Congratulations! Your proposal won, and the boss made you the PM for that big project. Now it is time to start stamping metal and shipping boxes… or more likely, not. Jumping straight in, without a schedule or even a plan, is a false economy for fools that have yet to learn luck strikes both ways. Often that […]
Sometimes what you’re really trying to solve is a bit hidden. The customer may not see it and you might not at first glance either. But it is your responsibility to make sure you always go that extra mile to make sure you are addressing the real issue and not just a symptom that the […]
How important is communication to project success? In my opinion – it may be #1 on the list and it is certainly a major responsibility of every project manager who has ever led a project. Whether or not your project or your customer requires a delivered Communications Plan, you should still have one … especially […]
Profitability on the projects we manage is always in question. It seems like it’s a daily fight to keep costs in check, keep tasks on track, and keep profitability on the project in line with expectations. Often we are only looking at a 20-30% profit margin. On a $100,000 revenue project, that means $70,000 – […]
The key to an easier project management process…work smarter, not harder. It’s painful when we watch people around us making life or work harder than it needs to be just because they’re not using the processes or tools or help that is there before them. We see this in life, we see this all around […]
When we think of project managers, most of us think of company employees placed in the PM role to take on either internal or external projects. But that is not the only scenario. Sometimes companies go outside and bring in consultants on a project by project basis to manage projects, save projects, or consult on […]
The project manager and team can only go so far with the project sponsor in getting the planning portion of the project off the ground. Absolutely key to planning, business process definition, requirements definition and documentation and even testing is the customer subject matter expert or SME. When leading a project, the project manager and […]
The team that works well together can achieve much together. That concept is at the very heart of collaboration and teamwork. Whatever a project manager can do to keep team members and the customer engaged, responsible and owning of their own tasks and taking care of updating status on tasks as they go can make […]
No one ever wants to admit that they are in over their head. It’s a show of weakness or possibly a professional short coming. It may actually be neither – you simply may just be overworked, but it can feel like a weakness. And we are just not programmed to scream that out loud. We […]
Project management is not just about experience, leadership and organization. It is also about management style, interpersonal relationships, conflict management, task delegation and communication. But I think most of us who are battle-tested realize that by now. It isn’t always about having the right technology experience or even hands-on experience, though I feel – at […]