Catch Dr. James Brown at Nexus

Just a quick note for PM’s in the Pacific Northwest.  Dr. James Brown is conducting a class on conflict management at the Nexus conference in Seattle (Bellevue, WA) on Wednesday, November 2^nd.  I’ve been doing project and program management all over the world for the better part of 15 years and this guy is worth checking out.  Yes he has a PhD, is a published author, worked for NASA and all of that, but more importantly, he knows his subject matter as good or better than anyone in the business.  His teaching methodology and project management philosophy achieve the right balance between ‘the book’, best practices and common sense.  He also has a strong focus on human behavior and what that means in the context of project management. There are teachers and speakers, and then there are the people that you make sure to see every time they are in town.  Dr. Brown is one of the latter.  I encourage you to take the opportunity to go see him and take his class at the Nexus conference.

 

Gene Echkart
Program Manager
ImageSource Inc.

Nexus is Coming!

The ImageSource NEXUS ECM conference is fast approaching.  NEXUS is a unique opportunity for you to discover:

• How companies lever ECM beyond traditional Account Payable Invoice processes
• Lean about Enterprise Content Management industry trends (Cloud, Mobile Technologies, Social Media, to name a few)
• Invaluable opportunities to meeting and collaborate with industry peers
• Attend certified educational seminars
• View current ECM related technologies
• Participate in one on one sessions with industry technical and business experts
• Hear about using ECM as a tactical advantage is solving today’s business issues

All this as well as the ability to earn industry accreditations:

1. Project Management Professionals (up to 20 PDU’s)
2. Certified Records Managers (10 ICRM CMP Credits)
3. Healthcare Professionals (16 AHIMA Credits)
4. Accounts Payable Processionals (IAPP Credits)
5. Business Analysts (IIBA Credits)
6. American Payroll Association (3.5 RCHs)

NEXUS is a conference you can’t afford to miss!

Hope to see you there.

 

NEXUS 2011
November 3 – 4, 2011
Meydenbauer Convention Center, Bellevue Washington
To learn more: www.nexusecm.com

 

David MacWatters
ImageSource, Inc

 

Exciting BPM Workflow Discovery Workshop

If you have a Business Process Management (BPM) workflow project coming up soon, don’t miss the Nexus 2011 conference in Bellevue, Washington on November 3^rd and 4^th.  One of our teams is conducting a BPM workflow discovery workshop that is built entirely on audience participation.  It’s the Business Process Management – Discovery & Problem Resolution Strategy Workshop scheduled for Friday morning (4^th).  It’s a two session workshop and we’re going to take audience members (PM’s, SE’s and BA’s) to form a project team.  We’ll provide them with a business case scenario with BPM workflow requirements and then facilitate them working through the discovery process.  We’ll make sure that they run into lots of the common challenges we see on BPM workflow projects and then watch to see how they sort it out.  It’s a serious subject and we will share best practices approaches to solving these common problems, but we intend to have as much fun as we can in the process!  We look forward to seeing you there and having you participating as part of our workshop project team.  Don’t miss it!

Gene Eckhart
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc

Blogs as Serious Tools for Serious Project Managers?

Blogs are more than a medium for marketing, news, and education. From personal experience I can tell you that they also serve as serious tools for serious project managers.

As a professional project manager I’ve worked with companies from Seattle to Sydney. A key factor in making sure that a project goes well is communications. Blogs are excellent mediums for communicating information in a concise manner that gives all team members the ability to participate in the conversation.

Last year my little company of 70 people was acquired by a Fortune 50 company. As the project manager for the integration I relied heavily on our internal blog to communicate information about project status and schedule. It was also incredibly useful in helping train people on new processes associated with our acquisition.

The number one software used for communications in a project isn’t Microsoft Project or some other fancy tool—it’s email. Blogs have a number of advantages over email. Although our users got email notifications about blog updates they didn’t have to store and manage these notifications in their own email client. They could access the blog from their email notice. And if they wanted to go back to the subject they just had to search the blog. No digging through their inbox, deleted items, folders, or even worse—asking ME to send them yet another copy.

To communicate information about our integration we also put out several newsletters. But this format tended to be a big production in contrast to the blog. For each newsletter we had to pull together a number of articles and format them. By the time we got all the content together some of it was already dated. Plus, people tend to shy away from or skim longer items like newsletters. But with a blog we sent out postings as the information was needed. It was timely and digestible.

Although we kept our blog articles short they often linked to more comprehensive information. Users could look at the posting to get the gist of the update. Then they could use links in the blog to access detailed training, schedules, and other updates. The blog was their portal to key information and remained available well into the future.

Another advantage of a blog is that it’s a very interactive tool. When someone discovered something interesting about our new company they could share that information in a posting. Some users discovered “quick tips” about working with new systems that they shared with everyone else. I also encouraged our executives to share good news about the project in blog postings rather than waiting for company events.

If you’re interested in learning more about how blogs, wikis, and social media are useful tools for managers check out my posting on Enterprise 2.0 and the Hostage Dog. That article also links to a recent presentation I gave to the Seattle area chapter of the Project Management Institute.

Dennis Brooke writes about Almost True Stories of Life at www.dennisbrooke.wordpress.com. He’s a manager for a tiny but important division of a Fortune 50 company. On November 4 he’ll be speaking on Enterprise 2.0 and Project Management in Bellevue, WA at the Nexus ECM conference. See www.nexusecm for information.

This posting originally published on Blogging Bistro and is reprinted courtesy of  that site.

  

Interesting Article on Working in Today’s Lean Environment

This is an article I read on the PMI website. Found it to be very informative, timely and accurate in today’s business climate..

Al Senzamici, PMP
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.

  

Working In Today’s Lean Environment

Despite the first glimmers of an economic recovery on the horizon, many executives are keeping a tight lid on resources.

Lean teams, it seems, are here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. “We as project managers should be prepared to work like this for the next six months,” says Cynthia West, PhD., vice president, sales and marketing, Metafuse Inc., Irvine, California, USA.

Even in stabilizing industries, executives may still be hesitant to add new hires. The last thing organizations want to do is hire people only to let them go a few months down the line, she says. And many companies have adopted the “do more with less” mantra simply because they now know they can.  “Companies have been taking advantage of the economic downturn,” Dr. West says. They save money by having the excuse of “bad times” to explain layoffs or the postponement of new hires. 

Here are some tips on how project managers can work with today’s lean reality—and come out stronger for it.  

Be Graphical, and Be Honest

As resources are cut, remaining employees often have to step up and work harder. Dr. West says that project managers should speak up if they think the project will suffer as a consequence.  

She recommends that you run a visual report to show how heavily each team member is booked, to help you establish priorities. A graphic representation of all the projects in the portfolio that shows the impact of extra work also goes a long way in helping management understand how to prioritize initiatives.  “If you take on the jobs of three people, you’ll most likely fail,” she says. “Create an agreement with management and be honest that you can’t complete all these tasks.” 

Plan Your Projects into the Future

Although many organizations are thinking short-term right now and are waiting for the economy to completely recover, Dr. West stresses that long-term planning is always essential in project management, no matter the economy’s status.  

The “long-term” thought process usually depends on the culture, but she recommends having at least a three- to five-year plan. Map out all the projects in your portfolio in terms of crystal-clear strategies, objectives and goals, Dr. West explains.  

Part of the planning process should address the economic realities—organizations want ways to cut back. Project managers should map out a complete budget. These days, a rough estimate of won’t suffice, says Pablo Lledó, PMP, director, MasConsulting, Mendoza, Argentina.  “Now, it is not enough to be effective at only doing the project right,” he says. “You need to be efficient at doing the right project at the minimum cost.”  

Prioritize Responsibilities

If there was ever a time to know your priorities, it’s now. “You have to decide which clients are most important and most profitable,” says Dr. West. Prioritization takes considerable analysis because it might reveal that the client who spends the most money with you might not necessarily be the most profitable.  

Dr. West says tracking time and billing hours will reveal which clients should be your top priority. Project Insight, for example, assigns a weighted score to each project in the portfolio so that both the team and the leaders know which projects are the most important. 

But no matter how the order of projects fall, project managers and their teams should take this time to master the art of “working thin,” says Mr. Lledó. “The downward economy was a great signal to watch out for efficient projects,” he says. “Project teams should become stronger after all these lessons learned regarding how to keep managing projects under the crisis.”

*This article was originally published on 9 September 2009 on PMI.org. © 2009 Project Management Institute. All rights reserved.*

Putting Together an ECM Project Team

Part 3 – The Project Team

In previous blogs on this same subject, we have discussed the role of Executive Management in the overall Project Team effort.  And what elements from the  internal organization would likely comprise an effective team.   In summary, vibrant and effective executive leadership is likely to be critical in solidifying the vision for the project.  The target of effort to achieve project acceptance and enthusiasm is cascading in that the focus of executive leadership is middle management.  The components of a project team may be different for each organization or type of organization – whatever best suites the particular organizational structure, and what special considerations there might be in the project (i.e. does it involve web content, collaboration, integration with ERP or SharePoint environments, etc.).

The Role of Line of Business Managers in the Project Team

As your project will likely either be addressing a limited requirement of a single department or two, or will be the start of an enterprise wide implementation of ECM, it is always recommended that it focus on a manageable quantity of work – normally one or two Departmental or workgroup solutions.  Enterprise wide ECM, ERM, and Business Process Management implementations usually start with one or two departments.   The Department(s) chosen for the Project are normally those where enthusiasm for improvements is high, cooperation is supportive, and where the business entity will benefit highly from the application of ECM technologies.

Starting with one or two areas that have been carefully selected based on their high potential for success and strong need for improvement, permits the rapid and clear demonstration of  ECM technology benefits – and that strong example can assist in the acceptance of the larger project to come across the enterprise.

Departmental management and supervisory involvement and strong support is crucial.  The organization’s line-of-business (LOB) managers understand the routine and cyclical “problems and challenges” of business operations.  They are operational experts within their areas of responsbilbity, know the character of the staff resources they have to work with, entity strengths and weaknesses, the potential to accept change, and what “change management” efforts should be implemented.   These LOB Managers and supervisors routinely “concentrate on organizational effectiveness through current processes” they will become the bridges that will carry the success of the ECM project forward into routine of daily work production.

The LOB Managers and other key supervisory or lead personnel need to be considered for the Project Team for either full involvement, or participation in the development of specific new process or workflow designs.

• They are most cognizent of what is done in their departments and why, what documents are received and how they are processed, the various sources of data (paper from internal and mail sources, voice mails, emails, internet provided input, etc.).
• They understand the decision criteria in the flow of work, the point where specific processes are needed, risks to successful processing, exception processing, and all the rest of the challenges that will need to be considered in a process design.
• They also know which other business areas need access to their documents and data.
• They usually have the only available insight into key details regarding operational systems, processes, and policies that support their organization’s mission.

When you apply ECM and BPM technology to an organization’s routine processes, you must have input and significant levels of planning participation from the managers and key personnel who are most familiar with operations so they can ensure that the new system will be successful in meeting objectives at all meaningful levels.  These people are needed to allow the project team to reach all objectives through consistent operational production.

From time to time this blog will continue with the subject of project team challenges, some considerations to remember, use of supporting vendor resources, and some recommended methods for implementation.

Neil W. Lindsey, ECMm, CDIA+

Project Manager / Senior Business Analyst
ImageSource, Inc.

ECM Projects and Oracle I/PM 11g

 

Oracle recently announced the release of version 11g for their I/PM (Imaging and Process Management) software. With 11g, Oracle now provides a complete vision for image enabling the enterprise.

What does this mean from an ECM Project Management point of view?

First – I believe I/PM 11g will significantly reduce the complexity of an ECM project as you will be able to offer/manage a one-vendor, complete solution for imaging processing including capture, indexing, workflow, and application integration. This reduced complexity minimizes risk, and shortens the development, testing, and implementation phases of your ECM project.

Second – Since I/PM is a core component of Oracle’s ECM Suite (it can also be purchased separately) - you can leverage Oracle’s comprehensive ECM offering to provide the full gamut of ECM services including records management, library services, web publishing, etc., again with minimal additional project time.

Third – I/PM 11g includes many new features, but there are two that excite me from an ECM project point of view, and more importantly providing immediate value and benefit to your client.

• The first is pre-built workflows and workflow monitoring tools. Oracle included in I/PM 11g common workflows such as invoice and PO processing, and I hope they continue to expand their included pre-built workflows for other business processes. The pre-built workflows are customizable to manage exceptions or for specific company requirements. These workflow templates should provide an entry point in your project to discuss business process improvement. I would also hold hope that in the future I/PM users or user groups such as the OAUG (Oracle Application User Group) members will share their workflow templates.
• The second feature I liked , included in 11g was content-based recognition technology that allows extracting data from documents (without using templates). By including automated data extraction – a whole range of benefits and process improvements become available in your ECM project including reduced data entry time and entry errors, automated indexing,  and more ‘intelligent’ workflow driven processes.

Fourth – Oracle I/PM of course integrates seamlessly into Oracle applications , but just as importantly Oracle I/PM 11g provides the framework for their I/PM or ECM suite to integrate easily with non-Oracle applications across the enterprise. Most imaging or content management projects are designed to handle the particular needs of a department such as AP, or to automate a particular process within the organization. Without a doubt, Oracle (and their shareholders) hope that organizations will rethink such a departmental/process based strategy, and come to the realization that content management should be truly enterpise wide.

A few changes I would make managing an I/PM 11g project?

1. With Oracle ECM or I/PM 11g your project team should – even if the initial phase is departmental based – include an ‘enterprise’ sponsor. If you’re to provide an enterprise solution – don’t start the project with departmental management/oversight.
2. Lobby up front to have your ECM hardware and software infrastructure, support and development costs allocated on a corporate basis – similar to network services, database administration, etc. Since every department will get hit with these costs – two benefits will occur.
   • There won’t be new departmental CM solutions (and associated costs) appearing.
   • The organization is making a commitment to ECM – and announcing (explicity ideally) their expectation that every department should be prepared to review their existing processes for improvement in light of the new ECM infrastructure.
3. Automated workflow processes may be new to the organization. Be sure to include business analysts on your project team to insure all possible process improvements are realized.
4. Encourage your project sponsor/team to join a local or national Oracle User Group. The Oracle user community is huge – and there are significant benefits in leveraging the experience of other Oracle users – especially given the breadth and depth of Oracle’s product offerings.

For more information on Oracle I/PM 11g – stay tuned to this forum or visit Oracle’s website on I/PM

Steve Kissinger

ImageSource

  

PUTTING TOGETHER AN ECM PROJECT TEAM

Part 2 – The Project Team

I discussed in the last blog on this general topic that the strong support of the intended Project by executive management is a critical factor for success – they need to support the projects sponsor, and smooth the path of challenges that sometimes occur when change is contemplated.  Vibrant and effective executive leadership is likely to be critical in solidifying the vision for the project.  The target of effort to achieve project acceptance and enthusiasm is cascading in that the focus of executive leadership is middle management, and then it effort fans out to focus on users and supervisors. 

What Will be the Right Team
The right team of players, working together to hone the vision, is required to construct the concepts to be considered, refine the concepts, and to develop strategies to support the selected conceptual structure to fruition.  The people on the team are as integral to your project’s success as the solution, the project plan, the software tools, and infrastructure that is chosen.

Forming the right team is not easy – as not all leaders and users welcome new ideas and changes to the routine process.  But the executive support and the right team members are just as important for for standard ECM projects success as these factors are vital for business process management (BPM) and integrated implementations.

The primary key role types that are required on any ECM project team are listed below.  The exact position titles and numbers of team members recommended for participation will differ depending on an organization’s size and individuals’ skill levels. It is important that the eight classifications of people resources below are part of the Project team.

1. Executives: provide the supporting vision and enthusiasm for the solution objective

2. Line-of-Business (LOB) Managers: provide important project support and key higher level objectives

3. Business Analyst: provide discovery and analytical resources, reporting, perspective and ideas

4. Records/Compliance Manager: assure objectives and solutions match mandates and requirements

5. IT/IS Manager: supporting infrastructure, including business & IT challenges into the plan

6. WorkGroup Manager/Supervisor staff:  provide working knowledge of operations being addressed and realistic possibilities on what will work and where the challenges will be

7. End users: discovering what will and won’t work and where the challenges for acceptance are

8. Project Manager:  This person is the organization’s operational leader of the project and the coordinator with outside resources – ECM industry experts, software vendors, conversion resources, Training, etc. 

From time to time this blog will continue with the subject of team challenges, some considerations to remember, use of supporting vendor resources, and some recommended methods for implementation.

Neil W. Lindsey, ECM^M, CDIA+
Project Manager / Senior Business Analyst
ImageSource, Inc.

“No one ever changed the oil in a rented car!”

I recently read a great article on leadership skills and found one statement in particular, to be both humorous and insightful:

“Another incentive for successful delegation is to give the subordinate a sense of ownership of the task – a reason to be invested in its success. As the adage goes, “No one ever changed the oil in a rented car.” If you don’t own it, why would you care?”    PBPExecutiveReports

Stakeholders, who are involved, well informed and shown that their efforts, expertise, input and suggestions are truly valued and critical to the success of the project are no longer individual Stakeholders………they are owners in a collaborative partnership.

Instilling a sense of ownership pays big dividends in productivity and acceptance.

“If you don’t own it, why would you care?”

  

The Role of Leadership vs. Management in Project Management

You’ll often hear people extolling the virtues of leadership, and at other times the virtue or failures of management. The question is what is the difference and how does that play out within the context of Project Management.

In a nutshell (yes, I am simplifying it for this discussion) the difference between leadership and management can be thought of in this way:

Management is about dealing with the complexities, logistics and issues of execution. In short, it brings order, consistency and predictability to the notion of things like Project Deliverables, meeting Quality Assurance goals, and the overall delivery of product, projects or programs, regardless of what those things might be.

Leadership on the other hand is about vision, inspiration and dealing with change.

In order for any effort or organization to function in a healthy and sustainable way, there must a symbiotic relationship between the two. 

Managers and leaders have commonality in some of the tasks and activities that they perform (i.e. deciding what needs to be done, who will do it and making it happen), but they go about achieving the end results in very different, yet interrelated ways that create a synergy that is much more effective than either trait on it’s own.

Managers will plan, create SOW’s, Gantts, Issues Lists, Test Plans, etc… in an effort to solve problems. Leaders will develop a vision first and devise strategies on how to achieve that vision.

Managers will focus on recruiting and hiring to staff the project to completion.  Leaders will often be more focused on aligning strategic resources within the teams, communicating the vision to them knowing that they will support, propogate (and in some cases enhance) the vision to the rest of the teams.

Managers will use all of the planning tools at their disposal to monitor execution and evaluate the end results against the plan. Leaders will inspire and motivate people to continue moving in the right direction, to not be sidetracked by problems, issues, or false objection. And they will often do it in what seems to be very simple ways that speak to the human aspect (e.g. emotions, values, etc…) of their team members.

So as Project and Program Managers, which do we want to be?  Perhaps … both. Any project, program or organization of any substance must have a management component to survive. Structure, procedure and protocol is not a bad thing. But structure, procedure and protocol without vision, and human inspiration becomes static.  Likewise vision and human inspiration without structure, procedure and protocol can lead to chaos.  The key is understanding the difference between them, the proper balance between the two, and when and where to apply them.

Gene Eckhart
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.