One of the phrases you often hear bantered about is “communication is the key to success” and when failures occur in a project (or a business), it was in some way due to a “lack of communication” or a “failure to communicate properly” across the business units, departments, entities, and individual participants involved. Then to […]

As the project manager you are accountable for delivering a successful project.  Sure you have a team to work with but ultimately the buck stops with you. At the end if the project fails all eyes look to you. When analyzing why a project failed you need to reflect to the beginning of the project […]

It is that time of year when our attention turns to thinking about the upcoming holiday – the decorations, the holiday celebrations, parties and food, the gifts for family, friends, business associates and our staffs. What to give though is always a difficult question. Many of us struggle to find that perfect gift, personalized and […]

One of the leading causes of projects not meeting their objectives is the failure to fully and completely define the project requirements. One of the leading causes of failing to define project requirements is a not understanding the full range of stakeholders that have an interest in your project. Most of what is written about […]

It is that time of year when our attention turns back to football. College and pros are back in full-force, and competing for our attention seemingly all week long, it is also the time when people begin to think how the teams will do based upon the talent they acquired in the off season, either […]

I have often said that project management is a confrontational discipline because as a project manager you are holding folks at all levels accountable to meet the commitments they made by the date they provided. Many times I have been asked at what point you escalate an issue. I escalate an issue as soon as […]

My wife is in the process of reading a business book for work, and we often chat about interesting ideas or insights she picks up as she moves through the chapters. The book sets up similar to others, providing some background on the author, her work experience and how the book came to be written. […]

I have lost count of the number of times I have heard the following, or similar statements, made to me by clients talking about meetings they have attended. ‘I don’t know why we had this meeting. Nothing was agreed to’ ‘This meeting should have taken an hour, but lasted for three’ ‘We meet for an […]

Perhaps you have heard, or even used, the phrase that projects seem to take on a life of their own. What if we started to treat them if they actually did? Better yet, what if we actually proactively managed their health and wellness for them? Interesting idea don’t you think? Even more so, when you […]

Projects happen no matter what size your business is.  And sometimes you aren’t even aware there are projects going on.  They’re called assignments, emergencies, new initiatives, and whatever the owner wants done this week.  Big and small, long or short, cheap or expensive. In reality they are all projects.  However when it comes to project […]