FEATURED ARTICLE:

Instilling Common Values in a Diverse Corporate Culture

“Building a global corporate culture involves recognizing the differences among employees from a variety of nations. But the real key to developing a cohesive global corporation is to find a way to effectively communicate a common set of values and principals consistently across national, cultural and linguistic boundaries.

“Our company, Cincom Systems, has been in the software business for 35 years and for most of that time we have been a global company. We began expanding globally in 1970, and by 1974, we had operations on six different continents. Today, we do business in more than 20 countries. Today, our company generates 60 percent of its revenue outside the United States, and many of our international clients have been with us for 20 years or more.”

Read more at: http://www.projectmagazine.com/v6i1/cincom1.html

Team Assignments: Achievements vs. Activities

Around the Project Manager’s Control Tower, the distinction between activities and achievements is an important one. Activities are the means to an end, achievements are the desired end result. PMs who can drive projects from an achievement perspective versus an activity perspective have some notable advantages. Before listing these advantages, let’s make sure the differences between assigning activities and achievements are clear.

Example #1: Assignment to a Teenager
Activity: “Clean up your room!”
Achievement: “Put all of the empty soda cans in the trash can.”

With the first assignment, all we’ve done is tell the child to perform an activity: cleaning up the room. Odds are that the work will not live up to our standards when the child reports the task as finished. It’s even possible, though highly unlikely, that the child will do too much work, exceeding our standards. The key flaw in an activity assignment is that we do not create a clear performance expectation. As a result, we cannot gain commitment to the assignment, nor can we reasonably dole out consequences for good or bad performance. Aside from some vague and arguable expectations about what a “clean room” is, there is no performance standard to measure against.

Read more at: http://www.4pm.com/articles/achvsact.html

Taking time to Think

Lunch at Don Giovanni’s with Phillip. He’s amped. We haven’t even seen our waiter and he’s already cleared the table and is scribbling furiously on the white paper table cloth.

“See, we needed to speed up our release cycle which is, of course, insane, but we figured out a way! We call it Train releases. We’ve got four releases going at the same time and a train leaves the station every month. If a feature is ready to go, it gets on the train and if it’s not, it waits for the next train. We’ve already released two trains in six weeks!”

I nod watching the scribbles become increasingly incoherent. I’d buy Phillip a nice glass of Chianti to take the edge off, but he’s a Mormon, so I try the truth.

“Phil, you’re screwed twice. First, you’re screwed because you’re going to need, at least, twice the staff to qualify these ever increasing releases and you’re a start-up. You’ve got one QA guy and if he hasn’t blown a fuse yet, just wait a month. Second, and most important, you’ve got no downtime. You’ve got no time to design because everyone is going to be panicked about which train they’re supposed to be riding.”

“Phil, in order to create, you’ve got to think.”

Read more at: http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2005/08/30/taking_time_to_think.html

Five Facets of Successful Business Analysis

“Gathering and managing client requirements is one of the most difficult and critical aspects for any project. For a project to be successful, the needs and goals for the product being built must be understood and translated into complete specifications from which the product can be built. You can build anything with quality and sophistication - whether it is software, a house, or a car, etc. - but if the needs of the client aren’t met, the product will either be reworked or scrapped, and the project called a failure…”

Read more at: http://www.chiefprojectofficer.com/article/110

Journyx Helpful Tips: August

• I’m using Project Approvals in timesheet to finalize my records - how do I ensure that all of my finalized records will be transferred to MS Project or QuickBooks when I synchronize the programs?
• Why does Journyx recommend having a test site for your timesheet installation?

These tips and more at: http://www.journyx.com/rss/support/tips/

Our Best Timesheet Advice for Today:

Editor's Note on Timesheet Product Selection :

Evaluating the best timesheet product in the market will not be an easy job. There are numerous timesheet products ot timesheet software to chose from. Our suggestion is look first into your company's objectives - why do we need a timesheet? who are the users of the timesheet? what are the problems that the timesheet keeping system will solve? how much are we willing to spend to get the best time keeping product in the market today?
We hope that this website can you some perspective on this timesheet issue. We won't be recommending what timesheet software to buy and what not to buy. Our purpose will be to provide you with relevant timesheet news, information and data that might help you in your decision making process of whether you should buy a timesheet system or not. Or if you do decide to buy a time tracking application, what are the options available in the market today.
You can find the most useful timesheet resources above, study themn first and all the best to you!