Josh

I passed the PMP Exam recently, and wanted to share my experience in general.  For those opposed to the PMP exam, please read before commenting, you may be surprised at my take on it. In general: Many questions involved picking the best of several correct answers The technique of eliminating 2 answers first didn’t work [...]

I get many questions from people who want to enter into project management as a profession. After all, my blog is pmStudent. One of the most common questions is “how do I get started”? I received an email from a reader recently with this question, and so I would like to share some thoughts with [...]

By Hal Macomber, Project Reformer 10 Adopt practices for exploring a variety of perspectives. We think we see what we see, but we don’t. We really see what we think. Remember the blind men and the elephant. Make it your habit to inquire what others see. You’ll see more together. Technorati Tags: building_relationships, collaboration, perspectives, [...]

By Jerry Manas How many times have we seen PMOs create intricate processes and templates, only to find that there are more exceptions than rules? We create forms, templates, and stage gates, in an attempt to gain control. But in doing so, we also create such barriers to implementation that it becomes like the Twelve [...]

By Thomas Cutting, PMP You leave for your flight well ahead of schedule.  Traffic is light and you arrive, unhurried, at the airport.  Strolling up to the counter you secretly laugh at the frantic people running toward the crowded ticket line or scanning the flickering departure screens in panic.  Being the saint that you are, [...]

As a project manager, you must understand these four budget items. If you do not recognize and understand them it is possible (even likely) that you will not properly understand your budget status and you may make wrong decisions based on these misunderstanding.

By Josh Nankivel Fellow blogger Craig Brown over at Better Projects asked “Why reverse engineer requirements?” in a recent post.Interesting question: Craig asked what value there is in trying to derive requirements based on an existing system. There are two points that came to mind on this. Technorati Tags: business-analyst, project-management, requirements, reverse-engineer, use-case

To someone else. Why? Some project managers accidentally stumble into the profession. Others enter the field on purpose. Both groups tend to settle into a particular way of managing projects, and over time it seems most form specific ideas about what works and what doesn’t from their experience. Projects in general have some similarities. Technorati [...]

I’m studying for the PMP exam, and I’m using the PMPrepcast to study. I actually found one point to disagree with Cornelius Fitchner on today! (That doesn’t usually happen!) In the Scope Control podcast, he talks about the “updates to the scope baseline” as being redundant, since the process also produces updates to all 3 [...]

I’m getting ready to take the PMP exam in a little while, and so I’ve recently gone through the exercise of documenting all of my PM experience to meet the requirements for the PMP application. There are several helpful websites and templates that I found. I looked at a few of them, and ended up [...]

Cutting’s Edge is one of my favorite project management blogs. Thomas recently posted on the cost of project success. I enjoyed the examples of the construction of several wonders of the world as projects and their often overlooked consequences on the project teams that built them. Thomas draws out a parallel to contemporary projects, and [...]

Kimberly Wiefling had an article on Projects@Work (www.projectsatwork.com) giving us a taste of some hard-learned lessons when dealing with project sponsors. I’ve always loved Kimberly’s sense of humor and highly recommend just about anything she’s written. This is a great example of education a la entertainment. Check out her book too, I own it and [...]

I recently read an article on Project Connections, In Defense of the Project Management “Perfect World” by Carl Pritchard, PMP, EVP. I thought it was an excellent article, with well-stated and supported points. There are many theoretical frameworks for project management, quality, general management, etc. I’m convinced that above a particular threshold, all of them [...]

In an article at Projects@Work, Tom Mochal discusses how enhancement work not directly related to a project should be added to the managed portfolio. This way, the business can ensure that the dollars are being spent in the most effective way on these non-project activities. I agree with what Tom is saying. A point I’d [...]

Sorry, no direct correlation will be made to the Captain in Cool Hand Luke. Oh well, same topic (sorta). Project Management is 90% communication! How many times have we heard that one before? I revisited a post titled “Silence : One of the Two Great Wastesâ„¢ : Is a Project and Career Killer” over at [...]

The student syndrome is alive and well. I see it all around me, and I am no less guilty than any other. Why do we put everything off until the last minute? Especially the important things? I’ve recently read The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss, which has helped heighten my sensitivity to this phenomenon going [...]

Dave Garrett recently wrote on the concepts expressed by Aaron Shanhar in his book, Reinventing Project Management. The gist is that the common triple-constraint model of managing cost, schedule, and scope is not enough. As I like to put it and in Goldratt’s words, necessary but not sufficient. I have not yet read Shanhar’s book, [...]

I had a stimulating discussion today with Travis, a friend and colleague about communication styles. It reminded me about the importance of catching people doing things right. Many managers and co-workers miss opportunities to congratulate or thank people who go above and beyond, but rarely miss an opportunity to criticize when mistakes are made. Here [...]

Finding the right balance of documentation and methodology can be challenging on small projects. Here are some guidelines I use when managing smaller projects. I have been managing small projects for some time now. Some of my project are really tiny, I’m talking about 8 hours of work max. Others can be 2 week or [...]

I recently studied Frederick Hertzberg‘s article on his motivational theory, in the Harvard Business Review. The title is “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Read it here. I’ve heard about the theory before of course, vaguely referred to as the hygiene/motivator theory and it usually managed to earn about 1 slide in a [...]

I wrote earlier about a potential method of using Critical Chain-stype “mini-buffers” within an element of a traditional project management approach. Now I would like to revisit multi-tasking and how having some experience with the Agile software development methodology called SCRUM has helped me formulate some guidelines. Some of these ideas come straight from Critical [...]