PMcrunch

The Project Management Institute, Prince II, and numerous other project management centric organizations have, for some time, had at their core that there is great an broad value to the application of structured and formal project management. At the same time, people have been managing projects really for about as long as humans have existed, albeit with varying levels of complexity. The question is, what is the value of formal project management?

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There are certainly many lessons from the American presidential election, but I simply want to focus on one idea that I have believed in for a long time. That idea is very simple — change is good. While Barack Obama’s campaign was all about change, I would argue that the entire election was about change. Let’s take a look at how this change theme is important to project and program managers.

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In these tight times, we are acutely aware of cutbacks, of scarcity, and of the need to streamline. However, really, these are indicative of management practices that should be occurring all the time. In portfolio management, especially, it is important to have a healthy balance between short term considerations and long term considerations. It is all a balancing act and the equation really only changes slightly during a downturn, such as we are currently experiencing.

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360 Degree Feedback is a popular mechanism for learning about performance. It is valuable for both the managers involved and for the individuals involved, as all can know more about each other in the process. However, as with all other performance review processes, there are some issues with 360 degree feedback. Let’s take a look.

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Project managers got to be project managers from a variety of career paths. Many of us have become specialists in certain areas, such as earned value, or scheduling, or critical path methods, or other such specialized techniques within the project management skill set. However, many others of us got here because it represented an opportunity to actually broaden skill sets and qualify us for other positions.

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There are a variety of project management templates available on the market today.  A common reason that why project management professionals avoid using templates that are out there is that they think they need to customize their own, because their own situation is very unique.  However, if you really give it a try, as I [...]

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By definition all projects must come to a close. This definitive ending to the project represents the end of the project management process, but that end also signifies a new beginning. Successful execution of the closing process within a project helps to ensure that the value of the project is realized.

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We are living in an age of “standardization”. It seems that everything is standardized, from processes and procedures to management practices across the board. While we, as managers, try to standardize much ourselves in order to reduce error, create efficiencies, build a common vocabulary, and enhance communication, what happens when things just don’t seem to be working the way we like?

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There is much discussion, and often confusion over the difference between Lean and Six Sigma. In general, here is the essence of the two approaches: Lean = Improved process flow and Six Sigma = Reduced process variation. This post provides discussion and links to various resources that take a look at this from different angles.

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One of the challenges that many managers have is organizing the plethora of projects AND processes that are part of their organizational realm. The first step to dealing with this is to clearly distinguish what is a project and what is a process. Getting clear on gray areas can pave the way for a forceful visions and way ahead on any program.

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