Stacy Allison on stage at congress in Orlando, Florida, USA on Tuesday.
David Robertson talks Legos at Congress on Monday.
Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative
|
“Creative” is rarely a word used to describe project managers. Typically, they’re called “organized,” “good communicators,” etc. A colleague of mine inspired me when he said that a good project manager is a creative one. I was confused at first, but his explanation made sense. To be able to take advantage of great opportunities as they present themselves, a good project manager needs to be creative with the scope and the budget as the project evolves. In other words, project managers shouldn’t automatically respond: “No, we can’t, it’s out of scope or budget.” Instead, they should say: “How can we make it work?” Genius! Every project manager is guilty of refusing a great idea when the team comes up with something out of scope or budget. It’s easy to say “no,” but it’s a lot more rewarding for you, the team and the project to find a way. That’s where you get creative! The first solution that generally comes to mind is upselling the idea to stakeholders and asking for more funds. This could be denied, or it might not even be an option if the budget is fixed. Another solution is to reduce another part of the scope or even remove it completely to accommodate this new idea. There are often “nice to haves” on projects, and they can be traded for better ideas. That’s where the new idea needs to be sold as more efficient than what’s being removed. Other solutions can be outsourcing to reduce some costs, or even pulling some strings if needed. And you know what? You don’t have to do this thinking alone—give your team the chance to contribute ideas. You might find out that if some features are slightly different, you can save effort here and there, and then you are able to transfer some budget somewhere else. The key point here is leaving “no” as a last resort, and asking yourself and the team: “How can we make it work?”
How are you creative with your projects? |
PMO FAQs: Frequently Avoided Questions About PMOs
| Organizations exist in all shapes and sizes, which means there is a wide range of project management needs to be fulfilled by standards, processes and best practices. In order to cope with that challenge, some organizations implement project management offices (PMOs). PMI’s Pulse of the Profession: PMO Frameworks describes types of PMOs and their characteristics. Moreover, there are plenty of books and research on this topic (see Brian Hobbs and Peter Taylor, for example). However, despite PMO’s good references, detailed implementation and well-intentioned frameworks, organizations continue to question the value of these offices. I recently came across four multinational organizations that killed their PMOs entirely. Although I believe these decisions did more harm than good, it is unquestionable that PMOs have to reinvent themselves. That’s why I compiled a list Frequently Avoided Questions that should be answered with honesty right from the start:
Answering these questions is not an easy task. In order to answer, “Yes, we need a PMO,” you have to understand organizational strategy, structure and culture.
If you understand the organizational contexts of strategy, structure and culture and your answer is still, “Yes, we need a PMO,” it is time to define what type of PMO (questions 2, 3 and 4) to create. Performance measurements and KPIs are part of answering question 5. After working through those questions, we can finally craft and execute a plan. But I get ahead of myself: I’ll address these topics in my next few blog posts. Don’t miss them! And please, leave your comments and suggestions below. And by the way: Visit PMI’s Knowledge Shelf to learn more about PMOs. |
The Best Way to Ensure Project Success? Understand and Control the Scope
|
By Marian Haus, PMP There are dozens of studies about project failure. (To name just three: Standish Group’s Chaos reports, PMI’s 2013 Pulse of the Profession®: The High Cost of Low Performance and Gartner’s 2012 survey on why projects fail). There are at least as many reasons why projects fail. Although in some cases forces external to a project can imperil its success, I am convinced that properly managing internal factors, particularly scope, is a key enabler for project success. This is because internal factors can be controlled, while external factors can merely be influenced. Let’s take some classic reasons projects fail and tackle their root causes from a project scope management perspective. Vague or unclear requirements and no change control—aka the never-ending scope. These are typical problems related to poor project scope management. The remedy is straightforward. Complete and clear requirements should make it to the scope; anything else poses a risk. In addition, at least a basic change management process is required to keep scope creep under control. Lack of clear roles and responsibilities (R&R). You tailor your project team around the scope work that needs to be carried out. Because of this, you have to be clear about what your project needs to deliver. This includes product specifications, product design, implementation, integration with other related product parts, validation, delivery, etc. If the lack of R&R clarity lies within your client organization or with an organization external to your project, then break down your project scope into specific deliverables and lay out the assumption and prerequisites for delivering them. For example, a product specification will have to be reviewed and signed off by the client, the client is expected to provide you with the validation benchmarks, etc. A lack of R&R often results in lack of ownership and accountability of deliverables. Underestimated timelines. This can happen especially if estimations are done based on insufficient information or when the scope is not well understood. Estimates are consequently rough, based on previous experience, approximations and assumptions. If conditions are changing during the project lifecycle, this can lead to time or budget overruns. Unclear and/or unrealistic expectations. This is often related to the project scope. Your project team might be unclear about what it is supposed to deliver or what level of quality and maturity your deliverable will have to pass to meet the acceptance criteria. In other cases, the team might be unclear on how the delivery of your project scope will impact the receiving organization. Project complexity. This relates mainly to the failure to break down a large scope into more manageable pieces and deliverables. If the list of deliverables is not clear, the sequence in which these are to be produced will not be determined. If the deliverables’ relation to each other isn’t clear, then team members will just be busy delivering something, sometime, for some level of effort. This leads to missing the project goal or ending up with time or budget overruns. A well-understood and executed scope brings you a huge step closer to finishing your project successfully. What is your experience with managing project scopes? What key factors, other than scope, do you see as enablers for project success? |
Project Management Advice From the Top of the World
|
By Cyndee Miller I will never be a mountain climber. If forced, I will do some time on the rowing machine at the gym — but that’s usually followed by a big glass of wine and a Netflix binge. Still, I have the utmost respect for Stacy Allison, the first U.S. woman to summit Mt. Everest. And I’m not alone. She managed to keep a roomful of project practitioners riveted at this year’s closing congress keynote. What a story. On her first attempt, she and her team spent days huddling in a tiny snow cave to escape a brutal storm, only to be forced back not far from the summit. Now, that’s got to be tough to accept. But it’s something most project or program managers can certainly understand. “How many of you hold onto a project that’s no longer serving the strategic purpose of your organization? Because you have so much invested you can’t let go. … At some point you have to cut your losses and move forward,” she said. The following year, Allison doubled down on her goal and came back with her team, this time via Nepal rather than Tibet. Again, that kind of laser focus — even in the face of naysayers — is something congress-goers know a thing or two about. “If you don’t have a personal vision, if you don’t believe in your project and the transformational change that it will bring to your organization,” she said, then negativity will bring you down every single time. As with most projects, there were complications and unexpected events. But after adopting a team-first, solution-focused mentality, Allison made it to the top. “When you’re not worried about your own success, it frees you up to do the job you need to do at any given time.” Her bottom line was all about risk — a risk-benefit analysis, actually. “No matter what our objectives are in this life, personally and professionally, they boil down to what we’re willing to risk. What are you willing to risk, and what’s the benefit to that risk?” I still have absolutely zero intention of taking up mountain climbing, but Allison has good advice. Everyone needs to take risks. Just make sure you get something out of it. And she seemed confident project managers would do just that: “The world is going to be changed by each and every one of you.” I for one can’t wait to hear all about it. See you at next year’s North American congress in San Diego, California, USA.
|
Innovation Doesn’t Have to Be Disruptive — Just Look at Lego
|
By Cyndee Miller Confession time: I am bored with disruption. A few years ago the business press and management consultant gurus started issuing decrees about “disruptive innovation.” Stern warnings ensued: Disrupt yourself lest you be disrupted! Oh, and this was all wrapped up in the cult of personality around Steve Jobs and Apple. Now I’ve got nothing against Jobs and the company he built — I’m typing this on a MacBook while compulsively checking messages on my iPhone. I just don’t think he owns innovation, whether it’s disruptive or not. And as keynoter David Robertson pointed out, Mr. Job’s early path was more about slow and steady innovation. Organizations can’t all be disruptive all the time — and they don’t need to be. Every innovation doesn’t have to be revolutionary, leading to a patent or creating a new product category. Innovations don’t even have to be incremental advances, he said. “Most of us can’t spend most of our time focusing on those two ways of innovation,” said Robertson, author of Brick by Brick: How LEGO Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry. “Our customers count on us doing better versions of our current products. Business models depend on revenue from those.” Which brings us to the Lego Group, a veritable case study in how sustainable success can mean simply getting back to basics. The Danish toy company flirted with bankruptcy in 2003 after spending the previous five years trying to aggressively reinvent itself. Lots of new products moved away from the traditional Lego look and feel. The company lost sight of its core identity and customers, many of whom were left confused. After making huge lay-offs, taking out emergency loans and selling its headquarters, the company goes “through a deep reconsideration of who they are as a company. They learn something from that brush with bankruptcy,” Robertson said. Lego’s “disruptive revolutionary phase” had resulted in “variety without value.” Looking for supply chain sanity and consistency, the company simplified its products and centralized approval of any new Lego elements. Its innovation was to focus on the classic product lines we’ve known for generations — Lego and Duplo bricks — while boosting the storytelling around them. Voilà: a whole universe of tie-in accessories around the bricks is born. Lego-themed books, video games, even bed sheets. And yup, I’ve purchased the Harry Potter and the Batman Legos. Then there’s the massively successful The Lego Movie from 2014, which brought kids and adults together to revel in what Lego bricks are ultimately all about: imaginative play. It was a stroke of marketing genius. And it helped power Lego to become the second-biggest toy company in the world. Revenue and profits have soared through the roof for years. “Innovation flourishes when the space for it is limited,” Robertson said. “When you constrain, sometimes you get not just great innovation, but more profitable innovation.” He left congress attendees with a fitting metaphor: If disruptive innovation is “fighting” existing customers, he said, then Lego’s way is more like dating them. “Think of innovation as dating your customer. Understand who they are and what they care about. See beyond your products to understand what will make their lives better.” And then, everything is indeed awesome. |