Projects fail at a spectacular rate. One reason is that too many people are reluctant to speak up about their reservations during the all-important planning phase. By making it safe for dissenters who are knowledgeable about the undertaking and worried about its weaknesses to speak up, you can improve a project’s chances of success. Research conducted in 1989 by Deborah J. Mitchell, of the Wharton School; Jay Russo, of Cornell; and Nancy Pennington, of the University of Colorado, found that prospective hindsight—imagining that an event has already occurred—increases the ability to correctly identify reasons for future outcomes by 30%. We …

We all have good ideas. The hard part is making them happen. HR departments love handing out worksheets on how to plan your time. Management gurus have written hundreds of pages of advice on how to better manage your week, your day, and your hour. But what happens when you try and apply that advice to your team or organization? How do you deliver complex, multi-level, multi-year programs of work across teams and business units that may be, quite honestly, in chaos? I sat down with three senior executives leading major projects at complex, fast-moving organizations  and asked them what they …

It was predicted that the Agile methodology would grow in the IT field. In a VersionOne study published earlier this year, 2013-2014 saw an 84% jump in new Agile adopters. That number likely continued to grow (we’re going to have to wait for their newest study to confirm).It was also known that mobile collaboration would be a new trend in project management software. This is immediately apparent in the growth of remote work and as major vendors like Asana and Wrike re-up their Android apps.As expected a rise of interest in PMP Certifications, cybersecurity, and risk management. All of these …

It takes one woman nine months to have a baby. It cannot be done in one month by nine women. Nothing is impossible for the person who doesn’t have to do it. You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it. At the heart of every large project is a small project trying to get out. The more desperate the situation the more optimistic the situatee. A problem shared is a buck passed. A change freeze is like the abominable snowman: it is a myth and would melt anyway when …

    Success in project management requires a continuous stream of successfully managed projects. But even the best companies, with the most mature project management processes can stumble. So read the following horror stories and learn a few useful lessons. Horror Story #1: EDS In June 1997, Electronic Data Systems and SHL Systemhouse started work on a Canadian national firearm registration system. The original plan was for a small IT project that would cost taxpayers only $2 million — $119 million for implementation which was to be offset by $117 million in licensing fees. But then, politics got in the way. Pressure …

This is a discussion is about how the PMO is really just the custodian of a portfolio. The only reason a project portfolio exists is to deliver on business goals, and so the portfolio really belongs to “the business”. But in most organizations there is little consensus between executives on what the goals are and how they should be prioritized. The process of getting agreement between executives on business priorities is, therefore, like herding cats… only these cats are killers because 72% of PMOs are called into question by these same execs. It’s not your project portfolio As a Brit, …