If there's anyone who needs project management principles, it's the investigators who handle air crash investigations. Picture the scene: a wreckage that needs to be secured, black boxes recovered, families demanding answers, and aviation authorities that need to know what processes to change. And it's all under a media spotlight that'll make anyone's skin grow pale. … [Read more...]
Some projects are considered successes even though they did some things I'd probably lose my career over. And others are considered horrible failures even though I could probably find a way to navigate through their issues. It's almost like there's a certain element of human interaction that all of the project methodologies in the world can't put into neat boxes and … [Read more...]
Like many things in life, project management is an art form as well as a science. It's a delicate dance, a blend where intuition meets precision. While some may possess a natural flair for orchestrating chaos into order, the true mastery of this craft lies in understanding its scientific backbone. Fortunately, you don’t need to be a born artist to excel; a solid grasp … [Read more...]
Six Sigma was a powerful quality improvement system developed by Motorola that took the world by storm in the early 2000's with high profile adoptions by General Electric, Honeywell, and others. Lean was a manufacturing methodology originated by Toyota, which turned manufacturing on its head by focusing on minimizing idling products (inventory) rather than minimizing … [Read more...]
Project meetings feel like a leap of faith sometimes. They either propel your team toward success or grind your project to a screeching halt. Like a finely tuned machine, meetings require constant maintenance to hum efficiently—without the right care, they seize up, spewing wasted time and frustration. Too often, project managers let meetings balloon into bloated, … [Read more...]
Ask any experienced project manager, and they'll tell you that far too many projects feel like they are one unexpected issue away from being a runaway train, careening toward a deadline with tasks flying off the rails. As a project manager, you’re the conductor, desperately trying to keep everything on track. Enter the Gantt chart, those alluring, color-coded bars … [Read more...]
We’ve all seen the beauty of a perfectly crafted Gantt chart, the satisfaction of a budget that balances down to the penny, and the sweet victory of hitting a deadline with military precision. Hard skills—those technical, process-driven tools like scheduling, resource allocation, and risk analysis—are the backbone of getting stuff done. They’re the scaffolding that keeps … [Read more...]
Resource gaps are like a small wrench on a train track, unnoticed but poised to derail even the biggest projects with little warning. While project managers are focused on the "big two," (budget and schedule), with a smaller focus on other secondary items like stakeholder management, risks, and so forth, resource gaps lurk in the shadows and tend to become budget … [Read more...]
As a project manager, your success hinges on wielding the right methodology for the job. Agile, with its nimble, iterative flair, and Waterfall, with its structured, process-based workflow, are the two titans clashing for supremacy. But which one reigns supreme? Choosing between Agile and Waterfall is not a minor decision. It's like picking your weapon before … [Read more...]
Project management can feel like being a circus ringmaster, tasked with keeping the lions, acrobats, and clowns in sync for a flawless performance. Ask anyone who has managed a complex project, people are always handing you a dozen new whips, hoops, and megaphones mid-act, promising each will make your show better. Individually, they often do, but collectively you're … [Read more...]
