Archive for the ‘Tools’ Category

Project Management and balancing your workload

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

Hi, happy new year – I hope all your projects come in on time, under budget and with all the scope your sponsor wants.

I’m doing a series of blogs over at EasyProjects.Net .

Full disclosure, I’m one of their consultants. I go in and help their clients implement the methodology that surrounds the great tool.

This series is designed to help the project manager who is working off the side of their desk. Often someone with a reputation for getting things done, the volunteered or voluntold PM can find themselves quickly overwhelmed when faced with a project.

I hope you like it.

 

Perry

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Posted in execution, Information, Planning, Scope, Tools | No Comments »

Status reports – useful or not?

Sunday, August 1st, 2010

I’ve been reading a number of posts on LinkedIn and other blogs about status reports and why they don’t work. Most of theses are promoting a different model for status reporting. The problem is not with a format of reporting, but with the process of reporting.

The reason we status report seems to have gotten lost in the search for a new format of status reports. We report to keep people apprised of the status of the project. We use whatever tool fits best within the organization, or methodology.

The key elements of status reporting are,

  1. where we thought we would be based on the last approved baseline and where we really are
  2. what we see as issues that the sponsor needs to help resolve, and how they need to help
  3. what we see coming up that is just a heads up – and what we’re doing about it

If you are reporting clearly and honestly on these three points, the status report has value. If not, here’s the problem,

  1. Where we are v where we thought we would be. If you are trying to provide a more optimistic picture, you’ll mislead the sponsor, and lose your credibility
  2. If you are trying to show you can solve the issues when it’s really in the hands of your sponsor, you are going to have to come to the table for help when you are at the end of your resources. The sponsor wants to help, let them get in there and do their job.
  3. If you don’t tell your sponsor what’s coming up – and say whether you need help or not – you’ll look like you are blindsiding them when they hear it from someone else.

So, the point is, status reporting is communication and if you communicate the right things clearly and objectively, the format is just a tool.

What do you think about status reporting? Do you have a story to share?

Happy PMing

Perry

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Posted in communication, organizational savvy, Team management, Tools | No Comments »

How Project Management Can Help You With Any Business

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Hi, this blog post is the first of what I hope are many guest blogs. In the spirit of open transparency, Jason is providing me licenses for MMPM. I’ll be offering them to my Twitter followers when I have them. If you don’t already follow me, you can find me at PerryAwilson.  Anyway, I’ll let you get on to Jason’s post.

How Project Management Can Help You With Any Business

No matter what business you are in, you have goals and intentions.  From the largest corporation to the smallest home-based business, projects are being started every day.  Without proper management of these projects, all the effort, time, and money are wasted.

The Changing Work Place

It is widely known that change is the only constant in the world.  We see changes in innovation and technology development daily.  People and companies are trying to keep up with all these new products and ideas, with some handling it better than others.

As organizations pursue their goal to reduce the cost of running a business, they are also trying to deal with the changes occurring all around them.  In misguided attempts to stay competitive, many companies are “downsizing” their employees.

For a company to survive the challenges of change, it must change as well.  New ways of looking at employees, new thoughts on preserving its business, and a new dedication to keeping in the forefront of its industry.

To survive a changing environment is only possible if we keep pace with and accept change.

An increasing number of employees are working from home instead of the office.  The use of computers and Internet technologies are a must not only for those working at home, but for every business that is trying to become or remain successful.  Vital for every organization is the technology of computers and the Internet.

The greatest challenges posed by the changing workplace are collaboration and communication.

One requirement of the changing workplace is that we need to be updated and well informed all the time.  Access to updated data and information regarding any business activity is a must.  Sharing information in real-time can guarantee success for organization and individuals alike.

Guarantee the success of organizations and individuals, by sharing of expertise and information in a timely manner.

How a Project Management System Can Help

Challenges in the changing workplace might seem impossible to overcome, but they can become simplified when a proper Project Management Plan is used.

The project management system may be the single best solution for the collaboration needs of any organization.  A project management system is multi-functional software that performs tasks like resource allocation, communication, budget management, quality management, report generation, cost and quality control.

Also, communication, information sharing and administrating are simplified and made much easier through use of a project management system.

Scheduling is an element of a project management system. According to the time limit and given resources the project management system divides the projects into a series of tasks and makes the handling of even complex projects very easy. It enables you to make the best possible use of time and resources.

Another great benefit provided by the project management system is communication. The project management system has a central database, which the permitted users can use to track the work progress and get updated information and data easily. It predicts any kind of problem that can arise in the project and removes uncertainties and ambiguities related to projects. From report generation to risk analysis, project management is very useful. It clearly defines the path to follow and contribution required at every level and from every employee.

These are just a few functions of a project management system. With proper implementation and use, it can help overcome great challenges that otherwise seem impossible. Thus, by making the collaboration, communication and working possible across the organization, the project management system helps the company meets the challenges of an ever-changing workplace.

Jason Westland has 15 years experience in the project management industry. From his experience he has created software to help speed up the management process. If you would like to find out more information about Jason’s  online project management software.

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Posted in execution, Innovation, Planning, Professionalism, Tools | 1 Comment »

Project Management Tools

Monday, January 18th, 2010

How do you evaluate project management tools? How many of the tools you find as a PM manage to fulfill all of your needs.

Let’s start with what those needs might be.

Are you looking for a tool that can express your project schedule in a way that you can understand and manage, or do you need to communicate the critical path to people who aren’t trained to read a Gantt chart?

Are you trying  to communicate the impacts of issues, or the challenges faced by your resource shortages? Do you want to be able to share status at the press of a button?

Until I can find my holy grail of project management tools, I keep trying the new toys.

When playing with the new toys, I think it’s important to remember that a project management tool won’t make you a successful project manager, the tool makes your job easier, it doesn’t do your job.

One old tried and true tool – Microsoft Project I learned how to use Project at the very beginning of my career. When you get comfortable with it, it’s a great tool for keeping track of tasks, resources, and budget. The upside is that Microsoft does continually upgrade and does as far as I can tell, each upgrade has been an improvement from the perspective of the project manager. The downside is that it has very defined expectations of how you will use it. Project doesn’t like it when you want to schedule the project by dates rather than dependencies and the default settings don’t like it when you add or subtract resources. I always feel like Project is keeping me on the straight and narrow when it comes to methodology.

One I recently checked out, and for the purpose of disclosure,  have joined their team of facilitators is Easy Projects. This tool is set up to allow the PM to do the usual things – set up activities, link dependencies, assign resources and set status. I also allows you to assign roles to the people on your project and give them permissions. You can set up notifications when someone adds, alters or deletes tasks. And, it has three types of activity, task, issue or request. This allows you to easily track client additions to the project and see the impact of issue resolution on your schedule. And, it has a dashboard function that works with multiple projects – getting close to status reporting by pressing a button.

Another tool that I haven’t tried but have heard a lot of good things about is Open Project. I’d love to hear about your actual experiences with this tool. From what I see online, it seems very much like Microsoft Project – except it’s free.

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Posted in Professionalism, Tools | 1 Comment »

Project data base for questions and answers

Sunday, November 1st, 2009

I received an email tell me to check out askaboutprojects. I’m naturally suspicious of unsolicited emails but then I looked closer, the email had come in response to my latest blog post – yay, someone is reading my posts.

I took a look and I’m impressed. This is a site where you can ask and answer questions about project management.  The questions are all over the board and the answers range from a quick sentence to a detailed instructional message.

This might end up being a common source for lessons learned, a place to hear about new tools and ideas, or a great place to find answers to your common frustrations.

Here are a few samples:

Does it help to use a software to create the WBS

Four PMs gave answers about software and how to do a WBS.

If you had to hire a project manager to work with you which would be your top 5 requirements

A couple of interesting answers there now, neither had certification on their list.

How do you prioritize your tasks

Great ideas posted in answer to this one.

It seems to me that it’s common to hear PMs ask for the best way to develop stronger skills and improve their delivery and approach project after project. Ask About Projects seems like a great place to start.

Leave a comment if you have any thoughts on this.

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Posted in communication, Innovation, Tools | No Comments »