Blog

I just spent some time with an exasperated CIO. Frustrated by IT Projects that were failing time after time - completing late and over budget - despite his Project Management Office being staffed by experienced Project Managers each with an impressive track record of success. "Could buying in Projec...

Originally published on CIO.com   As a CIO or a Project Manager you are a master of change to the point where, by now, it's probably like a sixth sense. This was certainly how I felt. Change Management had become so much a part of my daily routine that I had almost habitualised the process. I had a ...

 Three IT Projects have recently been almost scuppered by the same thing. A crippling, debilitating disease that lies dormant for months before inevitably and painfully killing the IT Project it has infected ... ‘Yesitis’. Sufferers of ‘Yesitis’ are unable to say 'no', perhaps because of a poor corp...

A guest blog by Adam Morrell from our recruitment partner Access Talent Ltd What makes a great IT Project Manager? You'll have read many posts on the subject. I have too. An old post by David Cotgrave,    'Never, ever fear failure. Seven powerful lessons you can learn when your IT project fails ', g...

I was fascinated this week by a farmer in a combine harvester going up and down in a field adjacent to the road I was driving along. I pulled over to watch ... it's a man and machines thing! The farmer pulled over too and we briefly talked about the vehicle he was driving. I was amazed how much tech...

I remember reading a report called "The Challenges of Remotely Managing A Project". It must be more than ten years ago now and it's interesting thinking back to how I felt reading it. I and many others were already enjoying benefits in working collaboratively with colleagues who were not in the same...

What can we learn from the top CIOs in the UK?   Originally published in CIO.com CIO.co.uk recently published its Top 100 most transformative and disruptive CIOs in the UK. Each name on the list has given a neat interview that gives a unique insight into the thinking of this country's leading CIOs. ...

I was in a client's office kitchen with a project manager I was working with who with was making us both a cup of tea. He was standing in front of the drawer that contained all the cutlery when a colleague entered in search of a fork.  "Excuse me, John, can I just get in the drawer please." Joh...

I'd only just arrived on a client visit this week and already this was my kind of conversation. "But Scoro has a real-time dashboard for monitoring KPIs!" said a voice from inside the meeting room. My ears pricked up.  "Yeah but Basecamp has great performance reporting too and the collaborative tool...

Who's Best? And How To Survive Without Either On Your Payroll… Driving home, listening to the radio the other day, the Shangri-Las came on with their classic hit "Leader Of The Pack". It jumped out at me, not least because of the noisy motorbike sound effects but also because I had been contemplatin...

Previously published on CIO.com A great BA is worth their weight in gold, here’s why…… The IT business analyst role has traditionally been one that facilitates communication between IT and business stakeholders. Subsequently, business analysts have always had great skills in this area, adept at both...

"You're so passionate about Project Management, you should write a blog about it," one of my colleagues said a couple of years back. That's how it started. I wrote one blog and then, having found it quite enjoyable, I wrote a second and then a third. I got some nice feedback, got shared, had a clien...

Need an alternative to IT project apps?  The Project Management app market seems to be saturated, each promising that theirs is the definitive solution. It's like diets and self-help books! If each is so great why do we need so many? It does make choosing the right one very hard. Of course, no two I...

I have come to a conclusion this week ... most IT Project challenges are not solved by theoretical, intelligent design. Now, I make a living delivering project success through proper planning, processes, governance, etc. ... in other words theoretical, intelligent design - so let me explain what I m...

Project Managers need to strategically upskill to deliver the business value needed in the future. This is the key take home from a survey from AXELOS ahead their Summer reboot of PRINCE2. "Organisations will demand greater business awareness from project managers in the next few years. As a result,...