Gary Vaughan's Collaboration Times

Check Out Opportunities at Buchanan + Edwards

While I continue my role as a Senior IT and Knowledge Management Advisor with eDiplomacy at the State Department, two months ago I started with a new contracting company, Buchanan + Edwards (B+E). 

I am impressed with the firm - B+E is a young, entrepreneurial company, and they are growing rapidly, having recently won two big contracts at the State Department.  B+E also works at other federal agencies such as DOJ and DOD.  For more information about the firm, please check out their website.
 
B+E  is currently recruiting for  positions in various technical, business analysis and project management areas.  Most of these jobs require a security clearance and are located in the Washington D.C. area.  Check out this link for full job listings.
 
If any of my connections is interested in one of these positions, please feel free to contact me for more information and a possible referral.

Since new opportunities are constantly emerging, B+E is always on the lookout for talented professionals. It primarily seeks to hire individuals to fit core capabilities in Business Intelligence, Collaboration Software, Custom Application Development, Mobile Apps/Web Design & Modeling, Creative Solutions, Systems Engineering and Enterprise Resource Planning.  B+E is also interested in people who want to grow careers as consultants and in business support roles. 

FYI, B+E holds quarterly open houses and technology events in the D.C. area which may provide you with a chance to get to know the company and possible opportunities.
 

KM Expo at USAID

Last February 26 I joined other State Department colleagues in staffing the exhibit table for our Program and Project Management Community of Practice (PPMCOP) at USAID's KM Expo in the Ronald Reagan Building.  Another table was hosted by State's Office of eDiplomacy where I work as a contract Senior SharePoint Advisor.  I enjoyed interacting with old colleagues at the USAID Expo, and handing out information on upcoming seminars and best practice resources by the PPMCOP.

I am on the PPMCOP Steering Committee at the Department and presently chair our ongoing mentoring program for State and USAID staff.  My prior role with the group was to coordinate our successful launch of the PPMCOP last January at Main State with a keynote on project management in the federal government by author and expert Jonathan Weinstein, as well as opening remarks by Under-Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy.

"How to Manage Social Media" Presentations

My thanks to Joel Sarfati, Director of 40 Plus of Greater Washington D.C. and Professor Ray Kimball of Montgomery College's TechLeap Program for inviting me to give presentations on "How to Manage Social Media for Busy Professionals" last week.  Both events had great audiences, and I appreciated the vigorous question-and-answer sessions.

Two slide decks share my "system" for organizing various social media tools (LinkedIn, Twitter, TypePad Blog, Govloop and BlogTalkRadio) in pursuit of my professional career development and networking goals in the IT field.  I also discuss and demo the use of Facebook, Skype, YouTube, Delicious bookmarking, and Hootsuite.  I manage all these social media apps through a mix of hotmail alerts (esp. for discussion group postings), cross-site postings, and a Tweetdeck dashboard.  A centerpiece of my approach is to use LinkedIn as my main home page (see my profile), with links to other tools.  LinkedIn is also a repository for key work samples and presentations on Box, an integrated document-sharing application.

The main goal in using these tools is to establish a "living professional presence" on the Web, which is nurtured by occasional BlogTalkRadio interviews with D.C. area SharePoint, open source and other IT experts; narrative blog posts and discussion entries; and more frequent, short Twitter messages.  It is helpful to think of this as a "marketing" exercise in two senses:  first, one is marketing one's skills and capabilities on the web; second, one is tapping market intelligence on new technology trends, career opportunities and resources. 

I assume basically three roles in the personal professional application of social media:  (a) as a publisher of content, whether sharing a resume, presentation, or a narrative blog post; (b) as a reader or consumer of others' content; and (c) as a participant interacting with peers via group discussions, status updates, and tweets.  In my experience, the key to successfully applying this system is tight management of the sites or data streams that one monitors and interacts with.  Ideally, I try to track my Twitter stream and discussion groups daily for about an hour (with a family break on weekends!), plus the option of monitoring this traffic while commuting or otherwise "on the go" via 4G Smart phone.

The presentations contain real examples in applying these tools, explore how to measure social media "traffic", and assess security, privacy and other issues.  Also discussed is the need to build a social media presence on a solid prior foundation of traditional personal networking, clear job goals, and a detailed resume.  Another concept that may be useful in shaping both your personal and online presence is that of "branding."  In closing, the slide decks list a number of articles, how-to examples, books and other resources to help expand your use of social media for professional development, plus a few tips on how to get started.

I have enjoyed populating and experimenting with this social media system over the past year, and hope that these presentation decks will be of general interest, not only to IT specialists, but to any professionals who hope to harness social media for career development:

• 40 Plus Presentation (longer, and with more narrative detail)
• TechLeap Presentation (shorter, with more focus on tool demos)

  Please address any comments or questions to me either via LinkedIn messages, or via Twitter @glvaughan.

Knowledge Work as "Beyond Management"

Is traditional management dead?  Is measurement a “hangover from the industrial era”?  Does knowledge work require a more flexible and “touchy feely” paradigm for organizational effectiveness? 

These are some of the questions that Dr. Mark Addleson, Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University posed in his opening presentation at the Knowledge Management Institute’s KM Café in Arlington, Virginia last February 16 (it has taken me that long to post this fascinating talk!).  These are also some of the themes he will be exploring in a forthcoming book.

Definitions and Context: 

Dr. Addleson contrasted factory work (repetitive, mindless…based on the old Frederick Taylor “scientific” management models) with knowledge work which resists strict organization.  In essence, knowledge work and management “don’t mix” – hence, knowledge workers need to organize themselves.  In the early 1990s, KM tended to focus on harnessing tacit knowledge, and early champions such as Peter Drucker viewed KM as a management approach.  Such a management focus is characterized by the “5 D’s:  data, deadlines, deliverables, dollars and directives.”  Yet this KM view is too confining since “knowledge work can’t be managed…it is not compatible with structures, rules, systems.”  Today’s KM approaches tend to be “little K and big M”, with too much of a focus on outcomes and deliverables (as in international development), and a consequent  tendency to be dysfunctional.

In Addleson’s view, we need to focus not on the “doughnut” of typical management elements, but on the “hole” of people, relationships and insight…i.e. how KM work gets done in practice.  While traditional management is a “view from the top”, the key KM question is not “what” but “where” is knowledge work done.  It is  “what people do when they interact, talk to one another, and share knowledge to accomplish something together.”  It involves “give and take…and people making meaning together…and making sense of uncertain situations.”

From this more dynamic perspective,  work is “creative, emergent, messy” and it depends on “attitudes, emotions, feeling, values, beliefs and relationships’ (hence its  touchy-feely character!).  Knowledge worker skills consist of varied “stakeholders “ negotiating, meaning, and organizing to determine roles, responsibilities, places, dates, etc.  One good example of this KM approach is the flexible  Agile Software Development Manifesto.  Another example is how Wikipedia (or Facebook) came into being and has thrived.

Questions and Issues?

While a provocative and fresh look at whither KM, especially in the midst of the rapidly evolving social media scene, I was intrigued by the following questions… (some of which were discussed with attendees at the KMI KM Café):

 

1. Given Dr. Addleson’s KM prescription, is traditional project management dead?  Belying my own PMP background, I think not.  Rather the new fluid tools and workspaces often seem to cry out at some point for more formal structure, deliverables, and accountability – all of which sound to me like more traditional management concepts.
2. Is SharePoint by nature a more conservative enterprise management tool (Big M in the above context) vs. other more agile open source and other light-weight collaboration and content management apps (e.g. Google Apps, Wikipedia)?  My own sense is that enterprises should think about tapping both formal and informal info-sharing tools and structures.  SharePoint 2010, in fact, builds in a lot more social media into its new enterprise application.

And some other questions which I am still pondering…

1. How does one set the new boundaries between managers and knowledge workers, and between formal and informal information systems?
2. What social media and other technologies might best support evolution to this more flexible knowledge worker model?
3. Given the rigidities of our current organizations, what are some practical next steps in better supporting knowledge work?

PM and the PMP Exam

 

Listen to internet radio with Gary Vaughan on Blog Talk Radio

My thanks to PMP Brandon Pustejovsky for being a guest on the Show, recorded on this BlogTalkRadio link!

Book references during the Show:

• Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) by the Project Management Institute
• PMP Exam Prep by Rita Mulcahey

Tune in either live or for a recording of my next show on SharePoint 2010 with guests from SusQTech at 8:00 A.M. EST on February 4 - see for program details and link to listen in. 

Web Radio Show on Project Management 1/20

This Wednesday, January 20 at 8:00 A.M. EST I will be hosting another BlogTalkRadio  show, this time on Project Management.  My guest will be Brandon Pustejovsky, PMP, and a project manager with USAID in Washington D.C.  Brandon also participates as a trainer with PMI/Baltimore Chapter Chapter's excellent PMP Exam Training course. 

We will spend the half hour discussing how the Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project management, the relevance of its structured methodology for the real world, and tips and tricks for passing the Project Management Professional (PMP) Exam.

Anyone is welcome to listen in to the show at this program link, or by dialing (347) 857-2878.  I will also be experimenting with the chat feature for any who would like to pose any questions during the show.  Anyone wishing to listen to the show later may hit the "play" button on the program link.

 I would appreciate any feedback on the show either by commenting on this blog, or by emailing me at [email protected].

 

 

Passing the PMP Exam

I finally got around to taking the PMP Exam the week before Thanksgiving, and passed!  My prepping for the exam took up most of my free time between September - November, and also resulted in a hiatus in this blog!

My lessons learned in studying for and then passing the test were as follows:

- a PMP exam prep course was an enormous help.  I found the instruction, peer support and exam-taking tips from my PMP Baltimore Chapter course last fall to be excellent  FYI, here is the link to the Chapter's next PMP course in January;

- Rita Mulcahey's text, PMP Exam Prep, is the best readable book on the market, and is a good accompaniment to the more encycolopedic PMBOk.

- Overstudy rather than under study.  In addition to the six Saturday's of PMP course and related study, I spent an equal or greater amount of time studying on my own and with a study group up until the exam.  This enabled me to go into the exam with confidence.

- Take some practical preparatory steps such as checking out the PROMETRIC test center location ahead of time.  

I am glad I made the investment in the PMP Certification.  I learned a lot about the PMBOK methodology (especially in such areas as risk management), plus it validated in my mind a lot of my prior project management experience.  I look forward to maintaining my Certification by continuing to attend PMI events in the D.C. area.

 

Carl Pritchard on Risk Management

Last Wednesday I attended a worthwhile "PM in the AM Breakfast" sponsored by the Project Management Institute at the National Press Club in Washington D.C.

At this event Carl Pritchard spoke on risk management in his engaging and humorous style.  Early in his talk, Carl noted the need for clearly and consistently identifying risk at the enterprise, rather than advertising some vague fear that may or may not be realized.  He illustrated this point with the deer warning signs on the GW Parkway - over many years Carl has yet to encounter a deer!
 
His specific recommendations in adopting meaningful risk management included:
 
-  the value of a risk "brand" or culture at our organizations; this provides security and helps people "know where they are" as well as management's expectations (e.g. he used the analogy of our comfort in the consistent layout of Walmart stores);
 
-  the need to use risk management terms and language consistently so that all in the organization know what we mean;
 
-  a hallmark of this "brand" is for all employees to know in advance when management "will freak out," and at what "threshhold of pain;"
 
-  it pays to be "anal retentive" and strict in maintaining this brand (his example of employees at a ConEdison plant collectively moaning "oh, no...!" as Carl tried to stand on a chair at to fix a light bulb...this in clear contravention of the company's safety policy!).
 
-  good risk management implies consequences for unsuccessful projects:  best to "kill them while they are young"; he gave the example of former Bell Atlantic's notation at the bottom of their project charter form with "kill criteria" for early termination of projects.
 
For further information on these points, please see Carl's website at www.carlpritchard.com, which also includes a good summary slide presentation on "Motivating in a Risk Aware Environment."
 

Adventures in Project Management: Cairo

Last week I attended an interesting presentation by ARINC's Steve Andrews at PMI/Baltimore's Frederick MD meeting.  Steve shared his challenging experience in managing a $25 million IT systems installation project for Terminal 3 at Cairo Airport. 

It was fascinating to compare Steve's experiences as a project manager in Cairo from 2007-2009 with my own tour as a Foreign Service Officer with USAID in the late 1990s. On hearing of his upcoming assignment, a colleague in the Middle East had told Steve that he was not in for a job "but for a lifestyle"...an assessment with which I would agree!
 
During implementation, ARINC had to depend on another foreign firm to construct the Terminal buildings.  ARINC's role was to design, test and install all the flight information systems, information kiosks, biometrics devices and other IT equipment and networks.  ARINC also got involved in training some 560 local staff in the new IT systems at the Terminal.  The numbers on the project are indeed impressive:  11 million passengers per year, 7,000 different data points in the IT network, and 110 check-in counters. 

Despite all the challenges, the project was ultimately quite successful and opened in September 2009.  ARINC continues to be involved in a follow-up maintenance contract for the Terminal.  Here is a link to a well done public YouTube video, the first portion highlighting the Terminal 3 facility in Cairo.
 
Steve noted the frustrations in getting the project completed:  the construction and other delays (his six month assignment in Cairo turned into two years!), adapting to local work processes, and his hassles with the bureaucracy.  Overall, he found the Egyptians to be very friendly, got excellent support from a Cairo IT contractor, and seemed to value his experience with the country, its archeology...and even surviving Cairo traffic!.  His keys to eventual successful project management in this challenging environment seemed to be forging good personal relationships, persistence and directness in tackling project problems...plus just coping with the sheer volume of work.

He ended his presentation with the staggering number of air miles, emails and other measures of his intense two year adventure.  This was hardly a textbook PMBOK implementation!
 
I hope that future PMI events in the Washington D.C. area might offer other PM presentations on project management experiences overseas.  The cultural and logistical complexities of these projects provide a whole new perspective!

BP Project Management Lessons - Part I

I recently ran across an excellent article by editor Normal Fells in the July issue of PM World Today on project management lessons from the BP oil spill.  Entitled Deepwater Horizon:  Lessons from the Recent BP Project Failure and Environmental Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – Part I, the piece, as the title implies, is still a preliminary assessment.  Fells organizes his analysis (both pre- and post-disaster) around PM Lessons for Industry, Lessons for Government Agencies, and broader social-economic, environmental and national implications. 

Another brief blog discussion, Did BP See All of its Problems in Time?, summarizes some of the key engineering and other technical failures involved in the disaster.  Finally, in a Harvard Business Review online article, Gil Corkindale distills Five Leadership Lessons from the BP Oil Spill.  

In future postings, I plan to further sort through the lessons learned from both project  and knowledge management perspectives.  The oil spill also provides many object lessons on public vs. private sector project management, and how the two worlds can converge and collide.