Critical Skills for Program Managers Survey

In the interest to find out what the critical skills that Program Manager's need today and in the future,  I have created a survey to asks those questions.

If you have a minute or two to answer a few questions, I would appreciate it.

If you want the raw data from the survey, leave your email at the end and I will send it to you.

Critical Skills for Program Managers Survey

Share this with friends and coworkers who might be interested.

Thanks,
Kevin

Question: Critical Skills for Program Managers?

One thing I want to do is try and figure out want the critical skills are for Program Managers across the various industries and employers.  One thing that I have found out is that almost everyone has a different understanding of what a Program Manager actually is and what a Program Manager actually does.

My goal in all my jobs and in my personal life is to find the area in which I provide the most value.  Bringing the value equation to the table is important.  Many people are stuck in jobs in which they add no value.  More importantly the jobs themselves bring no value to them.  In other words, they do not learn new skills, or meet new customers and contacts, or even a chance to look out a window.

My question is what are the critical skills that today's and tomorrow's Program Managers need to be successful?

New Beginnings

Today is New Years Eve, as everyone is getting ready for the new year it is always a good practice to look at the past year take measure of the tasks we accomplished and where we fell short of our goals.  Another good practice is to look ahead and map out a course for the new year.  This could mean setting long term and short term goals.  As a project manager, I am used to doing this kind of hot wash for my projects, but I also find it useful for for my personal and professional development as well.

Some people call these goals "New Year Resolutions."  This is sort of a joke, since we all know that New Years Resolutions are frequently abandon after a few weeks.  This is why well thought out and developed goals are different.  Well developed goals include the end state, the method to achieve the end state, and how we are to measure progress of the goal.

So as I work over the next few days, I will be thinking of goals.  I have goals for this blog.  I have goals for my personal and professional development. I have goals for my work.  All these goals will come together and I will prioritize them for the coming year.

I will have to say that I am pleased by the way 2017 turned out.  I completed some very difficult projects as work.  I completed some important personal goals.  All these things pave the way for the completion for some related and some new goals for 2018.  I will be blogging more consistently, hopefully people will like my work and find it useful.  I have some new projects to start and some to finish for 2018.  I feel that 2018 will be a great year.

The Power of Certifications

I am a big believer in the power of certifications.  In this belief, I have pursued certification and drive to maintain my certifications.  Most certifications are for niche skills.  I have a PMP which I find is useful for project management.  The PMBOK is a good framework for planning, controlling, and closing projects. It has been very valuable for me as a program, project, and product manager.  I still use the tools that I developed from the preparation it took to achieve the certification.

I am also want to talk about the CM certification.  The CM or Certified Manager is a certification that I value.  It is not designate niche skills, it helps to identify me as skilled in general management.  One area that I think that IT, PMP, and other specialized certifications fall short is in the area of general management.  In order to be effective as a technical person, you have to know how your project or function affects the business of the organization.

I have used these skills more and more often as I moved up the later.  A project manager manages the project, but also the people doing the work and the people who can influence the project.  A project manager must be able to read financial statements.  A project manager has to recognize the business environment.  These are all skills that I demonstrated through earning the CM.

The CM is administered through the Institute of Certified Professional Managers or ICPM.  It is a business center of James Madison University.  I value this certification so much, I decided to become a member of the Board of Regents for ICPM.

Check them out.

How To Find Requirements

Lately I have been working on getting the requirements for a product from the customer.  I find that gathering those requirements is a critical piece of the puzzle for project success.  Many a project goes bad because of either a lack of requirements or the wrong requirements.

Gathering requirements is not easy, the customer is busy and the customer may not even be the end user.  There are a couple methods that I use to get those requirements.

The user survey is one method.  This method is a little hands off, but it can provide very good insight especially if the questions asked are open ended.  Additionally, there has to be followup sometimes and that might pose difficulties if the end users are at distant locations or if they are otherwise not available.

The other method that I use is extensive interviews.  These interviews are used to drill down to the essence of those requirements.  Sometimes you have to ask the question "why" to make sure you get the real reason for the requirement.  It is not enough to take those requirements at face value, because this is usually only focused on the pain of the moment and not the root cause of the issue the product or project is intended to solve.

Requirements gathering can be difficult and confusing.  Bad requirements is one of the reasons that projects fail.  This stage is critical for project managers and the project manager should devote the time to truly understand the requirements.

Things Program/Project Managers Do!

Summer has always been a busy time.  I find that during these days, I have more energy and the to do list grows both at work and at home.  I always feel a little accomplishment when I cross things off my to do list and deliver those products to the customer.  This month, I completed the Requirements Breakdown Structure that I have been working on.  It is a little satisfying when the stakeholders like an innovative product.  During this month, I also conducted a Risk Analysis for an organizational change that is being contemplated.  I hope that my input is helpful for the decision makers when it comes to redesigning the organization. Another product that I delivered was a redesign of part and the Statement of Work for the manufacture of this part.  I also conducted a Schedule Variance on one of my projects for a high level briefing.  All of this is what a day as a Program Manager could look like.

The purpose of this post is not to brag about all the great things that I have done.  They are great things, but nothing in comparison with the great things done by the people who protect us everyday. The purpose of this post is to talk about the variety of things that a program/project manager might be called to do in the course of the project.  I always find that being a program manager allows me to use my creativity to get the products out the door and to tell the story of the products to stakeholders. It is one of the things I find I enjoy about my job.

One Way To Get Things Done

One of the things about project management that you have to keep in mind is that stuff just needs to get done.  It does no use to plan a project, get the perfect team, get everyone on board, and make tons of charts and graphs if nothing ever gets done.  Project management is essentially about getting things done!

One of the most important tools that I use to get things done is the all important to-do list.  I do not keep the to-do list on a computer or on my phone.  I keep the to-do list in a plain old notebook.  My to-do notebook has notes from projects, meetings, or things that I might be researching. That notebook is a peek into my daily life.  I look back on my daily notes to ascertain what I did the month before for any number of status reports that I complete at the end of the month.

What made me think about the humble to-do list was an article I read today.  This article talks about the Getting Things Done productivity system or the "GTD."  I found it interesting. Here is the link:

Getting Things Done, Ten Years In