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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…
I am a big believer in the value of transferable skills, which is why I find the French education system so hard to understand. Essentially, you need to take business studies and do a business degree to have any hope of getting a decent job in an office. For me, university was (and is –…
Now my brain is less fuddled due to not being in the heat quite so much, I can explain my theory on estimating project tasks. Start with the basics. What needs to happen? How long will each task take? The answers to these questions will allow you to pull together a timeline. Try to use…
Over my career, the majority of my projects have involved people who already work together. I remember working with one team that I had to form from scratch, who had never worked together before and who had never worked on a project before. In that situation, having little rituals worked wonders in explaining what a…
You might remember I have written before about the Gypsy Moth IV project. It was a project to restore Sir Francis Chichester’s yacht and sail it around the world. Unfortunately, the objectives of the project have now changed considerably. Gypsy Moth IV ran aground and now the objective is to salavage something good from the…
OTOBOS is On Time, On Budget, On Scope. This definition of what makes a project successful misses out quality, happy stakeholders and a whole host of stuff, but it’s a good starting point. If you can deliver OTOBOS, chances are that you are doing something right.