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27 May 09
Effective Communication | Project Management Guide
The importance and complexity of communication cannot be overemphasized. This blog post really digs in to the importance of effective team communication and the hidden costs of large teams.
26 May 09
Cultivating a Stronger IT–Business Partnership
CEO's need to understand how and why CIO's act they way they do in order to effectively navigate human behaviour and maximize their value from IT.
5 Steps to Attaining Project Control
Whoda thunkit? 5 Simple Steps to controlling your project:
1. Define what will be measured and/or tested and how often.
2. Monitor progress and evaluate deviations from the plan.
3. Report progress.
4. Analyze the report.
5. Take action where necessary.
Not rocket science at all. The only problem is that people just don't do it. So, do it.
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- Define what will be measured and/or tested and how often. This should incorporate business requirements, cost constraints, technical specifications, and deadlines, along with a preliminary schedule for monitoring that includes who is responsible for it.
- Monitor progress and evaluate deviations from the plan. During each reporting period, two kinds of information are collected: (1) Actual project data, which include time, budget, and resources used, along with completion status of current tasks. (2) Unanticipated changes, which include changes to budget, schedule, or scope that are not results of project performance. For example, heavy rain may delay the completion of a housing project. Earned value analysis, described later in this chapter, is a useful method for evaluating cost and schedule deviations.
- Report progress. Keep reports succinct and timely. Do not delay a report until after a problem is “fixed” to make the report look better. Likewise, avoid lengthy reports that delay the dissemination of important information to others in the organization.
- Analyze the report. Look for trends in the data. Avoid trying to “fix” every deviation. If there is no trend to the deviation, it likely does not require corrective action at this time.
- Take action where necessary. This includes updating the project plan and notifying any stakeholders who are affected by the changes. If the changes are big enough, they will require stakeholder approval in advance.
20 May 09
Five Phases of Project Management (humorous)
THE FIVE PHASES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1. Initial enthusiasm
2. Inevitable problems
3. Search for someone to blame
4. Punishment of those who are innocent
5. Praise and reward for the non-participants
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- Initial enthusiasm
- Inevitable problems
- Search for someone to blame
- Punishment of those who are innocent
- Praise and reward for the non-participants
THE FIVE PHASES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management: 8 Steps to On-Time, On-Budget Delivery
Businesses embark on thousands of projects every year. Unfortunately, most projects are doomed to fail because the original success criteria were not met. The bottom line is that businesses talks a good game but they are not ready or willing to make the real investments necessary to deliver on time, on budget, and with high quality near 100 percent of the time. There are eight steps that, if followed as a single unit provide the roadmap to project management perfection.
In tight times, IT managers more likely to postpone than cancel a project
A common concept in fundamental macroeconomics -- the capital projects are still out there. The needs for infrastructure are still there. We're just going to wait until the market shows us that it's a good time to actually move forward with it.
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We were surprised to find that IT managers find that postponement is better than canceling projects,
What it takes to be a leader
1. Be an innovative leader.
2. Be reliable.
3. Energize yourself.
4. Delegate.
5. Be precise, focused and communicate effectively.
6. Building a sustainable team.
7. Build a continuous improvement culture.
8. Stop procrastinating and start getting things done.
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Add Sticky Notecommunicate effective
- There's a whole lot of irony going on right here. - on 2009-05-20
19 May 09
5 Tips on How to Get Your Project Finished On Time - project management - CIO
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Add Sticky NoteUse a mind map to gather your thoughts and create a framework for complex data.
- Mindmapping has become quite popular lately. What's the big deal? - on 2009-05-19
18 May 09
ERP Projects, while affordable, are plagued by scope and project mgmt issues
Surprise! Over-ambitious targets and poor project management, the bane of software development everywhere, haunt small to mid-sized companies in their search for business improvement, creating horror stories, which, some experts say, unfairly damage the credibility of the systems that should be their salvation.
15 May 09
Three Little Words Every Leader Needs to Learn
I thought it was WTF at first. Such as being inquisitive and demanding. "WTF were you thinking when you did that?" "WTF has happened to sales this quarter? Johnson! You're head of that! Tell me!" and so on.
But, I was wrong. It's something else.
Top 25 Project Management Blogs
Some great reading - The 25 Top Project Management Blogs
Five mistakes managers make most often
Some of the most common management mistakes -
1. Not communicating with the team. - Almost always a problem.
2. Continually focusing on the negative.
3. Changing policy due to one person. - This is a BIGGIE.
4. Not understanding the needs and concerns of your team.
5. Never admitting you’re wrong or never taking responsibility.
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Add Sticky Notedon’t take across-the-board measures to correct it just because you’re afraid of confronting that one team member
- I don't know HOW many times I see otherwise capable leaders trying to make process changes to correct a single person's statistically anomalous behavior problem. Words of absolute wisdom. - on 2009-05-15
13 May 09
What's the magic project size to require PM oversight/overhead?
It’s common to hear the all-purpose methodology nullifier from the client or salesperson, “But this is a small project!” The inside project manager hears this phrase when he tries to convince the project sponsor that a project plan, a materials list, and a written scope are necessary. The external IT service provider hears it from the salesperson when she tells him that the new engagement he’s selling should include an additional 15% estimate for project manager duties.
12 May 09
Project Management: Project Success vs. Fear of Leading
It takes more than management skills to lead an IT project to a successful conclusion. In fact, it takes courage -- plus the ability to influence others and a temperament that doesn't permit the option of giving up when the going gets tough. Project management without project leadership is likely to result in project failure.
07 May 09
Keep the three management roles in an IT project separate
Every IT effort requires that the service provider play three distinct roles: project manager, technical manager, and relationship manager. While many independent project managers and consultants attempt to play all three roles, they do so at the risk to themselves, the project, and the relationship.
04 May 09
Five clues that your project is headed for trouble
In these difficult times, lots of projects are getting canceled, postponed or mothballed. Although these are perfectly normal occurrences in IT, they seem more frequent, swift and stinging now. When a project is killed, we like to think that its fate is entirely due to external forces -- the swirling, uncontrollable winds of the economic hurricane happening outside. It's not that we're doing anything wrong, we reason; it's just a response to the crisis.
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Add Sticky NoteThey were judged unlikely to ever be completed. Or they were expected to exceed time or budget constraints, or to fail to offer sufficient business value even if they did deliver a product.
- Or the politics behind the project overtook the value, and the sponsor decided to avoid the hailstorm and simply take a loss on sunk costs rather than risk further hazard of public humiliation or derision. - on 2009-05-13
Cause and Effect Diagram
How to create and use a Cause and Effect Diagram to perform root cause analysis or whatever else you had in mind. Few quality-related issues are easily resolved. More frequently, various causes intermix in unique and complicated ways to produce the final negative impact upon quality that you hope to fix. Using a cause-and-effect diagram allows you to get a grasp on these contributing factors.
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