As a project manager, you are likely to have to attend and run a lot of meetings. Indeed, some people see project management as basically making Gantt charts and holding meetings. But are we running meetings well? I have a confession to make. I hate meetings. Always have. I started my working life in an … Read more
There are a number of qualities a good project manager needs. A lot of these are so-called ‘soft skills’. Let’s have a look at some of them. Be organised. A large part of project management is keeping track of the project, and making sure the right things happen at the right time. Naturally, being organised … Read more
Yesterday I posted about why I am still feeling pretty optimistic about the prospects for project managers, even given the current state of the economy. That’s got me thinking a bit wider, about why I enjoy being a project manager so much. Now, I am sure there are as many reasons for this as there … Read more
Josh Nankivel has a post on pmStudent asking for your feedback, Your Feedback Requested: Impact of the current economy on PM, which got me thinking. (Incidentally, you should go and give your feedback, if you haven’t already.) We’ve been hearing a lot about how bad the economy is, and how much worse things are going … Read more
Today on Project Management Guide we are looking at project scheduling, a vital part of the project planning process. I am going to try and focus especially on how to get this kicked off with a meeting, bringing in other people from your project team. As we saw in the previous section of the guide, … Read more
In our last Project Management Guide (Planning the Planning – 2) we looked at all the areas of the project we will need to cover in our project planning. Now it is time to get on with it. Firstly, I need to make sure we are all on the same page when it comes to … Read more
We now have a project management team and structure in place. We’re agreed we want to move ahead with the project idea. We need to put in place what we need to actually carry out the project. In the previous post in the project management guide, we realised we needed to make sure we planned … Read more
Now we have a clear idea of what the project is for, and what it should achieve, we need to look at what we need to get a clearer idea of how to go about delivering it, and how long this may take.
So what is the business case? It explains the purpose of the project, the aim that it has, and importantly, why the project is a good thing for the organisation to do.
Right, we now have our project’s reason for being, its purpose in life. We’re all ready to rush off and jump right into doing some nice, meaty work, really getting our hands dirty to move the project along. Of course, if you do this, you’re going to waste time, money, and risk having the project … Read more
