Focus Roundtable: How to Recognize and
Prevent IT Project Failures

Free Teleconference April 25, 2011
1:00pm (PDT)/4:00pm (EDT) presented by:

Failed IT projects cost the economy billions of dollars every year, damage many public and private organizations, and hurt the careers of those involved. Please join us for a roundtable teleconference on Monday, April 25, 2011 at 1:00pm PT/ 4:00pm ET as top experts explore why IT failures are so common and what you can do to prevent them.

Expect to learn about these important issues:

• What is an IT failure
• What causes an IT failure
• How to prevent IT failures and run successful projects
• Practical steps to take when a project is going off the rails

Moderator Michael Krigsman, CEO of Asuret, Inc., will moderate a panel discussion featuring two of the top project management and IT experts in the industry:

• Steven Romero, IT Governance Evangelist, CA Technologies
• Todd Williams, President, eCameron, Inc.

For dail-in numbers please visit Focus.com's webpage.

Understanding, Identifying,
and Managing Project Risk

A one-day course on April 28, 2011 at:

Risk, Shmisk. Who cares?

You should. Risk is one of the least understood concepts in project management and not addressing it leads to disastrous results. Risk is in everything we do in life, from going to the store to managing our projects. If we understand the risks associated with something we are doing, we can address the risks better and in many cases avoid them all together. Unfortunately, risk often scares us and as a result, we ignore it. This course identifies types of risks on projects and ways to lessen their effects.

The course covers:

• Understanding the basics about issues, risks, and probabilities.
• Knowing the difference between quantifiable and non-quantifiable risk.
• Calculating the impact on schedule and budget.
• Risk registers.
• How to know when too many risks are firing.
• Determining how to reduce risk’s effects.
• The politics of risk—getting management to understand.

This course is highly participatory, using exercises to reinforce the concepts, looks at actual examples from projects, and is targeted for all levels of project managers.

Register on PSU's Website for Understanding, Identifying, and Managing Project Risk

NOTE: Some email systems block links. If Read More... does not work, simply cut-and-paste the URL immediately after the Read more... into your browser.

THIS MONTH'S SELECTED ARTICLES

Management Versus Innovation

Months ago, maybe over a year, now, I was blasted for talking about innovation in the context of information technology (IT) projects. The gist of the complaint was that all IT folks think they are building some new groundbreaking, revolutionary application that requires the latest in technology's tools. I agreed with his argument, qualifying that although this seems to be a pervasive theme, IT is a discipline that needs to keep one-foot in the pioneering frontier. Regardless, I had to concede that many innovative initiatives are more about a technician playing with some new toy. Jobs like implementing ERP interfaces to manufacturing execution systems (MES) only sound new. Unfortunately, I must say, "been there done that." Most IT is neither new of innovative. To avoid squandering funds, executives must understand and direct what needs to be innovative and permeate the company's culture with that knowledge. Otherwise, the wasted time and expense will suck a company dry.

Read more...
(http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/59-generalblog/245-2011-04-18)

Project Acrimony: Project Management and Finance

Few events start a project manager's day off worse than a yellow sticky note on his or her monitor saying, "The finance manager would like to talk to you." An email is equally as bad; however, the note at your desk means that someone actually hunted you down looking to talk about, you guessed it, finances. There must be some problem. Everyone knows the finance folks would never wander into project-land to invite you out for a friendly cup of coffee. You quickly review the project's finances. Everything seems in order. With a sigh, you contemplate whether you should walk over and see her or will a phone call be the least painful option? Yes, painful. Anytime the finance manager calls, there is going to be a lot of new work.

Read more...
(http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/59-generalblog/243-2011-04-11)

Leading Without Authority

Leadership is more than leading the people reporting to you. Too often, you need to lead people over which you lack any authority. The absence of hierarchical advantage adds a challenge, but is ideal training on how to deal with managers, customers, and difficult people. The key is making them feel the direction chosen is theirs. One of the best methods of doing this is storytelling.

Read more...
(http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/59-generalblog/242-2011-03-28)

Project Failures are Organization Failures

Vision, honesty, and transparency: three key traits of an organization that can guarantee project success. This was summed up in last week's interview with Tom Cox, the host of Blog Talk Radio's Tom on Leadership program. His audience, primarily from the C-Suite, is keen to understand how troubled projects are a reflection of their organization's overall health. Projects are, after all, the proverbial canaries in our organization's coalmine. Projects stop performing because there is trouble in the organization.

Read more...
(http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/59-generalblog/240-2011-03-21)

Leadership and Project Management

"I just want to be a project manager. I don't want all that responsibility." The room was silent, save a few exasperated sighs. We all looked around trying to figure out how we would handle the comment. However, there are many levels of project management maturity and only the highest levels require leadership. In fact, the prominent certification process—PMI's PMP^®—has little to do with leadership. So where do we learn about leadership and how can we improve our leadership skills?

Read more...
(http://ecaminc.com/index.php/blog/59-generalblog/239-2011-03-07)

Events in April, May,
and June

ASQ Inland Empire Sect 711 - People or Process: Which Has the Greater Effect on Project Success
April 20, 2011 (6:30 pm - 7:30 pm)

Focus.com IT Roundtable: How to Recognize and Prevent IT Project Failures
April 25, 2011 (1:00 pm - 2:00 pm)

PSU: Understanding, Identifying, and Managing Project Risk (BP156)
April 28, 2011 (8:00 am - 5:00 pm)

Fresno PMI: Estimating: The Sociological Effects in a Group
May 12, 2011 (5:00 pm - 6:00 pm)

San Diego PMI Tutorials/Conference
May 14, 2011 (10:00 am - 11:00 am)

PSU: Improving Project Inception (BP157)
June 09, 2011 (8:00 am - 5:00 pm)

PMI PDX Con-Way Roundtable Various topics
June 10, 2011 (7:30 am - 8:45 am)

Complete Event list