Project Rewards and Recognition - Fair or Adding Risks? By Gary Hamilton, Gareth Byatt, and Jeff Hodgkinson Reward and recognition for project resources who deliver successful projects is generally accepted as good practice in the workplace (indeed, rewarding staff for successful performance against agreed criteria is commonplace in today’s organizations). Regardless of an organization’s general structure (be [...]

How to Get a Project Team “Unstuck” By Pam Stanton Sometimes your project team gets stuck in the mud. It may be early in the project when you’re first trying to build a plan, or it might be later when choices must be made and a decision just circles the drain. There are so many variables and [...]

Dear Project Manager By Glen Gage If you are responsible for a project where the IT department has a significant role, or are thinking of starting one, then this article is for you. You are in for more than may have thought - IT projects are serious business and fraught with corporate politics. Below is a (slightly [...]

Toward a More Robust Agile By Donald Patti In a previous article, I put together a list of some of the weaknesses of the Agile software development methodology that I’ve learned from other software experts and on my own as a consultant serving the technology industry. As expected, some people were upset that I pointed out so [...]

Top 3 Axes of Project and Portfolio Management Value By Pradeep Bhanot Project Portfolio Management systems provide value to organizations in many ways. These include improved staff utilization, improved financial management and better demand management. But for me these are not the most compelling ones. The top three for me are: Greater visibility. Having a single system of record [...]

Basics Of Public Speaking or Presenting By Clare Munn I speak a lot and am always surprised when I hear the presentation was of interest. I know I am not afraid of public speaking, and I know I am passionate about subjects other people are curious about too. However, I never for one minute assume my presentations [...]

Certifications Don’t Make Project Managers By Richard Morreale The Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Association of Project Management Group (APMG) are two of the biggest reasons that projects fail. They have sold the myth to the corporate world and to their certification customers that successful completion of their certification tests and the addition of Project Management [...]

Got A Strategy? You Need Project Portfolio Management By Ben Snyder, CEO of Systemation Putting a strategy together is very rewarding. Whether it’s for your division, department, or small business, it gets you thinking about the future and all the possibilities. Hard work has brought your team to a point of consensuses; and, you now have a [...]

Project Management Training: The Big vs. the Small Answer By Chuck Tryon You’ve done your homework and you can’t believe the range of answers you are getting. It’s a simple question, really. You want to upgrade the Project Management skills for your people. When you ask for a training approach, some vendors suggest a program that can [...]

12 Tips for Effective Project Reviews By Bruno Collet Too often, project reviews are nothing more than empty conformance documents that take dust on a company server, when they are not skipped entirely. That’s a shame, because project reviews are one of the most powerful tools for improvement. The main reasons people neglect project reviews are that [...]

Early Engagement and Project Planning By Barney Austen Project managers often have contention with line management when it comes to the allocation of project team members. The skill of the project manager to overcome this contention will directly effect the overall success of the project planning process and indeed the project as a whole. If the project manager [...]

The Post-Project Lessons Learned Session - Who and What By Kathlika Thomas Let’s expand on the “who” and the “what” of presenting your post-deployment analysis. First, the “who”: You’ll find that those who are most interested in attending a post-project lessons learned session will fall into three main categories: sponsors, project team members, and clients. The “what” [...]

Nurturing Trust By Ron Taylor “If you fail to honor your people, they will fail to honor you.” - Lao Tzu In my father’s generation, leaders were expected to give orders and workers were expected to take them. You did what you were told to do or you were fired. In my generation, leaders are expected, in style if [...]

Four Early Warning Signs of a Project in Trouble By Ty Kiisel Underground mining is a dangerous occupation. What’s more, before the advent of sophisticated breathing apparatus, methane and carbon monoxide made it even more dangerous for the men working in the mines. In the early days of underground mining, because their metabolism was susceptible to methane [...]

Project Post Mortem Review Questions By Michael Greer Overview It’s important for project managers and team members to take stock at the end of a project and develop a list of lessons learned so that they don’t repeat their mistakes in the next project. Typically such reviews are called post-project reviews or “post mortems.” I recommend a [...]

Crack or Chasm Between Project Management and Change Management? By Gail Severini Recently there seems to be an increase job ads that bundle some Change Management capabilities in with Project Management. Many experienced Change Management specialists have expressed concern that a combination could detract from the value of both. The drivers are different and there is a [...]

What Is The PMP Certification Test Like? By Keith Mathis - PM Expert Live Your PMP® certification test will cost $405.00 if you are a PMI® member and $525.00 if you are not. You will actually save $25.00 by joining PMI® and then signing up for the test. All fees for the PMP® certification will be paid [...]

Saturday Humor for Project Managers: Newton’s Unpublished Laws By John Maver and Dr. Margery Mayer Everyone is working very hard these days and the pressure is intense. Take a moment and appreciate some humor. Studies show that if you can find a laugh each day, not only will you live longer, but you will enjoy your life [...]

8 Golden Rules for Effective Project Management Meetings By Ron Rosenhead My company has been collecting statistics for several years. One of the questions is quite revealing: ‘Project meetings are collaborative events which look at achievements not past failures’. The percentages are shown below: Strongly agree: 1.3% Agree: 25.6% Disagree: 57.3% Strongly Disagree 12.6% Don’t know 3.2% Not very good stats are they? [...]

Scheduling Project Management Tasks By Kathlika Thomas A detailed schedule is one of the best tools that a project manager can have. By scheduling yourself in advance to do all of the necessary management tasks, you stay much more organized throughout your project. You know exactly what you need to do to get started, what you need [...]