Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Global PM: Sweat the Details
Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
I don’t know about you, but when I begin planning a project one of the first things that I look at is the documentation from previous projects (you do file that stuff somewhere that’s easy to find, right?). It’s a great kick-start to the project planning process for me. I know that I can’t simply cut and paste the information, but it gives a great framework--a starting point for all of the things that I need to consider in categories like communication, risk, assumptions, constraints, etc.
The problem with managing a global project is that much of that stuff doesn’t apply--or at least it applies differently. For example, the amount of time needed to get sign-off on a document is likely extended--different time zones, different languages and potentially even a different glossary of terms in use in different locations.
In this article I want to spend a little time providing some experiences in these areas, and some of the tips that I have found useful to solve them.
Question everything
A lesson that I am learning even as I write this is that global projects force you to question even the most basic assumption. As part of my business I teach project management--and that causes me to travel quite a lot. I tend to take these trips for granted--a different hotel, a different gate at the airport, but essentially the same set of assumptions, …
A lesson that I am learning even as I write this is that global projects force you to question even the most basic assumption. As part of my business I teach project management--and that causes me to travel quite a lot. I tend to take these trips for granted--a different hotel, a different gate at the airport, but essentially the same set of assumptions, …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
ADVERTISEMENTS
|
"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which follows its own laws." - Douglas Adams |