Author: Lourenço Nunes, PMP

In my experience, one of the most critical responsibilities of project managers is to facilitate decision-making. To avoid bias, good decision-making should remain as fact-based as possible, aiming to bring the right data, at the right moment and to the right people.

Needless to say that the increasing volume of data across the years has made the work of PMs more challenging. The development of data science, on the other hand, is bringing the project management community new means, as we saw in Rodolfe Dewarrat’s presentation, to apprehend this challenge.

Rodolphe Dewarrat is a mathematician, an expert in data science and owner of his own company IMSD.ch. During the online event organized by PMI Switzerland on 12th April 2022, he introduced the audience to the potential and limitations of data science applied to project management.

In fact, data science becomes critical in projects where the analysis of large and complex sets of data is a key success factor (think about airplane design, healthcare, online business, etc...).

As true as we want to focus decision-making on facts and data, the idea that impacted me the most during Rodolphe’s presentation, is that all our “rituals” around data analysis (tools, protocols, reports, presentations) could actually bring a fake sense of objectivity, leading deciders in the wrong direction.

Quality of data, data literacy within the organization or data contextualization are among the root causes to this loss of objectivity. In the corporate world in particular, processes, tools, as well as roles & responsibilities in collecting data influences its quality, and as a consequence, the quality of decisions.

A key take-away for project managers could be that when data science becomes critical in a project, the project manager’s awareness on data science turns equally important, to allow her or him to put the right effort and resources in managing data for the project, and hopefully avoid a loss of objectivity.

Rodolfe shared loads of situations he experienced in the field as a consultant, giving the attendees great insight into the daily life and struggles of data scientists in all kinds of organizations. And most importantly, it showed all the future or current PMP holders in the audience, including myself, the importance for PMs to get educated in the field of data science, to become data driven project managers and increase their chances of success.

Lourenço Nunes

Author: Leandro Benda, PMP

“Transformation” refers to an organization achieving a sustainable quantum-leap improvement in performance while transforming the mindsets of employees and thus the culture of the organization”  - Tahirou Assane, MASc, P. Eng., PMP

On Thursday, March 31, 2022 took place our virtual event “Leading a dynamic people-centered transformation” on the "Zoom" platform presented, with great talent, by our VP Sponsors & Partners, Adi Muslic and by our guest Tahirou Assane, MASc, P.Eng., PMP. The event gathered 35 project managers from different sectors such as banking, food processing, IT consulting and more.

Tahirou is the Director Brightline Initiative at PMI and has over 20 years of experience in leadership roles, civil engineering, strategy, transformation, and project management. 

As Director of Brightline at PMI, Tahirou oversees the activities under the three benefit pillars of thought and practice leadership, networking, and capability building.  Tahirou led the development of the Organizational Transformation Series and championed Brightline’s Strategy@Work event.

For having an idea as to how strategic the topic of transformation is, a Wall Street Journal survey found that transformation risk was the #1 concern in 2019 and that 70% of the transformations fail representing a waste of approximately $900 billion on digital transformation efforts. In the meantime, Covid has accelerated transformation generally in organizations.

One of the biggest challenges is to manage the resistance of people to change. Having a flat, adaptable, and cross-functional organizational structure that enables change, communication for having people on-board, empowerment and people engagement are some answers to it.

Positive and relevant roles are also important such as the transformation leader, other tough leaders from across the organization, next generation of leaders, etc., to drive transformation.

Having a clear vision shared with the organization and understanding deeply the customers are key for increasing the chances of success.

Last but not least, here is the tool kit for transformations:

1. Foundation for understanding how organization’s transform properly
2. Implementation for doing and getting the return
3. Orchestration for leading transformation

You will find more information under this link

pmi.org/organizational-transformation

After the presentation, according to our poll, people felt mainly excited, convinced and challenged about transformation, so the participants gained some confidence with this presentation. Congratulations to Stefanie Walt for winning our quiz game.

In conclusion, we can say that transformation is exciting but it’s hard work and some key ingredients to succeed are empathy, passion, courage, and leadership.

Thank you for participating and don’t hesitate to take a look at our events via the link below:

https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/events 

Kind regards,

Leandro Benda

Author: Enrico Bornisacci, PMP

After a one year break due to pandemic issues, the PMI Switzerland Chapter for Social Good team supported for the second time the World Federation of Associations and took part in WFUNA’s 10th Human Rights Youth Program.

The World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) is a global nonprofit organization representing and coordinating a membership of over 100 national United Nations Associations (UNAs) and their thousands of constituents.

WFUNA works to strengthen and improve the United Nations, through the engagement of people who share a global mindset and support international cooperation.

During 4 online sessions held between September and October 2021, our instructors (Benoîte Grisouard, Enrico Bornisacci, Johann Boucavel and Ka Yi Hui) coached students from Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, introducing project management fundamentals aimed to implement a small-scale project in their country or communities.

Each participant submitted a project proposal, and the Social Good team assisted them in transforming their ideas in real life projects and in preparing the documentations required by WFUNA. Themes discussed ranged from human rights, education, hate speech, LGBTQ+ communities and refugees.

Together with theoretical explanations on Project Management methodology, PMIEF offered practical exercises especially tailored to the specific needs of the class.

The Social Good team offered support in analyzing and translating each single project into official proposal, which includes project goals, analysis, methodology and activities, to be implemented under the supervision of WFUNA.

The ideas proposed by students were great and their enthusiasm and vision for a better future for humankind inspiring. In such situations, volunteering can give back much more than expected.

Author: Leandro Benda, PMP

We often think of the standard phases of project management, but one aspect comes up more and more to stir up trouble in the life of the project... This phenomenon is called... “Politics”

Are you intrigued in the political aspect of project management? 

Don't hesitate any longer, come and join us in this open space and discuss this fascinating subject!

You have thought about the initialization phase of your project, well prepared the planning, the management is going according to your plans and suddenly you are facing political obstacles, yes, this politics in companies which is sometimes a well submerged part of the iceberg, but which can prove to be crucial for the success of your project.

It is not always easy to identify and manage the stakeholders and their changing positions towards your project and their interests. How to act considering the risks when faced with such profiles, which are well versed in this aspect and have a strategic position within companies?

It is essential for a project manager to be involved as much as possible in the life of the project, but this often proves to be an obstacle course, particularly because of politics. What tricks exist?

In the same way, how to best exploit the mastery of this political dimension to succeed in projects and where are the limits?

We will try to find tracks with our participants on these different topics during this open space event “Winning Project Politics”, sharing your questions and / or different experiences on these situations is key.

About Open Spaces

A safe space to share experiences, tips, or discuss issues and questions you may have regarding project management. We have a variety of thought-provoking topics in store, so do come armed with some real-life problems you want to be solved by your trusted expert colleagues.

Who’s it for?

Are your PM/PMO concerns getting enough attention?

Are you creating good-quality connections online?

How often do you structure meetings radically differently than usual?  

We welcome you - anyone who has to manage projects, whatever their nature - to share the pressing points you'd like to talk about and perhaps get input for a solution.

Our main principles

Safe room - thus no recording, you are free to share and it stays within the few people in your breakout room.

Introductions in the main room by all participants - we aim to allow 15 seconds per person which is enough to share: name/position/ company or industry / what you’re coming with; in one sentence. This helps everyone to know who is who.

In small breakout rooms, it is easier to open up to a few people than to many.

Participants bring their own topics to discuss.  More topics => smaller groups => better interaction and engagement. 

In every breakout room, we want to ensure everyone gets a chance to provide at least some brief input into the question or issue.

We use the Slido tool to capture your suggestions in the Topics Backlog.

Whoever comes, is the right person.  Whatever happens, is the only thing that could have happened.

Do not hesitate to register to this Open Space which will take place online via Zoom on Tuesday, May 10th.

All our events can be found via this link: https://pmi-switzerland.ch/index.php/events