Tag: project advice
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Straight Talk on Project Management VOLUME II – Free E-Book
With the success of my first eBook, I am delighted to publish Volume II. The book covers a wealth of topics from Stonseed’s Project Management as a Service and our IT services, to an array Project and Programme Management issues. Volume II of Straight Talk on Project Management is now available for download as an…
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How to be assertive and why IT project leaders must be
“Beware of Jim, he’s a bit of an ogre!” I was once warned about a project leader at a new firm I had joined. Jim wasn’t the chap’s real name, by the way, and “ogre” wasn’t quite the word that was used. Anyway, it turned out that “Jim” wasn’t really an “ogre”. He was just…
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Are the greatest IT Change Managers now facing the greatest change?
Originally published on CIO.com “As IT Project Managers we’ve managed some change over the years,” one of my oldest IT Project Management friends said in an email this week. “Now it’s us facing a great change and if we don’t we’ll become increasingly irrelevant.” In spite of this seemingly negative line, the theme of his…
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Still haven’t found what you’re looking for?
Need an alternative to IT project apps? The Project Management app market seems to be saturated, each promising that theirs is the definitive solution. It’s like diets and self-help books! If each is so great why do we need so many? It does make choosing the right one very hard. Of course, no two IT…
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7 Dysfunctional Beliefs of IT Project Management
This journey started with sprouts. Run with me. My epiphany came last Christmas when I asked a family member why, having peeled the sprouts, she was now cutting a little cross into the base of each one. Her answer was, “I don’t know, it’s just what my Mum always did.” We Googled it and it…
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Where does an IT Project Manager’s job end?
Originally published on CIO.com Traditionally a project is judged complete when it is transitioned into service. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate this endpoint. A CIO asked me this recently because his team was expressing an interest in extending their role so that they could assess their project ‘from the other side’. Traditionally, as a PM…
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How asking ‘What if’ could predict your IT Project curved balls
I have a new favourite way to pass free time. It’s a webcomic called “xkcd” by Randall Munroe, an American cartoonist, author, engineer, scientific theorist, and the creator of the most addictive website ever! Especially the site’s “What If” column, where Randall attempts to scientifically answer outlandish, hypothetical questions sent to him by readers. Questions…
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How to Stop Grey Days Damaging IT Project Health?
It’s a bit of a strange one this. Independently, I’ve had two people ask roughly the same question – why do IT projects always go wrong at this time of year? I’d never really thought about it before. By the way, in case you happen not to be reading this around the time I’m writing…
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IT Projects – Think bigger picture. The fine line between over and under delivery
There’s a fella used to go in a local fish and chip shop. Run with me on this. It must have been every week because he was always there whenever we decided to have a chippy tea on a Friday. For about the last month though, he hasn’t been in the queue. I don’t know…
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Collaboration. If it’s good enough for Paul McCartney…
There was a time when collaborations between music artists were a rarity. Queen and David Bowie, George Michael and Aretha Franklin, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross … they stood out. It was quite exciting when your favourite artist teamed up with someone else because the outcome was always something magical. These days ‘collabs’ are more…