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October 2009 Blog Posts (33)

Helping new sponsor understand the Joys of Sponsorship

The truth be told, a new sponsor may need help understanding with their role. PMO’s often have onboarding processes for new project managers, they should also consider extending support to project sponsors. A sponsor may need to understand their roles and responsibilities as they add this extra helping to their already full plate.

Sponsors normally are either the directors or managers of an organization. These individuals have excelled in their area of expertise and been placed in… Continue

Added by Elyse Nielsen on October 31, 2009 at 11:02am — No Comments

Process Improvement Video

This past week I gave talk on Process Improvement at my Company. We walked through the DMAIC of the Six Sigma process. Even though time was short I was able to get my point across to the attendees on the importance of Six Sigma using a real life example within our organization.

Click here to get to the… Continue

Added by Ryan Endres on October 29, 2009 at 6:16pm — No Comments

Agile development survey

I received an email yesterday inviting me to complete a "State of Agile" survey. I had a little time available so I started merrily clicking on radio buttons, pleased to be contributing to the broader knowledge base of the Agile community.

But then I stopped. Why? I started to realise that the answers I was giving to very black-and-white questions were going to give a false impression of the state of our organisation when it comes to Agile development. Rather than skew the results of… Continue

Added by Chris Davies on October 29, 2009 at 6:28am — No Comments

Efficient Job Hunting Online - Friday Oct 30th at noon ET/ 9 am PT

Space is limited.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/887600354

Presented by: Brain Gain Recruiting

How to be found online

where to post a resume (job board comparison)

where to create a profile (social networks comparison)

how to optimize your profile for keyword search

how to announce your job search

how to keep the… Continue

Added by Irina Shamaeva on October 28, 2009 at 4:52pm — No Comments

Requirements gathering workshops

Today I ran the second in a series of requirements gathering workshops. Afterwards, I drove back to the office and realised that I was not as satisfied with the results as I had been with the first session.

After a little self-analysis, I came to the conclusion that I was particularly happy with the first session because we generated a lot of Post-It notes. The second session merely filled in some of the gaps and completed the breadth of the requirements. I… Continue

Added by Chris Davies on October 28, 2009 at 2:45pm — 2 Comments

11 Critical Considerations for Managing Outsourcing Projects

Both private and public service sector organizations face an ongoing challenge to determine whether functions should be performed internally or externally. While much is written about how to make this decision from an organizational strategic perspective, there are few guidelines for the project manager to use during the initiation and planning phases. Outsourcing is not always as… Continue

Added by ExecutiveBrief on October 28, 2009 at 6:54am — No Comments

Skills and experience are not enough

My conviction, from the past learnings, especially in managing people is, we need more than just skills and experience to deliver.

I will start with 3 major buckets when looking for resources in a project team. For that matter, into the organization.

1. Skills

2. Experience

3. Qualities

Skills are the knowledge elements required for the job. You advertize them prominently. Experience is obvious which is also advertized prominently. The last, but most… Continue

Added by Mohammed Ataur Rehman on October 28, 2009 at 2:37am — 1 Comment

Is Project Management Common Sense?

“Isn’t this all just common sense?”

Wow, good question. This question was asked by one of my students while we were discussing the importance of managing project resources and assignments based on the critical path. And then some really good conversation ensued. This particular student felt that all project management best practices are really just common sense. Others disagreed and still others thought the answer was somewhere in the middle. To some, once they learned the project… Continue

Added by Margaret Meloni on October 26, 2009 at 11:09am — 7 Comments

A New Perspective on Using an Issues Log

What is an Issues Log?

When managing a project, it is inevitable that unexpected (or perhaps expected) challenges will arise. It is the responsibility of the Project Manager to document these items and bring them to the attention of the appropriate stakeholders. But therein lies an additional challenge: how does a project manager honestly present major ‘issues’ in a positive light, especially if the stakeholders being addressed are sponsors, and pertinent to the ultimate success of… Continue

Added by Paul R Galardi, PMP on October 25, 2009 at 9:12pm — 1 Comment

First entry on PPMNG site

I am just getting the hang of it for the blog format. Plan to write articles and not sure if this will be a good spot to do it.

Added by David Bright on October 25, 2009 at 2:54pm — 1 Comment

Top 5 Benefits to a Project Dashboard

One of the quick wins for taming chaotic project management is to have a project dashboard. The project dashboard should be a comprehensive listing of all active project status reports within your department. The dashboard should be easily viewable and show up in individual’s mailboxes to be viewed. It should be placed in from on the organizations leadership team from director level up at least every two weeks. To read the benefits, check out… Continue

Added by Elyse Nielsen on October 22, 2009 at 11:02am — 1 Comment

The Public Relations of Project Management – Part 2: The Consumer Friendly Schedule

Is this a familiar sounding scenario? You rush through the planning phase trying to get to the answer of “when will the work be finished?”. You throw a schedule together with meticulous detail to determine that all important date, then promptly never look at it again. Or, you lay out the schedule according to the different teams that will be working on the project, or according to the different work life cycles, or some other scheme you think easy to update. Then when you take your project… Continue

Added by Cindy Vandersleen on October 21, 2009 at 3:59pm — No Comments

participation in my project at NYU

Hello my name is Dennis Nealon and I am new to the field of project management. I am currently enrolled in NYU participating in the certificate program for Project management. Our class project is to create a Facebook page talking

about various conditions and opportunities that arise in the arena.

If anyone would like to participate and post helpful comments that would be great.

NYU Project Management-Facebook.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the areas of… Continue

Added by dennis nealon on October 20, 2009 at 5:43pm — 2 Comments

Project management in education

I've really enjoyed learning from all the professional project managers in PPMNG but I work on projects in universities and colleges where the circumstances (eg on budgets, sponsors, etc) are very different from the business world.
I've set up a PPMNG Group called "Education project managers" and I wonder if there any other similar members interested in this new group.

Added by Paul Mayes on October 20, 2009 at 12:26pm — No Comments

Grow Personal Power - "What Would Machiavelli Do?" (a dose of fun, laced with reality)

This blog isn't an endorsement of such behavior - it's just an observation...

"What would Machiavelli Do?" by Stanley Bing is for modern day princes of power - a guide to help you get ahead in business and life by what ever means necessary, but there obstacles you must first overcome...

Machiavelli would want it all. Crucially he wouldn't just want innumerable big things. He would be desperate for BIG power - the key characteristics of a true prince. How? ...…

Continue

Added by Mark Ridgwell on October 20, 2009 at 8:08am — No Comments

How Should the PM Handle a Dominator During a Team Meeting?

What Do You Do When Someone is Dominating the Discussion?

The Problem:

Everyone has experienced “The Dominator”. This is the person in the group who seems to be taking over the discussion. Sometimes they are just over zealous talkative types…other times they are overly aggressive personalities sucking up all the air in the room. Unfortunately, sometimes they seem to talk over others and won’t let them express their opinions or ideas. As the facilitator, we’re expected to help… Continue

Added by Dana Pigford Brownlee on October 19, 2009 at 3:54pm — 7 Comments

What Should You Do About PDA Distracted Team Members During Project Meetings?

How Do You Deal With Participants Who Are Distracted By Cell Phones/PDAs During Meetings?

The Problem:

It’s the ugly side of technology…cell phones, pagers, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries – Oh My! How do we compete with all of these gadgets when we’re trying to lead a meeting? What’s a meeting facilitator to do???

Try these techniques….

 Bring it up as an issue early and get the group’s consensus on a ground rule

 Use facilitation techniques that… Continue

Added by Dana Pigford Brownlee on October 19, 2009 at 3:52pm — No Comments

Tips for Getting Team Members to Follow Up on Action Items...

The Problem:

Too many meeting leaders struggle with team members who don’t follow up on action items thereby slowing down the progress of the overall team. Worse yet, this negative behavior can undermine the credibility of the meeting leader and spread throughout the rest of the team. Before this happens to you, try a few of these techniques…

Try these techniques….

 Document all action items on a flip chart or whiteboard so that they are visible to everyone

 If… Continue

Added by Dana Pigford Brownlee on October 19, 2009 at 3:50pm — 1 Comment

Situational Leadership - first, carefully judge the situation type ...

A situational leader is one who can apply different leadership styles depending on the situation. Ken Blanchard, management guru and Paul Hersey created a model for Situational Leadership in the 1960's which has been a big hit with leaders every since due to its simplicity and the fact that it works.

To get the best possible results from people, first consider the combination of the PERSON whom you're leading, and their COMPETENCE IN THIS SITUATION - in the task you'll ask them to… Continue

Added by Mark Ridgwell on October 19, 2009 at 5:32am — No Comments

Three Ways to Stand Out as a Project Manager in Today’s Economy

With the current economic conditions, an increasing number of people are either afraid of losing their jobs or desperately searching for work. Just like it’s a buyer’s market for housing, it also seems to be a buyer’s market for employers. Those who are hiring can be extremely selective in whom they choose. That’s why smart Project Managers plan today for tomorrow’s “what if.” We need to be smart about managing our own career “risks” and have a mitigation plan firmly in place now. There are… Continue

Added by Erika Flora on October 19, 2009 at 12:50am — 3 Comments