4 PM News Stories
Power of Projects Takeover
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic APM have, over the last couple of months, cleverly pivoted their valuable programme of CPD events normally delivered by branch volunteers into an increasingly successful series of webinars. Attendance at the lunchtime sessions regularly hit 300 or more. Check out the programme of future webinars.
To build further on this success they have replaced their annual London conference with a virtual "Power of Projects Takeover". Running from 1st to 12th June, the online events are free to all, with APM members also benefiting from exclusive access to post event networking opportunities and discussions, and on-demand access to all stream sessions after the event.
It's great to see APM leading the way.
Online Meetings
I've been managing projects and client engagements around the world making heavy use of technology to remain cost effective and efficient, for over a decade having held hundreds if not thousands of online meetings. In response to the pandemic lots of people have been asking me about how to best use online meetings and so I've re-shared on PM Advisor advice and tips that I've previously shared with clients.
Some of the tips shared include preparing the technology, how to be a considerate attendee, and how to show your best self.
There is an abundance of tools available and choosing the right one isn't always easy. We've all heard recently about Zoom (which now seems to have got it's act together regarding security and privacy), but what else is there? As with many things in life, selecting the right tool for the job is also incredibly important. So your first question should always be, what type of online meeting will you have? Typically there are 3 main types of meeting:
Personal Meetings (one -to-one, small groups, interviews,..) are where it's important to see the people you're talking to, in order to benefit from that all important non-verbal communication. Screen sharing, while nice is often not essential. FaceTime, Duo, Skype, GoToMeeting, WebEx, Zoom, Teams, all work well in this space
Group Meetings (team meetings, classroom/training) are where facial expressions are less important, but it's still important for the presenter/teacher to see all attendees body language to ensure engagement and responses. Screen sharing is in most cases essential. GoToMeeting, WebEx, Zoom, Skype
Group Briefings (large team briefings, CPD sessions, sales webinars) are where the priority is that all attendees see the presented material and ideally the speaker. Raised hands/chat/written questions functionality is much more important.
It's important to remember that while most software tools will work on most devices there are some limitations with interoperability and with the number of video images that can be seen together - mobile phones show less concurrent videos than tablets, which in turn often show less than laptop/desktop computers.
There have been some recent changes in response to the pandemic. For example, Teams are increasing the number of videos seen from 4 to 9, Google Meet has been rolled out for free (for now), Facebook have introduced/improved the video chat functionality in both Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Rethinking Agile: A Structured Approach To Risk Management
This is an interesting article where Christopher Yang discusses the inherent challenges with risk management in agile development, and strategies that could be taken. I also wonder if there would be some wisdom in not just considering probabilistic risk management but also using scenario planning.
Project Management & COVID-19 Recovery
Stephen Townsend and David Summers From PMI look forward with insight from previous disaster recovery efforts, and highlight the importance that planning, agility and PM competence will have.
What PM related stories have caught your eye this week?