PMP Vs CMP...!!!

Introduction:

I am sure most of you might have already heard of PMP that is Project Management Professionals and CMP is the word which I coined in my earlier posting, rhyming with PMP for Child Management Professionals. Being a veteran certified PMP; I thought why I can’t make an analogy study between these two professions based on my recent experience on Child Management and my long association with IT Project Management. I hope after reading this article you may agree with me on most of the points.

Please bear with me, as in this article I have used extensively IT Project Management specific terms/process for comparison and expecting that the readers know basic project management terminology for effective understanding of this analysis.

Comparison between PMP & CMP:

Both PMP & CMP are dealing with some kind of Projects. In case of PMP it is mostly IT, construction or manufacturing industry kind projects involved, in which developing products like software, building or car etc, where as CMP is the Project of Managing/developing the Child from new born stage who just stepped in to this new world. Here the final product is fully grown up self sustainable human being.

General Project Phase wise comparison:

Discovery/Concept Phase:

Project Management stream has well defined concept/discovery phase where, generally a high-level Business Case document on the proposed project will be created and presented before senior management to get an approval for funding and ends with Project Kick-off meeting, that is formal start of the project.

Where in case of Child Management, Discovery/concept phase is nothing but Nine months long Pregnancy period, shopping for baby, setting house to receive baby and ends with formal introduction of newborn baby to this world (i.e. Delivery) which is equivalent to formal project kick-off.

Planning Phase:

Project Management stream, you do proper planning using lots of project management tools, process and most of the project's goal is to achieve the plan by 100%. Addition to the project plan, also lots of other planning artifacts are being developed during this phase like Meeting/Communication plan, Risk/Issue Management plan, team structure etc. For all such activities, Project Management stream has well defined process. Meeting/communication plan in case of project stream mainly contains weekly status meeting, project progress review by senior management, risk review meeting schedules etc. For risk management lots of techniques are being used in project stream like Risk Indexing, Prioritizing or likelihood Vs consequence charts etc.

Where as in Child Management, even though you plan everything, almost 100% sure you will never be able to achieve as most of the time the planning will go for a toss. So better be prepared to face as & when it comes any eventualities and planning too much is not the practical or feasible option as most of the time the requirements are so dynamic, unpredictable and comes spontaneously. About Project Team/resource, in general Child Management team structure involves Mother (Project Manager to Developer – all in one), father (back-up Project Manager/developer), Grand Parents (veteran Program/Account Managers), your own elder kids (helpers or Issue creators) so on. Other planning activity like meeting/communication management plan, in case of child management stream should contain regular vaccination schedule, regular pediatrician visits for check-up, family doctor’s contact details with mobile number, hospital contact information, Emergency hospital facility details, in USA when & how to make 911 call guideline, friend’s or elders contact details for in case of emergency or during need of any advice, taxi number etc. Coming to Risk management, mitigation points are keep all the sharp things like Knife, hot items, iron box, medicine, poison (insecticide/pesticide), electrical items etc away from baby’s reach. Follow doctor’s advice and before inventing any thing new, if you are not sure better consult doctor first (one of the major mitigation plans). Keep all precautionary medicines (first aid kit) like drops for fever, clod always available at home (second major mitigation plan). In case of issues like medical emergency, reach out to hospital as quick as possible through Emergency care and do not invent or waste time if you are not sure about anything (Contingency plan).

Define Phase:

In Project Management stream, generally during Define phase all the project requirements/scope will be defined and implementation approach, architecture, technology will be finalized/ documented. Any deviation to the originally defined scope/requirements during later phases will be handled through well defined Change Management Process.

But in case of Child management, you can only define very high level scope/requirement rather say it as goal and never be able to finalize/document the entire system requirement as it so dynamic. Coming to change management process, it will be very challenging /tough to come up with well defined Change Management Process in this stream as changes will be coming on the fly, very demanding (no time to think & follow the process of getting Change Control Board approval before implementation) and most of the time brand new requirements will be coming. Each Change Requests, you will be facing for the first time & difficult to define any process.

Design & Development Phase:

Project Stream has well defined process and tools to design the product and complete the development of Product. In case of Software project lots of tools like Rational Rose for class diagram/UML design process can be used. Depending on the technology many development tools can be used for product development. During this phase designer/developer will be doing the detailed product design and complete Coding, Unit Testing, commonly known as CUT phase.

Where as in Child Management, major product design completes well before baby steps in to the world (before Project Kick-off - delivery), so nothing much you can do on the Product design part. Only you can do is develop, mold, groom or shape around the built in core design. You can’t re-architect or migrate the product to new technology/platform quickly or as easy you can do it in Project stream, here you have to restrict your self on to the core design it came with. Main development tasks during this phase will be, feeding, changing diaper, cleaning baby cloth, giving bath to baby, console crying baby, putting baby in to sleep, teach to talk, walk, stand, doctor visit as needed, shopping for baby, dressing baby, teaching ABCD/1234, singing rhymes, dancing for baby when it cry, schooling, college, help on job hunt, partner hunt for marriage so on, most of the cycle repeats and list grows on & on…

Testing Phase:

As you all know in Project Stream, we test the Product to make it bug free before we release the same to production using many tools and few iterations like Unit testing, System testing & User Acceptance Testing.

Where as in Child Management interestingly reverse is happening, here product (baby) will test you or bug you, test your patience level, your back, knee, angry level, emotion, frustration, body parts, bones, joints, blood pressure, tolerance, sleeping pattern, strength/energy level, hungry level so on. There is no limited testing cycles like unit testing or system testing/UAT, testing happens mostly all the time, every now & then starting from the day one of the project (from birth) nor limited only to testing phase of the project, no definite time or hours. Most of the testing happens during off-office hour (don’t expect OT..!!), you be prepared for 24X7 production support calls/bugs which will test you…!!!

The formal testing of the Product in child management happens only during later part of product life cycle. Like High School (10th Standard) exam which is equivalent to development environment testing, Pre-University (Plus 2) exam which is pre-production testing and Bachelors degree & above exams are Production environment testing.

Deployment & Go-live Phase:

Project Stream, product will be first deployed in different environments like development, Pre-production and Production site before it goes live. All the deployments are tested and well with in your control.

Where as in Child management project, there are different environments where product will be deployed; like nursery, kinder garden, Schools, College then job & go-live with/out marriage. But there is a minimal or no control you have on the product, mostly after kinder garden/school you will start feeling of loosing control on the product and some time it will go-live with out your knowledge/permission like self executable software…!!!

Project Closure Phase:

In Project Stream, there is a formal/ well defined process to close the project and it really ends some point of time even you have effort overrun/schedule slippage. You may have to complete the project closing formalities like log the best practices, lessons learned, project postmortem etc.

Where as in Child management projects, majority of the time it is never ending project, it is life long assignment/association ( especially among Indian family) and no closure phase but you can always log or pass on the best practice/lessons learned like this article to next projects or other groups who really needs or running similar project. Now a day we are seeing some trend of few self go-lives (example: few marriages) in Indian community which ends with abrupt project closure as it was against the wish of project managers (parents)…!!!

Conclusion:

Even though I am a Program Manager in my IT Profession, at present in Child Management I am only budding Project Manager (mostly back-up). By definition, to qualify as Program Manager you need to handle at a time multiple child management projects like handling twins, triplets or more than one baby at time and to qualify Account Manager Post, you need to have multiple programs like how a baby sitter or Pediatrician manages…!!!

Disaster Recovery in Child Management is almost impossible and pray not to get in to that situation. So please be care-full, do serious and excellent job in your child management project; which is bit challenging for the first time/budding project managers but it not the rocket science, only need more patience to pass-over initial tough period & which follows lots of fun. Wish you and your project all the best & good luck...!!!

If I keep writing on this subject it can go miles & miles, so let me stop here with the note that, majority (99.99 %) of Mothers (or parents) comes up with the natural talent of Project Management with out any PMP certifications and I feel, Mothers (or parents) are one of the best proven Project Managers in the world…!!! I am sure you all do agree with this, if not, at least after reading this article or gauging the complexity involved in the CMP…!!! So please do respect those great natural project/program managers (parents/grand parents).…!!!

Key FAQs on CMP:

* Can I (Mother/Father) get released from the Child Management Project once it is started?

No, it will never be possible for you, especially Mother/father to get any release from this project once it is started. It is life long assignment, rather say association. But you can control to keep out of more projects (babies) & can be limited to manageable size of projects..!!!

* Can I outsource my Child Management project?

Partly Yes & No, can outsource to baby care/sitting group for part of the day and 100% outsourcing is not a good idea.

* Can I join the project as helper any phase of the Child Management project?

Most welcome…!!!

* Can I take over any Child Management Projects?

Technically feasible, but involves lots of legal/other formalities & it is called Adaptation….!!! Very difficult to get a right project to takeover.

* What is the financial benefit from this kind of child management projects?

For parents, immediate financial benefit is negative where as the program managers like baby sitters, pediatricians, yes it will give very significant amount as return.

*Who will be the Delivery Manger in Child Management?

Your Gynecologist will be the delivery manager where as Mother will be the Solution Delivery Head who will end-up doing overall product delivery management to the best of customer satisfaction.

Thanks & feel free to share your feedback….See you in next posting…
श्री...

“Colic the Mystery”

Colic Overview
Doctors have yet to discover the causes of infant colic, described as excessive crying in an otherwise healthy baby. A fussy, crying, colicky baby is inconsolable, and the crying is not due to hunger or pain. Medical experts define colic as crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, 3 times a week. A baby may establish a daily pattern of crying, such as early morning or evening. For new parents, this situation can be extremely frustrating. The condition affects up to 20% of newborns.

Colic Causes
So far the real cause for Colic is remains unknown & mystery/puzzle to medical world…!!! Some researchers speculate colic may originate in a baby’s intestines and others believe the cause may be environmental. For several years, mothers believed certain milk formulas were the cause of colic. Recent evidence suggests avoidance of cow's milk for certain infants. Switching to a whey hydrolysate formula may prevent the formation of colic.

Colic Symptoms

Crying usually begins suddenly. The baby also may do one of the following:

* Arch its back

* Extend its legs

* Clench its fists

* Redden its face

* Belch or spit up excessively after feeding, which may relieve symptoms

* Pass gas

* Have difficulty passing stools

* Starts crying soon after feeding around the routine crying cycle time and inconsolable cry.

* Repeats the cycle of crying with somewhat same timings or pattern almost everyday starting from around 3 weeks of age. For example everyday starts crying almost around 7.00 PM.

When to Seek Medical Care

If the baby’s symptoms suggest other causes, such as fever or excessive sleepiness, seek medical attention. You should also see a doctor if the excessive crying causes you or other family members extreme frustration and anger. Colic in itself is not a medical emergency. Colic is a diagnosis made when all other causes are ruled out. If you suspect other conditions may be causing irritability and pain in your infant, go immediately to a hospital's emergency department.

Colic Treatment

Self-Care at Home

There are no sure-fire treatments, but you may try the following:

* Use a pacifier.

* Gently rock the infant using a rocking chair or lap.

* Softly massage the infant’s abdomen or back.

* Play relaxing music (even if it works just for the parent!).

* Change the baby's diet and feeding techniques. Breastfed babies may benefit if the mother avoids dairy products, especially if prone to allergies, or resort to a hypoallergenic diet. Other suggestions include eliminating spicy foods, raw vegetables, and caffeine.

* Try an alternative to milk-based formulas. Recent studies suggest that switching from milk-based formulas may lessen the incidence of colic.

* Whey-based formulas, such as Carnation Good Start, contain already broken-down proteins that may be more easily digestible.

* Soy-based formulas, such as Isomil and Enfamil ProSobee, may decrease the duration of colic symptoms.

* Hypoallergenic formulas, such as Enfamil Nutramigen and Alimentum, are thought to reduce colic symptoms in bottle-fed babies. They are more expensive than other formulas.

Things worked for me:

* Gently swing baby using Infant Car Seat

* Take Infant for a short drive

* Switch on Vacuum cleaner to divert baby’s attention from non-stop cry.

* Give gripe water

* Massage around Belly Button area.

* Walk with baby or dance or make noise bit louder (if possible) to divert baby’s attention.

* Avoid feeding during the routine Colic attack cycle time.

* If nothing works leave baby to cry for about 10 -15 minute to get tired. Parents can keep ear bud during that time.

* If possible have a third person (friend/relative) apart from parents as helping hand or for rotation of hands for managing crying/fussy baby.

* Ensure a quiet, non-stimulating environment when colic begins.

* Most & utmost important tool is “Patience”, “Patience” and “Patience”…!!!!

* Use Calendar and start count down daily, the days left to reach “Magic 90th day” as mostly colic vanish suddenly by 3rd Month of baby’s age.

Medical Treatment (*Please Consult your Doctor before you try any one of them & DO NOT TRY Until & Unless Dr. tell you to do so)

Treatment often entails reassurance by the doctor. The doctor also may recommend these treatments:

* Simethicone drops (Maalox, Gas-X, Mylanta, Phazyme) may relieve gas.

* Doctor may also prescribe Zantac drop for infant (for my baby Dr. prescribed the same and helped for couple of weeks)

In Nut shell:

Although colic can be a frightening experience for new parents, it is not a dangerous condition for your child. An infant often will outgrow the condition after age 3 months, usually with no permanent problems. Key and important thing is parents need to have is Patience, mutual understanding, sharing workload, eat well, sleep during all available opportunities, reserve energy/time to cope with the day’s colic attack cycle with proper planning of other activities, think positive as it is not a disease or permanent problem and it is only for JUST 3 months. Once after 3 months you are going to have lots of fun & joy with your little one, give your baby tons of love & affection as it is your future light….!!!!

Our experience with daughter Sunidhi’s colic, me & my wife is one step closer in getting CMP Certification….!!! Yes, you guessed it right; it is certified Child Management Professionals (CMP) degree from the Institute of New Born Management, a subsidiary of Global Parenting Academy formed by the Great Mother Gandhari (Mother of 101 Kaurava’s) of Mahabhartha era..!!! Imagine how difficulty the great mother Gandhari might of undergone in managing 101 Kaurava’s with blindfolded her eyes & blind husband Drtharashtra. I think she may be the greatest Mother ever this Earth seen so far, my salute her, especially for the level of Patience she might have had while managing those 101 Kaurava's…really she is the Great Mother…!!!

See you in next Posting......

Thanks,

श्री ...

Disclaimer: This Blog may contain contents from other internet sites & all rights reserved with the respective site owners/authors. In this blog, I have just put together or re-arranged and added my experiences.

Little Angel Sunidhi......!!!

This is Story of my Little Angel Sunidhi's Birth:

I am currently staying at Seattle, Washington, USA with my wife Archana. Basically from India ( Muniyoor House, Kumbdaje Post, Kasaragod Dist, Kerala). My rest of the family stays in India except eldest brother/family who is at Brunei.

On 14th Dec 2006, it was routine Dr. visit for my wife who was expecting a baby. Her due date was Dec 21st 2006. On 14th Dec. Dr did routine check-up, ultrasound scan and advised us to go for C-section based on the analysis, baby size etc. Dr. also scheduled C-section for Dec 19th 2006.

Both of us came back home about 4.30 PM after Dr. Visit, made couple of calls to friends, India - talk to family. Informed family about the C-section, schedule i.e Dec. 19th etc. Family felt Dec. 19th was not an auspicious day and suggestions came to change the C-Section day to 18th Dec etc. So both of us getting bit nerves and tensed as, Dr. will be flexible enough to do the operation a day before the schedule? etc. By then it was about 8.00 PM & we finally decided that next day first in the morning, will call the Dr. and request them to pre-pone the C-section to Dec 18th. Then we started cooking in the night and meanwhile we also heard in the TV about possibility of getting slight storm on that night around Seattle. About 8.30 PM, slight wind started blowing and gradually picked up step by step. Finally I believe around 9.30 PM power went off. We thought power will resume back and holding on to complete cooking for dinner. Here in USA, no power means; no food, no cooking, no drinking water, no traffic signal or no shops & it is kind of starving to death as all basic essential things to keep life up will be stopped. More over it is winter time here, cold in the house was picking up minute by minute as heater was gone due to power failure. As time passed, the storm started roaring with full swing, fortunately we had little cooked rice left out for my Wife. She had the rice with curd and we were sitting in the center of hall with out light (not even candle as we are so tuned to US luxury of non-stop power supply, unlike India). We could see from the window, the near by trees bending like Archery and making breaking noise. Both of us were very frightened as it is almost 2 hours passed with out power, heavy storm and house became almost chilly (room temperature about 30 F degree), gradually started shivering too. Then we lost hope of getting power back as storm is continuing uninterruptedly and we decided to take little nap in center of hall (instead of bedroom as near by bedroom there are lots of trees). With great difficulty my wife was able to lie down in the chilling floor with 2-3 blankets by about 11.00 PM. Both of us were talking and shivering for about two hours and unable to sleep while wind continued to roar. By about 1.00 AM (mid-night) it was extreme cold inside the house and wife felt something going wrong with her. So she got up and slowly in the dark went to rest room. She called and told me that something wrong is going on with her and may be her water broke.

It was pitch dark, can’t see anything. Then we remembered about year back we had purchased one very small pen torch cum electric tester. So I struggled & pulled everything down, finally was able to get hold of the “Savior” Pen Torch… !!!Fortunately my mobile phone had enough charge to make call to hospital as due to too much advanced my land phone set, can’t function without electricity..!!! I called the hospital and they asked me to get her soon. Somehow my Wife got little dressed up in the dark and in empty hand with little savior pen torch we came out of our house. It was pitch black in the apartment complex and managed to reach up to the elevator. Then realized that even elevator can’t function with out power….so we have to use the ever reliable olden stairs. Both of us somehow managed to comedown 3 floors using stairs and came out of apartment complex where I parked my car. Believe me or not, the storm was blowing & roaring more than 70 Miles/hr that time. With the great risk, as no other options, I took the car and started driving my wife to hospital. It was about 5 miles drive took more than 30 minutes (normal days it is 5 minute drive). While driving happen to see many trees, sign boards flying in the air or fallen on the road. With the grace of god, both of us reached hospital safe by 2.00 AM in the night and entered through emergency care.

Night duty Dr. (American Lady) who also did her research in India (Kerala – Trivandrum) examined my wife in brief and took inside to Operation Theater. Advantage in USA, even husband can accompany wife and sit next to her while operations is progressing. It is 4.30 AM, Dec 15th 2006, Dr. brought out a little Angel and pronounced “It is a Baby Girl” ….!!! We named the little angel as “Sunidhi” and she was weighing 8.1 Lb & length 20 inch when she stepped in to this new world. Nurse handed over baby Sunidhi to me while Archana’s rest of the C-section work was going on. It was the happiest moment of the night after going thorough all such trauma of power failure, cold, storm etc. Surprisingly or coincidence Storm stopped approximately the same time Sunidhi stepped in to this world and Dr. made an announcement that Sunidhi came to this World to stop the roaring Storm and called her Pumpkin as she was glittering with pink color...!!! Also entire Seattle was declared with holiday due to storm impact on Dec 15th, 2006 , so other way if you think, Sunidhi’s birth was celebrated by declaring holiday…!!! Mom & baby got discharged from hospital on 17th Dec and when we came back home, power was back everything perfect except the mess I made in the night in search of Savior Pen torch which we cleaned over next couple of weeks. This is the small story of my little angel Sunidhi & we wish her good luck, all the best & god bless her…!!!

Today Sunidhi is 5 months old and became very naughty.........!!!

Here you have few Video Clippings of Baby Sunidhi..........!!!

Sunidhi Playing Kukee-a-bhaa (Peek-a-bhoo):

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4569142560336118178&hl=en

Sunidhi Laughing:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1913762357813072099&hl=en
Sunidhi Imitating Voice:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5255567439733635046&hl=en
Sunidhi the Naughty:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7145545451208831278&hl=en

Sunidhi Playing in Water:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-950872464917210747&hl=en

Thanks & See you in Next Posting....
श्री..