I was at the Best Practice Showcase last Tuesday and I actually had a really good time, which is strange given that it was mainly an event for project management training companies to sell at the punters. There are some people I only get to see at conferences and I met some new people too…
SmartDraw is, according to the manufacturer, the world’s most popular business graphics software. It makes it easy to design “presentation-quality” graphics in “minutes, not hours.” I decided to put this to the test myself. When I put the SmartDraw 2008 CD in my PC, the installation window told me it would take 51 minutes to…
Gents, this is a post about earned value analysis*. My trusty handbag for work is coming to the end of its useful life. I bought it in Brussels, when I was visiting a friend. I got all excited that they still had C&A shops when the chain had been closed in the UK for years,…
I have a garden again. Last summer I was between homes. The summer before that I managed to get a few runner beans out of a pot in the courtyard of my Paris flat. But I’m pretty sure that the constant smoking from my neighbors stunted the plant’s growth. And maybe the fact that I…
I saw a demo of the latest version of LiquidPlanner, the project management scheduling and collaboration tool, on Tuesday. It’s now been released – and it’s still in the Beta testing phase so it’s still free! Bruce Henry took me, a life-long user of MS Project, through the main features. I have dabbled with ConceptDraw…
Enjoyed the series on managing international projects? Here is some further reading that you might like: Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers, Anthony Mersino (Amacom, 2007) Polyglot Dictionary of Project Management Terms, John Bartlett (PMToday.co.uk) Managing Without Walls: Maximize Success with Virtual, Global, and Cross-cultural Teams, Colleen Garton and Kevin Wegryn (MC Press, 2006) And of…
This is the last in a 3-part series about managing cross-cultural and international teams. Missed the earlier posts? Read the first bit here, and the second bit here.The biggest issues for international projects are cultural understanding and communication. The former isn’t something that can be neatly tackled by a software package. It relies on the…
This is part 2 of a 3-part series about managing cross-cultural and international teams. Missed part 1? Read it here. Project managers taking on international projects face a variety of practical challenges. For example, time zones are important. How will you conduct real-time team meetings? Who is going to be the person who gets up…
This is the first in a 3-part series about managing cross-cultural and international teams. The world of business is continually shrinking: we work in an environment with real-time audio visual communication with colleagues on the other side of the world and online translation tools. Even small companies can operate internationally with outsourcing agreements and partners…
I thought I’d share with you the official write-up of the fab gala dinner at last week’s conference. They timed the speeches between the courses, so it meant people didn’t leave their dinners to get too cold while they went up to present or collect awards – only at a project management event are things…
Andrew Ball, head of IT Performance Audit at the Audit Commission, was one of the speakers at last week’s BPUG Congress. He spoke during a session in the strategic project and programme management strand about how to cope when projects go wrong. The main thrust of his argument was trying to avoid projects going wrong…
I was at the International Congress for Project, Programme and Risk Management last Wednesday and Thursday and listened to some really interesting speakers. Liz Underhill, Programme Manager for the London Olympics Programme, spoke early on the first day about the progress so far on planning for the Games. What struck me about her role is…