The Daily PM Blog
Breaking a Control Addiction
May 10, 2013
I had a terrible addiction to control. It became more insidious and obvious to me as each year passed, but I didn’t know what to do about it. The following article sheds some light on how far I went and what I did to break free from the clutches of what was a debilitating habit.
I have a confession to make. I’m a recovering control-aholic. There, I finally said it. Now everybody knows! For years I hid this terrible addiction to control and I was pretty good at it too. I would blend in with everyone else in the office and smile and laugh right along with them. But, deep down inside I wanted...
The Anatomy of a Great Client Presentation
May 9, 2013
Project managers are called on to do presentations all the time. Some are routine and don’t require a great deal of preparation. Others are vitally important to the success of your project and need a lot of extra attention to make them wildly successful. The following are some ideas on how you can spend that extra time making sure your next important presentation hits the mark.
Does your audience just hear blah, blah, blah when you are standing in front of them and delivering your presentation? Hopefully, that’s not the case. You’re audience should be engaged, intrigued, and walk away wi...
Need a Pat on the Back?
May 8, 2013
Now that you’re a project manager, you don’t get grades like you did when you were in school. Back then, your report card let you know immediately if you did a good job or not. You’re working harder now than ever before.
What are some ways you can tell if you’re doing a good job as a project manager? A company’s large network of independent operators came together annually for a national convention, where they learned new ways of drumming up more business, sat through vendor presentations, and were able hang out and unwind a bit.
The highlight of the convention, however, was an award...
The Project Management Charter
May 7, 2013
One of the first critical steps in project management is writing the project management charter. Watch this video to learn how to use this document to scope out your project fully.
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Using Dashboards on Projects
May 6, 2013
Being a project manager means being involved in a lot of detail. There are detailed scope documents full of detailed requirements. Your project schedule is packed with tasks at a detailed level. Then there are resource allocations to do, sometimes in so much detail that you are scheduling resources on an hourly basis.
However, you also need the ability to pull yourself up out of the detail and take an overall view of what is going on. It can be difficult to switch between the detailed view and the big picture view, and this is where dashboards can be a huge help. A dashboard is a graphical way...
6 Types of People Needed on a Project Team
May 3, 2013
While it might feel like the weight of the project is on your shoulders, as a project manager you do share that burden with your colleagues on the project team. In fact, one of your first jobs on a project is to put together a team. You may not always get to work with exactly who you want, but it will save you some time if you can at least suggest some names.
Generally people are flattered that you think highly enough of them to ask them to come to work with you on delivering a project. If you don’t know the names of the people you would like, talk to the team managers of the areas concerned...
5 Ways to Gather Project Requirements
May 2, 2013
All projects start with requirements – after all, you have to know what it is you are about to deliver before you can start work. But how do you get those requirements? You may be lucky and find that you are asked to work on a project where the requirements are already clearly defined. Perhaps the business needs make the requirements really straightforward, or perhaps a business analyst has already gathered them and prepared the project scope information.
On the other hand, you may be handed a vague brief and asked to finalize the project scope yourself. In that case, you will have to work w...
5 Ways to Avoid Scope Creep
May 1, 2013
A project manager was working on a small, three-month project to deliver a new piece of software. After a couple of weeks, the project sponsor decided to add some new requirements. The project manager included them. A bit later on, the sponsor made some more changes, and asked for some new functionality. Again, the project manager said that it was no problem. The changes were made. Towards the end of the three months, the sponsor went to the project manager and complained that the project was behind schedule. The project manager tried to explain that all the changes meant that there was no way...
When Your Project is in Trouble
April 30, 2013
Learn what to do when your project is in trouble, by following these steps in project management.
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The Anatomy of an Excellent Client Meeting
April 29, 2013
Meetings are big part of our day as project managers. They happen impromptu in hallways with just a few people who need to chat, or are full-on planned, weekly status update and project reviews. Every now and then you are going to have a BIG meeting that makes a BIG difference for your company and career. The following suggestions are to help you make these more important meetings a huge success.
I’ve been in bad client meetings; I mean real bad client meetings. The first one that comes to mind was a number of years ago, at the time a new VP took over the business unit that engaged our compa...
