The key to success is excellent project management

The Franchise Magazine's article, "The key to success is excellent project management" reports that, first-rate organisational skills and an entrepreneurial spirit are the key attributes needed to become a successful franchise owner.

But knowing how to handle these skills and spirit are the keys to actually moving forward with the franchise. Successful implementation of processes and best practices will help the fledgling business become successful.

The article in The Franchise Magazine, tells the success story of Yannis Nicolaidis who joined a franchise and succeeded, we encourage you to read his story.

What Is the Main Benefit of Writing Test Cases?

Blogger Pawel Brodzinski writes in his post today, test cases for application functionality are the same as unit tests for application code. Except of one thing: it is way harder to write good and complete list of test cases. You may safely assume that’s impossible. This means the main value of test cases isn’t in covering full application functionality because you simply won’t achieve that, no matter how hard you try.

Read the rest of his post here.

What do you think are the benefits of writing test cases with project management? Do they waste time or save time? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

Five clues that your project is headed for trouble

Paul Glen of Computerworld.com, analyzes the five early warning signs that your project may be in trouble of cancellation. According to Glen, in these tough financial times its easy to blame the economy on the cancellation of so many projects; however, if you take proactive steps to make sure that your project solid and properly executed, you and your team may avoid getting your work axed.

Glen writes,

Here are five early warning signs that your project is in trouble:

1. Management direction is inconsistent or missing. If project leadership has gone AWOL, chances are that things are starting to go in a bad direction. Or, even worse, if the directives you get from management (or feel compelled to give if you are management) change frequently, there's a problem. If a project either lacks direction or can't maintain a reasonably consistent course, it's unlikely to get to any desirable destination.

2. Project management and business management seem disconnected. Even if a project does get consistent direction, if that direction seems to be at odds with business management's desires, there's a problem brewing. In political battles between IT and business management, business management usually wins, even if it takes a while. I don't hear too many stories about the great political triumphs of IT managers over their users or clients.

3. The team lacks a commitment to clearly articulated and commonly understood goals. Every project has a goal or two. They may be clearly stated or only vaguely discussed, but it's rare for any business to shell out lots of money for something that genuinely has no purpose. That said, it's common to presume that the purpose of a project is so obvious as to not be worth articulating. That's unfortunate. It typically leads to misunderstandings and inconsistent presumptions about priorities. Eventually, poor and inconsistent tactical decisions undermine project progress.

4. Team members don't listen to one another. Even when teams get along personally, team members don't always listen well to one another. This tends to lead to chaos as people fail to coordinate activities and make the compromises necessary to enable projects to move ahead.

5. The team is in a state of discord. Teams sometimes break into competing camps. These can form around honest-to-goodness differences over project direction. They can also form over petty loyalties and personality clashes. Sometimes teams just descend into chaos, with multiple factions or an every-person-for-himself ethos. The state of discord is destructive to progress. It needs to be rooted out. Sometimes, as a manager, you can engineer a reconciliation. Other times, you need to pick winners and losers.

PW&WCBA June 2009 Speaker Profile: Asif Ahmad

Asif Ahmad
VP Diagnostic Services & CIO,
Duke University Health
System & Duke University
Medical Center

Asif Ahmad is vice president for Diagnostic Services and chief information officer for Duke University Health System and Duke University Medical Center. He provides leadership, direction, and strategic planning for the information technology staff and functions in support of the Health System. Through his leadership the Health System’s diverse technology resources have been united in name and spirit under the moniker Duke Health Technology Solutions (DHTS). As the Vice President Diagnostic Services he is responsible for developing the overall strategy of diagnostic support for DUHS, these services include Radiology and Clinical Labs/Pathology. Mr. Ahmad also provides leadership and direction over medical technology and clinical engineering. Additionally, Mr. Ahmad is responsible for overseeing the Health Information Management group for the health system.

Mr. Ahmad earned a double bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and telecommunications at the University of Engineering and Technology of Lahore, Pakistan, and earned an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and an M.B.A. at the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. He came to Duke by way of The Ohio State University Health System where he received the highest national award for excellence in computerization of the patient record - The Nicholas E. Davies Award. He and DUHS were profiled by InformationWeek magazine in their September 2005 issue as 500 top innovators in the IT Industry (1 of 42 in Healthcare). He also received the 2001, 2002 and 2005 Most Wired Health System Award, which awards the top 100 hospitals nationally, and the 2002 Innovator Award, American Hospitals Association for excellence in wireless and online patient care workflow. He is a board member of the National Alliance Health Information Technology.

For more information about the June 2009 event, please visit our website.

Gopal Kapur: Six Secrets to Information Technology Project Management Success

We recently ran across this article by Gopal Kapur on GovTech.com that discusses the secrets to information technology project management success. Kapur has six specific secrets that will enable project managers to effectively complete their assignments. According to Kapur,

In the case of CIOs, success is defined as ensuring that IT projects are aligned with agency needs, scuttling half-baked and harebrained ideas, formulating a well balanced and robust project portfolio, accomplishing cross-boundary collaboration, ensuring effective project sponsorship, and completing a project on time and within budget and to the client's satisfaction.

Read Kapur's original article here. Do you have any other secrets of success? We'd like to hear your thoughts.

PMO value to a mid-sized organization – Charanya Girish

Editor’s Note: This issue is brought written by Charanya Girish. Charanya is the Director, Project Management at MESSA (Michigan Special Services Assoc.). She is a certified PMP with over 17 years experience in Project & Program Mgmt and PMOs. She is a member of the PMIGLC Advanced Topics Seminar team, WiPM and the Communications team, PMO SIG. Thanks, Charanya!


A disciplined approach to project execution is recognized as an essential factor for project success in organizations, large and small. The steady growth of Project Management Offices (PMOs) over the last few years in mid-sized enterprises proves that these businesses recognize the value Project Management (PM) can provide.

PMOs come in different flavors depending on their authority and the projects under their purview. At one book-end is the PMO that only provides methodology support for project managers. On the other end they have significant authority over prioritization and management of projects. Mid–sized organizations often do not have deep pockets and so will benefit from a PMO that is more than a mere methodology support arm. A three layered approach proposed below ensures enduring success for the organization.

In the formative stage, it is best to start with a conservative approach with the PMO as the owner of PM standards and methodology. Repeatable best practices are built up over time so that more successful projects flow through to the bottom line, helping build a strong foundation for future phases.

In the second phase the focus is on Project & Portfolio management (PPM) where the department serves as a source of information on all projects contained in the portfolio. The PMO now becomes a bi-faceted department and has to build a strong governance structure to select, prioritize and monitor project investments. Rigorous change control procedures are put in place with a watchful eye on risk and issue management. Metrics tracking takes place for the portfolio and the information is disseminated among all the stake holders. Thresholds are established to determine which projects need to be monitored by the PMO. The portfolio need not track smaller projects as strict adherence to methodology in its entirety for such projects can be an over kill. Thus as a portfolio manager this Office ensures the methodology is adhered to, projects selected have strong business value and well thought-out plans with committed resources.
The third step is part of an emerging trend that positions the PMO as an entity that influences the strategic direction of the enterprise, while continuing its traditional focus on PPM and methodology. In such circumstances the PMO helps align projects to corporate goals through an integrated enterprise project management process. These set of processes enables the Enterprise Governance Board to accelerate, delay or terminate projects so that the portfolio stays continuously aligned to corporate objectives. The PMO helps in organizational change management by setting up procedures that enable the business units to implement the organization's business strategies.
Realizing benefits from such a transformation is not an overnight phenomenon. Each organization differs in its willingness and ability to adapt to change. Returns can be quantifiable over time by reduction in rework and project life cycles coupled with improved quality. Many establishments have little patience for the alterations a PMO ushers in and initial reactions can be heart breaking, despite strong senior management support. The temptation to do a ‘big bang’ change in a short time should be resisted unless the organization can handle it. Applying the right change leadership steps and having a realistic timeline ensures long term success. Such an evolution makes sure the PMO becomes a powerful catalyst for fostering innovation and delivering value to the enterprise.

What Software Does a Business Analyst Need?

Recently ran across a blog post that outlines the software that's imperative for Business Analysts to use or forget when going for a job or trying to keep the job that they currently hold. Kingsley Tagbo writes, he core business analyst skill sets does not really include software skills. However, in the current job market, IT Managers are cutting costs by hiring business analysts with specific software skills. Traditionally, business analysts have had to learn the specific software used by a business after they get hired. Tagbo also outlines what the current environment is like for Business Analysts. Check out the blog post here. What software is a must have for Business Analysts? Do you agree with Tagbo?

Project management forum

Are you looking for a place to collaborate for your project management online? Making Project Management Better has recently posted a list of free websites you can utilize for your management. Find out more about these at the MPMB web site.

1. allPM.com
2. gantthead.com
3. Project Management Knowledge Base
4. Professional Project Managers Networking Group
5. Tek-Tips Project Management Forum
6. ICPM Project Manager’s Forum

Dr. Firas Abouzaki talks about project management

In a recent interview at Business Today, Dr. Firas Abouzaki talks about his role in project management and how it has grown. He also looks at how it has changed over the years. For the complete article, read here.

When asked what was the future in project management, he responded:
I envisage a growth in demand. There will probably be such a great demand that as a standard requirement - every professional in the industry will be required to be certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP), or similar.