When projects begin to slip, managing project failure often chooses not to tack, but persists along its course until the project becomes a complete bust. But there are ways to manage an off track project to avoid the worst possible outcome. Organizations too often linger on projects that are quite evidently failing. The problem most […]
White Paper – Difficult Conversations for PMO Leaders To Have
For the PMO leader, much of the working day is taken up with operational issues and ensuring that projects, programs and portfolios are operating as they should. From time to time, you’ll have to face difficult conversations to ensure that you can still deliver those projects, programs and portfolios as a team, and stay aligned […]
5 Benefits of the Agile PMO
What is an Agile PMO? Agile methods are on the rise, and the chances are a project team near you will be using agile or adaptive approaches to manage their work. But agile works at the organizational level too. It goes beyond sprint-based planning and other techniques, and is something that can be embedded in […]
How To Build Capacity In Your Team Through Recruitment
It won’t come as a surprise to you to know that having the right people on the team is crucial for project success. But how do you get the right people on the team in your PMO? In this article, we’ll show you how. You have 3 options for growing your project management team with […]
The Differing Negative FS and Positive SS Schedule Outcomes
It may appear when scheduling tasks that a Finish-to-Start (FS) and negative lag is functionally the same as a Start-to-Start (SS) and positive lag, but they are not. Let’s take a closer look at these two approaches. Many scheduling guidelines prohibit the use of negative lag. And we have already written about the drawbacks of […]
Your PMO Is More Than An Executive Assistant
Project Management Offices exist at all kinds of levels in an organization. You may have one set up to provide PMO support on a particular large project, or a specific team. The PMO may be attached to a corporate division, or support the work of one country in a multi-national business. Or you may have […]
How To Launch PMO Training for Executives
Frequently, we see leaders within an organization who mean well, but who simply don’t have the skills to be able to carry out their roles on projects. They might be senior managers who have a lot of experience, but who have never been in the role of project sponsor before. They might be board members […]
How To Get Your PMO Involved in Strategic Discussions
How To Get Your PMO Involved in Strategic Discussions How many times have you been in a meeting and felt you didn’t have the whole picture? Whether it’s a reference to a strategic decision, new plans for transformative change or something about the business landscape – it’s clear that they knew something that you didn’t. […]
Critical Path Breaks
A typical schedules critical path should consist of a continuous sequence of activities from project start or status date to the finish milestone. If not, your schedule may have critical path breaks and need review. An unbroken and continuous critical path from project start to project finish is an important characteristic of a quality schedule. […]
Avoiding Schedule Risk
All schedules come with risk, so learning to address some of the more common risks associated is an important step to their mitigation. Your scope may very well be attainable, but your schedule may transform your otherwise reasonable project into an inevitable failure. Sources of schedule risk include multiple critical paths, multiple predecessor dependencies, procrastinating […]