Friday, February 26, 2016

HR Triangle


I was wrestling with some HR issues on the project recently and my thoughts more or less coalesced around this idea:
There's an HR triangle with these three sides:






  • Context: the job description and duties within the context of the project
  • Benchmark: salary and benefits paid elsewhere for similar jobs in similar context, according to experience or qualifications
  • Fit: the specific candidate's fit re the context and the benchmark

  • So here's the point:
    • A candidate may be qualified eleswhere but not in context and thus the benchmark compensation does not apply; or 
    • A candidate may be qualified in context but the benchmark doesn't support the salary demand; or 
    • The candidate is simply not qualified and thus no fit. 
    Just because there's a candidate at the ready, and a benchmark that supports the position, doesn't mean the peg fits the hole.

    This may seem obvious until someone approaches and says: "That person deserves a raise", or "That person should be put in the job". No, if the triangle doesn't close, look elsewhere!


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    Tuesday, February 23, 2016

    EXCEL watch window



    If you've ever managed a project with a really large data set, say the payroll for a bunch of 1099 developers, or the sales records that you're trying to translate and import to a spreadsheet, you may need to watch a couple of important cells to let you know what's really going on:
    • Summary totals; 
    • error codes; 
    • record totals, etc. 
    Excel gives the PMO a convenient tool in the Watch Window, found on the tool ribbon with Formulas/Formula Auditing

    To use it, just open the watch window by clicking the icon, then click on Add Watch in the Watch Window, and then select some cells.

    Thereafter, every time you click on Watch Window in the Formula ribbon, it brings up your list with the latest values. My only irritation with the functionality is that the change is not time tagged. Nonetheless, pretty convenient to use.



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    Saturday, February 20, 2016

    Some changes in the way PDUs are earned



    PMI has changed the way some PDUs are earned and recorded. Most of these changes went into effect with the dawn of 2016. Here's an excerpt from blog posting that you might want to pay attention to:
    1. It is simplified
    Names of the categories are simplified, and the category letters disappeared. No longer worry about Category A, B, C PDUs, just report what your action was: Course or Training, Organization Meetings, using online or digital media, reading, etc.


    2. PMI Talent triangle gets importance
    As written before PMI’s talent triangle got importance. It might take a little time to understand which category should be reported when. PMI does a good job here providing nice guidance, however, please find the following as brief guidance to understand quickly PMI’s talent triangle:
    • Technical Project Management: ‘hard project management’, topics with schedules, risks, plans, processes, tools, agile, earned value, requirements,…
    • Leadership: ‘soft project management’, topics with negotiation, team building, interpersonal skills, emotions, etc.
    • Strategic and Business management: ‘business’, industry and market specific topics, strategic analysis, etc..


    3. It is not hard to meet minimum Talent Triangle Requirements
    As you know you need to gather 8 PDUs from each PMI’s talent triangle. As mentioned in the next point, the cap of 30 PDUs for self-learning was lifted, and now you are free to choose what to learn about.

    4. No more restrictions for self-learning PMP PDU
    You can earn all your PDUs just by reading books, blogs, etc.
    • Be sure to take notes, and log your activities, as you still might be audited when renewing your PMP certification.
    • All 60 PDUs can be earned this way (just remember that still need to categorize at least 8 PDUs in each PMI’s talent triangle category).

    5. Lower limits for giving back to the profession
    The limit was lowered from 45 PDUs to 25 PDUs, so now at least 35 PDUs need to be earned from ‘Education’ part.

    6. Working as PM will get you fewer points
    As the whole part ‘giving back to profession’ was cut, working as a PM particularly suffered. The part that could have ‘automatically’ be earned ‘just for working’ within an area related to project management was cut down from 15 PDUs to just 8 PDUs

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    Wednesday, February 17, 2016

    Did I mention requirements?



    This we learn from a recent posting at herdingcats:
    "We must be crystal clear here. Requirements may emerge, but the needed capabilities at the needed time are a critical success factor for any project, no matter the domain. As Yogi reminds us. If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there."

    Of course, the posting goes on to cite some sources, among which I find myself, for which I am gratified to be included:

    [1] The Requirements Engineering Handbook, Ralph R. Young, Artech House, 2004
    [2] Requirements Engineering: A Good Practice Guide, Ian Sommerville and Pete Sawyer, John Wiley & Sons, 1997
    [3] Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum, Mike Cohn Addison-Wesley, 2010.
    [4] Project Management the Agile Way: Making it Work in the Enterprise, 2nd Edition, John C. Goodpasture, J. Ross, 2015.
    [5] Agile Estimating and Planning, Mike Cohn, Prentice Hall, 2006
    [6] Agile Project Management for Government, Brian Wernham, Maitland & Strong, 2012.

    What more on agile? Available now! The second edition .........


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    Sunday, February 14, 2016

    No retrospective? That never occured to me


    I guess teams are asking (whining?): Do we have to do a retro after every sprint (iteration)?

    Hello! the answer should be self-evident if you have even a modicum of understanding behind the theory of the case (quality first, and constant attention to improvement), but for those not on the memo list: Yes!

    Mike Cohn recently addressed this question as well in one of his email blasts. Several excuses are put right, but the one I like is this one:

    The Team Is Too Busy for Retrospectives

    A team that says it is too busy to dedicate time to getting better is taking a very shortsighted view of the future.
    In his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey used the analogy of a woodcutter cutting a tree for days with a saw. Eventually the saw becomes dull. But with a short-term attitude, the woodcutter will never stop to sharpen the saw.
    A Scrum team with a similarly short-term view will never take thirty minutes out of its schedule to look for improvements. Instead they’ll put too much value on the little bit of code that could have been developed during those 30 minutes.

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    Wednesday, February 10, 2016

    Do you understand pressure?


    A diamond is a lump of coal that stuck with the job
    Thomas Edison, Inventor

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    Sunday, February 7, 2016

    Math problems







    Want some more keen insights like that one?
    Try this:




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    Thursday, February 4, 2016

    1,2,3 counting or measuring or positioning?


    Counting, positioning, or measuring: what's in a number?

    Remember pre-school or kindergarten: we all "learned our numbers".
    Ah! but did we?

    Want to count something? Just use the integers, starting at 0 and going in familiar step: 1, 2, 3 ....
    The count takes on the dimension of what you are counting: dollars, inches, meters, liters, etc
    You can do arithmetic on count, but because of the dimensioning, the results may or may not be viable: square inches are ok, but square dollars are not.

    Want to rank or position something? Again, we fall back to the integers -- 1st or 2nd position is good; position 1.2 in a queue has no meaning or implementation. And, there is no dimension per se in a position. Some arithmetic still applies, but it's tricky. Addition is not commutative: you can add 1 to first position to get second position, but you can't add first position to a 1. Stuff like that.

    Want to measure something? You can use any rational number (a number that can be fashioned by the ratio of two numbers). Really, anything on a measurement scale is rational and can be a measurement. And, you can do arithmetic between rational and irrational numbers (like "pi")

    For a number to be useful in measuring, every number in between has to be meaningful. That's why you don't do measurements with ranks and positions: the in-between numbers are not meaningful.

    Calibration: And, to be meaningful, the scale has to be calibrated.  A ruler with irregular spacings or a warped or bent rule, or guesses without reference to benchmarks or other reference classes are uncalibrated. And, thus, every number in between is not meaningful.

    Project management
    And so, where does the rubber meet the road in project management?
    • Probability x impact risk tables or matrices
    • Planning poker
    What's the first thing you need to do for a risk matrix or planning poker? 
    Answer:
    • If for real measurements, you need to normalize the reference class or benchmark to the project. 
    • But, if for ranking or positioning, nothing more is needed
    And, you might ask: if I want to work with real measurements, what is the normalization thing?

    1-2-4-8
    Just about every planning poker game or risk matrix uses some simple scale, like the binary scale, to weight the choices or impacts. Fair enough
    But, a "4" in one project may have really no relationship to the value of a "4" in another project. So, are these numbers just ranks, or positions, or are they numbers for measurement?

    If just for ranking, then nothing more is needed: 4 ranks over 2 by 2:1. Done
    If for measurement, then here's what you do:
    • Find the simplest real thing you've done before that is similar and call it the baseline cost;  divide its cost by its cost. You'll get 1, of course
    • For everything more complicated, divide by the cost of the baseline. Something twice as hard should divide out as a 2; four times harder divides out as 4.
    When you're done, you got a set of numbers that are normalized to the baseline; calibrated to the reference baseline; and suitable for measurement (every intervening number is meaningful)

    We're done here!






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    Monday, February 1, 2016

    Estimating from the master



    Brooks

    Today's quote: Here's a quotation that is a favorite of mine drawn from Fred Brooks, Jr.'s "The Mythical Man-month"

    "It is very difficult to make a vigorous, plausible, and job-risking defense of an estimate that is derived by no quantitative method, supported by little data, and certified chiefly by the hunches of the managers"


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