SULE PROJECT AND PLANNING CONSULTANT NETWORK

5 Project Problems You Might Need to Solve By KAKA SULE 3 in Share The life of a project manager tends to involve a lot of different situations and will require you to use a variety of skills to solve the problems you will come across. There is no way of accurately listing all of the issues you could need to solve during your career but as a sample we could look at 5 which you might need to deal with at some point. The Wrong Team The project team is going to be very important to you. In fact, if you are presented with a team which has been recruited or allocated by someone else then one of your first steps should be to assess their suitability for the task at hand. Even if they are all experienced and capable workers you will need to think about whether or not they will combine well and provide the mixture of skills which you are going to need. If the makeup of the team is wrong then your first step is probably going to be that of pointing this out to the stakeholders...

By  KAKA SULE 4 in Share When you start out in a project management role you are probably just looking for a decent career. However, our jobs are important in the rest of our lives as well. The good news is that working as a project manager could positively influence the rest of your life if you let it. Be Happy at Work The enjoyment you get from your work can make a huge difference in your life. I remember when I worked in a pretty horrible job before moving into the project world. Every day on the way to work I would feel a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach at the thought of going in there. Over time a feeling of unhappiness at work will affect your home life as well. I can still remember how I used to get grumpy on Sunday evenings at the thought that the weekend was nearly over and that it was nearly time to go back to the office again. A project manager role might not be ideal for everyone but if it suits you then it could make you happy at work again and ...

The project plan for a business venture has to be set down and documented for its full potential to become a reality. This is most commonly done today in the digital format so time and energy can be saved in the arduous task. The creating of a modern project plan today is generally done with the use of several different project management tools that are available. Of these project planning tools, the most often used is the project management template sets. This is a collection of 52 different digital templates used for the planning and documentation of the projects many different components. There are nine different processes that every project plan has to have documented. These templates are laid out so each one is done in the most logical and effeicent manner so the execution phase of the project’s lifecycle can be achieved with the fewest problems. Each template has been created by applying the most current business models for that particular process along with the internal tool...

The research team has identified 5 trends. Let’s look at each of these. 1. Portfolio management The difficult economy means that businesses will continue to prioritise project portfolio management. The research shows that more than half of the survey respondents say that project portfolio management is in frequent use in their organisations. This is an increase of 5% over the results from last year, which shows that the use – in a structured way – of portfolio management is on the rise. Over two thirds of organisations now have a Project Management Office (PMO) as well, which is another contributing factor to the increase in portfolio management. In times when non-valuable services are being cut, it is good to see that the value of the PMO is being recognised for selecting and managing projects to successful completion. 2. Iterative project management Companies need to be more nimble and respond to market conditions quickly. This has driven an increase in the rise of what PMI...

One of my primary goals for this experiment is to find a method which avoids the phenomenon of anchoring as much as possible. Let’s see what it looks like. Step One: Deliverables Defined Make sure that you have your work breakdown structure defined properly. If you’ve read my book, you know that the work breakdown structure is extremely important to me, regardless of whether you are working on a waterfall project or an agile/leave project. If you don’t start out with a good definition of your scope, then everything else down the line is for naught. Garbage in, garbage out. Step Two: Relative Sizing Delphi The first round I used for my teams this time relied on the relative sizing method that many agile teams use when trying to come up with estimates for their projects. So there was a range of T-shirt sizes between XXS to XXL and everything in between that my team to select from. Whenever using any kind of relative sizing model, you need to make sure that your teams are co...

Meetings, meetings, meetings, Oh so many meetings... Meetings are a very popular and important tool for communicating and collaborating. But, there are many cases of meeting overload in projects and organizations in general. So here are some of my top tips on making your meetings more effective and efficient. Always have a plan, make sure you set a purpose and agenda and it is shared prior to the meeting Have timings against agenda items and a time keeper, this helps keep things on track Document and distribute minutes of the meeting Assign actions throughout the meeting with due dates Review previous actions at the start of the meeting Only schedule the meeting for the length of time required, if you need half an hour, don't book an hour, if you need 15 minutes, only book 15 minutes Make sure you invite the right people Be prepared. If you need to have thought about the items on the agenda prior or done pre-reading, make sure you do it Provide pre-reading materials in...