Agile Project Management vs. Winging It

Many who are unfamiliar with Agile Project Management confuse it with "winging it." They couldn't be farther from the truth.

While "winging it" is putting complete faith in chance, Agile Project Management relies on frequent prototypes and immediate adjustments. It's the ideal way to control a complex and/or uncertain project, without making the false assumption that everything can be planned up front.

Here's a good article from Agile Attitudes that explains more about the differences between Agile development and "winging it" ...

Agile Project Management; What's It All About?

For those not familiar with agile or extreme project management (the terms are often used interchangeably), Answers.com probably offers the most concise description:

"Extreme project management differs from traditional project management mainly
in its open, elastic and undeterministic approach. The main focus of XPM is on the human side of project management (e.g. managing project stakeholders), rather than on intricate scheduling techniques and heavy formalism."

To learn more, the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) offers 8 core principles of Agile Project Management, along with several links and resources.

The Cutter Consortium also offers a wealth of information on Agile Project Management.

PMI Announces New Leadership Institute

If you're a volunteer leader working with PMI, either with a chapter, SIG, or PMI program, you'll be interested to know that PMI just announced a new Leadership Institute. The new institute will include online training and face-to-face leadership conferences.

Read more about it at PM Forum...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management <$BlogPageTitle$>

Project Management Common Language: Prince2

Project Management Common Language: Prince2: Via InformationWeek: Tips For Doing The IT-Business Tango ...

Valerie Potter writes about techniques to improve communications between business and IT folks, such as establishing a common project management language, like Prince2 ...

... "Use a common language that everyone understands. Shimmin recommends using the Prince 2 project management standard. Have a corporate mandate that requires standardized language and elements, a risk log, a management log, a project plan, and enforce it. " ...

Project Management Strategy Integration Conference December2005

Project Management Strategy Integration Conference December2005: Via PM Solutions: Industry Thought Leaders to Address Innovative Practices in Managing Strategy and Projects ...

... "The Center for Business Practices (CBP), the research arm of management consultancy PM Solutions, will host an exchange of best practices for integrating strategy with portfolio, program, project, and performance management at their 2005 CBP Summit, Strategy & Projects (December 7-8, Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas). " ...

Microsoft Projects: Bill Gates VideoChat

Via Robert Scoble and Channel9: Bill Gates - A short chat with Microsoft's Chief Software Architect

Excellent 15min video-blog of Bill Gates and Microsoft's future projects, on Channel9 by Robert Scoble ...

... "Visit Bill in his office for a few minutes to talk about where he sees the future going. This is a fun interview, prepares you for the PDC that's coming next week. " ...

ERP Projects; The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly

Want to know whether an ERP system can really help your business? When the payback will be and how much? What the hidden costs are? And, most importantly, why so many ERP projects fail?

Look no further than this excellent brief from CIO Magazine on the ABCs of ERP, where the pros and cons of ERP implementations are discussed in a concise, easy-to-read manner.

The ABCs of ERP - ERP Resource Center - CIO

PMI's Program Management Standard and Portfolio Management Standard Coming Soon!

Move over PMBOK. For those who haven't heard, PMI will be releasing the Program Management Standard and Portfolio Management Standard mid-year 2006.

I've been fortunate enough to be serving on the leadership team for the two standards and they'll both be worth the wait.

While the PMBOK Guide has traditionally focused on managing individual projects, these standards will be a fitting complement, with the Portfolio Management Standard bridging the gap between project portfolios and organizational strategy, and the Program Management Standard addressing those issues that are unique to managing a group of related projects.

Stay tuned...

PM Network to Publish Project Management's Power 50

According to the latest PMI Today newletter, PMI's PM Network Magazine will publish project management's "Power 50" next month, recognizing those who have championed the project management profession.

According to PMI Today:

"The article will profile these 50 executives-- the 'Power 50'--including their business philosophies and how their investment in the project management profession boosts the bottom line."

Should be an interesting issue.

Project Management Maturity - Pick your industry

Of course, one size does not fit all. In this presentation there is both an useful round-up of many project management maturity models and an interesting analysis of how things vary by circumstance. In particular, which industries tend to use how many metrics in assessing and managing their processes.
This leads to another interesting question - how many of these metrics are related to the type of product that the industry's projects usually produce as opposed to the pure management of the project.
For instance, the pharmaceutical industry pays a lot of attention to the process for clinical trials when druges are tested. The quality of the trial results depends on the processes for selecting patients, administering the drugs, recording results, etc. Let's call these 'product related' processes that have to be executed by the project team. Then there are the 'project management' related processes that are carried out by the project manager and team members. These would include the processes recognisable from PMBOK and elsewhere. In some project management environments, these two types of processes can get very closely intertwined.
Which brings us back to the original point. A maturity assessment can be very context sensitive because of the pervasiveness or otherwise of the product related processes.
Measuring Organisational Maturity

IT Project Managers Seek Business Mentoring

Via CIO Asia: Business Skills

Carrie Matthews writes about building a business-savvy IT staff and interviewees describe techniques, such as business mentoring, to enable IT project manager success ...

... "top IT performers take advantage of the school's knowledge base and schedule private meetings with their business partners to discuss ongoing projects. In doing so, they gain valuable business skills and improve their performance. " ...

EPM Software IT Governance Market Growth ...

EPM Software IT Governance Market Growth: Via Computer Associates: CA's Clarity Solutions Shows Exceptional Year-Over-Year Growth

Enterprise project management EPM software market growth looks good and Clarity IT Governance performed extremely well ...

... "Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA) today announced that its flagship IT Governance (ITG) solution, Clarity (formerly Niku), experienced exceptional year-over-year growth of more than 63 percent in 2004, according to a Gartner research report: Market Share: Project and Portfolio Management Software, Worldwide, 2004 by Nicole S. Latimer-Livingston. The Gartner report also stated that the overall market for Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) software increased by 12.3 percent, indicating that Clarity grew five times faster than the market overall. " ...

Clarity, the industry-leading IT Governance (ITG) solution, enables IT organizations to achieve world-class performance by improving the quality of their engagement with the business and allowing them to run at peak efficiency. The Clarity system features integrated portfolio planning, demand management, project management, resource planning, and time and cost management. More than 425,000 users at 425 companies depend on Clarity to govern IT and, increasingly, to manage new product development. Niku Corporation, which developed Clarity, is now part of CA's Business Service Optimization business unit.

PMI Condolence Message for Hurricane Katrina Victims

As expected, PMI is responding to the disaster in New Orleans, rallying the project management community to join in support, and offering contributions of their own.

In case you haven't heard, PMI is near completion of a Post Disaster Rebuild Methodology and Training project (which project manager Wanda Curlee will be speaking about at PMI's Glboal Congress in Toronto), spurred on by the terrible Tsunami in Asia. We can be sure that this methodology will come in handy in New Orleans.

Also, see PMI's condolence message to the victims of Hurricane Katrina...

PMI Condolence Message for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Project Management for Construction

Chris Hendrickson, from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, has developed an online guide to managing projects for the construction industry.

It covers everything from organizing for project management through the design and construction process. It's certainly a valuable resource for anyone managing construction projects or looking to learn from the management of this disciplined arena.

Project Management for Construction

ITIL IT Service Management Differentiators

ITIL IT Service Management Differentiators: Via Axios Systems: Axios on the right side of the law in Ohio ...

Law firm selects Axios service management solution based on differentiators, such as event management, action processing, real-time visualization, SLA alarm management, reporting and analytics. Solution will be used to support ITIL implementation ...

... "We selected assyst on a mixture of benefits and value, he commented. What differentiated assyst was how it handles action types and the way the event monitor works. The approach was the best of the products we saw. It's very important for us to be able to obtain quick snapshots of where we are with certain types of event such as how close we were to breaching Service Level Agreements, how many calls came in via email, and how many events were not closed. Assyst looked like a very flexible tool. It also helps us compile useful management reports on key trends and statistics. " ...

Earned Value Tip of the Day

When is it time to start reporting Earned Value on a project? After the baseline is saved and you've begun collecting actual costs (ideally for at least a week). Typically this is soon after the beginning of the project execution phase.

Although activity happens earlier in a project and is certainly tracked, you need a baseline and actual costs in order to do Earned Value reporting. And the baseline typically doesn't exist until after a detailed schedule and budget has been finalized.

IT Governance; Where the Value of IT is Hiding

It's an epidemic among today's organizations. They've invested in IT but aren't seeing the payoff. IT Governance can help create the value they're looking for, but it must be implemented correctly.

From Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge site comes an excerpt from their new book, IT Governance. It lists the ten principles of IT Governance. Follow them, and you could be on your way to providing more value from your IT department.

Ten Principles of IT Governance : Technology : HBS Working Knowledge

The Never-Ending Software Project

When does a software project end and ongoing support begin? The short answer is: When the agreed-upon scope has been delivered.

Of course, it's good practice for the agreed-upon scope to include some sort of post-implementation stabilization period. In addition, there should be predefined stage gates to confirm that there are plans in place for ongoing support and benefits followup. But once the project has completed its deliverables and passed it's post-implementation support period, the project should be closed, pending closure stage gate approval and customer acceptance.

But what about those dreaded cases where the customer says, "Oh, I realize I agreed to such-and-such scope, but if I don't have these additional functions that I didn't realize I needed, the product just isn't usable and I can't sign off on it!"? Well, then it's time for a change request. As long as it is approved by the governance council or steering team (here's where the importance of a governing body comes in), then it's an approved scope change and all is well. Note that this doesn't apply to fixing something that was supposed to be delivered but wasn't.

And if it's an external client and there's no governing body? Then the scope and Statement of Work had best be detailed (or negotiated in increments if feasible). If not, the door is open to scope creep and the dreaded never-ending project can ensue.

I'm sure our readers would be interested in hearing from those that may have additional ways of easing the transition from project to support.

Project Management Lessons From History

Some of the most important project management lessons can be found through a study of history. Of course, having written a book called Napoleon on Project Management (due in stores April 2006), I firmly believe that.

Now that I've gotten the shameless plug out of the way, let me point you to an excellent site on project management lessons from history. The site takes an interesting approach, promoting a series of books by Mark Kozak-Holland on selected historical projects that have been diligently mined for lessons. In his series, Mark explores lessons from the mistakes made in building the Titanic, lessons from Winston Churchill's "Adaptive Enterprise," and more. Aside from the book series, there are a wealth of case studies on the site alone. This informative and fun site is well worth exploring...

Lessons From History

IT Service Transformation Through ITIL Service Catalogs ...

IT Service Transformation Through ITIL Service Catalogs: newScale Showcases ITIL Service Catalog at 2005 itSMF USA Conference: IT Service Catalog Leader Shares Best Practices ...

newScale will demo their best-practice ITIL service catalogs, which are key to enabling IT service transformations, at upcoming conference ...

... "newScale®, Inc., the market leader in IT Service Catalog and Service Portfolio Management software solutions, announced today that it will showcase examples of best practice Service Catalogs at the itSMF USA Conference and Expo. newScale will demonstrate the benefits of the ITIL Service Catalog solution used in production today by many of America’s most admired companies. Conference attendees can find newScale in booth # 731 at the expo to be held at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois, September 19-23, 2005. " ...

Founded in 1997, the itSMF USA is a rapidly growing non-profit organization which promotes the use of industry best practices and standards on the provision and management of IT Services. Current membership exceeds 3,000 members, with affiliated Local Interest Groups serving more than 21+ cities nationwide. The itSMF USA organization is affiliated with the itSMF international association, formed in 1991 and is headquartered in London, England. This global organization has over 2,500 member companies, with international chapters in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.

newScale, Inc. is the leader in Service Portfolio Management software solutions for Global 2000 companies, with more than 800,000 users worldwide. newScale solutions enable IT and other service organizations to catalog their portfolio of services, govern demand for services, manage delivery of services, and optimize service quality. newScale customers – including Hewlett-Packard Company, Intuit Incorporated, and Starbucks Coffee Company – benefit from increased operational efficiency, reduced costs, improved service levels, and greater IT/business alignment.

Confirm Your Project Scope; Don't Be a Victim

Sadly, one of the most overlooked parts of project management is the ever-important scope identification---and that includes requirements definition and WBS development.

Otherwise, you're at the mercy of changing deliverables and the "he said/she said" syndrome.

Laurence Nicholson has written a great article on PM Forum regarding the importance of WBS and Scope development. If your project has changing or unclear directives, or you feel caught between conflicting sponsors, chances are you might be suffering from "requirements deficiency." If so, reading this article could very well save your next (or current) project.

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management

Implementing Earned Value; Training and Scalability Are Key

Here's a lesson from NASA's Public Lessons Learned System (PLLS) from their pilot project to implement Earned Value Management at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in 2004.

Two key points were raised:

• Make sure that sufficient training is provided to cover all facets and various scenarios
• Make sure your EVM system is implemented in a way that doesn't slow down small projects and work requests (either have a light version of EVM or don't require it for projects under a certain size).
  
  For the full details, go to the NASA PLLS System below and search for '1409' (which will bring up lesson #1409)...
  
  NASA Public Lessons Learned System (PLLS) Database

Project Communications During Early Phases Most Critical

It can be awfully frustrating for a project stakeholder or team member during those habitually long early phases of a project, while the infrastructure is being set up, approvals are pending, and contract negotiations are taking place.

First impressions are everything. Therefore, it is during this time that it's most critical to communicate heavily to team members and stakeholders, so they realize someone is minding the mint.

Otherwise, there is often "a lot of explaining to do" once things actually get rolling, and the burden falls on the project manager to calm the skeptics and pacify the crowd. Better to head it off at the pass with early and frequent communication.

Better yet, there might even be some preparatory activities to keep these team members busy and involved. Just something to consider when starting your next project. I had to learn the hard way.

Earned Value Gone Wild; Exploring New "Frontiers" in Project Management

Project Frontier is a business that certainly would fall under the umbrella of "thought leadership." Their site offers ideas for "Streamlined Earned Value Management (EVM)" for personal weekly planning, and explores alternate ways of pictorially depicting Earned Value as "weather maps" (see their EV Maps section).

Check it out...

Welcome to Project Frontier

Ontario Government Project Maturity Assessment

This site gives an interesting example of a government department using project capability maturity assessment scores for setting goals for improvement. It includes the essential components of assessment dimesions, current scores and target scores.
Scoring models vary in the range and detail of the dimensions. This one focuses on project accountability and governance. It shows how management has identified the areas that need to change the most.

1.4.3 Corporate Project and Program Management--Third Party Audit of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board: Executive Summary | Ministry of Labour

Radical Innovation Projects

Radical Innovation Projects: Via PDMA: Visions - Tools and techniques for managing the front end of innovation

Peter Koen, Stevens Institute of Technology, offers insights into the fuzzy front-end of innovation and describes powerful approaches to stage-gate management for various type of projects, including radical innovation projects ...

... "They classify a radical project as being one that offers a five to 10 times or greater performance improvement or a 30 -50 percent or greater reduction in cost. The research indicated that radical innovation has more than just technical uncertainty. " ...

Project Management in Lotus Notes? You Bet.

For those looking to take advantage of their Lotus platform and enable great advances in their project management practices, Genius Inside has a suite of products that enable enterprise project management using Lotus Notes and Domino. It even integrates with MS/Project.

Here's the executive overview of Genius Inside, straight from their site:

Established in 1996, Genius Inside is a leading provider of Enterprise Project Management software, specialized in Internet/ intranet enterprise project management solutions. Genius Enterprise Project software from Genius Inside has
over 250 customers worldwide and in excess of 38’000 users, supported by a network of 20 global reseller partners. Genius Enterprise Project was recognized by IBM at Lotusphere 2004 with the Lotus Workplace Innovation-CTO award.

The leading Lotus Notes and Domino Project Management Solution

IT Project Return-On-Investment ROI: Partnership Drives Visibility ...

IT Project Return-On-Investment ROI: Partnership Drives Visibility: Via Alinean: Alinean & Hyperion Partner for Increased Visibility in IT Performance

Alinean / Hyperion partnership offers promise of making IT ROI more visible and achievable ...

... "The new solutions will combine Alinean's ground-breaking Return on IT (ROIT) research and ROI/TCO benchmarking tools with Hyperion's advanced analytics, quantifying the business value of current and proposed technology solutions based on the industry's largest database of real-world metrics. " ...

Alinean develops software tools to prove and improve the value of IT investments. The company’s founding team pioneered the concept of interactive ROI and TCO software in 1994, developing award-winning solutions for leading IT vendors and consultants. Its research methodologies and software tools are used by analyst firms, vendors and enterprises, and have helped justify billions of dollars in IT spending and derived value.

All About Project Estimating Accuracy

Max Wideman's site has one of the best diagrams I've seen on estimation accuracy. He calls it the "Estimating Accuracy Trumpet."

The diagram is part of an online presentation on estimating. Once there, you can click on the arrows to navigate through the rest of the presentation.

This is part of his "Issacons" (Issues And Considerations) section, an indexed list of brief online presentations on just about every project management topic you can think of. From time to time, we'll feature interesting Issacons here, such as this one.


The Estimating Accuracy Trumpet

PMForum Announces Project Management Soft Skills Survey

Hello PMThinkers! Your help is needed! PM Forum is inviting readers to participate in an important survey on Project Integration Management, including managing stakeholder relations, negotiation and teamwork. It only takes 20 minutes and can help influence advancements in the field. Results will be published in PM World Today (and of course we'll post a link when it's available).

Here's the link...

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management PMFORUM Breaking News: PMFORUM READERS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN PROJECT INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT SURVEY

High-Profile ILM Project: Information Lifecycle Management ...

High-Profile ILM Project: United States Postal Service Awards EMC Five Year Contract: EMC to Address USPS' Business Continuity and Data Protection Requirements Through An Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) Strategy ...

An ILM information lifecycle management project at USPS is key to driving operational efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of 650 Terabytes of storage (EMC infrastructure). Project management services will come from EMC to create this high-availability, secure, and efficient process for the management of information over its lifecycle ...

... "Through this agreement EMC Consulting will work with USPS to conduct a solutions assessment, and provide project management and design and implementation services. Additionally, the USPS will use EMC ControlCenter® to monitor and manage its extensive storage environment consisting of EMC Symmetrix® and EMC CLARiiON® networked storage products for its storage area network (SAN), EMC Centera™ for content addressed storage (CAS), and EMC Celerra® network attached storage (NAS). " ...

Since 1775, the Postal Service has connected friends, families, neighbors and businesses by mail. It is an independent federal agency that visits 142 million homes and businesses every day and is the only service provider delivering to every address in the nation. The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars for routine operations, but derives its operating revenues solely from the sale of postage, products and services. With annual revenues of more than $69 billion, it is the world's leading provider of mailing and delivery services, offering some of the most affordable postage rates in the world. The Postal Service delivers more than 46 percent of the world's mail volume—some 206 billion letters, advertisements, periodicals and packages a year—and serves seven million customers each day at its 37,000 retail locations nationwide.

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world leader in products, services and solutions for information storage and management that help organizations extract the maximum value from their information, at the lowest total cost, across every point in the information lifecycle.

Additonal references on ILM:

Via Computerworld, The new buzzwords: Information lifecycle management, Steve Duplessie, Nancy Marrone, and Steve Kenniston write:

... "What's important to remember is that ILM is not a technology - it is a combination of processes and technologies that determines how data flows through an environment. By doing so, it helps end users manage data from the moment it is created to the time it is no longer needed. " ...

Via SNIA, The ILM Initiative (ILMI):

... "ILMI was created by SNIA’s Data Management Forum (DMF) to allow industry leaders and participants to come together into a community to focus on unifying, defining, implementing, and teaching the world about our vision for ILM and its impact on information and storage management. The ILMI operates as an online virtual community, sharing work efforts, training programs and outreach services such as research, whitepapers and training, and educational courses. " ...

Via StorageTek, : Information lifecycle management vision whitepaper:

... "Information lifecycle management (ILM) is a sustainable storage strategy that balances the cost of storing and managing information with its business value. An advanced state of information lifecycle management encompasses a storage management world where business information objects are managed automatically, based on their business value. Fully mature information lifecycle management may result in business performance benefi ts such as increasing revenue opportunities, reducing costs and driving competitive advantage. " ...

NASA - Warning: Projects May Be Closer Than They Appear

Here's a great case study of software projects from NASA's ASK (Academy Sharing Knowledge). It explores the fine balance between software experimentation and needing to meet the targets of a project. Some key lessons, according to the case study are:

• When tailoring a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) software product, you
  should recruit developers who have an in-depth understanding of the intricacies of the product.
• Establishing open communication with your customer is not only intended to
  understand customer requirements but also to convey challenges you face on the project.

Both valuable lessons indeed.

The first would seem obvious, but many people attempt to customize or integrate purchased software without having experts who have "been there and done that" with that particular piece of software and know where the mine fields are. This can be a dangerous oversight.

Likewise, many talk about the importance of communicating with the customer to understand requirements and share "good news," but it's equally critical to engage the customer in meeting challenges and risks.

In addition to the above lessons, the case study also points out three key points:

• Be sure to articulate the business need to software developers
• Understand people, not just processes and technology -- all three must be present. For intance, we must get developers to apprciate the need to schedule and budget, and we must get customers to understand risks and constraints.
• Stay out of the weeds and delegate more - otherwise you can't see the whole field. If you find yourself getting so bogged down that you can't manage the project - consider what can be delegated (perhaps including project administration).
• Given a tight target date and unknown territory, go for phased milestones.

For the full case study, read on...

NASA - Warning: Projects May Be Closer Than They Appear

Maturity Models - Projects, Programmes and Portfolios

After the success of the Software Engineering Institute's Capablity Maturity Model, the methodology is now being applied to other areas. Project Management has recently seen the publication of the OPM3 model from PMI. The paper in the link below is from the UK Government OGC. It is described as a draft but has some very valuable contents, particularly the descriptions of the five maturity levels.
OGC - Portfolio, Programme and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3)

Creating value with Portfolio Management

How do you justify the effort of Portfolio Management? Many organisations 'get it in a heartbeat'. For those that don't, this article describes creating value through portfolio management. It describes how portfolio management can evolve from concentrating on performance for projects and resources to addressing broader performance such as products or lines of business.
The increasing breadth of portfolio management benefit mirrors the philosophy of increasing capability that many organisations are now applying as they analyse their project management processes. Capability Maturity Models describe the state of an organisation in terms of its ability to operate effectively in a certain area of activity. Here we see how how increasing capability can apply in the domain or portfolio management.

Chief Project Officer: "
Yes or No - The Two Models for Implementing Project Portfolio Management
by Demian Entrekin, August 1, 2005"

Centralized IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Modeling Tool

Centralized IT Governance: Enterprise Architecture Modeling Tool: Via Troux: Troux Announces Metis Enterprise 5.0 Technology Availability: Market leader rolls out integrated offering to help improve IT governance through Enterprise Architecture processes ...

Troux converges its product set on visualization and analysis of enterprise architecture data to enable effective centralized IT governance ...

... "Delivering on the successful acquisition of Metis earlier this year, Troux's Metis family of EA products now combines the visualization and analytic capabilities of the Metis modeling tool with Troux's highly scalable repository for automatic capture and management of enterprise IT and business data. This comprehensive offering gives enterprise architects, business analysts, IT planners and other decision-makers in even the largest and most complex organizations a toolset capable of centralizing the management of all IT governance processes. " ...

Troux Technologies (pronounced "true") is a global provider of IT Governance software that accelerates IT and business transformation. Troux's IT Governance solutions enable organizations to strategically plan the enterprise, capture and analyze critical IT and business data and deliver actionable decisions to transform the business. Troux's breakthrough technology provides the enterprise-class information, policies, and analytics critical for IT excellence. With Troux, organizations succeed in breaking the traditional IT silos and effectively aligning IT with core business goals. Based in Austin, Texas, Troux Technologies serves the Global 1000 and government marketplaces.

IT Governance: Services Transformation ...

IT Governance: Services Transformation: Via ITSM Watch: ITIL: IT Governance Important For ITSM Implementations ...

Bill Powell, senior consultant with IBM Global Services, writes about the importance for effective IT governance in the transformation to a services-based IT organization ...

... "Achieving business results has always been dependant on effective governance linked to effective and efficient execution. Effective Governance overcomes the limitations inherent in any organizational structure. " ...

Project Management: Business Collaboration ...

Project Management: Business Collaboration: Via InformationWeek: Project Management: SmartAdvice: The New Face Of Project Management ...

Info Week's Advisory Council discusses evolution of business collaboration and impact on project management ...

... "Collaborative Project Management: The confluence of universal Internet, universal laptop, and Web-server underpinnings has reinvigorated the once-stable project-management world. " ...

Project Management Case Study from PM Forum: A Call for Project Pilots

Here's a great case study from Hugh Woodward, managing editor at PM Forum.

First, it shows a typical example where a seemingly perfect project proposal had to be revised multiple times, under pressure to defer most of the capital spending to the following year. After several iterations of this, it was at a point where the plan was no longer feasible. Then, these delays were compounded by changes in the organization's financial circumstances, which led to the project being put on hold.

While the project was on hold, the technical developers experimented with different solutions and found even better ways of accomplishing the goal. In fact, the original project as proposed would have failed, even if it came in on time and on budget. The goals wouldn't have been met. Eventually, the project was restarted when the company's finances picked up, and this time it was a resounding success.

There are two lessons from this:

1) There is definitely a risk to project delays, as we all suspected. In this case, the delays led to an unexpected benefit. but we can't always count on that.
2) It is extremely beneficial to do a pilot and start small, to be sure the project will meet its intended goals. After all, nothing is more important in project management than meeting the goal the project is intended to achieve.

Here's the full case study:

PMFORUM, Connecting the World of Project Management - Case Studies

Instant PRINCE2 Methodology on the Web