Project Management for ECM

Effective Project Management: Requires Leadership & Management Skills

alsenzamici — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:34:37 +0000

For a project manager to be effective he/she needs to be able to both lead and manage. Leadership and Management are not the same. However, they must complement each other if you are to be successful. So how are they different?

Management

Management generally focuses on the work aspects of the project. When we manage something we typically deal with work and work activities. Managing focuses on items such as:

Plans – project, risk, contingency, assumptions, scope, change, communication
Resource Allocation – physical & people
Time/schedule
Costs/budgets
Monitoring and Controlling
Coordinating
Directing
Conflict
Decision Making
Problem Solving

Leadership

Leadership generally focuses on the people aspects of the project. When we lead we focus more on items such as:

Vision/goals
Stakeholders
Teamwork & Team Building
Persuasion
Inspiration & Motivation
Relationship Building
Communications
Counseling & Coaching
Instructing & Teaching
Mentoring & Guiding

An effective project manager will need to be able to apply both managerial and leadership skills.

Al Senzamici, PMP
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.

RM Speak

Steve Kissinger — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 23:29:42 +0000

Your company, or if you’re a consultant – the company you’re consulting for will most likely be sued at some time given today’s litigious environment. In your role as an ECM project manager – are you knowledgeable and able to include E-discovery, document retention, disposition, etc. in your ECM project requirements to mitigate the risks of such a lawsuit?

Today’s discussion is going to branch out from content management to touch upon the area of records management. You should expect that for the majority of projects – you will likely have to explain the difference between the two to many of your stakeholders. Records management came from a small $15 million per year business in 2000 to now being included as part of most ECM software offerings.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? - A document for the most part is information stored on paper or on scanned images or electronically. Documents can be updated or revised. Records however are documents that are recognized as complete and as such are unchangeable. It is important to remember that not all documents become records.

If you’re not familiar with Records Management ‘speak’ – then I’d recommend AIIM’s (Association for Information and Image Management) certification course on Electronic Records Management (ERM). Since 90% of all records are electronic – this is a good place to start. AIIM offers 3 different levels of certification – practitioner, specialist and master. You can find all the information on ERM certification at: http://www.aiim.org/Training/ERM-Electronic-Records-Management-Course

For a quick analysis on where your organization is with regards to records management best practices – I’d suggest taking a look at ARMA’s (Association of Records Managers and Administrators) Governance Matury Model – GARP® (Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles). The GARP model will give you a picture of where your organization is in regards to records and information governance. There are eight different principles including: Accountability, Transparency, Integrity, Protection, Compliance, Availability, Retention and Disposition. Each of these principles of records/information management are evaluated at 5 different levels. When you’ve had a chance to look at the model, you can better assess risks and opportunities for improvement in records management that may impact how you proceed with your ECM project(s). For more information on the GARP maturity model, see: http://www.arma.org/garp/metrics.cfm.

You WILL increase your value as an ECM project manager by becoming fluent in RM speak and more importantly being able to integrate records management requirements into ECM projects.

Steve Kissinger, PMP

ImageSource, Inc

Catch Dr. James Brown at Nexus

Tracy Lim — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:40:21 +0000

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.

Enterprise Search Market Continues to be Hot

alsenzamici — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:29:02 +0000

Enterprise search and management of unstructured data continues to be “hot”.

With HP buying Autonomy and Microsoft buying FAST we now have Oracle buying Endeca. They already have Oracle SES for enterprise search and they will now strengthen their position with Endeca to help companies analyze unstructured data.

See the MarketWatch article about Oracle purchase.

Oracle Buys Endeca

Regards,

Al Senzamici, PMP
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.

Nexus is Coming!

Tracy Lim — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 15:51:43 +0000

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:

Project Management Professionals (up to 20 PDU’s)
Certified Records Managers (10 ICRM CMP Credits)
Healthcare Professionals (16 AHIMA Credits)
Accounts Payable Processionals (IAPP Credits)
Business Analysts (IIBA Credits)
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

Tracy Lim — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:41:55 +0000

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

Plan for Differences

Steve Kissinger — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:24:31 +0000

Oktoberfest – the largest party in the world is currently being held in Munich. As a project manager, I would love to see the project plan details for preparing and hosting a party attended by 7 million people and dealing with the drunken patrons locally called “Bierleichen” (German for beer corpses).

It would also be interesting to see what the original project plan looked like back in 1810 when Oktoberfest first started as a celebration of the wedding of Prince Ludwig. Imagine how much historians and anthropologists would learn if they were able to review and compare project plans for historical events such as Oktoberfest? Think about how the Oktoberfest project planning requirements have changed over time to reflect new technologies such as electricity, refrigeration, transportation or how regulations related to health, sanitation, crowd control, and security issues have been integrated into the project requirements.

ECM project may take years for enterprise deployment and start out as departmental solutions – with the first CM project typically implemented to address the business concerns of a high volume content area such as Legal, AP, Contracts, or Human Resources. Later CM projects are added (hopefully) over time as budget and resources are available until eventually there is a true ECM system within the organization.

How have your subsequent CM project plans changed over time after the first rollout? Underlying this question is the assumption that your organization has a central governance structure responsible for information assets to insure that subsequent CM projects maintain corporate standards for content or records management. Additionally does each of your CM project plans include standards reviews to reflect business, legal, compliance and audit standards? Just as the planners for Oktoberfest revise their plans every year, do you continually revise each CM project plan

• To include new content sources and document types
• To reflect new information requirements imposed by enterprise/federated search
• To address new BI or reporting tools implemented within the organization
• To leverage new technologies such as cloud storage
• To optimize content retrieval from new sources such as smart phones and pad devices

Prior to the next CM rollout project phase – spend some time upfront thinking about what has changed within your organization since the last rollout – and how those changes may present opportunities (or risks) to your upcoming endeavor.

Prior to refrigeration – beer was not produced in the summer months in Germany and would spoil by the end of summer. To avoid such a calamity – a large party was held at the end of summer to consume the old stock of beer! As noted previously – this beer drinking party officially became Oktoberfest in 1810.

Steve Kissinger

ImageSource, Inc.

Work-Life Balance

alsenzamici — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:59:58 +0000

I read an article today written by Dr. James T. Brown, SEBA® Solutions. I subscribe to his newsletter. It really made me reflect on some things in my career.

When I was just starting my career as a manager my mentor said to me “if you are spending day after day working long hours, you are doing it wrong”. Until I started working in my new role as a manager it really did not sink in what he was trying to tell me. At first I tried to “do it all”.

I finally awakened to the fact that I would soon burn out if I continued down that path.

The biggest thing I learned early on that helped with this balancing act was learning to delegate. Giving the people I worked with an opportunity to grow. Providing them with the tools and knowledge to be successful and at the same time allowing them to make mistakes. Some of the best lessons learned come from the times when we make mistakes. I have certainly had my share of learnings through that method. Mike’s comments in the article regarding delegation helped solidify my thoughts on the topic.

To see Dr. Brown’s article that sparked my thoughts today go to: “The Truth About Work-Life Balance” by Dr. James T. Brown

Dr. Brown will also be a keynote speaker at ImageSource Nexus ’11.

Regards,

Al Senzamici, PMP
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.

Ramp up your Records Management Program with GARP

Tracy Lim — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:09:26 +0000

A while back I had a discussion with an Eastside ARMA member about the challenges of making recommendations for ERM systems and that I was looking for a standard to help drive the importance of good recordkeeping and governance. She suggested I look at the Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principals (GARP) standards to use as part of the analysis. The GARP principals fit perfectly with my established process and added an industry standard component that gives creditability to the ERM analysis. Now, for the first time it was not just me saying that Enterprise Records Management needed standard taxonomy, better organization, and executive oversight of the records program. There was a standard that could be referenced and provide meaningful advice from the non-profit RIM Professional Organization – ARMA International.

The purpose of GARP is to give organizations a baseline for current Records Management practices that can be compare against other organizations and used to help develop a roadmap for the future. The eight GARP principles address the primary components needed to develop an information governance best practices plan for the organization’s Records Management Program.

The following eight principals can be used to determine the level of development of a records management program and to analyze how the organization is positioned to take on new projects and benchmark against other organizations.

The goal of the GARP analysis is to overcome the functional, technological, and business issues associated with developing a Records Management Program and introduce a structure for guidance when implementing or maintaining ECM systems overall. Managing records and information according to the GARP principles will increase the effectiveness of information governance and aid in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.

When getting started in ERM or looking at process improvement it is important to review the GARP principals along with the records policies and procedures that are critical components for information governance. I have found that the GARP analysis helps as an ERM Professional to define the challenges in the as-is state of records management and quickly identify areas that require recommendations to achieve better governance. My next Blog will cover how to perform the GARP analysis.

Leigh Woody ERM^M
Program Manager
ImageSource

Imation Acquires the Assets of ProStor Systems

alsenzamici — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:36:53 +0000

For those of you who have been working with ProStor and the InfiniVauilt technology… on August 29, 2011, Imation Corp. announced that it has acquired the multi-tiered storage system assets of Boulder, Colo.-based ProStor Systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Many of you were able to meet with Richard Coons from ProStor at recent ImageSource Nexus events held in Bellevue, Washington. Richard Coons has extensive knowledge on the InfiniVault products and is now Sales Western at Imation.

ProStor’s InfiniVault technology allows companies to manage fixed digital assets, including videos, images, documents and other types of large, static data files.

“Imation acquired the InfiniVault technology and product line because we recognize the need to add a compelling tiered storage architecture to our existing portfolio of backup and archiving products,” said Imation CEO Mark Lucas.

To see the full acquisition announcement go to http://www.imation.com/en-us/About-Imation/News/# .

Al Senzamici, PMP
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.