Category: For the PMO

Wondering why the topic of ‘project management’ came to me today?  Good guess...because today is one of those days that I don't want to lead.  I don't want to be in charge.  I don't even really want to be the parent today.  Thankfully, that is always temporary and usually only when I am sick or … Continue reading "Those Days You Don’t Want to be in Charge"

Projects are commonly characterised as temporary endeavours, meaning that they (should) eventually come to an end. In practice, however, we often see the closing phase of a project being delayed, sometimes far beyond the identified or required project closure date. In this blog, I explore the top three reasons, as experienced by the Project Portfolio … Continue reading "Project closure – why it drags on and how to make it stop!"

A critical aspect of successful project management is to review completed projects, identify successes and failures, or “lessons learned”, and incorporate them to help deliver value for future projects. “The recent implementation of PPO, Project Portfolio Office’s online project portfolio management (PPM) application, at one of Africa's largest retailers of food, general merchandise and clothing, … Continue reading "Lessons learned – key to project management success"

Why are we so opposed to killing projects? Are we too scared to let go? Is it due to the inflexibility of bureaucratic processes? Or is it based on project stakeholders’ disbelief that the project and management thereof will actually fail? Let’s face it though, there is no shortage of examples of failed projects. The … Continue reading "I think I need to kill this project, but should I, and how do I?"

Project portfolio management (PPM) software allows the project community, including the executives and management within an organisation, the ability to maintain a centralised view of the portfolio, which assists in making key financial and business decisions for the projects. Most PPM software is designed to facilitate, support or enable existing project processes and knowledge, but … Continue reading "Taking on the PPM software myths, part five"

Project management has found its way into almost all organisations, across all industries and sizes. This is mainly due to the fact that organisations have begun to understand the benefit that a formal project management approach can provide in driving the achievement of their strategic objectives and goals. That said, the establishment of a project … Continue reading "The top 3 questions every project management office manager should ask themselves"

Over the last couple of years, Project Portfolio Office has assisted in the implementation of project management software across a large number of organisations, helping them to better manage their project flow via a project stage gate process. In most cases, the process is an automated, online approval mechanism that allows project offices or project … Continue reading "Looking for project management software to improve the management of project gates?"

Cloud computing has expanded significantly over the last few years, leading to an considerable increase in the use of web-based project management systems. These software applications can provide organisations of any size with a number of benefits, including workflow management, keeping project teams informed at all times, and allowing organisations to manage their projects and … Continue reading "Benefitting from a web-based project management system"

In today’s business climate, where every penny has to be accounted for, the advantages of a quicker return on investment (ROI), improved visibility and enhanced decision-making are compelling reasons to investigate the introduction of Enterprise Project Management (EPM) software into your organisation. Enterprise Project Management can be defined as an effective business discipline and system … Continue reading "How to survive an EPM software implementation successfully"

While there is a plethora of project management tools available that all offer a number of bells and whistles, the single greatest value of implementing this type of solution is – without a doubt - the successful completion of projects. Unfortunately, the figures available out there paint a pretty bleak picture when it comes down … Continue reading "Not the project manager alone"