Successful Projects Are Boring!

The problem with being a good project manager, or any kind of good manager, is that often your project or organization is running along too smoothly. You stay on top of the issues and continuously improve the way you do things based upon feedback from your team and customers. Boring!
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Communication 17 Comments Change Management 16 Comments Communication 4 Comments

Does Anyone Really Care If Our Project Is On Time?

I would often talk excitedly about some project we completed that was on time and had good results. Folks would say "yeah, we did that too." In my naive enthusiasm, I would pepper them with questions on what they did and how they did it. I would get horrified looks and then they would flee. I would come to discover that too many of those other on time projects were more noise than substance. How could a simple notion such as "on time" be so complicated?"
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Change Management, Schedule 2 Comments

Is Your Project On Time?

I talk a lot about "on time" as being a project management tool. This might strike many as backwards. Normally we figure if we do a good job then we will deliver on time. I maintain that often, more often than one would suspect, we can figure out what "on time" looks like and then squeeze the project into that period of time.
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Schedule 3 Comments Communication 7 Comments

Meeting Madness? Don’t Do it!

Meeting Madness
All I had to do was to get about 500 software defects fixed, according to my project management tools. My boss told me I had to have daily meetings with everyone concerned to get this done. This meeting centric approach to managing this project turned out to be utter madness. Simple measurements, that anyone can do, demonstrated that these meetings had no discernible impact.
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Communication, Reporting 19 Comments

Seven Ways To Make That “Silver Bullet” Work

We had done everything "by the book." Sold management on the great project management technique and tools. Called all those planning meetings. Got approval and funding. Six months later, few people seem to be talking about the improvement project. Things don't look too much different . Does this sound familiar? Here are seven techniques we've used to ensure success.
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Change Management 12 Comments Schedule 11 Comments Reporting 24 Comments Change Management 7 Comments Change Management Change Management

Defect Reports Are Your Best Friend!

This post is adapted from an e-mail I had sent to a CEO who was looking for project management tools to help deliver his products when promised. In the past his organization had successfully been able to know precisely where their product readiness stood. Trending defects will work well in managing projects of all types.
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Reporting, Schedule

Get The Project Management Schedule Right!

Project management tools and techniques help us to do the job we need to do. Yet, the tools can often become overwhelming with updating them, trying to get just the right report out of them, etc. It is easy to lose track of what we are trying to achieve. Estimating a schedule is one of the most critical things we will do so let's see if we can get it right.
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Reporting, Schedule