PROJECT Magazine

A Strategic Framework for Success in an Era of Downsized Government

By David S Kassel

American Society for Public Administration: Series in Public Administration and Public Policy

Hardcover
Approx 250 pages
ISBN 978-1-4200-8873-1
First published 2010
CRC Press

Review by Jeb Riordan, PMP

The introduction begins with the story of the construction of a 50-bed children’s hospital in Basrah Iraq, year 2005, by Bechtel International for the US Agency for International Development.
US Congress authorized a budget of $50 million.
The construction was finally completed nearly a year over schedule at a cost of over $169 million

Similar examples are cited throughout the book, telling of overspends, delays and mis-management of public sector projects.

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Chinese Proverb: Pearls lie not on the seashore. If thou desirest one thou must dive for it.

Yesterday two significant things happened, Firstly I registered for the PMI Global Congress in Washington in October, and secondly I had a very nice Chinese meal at my local restaurant to celebrate my birthday (celebrating the event you understand rather than the increasing number of years).

Now my local Chinese restaurant has, in case you were at all interested, 192 menu options and 14 set menus on offer. I strongly suspect that your own local Chinese restaurant will have a similar number of good things to eat on their menu.
PMI Congress has, again if you were at all interested, 160 sessions that I could attend if I a) wished and b) could time travel in order to be in parallel sessions and c) could survive.

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Recently, I downloaded the 14 day free trial of Method123's project management methodology system, called MPMM.

25Mb zipped file, no problem, double click and off it goes, automatic installer does what its supposed to do and hey presto, the opening flash screen.
It's for PC users only. Sorry no MAC version yet.

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Project management templates are an easy way to take the hassle out of planning and managing projects.

Instead of spending hours on developing planning and tracking tools you can put your skills to good use managing people and tasks.

There are usually three objectives required to successfully complete a project. The outcome must be delivered on time and on budget. How do you set out all the information needed to manage a project in an easy to use and follow format? You don't have to spend hours developing a format for your plan there are templates available for download online.

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I suspect that you will all know this story:

Six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the elephant's body.

The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.

A wise man explains to them: ‘All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently is because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all the features you mentioned’.

This is a good story which shows that to explain and understand something that is complex requires the full picture. Each of the blind men was correct but together they had the greater understanding.

 

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Seems Peter Bergdahl, our project management guru, received many questions after publishing his video on creating a work breakdown structure using mind mapping techniques.

So, what did he do?
He recorded another one.
This time focusing on the principles behind creating a practical work brekdown structure

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Our good friend and project management guru, Peter Bergdahl, uses mind maps when he creates work breakdown structures.

And he has published this video.

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One natural application for the Internet and Web 2.0 is 'Software as a Service', commonly referred to as 'SaaS'.

And one very useful example of SaaS is Online project management.

 Already there is a proliferation of websites offering hosted project management services.

Much of the marketing hype focuses on improved productivity and communication.
For me the benefits are more aligned with ease of use and not having to host your own company wide application on your own IT infrastructure.
Because it is a hosted service, there is no need to buy or install expensive software. And no need to maintain it.

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There's an ongoing discussion over at the PlanningPlanet. com newsletter about the usefulness of the Start-to-Finish logical activity relationship.

It's one of the four activity sequencing logical relationships in the "Acivity on Node" or Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM) which is used by most project management scheduling software applications.

Well these guys are all project planners and they're confused.
So if they're questioning it you have to sit up and take notice, right?

The Start-to-Finish logic describes the relationship where the FROM task must start before the TO task can finish

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