Josh - 2/4 - UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley

A business student recently interviewed me via email. She is interested in project management and this was part of an assignment to reach out to people via Twitter to interview about what they do and the state of their industry/role. (My kudos to the professor for encouraging students to use new media to interact with people who are already in the field!)

I asked her permission to share the interview with you, I hope you find it helpful. Leave comments on what you agree and do not agree with!

I received a great question from a subscriber to my PMP Guide newsletter about methodologies and frameworks.

He cited a bountiful list with a question of whether he needs to know all of these in and out:

I and the rest of the PMI New Media council had the opportunity to interview the editors of “Project Management Circa 2025;” David I. Cleland, PhD, PMI Fellow, and Bopaya Bidanda, PhD. This is a collaborative effort by 41 authors to predict the state of various parts of the project management discipline and how it will be implemented 15 years in the future.

I had a great time in Orlando recently for the 2009 PMI North America Global Congress. The PMI New Media Council did a presentation titled “Why Should You Care About Social Media?”. Bas De Baar (ProjectShrink), Cornelius Fitchner (PMPodcast), and I (pmStudent) collaborated for our segment of the presentation, focused on demonstrating the use of [...]

Trying to get your foot in the door in project management? Projectize your resume. A project manager resume is similar to other resumes, except for one key difference I can recommend. This is one key thing I changed when I began trying to get specifically into the project management field, and did not have enough [...]

Is anyone up in arms yet? Good. From a Reader Anne from the US is a recent subscriber to the Project Management Career Newsletter. She hit reply to one of my messages to pose a question and get my take.  Thank you Anne, for permitting me to share some of our exchange to benefit others! [...]

I love it when people contact me to ask a question. It helps me to know that real people are out there somewhere behind the screen of my laptop. I can’t believe you all fit in there. Technology is amazing. How do you break into project management when you have been running your own business [...]

I am passionate about project management in general, and helping people new to the field more specifically. But let’s be honest. We’re all nuts. Not Everyone is Crazy Enough to be a Project Manager There is a specific form of gluttony for punishment that comes with the territory (some consider it a clinical condition). The [...]

The dangers of multi tasking to project teams has never been more so. Now we have additional online services and mobile devices to deal with. What I wrote about back in January 2007 about Multi-tasking, Covey, and TOC is even more applicable now. Your project schedule should drive priorities, not a false sense of urgency [...]

As can be expected, much of the feedback pointed towards a cutback in new investment and thus projects.  Another significant portion of the comments discussed another inevitable trend in hard times…increased scrutiny of current projects and focus on the dollars. Cutbacks North America – Although layoffs have occurred in the Canadian oil patch in recent [...]

Today I would like to cover two categories in the survey that are nearly opposite.  The first is Reduced Quality. The second is what I classified as an Increased Demand for Good Project Management. Fire Most of these actions appear to me to be short-sighted ones that solve a current financial problem at the expense [...]

Moving up through the categories, I’ll discuss three now: Project Manager Layoffs Project Staff Reductions Reduced PM rates. Reading through the responses, may of them were not surprising. One thing I noted in a few posts was that some companies are shedding senior PMs and opting for less experienced ones. Of course I have no [...]

Status Quo Ah, it is nice to hear that some people are not feeling any impacts due to economic recession. 8% of the respondents noted that they have not seen any impacts. Half of those were from the North America, other responses came from Australia, India, and Africa. I noticed 2 similarities from what I [...]

I recently conducted a survey on pmStudent.com asking for anecdotal stories about how the economy is currently impacting project management. This week I would like to share the results with you. The survey was 100% anonymous, and I even removed any identifying information that a few responders put into the answer. Note that this survey [...]

I passed the PMP Exam recently, and wanted to share my experience in general.  For those opposed to the PMP exam, please read before commenting, you may be surprised at my take on it. In general: Many questions involved picking the best of several correct answers The technique of eliminating 2 answers first didn’t work [...]

I get many questions from people who want to enter into project management as a profession. After all, my blog is pmStudent. One of the most common questions is “how do I get started”? I received an email from a reader recently with this question, and so I would like to share some thoughts with [...]

By Hal Macomber, Project Reformer 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.

By Jerry Manas How many times have we seen PMOs create intricate processes and templates, only to find that there are more exceptions than rules? We create forms, templates, and stage gates, in an attempt to gain control. But in doing so, we also create such barriers to implementation that it becomes like the Twelve [...]

By Thomas Cutting, PMP You leave for your flight well ahead of schedule.  Traffic is light and you arrive, unhurried, at the airport.  Strolling up to the counter you secretly laugh at the frantic people running toward the crowded ticket line or scanning the flickering departure screens in panic.  Being the saint that you are, [...]

As a project manager, you must understand these four budget items. If you do not recognize and understand them it is possible (even likely) that you will not properly understand your budget status and you may make wrong decisions based on these misunderstanding.

By Josh Nankivel Fellow blogger Craig Brown over at Better Projects asked “Why reverse engineer requirements?” in a recent post.Interesting question: Craig asked what value there is in trying to derive requirements based on an existing system. There are two points that came to mind on this.