Project Challenge Expo 2008
Posted on | October 1, 2008 | No Comments
Last week I arose early from my bed to take an early morning Virgin Train heading south to Olympia (London) to take a look around this years Project Challenge Expo. It was raining! Sunny in
Eventually arrived at
I had a plan, so immediately headed off to the Open Zone where Sue Vowler had just appeared to talk about the P3O initiative (Portfolio, Programme and Project Office). Sue, as lead author on this OGC initiative, gave a good presentation and we look forward to how this initiative will be received once it hits the streets. It will be interesting to see the uptake of training courses around the initiative and how many organisations use the framework offered. From my own point of view I didn’t see anything “new” in the framework as described, but as a point of reference I am sure it will offer a good starting point.
I was left with one concern listening to Sue as she explained how they were desperate to loosen the “support” tag as they felt this had some negative connotations. Listening further I was left with to question: As it is not “managing”, then it must be “supporting”, no matter what tag you put on it, right? Surely the trick for any Support Office is to offer excellence so nobody worries about the title; they just can’t live without the excellent service that the team provide!
Time for tea, and a scan through the exhibitors list. In all 63 exhibitors, many of them familiar faces from previous exhibitions and a mix of companies with offerings addressing different aspects of the Project Management field.
Of I went browsing some stands, engaging with others and picking off my targets for a chat about the state of the market. It was interesting to get the differing viewpoints from the people I met; some buoyant with an extremely positive view of the market whilst others were more considered about what the coming months may hold.
In terms of footfall it didn’t seem to be overly busy, none of the exhibitors seemed overworked. Each time I passed a presentation zone they seemed to be well-populated with people eager to listen to the many different topics that were on offer that day.
My work done, I headed for the door. Business cards swapped and surprisingly few goodies to take home, I had met my objectives for the day, and to be honest, was happy to be heading home. These exhibitions have a place in the annual calendar of events, but judging by the areas of interest I wonder if the format needs a refresh?
Getting the best out of your PMO
Posted on | September 30, 2008 | No Comments
Title: Getting the best out of your PMO
Location: London
Link out: Click here
Description: Getting the best out of your Project Office - Is the new P3O the answer? Hot-off-the-press practical guidance from OGC
Start Time: 18:30
Date: 2008-10-14
Association for Project Management Conference
Posted on | September 30, 2008 | No Comments
Title: Association for Project Management Conference
Location: The Brewery - London
Link out: Click here
Description: The APM Project Management Conference 2008 is an interactive forum bringing together project management professionals and key decision makers across the public and private sector. It aims to set out and debate key subjects on the national project management agenda.
Start Date: 2008-10-29
End Date: 2008-10-30
International Project Management Day
Posted on | September 26, 2008 | No Comments
Title: International Project Management Day
Location: Coventry, UK
Link out: Click here
Description: The PMI UK Chapter is holding its third International Project Management Day Conference on Thursday 6th November 2008.
Date: 2008-11-06
PMO Watch #6- P3O - Latest Update
Posted on | September 25, 2008 | No Comments
The newsletter from the OGC arrived on the desk yesterday (this is the Portfolio, Programme, Project and Risk Management News), you can also see this news on the website Best Management Practice. The news covers how the P3O guidance fits with other OGC “products” i.e., Prince2, MoR etc), details on who has been involved in the review process (encouraging to see 11/68 were private sector firms ), information on the pilot schemes (a hand full of public sector organisations are applying the P3O guidance) and news on the associated accreditation for P3O. The guidance is due to be launched on the 28th October with the accreditation being available in November. There’s also a price published for the materials - £45 for the book (there’s also a smaller guidebook at £35 for 10 - you can’t buy individual ones!). There’s also PDF and online options available
The PPSOSIG (Programme and Project Support Office Specialist Interest Group) is holding it’s next conference on the 18th March 2009 - this will be dedicated to P3O. Five months after the launch of P3O, the PPSOSIG will look at the impact and what P3O will mean for the thousands of PMOs out there.
The APM take on BAE…
Posted on | September 24, 2008 | No Comments
If you read Dan’s post last week which highlighted my need for a haircut in blown up form you’ll be aware that BAE Systems were kind enough recently to give the North West branch of APM a tour of their facilities at Warton aerodrome.
BAE are constantly evolving their approach to Project Management, and so the day provided an intriguing insight into how such major projects are developed and implemented. We were privileged enough to be given a tour of the major hangers on the site, which included Typhoons in various stages of development, as well as Tornado’s undergoing repair work.
What struck me on the tour was not only the sheer scale of the projects but the meticulous attention to detail that goes into everything that is done at BAE. It is clear that each aspect of the construction process is a project in itself, which is why sound project management methods and solid management structure are obviously so important to them as an organisation.
An interesting day was concluded with a run through of BAE’s future aspirations for Project Management and Support within the company and a showcase of the new products on offer from Military Air Solutions.
Being a local resident to the aerodrome for most of my life the only disappointing aspect of the day for me was that I didn’t see any evidence of the triangular UFO’s that have been making sporadic appearances in the local press over the last few years. Still, I suppose you can’t have everything: They must’ve hidden all the evidence before we turned up 
Advice for contractors
Posted on | September 24, 2008 | No Comments
Some advice on What should IT contractors do in an economic downturn?
Be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on the advice especially as IT Project Management doesn’t seem to be affected yet - we’ve put together our views on the marketplace at the moment - due to be published in the APM Project magazine next month (the article will appear on the blog later in October)
Bugbears with the recruitment industry
Posted on | September 24, 2008 | No Comments
Perceptions are a great thing aren’t they (“The mice think they are right, but my cat eats them anyways. This is the point, reality is nothing, perception is everything.”) The recruitment industry has lots of them (good and bad, but according to perceptions, mainly bad) and each day, here at Arras, we have to deal with the perceptions first and then quickly move on to doing business the way we’ve always done it. So what are the perceptions and how can recruitment agencies do better at addressing the perceptions and ultimately get rid of them altogether?
- No understanding of the role an organisation needs to recruit for
Pretty basic requirement you would have thought but just last week I was speaking to a client about their recruitment experiences and the first thing mentioned was this. This client had spent time with their recruitment agent, going through the job spec, explaining every line on the job spec and still ending up with CV’s that were a complete waste of time. The morale of the story for this particular client, we might have a PSL (Preferred Suppliers List) but what’s the point if we’re not getting the resources we need? - Bombarded with CV’s (and of little relevance)
Until this practice stops, the recruitment industry will never be able to shake off the perception its gained. The second most irritating thing clients find after spending time talking through their vacancy, leaving the recruiting agent with a good insight into the role and organisation is that they’re then bombarded with CV’s which may or may not match the job specification but it’s expected that the client will spend time sifting through these (in effect doing the recruitment agents job for them). Throwing CV’s at a client and hoping one will stick is a shoddy unprofessional practice that really does show the lack of understanding in recruitment agencies today and ultimately shows the lack of respect to the paying customer. - The perception of value
One of the fundamentals of good sales practice is ensuring that each party in the deal is happy with the deal they made, no one wants to feel they’ve been given the hard sell and left to feel disgruntled before the recruitment process is even underway. The perception of value works in two ways in recruitment - the low value (or low rate) and the high value (high rate), both bringing two different sets of behaviors and feelings. Low value or low rates are OK for high volume, general roles (administration, customer service, finance etc) but not so good for one off, difficult to fill specialist roles - like project management. The high value/high rates should be reserved for a particular level of service needed to attract staff at the higher level (after all the investment in the senior role will make a difference to an organisation’s bottom line so the appointment needs to spot on). Clients recognising that high quality successful recruitment partners may cost a few more % and are happy to make the investment are equally disgruntled when they find that the extra % has just given them the same service levels they experienced on their high volume recruitment - still loads of irrelevant CV’s and still a recruitment agent that doesn’t understand their roles! The client organisation are quite right to ask themselves the question “Did I get value for my money?” - Lack of communication - do you want my business or not?
Incredibly this ranks highly on an organisation’s list of perceived weaknesses in using recruitment agents, generally it’s a sign that the agent is struggling with a role and doesn’t have the candidates to submit. So why the lack of communication? At Arras, we specialise in those hard to fill project management positions so the recruitment process can often take just that little bit longer to find the right person so it’s crucial that we keep the communication channels open. If the role is difficult to fill we are often spending time consulting with our clients - asking those questions to gleam further information so we can rethink job specifications and the options available to us to attract the right candidates - recruitment is never straight forward but good communications certainly make it easier and less frustrating for everyone!
CPD - What’s it all about?
Posted on | September 23, 2008 | No Comments
I seem to have spent quite a bit of time recently talking to candidates about the types of personal training and development they should be doing. During my wondering I started to think about how much CPD played a part in people’s lives particularly within the project management community. I see the APM have a CPD framework but I have never spoken to anyone who has used it but then again it is not something I have asked about either..
The starting point I suppose is whether anyone feels CPD is worth doing? In an earlier life I qualified as a Chartered Engineer. Part of my responsibility as a professional was to keep myself up to date with the latest engineering developments as well as continually improving my skills. I moved out of that arena and into freelance work for a short time where my needs were different again and if I am honest I was not as diligent at managing my own development. For a candidate I suspect the driver would be whether it gets you your next role. Are there different drivers for those looking for permanent as opposed to contract work?
My first contact with a candidate will often be a CV, which seems not to have changed significantly during my career. Should CPD be included on a CV? Would this tell me more about you as a candidate? Should I value the inclusion of CPD?
Opening the discussion further what about all of you involved in project management. How is your professional development managed? or is it something that HR inflict on you?
What are your experiences? Do you value professional development? Do your clients? What should constitute a CPD activity?
With the move towards professional status the responsibility for continually managing your development will become very real. It will be interesting to hear your thoughts on this. Let me know what you think.
Two tradeshows to be aware of
Posted on | September 23, 2008 | No Comments
There are two project management conferences and trade shows you need to be aware of:
Project Challenge - based at Olympia - taking place this week (Wednesday and Thursday) - more information at: www.projchallenge.com - on previous visits we’ve found this exhibition to be very good for project management software inquiries and demonstrations.
International Project Management Day - is being held in Coventry on the 6th November - The IPMD is hosted by the PMI UK Chapter - see the full programme (PDF) This is the third event they’ve held and I’ve never been to one so I’d be interested to hear anyone’s thoughts on the event