How do you track PMO Success? The Project Management Office in any business is often judged on the success (or otherwise) of the projects that it supports. Whether you’ve got a governance-based PMO or a supportive PMO, or some other flavor of PMO that works for you, you’ll have projects to track and report on. […]
Who Needs Scheduling Best Practice Training?
“I’ve been using my scheduling tool for years. I know critical path method inside out, and I’ve built and managed numerous major schedules. So why would I need to attend a scheduling best practice training course?” Good scheduling professionals may have the above mindset – and rightly so. They have learned by experience to operate very […]
Visible Schedule Time Buffers
To make schedule time buffers visible or not? This maybe a vexing project management question. Yes, whether or not to hide your time buffer can be a difficult choice. If you hide the buffer, you may feel bad because you are being less than honest. When you choose to hide buffer, you are intentionally not […]
Why PMOs Fail (And How To Stop It From Happening To You)
Why do PMOs fail? If you have been working in the world of Project Management Offices for any length of time you’ll know that the average life of a PMO is about 4 years. PMO practitioners around the world have been looking to improve on that for some time now, and with good reason. A […]
A More Descriptive Solution to the Negative Lags Dilemma
Removing negative lag or leads from your schedule is a noble cause. But replacing negative lag with positive lag and, perhaps, a start to start (SS) relationship may only be a partial solution. Negative lag or (lead) is a real problem in schedules. The following blog The Negatives of Negative Lag explains in detail the […]
5 Annual Objectives for PMO Leaders
You might be wondering why we’re focusing on annual objectives for PMO leaders right now, when typically you’ll see articles about goal setting at the start of the year. It’s because now is a great time to be reflecting on objectives and making sure that you and the team are on track to achieve them. […]
What’s Next For The Distressed PMO?
Do you have a distressed PMO? The realization that your Project Management Office is in trouble can be paralyzing. When you know there are so many things to put right it’s hard to work out what to focus on first. This can happen whether you take over a failing PMO or have completed a PMO […]
The Project Charter: Announce Your Project
If you are the project manager of a new project, you should want to announce your project and authority to project stakeholders among others. Come along as we discuss the document for this announcement: the project charter. Soviet Nuclear Submarine In 1968 a soviet nuclear submarine sank in the Pacific Ocean. Recovery of this sunken […]
Knowing Your Stakeholders
Stakeholders make many important decisions during project initiation and planning. In light of this one key question is, do you know your stakeholders? The effects of a project are like ripples caused by a stone hitting the water. Regardless of which quadrant your stakeholder is in, the circular ripples fan out and impact all quadrants. […]
Scheduling Non-Contractual Important Project Task Dates
Here we look at how to implement a specified non-contractual task start date without the insertion of a task constraint. Some schedule guidelines specify that all constraints must be contractually defined, e.g. a contract completion date. This significantly limits the application of constraints in a schedule. But what does a scheduler do when the project […]