The voting for your favorite blogs about project management, innovation and 2.0 is finally over. I received over 230 votes, and it took quite a while to summarize the results. Now that the top 10 list of blogs for project management innovators is ready, I’m happy to share it with you. 1. PMPodcast 2. PM Student 3. Project Shrink 4. Daniel H. Pink 5. Andrew McAfee’s Blog 6. Bertrand Duperrin's Notepad 7. TED 8. Voices on Project Management 9. A Girl’s Guide to Project Management 10. Portals and KM Congratulations to all the top 10 bloggers! I also would love to thank all of you who commented on my posts about the best blogs, voted for your faves and suggested other valuable resources.
We’re now a month into 2016, and I wanted to share a few reflections on our progress as a company from the last year. It’s been a really busy and exciting time, and it’s always refreshing to pause and look back. Since most of you don’t know a lot about me, let me say that first and foremost, my passion is building. That’s why I have so much fun running Wrike as a SaaS business: every day we are both building and delivering a great product, and seeing the results of that product for our customers. It’s one of the reasons that 2015 was such an exciting year. Building the Platform for Everyone Our goal when we design and build software is to create a flexible platform that fits different industries and types of work, so that all our users can quickly adapt Wrike to their needs. That means that a major focus for us last year was the Dynamic Platform — a set of tools that allows you to customize workflows, data containers, and reporting. The first piece of this puzzle was the addition of Custom Fields in late 2014. In early 2015, we followed up with Workflows. Since that release, you’ve created thousands of unique workflows for managing projects and tasks, and used these to get faster visibility than ever before. We further enhanced the Dynamic Platform by releasing Wrike Reports in September. This filled a need for accurate, real-time status reporting that is both easy to produce and simple to consume. So far, we've gotten great feedback on Reports, including success stories, and some thoughtful suggestions for future iterations. We're always grateful for the feedback, and are excited for updates coming to reports in 2016. In 2015 we also built powerful integrations for teams that use Salesforce.com and Microsoft Office to help workers sync through the apps they use every day. This is a vital part of eliminating duplicate work and helping companies achieve optimal visibility. We’ve also doubled down on our mobile efforts by adding several new developers, and released brand new native apps for both iOS and Android. On our team, we’ve added key executives who join us from companies like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn. And with the opening of a new office in Dublin, we have added over 100 new Wrikers globally. I’m very thankful for all the talented people who have joined us, and it’s a joy to work with them every day. Exciting Times for Work Management As far as our industry goes, we are in exciting times. The world is going through a transformation in which companies are using digital as a source of innovation, and real-time data is key to finding and exploiting new business opportunities. Knowledge workers need to be as connected to their teams as they are to their devices. The world is beyond the point where Work Management is a convenient addition to your IT stack — it’s now a must-have. And more so than ever, businesses need to consider the cost of being the last company in their field to invest in visibility and collaboration. This isn’t just our bet. In 2015 we raised more investments from Bain Capital Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and DCM Ventures, all of whom are ready for this market to become mainstream. These investments have allowed us to increase our velocity in delivering a leading product, and our users should expect to see their effects even more in 2016. Personally, I want to close by thanking everyone who has helped us get to this point, both our gifted staff members, and especially our customers. The letters I get from our Wrike users are truly inspiring, and our whole company feels a lot of love every day from all of you, around the world. I’m very excited for another year of learning and building. Thank You!
It was not that long ago that a printed-out Project Charter would be the start of project approval. The key stakeholders would physically sign the document, which would be passed in the internal mail between parties, finally returning to the project manager to update the version control for the document to version 1.0. She would then file it away for safe-keeping and proof that the initiation phase was over and that the real work could begin. Does that sound like your workplace now? Most project sponsors would now expect the entire approvals process to be done by email. That is not to say that you can skip getting formal project approval. Instead, the way you go about securing sponsor sign off is different, due to the technology available to you – and them – in the workplace. No longer do project managers have a filing cabinet of original functional specs and documents signed off in ink. They are more likely to hot desk with limited storage space for project files. Documentation is stored electronically on a central shared server, with scanned copies of any documentation that has been signed. Copies of approval emails are stored with the rest of the project documents on the server. This is now the accepted ways of working, even in industries like financial services which typically take a while to catch up. The Google Generation This approach to handling documentation has evolved due to the availability of technology of work, and an evolution of the way in which we use it. This has given risen to the ‘Google generation’. You probably fall into this category. It is not to do with age. It is a distinction based on the adoption of new technology. If you want information, you can go to Google (or your favourite search engine), type your question and get a relevant response in a fraction of a second. The Google search engine has changed the way project stakeholders expect to get information. In other words, if you need to find something out, you expect to be able to do so quickly and conveniently. It is no longer necessary to trawl through encyclopædias or take a trip to the library to do research. If you don’t know the answer, you can Google the question on your computer or mobile phone. This phenomena has contributed the rise of cheating in pub quizzes, but it has also made project management more difficult. In the past – and it wasn’t that long ago – the monthly steering group report would be an adequate representation of the project status. It was acknowledged that it was not a real-time project position, but it was accurate enough for the purposes of judging progress against milestones and budget. This data would be sufficient for steering group, and if anyone else wanted a formal project status report, the latest steering group report could be handed over as a snapshot in time. Most of the time, people were happy with this level of detail, even though implicitly they knew it could no longer be true. Only in an emergency would any one ask to see anything more up to date. Project info at your fingertips Today, project stakeholders have different expectations about project information, because they can get other information at the click of button. You want to know the weather in Bangalore? Google it. You want real-time stock prices on the FTSE? Google it. You want up to date project status reports. Here’s last month’s steering group report, precisely 19 days out of date. This lack of real-time data is no longer acceptable to project stakeholders who can get everything else in a fraction of a second. Sixteen per cent of the workforce is what research group IDG calls ‘hyperconnected’. These people have “fully embraced the brave new world… They liberally use technology devices and applications for both personal and business use.” IDG also estimates that the amount of workers falling into this category could soon be up to 40%. The fact that people are connected at work and at home has a knock-on impact on the way in which we provide project data. Now project stakeholders expect real-time, up to date status reports. Or at least, they expect you to give them that information whenever they ask for it, by return of email. Project managers now have to deal with those raised expectations and always be on top of project status in case anyone asks. And I think we should be. Project managers who don’t know what is going on — and are not able to communicate it — aren’t serving the needs of the project team or the wider stakeholder community. Of course, accurate and timely information works both ways, and we need it from sponsors too. So how have you adapted your project management practices to the evolving needs of your hyperconnected stakeholders? About the Author Elizabeth Harrin has ten years of experience managing projects. She’s a member of PMI’s New Media Council, and she writes about projects on her award-winning blog A Girl’s Guide to Project Management. She’s also the author of Project Management in the Real World, a case-study based book that tells you what you really need to know to succeed in project management.
After the short holiday break, the new year quickly gained momentum. The first event on my 2013 speaking calendar was the dinner meeting at PMI Dallas Chapter. The topic of remote collaboration and its efficiency brought up a great discussion. The engagement of the audience is a clear sign of how many project managers face the challenge of dealing with mobile workforce today. And the trend will only expand: as Wrike’s survey revealed, every fourth worker foresees his or her office going virtual in the near future. Of the numerous post-presentation questions, there were a couple that were especially interesting, and I’d like to share some takeaway notes with you. One of the efficiency tips that I talked about during the session was the importance of remote work monitoring and sharing within a distributed team. According to our survey respondents, bad visibility into colleagues’ actions is one of the biggest problems in remote collaboration. Learning to share tasks, ideas, file and other work-related info is critical to making the workflow transparent to the team. The audience asked how to build up that culture of sharing. The word “culture” here implies that it’s not a rapid shift to make. One of the working tools is leadership by your own example. Say, when you assign a task or finalize an important document, make sure that your workers are aware of it and can easily check it out. Then, when you have some “champions” on the team who follow your example, you can use some peer pressure, too. As with many other changes, you can slice the big change into smaller steps that are easy to reach. You can approach it from two dimensions: horizontally (begin with a part of the team and then step-by-step roll it out to the rest of the employees) or vertically (in this case, the idea is to start by sharing a certain type of item, and then add more of them to the mix.) For example, it won’t be too much trouble for your team to exchange important documents they worked on before your weekly meeting. Adopted gradually, this practice should develop into people’s working habit that will naturally solve the challenge of poor visibility and siloed project data. Another remarkable question was asked about granular workload management. I spoke about the convenience of splitting work into smaller, tangible deliverables, instead of big tasks where a worker reports on what percent has been completed. One of the attendees asked how to make it work if you need to report on the progress to your customer? Once again, visibility is the key word for answering this question. Here’s a simple, real-life example. Imagine you’re having your house remodeled, and you want to check on the progress. “50% completed” doesn’t give you, the customer, any insight into what’s really happening. Is the bedroom ready, and can you bring the furniture in, or was it the kitchen, or is it just an abstract number, and none of the rooms are actually finished? So the point is to bring your customer in and give him or her more visibility. With smaller tasks, tracking progress (for managers, stakeholders and customers) and reporting (for workers) becomes easier. When the team reports on a more granular level, you don’t need to run meetings so often (which isn’t that easy for a virtual team!) to clear up the details. If you don’t want to overwhelm your customer with too many updates, or don’t want to share some operational details, then you can share the major milestones with him or her. One of the positive aspects of giving customers visibility into your projects is the opportunity to get earlier feedback from them and to make sure you’re moving in the right direction. One of the greatest things about conferences and other professional get-togethers is hearing first-hand what challenges fellow project managers currently face and seeking for efficient solutions to them. So I’m looking forward to the upcoming events on the calendar. This week, it’s IBM Connect in Orlando. In February, I’ll be speaking about remote collaboration at PMI Los Angeles Chapter dinner meeting. In April, you can meet me in PMI Chicago Chapter and at Stanford’s Strategic Execution Conference in Silicon Valley, where I’ll discuss how to make open innovation work in project management. Hope to see you there!
Aligning the means between individuals, project and organization is a Herculean task for any Project Leader. The means are the rules of the project. The way things are done. Following are two strategies that can be used to align means. To provide you with some ideas on the project baseline. To start the discussion. Patterning – Going Through The Motions In essence, with this strategy the project team is told what the means are; the larger organization knows best. This idea originates from Jeff Sutherland in “Shock Therapy: Bootstrapping Hyperproductive Scrum”. If you have a new team that has no experience with Scrum, you will put a very experienced Scum Master in charge and he will set the rules. Relentlessly. Only a few rules, that make up the basics of Scrum, but they have to be followed with strong discipline. The Scrum Master will make sure this happens. Set the rules first, than, after a while, let go when it becomes natural. This is called “patterning”. Continuous Transparent Feedback A human system always communicates with its environment and based upon the feedback it gets from it, alters its behavior. If a group of animals will drink water from a well and one of the groups dies because of it, they entire group may search for a different well. If a company introduces a new product, and sees its stock plummeting because of it, it might change its strategy. It is therefore essential that the project members get continuous feedback on their own performance and the environment. This is where the use of analytics, metrics, “in-your-face” information visualization and plain old coaching comes in. By providing feedback to the team on how well they perform under the current project rule set, they will adapt to more effective means if needed.
I am excited to announce that Wrike has agreed to join the Citrix family to create the next frontier in the digital workplace revolution. This partnership could not happen at a better time, given the market shifts in 2020, the much-anticipated transition to the "Next Normal," and the exponential growth in the demand for work management solutions. Why Citrix? The Citrix mission is to empower people to do their very best work. Wrike’s mission is to help you do the best work of your life. Sound similar? When the missions align, the stars truly align, and there can’t be a better match of the minds. That is why I am extremely thrilled to be embarking upon this journey with Citrix. We are two companies committed to defining the best future for work, and we will make great strides working as one. Better together Being a part of Citrix will enable us to accelerate our mission. Together, Wrike and Citrix will build the workplace of the future to empower employees to achieve their best. Citrix delivers a frictionless experience for employees through unified, secure access to work resources. Wrike brings teams, data, and applications together in a digital platform. By combining the power of a unified workspace infrastructure and collaborative work management, organizations can accelerate business results by enabling employees to focus on the work that matters the most. A market shift 2020 has permanently changed the way we work, and the office as we know it will never be the same. With large-scale remote working and the shift to digital, organizations are facing the pressure to keep employees productive and engaged. This has led to quantum leaps in digital transformation initiatives. Further, organizations are concerned with employee burnout and digital fatigue. To succeed in this environment it is critical to enable employees with the tools they need to be productive wherever they are and whatever the context. We will bring more than a decade of innovation in this space to help the industry ease into the next normal. Unified workspace infrastructure + CWM = The workplace of the future With pioneer investments in AI technologies by Wrike, this is a marriage of innovative leadership that delivers the vision of intelligence and automation needed to build the workplace of the future. Over the last several years both companies have innovated feverishly to drive digital innovation. A leader in multiple categories of workplace technologies, Citrix offers end-to-end offerings to enable and empower the modern workforce. By joining hands with Wrike, Citrix will now be able to offer a complete solution that optimizes productivity across all aspects of work. Win-win for our customers As we step forward in this new phase of our journey I am extremely grateful to our customers who have helped us get here and supported us all along. This is exciting news for our customers for many reasons. First, as part of the Citrix family, we will be able to scale our product and accelerate our roadmap to deliver capabilities that will help our customers get more from their Wrike investment. We have always listened to our customers and have built our product based on their feedback - now we will be able to do more of that, faster. Second, we will now be able to empower and partner with IT departments by enabling cross-functional workflows, connecting with the systems across the organization and becoming the single digital workspace. Wrike has established a strong customer base with business users, and Citrix has built deep relationships with IT customers, enabling us to bring two ecosystems together. As the market moves toward the connected enterprise, the time is ripe for a partnership like this to enable the vision for hybrid workspace. The joint solution brings incredible value to both business users and their IT departments that support this new hybrid ecosystem. The path forward This partnership also brings exciting possibilities for the market at large. More than a decade ago, we saw a huge opportunity in the Project Management space. We wanted to take an innovation that was largely restricted to a few mature practitioners within the organization, and unlock its potential for every single employee whether they were technical or business users. In this endeavor, we created the Collaborative Work Management category that changed the face of work for all types of users across every department and use case. Last year, as we navigated our customers through the transition to remote work, Wrike became the core part or digital workplace. As one of our customers very eloquently put it, “Wrike is our new office.” Now we are seeing an even more powerful opportunity to take the enterprise to the next level by connecting and automating workflows to create an intelligent digital workspace. This next step in our journey is a very promising one for the entire Wrike ecosystem, one made possible through the commitment of our employees, the support of our customers, and the conviction of our investors. We are proud of the advancements made in collaboration with our most recent investor, Vista Equity Partners, who enabled us to accelerate our growth and innovation to advance Wrike’s mission and prepare us for this new chapter. Now, by partnering with Citrix, we want to expand the value of collaborative work management from thousands of organizations to hundreds of thousands. Today, CEOs, CIOs, CMOs, and CHROs are grappling with the second wave of transitions coming up in 2021, and I hear a lot about the hybrid workspace. 2020 was not easy but helped us validate that collaborative work management is indeed the backbone of the future of work, whether that’s in-office, remote, or a mix of the two. As we embark into 2021, we are ready to help the market navigate this next transition and unlock the workspace of the future to hundreds of millions of users. Looking forward to the next wave of innovations as part of the Citrix family.
Today I would like to give a definition to the new term used by me in the title of this blog. I use the term Project management 2.0 to describe an evolution of project management practices inspired by Enterprise 2.0 tools. Traditional project management software implies project manager acting as a proxy in all project related communications, thus reducing productivity of project manager and the rest of the project team. New tools bring collaboration into the planning process, making the team much more productive and changing not only the technology, but process as well. Collective intelligence is not the only change agent in this process. Collaboration opens way to another successful practice, inherited from Enterprise 2.0 – emerging structures. Together these powerful principles determine key differences between Project Management 2.0 and traditional project management: Bottom-up planning is utilized much more often and much more efficiently Tools help to communicate and reduce unnecessary burden Instead of using one work-breakdown structure that is designed before the project is started, multiple structures might be applied and they can evolve on the way. Overall use of these techniques help to increase productivity in many teams, especially in the cases, when either project plans need to change often, or team members are not located in one office building, or project manager is involved in several project teams simultaneously. There are applications that bring Project management 2.0 practices to enterprises. Some of these project management tools, besides collaboration, may offer functions like reports, Gantt charts and overdue notifications. These features follow the progress of projects and increase project work productivity.
The post got over 220 comments and still counting! Some of you also pointed me to a few excellent resources that I didn’t mention in the general list. So in this post, I’d like to add another 11 blogs for project management innovators to my initial collection. 1. Instigator Blog is your destination if you are an entrepreneur or a software start-up CEO. The author, Ben Yoskovitz, writes on a variety of topics, but I especially liked his pieces on social media, start-up management and customer service. 2. pm411.org, written by Ron Holohan, is a great resource for the latest news on project management tools, tips, methodologies, etc. I’ve already mentioned in my previous post that what I personally enjoy about this site is how the author looks at the practical side of things and pays attention how the material he blogs about can be applied to real-life projects, including his own. 3. Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang is focused on defining and delivering user and community needs, business goals and technologies that help you develop successful Web programs. So this blog would be especially interesting for you if you are a Web-based software entrepreneur or work for a Web-based software start-up. You’ll hear about all kinds of useful things, like finding social CRM vendors, mobile blogging technologies and lots more. 4. I’m Not Actually a Geek is a blog written by Hutch Carpenter, a well-known evangelist of innovation and Enterprise 2.0. This is a not-to-be-missed resource for any innovator, as here you’ll find information on topics like how to accelerate innovation in your company or how to organize innovation management. There’s also plenty of interesting observations on the latest Enterprise 2.0 trends and technology. 5. How to Manage a Camel is about project management and recruitment. The blog features guest posts on a variety of project management topics, such as methodologies, soft skills, communication, etc. In addition, there are valuable pieces on how to build a successful project team and scale up your personal career in project management. 6. CottagePM.com is an unusual blog, as it mostly focuses on small-project environments. The author, Max Walker, MBA, PMP, is one of those project management professionals who have tried applying all the classic methodologies and techniques to his rather small projects, and it didn’t work. Max then paved his way to successful project completion by relying more on common thought processes. If this story sounds familiar, or if you also have to deal with smaller projects, rather than industrial megaprojects, than this blog is a must-read for you. By the way, if this is your case, I also recommend that you to take a look at my post “The Long Tail of Project Management.” 7. Torsten Koerting is a project management enthusiast who writes on all the things that interest him in life and how these things can be applied to project work. You’ll find Torsten’s fresh, creative thinking very helpful in your project management job. 8. ClearPM is your resource for in-depth knowledge for managing large IT and industrial projects, as well as good project management advice for dealing with less complex, smaller projects. The author, Brian Mossing, a seasoned project management professional with over 25 years of experience, tries to make project management clear and understandable for you. 9. Scope Crêpe is a blog by Rich Maltzman, PMP, and the founder of the "Fiddler on the Project." It represents the author’s unique point of view on different aspects of project management, as well as some project management trends. 10. Project — This rather simple name represents an interesting blog that can be your destination for how-to posts on the PMP certification exam, software project management, methodologies, as well as project management software reviews, all written to follow the four basic principles of the author: “be helpful,” “be interesting,” “be critical” and “be amusing.” 11. Reforming Project Management is your destination if you are unsatisfied with their present project management practices. If you feel that there’s a need for change, this blog will help you start your innovation journey. The resource is targeted at all project managers and people interested in this sphere, but it would be especially useful for design and construction professionals. It’s also a great place to get familiar with Lean Project Management. The list of the TOP 10 Blogs for Project Management Innovators is coming up! Stay tuned and don’t stop voting!
The growth of popularity of Enterprise 2.0 on-demand software is remarkable. This growth is not gradual. The pace of on-demand software adoption grows each month and equals 150 % year-over-year, according to Saugatuck Technology research. On-demand software, or software delivered to the customer via the Internet as a service, turned out to be a revolutionary concept in the late 1990’s. Back then, it seemed unbelievable to replace the traditional on-premise software, which you have to buy and install on your computer, with a service. The situation has now changed as businesses and the software vendors serving them are serious about on-demand software delivery.In 2005, IDC announced in its report that on-demand software will represent more than 3.8% of all spending, or $10.7 billion by 2009. In 2006, on-demand software was announced to be the future of software development by many of the authoritative media, such as Forbes, the New York Times, EWeek, and BusinessWeek. Today, business magazines announce that on-demand software customers are becoming more comfortable with the model and that, according to recent research, nearly 36% of large and small companies are considering bringing software-as-a-service technologies into their organizations. About 80 percent of those considering it say they plan to adopt it within the next 12 months. Additionally, 90% of enterprises that are using on-demand software have already stated that they plan to expand their use. Today, we have a great number of examples of software delivered as a service. The applications range from project management to CRM services. Factors influencing the enterprise Why is software delivered as a service adopted by more and more companies all over the world? There are certain external and internal factors which influence the software development and the development of other industries. Here are 2 major external factors: Fast-paced development of the telecommunication industry transforms and expands the former boundaries of software development. Telecommunications are affordable and available from almost any computer. Information workers enjoy high-speed connections to the Internet at home and at work. Almost 300 million people worldwide are now accessing the Internet, using fast broadband connections and fueling the growth of social networking and business software applications. Penetration of broadband services is seen as a key for developing businesses all over the world. Fast Internet enables companies to use software applications for storing, editing and exchanging information online and accessing it anytime they need it. Outsourcing development opened new opportunities for businesses. Business strategists started to pay more and more attention to outsourcing of non-core operations since the 1980s. In the early 2000s, IT outsourcing became a very important cost-cutting measure for thousands of companies. Today, it is increasingly viewed as a strategic planning and outcomes optimizing tool. A recent survey of American and European executives conducted by Accenture shows that 25% of respondents report first-day improvements in business processes with an outsourcing model. The benefits of outsourcing are incontestable: instead of building their own infrastructure and supporting it, companies outsource it to a third party and focus on the core of their businesses. They save on money, time and effort. As a form of outsourcing, on-demand software penetrates deeper into the way businesses are built nowadays. Major benefits for the enterprise There are also very significant reasons why many business owners and CEOs choose to adopt a new online service, rather than use on-premise software. These are the internal factors. Let’s have a look at on-demand tools from a CEO’s point of view, and we’ll see the advantages for the business growth immediately. As opposed to on-premise software, software as a service has 4 basic advantages; 1. It is cost-effective for small and large companies. On-demand software offers lower prices and lower total cost of ownership (up to 50% and more for project management software implementation, for example). Business owners get a faster return on investment. Companies "pay as they go," so hosted solutions often carry little or no upfront cost. The savings can be really huge. For example, in 2005, the town of Stratford estimated that upgrading and merging its two in-house Microsoft Exchange 5.5 environments — one placed at town hall (250 users) and the other at the police station (100 users) — as well as the underlying 10-year-old server, would run $180,000 to $250,000. Instead, the town authorities decided to sign a contract with InfoStreet, an on-demand service provider, to host the Exchange e-mail servers. The representatives of the town authorities do not disclose the exact terms of the contract, but they do say that they paid 20 times less than they would have paid for Microsoft to replace their Exchange environment. 2. Software as a service implies a short-term commitment, which results in dramatic financial risk reduction for businesses. By acquiring traditional software, companies pay significant amounts of money (over $100,000 for CRM solutions) and still face the high risk that the software may not fulfill the business requirements. In this case, there is no refund option. Instead, a SaaS product manager can start implementing software as a service by purchasing 3 or 4 accounts. The users will test the application’s features and determine whether the software complies with the corporate needs. Then the organization can gradually involve more users and acquire more accounts. Otherwise, the company can make a decision to move to another software provider that offers better service conditions. A good example would be Superior Industries, a company producing conveying equipment. They had turned to an on-demand solution when their top management realized that they could save up to 90% of their expenditures on CRM software. Later the executives of the company reviewed the return on investment they were receiving from their CRM service, provided by Salesforce.com, and decided to reevaluate their approach. Their switch to SugarCRM resulted in even greater savings, up to $70 000. 3. SaaS reduces the burden on IT staff. Moving to software as a service contract template means reducing the IT headcount, cutting the cost of hiring and training IT support and reducing IT operating costs. Internal IT personnel don't have to purchase and support the server infrastructure necessary to install and maintain the software in-house. The onus of maintaining a labor-intensive patch and upgrade process is taken by the software providers. With traditional licensed software, companies typically have to wait months for the next release of an application, which internal IT staff will then have to test and deploy. Very often, these installations are time-consuming and do not run smoothly. On the contrary, using software as a service means that a company will receive all the software patches automatically and usually much more promptly. Moreover, by using the SaaS product management, enterprises ensure that subsidiaries in all locations are using the correct application software version. 4. On-demand software usage usually means instant deployment. Traditional application implementation cycles inside companies can take years, consume massive resources and yield unsatisfactory results. With on-demand software, a company can start using the service the moment the provider activates the company’s accounts, which usually happens minutes after the payment is made. So taking into consideration all these advantages, it’s not surprising that more and more companies choose to adopt on-demand software and that analysts believe that this model of software delivery is the future of the software industry. McKinsey Quarterly named software as a service a disruptive force and called for traditional software vendors to focus on integrating on-demand software into their product lines. More and more, companies introduce their on-demand alternatives to traditional on-premise software. One of the best examples would be the project management field, where next-generation, Web-based applications have already displaced MS Project from its leading position, as they offer greater opportunities for easy and productive collaboration. Today, the IT landscape is changing, opening new competitive advantages for early adopting customers. What we observe is, while some companies are struggling with the pain and cost of installation, others are wisely spending their time and money on their core business and become market leaders by leveraging all the benefits of the new technologies.
With the ongoing expansion of the distributed workforce, this topic seems to be gaining even more importance among fellow project managers. The first part of the speech will cover the most interesting findings of a survey recently conducted by Wrike with 1,000 respondents (how many people work remotely, how this compares to their work style 2-3 years ago, what they value the most about telecommuting, where they see this trend going, etc.) For instance, the vast majority of surveyed people believe that a fully virtual office will be a reality in the future. Later, the presentation will focus on efficiency tips for managers of virtual teams, based on my own experience of working with globally dispersed employees. If you haven’t planned a trip to Vancouver yet, it is worth consideration! I’m just as eager to hear the other presentations as I am to give my own. Speaking of the event agenda: this is one of the things that we recently discussed with Paula Jayne White, PMI’s Director, Professional Development. Read our full conversation to find out about the focus of the upcoming event and discover some lessons that such a huge project like PMI Congress can teach. Paula Jayne, I’m pleased to welcome you in my blog! Could you please tell me a bit about your PMI history and your role in organizing the Congress in Vancouver? Hello, Andrew. Thank you for having me. I joined PMI almost a year ago exactly, as the PMI Global Congress 2011—North America was getting underway in Dallas. It was a great initiation, since my role with PMI is to build on the Global Congress’s great history and help the event evolve in a way that reflects and meets the evolving needs of today’s project managers. The PMI Global Congress is the place where project management meets, and I’m fortunate to work with a talented team of individuals that share my passion and vision for everything from content to professional networking – everything that defines the participant experience and makes the PMI Global Congress such a valued professional development event. One of the most exciting things about PMI Congresses is that they observe a really wide diversity of topics. Can you outline a few of the hottest ones on the upcoming agenda? What are the keynotes? Some of the hottest topics this year are change management; requirements management; leadership and soft skills for project managers; agile; complexity in large projects; risk management; and the PMO, among others. Our keynote speaker is Marcus Buckingham. We’re very excited to have him as part of our line-up; his insight into workplace strengths, how to maximize them and the crucial differences between leadership and management are unmatched. His presentation will give attendees a new perspective on how to fulfill the quest for long-lasting achievement, not just in the workplace but in all walks of life. Other speakers include Annie McKee, best-selling author and founder of the Teleos Leadership Institute; behavioral scientist and consultant James Kane; Lem Lasher, President, Global Business Solutions, Chief Innovation Officer and Chairman of the Leading Edge Forum for technology solutions firm CSC; and Mary Beth Romig, one of the key architects of the reconstruction of New Orleans after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. We’re excited to offer some new panels and topics for 2012 as well. Our first-ever Women in Project Management panel is poised for an exceptional turnout as it corrects the misconception that project management is a profession led only by men. Some of the most successful women in project management will share their experiences as project managers; discuss how project management as a profession is growing in general, and how opportunities for women specifically are increasing; and show how women are cracking the top echelons of previously male-dominated roles. Other new offerings include Hot Topics panels, which will enable attendees to learn about a given topic from multiple speakers and perspectives in a single session, and improved business networking events where attendees can make new contacts and explore new professional opportunities. Compared to the 2011 Congress, how has the focus in topics shifted? Do you see some specific trends in the project management space that affected this? The PMI Global Congress 2011—North America focused on the delivery of general project management knowledge. Many of the topics above were addressed in some form, but this year, they will be examined more thoroughly, and in sessions designed for intermediate and advanced project professionals. This is based on direct attendee feedback, as well as on PMI’s Pulse of the Profession report and studies by the Anderson Economic Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the McKinsey Global Institute. Instead of doing an open call for papers, as we did in past years, PMI invested in extensive market research to determine the topics that are of most interest and need to our attendees, and this year’s offerings are the direct outcome of that feedback. We issued a targeted call for papers on the most requested topics to ensure that attendees would get the most value from their experience. Is there any talk that you’re eager to hear personally? With that line-up, how can I choose just one? Well, I’m very excited about the women in project management panel. The demographic of PM is definitely changing; women are project management leaders, and have been for quite some time, but they can be isolated in their professions because there are still fewer of them. It will be exciting to learn how the profession and organizations are evolving in this area. And you can’t miss Marcus Buckingham. He’s such a dynamic speaker, with such profound cultural insights. The whole room will be hanging on his every word and I’ll be first in line to do that. I’m also very excited about closing speaker James Kane, and I hope that everyone can attend. He’s talking very specifically about collaboration, which has become a key concept for project professionals: how do we collaborate in virtual team environments? James Kane is both insightful and entertaining, and we’ll walk away with solid concepts that we can execute immediately. The Congress is a big project, so could you share some lessons learned along the way that readers could apply to their events, or maybe projects in general? It’s essential to have strong project management for an event of this magnitude. We’ve learned that a strong program manager is critical, as are skilled project managers for each work stream. Communication and accountability are key as well, along with strong leadership and technical skills. And never, ever forget an excellent sense of humor! It’s the only way to manage all of the moving parts so that the event comes together flawlessly. Were there any interesting and fun anecdotes that you’d like to share? One of the things we like to do each year is feature something fun, cool, and a little outside the box for technical project managers. Last year, attendees played Jeopardy against Watson. This year, we’ll get an up-close and personal look at the rebuilding of New Orleans through the experience of those who were actually there. These real-world scenarios, along with the social and networking events, are the backbone of the PMI Global Congress experience. There are more, of course, but to find out what it’s really about, you’ll have to attend. This sounds like one of the prominent reasons to attend the Congress. Thank you for your time, Paula Jayne. It was a pleasure to talk to you in anticipation of the Congress. See you in Vancouver!
” Recently, the conference organizers announced the opening of the Community Vote, which will play major part in the selection of the sessions that will be presented at the conference in Boston. I’m excited about the start of the voting, and I ask for your support. If you liked my “Email Is Dead… Long Live Email!” presentation, I encourage you to vote for my proposal entitled “Popular to Ubiquitous: How to Skyrocket Adoption.” Note: voting there requires a quick registration to avoid duplicate votes. Please bear with it; it’s simple.
I recently submitted a presentation to be featured at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2010 in Boston. My session will be called “Popular to Ubiquitous: How to Skyrocket Adoption.” In this future session, I plan to develop the ideas that I previously mentioned in my “Email is Dead… Long Live Email!” slide deck. By the way, my “Email is Dead” presentation was marked as “Hot on Facebook” and placed on slideshare.net home page, since the slide deck was talked about on Facebook more than any other document on SlideShare at some point. I really hope that the talk about skyrocketing adoption will generate even more interest. You can find the description of my session proposal at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference site and leave a comment there. I would really appreciate your support and feedback!