Topic Teasers Vol. 126: Gone Phishing, Help Yourself

Construction Industry Project Management: Priority 3 — Planning

In his first article, the author examined design and preconstruction in tier 1 construction projects (over US$ 100 million). This entry in the series explains the contracts and contractor requirements for planning. The project management plan consists of multiple parts requiring contractor submittal and owner approval. The elements of the plan are described along with instructive stories and lessons learned.

Demystifying the 'Product Mindset': The Agile Way

The benefits of outsourcing also come with various challenges—often because the vendor will execute the work with a project mindset that has limited visibility and never really looks at it from the product mindset. Agile can help instill the right outlook.

Are Templates Harming Your Project?

We all know how templates can help us in our jobs. But have you ever considered that your templates could be harming your project? You have to adapt each one, as they are not one-size-fits-all solutions. Here are four things to keep in mind to ensure your templates aren't dragging you down.

Boyd's Law in Project Management

Colonel John Boyd discovered that the primary determinant to winning aerial dogfights was observing, orienting, planning and acting faster. How does this apply to project management?

What Is a Quality Project Manager?

Although it’s true that not every attribute can be quantitatively measured, leveraging PMI’s three processes makes sense when defining a quality project manager.

How to Model Testing in a Project Plan

We all know the last thing you do in the project is test it. The question, however, is how to plan for it. The problem with many project plans is that they don't allow for a situation where the test fails, which is almost inevitable. Here's some help.

A Quality Primer

One area where new project managers seem to struggle is quality management. Let’s go back to basics and look at the foundations of quality (which will also be a useful refresher for everyone!).

Quality Doesn’t Work the Way You Think It Does

We want to do quality work. We want our results to be seen as being quality. But what does that actually mean? And how do we test for it? How can we satisfy for ourselves—and demonstrate to others—that we’ve delivered on expectations in terms of quality?

Are You Listening to the Voice of Your Customer?

Part of building a meaningful relationship means providing value, but how do you determine what is valuable to the stakeholder/sponsor? VoC may be the answer.