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How planning, proactivity and PMaaS prevent poor performance projects

3Ps
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...
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Best Practice Developing the PM team Project Management
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The rise and rise of hybrid Project Management methodology

hybrid-methodolog_20181119-101529_1
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 ...
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Best Practice Project Management
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As IT Projects Evolve in Complexity, You Need Something More RADICAL Than A RAID Log.

need-a-RADICAL-LOG
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...
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Best Practice PMO Project Management
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Could disruption be your greatest IT Project opportunity?

DisruptionOpportunitysm
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...
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Best Practice Project Management
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You Have No New Massages - A Deep Tissue Lesson for IT Project Managers

deep-tissue--sm
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. ...
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Best Practice Should you outsource?
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How to Marry Business Strategy With IT Project Management And Why You Must

marry-business-stragey
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 ...
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PMaaS – The Golden Gate for IT Project Instant Gratification

IT-Project-Instant-Gratification
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 ...
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When An IT Project Isn't An IT Project, Engagement Soars

When-An-IT-Project-Isnt-An-IT-Project
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 ...
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How to Rescue A Failing IT Project - And When Not To

How-to-Rescue-A-Failing-IT-Project
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...
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Resistance is fatal. How to drive change in a change resistant environment

Change-Resistant-Environment
 “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 ...
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Best Practice Developing the qualities of a great PM
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An IT Project Manager's guide to a good night's sleep

An-IT-PMs-guide-to-a-good-nights-sleep
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'...
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Best Practice Developing the qualities of a great PM
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A hybrid approach to IT Project Management methodology - thought leading the future

A-Hybrid-Approach-To-IT-Project-Methodology
I was in a famous cocktail bar on Saturday night having a pre-dinner drink and was watching the bartenders making cocktails.  I was intrigued to see that, although they had a menu of over fifty cocktails, all of the 'mixologists' were able to make each drink from memory and without measuring any of ...
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How to deal with what wasn't in the IT project handover

How-to-deal-with-what-wasnt-in-the-IT-project-handover
Have you ever taken on an IT Project, only to find that a major challenge either wasn't mentioned in the handover from the departing Project Manager or, if it was, it was implicit - not explicit. It's like those horror movies where a family buys a house only to find out, after they move in, that it ...
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Best Practice
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IT Project Collaboration. When 1+1 equals more than 2

IT-Project-Collaboration---Social
"Be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own," so said comedian and actress Amy Poehler. She's right. I heard a great story this week that highlighted the value of collaboration. A radio station, I think in Australia (but don't quote me), was brains...
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IT Projects. Do We Actually Ever Learn Lessons Learnt?

IT-Projects.-Do-We-Actually-Ever-Learn-Lessons-Learnt_
Originally published on CIO.com We record 'lessons learnt' as part of the project management process but do we actually learn from them? Recent experience and the number of projects that fail to deliver suggest we could probably all do better at learning from lessons learnt. It is worth considering ...
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Who needs a PMO?

Who-Needs-A-PMO_sm
I was reminded of an old Monty Python sketch today. Did you ever see Life of Brian? One of the characters Reg, played by John Cleese, asks "What have the Romans ever done for us?" One by one, other characters pipe up with loads of suggestions ... medicine ... roads ... public order ... Eventually, R...
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Best Practice PMO
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Managing IT Projects: Respond Don't React

RespondDontReact
In IT Projects, when something unexpected happens, I get better results when I respond, than when I react. You may have sussed this for yourself ages ago but my epiphany, strangely, came when I met a St John Ambulance community first responder. He was telling me about a traffic accident that he'd at...
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IT Project Management. Where did it all start to go right?

IT Project Management. Where Did It All Go Right?
Interesting perspective this week from my friend and fellow IT Project Leader Malc. Malc emailed to tell me that he had recently reframed his team's thinking on post-project delivery analysis. What he has done is pretty interesting and he says it is adding demonstrable value to the process. "We alwa...
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Leadership Best Practice
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First Quarter Done. How IT Project Trends So Far Are Shaping 2018

First Quarter Done. How IT Project Trends So Far Are Shaping 2018
First Quarter Done. How IT Project Trends So Far Are Shaping 2018 As I write this we are rapidly approaching the end of quarter one. I cannot believe how quickly the year is zooming by. With the first quarter under our belts, I've noticed three distinct IT Project Management trends that I think are ...
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Leadership Best Practice
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7 Dysfunctional Beliefs of IT Project Management

7 Dysfunctional Beliefs of IT Project Management
This journey started with sprouts. Run with me. My epiphany came last Christmas when I asked a family member why, having peeled the sprouts, she was now cutting a little cross into the base of each one. Her answer was, "I don't know, it's just what my Mum always did." We Googled it and it turns out ...
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Best Practice Developing the PM team
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Latest Blog Posts

December 2018
The perfect IT project leaders in 2019 - optimistic realists who ask for help!
The perfect IT project leaders in 2019 - optimistic realists who ask for help!
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 - suc...
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