Project Management

PMBOK guide - Project Management Certification

The multi-dimensional role of a Project Manager is sometimes considered too complex to be taught but the Project Management Institute (PMI, which conducts the PMP certification assessments) has put together a common repository of best practices that is emerging as a definitive standard worldwide. Here is a brief rundown of the responsibilities of a PM as defined in PMI's Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

PMBOK PROCESS
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management. The PMBOK includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied and accepted. In order for a Project to be successful, the project team must select appropriate processes that are required to meet the project objectives. The PMBOK guide defines the project management processes as follows

Initiating Process: Defines and authorizes the project

Planning Process: Plans the course of action required to attain project objectives and define the scope of the Project.

Executing Process: Integrates people and other resources to carry out the project plan for the project.

Monitoring and Controlling Process: Regularly measures and monitors the activities of the project so that corrective action can be taken when needed.

Closing Process: Formalize the acceptance of the Project and brings the Project to an orderly end

The responsibilities of a Project Manager across Processes.

Planning Process

· Spend 90% of your time here. Do not rush this phase.
· Prepare to run meetings with various Stakeholders
· Ensure that potential Project Risks/Issues identified and create a
· Risk Management Plan
· Identify Key Project constraints/Assumptions
· Identify and Define Project Team Organization Structure
· Identify list of all the Activities of the Project
· Construct Activity Sequences (Predecessor, Successor relationship)
· Identify the Duration of the each activity
· Determine the Skill requirements by type of work and identify suitable resource for it
· Determine the Costs for Individual Activities
· Define the Customer Quality Expectations
· Define Quality Management Plan for your Project
· Ensure that the Quality Activities of the Project are not overlooked
· Define Communication Management Plan to disseminate Project Information to stakeholders
· Define Procurement Management Plan for software/hardware requirements for your project
· Construct a comprehensive Project Plan by including Communication management/ProcureManagement/Risk/Assumptions/Constraints/Issues/Activities

Executing Process

· Approve all the Change Requests
· Approve the Project Plan
· Direct the technical Team to execute the work as defined in the Project Plan
· Direct the other Organizational interfaces to execute work as defined in the Project Plan
· Acquire Project resources and assign them
· Collect data/Metrics about the Project

Monitoring & Controlling Process

· Monitor Risks and see their Progress using Risk Management Plan
· Monitor each Project activity using the Project plan
· Disseminate Project status information to Stakeholders
· Produce Performance report with regard to Scope, Schedule, Cost, Resources, Quality and Risk
· Look for potential Change Requests and implement them using Change Control Procedure
· Control the Cost (possible using EVA(Earned Value Analysis ))
· Control the Quality by implementing quality review techniques and standards identified in the Quality Management Plan
· Manage the Project Team Members performance, Providing feedback, resolving issues to enhance Project performance
· Manage Stakeholders Expectations and resolve issue

Closing Process

· Formally terminate all activities of the Project
· Hand off the completed Deliverable/Product to Customer
· Release all the Project resources including software/hardware
· Create Lessons Learnt Document and share your experiences
· Archive all the Project Documentation

General Guidelines

· Always “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate”
· Understand Customers Language and give what they want. “No more, No less”
· Provide “True status” of the Project all the times
· Use Tools and Techniques to increase your Team Productivity
· Use Microsoft Project Plan for better planning
· Closely monitor Project Critical Path
· Identify Risks in every Project Phase and discuss them in all the Meetings
· Create a Daily Log for all your activities
· Mentor your Team members
· Success or Failure, You are Accountable

Understanding is not Accepting

Understanding is not Accepting

Got this has a email forward...thought of sharing...Good Read.. Full Kudos to the author


When I was at the customers place, we got into a discussion with the customer and my colleague repeatedly interrupted the customer during the conversation. We were discussing an important point regarding the UAT exit criteria for the project. Since the customer was repeatedly interrupted, the discussion didn’t progress much. Neither did we get an opportunity to express our views, as the customer was not willing to listen. We ended up having the same position we started with, i.e. entirely opposing view points. This happened during one of my previous projects.

Post the discussion when I checked with the colleague, he said that the customers’ views were not acceptable to him and that is why he interrupted the conversation. From my colleague’s view point, what he did may have been right, but we did not make any headway in the discussion. When I pointed out this to him, he said that he didn’t accept what the customer was saying and that is why he did what he did.

Now this is a scenario which we face many times in our work life. We come across opposing views in our interactions with team members, customers and our bosses. How we handle these scenarios where the views are opposite to what we hold, will determine how we fare as project managers/leaders. The secret (it is no secret at all) is to remind ourselves that ‘understanding is not accepting’. To elaborate, just because we understand something, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to agree to what is said. If this is still confusing, let us roll back a bit and go to our school days.

In our science books, we were taught many theories regarding the planetary system and one of them is the geocentric theory. It basically says that the earth is the centre of the universe and all planets and sun travel around it. Now we all know it is wrong and we also know the facts. But if there is a question asked about this theory in exam, will we say that we won’t respond as we don’t accept the theory? We don’t do that. We understand the theory, but we don’t accept it. We just answer the question knowing very well that the idea is very wrong. All that we need to do is to bring the same thought process to our professional life.

Ok, conversations at work place are not the same as being taught science lessons at school. A person can always think that listening to what is being said may be misunderstood as accepting the point. If we send across the message that we are only trying to understand what is being told and may or may not accept the view, then our purpose is met. This can be done by using the sentence “I am trying to understand what you say though I may not agree with you”. Used judiciously, this will win us lot of trust and respect from our colleagues and customers.

Try this for sometime in conversations when we listen to opposing views, which may not be agreeable to us for whatever reasons and we will definitely see a sea change in our attitude and how we conduct ourselves in conversations.
I see quite a few advantages of this.
· We won’t necessarily interrupt conversations where the view is not acceptable to us.
· We become better listeners.
· This helps us to win the trust and confidence of people whom we move with (because we listen better).
· Because we listen better, there is a higher probability of making others agree to our view/idea.
· And finally, for all we know (or don’t know), the opposing view that we don’t like may be the right one or the better one, under the circumstance. We may even end up changing our position and accepting the view/idea. But no problem, we accepted something after we understood.

So go ahead and give it a try

Dhirubhai Ambani's words of wisdom

Dhirubhai Ambani's words of wisdom

Below are some of Dhirubhai Ambani's words of wisdom published on
rediff. I found them inspiring and through of sharing with you all if
you have not read them already.

* True entrepreneurship comes only from risk-taking.

* Pursue your goal, even in the face of difficulties. Convert
difficulties into opportunities. Keep your morale high, in spite of
setbacks. At the end you are bound to succeed.

* My advice to young entrepreneurs is not to accept defeat in the face
of odds. Challenge negative forces with hope, self-confidence and
conviction. I believe that ambition and initiative will ultimately
triumph. The success of the young entrepreneur will be the key to
India's transformation in the new millennium.

* I have trusted people and they have put their trust in me. I have
encouraged youth, and they have never let me down. I have asked my
people to take initiative and to take risks. It has paid me rich
dividends. I insist on excellence. This helps us to be leaders. Reliance
is built on some of these principles.

* The secret of Reliance's success was to have ambition and to know the
minds of men.

* Growth has no limit at Reliance. I keep revising my vision. Only when
you dream it you can do it.

* We must forge a new partnership for a great India. A strong and
constructive partnership between industry, government and society.

* We must always go for the best. Do not compromise on quality. Reject
if it is not the best -- not only the best in India, but globally.

* If India wants to be a great nation, we must have courage to trust.
This is my sincere belief.

* All we have to do is to break the shackles that chain the energies of
our people, and India's economy will record a quantum leap and move into
a new, higher orbit of growth, competitiveness and productivity.

* For those who dare to dream, there is a whole world to win!

* I am deaf to the word 'no.'

* Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one's monopoly.

* Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our commitment
deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for
Reliance and for India.

* I consider myself a pathfinder. I have been excavating the jungle and
making the road for others to walk. I like to be the first in everything
I do.

* Give the youth a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the
support they need. Each one of them has infinite source of energy. They
will deliver.

* If you work with determination and with perfection, success will
follow.

* Between my past, the present and the future, there is one common
factor: Relationship and Trust. This is the foundation of our growth.

* We bet on people.

* Meeting the deadlines is not good enough, beating the deadlines is my
expectation.

* Don't give up, courage is my conviction.

* Roll up your sleeves and help. You and your team share the same DNA.

* Be a safety net for your team.

* Always be the silent benefactor. Don't tom-tom about how you helped
someone.

* Dream big, but dream with your eyes open.

* Leave the professional alone!

* Change your orbit, constantly!

* Money is not a product by itself, it is a by-product, so don't chase
it

Qualities Needed for a Project Manager

Qualities Needed for an Project Manager

Top 10 attributes that characterize successful Project Managers

1. Sense of ownership
This is the core concept that we emphasize in the Project Management Workshop. The PM role involves occupying the hot seat. It is not for the faint-hearted or the shirkers or the super-delegators. In any situation, people are always looking for someone to step forward to take ownership and to be an effective PM, you have to make a habit of it. Customers trust and prefer a PM who demonstrates this sense of ownership for the success of the project.

2. Awareness of the flexible but process-oriented culture and dynamic environment
Successful PMs, whether a lateral joinee or a long-term employee, seem to strike a balance between two things: (i) awareness and adherence to defined processes (ii) acceptance of gaps and ambiguity under certain conditions. Our processes lend themselves to fine-tuning in the form of tailoring and approved deviation. Lack of awareness is wasteful and unacceptable. Blind and rigid adherence leads in the worst case to problems and in the best case to sub-optimal results. In the dynamic environment we operate in, published documents often lag the current reality so one needs to get used to it rather than be unsettled by it.

3. Belief in oneself and one's team
Any non-trivial endeavour requires confidence in success without any clues that guarantee success. You have to believe you can achieve the goal and transmit that optimism to your team. Your trust in the team has to communicated and shown in your behaviour via delegation, role allocation and yes, your expectations, too. Expect high performance, facilitate it and you will get it from your team. Breathing down their shoulder, holding your cards close to your chest and setting low expectations are prescriptions for bad performance.

4. Assertiveness
There will always be situations that are difficult to handle, internally and externally. The aggressive subordinate, the bossy boss, an unreasonable customer with past incidents as weapons... A successful PM with clear focus on the goal has to have the courage of conviction to confront these. Most people make the mistake of, "This time I will let it pass but in future if it happens again, I will not permit this." Wrong! It is easier to act tough right in the beginning and show flexibility judiciously on other occasions. Once you create an image of being weak and agreeable or unquestioning, the demands will be progressively worse. If this is not something that naturally comes to you, arm yourself with more data, better logical analysis of all alternatives and stick to the goal.

5. Networking
Too many techies who grow into PM roles underestimate the importance of networking. Unfortunately this is not an activity that can be taken up one day and completed. One needs to consistently have the curiousity, humility and confidence to interact with people in different parts of the organization to develop rapport. It is these human relationships that play an important role in any project, not just processes, tools and technical prowess.

6. Leadership via influence
There is more talk these days of leadership than management because "manager" denotes a role or a position whereas a leader can be any person who impacts a situation. It is about influence. Influence could be achieved through expertise, skills, traits or attitude. In the knowledge industries, supervision skills and business-as-usual management are necessary but insufficient. One needs to challenge the status quo frequently, connect with people and influence the agenda positively. Effective PMs are good leaders who pay attention to their own leadership development and of their teams.

7. Ability to identify and manage risks
An i-flex senior recently said, "A good project manager is a good risk manager. A bad risk manager is a bad project manager." Someone has said, "Risk Management is Project Management for adults." Read books and articles, hear about others' learnings, and reflect on your own experiences to develop the capability to identify potential problems and act to prevent them. While positive thinking is advised in many other areas, this is one place where negative thinking is useful.

8. Ability to define processes
Most projects present opportunities to decide how to do something. Good PMs not only take those decisions but they ensure that they document and disseminate this through suitable forums, thus contributing to the organization. There is a certain knack to preparing a template as opposed to an informal note for one-time use. Have it and use it or find a suitable person in the team to do it. Customers perceive significant value-addition when we formulate a way of doing things and deliver such additional artifacts.

9. Expertise in escalation
This is a subtle skill that is essential at senior roles. Knowing what, when and how to escalate is part skill, part art. Not escalating at the right time to the customer or to your manager will be seen as an issue by itself. You can't escape by saying how you tried to take on all the load and responsiblity yourself. The point is whether the issue got resolved. Anything you do -- including asking for help or screaming aloud -- that helps solve a problem, is good. When dealing with seniors, communicate the core issue crisply; always recommend action alternatives; omit unnecessary detail, especially things like who said what and what all you tried and failed.

10. Enjoy and Let (the Team) Enjoy
Last, but not the least, one needs to enjoy something in order to excel in it. Whatever be the problems, setbacks, constraints or hardships, you need to derive pleasure in getting things done, working out solutions to issues and turning around an adverse situation and achieving the mission.

PMBOK guide - Project Management Certification

The multi-dimensional role of a Project Manager is sometimes considered too complex to be taught but the Project Management Institute (PMI, which conducts the PMP certification assessments) has put together a common repository of best practices that is emerging as a definitive standard worldwide. Here is a brief rundown of the responsibilities of a PM as defined in PMI's Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

PMBOK PROCESS
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is the sum of knowledge within the profession of project management. The PMBOK includes proven traditional practices that are widely applied and accepted. In order for a Project to be successful, the project team must select appropriate processes that are required to meet the project objectives. The PMBOK guide defines the project management processes as follows

Initiating Process: Defines and authorizes the project

Planning Process: Plans the course of action required to attain project objectives and define the scope of the Project.

Executing Process: Integrates people and other resources to carry out the project plan for the project.

Monitoring and Controlling Process: Regularly measures and monitors the activities of the project so that corrective action can be taken when needed.

Closing Process: Formalize the acceptance of the Project and brings the Project to an orderly end

The responsibilities of a Project Manager across Processes.

Planning Process

· Spend 90% of your time here. Do not rush this phase.
· Prepare to run meetings with various Stakeholders
· Ensure that potential Project Risks/Issues identified and create a
· Risk Management Plan
· Identify Key Project constraints/Assumptions
· Identify and Define Project Team Organization Structure
· Identify list of all the Activities of the Project
· Construct Activity Sequences (Predecessor, Successor relationship)
· Identify the Duration of the each activity
· Determine the Skill requirements by type of work and identify suitable resource for it
· Determine the Costs for Individual Activities
· Define the Customer Quality Expectations
· Define Quality Management Plan for your Project
· Ensure that the Quality Activities of the Project are not overlooked
· Define Communication Management Plan to disseminate Project Information to stakeholders
· Define Procurement Management Plan for software/hardware requirements for your project
· Construct a comprehensive Project Plan by including Communication management/ProcureManagement/Risk/Assumptions/Constraints/Issues/Activities

Executing Process

· Approve all the Change Requests
· Approve the Project Plan
· Direct the technical Team to execute the work as defined in the Project Plan
· Direct the other Organizational interfaces to execute work as defined in the Project Plan
· Acquire Project resources and assign them
· Collect data/Metrics about the Project

Monitoring & Controlling Process

· Monitor Risks and see their Progress using Risk Management Plan
· Monitor each Project activity using the Project plan
· Disseminate Project status information to Stakeholders
· Produce Performance report with regard to Scope, Schedule, Cost, Resources, Quality and Risk
· Look for potential Change Requests and implement them using Change Control Procedure
· Control the Cost (possible using EVA(Earned Value Analysis ))
· Control the Quality by implementing quality review techniques and standards identified in the Quality Management Plan
· Manage the Project Team Members performance, Providing feedback, resolving issues to enhance Project performance
· Manage Stakeholders Expectations and resolve issue

Closing Process

· Formally terminate all activities of the Project
· Hand off the completed Deliverable/Product to Customer
· Release all the Project resources including software/hardware
· Create Lessons Learnt Document and share your experiences
· Archive all the Project Documentation

General Guidelines

· Always “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate”
· Understand Customers Language and give what they want. “No more, No less”
· Provide “True status” of the Project all the times
· Use Tools and Techniques to increase your Team Productivity
· Use Microsoft Project Plan for better planning
· Closely monitor Project Critical Path
· Identify Risks in every Project Phase and discuss them in all the Meetings
· Create a Daily Log for all your activities
· Mentor your Team members
· Success or Failure, You are Accountable

Software Project Management Interview Questions

Software Project Management Interview Questions


What is project management?

Why are project managers required?

What all activities come under project planning?

Who all are the stakeholders in a project?

How do you initiate projects? What all groups are involved? Is there any formal process adopted in your organization?

What all documents created for the project and their significance?

How do you identify the number of resources required for the project?

How are the efforts estimated in the Project?

What methodology is used for estimations?

What do you understand by project risks?

How are project risks identified? How would you mitigate the same?

How to take care of hardware and software requirement for the project?

What are quality plans? What are the key objectives?

What are SCM plans? What are the key objectives?

What is meant by deviation?

What status reporting mechanism was used in the Project?

Explain project life cycle ?

How many phases are there in software project ?

Explain different software development life cycles ?

What are the contents of project management plan document?

What is a fish bone diagram ? What is Ishikawa diagram ?

What is pareto principle ? What is80/20 principle ?

What tools were used for configuration management?

How do you handle change request? What is internal change request?

What is the software you have used for project management?

What activities are performed while project closure?

What do you understand by defect prevention?

How is software shipment managed in the project?

Sample Interview Questions for IT Project Managers

I came across the following Behavioural Questions while being interviewed for Project Manager Post at Infosys.

1. Say you are the Project Manager for a team which gets an order to implement the company's flagship product to a new country/region for the very first time. What attributes would you consider to successfully establish this product in the region?

I understand the interviewer for looking for an answer which was aroung ROI (Return on investment)

2. A project is implemented, you being the project manager , how would you find that the all requirements stated in the Requirements document have been satisfied ?

Using Tracebility Matrix one can track the requirements.

3. Say you have a team for 4 members, out of these 2 team members are suppose to travel for implementation at a customer site next week. Say these 2 team members resign a day before they are about to travel? How would you handle such a situation?

4. Say you are gathering requirements at a customer site. For one such requirement you are suppose to get the requirements from a vendor who is going to lose his job after this project is implemented and thus this vendor is not cooperating while defining the requirements ? What would be your approach for tackling this situation?

5. What would you be your reaction when a project sponsor adds or keeps adding new requirements during System Integration testing?

6. What key attribitues would you be tracking while implementing a project?