PMBOK 4th edition: A first look

The 4th edition of the PMBOK was released earlier this year, given that quite a considerable number of people worldwide visit my PMP prep page I took it upon myself to both purchase and read the guide to update the site. I've been quite busy both professionally and personally so I have not had a chance to review it with any level of detail till recently. On a first reading it seems pretty much the same as the 3rd edition with some minor changes to the ITTOs in the process areas and knowledge groups. I have a page here that outlines and summarizes the changes: PMBOK4 vs PMBOK3

Rather than give a detailed summary, I found a pretty good one on the PM Docs website. Like previous versions and with any worldwide recognized standard/methodology you will find both supports and detractors of the standard. I found a pretty fiery one here by James T Brown who runs a commercial PM consulting site and is kind of ironic given that the company is a PMI registered provider:

My opinion is that the PMBOK® is as out of control as your most nightmarish stakeholder. Always changing things… hoping to make it better… when in fact they have seem to add complexity with little or no additional value. As Voltaire stated "The perfect is the enemy of the good."

Project Management is nothing but structured organized common sense!

Here is the problem…if you try to document every single common sense thing and every factor or process that contributes to the successful execution of common sense the result is gobbledygook! Does gobbledygook rhyme with PMBOK®? It is tough to define gobbledygook but you know it when you see it! Judgment cannot be legislated with bureaucracy; there are too many variables and circumstances.

The real challenge in project management is not identifying the common sense things to do, but having the individual or organizational discipline to do the common sense thing.

It is not a standard if it is always changing!

PMI is calling something a standard and then they change it. Maybe they should consider using WIP for Work in Progress instead of standard. If the PMBOK® were an 8 ounce cup every three or four years the world would have to revise all the recipes to comply with their new definition of a cup. More importantly, PMI is at risk of devaluing the PMP certification because now you have project managers certified on different sets of terms. When an organization hires a newly certified PMP based on the fourth edition of the PMBOK® they may not know the term triple constraint. A standard doesn't have to be perfect, but a standard must be a standard to effectively serve its purpose!

PMBOK® Huggers Beware!

Before we get discouraged let's remember that most of humankind's greatest project management achievements happened before the PMBOK® existed. The principles of successful project management are timeless and if you know them and use them you will be successful regardless of whether the PMBOK® chooses to include it or what the PMBOK® chooses to call it.

While I can understand his sentiment and do agree that the standard at times feels as though too much complexity has been added that don't seem to add direct value, I will hold to what I posted before about the rationale for getting a PMP certification:

Aside from these ideological battles, from a practical point of view, it will benefit a project manager more than harm him/her to get it and for the investment of around $1,200-2500 I definitely think it is worth it. Many PM jobs highly recommend and even require this designation, and if that helps you get a better paying job then the investment is worth it in my opinion. In addition, the certification has recently acquired ISO certification which is a world wide standardizing body and is the first certification to acquire it, which should help solidify the certification's global as well as domestic standing.

The good news is that the 4th edition has incorporated many improvements which allows the profession of project management to evolve best practices and standards consistent with the proactive cycle of continuous development and improvement needed in today's fast paced world.

Yet another top 10 PM trends list for 2009

Well it is 2009 and a lot has changed since last year, especially in the economic climate that we now occupy, and for those in the profession of project management it is inevitable that you will be effected by it as well as try and prognosticate on the future trends you may encounter. And sure enough, ESI International which is a consultancy and training company for all things project management related, published it's Top 10 Project Management Trends for 2009 which are outlined below:

1. The Sandwich Generation: Middle Managers’ Emerging Role in Change

Seventy-five percent of all change management programs fail because of a lack of employee support. Today’s economy will force organizations to confront the important roles middle managers play in the success of change efforts. Middle managers’ roles will shift from simple messenger of directives ‘from above’ to creating a positive environment to enable change, accountability and ownership of change initiatives, achieving the full benefits of change and ensuring return on investment.

2. Navigating Virtual Teams through Change

As budgets tighten, the role of virtual teams will grow along with the demand for the skill sets to manage them, especially through change. Powerful communication, key management strategies and new rules of engagement will be required to manage virtual teams as organizations seek to effectively shift with the turbulent global economy.

3. Sharper Distinctions Between Project and Program Management

Many global organizations have managed programs with the same methods used to manage projects, with predictably disappointing results. Programs are not merely “bigger” projects, and program managers aren’t simply professionals who are one step up on the organizational ladder. This year will see an increase in the understanding of the cardinal differences between projects and programs and the utilization of strategies to boost program managers’ effectiveness and increase program success.

4. Leveraging Communities of Practice To Hone Skills

The number and importance of project management communities of practice will increase significantly in 2009. These informal communities will be highly prized for the lack of bureaucracy that increase the sharing and use of best practices, enabling increased dialogue to overcome challenges and growing future leaders.

5. Strategic Selling of the Project Management Office

Although the project management office has gained wide acceptance, it still needs buy-in at the senior executive level. 2009 will see an increase in the importance of quantifying the PMO’s value and how to present that data to the CFO to ensure funding in what promises to be highly competitive arena for organizational resources.

6. Back to Basics for Successful Project Portfolio Management

More than any year in recent history, 2009 will be a critical year for ensuring project success. Project managers will increase their emphasis on the basics, taking a first-things-first approach and address fundamentals such as gaining and sustaining executive commitment, addressing gaps in the alignment of organizational strategy and projects, project selection, and efficient measurement process while leveraging existing resources to increase project success.

7. Right-sizing Staff with Demand Driven Resource Management

The adoption of Demand Driven Resource Management will increase significantly in 2009. Its ability to right-size internal staff and draw on outside contractors when demand requires will be viewed as an essential cost containment approach leading to greater organizational performance and efficiency.

8. Improved Requirements Metrics

The economic need to accurately assess and evaluate the organizational and cost impact of project requirements will bring a greater role for requirements management and development. Also known as business analysis, RMD’s ability to provide quality metrics that project and portfolio managers can use to assess the economic, performance and feasibility value of each project component will become essential to organizations successfully maximizing the ROI of their projects.

9. People Will Come Before Technology

Organizations will increase their demands for smart third-party guidance that ensures technology investments deliver enhanced performance. This will result in greater recognition of the critical role people play, leading to increased recognition that employees need the right skills and knowledge before applying processes for consistency and adding technology to deliver increased efficiencies.

10. Risk Management for Governance

In 2009, many organizations will say goodbye to the ‘one number’ method for project outcomes and embrace a quantifiable range of potential results on which to base decisions. Recognizing that best governance hinges on the availability of quality information at the project level, education and leadership in risk management and best practices permeate organizations wanting to optimize project forecasting to deliver more effective governance.

I can't help but to feel that you could look at a similar list 5 or even 10 years ago and see the same projected trends. Though I don't have evidence for it, my assumption is that there is more recognition throughout companies of the importance of these 10 initiatives if you had measured and collected the information and compared it with the past. Sadly, I would think that the progress of these 10 trends would not be as progressive.

Of particular interest to me is change and demand resource management, as well as risk management and governance. Many companies just don't get these right.

Top 15 highest paying IT certifications

I got directed to this link from Erika Flora's blog, which is based on a ZDNET Tech Republic survey which outlines the top 15 IT certifications you can get right now:

1. PMP (approx. $101k)
2. CAPM
3. ITIL Foundation
4. CISSP
5. CCIE
6. CCVP
7. ITIL Master
8. MSCD
9. CCNP
10. Red Hat Certified Engineer
11. MCITP (Enterprise)
12. CCSP
13. MCAD
14. MCITP (Database)
15. MCDBA (approx. $76K)

One major issue I have with these results is that it lists the CAPM as #2, and from what I understand it has had very little traction and seems unlikely that it would supercede the other certifications. Another minor issue is that the PMP certification is not a IT specific one, as project management can be and is utitilized accross industies and company departments. Otherwise, I would not be surprised to know that PMPs involved in IT get the best pay, since most who get the certification are experienced project managers.

Application of the Cloud

My previous post was on managing projects in the Cloud and though from a business perspective it makes sense to adopt this infrastructure (or rather non-infrastructure or disembodied infrastructure) to contain costs and receive software as a service, one of the main impediments to adopting this wholeheartedly is in my opinion the security concern. Many companies have sensitive data and if an organization is held against measures such as HIPPA, then it is even more imprative to keep you data centers secure.

An article in CIO magazine highlights how Bechtel seems to have found a practical way to adopt clould computing to manage the security concern and in addition, cherry pick the most effective aspects of it from the four current leaders in the cloud, namely Google, Amazon, YouTube and SalesForce.com:

If you could build your IT systems and operation from scratch today, would you recreate what you have? That's the question Geir Ramleth, CIO of construction giant Bechtel, asked himself three years ago.

The question — and the industry benchmarking exercise that followed — prompted Bechtel to transform its IT department and model it after Internet frontrunners Amazon.com, Google, Salesforce.com and YouTube. After all, these companies have exploited the latest in network design and server and storage virtualization to reach new levels of efficiency in their IT operations. Ramleth wanted to mimic these approaches as Bechtel turned itself into a software-as-a-service provider for internal users, subcontractors and business partners.

After researching the Internet's strongest brands, Bechtel scrapped its existing data centers and built three facilities with the latest in server and storage virtualization. Bechtel also designed a Gigabit Ethernet network with hubs at Internet exchange points that it is managing itself instead of using carriers. Now, Bechtel is slashing its portfolio of software applications to simplify operations, as well as the user experience.

Dubbed the Project Services Network, Bechtel's new strategy applies the SaaS computing model internally to provide IT services to 30,000 users, including 20,000 employees and eventually 10,000 subcontractors and other business partners.

We operate "as a service provider to a set of customers that are our own [construction] projects," Ramleth says. "Until we can find business applications and SaaS models for our industry, we will have to do it ourselves, but we would like to operate with the same thinking and operating models as [SaaS providers] do."

This is probably the most practical solution for the current situation and is probably the only viable one for the next 5 to 10 years, until the future state of ubiquitous clould computing can overcome its security, reliability and data ownership issues.

In additon, it was smart for Bechtel to look at the major players out there and adopt the best of what they have a mimic it in their implementation. Google for their server infrastructure, YouTube for the WAN, Amazon for their virtualization, and SalesForce.com for the SaaS application model. But the best take away from this article was the statement by the CIO, that "what we learned is that you have to standardize like crazy and simplify the environment." Simplification and standardization is the key in making this work.

Managing projects in the "Cloud"

The current issue of the Economist has a special report on Corporate IT and the central theme of the articles is the recent rise of cloud computing and its effects on the governance and management of IT initiatives in the corporate world:

Computing is taking on yet another new shape. It is becoming more centralised again as some of the activity moves into data centres. But more importantly, it is turning into what has come to be called a “cloud”, or collections of clouds. Computing power will become more and more disembodied and will be consumed where and when it is needed.

The rise of the cloud is more than just another platform shift that gets geeks excited. It will undoubtedly transform the information technology (IT) industry, but it will also profoundly change the way people work and companies operate. It will allow digital technology to penetrate every nook and cranny of the economy and of society, creating some tricky political problems along the way.

Because of the dot com bubble of the late 90s, I'm very skeptical to even cynical of such hyperbolie, but in this case I think a majority of the hype is justifed. The key term from the quote above is "disembodied", which is a pretty good way of describing the cloud. Terms such as decentralized, fragmented, and dispirate was and is still used to describe the networks which comprise the internet, but a more stronger term such as disembodied would need to be used to describe clould computing as it allows you to grab a software service from a totally abstracted layer that conceals a very complex infrastructure of data centers and virtualized storage technologies.

The image below from Wikipedia provides a pretty simplified pictorial of this architecture:


In addition, it list the key charactersitics of the Cloud:

• Capital expenditure minimized and thus low barrier to entry as infrastructure is owned by the provider and does not need to be purchased for one-time or infrequent intensive computing tasks. Services are typically being available to or specifically targeting retail consumers and small businesses.
• Device and location independence^[25] which enables users to access systems regardless of location or what device they are using (eg PC, mobile).
• Multitenancy enabling sharing of resources (and costs) among a large pool of users, allowing for:
  • Centralization of infrastructure in areas with lower costs (eg real estate, electricity)
  • Peak-load capacity increases (users need not engineer for highest possible load levels)
  • Utilization and efficiency improvements for systems that are often only 10-20% utilized.^[21]
• Performance is monitored and consistent but can be affected by insufficient bandwidth or high network load.
• Reliability by way of multiple redundant sites, which makes it suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery,^[26] however IT and business managers are able to do little when an outage hits them.^[27] Historical data on cloud outages is tracked in the Cloud Computing Incidents Database.^[28]
• Scalability which meets changing user demands (e.g. Flash Crowds) quickly, without having to engineer for peak loads. Massive scalability and large user bases are common but not an absolute requirement.
• Security which typically improves due to centralization of data, increased security-focused resources, etc. but which raises concerns about loss of control over certain sensitive data. Accesses are typically logged but accessing the audit logs themselves can be difficult or impossible.
• Sustainability through improved resource utilisation, more efficient systems and carbon neutrality.^[29]

So from a business point of view, you can view cloud computing as a broad array of web-based services aimed at allowing users to obtain a wide range of functional capabilities on a 'pay-as-you-go' basis that previously required tremendous hardware/software investments and professional skills to acquire. Cloud computing is the realization of the earlier ideals of utility computing without the technical complexities or complicated deployment worries. Therefore, in a nutshell, cloud computing seems to promise limitless computing power and storage space via the internet.

I have no doubt that some day this type of ubiquitous computing availability and services will come about. A tremendous amount has changed since that decade or so when the internet became a truly viable commercial technology. It has no doubt experienced bumps along the way, but there are utility services we enjoy today such as electricity, water and gas that we can acquire without having to think much about it and the downtimes are nearly non-existent, but I'm sure at the beginning had reliability and quality issues.

The Economist articles points out the potential problems to watch for such as reliability, security and ownership of data and information. These are very valid and obvious concerns to me, but one that concerns me the most as person who manages multiple projects that almost always have a IT component to them, is that before cloud computing resolves the common issues of reliability, security, etc. and becomes as ubiquitous and easy to use as utility services, there will be that ramp up curve wherein companies that adopt the cloud and tires to resolve all these issues makes a person like me who has to manage these projects get gravely effected by it.

Furthermore, even without cloud computing, there was a problem of too much software being built and/or purchased by companies looking to automate every process for cost savings or competitive advantage. This came at a very big cost in terms of infrastructure and application investments and caused huge project overruns that delivered applications that brought very little or no value to business. Cloud computing will help with the cost for infrastructure and application implementation, but in many ways the ease with which companies would be able to pick, purchase and use software services will cause more delays and little value, and though cost may be saved in the short run, time will be lost and in business, time is money.

Project managers will have no choice but to adopt a more agile approach, but for many companies such as the one I work for, there is still a need to comply with regulatory agencies such as HIPAA and SOX, which require a process and audit trail to be followed. Its hard enough now to balance these competing needs, I see the adoption of cloud computing with the potential to exacerbate this problem even further.

So while cloud computing promises much, there needs to be a healthy skepticism in one's evaluation of it's benefits.