Interrelated best of breed modules or integrated all-in-one solutions? What’s the best way to evaluate which of these should be the path for your organization when it comes to thinking of enterprise project management software?
Haven’t we all had one of these moments? Cancelling a project is a tough call and now, thanks to Scott Adams, we see how it’s done behind the scenes!
If you’ve noticed the blog not as busy as usual the last few days it’s because we’ve all been busy here moving the head office of HMS Software, the company I’m president of. The new office is a similar size to the old office but much better configured for us to expand in the way we expect to in the next few years. It’s also less than a kilometer (1/2 mile) from the old premises. …
When I first got started in the project management software business, I knew that what people needed to be trained in to be a good project manager was the Critical Path Methodology calculation. If only someone knew this magic algorithm, they too could be a good project manager. I still have course materials which include exercise after exercise about how to do forward and backward pass of the CPM calculation. How far we’ve come. I’ve…
“Resistance is futile” was the battlecry of the evil Borg from Star Trek. Sometimes I’m sure there are PMO’s who wish they could be as convincing to fellow colleagues who are resisting the deployment of enterprise project management and enterprise project management systems. Getting the job of deploying an enterprise project management environment is not the best news for some people who have to complete that project within an organization where there may be a…
As the economy slowly recovers project teams are facing an unusual challenge. Management is coming to project offices and to product managers and asking them to ”restart“ projects that were suspended due to economic concerns some time ago. Restarting a project can be infinitely more complex than starting it originally. The original project plan might have been created with great care over an extended period but the assumptions that play behind the scenes in any…
Anyone who has worked with project management systems knows that the way you display data can dramatically affect the decions people make from it. This is why we often see GANTT charts with critical activities in red. I’m reminded of one of my very first sales of project scheduling software back in the 80’s. I don’t dare share the name of the organization but it was a large utility. We’d made this sale a few…
How do you change corporate culture? Do you use a carrot? A stick? One of the most effective methods I’ve come across deals with the challenge with more finesse thanks to some thinking from Buckminster Fuller. It’s called “trim tab”.
Dealing with Resource overload is one of the most common challenges in project management. How do you deal with the project workload when the resources just aren’t there?
I’ve been enjoying Scott Adams Dilbert comic strips for years. They’re a treasure trove of laughs for people in the project management or timesheet software business as I am. Adam’s Dilbert website has too many old strips to choose from so here’s just one that had me chuckle today.