Project Smart ~ Exploring trends and developments in project management today
Our extensive archive of articles provides valuable insights into the discipline of project management.
~ By Brad Egeland
How to serve the project and everyone working on it well, by ensuring everyone remains accountable for their responsibilities to us and to the project.
~ By Kenneth Darter
Ask five different people what is going on in a project and you'll get five different answers. Understanding where different players are coming from will help you create a cohesive team.
~ By Brad Egeland
There are a few basic and specific expectations your project customer has of you; their project manager, as you embark on leading their project toward success.
~ By Brad Egeland
Three war room strategies to try when you need to bring life back to a dead project, or save an engagement that is on the brink of disaster.
~ By Duncan Haughey
What to do if your customer gets cold feet before project go-live and asks to make last-minute changes that increase the risk of problems when you launch.
~ By Brad Egeland
What to do if your customer is gracious enough to give you a second chance on a project after experiencing a failure or complete work stoppage.
~ By Brad Egeland
You don't get a lot of second chances in life and even less in the world of project management. This is how you resurrect a failed project.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Are business processes holding your business back, delaying projects and preventing you from reaching your goals? Take these steps to improve your processes.
~ By Brad Egeland
Three important facts that most project customers wish their project manager and his team realised from the outset of a project engagement.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Successful projects start with a good, quality project schedule. After reading this article, you will have a sound approach to creating schedules.
~ By Omar Muhammad and Abid Mustafa
Project surveys highlight the importance of stakeholder management as part of project success. These are some techniques you can employ when managing stakeholders.
~ By Brad Egeland
Brad Egeland's final six 'must-dos' to prepare for a project engagement. How to cultivate a solid relationship with the project sponsor and his team.
~ By Brad Egeland
Brad Egeland's 11 things you should do for every project engagement to prepare for a successful project experience, or put another way 'doing it right'.
~ By Vladimir Cordier
Why do projects go wrong and how can good project management save the day? Projects usually and universally fail for three main reasons. So what can be done?
~ By Ian Collins
Although tempting, adding more people to a project in crisis is not necessarily going to help you get it back on track.
~ By Brad Egeland
The case for 'gold plating' as a good thing, with three more ways to show extra value in the PM role on the projects you manage.
~ By Brad Egeland
Gold plating is a negative concept. It leads to undocumented work beyond the current scope of the project. So where can a project manager add extra value?
~ By Brad Egeland
Following the annual Black Hat USA Conference in Las Vegas, Brad Egeland looks at the issue of data security and why we aren't paying enough attention to it.
~ By Hemini Mehta, PhD
Having ridiculous timelines not only leads to chaos, but also bad practice, more chance of errors and burnout of staff, so what can be done?
~ By Brad Egeland
Now you've decided to offload that troublesome project, what must happen next to make the change a reality? Brad takes you through the steps.
~ By Brad Egeland
Ever had one of those projects that doesn't gel well with the rest of your project workload? Not sure what to do? Brad suggests taking the following actions.
~ By Brad Egeland
If you are not currently a project manager, but you think project management might be for you, here's six questions to help you make up your mind.
~ By Kenneth Darter
When project schedules are created, the project team needs to make sure all the tasks, phases and milestones are accounted for so the project can be finished.
~ By Brad Egeland
Suffering a budget overrun? Here's three key things you can do mid-stream on a project to help get the budget back in line with the original plan.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Are there similarities between running a marathon and managing a project? You might be surprised how alike they are. Just remember, neither is easy.
~ By Anthony Sherick
It seems that these days everyone claims to be a project manager. But are these 'true' project management roles? Let's find out what makes a project manager.
~ By Brad Egeland
Do you consider yourself to be a good reader of character? Are you good at reading situations and anticipating a likely outcome?
~ By Kenneth Darter
At some point in a project, the project manager may find the team stuck in a rework trap. What can you do about it? Here's 4 steps to move the project forward.
~ By Brad Egeland
A three-step approach to take if your project gets temporarily shelved, whether it's a two-week or two-month restart window.
~ By Kenneth Darter
The project charter is the key document during the initial stages of a project. Here's how to make sure yours will be useful to the project team.
~ By Brad Egeland
If you could turn back time and do something different on one of your projects or handled a situation differently with a customer, what would it be?
~ By Delwyn Ooi
How much control is enough on a project? Consider applying the three key controls for your next project - Stakeholders, Expectations and Team (SET).
~ By Brad Egeland
Part 3 of 3 looking at soft skills for project managers. Skills needed to be a successful PM and confident strategizer for your teams and projects.
~ By Brad Egeland
Part 2 of a 3 part series looking at soft skills for project managers. Having all 10 soft skills I cover in this series will definitely help project success.
~ By Brad Egeland
Part 1 of a 3 part series looking at soft skills for project managers. What are the top 10 soft skills PMs should have in order to succeed more than fail?
~ By Duncan Haughey
The Project Management Body of Knowledge is a collection of processes and knowledge areas accepted as best practice for the project management profession.
~ By Brad Egeland
Let's talk about rewards and recognition. We all like it, but in what form? And how far should one go to do so? Formal rewards and recognition? Informal?
~ By Kenneth Darter
Some of the most important lessons we learn come from failures. Kenneth Darter explains a simple four step process to make sure the same failures aren't repeated.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Does your organisation know what it knows? When engaging consultants, don't neglect the wealth of knowledge and ideas from your experts.
~ By Brad Egeland
You can't guarantee people will look forward to your meetings, so how can you ensure meetings are productive and keep everyone's interest and participation.
~ By Brad Egeland
When starting a project, there's more to it than just the formal kickoff. One-on-ones should be used to clarify priorities and to discuss schedules and plans.
~ By Brad Egeland
Many individuals need access to status updates from our projects, but what level of detail should you provide to different stakeholder groups?
~ By Brad Egeland
How to handle a non complying team member swiftly without causing further project disruption. Decisive actions you can take to get the resource back under control.
~ By Brad Egeland
Three processes to help your project team see how their tasks fit into the whole project puzzle, and what it's going to take to reach a successful destination.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Many people have fallen into project management to fill a gap and found themselves a career. This article looks at how to increase your chances of becoming an 'accidental' project manager.
~ By Brad Egeland
Ideally our project management methodology in a box process works perfectly for everyone. But clients come in all types and sizes and one size doesn't fit all.
~ By Brad Egeland
Making sure that everyone is on the same page in terms of technology, terminology, jargon, acronyms, and concepts is vitally important on a project.
~ By Brad Egeland
When we are faced with unknowns - as we are on nearly every project we manage - how do we deal with them? How do we effectively react and move forward?
~ By Abid Mustafa
How executives can become good sponsors by providing the right environment for project teams to deliver successful projects and programmes.
~ By Brad Egeland
Lots of information flows on projects. Most is good, but we can receive bad information from time-to-time and we can't react based on everything we hear.
~ By Brad Egeland
How do we respond to the customer who says they know everything? The customer who says 'this is my problem, here's the solution, now manage this project?'
~ By Brad Egeland
Brad Egeland's story of a project with a seemingly never-ending string of software bugs and what he learned that can help PMs faced with a similar situation.
~ By Michelle Symonds
Advancing your career in project management requires more than acquiring the right qualifications. Focus on 10 key areas to become a better project manager.
~ By Brad Egeland
You never get a second chance to make a first impression, or to successfully kick-off a project engagement. This list will help you get the project started off right.
~ By Brad Egeland
If you've reached the point where you're concerned about failure if you add more to your workload then you have to stop and take stock of where things stand.
~ By Kenneth Darter
What's the best way to sell information to your stakeholders? Here's three tactics to help you become a better salesperson and more effective communicator.
~ By Duncan Haughey
These quotations are the compressed wisdom of many years experience. Keep them in mind and let them help you navigate your way to a successful project.
~ By Jenny Beswick
Seven of the most important areas to consider when auditing your construction site to ensure the health and safety of your workers and the public.
~ By Nader Khorrami Rad
Understanding the planning lifecycle in PRINCE2. There are three main parts of the PRINCE2 manual which define the planning lifecycle for the standard.
~ By Project Smart
The acronym SMART tells us to write achievable and effective goals, but how do you write a SMART goal? This video looks at the dos and don'ts of writing SMART goals.
~ By Dr. Dirk Jungnickel & Abid Mustafa
Creating successful project teams is a daunting task for project leaders. A good method for matching people to roles is the Belbin Team Inventory Method (BTIM).
~ By David Walton
Ask any programme sponsor what the biggest threats are to a major project and you'll get similar answers: a lack of leadership and not enough focus on business risk.
~ By Deborah Kerr and Curt Finch
Managers are constantly searching for the secret to hiring the right employees. This article attempt to demystify the hiring process and provide tips on making a successful hire.
~ By Kenneth Darter
Preparation is a key part of project management. If a project is not started correctly, it will end up with problems such as rework and scope creep.
~ By Duncan Haughey
To succeed in business and project management, you need to manage your boss. Here are five highly useful tips for managing up.
~ By Kenneth Darter
How often do we spend time making sure our pencils are sharpened and our edges honed? Here are some ideas to help project managers keep their edges sharp.
~ By Nader Khorrami Rad
Understanding the planning process group in the PMBOK. So, how does planning lifecycle happen according to the PMI?
~ By Kenneth Darter
Resources on projects can be susceptible to burning out before the project finishes. Here are a few ideas to prevent burnout in project teams.
~ By Neil Stolovitsky
Ten questions to ask to help you evaluate your project management organisation's alignment with social media tools.
~ By Grady Winston
Understanding how to form a team of workers that can meld their talents to bring a large project to a close successfully requires experience, training and ingenuity.
~ By Sudeshna Banerjee
Looking to hire a Six Sigma practitioner? Here are the top ten characteristics you need to look out for, according to Sudeshna Banerjee.
~ By Kenneth Darter
Every project manager needs to ask a few important questions in the middle of a project that will give everyone a reality check on the project's status.
~ By Andy Trainer
Project management is people management. Here's our reminder of how to make sure you get the most from your project team.
~ By Curt Finch
A key factor for beating the recession is the intelligent execution of projects. Take the initiative and you may find yourself at the head of the pack.
~ By Abid Mustafa
Tips for transforming your PMO from a cost centre into a profit centre during hard economic times.
~ By Mark Piscopo
This article discusses creating your Work Breakdown Structure using Microsoft Project, an ideal tool for the purpose.
~ By Mohammed K Barakat
The Work Breakdown Structure is an essential tool to set the project scope. It forms the agreement between you and your client on what is included and what is not included in your end deliverable.
~ By Curt Finch
Five ways to optimise your projects and resources quickly and efficiently, to stay ahead of the competition and complete important (and profitable) projects.
~ By Anna Halstead
All helpdesk projects require proper planning and need to follow a project framework, in order to maintain customer satisfaction.
~ By Abid Mustafa
Executives quickly realise existing project managers from line functions, are limited in their ability and knowledge to deliver end-to-end initiatives.
~ By Michelle Symonds
Many project managers believe extra resources make all the difference between a project success and failure. But can extra resources rescue a poorly managed project?
~ By Abid Mustafa
The wise project manager is one who implants seeds of an idea in subordinates and instils within them confidence and freedom to develop that idea.
~ By Dave Nielsen
An examination of the terms used to describe risks and the way they are managed to shed some light on what they refer to and what they mean.
~ By Abid Mustafa
A look at three distinct areas where management consultants have played an instrumental role in creating PMOs with major structural defects.
~ By Kimberly Wiefling
Five common sense practices to help you regain perspective, reduce stress and optimise the results from time invested in work.
~ By Michelle Symonds
One of the many skills required of a project manager is the ability to ask searching questions and persevere until a clear answer is obtained.
~ By Mike Griffin
A dilemma: should you appoint someone who is an experienced project manager or someone who will champion the change?
~ By Peter Collins
The ability to plan effectively is crucial for professional services firms operating in billable markets such as accounting, consultancy and law.
~ By Duncan Haughey
All projects are carried out under certain constraints – traditionally, they are cost, time and scope. These three factors are commonly called the triple constraint.
~ By Michelle Symonds
The most important factors that contribute to a project being completed successfully can be broadly broken down into five areas.
~ By Abid Mustafa
If companies want to improve their performance in the execution of initiatives they should take a serious look at restructuring project steering committees.
~ By Patrick Bird
How project managers can improve the way they handle difficult and challenging conversations to make themselves more effective.
~ By Dr Ian Clarkson
Six top tips for project management success to help you avoid the last minute 'all hands to the pump'
~ By Mark Flynn
Good implementations of agile are a result of the business and IT working together to implement a methodology that meets the needs of the organisation.
~ By Michael L Young
The health check is a reflective learning exercise, a snapshot of project or programme status used to identify what is going well and areas for improvement.
~ By Michael O'Brochta & Curt Finch
Five important KPIs by which a PMO might measure its productivity in the context of overall company success.
~ By Michael O'Brochta & Curt Finch
This article focuses on the co-dependent relationship between executives and PMOs, told through a case study by Michael O'Brochta a former CIA employee.
~ By Arnaldo Pellini
Can ROMA be reconciled with a structured project management approach? This paper examines how ROMA and structured project management can work together.
~ By Marvey Mills
This Microsoft Project Guide starts with what to do as soon as you have created a new project and ends with tracking progress against that plan.
~ By Abid Mustafa
This article outlines techniques a company can use to accurately determine its capability to deliver a specific number of projects and programmes each year.
~ By Peter Osborne
IT-led business change programmes and projects continue to fail, yet many of the common pitfalls can easily be avoided by undertaking regular health checks.
~ By Louise K. Allen & Carrie Nauyalis
The latest five 'game changers' in product management and why each one is critical in bringing a project or product to market.
~ By Tony Schwartz
Each of us has a default lens through which we see the world. We call it reality. We have the power to view the world through other lenses. Here is how.
~ By Michelle Symonds
Changes requested can be the result of external changes in a business or internal changes because the original aims of the project were not clearly understood.
~ By Duncan Haughey
The change control process ensures that each change proposed during a project is properly defined, considered and approved before implementation.
~ By Deborah L. Kerr, Ph.D., & Bill Balcezak
Making hiring decisions based upon skill or personality alone can only take a business so far. By blending the two, organisations will gain a competitive advantage.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
Planning can be stressful and time consuming, but the payoff for your big day makes it all worth it.
~ By Susanne Madsen
When you realise that you have the power to change your beliefs and remove a limiting factor that has been constraining you, you have an AHA! moment.
~ By Michelle Symonds
All projects are different and the best way of identifying potential risks is to call on the experience of past projects within the same field.
~ By Michelle Symonds
How to build a useful lessons learned database that can be used to continually improve project processes in just a few simple steps.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse & Kristen LaBrosse
Work on growing your Network Quotient as avidly as you would work on expanding your investment portfolio, it is that important!
~ By Darrel Raynor and Curt Finch
The potential benefits of a project management office (PMO) are numerous and well-documented. However, many of the benefits never materialise. Why?
~ By Ty Kiisel
In project management, missing deadlines or exceeding budgets is evidence that a project is probably in trouble. Here are four early warning signs.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
Check on your PMO throughout its creation, as well as when it's done, to ensure it's the kind of PMO your organisation can effectively utilise.
~ By Michelle Symonds
Do recognised professional credentials increase your worth in the jobs market? Will the effort of studying to pass the exam improve your career prospects?
~ By Duncan Haughey
The mnemonic READY is useful when creating a project proposal. It will help you produce a project proposal that's difficult to ignore.
~ By Michelle Symonds
It's well known that projects with any level of complexity are likely to exceed their budget or deadline. What's the best way to get it back on track?
~ By Michelle Symonds
Planning a project requires putting a series of tasks in order and determining dependencies between them. In practice it's never so straightforward.
~ By Michelle Symonds
SWOT Analysis is one of a number of different techniques used by professional project managers to help with decision-making.
~ By Duncan Haughey
Over the years, management experts have come up with pearls of wisdom in the form of quotations that when given some thought, have a lot to teach us.
~ By Ty Kiisel
The surgeon could learn a few things from project managers about how to create a sound work management (surgery management) methodology.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse & Kristen LaBrosse
The ability to demonstrate your capabilities to others comes in handy in an interview, but is also an essential skill needed throughout your career.
~ By Michelle Symonds
Even on simple, straightforward projects there are many areas that can cause failure. Here are 15 of the most common causes of project failure.
~ By Louis Marshall
It's a major concern that some people believe there is a perfect time management software out there that will fix all their scheduling woes.
~ By Jean Michelez
Project CAPEX estimating is a difficult exercise for non-standard projects, because of the variety of situations that can influence project success.
~ By Lisa Drake
Time Boxing is setting aside a fixed time period to work on a particular task or group of tasks. Basically, instead of working on a task until it's done, you commit to work on it for a specific amount of time.
~ By Jennifer Whitt
How to run the perfect PMO meeting in just one hour a week. This case study describes the weekly meeting of a mid-sized software development company.
~ By Fred Morgan
Successful delegation is crucial to successful project management. Many people involved as leaders in project management are, however, afraid of delegation.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
By quietly listening for the opportunities in your life, and learning to recognise them in all their forms, you can find plenty of avenues for self-improvement.
~ By Dan Vickers and Curt Finch
For project managers, the support of their team is critical for completing projects successfully. Yet, a team's respect cannot simply be assigned like a task.
~ By Duncan Haughey
The concepts of SMART and SMARTER are useful when setting project goals and objectives. Here are seven steps to help you set smarter goals.
~ By Jennifer Whitt
Being onsite with a client has been likened to playing a chess game where you have to think many moves ahead in order to make it to the end of the game.
~ By Patrick Bird
Communication is the lifeblood of an organisation. Using the ARC of Distortion will help you improve the performance of individuals, teams and organisation.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
Much stress in life comes from not feeling in control and maintaining a state of reactivity to deal with problems. The good news is that there's another way!
~ By James WJ Hutt
Many project managers put an implementation or cutover plan together yet fail to carryout the rigorous analysis to determine whether they should proceed.
~ By Ty Kiisel
It doesn't really matter whether you espouse the Waterfall or Agile method, if you make these mistakes, your project will likely fail.
~ By James WJ Hutt
The project plan is one of the most important and useful documents in your toolkit, and should be referred to and updated throughout the project lifecycle.
~ By Ty Kiisel
In today's world, socialising the work management process makes sense. What are you doing to democratise project management and engage your project teams?
~ By Jennifer Whitt
Delivering bad news about your project is an inevitable part of our jobs as Project Managers. It takes discretion, skill and good judgment.
~ By Bruce Temkin
What are the three key characteristics the most effective leaders demonstrate when required to sustain a change agenda over a multi-year journey.
~ By Gurdeep Kaur
When teams come together conflict is almost inevitable. Not all conflict is unhealthy. Conflict has the potential to bring out the best in individuals and teams.
~ By Michelle LaBrosse
Make your decisions when the time is right to make that decision and not before. Tune into how and when you make your best decisions.
~ By Bill Balcezak
It's seemingly impossible to avoid multitasking in today's busy world. However, mounting evidence suggests multitasking is the enemy of productivity.
~ By Cameron Watson
As global competition continues to drive business and technology, those organisations armed with an IT Methodology increase their operational performance.
~ By Kimberly M. Wiefling, M.S.
Why do companies continue repeating tragically avoidable mistakes, hamstringing themselves with the same ludicrous errors their competitors are also making?
~ By Duncan Haughey
In a competitive business environment, projects with the best value proposition get funded. So how can you emphasise the value proposition of your project?
~ By Jessika M. Ferm
Here are some strategies and six simple steps for making sure your goals will be concise, clear, and produce the results for which you are looking.
~ By Trevor Roberts
We all want to deliver successful projects. But sometimes the right thing to do is to stop a project. When is this the right choice?
~ By Liz Cassidy
A key skill in project management is learning to win support from stakeholders. Mastering this skill ensures your projects are more likely to succeed.
~ By Curt Finch
What happens when team members speak different languages? We have instant communication, but this doesn't necessarily translate into instant comprehension.
~ By Claudia Vandermilt
When dealing with IT projects, using specialised project management techniques will be very beneficial to your progress leading to a higher success rate.
~ By Patrick Bird
Whether it's with a client or prospect, the pressure of delivering information in the right tone and style requires careful planning.
~ By Gil Junqueira
As project management grows around the world and becomes increasingly commoditised, more specialisation will be necessary to secure the best opportunities.
~ By Patrick Bird
Building sustainable and flexible working relationships to create an effective working environment starts with the project team, but does not end there.
~ By Dennis Hocker
Here are seven more of the common mistakes that most people make in their quest for improvement and achievement.
~ By Jessie L Warner
Integration management is the knowledge area that includes processes needed to ensure all project components are co-ordinated to achieve project goals.
~ By Dennis Hocker
SMART goals are those that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. SMART goals tend to give you a laser focus and keep you on track
~ By Duncan Haughey
Software development projects are usually approached using one of two methods, waterfall or agile. How should I approach my software development project?
~ By Carole Embden-Peterson
Writing a business case is a crucial component in the business process. This article covers the important components in a business case.
~ By Carole Embden-Peterson
Getting stakeholders to buy into your business case can be difficult. This article highlights what is needed to ensure you prepare an effective business case.
~ By Jamie Stewart
Running a project remotely is about more than just a laptop and a decent Internet connection. Jamie Stewart, UK managing director of Exact, takes a look.
~ By James L Adams
This article examines the multifaceted role of the Business Analyst and gives a depiction of the duties and skills required to embark on such a career.
~ By Stephen Warrilow
How does a leader become a renewable leader and what are the leadership qualities that make this possible? What does engagement and empowerment mean in practice?
~ By Rowan McCann
Introducing Agile concepts to a business environment can be a political nightmare. These five steps will ensure your migration is as smooth as possible.
~ By Jessie L Warner
The four steps outlined in this article will help you better define and measure the activities that make up your project timeline.
~ By PMAlliance
Keeping a project management team running smoothly can be a challenge, especially when budgets are lean and expectations are high.
~ By Gina Abudi
Do you capture your lessons learned? If you do, how effectively do you capture them?
~ By Dr. Joseline Edward Lucas
The PMI offers two levels of project management certification; Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) and Project Management Professional (PMP).
~ By Rodney J Smith
To join the ranks of the professional coder, several elements need to be in place. This article explores 5 best practices for successful software development.
~ By Jessie L Warner
The knowledge area of Scope Management is all about making sure that the project includes only the work required to complete the project successfully.
~ By Rodney J Smith
Building a computer system is akin to driving down a country lane at night; the driver can only ever see as far as her headlights allow.
~ By Alan S. Koch
The cost of quality is a significant cost on any project so prudent managers look for ways to keep those costs in check.
~ By Chris Young
Scrum is one of the simplest agile methodologies and is proven to be highly effective for software development and more general product development.
~ By Debbie Nichols
Scrum is an agile software development methodology designed to foster iterative and incremental development. So, what is it makes teams resistant to Scrum?
~ By Curt Finch
Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that helps enterprise managers determine direct and indirect costs of a product or system.
~ By Dave Nielsen
Most managers of software development projects have had an encounter with a resource who is committed to their project some percentage of the time.
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NASA Project Management Challenge 2008
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SMART Goals
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