Deep down I will always feel like a Project Manager for hire. I did not register PM4HIRE.COM for nothing, it stems from my belief that there has to be a better way to run projects. It is not enough to focus on project administration: the title contains 'manager' and I believe that is for a good reason. While these administrative tasks such as planning and tracking are quite important, I believe that the Project Manager is responsible for quality, in every aspect of the project deliverables. This quality responsibility is not given enough attention (in my opinion).

I have developed expertise in many aspects of application development. I have written code in many languages on host computers, servers, and personal computers. Writing code right is actually easy, the hard part is writing the right code for the right business application. Let me explain what I mean by the skills that are required to excel in this job.

What has been remarkable over the many years that I have been in this business is that technical aspects of software development have had more than a fair share of attention, while soft aspects have been ignored. With soft aspects I mean the skills required to fully understand the business reasons for an application in order to identify the true business requirements. I also mean the skills required to work with client staff to confirm that all operational users are serviced by the application. I also mean those skills that you need to develop to translate these high level requirements into functional specifications, taking into account all kinds of non-functional requirements to boot. You must understand the impact of a new application on business continuity, and what is required to survive a disaster without a fatal loss of operating information.

I have developed these skills the hard way: as a participant in critical projects, such as for an Air Traffic Control system, where quality was not an option. I have had the privilege of wearing many hats over the years and thus having exposure to many different job functions that usually are quite distinct. Even project management was a different experience: I was asked to develop PC-based project planning systems for a major Nuclear Generating Station rehabilitation construction project. Not that many IT project managers get to share control over $500Million worth of work effort, with over 2,000 workers, and over 10 million man-hours of work. The lessons learned about quality and safety do apply to all projects, even though the radiation exposure on most IT projects is limited to eye strain caused by overtime. I have had great opportunities to learn.

Over these years I have written many project management tools and guides, plus systems analysis techniques and tools, business continuity planning tools and approaches, as well as quality management processes for IT. Most of these materials have only been in limited distribution: this was simply related to specific work assignments that I have undertaken in the past. I hope to be able to continue my passion of running projects and learning new tools, techniques, hardware, and software. At the same time I have been encouraged to share my collection of knowledge with people other than those participating in my projects. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to step up to this responsibility of sharing.

The information on this web site is the end-product of collecting information, putting things in context, making things readable and enjoyable to learn (by creating seminars), and I am happy to develop simple applications that can be used in workshops to demonstrate the principles that should be learned and thereby give participants a simple set of tools that help them to tackle real world business application projects. I enjoy teaching, mentoring, and passing on the knowledge that I accumulated. It is a way of repaying the people who over the years have steered me in the right direction by sharing their hard-earned wisdom.

What I am trying to accomplish with this web site is to communicate all those aspects that I believe are important to your projects, and how my expertise in these areas can make a real difference. This may involve hands-on participation as a contract Project Manager, or it may involve delivering training seminars that make your staff more effective contributors and managers. You will find a detailed curriculum described on this site under Seminars accessed from the home page. With respect to contracting, I work in 4 different areas of the development process:

The way that I like to think of a Project Manager role is as the person who stays slightly ahead of the runners to knock over the hurdles so that there is a clear path to the finish line. You have to think ahead in order for a development team to work at top efficiency. It is important to understand the risks, the uncertainties, and the steps you can take to control how this impacts on your project. At the same time you have to be flexible in order to do what is right when better ideas emerge. Communication is a critical aspect of this role, to be aware of all that is going on that affects a project. Project Management is about understanding the big picture in order to orchestrate the appropriate initiatives within a project so that you achieve your goals on time and within budget.

From a simple perspective I like to define Quality Assurance as shining a light on every opportunity for making a serious mistake while completing a project. It is not a matter of control so much as of making sure that whoever is responsible for a project makes their decisions in full knowledge of what is going on. Governance to make sure that the methodology is understood and applied, and training to prepare people for their roles and responsibilities, are key preventive initiatives. Participation in early development workflows is critical for the development of effective testing that certifies the adequacy of the project deliverables. Testing may be manual, or some testing may be automated. I have developed a complete end-to-end QA methodology that takes all options into account.

The greatest failure a software project can experience is that everything is done right, but unfortunately not taking the right requirements into account. It is a major news story when a team of construction workers demolishes the wrong house. In some organizations, when a team of developers satisfies the wrong business needs, people think it is business as usual. Many Project Managers cannot wait to define the solution and start coding, never mind that requirements are still being debated and may have to be applied as change requests. I have developed good requirement elicitation skills, and I do not proceed with the design and implementation of a project unless I feel reasonably confident that all requirements are defined.

Nobody likes to think of a disaster and to prepare a company to survive such a disaster, and when people think of the 9/11 Trade Center destruction it is tempting to conclude that things cannot be prevented. In reality there are many disasters of far less impact that can still cause a company to collapse while a well-prepared neighboring company continues business as usual. I have been faced with such preparation tasks, and I have developed a useful methodology called BIRP (Business Interruption Response Planning) that takes your staff through a sequence of steps from risk identification to executing the disaster response plan. Make sure your company is not listed as a statistic because you are not prepared to deal with such a disaster event.