If you’ve been around projects for any length of time you have probably come across the Project Management Institute. You might even have heard of PMIEF: the PMI Educational Foundation. But what does it actually do? I thought it mainly sponsored research, but it turns out I was wrong. PMIEF’s Chair, John Rickards, gave a…
In case you’ve been living under a rock, today’s the day that Prince William of Wales marries Catherine Middleton, and it feels like London has been turned into one big Union Jack. I planned my wedding in Microsoft Project, and I’m not the only project manager who considered their big day worthy of proper planning….
Over 75% of you feel that social media tools provide the opportunity to improve the way you manage projects, according to this year’s Social Media in a Project Environment survey. The 2011 results show how project managers around the world are using Collaboration Tools to manage projects and lead teams. There was lots of interest…
This is a guest post by Kathlika Thomas, head writer for the IT Project Blog. Impromptu project meetings are easy enough to schedule and can be useful, especially for getting quick responses from a client or from a technical resource when needed. However, ad hoc sessions can be time wasters, too. More often than not, the wrong people…
General information Name: RationalPlan Vendor: Stand by Soft Ltd Hosting options: Locally hosted. There is a free trial but it requires you to download an application. Cost and plans: Single project (this is not just for one project at a time; it relates to having unrelated projects without dependencies). Multi-project for interrelated projects i.e. a…
In 2011 I went to Paris to speak at PMI’s Ile de France chapter. The other speaker that evening was Christophe Campana, one of the founders of consulting company Campana & Schott. He told me how his company was changing its recruitment adverts in an effort to attract more female applicants. Currently only about 10%…
For the last 8 weeks I have been taking the Maximising IT/IS Team Effectiveness course with Villanova University. I’ve been blogging about my experiences of the virtual learning environment in this series. Over the years I have tried classroom courses, a weekend project management courses and distance learning. The Villanova experience added to the range…
None of my projects have a quality plan, but my teams still deliver quality projects. You don’t need them either when you follow this advice.
It’s the last week of the Maximising IT/IS Team Effectiveness course that I am taking with Villanova University. The focus this week has been on managing others and establishing an environment that moves others through change. One of the lectures was on creating resiliency in your project team. Why do we need resiliency? IT projects…
This is a guest post by Soma Bhattacharya, the project manager behind Stepping into Project Management. I returned home to India to find it very different from what I had left behind 6 years ago. India is growing everyday and considered the hub of outsourcing for IT and other domains. I grew up in a…
This week on the Maximizing IT/IS Team Effectiveness course I am taking with Villanova University we looked at managing expectations. There was a whole lecture on damage control, which could have been subtitled When Project Managers Lie About Progress. I once worked with a contract project manager who routinely reported that all his tasks were…
The Arras People 2011 Benchmark Report is out – and the study shows some interesting facts about pay. Pay for female project professionals peaks at the £30k to £40k salary band. Salaries for women over £65k are rare, and only 15% of women earn over £50k. Male salaries plateau between £30k and £50k with 47%…