PMO Resolutions for the New Year

January 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

While your mind is on your own individual goals for the new year, why not also take the opportunity to look at where your PMO is and where you want to take it in the coming months? If you’re stuck for ideas, we’ve put together some resolutions you can use as a launch pad.

Improve communication. Even PMOs that are really good at communicating should make improvement a yearly goal. http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/02/be-a-better-communicator/ Talking with end users, providing stakeholders with progress reports, and maintaining good lines of communication within your team are all critical to project success.

 

Boost career development efforts. Now is not the time to let your project professionals grow stagnant—if you don’t give them a path toward greater opportunities, there’s a good chance your competitors will. Encourage team members to set goals that keep them motivated http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/10/setting-individual-goals-9-tips-for-success-2/ and facilitate mentoring relationships whenever possible http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/06/find-the-right-business-mentor/.

 

Increase ongoing education. As project workloads ramp up, training is one of the first things moved to the back burner http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/10/training-mistakes-most-pmos-make/. Instead, resolve this year to keep your team’s education on the priority list. Schedule classes early and be sure everyone on the team has the opportunity to learn something new.

 

Develop a more robust network. Reach out to fellow professionals before you need help.http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/02/be-a-better-communicator/ Your team will have better access to resources—including consultants, market research specialists, equipment suppliers, and potential new employees—and will also be more in tune with regional and industry trends.

 

Market your PMO. In many organizations, it’s no longer enough to be good project managers. Your ability to engage stakeholders and end users http://www.duration-driven.com/2011/09/more-tips-for-good-project-management-pr/ is increasingly important, and could influence everything from budget approval to staffing levels.

 

Commit to creativity. Your team’s ability to develop innovative solutions can help manage any problem http://www.duration-driven.com/2010/12/project-management-creative-problem-solving/. Implement some creativity-building activities and watch your team triumph over challenges.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

 

Filed Under: Checklists, PMO Development, Project Management, Project Office

7 Questions to Ask If You’re Stressed

September 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

Stress isn’t always a bad thing, but too much could eventually diminish your performance as well as your happiness. If you suspect your stress level is out of whack, ask yourself these 7 questions to get back on track.

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1 – Have I taken on too much? Sometimes we don’t realize we’re in over our heads until it’s too late. Step back and evaluate your workload—delegate, reschedule, and perhaps even eliminate tasks where you can.

2 – Am I focusing on the right things? If you’ve set your sights on the obvious instead of the important, your stress could continue to build as critical path tasks remain unfinished.

3 – Is someone else better equipped for this task? Even if your stress isn’t caused by a staggering workload, you may be stressing yourself out over things that should be in someone else’s basket. There’s no sense borrowing headaches.

4 – Am I being held back by conventional wisdom? Break the handcuffs of tradition and use the opportunity to look for new or innovative methods of addressing issues and solving problems.

5 – Is this crisis short-term or long-term? Short-term stress may be useful in maintaining your laser focus, but if your situation doesn’t have an endpoint, you need to find a way to reduce stress to a more manageable level.

6 – What happens if I fail? Let’s get some perspective. Are you stressed over an upcoming presentation, or a project that’s spiraling out of control? Whatever it is, consider the consequences of failure and determine if they’re worth the stress you’re feeling. If they aren’t, take a deep breath and refocus on what’s truly important.

7 – Did I miss something in the planning phase? By identifying possible glitches or oversights in your original plan, you can avoid causing yourself similar stress on future projects.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

Filed Under: Checklists, Project Management, Project Management Tips

4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project

August 20, 2010 Leave a Comment

Long projects offer a unique set of challenges for your PMO team—deadlines are months or even years away, significant milestones are often few and far between, and the initial rush of “new project” enthusiasm eventually subsides. How do you maintain your group’s morale, encourage long-term innovation, and keep all eyes firmly on the project’s goals?

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1 – Maintain regular communication. Team members will have an easier time managing their own slow periods if they’re aggressively connecting with others in the group on a frequent basis. Team meetings help to focus attention on the project’s overall progress, members receive regular reminders about upcoming activities, and any issues brewing in one area can be tackled by the group’s collective expertise.

2 – Identify interim milestones. Critical path items are always at the top of the list, but don’t forget that many other mid-project deliverables are worthy of recognition, too. With the project’s final success a long way off, it’s important to show folks that today’s efforts continue to be important. Letting the team know that their hard work is recognized and appreciated offers a good morale boost.

3 – Remember what you’re improving. A glimpse at the problems or inefficiencies your project will address is often a quick way to give folks new enthusiasm. Whether it’s struggling with an outdated piece of software or visiting a too-small manufacturing facility, your team can once again see how their efforts will make a tangible difference.

4 – Consider shifting resources. If team members possess the expertise to contribute in different areas of the project as time and needs allow, it may offer a good way to minimize the use (and cost) of external resources, while also giving folks a taste of something new or different. Understanding your team’s strengths is the key to successfully mixing things up once in a while.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

Filed Under: Checklists, PMO Development, Project Management, Project Management Lists, Project Management Tips, Project Office Tagged With:

6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster

August 16, 2010 Leave a Comment

Are you spending too much time on e-mail? If so, use these tips to turn the tables and make e-mail work for you.

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Compose — Respond — Send

1. Keep e-mails concise, clear, and relevant. By following these three guidelines throughout your communications, you’re less likely to waste time on overly verbose messages, or messages that require additional clarification (and composition time) later.

2. Whenever possible, respond to or forward an existing e-mail instead of composing your own from scratch. Leveraging the original sender’s text allows you to reduce the amount of time you must spend summarizing or restating information, without reducing the usefulness of your communications to your recipients.

3. Utilize distribution lists at every opportunity. Organize them by project, functional area, or reporting structure, and you’ll spend less time looking up who should receive each message. It’s also a method that prompts fewer interruptions later when you realize you forgot to include someone, and must now locate the e-mail and forward it to them.

Store — Locate — Retrieve

4. Create project-specific folders in your e-mail program to produce a framework for storing e-mails that allows for quick retrieval later. A logical and consistent structure will make the archival process more efficient, too.

5. Be judicious in what you save—electronic storage space seems unlimited, but documenting multiple projects can quickly occupy an enormous amount of server space. Duplicate information should be consolidated, outdated information should be made current, and extraneous information should be discarded.

6. Take the time now to become familiar with your e-mail program’s search function, so you can quickly and efficiently utilize it later. Narrowly focused searches will be faster and more fruitful; apply as many filters as possible, and target your key terms to return only those messages you’re most likely to need.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

Filed Under: Checklists, Documentation Tips, Project Management, Project Management Lists, Project Management Tips Tagged With:

5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget

August 12, 2010 Leave a Comment

Project budgets are regularly in the financial crosshairs. While careful budgeting is a priority for every project management professional, there will be times when others in your organization want you to cut costs beyond what you think is reasonable. If you find your budget is under serious fire, use these tips to defend your resources and protect the success of your project.

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Explain what your budget includes. It isn’t always obvious to those outside your core team exactly what’s included in a project’s scope. By showcasing everything your project will accomplish, both near-term and in the months or years ahead, you’ll demonstrate the true value of each dollar allotted.

Highlight costs you’ve already cut. Your current budget is better able to withstand scrutiny if you can name a number of costs your team has already chosen not to support (premium materials), or has skillfully avoided (expedited shipping).

Demonstrate your bargaining success. Were you able to negotiate better-than-market material costs? Use an industry group’s buying power to reduce labor expenditures? These savings show that your budget has already undergone the right level of value engineering.

Leverage third-party benchmarking data. Offering comparisons to past internal projects is helpful, but the objectivity of outside comparison data is an even more powerful persuasion tool. Information is generally available by industry, company size, project type, and region.

Show the consequences of additional cuts. Negative impacts to end users, the reduction of future cost savings, and the loss of your organization’s market position are all serious consequences—are the cost savings worth it? If your project will result in cost reductions (in manufacturing expenses, materials, energy consumption, headcount, or anything else), then now is the time to add up those dollars. Today’s financial impact may look more prudent when compared to reduced expenditures in the future.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

Filed Under: Checklists, Project Management, Project Management Lists, Project Management Tips Tagged With:
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