Category: For the PMO

Which do you prefer?  Starting a project fresh and new that is all yours from beginning to end , or do you prefer to be the project manager who jumps in to save the day and takes over someone else’s work, sorting through the details to do your best to turn utter defeat into improbable … Continue reading "Keep the team focused on the project goals"

In part one of this two part series, I covered two of what I consider to be four key skills that are critical to project management success.  So far we’ve looked at resource conflict resolution and negotiation.  In this second instalment, we will look at problem resolution and the ability to push changes through on … Continue reading "What they don’t teach you in books about project management – Part two"

In some ways, project management is a black and white profession. There are standard activities you should do, must do and can do to help better ensure project success. You must communicate well and often, you should always produce timely status reports, you can always hold weekly team meetings to stay up to date on … Continue reading "What they don’t teach you in books about project management – Part one"

All projects originate from somewhere: a need, a want, a directive, a problem, a catastrophic failure that needs correcting, and so on.  Often, when problems arise in an organisation, they are quickly attacked by well-meaning individuals who want to solve the issue quickly.  Whilst that may work for small issues, when the need or problem … Continue reading "Developing the project"

Quite often when a project finally ends, no one has the time or inclination to even ask, "Has it been a success?" But actually, when a project closes out, a rare opportunity is presented to evaluate what worked and what didn't, and more importantly to capture lessons learnt. It really surprises me that many organisations … Continue reading "Has the project been a success? By Caroline Lowings"

Wondering why the topic of ‘project management’ came to me today?  Good guess...because today is one of those days that I don't want to lead.  I don't want to be in charge.  I don't even really want to be the parent today.  Thankfully, that is always temporary and usually only when I am sick or … Continue reading "Those Days You Don’t Want to be in Charge"

Projects are commonly characterised as temporary endeavours, meaning that they (should) eventually come to an end. In practice, however, we often see the closing phase of a project being delayed, sometimes far beyond the identified or required project closure date. In this blog, I explore the top three reasons, as experienced by the Project Portfolio … Continue reading "Project closure – why it drags on and how to make it stop!"

A critical aspect of successful project management is to review completed projects, identify successes and failures, or “lessons learned”, and incorporate them to help deliver value for future projects. “The recent implementation of PPO, Project Portfolio Office’s online project portfolio management (PPM) application, at one of Africa's largest retailers of food, general merchandise and clothing, … Continue reading "Lessons learned – key to project management success"