People who look at project management systems rarely distinguish between the driving force behind such systems. Virtually all project scheduling systems are analytic in nature. They’re about estimates and projections. Yet data that looks very similar in Outlook or whatever you use for an agenda isn’t analytic at all, it’s commitment based. This article distinguishes between these different paradigms nd points out the trouble that can happen when the domains are muddled.
As project management tools have moved further and further from their Critical Path Scheduling roots, we’ve seen more of a focus on empowering the project management team and extending the definition of the project management team. This article talks about what to look for in collaboration tools for project management.
When you look at an Enterprise Project Management (EPM) implementation, looking at services is inevitable. There are so many aspects of deploying an EPM system that go well beyond simply installing it. Engaging an experienced deployment specialist who has seen EPM deployments over several organizations and under multiple conditions can help to avoid the most common and cost of pitfalls. This article looks at what to look for in an EPM services specialist.
It’s not enough to have a list of great features in a project management system in order to be successful. You’ve also got to have a system that can reach the people involved in the project management process. That’s more than knowing it has a web interface. Project mManagement these days is all about communication and if your system can’t reach more than the professional schedulers and be relevant to the day-to-day business of the people on the project team that it does reach then there’s little hope of the system becoming an “Enterprise” project management system. This article looks at what it takes to be an enterprise-level project system.
Article: Batteries not included When people used to buy large-scale project management systems, buying the training was just part of…
Project management systems have moved from analgorithmic-centric view to a collaboration-centric perspective. Here are a few things to look for in collaboration project systems.
Written originally over 10 years ago, this article is still particularly current today. Most project management tools written originally in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s were based on the Critical Path Methodology paradigm. They were fundamentally scheduling tools. Yet, the practice of project management has becmoe so much more. See my thoughts on whether we should move on from Critical Path as our driving force in the project management systems industry in this article.
It’s been some time since I wrote this article which has been published in a number of places since. Amazingly, the list is still appropriate. This is a letter to Santa on what I’d like to see from the Project Management Industry for Christmas.
We’re updating the Resources area and you’ll be happy to see we have Project Management Presentations now available. You’ll see…
Usually the engineering-oriented mind of project management people would never even consider the role of salesperson as part of being a project manager but the truth is, we’re selling all the time. Project Managers must sell their projects, their planning ideas, the impact of any changes and, even themselves. We’ll look at the various salesperson roles and their potential ‘clients’ in this article.
Systems: Microsoft Project Microsoft has released a “December 2007 Cumulative Update notice”. The notice includes update information on Microsoft Office Project…
Resources: Books It’s taken awhile but the EPM Guidance Book Recommendation page is now online. You’ll find here books from…
Project management comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes but nowhere is scheduling more tightly managed than in a high-pressure shutdown/maintenance project. In these 5-10 day projects, an entire industrial facility must be stopped, have maintenance done and then restarted and ever hour that passes is huge amounts of money lost in production. It’s a particular kind of scheduling from which anyone in project management can learn a lot.
As project managers we strive for the large, complicated mega project. It’s the kind of project careers are built around. But, is this the best kind of project for your organization? Can you do a better job of managing when the projects are bite sized enough? In this article we’ll look at how you can break down projects into manageable pieces and manage each as a separate part of the whole.
Systems: Microsoft Project Server 2007 updates Microsoft Project Server 2007 has had a range of updates, service packs and patches. …