Project Managers and Their Interviews

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Happy Thanksgiving

&

Happy Holidays

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Dear Readers/Subscribers,

This holiday season, I wanted to stop by and thank you all for keeping the site going and keeping me motivated to sit down and write for tomorrow.

You all have been special, for being there, inspiring me, teaching me new things and connecting me with more people.

Thank you so much for being with me in this journey.

I had so much going on in my life during the duration of this blog, some days writing this helped me cope through difficult times and opened wide beautiful doors for me.

I look forward to meeting you all someday.

For today, enjoy the collection of the interviews from the blog- I hope you learn as much from these amazing Project Managers, as I have.

Happy Holidays to you and your family! Soma Bhattacharya @Soma_b

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Interview with Alec Satin ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

Anjana Bhattacharya ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Andreas Sundgren……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9

Cornelius Fichtner …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………14

Dina Garfinkel ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….17

Elizabeth Harrin…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………20

Geoff Crane…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..24

Jason Westland……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..30

Joelle Godfrey………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..34

Jonathan Mead………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………37

Karl Staib……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….42

Karen Macdonald…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..45

Mary Jo Matsumoto…………………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………….47

Pawel Brodzinski……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………51

Peter Taylor………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………………………55

Raj Menon(1)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………61

Raj Menon(2)……………………………..………………………………………………………………………………………………………….65

Susan de Sousa……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..67

Valerie Thorn……………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………….72

New Year Interview 1……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………75

New Year Interview 2 (Part1 )……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….84

New Year Interview 2 (Part 2)……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….90

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Getting a job in the new economy

Alec is one my favorite Project Managers whom I really enjoy talking to. The economy has made us all aware of our jobs more than ever. So, are there things that we can do to keep us prepared for the next move, the next job, the next strategy- I ask Alec.

Hi Alec, glad to have you back at Stepping into PM. Do you think that with the changing times job hunting has become a new game?

Hi Soma. It’s always great to speak with you. Your question reminds me of a comment a friend of mine made recently. He is a Broadway actor here in New York. For anyone not familiar first-hand with the acting profession, it is a world characterized by many people going to many auditions and chasing relatively few jobs. His comment was, “Now everyone is experiencing what it is like to be an actor.”

What are the three most important things to keep in mind while looking for a job?

Professional career coaches have always de-emphasized job boards and want ads. This is even more important in today’s economy. I’d go so far as to say if a person looking for a job is spending more than 1 hour a day answering ads and perusing job boards, they are using their time much less efficiently than they could. Three suggestions:

1. Treat your search like a full-time job. If you’re a project manager, handle it as if you were just handed a major initiative for your client. Spend at least 7 hours a day on your project. If you can’t work at home, find someplace else to go. Here in the States, Starbucks is filled right now with people conducting job campaigns 9 am – 5pm.

2. Know what distinguishes you from everyone else out there. Are you crystal-clear on what Richard Koch http://is.gd/tcfh calls your 20% spike – those things that you can easily do better than most others? If not, spend some time figuring these out. This is not the time to apply for any job. There’s too much competition for each position. To have a chance, you must focus only on those positions which tightly correspond to your best skills.

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3. You must reach out to others. Sending out resumes randomly won’t work. You must talk to people, message them, seek them out, befriend them, and seek to serve them without focusing on what they can do for you.

Does networking really come in handy while doing so?

Some people think of networking as trying to get someone else to do something for them. This is called “using”. It won’t work. A better type of networking is developing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. If you seek to serve, to help, to give to others, you are on the right track.

So, let’s say I'm looking for my next step to move into project management, what should I be doing to get the job in today's economy?

While the long-term employment prospects for project managers continue to be good, it may be a little hard going at the moment. My belief is that a new project manager will be more likely to find a position in today’s economy through their existing contacts, that is, those people they’ve worked with before and can vouch for them. Go after the jobs which haven’t yet been advertised. Prepare a portfolio of documents, plans, anything you have which can show you know what you’re doing.

Where do you think "social media" is coming in these days in the job search scenario? There are so many recruiters in Twitter, hundreds of candidates who would like to network- what is the right thing to do?

Twitter has now become, "The next big thing". All the media outlets, marketers and others are getting on board. Some recruiters on twitter will be of extreme help to job seekers. Other recruiters are making big promises with little evidence to back them up. The best advice is just to get out there and start using social media. If you have questions, ask the people you meet online. There are many, many generous and helpful people around.

Thanks Alec

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Ada Lovelace Day

Today’s Ada Lovelace day and what a feeling to be part of it.

As a woman who works in technology herself; I have had lots of influences, some of whom are men and some women.

Talking of my favorite women whom I admire in Technology there are a few, however my Mom has to top the list. Anjana Bhattacharya, PhD in Chemistry (synthesis and structural identification of mixed chelate nickel complexes) and currently the Deputy Director and divisional head of a government (federal) research institute, she has handled herself most elegantly.

Her job among a room full of men hasn’t always been very easy - publications, research and conservation of energy (long before it was a fad) has always remained her true passion. Born in West Bengal, India in a family with exceptional vision and endurance she was taught early by my grandparents that nothing was impossible. She has always been an exceptional student, a scholar and has seen the tough times and fought against it.

Numerous papers and years spent on mentoring and helping others, I have seen her ethics as a child, most of it unknowingly seeping within me. Her dedication to her job, her compassion and love of science has always struck me.

One of most memorable influences that I have had is in an executive meeting, while visiting her. I happened to be in vicinity and saw most it unfolding before my eyes. The only woman in the meeting, she shocked me- with her knowledge,

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her expertise and the fact that she was talking about chemical components and alternatives as fluently as chopping veggies. Mind blowing I thought - it changed me completely, the way I perceived her.

Now, we often discuss about work together, the problems that we come across and how we are solving them every day as “women”. We have three women in our family now- me, mom and my sister- all in Technology and enjoying every bit of it.

So, I ask her for the interview for today for the special occasion.

Has it been hard for you being in an era in Technology when there were more men than women?

No, not really. I think much of it depends on your mentality. Being in a research oriented job women can actually contribute same or more in most cases as men. Unfortunately, sometimes there has been one or two situations where being women came as a disadvantage and I along with other women in the profession and situation raised our voice against it till actions were taken. We didn’t want to sit and watch.

I also think mental structure is very important. You should be able to respect your peers and subordinates. It doesn’t matter whether they are male or female.

How does it feel managing projects? What do you like about it?

It’s great to work with people who want to work and enjoy doing it but difficult to work with a team who are more politically inclined or doesn’t really care much about their work.

What has been the most positive factor in your professional career?

The fact that my boss years ago gave me the freedom and the support to research and work on subjects that really interested me. That brought in a lot of recognition with international paper publications and invitations which came naturally because I enjoyed what I did.

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What would you advise for today’s generation of women in technology?

Work for your dreams and try to achieve them. There will be times when perhaps you feel you haven’t been able to achieve it but the secret is to not give up. Women will always face situations where your work-life balance has to be maintained. It will be a lot of hard work, sometimes really hard but if you can put in the extra effort and get through it, rest should be ok.

Thank you.

If you would like to read more on Ada Lovelace day, click here

(Picture: Mom during her PHD days)

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Interview with Micro project

I'm lucky to have Andreas Sundgren (@AndreasSundgren) take the questions about Micro project- project management software. If you want to go straight to the point and check out their product, see the videos here. Why the need to build this software? After working for a long time in project based environments developing products we felt that there was no web based management service that catered to small teams specifically and that combined visuality with ease of use so we decided we would build one ourselves. How long did it take to release the beta version? About three months of hard development. Tell us about the software. Micro project combines the elements that we think necessary to run a project within a small team. It's built to be without learning curve and to fit all functions in a single window. At the same time it sports features that let it be run with many small groups parallel which mean it could also suit larger operations. The focus is to help the small team work more efficiently. We've limited functionalities when leaving messages etc. to force focus on participants and we've combined the classic Gantt view lay-out with extremely simple to-do list functionality. Three things project managers should expect from this software? - zero learning curve - Visual overview - Intentional limitations implemented to create focus on result. Our motto is: Reduce, Focus, Deliver.

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What's next, any new features coming up? We're looking at improving the resource alert functionality further (among many other things) but also trying to find the best mobile applications to fit our philosophy. All the best and thanks for stopping by!

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Interview with Bill Thom

We interview Bill Thom, who is a former engineer from the hydraulics industry.

Since then Bill has obtained his PMP certification and a Master’s Degree in Information Systems Management. He is also a Contributor and Reviewer of the PMBOK Fourth Edition.

Though Project Management and Information Systems Management is the focus of his vocation, he can be found traveling with camera in hand to capture an image to share with others. What an amazing project manager, who brings in the following interview what project management, is all about.

Why did you decide to be a project manager?

I decided to become a project manager when I noticed that many of the projects I was working on as a developer seemed to be in a constant state of flux. Having had a history in the military, there was a discipline developed in me that told me there has got to be a better way to do things. Even though technology was advancing and applications were in development, I saw this need to wrap a logical process around what is being done. That’s where project management steps in and guided me in a direction that made sense.

Do you think the "blame game" is a big part when a project fails? Have you ever encountered it?

I do not necessarily feel that the “blame game” is part of project failure. I feel that the “blame game” becomes part of finding out why a project is failing. I have encountered the “blame game” in my history of being a project manager and I have also witnessed the ‘blame game” by others. An important thing to remember is that failure is an event not a person, as my friend Zig Ziglar has pointed out to me.

How do you think people should handle themselves when they are being blamed for failure of projects?

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Pointing blame may not get you the desired results which is project success. As a project manager instead of blame let’s re-frame this into a lessons learned scenario. The blame may be found to be a lack of knowledge or a lack of a PM procedure. Take the opportunity to try to make the next project run smoother. Make each team member feel that the focus is on getting the job done and making improvements going forward.

What should newbies when thinking of joining project management know about it?

We are all familiar with check lists, to do lists, or whatever you want to call them. Though these are good for task at hand management, they do not take into account the PM process groups or knowledge areas. If Project Managers did nothing more than manage checklists, our value to organizations and our credentials would be worthless. Project Managers need to add value and be aware of the organizations big picture. I have written a couple of articles that may shed some more light in this. Another here.

BTW: The PMI accepted all of my articles for PDU’s … Every PM should take this into consideration.

Tell us something about your blog- why did you start blogging?

There are a couple of reasons I started a blog. In 2009 I felt that I had knowledge and expertise to share with the project management community and I felt a blog was good for that. I had also published some PM articles and I wanted to provide my site visitors with links to them.

You are also very active in Twitter; do you think social media is bringing in a new communication style for project managers to network among themselves and perhaps with their team?

I feel that Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook intertwine and assist PM’s with a variety of methods to learn, grow, share information and network. I have had LinkedIn requests from others who have read my blog or articles and want to keep in touch. I consider @JohnEstrella (on Twitter) a mentor. His thoughts, vision and use of Twitter has been quite impressive. I feel that not only have I shared my ideas on the topic of Project Management with others, I have learned from others

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in the field and incorporated their knowledge into my PM style. For project teams Twitter may not be the best way to communicate. This may be due to the confidentiality of projects and information to be retained within the walls of the organization.

One thing you shouldn't do, if you want to end up as a project manager?

In September of 2009 @corneliusficht posted … "Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get him/her they don't want him/her." As we become older, wiser and more experienced project managers we can read that post again and see a whole new meaning. Some businesses want PM’s to come in like a bull in a china shop and whip it into shape. Others want projects managed successfully without knocking people around in the process. Some businesses want project management processes and then feel it’s too much effort. Then there are businesses that want a PM and do not have a clue what project management is about. I could go on but I think you get the picture.

To answer the question … Never stop learning, never become complacent. Businesses today are looking to improve processes and react quickly to the economic climate. Ask yourself what you can do in your organization to improve project management processes that will be advantageous and streamline deliveries.

If you would like to connect with Bill and continue with the conversation, you can find him in LinkedIn, twitter and Facebook.

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Interview with Cornelius Fichtner

Today’s interview is with none other than Cornelius Fichtner, PMP who has been working as a Project Manager in his native Switzerland, in Germany and in the USA for the last 18 years and received his PMP credential in April 2004.

Currently, Cornelius helps project managers to stay on top of the industry with his free Project Management Podcast and helps them pass the PMP Exam with The PM PrepCast. His passions obviously are project management methodologies and PMO’s. You are known for your podcast. How did this all start and how did you come up with the idea?

It's all my wife's fault because in 2004 she gave me an iPod for my birthday. At first, I was just listening to music and some books. Then the first podcasts arrived and I realized that there wasn't one for project managers. At first, I dismissed the idea to create one several times until I finally decided to start The Project Management Podcast at www.pm-podcast.com late in 2005. The mission of this podcast has been "Bringing project management to beginners and experts" ever since. I have to mention that I am a big fan of your prepcast and love it and am going to use it for my PMP preparation- what suggestions do you have for people getting ready for CAPM and PMP?

The first step in becoming a CAPM or PMP has to be the mandatory reading of the CAPM Handbook or the PMP Handbook, readily available from PMI. Once you understand the certification process, then it's time to read the PMBOK Guide 3 times, read a PMP Prep Book in parallel and take a prep class as well. In regards to classes I always recommend that people first contact their local PMI chapter because chapters often offer good quality prep classes.

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For those who don't have the time to go to an in-person class, there is always my own PM PrepCast which allows you to earn your 35 required contact hours on your iPod or other portable player.

After about 3 weeks of study, it is also time to start testing yourself on sample questions. Begin using the free ones available on the web and then you must subscribe to a paid online service, where you can take simulated PMP exams. Any memorable experience while doing your podcast?

In episode #50 I interviewed Max Wideman (www.maxwideman.com), who is one of the most well respected project managers in the USA. I was amazed by his friendliness, graciousness and depth of understanding of project management as a discipline. There is a reason why he has been so successful in his career. And then, in episode 100 I was star struck because I had a chance to interview musician Alan Parsons from the Alan Parsons Project. He has always been a favorite musician of mine (my iPod is full of his music), so having him on the program was fun. Did you always plan to become a project manager?

Does anyone?

Three qualities every project manager should have?

• Flexibility, because when you arrive at your office tomorrow morning, I can almost guarantee that much of what you had planned to do may not turn out exactly as you had expected.

• Empathy, because you are going to have to deal with dozens of people every day and in order to be successful you must be able to think how they do, understand what makes them tick and communicate in a way that makes sense to them.

• A sense of humor, because you are spending at least 8 hours at work every day and if your work isn't fun or you cannot make it fun, then why are you doing it?

Last three books you read?

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I very rarely read books any more. I listen to them on my iPod

• Dr. Nathaniel Branden - The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem • Robert A. Heinlein - Stranger in a strange land (this would be my 4th time

hearing it)

What inspires you every day to do what you do (working full time and yet make the time for podcasts and new applications for PMP exams)? 2 years ago, I made project management training my full time job. This means, that I have moved over to "The Dark Side" and I am now a project sponsor, who has a lot of PMs reporting to him, so that we can deliver all the great products that we do. But frankly, the thing that keeps me going are people writing me a short email saying that they have passed their exam and how much my training materials have helped them. Cornelius is the 2007 Chair of the Project Management Institute Orange County Chapter. He currently lives in Silverado, California, USA with his wife and their four computers.

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Earning PDU through your blog

You are into project management and you blog, how cool would it be if you can get some PDU's from your blog?

Do you think it will bring your blog some additional recognition, make it more fun to write now that you are getting something measurable from your blog?

I saw a tweet from Dina and thought "wow", this couldn't be better. Read on, if this interests you and be sure to let your opinion out there in the comment section.

Steppingintopm: I read through Twitter that you are thinking of getting PDU's in exchange of project management blogs - can you please elaborate on the idea and how you thought of it?

Dina: Well, I can't really take credit for the idea. I think the first record of the idea on twitter came from Vincent Birlouez who asked the question "does publishing a blog bring PDUs?" And then, Kelvin Zhao replied: According to this I think blogging can earn PDUs. So, that's when I got in on the conversation. I'm always looking for cost effective ways to earn PDU's, I mean I'd love to go to interesting classes and seminars, boot-camp like training, etc. But, that all costs money and that's not always easy to come by. There's a whole category of Self Directed Learning in the PMI handbook that lists the ways a PMP can earn credits independently or working with a group. So, blogging about project management is not specifically stated in the list of activities that can qualify for PDUs, but it just seems to make sense that being an active participant in PM blogging (and even other PM networking sites, PMs on twitter group, etc.) should qualify for PDUs in

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the same way. I think it's really about changing for the times, these modes of communicating and information sharing didn't exist 10 years ago or whenever the last time the rules of earning a PDU were discussed. We can all benefit from joining in on the project management discussions in the social media world, so why not earn PDUs at the same time?

Steppingintopm: What do you think should be the basics of a project management blog to be able to earn the PDU?

Dina: I think if the blog post discusses any relevant topic in project management and shows some thought and research was done in preparation of the post, this should qualify. I don't know if a minimum word count is necessary, but in the same way that any article written is submitted to PMI for approval, maybe the blog post(s) could also be submitted. I would love to see some type of peer review board for blog posts rather than having PMI make the decision. Maybe a little survey at the bottom of the post asking if the post should qualify for a PDU (or two).

Steppingintopm: How did you get into the project management?

Dina: I was a web programmer for 5-6 years before I got into project management. In the fall of 2003 I interviewed at an interactive agency for a programmer position and got turned down. I got called back a few months later when a project management role opened up. I figured, why not? Give it a try and see how it goes. I learned a lot from my almost 5 years there, a lot of trial and error. Right when I got my PMP in the beginning of 2008, I started doing a lot of 'pleasure' reading about web & software project management and just got hooked! I felt that I had a good deal of experience and now I wanted to learn from the 'experts' about how to make myself a better project manager. Now I'm the lead project manager of the interactive services department of a tech PR firm and one of my main responsibilities is improving the processes and implementing new ones. It's a great challenge to have.

Steppingintopm: Three tips that you would like to share with aspiring project managers?

Dina:

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1. Find a good mentor - It was a few years before I was able to find mentors, and ultimately the books and PM social networks I've found have served in that role. But, the earlier you can find a mentor, the better.

2. Read...a lot - The PMP is a nice title and all, but what I really got out of the process was introduction to many very interesting project management topics which I then did my own independent research & reading on after my PMP boot camp was over. Had I only started reading years earlier, I would have had real knowledge and lessons learned to apply to all the questions and challenges I had while I was learning through trial & error.

3. Don't get discouraged- Project management is an ongoing challenge, there's always something new coming out of left field. The short, simple and straightforward projects can almost get boring after a while. It's better to have something more complex that takes serious focus to keep going and complete successfully. So, don't get frustrated if things don't always go right in those complicated projects, there's always a lesson to be learned from it.

Steppingintopm: Thanks Dina

Dina Garfinkel is a Web / Interactive Project Manager who lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two daughters. She enjoys writing about the parallels between project management and parenting, on her blog The Critical Chain and can also be found on twitter .

You can see more on earning PDU here as well.

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Interview with Elizabeth Harrin

She got me started on project management and is one of my favorite people who inspire me every day. She is a great person to talk to, email for some advice and meeting her last year in person was the best thing ever- meet Elizabeth Harrin. Her second book is out and she is providing a free course, if you want to ramp up on your social media skills today.

Enjoy the interview.

Elizabeth, congratulations on your new book! Tell us something about your book and why did you choose to write something so specifically about project management and social media?

I’m part of PMI’s New Media Council and at the Congress in Orlando last year we did a presentation on the uses of social media for project teams. It was amazingly well attended and people were standing up at the back as the room was so busy. There were other presentations at Congress on new technologies that also had their rooms packed out. It made me realize that there was an appetite amongst the project management community to learn about how we can embrace new technology and specifically social media to help with the way we manage project teams. There are lots of books written about how to use social media for marketing and communication with customers, but nothing about how to use it behind the firewall for collaboration and communication between colleagues.

That’s the gap I was trying to fill.

I know you are an advanced user of social media, however how much of it do you use in ongoing projects and how?

I use Twitter and LinkedIn for personal development and information seeking, to stay in touch with relevant people, and to keep abreast of industry developments.

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My blog allows me to connect with industry colleagues and other project managers. I use Highrise as a contact management system - it's not 'pure' social media, but it includes several social media-y features like tags and as it is cloud-based it is good for multiple people keeping the same records up to date. We also use wikis for keeping track of project information.

I am personally inspired by simply observing how much you are doing everyday- the book, the Otobos Group (your company), the job - how do you manage to keep everything together? Do you plan on a regular basis or yearly? Do you make a list of things you want to do and achieve every New Year and follow the plan or is it more instinctive?

I have two jobs and a life!

I’m Head of IT Programme Delivery for a UK healthcare company, and I run my own company, a business writing practice that supplies content to websites. We do other writing-related things too; recently I wrote a project management case study for a professor to use in her university classes, for example.

Do I plan? Well, as a project manager I should say yes, but it is a pretty flexible plan. I’ve been blogging for nearly 5 years and this is the first year I have drawn up an editorial calendar. I have a spreadsheet with a tab per month and in each month I note what I want to publish when, notes for the following month and so on. So I can tell you that I have already started thinking about what A Girl’s Guide to Project Management will be doing for its 5th birthday in January! I do regularly review what I would like to achieve, but new opportunities come along all the time and the plan gets reworked. For example, Social Media for Project Managers is officially launched on 11 October, and I wanted to do something alongside that, so I wrote a course which you can get as a series of emails or as a short e-book. That needed to be done in time for the launch of Social Media for Project Managers, but I have more flexibility with other deadlines.

In terms of fitting it all in, I believe that people make time for things that they love. I love my healthcare job and I love writing. It’s all about prioritizing your time. I still have enough hours in the day to fit in the rest of my life, family, and hobbies. We waste a lot of time not doing the right things.

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Tell us about a day in the life of Elizabeth Harrin.

OK, I’ll pick today. I got up, checked my emails, and responded to a client who is enquiring about some website content for his site. I left for the office, and read a bit more of The Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, which is the book I’m currently reviewing. I picked up a coffee on the way, and got to my desk about 8.45am.

The office day comprises of project planning, financial management and budgets, a team meeting, prep for a meeting next week, following up on outstanding tasks, catching up on emails, reviewing documentation and speaking to suppliers. I left the office after 5pm and head home, reading a daily paper on the journey. Once I’m at home, I reviewed personal and Otobos Group emails that I received through the day. Many of the Otobos Group’s clients are in the U.S. so they are still at work by the time I get to their messages. I do a bit of writing or office admin, catching up with sources for articles, talking to editors or editing video content. Dinner, more work, an episode of CSI and bed! Like many people who run their own business, I work long hours, but I love what I do so I don’t notice it until someone like you asks.

Did you always envision being who you are today as a child? What did you want to be then and what do you think changed you goal?

I never grew up thinking I would be a project manager. Who knew what one of those was? I wanted to be an ambulance driver. My goal was changed when I realized I could join the ambulance service straight out of school and I really wanted to go to university first. At university it changed again.

What inspires you?

What a difficult question! I like learning, so I’m inspired by new things. And snow. I do like a good snowy landscape.

Do you have a new list coming up for New Year?

I expect I will re-work an old list and see how well I have done. As I said, next year is A Girl’s Guide to Project Management’s 5th birthday, and the 5th year that

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Project Management in the Real World has been on the shelves, so I think I’ll be doing something around that.

Thank you for your time Elizabeth, always wonderful to have you here.

Thanks for having me!

To read her award winning blog click here and to see more on what she is working, visit her shop.

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Interview with Geoff Crane

Geoff is fun personified.

Project Managers are stressed, looking for the next problem and it shows. It different with Geoff, he seems relaxed, having fun and can make you smile.

He had his share of stress and decided to take it easy and have fun. He talks about his journey and what a great person to talk to.

How did you get into project management?

It happened sort of by accident. I had been managing projects in a small way for some time, although I hadn’t really considered myself a project manager. I wouldn’t actually hear that term for a few years yet. I was just a kid working for a global bank that closed its Toronto office (where I’d been working). In recompense, they offered me a job in the Far East, to build a trading floor. I had no idea what to do, but I figured, well, if it’s a total disaster, at least I got to go Asia.

I hit the ground running and just started “dealing”. People threw problems at me that I had no skill in managing, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I started making connections: “this person over here should do that, do you know so-and-so? That person over there is the right guy to get that job done”. I adopted a strategy of keeping the communication flowing and never fully letting go of any pieces. And I worked hard.

The bank was happy with my work and offered for me to stay for “a year”. Right, so ten years later, I finally left. By that time I’d taken hundreds of projects on, so I guess somewhere in there was where it happened.

Any incident you might want to share from your very first day in your role as the project manager?

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I’m not really sure exactly where I became “the project manager”. It happened by degrees. But I’ll tell you of an early project where I agreed to build a trading portal for high net worth clients in Asia.

From scratch. In three months. Sheesh.

My plane touched down, and I showed up for the first meeting. Senior executives started lambasting me with questions…right there…on the first day. “What’s the plan for security?” “Who is the customer base?” “What’s the marketing plan?” “Why don’t you know?” They all just bombarded me. Some of the questions I didn’t even have the base vocabulary to understand, and my legs weren’t firmly under me yet. After a few moments of this, I stared back at them and said the first thing I could think of. It was something like, “you’re asking me all these questions about what I want, but have you decided what you want yet?”

That sparked a crazy debate where they all stopped looking at me and gave me a chance for my armpits to stop sweating from the scrutiny. I learned a ton of important lessons on that particular project; but on that day, I learned to deflect pressure away from myself so I could give myself space to think clearly.

What, according to you, are the pre-requisites to become a project manager?

If you’re asking me if there’s a silver bullet credential out there for a project manager to get and be successful, I don’t believe there is. There’s the PMP and other similar types of certifications you can get, but all they do is teach project theory. Don’t get me wrong; theory has its place, but it can’t prepare you for the realities waiting for you on the ground.

From my perspective, a project manager needs a big set of ears, resilience and a ton of guts. If he or she comes to a project with those three things, they have what it takes in my opinion.

Sadly I’ve watched a lot of project managers with a lot of letters after their names flounder over the years. It’s easy for new project managers to get overwhelmed by all the moving parts, the irate stakeholders, and the fact that once a project gets underway, it becomes an unstoppable whirlwind that’s very easy to lose control of.

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Active listening, fast and direct communication, and the ability to both roll with the punches and stand up for what they believe in are tools every project manager must possess.

Your persona over twitter seems very fun and yet at the same time you mention you are stressed managing projects and want to spend more time with family. So talk to me more about how stressful it really gets.

I think I said, “I’m tired of the stress” of big projects. And yes, it does wear on you after a while. Age does some great things for you in terms of putting things in perspective, and helping you find paths of least resistance. You need that because age also sometimes makes you fall asleep after lunch drooling at your desk (with the younger office staff pointing and giggling at you through the glass). When a project gets particularly hairy, it can be tough finding the energy to keep things moving if you’re not super-efficient.

In my later career, I had the pleasure (?) of managing a portion of a spectacularly complex program. This beast ate people up and spat them out. It was a joke that a senior partner at the firm I was working for started to include “not for the faint of heart” on resource requisitions.

I was responsible for nine parallel software releases on antiquated hardware from the 1960s and 1970s, each of which interfaced with every major national bank. Each bank had no less than 50 separate interfaces, and a dearth of testing environments. The program included resources from competing vendors all of whom were jockeying to be “the vendor who really knew how to do things properly,” and so would regularly put people down in very public daily status meetings with dozens of people. Add to that: mechanical failures, regression, a ridiculous number of development environments, and layer upon layer of management to plug holes and you can kiss your budget goodbye. I would dream at night about huge columns of red numbers toppling over and burying me.

In a case like this, you can do a very thorough job of planning everything out, but the plan becomes something reviewed each and every day. You look at the issues du jour and reprioritize on the fly, throwing process out the window in favor of just

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making a tiny bit of progress before a week is through. The important thing to remember is to just keep going. No matter what happens, don’t stop. If you make progress, celebrate it for what it is, even if, in the grand scheme of things, the progress seems infinitesimal.

Don’t be shy about raising issues either. Be loud and be heard above everyone else. Stakeholders and executive management may not like what you have to say, but they can’t fault you for withholding information.

So, what are you focusing more on now? Tell us about your website.

At this point I guess I’ve tried to reinvent myself a little to change with the times. These are much leaner years and I want to position myself to continue doing what I always loved as part of my job as project manager, which is guiding people. I’ve hung up my hat as a PM, and am now taking up the mantle of project coach.

Papercut is about making sure project managers have the right resources at their disposal to enable them to do their jobs. I provide free collaboration tools for clients to manage their engagements, and an expert eye to watch out for the constant pitfalls that plague all project managers. When my clients run into problems, I pull from my own library of tools I’ve built over the years and teach them how to use them. This way I can provide client organizations with my expertise, at a fraction of the cost had they hired me outright. And when I’m done, the organization has a project manager who’s learned on the job without as much pain.

What’s the secret of being a sane project manager? :)

It’s very easy to let a project consume you. You can create vicious little circles where you spend so much time on the project that your non-work life suffers. That creates more stress in the long run, which then spills over into the workday, causing you to work even harder on the project to compensate for your reduced attention.

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At the end of the day, a burned-out project manager is a wasted resource. Know your limits going into the project and plan it out such that your limits don’t have to be tested. The project needs you to see it all the way through to the end.

If it all goes south despite your best efforts, remember, it’s just another project. A comet is not about to come crashing into the earth because it didn’t go well, and the seas are not going to rise up and swallow you whole. The project will get corrected or cancelled, and another one will take its place.

Care about your project; just don’t care so much you become a liability.

The most difficult thing of being a project manager that no one really talks about.

There’s loads of literature on analytics and best practices and the like but what I don’t hear enough about managing expectations. When you say you’re going to do something, no matter how flip, no matter in what context, it’s absolutely vital that you follow through. Basically, if you say you’re going to do something, do it.

Maybe because that’s such a simple concept to grasp, people think it’s easy. Let me tell you that follow-through is one of the most difficult parts of managing any project. With all the stakeholders, vendors and team members you have to work with, from one meeting to the next, you find yourself making more and more promises—even small ones that seem easy. It doesn’t take long before you find yourself overwhelmed with promises you have to make good on. The people you’ve made them to won’t care that you inadvertently bit off more than you could chew and forgot about what you said—a promise is a promise.

It only takes one broken promise made to the wrong person. As soon as that happens you start a domino effect through the people on your project because, of course, they talk amongst themselves. You don’t get a chance to defend yourself against gossip. It’s very easy to damage your reputation on a project given the breadth of communications you’re responsible for as a project manager.

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So take great pains to manage yourself and your capacity before you blurt out a promise to someone you don’t actually know that you can handle.

I have really enjoyed this interview and to know more or connect with him, click here.

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Interview with Jason Westland

I interview Jason Westland and how he started with the sites- his inspiration, insight and how one can know that you’re calling is to be a project manager.

Why did you decide to become a Project Manager?

After university, I secured a great job as a Project Manager for one of our leading banks. I've always enjoyed leading teams and I love the pressure of having an impossible deadline, so Project Management was perfect for me. I really like managing people, suppliers, equipment and customers to bring a project together. It's always a great challenge and very rewarding when you get it right.

Any experiences you might remember when you first started out and want to share here. Sure. My first project was managing an IT deployment throughout the country. It was using leading edge technologies and was high risk. The first server we installed failed miserably, putting us off track. The suppliers didn’t know what they were doing and we were short on resource. The only way to delvier the project on time was to massively reduce the scope. So I presented to the Company Board (a group of really scary fellas at the time) and managed to get their approval. From there, I learned that you have to communicate with the Board constantly throughout the project, to get their support. With their support, you can achieve anything. We delivered the project on time and then kicked off another project to complete the remaining elements.

I've learned throughout the years, that the top 5 things you need to do to deliver a project successfully are 1) Spec it our properly at the outset; 2) Spend good quality time planning and don’t start execution until you know exactly what you're doing; 3) Monitor progress every week and keep the team informed as you go; 4) Communication among the project team is key and; 5) Always keep your Customer and Sponsor on side - get to know them and their business needs well. If you take those 5 tips, then you'll boost your chances of success.

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How did the idea of starting these websites emerge? I got tired of not having the right tools to manage projects. Firstly, I was always creating documents from scratch. So I built Method123. As I managed bigger projects I realized that everyone in my team needed to work in a more structured way, following a methodology as they went. So we built www.MPMM.com. Project tracking is critical to success and there were no tools available on the market that I was confident in, so we built www.ProjectManager.com. And finally, I needed MS Project for lots of users and it was way too expensive, therefore we built www.ProjectPlan.com. Basically every product came from a common problem that I know all project managers share.

Talk to me about your site MPMM - how do you think it will help Project Managers? Good question. Great Project Managers use the same formula for success for every project they undertake. They manage projects in the same way every time, because they know that if they use the same process for delivering projects, then it will generate the same results. And that’s what MPM gives you. It offers you a proven, step-by-step process for delivering projects. It's aligned with Worldwide Standards PMI and Prince2 and hundreds of thousands of project managers have used it to help deliver projects on time.

If you follow the process that's included, then you'll improve your chances of success. It's that simple. Also, great Project Managers never start from scratch. They always use templates to get ahead. MPMM includes all of the templates you need to manage projects, and it comes with a suite of examples so you know exactly what you have to do to create project documents quickly and easily.

What’s your advice to newbies who are stepping into Project Management? If you love to take on a challenge, you love managing people and you're goal orientated by nature, then Project Management is definitely for you. It will always keep you on your toes. It can be stressful at times, but the most important thing is every project will come down to your ability to coordinate and motivate a team of people, to achieve the desired results. It's people that really matter.

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So learn everything you can about project management. Don’t get caught up in things like the technicalities of Critical Path Analysis or EVA, instead focus on the basics. Plan your projects well at the outset. Hire the most talented team you can find - I always try and hire smarter people than myself! - And then motivate them towards achieving the results. Monitor their progress carefully and tackle issues head on as soon as they arise. Keep your customer informed along the way and get their support and buy in. If you keep to these basics, then you'll be well on the road to success.

Stress at work has become such a major factor these days, so do you think by using your software's, the PMs will be able to do things more efficiently and save more time? Yes definitely. The world is changing. Everything is going online and people are using the internet to connect and communicate more. By using online tools, people these days are able to share and collaborate to get things done. Everyone knows what's happening on the project because the dashboard and reports are right there in front of them, real time. There is no more waiting until the weekly or monthly reports have been produced, only to get an outdated view because something else came up in the meantime.

By using tools online, Project Managers and teams know what's happening as it happens. It's pretty exciting. These tools are evolving fast and adapting to the ways that people manage projects. The old days of using MS Project to plan the project and then nothing to track real progress are gone. Online tools these days allow you to track progress as you go, raise risks, issues and changes when they occur and collaborate to resolve them. People still use tools like Outlook and Skype to communicate, but in the next couple of years, these will all be integrated within online project management tools, so that you only need to go to one place to manage your day. It's an exciting world! To see what I mean, check out www.ProjectManager.com

Wow, that is exciting- a Project Manager turned entrepreneur! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

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The best part is you get 2 licenses free from http://mpmm.com/, you can tweet at @Soma_b or email and let me know why you think Project Management is important to you. Your email, tweets should reach me by May 23. Winners will be announced in the blog.

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Interview with Joelle Godfrey

I met Joelle A. Godfrey through Twitter, she tweets about Project Management and following her is enough to learn about the basics of project management and then dive deeper into the intricacies.

She is a Project Management Professional specializing in Risk Management and helps companies reach their market delivery dates on time and minimize operation costs by focusing on risk management and continuous improvement. She graduated from Princeton University where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in English, later earning a Master’s in Project Management from Keller Graduate School of Management. A member of the Project Management Institute from which she received her Project Management Professional Certification in 2002. She was certified a Motorola Six Sigma Green Belt in 2006.You can see her website here and follow her in Twitter as well. Joelle thank you very much for taking the time out for the interview.

How did you decide to become a project manager? Is it something you always wanted to be?

I started my career as a technical writer and transitioned into web development. At the time, I was fortunate to work with someone who recommended that I look into Project Management and gave me the opportunity to work on a Y2K project for the department. Later he recommended me for a role at Motorola.

What has been the most fulfilling experience you have had as a project manager?

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I enjoy putting together a plan, working with people from each cross-functional team to ensure that we have covered critical areas of risk and identified risks we need to track. I also enjoy executing on the plan and passing milestones.

I read a lot about Japan in your twitter account; it seems you have stayed there for some time.

Actually, I’ve never been to Japan. I started studying Japanese a year ago and I’ve wanted to go there ever since. My goal is to travel there as soon as I find another job and get back into the flow of working full-time.

Do you still remember your first day as a PM, were you nervous....how was it?

I have a horrible memory. I don’t recall what my first day was like, but if I could look back, I would tell myself to ask more questions.

In today’s market, what would be the best strategy to become a project manager?

�I don’t know. It depends on where you’re starting from. I recommend building up your skillset by getting a project management certificate and asking your manager for an opportunity to support a PM on another project.

Any recommendation on books you should read or tweets you should follow?

If I run into someone who tweets on Project Management I follow them. Search twitter for the #pmot hashtag and start there.

Right now I’d recommend: Right Brain Project Management by B. Michael Aucoin, Radical Project Management by Robb Thomsett and Re-inventing Project Management by Aaron J. Shenhar and Dov Dvir. All excellent books that I recommend you keep in your library for future reference.

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Coming from a background in English Literature, was it hard transitioning into a technical field? What would you suggest to those coming from non-technical background who wants to work as project managers? I don't think having a liberal arts background is a disadvantage - I think it helped me be flexible and continue to change to meet the demands of my career. That's what I would recommend to others who don't have a technical degree: continue to grow. If you need to pick up more traditional technical certifications to be more marketable - do so. Thank you.

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Interview with Jonathan Mead

RECLAIM YOUR DREAMS is a wonderful read, inspiring and thoughtful that will change your life.

Jonathan Mead (follow him on twitter) draws from his life and brings a book that outlines why you should you be in touch with your dreams. He talks here about his inspiration in the book and how everyone can implement them.

Hi Jonathan, thanks very much for the interview. Your book “reclaim your dreams” is a straight cut invitation to dream- what do you mean by it?

By dreams I mean the idea we have in our minds of the way our lives could be, before we stopped believing. We have a lot of unnecessary should and musts that we place on ourselves that are really optional. We see them as requirements, but they're really agreements. To reclaim your dreams, you simply need to stop agreeing with a view of life that isn't what you want to create.

You talk about taking risk, taking the plunge- how applicable do you think it is in today’s economy?

I think it's more applicable than ever. The downturn in the economy is just showing us that mediocrity cannot be tolerated. The downturn is basically distilling the market down to a level of excellence. Only the truly excellent, truly passionate and driven individuals will survive.

Now is a better time than ever to devote yourself to doing something you're really passionate about. When you focus that passion into something that fills a need or a gap in the market, that's when you create truly remarkable interactions. And

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remarkable, amazing value is what is always going to be safe, no matter how great the downturn.

Personally what keeps you going? I mean you talk about out of the template style living, how did it work for you?

What keeps me going to is my drive to create a social revolution of people liberating themselves, through living on their own terms? It's so ridiculously exciting to me to do this stuff, sometimes it’s hard to contain. As for the template life, it didn't really work. My cog has been malfunctioning for quite some time. I think it's now broken beyond repair.

Times are hard and sometimes it’s not so easy to take the risk, to do things out of the norm even when the person really wants it. What do you suggest- what should they do? Are they doing wrong by taking the much traveled path?

Taking risks is a big deal, especially when you have a family or people depending on you. In that case, don't kill your dreams. What you'll have to do is carve out some time every day that you'll use to work on your dreams. In the beginning in might be 20 minutes, then after a while you find a way to turn it into an hour. You have to ruthlessly remove all of the things from your schedule that aren't adding value, to make time to work on your dreams.

Then once you're making a decent amount of income doing it, your "dream time" starts to snowball. That's when you can really use the momentum to cut back on your day job hours and keep the snowball going.

I personally believe in what you are suggesting like “inspirational desktop” or “poster board” to keep quotation or pictures that inspire me. In fact, my purse has 3 quotations in them- do you think visualizing is in a big way an aid to get closer to your dreams?

I think it is a big aid. It's something to keep you inspired and reminded about why you're doing what you're doing. It helps you keep plugging away when it seems like the culmination of your dreams is far off in the distance. And it doesn't have to

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be visual. It could be an audio recording, or a "dream movie" with your favorite music. It sounds kind of cheesy, but I've found this incredibly powerful.

I’m big fan of your writings and this book is fascinating and a must read I think for everyone, so where can the readers get a copy for themselves?

They can head on over to my blog or go straight here to the book description page.

Jonathan Mead is a revolutionary, raw foodist, dream coach, and prolific blogger. He is interested in unconventional paths to personal growth and advocates strange things like killing your goals. In his spare time he studies Jeet Kune Do and other ass-kicking strategies. His mission is to create a social revolution of people liberating themselves through living on their own terms.

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Interview with Jurgen Appelo

He has always inspired me and is considered one of the most serious bloggers. I don't remember how I came across his blog, must have been on the blog roll of other bloggers.

The first time I read his blog, I went blank. The combination of research and thought that was put in most of the postings was so clear and refreshing. It was different. I wanted to write like him, may be if possible- even think like him.

So, this year I wanted to take that extra plunge and do things I wanted to do but was too scared to think about it. This is one of them. I have always wanted to interview him but thought he would deny. I was so sure, he would deny that I decided to write an email and ask. I mean- what the heck- he would deny anyways, so why not just write an email and forget about it.

I ended up getting 15 minutes of his time- so here is Jurgen Appelo!

How do you inspire yourself every day?

I have no need to inspire myself. I am always curious to know how the world works, and I always want to find out what my own opinion is on many different topics. So I never have trouble picking up another book, or a science magazine, or reading blog posts. Because I know that I will be interested in the new knowledge available for me to discover. And I am usually rewarded with insights, in the form of "Wow, I never knew!" or "Of course! That explains it!" I really love such moments. And then, having picked up new things here and there, I am ready to write about my own thoughts, which is usually little more than connecting the dots between different things I've learned.

Do you have a regular schedule that you start your day with?

No, I have trouble getting out of bed. But I also have trouble going to bed (always too late), so that compensates for the first problem. :) I don't keep regular schedules throughout the day, because for me that doesn't seem to work. For example,

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writing is something I cannot do for 8 hours straight. I simply lose my concentration. I like my days best when I do a number of different things.

How did you train yourself for what you are doing today (and I don't mean the certifications and degrees)?

I'm afraid I have a very boring answer: I simply read a lot, and I practice a lot. I have read a few different books on writing (how to write well, how to write blogs, how to write books). It helps to learn from the experts that way. But practice is even more important. Looking back at the first blog posts I wrote, I think they are awful. I became much better at writing blog posts. But you only get there by writing many bad ones first. Now I'm writing a book for the first time. And it's a whole new learning experience for me. Maybe some time in the future, when I'm writing my 10th book, I will look back on the book I'm writing now, and I will think "My god that was an awful book I wrote back then!" :)

What is more important- talent and IQ or the inspiration and conviction to go the extra mile?

Both, I think. If you are untalented it seems to me it doesn't make much sense to go the extra mile. It would be a waste of effort. For example, I know I am bad at sales and account management. It's not my thing. I could spend 100 hours trying to learn it, but (because I have no talents in that area) the return on investment wouldn't be worth it. Of course, I probably would get a little better at it, but not much. Instead, it is wiser to spend those 100 hours on things that I have some talents in. Because then the return on investment is much higher.

Thank you very much.

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Are you happy at work?

Do you love what you do- your job or do you maintain it to pay the bills? How to be happy at work is what Karl Staib specializes in.

So, I ask him- what needs to be done to be happy and here are some great tips from him. Enjoy the interview.

How can work make you happy or can it? Most people I meet keep their jobs, so they have the money to do they like to do.

I believe work can make us happy. We need external elements to understand what excites us. For example I may love filming videos in my mind, but when it actually comes down to the preparation and execution I need to actually do it. The imagination is fluid, but actually doing the work is a whole different game. Our actions create results. It's these results that help us measure our development.

We need to do work that excites us. It's this work that we can connect with and also helps us bring value to other people. Money is really far down on the list of things that make people happy at work. Relationships bring us the most happiness. When we share an experience we create bonds that support our development.

So, even if someone is not happy right now- what can they do to be happy?

I'm glad you asked this question. Happiness is really a state of mind. It's amazing how some people can connect to their work and others can't. I really believe it depends on the person's ability to reflect on the positive, make adjustments, and try new angles (finding a way to be creative at work) that help us build our happiness. It comes down to believing in what we do.

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My favorite tool is a gratitude journal. Whenever I feel sad I write three things that I've enjoyed about my day. By refocusing my mind back on the positive I'm creating new synapses that build my emotional strength. Now it's become such a habit that I do it automatically, helping boost my mood, so I can do great work.

When you start your job and you are the newbie in the office and you don't have the best projects- how should you train your mind to be happy?

This is where happiness is overrated. We want a job to be perfect. We start our new job and we get the crap work. This is normal. We can't run the company in just 6 months. We need to find ways to develop ourselves at work while at the same time being so helpful that managers and co-workers notice you.

My suggestion would be to think of every task as a way to work on your emotions. If you are getting frustrated with the work use the "5 Whys" method. By asking yourself why 5 times you'll get to the root of the problem. 99% of the time the root cause will be your lack of emotional development.

What does happiness mean for you?

Happiness is helping business create an environment that loves its employees so much that they are dedicated to make their employees happy. Also hugging my son, going for a walk with my wife, and throwing the tennis ball for my obsessed dog. You should see how happy my dog is when chasing her ball; it just makes me laugh out loud.

Happy employees are productive employees- what should employers do to keep their employees happy?

Where do I start? Employers need to give their people the freedom to create great work. They also need to show appreciation for the hard work their people do and celebrate it as much as they can. They should also be given career and personal counseling. When you understand an employee's motivation it's easy to encourage great work out of them.

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Relationships are the glue to work happiness. Most people leave a company because their manager is a terrible leader and/or they don't have any friends at work. Companies need to help their employees create better relationships that focus on employee's needs too.

Thank you Karl and hearing from you was certainly helpful.

If you want to know more, look up his site here or follow him on twitter !

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Interview with Karen Macdonald

I met Karen Macdonald at the BPUG seminar and while talking with her over lunch I asked if she would interview for my blog. I'm excited that she agreed to do it and here's what she thought about the seminar.

Stepping in2 pm: What did you think of the BPUG seminar?

KMD: The seminar was useful to keep up to date on the various APM Group methods, meet the people behind the methods and assess what other PM professionals wanted to keep abreast of.

Stepping in2 pm: Who topped your list among the speakers and why?

KMD: My favorite speaker was Don Mason from Emirates Airlines because he had applied a structured method on a large and critical programme, in a difficult working environment with many cultural differences and sensitivities to cope with.

Stepping in2 pm: Your suggestion to new project managers on "how networking can help" and what they should do to network?

KMD: Networking is an underused tool to learn effective hints, tips and strategies from others. Project Management in my opinion is an art. The application of methods such as Prince2, MSP, MoR attempts to put some science into it, but there are so many varying dynamics in any project, no size fits all. That of course, is what makes Project Management interesting and challenging.

Stepping in2 pm: Thank you Karen.

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Karen has 20 years varied business experience with around 10 years in Project and Programme Management. She is a Prince2 Practitioner, PMP (from PMI) and MSP and currently is the Project Services Director at Better Gameplan Consultancy in London, Uk.

(Picture: Don Mason from Emirates Airlines getting ready for his talk at the seminar)

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The Style Quotient

This year I promised you that we will have the best of professional advice, so instead of pretending I know it all; I’d rather bring you to the experts.

So, what should you wear to work and how to get the right look- how about hearing from Mary Jo Matsumoto who is a designer of luxury goods that includes clothing, accessories, and perfume.

She also works as an image consultant with a wide range of clients ranging from ladies who lunch to Fortune 500 mover and shakers. Her nationally syndicated lifestyle blog, TrustYourStyle.com has a feed to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, Lexis Nexis, Kindle and other major venues.

The beauty editor at Affluent Magazine talks to us here today.

We all want to be stylish- how do you think it impacts our presence in our professional space?

Style tells a story without words. It's the first thing people take in before you open your mouth. It may sound basic, but dressing well and appropriately makes you feel better about yourself. I've seen this first-hand as clients who came to me feeling unsure of their dressing choices literally transformed in their career (and personal life) when they showed up at work looking pulled together and professional and began receiving compliments from higher-ups and important colleagues on their attire. When you show up looking like you can do the job, it sets off a nice chain reaction. People will have more confidence in you and treat you more respectfully. When you're treated with more respect, you rise to the occasion and perform better. Good performance is usually rewarded.

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What according to you are the three staples that every newbie (male and female) should have in their wardrobe?

I believe in coordinating pieces that can be mixed and matched to really extend the look of your wardrobe. Here are the three basics to start with:

1) A nice white shirt that fits well and is well-made. White paired with a black or navy suit is classic and it will always make a more casual look pulled together.

2) A great jacket. Even if you have a job that doesn't require you to wear a suit, a great jacket will pull your outfit together. If you are just investing in one jacket, find one that has a well-made lining (that will extend the life of your jacket) and that looks great with skirts (for the ladies), dress pants, and can also be worn with more casual looks. I had to seriously convince one of my clients to spring for a beautiful tweed Armani jacket that cost as much as a more formal Armani suit he was buying. "But it doesn't even come with pants!" he argued. I knew that while part of his job was spent in a corporate office, he also had important meetings that took place on job sites where he needed to wear jeans. I also knew that these were important meetings on which millions of dollars were at stake and this well-made beautiful jacket worn with jeans would give him just the perfect amount of clout. I can't tell you the number of times he has finished up a meeting and called to thank me for recommending that jacket!

3) Shoes! I could write a book about this but I'll keep it brief. Try and find something classic, slightly conservative or at least not too decorative, so that it will go with as many of your business looks as possible. If you consider the number of hours you'll be wearing these, you'll think twice about buying a pair that is less than comfortable.

What should we look for while shopping?

The two key elements that separate a great look from an okay one are fit and quality. If you want to look your best you need to pay attention to the fit. Does it hang right? Do your pants graze your shoe at the right place? Do your sleeves hit your wrist at the right place? Is it too tight? Does it ride up? A good fit will enhance your appearance and minimize your flaws. It will be comfortable but not baggy.

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Quality is not the same thing as price, but often it will be more expensive. Cheap fabrics will not last and you'll end up needing to replace them after (or in the middle of a season). If you save and buy something well made it can and will last you many seasons. Designer names often (but not always) equate quality. Consider the fabric. Does it feel good on your skin or scratchy? Then consider how many hours a day you spend at the office, plus add in the time commuting and going out with colleagues after work. I believe it's worth it to invest in clothing that will make you look and feel good.

Why are colors so important in a wardrobe? What do they say about you?

Colors telegraph self-image. Darker colors are more serious than lighter ones, it's that simple. I think it's important to consider big picture career goals when you're looking to build or revamp your business wardrobe. Do you want to be liked or respected? If you're conscious about the colors you wear to work, you can affect your paycheck--I've seen it happen!

One client came to me frustrated because he was getting passed by for promotions repeatedly despite the fact that he was more experienced and knowledgeable than his colleagues who were being promoted. We sat down and talked about his career objectives. He wanted to be promoted to Vice President and hopefully one day be considered to run the company. I asked him how the people who were Vice Presidents dressed and how the CEO of the company dressed. We decided that instead of dressing like the Vice President that he hoped to be, to dress as if he were running the company. (This is not always the right strategy for every situation, but in this case it worked!) We picked out more somber colors, power colors if you will. In the past he had worn a lot of brown and gray--they did not compliment his complexion and they definitely did not stand out. He decided on 3 beautiful suits that were in a much darker color range than he normally wore. In a midnight navy suit, it was if he came into sharp focus. Not only was he promoted to Vice President within 3 months, but he was being groomed to be the next President of the company by the CEO himself!

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Thank you!

An Armani jacket might not be the right fit for the newbies pocket but you get the point, dress your part! Yes, it helps most of the time. When I got a raise and was meeting more clients, my CEO wanted me to come dressed more professionally so I was ready to meet clients at moment’s notice. Point taken. I gave up my relaxed look to get the I-am-ready- look.

By the way, if you haven’t noticed, Mary’s site usually has some amazing give away’s every week and I recently won a cute bag. If you are planning on adding quality products to your wardrobe, try her site and then go shopping!

(Pic Courtesy- Mary Jo Matsumoto)

Interview with Pawel Brodzinski

Pawel Brodzinski is a seasoned manager working in software industry that most of us know because we read his blog about software project management at Software Project Managementsubscribing to his post (wow!), this is one site you should visit and bookmark.

While Pawel is passionate about building great teams, fixing broken projects and building quality software he seems grounded and ready to help- read the interview and you will know what I mean. To know more

• How did you get into to project management?

I went through a number of different roles in software projects and entering project management was a natural development and design, quality assurance, customer support and team management leading projects was just another step and not the last one as it appeared. I would say I try to focus on people (teams) and sproject management is just a part of my story.

A funny thing is I had ‘project manager’ printed on my business card for a few months only, even though I keep leading different projects all the time. But that’s exactly how I look at the subject

• Any incident you can share with us.

I guess I could tell tons of success stories and at least as many failure stories. I could mention a few projects which taught me the most. But the thing which completely changed the way Idevelopment was me changing a job for the first time. I had a very good track

Interview with Pawel Brodzinski

is a seasoned manager working in software industry that most of us know because we read his blog about software project management at Software Project Management more than often. With more than 1693 readers

While Pawel is passionate about building great teams, fixing broken projects and building quality software he seems grounded and ready

read the interview what I mean. To know more follow him on Twitter

• How did you get into to project management?

I went through a number of different roles in software projects and entering project management was a natural consequence for me. Having experience is software development and design, quality assurance, customer support and team management leading projects was just another step and not the last one as it appeared. I would say I try to focus on people (teams) and software respectively; project management is just a part of my story.

A funny thing is I had ‘project manager’ printed on my business card for a few months only, even though I keep leading different projects all the time. But that’s

e subject – it is very broad.

• Any incident you can share with us.

I guess I could tell tons of success stories and at least as many failure stories. I could mention a few projects which taught me the most. But the thing which completely changed the way I look at project management and software development was me changing a job for the first time. I had a very good track

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is a seasoned manager working in software industry that most of us know because we read his blog about software project management at

more than often. With more than 1693 readers

follow him on Twitter

I went through a number of different roles in software projects and entering project consequence for me. Having experience is software

development and design, quality assurance, customer support and team management leading projects was just another step and not the last one as it

oftware respectively;

A funny thing is I had ‘project manager’ printed on my business card for a few months only, even though I keep leading different projects all the time. But that’s

I guess I could tell tons of success stories and at least as many failure stories. I could mention a few projects which taught me the most. But the thing which

look at project management and software development was me changing a job for the first time. I had a very good track

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record at my first job where I got invaluable experience and I decided to move on. I joined the company where my goal was to clean up technical department (software development, quality assurance and project management) with a head full of recipes ready to apply. After all I knew it how it should work from my previous job.

None of these recipes were right. The company I joined was completely different. It was smaller: we were counted in tens, not in thousands. There were few big customers instead of thousands small and medium ones. And it was other industry than before. We worked on custom projects mainly, not on from-the-shelf products. Company’s financial situation was significantly worse. Top management had different priorities. Virtually every single thing was different. Why recipes should be the same then?

The thing I learned is there’s no silver bullet, especially when it comes to such a broad subject as project management. Every situation is different and the best solution will vary depending on your specific situation. It is impossible to find a cure until you exactly know what disease you fight with.

• Beyond the urge to learn what do you think is crucial quality to become a project manager?

Being a good organizer, especially in terms of self-organization. Good communication and interpersonal skills. High determination to make things done. That’s shortened version of the list of qualities a good project manager should possess I wrote some time ago.

Don’t treat it as the only way to become a project manager. Actually a lot of people choosing this role don’t suit it very much and that’s fine. Depending on a workplace a different character would work better.

• Tell us something about your blog, why did you start blogging?

Starting Software Project Management was a bit of an experiment for me. I generally like to write and I believed I have some valuable insight to share but at the same time I wasn't sure whether anyone would follow or how long I’d enjoy

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running the blog. I guess I can call it a success since the blog will soon be 4 year old, I earned decent readership and still have a lot of fun with it.

Subjects I write about aren't limited to project management since, as I've mentioned before, project management is only a part of what I do. I’m always open for a good discussion and I wish there were more comments on Software Project Management. I guess I should become more controversial but unfortunately that’s not my style.

• You talk about helping people often– how do you plan to do it?

Well, I write a blog, isn't that enough? OK, just kidding. I try to be active on a couple of forums, AskAboutProjects being my favorite recently. By the way I recommend it for everyone trying to find answer for project management related question. I always help people who contact me via email, Twitter or blog which sometimes results in pretty interesting discussions. I speak on relevant events from time to time, Agile Central Europe being the nearest one. I have a couple other ideas focused mainly on region where I live but at the moment they are still under development.

I believe help starts with small things. If you write a post which is liked or triggers hot discussion it helps. If you answer a question on forum which solves someone’s problem it helps too. If it is followed up with email discussion you help even more. If you answer some questions from students of local university it helps. If you draw audience attention with your presentation during an event it sure helps. Even if none of these things cost you much, and good presentation cost heck lot of work, they stack up. That’s how I look at it.

• Tell us something about you that we don’t know

I am a naive person. I wish people were more honest in business and much more often than not my straightforward approach ends up with worse deals than I could have got. It is also easy to impress me when I meet new people. I could tell a lot of stories about people who I thought were great when we met for the first time but later I completely changed my opinion about them and usually regretted I hadn't

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been more careful in the first place. I guess I just gave you a recipe to milk me in business.

Thank you Pawel for taking the time to do this.

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Interview with the Lazy PM

If working long hours, pushing the limits and getting back home late was not enough- we all wanted to be lazy. At least for a day!

Lazy as we think; is not always as bad as it sounds- ask Peter Taylor and he will tell you that.

I'd love to be lazy- so I ask him how can I be one?

I haven't read your book, but read the reviews and understand that you are saying through your book "The Lazy Project Manager" that being lazy doesn't mean being bad at your job. In fact, you can be lazy and productive- is that true? What did you mean by that?

'Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.' Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)

By advocating being a 'lazy' project manager I do not intend that we should all do absolutely nothing. I am not saying we should all sit around drinking coffee, reading a good book and engaging in idle gossip whilst watching the project hours go by and the non-delivered project milestones disappear over the horizon. That would obviously be plain stupid and would result in an extremely short career in project management, in fact probably a very short career full stop!

Lazy does not mean Stupid. No I really mean that we should all adopt a more focused approach to project management and to exercise our efforts where it really matters, rather than rushing around like busy, busy bees involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or indeed that do not need addressing at all in some cases.

The Lazy Project Manager explores the science behind ‘productive laziness’ (yes there is some) and the intelligence behind ‘productive laziness’ (and yes there is some of that as well). It attempts to share with the reader some of my own

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experiences that have led to my style of project management where, it is often observed, that I appear to be less stressed, less busy and yet more productive.

‘Productive Laziness’ is the term that I use to express this approach and it is a style of working that is beneficial to an individual, through a better work/life balance, and to the project(s) that they are leading.

When someone is starting out in their profession (project management), no one will usually tell you to "be lazy". How can ‘newbies’ be lazy (if allowed) and yet be good at their work and impress their team?

Indeed, when starting out in a job or role for the first time there is often a belief (both from the individual and sometimes also the manager) that being extremely busy and putting in long hours can be productive. This is rarely the case over any length of time.

Now I am not suggesting that on day one you declare that you are off at 5pm regardless of what is going on, no I am just saying that by just being in the office or on site (in the clear visibility of management) does not equate to doing your job to the best of your abilities or on a productive manner.

No one will ever tell you to be lazy but they equally won’t tell you to be busy. The expectation is that you will get the job done to a good level of quality and within the expected time/cost frame. If you can achieve this and still leave time for other matters that will raise your profile and increase your personal skills and knowledge then all the better I say.

How did this concept of being lazy come to you? Have you always been "lazy"?

Well if I am truly honest it all began with an insult from my manager. At the time I had been working on a training program for our project managers and one of the common questions people asked me was ‘how do you manage to seem so relaxed and yet run a large business operation with hundreds of projects?’

I was on my way back from Milan, Italy, and travelled with my manager. Now we have worked together for the last 15 years across three companies and he does

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know me very well. As we chatted about what would we like to do in life I mentioned that I enjoyed writing and speaking/presentations and that sort of thing could be fun to do? He agreed saying that I would probably be very good at this but that I was too ‘lazy’.

And there you have it – an insult? Perhaps but more an insight really, he had identified the key to describing my approach to work and life. From this came ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ and the world of productive laziness.

Now have I always been ‘lazy’ – no I don’t believe so. Certainly in my early days of project management I worked long and hard and definitely was a ‘busy, busy bee’ but after completing a major three year project I looked back and reflected on the effort I had put in to make the project successful. I realized that that much of what I had done was unnecessary and that I often created work for myself that was either not really essential or that others could have done (probably better that my efforts if truth be told).

The Lazy Project Manager was first a website in November 2008 and then a book in September 2009. Now I would love to share the world of productive laziness with the world through speaking engagements.

Wow! Tell me one thing that "laziness" should not be considered as?

An excuse to avoid doing something critical!The Lazy Project Manager and the art of ‘productive laziness’ refers to the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule), which states that for many phenomena 80% of consequences stem from 20% of the causes.

The principle was in fact suggested by management thinker Joseph M. Juran but it was named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed that 80% of property in Italy was owned by 20% of the Italian population. The assumption is that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes.

So ‘20% of clients may be responsible for 80% of sales volume’. This can be evaluated and is likely to be roughly right, and can be helpful in future decision

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making. The Pareto Principle also applies to a variety of more mundane matters: one might guess approximately that we wear our 20% most favored clothes about 80% of the time, perhaps we spend 80% of the time with 20% of our acquaintances and so on.

The Pareto Principle or 80/20 rule can and should be used by every smart but lazy person in their daily life. The value of the Pareto Principle for a project manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that matters.

The value of the Pareto Principle for a project manager is that it reminds you to focus on the 20 percent that really matters. These are the critical actions that you should prioritize on and that will deliver the most benefit to your project.

Three ways every project manager can be ‘productively lazy’?

Well where better to start than to focus the art of ‘productive laziness’ in the area of communication within the project.

The would be ‘lazy’ project manager will think very, very carefully about what they need to communicate and how they need to communicate it and why they are communicating what they are communicating.

The general guidance is that some 70-80% of a project manager’s time will be spent in communicating. That is 70-80% of your time!

So, if you play the productive lazy game at all, and you only apply it in one area of project management it makes blinding sense to do it here, in communication. This is by far the biggest activity and offers the greatest opportunity of time in the comfy chair.

Imagine if you would able to save some of that 70-80% of your time, how much more relaxed would you be?

Beyond this then consider how you are using your project team. Are they being truly utilized in the sense of applying their combined knowledge and skills? Could

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you use them more, delegate more, trust them more, and benefit from their experience more? I bet you could. Try it.

Finally, something I have always advocated if having fun. Whilst this does not necessarily allow you to be more ’productively lazy’ it does bring a very positive feeling to any project and thus should encourage the wider team to more ‘lazy’ (in a good way of course).

‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by’ Douglas Adams (Author of ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’)

You have to laugh; well I think you have to laugh.

Without a little bit of fun in every project then the project world can be a dark and depressing place.

Setting a professional but fun structure for your project can really be beneficial for when the problems start to rise up to challenge your plan of perfectness. And problems will inevitably arise.

And so, ending with a laugh and a wave:

A man in a hot air balloon was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a little bit more and shouted:

"Excuse me madam, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am’.

The man replied: ‘You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above alkali desert scrub habitat, 2.7 miles west of the Colorado River near one of the remnant populations and spawning grounds of the razorback sucker’.

‘You must be a biologist’ said the balloonist.

‘I am’ replied the woman. ‘How did you know?’

‘Well’ answered the balloonist ‘everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far’.

The woman below responded ‘You must be a project manager’.

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‘I am’ replied the balloonist ‘but how did you know?’

‘Well, said the woman ‘you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise to someone that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow it's now my fault!’

Thank you Peter.

The interview inspired me so much, I went ahead and ordered the book last week. It hasn't been delivered, however I'll let you know what I thought of the lazy goodness once I have devoured it.

Be Lazy!

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Interview with Raj Menon

He is honest, insightful and encouraging. If you haven’t met him, you should. Meet Raj Menon who writes about leadership, he thinks "My job is to make it easier for you to meet your goals by giving you confidence, direction and guidance.” You can also find him on twitter . You’re blog is in All top and that says a lot about the quality of your posts- tell us something about your blog. Thanks Soma. All top included my site a long time ago under the leadership category, back when 13apples.com was lap31.com. I am not certain if my site is still listed as one of the upcoming and promising leadership blogs. That was a proud moment for me and I still cherish every win I have ever had. The origin of the 13apples Blog started with a simple question I asked myself when I turned 30yrs old - am I ready to lead? You can say I was a bit paranoid. I looked back into what I had achieved in life and tried to figure out where I was headed. My writing was a way for me to find my path forward. I considered the site to be a pit stop for me. I was in a race called life and like any race driver I was in the pit stop to refuel, change tires, tune up, and zoom out to race another lap. As you can tell, I am a big F1 (Formula 1) racing fan, which is also where the original name for the site "lap31.com" came from as I was on my 31st lap in a race called life. Why did you choose to write about leadership? I believe that there is a leader in every one of us. As I was reflecting on my leadership lessons through my writing and life experiences, I thought of giving back to the world by exploring the mindset of leaders in every walk of life and thus provide everyone who visits my site with the opportunity to awaken the leader in them, to share their leadership stories, to collaborate. Eventually it led to the site slogan "where leaders collaborate". What are the qualities of a real leader, do you have a favorite?

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It's tough to encapsulate all the qualities of a real leader in a few words or sentences. It's like asking "What makes a person good?” There are so many things - characteristic, environmental, situational, personal, and professional, etc. - to consider before summing it all up. To best answer this question, let me share with you what I believe are Leadership Mantras that everyone is inherently born with but needs to develop or fine tune:

• Leadership is about people. We lead by creating an environment of trust, transparency, openness, empowerment and support; where failure is an opportunity to learn, where success stories are celebrated.

• Leaders are social beings. They create collaborative teams beyond boundaries and borders, bridging cultural divides, in a globally diverse workspace.

• Leaders inspire themselves by learning and listening so they can in turn inspire others by sharing and collaborating.

How did you end up being in project management? Is this something you always wanted to do? Project Management was never a goal for me, at least not when I started out in the IT field 11 years ago. I was an ASP developer, moved on to PHP and to Java development before I was promoted to a Lead role to manage the company's first dot net project overseas. I continued to wear multiple hats, that of a developer and a lead for another 2 years till I realized that I needed to be a full time lead if I am going to be held accountable for the project. During 2004-05 I was doing Project Leadership full time which gradually helped me go up the ranks to a Project Manager and now Program Manager. In short, I worked my way to project/program management. I know you are part of toastmasters, so do you also read a lot? What are the last 3 books you read? Yes, I have been part of toastmasters since 2008. I spoke about my foray into toastmasters and the journey in a speech last year, which you can find at this link here . I do read a lot, especially these days.

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I am glad you asked me about book coz I read 3 very insightful books recently. The interesting part is that each author led me to the next book.

• Who's Got Your Back? by Keith Ferrazzi • Get It Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More by Steve Robbins • The Go-Givers by Bob Burg & John David Mann (I am currently reading

their 2nd book The Go-Givers Sell More)

Any new plans for your blog? I have so many plans but I am taking it one step at a time. With my salaried job, toastmasters, family life and networking, I struggle to find time to put my 13apples plans into supersonic speed. But someday I will when my life permits. Some immediate plans are to increase my subscription base. I have around 30 amazing subscribers now but I want to grow that as rapidly as possible. I will also continue to have 1 post per week emailed to my subscribers. I am also working on an eBook that I will be distributing freely to my subscribers, around a new concept I am working on called the Circle of Influence. These are the plans in action right now. By the way, congratulations on your PMP- how much do you think preparation time one needs to go for it? Thank You! Frankly, I spent a year of ad-hoc studying which was mainly listening to the PMPrepcast (which you are promoting on your website as well). Ad-hoc studying will not really get you through the test. What made a difference for me was the 1 week I took off from work and put my brain and body into overdrive to piece it all together. However, that is not the method I would recommend. Instead, I would advise any PMP aspirant to put in 3 months of effort (2 hours per weekday) and a dedicated review time 2 weeks prior to the exam, mainly to attempt sample tests. Three qualities you think every aspiring project manager should have? 1. Be Confident in Yourself 2. Respect People especially your Team

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3. Be Accountable for your actions and Never Give Up Thank you for your time Raj. Thank You!!

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What is agile?

Interview with Raj Menon, the author of http://leadership.13apples.com/.

We talk about Agile and what it takes to be the Agile Expert. Here's a prelude to Agile before you read the interview.

We hear so much about Agile and Scrum- what’s the difference between them? Agile is a software development methodology which is an alternative SDLC "better" than Waterfall, iterative in nature and encourages team collaboration, accountability and trust. SCRUM is a framework that helps execute agile software development. SCRUM emphasizes on enabling a self-organizing multi-functional team to work on prioritized tasks in 2-4 weeks cycles called sprints.

If you wanted to be an expert in any of these, how do you think one should go for it? In my opinion, one does not become an expert in SCRUM. One can only try to follow SCRUM to the best of their knowledge and abilities to bring about a fundamental change in project and people management.

SCRUM is simple in concept but tough to implement. Why? Because changes are tough and it takes time, patience and persistence. Has anyone ever become an expert change agent? I don’t think so coz change is so dynamic in nature that whenever you go about changing something or someone, it is a new struggle every time. If you truly learn and follow SCRUM, you are a change agent. Your objectives are simply to change the way projects are managed, the way teams are organized and valued and make success a repetitive reality.

What are the pre-requisites for the Certifications?

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• A genuine interest to bring about a fresh perspective to software development.

• Two days of free time • USD - $600 if you take it in India and $1300 in States

That is all you need to go in for CSM certification training.

How difficult was it to take the exam after just taking classes for 2days? Is that all the preparation you need to take?

This is a question everyone who is interested in SCRUM certification seems to be commonly wondering/asking. Yes, 2 days of training is all you need to learn and fall in love with SCRUM. In these 2 days you implement SCRUM from ground up and you practice it. You end up learning a lot and most importantly you will question your fundamental beliefs and learning’s from the past.

Any suggestions for taking the exams?

I have not taken the exam as I got certified in an Aug'09 batch, much before the exams kicked in. However, my suggestion to those who are taking the exam would be to pay full attention in the 2 days of training and ask as many questions as possible, even if you think it may sound silly. Keep an open mind. If you do, the exam should be a breeze.

On a personal note, how did you get into project management?

The right environment, the opportunities it provided, the leaders who mentored me, my confidence in pursuing challenges without the fear of failure, an ambition to grow, the desire to bring about changes, and my people management skills - are some of the main drivers that got a ASP developer into project/program management. It was a calling.

I know you blog, so what does your site primarily focus on?

Yes, I blog to feed my passion to write.

My blog is called http://www.13apples.com/ and focuses primarily on leadership from every walk of life - from my experiences to my thoughts and observations of leadership that I believe is all around us. The site is also a source for Toastmasters

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speeches and articles on public speaking, communication tools and techniques, team building, team motivation and now Agile/SCRUM.

To know more about his experience, read this.

Raj Menon, the creator of 13apples.com (formerly known as lap31) is a Program Manager by profession and Leadership Blogger by passion. He explores the mindset of a leader and what it takes to be one as he shares his own experiences and thoughts through his writing.

Follow Raj on Twitter.

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Interview with Susan de Sousa (My PM Expert)

Susan is dynamic and fun- see her portfolio here and you know she is way more than some boring project manager who does one project after another.

She has delivered complex high profile cutting edge projects and managed numerous large infrastructure and software development programs and projects successfully to budget and deadlines. She has also consulted in the UK, Europe, US and Dubai.

I interview Susan as she talks about how she got into project management and the willingness to achieve can be the driving force to pick up the phone and cold call to get the dream job. Wow!

How did you get into project management?

Well having been a derivatives trader, freelance journalist, freelance TV producer and entrepreneur (before 26) I landed up doing an HTML course. Not my idea of fun but by doing it I would be guaranteed a place on the Photoshop course. I was really clueless, but then the tutor mentioned how much you could earn for being able to code an HTML table in notepad, and I suddenly got very interested.

Of course it didn't take me long to realize that I was undoubtedly the world’s worst programmer, (I wasn't even sure how to turn the PC on!) And that if I wanted to succeed I would need to move into project management fast. So when I saw a PM contract advertised I went for it bagged the interview and landed the role at MTV. I've always been really delivery focused and up for a challenge so took to project management like a duck to water. And the rest as they would say is history!

In your span of being a project manager, has there been an incident where you wanted to give up project management?

On every single engagement usually in the first week when I discover just what a huge horror story I've walked into, and just how much work it will take to put it right and get it delivered. Sadly I'm really competitive and hate to lose so I don't do the smart thing and walk away. Instead I get stuck in and get it delivered on time

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and to the right quality. It's a bit like childbirth. After the event you only remember the great result, which is why you keep going back for more!

Tell us more about your site and why you started it?

As an Interim I move around a lot as my specialty is turning around high profile troubled programs and delivering the undeliverable. At each engagement I always need to quickly bring the project teams up to speed as well as ensure they begin delivering the way I want. As you can imagine it quickly gets boring having to say the same thing over and over again. So it occurred to me that setting up a project management website would deal with this, as well as allowing me to pass my "wisdom" onto others.

Plus I had a spare 30 minutes a day on the train each day commuting to work and instead of daydreaming this seemed a rather more productive use of time!

I’d like to know more about the programs have you managed?

Well I've done a lot, which makes me sound really old (and I'm only 21, really!). But I've delivered everything from Interactive TV for BBC, the IT Platform for the global launch of 3, the Hallmark HiYa cards globally, live TV to a mobile / cell phone for BSkyB (the first time done outside South Korea) and of course most recently the re launch of Euro Millions in the UK and creation of the Millionaire Raffle, amongst others. The latter is now taking an additional 9 figures in sales a year, but sadly no, I don’t get a percentage as my commission otherwise I'd be retired on a beach in Barbados.

Nor do I know the winning numbers in case you were wondering!

What do you think is the best way to get into project management?

I get asked this a lot. The reality is that project management has become a very sexy profession. It's also extremely lucrative and there is a huge demand for the top people who have the right experience.

As someone who likes going places fast, thinking about how I would get into the profession if I were starting out now, well it would be simple. I wouldn't bother with getting PM qualifications, I would simply approach people direct using

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LinkedIn. Yes it takes guts, but I’ve never been one to put my future in someone else's hands. I like to make things happen myself.

So when I wanted to become an investment banker I knew no-one in the profession and didn't have the right qualifications or experience. I sent out about 4,000 resumes in 6 months and cold called loads of people. I even offered to work for free and you know what? After 6 months I was in at a top investment bank as an equity derivatives trader. People were just so stunned at my chutzpah and passion for the role they were willing to overlook the fact I didn't fit their entry criteria.

So it can be done. One simply needs to be persistent and determined. So spend the time on the phone pitching yourself and less time gaining qualifications or hoping someone will notice you. Do that consistently over a period and time, remembering to sound totally confident and you’ll get into project management.

So since you are working in the project management, what keeps you coming back to the profession?

Oh yes. Each time I think I'm leaving it for good I get offered something really interesting which entices me back in!

You see I'm an interim project management troubleshooter. I get brought in to either turnaround troubled high profile programs or projects, or else to manage deliveries which are hugely complex but which must be delivered on time. I've recently just started an engagement as the Interim Project Director managing the global delivery of a new server based gaming platform as part of a recent JV between Scientific Games and Playtech. So I now have a large team of PM's in the US, UK and Estonia to manage and a delivery date which must be met. So no pressure!

Why do you think social media has become so popular with the Project Managers?

I'm not sure Face book and Twitter are that popular but really where would we be without LinkedIn? As an Interim I find it invaluable for serious networking.

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Three things you wished you knew when you started out in your career.

1. Knowing how to manage expectations successfully

2. Knowing how to manage expectations successfully

3. Knowing how to manage expectations successfully

Susan- thank you for your time and the invaluable tips. You brought in something amazing here today-the focus, the determination and the fact that anyone willing to walk the extra mile can do it.

You can find Susan, also in twitter here.

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Interview with Valerie Thorn

I have always believed that Project Managers given their interest in running a business can do it really well.

Today’s interview is with Valerie Thorn BSc, FRSA- CEO and founder of AND Technology Research Ltd (UK) who personally has a 30 year practical experience in software and embedded engineering runs a company successfully.

That’s not all; she started her business when she was only 25!

Keep reading for inspiration, lessons learnt and what you should know if you are planning your own business.

Hi Valerie, please tell us something about your organization and how you started it.

We are AND Technology Research Ltd, a small private company – currently 10 staff situated in a small village between London and Cambridge in the UK. I started the company in 1980 when I was 25. I saw great potential in the use of distributed computing power within businesses, for communications and control. I began with some funding of my own and practical support of my parents and sister. Since you have been managing a company and also running projects, which do you think is more challenging and why?

Running the company is in some ways just the same as running a project so both are challenging; however there are some differences Projects have intensity and significant time pressures. For instance if you don’t start a project on time, then you shouldn’t be surprised if you don’t finish on time; running a company in which you have a long term interest does not normally suffer from this sort of intensity.

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However overall I would say that the number of variables and the effects that your decisions have on people’s lives makes running a company more challenging.

How important are mistakes in trying to run a company?

If you don’t make mistakes then you don’t learn, what’s most important is how you deal them. The main thing to remember is that mistakes have to be managed or corrected for the best interest of the company, not for the best interest of the manager/owner. Personal conflict can inevitably occur but handling the conflict should add to the learning. So mistakes are important, you have to learn to recognize when mistakes occur, accept them, deal with them and not get hung up on them.

Do you think a good project manager can also be successful business person?

Yes I do, in fact they can make excellent business people, but they have to be able to cope with uncertainty. Project managers have to engage with a variety of project stakeholders and manipulate resources and time to make to project work. A good business person needs to be able to do this; however business people also need generally to cope with uncertain situations where either the resources or the time are just not as they would like them to be. They have to be a little more creative and inventive and be prepared to take the responsibility for risk.

Three important qualities that both project managers and entrepreneurs should have:

• Vision and focus for what is to be achieved. • Organizational skills which allow them to stay focused but include enough

flexibility to accommodate change • Ability to inspire others and to carry the message of the vision forward.

One thing you wish you knew when you started out.

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The importance of supply chain to a business: By this I mean, not just where your market is but how to navigate supply chains within the market in order to maximize business potential. So, when organizations like you hire newbies- what are you looking for? People who, given a necessary skill level, then demonstrate the potential to learn and to adapt to change, plus an ability to laugh. Valerie is also an active participant in a number of creative and electronic industry organizations. Her career has involved creating digital and electronics based solutions for consumer, industrial and telecommunications products. AND has received numerous awards for innovation over its 30 year life-span and Valerie’s achievements in small business management have also been recognized. Valerie’s expertise lies in embedded software and the role played by software as Intellectual Property. She is engaged in research into technology management and innovation. To know more about AND, visit their website here. (Pic Courtesy: Valerie Thorn)

New Year Interview 1

On this New Year’s Eve-My Five Favorite Project Manager's say

Dear Blog Readers,

I present before you five Project Managers who have shared their invaluable knowledge here this New Year’s eve about what aspiring Project Managers should do.

There’s a reason why I decided to ask these Project Managers for their advice. Each of them individually have helped me groom, inspiredbecome a Project Manager and opened doors I would have otherwise not known.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome

I) Alec Satin (read his blog here

I met him through my blog. When I first started writing my blog, I remember Alec being the first of the few to leave a commentCAPM, I could ask him. I had just started writing (this blog) and it was a nice surprise to have a real Project Manager commenting. It made my day!

I didn’t ask him any questions about the exam but I surely started reaAlec sent me good wishes and tips the day before I appeared for my CAPM. I thought he was really kind and nice to inspire someone like me, who he didn’t know personally and was rather new to the industry.

My Five Favorite Project Manager's say

I present before you five Project Managers who have shared their invaluable knowledge here this New Year’s eve about what aspiring Project Managers should

There’s a reason why I decided to ask these Project Managers for their advice. Each of them individually have helped me groom, inspired me to become a Project Manager and opened doors I would have otherwise not known.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome-

read his blog here)

him through my blog. When I first started writing my blog, I remember Alec to leave a comment saying, if I had any questions about

CAPM, I could ask him. I had just started writing (this blog) and it was a nice surprise to have a real Project Manager commenting. It made my day!

I didn’t ask him any questions about the exam but I surely started reaAlec sent me good wishes and tips the day before I appeared for my CAPM. I thought he was really kind and nice to inspire someone like me, who he didn’t know personally and was rather new to the industry.

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My Five Favorite Project Manager's say

I present before you five Project Managers who have shared their invaluable knowledge here this New Year’s eve about what aspiring Project Managers should

him through my blog. When I first started writing my blog, I remember Alec saying, if I had any questions about

CAPM, I could ask him. I had just started writing (this blog) and it was a nice surprise to have a real Project Manager commenting. It made my day!

I didn’t ask him any questions about the exam but I surely started reading his blog. Alec sent me good wishes and tips the day before I appeared for my CAPM. I thought he was really kind and nice to inspire someone like me, who he didn’t

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I learnt from Alec to inspire others, help when I can and be a Project Manager who is also a good human being. Thank you Alec for being such an inspiration.

Alec says-

So you're an aspiring project manager? How fortunate you are to be part of such a varied, exciting and potentially meaningful career. The best project managers truly make things happen for the benefit of their customers, team members and companies. The skills of a good PM will always be in demand.

As a project manager, one of your most important projects is your own continuing development. This project will always present you with an abundance of tasks on which to focus. Here are three which have great potential to increase your competency and satisfaction no matter what your current experience level may be.

1. Devote at least as much attention to Stakeholder Management as you would do to Project Deliverables.

Stakeholder management refers to the effort you expend on identifying the people your project impacts, developing productive two-way relationships with them, and maintaining the proper level of communication with them over the whole course of the project. Communication is the art of listening, identifying areas of divergent understanding, and bringing any such items out into the open so that they can be resolved. It's very easy to get in the habit of focusing on your deliverables to the exclusion of all else. Beware of this trap!

The better you manage your stakeholder relationships, the more successful your project will be.

To learn more:

W Post: Pleasing Stakeholders Linkfest: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know but Were Afraid To Ask

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W Chapter: Stakeholder management in James Brown's Handbook of program management

2. Develop strong relationships with other Project Managers

As a project manager, your time is one of your most valuable possessions. If you get in the habit of making time to spend with colleagues, you will find that your efficiency, productivity, and enjoyment of your career will be greater than it would be otherwise.

• Develop relationships with people outside of your current company whenever possible.

• Start a "brown bag" or information sharing series with other PMs at your company.

• Volunteer to mentor new people at your firm.

Aim to meet for coffee at least every six weeks or so with the 4 or 5 other project managers you wish to develop long term relationships with. Contact them through IM or email at least every few weeks. This will ensure that you will be there for them, and they will be there for you when a project management or career question arises. Like most things that are worthwhile in life, the true value of this habit takes years to reveal itself. Start now.

To learn more:

• Chapter: Fundamental #5 - Invest in relationships in Stuart Levine's The Six fundamentals of success: The rules for getting it right for yourself and your organization

• Chapter: Real magic and your relationships in Wayne Dyer's Real magic: Creating miracles in everyday life

3. Keep learning

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Think about committing yourself to personal development. Identify your areas of strength and opportunities for growth. If you are stronger in the area of technology than in people skills, consider putting twice as much effort into your development of "soft skills". One way to do this is to commit yourself to reading 5 pages a day "more days than not" in the area of personal development.

If you identify a need to learn more about the tool of Visio, and also about effective listening, you might choose to work through Crucial Conversations first, then The Visio 2003 Bible, and then Yes! 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive. Even though it seems like 5 pages a day is not much - over the months and years you will put yourself light years ahead of most other project managers in terms of your knowledge and skill.

To learn more:

• Book: Robert Cialdini's Yes! 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive • Book: Kerry Patterson's Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when

stakes are high

Welcome to the profession of project management. You're very much needed. We're glad you're here.

II) Baas De Baar (read his blog here)

I started reading his blog long ago and have learnt much through his writings. My communication with Baas started through Twitter and thought he adding me to his list of “follows” was an honor and more so to know he read my blog.

He was the first to agree to do the post, an assurance that I really needed. I was rather nervous to ask these 5 PM’s and questioned myself that perhaps it was a hasty decision that was better avoided.

Baas I can’t thank you enough.

Bas says-

I have not 3 pointers but my general advice to aspiring PMs would be:

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- Work on a real project first (as developer, tester, everything but a PM); - Get a certification, or follow some formal training. Good for you resume and you probably learn a few tricks.

- Don't take formal training too serious. It is just ONE way of doing things, there are many, many more.

- Get on the Internet and start conversing. Start a blog, join a community and join the conversation.

- Always, ALWAYS remember: projects are about people. Never forget you are dealing with other human beings.

III) Elizabeth Harrin (read her blog here)

I took my first steps into Project Management with her…..well, with her blog actually. I can’t remember how I found her blog, but I sure read it every day at lunch. Every single day. I loved the fluidity of her language, the easiness with which she wrote about Project Management and somewhere down the line, I simply got interested in the profession. I researched about being a PM and if it was something I could do.

I wanted to commit to myself and clarify my own thoughts about wanting to become a Project Manager, so I started this blog. Then one fine afternoon at lunch as I’m reading her blog- I suddenly realize I'm reading her posting about my site. I freeze and then re-read. It was the moment and I've never looked back. I knew there would be more visitors to my site and perhaps I should start writing seriously.

Elizabeth has rather unknowingly been one of the most important factors in deciding my course as an aspiring Project Manager. Thank you forever.

Elizabeth says-

I'm not sure I can come up with three must dos. To grow as a professional I would say network, learn as much as you can, and gain technical proficiency through experience and qualifications.

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You don't actually have to have the qualification; you just have to understand the theory of, say, PMBOK.

IV) Josh Nankivel (read his blog here)

I had heard a lot about pmstudent and then I found one day that Josh had emailed me, asking me if I would like to blog for pmstudent. I didn’t have to think on this one, sure I wanted to, and who wouldn’t.

I think the best part about Josh was that he started with a PM degree and then got the PMP certification, so I asked him if he could elaborate in the post on how he prepared himself for the job.

Thank you Josh for giving me the chance to be associated with pmstudent.

Josh says-

First, some background. I spent many years as a manager and developer until I discovered my true passion for something called project management in 2004. I had been doing much of it for a long time without knowing there was a formal discipline for it.

• 2004, spring - started learning about project management and moving my career in the direction of a professional project manager

• 2005, spring - started night classes full time (12-16 credits/quarter) at a local tech college for a BS in Project Management, worked during the day full-time and started applying educational concepts in my day job work on and managing projects

• 2006, winter - started pmStudent.com to focus my ability to apply my education to my projects at work

• 2008, spring - graduated with a BS in Project Management • 2008, Nov 29 - passed the PMP exam

Now, for my "3 things aspiring PM's should do"

• Go get some experience - At work, talk to project managers and volunteer to help out. Or, you can volunteer for PM and other organizations where you

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may get the chance to work with experienced project managers. Learn from the people who have been doing it already!

• Go get some education - While formal education like the BS degree I went after is great, it is a massive investment. I highly recommend it, but it may not be for everyone. You can also get a lot of education by reading articles, blogs, books, doing training courses, etc.

• Go write about project management - The great thing about web 2.0 is that anyone can put content out on the internet. My personal experiences with blogging have been a tremendous boon to my evolution as a project manager. By blogging, you can get feedback from others, clarify your own thoughts, and explore ideas through writing that are difficult to formulate all in your head. You can sign up today at pmStudent.com and start blogging immediately, getting your posts out to an established readership without having to go through the hassle of setting up your own blog.

V) Raven Young (read her blog here)

I really wanted to have 5 Project Managers for this special post. I read about her blog and her posts almost everywhere and yet somehow I never had the chance to read her blog. So, I asked Alec and Elizabeth if they knew anyone I could request to be part of this posting and surprisingly both of them mentioned Raven.

I emailed her, it was awkward because one I didn’t know her and two the first things I say is I am doing a post and would you be kind enough and have the time to be part of this. I didn’t receive her reply for a couple of days and it made me more nervous, thinking that perhaps I shouldn’t have emailed. She replied back and to my greatest surprise agreed to do the post and couple of emails later I’m thankful that I had the chance to know her through my blog.

Thank you Raven for doing this, it was a complete surprise.

Raven says-

Communication - Communication is the biggest part of the job - and that isn't referring to simply "talking". A project manager is talking, listening, reading, writing, watching, presenting, coaching, negotiating, collaborating, speaking,

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mentoring, absorbing, etc. throughout the day - that's our job as a project or program manager. These skills make up the "communication essentials" piece that is vital to our roles as PMs. I highly recommend beefing up on the entire communication arena as it involves so much more than mentioned here. One article to get you started can be found here

{LINK http://www.ravensbrain.com/2008/09/13-communication-tips-for-improved.html}

The Team Is Key- Your project team is the key to your success--you cannot complete the project without them. Take care in communicating with them effectively, and establishing a communication plan from the beginning of the project. Treat the people on your project team with respect, give them room to grow as individuals and as a team, and always be there to support them as needed. Be swift and judicious in communicating project issues and changes--think quick and concise as a lot of content flies around and the project team doesn't need to be bombarded with the tons of reports you get, usually the condensed version will do. Remember the project team is made up of living, breathing people and they want to be kept in the loop too, but not so overloaded that they can't do their own job! Develop Yourself - If you think your job is done when you put in an 8 hour day, it's time to look for another career now. Project management is more than a full-time battle...and half the battle is finding ways NOT to let the field take over your life. Set aside time each week to pause, reflect and grow. Read a few chapters of a professional development book on project leadership, effective communication or how to negotiate better; browse a few blog posts on innovative ways to be more productive in meetings; subscribe to project management podcasts and listen while you walk at lunch or on the drive home. There are many ways to develop yourself, so plan for alone time, and move yourself forward in your career. Most importantly - never stop learning! I could read a book a week for the rest of my life and still learn something new every day. Now how fun is that??

I hope we all take the lessons home and start the New Year with the right knowledge and determination.

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New Year Interview 2

Sneak peek into the life of Project Manager's- Pt 1

This is my second year of this year ending tradition and it's one of the best moments that I really enjoy. This year ends with a fun light-hearted interview where the Project Managers talk about their everyday routine and New Year resolutions. I have always wondered how most of them have the time to do so much. Running successful blogs, doing podcasts, writing books along with high profile jobs and managing their global team. So, I wanted to peek into their secret schedules with the hope that I might borrow some of their routine and fit into mine.

I ask them 2 simple questions:

• Do you have an everyday routine that you start your work with every day?

• What’s your New Year resolution? Anything related to project management?

Part 1 of the interview is where we talk about their Morning schedules. Stayed tuned for Part 2, coming up on January 4 (Monday). This is what they said- Alec Satin Morning is the most productive time for me. Someone from the software development side once recommended that all project managers schedule their

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status and team meetings in the afternoon, as it keeps the most productive time for developers open. That idea makes a lot of sense. Here are the things I tend to do most mornings:

• Write down 3 things for which I feel grateful • Imagine (and write down) a few sentences about how I envision the day

going. • Review all open items in my Autofocus task log and select any that must be

completed today. • Add any tickler items from my google calender to my autofocus log. • Note the day's meetings and prepare any notes, documents, etc as needed. • Prepare a large glass of hot green tea (Pi Lu Chun from Upton Tea is a

current favorite)

Baas de Bar The start of my day consists of coffee, coffee and coffee. I like to leave the start of the day as much open as possible, to be able to "walk around", get in touch with remote team members, go through the mail, etc. Cornelius Fichtner After I have had my cup of tea in the morning I do what everyone else that works in an office does these days: I sit at my computer and I answer the ten-trillion emails that seem to have arrived overnight. My project team members are in various time zones around the world, so it's quite normal for me to spend about one hour just responding before I can get any other work done. Note that I said “get any other work done" and not "get any real work done". This is an important distinction. Many people think that answering emails in the morning isn't real work, but remember that one of the most important jobs that we project managers have is to communicate. We receive information, we disseminate the content, we correlate it with other information on the project and then we make decisions and communicate these decisions to other people. That is why I don't look at this morning "ritual" as something that makes me lose time but as something that allows me to keep on top of my projects and to keep everyone else on target.

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But sometimes I do wonder why people who live in the same town as I do send emails to me at 2 AM in the morning. Don't they ever sleep... ;-)? Dina Garfinkel My team here has interesting hours, they all come in/start at different times (including me). So, morning meetings normally don't work out so well, anything we need to do early in the day happens around 11am or later. So, my own routine before I start moving on my day is to scroll through the twitter-#PMOT feed from the last 10-12 hours, see if there was anything interesting that came in the night before. I am more of a lurker than a contributor, but I do try to contribute when I can. Elizabeth Harrin My normal routine is more like - Promise myself I will get up in time to have a healthy breakfast. Get out of bed at the last minute and grab unhealthy breakfast on the way to work (current choice is Caffe Nero's Amaretto Latte which comes with a free biscuit). I am normally in the office around 8.30am. Most of the time my team is not in the same building as me, so I don't routinely call them together for a stand up meeting or anything, although on Tuesday mornings we have a team conference call. I'm addicted to my Blackberry so by the time I get to my desk I have already read all my messages on the tube on the way to work. Once I'm settled, breakfast over, I review the top three things that I wrote on a post-it note the evening before, which I stick on my laptop when I pack it away for the night. That gives me my three most important things to get done that day and a focus for my activity. Flo Castro Each day and each night I have a routine. Each day before I leave/close down, I look at the actions set for the rest of each week. Each day before I leave I check off, add, and prioritize what needs to get done to meet those goals. Each morning does have one common element.

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NO day starts without espresso. No day. First thing each day, I generally review what needs to happen each day pretty to keep critical path initiatives on track. Then I reach out to my teams; Since they are generally geographically varied, I will dial them. (Flo Castro has a fifteen year track record as an information systems program and project manager, with a broad range of expertise in Information governance, Enterprise software development & integration, eDiscovery, and Strategic information planning/Business intelligence. Prior to Vetta Solutions, Flo was a program manager and JPMorgan Chase, & Cos. where she led eDiscovery, Finance, Trading, and Investment Banking initiatives. She maintains annual program portfolio s of $21MM to $36MM annually. She has been a PMP since 2002.) Josh Nankivel

• First, I get a good breakfast and go to the gym every morning. The exercise and nutrition wake me up and get me excited about the day!

• When I get to work, I would usually walk around a bit and chat with my team for about 10 minutes. Now that I'm producing training full time, this is mostly Twitter time for me!

• Next I bring up my to-do list that I updated the night before. I glance over the top things on it and get it ready for my next step.

• Calendar check - take note of meetings • Email time. Anything that's actionable within 2 minutes I do immediately.

Everything else goes on my to-do list. I mark all email as read and clear it from my inbox. I'm done when my inbox is empty. (In some cases, I block out time on my calendar to work on a specific to-do item)

• My to-do list is now updated and in priority order. I use it and my calendar to guide my activities throughout the day.

Lindsay Scott

My work day always starts with my plan for the day; I use a day book which contains a list of everything I want to achieve in that day. Sometimes the list is

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already pretty full with some carry overs from the day before! Generally though it works for me and I would be pretty lost without it. Depending on the day of the week the mornings might start with our team breakfast which we do every Friday. This is an opportunity for us all to talk about current workloads, any new ideas we want to develop or help each other out on any issues that might have surfaced during the week. It’s an informal meeting but actually this is how most of our business improvements might be kicked off, an idea generated by anyone within the team. Other days the mornings might be spend on set pieces of work, we do a lot of blogging, twittering and other social media activities and it’s important we do this every day so a schedule of activity is needed for each member of the communications team. (Lindsay Scott is Director of Arras People, the Programme and Project Management Recruitment Specialists. Lindsay is also an enthusiastic blogger on How to Manage a Camel which is focused on project management and careers. Lindsay is also interested in the world of PMO within project management and helps run the PPSOSIG) Pawel Brodzinski I grab a cup of tea or coffee and I skim through emails, rss feeds and general news. If there's something important to do I find in email or I know before I come to office I terminate the routine and start dealing with the priority issue. (Pawel Brodzinski is a team builder, project firefighter and program manager. He runs Software Project Management blog where he shares his knowledge and experience in creating software, managing projects and building great teams) Samad Aidane I try (and the key word here is “try”) to list the top 3 priorities for the day and make sure that if, by the end of the day, I don’t complete them that I at least have made major progress on each one of them. It is hard to do this every day, with all the fire fighting that has to be done, but it always feels good when I can do this. (Samad Aidane is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with over 15 years of IT experience. His industry experience spans Telecom, Finance and

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Health Care, and Government on projects in U.S, Germany, Austria, and Belgium. For the last five years, Samad has been focusing on two specialty areas: Large complex system integration projects and troubled project recovery. Samad shares his thoughts on project management at www.GuerrillaProjectManagement.com. He is a member of the Project Management Institute including the Information Systems SIG, Olympia Washington PMI Chapter, and Puget Sound Washington PMI Chapter.) Sreejith Kesavan I am totally different person at home compared to office. Let me presume that what I do at home is not quite relevant here. I start my work day with a long drive to the plant where I am working. It’s a gas processing plant. We have a site office and I start the day with a half an hour standing meeting with my team. We discuss the outcomes of last day’s work, pending activities and scheduled work for the day. I believe in work ownership, accountability and chain of command. These things are essential to run any organization or team. Where people don’t take ownership of the work they are performing, you may observe several delays and issues. I use “Why” method to find root cause whenever a complaint or issue has been received or where ever I find things improper. We meet and communicate throughout the day attending work packs and trouble shooting. Hope you enjoyed the interviews as much as I did going through them. The New Year begins with another interview from none other than Jurgen Appelo himself. Happy New Year everyone!

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Sneak peek into the life of Project Manager's- Pt 2

This is Part 2 of the interview and if New Year Resolution is in style right now, that’s what I ask the Project Manager's- What’s your New Year resolution?

Anything related to project management?

Alec Satin

Are there any other PM’s out there who love planning and goal setting so much that they do it all through the year? I actually couldn't wait for January 1 and revised my latest goals and objectives this past week. Don't want to give anything away - but let's just say that I can't wait to do some new things with my blog. In terms of project management, I'm excited to be part of the PMI New Media Council, and look forward to helping bring information both to and from Project Management International.

Here to a successful, happy and healthy 2010 to you Soma, and all your readers.

Baas de Bar

In 2010 I will start active virtual mentoring and coaching.

Cornelius Fichtner

In the last 20 years I have had the same New Year’s resolution every single year. It is "I will not make any new year's resolutions.". I have a 20 year record of successfully completing this resolution.

Dina Garfinkel

New Year’s resolution...I don't really make New Year’s Resolutions because a lot of the New Year thinking for me happens in the fall at the Jewish New Year. And

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even then I don't always remember to come up with specific goals, except the general one of trying to be a better person. This year I am definitely trying to work on improving my work/life/family balance... I need to make more quality time to spend with my kids before they get too old and tell me I'm not cool enough to hang out with them (they are ages 3 and 5 :)

Elizabeth Harrin

Finish the jumper I am knitting.

I say this every year, but be better at managing risks and issues. They should be active documents, not just a worksheet in a spreadsheet!

Flo Castro

I think my New Year's resolution will center on balance. I tend to schedule/accept too many meeting invitations in a day. This, in turn, leads to less time available to reflect on what was discussed and follow up on actions promised during each meeting. This is how project managers end up in the office late in the evening. Blocking time during the day so that you can reflect/plan/follow up is crucial to having time left for yourself at the end of each day.

Josh Nankivel

There was recently a #2010 hastag on twitter and my new year resolution is this: in 2010, I’ll strive to help more people than I did this year. I will be putting out more training material and lots of articles to help new and aspiring project managers reach their career goals.

Lindsay Scott

My own NY resolution related to project management is based around PMO (Programme Management Office), I’m a member of a voluntary group called PPSOSIG (Programme and Project Support Office Specialist Interest Group http://www.ppsosig.co.uk/) and we’ve been putting on conferences for the last 9 years in the UK. We’ve been holding two conferences a year and in 2010 I want to expand what we do so we can engage even more PMO professionals.

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I’ve launched two local groups which concentrate on two major cities in the UK and I’m really excited about growing that in 2010. The events are going to be free, which is going to be great news for people and I’m looking forward to not only hosting the conferences but also project managing them (and hopefully making them a great success!)

Pawel Brodzinski

I don't do New Year resolutions. Actually every other date is as good as New Year to set the plan and start following it. My recent one is to engage local student community with a series of workshops focused on best engineering practices. This is something I missed when I was a student - there wasn't enough focus put on teaching methods which help to build high-quality software on time. It ends up people not learning how software is developed in real life until they start their first job. I wish they were entering job market equipped a bit better.

Samad Aidane (www.GuerrillaProjectManagement.com)

My New Year resolution, related to project management, is to enroll in and complete a meditation class. I want to learn how to use meditation to manage stress better. I have a major project coming up next year and I need all the help I can get.

Sreejith Kesavan

I could not implement or complete many of previous year’s resolutions – mainly related to acquiring some more academic qualifications and formal learning. However professionally it was a “happening” year with some interesting projects.

I don’t really have any bad habits to quit. However I am looking forward to upgrade my skills in management and technical aspects.

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Special Thank You

All individuals who took the time to interview for the blog.

Subha Abburi without your help this e-book wouldn’t have happened. Thank you very much.