Project Management Wonk

Project Management Office

2010-03-13T00:00:00Z

Every business conducts projects. Every project yields lessons. It is good to remember the lessons learned from each project to avoid making the same mistakes or re-inventing the wheel during the next project. A growing number of businesses, large and small, are entrusting the lessons learned from projects to a formal, internal Project Management Office (PMO).

Project Management Sample

2010-03-15T23:00:00Z

If you have to plan and manage a project, you can do it from scratch. That's a lot of work: compiling checklists of things to do, creating forms and reports, figuring out step by step what resources you need to get the job done and how to get them -- or you can follow a project management sample.

Project Management Services

2010-03-19T23:00:00Z

Projects come and go within any organization. Each project requires a different assortment of services, from product development R&D to staff training and so on. But there are certain activities common to all projects. Few companies employ a full-time staff with expertise in pure project management functions, so most firms turn to outside contractors who provide project management services.

Project Management Tracking

2010-03-22T23:00:00Z

The Devil is in the details of project management. Even the simplest project, like reorganizing a closet, consists of many little tasks that are usually interdependent. If one thing remains undone, or isn't done on schedule, then it can have a ripple effect through the other tasks of the project. The whole project may fail if a single detail is overlooked. Therefore, project management tracking is an essential activity.

Project Management Templates

2010-03-26T23:00:00Z

Setting up a project management system using one of the popular software packages for project management helps you keep track of tasks, schedules, people, and budgets. It also generates reports, charts, tables, and other visual aids useful in meetings and presentations. But creating such detailed systems from scratch is time-consuming and error-prone. Fortunately, there are numerous project management templates available to spare you much of that trouble.

Project Management Solutions

2010-03-29T23:00:00Z

When you need project management solutions, there are two places to look for them. You seek a project management solution in-house, using existing employees and resources, or you can outsource project management functions. Actually, there is a third option: to outsource some project management functions and perform others in-house. There are pros and cons to all project management solutions.

Project Management System

2010-04-02T23:00:00Z

Loosely speaking, a project management system is any organized method of managing a project from start to finish. A project management system may be a paper notebook, a whiteboard, a crude Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Access database, a bunch of tasks noted in Microsoft Outlook with start and end dates plus reminder times, and so on. But here we will consider dedicated software project management systems.

Project Management Planning

2010-04-19T23:00:00Z

You've heard the old sayings about planning. "Plan the work, then work the plan." "Proper planning prevents poor performance." "If you don't plan to succeed, you plan to fail." Perhaps nowhere else are these adages so obvious as in project management planning.

Project Quality Management

2010-04-29T23:00:00Z

Project quality management is a functional activity within the project management process that strives to ensure that work activities and products conform with the expectations set in the project management plan. In other words, project quality management strives to get things done right. But this is not as easy and simple as it may sound.

Project Time Management

2010-05-09T23:00:00Z

Project time management is one of the nine major principles in the PMBOK (Project Management Body Of Knowledge), which is compiled and maintained by the PMI (Project Management Institute), the worldwide certification and standards-setting body for project management professionals. It is vital for every PMP (Project Management Professional) to understand and adhere to best practices for project time management.

Design Project Management

2010-05-19T23:00:00Z

Many projects involve the assembly of existing parts in standard ways. Construction of a new building, while a very complex project, is pretty mechanical. But design project management is different because you really don't know at the beginning of a design project what the finished product is supposed to be.

Project Management Degree

2010-06-09T23:00:00Z

Pursuing a specialized project management degree is a major career commitment. It shows employers that you are devoted to project management as a full time career; it's not just an incidental skill mentioned in the "other skills and knowledge" section of your resume', like typing speed.

Project Management Scheduling

2010-06-22T23:00:00Z

Project management scheduling is a core function of any project. What needs to be done is identified. Then the time each task will take is estimated. The order in which tasks must be done has to be determined, including tasks that must be done simultaneously although they may not all finish at the same time. Finally, a hard copy schedule is generated showing exactly when each task is to be begun and exactly when it is to end. All of that sounds simple, and it can be simple for small projects. But large project management scheduling is a complex thing.

Project Cost Management

2010-08-22T23:00:00Z

Project cost management is used throughout the project management process to strike a balance between unlimited wants and limited resources. When developing a project plan, everyone wants the project's result to solve every problem, do every task, etc. Then they start assigning costs to each result that they want from the project, and things get real again. (The sole exception to project cost management's discipline is war!)

Project Management Methodologies

2010-09-22T23:00:00Z

There are as many ways to manage a project as there are projects and project managers. But over the years, some project management methodologies have acquired large bodies of users; been formalized, elaborated, and fine-tuned. A handful of project management methodologies are considered to be "professional standards" and "best practices". Here is a brief overview of major project management methodologies.