PMcrunch

Corporate need for stream-lined, large-scale training has prompted many organizations to look to learning management systems (LMSs) and virtual teams. Virtual teams can aid companies in discovering, recruiting, and training talent.

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Project cutbacks are a common theme. In many cases, teams are simply reduced in size. In addition, project scopes are decreased while agile methods are a key way organizations develop software more efficiently. The term agility goes far beyond that.

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Many project management positions are just that — positions managing projects. However, many other positions seemingly in project management are much more positions in programmatics. They involve tracking, reporting, working with metrics, and passing information on to decision makers. While, often, there is a need for these functions, there, often, also is not.

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As leaders and project managers or program managers, we are subject to the ups and downs of what we could call the “project or program work cycle”. While sometimes things seems to be flowing forward and progressing well, like a well-oiled machine, at other times it seems that no matter what we do, progress is slow and difficult. I leadership positions, this experience is inevitable, as everything is not “black and white”. How can we handle these situations?

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Sometimes I wonder if we are too success oriented. In other words, we as project managers feel that we have failed if our projects fail in anyway, and we define ourselves by project success and project failure. This reminds me of children in school striving all the time to get perfect grades. The problem with this is that sometimes failures produce our greatest successes. Do we have a project management expectation that acknowledges that?

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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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Good projects map well to organizational goals. In fact, the best organizations make sure their initiatives are in alignment with their strategic plan. Whether for project initiation or for simply evaluating how the value of a project fits within the organization, becoming familiar with the strategic plan is invaluable.

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On December 11, 2007, PMConnection announced the introduction of “The Project Management Search Engine” product. This is a wonderful idea, and is true to the name and mission of “PMConnection”. Here are my thoughts on what practical innovation and usefulness it brings to the table.

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