By definition, most of the world is average. In today's fast-paced, ever-evolving business landscape, mediocrity often seems to dominate. From corporate cultures that settle for "good enough" to teams that lack motivation and drive, achieving high performance in project management can be a challenge akin to climbing a mountain without hiking boots. Yet, it is … [Read more...]
The Budget at Completion (BAC) is a value used in earned value management, a division of project management. It represents the original project budget. For example, if a project has a budget of $10,000, BAC = $10,000 Therefore, there is no other formula or calculation for this metric. The BAC is often compared to the Estimate at Completion (EAC) which … [Read more...]
Love it or hate it, the measuring stick for a project manager is often their ability to keep projects on time and under budget. Thankfully, project management theory provides us with a fantastic tool to keep us on target. But it has to be used correctly. Like a software tool, if you are not trained to use it, it’s just a bunch of numbers. Once the technique is … [Read more...]
In project management, a stakeholder register is a document that lists a project's stakeholders as well as information about their involvement in the project. In the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), a stakeholder register is an output of the Identify Stakeholders process within the Project Stakeholder Management knowledge area. As a minimum, a … [Read more...]
It is surprisingly easy to forget about a minor project stakeholder who then exercises a disproportionately large influence on the project's success after they feel like they haven't been adequately consulted. It happens on countless projects every day. For this reason, project stakeholder management is used to obtain, or maintain, stakeholder support for the project. … [Read more...]
One of the most important jobs of the project manager is that of project resource management. Like a carpenter using a saw, like a pilot landing an airplane, like a programmer writing code, ask any project manager and they will tell you that managing the project resources is the day to day work they spend most of their time on. Project resources include everything … [Read more...]
If I told you there's an element of project management that causes mistakes to be forgiven (or forgotten), would you believe me? That must be a click bait hook line! You see, not all mistakes are created equal. Some create bigger problems than others. Some create problems that last longer than others. Still others create more personal conflict between stakeholders … [Read more...]
Estimating a project is one of the most important aspects of project management. Projects are by definition temporary endeavors with a defined beginning and end, hence stakeholders need to know how much expenditure they are committing to. Thus, project estimates tend to start before the project even begins and are usually updated throughout the project life … [Read more...]
Project estimating is one of the most important aspects of project management. By their very nature, projects have fixed budgets and their owners want to know how much they will cost. Hence, project estimating begins prior to project initiation and estimates are usually updated at important project milestones. A Rough Order of Magnitude estimate, often called ROM … [Read more...]
A Rough Cost Estimate is an initial estimate that uses prior experience (and other non-project data) to estimate the cost of a project. It is also called a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate, or a Conceptual Estimate. The Rough Cost Estimate is used for project screening, or deciding which among several projects to proceed with. The project definition is … [Read more...]
