Project management is an art or science, entirely depends on the type of organization you are working in. Some PMOs helps in pushing the framework, some micromanage people and some give you the opportunity to interpret the actual deliverables. In case your PMO is doing the governance part only the project management is used as more of art than Science in the ratio around 60:40. Since project management does not bear absolute truth, it cannot be a science completely. It is a technique based on years of experiences that showed us the best practices and the most promising approach. When […]

To address performance issues is still possible but to cater challenging performance issues is not an easy task. In fact it is very difficult for the manager if the company do not support firing of employees. It becomes all the more important for the manager to address it effectively. You can begin initially by thoroughly defining the key responsibility areas and expectations from the employee. Further you can list down the employee’s performance in terms on time, quality and accuracy along with your expectation from him on the same parameters. Check for the difference between current and the expected values,

In some organizations, stakeholders are informed only about the major milestones and are involved only at the time of major or emergency changes. Some stakeholders want in-depth involvement in the project and want to know every in and out of the project to eliminate the possibility of last minute surprises. Each development methodology suffers from one or the other limitation. On one hand, there are methodologies like the conventional Spiral model which are customer friendly but rather unforgiving for development and quality audit teams. Tips to improve transparency in the projects Share resource plan with the key stakeholders. Notification to

There are different types of project managers, some believe to use emails only to share data or confidential information. For other tasks like status updates they prefer the team to use time-sheets and other project management software and tools provided by the employer. They hate emails with subject “status update” followed by some number and one liner description as “done”. The other reason why some project managers hate e-mail is that they feel that any information related to the project should be part of a formal process. For example, an e-mail may contain question and answer exchange, which might be

Good project managers are really rare and hard to find. A successful project manager is not necessarily a great project manager as it requires a lot more than the ability to move a milestone. Some tips to be a great Project Manager Always ask good questions and try to be a good listener : Great project managers give maximum weightage to communication and the opinions of the parties involved. They care about their stakeholders’ feedback and at times are self-aware of how their communication is received by them. Use the information wisely, do not use it as a weapon : Be honest