Knowledge Base/Case Studies

Project Management is Strategic

Lately I have seen an increasing number of organizations who are interested in looking at project management as a strategic function within the organization. (Yes…project management is tactical; but it's strategic too and it is time that organizations look at it from a strategic viewpoint.) When project management is seen as strategic, all [Download PDF of article]

Project Managers Need Leadership Skills

Yes – if you are a project manager you really need leadership skills! Today's project managers must have leadership skills in order to effectively perform their roles in the organization and stand out from the crowd of other project managers. Something must make you distinct from the others – especially if you are currently [Download PDF of article]

Capturing Those Lessons Learned

Do you capture your lessons learned? If you do, how effectively do you capture them?

There are many reasons why lessons learned are not captured, or, if they are captured, not used, including: [Download PDF of article]

• Lack of time
• Lack of management support
• Lack of resources
• Lack of clear guidelines

Taking the Initial Steps toward Understanding the Project Management Function in an Organization (Part I)

When I meet with a client for the first time about how they might improve their project management function, I prefer to spend the first few meetings getting to learn about their organization, how the project management function is structured and perceived, and their long-term goals and objectives. [Download PDF of article]

Learning about the Project Management Function in an Organization: Data Gathering and Presentation to the Client (Part II)

In Part I we looked at the beginning of a high level approach to taking the initial steps to learn about an organization's project management function. The client, who is a service company, had plans to grow their project management function by an additional 100 project management employees worldwide within 2 – [Download PDF of article]

Kicking off the Project Team

One of the most important things a team leader can do is find time to kick off the start of the project with the project team. I'm not talking about day 1 and the group is together ready to dig in on the project. [Download PDF of article]

Hey Project Sponsor - We Need Your Help Please!

First, let's define Sponsor. According to the Project Management Institute's, The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) Guide, the Sponsor "is the person or group [of people] that provides the financial resources, in cash or in kind, for the project.” As defined by Wikipedia.com, "….(t)he project sponsor will be a senior executive [Download PDF of article]

Establishing Project Management Best Practices

In the last few months, in meetings with a variety of clients, I have seen an increased desire to establish best practices around project management. However, with each client – "best practices around project management” seems to mean something different. For some clients, discussion has focused around putting policies and procedures in place [Download PDF of article]

Communicating the Value-Add of a Project Management Best Practice

In the last posting, we discussed the growing interest in establishing best practices around project management and discussed generally how to get started. In this posting, we are going to focus on how to communicate the value add to the organization of having a project management best practice. [Download PDF of article]

One Central Resource – Getting Started Slowly in Rolling Out Your Organization-Wide Project Management Best Practice and Processes

In the previous posting, we discussed the importance of communication around the value add of having an organization-wide project management best practice and processes. Additionally, we provided a few options for doing so.

In this posting, we will discuss how to go about slowly rolling out the organization-wide project management best practice and [Download PDF of article]

A Virtual Global Team in Trouble: A Case Study – Part I

A virtual global project team was having significant difficulty in getting a major project completed. The project was a strategic one for the organization and would affect all offices worldwide. There appeared to be quite a bit of dissension among the team members on a regular basis and the project manager seemed unable [Download PDF of article]

A Virtual Global Team in Trouble: A Case Study – Part II: Now What??

In Part I we started our story on a virtual team in trouble. In this post, we will cover the stakeholder meeting and the decisions made to move the project forward, along with processes put in place to ensure this situation does not occur in the future. [Download PDF of article]

Using ROI to Evaluate Project Management Training

Executives today are demanding to see the monetary value that project management training programs bring to the organization. This means they need to see a dollar value placed on the benefits of the training, not just that participants believe the training to be valuable to them or they enjoyed the training [Download PDF of article]

Developing a Project Management Best Practice

Executives today are interested in developing a best practice around project management within their organizations. Some of this interest stems from the economy and the need to do more with less – reduced timelines to get a product/service to market to increase revenue [Download PDF of article]