Project Management Software > Workforce Management Software

The combination of the two companies creates a major player in the $1.3 billion project and portfolio management software market, with more than 500 customers and 150,000 users worldwide.

Your project work climate may be bad enough for you to adopt an unusual set of workforce management techniques to be successful. (Would you tell an overworked worker to do something extra? You might want to think twice about that...)

Recent alliances, acquisitions and implementations in the world of project and portfolio management.

Use the features of Web meeting technology to deliver powerful, consistent messages to a global workforce. These seven tips and techniques will also help build confidence in your leadership ability.

Your project work climate may be bad enough for you to have to use an unusual set of workforce management techniques to be successful. (Would you tell an overworked worker to do something extra?) In our concluding chapter, a third signal specific to contingency workers and their improper management is explained.

Leadership gaps arise as projects trend toward higher complexity. It will take some significant new skills to succeed in complex near-future projects. When you succeed with the workforce, however, much of the complexity evaporates.

Stop the insanity! These three tactics are designed to help you solve today’s leadership problems and distinguish yourself as an effective leader--just when your workforce needs as many as it can get.

A project out of control doesn’t just happen overnight. It often takes weeks or months of inadequate knowledge of what the workforce understands about the project. Use these techniques to avoid failure due to naiveté.

Operating with leaner workforces, organizations are adopting new approaches to professional development initiatives that align to the individual’s workflow and the translate into tangible, measurable business impact.

Ignoring resistance is futile. Use these tactics to be prepared for inevitable resistance to alternate project management techniques. Otherwise, be prepared for a whole lot of frustration.

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.

Business stakeholders are always looking for evidence as to how your project is running. What clues do your workers provide?

Just in case you are not satisfied with a thankless workforce, there are ways you can use PMO influence to directly improve their daily work lives--and get their support for all your PMO efforts.

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.

Gamification of project management practices can potentially do two things better than traditional approaches: engage teams by making tasks fun and improve performance by recognizing achievement on a regular basis. Skeptics abound, but shouldn’t we embrace gaming tactics that work? It's not such an alien concept anymore.

When it comes to leveraging social media techniques on projects, the most important place to start is frame of mind. It’s not about mimicking Facebook in the workplace, but rather removing barriers to communication and information-sharing. Project leaders who do will improve team camaraderie and productivity.

Regardless of your perspective, one key factor that will impact the growth of social media in project environments is the diverse generations of people that make up our project teams and the wide gaps in the perspectives amongst these generations. Each of these generations has its own take on social media and the role it will have on project management.

What is the most important factor in motivating your teams? Foster a sense of making progress on meaningful work. It doesn’t require a monumental breakthrough; in fact, small wins have the biggest impact. Here are four steps that can help create a more productive, happy and profitable work environment.

Portfolio management cannot be successful without supporting workforce management tactics, which are sometimes out of your control.

It’s time to make way for new training tools and techniques…or get run over. Old methods are fast becoming obsolete, but the replacement tools have not been fully tested and will not be immediately acceptable to all organizations. Use these tactics to move more quickly toward faster project workforce development.

Be careful...there are some incorrect assumptions you don't know you're making. To avoid unpleasant surprises when the workforce is scattered throughout the globe, these assumptions must be dragged out into the light of day. Here are some examples inspired by this writer's experience.

For the workforce that is widely dispersed, sharing application development, design and testing responsibilities goes beyond the normal struggles that hit most project teams.

Using extreme PM tips and techniques will only be successful if you know how to effectively and consistently manage the human element. This is particularly difficult when dealing with creative types. The key ingredient of software development leadership success can be represented as a balance of planning, process and people leadership in order to produce quality products.

Name the season and name the reason, but many firms schedule shutdowns of their facilities and staff during certain periods as a means to put a temporary stop in operations to control costs. But there are many in the workforce who prefer to exercise their own individual control over these down times in order to keep their industry active, carry on their work and remain effective contributors.

It’s no secret that command-and-control management methods aren’t very effective at motivating today’s workforce to produce greater value with fewer resources. At Toyota, the role of Shusa instills a sense of personal ownership in project outcomes. Here are thoughts on creating a similar environment for your teams.

Agile adoption outside of software is nothing new--it dates back very close to the origin of today’s agile methods, predating the term “agile”. However, what is new and noteworthy is the rate and scale of non-software agile adoption being witnessed today. Now--as more companies than ever are exposed to agile methods in their IT practices--these methods are being employed beyond the regular IT domain.

For workforce members over the age of 50, a set of challenges is making it even harder to keep their careers on track during the tough economy. What’s standing in older workers’ way? Some studies and trends paint an unfortunate picture.

We know that there are huge benefits to an established CRM program--as long as the system users are prepared correctly.