Posts Tagged ‘World’

On October 22-25, PMI gathered its members and friends for the annual Global Congress in Dallas to discuss the core features and emerging challenges of the project management profession. One of the key areas of focus for the Congress was the new project management trends, i.e., those trends that may impact the industry in the coming years. Together with Elizabeth Harrin and Cornelius Fichtner, seasoned project managers, popular bloggers and my fellow PMI New Media Council members, we held a session addressing agile collaboration in virtual teams.  With over a third of projects being agile and more work being done by virtual teams, we aimed to look at how project managers can successfully combine the two. Having combined our expertise in managing distributed teams, we came up with a few practical, battlefield-tested tips in the area of communication practices, Web 2.0 tools and beyond, which can help bridge the gap for agile teams working across geographic boundaries.

In the first part of the session, Cornelius started with a case study of his own team, spread across 6 countries on 3 continents, and shared which tools and practices help them the most to collaborate efficiently. For instance, according to the experience of Cornelius' team, the best architectures, requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

There's no doubt that virtual teams have some very strong benefits, but there are certain serious bottlenecks, too, like the risk of miscommunication, limited visibility, etc. In my part of the session, I highlighted 5 pain-relievers that help me overcome the most common challenges in managing my team. Some additional tips came up during the Q&A. For example, when your team members speak different languages, don't let accents influence your perception of a professional. This is especially critical in the initial conversations, when team members don’t know each other yet and haven't yet built social and professional trust. Make sure that you give your team members "trust credit" in this initial phase, and always remember that behind that email ID is a real person, who likely works as hard as you do and is as professional as you are. It’s also crucial to remember and respect the cultural differences, and while keeping this in mind, work toward building a shared culture. Last but not least, as with everything else, it’s hard to create an ideal collaboration pattern right from the start. However, if you keep your eyes and mind open, constantly communicate and gather feedback from your team members, you can continuously iterate and improve. Eventually, you'll find your secret sauce for efficient remote teamwork.

I believe that one of the main prerequisites for the success of a distributed team is to make sure that everyone is on the same page – not only in terms of the assigned tasks, but also the general vision, applied processes, cultural awareness, information sharing and trust. It’ll be extremely helpful for team members to know not just what to do, but why and what lies ahead. This will help a lot in asynchronous communications, when you’re not immediately available to answer all of their questions and course correct. You have to think and communicate proactively in distributed teams, making sure you’re your team shares the same mission and vision, and understands the goals. So meetings in virtual teams are very important. Not only are they important, they are different, and in the final part of our session Elizabeth named some important techniques for making virtual meetings productive.

I’ve posted our joint slide deck on Slideshare, so that you can adapt some of these practical takeaways to your team:

To learn more details about our session and other ones, too, you can also check out recent tweets with the hash tag #pminac. Here are a couple of them:

@pm4girls: "Don't just give them tasks, give them reasons to help them understand vision and goals" @wrike talking about empowering teams at #pminac

@LewisCindy: From @wrike don't let accents influence emotional feelings about the person. Nice reminder #pminac

By the way, Wrike has just opened an interesting survey about remote work and the way workers see its benefits and challenges. I would really appreciate if you could spend a few minutes to have your say in this survey. As soon as we get enough responses, I’ll analyze the results and share them with you. 
Project Management 2.0

Project Management Certification Around the World

PRINCE2

PRINCE2 is the de facto standard used extensively by the UK Government and is widely recognized and used in the private sector, both in the UK and internationally.  The key features of PRINCE2 are:

- focus on business justification

- defined organizational structure for the team

- product-based planning approach

- division of project into manageable and controllable stages

- flexibility at a level appropriate to the project

The PRINCE2 project management certification has the following levels:

- PRINCE2 Foundation

- PRINCE2 Practitioner

PRINCE2 Practitioners need to complete the PRINCE2 Practitioner re-registration exam every 3-5 years to keep their qualification up to date.

AIPM – Australian Institute of Project Management

Project management certification through the AIPM is primarily geared toward Australian professionals and organizations, although it is based on international standards and best practices.

There are several levels project management certification with the Australian Institute of Project Management, and an individual’s level is based on the outcome of the RegPM (“Registered Project Manager”) process.  The individual’s competency in the workplace is assessed, and project management certification is awarded at one of three levels:

-CPPP Certified Practising Project Practitioner

-CPPM Certified Practising Project Manager

-CPPD Certified Practising Project Director

After 3 years recertification through Continuous Professional Development is required.

CompTIA Project+

CompTIA Project+ is inexpensive, streamlined, uncomplicated project management certification that is more geared to teams of individuals within organizations.  There are no prerequisites, no continuing education is required, and there is no application process, but there is a test based on international standards.  It is targeted to teams or organizations that want to rapidly get up and running with the team thinking in a similar focused way about project management.  CompTIA project management certification gives project managers the skills necessary to complete projects on time and within budget, and creates a common project management language among project team members.  As with all CompTIA certifications, it is geared toward IT, and there is no evidence of strong market value for this project management certification.

Project Management Institute (PMI) – PMP and CAPM

The Project Management Professional (PMP) project management certification for experienced professionals is the most widely known and recognized worldwide.  The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is an entry level project management certification and does not require experience.

Requirements for the PMP include:

-A bachelor’s degree and 4,500 hours of PM experience in the five process groups, OR, a secondary school diploma and 7,500 hours of PM experience in the five process groups

-35 contact hours of classroom instruction that relate to project management objectives. Several types of courses fulfill this requirement.

-Supporting Documentation is required for the above qualifications.

-Pass the PMP exam, which consists of 200 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 4 hours

-60 Professional Development Units (PDUs) are required every 3 years to maintain the PMP <a rel=”nofollow” onclick=”javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackPageview', '/outgoing/article_exit_link']);” href=”http://www.pmtrainingonline.com”>project management certification</a>

IPMA “International Project Management Association

This Swiss organization, “the oldest in the project management profession”, is primarily comprised of national project management associations worldwide.  The IPMA represents 45 national project management associations on the international level and also offers a competence-based four level project management certification program.

The IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB) is the basis for the IPMA certification system.  Certification is an independent third party assessment based on a level-specific combination of:

- Self assessment

- Written exam

- Report on the management of a project, program or portfolio

- Interview

Resulting project management certification levels are:

-IPMA Level A – Certified Projects Director

-IPMA Level B – Certified Senior Project Manager

-IPMA Level C – Certified Project Manager

-IPMA Level D – Certified Project Management Associate

APMC Advanced Project Management Certification

The APMC is a specialized advanced project management certification for senior project managers who want to go beyond go beyond PMP® accreditation and complete training in “The Kerzner Approach to Best Practices”.  Candidates must complete two required courses and four of the elective courses, and pass a short online post-test for each course.  The focus is on expanding knowledge of higher-level strategic project management issues, including complex project management issues such as managing risk and quality to managing portfolios and multiple projects.  Learning is from experts and practitioners, focused on analyzing current best practices from successful companies.

American Academy of Project Management (AAPM)

The AAPM offers project management certification in the following flavors:

-MPM Master Project Manager

-CIPM Certified International Project Manager

-PME Project Manager E-Business

-CPE Certified Planning Engineer

All require an application based upon completion of education, exclusively by approved education institutions and not private businesses.

BrainBench project management certification

BrainBench offers a project management certification that borrows from the PMI.  The test is based on the PMI’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).  BrainBench’s unique niche in project management certification is in “delivering easy-to-use assessment products that predict success on the job,” and thus it is more targeted to organizations than to independent individuals who are seeking a widely recognized credential.