PM-Foundations – Understanding the Maturity of Your Project Office

Posted by on May 12, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | 0 comments

Let me start by saying that this blog post does not dive into the depths of project or capability maturity models. I am focused in this discussion on how to build a project based organization that delivers in a consistent and effective manner across the project portfolio. I run across many clients that hire, contract, and develop a team of strong project managers, and still describe situations where they are achieving mixed results in terms of the success of their projects. Although people are certainly an important element of building a solid project office, it is not the only component required to provide tangible value to the overall organization. Establishing a mature project organization represents the process of assembling the right team, supporting the team with solid processes and tools, and most importantly creating a project based culture and competency that consistently meets or exceeds customer expectations. Why is Maturity Important? Maturity within the project organization represents an enabler to improve project delivery results

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PM-Foundations – Planning & Conducting Effective Project Meetings

Posted by on Mar 18, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

Project meetings can easily become the nemesis of your project success. Some of the things that I overhear when team members talk about project meetings: “My day is fully consumed by meetings. I have no time to do my real work.” “That meeting was a waste of time. Not sure what we were trying to accomplish.” “We talk about the same things in every meeting.” “The only decision we made today was that we need another meeting.” Do your project meetings have a regular cadence (timing, content, and attendance)? Do the project meetings have an established purpose and objectives? Do the meetings drive positive project outcomes in terms of information sharing, problem resolution, and tracking and planning of work? Are action items regularly captured, and follow-up actions proactively initiated and tracked

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Using MS Project to Manage the Critical Path

Posted by on Mar 9, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

The critical path represents the longest (in duration) network of tasks between defined start and end points. The critical path is what determines the total duration of the project. Therefore project managers often draw the logical conclusion that if they diligently manage the series of activities on the critical path, they will ensure that the project is delivered on-time. In my experience, the critical path is a great place to start in terms of analyzing and understanding the project schedule, however there are several pitfalls associated with becoming too focused on managing the critical path: 1. Secondary Paths – Within most project schedules there are alternative networks of activities that are almost as long as the critical path. All it takes is a few adjustments to the plans (i.e., new tasks, or changes in activity sequencing), or variances within the actual execution of the plans (i.e., delayed start of a task, or extended duration of a task), to cause one of the alternative activity networks to become the critical path.

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The Blame Game

Posted by on Feb 15, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

By Eileen Strider It’s so tempting and so much easier to place blame than take responsibility. Typically, there is some element of truth to where the blame is being placed.  We use blaming because it works at least some of the time. But blaming doesn’t fix anything or save your project from failure. Blaming is a way to protect yourself by diverting attention away from you onto someone or something else, an understandably human reaction. When you point the blame at someone else, everyone will be looking at that person, not at you.

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The Role of the Project Manager

Posted by on Feb 7, 2022 in PMChat Bloggers | Comments Off

by Marie Benesh One of the unfortunate roles of the project manager is sometimes having to be a buffer between an irrational or uninformed customer, sponsor or senior manager and the project team.  I couldn’t have said it better than this… Credit to Lori Priebe

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