Project Management Latest, January 2021
Wishing you a happy, and hopefully much more optimistic, 2021 from PM Advisor. Here's some of the latest P3M related news that's caught my eye. Interestingly, the first 5 relate to the number five.
5 Essential Skills All Project Managers Must Have
Catherine writes that effective project management is more than just about degrees or qualifications (those matter too, of course), but in reality, your ability to lead your people and fulfil your responsibilities matter the most. She observes that the 5 essential skills are:
Communication And Collaboration
Problem Solving Abilities
Negotiation Skills
Strong Leadership Skills
Time Management
5 Project Management Skills You Need To Have
Modern diplomats need project management skills too. This article suggests the top 5 needed in this space are:
Time management skills
Organisational skills
Leadership skills
Interpersonal skills
Risk management skills
5 Ways to Be a Better Virtual Leader
PMI Voices on Project Management Blog
Emily Luijbregts shares her most valuable lessons learned for leading virtual teams:
Set expectations
Monitor work-life balance
Build connections
Plan teambuilding activities
Understand how your team likes to work
5 Project Management Traps Your Business May Face And How To Avoid Them
Ankit Kumar shows how to avoid the biggest pitfalls:
misalignment of functionality and scope
pulled towards distractions
obscure roles and responsibilities
notifying of complications at the eleventh hour
inadequate communication
Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) 5th Edition Released
MSP consists of a set of principles, themes, and processes that provide a clear roadmap for the programme lifecycle, including larger, more strategic, complex, or multiple projects. The principles represent the characteristics of a successful programme. The governance themes allow organisations to put the right leadership, organisational structures, and controls in place. The processes provide a route through the lifecycle of a programme to deliver the new capability and desired outcomes.
The 5th edition has now been launched - the key changes as I see it are:
The benefits focus is now a principle, being applied in every theme and every process,
Greater confidence comes from assurance and continual improvement,
Designing the future state to make the vision and target operating model (TOM) coherent & connected,
Focus is on decisions (not just reporting) whether looking forwards or backwards,
Initial and ongoing justification of the programme, and
Risk now runs through the framework.
APM partners with Mind to support project professionals’ mental health
Association for Project Management (APM) has partnered with mental health charity Mind to deliver a new support toolkit for project professionals and employers.
Project Innovators: How to professionalise through collaboration
Emma De Vita interviews Jo Stanford from Health Education England, exploring how Jo is leading the collaborative development of the project profession in the NHS. I've had the pleasure of meeting Jo a few times now, and as this interview shows she's one smart lady who is incredibly capable at growing PM capabilities.