It’s the time of year to prepare for annual performance appraisals. I did some research for Projects@Work recently, and wrote an article for them about how project managers could best arm themselves for the dreaded one-to-one with their line manager. I ended up in contact with loads of experts, more than I could fit in…
Each week Computing and Computer Weekly rehash old material about how important it is to get more women working in IT and how terrible it is that there is unfair treatment in the workplace. I’m sure there is unfair treatment in many workplaces, although I’ve been fortunate enough never to experience any. And reading about…
Looking for a present for the PM in your life? She might appreciate some of these gifts: Vouchers for Starbucks or her local coffee shop — for keeping going when steering group reports are due A subscription to Shattered A retractable powder brush, so the inside of her handbag doesn’t get messy, and a fix-all-hide-all…
I listened to Rich Maltzman talking about his forthcoming book Fiddler on the Project (co-authored with Ranjit Biswas) on Controlling Chaos, way back in July. We’ve been corresponding since, trying to find time to talk about project management and authoring. I finally got round to asking him some questions last week, and from the sounds…
There were plenty of questions about project management at last week’s women in technology event on how to be a successful woman in IT. Mainly people were interested in how to break into project management. The panel, made up of technology, project and programme managers from JPMorgan, as well as the main speaker, Helen Duguid from…
I’m not that good at networking at conferences and seminars. You know, standing around making small talk with people you are unlikely to meet ever again, on the off-chance that you might have enough in common to sustain a conversation until your glass is empty and you have an excuse to move on. You can’t…
I have written before about the fact that some projects are stopped for good reasons. Businesses need to be very transparent when that happens to ensure all relevant parties understand why and, crucially, agree that it is the right thing to do. Communication within the organisation needs to be carefully managed so that all the…
Back at the beginning of August I was tagged for this meme by Mike Ramm, over at Stop and Think! I have no idea where it started, but the rules for the 8 Random Facts About Me meme are: Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves which others do not know about them….
The construction of the new Scottish Parliament building is a good example of how things can go so wrong on a project. The innovative design was in its early stages when the procurement process started. Architects were bidding to deliver something within a specification of 20,740 m² and £50m. At this point, there were no…
There must be a good reason why all these projects fail. There is; in fact, there are many factors that contribute to project failure. The UK Office of Government Commerce did a study that shows the main reasons that projects fail are: lack of clear executive leadership (the ‘missing’ Sponsor) poor processes for identifying and…
In a new job, it’s hard to know what details are important and what you can let slip in one ear and out the other. I’ve been trying to soak up everything – a strategy which has been moderately successful. I’ve picked up a lot of low-level detail and, not yet knowing if it is…
The UK Government’s Public Accounts Committee has put together a report called ‘Delivering successful IT-enabled business change,‘ about how government projects are performing. The report concludes that some projects actually turn out pretty well, but those learnings are not carried across to other projects run by other departments. This won’t come as a surprise to…