Benchmark Study Shows Project Management Offices (PMOs) Continue to Expand Their Influence and Become Strategic Resources for Firms
According to PM Solutions’ bi-annual benchmark study “The State of the PMO 2014,” three quarters of high-performing PMOs participate in their organization’s strategic planning, and help to improve the alignment of their organizations’ projects with their strategies and objectives by a whopping 53%.
5 Myths which are holding projects back – debunked
The 5 myths debunked in this article on insurance news net are:
- Process trumps people,
- Execution is everything,
- Once the risk register’s done, it’s full speed ahead,
- You should never kill a project, and
- After budgets are set, new project ideas must wait.
MOD deepens its commitment to project professionalism
7 ways to measure project management success
- Budget,
- Timing,
- Scope,
- Quality,
- Customer satisfaction,
- Project team satisfaction, and
- Personal and professional development.
10 top project management challenges
- Going grey (and other consequences of extreme stress),
- Keeping goals in sight and well defined,
- Getting caught-up in the details,
- Setting and meeting deadlines,
- Too many cooks in the kitchen,
- Poor communication,
- Changes along the way,
- Inadequate skills,
- No more money, and
- Setting your own expectations.
5 ways to think and act like an effective project manager
Ryan Sievers believes that you don’t have to be a project manager to think like one, and benefit from their approach to project work. Take a look at his 5 suggestions, which are:
- See the big picture, and sweat the details,
- Challenge assumptions, all of them,
- Understand the real timeline you are working with,
- Have supporting information in place and at your command, and finally
- Set and manage expectations.
Ahh, if only all project managers followed this advice!
Think Risks Like a Pilot
This is a fascinating opener as to how pilots need to handle risk in a changing environment, and encourages us to reflect on how more experienced PMs seems more adept at handling risk. Food for thought.
Project Management in Business
The Project Manager Contribution to Marketing
Strategy’s No Good Unless You End Up Somewhere New
Project Management for Engineers
Michael Bennett and Danny Ho have published a new book highlighting how project management is a core competency for all engineering disciplines. The release details for the book can be found here.
Sustainability Starts with Project Management
Antony Della Porta of Green Project Management questions whether an organisation can ensure that its strategy on sustainability becomes reality, and looks at PRiSM as the solution.
Project Management Tools
LiquidPlanner Raises $8 million
Smartsheet (see below) recently announced another $35m in funding and now LiquidPlanner is hot on their heels with another $8m according to Xconomy. It will be fascinating to see how the PM Tool space will play out in the next year or so. We’re expecting to see quite a lot of M&A activity.
Roundup of Tools for Creating Gantt Charts
- DhtmlGantt,
- Two Project Gantt,
- Gantti,
- Ace Project,
- Team Gantt,
- Ganttify,
- Vertex 42 (template for Excel),
- WikiHow,
- Toms Planner,
- Open Office,
- Gantt Project,
- Gantt Chart,
- Teamweek,
- Smart Draw, and
- SmartSheet.