Assuming Authority

“You want me to do what?” I incredulously asked my manager.

I had just been asked to take on a project for another region. The client relationship was not good. The team was made up of hotshot specialists. Everyone was over-committed and they were making promises to the client they couldn’t keep. No one had a plan other than “everyone do what they can and we will fix the mistakes after the client is in production” which isn’t a plan at all.

The amicable client was working off of blind trust and promises that couldn’t be validated. Poorly planned deadlines were being missed and the client had no idea what we were doing or if it would be completed on time. An arbitrary completion timeframe of 6 weeks had been communicated on the last client call.

The team and I had never worked together. There was no established trust to provide us with a frame of reference. They weren’t in the mood to be managed by someone they didn’t know. After our first team meeting, it was clear to me that we couldn’t meet the client’s goals with this team. I needed to add a skilled resource that could step in and complete the work on time.

On our next team call, I asked if I could bring in another resource who had experience with similar projects. Since they had many other equally disorganized projects, they quickly agreed that this would be a good idea. Without them realizing it, I had just moved them out of the way and brought in someone that I knew could complete the work on time. I asked them to continue to meet with us to provide background and insight on this client. Instead of them being offended for being pushed to the side, they thanked me for removing work from their schedule.

We completed the project on time. The new resource was hailed as a rock star. The relationship with the client was much improved.

I realized then that authority can be stated or it can be assumed. The client didn’t need to know about our internal issues. They needed a quality product delivered on time. The impetus for the authority assumed came from a commitment to put the client first. I now had another tool to put into the Dan the Project Manager Man tool belt – Authority Assumed is Authority Earned.

About the Author:

Dan Vickers PMP
Project Manager/Program Manager/Implementation Leader
CS STARS LLC (a Marsh Company)

Dan Vickers, a project leader at CS STARS, has worked with a wide variety of clients in multiple industries: Banking, Insurance, Staffing, and Manufacturing. He began in project management in 1996, was certified as a PMP in 2003, and has led hundreds of projects from start to finish. He works in a fast-moving, multi-client, multi-team environment delivering risk management software solutions to clients across the country at CS STARS. He currently performs program management for numerous projects in an effort to efficiently impact the organization’s bottom line. In addition, he leads project management webinars to other project managers from around the world. Managing multiple projects simultaneously and effectively is his way of life.

A hospital’s yearlong initiative to improve care coordination for underserved patients is benefiting from a dose of project management that brings structure, organization and accountability. Simple, strategic Post-it notes and iterative approaches are part of the prescription. It’s all new medicine for the doctors leading the effort.

It’s a common lament among physicians. Portland, Ore.-based internists Honora Englander, M.D., and Devan Kansagara, M.D., say that their medical school training did not include much in the way of business or management education.

But earlier this year, part of that gap was remedied when they took an Oregon Health and Science University graduate level course on clinical research management that introduced a variety of project management principles and techniques. Both doctors are now using their project management knowledge to help fill a critical gap of another kind — the gap in health care services for medically underserved patients. In November, OHSU launched Care Transitions Innovation, a yearlong project to coordinate services for 200 uninsured or Medicaid patients post discharge from the hospital.

Englander is the medical director of Care Transitions Innovation, which is known as C-TraIn, and an assistant professor of medicine at OHSU. Kansagara is the co-principal investigator for C-TraIn, an assistant professor of medicine at OHSU and a staff physician at a nearby Veterans Affairs hospital. Together, they will study how C-TraIn interventions affect hospital utilization and quality of care for a challenging patient population compared with a control group of similar patients not in the program.

The physicians and Jeff Oltmann, PMP, the OHSU management faculty member who taught the course, spoke with Projects@Work to discuss how project management underpins their efforts to improve care transitions so patients thrive at home and are not readmitted.

Talking the Stakeholders’ Language

Englander says the course and its project management techniques came at just the right time. Although she had developed C-TraIn’s basics and had won some support from key leaders prior, she still had a lot of communicating to do with stakeholders funding the program. “OHSU is supporting the program, and it’s quite a leap for the university to invest so much,” she says. “It was important to show the organization how we anticipate problems and to be clear about where we [hope to] succeed. The stakeholder management techniques I learned were very valuable so that we could manage expectations.”

Read the rest at Projects@Work.

The Frog

A project manager was out walking in the countryside one day when a frog called out to him. He bent down, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog poked its head out of his pocket and said, "Hey, if you kiss me I'll turn me back into a beautiful princess, and I'll stay with you for a week as your mistress."

The project manager took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it, and put it back into his pocket.

The frog called out once more, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for as long as you wish and do absolutely anything that you want." Again the Project manager took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and put it back.

Finally, the frog demanded, "What's the matter? You can turn me back into a beautiful princess, and I'll stay with you for ever and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?"

The project manager replied, "Understand, I'm a project manager. I simply don't have time for a girlfriend. But a talking frog...that's cool."

Credits go to this site for your Wednesday chuckle. Happy hump day!

Taking Charge

“This is the worst project I have ever been on!” screamed Ricardo. “I question your product, your processes and your company’s ability to implement this type of project. I am so disgusted that I would cancel my contract if I could.”

I just sat there for a moment. I wasn’t sure if I should apologize, defend our decisions or storm off in a rage. I did the one thing that I could do at that moment -- I politely excused myself from the meeting before I said something that would disparage my client or my company.

I was astonished. We had done what we could to placate this client and maybe that was our mistake. We gave in on a few small pieces of work that weren’t in the contract. The client continued to want more work included and to change the work that was already completed.

The client and the project were out of control. We needed to salvage the project and the relationship.

The next day I called Ricardo and got his voicemail. I needed to speak with him and assure him that our decisions were valid, that our product was capable, and that our ability to implement our product was based on years of experience. Ricardo had raised his voice with me before but he would always apologize right away. This time there was no apology.

His project team each called me individually and apologized for his actions. They knew he had been unreasonable and wanted to convey their trust in our work and our product.

Ricardo had embarrassed himself and wasn’t able to admit it. I took charge and continued with the implementation with the rest of his team. He chose not to attend anymore of our calls. There was a time approaching where he would need to re-engage with the project.

I finally reached him by phone. “Ricardo, it’s Dan. I want to assure you that we are here to meet your project needs but that we are bound by the contract. I understand there are things you need in place in order to use our product. Let’s discuss what is reasonable and fair.” And so the conversation went. There were no apologies or excuses. We briefly discussed the needs, issues, and the approach to complete the project.

Many weeks after the project was complete, I was onsite and as I walked past Ricardo’s office he ran to the door to greet me. It was all the apology that I needed from him.

About the Author:

Dan Vickers PMP
Project Manager/Program Manager/Implementation Leader
CS STARS LLC (a Marsh Company)

Dan Vickers, a project leader at CS STARS, has worked with a wide variety of clients in multiple industries: Banking, Insurance, Staffing, and Manufacturing. He began in project management in 1996, was certified as a PMP in 2003, and has led hundreds of projects from start to finish. He works in a fast-moving, multi-client, multi-team environment delivering risk management software solutions to clients across the country at CS STARS. He currently performs program management for numerous projects in an effort to efficiently impact the organization’s bottom line. In addition, he leads project management webinars to other project managers from around the world. Managing multiple projects simultaneously and effectively is his way of life.

As we near the holiday season it’s customary to remember everything we have to be thankful for -- including when it comes to our careers as project managers.

We can be thankful for being in a growing field with many opportunities, for instance. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook handbook for 2010-2011 predicts a brighter future for project managers than for many other fields. Employment of computer and information systems managers is expected to grow 17 percent over the 2008-18 decade, which is faster than the average for all occupations. New applications of technology in the workplace will continue to drive demand for workers, fueling the need for more managers, according to the BLS.

Another, more immediate reason to be thankful is for the many skills and competencies we take for granted that we’ve learned through project management, skills that take the stress out of planning for just about anything.

One great example is the year-end holiday push with all the entertaining, shopping, cooking, traveling and visiting it entails. This year, due to economic pressures, project managers may well face the same dilemma at home that they face at work -- to do more with less. Luckily, PMs have the skills and experience to make holiday planning a celebration of family and not a celebration of stress.

Bringing PM planning home Cheetah Learning style really isn’t much different from how it’s done on the job, when you think of it.

Call a family meeting to discuss the plan for the holidays as a group. If you involve your family in the holiday planning, and share with them your goal to create a different kind of holiday, you’ll have a team that is working toward a goal that they were part of developing.

Agree on the key ideas and factors that are most important to you and your family. Is it doing things inexpensively? Entertaining? Visiting friends and family? Creating a memorable experience?

Invite all family members to brainstorm all the things you can do to make this holiday season memorable, fun, and inexpensive -- according to whatever factors matter most to you all. Here’s some thought starters:

Create family gift certificates. The best gift certificates are the ones that are created by the people who know us best. A gift certificate for one month of cleaning the kitty litter box or a coupon for no homework hassles can be really funny and will last long after the holiday is over.

Connect to the community. During the time that you would normally be opening gifts, give the gift of your time. Go as a family or group of friends and work together at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter for a few hours.

Keep reading...

(Anyone else notice there's a lot of talk about horses around here?... maybe it's just me...)

How would you like to be responsible for an IT project in support of a world-famous sporting event? Much of the hardware and software will be chosen, supplied and installed by vendors that are also event sponsors (selected to meet long-term site needs, even when in conflict with the event requirements). The site covers 600 acres, and though major upgrades to the infrastructure are needed, you can't get access to the site until 19 days before going live. Oh, and the whole world will be watching. Want to sign up?

IT organizations are expected to complete projects on time, on budget and with high quality -- but often don't.

These challenges, and others, faced IT support for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG), the World Cup for horses. The 2010 WEG was held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky. As the first WEG held outside Europe, it had to be flawless. But the IT challenges were monumental:

No playbook. The WEG has no formal procedures or process to share lessons learned from past events. (The Olympics, in contrast, have standardized IT operating procedures.) Unlike European WEGs, the 2010 games were held in a single location, necessitating versatile reuse of event sites, which added logistical complexity.

Limited infrastructure. Although power, cell coverage and Internet access were upgraded prior to the WEG, existing systems were still insufficient for an event of this size. WEG IT expanded the Horse Park's network to include most of the park. It was partitioned to support credit card transactions, large-photo transmission and broadcast television without interfering with the ground crew and security radio-frequency networks. Seventy generators provided additional power during the games.

Decentralized organization.The WEG relied heavily on volunteers, contractors, vendors and sponsors. IT systems facilitated information-sharing across these semi-autonomous silos.

Unique requirements. Jumping events were held in one ring, requiring reconfiguration of physical jumps between events. Corresponding power and fiber-optic cables had to be physically relocated; new ditches were dug before each event, and cables laid and buried. For the first time, GPS devices were attached to saddles to track horses on the 100-mile cross-country endurance ride. If a horse stopped moving, help could be dispatched quickly. In addition, judges and spectators could monitor the progress and relative standings of the horses, even while they were out of sight.

Scheduling and tracking 5,000 volunteers was complicated because many worked only two or three days. All systems had to be highly intuitive, requiring virtually no training.

Continue Reading...

Horse Sense

“Dan, you don’t have much time to make your project goals this month, much less your goals for the year. I don’t know what you can do to change the direction you are heading. You must close the project with Tucson Staffing!”

“Bill, I understand the importance of this project, but the odds are stacked against me. The decision to go into production is not even in Karen’s hands over there. It is with their top brass. What am I supposed to do?”

“You better think of something. You are making me and the office look bad. Not closing this project this month would be devastating.”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do…I think,” I dejectedly said to myself.

Back at my desk I was trying to determine what to do. I worried not so much about how I got into this thicket, but how I was going to get out.

Before the meeting on Thursday Bill needlessly reminded me that we had to close this project.

“Hi, Karen!”

“Bill. Dan. How are you today?”

“Great,” I replied. “How is your day going?”

“To be honest, it isn’t going very well. It’s no secret to you that we are interested in changing vendors. It has little to do with you or the project services you provide.”

I glanced at Bill.

“In fact,” she continued, “the reason we are looking to change is because Susan, my manager, has some personal reasons for wanting to shelve this project.”

“What can we do to help?”

“If you could help me with my quarter-end reports, it would save me some embarrassment and maybe help this project to close.”

“Okay. How does this save you some embarrassment?” I asked.

“I mistakenly reported the 1st quarter numbers to our actuary instead of the 2nd quarter numbers. If I get this quarter’s numbers early then I will have extra time to balance my reports and explain the differences.”

“How did this become part of the issue of possibly not closing the project?”

“Because, Dan, I let my management think that this was your fault and not mine.”

Taken aback, I arched my eyebrows and took a deep breath. I hid my displeasure and moved forward.

“I see,” I said calmly. “We can get the reports to you quickly this quarter and I’ll ensure that we provide the ongoing reports 2 days earlier than planned at no additional cost.”

“Thanks, Dan. I’m sorry for this.”

“Dan,” Bill said afterwards, “Karen was willing to let you, and our company, take the hit for her mistake. You handled yourself well and probably saved the project. I appreciate what you did. Forgive me?”

“Gladly, Bill. Now about my pay increase…”

“You are really feeling your oats today, Dan. Can we discuss this next Friday?”

I smiled. It was good to be back in greener pastures.

About the Author:

Dan Vickers PMP
Project Manager/Program Manager/Implementation Leader
CS STARS LLC (a Marsh Company)

Dan Vickers, a project leader at CS STARS, has worked with a wide variety of clients in multiple industries: Banking, Insurance, Staffing, and Manufacturing. He began in project management in 1996, was certified as a PMP in 2003, and has led hundreds of projects from start to finish. He works in a fast-moving, multi-client, multi-team environment delivering risk management software solutions to clients across the country at CS STARS. He currently performs program management for numerous projects in an effort to efficiently impact the organization’s bottom line. In addition, he leads project management webinars to other project managers from around the world. Managing multiple projects simultaneously and effectively is his way of life.

Journyx ProjectXecute 8.7 Launches; Advanced Resource Allocation System Improves Efficiency in Customers’ Workflow

Software Provides Expanded Communication Platform; Offers Enriched Coordination with Microsoft Project

Journyx today announces the launch of Journyx ProjectXecute 8.7, the on-demand software solution that unites project planning with resource management, helping companies execute projects successfully every time. Improved resource allocation functionality in ProjectXecute 8.7 allows project managers to directly assign resources to projects or send a requisition to a resource manager, thus removing bottlenecks and increasing overall productivity.

New features within Journyx ProjectXecute 8.7:

Resource Requisition Handling
• Project managers can improve efficiency by automating the workflow of obtaining resources for their projects.
• Management can control the amount of access a project manager has in assigning resources versus requesting resources from department managers.

Expanded Communication for Estimate Changes
• More information is provided on timeline changes for more accurate completion predictions.
• Open communication between managers and resources is boosted by requiring comments when remaining work estimates are changed.
• Comment history, content and author data is tracked. Project managers can see reasons for changes and respond with instructions.

Advanced Microsoft Project™ Coordination
• Integration of Journyx ProjectXecute 8.7 and Journyx Projectlink 8.7 provides a custom role with a single login.
• A complete technology upgrade to the .NET platform, this update does not require plug-ins for Microsoft Project.

Full Compliance with Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) Requirements
• ProjectXecute 8.7 includes a variety of options for requiring documentation of any changes made to saved and/or submitted records.
• Reporting by user shows when daily time is either complete or late, thereby demonstrating compliance with DCAA’s ‘Daily Time Entry Requirement’.

Journyx Reportlink™ Excel-based Module for Powerful Data Reporting and Analysis
• Customers can build customized dashboards with an unlimited number of graphical report templates that are sharable within the organization.
• Dynamic sync allows customers to pull and refresh data in real-time based on their roles and access in the Journyx system.
• Using a familiar program, there’s little to no additional learning curve to analyze data and produce informative reports.

“Collecting time spent on tasks and projects can give companies tremendous insight into what has been done in the past, and what people are working on today,” said Journyx CEO Curt Finch. “However, once companies achieve this, the natural next step is to plan for what they will be working on in the future. Doing this requires a forward-planning look that simple time collection does not provide. ProjectXecute solves this problem.”

To learn more about Journyx ProjectXecute 8.7, visit www.projectxecute.com.

Journyx Timesheet 8.7 Launches; Gives Customers More Tools to Achieve Higher Levels of Profitability

Software Provides Full DCAA Compliance for Government Contractors; ReportLink Seamlessly Syncs Timesheet with Excel

Journyx today announces the launch of Journyx Timesheet 8.7, the timesheet and expense management solution that enables organizations to automate management of employee time and expenses for project control, customer invoicing, and payroll processing. New features in this robust upgrade of the Journyx flagship software solution give customers all the data they need to make more informed decisions to achieve business profitability.

New features within Journyx Timesheet 8.7:

Reportlink™: Syncs Directly with Microsoft Excel, Provides Powerful Data Reporting and Analysis
• Customers can build customized dashboards with an unlimited number of graphically represented report templates that are sharable within the organization.
• Using a familiar program, there’s little to no additional learning curve to analyze data and produce informative reports.
• Dynamic sync allows customers to pull and refresh data in real-time. Less time is spent collecting Timesheet data and more time can be spent working on projects that are profitable to the customer’s business.

Full Compliance with Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) Requirements
• Timesheet 8.7 forces users to document any changes made to saved records. User records are locked each time the sheet is saved; changes to saved records require documentation by the user.
• Reporting by user shows when daily time is either complete or late, thereby demonstrating compliance with DCAA’s ‘Daily Time Entry Requirement’.
• Additional features: separate header and footer records for time; expense and mileage sheets; customizable daily reminders and printable timesheets to meet organizational compliance requirements.

“As Mayvin continued to expand its footprint in the government contracting environment, we required a time-tracking system with timekeeping controls, segregation of cost requirements, and approval processes that comply with DCAA regulations,” said Mayvin Chief Financial Officer, Victor Pirowski. “Journyx Timesheet provides a cost-efficient system that is highly user friendly, online accessible and auditable, which helps us ensure full DCAA compliance.”

Improved Efficiency of Billing and Payroll Processes
• Redesigned Organization Chart feature makes changing organizational structure as simple as drag and drop. Bottom-up approval processes and top-down reporting group structures are automatically created.
• The Organizational Compliance Viewer allows insight into which parts of the organization have submitted time and expense reports, and where compliance issues need attention.
• Administrators and managers can notify users and approvers to complete their timesheet directly from the compliance viewer.

Flexible and Fast User Interface
• Time and expense entry screens rebuilt to maximize screen space.
• New caching technologies make page loading faster and more responsive.
• Similar functions and tools grouped together, making navigation as intuitive as possible.

“At Journyx, our primary goal is making our customers more profitable,” said Journyx CEO Curt Finch. “We never stop thinking of new features and new tools we can create to increase corporate profitability. Journyx Timesheet 8.7 is crafted with this goal in mind. We are confident that our customers will appreciate this and will reap the rewards.”

To learn more about Journyx Timesheet 8.7, visit http://www.journyx.com/products/timesheet/.

Project management technology has been around for years now, so the problem of project execution must be basically solved, right? Wrong. The Standish Group has found that 68% of technology projects failed in 2009. Does this mean that project management solutions are just a waste of time?

The truth is that project management technology is only as good as the processes that support it. The only way to improve project execution rates is to look at the root causes of project failure and implement the necessary changes that will allow the technology to work. Here are a few of the top ways to accomplish this in your organization.

Problem #1 – Ignorance of True Per-Project Cost

We all know that people hate to track their time for a variety of reasons. Most find it to be a tedious exercise and believe that it takes time away from more important work. Others might feel suspicious that management wants to keep an eye on them. One of the biggest reasons is often that employees simply do not know what the time data will be used for or why they are tracking it in the first place, so why bother? This is a problem because time data can provide cost insight that you cannot obtain any other way.

If you do not know how much time your team members are spending on various projects, you do not really know how much the projects cost. A project that is a large resource drain can be much more expensive than the numbers in the budget indicate. Not only that, but when the boss tells you to cut 10% somewhere, how will you know where to cut if you do not know where your profit lies? Having employees track their time by project – and more specifically, by task – gives you the knowledge necessary to make the right decisions. In this case, it is not enough to have a time tracking software solution. You must also obtain widespread employee adoption, because the system is only as good as the data entered into it. Usually this can be achieved with an explanation of how the data will benefit the organization or some kind of rewards system. It is also essential to integrate this data with project status and cost reports for analysis purposes.

Problem #2 – Poor Resource Management...

Read the rest of the article at ICPM.

The end of the year is often jam-packed at both work and home, and New Year's resolutions either fall by the wayside or get restricted to the same ones every year - lose weight, exercise more and get healthier. While these are certainly important goals, getting a better job or keeping the one you have is right up there. With that in mind, it might be smart to get a jump on some New Year's resolutions for your career that might just help make your annual performance report a little brighter.

1. Think ROI

Your goals need to inspire you, your team -- and your management. As you look ahead; make sure that your goals are clearly aligned with corporate strategy and have a return on investment that you can demonstrate. Develop a mix of both short-term goals that can provide early wins and longer-term goals that add value for the company. When thinking ROI, don't forget that the goals you propose can be opportunities for team members to learn something new, demonstrate a new skill or otherwise develop their talents in a way that benefits them and the company. Thinking ROI in depth is also a valuable habit to develop when requesting new investments in technology to stay ahead of the curve. A well-thought-out proposal that spells out the advantages in terms of time, money, manpower and customer satisfaction has a much better chance for approval.

2. Track time and dollars

Dollars always matter, but when times are tough, they matter even more. It's hard to make decisions about where to cut costs if management can't clearly identify where they are. When you can show your bosses exactly where you are, both in terms of time allocated and actual dollars spent on a mission-critical project, you're speaking their language. To be truly fluent, though, you should be prepared to show how additional savings can be generated with the least impact on results.

3. Reconsider deadlines... Read the rest of this story at PC World.

To strengthen its management and oversight capabilities, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center turned to project management. But it needed a model that suited the academic research environment. It created a unique application of processes and tools developed in collaboration with the researchers, rooted in simplified practices, and dedicated to flexibility and applicability. The results have been remarkable.

The National Science Foundation’s Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation and Prediction (CMOP) was founded in 2006 to seek better understanding of the complex regions where land becomes ocean. Multidisciplinary researchers are looking for ways to predict the impact of natural forces and human activities near the coast. The focus is on the Columbia River Estuary, near the center’s host institution of Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, Ore.

Ranging from studying genes in microorganisms in red tides to using radar to measure internal waves in the river, the work at CMOP is groundbreaking in that the goal is to anticipate catastrophic changes to the coastal margins rather than react to them. It requires unprecedented integration among scientific, social and education fields, creating research “collaboratories,” says Amy Johnson, CMOP managing director.

Lofty goals to be sure...

Read the rest of the article at Projects@Work.

Companies that sell services to other businesses—data management, software development or IT consultancies, for example—often track time in order to automate invoicing, but they may be overlooking the other benefits these systems can provide. Real-time access to relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as ‘percent billable’ and ‘completed vs. estimated’ can give early warnings of project problems and lead your company to faster growth and more profitability.

What’s a KPI?

A key performance indicator is ‘key,’ which means that your KPI has to be one of a very few things that you are measuring which you believe will make a huge difference to your business long-term. In other words, a KPI measures progress toward a strategic goal. If you have 100 KPIs, then you’re not going to be able to use any of them to drive organizational behavior because your company doesn’t have 100 strategic goals. Ten KPIs can be effective, five KPIs are better, and one KPI is ideal.

Martin Luther King Jr. had a morally compelling vision: interracial peace and equality. Your business needs a morally compelling vision as well if you want to hire and maintain the best people. King had a strategy to achieve his vision: nonviolent protest. In his case, a KPI might have been something like ‘number of violent incidents per protester.’ He would have encouraged his organization to reduce that number over time, which would have effectively measured the organization’s success.

The closer you get to a morally compelling vision, a clear strategy and calculable KPIs, the more successful your company will be, all else being equal.

1 - A Quantifiable Indicator

A KPI must be measurable. "Make customers more successful" is not an effective KPI without some way to measure the success of your customers.

It is also important for KPI definitions to remain stable from year to year. For a KPI of "increase utilization rates,” you need to address considerations like whether to measure by hours or by dollars.

2 – Performance Measurement...

Read the rest here.

Journyx Customer Case Study: The Mayvin Consulting Group
Easing the Challenge of Federal DCAA Regulation Compliance

Background
The Mayvin Consulting Group, Inc. – a small, women-owned, veteran-owned consulting firm specializing in program management support services – formerly used Quickbook's Timetracker Service for employee time tracking. As Mayvin expanded its footprint in the government contracting environment, Quickbooks Timetracker Service didn’t provide the managerial controls, customization options, or reporting features needed for Mayvin's proposal efforts or compliance requirements with the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).

“We support federal contracts and need a timekeeping system with timekeeping controls, segregation of cost requirements, and approval processes that comply with DCAA regulations,” said Mayvin Chief Financial Officer, Victor Pirowski. “Journyx Timesheet™ provides a cost-efficient system that is highly user friendly, online accessible, auditable, and has easy options for accounting system interface.”

Solution
“Our employees log their hours on a daily basis in Journyx Timesheet and submit final timesheets twice a month. We have approval plans for supervisors to review submitted timesheets and leave requests, daily reminders for time entry, and we use the Journyx AccountLink interface with our Quickbooks Accounting System. We segregate billable hours from indirect and overhead hours to help us efficiently bill clients, collect costs, and meet government DCAA audit standards.

One hundred percent of the company – every employee, manager and executive in the organization – uses Journyx Timesheet on a daily basis. We collect hours against federal government contracts as well as our overhead accounts, and we are able to track paid time off accrual balances.”

Benefit
“Journyx Timesheet allows us to collect hours in a user-friendly, efficient, and intuitive format that interacts easily with our other accounting systems. It also collects an audit trail for timesheet creation, approvals and allows for user and manager comments. The accounting and billing departments find the custom reports helpful; the reports make booking and billing more efficient than ever before.

We have been able to establish timekeeping rules and enact policies across a geographically dispersed organization. Timesheet allows us to push the burden of time approval and submittal reminders to each employee's direct supervisor, ensuring more accuracy and accountability.”

Learn More

The Mayvin Consulting Group
Journyx
Understanding and Complying with Federal DCAA Regulations

Make your plans now to attend the upcoming Project Times webinar on "5 Critical Components of Project Success" presented by Journyx CEO Curt Finch.

Date/Time: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 - 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST

Cost: $45.00

PMI PDUs: 1

CBAP CDUs: 1 for recertification

Presentation Description: According to a Gartner report, 15% of all technology projects fail because of high cost variance. Another 18% are unsuccessful because they were substantially late. This means 1 in 3 technology projects fail. Why such a dismal success rate? All project managers know this simple fact: Project Success is Difficult. But is it as simple to define what changes are necessary to increase project success? During this webinar we will explore five ways to improve your odds of successfully completing projects on time and on budget.

Register here!

Getting to Sanity

Dan the Project Manager Man was late getting to the train one cold Monday morning. With his mind in overdrive, he began thinking of his chaotic day ahead. He only had 6 projects but to him it felt like 60. Everyone wanted something yesterday – he was behind on getting his time and attendance up to date, he had 3 calls from Friday to return, he had two back-to-back calls starting at 9 a.m., and he was bringing work back to the office that he didn’t get done over the weekend.

The day had not even started yet but already he felt overwhelmed. He needed the insanity to stop. He wanted to be proactive but he felt like he was a firefighter with a dwindling supply of water. He would get a lot done today, but a lot of tasks would remain undone. On top of this, he knew there would be a lot of new work today to add to his list.

Taking a deep breath, he stared out the window of the train, and decided he was going to take control of his schedule. He remembered the day he was hired and hearing his manager say, “I need you to manage projects in a chaotic environment.” Back then, he thought he could bring a sense of calm to these projects. He laughed to himself, “Great job, Dan the Project Manager Man – nothing has changed.”

Now, it was time for a real change – it was time for Dan to get his sanity back. He quickly made a list of his projects. He looked at each project and thought about the most important tasks for each one. He realized after completing the list of things that had to get done today that the list was manageable.

After finishing the last task designated for the day, Dan saw it was only 4:30 p.m. He needed to leave by 5 p.m., so he quickly added his new tasks to his list and re-prioritized it. He now knew what he would focus on tomorrow.

He hopped on the train that evening thinking of other ways he could manage his work. His confidence was gaining speed; he was going home on time and he had an unusual sense of accomplishment.

The temperature had warmed, the sun was shining, and he felt that hope was just over the horizon. He knew he was on the right track and getting back to sanity didn’t seem so far away.

About the Author:
Dan Vickers PMP
Project Manager/Program Manager/Implementation Leader
CS STARS LLC (a Marsh Company)

Dan Vickers, a project leader at CS STARS, has worked with a wide variety of clients in multiple industries: Banking, Insurance, Staffing, and Manufacturing. He began in project management in 1996, was certified as a PMP in 2003, and has led hundreds of projects from start to finish. He works in a fast-moving, multi-client, multi-team environment delivering risk management software solutions to clients across the country at CS STARS. He currently performs program management for numerous projects in an effort to efficiently impact the organization’s bottom line. In addition, he leads project management webinars to other project managers from around the world. Managing multiple projects simultaneously and effectively is his way of life. Dan can be reached at dvickers@csstars.com.

Don't you just love Facebook? Staying in touch with friends, connecting with colleagues, sharing the good news of passing your PMP Exam... what could possibly go wrong?

Karl Richard at ProjectConnections has one idea: "A Project Manager's Facebook Feed."

Happy Friday!

How much time is wise to spend on evaluating project requests? One can see the value in it, but when does it become too much? What if the project requests are never approved - was all of that time a waste? These are questions that are addressed in a great article by Project Times.

One idea proposed by the article is to use agile principles to manage this. The author writes, "Agile principles can best guide us to avoid wasting unnecessary effort on detailed planning, especially when there is a significant potential for requirements or scope flux."

Do you agree?

One More Question

Dan, the mild-mannered Project Manager man, could hear the thunder and see the clouds roll in as he sat in his cubicle atop the 45th floor of the bank building. He had many projects in process and a particular project had begun to languish. What should’ve been a 3 month project was now entering its 5th month. The data provider had made a commitment to a deadline that had passed. Neither the client nor the data provider would return Dan’s calls or emails.

Dan the PM man decided it was time for action. He dialed the client and got voicemail. Then he dialed the data provider again for the 4th time in 3 days. This time he got an answer.

“Hello, this is John.”
“John, this is Dan from PM Pro.”
“Hi Dan, I’ve been meaning to call you, but I’ve been out of the office for the last 4 days.”
“That is okay. If you have a few minutes I have some questions for you.”

We spent the next few minutes getting my questions answered.

“Dan, I’ll get the data files to you this week. I’ll send you an email when we send the data along with the filenames. If that is it then I need to be going.”

Dan knew that he still needed one more question answered. He could not let this call end without the information that he needed. He knew who, what, where and how. But he didn’t know the answer to when.

“John, I appreciate all of the information, but I have one more question. When should we expect the data files?”

Dan knew now that he was pinning John to a commitment.

“Dan, we will have the data files to you by Thursday at 3:00.”
“Thanks John. I will follow up with you at 3:30 on Thursday if the files haven’t arrived.”

Dan smiled, sent an email to his team, and looked out the window just in time to see the sun’s rays breaking through the clouds.

Thanks to our guest author, Dan Vickers. Expect to see him around on a regular basis!

About the Author:
Dan Vickers PMP
Project Manager/Program Manager/Implementation Leader
CS STARS LLC (a Marsh Company)

Dan Vickers, a project leader at CS STARS, has worked with a wide variety of clients in multiple industries: Banking, Insurance, Staffing, and Manufacturing. He began in project management in 1996, was certified as a PMP in 2003, and has led hundreds of projects from start to finish. He works in a fast-moving, multi-client, multi-team environment delivering risk management software solutions to clients across the country at CS STARS. He currently performs program management for numerous projects in an effort to efficiently impact the organization’s bottom line. In addition, he leads project management webinars to other project managers from around the world. Managing multiple projects simultaneously and effectively is his way of life.

Insightful article from Keith Mathis over at PM Hut!

There are four primary audits which may be used: Project management audit, Project performance audit, Pre-project (planning phase) audit, or Post-project (close out phase) audit.

Project Management Audit

A Project Management Audit provides a comprehensive examination of project management performance. This is accomplished through discussions and interviews with the project manager, technical leaders, and a sampling of project team members. You can also use reviews and examinations of project documents. Typically, this is used with larger and long duration projects. This type of audit should be performed quarterly until the project is completed. It is best when performed by an impartial auditor, but may be performed by the project manager or project team.

This audit includes examination of:

*Project work plan and support plans created to guide the project management effort
*Effectiveness of project work plan and support plan implementation
*Oversight of project resource management and task performance
*Oversight of project vendor/contractor management and task performance
*Fulfillment of customer contractual obligations
*Project Performance Audit

A Project Performance Audit shows a detailed examination of the financial and business aspects of the project. Emphasis is on evaluating and confirming the ability of the project to achieve specified objectives. During this audit, earned value analysis is applied, business case elements are reviewed, and project risk management plan is evaluated. This may be done independently or in conjunction with a project management audit.

This audit includes examination of:

Read the rest here...

We're just bursting with pride that the CEO of Journyx, Curt Finch, was asked to byline his own blog over at SoftwareCEO!! Curt's first post is titled "Surefire Ways to Bring Out the Best in Your Staff" and is certain to give any manager some new ideas! Check it out here.

Right now, Curt's blog at SoftwareCEO is titled "Tips from Journyx's CEO" -- we're looking for a more creative blog name and thought we'd turn to you for help! Please leave a comment to this post if you have ideas for what we should name Curt's new blog. If we choose your idea, we will send you a complimentary copy of Curt's book, "All Your Money Won't Another Minute Buy: Valuing Time as a Business Resource". We'll even ask Curt to sign it for you!

Thanks -- can't wait to hear your ideas!

Great article from InfoWorld!

Even in these lean times, where tech budgets are trimmed to the bone, money gets wasted. Companies routinely overspend on software licenses and service-level agreements. It's possible to have too much bandwidth at your disposal and to store too much email on company servers, not to mention the billions of dollars still wasted on paper and ink. Then there's the inevitable project from hell that ends up swirling down the toilet, dragging your precious IT resources behind it.wo

It doesn't have to be this way. Though there's no one-click solution to any of these money wasters, there are ways you can stanch the flow of dollars and use it on the items that will make your IT organization shine. Here are the secrets.

IT's biggest money waster No. 1: Dusty software licenses
Collectively, U.S. companies are paying billions for shelfware -- whether it's software that was never adopted or for employees they no longer have, and often at prices that are higher than what is actually needed. A 2010 IDC survey of midsize and large businesses found that well over half of enterprise applications are underutilized, with anywhere from 25 percent to more than 75 percent of licenses paid for but unused, notes IDC analyst Amy Konar.

"Organizations typically use less than 50 percent of an installed ERP system and are paying significant licensing and maintenance fees for modules and functionality that are not providing value to the business," says Kathryn Douglass, managing partner of IT consultants WillowTree Advisors. "They need to review their named-user licenses and renegotiate agreements to remove unused or duplicate users from licenses. The difference between a 2,000-named-user license and a 1,500-named-user license can easily be $500,000."

Small and midsized businesses may be able to get away with using an Excel spreadsheet and their accounts payable records to true-up their software needs. But larger, more complex operations need enterprise-level software that can track software assets, gauge their use, and optimize the licenses accordingly, says Steve Schmidt, vice president of product management for Flexera Software, maker of application usage management solutions.

Every company should start by collecting information on the software they are paying for and what they actually use, says Schmidt. For many companies, that tends to be a one-time event instead of a continual process. Asset tracking and license optimization need to account for such details as downgrade rights and second-machine use rights. Global companies may have concurrent agreements that allow them to use one license 24/7, shifting from one physical location to another as the day progresses. Even users of cloud apps need to closely monitor their usage levels -- which can be hard to do manually.

"You want to be able to combine that information in an intelligent and automated way so that you can make good decisions about optimizing," Schmidt says.

For large enterprises, the amount of money left on the table is far from trivial. Procter \& Gamble used Flexera's FlexNet Manager Suite to eliminate unnecessary licenses for its Oracle and SAP products, trimming more than $30 million from its annual software budget.

The other option: Ditch those draconian licensing agreements and go open source, says David Wood, CTO for the Jun Group, which distributes video content for companies like Nike, Wal-Mart, and Coca-Cola. Open source software can't solve every problem, but it's come a long way in the past 10 years.

"Outside of certification-driven fields like finance, health care, and the military, most Oracle (and former Sun) customers are overpaying massively for Unix and relational database capacity and features that are never used," says Wood. "The software licenses run to the millions, and once they have built on this foundation, the victims can never escape. The rationale was that you don't entrust a big business infrastructure to open source hippies. It was wrong 10 years ago and it's ludicrous today. Are Google or Facebook running their websites on Solaris or Oracle? I don't think so."

IT's biggest money waster No. 2: The paper chase

Read the rest here...

Have the PMP Exam coming up or are you thinking of taking this step to advance your career? In a 3-part series in CIO magazine, Cornelius Fichtner tells you everything you need to know.

Part 1: Assess Your Eligibility

Part 2: Filling Out the Application

Part 3: Build a Project Study Plan

Great article from Tom Burzinski and Projects@Work.

All IT projects are really business projects in that they are — or should be — about delivering business value, according to former CIO Bob Lewis, author of A Manifesto for 21st Century Information Technology. But that doesn’t let CIOs or PPM executives off the hook.

A number of business and technology surveys this year indicate that companies are once again increasing their investment in IT projects as a way of streamlining operations and enhancing business performance. One survey conducted last month by Skyline Technologies of Green Bay (WI) and the St. Norbert College Survey Center polled several hundred Wisconsin business and technology executives (from mid- and large-size Wisconsin companies) on the value that IT provides their firms.

This survey reported that 65 percent of the respondents are putting substantial and increasing resources towards IT in the next 12 months, with a whopping 91 percent of the respondents calling out IT as a key contributor of improved top- and bottom-line business performance. This same group also sees IT as critical for improved customer service, effective internal and external collaboration, cost control, and in running a quality operation.

The survey respondents (74 percent) believe that while there is considerable perceived value from their IT investments, there is also uncertainty about the actual return on investment (ROI) that IT provides. The survey respondents say they would like to find ways to substantiate IT’s value proposition so they can ensure that additional IT spending is appropriately targeted.

Trying to answer the question “What value does IT brings to my organization?” has been a goal of CEOs going back to the time when computers had vacuum tubes and programmers used punch cards. At one time or another, most CIOs have had to spend late nights and long weekends fabricating elaborate ROI justifications in the hope of convincing their CEOs or CFOs to sign-off on an IT project or next years IT budget without first having to first sacrifice large parts of it on the altar of IT value.

Read the rest here.

How to spot profitability leaks and cost overruns in IT projects before your peers – and then fix them

In the second article in this series, I talked about how you can improve estimates by using time tracking data with a very simple, but non-obvious, technique. In addition to improving estimation capability, time tracking data can make your company more nimble – and more profitable. How does it do this?

If you have real-time, accurate, per-project cost data available to your entire management team at all times, it provides a built-in alert system that tells you if your project is broken. What do I mean by broken?

Here’s an example: If you’ve concluded – using the equation in my last article – that the project you are working on will take 1,000 person-hours to complete, and you’ve spent 500 of those hours so far, how far along should you be? You should be 50 percent done, right? But what if your timesheet system shows that you’re actually only 17 percent done? You have a problem.

Now that you’ve detected the problem much earlier than you otherwise would have, you can take corrective action. You’ve discovered a hidden problem earlier than your peer managers who are not tracking time could have. Now, you can fix the problem more quickly and cheaply.

But, are out-of-control projects really common problems in IT shops?

“Survey Says….” You Have Out of Control Projects

Many of you have probably heard the statistic that 70 percent of IT projects are out of control, over budget or broken. Intuitively, that number doesn’t sound unrealistic to me, even though it is a dismally bad number... Read the rest of the article here.

Our friends at PM Forum have bestowed upon us the honor of selecting Journyx CEO Curt Finch's book for their PM GiveAways™ Program.

Curt's book, "All Your Money Won't Another Minute Buy: Valuing Time as a Business Resource", is based on the principle that all people and all businesses have a right to perform work that the market will reward them for, explains the ways in which a time accounting platform can promote growth and lead a company to higher corporate profitability. It provides corporate executives valuable information on achieving per-person, per-project profitability by being smarter in using time tracking data. The book explains how this data helps increase profitability through payroll, billing, project accounting and regulatory compliance. The book also covers project management, key performance indicators, and more, written for business professionals of all levels. Learn more about the book here.

The DRAWING for 10 lucky winners of a free copy of the book will be held on December 11, 2010. The book will be shipped free of charge to the winners. For rules and to register, visit this link.

PMForum's PM GiveAways™ Program is based on periodic DRAWINGS for free educational and professional project management products and services. PM GiveAways™ will include project management courses, books, conference passes, software and other valuable items. Drawings will be held every few weeks, with the products and services to be given away announced in breaking news articles ahead of time and on PM GiveAways™ web pages. To learn more or to register for drawings for free project management stuff, click here.

Well, what are you waiting for? Enter to win!!!!

Here are some of the latest, top-rated books to help you improve your project management skills:

Scrappy Project Management: The 12 Predictable and Avoidable Pitfalls Every Project Faces -- Projects are MESSY! From the minute the project begins, all manner of changes, surprises and disasters befall them. Unfortunately most of these are PREDICTABLE and AVOIDABLE. Tact and diplomacy can only get you so far in the wild and wacky world of project work. A combination of outrageous creativity, sheer bravado and nerves of steel will serve you far better than any fancy-schmancy Microsoft Project Gantt chart! 'Scrappy Project Management' is about what REALLY happens in the project environment, how to survive it, and how to make sure that your team avoids the predictable and avoidable pitfalls that every project faces.

Breakthrough Technology Project Management, Second Edition (E-Business Solutions) -- Although there are many books of methods and tools in different areas, few books actually give detailed tips and lessons on how to effectively set up and manage projects. Most books on project management devote all their space to specific methods. Breakthrough Technology Project Management, Second Edition provides tangible guidelines through examples and suggestions to help people participate in and manage projects more effectively. The authors' techniques and guidelines have been proven over the past 15 years in courses and counseling. This book is a valuable tool for those working in information systems, engineering, computer science, operations and production, and other environments involving project management.

Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products -- Today, the pace of project management moves faster. Project management needs to become more flexible and far more responsive to customers. Using Agile Project Management (APM), project managers can achieve all these goals without compromising value, quality, or business discipline. In Agile Project Management, Second Edition, renowned agile pioneer Jim Highsmith thoroughly updates his classic guide to APM, extending and refining it to support even the largest projects and organizations. Writing for project leaders, managers, and executives at all levels, Highsmith integrates the best project management, product management, and software development practices into an overall framework designed to support unprecedented speed and mobility. The many topics added in this new edition include incorporating agile values, scaling agile projects, release planning, portfolio governance, and enhancing organizational agility. Project and business leaders will especially appreciate Highsmith’s new coverage of promoting agility through performance measurements based on value, quality, and constraints.

The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Budget Approved! - Measure Intangibles to Calculate Your ROI Business Case -- The Definitive Guide is a practical guide to the real world of Business Cases. Its focus are the necessities of building actual Business Cases, yet without cutting short on the theoretical background as far as it is needed. The described Business Case methodology is beneficial for case builders and decision-makers and assumes no prior background in finance or business planning.

Know of more great project management books? Leave the information in the comments!

Average blended, fully-loaded rate -- I don't have any idea what the average rate is, so I'm making up a number and declaring it to be correct. Since no one else has any idea either, it is unlikely that I'll get caught.

How much will the project cost? I need an estimate. -- I need a number that I can nail you with later when the project fails.

How much will the project cost? I need a good estimate. -- ...and make it cheap.

The project is green -- The project is red but we'll have that fixed in no time. Besides, if I report red that would make the VP look bad.

The project is yellow -- The project is red and I can't hide it entirely, so I'll say yellow. If the real status ever gets out it will cost me my job.

The project is red -- It's a good thing I have that job interview tomorrow.

Part 2 of a 3 part series…Read part 1 here:

Accurate Project Costs -- How to obtain them, improve estimates with them and dramatically increase your effectiveness by knowing them.

Critical Business Issue (CBI) – Something that might get me fired or put in jail if I screw it up again.

For most IT managers, inaccurate estimates constitute a CBI. Why are accurate estimates so important?

1. Inaccurate estimates cause over-commitment. Have you ever worked in a place where ten percent of ten projects got done instead of 100 percent of one project? Ultimately, nothing is accomplished and everyone is totally stressed out. Inaccurate estimates cause over-commitment of time, yet not much gets done.

2. Inaccurate estimates cause bad decisions. “Inaccurate” usually means “too low.” When this happens, the return on investment (ROI) calculation shows the project as ‘worth it’ when it is not.

How can you stop wasting your company’s resources on projects that are not worth corporate time? Hewlett-Packard gave us the answer over a decade ago in Robert Grady’s book, “Practical Software Metrics for Project Management and Process Improvement.” In it, Grady provides a few insightful rules of thumb that are backed up by real numbers, such as:

6-8 percent of software project time is spent in the requirements and specifications phase

This is based on statistics from numerous software projects at HP, so the percentage at your company may be different. The good news is that for projects of a particular flavor, you will find that the percentage usually doesn’t vary wildly, so you can use it to predict all project effort required for completion.

Let’s take an example group of projects in an imaginary IT shop in a large company, XYZ corporation. XYZ’s IT shop likes to write special applications on a regular basis and they’ve discovered the following:

All projects have the following phases:

Requirements: What the internal client wishes XYZ would do
Specifications: What XYZ is actually going to do.
Design: How XYZ is going to do it.
Coding: XYZ writes the application.
Testing: XYZ tests that it works internally.
Rollout: XYZ puts it into production.
Debug: XYZ does the first 90 days of maintenance.

After tracking time accurately on seven projects of this flavor, XYZ’s CIO finds that 6 to 15 percent of engineering hours are spent on phases ‘a’ and ‘b,’ taken together with an average of 10 percent.

Now a new project comes up, the "wizbang application integration project"... read the rest here.

Take a listen to the latest podcast over at PM Podcast - it's a good one! Steve Kaye discusses a few tips and tricks in regards to meeting management and effective presentations.

Kaye looks at why they are important for your career, his top 3 tips for for improving both skills, and his recommendation for what you can do tomorrow to have a better meeting and to improve your presentations.

Download the podcast here.