Every industry has some mythical goal. In project management, the holy grail of goals seems to be the all integrated, everything connected project management system. Is it myth or reality?
ERP deployments seek to be the core business system for all business functions but they virtually always start at the center of the Finance department. ERP firms, a niche with a tiny home in 1995 became a behemoth of an industry by the end of the 90’s as some firms became desperate to abandon old non-integrated systems in favor of a complete solution that would be not only Y2K compliant but more effective at the…
Too many project managers bite off more than they can chew when creating their plan for an Enterprise Project Management deployment. Going for little victories is always lower risk and a higher probability of ultimately reaching the business goals that the system should be supporting.
Ahh, the good old days. It’s easy to reminisce. Back when CIO’s were known as DP managers and their word was law. Keepers of the key to the old centralized mainframe systems were gods. Their will was done by all. Want a report? Sorry – that’s got to be done by our centralized staff. What? You need access rights to some data? Sorry – our database manager will get to you soon. You need a…
Written originally in the tech crash that followed Y2K, this article describes many of the challenges and opportunities facing the project management industry in today’s economy. The article is reposted here from its original publication in Computing Canada Magazine.
Pilot Projects and Proof of Concept projects are often misguided and misunderstood when done for enterprise project management systems. It’s important to have realistic expectations. Here are some pilot project pitfalls to avoid.
Being an effective project manager or having an effective PMO isn’t only about authority. The most effective people in the project management business have an arsenal of skills and tools at their disposal to elicit the most out of the people they work with.
In today’s world of instant gratification it is hard for some to understand the level of investment that must be made in order to reap the benefits available from an enterprise project management system. Some would prefer to follow the path of least resistance even if that means those benefits are not available.
So many project managers do the original schedule of the project, the planning and then start the project and run by the seat of their pants from then on. I can tell you how many projects I’ve seen with the schedule never updated. Project management isn’t just the planning.
The Dakota Indians have a saying – “If the horse dies, dismount” which you figure would be obvious. Why then do so many project managers keep trying to save a project that should have been made into glue ages ago?