pm essence nov 2015 - pmi bangalore chapter · - pavan soni are you creative? i bet you are - reena...

Thanks and Best Wishes

Soumen De, PMP

[email protected]

Editor’s NoteEditor’s NoteDear Friends,

Greetings from PMI Bangalore India Chapter!

Sample these conversations you hear very often in your work place. “The software has

been tested and verified to be 100% defect free”. “Trust me, Mr X has a great Project

Management expertise and is the right person to lead this project”. “We are confident that the event

will perfectly run as per plan and we will not have any issues”. And you may have got surprised at times

to see the things, what you finally saw did not synchronize with what you were told you are going to

see. You trusted the statement but probably didn't verify it. The concept of "trust but verify" sounds

like an oxymoron. It comes from a rhyming Russian proverb, "doveryai no proveryai" and was

popularized by US President Mr. Ronald Regan to verify the treaties with Russia during the Cold War

era. If you have to verify then it isn't trusting? Rather do we say, "Trust and Confirm"? The headlight

grabbing emission scandal in Volkswagen highlights this dichotomy. It is a public information now that

the German automaker used a software trick to circumvent the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency's emissions testing, putting hundreds of thousands of high-polluting diesel cars onto U.S.

roads. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) emissions trusted the off road testing results

conducted by them, and consumer trusted the test results. No one really verified adequately.

Contemporary emissions-testing system assumes that automakers are honest and independently

tests only 10 percent to 15 percent of new models and that too in a lab environment which is very

different from the actual driving environment. It was the researchers at private labs in the United

States and Germany that eventually nailed down the issue. So what are the lessons learned for

Program Managers like us. We need to create transparency and oversight not only in our software

development process but in all non-project related activities as well like expense reporting, project

status reporting and financial reporting. The Internet of Things is coming. Many features would be

driven by software now. While these will provide enormous flexibility to reconfigure things using the

same physical device, that adds value, it will also provide an opportunity to misuse the trust and

credibility provided by our customers. Light bulbs could fool regulators into appearing more energy

efficient than they are. Temperature sensors could fool buyers into believing that food has been stored

at safer temperatures, electronic voting machine can be programmed to undetectably switch votes to

another candidate. We as leaders have a responsibility to earn and then retain the trust of our

customers. Loyal Customer who trust our products and brand are the ones who helps us grow and

sustain our business. So we need to make sure we keep our reputation intact. Warren Buffet could not

have made this point more better “It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin

it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently”.

Happy Reading.

Chapter News

Editorial Board

Volume - 3 - Issue 8 November 2015

- Capt. L. N. Prasad

Chapter News

- Capt. L. N. Prasad

How to Delight your

Customers

- Palash Gupta

Crafting a Career

- Pavan Soni

Are you Creative? I Bet you

Are

- Reena Dayal Yadav

Implementing Project

Management Metrics . . .

- Harold Kerzner

The Lighter Side of PM

- Rajiv

DID YOU KNOW?

Co

nte

nts

PM Footprints: A PM Footprints session thwas held on 8 October 2015. Mr. Babu

Patil, Chief Manager, Continental

Automotive Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd.,

spoke on the subject cross competency

dependencies in Product Development.

The speaker brought out how project

delays and failures occur due to failures

in interfaces. He

also gave several

methods to

improve the

interfaces. Nearly

thirty members

attended the talk.

Murali Santhanam, PMP

Namita Gupta, PMP, PMI-ACP

Rama K, PMP, PMI-ACP

Shikha Vaidh, PMP, PMI-ACP

Soumen De, PMP

Sujata Sahu, PMPQ. This term refers to a person

interacting with their phone or

other device rather than

interacting with human being.

Continued on Page 7...

How to Delight your Customers

2 Page


How to Delight your Customers- Palash Gupta

of achieving it and “How much extra

customer will be willing to pay for this?”

c) Delighters/Exciters - Bright stars!

Features which results in great customer

satisfaction, enable us to beat the

competition and empower to add a price

premium. Absence of them doesn't

impact customer satisfaction negatively.

Features which customers were not

expecting or perhaps didn't even know

existed. Additionally these features can

also categorized as Indifferent or Reverse

Integrating our thoughts -

Almost all must-haves are needed to

achieve even an “indifferent” level of

satisfaction

High quantity of linear features is

needed to achieve a high level of

satisfaction

Even an incompletely realized delighter

can achieve high levels of customer

satisfaction

“What's exciting today will be asked for

tomorrow and expected the next day.”

Some examples of this phenomenon –

Free Shipping of goods, wireless internet

in a hotel, cameras in cell phones, and

remote controls for your TV. Features

migrate from delightful to basic

expectations as user will start expecting

them.

•

•

•

Migration from Delight to Expectation

Practical approach - Assessing

Features using Kano Model

Now the million dollars question is - How

do we know if something is a Must-have,

a Linear feature or a Delighter? Let's ask

two almost identical but apposite

questions about each feature:

How would they feel if the features were

present?

And

How would they feel if the features were

absent?

Each question (both “present” and

“absent”) to be answered with one of the

following:

I like it that way

I expect it to be that way

I am neutral

I can live with it that way

I dislike it that way

Combination of two questions makes this

a powerful technique.

For example, let's ask “How the customer

would feel if we make the mobile touch

response time less than half second”.

Suppose he feels this is must (two in

positive question) and he dislikes it if it

can't be met (five in negative question),

this requirement will fall into "Must-be"

requirement. A negative question in Kano

questionnaire serves as consistency

check.

Something that has little upside, but a lot

of downside is a must-have while

something with a lot of upside and no

downside is a delighter. Rest all fall in

between.

•

•

•

•

•

Myth of Customer Delight

What is Kano Model?

Customer is King and we exist because of

Customers! This statement is 100% True

but it is always Mysterious & Challenging

to formulate an offering which generates

Customer Delight. Simplistically one can

suggest to prioritize customer

requirements based on their importance

and then deliver them accordingly but

this may not delight our Customers.

Contrary to that - One customer

requirement could be far more important

than another requirement, but if both

executed very well, the less important

requirement might increase satisfaction

far more than the more important

requirement.

Do we agree? Let's discuss further to

illustrate this idea through Kano model.

Kano model separates product or service

features into three categories:

a) Essential/Threshold/Must-have -

Features that product must have in order

to meet customer demands, in absence of

which, the product is simply incomplete.

A steering wheel in a car or ability to

send text messages in mobile; without

these your business will struggle to be

successful in its market segment but

making these features work better and

better will not increase customer

satisfaction beyond a point. Interestingly

for the same reason they are also called

as Dissatisfiers.

b) Linear/Performance - Features that

make a product competitive where “More

is better”. Customers are able to

articulate these requirements and they

are at the top of their minds when

making choices and evaluating options.

Fuel efficiency of the vehicle or the

battery life on a cell phone; they, often

require a trade-off analysis against cost


PM Article

Crafting a Career


PM Article Crafting a Career

a good salary but knowledge addition

might be questionable, as is the case with

most large IT MNCs in India, which are

mostly tapping Indian low-cost advantage

and not performing much of a cutting-

edge work here. Still it's okay to work

there for securing some money before

starting on own.

•

establishment, such as ISRO, DRDO, or

say a CSIR lab, certainly gives you a

brand and knowledge (provided you are

doing some real stuff) but certainly can't

expect it to pay you very well. Hence, the

choice is always about - knowledge

addition in such situations.

Mostly good graduating students are

confronted with choices of either securing

a job, or pursuing higher studies, or

starting on own. On the job front, the

choices are typically about large firms or

working with startups. Once again the

dictum that has served me very well is

that it is best to work at a place that does

a significant value add to your knowledge

& skills and then leveraging the same to

get into better brands and secure

finances. Typically, a better brand or a

good salary may not necessarily help you

secure new knowledge.

Once again, knowledge could be of two

types - domain specific or generic;

leading you to become a specialist or a

generalist. I believe that with

fragmentation of roles and increased

connectivity, the future belongs to

Working in a government

Knowledge leads to Brand, and

eventually, Money

specialists, and not generalist. The

modularization of work, coupled with low

access cost of talent, makes it an

imperative that people develop expertise

in narrow domains and publish their skills

widely. In today's economy, one can

surely make a good living by being good

at something and letting people know

that s/he is good at that through the

social media or the ilk.

When I started taking consulting

assignments way back, I wasn't getting

paid for that. For one, I wasn't sure if

somebody will pay me anything and

secondly, I didn't know what's the right

amount to ask. I was too keen to learn if

some of my insights on innovation and

creativity finds some real business

applications and if I can learn from the

field. The knowledge and exhibition of

knowledge, helped me shape a personal

brand and this later helped me get

money. While doing so, the dominant

discipline that drew me into my career

has following tenets:

• Take half-chances

• Find a purpose in whatever you do, or

are asked to do

• Share, rather than keeping it secret

• Try exposing yourself to difficult,

unprecedented situations, to learn

• Stretch your limits, physically,

intellectually, and emotionally

• Don't wait for 100% readiness to

launch yourself, rather adopt 70% and

go

• Better to ask for forgiveness, than

seeking permission

Some of these might sound unrealistic to

you, but have worked well for me.

Securing a job is one thing and shaping a

career is quite another. In the modern

times, which are mired by rapidity of

change, increased life-expectancy and an

ever shortening attention span, one

needs to acknowledge that we need to

prepare ourselves for a long haul. This

also means that we need to stick to some

simple heuristics (rules of thumb, or

mental shortcuts) to navigate through

this ever increasing complexity, yet to

realize that our career and personal goals

are always 'emergent', and not planned.

Here, I offer simple heuristic that have

helped me well while navigating through

my career, right from my early days to

this very day. I also offer some of the

principles that have been handy in me

crafting a career that has served me well,

so far.

While given a mass of options or lack of

it, I think the decision should come down

to whether your prospective career offers

you all three things: Knowledge, Money

and Brand (mostly in that order). And if

all three aren't available in a choice set,

which is mostly the case, then the

decision is about which two are available,

and I say that even if a combination is

available, go with the choice. Let me offer

an explanation.

• Working with a startup is a specific

case where you typically will get a lot of

new knowledge and perhaps good money

(say in the form of equity position), and

perhaps, not a good brand, to start with.

Even then, you must not refuse the idea

of working with it, provided you get some

really new knowledge. With time, brand

would come and so will money but none

of this may happen, if you fail to assess

the unique value addition in terms of

knowledge and skills that has happened

to you. Here, knowledge means 'know

why', and skills me 'know how'.

• Working in a large MNC offers you

undoubtedly a good brand, and preferably

Making career choices

- Pavan Soni

Knowledge Money

Brand

Are you Creative? I Bet you Are

4 Page


Are you Creative? I Bet you Are- Reena Dayal Yadav

handling). Most of these people exhibit a

combination of a certain type of

intelligence and creativity in that space.

If you are wondering if you are creative/

have the capacity to be creative, then the

answer is yes. Human beings are

hardwired to be creative. The future has

forever been built by imagining it first.

The Theory for Unknowns is built on

premises which are first envisaged and

then validated or verified - as is the case

of Theoretical Physics. Einstein had

mentioned that at the age of 16, he

imagined chasing after a beam of light

and that the thought experiment had

played a memorable role in his

development of special relativity. In fact

Einstein gave utmost importance to the

role of imagination. He said, “The

greatest scientists are artists as well”.

Vincent Van Gogh's “A Starry Night" or "

The Sunflower" were not recognized as

great art initially because he used his

imagination to look at things differently

and this difference in approach is visible

in his paintings. The structure of benzene

was discovered by Kekule through an

active visual imaginative capacity. He

dreamt of atoms dancing together and

forming a snake. The atom snake moved

around till it ended up eating its own tail.

Kekule was working over the possible

structure of benzene at that time and he

immediately linked the dream to the

possibility of benzene having a cyclic

structure.

The problem with taking examples of

Einstein, Van Gogh and Kekule is that,

most people will turn around and say that

“Yes these famous people were creative,

however that does not go on to prove

that everybody can be creative." That's a

pretty reasonable argument, however let

us look at the root of the creativity of

these individuals- a very vivid and visual

imaginative capacity. All human beings

are blessed with the capacity to imagine.

The difference is that some people are

able to easily mix their imaginative

faculties with other skills or knowledge

that they possess. So a writer is able to

weave words around his/her imagination;

A physicist is able to visualize laws that

govern the universe using his

imagination; A music composer is able to

apply his imagination to create new

combinations of sounds which he has

already mastered and so on. The moment

you examine this process, it becomes

pretty clear that this is a teachable

process, a skill made better by practice

and application. In that sense every

human being is creative and if I had

really bet on that question, I already won

the bet.

I ponder on the question I just asked in

the title of this article and despite

knowing that a question is probably not

the best way to start an article, I still do

so. Why? Well because most of what I

end up writing is an answer to a question

that I either asked myself or someone

else. Here's my analysis of my own

question and a possible answer as well.

Intelligence and Creativity are both

multifaceted. Intelligence manifests itself

in many ways - A person can have

varying degrees of academic intelligence,

Social Intelligence, Emotional

Intelligence. These three aspects have

been talked about by Daniel Goleman in

his books. I would add Spiritual

Intelligence to that - The intelligence of

being able to look at ecosystems and

their harmony in a balanced intuitive,

understanding way. Similar to the

Intelligence example, Creativity can be

manifested in many different ways. There

are those who are more Creative Problem

Solvers because of their capacity to

identify patterns, Creative Idea

Generators (Out of the Box Thinkers),

Imaginative Creative Artists, Creative

Solution Creators and Creative Leaders

(who exhibit creativity in people/team

PM Article

“Human beings are

hardwired to be creative.

The future has forever

been built by imagining it

first. The Theory for

Unknowns is built on

premises which are first

envisaged and then

validated or verified.”

Implementing Project Management

Metrics: Hope for the Best but Plan for the Worst


PM Article Implementing Project Management

Metrics: Hope for the Best but Plan for the Worst

metrics/KPIs are actually useful. When

someone uses this statement, what they

are really trying to say is that they are

just plain lazy and do not want to

improve their performance.

Once again, people try to hide the truth.

If you perform a benefit-to-cost analysis

on the use of metrics and KPIs, you will

see quickly that the benefits will

significantly outweigh the costs. The

reason why people also argue in the

same sentence that such programs are

“costly to maintain” is because initially

there is an upfront investment needed to

initiate a metrics/KPI performance

measurement system. The upfront cost

will include selecting the appropriate

metrics/KPIs, determining the best

measurement techniques, designing the

appropriate dashboards, and finally

performance reporting. Once the initial

steps are accomplished, the cost of

maintaining such a system is minimal

because dashboard updates can be done

in minutes by updates to Excel

spreadsheets that feed data to the

dashboard images. Perhaps there could

be a significant cost in the first year to

set up such systems but for the next ten

years or longer, the cost savings,

reduction in written reports, fewer costly

meetings, improvements in decision-

making, greater benefits realization and

“Metrics and KPIs are costly to

maintain and the benefits do not

justify the cost.”

value added to the business will make the

initial costs appear insignificant.

When all other arguments fail, people fall

back on the excuse of unproductive time.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Successful metric/KPI performance

programs can measure and report

information in real time. It is not

uncommon for dashboards to be updated

daily.

Employees will not support a metrics

management effort that looks like a

spying machine and can report worker

productivity on a daily basis if necessary.

Some people are very touchy about their

performance being measured. When

metrics and KPIs are reported in real

time or daily, worker performance or lack

of performance becomes quite evident.

Workers that seem to slack off a lot

during the workday tend to use this

argument.

Perhaps the greatest fear that workers

have with metric/KPI measurement and

reporting is that the information will be

used during performance reviews as

justification for rewards as well as

punishment. It is a very bad idea to have

metrics used during performance reviews

because:

The metrics/KPIs may be the result of

more than one person's efforts and it

may be impossible to determine which

person was solely responsible for a good

or bad result.

Unfavorable results may have been due

to circumstances beyond the individual's

control.

The true value of metric/KPI numbers

may not be known until sometime in the

future, thus leading to a performance

review based upon incomplete

information.

“Metrics/KPI measurements are a

waste of productive time.”

•

•

•

With the growth in Project Management

metrics, KPIs and dashboard reporting

systems, companies are improving their

success to failure ratios on projects and

strategic initiatives. But even though the

path looks bright, all that glitters is not

always gold, at least seen by those

people that would be required to measure

and report new metrics.

People tend to build up comfort zones at

work and then adjust their energy cycle

according to their comfort zone. Asking

them to learn new techniques and report

status differently may remove them from

their comfort zone. When people believe

their traditional comfort zone is in

jeopardy of being changed, even if the

change is for the better, they then come

up with a variety of excuses as to why

the new techniques should not be used.

For almost five decades, project team

members became accustomed to

reporting just time and cost metrics/KPIs

on their projects and doing so with

written reports. Now, we are asking them

to report significantly more metrics/KPIs,

and to do so using a dashboard reporting

system.

There are numerous excuses that people

identify as to why they should not have to

learn anything new or change their work

habits. Many times, the excuses are

related to a fear of the unknown. But

often there are other hidden agendas that

people use to justify their dissatisfaction.

People know that metrics are not useless

techniques and that they could never win

an argument trying to defend the

uselessness of metrics and KPIs.

Therefore, they include in the same

sentence the argument of “costliness”

hoping to detract the person they are

arguing with from the fact that

“Metrics and KPIs are an expensive

and useless measurement

technique.”

- Harold Kerzner, Ph.D


6 Page


PMNC 2015


were well received. As part of this event, Mr. Ravi Kanniganti, VP -

Corporate Relations from the Chapter delivered the keynote talk on

"It is time for Product Leadership". There was also two in-house

sessions in the form of an experience sharing session by Business

Leader, Mr. Pradeep Kumar Das and a presentation of a successful

case ctudy by a Project Manager, Mr. Deepak B. A.

Huawei India's PMCoE and Q & OD has set up this forum, HTIPL PM

Connect, for their program and project managers with the aim of

making a thriving, competent & connected PM community. To

achieve this objective, PM Connect events are being organized for

bringing in learning from both in-house talent and experience as

well as industry/ external contacts.

Agile Foundation Program:

Corporate Connect:

One day agile foundation sttraining was conducted on 31 October 2015. A total of ten

member attended the training program.

Chapter joined hands with HTIPL

(Huawei India)'s PMCoE to "Collaborate to Win" for the second

HTIPL PM Connect thsession held on 14

October 2015. Around

ninety HTIPL managers

from the PM community

attended this four hour

event and the sessions

Chapter News ... continued from Page 1

Here is the full breakdown of possible answers and how they

map to the three categories:

There are several shades of grey between mentioned

categories with very few absolutes. What one describes as an

Delighter Quality will be described as a Performance Quality

by other and maybe Basic by a third one. The masses don't

always think alike. These differences are due to customer

segmentation. We should look for tendencies and dominant

responses to draw conclusions.

Taking it forward, we can suggest that – Satisfying

Basic needs: Allows a product to get into the market

Performance needs: Allows a product to remain in the market

Excitement needs: Allows a product to excel; To be world class

This confirms our initial Presumption –

“Though requirements falling into the Basic & Performance

categories will be more important if implemented equally well it

is less important Exciters which will bring higher customer

Important Note –

Summary and conclusion

•

•

•

How to Delight ... continued from Page 2

satisfaction”. This is analogous with the principle of Marginal

utility in economics, which justifies --- “Why, In spite of limited

utility, Diamond is costlier than Water”.

As Project/Product Manager, We must couple the importance of a

particular need with the Kano category it falls into, to help

prioritize our improvement efforts and determine our future

development goals. The whole idea is to develop value

proposition and associate it with our product strategy.

A. Phubbing is a term created by the

combination of the words phone and

snubbing. It refers to a person interactiing

with their phone (or other device) rather

than interacting with a human being. The

use of this, and other terms around mobile

device use, showcases a growing issue with

different kinds of technology, including the

delicate balance of sharing time and

attention when facing two very different

interactions at the same time.

[Source - Internet]

•

•

Employees may “fudge the numbers” to make them look better than they are, thus

providing stakeholders and governance personnel with faulty performance reporting.

Employees in the same functional group may end up competing with one another for

the best metric/KPI result rather than collaborating, and this could lead to suboptimal

performance and decision making.

If you know that these situations can and will happen, then it should be obvious that a

solution does exist. Whenever people are expected to learn new techniques and begin

working differently, their first concern is “What's in it for me?” Therefore, senior

management must take the lead in the implementation of any metric/KPI management

program and explain to the workers how they will benefit and that the metrics/KPIs will

not be used as part of performance reviews. If this is not done, then the firm runs the

risk of having the workers sabotage the new metric/KPI initiative. Upfront buy-in is

essential and this should be driven from the top down.

Implementing Project ... continued from Page 5

8 Page


PMI Bangalore India Chapter# 13, Suryastan Apartments, Andree Road, Shanthi Nagar,Bengaluru - 560 027, Karnataka, India

[email protected] +91 80 6583 3671, +91 80 2211 5772, +91 98868 14078http://www.pmibangalorechapter.org

ValueWorks; [email protected]

PM Essence

Disclaimer

“The mission of PM Essence is to facilitate the exchange of information among professionals in the field of

project and program management, provide them with practical tools and techniques, and serve as a

forum for discussion of emerging trends and issues in project management. PM Essence is YOUR

Newsletter and Bangalore Chapter welcomes story ideas and/or suggestions to make it still better. More

information can be found on the Chapter's website.”

All articles in PM Essence are the views of the authors and not necessarily those of PMI or PMI Bangalore

India Chapter. Unless otherwise specified, it is assumed that the senders have done due diligence in

getting necessary copyright and official clearance in respect of all letters and articles sent to PM Essence

for publication. PMI Bangalore India Chapter is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to

unsolicited manuscripts or other material.

Technology Support : Sekar Parasuraman, PMP

Editorial Assistance : Smita Joshi Pant, PMP

The Bangalore Chapter repeats history again by winning the "PMI Chapter Award for Collaboration

& Outreach Category IV for 2015" for the outstanding work done by the Chapter in the 2014. Two

years back the Chapter won “PMI Chapter Award for Member Services”. This year's award was

conferred upon the Chapter for all round performance of the Chapter in reaching out to NGOs,

Academia, Corporate and Government. Chapter managed a social project for installation of Solar

charged study lamp kits in 140 schools and installation of eTeaching Kits in 72 schools (Vidya Deepa

Project) in a short span of 2.5 months for Rotary International. The PM Primer program conducted

by the Chapter every year for over 400 students is another significant outreach program for taking

Project Management knowledge to College Campuses. In addition the Chapter has participated in

several Corporate PM Day programs and also conducted training programs for Fiscal Policy

Institute, Govt. of Karnataka. All the programs were well supported by a large number of Chapter

volunteers. The award was received by the Chapter President at a function held by PMI at Orlando,

thUSA on 10 October 2015.

PM Accomplishments

The Lighter Side of PM

pm essence nov 2015 - pmi bangalore chapter · - pavan soni are you creative? i bet you are - reena...

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