This Project Life

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

Mike Psenka explains how the programmed integration of real-time data into project planning enables service and delivery organizations to interact with forecasts dynamically, for atomic-level accuracy of the necessary project resources to get to better margins. Notes: Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Mike Psenka, CEO of Moovila, a company that is disrupting project and program management across several industries. Key Takeaways: How do you get to accurate resource utilization so you get to better margins? Real-time resource management is the real challenge. Human beings deliver service and human beings have calendars. Calendar data is critical to understanding resource utilization and capacity. Pipeline deals change every day. The deals impact how many people you need. Use existing data sources: calendars, work management solutions, and CRMs. Integrate these things and get an interactive visualization. The visualization will show the latest data in real-time. This is heavily focused on optimizing the margin for the business. Find the level of utilization that maintains employee satisfaction and business profit. Now is the time for digital transformation. We should be thinking about work as a program and debugging our work plan like an app. The technology is here now for digital transformation without generating more work for the user. Dynamic real-time forecasts now allow you to understand resource loads accurately. Interacting with data in real-time reveals hiring needs.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Mike Psenka   The Project Paradox Probability Table provided by Moovila

The participants share their experiences with establishing a new PMO and best practices for data analytics, risk, and project confidence. Notes: Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz host this Community of Practice Live Event! The topic is establishing a PMO for the first time at an organization: What are the best practices and some of the challenges? What are best practices for data analytics? Additional topics are data analytics, project risks, and project confidence.   Key Takeaways: Establishing a PMO takes patience and understanding. Understand the “why” behind the PMO. A PMO requires the clear support of senior management. In the first 90 days, make a spreadsheet that shows improved efficiencies clearly with dollars saved and reduced labor requirements. Mature companies want to know what problem a PMO solves. Startups want documentation. Establish a process that makes sense. Existing project managers are used to doing things one way. It's painful to impose the structure to establish a PMO. Get a good mix of people at the table who know the pain points. Think both tactically and strategically. Show stakeholders how the PMO helps them. Ask how you can help them be more successful. Data analytics is about capturing data of interest to the stakeholders and executives. Express how it benefits the company. It's hard to pull statistically significant data from soft skills. Make sure the data makes sense to the executives. Risk management includes building an allowance for delays. It takes time to build relationships and know what to expect from team members. You may need to seek supplier redundancies or build padding into the schedule for delays. Communicate often; communicate early so that a delay is not a surprise. Know when to kill a project because of unacceptable delays.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Jonathan Pu, a Senior Project Manager at Hinge. Key Takeaways: Hinge is a dating app intended to help you find your person. It is owned by Match Group. Jonathan shares an example of his previous work at Moody's. He contrasts product management and project management. Working at a startup is different from working at Moody's. At Hinge, project management is evolving. Successful projects have quick iteration cycles and you learn quickly. When you become an industry stalwart, it's about execution. Hinge is at the tipping point between startup and industry leader. Hinge's project management is still very informal. Jonathan wants to see more predictability and disciplined planning. Jonathan describes his best project experience as a product manager, consolidating legacy systems at Moody's. He worked with a phenomenal project manager and his group got everything done as needed. Jonathan was like a project manager to his team. That inspired him to go into project management. Jonathan talks about his mentee and how she transferred her project management mindset from task-oriented to people-oriented, putting her on the path to a successful project management career. Jonathan wishes he'd known early in his career that plans are very malleable and are intended to change. Know where the value is for every stakeholder. If you're able to see through the eyes of others and meet them where they are, you can begin to move them. Different circumstances require different tools. We need to adjust to the organization. There's more than one way to do a job, Scrum, waterfall, or hybrid!   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Jonathan Pu Hinge App Match Group Moody's

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Hassan Osman, PMO Director at Cisco. Hassan is the author of 16 non-fiction books on project management and general interests. The discussion centers on the steps to go through for a successful kickoff meeting and why you need to hold an internal kickoff meeting first. Jeff and Hassan discuss knowing the stakeholders individually. They consider how projects go wrong because of gray areas in the scope and how to salvage the client relationship. Hassan shares his incentive for writing and his advice for those who would like to write non-fiction while working full-time: write for 30 minutes every weekday!   Disclaimer: Hassan's views are his own and not those of Cisco.Key Takeaways: Hassan tells of the 18 steps of a project kickoff meeting. Hold an internal kickoff meeting before the client kickoff meeting. Follow the agenda. After the meeting, follow up on action items. Preparation makes a good meeting. Know your stakeholders! Hassan justifies the value of the internal kickoff. At project closure, verify that all the work that was agreed to has been completed, formally recognize that the project has been completed with a signoff, and document lessons learned for the future. A clean handoff needs a transition plan. Conduct handoff meetings and stay in contact for a time to handle issues. Over-communicate with operations about product completion. Everything is not always understood the same way by all parties. Poor communication is a recipe for disaster. Tackle head-on any gray areas around the scope. Be crystal clear. Hassan suggests ways to salvage projects where there were gray areas. Hassan has published 16 books. Writing his thoughts and publishing them for others is enjoyable for him. Hassan dedicates 30 minutes a day, five days a week, to writing or researching the book. He now writes in longer blocks when he is inspired. He writes about things that excite him that have an existing market. Hassan has written about remote work for over 10 years. At EY, he worked some days from home and then started a blog about working remotely. In 2014, he wrote Influencing Virtual Teams. Later, he wrote Hybrid Work Management. Hybrid is the future of work. Soft skills are needed to manage remote teams.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Hassan Osman Write Your Book on the Side: How to Write and Publish Your First Nonfiction Kindle Book While Working a Full-Time Job, by Hassan Osman Hybrid Work Management: How to Manage a Hybrid Team in the New Workplace, by Hassan Osman Influencing Virtual Teams: 17 Tactics That Get Things Done with Your Remote Employees, by Hassan Osman Project Kickoff: How to Run a Successful Project Kickoff Meeting in Easy Steps, by Hassan Osman Hassan Osman author page

Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz host Part 2 of this Community of Practice Live Event! The topics were having effective retrospectives and documenting the lessons learned to retrieve later, how PMOs can communicate with impact, and whether the checklist approach is appropriate for a project.   Key Takeaways: How do you make retrospectives and “lessons learned” useful? Discuss after each phase what went wrong and what worked well. Use a database system and add metadata tags to the lessons. Metadata tags could include function, incident, category, phase, and more, for subsequent retrieval. Lessons learned include what you loved, what you learned, and what you loathed. Discuss these at every sprint or two weeks of work. Make PMO communications fun! Highlight different projects so groups see the inherent value they're getting. Explicitly point out how this will change their world from what they are experiencing today. Also highlight individuals. Use appropriate graphics for interest. Make communications concise. Use a separate communication for each topic. Use a few bullet points and add an appendix for detailed information. Use specific tangibles around a case study instead of a generic description. Can checklists apply to projects? For repetitive tasks, they have a place. One project plan cannot accommodate every project. Train the project managers well and give them power and autonomy.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande

The gang discusses resource management and new team assessment this week on CoP live. How to assess the capabilities and skills of project managers and team members when you're new into an organization: Ask for a sample project plan for a glimpse into culture Touchpoints and a refresher training Value stream mapping and creating an environment where you can cross-share (kind of like a CoP!)   Resource management - who is available to be on projects; how that can be managed and documented: Larger orgs use a resource accounting system reviewed by a resource manager with a series of approvals Smaller companies use less rigor. The PM lays out time commitments up front, at the beginning of a project, and directly asks what's needed... ...until they can leverage a system that can easily show capacity (hint - capacity management and analysis is now built into Moovila) Discrepencies between what your system tells you and what the team actually says (actuals vs estimates) How to advocate for overloaded team members How to have the tough conversations with department heads when protecting your teams' time Jeff and Matt mention Moovila's upcoming portfolio-level resource capacity analysis. Listen in for ideas to help improve the efficiency of your team and organization.   Key Takeaways: Aaron asks about assessing project manager and team member capabilities in an organization where he is new. Jay suggests asking to see a good, full-on project plan. Jesse suggests having a group training/skills refresher to make sure everybody's on the same page. Kind of like a community of practice! John emailed about resource management best practices: Who is available to be on a project, and how do you manage and document that? Aaron shares his large organization's formal process. Kayla tells how she has worked directly with vendors in her small firm. Jay has a formal process at his mid-sized firm. Jay and Kayla wonder what to do when the culture doesn't permit a resource to admit to being overloaded or overworked and uncomfortable conversations are avoided. Can the culture be changed? Jay has quarterly “Lessons Learned” sessions where problems are explored in a safe space. Aaron suggests watching the workload of resources. Anonymous employee satisfaction surveys that have questions like “Would you recommend this job to a friend?” help reveal the stress level in the workplace. Jesse talks about the overlap between project management and leading people. As a PM, you need cooperation from people that don't report to you. It comes down to human connection. Advocate for overworked resources. Jeff and Matt close the conversation with news on Moovila's resource capacity analysis.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Six Sigma Value Stream Mapping

TL;DR On this episode, we interview Jeff, a moderator from the 86K-member subreddit r/projectmanagement. He shares insights from the community's FAQs, explains why you shouldn't pursue the CAPM, shares his own experiences in project management, and *gasp* is challenged by automation. _______________________ This is an interesting one. We're speaking with one of the moderators of the r/projectmanagement subreddit, Jeff. We're only stating his first name as not to reveal his identity - part of what makes Reddit great is its anonymity. Jeff moderates, and is an active contributor, to one of the largest communities of project managers in the world. With over 86,600 members, r/projectmanagement is full of folks looking for advice from peers. That covers everything from career seekers to people looking for tool tips, to specific asks based on one's industry. The discussion moves into Jeff's background in project management, and his working method. Jeff shares advice to new project managers, and encourages communicating news quickly and early, especially if there are setbacks, and why honesty is the best policy. Jeff shares his trial-by-fire first time as a project manager, on his first project in a different country. Key Takeaways: Jeff “TheWolf1970” became involved in the project management subreddit about nine years ago. It has grown from 40K to 86K members in the past year. The two moderators grow it using Flair topics. “Don't get the CAPM.” Jeff shares templates that he has spent years building and collecting, to help users get started in project management.  His most difficult subreddit question is when people say they want to give up on project management. Jeff encourages people to look at their project baseline to evaluate the status. He also recommends a specific PM book. There is a risk of crashing a project. Fast-tracking a project involves scaling back the delivery. Jeff discusses experience versus knowledge. He describes his project management method. Jeff measures a project's success by holding a retrospective with his client on what went well, and what could be done better. Jeff reveals how automation works for him, including a “Boss Rule” for email, a stopwatch script for timekeeping, and a tool for overnight report generation. He talks about his Scrum Master Certification, and what Agile is good for. He talks about the differences between PMBOK 6 and PMBOK 7 — Now with more Agile!   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Subreddit r/projectmanagement Book mentioned: Bare Knuckled Project Management: How to Succeed at Every Project, by Tony Gruebl and Jeff Welch, with Michael Dobson

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Victoria Matthew, Senior Program Officer at VentureWell. The conversation starts with social learning and Communities of Practice (CoPs). Victoria shares her thoughts on selling executives on the concept of CoPs, shares tips on facilitating a CoP, and reveals her worst and best project experiences.Listen in to learn about psychological safety, speaking human to human, and measuring the benefits of a CoP.   Key Takeaways: Victoria explains social learning and where the best, most revenue-generating ideas originate in organizations. The way you can know what to do is by talking to other people like you who have done the things you are doing. Social learning is personal or professional, as in LinkedIn Groups. Victoria explores Communities of Practice from Etienne Wenger's definition: “Communities of Practice are groups of people who share a concern or passion for something they do and they learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” Give participants something tangible and enticing, like a workshop. Set up a CoP as a pilot program and track the benefits to participants, such as applying ideas at work they learned in the Community, that then impact other people across the organization. Designing and operating a Community of Practice includes psychological safety and a group-driven agenda. Facilitators can interject and redirect the topic if some people meander too much or talk over others. Facilitators can highlight the expertise of individual participants. Victoria discusses vulnerability and collaborative problem-solving. Victoria shares her worst project experience, involving a management-mandated tool for which they didn't have enough licenses to show project progress to outside stakeholders. Her best experience was very challenging, but she learned so much. Including how to manage questions so everybody feels heard.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com VentureWell Ideas are Free: How the Idea Revolution Is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations, by Alan G. Robinson Victoria Matthew

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Sameer Chopra, Director of Emerging Healthcare Opportunities at Microsoft. The conversation starts with Sameer's novel, The Work Ahead, which portrays project management and problem-solving with a unique twist and lessons that apply in life. Sameer shares an overview of the virtual work he does with his team. He recalls his favorite project success and another successful project that was also his worst project management experience due entirely to extreme confidentiality constraints. Sameer tells why collaboration and simplicity are so essential. He also offers his counsel on disruption, failure, and documentation.Listen in for an enjoyable discussion about the ups and downs of projects.   Key Takeaways: Sameer and his team of nine help healthcare customers prepare to use emerging technologies. Sameer also has written a novel, The Work Ahead, involving a unique and complex problem. Sameer shares his views on simple, collaborative tools that improve teamwork. Kanban is one example; Teams is another. Sameer's team works virtually using Teams. They use GitHub to present their code and Office for demos. They use Discord for user feedback, YouTube for videos, and Azure DevOps for project management. Sameer talks about optimizing processes and how you can plan for the best use of spare time. Sameer shares a story from a favorite Microsoft project for “a medical device in a month.” He shares how they delivered value on the first call with screen sharing and met every metric to deliver on time. Identifying metrics is a challenge. Know the metrics that the company/client cares about! Why was the project started? Sameer recalls a project he worked on with three stakeholders, each expecting a related but different metric. He compares it to the scenario in his novel with opposing stakeholders. Metrics are important and your stakeholders inform the tweaks you will need to make when capturing the metrics. Sameer shares his worst successful project management experience! It was a project so disruptive that, for months, its purpose was kept secret from the developers. They had no idea what was going on. Increasing collaboration helps. Decreasing collaboration hinders. Also, disruption is to be expected! Plan for it!   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com The Work Ahead, by Sameer Chopra  

Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz host this Community of Practice Live Event! The participants who spoke up include Aaron, John, Kayla, Erin, Blake, and Jesse. Jeff gave an overview of the principles of a community of practice and invited comments on those principles. Jeff introduced four questions for discussion: How do you manage project stakeholders and control communication? How do you justify the need to have a PMO? How do you communicate new processes? How do you celebrate a project's successful closure?   Listen in for ideas for your community of practice and a PMO at your company.   Key Takeaways: The essence of a community of practice (COP). 1.) Have a facilitator. 2.) Record sessions. 3.) Have a way to share files and a place to meet. 4.) Offer a workshop. 5.) Group drives the agenda. COP members to be at the same level, trained with SOPs. Kick-off by stating why they are here. Document everything. Stakeholders and communication of a project. Get the right stakeholders. Track them. Have team members from all departments. Keep all updated. Use email distribution lists. Use workflow tools. Document all changes and decisions. Justifying a PMO. PMOs structure projects for the best solutions. Look for pain points that can be addressed by a PMO. A PMO helps companies see the big picture with an un-siloed view. A PMO requires accountability and ownership.   Communicating New Processes. Provide training or a SharePoint page. Set up a hierarchy of processes. Use process councils. Use highlight meetings to share best practices. Celebrating Project Closure. Reward people at work. Give challenge coins. Create storyboards of the accomplishments; show star awards. Post improvements on the work floor. Fly to a central point for a celebration. Send an ice cream truck or food!     Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Confluence PMP® Certification OneNote Excel Microsoft Office Google Sheets SharePoint Zoom Teams Microsoft Forms DoorDash

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Ben Morabito and Jay Sturm of Irreverent Rogue, about the leadership tools of project management. The conversation goes in-depth on the necessity of alignment between corporate strategy and the PMO, reasons PMOs may fail, knowing who the PM needs to talk to and when, and the importance of soft skills in project management. Ben and Jay share their best and worst project experiences, and how those projects ended, They advise listeners on the various aspects of project management and how, in the end, if you don't have a strong team dynamic, you will not have a successful outcome.   Listen in to hear wisdom about smoothing the path for your projects.   Key Takeaways: Ben and Jay worked together in a PMO. They had so much in common that they started Irreverent Rogue encompassing their attitude toward project management, business processes, and life, with a vision to improve PM tools. Jay describes common problems of small companies and when they need a PM. Jay says most people don't know how to calculate the critical path. If you have a tool that can calculate it, that goes toward project health. Ben considers gut feelings in project health. It's critical to start a project having a calculated ROI. Some people start a project to “save time.” How much time? What's the ROI? Ben tells how unknown risks shrink as the project progresses. Ben suggests how to use the Project Manager Body of Knowledge®. Ben explains building a PMO. Start with the client's objectives and the strategies of departments to meet them. Connect the PMO with business management to prioritize projects. Jay says a baked-in guidance component is missing from many systems. A lot of folks are not trained PMs and they need an assist. Ben advises walking untrained PMs through the system, setting them up for success. Ben tells all about his worst difficulty and best success — one huge project. Jay shares his best and worst experiences. The best was a team that delivered ahead of time, and the worst was tied to a bad actor — an executive who undermined the project! Jay also elaborates on the art of project management. You need more than the PMP® to be a competent PM. It's science plus art!   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Irreverent Rogue Momentive Performance Materials Project Manager Body of Knowledge® PMP® Certification Braveheart LinkedIn: Ben Morabito LinkedIn: Jay Sturm

Host Matt Stoltz switches it up today to interview the regular host, Jeff Plumblee, on the theory vs. the practice of project management, and where people fit in. Jeff starts with a taste of theory and then moves into management. He says if you wonder about the value of a project manager, remove the manager and see what happens to your project. The conversation covers theory and practice and finishes with why you want to be in a Community of Practice. You know the first 10% of project management. Listen in to learn about the remaining 90%.   Key Takeaways: Jeff got a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and an MBA at the same time. He regrets not having networked in business school. He says to play fewer video games and join more business organizations. Schools teach theory but not human nature. Taking care of human needs is vitally important to project management. When a project starts, the variables start moving. How you react to the variables determines project success. Use data to reach decisions. The data backs up the right decision. Check-ins and status updates are crucial. Jeff discusses tedious tasks. A good project manager may look like a task manager until the project manager is needed to get things back on track. Jeff tells PMO leaders not to add layers for complexity's sake. Matt believes the best thing a project manager can do is spotlight the team. Jeff adds to let them shine when they're doing well. Jeff notes that the Community of Practice Live Events has had great value for project managers to share their successes and ask for help. Project managers from different fields can share ideas that transcend fields. Jeff tells how engineering Communities of Practice have evolved and about a report he co-authored for the American Society for Engineering Education on successful Communities of Practice. Foster psychological safety and trust. Jeff shares a couple of meaningful Communities of Practice success stories.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Critical Path Method Expected Value Cost-Benefit Analysis Earned value management Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, by Leidy Klotz American Society for Engineering Education Conference LinkedIn: JeffPlumblee

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Dennis Young, Principal Consultant and CEO of YCA LLC. From his experiences as a US Marine, mining, construction, IT, and more, Dennis explains his view of project management and how he works only in planning and control, why he schedules from the front instead of working back from a deadline, and what the most important (and timeless) skillsets are to be successful in high-pressure environments of project management.  Leadership and project general knowledge are the two most critical skills a project manager needs. Dennis explains how to push the worry curve to the left, and shares experiences of working on major NYC buildings and forestalling a tenancy disaster at One World Trade.Listen in to learn the essentials of large-scale project planning.   Key Takeaways: Dennis tells of his career from electrical engineering, the U.S. Marines, the mining and steel industry, and going into business for himself in project management. He lists some of his clients and client industries. Dennis reads the definition of project management and explains what project management success and project excellence mean. He states the importance of time in project work. Dennis explains his process. It starts with acquiring a team. He tells why he front-schedules projects instead of back-scheduling from a deadline and he defines the lowest-cost way to deliver a quality-to-spec to a task. What is the worry curve and how do you push it to the left? Dennis tells what he looks for in a project manager. A leader needs good communication skills and strong content knowledge. Dennis shares his experiences, including working on One World Trade and other NYC buildings. How does Dennis get work? Word-of-mouth! The specific project planning software is not as important as building the model, planning, and executing the project. Dennis tells how he uses Post-It® Notes and why he doesn't have PMP Certification. Dennis gives his final advice to project managers.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Dennis Young, YCA Six Sigma One World Trade (The Former Freedom Tower)

Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz are live today for the second Community of Practice live event! The group discusses preparing a business case for executive approval, starting a project, and gathering subject matter experts and an executive sponsor. Jeff asks for the amount of detail that is wanted to start a project. The conversation moves to involving cross-functional team members and conducting retrospectives after every phase and concludes with an overview of solutions for storing and sharing the lessons learned for best practices.Listen in for new perspectives on making the most of your projects.   Key Takeaways: We've doubled our community since the first event! The group discusses how to turn an idea into a project: Present the business case to executives. Gather cross-functional folks. Empower subject matter expert champions. Get an executive sponsor. Support the SMEs. Jeff asks John what level of detail he looks for in a project idea. John wants to know the date, description, benefits, and the company pillar it touches. Lauren talks about drilling down to the use case, the benefit, and keeping up with the competition. Jeff suggests using a template. Matt asks how to share project learnings. John holds a retrospective listing what they Loved, Learned, Loathed, and Longed for on sticky notes on the wall to discuss. Aaron says to hold an Agile retrospective after each project phase so nothing will be missed. Then institutionalize the learning. Lauren discusses surveys and retrospectives. She uses Start/Stop/Continue for actionable takeaways. John's Lessons Learned is an Excel spreadsheet. Matt also uses an Excel file. Aaron suggests using a database system. Lauren says to have one knowledge management repository that links to every document.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources Mentioned:Moovila.com Teams Agile FunRetro EasyRetro Start/Stop/Continue (SKS process) Confluence Notion  

What does a CIO think of project managers? Forget your PMP. You're all a bunch of paper pushers... ...Or you know the business, the "why" behind projects, leadership, and the importance of understanding the impact of your projects.  That's the value, and the perspective you'll need to bring if you want to have meaningful conversations with your senior IT leaders.    That's according to Christos Ruci, CIO at Limbach, the PA-based construction and building solutions firm with expertise in design, installation, management, service, and maintenance of HVAC, mechanical, electrical, plumbing and control systems.   Christos shares his experiences with Agile and how it helped him improve onboarding process today. He explains how his role involves CIO functions in leading internal project PMs. He explains how he and his team set up a system that eliminates double-entry of data and pulls project data into one dashboard for business intelligence, and advises firms to improve automation for better project reporting and decision-making.   Listen in for tips on running projects and the leadership skills and knowledge a successful Project Manager need.   Key Takeaways: Christos Ruci's job mixes CIO and CTO roles. He looks both for internal efficiencies and for technology to serve customers. Christos has an Agile background that he applies to construction with Limbach. PMs work with data automation at Limbach to replace repetitive tasks, both for construction projects and internal projects. What are the success metrics for a software system? Christos says that building a software system instead of buying it off the shelf leads to higher efficiency. Christos tells how Limbach is heading to the goal of connected construction. What makes a good PM — a certification, or leadership skills, project knowledge, and adaptability? Christos explains what connected construction will require from the trades working on the project. What are the differences between internal-facing and external-facing PMs and what is a construction Project Manager?   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Christos Ruci Limbach

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Ivett Hankoczy, PMP, CSM, ITIL, Project / Portfolio Manager at Navy Federal Credit Union. Ivett has had project management experience internationally. She learns much from people with different viewpoints. Jeff and Ivett discuss how she manages her team and encourages positivity and collaboration, even during the pandemic, Ivett's secret of showing appreciation, and how chocolate is her most popular tool to get cooperation. Ivett explains that when a person is resistant to an idea, they often don't understand how they can get what they need, so she talks them through it.   Listen in for tips on treating a team the right way and seeing your project through to success.   Key Takeaways: Ivett's job is a combination of Scrum Master, Project Manager, and Portfolio Manager. She loves her work and she has a team of amazing people. Their biggest challenge is finding the right contact on another team for communication. Ivett tells of her favorite work activities. She loves how a finished product amazes users. She doesn't mind putting in extra hours for a product that pleases users. She asks her team how many hours they can put in. She knows the life circumstances of each team member. Ivett starts every meeting with something cheerful, positive, funny, or personal. Her team members are not afraid to share something back. Ivett reveals how chocolate is her secret to cooperation. Ivett learned a lot working with the IMF and the World Bank. People from over 180 nations come together and they each think very differently. You can learn so much from people with different points of view. Ivett's most challenging project had a small budget. One person wanted an export button that would add $64K to the cost. Ivett met with him to show him how to get the export he wanted by using the menu. Her final advice is to make sure people can easily come to you about any need.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Ivett Hankoczy Navy Federal Credit Union Webex Chat Teams Excel IMF World Bank

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Blake Mallet, Senior IT Project Manager at NMS Labs. Blake has a decade of project management experience, starting in the U.S. Navy. Jeff and Blake discuss the disastrous result of a company that moved without preparing for the move by vetting new local suppliers, and how Blake put the company back on track by moving the process into an Agile methodology. The biggest challenge was persuading all levels of the company of the benefits that would result. Blake advises that project managers learn all aspects of project management and their methodologies. Prepare all parts of a project before starting it, and don't take peoples' word that something has been done properly. Trust but verify.Listen in for tips on effective project management.   Key Takeaways: Blake explores the problems of an automotive seat supplier moving from Michigan to Charleston. The “old guard” didn't change suppliers and the suppliers didn't meet demand. Blake set up an Agile Kanban system. The biggest challenge was getting everybody on board, but it worked. The biggest challenges in moving from a waterfall methodology to Agile were from the people who had followed the waterfall way for years. Explaining Agile to people one-on-one was one of the greatest parts of the job for Blake. For the best project results, understand project management and project management methodologies and explain them to everybody on the team, showing them the benefits. It's about making all the stakeholders happy. Blake talks about military project management from his time in the U.S. Navy. Everything is ready before they start any operation so that the operation is successful. Blake jumped into IT with the U.S. military global healthcare system. He tells of a “broken” colonoscopy camera that wasn't plugged in. Blake advises listeners not to automatically trust everybody because of their position in the organization. “Trust but verify.”   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Blake Mallett NMS Labs Mercedes-Benz Vans Waterfall Model Kanban U.S. Navy

Host Jeff Plumblee interviews Bernd Brandstaetter, Director of Project Management at IFA. Bernd shares his career highlights and what he loves about project management. He acknowledges it takes a thick skin. Bernd discusses the impact of the USMCA on supply chains, including the requirement of 75% local sourcing of steel. Jeff and Bernd note the setbacks caused in the supply chain by the COVID-19 pandemic. Another topic is setting the right balance with automation. Bernd shares the KPIs of project management and concludes that a part of project management is managing himself.Listen in for the inside scoop of life as an automotive supplier.   Key Takeaways: As Director of Project Management at IFA, Bernd is responsible for all new product launches in Germany, the U.S., Poland, and China. Bernd lists previous positions he has held. Berndt discusses stable supply chains, OEM, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, and going to the cheapest supplier in low-cost countries. How has the United-States–Mexico–Canada Agreement affected supply chains? It all depends on finding strategic suppliers including 75% local sourcing requirements. In Bernd's current projects, he has 50 to 80% of suppliers out of the U.S. Besides suppliers, labor costs have a great impact. COVID-19 introduced severe supply chain problems. Supplies were delayed. Products were delayed. Prices skyrocketed. Cutting back on our needs will help in the long run. Establish trust within your supply chain. Automation is key to becoming cost-competitive. Automation requires investment. With automation you need to have constant production or the fixed costs will kill you over time. You need trained people to maintain it. Project management software accounts for all aspects of the project and tracks KPIs. For Bernd, the KPIs are supply, quality, costs, delivery, and motivation. Bernd explains the areas where smaller companies can beat out the big players.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Bernd Brandstaetter IFA Rotorion OEM Supply Chain

Co-hosts Jeff Plumblee and Matt Stoltz are live today for the first Community of Practice live event!Jeff and Matt discuss with the group the meaning of project risk and how to respond to it through transference, acceptance, avoidance, or mitigation. Jeff and discussion group members Sunshine, Dan, Aaron, Kayla, Gabe, and others bring up stories of project risks they've experienced and ask questions about managing risks. Jeff and Matt give perspective on cultural risks for projects in other countries. Gabe offers how to work in a situation where a salesperson has overpromised features to clients.Listen in for ideas that work to keep your project in alignment with the outcome.   Key Takeaways: Jeff defines project risk and shares a story of a derailed project in Haiti with unusual risks. Matt asks the group for stories. Sunshine sees the constant churn of team members. Another group member talks of a PMO layoff including the project manager! Dan shares ideas to address difficulties in resourcing. Sunshine says professional development is essential to maintaining talent. Another group member saw people leaving a corporation without offers, due to burnout. She works now at a small company where people work insane hours with less burnout. Aaron says that burnout is a common problem. Kayla's company grades people on their work/life balance and has conversations to prevent burnout as part of their semi-annual review process. Jeff's company takes a quarterly pulse anonymously by teams to prevent burnout. Kayla's big risk in software is a power outage. Jeff plans for cultural risks when working abroad by talking to as many stakeholders about what to expect, then embeds himself in the community. Matt learned the culture quickly when he lived in China. A member asks what to do when a salesman decides that an optional feature will be free to customers. Gabe says to take a fact-based approach to costs and reinforce to your team who is making the decisions. Matt says whoever has the best facts usually comes out on top.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Haiti Construction Estimating Software RSMeans

Host, Jeff Plumblee interviews Lauren Selley, Director of Program Management at Y Media Labs. They discuss a variety of topics in program and project management. Besides managing programs, Lauren is a knowledge management evangelist. She also advocates for inclusivity in project management and getting women into tech. Lauren started in high school with HTML, customizing her MySpace page! She became a teacher, but from teaching, she jumped into project management as a business analyst for a Microsoft boutique company, and eventually landed at Y Media Labs. How did Lauren's experience as a teacher prepare her to manage teams and work with clients? Very well, she explains!Listen in for some of the highs and lows of Lauren's projects, and how she had to retool an important customer's project over three days to fit an obsolete browser. Also, hear her suggestions for processes, software, and tools that will help you pave your way to project perfection.   Key Takeaways: As Director of Program Management at Y Media Labs, Lauren oversees some of their larger enterprise programs, implementing mobile and web solutions, and manages a small team focused on operational excellence in their project management office (PMO). Something that brought her team together was focusing on analytics and data. Implementing tools like heat-mapping to get actual facts and data. In Lauren's opinion, analytics and data are the number one driving factors for being able to get a successful product to market. Working with a large insurance company, Lauren had the opportunity to work on commerce strategies using AI conversational chatbots. It's exciting to work with emerging technologies before they're in the market. It's the opportunity to shape the way projects like that can be executed. Lauren's worst experience on a project was early in her career and she learned a ton from it. It was providing a new look and feel for a very large utility provider — little did she know they were using an obsolete browser and wouldn't change it. Lauren disburses insights over a Notion wiki and stores formulas in an Excel or Google sheet. Lauren is a knowledge management evangelist. Jeff and Heather discuss Notion's benefits. Lauren has implemented Notion as the company intranet. She gives examples of templates available. Laurens's last thoughts: Program management is such a robust space with so much opportunity, not just in tech but across so many industries. Lauren shares her secret formula for determining if program management is right for you. Also, minimize your meetings and keep them succinct.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Moovila.com Lauren Selley Y Media Labs Microsoft PMI Project Management Professional (PMP)® IE6 Agile Notion.so SharePoint IFTTT Slack Salesforce Xavier Analytics

Host, Matthew Stoltz, VP of Marketing, and “Bucky” Jobe, VP of Operations at Moovila,  interview Heather Abel, project coordinator from Komatsu Mining Corporation, about Komatsu's $285 million manufacturing facility project and new headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They discuss how autonomous project management technology has helped Komatsu stay on track. Heather shares how she became the Project Coordinator for building the new corporate campus — the largest project in the history of Komatsu. She first prepared for and achieved the status of Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM) from PMI. Next, she worked with “Bucky” Jobe on setting up the multiple workstreams of the construction and installation project in Moovila. Moovila developed new functionality for this Komatsu project. Listen in for the importance of using the right project management technology for the scope of your project.   Key Takeaways: Before this project, Heather was Executive Assistant to the President, with a focus on projects. This Project Coordinator role is a lifetime opportunity for her. Heather quickly got certified in CAPM. The project spans a 60-acre site. It includes a manufacturing plant, offices, robotics labs, a four-story parking garage, and a museum. Heather had about 25 workstreams running at any one time. She needed something robust to manage a team of 60 and their different project plans. The workstreams are not siloed but overlap. Komatsu needed software with visibility to make the experts and project managers accountable. Moovila offered a simple way to assign tasks and accept assignments without email or meetings. A workstream may have multiple projects. Heather tried Microsoft Project but it was not enough. “Bucky” tells of the partnership between Heather and Moovila. Heather was given no rules but was expected to show the results! “Bucky” was involved with the Komatsu project from Day 1 as part of Moovila's White Glove service to fully onboard its customers. Heather shows Matt and “Bucky” more details that involved 15,000 tasks. Heather lists some of the workstreams, such as spaces, furnishings, moving people to the new buildings, and overseeing the project team. Everyone can manage their project as it suits their team, and Heather can coordinate the teams to see that they all work together. Heather credits the Moovila team who helped her import data to the system from the different tools each team used to document their progress. Heather talks about taking an overview and looking at everyone's milestones. She showed Matt and “Bucky” her Moovila executive dashboard. Heather has meetings all day. Moovila allows assignments to be made without extra communication. The teams are aligned as efficiently as possible. Heather finds the reporting to be far superior to the reports she used to make from Excel. Moovila has visibility and tracking. Executives can go into Moovila and focus on one tiny corner. Is it on time? Is it done? Moovila is transparent. Heather likes the critical paths on the installation checklist and features such as batch editing. Heather can add or subtract managers and update the timeline. The status goes to the executives and the executives report to the top levels. What does Heather see as the most notable gains of using Moovila? There are quite a few million dollars of savings projected over the installation. There were some construction delays and COVID-19 paid a huge role in them. Heather shares how Moovila's transparency works for executives. They expect this installation not to impact customers in any way, and to stay within budget! This Komatsu project drove the development of Moovila's interproject dependency functionality and completely put it to the test! It works! From her executive dashboard, Heather can see the status of all projects and the story behind everything. Heather doesn't do charts or calculate anything. Heather's last thoughts: Managing an installation project of this scope with Moovilla is incredible! It is historic, it is substantial, and it is fascinating!   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management  Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Komatsu Mining Corporation Heather Abel Adison “Bucky” Jobe PMI CAPM Certification Microsoft Project Excel

Host, Jeff Plumblee, interviews Kayla Williams about project management and her career path. Kayla moved from the offices of auto dealerships to software account manager, implementation manager, product manager, and finally, project manager. She tells why project manager is the right job for her. She shares her notable successes, including a near-failure. Kayla reveals her favorite tools and procedures and how she guards her time to stay at her best. Listen in for ideas on the work to do before the project begins.   Key Takeaways: After sudden growth, leadership brought Kayla in to direct the company's growth, increase efficiency, and support the operations teams in that growth. In her role, Kayla identifies problems, vets and implements potential solutions, and operationalizes them across the company. Kayla found challenges in a brand new role at an established company. She was the new person disrupting everybody's life! She shares a related anecdote. The most amazing part for Kayla is that leadership is open to change for the better! The leadership brought Kayla in to provide outsider input. Leadership tells her the problem, and she runs with it and presents options for efficiency and accuracy. Benefit Harbor has just under 100 employees so it's a small company compared to other software companies. Kayla considers “the next five questions” she'll need to address as the project progresses. Having a good plan helps people get over the concern of extra work. What does it mean to get buy-in? Kayla talks about employees and leaders seeing the benefits of the change and wanting to use the new system. How did Kayla get into project management from managing departments at automotive dealerships? She discovered Excel and had an “aha” moment! Kayla got a job at a local software company in Charleston, NC as an account manager for their largest public-sector client. Kayla worked her way up from account manager to implementation consultant and then into products. After a time, she made the decision to leave. Kayla had a friend at Benefit Harbor who said she was the person for a position there. She applied. Her experience in products led her to project management. One project that stands out for Kayla is from her time as an account manager. The COO of the account required her to be looped into a project gone wrong. The current project manager did not have the payroll expertise that Kayla had, so Kayla stepped in and fine-tuned the project for 500K people for 22 clients. Kayla learned from that experience the importance of calling in all the necessary subject-matter experts for the project. Today, Kayla tries to ask all the questions about a project so if she needed to complete it herself, she would have all the information she needed to do so. Kayla uses Confluence from Atlassian to capture the information she gathers about the project. She explains how she uses Confluence to document it all. Kayla's best project came when she was a product manager. It was a feature she needed to build across the company. It was in 2019. During the project, her entire team was laid off for COVID-19. Kayla became the product manager, product owner, and project manager! She was in leadership meetings answering for all the features they wanted. She had asked all the right questions of all the stakeholders and visualized the end product, so she was able to hand it off to the engineers and get it right. Kayla explains some details of the project, which came off seamlessly, largely because of her two months of doing the research at the front of the project. Kayla talks about APIs, which are transparent to the user but necessary and take time. Report clearly to leadership how and why your project time is being spent. Kayla's success metrics include researching the ROI to show leadership the true value of the project. Kayla inherited a project. The data was very complex and they almost ripped out all the code because it wasn't working! Do the up-front research first! Kayla tells why she cuts off her calendar at 4:30! Kayla's views on instant messaging and texting. She's a big fan of Teams for the messaging. Kayla's last thoughts: Protect your time. Don't expect yourself to be “on” all the time.   Brought to you by Moovila — Autonomous Project Management  Website: Moovila.com/thisprojectlife Email: thisprojectlife@moovila.comResources: Kayla Williams on LinkedIn Benefit Harbor Atlassian Confluence Salesforce Outlook Calendar Microsoft Teams