Archive for category: Project Management

To gain buy-in and kick off organizational change practices, hold stakeholder reviews of project deliverables early in the lifecycle. That builds trust, saves time, and creates excitement for project outcomes, which promotes product acceptance. Reviewing project deliverables too early can have the opposite effect, reducing confidence and generating anxiety about change. Here’s how to ensure your project deliverables are ready for stakeholders’ scrutiny.

• Is a deliverable more content than concept? Rough outlines, placeholders for design elements, or incomplete code logic are not enough for a stakeholder review. First impressions are important—they’re hard to overcome if they go off the rails. If you have to explain what’s going on, stakeholders might doubt the project purpose and the team’s competence or direction. Hold a stakeholder review only when the work is complete enough that no explanations are needed and the team is in synch with what’s been done so far.
• The team agrees on the status of the deliverable. Make sure the entire team is comfortable with the deliverable and its purpose. If the team is confused or debates the scope, design, or priorities, that uncertainty will rub off on stakeholders. For a stakeholder review, you want clear agreement on what the deliverable will deliver, requirements, initial design, and priorities. The presentation should run like a well-oiled machine.
• Assumptions are validated (that is the assumption is now a known answer). Most projects start with significant assumptions about stakeholder needs, technical feasibility, or integration approaches. It’s risky to review a deliverable when those assumptions aren’t validated, because changes to assumptions mean wasted time, rework and reduced trust.
• Stakeholders with a “work in progress” mindset are available. You want stakeholders who are comfortable seeing works in progress, who aren’t bothered by wireframes, proofs of concept, or drafts. Don’t show unfinished prototypes to detail-oriented stakeholders. You’ll distract them from what truly matters and mess up your timeline with more stakeholder management tasks.
• The team has defined the feedback they want. A big part of a deliverable review meeting is to get feedback on what the team has put together so far. If the team doesn’t know what input they want, that lack of focus could result in opinions that muddy rather than clarify the way forward.

Make a checklist for what needs to be in place before you schedule a stakeholder review. That way, you can be sure that the review positions a deliverable for success. 

For more about stakeholder management, check out Natasha Kasimtseva’s Managing Project Stakeholders course.

Coming Up

Starting a new Project Manager role comes with a lot to navigate, new teams, new expectations, and the pressure to lead early. Join Anna Anderson and I for Office Hours on Friday, January 16, 2026 @ 12pm MT/1PM CT for a live conversation on what really helps new PMs settle into their role with confidence. This session is ideal for first-time PMs, career transitioners, and recently promoted project managers. Click here to join!

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 101,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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A big reason projects with technical deliverables fail is that the PM and team assume everyone understands the deliverables and what it takes to deliver them. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Dictionary can be a lifesaver in that case. Here is a review of what’s in a WBS Dictionary, along with tips for when it’s needed (or not).

A WBS Dictionary focuses on providing detailed information on each work package in a WBS, including:

• • A description
  • Deliverables and acceptance criteria
  • Key dependencies and assumptions
  • Budget estimates or resource and skill needs
  • Constraints or boundaries, focusing on what each work package doesn’t include

Take the time to develop a WBS Dictionary when:

• The project requires multiple teams or handoffs. Any time work passes through several groups, such as engineering to procurement or procurement to a vendor, a WBS dictionary helps prevent assumptions from derailing the timeline. If even one team needs clarification on scope, deliverables, or boundaries, developing a WBS Dictionary is worth it.
• Work packages are complex or technical. Whenever tasks could be interpreted in multiple ways, such as specialized information technology work, regulatory steps, or integration tasks, a dictionary protects the project from ambiguity. It provides teams with detailed descriptions, constraints, deliverable definitions, and acceptance criteria, so no one fills in the gaps with assumptions.
• Vendor or contract work is involved. If external suppliers provide any part of a project solution, a WBS dictionary helps align the project’s needs with the vendor contract. It provides procurement and vendors with a shared definition of “done” and reduces the headaches and costs associated with change orders.

You can save time by not creating a WBS Dictionary when: 

• Managing a small or tightly scoped project. If you’re working on a project where team members know each other and are intimately familiar with the tasks and technologies they will use, maintaining a complete WBS dictionary adds bureaucracy. A straightforward, agreed-upon WBS should provide sufficient clarity.
• Project risk is low and is easy to address. The extra effort to create a WBS Dictionary is worthwhile when significant risk is present. For a low-risk project, it can become just one more thing that takes time and ends up sitting in a file cabinet collecting dust. In many cases, a few work packages where risk lies in the project need WBS Dictionary entries.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 101,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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The magic behind the success of great project managers isn’t typically technical skill; it’s compassion. While it’s thought of as a “soft skill,” it’s not easy to be compassionate when the pressure is on. But it offers a strategic advantage that transforms how project teams generate results. Here’s how:

• Compassion creates psychological safety.  Team members who are confident that their project manager cares about them outperform those who feel unappreciated. They know they won’t be reprimanded for raising concerns or admitting mistakes. This means they will be more likely to identify risks, share creative ideas, and go the extra mile to produce deliverables on time. 
• Understanding each team member produces more realistic planning. Compassionate project managers take time to understand what’s happening in their team members’ lives—they know what drives them, and when they feel overwhelmed. This helps the PM make informed decisions about workload, reasonable deadlines, and resource allocation. As a result, the compassionate manager’s project plans are designed around team members’ unique circumstances, increasing the likelihood of meeting commitments.
• Compassion reduces burnout and improves retention. Project resource churn is disruptive, as people who leave take vital institutional knowledge with them. Compassionate PMs recognize signs of exhaustion and protect work-life boundaries. This helps keep team members engaged and productive as the project progresses. Compassion helps improve retention, which saves time and money replacing and training staff. 
• Compassionate project managers promote more effective collaboration. Project managers need to manage competing priorities and challenging stakeholder relationships. With compassion, you can understand the pressures, constraints, and concerns driving each stakeholder.  Instead of viewing difficult stakeholders as obstacles, you recognize them as people with legitimate needs, which leads to productive conversations, effective compromises and better outcomes.
• Compassion creates teams that people want to join. Some PMs assume that the best project managers get the best team members, which is why they’re so successful. That’s true but perhaps not in the way you think. Team members actively seek to work with compassionate project managers. As a result, those project managers produce better project outcomes. In a business environment where most projects require lots of collaboration and matrix management, compassion yields a competitive advantage that directly impacts delivery quality and speed.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 100,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Decision-making facilitates project delivery and conveys control, so it’s an everyday activity for PMs. Here are instances where project managers must be decisive.

• Managing resources. Working with managers who are juggling resources is typical when you’re trying to get people for your project teams. Good decisions are a must to ensure the project gets the right skills, to align the schedule to accommodate team member availability, and to identify contracting alternatives when skilled staff aren’t available in-house.  In addition, effective resource managements calls for assembling cohesive teams and assigning primary contacts to key stakeholders.  
• Establishing technical direction. Choosing the right alternative from available options falls squarely on the project manager. You need to rally the project team and stakeholders and you might have to make adjustments to accommodate business needs. You might have to address scope or approach changes with stakeholders who evaluate the merits of a proposed change. Success depends on making and clearly communicating these decisions to all stakeholders. 
• Facilitating meetings. Discussions are rarely efficient unless someone steps up to herd the cats. It’s tricky to determine whether a debate is on target or heading off on a tangent (in which case, you must steer it back to the agreed-upon agenda. It involves sensitivity, active listening, and…you guessed it…clear decision-making).  
• Dealing with partial information. Most of the time, you won’t have complete information when you need to make a project-related decision. Stakeholder reactions, risks coming to fruition (or not), changes in the law, or competitors’ actions can alter the best direction for the project. But knowing what will happen in the future requires a crystal ball that’s on long-term backorder at Wizards ‘R Us. As a result, you have to be comfortable making decisions without knowing everything involved. To move a project forward without delay, it’s a matter of determining which data you need and deciding with reasonable unknowns. 
• Taking ownership of decisions. When it’s time to decide, take a stand and move forward. Being unclear, blaming others, and referring to missing information shows weakness not decisiveness. When you make a decision, stick to it and act in line with its expectations. If the decision doesn’t turn out well and you can change it, go ahead and change it. Explain the reasons for the change, citing the information that came to light since you made the original decision. Then move forward with the altered approach.

For more about decision making, check out Mike Figliuolo’s Decision-Making Strategies course.

Coming Up

As Project Online approaches retirement, organizations face important decisions about the future of their project and portfolio management tools. Bonnie Biafore and Ira Brown will explore several paths for transitioning away from Project Online, discussing options such as Project Server Subscription Edition, Planner Premium, Smartsheet, and also the use of standalone Microsoft Project. Join us for Office Hours on Friday, December 5, 2025 at 11am MT/1pm ET. Click here to join!

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 100,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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The organizing that great project managers do goes way beyond maintaining comprehensive to-do lists. They arrange their personal activities efficiently and make sure their projects are always in good order. Here are the primary ways successful project managers stay organized.  

• Centralizing and categorizing project information. Data is stored in one place and catalogued well, so it can be tracked down quickly and easily. It’s also diligently maintained, so older versions of documents aren’t mistaken for the latest and greatest version. This project data includes the charter, scope statement, schedule, decision logs, change requests, lessons learned, and more. 
• Track communication beyond standard planning. The best project managers go beyond what’s defined in a communication plan. They track their interpersonal communications beyond what’s outlined in the plan. They know who they’ve spoken to informally and what each key stakeholder knows about the project’s status. With this knowledge, they keep stakeholders engaged and supportive of the project. 
• Triage new risks and issues conscientiously. Every day in the project world brings new challenges, such as changes in stakeholder desires, business conditions, and technical glitches. These events raise new risks and issues that must be dealt with quickly and intelligently, which requires an organized mind to absorb the situation, determine who should manage the issue or risk, and provide the necessary guidance.
• Manage time attentively to direct daily activities. Things come at project managers at a fast and furious pace. Projects managers must avoid distractions and ensure time is allocated to important activities (as opposed to attention-grabbers like answering a phone call). This calls for an understanding of short and long-term objectives that only well-organized thinking can manage.
• Facilitate meetings carefully. Relevant agendas guide efficient meetings with engaged attendees. Conversations that wander from the agenda are limited and steered back to the intended topics. Someone is assigned to create, review, and distribute minutes, including clear to-do list items, their owners, and status information.

Everyone has their personal favorite organizing tips. One of mine is to name files consistently and include the date in the filename in the format yymmdd. That way, you can sort files in chronological order. If you have a favorite tip, share with us in the comments section.

Coming Up

Chris Croft and I just finished recording a course where we use role playing to show how to solve common project management problems. Look for more about it soon.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 99,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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