Advocate Till They Get it

Advocate

Advocating project management in any organization requires engagement and commitment from the key stakeholders with the most clout and visibility across the company.  There are three groups of players who must drive the acceptance and practice of project management techniques and convention if you hope to achieve cultural buy-in.  These key players include the Project Management Office (PMO) (the leader and the staff), senior management, and project managers.  Each of these has a distinct role in driving project management acceptance and practice.  They must also all work synergistically for their efforts to succeed. (more…)

The PM Who Cries Wolf

The real power of a corporate vision is realized only when everyone in the organization clearly understands the vision and recognizes how everyone contributes to its success.  Easier said than done.  In most organizations, only a handful of people really understand the mission and how it translates to corporate objectives, and how the objectives realize priority projects.

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Fight for the CAUSE

Fight for the CAUSE!
 
Profitability.  Success.  Customer Loyalty.  These are words often used to describe bottom-line goals for business organizations.  However, when it comes time for organizations to execute on the business plan, too often we hear Delay, Restart, Over-Budget, Under-Resourced and Cancel.
How can an organization bet better at delivering on its goals and objectives?  One way is to establish a strategic, enterprise-wide Project Management Office (PMO) model.
If properly managed, a PMO can successfully support tactical execution of a strategic vision—and a whole lot more.

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Best of PM Network 2007 - Go Team, Go!

For the last installment in the PM Network extravaganza, there is an article on keeping project teams motivated that caught my attention, written by Simon Kent.

The article reminded me of a previous post I wrote back in February, 2007 titled Motivational Theory in Project Management where I laid out some of my thoughts on the topic, specifically in relation to Frederick Hertzberg’s work.
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Best of PM Network 2007 - The Afterlife

Project failure is the subject of this article in the August 2007 edition of PM Network. The article presents some good common-sense points about how to deal with project failure and learn from it. The standard wisdom of finding problems early when they are small, and applying lessons learned are put forth. All of this seems like common sense, but why do I know of many project managers who ignored trouble signals on projects, including myself? And why are lessons learned mostly used as a theoretical construct, and not something referenced regularly in everyday project management? (more…)

Best of PM Network 2007 - Competency Versus Connections

OK, I admit it. My selection of this particular feature had a little to do with the fact that I’m in it. So sue me.

PM Network does a feature occasionally called “Point, Counter Point” which is essentially a debate between two project managers on a specific topic. They asked me to debate Roland Gareis, Ph.D. on knowledge versus networks in getting ahead as a project manager. I think they are both very important, and they asked me to defend the connections argument. (more…)

Best of PM Network 2007 - Small Projects, Big Results

In the July 2007 edition of PM Network magazine, the cover story is titled “Small Projects, Big Results”. It speaks to the importance of doing sufficient planning even on small projects. I personally use a 4 tier category framework in which I apply various levels of rigor, which I wrote about here.
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