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Go with your gut — cautiously

On the popular TV show NCIS, the team leader (Mark Harmon) is frequently heard exhorting his staff to “go with your gut” (for the women readers I guess you call this female intuition!). The lesson he is sharing with the team is that your intuition, as opposed to decisions based solely on analytics, may give [...] Read More...

Published 02-09-2012 5:16 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, project manager, management, communication

How to Help Management Make a Better IT Decision

Decisions that directly affect Information Technology (IT) projects or IT services within an organization are not always made in the IT (or Engineering) department. That is not bad thing; it is just the way things are and how business runs. Like what? Management decides it is in the company’s strategic interest to form a partnership [...] Read More...

Published 01-26-2012 3:12 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, General Project Management, project manager, management, communication

Project Manager Travel Guidance

I am sure there are people who enjoy traveling as part of their job, although I have not met any of them recently! Travel to current or potential customer sites, subcontractors, giving a conference presentation or receiving training is sometimes necessary for the project and the organization. Who knows, sometime you might even get a [...] Read More...

Published 01-19-2012 4:08 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, Best Practice, General Project Management, project manager, management

Cognitive Science Insights into Decision Making

Those of you who know me understand how my company relies on cognition principles and experts to make our projects successful. Dr. Karen McGraw, the founder of Cognitive Technologies, has said on many occasions that “Cognitive is the first word in our company name because if you don’t focus first on the way people think, [...] Read More...

Published 01-12-2012 12:39 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, Best Practice, project manager, management, communication

Asking for Help

Do you ever ask for help or assistance? I don’t know why so many people (And organizations!) feel like they cannot go get help when they need to. Perhaps because people see asking for help as a sign of personal failure, they are reluctant to do it. Instead, they continue to struggle and hope for [...] Read More...

Published 01-06-2012 11:41 AM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, Best Practice, General Project Management, project manager, management, communication

Improving Productivity – Suggestions from PMI

If you have not wandered through the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) knowledge center, you have missed an excellent source of best-practice thinking on a variety of issues relevant to project and corporate management. Recently I reviewed an article by Pradeep Patra, PMP and Sunitha Bartaki, PMP of Tata Consultancy Services Limited that I thought was [...] Read More...

Published 12-09-2011 6:30 AM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: leadership, Project management, Best Practice, management, change management

Finding a Content Management System Solution – Part 3

In part 2 of this series, I talked about selecting a content management system (CMS) and including the needs of people (stakeholders and users). I shared several great questions to ask when choosing a solution. So after you have done all the work of finding, selecting and implementing a CMS you can relax and take [...] Read More...

Published 12-02-2011 6:39 AM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, Best Practice, management, Knowledge Management, Content Management

Finding a Content Management System Solution – Part 2

Last week in part 1, I talked about selecting a content management system (CMS) (which has many names like records management or knowledge management) from a technical perspective. However, just as with any productivity-enhancing tool, the process does not end with getting the tool. Rather, the process begins by understanding the value of content management [...] Read More...

Published 11-17-2011 3:49 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, General Project Management, management, change management, Knowledge Management, Content Management

Personnel Issues in Project Management

As a project manager, there were times when I sincerely wondered if I would not be more successful if I just did not have to deal with people. People — my team, senior management, support staff and clients — can turn a simple task into a complex one or a straightforward decision into a need [...] Read More...

Published 10-21-2011 11:08 AM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, General Project Management, project manager, management, HR, communication, personnel

Project Management Software – Issues and Requirements

Though many businesses use project management software, a sentiment exists in some circles that successful project managers often achieve results in spite of their software tools, rather than because of them. The claim that project management tools provide an effective way to boost productivity is disputed by others, citing the large amount of money spent [...] Read More...

Published 10-13-2011 4:00 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, General Project Management, project manager, management, software

How is project management different in a nonprofit organization?

I do not want to mislead you with the title of this post. In my experience, effective IT project management is what it is, whether the project exists in a for-profit company or nonprofit organization. However, the culture surrounding the project and some of the challenges differ. To restate previous content, projects have a specified [...] Read More...

Published 09-15-2011 4:54 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, General Project Management, project manager, management, nonprofit

How to cancel a failing project gracefully

A couple weeks ago (August 21, 2011 to be exact), I was watching a “60 Minutes” interview on TV about whistle blowing and a NSA employee’s possible trial for espionage. Interesting stuff, I guess. However, what caught my attention was that the charges revolved around a software development project. (Here’s the full story, if [...] Read More...

Published 09-08-2011 4:29 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, Best Practice, General Project Management, project manager, management, project mistakes, risk management

Project Managers: The Trust Metric

Conventional “management” wisdom states that having trust among team members and between the team and management is critical to project success. I just finished a project to implement a new tool suite for an organization and the need for trust was very apparent. Trust however is neither simple to define or achieve. Trust is subjective. [...] Read More...

Published 09-01-2011 4:04 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: leadership, Project management, Best Practice, General Project Management, project manager, management, communication, building trust

The Role of a Project’s Lead Technologist

Every project that I have looked at over the years involving computers, software or technology had three key staff on them — The PM, the sponsor and the lead technologist (or some call them the Subject Matter Expert- SME). Selected by the project manager, the Project Management Office, program manager or senior staff, the role [...] Read More...

Published 08-25-2011 3:47 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, Best Practice, PMO, General Project Management, project manager, management, pm

Managing Implementation Projects – Tips and Tricks

Is there a difference in managing a project that is implementing a “Commercial-Off-the-Shelf” (COTS) application, versus managing a new software development project? Many of you would say there is a world of difference. In my opinion, it is not that simple – there are some project elements that are common to both, and some things [...] Read More...

Published 07-23-2011 2:08 PM by Fear No Project - A Project Management Blog

Filed under: Project management, training, Best Practice, General Project Management, project manager, management, software development, pm, Requirements, implementation, client, COTS

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