I will begin with a brief discussion on managing versus leading a project. Then in a subsequent article I will move to tackle the importance of managing project stakeholders. I couldn’t wait to be the manager of my own project and run the project the way I thought it should be done. Boy, did I…
High Performance Project Team: Pitfalls
A high-performance project team can produce dramatic results. However, like any good think, there is a dark side to a project team that a manager needs to be aware of. I referred to this phenomenon as projectitis in this article. Now I would like to examine in more detail some of the pathologies that a high-performance…
Bottom Up Estimates, Future Proof Your Project
Since estimating efforts cost money, the time and detail devoted to bottom up estimates is an important decision. Yet, when estimating is considered, you as a project manager may hear statements such as these: Rough order of magnitude is good enough. Spending time on detailed estimating wastes money. Time is everything; our survival depends on…
Top Down Estimates
Since estimating efforts cost money, the time and detail devoted to estimating is an important decision. Yet, when bottom up or top down estimates are considered, you as a project manager may hear statements such as these: Rough order of magnitude is good enough. Spending time on detailed estimating wastes money. Time is everything; our…
Influencing time, resources and cost estimates quality
A typical statement in the field is the desire to “have a 95 percent probability of meeting time and cost estimates.” Past experience is a good starting point for developing time and cost estimates. But past experience estimates must almost always be refined by other considerations to reach the 95 percent probability level. Factors affecting…
Organizational Culture Implications on Projects
Project managers must be aware that their actions will have some organizational culture implications. First, they have to interact with the culture of their parent organization as well as the subcultures of various departments (e.g., marketing, accounting). Second, they have to interact with the project’s client or customer organizations. Finally, they have to interact in…
Organizational Culture, How to Define, Implement and Nurture
The decision for combining a discussion of project management structures (you can read it here) and organizational culture can be traced to a conversation I had with two project managers who work for a medium-sized IT firm. They were developing a new operating platform that would be critical to the future success of their company.…
Project Plan, is it important to have one?
Well, every course, article and training provider out there is stressing about the importance of having a project plan. It’s as simple as that. A project plan will help you plan, execute and control your project, at least that is the official definition. I will like to state my personal view on the subject as…
Functional Organizational Structure
One approach to organizing projects is to simply manage them within the existing functional organizational structure hierarchy of the organization. Once management decides to implement a project, the different segments of the project are delegated to the respective functional units with each unit responsible for completing its segment of the project (see figure below). Coordination…
How to Organize Projects Within A Matrix Organizational Structure
One of the biggest management innovations to emerge in the past 30 years has been the matrix organizational structure. Matrix management is a hybrid organizational structure in which a horizontal project management structure is “overlaid” on the normal functional hierarchy. The matrix organizational structure In a matrix system, there are usually two chains of command,…