Rescue the Problem Project

Todd's first book delivers twenty-five years of project rescue experience. Unlike other books on the subject, Rescue the Problem Project focuses on the process to rescue the project. This is the critical few weeks that transform a failing project to a successful project. Other processes blindly layer processes on top of a project without finding the cause of the failure. Rescue the Problem Project focuses on root cause analysis to determine the source of problems and solve them once and for all.

The book starts by discussing the biggest hurdle in rescuing a project—realization that there is a problem—and proceeds through detailed discussion of the four-step process to recover them—audit, analysis, negotiate, and execute. In addition, it includes a complete discussion of four key processes to prevent failure.

eCameron has published numerous newsletters, emagazines, and Newsletters. Following is a listing of the past volumes.

Project alignment, executive sponsorship, change management, governance, leadership, and common understanding. These six business issues are topics of daily discussions between executives, middle management, and project managers; they are the pivotal problems plaguing transformational leadership. Any one of these six, when improperly addressed, will hex a project's chances for success. And, they do—daily—destroying the ability companies to turn vision into value.

Without the foundation of a common understanding of goals and core concepts, such as value being critical to success, communication stops and projects fail.

Without change management, users fail to adopt project deliverables, value is lost, and projects fail.

Without maintaining alignment between corporate goals and projects, projects miss their value targets and projects fail.

Without an engaged executive sponsor, scope increases, goals drift, chaos reigns, value is lost, and projects fail.

Without enough governance, critical connections are not made, steps are ignored, value is overlooked, and projects fail.

Too much governance slows progress, companies cannot respond to business pressures, value drowns in bureaucracy, and projects fail.

Without strong leadership defining the vision and value, goals are not set, essential relationships do not form, teams do not develop, essential decisions are not made, and projects fail.

<!—Paste the IR description HTML text here -->

Modern projects are all about one group of people delivering benefits to others, so it's no surprise that the human element is fundamental to project management. The Gower Handbook of People in Project Management is a complete guide to the human dimensions involved in projects. The book is a unique and rich compilation of over 60 chapters about project management roles and the people who sponsor, manage, deliver, work in or are otherwise important to project success.

The Handbook is 63 chapters written by 50 different authors (Todd Williams, President of eCameron, contributing Chapter Two: Successes and Failures of People in Projects) giving the reading breadth of views from numerous experts in the world of project management.

These authors discuss the:

Todd Williams contributed Chapter 7, "Leaders Listen." You can buy it on Amazon.

More coming soon!

Toyota: Saga of Success
by N Kalai Selvan

Toyota: A Saga of Success is a compilation of works from sixteen different authors worldwide. The book looks at a variety of different aspects for Toyota's Success. Todd Williams provided Chapter 4, which is a reprint of the article The Toyota Way.

From the Publisher:

Toyota Motor Corporation is the success story of 21st century automobile industry. After the Second World War, the company concentrated on the small passenger car production segment. Initially, Toyota was producing automobiles in Japan and exporting them to other countries. Today, Toyota has become world's largest automaker from a small Japanese automaker through its unique production system and innovation. The Toyota Corporation operates through three segments such as automotive, financial and other supporting services. Toyota has been recognized as the leader in automotive operational excellence and has introduced Toyota production system philosophy which has provided quality and efficiency. Toyota is known for small cars and fuel efficient vehicles. Toyota has been producing automobiles for all the segments from small cars to big trucks. Toyota also laid more emphasis on building hybrid cars as it believed that the future of car business would be hybrid and more environment-friendly. In 2002, Toyota adapted "Global vision 2010"with maximum emphasis on the environment, recycling of materials and new information technology. While its competitors have shut down their plants, Toyota has managed to open new plants every year. Toyota entered the huge US auto market with its small car in 1957 and sold 287 cars in the first year. Today, Toyota has surpassed the big three US auto makers - GMs, Ford and Chrysler. According to experts, Toyota's success in the global market was primarily because of its state-of-the-art and well-planned operational strategies.

Buy it now!

Yes. It has already been a month. There is a bit of a theme this month—Leadership. Three of our four articles talk directly about that. Speaking of leadership...

The Regional Leadership Forum is open for registration for the 2016 program. Have you checked it out? This is a great 9-month program put on my SIM (Society for Information Management) in nine regions around the United States. Top notch facilitators work with cohorts of 18-24 upcoming leaders to hone their leadership skills. It is a great program and you, or one of your team members, would find immense value in taking it. Please drop me a note, give me a call, 360-834-7361, or visit its web page.

In this month's Vision to Value eJournal we cover:

• Three talk about leadership, and
• Two articles are on Organization Change Management (OCM),
• One is a snarky article about IT.

I hope you enjoy them!

Cheers,
  Todd C. Williams
  President, eCameron

Happy Holidays! Whether you are into Christmas, Hanukkah (yeah, I am about a week late), Winter Solstice, or nothing at all, I hope you are enjoying December. Since my family celebrates Christmas and we have little kids it is a very fun time of year. I simply hope is that your December is peaceful and relaxing.

Calling all Leaders! Do you live or work in the Portland/Vancouver Metro area? How about a taste of RLF? Mark your calendar for the morning of January 21 and join us for a taste of breakfast and RLF!

Speaking of Regional Leadership Forum (RLF)... registration is still open, but time is running out for the $500 early bird discount and the runway is even shorter to get it charged against the 2015 year budget! This is a great 9-month program put on my SIM (Society for Information Management) in nine regions around the United States. If you are in the Pacific Northwest and a member of PMI, we are also working on a chapter sponsored discount of an additional $500. Between these two discounts you could save as much as 14% on the total cost! Please drop me a note, give me a call, 360-834-7361, or visit its web page.

This month's Vision to Value eJournal covers:

• Continued conversation on Organization Change Management (OCM).
• The challenges of communications with leadership and with PMOs.
• Part II of a case study on what kills you if your project ends up in court.

I hope you enjoy them!

Cheers,
  Todd C. Williams
  President, eCameron

Value: Rather than scope, schedule, and budget, value is the lynch-pin of project success. Although the former three constraints are key factors in project success, there is no guarantee that meeting these constraints will result in a positive outcome. Instead constantly tracking the value of the project and making adjustments to the triple constraints to attain sufficient value is critical. Arguably this is the project managers most critical deliverable in the project. It requires significant insight into the project’s customer and a thorough understanding of their needs versus their wants. Project managers have to be leaders (leading subordinates, leaders, and customers), be able to assign priorities based on a critical, objective view.