The League of Project Superheroes By Kerry Wills Growing up I used to watch cartoons about superheroes who had super powers. One of my favorite cartoons was the “Justice League” which included such greats as Batman and Superman. To overcome adversity the Justice League usually had to combine their unique super powers (e.g. Superman flying and Acquaman [...]

10 Essential Steps to Portfolio Management By Heather Champoux Once you have a process down for defining, selecting and executing your portfolio, you are ready for the essential steps to Portfolio Management. Before we get into the actual steps, we need to make sure that the following assumptions are true: The organization’s Executive Management is onboard with the [...]

Portfolio Management Process - The Process for the Process By Heather Champoux Many organizations do not have a Portfolio Management process. In order to create a process where no process exists, the following steps must be taken: Step 1: Define a Portfolio Management Organization Structure To define a Portfolio Management organization structure you can ask the following questions: Who will [...]

The Role and Significance of an Interior Design Project Manager in Commercial Construction By Kathryn Grube Abstract The question of “what value does an interior design project manager really add to a commercial construction renovation or new construction project,” in addition to the structural responsibility of the architect, has been too long misunderstood. Interior designers who work as [...]

Every project professional knows the massive effort that goes into a project... Cyndee Miller, senior editor, PM Network

Approaches to Leadership By James Grinnell Over the years there have been many different models of leadership style presented in the leadership literature. In fact, some have noted that there are as many theories of leadership as there are people studying the topic. While the literature is profuse, there is consensus in broad stroke. Daniel Goleman (2000) [...]

Achieving to setup a well working Kanban Team is one thing. Executing a big project with 20 person-years of effort and 10+ teams working simultaneously is something different. This video shows how the Xing team did that, being able to sleep well the nights before and after the launch and what they learned for the future. http://www.lean-kanban-conference.de/videos/scaling-kanban/

Kanban is a wonderful tool for improving the software development process, but it’s useless unless you can sell the idea to marketing, sales teams, top management, clients, and development teams. In this session, I would like to share with the audience the ways in which I have successfully sold agile development teams on the idea of adopting a lean approach and how I continue to sell external clients including both major international corporations and small lean startups on the idea of a lean approach to building out their idea. I will ...

Point of Total Assumption (PTA) By Mamun Shaheed In a fixed price incentive free (FPIF) contract, the point where the buyer stops bearing cost is the Point of Total Assumption (PTA). In other word, it is the point, up to where the buyer bears the cost, however any cost above the PTA is not shared by the [...]

Project Management Foundations - Using Progressive Elaboration By Steve Hart Have you ever been assigned a project that seems to be “stuck” in the starting gate? There are stakeholders that support of the project, but there are too many unknowns, and not enough funding, to get the project launched properly. Here are some of the usual characteristics [...]

PMP certification is only one piece in the puzzle of project management expertise. This articles discusses the three main pillars of successful project management: knowledge, experience and people skills. These three sisters play complementary roles and have a symbiotic relationship. Author: Girish Deshpande, Technical Director at MindTree, http://newtechnologist.wordpress.com/ Original publication: http://newtechnologist.wordpress.com/2011/12/17/three-sisters-of-project-management/ Recently someone made passionate defense for PMP certification. In his words- “this is only quick solution available if the IT industry has to deliver the projects on time, within budget and to the satisfaction of all stakeholders”. Is it so? Is PMP ...

Avoid Communication Breakdowns - Listen to Your Team By Project Manage This Every PM type knows that communication is one of the core personality traits critical to success. They also know that it’s not just about the clear and concisely crafted email or that spot on presentation –keen listening skills and ability to engage the team in [...]

Asta Development has developed the newest version of its Asta Powerproject product suite based on customer feedback. Asta Development regularly invites its customers to vote on the features and improvements they would like to see in Asta Powerproject suite. By continually listening to and understanding customer wants and needs, Asta is able to keep evolving its product suite to meet customers’ changing requirements, and thus a new version is born. Asta Powerproject Version 12 is now available and features by popular demand: * A modern ribbon interface – customers wanted something ...

SAN MATEO, CA, Feb 1, 2012 – Clarizen, the award-winning work execution software company, today announced a new level of integration with Salesforce.com. The integration of Clarizen’s collaborative project management software with Salesforce.com’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) provides a robust way for companies to bridge their sales and service departments through the cloud, improving project visibility, predictability and accounting. With critical project data shared between the software systems, organizations can remove the gap often found between sales and service delivery organizations, and more systematically assure customer success. “The Clarizen-Salesforce integration has ...

The Ineffective Executive By Simon Jackson “It is the duty of the executive to remove ruthlessly anyone - and especially any manager - who consistently fails to perform with high distinction. To let such a man stay on corrupts the others.” - Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive, p.89 “I’m sorry but thieves fatefully flawed. I am not sure [...]

How to Deliver More Than Just a Good Project By Christoph Papenfuss A few weeks ago, I had my road bike serviced by a mechanic who was highly recommended. And so I dropped off my bike. Went through a few basic questions and I asked for an opinion on a number of things. To my disappointment, the [...]

Savvy Organizations are Developing Leadership Talent with Special Projects By Michael Stanleigh One of the most effective developmental practices to develop leaders is to assign them special projects. Leaders who can achieve financial and organizational goals garner the most respect and are one of the top priorities for global organizations. These findings come from a study by [...]

Balancing Project Management and Project Administration By Kiron D. Bondale Regardless of how lightweight an organization’s implementation of project management practices is, it’s rare to find project managers that can strike the perfect balance between project management and project administration. Change and uncertainty are the very essence of projects and this can cause project managers to struggle with [...]

Project Planning Is Unnecessary, Boring, Dangerous… By The Grumpy Project Manager Plans are not needed in projects. A simpler and more usual method is to do projects twice or go on doing them till it is politically suitable to stop. Here I’m talking about IT or R&D projects. In building projects this would not be accepted. ‘We [...]

Many agile implementations start off with good intentions, but do not deliver on the promise of agile. This article discusses three recurring themes of failure related to agile implementations: inexperience, lack of planning and limited executive sponsorship. Before you embark on your agile initiative, or if you are looking to step back and refine your existing initiative, take a look at your organization, engage your senior executives, identify gaps between the current state and form your plan.