Month-End Magic or Mystery?

As a Project Manager for the last several years, I have been working directly with customers and am in a position where I have to document revenue at the end of every month. What I noticed is that every company (services or manufacturing) seems to struggle with the same month-end process which is usually crazy, exhausting and unfortunately inaccurate. Wouldn’t it be nice to just work at a steady pace throughout the month and not have a ‘fire-drill’? Am I the only one looking for this sanity?

What I see is management desiring accuracy in revenue delivery (compared to target) and project managers desiring a process that makes the month-end process simple. Why is the month-end so different from any other process? It is no different from the process for ‘how to build a computer’ or ‘how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich’ for that matter. If we just break down the steps we can streamline it, can’t we?

There seem to be competing needs – management wants to maximize revenue each month and project managers do not want to commit to revenue until they are sure they can meet it (they have received time-sheets and copies of expense reports). These two need to meet in the middle in order to improve accuracy to ensure revenue targets are met. That is the goal.

Some things to consider when planning your month-end are:
1) Identify a cutoff date for month end so that the team has time to submit paperwork before the month-end close
2) Make sure there is a clearly defined process (that is also communicated to everyone) for handling items that must roll-over to the next month.
3) Become friends with the finance people because you may do things that are annoying (like send them an invoice request at 4:59 on the last day of the month!)

What are you doing today to help simplify your month-end process?

How to PDU your PMP…

I recently ran into a fellow Project Management Professional (PMP) and when I mentioned Professional Development Units (PDUs) and renewal of their certification, they suddenly realized that they had NO IDEA where they stood with PDUs to retain their certification. Just because you passed the PMP certification exam, does not mean you are certified forever. Instead it means you need to collect PDUs forever if you want to retain the certification. Sure, you could sign up and retake the PMP exam, but somehow I don’t think that is what most people prefer.

Getting PDU points actually isn’t has hard as you think. Project Management Institute (PMI) has provided reasonable yet attainable recertification requirements and makes it relatively easy to record and track those. In comparison, over the last few weeks I was working on renewing some American Society for Quality (ASQ) certifications and discovered it was a paperwork nightmare. I had to get 18 points, but things like 1 hour training meetings only counted for .1 points. So even with my employment, it was going to take a lot of effort to get enough points to renew. Also, the ASQ renewal is completely through a paper process. I have to make copies of all of the documents, fill out a paper form and then send all the papers (in a thick envelope) to an ASQ renewal member from the local chapter. To make my challenge worse, I wanted to attend some monthly ASQ meetings to accumulate some points – unfortunately they were no meetings at all for the summer. In other words, they aren’t exactly making it easy for me to renew my certification.

If you have a PMP, Certified Associate Project Manager (CAPM) or Program Management Professional (PgPM) certification with PMI, be sure to use the great electronic reporting system they have provided and utilize all the breakfast meetings, local chapter meetings, and PDU meetings to accumulate your renewal points. Gathering points may seem like a big hassle, but if you start early and plan to get a certain number of points each year, it really isn’t so bad. I am assuming that anyone who already took the PMP exam, doesn’t want to retake it. Am I right? So why are you still sitting there? Go get some PDUs!

Communication, your silver bullet!

As I started my new job this week I came to the realization that all Project Managers suffer from the same challenges. It doesn’t matter what your company name is, what your job title is, or how long you have been a project manager, the only thing you really need to know is how to deal with problems. The most important skill a project manager has at their disposal for problem solving can’t be demonstrated on the PMP exam, and that is communication skills. Communication can become your silver bullet.

Whether it is scheduling resources for your project, completing the project on time, or getting customer acceptance, it seems that good communication skills and some creative thinking can get you through the most challenging times. I recall being in a situation where a customer was so mad, they yelled at me. You would think that would be impossible to overcome (and it was) until I apologized. It wasn’t so much what I apologized for, but the fact that I sincerely felt bad for making the customer angry. I was very sincere (in my apology), which is an important aspect of communication.

A manager told me once, “Sometimes you need to ruffle some feathers so that they can be smoothed out”. You will definitely have to break bad news to your customer or deal with some really bad situations (like them yelling at your or telling your manager they want you off the project), but in the end the customer will appreciate honesty and sincerity. Even when you think that the situation is impossible and the customer is Satan, you can overcome it through communication. Get good at this one skill and you can look like Superman (for me maybe SuperGirl) to you manager, your company and even your customer.

He’s a PM, She’s a PM, Everywhere there is a PM

Over the last few weeks as I was networking as part of my job search, I ran into a lot of people who were project managers or claiming to be. It scared me a little knowing that there were so many Project Managers out of work. The job listings for Project Managers in on-line job sources like Indeed were plentiful, I just wasn’t sure how real they were. Was I going to be competing with all these people who were already months into their job search? How was I going to manage with all this competition? Also, I wondered if I would need to take a salary cut as a result of supply and demand – the supply of Project Managers being high and the demand being low.

After further investigation, I learned that hiring managers were very challenged with finding true, experienced, Project Managers in their specific industry. Also, due to the number of Project Manager positions that were open, a lot of individuals were re-branding themselves as Project Managers, when in fact they may have only had a certification (if they were lucky), and did not have practical work experience. I was not sure if I felt better or worse by this discovery. I definitely feared that the value of a PMP certification might degrade because a bunch of charlatans were posing as Project Managers.

I also found that companies were advertising for Project Managers, but they didn’t require a PMP certification. When I talked to one employer about salary, it was clear they did not see the value of a PMP certification nor did they want to pay the additional salary for such a credential. I believe it is good that companies are understanding the need for someone to perform the Project Manager role, but it seems like more care needs to be taken to differentiate between a Project Manager and someone who manages projects as part of a technical role (such as a technical lead). If employers expect the same person to be able to deliver and manage, they could be extremely disappointed with the results.

As it turns out, there is actually a fairly high demand for IT Project Managers right now whether it is in the infrastructure or software side of IT. Over the last few years companies have put a lot of projects on hold, but they are quickly realizing that because IT is so essential to their business operations (and technology becomes obsolete so quickly) they are finding they have to move ahead with various projects as a necessity, not a nicety.

I feel like one of the ‘lucky ones’ as my job hunt is over and I will be back to work in early August. I just hope that employers and Project Managers (whether full-fledged PMPs or new entrants to the PM role) can be matched up to make it win-win for everyone. If employers and potential employees are honest about what they need and what they can offer, it will make the job fulfillment process a lot easier.