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The bulldozer and the butterfly: How to transition a reluctant client's IT Project into service

The-Bulldozer--The-Butterfly
Your IT project is almost ready: Development is done; testing is going well; just a few defects remain. The customer is satisfied with the look and feel of the product, you both have a shared vision about the business change it will bring .... but ... they want to ... delay ‘go live’ ... just a litt...
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Best Practice Project Management
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Like puppies for Christmas, GDPR was about more than one day

GDPR-Was-About-More-Than-One-Day
"A Dog Is for Life, Not Just for Christmas" has become a somewhat iconic message but as I write this on a blisteringly hot summer day there is no similar advice. Is now then a good time to buy a puppy on a whim? Of course, it's not, the message behind the slogan is valid all year round. It's just, y...
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Project Management Business Analysts
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Which IT Project Methodology? Agile – why and why not?

Agile--why-and-why-not_
Welcome to the latest in an occasional series on the different IT Project Management methodologies, last time we looked at Waterfall, now let's focus on Agile. Agile. What Is It, When Should You Use It? The story goes that seventeen software thought leaders, programmers and developers met at The Lod...
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Best Practice Project Management
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SIX!!! 6 lessons for IT Project Management from a great weekend of sport

SIX!!! 6 lessons for IT Project Management from a great weekend of sport
This weekend I watched some remarkable displays of sporting endurance where the winners, in both cases, just seemed to have a little something extra left in their locker to power them onto victory after long, hard matches. IT Project Management can be a long, hard slog too and, with the rate of fail...
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Developing the qualities of a great PM Project Management
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IT Project Leadership #2: How to lead a team through burnout and boredom

burnout
I’ve been thinking about IT Projects that we've helped steer out of troubled waters lately and in, probably, eight out of ten cases the issue was with the people working on the project. This isn't a criticism of that talent, far from it, I'd happily be a referee for most of them. The issue isn't qua...
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Leadership Project Management
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Happy tenth birthday Stoneseed. How tech and IT Project landscapes have changed in a decade (and a quiz)!!

Happy-tenth-birthday-Stoneseed
I am writing this with cake and champagne on my desk, instead of the usual Monday coffee and rich tea biscuit. The reason for such opulence at the start of the week is that, at Stoneseed, we are celebrating our tenth anniversary. The tech world was a very different place 10 years ago! A decade ago, ...
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Project Management
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IT Project Support - How long after delivery should you be on short dial?

How-long-after-delivery-should-you-be-on-short-dial_
In a blaze of glory, the fantastic piece of software you've been working hard on is introduced to your client organisation. The system goes live without a hitch - you are an IT delivery expert, after all. Each and every requirement is delivered, the project is on-time and within budget. Customer tra...
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Best Practice Project Management
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IT Project Leadership #1: How to stop corridor conversations becoming business expectations

stop-corridor-conversations
IT Project Leadership has never been more challenging and complex. In this, the first of a short series, I'm going to look at some of the issues that you and I face and share some solutions. If nothing, else let's acknowledge that the challenges are universal and take solace from the fact that it's ...
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Leadership Project Management
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Be an IT Project Marie Kondo - declutter your Portfolio

declutter-your-portfolio
When we're called in to rescue AWOL IT Projects we come across a lot of the usual suspects: scope creep; unrealistic budgets; overambitious timescales; etc. More recently though, we are seeing a new trend. Projects are failing just because they are heaving under unnecessary layers of CLUTTER! As IT ...
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Best Practice Project Management
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Straight Talk on Project Management VOLUME III - Available now!

VOLUME-III---Now-Published
This month, we are happy to announce the launch of another volume of our eBook! The previous two volumes we published  of Straight Talk on Project Management by David Cotgreave, have proved so successful that we decided to do VOLUME III. Since the last volume, David has continued to enlighten us wit...
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Project Management
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Conflict - your greatest IT project opportunity?

sm--Conflict---
It's great when an IT Project progresses from implementation to delivery without a hitch, an event free ride from start to finish with no bumps in the road. Or is it? How does the word “Conflict” make YOU feel? I asked a few colleagues and their responses ranged from anxiety to aggression, from some...
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Leadership Project Management
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Successful IT Project Teams Watch Their Language

Watch-your-language
"What can we do better?" "What's going wrong?" Both these questions were asked by different Project Managers leading IT Projects that were failing this year. Both had identified issues, both were keen to sort those issues out, both held almost identical team meetings to address the challenges. One w...
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Developing the PM team Project Management
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Cultural fit is not a PMaaS luxury. It's a pillar of your partnership

Cultural-fit-is-not-a-PMaaS-luxury
"As luck would have it, they fitted in perfectly!" This is one of my favourite bits of client feedback! It refers to a particularly successful deployment of Project Management as a Service resources. The email as a whole talks about the effectiveness of the talent, the extra experience and skills th...
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Best Practice Project Management
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IT Project Perception and how misuse of '&' really lets you down

20190513-140718
Guest blog by Nicol Cutts – Stoneseed Head of Projects      I reviewed an initial project scope document for a Project Manager last week. In the four pages of text, there were 37 ‘&’s. So what? '&' or the ampersand is often misused and misunderstood. Largely thanks to social media communicat...
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Developing the qualities of a great PM Project Management
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IR35 and Private Sector IT. You Are Here!

SM-advert-of-IR35-advert-1
The Private Sector IR35 countdown clock is ticking louder and louder. Before you can say "non-compliant off-payroll Project Manager", it will be time for private firms to follow the Public Sector pioneers into this new world. It's come around quick, hasn't it? One of my accountant friends drily comm...
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Project Management IR35
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The perfect IT project leaders in 2019 - optimistic realists who ask for help!

Be-an-optimistic-realists-who-ask-for-hel_20181205-092053_1
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...
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Leadership Project Management
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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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How Close To Achieving Your 2018 IT Project Goals Are You? Time to “aaSk” For Help?

TIME-TO-aaSk-FOR-HELP_
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...
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Leadership Project Management
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Latest Blog Posts

December 2019
Football’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Is it an IT Project that’s winning?
Football’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR). Is it an IT Project that’s winning?
Thanks to VAR, Roberto Firmino's armpit and John Lundstram's big toe have given football fans some of this season’s hottest talking points. Who’d have thought it!!?I...
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