So you want a career in project management? What will it take to be successful, and what about earning potential? This article will explore the pursuit of a career in project management, including looks at characteristics of successful PMs, what employers are looking for and salaries.
A subset of knowledge management, technical succession planning is a process that identifies an organization’s critically important information, who possesses it, and how to pass it on to others if they leave. Here is a seven-step model for implementing a technical succession planning program, and suggestions for overcoming some inevitable barriers.
Do you have an idea to improve your organization or department that you want your executive management to adopt? Do you feel like an underdog with little hope of influencing a meaningful change? If, so you probably need “connected converts” to improve your chances of success.
Does your PMO Produce Multiple Obstacles for your project or Promote Many Opportunities for success? PMOs often get a bad reputation on agile teams, but it need not be that way--they can also add tremendous support and be a great help.
Use current demographic and marketplace constraints to your project’s competitive advantage.
Global professional resourcing and project-based solutions leader turns to Compuware’s Changpoint to manage growth and complexity with streamlined resource planning, project management, and time and materials tracking.
At the turn of the century most would have agreed with the notion that the CIO was gaining ground as a true leader within organizations. Now in 2010, the pendulum may be swinging in a different direction. Is the future of the CIO in question?
Our woes were supposed to be over by now, but the economy seems to be hitting project management in two key areas: job loss/job creation and project/position funding. What does this mean for our PM organizations?
What sets PM Masters apart from the rest of us? Is it their learning, innate talents and aptitudes or is it more? In observing those who exhibit PM mastery this writer has found they share some common traits and capabilities that provide some interesting insights.
Use this template to help select the right team members for your project and to assess the skills of existing team members before you prepare the team training plan.
This template is designed to assist the project manager to improve the value of the project workforce (the "Return to Project Manager") by reducing costs and increasing factors that increase the value of the workforce. The tasks generated using this organizer are to be used in the Planning stage of the project.
What does the future hold for project management? What trends and concepts will shape project management tools, methods and practices in 2012 and beyond? For one writer, the answer seems clear. Here, we look at the environment that will influence projects, and the three takeaways we should be aware of heading into the new year.
With an unprecedented 96 percent project success rate, Dell Services’ Healthcare and Life Sciences team wins the 2011 Project Management Office of the Year award.
Managing projects that span countries and cultures brings with it its own set of challenges, not the least of which is a greater risk of failure. This article explores some of those challenges and complexities that are unique or amplified when managing global projects.
It is clear that both roles are essential and integral to the success of a project, but often on small projects the manager and administrator role are combined. Regardless of which role you are playing in your organization, it is important to understand the distinctions and the need for both.
The project manager’s critical success factor will be leadership skills, according to a global panel of consultants and senior executives assembled by ESI International.
Collaboration is a common theme throughout many of the leading trends for project management in 2012, as determined by a global panel of senior executives and subject matter experts.
These worksheets help the PM identify, understand and quantify the expectations of each project stakeholder across an array of topics. It also lays out a structured approach for dealing with each expectation.
Can you have a successful project if the PM is also a team member? It isn't an ideal arrangement and clearly qualifies as an “alternate” approach to project management, but in the current economy it is probably more common than we might like to think.
Each employee or team member is unique, with specific skills, talents, weaknesses and work style. Shouldn't your employee incentive and reward program reflect that individuality? This set of checklists and worksheets wil help you develop a program to keep employees happy and motivated, with appropriate incentivies and rewards--developed with input from each of your charges.
The most important contributor to successful risk management isn’t processes or tools, which are important, but an organizational culture that is risk-aware and encourages people to take the right risks. This can be achieved by addressing cultural aspects up front or allowing it to emerge naturally by putting a supportive infrastructure in place first.
Portfolio management cannot be successful without supporting workforce management tactics, which are sometimes out of your control.
Project Management Institute reports that 71 percent of project managers saw an increase in compensation over the last 12 months.
Getting your workforce up to speed is the only way to ensure top performance. This presentation will save you time putting together all the necessary information to get your whole team ready to go.
Ready for some hot leadership theories and enduring models that have withstood the test of time? Read on.
When you need to hire, how do you ensure that you get the right person? This two-part article explores some of those challenges and ways to work around them. In Part 1, we focus on the lead-up to interviews--a process that is often not given the attention it needs.
Use this tracking sheet in conjunction with the Budget Tracking-Actuals project plan to stay on top of your budget.
There is a lot riding on your project's work breakdown structure. Use this worksheet to help you plan the WBS smarter and better.
The move to mobility is on a significant rise. This new breed of independent worker helps open the gates to a workforce that can operate with confidence remotely--and not be wholly dependent upon organization talent to get them started and maintain their operations.
The future is bright for IT project managers this year, with IT salaries expected to jump and an outstanding PM outlook.
Technical debt describes the cumulative consequences of cutting corners in software development, but it escapes the attention of many project managers as they focus on scope and schedule. That’s a mistake because it impacts both. Here are questions to help you ascertain the real state of technical affairs.
Leading companies are renewing their organizations to position themselves for the upturn in the market--and those that use OPM3 have an advantage.
In many ways, starting a new Project Portfolio Office is easier than inheriting a PPO that is already in process. However, the risk assessment process is essentially the same. Assessing risk of project delays and failures on the PPO basket of projects, at a minimum, should consider six areas. Find out what they are--and plenty more crucial risk management information--inside.
Most project managers think of changes to a project to be related to change requests that modify the scope of deliverables. But changes to projects go far beyond mere scope changes, so it's important to have a change management process in place that can address any manner of project change. While the majority of organizations have fairly mature change request processes in place, most lack similar processes to handle event-driven changes.
Everything this writer knows about managing resources he learned from Santa Claus. What can the big guy teach us about WFM? Warm up some cocoa, start the fire and turn on some carols as we learn some valuable holiday PM lessons.
Welcome to IT Strategist's annual roundup of IT surveys. Here are the trends you need to know about to wind up 2009 and head into 2010.
Jobs are plentiful, but employers want blood. PM skills are very high on the demand chart...take a look for yourself.
IT PMs who have the good sense to go back to school and get their MBAs can write their own career ticket.
As a manger or coach, if you don’t change a pacesetter’s behavior you run a high risk of being held hostage by one person’s abilities--and pay a cost in team productivity. This article is about a pacesetter as a team member on an agile software development team. In this installment, we discuss useful approaches to dealing with these sometimes problematic people.
As we enter 2011, it's time for a refresher--it's the perfect time to explore the cross section of views and perspectives about PMOs. It's the perfect time to see what others are thinking regarding the state of PMOs, and this article will focus on starting a PMO, avoiding PMO failure, trends and the future of the PMO.
The general consensus is that the economy is turning around. How will that affect the IT career marketplace, and where will we first start to see the relief?
In spite of the different ways we can achieve a goal and manage a project, we are often asked to imitate, rather than innovate. Call it linear, competitive or hierarchical thinking, but by any name it’s probably not the best approach for managing projects — or living our lives. Collaborative or team thinking seeks to connect rather than separate the many working parts of a project.
Uptight about being laid off? Rather than brushing up on several skills, employees who demonstrate proficiency in one or two areas are in the best shape. Here we provide six tips for holding onto your job.
Fringe benefits that is! We have all seen the latest recruiting trends that have made us green with envy. You have encountered top talent that you would like to bring on board, so you offer them a great salary with a juicy sign-on. Wait a minute! What do you mean they want more? Why I remember when I started out in this businessHOLD EVERYTHING! That is just the point or, depending on which side of the offer table you are, that is the greatest difference between being a candidate today and five years ago! Candidates want it all and, in reality, top talent can go out and get it.
Ever stop to ponder all the different PM frameworks that have been developed over the years and which one you should be using in your organization? Is there really one best framework out there? The options are dizzying, so here we take a look at four of them in depth. What can they do for you? Remember, one size does not fit all...
Forget what the PM's background is, forget where their expertise lies. What is the optimal amount of business knowledge that a PM should have on a project? How well do they need to understand the business to be successful? Are you becoming the man or woman who knew too much?
Enterprise systems is one of the toughest markets to recruit for right now. Qualified candidates are in top demand, so expect to have to recruit and retain accordingly. Effective companies need to arm themselves with effective tools of the trade: education, retention and investment.
Would you describe the culture at your organization as casual, chaotic or compliant. How about committed? High-performance companies like Google and Southwest Airlines leverage workforce commitment to drive goal alignment and engagement. The key is fostering an environment of positive accountability.
One employer estimates that a top worker generates as much as 200 times the value of an average-performing worker.
Nothing makes executives salivate like when you hit their hot buttons with your justification. Executives’ top three drivers of competitive advantage should be your guide.
