A huge amount has been written about the role of project managers in, uh, project management – makes sense, right? A lot less has been written about the vitally important role of the project sponsor. That’s a trifle odd, seeing as in theory they are the most important person in the project – they are … Read more
Ah, the Lessons Learned Register, that most noble of project management artefacts. It selflessly exists not to make your project better (though it may) but to help those who come after strengthen their projects, avoid the pitfalls you discovered the hard way, and keep your successors on the righteous path of clear scope, cost, quality, … Read more
Close your eyes. Imagine a castle. Picture it in your mind. What does it look like? What is it made of? Now think of the towers. Are they square? Round? Tall? Short? Do they have windows? I have a point, I promise you. The thing is, you could have imagined a variety of designs. Castle … Read more
We are a tool using species. It is one of our defining characteristics, and one of the ways we have been able to be as successful as we are. But there is another side to this – first we shape our tools, and then our tools shape us. We all know this, and it is … Read more
If you ask a project manager what their job is, they’ll usually tell you about planning, scheduling, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. These are the right answers – they’re the things on the certification exam, the things that appear in the job description, the things that a good project manager genuinely does. They are not, … Read more
Ask five people what digital sovereignty means and you’ll probably get seven different answers. The definitions vary by industry, by sector, by geography, and by if the person you ask is trying to sell you their own version of it. So here’s what I mean by it, and why I think this is a useful … Read more
Ask most project managers what they think of governance and you’ll get a weary answer. Governance means meetings that go on too long. Governance means reports that nobody reads. Governance means a steering group that last met six months ago and can’t remember what the project is trying to do. That cynicism is understandable, because … Read more
Earlier this year, I watched a demonstration of an AI tool aimed at project managers. In about two minutes, it generated a complete business case from a bare bones brief, a risk register with multiple items assigned to project team members, and a benefits map. The outputs looked professional. They were formatted correctly, used the … Read more
Most projects don’t fail suddenly. They fail gradually, then all at once. By the time a project appears on the board’s risk register as Red, the conditions that made it Red have usually been present for months. The warning signs were there, visible to anyone who knew what to look for, often being quietly ignored … Read more
It has been a while. The last post on this blog went up in 2012. I remember writing it, roughly. I was running my own consultancy, delivering projects across Greater Manchester, genuinely busy. And then the writing stopped — not with any announcement, not with a plan to return, just the gradual drift of someone … Read more
