Cost forecasting is almost never 100% accurate. If it were, the field of cost control would be significantly less difficult. There are elements however, that do contribute to a quality cost forecast. In this article I offer some high-level details about these elements. Forecasting is the critical focus of cost control. Work package forecast evaluation […]
Displaying The Task Path In Microsoft Project
Using Microsoft Project’s Gantt charts have a way of quickly becoming cluttered with numerous tasks and joining relationships. In these situations you may want a way to inspect a respective task path through the network. In analyzing a schedule it is common to inspect all tasks coming before a particular task, the predecessors, and all […]
How to Fix Poor Project Status Reporting
PMOs often take an active part in project status reporting. They consolidate reports from project managers, chase project managers for updates and it can feel like managing reporting it a huge time drain. But are you actually getting anything of value out of your project reports? Are managers are still asking questions you think they […]
How to Build A PMO Maturity Model
How mature is your PMO? And does it matter? We would say that it doesn’t matter where you are, as long as you know where you are. And that’s where a PMO maturity model comes in. What is a PMO Maturity Model? A PMO maturity model is a way of assessing how good your PMO […]
Best Practices Bring Project Success
Best practices can bring project success. There isn’t a single term used to describe any thriving business, but you’ve heard them all: global, fast-paced, decentralized. That’s because successful businesses aren’t a single, strategic project; they have multiple initiatives leveraging each other to meet their over-arching business objectives. Not only are there multiple projects, but these […]
Using Deltek Acumen Fuse’s Trend Analysis
Deltek Acumen Fuse schedule metrics help schedulers plot the trend of a project. This enables them to quickly spot schedule issues or opportunities, and respond accordingly. This is useful for when project managers plot scheduling metrics over time, trends appear that provide valuable insight into the true schedule situation. As a general scheduling rule, if […]
Task Bar Labels Using Multiple Fields In Microsoft Project
In Microsoft Project, you can display task bar labels on your Gantt chart. You can set the position labels left, right, top, bottom, or inside a task bar. Each task label position is set to display one label. However, when we apply a little ingenuity we can display multiple fields in each label. Microsoft Project […]
3 Simple Steps to Setting Up a PMO
Setting up a PMO (Project Management Office) for the first time can seem like a daunting step. In this article we’ll show you the 3 simple things you need to do when setting up a PMO up, keeping it running, delivering value, as quickly as possible. 1. Build Trust First, you need to gain the […]
Project Initiation Problems and How To Fix Them
One of the core functions for a PMO is to get involved with new project initiation. In businesses without a PMO, this process is often haphazard. It can feel chaotic, because no one has a clear view of what initiatives the company is working on. And worse, it’s almost impossible to find out because everyone […]
Schedule Validation – Areas You Should Consider
Those performing a schedule validation should consider some common checks to confirm and validate the quality of the schedule. Even contractors working in good faith may submit a schedule that in some way is misleading and/or overly optimistic. Yes, the schedule may be well intended but not true to reality. It is the role of […]