06/12/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: best practices for troubled projects, fix troubled project, troubled projects
Have you ever come home to something your dog tore up and you didn’t want to deal with it but you knew you had to? Maybe it was a box he shredded (at best) or possibly the garbage he got into (at worst), but you knew it had to be taken care of and no […]
06/04/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: project management best practices, project management methodology, project success
It would be nice to say the more organized and rigid you are in your processes and leadership, the better the project manager you will be. In fact, isn’t that what project management is all about? Defining a methodology and using it and creating and using repeatable processes and planning templates so that we can […]
05/28/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: project customer, project risk, project risk management, project team
You’ve seen the movies…the hero is facing certain death if he doesn’t figure out which wire to cut to diffuse the bomb and save himself or the girl or whoever. In the end he always cuts the right wire – I think it’s the green one. But the thing is, he’s always taking a risk […]
05/21/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: project client, project leader, project management advice, project manager responsibility
Being generally agreeable is a good thing. Being easy to work with – also a good thing. Being flexible is a good thing. Having a very positive attitude…definitely a very good thing. Always saying “Yes.” Think of all the problems that can bring you. I remember when my wife and I were first dating and […]
05/14/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: lessons learned session, project brainstorm session, project management troubleshooting, restart kickoff meeting
Do you remember that panic-ridden moment possibly early in your project management career when you came to the realization that a project you were managing was in serious trouble? Heck, maybe it was even yesterday on whatever project you’re managing right now. It can certainly happen to us at any time and it will happen […]
05/01/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: project budget, project management methodology, project management process, statement of work
You know the drill. You get a new project by whatever means – usually assigned to you by someone you report to – and then you go about your normal business of preparation, kickoff, and execution. But are you a shoot from the hip type of project manager or are you extremely rigid…following the same […]
04/24/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: pm profession, project management communication, project management leader, project management leadership skills
Basically, I’m just thinking out loud here though I do indeed have an opinion, and I’ll eventually get to that. But the question I’m posing is this…are project managers born or trained? Are we born with the inherent leadership traits that make us good project managers, or do we learn these along the way? And […]
04/16/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: project customer satisfaction, project information flow, project management best practices, project scope
As project managers, we have many responsibilities and much accountability. In other words, there are a lot of things expected of us and those expectations come from different levels of the organization, from our project team members, and from the customer. They say you can please all of the people some of the time, and […]
04/11/2013 by Brad Egeland Tags: end of project sessions, lessons learned sessions, project schedule, smart project management
So far we’ve covered four of my five topics on smart project management…the idea of working smarter – but not necessarily harder – on the projects we manage. In parts 1 through 4, we’ve covered: Make the customer work for you Let the team manage the budget Scale the deliverables Manage the meetings In this […]
04/03/2013 by PM Hut Tags: project communication, project management best practices, project management tips, project stakeholders
By Damian Watson PM Hut A surprising number of projects fail to meet their objectives, realize intended benefits or even make it to the finish line. Whether a project is a small one-off piece of work, or a complex, multi-faceted business transformation within a portfolio, as a project manager you should be focused on what […]