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!…
PMI has commissioned some research into the value of project management. The findings were shared at their research conference in Warsaw last month. The study apparently took three years of field-work and cross-disciplinary analysis that culminated in June this year. Now I’m a bit sceptical of a study commissioned by an organisation that promotes project…
Well, the consultation for the Single Equality Bill looks like it’s over. Minister for Equality and Women, Harriet Harman, recently unveiled the draft Bill which is expected to be implemented in this autumn’s Queen’s speech. Unfortunately, positive action is on the table. Yes, I’m a big fan of women’s rights to equality, but allowing employers…
Set your out of office email response if you’re out for a day or longer. Change your voicemail as well, especially if you’re at a crisis point in the project and you know people will be wanting to get hold of you. Know where your project team are, so that when people ask you have…
If you’ve come here as a result of the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards, after searching for A Girl’s Guide to Managing Products, then you’re in the right place. It’s not the name of the blog, and you won’t find anything about product management. There’s a typo on their website, and in this week’s edition…