From the monthly archives:

June 2011

How to Manage in a Matrix Structure Part 1: Understanding the Matrix

June 27, 2011

Most projects operate in some kind of matrixed environment. Project managers rarely have direct line management responsibility for all, if any, of the people on the project team. So how can we best get things done when we don’t control the team? In this article, I’ll explain what matrix management is and why it creates [...]

Obituary: Dr Eliyahu Goldratt

June 23, 2011

Dr Eliyahu Goldratt, the management expert who developed Critical Chain project management, has passed away. Dr Goldratt was the author of The Goal, which has sold over 13 million copies since publication in 1984. He also wrote Critical Chain. His theories are still influential – he’s quoted in The Project Management Answer Book by Jeff [...]

PMI EMEA Congress Round up

June 22, 2011

PMI Global Congress EMEA was attended by 808 people from 54 countries. The countries that sent the most delegates were the United States (weird for a European event, but someone I spoke to said it was a good networking opportunity), the U.K., Ireland, Italy and Germany. I also met people from the U.A.E., Nigeria, Kuwait, [...]

Book review: Managing Off-Site Staff for Small Business

June 20, 2011

Think of a project team like a small business. You might have a finance expert, a marketing person and someone from the customer organisation. Chances are that you don’t all work in the same building. We work with virtual teams all the time. Project managers need to be experts in managing remote workers, so I [...]

For she’s a jolly good Fellow…

June 15, 2011

I’m delighted to announce that the APM’s youngest ever female fellow has been appointed and her name is… Elizabeth Harrin. – Penny Pullan, CoChair, WiPM SIG I have had the results from my application for Fellowship of the Association for Project Management – and I’m now a Fellow! (Thanks to Brendan for the title of [...]

COO of Webplanner at 23: An interview with Jovia Nierenberg

June 13, 2011

Jovia Nierenberg is Chief Operating Officer at Experience in Software. That’s the company behind the new project management tool Webplanner. She’s only 23. I asked her about her life as a COO, what’s next for Webplanner and her advice for young women wanting to work in project management. Jovia, how did you end up being [...]

Secret projects and wonderful women: Bletchley Park

June 8, 2011

Imagine working in a company with 10,000 people. You’re working on a secret project. You don’t know your colleagues from the next room. You don’t know what the overall project objectives are. You don’t know who else is on the project team and you can’t tell anyone what you’re working on. All you know is [...]

Project management in schools: two case studies

June 6, 2011

Last week I wrote about what the PMI Educational Foundation does. One of the missions of PMIEF is to build project management skills in young people and teachers, better equipping students for the future. How exactly does it do that? At PMI’s EMEA Leadership Institute Meeting in Dublin last month two volunteers spoke about their [...]

The glass ceiling and women’s participation in MBAs

June 1, 2011

Don’t you love infographics? Here’s one I found about women in business. It says that “we’ve come a long way” in the salary stakes: not far enough, it seems to me, seeing that this says we still only earn 80% of what men do. Click it to see it in larger format on the original [...]