Project Management: Finding out Why

Anyone who listens to the news will be familiar with government ministers ordering enquiries into events in their departments “so that this will not happen again”. There is never a goal of finding out who caused the problem and holding them accountable. The result of this sort of analysis is weighty standard operating procedures, because […]

The Benefits of a Project Management Office | Velopi

On this page: Companies that find themselves chartering large projects on a regular basis often consider establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) in order to improve the management of these projects. Unfortunately, a PMO is not a clearly defined concept and even Project Management Professionals (PMPs)® struggle to provide a well-established template for such an office. […]

The Project Manager’s Power and Influence

Probably the first thing you learn on any Project Management Professional (PMP)© exam preparation course is that all projects have some unique aspect to them. Often that unique aspect relates to the performing organization itself, or the team members involved. So a project manager might move from one company to another and be asked to manage […]

Estimating Techniques for Project Management

In a previous article, we offered advice to newcomers to project work: record how long it takes you to do typical project tasks. Here, we will show how that idea relates to the estimating techniques given in the Project Management Institute’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) and we will review those techniques. […]

Keeping Minutes, Wasting Hours

When all is said and done, more is said than done. Many meetings can be summed up like this. They can be extremely tedious and quite unproductive. Many managers simply do not appreciate the cost of meetings and, because of this, do not strive to ensure they get a return on investment. For Project Managers […]

Group Decision Making | Velopi

As any PMP© will tell you (and any PMP© exam student should tell you) decision-making is needed in several project management processes. It will be a very good PMP© who will be able to recite which processes these are, because there are fifteen in total. On this page: The Role of the Project in Decision-Making Of course, the […]

What are the 7 Lean Principles?

The term “Lean” means many things to many people. Shakespeare buffs will think of Cassius in Julius Caesar and his “lean and hungry look”. Fashionistas will probably have a picture of an anorexic supermodel in mind. But Project Management Professionals (PMPs)® and indeed anyone who works in industry will think of lean manufacturing. On this page: […]

Managing Project Requirements: Triage

One of the first tasks you encounter on any Project Management Professional (PMP)© training course is Project Scope Management. Within this knowledge area, probably the most important process is Collect Requirements. While the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK© Guide) advises us to ensure all our requirements are testable and measureable, it is less forthcoming […]

Developing the Project Team

For experienced Project Managers, reading the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is a bit like reading a fairy tale. There is something idyllic about the way everything just happens in such an orderly fashion. For Project Managers studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam, three processes in particular sound lovely in […]

Conflict Resolution for Project Managers

If asked, most project managers are likely to say they prefer a harmonious team that gets along well together. Indeed, as a species we would appear to value good relations over conflict – the state capital of New Hampshire is Concord, not Discord and the most famous passenger aircraft was Corcorde, not Conflict. One this […]