Contents
How does your salary compare? APM survey reveals all
Project Controls: What is it and why is it important?
Book Review by Jenn Browne
Profile of a PMC member
The secrearies bit
Update from the Chairman
Welcome to the 10th PMC SIG newsletter. The previous Newsletter (March 15) raised the Bar for our newsletters, well done Jenn. This months edition will cover, The APM salary survey, Project Controls (why is it important) and Agile for Dummies.
I start this month with the sad news on the recent loss of Rebecca Evans, a much respected and active SIG Member, who contributed to the Planning guide before her illness. A donation has been sent to the hospice in memory of Becky, anyone wishing to add to this donation should contact PMC secretary (Jenn) for further details.
The Planning Guide is now in the final stages of publication, and we are hoping to have a short print run available in time for the AGM / EVA20 on the 16th June. The official book launch is planned for the 9th July.
Our AGM will be held at the Armours Hall in London after day one of EVA20, which is at the same venue. It is free to attend (except non members) and to make it worth the effort, this year we are having a speaker, Roger Joby, who will be presenting the results of Project EVE. Drinks and nibbles will be provided, so please book your place so we know how many to cater for.
As mentioned in previous newsletters, there will be a foundation and practitioner exam to accompany the Planning Guide. The syllabus has been agreed and APMG have started on the foundation exam. Both I and Simon Taylor will be discussing amongst other things Project Control certification at the APMG Showcase Round Table event on the 19th June, Queen Elizabeth II conference centre.
Our other SIG actives which are currently on going include a review of all the current PMC publications; this is due the update of the ANSI standards, and to check alignment with BoK6. Several new publications have been kicked off, including a Guide to Project Controls. This will be an “how to guide” for Projects Control from a senior management perspective.
Finally, I would like to inform you about an exciting new project we are about to launch with honorary fellow, founder and former Chairman of the Governance SIG, David Shannon. David wants to hold a workshop on the 10th September to discuss Quantum Project Management.
What is Quantum Project management you ask?
Innovation is often created by taking practices from one area of science and applying it to another, there are lots of examples of this, engineering takes inspiration from nature. Therefore is it not possible to look at how the rules of quantum physics can be applied to project management, for example quantum physics says you cannot measure something without influencing it.
The workshop, held in conjunction with the People SIG and facilitated by David, will be looking at the rules of Quantum Physics to see how new innovative ideas can be created to benefit Project Management. Anyone interested in taking part please contact Jenn (PMC SIG Secretary).
Stephen Jones
Chair, APM PMC SIG
How does your salary compare? APM survey reveals all
This month saw the publication of the APM Salary survey The Salary and Market Trends Survey 2015 study of over 2,700 APM members and non-members is the largest stakeholder engagement exercise ever conducted by APM. It includes the views of professionals from across different pay grades and sectors – 90% of which are UK based. APM research manager Daniel Nicholls commented: “We are delighted with the level of participation in what is our inaugural report and believe that this research will be of great interest to not only project professionals but also recruiters, employers and those considering a project management related career.”
The findings reveal that on average project manager is 35-44 years old and can expect to earn between £40,000-49,000pa. This figure is influenced by factors such as location, qualifications and professional membership.
Download your free copy: https://www.apm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Salary%20Survey%20web_FINAL.pdf
See what the average PM looks like:
https://www.apm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Salary%20Survey%20web_infographic.pdf
An interesting Article on Project controls and why it is so important to successful project management .This article has been taken from our colleagues @ Project Controls on line.
http://projectcontrolsonline.com/Home/DefinitionandImportanceofProjectControls.aspx
Project Controls: What is it and why is it important?
Definition of Project Controls:
There are many definitions of Project Controls user across industries and indeed across companies within industries. For the purpose of this portal, the field of project controls is defined as follows:
Project controls are the data gathering, management and analytical processes used to predict, understand and constructively influence the time and cost outcomes of a project or program; through the communication of information in formats that assist effective management and decision making. This definition encompasses all stages of a project or program’s lifecycle from the initial estimating needed to ‘size’ a proposed project, through to reflective learning (lessons learned) and the forensic analysis needed to understand the causes of failure (and develop claims).
Consequently, the project controls discipline can be seen as encompassing:
- Project strategy, undertaking planning and methods studies to help the PM optimise future outcomes;
- Scheduling including development, updating and maintenance;
- Cost estimation, cost engineering/control and value engineering;
- Risk management, including maintaining the risk register and risk analysis/assessment;
- Earned Value Management and Earned Schedule, including WBS, OBS and other breakdown structures;
- Document control;
- Forensic Assessment for required diagnosis of schedule and cost;
- Supplier performance measurement / oversight (but excluding contract administration);
- the elements of a project management methodology that integrate these disciplines both within the ‘controls’ domain and with other project management functions.
Put simply, Project Controls encompass the people, processes and tools used to plan, manage and mitigate cost and schedule issues and any risk events that may impact a project. In other words, Project control is essentially equivalent to the project management process stripped of its facilitating sub-processes for safety, quality, organizational, behavioural, and communications management.
Importance of Project Controls:
The successful performance of a project depends on appropriate planning. The PMBOK Guide defines the use of 21 processes that relate to planning out of the 39 processes for project management, (Globe son & Zwikeal 2002). The execution of a project is based on a robust project plan and can only be achieved through an effective schedule control methodology. The development of a suitable Project Control system is an important part of the project management effort (Shtub, Bard & Globerson 2005). Furthermore, it is widely recognised that planning and monitoring plays a major role as the cause of project failures. Despite the continuous evolution in the project management field, it appears evident that the traditional approach still shows a lack of utilisation of Project Controls and there have been a number of articles published to support the importance of control in the achievement of project objectives. It has been proved time and again that Project performance can be improved if dedicated Project Controls systems are in place. An IBC 2000 Project Control Best Practice Study carried out by IPA identified that good Project Control practices reduce execution schedule slip by 15%. Project Controls cost range from 0.5% to 3% of total project, (including cost accounting), therefore, to break even, Project Control needs to improve cost effectiveness by around 2%. A sample study carried out by the IBC Cost Engineering Committee (CEC) in 1999, showed cost improvements for the projects in the study, was more than 10%. It is noted also that NPV (Net Project Value) also benefits from schedule improvements. Success factors are based on good Project Control practices, which result in good cost and schedule outcomes.
"The fact that one failed project can potentially wipe out an entire year’s profit helps put the value of Project Controls into perspective."
Book review by Jenn Browne
Agile Project Management for Dummies by Mark C. Layton
I was recently asked by a colleague if I could recommend some material that would help her to understand the basic principles and language of agile project management. Whilst there is a lot of information, documentation and learning available most is aimed at the practitioner and not the novice. My colleague just needed to understand the basics so that she could fully support the IT project she was working with.
After looking at a lot of documents, publications, webinars and in consultation with experts I came across this book. Like all of the “for Dummies “series it covers all of the basics of the topic in a style that is easily understood yet still covers off all of the right information needed. The series also give the novice a number of easy to understand and use “Cheat sheets “which are available to download.
On the whole a great publication for the beginner and a useful one for the practitioners bookshelf.
Some of the Cheat Sheet
Agile Project Management for Dummies
Full version and other useful information can be found @ http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/agile-project-management-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html
A Manifesto for Agile Software Developers
The Agile Software Development Manifesto© is an intentionally streamlined expression of the core values of agile project management. Use this manifesto as a guide to implement agile methodologies in your projects.
"We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others does it. Through this work, we have come to value:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
©Agile Manifesto Copyright 2001: Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Dave Thomas.
This declaration may be freely copied in any form, but only in its entirety through this notice.
Agile project management focuses on continuous improvement, scope flexibility, team input, and delivering essential quality products. Agile project management methodologies include scrum, extreme programming (XP), and lean, among others. These methodologies all adhere to the Agile Manifesto and the 12 Agile Principles, which focus on people, communications, the product, and flexibility.
The 12 Agile Principles
The 12 Agile Principles are a set of guiding concepts that support project teams in implementing agile projects. Use these concepts to implement agile methodologies in your projects.
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
- Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
- Working software is the primary measure of progress.
- Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.
- The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly.
The Agile Roadmap to Value
The Roadmap to Value is a high-level view of an agile project. The stages of the Roadmap to Value are described in the list following the diagram:
Diagram taken from http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/agile-project-management-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html
- In Stage 1, the product owner identifies the product vision. The product vision is a definition of what your product is how it will support your company or organization’s strategy, and who will use the product. On longer projects, revisit the product vision at least once a year.
- In Stage 2, the product owner creates a product roadmap. The product roadmap is a high-level view of the product requirements, with a loose time frame for when you will develop those requirements. Identifying product requirements and then prioritizing and roughly estimating the effort for those requirements are a large part of creating your product roadmap. On longer projects, revise the product roadmap at least twice a year.
- In Stage 3, the product owner creates a release plan. The release plan identifies a high-level timetable for the release of working software. An agile project will have many releases, with the highest-priority features launching first. A typical release includes three-to-five sprints. Create a release plan at the beginning of each release.
- In Stage 4, the product owner, the master, and the development team plan sprints, also called iterations, and start creating the product within those sprints. Sprint planning sessions take place at the start of each sprint, where the scrum team determines what requirements will be in the upcoming iteration.
- In Stage 5, during each sprint, the development team has daily meetings. In the daily meeting, you spend no more than 15 minutes and discuss what you completed yesterday, what you will work on today, and any roadblocks you have.
- In Stage 6, the team holds a sprint review. In the sprint review, at the end of every sprint, you demonstrate the working product created during the sprint to the product stakeholders.
- In Stage 7, the team holds a sprint retrospective. The sprint retrospective is a meeting where the team discusses how the sprint went and plans for improvements in the next sprint. Like the sprint review, you have a sprint retrospective at the end of every sprint.
Agile Project Management Roles
It takes a cooperative team of employees to complete a project. Agile project teams are made up of many people and include the following five roles:
- Development team: The group of people who do the work of creating a product. Programmers, testers, designers, writers, and anyone else who has a hands-on role in product development is a member of the development team.
- Product owner: The person responsible for bridging the gap between the customer, business stakeholders, and the development team. The product owner is an expert on the product and the customer's needs and priorities. The product owner works with the development team daily to help clarify requirements. The product owner is sometimes called a customer representative.
- Scrum master: The person responsible for supporting the development team, clearing organizational roadblocks, and keeping the agile process consistent. A scrum master is sometimes called a project facilitator.
- Stakeholders: Anyone with an interest in the project. Stakeholders are not ultimately responsible for the product, but they provide input and are affected by the project's outcome. The group of stakeholders is diverse and can include people from different departments, or even different companies.
- Agile mentor: Someone who has experience implementing agile projects and can share that experience with a project team. The agile mentor can provide valuable feedback and advice to new project teams and to project teams that want to perform at a higher level.
Agile Project Management Artefacts
Project progress needs to be measurable. Agile project teams often use six main artefacts, or deliverables, to develop products and track progress, as listed here:
- Product vision statement: An elevator pitch, or a quick summary, to communicate how your product supports the company's or organization's strategies. The vision statement must articulate the goals for the product.
- Product backlog: The full list of what is in the scope for your project, ordered by priority. Once you have your first requirement, you have a product backlog.
- Product roadmap: The product roadmap is a high-level view of the product requirements, with a loose time frame for when you will develop those requirements.
- Release plan: A high-level timetable for the release of working software.
- Sprint backlog: The goal, user stories, and tasks associated with the current sprint.
- Increment: The working product functionality at the end of each sprint.
Agile Project Management Events
Most projects have stages. Agile projects include seven events for product development. These events are meetings and stages and are described in the following list:
- Project planning: The initial planning for your project. Project planning includes creating a product vision statement and a product roadmap, and can take place in as little time as one day.
- Release planning: Planning the next set of product features to release and identifying an imminent product launch date around which the team can mobilize. On agile projects, you plan one release at a time.
- Sprint: A short cycle of development, in which the team creates potentially shippable product functionality. Sprints, sometimes called iterations, typically last between one and four weeks. Sprints can last as little as one day, but should not be longer than four weeks. Sprints should remain the same length throughout the entire projects.
- Sprint planning: A meeting at the beginning of each sprint where the scrum team commits to a sprint goal. They also identify the requirements that support this goal and will be part of the sprint, and the individual tasks it will take to complete each requirement.
- Daily scrum: A 15-minute meeting held each day in a sprint, where development team members state what they completed the day before, what they will complete on the current day, and whether they have any roadblocks.
- Sprint review: A meeting at the end of each sprint, introduced by the product owner, where the development team demonstrates the working product functionality it completed during the sprint.
- Sprint retrospective: A meeting at the end of each sprint where the scrum team discusses what went well, what could change, and how to make any changes.
Profile of a PMC member
A day in the Life of Carl Rowe - National Grid
Carl has been an active member of the PMC now for about 6 months and was asked to describe a typical day in his working life at National Grid. The diagram below is his working day.
The Secretaries bit.
PMC SIG Meeting Dates for 2015
- All Meetings will begin at 10.30am sharp
- 17th April, 15th May, 12th June, 10th July , 11th September,9th October ,13th November,11th December Meetings will be held at Gardiner & Theobald, 10 South Crescent, London
- No meeting in August,
- We will continue to have the dial in facility available for each meeting please contact the secretary if you would like to use this facility.
AGM
- PMC AGM. 16th June 2015 - Armourers Hall, London. 17.30 start. Presentation on the EVE project. Roger Joby.
- Nominations for election should be with APM by 10th June 2015
PMC SIG Meeting Dates for 2016
- All Meetings will begin at 10.30am sharp
- Jan 8th ,Feb 12, March 11th, April 8th , May 13th, June 10th, July 8th ,Sep 9th ,Oct 14th , Nov 11th, Dec 9th
- No meeting in August,
- We will continue to have the dial in facility available for each meeting please contact the secretary if you would like to use this facility.
Guides
- The SIG will be starting work shortly on a new Estimating Guide. If you have a contribution to make or would like to be involved please let the secretary know.
- The uptake of the Earned value practitioner exam continues, but we would like to see an increase in growth. For more information follow the link below
http://www.apmg-international.com/en/qualifications/earned-value/earned-value.aspx
- Both the Planning Guide and the IBR guide are now complete and undergoing the usual Peer reviews prior to publication. Thank you to all of you who have contributed over the past year. The SIG is hopeful both will be published in Q2/3 of 2015
Articles
- We have had a number of articles appear over the past few months in various publications, but are always on the look out for new ideas and things to publish , so please get scribbling we would love to know what members are up to, and who you are . Please send direct to Jenn Browne.
- We are also keen for you to let us know if there is anything you would like to see in the newsletter? Again let the Secretary know.
- The SIG has been asked to consider developing a number of POD casts, what do you think? Let the secretary have your thoughts / ideas in the usual way.
What are we being asked to get involved with; do you want to be involved?
Get Involved
A look ahead to 2015, some headline topics and events we are looking to support. Please feel free to suggest others:
- 9th July currently planned for the Book Launch – Planning guide
- Publication of IBR Guide Q3 2015
- Developing the new Estimating Guide
- Introduction of Planning Guide Exams
- Review EVM guidelines 2nd edition
- Body of Knowledge section review
- All current PMC guides reviewed
- Newsletters
- More Webinars
- Joint branch /PMC Sig events
- Complex event
- Scottish conference
- APM Presents 2
- SWWE event
- Project Challenge
- Project Expo 2015
- North America Trip PMC/PMI
- EVA 20
- Australia EVA
- We would like to look at the possibility of getting a regular Blog / discussion forum set up, if any one is interested in contributing / running with this please let Jenn Browne know.
- We have an opportunity to host an evening Agile Event in London, do you have speakers? Want to be involved let us know.
- We are intending to host a number of webinars over the coming year. If you have a specific topic or want to be more actively involved let us know.
- London Branch and the Northern Ireland are keen to work with the SIG to do events in the coming months.
PMC Supported Events for 2015
The PMC SIG relies on volunteers like you with an interest in Planning, Earned Value and Project Controls to develop and deliver these products. We aim to continue to be the most productive SIG. We generate and deliver knowledge, advice and guidance that are shared both within, and outside of our association. PMC cannot do the work without your input. You are helping to build and develop a Project Management community without boundaries.
Once again we invite you to participate and contribute, by supporting and attending our events subscribing to our newsletters, watching the Webinars, and volunteering to get involved in Working Groups throughout the year. We are a charity and welcome any offers of a free meeting room and/or sponsorships.
Once again, thank you for your continued support.
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