A risk assessment process is useful in helping you determine what kind of impact your organization may experience when specific failures occur. And while creating them may seem daunting, they are nonetheless important in determining where you may need some stronger practices that will help reduce that concern.
Documents can be a boon or a plague to projects, depending on how they are produced and disseminated. Done right, document management is a huge strategic advantage on projects, fostering visibility, collaboration and shared objectives.
Project control is not about the minutiae, it’s about the big picture. Here we provide some guidelines on how to move from micro-level project management to a more macro-level control phase.
Are you making the same mistakes over and over again? Managing the requirements well is critical for project success. Do this, and you will succeed. Fail to do this, and you'll suffer the consequences.
Zen elicits an image of peacefulness: a beautiful rock garden, a full moon in a still pond. Project management often brings forth very different images — drive, controlled chaos, tight schedules, restrictive budgets, anxiety, conflict, expectations and outcomes. Can these two worlds really be reconciled, much less infused to manage projects?
A common human trait called “optimism bias” leads many project leaders to build unrealistic schedules and underestimate budgets. Buffers, retrospectives and peer reviews are some of the fundamental steps that can help you balance your optimism and produce better estimates.
For all that “talent management” might be logical and reasonable as a term, and sounds like it’s all about us, it’s actually not—at least, not the way we would like it to be. In the talent management wars, we are subject and not object.
Early in my career I had a negative attitude regarding my job and towards the projects I managed. That negative disposition generated more problems than advantages. The result was not good.
Stephen R. Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People teaches timeless, universal principles to help us be our best. Take a quick tour through the 7 habits with a special emphasis on their relation to project management. Self-reflective questions prompt readers to consider how they might execute projects more effectively.