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Wiser Group Decision Making

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If ‘two heads are better than one’ why do so many committees make bad decisions?[[wysiwyg_imageupload:4284:]]Good group decision-making involves an open discussion among members of a group, each with their own skills, experience, ideas and informatio...

Jun 6, 2016

Powerful Words, “I Don’t Know”

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“I don’t know” are three words that most people dread saying.  The need to know the answer has followed us from school into the working world.   We are loath to admit ignorance.  I have seen colleagues twist themselves into a pretzel inventing an ans...

Mar 4, 2017

Recommended Steps to Effective Gate 1 IAP

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Interactive Planning (IAP) is a methodology used by projects to engage important stakeholders and subject matter experts in a facilitated workshop setting.The engagement process is through collaborative discussion of project plan and strategy to deve...

Mar 12, 2017

Diversity Risk in the Canadian Workplace

Blog

A good understanding of diversity risk must be part of planning. The world is laden with so many cultures. Mixtures of these various norms creates a new norm that must be considered seriously.If we look in the past, multiculturalism has a long and wi...

Jan 30, 2017

Making Sense of Agile

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There has been a tectonic shift in how software is developed.  Terms like Agile, CI/CD, DevOps, BDD, and TDD are new additions to the IT vocabulary. These new practices and related tools promise to significantly reduce the time and effort required to...

Feb 6, 2017

Portfolio Management - The elephant in the room

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Is this you?You’re stretched across too many projects.Not only that, but you’re frustrated that there are quite a few projects in the company that seem to have little benefit, and yet they just drift on.Worse still, these projects tie up precious tim...

Nov 7, 2014

Planning By Consensus

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So much hinges on the project schedule, yet so few team members contribute to it. Whatsmore, they typically don’t care about critical paths, constraints and other building blocks; they just want to know “what, where and when.” We’re overdue for conse...

Nov 13, 2014

Why Tasks Should be Banned from Project Scheduling Tools

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My best friend and I meet up once every year and we invariably end up chatting about our mutual passion for project planning. His view is a little extreme but one with enough merit to warrant discussion: “Ban activities and tasks from scheduling tool...

Nov 14, 2014

Building a 4D Strategy on Top of VDC Principles

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I like to think of Virtual Design & Construction (VDC) as a process that ideally flows through a project, digitally (i.e., virtually) creating, collecting, transporting, and delivering project data from design through construction. The VDC process in...

Nov 21, 2014

The USACE CPM Schedule Specification

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The Specification is full of errors and is biased in favor of specific software.Just take a look at a few sections, it is a disaster.2.1 SOFTWARE - 2.1.2.2 Other Than Primavera - If the contractor chooses software other than Primavera P6, that is com...

Apr 16, 2017

Project Management: Centralized vs. Decentralized Delivery

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There is an ongoing dialogue in many enterprises: Should project management be a centralized, shared-service?  Or, should project managers be decentralized and embedded within their functional organizations? The answer is, "it depends."  Every enterp...

May 3, 2017

Risk-based Management Framework

Blog

A project management framework is important in effectively managing projects. Planning and scheduling management framework is essential in managing plans and schedule. An engineering management framework governs engineering works as does a safety man...

May 12, 2017

Planning & Scheduling through the Gates

Blog

Project planning and scheduling processes follow a management framework called the Project Implementation Model (PIM). Such model divides the project into sub-boundaries called stages, gates, or checkpoints.Does not really matter what proprietary ter...

May 17, 2017

My First Book Signing @ Indigo-Signal Hills, Calgary

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20-May-2017 My first book signing event went well today at Indigo Signal Hill. I met a lot of interesting, intelligent people and was able to introduce the book to them. Had some lively discussion with a few who said that the book was timely. Some pr...

May 21, 2017

Planning and Scheduling - Stage 1

Blog

Conception bring us to a time before any recorded execution plan and schedule. It is the zero point in time where the fate of the project is most uncertain. From this origin comes initiation or Stage 1.A feasibility study and a business case becomes ...

May 27, 2017

If Agile is Better, Why is Adoption So Low?

Blog

Agile software projects have significantly better outcomes than Waterfall methodologies.  Statistics from the 2015 Standish Group’s Chaos Report show that, on average, Agile projects are three times more likely to be successful than Waterfall project...

Jun 2, 2017