change-management

This is the 1st of the three articles that discuss about strategies for new project managers to function effectively. The three steps are; understanding top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan to avoid them, how to have a solid communication plan and how to manage changes. The 1st article covers top ten reasons of a project failure and how to proactively plan in order to avoid them.

One of my CEOs recently mentioned that the recession is forcing him to rethink all aspects of his business, including how many employees it takes to do a job.  (Six people to change a light bulb?)
He remarked that he is in the business of clearing out the deadwood and is glad for the excuse to [...]

In the PMI NorCal Symposium 2008 just concluded at Stanford University, Esteri Hinman, a Capability Owner at Intel’s Corporate Platform Office, included a fabulous letter to executives in her presentation.  The letter is too good–and relevant–to go unnoticed, so here it is.  Please feel free to pass it along to others who need it.

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Most project managers find that they when they complete the planning of a project they become inundated in the following execution phase. This is primarily because of the need for overall project coordination, routine schedule management, integrated change control, and project status tracking. In most cases, there is more work than can be accomplished by [...]

Hi, this is ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D. again.  Here’s the second in my series of scenarios:
While conducting management training for a group of managers at XYZ Corp. they had a change in upper management and the new management was trying to trim costs.  One of the managers consulting with me, let’s call her Sandra, was scared.  [...]

Much as he did earlier in his career, Proman was now at another crossroad. The large program had just concluded. What’s next? He noticed how engaged he’d felt during the process. Each day he threw himself into the proceedings with renewed vigor and seemed to know instinctively what to do. [...]

In my examples this week, I’ve been writing about ways to convince those with the power to embrace some good software project management behavior.  I’d like to give some final advice for the week.  Think like a leader.
Don’t simply complain about your project management problems.  Try to do something about them.

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A second complaint from my students (see yesterday’s post) is: “Management adds requirements to my project without asking me if I can still make the schedule and without taking anything away.  All the time.”
Of course, what’s “bad” about this behavior is not that requirements change: that’s expected: although there must be a limit.  What’s “bad” [...]

Welcome on a metaphorical exploration of project leadership philosophy and practices. I am fortunate to live on 20 acres in the Santa Cruz mountains rising 3000 feet above the Silicon Valley. Out here Mother Nature’s rules are the law. My background as a transformational engineer and a wilderness guide has enabled me to observe these [...]

Does your team seem to be allergic to process?  Have you been trying to implement project management best practices and meeting resistance? 
If so, have you addressed your team’s inherent questions, like “How will this make my life better?” and “Is that improvement enough to merit the hassle of changing?”  Have you explained how this will [...]

Managing outsourced work
Now that you’ve made your decision, picked a supplier, and written a contract, just kick back and let them do the work and deliver a final product. After all, they won’t fail because they promised they wouldn’t. And besides, you won’t pay them any more than they bid.
Not so fast.

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES
TO AVOID CAREER LIMITING MOVES – PART 3 of 3
Jeff Schlageter
President, Project Acceleration
Jeff@ProjectAcceleration.com
Wouldn’t it be great to have a list of project management “best practices” that would help you benefit from the experiences of hundreds of other program managers? In a way, these best practices would be like having your own project [...]

I am shocked, shocked! at silicon valley business immaturity in project management . Home of some of the greatest, innovative companies on the planet, and we cannot execute projects any better than anyone else.

Technorati Tags: change-management, cultural-differences, dysfuncitonal-corporate-culture, generational-differences, organizational-maturity, project-management, Teams

In my last post, I discussed change and how it is always present in projects. In this post I would like to discuss a particular area of change: what we often call changing requirements. Changing requirements are typically blamed for most ills in software projects. How can this be resolved with my [...]

Leading the change process to support a project-based organization (PBO) requires a focus on adding value and alignment, from strategy through to execution.  Management roles and approaches to leadership in a PBO might range from a Project Office of One (POO) to a Strategic Project Office (SPO).  If this is your concern, first

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Do you recognize that your current project is late, but you haven’t taken steps necessary to rescue it, except for saying “we’ll work harder to bring it back on schedule?” If you admit that you should do more to handle your project lateness, then the next question is what steps you should take? Actually, the [...]

A short while ago, our fearless leader, Kimberly, wrote about the six hats.  I thought I’d add a little to her suggestions.  The technique, called “Six Thinking Hats”  comes from a book by the same name written by E. deBono. (Boston, Little, Brown & Company, 1985)
The beauty of the technique is that it helps participatns [...]

I often present the ten pieces of a puzzle that comprise an environment for successful projects.  The pieces, however, will not stay together without glue. The glue has two vital ingredients:  authenticity and integrity.  Authenticity means that managers really mean what they say.  Integrity means that they really do what they say they will do, [...]

Part One of Creating the Project Office is creating the conditions for change; Part Two is making the change; Part Three is making change stick.  Our greatest challenge in putting the concepts into action is to rewrite the myth of Sisyphus.  Greek gods condemned Sisyphus to keep rolling a rock to the top of a [...]

Part One is creating the conditions for change; Part Two is making the change. We are now ready to enter the final phase of the journey, the toughest part: making change stick.  If the change agent team has made it this far, some amount of time has elapsed.  The project office has no doubt changed [...]

Part One creates conditions so that change could happen.  In Part Two, change the emphasis from planning to doing.  Now is the time to make contact with those people in the organization who must actually carry out the planned changes.  A military dictum asserts “no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.”  The members [...]