KM that works — ASAP for Implementation roadmap updates

A quick KM win anecdote and kudos to my team.  The director who leads our methodology and enablement team drove a simple, but effective, effort to incorporate the conversation from our internal social media into our external-facing methodologies.  A new set of accelerators - samples, templates, and white papers - was published based on frequency analysis of [...]

Updated ASAP for Implementation Roadmap — WBS features

Back to business after a few less-than-serious posts….  The latest ASAP for Implementation roadmap (overview page here, NOTE: requires registration to service.sap.com) was recently updated to include consistent alignment and presentation of WBS elements.  The latest version of the roadmap is the culmination of several years of effort to harmonize the ASAP methodology’s treatment of [...]

Training and qualifying sponsors

For those who need to educate their sponsors, the approach of the UK’s Home Office might at least inspire your next efforts (here, the syllabus is here).  The content looks very meaty.
This approach may only work in the public sector — I’m not sure how many senior folks in my organization would sit still for [...]

Links — basic and advanced PM Glossaries

Developing a common vocabulary should be a key early milestone for any PMO initiative.  To that end, here are a couple of links that might help inspire the lexically-challenged among us:
Elizabeth at The Girl’s Guide to Managing Projects links to Tom Mochal’s short glossary of key PM terms at TechRepublic (here, PDF here).  It’s a one-pager of [...]

Calibrate estimation tools — Avoiding the Experience Trap

NOTE: 9th post of a series on an HBR article by Prof. Kishore Sengupta, et al on The Experience Trap.
Some interesting observations on the use of PM tools, with a specific focus on estimation.  It is a basic tenet of multivariate analysis to identify the variables most correlated with the desired answer — which implies that one [...]

Every project becoming a program?

As suggested by “The Experience Trap” series I’ve been running, in the very near future, the skills and competencies to lead future initiatives will be those of a program and portfolio manager. 
I’m not sure that the way we approach methodology is helping.  As an example, my local PMI chapter is sponsoring a speaker on Adaptive [...]

Reducing SAP implementation time/cost

A case study (here) and press release (here) about a quick, clean SAP Business All-In-One implementation at TomoTherapy.  What stands out about what worked?

Using SAP Best Practices as the baseline.  It makes it very easy when one can leverage a fully documented and functional prototype.
Using a partner willing to leverage SAP Best Practices.  It is instructive [...]

Hiring/Staffing Tools and Guidelines — Avoiding the Experience Trap

NOTE: 8th post of a series on an HBR article by Prof. Kishore Sengupta, et al on The Experience Trap.
While this point is more general — recommending project-focused decision tools and guidelines — I think PMs need to focus on the specific example given: the impact of staffing decisions.
When a manager makes several hires, there is a [...]

Static Estimation Practices — The Experience Trap

NOTE: 4th post of a series on an HBR article by Prof. Kishore Sengupta, et al on The Experience Trap.
Re-planning the iron triangle — resources, time, and scope — is essential as a project progresses.  One of the more surprising mistakes experienced project managers make is to accept the original estimate as given.
In software development, initial [...]

Process Models and Use Case co-existence

In a break from the KM roll I’ve been on, I see that Craig at Better Projects has dipped his toes into one of those religious debates: to use process models or use cases (here)?  SAP always has had a strong project process bias, but eSOA and custom development concept is forcing a shotgun marriage of the concepts.  [...]