How to Improve Meetings with a Terms of Reference
Create a meeting terms of reference with this template structure and streamline your committees.
Project scope
Learn how to effectively manage project scope, avoiding gold plating and managing stakeholder expectations.
How to use the SCARF framework as a manager
Carole Osterweil explains the SCARF model as a way understand and respond to behaviour – both from yourself and others.
What is ROM and how to calculate it (with example)
What is a ROM estimate? A rough order of magnitude estimate is used to give you a very high level view of potential project costs. Ideally, you’d be able to provide a definitive estimate, carefully created from loads of input from subject matter experts and plenty of research on past projects and their budgets. But…
How to write a terms of reference with template & examples
Get a free Terms of Reference template, perfect for your projects. This is one of the free project management templates that I offer on this website – browse around and take a look at the others while you’re here!
Exploring the differences: Projects vs operations examples
Discover the differences between projects and operations examples, and learn strategies for managing both simultaneously for optimal results.
Project Requirements: The What, Why, and How
Get tips for developing and managing project requirements, including why they’re important and when you need to rework them.
How to Manage Auditability (and other non-functional, non-technical requirements)
This is a guest post by Dave Gordon. One of the most common causes for IT projects to slip into “troubled” status is missed requirements. In many cases, this is because the subject matter experts don’t think of all at the functional requirements at the beginning of the design stage. In other cases, technical requirements…
How to compile business requirements
How do you put together business requirements? This article explains how to get started gathering, compiling, eliciting and recording business requirements for projects. It draws on both waterfall and Agile approaches to give you practical tips for your projects.
Project Assumptions: A Complete Guide
What happens when you are putting together your project plan and you don’t have all the answers? One way to deal with that is to use assumptions: an educated guess. An assumption is a way to simplify or otherwise fill in missing pieces of a project. Those gaps happen for a variety of reasons, and…
The 8 Levers of Change
In their book, Leading Successful Change: 8 Keys to Making Change Work, Gregory P. Shea and Cassie A. Solomon talk about the 8 things that you should be targeting if you want the change management effort on your project to stick. They say that if your project isn’t addressing at least 4 of these elements,…
Project Contingency: The Ultimate Guide
Your new project was approved for funding. That in itself is a huge step. You wouldn’t believe the number of project managers I speak to on mentoring calls who struggle to get their budget approved. You can’t do much on a project without some funding behind you. However, before you start the celebration too soon,…
How To Manage Constantly Changing Requirements
This is an extract from Project Pain Reliever. I contributed two chapters. Are your project requirements constantly changing? Are you expected to get something done without really knowing what it is that you are supposed to be doing? If you find yourself in a similar situation, here’s what you can do about it. Note: This…