This mini-series is looking at how project management is facing the challenges of 21st century business practices. Missed last week’s article on how project management is responding to those challenges? Catch up here. Today’s economy and business culture is not the same as the one that most of our project management tools were designed for….
Last week I wrote about the challenges facing project management as a result of evolving business practices. So, how is project management responding to these challenges? Frankly, I don’t think that we are. 71% of projects fail each year Projects achieve 93% of what they set out to deliver… … and take 84% more time…
At the APM conference last month I spoke about the challenges facing project managers working in a 21st Century business environment. I first got interested in this as a topic when I started working in healthcare about 18 months ago. The speed of advancements in healthcare technology is incredible, and every week there’s something new…
OGC launched guidance last week on managing Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices (that’s P3O® for short). It was a low-key launch event at a great venue south of the river, just along from Tate Britain, which looks beautiful lit up at night. Frances Scarff, head of best management practice for OGC did the introductions, including…
I spoke at the Association for Project Management (APM) conference in London yesterday. My presentation was on equipping project managers to work in ways that reflect the challenges faced by modern businesses: the credit crunch, outsourcing and offshoring and the role new technology has to play in 21st century ways of working. I arrived just…
PMI has decided that it needs a New Media Council and I’m one of seven “influential voices” (yes, they really called us that!) in the world of online project management that they have brought together for this. It’s good to see that a professional body is moving to embrace new media and Web 2.0 –…
Laura Magahy is Managing Director of MCO Projects Ltd, which she established in 2000 together with a colleague. MCO is a project management, architecture and environmental engineering company, specialising in 4D planning, healthcare and sustainable development in the public and private sectors. She’s also the first woman in Ireland to hold the IPMA Level A…
Remember the new London women’s networking group, WeAreTheCity? Their launch event was a huge success: hundreds of women queuing around the Monument branch of House of Fraser, all anticipating a free makeover, champagne, a fashion show and a prize draw with some excellent gifts. Two glasses of champagne and two fairy cakes later (the main…
Earlier this month I reviewed Easy Projects .NET, a project management package from Logic Software. There’s a bit of a trend with more and more players coming into the project management tools arena, and more companies are leaning towards web-based tools that help with collaborative working. Easy Projects .NET (now Birdview PSA) is used in…
Last Thursday I had dinner in Café Royle – Google’s staff canteen. Google were hosting a birthday event for Girl Geek Dinners (strapline: definitely does compute) to celebrate their third anniversary. Girl Geek Dinners is a bit of a phenomenon. Sarah Blow set up the non-profit community in London over three years ago and now…
In June, Forrester released a report (*updated 3 Aug 2015: no longer available online) that concluded that IT projects are people projects: people management skills are essential for the successful design and implementation of the project. Experienced project managers will know that this is common sense. It’s rarely the technology that lets projects down: in…
I was really excited to find out that I had won the Project Management category of the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards the day before yesterday. I wanted to wait until I had the official confirmation and this little image, which I got today, before putting posting about winning… just in case it wasn’t true!…