If you are considering purchasing a significant product, you are going to perform some sort of evaluation. One of the activities that should be on your evaluation checklist is talking to companies that currently use the product. These companies are called “references”. The purpose of checking references is to get past the marketing and sales hype and hear some real opinions. The hope is that these companies will give you a more honest picture of how the product and the vendor actually perform in the real world. Continue reading Use References to Evaluate New Product Purchases
Tag Archives: Management
Four Tips to Deal with Uncertainty on Long Projects
Many long projects start off with a lot of uncertainty. You may not be 100% sure of the resource requirements, the final deliverables, the cost, schedule, etc. There may be many risks. The good news is that project managers deal with the uncertainty associated with large projects all the time, and it is very likely that you can be successful. Here are a couple of tips to consider, depending on what you think will work best in your situation. Continue reading Four Tips to Deal with Uncertainty on Long Projects
Handle Scope Change Requests with Appropriate Discipline
When a project begins, you must gain agreement with your sponsor on project scope. The scope is defined at a high-level in the Project Charter or Project Scope Statement. At a low-level, the scope is detailed through the approval of the business requirements. Once these two documents are approved, you have enough information to understand scope through the remainder of the project. Continue reading Handle Scope Change Requests with Appropriate Discipline
Easy Ways to Prioritize Project Tasks
Put these into practice and you’ll never wonder what to work on first again!
Tip #1: Be realistic
You’ll never get everything done, so you may as well accept that now. Those tasks that are at the bottom of your To Do list aren’t urgent or important enough to work on right now. It will be easier for you to focus on the important tasks once you realize that your time is limited and that you have to get realistic about what you can achieve in a day. Continue reading Easy Ways to Prioritize Project Tasks
Six Tips for Managing the Project Budget
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
Should You Factor Positive Risk into Project Planning?
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?
5 Communication Tools That Are Better Than Email
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
Your Organization Culture Influences Project Success
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
5 Steps For Tracking Project Progress
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
Use These Four Techniques for Managing Issues
Issues are problems that will impede the progress of your project, and are not within the control of the project team to resolve. They need outside help. Use these four issues management techniques on your projects. Continue reading Use These Four Techniques for Managing Issues
Executive Salad 