In IT Projects, when something unexpected happens, I get better results when I respond, than when I react. You may have sussed this for yourself ages ago but my epiphany, strangely, came when I met a St John Ambulance community first responder. He was telling me about a traffic accident that he’d attended. He was […]
Managing IT Projects: Respond Don’t React Read More »
I was reminded of an old Monty Python sketch today. Did you ever see Life of Brian? One of the characters Reg, played by John Cleese, asks “What have the Romans ever done for us?” One by one, other characters pipe up with loads of suggestions … medicine … roads … public order … Eventually,
Have you ever taken on an IT Project, only to find that a major challenge either wasn’t mentioned in the handover from the departing Project Manager or, if it was, it was implicit – not explicit. It’s like those horror movies where a family buys a house only to find out, after they move in,
How to deal with what wasn’t in the IT project handover Read More »
With the success of my first eBook, I am delighted to publish Volume II. The book covers a wealth of topics from Stonseed’s Project Management as a Service and our IT services, to an array Project and Programme Management issues. Volume II of Straight Talk on Project Management is now available for download as an
Straight Talk on Project Management VOLUME II – Free E-Book Read More »
Discover more about the key project management skills they never teach you in school. When you take a project management training course, you will quickly be alerted to numerous skills you need that you have never been taught before. Of course, that is what project management courses are all about, especially those that focus on
Project management skills they don’t teach in school Read More »
“Beware of Jim, he’s a bit of an ogre!” I was once warned about a project leader at a new firm I had joined. Jim wasn’t the chap’s real name, by the way, and “ogre” wasn’t quite the word that was used. Anyway, it turned out that “Jim” wasn’t really an “ogre”. He was just
How to be assertive and why IT project leaders must be Read More »
Originally published on CIO.com “As IT Project Managers we’ve managed some change over the years,” one of my oldest IT Project Management friends said in an email this week. “Now it’s us facing a great change and if we don’t we’ll become increasingly irrelevant.” In spite of this seemingly negative line, the theme of his
Are the greatest IT Change Managers now facing the greatest change? Read More »
Originally published on CIO.com Traditionally a project is judged complete when it is transitioned into service. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate this endpoint. A CIO asked me this recently because his team was expressing an interest in extending their role so that they could assess their project ‘from the other side’. Traditionally, as a PM
Where does an IT Project Manager’s job end? Read More »
There’s a fella used to go in a local fish and chip shop. Run with me on this. It must have been every week because he was always there whenever we decided to have a chippy tea on a Friday. For about the last month though, he hasn’t been in the queue. I don’t know
IT Projects – Think bigger picture. The fine line between over and under delivery Read More »
There was a time when collaborations between music artists were a rarity. Queen and David Bowie, George Michael and Aretha Franklin, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross … they stood out. It was quite exciting when your favourite artist teamed up with someone else because the outcome was always something magical. These days ‘collabs’ are more
Collaboration. If it’s good enough for Paul McCartney… Read More »
