From the category archives:

PM skills

Inside PRINCE2: Closing a project

May 10, 2010

This entry is part 5 of 11 in the series Inside PRINCE2

A project has a start, a middle and an end, so closing a project is an important part of the project management lifecycle. Closing a project successfully means a good, clean transition for the project team. This involves transferring ownership of the products to the operational team, and makes it clear that the project team [...]

Inside PRINCE2: Extreme Weather exam tips

April 19, 2010

This entry is part 4 of 11 in the series Inside PRINCE2

A new way to think about RACI

March 17, 2010

Do you use the RACI model to help with stakeholder management? RACI is a way of categorising stakeholders to help define their roles and responsibilities, and it is also useful for communications plans. The most common way to see RACI used is in tabular form – with the letters across the top and the list [...]

Webinar: Managing Money on Projects

March 2, 2010

I’m giving a webinar for The Project Management Bookstore on Friday. It’s on the subject of managing money on projects, and you get a PDU for attending. From the website: “The author’s book, Project Management in the Real World, covers five key areas for project managers: budgets, teams, scope, plans and personal productivity. During this [...]

Fixed date projects: more advice from the experts

February 17, 2010

Last week we saw that PRINCE2 doesn’t really have much advice to offer the project manager stuck with delivering to a fixed date. I also gave you some advice from another expert, J LeRoy Ward at ESI. Surely some other project management experts have tackled this problem? I trawled my bookcase for what other people [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 4)

December 7, 2009

In this final instalment of the ‘working together’ series, I’ll be looking at how to improve the working relationships between project managers and business analysts. Changing working relationships is often more about culture than concrete tasks, but there are some things you can do to smooth any blips in the way that project managers and [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 3)

November 30, 2009

Last week I wrote about what project managers value when working with business analysts. This week I want to focus on what we don’t. Don’t worry: it’s not that bad! The differences in the ways that project managers work and the ways that business analysts work means that it’s not always easy to work together. [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 2)

November 23, 2009

Last week I wrote about the way that project managers work, and how this relates to OTOBOS. This week I want to explain what project managers value in our working relationships with business analysts. Project managers see BAs as architects. They are detailed, they decide on and build solutions, they work in a methodical way. [...]

BAs and PMs working together (part 1)

November 16, 2009

About a month ago I spoke at the Business Analysis Conference about how project managers work, and how business analysts and project managers can work together more successfully. As you can imagine, telling a room full of BAs that project managers don’t want to hear all that detail and analysis paralysis was received with a [...]

Recovering troubled programmes (part 2)

July 6, 2009

Are you seeing any of the problems faced by troubled programmes that I talked about last week? If so, you need a recovery plan to get your programme back on track. Here’s the 5 step ESI process for getting out of trouble. The whole approach assumes you have been parachuted in to fix someone else’s [...]

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