What is a PMO?
I often get asked what PMO stands for (especially by baffled members of my family!). Well the ‘P’ can stand…
Does your organisation lose out on learning?
The experience of running projects contains insights that ought be useful to organisations and individuals, yet very often this useful…
Why you should have your retrospective run independently
To get the best out of people, a group lesson session needs to foster the right atmosphere, ask the right…
What to look for in a partner to run your retrospective
You’re bought into the idea of having your project or programme retrospective run independently. So what should you look for…
I messed up live on air!
I was booked by Lindsay Scott of the House of PMO to deliver a webinar on setting up and working…
Of pointy umbrellas on public transport
From commuting in wet weather to stakeholder management. (No really – stay with me…) I often commute to and through…
The Campaign for Real Project Managers
I’ve been thinking about authenticity and the way that Project Managers [PMs] and PMO professionals present themselves in the professional…
5 lessons I learned from making my #OpenToWork video series
This post uses the lessons learned process framework in my book to describe what I learned from producing my #OpenToWork…
The value of an outsider’s perspective
I undertook a series of business planning sessions with business leadership coach Bekka Prideaux, which were aimed at helping me…
Sussing out services at PMO Flashmob
A bit about PMO Flashmob If you are a PMO professional working in or around London and you haven’t yet…
Project data analytics impact (and promise): hype or reality?
This is the question that the panel set out to answer at the most recent meeting of the Project Data…
REVIEW: PMO Value Ring (PMO-CP)
Back in the summer of 2019 I received an invitation from Americo Pinto, Chair of the PMO Global Alliance, to attend…
5 Lessons I learned writing a book about learning lessons
I recently published my book Learning Lessons from Projects: How it works, why it goes wrong, and how you can…
Learning lessons from projects
I’ve always had something of a bee in my bonnet about lessons learned. It saddens me to think that many…
Visualising Data
This week’s webinar with PMO Flashmob was an opportunity to share some ideas with PMO professionals around how to engage…
How to drive REAL impact with your PMO
A PPM tool is software designed to be an enterprise-wide, strategic solution which facilitates more effective project portfolio management. It’s…
The Real “P” in PMO
Originally posted as Friday Insight in the Major Projects Knowledge Hub This week’s shared insight is from a personal perspective,…
How to trace predecessors and successors in MS-Project ®
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. This post describes how to trace predecessors and successors…
PPM Tools: 6 questions to ask first
In a previous post, I cautioned against starting your PPM tool journey by contacting vendors and looking at the various tools…
So you think you need a PPM tool?
Picture this scenario: Your company has been running various projects and programmes for a while now, with varying degrees of…
How to set up time-boxed look-ahead views in MS-Project ® using compound task filters
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. This post describes how to set up…
How to set up custom Gantt chart views in MS-Project ®
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. This post describes how to set up custom Gantt…
How to create PDF Gantt chart extracts with dynamic labels in MS-Project ®
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. This post describes how to generate universally-readable ‘soft’ PDF…
How to diagnose schedule management problems in MS-Project ®
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. So you’ve created a useful programme schedule,…
How to calculate RAG status in MS-Project ®
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. So you’ve created a useful programme schedule, and you…
How to diagnose schedule setup problems in MS-Project ®
Part of a series on customising Microsoft® Project® to make working with project schedules more useful. So, you’ve inherited a set of project schedules that…
6 PMO productivity pointers for Microsoft® SharePoint® Team sites: Libraries
Top tips drawn from experience To create an project or programme information hub, you could do a lot worse than…
6 PMO productivity pointers for Microsoft® SharePoint® Team sites: Registers
Top tips drawn from experience To create an project or programme information hub, you could do a lot worse than…
Buses, trains and schedule optimisation
High risk rapid delivery or lower risk slower delivery – which would you go for?
PMOs perfectly positioned to help make project products persistent
How PMOs can smooth the path of projects, to help make changes more “sticky” A while back I attended a PMO…
Project Planning Pointers
Like a piece of machinery, plans need a good design, room to breathe, and good maintenance… I attended an APM…
Strategies for social CPD – Creating a PM community
How learning groups spontaneously form and disperse… A while back I attended an APM focus group facilitated by Dr Michael Moynagh of CPD…
How to write a ‘Good’ lesson learned?
I was recently asked how to write a ‘good’ Lesson Learned. Many ‘lessons learned’ are merely observations, with no suggestion on…
Adding Value
What does it REALLY mean & how can the PMO achieve it? The truth is, it’s not up to the…
Business Analysis – a skillset for the Strategic PMO?
I’ve often thought that business analysis comes in very useful for a PMO. It is accepted wisdom that a good…
A Project Prayer
One programme team I worked with had a daily stand-up meeting that acquired the nickname of “morning prayers”. It got…
What has the PMO ever done for us?
With all due acknowledgement (and apologies) to Monty Python’s Flying Circus, whose film The Life of Brian inspired this post. THE INTERIOR OF…
Spontaneous teamwork – the best kind?
I recently saw a great example of spontaneous teamwork. I was making my way up one of those very long…
When the Project Sponsor is just too important to be effective
As a project manager, there are a few things you want in a project sponsor: A genuine interest in the…
How to keep your programme schedule on the right track
Having created a useful project or programme schedule, how do you use it as a delivery tool? Here’s the approach I…
How to create a useful programme schedule
How do you integrate the schedules of multiple projects into a single programme schedule that concisely conveys time-related information? This…
When the Client wants to Pull the Plug
…a Case Study showing one approach to evaluating whether a project should be cancelled or completed.
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”…
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.…
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…
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”…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…