PMcrunch

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Search Results for project schedule

PMP Mentors and PMP Certification Prep

June 25th, 2008 · No Comments

It can be very helpful for PMP candidates to have a PMP Mentor, or someone who is PMP certified and can assist on a moment’s notice when the student is stuck. A PMP mentor can provide a high level of comfort and assurance that a candidate is on the right path to passing the PMP certification exam.

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Tags: Certification

8 Ways to Ensure Effective Project Requirements Gathering

May 30th, 2008 · No Comments

Project Requirements Gathering is a complex and challenging activity. It is also one of the most important activities in project management, as it establishes the baseline against which the product of the project is measured. Here are some thoughts and ideas on effective requirements gathering for any project.

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Tags: Project Management Process

Leadership and “Dismissing the Hierarchy”

May 14th, 2008 · No Comments

Leaders know that great insights often come from the people doing the actual work. Faced with “higher level challenges,” leaders and leadership teams tend to lose touch with those doing the work. Whichever end you find yourself in this dilemma, whether you are on project team, lead a project team, or lead a program, take some time to refresh your thinking and “dismiss the hierarchy’, if only temporarily. It will help to keep motivation alive in yourself, your team, and your organization.

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Tags: Soft Skills

Tolerance and the Triple Constraint

April 18th, 2008 · 1 Comment

What does you organization “tolerate”? This is an important question to ask because you will know where you have some flexibility, and you will know where you have risks and inflexibility. You may very well also find out where your organization is lacking, and where it needs some reform in its project management practices to become a much more streamlined, and lean operating machine. A useful tool for thinking about this is the triple constraint.

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Tags: Project Management Process

Determining the Proper Project Reporting Metrics

February 27th, 2008 · No Comments

Project reporting is very important because it enables us to keep our stake holders informed as to the project progress, decisions, achievements, and issues. However, often reporting is done around a certain specific format that you as a project manager, or your stakeholders, may find to fall short of the information needed – or worse, provide a lot of extraneous information that does not add value. It is important to capture the essence of project objectives and map them to the reporting routine.

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Tags: Project Management Process

Is a Political Campaign a Project?

February 25th, 2008 · 2 Comments

I say, a resounding YES to the question “Is a political campaign a project?”. Why? Well, a political campaign has a distinctive beginning and end, and in between there is a lot of planning, a great deal of execution, and a great deal of monitoring and controlling. And of course there is a closing – usually with lots of lessons learned. Let us look a bit at these elements.

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Tags: Project Management Process

Make Project Reporting a Breeze!

February 18th, 2008 · No Comments

Project status reporting is important because it keeps many of our stakeholders informed as to the status on the project. The challenge is to keep project reporting from being a project unto itself. This can be achieved by integrating the normal day to day processes within the project with the project reporting, so that it virtually happens on its own.

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Tags: Project Management Process

Dealing with the “Student Syndrome”

February 13th, 2008 · 3 Comments

The Student Syndrome is something that we all have experienced one way or another. It is evident that most of us tend to do at least to some degree of cramming for exams, completing papers, completing projects, doing problem sets and more. The student syndrome is based on our human tendency. For example, the student syndrome is demonstrated where, if we have 25 days to do an assignment, we put off most of the work until the final days or hours before it is due!

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Tags: Project Management Process

Activity and Resource Estimating for Projects

February 4th, 2008 · 5 Comments

The PMBOK specifies that there is a process for Activity and Resource Estimating. There are a variety of nuances to this process and it is very important to a project’s success that project team members have the skills to produce accurate estimates.

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Tags: Project Management Process

A 6 Point Prescription for the “WBS Blues”

January 22nd, 2008 · 5 Comments

Building the Work Breakdown Schedule is a lot of good hard project management work. While it is fundamental to the practice of professional project management, often it is soft skills - including plain old determination and leadership - that in the end produce a strong WBS.

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Tags: Project Management Process