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The Lazy Project Manager. Part 2 - The Importance of Position
Written by Peter TaylorThis one is not my tale; it is the story of a friend of mine, a friend who is, of course, a project manager; a project manager I know to be very good at team building, a real 'people' person.
Picture a new project with a new project office. Apparently the company my friend was working for had reserved some brand new office space in a building that they were going to move other departments into in the coming months. In the meantime the project team could take over one floor.
Recently I was teaching one of our human dimension skills seminars and the question about who was on the core project team was put to the participants. Someone said the project sponsor was always part of their project team. When quizzed further they indicated that, in fact, the sponsor was also responsible for activities and deliverables in the project plan. This surprised me since we always position the sponsor on the project organization chart above the project manager and team in the overall hierarchy.
How Data Display Can Change Project Decisions
Written by Chris VandersluisAnyone who has worked with project management systems knows that the way you display data can dramatically affect the decisions people make from it. This is why we often see Gantt charts with critical activities in red. I'm reminded of one of my very first sales of project scheduling software back in the '80s. I don't dare share the name of the organization but it was a large utility. We'd made this sale a few days earlier and now I got a call for "technical assistance."
I read somewhere recently that some 25 million meetings take place in corporate America every day and that roughly half that time is wasted. Many of these meetings are project related and I am confident that the dismal statistic relating to time wasted is just as applicable in the project context.
CNN recently published an article about the aftermath of the recession, claiming that the economy is "finally back in gear." What does this mean for businesses like yours? Projects that were sidelined for the past year or two could come off the bench, and there might be more money to go around. Great news, right? It depends on how ready you are to make the most of this new opportunity. Are you confident that you will be able to put the right people on these projects and make the right decisions about how to spend this money?
CIOs Plan to Increase Hiring in First Quarter
Written by Cynthia LowTORONTO, Dec.8/09 - Chief information officers (CIOs) are showing signs of optimism as they look toward 2010, according to the first-quarter Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report. Six per cent of technology executives anticipate adding information technology (IT) staff in the first quarter of 2010 and 4 per cent plan workforce reductions. The net 2 percent increase is up one point from last quarter's forecast. Eighty-three per cent of CIOs plan to maintain current personnel levels.
The Productive Lazy Project Manager and the Open Door Policy
Written by Peter Taylor
Be Accessible in a Controlled Way
I'm all for being there for people, honest I am. It's just that people take advantage of it if I am.
Cutting Project Costs with a Scalpel, Not a Chainsaw
Written by Curt FinchMeasuring the Business Value of a Project
Written by Angelo BarattaHow do we measure project success? Do we measure budget and schedule or do we measure net value delivered to the organization? Today, we tend to measure the former. But it is the latter, delivered value, which is the truer measure. This is the way projects will be evaluated in the future. The current Triple Constraint focuses on the delivery portion of a project, rather than its business value. It focuses on a single project, and is primarily based on a cost view.
Avoiding the Project Management Obstacle Course
Written by Duncan Haughey
Let's get straight to the point; project management by form filling is not an effective way of managing projects. These days many organizations' and individuals' whole project management strategy revolves around becoming slaves to a methodology. Don't get me wrong, there are many very good methodologies out there and they all have their part to play but it's not the be-all and end-all of project management.