Psychology and Project Management
Posted by Lindsay Scott on Jun 18, 2013 in PMChat Bloggers | 0 comments
At last week’s Association for Project Management’s (APM) annual conference there was a definite feel of human behaviour and psychology in the air. With two keynote speakers focusing on human behaviour there was a lot of food for thought. We’ll be looking at the subject of psychology and project management in this month’s newsletter – due out this Thursday ( you can sign up on the website ) and I’ll cover the two main speakers there. One of the speakers Professor Richard Wiseman gave a great keynote speech on luck – are we lucky or unlucky? Does luck even exist? The presentation was all about our own attitudes – if we’re generally more positive in life we tend to spot opportunities that will work out well for us. If we’re a glass half empty we’ll tend to see the negative in most situations – failing to see what’s right under our noses.
Read MoreIt’s harsh but so much is true.. graduate project managers take note
Posted by Lindsay Scott on Jun 13, 2013 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off
A new slideshare just out this month… Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You. Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You. from Mark O’Toole photo credit: x-ray delta one via photopin cc Related Posts Monday Morning Links – 26th October Graduate Opportunities in Project Management Live Q&A – Project Management Careers (December) Graduates in Project Management Five Ways to Use Us: Part II Convincing The Recruiter: Looking Professional in Your Job Search Online Dependency? Standing Out in a Project Management Meerkat Zemanta
Read MoreScope is Quality
Posted by Simon Harris on Jun 12, 2013 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off
Confusing words often show us where there are poorly understood concepts lurking below the surface. One such area is scope and quality (yes one area). Problems with both the labels ‘scope’ and ‘quality’ are grounded in the same simple fact: they have two parallel equally valid but different definitions. Both the titles are the same element of project management described twice and neither is the insightful label that “acceptance criteria” would be. Two Definitions of Scope FIRST: Everything that must be delivered (Product/ Outcome/ Result). A customer oriented view of the impact any project must make to avoid a threat to business as usual or pursue an opportunity for return. ALTERNATE: Everything that must be done (task/ activity/ work-package) to deliver products/ Outcomes/ Results
Read MoreBook Review: The Agile PMO
Posted by Ken Burrell on Jun 10, 2013 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off
Book Review: The Agile PMO Leading the Effective, Value Driven, Project Management Office. Michael Nir Self-published by the Author as a Kindle eBook on Amazon.com > available here 46 pages (estimated, 10,400 words) £2.05 RRP (review copy supplied free of charge) Rating: **** This book leads with a single central principle – that a PMO’s sole reason for existence is the creation of value for the organisation, and that the single most effective way it can do that is by managing the allocation of resources to projects. Of course, tools, methodology and processes are all good things to have, but identifying how to deploy resources for the best return on that investment is where a PMO really comes into its own. I initially found such a forceful statement a little hard to swallow, but the book shows (using example scenarios drawn from the author’s consulting experience) several ways how the PMO can fail if it chooses to focus its efforts in other directions. If a PMO fails to establish the necessary authority and credibility with the Project Manager (PM) community at a sufficiently early stage, it becomes relegated to performing only supportive, administrative work. This is so time-consuming that there is no time to develop more useful services, value delivery is limited and the PMO will be cut as soon as funding decreases. If a PMO focuses on methodology, the PMs may superficially complete templates and processes just to keep the PMO quiet, but the completed templates and processes may bear little relation to reality
Read MoreMy Most Important Project Management Best Practice
Posted by Harold Kerzner on Jun 3, 2013 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off
During the (almost) five decades I have spent in the project management arena, I have collected many best practices that eventually end up in my textbooks . Most of these best practices revolve around continuous improvements to the project management methodology, resulting in updates to the policies, procedures, forms, guidelines and templates used for managing projects. Actually, the wording “best practice” may be incorrect. It may be better to use the words “proven practice” because a best practice implies that we may not be able to improve it further. Proven practices, on the other hand, are subject to continuous updates. There is, however, one best practice I’ve used over the years and have never been able to improve upon.
Read More