Recently, an acquaintance who owns his own business installing industrial valves, remarked how difficult he thought the field of Project Management had become. “Why is there so much paper?” and “Why do the concepts have to be so hard?” (He does have a point, what with Earned Value Analysis…) He indicated that if it weren’t …
Project Management/
Operations
What Is Supply Chain Management & How It Drives Efficiency
Supply Chain Management (SCM) is the backbone of any successful business. It ensures the efficient flow of goods, services, and information from suppliers to customers. By managing everything from raw materials to finished products, SCM is crucial in reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and meeting customer demands. This article aims to explain the fundamentals of SCM, …
When I started my working life, at IBM, years went by before I had any sub-contractors as part of my project team. We could handle just about every request with in-house skills. Alas, almost 20 years later those days are gone, and the opposite has become the norm. It is nigh on impossible to deploy …
The following is a guest post by Susan Shearouse, author of Conflict 101. Early morning, the mists rising off the placid river, the crew racing in that long sleek boat, each team member pulling through the strokes in unison, the team leader sitting at the back calling commands. Ahhh, teamwork… What happens when the reality …
In this blog we talk mostly about project managers and how they can steer the project towards success: how they can start with a strong business justification, do robust planning, enact good change control. But there is another player in the project’s cast of characters who is just as important, if not more, than the …
As a general rule, project teams will agree with the idea that Risk Analysis makes for a better project. It gives the team visibility of worrisome items, a forum to prioritize them, and some time to react before the risk materializes. So why don’t more project managers incorporate Risk Analysis regularly in their project’s governance? …
All organisations that have existed for at least some time will have developed a “culture”. In its most simplest, it is the values and habits that are promoted by the organisation is being important, or even crucial to the business. This could be and often is extended to the behaviours that individuals and even teams’ exhibit in discharging normal business – and this can and will include projects.
There will be milestones in our projects –or initiatives- that are important because they determine what the project team does next. Maybe it’s a ‘Scope Definition’; maybe it’s a ‘Design Review’. When these important decisions surface, sometimes project teams tend to swell – even though you, the Project Manager, have not asked for more resources. …