Ping:Project Managers

[Galaril]

I am going to be taking over a IT Project Manager position with my company and am looking for a good Project manager book or site? I have done plenty of informal PM stuff but not one like this will I need to know how to make a formal project plan showing interdependencies and milestones in Microsoft Project. I am trying to avoid textbooks or books that are focused on passing one of the PM certifications. Also, I am in IT so the focus needs to be IT Project management and hopefully the book covers something related to "Microsft Project" Thanks.

[wade moore]

Sadly all of my stuff has been self-taught or from company sponsored courses .

[Buccaneer]

We actually been ramping up on Kepner-Tregoe for all of our project management, not just IT. Reason is that IT PM cannot and should not be any different than non-technical PM in a company. On the other hand, I am quite involved in ITIL, but you don't want to go there. Other than those, our IT PM are MS Project experts (I'm not, don't want to be). When I get back to work on Monday, I can ask some of our certified PMs to see what non-Project stuff they got into.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

We actually been ramping up on Kepner-Tregoe for all of our project management, not just IT. Reason is that IT PM cannot and should not be any different than non-technical PM in a company. On the other hand, I am quite involved in ITIL, but you don't want to go there. Other than those, our IT PM are MS Project experts (I'm not, don't want to be). When I get back to work on Monday, I can ask some of our certified PMs to see what non-Project stuff they got into.

I really appreciate that and actually funny you mention ITIL one of the large year long projects I will be PMing isa ITIL based rollout of the Microsoft framework based off of ITIL who's name eludes me at the moment. I agree with the point you made that all PM stuff should be similar with IT or non-technical.

[Glengoyne]

We're in about six months into a two year ITIL implementation as well. I'm interested in Buc's "don't go there" statement, as I've seen good things so far. Then again I'm biased, as we're heading down this path on my recommendation. I do keep having to remind everyone that we need to 'right-size' any of the recommended practices we implement, or else we'll end up burying ourselves in a bureaucracy.

[flere-imsaho]

Well, ITIL's like any other methodology, if sized and implemented properly it can be a boon. If sized and implemented improperly it can be a massive waste of time and resources. Not to mention a lot of CIOs say "Oh, ITIL. Hey, let's implement the whole thing!" When of course ITIL itself says that not all organizations need the whole thing.

Anyway, I have a good book at home about IT project management whose title escapes me at the moment, so I'll try to post later about it. If I slack, go ahead and PM me.

I do work as a PM consultant (I have a strong IT background, but I do all types of projects, recently a lot of regulatory projects for pharmaceuticals), so if you have any questions, please feel free to post. I love to give advice, ramble and pontificate.

[flere-imsaho]

Ah, here's the book: IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, Second Edition

Even though it's still geared around test prep (not the PMP, interestingly enough), I found it very helpful and useful.

As for MS Project, see if they can send you to a class or buy you a CD-based course. Then you'll want to play around with it, which is how, in the end, I learned.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Well, ITIL's like any other methodology, if sized and implemented properly it can be a boon. If sized and implemented improperly it can be a massive waste of time and resources. Not to mention a lot of CIOs say "Oh, ITIL. Hey, let's implement the whole thing!" When of course ITIL itself says that not all organizations need the whole thing.

Anyway, I have a good book at home about IT project management whose title escapes me at the moment, so I'll try to post later about it. If I slack, go ahead and PM me.

I do work as a PM consultant (I have a strong IT background, but I do all types of projects, recently a lot of regulatory projects for pharmaceuticals), so if you have any questions, please feel free to post. I love to give advice, ramble and pontificate.

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Ah, here's the book: IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish, Second Edition

Even though it's still geared around test prep (not the PMP, interestingly enough), I found it very helpful and useful.

As for MS Project, see if they can send you to a class or buy you a CD-based course. Then you'll want to play around with it, which is how, in the end, I learned.

Appreciate this. I too am similar situation to you IT security background but working into more PM work for security projects. I will take a look at that book. The MS project course is a good idea but I don't my company will pay for a course at this point. Most of PM books base there technocal how to do stuff on it so I am not too worried.

[Buccaneer]

Or you try to implement too much too fast into an IT organization that still has a hard time communicating between the different sections, along with a customer base that still wants to do things their own way. Long story.

[flere-imsaho]

I feel your pain, Bucc.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by Galaril

I am going to be taking over a IT Project Manager position with my company and am looking for a good Project manager book or site? I have done plenty of informal PM stuff but not one like this will I need to know how to make a formal project plan showing interdependencies and milestones in Microsoft Project. I am trying to avoid textbooks or books that are focused on passing one of the PM certifications. Also, I am in IT so the focus needs to be IT Project management and hopefully the book covers something related to "Microsft Project" Thanks.

I picked up MS-Project through trial and error - to be honest its not that complicated a bit of software once you've invested a few hours playing with it and working out how things link together (disclaimer - I've been a software engineer for years so what I think is 'simple' and 'intuitive' is often gobblegook to the rest of the world ).

With regards to project management books I'd recommend:

Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
http://www.amazon.com/Slack-Getting-...5149846&sr=8-1
I've read dozens of project management books in the last decade or so and this is the only one I really remember distinctly - its reasonably well written and aimed at encouraging managers to be realistic and realise that employee's are human and won't work 100% efficiently, not only that but if you run a company at 100% efficiency then when someone gets ill you're stuck (ie. its a good thing to let people be a little lazy most of the time ie. 'slack' so when push comes to shove you have that extra 10% available to cover unexpected issues).

Basically its about project management in the 'real world' and not just as shown in lectures - worth having a look at imho, but (as with most such books) don't expect to agree with everything it says.

However something like Microsoft Office Project 2007 Inside Out might be more what you're looking for if you're after a simply 'how to' guide to MS-Project.

[Glengoyne]

I thought I posted this earlier. One of my favorite Project Management books was actually Microsoft Project for Dummies. Sounds funny, but It was a surprisingly good intro to the practice of Project Management and the use of the software.

[BrianD]

Be aware that an understanding of MS Project won't help all that much in being a Project Manager. The outcome of Project is a very small part of what Project Management is, and it can be very easy to just put a chart together and think the project is managed. If you are going to seriously get into project management, I'd suggest registering with PMI (www.pmi.org). They have a bunch of resources on the website and registration will give you a CD with the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) which is basically the PM bible. It will teach you everything else that goes along with project management and will help you prepare for a PMP certification if you want to go that route.

As was mentioned earlier, IT project management is really no different that other project management. PMs don't need subject matter knowledge in the industries they are managing.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Be aware that an understanding of MS Project won't help all that much in being a Project Manager. The outcome of Project is a very small part of what Project Management is, and it can be very easy to just put a chart together and think the project is managed. If you are going to seriously get into project management, I'd suggest registering with PMI (www.pmi.org). They have a bunch of resources on the website and registration will give you a CD with the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge) which is basically the PM bible. It will teach you everything else that goes along with project management and will help you prepare for a PMP certification if you want to go that route.

As was mentioned earlier, IT project management is really no different that other project management. PMs don't need subject matter knowledge in the industries they are managing.

Thanks. And no disrespect but I have no interest in PM as a career or the PM cert. I covered most of the PM knowledge base when I got my masters of science a few years ago along with my CISSP AND CISM certifications.In my estimation,project management really boils down to being organized,following a plan, and make adjustments as issues arise.It isn't rocket science though like the PMI Institute like to make it out to be. This particular client already has been through 4-or 5 PMs in the past year and half. The last was booted because he had come in day one with the PMBOK in hand reciting by page number. The VP of tech ops didn't care much for it. So in anycase this is a project that I need to just have a knowledge of PMing which I do and experince having been a PM which I have. The things I will be adding is the Microsoft project and the MOF which I haven't worked with. But thanks for that info.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

I thought I posted this earlier. One of my favorite Project Management books was actually Microsoft Project for Dummies. Sounds funny, but It was a surprisingly good intro to the practice of Project Management and the use of the software.

Yes, I was looking at that book but ulitimately went with The Complete Idiots Guide to Project Management using MS 2003 by Ron Black.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idiot...5179500&sr=8-1

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Thanks. And no disrespect but I have no interest in PM as a career or the PM cert. I covered most of the PM knowledge base when I got my masters of science a few years ago along with my CISSP AND CISM certifications.In my estimation,project management really boils down to being organized,following a plan, and make adjustments as issues arise.It isn't rocket science though like the PMI Institute like to make it out to be. This particular client already has been through 4-or 5 PMs in the past year and half. The last was booted because he had come in day one with the PMBOK in hand reciting by page number. The VP of tech ops didn't care much for it. So in anycase this is a project that I need to just have a knowledge of PMing which I do and experince having been a PM which I have. The things I will be adding is the Microsoft project and the MOF which I haven't worked with. But thanks for that info.

Clearly one can go over the top with project management as well. The PMBOK teaches you the foundation for managing projects, but you still have to manage each project individually based on the needs of the project. One of the things I have noticed is that some people will create a Project chart and think they are managing a project. If you have a good handle on managing projects AND you can work with Project charts, that will work better. Scheduling and Milestones (which Project provides) are very helpful, but probably the biggest help you can give an IT project is good risk management. Figure out what is likely to go wrong and be prepared to fix it when it does and you will look like a rock star. Since you don't appear to be looking for the full PM treatment, I'd suggest the Idiot's Guide books. They have a good one for general project management.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by BrianD

As was mentioned earlier, IT project management is really no different that other project management. PMs don't need subject matter knowledge in the industries they are managing.

This is actually something I disagree with - to be effective a project manager has to be able to handle the human aspects of the position.

That is 'bullsh*tting' - if you have an IT project manager who knows nothing about IT then pulling the wool over his eyes would be amazingly easy and make him incredibly inefficient.

I saw this in my first industry job (Flight Simulators for Airlines/Military) the corporation I worked for had the same idea and we had a project manager who had retail experience. Most staff were honest and with those all was fine, but all of us knew of people who had abused the fact that he couldn't tell how hard/easy something was to implement in code.

PS - Please note I'm not indicating all IT PM's need to be former engineers - they do however need to know the basics of software design and implementation. This knowledge helps as a bullsh*t detector imho.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Clearly one can go over the top with project management as well. The PMBOK teaches you the foundation for managing projects, but you still have to manage each project individually based on the needs of the project. One of the things I have noticed is that some people will create a Project chart and think they are managing a project. If you have a good handle on managing projects AND you can work with Project charts, that will work better. Scheduling and Milestones (which Project provides) are very helpful, but probably the biggest help you can give an IT project is good risk management. Figure out what is likely to go wrong and be prepared to fix it when it does and you will look like a rock star. Since you don't appear to be looking for the full PM treatment, I'd suggest the Idiot's Guide books. They have a good one for general project management.

Thanks

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

This is actually something I disagree with - to be effective a project manager has to be able to handle the human aspects of the position.

That is 'bullsh*tting' - if you have an IT project manager who knows nothing about IT then pulling the wool over his eyes would be amazingly easy and make him incredibly inefficient.

I saw this in my first industry job (Flight Simulators for Airlines/Military) the corporation I worked for had the same idea and we had a project manager who had retail experience. Most staff were honest and with those all was fine, but all of us knew of people who had abused the fact that he couldn't tell how hard/easy something was to implement in code.

PS - Please note I'm not indicating all IT PM's need to be former engineers - they do however need to know the basics of software design and implementation. This knowledge helps as a bullsh*t detector imho.

If a PM is managing projects and project resources properly, this should be a very temporary situation. I have never known an engineer who didn't like to talk about his or her skills in relation to everyone else, and people who aren't pulling their weight or are slacking off tend to get identified pretty quickly. Knowing who you can trust and who to run estimates through as a sanity check are pretty major components of effective management. I'm not saying that subject matter knowledge doesn't help, but I think it is less necessary for good project managers.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by Galaril

In my estimation,project management really boils down to being organized,following a plan, and make adjustments as issues arise.

Now, in my opinion, that's just the basic requirements. The people I've worked with who can do just this are more correctly called "Project Coordinators" (or, as I like to call them "My Minions". ).

PMs that really add value to a team, organization or project are ones who can promote transparency, enable good decision-making, enforce accountability, drive timely follow-ups and continuously improve the process being used to accomplish the project's goals.

I know that sounds like a lot of consultant-speak, so let me elaborate.

Promote transparency: The #1 thing team members always bitch about is being in the dark. You can be in the dark about many things: the schedule, how decisions are being made, what decisions are being made, what the requirements are, etc.... Each team, organization or project is different. The good PM must determine how to make all of this information easily accessible and understandable so that team members spend a minimum amount of time wading through the cruft and a maximum amount of time focusing on their own work.

Enable good decision-making: It's easy (and common) to get a bare minimum of people into a room in order to make a decision and just hope that none of the other stakeholders complain later. It's also easy (and common) to get everyone and their brother in on a decision so that you never reach consensus. A good PM understands who the key stakeholders are for major decisions, is able to make them fully aware of all the context related to the decision, facilitates their decision-making and then makes sure this decision, and its ramifications, are clearly thought-out and communicated to all the other stakeholders. This sounds simple (and most good PM practices do), but if you think about how decisions are usually made in organizations, you'll note that it's rarely done effectively.

Enforce accountability: This speaks a little bit to Marc's point (addressed below), but as a good PM you can't walk out of meetings without knowing who's responsible for what. But so many do. Furthermore, when stuff is due, the good PM has a responsibility to make sure that people deliver. This is a lot harder than it sounds. It is so easy to just let things slide and let people convince you that they "need a little more time" or "it isn't that simple". You also need to be tactful. If someone says one of these things to me, I ask them why, and then ask them to help me determine how we'll message this to the rest of the team, the stakeholders and/or leadership (as necessary). A good PM helps the team and stakeholders own their responsibilities and accomplish them, as opposed to just adhering to a schedule.

Drive timely follow-ups: Related to the above, but it's not enough to say "OK, X will get Y done by Z" and then just wait for Z. Y won't get done by Z if you do that. A PM needs to know how the parts of the schedule are going at all times and proactively identify issues that are going to arise and help the team work around them. Circumstances change in projects. A task that was supposed to take 2 weeks suddenly blows up and gets out of control. A PM has to get that back under control. On another angle, everyone knows that projects have loose ends all the time. Stuff people don't want to think about or deal with. The good PM keeps following-up on this stuff and gets it out of the way before it becomes a problem. The good PM also knows how to prioritize this stuff because sometimes it just isn't important enough to care about.

Continuous Improvement: Every team I've managed gets better and more efficient as the project goes along. They grow to really own their work and own, as an integrated team, the full project work. They get better on follow-ups, and they keep everything transparent for their teammates. They know I'll hold them accountable but not meddle in their work, so they take increasing pride in what they do. They get better at knowing what's relevant and what's pointless. And most importantly they know how they can use me to get information, decisions made, or whatever else that impacts their work, but isn't their main responsibility. When I start with a team the team meetings invariably are aimless hourlong sessions where nothing gets done and everyone hates them. By the team I leave they're scheduled for an hour but usually take 30 minutes or less, everyone is able to quickly articulate their status and issues, we can quickly and easily determine follow-ups for outside the meeting, and the team hits the ground running for the week, and they're happy. This is the situation for which I aim.

It isn't rocket science though like the PMI Institute like to make it out to be.

Sure. PMI (or, more correctly, PMBOK) is just like any other methodology. You take what's relevant and build upon it.

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

That is 'bullsh*tting' - if you have an IT project manager who knows nothing about IT then pulling the wool over his eyes would be amazingly easy and make him incredibly inefficient.

I respectfully disagree. I manage (successfully) a lot of project where I have zero subject matter expertise. My current project, for instance, involves a lot of work regarding safety information for drugs. I'm in meetings with Ph.Ds and M.D.s who are talking about very scientific terms. I don't have that kind of background.

To manage this effectively, I let people know that I don't need to know the details of their work, but what it impacts and how it feeds into the rest of the work. I also let them know that I'm a facilitator. The team owns the project and the project schedule. If someone wants to give me an inflated estimate well, I'm going to put it in there. But because I promote transparency, everyone else is going to see that inflated estimate. If that inflated estimate pushes out completion past a goal time, then the team will have to give me a rationale to explain to senior leadership.

Maybe I'm lucky, in that I've been very successful in getting team members to understand and buy into this dynamic. They've understood that I'm in their corner, and I'll go to bat for them. If, for instance, they give me real estimates which still push out goal dates, I'll take this info, and this rationale to senior leadership and fight for the team. And usually I win. I find that if you do your homework and come to senior leadership with metrics, data and good timelines, you're setting yourself up for a good argument about goals vs. reality, but you have the black-and-white data to back up your side. Leadership loves black-and-white data, and so I win most of these arguments. I only have to do this once and I find that the team is then 100% on my side.


Anyway, sorry to ramble on, but this is, of course, what I do for a living. And as most of you know, I like to ramble. Hopefully some of it was helpful.

[Marc Vaughan]

I respectfully disagree. I manage (successfully) a lot of project where I have zero subject matter expertise. My current project, for instance, involves a lot of work regarding safety information for drugs. I'm in meetings with Ph.Ds and M.D.s who are talking about very scientific terms. I don't have that kind of background. .....

In 'Game Industry' terms you'd be a "Producer" - you've pretty much defined their job role to a T.

Whats expected of a Project Manager/Producer/Whatever varies hugely from company to company and especially from industry to industry.

I have always seen a Project Manager at SI as more hands on and involved in actively anticipating problems and planning courses around potential issues before they occur as much as possible (whether that problem is someone exagerating a timeline or a particular module 'fairly' over-running).

This is simply because in this industry timelines are relatively short (most games I've worked on annual releases for instance) and by and large set in stone (release dates are tied into advertising which is pre-bought in most cases - so changing them isn't popular for obvious reason).

As such there isn't room for allowing people to give inflated estimates because that might blow that feature out of the projects timeline.

A project managers role in such circumstances often involves anticipating potential problems and planning ways around them in order to preserve the release date if possible without crippling the end product.

In many cases the team you will be managing will be reliable and motivated in which case management is made much easier (as you can honestly ask for their advice and take it at face value) - however this isn't always the case; especially imho if a third party is contracted in to work upon aspects of the project on a temporary basis.

Its also worth mentioning at this point that the games industry has weird 'goals' for projects in that most things are R&D (ie. have never been done before) and that unless something 'feels right' it still isn't going into a game even if it fulfills its design specifiacation - this sort of setup makes a bullshit detector combined with some technical background very useful imho.

[MacroGuru]

I miss being the Analyst/PM, it was a job I enjoyed. I truly love meeting with the end user/client, gathering all the needs and sitting with the developers and creating the build list and going back and informing the client what could and could not be done.

I had our department churning really well with it.

But don't get me wrong, it's always better to be the boss....

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by BrianD

If a PM is managing projects and project resources properly, this should be a very temporary situation. I have never known an engineer who didn't like to talk about his or her skills in relation to everyone else, and people who aren't pulling their weight or are slacking off tend to get identified pretty quickly. Knowing who you can trust and who to run estimates through as a sanity check are pretty major components of effective management. I'm not saying that subject matter knowledge doesn't help, but I think it is less necessary for good project managers.

I agree good project managers can succeed without subject matter knowledge - but it does help and for that reason I advocate it, especially within the games industry where timelines are less flexible than in some other industries.

[flere-imsaho]

Those are some good points, Marc.