Scaling Your Project Management Career
2 weeks 21 hours agoProject managers ascend the career ladder based on accumulated experience-derived wisdom and managing progressively larger and more complicated efforts. A typical trajectory involves moving from managing projects to programs, portfolios, and project management organizations. Success at one level is not a guarantee of success at the next. It is the classic case
Are We Aligned?
6 weeks 1 day agoStakeholder alignment—or lack thereof—can be the difference between project success and failure. In today’s dynamic business environment, projects face multiple stakeholders and constituencies. Often, these groups have competing or divergent interests.
Project managers often focus on the “hard skills” to ensure adherence to the triple constraints of scope, schedule, and cost.
Hybrid Project Management: Part 4, Picking the Practices
10 weeks 2 days agoHybrid projects are not constrained by a single methodology or well-defined framework. By definition, they are a melding melding of practices. A huge responsibility accompanies this unbounded freedom of choice. Project managers must clearly describe how the project will be executed to be successful.
Shirking this responsibility is detrimental.
Hybrid Project Management: Part 3, Picking the Approach
15 weeks 3 days agoA project manager’s first major decision is selecting the approach and lifecycle. Historically, this was a non-issue. The default option was preordained based on the project type, organizational preferences, and inertia.
Construction and engineering projects were always predictive. For software projects, organizational factors outside the project manager’s
Project Management Essentials
19 weeks 6 days agoI authored my first project management article 10 years ago. A mentor recommended I start writing to launch my transition from managing project organizations to teaching. Writing those early articles was challenging. Reducing complex ideas into writing is a skill requiring practice and discipline.
I did not anticipate having so much to say. However, project
Hybrid Project Management
28 weeks 4 days agoHybrid project management just had its breakout moment!
The Project Management Institute’s Pulse of the Profession® 2024 reported that hybrid (32%) is now the second most commonly used approach. Predictive (44
Project Data Visualization
31 weeks 6 days agoA picture is worth a thousand words.
Projects can generate a lot of data. Large, mature organizations generally have the tools to capture, store, and analyze this information effectively. However, small and less mature organizations and those leading non-traditional efforts often lack the tools, practices, and experience.
I teach project fundamentals classes to non-
Project Decision-Making
37 weeks 1 day agoMaking good decisions is a critical project management skill. The challenge is to create a fair, efficient, effective, and transparent process for our teams and stakeholders. In a
Shift-Left, Shift-Right, Keep Middle
40 weeks 6 days agoShift-left is an Agile/DevOps call to action. It signaled the need to address quality sooner. As we adapt to the current dynamics, we should challenge standard paradigms and reevaluate when to execute project processes.
Timing is crucial for successful project outcomes. By shifting events earlier (left), later (right), or consistently doing others throughout the
Effective Time Management for Project Teams
45 weeks 1 day ago“Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.” Peter Drucker
Time is our only finite resource. We cannot buy it or create it. Therefore, we must spend it wisely. Effective time management is a critical project management competency. Regrettably, many teams lack these skills or discipline
