Keeping Your Project’s Head Attached
A large project will require input from stakeholders and end users on every point of your org chart. As the project moves forward, you’ll delegate some communication and work streams to department...
View ArticleFinding Your Project Stakeholders Wherever They Are
Every project manager will tell you about the importance of educating stakeholders about the value of the project and getting their buy-in. However, we rarely talk about what a pain in the @$$ it can...
View ArticleEquifinality & Planning for Change
Keeping equifinality at the forefront of your mind while planning makes you prepared for change, reducing the risk of diminishing or jeopardizing your outcomes. Remember that there can be multiple...
View Article2014 Digital Resolution: Own Your Digital Processes
There is no digital deus ex machina.Appeared first on The Working Blog
View ArticleDiplomacy Wins
Keeping your project and your billing on track while accommodating the logistical, cultural, and accounting “quirks” of your team and/or client can require Disraeli-level diplomacy skills. Who Handles...
View ArticleDon’t Cross the Streams: Keep Communication On-Topic & Modular
Keep communication threads and workstreams on-topic and logically grouped in order to make management, documentation and transfer easier. At the start of projects and during sprints, you’ll have a lot...
View ArticlePlanning Tip: Don’t Let Your PowerPoint Skip the Point
One of the best ways to avoid planning mishaps, especially project resource constraints, is to put implementation needs in all your PowerPoint decks. You might feel tempted to gloss over some dates and...
View ArticleProject Processes: Building Real People into Timelines
Incorporating a realistic pace for holding meetings and reviews is one of the best ways to ensure your project timelines work. Add touchpoints as processes to convert idealized vendor or department...
View Article5 Management Quotes for Project Managers
Project Management techniques give you a very effective way to conceptualize and complete projects, but they are not too good about helping you develop a management style that works across...
View ArticleSmart & Fast: 5 Strategy Questions to Gain Tactical Insights
It’s easy to get fixated on trends and tools for online marketing. But it’s not the applications, frameworks or websites that make you successful…its the strategy and understanding of your customers...
View ArticleShorter Project Phases to Focus on Key Deliverables
Web project scopes often require similar thinking to what HP is doing with their breakup plan. You have to think about how to deliver the best results from start to finish, and that means focusing key...
View ArticleWhat to Do When Your Plans Go to S#!T
At some point, you are going to get it wrong. So wrong that you can’t just roll with it, reschedule it, or bring in someone to fix it. It may be despite your best efforts or because you made the wrong...
View ArticleIn the Iron Triangle: Avoiding Protean Scopes
Projects shouldn’t be free-form. You have to put boundaries around what you are going to accomplish. The boundaries define your scope and you need a clear scope to determine schedule & cost....
View ArticleCustom vs Customized
Finding an existing solution to customize can often (but not always) save you time and money versus building from scratch. Try and look at your needs from different angles to decide which is the right...
View ArticleMaking Requirements Collection Less Tedious
Whether you’re a developer or a client hiring one, it helps having a straightforward, visual way of presenting your ideas and what you think the software will do. This gets overlooked in the early...
View ArticleIn the Iron Triangle: Resource Calendars & Schedule Coordination
Project schedule management relies on you being able to manage your resources but sometimes you don’t have full authority over your team members’ or tools utilization. I’ve written before about...
View ArticleIn the Iron Triangle: Estimating Project Costs
Unnoticed differences in project requirements or unquestioned assumptions can lead to project estimating mistakes. Fortunately, these mistakes are avoidable if we don’t take any component of a project...
View ArticleHow to Get Accounting Departments to Pay On Time
Whether you’re the client or the vendor, you want the money ready when deliverables are ready. A check should be on it’s way as soon as the work is tested/reviewed, verified and signed-off. But that’s...
View Article[Video] Reducing Internal Friction for Team Members
We spend a lot of time removing internal obstacles and friction points for customers, but we neglect making things easier for new team members and even new clients. This leads to wasted time and...
View ArticleSupporting Creative While Not Sacrificing the Business Goals
Be careful about letting the creative side drive the conversation. It’s easy to get excited about a cool concept, and push to get it out there. But down that road lies cost overruns and weak results....
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