EPM, Microsoft Project and You

By: Collin Quiring

As a Project Manager, I tend to instinctively relate most events in life back to that profession.  I have been thinking about the situation with Shirley Sherrod (Georgia’s Agriculture Department Director).  This is an ongoing story at the time of this writing and this blog is not a political or news blog so I am not writing about this from that viewpoint nor am I indicating if what is happening is right or wrong.  However, here is a very brief summary of the current situation as I understand it:  a video was posted of Ms. Sherrod talking about a situation where she discriminated against somebody she was supposed to help.  She was fired forthwith.  Now, more of that speech is being shown where Ms. Sherrod explains that she was wrong, that she corrected it, did end up helping the individual and she made a much larger point about her role in her organization and the role of race relations.

In Project Management, we are always being asked to do more with less, do it faster, stay on top of everything and numerous other clichés meant to encourage (force?) us to act and react as quickly as humanly possible.  Well, that often means that we react to the facts as presented to us and not necessarily to all the facts or an objective view of the facts.  And, while we may be presented a set of facts with a certain “spin” from another team member, lets not forget that we have our own internal “spin” of how we are understanding those same facts.  My thoughts about getting all the information and this current situation made me think about projects I have been on where I have reacted first and then later learned more facts.  More than once I have had to go back to individuals and apologize.  And, unfortunately, a time or two the damage was already done and apologies didn’t matter (to the person or the project).

My point is that as a Project Manager, I need to try and obtain as many of the facts before I react.  I know that isn’t always easy and there is a line between “analysis paralysis”, discovering facts and being over-reactive to a few bits of information.  One great way to discover more of a story is to ask those involved rather than assume the worst or assume the bits of information that I have are the complete story. 

Perhaps a Risk Management plan would help with some things that occur during the course of a Project.  But, in the case when something new pops up and it “demands immediate attention” and a course of action, perhaps I need to take a deep breath, determine if I have all the information that I can reasonably be expected to obtain and then make a decision.  There are legitimate times when immediate action might be required but I think that if we react to everything like it requires an immediate reaction we may be creating extra pain for ourselves for when we learn more information.

Clients often ask us if there is an easy-to-use and easy-to-understand method of trying to explain and justify the use of Project Management and the use of Microsoft Project.  We have some information about that on other blog entries and on some of our other webpages on our site.  However, Tanya Foster has put together a simple summary the gives a high level overview of some of the reasons to implement Project Management and to use Microsoft Project.

 This is a downloadable PowerPoint that you are free to download and use.  It can be found on our “White Papers” page (http://pmpspecialists.com/WhitePapers.html) under the heading “The Value of Project Management” and the description “This PowerPoint document is for you to use as a guide for explaining the purpose of Project Management and Microsoft Project.  As the title slide states, this is for “Making a Case for Implementing Microsoft Project, Project Server and Project Management Concepts””

 This PowerPoint presentation has the following topic headlines:

Why Project Management?

Why Microsoft Project?

Is it Worth it?

What are some Actual Numbers?

Some of the slides have more explanation in the notes section about the topics presented on that slide.

We think that these slides are great conversation starters and are an easy-to-use tool that might help you demonstrate some of the value of Project Management and Microsoft Project.

I have the privilege of giving a couple webinars in the MPUG (Microsoft Project Users Group) Certificate Series for Microsoft Project 2010.  There will be nine separate one hour webinars.  This is a great way to learn more about Microsoft Project (and bits of Project Server 2010) in easy to manage chunks.  Here is the listing of webinars with the dates that they will be given:

• Fluent User Interface, 12 May 2010
• Timeline view, 23 June 2010
• Creating and Managing views, tables, sorting, and grouping, 7 July 2010
• Macros, 14 July 2010
• Compatibility, 21 July 2010
• Multiple Version Installation, 28 July 2010
• Manually Scheduled Tasks, 4 August 2010
• SharePoint Integration with Project, 11 August 2010
• Resource Management, 18 August 2010

 The list of instructors for the webinars is impressive and I am glad to be in the same grouping as them. 

 Directly from the MPUG site, here is some overview information:

Synopsis:
Microsoft Project Essentials Certificate series delivered via the web

 Overview:
Are you ready to start using Microsoft Project 2010? This certificate course is for users of Microsoft Project who need to plan projects, track projects, and communicate effectively with the latest version of Microsoft Project 2010. Each session of the series is taught by an MPUG expert presenter as ranked by our community members. The series will cover the new and improved features in Microsoft Project 2010 by reviewing and demonstrating how to do tasks with each. Tasks introduced through the series will also be supported by community dialog, articles and blog posts.

 See more details about the series:

http://www.mpug.com/Pages/MPUGCertificate.aspx

 See the short biographies of the instructors:

http://www.mpug.com/Pages/MPUGCertificateInstructors.aspx

BY: Collin Quiring

 Microsoft announced new competency requirements – 22 of them were just launched.  From our perspective at PMP Specialists, as a Microsoft Partner, we welcome these new competencies and their requirements. 

 But, why should you, the end customer care at all?  Well, how many times has a consultant (for any product or service) told you how they could do whatever it was that you wanted?  Or, that they have on their business card and brochures that they are experts in everything?  This is particularly true of the really big consulting firms.  There is a natural tendency for them to claim, and for customers to believe, that they are “Jacks-of-all-trades” and can install, configure, setup, train and otherwise help you with any IT or business need that you have.  But, sadly, as most of us have experienced, this isn’t always true.

 I know of one large IT consulting firm that routinely claims they can help customers with various software and then when they sell the consulting to the customer, they get somebody that knows software “similar” to it.  Or, they use the philosophy of “that software can’t be too different from the stuff we know”.  And, I know of and heard about bad experiences from both the consultant and customer side and sometimes those situations even result in lawsuits.

 I am a believer in “you get what you pay for” and in paying for the right expertise (see the three part series of blog entries called “Microsoft Project Certifications – are they worth it?”).  Just like you get a painter to paint your house and electrician to wire it and not just some guy that says he knows wiring or knows painting; you should strongly consider hiring the appropriately certified consultant to help with your business needs.

 When you determine what your Microsoft needs are, I strongly recommend that you review the competency level of the Microsoft Partner and the certifications of the individuals they are sending to you.  You are paying for the services and products and you should have a level of comfort that the Partner is capable of producing the results that they claim.

 And, I think this applies to the business side of the equation as well.  A Supply Chain expert, a Project Manager and a Business Analyst may have some overlapping duties, but they aren’t necessarily experts at all three.  Each industry has a certification path and I think that a customer should “get what they pay for” and have a level of comfort with the ability of the individual.

By:  Collin Quiring

 One of the changes that Project Server 2010 brings is that it requires SharePoint Server 2010 to operate.  While this is great from the perspective of functionality it does mean that companies may have to invest more in software and licensing than they would prefer to do and it means that an administrator that understands how Project Server works will need to learn SharePoint Server as well. 

 In my opinion, if you are going to be an effective Project Server 2010 administrator, I believe that you need to have more than just a casual knowledge of how SharePoint Server 2010 is administered.  I am sure that there are some folks that would disagree but with the level of integration between Project and SharePoint it is going to be increasingly difficult to know where one ends and the other begins.  Without knowing how the two relate with each other, I think that an administrator is going to be frustrated very often!

 I am sure that some Project Server administrators won’t want to take this on as it will be perceived mostly as a case of “more to learn and do” and they will have the hope that there is already somebody else that is the SharePoint administrator that can “do that stuff”.  At first I fell into that camp myself – thinking that learning more about SharePoint would distract me from my real goal of administering Project Server.  However, I have learned in the last few months a lot about SharePoint Server and have become one of the proponents about its capabilities.  The functionality that it will bring to Project Server is highly beneficial.  From an administrators perspective I think that the 2010 version is going to be easier to manage than 2007 – but it still has a number of inter-dependencies upon itself and with Project which cause interesting issues to pop up every now and then.

 In an effort to become better acquainted I was looking for an opportunity to learn the tool better in a real production environment.  To that end, I have recently had the opportunity to manage a large SharePoint Server 2007 Farm with over 600,000 users.  Yes, 600,000.  In fact, we will be installing SharePoint Server 2010 in the next couple of weeks and then migrating over to 2010. 

While I don’t recommend trying to administer a SharePoint Server with that many users, I do recommend that if you are Project Server administrator you start to learn how SharePoint works.  It can only make your job with Project easier and your end users will notice the increased functionality and integration.

BY: Collin Quiring

For those that don’t know, there is a great organization out there called MPUG – the Microsoft Project User Group.  I just wrote a brief article for them in regards to the fact that there is no longer an Active X control in Project Server 2010.  This is one article in a series by various Project Server experts about some of the new features in the 2010 version.

View the article at:  http://www.mpug.com/News/Pages/MicrosoftProject2010FeatureRallyNoMoreActiveX.aspx , or, here is a copy of it:

Project Server 2010 has many new features, abilities and enhancements that make it a great product.  However, there is one modification to the 2010 version that will go unnoticed by new administrators and will hopefully soon be forgotten by administrators that have worked with previous versions.  I am referring to the fact that the ActiveX controls are no longer part of Project Server.  My non-technical explanation of what an ActiveX control does is that it adds functionality to Project.  In the case of Project Server, there are a number of places it is used but the most noticeable is that it allowed you to see the information within Project Center and Resource Center. 

 I can’t count the number of times I would have a user contact me and tell me that they were getting an error message that looked like this one:

The catch?  Well, if the person isn’t an administrator (or high level permissions) on their machine they can’t download the ActiveX control.  And, there are other settings that have to be configured in Internet Explorer as well.  If the client machines were “locked down” by a central IT group, then they had to administer the installation of these controls.  It isn’t always easy to get the controls pushed out from the central IT administration folks!  Then, when some system updates (Project or not) are done, the ActiveX controls have to be downloaded/pushed out again.  At one client of mine, this is a constant issue and there are always a handful of users that can’t access Project Server due to the hardware and software update cycles and I know for a fact that this has slowed the adoption of the tool overall.

With all of the improvements and new components of Project Server 2010 I hope this now defunct “feature” becomes one of those topics of conversation that “old” administrators tell each other about the “old days” and how much better it is now!  

The catch?  Well, if the person isn’t an administrator (or high level permissions) on their machine they can’t download the ActiveX control.  And, there are other settings that have to be configured in Internet Explorer as well.  If the client machines were “locked down” by a central IT group, then they had to administer the installation of these controls.  It isn’t always easy to get the controls pushed out from the central IT administration folks!  Then, when some system updates (Project or not) are done, the ActiveX controls have to be downloaded/pushed out again.  At one client of mine, this is a constant issue and there are always a handful of users that can’t access Project Server due to the hardware and software update cycles and I know for a fact that this has slowed the adoption of the tool overall.

With all of the improvements and new components of Project Server 2010 I hope this now defunct “feature” becomes one of those topics of conversation that “old” administrators tell each other about the “old days” and how much better it is now! 

By:  Collin Quiring

Just a quick muse.

The saying “Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery” has been around a long time and I have been thinking about it the last few days quite a bit.  I am getting ready to do a massive SharePoint Server 2010 installation and a Project Server 2010 installation.  In so doing, I have been doing quite a bit of research lately to make sure that I have an understanding of how these tools are installed and the steps for setting them up and then maintaining them for the users.

In my research, I do some generic Google and Bing searches for SharePoint and Project to see what has been done by others already.  And, I keep running into tools that claim to be “as good as” Microsoft Project or Project Server.  But when I look at these tools that claim they are “as good as” Project or Project Server I have found that they mean that their tool does one thing and one thing only – and they think it is the same as Project.  I have found this to be quite disappointing.

One tool that claimed to be great at Resource Management had a very efficient interface and did one or two things really well but as soon as I tried to do something that I normally can do in Project, I found that “as good as” didn’t mean “as comprehensive as” the Project tool.  There are also add-on tools that are available for Project - some of those are great and some are useless, but at least they claim to be “add-on” and NOT a replacement that works “as good as” like these other tools claim to be. 

Project might not be perfect, but it amuses me about how many tools want to be “as good as” Project and are doing their best to imitate it.  In fact, some tools even give the same look and feel of Microsoft Project.  It just makes me think that Project must be doing some things right if so many other companies want to imitate it!

BY: Collin Quiring

I know that I haven’t blogged as much lately.  The reason is simple – I have been busy getting ready for a few different large presetnations.  One of them is for Microsoft Project User Group – MPUG – that is a public event on April 28.  Just go to www.mpug.com and look for the “Upcoming MPUG WebNLearns” section on the right hand side.  Here are the details about the upcoming presentation.

BY: Collin Quiring

I see life through the prism of Project Management.  And, depending on the situation, how Project Management affects or is affected by customer service.  I am in the middle of having a very bad experience with the TSA – the Transportation Security Administration.  On a trip some six months ago now, they broke some of the items in my luggage.  I know it was them, and not the airline, for a number of reasons – the most obvious being that my contents were not in the same places in the suitcase that they were in when I turned the suitcase over to their care. 

Here is the part about customer service and Project Management that bothers me.  First, the TSA sets the rules under which I file a claim.  Then, they determine if the claim is valid or not, AND, they do it in their own time frame.  They decide if they did the damage or not.  They decide if they will pay or not.  They also make up the rules for you to follow if you want to appeal their other rulings.

While the overall situation is frustrating, it does make me think about how the Project Managers, or Project Management Office, is judged.  When a project is completed, who decides if it was successful or not?  And, from what criteria?  During a project, who decides if it is going well or not?  And, again, using what criteria?  I know that there are some quick and easy answers – time, budget, and quality – but are those the only criteria for if a project is going well or completed well?  And, how do the stakeholders view it? 

I have worked with some stakeholders that don’t care at all about Project Management or the “normal” criteria that Project Managers like to use for measurements.  To them, all the Project Management did was get in the way.

Which leads me back to the TSA – they use their own criteria to decide if something went well or not, and from their perspective.  As a Project Manager, on your projects, are you being your own judge and jury?  If so, perhaps it would be good to see how the stakeholders are viewing your processes, rules and measurements.

By: Collin Quiring

Two interesting articles that I have recently read have me thinking about how the best plans by a Project Manager can be controlled by the unexpected reaction of stakeholders to live events – that have nothing to do with your project.  A Project Manager may be good at Risk Analysis but it is impossible to analyze the risk of a specific real-time event occurring during your project.   I am referring to events such as news or of general interest that are happening somewhere in the world.

My only point is that despite the best efforts of a Project Manager, current events can overtake the best plans – and you have to adjust to it!

For example, take the case of Air Canada, which experienced a flight delay due to a hockey game.

VANCOUVER (Reuters) – Canada’s largest airline has learned it sometimes has to take a back seat to the country’s biggest sporting passion, ice hockey, the head of Air Canada said on Tuesday.

The airline was forced to delay a flight from Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games because passengers watching the end of gold medal final on airport televisions ignored repeated calls to board.

“We incurred a flight delay for a reason Air Canada had not yet encountered in over 72 years of existence,” chief executive Calin Rovinescu told a business gathering.

Or, from the city of Edmonton, Alberta, the water utility, comes this report:

The water utility in Edmonton, EPCOR, published the most incredible graph of water consumption last week. By now you’ve probably heard that up to 80% of Canadians were watching last Sunday’s gold medal Olympic hockey game. So I guess it stands to reason that they’d all go pee between periods.

But still—the degree to which the water consumption matches with the key breaks in the hockey game is stunning.