Join the Revolution - Caption the 7 billion videos online

Thanks to my NYU stratcomm class this has come to my attention. I wasn't aware that there are 7 billion online videos that cannot be equitably digested by all.

It is only fair that videos should have accessibility tag option that allows the user to select captions or no captions, but this means that all videos online should be captioned. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.

Best.

Recent Project failures are success to others, why?

On October 2013, Boston globe reported that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had a hearing to examine failed IT projects managed by Deloitte Consulting. The focus of the hearing was on the unemployment Assistance project initially budgeted for $40 million, started in 2007 and planned to complete in 2011.

Current State: 2 years later and an additional $6 million dollars, project is now subject of complaints from users, and 11 different systems not integrated and cannot exchange data.

Is this a successful project?

During the hearing, Deloitte's Mark Price indicated the unemployment assistance project was a success. However, Mark also acknowledged that there were some issues and challenges, but when asked to share some lessons learned to improve the project, he didn’t offer very much. 

It is clear that offering any lessons learned to improve the project would indicate the project was not as successful as Mark Price initially claimed. At what point did this project become successful for Deloitte? Or is it just a misalignment between the client and service provider? This is an issue of unclear business requirements, unclear criteria for project success, and a major breakdown in communication between all stakeholders involved. After 6 years and $46 Million dollars, having a hearing today is very late. Someone should have raised an alarm earlier.

Managing communications efficiently

The project management book of knowledge (PMBOK) offers some tips on how to improve communication. Why do we forget these ideas? 

PMBOK highlights:

• Message -- what you want to communicate
• Medium -- the way you send the message and
• Noise -- things that interfere with comprehension.

For email communications, i would add:

• Action Required 
• And what marks this message as complete.

There is nothing more inefficient than exchanging information and one party is waiting or expecting the other to perform some type of action.
On the other hand, i have to be honest that having Action required in email subject lines makes some people uncomfortable, but i feel it's better to be uncomfortable than inefficient.

Having effective project status meetings

              
Ever attended project status meetings where you are spending a lot time preparing notes prior to? or
Are your team members repeating information everyone should already know?
If yes to any of the above, here are some tips to make your status meetings more effective.  

1. Start with the answer or current state.  For example, "we are at planned" or "we are two weeks late". 
2. Structure discussion around risks and issues/Exceptions. No need to share information on items going as planned. Also always have a plan or options if you have issues.
3. Clarify and confirm upcoming milestones. Go no further than 2 weeks ahead otherwise you keep repeating items.
4. Schedule the status meeting the second workday of each week. It allows for using the first workday to gather information for the meeting and using the the last three full days to act on the milestone guidance from the last portion of the meeting.
   

For more details on this article by 

Kevin Korterud, go to http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2013/10/best-weekly-status-meeting-eve.html

Project communications tips - Learn from Gen Y and more..

             In a September 2013 article published via a PMI communication strategic program, Voices on Project Management, located at http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2013/09/communicate-to-connect-with-ge.html, Conrad Morlan, PMP, PgMP, shares some communication tips that can significantly impact project outcomes.

• Communication barriers and channels: Identify the communication preferences of all project team members or stakeholders, and share them with the team.
• Gen Y team members: Learn about new collaboration tools that you can apply to the project from this group since they are likely to be more familiar with modern communication tools.
• Balance preferences with new technologies: Try to accommodate all preferences, but do not introduce too many new technologies.
• Adoption: can be best be accomplished when you propose and not by imposing.

Do we need to revisit PMI or PMBOK recommendations for project communications?

Why does it feel like one is living in varying dimensions? I am quite surprised I have never been staffed or managed any projects that utilized any of the new communication tools available, communication such as tweeter and other social media tools. For example, in our day-to-day life or in the news or any media event, everything now ends with hashtags, blogs, or Tweet that or this. Should and can these new tools and communication trends influence communications across project teams?