5 Minutes Podcast with Ricardo Vargas

Ricardo comments on the PMI Global Congress North America, held in October 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona. He highlights the more informal approach of the event and the inspirational talk by former basketball player, Earvin "Magic" Johnson. He also gives an overview of the main topics presented by project managers from all over the World.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the responsibility assignment matrix – RACI, a handy information tool in Human Resources, Communications and Stakeholders management. This matrix associate tasks and the people/functions responsible for them using the categories: Responsible (R), Accountable (A), Consulted (C) and Informed (I).

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about when a project has sponsorship issues. He explains how to proceed in two scenarios: when there is a sponsor with little interest in the project or when the sponsor does not have enough power to fulfill his role.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the relationship between the risks and the project scope. Not just the clarity of the scope, but also its amplitude, contribute to the amount of risk that must be managed.

In this podcast, Ricardo continues to talk about the Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA), a very good graphical tool used in executive reports. Today, he explains how to analyze the graphic you built last week, understanding the evolution trends of your project.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA), a very good graphical tool used in executive reports. He shows how to make it step-by-step using pencil, paper and a ruler. Don’t forget to see the presentation related to this podcast.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about a type of project that is often special to certain people but does not show real benefits and offer significant value. He gives tips on how to handle this kind of pet project in a portfolio selection.

In this podcast, Ricardo gives tips on how to create your WBS to better communicate key project deliverables to the project stakeholders.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about what characterizes an early closure of a project. He clarifies that it is not the same as abandoning the project. He mentions possible causes and explains that there's an entire closing process to follow after making the decision.

In this episode, Ricardo talks about the importance of self-motivation. He explains that in addition to worry about keeping his/her team motivated the project manager must think about her own motivation and make decisions for the sake of the project and his/her career.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about projects as change agents. How can a project help us to improve the way to run our business or to change the business components in the face of a new competitor?

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the types of contracts of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC). These contracts are widely used in engineering projects and published as books. Ricardo explains that the contracts are well prepared, bringing best practices that can be applied to various types of projects. Visit the site of the federation at http://fidic.org/

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the effort driven tasks. He explains their advantages and how we can use them in our project management.

In this last episode of the series of 5 podcasts on career, Ricardo closes the 10 dimensions of career in project management subject, now addressing the ethics and relationship dimensions. He also gives his final messages about this series.

In this fourth episode of the series of 5 podcasts on career, Ricardo continues talking about the 10 dimensions of career in project management, now addressing the flexibility and self knowledge dimensions. He says that we need to be flexible to increase the options for career growth. Additionally, we must know our flaws, as well as our strengths, to know how to get around them.

In this third episode of the series of 5 podcasts on career, Ricardo continues talking about the 10 dimensions of a career in project management, now addressing the persistence and dynamism dimensions. He says that these two dimensions are crucial to success in any career stage in which you find yourself.

In this second episode of the podcasts series on career, Ricardo continues talking about the 10 dimensions of career in project management, now addressing the focus and planning dimensions. He explains how to focus and how to plan realistically your career.

In this podcast, Ricardo begins a special series of five episodes on a career in project management. In this series, he will address the perspectives of those who are at the beginning, going through a transition, or are looking to expand their horizons. See also the related presentation.

In this podcast, Ricardo explains that, unlike what many people think, the assumptions and restrictions (or constraints) often need to be registered not only in one but in several documents throughout the progression of the project planning.

In this podcast, Ricardo addresses one of the biggest challenges in the project environment, how can we educate the sponsor to make a decision based on facts, not just feeling. He also gives tips on how we can escape the dangers in this process.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about two approaches in the management of very small projects. The first approach deals with the management of projects in a cluster. The second seeks to simplify the processes of project management, reducing management complexity.

In this podcast, Ricardo continues to talk about the types of relationships between the activities in the schedule. Today he tackles the Finish-to-Finish and the Start-to-Finish types. In the end, he leaves a great tip.

In this first podcast of two, Ricardo talks about the types of relationships between the activities in the schedule. It's a simple concept but a lot of people do not fully understand when putting it into practice. This week, Ricardo explains when to use the Finish-to-Start and Start-to-Start links. Next week, he will talk about the remaining two types, the End-to-End, and Start-to-Finish.

How to measure how far you are to finish a task where creativity is relevant and inspiration can accelerate or decelerate the progress? In this podcast, Ricardo talks about how we can best measure the real physical progress of the project and explains the application of the concept of anchoring and the WBS decomposition.

In this second part of the podcast about Lines of Balance, Ricardo talks more about how this concept can be used in the project's planning and control phases. This time, Ricardo gives an example about the application of lines of balance in an election vote counting process. Do not forget to listen to the first part of this podcast.

In this podcast, Ricardo begins to explain what Line of Balance are and how can they be used. He gives an example of how to plan repetitive tasks in order to achieve optimal resources allocation and also know how the project's speed and progress evolve. Next week, he will bring an example related to elections.

In this podcast, the last one of 2013, Ricardo talks about his perspectives for next year, in the world of project management. He highlights that the project manager's technical ability is becoming something already established and the professional should seek to differentiate herself to improve her ability to propose new ideas, new approaches, to risk and innovate in the projects.

In this podcast, Ricardo makes his retrospective of 2013. Again, a year with mixed feelings. A good year for some, a tough one for others. One of the points highlighted by Ricardo was the dangerous excess of expectation, from companies, governments and professionals, about what really project management can bring as a result, when well executed. In the next podcast, he will talk about the perspectives for 2014.

In this episode, Ricardo talks about a question that is one of the most frequent in the project area: Must the project manager have technical knowledge regarding the project product? An engineering project, for example, must necessarily be managed by an engineer?

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about a complex situation where a stakeholder, on the client-side, refuses to accept deliveries, seeking to impute contractual penalties to the company managing the project. Ricardo shows two actions, one preventive and one corrective, that can be taken.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the cultural differences within a project environment. He gives valuable tips on how the project manager must address the differences within his team, the sponsors and the stakeholders and can thus create an effective communication process, based on respect and cultural integrity of all parties.

In this podcast, directly from the PMO Symposium 2013 in San Diego, Ricardo makes a brief summary of his perceptions about the main themes of the event, and comments the keynotes by Robert Kaplan (one of the creators of the Balanced Score Card - BSC) who spoke about the strategic position of the PMO, and Daniel Pink, on influence. He also comments on the winning of PMO of the Year Award.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the difficulties that the project manager goes through when dealing with an organization with low maturity in project management. He shows how the project manager can cope with the problems arising from this scenario.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the PMI Global Congress 2013 which took place in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He makes a brief summary of his perceptions of the key topics of the event, such as, how the project manager can practice and improve his, or her, leadership and influence skills. Ricardo also talks about the importance of participating in the PMI Global Congress, especially for the great opportunities for learning and networking.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the differences between processes and projects. There is still much confusion in people's minds about the characteristics and purposes of one or the other. Ricardo seeks to remedy this confusion by bringing a few examples that illustrate each case.

In this podcast, Ricardo about the main differences in management technology projects as compared to other projects.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about ego, vanity and jealousy in the project environment. He gives tips on how we can deal with these personal characteristics that may directly or indirectly affect the project.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about his visit to the world's largest ship, the Danish Triple-E, anchored in the Copenhagen harbour this month. The ship was manufactured in South Korea and had several technological solutions of a sustainable design. The "E" stands for "Economic of Scale", "Energy Efficiency" and "Environmental Performance". Learn more about the ship at www.worldslargestship.com

In this podcast, Ricardo talks, from the project management perspective, about the impressive salvage operation of the Italian liner Costa Concordia which crashed into rocks and sank on January 13, 2012.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the process of project closure. He explains the various reasons why it is important to make the closing correctly and lists the documents required for this phase of the project.

In this podcast, Ricardo throws the question: is improvisation during a project always something negative? He cites scenarios where improvisation can be good and how we can take advantage of that.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the release of his new book, "Microsoft Project 2013: Standard, Professional e Pro para Office 365", co-written with Allan Rocha, Microsoft Valuable Professional (MVP). The book addresses the new features presented in this new version of the software and maintains the characteristics of the series of books about Project initiated by Ricardo in the book "Gerenciamento de Projetos com o Microsoft Project 98". Ricardo also talks about another novelty, the "Pangea PM" application, created by the authors, which integrates with Project 2013 and brings many learning benefits.

In this podcast, Ricardo gives his opinion about a topic discussed on social networks all the time: who is the project manager? Ricardo addresses three possibilities, would the project manager be a superman, an evil being or a poor man?

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the concept of Rolling Wave Planning, which deals with the progressive elaboration of the project scope. He presents the pros and cons of this technique, giving answers to questions such as: "How do I get the detail work that will happen in the 2nd week of the 14th month in my project?"

In this episode, at the traditional time of the year when companies are planning their projects for the next year or years, Ricardo talks about the three factors that complicate how we should approach selecting projects in a portfolio.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks directly from Alexandria, USA, about the PMI Educational Foundation Disaster Recovery Workshop. The workshop brought together experts from around the world to discuss the application of project management in disaster and reconstructions events.

In this podcast, Ricardo ends the explanation of how to do the Stakeholder Analysis in practice. If you have not heard the first part, listen to it here: http://www.ricardo-vargas.com/podcasts/how-to-do-stakeholder-analysis-in-practice-part-1-of-2 /

In this special podcast, Ricardo teaches, in practice, how to do a Stakeholder Analysis. To follow the step-by-step shown by Ricardo, you will need this material: 3 large sheets of paper (i.e. flip chart size), tape, several post-it's and pens (or markers), two to three different colors for pens and post-it's. And of course, your team to participate in the brainstorming. Follow next week the final part of this podcast!

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about the dangers of underestimate the complexity of the procurement management. He gives three tips on how we can increase the chance of success in our projects. They are: 1 - Seek knowledge about what will be purchased; 2 - Analyze the total cost of acquisition, not just the price; 3 - Associate payment events to deliveries on your project.

In this podcast, Ricardo talks about people's different attitudes and profiles against the risks. He explains these attitudes and profiles by analyzing a chart in the book "Understanding And Managing Risk Attitude", by David Hillson. See Ricardo's brief review of the book here: https://www.ricardo-vargas.com/books/recommendations/75/ View the chart discussed in the podcast: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/managing-risk-attitude-using-emotional-literacy-8156