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…
We are moving offices (it feels like only yesterday that I last did an office move – from beautiful Avenue Matignon to crummy La Défense), so I decided to clear out my desk drawers before the crates arrive. There is a whole lot of stuff in there that should be sent for archiving or just…
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…