Budget

Time-tracking solutions can help you uncover hidden opportunities to maximize your project’s value, from more efficient resource allocation to more accurate estimating and bidding. Here’s a closer look at how better time management produces more successful projects.

Agile and earned value are inherently different approaches to managing projects, but they can complement each other in support of flexibility and bottom-line value. Here are three practical tips to help you bridge the gap between an agile approach and the earned value reports and measurements many organizations require.

How many projects is your organization going to deliver next year? “As many as we can” is not a helpful or meaningful answer. In lieu of an established portfolio planning process, there are some techniques that can help a company calculate the number of projects and programs it can realistically handle in the coming year.

Many project managers stop thinking about earned value the day after their PMP exam, but that’s unfortunate because it can be helpful in understanding progress and refining estimates. Here is a fog-free explanation of earned value that might help you apply the technique on your next project.

A Performance Measurement Baseline can be used to determine if you have everything you need to complete your project, including money, time and resources. Here is an overview of what it looks like, along with some key related activities and desired outcomes to strengthen its credibility.

There are five immutable principles of project management that must be addressed by project leaders and teams in order to succeed. In this new series, we begin with an overview of these principles before exploring in detail how you can put them to work in a variety of business and technical domains.

Stakeholders don’t like suprises, especially when it comes to project costs. It’s worth taking the time to carefully estimate the business analysis phase of the project. Here are five tips.

When project milestones are being met, but related work is being pushed aside, you have a case of phase-shifting. A crash is around the bend. Here’s how it happens and how to avoid it.

How do you measure the success of projects in your portfolio? Cost and schedule, of course — but other criteria should be included to gain a more holistic perspective. And the concept of tolerances should be understood and applied to any evaluation of success (or failure).

Some organizations spend too much money on internal projects and fail to drive revenue; some play it safe with too many low-risk, low-reward projects; and others focus mainly on strategic projects, neglecting short-term tactical needs. The use of balance points can better optimize the portfolio.