Our friend, Alex – the project manager got some stern looks from senior manager Martha for proposing a new feature beyond the agreed scope in a customer meeting. The new feature is going to take some time and effort to implement if the customer will decide to go for it. What Alex just did was […]
What makes a Great Project Manager?
Project management as a profession has been around for many years now. Organizations take so much effort and spend a lot in project manager certifications and training. Still there are few things that cannot be taught in a training room. Either you have them naturally or learn it in the school of hard knocks. Below […]
10000 hour rule of success – Does it apply to project managers?
In Outliers: The story of success, Malcolm Gladwell examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success using examples from Canadian ice hockey players to Bill Gates and the Beatles. Throughout this book, he claims that the key to success in any field, is to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific […]
Project teams working from home – the ground rules
In the Web 2.0 world, the traditional concepts of the workplace are changing. For some, jobs are still 9-5 but not for all. For many of us, connected via the blackberry and the IPhone , we carry work everywhere we go. A lot of thought process is going on recently if employees can be allowed […]
Virtual teams – Get the best out of them
We live in an era where globalization has been deeply entrenched in all aspects of life – let alone the workspace. Corporations have become truly global and need to have presence in local markets across the globe to sell their products across geographies. Talent is spread across the world and its needed to go global […]
Occam’s razor
(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Occam’s razor, also known as Ockham’s razor, and sometimes expressed in Latin as lex parsimoniae (the law of parsimony, economy or succinctness), is a principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation […]
Quotable Quotes on Project Management
Here are some of my favorite quotes related to the field of project management – some motivational, some humorous and well some whatever.. I could not find the third word 🙂 Wherever I was sure of the author, I have given it, rest I have left it out blank. I will be adding more as […]
Differences between Projects, Programs and Portfolio
For the ones who know, its obvious, but for those who dont, a little help is good. Given below is my attempt to explain the basic differences between Projects, Programs and Portfolio. Projects Programs Portfolio Definition (ISO) A project is a unique process consisting of a set of co-ordinated and controlled activities with start and […]
Managing Projects and Herzberg’s two factor theory
The topic of interest today is what has more prominence in project management – methodology or intuition. Let us make an attempt to answer this using an analogy to Herzberg’s two factor theory.For those not familiar with Herzberg’s two factor theory, it is as follows:The theory (also known as Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory and Dual-Factor Theory) […]
Working your way through challenging work situations
Projects are meant to solve problems but many times the project itself becomes a problem. It gets so messy and complicated that there is loss of motivation in the team working on it and everyone including in many cases the top executives as well feel that they would be better off doing something else. This […]