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.

• No Related Post

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.

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.

• No Related Post

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?

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.

• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

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.

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.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

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.

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.

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

Presentations are powerful tools for relaying information, persuading key stakeholders, and displaying your team’s successes. Below are some tips to help make your next presentation a crowd pleaser.

1 – Avoid visual overload. Save the flashy animations for areas of your presentation that need additional emphasis. For everything else, stick to smooth, subtle transitions.

2 – Don’t try to include everything. Distill your visual and verbal components down to the fundamentals, and make your message clear and concise.

3 – Keep charts and graphs clean and simple. Your audience’s comprehension level will increase if they can easily interpret the information you’re presenting.

4 – Select a handful of key points (about 4-6) that you most want your audience to remember. Focus on those elements throughout your presentation.

5 – Limit your jokes—you might not be as funny as you think—and remember to keep them appropriate to the audience. If in doubt, leave it out.

6 – Use note cards to get back on track if you’re interrupted or become flustered. A brief outline of talking points is usually all that’s needed.

7 – Be familiar with the technology you’re using (projector, software, microphone), so you can make necessary adjustments (brightness, volume), and resolve any glitches that may occur.

8 – Select colors and fonts for your visual components that will enhance readability and comprehension. Strive for good contrast between text, images, and backgrounds.

9 – Unless your attire is truly part of your presentation (think “birthday clown”), keep it conservative—you don’t want your appearance to draw focus away from your message.

10 – Let your audience know if you’ll be addressing questions throughout the presentation, or only at the end. Consider passing out note cards so that participants can jot down their questions as you go along.

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

• No Related Post

Project management professionals are generally organized, skilled, and highly driven. Any time you have several of these strong personality types working together on a team, you’re bound to discover some tension. How do you keep these self-motivated people working toward the same objectives without letting their personalities hinder progress?

1 – Clearly delineate responsibilities. Providing team members with a strong, clear framework of their respective project responsibilities will help everyone stay on track. This will likely be your most powerful tool in defusing potential problems among team members.

2 – Provide structure for meetings and presentations. You’re more likely to prevent tension by giving your team direction and purpose. Wandering off-topic or addressing tangential issues are sometimes preludes to unproductive arguments. Set time limits for discussions if necessary.

3 – Maintain an uncomplicated team hierarchy, and make reporting relationships public. Dotted line and matrix reporting structures hold significant potential to stir up problems, so keep an eye on them for the first signs of trouble. When possible, assign people that are known to work well together.

4 – Don’t assume that every disagreement is part of a larger issue. Project team members—just like any other group of professionals—will have different viewpoints and opinions on how tasks should be carried out. As long as progress continues and issues are handled professionally and for the betterment of the project, allow your team to work out garden variety disagreements on their own.

5 – If issues do arise, address them head on. Speak plainly and candidly with those involved. Some issues may be awkward, but your efforts won’t pay off if you attempt to sidestep the central problem. Remember to always discuss the matter privately—the rest of the team likely has an idea that friction exists, but there’s no need to feed the gossip mill.

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

• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• Project Management in a Down Economy

Projects of every size and in any industry may sometimes require regulatory oversight or approval. Working with a regulatory body has the potential to affect every facet of your project, from where documents are archived to how long a particular activity must take.

Regulatory oversight may seem daunting at first, but some basic research and preparation will go a long way toward making your project successful.

What information do you need? The following breakdown is by no means all-inclusive, but it will give you a good starting point.

Who

Contractors with particular licenses or certifications; regulatory inspectors, reviewers, and other contacts; internal team members with specific responsibilities (life safety, insurance, licenses, etc.); vendors able to provide agency-approved goods (equipment, tools, chemicals) and services (storage, cleaning, documentation).

What

Scope of oversight; text of codes and regulations; documentation that must be posted, submitted, filed, stored, signed or discarded; requirements for insurance, licenses, certifications, insurance and training.

When

Deadlines for requests for information; expiration of permits, certificates or licenses; actions that must be completed in sequence or require mid-project review and approval; limits on the types of activities that can be completed concurrently.

Where

Locations for meetings, tests, procedures, reviews, inspections, and the submittal of documents or data; storage requirements for documentation, equipment, test results, chemicals and other materials.

How

Approved procedures; deviation reports; requests for information; submittal of data; signatures required on internal and external forms; recordkeeping and reporting requirements; security of data, computers, software platforms and documents; restrictions on quantities of chemicals and other materials.

Now that you have an idea of the information you’re looking for, it’s time to begin your research.

Visit the regulatory body’s Web site. Review online copies of the regulations or codes, and sign up to be notified when changes are made. Consider ordering a hard copy of the current regulations, so your team can reference a single common information source. Depending on the agency, you may also be able to find a list of recent actions. The results of past inspections, pending permit requests and recently completed projects are all good learning tools.

Network within the client’s industry. Others have likely dealt with the same regulatory requirements, and can help you understand them and their potential impact. If you’re able to find local contacts experienced in dealing with regulators, all the better – regulatory agencies often have regional offices, with inspectors or reviewers responsible for your particular area. Familiarizing yourself with the working style and expectations of the local regulators will put you a step ahead.

Ask the client. If you’re comfortable approaching your client, you can learn a great deal by examining past projects completed under the same regulations. Review the documentation, deliverables, and results; become familiar with the potential impact to your project’s schedule as a result of necessary inspections, leadtime for onsite regulatory visits, availability of specialty contractors, and activities or processes that require a set period of time to complete; make note of any can’t-miss deadlines; identify internal resources; and plan for outside experts you may need to involve.

Look for industry and professional associations. Locate groups that are comprised of companies frequently under the same regulatory oversight as your new project. These organizations often maintain information on the status of regulations and recent developments, and can provide you with additional resources. Their members have a deep knowledgebase of past projects – be sure to ask about projects that failed, or were significantly hampered by incorrect actions or poor decisions. Understanding how to avoid these situations will teach you a great deal about managing your project correctly from start to finish.

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

http://www.pm-alliance.com

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Decentralize Your Thinking

A team’s strength often lies in the diversity of its members – a range of experience, expertise and personalities work together to successfully execute a project. By embracing the diversity of your team and looking to the expertise of your fellow team members, you’ll increase your personal knowledgebase for future projects, you’ll have ready access to an expert source the next time you need one, and your current project will benefit from a broader support base.

Industry

Team members with significant expertise in the current industry are a critical component of your team. They can offer insight into industry trends, normal company growth metrics, project budgeting quirks, and impacts of regulatory oversight. It’s also likely your expert will have a more robust list of contacts and resources who are accustomed to getting things done in the industry.

Discipline

Face it, you may not be terrific at everything. From communication to documentation to estimating, it’s likely that your personality and your past experience lend themselves to some disciplines and not to others. If something on your current project’s list of requirements isn’t your strong suit, it’s time to tap the other members of your team. Some folks are naturally drawn to certain aspects of project management, and objectively determining the strengths of each team member will give your project better support.

Niche areas

Your project may require specialized skills or expertise due to complexity, scope, stakeholder expectations or other factors. Tapping into the capabilities of your team members can fill a void you’d normally need to outsource, potentially saving the project both time and money.

Gather information on team members’ strengths and areas of expertise at the beginning of each project, so you know which resources you have available in-house. You can then track down outside experts to fill any remaining holes.

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

• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders
• 6 Steps to Being a Good Mentor
• 4 Project Management Tips for “Scattered Team” Success
• Project Management Teamwork : When Good Confrontation Goes Bad
• Project Management: Three Important Tips for Better Business Writing
• Project Firefighting – Lessons Learned from Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow
• Project Management Tips: Regulatory Oversight 101

Forms and templates are the foundation for many types of project documents. Rather than putting unnecessary effort into creating new forms for each project, the use of existing forms and templates can streamline your project’s documentation requirements, and allow your team to focus on higher-level objectives. A variety of resources are available to you when looking for ready-made forms, and a few simple tips will help keep your project’s momentum moving forward when truly custom forms are needed.

Save time by leveraging the work that others have done, and use pre-made forms or templates when possible. The supply of ready-to-use forms is vast, and you’re likely to find exactly what you need for the majority of applications. Remember, though, to respect copyright laws. Whether you search the web or peruse one of the many available template books, always look for materials that are copyright-free, or whose copyright allows for unrestricted use.

If your team has already created a similar form for use on a previous project, why not repurpose it for today’s need? Existing templates for checklists, memos and reports can often be applied to new projects with little or no modification. This practice also helps to maintain document continuity from project to project, making future research easier for project team members while also presenting stakeholders and end users with information in a familiar format.

You’ll occasionally encounter the need for new or unique forms. To avoid the possibility that multiple team members will each create their own version – often resulting in several forms circulating through your team and potentially causing conflicts or confusion – it’s wise to designate one person to manage all project-based templates. This helps to ensure your team’s documentation is clear, organized, and in a standardized format, and also facilitates master template storage in one always-available location.

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

• Project Management Documentation Tips: Clear, Concise & Relevant
• Project Management : The Power of the Checklist
• Documentation Tips: Archival
• Conducting a Useful Post Mortem Analysis
• Confronting Challenges by Adding a Project Management Consulting Firm to Your Team
• Software is a Tool, Not the Answer to Project Planning & Control
• 4 Ways to Stay Fresh During a Long Project
• 6 Tips to Tame the E-mail Monster
• 5 Ways to Defend Your Project Budget
• 5 Strategies to Persuade On-the-fence Stakeholders