There is nothing quite so political as the negotiation and communication of a project estimate. But how do we know the estimate is ‘right’? In actual fact, estimation is not just about coming up with a number — it is about convincing someone to actually accept it.
The Politics Of Portfolio Management: Why It’s Harder Than It Looks
Portfolio management is one of those things that, on the face of it, organizations should naturally want to embrace. We are trying to manage complex changes with limited funding, scarce resources and tight deadlines. So why is making choices about projects so hard?
Hard Outsourcing Questions
Outsourcing has had a banner decade. As organizations seek to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and focus on their core capabilities, outsourcing has become a growing trend. There are inherent challenges in successfully outsourcing, however. Challenges that many companies providing these services would rather you didn’t think about.
It’s The Organizational Change, Stupid…
Process and process improvement are at the heart of many projects that we take on. Unfortunately, sometimes we lose sight of the fact that process is simply an abstract representation of real people doing real work.
Negotiating Stakeholder Expectations: The Key To Better Requirements
One of the leading causes of project failure is not fully understanding the requirements. Failure to understand requirements is often a result of not actually knowing who the stakeholders on our project are. How we negotiate stakeholder expectations is critical.
Negotiating Your Leadership Authority
Leadership is one of those things about which a great deal is written, but little is concretely defined. We can often describe bad leadership, but struggle for real personal examples of good leadership. What does it take to become an effective leader?