Valis Houston Acacia PM Consulting Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved.1 Presented to ASEE – Dallas SPIN

Agenda Introduction to Scuba Prepare to Dive! (Planning) Breathing Underwater (Execution) How much oxygen is left? How far away is the surface? (Metrics) When swimming with really big ugly scary Sharks (Risk Management) But there’s an “I” in “Dive buddy” (Team Dynamics) Becoming a Dive Master (Leadership and being a better PM) Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 2

Introduction to Scuba SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) Physical Limitations Things that can go wrong Why do it? Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 3

Prepare to Dive! (Planning) General--later, President--Dwight Eisenhower put it, “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.” Use Historical information from past projects to assist in the planning of your projects Know your boundaries / constraints Situational Personal/team Include team members in the creation of tasks/schedule Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 4

Prepare to Dive! (Planning) Gain commitment and ensure that the person doing the work has an understanding of tasks Communication Agree beforehand on methods of communication for stakeholders Stakeholders => not just the project team, but impacted departments, end users, “THE” person responsible for project funding, etc. Standardization Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 5

Breathing Underwater (Execution) Manage pieces of the project (work packages) instead of attempting to manage the entire project at once Immediately resolve issues / clear your team’s path of obstacles Scope change is difficult to manage mid-stream. The later the changes come, the greater the confusion & impact. Anticipate late changes! Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 6

Breathing Underwater (Execution) PM should ask questions, but spend more time listening to your team! Make notes of what happened … what happened well and what can be improved upon in the future Keep the goals of the project in sight for ALL decisions Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 7

How much oxygen is left? (Metrics) Reactive (Historical) metrics – after a problem has occurred Proactive/Predictive metrics – Performance Management (EVM) – allows you to foresee the problem coming and act accordingly via extrapolation Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 8

Metrics Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 9

Metrics Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 10

Metrics Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 11

How far away is the surface? (Metrics) Doesn’t need to be called Earned Value. Stakeholders and team members are not impressed with PM lingo Purpose is to QUICKLY highlight a problem Then perform Root-cause analysis (Fish-bone diagrams) Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 12

When swimming with really big ugly scary Sharks (Risk Management) Unclear dependencies (beware the empty white spaces on the Org chart) Do not ignore Uncertainty Know each Risk’s trigger and contingency plan Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 13

But there’s an “I” in “Dive buddy” (Team Dynamics) Limit the number of simultaneous tasks that an individual is working on Develop leaders and mentors within your team People are the key to the success of your project Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 14

But there’s an “I” in “Dive buddy” (Team Dynamics) Resources are limited. Over-allocating (above 100%) is probably a bad thing. High degree of cooperation and collaboration People are the key to the success of your project Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 15

Becoming a Dive Master (Leadership and becoming a better PM) Empowerment – Does not tell people how to do their jobs Sets a tone of trust, high expectations and enjoyment Has high expectations of themselves and their team Leads by example (makes things happen) Able to cope with constantly changing conditions Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 16

Becoming a Dive Master (Leadership and being a better PM) Gain experience – challenging projects Get certified – PMP, 6 sigma Find a mentor Be a mentor/teacher Volunteer – Be active in your profession Read / Webinars Never stop learning Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 17

Q & A Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 18

Footnotes Scuba diving, Wikipedia, ue_to_changes_in_air_pressure ue_to_changes_in_air_pressure Dwight D. Eisenhower Quotes, Brainyquote, ht_d_eisenhower.html ht_d_eisenhower.html Copyright 2008 Acacia PM Consulting. All rights reserved. 19