Why Implementing Project Management Best Practices Means Something Different for Everyone

While project management best practices vary between different project managers, projects and organisations they basically consist of 4 elements:

• Identifying those approaches, processes and tools that, when applied correctly, always lead to positive outcomes.
• Building a PM team that has the skills and ability to apply company best practices to actual projects, not in theory but in reality.
• On-going project management training that covers best practices and potential risks.
• Reinforcing training theories and concepts by applying them to real projects.

11 signs your IT project is doomed

The IT world is no stranger to projects that go down in flames. In fact, anyone who has had the unenviable pleasure of participating in a failed IT effort likely sensed its demise well before the go-live date. That sixth sense is invaluable in a competitive field like IT — but only if it is acted on promptly and professionally.

Does A Project Need to be Perfect to be Successful?

Striving for perfection in many ways is a good trait to possess but the pace of progress in businesses is now so rapid that to seek perfection on a project can mean to lose out on business opportunities. Consider pretty much any type of technology gadget – any manufacturer who seeks perfection before going to market with a new product is likely to be left behind in the race.

Hint, Hint: Project Management’s Dirty Little Secret

What’s that you say – Experienced PMs don’t always worry too much about the schedule because they accept the unpredictable nature of project variables? So much of being a project manager is dealing with the unknown, juggling people, resources, and tasks, that the little amount of time they have left can’t be spent agonizing over arbitrary due dates. More than that, projects that escape deadlines don’t simply vanish. They still have to be completed, and finding your team at the mercy of budgets, restricted assets, and absent or unresponsive people are typical frustrations that can leave due dates in the dust. So what if we just skipped them altogether?

Project Management and Embracing Imperfection

Projects are made up of people and require creative problem solving. And since people aren’t perfect and creativity is often a complex exercise, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that projects are therefore full of imperfections. While many of us come to this realization eventually, we need to do so more quickly. Actively embracing project management as an imperfect science will help us be better at it. As the saying goes, “perfect is the enemy of good.”

Poor governance blamed for failed major projects

New research by Sydney consultancy Caravel Group and the Melbourne Business School has found major project Governance Teams are dysfunctional, lack the skills and experience to govern major projects, exhibit poor corporate behaviour, are conflict-ridden and rarely have their performance measured or reviewed.

Leadership: The Mission Is Vision

Another insightful read by Lynda Bourne

As a project manager, you’re a leader by default. And as a leader, your job is to inspire your team to achieve a shared vision. That means you create an “inspiring vision” of the future and then build the expectation that the vision is achievable.

An “inspiring vision” is not simply finishing your project, either. A great example of this was one put forth by London’s Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) responsible for building the facilities for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The ODA set a much-publicized “zero harm” goal.

Parallel Project Training is a small but rapidly growing project management training provider. To support our future growth we are seeking a sales, marketing and administration assistant to join our team. This will be an ideal opportunity to join an innovative company at an early stage with huge potential for the role to grow as the company develops.

As a small organisation Parallel is seeking a multi-skilled, dynamic and flexible person to deliver outstanding service to our customers. This role will be very challenging because it combines sales support, operations management and marketing.

We generate sales enquires through our highly ranked web site, repeat business, word of mouth and traditional advertising in paper publications and conferences. As a result we are seeing significant sales growth. We are seeking a pro-active individual; with a ‘can do’ and ability to help us grow the business.  

The role has two main components, working in a busy office there are sales and marketing activities and also to provide cover and support to the existing administration team providing cover as necessary.

Primary Sales and Marketing Activities

• Supporting the Directors in designing and implementing an on-line and off-line marketing and sales strategy
  
• Maintain contact with all sales leads from any source with a view to maximise the conversion rate of them into sales
  
• Follow up web orders to ensure customer satisfaction and identify further business leads
  
• To make outbound sales calls to follow up leads as appropriate. This may involve an element of cold calling
  
• To record all sales leads in an automated pipeline record system
  
• Prepare and present sales proposals for standard off the shelf courses 
  
• To act as the second point of contact for all customer contacts
  
• To make outbound sales calls to follow up leads as appropriate. This may involve an element of cold calling
  
• Support marketing activities including drafting blog posts, marketing literature, newsletters and news items for the website
  
• Keep track of incoming invoices and maintain files of these.
  
• Travel to meet (main) clients to ensure close communications.
  
• Proof reading course material and books.
  

Administration support

Work with the administration team to ensure that

• venues for public events are booked and monitored
  
• incoming invoices are filed and reconciled
  
• bookings reflect delegate numbers
  
• clients are contacted regularly to help resolve any necessary administration issues are resolved swiftly and effectively
  
• all course material is ordered and delivered according to the timetables appropriate for the events
  
• communications with associate trainers are maintained
  
• the operational diaries and calendars are up to date.
  

This is a new role and as such opens to an extent of adaptation and focus depending on changing circumstances.

Salary Range :

£20001- £30000

Salary Description :

Basic salary of £19,000 plus a £6,000 performance bonus linked to company profits.

Location(s) :

Reading

Countries:

UK

Number of Positions :

1

Application Email :

withyoualltheway@parallelprojecttraining.com

How To Apply :

Please send a cover letter saying why this job would suit you plus a copy of your CV. Shorted listed candidates will be required to complete a standard application form.

Application Closing Date :

04-Aug-2013

Posting Expiry Date :

04-Aug-2013

Feeling like you’ve done a great job on a project is not quite enough. In order for a project to be officially a success, it must meet a set of ‘success criteria’ as set out by the project stakeholders and manager. In order for a project to be proven a success, these criteria must be trackable and measurable, otherwise it would be impossible to answer the question of whether you have delivered the desired benefits through the efforts of your project.

Defining success criteria

Success criteria usually fall under two distinct headings:

1. Project success: These are the things that relate to the running of the project itself, including the various processes, items that need signing off, management etc. These markers of success are intrinsically linked with the management itself of the project, and help to focus attention on the business side of project management.
2. Deliverable success: These are the things that the project delivers, such as physical outcomes, achievements and reach. These success markers are more related to the rationale and business case behind doing the project in the first place. These relate to the achievements of the project directly, and will be of most interest to the project sponsor.

To start organising your success criteria, make a list of the project outcomes and markers of success, and start to place these under the two headings defined above.

Tracking success

The project related success criteria are not generally tracked over time, as they are specifically related to actions contained within the project brief. When the project comes to an end, you should easily be able to say whether these have been met and to what extent. For this reason, it is not necessary to generate a baseline of current performance prior to starting the project.

Project deliverables on the other hand, can be highly dependent on comparisons with ‘business as usual’. For this reason, it is a good idea to establish a baseline of how things are working right now, and then to reassess the situation after your project has come to an end, thereby giving you an indicator of the effectiveness of the project overall.

As an example, an IT project that takes place in a customer contact centre may result in 95% of customers now being called back within 20 minutes. Whilst this sounds very good, if you do not know what the situation was prior to implementing the project, how can you tell if it is an improvement at all? If, beforehand, 99% of customers were being called back in 10 minutes, that throws a very different light on your project’s impact.

Measuring success

There are two main ways to measure project success criteria. These are:

• Discrete measurement: A simple yes / no answer or a tick in a box. For example, was the project delivered on time?
• Continuous: These measurements are a sliding scale and will usually be a number, a percentage or some other measurement. For example, what percent of customers are now having their calls answered within 3 minutes?

Be aware that many continuous measurements can be translated quite easily into discrete measurements, particularly if they are associated with a target. For example, if the target is that 80% of customers should have their calls answered within 3 minutes, have we met that target (yes or no).

By taking the time to define and agree success criteria with your client, you will be able to work towards a definite end to the project, and a conclusion that everyone is happy with.

What Makes a Project Manager Great?

Good project managers routinely deliver to agreed objectives in terms of cost, time and scope. But what makes someone a great project manager?

What marks them out as different?

• They consistently deliver project benefits which enhance organisational success
• Great project managers enthuse those both within and beyond the project team
• They inspire the confidence of stakeholders and the team

The basic tools and methodologies you may learn on project management training courses such as PRINCE2 or APMP are important but the differentiating factors relate to personal skills and personality traits. In many ways they are the same qualities that you will see in successful general managers and business leaders.

1. Natural Authority
   

   Great project managers are natural leaders. They command authority without reliance upon their organisational position. They inspire a common vision and they build confidence through their ability, integrity and enthusiasm.

2. Knowledgeable Craftsman
   They have all the necessary tools in their kit bag. However they don’t try to use them all – all of the time. They apply the right tools selectively according to project requirements. Agile might be beneficial for a specific web application; a waterfall approach with strong governance procedures may be right for a high profile construction project.
3. Eyes of a Hawk
   They see both the big and the small picture. They understand who the real client is. They relate project and programme deliverables to broader organisational objectives. But whilst taking in the overview they have, like a hawk, extreme sensitivity to the detail when required.
4. Commitment
   If a project manager does not bring personal enthusiasm and passion then there is little chance that this can be expected from the rest of the team. What’s more, they are often adept at broadcasting their commitment to excellence through both their actions and their words.
5. Organiser
   By nature, great project managers do not go through life leaving things to chance. Their natural inclination is to map out activities which will enable fulfilment of personal or organisational goals. They are then adept at simplifying activities into achievable subsets. Their approach is logical and analytical.
6. Crystal Clear Communicator
   

   Regular, concise, jargon free communication of all that the team and stakeholders need to know. From clarity with respect to project goals and deliverables through to accurate and timely financial reports.

7. Team Builder
   

   Great project managers understand how effective teams work. They understand how to balance different competencies. They know how to establish commonality of purpose across functional boundaries. They empathise. They build consensus. They know when to delegate – and when to intervene.

8. Pragmatic Problem Solver
   

   Shows strong foresight. Is not fazed by problems or pressures. Focuses on those areas which can be controlled and takes a proactive approach. Finds innovative solutions. Always able to prioritise requirements.

9. Domain Expert
   Many claim that a good project manager can transfer their skills to any type of project environment. That’s true to a degree, but it should be no surprise that great project managers bring their own domain specialisms. They understand regulatory compliance issues associated with launch of a new pharmaceutical product. They appreciate how new technologies and requirements can impact software development projects. They relate to the behavioural challenges when re-structuring an organisation.
10. Continuous Learner
    

    Great project managers review the outcomes of their projects and learn the lessons of what went well and what could have been done better. Just as importantly they are self-critical and review their own performance as project manager and learn from that too.

     

     

Rex Gibson is Business Development Director at FOCUS on TRAINING which specialises in project management training courses.

He has distilled his personal top 10 list of what it takes to be a Great Project Manager based on a project career which has spanned major business re-structuring and re-location, launch of new business ventures, and manufacture of high output food process plant in Asia.

Rex Gibson on Google

Whatever type of project you might be embarking on, from a small 2-person project for a start-up company to a global project for an international organisation, no project will be without its problems. No amount of proper planning and adherence to good project management standards will eliminate problems entirely. (Of course, they can be minimised and controlled with good practises). So instead of viewing problems as setbacks, another approach is to treat them as possible opportunities to learn something new and maybe create a new business opportunity from them. This might not happen on the current project but having to overcome difficulties could offer ways to improve the efficiency of future projects.

An experienced project manager can learn to exploit problems to the advantage of their company rather than simply viewing them as a potential cause of project failure. Problems typically are problems because they could not be predicted so are, therefore, something new that no one on the project team has encountered before, that in itself presents an opportunity to be innovative but it does require a change of mindset away from the approach of trying to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

Many project managers can see with hindsight, and once the pressure to deliver is off, that certain problems that occurred in a project could have been exploited to the benefit of the company, even if not the actual project itself. This suggests that business opportunities are being missed in many projects because of the focus on immediate success of the current project. This indicates that it is not only the mindset of the project manager but also that of the project sponsors and stakeholders that needs to change to turn problems to benefits.

But what type of problem might offer a potential opportunity and how can they be identified?

Clearly, some problems are just problems and there are no positives to be gained from them. Recent research in the Project Management Journal  by Lechler, Edington & Gao suggests some categories for potential opportunities such as:

Technical Innovation – Look for technical solutions to overcome existing difficulties that will benefit the project  through lowering costs or improving efficiency.

Implementation processes – Look for ways to simplify existing processes to cut costs both on current and future projects.

Future Projects – identification of new processes or products can add value to other projects by improving efficiency or reducing costs.

Problems in the project lifecycle can be caused by numerous different reasons depending on the type of project and the industry or business field; they can be caused by external factors such as legal or regulatory changes, changes in the priorities of either the customer or supplier, new technology or organisational change. Whatever the reason for the problems there can often be further benefits to be gained from the solution to the problem.

Should project managers take responsibility for assessing problems to see what future benefits could be gained from doing so? Have you ever experienced a problem that turned out to have a silver lining? Why not share your thoughts with us…

I am writing a course on earned value management and have been searching everywhere for an article on measuring % complete. I couldn’t find one so I thought this would be a valuable contribution.

The main objective of earned value management is to produce an objective assessment of progress to compare with the plan and the expenditure. People are notoriously optimistic at estimating progress on a project activity. So let’s see if we can define some more accurate way of measuring progress.

1) The most accurate method is physical percentage complete based the number of items completed. For example if we have 100 meters of cable to lay and we have done 50 meters the % complete is 50%. This is the most objective form of progress assessment but only applicable to a small number of activities.

2) The next best method is defined milestones. For example a drawing or report is defined as 50% complete when drafted, 70% when it has completed internal review and 100% when signed off by the customer. These sorts of rules are applied consistently across the project but are still open to some subjectivity. Sometimes we limit the choice to 0% (not started), 50% (started) or 100% (complete) however this can distort the reporting if a lot of tasks all start at the same time or take a long time to complete. So it is best to use small tasks for this approach.

3) The next best approach is to collect remaining durations. We do this by asking package managers how long it will take to complete some work. It is generally accepted that people are better at estimating how long it will take to finish then they are at estimating percentage complete. For a simple task with uniform resources this can be calculated from the duration. For example 10 days and we have completed 5 days of work but estimate that there are 6 days left then the

% complete = Actual Time Elapsed / (Actual Time Elapsed + Remaining Duration) = 5 / ( 5 + 6 ) = 5 / 11 = 45%.

If the task is does not use uniform resources then we can calculate the % complete from the estimate to complete (ETC) buy and the actual cost (AC) to date

% complete = AC / (AC + ETC)

So for example is a task 100 hours of work planned, and we have spent 50 hours working (AC) on it and estimate that we have another (ETC) 60 hours left to do. Then we get

% complete = 50 / (50 + 60) = 45%.

To use this technique you don’t tell the package manager what the actual cost to date is, otherwise they just subtract this from the budget to give you an estimate to complete.

This is a simple but effective way of reducing the subjectivity in estimating % complete.

4) Apportioned Effort is often used for overhead activities like project management. I uses the percentage complete for the physical deliverables to estimate the percentage complete for the project management work. If the physical project is 50% complete then the project management task is 50% complete.

5) Level of effort is used for fixed cost such as project office building or security. These earn value at the planned rate and will not contribute to a cost or schedule variance but can cause the project to overspend if it is extended.

Thanks to +Vasil Tsakov for helping check these equations on the project management Google Plus community https://plus.google.com/u/0/100214655021160928517/posts/U7iQt2jqkwY

The idea of using part time directors is not new one and many businesses have been using this method of working for many years. However, the demand for and move towards part-time directors across other functions is a more modern phenomenon which until recently has largely been met by experienced sole practitioners. Market research identified a clear need within businesses employing up to 250 people for part-time directors across a number of functions and with this in mind Part Time Executives Ltd was established. The business model was very simple, variable day rates to suit the client, with complete transparency in terms of cost meant an ability to provide all the benefit of a full-time director at a fraction of the cost.

What Type Of Business Would Use A Part Time Director?

The current economic climate and our experience to date suggests that businesses fall into 3 categories across a number of functions, the exception being engineering where specific sector skills are of paramount importance.

These 3 categories are best described as follows:

1.    Businesses that are growing or planning to grow and want the benefit of full time directors without the cost.

2.    Businesses that are stable but undergoing significant change which requires additional director level resources across one or more functions.

3.    Businesses that are down-sizing and can no longer afford the cost of full time functional directors.

4.     Businesses that a delivering project but lack the senior project management experience.

Why Employ A Part Time Director?

The benefits are plentiful but the phrase “part of the time, part of the cost and all of the benefit” encapsulates beautifully what a part time director brings to the business. By offering the services through a national network like Part Time Executives Ltd. there is a large pool of highly qualified multi – functional resource, which can operate on a flexible basis across the vast majority of the UK to bring strategic and operational benefit to the client. Every part time director is fully qualified, fully insured and operates their own VAT registered limited company. By providing the resource through Part Time Executives Ltd. the best match of client to director is always available but with the very necessary complete back-up and support of the national network.

One client explained that many of the benefits are described by “what you don’t get”:

•    No national insurance to pay.

•    No pension contributions to make.

•    No holidays to fund.

•    No company car to provide.

•    No annual bonus to pay.

•    No private health scheme to pay for.

•    No extended notice periods.

•    No over inflated severance deals.

•    No employment tribunals.

•    No long term redundancy commitment.

•    No equity to give away.

•    No recruitment fees to pay.

•    No politics.

It is very interesting to compare a Part Time Executives day rate with the full time day rate taking into account all the items above – you will be very surprised by the lack of difference and when you consider the fact that you only pay the part time director when you as the client want him or her, the part time director option wins every time!

How Does It Work?

Each assignment is managed as a separate project with a programme of deliverables agreed in advance with the client. A suitable part time director is identified and a proposal is presented to the client identifying deliverables, cost and a simple set of Terms & Conditions. The part time director begins work and the project deliverables are reviewed on a regular basis with the client.

In summary the service includes all of the following:

1.    A top quality professionally qualified director.

2.    A director for long term strategic impact on a part time contract.

3.    A nationally supported organisation.

4.    Access to other multi-functional directors.

5.    Access to a national network of Business Partners (accountants, solicitors, financiers etc.).

What Disciplines Does It Cover?

Market research has identified demand from SME’s for all of the following functions:

1. Project Management
   
2. Finance
   
3. Commercial
   
4. Marketing
   
5. Sales
   
6. Procurement
   
7. Operations
   
8. HR
   
9. Health & Safety
   
10. IT
    
11. Non-Executive Director
    
12. Coaching and Mentoring
    

Conclusion and Summary:

Employing a part time director is a very cost effective solution which brings the benefits of a full time director. It also has the secondary benefit that your part time director is gaining experience and knowledge within other businesses on the days he or she is not working for you. By operating a “virtual structure” Part Time Executives Ltd. ensures there are no large regional organisations, franchise fees or overhead costs to fund which keeps daily rates extremely competitive.

In the first instance, if you would like to learn more about being a client, business partner or part time executive/director please contact andrewmackenzie@parttimeexecutives.co.uk or take a look at the web site www.parttimeexecutives.co.uk.

Zen and The Art of Project Management

This is a must read article for every stressed project manager that advocates the opposite of multi-tasking. Instead of writing your report, while taking a call and updating the blog site all at once, try focusing fully on one task at a time to become a more effective project manager. Really listen to your team, really focus on the problems that occur and find workable solutions. Tackling one project management task at a time means you apply yourself and give each matter the attention it deserves.

Project Management and The Art of War

Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” has won widespread acclaim for the pearls of wisdom it contains but what could it possibly have to do with project management? Well, Sun Tzu’s writings primarily focus on leadership and we can learn much from his teachings because the primary focus of effective project management should be great leadership. It is possible to have a huge project team of capable professionals fail dismally under a poor project manager or just a few underfunded employees pull off dazzling feats under an inspirational leader. Being a great project manager requires excellent leadership skills.

Project Management and Portfolio Management: The Balance of Your Business

What’s more important to your business, project management or project portfolio management? The simple answer is that they both matter, of course. But don’t brush the question aside – the precise balance between project management and project portfolio management (PPM) in your business can make all the difference to your bottom line.

Five Ways Gen Y Will Alter Project Management

The future of organizations is in the hands of Gen Y. Most Gen X-ers are probably now in senior management positions or a few may even be retired. So the real execution champions of the future are in Gen Y — the age group that, in the context of business, is the 20- to 35-year-olds. The fundamental difference between Gen Y and Gen X is that members of the former have had easy, ready-access to technology for much of their lives. This significantly influenced and changed the generation’s behaviour, needs and expectations. It follows that project management in the era of Gen Y will also undergo significant changes.

Ten uncommon habits for successful project management

The success and failure of a project is not just dependent on the effectiveness of the project management processes but also on areas outside its remit as well; areas such as innovation, networking and turning weaknesses into strengths.

13 tips for keeping IT projects under control
Scope creep, team members who don’t understand what’s expected of them, poor inter-departmental communication – these are just some of the problems project managers constantly face. So how do you keep projects under control? CIO asked dozens of project managers and project management experts to find out and this article lists their top 13 suggestions for dealing with the challenges all project managers face at one time or another – and for keeping projects in check.

Characters Wanted: Fostering Varied Project Management Teams

Project managers often have to deal with difficult people on project teams. The challenge is that there is no undiscovered leadership approach that can take the “difficult” out of these characters who frequent project teams in so many unique forms because there is no known cure for the human personality. (Thankfully.) We are complicated, confounding and wonderfully different people. The team or project leader’s responsibility is not to find a way to quash the variance in personalities, but rather to foster the right environment for people who are different, to come together and perform. Read about a few key mistakes to avoid as you seek to align your collection of challenging personalities around your project and seek great performances.

5 Factors for Evaluating a Cloud-Based Project Management Software
Project management has revolutionised how most companies organise their workflows. It has enabled easier tracking of resource allocations and revenues and ensured on-time and high-quality products for the customer. A major part of this is made possible by project management systems and more organisations are now moving towards cloud-based systems. But finding the right cloud-based solution for your organisation can be a challenge.

The project management profession is growing and evolving as projects become a more significant part of businesses in our complex and fast-changing environments. The approach to project management is, consequently, being improved to more reliably give successful results. But just what is the most reliable approach to project management? Is it the tried and tested methods that have been in use for decades or the newer more flexible methodologies that have been maturing rapidly in the 21^st century? There are certainly strong advocates for both approaches.

Traditional project management started to be used in the 1960s as organisations began to recognise the benefits of planning work activities more rigorously, communicating more effectively and collaborating with different departments and businesses.  Until the end of the 20^th century project management methodologies took a traditional “waterfall” approach, which assumes that a project has a definite beginning and end, that it can be planned in phases, and that risks and other events affecting the project can, on the whole, be predicted. It assumes that the product, service or result that the project is intended to deliver can be specified in detail before the project starts and can, therefore, be delivered with defined resources in a specified timeframe.

Some of the most project-intensive industries such as construction and manufacturing have tended to use traditional methods such as PRINCE2, or those from the Association for Project Management (APM) or the Project Management Institute (PMI), which have been proven to work over time in a variety of business environments. Whilst such a method can work well for something like building a new bridge or motorway, it is much less suited to developing, for instance,  a new software application at the forefront of technology so these traditional methodologies are not always appropriate for certain projects, particularly, but not exclusively, IT projects.

The disadvantage of a waterfall approach is that it is not always possible or desirable (in the case of an innovative design, for instance) to fully specify the end-product at the beginning of a project, and so significant changes may be required to the plans and schedule throughout the project. Uncertainty in projects is almost inevitable; people cannot always think in the abstract so cannot always articulate what they want until they see something. Consider a long, complex IT project that is expected to take over a year to complete – the chances are that technology will move on during the lifetime of the project leaving certain included features redundant and other, now essential, features excluded. Clearly, significant changes need to be planned for and managed in fast-paced industries in order to deliver what the customer needs at the point of delivery.

For these reasons many organisations were already adapting their internal project processes to use a more iterative approach, instead of trying to shoe-horn a project into a traditional framework fundamentally unsuited to the task, before the principle of Agile project management was consolidated. These processes may not have been specifically identified as “agile” but often used the same principles: regular, staged deliverables, frequent face-to-face communication, emphasis on interactions rather than processes and welcoming change as the route to success.

Eventually, in 2001 a group of advocates of iterative methods with both academic and real-world project experience wrote The Agile Manifesto, which defined the principles of agile project management, based around the simple idea that smaller activities are easier to manage successfully. The principles were based on sound research that indicated that an incremental, iterative, prototype-based method would solve some of the problems inherent in traditional methods and so offer real business benefits.

Agile project management starts with the premise that not everything is known at the start of the project and that changes will always be necessary and, indeed, should be welcomed at every stage of a project. They are structured in small stages with frequent testing so that the team can learn quickly and use that knowledge to improve the project as it progresses. Using this iterative learning and modifying strategy makes the team increasingly effective in producing what the customer wants. Agile is a set of values and principles that can be used with a range of practical project management methodologies (such as Scrum, Extreme, Lean or DSDM)

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), 15.7 million project management positions will have been created worldwide before the end of the decade across seven project-intensive industries: business services, construction, finance and insurance, information systems, manufacturing, oil and gas, and utilities. Project management is clearly a serious profession that needs a professional approach to delivering projects and that approach is likely to be an adaptable one: using a combination of traditional and agile methods, often on the same project, when the circumstances demand it.

A project with a fixed, and tight, deadline determined by prevailing market conditions may need the rigour of a Waterfall method as the dominant approach but could still benefit from some measure of flexibility in, for instance, rapidly developing a prototype. Similarly a completely ground-breaking product, of a type that has never been created before, would need an Agile approach but could benefit from the control of costs and schedules that a traditional approach can impose.

Just as concept artists produce illustrations that help production designers visualise sci-fi or fantasy elements for films or to help the film gain financial backing, the stage deliverables produced in an agile project have an important purpose – they can be the drivers that determine whether the project will be fully funded and supported as well as determining how a final product will be designed. This is an all-important element in many industries and an Agile approach, once exclusively IT-oriented, is being absorbed into the way all project manager’s work, whether in name or not, in order to add business value. The flexible, “new” approach to project management has gained increasing recognition in all types of projects as Agile methods have matured.

Project Management Software Advantages and Disadvantages

Project management software is one of the most helpful tools that can assist project managers in being as effective as possible, regardless of the industry.  While incorporating project management software can certainly improve processes, there are distinct advantages and disadvantages to using it, which require careful evaluation.

5 Best Practice Tips for Successful Project Mobilisation

Discover five helpful best practice tips to help you get a project going. Rally the right employees and resources to start work on a project on schedule so you can quickly build momentum and create a motivated team that will achieve cost savings, time savings, greater profits, improved utilisation, and happier clients.

What is a Project Charter?

A project charter (PC) is a document that states a project exists and provides the project manager with written authority to begin work. The document helps the project manager to communicate his authority and explain to project participants and stakeholders why the project is needed, who it involves, how long the project will take to complete, how much it will cost, what resources are needed and how successful completion of the project will help the organization. Once created, the document is rarely (if ever) amended.

Three Timeless Project Management Rules

We all seem to have our own set of “durable” project management rules. We rely on them again and again to help guide us to a successful project outcome, regardless of the type of project, technology or environment. Whatever methodology we are using, whether it is a traditional approach or a more agile approach each of us will have those rules we trust to get us through the tough times. Here are three rules that any project manager could benefit from using.

Why Ask “Why?” in Agile

There are many steps and procedures to be learnt by the project manager new to an Agile approach of project management  so it’s important to remember why they’re useful. Good project management is not just about good practice but also understanding the value of those practices so they can help you  when handling unforeseen situations.

Soft Skills in Project Management

The ability of a project manager to successfully manage projects can often hinge on their inter-personal or “soft” skills. Take a look at this slideshare to learn about the importance of establishing relationships, dealing with conflict and handling emotions.

A BYOD project management primer

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) brings with it a unique set of project management challenges for organizations making their first move in that direction. The project manager charged with leading a BYOD initiative can manage the technology, policy, security, and other factors that need to come together in order to support employees’ personal laptops, tablets, and smartphones accessing corporate resources. Here are tips for managing a successful BYOD initiative.

Dealing With The Politics in Project Management

The type of working relationships and personal dynamics that develop between the members of a project team and others involved in a project, such as stakeholders and senior executives, can determine how smoothly a project progresses and ultimately how successful it is. In a group with good working relationships problems can be dealt with easily and conflicts handled maturely without causing the project to flounder. But where working relationships are fraught with tension, individuals have their own personal agendas or are vying to be “top dog” then personal conflicts can get in the way of the project aims. Issues between members of the team become the over-riding concern both for the individuals concerned and sometimes even the project manager. Meetings can consist of jostling for power or simply trying to justify your position and when that happens progress on the project will suffer.

Boys Versus Girls in the Project Management Arena

There is not exactly a debate raging about the relative merits of female vs male project managers but it would be worth all project managers becoming aware of traditionally gender specific traits that can aid their success in project management. Clearly those traits considered to be typically gender specific can occur in the “opposite” sex i.e. a female can be a competitive risk-taker and a man can be a good communicator and motivator. Indeed these traits are perhaps best described as simply personality traits rather than gender traits.