LeftField - news in project management
www.project-management.com.au
Welcome to the latest news and views from LeftField Project Solutions.
Noticed the prolific use of “P” words in the discipline of project management in recent times? Projects, programs (with a single ‘m’ or ‘mme’), portfolios, p3m3 and don’t forget people!
To clear up any confusion, here are some definitions of these terms drawn from Project Management for the Creation of Organisational Value by John Smyrk & Ofer Zwikael.
Project – a process aimed at achieving target outcomes where execution is guided using a project management framework.
Program(me) - a collection of projects whose execution is coordinated to some extent i.e. loosely, moderately or integrated.
Portfolio – a collection of projects that an organisation has committed to fund.
P3M3™ - the Porftolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model is a methodology for assessing an organisation’s capability to commission, manage and realise benefits from project investments.
People – those pesky (typically) two legged creatures who loiter in and around projects.
Over coffee recently we assembled our own list of “P” words including productivity, performance and persistence. We got excited about the Prospect of Plenty of P words, then we took stock of ourselves and decided that a list of words starting with P would be of little value to everyone not involved in the business of authoring dictionaries.
There is value, however, in considering how your organisation uses these words and others. Are terms being used for the same purpose? Accurate use and shared understanding of language is important for good communication. Language can decline into jargon when trendy words are over-used and mis-used. In the same way, some useful terms may sometimes be assigned to the dust bin due to changing trends, much like when flares were replaced by skinny leg jeans. What does a “P” audit in your organisation reveal?
- walking the red carpet
- defining your critical path
- influencing a tricky stakeholder
- optimising your resources
- receiving accolades from your Steering Committee or Project Board
- all of the above
Our IPMA celebrations included attendance at a presentation by John Smyrk, organised by the Tasmanian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM). John, Principal of Sigma Management Science, who spoke about evaluating project success, presented an approach and provoked some stimulating discussion.
The AIPM is busy assembling a calendar of events for 2011 on both a state and national level. These events are great because they help us step aside from our busy jobs, consider new ideas and reflect on current thinking. We encourage you to mark them in your diary.
Ever come away from a discussion with a CEO or senior executive wondering about their unique perspective and the lessons they have learned as leaders?
If so, then you may find the link to the following resource worth a look.
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/ceo/ceostudy2010/lessons-learned.html
The website contains a series of short videos featuring CEOs from around the world, not doing karaoke, but instead discussing their challenges and lessons learned as leaders.
We’d love you to email us to let us know which one you find the most interesting.
In the last newsletter we mentioned the growing need we have observed for project managers and change managers/coordinators to increase their knowledge about change management and if/when/how they can apply it to their projects.
Thank you to those of you who expressed interest in participating in a pilot workshop focussing on the application of change management to projects. We are in design and development mode, aiming to pilot this workshop in the first half of 2011. We’ll keep you posted.
As the end of 2010 approaches, the LeftField principals took a quiet moment to sit back and reflect on the past year. We have had the pleasure of continuing to work with our respected and amazing regular clients, as well as the good fortune to begin exciting and challenging assignments with a number of new clients. We’ve also enjoyed meeting a host of new individuals during workshops, whose questions and comments always keep us on our toes!
Our favourite quote for the year is:
“Now THEY get it, and WE get it, and it’s just SO MUCH easier!”
Thank you to the following organisations for a rewarding 2010:
Tasmanian Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, Education and Finance, Premier and Cabinet, Green’s General Foods, Campbell’s South Asia, Caltex Australia Petroleum, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Please accept our well wishes for a relaxing and refreshing break over the Christmas period. At LeftField, we are also taking the opportunity to recharge and we’ll be back on board in February.
See Upcoming Events for a listing of LeftField public workshops for 2011.
About us
LeftField Project Solutions is a boutique Tasmanian firm of project practitioners who have complementary skills in the area of project management. Our firm comprises three principal consultants – Bronwyn Cross, Lea Symonds and Sharyn White - combining strong technical knowledge with leading-edge expertise in people management.
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