PMcrunch

Successful delegation requires granting both responsibility and authority. These two, combined properly, constitute “empowerment”. However, these two are often not properly executed by the project manager or program leader, and the blame is often placed on the delegate, not on the leader! We, as project and program leaders, need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask if we are delegating properly.

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Project Management involves a great deal of discipline in making sure that “all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed’. It clearly involves a great deal of attention to detail, and a high degree of thoroughness. So how do we balance that with a practical realism that allows us to prioritize and focus on the most important activities? The pareto principle can help.

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Business or organizational strategy is intended to drive all decisions within an organization. It provides a direction, a rallying point, and a litmus test for decisions at all levels. Hence, it only stands to reason that strategy would drive the project portfolio management process.

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There is lots of good talk about project metrics. Much of it centers on project performance. But there is another side to it, organizational metrics, related to how the project is contributing to overall organizational goals. Thinking a little differently and exploring a different perspective can provide better focus and produce more positive impact.

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Anyone who has been “around the block” at least once is likely to have encountered problem performance on the part of at least one person associated with the project. The question is “How do you deal with problem performance and how can you improve it?”

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As project managers, we all know that the project sponsor is the most important stakeholder. Without the project sponsor, it would be very difficult to get any project very far off the ground. I have been thinking about some of the risks of not having proper sponsorship, but the real issue is in defining what proper sponsorship really is – and of course, what it is not.

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Project reporting is very important because it enables us to keep our stake holders informed as to the project progress, decisions, achievements, and issues. However, often reporting is done around a certain specific format that you as a project manager, or your stakeholders, may find to fall short of the information needed – or worse, provide a lot of extraneous information that does not add value. It is important to capture the essence of project objectives and map them to the reporting routine.

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Personality is an important consideration in team building. Think about how people have different individual work styles and how they work differently in a group differs! Understanding how you and your team members tend to work can help each of us to work together more effectively. One popular way to discover personalities and its effect work styles is the use of the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

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There are some key factors that must be in place in order to put Earned Value Management into practice. These ‘key factors’ are all good project management practices. Indeed, part of the benefit of practicing earned value management is the disciplined process that earned value demands up front! In other words, you cannot implement earned value management without practicing good project management!

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Engineering and Management, as disciplines, were ‘married’ a long time ago! It only makes sense, as every engineering effort must be managed. There are some key differences between managing the engieering work and manageing the engineering project.

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