The British government has honed their project management methods for years, cumulating with PRINCE2 in 1989. An acronym for Projects In Controlled Environments version 2, PRINCE2 throws sprints out the window, and instead approaches a project as one big sprint and stresses quality of delivery—like a traditional project management version of Six Sigma. The PRINCE2 process…
Category: Project Management
Project Management: Guide to Agile, Scrum, Kanban and Waterfall
Humanity has a great track record when it comes to serious project management. From the Great Pyramids to the moon landing, our greatest endeavors required people working together on common goals. And that means intricate project management. PMI estimates there will be more than 15 million new project manager positions added to the global job…
Three planning pitfalls (and how to avoid them)
Planning can make the difference between a project that gets done right and on time, and a project that goes down in flames while you wonder what went wrong. The problem is that, because of the way our brains work and the way we communicate now, we’re just not set up for planning success. But…
Close-Out Reporting, This Is How You Proof That The Project Is Over
The most neglected project management activity is the close-out reporting. The reports and accounting tasks associated with close-out reporting just aren’t as exciting as developing the product, and on many projects they are completely ignored. This is unfortunate because these activities can bring a very high return to the project manager’s firm. The end of…
Stressed When Communicating With Management and Customers? No More!
Communicating with management and customers plays an important part in project success. These words are worth repeating: “Successful projects meet stakeholder expectations.” This mantra for project managers bears repeating, with this addendum: Of all the stakeholders to satisfy, customers and management top the list. The communication plan should detail the strategy not only for informing…
How to Establish Project Control Through Effective Communication
Establishing project control involves discovering and solving problems while they are still small, measuring progress, and ensuring continued agreement on goals and expectations. The key to accomplishing all these things is communication—making sure that the right people have the right information at the right time. Strong communication among all stakeholders is what allows a project…
The Building Blocks for Writing a Proper Status Report
One of the most important pieces of project management is communicating about the status of your project. The status report can be an effective tool to help you communicate with others, near or far, about the timeline, budget, progress, and other details during the lifetime of your project. The status report also help you to…
Gain Perspective: Identify Project Stakeholders (Project Sponsor)
Stakeholder roles: Project Sponsor Many projects are organizational anomalies. They cross department and corporate boundaries; they staff up for short periods, then disband; they may span a portion of a budget cycle while drawing funding from multiple groups within a company. The temporary, ad-hoc nature of projects can create major problems for project managers because…
Gain Perspective: Identify Project Stakeholders (The Customer)
Stakeholder roles: The Customer Whenever a project exists, somebody will be paying for it. And whoever pays usually gets the first and last word on product description, budget, and the criteria by which success will be measured. Although other stakeholders may try to squeeze in extra requirements, the final say on the product will come…
Gain Perspective: Identify Project Stakeholders (Project Manager and Team)
Stakeholder roles: Project Manager What does a project manager contribute to the project? Magic, or, more precisely, practical magic. Just as a symphony conductor directs the orchestra to bring out the magic in the music, the project manager must keep all the disparate groups in a project moving in harmony. Whether he or she is…