Management

Six Tips for Managing the Project Budget

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Many projects will benefit from a Financial Management Plan. This plan provides guidance on how you will estimate, budget and manage costs.

If you want to successfully manage your budget you have to be sure to capture all of the expenditures paid to date, including all expenses related to labor, equipment, supplies, material, etc. Then compare the numbers against your budgeted spending for this same time period. You may or may not have an apples-to-apples comparison. There are a couple reasons why a project may look like it is having budget problems when it may really not be. Continue reading Six Tips for Managing the Project Budget →

Back to Basics, Management

Should You Factor Positive Risk into Project Planning?

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Risks represent potential future events or circumstances that could have an impact on your project. Generally we think of risk having a negative impact. However, what if the impact on your project was positive? In that case you would have an opportunity risk. Continue reading Should You Factor Positive Risk into Project Planning? →

Management

5 Communication Tools That Are Better Than Email

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You don’t have to be ruled by your inbox!

Tool #1: Collaboration software

If you are still assigning tasks to team members via email then you will find collaboration software a completely liberating way of working! It lets you allocate tasks to someone and see what has been assigned to the rest of the team, including yourself. It will manage your To Do list and add notes to tasks so that you can stay up-to-date with the latest status of project work. Even better, it lets you start and contribute to online group discussions which takes a lot of the chit chat and decision-making process out of your inbox. Continue reading 5 Communication Tools That Are Better Than Email →

Back to Basics, Management

Your Organization Culture Influences Project Success

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It should come as no shock to learn that some organizations are better than others at managing projects. There are probably no organizations that have a 100% success rate, and hopefully none have a 0% success rate. However, some organizations definitely perform at a higher level than others. Continue reading Your Organization Culture Influences Project Success →

Back to Basics, Management

5 Steps For Tracking Project Progress

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Step 1: Use real-time information

Project team members will be reporting project progress to you so make it easy for them by using real-time information. Choose a project tool that can capture real-time task information. This will give them everything they need to prepare their status updates quickly so you can consolidate the data for your overall tracking. Continue reading 5 Steps For Tracking Project Progress →

Back to Basics, Management

5 Tips For Facilitating Meetings

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You’ll get more out of your time together when you structure meetings.

Tip #1: Share the agenda

Prepare an agenda and share it with everyone before the meeting is due to take place. If possible, give the team a chance to comment on the topics up for discussion and to tell you about additional things they would like to talk about during the meeting. The purpose of having an agenda is to keep the meeting on track and to make sure that nothing important is forgotten. Sending out the agenda in advance helps as it prompts people to come to the meeting prepared to discuss the topics. They have time to gather together any facts or to prepare their updates. Continue reading 5 Tips For Facilitating Meetings →

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