PMcrunch

Most of us like the idea of being socially responsible.  Most of us respect our neighbors.  Most of us care about the other guy.  The reality is that this is much easier to do in good times than it is in tough times.  How can those of us in project and program management be highly socially [...]

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Can you use a 30/60/90 day plan for non-sales jobs? Certainly — it works for engineering, project management, technical support, and many others. For instance, I got a call from a candidate going for a job in Marketing Communications. He had a 30-60-90 day sales plan template, but needed help translating it into a document [...]

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There is a simple and basic attitude that we, as leaders on our projects and programs, can adopt that will make all the difference in the world. That thing is the idea of engaging openly and creatively with our team members as opposed to either seeking constant agreement or taking an authoritarian stance.

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As project and program managers we all know that stakeholders are central to the success of any project or program. We know that we must listen to stakeholders and that, in the end, we must satisfy stakeholders in order to have a successful project. We need to gather stakeholder input, listen to stakeholder concerns, and obtain stakeholder feedback throughout our projects. The question in my mind right now is “what can we expect realistically of our stakeholders?”

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Few weeks ago, I wrote a post about leadership in a virtual world in which I stated the limitations to achieve top leadership when not being directly engaged on site. The idea was that if a manager is not on site with regular phase time with subordinates, customers, associates, colleagues, and other stakeholders, he or she is not at all being positioned for increased leadership responsibility.

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After someone has been managing projects for some time and has achieved certification, he or she will feel more than comfortable with the basics. The big question is how can more experienced project management professionals continue to advance in skill and maturity by leveraging training. Let’s explore.

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As project managers we… well, manage projects! Or, do we? Actually, as I have been thinking about my experience managing projects and my experience managing my own time, I really think all we do manage are tasks. It is actually the practice of project management that simply allows us to manage more complex collections of tasks. Likewise, managing programs enables us to manage all that much more complex tasks, managing a company goes even further, and so on and so forth. This is a revelation to me that I actually find refreshing and empowering.

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Basic project management teaches us that quality is defined by meeting requirements, but not exceeding them. If we deliver more than what the customer asked for, it is considered to be gold plating – a bad thing. The premise is that there is a balance as per the triple constraint among quality, cost and schedule, and that it is the job of the project manager to manage that balance. In these tough times, however, how can a project manager produce excellence and in essence exceed customer expectations without gold plating?

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On your project teams over time, there surely have been “pivotal performances”. Just like in a basketball game there was something that the winning team did throughout the game, that proved to be pivotal to the outcome of that game. There are things that each team member, and the team as a whole does throughout a project, that are pivotal to the projects success. The question is, how do you find those things, and how do you get your project team to turn in pivotal performances, routinely.

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As leaders, Project Managers and Program Managers need to communicate clearly. Communication is a tricky thing, and among other things, it is influenced greatly but what we see in the world, and what we see is shaped by what I call the “color or your glasses”.

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