ProjectNews - Keep it Simple to be Successful

I remember when Air Mail was the only option for sending mail quickly. Today, we communicate with a few keystrokes and the push of a button. Digital communication, such as email, instant messaging and texting allow us to stay connected and get things done quickly. But do communication devices help or hinder our business relationships?

Today's business landscape requires us to communicate with team members and business partners who are spread across town, the country, or around the world, raising new challenges for maintaining healthy, productive relationships.

Here are four simple email practices to keep virtual relationships focused and productive:

1. Be Concise. Do not make the message longer than it needs to be. Keep to the 1-minute rule. If your reader can't get through your message in 60 seconds, you are likely to lose his or her attention.

2. Deliver Quality. Use proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation; errors will discredit you in a heartbeat.

3. Use Structure. Since reading from a screen (and especially a tiny device) is more difficult than reading from paper, structure is very important. Use succinct sentences and short paragraphs.

4. Be Emotionally Clear. Email does not convey emotions as well as face-to-face or telephone interactions. Are you serious, kidding, frustrated, or euphoric? Always re-read your email before hitting the "send" button to make sure it represents your tone.

Need to capture someone's attention immediately? Send a text message. It commands attention and produces results. Texting is the only way I get the attention of my teenagers these days - imagine the possibilities in business!

Keep it simple to be successful.

Now its time for you to join the conversation - Share your ideas, suggestion and thoughts on what the successful project manager looks like on our LIVE discussion on LinkedIn.

Contributor: Lisa DiTullio (Lisa DiTullio & Associates)

If you have not yet subscribed to our complimentary ProjectNews newsletter, please click on the following link to subscribe: http://www.iirusa.com/optin. To catch up on old issues, or learn more about our PWWCBA conference, click here.

Researching Requirements?

Yesterday, the 2010 Project World and World Congress for Business Analysts webinar series presented "Better Requirements through Better Requirements Validation" featuring Tony Higgins, VP of Product Marketing at Blueprint Software Systems.

For a glimpse at some of the content covered in the presentation, check out this video Blueprint Software Systems uploaded to youtube previewing one of their products.



You can also read a great blog post from Tony Higgins here. In this post he addresses some of the same topics that were covered in the webinar. For example, moving beyond text documents to describe your requirements through images or models. A key takeaway from both the webinar and this post can be found in the following quote:

"using diagrams tends to be far more expressive than using text-only, helping people expose errors in the requirements early and improve communication."

For access to our exclusive year-round learning webinar series, join us this Fall at ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts® 2011.

Within one conference package, you'll get a pass to the annual PW&WCBA November event plus exclusive access to a networking community and on-demand webinars, to help you grow and learn throughout the year.

To learn more, download the 2011 brochure here, or register for the event here. Save 15% off the standard rate as a reader of our blog with code PW11BLOG.

Plus, follow us on twitter for updates @Project_World.

The 2011 ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business Analysts Program is Unveiled

We are excited to announce your exclusive preview of the 2011 program and full speaker roster for ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts®. PW&WCBA will deliver exactly what you need to accelerate success and create value for your organization.

This year's theme pays particular attention to accelerating core leadership competencies. In the wake of all revolutionary change - there's a clear need to elevate the discipline from manager to definitive leader. That's exactly what the event is built to do.

Join us November 14-16 at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando, FL. Download the brochure for full event details.

ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts® 2011, Transforming a Role: Accelerate Core Leadership Competencies, November 14-16, 2011, Orlando, FL

Earn up to 36 PDUs/CDUs with one pass
Featured speakers include:

• • Peter Guber, Founder & CEO, Mandalay Entertainment & Author of best-selling book Tell to Win
• • Carlos Dominguez, SVP, Office of the Chairman and CEO, Cisco
• • Brett Roberts, Senior Project Investment and Change Management Manager, The Boeing Company
• • Terri Dickson, PMP, Program Manager, External Mandates & Compliance Implementation, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield
• • Special Presentation by The Disney Institute, The "Magic" Behind Great Teamwork: Disney's Approach to People Management
• • And more - Download the brochure for the full speaker line-up and complete agenda.

The Content Has Been Organized to Help You Achieve More:
• From Project Manager to Project Leader
• Mastering the BA Role
• The New Era of Social Communication, Leadership & Collaboration
• Tools, Techniques & Trends
• Advancing Your PMO
• Adopting & Implementing Agile Practices
• Being an Evangelist for Portfolio Management
• Enterprise Business Analysis - Moving from Tactical to Strategic
• The Risk of Ignoring Culture in Projects
And don't miss pre-conference activities, workshops and summits, including a newly expanded all-day Agile Summit with breakout options for all maturity levels, the Advanced PMO Summit and all-day topic intensive workshops for the BA & PM.

PLUS - Earn up to 36 PDUs/CDUs and master the people, leadership and facilitator techniques you need to succeed. Download the brochure for the complete program.

Register now to secure your spot and receive an exclusive 15% discount off the standard rate as a reader of our blog with code PW11BLOG.

We look forward to seeing you in Orlando this November!
All the best,
The ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts Team
Visit the ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts webpage
Follow us on Twitter.

How do you develop openness to change?

Encountering resistance to change within your company?

Check out this great video produced as part of Fast Company's 30-Second MBA program featuring Mark Langley President and CEO of Project Management Institute.

An ongoing video “curriculum” of advice from the trenches from business leaders, the 30-Second MBA series is a treasure trove of quick, inspirational ideas.

The gem in this video? "Change happens, and it's going to happen with you or without you."

Agile Resources Abound

Are you thinking of pursuing the new Project Management Institute - Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) certification?

I recently came across two great resources for those looking to build their body of Agile knowledge.

Find an excellent reading list and a great visualization of what is expected to be on the PMI-ACP exam on InfoQ here.

Plus, Agile Scout recently compiled a top 200 list of the best Agile blogs. Ranked by content and influence, this list is truly worth checking out.

What resources have you been turning to in researching Agile certification?

The 2011 ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts® conference will provide more information about the new PMI-ACP certification. Opt-in for updates as they become available here.

New York City's CityTime Project

In our most recent issue of the ProjectNews newsletter, we explored New York City's CityTime Project. The original goal for the NYC CityTime project was to streamline the timekeeping system for public employees, making the government accountable for its employees and prevent employees from getting paid for time not spent working.

The project was estimated to cost the city $68 million and be completed within 5 years, however the project has now cost over $740 million.

Meanwhile, this article in the Wall Street Journal acknowledges that "To date, 163,388 employees in more than 60 agencies are now on the electronic payroll system," progress that some are seeing as a victory for the beleaguered project.

In that same article Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith "said the administration 'learned some valuable lessons' and plans in the comings weeks to release a report that details how the city will better manage these types of IT projects."

While we wait to see the results of that report, share your own experiences and ideas. Have you ever worked on a project that ran far over budget and time estimates? What lessons were learned in the process?

View ProjectNews and other industry resources here.

Playing Games With Your Team?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of moderating one of the Project World and World Congress for Business Analysts year-long learning web seminars. Our speaker of the day Peter Saddington (better known to those in the twitter world as @agilescout) was discussing key characteristics of an agile project owner.

As part of his presentation he mentioned the merits of playing games to get to know and better understand your project team. Two resources he pointed to for finding appropriate games for this were TastyCupcakes.org and GoGameStorm.com.

Have you ever turned towards interactive experiences like this to get to know a project team or work though a problem? What was the result? What game did you use? If not, looking at the two websites above, would you ever consider using this technique?

Share with us in the comments!

Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a specialization in marketing. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com. Follow tweets from her and the rest of the Project World team @Project_World.

Incorporate the Cloud into Your Business Processes

As new technologies continue to dominate the workplace, especially in the areas of IT & Project Management, it is important to make sure your procedures and processes can efficiently support these new technologies. Let's take a look at what to watch out for when launching the cloud in your business.

1. Test Your Applications - Software developers have found that applications they have been using don't always translate over well to the cloud.
2. The Cloud Isn't for Every Application - Some organizational applications just weren't made to run off of a cloud platform. Most notably so are those that have extreme security restrictions or those that have an intense level of coding.
3. Unfamiliarity to the Cloud - Don't expect an overnight transition, especially from organizations who are leery of disruptive technology.
4. It's Still a New Technology - Cloud computing adaptation is slow-moving and there is a lack of documentation and best practices available for newbies. When sharing is increased, doubt and insecurity with the platform should diminish and cloud users should increase.
5. Network Issues in the Cloud - While working in a private cloud be sure to schedule time for necessary upgrades and maintenance. Plus, don't forget about the unscheduled maintenance that will need to occur. It is important to note that all applications may not be available all of the time.
6. Resource Waste in the Cloud - Software developers may forget to 'turn off' running applications and processes while working virtually, which can lead to an expensive error.
7. Limitations from Licensing - Be sure to take note of the licensing agreements from the applications you will be running, especially from the non-technical side.
8. Troubleshooting the Integration - Integrating new applications with the existing applications in your processes in the cloud may result in challenges. One way to minimize issues is to use the cloud providers API.
9. Updates to the Cloud - As technology changes it becomes necessary to update your organization's cloud to ensure effective performance. It is important to have a team that can measure and try to predict the evolution of the cloud to remain effective.

Are you using the cloud in your business processes? Join the conversation and share your ideas, suggestions and thoughts through LIVE discussion on LinkedIn.

Conclusions based on the article, "Cloud Development: 9 Gotchas to Know Before You Jump in" from www.cio.com.
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Your contributions are welcome!
We are always interested in hearing about new best practices, case studies or lessons learned. If you are interested in sharing your story in the next ProjectNews, please submit your ideas to projectworld@iirusanews.com.
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Stay Tuned for More Information -
ProjectWorld & The World Congress for Business Analysts 2011
November 14-16, 2011| Disney's Contemporary Resort, Orlando, FL
Interested in speaking at this year's conference? Click here for details.

Be sure to visit www.projectworld.com for tools, articles, templates and event updates. Follow us on twitter @Project_World.

Put Social At the Core of Your B2B Business: Process, Operations, Analysis

In association with Marketo's Revenue Masters Webinar Series, The Institute for International Research invites you to join us for a complimentary web seminar.

The Social Business AGENDA:
Tackling the Top 2011 Trends for Competitiveness
Sandy Carter, Vice President,
IBM Social Businesses and Collaboration Solution Sales and Evangelism, IBM

Thursday, April 28th, 2011 1:00 - 1:45 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now, register here.

Social Media has come a long way from the early days of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. With over 574 million people worldwide on Facebook, 106 million with Twitter accounts, and over 2 billion YouTube videos, how do you leverage this power and stay ahead of your competition?

You need to create a bold social media AGENDA for your business.

Hear from Sandy Carter, Vice President, IBM Social Businesses and Collaboration Solution Sales and Evangelism, on how to create a Social Business AGENDA. Using many case study examples, Ms. Carter will show how to build an AGENDA that aligns organizational goals while driving experiences and engagements through your business processes, utilizing crowdsourcing, communities, disaster recovery and analytics to leverage Social Business for greater results in 2011.

Learn how to:
A - Align Organizational Goals & Culture
G - Gain "Friends" Through Social Trust
E - Engage through Experiences
N - Network Your Business Processes
D - Design for Reputation and Risk Management
A - Analyze Your Data

Plus, attend for a chance to win 1 of 2 copies of Sandy Carter's acclaimed book, The New Language of Marketing 2.0: How to Use ANGELS to Energize Your Market

This web seminar is sponsored by:





Title: The Social Business AGENDA: Tackling the Top 2011 Trends for Competitiveness
Date: Thursday, April 28th, 2011
Time: 1:00 - 1:45 PM EDT

Register Now. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Challenge: How can you make a great first impression during a networking event?

Guest contributor, Lisa DiTullio, shares her suggestions and tips for making the most of your 2 second best impression.

I recently met Ann at a networking event, her name tag read "DIVA". It didn't take long during my brief exchange with the DIVA to form a first impression - not long at all. In fact, according to Malcolm Gladwell, we are able to size someone up in just two seconds - it's the power of our adaptive unconscious. In recognition of Malcolm Gladwell's book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, let's celebrate the power of the glance.

When encountering someone new, first impressions count. This is particularly true when networking with others - you want to leave a positive, memorable impact when meeting for the first time. Through observation and measurement you can improve your presence and connection - ideally to leverage the encounter for lasting value.

Think about your first contact with someone. Do you exhibit the following qualities to make you stand out and be remembered in a positive manner?

1. Confident: Do you inspire others? Do you speak in a sure way? Are you poised and level-headed?
2. Credible: Do you have expertise and can you be trusted? How often can you persuade others?
3. Capable: Do you have what it takes to get the job done? Are you an efficient, effective and expert in your field?
4. Calm: Do you remain unruffled during turbulent times?
5. Clean: Do you have a neat appearance? Can you speak in plain language; get right to the point; present fresh ideas?
6. Charisma: Can you use your personal being, rather than speech or logic alone, to interact with others in a real and meaningful way?
7. Connections: Do you establish lasting relationships?

Everything you do during the first 2 seconds of an interaction speaks volumes, especially your actions:

• Do you maintain direct eye contact during dialogue?
• What do you do with your hands when you communicate?
• Do you face the other person in an "open" pose?
• Can you stand still? Do you jiggle your feet, your knee, or your leg?
• Are you aware of your facial expressions?
• How's the pitch of your voice? Do you speak clearly?

Bring a buddy to the next networking event. Ask your pal to observe you from a distance - solicit honest feedback when the event is over - How did you do? What did you do? Focus on a few improvement opportunities and try again, but make it quick.

Now its time for you to join the conversation - Share your ideas, suggestions and thoughts on what the successful project manager looks like on our discussion on LinkedIn.

Contributor: Lisa DiTullio (Lisa DiTullio & Associates)

ProjectWorld & The World Congress for Business Analysts will take place November 14-16, 2011 at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando, FL. Interested in speaking at this year's conference? Click here for details.
Be sure to visit www.projectworld.com for tools, articles, templates and event updates.

CALL FOR PRESENTERS: ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts® 2011

As a reader of the ProjectWorld & The World Congress for Business Analysts blog, the Institute for International Research invites you to submit a proposal to present at the 2011 ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts® conference. Papers are being accepted on a rolling basis, we suggest you submit your proposal as early as possible. The event will take place November 14-16, 2011 at Disney's Contemporary Resort in Orlando, FL.

About this unique event:
PW&WCBA is the industry's year round resource for gaining cutting-edge insights through C-Level case studies & corporate best practice presentations, exclusive Web Seminars, Learning Labs, including the Annual PMO Forum and the Annual Portfolio Management Forum.

Who and what are we looking for?
Experienced corporate practitioners, industry experts and qualified facilitators sharing innovative case studies, techniques and templates that attendees can implement as soon as they get back to the office. Each presentation should demonstrate at least three tangible takeaways. We are looking for high caliber, unbiased, industry speakers sharing real stories from within the trenches.

Please note: Decisions will be based on the alignment of the content with the 2011 agenda content, feedback from the event advisors as well as on industry recognition and/or personal references. We expect our speakers to move beyond the fundamentals.

We expect our speakers to move beyond the fundamentals.
2011 Presentation Topic Areas include, but are not limited to:

• What's New in Agile?
• Agile, Tools and Metric Tracking
• Cloud Risk: Managing the Risk and Rewards of Cloud Computing
• Defining and Developing the Next Generation of PMs
• Improving the Value of Your PMO
• IT Portfolio Management
• Soft Leadership Skills
• Risk Management
• Building Program Management Expertise
• Motivating Teams and Increasing Team Performance
• Creating a Center of Excellence (Both BA and/or PM)
• Demonstrating the Current Value of Project Management and Business Analysis to Your Organization
• Career Paths for the BA and PM - Where Do You Go After 5 Years?
• Using Six Sigma and LEAN to Improve Project Management
• Requirements Management and Communication
• Funding Models in a Tight Financial Market
• Leading Global Teams
• Change Management
• Reading Verbal and Non-Verbal Cues
• Virtual Engagement
• Lightweight Project Management Tools vs. Heavyweight
• Enterprise Analysis
• Enterprise Architecture
• The Mechanics of Business Process Modeling
• Negotiation Skills for Dealing with Suppliers
• Improved Elicitation Techniques
• Developing Excellent Scoping Skills
• Agile Project Management
• A Systematic Approach to Increase Business Process Performance
• Improving Service Levels with Your Stakeholders
• Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring
• Developing a PM Toolkit: The Essentials
• Implementing a Portfolio Management
• Risk Management
• Estimating and Identification of Requirements
• Business Rules: An Important Technique to Capture and Discover What You Need
• Green Practices for the PM and BA
• Getting the Benefits of Consolidating, But Without Doing So
• The Current and Future State of the BA
• Identify and Retain the Best and the Brightest
• Agile: Governance and Decision-Making
• Sustainable Portfolio Management Practices
• Development Techniques that are Flexible and Responsive
• SOA Governance
• Integrating the Business Architecture with Human Performance

BONUS: In addition to the exposure and honor of being a speaker, speakers will also receive FREE admission to the conference, access to the post-conference web seminar series as well as any pre-conference activities ($3,000+ value).

How to Get Accepted:
Priority will be given to presentations that highlight NEW case studies on pushing beyond the PMBOK and BABOK, presenting new skills, techniques and best practices for today's PM and BA worlds. ONLY corporate/client-side speaker will be considered. If you are a consultant, solution provider, technology provider, analyst or consultant, please see sponsorship/exhibit section below.

Interested in sponsoring or exhibiting?
If you are a vendor or solution provider and are interested in showcasing your organization's expertise - Please contact Jon Saxe, Senior Business Development Manager at jsaxe@iirusa.com or 646-895-7467 for more information.

If you were not selected to present and are a vendor or solution provider, you may qualify for additional speaking opportunities available through sponsorship.

CALL FOR PRESENTERS:
For consideration, please e-mail apowers@iirusa.com with the following information by Friday, April 1, 2011:
• Proposed speaker name, job title, and company name
• Contact information including address, telephone and e-mail
• Title of Presentation (one line, benefit focused)
• A brief summary of content to be delivered (no more than 75 words), followed by 3 bullet points of what the audience will gain from your presentation (key audience takeaways)
• Previous conference speaking opportunities for the last 3 years
• Short bio of speaker (50-75 words)
• Two references with contact information

NOTE: If your proposal is selected, portions of this submission will be printed in the brochure.

Additional Details:
• Commercialism and self-promotion are NOT permitted or tolerated. If this happens, you will NOT be invited to return as a speaker.
• Travel, lodging and other expenses are the responsibility of the speaker.

Thank you for your interest in PW&WCBA.
All the best,

The ProjectWorld & The World Congress for Business Analysts Team
ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts webpage
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Project_World

What Happens When A Project Fails?

We might not want to acknowledge it, but failure happens. Goals sometimes don't get met, time-lines slip, projects fall apart. How do you react when faced with failure? And as a leader, how do you prevent small failures from snowballing into a completely failed project.

This blog post on the Harvard Business Review caught my eye as a unique illustration of the different ways people deal with failure.

In the post author and Bregman Partners, Inc. CEO Peter Bregman writes:

Most of us miss that. Typically, when people fail, we blame them. Or teach them. Or try to make them feel better. All of which, paradoxically, makes them feel worse. It also prompts defensiveness as an act of self-preservation. (If I'm not okay after a failure, I'd better figure out how to frame this thing so it's not my failure.)

Who hasn't been there? Or on the receiving end? It's a natural instinct to try and distance oneself from failure in a business situation, but a good leader needs to take a step back, evaluate, and decide what their team needs in each case. Is this the time for cutting losses? Learning a lesson? Or simply practicing acceptance.

What skills and practices do you employ when dealing with the failure of a project? What failures have you faced, and how have you put things back on track?

ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts 2011

It may seem like the distant future, but ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts is beginning to gear back up for 2011. The Call For Presenters is now open, so submit your proposals as soon as possible.

In the months to come, what are some topics you would like to see covered here on the Project World blog? Potential topics for the 2011 conference that we would like to touch on in the next several months include:
• Agile
• Cloud Computing
• IT Portfolio Management
• Motivating Teams and Increasing Team Performance
• Demonstrating the Current Value of Project Management and Business Analysis to Your Organization
• Developing a PM Toolkit
and more. Visit the ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts website for more ideas.

What is missing? What topics are you most excited to hear about? Would you be interested in contributing to the Project World blog? Let us know in the comments, or email me at mleblanc@iirusa.com.

A Place for Face-To-Face Meetings?

Last week I was thinking about computing in the cloud, and even today I was pulling files off of Basecamp for another project. However, being in the events business, buzz on The Harvard Business Review and The Economist blogs about the value of face to face meetings definitely pulled me back down to earth.

When you're managing a project, how important do you feel face to face meetings are? Additionally, where do you place the value of networking events and conferences in contrast to online networking or webinars?

On The Harvard Business Review blog, Stephen Greer writes

"The most important aspect of these meetings is that they weren't blaming sessions. We shared successes and best practices — and learned from challenges."

To me, that is often the value of attending conferences, the opportunity to be inspired by thought leaders and peers, and also to share best practices and experiences. You might learn as much or more sharing "war stories" (and successes!) during a networking event or over coffee between sessions as you do during the sessions themselves. Similarly, inspiration may strike or your team may gel during the down time of a face to face meeting in a way that just isn't possible during a con call or by email.

Where do you stand? Would you just as soon save the networking for twitter? Or are you looking for some face time?

Computing in The Cloud: Where To Begin?

Today on the Project_World twitter feed I couldn’t help but notice a number of people tweeting about “Planio”—a cloud based collaboration and project management tool. It’s hard to say with twitter sometimes which of those tweets may have been sponsored, but it still got my attention.

Regardless of industry, more and more companies are looking towards cloud-based solutions like this for collaboration. From sharing documents and calendars in Google to paying for a solution such as those by PPM vendor Innotas discussed here there are a wide variety of ways to take your activities to the cloud. So many in fact that a simple web search for “cloud based project management tools” turns up overwhelming results (and frankly, lots of advertisements, but few clear reviews).

Cloud-based tools can be greener—less need to print and share documents or emails—and can be easier to access for telecommuters or team members in external offices. Clients won’t have to install new software on their computers, and in an era when Internet is ubiquitous, it just seems to make sense.

The question is, how to decide what program will work for your company or project? We’d love to hear from you about successes or failures with SaaS (Software as a Service) providers. What works and what doesn’t? What factors were key in deciding what to use? Share with us in the comments or e-mail me.