Category: For the PMO

Some people like to hold project meetings just to hold meetings. They control people's time for an hour or two and it somehow makes them feel more important. It must be a control thing. It's not for me...I like productivity. Just today I got a call about a potential meeting next Tuesday from noon to … Continue reading "Make Every Project Meeting Count"

Project Portfolio Office’s DevOps team has made an almost natural progression towards Agile throughout the years. When the PPO tool was introduced in 2004, the waterfall model was the order of the day. PPO had ample scope to grow as a product and the projects we undertook were mostly large feature sets that took weeks, … Continue reading "15 principles that made Agile not so fragile for the PPO DevOps team"

Project management certification. Is it helpful? Does it get you jobs? Does it increase your project management skills? Does it add value to you as a project manager? Does it add value to the organisation you work for? Monetarily...is it worth it? Should hiring organisations require it? Should hiring managers demand it? These are all … Continue reading "To Certify or Not to Certify – Still a Burning Project Management Question"

Ever had a project that just didn’t go well? Of course you have… you may not have realised how bad it was…you still may not realise it…but we’ve all had one or two. For me, it was one that spiralled down the drain due to error-prone deliverables going out to the customer, a staff that was … Continue reading "A Project Full of Regrets"

Project managers aren't perfect.  If we were, we would never experience project failures.  We all have areas where we could improve and they may help the project be more successful financially, or end on time, or bring the team closer together, or increase project customer satisfaction.  The project management areas we could focus on are … Continue reading "5 ways to improve your project management style today"

Newsflash...there are some things we are doing as project managers that are wrong. Just wrong. They seem logical. Everyone does these things, right? We are expected to do these things...accommodate everyone...play nice with management. Think again. Project success depends heavily on your customer's perception of the project and outcome. Always keep that in mind...and read … Continue reading "5 Things That You Need to Stop Doing as a Project Manager"

Statement of work.  Project budget.  Project resource plan.  Project charter.  Project communication plan.  Project schedule.  Project test plan.  Project implementation plan.  Technical project documents like the functional design document and technical design document.  All of these are put in place just to make the project manager’s life very complicated.  That isn’t true, of course, but … Continue reading "4 Secrets to the Best Project Plan Possible"

At every organisation in the civilised world right now there is someone there trying to figure out how best to present their case to their manager on why they should be allowed to work from a home office. This scenario won't work for everyone. There are positions that just plain won't work for the remote … Continue reading "5 Compelling Arguments for Managing Projects Remotely"

Trying to deliver a project without an engaged sponsor is like starting a voyage without a captain, crew, lifeboat or a route plan and that’s a situation many project managers find themselves in (present company included!) We all know that strong executive sponsorship can make or break any project but do we truly understand the … Continue reading "3 Signs that you’re Being a Bad Project Sponsor!"