Here’s a collection of case studies, first person accounts and experiences from senior project managers to inspire you.
Back in 2009 I wrote a post about career and personal goals, and what I wanted to achieve before I was 35. I made a list of 5 things. They were: See polar bears in the natural habitat Knit myself a jumper that I’ll actually wear Read Herodotus’ The Histories (which has sat unopened on…
Imagine working in a company with 10,000 people. You’re working on a secret project. You don’t know your colleagues from the next room. You don’t know what the overall project objectives are. You don’t know who else is on the project team and you can’t tell anyone what you’re working on. All you know is…
Last week I wrote about what the PMI Educational Foundation does. One of the missions of PMIEF is to build project management skills in young people and teachers, better equipping students for the future. How exactly does it do that? At PMI’s EMEA Leadership Institute Meeting in Dublin in 2011, two volunteers spoke about their…
In case you’ve been living under a rock, today’s the day that Prince William of Wales marries Catherine Middleton, and it feels like London has been turned into one big Union Jack. I planned my wedding in Microsoft Project, and I’m not the only project manager who considered their big day worthy of proper planning….
In 2011 I went to Paris to speak at PMI’s Ile de France chapter. The other speaker that evening was Christophe Campana, one of the founders of consulting company Campana & Schott. He told me how his company was changing its recruitment adverts in an effort to attract more female applicants. Currently only about 10%…
This is a guest post by Soma Bhattacharya, the project manager behind Stepping into Project Management. I returned home to India to find it very different from what I had left behind 6 years ago. India is growing everyday and considered the hub of outsourcing for IT and other domains. I grew up in a…
How do you keep the production of a film on time, on budget and on scope? In this video I discuss these issues with short film producer, Michael Savva. Elizabeth Harrin: Well, hello! I’m Elizabeth Harrin from A Girl’s Guide to Project Management and I’m here today with short film festival finalist, Michael Savva. And…
“I left school with minimal qualifications,” said Roger Clutton, Programme Director at Lloyd’s Register Group Services Ltd. “I was probably programmed to feel not good at things.” Clutton is the self-confessed project manager for “horrible projects” at the risk management organisation which provides risk assessment and risk mitigation solutions across the UK. Lloyd’s started out…
I speak at events every so often, mainly to project management audiences, but occasionally to techies. For example, I spoke at a BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, event earlier this year on conflict management in teams, to their Young Professionals Group. They were all much more technical than me – web developers, infrastructure people,…
The last time I met Melanie Franklin I don’t think I made a particularly good impression – I told her I mainly wrote about handbags* and I expect I came off as rather flippant. So it was with slight trepidation that I sat in the offices of Maven Training after work waiting to interview her…
Today I want to look at the Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 rule. As an Office Goddess, you make everything you do look effortless, although afterwards you can explain just how complex it was. No whinging while doing the task, mind. There’s no real secret to getting everything done – it’s just a…
This is part two of my interview with Sophie Kain, director of Prior Kain Ltd, in honour of Ada Lovelace Day. Missed the first bit? Find it here. One of the biggest issues for programme managers (well, for me) is the transient nature of a team over the lifecycle of work, especially when a programme…