PMcrunch

I have encountered misunderstandings numerous times due to different concepts of the meaning of the word ‘plan’. There are various types of plans. In Project Plan Integration, we pull together various aspects of the project plan, which taken separately actually represent separate plans. One of those plans, the Configuration Management Plan, is one that I have encountered misunderstanding over.

[Read more →]

What does you organization “tolerate”? This is an important question to ask because you will know where you have some flexibility, and you will know where you have risks and inflexibility. You may very well also find out where your organization is lacking, and where it needs some reform in its project management practices to become a much more streamlined, and lean operating machine. A useful tool for thinking about this is the triple constraint.

[Read more →]

Project status reporting is important because it keeps many of our stakeholders informed as to the status on the project. The challenge is to keep project reporting from being a project unto itself. This can be achieved by integrating the normal day to day processes within the project with the project reporting, so that it virtually happens on its own.

[Read more →]

Edmund Hillary, of Auckland , New Zealand, , died on January 11,2008. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay were the first humans to climb Mount Everest. This hit me especially because I have always had a great interest and enthusiasm for the outdoors, and I just finished reading a great book about the climbing of Mount Everest. What makes Hillary’s death even more interesting for PMcrunch is that he was in practice actually a great project manager!

[Read more →]

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!

[Read more →]

We all know the definition of a project is an undertaking that produces a product by a target date and within an agreed cost. This triple constraint (product, time and cost) is what the project manager must plan for and track progress against. But are the three dimensions equal in priority?

The answer is no – some projects are cost constrained; some have an immovable end date while others may place a priority on the product quality. Understanding the priorities on your project (and agreeing with your project sponsor on the priorities) is critical.

[Read more →]