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...
All Projects Bring About Change
By their nature, all projects induce change on individuals. It may be a change in process, product line, job aids, tools, organizational structure, personnel, or at the least expectations. As you know, not everyone deals with change in the same way. Also, change can be halted or derailed because of the way people respond to...
Never Care More About Your Project Than Your Sponsor Does
It’s no secret that project managers don’t hold all the authority that is required to keep a project on the right path during its lifespan. They need sponsors to, at times, approve more resources, additional time, cast the final vote on a split decision situation, limit end users’ sprawling needs, and participate in resolving lots...
Project-Oriented Skills: Support the Profession and the Role
Many job fields have professional designations; doctors, lawyers, accountants, realtors, etc. The same goes for project-oriented skills. The Project Management Institute certifies project managers, The International Institute for Business Analysis certifies business analysts, and The Scrum Alliance certifies agile developers. The organizations that certify these professions have standards that define in great detail all the...
Sometimes the Process is Just as Important as the Product
Results matter and should be the aim of every employee. Achieving results is what differentiates good employees from great ones. Sometimes though, when the result being pursued is a product or deliverable, the process used to deliver that result needs the same level of attention as the product itself. In other words, sometimes the process...
Use Metrics to Diagnose Your Project’s Ills
Nobody likes dealing with a sick project, but we have all been there and done that. Some projects start out sick and stay that way for the duration; others look like they are healthy but then collapse near the end. Most of the time we guess at the reasons for our projects schedule’s ills, hoping...
Everything is a Project
The industrial revolution brought about the division of labor, repeatable tasks, factories, and assembly lines. Work was accomplished by people whose perspective was only as broad as the tasks they were assigned to do. A strong and rigid hierarchy of management kept all the people in line and all the pieces together. The process and...
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...
Estimating: Why We’ll Never Get It Right
Estimating . . . predicting . . . forecasting, these are three different words with three things in common. They establish a position on the future with some margin of error. All of them are used for planning purposes and aim at helping companies prepare for the future. We all know their accuracy and successes...
Blow It Up to Get It Right
We live in a world that favors incremental improvements. We take what is and try to make it better; everything can be fixed or improved by a tweak here or a nudge there. Put a group together on a specific issue and the ideas will be endless. This is not a negative judgment on incremental...
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