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Issue 03/2007	www.pmpartners.com.au

The Soft Skills Are Really The Hard Skills!

By Narayan van de Graaff, PMPartners Senior Consultant

A few years ago, I delivered a presentation at a conference. Although the presentation topic was given to me, I was very comfortable with it. What was it? Simply: "The Three Reasons Why Projects Fail: People, People, and People!" As someone specialising in people skills training for the last 20 years, I could be accused of being biased if I had invented the title. I was therefore pleased that one of the partners who regularly teaches the 'hard skills' side of project management (planning, control, etc.) had given me this title relating to the 'soft skills'.

Since that time, I have often asked project management workshop participants if they think that the above statement is an exaggeration. Virtually without exception, they have agreed with its essence, citing their own experiences where people issues were the main cause of project failure. It's interesting to look at some recent research on why IT projects fail, carried out by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). What did the 1000 respondents cite as the top reason for failure? Quite simply, poor communication! About 28% of respondents stated this as the main cause. The other major reasons provided were:

insufficient resource planning (18%)
unrealistic schedules (13%)
poor project requirements (10%)
lack of stakeholder support (7%)
undefined project success criteria (5%)
unrealistic budget (5%)
inadequate planning (4%)
lack of change process (4%)
other (6%)

Some of these other reasons are often linked to poor communication or other people skills. For example, insufficient resource planning and/or unrealistic schedules may be due to the project manager not being assertive enough at the outset when pressured to accept unrealistic resources or schedules. Poor project requirements may be caused by inadequate listening skills or ineffective communication when extracting requirements from key stakeholders. A lack of stakeholder support all too often occurs when stakeholders are not kept in the loop from the outset of the project.

In addition, the change process usually neglects the people side of change management. Like it or not, people very often react with denial or resistance to major change. This isn't wrong. It is how we as humans typically deal with major change and uncertainty. As project managers, we are change agents. We therefore need to be aware of how humans typically deal with major change, and what can help them to more effectively embrace change.

The 5-day workshop Project Management for Business & IT Professionals run by PMPartners is one of the few courses that invests so much of its time on the 'soft skills'. In fact, 40% of the workshop is dedicated to key areas such as leadership, negotiation, conflict resolution, recruitment, assertiveness, empathy, effective communication, presentation skills, and performance management. Many of our clients are unaware that we also provide in-house workshops in these and other people skills areas.

One very successful programme manager once stated the 'soft' skills are really the hard skills, "because we humans are so complex, and you can't just learn these skills by reading a book." So if your team or organisation has a need for training in areas such as leadership, change management, managing time and stress, negotiation, conflict resolution, etc. why not give us a call? We have scores of satisfied clients who can testify that as well as our more regular training in project management and related areas, we do this extremely well too.

Great Feedback From PMPartners FIRST PM/BA Forum

The PMPartners inaugural Project Management & Business Analysis Forum was held at our Sydney Training Centre on Monday, 29 October 2007.

The forum was a great success with Tracey Copland giving guests the latest information on Program Management and the new certification from the PMI plus an explanation of the differences between the PMBOK framework and PRINCE2 Methodology and how to choose the best one for your future career direction. A Project Management Professional Development session was delivered by Steve Hewitson who updated guests on the latest developments and options available for Project Management Certification, and finally Jim Hughes presented sessions on the Project Management Office and Project Portfolio Management plus the future of Business Analysis in Australia.

Also, as part of PMPartners ongoing research into Australian Project, Program and Portfolio Management we asked the conference delegates the following questions:

What is their sector of operation
What is their role within their organisation
How many PMOs operate within their company
How long has their PMO been established
Does their PMO feed into a Portfolio Management Framework?
To what extent can your PMO make project decisions?

The following key observations were made from their answers:

The majority of conference delegates had no Project Management Office (PMO) in their organisation.
Consistent with international research, Australian PMOs have a high churn rate, frequently closing and/or restructuring (every 1-2 years).
Most Australian PMOs do not feed in to an organisational Portfolio Management Framework.
Most Australian PMOs have little authority to make project related decisions.

These findings confirm what many have long suspected: That the major challenge facing many Australian organisations today is they don't know if they are doing the right projects, and at the right time. The concepts and benefits of a PMO and a Portfolio Management Framework are gaining acceptance, but the introduction and maintenance of this project infrastructure is often poorly executed.

Research was also conducted during the Business Analysis Future Directions session, asking delegates What career options are open to Business Analysts in your company? This question is also open to voting for the public, the collated results will be published above in early December 2007.

The forum ended with an interesting and informative Panel Discussion where guests bought forward day-to-day challenges they face in their own project management or business analysis environment for other guests and PMPartners panel members to openly discuss.

Should you be interested in reviewing the presentations given on the day, please go to our website www.pmpartners.com.au and to the Whitepapers, Articles & Links section of the Client Connection section. At the top of the page you will find a folder containing PDF versions of the presentations you can download. Should you wish to see a full copy of the research results from the Poll taken at the Forum, please go to the Research section of the Client Connection section of the home page.

PMPartners are now planning their second forum, so if you have any suggestions with regards to topics or issues you would like to know more about, please email lisab@pmpartners.com.au

Heathrow Is Looking Good, But What About Wembley & The Olympics?

By Ray Mead, Director, PMPartners Southampton, UK

A lot has happened in the field of project management since PMPartners set up the UK office here in September 2005, and the story has mostly revolved around very large, high-profile projects which have brought project management into the public consciousness. Some successful, some not so successful, while others remain to be seen.

The first example that set the nation's tongue's wagging was the disastrous Wembley Stadium project. Given the importance England places on its national football team a higher-profile example is hard to find, yet the project was famously several years late, Ł180m over budget and drove the principle contractor, Multiplex, out of business. PMP-certified observers amongst us would no doubt cite this as an example of the risk involved in committing to delivery on a fixed-price contract.

The second example has been altogether more successful. On-time, on-budget and about to be launched, the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport owes its success to an end-to-end project management approach. The planning has been thorough, even allowing for a testing phase where hundreds of volunteers are being recruited to simulate a 'live' airport environment to identify potential problems or improvements.

A third major project which the press are following with great interest is the preparation for the London Olympic Games in 2012. Already it has been revealed that the contingency fund currently stands at a staggering Ł2.7 billion, greater than the cost of the originally planned total budget. Some cry poor planning, others good bid management. In a project where the timeline is an immovable constraint, building such risk into the budget could prove to be a masterstroke.

All this has continued to fuel a demand for project management training and awareness of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) and its associated Project Management Professional (PMP) credential is on the rise. However, the indigenous standard here is the method developed by the (British) Office of Government Commerce, PRINCE2. In a welcome move, the practitioner level exam has just been changed to more of a sophisticated multiple-choice format and this, together with Government efficiency improvement targets and the fact that the exam is now available in many different languages, should ensure the growth of this standard continues.

A New Face Brings Expansion to PMPartners

We are excited to announce that Phil Belcher has recently joined PMPartners. Phil will focus on business strategy, growth and direction for PMPartners with the execution of some major initiatives such as business expansion into other areas within Australia.

Phil has had an impressive career in leadership, general management, strategic marketing, sales management, business entrepreneurship and services including roles such as:

General Manager of Radware ANZ.
Managing Director of StorageTek Australia and New Zealand (subsequently acquired by Sun Microsystems)
Director, Cisco Enterprise Line of Business, Asia Pacific
Managing Director of Datacraft Australia and Executive Director on the Board of Datacraft Ltd

Additionally Phil joined the Board of the Box Hill Institute of Technology in Victoria in 2001 and is a member of the Audit Committee and the Board Executive Committee.

Phil has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Macquarie University, a Certificate of Technology (Electronics) and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

We welcome Phil to PMPartners and should you wish to contact him please email philipb@pmpartners.com.au or phone him on 0419 317 416.

Research Keeps PMPartners On Top Of Industry Trends

Every few months we post a Project, Program, Portfolio Management or Business Analysis related question/s on the PMPoll section of the PMPartners website so we can find out more about the opinions and experiences of the current Australian PM communities.

If you would like to look at our previous questions and their results, please click on Research in the Client Connection section of the home page.

If you would like to vote on one of our questions please go click on Vote On Regular Management Issues in the Client Connection Menu.

Business Analysis Is Booming!

On 7-8 August the PMPartners Business Analysis Practice Lead Jim Hughes spoke at the first Business Analyst World Symposium held in the southern hemisphere, to over 220 delegates. Jim's seminar Business Collaboration: Gaining Business Buy-In to Project Requirements was well received, and focused on a blend of new trends emerging in the BA profession plus practical tools, techniques and templates.

In addition to the conference being a great success, the first IIBA CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional) exam outside USA/UK was held, and Jim became the very first Australian to receive the CBAP award! PMPartners has led the way in bringing the CBAP to Australia, and a CBAP Exam Preparation course will be available in 2008.

In further BA developments, Chapter 7 of the BABOK (Business Analysis Body of Knowledge) has been upgraded to version 1.7 and a preview of BABOK v2.0 has been released.

For further information please contact the PMPartners Business Analysis Practice Lead, Jim Hughes, on 02 9267 2267.

PMNews:

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has confirmed that their new Programme Management credential (PgMP) became publicly available worldwide from 1 October 2007. To this end PMPartners have scheduled their first Program Management Essentials workshop for early 2008. This workshop explores what is involved in achieving strategic goals through program management and defines the role and responsibility of the program manager and the responsibilities for inter-project coordination, management of project benefits, stakeholder management and governance. The workshop is based on the newly released Standard for Program Management, a PMI global Standard© 2006 and is aligned to the requirements of the Advanced Diploma of Project Management (AQF6) for programme managers (BSB60904). To obtain more information about this workshop please have a look at our Program Management Essentials workshop outline.

PMPartners are also pleased to announce a new 1 day PRINCE2 Overview workshop which is specifically designed for executives, managers and people who contribute to projects wanting to gain a high level understanding of PRINCE2 and the main processes and terminology used. For more information on what is contained in the one day workshop please have a look at the PRINCE2 Overview workshop outline.

You might not know that PMPartners can offer your organisation Training Credits. The benefits of purchasing training credits are that you can obtain discounts on a wide variety of our project management and business analysis public training courses, or even use them for customised onsite courses or coaching services. The credits can be redeemed at any one of PMPartners Training Centres throughout Australia including Clarence Street, Sydney; Collins Street, Melbourne; Eagle Street, Brisbane; Moore Street, Canberra and St Georges Terrace, Perth. For more information please email info@pmpartners.com.au or phone 02 9267 2267.

PMPartners are offering special discounts on our January public training workshops including our 5 day Business Analysis: Effective Requirements for Successful Projects (21-25 January, Sydney), our 5 day Project Management for Business & IT Professionals (14-18 January, Sydney) and our 2 day Project Management Fundamentals workshop (22-23 January, Sydney). For more information please email info@pmpartners.com.au or phone 02 9267 2267.

ITIL Foundation Certification version 3 has reached Australia's shores and PMPartners have integrated the V3 course outline into their 3 day ITIL Foundation Certificate workshop. The biggest change from V2 is a shift from what was a process based framework to a life-cycle based process, which gives organisations the opportunity to make continuous improvements to the way their run their IT services. PMPartners have scheduled a February workshop for Sydney and March workshops for Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, so for more information please email info@pmpartners.com.au or phone 02 9267 2267.

Did you know that you can earn PDU's (Professional Development Units) from the majority of PMPartners Public Training Courses. The points vary from 7 right up to 42 so if you need to collect some PDU's why not consider some training from PMPartners!

If you have any interesting articles or whitepapers with a Project Management focus you would like to contribute to future editions of the PMPartners Quarterly newsletter please contact lisab@pmpartners.com.au or phone 0400 816 137.

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