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We all know it’s quite easy to get lost in the world of Project Management certifications: not only because there are many different methods and best practices that you could choose from, but especially because the right choice depends on many different factors: the type of projects, the sector of organization, the direction of your career, the certification required by industry standards etc. In two of the latest Market Reports from Axelos, needs for professionalization and continual improvement are clearly highlighted.

1. The “Future of Project Management Professional” report from Axelos identifies the key trends that will impact the project, programme and portfolio management profession, and refers to Democratization of Project Management: “76% of project managers believe project management will become a basic business skill.” This means that Project management will more and more become a basic business skill: every aspect of our roles can be considered in terms of project managing and delivering. “Project management will be used widely by individuals across the whole organization and will be seen as a valuable business skill. This democratization of project management will only enhance the value of project managers, setting them apart as professionals as they evolve their roles to be more strategic and effect change within the business.”
2. The “Axelos 2017 PPM Benchmarking Report” has the interesting and insightful title “The value of Project Management Excellence”. This research has identified a lot of challenges facing project managers, but there were also some positive findings too, especially around ongoing development. Continuing professional development (CPD) an activity that is commonly associated across professions such as accountancy, medicine and law and that, however, the majority of project managers recognize as very important for the continuous improvement. The only thing that could hold them back is a lack of investment from organizations; but, if you delve deeper, both individuals and organizations are on the same page: individuals want to do their job more effectively and organizations want to improve the effectiveness of their teams.

So: you are a Project Manager, and most probably hold one (or more) great Project Management certifications. What's next? Most of professionals in the Project Management world already know about Programme, Portfolio and PMO management; some of them already work at PMO level for example, having helped with the set up of a "Centre of Excellence" in their organization. But how do you know what is the right next step after Project Management? How to identify the right action that can fit your needs? We've developed 3 webinars to help you answer these questions!

3 Webinars to Guide you through Programme, Portfolio and PMO management

WEBINAR - FRIDAY 15 SEPTEMBER - 11h00 - PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS AND BENEFITS In you are managing bigger-and-bigger projects and driving transformational business change, your next step is Programme Management. MSP, Managing Successful Programmes, represents proven good practice in programme management in successfully delivering transformational change, drawn from the experiences of both public and private sector organisations. MSP defines programme management as “the action of carrying out the coordinated organization, direction and implementation of a dossier of projects and transformational activities (i.e. the programme), to achieve outcomes and realize benefits of strategic importance to the business”. In fact it’s key to understand that a programme is not only a “bigger project”, but can also be a set of coordinated projects. WEBINAR - FRIDAY 29 SEPTEMBER - 11h00 - PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT If you are a manager with a top-down perspective (you are managing a budget and a team, or a group of strategic initiatives), your next step could be MoP Portfolio Management, a one week training with certification. MoP, Management of Portfolios, provides an overview of all change activities including what is in the portfolio, what it is costing, what risks are faced, what progress is being made, and what the impact is on business as usual and the organization’s strategic objectives. MoP helps you answer the question “Are we doing the right projects?” by prioritizing the right projects and programmes to undertake. WEBINAR - FRIDAY 27 OCTOBER - 11h00 - INTRODUCTION TO PMO MANAGEMENT: ROLES, TECHNIQUES AND BENEFITS If your focus is on improving the way that projects are done (so that more projects succeed and change is more effective), then you should consider P3O, which explains how to use offices to support projects, programs and portfolios. You can facilitate effective portfolio, programme and project management in your organization by implementing a PMO Office. This may be provided through a single permanent office which may exist under several different names e.g. PMO, Portfolio Office, Centre of Excellence, Enterprise or Corporate Programme Office. It may otherwise be provided through a linked set of offices (portfolio office, programme offices, project offices), both permanent (enabling/supporting business objectives and consistency of delivery) and temporary (enabling/supporting specific programmes and projects), providing a mix of central and localized services.

The Axelos 2017 PPM Benchmarking Report has an interesting and insightful title: “The value of Project Management Excellence”. As stated in the foreword by Cameron Stewart, Head Of PPM Product Development at Axelos: “This inaugural report seeks to lay the foundation for a yearly publication aimed at giving insight to the project and programme management (PPM) market for our members, community and accredited partners.” The findings from this research identified a range of issues that could all be categorized under one solution: project management excellence. Project managers, PMOs and organizations all have a responsibility to create this culture of excellence otherwise they could find that their investments don’t bring the competitive advantages they seek. “It comes as no surprise that project managers are being asked to do more with less. This is a trend that could be applied to any business function. However, a lack of resources or time is leading to cutting corners at both a strategic and operational level. Awareness of project management methodologies is high in the industry. However there is a gap between awareness and uptake. Unfortunately organizations are under-investing in the development of their project managers, which the research shows has far-reaching consequences.”

Today’s project management pressures

Project managers (and the projects they’re responsible for) are not immune to the effects of a changing global economy. In fact, the majority of project managers acknowledge that there is increased business competition which is causing a variety of knock-on effects. Some findings:

• 76% states that “The business environment has become more competitive”
• 74% states that “Budgets and timelines are tighter as clients/ stakeholders look for more value from projects”
• 65% states that “PMs are expected to deliver more projects over a shorter time frame”

Furthermore, evolutions in technology bring their own set of challenges resulting in greater complexity in project delivery, increased project risks and an impact on profit margins.

Project management maturity within organizations

The maturity of project management in many organizations is still behind where it needs to be to meet the increased demands of more projects within existing timeframes and budgets. One measure of maturity can come from the P3M3 Maturity Model, yet:

• less than 20% of organizations described themselves as having established processes in place, with ongoing improvements based on monitoring and feedback
• only 53% of project managers describe the project management function as “influential”

Although it is encouraging to see that PMOs are in place in more than half of organizations, their integration at the highest level is far from where it needs to be. If project management continues to be under-represented at a senior level then this will impact on the successful delivery of projects.

The challenges faced by project managers today

At the head of the list of the challenges faced by PMs today there is “over-ambitious timeframes” for projects, followed closely by “changing project briefs and moving expectations”. In the context of increasing project numbers to deliver in the same timeframe or less, plus the relative isolation of the PMO in organizations, these are serious challenges for project managers. Following in the list there are also challenges like “poor communication”, “absence of the right people for the job”, “unrealistic budgets” and “inefficient work practices”.

• Half of project managers felt their project didn’t have the right people in place, which led to project failure in 43% of cases
• 56% of project managers had witnessed significant changes to the project brief and expectations and this led to project failure in 48% of cases

Agile

Agile continues to be a hot topic within project management. There is a huge appetite amongst project managers for agile techniques, yet this enthusiasm isn’t apparent at an organizational level. Why are so many organizations wary about adopting agile? It could be due to a lack of understanding as ‘agile’ is still perceived as the latest buzzword. Project managers need to educate the business about the value of agile to help deliver the number of projects that organizations are now demanding. Organizations need to get on board with adopting agile techniques. Working in an agile way allows project managers to respond to evolving business needs but still the appetite for adoption at an organizational level is low.

• 77% of respondents seeing value in working in a more agile way and just 2% seeing no value in it
• Less than half (46%) of respondents said there is significant appetite for adopting agile techniques within their function and this falls further to 39% at an organizational level

Learning and development

This research has identified a lot of challenges facing project managers, but there were also some positive findings too, especially around ongoing development. Continuing professional development (CPD) is an activity that is commonly associated across professions such as accountancy, medicine and law. However, the majority of project managers recognize its importance and are actively participating in CPD. The only thing that could hold them back is a lack of investment from organizations. If you delve deeper both individuals and organizations are on the same page. Individuals want to do their job more effectively and organizations want to improve the effectiveness of their teams.

Being AGILE and managing project in agile way is not only a statement but organisations have to “make it happen”. Organisations often think they are or could be agile. It could be a wishful thinking but in reality they have what I call an in-house “DNA”, usage, strong company culture which might not be in favour of developing agile practices. AGILE prior to be project management methods is first a mindset, a posture, a way of being. Be aware of “flawed AGILE”, it looks agile but it’s not. In this article we explore 5 examples of area to check before launching an agile project. TITLE: Ready for Agile? Five Questions to Test Your Company Culture ABOUT THE ARTICLE: Organisations are facing so much unknown that they have to be ready almost for anything. That means the ability to launch quickly project and mobilise multi-skilled resources either in house or through pre-agreed commercial subcontracts or a mix of both. The AgilePM guidance of ABC (Agile Business Consortium) has an interesting document called “PAQ : Project Approach Questionnaire” used at the outset of the project. The questionnaire is in fact a risk assessment for the management side of the project. It helps defining if all stakeholders are effectively able to work in agile. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Antoine Breton has 30 years of experience in project management and technical Operations. He has been an agile management accredited trainer for the past 10 years on “Best Practices” in agile project and programs management: PRINCE2, DSDM - AGILE PM (Project Management and SCRUM) and AGILE PgM (Program Management). He performs consultancy work for embedding PRINCE2 and AGILE within organisations. He delivers training and support for the implementation of best practices. He is able to perform missions in English, and French. TO READ AND DOWNLOAD THE FULL ARTICLE: simply follow this link!    

PRINCE2 is firmly established as the world’s most practiced method for project management and is globally recognized for delivering successful projects. In January 2017 AXELOS, announced the upcoming arrival of updated PRINCE2 guidance and Foundation and Practitioner examinations. Together, these form PRINCE2 2017 and represent the first major update to PRINCE2 since 2009. TITLE OF THE WEBINAR: What is the PRINCE2 2017 Update? All You Need to Know ABOUT THE EXPERT: David Maegerman has over 10 years of Project Management experience, performing various roles in different types of projects. As a Project Manager, he delivered IT solutions as well as sales/marketing projects in the distribution and insurance industry. He’s a multilingual trainer for PRINCE2 and Agile Project Management, able to perform courses in English, Dutch and French. ABOUT THE WEBINAR: With this informative webinar QRP International wants to introduce you to the changes, understanding not only what changes in the content, but also what are the main reasons for the update, and how these updates will impact (or not impact) on your actual certification, and/or training plans. To WATCH THE VIDEO follow this link!

“Whichever it will be, we have no doubt that agile is transforming the field of project delivery and will fundamentally change the way the business and IT work together to successfully achieve change.” This is how the KPMG “Agile Project Delivery 2017 Survey” starts, and this one specific sentence already gives the clear idea about the increasing importance of Agile in the Project Management world. While the difference between Waterfall PM methods and Agile ones seems to be well known among the PM community, it is more difficult to find out if there is a clear and realistic view of what “Agile” really means: our goal with this interview is to highlight how different frameworks are in use within digital companies, and how developers, project managers and team members work together. TITLE: From Scrum to AgilePM: An Interview with a Web Developer ABOUT THE ARTICLE: Looking at the fast growing digital companies in Belgium, we have decided to interview Pàu: their team consists of different profiles ranging from conceptual UX over frontend/javascript developers to experienced backend developers. Pàu recently delivered successful projects for Telenet, BNP Paribas Fortis, Colruyt-Group, KBC, De Persgroep, Mediahuis, Essent, Proximus, Boondoggle and many more. “We are living in a rapidly changing environment in which the customer has extensive demands. To succeed in satisfying these demands, organizations are forced to respond extremely quickly to new developments in the market” (from KPMG “Agile Project Delivery 2017 Survey”) So it’s for Pàu: as specifically mentioned on their website www.pàu.be : “Rather than having a single method of working through the project lifecycle, we adopt elements of ITIL, PRINCE2, AgilePM and SCRUM to dynamically apply a methodology that suits the needs of that specific assignment”. This is why we have interviewed Kevin Pauwels, developer consultant, AgilePM certified and Scrum Master at Pàu, in order to investigate further the links between Agile and other well-known framework, such as Scrum, and to find out how this knowledge helps throughout the project. With Kevin's words: "From being Scrum Master, I see AgilePM as the next step, as a way to upgrade my role and my skills, from a more technical role to a less technical one" TO READ AND DOWNLOAD THE FULL ARTICLE: simply follow this link!

At QRP International our mission is to support individuals and organizations in the development of the needed skills in order to be successful in the implementation of Project, Programme, Portfolio and Change Management. The goal is not only to provide information, but also to create awareness on the importance of the set up of a strong method for your projects and portfolio.  How?

We do so by organizing free events where professionals can network with peers, share lessons and experiences and ask finally their questions to the experts from the field.

This FREE Webinar will help you learning more about a method and the benefits for you and your organization:

TITLE OF THE WEBINAR: “ITIL Service Operation”

ABOUT THE WEBINAR: The 5 TIL Service Lifecycle modules are most relevant to those who have, or are looking for, a management or team leader role that requires management of different areas or work across different teams.

This webinar, in ITALIAN Language, will explain how the Service Operation makes sure IT services are delivered effectively and efficiently including the fulfilling of user requests, resolving service failures, fixing problems, as well as carrying out routine operational tasks ABOUT THE EXPERT: Fabio Savarino is a Project Management/ IT Service management specialist with over 10 years of experience in different sectors: Public Administration, Banking, Insurance, SME. He is a trainer and Consultant for ITIL, PRINCE2  and Agile Project Management, a

WHERE AND WHEN:

• Location: online from your PC!
• Date: Thursday, 15th June 2017
• Time: 11:00 - 12:30
• Language: italian
• Attendance fee: FREE entrance, registration required
• Inscription: https://www.qrpinternational.it/qrp-events/itil-service-operation/

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