Personal: Project Management Basics

Master the fundamentals of project management methodologies, processes, and best practices. Learn essential PM concepts, tools, and techniques for effective planning, execution, and delivery.

Display the Project Summary Task

Display the Project Summary Task

Background Are you displaying the Project Summary Task in every one of your projects in Microsoft Project? If not, I strongly recommend that you do this. What is the Project Summary Task? Often nickna...

What’s Missing From Project for the web

What’s Missing From Project for the web

While Project for the web offers a middle ground between Planner and Project Online, some critical features are still missing. This article identifies the most important missing features, such as fiel...

Is Schedule Risk Analysis Worth It?

Is Schedule Risk Analysis Worth It?

Introduction Many ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) documents require that a Schedule Risk Analysis (SRA) must be performed on the submission. Performing an SRA is also promoted as a ‘Best Practice’ by mos...

How to Quickly Calculate Your Project’s Risks for Success

How to Quickly Calculate Your Project’s Risks for Success

Assessing Risk Countless studies over the last four decades point to similar findings: Approximately 50% of projects you undertake will be late and/or over budget, and approximately 25% will be cancel...

Back to Basics: Who Are Project Stakeholders and Why Are They Important?

Back to Basics: Who Are Project Stakeholders and Why Are They Important?

About two decades ago, I was working for an IT Services organization. Our company got a re-engineering project from a Fortune 500 company, and I was designated as the project manager. The client had a...

Back to Basics: Assumptions vs. Constraints vs. Dependencies

Back to Basics: Assumptions vs. Constraints vs. Dependencies

I regularly provide project management advisory and Project Management Office (PMO) related consulting services to my clients. On many occasions, I have found that project managers do not di...

Killing a Project

Killing a Project

Introduction Management reviews, sometimes referred to by project managers as phase exits, stage gates, or kill points, are very important for keeping projects on track. These moments serve as decisio...

Why is Project Management Important?

Why is Project Management Important?

I have been conducting PMP training workshops for about 15 years. I usually start my training sessions by asking participants to introduce themselves and state their expectations of the training progr...

Back to Basics: Why do Projects Fail?

Back to Basics: Why do Projects Fail?

I was working for an IT services company in early 2000. The much-dreaded Y2K problem had just passed without giving us too much trouble, and we had gotten a big project from a U.S based Fortune 500 co...