Project ideas are what support careers in project management — and present possibilities for moving your organization forward. Sometimes, project ideas need more work before they should or would be accepted. Here are indicators that a project idea isn’t ready and how to improve it: The sponsorship prospects aren’t clear. A great question about a […]
Validating the assumptions included in the project justification is key to minimizing project risk. Sometimes, straightforward research is enough. For assumptions that aren’t easily validated, here are other approaches to validate or, at least, reduce the probability of an assumption being wrong. Consult experts. Reach outside your organization. Seek the opinions of LinkedIn contacts, […]
Contract management makes sure that you and your project vendors agree on costs, terms, deliverables, and conditions. Dig a little deeper, and contract management can help your projects in other ways: Enhanced vendor relationships. Time spent negotiating vendor contracts helps vendors understand project goals and your organization’s culture. This effort also helps set expectations that […]
People who think they’re stakeholders but aren’t waste your time and distract your project team. Early on, you need to address these pseudo-stakeholders, so they don’t eat up your time and resources. This Project Pointer provides approaches to identify them and reduce their impact on your project. Hold public consultations. After meeting with identified stakeholders, […]
Conferences and courses can help expand your skills and enhance your project management career. There are other ways to increase your abilities as part of your everyday job. Check out these ways to increase your skills by using your network. Swap project reviews. A fresh set of eyes can spot weaknesses, flaws, or risks you […]
A project manager doesn’t have to be an expert in a project’s domain area to serve as PM. But they must possess some domain knowledge to be effective. Here is the general domain knowledge needed to manage a project. Processes and regulations. Domain areas have specific approaches to work and standards that must be understood. […]
Lots of detailed and overwhelming project reports drain stakeholders’ confidence. Too few reports are even worse. How do you know when you produce the right number of reports at the right level of detail? Here are some indicators that you’ve hit the right amount of project reporting. Positive stakeholder feedback. Positive feedback from stakeholders is […]
Quality management is about ensuring your deliverables meet the expectations of stakeholders: meeting standards, performance and reliability business needs. But quality management delivers extra benefits you don’t often hear about: Enhanced stakeholder buy-in. Quality management requires a deeper grasp of stakeholder needs and expectations. That understanding comes from better conversations and learning about stakeholder’s challenges […]
Project work isn’t for the meek. Pressure comes from management, stakeholders, and acute business needs and the resulting stress reduces team members’ performance. Helping your team alleviate their stress improves their performance and increases their loyalty to the project. Here are ways to decrease stress in your project environment. Recognize people’s emotions. You might hear […]
During your career as a project manager, you might endure people poking through one of your projects, looking for things to improve. There are two typical approaches for this: a project review and a project audit. The differences are important, because a project manager needs to behave differently for each of these improvement initiatives. A […]
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