NEGOTIATION

In addition to PM training of all types, I highly recommend that PMs either get training in negotiation techniques or self-educate themselves on the topic via books, audio CDs, etc. There are too many choices in this category to list, but I'll take a whack at a few of my favorites in my Recommended Reading section later this week.

Negotiation skills and political savvy are key characteristics of successful project managers - and that doesn't mean successful PMs are untrustworthy snakes or would haggle their mothers away for a contract concession from a vendor. What it means is that good-to-great PMs are totally aware when negative negotiation and political games are being played and know how to mount an effective counter to them.

One thing that always makes me chuckle when thinking about my own training in negotiation tactics were some of my fellow students who decried some of the techniques we were being taught - so boorish, so unethical, so...slimy.... The instructor, a wise old sage, remarked, "You need to know about these techniques because I don't expect you to use them, but I do expect you to recognize when they are being used on you and to give the proper counter-response."

Like I said, a wise old sage.

THE SKINNY ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAINING CLASSES - PART I

Before I comment on PM training, here's a disclaimer: I'm an instructor in the PM program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and have been for almost 4 years now. So I have a definite bias on the need for training and how good our program is (the best!! :)), but I also have biases on what types of training PMs should consider getting, and how to go about getting it frm the myriad providers and types of course delivery out there.

Do PMs need formal training? Yes, they do. Just like in any other profession and discipline. Not only do PMs require training, they also need it on a continuing basis, just like other professionals. Sure, you can self-educate yourself by reading PM books and periodicals, but nothing beats a formal learning experience for receiving and synthesizing useful information of value to you on the job. If you have, or are about to acquire a PMP certification, you need continuing education credits to get the cert, and more each year to maintain it.

My discussion that follows centers around continuing education PM courses and programs - that is, these courses do not confer academic credit that leads to an undergraduate or graduate school degree.

There are a number of ways to slice-and-dice the need for formal PM training:

• As mentioned above, you have or are going to get a PMP certification and need to rack up hours in the classroom to qualify.
• You are a complete newbie to project management, or wish to enter the field from some other discipline or profession.
  
• You are a working PM and wish to enhance your skills; perhaps learn new techniques to introduce at work.
• You are a manager and wish to introduce PM into your organization, or must understand how an existing PM discipline works in your firm.

Once the need has been established, there are a number of choices:

1. Self-study programs - print or web-based
   
2. University-based and for-profit PM programs, some of which lead to a PM certificate on completion of a specified number of courses
3. "Onesy-twosy" PM courses offered by local colleges, for-profit training firms, PMI chapters, and others.

Self-study programs are basically teach-yourself with some off-site assistance (if web-based) programs that rely on your initiative to complete. This is OK if you're an experienced PM and the topic is advanced or arcane and you are satisfied with largely self-educating yourself on the topics covered. If you're a newbie or inexperienced, this route is not recommended because of the lack of rigor and formality found in the classroom. If you're not sure about PM as a professional pursuit, reading general-scope PM books is fine to get started, but if you're going to do PM on the job and/or are serious about entering the field, you get much better instructional benefit being in a classroom with similar people from other organizations - you will learn more, not only about PM, but about other people's attitudes, companies, challenges, and successes that is completely missed staring at a computer screen or a manual. One good thing about self-study is that, in most cases, its relatively cheap compared to formal training.

Many universities and for-profit training companies offer complete PM programs to the public on a continuing education basis. Most are REPs - Registered Education Providers with PMI that confer continuing education credit for those pursuing or maintaining the PMP certification. Some offer a certificate at the end of specified curriculum of courses - and please realize that a PM "certificate" or "Masters Certificate" is not an academic degree or PMP certification. It simply means that you attended and completed a specified number of PM and business-related courses, and for a Masters certificate, took and passed an exam after each course. These courses range from 2-4 days and the costs run anywhere from $300-400 to over $1000 each, depending on length and content. If your employer is paying the tuition, this is not usually an issue, but I realize that it definitely is for the unemployed folks out there or the ones who don't receive an employer subsidy of the costs.

The 'onesy-twosy" PM courses, usually offered by for-profit training companies and small community colleges, are usually introductions to PM that are offered alongside other courses, say in information technology and general business topics. They are relatively inexpensive, short duration overviews that are fine if you just want to sample the topic in a formal setting. These offerings become problematic if you need PMP credits or a formal PM training program, and should generally be avoided of that's your situation.

In Part II, I'll talk about these training vehicles in more detail, and what to look for and expect when deciding to sign up, pay for, and attend these programs.

RESOURCES

I've never liked referring to people as 'resources,' as the term is a bit too impersonal and cold for my taste. However, in the PM community, the term fits rather well.

In today's drive-thru, multi-task, do-everything-now business environment, a project manager's acquisition and retention of project team members is a critical skill and is vital to project success. Why? Because a PM who doesn't pay attention to these matters is going to wind up empty at the 'resource pool' and isn't going to deliver on-time or close to it.

Within organizations, competition for available talent is fierce and if you don't play that game well, you lose. Not only is competition for talent a major issue, but retention of that talent on your projects can be problematic because there is always demand for the skills of the folks on your teams, and I've seen plenty of savvy, political PMs poach the time (directly or not) of other projects' members to advance their projects and agendas. In my PM classes, a challenge often identified by students often is the lack of available or allocated resources and/or having team members continually re-assigned to whatever crisis-of-the-moment is hitting their organization.

This issue has a whole bevy of problems and solutions, so I offer a few insights now and will return to this often.

• Make certain that you have asked for adequate staff in the project plan, schedule and budget. Your plans shouldn't be grandiose or overly padded with tons of staff, but other than the normal allowances taken for project scheduling (productivity, time off, etc.), you should have some room in the schedule and staffing for work that may come up that has nothing to do with your project, but you may need to account for later. Trying to shave a few bucks off of the budget by subtracting resources can come back to haunt you later when those resources suddenly disappear into someone else's black-hole.
• Beware of the multiple-project-allocation trap when utilizing people with project responsibilities on a number of different projects. If you need to utilize a scarce and heavily-in-demand resource, you will eventually find those resources reallocated to some other task or project - without your input and usually after-the-fact. Stay on top of what these folks are working on at all times as your project executes. If your work isn't getting the allocation that it needs, take action with that person or his/her management as soon as you can. If you cannot get a committment for that person to return to your project tasks immediately, get a committment for when that can happen, adjust your project pln accordingly, and start looking for a replacement if that can be reasonably accomplished.
  
• Watch out for "resource hoarding." To combat having resources taken away or otherwise becoming unavailable to them, some PMs utilize what I call "resource hoarding" - scheduling resources as unavailable when, in fact, the resources have little or nothing to do on that PMs project at any particular point in time. PMs do this so they can control availability of critical resources to their projects, but takes away the resource for others. This is largely a political issue, and if its played in your company, I advise that you understand how that game is played. Even if you don't plan to play, you will eventually, because its being played on you and your projects, often to your project's detriment.
• Direct management flip-flops. In situations where you don't managerially control the project team members, their direct management will often reassign their charges to other work - notify you after the fact. That's bogus, and call the line manager on it when it happens. I was co-managing a project couple of years ago and the direct manager of a key team member told us at 5:30 PM one night that yes, her direct report would be "100% dedicated" to our project for the 4 weeks we needed him. By 8:30 AM the next morning, she had reallocated her employee to another project that wouldn't deliver anything for a year, but made her look good to her management. We called her on it later that afternoon in a meeting with our project's sponsors and major stakeholders, and while we wound up not getting her employee in the end, we were able to bring in a person from the outside to assume the work even though a hiring freeze had been imposed.
  

Like I mentioned earlier, I'll update this thread continually because starving projects of resources occurs frequently and is a key contributor to project failures.