By Alicia Trelles-Duckett on March 2, 2015
A few weeks ago we held a course on Project Management Fundamentals. Every student introduced themselves; they were all seasoned professionals with 7 years of experience or more in their field. Justine worked for a manufacturing company. Kumar was a software developer. Ann deployed projects for a Cable TV provider. Carlos was a construction manager. […]
By Alicia Trelles-Duckett on January 7, 2014
As inevitably happens at the beginning of a new year, with all the thoughts about resolutions, a few colleagues and acquaintances have been examining their jobs and careers. Some are considering entirely new fields, like the lady who is considering leaving her IT job to open a hip Bakery because bread has always been her […]
By Alicia Trelles-Duckett on October 9, 2013
A few days ago, before the start of a meeting, a couple of developers where discussing ‘Agile’ project management versus the more traditional ‘Waterfall’ project planning. A ‘Waterfall’ approach, you may recall, is the type of project that flows sequentially from stage to stage, much like a waterfall. It came from, and was heavily influenced […]
By Simon Buehring on September 12, 2013
We all know the difference between an issue and a risk, right? Well, if we’re not clear, let me explain. Think of an issue is an event which wasn’t planned to occur on your project but it has occurred and now requires management action. One of your project team quitting mid project; your sales director […]
By Alicia Trelles-Duckett on July 10, 2013
One of our recent projects involved work to be done on a short, 3-month deadline. According to the project leadership, everything which denoted good project management practices had been performed. The work was scoped, fine-tuned, and broken down into work packages. The work packages were then assigned resources and budget. Budgets and timeframes were confirmed […]
By Alicia Trelles-Duckett on November 18, 2012
When an organization has the function of deploying multiple initiatives, the question arises: should these be managed as projects? Or should program management enter the picture? If there is an obvious way in which the projects are related, we may opt for program management straightaway. For example: if our organization deploys a few projects per […]
By Patrick d'Astous on May 4, 2011
Supporters of project management templates will try to tell you this is the only way to ensure best practices are embedded in project planning. While templates provide some form of guidelines that ensures information completeness, they have their limitations and drawbacks.
By Carter McNamara on April 3, 2011
The following list was graciously contributed by Marc Bonnemains, and is from a LinkedIn discussion about project management. The following items are referred to as frameworks and models. Many people distinguish between the two, and might explain that a framework is a structure within which an activity occurs, but a model also describes the functioning […]
By Kevin Lonergan on March 17, 2011
there was a debate for years around whether Project Management is an art or a science. The truth is that neither are correct on their own – it is both. Successful project managers (with a track record of more than one project) typically employ the science stuff (core PM concepts), sometimes religiously. They also harbor […]
By Patrick d'Astous on March 3, 2011
I wrote recently about the difference between senior and junior project managers in terms of decision making. More specifically, I argued that while senior managers focused on potential project difficulties, junior managers were more easily swayed by their project’s plan and its deficiencies. Spotting problem with your plan and being able to foresee difficulties are […]
