“Project management is my favorite process, project managers are my favorite people, and there is not much I’d rather do than talk with project managers about project management!” Margo Love Table of Contents 01:26 … Meet Margo 04:31 … The One Process Margo has Not Performed 06:45 … The Customer on Internal and External Projects 09:32 … Margo’s Pick from the PMBOK Guide’s 33 Project Documents 13:33 … Requirements Traceability Matrix 16:43 … RACI Chart 21:19 … Work Breakdown Structure 25:08 … A Project Charter 29:47 … Rolling Wave Planning 33:52 … Lessons Learned 38:10 … Final Words of Wisdom 40:52 … Closing MARGO LOVE: The other thing is get training.  I can’t say enough how important I think it is for people who are managing projects to recognize that this is a professional undertaking.  And you would not ask a dentist to go into the dentist’s office and just look in your mouth and figure out what to do.  I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.  You’re smart.  You know, you brush your teeth, so go help.  But we ask our project managers to do that all the time. You know, you’re a great programmer, you’re great with people.  They’ll say, “Oh, you’re great with people.  We need you to manage this project.”  Well, fine, but being great with people doesn’t mean that you know how to manage a project.  And I think training is invaluable in that regard. NICK WALKER:  Welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  We’re setting aside this time to talk about what’s important to you as a professional project manager.  Our guests include some of the best in the field, those who live and breathe project management and want to share their passion. I’m your host, Nick Walker, alongside resident expert Bill Yates.  And Bill, this time around we’re talking with someone who really does epitomize that passion. BILL YATES:  Yeah.  Margo is a delight.  She is a wonderful trainer.  She was born for facilitation and training, and so it comes from her heart and passion for project management and for people. Meet Margo NICK WALKER:  Well, let’s learn a little bit more about her.  Margo Love became a fellow of the Life Management Institute in 1987, achieved her PMP (Project Management Professional) certification in 2000, and earned her Six Sigma Black Belt in 2001, making her a certified project management and process improvement nerd.  She also has over 30 years’ experience managing projects and project managers in information technology for the life insurance and utility industries.  So Margo is Skyping us from a very rainy Greenville, South Carolina today.  Margo, welcome to Manage This. MARGO LOVE:  Thank you.  I am delighted to be here. NICK WALKER:  I love this quotation from you.  You say “Project management is my favorite process.  Project managers are my favorite people.  And there is not much I’d rather do than talk with project managers about project management.”  So can you tell us a little bit about your experience and how it’s brought about that kind of affection for the profession and the people in it? MARGO LOVE:  I’d be glad to.  And in fact, it’s funny to hear you say – to read my words because, when I managed my first project, I hated it and I was terrible at it.  My background is in programming, software programming.  And I had been a programmer for about two years, I guess, when my company asked me to manage a project. I was so impressed with myself, and told my mother I was managing a project, and I had no clue what I was doin, I was terrible at it, I hated it.  Everybody hated me.  And so I was done with that for the rest of my life. And about 10 years later, maybe 15, our company went through a traumatic project.  Then coming out of that, the new CIO asked me if I would head up a project management organization, which was just hilarious.  And I said, “You don’t understand that I don’t do that.”  But he talked me into it.  He said,