In case you haven't noticed, agile is the new buzzword in project management. That's because it speeds up project completion times, increases customer satisfaction, and decreases project costs. Agile started in software development but it's spreading to other industries. It's truly the new way to do project management. But what is all the rage … [Read more...]
A project manager must deal with many different issues on a daily basis, for example, The project deadlines are firm but the resources are occupied. The deadlines have been tightened but the quality must stay the same. The customer wants a higher quality product at the same price. In order to balance these often competing objectives, the Project Management … [Read more...]
Project risk management is what separates good project managers from great ones. Even when everything has been planned and executed to perfection, an unexpected event can cause considerable duress on the project stakeholders and even cause the project to be considered a failure. Risk management is a three step process: Risk Identification Risk … [Read more...]
Because you can't see its results in a direct way, project risk analysis is too often sacrificed by project managers in the name of time or budget constraints. Compounding the problem is that small projects just don't seem to have the time and budget to justify the time spent on risk management. But I would argue that if risk management is a priority on … [Read more...]
The first step in a good risk management plan is the identification of risks. The other phases of project risk management are built on this foundation. It involves developing a list of the potential risks to a project, which is called a Risk Register. A good risk register might have the following six columns: Name/Description of risk … [Read more...]
Planning is the single most important thing a project manager can do to ensure a successful project that meets its goals. The Project Management Institute suggests that planning should ideally consist of about 20 – 30% of the time required to perform the project work. This is substantially more than most project managers actually spend on project planning. … [Read more...]
The foundation for project management theory is called process groups. Although relegated to one of many project 'models' in the PMBOK version 7, it is a well established sequence of events which guides the project life cycle as a whole, as well as each iteration within the project. They are not project phases, although phases often result in the full cycle of … [Read more...]
Managing projects is like steering a ship. When the wind or sea conditions are rough, experienced helmsman use their keen sense of how the ship will react to keep it moving in the right direction. Because the ship doesn't react right away, the helmsman must anticipate the delay between turning the ship's wheel and the reaction of the ship. The destination is … [Read more...]
Controlling the quality of a project’s deliverables can be the silver bullet that makes everything else feel easy. Unfortunately, it’s often easier said than done but there are tried and true techniques that help you get there. On the flip side, a single poor quality deliverable can create a cycle of low performance, whereby an environment is created where quality … [Read more...]
The American Society for Quality (ASQ) suggests that the Cost of Quality is usually around 15 - 20% of sales, often as high as 40% in some organizations. Clearly, you need to know what that means and how to prevent errors and omissions from hurting your business. Cost of Quality (COQ) is a measure of the cost an organization faces due to the production of substandard … [Read more...]
