One of the slow burning issues in Australia (and globally) is the flammable cladding used in lieu of the specified non-flammable cladding on many hundreds of high rise buildings. As a consequence, many of these buildings do not comply with the Building Act and expensive remediation works are required.
A short while ago I posted a blog that was highly critical of the new ‘Practice Guide for the Governance of Portfolios, Programs, and Projects’. The core of my criticism was the confusion of management and governance (and PMI’s focus on improving management functions); see: PMI’s Practice Guide misses the boat!
Statistics drive decisions in every walk of life, including project management. One of the applications of statistics we’ve been exposed to more than once recently is answering the question how many meals to load on a Qantas flight?
In our last article You are probably wrong about probability we looked at probability[1]. Randomness is a key ingredient in probability, contributes to luck, affects statistics, and can easily be confused for skill or competence!
This is the first of four articles based on Leonard Mlodinow's book, The Drunkards Walk; looking at probability, in the next article we will look at randomness, and then how this affects everything in project controls and business. For example, does the Rugby Union world Cup win this week prove that New Zealand are a better team than the Australia?
Most people when faced with a painful decision such as having a leg amputated seek a valid second opinion! Sitting for the PMP exam is no different – regardless of whose course you have completed testing your knowledge against a different set of reputable questions developed by another person is always a good idea.
I was recently involved in a virtual discussion on the Association for Project Management (APM - UK) website around the use and differences between a Product Breakdown Structure (PBS) and a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The resulting briefing document produced by the APM is summarised here[1] with some additional commentary.
A couple of conversations in the last week or so has highlighted the importance of effective communication if you want anyone to take notice of the project information you have carefully gathered and analysed. Good data, good analysis and good information are useless if no one gets the message.
On many occasion we, and others, have defined good governance as balancing the needs of stakeholders and the objectives of the organisation to achieve long-term, sustainable value for the majority, if not all, stakeholders (see: Mosaic’s governance archives). From these considerations, Dr. Lynda Bourne developed the ‘six functions of governance’:
The need for effective planning and scheduling has been recognised for well over 100 years. Projects fail when they overrun the allocated time and budget and overrunning on schedule is a great way to make sure you also overrun on cost.
The elements needed to enhance the probability of project success are also well known, starting with a skilled project manager and team, with the necessary knowledge, skills and experience. The next layer of support to build success is making sure the ‘right’ PM tools, processes and methodologies are used; again these are hardly new: