2008 Krezner Award for Project Managers

This is the 'International Project Manager of the Year' Award which is organized by International Institute of Learning Inc. (http://www.iil.com/)

Established in 2006 by International Institute of Learning Inc. (IIL), this award is named in honor of Dr. Harold Kerzner, Professor of Systems Management at Baldwin-Wallace College. Dr. Kerzner is the leading globally recognized expert on project management, total quality management, and strategic planning as well as the author of best-selling books about project management

Currently the nomination is going on for this award. The nomination deadline is September 12, 2008. For the complete rules and detailed information, go to www.iil.com.

Nominate any project manager with a current PMP® credential by answering a series of questions that will clearly explain how the nominee has successfully achieved project objectives through specific contributions, innovation and the use of defined project management practices

The winner will receive:

• Recognition at IIL’s International Project Management Day Awards Ceremony and Reception in New York City
• All expenses paid trip to New York City
• Opportunity to present their PowerPoint presentation during IIL’s Global Webcast on International Project Management Day™ to several thousand participants around the world. This includes an invitation to present the PowerPoint presentation at PMI North America in 2009 at the IIL booth.
• Lunch with IIL’s senior management and guest speakers for the Webcast
• Press coverage on the IIL websites and allpm.com and other project management publications. This includes a full page in PMNET of Dr. Kerzner presenting the award.
• Course voucher for any $5,000 IIL training course
• Commemorative plaque
• Cash donation to the winner’s PMI Chapter (if applicable) in the amount of $3000

Agnoff Technique

This is the technique PMP uses it for evaluating the marks. In PMP you would get 200 questions with 4 hours time limit. So roughly 1.2 minutes per question.

In the exam you would need to attend all questions. Now comes the fun part. They randomly pull out some 25 questions of it and then calculate the marks (only with 175 questions).

There could be possibility that all 25 questions could be right and it could have been pulled out.

This is what they call i Agnoff technique by which they made the exam process tougher. Earlier it used to be from 200 questions you should be scoring some 60% which was easier. Now with this process one needs to put more effort. This came in-hand with the latest release (PMBOK 3rd edition)

Certification on Program Management (PgMP)

Recently PMI (Project Management Institute) came up with new certification apart from PMP and CAPM. ie PgMP which is specfically targeted for program managers. As we all know a program is a group of projects. To deal with a program one needs special skills and this certification tests one on that area.

The eligibility criteria for taking this exam is

• With a Bachelor’s Degree (or a global equivalent): Over the last 15 consecutive years, applicants must have at least four years of project management experience and four years of program management experience.
• Without a Bachelor’s Degree (or a global equivalent): Over the last 15 consecutive years, applicants must have at least four years of project management experience and seven years of program management experience.

Those who are interested in this can refer www.pmi.org site.

Tips to take PMP Exam

It took me 3 months of study for many hours to prepare for the PMP certification from www.pmi.org. After long struggle I was able to clear my PMP certification which was my dream once.

What would one need to take this exam? Determination and willingness to take up this exam. Probably during our school or college days we would have put this effort. To do this all you need to do is the same thing.

Group discussions do help to pick up the keyword and understanding the definitions. As you should know PMP exam questions are more related to handling real time scenarios. But to do so you should be knowing the concept and definitions.

What did I do?
1. I started reading the PMBOK guide. I know when you read this for the first time it is weird. But still keep reading even if you did not understand.
2. Then you may read PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulachy (http://www.rmcproject.com/about/rita.aspx). This would help you to relate the definitions what you read in the PMBOK guide
3. As you keep reading take notes in a word document on the definitions
4. Then you may subscribe at www.pmstudy.com and take mock up tests. There is one free mock up test in the site
5. Then read the PMBOK guide again and now you should be able to understand better.
6. If you can afford you can go for Rita Mulachy's simulation CD. It is expensive one and I did not buy this.

During this process I had taken lot of notes which would be helpful for reading. If needed you can email me to get it.

Looking for Job

Are you seriously looking for job? The questions you need to ask yourself is for why do you need to change your job. Is it because of your boss, pay, promotion, not satisfied with the appraisal rating, got bored with same job or could be personal reasons (which noone has control).

First choose any one of the reasons and start analyzing the pros and cons of it. When you start thinking this you would sometime back off from what you thought. Most of the time we make decision in haste which is wrong. Sometimes we discuss this with friends which is wrong thing to do. You know what is your situation than anybody else. So you make the decision.

Let me go by points I described above

1) Quitting because of your boss - Mostly people want to leave their boss rather than company. In this case try your best to move to different departments/vertical citing some valid reason which would convince your boss or HR people. Sometimes it is hard to do so but things can work out if you keep pushing. The companies does not want to loose people.

2) Pay - This is very tricky one. You tend to jump for new job just because someone is paying more. But what normally these companies does it they pay you but they ensure that they bring you to the par of other employees whenever normalization happens. It may not be the case that they would reduce your salary but the hike what you would be getting is comparatively lower or nil. But if you keep switching the job you loose your value.

3) Promotion - This is more of the experience what you have and what you deserve after certain number of experience. For attaining this you need to be proactive and get more visibility in the organization. Also it depends on the relationship what you have with your boss. Refer "Fire your boss" post. If you do not get promotion try hard next time with different strategy and attack them. Sit with your manager and set the goals and work towards them. Start taking his job.

4) Rating - I somehow do not believe this system as it is more of what rating you got in your previous appraisal, onsite opportunity, got promotion recently, etc., The organizations somehow want to fit people into some category which they do it randomly. It is surprsing that not many organization thought some better strategy for this.

5) Boring job - You go tell your manager that I want to move of the project nobody would be willing to do it. So, how do you really come out. You should be smart enough to remove the dependency on you by doing KT to other new team members. Once the manager feels that then he should not have any problem to release you to different project

Mostly it is advisable to stick with one company. When you keep moving across organization you tend to be in the same position and your growth is less even though it looks faster to you. Whenever you get into a new organization you are new to them. So it is very difficult for you to get promotion for you. May be in next post I could talk about the problems laterals face in an organization.

Most of the people who are in top position would be the one who had grown with organization. May be your growth could be faster if your joining the startup company or moving to some newly started verticals. This is the best choice anyone would have.

So any decision think well and decide.

Tips: Have something in hold during the last moment of appraisal. This helps a lot to get better rating and promotion.

P.S. I wrote this post based on the IT field. May be it could differ for other industry

Fire your boss

Recently I read a book by names "Fire your Boss" by Stephen Pollan and Mark Levine. This book gives lot of insights about your job and how do you need to be at your work place.

I personally when through problems when it comes to appraisal. Inspite of working so hard forthe whole year and when you feel that you deserve promotion and you do not get you feel down. Whact could be the reason?

If you really see, it is not the work alone which matters here. It all depends on what kind of relationship do you have with your manager. Means there would not be any misunderstanding with your boss but you are not close with him.

How do you go close to him? By taking up his job and making him feel comfortable. When you start taking his job you are not only making yourself available for the next position but you relationship improves with him. Do not hesitate in offering him help in his job.

This book explains all this and also on how do you prepare yourself in an organization in worst scenarios, when do you need to look out for job, etc.,

It more emphasize on maintaining the relationship with your colleagues even after quiting the job. As the author says noone hires stranger when they need people for critical position.

Its a nice book to read and I would recommend everyone to read this book

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

When it comes to work there are lot more other than security or money. Maslow's hierarchy of needs picture depicts this.

True Leadership

True Leadership is one who guides and motivate the team to perform, help him in need, make them understand his mistakes and be a role model.

When it comes to guiding and motivating the team I would look into the word "Mentorship". Mentoring is foremost important for a person who gets inducted to new team or environment. Normally we do not emphasize more on this. But if it is done in proper manner one can really see the result and outcome of it.

Helping each other - this should be an integral part of th e team. We normally perform as a team. How does the work gets noticed? Till we complete the project as a whole our work is not recognized even though one person performs some outstanding work. Our job is just not to complete the given work but understand the responsibility in delivering the project as a whole. By helping others we too learn and deliver things in better way.

How to make one realize his mistakes? - Mistakes happens everywhere. One need to understand that noone is perfect. But we can achieve perfection by practice. It is all about how quick we learn from the mistakes we make during the practice. If someone does a mistake rather pointing finger they should rather explain to the person and make him understand what was the root cause of the problem. Instead of doing this if you point finger on them then there is something wrong with the person who is pointing finger. Mistakes would have been with him.
For example you ask someone to deliver some work. But there was some major bug which would have been the show stopper. Ofcourse he has committed mistake but how could have it been prevented. Obviously by doing reviews. Who's mistake this? But this chain can go on. Its all blaming game. So always try to overcome this problem as a team rather blaming each other.

I am sure each one of you would have come across all these scenarios. You can share your thoughts here.

PMBOK and Knowledge Areas

The acronym for PMBOK is Project Management Book of Knowledge. This is considered as the bible for project management. This is published by "Project Management Institute"
PMBOK is being derived and compiled from various resources and inputs from PMP's all over the world and they keep updating this manual periodically. The recent version is PMBOK 3rd edition. From where do you get this manual? If you become member for the Project Management Institute you will have access to this manual.
It helps to understand the various project management activities a project manager carries out during the project initiation, planning, executing, controlling and closing.
The book has been categorized into 9 knowledge areas, which are:
1) Integration Management
2) Scope Management
3) Time Management
4) Cost Management
5) Quality Management
6) Human Resource Management
7) Communications Management
8) Risk Management
9) Procurement Management

Any project will be undergoing all these knowledge areas. Under these there are many processes involved.

For those who are keen in pursuing their project management skills can I would suggest them to take membership from PMI and get to understand these processes. (www.pmi.org)

However I will keep blogging on the various topics of project management which will come under any of the above knowledge areas.

McGregor's Theory

According to this theory all people fall under two categories.
1) Theory X
2) Theory Y

Theory X - Manager's believe that this kind of people need to be watched all the time. They are incapable, avoid responsibility and avoid work whenever possible.

Theory Y - Manager's believe that this kind of people are willing to work without supervision, and want to achieve. They are independent and can direct their own efforts.