Month: September 2012
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10 Things Every Project Manager Should Know
GANTT CHART Gantt charts are the most generally useful tool in project planning. They are used for scheduling and monitoring tasks, for showing costs and expenditure at all stages throughout the project, for communicating progress and producing reports. They show, on a simple block diagram, the activities and costs over time in an easy-to-understand way. …
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10 Reasons You Need Project Management
If you are not a project manager, you may feel the whole process of project management with all its methodologies, techniques, meetings, reports and other assorted documentation is just a thorn in your side. You may even feel you would be better off without it – but I suggest you read these 10 benefits of…
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Reasons Why Projects Fail
It is always difficult to be precise about the causes of project failure for a number of reasons. Our human inclination is to avoid any blame being attached to us, no matter how much we might proclaim the benefits of a no-blame culture, when it comes to our own career on the line, we don’t…
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Project Success in Doubt
So you have brought your project in on-budget, on-time and it meets the requirements as documented and approved by the stakeholders. But the end-users are not happy and do not consider the project to be successful. The business department for which the project was carried out will now only sign-off the project if a new…
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Tools for Managing Projects
For complex projects that will involve many people, many tasks or take a considerable amount of time to implement, there is huge benefit to be had from using one of the many project management tools available to plan and manage the project’s resources successfully. I have worked on some memorable large-budget projects where I have…
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Studying with Podcasts
Studying for a professional business qualification using podcasts is becoming evermore popular. It’s an attractive alternative to traditional classroom courses that may be difficult to attend for a variety of reasons. And whilst there are many online training courses as another alternative, these require an internet connection and computer. There are often situations where you…
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New Ways of Learning
Professional training courses are vital in all sectors of business if, as a professional, you want to develop your skills and stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques. It is easy to fall behind in the latest methods in your particular field very quickly, particularly if you work in a fast-moving business. But it…
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Project Managers Must Be Realists
I have often written about the well-recognised traditional project management methodologies such as APM PMQ, PMP and PRINCE2; less so about the Agile and Scrum techniques. But whatever type of method is employed to get a project done an experienced project manager will know that they also have to be a realist. Fresh out of…
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The Slipping Standards of Project Management
Standards in project management such as those defined by the PRINCE2, APM and PMI methodologies are essential for well-run projects that consistently deliver on their promises but the practise of project management does not always live up to the theory. In reality many vital phases are rushed or not completed at all. Whilst…
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Minding Your Ps and Qs
I have been thinking a lot lately about all the many IT projects I have previously managed in the oil industry and in the “city” (I hardly dare say investment banking in the current economic climate, even though I was not one of the big bonus earning crowd). And it seems that the…
