The Pmo Podcast

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Effective Business Decisions Using Microsoft Project 2010, an interview with Tim Cermak, SVP of Advisicon," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Tim Cermak from Advisicon to talk to us about Effective Business Decisions Using Microsoft Project 2010. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "The second mouse gets the cheese!" Why are we always in such a hurry to do things? Sure, I know all about time to market and I can appreciate that way of thinking. But what I want to know is why is it that we can always take the time to do something quite wrong and then fix it, but we never can make the time to do it right in the right or better in the first place? The PMO Podcast™ Mailbag answers a listener question about coming up to speed on the latest strategies and approaches for IT PMOs. The PMO Podcast™ is sponsored by BOT International, the provider of Processes On Demand, a PMO Setup solution used by more

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2011 EMEA PMI Global Congress, an interview with Liam Dillon, PMO expert, Turlon and Associates," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Liam Dillon from Turlon and Associates. Liam has served the project management community for years and was recently the President of the PMI Ireland Chapter. Liam is a PMO subject matter expert, but today Liam is here to tell us about the 2011 EMEA PMI Global Congress which will be held in Dublin, Ireland. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo asks, "What is a PMO." If you were asked what is a Project Management Organization, what would be your answer? This may sound like a very simple question, but regrettably the project management community and all of the so-called project management experts continue to get this question wrong time after time resulting in failed PMOs and frustrated busines executives. The PMO Podcast™ Mailbag answers a listener question about when a PMO

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Top 5 Essentials for ERP, an interview with Barbara Shannon, President of TSG," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Barbara Shannon, President and founding Partner of TSG - The Solution Group. The Solution Group is passionate about helping global Fortune 1000 and small cap businesses grow revenue, market share and margin. Specifically, TSG helps their clients with large, often global projects like ERP system implementation and post-merger integration. Big companies use the PMO to ensure value capture on big investments. Barbara is here to talk to us about the top 5 essentials for ERP. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "Don't be the PMO Methodology Police." If there is a common refrain to failed PMOs, this is it. The PMO becomes the viewed "The Methodology Police" tasked to enforce methodologies. Whether or not the methodology is any good is another issue. But to the point, at best, being the PMO po

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Midsize Companies and the PPM Nightmare, an interview with Barbara Shannon, President of TSG," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Barbara Shannon, President and founding Partner of TSG - The Solution Group. The Solution Group is passionate about helping global Fortune 1000 and small cap businesses grow revenue, market share and margin. Specifically, TSG helps their clients with large, often global projects like ERP system implementation and post-merger integration. Big companies use the PMO to ensure value capture on big investments. Barbara is here to talk to us about midsize companies and the PPM nightmare. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "The PMO Charter - Throw it away, now." Is your PMO wildly successful? Is your PMO meeting the business need for which it was created to serve? Are your constituents happy with the PMO? Is the value of your PMO clearly understood and appreciated by all? If th

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Top 3 Best Practices of Large Scale PMOs, an interview with Barbara Shannon, President of TSG," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Barbara Shannon, President and founding Partner of TSG - The Solution Group. The Solution Group is passionate about helping global Fortune 1000 and small cap businesses grow revenue, market share and margin. Specifically, TSG helps their clients with large, often global projects like ERP system implementation and post-merger integration. Big companies use the PMO to ensure value capture on big investments. Barbara is here to talk to us about the top 3 best practices of large cale PMOs. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "The Three Kinds of Dashboards that All PMOs Have." Many organizations struggle with PMO dashboarding. Some view PMO dashboarding as a graphical summary view of real-time project portfolio management application data. Others think of PMO dashboarding as

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2011 Strategic PMO Summit, an Interview with Janice Griggs, Program Director, The Performance Institute," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Ms. Janice Griggs, the Program Director of The Performance Institute. Janice is organizing and will be hosting the 2011 Strategic PMO Summit, which will be held on January 10th through the 12th in beautiful San Diego, California. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "PMO RSS Feeds." Do you know what a PMO is? Of course you do. Do you know what an RSS feed us? Of course you do. Do you know what a PMO RSS feed is? Aha, I got you. Now that most companies and organizations are on Microsoft Office 2007 or even 2010, users are now spotting an RSS Feed folder right within their email client. Early adopters of new technology have already jumped on that new Microsoft Outlook feature to subscribe to their favorite content so that they can get their news, sports, and w

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Is your PMO a Burden or a Benefit?, an Interview with Mark Duddy," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Mr. Mark Duddy. Mark is the founder and Consulting Director of PMOworks Limited, a Dublin based consultancy that specializes in assisting organizations wishing to build, re-invigorate or outsource their PMO functionality covering all aspects of governance, processes, systems and staff competencies. Mark has a raft of successful senior management experience in project, program and portfolio consultancy and delivery gained while working within the Telecoms, IT and Media sectors in Ireland, UK and Europe. Mark specializes in the design and delivery of PMO related change programs using the skills and knowledge gained from 20 years of dealing with and advising organizations in a range of industries and different cultures including startups, SMEs, public sector bodies, and multinational corporations. Mark is h

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2010 PMO Symposium, an Interview with Terry Doerscher, PMO Expert and Symposium Speaker" presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Mr. Grant Avery who is currently Manager of Project and Risk Services for the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, an organization of 1,500 people within the New Zealand Government. Grant was previously the New Zealand State Service Commission’s Principal Advisor on the quality assurance and risk management of large and high-risk projects in New Zealand Government. In his career Grant has worked closely with United Kingdom, United States, and Australian Government departments, and is an experienced OGC Gateway Reviewer of high-risk projects. He has an interest in the management of projects in high-risk contexts, and his experience includes the management of the New Zealand Government’s Scott Base in Antarctica. Grant is a regular speaker at national conferences, has been

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2010 PMO Symposium, an Interview with Terry Doerscher, PMO Expert and Symposium Speaker" presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Mr. Terry Doerscher, who has more than 27 years of experience as a practitioner and consultant in process improvement, PMO development and operations, project, work and resource management, and portfolio management. As a thought leader and passionate spokesperson for improving operational effectiveness, he is an experienced presenter, author, and cited expert. In addition to being a trusted advisor to many customers, his focus is on innovating world-class processes and best practices aligned to the realities of modern business. His contemporary work includes serving as primary author of Planview PRISMS™ Processes and Best Practices, publishing the PMO 2.0 series of whitepapers, presentations, leadership forums, and research. Terry co-authored, along with Pat Durbin, the CEO of P

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2010 PMO Symposium, an Interview with Harlan Bridges, PMO Expert and Symposium Speaker" presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Mr. Harlan Bridges, who is a dynamic Project Management Professional with extensive experience in business management, web development, software development, and technical projects and programs. He has a track record of expertly managing departments, business units, complex multimillion dollar projects and programs with remotely located teams. His strong background in business management and Project Management Office (PMO) implementation has been gained through 25 successful years of managing businesses, departments, and project teams. He successfully led technology organizations for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard/Compaq (e-Commerce Manager) and Mercer Consulting. Harlan is here to tell us about the 2010 PMO Symposium and his presentation, PMO 2.0 - Business Driven an

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2010 PMO Symposium, an Interview with Paul Risk, PMO Expert and Symposium Speaker" presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Mr. Paul Risk, who is currently the Director of Business Analysis at the American Medical Association and also an Adjunct Professor of Information Systems at Loyola University of Chicago. He is a consulting and project management professional with more than 20 years experience in PMO development, IT strategy, methodology development and analysis, organizational change management, and systems integration. Paul is here to tell us about the 2010 PMO Symposium and his presentation, Getting to No: Setting Expectations for Your PMO. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "Complex Adaptive Systems and the PMO." In our last podcast we talked about Scientific Management, Taylorism, and we offered a fair and balanced look at Taylor’s accomplishments of the time. And now we will venture to the

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The 2010 PMO Symposium, an Interview with Craig Letavec, Vice Chair, and PMO Expert" presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Today, we have with us Mr. Craig Letavec, the Vice Chair of Operations of the PMI PMO Special Interest Group. Craig is also a well know PMO expert, author, and speaker on the subject of PMOs. His book, "The Program Management Office" is a must read for anyone setting up or refreshing a PMO. This is Craig's first time on the PMO Podcast and he is here to tell us about the 2010 PMO Symposium. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, "Defending Taylor!" It is fashionable these days to be critical of scientific management and to find the term "Taylorism" being used as a derogatory battle cry for opponents of the theory as if the Industrial Era were the dark ages of mankind. To such critics, Taylor's system of controls, measurements, and output based pay stand in diametric opposition to flattened organizations, s

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Is the term Agile PMO an oxymoron?" presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. These days were are hearing more and more about the Agile PMO. Have you heard that term before, the Agile PMO? Do you, like some, believe that PMOs should seek to adopt agile software development techniques, or do you like others, think that the term Agile PMO is an oxymoron? The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “Should software development be managed as a project?” Recently, I had an opportunity to meet a leading agile software developer and agile blogger. This expert software developer espouses with passion the concept that software development is a craft. It is art, if you will. Software development is not a process like manufacturing. Nor is it an engineering practice like building a house or a bridge. And as such, software development should not be managed like a project at all. Or should it?  The PMO Podcast™ Mailbag answers a listener question

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "PPM is Not Easy, Part 3," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. There are many that claim that the concept of project portfolio management is an easy concept to grasp and they compare management of a project portfolio to the management of a financial portfolio. Really! This is the third of a three part series that suggests PPM is not that easy afterall. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “Learning from Taylor." Do you know of a man named Frederick Taylor? Have you heard the term Taylorism? Taylor is credited for inventing scientific management. Taylor believed that decisions based upon tradition and rules of thumb should be replaced by precise procedures developed after careful study of an individual at work. Its application is contingent on a high level of managerial control over employee work practices. In management literature today, the it is not viewed favorable at all and greatest use of the concept of Taylorism is as

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "PPM is Not Easy, Part 2," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. There are many that claim that the concept of project portfolio management is an easy concept to grasp and they compare management of a project portfolio to the management of a financial portfolio. Really! This is the second of a three part series that suggests PPM is not that easy afterall. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “How to handle inappropriate humor on the project team." Light-hearted banter and joking on the project team can be helpful for keeping stress low and spirits high. Unfortunately, crude humor can sneak up and morph into inappropriate and offensive joke-telling over time. So, how do you respond to offensive behavior without alienating yourself, the offending person, or the project team? The PMO Podcast™ Mailbag answers a listener question about which project management tool would be a good one to learn for someone just starting out in pro

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "PPM is Not Easy, Part 1," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. There are many that claim that the concept of project portfolio management is an easy concept to grasp and they compare management of a project portfolio to the management of a financial portfolio. Really! This is the first of a three part series that suggests PPM is not that easy afterall. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “Unrealistic Deadlines." Some would argue that the majority of projects have "schedule slippage" as a normal end result rather than an exception to the rule. The challenge of many project managers becomes to find alternate approaches to the tasks and schedules in order to complete a project "on time", or to get approval for slipping dates out. The PMO Podcast™ Mailbag answers a listener question about the Parkinson’s Law. The PMO Podcast™ is sponsored by BOT International, the provider of Processes On Demand, a PMO Setup solution used by

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Project Management Thought Leadership Marketing, Part 3," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Are you a project management thought leader? Whether you are an internal PMO manager or project management professional or an external consultant, trainer, or provider of project management solutions, are you always on the lookout for tips and techniques to help you market you thought leadership? Today, we are conclusing with the third and last episode in a three part series on project management thought leadership marketing that I am sure you will enjoy and find useful. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “Take care of yourself." Taking care of yourself means having balance in your life. Balance can mean different things to different people. To many people it means three things; having work that is challenging, enjoyable, and gives you a sense of achievement; having recreation which is fun, relaxing, and rejuvenating; and having

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Project Management Thought Leadership Marketing, Part 2," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Are you a project management thought leader? Whether you are an internal PMO manager or project management professional or an external consultant, trainer, or provider of project management solutions, are you always on the lookout for tips and techniques to help you market you thought leadership? Today, we are continuing with a three part series on project management thought leadership marketing that I am sure you will enjoy and find useful. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “The number one tip for relieving stress." If you are a PMO manager or a project manager, chances are that you have more than your fair share of stress. How do you manage stress? How do you relieve stress? There are a number of techniques and you can even go to classes on stress management. But do you know what studies show the number one tip is for relievin

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "Project Management Thought Leadership Marketing, Part 1," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. Are you a project management thought leader? Whether you are an internal PMO manager or project management professional or an external consultant, trainer, or provider of project management solutions, are you always on the lookout for tips and techniques to help you market you thought leadership? Today, we are starting a three part series on project management thought leadership marketing that I am sure you will enjoy and find useful. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “Find time to think about the business." If you are a PMO manager or head of business unit, how do you find time to think about the business? For many executives and managers, this can be a real challenge. We are all so busy doing that we seldom have the time or take the time to sufficiently think about the business. And, while most of the gadgets and tinker toys o

This week The PMO Podcast™ Featured Story presents, "The Value of a PMO," presented by Mark Perry (about Mark), host of The PMO Podcast™. For many organizations it takes courage and a leap of faith to start a PMO. Forming a PMO shouldn't be taken lightly; rather the benefits should be and can be clearly documented. According to Gartner Industry Research, "building a PMO is a competitive tactic". Gartner believes that organizations that establish standards for project management will experience half the major project cost overruns, delays, and cancellations of those that fail to do so. That’s what PMOs can do. The PMO Podcast™ Points Memo presents, “Be Clear about PMO Coaching." Does your PMO provide coaching? Does it provide training? PMO coaching is actually quite different from project management training. Training implies a formal teacher-student relationship, and usually formal instruction of material. Coaching is more flexible to the situation at hand, and usually involves talking and explaining how