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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...

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...

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...

I was inspired by a recent Facebook post by a friend who asked, in a status update, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" Within minutes, dozens of replies appeared, all along the lines of "You OK hun?" or "How can I help?". She's fine by the way, just wondering why despite best efforts, bad th...

Originally published on CIO.com "As IT Project Managers we've managed some change over the years,” one of my oldest IT Project Management friends said in an email this week. “Now it's us facing a great change and if we don't we'll become increasingly irrelevant." In spite of this seemingly negative ...

"Beware of Jim, he's a bit of an ogre!" I was once warned about a project leader at a new firm I had joined. Jim wasn't the chap's real name, by the way, and "ogre" wasn't quite the word that was used. Anyway, it turned out that "Jim" wasn't really an "ogre". He was just really assertive. The thing ...

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 ...

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 ...

"When did you finish training to be a Project Manager?" asked the new member of a project team I work with from time to time. We'd been comparing our backstories, him fresh from college, ink just dry on his certificates and excitedly starting his first placement, hence the question. With a few more ...

Originally published on CIO.com Traditionally a project is judged complete when it is transitioned into service. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate this endpoint. A CIO asked me this recently because his team were expressing an interest in extending their role so that they could assess their project 'fr...