People, Projects, and Organizations
Four Functional Disciplines Needed on All Projects
All projects have a set of common characteristic by definition: they are temporary endeavors undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Because of this, they also have some common activities that must be executed. Such things as: developing the project plan, schedule, and budget . . . executing, controlling, and pre-planning the project ...
When Nice Users Drive You Nuts
You know and appreciate them. Those super nice people who are always cordial, very amenable, never demanding or burdensome. In group settings you hardly know they are around. When you interact with them one-on-one it is always a pleasure. The conversation stays very positive and noncontroversial. In most settings you wish the world had a ...
Momentum – The X Factor in Project Success
In physics, momentum is a term used to describe a mass in motion. In competition it’s used to indicate which side has the current upper hand. It’s what aids a baseball team in winning the game by scoring five runs in the 9th inning with two outs. It gives the offense the edge in scoring ...
You Need a Translator on Your Project Team
All projects have one thing in common, a communication gap between the visionary and the creator. Visionaries come in many forms. They may be an innovator, a department head, or a line of business. They are the ones who determine the scope of a project. Creators come in many forms too: small teams, whole organizations, ...
Writing Good Requirements
Writing good requirements is frequently portrayed as a unique skill to business analysts, it’s not, it’s a unique skill to good writers. Requirements are simply a condition or capability needed by a stakeholder (user) to solve a problem or achieve an objective. Identifying requirements is a unique skill to business analysts; however, writing good requirements ...
End-Users Have Horizon Lines Too
We have been unfair to end-users for far too long. We ask them what they want the application to do for them and they tell us as best they can. Then we get mad at them because they change their mind or bring up additional items later in the project. We have been complaining about ...
Defining Your Project Into a Box
The hardest thing to do when launching a project is to define it into a box. Yes, I said define it INTO a box. When a project starts there are lots of interviews with stakeholders. Every one of them has their vision for what the project should include. This gets added, that gets added and ...
The Problem with Getting it "Right"
“If management would only let us do it the right way.” “We can’t do it without the right tools.” “If only we had the right people on this.” Right. While working with executives and colleagues, Project Managers inevitably hear ”right” phrases over-used. Certainly there are bad decisions and illegal actions. But it’s usually not a ...
feedback