PM Point of View – Details, episodes & analysis

The podcast features a panel discussion with Laura Bernard, the author of "The Impact Engine," and three professionals who have utilized her strategies: Willetta Love, an Associate Director of Project Management, Andrea Cirelli, Senior Director of a PMO, and Gregor Androjna, a business consultant. The conversation is moderated by Kendall Lott.

The Impact Engine is about accelerating strategy delivery, focusing on the human element in project management and change implementation. The panelists emphasize aligning projects with business strategy, fostering clear communication, and empowering leaders to drive impactful change. The discussion highlights the importance of understanding leadership needs, addressing root causes of problems, and ensuring that PMOs focus on delivering business value rather than just executing projects. The episode concludes with a call to action for project management professionals to adopt a strategic mindset and become impactful leaders.

Host Kendall Lott, along with guests Galen Low and Mike Hannon, discuss the evolving role of project managers (PMs) in the age of AI, emphasizing the need for PMs to adapt to stay relevant. While AI can handle routine administrative tasks, it cannot replace the strategic thinking, human relationship-building, and ethical decision-making that PMs provide. The conversation highlights the importance of shifting from task management to a strategic focus, where PMs are seen as leaders who drive business value. We like the right training, as we need more strategic thinking, business context, and ROI understanding. Effective PMs must bridge the gap between executive vision and project execution, fostering collaboration and communication to align projects with broader organizational goals. In the face of AI tools, which of course we should incorporate in our work, PMs need to be  ambassadors for their discipline in an increasingly automated world.

Elevating the Conversation about Project Management, with a twist. In this episode cohosts Mike Hannan and Kendall Lott take on some Listener Feedback. A running theme in the show is the actual and delineation of project manager, product manager, and program manager--so we jump on that! Of course, our main theme of its all about value, adding value and understanding projects as investments is once again threaded through the answers. But new things lurk--how do you agile on a fixed-price contract? What's the danger and opportunity in cross-functional teams and accountability when managing scrum teams in a matrix world? How can AI be used (or useful) to help project managers understand architecture, dependencies, and level of effort in order to generate a critical path. Listeners got questions; we got answers--listen in for them and send us your questions!

No Luddites here! Episode 3 of the UMD PM Symposium prequal and guests Al Zeiton, Marissa Brienza and Bill Brantley chat about the role of AI in Project Management and the potential risks and benefits of using it as PMs. We discover the logic and importance of maintaining human interaction—turns out its not fear that makes us think “it will never replace us” but rather AI’s limitations in the larger PM discipline. Ah! But what potential magic AI may bring if we use it as augmenting project management, driving improved risk assessment, and being our outsourced memory! All in service of PMS providing value for customers, and keeping us on the relationship side, even as technology might give us augmented memory, augmented intelligence or even artificial emotional intelligence. There may be guardrails we need to learn as we plunge toward a future of exponential skill growth in which could take PMs to the CEO suite…but augmented PMs maybe the stuff CEOs will be made of!

We all talk Agile, and sometimes we "say we wanna do agile", so this conversation is about the challenges of implementing Agile in different environments with guests David Forsyth, Mike Mellane, and Caitlin Kenny.  Co-host Mike Hannan takes our experts through a journey of the tensions between customers and vendors and the difficulty in managing communication pathways, budgeting, and the principle-agent problem. Solutions you care about included dedicating teams, synchronizing resources, capacity-based budgeting, and fixed-price contracts. Ah, and culture, it always is culture...that the shift that comes with embracing Agile and how transformation should be a continuous journey that focuses on business value. So, with a little patience and a focus on interpersonal accountability, incentives, and autonomy you can build the trusting teams needed to do the Agile dance.  Fight the zealotry, power to the edge, and download the episode!

Compound Security Threats. Sends a chill through us, yes? Our military expends huge effort in thinking about that future, long-term for planning, short-term planning for execution all to address increasingly complex security concerns. And as our listeners know, where there is planning ("anticipatory decision-making"), there is the collision with cognitive behavior and neuroscience. Yes, Dr. Josh is back and bringing his colleague (and student of NeuralPlan) Jay Macias of the Joint Special Operations University. Listen in as Co-Host Mike Hannan joins me in drilling in and learning about the role of neuropsychology in the military style command and control and mission orientation to planning and execution from a Project Mangement Point of View. Hint:  its about designing how we act with behavioral science data in mind

Analytical Hierarchy Process--check this as it is a method (and you can get tools) that absolutely help you with project prioritization.  Co-Host Mike Hannan and I talk with Stuart Easton, CEO of Transparent Choice, about this accessible approach tying decision science to project prioritization, selection and sequencing. Lending focus to executive teams, it helps us focus on what to do and more importantly, what not to do. Value is not an objective thing, and humans aren't great estimator. The AHP process let's anchor the value understanding, then break down value into meaningful application as criteria, creating transparency and standardization of the decision process, and more and better information as input.  The result, higher flow of project throughput completion, and better quality of project value.  What's not to like?