An optimized schedule is good, but a resilient schedule is better. It provides for a more reliable plan that is less susceptible to risk and more able to recover from unexpected external events. Most inexperienced sea voyagers plan the shortest route to their destination, but any sailor “worth his salt” knows better. The shortest way […]
10 Ways To Promote Your PMO
Once your new Project Management Office is set up, you need to find ways to tell people that it exists and what it can do. Promote your PMO. This can feel a bit uncomfortable, especially if you have come from a project delivery organization or an established PMO where this wasn’t needed. But think about […]
Top Competencies for PMO Leaders
It’s not like a project manager, where you have a number of people in the project management role, delivering projects and (hopefully) learning from each other. The PMO leader position can be quite lonely. There’s no in-built support network. There might be other leaders at the same level on the corporate hierarchy but none will […]
5 Benefits of Starting Projects Right
From the moment an idea arrives in the project pipeline, you can take project initiation steps to ensure that it’s dealt with in a certain way. This gives it every chance of turning into a successful project, delivering all the expected benefits, later down the line. An important part of any PMO activity is selecting […]
Keep, Kill, Reconsider – Strategies for Improving Governance
Do you consider keeping, killing or reconsidering stategies for improving governance? Does this sound familiar? Your project teams are working really hard but you’re still seeing a pattern of failing projects and projects that fail to deliver the expected benefits. This is a challenge for lots of Project Management Offices, especially when you are starting […]
General Scheduling Guidelines
What are the minimum recommended general scheduling guidelines for efficient schedule management? A lot of thought and effort goes into the creation of a project schedule. The project manager must consider many things, and it is not always easy to keep the most important items in focus. Therefore a short list of bare minimum schedule […]
Watch What You (Don’t) Say – Building Credibility
Good Communications Your senior management team and your Project Management Office (PMO) team are constantly sending out messages about what is valued and what’s not. This is the space where integrity, credibility and good communications mix and it’s important to get right if you are doing anything that relates to changing working practices, such as […]
Performance Is An Execution Problem
Performance is an execution problem. Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality will be the next disruptive game changers in the creation of intelligent applications that fundamentally change the way we work, collaborate and trade with partners and customers. These disruptive technologies will provide opportunities to all professional services business, not just the high-end knowledge […]
How To Avoid (Bad) Surprises on Projects
Don’t like bad surprises? Does this sound familiar? It looks like the projects you lead are going well. The project team is moving forward, the reports are showing everything is Green and you’re happy that the business case still holds up to deliver the benefits. Then at the next project board meeting, your project manager […]
How To Boost Executive Support for Projects
It’s a fact: Projects go better with executive support. Study after study shows that active sponsorship is a factor in project success. The more the buy in comes from senior levels in the enterprise, the more likely it is that your projects will deliver against your business case forecasts and achieve the benefits they set […]