Teams that work cohesively and understand both the business and technical ramifications of their tasks are a big part of producing successful projects. Explaining business relevance of work to team members can be tedious. No worries! This Project Pointer talks about ways to build this type of team without taking up too much project time.
Earned value analysis is a great tool for analyzing project schedule and cost performance. The EVA graph makes it easy to see whether your project is on time and within budget (once you learn how to read it). So why do Bob McGannon and I have reservations about using this approach? In this video, […]
An organization’s risk tolerance influences decision-making, resource allocation, and stakeholder alignment, so you need a clear understanding of how much uncertainty the organization is willing to accept. With so much riding on risk, here are approaches for assessing an organization’s risk tolerance.
Have you ever sent an urgent email and panicked when you don’t get a quick reply? Or maybe you receive a text message asking how you’re doing and then get a second text 3 minutes later asking why you haven’t responded. In projects as well as personal life, it’s a good idea to get people on the same page about which communication methods to use for different situations and what response time to expect. In this video, Bob McGannon and I provide some ideas on how to set these standards.
Agile planning involves allocating an amount of money (or time) to produce functions that deliver business improvement. When that time or money runs out, the project ends unless a business case to continue is made and approved. This Project Pointer highlights other situations when an agile project should be stopped – even one that appears to deliver business value.
Risk triggers are occurrences that provide an early warning that a risk may become a real issue in a project. Yet, many risk management plans don’t document them. In this video, Bob McGannon and I discuss the benefits of documenting risk triggers to support our strong suggestion to include them in your project plans.
In most projects, the primary stakeholder is the sponsor. For projects in regulated environments, the regulator becomes an equal, maybe even the primary, stakeholder. This Project Pointer offers several actions to consider when your project lives within the regulatory world.
I’m revisiting communication this week because someone made me realize that I wasn’t communicating clearly in an earlier article. Ironic, huh? In projects (as in the rest of life), effective communication can prevent a lot of problems and make things run more smoothly. Here is an assortment of tips on communicating clearly followed by links to courses when you want to dig deeper.
Keeping attendees engaged in a virtual meeting is a challenge. The potential for distractions is high. And once people tune out, it’s hard to get them back. This Project Pointer offers several techniques for keeping team members engaged from meeting start to finish.
The fate of most projects is determined long before the first task is assigned. It’s decided early on during conversations where scope is shaped. Getting scope right initially doesn’t just avoid problems later on; it builds the case for why the project deserves to exist. This article provides approaches to help you define scope in a way that maximizes success.
Below are some interesting links for you! Enjoy your stay...
O'Reilly 50% Ebook Deal of the Day
Microsoft Project blog
Scott Berkun's website
QuickBooks and Beyond
QuickBooks Online Blog
QuickBooks and Your Business