Happy 35th Anniversary of the concert that made Cheap Trick AND Budokan famous. It's hard to believe I'm this old, but it's the 35th Anniversary of Cheap Trick Live at Budokan. Yes, 35 years ago today - on April 28, 1978 - Cheap Trick played their famous concert at The Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.  They had no idea just how famous they had become in Japan.  

There were so many people waiting for them to get off their airplane upon arrival that they were certain the Japanese were expecting the Beatles.  The band almost missed a radio interview because their car was having trouble navigating the streets on the way to the station.  And the local mall had to be shut down to the public so the group could shop.  

To commemorate the anniversary, Cheap Trick is playing the Budokan set in order at the John Varvatos store in New York at the site of the former CBGB venue.  It will be streamed via Livestream at http://new.livestream.com/CheapTrick/Budokan.  And this Tuesday, 4/30, AXS TV will broadcast their Los Angeles version of the show from the El Rey Theatre.  Try to catch both, you won't be sorry...

The CEO is the leader of the organization.  They need to be in charge of the company in terms of where it’s headed, how it’s going to succeed over the next 12 months, five years, ten years and beyond.  They have to understand today, but they also need that 10,000-foot view of the organization as a whole and the industry and competitors and the economy it’s operating in.  Sometimes the stuff that makes the company what it is and what it can be tomorrow can get lost in the shuffle…fall through the cracks, so to speak.

With that said, here are five things that I feel most CEOs – and probably most C-level executives in any organization – can learn from the experienced project manager who must focus on today, tomorrow and 12 months down the road on every engagement he leads….

Basically, I’m just thinking out loud here though I do indeed have an opinion, and I’ll eventually get to that. But the question I’m posing is this…are project managers born or trained? Are we born with the inherent leadership traits that make us good project managers, or do we learn these along the way? And what are these leadership traits? What makes a project manager a good project manager – or even equipped to think about becoming a project manager at all?

I would be very interested in hearing what our readers consider to be the key traits of a good project manager. For me, there are three that specifically come to mind….

If you’ve been a project manager for any length of time, you’ve likely managed a virtual project team – or at least one or more project team members who have worked remotely…away from your location and possibly far out of reach of the project customer.

Managing people on a project team or in a department is always a challenge. Different personalities, different assignments, conflicts arise, egos get in the way – often just keeping things straight in your online project management software schedule is challenge enough. There is always something that will keep a project manager or department manager busy handling his assigned resources. Now, toss in the fact that one or more – or all – of your resources are scattered around the country or around the world and you have new challenges. Some may be 2-3 hours ahead or behind you – or they may be on another continent and be 8 hours ahead or behind you. There may be language barriers, customs and traditions to handle as well. What are the biggest challenges that can arise from managing resources on critical tasks like a major project when everyone isn’t located in the same building or even time zone?

I was watching an episode of The Backyardigans the other day with my two five year olds and the characters started singing a song about "What Do You Do with a Scurvy Pirate?" The answer was that you make them walk the plank. So I got to thinking about it...isn't scurvy just a disease that was common on pirate ships and other ships long ago? Was it a reason to walk the plank? Are they using the term on the show to mean something different...like a 'bad' pirate (as if any pirate was a good pirate by definition)? I think the song implied the later...like scurvy = treacherous, diabolical, dangerous, etc. So I looked up scurvy and it actually is caused by a vitamin C deficiency and it was prevalent on ships in the 1800s because the fruit the sailors would take with them would perish before their long voyage was over resulting in vitamin C deficiencies which often was fatal at that time. Fatalities from it are, of course, very rare now. And certainly, scurvy was never a reason to force someone to walk the plank.

So, I've established misuse of the term. Exactly what is my point? My point is this...project managers have to ask these kinds of questions. Not necessarily about pirates or scurvy, but they can't take the potential misinformation they're given from what often turns out to be less than reliable sources and run with it. They put their careers, their team's performance and their project's success very much at risk if they don't stop and ask questions. Never take information at face value. If it looks like a dog, smells like a dog and sounds like a dog it's probably a dog - even if the customer insists over and over again that it's a cat.

In Part 1 of this five part series on delivering a quality solution to the project customer, I discussed the process of kicking the project off well in order to properly set expectations for the rest of the project engagement.  In this Part 2, I’d like to discuss some of the planning, forecasting and oversight that is critical for the project manager and his team to perform.  Not just the initial planning documents – that’s another step in this process.  Rather it’s the concept of the proper resource, budget and schedule oversight that is necessary for seeing a project through to a successful end solution delivery.

Planning the effort

There’s much work that has to go into planning the work on the project.  It started before kickoff – as discussed in the first article of this series – but it continues throughout the project…it never ends.  Resource planning, budget forecasting and reforecasting, finalizing the initial project schedule and then tweaking it likely every week for a weekly status review with the team and customer – it goes on and on.

There’s project management performed by shooting from the hip and then there’s project management performed by going meticulously through a series of processes and procedures planning everything to a tee and following PMI policies like a bible.  The latter may be for you and it may be necessary for a program like NASA, but I think on many projects we all fall somewhere in between.  I’m of the opinion that the ‘shooting from the hip’ method is a really bad idea unless you’re managing a $2,000 project lasting a week or two.

What I’d like to discuss in this five part series is not how to do everything by the book, but rather touch on five key areas that are often weaknesses for project managers – areas where we often hit bumps or don’t get it right every time.  I’m not saying this series will guarantee you’ll get it right, but I wanted to share my thoughts on these areas and discuss how I usually handle them and increase the quality on my projects more often than not.

Though most organizations now have some form of formal project management office (PMO), there is still no guarantee of project success or even PMO success. Indeed, a 2012 report from PM Solutions indicated that 87% of surveyed organizations have a project management office in place compared to only 47% in a similar study performed in 2000. Yet PMI reported in a study that as many as 68% of all projects fail to some degree. And as for PMOs, I have personally worked in or lead PMOs for four different organizations. One company experienced utter PMO failure…twice…another kept turning over their PMO directors in a never-ending quest for some project management ‘better’ practices, and a third floundered miserably. The only one that didn’t fail was the one I was leading, though unfortunately it was short-lived as the organization itself closed up shop.

Through all of this chaos and turnover and failure I’ve learned a few things about what not to do and what should be done in order to create a successful PMO. Here are my top 3 items – I’ll call them ingredients – for a successful project management office:

Project managers, PMO Directors, and IT decision makers – if you’re looking for an affordable web-based project management software for your organization, then Vertabase project management software deserves a serious look.  Why?  Because it’s customizable and adaptable to the way you work and the forms you use, and it contains the full tool set to meet all of your project management software needs in the organization.

Who’s using it?

Vertabase project management software delivers an intuitive and comprehensive tool set for both non-technical and technical users.  The software is used by industry leading organizations to manage projects in nearly every industry imaginable including: marketing, IT, government, interactive, training, education and operations. And Vertabase is definitely committed to their growing customer base by offering effective training, project management consulting, process mapping and very accessible customer support.

Vertabase project management software is available in the cloud – meaning it’s available to you wherever and whenever you need it with Vertabase hosting your solution.  It can also be hosted by the customer - installed on your own servers.  And it works on PC, MAC and mobile browsers as well.

Why Vertabase?

Vertabase project management software includes a full suite of tools to manage real-world projects. Personal task reports, detailed project schedules, document management, resource allocation, Gantt charts and more are provided with each software package.

What sets Vertabase apart from other PM software offerings is a comprehensive tool set that doesn’t require a big learning curve. And every phase of the project lifecycle can be managed with the tools included in Vertabase. From brainstorming to reporting to completion and closing, Vertabase covers the entire project lifecycle.

What’s new in Vertabase version 5.1?

If you’re familiar with Vertabase project management software, then you may want to check out latest 5.1 version.  Some key features include:

• A quick select custom Start Page that makes it easy to find the information you need on your projects.

• A Task Scratch Pad that can be used to create personal, online spreadsheets that can be turned into new tasks or a new project schedule.

• Reports that can be customized for sort order, can be search using enhanced criteria, and users can save searches on real-time data as templates that can be easily managed from the My Reports tab.

• A drag and drop uploader that allows for uploading multiple documents into the project management software even without using a web browser.

• The ability to reply to an issue directly via email.

• Easy option to track time on tasks that roll-up to projects and report across all projects. 

• Numerous ways of entering time from web-based timesheets, to desktop timer (for Windows and MAC), to mobile timesheets, and an integrated daily task list with timesheet entry.

• Ability to integrate timesheet data with Quickbooks (for small businesses) and the ability to export for enterprise account or ERP systems.

Pricing

Four different pricing levels are offered for the cloud version of Vertabase:

• Starter (5 users) is $150/month
• Basic (10 users) is $250/month
• Group (50 users) is $750/month
• Enterprise (200 users) is $1500/month

For the self-hosted user, there is a one-time licensing fee rather than the tiered pricing structure shown above. For questions on other features and options available with each of the above pricing structures or the one-time licensing fee for the self-hosted solution, visit their pricing page.

Tour/Demo information

You can tour the product with screenshots and highlights of key functionality on the Vertabase website.  You can also schedule a live demo with a Vertabase expert.  For more information on the software and to explore if it’s the right solution for your needs, visit their site http://www.vertabase.com/.

In Part 5 of this seven part series on habits of highly effective project managers we discussed the concept of trusting no one. Basically, the idea was to rely on others (as indicated in Part 4), but never trust that it ‘just gets done’…you must follow-up and track everything. In this Part 6, I will discuss the topic of being on time. It’s something we all struggle with – in our personal lives and our professional lives. If we are fashionably late can be a sign that we’re important and busy, sure. But it can also be a sign that we are disorganized, self-important, uncaring, and rude. No matter how you mean it or don’t mean it, it’s up to those around you and those you are working with to interpret for themselves and you never know how others will interpret your behavior.

Meetings

We all hate meetings from time to time. Many seem like unproductive time wasters and we wonder why we were even asked to attend. However, if they are meetings we called, we probably don’t hate them and we deem them part of our productive professional lives. We called them – probably to promote our cause or get information that we need. For project managers, it’s usually to meet with the project team to get progress updates and share information or to meet with the project customer to disseminate the same information and to discuss key elements of the project.