Entries by Bonnie Biafore

How to Leverage Organizational Change Management in Your Projects

Projects drive change, so good change management is important for delivering project objectives successfully. Integrating project management with organizational change management means  that you manage the development of deliverables while also  making sure that stakeholders can use those deliverables to deliver business value. Here’s are some tips for  leveraging change management in your project plans. […]

Managing Virtual Team Members

Managing a remote (virtual) team has some nuances over managing an onsite team. A few adjustments can make a big difference in your success with virtual team members. Here are a few techniques that can help your remote resources work as part of a productive team. Hold frequent short meetings. Schedule meetings 3 times a […]

Which is Better: A big picture or detail-oriented PM?

If you want to be a better project manager, do you enhance your big-picture thinking, or focus on being more detail-oriented? Ideally, both! For some types of projects, one style or the other can be advantageous. Here are some situations when big picture thinking and detail-oriented thinking are more helpful.  Big picture thinking is best […]

How to Leverage Your Out-of-Scope Statement

The Scope Statement may be the most important document a project manager publishes. It helps define the project, captures what the project will produce, and defines success criteria for those results. A crucial section of the scope statement doesn’t cover what is in scope at all: the part that specifies what’s out of scope. Here […]

Determine Your Minimum Viable Product

A key to success in an agile project environment is to determine your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) — that is, the smallest, quickest-to-develop product that provides business value. With passionate stakeholders, keeping the MVP to a minimum can be a challenge. Here are steps to help you define your MVP.   Understand the pain or opportunity. […]

Expanding Team Member Capabilities

The people on each project team have unique skills and strengths. To increase the effectiveness of your teams, look for opportunities to leverage and expand those attributes. Here are four approaches for expanding team member capabilities.   Identify and leverage team member strengths. Take time to identify your team members’ strengths and weaknesses. Ask them questions […]

Reduce Risk by Managing Project Assumptions

Assumptions are an important and necessary part of launching a project — and you continue to evaluate them as your project progresses. Managing assumptions appropriately helps you reduce project risk. Here are four recommendations for handling project assumptions. Determine when you can validate assumptions. Build a plan for how and when you can validate your […]

Keys to Successful Integration Projects

  The world gets more complex and intertwined, which creates more projects involving complex integrations. What is an integration? It’s when separate systems or components are brought together to build a seamless solution. For example, building a satellite means integrating a propulsion system, navigation component, scientific instruments for research, communication components, and others. Here are […]

Negotiating Project Deadlines

Have you ever had to negotiate a project deadline with your project sponsor? It’s daunting, but being prepared makes the interaction easier. Here are my top four tips for preparing to negotiate a project deadline. Identify what’s driving the deadline. Ask questions about desired deadlines and what drives those dates. It could be a legal […]