Planning

By Pam Fox Rollin • April 30th, 2012

A decision calendar? You’re already drowning in calendars, I know. You maintain your project milestones calendar, your team’s meeting calendar, product launch calendars, the meeting and milestones calendar for every project you support, your own Outlook or Gmail calendar, and that’s just for work. Yet, projects still feel chaotic, and you wonder whether your team [...]

Part I – Impact of High School Choice on Student Final Year Performance Dr. Shree R. Nanguneri and Project Lead Contributor, Ms. Reethika S. Iyer* Background: In an earlier publication on this forum we focused our discussions on the relevance, meaning and value of LSS and PMP professionals in the industry. In Part I of [...]

Enhancing PMP with Business Process Excellence Part III (Final Part of Series) Viable Lean Six Sigma Solutions to Validate Project Timelines and Increase KPI Linkage for PMP leaders Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg   Meandering in a World Swayed by Certification: In Part I, we addressed the vitality of the linkage of a [...]

Enhancing PMP with Business Process Excellence Part II (of an III Part Series) Validating Project Timelines against Expected Changes in Customer Requirements Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg Background for “Changes in Customer Requirement:” In Part I we initiated discussions on how the KPI needs to link with the business goals and objectives.  In [...]

Linking PMP Leaders’ KPI with Customers’ Success Dr. Shree Nanguneri and Mr. Gustav Toppenberg click to hear music Brief Introduction of the current PMP and LSS status quo: Whether we refer the PMP or LSS leadership success there is a clear process that is transparent as shown below: With the PMP space we are looking [...]

This series cover three methods of charting and logging your work product estimations:

Iterative charting to improve accuracy
Charting for effective communications
Charting for a streamlining process example

Time is just a form of measurement. It’s a tool for our convenience. One of the uses for “time” is to synchronize pieces of a project: to schedule the various work products and integrate into a quality product, service or event. Inaccurate estimating skills slow down the entire team and builds resentment in those required to pick-up the slack.

Time is just a form of measurement. It’s a tool for our convenience. One of the uses for “time” is to synchronize pieces of a project: to schedule the various work products and integrate into a quality product, service or event. Inaccurate estimating skills slow down the entire team and builds resentment in those required to pick-up the slack.

When things are not going our way, we need to stop and evaluate; because things are supposed to work smoothly together. So, when we find any type of resistance, chances are something isn’t matching. Either the rules or the people involved are not aligned. Once again – no one is doing anything wrong. It’s just not a perfect match, yet.

This is the second part of a three part article discussing “how does a project manager intelligently handle delays?”

Last article we focused on acknowledging the natural flow of a project which includes periodic speed bumps and roadblocks. In today’s article we’ll focus on using critical path analysis to assist with project management. Diagramming the critical paths of a project accomplishes several things:

Last week I was taping a series of lectures for the Sequel Server World Wide User Group (SSWUG.org), and I was asked “how does a project manager handle items that causes us to miss deadlines?”

This is an interesting question, because every project will have speed bumps. A good project manager expects speed-bumps and actually plans for the unexpected. So – how does one do this intelligently to synchronize with the final delivery dates?

This is the second part of a three part article discussing “how does a project manager intelligently handle delays in a project?”

Last article we focused on acknowledging the natual flow of a project which includes periodic speed bumps and roadblocks. In today’s article we’ll focus on using recovery protocol plans to assist with project management.

I just finished the book Blind Decent of James Tabor. It came highly recommended by a good friend of mine. The book tells the story of two explorers, one American and one Russian, trying to find the deepest cave in the world, one in Mexico and one in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The [...]

Industry Professionals: In this 3-part series, we will share with our readers on how skills in the process excellence area such as Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Project Management (PM) can be integrated for a holistic success of professionals in industry, academic institutions as well as small business entrepreneurs. In part 1 I am focusing [...]

So many projects depend on IT and business alignment, and so many fail because that alignment is often like a Platonic ideal unrealizable in the real world. The question is:

why projects fail,
who’s to blame,
and how to fix the problem.

Many wise people will advise: Slow down to speed up Pausing to be creative Take a break to stay energized To assist with this advice, here are three T’s to remember: 1) Time a. Take control over your calendar b. Just because it’s “happening now” doesn’t make it urgent c. Expect the unexpected with sprints [...]

Did you know Project Management is having a birthday? Well, sort of a birthday. It was 100  years ago, in 1911, that Frederick W. Taylor published Principles of Scientific Management. Early pioneers of project management, such as Henry Gantt, were followers of Dr. Taylor. Now, for historical accuracy, it should be noted that Dartmouth College [...]

What are some of the main causes behind estimating errors? And what specific steps can project managers can take to increase the accuracy of estimations?

If you are managing a project to deliver a new product or service, you’ll be making lots of decisions.  If you are doing a good job of keeping your stakeholders involved, there will undoubtedly be scrutiny about those decisions. Most companies are filled with smart, highly-trained managers who make it their job to be critical [...]

Status reports (or whatever your particular methodological school calls them) are frequently maligned – c.f. “TPS Reports” in the movie Office Space – and misused. They are the weekly report that you just have to grind out for your project or program that shows you have been doing something, that you suspect no one reads [...]

When you first start out as a professional project manager, you typically have had some informal project management experience as part of your other professional responsibilities. Then you take a serious PM course or two, maybe get a PMP and suddenly you find yourself equipped with a giant tool chest full of powerful and complex [...]