Volume 3 - Issue 04

APRIL
Power of Attitude In Crafting The Future of Project Management Page 1 & 2 by Rajesh Angadi BE, MBA, PMP My first experiment with Project management Page 4 By Chakravarthy Rajagopalan

2009

Creating Balanced Project Teams Project Management in Emerging Economies Using Belbin Model Page 2,3 & 4 By Bharat Gera, PMP By Venkataramiah Annapragada, PMP

Power of Attitude In Crafting The Future of Project Management

By Rajesh Angadi BE, MBA, PMP Synopsis Attitude is blueprint of your personality. It determines success for your tomorrow. Our attitude today architects the future, helps in closing the gaps of project management. Conducive attitudes are the key to project management and for the successful project delivery.

I am very pleased to share with you the April 2009 edition of PM Essence - the monthly newsletter of PMI Bangalore Chapter. It has crossed many milestones with your support and this is the 29th edition. You must have received the invite for submitting your articles from the Chapter. I would like to thank all those who responded quickly and positively. Some of the articles in this edition are from your responses. Those who have not responded have the opportunity to do so and secure their recognition in the newsletter in one of the fastest growing chapter's newsletter. Wishing you a happy reading. Thanks & Regards Madhavan S. Rao Director - Publications and Editorial PMI Bangalore Chapter

Attitude affects everything you do, both personally and professionally. Embrace your next attitude tune-up with a little checking and testing. Positive attitude has major role in shaping the organization. Change your attitude will change your altitude in the organization. Your positive attitude will help to negate all negative energies. This in turn propels one to grow. This attitude influences others to think positive as well. No matter what you do in life, if you have a positive attitude, you'll always be 100 percent. According to our alphabet system, if you assign a numerical value to each letter (1-26), attitude is equal 100 percent. So why settle for so little in life when you can have so much, just by daring to be different in your thinking.

What is required in architecting project management, crafting the future? Attitude As we all know your attitude is reflected in everything you do! Your attitude today determines your success tomorrow. Our attitude is the primary force that will determine whether the project will succeed or fail. Attitude determines how far you can go on the success journey. The key to having a good attitude is the willingness to change. Attitudes aren't shaped in a vacuum. People are born with certain characteristics, and those impact their attitudes. But many other factors play an even greater role in people's lives and in the formation of their attitude. For some, attitude presents a difficulty in every opportunity; for others it presents an opportunity in every difficulty. Attitude tells us what we expect from life and our future of the organization. An attitude can broadly be defined as a settled mode of thinking. Attitudes are evaluative. Any attitude contains an assessment of whether the object to which it refers is liked or disliked. Attitudes are developed through experiences but they are less stable than traits and can change as new experiences are gained or influences absorbed. Within an organization they are affected by cultural factors (values and norms), the behavior of management, policies such as those concerned with pay, recognition, promotion, quality of working life and the influence of the reference group in shaping the future of the projects. The highest reward for a person's work is not what he gets from it, but what he becomes by it - Thomas Carlyle Contd on Page 2

MAY 2009

Power of Attitude In Crafting The Future of Project Management

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Will the increasing use of new technology in the workplace render human being redundant? Employees in an organization are assets treated the right way, unfortunately number of the balance sheet of companies show the employees as assets but as a liability giving details of the salary, wages, perks, pension fund, gratuity and pension benefits as well as other indirect costs born by the company. What is important here is what attitude we have today will affect in enhancing our future of the organization so the challenge for today in architecting project management well said as Crafting the Future is to make Common man do uncommon things because no organization can depend on genius , the supply is always scarce and unpredictable. The workplace has changed dramatically. These days, companies are either downsizing, rightsizing, merging, or being acquired. Even white-collar professionals who thought their lives were secure through retirement are now feeling vulnerable. The world of work has become unstable. Experienced people are losing their jobs under rapidly shifting circumstances. Those who hold onto their jobs are dogged by concern that they might be next. These are circumstances that can lead to negative attitudes and self-defeating actions if you allow the circumstances to dictate your life. If we go to any corporation, we will find people are fearful of the future and others who are excited by it. Their circumstances may well be the same. Each may be faced with unemployment but some choose to see that as a dead end or defeat, while others choose to see it as an opportunity. This theme is centered in an organization to the employees around two basic questions, A. B. Why do we work? Why should we work?

Work behavior attitude can be seen. It is the actual work. Your colleagues can see it. It is the action. It is equally important to have a great work behavior attitude as it is to have a great work attitude behavior at work in shaping up of project management. Crafting future It's all about Attitude Crafting future is the first step for success with your organization. What do we want to be, in near future? To answer the question, we need to plan about our future. Take a look ahead and create your future. It isn't always easy or straightforward but it's better than just sitting back and taking whatever comes our way. We may get ahead without a plan but it is doubtful that you will reach your full potential. Fortunately planning is never too late. IT managers, professionals, trainees, CIO all of us need to build an attitude to look into the future of project management. A don't care approach won't allow us to reach our maximum potential. All good leaders exude and create energy and enthusiasm toward achieving their objectives and project managers need to be good leaders. They have to be able to drive the project forward, finding creative solutions and working in partnership to release the power of the individual and the team. They have to be able to motivate people and recognize the importance of acknowledging and rewarding achievement. Determination and persistence always makes things happen.
References ! ! ! ! ! John C. Maxwell; (2003) Attitude 101, Magna Publishing Co. Ltd. Keith Harrell; (2005) Attitude is Everything, Harper Collins Publisher. Michael Armstrong; (10th Edition) A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practices, Kogan Page Ltd. A.N.Tripathi ;( 2nd Edition) Human Values, New Age International (P) Ltd. D.B.N Murthy; (1st Edition) Managing Human Resource A Practical Guide to Mobilizing Manpower, UBS Publisher Distributors.

About the Author Rajesh Angadi BE, MBA, PMP - Currently working in Unisys Global services India, Bangalore as 'Service Delivery Manager'. BE (Electronics) with MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management studies.

The answer could be put at different levels. The most basic level for the organization is work out of necessity to earn a livelihood, so that we can support ourselves and our family. At the second level for the organization work is a mean for social prestige, esteem, status of authority. Everybody wants to be somebody in society. At the third level for the organization, work is a means for actualizing our potentials. It is only through work that we make productive use of our talents, sharpen our skills and develop our creativity to realize our dream projects. At the still higher level of self-actualization work is done not for satisfying any need for gaining anything from the outside, but for the sheer love of it. For the employees work then becomes a means for selfdevelopment for attaining the true personhood that is becoming truly and fully human which is achieved by positive attitude. Work attitude behavior is intangible. You cannot see it but people whom you work with can feel your work attitude behavior. It is a subconscious transfer of feelings.

Project Management in Emerging Economies

By Bharat Gera, PMP Project management as traditionally envisaged can be very different from that practiced in regions of the world with emerging economies. This article tries to capture such differences seen between New York and New Delhi. Globalization has had multiple effects on emerging economies. The per capita income has risen, and the underlying facets of project execution and delivery are subject to these changes in the economy. The emerging nations have provided relatively abundant lowcost, English-speaking labor that could deliver under tough constraints. In these circumstances, project management has been focused primarily on meeting the bottom line, as opposed to focusing on the other values and methodologies required for managing projects. However, the cost-driven outsourcing of earlier years has changed to value-driven outsourcing in more recent years.
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While the overall goal of project management is to ensure successful delivery while adhering to project management principles as described in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fourth Edition (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2008), another dimension is added by the constraints and culture in which the project itself is executed. Project management cannot provide the final required value to the project as long as "individual interests" (such as keeping down cost) are given higher priority than other aspects of the project. This difficulty is more obvious in emerging nations. I firmly believe that principles in project management should be adhered to that not only strengthen delivery, but also promote strong focus on issues causing such "individual priorities" to shape project executions in some cases resulting in their only meeting deadlines or keeping costs low. Project management must be extended to address the special circumstances in emerging economies that may cause deviations from PMI principles. Below are statistics on the share of the GDP in India by the IT/ITES (information technology enabled service) sector (NASSCOM 2008): Year 1998 2006 Share of GDP US$4.8 billion ~ 1.2% of GDP US$37.6 billion ~ 4.7% of GDP

described. The only answer is to arrive at a model where project management standards (as discussed in the PMBOK Guide) are extended to address these issues. Even basics such as organizational structure and design will be unclear, as these are actually matrices with dual solid-line reporting, leaving the project manager to the pressures of both the local seniority and offshore seniority. A simple mathematical simulation of this model can be given as follows : Project Management (PMBOK Guide) Principles = PMI Principles +/- A Globalization Factor of Economy Below are certain principles that can be modified in the context of emerging economies: Cost Management The major forces behind the actual investment of such economies are predominantly the percentage gains made by the investment. In other words, if the cost expenditure to corporate headquarters is half what it would be by investing elsewhere, that will be the primary driver for the investment. Earned value calculations will have the advantage due to basic currency exchange between developing and developed economies. As intellectual property ownership of high technology is also based out of emerging economies, the whole concept of earned value management may need to take the geographic factor into account. Comparative CPI = CPI Normalized over Exchange Factor and Local/Cultural Differences Schedule Management Schedule management needs to be viewed with high sensitivity. When organizational designs are output-driven; the corporate headquarters align to strict market schedules to meet bottom lines. This is a perfectly correct business policy. Now the investments that are made in emerging economies carry strong weight for such market requirements. In practice it is just not the scope of the work that determines the schedule, but also the quantum of recovery investment to the parent office that will pay the weight age for the schedule. Actual SPI = SPI * Delta Geo-Economics Acceleration Factor Note that here we have an acceleration factor driving schedules far ahead to meet the cost of investments. The core concepts of work breakdown structures, etc. are still equally relevant to project executions. Quality, integration, communication management and so on have their own scope of deviations in emerging economies. Risk Management This can be by far one of the most critical differences between emerging and developed economies. There is a limited high-end talent pool that is sought by the competing multinationals. A high rate of attrition is a very big risk in project management. Risk mitigation as described in A Guide to the Project
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Population employed 1.3 million 1.15 billion Total population In a developing country such as India with a per capita GDP of US$1,000 (2008), just marginally less than the per capita deficit, the social and economic impact of employment is very high. The IT sector is largely driven by multinationals (in India, of the top 20 IT firms, 12 are multinationals, and among the top 200 firms, 34% are multinationals [Dataquest, 2008]).It is also true that high-end technology product development is still emerging in these markets, with growth being sustained heavily by the IT services sector. In addition, good business school curriculum is not available to the majority of the management personnel responsible for offshore development (although multinational corporations do have expatriates that can help in overcoming some of the limitations this causes). In the light of this, it cannot be denied that project management and the principles discussed in the PMBOK Guide are not going to be exactly the same in both emerging and developed economies. The core principles of project management must be extended to meet the needs of emerging economies and its markets. Consider, for example, scope management where the primary markets are either the United States or Europe. The scope of specifics will not be completely deciphered by project managers in emerging economies, and therefore these project managers must by default add distinct error factors in execution. This impacts time and quality. The power of the project manager itself is limited, and the focus is more on the delivery angle than on project management principles. Although projects are delivered, the quantum of effort is much greater. Nevertheless, the workforce in these economies is willing to undertake this greater effort, given the dire socioeconomic circumstances that we have

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Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Fourth Edition (PMI, 2008) is not completely sufficient for dealing with such situations. Although job rotation is helpful, competing for the same talent pool in these economies poses different challenges that probably need to be handled in a way similar to "portfolio investments" in investment economics. For instance, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector's growth in India is primarily driven by recruitments in tier-three or tier-four cities, where the opportunities are seen as short, summer-vacation-money-making jobs. In fact there are distinct patterns of attrition that are observed, and the industry is geared to these patterns. Although I have touched on only one facet of the risk management aspect, there are a multitude of issues requiring careful project management "intelligence," such as high security risks, macroeconomic risks, and so on. (A complete discussion of these is beyond the scope this article.) Business Valuation of Multinationals and the Nature of Global Acquisitions It is becoming more common for entrepreneurs of the IT services sector in emerging economies to make acquisitions in developed nations. It is the growth potential in the emerging economy and labor availability that drive the business valuation of these companies. In the light of economic analysis, business valuation using Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) is based on cash flows from a company primarily over the immediate future. The cash flows do increase, either by developed nations investing in emerging economies or by IT acquisitions made in developed nations. The long-term repercussions of such developments will be a subject of debate. Nevertheless the immediate impacts on the project management principles used are of tremendous importance. Conclusion While I strongly believe that the project management principles described in the PMBOK Guide Fourth Edition (PMI, 2008) should be envisaged in every project execution, we should consider the deviations that exist in the various economies and regions of the world. Over time, I hope a model emerges that considers a larger, world community. About the Author Bharat Gera is an advisory software project manager at IBM Corporation. He has been involved in project management of enterprise software and hardware projects over the past decade.He is a Project Management Professional (PMP) holding an executive management degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He can be reached at bharat.gera@in.ibm.com.
Disclaimer: The views expressed are strictly the personal thoughts of the author as deemed applicable to major IT project execution in emerging economies.

My first experiment with Project management

By Chakravarthy Rajagopalan I started my career in IT in 1986 working on HCL-COBOL (a variation of the ANSI COBOL). In the 80's you either got into Engineering, Medicine, Accountancy or the rest (which included IT). So I got into IT by a process of elimination. I was a developer for about 8 years till 1994. I was then sent to work on site at a remote place in North India for an aluminum plant. We were developing the software modules for some of their business processes. Since we were all from Bangalore, many of my teammates could not stay there for long. My Project manager had to return to Bangalore due to personal reasons. I was made PM by default. We had a fixed price contract with a detailed requirement document, which was out of synch with what the customer really wanted. Sounds familiar? We then started to rework on functionality, or 'user stories', with feedback based on prototypes. By the time we had the first module ready and running, the project time had elapsed and so had the budget. The customer was already beginning to grumble. The contract required that we develop and hand over the software to the EDP staff of that company to maintain. However, the first module was now in use, so our credibility was slightly better now. I developed the other 3 modules assigned to me in double time based on the prototyping approach without deploying them. I then handed over the source, and the manuals to the EDP staff, 'closed' my assignment and returned home. Hopefully the company's IT staff would deploy the rest of the modules. I felt this was a 'successful closure'. I then shifted companies. (I secretly think I started this trend of job-hopping in the 80's, which is now followed widely.). I was assigned to a Banking project, which again had crossed budget and time. I thought I would use my previous experiment of 're-gather requirements, deliver at site, dump and run'. I did not realize that the previous trick had worked since the customer really did want us to develop based on prototype, and delegate since they had their own IT staff. The same trick did not work here since the bank did not have an IT staff. Also due to constraints I had gathered the 'revised requirements' without any prototyping or end user involvement. We developed a large set of code patches and dumped it on the customer since we were all under pressure (including the bank, my company, me and my cat). It bombed so much that my career in the new company was at stake and I was accused of the loss to my company for the failure of that project. I then realized that an approach that may work for one project might not work for another. A project manager cannot just hold a hammer and look for nails. He needs to have different tools in his kit to handle different problems. I also realize in hindsight that despite the pressure, one cannot compromise on the basics. I am sure many Project managers out there already know this. However, it was part of my experimentation with the art of Project management.

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