A recent CBI study highlights that UK Freelancing has increased by 14% over the past decade and there are now an estimated 1.4m freelancers in the UK. Freelancers and "micro-businesses" play an increasingly important role in the economy by increasing labour market flexibility. Project Managers are often in demand as freelancers and interim's given the interim nature of the project life-cycle.
Titanium Consulting are a member of the Professional Contractors Group which is an independent association that represents, supports and promotes the freelance community in the UK. PCG membership has grown steadily to encompass over 19,000 freelancers, contractors and consultants at the beginning of 2010.
The PCG is currently running a campaign to highlight the benefits of Freelancing and Interim Management. The micro-site - Freelancing - Britains Brain Gain - can be found here:
http://www.pcg.org.uk/britainsbraingain/
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Where have all the IT Juniors and Graduates gone?
As an Interim Project Manager and Professional Contractor it’s become more apparent to me in the last few years that IT departments are getting older.
IT always used to be considered an industry for twenty-something’s but looking around a few of the IT teams at recent clients sites the average age seems to be around late thirties.
I suppose that agencies require candidates to be highly skilled and experienced for almost all roles these days and that has meant that only older candidates will have the relevant battle scars and certificates….
It seems that the traditional route into a Project Manager maybe via coding to Analyst and then Project Manager is becoming harder for the graduates since the junior level roles are now mostly being outsourced or off-shored.
Every industry needs fresh young talent and Project are always a good place to nurture this talent.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
What is the point of Project Management?
Of course it’s perfectly feasible to deliver “projects” without having a formal “Project Manager” or indeed any agreed approach about how best to deliver a project. Many organisations have adopted this approach for years. Indeed it’s probably fair to say that in some organisations it’s only when a project is failing that a Project Manager is appointed.
General consensus indicates that a majority of IT projects fail on one measure or another so what impact can a Project Manager make on the success or failure of the project?
At the end of the day having a Project Manager is a risk mitigation e.g. if no-one is guiding the project who apart from the Project Manager will help ensure that the project is successful and that benefits are delivered? Without a Captain, who will steer the ship?
That one person has a singular vested interest in ensuring that the project goes well, that it is planned, that bumps on the road are spotted beforehand and avoided and that someone is steering the project is often the crucial differentiator between success and failure.
There are many facets to good Project Management, many methodologies to follow, different approaches, to be a manager, a facilitator, a coach, a dogsbody even.
Most organisations have many different and sometimes conflicting priorities; a Project Manager will help navigate these conflicts since they are often the only person who has the accountability and responsibility for making the project happen (even though at the end of the day it has to be a team effort). And a Project Manager will be the main advocate for ensuring the success of the project (sometimes against the odds). And finally a Project Manager will help ensure the delivery of benefits which was the rationale of the project at the outset. After all what is the point in reaching the end of the road only to find you have not arrived at your destination?
General consensus indicates that a majority of IT projects fail on one measure or another so what impact can a Project Manager make on the success or failure of the project?
At the end of the day having a Project Manager is a risk mitigation e.g. if no-one is guiding the project who apart from the Project Manager will help ensure that the project is successful and that benefits are delivered? Without a Captain, who will steer the ship?
That one person has a singular vested interest in ensuring that the project goes well, that it is planned, that bumps on the road are spotted beforehand and avoided and that someone is steering the project is often the crucial differentiator between success and failure.
There are many facets to good Project Management, many methodologies to follow, different approaches, to be a manager, a facilitator, a coach, a dogsbody even.
Most organisations have many different and sometimes conflicting priorities; a Project Manager will help navigate these conflicts since they are often the only person who has the accountability and responsibility for making the project happen (even though at the end of the day it has to be a team effort). And a Project Manager will be the main advocate for ensuring the success of the project (sometimes against the odds). And finally a Project Manager will help ensure the delivery of benefits which was the rationale of the project at the outset. After all what is the point in reaching the end of the road only to find you have not arrived at your destination?
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
What Style of Project Manager are you?
A tongue in cheek look at some different styles of Project Management taken from an old copy of Computer Weekly ....
Charlie - the crash-test Dummy
He goes to all the user group meetings and believes everything his suppliers tell him. Completing the project on time and meeting the user requirements will take second place to using the latest technology. He will regard success as being when a single user can log on to the system and make one transaction. The problem will come when 10,000 users log on and try to do 1 million transactions a day. His answer will be more hardware, more power and the latest technological fix. Most senior managers can spot this type because of the chequered symbols on the side of their heads and the amount of time they spend reading manufacturers’ literature. Most are kept well away from critical projects. But a few managers will be taken in only to find that the project is so technologically advanced that nobody can fix it and the whole expensive mess has to be thrown out.
General Cobol
He will approach the project like a military operation and make stirring speeches to the team at crucial moments. He fights for his staff and is not afraid to take on the ‘top brass’. He spends very little time with his team unless making a speech and has no grasp of, or interest in, detail. When the project starts to slip he takes it personally and very hard. If the problem is bad he will offer his resignation and hope that it will be accepted so that someone else can take over fixing it.
Tick-Box Tracey
She will have everything neat and in order. The project will be mapped out in minute detail on flow charts and schedulers. Her staff will never be short of pens or furniture, and meetings will start and finish on time. She has no involvement whatsoever with the project itself but sits on the outside compiling endless reports. When the proverbial hits the fan she will blame shortages of resources, staff, etc, but when challenged will have no real idea what is going on. She will then consult the project team and learn the ugly truth, which she will then pass on to the powers-that-be in accurate and minute detail, so making it their problem to fix it.
Arthur Artisan
After a career as a good programmer he is finally rewarded with a promotion to project manager. He likes writing software and is liked by the team. He has no training in project management, no interest in it and no stomach for some of the nastier things it entails. He is likely to spend a lot of time working closely with the team, writing code and solving problems. He will have no idea of the bigger picture and at the project deadline will dismiss the fact that data can only be entered using hexadecimal instruction as ”some work still needs to be done on the user interface”.
Charlie - the crash-test Dummy
He goes to all the user group meetings and believes everything his suppliers tell him. Completing the project on time and meeting the user requirements will take second place to using the latest technology. He will regard success as being when a single user can log on to the system and make one transaction. The problem will come when 10,000 users log on and try to do 1 million transactions a day. His answer will be more hardware, more power and the latest technological fix. Most senior managers can spot this type because of the chequered symbols on the side of their heads and the amount of time they spend reading manufacturers’ literature. Most are kept well away from critical projects. But a few managers will be taken in only to find that the project is so technologically advanced that nobody can fix it and the whole expensive mess has to be thrown out.
General Cobol
He will approach the project like a military operation and make stirring speeches to the team at crucial moments. He fights for his staff and is not afraid to take on the ‘top brass’. He spends very little time with his team unless making a speech and has no grasp of, or interest in, detail. When the project starts to slip he takes it personally and very hard. If the problem is bad he will offer his resignation and hope that it will be accepted so that someone else can take over fixing it.
Tick-Box Tracey
She will have everything neat and in order. The project will be mapped out in minute detail on flow charts and schedulers. Her staff will never be short of pens or furniture, and meetings will start and finish on time. She has no involvement whatsoever with the project itself but sits on the outside compiling endless reports. When the proverbial hits the fan she will blame shortages of resources, staff, etc, but when challenged will have no real idea what is going on. She will then consult the project team and learn the ugly truth, which she will then pass on to the powers-that-be in accurate and minute detail, so making it their problem to fix it.
Arthur Artisan
After a career as a good programmer he is finally rewarded with a promotion to project manager. He likes writing software and is liked by the team. He has no training in project management, no interest in it and no stomach for some of the nastier things it entails. He is likely to spend a lot of time working closely with the team, writing code and solving problems. He will have no idea of the bigger picture and at the project deadline will dismiss the fact that data can only be entered using hexadecimal instruction as ”some work still needs to be done on the user interface”.
Friday, December 18, 2009
List of Google Page Rank 10 Sites
Useful information for Search Engine Optimisation and Internet Marketing
The list below gives details of all the Page Rank 10 sites as of October 2009 after the last Google Page ranking update.
The list below gives details of all the Page Rank 10 sites as of October 2009 after the last Google Page ranking update.
| Site | PR | URL |
| Google Search | 10 | http://www.google.com |
| World Wide Web Consortium | 10 | http://www.w3.org/ |
| The W3C CSS Validation Service | 10 | http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ |
| US Goverment website | 10 | http://www.usa.gov/ |
| Adobe - Adobe Flash Player | 10 | http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/ |
| Adobe - Adobe Reader Download | 10 | http://get.adobe.com/reader/ |
| National Portal of India | 10 | http://india.gov.in/ |
| United States Department of Health and Human Services | 10 | http://www.hhs.gov/ |
| U.S Government recovery board | 10 | http://www.recovery.gov/ |
| The European Library | 10 | http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/portal/en/index.html |
| Europeana | 10 | http://www.europeana.eu/portal/ |
| CNN | 10 | http://www.cnn.com/ |
| Miibeian | 10 | http://www.miibeian.gov.cn/ |
| PrivacyMark System | 10 | http://www.privacymark.jp |
| Social Bookmarking Sharing Button Widget | 10 | http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php |
| ScienceDirect | 10 | http://www.sciencedirect.com/ |
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Project Management - How to help ensure successful delivery
Nothing epitomises modern technology more than Chek Lap Kok airport in Hong Kong.
One of the world’s largest-ever construction projects, it was built out of what was formerly ocean. The airport opened and - lo and behold! The computers foul up and $3 billion worth of freight is turned away!
Does the construction industry know something about project management that the IT industry doesn’t? Is there some black magic about project management that has not been passed on to software engineers?
What secrets could there be? History’s greatest project manager must be Hannibal, who led an elephant-mounted army of disparate nationalities across North Africa, through Spain and over the Alps before giving the Roman Empire’s finest a right pasting.
The Egyptians could organise a few people in co-ordinated fashion too, as several large geometric structures in Giza testify. What is the average software project compared to that?
Surveys routinely indicate that some 70% of IT projects are either late, over budget or don’t work.
Of course it is the in-house IT people who are to blame. It couldn’t possibly be the suppliers because all their hardware and tools are so easy to use. Far more comfortable to assume is that failure is the fault of software project managers, all of whom should be sent to bed with no supper.
Project management is easy. After all there are countless excellent books on the subject. The Right Way has been set out. Can they not read?
Many Projects fail because it’s too expensive to do it properly.
For example it's is well-known how to write software so that it doesn’t fail. It’s just very expensive to do it that way. People don’t pay for what it costs: they pay for what it’s worth. Software that is part of complex fly-by-wire planes does not often fail but it's because it's tested to destruction and it's expensive to do this.
IT in some ways is an unusual industry because people deliberately set out to write software that they know is not going to work because the cost of being 100% sure that it will work is too high.
People have a remarkable tolerance for computer failures: you read about them all the time. You go to check in at an airport and the computer is ‘down’. How often does your Windows system break down and yet you are still willing to pay Microsoft money for it?
Software is called software because it is soft. Because it is soft you can change it easily and because you can change it easily you can get yourself in a mess. What makes it most attractive to mankind is the very thing that makes it difficult to manage.
It may be a comforting thought that software will never work perfectly. After all, how can a machine take over the world if it crashes and needs rebooting twice a day?
But there may be lessons to be learned from other industries which might at least improve the process.
It is arguable that the IT industry is about 30 years behind the construction industry in project management.
There have been considerable improvements in the 10 years and people have seen the error of their ways! New method, certifications and qualifications have helped, PRINCE2, Agile, PMP have all contributed to a wider acceptance of project management as a discipline.
Projects used to be run by techies but there is a growing acceptance that businesses need professional project managers.
One of the biggest problems in the industry is the way that contracts are written. In the construction industry in the old days the contracts were written so that if you didn’t perform on time then there were penalties.
These penalties were at the very least the profit and sometimes the value of the contract. Accordingly, the construction company made sure that whatever happened it wasn’t their fault that a situation had been taken down the route of conflict from day one.
These days building tends to be released before the scheduled date rather than after - and part of that is the adoption of a partnership approach. They tend to get a bonus for completing early rather than a penalty for being late. If the project is going wrong toward the end, and you are going to have to pay a penalty, then there is no incentive to put more money into it. If there is a bonus then there is an incentive to go for it.
The way the contract is written sets the scene for how the project will run. If a customer decides he wants a fixed price then he thinks he knows how much it is going to cost him. But things change and technology changes.
If you originally said you wanted it red and now you want it yellow they will say ”you can have it yellow but it is going to be expensive”.
There are companies out there who will accept a contract on any terms and then make sure that they get their money. But it’s not necessary to take this approach and you can structure the contract so that both sides can win.
Another problem is that the industry takes people with technical skills and assumes they can run a project. Do you think the project manager who built the Channel Tunnel knew everything about the technical details? You have people in your team who specialise. In our industry you would have people who specialise in the technology, but what you need is someone running the project who can run a business, the project is just a business that runs for a limited time.
Can you imagine an aircraft company where its entire future depends on a $10 million development project leaving it totally to someone with no project management training?
Project management is not about using Microsoft Project and coming up with the plan – it’s about dealing with people, handling conflict, negotiating with your boss and with your team. It’s about leadership as much as management and most programmers are not capable of doing those things.
When you are managing a project you will spend most of your time moving desks and PCs around, or else you are trying to stop people stealing members of your team to work on maintenance.
I’ve often ended up in situations where I have been fighting to get adequate resources and stopping other people poaching my team, so that people have said to me “you’re prepared to do anything to make sure your project is a success, aren’t you?” As if somehow this was a bad thing.
Many books set out the correct procedures for software project management, but they assume a perfect world.
Technology is often the least important factor in the success of a project. Nor is it about the project management tools.
The problem often starts when the project is first defined: Clear definition of KPI's, scope, business benefits all play a crucial role in ensuring that the project starts on firm footing and hence stands a good chance of success.. and of course a clar statement of the benefits the projects expects to deliver since at the end of the day benefits are the whole rationale of the project...
One of the world’s largest-ever construction projects, it was built out of what was formerly ocean. The airport opened and - lo and behold! The computers foul up and $3 billion worth of freight is turned away!
Does the construction industry know something about project management that the IT industry doesn’t? Is there some black magic about project management that has not been passed on to software engineers?
What secrets could there be? History’s greatest project manager must be Hannibal, who led an elephant-mounted army of disparate nationalities across North Africa, through Spain and over the Alps before giving the Roman Empire’s finest a right pasting.
The Egyptians could organise a few people in co-ordinated fashion too, as several large geometric structures in Giza testify. What is the average software project compared to that?
Surveys routinely indicate that some 70% of IT projects are either late, over budget or don’t work.
Of course it is the in-house IT people who are to blame. It couldn’t possibly be the suppliers because all their hardware and tools are so easy to use. Far more comfortable to assume is that failure is the fault of software project managers, all of whom should be sent to bed with no supper.
Project management is easy. After all there are countless excellent books on the subject. The Right Way has been set out. Can they not read?
Many Projects fail because it’s too expensive to do it properly.
For example it's is well-known how to write software so that it doesn’t fail. It’s just very expensive to do it that way. People don’t pay for what it costs: they pay for what it’s worth. Software that is part of complex fly-by-wire planes does not often fail
IT in some ways is an unusual industry because people deliberately set out to write software that they know is not going to work because the cost of being 100% sure that it will work is too high.
People have a remarkable tolerance for computer failures: you read about them all the time. You go to check in at an airport and the computer is ‘down’. How often does your Windows system break down and yet you are still willing to pay Microsoft money for it?
Software is called software because it is soft. Because it is soft you can change it easily and because you can change it easily you can get yourself in a mess. What makes it most attractive to mankind is the very thing that makes it difficult to manage.
It may be a comforting thought that software will never work perfectly. After all, how can a machine take over the world if it crashes and needs rebooting twice a day?
But there may be lessons to be learned from other industries which might at least improve the process.
It is arguable that the IT industry is about 30 years behind the construction industry in project management.
There have been considerable improvements in the 10 years and people have seen the error of their ways! New method, certifications and qualifications have helped, PRINCE2, Agile, PMP have all contributed to a wider acceptance of project management as a discipline.
Projects used to be run by techies but there is a growing acceptance that businesses need professional project managers.
One of the biggest problems in the industry is the way that contracts are written. In the construction industry in the old days the contracts were written so that if you didn’t perform on time then there were penalties.
These penalties were at the very least the profit and sometimes the value of the contract. Accordingly, the construction company made sure that whatever happened it wasn’t their fault that a situation had been taken down the route of conflict from day one.
These days building tends to be released before the scheduled date rather than after - and part of that is the adoption of a partnership approach. They tend to get a bonus for completing early rather than a penalty for being late. If the project is going wrong toward the end, and you are going to have to pay a penalty, then there is no incentive to put more money into it. If there is a bonus then there is an incentive to go for it.
The way the contract is written sets the scene for how the project will run. If a customer decides he wants a fixed price then he thinks he knows how much it is going to cost him. But things change and technology changes.
If you originally said you wanted it red and now you want it yellow they will say ”you can have it yellow but it is going to be expensive”.
There are companies out there who will accept a contract on any terms and then make sure that they get their money. But it’s not necessary to take this approach and you can structure the contract so that both sides can win.
Another problem is that the industry takes people with technical skills and assumes they can run a project. Do you think the project manager who built the Channel Tunnel knew everything about the technical details? You have people in your team who specialise. In our industry you would have people who specialise in the technology, but what you need is someone running the project who can run a business, the project is just a business that runs for a limited time.
Can you imagine an aircraft company where its entire future depends on a $10 million development project leaving it totally to someone with no project management training?
Project management is not about using Microsoft Project and coming up with the plan – it’s about dealing with people, handling conflict, negotiating with your boss and with your team. It’s about leadership as much as management and most programmers are not capable of doing those things.
When you are managing a project you will spend most of your time moving desks and PCs around, or else you are trying to stop people stealing members of your team to work on maintenance.
I’ve often ended up in situations where I have been fighting to get adequate resources and stopping other people poaching my team, so that people have said to me “you’re prepared to do anything to make sure your project is a success, aren’t you?” As if somehow this was a bad thing.
Many books set out the correct procedures for software project management, but they assume a perfect world.
Technology is often the least important factor in the success of a project. Nor is it about the project management tools.
The problem often starts when the project is first defined: Clear definition of KPI's, scope, business benefits all play a crucial role in ensuring that the project starts on firm footing and hence stands a good chance of success.. and of course a clar statement of the benefits the projects expects to deliver since at the end of the day benefits are the whole rationale of the project...
Monday, December 14, 2009
Welcome
Titanium Consulting provide a range of interim management, contracting and consultancy services.
We are a boutique IT consultancy and interim management supplier providing a high level of service to a range of customers in the FMCG, Media and Business Services markets. Our core skills are Programme and Project Management and SEOSearch Engine Optimisation.
Our key focus is to help ensure that IT Projects deliver real value and benefits to the clients we work with.
For more information please visit our website on
www.titaniumconsulting.co.uk
We are a boutique IT consultancy and interim management supplier providing a high level of service to a range of customers in the FMCG, Media and Business Services markets. Our core skills are Programme and Project Management and SEOSearch Engine Optimisation.
Our key focus is to help ensure that IT Projects deliver real value and benefits to the clients we work with.
For more information please visit our website on
www.titaniumconsulting.co.uk
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