Less is More: How to Not Get Trapped Under Microsoft Project

Do a quick search for project management jobs and you will usually find an emphasis on the ability to create and manage plans in Microsoft Project.  Although nearly every project manager has used this tool before, it is frequently misused and misunderstood.  This often leads to frustration and reversion to other methods of planning and tracking.

Keep it Simple - How much do you really need to know about Microsoft Project?  To get through your career as a project manager, not as much as you think.  Perhaps a small fraction of the actual features.  But how can you distinguish useful features vs time wasters which don’t add value?  One effective answer is a combination of a hands-on course led by an instructor with real project management experience; and, a commitment of time to work with the tool using recommended best practices.

(more…)

Managing Complexity: Train Your Brain

Every project is unique. Circumstances are always different. Different people. Different goals. To lead a project, or organizations in general for that matter, to success, you need to tailor your approach to the situation. To be able to do this you got to have a flexible mind. One that can switch from one world view to another; one that can use one set of assumptions right now, and an entire different way of thinking in a couple of minutes.

Photography by Erikogan.

(more…)

Project Management And The Fish Pond

For those who missed it: the world is changing. We are global, diverse and confused. This is not your grandfather’s earth. It is not even your daddy’s earth. Economic powers are shifting; you are now working with people from all over the globe. With different backgrounds, different beliefs, different economic and social possibilities. If someone brakes wind in Toronto, you can smell it in Bangladesh. Everything effects everything. Fast and in ways we have no clue about.

Photography by Jelene.

(more…)

Cross-cultural Intelligence 3.0: Develop a Global Mindset

Yes, we’re living in a world economy and it’s the era of globalization. Yet it seems so difficult for many organizations to develop a global view. Innovation, speed to market, and customer intimacy are increasingly becoming drivers for achieving competitive advantage in today’s networked world. Yet few companies are paying full attention to the needs of a culturally diverse audience. Everybody’s talking about the need to survive in a “flat world”. Yet few managers are talking about what this means to their global planning and execution needs. Which begs the question: What have you done to develop your global mindset? (more…)

Cross-cultural Intelligence 2.0

The international adventures and pitfalls of a global project manager can make great storytelling for your team campfire. Then why is it that most team members would prefer that you put out the flame? Why not keep the fire burning? When the team has celebrated the successful conclusion of the project, they’re ready to head home and re-energize for the next adventure. Having to perform a post-mortem and share lessons learned is not always an enticing prospect. It can also be difficult to share failures or lessons learned due to cultural perceptions and communication styles. Yet if you succeed in developing an international dialogue, you can ignite new ideas and fire up best practices around the world. (more…)

Cross-cultural Intelligence 1.0

You’ve developed the global project plan, polished the strategy, won approval from the sponsoring executive, and presented it with great fanfare to your worldwide team. As you wait for the accolades, the plan surprisingly draws mixed reviews from your stakeholders and team members around the world. Team Europe directly voices its discontent with the lack of local adaptability and elects to create its own game plan. Team Asia congratulates you on the new plan and quietly continues its own course for the project planning phase. What went wrong? (more…)

Engaging brain before engaging outsourcing

If you have not read Shampa’s post below I encourage all of you to read it.  I would like to point out a few newish developments on the software side.  First of all my information on outsourcing prices is from about two years ago.  As most of you know the dollar has taken a significant plunge since then so outsourcing would have gotten even more expensive in terms of dollars.  When I had to calculate the cost of an engineer outsouced from India vs. one onsite in the U.S two years ago the cost ratio was about two outsourced engineers for the price of an onsite after the real middlemen costs were taken into account.  From a project management standpoint I knew from experience that except for well defined and stable pieces of the project I might be better off with onsite engineer productivity due to ease of communication.  That being said it was always easier to get approval for offsite engineers because of the perception that outsourcing was “the no brainer way to go” given the exchange rates.

Now I am with a small game company startup and the equations are changing rapidly again for onsite vs. offsite.  (more…)