In Canada, operating a private motorboat requires having a Pleasure Craft Operator’s Card. Now, after you get over chuckling about which bureaucrat made up the term, the basic principle is quite sound. If you are running a boat with a motor, you need to get this competency card. I’m proud to say I’m the holder of such a card to use my Chaparral motorboat during the summer. Getting my operator’s card required passing an exam…
I came to call it the “Triangle Audit” and my experience with the process dates back almost two decades to when our firm HMS started doing Research and Development Tax Claims. Project Managers are often faced with this process and not just for R&D claims but also for Defense Contract Audit Agency or other government compliance reasons. Let’s take a look at what the Triangle Audit looks like from the project manager’s perspective and how…
It’s a brand new year! The Christmas tree is down and the ornaments packed away. The relatives have left and the New Year’s champagne is gone to the last drop. Now, you can return to work rested and ready to jump into the new year and get those projects back underway! Not so fast. For most project managers, there is a big checklist of start-of-year activities which are impossible to avoid. These challenges can be…
For everyone who has followed the EPMGuidance.com blog this year I wish you the very best of the holiday season. I hope you and your families are happy and safe this season and I look forward to our discussions in 2017. Chris Vandersluis Author: EPMGuidance.com
All in one thinking is built into our industry Many years ago I wrote several articles about the differences in choosing an all in one Finance system vs best of breed functionality. My focus was mostly about project management, but the concept can carry across many systems. The notion of all-in-one corporate systems became popular in the 90s. Large integrated systems like SAP or Oracle Financials were able to point to multi-function systems which included…
My staff have heard me use the expression all too often. “Tail wags dog! Film at 11.” As though it were a breaking news headline on CNN. I use the expression though to talk about organizations that approach our company with an interest in deploying our enterprise timesheet system or an enterprise project management system but have somehow gotten the cart ahead of the horse (Yes, I know. It’s another expression). The conversation usually starts…
Perhaps you’ve heard the proverb “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” The expression can be traced back to a novel from the early 1800’s called Mrs. Dymond but the sentiment of the expression is understood by everyone. If you do something for someone else that’s a good thing but teaching them to do it for themselves is a much greater…
Many years ago I was forced to take an Economics Statistics course at McGill University in Montreal. It was a requirement for my Economics Major and one of the most miserably tough math classes I’d ever encountered. The class was taught by an older gentleman who was maybe 150 or maybe 160 years of age. He had tenure, he immediately informed us so there was no one we could complain to when he would fail…
I’m very proud to announce that I have joined the ProjectWorld*Business Analyst World Orlando Advisory Board as we work together to bring Project World Business Analyst World to Orlando in 2017! I’m working with new friends on the board and old friends at Diversified who organize the Project World conferences around the world. My association with ProjectWorld goes back to its inception in Toronto 20 years ago so this opportunity to bring ProjectWorld*Business Analyst World to a new…
There I am at the PMI 2016 Global Congress in San Diego listening to keynote speaker Sue Gardner. Ms. Gardner’s resume is enough to make you pause and take notice. She has worked with numerous Silicon Valley companies including Wikimedia who run the famous Wikipedia. She has been on Fortune Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women list and that alone is saying quite a bit. So, I was interested to hear her views on the future…