With most projects, success can ultimately be attributed to the project team. Using the right people for the job and managing them well can be one of the biggest skills of a project manager. You can't put a value on knowing your project team is going to get the job done right, on time, and under budget. The Project Management Body of Knowledge contains processes to … [Read more...]
Unlike most of the project management knowledge areas, which deal with a specific area of expertise of the project manager, the Project Integration Management knowledge area is something of a catch-all, containing many of the everyday actions of a project manager. It is the glue that holds the project together. The processes within the Project Integration Management … [Read more...]
A single poor quality deliverable can create not only a problem with the customer, but an internal cycle of low performance whereby an environment is created where project quality is not valued as it should be. Project team members then get into the habit of avoiding the extra effort to produce top quality products. In the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), … [Read more...]
Project Management is like fixing a car - you must break it down into parts. You won't find the problem if you can't isolate the defective part, and you can't fix the problem if the defective part is not separated from the main engine. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) represents this division of a project into constituent tasks. It is a tabular or … [Read more...]
A common problem we used to have on many of our projects was with a certain regulatory body. They were very slow, and you never knew how long the project would be delayed before they even began their review. The frustrating thing wasn't even so much when they came back with required changes or additional information, but when they didn't! I mean, you'd wait an … [Read more...]
So you want to be certified as a project manager? Certification has many benefits, such as: Promotion Higher pay Recognition Whatever your reasons for pursuing certification, there are several different types of certification you could choose to achieve your goals. These fall into the following two basic categories: Project Manager. For the "full" … [Read more...]
In August 1805, Emperor Napoleon fought what was arguably the most important battle of his military career. In a brilliant display of strategy, he devised a system of matching his strongest soldiers with the enemy's weakest, in a move that students in military colleges still study today as the Ulm Manoeuvre. What business lessons can you learn from one of the … [Read more...]
There are three project management organizations who define the profession of project management: Project Management Institute (PMI) International Project Management Association (IPMA) Axelos Project Management Institute Based in the United States, the Project Management Institute is seen by some as the main official source for project management standards, … [Read more...]
The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is an important step in project scheduling. PERT charts are a central part of any project management course. They are quick to draw and intuitive to use. How to Draw a PERT Chart There are two rules: Tasks (activities) are represented as arrows Milestone dates are nodes PERT charts are also called … [Read more...]
Project quality is a unique aspect of project management. The stakeholders are disappointed if the project does not meet the minimum quality standards, but achieving more than the standard is a waste of project resources and money. On top of that, the minimum quality standards are often difficult to define and subject to stakeholder whims, such as the tolerance levels … [Read more...]
