Journyx Project Management Blog

I first found out about the concept of different kinds of money shortly after I was married. I don’t mean different currencies or different denominations. I’m talking different types of money based on where it came from, how it should be spent, or what “pot” it is tracked in. My wife and I received some cash for a wedding gift. Even though I was responsible for managing our finances, she told me in no uncertain terms that the gift money we received should not be mixed with our regular “spending cash” or deposited in our checking account. It was given to us as a gift and it should be specifically on gift-like things. I found this annoying and irrational at the time, but being one to pick my battles I let it go and merely grumbled under my breath about it. It years before I recognized why different kinds of money exist, and the importance of understanding this concept when managing projects.

Companies fund projects from different pools of money based on the nature of the project and which financial aspects they are trying to focus on. Recurring projects that are necessary to keep the wheels on the bus are funded out of cash flow—basically, money coming in from ongoing operations is used to fund those projects. Think of this as the regular “spending cash” in my domestic example. These projects are usually expected to provide significant payback rather quickly. They are usually the projects that help keep the company in business and provide incremental improvements in products.

Contrast that with strategic projects, which do not offer the quick payback, and may not offer any payback at all. These projects are typically longer, riskier, and more expensive, and are usually intended to close substantial strategic gaps (real or perceived) or to start the company down an entirely new path. Because they usually aren’t going to be done anytime soon, they are often funded from different sources—either from a company’s reserves or through long-term debt. These types of projects are similar to the gift money my wife and I found ourselves with after our wedding, money to spend on things we normally wouldn’t buy.

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So why does it matter to you as a project manager where the money came from or how it is handled? As long as you don’t blow through it faster than you said you would and have to go and ask for more, it’s all the same, right? Well, if times are good and your project is relatively small and low risk, chances are it probably isn’t that relevant. Unfortunately, times are not the best right now, and there seem to be a lot of expensive, high risk, bet-the-company projects going on right now. (At least, I have seen a lot more, but that may also be a function of my personal experience.) Either way, the kind of money funding your project heavily influences decisions made about your project.

Read the entire article at ProjectConnections.

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About the Role of Project Manager in Encouraging Efficiency Processes

The Challenge of a Project Manager

The basic role of a project manager is to reach the project objectives while maintaining the given resources. There are two main methods for maintaining the resources:

* To prevent resource deviations in advance
* To react correctly to local deviations – in a way that will not affect the overall project resources

In this article I will present an additional strategy: utilizing the potential for improving processes during the project itself. I will present characteristics which require attention prior to intervention (aim of which is improving the project), examples for improving processes as well as the principles that are required in this regard.

Read the rest at PM World Today.

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Our partner, Cognitive Technologies, is sponsoring a research study on the resource management tools and processes organizations currently utilize and the challenges they face. The study will also highlight how management practices vary by organization size, type, and industry, and analyze any gaps that may exist between the beliefs and expectations of project managers and upper-level executives.

To ensure this much needed research is viable, a large, diverse response pool is needed. Would you like to take part? The survey should take less than 10 minutes to complete, and all participants will receive a complimentary digital copy of
the final findings report.

Take the survey now.

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10. Adopt practices for exploring a variety of perspectives.
We think we see what we see, but we don’t. We really see what we think. Remember the blind men and the elephant. Make it your habit to inquire what others see. You’ll see more together.

9. Stay close to your customer.
Clients’ concerns evolve over the life of a project. Take advantage of that to over-deliver. Stay in a conversation with your client to adjust what you are doing.

8. Take care of your project team.
We’ve come to accept that the customer comes first…the customer is always right. We can’t take care of the customer if we first aren’t taking care of our project team. It’s a challenge. While there are some things we can do for the whole team, it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individual that he or she is. And to make it more difficult, then we must bring their various interests into coherence.

Read the rest at Reforming Project Management.

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Factual and anecdotal evidence confirms that IT investments are inherently risky. On average, about 70% of all IT related projects fail to meet their on-time, on-budget objectives to produce the expected business results. In one KPMG survey, 67% of the companies who participated said that their program/project management function was in need of improvement. Why?

A number of leading factors for project failure were suggested by the survey, including the “usual suspects”: unreasonable project timelines, poorly defined requirements, poor scope management, and unclear project objectives. Granted, all of these factors can play a role in project success. But are they the cause or project failure, or just a symptom of some larger issue?

In this article, we will discuss that the root cause for many of these common failure points is really the ability to lead projects, not just manage them.

Download the PDF at PM World Today.

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Event 360 is the nation’s leading designer and director of fundraising, advocacy and awareness events for nonprofits. “Our customers rely on us to run their events seamlessly and help them increase fundraising, so they can focus on accomplishing their mission,” says Jim Grohman, VP of Consulting Services. “ProjectXecute helps us to be more organized and more efficient when managing these events. It provides instant visibility into project labor costs, work completed and remaining work. This solution is really going to help us take our business to the next level.”

Read more about ProjectXecute and Event 360 in the latest Journyx Press Release.

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From time to time we who produce the Journyx Journal like to heap praise on a partner or vendor whose work we really believe in. And today is one of those times. So without further ado, we’d like to introduce you to our friends at TESTCo, purveyors of high-quality, dependable On-Demand Software Testing.

At Journyx, we sometimes find ourselves in need of more software testers than we have. When those times come, we turn to TESTCo. In the four years we’ve been working with them we’ve been able to deliver quality and value to our customers faster than even we thought possible thanks to their able assistance.

John Maddalozzo, our VP of Engineering put it best when he said, “We simply could not afford this level of Software Quality Assurance if we did it all in house. TESTCo’s On-Demand Software Testing gives us trained, experienced and locally managed software testing engineers with as little as 24 hours notice and no more than a 5 day commitment. We can’t get that anywhere else.”

Now, in the face of what we euphemistically refer to as “a sluggish economy,” the good folks at TESTCo are offering Journyx Journal readers a 50% discount on their first week of On-Demand Software Testing services.

So if you find yourself in a situation where you need more software testers than you have, give TESTCo a look. Their On-Demand Software Testing may be just what you need to meet your project goals and deadlines.

To take advantage of this special offer for Journyx Journal readers, drop TESTCo’s CEO and Founder, Jeff Hotz, an line at jeff@testco.com. The pros at TESTCO will get back to you in a flash to get you the help that you need. Oh, and please be sure to let Jeff know that you heard about TESTCo here in the Journyx Journal. Mutual back-scratching makes the world go ’round, after all.

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It’s a tough discipline, especially in a recession, but bill collection can make or break a business – and in some cases, it can bring others down with it. After defaulting on $275 million in loans, Idaho’s Tamarack Resort filed for bankruptcy protection in February and shut its doors March 4, leaving behind $22 million in unpaid bills from suppliers and contractors, many of whom had to lay off employees. And a French auto-parts maker recently sued Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler, claiming the car manufacturer owes $110 million for engineering and research costs.

To successfully collect payments on time, companies need a plan in place that includes more than just the threat of a bill collector calling six times per day. Here are three key steps to get clients to pay up in a down economy… read more

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Journyx wants to hear from you, our loyal Journal readers. We’re curious about the little things, like what you’d want to see in an iPhone version of Timesheet, how (and if) you use LDAP servers, and which pesky regulations (hello Sarbanes-Oxley!) make your life more complicated.

We’ve got 13 of these in an online survey and we’d love for you to answer them. The whole process should take no more than 5 minutes. The survey will only be up for a week, and your responses will help us serve you better in the future. So please take a moment to share your wisdom with us. It’ll be like a Minesweeper break, only it counts as work, so no one can yell at you if they catch you doing it.

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The most obvious issue about social media: Is this a useful way to spend your time, or is it a sinkhole of attractive distraction? It could very easily be one of those one minute, and the other the next! It all depends on why you’re doing it, and this must be evaluated moment to moment. It’s an important distinction to make for yourself, because focus is probably your greatest asset that you can control. You must be judicious about where you place it and what you let grab it, thus reducing your effectiveness.

Bear in mind that the most potentially productive activities (e.g. meetings) can undermine your control and focus if they’re not carefully managed. And some pursuits that are commonly viewed as “time-wasting,” such as random Web surfing or Facebook socializing can be productive, if you use that term in the broadest sense of achieving something you want… read more

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