Rosemary Hossenlopp - UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley

Strategies, tactics, skills and practices are empty without an understanding of the fundamental human aspirations that connect leaders and constituents. This message from The Leadership Challenge rings so true for project management. As I continue with communication and leadership book review this week, I want to share key principles from this book on how to [...]

Conflict is a growth industry. The subtle and delicious irony of that statement in the introduction to the book “Getting to YES; Negotiating Agreement without Giving In” makes this book truly an important read for project managers. As introduced in the last blog post, I am a volunteer with PMI.org’s Organizational Project Management (OPM) Community [...]

Have you ever read a work-related book that you just loved? Not often – right? Well I just finished rereading Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott. It is mind breaker; both tough and emotionally impacting. Just what is needed for Project Management Professionals. The  forward of the book says “The notion that  our lives succeed or [...]

Author: Mitch Rosner In the UCSC Project Leadership and Communication course, I was asked “what are project management leadership and communication best practices for aligning project work to needs of an organization?” As a experienced project management professional, many thoughts were evoked. Also, as an analytically trained individual, breaking down this statement into its parts [...]

Author: Ruomu Zhu What are project management leadership and communication best practices for aligning project work to the needs of an organization? I suppose there are many but let’s talk about some of my top Do’s and Don’ts. DO inspire. Lead by example. Act and behave as you would expect your team to. Think back [...]

Author: Srinivasan Varadharajan Alignment of project work to organizational strategy reminds me of an interesting conversation I had with one of my friends a couple of weeks ago.  When discussing this course with him, he told me about an article he had read on the web, on effectiveness and efficiency – two similar sounding words [...]

Author: Kristi Barker-Vallinayagam Her heart was pounding. Her palms were sweaty and she couldn’t even get the gloves on to hold the line. She must have been thinking to herself; how did she ever talk herself into doing this in front of her team? She signed off on going 65 feet down a zip line [...]

Author: Shuna Wu Would I propose a PMO to my company? The answer is Yes! As a program manager, I have been thinking whether to propose a PMO for my company. After I attended the UCSC Extension of Silicon Valley Fall 2010 PMO course instructed by Rosemary Hossenlopp, this thought became clearer and stronger. So [...]

Author: Romain Tanière It seems like your projects consistently overrun their budget, are delayed due to over-committed resources and don’t meet business objectives. As a result your team is frustrated, and uncommitted. Your organization reinvents the wheel each time resources are reallocated to a new project. Worst of all, you, the project manager, has to [...]

Strong PMOs enhance the project management process not by saddling it with unnecessary processes and procedures – thinking EPM here – but choosing the right projects, allowing the project manager to effectively execute. The PMO provides assistance and guidance – to achieve one-time success that translates into repeatability, scalability and compliance.

Peter Ng UCSC Extension PMO Course Student Recently  I came across a statistics about the value of PMO’s given by Dr. Hobbs in his paper on the Multi-Project PMO. Interestingly in the finding, 42% of PMOs are not meeting the expectation within their organizations. Wow, this is a significant percentage! Your organization might have already [...]

Robert Maltas UCSC Extension Spring 2010 PMO Course Student Are you a senior project manager who just had a request to start a PMO land in their email inbox? If so, follow these suggestions to quick-start your winning PMO proposal. Who do you have to sell the idea to Find out who are the key [...]

By Serene Chiew, LEED AP UCSC Extension Spring 2010 PMO Course Student Implementing a PMO is like cooking a Thanksgiving turkey. Like implementing a PMO, cooking a turkey requires a lot of planning and preparation work. You need to find the right recipe, choose the right process and tools that are appropriate to your skill [...]

Rachel Phillips UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communications Student Many of us are accidental project managers. So here are some survival tips. Know Your Goal – Before starting a project, decide on a goal by taking input from your project team and the key constituencies, i.e. people who are affected by your project. Create a [...]

Indu Sattiraju UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student If I were to ask you to shout out the single most important leadership skill that a Project Manager must possess, what would you say? Are you thinking about all the leaders you admire? What is the one skill that separates your favorite leaders from the [...]

Shirley Gruber UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student In Project Management, as in any management role, strong leadership and effective communication are key requirements for success.  This applies to all types of organizations, from small, non-profit volunteer efforts to large and influential corporations.  In fact, with the right leadership, a handful of people can [...]

// Theresa Soltzberg UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student Are you getting the results you want as a project manager? Is your team as strong as you’d like it to be? You may want to ask yourself some important questions and listen closely to your answers. Improving your leadership practices and expanding your communication [...]

By Sarah Fleming UCSC Extension Project Communication and Leadership course student Do you know if your organization is projecting on the right projects? If there are any questions in your mind about that, a key question to ask is “What are project management leadership and communication best practices for aligning project work to the needs [...]

By Rebeca Shen UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Student There are many ways to skin a cat.   May be (haven’t done any, personally, for the record).  There are good ways and better ways to skin a cat.  Probably.  There are more than one ways to lead a project? Of course.  There are good and [...]

By Erika Andersen UCSC Extension Project Leadership and Communication Spring 2010 Student  Have you ever been in a project review meeting where you realize that people are talking but no one is communicating? Why does this happen? Project teams and organizations often have different perspectives and goals. You and your team are focused on the [...]

I was in an airport last night waiting to board a flight back to SFO. I couldn’t avoid seeing or hearing the TV’s blaring out commentary on Tiger Woods. Larry King droned on…What he said, comparisons to apologies from other political leaders, the standard (or lack therefore) for sports figures. Everyone had an opinion. What [...]