Tag: project management
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How to manage work
This article was written in response to a question from a 3rd year Computer Science student and it uses terms familiar to that domain. However the principles it puts forward are generally applicable and should be useful to any reader. What is “work”? “Work” is a verb, it doing something to create a Deliverable and it…
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Why is it often more difficult to manage a small project than a large one?
Ian Mitchell asks on Linkedin. I have spent the last 20 years a freelance consultant managing small hi-tech projects in large and small organisations. Examples include, satellite communications systems and integration of mail campaigns with data warehouses. Characteristics of small projects, the project manager is assigned 1 – 2 days/week people in your team will frequently also…
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Books on innovation
Continuing my theme of useful books. Here a couple of very valuable books about managing innovation. The Lean Start-up Business Model Generation
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The philosophy of project management
I think that this book is a very interesting discussion of the essential, as opposed to accidental nature of project management. It is quite heavy but if you have managed several projects you will recognise many of the truths it presents. Aramis, or the Love of Technology Bruno Latour
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Who cleans the toilets at Valve Corporation?
There is recently been some press coverage of Valve Corporation which famously has no bosses. As a management consultant I spent most of my working days putting in hierarchal management systems to support a company’s growth. Therefore I am very interested in Valve’s management model. Valve is a very successful company, therefore the question naturally…
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SCRUM, PRINCE2 and ElephantPM
I have received several questions recently about how agile project management methodologies such as SCRUM can be used with deliverable-centric methodologies such as PRINCE2 or ElephantPM. ElephantPM is similar to PRINCE2 but is tailored for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). Whereas ElephantPM is a generic methodology that can be used for almost any project,…
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Choosing Manual Scheduled or Autoscheduled in Microsoft Project
A Microsoft Project task has many options and I am often asked how to choose the correct ones, Task Mode can be, “Auto Scheduled” or “Manual Scheduled” and task Type can be “Fixed Work”, “Fixed Units” or “Fixed Duration”. and Auto Scheduled tasks can be Effort Driven (or not) You can display these parameters for…
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A review of JavaScript drawing libraries for flowcharts, Gantt charts and timelines
Overview I manage my projects using my own ElephantPM project management methodology. This is a similar in many ways to PRINCE2 but is greatly simplified so that it is suitable for use by smaller organisations. My needs ElephantPM divides the Start-up stage into an analysis step and a planning step. During the analysis step it…
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How to build a 100 m skyscraper in 30 days
In the past I worked in project management in the construction industry and having seen the traditional process I find the idea of modular and factory building very attractive. Here is a video from a leading Chinese exponent. It is also a really interesting example of business model design. Mr Broad made air conditioning systems…
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The difference between “policy” and “strategy”
I am writing a book on project management (ElephantPM) and I have been looking for a succinct explanation of the difference between “policy” and “strategy”. The project management function itself is operational (project managers have line managers and do the same thing everyday) and is governed by the organization’s Project Management Policy. However, projects themselves…
Dr James Bayley 