management « A PM's workshop

Honing stakeholders’ analysis

By Eugenio, on October 20th, 2009

…in order to make “real” things (either functions or reports) information is needed. Some data are essential in order to grant the necessary quality others are necessary for presenting the result in the best possible way.
People with technical background (e.g. with no specific training in sales and or negotiations) usually tend to focus on the delivery, with less attention to the factors that can influence the [...]

Risks and details

By Eugenio, on October 19th, 2009

“The devil is in the detail”.
In many job descriptions, the “attention to the details” is an essential value for evaluating a Project Manager. It seems to be contradictory with the holistic approach (Aristotle in the Metaphysics: “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”). However, the key is in the ability of understanding [...]

Contracting with resources

By Eugenio, on October 16th, 2009

The contract can take a written form where specific parts of the output are assigned to the person/group. In this case, he/she becomes responsible and accountable (see yesterday’s post) of the delivery
However, if the boundary is set within the group itself, the reason of the group as an entity is [...]

The scope of the Impact Analysis

By Eugenio, on October 12th, 2009

This post is dedicated to the quantitative aspect of the issues and then the risks. Therefore, it serves to give the price tag (i.e. impact on the budget) that will be multiplied for the likelihood. The qualitative aspect is managed through sifting the event through the categories .

Working with the Newton’s laws of motion

Dealing with [...]

Impact Analysis

By Eugenio, on October 9th, 2009

“Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.”

This quote contains the nightmare of most Project Manager dealing with “issues”.

The necessity of creating and maintaining a high spirit among the stakeholders requires that any message is received and properly analyzed. Therefore, the system (the triad people, processes and technology) for collecting and sifting [...]

Issue management process

By Eugenio, on October 8th, 2009

Almost any company which deals with projects has its own “Change Control” chart.

Usually it takes the form of some swimming-lanes drawn in Visio; for each lane, a symbol indicates the role and the related decision power. This is an essential management tool; however, it is one of the last laps of the whole trip. With [...]

Managing issues

By Eugenio, on October 7th, 2009

Waterloo battle's plan

On the Oct. 9th 2009, some items were added to the Issue Register body.

In the yesterday’s post, I finally was able to quote a good definition of “issue”.

Then, the topic was developed about the importance of sharing the same vocabulary for improving the efficiency of the communication.

Issues’ management

It is at the core [...]

Issue and Risks

By Eugenio, on October 5th, 2009

Very often, the definition and then techniques for managing issues (from their capture to the sort of process that will be fired by them) in Project and Risks manuals is quite blurred. In essence “issue” is averagely considered a prim definition of the problem. Namely, it can fall in the class of communications’ elements. Issues, then, should be managed through a risk-like process that will flow into the existing processes (e.g. Change, Risk, HR [...]

Timing

By Eugenio, on October 2nd, 2009

Different departments of the same company have distinct calendars and then meaningful [...]

The value of governance

By Eugenio, on September 30th, 2009

It is not easy for incompetent people to survive in an environment ruled by working governance. Moreover, the required initial investment (sometimes just a frank and thoroughly chat with a senior manager) will yield a lot both in terms of shaping the project’s strategy and on the personal level, just for building stronger [...]