The 3rd Skill Set

Project Activities Between Hard & Soft Skills

David Kershaw VP, Cloud Services

Altova GmbH djk@altova.com

Hello!

•  PMP. 20 years organizing teamwork.

•  Software projects

•  Mainly startups. Also some large firms

•  Co-manage the MetroNorth Roundtable

What Are We Talking About?

Hard Soft

Monte Carlo Simulation PERT Estimation Critical Path EVM

Leadership Emotional Intelligence Difficult Conversations

Negotiation & Persuasion

Lots of Chatter About Skills

The Problem With Soft Skills

• No clear agreement on what they are

• Hard to assess skill level and train

•  Consistent application unlikely

•  Expert application no guarantee

Wait, Why The Animals?

• Not known for soft skills

• Don’t have hard skills

• Extremely effective teamwork

3rd Skill Set: Team Operations

•  Structures

•  Processes

•  Information

What’s The Cool Part?

•  Easy to learn and apply

•  Relatively consistent impact

• More consensus on what, how and why

•  Broadly applicable

Give Me Something I Can Use!

1. Clear team definition

2. GRPI

3. Codified rules and values

4. Structured decision-making

5. Management by responsibility

6. Channeled task-based collaboration

7. Common language

What Do I Do With That?

• The bullets are a blueprint

• Use in roughly the order listed

• Several are validated by the PMBOK

The Core: G. R. P. I.

• A hierarchy of needs • Triage is easier higher up •  Impact in a Pareto series • Don’t focus on interpersonal stuff

Goals, roles, processes, interpersonal

Thank You!

What do you think?

Any questions?

What do you do?