Our extensive archive of articles provides valuable insights into the discipline of project management.
~ By Sonal Shah
Many organisations have adopted Agile practices into their development methodologies and they have proved to be successful for the organisation as a whole.
~ By William Thom
This article explores the concept of the Project Management Process and why it is beneficial to have one in place in your organisation.
~ By Jorge Dominguez
A project plan is not a one time deliverable that remains static throughout the project. Updates arising from approved changes may impact parts of the plan.
~ By Damian Rees
Find out how you can ensure your project meets the needs of your users, and balance internal business requirements with user requirements.
~ By Michael L Young
Launching a PMO is just like any other organisational change project and should be approached as such, using the 5 key steps outlined in this article.
~ By Michael L Young
Building relationships is as important within the project team as it is outside. Good relationships can be the difference between success and failure.
~ By Brad Egeland
What does the economic downturn mean for project managers? Will customers try and do without them on their projects?
~ By Chris Rees
Despite Lean Six Sigma being around for over twenty years, it is remarkable that a significant number of companies and individuals still don't know what it is.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
The myths surrounding the compatibility of CMMI and Agile have recently been debunked by SEI. Learn how these seemingly opposing strategies can be paired.
~ By Adele Sommers
By incrementally capturing lessons learned and turning that hindsight into best practices you will achieve far greater long-term project success.
~ By Michael Krigsman
A survey of IT experts revealed 43% of their organisations had recently killed an IT project. Here are the top five reasons for terminating projects prior to completion.
~ By Trevor Roberts
A project plan is more than just a Gantt chart, but do you know what you must have in your plan? This article takes you through the ten essential elements.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
With a myriad of options to choose from, it's no wonder choosing a project management tool has become a daunting task. Learn how to find the right solution for your business here.
~ By Brad Egeland
The varieties of Project Management Office (PMO) models seem endless and there is no guarantee of success with any of them. So what makes a PMO successful?
~ By Richard Morreale
The ideal project manager specification, including general requirements along with the attitudes and behaviours that we should look for in our project managers.
~ By Keith Custer
Busted! Seven of the most common myths about Earned Value Management, which continues to be one of the best ways to manage almost any project.
~ By Claudine Sirgant
Common pitfalls that projects experience and some tips to help make a project more successful and avoid the potential for chaos.
~ By Louis Marshall
Letting people know how a project is progressing is a key responsibility of any project manager, but how do you determine which pieces of information are useful?
~ By Simon Buehring
Since I didn't hear otherwise, I ASSUMED all was going well.
This remark is characteristic of Project Managers who are not in frequent communication with their staff.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Companies that can work cheaper, faster and better are well positioned to develop and market products and services that give higher value to their customers.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Studies show that most successful projects are those that follow Agile principles, proving that model driven methods are not always best when it comes to managing change.
~ By Sonal Shah
What would happen if project managers took the time to truly understand how all of the technical pieces fit together on their IT projects?
~ By Cornelius Fichtner
Taking the PMP exam is one of the biggest steps you'll take in your career as a Project Manager. With careful planning you can pass with a minimum of stress.
~ By Adele Sommers, Ph.D
Do you have difficulty engaging in budget discussions for new projects? This article explores five ways to help you gracefully avoid backing yourself into a corner.
~ By Leslie Allan
Successful projects don't just happen. They require structured planning, insightful management and good interpersonal skills. Use these ten tips to help make your next project a winner.
~ By Juanita M Woods
How much project management process do you really need to deliver a project. Is it possible to be both a lazy and successful project manager?
~ By Royston Morgan
RACI is a useful analytical tool that can be used to examine many problems in an organisation around clarifying who is doing what.
~ By Louis Marshall
Depending on the structure of your organisation, the project manager is most likely the person who interacts with the broadest range of stakeholders.
~ By Luca Di Nicola
Hiring a good project manager means you can sit back and relax knowing that the project tasks are being taken care of in a professional, productive and profitable manner.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
The accuracy of your cost estimation process can make or break project success. Learn the strategies that will help you gain control of this key area and ensure future project profitability!
~ By Neil Davidson
In an increasingly fast paced world, clients want project implementation to be quicker and less intrusive. It's a tough thing to achieve because implementing a business solution is not a straightforward process.
~ By Barry Muir
For most organisations the demand for new projects will occasionally outweigh the capacity to do them. So how do you decide when faced with too many projects, which stay and which go?
~ By Angela Baca
When you manage a new project to streamline an organisation's website or to develop a new website, you must gather input from many people inside the organisation.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Browse up on your organisation's competency requirements and set more informed business directions concerning your people.
~ By Diane Ellis
In this article, I look at how you can acquire, learn or improve six key skills, in order to become a more successful project manager.
~ By Diane Ellis
Not sure what skills it takes to become a Project Manager? This article lists the six key skills required to be a successful project manager.
~ By Robert Howard
A business tale of what it takes to turn around troubled projects. How did PintCo recover their Customer Master File project when everything was going in the wrong direction.
~ By Linda Russell
A short case study about the importance of using appropriate tools, such as Gantt charts, when managing time sensitive projects.
~ By Simon Buehring
A project brief describes what needs to be done. The project plan explains how you are going to do it. The business case gives the reasons why.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
When choosing a development life cycle, don't just trust your feelings. Decide based on factors that really matter.
~ By Dave Nielsen
Good communication is vital to the success of your project. This article explores the methods used by successful project managers to tailor their communications to suit their audiences.
~ By Sanjay Murthi
Many project teams have faced the time when they need to make a major decision. Should one custom build a solution, or buy an off-the-shelf product and customise it?
~ By ExecutiveBrief
How do you sustain the interest of your new outsource team? Here are ways to keep the team passionate about providing you with top-quality service.
~ By Ramkumar Krishnamurthy
What are the differences that affect project management between a product or package implementation project and a bespoke or custom development project?
~ By ExecutiveBrief
What's the best way to allocate resources across projects? How can you ensure you stay on budget and meet established deadlines? Read up on the latest tools designed to make your job easier!
~ By John Reiling
This article discusses some keys for building an effective project plan to pass the PMP exam. Writing down the goal, which presumably is to pass the PMP exam, is a great first step.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
How do you know when your part of the development race is over? Learn how to establish a clear finish line for your project!
~ By Tammy Lenski
Stephen Covey's seven habits of highly effective people have become classic pieces of leadership and management wisdom. The habits are applicable to having successful conflict conversations.
~ By Gina Lijoi
Communication is something to think about every day. Are your messages clear? Have you provided enough context? Are your expectations for any outcome apparent?
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Feedback is a management tool that should be considered in every aspect of any business, regardless of industry, employees or customer base.
~ By Debra Jennings
For organisations, flexing the right side of the brain can dramatically improve decision making, team building, innovation and organisational performance.
~ By Andrew Cox
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time framed. The establishment of goals based on these criteria reduces ambiguity and creates a climate for commitment.
~ By Andrew Cheah
Becoming adept at using cyberspace as the primary location of your project team's interaction can literally create a team of highly specialised talent that can be located anywhere in the world.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Poor software project management often means missed deadlines, cost overruns or even outright failure of the project. How can your company avoid this industry-wide problem?
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Do you have staff sitting idly in the midst of other busy ones? This situation tells you that your project schedule might need fine-tuning.
~ By John Reiling
There are many ways to satisfy the PMI requirement of 35 hours of project management training. Here is a survey of the ways PMP aspirants can satisfy that requirement.
~ By Lonnie Pacelli
Any project manager who's been around the block a few times has experienced a visit to the project management guillotine. Avoid a trip by keeping these simple tips in mind.
~ By Paul Rice
ITIL and PMP can have a strongly positive impact on how IT departments support the business, organisationally speaking and otherwise.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Looking for a sure-fire way to find a highly-qualified outsourcing partner? Learn how CMMI ratings can help you pinpoint the best candidate for the job!
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Risks your project or business is exposed to may be worth reviewing now more than ever to see which ones need more attention than others.
~ By Linda Russell
When you have finished planning your project, and you have all the scheduled dates, hours and costs agreed, why is it a good idea to store these values?
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Transform disorganised projects into effectively managed and understood programmes using the gold standard in project management software.
~ By Thomas P. Stevens
If you are thinking about using a project management consulting company to assist your organisation with implementing a Project Management Office (PMO), there are a couple of important factors that you should consider when choosing the right firm.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Employees who have the right attitude that translates to the best behaviour are said to be the more competent. Find out why.
~ By Linda Russell
Gantt charts and PERT charts are useful tools for visualising and communicating information about projects, but they do have a number of limitations.
~ By Lonnie Pacelli
The seven deadly sins of leadership, a sure fire ways to alienate and demotivate your team on your project journey.
~ By Lisa Ahn
A successful project manager is one who can envision the entire project from start to finish, and has the prowess to realise this vision. These ten rules will help improve your projects.
~ By Linda Russell
Scope creep is a significant risk in software development projects. We discuss why this is so, and how to avoid or at least mitigate the risk.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Is your company looking, or already into outsourcing? Here are five indicators that your company is on its way to outsourcing success.
~ By ExecutiveBrief
Following these nine steps may be the ultimate secret weapon to winning business and successfully delivering new easy-to-use software that meets and exceeds expectations.
~ By Rod Sowden
Across the UK there are hundreds of programmes being run, but how well are they being run and how does the sponsor know that his/her programme is in a healthy shape?
~ By Tom O'Dea
Change management strategies that fail often do so because of poor project management. Don't let that happen to you.
~ By Bart Jutte
The benefits of risk management in projects are huge. You can gain a lot of money if you deal with uncertain project events in a proactive manner.
~ By John Reiling
This article is intended to clarify the main differences and to distinguish the unique aspects of project portfolios, programmes, and projects.
~ By Carl Pritchard
One of the most common challenge questions I get when teaching PMP Exam Preparation courses is, 'why doesn't PMI make the test more real-world?'
~ By Melanie Franklin
When starting up projects, it's important for leaders to establish their presence and their credibility. To do this, it's vital to create the impression that we are competent to lead others.
~ By John Reiling
Gathering and managing requirements are important challenges in project management. Projects succeed or fail due to poor requirements at any time throughout the project lifecycle.
~ By Susan Berry & Randy Thomas, Ph.D.
What's so smart about SMART? Why has this acronym become part of the vocabulary of project planning and performance management?
~ By Cornelius Fichtner
Tips for gaining all the PDUs you need for PMP recertification in just a few months.
~ By Dhanu Kothari
Project management is defined as the art and science of getting work done with the active co-operation of individuals and organisations who are directly, or indirectly involved with the project.
~ By Ronald Schmelzer
At the highest level of simplicity, all businesses need to manage only four resources in order to maintain success: money, people, technology and supplies.
~ By John W. Wright III
In any improvement process, managing the influence of change and the anti-change culture will be one of the most difficult tasks.
~ By Carl Pritchard
For project managers no is often the toughest word in the English language to deploy. We often prefer the classic PM strategy of Yes, but...as the softer, kinder, gentler alternative.
~ By Gina Lijoi
There are two well known production cycle methodologies that are the topic of much discussion in project management circles, Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
~ By Laurence West
This article is about presentation, planning and processing; the three cornerstones of project management and important elements of a successful project.
~ By NASA
NASA focuses on project management to deliver major aerospace projects. In this video NASA employees talk about the importance of project management at the space agency.
~ By Emory Miller
The practice of programme management worldwide has consistently resulted in highly successful programmes and results. Unfortunately, we are also aware of many failed programmes.
~ By Great Project Management
Project managers must become leaders instead of managers by taking control and the responsibility to do what needs to be done to ensure their projects get delivered.
~ By Susan Woolon
MSP is a best-practice guide from the OGC and has been developed using the collective expertise and practical experience of some of the leading practitioners in the field.
~ By Darren Cockburn
Coaching is a highly effective management tool and yet, only a small number of project managers adopt a coaching style when supporting their staff.
~ By Kathleen Hass
If in today's business environment traditional project management is somewhat ineffective, it's time to examine other methods of designing and delivering projects, such as Agile project management.
~ By Jan Gordon
What are the most important qualities of an excellent manager that allows them to tap into talents and resources in order to support and bring out the best in others.
~ By Patrick Gray
The bread and butter of most IT organisations is the successful execution of projects; however, choosing the right projects to deliver remains a challenge for many companies.
~ By Rob Redmond
This article recommendations how to deliver project status to management and the project team that you will hopefully find to be very effective.
~ By Rob Redmond
Very few people know how to report status on a project, even when they are expert project managers. The problem? Most don't understand the perspective of a manager who is being reported to.
~ By Allen Eskelin
Most organisations of size have a Project Management Office (PMO). Where should they focus their efforts for the best project results?
~ By Steve Mezak
The main reason for failure of outsourced software development is not bad project management, it's not having a clear definition of success.
~ By Karl Wiegers, Ph.D
These 21 project management tips won't guarantee success, but they will help you get a solid handle on your project and ensure that you're doing all you can to make it succeed in an unpredictable world.
~ By Shaun Watling
Successful application of PRINCE2 methodology imparts a structured approach to any project that will help ensure the project is delivered on time and on budget.
~ By Jayne Gnadt
In project management today, it has become increasingly important to focus on more effective means of communication, especially since many of us work with virtual teams around the globe.
~ By Sharon Anderson & Adele Sommers, Ph.D.
Four vital success measures help reveal why a troubled project has gone off track and how to reframe its success.
~ By Kevin Archbold
A five-minute step by step explanation of what project management involves for people who are unfamiliar with the approach.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Time management is an essential skill for project managers. The best project managers ensure they are productive for most of their time and avoid time-wasters.
~ By Joseph Phillips
Project management is project management. Does it matter what approach you take to complete your projects, as long as you complete your projects.
~ By Tony Jacowski
Six Sigma project charters are basically blueprints of the targeted Six Sigma quality improvement initiative and through them, management communicate the exact Six Sigma implementation roadmap.
~ By Joli Mosier
It's the approach, or the how, that separates great projects from the merely good, and lets great project managers rise above the rest.
~ By Jorge Dominguez
This article describes the must do steps, in the correct order, for scheduling projects and levelling finite resources.
~ By Ron Rosenhead
Meetings are important, but are they always productive? Help make sure your meetings are productive with these nine golden rules for effective meetings.
~ By Steven Bonacorsi
The activity network diagram is a method of displaying the timelines of all the various sub-tasks that are involved in any project. So how do you create one?
~ By Peter Marci
What do you feel is the secret to project management, in other words, what separates good project managers from great project managers?
~ By Gina Lijoi
Ironically, although resourcing production team members is a significant part of a Project Manager's role, very little focus is placed on resourcing the Project Managers themselves.
~ By Andrew Filev
Nowadays, the bottom-up approach to project management is becoming more and more popular. More and more, organisations are abandoning the top-down project management style.
~ By Ron Rosenhead
Project management needs robust monitoring and control processes. We should actively monitor and control our projects from business case through to closure.
~ By Kris Koonar
A business coach can help you develop and achieve your SMART goals. Take the next step and contact a qualified business coach, in fact, make that a goal.
~ By Tris Brown
What's the secret to risk management? Do it. Proactive, systematic risk management means finding the problems before they find you.
~ By Heidi Blackburn
The PRINCE2 project management method focuses on organisation, management and control, and teaches users how to form a Project Management Board.
~ By Ron Rosenhead
All projects need a sponsor, someone who gives executive support to the project manager. However, a survey of 1000 project managers into roles and responsibilities makes poor reading.
~ By Timothy Nuckles
Better technology vendor negotiations produce better contracts for technology projects, and better contracts produce better project outcomes.
~ By Carl Cullotta
A world-class innovation process requires disciplined management by using the stage-gate process. Development projects are managed through a series of stages.
~ By Ruth Mullany
Earned Value (EV) is a management tool for tracking and communicating a project's status. Earned Value Management (EVM) will let you know the actual state of the project.
~ By Diane Ellis
Let's assume for a moment that the great quest in The Lord of the Rings was a project. Then just who was the project manager?
~ By Bruce Beer
Project failure is preventable with good project planning based on a well-constructed deliverables-based Work Breakdown Structure and proper controls.
~ By Brian Miller
Effective objectives in project management are specific. A specific objective increases the chances of leading to a specific and successful outcome.
~ By Andrew Filev
A new generation of Web-based tools is unleashing the power of collective intelligence and changing the pattern of project management. It allows associates to collaborate on project plans.
~ By David Allen
No two projects need the same amount of planning or detailing of steps to get them under control. It ranges from three bullet points on the back of an envelope to days of intensive planning.
~ By Tony Jacowski
The scientific tools and techniques contribute a lot towards the success of Six Sigma improvement projects, but they cannot be taken as the sole factors responsible for Six Sigma's effectiveness.
~ By Liz Cassidy
Accurate time estimation is a skill essential for good project management. This article covers the basics to think of when planning projects.
~ By Kailash Awati
Are project management practices generic? A recent paper entitled Project Management Practice, Generic or Contextual: A Reality Check, addresses this question.
~ By Duncan Haughey
If we don't take time to learn the lessons of past projects, and moreover act upon them, we will continue to commit the same project management sins again and again.
~ By Kendall Miller
This article looks and the differences between project leaders, project managers and project monitors. What type of project manager do you need to have for the best outcome on a software development project?
~ By Adele Sommers
This article explains how to get out of project overwhelm and restore sanity to your endeavour. It may be time to regroup and swiftly chart a new course.
~ By Terry Paulson
In an effort to be less than constructive as a manager, here are ten sure fire ways to alienate and demotivate your team on your change journey.
~ By Mansi Aggarwal
Outsourcing is the process of contracting a third party to do work on the behalf of a client that has neither the skills or resources to perform in-house.
~ By Dennis Sommer
Are you tired being an average project manager, working on average projects, being passed over for promotion and getting an average performance review?
~ By Joseph Phillips
Communication is more than just talking. Communication is also listening. When it comes to project management, communication takes up 90% of a project manager's time.
~ By Zern Liew
Have you ever wondered why some projects go smoothly and others seem plagued with problems? Here are five reasons why projects fail.
~ By Tony Jacowski
To bring about a successful process, your Six Sigma project should be disciplined and defined. Here are three steps that can be incorporated for a profitable process.
~ By Pierre Monacelli
The problem with project management and IT is that all too often, project management is an afterthought on a project.
~ By Adele Sommers
Is there a secret to making stellar decisions? This article explains three ways to get superior results from your decision-making processes.
~ By Joseph Phillips
How do we know what a project will cost? We really don't until the project is complete because we can't accurately predict the future. What we can do is create an estimate.
~ By Joseph Phillips
How to manage a search engine optimisation (SEO) project in order to increase revenue through one of your most prevalent channels, your website.
~ By Tim Bryce
This article discusses the fundamental components of a Feasibility Study from project scope to final review.
~ By Michele Webb
Understanding how projects should be managed or by the book methodology is a good reference guide and tool for everyone.
~ By Paul Bower
Risk management is an ongoing process to identify potential problems that could arise when new projects occur within a business.
~ By Jonathan Farrington
The principle of working together with your team should underpin how you operate. Managing people doesn't just mean acting as overseer to see that they get their work done satisfactorily.
~ By John Reynolds
An analysis of the pros and cons of a team (projectised) organisation verses a matrix organisation.
~ By Adele Sommers
Why do some projects proceed without a hitch, yet others flounder? One reason may be the type and quality of the questions people ask at the very start.
~ By Samuel Okoro
Why is there resistance to change? Are people just naturally perverse, or are there concerns which if understood and correctly dealt with will create the buy-in required.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
As a project manager you are in a prime position to inspire your team. Here are ten ways to get you started.
~ By Dr. Keith Mathis
When forming project objectives DISCO can be spelled out to point us in the proper direction for creating meaningful objectives and tracking their progress.
~ By Victoria Tucker
When asked if the people, practices and techniques required to lead science research projects are different from those in the general population, the answer is not just yes, but a resounding duh!
~ By Johanna Rothman
You've got a ton of projects. You can't do them all at once because you don't have the people. One tactic is to organise the projects into a portfolio and rank them by priority.
~ By Tim Bryce
You've got a ton of projects. You can't do them all at once because you don't have the people. One tactic is to organise the projects into a portfolio and rank them by priority.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
The top five ways that you as a project manager can help to boost that bottom-line and become a valuable player in financial discussion.
~ By Joseph Phillips
Project managers should know the iron triangle of project management, sometimes called the triple constraints of project management, because all projects are constrained by these elements.
~ By Kelly Waters
Studies on project failure make depressing reading. They suggest that 75% of all US IT projects are considered to be failures by those responsible for initiating them.
~ By Joseph Phillips
In project management, as with most things in life, quality is planned in, not inspected in. Quality, and the expectations for acceptance, must be defined up front.
~ By Sam Miller
How to develop a project scorecard to measure the success of your projects in terms of implementing organisational strategy.
~ By Sandro Azzopardi
As a discipline modern project management developed from different fields of application including construction, engineering and defence.
~ By Carol Meyer
It is possible to say that the concept of project management has been around since the beginning of history. It has enabled leaders to plan bold and massive projects.
~ By Steven Bonacorsi
Pareto charts can be used to identify problems to work on. They can help you produce greater efficiency, conserve materials, reduce costs or increase safety.
~ By Kailash Awati
Communication is so important to project success that it has been referred to as the lifeblood of a project by more than one practitioner.
~ By Joseph Phillips
Everyone talks about project management but what is it? Isn't it really just a series of events to create some thing, by some point, way off in some hazy future?
~ By Sheldon Needle
How can your company benefit from investing in construction project management software? We review the three main benefits.
~ By Steven Bonacorsi
Quality problems are typically not simple to solve. A cause-and-effect diagram will help you define and display the major causes, sub-causes and root causes.
~ By David Litten
If you're new to project management don't be bamboozled by all the jargon. This article sets out the skills needed to become a competent project manager.
~ By Samantha Lorry
A company with poor requirements practices is just asking for over-budget costs and regular failure, according to a report by IAG Consulting.
~ By John Reynolds
A discussion of the three main types of projects, their inherent difficulties and the best approach for tackling each type.
~ By Michélle Booysen
The process of becoming a Project Management Professional (PMP) involves a number of steps and eligibility criteria in one of two categories.
~ Umesh Dwivedi
Earned Value Management is a systematic project management process used to find variances in projects based on comparison of worked performed and work planned.
~ Kevin Eikenberry
Here are seven questions you should ask (and answer) when initiating a project, regardless of its size and complexity.
~ Rachel Lane
Web collaboration technologies enable project management teams to meet virtually with full audio-visual interaction, irrespective of their locations.
~ Luc Richard
To be an effective Project Manager, you must be capable of designing and developing the project solution or product yourself.
~ Ron Holohan
Creating a comprehensive schedule is one of the more difficult activities that project managers face. Schedule creation is often considered more art than science.
~ Derry Simmel, MBA, FLMI
Lessons learned are useful; time spent in doing the work better is time well spent. Getting it right the first time is cheaper and easier than doing it now and fixing it later.
~ Tim Nuckles
The shortage of skilled IT workers is not like global warming. We are certain the worker shortage is real and we are definitely feeling its effects now.
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