SYNERGY

PMI North India Chapter

Synergy

Collaborating Project Management for High Performance Business Insight

July-September 2012

Newsletter

Issue 6

this issue

Project Management –Rec. QM…P2

The Blind Men and the Projects…P5

Managing complex Projects in Matrix…P6

Scheduling Triggers: Constraint…P7

Latest Trend of Technology in BPO…P9

Fool Proof Earned Value Analysis…P13

Attrition and Role and Responsibility…P16

Successful Project Outcome…P20

Project Management in a Lean Way…P21

Project Leadership: A way to…P25

Latest Technology Trends and…P29

Upcoming Events…P33

Past Events…P35

Team Editorial…P36

Regards

Piyush Govil PMP®

Vice –President – Communications

PMI North India Chapter

Networking, a channel to build relationships…

From the Editor’s Desk

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Editorial team once again takes pride to release the 6th Edition of SYNERGY on schedule i.e. 23rd September’2012.

Theme for this edition is networking which is most vital in building a community where everyone can share and

leverage upon each other’s expertise.

I must say it is our pleasure to be part of such a great community which comprises of members who all are

treasure of knowledge. Join the community to be part of great Treasure Hunt and achieve multifold career growth

by acquiring the slice of this treasure of knowledge.

With this edition, SYNERGY clearly depicts that its fame is not only limited to periphery of North India but it has

acceptance all over India as well as globally. We are getting articles from members based out of different metros

of India. People are coming forward and eager to share their piece of knowledge acquired through their

experience within PM fraternity.

SYNERGY is not released by professionals into publication industry, it is all the hard work and creativity of

professionals belongs to this great PM fraternity. Editorial Team is squeezing their time out of professional and

personal commitments to collate all knowledge and present to its members.

We always look forward to your critical reviews that will help SYNERGY to be one of top e-Magazine globally.

Project Management – Recommendations on Quality Management

Short Snippets on Project Management best

practices across industries…

By Nidhi Saini PMP®

Quality Management plays a vital role in the software

development cycle. Quality Management also works

toward incorporating a knowledge base of best

practices, selecting tools to manage the various

aspects of quality, monitoring status, and verifying

and evaluating current methods, procedures and tools

with the aim of continuous improvement.

If there is a lack of quality processes and reviews

implemented in a project, then there will be no

accurate status on the project metrics. There has to

be a strong focus on the adoption of quality processes

and compliance.

The following recommendations are proposed to

achieve the same:

Quality Gates Defect Management Quality Compliance Reviews

A Quality Review Board comprising of Business Analyst,

Project Manager, Test Manager, and Build & Release

Manager will be responsible for creating the

Acceptance / Exit Criteria for each of the Quality

Gates, and these criteria will be verified during the

Quality Gate Review for that particular phase. The

quality gates can be established for each phase (viz.,

Requirements, Design, Development, and Testing) in

the Software Development Life Cycle.

formal checklists of deliverable, with indication of

the state of completion, are used throughout the life cycle of the project;

these checklists are reviewed and updated from time to time by the Board mentioned above;

formal sign-off and acceptance occurs at each Gate;

any activities on the Gate cannot proceed without sign-off of the previous Gate ;

the assessment of quality and integrity takes place during Quality Gate Reviews;

Information is assured to be communicated to the correct stakeholders (i.e., development to deployment, etc.).

The advantages include the following.

Minimizing project risk through phase-by-phase checklists.

Enabling project managers to continuously communicate the process and build quality directly into the project.

Reducing development cycle time—getting it done right the first time.

These reviews prompt the project team to evaluate technical progress, specifications, and project milestones.

These reviews can also be applied to measure the project cost and schedule performance, and to provide checkpoints to enable the base lining of key project information.

Quality Gate Review also helps in triggering early warning, and hence, appropriate actions would be taken to proceed in the project execution.

Quality gates are acceptance criteria reviews that can

be used throughout the project. It can be seen as a

set of predefined quality criteria that a software

development project must meet in order to proceed

from one stage of its lifecycle to the next.

Quality Gates

2

Benefits of these preventive measures in Defect Management are:

The number of defects can be minimized by taking actions to prevent similar defects in future. It will reduce the effort needed to fix defects which in turn will help increase the productivity of the

development team.

Phase Gate Quality Gate (QG) Criteria Measurement of QG Criteria QG Reviewed by

Requirements Requirement completion checkpoint

Requirements (Use Cases, Business Rules, etc.) well defined, documented, and signed off by customers

Requirements are approved Quality Assurance Team, Project Manager, and Business Analyst

Analysis & Design

Design completion checkpoint

High Level Design (HLD) is completed for the planned scope, reviewed and approved by Domain Architect

High Level Design (HLD) is approved

Quality Assurance team, Project Manager, and Technical Architect

Construction Development completion checkpoint

Low Level Design (LLD) is completed

Low Level Design (LLD) is approved

Quality Assurance team, Project Manager, and Technical Architect

Coding is completed

Unit Testing is completed and Unit Test Reports are available. Unit Testing pass % is within agreed limits

Unit Testing pass % Eg. UT Pass % should be minimum – 95%

Testing Test completion checkpoint

Functional Test execution is completed.

Test Pass % Eg. Pass % should be minimum 95%.

Quality Assurance team, Project Manager, and Test Manager

No. of Severity 1, Severity 2 defects in an open state

Eg. Sev1 – 0 Sev2 – 0

No. of Severity 3, Severity 4 defects in an open state

Eg. Sev3 – 10 Sev4 – 30

The following table shows Quality Gates for each of the phases in the project, along with the criteria,

measurement criteria, and the team responsible for Quality Gate review:

It is a good practice to do the analysis and

categorization of defects. This can be done based on

“Category” or “Severity” or “Detection Stage”, etc.

One example of the analysis of defects is by

“Category”, and the defects can be categorized as

“Requirements Defects”, “Code Defects”, “Design

Defects”, etc.

A defect can arise out of user error, data error,

compile / build/ assembly error, and test case error.

This analysis would be done by the development team

along with the test lead on monthly/quarterly basis.

This analysis will trigger preventive actions, which

need to be taken by the teams, to minimize/avoid

the occurrence of such defects in future.

Defect Management Some of the preventive measures, which can be taken,

based on the analysis of defects are mentioned below:

S. No.

Category of defects

Preventive Measures

1 Requirements Defects

Requirements walkthrough with all the stakeholders (Business Analysts, Developers, Testers, etc.) for better understanding.

2

Code Defects

a. Code reviews to be mandated,

without which the code will not be promoted for Build & Integration. b. Ensure that all the team

members are following coding standards.

3 Design Defects

Mandatory design review & approval by Domain architect.

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In addition, it is recommended and suggested to have

a Defect Prediction Model for the project, which can

help the team to predict the number of defects to be

fixed in the upcoming releases/weeks/months.

This model can be built using the following data:

Code Size (Lines of Code) The number of use cases / Business rules already

implemented History/data of defects reported in the system

(category, severity) The number of use cases / Business rules to be

implemented (future)

The Defect Prediction Model will help in the following

ways:

It plans the efforts needed for fixing the defects and schedule for fixing these defects,

Work can also be prioritized based on the defects or real development work.

This model in turn helps the Project management team in better planning, meeting the schedule of the project.

Quality Compliance reviews help a project achieve the

quality goals set in the Project Quality Plan. The

Project Quality Analyst (PQA) will be responsible for

performing the internal process and product

compliance review at defined intervals based on the

project milestones to meet the quality goals.

A PQA will

establish quality processes and will ensure compliance to the process through Inspections and Audits;

identify the project metrics, define the control limits for the metrics, and track these metrics on a regular basis;

initiate and facilitate the Root Cause Analysis for the non-conformances against the standards, plans, and processes;

identify corrective, preventive actions for process non-conformances, and track them to closure;

create process asset libraries, which can be used by the project team;

publish Quality Compliance Dashboard to the Management on monthly basis.

Quality Compliance Reviews

Nidhi Saini currently associated with IBM as Program Manager. She has industry experience of more than 12 years in

complex custom application development for multinational clients. She has worked on several large scale multimillion

dollar projects both as Offshore Account Manager and in direct interaction with end customer as Onsite Program

Manager. She has been in consulting role for US CXO level profiles and she is Certified PMP by PMI, USA; ITIL Service

Manager

About Author

“The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves,

continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own.” -Bob Burg

4

Reference:

Quality management across the product and application life cycle

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/rab14055usen/

RAB14055USEN.PDF

The Blind Men and the Projects

With due apologies to

John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887),

the Six men, and of course, the

Indian Elephant

Modified by Aparna Ganesh PMP®

It was four men of knowledge, to managing much inclined,

Who went to (re)view the Project (Though all of them were blind),

That each by observation Might satisfy his mind.

The First approached the project, And happening to fall

Against his broad and sturdy side, At once began to bawl:

"God bless me! but the Project Is solid like a WALL!

Why do you at all need a conference call? "

The Second, feeling of the desk, Cried, "Ho, what have we here,

So very round and smooth and sharp? To me 'tis mighty clear

This wonder of a project Is very much at a peak!

So, dear men, first applaud yourselves, and then let’s speak!!"

The Third approached the specimen, And happening to take

The squirming trend (chart) within his hands, Thus boldly up and spake:

"I see," quoth he, "the Project Is very like a SNAKE!

Ah! Better an antidote with thou you take!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand, And felt about the schedules

"What most this wondrous beast is like Is mighty plain," he rules:

"'Tis clear enough the project Is spread like a TREE!

So, bill the client hard and go on an expanding spree!"

And so these men of knowledge Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right, And all were in the wrong!

And so, oft in meetings, The participants convene,

To Rail on in utter ignorance of what each other mean,

And prate about a Project Not one of them has seen!

Aparna Ganesh has 13 years of rich and diverse experience in Quality management, Project Management

and Quality consulting. Starting her career with Tata Consultancy Services, as a Project Manager, moved

on to Quality Consulting and got CSQA certified. She has implemented TL9000 and CMMi practices Quality

Manager for complete Networks Business in Sasken Communications Technologies. That was the first

TL9000 implementation on a PAN India basis. A certified PMP, and a Green Belt Holder, she is passionate

in Six Sigma philosophy, and believes in data and statistical analysis for business process improvements.

As Quality Manager for Customer Operations in Nokia Siemens Networks, she has been leading Customer

Delight Initiatives through insight driven improvements in quality of Products and Services. She is an avid

quizzer and a singer.

About Author

5

Source:

http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/blind_men_elephant.html

Managing Complex Projects in the Matrix Organization

By Abhinav PMP®

A Project Manager (PM) requires certain essential set

of skills in the case of Complex Capital Intensive

projects, which is modeled on the matrix form of

organization and involves a large number of

stakeholders. The matrix organizational set-up causes

the local priorities set in and each functional

department fighting for their cause instead of

completing the project on time. It’s like nobody

knowing after all whose baby the project is and

everybody waits for others to make move to resolve

the issues.

A quick look at the delayed projects indicates “failure

in resolving associated issues” as the prime reason.

Delay in timely resolution of the issues consumes a

large chunk of project buffer time. Too many decision

makers at the top are mainly responsible for delayed

decisions. The waiting game played in the matrix

organization causes the projected IRR (Internal Rate

of Return) during the planning stage go haywire.

Unforeseen requirements are a regular feature in a

complex project, where the project scope often

undergoes repeated changes resulting in changes in

engineering and related resources.

The three major constraints in such project execution are: uncertainties, limited resources, project complexity

A Project Manager, heading the complex projects, is

almost clueless about the ground realities. He is

presented with a rosy picture during the major part

of the project on the computer screen by the PMC

(Project Management Consultant) in order to buy

time. A Project Manager is swayed away by the theme

“Everything is okay and under control”. He often

takes sub-optimal decisions due to the lack of

knowledge and in-depth analysis of the situation

which results in cascading effects on the health of the

project. It becomes evident that a Project Manager

requires certain leadership skills which can save the

day for such complex projects.

Project Managers almost have difficulty getting people

to co-operate and perform in a matrix organization;

therefore, it is extremely necessary that the Project

Manager must be able to "Marshall and Rally the

troops" when things get tough. They must promote

team spirit and assist others in navigating complex

issues. Part of the leadership skill is the ability to

make sound decisions. The Project Manager must be

able to obtain data from converging areas and filter

the appropriate information to formulate a solution

approach. “We mean business” attitude is required ,

otherwise in such complex projects as Known–

Unknowns and Unknown–Unknowns are the order of the

day, which will eat away the contingency and

management reserves for the project with point of no

return.

Conflicts among various stakeholders and their non-

resolution always derail the projects and it is mostly

seen during the execution stage on the daily basis in

complex projects. So boundary Management is another

mandatory leadership skill to keep all the stakeholders

in loop to ward-off any future problems.

Some of the best suited approaches required

toward conflict resolution are given below

For interpersonal conflict---use compromise strategy

between PM and project sponsor, and collaboration

strategy between PM and department managers.

For task-based conflict---use competing strategy when

stakeholders have less power/influence and

compromise or collaboration strategy when

stakeholders have fair power/influence.

For process-based conflict--- use competing or

collaboration strategy to find a workable solution to

get the sequencing of process right.

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Common Wealth Games 2010, which suffered from project overruns and wide spread corruptions charges, is an example of leadership failure, whereas DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) is an example, wherein Project Manager---Mr E Sreedharan---has shown certain essential leadership skills, which is necessary for the success of a complex project. In a nut shell, the Project Managers should have the following major essential skill sets for managing the capital intensive complex projects:

Act as a champion and catalyst for the project Able to resolve conflicts Able to anticipate/visualize problems or risks,

confront them, provide alternatives and contigency plan

Able to switch from being a specialist to being a generalist

Able to facilitate, delegate, and most importantly accommodate

Should have strategic and analytical thinking skills---constantly looking for an opportunity to improve upon the benchmarks

Apart from having technical skills, should have commercial knowledge as procurement covers 80% of the project cost, and project time is linked with timely delivery of critical equipments.

Most importantly, should have human touch to handle huge manpower involved in such projects to get the best out of everybody.

The idea here is to explain that Project Managers with proactive and problem solving attitude can work wonders for the project while an ineffective Project Manager can spell doom for the project.

Abhinav is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), currently associated with Indian oil Corporations Ltd as

Materials Manager (Projects). He has over 14 years of working experience, mostly involved in Procurement activities

of IOCL-Mega Projects. He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Bihar College of Engineering, Patna and done

his Masters in Production Engineering from IIT, Delhi. He has also done a General management course from IIM,

Indore. He has won the Gold Trophy in Hybrid Certificate Program on Project Management conducted by IOCL in

association with U21Global, Singapore

Views articulated in an article by author are based on his Project Procurement Experience.

About Author

Scheduling Triggers: Constraints may create negative slack on tasks

The application of constraints is an important aspect to be considered while preparing a schedule.

In Microsoft Project, date constraints give the flexibility to start/and finish earlier and/later than a given date, but it might make the schedule unrealistic.

For instance, the below plan is scheduled from the project start date, Mon 12-01-09, with two tasks: Finalize requirements (2 days) and Build prototype (2 days). These tasks are scheduled one after the other.

By Sai Prasad PMP®

7

If the prototype needs to be delivered by Wed 12-01-11, we change the above schedule to have constraint Finish

No Later Than on Wed 12-01-11 for the Build Prototype task.

As the schedule is planned from the project start date, Project 2010 pops up the Planning Wizard warning us about a scheduling conflict either now or later. In this case, due to this constraint, Build prototype must start before Finalize requirement finishes, resulting in a negative slack.

To avoid negative slack, we can either set no constraint or set a Finish No Earlier Than constraint. Alternatively, we could also overlap these tasks. When we proceed with Finish No Later than constraint, the schedule becomes

unrealistic.

Project 2010 has an option to ignore constraints that create negative slack which helps us comparing whether the plan is

realistic. In Project 2010, clear Tasks will always honor their constraint date checkbox in Options dialog.

8

After clearing the checkbox, the tasks are rescheduled as below. Calendar alert in the Indicator column recommends tasks that

require an immediate action.

Take away

Sai Prasad, winner of Global Trainer of the Year award, has been with Cognizant from the year 2001. With

his rich project experience and passion for teaching, he has conducted 7000+ hours of trainings in technical

and project management topics. He is the editor of the PM book “Forecast scheduling with Project 2010”.

He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist, PMI-certified Scheduling

Professional (PMI-SPSM) and Project Management Professional (PMP®).

About Author

Latest trend of technology in BPO industry and the importance of Project Management

By Koyelia Ghosh Roy PMP®

Outsourcing industry has matured from just a low

cost, revenue churning sector to a high-tech,

innovation-driven, cost-effective centers of

excellence, particularly in the high-growth markets of

Asia Pacific. Now-a-days, BPO industries not only

provide the man power but also an array of innovative

technology-driven products to enhance the process as

a whole.

The new market forces and the complementing

technologies are going to affect the way buyers of

services look at the offerings. This will also drive the

solutions that the BPO service providers sell

to clients.

According to the Gartner report, there are five key

technological changes that will drive the business

growth of BPOs today. These are: The Cloud, Hyper

digitization, Intelligence Technology, Security and

Privacy, and Context Aware Computing.

Cloud

Gartner defines cloud computing as "a style of

computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled

capabilities are provided 'as a service' to external

customers using Internet technologies”.

Constraints are good but do not over use them. Remember, the less the number of constraints, the

more the flexibility and the more valuable is the schedule.

9

The IT Cloud typically involves the online provision of

dynamically scalable and often virtualized information

technology resources, such as common business

applications with software and data stored on hosted

servers. As opposed to the traditional model in which

every company has its own IT infrastructure and

application packages, the Cloud Computing model

provides a multi-client provision of IT infrastructure

and applications.

By addressing the concerns and ensuring the sufficient

data protection, providers could change the client’s

perspectives. In addition, offering services at different

price points might move clients to rethink their

paradigms.

A primary driver is the one who eliminates buyers’

up-front costs and decreases their total cost of

ownership. This is especially attractive coming on the

heels of an economic recession and IT budgets

constrained mostly to maintenance activities.

Companies can immediately transit to new

applications and services. Other drivers include the

cloud’s ability to

reduce a buyer’s footprint in legacy systems; increase flexibility for companies facing a major

software upgrade or changing their software; shift from CAPEX to operating expenses (OPEX) if

a company moves new business units or startups or mergers/acquisition activities to the cloud;

For example, services delivered by a multi-client team

working across support functions could be offered at a

lower price than service delivery from a dedicated

client account team. It will materially increase the

scope, speed, and effectiveness of the work the

provider performs and will create an immense

opportunity to optimize the customer’s working

capital.

Cloud technologies enable a multi-tenant service

model. First of all, it increases the business agility.

They encompass infrastructure, platforms,

applications, and BPO services---and this `‘IT-as-a-

service’’ model may create a whole new wave of

outsourcing.

handle competitive pressures, especially in the mid-market. Small- and mid-sized businesses are currently adopting SaaS and cloud-based services faster than larger enterprises, as they enable supporting the business when it is growing and cutting back when necessary; and

support globalization efforts without having to deal with associated infrastructure issues.

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My teams are

always floating in

Clouds for best

support and

security available

24X7 and our Data

Craft always ready

to deploy your data

on Clouds.

Customer Vendor Piy

ush

Govil

PM

P®

Fun with Cloud Computing

Some of the types of cloud-related services that

outsourcers typically provide are as follows.

Consulting around integrating enterprise IT with private and public clouds to create a hybrid environment.

Implementing and managing private clouds to consolidate and optimize infrastructure.

Migrating enterprise applications to the cloud and the related testing, certification, and governance for risk and compliance.

Developing custom applications for the emerging cloud software platforms.

Developing new applications that integrate collaboration, communication, and cloud platforms.

With the advent of cloud and hyper-digitization, the

need for security and privacy of data has become all

the more important as it will have serious implications

on the revenue and brand image of the organization,

besides market credibility being at stake. Security and

Data Privacy have been recognized as business

enablers in today’s landscape.

It is essential for the outsourcing industry to

demonstrate that it is able to embrace data security

and privacy governance processes that are required as

a minimum baseline for providing outsourcing services

in a high trust mode.

There has been an increased level of maturity in the

area of privacy as a significant number of BPOs and

ITOs have reported the presence of a dedicated

privacy function.

Hyper-Digitization

Hyper-digitization is the accelerating manifestation of

the impact of IT. Digitization describes the parts of the

economy in which the “product” or “service” is

content, that is, entirely or almost entirely digital.

One key trend in this is social computing and social

media.

Hyper-digitization, such as instant messaging, online

conferencing, and products like Microsoft® Lync has

made communications, including hosting multi-user

conference, possible from the personal laptop of an

employee. This has revolutionized the communication

process, even enabling sharing of a huge amount of

data in seconds.

Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are

affecting the current way of computing,

communication, and commerce. It is expected that in

the next phase, social computing would be taken into

account when designing the business solutions.

Intelligence technology

In the new growth era, the business intelligence,

analytics, and smart solutions that can recognize

business patterns and create new focus will be the

order of the day.

The service providers now need to bring together the

technology expertise with process expertise to create

service offerings. Solutions have to be sold as a tool

that can translate and transform the business for the

client and not in silos or as lower cost arbitrage.

New IT-related initiatives that do not fit within this

framework will be increasingly less attractive to

enterprises that are not interested in “more IT for IT's

sake,' but are more focused on 'IT for the

business' sake”.

Security and Privacy

Context Aware Computing

Context-aware computing is about organization’s

leveraging information related to the end users to

improve the quality of interactions. The idea is to

make services more convenient and easy to use.

Context-aware computing is a game-changing

opportunity, as momentum is building with these

technologies maturing and strategies in specific

industries taking shape.

With the proliferation of instrumentation, metering,

and wireless technologies, all of these have a

significant role to play in providing context that can

lead to automating business processes and improving

productivity. It is also important to fully understand

the impact that the increased amount of contextual

data will have on the IT environment and applications,

as well as the implications for back-end infrastructure.

Being built in on mobility, there are many parameters

to consider: location, customer relationship

management, analytics, and database strategy, to

name a few.

There is an emergence of a new level of services and

solutions that take into account different media

including data, text, graphics, audio, and video to

create a very specific customized solution, that is, in

context of the user.

Context Aware Computing while linear in its impact on

IT will have profound impact on organizations, on the

way business is done today.

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Value Proposition of Project Management in this paradigm shift

Project Management principles are critical to many third generation outsourcing strategists to reap benefits by

enhancing the service delivery and functions.

With the BPO market being dynamic and currently in flux, there are six trends where Project Management can

help organizations to maintain the pace.

Increase of expenditures in BPO

With Accenture estimating mainstream BPO expenditures would be topping $300 billion by 2012, it is essential that the cost management is efficient. Project management tools and techniques for cost estimation and planning are the key areas under focus and provide expert management suggestions to control them.

Emergence of Supplier Consolidation

Due to the slowdown in the recent economic market, there would be market exits, mergers, acquisitions, and ascent of new vendors that would rearrange landscape of the BPO industry in India. Under such a scenario, holistic project integration management capabilities should be proactively used to establish the niche. From scoping to planning, each step can be enhanced by implementing the project management principles.

Advent of Bundled Outsourcing Model

There have been instances wherein big BPO players are merging ITO and BPO into one seamless enterprise-wide solution, meaning all the departments from IT to HR will deal with the same vendor. With the bundled or consolidated model, project procurement management plays a pivotal role in spelling the success of this trend. From Contract negotiation to managing deliverables, all of the tasks can be effectively closely monitored and controlled through project management initiatives.

Proving to be Smarter

It is estimated that the convergence of process, technology, and business intelligence/analytics may produce exponential savings in the near future. As such projects are highly complex, all the nine knowledge areas of project management discipline, from project integration management to project procurement management, form an integral part in the success of such innovative projects.

More focus on Business Outcome than Cost

Initially, both ITO and BPO were driven by cost reductions, price, and labor arbitrage. However, with the increase in competition and awareness, it has become more important to establish the business outcomes created by an effective ITO/BPO program. It is necessary to gauge the business outcome upfront so as to deliver the best.

Organizations initiate and execute projects at an ever-increasing rate in order to achieve their strategic intentions. Many of these, however, find it difficult to measure the contribution that these projects make toward the realization of the organizational vision.

Project Management principles provide the organization with a framework that can be used to derive projects from the organizational vision and strategies, thereby ensuring continuous alignment. Besides quantitative research methods, participatory action research in the field of project management has added a new dimension to management techniques.

“The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.”

-Keith Ferrazzi

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The Governance Factor

The governance factor refers to the activities that are necessary to manage a customer/supplier relationship, including the management of service level agreements, performance reporting, billing, and issue resolution.

BPO governance is about making decisions and assigning accountability for agreed outcomes; it comprises a set of processes and structures that are designed to address top management concerns such as service performance etc.

Project Management tools and techniques provide for objective sizing, cost estimation, and ongoing independent monitoring that encourages problem solving on both the client’s and supplier’s end.

Project Management principles would enable organizations to complete more projects on time, to scope, and within budget; to identify and successfully implement more cost-saving initiatives; enhance organizational flexibility and agility; improve teamwork and co-worker collegiality; improve customer satisfaction ratings develop healthier sense of organizational urgency improve employee engagement scores; increase sales; and enhance employee’s respect for due dates and personal accountability.

References---Certain information has been

inferred from Outsourcing Center, BPO

Watch India and Near shore Americas.

Koyelia Ghosh Roy PMP® CSBA®, an accomplished Business Analyst, is having nine years of experience,

especially in Health Insurance. She is certified PMP, CSBA and ISTQB Professional. She has also successfully

achieved LOMA certification and Licentiate from the Insurance Institute of India. She is currently working as

Business Analyst with EXL Services Pvt. Ltd. Her role not only comprises of software business analysis for

various kinds of project, ranging from process automation to building business intelligence platform, I am

also involved in project management activities, working closely with the project manager.

About Author

Fool proofing Earned Value Analysis

By Shashank Neppalli

As a tool to control cost over-run, Earned Value Management (EVM) has very few equals. But, EVM was created for projects where activity wise cost budgeting were not a difficult proposition. Many books explaining EVM fail to mention about the need for its customization for use in certain projects. This research paper explores situations where EVM need to be applied after modifying it appropriately.

The author carried out an exhaustive theoretical

research on Earned value during the analysis of a

project with significant time as well as cost over-run

because the SPI was unity at Project completion despite

there being a delay. This triggered an online research

wherein works of Mr. Joseph Lukas, Mr. Walt Lipke and

Mr. Kym Henderson were studied.

Purpose and Research Methodology

Brief Outline

Earned Value Management (EVM) uniquely connects

cost, schedule, and scope parameters thereby allowing

for the creation of a unified metrics for reporting. It

gives Project Managers the ability to express the cost

and technical (scope related) progress of their project

easily to all key stakeholders. Cost is the unit of its

measure.

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The author realized that EVM analysis became difficult

when there is a scope change, rate escalation, or in

projects where the output is not discrete but

exclusively based on level of effort.

Other practical issues faced during EVM implementation

are tracking costs at lower level, especially when task

completion is measured using a binary system.

A project governance system which is silent on cost

collection system, EVM related project team roles and

responsibilities, and data sharing is sure to upset the

EVM analyst’s effort in forecasting the future outcome.

Also of significant consequence, is the inaccuracy of

the plans, the mismatch between progress and

corresponding work elements as per plan and non-

integration of the plan with the WBS to enable tracking

of the budgeted cost values.

Above all, EVM analysis fails to yield fruitful results

while analyzing cost and time over-runs

Paper

EVM can be marketed as a wonderful project management tool only after few of its inherent weaknesses are addressed.

This is what I term as “fool-proofing EVM”.

Before addressing the drawbacks, it is important to list them down as well as trace their sources. S. No. Drawbacks Possible impact on EVM

analysis result Source of drawback

1 Cannot track effectively if scope/ cost parameters change

If they are altered to accommodate the change, then it might become difficult to reflect the original delay.

PV, EV and AC values depend on the baseline cost / schedule / scope parameters.

2

Difficulty in tracking costs at lower levels, especially when progress is measured in 0/100 system and not incrementally.

Inaccurate capturing of EVM metrics and thus, inaccurate reporting.

Cost calculations for intermediate stages of progress are difficult.

3 Lack of information on progress or cost budget.

Inability to generate reports on time.

Poor project governance

4

Plan related – Inaccuracy of baseline plan or non-congruency between planned and actual work under progress

Inaccurate inferences being drawn.

Miscommunication / Quality control failure resulting in mismatch between underlying data elements between PV and EV.

5 Inability to report schedule progress towards project end

Inaccurate reports that cause confusion to the uninitiated reader.

Design of EVM analysis

In cases where there is a scope revision, the EVM analyst must freeze his analysis on the progress until the

revision date and make a note of the reasons for variance, if any. The date until which the old baseline was

valid and on which the analysis was frozen shall be called the cut-off date.

Then, post re-baseline efforts, the analyst must create a new PV / EV/ AC chart but start plotting PV curve at 0

duration from that point on Y-axis, which represents the PV of the cut-off date. The revised planned value

curve may be plotted from that point. Similarly, EV / AC also must be plotted on Y-axis on 0-date and the

progress may be tracked from that point, instead of the origin.

14

When there is a rate revision but no quantity variation,

the case becomes simplified. The analyst can choose to

continue with the previous chart, after making

corrections to the EV / AC data supplied to him. He

must apply a suitable correction factor to bring parity

between the base-rates considered while computing

the Earned Value Metrics.

Where the cost calculations for incremental progress

are difficult to compute, the author recommends all

measurements to be made with reference to a rolled

up activity whose progress and costs can be easily

quantified. In such cases, micro-planning techniques

prove counterproductive.

Establishment of a formal EVM team with clearly

assigned roles and responsibilities and formalized data

transfer agreements between various agencies will go a

long way in eliminating problems related to data non-

availability. It will also address quality control issues

as it will afford better control over EVM work. EVM

implementation, being a top-down approach, the

presence of a formal governance body will give the

needed push it needs to gain acceptance as a Project

Management Tool.

EVM schedule indicators are, contrary to expectation,

reported in units of cost rather than time. They fail for

projects executing beyond the planned completion

date which mandates the analysis of both cost as well

as schedule reports separately, defeating the purpose

of EVM. One way to maneuver around this is to adopt

Earned Schedule, as proposed by Walt Lipke and Kym

Henderson. Their method proposes an additional

metric, called Earned Schedule, which must be

incorporated in the EVM reports to achieve greater

clarity.

The technique espoused by the duo to resolve the

problem of the EVM schedule indicators is Earned

Schedule (ES). The ES idea is simple: identify the time

at which the amount of earned value (EV) accrued

should have been earned. By determining this time,

time-based indicators can be formed to provide

schedule variance and performance efficiency

management information.

It explains an illustrative way (graphical method) to

arrive at the Earned Schedule value.

Projecting the cumulative EV onto the PV curve (i.e.,

the Performance Measurement Baseline), determines

the position where planned value (PV) equals the EV

accrued. This intersection point identifies the time

that amount of EV should have been earned in

accordance with the schedule. The vertical line from

the point on the PMB to the time axis determines the

“earned” portion of the schedule. The duration from

the beginning of the project to the intersection of the

time axis is the amount of earned schedule (ES).

With ES determined, time based indicators can be

formed. It is now possible to compare where the

project is time-wise with where it should be in

accordance with the PMB. “Actual time,” denoted AT,

is the duration at which the EV accrued is recorded.

The time-based indicators are easily formulated from

the two measures, ES and AT. Schedule Variance

becomes SV (t) = ES - AT, and Schedule Performance

Index is SPI (t) = ES / AT.

Take away Adopting these measures in totality, addresses all major concerns that arise while

implementing EVM will help us fool-proof Earned Value Management Analysis.

Shashank Neppalli is a Project Management Professional with demonstrated ability to plan and control,

complex engineering projects. In addition to Planning & Monitoring, he possesses in-depth knowledge of

Material Management, Contracts Administration, Risk Analysis (Project as well as Credit Risk).

He is fond of swimming, trail running and scrambling.

About Author

15

1. Unseen Costs of Attrition

Apart from the productivity loss due to a vacant

position, hiring and training a new candidate,

unseen cost of Attrition are:

Reduced Productivity from the departing employee during his job search (sometimes called “short-timer’s disease)

Departed employee attempts to woo his or her past customers to his or her new employer

Negative impact on the customer

Attrition and the Role and Responsibility of Management

By Pooja Gandhi PMP®

work hard be loyal give their all

In return, they would have:

a job for life a home away from home regular salary increases a good chance for a promotion

Why control Attrition?

The average costs of replacing today's non-performing work force are eating away at the profitability of even the healthiest organizations. Even if the bottom line remains intact, the loss of just a handful of key employees who have a special expertise or who maintain valued customer relationships can shake an organization to its roots. The alternative is UNACCEPTABLE. .

*“People leave managers not companies...” – This has become like a proverb in the industry now. But what action are

we talking for this? Do we really accept this statement completely? Or we accept it partially? Or we don’t buy it at all?

Let’s dig out more and see if we, as Project Managers or Program Managers or Directors, can make a difference.

Best Practices – People Management

Changing Times - Then and Now

Retaining top talent was less of an issue in the past, but the shifting tides of the unspoken employee/employer contract have created new currents in the workplace. The old contract asked employees to:

The new contract is substantially different. It states that employees must now work harder, do their jobs and also the jobs of their former co‐workers who were "right‐sized." In return, job security is extinct, promotions are scanty, salary increases are modest at best, and the constant uncertainty of change is almost guaranteed. Is it any wonder that employee loyalty is on the demise and talented individual contributors and manager’s feel less bonded to their organizations?

Attrition - Hard Truths

2. Reasons of Staying are not the same as the Reasons of Leaving

Traditional exit interviews just scratch the surface of the cause for attrition. They inevitably fail to differentiate between factors that make the new job attractive to the departing employee, versus the reasons why the employee was prompted to consider leaving his or her current job in the first place. They may have started the job-search due to absence of professional development opportunities but may report “better compensation” as one of the main reasons for leaving. The result is misdiagnosis

and improper prescriptions.

The Philosophy has changed to

“Reducing Attrition” to “Managing

Attrition”

I welcome you for

joining and part of

our organization!

As a policy we only do

appraisals/promotions

when people leave us.

16

As a family

member, we

would like you

to remain self

motivated and

happy, to help

us achieve

0% attrition.

Organization is

like a family! We

believe in you

Piy

ush

Govil

PM

P®

this, organization’s recruiting system and processes also impact retention ratios.

a. Tracking – Measuring and Accountability

Retention should be a proactive and on-going process. Proper measurement criteria should be defined so that the right actions can be taken. Accountability plays an important role to make it a success. It can be categorized as a “Manager Issue” or a “HR Issue”. It can take a new perspective only when it becomes one of their business goals.

Top talented employees recognize that they represent a critical and valued organizational asset. When their loyalty deteriorates, their tendency to switch organization increases;

3. Manager - Paramount but Underplayed Role

Studies have shown that managers attribute attrition to external organizational factors like ‘Compensation’, ’Rigid Policies’, failing to take any personal responsibility. However, it has been found that a large number of factors contributing to employee retention are within manager’s periphery of influence. Managers need more guidance than earlier as his span of control has been widening and the number of times the manager “touches” the employee is less frequent. “Touch” here implies influence employee motivation and commitment

4. Prevention is better than Cure

The loss of key employees may prove to be huge loss. Importance should be laid to not just tracking overall attrition ratios, but also the level of performers who are leaving. As per studies, an average manager thinks about retaining the employee, when he or she receives the resignation. On top of that, most managers try to convince the resigned employees that they are making mistakes. This leads to more resistance in the employee. In rare situations, when the manager convinces him to stay, he or she may leave within six to nine months anyway (if no preventive steps are further taken). Treating retention as an on‐going priority enables the manager to focus on proactive measures to sustain long term employee commitment, rather than

on reactive attempts to reverse surprise resignations.

Retention – On-Going Process

As per research and studies, the three pillars required

to achieve world class retention are:

b. Managers

Manager plays a significant role in influencing the employee’s commitment level and retention. These retention practices are not a standard menu; instead they represent the manager’s actual behavior on the job and the climate they create around. While enlightened leaders balance the needs of the organization with the needs of the employee, the truth is that these leaders are rare. Though managers play a very crucial role in retention, they do not control all of the factors that can affect attrition. Therefore, the second component represents the organization's responsibility in the retention equation.

c. Organization Retention Systems

The major components are pay-scales, opportunities for employee growth, good and transparent policies,

effective top to bottom communication etc. Apart from

Best Practices: Case Study

Having discussed about the key facts about attrition, I would like to share some of the Best Practices introduced in my group at the Management level, since past more than 1 year, as a pro-active step towards employee engagement and controlling attrition rate. Key focus areas are:

Information Sharing Participation in Planning and Execution Role planning, assistance in career growth &

concern handling Focus on Innovation & Initiatives Fun @Work

Before these practices were introduced, all the managers were imparted special trainings in People Management aspects. These practices are now part of our processes.

17

Owner and Group Lead Every Group Owner, Program Manager and Project Manager conducts monthly 1-O-1 meetings with each of their line reportees and documents the minutes of the meeting in a defined format. The objectives are manifold as follows:

1-O-1 Meetings

Frequency – Monthly (For a year), Now reduced to 2 Times a Quarter Duration – 30 minutes to 1 hour Tracking – All 1-O-1 sheets are reviewed by Group

Every Group Owner conducts a Skip Level Meeting for all the teams with him in small groups of 10-15 people. He may also conduct 1-O-1 skip level meeting, if required. The objective is to unfold and bring up concerns that remain un-addressed in a 1-O-1 meeting with the Line Manager. Sometimes, the groups are formed with employees from different teams. The Group Owner ensures that the environment is comfortable and people speak their mind and heart.

Skip Level Meetings

Frequency – Quarterly Duration – 1.5 hours to 2 hours

Tracking – All skip level sheets are discussed in Management Meetings Group

To listen and understand employees concerns and their addressal

To understand employees professional expectations and aspirations

To suggest him steps and provide them opportunities for his career growth and tracking the same

To help him understand his scope of improvement and to appreciate his improvements and achievements.

Based upon the inputs received through 1-O-1 meetings and skip level meetings, current roles and responsibilities, strengths and weaknesses, concerns and aspirations of each employee in the group is discussed. Steps to ensure resolution are discussed and tracked till closure.

Quarterly Role Planning Meeting

Program Manager conducts weekly team meeting in which he informs the any company or group level update, status of the project, ensure teams participation in risks and issues discussion, shares appreciation etc. This ensures that there is an open communication channel between the team and the Program Manager and Program Manager is aware of all the minute things of the project and the team.

Program Manager Weekly Team Meeting

18

Appreciations can be in any form like Customer Feedback, High Ownership, Technical Acumen, Solving critical issue, Mentoring, Individual Excellence, Innovative Thinking, Customer Value Creation, Support, Best Practice Implementation, Best Practice Suggestion, Good contribution to CoDe, Initiative etc. Recognition and appreciations are also tracked for each team on monthly basis.

Celebrations and Appreciations

Apart from the above monthly celebrations, a quarterly event is organized for all the teams in the group in which the Group Lead addresses the team and various fun events, games are organized. In this event, apart from prizes, technical awards are presented. In the last 1 year, 2 events were conducted within office premises and 2 events were conducted outside. Team enjoys such events and connects to people outside their project team. This helps in building team cohesiveness.

The positive impacts of the above practices include:

Reduction of dis-satisfaction among the employees Team feels more connected to the Management Establishment of a formal communication channel/medium and information flow in both the directions Resolution of problems under management’s control Proper escalation of problems to the other support groups, as applicable

Quarterly Meet - Group Lead addressal and Fun Events

Take away “Let’s be pro-active than Reactive”;

“Let’s own it” and “Let’s manage it rather than accepting it”

Pooja Gandhi PMP is currently associated with Aricent as Senior Engineering Project Manager/Program

Manager with 12+ years of industry experience in the field of Telecom Software including wireless

technologies like 2G, 3G etc for Tier-1 OEMs like NSN. She is in management role since past 5+ years in the

capacity of Project Management and Program Management. Currently handling projects in various

domains like Location Based Solutions, Platform Development, IMS and Optical Transport Networks”

Reference::

*Source: CMI (Chartered Management Institute) Survey November 2009; CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning. Annual survey report 2010; CIPD Employee Outlook. Year Review Summer 2010 References for Research and Study- The Challenge of Retaining Top Talent: The Workforce Attrition Crisis By B. Lynn Ware, Ph.D., and Bruce Fern

About Author

19

Successful Project Outcome with Prudent Feasibility Study

By Kanav Chauhan

One of the crucial segments of the project life cycle is feasibility study which is undertaken by all

types of businesses, teams or projects in one form or the other. The better the feasibility study

lesser the chances of failure of the project. It is like laying the foundation stone of the building.

Better the foundation laid, better the strength and shape you can give to your project.

Objective- Key Components- Benefits of Feasibility Study

The objective of the feasibility study is the identification of one or more solutions that meets the specified business needs.

When there is uncertainty about the desired outcome being delivered by the proposed solution, some clarifications can definitely be achieved by conducting the proper and systematic feasibility study.

Main criteria to judge the feasibility are the cost required and the value to be attained at each stage of the project in order to move ahead with the project.

Various stages of feasibility study

Conceptual stage is the initial stage when the study of

what the client expects with regards to the system

implementation is carried out.

The approach which

contains key attributes

as-

What are the possible target markets for the proposed product of project

Who are the competitors in this market and how good they are established

How will the our product differentiate from those of its competitors

Which are the areas where feasibility has to concentrate knowing the SWOT analysis

Where are the results leading us to

‘TELOS’

T Technical feasibility

E Economic feasibility

L Legal feasibility

O Operational feasibility

S Scheduling feasibility

T

E

L

O

S

Key Areas for Questioning

Elaboration stage is the one where the designing of the

system based on the outcome of the analysis of the

initial study is done.

20

Construction Stage is defining the requirements of the

system iteratively on the basis of the development.

Implementation Stage is the stage since the agreement

was made with the client in the initial stages of the study

so the finally the proposed solution is implemented in the

client location.

Key

Learning’s

The feasibility study should very clearly and strongly support its recommendations The report submitted should have very clear explanation of the result achieved The recommendations that it wants to provide should be easily understood and

should be in line with the objective of feasibility study

An important tool for the client towards fast decision making process

Project Management in a LEAN Way

By Visukumar Gopal PMP®

LEAN is a Strategy, Philosophy, and Leadership

Approach for operating in a Superior Way. LEAN

thinking is a powerful methodology that can help to

maximize the Real Value. LEAN Principles and Tools

are very much applicable in the Project Management

Process. Many tools of LEAN can be used and

Principles can be followed as part of Project

Management Profession.

Constancy of

Purpose

Respect for

People

Pursuit of

Perfection

LEAN

Way

Kanav Chauhan currently working as Associate Consultant with TCS, she has done MBA in operations stream and has

total 14yr + experience. Core area of expertise is Telecom and has worked on the Greenfield projects in Telecom

infrastructure domain. Earlier experience involves working with Reliance Communication ,UTstarcom (AN US based

OEM for Telecom)and ISPs .Have managed clients like TATA , Bharti Airtel ,Bhutan Telecom ,Sri Lanka Telecom ,Nokia

Siemens Networks etc .Her core strength is strong communication management and the team handling .

She is fond of reading and wants to do doctorate in Management. Other hobbies are exploring the new

places, meeting new people and have a dream to go on world tour.

About Author

21

The following three Principles are foundation of any

projects to start in a LEAN way:

Constancy of Purpose - Any project which we want to

do should have a Constancy of Purpose. During

initiation, we need to set the mindset of all the

project stakeholders to complete the project

successfully, and expectations need to be set and all

should agree to go in a Unified Direction.

Respect for People – It allows bringing full potential

of the team members throughout the project duration.

Even small ideas need to be explored in non-critical

environment, which helps people to build the level of

confidence.

Pursuit of Perfection – It helps to refine the

deliverables more and more accurately and meet the

requirements to full extent and beyond the

expectations also.

PLANNING

New initiatives should be given a room to seize the

opportunity to make a difference in project

deliverables. Proactive Behavior helps in planning

things in an effective way and helps both project team

and individual’s commitment to deliver in a well-

disciplined way.

LEAN is not for fixing People; it is more helpful to

fix the Process and influence the Behavioral

Change.

Always

remember

From the implementation point-of-view, the following

practices can be followed:

EXECUTION

During Execution phase, project team starts

delivering as per the Customer Expectation.

Voice of Customer (VoC)

VoC gives and explains the business process and

expectations of customers very clearly. Most of the

time, VoC is interpreted so as to get the feedback

from the customer. If we follow the Proactive

Behavior while listening to the customer, then his

requirements become crystal clear to us.

While working in a project with multi-

vendors/function teams, we need to understand their

challenges and constraints by getting into their shoes.

System Thinking

This System Thinking helps us avoid unnecessary

communication like heated arguments and reduce the

waste of utilizing the communication sources such as

email and telephone. Once the perspective about the

requirements and functions of the stakeholders are

understood, it helps us to deliver the project

deliverables with Quality at the Source during the

execution phase of the project.

22

Piy

ush

Govil

PM

P®

CONTROL

During the Control phase, if we observe how things

are moving within the project, which depends upon

the progress, we can set the work to flow and

customers can pull the value from the next

upstream activity. This stabilized Flow/Pull

mechanism helps in an easy way to control and

monitor the project.

CLOSE

In the Close phase, we can see the Culture Change

along with Lessons Learned. The strong foundation

in the Initiation phase, Behavior change in the

planning phase, Perspective clearance in the

execution phase, Flow /Pull mechanism in the

control phase help us to build a culture change

during the close phase of the projects. Culture is

the cap stone of the LEAN principles pyramid.

-Flow/Pull

-Culture

-Voice of Customer

-System Thinking

-Proactive

Behaviour

PLANNING

EXECUTION

CLOSE

CONTROL

Some of the LEAN Tools that can be used are as follows:

PLANNING/ESTIMATION

LEAN tools such as Pareto, Cause and Effect analysis have already been used in the Project Management practice. There are a few other LEAN tools which can be used in the effective Project Management.

TAKT Time is the one that helps the project manager during the planning phase of the project to identify the available time for production per day to meet the customer demand.

While doing estimation, we calculate the hours of effort of a person to complete the project. This tool helps us to calculate tiny task deliverables on

time, which can be attributed to effort calculation:

TAKT Time = Available time for production per day

Customer demand in that time

EXECUTION

Heijunka: This tool is more useful in load balancing during the execution phase of the project. It actually helps in leveling of task flow and delivers as per the customer’s demand in small batches to result in

optimum resource utilization.

There are two types of Heijunka:

Leveling of production by the number of tasks

Leveling of production by task

severity/customer’s need

PokaYoke: is more useful in doing execution. While developing and producing the deliverables; simple, failsafe methods which prevent mistakes from being made or from becoming defects known as PokaYoke.

Planning/Estimation

TAKT Time

Execution

Heijunka

PokaYoke

Kaizen

Control

Kanban

Kaizen

Close

Kaizen

23

It helps in the following three ways:

Eliminate the cause of an error at the source.

Detects an error being made/developed/produced.

Detects an error soon after it has been

made/developed/produced, before it reaches the

next operation/level.

CONTROL

During the control phase of the project, Kanban can be used to monitor the task completion. This signal system helps us to perform priority-wise task allocation. Different systems can be used for this signaling mechanism, which is an effective way of monitoring in the control phase.

CLOSE

Kaizen tool can be used in the execution,

control, and close phases of the most project

types, because Kaizen means continuous

improvement. As per the LEAN principle, pursuit

of perfection drives to the Kaizen event.

Whenever required, a small group of people

gather and brainstorm in a structured approach

on possible improvements. This tool helps us to

take ideas to innovation.

Take away

Marrying LEAN Principles & Tools along with project management will increase the project success rate and will also improve the efficiency, productivity, and on time completion of the project.

LEAN and Project Management have their own tools and techniques, which can be collaborated and effectively implemented for Project Organization’s improved performance.

About Author

Special thanks to Innodata Inc Team for volunteering their valuable time to leverage their expertise in Proof Reading!

Thanks to Nitin N Singh to facilitate this task.

Visukumar Gopal is a Versatile Practitioner, Energetic Coach, Corporate Trainer and Public Speaker, who

is passionate about transforming individuals, teams and organizations into improving their Process,

Project management, Operation practices and Delivering Business value.

He has over 17+ years of professional experience in IT and Non-IT. He is a certified Project Management

Professional (PMP), LEAN Six Sigma. He served with MNCs like CITIBANK, GE, and DATA ACCESS and

currently with SYNTEL - CEO’s Office as Practice Manager and leading strategic initiatives.

Ms. Shipra Pokhriyal (Chief Copy Editor- STM)

Mr. Sandeep Kumar Bacheti (Group Manager- Editorial)

24

Project Leadership: A Way to Become a Program or Portfolio Manager

By Ajaibir Singh PMP®

It is always easier to stick with the status quo and

manage projects as they have been managed before---

utilizing old techniques that everyone is expected to

use. However, it may not be beneficial for the long-

term growth of the organization. It is much more

challenging to step out into a new arena and change

the way people think about teams and projects. For a

project manager, this could mean taking

accountability as a responsible team and moving

forward as if the project is going to be rewarded. The

advantage to use a new paradigm is that organizations

can change overnight if there is enough passion to

move forward.

In the past, project management was seen not as a

proactive approach, but as a restrictive one, because

of the antiquated management techniques that were

being used. However, if we create highly effective

teams and develop proactive projects, then it will not

only change our industry, but also our values to an

organization: we will go from being an added expense

to being a competitive necessity.

When we discuss project management and project

leadership, the first question that arises is: are we

talking about the same thing? The answer is no, we

are not. The term management came on its own

during the industrial revolution. This was a period

during which the thinking of the entire population

underwent a fundamental change. The work

environment moved from consisting of a small group

of people (usually a family) working in a subsistent

process to that of a large group of people whose work

was overseen by an organization. The organization

needed to develop tools and techniques to get the

work done economically, efficiently, and as quickly as

possible, and the response to this need was the

creation of the management techniques that we still

use today. These techniques revolve around

measuring productivity and motivating individuals to

produce more in a short period of time. However, the

motivation techniques used today are very different

than those originally used during the industrial

revolution, and there are far more standards and

requirements to be adhered to than in the past.

As organizations become leaner, project managers are asked to manage their projects in a more dynamic way. A project manager must be passionate and involved enough to inspire the entire team to get behind the endeavor and work to its final, successful conclusion. While working through this process, he or she must manage internal and external stakeholders, finances, quality customer service, and the risk and implications thereof. In many ways, a large project can be like a small business. It can redefine markets and change the course of business on a regular basis.

This entrepreneurial role requires the project manager to move out of dealing with the standard forms and documents and into a larger world of running the equivalent of a small company. Within the larger organizational structures, this is nothing new. Several project managers run projects the size of Fortune 500 companies. The difference is that these project managers do not use management techniques but rely more on leadership. This is because, the projects are so large that they cannot deal with all of the workers on an individual basis and require a leadership role to control and execute a project of this size. One of the reasons that the term management is still used is because “leadership” is difficult to define and evaluate. Developing leadership takes time and energy and is very difficult to quantify, especially over the short run. Management techniques are designed to be easy to quantify and direct, and are therefore easy to manage. If an individual truly wishes to be a project leader, it is a long road which requires a tremendous amount of learning by practice and is a process that is very difficult to document.

The Qualities of Leadership

The most rudimentary distinction between leadership

and management is that a manager is given a series

of tasks that he or she must get done by working with

other people. On the other hand, a leader has a

vision and must achieve that vision by working

through other people and bringing them on board

with that process. When bringing these individuals on

board, the leader recognizes that each individual will

either have an interest or lack of interest in

25

supporting this vision, and part of this leader’s requirement is to move all of those individuals from the uninterested to the more interested or active processes. Leadership is a quality hard to measure. There are

hundreds of books claiming to be able to describe

exactly what leadership is and tell how to embody

leadership qualities. I do not believe that the essence

of real leadership can be captured in a book.

However, if pressed to define leadership, I would say

that a leader is an individual who inspires, cajoles,

encourages, threatens, cheerleads, and serves a group

of people to get a specific task or series of tasks done.

The difference is that in the end, the group would feel

that they “did it themselves” rather than that they

were led.

This is a very different leadership style than what is

Without vision, the end is never in sight.

Without a clear understanding of where to go, a

project leader is like a ship without a compass. As a

project leader, it is important not only to be able to

see the end place, but also to understand why this

project is important---tying back to the corporate

strategies and being able to describe this vision to

the entire team. Making sure that the project is on

time and moving in the right direction becomes one

of the things that the project leader does almost

unconsciously to inspire the team. If the project

leader is unsure of the vision or it is unclear, the

project team will recognize that and may react

poorly.

practiced in most organizations,

but it is exceedingly useful in

guiding project teams to achieve

their ultimate effectiveness. It

takes the emphasis off the project

leader and shifts it to the project

team. When a project manager is

able to serve his or her team, then

he or she will lead that team much

better. This takes most leadership

ideas and turns them around. This

is a leader who is down in the

trenches as well as out in front,

with his or her team working

through the problems, inspiring

them as they go, and pushing the

credit down to them instead of

expecting to get all the kudos.

Although this article argues that the emphasis needs

to be shifted from the individual project leader to the

team, it is important to recognize that the project

leader must fulfill several prerequisites before he or

she is able to provide good leadership and focus on

the team. Although there are certainly many other

prerequisites, the following are vital as a starting

point:

• Vision • Mission • Values • Trust • Teamwork • Expectations

Vision

Mission is the framework onto which leaders build

the team.

There is a distinct difference between vision and

mission. Vision is the intellectual understanding of

the endpoint and includes the “where” and the

“what” of what needs to be done. The mission is the

tactical process that has been agreed upon by the

group. A good project leader understands that these

need to be agreed upon ahead of time and checked

Mission

26

back on throughout the project, giving stability to the

organization.

Creating an agreed-upon standard process and then

following the standard process throughout the entire

project gives the team a great deal of stability and

allows them to feel comfortable during a possibly

uncomfortable process. It also reassures them that

even though things may be changing, there are certain

tried and true areas that remain the same.

Values serve as the map that leaders follow.

If a project leader’s values revolve around getting

ahead at all costs and using the team to increase his

or her own power or influence, he or she may succeed

for a short period. A good set of values focused

correctly can be one of the project leader’s most

powerful tools. This is not necessarily something that

can be defined and taught; it has to be an internal

understanding within the individual himself or herself.

However, this does not mean that one has to be born

with this internal understanding realizing that sooner

or later the team will recognize the values of their

leader can be a powerful incentive for change within

that leader--especially in those individuals who truly

want to lead.

Values

Trust is the key to true teamwork.

Once a project manager understands what the final

goal is, he or she has developed a mission to achieve

that goal, and has aligned himself or herself well with

his or her values. He or she must build and then retain

the trust of the team. This trust cannot simply

Trust

be given, it must be earned and

developed over time. It does not take

long for most team members to decide

whether or how much they trust the

leader. Trust is a relatively simple

concept to deal with, but it can be lost

so quickly that a project leader must

guard against its loss at every stage of

the project. Once the project team has

lost trust, it is doubly difficult to get it

back, and substantial amounts of time,

effort, and resources will be lost through

in-fighting and power issues because of

this breach of trust.

Passion

Without passion, all the rest is lost.

No true leader can succeed without passion. Many

people can manage teams and get things done, but

without a true passion for whatever activity you are in,

leadership seldom happens. An individual can have

good values, a spectacular dream, and a plan for

getting it done, but without the passion to carry it

through, it may sit on the shelf as an unrealized idea.

Passion is the fuel that moves a leader forward. Many

individuals who meet leaders for the first time are

astounded at the energy and determination that these

individuals have for their specific cause. Passion is the

fuel and removes the barriers from the project.

Most project leaders recognize that creating passion

about an ordinary project can be difficult. To

accomplish this, most project leaders do not focus on

An asset of knowledge can be grown multifold with your true Networking skills.

- Piyush Govil PMP®

27

the project itself, but become passionate about the

process as well as about the individuals doing the

work. The project leader shows that he or she is

interested not only in the individual team members

and their abilities but also in how to help them do

their jobs better as well as in how they can all work

better together as a team. Once this kind of passion

gets ignited, work becomes more fun and teams have

a tendency to build into higher performing

organizations than expected.

Team Work

“Teamwork” is a misused term.

A true team should understand not only its own jobs,

but also that it is committed to and has a sense of

accountability for the entire organization. The team

members should support each other, working together

proactively to achieve the expected goals. Most team

members can work together but do not have the

commitment or trust necessary to truly work as a

team.

The goal should be to create a collaborative process

that brings about results.

For the project leader, it is vital to understand the

difference between a group of people simply working

together and a truly unified team. Most project

managers have not experienced true teamwork.

Teamwork is one of the most overused words in the

business vocabulary. As industries are becoming more

competitive and the Internet as well as electronic media

are creating a “flat world” for all organizations, it

becomes harder and harder to find strategic

differentiators between them. Although many

organizations will promote ideas about developing

better teamwork, in reality, superior teamwork is a

strategic advantage for an organization. However, most

organizations do not invest the time and effort needed

to develop this teamwork.

project leader understands how to develop and build

teams and then point them in the direction that they

need to go.

Once they have gained that

experience, they are able to

recognized and encourage that

teamwork relatively quickly the

next time. A project leader

recognizes that each individual

person has his or her own

motivating factors. Each one of

those factors gives some

potential advantage to the

project. Utilizing those

individuals in a team dynamic

can make even the most

difficult project seem relatively

straightforward and quite

enjoyable.

A team can get a tremendous

amount of work done if the

Expectations

A tool to create greatness

Finally, a project leader must understand that what

expectations he or she has, which will be achieved in

the long run. So as a project leader, whether you

Networking is the media, to leverage and share your expertise within the community.

- Piyush Govil PMP®

- 28

expect your team to work in a secure manner or you

expect your team not to get the job done, chances are

that they will! However, if a project leader makes a

positive public statement about their team but then

makes a negative (but true) statement to someone else,

the stronger of the two beliefs has a tendency to win out

in the end.

Conclusion

In conclusion, project managers need to start looking at

themselves as leaders of high-performing teams and

expecting team members to become high-performing

individuals.

However, this expectation alone is not enough to

create superior teamwork. Outstanding performance

cannot be mandated. This still requires an

organization to recognize that teamwork takes time

to develop and must be supported among individuals

who are given time to work through communication,

knowledge, and trust. Once this has been achieved, a

high-performing team can be one of the more

powerful ways of strategically outmaneuvering in an

increasingly competitive environment. Once a project

leader has developed a high-performing team, he

must continue to keep that trust and utilize that team

appropriately, developing a vision to help the team

understand where it should be going, to reinforce the

mission, and to inspire them with a passion to get the

project done.

Reference:

1. Title: Project Leadership, Authors Timothy J. Kloppenborg, Arthur Shriberg,

Jayashree Venkatraman (Publisher Management Concepts, 2003)

2. Moving from Project Management to Project Leadership: A Practical Guide to Leading Groups (Industrial Innovation) by Camper Bull (Apr 29,

2010)

Latest technology trends and effective Project Management

By Brijesh Sharma PMP®

Every now and then, in every industry we have

disruptive innovations which change the way we operate

and manage our business model. Cell Phones destroyed

the pager market, IPod’s wiped out walkman, Digital

camera made film cameras business unviable.

How Cloud computing will

change the way we manage

projects?

Ajaibir Singh is working as Delivery Portfolio Manager in IBM India and has 20 years of experience . He has

served as the catalyst for successful completion of Program, Project and Technical Services initiatives in

the ITES /IT/Construction Industry, complimented by Project & Program Management Certification, BE,

M.B.A Degree from F.M.S, Delhi University and certified Lead Auditor for ISO-27001.

About Author

29

Organizations are looking out for these innovations so

that they are not only ready to sustain their business but

also to take advantage of these technologies and change

the way they manage their business.

What do we understand by “Cloud computing”?

Cloud computing’s simplest example would be using any

free email services on the internet- you don’t own any

product; you don’t know where the servers of email

services are located; you just use the email services

over the internet. Cloud computing uses the same

concept. There is no need to buy the servers, software

licenses or expensive high tech hardware. You just need

to have dummy computers and an internet connection to

access the storage space and applications which is

hosted by a cloud hosting company and you just pay for

the services which you have subscribed to.

Although the concept of cloud computing was there in

industry for more than a decade but it was not until

recently that cloud computing has become the buzz

word in the industry. Some of the reasons could be

Lack of any major company providing end to end cloud solution

Technology was not fully available to support cloud computing

Companies were not fully aware of benefits of using cloud computing and

Companies considered cloud as risky proposition in long term prospective unsure about its sustainability

Since the cloud concept is different from the way

we have used technology till now, the way we

manage technology and handle projects will also

change drastically.

Some of the benefits which can make cloud

computing a destructive force are:

1. Reduction in Total cost of ownership

Cloud computing dramatically affects your costing

model

model, effectively reducing server installation cost

and software and associated license cost as well as

time required for server setup.

As shown in fig. b page 31, for organizations going for

cloud computing, the TCO (total cost of ownership)

which includes cost of servers & software,

Fun with Cloud Computing…

GOD! Listen to my prayers,

My job can only be saved, if I am

able to collect some of my

competitor’s data… who cares even if

some of my critical data drains of…

Piyush Govil PMP®

30

installation and operating costs will reduce drastically in

later phases as compared to cost of ownership of

infrastructure.

FIG b. Depiction of cost difference between cloud implementation and present technology implementation

(Note: data is hypothetical used only to depict the concept)

2. More control to clients post deployment

Since the application will be deployed on the cloud

hosted by cloud solution providers, these companies

would give more control to end customers in terms of

expanding or reducing number of subscribers, up

gradation of software and modification of application in

terms of providing more features.

3. Energy savings

Companies won’t be requiring server ownership resulting

in reduction of number of servers which will help in

reduction of energy consumption and to some extent

release of greenhouse gases.

4. Ease of access of applications

Employee can share and access data online from

anywhere with internet connection and doesn’t require

development of any company specific platform.

5. Short lead time for setting up IT in an organization

Organizations using cloud computing can quickly get into

subscriber base contract with cloud service rendering

companies and can also rapidly ramp up their subscriber

base which reduces their lead time to market by

considerable amount.

Some concerns about adopting Cloud

computing solutions are:

1. Data privacy issue

Cloud computing uses shared service and

space issue where one server is used for

sharing service and storage space for

multiple companies. This poses threat of

theft of sensitive information for firms not

only by other firms but also by hackers.

2. Loss to firms with existing IT systems

If a firm already has an IT system in place,

then moving to cloud technology means

transitioning from fixed cost structure to

variable cost structure of fee per

subscriber basis. This can be true for large

firms having huge fixed technology assets

such as servers, intranet etc. and large number of

employees subscribing to cloud services.

3. Slow response time

The response time of application installed locally or

on company’s private network will always be faster

than applications installed on cloud. This might

reduce the efficiency of their workforce.

4. Huge investment cost for some firm

Cloud computing solution is based on internet

connectivity from organization to cloud service

provider. If firms have to transfer huge amount to

data or information to/from cloud, then it will

require large investment in setting up high speed

internet connectivity preferably using optical cable

increases cost for firms.

5. Less visibility of risks

Cloud service providers are reluctant to share the

information about the specification and location of

their infrastructure. This increases the risks majorly

in two cases, first being that the firm is not aware of

the security features such as firewall, antivirus etc.

applied to protect their critical data. Second, the

backup plan in case of any nature or manmade

calamity on the server hosting facility, will there be

31

6. Reluctant to adopt to new technology

Cloud computing is still under testing mode when it

comes to large scale implementation and hence firms

are reluctant to rely on it as they are not sure whether

these technologies will be sustainable in long term or

not.

7. Project Development and Migration to client

environment

Companies can go for private clouds which are just such

as public clouds (which we call cloud computing) but a

private cloud can be accessed and used by only those

organization which it was setup for. This may be a

challenge as the migration of data from private cloud to

another cloud could pose a risk as these clouds could

have been developed and managed by different

companies such as Amazon, Microsoft or Google with

different underlying software and compatibility issues.

Role of a project manager

a. From implementer to selector

The role of a project manager will change from

implementer to selector of not only technology but also

vendor of technology. Project manager will bridge the

gap between the business and technology requirement

for client he would be having utmost understanding of

client business needs. Project manager can suggest the

type of technology, scale of licenses and vendors for

different phases of client business.

b. Understanding of quadruple constraint

The biggest concern for companies implementing cloud

solution is data privacy. Since in cloud computing, many

organizations are sharing the software, services, memory

space on license basis, there is possibility of theft of

sensitive information which can be anything from

financial information to launching of new product by

competitor. It will become project manager

responsibility to include risk management in triple

constraint of scope, schedule and cost. Understanding,

managing and communicating to stakeholders regarding

various risks pertaining to cloud computing such as data

privacy, security and up gradation will become a crucial

part of project management activities.

c. Decision making role whether to adopt Cloud computing or not

Project managers should communicate the post

project implementation benefits and cons to all

stakeholders so that stakeholders are able to decide

whether to adopt cloud computing and modify the

scale and spending on cloud solution.

d. More emphasis on Communication and Collaboration

About 70-90% of project manager time is

concentrated around communication with

stakeholders. Managing virtual teams over different

geographical on new cloud technology would be

challenging. However, new tools will need to be

specifically developed for report or dashboard

generation depicting the team progress and thereby

saving project manager’s time on communication

and providing more visibility to stakeholders on

project progress.

Opportunities for project manager

a. Small to Mid size companies adopting Project Management

Many smaller companies, which were reluctant to

go for project management due to cost constraint,

will now take advantage of lower cost and will

invest heavily in projects. Understanding the

business needs, challenges and motivation behind

implementation of projects for small size

companies would be required by project manager.

b. Development of new technologies for Cloud

At present companies are investing huge sums of

capital in developing cloud technologies. Tools and

techniques developed specially for managing

projects on cloud would be required on large scale.

Since Cloud technologies are still evolving, project

managers can custom design these tools according

to their needs which could later become industry

standard.

32

c. Abundant resources but scarce Project Managers for Cloud

With the slowdown of business growth, organizations are

increasing their expenditure on new projects directed

towards better visibility in their business, reorganizing

of business and product portfolio to provide better

control over cost. With other resources being available

in abundance mostly contributed by slowdown in global

economies, the demand for project managers is bound

to increase which can provide more growth opportunities

from them.

. Challenges for a project manager

c. Understanding of underlying technologies nitty-gritty

Emphasis of understanding of underlying technology

would increase which would be essential for

identification of risks, challenges and opportunities in

new environment of cloud computing. This would be

required for devising strategy for handling of data

privacy issue which is a major concern for companies

while adopting cloud based solutions.

d. Contract terms with Vendor in Cloud

Presently, costing of most contracts is based on set of

historical data or pre-determined factors such as number

of users etc. As limited data is available for cloud,

project managers would have to evaluate new factors

when selecting and awarding contracts to vendors.

Activities related to security, scalability and

compatibility of application on cloud, formulation of

contract terms including new pricing model and project

scope would be required in great extent.

a. Regulatory Compliance across business and countries

Application on cloud can be accessed via internet

from anywhere, so understanding the various

regulatory measures of different countries would

be essential for project managers before starting

the project.

For e.g. there can be few countries which would

not allow public data especially related to finances

such as pension, defense projects to be accessed

by anyone on internet due to threat of cyber

attack and leaking of sensitive information in

wrong hands.

b. Increase in project manager’s time towards maintenance activities

With the increase in subscriber base per

application, project manager’s involvement in

maintenance of application would increase. As

number of users would change dynamically,

involvement of project manager in support

activities would also be dynamic in nature that

would pose challenge for time allocation to

activities.

Upcoming Events:

1. An evening with IBM – 5th October;2012, Noida

2. PMI North India Chapter AGM – 6th October’2012 (kindly vote on survey for Chapter ByLaws by 5th of October’2012)

No Quiz

In this edition due to no

participation in last two

editions. We shall

introduce again based

on member’s feedback

and interest.

33

Conclusion

For any technology to radically change the way we manage our projects, it’s availability along with project

managers who knows how to use and take benefit of it is essential. Project managers should have understanding

of pros and cons of cloud technologies, latest offering in cloud computing along with knowledge of core

competencies of different cloud vendors so as to provide best possible solution to their clients.

Special focus should be on risk management, cost benefit analysis and vendor management when it comes to

managing projects in cloud environment.

As Cloud technology is growing at a tremendous rate and would grow by three fold in next three to four years,

there is an increasing need of project managers who can manage projects in these technologies. Are we ready for

this change in project management?

Brijesh Sharma is pursuing MBA in Operations specialization at Symbiosis Institute Of Business Management, Pune.In 2012,I cleared two international certifications, Six Sigma Black Belt from ASQ (certification number : 12679) and Project Management Professional (PMP No. 1508554). I completed my Bachelor of Technology in computer science and engineering in 2007. I have 3.5 years of work exp. in Accenture and Infosys where I worked in projects in various domains such as manufacturing, FMCG, retail etc.I enjoying playing sports and watching documentaries.

About Author

Past Events

Seminar on Project Management - Structuring Projects to Ensure Success September 1, 2012

PMI North India Chapter recently organized an event on project management for the MBA students and

faculty members of Asia Pacific Institute of Management (AIM) in Delhi on 1 September. This was followed by

a five-hour knowledge-sharing chapter event at AIM for chapter members and corporates on “Structuring

Projects to Ensure Success”. The event was sponsored by AIM and was publicized in the institute’s corporate

circle through mass mailing, roadside banners, posters, and media coverage.

Nearly 200 guests from

industry, government,

and former and present

chapter members

attended the session.

34

The chapter program was inaugurated by

Shri A.K. Shrivastava, chairman, AIM, along with PMI

North India chapter president Mr. Manoj K Gupta.

Institute director Dr. D. K Batra, Director AIM gave the

welcome speech, followed by a detailed presentation on

infrastructure and services at AIM by the institute’s

dean, Prof. B. D. Singh. Mr. Gupta gave a presentation

on North India Chapter, its mandate, an update on the

chapter’s work in the past 2-3 years, new initiatives,

and upcoming events.

Speakers

Mr. Deepak Mehtani, deputy director, UI Inc.,

Mr. Kumar Saurabh, senior manager, Samsung Engineering

Ms. Shalini Lamba Independent Project Mgmt Consultant

Mr. Asim Prasad Chief Manager, GAIL Ltd

Mr. Chetan Mathur, Project Delivery Manager Nokia Siemens

Prof. Vivek Kumar Professor of Operations Management AIM

Chapter Volunteers

Ms. Nidhi Sharda

Mr. Jiji George

Ms. Pooja Gandhi

Mr. Prasoon Chaturvedi

Mr. Naveen Singh

Special Thanks

Mr. Pritam Gautam – VP Technology, PMINIC

Ms. Sarita Talwar – VP Membership, PMINIC

Program Manager

Mr. Piyush Govil – VP Communications, PMINIC

35

Busy Registration Desk

Packed Seminar Hall

Lamp Lighting Ceremony

High Tea & Networking

Team Editorial

Kumar Saurabh

Pooja Gandhi

Nirmallya Kar

Nitin N Singh

Prashant Malhotra

Jitin Bindlish

Abhijit B. Kumar

Hemant Seigell

PMI North India Chapter

http://www.pminorthindia.org

[email protected]

Editorial Team welcomes Articles,

Case Studies, White Papers, etc. for

their ongoing endeavor.

We always welcome suggestions or

ideas for improvement.

Kindly submit at

[email protected]

[email protected]

Avail PMI Economic

Exception Scheme; renew

your membership now at

reduced rate.

Hurry!

Disclaimer:

“The views and opinions expressed in all articles

are those of the authors and do not necessarily

reflect the official opinion of PMI - North India

Chapter and Editorial Team"

36

Manoj Gupta

Piyush Govil