Your company doesn’t seem to understand the importance of structured project management. They don’t care. Your manager or department doesn’t see the value in providing ongoing training in project management. Your coworkers don’t care about best practices. It’s difficult to find mentors within your organization. Lonely by m.o.d e via Flickr. I started blogging at…
Month: August 2022
The lazy project manager
What is productive laziness? Peter Taylor, The Lazy Project Manager “Progress is not made by early risers. It’s made up of lazy men who try to find better ways to do the same thing. Robert Heinlein (1907-1988). I don’t advocate being lazy project managers. I’m not suggesting that we should all just sit down and…
How to Manage Your ITIL Service Catalog Effectively
Let’s take a look at the service catalog in the world ITIL training. The service catalog is a part of the service portfolio. It only includes live services or services that are available for deployment within a service provider organisation. The service catalog manager is responsible for keeping it current according to the roles and…
The ITIL 4P Concept: Building Blocks of Service Design
Online ITIL training is available worldwide. It teaches the ITIL Lifecycle and stages of services, as well as how to design ITIL Service Design. An important concept in the ITIL course is the four ITIL 4P themes of Service Design. These ITIL 4P concepts of Service Design are: People, Processes Products/Technology Partners/Suppliers. The ITIL 4P…
Honest Communication: The Importance Of Honest Communication After a hiatus with Draven, our newest member of the family, I’m now catching up on project management items. Cutting’s Edge is a blog that I discovered recently and is quickly becoming one my favorite blogs. Thomas’ February 20th post, Avoiding Trouble with Honesty, listed five warning signs to keep you honest. These were great!
You are on thin ice if you need to decide how to spin the information. Listen to that little voice in your head when it says something doesn’t smell right. If you say “I think they’ll buy that?” You shouldn’t be trying to sell it. You are likely to get into trouble if you try…
Social Not Working? photo by John.Karakatsanis Twitter and Facebook, Orkut. Digg, Linked in! Add to that services such as Skype, MSN, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk What about blogs, forums, wikis, podcasts? Uff! There are many social networks, and many services and options available. What’s the problem? Web 2.0 technology has given a boost to the concept of “networking”. It is no longer enough to just surf the internet, but to actively participate and to share. The keywords are collaboration and community. It has been referred to as “Social Not Working”. According to the Urban Dictionary, the term refers?as the practice of spending unproductive time on social-networking sites, especially when one should actually be working. What does this mean for Project Management? What does this mean for project management when you are working with a team at the customer site? Some companies have a policy that denies access to any social network and any attempt to do otherwise is against corporate policy. Others take a more liberal approach and allow their employees free access to social media. As a Project Manager for a consulting company, you will enjoy being monitored for individual performance as well as project performance. In this situation, the majority of the time the project team follows the customer policy. It is up to the project manager, if there is no customer policy, to work with the customer and team to improve the project’s success and team morale. Inevitable to remember the lack of confidentiality of the social networks which can represent a not affordable?tradeoff?for most of the commercial projects. The bright side Social Networks are valuable tools for any team, especially for the so-called?new workforce: young workers in their twenties and thirties are the most frequent users of the social toolbox. According to Don Tappscot, author of Wikinomics; Growing up Digital, and Grown up Digital, that is the?platform they grew up on. The following are some examples of the uses of these tools:
Knowledge exchanging research of solutions for common problems?between?projects Brainstorming with a wider public than the project team It is inevitable to say that social networks are a reality in most projects. The PM must use his communication skills and negotiation skills to balance the project goals with the personal goals of his team. What are…
Social Media for Project Managers
I was in Washington D.C. to attend the 2010 PMI North America Global Congress. I spoke with Elizabeth Harrin, author and blogger at PM4Girls, about her new book “Social Media For Project Managers”. In this interview, I focused on two topics: privacy and emerging trends. One of the topics in the book is about the…
So, you want to manage IT projects?
Let me help you to understand this. Why would you want to manage IT projects? How did IT project management suddenly become so sexy! Many people in other positions are now very interested in IT. In the past, a coworker was planning to go to school to earn a degree as web designer. She was…
You want to be an IT project manager? Yury Shkoda PMP, You love technology and enjoy being a project manager. It is obvious that you are the right career choice. IT Project Manager! But who will hire a beginner? What technical knowledge do you really require? Source: Pixabay Most people don’t need to know how to code. You are not supposed to be writing code as a project manager. You are expected to manage the project. Your experts should code. Understanding the product development process is essential. You also need to understand how your team members work to release their projects. It is important to understand your team’s working methods and to act as a liaison between them and other stakeholders. Some organizations want their project managers to be able code or test. These are not the right places if you don’t have a background in technology. How do you start? Do some research. Take a look at your favorite job sites to find project manager jobs. Note the job descriptions and the qualifications required for the positions. You should look for common themes and be open minded to learning more about your skills and education. Some companies are looking for project managers to balance the team. You might bring a different type of expertise that the technical team lacks. Once you are interviewed, you should be able to explain how you can contribute to the job. It is also helpful to demonstrate:
Good soft skills Clear understanding of project management Quick thinking Willingness to Learn Enthusiasm about the work I know a project manager at our IT company who had no technical knowledge when he started. He started attending meetups for IT professionals when he was looking for a job. It’s simple but genius. It takes only…
How to Rock Small Projects I get where you are coming from. This is how “accidental”, project managers like us get started. Small businesses, small projects and small teams. I have worked in similar environments in the past and currently volunteer for many non-profits. My activities with pmStudent fall under this category, as they are smaller projects that involve a few people or me. Even though good PM skills can still be used in such an environment, they must be tailored to the specific situation. For a week-long project, waterfall processes that include a fancy charter and detailed project plan are not worth the overhead. There is not much space for formality or overhead. Rock Your PM Skills! Create a checklist or an excel file that will be your project plan. This is what I did years ago when I worked in a MIS department. Many of the projects were one week to four weeks long. I had an excel spreadsheet that I used as a “1-page project plan” and also as a status report for my stakeholders. You can adapt it to your environment and make improvements as you go. A post I wrote a while back called “Good Project Management is Common Sense” that you might find useful.
Let’s start with the why. Then, figure out what. Then, figure out how it will happen and who will do it. These things are the reason that when comes out Then, we go through a process called iteration where our draft plans are updated in light of real life, including funding. One-page Project Management You…