiner Emma Jones were invited by the BCS (British computer Society) to explain what has been altered.

Click here for more BCS podcasts

How to… maximise your training budgets

2009-07-29T14:25:00.001+01:00

Our inspiration for today’s article was taken from the July issue of People Management magazine.

Charles Gould, managing director of workplace e-learning specialist Brightwave, outlined that cutting costs doesn't necessarily mean stopping staff development and encourages employers to be smarter with how they spend. He goes on saying that, during recessions, it can be tempting to treat training as dispensable expenditure. However, a recent CIPD survey found that the average annual spend per employee on training has already dropped from £300 to £220. But simply cutting training budgets can be dangerous – instead, take the opportunity to work smarter.

We have taken some of the best hints and tips and reproduced them here for you.

1 – Prioritise training needs
First, identify and focus on the mission-critical training requirements in your organisation. These may include business-generating training on new products and sales skills. Legal compliance also cannot be neglected. Your organisation will be focused on business-critical issues more than ever, so your training needs to be too.

2 – Don’t ‘sheep dip’
Stop and think about the real skill gaps. What does each person really need to do his or her job? Tailor your training to support real performance needs. If you don’t, you risk throwing away your training budget unnecessarily.

3 – Outsource expediently
Don’t ignore the skills of your in-house learning and development team. With the right coaching and tools, they can play a valuable part in co-ordinating external suppliers with internal business sponsors, and bring their knowledge of training and your people to bear during design.

4 – Encourage informal knowledge sharing
In the current age of social networking, encourage employees to share knowledge informally. This may be facilitated via a secure network within an intranet, or through a group set up on one of the more popular social networks, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. You might find that staff will be happy to access such informal learning at a time when they know they have to keep up in terms of knowledge and skills.

5 – Consider pre-induction training
Get people learning about your organisation and processes before they actually start, when they’ll be highly engaged and keen to make an impression. Pre-induction, or onboarding, reduces the training burden once new staff have joined, meaning they can hit the ground running.

6 – Maximise different training channels
Look at using existing training resources that could be delivered using different channels. For example, create e-learning to reach large numbers of staff. But then use the same materials – design images, stories and questions – to produce posters, brochures or PowerPoint slides. You don’t need to write and design a new course or campaign from scratch.

7 – Don’t ditch your classroom training
It can be tempting, but scrapping all classroom training when training budgets are cut may be a mistake. Instead, think “horses for courses” – transfer costly classroom-based training into a blended learning programme. For example, select key role-play or discussion points from a three-day classroom course to create a one-day course. The key knowledge learning and testing elements can then be transferred online to ensure no learning is lost.

8 – Get staff learning at home
Offer incentives, such as paying the home broadband bill for the training period in return for time invested in training at home. This minimises disruption during the working day and enables training to be centrally tracked and assessed to monitor its effectiveness.

Source: People Management magazine, page 33, 16 July 2009

Read original article here

The current life of project managers

2009-07-28T09:59:00.000+01:00

We have found three very interesting posts on two of the blogs we follow most closely, and we thought them so valuable that we decided to share them with you!

From Arras People:

Current Recruitment Activity in Project Management. Mixed news and fortunes surround recruitment activity in project management at the moment, there are winners and losers across all sectors. Specifically within project management, the volume of requirements is down year on year by 50%, and we have also seen some pressure on day rates and salary levels over the last six months. Read full article here

From Project Shrink:

How To Promote Yourself As A Project Manager. Read full article here

You Are Using Project Leadership Almost Every Day. Read full article here

Beating boredom at work

2009-07-27T10:10:00.000+01:00

Here at Maven we always make sure that staff are not bored with what their doing – we believe in constant challenge and innovation! So it was not a surprise to us to learn from this month’s issue of Professional Manager Magazine that bored, disengaged and disenchanted employees can cause serious consequences to the organisation.

Organisations that don’t offer opportunities for control by their workers are putting themselves at risk of their staff feeling, well, bored and tired.

Contrary to popular belief, boredom is NOT the result of having nothing to do – it stems from a situation where none of the possible things a person can realistically do appeals to them. Research suggests that the most boredom-inducing parts of a job are those that are repetitive and routine or that under utilise the skills or abilities of an individual.

How can an organisation beat boredom, then?

Some simple steps can go a long way. Giving employees control and autonomy over their work will help them feel more responsible for it, more trusted by the organisation and, therefore, more appreciated – and it’s a well-known fact that people like to make their superiors proud, so they’ll work with more excitement and be less prone to not caring about what their doing. Avoiding or minimising ‘scripted’ repetitive work also helps – allowing creativity to flow will help keep your staff motivated! Long, pointless meetings can also be exhausting – keep your get-togethers to a necessary minimum, stick to the planned agenda, work on pragmatic briefings and make sure everyone understands what you expect from them. Allowing better work conditions also works a treat: background music and the ability to schedule one’s priorities have been ranked high by employees in search of a nicer office life.

Maven Trainers talk about PRINCE2®:2009 (Part 6/6)

2009-07-24T10:15:00.001+01:00

This is the end of our third week of successfully delivering PRINCE2®:2009 training courses.

While we were getting ready and preparing our trainers to provide our delegates with Maven Training’s usual top-notch delivery, we were out and about the Maven Training Centre asking some of them to give us their views and opinions on it – this has become the “Maven Training Vox Populi on PRINCE2:2009”.

The last one of the series of six sessions “What is the best thing about the newPRINCE2®?” is available for you NOW!

Watch the first five videos here:
Why has PRINCE2® Changed?
What has changed on PRINCE2®?
What are the differences to the new PRINCE2® manual?
What do the differences on new PRINCE2® mean to delegates?
What do the differences on new PRINCE2® mean to organisations?

Maven Trainers talk about PRINCE2®:2009 (Part 5/6)

2009-07-23T09:51:00.001+01:00

We are approaching the end of our third week of successfully delivering PRINCE2®:2009 training courses.

While we were getting ready and preparing our trainers to provide our delegates with Maven Training’s usual top-notch delivery, we were out and about the Maven Training Centre asking some of them to give us their views and opinions on it – this has become the “Maven Training Vox Populi on PRINCE2:2009”.

From the series of six sessions, the fifth one, “What do the differences on new PRINCE2® mean to organisations?” is available for you NOW!

Watch the first four videos here:
Why has PRINCE2® Changed?
What has changed on PRINCE2®?
What are the differences to the new PRINCE2® manual?
What do the differences on new PRINCE2® mean to delegates?

The last one will be published here tomorrow.

Maven Trainers talk about PRINCE2®:2009 (Part 4/6)

2009-07-22T09:14:00.001+01:00

We are now half-way through our third week of successfully delivering PRINCE2®:2009 training courses.

While we were getting ready and preparing our trainers to provide our delegates with Maven Training’s usual top-notch delivery, we were out and about the Maven Training Centre asking some of them to give us their views and opinions on it – this has become the “Maven Training Vox Populi on PRINCE2:2009”.

From the series of six sessions, the fourth one, “What do the differences on new PRINCE2® mean to delegates?” is available for you NOW!

Watch the first three videos here:
- Why has PRINCE2® Changed?
- What has changed on PRINCE2®?
- What are the differences to the new PRINCE2® manual?

The next two ones will be published on this blog tomorrow and Friday.

Maven Trainers talk about PRINCE2®:2009 (Part 3/6)

2009-07-21T09:21:00.001+01:00

We are now on our third week of successfully delivering PRINCE2®:2009 training courses.

While we were getting ready and preparing our trainers to provide our delegates with our usual top-notch delivery, we were out and about the Maven Training Centre asking some of them to give us their views and opinions on it – this has become the “Maven Training Vox Populi on PRINCE2:2009”.

A series of six sessions and the third one, “What are the differences to the new PRINCE2® manual?” is available for you NOW!

Watch the first two videos here:
- Why has PRINCE2® Changed?
- What has changed on PRINCE2®?

The next three ones will be published on this blog, one per day, throughout this week.

Maven Trainers talk about PRINCE2®:2009 (Part 2/6)

2009-07-20T08:55:00.000+01:00

Today we welcome the start of our third week of successfully delivering PRINCE2®:2009 training courses.

While we were getting ready and preparing our trainers to provide our delegates with our usual top-notch delivery, we were out and about the Maven Training Centre asking some of them to give us their views and opinions on it – this has become the “Maven Training Vox Populi on PRINCE2:2009”.

A series of six sessions, the second one, “What has changed on PRINCE2®?” is available for you NOW!

Watch the first video, “Why has PRINCE2® Changed?”, here.

The next four ones will be published on this blog, one per day, throughout this week.

Maven Trainers talk about PRINCE2®:2009 (Part 1/6)

2009-07-17T16:52:00.000+01:00

We’re today celebrating a couple of weeks of successfully delivering PRINCE2®:2009 training courses.

All the while, we were out and about the Maven Training Centre asking some of our fabulous trainers to give us their views and opinions on it – this has become the “Maven Training Vox Populi on PRINCE2:2009”.

A series of six sessions, the first one, “Why has PRINCE2® Changed?” is available for you NOW!

The next five ones will be published on this blog, one per day, next week. Watch this space!

Save the Children

2009-07-17T11:36:00.000+01:00

Save the Children is looking for lots of more fabulous volunteers to give their time in its shops throughout the UK!

Save the Children are the world’s independent children’s charity, working flat out to raise funds that will make a dramatic change to the lives of children around the world – but they cannot do it without help!

They have a range of engaging roles, fully funded NVQ opportunities and shops that need your help.

Just four hours per week can make a huge difference – on average, a four hour shift can raise £33 per volunteer which could feed a family of five in Ethiopia for one month!

So what are you waiting for!? Visit the Save the Children website to find your nearest shop or email shops.volunteering@savethechildren.org.uk today for more info.

They look forward to seeing you soon!

Benefits Realisation, Programme Management, Project Offices and all that jazz…

2009-07-16T09:10:00.000+01:00

My Michelle Rowland, Associate Trainer

At the last the APM Group’s 7th annual Best Practice Showcase I attended several ‘Birds of a Feather’ sessions. Most of these covered subjects with which I was already very familiar such as ‘Benefits Realisation Management’ and ‘What’s wrong with your Project Office’. I also went to a session on ‘Tailoring MSP to transform performance’. What I found most interesting was that for me there was ‘nothing new’. I had hoped to glean a snippet of information or insight as to how to apply these methods that I had not thought of before, but in fact came away with the feeling that I knew at least as much as the other ‘experts’ in the room. A comforting thought!

I went to two interesting sessions, one on Portfolio Management – again nothing new but the speaker Craig Kilford, the author of the OGC’s guidance on the subject, was very entertaining and is definitely worth going to see if you can. You can download the guidance for free at the moment as a PDF file, if you are interested. In future, the OGC are considering producing it as a full blown book which will be available to buy.

The second interesting session was on the similarity between MSP and the new PRINCE2 2009 – ‘PRINCE2 and MSP joined up’, as presented by two of the authors of both guides. They focused their energies on looking at the Principles and how they have a similar ethos and presented the following picture, which I thought might be of interest:

Purpose
On PRINCE2: Business Justification
On MSP: Leading Change; Envisioning; Communicating

Focus
On PRINCE2: Productions
On MSP: Benefits

Flexibility
On PRINCE2: Tailored to suit
On MSP: Delivering a coherent capability

Governance
On PRINCE2: Manage by stages; Manage by exception; Roles and responsibilities
On MSP: Remaining aligned with corporate strategy; Adding value

Top 50 IT Training Companies: Maven Training goes up!

2009-07-14T11:37:00.000+01:00

For the second year in a row, Maven Training is ranked on the UK’s Top 50 IT Training Companies – and this year we’re even more chuffed to have increased our placing from 42 to 38!

The list is compiled by gathering information on the revenue of companies with IT training businesses (excluding sales of training delivered outside the UK and non-IT related business).

Our CEO, Melanie Franklin, states that the very core belief of Maven Training is what helped us go up on this year’s list. “Listening to clients (and potential clients) helps us give them what they want. I talk to delegates at training centres and at exhibitions, and I deliver training. I ask what problems they want solving”, she says.

Interesting blog find of the week (so far!)

2009-07-13T10:02:00.000+01:00

We have just come across a very interesting Project Management blog, Fear No Project, which purpose, they state, is to “share thoughts and experiences on issues affecting project managers and the world of project management”. Two of their recent articles, we think, are of extreme relevance – that’s why we’re sharing them with you here!

Role of Project Managers in Change Management
July 10, 2009 — Bruce McGraw

Because change is an organisational constant affecting everyone, we assume everyone knows about Change Management. However, change management requires more than the natural flow of change in an organisation. Change Management (emphasis on the management) begins with a desired behavioural outcome and works methodically toward that goal by re-shaping an organization’s culture or way of doing business...

Read full article.

Project manager – having difficult conversations
June 20, 2009 — Bruce McGraw

Whether it’s an underperforming developer, a lazy team member, some type of inappropriate behaviour, or a prima donna on the team that makes everyone angry, there are times in every project manager’s life when he or she must have a difficult conversation with employee team member. These conversations are always difficult because you will be saying something that the other person doesn’t want to hear. You will be asking the employee to change his or her behaviour which is not something people are often motivated to do...

Read full article.

Maven Training proud of Birmingham City Council

2009-07-09T12:16:00.000+01:00

A long-term Maven Training client, Birmingham City Council has recently won the “Outstanding Employee Engagement Strategy HR Magazine Excellence Awards”.

Prior to CEO Stephen Hughes’ arrival in 2006, only 56% of BCC employees felt motivated and less than ¼ thought the council was well-managed.

A remarkable turnaround in fortune put the council back on track – and now they lead the way in staff engagement. Their £1.2m ‘Best’ programme – an initiative that turned disengaged employees into empowered staff trusted to identify and remedy problems themselves – has created over 1800 ‘best leaders’ who have the authority to implement service improvements. These ‘best’ leaders trained and run workshops for 23000 staff through management meetings, social relationship websites and a Dragon’s Den-style event where staff could pitch ideas for a chance to win £1,000!

The results of the investment are outstanding: now 75% of staff who have taken part on ‘best’ workshops say they feel more engaged and motivated, 83% of general staff say they feel motivated (up from 56% in 2006), 90% say they’re proud to work at BCC (up from 50% in 2009) – and that’s not all: public satisfaction of BCC residents rose from 53% to 62%!

Well done, Birmingham City Council!!

PRINCE2 Launch – the video and interviews

2009-07-08T11:05:00.000+01:00

Watch the action here!

Melanie Franklin, CEO, Maven Training, is interviewed by Sue Jermany of TSO.

Wanna be…a DREAM Project Manager?

2009-07-08T09:58:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year Maven Training nominated Soma Bhattacharya, of the popular Stepping into Project Management blog as the unsung heroine of the world of women working in technology for the special celebrations of the Ada Lovelace Day

The tips below, on how to be the Dream Project Manager, were based on one of Soma’s posts – follow the tips and you won’t need good luck to succeed!

Always be on time. You want be noticed for your punctuality. Caught on traffic/public transport? If possible, ring the office and inform you will be “10 minutes late, Holloway Road is jam-packed”. Consideration, please.

Check emails and plan your day. Do this first thing, while everyone is still making tea and chit-chatting about today’s tabloid headlines – if you do this everyday, you don’t have to stress out at 5pm. Time management is an indispensable asset for Project Managers, and if you want to prove that you master this skill, wasting a lot of time at the water cooler one hundred times a day won’t take you very far…

Get your to-do list according to the priority of delivery. Because you can’t afford to miss a deadline, can you? Follow up with your team and co-workers; if your delivery is dependant on a third party, just to make sure they are aware of the deadline too. On time delivery is taking the lift for the Project Management office instead of the staircase. Everyone wants it on time.

Work efficiently and learn something new as often as possible. Everyone likes a perfectionist, and new skills gives you the edge and the fact that want to grow and spend your personal time and energy to acquire skills that you can use in your job environment.

Keep your desk organised. May sound parent-ish, but keeping a tidy work space helps you unclutter yourself psychologically – besides, it aids in keeping the pressure off (after all, you are not fumbling for that piece of paper you left at your desk three weeks ago). And, really, an organised behaviour is utterly paramount for being a project manager.

Protect your team. Well, no questions about this one. Responsibility is required, and blaming others for work not done when you haven’t followed up or bothered reviewing is not good behaviour. Trust can’t breed if you allow your team to take the hit every time – but do keep the rotten apple close to you (you can’t discard it, at least make sure it doesn’t spread to others).

Encourage others to grow. If your team grows, you grow automatically. Train them to handle more responsibility, be in control, acquire better work habits and discourage slackers from taking everything for granted.

Never call it a day while your team is still working. Don’t leave early if your teams on the deadline and working late hours. Being with your team is important, and if you can’t buy them pizza, at least being there is showing support and being together no matter what.

Based on Stepping into Project Management blog, by Soma Bhattacharya.