project management – Resource Library

Competition is a natural component of all economies at some level whether it involve markets, companies, or job-seekers. The workplace can make for an equally competitive environment with employees working longer hours to secure promotions with fancier job titles and bigger paychecks.

When the 17 founders of the Agile philosophy met and agreed upon the values and principles of what has become the Agile Manifesto, they brought with them a wealth of experience, skill, and knowledge on developing, testing, and deploying software in private and commercial industries. But very few of the founders had much experience in developing software within the environment of government. As a result, the Manifesto reflects this limited background and does not align with governmental software projects.

It’s exciting that it’s another International Grant Professionals Week. And it’s fitting that my schedule is full of updates to our grants curriculum that I’m working on with our internal team to push out. Last Friday, I pushed out a list of eight courses that are hitting the classroom late winter/early spring. It’s about making sure you have the best content.

In April 2016, we highlighted several of the changes to the Standard for Project Management from the PMBOK Guide 6th edition. In February of this year, the Project Management Institute (PMI) provided a pre-release Draft of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition to registered education providers (REPs) so that training materials can be updated to align with the new PMBOK® Guide, expected to be officially released in the 3rd quarter of this year.

In my last blog I discussed the findings from a study the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), in conjunction with the Project Management Institute (PMI)® recently published in a white paper, “Improving Program Management in the Federal Government.” They found acquiring knowledge to develop new skills or improve current skills is important, but it is just one factor in managing the challenges associated with delivering projects successfully. The organization and the context of project management in the organization can directly influence the success of projects.

A common source of project failure over the past two decades has continued to be the management or mismanagement of project requirements. We are not going to discuss project failure, but only to show that a clear understanding of some of the management concepts for project requirements is crucial to the dismantling of this frightful statistic of poor performance. One such understanding is the difference between requirement verification and validation: a concept in its current state of confusion that in our experience continues to provide a level of misapplication of requirements, management techniques, and practices. This is especially true of Information Technology software-oriented projects.

I continually research project management “success factors” – those things successful projects do better than other projects. If success was just about getting a project management certification, I would think there would be a correlation between the increase in project management certifications and an increase in successful projects. I contend we are getting better at delivering successful projects, however, I feel there are still major obstacles in being successful.

All leaders and managers are motivated to improve their skillset for many reasons; however, they are generally motivated by the opportunity to accomplish challenging goals and objects (Achievement), influence and control others (Power), and being able to work with others (Affiliation).

For many businesses, much of their risk-taking is embodied in the projects they perform. The medical metaphor can be helpful to explain recurrent issues, using a recognized medical condition to shed light on a difficulty that causes people to be ineffective in the way they manage risk. By drawing parallels between the medical condition and the risk management problem, I explore why it matters and how it can be addressed.

Tag: project management