An international IT project management veteran (and poet) shares some thoughts on the importance of change management, including why so many companies do it poorly and how it can enhance instead of stifle creative thinking. Indeed, embracing projects in flux is the only way to move your agenda forward in turbulent times.
In a customer-service provider relationship, there is a great deal that the service provider can do to make the relationship productive and vibrant from a project management perspective. Dedication to understanding the customer is key. This means understanding not only the customer's needs, but also the customer himself or herself. Understanding the customer requires thinking about what a requirement means to the customer. And requirements might not mean the same thing to the customer as it does to the project manager.
When dealing with difficult team members, you need to set some boundaries, expectations and guidelines, and then hold them accountable for their behavior. Here are some tips, whether you are a project manager or teammate.
We need more options and fewer commitments, says Jabe Bloom, who helps organizations be more agile in their decision-making through Real Options Theory. It requires engaging with uncertainty, creating and keeping options open as long as possible, and then figuring out the optimal moment to choose. [23:30]
You have a role in the organization’s effort to be more agile. Don’t think it will be a thankless effort, though. If you play your cards right, you can attain documentable evidence of your leadership and improve your career advancement.
Ambiguity is a part of every project. Pinning down the knowns and anticipating the unknowns starts in the planning stages and should be standard operating procedure every step of the way. As the complexity of a project or program rises, though, elements and participants interact in increasingly unforeseeable ways. This article discusses how to keep chaos out of complex endeavors.
In reading articles about the worst companies to work for (and their practices), there are many common elements that helped them qualify for such a distinction. Several of them focus on a symbiosis of employee and customer satisfaction.
Not everyone can be assigned to the exciting, high-profile projects--and that can cause some frustration and animosity. How do organizations ensure project team competitiveness remains healthy?