Project Management Blog Articles

The issue of risk in project management is a crucial one but little account is taken of the unique contribution that people’s individual differences play in the management of risk. Research carried out to date has demonstrated that individual personality factors play a determining role in the extent to which people are likely to be risk takers or risk avoidant.  Risk behaviour tends to be biologically patterned i.e. some people are likely to be consistent risk takers, some are consistently risk averse and some are willing to take risks in some areas of their life. If project managers are serious about managing risk, they need to understand their team member’s individual propensity for and attitudes towards risk taking so that they can more effectively match people to roles and manage risk more strategically. Read the rest of this entry »

In this article I have re-worked some old themes that people who have heard me speak may have heard before. I want to go through them again for several reasons: firstly because they are still worth saying again; secondly, because my thinking on this issue evolves; and finally, as I’ve just written a new project management book, it seems a good time to reinforce this central message. Read the rest of this entry »

I was recently on a panel of ‘experts’ at a project management conference (yes I know, why was I there…) and there was a great question from the audience about project quality. Read the rest of this entry »

I want to describe a scenario. It’s one we are all familiar with: it’s month end and status reports are due. Let me describe a bad case of this scenario, (a situation that each of us has probably seen time and again). Read the rest of this entry »

I have talked often about the importance of good sponsorship for a project and project manager; I have even started ‘The Campaign for Real Project Sponsors’ see www.strategies4sponsors.com and my LinkedIn group ‘Project Sponsors’ (all are most welcome). But what can be done when the sponsor(s) in place within an organisation just aren’t up to the job. Read the rest of this entry »