Group Tasks by Dates in Microsoft Project
13 hours 28 min agoThe default method of grouping tasks in Microsoft Project by Summary Tasks (WBS) works perfectly well for lookahead schedules, however adding another lookahead schedule View with tasks group by dates can be useful to the project team
Creating Accountability
5 days 13 hours agoAt the beginning of my project management classes, I ask participants if they have any big, burning questions. Accountability always tops the list. Project managers face challenges when team members do not complete assignments on time or when stakeholders delay critical decisions.
I empathize. Getting people to do what is needed on time is a perennial
Reports of Agile’s Death are Exaggerated
4 weeks 6 days agoAmid swirling rumors that Mark Twain was gravely ill, a journalist wrote to inquire about his health. The ever-witty Twain responded, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” Numerous articles, videos, and blog posts have declared, “Agile is dead!” Agile is not dead; it is evolving.
Agile is an Idea
Agile is an idea. Ideas don’t die—people do. An
Earned Work: Measuring Project Performance
17 weeks 5 days agoEarned Work Management is a lightweight, approach-agnostic project performance measurement system that supports Waterfall, Scrum, and Kanban. This allows organizations employing different project approaches to measure project portfolio performance consistently.
Earned Work (EWM) measures project performance by analyzing Planned Work (PW) and completed or Earned Work (EW). Work is defined
Intentional Project Management
22 weeks 4 days agoMeteorologists are better at predicting the weather than project managers are at delivering projects. About a third of projects are delivered on time, on budget, and with the desired scope. By contrast, a seven-day forecast is accurate about
Scaling Your Project Management Career
26 weeks 3 days agoProject managers ascend the career ladder based on accumulated experience-derived wisdom and managing progressively larger and more complicated efforts. A typical trajectory involves moving from managing projects to programs, portfolios, and project management organizations. Success at one level is not a guarantee of success at the next. It is the classic case
Are We Aligned?
30 weeks 4 days agoStakeholder alignment—or lack thereof—can be the difference between project success and failure. In today’s dynamic business environment, projects face multiple stakeholders and constituencies. Often, these groups have competing or divergent interests.
Project managers often focus on the “hard skills” to ensure adherence to the triple constraints of scope, schedule, and cost.
Hybrid Project Management: Part 4, Picking the Practices
34 weeks 5 days agoHybrid projects are not constrained by a single methodology or well-defined framework. By definition, they are a melding melding of practices. A huge responsibility accompanies this unbounded freedom of choice. Project managers must clearly describe how the project will be executed to be successful.
Shirking this responsibility is detrimental.
Hybrid Project Management: Part 3, Picking the Approach
39 weeks 5 days agoA project manager’s first major decision is selecting the approach and lifecycle. Historically, this was a non-issue. The default option was preordained based on the project type, organizational preferences, and inertia.
Construction and engineering projects were always predictive. For software projects, organizational factors outside the project manager’s
Project Management Essentials
44 weeks 1 day agoI authored my first project management article 10 years ago. A mentor recommended I start writing to launch my transition from managing project organizations to teaching. Writing those early articles was challenging. Reducing complex ideas into writing is a skill requiring practice and discipline.
I did not anticipate having so much to say. However, project
