Project Management Gems

Managing Program Benefits

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:42:26 PST

A key aspect of the Program Management process is the investigation and justification of initiatives. This implies that the initiative or program must have a benefit to the organisation that warrants the investment of resources to plan, organise and implement the program.

Project Management and S-Curves

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:12:37 PST

The concept of S-Curves is not new. S-Curves have been used as a charting or graphical tool for many decades for various purposes. I believe however that they have been under-utilised as a project management reporting tool.

What Is Microsoft Project Server

Fri, 16 May 2008 10:23:14 PST

MS Project Server allows you to manage projects on your organizations intranet or even more interesting the Internet (which allows for a managed service approach)

Project Requirements Management

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 11:37:11 PST

Project Management Studies carried out over the last 20 years have consistently shown that the most common cause of project failure is poor or ineffective management of requirements.

What is a Successful Project?

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 22:05:15 PST

People often do not understand the difference between delivering a successful project and project management success. Indeed, I believe that the 2 things are often confused. There is a difference as I will try to explain.

Managing Project Meetings

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:41:12 PST

In this guideline on managing your project management meetings we explore guidlines to use which cover - Before the meeting, At the meeting, and After the meeting, and provide 2 free check lists you can download " Checklist for meeting agenda notice", and " Checklist for minutes or notes of a meeting

Was Sun Tzu a Project Manager

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:05:40 PST

A lot of advice has been attributed to Sun Tzu's Art of War - I think a lot of it is relevant to project management and risk management...........

Earned Value Case Study

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:05:07 PST

Earned Value Case Study -
It's good sometimes to bring in an outside resource to review your projects or that one troublesome project for compliance. This is where I come in; having skills in this area I am also impartial and come with a number of tools. One particular project (refurbishing boilers at a processing plant), the budget for the first boiler (they needed to do 4) was $7 million, management were concerned by the lack of visibility, and a funny feeling that it just wasn't right, but reports said it was ok ........

Successful Project Management - a definition

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:10:08 PST

After more than 20 years of experience as a hands-on project manager, running project management offices, and as a consultant and advisor to project management teams across many varied industries, I have compiled the following information to help project managers achieve a successful outcome.

Warning Indicators of a Project in Trouble

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:28:06 PST

I am firmly of the opinion, based on years of experience and observation, that the most common causes of project failure are people related, not due to failures of methodology or technology or problems with location or tool-sets.

Program Management Suggested Steps

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:43:35 PST

There are a number of suggested Project Management steps that should be followed as a standard approach to any project management. These steps are detailed in the following section.

Games for Positive Thinking

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:42:28 PST

There are games for positive thinking available for both adults and for children. Not all of these games are marketed exclusively under the banner of positive thinking, but regardless of their 'category, deal with some elements that match up with positive thinking learning essentials. These games are really essential to understand whether you think positively or negatively and to what extent. They are a useful tool also to get some insight into what kind of a person you really are.......

Motivating your staff

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:25:51 PST

Motivating your staff to do good things can be achieved with a few team building activities and exercises that will help create the kind of atmosphere that is not only conducive to productivity but also creates a feeling of camaraderie among work mates........

Reviews During The Project

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 09:49:30 PST

Reviews during the Project - Ok let's move on to reviews during the execution of the project. These provide additional review points where the objectives and general "state of health" of a project can be assessed. These review points include

Reviews related to stages and gates

Reviews at key points within stages

Reviews Related to key deliverables

Project Reviews

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 05:30:52 PST

Project reviews, what are they for, this is a series of articles that will be added each day to explore this area and will include: - Review of a proposal at the Initial Investigation Gate,Review at the Feasibility Gate, Reviews during the project, Reviews related to stages and gates.............

Project Earned Value

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:44:50 PST

Project Management Earned Value is actually one of the measures from a technique referred to as Cost Schedule Control . However the term Earned Value or EVA, is used nowadays as an umbrella word to describe the Cost Schedule Control technique. Anyway what ever we call it, they describe a technique for measuring project performance that takes into account both project cost (budget) and schedule. Using this technique we can compare the budgeted cost of the work performed to the actual cost of the work performed. I like to call it "what you got for what you paid for" ...................

Project Time Management

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:16:55 PST

The project schedule is the key to time management and should form the basis of the resource planning and financial planning for the project.

To manage a project of any significance it is essential that a project schedule or project plan be developed.

What constitutes a Project Failure?

Thu, 31 May 2007 21:08:07 PST

In previous related articles I have suggested a definition for project success.

But when is a project deemed to have been a failure?

Gantt Charts and Project Management

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 17:35:11 PST

Henry Gantt designed many different planning charts, his most popular was and still is, his project planning chart modestly called the Gantt chart

Microsoft Office Project Server 2007

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:34:21 PST

If you have already, or are about to, select Microsoft Office Project Server 2007, and or MS Office Portfolio Server 2007, we can assist you in its implementation and best practice use.