The good news is that we keep innovating new project management techniques. The bad news is… that we keep innovating new project management techniques. New approaches are a response to what hasn’t worked in the past. The challenge is that in addressing problems, we throw out the baby with the bath water. And then often re-label our tepid water as ‘lukewarm’. How to rethink how we think about process, and how we improve how we manage.
A Critical Look At Project Initiation
Project initiation is often held to be a formal, disciplined and rational process of objectively assessing project benefits. Reality routinely demonstrates that nothing could be further from the truth. Project initiation is at its heart a political process, and while project managers are not always involved at this stage, they ignore what happens here at their peril. A critical look at what it really takes to get a project off the ground.
Selling the PMO: Are They Still Relevant?
PMOs have been around for a while, now. Are they still relevant? Where they ever? And what are the key roles that a PMO should play? Where do they most provide value? A view of PMOs, through the lens of a major research effort into project management value.
Best, Better, Not Bad: How Do We Find the Practices that Work?
One of the most overused terms in business is ‘best practice’. Just calling something ‘best’, doesn’t make it so. In fact, there is no one ‘best’ way to do anything — there are only better ways in specific situations and contexts. How to think about better practices, rather than best.
Designing Teams As If People Mattered
Projects are all about people. And yet, we often approach dealing with people as if they will all approach situations in a consistent, rational manner. Evidence amply demonstrates that people are far from rational at times, and ignoring this makes for some major management challenge. How to rethink thinking about people and teams.
A Personal Approach To PM
Projects are different. People are different. And yet, in many ways, we implicitly approach project management as if it is a single, uniform, unchanging process. How we manage projects — and how we learn project management — will be heavily influenced by our own preferences. A different take on what it means to be consistent — and why that may not be the best approach.