From the category archives:

Training

Is project management training really effective?

July 20, 2011

There’s a whole industry around project management training. Job adverts declare that you have to be PMP certified or a PRINCE2 Practitioner. But does training actually make a difference to how you do your job? Training can make you about 26% more effective, according to research by PM Solutions. Only 28% of organisations bother to [...]

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Villanova Friday, Week 8: 3 Steps to Build Resiliency in Project Teams

March 25, 2011
This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

It’s the last week of the Maximising IT/IS Team Effectiveness course that I am taking with Villanova University. The focus this week has been on managing others and establishing an environment that moves others through change. One of the lectures was on creating resiliency in your project team. Why do we need resiliency? IT projects [...]

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Villanova Friday, Week 7: Damage Control

March 18, 2011
This entry is part 7 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

This week on the Maximizing IT/IS Team Effectiveness course I am taking with Villanova University we looked at managing expectations. There was a whole lecture on damage control, which could have been subtitled When Project Managers Lie About Progress. I once worked with a contract project manager who routinely reported that all his tasks were [...]

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Villanova Friday, Week 2: Personal Productivity

February 11, 2011
This entry is part 2 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

Last week, I started the Maximizing IS/IT Team Effectiveness course with Villanova University.  The online course has a weekly live session, but it’s held in the middle of my night, so I’m not able to attend. The sessions are recorded, so this week I listened to the transcript of the first chat.  It was a [...]

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Villanova Friday: Week 1: Understanding Your Leadership Style

February 4, 2011
This entry is part 1 of 9 in the series Villanova Friday

I’m taking a course with Villanova University called Maximising IS/IT Team Effectiveness.  This is Week 1, and already I’m overwhelmed. The first time I log in, there are already messages on the message board, documents to download and entries on the class roster.  I can’t make the video lectures work despite reading the help files [...]

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Education and Training: The Debate

June 9, 2010

Is there are big divide between project management academics and those offering training?  And do project managers need both?  These were some of the questions discussed at a recent BCS event where a panel debated the differences between project management education and training. The evening started with a vote on the motion:  “Education and training [...]

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The launch of PMD Pro

May 5, 2010

Please excuse my amateur video skills! This one didn’t come out as well as I had hoped.  The transcript for the video is below. Elizabeth Harrin: Well, good morning. I’m here at the National Council for Volunteer Organisations in London just around from King’s Cross. I’m looking at Regent’s Canal. It’s a great location. And [...]

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E-learning: a tool for project handover

May 18, 2009

Projects involve change, and change normally means you have to encourage/cajole the people who are being changed into learning the new way of doing things.  Part of any project is to ensure that those changes are embedded, and we need to have tasks in the project plan equating to managing this business change. Often, business [...]

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Sales pitch or useful research?

March 30, 2009

Wellingtone have just produced an ‘executive summary’ that’s called ‘Avoiding Project Failure and the Importance of the Skilled Project Manager‘. I’ve read the document, and frankly, I’m disappointed. First: an executive summary is normally a summary of something more substantial.  This document stands alone so there is nothing more behind it. Second:  it uses facts [...]

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