This document discusses three topics related to project management: 1) an overview of how project management interacts with related practices like strategic planning, 2) using work breakdown structures to communicate processes and commitments, and 3) lessons learned from over 25 years of project management experience around communication, understanding stakeholders, and navigating organizational ecosystems. It provides tips for project managers around obtaining commitments, understanding different perspectives, prioritizing requirements, and making risks visible to stakeholders.

1. Road Accident Three Nested Talks on the Theme of Project Management

3. 20 Years of Innovation

4. Recognized Market Leader by Industry Analysts

5. Over 500 Customers Worldwide across Every Industry“Planview is an Undeniable Leader in the PPM Market”

6. Premier Customers Worldwide Public Sector Financial Services Technology Retail Energy and Utilities Manufacturing Insurance Healthcare Pharmaceutical Other

7. Market Leading Products N

8. Topic One: An Overview of the Project Management Ecosystem An exploration of where project management practices touch related practices in a corporate environment strategic planning annual planning demand management product management resource management vendor management asset management infrastructure management quality management software change management audit and how that shapes success as a PM

9. Topic Two: Expressive Work Breakdown Structures Moving beyond the WBS as an engineering decomposition of deliverables to using the WBS as a tool for Communicating delivery processes Defining commitments Managing to those commitments

10. Topic Three:What Would I Tell my Children After 25 some years Planning and managing projects Building organization’s project and service delivery capabilities Defining and deploying program / project management and systems delivery methodologies Hiring, firing, coaching, mentoring and working for and with project managers I’ve hopefully learned something of lasting value that will help someone have a happier, more successful career.

11. Project Management is all about commitments… Making them Meeting them OBTAINING them Get comfortable with it or choose another career Take a class in negotiating Read a book

12. Not everyone thinks like you… Understand how you are most comfortable relating to the world and understand how others gather information and make decisions Your job is to Understand your stakeholder’s needs Obtain commitments Drive to decisions unless you can communicate, your ability to be effective will be limited Find a way to take the Meyers-Briggs Type Index Understand what the results say about you Understand what the results say about how you

13. All things are not created equal… Act like a four year old and ask lots of questions! Your job is to understand what deliverable and what requirements are more equal than the others. How does your project contribute to realizing a strategy? What business outcome is your project to achieve? What requirements make the greatest contribution to achieving that outcome? Which stakeholders have the greatest impact on achieving that outcome? Why is that date important? If your are feeling really geeky read up on Quality Function Deployment.

14. The criteria for success is fluid… Understand it and control it Everyone wants a project to be successful and its okay to help them by shaping the criteria for success Don’t be an order taker.

15. Manage in the round… Don’t fixate on one group at the expense of another. Manage up Project owners Project sponsors Business leadership Manage down Project contributors End customers Manage sideways Stakeholders Resource owners Gate keepers Understand your organizations ecosystem!

16. Understand your organizations ecosystem! Projects almost never live in isolation but live in the context of “the enterprise” and must contribute to corporate objectives comply with corporate standards integrate with corporate processes depend on corporate services Sometimes this knowledge is embedded into product development, project management and system delivery methodologies…and sometimes its not. In order to be successful you need to be able to navigate the complexities the ecosystem.

17. Organizational Ecosystems Strategic planning Annual planning Demand management Program management Product management Resource management Vendor management Asset management Infrastructure management Quality management Software change management Audit

18. It is alright to put words in someone’s mouth… Your job isn’t just to communicate, it is to provide communication tools Take a business writing course Take a public speaking course and model the behavior Steal from the best (read white papers, attend sales presentations) Create “expressive” work breakdown structures

19. Practice Informed Consent… Don’t assume risks on behalf of your customers. You aren’t a hero if a risk is never realized but you are a goat if it is. Make risks visible and make them shared, even if it is uncomfortable.