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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...

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 ...

Who is your IT Project's Leader? At this time of year are you really leading or is your company's calendar more in charge? I ask because, independently, three Project Managers have told me that they are pulling their hair out because of unanticipated roadblocks along their projects' critical paths. ...

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 ...

"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...

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 ...

IR35. Tick-tock, tick-tock.   Time is running out for you if you hire IT or project talent resources in an off-payroll capacity. You need to get ready NOW and adjust working practices that have become habits because WE ARE PROBABLY LESS THAN A YEAR AWAY from a universal roll-out of the IR35 ref...

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...

Previously published on cio.com Everything that your business does should be aligned with your business strategy. Here’s why.. My friend's business is delivering financial services and he ensures that all his staff are suitably trained to provide the best advice, another friend's business is carryin...