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What could be easier than delivering an IT Project? You know what needs doing, you plan a budget, you set a deadline, you gather together a team and away you go - success is in the bag. One of my Project Manager friends has a poster of a beautiful ocean liner, under a cloudless blue sky, on a calm t...

Over the course of this year, I have been asked to consult on many IT Projects. As always, I consider this a huge privilege, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than helping an organisation achieve successful project outcomes. The reasons that project teams ask for help are manyfold, sometimes the...

One size hasn't fitted all in IT Project Management for many years. However, five years back a project team using Waterfall on a project that was more suited to Agile might have got away with it. I mean, perhaps they wouldn't have leveraged all the potential, they may, for example, have been slower ...

Think of the implementation phase of an IT Project. Exciting, right? All that pitching, planning and preparation has led to this point! You are ready and raring to go and as you line up the road ahead, your attention will have turned to how you document and communicate within your project. At this p...

As I write this, we are now well into the final quarter of 2018. October will soon become a distant memory, November will fly by in a blaze of bright lights as calendars are punctuated with celebrations for Bonfire Night, Diwali and Thanksgiving and then we will be on the inevitable treadmill to Chr...

I was with a Project Manager friend, Steve, for a catch up this week when an old friend walked into the coffee house we were in. I introduced the old friend, Liz, to Steve and invited her to join us. After a few minutes, Liz asked Steve, "So, what do you do?" What would you have said in answer to th...

I recently re-read the 2018 Project Management Institute (PMI) Pulse of the Profession report. I do this every year, reading and re-reading it, over and over, and each time it seems that I take something different away! One thing in particular, however, keeps jumping out and grabbing my attention fr...

My Project Manager friend, Colette came back from her lunchtime massage today not as relaxed as she normally does. "Well that's a good way to lose potential business!" she said. The story she then told has lessons for project management teams and as it is also quite funny, I will share it with you. ...

A quarter of digital leaders (25%) believe that their business has an IT Project Management talent shortage. In many ways this is good news, I mean, this suggests that three quarters don't have a shortage, right?! Actually, it's even better news than that! The same report back in 2015 suggested 34% ...

I've written about the need for business strategy and IT projects to be aligned before. I can summarise the thrust of all the articles that I've ever written on the subject with two words - it's critical. I mean, otherwise, what’s the point? Yet, many IT Projects get greenlighted without sufficient ...

"Well that's a bit random!" said a Project Manager I was sat with recently as his project threw up one of those curved balls that only seem to happen at 4.59pm on a Friday, just as you're about to clock off for the weekend. The project had cutting edge visibility so the "random" occurrence in questi...

What is your reaction to reading these three words … slow internet connection? I know! Me too. Waiting just a few extra seconds for a page to load can feel like forever! Smartphone apps have eliminated the need to wait for anything, from a taxi, to a table at your favourite restaurant to a date. On ...

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan. An IT Project Manager I know, let's call him Richard, h...

Have you seen the TV show "The Roast Of …"? Basically, it's like 'This Is Your Life' (if you remember that back in the day) but instead of celebrities coming on and praising the subject of the show, they turn up and spill the beans on their bad habits and worst moments. The most recent one I saw fea...

A CIO sprang this on me this week. "David, what makes a great Project Manager?" It's one of those questions that you answer instinctively - great organiser, they deliver projects within deadline and budget, good communication skills, etc, etc. All true but I was a little disappointed by my instincti...

Originally published on CIO.com Calling an IT Project 'an IT Project' may be doing your project a disservice. "This is NOT an IT Project ." This was the opening line of a pitch that I heard earlier this year ... it was a pitch for a green light for an IT Project! Brave start! It got me thinking. In ...

A significant number of IT Project Manager friends have reported shorter times between going live with a project and that project running into trouble or starting to fail.  This means that they have to be on their mettle from the get-go and bring all their experience of rescuing a project in to play...

 “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often,” so said Winston Churchill. He clearly never had to manage an IT Project in an organisation resistant to change. I think we've all experienced some of our darkest hours doing this. I was chatting to a PM friend this week and he joked that ...

If you've ever had a sleepless night over an IT Project, you can take some solace from the fact that you are certainly not alone. In fact, if you haven't suffered any anxiety that has woken you in the middle of the night in a cold sweat you should think yourself really lucky. That or worry that you'...

Why do some projects stir a passion within you and others leave you less revved up? Could unlocking the secret lead to fewer IT Project failures? It's true, isn't it? The more passionate about a task you are, the more likely you are to succeed. Even doing the dishes can be a chore or a fun twenty mi...