Category Archives for Important ideas
Project Management Survey: A Guide to the Best Ones
If you are interested in Project Management, you’ll doubtless like to read what’s going on in our profession. That’s where a good Project Management Survey can help. So we have scoured the web for the best recent surveys, so you don’t have to.
A ‘Project Management Survey’ survey, if you like!
What is Agile and Why is it Important to Project Managers?
The PMI® is introducing Agile into the 6th Edition of its Project Management Body of Knowledge, the PMBoK®. But there are still a lot of people who are uncertain about ‘What is Agile?’ and why it is important to project managers.
This is made worse because the word Agile has many different connotations. And many project managers still think it is something that only applies to software development. So, it doesn’t apply to them.
They are wrong.
So we invited Agile expert Chuck Cobb to take you through the basics. Chuck has authored three serious guides to Agile. These include the best-selling: ‘The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile‘ (US|UK). He also runs the Agile Project Management Academy, with a comprehensive range of online training.
What is NLP? | Video
If you work as a project manager or in projects for any length of time, you’ll come across the term ‘NLP’.
So what is this NLP?
…and what does it stand for?
Dr Mike Clayton is founder of OnlinePMCourses.com.
Here, he answers this question, in under 5 minutes.
Why You Can No Longer Ignore Agile Methodologies
You may be at the start of your Project Management career, or a seasoned veteran. You may work on software engineering projects or in business change. But, whatever your project role, one thing is clear. Project Managers can no longer afford to ignore Agile methodologies.
We spoke with Agile Project Management trainer and founder of AgileSumo.com, Chris O’Halloran. The first thing he said was this:
‘I am the first to admit that when I first heard about Agile in 2003, I mentally wrote it off…
Surely, no serious project manager would follow principles of Agile. I mean, how could a lack of planning actually work?’
He goes on to also admit that he didn’t understand Agile.
But now he believes he was wrong. It wasn’t until many years later that he began to understand Agile, the value it brings and, crucially, why it works.
Now, Chris is a huge advocate for Agile. He teaches Agile principles and coaches teams on moving to Agile ways of working.
In this article, Chris explains why you can no longer afford to ignore Agile methodologies, if you don’t want to be left behind.
What is a Growth Mindset? | Video
Carol Dweck coined the term Growth Mindset and compared it with a Fixed Mindset.
Growth Mindset is an valuable idea for all Project Managers to understand.
So what is a Growth Mindset?
Dr Mike Clayton is founder of OnlinePMCourses.com.
Here, he answers this question, in under 5 minutes.
Your Introduction to Capabilities Based Planning (CBP)
The familiar way to start defining your project is with a set of functional requirements. But increasingly, this approach is not meeting the needs of the business or organization; especially with IT projects. A new approach has emerged that is far more rooted into the strategic context. It’s called Capabilities Based Planning (CBP). And one of the leading practitioners is Glen Alleman.
Glen is a heavyweight project manager. He has served on some of the largest, most complex projects. He is also a serious thinker about how we can practice our profession rigorously. It is a privilege to have Glen contribute this introductory article.
How to Make a Good Project into a Brilliant Project
Projects make change happen. And they create things and add value to our organizations. In a very real sense, the outcome of your project dictates the future of your organization. So maybe running a good project is not enough. I want to focus on some of the things that will make a merely good project into a brilliant project experience.
Project Management Reading List for Christmas
I’d like to offer you my Project Management reading list for this Christmas season. But I have realised something. This year, it’ll be tricky.
There are a lot of pious bloggers out there who will tell you about all the fabulous books you must read. And they’ve read them all, of course, and they want to make you feel inferior, if you haven’t. That’s not me. Not this year, anyway.
Use Kurt Lewin’s Freeze Phases to Guide Change
Kurt Lewin’s Freeze Phases is one of those models that every change agent and Project Manager should be aware of.
Three Steps on the Journey of Change
Change is never-ending. Furthermore, it is a necessary part of Project Management. Yet managing it effectively is one of the principal challenges for organisations and their managers. So what is the process to support effective change in the people who make up our organisations?
This was a question addressed by one of the twentieth century’s leading thinkers in workplace psychology; Kurt Lewin. Among his many contributions to our understanding of organisational life is a three-part model of change. It has come to be known as the Freeze Phases model.Continue reading…
What are the Important Project Management Trends?
If you search on ‘Project Management Trends’, you will find lots of articles and reports. Each of these will detail its own list of Project Management trends. However, some of them will overlap, while other will be contradictory. I have pored over as many of these as I can find, and extracted the twelve project management trends that I think are most interesting.Continue reading…
