How can PMs navigate difficulties beyond their immediate control? By exploring the value of cultivating foresight methods and a futures-oriented mindset, PMs and their team members are better prepared to navigate an increasingly complex organizational and global landscape.
Security technology is still not a top priority. The following story looks at the IT security conundrum--how far we've come, and where we need to go.
Adoption of LEED standards is typically framed as a means of reducing operating costs; the greater expense in designing and building sustainable facilities is offset by reduced energy consumption in future years. This becomes a theoretically easy business case that should be readily accepted: an investment in current periods providing future savings in costs. The challenge, however, is two-fold: it requires foresight and a willingness to invest in the long term, and there needs to be confidence that the promised benefits are realistic and attainable.
The inability to find breakthrough BPI opportunities seems to speak to one of the biggest reasons BPI effectiveness is waning--if not absent--in so many organization’s today. BPI is not an intellectual pursuit; it is the process of discovering, defining and implementing organizationally aligned solutions. In fact, the process is quite straightforward and logical if approached correctly. A three-step approach might help.
Does the perfect data warehousing book exist? Click here and check it out.
While our writer is inspired by a well-known vision of what project management should be, he is sometimes a little unsure as to what, exactly, the value of project management is. And is it really as valued by others as he feels it to be? Do they see the value that he sees in it? Or is it perhaps less consequential--and therefore less valuable--than he thinks it is?
Successful projects depend on effective collaboration between a diversity of stakeholders. Project managers can achieve effective collaboration through a more-informed awareness of the underlying values that motivate stakeholders to participate in their projects.
It’s safe to say that the project management skill set is most profoundly used in the realm of business. The completion of each project, whether profit or non-profit based, creates building blocks to allow further growth and opportunities. For business-related projects, the process usually starts with a Request for Quotation.
A large petrochemical site is taking steps to create a lean project portfolio, including a lightweight approach to building a business case and "smart release" planning, which breaks larger initiatives into smaller "waves" that can be interrupted by more urgent projects. The early returns have been positive.
Aligning IT with the business doesn't mean just supporting the goals of the enterprise. IT departments also have to learn how to align culturally with the rest of the business. That means getting the techies and the suits into the same sandbox, which can be a real challege for a CIO.
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"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher |
