Tag Archives: project management

I started managing projects that included team members or customers outside the US in the mid-‘90s. In the beginning, it was one other country. Then two, and so on. These days, working with globally distributed project teams is my norm. A typical project will include people spread across five to 30 countries, three to five continents, and from three to seven time zones. As you would expect, it’s very different from managing a few folks …

I’ve been managing projects for about 30 years or so, far longer than I’ve been writing about it. Along the way, I’ve collected a few useful thoughts that never made it into an article or blog post or book. At first, I was just jotting notes on paper. Then I took to creating short text files, saved to a folder. The last few years, I’ve been using OneNote to capture those fleeting thoughts. Here are …

As I’ve noted in other articles, a risk is an uncertainty that matters. Some event has a significant probability of occurring, and there will be a significant consequence if it does. A risk represents a threat, and a wise project team endeavors to identify project threats and analyze them for effective strategies, so that the probability of occurrence can be reduced or the consequences reduced. Or both. Of Mice and Risk Management Consider the following …

Any time you are managing human beings, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are general practices that can help. In an article for Forbes, Maren Hogan shares some problems that can arise during project management, and how to sidestep them in an agile fashion. There are three problems any project manager needs to be alert to: The team does not understand the project. The project manager is either too rigid or too laid back. …

Any good business seeks to make their customers happy, and project deliverables are one way to ensure that you have the happiest, most loyal customers. In an article for CIO.com, Moira Alexander shares the six tips that will ensure that you are meeting project deliverable dates: Have accurately defined deliverables. Keep good documentation. Avoid the lure of informal agreements. Never assume. Everyone must pitch in. Remember the dependencies. Document and Agree When deliverables are inaccurately …

A good manager is a difficult asset to find, and an even greater one to retain. In an article for TechRepublic, Moira Alexander explains why there is so much adversity in hiring a project manager. Use these tips to learn how to solve your problems. Help Found It is important to understand why you are struggling to attract the right people to the job, so you can amend your practices for the future. According to …

Back when I was on active duty in the U.S. Navy assigned to a systems command, I was assigned as project manager in the development of a methodology to incorporate technical performance within the realm of overall project performance measurement and control. I sat down before my boss, who was a brilliant engineer, and he asked me this question: “What is the value of failure?” Then, after a bit of discussion, he said: “That is …

When supporting project initiation decisions, effective process can consistently lead to extremely effective decisions. The problem for most of us is that we don’t work in an environment where there is effective process. In actual fact, the presence of solid, well-meaning and useful initiation processes is incredibly rare. While most organizations claim to have formal processes for project initiation, in a large number of instances these do not lead to better initiation decisions. The challenge …

We are project managers. We know the importance of establishing a proper process to manage our project. It is a matter of effectiveness: We want to achieve the results. It is also a matter of efficiency: We want to use the most optimal process. Choosing and establishing the best processes for your project is an important step in managing your project. Let’s take the world of software development. The process can include many steps, such …

The truth is that any business could benefit from project portfolio management (PPM). However, if you find your company running into the following signs, you could be in more dire need of PPM than most! Sign #1: Project and resource managers often fight over resources. Example: The head of the Finance department asks IT services to install a new accounts payable system. When approached by the project manager requesting to assign two financial analysts to …