In the world of IT, each project comes with a different set of expectations and requirements that make everyone nervous about estimating cost, time and level of effort. Estimations based on a mature estimation model (function points) are more likely to be successful than projects that are estimated ad hoc, based on expert judgment alone. Function points translate all project functionalities into equivalent efforts. Combined with a well-defined process, they serve as a powerful tool for accurate estimations.
Effectively communicating schedule information in a VUCA environment can be very challenging, especially when powerful stakeholders create psychological schedule baselines based on preliminary estimates. There are commonalities between the challenges of forecasting project schedules and forecasting weather.
Sometimes the temptation to work on an exciting project—and other times the pressure from the business executives to get the business—leads to agreement on unrealistic expectations. This article discusses the mistake of agreeing to unrealistic timelines and suggests a few ways on how this can be avoided—and the project kept under reasonable control.
While we all generally know what a pitfall is in the business world and understand that they should be avoided, the most obvious traps are still sometimes the ones we fall into—especially when managing projects with dozens of competing priorities that distract us and take our eyes off the trail ahead. This two-part article series identifies the top 10 reasons projects fail and focuses on how to avoid these common project management pitfalls.
While we all generally know what a pitfall is in the business world and understand that they should be avoided, the most obvious traps are still sometimes the ones we fall into—especially when managing projects with dozens of competing priorities that distract us and take our eyes off the trail ahead. This two-part article series identifies the top 10 reasons projects fail and focuses on how to avoid these common project management pitfalls.
The work breakdown structure is fundamental to project execution. When we expend insufficient time and develop inadequate detail on the WBS, the project will yield poor results and we can expect to see last-minute identification of critical elements. Here we look in greater detail at this essential tool.
Earned value management is a technique that integrates scope, cost and time to highlight how the project has done in the past and predict how it is expected to do in the future. This article discusses a few basic concepts of EVM and is useful for anyone looking to get started on this topic, as well as for candidates preparing for certification.
Question: We are at a stalemate! Executives keep asking for more and more projects to be done, yet our resources do not have enough spare time to do them. We look bad, but when we say we don’t have enough time to do these requested projects, management doesn’t really “hear” us. I’m not officially a project manager, but is there any way I can step up and help my organization through this standoff?
A.
If you are not a project manager, this is not your problem. Continue to do your daily work and spend whatever few hours a week you can working on projects as they are assigned by the boss of your department.
B.
Ask to make a plea in the next executive meeting. When you present your case, let them know that everyone is too busy to do more projects and, realistically, it will a long time before the current ones are finished. It is important to set expectations.
C.
Ask your immediate manager if you can work with your colleagues to try to capture the free time available for projects and then prepare information for him to present to the executives. In this way, you may be able to realistically show some options for moving forward with organizational projects.
D.
Work to reduce the number of hours you spend on your current daily tasks so that you can focus more of your energy on important projects. Projects are the future, so they should be completed even if it is at the expense of the operational tasks that keep the company running in the present.
In this article, we look at the key to schedule success, historical and repeatable tasks, why schedules fail, how to eliminate the target date tango and build a schedule defense that manages the risks.
If you’re the project manager for a geographically distributed team, you have likely encountered time zone challenges in running your meetings. Here are some alternatives to consider.
