Coordination and collaboration … metrics and methods … PMOs, standards and training … knowledge-sharing and decision-making.
Product development requires a unified, collaborative team effort. A social project management framework, combined with the right social tools, helps to connect team activities to the product development process and stakeholders. The benefits include increased visibility, more accurate estimates, responsive, real-time analysis and streamlined workflows.
Globally dispersed teams and stakeholders present daunting challenges to project, program and portfolio leaders. It is imperative that organizations develop a formal communication strategy that addresses distance, language, culture and access to information. In this undertaking, “the cloud” is a friend.
Executives need projects so they can deliver on commitments, and projects need executives, who control the resources and networks essential to success. This co-dependent relationship is itself a project that can be cultivated within a PMO for an organization's strategic long-term benefit.
Many risk management guides describe a mitigation strategy that allocates funding and schedule margin for when a risk “comes true.” A better approach is to “buy down” the risk before it turns into an issue. Here is an example based on the U.S. Department of Defense’s approach.
Operational silos are a huge barrier to program management success. In this podcast, Deltek’s Jason Kinder discusses how an integrated PM approach can break those silos down and bring together people, processes and tools to improve six keys areas: forecast accuracy; collaboration; risk and opportunity management; PPM; change management; and actionable information. [6:08]
PM best practices may differ from company to company, but every organization needs relevant, actionable information to drive confident decision-making and reduce surprises. In this podcast, Jason Kinder and Andy Jordan discuss Deltek's PM Compass, a new platform built specifically for project leaders and program managers.
The cost of not applying project lessons learned is significant. But how can busy project managers identify and share the right ones — and leverage them in a disciplined fashion? Mel Bost offers some insights, and explains the project curator role, in Part 2 of this PM War Stories conversation. [14 min.]
What are the six elements of an effective lessons learned process? Equally important, how do you instill a culture that recognizes the value of this critical mechanism for closing out projects and intelligently managing future ones? A PM War Stories conversation with PMO thought-leader Mel Bost. [13 min.]
Compliance and Help Desk PMOs both have frequent interaction with project managers, but the nature of that interaction is very different. What benefits do they offer, what are their drawbacks, and in what types of organizations are they best suited? Here’s a comparison of both models.
What are the key differences between compliance-based PMOs and their administrative counterparts? What are their advantages and downsides? Why do project managers tend to prefer one over the other? And what organizational factors should be considered when deciding to establish one PMO approach over the other? Here's a comparison of both models.
An administrative PMO doesn’t get heavily involved in day-to-day execution of the processes it develops, and works best with experienced project managers who prefer independence. A help-desk PMO offers the additional function of coach and mentor, and works better in a culture of open communication and continuous improvement. Here’s a comparison of both models.
Steering committees can reduce risk, facilitate faster decision making and keep the project manager more closely informed on the project’s position in the portfolio and in the organization as a whole. But there is overhead, and they can end up being just another level of bureaucracy in the project management hierarchy.
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Tom MochalPresident, TenStep Inc
Tom Mochal, PgMP, PMP, TSPM is the president of TenStep, Inc. (www.TenSt…
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Glen AllemanVP Program Controls, Lewis & Fowler
As VP, Program Controls, Glen brings his 30 years experience in program …
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Andy JordanPresident, Roffensian Consulting Inc.
Andy Jordan is a well known author and speaker on project management and…
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Abid MustafaDirector of Corporate Programme Management Office
Abid Mustafa is a seasoned professional with 18 years’ experience …
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Janis RizzutoContributing Editor, ProjectsAtWork
Janis has been writing for ProjectsAtWork for more than a decade, starti…
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Aaron SmithEditor, ProjectsAtWork.com
Aaron has been the editor of ProjectsAtWork since 2001, leading its evol…
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I picked up a recent copy of National Fisherman magazine. I hadn’t seen a copy in years and I picked it up for a couple of reasons; (1) as a sportfisherman, catch and release, I like to...
Posted in: People, Planet, Profits & Projects
When I am teaching CSM classes one of the commonly asked questions usually doesn’t show up until almost the very end. When it does, it comes disguised in various explanations and wrapped in d...
Posted in: The Reluctant Agilist
We’ve always said that, while the altruistic reasons for greening up your projects is a good thing, keeping in the spirit of people, planet, profits and projects, money is also good.&nbs...
Posted in: People, Planet, Profits & Projects
Half a trillion dollars.
That's a lot of money -a lot of projects - and clearly a lot of opportunity for project managers.
And that is the amount of money (about 3 trillion yuan) t...
Posted in: People, Planet, Profits & Projects
Changepoint helps businesses gain competitive advantage and increase profitability through complete portfolio visibility, planning insight, process automation, and improved resource utilization throughout a customer’s lifecycle.
EPM Live provides easy to use Microsoft SharePoint Project and Work Management applications for everyone in an organization, from teams that want to work within individual workgroups, to organizations that want to utilize enterprise tools.
With Genius Project, leading project and portfolio management software, an organization can easily manage project in a collaborative way. Turn around time is quick, and as a result, project visibility and execution are enhanced.
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Kenneth K: "This article tracks very closely with a recent large and successful project that…" on Agile 101: Larger Teams
February 22, 2012
Samad A: "Jeff, Gareth, Gary, This is a great topic that is desperately in need for mor…" on Supply Side Projects
February 22, 2012
Stephen H: "Good starter article on managing operational supplier relationships within a pro…" on Supply Side Projects
February 21, 2012
Jeannette C: "Jim, thanks so much for sharing your experience with our book!" on Inside Look at High-Performing PMOs
February 21, 2012