Project Management Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-10-2022

PRINCE2 is an essential project management method, helping users organise, manage and direct their projects to time and within budget. This Cheat Sheet presents you with a few tips and wrinkles to get the best from PRINCE2.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Project 2019, the most recent incarnation of Microsoft’s popular project management software, offers a tremendous wealth of functionality. Microsoft Project 2019 however, probably isn’t like any other software you’ve ever used, so mastering it can seem a daunting process. This Cheat Sheet provides you with tips and tricks for doing what you do every day as a project manager.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-24-2022

Scrum focuses on continuous improvement, scope flexibility, team input, and delivering quality products. Scrum adheres to the Agile Manifesto and the 12 Agile Principles, which focus on people, communications, the product, and flexibility.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-22-2022

Successful organizations create projects that produce desired results in established time frames with assigned resources. As a result, businesses are increasingly driven to find project managers who can excel in this type of work environment. To get started in project management, you should understand the phases of a project’s life cycle, processes involved in project management, and the basic tasks you’re expected to perform.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-18-2022

To understand how to apply Lean in any organization, you should know the basics: the principles, the definitions of value and waste, how to lead effectively, and how to define and improve the value stream. You should also be aware of how a Lean leader thinks and acts.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-17-2022

Because of the ever-growing array of huge, complex, and technically challenging projects in today's world, effective project managers are in higher demand than ever before. People need the tools, techniques, and knowledge to handle their project management assignments, such as confirming a project's justification, developing project objectives and schedules, maintaining commitment for a project, holding people accountable, and avoiding common project pitfalls.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-14-2022

To apply Six Sigma to your business and produce the best results, you need to understand what Six Sigma is, the principles of Six Sigma, and the DMAIC problem-solving method. The correct tools and use of the Six Sigma scale and methods will keep your data dependable and reusable.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 09-22-2021

Are you ready to adopt the proven methods of Lean Six Sigma to improve business performance and make your teams more productive? Remind yourself of the key principles of this powerful strategy so that your business runs smoothly and efficiently.

Article / Updated 08-26-2021

You want to be a better project manager, right? Well, before you really jump in, do a quick self-evaluation to see what your strengths and weaknesses are. By answering the following ten questions, you can get an idea of what subjects you need to spend more time on so you can be as effective as possible. Good luck! Questions Are you more concerned about being everyone’s friend or getting a job done right? Do you prefer to do technical work or manage other people doing technical work? Do you think the best way to get a tough task done is to do it yourself? Do you prefer your work to be predictable or constantly changing? Do you prefer to spend your time developing ideas rather than explaining those ideas to other people? Do you handle crises well? Do you prefer to work by yourself or with others? Do you think you shouldn’t have to monitor people after they’ve promised to do a task for you? Do you believe people should be self-motivated to perform their jobs? Are you comfortable dealing with people at all organizational levels? Answer key Although maintaining good working relations is important, the project manager often must make decisions that some people don’t agree with for the good of the project. Most project managers achieve their positions because of their strong performance on technical tasks. However, after you become a project manager, your job is to encourage other people to produce high-quality technical work rather than to do it all yourself. Believing in yourself is important. However, the project manager’s task is to help other people develop to the point where they can perform tasks with the highest quality. The project manager tries to minimize unexpected problems and situations through responsive planning and timely control. However, when problems do occur, the project manager must deal with them promptly to minimize their impact on the project. Though coming up with ideas can help your project, the project manager’s main responsibility is to ensure that every team member correctly understands all ideas that are developed. The project manager’s job is to provide a cool head to size up the situation, choose the best action, and encourage all members to do their parts in implementing the solution. Self-reliance and self-motivation are important characteristics for a project manager. However, the key to any project manager’s success is to facilitate interaction among a diverse group of technical specialists. Although you may feel that honoring one’s commitments is a fundamental element of professional behavior, the project manager needs both to ensure that people maintain their focus and to model how to work cooperatively with others. People should be self-motivated, but the project manager has to encourage them to remain motivated by their job assignments and related opportunities. The project manager deals with people at all levels — from upper management to support staff — who perform project-related activities. Check out the table of contents to find out where I discuss these different aspects of the project manager’s job in more depth.

Article / Updated 08-24-2021

As a project manager, it's important to nail down goals before you start planning project-execution details. In your quest to find out what your project is supposed to accomplish and how it fits into your organization’s overall plans, you have to seek information that’s sensitive, sometimes contradictory, and often unwritten. Getting this information isn’t always easy, but following these tips can help make your search more productive: Try to find several sources for the same piece of information. The greater the number of independent sources that contain the same information, the more likely the information is correct. Whenever possible, get information from primary sources. A primary source contains the original information. A secondary source is someone else’s report of the information from the primary source. Suppose you need information from a recently completed study. You can get the information from the primary source (which is the actual report of the study written by the scientists who performed it), or you can get it from secondary sources (such as articles in magazines or scientific journals by authors who paraphrased and summarized the original report). The farther your source is from the primary source, the more likely the secondary information differs from the real information. Look for written sources because they’re the best. Check relevant minutes from meetings, correspondence, e-mail, reports from other projects, long-range plans, budgets, capital improvement plans, market requirement documents, and benefit-cost analyses. Speak with two or more people from the same area to confirm information. Different people have different styles of communication as well as different perceptions of the same situation. Speak with more than one person, and compare their messages to determine any contradictions. If you get different stories, speak with the people again to verify their initial information. Determine whether the people you consulted are primary or secondary sources (primary sources tend to be more accurate than secondary ones). Ask the people you consulted to explain or reconcile any remaining differences. When speaking with people about important information, arrange to have at least one other person present. Doing so allows two different people to interpret what they hear from the same individual. Write down all information you obtain from personal meetings. Share your written notes and summaries with other people who were present at the meeting to ensure that your interpretation is correct and to serve as a reminder of agreements made during the meeting. Plan to meet at least two times with your project’s key audiences. Your first meeting starts them thinking about issues. Allow some time for them to think over your initial discussions and to think of new ideas related to those issues. A second meeting gives you a chance to clarify any ambiguities or inconsistencies from the first session. Practice active listening skills in all your meetings and conversations. Active listening is a skill all managers need to develop. Wherever possible, confirm what you heard in personal meetings with written sources. When you talk with people, they share their perceptions and opinions. Compare those perceptions and opinions with written, factual data (from primary sources, if possible). Discuss any discrepancies with those same people.