When the Client wants to Pull the Plug
…a Case Study showing one approach to evaluating whether a project should be cancelled or completed.
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What does your PMO stand for?
(well OK, mostly the “P” part…) All over the web you will see people asking or debating what the “P” stands for in PMO. The “MO” stands for “Management Office”, but the “P” can stand for Project, Programme or Portfolio depending on the organisational context. Axelos use the term P3O® to cover all three, but this is also…
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Processes are an organisation’s memory
I’m going to take a calculated risk by standing up for the pragmatic application of process. Yes, that’s right, process. Now, people seem to enjoy a bit of process-bashing, and I get that: nobody wants to have their working lives organised for them to the point where they become a soul-less, heartless, brainless robot, but I am…
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How to make sure that Lessons Learned stay that way
I often wonder just how much project management organisations really learn from project successes and mistakes. I think we could all definitely learn better than we currently do. I will start by saying that we should not wait until the end of the project to learn lessons (both good and bad) – these will be happening all…
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Project reporting shouldn’t be “green side up”
Following on from my post on watermelon reporting, I wanted to share another, related, phenomenon with you – “green side up” reporting. This describes the phenomenon where the health of programmes and portfolios is reported more favourably the higher up the organisation the reports are circulated; that is to say that in the project world everything…
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Watch out for watermelons in project reports
How do watermelons get into project reports? and why should you watch out for them? “Watermelon reporting” describes the phenomenon where according to a project status report things appear to be green on the outside (i.e. the project’s RAG status is reported as green, with no issues), but if you delve a little deeper and look…
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Project data in, portfolio insight out
How do you give senior management a “helicopter view” of all the change that is going on in an organisation, so that they can make informed decisions on how to spend their change budget? Here’s how I tackled it…
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How to create a streamlined project management methodology
How do you develop a project management methodology that isn’t too heavy or too light, that respects the experience of project managers, and that is accessible? Here’s how I approached it…
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How to take charge of your project portfolio’s annual budget
Project and Programme Managers (PMs) are used to managing projects within a budget for the project stage or the whole project, but they sometimes overlook the context of the organisational annual budget; this is especially important if the project spans multiple financial years.
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How PMOs improve project governance
One of the benefits of having a Project Management Office (PMO) is that good governance reduces the risks of project delivery and increases its predictability. Here’s an explanation of how this works in practice using as a case study a Portfolio PMO that I managed.
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