Author: Rich Garling

Successful results-driven experience in IT program/project management, focusing on collaborating with multiple businesses and IT workstreams to define detailed business process requirements into workable enterprise software solutions for retail, finance, pharmaceutical, and inventory processes. A successful proven track record in leading cross-functional international teams of project managers while managing expectations and delivering projects of greater than $10M within stakeholder expectations. Provided an in-depth knowledge of SDLC using Agile and Waterfall project management methodologies (Scrum Master (SMC)), MS IT Management/Project Management (AMU)), and a talent for developing business requirements delivering workable technology solutions. Rich holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Science in Information Technology/Project Management from American Military University. He is currently a Project Manager III for Bradford Hammacher Group in Niles, IL/

True Patriotism

A little passage I read recently…

“True patriots know that America was founded in freedom–freedom to speak, to worship, to choose whatever path to happiness suits us best–but that with freedom comes an equal responsibility to country, community and family

True patriots believe that freedom from responsibility is selfishness, freedom from sacrifice is cowardice, freedom from tolerance is prejudice, freedom from stewardship is exploitation, and freedom from compassion is cruelty. True patriots know that we should measure our nation’s progress by whether every citizen has a fair shot to advance on the basis of talent and merit, and by the degree to which we promote the common success of all our citizens. Freedom without an equal chance to enjoy it is no freedom at all. True patriots believe it is immoral when inequality of opportunity leads to and perpetuates inequality itself. On a truly level playing field, some will do much better than others because we are not all equally talented or motivated. But when the tilt of the field keeps even the talented from ever winning, that is unfair and un-American. True patriots believe that we should measure a citizen’s worth by contribution to country and community, not by wealth or power–that those whom America has benefited most should contribute in proportion to their good fortune–and that serving others should be esteemed more highly than serving self. These were the ideals of the founders of our country and the defenders of our union. They have made America unique and necessary from the beginning. And now it is time for them to inspire a new generation of Americans.

Eric Liu; Nick Hanauer (2008-01-15). The True Patriot (pp. 20-22). Sasquatch Books. Kindle Edition.

These guys make a lot of sense. It’s not about how much you make, rather it’s about how much you contribute to the overall community.

5 Ways to Managing Your Time – Some Ideas

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a few more hours in your day? Many project managers would love it! Sometimes it feels like you can’t get everything done. What you need to do is manage your time better. Here are some suggestions:

5 Ways To Manage Your Time

You’ll get more done in less time!

#1. Timesheets
Think about where your time is going. Do you really know what you work during the day? Are you tracking how you use your time? Timesheets can show you exactly how much time you spend on many activities such as creating reports or responding to emails. There’s the 15 minute break to check Facebook that turns into 30-45 minutes…

Tracking your time lets you know where you’ve been and where it’s going. This will help you to better prioritize your time and make you more conscious when it comes to managing your time.

#2. Task lists
Get yourself going in the morning by organizing what your priorities should be the day before. Organizing task lists helps this. A clear list will tell you precisely what you need to be working on as soon as you walk in the office. If you add in a column for dates it will also tell you what needs to be completed by when, which is a huge help when it comes to scheduling the top priority tasks first.

The task list feature can be organized using many of the different apps available today on a smart phone. On my iPhone I use the reminders feature, calendar, and an app called SuperNote. What is nice about these is I can dictate by voice the task information right away and not have to try to remember details I didn’t write down. I make it a point not to try to commit everything to memory.

#3. Milestones
Milestones are a good way to manage your time as they put focus on the an intermediate goal. Putting milestones on your project plan forces you to review them regularly with your team. You can be sure to align an upcoming deadline with the milestone objective to a date on your task list.

Most milestones relate to project tasks but you can also create personal milestones on the apps discussed in item #2 to remind you about scheduled dates for other tasks on your task list.

#4. Automation
As Project Managers preparing reports is one of the tasks that takes the most time in any project. Getting status updates from team members, organizing the data, checking it, formatting it, reviewing statistics, then checking it again and sending it to the stakeholders. It never seems to end.

Automation of the information inflow can help to make these tasks easier. Set up your report templates to pull data from MS Project (or whatever PM software you’re using) so it shows the status in real-time. Automate in the beginning make for one less job for you to do.

#5. Saying no!
Just say no. You cannot do everything and a good PM knows how to delegate. And you don’t have to do everything. Many times you can’t take on more work. And if a stakeholder is insistent, ask your the project sponsor what they want you to drop. What top priority items should be moved to the bottom of the priority list?”

It isn’t possible to get everything done, especially if it’s out-of-scope items. Negotiate priorities with your stakeholders so that your projects aren’t overloaded, they’ll appreciate that you’re being realistic about what can be done in the time available.

Try these 5 tips for managing your time, you’ll be pleased to see how many extra hours you can find in a day. You’ll also be pleased with how much stress you have let go because you’ll be better organized to get tasks done in a timely manner.

WBS Explained

WBS stands for “Work Breakdown Structure”. Simply put, it delineates the work required to complete the project. A WBS makes a Project Managers life easier, and it ensures a complete understanding of the work required to complete the task at hand. A WBS is the delineation of the scope into work packages and activities required to complete successfully. It represents total project scope as well as product scope.

I have witnessed during my time as a Project Manager many a practicing project manager not using the WBS correctly or at all. Many find it burdensome; others think it’s useless, and others just do not understand how it. What’s worse is when management sees no value in the exercise of putting a WBS together.

A WBS is easy to understand and quite easy to create. It has immense effectiveness serving as an anchor for many a successful completed project. There are numerous publications that can guide you in developing a WBS. I will focus on the importance of a WBS to the project and some detail on writing one.

A WBS takes time, thought, and collaboration. It should have a method for identifying the hierarchy in either a hierarchical chart or as an outline. It should include a WBS Dictionary that explains in detail how to complete each package/activity. The dictionary spells out the expectation of the deliverable.

  • A WBS can receive information from:
    • The scope management plan
    • The scope statement
    • The requirements document
  • The WBS is related to:
    • WBS dictionary
    • Scope baseline
  • It provides information to
    • Activity list
    • Activity cost estimates
    • Project budget
    • Risk register
    • Accepted deliverables

What is the difference between a deliverable and activity?
A deliverable is the result or outcome of series of activities. The activity represents a small portion of the total work package and deliverable.

Why is WBS important?

  1. WBS is a hierarchical representation of the scope of a project; it represents the total scope of work required.
    • A WBS represents the total scope and hence it can act as a checklist for the project.
  2. A Project Manager can easily see the completed work and what is work remains in the project.
    • The deliverable represented by the WBS is easily monitored and tracked.
    • Each successive level of WBS provides a basis for more precise estimation of remaining effort, duration, resources and cost in which to complete the project.
  3. A WBS can serve as a template for future similar projects – specifically for repetitive processes thus making future projects easier and faster to plan.
  4. Activities are easily assigned to team members making accountability easier.

A WBS can reduce project risk.

Remember:

  1. A WBS uses nouns and adjectives to define work.
  2. The key is that we are talking about the nouns, the (mostly) tangible objects created through project work.
  3. Always put deliverables in the first couple of levels
  4. Only move from deliverables to tasks when you’ve pushed down several levels, and have gotten to packages that are reasonably small and estimable.
  5. The tasks to be performed are always in support of a deliverable.

Estimating Duration of Activities in your project

Estimating duration in a project is a daunting task that is usually a best guestimate based on past history. If everyone worked eight hours per day, which is usual in the U.S., but not in India (usually a 9 hour day), and they were 100% productive for all eight hours, you could calculate duration by taking the number of effort hours, divided by the number of resources. So, if one person is assigned a task activity that is estimated at 80 hours, and she works eight hours per day, the duration would be (80 hours / 8 hours per day) = 10 days. Similarly, if four people are assigned to the same task activity full time, the duration would be divided by 4 giving you 2.5 days (10 days/4 = 2.5 days).
However, no one really works a perfect 8 or 9 hours. Our work day is generally broken up into pieces in which other activities such as answering emails, lunch, meetings, other assigned activities, etc. A better estimate would use the 80-20 rule in which 20% of a resources time is eaten up by activities not related to the assigned work. Therefore, I would suggest using the following process to determine duration:
1. Estimate the productive hours per day
A rule of thumb I was taught is using a factor of 6.5 productive hours per day helps you take into consideration those other activities such as answering emails, lunch, meetings, other assigned activities, etc. Using the above example we find our answer for an activity estimated at 80 hours / 6.5 hours = 13 days for one resource, while four resources would take 3 days.
2. Determine the number of resources needed for each activity
Knowing that the more resources you apply to activities, the earlier you can complete the activities, obviously two resources may be able to finish an activity faster than one person, but it may not necessarily be twice as fast. At some point, additional resources will not make the activity finish any sooner, and could possibly, make it go longer.
3. Determine available workdays
You need to take into account holidays, vacations and training, especially when using international resources. This was not included in the example from number one above, since this non-project time can be scheduled and accounted for in advance. On a twelve-month project, team members will be out for vacation days, holidays (US and international) will need to be accounted for in your schedule. To make your schedule more accurate, take into account any days that you know your team will not be available to work on the project.
4. Determine resource time allocation
Account for any resources that are not full time. Keep in mind that a resource whose allocated only 50% of his time to your project will take twice as long to do any individual activity. Using our previous example, you have an activity that has an estimated effort of 80 hours, and you assign a resource that is only allocated 50% to your project, the resulting duration will be at least 25 days for one resource, if not more. For four resources our duration would be 7 days.
5. Calculate delays and lag-times
Some activities have a small number of effort hours, but a long duration. For instance, a deliverable approval may take one hour, but might take two weeks to schedule the meeting.
6. Determine constraints
When building your schedule, identify the tasks that need to be done sequentially and those that can be done in parallel. If you have enough resources, all of the parallel activities can be done in parallel, but only if you have the right resources available at the right time. You may have activities that can be be done in parallel, but you have only one resource to them, thus they have to be done sequentially.
7. Document assumptions
Most importantly, you will never know all the details of a project. As such, it is important to document all the assumptions you are making along with the estimate. The more you communicate with your stakeholders on how you arrived at your conclusions, the better able they will understand your plan and be more willing to accept it.

Using the above suggestions should help make estimating durations for your projects much easier.

It’s the Messsage stupid, not the money

Ok, do you actually think that politicians weren’t being bought before the Supreme Court made current laws unconstitutional?

All the SC did was to make it easier to spend and buy politicians. There are no laws that have ever been able to stop people from buying influence. Only people with good morals and strong character can prevent corruption.

We, the Joe six packs of the world, have to use the one power we have available to ourselves…vote in huge numbers!

Remember, it’s the message that wins elections, not money. Money just helps to distribute the message easier. But no matter how much your message is distributed, if people don’t like what you’re saying, they won’t buy it!

Nothing ever seems to change, yet nothing remains the same

Article in Sunday NYT’s noted that even with the law and Obama’s rules saying they can’t take a lobbying job, they continue to do so…The Capitol’s Spinning Door Accelerates and Law Doesn’t End Revolving Door. And they wonder why no one believes them at the end of the day.

Then there is Al Qaeda trying to claim they no longer support jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria. Uh Uh, yeah right, I believe ya.

I see that the Democrats are raising more money from fund raising than the Republicans, bu the far right is increasing it’s grip on the GOP by out fundraising the establishment arm of their party…Fund-Raising by G.O.P. Rebels Outpaces Party Establishment…Democrats Outraise Republicans Eyeing Congress in 2014 U.S. Race

Some States say they have a budget surplus. And they want to give it back in the form of tax cuts…it’s a safe bet you and I won’t see it. Perhaps they should give it to the people who will most likely produce jobs with it…yeah the middle class. You probably thought I was going to say the wealthy or the poor didn’t ya? Nope, the middle class will spend it on things they need like wash machines or cars, you know, things that produce demand which produces jobs and so on.

I see that California and the western part of the country is running out of water. Watch out Great Lakes…

And what a blow out by Seattle…now if only the other team had bothered to show up it may have been a close game.

There is more snow predicted for Tuesday/Wednesday. Just what we need. Looking at 3″-6″ of the white stuff. I guess that one good thing from all this snow is that it extends our winter freeze which kills all the bad bugs and viruses that affect our plants and vegetables we try to grow every year.

I bought a compost barrel last fall hoping to be able to provide some high quality compost for the raised garden. From what I read this thing was supposed to be able to cook all winter long. Apparently I did something wrong…it’s frozen solid right now. Oh well, I will wait till spring and learn how to do it correctly.

Happy Trails everyone.

Inequality for all

I was watching Robert Reich’s Inequality for All with some friends the other day. One of my friends kept commenting on how Reich was doing a great job of describing the problem but he wasn’t providing a solution. As I thought about it I realized that Reich was providing the answer. We, meaning you and I, have to collectively decide that our labor is worth something. We have to make business understand that without us they will go out of business. We are their customers and if we cannot buy their products then they will go out of business. Raise wages or lower prices to make it affordable to live. Quit giving exorbitant pay increases to executives while claiming that high labor costs is keeping them from being competitive in a world market. Emulate the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s when all shared and prospered.

Problems with ACA site

To my friends Hal and Mike, as someone who has worked the industry for many years, I understand the difference in site scalability and know that in software development anything can and will go wrong. That doesn’t explain why they didn’t consider the risk of millions visiting the site nor of the possibility of a dos attack. Also, why the requirement to create an account before you could shop? Ecommerce sites in general don’t require setting up an account before shopping. And also, why so many vendors involved with the development of the site. It seems as if there was not one main project manager in charge. It just seems that an administration so tech savvy would not have allowed for such a site to have been built knowing the ramifications politically and managerially.

Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration can be defined as continuously improving and detailing a plan as more detail and specific information and more accurate estimates become available as the project progresses, and thereby producing more accurate and complete plans that result from successive iterations of the planning process.

So, what does that really mean. In practice it basically means that we don’t have enough information when we first start to plan a project to be able to reliably plan it out in detail. There are too many unknowns. There are too many unanswered questions. And we won’t be able to answer them until we get to that point in the project.

Every project is progressively elaborated. Think about it. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. It is a unique enterprise created to solve a problem or fulfill a need. By it’s very nature of having never been done before within the organization there will be many unknowns and unanswered questions.

Because of the uniqueness in every project, iteration becomes the rule. In my experience in software development projects, we knew from the get go that there would be lots of changes as we moved forward. Things change. In a nutshell: we had to be ready to accept change. What we initially thought would work one way turned out to be impractical. Something new would be created by an outside party that did a better job than what we had originally designed. In software or web development, change is the rule, not the exception.

So what do you do? Well here are some suggestions:

Be sure to communicate with all the team leaders and stakeholders if change becomes inevitable. Make them a part of process of determining what, how, where, and when that change will occur. Make sure they understand why it’s occurring.

Make sure you gather reactions to any change that needs to occur. Not gathering all feedback can be disastrous because that one piece of information you neglected to get could have been the deciding factor on whether change took affect.

Remember that change will not be readily accepted. Especially in companies where many of the employees have been doing the same thing for many years. They live by “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude. They’re comfortable with the way things are. But most likely they’re really just afraid of the unknown, which is what your proposed change will bring, at least in their minds. Prepare for continual reporting of progress and delays so everyone knows how the change is advancing and what successes have been made. Be prepared to enforce these changes though, especially when some try to revert to old habits.

Be sure to create the means for people to express their thoughts and feelings. Be supportive, show empathy. By hearing people out and allowing them to participate in the development of the needed change you are allowing them ownership. You create buy in by the very people who are affected and need to accept this change. People who feel they have ownership in the process are more apt to want to see it succeed then those who don’t.

Most importantly, be sure to create a plan to handle this change using project management techniques, such as risk assessments, stakeholder analysis and progress measurements. But don’t be afraid of change, just be prepared for it.