As project managers, our management likes insight into what the team is doing. There are many different ways to accomplish this including your project plan and all its specific plans, meetings with the managers to status the project, and schedules. One method that is very popular is the use of Gantt charts. A visual depiction A Gantt chart is a visual depiction of your schedule. […]
In day-to-day life and work, we often don’t put much thought into what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. I want to pause for a moment to review why, exactly, I love project management. Projects End “Some things are better done than described.” ~ Hunt and Thomas For me, Operations tasks are a never-ending bore. Once I’ve mastered something, continuing to do it seems […]
A critical component of the project is the project management plan. We’ve talked about developing a project management plan and schedule: Project planning – problems, scope, and deliverables, and Scheduling tips and techniques. There’s even a post on developing schedules so they display well on Gantt charts: Tips for developing a Gantt chart. Occasionally, there is a bit of confusion about what a Gantt chart is and how it […]
Do your team challenge you? Here are a few tips to get a handle on managing your team.
In my career, I was laid off from my job a total of 6 times in 30 years. At one point, I was laid off 3 times in 5 years. All but one of these layoffs happened during downturns in the economy and/or the company being sold. Make note – if your company is being acquired, polish your resume. The final layoff happened because the […]
If you’re not a project manager, you are probably unaware of scope management. I was wrapping up phase one of a complicated infrastructure project. We were installing a large Storage Area Network (SAN) to handle all the U.S. and Canadian Training Centers – 10 locations if I remember correctly – with around 75 training rooms. I was feeling good that we were almost done, and I was […]
Use Chaos Theory to manage projects? I have to admit, I’ve been on projects that are pure chaos, but never considered it as a project management methodology. Late in 2019, I was invited to review a new book, “Thriving at the Edge of Chaos: Managing Projects as Complex Adaptive Systems.” The title sounded intriguing to me, so I agree and Jonathan Sapir, the author, sent […]
It’s snowing again here in the Rocky Mountain West and the holiday gift season is right around the corner. Folks are busy worrying about the conversions and implementations they’re going to do after the holiday and business slows down. Or they’re looking forward to a very quiet two weeks as their co-workers and clients go on vacation. In the spirit of the season, here are […]
As project managers, one of our most important tasks is to manage scope. A great project scope statement serves as a baseline to determine what work the project team is authorized to do and a guide for handling scope change requests. According to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) 6th Edition, 2017, the Project Scope Statement is, “…the description of the project scope, major […]
For many projects, status meetings are a given, mostly because that’s how projects are run in most companies. So, if your company culture mandates status meetings, then let’s make those meetings the best use of time possible. Let’s assume that you already have a basic understanding of how a good meeting is run. You know you should have an agenda, only invite the relevant folks, […]
