Tag: Project Management

The Power Of Belief

Carl Setzer1 Comment
white printer paper

A few days ago, I blogged about overthinking and launched into some thoughts on project management. Well, this quote came into my feed today, and I think it’s a good continuation of the theme (and it’s clearly from the same creator).

Something I’ve long believed: there’s great power in controlling your thoughts, in being conscious about what you put into your mind. My first awareness of this was simply thinking about how the music and lyrics I consumed played out in my attitude. But it’s slowly evolved into what Henry Ford said, “whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right”.

Letting your mind second-guess your hopes and dreams, your goals and ambitions, will drag you towards failure. By keeping a positive attitude, searching for possibilities, and moving towards them is much harder if you continuously undermine that.

I have decades of training on finding the negative, on looking for reasons for my efforts to fail. I keep seeking ways to keep that at bay. One key way: feed my mind quotes like this one, which reinforce the value of positivity. Another is to deliberately avoid doom-scrolling and seek out its opposite, what I call hope-scrolling. All ways to help my goals become real. What are you doing to ensure you don’t stand in the way of your own hopes and dreams?

A Quote About Overthinking That I Need To Heed

Carl Setzer4 Comments
woman sitting in front of macbook

I came across this quote on Pinterest. I’ve heard various variations on it, and each time it strikes hard. Mea culpa: I’m a chronic overthinker. I will hyperanalyze things, obsess about finding and mitigating every risk, and my mind will get overwhelmed with catastrophizing.

I’ve been working on mitigating this tendency for years and have met with quite a bit of success. However, it’s deeply ingrained, and I need to always stay vigilant. An additional challenge is that, as an analyst and project coordinator/manager, this behavior is a strength. Reminds me of the words of a mentor of mine: every weakness is a strength exaggerated.

Something my formal studies of project management have helped me with is understanding not just the nature of risk, but the importance of managing it well. I’m good at seeing every risk that I face. What I’ve long struggled with is evaluating them and understanding the possible impacts and how to manage them. Not every risk can be eliminated! Actually, very few can. So many are completely outside our ability to even influence. So, it’s critical to note not just that a risk exists, but how likely is it to happen, and what are the possible impacts of it happening. Then it’s relatively easy to manage. If the probability is low, and the impact low, well, let it be and monitor things. If probability is low, and impact high, you have options to explore. Same for the reverse: probability high with a low impact. Once these are mapped out (and, heck, put them into a risk assessment grid), you can evaluate how to manage them. I never thought of my project management studies (in the pursuit of my ATA and while studying for the Google PM Certificate) as therapy, but here we are.

So, I’m working on managing my overthinking by utilizing the tools I have available. I’ve found this pretty successful, but it’s challenged by the fact that I’ve been rewarded for diving deep into risks. Keeping the rabbit hole of calamity under control takes work, though.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have the same issue, or are you someone brimming with confidence? That’s a viewpoint I struggle to comprehend.

Recommended Reading: In search of kindness by Richard Branson

Carl Setzer
Richard Branson and Eve

Richard Branson is a leader I’ve looked up to for years. And his recent blog post adds to that:

In search of kindness – Richard Branson

I deeply value the idea of “look for the best in people”. And how that leads into “…embrace failure as essential to our journey…”. If you want people to push boundaries, to innovate, you need to accept that failure will come of it. Build processes that maximize the learnings from that. Then move on.

One idea I’ve held for years is simply “it’s more powerful to build people up than to tear them down”. This mindset doesn’t seem to be highly valued right now, but I think that it holds true. And it is how I lead.

Another Certificate Completed

Carl Setzer1 Comment
the word thoughts on a pin board

I’m continuing my technology learnings. Today I finished another step towards my Google IT Support Professional Certificate: The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking. I appreciated both the review, as well as the deeper dive. Perhaps I’m weird, but I think this is rather fun.

The next course is Operating Systems and You. I love exploring command line stuff! It’s amazing how much power and control you have with such tools.

I also am slowly driving forward with my Google Project Management Professional Certificate. My original plan had me completing both by the end of the year. Well, that’s not happening. Basically, I didn’t fully grasp how much work they would take. I’m fine with this, though. However, I see value in refining my focus. I can complete more and with deeper learning if I choose one to focus on.

And that hits on my current thoughts. Which of these two should I focus on for my career path going forward. I spent the pandemic studying Computer Information Systems at Edmonds College, earning an associates degree. I enjoy my studies into the technical realms.

As I look over my career, though, I see projects. I’ve managed many of them, from events to office moves to…well, suffice it to say there’s been a variety. And I really enjoy that work. I’m still pursuing the Google Project Management certificate. Both of these are key elements in my career vision. I love technology, and I love working on projects. I see different business functions and how technology and, for that matter, project tools, add value. I think my space in all this integrates both realms.

Anyway, thanks for humoring my musings. I’m thinking pretty deeply right now on such things as I’m building out my goals and plans for 2024.

Moving Forward

Carl Setzer
person using silver macbook pro

Today was busy. Did a few more modules in my Google Project Management Certificate, as well as two projects in my 50 Projects in 50 Days course. This on top of spending my morning as part of my church’s tech team (our crew that manages sound, media presentation, and live-streaming). Also, my wife and I zipped up to the Everett Farmer’s Market (one of our favorite things). And we managed to cram in a walk (thank goodness the smoke from the fires has been washed away).

Today’s projects included Event Key Code, where you can type a key and get the underlying code. Also, I got the “FAQ Collapse” project done. This one we click on the down arrow, which changes the background color and expands out the box to show the answer (to answer dad joke).

For Project Management, we dove a bit deeper into starting successful projects. This all-important phase is where many projects are made or broken. Mastering the tools to ensure projects are successfully completed is critical to my future, and probably yours, too.

As my current project wraps up at the end of the year, I’m starting to scope out my possible next steps. There is the potential that my role will continue, perhaps even become full-time. But there’s no guarantee! And I like to hedge my bets, as the adage goes. What do I want to do next? That’s a great question! Ideally, I’d do something within IT, though I’m keeping my pride in check. I’m still being actively recruited as an executive assistant, which is what most of my career has entailed. For a dying career, it’s interesting how much energy recruiters have funneled my way. Anyway, I’m exploring and please let me know if you come across any leads.

I hope your weekend met your expectations. And that you got some rest. Time to call it a night and get ready for another hard-charging week!

I’m upping my Project Manager game

Carl Setzer2 Comments
people in a meeting

Project Management work has been part of every role I’ve done. Early on, while in the Navy, I tracked planned maintenance evolutions on my ships, coordinated with the different departments onboard as well as shore-based teams, and ensured supplies were on-hand in order to complete that work in a timely manner. Things expanded from here. Whether managing event logistics at AARP, Starbucks, or Microsoft, tracking budgets with the same orgs, negotiating time with key executives, project management has been a core skill of mine.

My studies over the past year have shown that I have solid skills and that I really enjoy PM work. So, I’ve started working on Google’s Project Management certification through Coursera. I want to up my game, and this seems like the best way to move forward.

The Basics Of Scrum

Carl Setzer4 Comments
man in gray sweater standing in front of his colleagues

Over the course of my studies, I’ve heard about Scrum, but we never really went into it. Well, as part of a project a little bit ago, my team dove into Scrum. My part of this was to write up how Scrum is implemented. So, I thought I’d share that with you.

In order to understand how SCRUM is implemented, we need to understand Scrum’s basic roles. There’s the:  

  • ScrumMaster
  • Product Owner
  • And Team Members

The Product Owner is the customer or the customer’s representative. They have the authority to allocate resources, as well as make decisions about product scope and scale. 

Team members are the people tasked with completing the work required to finish the project. 

Lastly, there’s the ScrumMaster. Their role is to advocate for the team’s needs, hold them accountable to timelines and goals, and remove any roadblocks the team comes up against. 

The Scrum process creates three key documents or elements, which are called artifacts. Those artifacts are the:  

  • Product Backlog
  • Sprint Backlog
  • and the Product Increment. 

The Product Backlog is the list of features and requirements that define a successful product. This includes all the functionality the Product Owner needs. The backlog is arranged by priority, enabling the entire team to be aware of what remains outstanding and the importance of each of those items. 

Before we talk about the next artifact, the Sprint Backlog, we need to define what a “Sprint” is. Sprints are distinct periods of focused work. A Sprint is anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. During the sprint, the team only works on a subset of features and requirements. And the Sprint Backlog is the list of those project elements worked on during that specific Sprint. 

The last artifact is the Product Increment. Simply put, it is the product that is being worked on. For example, a web application or database. It is what will be presented to the Product Owner and shipped at the end of the Sprint.

With all that in mind, a SCRUM cycle starts with a Sprint Planning Session. These review the Product Backlog and ascertain which priorities will be focused on during the upcoming sprint. All team roles are present: product owner, team members, and ScrumMaster. Those items that are selected for this sprint are added to the sprint backlog. What is NOT selected will remain on the Product Backlog. It’s important to note that many items will remain in the product backlog, waiting for future sprints. 

During a sprint, there is a daily meeting, called the daily scrum or a “stand-up”. These are short meetings, around 10-15 minutes. During this, the team and ScrumMaster will review what was accomplished the day before, what will be focused on today, and what roadblocks or other concerns have come up. After the daily scrum, work is performed on the product increment. 

At the end of the sprint, a sprint review is performed. This is when the product increment is shared and evaluated with stakeholders, teammates, and the product owner. 

After the sprint review, there will be a sprint retrospective, where opportunities for improvement are identified and implemented. The whole project cycles from sprint review to sprint planning and then back to sprint review until the entire product backlog has been cleared. 

My Plan

Carl Setzer2 Comments
two women holding pen

As we approach the middle of February, and the middle of Winter Quarter, I think it’s a good time to talk about plans.

I have one more quarter: spring 2022. My goal is to land a new role promptly after that. More specifically, late June/early July. I intend to focus on project manager/coordinator or systems analyst roles. Though I’ve spent the past two years focused on learning web development, I see my greatest value add is in the convergence of that with my project and team coordination history. I know the language of the different project stakeholders, from financial to operational to technical. Being able to keep disparate groups of people engaged, on the proverbial “same page”, is something of a superpower. One that I’m looking forward to using.

A Few Thoughts On Challenges

Carl Setzer
Challenges Ahead

I’ve been asked, many, many times if “x” will present a challenge. And, far too often, the context of that is “kill the project”.And that’s the wrong thinking. EVERY project will have challenges. Internal, external, whether inertia or outright attack, things will rise.

Before running away from challenge, we need to remember value. What are we trying to bring to life with the project? And then dive deeper into the cause of the challenge. Can it be overcome? At what cost? Does this negate the value of the project?

I’ve bought into the notion that “everything in life is easy if you’re aligned with the universe”, and that “challenges are signs of divine disfavor”. Perhaps not quite as dramatic as this, but the point’s still there. Challenges shouldn’t be existential. Anticipate they’ll come and remember your why, and you won’t descend into fear driven chaos.