A recent article about IBM was titled the same as of this article. So, there is no claim about the ownership that rightfully belongs to IBM, but the message is clear and universal, and applicable to one and all.

Companies these days are trying to cut down the dependencies. What was once outsourced is now considered to be developed in-house.? Why do we outsource?

Why can’t we? These questions crop-up.

The cost aside, companies are concerned about the control and ownership.  It proves cost-effective to get things done outside and hence outsource. The realization has set in that exist an opportunity to hone skills within and companies are willing to invest in their workforce than scout elsewhere. It is to advance their own workforce in terms of skillset and also engage in emerging technologies that corporates are on the lookout for their own “data scientists and architects to be better equipped to work with us to build out these solutions .”

It is impossible to have everything in-house. Practically not possible.  Indispensable is a far cry, and hence companies are willing to settle for interdependencies. The eco-system is such that we need one another, but how much of a dependency is acceptable? It5 can be understood from the article that IBM, which is a technology powerhouse, is focused on ‘strategic imperatives - which is building new offerings in analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain

The question is: are you conversant with these technologies. Analytics, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain seem to be hitting high notes and the need and necessity for a professional certifications in these niche technologies will validate your competencies and vouch for your capabilities, to help your company grow or get into new service lines to maximize business and optimize resources.

iCertGlobal has a slew of professional certifications that covers a gamut of courses from project management to cyber security, to analytics, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain. Please visit our website www.icertglobal.com to know more about our core offerings and the opportunities for you to make the most and advance your career.

Usually, Boss is used as a moniker about the one who lords around or tries to throw the weight by trying to herd. 

The Boss, in the titular role, doesn’t have to be bossy as mostly misunderstood. Our perception of ‘Boss’ is more about command and control. The Boss is synonymous with Leader. The line that does the round is that Boss ‘tells you what to do’, while the Leader ‘teaches you why and how to di it.’ This is still in theory.  Somehow that title of Boss is very unsettling. 

But just like different times calls for different actions, and sometimes different actors, a leader turns more as a boss in cracking the whip should the situation mandate. It is often confused being a Boss is bad, and the leader truly benevolent. It’s a very fine line between being a boss and leader. In fact the line blurs. How does one define autocratic leadership then?

There are many leadership styles: Autocratic, Democratic, Strategic, Transformational, Laissez-faire. The boss can follow any such leadership style or may be all but applicable to the audience 9read as employees).

Are all employees the same? 

The 80/20 is very much present as inferred from the performance – meaning, 80% of the workload is usually assigned to 20% of staff. Why? Because they are ‘the’ performers. Notice carefully and you will find it hard to dispute that the one who is hardworking and consistent on deliver is always assigned more work. Why? Because of the delivery. Company needs employees who are able, reliable and consistent in performance. Employees are always a mix and match . while some perform, some outperform and some don’t perform at all. Accordingly, the Boss has to adopt different leadership styles.

It will be very unfair to portray the boss in a poor light just because he/she is unfairly and unreasonably demanding. Some Boss scream “I want it and want it now” without realizing the magnitude of work or plainly pushing their luck. But it can go as far as possible. If shouting and screaming works, then work place will be a street fight so chaotic that your differentiating factor as a Leader will be your decibel level.

Command and Control

This IS required to the ones who need jumpstart. They can’t do it by themselves and some push to move forward. In the worst case, push becomes a shove. That’s where the ‘Command and Control’ is exercised. “if you don’t do it, then..” might sound as a threat but with some staff this works. Whipping works. These are poor in self-esteem, lack confidence and hang in there for survival. And they know well, that getting another job or alternatives is hard to come by and hence respond to the command. It is the fear of getting fired that somehow extracts the work. Hence, it is useful to such work force – usually new  joinee, entry-level ,  fresher or experienced hires who are yet to adapt to the new surroundings.

Democratic 

Leadership through consensus by winning confidence and gaining ‘buy-in’ of the team. This team is mature and self-starters. They don’t need someone to be behind their back to get the job done. Once delegated, they are on their own and ensure it is done with minimal intervention and supervision. Accountability is usually high, and the team takes pride in its performance. 

Laissez-faire

This is not commonly practices and usually associated with researches and their ilk. Such resources are very independent from the start and don’t need any intervention or monitoring, mostly, the engagement will be time-bound and hence the Boss will have very less scope with regard to delegation or follow-up.

So what kind of a Boss are you?

Brutal, demanding, ruthless, callous, difficult, tough, harsh and aggressive? Just look around and how many faces can your eyes meet and count. The Boss is responsible for the cycle of business with the feet on the pedal. At one stroke the boss has to face so many faces. Possible? That’s why that person is the Boss. And yes, it takes some aggression and ruthlessness to get the job done weighing in the 80/20 rule. ‘The one who shows mercy on others denies oneself’ – doesn’t mean callous in attitude. Though caring, they appear callous else the workforce becomes complacent. 

Agreed, some Bosses are obnoxious, petty-minded, self-centered and can’t think beyond business. But then, it’s unfair to stereotype the Boss in such fashion. Some bosses are gentle, willing with en ear to hear, and simply wonderful.  The Boss, too, is a human with family to tend and friends to catch up. It is just that they burn more hours and sacrifice so much so that can draw a salary.

Don’t bother. A boss is as much a leader with a different kind of flavor.

Do you agree? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

 "The India Education Awards is a celebration of excellence "

Awards are telling reminders – to let us know what we are and who we are. 

iCertGlobal Pvt Ltd was presented the India Education Awards -2018 in a star studded ceremony on      April 8, 2018 organized by Blindwink Solutions Private Limited. The India Education Awards 2018, conceived and initiated by Blindwink  is aimed at felicitating excellence, reputation and exemplary work in the Education Sector.

CEO Speak

“Awards are true inspirations that acknowledges to the world that we are worthy of recognition through our consistent results and outstanding contribution for all-round excellence in academic pursuits.  We accept it as an appreciation of our continual commitment and dedicated service in the realm of education.

“We take this moment to thank our people and patrons; our colleagues and clients; staff and stakeholders.  They are the ones to push the edge of the envelope, move the needle to beat projections and forecasts and continue to inspire us to strive to do better.  Their dedication and support has contributed to our success. Our heartfelt congratulations to the team, and sincere thanks to all those who made this possible” said Irfan Sharief, the CEO of the company.

Company Profile

iCertGlobal, is one of the leading professional certification training providers, offering several programs to corporate and consumers. Based out of Houston, Texas, US, and operations in UK, Australia, APAC and India, iCertGlobal has a global imprint across the globe.

iCertGlobal conducts professional trainings on varied and diverse list from Project Management, Service Management, Quality Management, Agile & Scrum and Niche technologies. They are active in both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumers) models, and successfully trained more than 75,000 professionals with more than 3,000,000 quality hours of active training, spread across strategic locations like Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, India, Australia, UK and US.

Some of the recent headlines were so shocking that made stunned people all over the world. The links are presented for anyone who cares to read further and know for themselves. 

Industrial espionage goes a long way back to the mid-90s [remember the incident in Intel when one of the employees tried to sell sensitive documents to competitor].

How did Volkswagen dupe millions of car owners, flout stringent US norms? 

Apple hack exposes flaws in building apps behind 'Great Firewall'

Apple Removes 300 Infected Apps from App Store | WIRED 

Apple Targeted as Malware Infects China Mobile Apps - WSJ

In the digital era, the cybercrime is quite steep given the climbing numbers and catastrophic consequences. The links listed aren't of distant past but relatively new - some or still unveiling and some under investigation. What shocks the learned and layperson is when technology is no longer nascent why the threat should not be nipped in the bud? Nipped?! These bloopers don’t blossom from a bud – be it insider job or outsider, but come to light after shaking our faith and foundation.

The worst threat for now is the cyber threat and measures are mounted to step up cyber security despite which the crime rate scaling is both puzzling and perplexing. If there are breaches in security, the damage could be colossal, making it mandate in tying the loose ends. The best anti-virus is unable to prevent a malware from harming the programs; the best social engineering is not able to mitigate but only makes lives miserable. Ashley Madison hack’s ramification ruined personal life and which is an intrusion into privacy and revelation is damning both to the customers and commerce. When powerhouses like apple’s app store with a reputation of rigid and robust ‘firewall’ is no longer impregnable, anything can be infiltrated, and as endorsers or end-users we lost our insulation and immunity. 

Software is susceptible 

Every software is susceptible and hardware vulnerable? So where is the power of protection? Unfortunately there is no anti-dote ready that can anticipate attack and annihilate the assailant. Surely some minds are busy at ‘work-is-in-progress’ in chalking out a solution. A more complex encryption or safe vault or something very innovative and effective. When the shadow of the danger grows in size threat looms large. 

Disturbing as it gets for the very hand trusted was the one that gave it away. One can defend from outside but how to discern that ‘insider’. Even after closing all gaps, plugging holes, locking doors, securing and sanitizing, how does that slip happen and that too under our very nose? TECHNOLOGY.

Technology is always a double-edged sword. The insiders also use ‘Cloud’ facilities to make away with their goodies. Cloud services are proving to be almost indispensable. Line up the companies offering cloud capabilities and it will feature the heavyweights in the industry: Amazon, Microsoft, apple. So as a safety chute should we just shut down access to the services so that any possible ‘breach’ prevented? Or restrict access? The sanction of cloud services are strictly on need and merit and of course trust.

The vast majority of cloud services don’t encrypt data (as opposed to in transmission), only 15% support multi-factor authentication, and even fewer (6%) are ISO certified, says Sky high CEO Rajiv Gupta. (ISO 27001 was created in 2013 to ensure that security risks and threats to the business are assessed and managed, that physical security processes such as restricted access are enforced consistently, and that audits are conducted regularly.) [source : https://hbr.org/2015/09/what-do-you-do-when-employees-start-using-a-free-cloud-service]

Because it’s so difficult to monitor and regulate employees’ use of file-sharing sites and other cloud services, many CIOs grapple with the whole issue.

So what are the defence mechanisms with regard to data security in cloud?

Data hashing is a technology that creates a hash, or specific code, to identify a given dataset. This allows the integrity of the data to be checked every time the data is used or accessed by a credential individual at the firm. Hashing would prevent data from being changed by an unauthorized third party.

Digital watermarks allow data to be tracked. While this approach does not protect the data, it does allow it to be linked back to the individual who placed it on a cloud or at an unsanctioned location, making that person potentially responsible for any consequences to the data’s misappropriation.

Researchers are attempting to create simple yet effective means of facilitating cross-cloud single-sign-on authentication, where a “foreign” cloud provider is required to gain trusted third-party status from the “home” cloud before being able to communicate with the user and the user’s applications.

Still the advice holds well that sensitive and critical data is guarded and under heavy security and scrutiny.

SalesForce recently introduced Salesforce Shield to protect its cloud apps assuring users that the encryption is by far the best and chances of breach is very slim. But can it be slammed down from slim to simply impossible?

We scratched the surface with regard to Data Defence with Cloud based survives. In the next post, let us look at ways to safeguard out data against any attack.

We welcome your thoughts about Data Security…..

image courtesy: https://destekhizmeti.com/bilgi-guvenligi-hizmetleri

It’s an interesting pointer that can be deliberated but never decided with a Boolean yes/no response. Waterfall is the conventional methodology and given Agile’s merits it’s too attractive to make an immediate shift but one should reason with the ramification by balancing the pros and cons as agile may not be an ideal fitment for every project. Accepted Agile has made great strides but has it replaced waterfall altogether is subjective if we are mindful of the consequences. We learn by experience and the takeaway in the form of teaching is to beware and be cautious of concerns.  Usually technical heads mull over the decision by studying requirements again and again to arrive at a conclusion. 

They are both project management methodologies, and the applicability rest on many factors.  Just because waterfall has been around for long doesn’t make it indispensable and agile emerging much later is the most happening either. That’s why approach adopted should be strictly on merits. It’s a no-brainer the discussion about this subject would entail into PMP or PRINCE2 certification. 

Waterfall methodology is most easily identified with PMP certification program, while PRINCE2 follows Agile. Both these approaches are very different, hence the deliberation before deciding on picking the best suiting the needs. 

Waterfall is a typical plan-build-test-deliver stage, where the final version is envisioned in the planning phase, rendering the requirement study and scope as very critical, and any change is addressed through change requirement, and the customer gets to have a feel at the UAT stage only, when all is done and set to go. 

Agile is very modular, impleneted through scrum, wherein the client acts as one of the stakeholders and can know firsthand the output of a phase technically referred as ‘sprint’ and every requirement is detailed as a story card with scrummaster manning the post. The individual accountability is very high. The sprint demo can be shown to client for feedback and changes incorporated and hence its the process is iterative. This flexibility is not possible in waterfall methodology. 

Let's study the popular or most searched words using Google Trends, and though it’s a ballpark and not a scientific proposition, it does offer a perspective as to where the world is heading towards on a bird’s view.

The PMP certification seems to have picked up and peaked and gradually slides down with the forecast trending upwards, while Agile at one stage seems to have spiked over PMP and continued to ascent, and the forecast too is favorable. 

The certification aspect witnessed PMP on the rise and peaking only to slip down and forecast is forward, while Agile is steady with not much of growth nor stunted and the forecast is trending upwards.

The charts are based on ‘keyword’ search and need not necessarily endorse any claim not be evident of any outcome. Like stressed earlier they present a picture of the trends and such PMP is still quite popular, and Agile is holding on and growing.

So what do you think is the trend? Do let us know…

image courtesy: http://outmatch.com/top-trends-hr-get-agile-innovative-2017/ 

Who makes a good project manager? A technically sound, rich in experience with exceptional soft skills? 

How much of a value-add is thrown-in with the ‘technical’ tag. End of the day its Management - be it technical or non-technical. 

Management role is very dynamic wherein one should know where to reach and how to achieve the same. For anyone to be a successful Manager at senior level, build a team having right skill. It is important to note that empowering next-level managers decides the success of their Manager. 

Of course, the Manager needs to have big picture and good clarity on the vision to give the right direction to the next- level. Manager should have right people to execute the same vision and position at the right place. But how does one identify ‘right’? Call it acumen or something gained from experience or inner calling or instincts – or sum of all. Subjective as ‘right’ might be, it does prove critical for the success of the Manager in any organization. 

Know Self/Team: 

Any Manager should assess and evaluate his/her strength and team’s strength as well.  The clarity should be crystal clear for the Manager / team to achieve the mission/vision of the team. 

Know the gap (Self/Team): 

And it is imperative to know what the gap within the current team setup – be it technical, functional & behavioral. 

Fill the Gap:

Gap can be filled in multiple ways depending on the scope and width of the gap. Managers always should try to work on people’s strength and enhance/sharpen to bring the best more out from his/her team. That will help the team to be engaged fully. 

If the gap is on technical/functional aspect, team can undergo the required training if there is enough time for learning curve.  When the need to address gap is critical or urgent, it’s better to hire people with right skills. 

Find the ‘fitment’

When Manager decides to fill the gap by hiring new resources, the ability to assess about the new hire to deliver is a one of the key clincher. If not, nothing wrong in seeking the opinion of peers’ help to connect with the right fitment.  It’s very important that we choose the right people for any opening as most of the cases it’s the fitment that’s diagnosed as the pain point – and that too late in the project.Screening and selecting suitable candidates who are sound technically can cut out most of the spillage and increase the turnaround time. 

Technically sound professionals have an appreciable head-start as compared to the less informed as the learning curve isn’t that steeper and with a minimal time spent in training the crew can be inducted in the team and start contributing.  They are ‘the professional with practice’. 

We will discuss more about this topic in our next blog from the perspective of PMBOK® version 6.

image courtesy: www.pexels.com

Professional certification is no more an alternative; it’s the benchmark. Professional certification is no longer restricted to a domain; its across business. 

Professionals need certification today,

To be counted;
To stay competitive;
To possess intellectual capital;
To present credentials.

Be certified  to  expand career path.

Whatever be your chosen field, unless you excel and exceed expectations, your talent remain unharnessed. Certifications help you to amplify your skills and counts as key differentiator.

Topline is the Talent.

The HI-B visa creating a ruckus and protectionism playing it out in the front  with full force. the parity in the pay that reckoned to be lopsided, the crunch now will be on the talent as the metric has been set for ‘indispensable expertise’. Still, there exists a gap between the available with the desirable. The numbers simply don’t add up to it.

The question is “are you resourceful?”

As one of the leading online education service provider, we regularly conduct boot camps, workshops and training mainly to equip the professionals/participants in enriching their knowledge base, and boost confidence level in order to become capable . The grind is difficult. Its talent alone that takes you to the top of the heap. Remember, there is no shortage of resume, it’s the skill that suffers a shortage. The demand-supply is always skewed and very rarely have we witnessed the demand surpassing the supply. More often, vacancies remain vacant for want of the talent.

image courtesy: goo.gl/icM3KX 

This is a very common question heard in the corridors treaded too often by the Information Technology professionals, while other verticals and domains are following suit. And the answer is: Yes, you can.

Enroll for Project Management Professional (PMP) with a reputed education provider to earn 35 Contact Hours which is mandatory as prerequisite for taking up the PMP exam. You must possess the major prerequisite in terms of education and experience:  Secondary degree (High School) and 60 months spent  leading and directing project tasks [or] Four-year degree(Bachelor's) with 36 months unique, non-overlapping professional project management experience  leading and directing project tasks.

The 4-day program will enable you to become proficient with the Principles of Project Management, mainly the 47 project management processes and 10 knowledge areas – this will be the curriculum or syllabus. The trainer, at best, can take you through the topics by apportioning time required to spend on modules as careful analysis has defined the hours to be dedicated to a particular module and they greatly differ from one to another.

The basic training must be supplemented through self-study by diving deep into the 10 knowledge areas as detailed in   ‘PMBOK Guide- A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge’ as key reference and the course materials provided by the education provider. It’s to be noted that PMBOK will be offered by the PMI (Project Management Institute). as part of your registration exam fees as a soft copy.

How the 4-day training can be taken is matter of choice and convenience, be it classroom or virtual classroom or e-Learning. End of the day, much depends about your competency and capability in cracking the PMP certification examination.  So far the answer is academic. Now from a practical perspective, your performance in the final exam boils down to the preparation. The better prepared you are, best are chances of making it big at the first attempt. Every institution’s bet is to equip their participants to pass PMP, and this is the differentiator for iCertGlobal to be one of the most sought after destination in preparing for professional certification.

We offer, in addition to the well-planned and well-structured schedule classroom or LVC {Live Virtual Classroom] training, other notables that prove to be the key ingredients to our immense success and popularity:

Exemplary course materials prepared by Industry experts who are PMP certified with hands-on experience in project management and training. Hence they bring tremendous inputs in terms of experience and expertise in carving out the course related resources like Books, Quiz, Practice Questionnaire, Case Studies, and real-time scenario analysis.

Exam Simulator with more than 6000 questions. The questions are created in the same complexity as it would be in the final PMP exam. The pattern and population of questions drawn for various modules will be of the same density as expected in the PMP exam.

Refreshing sessions are for those, on request, to brush up the lessons already learnt to brace for the final race.

Participants are encouraged to stay in touch and maintain contact through the 24x7 support to enhance improved communication. They can create as many opportunities at every turn to learn in as many forms to sharpen the skills in gaining the edge. A repository of resources is available for online access anytime, more as a supplementary link.

Moreover, we follow-up with every participant to sense their progress understand and offer services wherever struggle is detected or discovered.

Of course, the growing testimonies speak for itself!!

image:https://www.freeimages.com/photo/my-tools-1239864

We have moved past the times when experience was enough for an audience with the HR, if not an offer.  

Present times have a different kind of poser.  Experience needs to be backed up with a certification. There isn't much of a choice. Credential is a key differentiator.  This paper will discuss the prospects of PRINCE2® shaping up your profile as that consummate project management professional.

PRINCE2® is a major prerequisite for Project Management 

In UK, PRINCE2® (Projects in Controlled Environments) is considered de facto standard for IT project management. PRINCE2 doesn’t define project as temporary endeavor, rather as a project management method it delivers based on a business case. The progress of the project is measured and monitored through periodical review of the business case so as not to deviate from the business outcome, and thus the situation at the ground level is assessed and addressed with a greater control and clarity. PRINCE2 can be used for any kind of project cutting across culture and setting aside geographic barriers.  It is an effective process method, also easy to learn and the ease of use of framework makes it more favorable with newcomers to PRINCE2®. The merits of PRINCE2® are phenomenal that more companies consider as a major requisite in shortlisting and selection process.

PRINCE2® helps the Managing Project Management  

In PRINCE2 methodology, the decision making doesn’t rest with the project manager, rather the functional and financial authority is with the senior executive. The project manager will help in managing and administering he project by directing resources on behalf of the board  and primarily the reason why government sector prefer this program due to its standardized approach.

PRINCE2® improves employment opportunities. 

The mind has never been at such a premium and to those talented, corporate are just waiting to tap to make it a win-win. . It’s very mutual. But how does PRINCE2 can turn out to be an asset? Its world class and widely renowned and increasing number want to be certified, especially the PRINCE2 Practitioner. You can go global for opportunities and show you got it what it takes with your PRINCE2 credential.  Just check the stats at the top which is a clear indicator in the surge for the demand for qualified and PRINCE2® certified project managers. 

You can reach us at info@icertglobal to know more PRINCE2® certification program.

image courtesy: goo.gl/41ogs

There seems to be early burn-out in IT professionals.

Job pressure, peer pressure, management pressure – the stress is too much ‘burning the midnight oil’ used to be cited ion critical context. Today, it has become the order of the day. Procrastination or poor time management is the primary reason.

Working long hours isn’t productivity. In fact, it is to the contrary. Freeing up bandwidth to take up additional tasks makes a professional resourceful reflective of commitment and management.

Devotion to work should be willful otherwise its leaves one dissatisfied and disgruntled. Everything ought to be balanced – including work.

If you can’t get the work done in the given time, either the estimation is incorrect or the resource incompetent.’  People do tend to procrastinate.

The 40 hour week

 Any project manager with appreciable knowledge and experience will not estimate more than 8-hours in a day. Remember time is money and hence any inflation in your estimation will have an adverse implication on your cost estimation. So balancing the 40-hour and keeping the project within cost calls for a skilled and smart time management.

Performance and productivity

No matter how many hours you clock, its 4 hours spread across 8.  The body might be willing but the mind simply is not up to it. Exhaustion, fatigue leads to failure. Your ability to concentrate ebb s with passage of time. Sources from public domain cite that working fewer hours increase productivity and thereafter tend to wane.

Work-life balance

“I am too busy at work” is the usual refrain. You start before the kids awake and return after the fast asleep. Many professionals itinerary falls in to this pattern. Genuine cases of work chewing and even gobbling time is a possibility but that can’t become the norm. Its not family first or work at any cost. One has to strike a balance to do justice to both – stakeholder management.  And its important to attend on everyone, and if possible content.

 Work-life balance is not pitting work against family, as it is usually misunderstood. Work-life balance is giving your 100% wherever you are occupied – with family or work. 

image courtesy: goo.gl/8KkLyP

PMI (Project Management Institute) was expected to roll out the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition by the third quarter of 2017.  AND IT IS OUT. 

What are the changes in the Sixth Edition?

>> Approaches to Agile.

Every knowledge area will be inclusive of approaches to Agile, Iterative and Adaptive Environments’. This section will detail the integration of agile practices in project backgrounds.
 

 >> PMI Talent Triangle™.

PMI spells the details about the technical skills, business intelligence, and leadership considered the key skills for success. It is also known as Talent triangle. 
 

>> The size of the book.

The fifth edition PMBOK® Guide, has 13 chapters that spans 415 pages. The sixth edition is expected to be quarter the size of the 5th edition, which means it should be close to 84 pages and the number of chapters too have come down to 10. So, sixth edition should be 10 chapters with 84 pages in the draft version.
 

>> Inputs, Tools & Techniques, Outputs (ITTOs).

The sixth edition will not dwell deep into ITTOs, rather it will be covered at a high level.
 

>> Alignment with Process Groups.

The sixth edition will be divided based on the 5 process groups, and not the 10 knowledge areas. This is considered as a major change. The Role Delineation Study (RDS) conducted by PMI has presented its findings and proposed the changed to be aligned with process groups.
 

>> Combination of first three chapters.

In the sixth edition, the first three chapters  combined as one – the interpersonal skills of the project manager and organizational skills will be merged in to one.
 

>>Two processes are expected to be deleted.

The Close Procurement process and Estimate Activities Resources are more likely to be deleted.
 

>>Two knowledge areas to be renamed.

Time Management  and Human Resource Management to be renamed.  Time management will be renamed Schedule management, while Human Resource Management becomes Resource Management.
 

 >> Knowledge Areas to feature four section.

Every knowledge areas will have four new sections, namely, Key Concepts, Trends and Emerging Practices, Tailoring Considerations and Considerations for Agile/Adaptive Environments.
 

 >> An exclusive chapter on role of Project Manager.  

This chapter on Project Manager will cover the key concepts about core competencies, expertise, leadership skills expected in leading a project.

 Reference source: http://www.examspm.com/2016/07/16/pmbok-6th-edition-release-date-changes/

https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/about/current-projects

http://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp/update

https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational-standards-exposure-draft

https://www.pmi.org/learning/training-development/talent-triangle

image courtesy: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards

The word is abuzz about funds being embezzle or malpractice within company. Recent news about trade secrets and IP violations are doing the rounds and ties that were painstakingly built appears so fragile. In the past days a CEO has stepped down, misuse of money in a blue chip company, and non-conformance spells disaster in the parlance of people management.

Governance by every company is based on strong ethics and values and yet incidents like these rocks the boats sending shivers down the spine. Many exclaimed in disbelief ‘It’s just not possible”, and yet that’s exactly what happened – trust deficit. 

It’s in good faith and belief that something is entrusted, but when the person manning the gate gives up blowing the cover than it’s a classic case of the ‘cats guarding the chickens.” Stakeholder Management is proving to be more critical. It’s not the company or the whole crew or the entire block that bungled, but just one rotten apple that makes the basket stink. And despite the foolproof security measures in places, failure like the incidents can not only be frustrating but erode the confidence misplacing the faith.  The murky matters cast a long shadow sparing none from suspicion. Paradoxically, the benefit of doubt cannot be passed and things have worsened to a state where one has to prove innocence. So where went the ‘you are innocent unless proven guilty’. We live in different times that demands drastic changes and impose difficult compliances lest we face dire consequences.

What makes one misbehave? That’s a marked departure to their known traits and character – chances, circumstances, companionship, influence, ir plainly greed. No matter what might be the motives, the shatters everything that individual stood for and along with brings down the whole house. Hence, it becomes critical that we pay more attention to our human assets by studying behavioral aspects and identify scope for improvement. Not everyone is strong; some are susceptible. It’s up to the management to identify the grey areas and iron out the weakness. A SWOT generally helps – especially from an ethical standpoint.

We will like to hear your thought about this subject. Please do share and we welcome your inputs.

What is the challenge today? To keep stakeholders interested and engaged. Stakeholders are wrongly read as customers. Employees too are stakeholders, and earn the respect as  any actor in the eco-system  eco-system.

Why is it so difficult to engage? That’s not much as an issue, rather keeping them engaged. It’s the attention span. For instance, observe the consumer behavior – a person visiting your website. More than 5 seconds, nothing on screen, the person fidgets, and 10 seconds later seeing nothing, the person moves on to something else. So, whatever drew the person to your place was whittled in that 10 seconds to feel withdrawn, and shutdown. You just blew away a prospect – blame the bandwidth, or the brainstorming that sat on the site design, nothing can be done to salvage the damage. 

If you want to dismiss it as ‘website issue’, then remind yourself of your beating to the personal branding. The site is your reflection. If you weren’t able to sustain the interest, how do you probably expect people to engage? Like that a letter starts with a single dot, which often is either ignored or overlooked, we miss out on the basics and begrudgingly admit after the deck is done.  Most companies do the product first and then look for customers. Apple did and succeeded. So, is that the template for achievement or tried model for accomplishment? Then its own iterations were based on the consumer behavior and customer response. You just can’t get everything right in your first attempt. Alright. But neither can you create something and then create a demand. It’s not reverse engineering. 

The ground reality.

The challenge today is all about expectations and engagement. Attrition or exodus of talent is the direct impact of engagement management. 

Why should I stay in this company? What must I do to find a fitment? Read it again and you will observe the difference in terms of perspective. 

The company questions your existence and you question the company’s prudence. Win-win alone can survive and sustain this eco-system.  So long one needs to survive and thrive, then it’s by challenging oneself. Keep raising the bar.

It takes two to tango. So validation in isolation wouldn’t be fair. How come an individual with an accomplished track record failed to deliver in the present organization? One cannot shine selectively, and that too when he nature of job demands excellences, yet we are witnessing burn-outs and drop-outs. So, an organization is as much accountable, just like the individual to meeting deadlines and delivery.

Sounds like a leaf pulled out of employee management?  Richard Branson quoted “take care you employees and they will take care of your business.”

image courtesy: goo.gl/6N3D3N 

Reputation management is critical to business interest. Customer experience is THE differentiator in moving the needles. Ensure the user experience in the superlative, lest your business interest would be superseded. Bad user experience is more than a frown. It can beat your bottom-line so hard to mark it purple and bleed crimson. You don’t need others to wreck your image: your action or inaction will do the damage, sometimes beyond repair.

Googled is an acceptable word today replacing ‘searched’. Adults to kids are aware and even decided that the search engine has an answer for every query posed. Remarkable, more than a search engine, it becomes kind of a genie ‘to fetch the answer at your beck and call’. It’s no more an illusion of the Alibaba ‘open sesame’. But every tidbit pooled as and served as ‘information’ – whether phony or perfect, anything on the net leaves a digital imprint. So it is imperative to be on your toes when it comes to customer service –regardless of the domain or industry as a customer is a customer. In as many languages possible. Period.

What rattles a service provider – it’s the review. For 100 positive reviews, it just takes one nasty one to make you feel so negative. Like a pin-prick to a blown-up balloon. Why? Is it because bade vibes spread fast and leaves distaste? From your personal experience, checks out how many time you have searched for ‘any negative comments’. Because we tend to believe others’ experience. Because we lend credibility to the bitter cry of wrong customer, without even validating the statement, assuming everything typed by an individual is true to the last letter. Because we are too lenient to offer ‘the customer’s experience the benefit of doubt’ rather than question the authenticity of the statement.

If one cares to notice, more than ever new business boom big with growing interest and alarming consumption of the internet that people’s lives are impacted by internet, Google and social media – which seem inevitable and indispensable. Gone is a single day without a shy at the social media and as consumers, our appetite is insatiable. Our hunger to know is fuelled all the more. Our thirst for knowledge is never quenched. It’s for the good? No one is competent to address that poser, but admittedly inadequate to come out with a convincing answer.

When business depends on the customer, then make sure the deal is fair, engagement positive and memories pleasant, else it will boomerang and knock you out of your senses. For the best brand out there, their best ambassador is the customer. The unofficial spokesperson. Any word spoken out of place from that spokesperson can erode your company’s credibility and cast you into infamy , We weigh in too much about the personal experience and too much reliance on anecdotes, which can be figment of imagination or statement of exaggeration or just someone settling scores. Words can be far from the truth, but who validates before your reputation is already in ruins. 

Modern economy is way much different as plastic money and e-wallets are highly innovative when it comes to transaction. It’s a huge leap from the barter system, but what happens if there is a shutdown of services, including the internet. And growing dependence on the internet also makes it vulnerable for cyber-attacks throwing the reputation on the line. The best adocates are the rocogntion and repuation, so protect and preserve it.

image courtesy: goo.gl/NtH2Dq 

We live in exciting times, taken over by technological dominance. Just imagine fuel delivered at your doorstep. Possible? Well, one may find it hard to accept, let alone believe but that’s exactly mission to achieve – beat all the odds. Man to mars – not as a cosmonaut but a commoner. Incredible, and  mind-blowing.

Are you aware how many photos gets posted, messages tweeted, videos made and posted? The social media is busy and gets busier by the day. And it does impact your business. If you care to look at the data accumulated, don’t panic if it looks like a deluge. What happens to this data? Think about it,  as its growing every day.

There can be data pile-up in your workplace. Imagine having multiple folders with hundreds of documents and completely clueless. Processed data becomes information. But who will process the data? Data Scientist. Something unheard a decade ago, is fast becoming the most sought after profile, and rightly so,  given the data produced in a day. 

To give you a glimpse, “According to computer giant IBM, 2.5 exabytes - that's 2.5 billion gigabytes (GB) - of data was generated every day in 2012”.

The total amount of data in the world was 4.4 zettabytes in 2013. 

So, how much data is produced per day? 2.5 Exabytes. That’s a whopping number. A colossal one.

And to deal with data, you need someone adept and hands-on in weeding out the unwanted and clean out the clutter. You need a Data Scientist. 

Data scientists are big data professionals who wrestle with enormous  data that can be structured or unstructured , and bringing to the fore their exceptional statistical skills , Data Scientists can assess, evaluate and organize them. On top of that, they apply their analytics prowess to bring out solutions for challenges crippling the business.

Typically defined, ‘” data scientist is someone who is better at statistics than any software engineer and better at software engineering than any statistician.” And they are placed in a prominent slot as a formidable force. Just check out the pay of a Data Scientist.

Image Courtesy: https://www.payscale.com

There seems to be early burn-out in IT professionals. Doctors are appalled at the heart-risks and related ailments that when wheeled a young person into the emergency ward, the first question invariably is “are you working in IT?” why is too so? Job pressure, peer pressure, management pressure – the stress is too much. a number of factors collide and contribute to this havoc wreaked on youngsters. Heart attack in the forties or fifties doesn’t shock or surprise but in late twenties and early thirties psyches the physicians, who are perplexed dealing with the predicament. Such is the severity, and cut-throat the companies, work force either by choice or force end up staying late at their desk ‘burning the midnight oil’. 

Does the number of hours clocked or the contributions made in fewer count. The misconception in the market is one who spends long hours in the office is deemed ‘hard working’. Anything less and your talent is questionable or the workload is not just enough to justify your paycheck. So some just pretend to stretch or ‘kill’ time by indulging in other activity instead of freeing up bandwidth to take up additional tasks. “If I do this task or accommodate more chores in addition, will the amount in the salary credited change?” this reflects not just the individual lack of commitment, but reflects poorly on the leadership as well. 

Devotion to work should be willful lest its leaves one dissatisfied and disgruntled. Once resourceful, now turned rebels are primarily due to poor people management. Hours makes one hardworking? Then at what cost? Tradeoff at the cost of health? Everything ought to be balanced – including work. 

A project manager, whom I used to report, will sit beside me and plan the ‘tasks for the week’ taking my inputs for the ‘hours allocated’ and sometimes let me estimate the ‘number of hours’. Effort estimation is both critical and crucial. Bagging the project by heck or crook, and later slogging the days, night and weekend are typical signs of burnout. It’s like cutting the foot to match the boot. That’s not project management. Weekends usually act as buffer and my manager maxim of “if you can’t get the work done in eight hour, either you are inefficient or incompetent.’  People also tend to procrastinate – another malaise with no medicine in sight. Hence there is blaming the managers. There has to be a middle ground. 

The 40 hour week

Any project manager with appreciable knowledge and experience will not estimate more than 8-hours as man day in the project plan. How many hours do the team work is another question but for the record its hours, and usually the weekends are not factored – and mostly serve as buffers. Remember time is money and hence any inflation in your estimation will have an adverse implication on your cost estimation. The budget balloons and the project just slipped out of your hands. It’s a typical trapeze act or skating on thin ice. So balancing the 40-hour and keeping the project within cost calls for a skilled and smart time management.

Performance and Productivity

No matter how many hours you clock, its 4 hours spread across 8.  The body might be willing but the mind simply is not up to it. Exhaustion, fatigue leads to failure. Your ability to concentrate ebb s with passage of time. There should be a reason why Henry For came out with the brilliant strategy of ‘weekend’ so as to boost morale, improve productivity and increase time spent with family.  Sources from public domain cite that working fewer hours increase productivity and thereafter tend to wane.

Work-Life balance

“I am too busy at work” is the usual refrain. You start before the kids awake and return after the fast asleep. Many professionals itinerary falls in to this pattern. Genuine cases of work chewing and even gobbling time is a possibility but that can’t become the norm. Its not family first or work at any cost. One has to strike a balance to do justice to both – stakeholder management.  Your internal and external client included family too is part of stakeholders. And its important to attend on everyone, and if possible content.

A gallup study revealed that we work 47 hours – which is 7 hours more. What will all the dollars, incentive, promotions and perks amount when the people you value the most – your family aren’t there to share your moment to happiness and bask in glory. 

Continuing with our previous blog post about the changes in the PRINCE 2017 Release, this posting covers the exam details for both Foundation Exam and Practitioner exam.

The details are provided from the Axelos site to preserve integrity of the data, and also avoid unnecessary ambiguity

Foundation Examination Design

Exam Design

• Number of questions reduced to 60 (previously 75 with trial questions), and no trial questions

• Exam duration unchanged (1 hour)

• (Pass mark may be adjusted following standard setting)

• Negative questions removed, except where it is part of the learning outcome to know that something shouldn’t occur (e.g. NOT, FALSE, INCORRECT)

• Number of list and missing word questions reduced, i.e. more standard questions

Foundation Exam Structure

• 5 Questions on key concepts

• 8 questions on principles

• 28 questions on themes

• 3-5 questions on each theme

• 19 questions on processes

• 2-3 questions on each process.

Practitioner Examination Design

Exam Design - Questions

• Number of questions (marks) reduced to 75 (previously 80)

• Exam duration unchanged (2.5 hours)

• (Pass mark may be adjusted following standard setting)

• Question styles removed:

• Multiple response

• Assertion reason

• Question styles retained:

• Matching (for BL3) – max 3 marks with 5-6 tokens

• Classic (for BL4) e.g. Yes, because…..

 Practitioner Examination Design

Exam Design – Scenario/Information

Candidates will only need to refer to:

• A one-page project scenario

• One page of additional information for the organization theme (person profiles)

• Approx. 4 lines of information before the question stem to provide the context (especially BL4 questions).

In other words:

• No separate lengthy additional information (except for organization theme)

• No ‘delete entry 1’, ‘amend entry 1’ questions’!!

please watch this space for more update. We will keep you posted more about the developments about PRINCE 2-2017 release.

Wishing you good lucl in your endevaors.

image courtesy: goo.gl/XrGZEt

PRINCE2—Managing Projects in a Controlled Environment—is one of the well-known, widely acclaimed, and globally recognized certification in Project Management.

Those familiar with Axelos-PRINCE2 (2009) don’t need any introduction. By Mid-2017, Axelos decided to roll out an enhanced edition, which they named as PRINCE-2017.

Recently PRINCE2 has evolved further with changes incorporated in its syllabus, Examinations for both Foundation and Practitioners. The changes reflected are only in English language and for other language supported by Axelos, the release is expected in 2018.

Now you may ask, why Axelos got this change done? What is so different in this new edition?

AXELOS regularly seeks feedback from the international community about the standard and usage of its Certification programs in enhancing the ability of the PRINCE2 certified professionals to manage and deliver projects successfully. The feedback over a period of consultation from 75% of Accredited Organizations (AOs) concurred the need and agreed for an update of the program syllabus and exams. Not only the AOs, but Industry experts and stakeholders were consulted in improving the content to align with the work-environment that’s fast-paced and ever-growing to reap more benefits for the practitioners, customers and other associated benefactors.  

Answering the second part of the question, as to what is so different in this new edition, the themes chapters have been restructured to enhance flow and readability and to accommodate important new material on how to tailor projects.

Besides, The update is characterized by an emphasis on:

● tailoring PRINCE2 to the needs of organizations and project environments

● the principles that underpin PRINCE2

● greater clarity on the link between the themes and principles

● the restructuring of the themes guidance to accommodate specific examples of tailoring

Now the next question expected would be, ‘why so much stress on Tailoring’?

As you know, PRINCE2 is extremely flexible, versatile and completely scalable., which  have  always been a key factors in the success of PRINCE2: the method is readily tailored to the needs of any organization. The philosophy and practice of tailoring is a thread that now runs throughout the guidance and the training programme. In fact, it permeates the entire thinking of the PRINCE2 2017 update.

Summary of the changes in PRINCE 2017

With regards to the syllabi: 

In the Foundation level, Addition of chapter 2, 4 and 21;  

• Chapter 2: Project Management with PRINCE2

• Chapter 4: Tailoring and adopting PRINCE2

• Chapter 21: Practical considerations for organizational adoption (Tailoring & Embedding)

Notably the old Chapter 19 (PRINCE2®: TAILORING PRINCE2® TO PROJECT ENVIRONMENT) removed.

Now, there is much emphasis about Tailoring.

In terms of Exam, the changes include:

Foundation Exam

 – Focus is clearly on the core of PRINCE2

- Elements of the exam that are not part of the core have been removed 

- Assessment criteria around tailoring have been added

- The emphasis on different parts of the syllabus has been readjusted

The Practitioner exam 

The major changes include:

● The Practitioner exam will now test candidates on all parts of the PRINCE2 method

● The emphasis on different parts of the syllabus has been readjusted

● The candidate is now tested on the general application of the core of each theme and process and on their practical ability to assess, in a particular context, whether an approach to project management is effective and fit for purpose

● Improvements to the exam design have been made.

The most powerful mode of marketing is the word of mouth.  

Is Digital marketing same as word-of-mouth marketing?  Yes or no? Well, what do you call ‘thing going viral on the social media’. The word spreads faster than a forest fire. We bank on referrals and trust the testimonies of our contacts before deciding on a service provider or business provider.

Today, it’s too expensive to try out the trial and error, and hence we follow footprints to be better safe and sure. Check and double-check. And that’s the reason why the online reviews are attached too much importance because you can’t collect all the information from your known sources, and hence, need to rely on unknown sources as well. Be it a travel or hotel booking or buying a car, we need to arm ourselves with facts, figures and Opinions. It matters more these days on others’ experience to get a perspective of ‘how it will be’, before doing it on our own for the ‘self-experience.’ Isn’t it? How many times have you checked a restaurant‘s reputation online before booking a table? And scrolled down all the way to sniff out foul smell? Yes, that one star rating which makes your face frown. Yes!

Word of mouth is more personalized. But in this digital era, where time is money, it’s impossible to knock on every door to get first-hand feedback. Technology has advanced. We speak of being ahead or behind the curve in technology. So the best way to pool in people’s views in one place would be the internet. And if that be, what’s stopping you from marketing using internet as a channel.

This could be the genesis of digital marketing. People prefer both brick and mortar shops and online shopping too. There exists a market share for both, and if you consider convenience, comfort, choice, online shopping is head over shoulder.

Times have changed and it’s wise to turn along the tide. So hoardings which do exist have shrunk in number and instead the online banners have risen exponentially in numbers. The medium of sale has shifted. Online transactions have spiked in numbers. Marketing of products and services using technologies through internet is otherwise known as Digital marketing, wherein the online space is used to provide the user experience to the best extent possible in promotions and pushing sales.

‘data is the new oil’

Why? Because that’s the most valuable resource. What moves the needle? Sales. And sales to happen, you need data. Refined. There, indeed, is an information overload. Looks like there is a data dump, and that’s why refined. 

Transparency is the key. Be it a website or a product/service promoted in a website. ‘how many users? how many likes? how many new users?  And that leads to the next poser ‘do you have the resource to refine?’ 

People are crunching the numbers and scrambling for data to dissect the demography in order to study and better understand the market conditions and customer behavior.  Anything that cannot be backed up with data becomes merely an opinion. Credibility is the cornerstone.  Data integrity. Everything centers on it.

Know your customer.

When a customer shops for a book, or a perfume or a laptop, or holiday vacation or anything for that matter, it gives a glimpse of the customer in terms of taste and take. Next time when the same customer visits the page, there will be “you might also like” with several  allied products or services listed. If that can bring a smile on customer’s face, then its good user experience.

Now this can be made possible only we have credible data.  Don’t let data sound so technical. It is information. How much you know about your customer to serve better and thereby improve your relationship. Relationship building is the ultimate key because that's how you earn the customer’s confidence. 

Data is the decisive factor.

Image credit: goo.gl/WmYFDt 

We will discuss more about this subject in the week to come.  Stay tuned.

The Sixth Edition of PMBOK® Guide Will Be Soon Out | Project Management

PMI (Project Management Institute) is expected to roll out the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition by the third quarter of 2017. It is expected that the draft version of the Sixth Edition is ready by the first or second quarter, and the final version of the Sixth Edition should be available by mid-2017, if things go as planned.

What are the changes expected in the Sixth Edition?

>> The size of the book. Presently, the fifth edition PMBOK® Guide, has 13 chapters that spans 415 pages. The sixth edition is expected to be quarter the size of the 5th edition, which means it should be close to 84 pages and the number of chapters too have come down to 10. So, sixth edition should be 10 chapters with 84 pages in the draft version. By the time sixth edition gets published, PMI  possibly will add more pages. The final number of pages for now is unknown.

>> Inputs, Tools & Techniques, Outputs (ITTOs) – the sixth edition will not dwell deep into ITTOs, rather it will be covered at a high level.

 

>> The first version of the PMBOK 6th edition is ¼ the size of the PMBOK 5th edition. The 6th editions currently has 10 chapters and 84 pages, while the 5th edition had 13 chapters and 415 pages.
 

>> Alignment with Process Groups: the sixth edition will be divided based on the 5 process groups, and not the 10 knowledge areas. This is considered a major change as the Role Delineation Study (RDS)  conducted by PMI has presented its findings and proposed the changed to be aligned  with process groups.
 

>> Combination of first three chapters. In the sixth edition, the first three chapters will be combined as one – the interpersonal skills  of the project manager and organizational skills will be merged in to one.
 

>>Two processes are expected to be deleted. The Close Procurements process and Estimate Activities Resources are more likely to be deleted.
 

>>Two knowledge areas to be renamed; Time Management  and Human Resource Management to be renamed.  Time management will be renamed Schedule management, while human resource management becomes Resource Management

>> Knowledge Areas to feature four section. Every knowledge areas will  have four new sections, namely, Key Concepts, Trends and Emerging Practices, Tailoring Considerations and  Considerations for Agile/Adaptive Environments.

>> An exclusive chapter on role of Project manager.  This chapter on Project Manager will cover the key concepts about core competencies, expertise, leadership skills expected in leading a project.

>> Approaches for Agile  : every knowledge area will be inclusive of a section with  approaches to Agile, Iterative and Adaptive Environments’. This section will  detail the integration of agile practices in project backgrounds.

>> PMI Talent Triangle™: PMI spells the details about the technical skills, business intelligence , and leadership considered the key skills for success. It is also known as Talent triangle.

Reference source: http://www.examspm.com/2016/07/16/pmbok-6th-edition-release-date-changes/

https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/about/current-projects

http://www.pmi.org/certifications/types/project-management-pmp/update

https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational-standards-exposure-draft

https://www.pmi.org/learning/training-development/talent-triangle

 image courtesy:goo.gl/D9V6Rb