Do it right or do it fast? There’s sometimes a price to pay for “Do it fast”. It’s called Technical Debt. Probably the most famous example of technical debt is MS-DOS. Back in 1981, IBM asked Bill Gates for an operating system for its new PC. To deliver on time, he took QDOS, (QDOS stood […]
On time delivery is the El Dorado of project management. No one wants to be late for a key deadline. As the deadline approaches, and you’re running late, the project manager and the project team work like crazy to stay on time. Everyone works late and comes in at weekends. This generates stress, overload, even […]
Should a project manager be a change manager? The traditional answer was YES, a project manager should know how to manage change. Today the answer is more often NO, as there are new and better ways to manage change. Change initiatives are increasingly using a new role of Business Change Manager to manage complex change. […]
If you want to get control of your projects, you should use timesheets. Or should you? Is the accepted wisdom really wise? Timesheets allow you to measure effort; i.e. man-days of work. All project management methods suggest you should control timeand cost. Human effort one dimension of cost. It is normally expressed in man-hours or […]
The Dutch say “Meten is Weten” – to measure is to know. Measurements have become fashionable everywhere. In companies, in schools, in hospitals … everything is driven by targets and measurements. Everyone is trying to deliver their targets and key performance indicators (KPI’s). The fashion has come to the world of Project Management. However, in […]
For a team manager, one of the simplest and most effective ways to structure your team’s project management effort is to introduce gate-process methods. They are not rocket science, they are not state-of-the-art, but they work. If are manage a group of projects, and you want long-lasting improvements in project management, then you should be […]
A trap is waiting for you in today’s busy world, where everyone is under pressure to get things done, lots of things. Do it all today! Get things done now! The trap is multi-tasking. If you try to do too much at once, you lose focus and become less productive. It’s a trap at the […]
Project Management is full of acronyms. PID, WBS, ROI… there are hundreds. Some of them help us, some of them confuse us. P3M3 is a troublesome acronym that’s been around for a few years. Some people like it, some hate it, some don’t understand it. P3M3 is certainly not a good acronym, but don’t be […]
Getting started with Portfolio Management is typically quite easy. Essentially it’s all about reporting. But once this is in place, what next? It’s easy to lose momentum and get trapped in a weekly cycle of reporting. To make sustainable progress on Portfolio Management you need identify how to add additional value from Portfolio Management. This […]
Here’s how to start your first project with Prince2 in three easy steps You’ve been to Prince2 training, you’ve sat the exam. Now you are back at your desk. You re-open the manual, with its 320 pages, 19 chapters and 26 documents… where do you start? Let’s make this as simple as 1-2-3. 1) Write […]