Project Evaluation and Review Technique

Many civilian Project Managers have made profitable use of the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) to help develop their schedules. Anyone who has done a Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam preparation class will already have encountered something similar to PERT – the three-point estimate. On this page: Understanding PERT and the Three-Point Estimate While the […]

International Project Management Day | Velopi

International Project Management Day happens every year on the first Thursday in November. On learning of this, I was worried. As a conscientious PMP®, what was I supposed to do to celebrate this day? Are project managers entitled to a day off on International Project Management Day? Do we all need to face the Project […]

What do Project Managers do?

On this page: A disturbing feature of many job adverts for Project Managers is the requirement to manage multiple projects. Is this just another symptom of the cost-cutting mantra- do more with less? Or is project management really just a part-time job? Having pondered on this for a while, Velopi’s response is to kick to […]

Controlling Change

The Project Management Institute is very keen on change control. It insists that, once your scope is baselined, any change requests need to be analysed fully and the consequences of the change appreciated before any decision is made. On this page: Challenges in Implementing Effective Change Control For a project manager, the important point with […]

Why Plan?

On this page: The Canadian economist, John Kenneth Galbraith is credited with coining the phrase “The Conventional Wisdom”. This means concepts that are assumed to be true because so many people believe them. In general, we spend most of our lives happily conforming to a set of conventions that we rarely, if ever, question. The […]

The Project Management Triple Constraint

On this page: If you are reading this it is likely that you are a practicing Project Manager. It is also possible that you are a Project Management Professional (PMP)®, who became well versed in the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). No doubt, no matter what your experience level, you will […]

Getting a Good Deal

On this page: As a project management professional (PMP)®, you could argue that your entire existence is all about problem solving. You are given some sort of project charter and are tasked with converting its aspirations into tangible products and services. In other words you are solving the given problem. The Significance of Clearly Defining […]

Six Degrees of Stakeholder Separation

When the film “Six Degrees of Separation” was released in the U.S.A., it must have raised quite a few eyebrows. Surely it is impossible to suggest that everyone on planet Earth is connected to everyone else if you go through six relationships? In Ireland, the reaction was different. Here we asked was it really that […]

Velopi’s PMP® and CAPM® Exam Simulator

As part of Velopi’s Blended Learning Solution, we provide our CAPM® and PMP® exam preparation students with access to our online exam simulator. Students are offered a range of trial exams that sharpen their knowledge of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and prepare them psychologically for the actual CAPM® or PMP® exam. On this page: Benefits […]

Getting on the Project Management Ladder

For many of us, project management is something we were thrust into. We were happily carrying out our work in the context of projects, when it was decided to put us in charge. If we were lucky, we got some project management courses, but for the most part we were left to make it up […]