Knowing our project and organization at a gut level allows us to judge and react both rapidly and with accuracy. Living with data, by being immersed in it -- at least upon occasion, can only help us continue to get better at managing our projects.
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December 6, 2010 Bruce Benson
Metrics
While we work under a set of requirements and objectives, how we go about finding solutions and bringing about the needed changes can make the difference between a hugely successful project and one that just barely achieves its promises.
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November 29, 2010 Bruce Benson
Change Management
I discovered that patience was more about waiting for an opportunity to improve things and then jumping on it than it was about waiting for the organization to recognize our brilliant ideas and joyfully adopt them.
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November 23, 2010 Bruce Benson
Change Management
Are you able to get your projects done early or on time?
Yes - 67%
No - 33%
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November 16, 2010 Bruce Benson
Metrics
Fortunately for the company, one developer had been building this exact piece of software for over a year.
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November 9, 2010 Bruce Benson
Change Management
I didn’t notice this in a project management environment. However, it made me wonder if wearing a suit was a tool that helped or hindered us as project managers.
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November 4, 2010 Bruce Benson
Management
Computing the project cost using our project management tools is a fundamental step in planning a project. Yet, I’ve found that some managers have a tough time when large numbers are involved or it is the first time they’ve ever seen an accurate overall cost of a project.
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November 1, 2010 Bruce Benson
Cost
The typical misconception is that project problems are just too complex to ever be "simply the schedule."
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October 27, 2010 Bruce Benson
Schedule
What is not often as obvious is that a lot of the problems seen in a project can often be root caused back to an inadequate schedule estimate.
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October 26, 2010 Bruce Benson
Schedule
It happened pretty regularly. To make some functionally work on the project we needed something else that we overlooked. No problem. We make the change -- tag it as a missed requirement in our project management tool -- and approve it. A couple of weeks later the additional functionality is completed and gets submitted to be put into the product. It is submitted as a “new requirement.” It shows up as scope creep. I called up the project manager and explain they tagged it incorrectly. Please change it to a missed requirement. “Oh no!”, she practically yells, “It is a new requirement!
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October 19, 2010 Bruce Benson
Metrics
I spend a lot of time talking about falling back and using simple project management tools when projects are not going as well as expected. Most management, project or otherwise, I always considered pretty simple. Simple doesn't mean easy to do. Often, it is very hard but the right thing to do.
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October 12, 2010 Bruce Benson
Change Management
I’ve rarely experienced a project that was on time where anyone complained about it being too costly.
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October 5, 2010 Bruce Benson
Cost
The project manager needs to control and direct her team with the help of her project management tools. The notion of a self-managing team seems to undermine the ability of the project manager to control and direct. What is really going on here?
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September 21, 2010 Bruce Benson
Team Management
Studies have found that creative solutions to problems actually decrease under external pressure such as deadlines.
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September 16, 2010 Bruce Benson
Schedule
Estimating the project is one of the greatest challenges, with or without fancy project management tools, that a manager will face. Here are three areas where we've seen estimates fail and how we've avoided doing the same.
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September 7, 2010 Bruce Benson
Planning