The Hybrid Option

Advertisement [The Top 7 Reports for IT PMOs]( Download the [Top 7 Reports for IT PMOs]( to drive actionable decisions quickly and prove your PMO’s value decisively to your CIO. Learn to slash costs and time, improve report accuracy, and deliver value beyond on-time and on-budget. [Contact Us](mailto:contactus@projectmanagement.com) [About Us]( [Update Profile]( September 5, 2018 As our month-long theme switches to hybrid PM, we stress focusing on function...and wonder if this is agile all over again. Plus, tailoring your talent management strategy, dealing with reluctant team members and life as an unanchored PM, continued! The Knowledge Shelf crashes projects using the critical path method, while our Topic Teasers ask if you're ready for PESTLE. Our blogs look at women in leadership, Spider-Man and a champion of change effort that can win you prizes, while readers ask for advice on our hybrid future and your PM logs in our forums! Advertisement [What type of PMO are you? (Find out. It matters.)]( In this age of accelerated digital transformation, the type of PMO you are matters. Failure to keep up can put your PMO on the fast track to obsolescence. [Take this 2-minute quiz]( to identify your PMO type (supportive, adaptive, directive, or hybrid), and receive additional info for PMO success. "First feelings are always the most natural." - Louis XIV of France []PM HEADLINES [Hybrid PM: The Organic Option]( It's important to have a common language in project management. The rub comes when we get so preoccupied with labeling that our focus gets misdirected—we begin to concentrate on form rather than function. [Hybrid Is Not the New Agile!]( Project management sure loves its trends. Recently, hybrid has become the hot new fad promising to change everything. Seems like we’ve heard that before… [Changing Demands for Talent Education]( An increased emphasis on talent management and the demand for adequate staff must be aligned with and integrated into the organization’s business and operations strategy and model. Are you prepared to craft a tailored talent management strategy? [The Unanchored Project Manager Vol. 4: Monitoring and Controlling Life as an Unanchored PM]( In the latest installment, our nomad explores how to extend the lifestyle for longer than just a short-term holiday by reviewing the monitoring and controlling process—with lessons that may prove valuable to everyone even if they aren’t unanchored. [The Reluctant Team Member]( Not everyone welcomes the opportunity to work on a project, but a project manager can’t afford to carry a disruptive influence. How do you turn reluctance into engagement? "You can't fake listening. It shows." - Raquel Welch SPONSORED ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SPECIAL OFFERS Earn a Penn State Project Management degree online Learn the skills needed to manage complex projects - corporate/business strategy; cost control/planning/resource management; team management; commercial/procurement law; and organization theory. Penn State online graduate programs in project management. [Take the next step...]( [Exposure Draft - Practice Standard for Scheduling – Third Edition]( This practice standard is open for Public Exposure Draft (PED) review. This is an opportunity for you to see a draft of a PMI standard and make recommendations that may improve the document. Help shape the standard today! []KNOWLEDGE SHELF [Project Crashing Using Critical Path Method]( Project crashing is the name given to schedule compression techniques that are used to shorten the duration of a project without changing the scope. Two techniques, fast tracking and crashing, with cost and schedule trade-offs, are analyzed to determine how to obtain the best result. The mission of [Knowledge Shelf]( is to help project professionals advance our practice by sharing their experiences and viewpoints. It is comprised of practitioners from a wide range of fields, covering both popular and niche topics. From lessons learned and case studies to opinion pieces and articles, this platform gives a voice to peers new to our online community, and allows for longer form contributions. For more information on how to submit your own article, please see our [Editorial Guidelines](. []TOPIC TEASERS Welcome to Topic Teasers, which tests your managerial prowess! In Vol. 111, we ask if you're [Ready for PESTLE?](: Question: It’s time to expand the business outside of the area, perhaps even internationally. Although we try to use a good risk assessment process, there always seem to be things that we don’t consider. As a result, the last two times we tried projects to grow our territory, we met with some unwelcome surprises that stopped our success. Is there a comprehensive list of factors, outside of the business itself, that we need to evaluate before we proceed? A. Successful business expansion is based on luck. No one in an organization, and certainly not the project manager, should be asked to try to anticipate everything that could possibly go wrong and make sure it will not happen. Focus on meeting the technical and functional goals provided to you and don’t put yourself in line to be blamed if something goes wrong. B. Considering risk threats and opportunities is part of your usual job. However, when you begin to consider growing to a size and outreach far beyond what you now do, you must have an organized way to look at environmental, legal, political and other facets of the landscape before moving into new markets. C. If you use an agile approach for your expansion plan, you will be able to more easily adjust when you encounter unexpected risk factors you had not considered earlier. All agile projects are successful, and the team interaction will help you support this change. D. For growing the business into new markets, the key is to find stakeholders from that area as partners. It’s better to sell off a portion of the business so you have locals who understand the new area (and may have political pull) than it is to risk coming in as an outsider and lose the investment spent for the new outreach. Check the answer [here](, and [send in your own question for consideration]( []THE PM POLL Is there a question you've been itching to ask? [Create a poll]( today to get some PM help from your peers! [Q: In which phase of the software development cycle have you presented risk materialization?]( - Planning - Analysis - Design - Implementation - Testing - Maintenance - Other - None TRAINING SPOTLIGHT We are the Project Management Success Center. 'PMP® Certification' is only the beginning - partner with us on large 'IT Project Implementations' by joining the group of passionate 'PMP® Professionals' on a Mission to Deliver Value to our Clients. [Learn More]( [Search for your solution on our Training Finder]( []BLOG IT Women in PM Leadership by Cecilia Boggi The goal with relaunching this blog is to share findings and uncertainties with the global project management community in order to generate a space for dialogue and learning. Cecilia shares some interesting facts and musings in her [latest entry](. Easy in Theory, Difficult in Practice by Kiron Bondale Many of the leaders Kiron has worked with focus on schedule metrics: reducing time to market, lead time, time between releases and so on. But [Are We Marketing the Right Metrics?]( His latest entry has more. Game Theory in Management by Michael Hatfield When discussing hybrid project management systems, it’s important that we be extra careful about what two PM approaches we’re combining into one. Consider two movies portraying human hybrids, [Spider-Man (2002) and The Fly (1986)](... People, Planet, Profits & Projects by Richard Maltzman Some governments are mandating that buildings are “net-zero energy.” And the number of projects seeking net-zero status (in the U.S. and Canada) increased nearly 50% between 2016 and 2017. Rich draws upon our very own PM Network in [Zeroing In on Better PM](. PM View from Rail Transit Programs & Projects by Henry Hattenrath [Do You Know the Entire Contract?]( While there are many standard form contracts, each typically covers the same requirements available from the Construction Specification Institute, American Institute of Architects and Design Build Institute of America. The Critical Path by Marjorie Anderson & Kristin Jones In our latest entries, we share how [Our User Guidelines Have Been Updated](, take a look at the [PMI Organizational Agility Conference Agenda & Speakers]( and ask you to [tell us how you are driving change]( and impacting the world around you (you could win prizes!). []Q & A Did you know that help is just a click away? Our discussion forums give you access to the ProjectManagement.com community: more than 500,000 experienced minds and growing! Ask your question today or stop by to help out other members in need of advice, including these recent and ongoing discussions on... [Our Hybrid Future?]( "Why is there a need for hybrid project management? Is it due to the limitations of agile and waterfall? Is hybrid PM going to be the future?" [PM Log]( "Do you keep a log of all projects you have managed throughout your career? What type of information do you include? Please share your insights." [Body Language]( "When we think about communication, most of us think about spoken (verbal) or written communication. I wonder how important nonverbal communication is for you." [PM Learning Methods]( "What are the most effective learning methods to improve knowledge, skills and practices related to project management?" [Public Policy and Project Management]( "Are you aware of any acts or government policies that empower and encourage project/program management expertise? What would you consider a simple way to influence public/government recognition of the importance of professional project management skills and knowledge in executing its projects?" "Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it and then move on." - Bob Newhart []PM ON DEMAND Did you know that we have an extensive library of PDU-earning webinars? Here's just one of the latest valuable offerings you can check out... [Using Lean Six Sigma to Improve Agile: Lessons Learned in a Start-up]( This presentation is based on a real case study, using Lean Six Sigma's Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) process to make the Scrum process more efficient in a software start-up. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome. How can we make your experience better? Is there something you haven't been able to find? Something you want to see that we don't have yet? [Let us know](mailto:cameron@projectmanagement.com). We'll handle it. If you do not wish to receive ProjectManagement.com's PM Insider Newsletter, you can [unsubscribe here]( or send an email to unsubscribe-pminsider@reply.projectmanagement.com and let us know. 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