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Top1  December 2012

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by Jesse Freese, PMP

 
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A Few Words from Jesse

 Dear Fissure Friends, 

Jesse

We are still "high" from the Project Management Institute's Continuing Education Product of the Year Award for SimProject. Thank you to everyone who sent congratulations. We're busy updating marketing material, websites and our booth with the associated Best of the Best seal.

 

One of the advantages of our new location (we moved last June) is the free use of a beautiful conference/training room on the first floor of our office building. As most of you probably know I'm very active in the PMI-MN Chapter and teach the Risk evening in the Chapter's PMP Certification training. After our move I offered the use of our conference room to the Chapter should they wish to use it for an offering of the PMP Preparation training. Recently the company scheduled to host the Jan/Feb 2013 certification training withdrew their offer and now the session will be hosted by Fissure.

 

The good news for our local readers is that PMI-MN gives the host company a free seat for the training, and surprise, surprise; we don't have anyone who needs the seat. As a result, we're giving the free seat to the first person who meets the requirements and agrees to the "helper" responsibilities. The details are in the "Free PMI-MN PMP Certification Course Seat" article.

 

I'm currently working on a "learning through simulation" white paper and will share pieces in future newsletters. In the mean time, if you have thoughts, data and/or questions on the topic, I'd love to hear from you. The article to the left is a piece I put in the application for the PMI Product of the Year award. It shows student improvement in final project cost, schedule and quality from their first execution of the simulation, to their second execution, and then again to their third execution. The details are in the "Measuring Student Learning" article to the left.

 

I don't' know why we haven't used Geof Lory's article on "Practice versus Experience!" previously, but it fits really well with our other article in this newsletter. Geof's will encourage you to be more conscious when you practice and experience project management and parenthood.

 

 

Our computer simulation powered workshops are the most effective and fun way to learn AND EARN PDUs.  

 

Make sure you also check out what's happening at Fissure (Fissure News). 

 

Thanks for reading and wishing you all a very joyous holiday season.

 

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Jesse Freese

Fissure, President 

 

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Practice versus Experience 
by Geof Lory, PMP

Geof-Frame

 

I spent four years in high school studying and translating Latin with professors who were particular about the precise meaning and intention behind words. There could be many different translations for the same word based on the context in which the word was used. Of course, this is not unique to Latin. The same can be said about most languages; this was just the time in my life when that understanding surfaced for me.

 

Studying Latin cultivated what my wife says is a sometimes annoying propensity for choosing my words carefully, especially when trying to express a certain feeling. So, I chose the title of this article deliberately. It is composed of two similar but also very different words, Practice and Experience, which are often used interchangeably but can convey substantially different meanings. I'll resist the temptation to quote Webster's Dictionary, but I hope to convey the subtle differences and similarities, and how understanding them may encourage you to be more conscious when you practice and experience project management and parenthood.

 

Click here to read Geof's complete article  

 

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 MeasuringLearning

 
 

Measuring Student Learning


By Jesse Freese
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Background

SimProject is a project management learning simulation used by instructors and professors in teaching project management to high school, under graduate and graduate level students. The online SimProject product was released for use September 1, 2011. By the end of November, 2012, approximately 875 students had used SimProject to learn project management. Instructors determine how SimProject is used in each class and they also decide how many times they want the students to execute the simulation (up to three times maximum). The data below is based on the results from the 224 students who completed all three executions.

In SimProject, students read about the virtual company, virtual project and virtual people available to work on the project, and then, individually or collectively, play the role of the project manager. Acting as the project manager the student(s):

Plan the project (resources and budget) and make typical project decisions each week (staff assignments, meetings, education, etc.).

Run the project a week at a time, analyzing their results each week, referring to their weekly reports, and making their decisions for the next

As they run each week they are presented with communications from people within the company, team members, or other project stakeholders. They have a choice on how to respond to these communications and all their decisions impact how their project progresses in a non-prescriptive way.

Click here to read Jesse's entire article 

 

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Fissure News 
Los Angles Skyline

The number of instructors and students using SimProject is constantly growing and with the announcement of the Product of the Year Award we decided in September to be proactive in our risk management and move SimProject to its own dedicated server. The new server is somewhere in LA. At least the server is living in warm weather.

 

Guide Recognition 

 

In John S Frame  November John Skovbroten was the instructor on our monthly webinar offering. One of the attendees provided the following feedback:
 

I have done a lot of webinars and viewed probably 100's more. The one today with John Skovbroten on Key to Delivering Successful Products and Projects was outstanding. Very interactive, which is extremely hard to do on a web ex. 

Thank you for making it interactive and fun!  I'll definitely view more and recommend them in the future.

Liz

Way to go John!  

 

  

WGeof-Framealso received wonderful feedback from a client the Geof Lory has been working with to develop their Agile capability:

 

Your training and guidance on Agile really helped us build the foundation for making this such a success.

Diane

Way to go Geof
 

 

20 Year Anniversary 

In October Jesse Freese marked his 20 year anniversary with Fissure as a full-time employee. He is looking forward celebrating many more. Below is a picture of the building at 23 Empire Drive in St. Paul where Fissure had their offices when Jesse started full time. 

Jesse 2003
Empire Building

 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 (Here is a picture of Jesse 20 years
ago but don't tell him I put it in.)

 

 

Red Earth computers

 

Free Webinars

 

Be sure to check out our FREE monthly, 
 
We have had outstanding reviews and when you
consider they are free - they are hard to beat.

 

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 Free PMI-MN PMP Certification Course Seat

PMI MN

In order to "qualify" for the free seat
you must be meet the project management experience
requirements for PMP certification:

You need to have either:

A four-year degree (bachelor's or the global equivalent) and at least three years of project management experience, with 4,500 hours leading and directing projects.  

OR

A secondary diploma (high school or the global equivalent) with at least five years of project management experience, with 7,500 hours leading and directing projects.

There are also a few responsibilities that go with the seat. You need to be onsite for all eight evenings. You need to arrive a little early  5:30 pm, help the instructor hook up to the projector, make sure the room is setup correctly, help setup food when it arrives, and help clean up after each session.

Location:

8120 Penn Ave. South
Bloomington, MN 55431

Timing: 6 to 9 pm

Dates (all Tuesday evenings):

Jan 8, Jan 15, (SKIP 1/22 - MLK Holiday)

Jan 29, 

Feb 5, Feb 12, (SKIP 2/19 - Presidents Day)

Feb 26

Mar 5, Mar 12


If you meet the experience requirements and agree to the helper role, email me that you would like the free seat. The first person that emails me (and meets the requirements) wins the free seat.

I will be there at the beginning of most nights and PMI-MN will also have a volunteer in the room to help.

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Practice versus ExperienceGeofCont 
by Geof Lory, PMP
Geof-Frame

 

I spent four years in high school studying and translating Latin with professors who were particular about the precise meaning and intention behind words. There could be many different translations for the same word based on the context in which the word was used. Of course, this is not unique to Latin. The same can be said about most languages; this was just the time in my life when that understanding surfaced for me.

 

Studying Latin cultivated what my wife says is a sometimes annoying propensity for choosing my words carefully, especially when trying to express a certain feeling. So, I chose the title of this article deliberately. It is composed of two similar but also very different words, Practice and Experience, which are often used interchangeably but can convey substantially different meanings. I'll resist the temptation to quote Webster's Dictionary, but I hope to convey the subtle differences and similarities, and how understanding them may encourage you to be more conscious when you practice and experience project management and parenthood.

 

There are some things I really enjoy practicing. As a golfer, and a self-admitted range rat, I can spend hours at the driving range hitting balls. Time like this is practice that is also an experience. By doing it, I am becoming practiced and experienced. Both are commonly thought of as positives, but I don't make the assumption that one begets the other or that either is intrinsically good, as evidenced by anyone who plays golf, but not for a living. Anyone who has ever stood on the practice green before a round and made half a dozen 3-foot putts in a row and then missed a short putt during the round to win knows the difference.

 

Before my daughters were old enough to legally drive, they practiced driving because I wanted them to build up their experience. Making circles in the parking lot was giving them practice, but not really a lot of experience behind the wheel. To me, that kind of practice is not completely real; it is only half real. It lacks the element of really being there, doing it live, in the moment, when it counts. For me, that is the experience. But, what practice lacks in real-time, it makes up for in repetition. Continual practice will create an unconscious ability to repeat just about any action, which makes the live experience more of a live practice. Practice is not experience, but they are close enough to be brothers.

 

In project management, I practice activities like risk management through early risk identification, analysis and planning. These are hopefully proactive and preemptive efforts, done deliberately with fore thought ahead of time when there is time. The practice, through risk scenarios, prepares for the potential experience of the risk itself. It also affords the critical element of learning and developing of competencies: feedback, which is necessary to complete the explicit learning process.

 

This distinction is not lost on teachers of music and sports--both practical/experiential activities--where both the experience and the repetitive practice are normal parts of the skills development process. My mother, who was quite a successful softball coach, often said, "A coach coaches during practice and watches during the game." During effective practice, feedback is immediate, intentional and direct. Situations can be set up and repeated to shorten the heuristic feedback loop. Consequences are usually geared toward learning and not otherwise meaningful. The players practice, but they are also experiencing it. During the game, only a fraction of the practiced behaviors may be experienced and only a time or two each, yet the consequences usually carry more weight. In contrast, training of other more cognitive-centric skills--such as many of those we learn during our academic years--often involves practice that to a large degree lacks any real experience. This is the dilemma most college graduates have in finding their first job: no experience.

 

Where am I going with all this? At first glance it would seem as hard to practice project management as it is to practice parenting. But how many parents with multiple children are surprised at how different their first child is from their second or third? How can two kids from the same parents growing up in the same house be so different? Is it genetics, or is it possible that we learned something from our "practice" on the first offspring? My two daughters are as different as day and night. Go figure.

 

If we stay awake for it, regular practice can be an experience and every experience can be practice. I have a project manager friend who says, "Experience is not the best teacher, evaluated experience is." We all have experiences that would qualify as practice. All we need to do is take the time to interject the evaluation that allows us to learn from them. Failure to do this is a lost learning experience.

 

Over the past five years, I have been fortunate to be associated with a group of highly experienced and well-practiced project managers. My colleagues at Fissure Corporation have taken the concept of experiential practice and brought it to the realm of project management through computerized project management simulation. Simulations are an outstanding way to learn, as evidenced by their extensive use in other fields where lives are on the line, like flying a plane. In a simulation, teams practice the hard and soft skills of project management, compressing 20+ weeks of experiential practice into just a few days. The learnings have more staying power because the practice was an experience.

 

Most of your projects may not be life or death, even though they may feel like it, but they don't have to be to reap the benefits of this style of learning. However, I could make a case for parenting being a life or death competency, at least for the well-being of my children. If only there were a parenting simulation required of us all before becoming "certified parents

 

In the meantime, enjoy your project management and parenting experiences. Perhaps with this simple reminder we will take the time to turn them into practice and learn from them. As for me, I'm off to practice my putting. I wonder if I will ever learn.

 

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Measuring Student Learning


SimPwrd learn HeaderSimProject is a project management learning simulation used by instructors and professors in teaching project management to high school, under graduate and graduate level students. The online SimProject product was released for use September 1, 2011. By the end of November, 2012, approximately 875 students had used SimProject to learn project management. Instructors determine how SimProject is used in each class and they also decide how many times they want the students to execute the simulation (up to three times maximum). The data below is based on the results from the 224 students who completed all three executions.

 

In SimProject, students read about the virtual company, virtual project and virtual people available to work on the project, and then, individually or collectively, play the role of the project manager. Acting as the project manager the student(s):

  1. Plan the project (resources and budget) and make typical project decisions each week (staff assignments, meetings, education, etc.).
  2. Run the project a week at a time, analyzing their results each week, referring to their weekly reports, and making their decisions for the next 

As they run each week they are presented with communications from people within the company, team members, or other project stakeholders. They have a choice on how to respond to these communications and all their decisions impact how their project progresses in a non-prescriptive way.

 

Student Learning Results

 

Learning was measured by the improvement in each student's project execution beginning with their first execution as a baseline, and looking at how they improve in final measures
of time (objective is 11 weeks), cost (objective is $50,000) and quality (objective is 12 or less) for their second and third executions. The charts below show a significant improvement
in student project results from their first execution to their second execution, and then another improvement in their
third execution.

  FirstExecutionChart

 

First Execution Median Values:
13.9 weeks, $65,588.50 and 15.06 final defects
 

 

SecondExecutionChart 

 

Second Execution Median Values:
12.6 weeks, $
56,774.75 and 14.08 final defects

 
ThirdExecutionChart

 

Third Execution Median Values:
11.6 weeks, $
53,092.50 and 13.1 final defects

 

The data quantitatively shows students, as a group, are improving their project management skills with respect to planning and managing their project to schedule, cost and quality. Driving a good part of the improvement is an elimination of mistakes made in the previous executions, especially in managing resources and motivating team members.

 

Just in case the quantitative data isn't enough evidence, here is some qualitative data from Professor Laurie Schatzberg of the University of New Mexico:

 

"I used the online SimProject shortly after its release in September, 2011 in our MBA Project Management course. Repeatedly, students experience "aha!" moments when they experience the impacts of their decisions on the project's time, cost and quality results. I cannot overstate the importance of this simulation in their learning."

 

Prior to using the simulation, students' contributions to class discussions are often generic and theoretical. Once they've delved into the simulation, they begin to speak as if they were a project manager and their discussions center on specific issues.

 

For example, they understand the importance of stakeholder communication. However, when they overlook a communication opportunity and suffer the inevitable consequence, they really get it. I can see it in their eyes, hear it in their voices, and read it in their subsequent work. There are many such examples, where the simulation affords students an effective means to achieve a deeper level of learning.

 

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