This Project Life Moovila

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Arif Ansari, Director of Portfolio and Project Management at VentureWell, discussing how people think about project management, how to optimize the contributions of remote workers, and how to get requirements from people who don’t know what they want. They cover best practices for building a PMO and where project management is headed in 10 years. Listen in for a perspective on being impactful as you solve pain points.

Key Takeaways:
Arif describes differences in project management in the fields where he has worked. The issues were: regulatory, process, growth, speed, and cost, depending on the stage of the company. Everyone wants urgent action without concern about doing things in the right way. Nobody gets documentation right! There must be intentional equality of access. Meetings should be optional with video optional. Record meetings. Arif uses design thinking to get the best experience for all users. Leadership wants results. Because most people have inaccurate ideas about project management, Arif asks them about their pain points, not about projects. He looks for ways to quickly solve problems for people and then checks on how the solution works for them. He is building VentureWell's PMO strategically. Arif’s tips for building a PMO: Have a sense of resilience. Tell compelling stories in layman’s language about the impact you will make. Separate strategy from tactics. Apply prioritization. Arif’s most challenging experience was at Express Scripts, turning siloed functions into a functional unit. One group meeting helped! Arif uses waterfall and Agile processes. Arif tells how he applied Agile methodology to a waterfall project. You should be using both methodologies as needed. Apply user-centric design to keep a PMO from failing. Ari expects that all people will start applying a project management approach to their daily work.  
Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management
Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife
Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.com

Resources:
Moovila.com
Arif Ansari
VentureWell
Bristol Myers Squibb
FedEx
Limeade
ZOOM fatigue
Design thinking
J&J
Requirements document
Risk assessment matrix
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez
“The Project Economy Has Arrived”
Express Scripts
FMEA Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

Walt Sparling, Host of the PM-Mastery podcast, interviews Jeff Plumblee of Moovila, a project manager, program manager, and fellow podcast host in the project management industry, the This Project Life podcast. This episode appears on both podcasts. The discussion begins with Jeff’s education, his work, what initially interested him about Moovila, and what he learns from the podcast This Project Life. Jeff explains the purpose of The Community of Practice episodes of the podcast. Jeff set himself a challenge to post daily on LinkedIn for 10 weeks and he talks about how he is meeting the challenge. Jeff also learns from online courses, such as Udemy. Jeff lists the tools he uses daily, and explains more about This Project Life.

Listen in for a delightful conversation about the field of project management.

Key Takeaways:
Jeff is a Senior Program Officer at a non-profit and a Senior Program Manager at Moovila and he hosts a podcast with a monthly Community of Practice. He also does project management consulting. His background is in sustainable development. At Clemson, Jeff built a rural Haiti water system that is still going. For years, Jeff taught project management to undergrads and graduate students at The Citadel. The disparity between theory and field practice is Jeff’s inspiration for working at Moovila. The podcast Jeff runs with Moovila discusses what happens when people get “punched in the mouth.” It builds a community network Jeff describes his Community of Practice. Project managers from different fields see similar problems; they discuss solutions that may translate to other fields. Jeff talks about the PMP certification and what it teaches about processes. Jeff learns each week from podcasting, posting daily on LinkedIn, and online courses. Jeff taught project management using Microsoft Project. Now he uses Moovila; It’s very accessible to users. Jeff explains how it works and what he likes about it. Jeff lists the other tools he uses, Slack and Zoom, and Google online products. Walt tells why he uses Google Keep and copies his notes to OneNote. Jeff describes the podcast, This Project Life, and the guests he interviews on it from the world of project management practice. Walt includes a couple of his favorite episodes. Jeff gets cool guests with fascinating stories from major companies. Walt mentions some of his guests on PM-Mastery.  
Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management
Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife
Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.com

Resources:
Moovila.com
PM-Mastery
Walt Sparling
Jeff Plumblee
This Project Life
“Community of Practice Live Event: Part 2: Retrospectives and Communications”
“Hassan Osman of Cisco: Kickoff Meetings, Project Closures, & Hybrid Work”
Pickleball
Clemson University
Rural Haiti
The Citadel
Mike Tyson
PMP
PMI
Joseph Phillips
Udemy
Microsoft Project
Slack
Zoom
Teams
Microsoft 365
Sharepoint
OneNote
Excel
Google Keep
Google Tasks
Google Calendar
Google Sheets
Google Docs
Don’t Reply All: 18 Email Tactics That Help You Write Better Emails and Improve Communication with Your Team, by Hassan Osman
Project Kickoff: How to Run a Successful Project Kickoff Meeting in Easy Steps, by Hassan Osman
Better Online Meetings: How to Facilitate Virtual Team Meetings in Easy Steps, by Hassan Osman

Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz were live on LinkedIn for our largest and most engaged CoP Live so far! There were several topics covered. The conversation starts with communicating the value of PM initiatives to executives and moves on to cost-cutting, supply chain management, the relevance of the PMBOK, effective stakeholder management, communication, training, and templates. Listen in for insights into project management for all sizes of organizations.
 
Key Takeaways:
How do you quantify the benefits of a proposal? Does it make us more efficient? Does it improve quality and safety? Does it save time? If we don’t do it, what revenue will we lose? Capacity planner software helps show potential savings. Can the project be divided into subprojects to pitch separately, one at a time? When a project is new, what do you use for comparison? Some industries have databases of activities such as scheduling, delivery, and more. Independent Project Analysis is a group that gathers data across all industries. Benchmarks help. Ask companies like yours how they measure. Use surveys to get data. Be aware of the cost-cutting objectives of your organization. Industries will fall off. More work will be done by fewer people. Know where to prioritize. You can’t do everything right now. If you lose key personnel, it’s hard to replace them. Projects will slow down. Growing too fast can cause consistency problems. What are the core processes and components that are relevant to every project? Risk management is a key component. The basis is the iron triangle of scope, schedule, and cost. Stakeholder engagement and communication go together.  The larger a communication is, the more its impact is diluted. If people don’t digest it, they don’t remember it. Have a knowledge base and link all communications to it. Hold group calls and in-person training. Templates are good! Use a template for project intake and build the project charter from it.  
Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management
Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife
Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.com

Resources:
Moovila.com

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Marian Williams, Program Manager for Product Operations at Anthology, discussing her past work in hospitality and customer success and her current work in product operations. Marian talks about how customer success helped prepare her to work in product operations. Marian suggests how you can decide whether the PMP certification or an MS in project management is a better fit for you. She stresses the importance of communication and connection, especially in asking multiple stakeholders about a question to resolve. Marian shares her best advice: listen!

Key Takeaways:
Anthology and Blackboard, premier education technology companies, are merging. Marian works now on strategic initiatives; she previously worked in client operations with client-facing teams to help them deliver information to their customers and measure client success. Marian shares methods of measuring customer success, what is essential to a client regarding support cases, and connecting with customers. For program management, leadership support is necessary. Look at high-level operations to see how the organization as a whole is affected, not just customers or teams. The differences between client and program operations and the need to fill the communication gap between teams. Consider how you impact the organization. Marian learns a new industry by jumping in, asking questions, and connecting with subject-matter experts. Marian discusses the influence of her PMP certification and MS on her career. She warns about using PM jargon in conversations with others who have different education. Use the cultural language of your organization. Marian recommends the master’s program. She learned much about leadership. Marian suggests steps to take to add to organizational success. Ask questions and get buy-in from multiple stakeholders. She talks about identifying and focusing on the most critical priorities for success. Marian contrasts the contract scope between agile tech projects and waterful construction projects.  
Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management
Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife
Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.com

Resources:
Moovila.com
Marian Williams
Anthology
Blackboard
Net Promoter Score
CSAT
How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie
PMP
PMBOK

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Tim Parker, covering Tim’s family background in the rigging industry, how Tim almost ended up as a computer programmer, and what change orders can cost in a rigging project when the engineers keep important facts secret until the last minute. Tim tells of a nuclear project that went well and gives his final advice to new project managers; always get a complete and well-defined scope.

Key Takeaways:
Rigging is moving heavy objects from one location to another using complex engineering and expensive equipment under dangerous conditions. Before Tim finished college, his father brought him into the company and he stayed in it. He got his rigging degree in the early ’90s while maintaining his rigging company. Tim tells of moving the world’s largest gas turbine from Europe to the U.S. The engineers didn’t reveal the final weight until the last minute, causing big issues. It was too heavy for the rail car and line. Tim coordinated it all, including a barge trip, a special transporter, cranes, and multiple vendors; all expensive changes! The seven major change orders added more than seven figures to the cost of transportation. The transportation project was still counted as a major success! It was a scope-driven project. Their biggest time crunch was getting the turbine off the ship and out of the port. The ship charges for being out of use. Tim describes his roles in a project at a nuclear power plant. It takes years of planning for the installation of equipment during a 45-day shutdown window. Some activities were scheduled down to 15-minute increments. Tim tells what he sees as broken in project planning: people managing projects straight from school without coming up through projects; not paying attention to older functional experts with experience. The most important thing Tim teaches is to start with a complete, well-defined scope. Get the requirements you need.  
Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management
Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife
Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.com

Resources:
Moovila.com
Tim Parker
Port of Charleston
Port of Savannah

David shares his career development from engineering design, to project management, to program management, and what he learned from backpacking, music, and dancing that helped him on the way.


Notes: Host Jeff Plumblee interviews David Sediles, a Program Manager at Duracell.

Key Takeaways:
David started as a design engineer before and after graduation from college, first making high-tech rope. He did engineering work until 2013. David then took a year off for a long and slow backpacking trip to Europe. He recorded how he grew as a person and what he learned about cultures throughout the trip. Project management is connecting to people. You influence without authority. You build relationships. On his trip, David learned to connect. He told that to the hiring manager who hired him. In project management, you interface with a huge pool of people. Charm is the special sauce. A technical mindset helps. Situations can get heated quickly, depending on personality, experience, and their perception of you. David shares how he managed situations at Quantum. David learned much in the seven years he worked there. David discusses his program manager role at Duracell. He works in the Latin American sector for Product Supply. He works with every new initiative across the region, streamlining task relationships, minimizing silos, and automation. 90% of his time is in communication. Everybody is bi-lingual in David’s division. David is excited about the opportunity to see how he’s steering the ship. He talks about what he learned as a dance instructor that helps him in program management. Communication must be consistent, clear, and transparent. He shares lessons he learned as a musician. You need a technical mindset.  
Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management
Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife
Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.com

Resources:
Moovila.com
David Sediles
Duracell
Inventor
Applied Fiber
WorkAway
HelpEx
Quantum
Microsoft Project