Journyx Project Management Blog

I was watching a program on National Geographic the other day about Egypt under Cleopatra. The program discussed how Alexandria was a major think tank, a place where people were employed simply to use their brains. The library was so extensive and learning so valued that when Egyptians searched ships coming into their harbors, if a book was found on board that the library did not contain, it was confiscated and added to the collection. These people were pretty serious about ideas, don’t you think?

In our times, ideas are still very important. One might argue that they are key to any kind of success. Want to create a new product or provide a new service? Want to be the company people choose over all the other competitors? Want to be bought out so you can retire and live the rest of your days out on the beach? Well, then, you’d better have some good ideas to get you there.

As you probably already know, it is not easy to come up with good ideas. Occasionally it might feel easy - for example, when you are suddenly struck by an epiphany so fantastic you wonder where on earth it came from. Yet more often than not, you might sit for days, struggling with a business problem or trying to come up with a creative marketing strategy, only to wind up with a whole bunch of nothing. It isn’t even your fault - the Muse is difficult to contain. (Ask any writer if he or she gets writer’s block and watch the reaction.) It happens to the best of us.

One of the best ways I have found for coming up with great ideas are brainstorming sessions. I have been fortunate enough to take part in a couple of these and it seems that by the end of the meeting, there are all kinds of new avenues to explore. After all, you are not trying to come up with ideas all by yourself, based on your creativity and knowledge alone. Rather, you are sharing brainpower with 3, 5, 10… maybe even 20 other people. Think of the possibilities!

Wikipedia has an interesting entry on brainstorming that lists various rules and methods, including:

1. Focus on quantity.

2. No criticism.

3. Unusual ideas are welcome.

4. Combine and improve ideas.

You might incorporate some of these guidelines into your next meeting, or schedule a brainstorming session to iron out the kinks in your latest business plan. Either way, you will definitely be surprised with what you come up with.

- April Boland, Journyx Communications Coordinator

The best to survive a recession is to depend on the public sector. You have to work really hard to get fired from the public sector. The biggest mass murderer in British history was Doctor Harold Shipman. He may have killed between 150 and 250 patients. He only got struck off by the General Medical Council, which is meant to uphold standards, after he had been convicted.

For the public sector, recession is simply a time when there are more sales in the shops, holidays are cheaper and you can get a great bargain on a new car.

But if you’ve failed to land a plum public sector contract, here are some other strategies for survival.

The goal is to make sure that when the personnel department (sorry, Strategic Human Capital Resources Division) and your boss go through all the staff, a red line is not drawn through your name. Here is how:

Performance.
Top organisations like GE and IBM annually cull the bottom 10 per cent of management. Recessions are a good way of raising standards by losing the lower performers. To make sure you are not in the bottom 10/20/30 per cent you need to:
Do all the basics of your job well. Career-limiting moves become career ending moves in a recession.

• Have a claim to fame — be known for doing something really well, be central to an important project. Make it impossible to be fired.

Read the rest at BNET.

What Matters Most?

Technical competency is not the most important skill for a project manager. Neither is building a good schedule, nor monitoring issues and tracking down open action items. First and foremost, project managers must be effective leaders.

I can’t overstate the importance of leadership skills for a project manager. In 1998, Zimmer and Yasin studied the characteristics of effective senior project managers. Eight of the top nine characteristics are aspects of managing relationships or leading. Technical competence is the lone exception on the list.

Zimmer and Yasin identify poor leadership as a cause of project failure, and they conclude that project managers must combine technical competency with the ability to lead. I agree. The more responsibility a project manager has, the more crucial leadership skills are to his or her success.

Download the PDF at PM World Today.

Okay, so we’ve talked about giving to your colleagues, your customers, and to other companies through the products or services you provide. Can anyone think of something we might have left out this holiday season?

How about giving yourself a gift for all the hard work you did all year?

It’s called PTO, and we all have it (hopefully!). If you take your vacations like good girls and boys, this message is not for you. It is for the workaholics out there who check their work email from home, get in early and stay late and never take time off. This may seem like a great way to advance your career and help your business, but in reality, all you are doing is setting yourself up for burn-out, and fast.

Whether you are about to get all of your 2009 PTO upfront in January, or you have some left over from this year, do yourself a favor and take a few days off. I’ll bet the people you work with will thank you, because a rested you will be much more pleasant to work with.

- April Boland, Journyx Communications Coordinator

Much has been written about the need for IT to develop a deeper understanding of business. For the past decade, CIOs have been urged, coaxed, counseled and exhorted to act more like CEOs, chief financial officers (CFOs), chief operating officers (COOs), and other C-level executives.

I’m not going to argue about the wisdom of that advice. But I’m going to suggest that it’s only half the story. The other half, the piece that is usually missing from conversations about innovation, competitiveness and the opening new markets is this: It is time for business to learn more about IT.

Read the rest at CIO.com.

When it comes to implementing strategy, project management professionals have a significant advantage. For the skills and the discipline inherent in project management are directly applicable to implementing strategy.

It’s unfortunate that too many managers finish their strategy sessions, and only then consider the question of implementation. Clearly this is a mistake. By waiting until after their strategy sessions, they miss earlier opportunities to encourage successful implementation.

Project management professionals know not to commit this error. They realize that to encourage successful implementation of their strategy, they should take specific steps before, during and after their strategy sessions.

Read more at PM World Today.

The number of companies holding holiday parties is at 20-year low, according to a recent survey from executive-search firm Battalia Winston. But whether you’re simply canceling a party, holding a potluck instead, or moving forward with your company’s tradition, it’s the unexpected gestures that will help you retain and motivate your staff over the long run. Consider these three suggestions you can use in your own business.

Don’t forget the old-fashioned touch. Voicemail, text messages, and e-mail just don’t have the same impact as a handwritten note. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been asking small business owners for their favorite morale booster. The old fashioned thank-you note seems to have had the most lasting impact among those people who have received one. Adam Slutsky is the CEO of Mimeo.com, an online printing company with some highly demanding clients. He makes it a point to send handwritten notes to each member of his team after successful initiatives.

Read more at BusinessWeek.

So, I think of writing here everyday and remember promising myself that I will write 2 articles a month.

I haven’t. I come back to the site and see articles everywhere and I am lost. Amidst so much information am not sure what I can write about. I am far from being an expert on project management; Iam simply trying to be one.

After a while I wonder how people manage their time and do so much within the same 24 hours. I am reading “Beyond Code”, a book by Rajesh Setty and its fascinating because the author talks about how time is the equalizer- everyone has their share of 24 hours and how you use it, makes you different.

Bingo -Time Management it is. It is something all of us (aspiring project managers) should know. I read quite a few site and blogs and come across lots of people like Elizabeth Harrin writing in more than one site. Amazing I tell myself- how on earth do they have the time to do so much?

So, here’s my list of things every aspiring Project Manager should do -

* Network - You can save time by not having to physically meet people, use social networking sites and blogs. An email, IM and a phone call can be your time saving answer to the old world- drive and meet for lunch.

Read the rest of the article at pmStudent.com.

Project closeout reports, reports from turn-around managers on troubled projects, audit reports and project post-mortems all seem to have recurring findings. These findings can be used to help establish strong, sound project management procedures and act as a guide for effective management of a project.

Alternatively, the lessons of the past can be ignored and these findings can serve as a checklist for the auditor or manager looking at a troubled project. Clearly an ounce of prevention is the desired course of action.

While the “findings” that follow are not all encompassing, they provide a framework for project managers, functional leads and corporate management to assess whether a project is experiencing one or more of the findings common to many troubled projects. Used preventatively, it can help catch problems as they are emerging and before the real damage has been done.

For turnaround manager’s and project auditor’s, this list will unfortunately give them a head start in structuring their report!

Read the rest at PM World Today.

In a truly free market, no one ever gives you a dime unless you do a good deed for them. Therefore, running a business is all about doing good deeds for your fellow man. Think about it: Discount retailers do you the favor of helping you stretch your meager paycheck a little further. Fast food restaurants give you what you want to eat, cheap and fast. All firms are doing someone a favor (in the eyes of that someone) or they’d be out of business.

The company you work for is giving the gift of added value to someone. In some cases, the work you do for customers is profitable, and in other cases, it is not. The gift Journyx can give you is knowing the difference between the two.

- Curt Finch, Journyx CEO