Save girl child

Janurary –March 2013 e-Magazine

Collaborating Project Management for High Performance Business Insight

Issue 8

PMI North India Chapter

Synergy

Do not cage your mind…let it roam in search of innovations...

this issue

More Ar- ticles

for

PM

Presenting the first interview

in this Edition!

-Piyush Govil PMP

Message from PMI North India Chapter – President

As we are now standing on the verge of this very colorful festival of Holi, I would like to convey the following message to all readers of this magazine: If wishes come in rainbow colors then I would send the brightest one to say

Happy Holi!!

This quarter has been very exciting and eventful for the chapter board as we embarked on

the path of our preparations for the Project Management National Conference 2013 being

hosted at Leela Kempinski, Gurgaon (NCR), world class venue for large National & Interna-

tional Conferences and I personally in the capacity of Conference Chairman, PM National

Conference 2013 look forward to welcoming you there on September 27-28, 2013 .

Hosting this conference on our tenth year of inception (with chapter celebrating 10 year

of volunteering service) of our chapter is a matter of both pride and happiness for us, as this also allows us to contrib-

ute towards Nation building of our Great Nation. As part of the conference preparation, here is a brief update on the

various activities completed / significantly moved forward towards the path of successful delivery of the conference:

Conference Core-Committee formed and operationalized

Contract signed with conference venue hotel

Conference Theme Finalized - Project Management - Bringing Certainty in Uncertain Times". The words

"Bringing Certainty" signifies the measurable and definitive value addition that Project Management best prac-

tices brings into play in management of projects in these uncertain times

Conference Web-site www.pmi.org.in/Conference 2013 launched with venue, date & other details

Block your dates for

National Conference

27th & 28th September’2013

President & CEO

PMI North India Chapter

Save girl child 2

Conference Mailers released calling for Paper Reviewer Volunteers, Technical Papers with details on Tracks &

Sub-Track details etc

Bids invited from various event management companies for conference with some already recieved

Internally 6-9 volunteers from chapter picked and assigned to Conference Core Committee and other core

groups required by individual tracks

Work initiated on finalization of names for first set of additional 20-30 volunteers who will work with core com-

mittee across different stages of the conference and for those who have not been able to apply to chapter for

volunteering opportunities, please try any of the following links for the same:

http://www.pminorthindia.org/Opportunities/Company-Connect.aspx

http://www.pminorthindia.org/Opportunities/Region-Connect.aspx

Also taking cognizance of feedback received from participants of earlier year conference regarding challenges faced

from extended stay of 3-days, this year's conference structure has been re-designed to make it two full-days confer-

ence, finishing on Saturday so that outstation guests can take evening or next day flight and get one-day rest before

resuming their official duties next week.

Thank You!

Regards

Piyush Govil PMP®

Vice President – Communications

PMI North India Chapter

Dear Fellow Professionals, On behalf of Editorial Team, it is of great honor for me to publish SYNERGY successfully since last two years. This success belongs to all our fellow professional coming forward to share their experience within community. The biggest achievement of SYNERGY is that it is sustaining just because of professional like you, who all our driving and helping us publish articles of great interest with practical experience in Project Management edition by edition.

This Edition has articles focusing on Execution and its challenges in INDIAN Scenario, Lean and Agile methodology and risk management. We try to cover almost all knowledge areas with every edition with couple of articles on resource management and need to the hour i.e. Health Care System.

This edition we are starting Interview Series, sharing Interviewee’s vast experience with community on the insights of Project Management. With the humor around project management, we are proud to cover almost all aspects of project management and making SYNERGY interesting for its readers!

With release of every edition on time, I would like to once again express my gratitude to my Editorial Team, who out of all prior commitments leaving no stone unturned to publish it on schedule. Wish you all a very colorful and prosperous Holi! Happy Reading!

From the Editor’s Desk

This HOLI let's burn (HOLIKA DAHAN) hatred, jealousy, greed, treachery, dishonesty, all ill feelings AND

Play Holi with colors of Humanity to spread love peace, harmony and tolerance since everyone is different.

Save girl child 3

Table of Contents

Design and conceptualization: Piyush Govil

Articles review and support: , Kumar Saurabh, Nirmallya Kar, Prashant Malhotra, Pooja Gandhi, Hemant Seig-

ell, Nitin N Singh, Abhijit B Kumar, Shashank N, Manoj Gupta, Piyush Govil

Online Support: Pritam Gautam

EPC PROJECT EXECUTION

CHALLENGES INDIAN

SCENARIO 4

Agile - Delivering value for Projects with uncertainty…

23

General Awareness

Work station Ergonomics 9

Facets of Leadership

6

How the Lean Model in

Agile aids in Prioritizing

Features!

10

Use Reusability

in

Projects 11

The Risk

Manager Hiding in You!

15

THE TUSSLE FOR RESOURCES

18

Humor

Why is PMCoE required?

20

Personal Commitment Index and Project Success

26

Are Human Resources

Overly Accentuated

in Projects?

30

The need of the hour

(Project Management in

Health Care)

28

Living the Project Management System

31

Interview Series

Insights of

Project Management

33

Save girl child 4

EPC PROJECT EXECUTION CHALLENGES

INDIAN SCENARIO

Execution of projects involve a clear understanding of

scope and achieving the end result within schedule and

budgeted cost by effective utilization of all resources.

Projects have been successful only when major stake-

holders continuously identify and mitigate the risks and

are flexible towards acknowledging and tackling the

known and unknown challenges. Project Managers in Engi-

neering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) sector face

numerous challenges that are universal and at times very

specific to Indian conditions, during the life cycle of any

project.

Challenges that Project Managers face during project exe-

cution are varied and at times contextually unique. Few

challenges that are encountered during project execution in

India are highlighted below.

Globally, Oil & Gas Projects are riskier to execute and are

less successful as compared to non-Oil & Gas Projects due

to more intricacies, uncertainties and higher stakes.

Based on the report by Edward W. Merrow, Independent

Project Analysis, Inc. dated April 2012; non-Oil & Gas Pro-

jects maintained a success rate of around 50% whereas

only 22% of Oil & Gas Projects were termed successful.

Rest 78% of the non-successful projects witnessed 33%

cost overrun and execution schedule slippage of 30%. Fur-

ther, 64% of such projects also experienced production

attainment problems in the first 2 years after their first

output. Table showing statistics of global projects is as

below:

Source: Oil & Gas Industry Megaprojects: Our Recent Track Record by Edward W. Merrow, Independent Project Analysis, Inc., April 2012

This is a very serious concern as every project involves

huge amount of investment (government and corporate)

with clearly measured Return on Investment. Project slip-

pages and overruns can affect any nation adversely and

can be catastrophic to any developing nation like India.

India has a projected growth rate of more than 8.5% in

the proposed 12th Five Year Plan with an infrastructure

investment of around INR 40.9 Trillion, thereby providing

an opportunity of around INR 17.0 Trillion in the EPC sec-

tor. This cannot be achieved if the project related chal-

lenges are not identified and solution themes are not im-

plemented on a real-time basis in a well planned project.

-By Kumar Saurabh PMP®

One of the major challenges being faced in EPC sector is

absence of a holistic and professional project manage-

ment approach for executing projects. Numerous projects

are being executed in India where assigned project man-

agers are the ones who are neither professionally trained

nor undergo regular training but have gained experience

by virtue of being associated with projects throughout

their career span. Key decisions taken by such project

managers are based on their experience and may not al-

ways be aligned with the best practices adopted globally.

Due to this, probability of similar problems occurring re-

peatedly increases substantially and that might result in

cost overrun, schedule slippage or lack of quality. Only a

few organizations in EPC sector, like Samsung Engineer-

ing, recognize the importance of associating with profes-

sional bodies like Project Management Institute (PMI) and

also have a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO)

that monitors and analyzes every project in order to exe-

cute every project within schedule, adhering to all quality

parameters and in the most cost effective manner.

Scenario

Challenges

Professional Project Management Approach

Execution really shapes whether your company takes off or not - Pete Cashmore

Save girl child 5

Globally the industry is plagued by shortage of skilled

workforce and Indian industry is also not immune to the

same. Availability of skilled workforce is not commensu-

rate with the Indian growth pattern and as a result the

gap has increased substantially. Major construction pro-

jects are worst hit due to around 40% shortage of skilled

workforce. Further, only less than 20% of workforce un-

dergoes training that is updated and is in line with the

global standards. There is an urgent need to setup and

promote training centres for all skilled workforce that are

in accordance with the global parameters and standards

and are employability-centric, not only theory-centric.

Finalization of scope must be based on feasibility studies,

local conditions, prevailing socio-political structure etc.

This is all the more important for infrastructure projects

like road projects. There have been instances when the

scope has been overestimated and tenders have been

floated accordingly but subsequently, the same had to be

modified in the absence of any bidder. Also we have come

across various instances where roads had to be diverted or

scrapped as presence of a religious structure was not con-

sidered prior to execution. We must ensure that projects

are initiated after due diligence and are not based on the

whims and fancies of the initiating decision maker.

There is a tacit acceptance that India dismally lacks in

acknowledging the importance of value engineering while

executing projects. Value engineering mindset is gener-

ally not present as it is considered to be a hindrance in

the generally accepted project execution procedures as

the results of value engineering are latent at times. Over-

specifications of projects are quite common leading to

higher project costs and at times, also affecting the vi-

ability of projects. Few suggested new technologies that

can be implemented are use of corrosion resistant steel,

closed structural sections, pre-engineered buildings, engi-

neered steel guardrail system in roads etc., as steps to-

wards the value engineering thought process. Focussed

value engineering can save around 5%-10% of project cost

and also beneficially affect the opportunity cost.

As per the prevalent procedures in India, any project in

pre-tendering stage has to obtain numerous approvals and

clearances from various regulatory and statutory bodies.

This, at times, adversely affects initiation of a project by

more than 1-2 years. Further, an effective single window

approval mechanism is generally non-existent. Due to

this, there have been instances when approval from a cer-

tain department does not positively impact the approval

process since clearances from other departments are inor-

dinately delayed. Even during project execution, lack of

transparency and cumbersome approvals has been the

reasons for cost / schedule overrun.

More than 25% projects in India do not have timely finan-

cial closure and one of the major reasons for the same is

financial constraint. The effect of global economic melt-

down is also very much evident in India. Many projects

that started after proper studies also had to be either

closed midway or slowed down due to insufficient fund

flow, like the 6 MMTPA refinery complex of Nagarjuna Oil

Corporation Ltd. in Tamil Nadu. In order to have regular

fund flow, there is an urgent need to implement tax holi-

days, encourage investments from long term savings mo-

bilisers, have controlled interest rates and create positive

environment for funds from external commercial bodies

and funding agencies

Projects in India are generally initiated due to local / na-

tional requirement, to utilize the resources available or to

align with global standards / parameters. However com-

pletion of projects is largely dependent on the political

structure and political influence. Ongoing projects be-

come the first casualty in the case of unstable national or

local political scenario. A Few projects also succumb to

protests that are politically instigated to gain personal

political mileage or as vendetta to their predecessors. In

the national interest, we need to ensure that a profes-

sional and effective mechanism is in place to make cer-

tain that all projects are executed in a transparent man-

ner and are immune to any political influence.

Another challenge being faced in India during project exe-

cution is long, cumbersome and tedious procedures re-

lated to resolution of disputes. Due to this, stakeholders

involved in project execution may not necessarily comply

with all statutory or regulatory requirements, thereby

affecting quality and profit margins. As per Business Stan-

dard dated April 26, 2011, National Highways Authority of

India (NHAI) is facing 1,635 Nos. disputes having arbitra-

tion claims of over INR 11,084 crores in tribunals and vari-

ous courts. There is an urgent need to re-visit and

strengthen The Arbitration and Conciliation Act -1996,

ensure enforcement of decisions taken by arbitration tri-

bunals, introduce mechanism to weed-out frivolous claims

and have an empowered and dedicated body to fast track

disputes related to infrastructure projects.

Talent Shortage

Scope

Value Engineering

Approvals and Clearances

Inadequate Funds or Intermittent Fund Flow

Political Influence

Dispute Management

Save girl child 6

Mr. Kumar Saurabh Asst. General Manager and HOD, Strategic Planning in Samsung Heavy Industries India Pvt. Ltd. and is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP®) .

He has more than 16 years of experience in Project Management, Project Control, Cost Estimation and Contract Administration for projects related to refineries, pipelines, storage tanks, petrochemical plants, energy and infrastructure projects. He is also a member of Global Association of Risk Professionals, Six Sigma e-Green Belt Certified, Undergone Configuration Training in SAP R/3 (SD Module) and Undergone Basic and Advanced Training of Primavera P6 (Enterprise Version).

About Author

There is a visible difference between the risk assessment and management mechanism followed in India vis-a-vis global

practices. Comparatively, very few organizations in India recognize that risk management is an integral and essential

tool for executing projects successfully within the contractual parameters. Indian companies tend to have a lower Bid

to Win ratio in International Competitive Bidding as all risk parameters are not seriously analysed and mitigated. In

order to align ourselves with global organizations, a dedicated risk management team must be part of any organization

that is empowered to influence decisions based on the assessment.

We need to be aware of the complexities and challenges involved in executing projects as each

and every project is unique. However key to successful execution and development is to have an

early trigger mechanism to identify the above mentioned challenges and risks and to be aware of any other challenge

that might creep in while executing projects. Presence of standardized solution themes for issues related to projects

will help us in achieving our desired growth figures.

Risk Management

Path Ahead

Facets of Leadership

During a project, from initiation to closing, a project manager faces different circumstances and communi-cates with many stakeholders of distinct attitudes. This variation of human behavior and situation needs a specific or mix of leadership behavior to deal with and to lead a successful project completion. What behavioral and emotional intelligence aspect is very common in your leadership attitude when leading and dealing with people? Six kinds of leaderships can be observed. The circle of a leadership style is as follows. Different scenarios have diverse need of leadership. A leader is in the center of this circle, where he/she needs to carefully pick the leadership style as per the need of time. Let us explore what kind of approach or attribute a leadership style has, in what situation it is going to be more effective and when it can cause bad results.

A leadership style builds the climate in an organization and a leader is responsible for the quality of organization climate which in turn accounts for about one-third of profitability and productivity.

- By Rajnish Kumar Chauhan PMP®

Mr. Kumar Saurabh Asst. General Manager & HOD

Samsung Heavy Engineering India Pvt. Ltd

Originally published as : "Avoiding Catastrophes in Project Execution" in Chemical Engineering World - October 2012 edition.

Save girl child 7

Approach: DO-WHAT- I-SAY or My way or high way

Effectiveness Situation: It is effective only in the turn-around scenario, while making tough decisions such as firing and dealing with the problem, an employee with whom everything else has failed, or in a natural disaster such as tsunami, fire etc. A leader has complete con-trol on a situation.

Do not use in long overhaul and

MUST not be practices once crisis

is over.

Drawback:

What if one continues to stick

with a coercive style?

This top–down decision making may force employees not to bring new ideas as they might think that their ideas will be killed at the first shot. The atti-tude of just-follow-order will be developed in people. This will kill innovation. Employees’ morale will be low and they will stop taking initiative.

This will result in the overall negative impact on the or-

ganization climate.

Approach: COME-WITH-ME In this style, destination is known but how to reach the destination is employees’ decision.

This style provides the vision and makes clear to employ-

ees how their work is useful and how and why it matters

to the company.

Effectiveness Scenario:

As it is an employee’s decision how to achieve goal, it

makes him/her innovative and motivate for the calculated

risk. It is useful when an organization is moving aimlessly

and missing or confusing its vision and strategy. An au-

thoritative leader provides direction to people. Employees

are motivated and work for one mission that increases

productivity. This results in the overall very positive im-

pact on the organization climate.

Drawback: While working with team members who are more experi-enced than the leader, employees can think of the leader as self-centered and with excessive self-esteem.

Approach: PEOPLE-COME-FIRST People are more important than tasks and goals. In this

style, leaders build emotional bonding with employees and reap it for productivity. Effectiveness scenario: If you are assigned a team with low trust and weary, af-

filiative leadership builds trust, brings harmony, and energizes the employees. It is used when team building is needed. Drawback:

Affiliative leaders do not

provide constructive advice

on how to improve and leave

employees. When people

need directives, affiliative

leadership does not provide

any navigation. As it has less

focus on task, poor perform-

ance can go unnoticed or

overlooked.

Approach:

WHAT-DO-YOU-THINK

This style involves making decisions collectively and hav-ing consensus among people.

.

Effectiveness Scenario: Consider that you own a shop and you need to close down it. There are two ways––just tell your decision, which will cause panic and legal action against the organization. The other way is to call all employees for discussing facts. Take their opinion and build consensus to close down the shop. The employees will understand the situation, will collaborate, and trust will also be maintained. It is very helpful when a leader is uncertain and needs the expert advice.

Drawback:

It can cause a series of meetings with no results, if em-ployees are not competent for providing decision-making advice.

Approach:

DO-AS-I-DO

In this style, a leader sets very high standards and exem-

plifies himself/herself. The leader also pinpoints poor

performance and asks to put more effort.

Effectiveness Scenario:

In this style, it is required to achieve business results

quickly, for example, to gain market share by introducing

new products before competitors. An organization will

Coercive Style

Authoritative Style

Affiliative Style

Pacesetting Style

Democratic Style

Save girl child 8

Drawbacks:

People are overwhelmed by demand. It puts the team in continuous stress that brings down the morale of the em-

ployees.

Work becomes task oriented and monotonous, and hence,

boring. It could bring unhealthy competition among the

employees to get leader’s attention.

Approach: LET-ME-DEVELOP-YOU

In this style, a leader identifies employees’ skills,

strengths, and weaknesses for their development.

Effectiveness Scenario: The coaching leadership style is most effective when em-ployees are receptive to this help. Build an environment where employees are happy to share their knowledge and are open to feedbacks.

This will increase productivity as employees’ personal

aspirations, long term goals, and organization objectives

go together.

Drawbacks:

It fails if employees do not want to learn or are not inter-

ested in changing their way of doing things and attitude.

To get more of this style, a learning atmosphere is

needed.

Coaching Style

Leadership qualities are not biased to any gender...Leadership does not mean physical strength... it is how best one can lead in respective domain!

— Piyush Govil PMP®

For helping and providing inputs in finalization of

Technical Paper Categories!

Also thanks to Conference Track leads and Technical

Paper Core Team!

About Author

Rajnish is currently associated with ST Microelectronics as Application

Group Manager.

He has total industry experience of 8 years in complex custom applica-tions development for ST internal use for semiconductor manufacturing

unit and quality process automation .

He shares his experience by writing regular blogs on Project management

on the learning's from day to day job and reading different books.

Rajnish Chauhan Application Group Manager

ST Microelectronics

http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/Leadership-Skill/ http://www.eqleader.net/

Harvard Business Review On Managing People

http://www.managerssuccess.com References

Save girl child 9

Reference: http://www.stkildaroadchiropractic.com.au/ergonomics.html

- By Piyush Govil PMP®

Lack of awareness about work station ergonomics

Maximum of us are careless about our sitting postures

Professionals suffering from BACK problems.

An invitation to multiple health problems.

Leads to backaches, severe spinal cord problems

DEMANDS REGULAR VISITS TO MEDICOS

Do take care of your BACK,

since you BACK your

organizations and families.

Work station Ergonomics

General A

ware

ness

Save girl child 10

Lean thinking in agile is the most important issue trending in the management circles these days. However, prior we set

to talk about it, lets discuss what exactly is product backlog.

Product backlog is a priority-based list of all the functionalities required to complete a project. Unlike traditionally,

these days agile teams enlist all the requirements of a project in a product backlog prioritization.

You must be intrigued by this nagging question––how a product backlog is prioritized? To put it in a simple way, a product

backlog is prioritized on the basis of business value and the risk involved in the product development and delivery. It is

definitely a daunting task. Now one of the most crucial ideas here is to prioritize features applying lean thinking.

The lean thinking in agile helps to groom the product backlog in such a manner that the features that offer more busi-

ness value are prioritized! The lean model of product backlog prioritization is as simple as it sounds, there are hardly any

technical issues prevalent. You just need to use common sense and basic organizing principles.

Let us begin the step-by-step evaluation of the lean product backlog prioritization strategy.

Waste elimination

Quick Delivery/Meeting deadlines

How the Lean Model in Agile aids in Prioritizing Features!

The first step is to ensure your product backlog is free of non-value added features, i.e. free of waste. These non-value adding features don’t serve any purpose other than cluttering. For this, it would be easier to maintain a trash bin where such non-value adding discarded features can be stored for later review.

There are certain items that can be useful in receiving feedback from the customers. Are you prioritizing such features that help bringing in end users' comments? It is always better to learn the end users’ opinions and feed-backs so as to bring forth better quality services/products.

Do you really need to pay attention to features/tasks that are of no use at present? Why do you waste time splitting stories that are not required in the near future? This brings home the point that do not prioritize features that are not going to develop in next two iterations. Hold-back such features in backlog, let epics stay in your backlog. Stay focused on current status and not in anticipation.

Augment Learning

Hold-back

Queuing theory states that small batches progress rapidly

through the system and brings in better results. Check

whether you have appropriately (IJNVEST) sized stories for

upcoming iterations which has a definite outcome and a

limited period of execution , which has a definite outcome

and a limited period of execution. .

-By Saket Bansal PMP®

An organization’s capacity to improve existing skills and learn new ones is the most defensible competitive advantage of all. - C. K. Prahalad

Save girl child 11

Note Bene Work in progress represents a risk while quick delivery reduces risk. To summarize the entire discussion, it is essential for a PO to survey the complete system especially while working on a huge project, which is under development. The motive behind development is to increase the performance level in the entire system and not just at one phase. Similarly, when you you are deciding about a feature, consider the whole sys-tem too.

Is there any non-value adding features in the product backlog?

Any feature that can be prioritized to avail customer feedback, technical challenge, or some view point that could be crucial for the product development.

You are surely not drooling over some issue that can be handled later without even affecting product backlog.

Product backlog features have been enlisted appropriately. Do they ensure quick delivery?

Have you scanned the entire system while prioritizing backlog feature for the next iteration? Have you brought all the points into consideration?

Product backlog checklist based on a lean model in agile.

Saket is passionate about building strong learning communities with great

dedication and efforts. His exposure to the Information technology com-

bined with management knowledge. He has a passion in organizing meet

ups and community events.

With a vision to become a successful entrepreneur , he has utilized his 15

years experience in the software industry and started his own consultancy

firm IZenBridge consultancy Private Limited

He is PMP , PMI-ACP , CSM , ITIL F

About Author

Use Reusability in Projects

which has a definite outcome and a limited period of exe-

cution. The aim of most of the projects is to deliver the

result on time, with acceptable product/service quality,

required features, and functionality within the accepted

cost and with minimum risk to the success of the final

product/service.

Most businesses offer a solution to a specific problem being

faced by a customer in either intangible or tangible form,

i.e. either in the form of a service or a product. The aim is

not only to offer a value proposition such as revenue gen-

eration and cost optimization, but also to achieve the ulti-

mate goal of increasing the shareholders’ value.

These services or products are produced when an enter-

prise undertakes a temporary activity called a project,

Why Use Reusability in Projects?

By - Pawan Chibba PMP®

Keep revisiting Ethics and Moral standards time to

time. — Piyush Govil PMP®

Saket Bansal CEO

IZenBridge Consultancy Private Ltd

Save girl child 12

However, most projects don’t see the light of the day and many of them fail either because of an unanticipated risk

that the team is unprepared for, or fail due to the inability of the team to address certain parameters critical to the

quality of the final product/ services that renders it unusable.

According to a the Annual report 2011-12 released MOSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Planning) out of the 584

projects which were under the tracker of the ministry for monitoring, 276 projects got delayed. This means that a good

47% projects were delayed.

Sector wise distribution of no of projects and those got delayed is presented below:

The above statistics are not a representation of the entire population and hence is only the tip of the iceberg. The prob-

lem is more severe as the failure rate is expected to escalate once we consider the entire spectrum of Projects being

executed both by Private and Public sector, not only in India but globally.

So now we have a bit of understanding and some data to validate the fact that projects do fail. But the big question is

why do the projects fail?

Most of the projects fail due to one of the following rea-sons:

Lack of Clarity – Project team is unclear of the

Project Scope, final product/ service and/ or its expected functionality.

Insufficient or incompetent resources – Based

on the project scope and the associated task at hand, either the resources are insufficient or are incompetent to deliver the final Product/ Service. Conflict of Interests – As projects are expected to have many stakeholders many at times the conflicting interests of different stake holders and their disagreement on moving ahead in a

Why Projects Fail single direction becomes a big hurdle for the project Execution and results in either project getting delayed, put on hold or ultimately scrapped.

No Risk Assessment Many projects fail due to the project driver’s lack of focus on the potential risk to the project either in terms of cost, technology or schedule.

Most of these failures cost an enterprise dearly in terms of

lost revenues, inability to compete due to high time to

market, inconsistent product/ service performance result-

ing in high after sales support requirements and increased

support cost, loss of market share to competitors who are

able to offer better product/ service at a lower cost, lack

of trust by existing or new customers in the brand thus

devaluating the brand equity and share holders value.

Save girl child 13

However, many of these unsuccessful projects can be saved and turnaround achieved if project teams build and leverage their own experiences and use the unused thus far, the phenomenon called Reusability.

Culture – It has been observed that whether project

managers succeed or fail in delivering a project, they usu-ally shy away from letting others know of the actions/ decisions they performed/ took to finally succeed or let-ting know the cause of the failure. There usually is no culture in place to take care of this gap.

Relevance – Most project managers consider it a waste

of time to review data from other projects and avoid tak-ing pains to analyze the information for the benefit of their own project as most of them feel that the time at hand is less when compared to the activities required to be completed and to finally meet the time to market.

Nice to Have – Teams believe that such re-search and exploitation of the old data will only result in infor-mation, which will be “Nice To Have”; however, it is important to understand that this informa-tion can help reduce the time of project execution drastically by providing relevant data and by help avoid risks or uncertainties that exist.

The information may also help provide solutions for some of the problems being faced by the team that already might have been addressed in some projects and for which the team might be struggling and wasting a lot of time re-inventing the wheel.

Reusability is a phenomenon of utilizing the experience generated as one of the outcomes from the endeavor un-dertaken by the project teams within the organization when they executed a similar project. Similar project means a project that successfully delivered a service of the nature that the project team is trying to execute or the one that delivered a product that fulfilled similar cus-tomer needs as is being targeted by the team.

The concept is not new but has been successfully used by

several enterprises for process improvements and for the

standardization of their business activities in order to re-

duce waste in terms of time and activities and improve on

their gross margins.

The most unused reusability lies in the lessons learnt from one of the projects which have been already executed by one of the internal teams. However, not many project teams appreciate the advantage of recording, utilizing and distributing such information and try their hands at reinventing the wheel. This problem solving activity for the problems faced by project teams, for which solutions might already be available, results in team spending time, energy and other resources which could have been saved had the team referred to the existing solutions. In a business environment where time to market is the key, many enterprises are coming up with shorter project execution timelines and quicker product/ service delivery models, effective utilization of internal resource is be-coming of greater importance by each day in order to en-

sure survival and offer a t t r a c t i v e p r o d u c t s / services to customers so as to cater to their ever c h a n g i n g needs.

The following steps can be taken to ensure that the Pro-ject Organization understands and effectively utilizes the concept of reusability.

Educate the Project Team Project teams need to

be educated and made aware of importance of identify-ing, logging, reviewing and sharing the lessons learnt from both successful and unsuccessful projects.

Create a Repository Once the team understands and

appreciates the power of the reusability, one must

create an intranet repository where the team can create,

Where is the gap

What is Reusability

How can we use the concept in Project Execution

How to use reusability

Save girl child 14

modify, upload and download information on the past pro-jects and utilize the experience of other teams to deliver their own project effectively and on time.

Reward the Practice Create a mechanism to reward

those who religiously follow the concept and use it to de-liver the projects. This is also required to inculcate a cul-ture of reusability within the teams.

Standardize Once in use the best practices need to be

identified and converted to standardized models for pro-ject execution.

Integrate Use the best practices and inte-

grate them into the project execution process to achieve greater reliability and effectiveness in delivery.

With the current economic slowdown, expected GDP growth to decline from 6.2% for the period 2011-2012 to a mere 5.0% during 2012-13 as estimated by MOSPI (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) and increas-ing default on delivering projects on time and

within the allocated Budget, it is imperative that Project Management Practitioners, both in Public and Private sec-tor, learn to learn from past project execution experience(s), bad or good, and make the most of the information to drive Project Delivery Success.

Educate your team on Reusability Benefits

Create a Online Repository of Best Practices

Let Team members use Intranet Portal more than Google to find relevant information

Create Culture of information sharing and reward those who follow it

Standardize the best practices

Integrate these practices into your Product/ Service

Delivery Model

Take Away

About Author

September 27th –28th’2013

Pawan Chhibba is currently associated with Ingersoll Rand as Program Manager. He has a diversified industry experience of more than 9 years in

the field of Telecom Infrastructure projects and New Product Development.

He is a B.E (Electronics) and MBA (Marketing & Finance) from Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management, Delhi. He is certified from IIT Kharagpur on Telecommunication networks and is also has an E-Commerce certifica-

tion from IBM.

He is a Certified Internal Auditor from Confederation of Indian Industry for ISO9001:2008, ISO14001:2004 and OHSAS 18001:2007. He has been instru-mental in successfully delivering various telecom network deployment pro-jects and in his previous assignment as Project Manager he successfully lead a team which deployed entire telecom network for Delhi Metro Rail

Corporation Phase II Project. Pawan Chhibba Program Manager

Ingersoll Rand

Save girl child 15

Let us examine a real life instance and we will see how risk identification and planning is done in many mundane tasks we perform regularly. Not only these, but also risk avoidance, risk acceptance, and risk transfer are exe-cuted explicitly, without us knowing that we are actually doing a major part of project risk management here. One of my friends, Mr M wishes to fly from Dubai to Lucknow. If the activity is considered as a project, then his project statement would be “Executing the fastest and most inex-pensive method to reach Lucknow from Dubai.” The options available for him to reach Lucknow are as follows:

A direct flight from Dubai to Lucknow.

A one stop flight from Dubai to Lucknow via New Delhi.

A one stop flight from Dubai to Lucknow via Mumbai Sometimes during the festival season, direct flights over-book very quickly and the only option left is either to go via Delhi or via Mum-bai. Therefore, it is important for Mr M to ascertain the risks in-volved in approaching either path to achieve his goal. It is actually very easy to identify risks associ-ated with different op-tions available. Let us jot down all the prob-lem points possible and then see what options present risks.

Risk Whenever Mr. M tries to identify a risk, he makes sure that there should be at least one thing unknown about a risk and that there is a probability of its occurrence. Probability of occurrence of an event must be greater than 0 and less than 1 to call it a risk.

In case the probability is either 0 or 1, it cannot be classified as a risk. A probability of 1 means a certainty, while 0 means it is impossible. Thus, in both cases Mr M has to plan it as a task and not as a risk.

Risk with Direct Flight

Availability of tickets decreases closer to the travel date, and hence, booking should be done well ahead of the travel date. Since probability of getting a ticket is neither 0 nor 1 near the travel date, it can be clas-sified as a risk. Please note that availability of tickets much earlier cannot be classified as a risk since it can be assumed that the tickets will be available. In order words, probability of ticket availability is 1.

Although the ticket will be available in the last few days of travel, it can be very costly. Thus, this is a cost risk as the premium levied on the ticket could depend on limited availability and demand.

The Risk Manager Hiding in You!

Have you ever thought how people apply the princi-ples of risk management in their lives daily?

- By Suraj Pant PMP®

Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don’t make the same mistake twice. - Akio Morita

Save girl child 16

Risk with Flight via Delhi

Official time to reach the destination is higher. This is not a risk (rather a disadvantage) as the time of travel is known.

Connecting flight––In case the first flight is late, Mr M might miss the second one. It is a risk, as delay ten-dency of the first flight is unknown.

During winters, there is a probability of fog in Delhi, and hence, the possibility of further delay. It is a risk, as the nature of weather is intrinsically probabilistic.

If Mr M books very late, this option might also not available. As Mr M is not sure about ticket availability,

the probabilistic nature makes it a risk.

Risk with Flight via Mumbai

Official time taken to reach the destination is even higher than “Via Delhi” option. Again, this cannot be termed as a risk as timing is known.

Connecting flight––As with the “via Delhi” option, this is a risk.

During winters, there is a probability of fog in Mum-bai. Although this would be less than that of Delhi, the possibility of further delay exists. Hence, it is a risk as the nature of weather is intrinsically probabilistic.

As with the “via Delhi” option, if Mr M books very late, this option might also not available and the probabilis-tic nature makes it a risk.

Now that we understand all the problems associated with the different options, let us note the risks.

Risk Impact

Mr. M might not get a direct ticket to his home or it is available at a very high premium.

More travel time, high impact on time to reach home since indirect flight will take much time. Also, high impact on budget in case ticket is available at high premium.

R1

It is the winter season and fog/rain can delay second flight from Mumbai.

Same as the impact of risk 4.

R5

It is the winter season and fog can delay the second flight from Delhi.

Impact on time. R4

Mr. M might not get a one-stop flight ticket.

Big impact. It might disrupt the whole plan Mr M either need to look for a 2-stop flight or change the plan itself.

R2

The first flight is delayed and Mr. M misses the second flight.

Impact on time and cost both. Not only does Mr M need to buy another ticket, but also he would be delayed in reaching home.

R3

I-1

I-2

I-3

I-4

I-5

Save girl child 17

Now, we are done with identifying the risks and identifying the impact of all risks. However, that is not all. Mr M instinctively understands the probability of the risk. Let us note this understanding.

High––As Mr M will get a confirmation on his leaves approval just 3–4 days prior to the planned travel date, it is difficult to get direct flights at reason-

If it is not possible to decide the exact date of

travel, tickets cannot be booked early. If buy-

ing tickets at a premium is acceptable to Mr

M, a contingency fund is made available for it.

P1

Low––in Mumbai there is less chance of fog/rain Same as Risk 4.

P5

Medium––same as Risk 3

Similar to Risk 3, Mr M decides to buy a refund-

able ticket that can be cancelled at the interim

stop in the case of a delay. Thus, this becomes a

“Risk Transfer”.

P4

Low––Although the impact of this risk is very high, the probability of its occurrence is very low as there are plenty of one-stop flights available

Direct flight is very costly hence an indirect flight ticket to be booked on time so that overall plan is not risked. It’s “Risk avoided”.

P2

Low–Medium––Flights from Dubai to either Mumbai or Delhi are generally not late. However, since it is winter, the probability of occurrence is medium

As no mitigation can be done for time and cost, Mr M decides to buy a refundable ticket. In case the first flight is delayed, the ticket for the same can be cancelled at Dubai airport. This costs a little extra money while buying the ticket but in long run this will save considerable money. This is a “Risk Transfer”, which is very similar to buying insurance for some possible loss one

P3

Probability Mitigation

If Mr M decides to wait till the end and in case direct

flights are not available, he does not mind taking an indirect flight. Hence, the status is “Risk Accepted”.

If he needs to reach home in minimum possible time, he cannot afford to miss the ticket. This means that when he books well ahead of time, the status becomes “Risk Avoided”.

or

As plainly observed, Mr M is already performing risk management in this project of “executing the fastest and most inexpensive method to reach Lucknow from Dubai”. It is that simple folks! In addition, it is true that almost all topics in project management are intrinsically linked to common sense that we apply in our daily lives. Who knows? There might be a risk manager hiding inside you.

or

M1

M2

M3

M4

M5

M1

M1

About Author

Suraj, is currently working as Technical Manager, in HCL Technologies Limited, Suraj has 11 years of experience in roles of Project Manager, Technical Architect and Technical Lead. He is well versed with complete SDLC and also has very good understanding of engineering/quality processes including knowledge of SEI-CMMI Level 3 and 5. In spare time he loves to read books and surf about emerging trends and technologies.

Suraj Pant Technical Manager,

HCL Technologies Limited

Save girl child 18

Ma’am, the project has started. Please allocate team members.

THE TUSSLE FOR RESOURCES

PM H

umor

DISCLAIMER: ANY SIMILARITY TO SITUATIONS DESCRIBED IN THIS ARTICLE IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.

Project Manager - PM Project Delivery Manager - PDM

How much progress can you achieve this month?

Will I get all the resources that I asked for?

How many times have I told you never to ask a question in response to a question?

Sorry, Ma’am! But our project’s progress is de-pendent upon the availability of skilled team mem-

You argue a lot. I am asking about possible project progress and you are harping on team members. At your level of seniority, you should appreciate that these two are not related.

PM

PDM

PM

PM

PM

PDM

PDM

(in frustration): Ma’am, 5% may be possible?

“May” will not do. Please tell me definitive figures.

PDM

PM (in further frustration): Mam, 5%.

Okay. Let me know the resource requirement. PDM

PM Ma’am, an email was sent to you last week regard-ing the resource requirement.

Do you think I have time to check my mails? Next time you send a mail, at least inform me that you have done so. Please re-send the mail. .

PDM

PM Thank you, Ma’am.

(In the mail) Two engineers with 5 years of experi-ence in civil structures immediately required to

achieve the project progress forecast.

PM

(Reply to mail) Two engineers will join on 15th. PDM

(on 16th from site): Ma’am, the engineers have not reported.

PM

Please get your dates correct. The engineers are coming next month on 15th. How much additional progress you can give me this month?

PDM

(in frustration): 5% PM

Next month on 16th

Ma’am, you have sent electrical engineers. The demand was for civil engineers as the work in-volves construction of civil engineering structures.

PM

How do I know what the work involves? You should be more specific while drafting emails and for god’s sake do not write long stories.

PDM

Ma’am, I stated that 5 years of experience in civil structures is required.

PM

I am fully aware of what you wrote . PDM

I am sorry if my mail was not clear. The project is already delayed. I need hardworking and sincere team members who can work in civil construction.

PM

By Poonam Ahluwalia PMP®

Laughter - a gift we can give

ourselves and others

- Stephanie Sarkis

Save girl child 19

Okay. You will get them next month. Meanwhile you can continue with the electrical engineers and try further to expedite the progress.

(on 16th of next month): Sir, no team members have reported on site.

How many times have I told you to get the dates correct? I said next month. Is the month over yet? Meanwhile please expedite the project progress.

Ma’am, are the team members being deputed to site?

PDM

PM

PDM

PM Ma’am, I do not have the required resources

Why the hell you have reduced the promised progress on the project?

PDM

PM

As a PM, it is your job to make sure the promised progress is achieved and I want no excuses for the same.

PDM

Ma’am, but.....(PDM slams down the phone).

on 31st

PM Sorry Ma’am, ummmmm. I mean, Yes, Mam.....I will call later.

PM

PM receives a mail from HR the next day to get the newly recruited team members picked up from the station. PM takes the delivery of two donkeys from the station the next day (sincere and hardworking team members who can help with the civil construction). PM now spends two hours a day feeding the donkeys and cleaning their mess, half a day teaching the electrical engineers to lay RCC foundation and the remaining time listening to customer complaints and still looking forward to each day at work NOT BECAUSE HE IS MOTIVATED AND INSPIRED BUT BECAUSE HE can't sleep at night as he is

sharing his so-called guest house with the donkeys.

Moral of the story

IF YOU HAVE BEEN UNFORTUNATE TO BE

CROWNED AS PM, DO NOT ADD TO YOUR MISERIES

BY ASKING PDM FOR RESOURCES

Never hesitate to pick learning's even from least experienced...everyone is different!

- Piyush Govil PMP®

About Author

Dr. Poonam Ahluwalia is currently working in MWH India Private Limited (a subsidiary of MWH Global, USA) as a Technical Specialist. She received her PhD from IIT Delhi (India) and has more than 17 years of experience in research and consultancy.

Her key areas of expertise are design solutions in the field of Environ-mental Engineering and Management; Techno-economic evaluation of sys-tems; Green Infrastructure; and Clean Development Mechanism. She holds the PMP certification from Project Management Institute (USA) and Accredited Professional certification from Indian Green Building Council.

She has more than 70 publications in various international and national forums and a book on “Water and wastewater Systems” to her credit.

Dr. Poonam Ahluwalia Technical Specialist

MWH Global

Save girl child 20

In a competitive world, global companies are looking to improve their systems and processes by establishing pro-ject management as a core competency throughout the organization. By setting up

standardized procedures,

learning from past mistakes,

processes more efficiently,

developing skills and talent.

Challenge is positioning, it is a critical aspect of establish-ing project management as an organization’s enterprise-wide core competency. Positioning is equated with au-thority in organization structures; the closer something is to the top, the higher its level of autonomy, authority, and responsibility. Positioning the project management function at the highest level within the organization pro-vides the measure of autonomy necessary to extend its authority across the organization while substantiating the value and importance the function have in the eyes of executive management

Project management has the greatest impact on a cus-tomer’s recognition of an organization as a world-class leader in time-to-market, cost-to-market, and quality-to-market. Completing projects successfully on a consistent basis is a basic requirement to receive excellence awards from most customers. This is the goal of every organiza-tion. If projects are an integral part of the business, it stands to reason that there should be a clear understand-ing of what is and isn’t a project, and what is required to satisfy the customers.

Organizations that sell products or services should recog-nize that their business livelihood depends on completing projects that directly affect their bottom line. They also should realize that completing projects successfully on a consistent basis requires the application of specific knowl-edge, skills, tools, and techniques. Doesn’t it make sense

then that such an important business function be estab-lished at the executive management level of the organiza-tion? How else can an organization ensure that projects are managed successfully across the organization, and that strategic, mission-critical projects are given the best opportunity to succeed from the very start?

For years, projects have struggled to deliver on time and within budget or deliver real business value.

But with today’s emphasis on increased efficiency and productivity, it has led many to turn to project management offices (PMOs) as a way to boost effi-ciency, cut costs, and improve on project delivery in terms of time and budget.

Many organizations recognized the need for a PMCoE as their approach to project management reaches higher levels of maturity.

Management has turned to a project office to achieve project management oversight, control, and support over projects.

The PMO’s role is often to help both the project man-

ager and the relevant organization to understand and

apply modern project management practices, while

adapting and integrating business interests into the

organization’s project management efforts.

Why is PMCoE required?

The project management centre of excellence (PMCoE) is focused on building capability within current project managers as well as the develop-ment of the next generation of project managers within the organization. This centre of excellence ensures that all delivery and engagement projects are executed in a consistent manner and leverage best practices and tools.

Project management is no longer viewed as a sys-tem internal to the organization. It is now viewed as a competitive weapon that brings quality and value added to the customer––Dr. Howard Kerzner quoted “In Search of Excellence in Project Management”.

Why is PMCoE required?

Observations

- By Visukumar Gopal, PMP®

Save girl child 21

Project management is a business function; it is not a quick fix. If we are looking for a new edge and a competitive advantage to position our organization for success in the long run, then we have to build PMCoE.

Conclusion

PMCOE

Approach : An Enterprise Approach

Assess : Knowledge and Skills

Adopt : Standard Methodology

Advance: Career Development

Align : As a Community

Achieve : Corporate Objectives

High Level Plan

Visukumar Gopal is a versatile Practitioner, Energetic Coach, Corporate Trainer and Public Speaker, who is passionate about transforming individu-als, teams and organizations into improving their Process, Project manage-

ment, Operation practices and Delivering Business value.

He has over 17+ years of professional experience in IT and Non-IT. He is a

certified Project Management Professional (PMP), LEAN Six Sigma. He

served with MNCs like CITIBANK, GE, and DATA ACCESS and currently with

SYNTEL - CEO’s Office as Practice Manager and leading strategic initiatives.

About Author

The Dilemma: MBA vs PMP

called initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. PMP is an acknowledgement that the PMP holder is well versed with the project management methodolo-gies and techniques being applied in the industry. Master of Business Administration (MBA or M.B.A.) as Wikipedia states is a master's degree in business admini-stration, which attracts people from a wide range of aca-demic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out scientific approaches to management. The core courses in the MBA program are designed to introduce students to various areas of business such as accounting, finance, marketing,

Many people around the world, at a crucial juncture of their career, struggle with the most common question––Should I go for a MBA or a PMP? Even though it is an overall personal decision, but still there can be various factors that can define your career path.

To start with let me first clarify what both stand for.

Project management professional (PMP) is a credential offered by the project management institute (PMI). There are more than 6,00,000 active PMP certified individuals worldwide as of today. In information technology indus-try, the term project management refers to a methodical

approach to software development through defined stages

By Nitin Anand PMP®

Visukumar Gopal Practice Manager

SYNTEL LTD

Save girl child 22

human resources, opera-tions management, etc. Students in MBA programs have the option of taking general business courses throughout the program or can select an area of con-centration and focus ap-proximately one-fourth of their studies in this subject. Many people do PMP to broaden their knowledge of

project management and perform better in their jobs. Many others do due to the sheer fear that they will be screened out of jobs if they do not complete it. Others believe in the hype that becoming a project manager will help them make a lot of money. To be a certified PMP, one does not need to have a busi-ness degree as MBA. MBA is a more generalized degree that covers many business aspects of the professional en-vironment ranging from finance, human resources, etc. PMP certification on the other hand focuses and empha-sizes on the skills needed in order to successfully manager small-, medium-, or large-size projects regardless of the industry or technologies used. PMP certification essen-tially requires a few years of experience, along with a dedicated study of a couple of months on an acceler-ated career path. PMP has gained its impor-tance during the last few years and has made an edge by being in the top 10 IT certificates in the market. MBA is a more generic management certificate or degree beneficial to people looking at general management posi-

tions and climbing the corporate ladder.

Talking about the costs involved, a PMP certificate will cost you around Rs 50,000, which includes examination fees, training fees for getting 35 PDUs , and the member-ship fees for 1 year. MBA on the other hand can lighten your pockets by anywhere between 8 lakhs to 15 lakhs depending on which university you entered into. So, in the ROI perspective, PMP seems to be a better option than MBA. With soaring tuition costs and thousands of stu-dents graduating with an MBA degree, the competition is manifold. Most people generally start off with a bachelors degree and depending on the job profile and industry, go on to take higher education or certifications, as their job role demands. Also, the decision majorly depends on whether you want a focused one-directional approach to career or you want to be open to any industry and want to apply leadership and insight in the executive office and board-room. Broadly speaking, if you are focused for a project man-agement career, then PMP is the most preferred and you may opt for MBA if you are keeping an eye on general management career. MBA will serve anyone in the long run. Both MBA and PMP will shape your thinking and mind-set in a broader holistic way. In the end, experience is the best teacher. The personal traits of a person matter a lot. The way he makes his de-cisions in real life, does negotiations, and overall net-works and interacts with others can make a considerable difference in the choice overall. Either way you start, both approaches will lead your career in a positive way. Project management and general management have been here on this earth since thousands of years and no formal knowledge was made available before and still we estab-lished ourselves as capable to land on the moon and built the Taj Mahal. They are just being discovered in a whole new way by various institutions and management bodies in current times. The final decision will rest on the em-ployers in the game between the demand and supply and getting the best resources.

About Author

Nitin, is currently associated with IBM as a Project Manager. He has 11+ years of

experience in operations, project management and supply chain management. Prior

to IBM has worked in ITES. IT and Manufacturing industries.

He holds Btech from Pune University , MBA from IMT Ghaziabad and MS

from University of Texas at Dallas, USA. He is also certified PMP and ITIL.

His hobbies are travelling, Sketching, and also have interests in astrology,

numerology and psychology.

Nitin Anand Project Manager

IBM India

Save girl child 23

software is not practically impossible ; the team has

to go right back to the beginning and start develop-ing a new code all over again. Once the development is complete, it is a costly affair to introduce a new requirement.

A large number of projects fail because the software built has a little real world value to a customer.

The testing cycle starts once the development is com-plete; unknown and unexpected defects toward the latter part of a project can pose serious threats to the project. Any problems or delays mean highly dissatis-fied customers.

There is not much involvement of a customer during the development phase.

Four principles that constitute the agile methodology are as follows

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

It emphasizes on values and principles rather than proc-esses. By working in cycles, i.e. a week, a month, etc., project priorities are evaluated at the end of each cycle . With more face-to-face communications, the agile princi-ple reduces the risk of developing a wrong product, build-ing poor quality product, or not meeting the budget and schedule. It speeds up delivery since quicker decision making is handled by experts and above all it reduces the cost involved with changing requirements.

Agile–Delivering value for projects with uncertainty

The Agile Model

After debating the values in the waterfall and agile meth-odologies, a case study of a Customer being new to the IT automation concept and a solution provider having no ex-perience in the client’s business domain has been detailed to enlighten on how the agile methodology would have

better suited the project with a high level of uncertainty.

A classically linear and sequential approach to software design and system development moves through initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and clos-ing life cycle phases . A linear approach means a stage-by

-stage approach for product building.

Pros and Cons

A customer provides requirements at the start of the project. It is only an assumption that the customer knows and can define exactly what is required of an end product before work on the product starts. The waterfall method fits well when there is a perfect understanding of the customer's requirements and the technology(ies) used for implementing them into a working software solution.

Even teams with great production skills could focus on a wrong issue or they really don’t understand the customer requirements. Product teams start with very little practical knowledge. How the developed software will work under the complexities and situa-tions of the real world is unknown A team may be clueless on the opportunities and constraints that will emerge in the future.

With the changing market trends, business require-ments change frequently and in that case changing

The Waterfall Method

Ref: http://methodsoft.wordpress.com/tag/sdlc-models/

Ref:: http://pmtips.net/adapting-agile-methodology-startup/

- By Raja Rajeswari Sanjesh PMP®

Save girl child 24

Pros and Cons:

The agile concept considers that the user require-ments are changing rapidly. Rolling wave planning and

progressive elaboration are followed.

If scope is not well defined, customer feedback en-hances the requirement description. The methodology assumes the customer requirements and a developer’s

understanding evolves as work proceeds.

It allows for specification changes as per end-user’s

requirements, signifying customer satisfaction.

Daily stand-up meetings give room to a team for dis-cussing their progress on a day-to-day basis and on impediments and dependencies. These meetings en-

hance the speed of a project.

Development and testing occur simultaneously. As and when issues and defects crop up, they are rectified,

which enhances the speed of delivery.

Modular workable features that have a high value to a customer are given priority. In the case of time con-straint, only low priority features will be affected.

Thus, a level of risk is minimized.

The product owner, who is the customer representa-tive, is available with a team and has the authority to define the user requirements and to accept/reject the product. When any changes are required in product specifications, he/she has the authority to take deci-sions. This in turn avoids dependency delays in a pro-

ject.

The frequency of sprint retrospection is more. The best practices are shared within a team on a regular

basis, which helps a team to perform better.

The actual scenario pitfalls and agile solutions: It is a scenario where a customer is new to the IT automa-tion concept and a solution provider has no experience in

the client’s business domain.

Requirements:

Requirements were not well defined because the cli-ent didn’t have IT exposure. Although they had seen UI designs, they had no clue of the actual working of the end product.

The solution provider didn’t understand the intricacies of the customer’s business and used a leading edge technology where it was not appropriate. They pro-vided generalized software and not a customized one. Failing to view the project through the eyes of stake-holders resulted in a failure to appreciate how the project will impact the stakeholders or how they will react to the project. The customer lost faith and trust in the solution provider, and hence, their relationship was strained.

Failure to address excessive scope volatility or uncon-trolled scope creep .

Requirements were never prioritized, which resulted in team focusing energies on lower priority items in-stead of high priority work.

Customers realized new requirements and changed the earlier ones.

In the Agile methodology, we have the following:

High level requirement is provided at the beginning by a customer. Requirements evolve as work progresses.

The product owner is available with a team; he/she would be able to detail on the intricacies in the user requirement to the team members.

He/She prioritizes the requirements and they are con-sidered in the order of priority for each consecutive sprint.

There would be good communication between the team and the product owner. Based on the value of a requirement to the customer, the requirements are prioritized by the product owner.

Quality:

The user acceptance was not well defined, irrespec-tive of what was provided to the client, and hence, quality issues were raised. Achieving customer satis-faction was absolutely difficult.

Change requests were handled informally without assessing their implications on the schedule and budget.

Quality was viewed simply in terms of testing rather than a culture of working.

In the agile methodology, we have the following.

A product owner can accept or reject a product during the sprint review. Since work is carried out in small modules, it is easier to track the product to complete-ness.

Changes are an integral part of business requirement. Since planning is done for small modules only, it is easy and not time consuming to change the plan.

By providing workable products that have a high value to the customer business, it is easy to achieve cus-tomer satisfaction.

Communication:

Failure to establish effective communications between

the Stakeholders involved in the project . During the project development, there was-n’t sufficient feedback of the product from the cus-tomer, so that the developers could understand whether they were in line with the actual require-ments.

In the agile methodology, we have the following.

Communication is the most crucial factor for project success. The agile constitutes small teams that meet on a daily basis to discuss on the tasks performed in

Save girl child 25

the previous day, current day tasks, and dependencies and impediments if any. There is better communica-tion between the team members. The product owner

is also part of the daily scrum meeting.

Regular feedback from the customer ensures that the

project is in line with the requirements.

Project Integration

The entire software was launched at the same time. The product overwhelmed the end users and the de-fects were raised simultaneously. Since all the mod-ules were inter-related, alterations in one module brought about unexpected issues in another module,

which led to a mess in the bargain.

Individual components were developed without con-sidering the overall architecture or how different components will be integrated together. The lack of architecture resulted in duplication of effort, gaps, unexpected integration costs, and other inefficien-

cies.

Integration and testing of the individual components created in the project were left until all development activities were complete rather than doing ongoing incremental ingratiation and verification to find and

fix problems early.

The underestimation of complexity . In a particular business domain, the customer has been

performing to international standards. The system was perfect when performed by humans, but defects in an

automated system were just not acceptable to them.

In the agile methodology, we have the following.

Small modules of work are taken up at a time, devel-oped and tested simultaneously, and released after

the user acceptance in the sprint review.

A customer representative, the product owner, is available with the product team in the development process and through regular feedback helps the team understand the links between the various modules

developed, ensuring integrity between the modules.

Conclusion: When there is less experience, there is more uncertainty. The agile framework handles this situation effectively. It requires careful planning, but in a way that handles high uncertainty gracefully. Scrum projects work in short cy-cles to deliver modest increments of scope quickly, and to allow for frequent changes in scope and priority. The ag-ile–scrum process adjusts scope in a planned way to meet the schedule. This is an effective way to conduct a pro-ject when scope is poorly-defined and changes frequently, while still allowing for planning and a modest degree of

predictability.

Raja Rajeswari has 5+years of experience in the IT field. She has worked in the Networking, Education and the IT industry. She quotes that her attitude and perception of life have changed after completing the PMP certification. She is currently employed with Cognizant Technology Solution. She has been instrumental in conducting knowledge sharing PMI events at Coimbatore.

About Author

Be innovative in life...keep learning....keep your mind doors and windows open to accept life lessons! — Piyush Govil PMP

Raja Rajeswari Sanjesh Cognizant Technology

Save girl child 26

Project management is an art–science of converting a vi-sion into reality. It is a process of managing and executing several interrelated activities through systematic applica-tion of knowledge and resources to obtain results that are tangible. The fusion of concepts and fundamental princi-ples from various disciplines with skills of people (soft skills), such as communication skills and etiquettes, re-sults in the transformation of a vision into reality. Even though the endeavor while managing the risks and uncer-tainty in a remote and operating environment is tempo-rary, the effort aims to ensure that the lifetime cost of service to be borne by the end user is affordable. What all of us demand is fast, cheap, robust projects so that the end results are agreeable to all stakeholders and the society at large. As the project moves from a state of infancy toward maturity, during its execution, the inter-action of project elements with the operating and remote environment also increases many folds. This results in in-crease in project entropy causing enhanced complexity. Delivering project results successfully in complex and cha-otic environment by continuously interacting with ele-ments that have a human touch is not only difficult, but also really challenging. It is so because human beings use their discretion while executing tasks, by slightly altering the plans to accommodate the project entropy as it un-folds with varying results depending upon the situation. This paper highlights the role of personal commitment in measuring project success in speedy project execution.

Degree of Project Complexity

All projects whether large or small are managed by hu-man beings. Use of computers, software programs, soft-ware applications, machinery, tools etc. aids in speedy completion of project design, engineering, simulation, planning, risk assessment, and ultimately facilitates early completion of the project. Projects at times are com-plex, where the degree of complexity is characterized by the following:

Degree of Disorder

Instability

Uncertainty

Irregularity

Randomness

Reclusiveness (isolated) Actually, it has been observed that in a complex environ-ment, the outcome at project completion varies from what was planned during project conceptualization be-cause of faulty risk-assessments and incorrect assump-tions. This leads to problems in formulating and measur-ing the success of project completion strategies. Linear

strategies are successful if projects are of small size and have a medium completion schedule. When projects are large in size and duration with a wide geographical spread and a complex schedule containing many loops with ac-tivities in parallel, a simple-control-based strategy is dif-ficult to adopt. In the Indian environment, most of the large infrastructure projects that are geographically spread across multiple states are characterized by com-plexity indicated above. The relationships between causes and effects of various events take the project toward a state of complexity making it further complicated and chaotic. In order to keep things under control, the project team needs to balance stakeholder expectations by taking care of customers, respecting all associates, excelling through team work, constantly learning, displaying mutual trust, and behaving ethically.

Personal Commitment and its Measurement

Personal commitment is one skill that plays a very impor-tant role for project success when the project, from sim-ple, becomes complex. The best depiction of personal commitment is the adherence to timelines committed by individual team members for either start or completion of a project activity, as per the agreed project baseline plan. In the Indian context, different stakeholders influ-ence the project execution in more ways than one com-mitment of all of them. It has a significant effect on the completion of any project activity inline with the require-ment of agreed project schedule. Based on the author’s experience, a methodology has been formulated to meas-ure the personal commitment that has been aptly chris-tened, that is, personal commitment index (PCI ). It is illustrated through the following example as follows

Name of the activity as per project detailed plan : A1 Dates associated with the start and completion of this activity so as to complete the project on schedule:

Early Start:ESD1

Early Finish:EFD1

Late Start:LSD1

Late Finish:LFD1

Free Float:FF1

Float:F1

A team member responsible for this activity as per responsibility matrix: TM1 Actual dates for start and finish of this activity by

TM1:

Actual Start: ASD1

Actual Finish: AFD1

Personal Commitment Index and Project Success

Background

1

2

3

4

- By Asim Prasad

Save girl child 27

Measurement of PCI: This is calculated as the differ-ence between the actual date and scheduled date for

either start or finish of an activity considering the free float associated with the activity and also the total float. Mathematically it is

For start of an activity,

PC= [ASD1-(ESD1+FF1)] PCI= ASD1 / (ESD1+FF1)

If PC<=0 then PCI=1 or 100%

For finish of an activity,

PC=AFD1-LFD1 PCI=(AFD1-ASD1)/(LFD1-LSD1)

If PC>1 then PCI>1 or 100%

The PCI for an activity less than or equal to 1 is desirable to ensure that the immediate successor activity start is not delayed.

Since the project involves a large number of activities, where the (responsibility–accountability–consult–inform) RACI-based responsibility assignment model (for each ac-tivity is different, at the individual and WBS level. The PCI can be calculated as follows:

PCI individual level: At individual level, an individual may be responsible for different activities, so the PCI at individual level is the product of PCI of all activities for which an individual is responsible as per the responsibility matrix. Here, the responsibili-ties are of primary nature.

WBS Level: At WBS level, PCI is the product of PCI of all individual activities for achieving the completion of the WBS.

For a given project, at project level, the PCI can be meas-ured either as the product of PCI for each WBS or as the product of PCI of each responsible member for completing different activities of the project as per the responsibility matrix.

Application of this Methodology

After the project starts, the progress is reported and monitored on periodic basis to ascertain the exceptions, as well as the hurdles that retard the progress. During review meetings, commitments are made by different team members for either starting activities or for com-pleting unfinished activities. A log of these committed dates given by the individual team members is maintained to measure the commitment index during the next review and also to ascertain the reasons for delay in case the committed dates have not been achieved.

For projects that are completed on schedule within the approved cost, the product of the PCI is under 1 or 100%. When projects are delayed, it clearly indicates that the commitments given by individual team members for com-pleting the activities as per agreed schedule have not been adhered. As such, the commitment index is always greater than 1 or 100%. For projects delayed by years,

the cumulative PIC may be as high as 5 or 500%. The low PCI is desirable. The diagram below illustrates the meth-odology:

Conclusion

This concept of ascertaining the personal commitment index (PCI) and linking it with the chances of a successful timely completion has been conceptualized by the author. In addition, it also facilitates in the assessment of the project health on real time basis. It also may be used to assess the psychology of the individual team member and his/her level of involvement in the project. It also gives an idea about the team spirit amongst the team members working for the project. It is seen that for successful teams, the PCI is less than or equal to one. Experience prescribes that such teams should not be broken as they have the ability to create success.

Projects delayed

Projects on / ahead of schedule

PCI = 1

PCI >

P

5

About Author

Mr. Asim is a graduate in

Mechanical Engineering

from IIT Kanpur and working

as Chief Manager (Project Execution) at GAIL(India)

Limited, New Delhi. He has varied experience in

the natural gas value chain comprising Operation &

Maintenance, Marketing and Project Management.

During the course of his professional career he

completed Post Graduate Diploma in Project Man-

agement and Advanced Diploma in Management.

He is a member of PMI, USA; ASME, USA; Life Mem-

ber IIGE Kolkata and Member IEI Kolkata

Asim Prasad Chief Manager, GAIL(India) Ltd.

Save girl child 28

Health Care facilities and programmes in our country are hot topics for debate and discussion, only for the wrong reasons viz; corruption involved in the government spending and gross misman-agement. Government spending in this sector is very

large but an overwhelming majority of people don’t have access to them due to mismanaged funds and resources. Besides, healthcare professionals aren’t trained to handle the constraints they encounter while discharging their duties. The result is appalling.

Indian Health Care system is one of the world’s largest. It

has more than 20,000 Public Health Centres, 140,000 Sub-

centres and a large number of hospitals. This system also

provides primary healthcare services including preventive

programmes and is mainly managed by doctors, only few

of whom, have received some project management train-

ing. Unfortu-

nately, there

is hardly any

systematic

effort on the

required scale,

to upgrade the

Project Man-

agement skill-

sets in our

healthcare

sector. The efforts put in so far, even on internationally

supported projects, are inadequate and wanting in qual-

ity. It has been observed that the project management

training imparted currently doesn’t help our Health care

providers face the challenges they encounter, for various

reasons.

In India, only a handful of corporate hospitals like Fortis, Max, Apollo and some other organisations including NGOS (NACO for example) involved in providing healthcare use Project management philosophy to manage their day-to-day operations and to cater to the increasing demand for timely service placed on them by our bulging population and the medical tourists pouring in from various coun-tries.

Major problems plaguing the Indian health care sys-tem, the author opines, are:

Under-developed and mismanaged medical infra-structure,

Prevalence of Quacks, absence of effective control

over health care providers and inadequate monitor-ing of their skill sets.

Derisory emphasis on research in health care sector owing to reasons that include absence of accurate data.

One of the causal factors for limited medical infrastruc-ture in India is that the public spending on it is far below the required level. Further, the gap between actual and required spending is larger in the relatively low-income states, resulting in marked inter-state inequality. Lower levels of spending have had an adverse impact on the creation of an effective preventive healthcare infrastruc-ture. In addition, over 70 percent of the spending on pub-lic healthcare comes under the “Out of pocket” bracket. These factors caused immiseration of our masses.

The health care sector in India has not received as much

attention as other sectors like industry or manufacturing.

This is because the services offered by this sector are still

categorised as 'welfare activities' and not primary services

of high economic value.

Modern health care sector in India is still dependent upon outdated and ineffective management systems, which lower productivity and retard growth. Concerted efforts are immediately required to develop requisite project management capabilities with special focus on primary health care and rural health, which are neglected as-pects.

Our country doesn’t have a comprehensive database on

patients, their ailments and treatment. This makes clini-

cal research difficult and doesn’t let healthcare profes-

sionals benefit from the lessons learnt by fellow practitio-

ners. Consequently, an overwhelming majority of them

end up re-inventing the wheel. The author recommends

the creation of a broad healthcare-database in the coun-

try wherein, all patient information including the diagno-

sis and treatment given, must be updated regularly and

made available to all healthcare professionals, to allow

them to learn and refine treatment procedures. This

way, health care professionals can transfer knowledge

between themselves and learn from each other’s experi-

ences and improve their efficiencies. In this manner, even

with limited resources, they will be able to successfully

manage the Health care system of our nation.

The need of the hour (Project Management in HealthCare System)

Introduction – What plagues our health care system? Read on to find out.

Always step in other’s shoe, to analyze the situation better and taking best decision.

- - Piyush Govil PMP®

By - Ritesh Arora PMP®

Save girl child 29

There are various schemes introduced and initiatives taken by government and private bodies to improve health care in India like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). Estab-lished in 2005, it along with Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY), a national health insurance scheme for people below the poverty line, is one of the two most important initiatives by the central government which aim at promoting rural health-care facilities. Our government has also decided to in-crease spending in the healthcare sector to 2.5% of the G.D.P, up from the previous value of 1% To gain maximum advantage, our government machinery must pro-actively upgrade the project management com-petency level of our health care professionals so as to immediately bring about a remarkable improvement in the health care atmosphere of our nation and enable the needy gain access to quality health-care services.

Adaption of project management techniques, profiling of

all patients to create a database for clinical research can

help in bringing about a positive change in health care

sector. There is a strong need for training and developing

health management professionals in India, and equipping

them with all requisite skills needed to efficiently treat

patients. Additionally, frequent knowledge sharing

events such as Hospital-Build-Infrastructure-India exhibi-

tions, which shaped up as a B2B trade show for the hospi-

tal infrastructure & health care sector, must be organized

because they offer participants an unmatched opportunity

to network, upgrade knowledge, source & sell technology

besides partnering with one another. IT and Telecom are

two spheres where our country has demonstrated capa-

bilities which make developed nations go green with envy.

Used tactfully, they will help deliver high quality health-

care. We must utilize our expertise in IT and Telecom to

bring about a revolution in the Indian health care system

and make it the world’s best.

To improve our country’s healthcare system, we must

have impart Project Management training to our profes-

sionals, create platforms that provide ample opportu-

nity for them to network and learn from one another

and develop a comprehensive database to facilitate

clinical research.

Ritesh has close to 10 years of Management Consulting, and Industry wide

experience across multiple sectors - Telecom, IT, Oil & Gas, Government

( e-Governance), BFSI . His key competencies are: Project & program man-

agement, Commercial & bid management, procurement & vendor manage-

ment, business development, relationship and stakeholder for transition &

change management and provide thought leadership. He has worked with

various clients in India & Middle East. He is BE in Computers Science and

Engineering from DIT in year 1998-2002 and MBA from FMS (part-time).

Currently he is working as consultant commercials and contract with Tech Mahindra ltd

About Author

Bias tendency for selected members in the team is the worst tool for a Project Manager to display the leadership qualities.

— Piyush Govil PMP®

Mr. Ritesh Arora Consultant commercials and

contract with Tech Mahindra Ltd.

1) Paper presented by Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, Chairman Public Systems Group,

IIMA "Opportunities and challenges in health management education in India"

2) Paper on health care financing reforms in India by Mr. M Govinda Rao and Ms.

Mita Choudhary

References

Save girl child 30

A project manager was once asked in an interview “What is the most complicated aspect of Project Management” and prompt came the reply without a blink of the eyelid - “Human Resources”. Human resources deployed in projects are expected to imbibe & demonstrate the basic performance improve-ment cycle components (AKPS - Attitude, Knowledge, Practice and Skill). However it has been observed that regardless of which leadership style is practiced by the project Manager, the human resources tend to become cavalier without mapping themselves to the objectives of the project and organization.

It has often been debated what kind of leadership

approach should a Project Manager follow in order to have

his resources highly motivated and we are not taking

money here. As DOUGLAS McGREGOR states in Theory Y

(Participative Management style) and WILLIAM OUCHI

states in Theory Z (Japanese Management style), re-

sources are self motivated. The Project Manager should

give them the right environment to contribute and grow.

An overall ambiance creation is the responsibility of the

Project Manager where the resources look forward to con-

tribute. But how much good is enough?

Does a high performing team eventually creates a sce-nario where the Project Manager becomes redundant and team starts taking their own decisions or starts challeng-ing the actions and decisions of the manager. In order to furnish a climate of openness and freedom, does the Pro-ject Manager create a podium whereby the human re-sources make themselves bigger than the project or the

organization? They construct unwanted demands or invent

unnecessary hassles that may lead the project to get de-

railed from its scheduled path. Such resources would start

being Blocker or Dominators thereby providing negative

vibes to project’s success. The problem becomes com-

pounded if A) This is a matrix organization with the hu-

man resources perceive their accountability to the line

management to overrule the project manager B) The re-

sources are special skilled and/or have been acquired at a

special rate for the project.

There is no single solution to this problem, however one would expect the Project Manager to rise to the occasion and demonstrate noteworthy “Expert” power and let the actions show their worth.

One of the possible ways to deal with this scenario is to

look at the underlying issue behind this behavior – Maybe

the resources are young, straight out of their formal edu-

cation and need the handholding necessary to mature into

more responsible resources & individuals. Maybe the re-

sources feel that they are subdued and have no control

that is leading to frustration.

3 F often work well in such a situation - - Forget, Forgive and move Forward on with the project. As the individual who is overall accountable for the delivery, the project manager would understand that the project and it’s ob-jectives come first and Individuals later. Even if the pro-ject resources with uncalled for hassles lead to fulfilled project objectives, better go ahead with them.

Another approach that could work remarkably well here is

to delegate the authority. A project manager would know

that person deemed fit to take the decision about a hu-

man resource would not necessarily always be him, but

someone who is close enough to the resource. The project

manager should be able to identify the person who should

take the decision regarding the resource. Hence he should

Identify members within the team who can be shouldered

more responsibilities and who can guide and coach other

members of the team as well. They would be his ambassa-

dors to all other resource segments of the project.

As an individual who treats the project like his own child,

the project manager expects his human resources to be

deeply motivated to the project, constantly try to find

new and better ways to deliver, understand that it is their

project, align their personal goals with the project & or-

ganizational goals & stretch that extra mile to deliver. He

is standing by their side to support them, be with them in

their failures & successes; motivate them and celebrate

with them at their achievements.

Are Human Resources Overly Accentuated in Projects?

-By Chetan Mathur PMP®

Save girl child 31

Having motivated individuals is a piece of cake; but having the entire team aligned and working for the same cause of the project is tough & a marvel for a Project Manager. However in pursuit if the same, the Project Manager should not go overboard so that the same team does not get derailed from the project goals. The right amalgama-tion of “Arrogance / Autocratic”, and “Buddy / Participative” management styles should be adopted so that the hu-man resources use Project Manager’s “Referent” power to refer him as their next PM.

Living the Project Management System

Project Managers spend considerable time working with project management systems to create and update the project plans. Project management systems have evolved over time and have incorporated many features that make it easy for project managers to perform different tasks such as creating schedule, resource assignments, entering actual values, creating reports, and many others. In to-day's scenario, most of the projects involve resources op-erating across geographies and time zones in a complex matrix organizational structure. Projects often involve tasks that follow pre-defined organizational processes. Project success is not only about successfully managing the project constraints and delivering the desired out-come, but also how the project manager has orchestrated the execution of adopted project management framework and project-related organizational operation processes with enhanced efficiency and delivering value.

There exists a phenomenal potential to utilize big data gen-erated by the way of execution of multitude of projects across organization, which may help organizations to streamline underlying organizational operation processes to enhance productivity and reduce project execution costs.

-By Avinash Jain PMP®

About Author

Chetan has rich 17 years of experience in End to End Program Delivery.

Chetan is a certified PMP and is also certified on ITIL and eTOM best practices. Chetan has also been a member of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

He has managed and delivered various end to end projects and programs from RFP, Discovery, Due-diligence, Transition (KT, Shadowing, and Re-verse Shadowing), Transformation (Analysis, Design, Development, Test-ing & Implementation) to Application Support & Maintenance phases. Chetan has been managing large teams and multiple projects, ensuring deliveries are completed on time & within budget and in strict compli-ance with quality systems/procedures in an onsite offshore model.

Chetan Mathur Program Manager

Nokia Siemens Networks

Save girl child 32

Avinash Jain has nearly 20 years of IT experience in software development and projects management, currently working with IBM as program manager. He is PMP certified, completed Executive General Management Program from IIM, Bangalore in 2006 and Engineering in Computer Science in 1992. He is exceptionally innovative and has filed applications for a few patents. He has received many different awards in IBM for delivery excellence and innovation. Prior to joining IBM, he has had experience working with Airline and Telecom companies.

About Author

For example, lessons learnt for a project may have an entry that states that application refresh in a particular environment took 20 days as opposed to published 10 days and that the other projects should consider scheduling 20 days for this activity. It will be good for the organization to be able to analyze underlying data for the projects that have had the same or similar activity and analyze different parameters to take corrective measures.

Since projects touch upon various different aspects of the organizational functioning such as financial approvals, procurement, recruitment, engagement, security, cus-tomer feedback, and many others, the projects' data could provide deep insight into the performance of these functions. This can also be utilized to identify industry trends and formulate future strategies. The project management framework itself comprises of many integrated processes to which a project manager needs to adhere to and follow. There are processes such as 1) the integrated change management process, 2) the risk management process, and

3) the issue management process. All these processes have associated tasks and actions that need to be executed as per the defined business rules. A project itself consists of various interlinked tasks and many other repeatable tasks such as weekly reports, re-views, and meetings. A project manager spends consider-able time in tracking all these tasks, actions, follow-ups,

reminders, and escalations. Many of the project managers maintain spreadsheets to track the tasks, ac-tions, and to be able to provide con-solidated reports for their projects. There exists a need for an integrated project and process management framework that can be utilized to execute projects and processes with automated interfaces and inter-linkages. The process management framework can provide features to ensure adherence to the defined process, capabilities to capture pro-jects, and process data, reports, and dash boards to analyze the data. Enterprises may consider utilizing the project management system built on an enterprise adaptive busi-ness process management (BPM) sys-tem. A BPM system offers extensive

features to automate business processes and analyze processes data. The project schedule and tasks can be defined in the BPM system which in turn can keep a track on all the tasks and send reminders for the approaching deadlines, send escalations, and take alternative work-flow paths on deadline expiry. The BPM system can poten-tially induce life in the project plans that otherwise may seem sleeping until woken-up or opened by a project manager. Such an integrated environment will enable organizations to analyze processes and project data, minimize devia-tion, enhance predictability, productivity, efficiency, and reduce projects execution costs.

Avinash Jain Program Manager

IBM India

Save girl child 33

Intervie

w Serie

s

Mr. Vimal Wakhlu Chairman & Managing Director (CMD)

Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL)

Experience especially in Project Management

I have been fortunate enough in having got the opportunity of working on a number of challenging projects in these years, starting from the Indo-USSR Troposcatter link project in 1980, the first Broadband Digital Micro-wave Project, Optical Fibre Projects , Satellite VSAT based Projects, Maritime Project, Mobile Network project of BSNL and e-Network Projects including the prestigious Pan African e-Network Project.

Some of these Projects have been a real challenge from the Project Management perspective. Troposcatter project involved establishing a link between Kashmir in India and Dushanbe in former USSR ( now Tajikistan) cov-ering a distance of 700 Kms in a single hop. The amount of RF power being pumped made the whole infrastructure so massive that establishment and sustenance of the same was a good challenge.

Pan African e-Network Project involved project roll out in 53 countries of Africa and 18 locations in India.

There have been issues of stakeholders sensitisation, risk management, pressures on cost and time management.

There have been challenges in Stake holders Identification, Project planning stage itself, given various uncertain-

ties, including the number of countries likely to come on board. Risk management is another area where there

was a lot to be learnt. Dynamic changes to the Project Management Plan, with the consent of all the stakeholders

ensured that the Project was implemented on time, and various objectives underlined were met successfully.

What do you attribute your success?

Whatever little has been achieved, has been by God's grace. From my side I have always put in my best in terms of hard work , intellectual honesty, and an open approach. Calling a spade a spade might have at times gone against me , but most of the time, it has helped me in the long run. Competing with myself has been another attribute that has been quite an aid in my growth.

I have been lucky to get opportunities of working on challenging projects in Telecom and IT, where there

always have been tight schedules, budget constraints and high expectations in terms of quality. Not being afraid

of taking risks, and coming out of my comfort zone every time, has also helped. Over the years this became a part

of life, and I stated loving it. Besides this, the entire life is a learning process, and there should not be any hesita-

tion is learning anything from anyone.

He is an Electronics and Telecom Graduate from NIT Srinagar, Kashmir, an MBA Marketing from IGNOU and also a certified PMP. Over the last nearly 36 years he has been working in the field of Telecom and IT, including in organisations like NHPC, Over-seas Communications Services (later VSNL and now Tata Com-munications Limited), DoT and BSNL. For the past 6 years plus I have been working for TCIL in various capacities including Execu-tive Director, Director (Technical) and currently as its CMD .

TCIL is an Indian Multinational company, fully owned by Gov-ernment of India, at present operating in 60 countries of Africa,

Middle East and SAARC Region.

Insights on Project Management

Save girl child 34

what your typical day is like?

The day starts with a little exercise, followed by a morning walk- I am lucky to have Panchsheel park adjacent to my residence , which apart from the meditation charges me fully for the day. In the office, a review of progress on major ongoing projects is done. Since participating in national and inter-national bids is one of the main sources of projects for us, strategising on the bidding process is one of the activities. This is followed by meetings for Business development review. A substantial portion of the time is also spent in meeting people with new business t proposals, including those from abroad .

Evening meditation and study of some of our ancient scriptures recharges me once again.

What is your biggest challenge in your job

The intense competition from Chinese companies in the international developing markets is one of the biggest chal-lenge. Getting business in these countries is becoming increasingly tough, putting pressure on the top-line. The margins have sharply depleted over the past few years, and this is putting pressures on the bottom-line as well.

TCIL is a Public Sector Enterprise. This has one limitation- even if the turnover reduces due to any business

conditions, the cost of manpower remains fixed. All the pay revisions of the government are applicable. There is

fixed and increasing liability (in terms of fixed manpower costs) which has to be serviced under all conditions.

Hence, maintaining a minimum level of turnover, which can in turn sustain this, becomes imperative. This in turn

means looking for new business all the time, for that the human resources need to be kept motivated all the time.

Besides this, one has to conform to all the norms applicable to the government organisations, which at times could

be quite challenging in a project, particularly in difficult geographies like Africa .

What do you feel about the current state of project management education?

While the Project management has got established in the IT sector in India, much needs to be done in the other sec-tors, particularly in the mega projects of the government. The general awareness about the relevance of project management is on the increase. However, for a country of India's magnitude with more than 1.2 Billion people and 6,37,000 villages, a lot more people need to get educated in Project management.

The manpower coming out of the Engineering colleges need a lot of inputs to make them employable. One

major input is the knowledge of Project Management. To mitigate this , I feel that PM should become a compulsory

part of the curriculum for all the branches in the Engineering colleges. This would really help the big projects in

India getting completed on time, without any cost overruns and at the same time maintain good quality.

Where do you see project management in 10 years?

Project Management is going to see an exponential growth in the developing countries in this decade. In the de-veloping nations a major challenge is that all the major projects , particularly the government owned ones tend to suffer on a number of counts. The awareness level about the importance of project management is on the as-cent. In India , the IT Sector having been there as a torch bearer in this field, the success stories of this sector is also prompting people to look at project management In International arena, availability of a particular number of project management professionals with the organisation is a prerequisite for bidding in the tenders. This ensures that project management becomes an inte-gral part of every growing organisation. Governments have also realised that one of the main reason for success of some of its own projects is due to an effective project management. In India, one such example is the Delhi Metro. Hence, thinking is on that pro-ject management should become an integral part of all the flagship projects of the government. Recently, the Government has decided to make it a part of the NOFN (National Optical Fibre Network ), a mega project worth Rs. 20,000 Cr, providing 100 Mbps connectivity to 2,50,000 village Panchayats.

Given the potential for growth in economies at the international level, I see a tremendous growth in the

project management in the next decade.

Intervie

w Serie

s

Save girl child 35

Insight or advice you would like to share with your peers?

Life has taught me:: Be yourself ! There is no need to follow a particular successful role model. It is not possible to fully alter your nature. You are born with it. What worked for A may not necessarily work for B. Find your own path which is in tune with your nature. Enjoy your work. Work should always be fun. Otherwise, you feel drained at the end of the day. It is the job satisfaction which matters, which is dependent on the results you have achieved. Challenges are good for the body , mind and the soul. For growth of all the three, challenges have an impor-tant role to play. Be honest first to yourself, and then the organisation you are working for. It always helps you remain light, mentally and spiritually. Always be in the learning mode. It is never too late to learn ! No one in this universe is small enough that we can not learn from.

Life is dynamic.. The one thing that is bound to be an integral part of your job or life is Change. Always be

ready for change. In fact be a part of the change itself !

What qualities do you feel are important to be successful as a project management professional?

Some of the qualities that I feel every successful Project Manager Professional should have includes Flexibility in approach. A project is a changing entity, many conditions on the ground keep changing during the execution process. The project manager has to be ready for this, all the time. Effective Stake holders management sets apart a successful Project Manager from the rest. The stake holders should not only be satisfied but delighted. That ensures a full commitment from their side to the project , is essential for the success of the project, which in turn ensures success of the Project Manger . Most of the projects are fraught with risk during the course of implementation. In fact success of the pro-ject is dependent on a proper risk mitigation or risk management strategy . Effective Risk management approach is thus another ingredient for success. Intellectual honesty is something which keeps the Project Management Professional light and happy in the long run. Transparency increases confidence of all the stake holders in the Project Manager. Modern day projects are also executed across geographies . A Global approach, wherein one is sensitive to

local cultures contributes substantially to success of the Project Management Professional.

Interview of Mr. Vimal Wakhlu arranged by Kumar Saurabh

Watch this space for upcoming programs, more volunteering opportunities.

Intervie

w Serie

s

Save girl child 36

Shashank N

Avail PMI Economic Exception Scheme;

renew your member-ship now at reduced

rate.

Hurry!

Editorial Team welcomes Articles, Case Studies, White Papers, etc. for their

ongoing endeavor.

We always welcome suggestions or ideas for improvement. Kindly submit at

pminicmag@pminorthindia.org

Disclaimer:

“The views and opinions expressed in all articles are those of

the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion

of PMI - North India Chapter and Editorial Team"

PMI North India Chapter

http://www.pminorthindia.org

pminicmag@pminorthindia.org

Team Editorial

Hemant Seigell

Abhijit B. Kumar

Prashant Malhotra

Nitin N Singh

Nirmallya Kar

Pooja Gandhi

Kumar Saurabh

Manoj Gupta

Piyush Govil