GlobalProjectManagement.org forum

Project Management Techniques

shilohgirl — Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:46 am

Author: shilohgirl

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 10:46 am

Thank you pmhut for your help. The Articles were excellent.

regards
shilohgirl

Reseach on Intercultural Project Management / 異&a

pmhut — Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:25 am

Author: pmhut

Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:25 am

Hi jstorm,

Here's a series of articles on PM Hut about Managing Mutli-Cultural Projects. Maybe it's not 100% what you want, but does explain the cultural differences and expectations when working on projects. The series has 10 articles in total, and is quite interesting.

WHat types of PMO do you have in your company?

pmhut — Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:13 pm

Author: pmhut

Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:13 pm

Hi JBinder,

Here's a good article about PMO Reporting. It explains the whole reporting hierarchy in a Project Management Office.

I have a problem about cross-culture effect on globa project

pmhut — Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:46 pm

Author: pmhut

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 4:46 pm

Hi,

I think I have answer to your question, check this series of articles: Manging Multi-Cultural Projects (10 articles in total).

(An inquiry)What characters are needed in global team?

jbinder — Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:31 pm

Author: jbinder

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:31 pm

Apollo,

This is another interesting research on global project management, here you can find some opinions, I hope this will help you. The excerpts below are taken from the Global Project Management book (Binder, 2007):

Quote:

Leader:
1, will an aggressive leader take a more important role in the global project than those less aggressive one?

I don't believe that aggressiveness can help. Perhaps being bold is needed some times in some projects, and with a few people, but in global projects this can often harm the trust on the project manager. I believe that some attributes of a Global Leader are (Binder, 2007, p.142):

� Understanding of the cultural differences and ability to build on them to improve the teamwork, creativity and innovation levels (chapter 1);
� Proven leadership when working with virtual team members (chapter 2);
� Trustworthiness (chapter 3)
� Openness to understand and manage conflicts involving different cultures (chapter 4);
� Coaching and mentoring of remote team members (chapter 5);
� Excellent communication skills and techniques (chapters 6 to 10);
� Experience in coordinating meetings using audio, video and web conferencing (chapters 21 to 23);
� Familiarity with knowledge sharing and PMS tools (chapters 24 to 25);

Quote:

2, will the overseas working experience of team leader be vital to the global team?

I agree that international experience helps most people to develop cross-cultural skills, fundamental in global projects.

Quote:

Team member:
1, will younger team members more suitable for the global team？

I believe this is a very interesting assumption. Younger team members can be more proficient in collaborative tools, when they have grown using virtual environments, internet and chat rooms to communicate with friends around the globe. Can they also be stronger in other aspects, such as (Binder, 2007, pp.140-141):

� Global thinking � consider different cultural or geographic standpoints when identifying risks, preparing quality assessments or when designing the deliverables.
� Culture awareness
� Self-discipline
� High personal confidence
� Tolerance for ambiguity
� Self-motivation �
� Self-efficacy
� Good organization
� Concentration
� Reduced social interaction
� Openness and flexibility

Quote:

Structure of the team:
Will the global teams with a smaller proportion of foreign experts overweight those with bigger proportion in global project?

Having less foreign experts can reduce the communication issues and cross-cultural conflicts, however it might as well reduce your overall level of expertise and creativity, often present in multi-cultural teams. I prefer to think that you can apply different forms of project structure to increase the success rate of your global projects, depending on the geographical availability of your team members. Chapter 11 of the book is dedicated to this topic, and the main types of structure I identified are (Binder, 2007, pp.131-138):

- Centralized project management (Traditional form)
- Distributed project management, with local coordinators
- Distributed project management, with functional coordinators
- Round-the-clock project management
- Project management global network

Quote:

Team circumstance outside:
1, will the location of the team play a part in the performance of the global team?

See answer above.

Quote:

2, to what extent will the local institution influence the global project?

Please clarify what you mean by local institution.

Good luck and please share your conclusions with us,

Jean

Role of the organization in the development of global PMs

jbinder — Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:02 pm

Author: jbinder

Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:02 pm

Alexandra,

I am very interested in your research, and will contact you to participate. Please share your conclusions with us in the forum or website.

thanks,

Jean

Supplier/vendor management problem

saydujjaman — Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:52 am

Author: saydujjaman

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 4:52 am

Thank you mike for your reply.

1. There was no clause for any penalty but newly we include.
2. There is time line for every service, support and delivery with break down depending on the priority level in the contract.
3. We can not change supplier immediately because we are running a billing system which is core application that we will take time if we decide to change and involve huge cost.

Since we are not able to change supplier now, they made us captive to do what they want. Can you please tell any points that will help me to catch this supplier to deliver the things in time.

FYI:
To make you more clear, our company is multinational company , its head quarter is in some other country and every purchase and contract being govern from the HQ. we have very little access to selecting vendor, only the requirement and specification we provide, they do the selection. But we suffer from the vendor and make our project delayed.

Issues delivering PM Software to a global team

mrt — Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:57 pm

Author: mrt

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:57 pm

Jean,

Thank you for your response, here is some information regarding your questions.

jbinder wrote:

1) Sharing of computer screens for meetings and web seminars?

Within the CAM Console there is a Collaboration module that allows for instant messaging or online meetings with other team members that are using the CAM Console.

jbinder wrote:

2) Sharing of a project plan or mindmaps over a distance? Asynchronous and/or synchronous?

Within the CAM Console there is a File Manager to allow for sharing of information/documents to team members. Also since LoadSpring is hosting the Project Management Application that company ABC has chosen all team members are accessing the same database for up to the second information.

jbinder wrote:

3) Sharing of consolidated project logs (Risks, issues, changes, ...) such as the Global Project Binder?

If I understand your question correctly, the standards would be imposed by the lead company that is managing the Project Management Application (i.e. Primavera or MS Project). Since our system is outside of the Lead Company it allows for access from a number of clients, contractors or other firms without the issue of support or security.

Please let me know if this answers your questions or if it makes you think of others please let me know.

Thank you,
Mike

The topic about "what kind of team is more suitable for

jbinder — Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:07 pm

Author: jbinder

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:07 pm

Hi Apollo,

I believe this topic is excellent, I haven't came across a similar study yet. Please consider taking a look into the following sources (the online links are rather old, I hope you manage to find all of them):

Rolfes, M. () 'Virtual Project Management' in Term paper [online] Available from www.umsl.edu [10 August 2004] PAGE 4

Sennara, M., Hartman, F. (2002) 'Managing Cultural Risks on International Projects' in Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, October 3�10, 2002 (San Antonio, Texas, USA) [online] Available from http://www.risksig.com/members/2002_papers/global07.pdf [07 December 2004] PAGE 4

Shenhar, A.J., Wideman, R.M. (2000) 'Optimizing Project Success by Matching PM Style with Project Type' in [online] Available from http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/PM_Style&Scss.pdf [07 December 2004] PAGE 10

Dr. Al Zeitoun (2004) 'Global Project Management' in [online] Available from http://www.allpm.com/article.php?sid=1190 [10 January 2005] PAGE 2

Dr. Alaa A. Zeitoun (1998) 'Managing Projects across Multi-National Cultures, A Unique Experience' in [online] Available from http://www.westmichpmi.org/NL1198.pdf [13 February 2005] PAGE 3

Huber, R. et al (2003) 'Virtual Team Group Composition Using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator' in [online] Available from http://www.hicbusiness.org/BIZ2003Proceedings/Shohreh%20Hashemi.pdf [28 May 2005] ALL

Brown, A.S. (2002) 'Project Management Personality & Skill Types' in [online] Available from http://www.alexsbrown.com/pmpersskilltypes.pdf [28 May 2005] ALL

Solomon, C.M. (1995) 'Global Teams: The Ultimate Collaboration' in Personnel Journal, September 1995, Vol. 74, No. 9, pp. 49-58 [online] Available from http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/19/38/index_printer.php [30 May 2005] PAGE 3

Majchrzak, A., Malhotra (2003) 'Deploying Far-Flung Teams: A Guidebook for Managers' in [online] Available from http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~majchrza/Far%20Flung%20Team%20Guidebook%20May%202003.pdf [02 June 2005] PAGE 33

Boddy, D., Macbeth, D. (2000) 'Prescriptions for managing change: a survey of their effects in projects to implement collaborative working between organisations' in International Journal of Project Management 18 (2000) 297�306 [online] Available from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V9V-408KDCH-1-1&_cdi=5908&_user=4537856&_orig=search&_coverDate=10%2F01%2F2000&_sk=999819994&view=c&wchp=dGLbVtz-zSkWz&md5=fe49f46b3bfa6c42356fecbfe9d5f900&ie=/sdarticle.pdf [05 March 2006] PAGE 299

Good luck and keep us posted on your progress !!

Do you think risk management will be a good way to....

Apollo — Fri May 30, 2008 4:05 am

Author: Apollo

Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 4:05 am

wcurlee

thank you for your kind help.
I have a great interest in the area of virtual projects and i 'd love to discuss with you about this. my email is "ys_woss@hotmail.com"
If you have time we could disscuss on this:)

Friday ban on e-mails: would it work for you?

Apollo — Mon May 12, 2008 12:05 pm

Author: Apollo

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 12:05 pm

I have worked in Accenture (China), and what I have experienced in Accenture was just the same as the problem you have just talked about.

Always, people use email to contact with their colleagues working in the same office. Even though it save the time and cost, there is a,apparently, negative effect on the communication level, sometime even the company culture.

However, I still don't reckon that "a ban on e-mails on selective day" is a good idea.

It is true that email is not the only tool for office worker to contact each other, but its usage as the most effective file-carrier in office is absolutely unquestionable. Especially when the files needed to be transferred are too big for the other tool, FAX for example.

In my opinion, the most effective way to �"teach" people on how to collaborate using more traditional media is building an atmosphere where people among it all would like to communicate to each other directly without email.

In order to make it clear, I will suggest two methods. I really hope it will be useful for you.

Firstly, incent the staff to �stand up and walk�
The corporation should build the mechanism to incent the clerk to stand up, take a move and talk to the one they should contact. For example, the company could set an award named �the best walker� which will be selected at every weekend by all the staff. Every person will choose one most vigorous clerk in their floor respectively, and the one who scores most will be rewarded by the HR and even could post her/his photo on the company�s wall. Likewise, if needed, the company could make another award named �The Potato � for those is the least vigorous in company.

Secondly, we should tell all the staff the disadvantage of sitting too long and let them know how terrible it will be if they don�t pay attention to the way they live in the office, sitting in their own seat all day and sending email to their colleague next to him without even saying a word and move any pace.

Best Practice for Planning

jbinder — Sat May 03, 2008 8:03 pm

Author: jbinder

Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 8:03 pm

It depends on the methodology you use (see one example in the article from Kevin Archbold), but you must start planning as soon as you identified the project scope and prepared your WBS.

The duration of this activity depends on your project size. Drawing a project plan for small projects can take a couple of hours, while in large projects it can take more than a month until you have your project plan with enough details to move to the project execution.

I believe that the basic question to ask is not how long it takes to prepare your project plan, but work with your project team to define the plan on a detail level that you (as a project manager) is comfortable with managing, and your project team members are comfortable to work with and report the tasks to you. A rule of thumb is that each task in your plan should take between 8 and 80 hours of work.

I hope this answers your question?

What�s your global readiness quotient?

jbinder — Thu May 01, 2008 7:58 pm

Author: jbinder

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 7:58 pm

Global project success is dependent upon your internal infrastructure and the ability to coordinate a centralized strategy with local execution. This is determined by the ability to build a framework and process where you can leverage internal team knowledge, manage project flow, and effectively deliver on time and on budget in every part of the world. Not a small task!

Are you ready to go global and local? Whether you�re developing or re-evaluating new initiatives, determine your global readiness through three simple questions:
1) Does the plan and process address global and local needs?
2) Are teams aligned across functions and regions?
3) Is the field ready to deliver, market, and sell in every international location?

What�s your global readiness quotient? Take a test drive and see if you�re ready for the challenge. In the next weeks, join us in our worldwide project management tour where you�ll learn about the five top cultural pitfalls and lessons learned.

What�s your global readiness challenge?

Interview with Dennis Bolles: your feedback

jbinder — Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:01 pm

Author: jbinder

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:01 pm

In the interview published on the occasion of the 2000th membership in our LinkedIn group, Dennis Bolles talks about his experience as a global project manager, and how global projects can benefit from clear processes and methods.

What is your opinion? Do you relate to Dennis' experience and feelings?

Do you have a similar situation, which you handled in a different way?

Click here to read the full interview

Click here if you would accept to participate on a similar interview for future articles

Looking for volunteering PM expertise in India

anujit — Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:30 pm

Author: anujit

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:30 pm

Hello

I am looking for possibilities in helping drive Project starts with my own PM expertise in India.

I travel to India frequently, and would welcome the opportunity to help organizations/groups/start-ups especially in the non-profit sector who may not have resources to hire a PM to get their projects started.

Thanks, Anujit

GlobalProjectManagement.org forum

Project Management Techniques

Reseach on Intercultural Project Management / &#30064;&a

WHat types of PMO do you have in your company?

I have a problem about cross-culture effect on globa project

(An inquiry)What characters are needed in global team?

Role of the organization in the development of global PMs

Supplier/vendor management problem

Issues delivering PM Software to a global team

The topic about "what kind of team is more suitable for

Do you think risk management will be a good way to....

Friday ban on e-mails: would it work for you?

Best Practice for Planning

What�s your global readiness quotient?

Interview with Dennis Bolles: your feedback

Looking for volunteering PM expertise in India

Reseach on Intercultural Project Management / 異&a