Business Dream

Real Estate Investing Resources

2008-05-29T11:31:00.000-07:00

Like all other investing topics, there are tons of books and called gurus talking about the real estate investing.

John T. Reed has web site to review most popular gurus http://www.johntreed.com.

Book recommended:

How I Turned $1,000 into Five Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time (Hardcover)by William Nickerson (Author)

Landlording: A Handymanual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves (Paperback)by Leigh Robinson

Project Procurement Management

2008-01-29T12:45:00.000-08:00

1) Plan purchase and acquisitions

identifies which project needs can best be met by purchasing or acquiring products, services, or results outside the project organization
considers potential sellers, particularly if the buyer wishes to exercise some degree of influence or control over contracting decisions.
reviews the risks involved in each make-or-buy decision and type of contract planned to be used with respect to mitigating risks and transferring risks to seller.

Tools and Techniques:

Make-or-Buy Analysis
Expert Judgment
Contract Types (Fixed-price or lump-sum contracts, Cost-reimbursable contracts (Cost-Plus-Fee CPF or Cost-Plus-Percentage of Cost CPPC, Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee CPFF, Cost-Plus-Incentive-Fee CPIF
Time and Material contracts

Outputs - Procurement Management Plan

Types of contracts to be used
Who Will prepare independent estimates and if they are needed as evaluation criteria
Standardized procurement documents, if needed
Managing multiple providers
Coordinating procurement with other project aspects, such as scheduling and performance reporting
Constraints and assumptions that could affect planned purchases and acquisition
Handling the lead times required to purchase or acquire items
Handling the make-or-buy decisions and linking them into the activity resource estimating
Setting the scheduled dates in each contract for the contract deliverables
Identifying performance bonds or insurance contracts
Establishing the direction to be provided to sellers on developing and maintaining a contract work breakdown structure
Identifying pre-qualified selected sellers
Procurement metrics to be used to manage contracts and evaluate sellers

Contract statement of work
Make-or-Buy Decisions

2) Plan contracting
Outputs:
Procurement Documents: used to seek proposals from prospective sellers

Terms used: bid, tender or quotation if selection decisions will be based on price, proposal is other considerations are paramount.
Invitation for bid, request for proposal, request for quotation, tender notice, invitation for negotiation and contractor initial response
Include a description of the desired form of response, the relevant contract statement of work and any required contractual provisions.
Rigorous enough to ensure consistent, comparable responses, but flexible enough to allow consideration of seller suggestions for better ways to satisfy the requirements.

Evaluation Criteria

Understanding of need
Overall or life-cycle cost
Technical capability
Management approach
Technical approach
Financial capacity
Production capacity and interest
Business size and type
References
Intellectual property rights
proprietary rights

3) Request seller responses
Tools and Techniques:

Bidder conferences (meetings with prospective sellers prior to preparation of a bid or proposal. Response to questions can be incorporated into the procurement documents as amendments
Advertising
Develop qualified sellers list

Outputs:

Qualified sellers list
Procurement document package
Proposals: constitutes a formal and legal offer in response to a buyer's request

4) Select sellers
Tools and Techniques:

Weighting system: quantifying qualitative data to minimize the effect of personal prejudice
Independent Estimates: "should-cost" estimate
Screening System: establishing minimum requirements for performance for one or more of the evaluation criteria
Contract Negotiation: clarifies the structure and requirements of contract so that mutual agreement can be reached prior to signing the contract
Seller rating system
Expert judgment
Proposal evaluation techniques

5) Contract administration
Project management processes applied to contract administration:

Direct and manage project execution to authorize the contractor's work at the appropriate time
Performance reporting to monitor contractor cost, schedule, and technical performance
Perform quality control to inspect and verify the adequacy of the contractor's product
Integrated change control to assure that changes are properly approved.
Risk monitoring and control to ensure that risks are mitigated.

Tools and techniques:

contract change control system
buyer-conducted performance review
inspection and audits
performance reporting
payment system
claims administration
record management system
information technology

6) Contract closure

outputs:

Closed contracts: buyer, usually through its authorized contract administrator, provides the seller with formal written notice that the contract has been completed.
Organizational process assets: contract file, deliverable acceptance, lessons learned documentation.

Project Risk Management

2008-01-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

1) Risk Management Planning
Deciding how to approach and conduct the risk management activities for a project.
Outputs: Risk Management Plan

Methodology: defines approaches, tools and data sources
Roles and responsibilities: defines lead, support, and risk management team membership, assigns people to these roles, and clarifies their responsibilities
Budgeting: assigns resources and estimates costs needed for inclusion in project cost baseline
Timing: defines how and how often the risk management process will be performed.
Risk categories: risk breakdown structure (RBS)
Definition of risk probability and impact
Probability and impact matrix
Revised stakeholders' tolerances
Reporting formats
Tracking

2) Risk Identification
Determines which risks might affect the project and documents their characteristics.
Tools and Techniques:

Documentation reviews
Information gathering techniques: (brainstorming, delphi technique, interviewing, root cause identification, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis.
Checklist analysis
Assumptions analysis
Diagramming Techniques (cause-and-effect diagrams, system or process flow charts, influence diagrams.)

Outputs: Risk Register

list of identified risks
list of potential response
root causes of risk
updated risk categories

3) Qualitative Risk Analysis
a rapid and cost-effective means of establishing priorities of risk response planning, and lays the foundation for quantitative risk analysis.
Tools and Techniques:

Risk probability and impact assessment
Probability and impact matrix
Risk data quality assessment
Risk categorization (by sources of risk, the area of project affected)
risk urgency assessment

Outputs: Risk Register(updates)

Relative ranking or priority list of project risks
Risks grouped by categories
List of risks requiring response in the near term
List of risks for additional analysis and response
Watchlists of low priority risks
Trends in qualitative risk analysis results

4) Quantitative Risk Analysis
Tools and Techniques:

Data Gathering and representation techniques: interviewing, Probability distributions(beta and triangular distribution), Expert judgment
Quantitative Risk Analysis and Modeling: Sensitivity analysis, Expected monetary value analysis(EMV), Decision tree analysis, Modeling and simulation

5) Risk Response Planning
Tools and Techniques:

Strategies for Negative Risks or Threats (Avoid, transfer, mitigate)
Strategies for Positive Risks or Opportunities (Exploit, Share, Enhance)
Strategy for both threats and opportunities (Acceptance)
Contingent Response Strategy

6) Risk Monitoring and Control
Purpose of risk monitoring and control are to determine if:

project assumptions are still valid
risk, as assessed, had changed from its prior state, with analysis of trends
proper risk management policies and procedures are being followed
contingency reserves of cost or schedule should be modified in line with the risks of the project

Tools and Techniques:

Risk reassessment
risk audits
variance and trend analysis
technical performance measurement
reserve analysis
status meetings

Project Communications Management

2008-01-11T07:45:00.001-08:00

1) Communications Planning
Determines the information and communications needs of stakeholders, who, when, how, and by whom.
Tools and Techniques:

Communications requirements analysis. (total number of communication channels is n(n-1)/2. Need to determine and limit who will communicate with whom and who will receive what information. (Organization charts, project organization, internal information needs, external information needs...)
Communications Technology

Outputs: Communication Management Plan.

2) Information Distribution
Making information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner.
Tools and Techniques:

Communications Skills (written and oral, listening, and speaking; internal and external; formal and informal; vertical and horizontal.
Information gathering and retrieval systems
Information distribution methods (project meetings, hard-copy document distribution, electronic communication and conferencing tools, electronic tools for project management

3) Performance Reporting

Collecting all baseline data, and distributing performance information to stakeholders.
Tools and Techniques:

Information presentation tools
Performance information gathering and compilation
Status review meetings
Time report systems
Cost reporting systems

4) Manage Stakeholders
Managing communications to satisfy the needs of, and resolve issues with, project stakeholders.
Tools and Techniques:

Communications methods (face-to-face meetings are the most effective means for communicating and resolving issues with stakeholders.
Issue logs. (document and monitor the resolution of issues. Unresolved issues can be a major source of conflict and project delays.)

Project Human Resource Management

2008-01-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

1) Human Resource Planning
Determine project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships, and creates staffing management plan(how and when project team members will be acquired, the criteria for releasing, identification of training needs, plans for recognition and rewards ...).

Tools and Techniques:

Organization Charts and Position Descriptions
Hierarchical-type charts
Matrix-based charts
Text-oriented formats
Networking

Outputs:

Roles and Responsibilities (Role, Authority, Responsibility, Competency)
Project Organization Charts
Staffing Management Plan (Staff acquisition, Timetable, Release criteria, training needs, recognition and rewards, compliance, safety)

2) Acquire Project Team
Tools and Techniques:

Pre-Assignment
Negotiation
Acquisition
Virtual Teams. (communications planning becomes increasingly important in a virtual team environment. )

Outputs:

Project staff assignment
Resource availability

3) Develop Project Team
Improves the competencies and interaction of team members to enhance project performance. (improving skills of team members, and feelings of trust and cohesiveness among team members.)
Tools and Techniques:

General management skills (soft skills such as empathy, influence, creativity and group facilitation)
Training
Team-building activities
Ground rules (establish clear expectations regarding acceptable behavior by project team members)
Co-Location
Recognition and rewards (rewarding win-win behavior, considering cultural differences)

Outputs: Team performance assessment

4) Manage Project Team

tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues, and coordinating changes to enhance project performance.

Tools and Techniques:

Observation and Conversion
Project Performance Appraisals (objectives include reclarification of roles and responsibilities, structured time to ensure team members receive positive feedback, discovery of unknown or unresolved issues, development of individual training plans, and the Establishment of specific goals.)
Conflict Management (when differences become a negative factor, project team members are initially responsible for resolving their own conflicts. If conflict escalates, the PM should help facilitate a satisfactory resolution. conflict should be address early and in private, using a direct, collaborative approach.)
Issue Log

Product Qulity Management

2008-01-10T05:22:00.001-08:00

Grade & Quality:
Grade is a category assigned to products or serverice having the same functional use but different technical chracteristics.
Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfill requirements.

Precision & Accuracy
Precision is consistency that the value of repeated measurements are clustered and have little scatter.
Accuracy is correctness that the measured value is very close to the ture value.

Quality Management disciplines:

Customer satisfaction
Prevention over inspection
Management responsibilty: it is management responsibility to provide resources needed to succeed.
Continuous improvement: plan-do-check-act cycle is the basis for quality management.
Quality is planned, designed, and built in -- not inspected in.

1) Quality Planning

Tools and Techniques:

Cost-Benefit Analysis
Benchmarking
Design of Experiments DOE (helps identify whichfactors may influence specific variables of a product or process)
Cost of Quality COQ. (total costs incurred by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements, failing to meet requirement, and appraising the product for conformance. Failure cost are also called cost of poor quality.)
Additional Quality Planning Tools

Outputs:

Quality Management Plan
Quality Metrics
Quality Checklists
Process Improvement Plan (Process boundaries, process configuration, process metrics, targets for improved performance.)
Quality Baseline

2) Perform Quality Assurance (QA)

Tools and Techniques:

Quality planning tools and techniques
Quality Audits: (a structured, independent review to determine whether project activities comply with organizational and project policies, processes, and procedures.)
Process Analysis

3) Perform Quality Control (QC)

Prvention (keeping errors out of process) and inspection (keeping errors out of the hands of the customer.)
Attribute sampling (the result conforms, or it does not) and variables sampling (the result is rated on a continuous scale that measures the degree of comformity).
Special causes (unusual events) and common causes (normal process variation. ) common causes are also called random causes.
Tolerances(the result is acceptable if it falls within the range specified by tolerance) and control limits (the process is in control if the result falls within control limits.)

Tools and Techniques:

Cause and Effect Diagram. (Ishikawa diagrams or fishbone diagrams) illustrate how various factors might be linked to potential problems or effects.
Control Charts (determine whether or not a process is stable or has predictable performance. The upper control limit and lower control limit are usaully set at +/-3 sigma.
Flowcharting (helps to analyze how problems occur.)
Histogram (a bar chart showing a distribution of variables)
Pareto Chart (a specific type of histogram, ordered by frequency of occurrence, which shows how many defects were generated by type or category of identified cause. It is conceptually related to Pareto's law 80/20 principle.)
Run Chart
Scatter Diagram
Statistical Sampling
Inspection
Defect Repair Review

Project Cost Management

2008-01-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Cost Management Plan in project management plan may include:

Precision level : rounding of data to a prescribed precision based on scope of the activities and magnitude of project
Units of measure
Organizational procedures link
Control thresholds
Earned value rules
Reporting formats
Process description

1) Cost Estimating
It includes identifying and considering various costing alternatives. The costs for schedule activities estimating are estimated for all resources, which include labor, materials, equipment, services, and facilities, as well as special categories such as inflation allowance or a contigence cost.
Tools and Techniques:

Analogous Estimating
Determine Resource Cost Rates
Bottom-up Estimating
Parametric Estimating
Project Management Software
Vendor Bid Analysis
Reserve Analysis

Outputs:

Activity Cost Estimates
Activity Cost estimate Supporting Detail (Description of schedule activity's project scope of work, documentation of basis for estimate, any constrains, range of possible estimates.

2) Cost Budgeting
Involves aggregating the estimated costs of individual schedule activities or work packages to establish a total cost baseline for measuring project performance.
Tools and Techniques:

Cost Aggregatiion
Reserve Analysis (Management contingency reserves are budgets reserved for unplanned, but potentially required changes to project scope and cost. There are "unknown unknowns" and are not a part of project cost baseline and so not a part of earned value calculations.
Parametric Estimating
Funding limit reconciliation

Outputs:

Cost Baseline
Project Funding Requirements (the total funds required are those included in cost baseline plus the management contingency reserve amount. )

3) Cost Control
Tools and Techniques:

Cost Change Control System
Performance Measurement Analysis
Forecasting
Project Performance Reviews
Project Management Software
Variance Management

Key performance measurement elements:

Planned value (PV)
Earned Value (EV)
Actual Cost (AC)
Estimate to complete (ETC) and estimate at completion (EAC)
Cost Variance (CV) : CV = EV -AC
Schedule Variance (SV) SV = EV - PV
Cost Performance Index (CPI) CPI = EV /AC
Schedule performance index (SPI) SPI = EV / PV
Budget at Completion (BAC) BAC = total PV at completion
ETC based on new estimate: ETC equals the revised estimate for the work remaining, as determined by performing organization. based on atypical variance: ETC = (BAC-EV) based on typical variance: ETC = (BAC-EV)/CPI
EAC using a new estimate: EAC = AC + ETC. based on atypical variance: EAC = AC+BAC-EV. based on typical variance: EAC = AC + (BAC-EV)/CPI

Project Time Management

2008-01-03T11:55:00.000-08:00

1) Activity Definition
Project work packages are decomposed into smaller components called schedule activities to provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, and monitoring and controlling the project work.
Outputs:

Activity List: includes all schedule activities that are planned to be perf0rmed on project. (activity identifier and scope of work descriptions in sufficient detail.)
Activity Attributes: include activity identifier, activity codes, description, predecessor activities, successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource requirements, imposed dates, constraints, and assumptions.
Milestone List: identifies all milestones and indicates whether the milestone is mandatory. It is a component of project management plan and used in schedule model

2) Activity Sequencing
Identify and document the logical relationship among schedule activities.
Tools:

Precedence Diagramming Model (PDM), also called Activity-On-Node(AON), four types of dependencies: Finish-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, Start-to-Start, Start-to-Finish
Arrow Diagramming Method(ADM), also called Activity-On-Arrow (AOA)
Schedule Network Templates
Dependency Determination: Mandatory dependencies, Discretionary dependencies (preferential logic or soft logic), External dependencies
Applying leads and lags

Outputs: Project Schedule Network Diagram

3) Activity Resource Estimating
Determine what resources(persons, equipment, or material) and what quantities of each resources will be used, and when each resource will be available to perform activities.

Inputs: Activity list, activity attributes, resource availability, project management plan
Tools and Techniques:

Expert judgment
Alternative analysis
Published estimating data
Project management software
Bottom-up estimating

Outputs:

Activity Resource Requirements
Resource Breakdown Structure (hierarchical structure of identified resources by category and type)

4) Activity Duration Estimating
Tools and Techniques:

Expert judgment
Analogous estimating (using the actual duration of a previous, similar schedule activity as the basis for estimating the duration of a future schedule activity.)
Parametric estimating(determine durations quantiatively by multiplying the quantity of work by the productivity rate.)
Three-point estimate: (Most likely, Optimistic, Pessimistic)
Reverse Analysis (incorporate contingency reserves into overall project schedule as recognition of schedule risk.)

5) Schedule Development
Project schedule development is an iterative process and determines planned start and finish date for project activities.
Tools and Techniques:

Schedule Network Analysis
Critical Path Method
Schedule Compression (Crashing, Fast tracking)
What-If Scenario Analysis
Resource Leveling
Critical Chain Method
Project Management Software
Applying Calendars
Adjusting Leads and Lags
Schedule Model

Outputs:

Project Schedule (Project schedule network diagrams, Bar charts, Milestone charts)
Schedule Model Data
Schedule Baseline

6) Schedule Control

Determine the current status of project schedule
Influence the factors that create schedule changes
Determine that the project schedule has changed and manage actual changes as they occur

Tools and Techniques:

Progress reporting
Schedule change control system
Performance measurement (Schedule Variance SV and Schedule Performance Index SPI)
Project management software
Variance analysis
Schedule comparison bar charts

Project Scope Management

2008-01-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

Project scope management defines and controls what is and is not included in project to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required.

1) Scope Planning

Output: Project Scope Management Plan: provide guidance on how project scope will be defined, documented, verified, managed, and controlled.

A process to prepare a detailed project scope statement.
A process that enables the creation of WBS and how the WBS will be maintained and approved.
A process that specifies how formal verification and acceptance of the completed project deliverables
A process to control how request for change will be processed. This process is linked to the integrated change control process.

2) Scope Definition
Tools and Techniques:

Product Analysis: eg. product breakdown, system analysis, value engineering, value analysis and functional analysis
Alternatives Identification
Expert Judgment
Stakeholder Analysis

Outputs:

Project Scope Statement includes, either directly or by reference to following:

Project objectives: measurable success criteria of the project
Product scope description: characteristics of the product, service, or result.
Project requirements: the conditions or capabilities that must be met or possessed by deliverables
Project boundaries: generally what is included within the project, explicitly what is excluded from the project
Project deliverables
Project acceptance criteria
Project constraints
Project assumptions: specific project assumptions and potential impact of those assumptions if they prove to be false
Initial project organization: member of project team and stakeholders
Initial defined risks
Schedule milestones
Fund limitation
Cost estimate
Project configuration management requirements
Project specifications
Approval requirements

3) Create WBS

A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed. The planned work contained within the lowest-level WBS components, work packages, can be scheduled, cost estimated, monitored, and controlled.
Tools and Techniques:

Work Breakdown Structure Templates
Decomposition: subdivision of project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components until the work and deliverables are defined to work package level. (rolling wave planning: wait until the deliverable is clarified for some deliverables.)

Outputs:

Work Breakdown Structure
WBS Dictionary: For each WBS components, WBS dictionary includes a code of account identifier, a statement of work, responsible organization and a list of schedule milestones, possible contract information, quality requirement, technical references, and so on.
Scope Baseline: the approved detailed project scope statement, and its associated WBS and WBS dictionary are scope baseline.
Updates to Project Scope Management Plan
Requested Changes

4) Scope Verification
the process of obtaining the stakeholders' formal acceptance of the completed project scope and associated deliverables.

Outputs:

Accepted Deliverables
Requested Changes
Recommend Corrective Actions

5) Scope Control
Assures all requested changes and recommended corrective actions are processed through the project integrated change control process. Uncontrolled changes are often referred to as project scope creep.

Tools and Techniques:

Change Control System
Variance Analysis
Replanning
Configuration Management System

Project Integration Management

2007-12-28T08:15:00.000-08:00

Integration is primarily concerned with effectively integrating the processes among the project management process groups. It includes initiation processes of developing project charter and preliminary project scope statement, planning process of developing project management plan, executing process of directing and managing project execution, controlling process of monitoring and controlling project work, integrated change control, and closing process of closing project.

1) Develop Project Charter
Formally authorize a project and provide project manager with authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
The project manager should be always be assigned prior to the start of the planning.
The followings should be addressed:

Requirements that satisfy customer, sponsor, and other stakeholder needs
Business needs, high-level project description or product requirements
Project purpose or justification
Assigned Project Manager and authority level
Summary milestone schedule
Stakeholder influences
Functional organizations and their participation
Organizational, environmental and external assumptions and constrains
Business case justifying the project, including return on investment
Summary budget

Inputs:

Contract
Project Statement of Work (SOW) (for external projects, request for proposal, request for information, request for bid) business need like market demand, tech advance, legal requirement, governmental standard ;product scope description, strategic plan.
Enterprise environmental factors
Organizational process assets

Tools and Techniques:

Project Selection Methods: a. Benefit measurement methods, b) Mathematical models
Project Management Methodology:
Project Management Information System
Expert Judgment

2)Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement
The definition of the project addresses and documents the characteristics and boundaries of the project and its associated products and services, and the methods of acceptance and scope control:

Project and product objectives
Product or service requirements and characteristics
Product acceptance criteria
Project boundaries
Project requirements and deliverable
Project constraints and assumptions
Initial project organization
Initial defined risks
Schedule milestones
Initial WBS
Order of magnitude cost estimate
Project configuration management requirements
Approval requirement

3) Develop Project Management Plan

includes actions necessary to define, integrate, and coordinate all subsidiary plans into project management plan which defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.

Project management processes selected by project management team
The level of implementation of each selected process
The descriptions of the tools and techniques to be used for accomplishing those processes
How the selected processes will be used to manage the specific project, including dependencies and interactions among those processes, and the essential inputs and outputs
How work will be executed, how changes will be monitored and controlled
How configuration management will be performed
How integrity of the performance measurement baselines will be maintained
The need and techniques for communication among stakeholders
The selected project life cycle and, for multi-phase projects, the associated phases
Key management reviews for content, extent, and timing to facilitate addressing open issues and pending decisions.

Possible subsidiary plans:

Project scope management plan (How)
Schedule management plan
Cost management plan
Quality management plan
Process improvement plan
Staffing management plan
Communication management plan
Risk management plan
Procurement management plan
Milestone list
Resource calendar
Schedule baseline
Cost baseline
Quality baseline
Risk register

Tools and Techniques:

Configuration Management System: a subsystem of overall project management information system. Includes process for submitting proposed changes, tracking system for reviewing and approving proposed changes, defining approval levels for authorizing changes, and providing methods to validate approved changes. It includes change control system. It is used to identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of a product, control any change to such characteristics, record and report each change and its implementation status, and support the audit of products to verify conformance to requirements.
Change Control System: a collection of formal documented procedures that define how project delieverables and documentation are controlled, changed, and approved.

4) Direct and Manage Project Execution

Perform multiple actions to execute project management plan to accomplish the work defined in the project scope statement.

Perform activities to accomplish project objectives
Expend effort and spend funds to accomplish project objectives
Staff, train, and manage project team members assigned to project
Obtain quotations, bids, offers, or proposals as appropriate
Select sellers by choosing from potential sellers, manage sellers
Obtain, manage, and use resources including materials, tools, equipment, and facilities
Implement the planned methods and standards
Create, control, verify, and validate project deliverables
Manage risks and implement risk response activities
Adapt approved changes into project scope, plans and environment
Establish and manage project communication channels, both external and internal to the project team
Collect project data and report cost, schedule, technical and quality progress and status information to facilitate forecasting
Collect and document lessons learned, and implement approved process improvement activities
Implement approved corrective actions, approved preventive actions and approved defect repair requests

Inputs:

Project Management Plan
Approved Corrective Actions
Approved Preventive Actions
Approved Change Requests
Approved Defect Repair
Validated Defect Repair
Administrative Closure Procedure

Outputs:

Deliverables
Requested Changes
Implemented Change Requests
Implemented Corrective Actions
Implemented Preventive Actions
Implemented Defect Repair
Work Performance Information

5) Monitor and Control Project Work

Collecting, measuring, and disseminating performance information, and assessing measurements and trends to effect process improvements.

Comparing actual project performance against the project management plan
Assessing performance to determine whether any corrective or preventive actions are indicated
Analyzing, tracking, and monitoring project risks
Maintaining an accurate, timely information base
Providing information to support status reporting, progress measurement, and forecasting
Providing forecasts to update current cost and schedule information
Monitoring implementation of approved changes

Inputs:

Project Management Plan
Work Performance Information
Rejected Change Request

Tools and Techniques:

Earned Value Techniques

Outputs:

Recommended Corrective Actions
Recommended Preventive Actions
Forecasts
Recommended Defect Repair
Requested Changes

6) Integrated Change Control

Identify that a change needs to occur or has occurred
Influence the factors that circumvent integrated change control so that only approved changes are implemented.
Review and approve requested changes (may through change control board)
Manage the approved changes
Maintain the integrity of baselines by releasing only approved change and maintaining their related configuration and documentation
Review and approve all recommended corrective and preventive actions
Control and update the scope, cost, budget, schedule and quality requirements based on approved changes
Document complete impact of requested changes, validate defect repair
Control project quality to standards based on quality report
Every documented requested change must be either accepted or rejected.

7) Close Project

Administrative Closure Procedure (Define stakeholder approval requirement for all levels of deliverable, confirm requirement satisfaction, verify deliverable accepted, and validate completion and exit criteria being met, satisfy completion or exit criteria for the project. )
Contract Closure Procedure (actions performed formally close all contracts associated with the completed project)
Final Product, Service, or Result (formal acceptance and handover of final product. receipt of a formal statement that the terms of contract have met)
Organizational Process Assets (Formal acceptance documentation, project files, project closure documents, historical information like lessons learned)

Project Management Processes

2007-11-15T07:54:00.001-08:00

Project Management is accomplished through processes, utilizing PM knowledge, skills, tools and techniques.
To make a project successful, project team should
1) Select appropriate processes for the given project(not all PM process groups applied, what processes are appropriate and the appropriate degree of rigor for each process)
2) Use a defined approach to adapt the product specs and plans to meet project and product requirements.
3) Comply with requirements to meet stakeholder needs and expectations.
4) Balance the competing demands of scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk to produce a quality product.

Project management process (initiate, plan, execute, monitor and control, and close)and product-oriented process (specify and create the project's product)

Project Management Processes (plan-do-check-act) Iterative

Initiating Process Group
Defines and authorizes the project or project phase
Facilitate the formal authorization to start a new project or project phase, project manager will be selected; initial assumptions and constrains will be documented .
Good practice: Involve customer and other stakeholders during initiation generally improve probability of shared ownership, deliverable acceptance, and satisfaction.
1) Develop Project Charter

Authorizing the project or project phase (in multi-phase project. )
Documenting business needs and project deliverable intended to satisfy those requirements.
Links project to ongoing work of the organization
Chartered and authorized external to the project by organization, program or portfolio management body.

2) Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement

Documents the project and deliverable requirements, product requirements
Defines boundaries of the project, methods of acceptance, and high-level scope control.
Multi-phase project, validates or refines project scope for each phase

Planning Process Group
Defines and refines objectives, and plans the course of action
1) Develop Project Management Plan

Define how the project will be planned, executed, monitored and controlled, and closed.
The process necessary for defining, preparing, integrating and controlling all subsidiary plans into a project management plan

2) Scope planning

Creating a project scope management plan which documents how project scope will be defined, verified and controlled
How work breakdown structure (WBS) will be created and defined.

3) Scope Definition

Develop detailed project scope statement (the basis for future project decisions)

4) Create WBS

Subdividing major project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components.
WBS ad WBS dictionary.

5) Activity Definition

Identifying the specific activities to be performed to produce various project deliverables
Activity List, activity attributes, milestone list

6) Activity Sequencing

Identify and document dependencies among schedule activities
Project schedule network diagram

7) Activity Resource Estimating

Estimate type and quantities of resources required to perform each schedule activity
Activity resource requirements

8) Activity Duration Estimating

Estimate number of work periods that will be needed to complete individual schedule activities

9) Schedule Development

Analyze activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create project schedule.
Project schedule, schedule model data, schedule baseline, resource requirements

10) Cost Estimating

Develop an approximation of the costs of the resources
Activity cost estimates and supporting detail, cost management plan

11)Cost Budgeting

Aggregate estimated costs of individual activities or work packages to establish cost baseline
cost baseline, project function requirement

12) Quality Planning

Identify which quality standards are relevant to project and determine how to satisfy them
Quality management plan, quality metrics, quality checklists, quality baseline, process improvement plan

13) Human Resource Planning

Identify and document project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships, staffing management plan
Roles and responsibilities, project organization chart, staffing management plan

14) Communications Planning

Determine information and communication needs of project stakeholders
Communication Management Plan

15) Risk Management Planning

Decide how to approach, plan and execute the risk management activities
Risk management plan

16) Risk Identification

Determine which risks might affect project and document their characteristics
Risk Register

17) Qualitative Risk Analysis

Priortize risks for subsequent further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact

18) Quantitative Risk Analysis

Numerically analyze the effect on overall project objectives of identified risks

19) Risk Respons Planning

Develop options and actions to enhance opportunities and to reduce threats to project objectives

20) Plan Purchases and Acqusitions

Determine what to purchase or acquire, and determine when and how
Procurement management plan, contract statement of work, make-or-buy decisions

21) Plan Contracting

Document products, services, and results requirement and identify potential sellers

Executing Process Group
Integrates people and other resources to carry out the PM plan for the project
1) Direct and Manage Project Execution

Execute the work, produce deliverables
Work performance information

2) Perform Quality Assurance

Apply planned, systematic quality activities to ensure that the project employs all processes
Recommended corrective actions

3) Acquire Project Team

4) Develop Project Team

5) Information Distribution

6) Request Seller Response

Obtain information, quotation, bids, offers or proposals

7) Select Sellers

Review offers, choose from among potential sellers, and negotiate written contract

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group
Regularly measures and monitors progress to identify variances from PM plan so that corrective actions can be taken when necessary
1) Monitor and Control Project Work

Collect, measure, and disseminate performance information.
Status reporting, progress measurment, and forecasting.

2) Integrated Change Control

Control factors that create changes, manage approved changes

3) Scope Verification

Formalize acceptance of the conpleted project deliverables.

4) Scope Control

Control changes to the project scope

5) Schedule Control

6) Cost Control

7) Perform Quality Control

8) Manage Project Team

Track team member performance, provide feedback, resolve issues and coordinate changes to enhance project performance

9) Performance Reporting

10) Manage Stakeholders

Manage communications to satisfy requirements of, and resolve issues with, project stakeholders

11) Risk Monitoring and Control

Track identified risks, monitor residual risks, identify new risks, execute risk response plans and evaluate their effectivieness

12) Contract Administration

Closing Process Group
Formalizes acceptance of the product, service or result and brings project or project phase to and orderly end.

1) Close Project

2) Contract Closure

9 Knowledge Areas

1) Project Integration Managemant 2) Project Scope Management

3) Project Time Management 4) Project Cost Management

5) Project Quality Management 6) Project Human Resouce Management

7) Project Communications Management 8) Project Risk Management

9) Project Procurement Management

The theory of customer choice

2007-09-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

Two Explanations of the law of demand:
1) Income and substitution effects
2) Law of diminishing marginal utility

Customer choice and budget constraint
Typical consumer situation: 1) rational behavior 2)preferences 3) budget constraint 4) prices

Utility-maximizing rule:
The consumer should allocate his or her money income so that the last dollar spent on each product yields the same amount of extra (marginal) utility.

Decision Process

2007-09-25T12:02:00.000-07:00

Every decision is risky: it is commitment of present resources to an uncertain and unknown future.
Good decision makers:
1) Know when a decision is necessary
2) Know that the most important part of decision making is to make sure that the decision is about the right problem
3) Know how to define the problem
4) Don't even think about what is acceptable until they have thoughts through what the right decision is
5) Know that, in all likelihood, they will have to make compromise in the end.
6) Know that they have not made a decision until they build its implementation and effectiveness into it.

Problem classification:
1) Generic events that are common within the organization and throughout the industry
2) Generic events that are unique for the organization but common throughout the industry
3) Truly unique events (really rare)
4) Events that appear to be unique but are really the first appearance of a new generic problem.
(Applying a standard rule or principle can solve most types of problems.)

Defining the problem: principles
Until the definition of a problem explains and encompasses all observable facts, the definition is incomplete or wrong. Once the problem has been correctly defined, the decision itself is usually pretty easy.
What is this all about?
What is pertinent here?
What is key to this situation?

(from daily drucker)

Decision Making -- from Daily Drucker

2007-09-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

Getting others to buy the decision: If you wait until you have made the decision and then start to "sell" it, it's unlikely to ever become effective. For a decision to be effective, being bought has to be built into it from the start of the decision making process. Involve everyone who will have to carry out a decision in the process of making the decision. At lease, ask them to write down how such a decision would affect there work, job, and unit. They are expressly forbidden to have an opinion and to recommend or to object to the possible move. But they are expected to think it through. By this way, the top management, in turn, then knows where each people stands.

Continuous learning in decision making and testing the decision against result: When you make an important decision, make sure to write down the expected "prognosis". Then at a time appropriate for the particular decision, go out and look at what results have transpired. Compare results to your prognosis and find out if decision have accomplished their intended results. Use what you learn in subsequent decision situations.

Placing decision responsibility: A decision should always be made at the lowest possible level and as close to the scene of action as possible. (How far down should be) However, a decision should always be made at a level ensuring that all activities and objectives affected are be fully considered. (How far down can be)

Four basic characteristics of business decision:
1) the degree of futurity
2) the impact
3) number of qualitative factors
4) Recurrent or rare

The longer a decision commits the organization, the wider its impact upon other functions,the greater the number of qualitative factors involved and finally, the rarer the decision, the higher in the organization the decision should be made.

Sales skills: the deeper you go, the more you will sell

2007-09-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

The lowest level of learning is memorization. The highest level is known as "synthesis" or "subconscious competence", which requires a lot of repetition and practice.

1) Establish rapport
You can close a much higher percentage of sales if you have good, solid rapport with your prospects. How to achieve this mutual liking, trust and sense that you share their concerns?
One thing to establish trust is to make your prospect feel that they are working with an expert.
Ways to help establish rapport: (how many children do they have? what are their ages and names? Do you know what will make them more successful? Do you know their goals in life? ...)

ask great questions
have a sense of humor: have fun together
commiserate
be empathetic and care about them
find the common ground
mirror

2) Qualify the buyer (Find the need)
Finding out what they are looking for in your product or service and what factors will influence them to buy. Develop 6 to 10 questions that you would like to know about every prospect.
The best method of selling is when you can guide your prospects through a series of questions and they sell themselves on your product or service.

3) Build Value
After you have assessed your customers' buying criteria, you must begin to build value around your product or service.

4) Create Desire
Make your client want your product or service and want it right now.
If your prospects are comfortable with the current situation, they are not motivated to change. So make them fell uncomfortable. People will act faster to solve a problem then they will to gain an unrealized benefit.

5) Overcome objections
When someone throws you an objection, if you isolate the objection you have just moved a huge step closer to closing the sale.

6) Close the sale

7) Follow up
10 steps to great follow up
1) Send the first follow-up letter (start with something personal that you remember from the meeting, include a compliment, push their hot buttons and stay focused on the benefits your product offers to them, use a personal close)
2) Make the first follow up call right after the letter (trying to bond with client, it does not have to be selling them anything)
3) Share something amusing or of personal interest
4) Throw a party, share a meal and bond like crazy
5) Send another Fax/Email/Letter/Card
6) Plan something fun that can include the family
7) Offer something to help their business
8) Send another Fax/Email/Letter/Card
9) Offer more help to succeed
10) The ultimate follow-up: invite them to your home or be invited to theirs.

(from ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes)

Six steps for getting down to your best buyers

2007-09-21T10:55:00.001-07:00

1) Choose your Dream 100 (http://www.zapdata.com/ to find out companies of a given size in any industry in your area. The more you know about your dream clients, the better you will be able to target them. Also who is the person who can say yes to your product or services? Is your market data targeted effectively at that person?)

2) Choose the gifts (One of the best ways to get noticed by your dream 100 is to send them small gifts every two weeks. The gifts should be useful, things that they will want to keep or play with or take home to a child. Quick list of great gift ideas: Magnifying glass, calculator, Miniature tool kit, Paddleball, Glider, Rubiki's Cube, Metal whistle, and plastic dinosaur.)

3) Create your Dream 100 letters (A letter should accompany every gift you send. The letter should be short and tie into the gift in some clever way. You need to offer something to which they can easily say yes. The letter must include a call to action so they know exactly what you want them to do next. )

4) Create your Dream 100 calender (What are you going to do to market to your Dream 100 each and every month without fail? Design a Dream 100 effort that hits your prospects every two weeks. Map out your first three to six months for your Dream 100 effort. )

5) Conduct Dream 100 follow-up phone calls (After every gift or mailing, you'll need to follow up with each Dream 100 prospect. The goal of the follow-up call is to schedule an appointment to get your core story in front of the prospect. )

6) Present the executive briefing

Use market data, not product data
Set the buying criteria in your favor
Find the "smoking gun", the one thing that undeniably positions you over everyone else
Make sure you hit their pain points
Include your own pitch for your product or service only after you have covered the education thoroughly.

Tips to get around the gatekeeper
1) Your voice should have tone of authority and tell the assistant what to do--not ask them. (If you call CEO, you are "very important people".
2) Send the gatekeeper back as many time as you can, each time giving very little information.
3) Get as much info as possible from every call.

(from ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes)

Rules for effective presenting

2007-09-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

1) K.I.S.S (Keep it simple, stupid) (One big heading and only three or four bullet points. Simple and easy to follow and understand)
2) K.I.F.P (Keep it fast paced) (You should cover two or three panels a minute. Keep audience away from multitasking.)
3) Use "Wow" facts and statistics. ( Who is the audience for your presentation? Write down five overview facts that would be interesting to them. Find the information over time. )
4) Build in opportunities for stories (What are you selling and what story illustrates the need for your product or service?)
5) Your presentation should be curiosity driven
6) Think of each headline as valuable real estate (Every header should work as hard as possible)
7) Be confident but not obnoxious
8) Focus on them, not on you.

Eight common mistakes presenters make
1) Thanking prospects for their time or apologizing for taking it
2) Presenting with your hands in your pockets
3) Presenting from a sitting position
4) Being lead around by your nose. (You must lead to close even if leading means asking a lot of question. You need to be the one controlling meeting. Do not let the prospect's question lead you.)
5) Letting the materials upstage you or guide you. (Presentation is never going to make the sale. You are. Visual aids are just that, aids. You are the presenter.)
6) Keeping it totally serious.
7) Falling to practice the presentation each and every time before you give it.
8) Having no idea what comes next in the presentation.

(from ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes)

Seven musts of marketing

2007-09-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

1) Advertising
four rules:

It must be distinctive ( the best response-generating ads catch the eye and hold it)
Capture attention with a screaming headline. (Tell me what you want to tell me in 3.2 seconds)
After your headline hooks them, your body copy has to keep them reading. (the body copy must focus on your prospect, not on you. Each sentence should unfold the story you want to tell and should be benefit-oriented. Do not tell me what it is. Tell me why it is valuable. )
Include a call to action.

2) Direct mail

Use color as much as possible
Put messages on the envelop (Need to get prospect to open the envelop. Write a great ad headline -- benefit oriented and focused on prospect.
Think about the way you sort your own mail. (make it look like greeting card or bill..)

3) Corporate literature: brochures and promotional pieces
4) Public relations

Press release
make the news (make a list of dream media outlets that you'd like to write about your company. A great core story that is packed with full of data will give you a lot of fodder for press releases.
use an article that has been or will be written about you or by you in promotional piece, have salespeople show it to prospect, use it as a direct mail piece, include it in your brochure or core story, hand it out at trade show, use or quote it in your advertising.

5) Personal contact: salespeople and customer service
6) Market education: trade shows, speaking engagements, and education-based marketing

Get noticed
Drive traffic
Capture leads

7) Internet: web sites, email efforts, and affiliate marketing. (Capture leads, build a relationship, interact as much as possible, offer a webinar, convert traffic to sales)

Stacked marketing: develop a consistent message, look, theme, and slogan that carries throughout all of your marketing efforts.

Management By Objectives and Self-Control, Management Letter

2007-09-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

The greatest advantage of management by objectives is that it makes it possible for a manager to control his own performance. Self-control means stronger motivation: desire to do the best rather than just enough to get by.
If objectives are only good intentions, they are worthless. They must degenerate into work which is always specific, always has-or should have- clear, unambiguous, measurable results, a deadline, and a specific assignment of accountability.
Setting objectives is so important that some of most effective managers have each of their subordinates write a "manager's letter" twice a year. In the letter, it has followings:
1) Define the objectives of his superior's job and of his own job as he sees them
2) Set down the performance standards that he believes are being applied to him.
3) List things he must do to attain these goals - and the things within his own unit he considers the major obstacles.
3) List things his superior and the company do that help him and the things that hamper him
4) Outline what he propose to do during the next year to reach his goal.
Mutual understanding can never be attained by "Communications down", can never be created by talking.
It can result only from "communications up" and requires both the superior's willingness to listen and a tool designed to make lower managers heard.

Price Elasticities and Their Applications

2007-09-17T10:31:00.001-07:00

Price Elasticity of Demand : The responsiveness, or sensitivity, of consumers to a change in the price of a product.

Price Elasticity Coefficient: Ed=percentage change in quantity demanded of product X / percentage change in price of product X (ignore minus sign)

Elastic Demand: E>1

Inelastic Demand: E<1

Unit Elasticity: E=1

Extreme Cases: perfectly inelastic (like an addicts demand for heroin) and Perfectly elastic

Elasticity varies with price range: It typically elastic in the high-price(low-quantity) range of the demand curve and inelastic in the low-price (high quantity) range of the curve.

Price Elasticity and the Total -Revenue Curve: TR=P x Q:

If total revenue changes in the opposite direction from price, demand is elastic. If total revenue changes in the same direction as price, demand is inelastic. If TR does not change where price changes, demand is unit elasticity.

Determinations of Price Elasticity of Demand:

Substitutability: Generally, the larger the number of substitute good that are available, the greater the elasticity of demand.

Proportion of income: the higher the price of a good relative to people's income and hence of their budgets, the greater the Good's price elasticity of demand.

Luxuries versus necessities: The demand for "necessities" tends to be price inelastic; that for "luxuries", price elastic.

Time: Product demand is more elastic the longer the time period under consideration.

Price Elasticity of Supply: The degree of price elasticity or in-elasticity of supply

Es=percentage change in quantity supplied of product X / percentage change in price of product X (ignore minus sign)

The main determinant of price elasticity of supply is the amount of time available to producers for responding to a change in product price. (resource shiftability) To analyze impact of time on elasticity, economists distinguish among the immediate market period, the short run and the long run.

Supply Elasticity: The market period (in-elasticity)

Supply Elasticity: Short term run (elasticity)

Supply Elasticity: long term run (more elasticity) Have more time to complete shifting resources to respond price change.

Income Elasticity of Demand: Ei = percentage change in quantity demanded/percentage change in income.

Normal Goods: quantity demanded is increased as income increase (automobiles is +3.00)

Inferior Goods: a negative income elasticity coefficient. (used clothing, cabbage, ..)

Applications:

Elasticity and Tax incidence:

With a specific supply, the more inelastic the demand for the product, the larger the portion of tax shifted to the consumers.

With a specific demand, the more inelastic the supply, the larger the portion of tax borne by producers.

Price ceilings and shortages; price floors and surpluses.

The Dip

2007-09-14T09:32:00.000-07:00

Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time.

Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most and to quit early and reforcus their efforts on something new.

Quit the wrong stuff.

Stick with the right stuff.

Have the guts to do one or the other.

The types of curves:
1) The DIP: The successful people lean into the DIP. They push harder, changing the rules as they go.
2) The CUL-DE-SAC ("Dead End") No martter how hard you work, it does not get a lot better and it does not get a lot worse. It just is.
3) The Cliff (Race but scary)

The Dip creates scarcity; scarcity creates value.

The Cul-de-Sac and Cliff are the curves that lead to failure. And the Dip is where success happens.

7 reasons you might fail to become the best in the world
1) You run out of time (and quit).
2) You run out of money (and quit).
3) You get scared (and quit).
4) You are not serous about it (and quit).
5) You lose interest or enthusiasm or settle for being mediocre (and quit).
6) You focus on the short term instead of the long (and quit when the short term gets too hard).
7) You pick the wrong thing at which to be the best in the world (because you do not have the talent).

Three questions to ask before quitting
1) Am I panicking
Quitting when you are panicked is dangerous adn expensive. The best quitters are the ones who decide in advance when they're going to quit. The reason so many of us quit in the Dip is that without a compass or a plan, the easiest thing to do is to give up.
2) Who am I trying to influence?
If you're trying to influence just one person, persistence has its limits. One person or organization will behave differently than a market of people will. Chaning someone's mind is difficult, if not impossible. Influencing one person is like scaling a wall. Influencing a market, is more of a hill than a wall. You can make progress one step at a time.
3) What sort of measurable progress am I making?
No matter how small, you've got to make some sort of forward progress. The choice-to stick wit it in the absence of forward progress- is a waste because of the opportunity cost. You could be doing something far better, and far more pleasurable, with your time.

Quitting before you start:
Write down under what circumstances you're willing to quit. And when. And then stick with it.

Family-Managed Business -- daily Drucker

2007-09-13T12:13:00.000-07:00

The majority of business are family controlled and family managed. (DuPont was family managed from 1802 till 1970.)

Less than 30 percent of family owned companies survive into the second generation, while only 10 percent make it to the third generation and 4 percent to the fourth generation.

Rules of family-managed business:
1) Family members do not work in the business unless they are at least as able as any non family employee, and work at least as hard.
2) No matter how many family members are in the company's management, and how effective they are, one top job is always filled by outsider(not family member) Typically,this is either the financial executive or the head of research.
3) Increasingly need to staff key positions with non family professionals.

Six rules of successful acquisitions--daily drucker

2007-09-13T12:02:00.000-07:00

1) The successful acquisition must be based on business strategy, not financial strategy. (eg. successful acquisition-based expansion of GE Capital)
2) It must be based on what the acquirer contributes to the acquisition.
3) The two entities must share a common core of unity, such as markets and marketing, or technology, or core competencies.
4) The acquirer must respect the business, products, and customers to the acquired company, as well as its value.
5) The acquirer must be prepared to provide top management to the acquired business within a fairly short period, a year at most. (Previous top management may become protective and see their job as defending the "child" against "foreigners" who now own it.)
6) The successful acquisition must rapidly create visible opportunities for advancement for both the people in the acquiring business and people in acquired business.

The art of getting the best buyers - Dream 100 strategy

2007-09-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Best buyers buy more, buy faster, and buy more often than other buyers.
Identify your 100 dream customers, put additional effort to capture them. Target these 100 dream clients constantly and relentlessly with pigheaded determination and discipline until they buy your product or service.
Business to business sales: If you continue to market to someone with great vigor, they will absolutely get to know who you are. If they tell you no again and again and you keep marketing and selling to them, they will go from not knowing who you are to knowing exactly who you are to maybe even being annoyed that you won't go away to starting to respect you for the persistence.

Business to customer sales: best neighborhood strategy. If you sell to customers, target the best neighborhoods with great consistency.

Dream affiliates: Affiliate marketing means you ride in on someone else's well-established relationship. It is far less expensive than trying to acquire a customer on your own.

Hiring sales superstars

2007-09-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

What makes a sales superstar:
Personality profiling (DISC: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance)
Dominance is measure of personal power, your desire to control situations, and how well you assert yourself in every interaction. High dominance(strong ego) is crucial in sales because it means your will have the drive and personal ambition to close as many as sales as possible and the armor to not take repeated and even harsh rejections personally.
Influence is to do with how you interact in social situations and how well and how much you communicate.
Steadiness is about how patient, persistent, and thoughtful you are.
Compliance is about how you relate to structure and organization. High-compliance people always plan ahead.

To determine candidate's background:
1) What events or influences from your childhood shaped who you are today?
2) What are some of the biggest challenges in your life? They need not be work-related.
3) What was the toughest sale yo ever made? (Ask all the details and step-by-step specifies of this experience.)

Probe the achievement:
1) Tell me about a time in your life when the odds were stacked against you but you overcame them and succeeded.
2) Tell me three or four things of which you are most proud
3) Have you ever practiced and reached a high level in any area beyond just getting by in life?

Probe the empathy and ability to bond with others:
1) How would your best friend describe you?
2) Of everyone you know, who has the most faith in you? why?
3) What are your best memories?

score scaling:
1) Ambition 2) Confidence 3) Ability to face rejection 4) Establishing rapport
5) Qualifying skills 6) Ability to create desire in your prospect 7) Closing skills
8) Time management 9)Presentation skills 10) Strategic thinking
11) Market knowledge 12) Self-improvement 13)Getting around gatekeepers

Pre-attack:
1) Why did you leave your last three positions?
2) Were you happy? Why?
3) Tell me about a disappointment or disagreement you have had with a boss and what happened.
4) Name tow weak points of your previous bosses
5) Name two instances when a supervisor criticized you.

Education based marketing-- becoming a brilliant strategist

2007-09-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

The stadium pitch (Core story)

Imagine that you have stage in giant stadium to present all your most perfect prospects, are you ready right now? Could you walk out on that stage and present to every one of them and do it perfectly?

What could you say that would keep virtually everyone in their seats and appeal to the entire pyramid of potential buyers as shown above?

The answer is:
1) Offering an education that helps the buyer is going to get more buyer interest.
2) If the information is actually good and useful, it automatically repositions you in the mind of buyer as an expert.(Teaching them things about their own business that they might not know.)
3) If you think and plan strategically, you will find way to weave that information in such a way that ultimately sell your services far better than flat-out pitching your product.
Sales is all about building rapport, not breaking it.
The strategic objectives are accomplished by education-based marketing:
1) It made it a lot easier to get appointments
2) It enabled you to get in to see just about anyone -- including the 90 percent who were not buying now.
3) It established the salesperson as an expert rather than merely a salesperson.
4) It gave credibility to the salesperson.
5) When you begin any meeting with real data and hard facts, the sales material at the end of meeting has a lot more credibility
6) It created brand loyalty
7) If someone gives you something of value, you want to give back
8) The expert and strategically designed presentation make selling idiot-proof for the salesperson.
9) The presentation says everything the top management would want every prospect to hear and know.

Implementation:
1) List your strategical objectives. Look at those listed for the newspaper company as a guideline, do a workshop with your team on each one of them. "What would make use more respected? What would position us as an expert in the eye of our buyer?"
2) Do some market research on your industry over time, Keep track of everything you find out that could be of value of your customers.

10 steps to implement any new policy

2007-09-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

1) Get everyone to feel the pain, the secret to creating change. Ask for top three challenges. Ask what are the drawbacks of not changing or improving the behaviors.
2) Hold a workshop to generate solutions
3) Develop a conceptual solution or procedure
4) Leader or top talent personally performs procedure or tasks. (have the higher-level talent perfect it and then train the rest)
5) Set a deadline for testing the conceptual procedure
6) Document step-by-step procedure or process
7) Have show-and-tell and role playing
8) Have another workshop on how to improve
9) Monitor the procedure directly (continuous and repetitive monitoring.)
10) Measure and reward the outcome.
(from "the ultimate sales machine")

Training

2007-09-11T10:04:00.000-07:00

Training preparation:
1) What will be covered
2) How long it will take
3) How the information will be covered
4) The objectives of the particular session
5) The obtained skill or knowledge that you hope that will gain.

Benefit for developing a regular and consistent training program:
1) Train new employees who can hit the ground running
2) Upgrade knowledge and skills of existing employees and so they work better, smarter and faster.
3) Provide continuous professional development
4) Solve any problems that come up in the organization.

Effective Time Management - six steps

2007-09-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Time management in "The ultimate sales machine by chet holmes"
1) Touch it once: if you touch it, take action.
2) Make lists: stick to six most important things you need to get done that day. Long list makes you never finish it, which has negative psychological impact.
3) Plan how much time you will allocate to each six tasks.
4) Plan the day: complete the items in list and have some gap time to stay on top of emails and other tasks.
5) Prioritize: 20/80 rule. (20% of effort brings 80% results.)
6) Ask yourself, "Will it hurt me to throw this away?"

Review the plan:

How much of you day is proactive and how much is reactive?
Where did you put the most important task for the day? At the beginning? in the middle? At the end?
Rewrite your plan so that you complete the most important task on your list first thing in the morning
Group together all of you reactive work, including answering emails and returning phone calls.
Make sure most of your day is focused on proactive work.

Snapshot of the climate for doing business

2007-09-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

A corporation fails every 3 minutes
A directorship changes every 32 seconds
A company changes control every 15 minutes
96% companies fail within 10 years
26,000 new products and brands are introduced every year
16%-30% consumers change brand loyalty in one evening of watching commercials

Economic Functions of Government

2007-09-10T11:07:00.000-07:00

1) Providing legal and social framework
Set legal status of business enterprises, ensures rights of private ownership, and allows the making and enforcement of contracts. Services provided include police powers to maintain internal orders, a system of standards for measuring the weight and quality of products, and a system of money to facilitate the exchanges of goods and services.

2) Maintaining competition
Competition is basic regulatory mechanism in a market economy. To control monopoly primarily in two ways: a) Regulation and ownership --for some natural monopolies, regulate the prices and set the services standards or take public ownership of monopolies.

3) Redistribution of income
The market system is impersonal. It may distribute income with more inequality than society desires.
Society chooses to redistribute income through a variety of government policies and programs:
a) Transfers: transform payment eg. welfare cheques
b) Market intervention: by acting to modify the prices that would be established by market forces. eg. providing farmers with above-market prices for their outputs.
c) Taxation

4) Reallocation of resources
Market failure occurs when competitive market system a) produce the "wrong" amount of certain goods or services--spillovers, b) fails to allocate any resources whatsoever to the production of certain goods and services whose output is economically justified--pubic goods.
Spillover occurs when some of costs of benefits of a good are passed on to or "spill over to" parties other than the immediate buyer or seller.
Spillover Costs: production or consumption costs that are inflicted on a third party without compensation. eg. environmental pollution. Correction means: Legislation and a less direct action of Specific Taxes
Spillover benefits: eg. Education. (tends to under allocation of resources) Correction means: Subsidize consumers(eg. lower interest student loan), Subsidize suppliers (provide budgets or funds), Provide goods via government.
public goods and quasi-public goods: exclusion principle does not apply to public goods; there is no effective way of excluding individuals from their benefits once those good come into existence. (free-rider-problem). quasi-public goods --spillover benefits good production owned by government.

5) Stabilizing the economy
a) unemployment: adjusting government spending and taxation. Increase its own spending on public goods and services or reduct taxes to stimulate pviate spending or reduce interest rates to promote mroe private borrowing and spending.
b) Inflation:

Market: Demand and Supply

2007-09-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Market: an institution or mechanism that brings together buyers(demanders) and sellers(suppliers) of particular goods, services or resources.

Demand: a schedule or a curve showing the various amounts of product consumers are willing and able to purchase at each of a series of possible price during specified period of time.

Law of demand: All else equal, as price falls, the quantity demanded rises; and as price rises, corresponding quantity demanded falls. The inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded.
Foundation for law of demand: 1) diminishing marginal benefit/utility (Each buyer of a product will derive less satisfaction from each successive unit of the good consumed. 2) Income and Substitution Effect (lower price increases the buyers income purchasing power and give buyers incentive to substitute other more expensive goods with this cheaper product.)

Determinations of demand(demand shifters): (shift the demand curve to the right or left)
1) Consumer's tastes and preferences
2) Number of buyers in the market
3) Consumers' money income (Normal goods-demand varies directly with money income, Inferior goods - demand varies inversely with money income)
4) Prices of related goods (Substitutes, Complements, and unrelated goods)
5) Consumer expectations about future prices and incomes.

An increase in demand may be caused by the following reasons:
1) a favourable change in consumer tastes
2) an increase in the number of buyers
3) rising income if the product is normal goods
4) falling incomes if the product is inferior goods
5) an increase in the price of substitute goods
6) an decrease in the price of a complementary goods
7) consumer expectation of higher future prices and incomes

Supply: a schedule or curve showing the amounts of a product a producer is willing and able to produce and make available for sale at each of a series of possible prices during a specific period.

Law of Supply: As prices rises, the quantity supplied rises; as price falls, the quantity supplied falls.

Determinations of Supply: any of these changes, a change in supply will occur -- the entire supply curve will shift
1) Resource Prices
2) Technique of production
3) Taxes and subsides
4) Prices of other goods
5) Price expectation
6) Number of sellers in the market

Supply and demand: market equilibrium
Surplus: excess of supply
Shortage: excess of demand
Equilibrium Price and Quantity: the prices with no shortage and surplus (market-clearing or equilirium price)

Market System of Capitallism

2007-09-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Six basic characters of Capitalism market:

Private property: encourage investment, innovation, exchange and economic growth
Freedom of enterprise and choice
Self-interest as the dominant motive
Competition: large numbers of independently acting, easy entry and exit
Reliance on self-regulating markets
Limited role for government

Other characteristics

Extensive user of technology and capital goods
Specialization 1) Division of labor(human specialization) 2) Geographic specialization
User of Money

Competitive Market System -- five fundamental questions

How much of a society's resources should be used?
What is to be produced?
How is that output to be produced?
Who is to receive the output?
Can the system adapt to change?

Competition and the "Invisible Hand": In capitalism the market system is the organizational mechanism, and competition is the mechanism of control. Competition guarantee response appropriate to the wished of society and forces firms to adopt the most efficient production technology, keeping cost and prices at there lowest level.

Virtues of market system:

Efficiency
Incentives
Freedom

Economic Problem: Scarcity, Wants, and Choices

2007-09-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Production Possibilities Table and Curve

With scarce resources limitation, a full-employment, full-production economy cannot have an unlimited output of goods and services. Which goods and services to produce and forgo and how much to produce compose the production possibilities table and curve. For simplicity, four assumption: full employment and productive efficiency, fixed resources, fixed technology and two goods(consumer goods and capital goods.)

Law of increasing opportunity cost: the more of a product that is produced, the greater is its opportunity cost.

Allocative efficiency: the comparison of marginal benefits(MB) and marginal cost(MC) should be best or optimal output.

Economic Systems

Pure Capitalism: each participant acts in his or her own self-interest and seeks to maximize its satisfaction of profit through its own decisions regarding the consumption and production through the market.

The Command Economy: public(government) ownership of virtually all property resources and economic decision through central economic planning.

Mixed System:

The simple circulate flow model

The work of the manager - from Daily Drucker

2007-09-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

Five basic operations in the work of the manager:

Set objectives. Managers determine what the objectives should be and what the goals in each area of objectives should be. They decide what has to be done to reach these objectives and communicate the objectives to the people whose performance is needed to attain them.
Managers organize. They analyze the activities, decisions and relations needed. They classify the work and divide it into manageable activities and manageable jobs. They select people for the management of the activity units and for the jobs to be done.
Managers motivate and communicate. They make a team out of the people who are responsible for various jobs.
Managers measure the performance of the organization and every person in it based on established yardsticks.
Managers develop people, including themselves.

Foundation of economics

2007-09-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Two fundamental facts constitute the economizing problem and provide the foundation for the field of economics:
1) Society's material wants, the material wants of its citizens and institutions, are virtually unlimited and insatiable.
2) Economic resources- the means of producing goods and services- are limited or scarce.

Resource Categories: (Factors of production)
1) Land (Gift of nature)
2) Capital (Capital goods or investment goods)
3) Labor
4) Entrepreneurial ability(Enterprise) which performs four related functions:

takes the initiation in combination of the resources of land, capital, labor to produce good or service.
makes basic business-policy decisions
innovators
risk taker

Economics: Getting the most out of available resources

Full Employment: Using available resources

Full Production: using Resources efficiently 1) Productive efficiency 2) Allocative efficiency

Some economics terminology

2007-09-06T10:53:00.000-07:00

Economic goals
1) Economic growth
2) Full employment
3) Economic efficiency
4) Price-level stability (avoid inflation and deflation)
5) Equitable distribution of income
6) Balance of trade

Macroeconomics examines either the economy as a whole or its basic subdivision or aggregates such as government, household, and business sectors.

Microeconomics looks at specific economic units, observes the details of an economic unit, or very small segment of the economy.

Positive Economics deals with verifiable factual statements ("What is"); normative economics involves value judgements("What ought to be").

Ten key concepts about economics - from Microeconomics

2007-09-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

The individuals:
1) Scarcity in relation to wants means you face tradeoffs; therefore, you have to make choice
2) The cost of choice you make is what you give up for it.
3) Choices are usually made at the margin; we choose a little more or a little less of something
4) The choices you make are influenced by incentives

Interaction among individuals
5) Specialization and trade will make everyone better off
6) Markets usually do a good job of coordinating trade among individuals, groups, and nations.
7) Governments can occasionally improve the coordinating function of markets

The economy as a whole and the standard of living
8) The standard of living of the average person is dependent on the production of good and services
9) If the monetary authorities of a country annually print money in excess of the growth of output of goods and services it will eventually lead to inflation
10) In short run, society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and its level of unemployment.

Marginal analysis
The comparison of marginal benefits and marginal costs. Each option involves marginal benefits and, due to scarcity, marginal costs.

PMP Study - Project Life Cycle and Organization

2007-06-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

Project life cycle
Divide projects into phases to provide better management control with appropriate link to ongoing operations.
Project life cycle defines:
- What technical work to do in each phase
- What deliverables are to be generated in each phase and how they are reviewed, verified and validated
- Who is involved in each phase
- How to control and approve each phase
Common characteristics for life cycles:
- Phases are generally sequential
- Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak during intermediate phase and drop rapidly on closing phase.
- Highest level of uncertainty, greatest risk of failing to achieve the objectives at the start of project
- Highest influence of stakeholders on project's product and final cost at the start of project because the cost of change increase as project progressing.

Project Phases
The completion and approval of one or more deliverables characterize a project phase. For reason of size, complexity, level of risk, and cash flow constraints, project phases can be further subdivided into subphases aligned with one or more specific deliverables for monitoring and control. For each phase and subphase, the project management processes can be applied.

Project life cycle and product life cycle
Product life cycle starts with the business plan, through ideas to product, ongoing operations and product divestment.
The project life cycle goes through a series of phases to create the product.

Project Stakeholders
Individuals and organizations
- actively involve in the project
- whose interest may be affected by the project
- Influence the project objectives or outcomes
Key stakeholders include:
- Project Manager
- Customer/User
- Performing organization
- Project team members
- Project Management team
- Sponsor
- Influencers
- PMO

Organizational Influences
Organizational structure influences on projects:
functional, week matrix, balanced matrix, strong matrix, projectized.
little or none, functional manager, part time -- functional
limited, functional manager, part time -- weak matrix
low to moderate, mixed, full time PM -- balanced matrix
moderate to high, project manager, full time PM admin -- strong matrix
high to almost all, project manager, full time PM admin -- projectized

Project Management System
set of tools, techniques, methodologies, resources and procedures used to manage a project.
Project Management Plan describes how the project management system will be used.

PMP Study - Introduction

2007-06-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

What is Project?
Project is temporary endeavor undertaken in order to create unique product, service or result.
Key characteristics:
- Temporary: definite start and end. It may be long duration but with definite duration. When project objectives are met or when projects are terminated, projects end.
- Unique products, services or results.
- Progressive elaboration: because it is unique and temporary, no people know the project in detail in the beginning. Better and more complete understanding of the objectives and deliverables are developed along with the progress of the project implementation.

Project vs Operational Work
Project with temporary and unique and Operations with ongoing and repetitive.
Project is to attain its objective and then terminate, ongoing operations are to sustain the business.(daily routine business work eg. stable assembly line work)
Both performed by people, constrained by limited resources, planned, executed and controlled.

What is Project Management
PM is the application of knowledge, skills, techniques and tools to project activities to meet project requirements and achieve project objectives. It is application and integration of processes of initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. Managing activities include:
- Identifying requirements
- Establishing clear and achievable objectives
- Balancing the competing demand of quality, scope, time and cost. Triple constraint.
- Adapting specifications, plans, and approach to different concerns and expectations of various stakeholders.

Necessary Areas of Expertise
- PMBOK (project life cycle, 5 processes, 9 knowledge areas)
- Application area knowledge, standards and regulations(government-imposed requirement)
- Understanding the project environment (cultural and social, international and political, physical environments.)
- General management knowledge and skills
- Interpersonal skills (Effective communication, influencing the organization, leadership, motivation, negotiation and conflict management, problem solving)

Project Management Context
Program and program management: program is a group of related projects managed in coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing projects individually

Portfolio and portfolio management: portfolio is collection of projects or programs and other work to facilitate effective management to meet strategic business objectives.

Subprojects: project are divided into more manageable components or subprojects. Subprojects are often contracted to an external enterprise or other functional unit.

PMO: project management office to centralize and coordinate the management of projects.

Microeconomics Study

2007-06-07T18:26:00.000-07:00

I was stuck when I found out that there were just full of mathematics formula and equations in the MIT course lecture notes. And the microeconomics is just undergraduate course. No wonder that the economics is all about the mathematics when you pursue the M.S and PhD program.
I have borrowed the Microeconomics book written by Campbell McConnell from the library. Fortunately, there is almost no mathematics at all. It is quite easy to understand most of the concepts. However, I may consider to link the theory described in book with the equation in the course lecture. The mathematics is the most concise way to describe the theory. Two pages of descriptive text and graphic curves and tabular data can be summarized in one line of equation. It is beauty. I will try to make some study notes in this weekend on microeconomics study.

Personal MBA Course Schedule - 2007 Summer

2007-05-30T12:25:00.000-07:00

2007 Summer (Jun-Aug)
Macroeconomics

MIT OpenCourseWare
14.02
Principles of Macroeconomics, Fall 2004

Microeconomics

MIT OpenCourseWare
14.04
Intermediate Microeconomic Theory, Fall 2003

Foundations of Leadership and Teamwork

MIT OpenCourseWare
15.316 Building and Leading Effective Teams, Summer 2005
15.969 Dynamic Leadership: Using Improvisation in Business, Fall 2004
15.974 Practical Leadership, Fall 2004
15.996 Cross-Cultural Leadership, Fall 2004

The Start Point - Personal MBA

2007-05-29T05:54:00.000-07:00

It will be wonderful if I can have chance to get formal MBA training and pursue MBA degree. MBA training is not must-have for starting up and running your own business. And it can not promise your success in business word. However, it provides you some valuable knowledge and skills and gives you some fundamental concepts. I believe that it will be very helpful and necessary to learn as much as topics covered in MBA program during this business preparation stage even though I can not practice what I learn from the book.
I can not become full-time MBA student in reality. The only options are pursing part-time MBA degree or working on personal MBA. The good part about the part-time MBA is that I may get degree in the end. And it also forces me to study and complete the whole program. However, the degree itself is not such attractive because on-line MBA or part-time MBA programs are not in high quality. And it is still costly. You do not get connected with your classmates and have opportunity of working on projects in team environment, which is one of most important gains as full-time MBA student. I decide to work on personal MBA, which requires strong self-learning ability and strong self-discipline. I tried to read the list of books mentioned under personal MBA web site. However, I feel that these books are more like supplemental materials. You should read these books during time you work on your textbooks. The designed textbook frameworks provide the bone and these books are beautiful skins.
Where do I begin? What is the plan for this personal MBA project?
I am going to follow the courses listed under several great business schools. For each course, I will utilize the MIT OpenCourseWare resources. I will find the most matched course under this openware and follow the syllabus and lecture notes. The plan is to complete three courses every semester in the beginning. The following is to-do list for study plan:

Prepare three-year study plan. List the courses and required materials for each semester, prepare the required materials.
Make quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily study plan.
Try to find mentor for business and MBA studying.
Try to find and organize study group.

The Preparation Plan

2007-05-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

It is going to be a long journey for this business path. There are a lot of things to learn and to do. I wish that there were some virtual environments to learn and practice all business skills. However, there is no defined path for you to grasp the skills and develop the business acumen. You can learn the basic rules but you have to practice them if you really understand and master them. I do not have enough resources to start up any new business yet. And in fact I am not ready for it. What I am going to do in next a couple of years is to prepare myself for this:

Personal Development: Read business books, collect business resources, find business mentors and develop business concepts.
Business Plan Practices: Think about business ideas, find niche markets, write many business plans.
Business Product Development: Develop a couple of business products based on chosen business plan.

Business Dream

2007-05-27T17:32:00.000-07:00

It is said that everyone had a dream when he was in his childhood. However, I could not remember what was my dream or if I even had one.
The dream of owning business has been in my mind for a while. I believe that the life is the process of experiencing the world. And running a successful business is the most challenge job and most valuable experience. I will feel regretted later in my life if I do not make a try.
I do not have clear ideas about how to pursue this dream. I do not know what kind of business I want to run and I actually do not have myself prepared now. However, I am going to start the process now, from today, from this minute.
This blog will record my plan, my effort, my learning and my path to the dream.