Tag Archives: Project Management

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5 Great Project Management Books of 2012

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USACE Louisville District project manager shows heat pump

Project management is an important concept in any business. It is the process in which projects are formulated, executed and implemented in almost every business environment. Whether you are a project management expert or simply want to learn more about the techniques used in successful projects, finding the right resources is important. If you are interested in reading more about project management, here are five of the best project management books of 2012. This list is based on Amazon sales and recommendations from project management professionals. The titles range in use from the average manger to the serious project management professional.

Managing Your First Project: Project Management Quick Start by Thomas Ghantt

Many times in business, a person will find themselves managing a project without having taken traditional college courses on project management. This book provides a comprehensive guide on managing your first project, whether you have years of classwork behind you or not. The techniques discussed in the book can be applied to small project such as nonprofit events for local churches or schools or can also be applied in a business setting. The tools and techniques taught in the book will help anyone figure out what they need to do to get a group to reach a common goal.

Agile Project Management for Dummies by Mark C. Layton

As with any book that is part of the Dummies series, this book takes the reader through Agile project management and breaks it down to its simplest form. This book offers step-by-step guides to the techniques and approaches to project management. The book also provides information on the tools necessary to have successful and quick project implementation. The book also explains when Agile should and should not be used and how project managers can avoid the most common pitfalls when it comes to Agile project management.

Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction by Chris Sims and Hillary Louise Johnson

If you are looking for a quick overview of Agile and Scrum management, this is the perfect pocket sized guide. This introduction helps managers understand the basics of Scrum and Agile development without getting into the minute details of these processes. If you do not use Scrum on every project, this is the perfect guide for the occasional need.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK(R) Guide by Project Management Institute

If someone is training as a project manager and needs a guide to help them study for and pass their PMP exam, this is a must-have title. This guide is consistently updated with the latest project management concepts and information. The guide provides a comprehensive structure of project management and the tools needed to execute the concepts.

An Introduction to Project Management, Fourth Edition by Kathy Scwalbe

This comprehensive introduction to the topic, written by a Ph.D. professor, is an essential read for anyone looking to begin studying the topic of project management. The book includes up to date information based on the latest PMBOK Guide, a 60-day free trial of MatchWare’s MindView Business software and a guide to using Microsoft Project 2010. The book also provides plenty of real world examples of each topic covered in the book.

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Darla Collins is a project manager and guest author at Top Management Degrees. Click here to read her latest work about online masters in project management degree programs.

Friday Snippet, News, Observations, Project Management Communications, Project Management Lessons Learned

Council signs saying what we are all thinking – Friday snippet

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Whilst walking the dog recently I came across a new sign in the cemetery – now it may not sound like the best place to walk the pooch but there is a rather lovely “outer” walkway which is very popular for dog walkers and families, a must for town centres! The sign is an official council notice, but rather than signs of times past which might state; “Dogs must be kept on leads at all times” and “£xxx fine for dog fouling” etc this sign says so much more. On reading it initially I thought, wow that can’t be official but I also completely agree with it. From factual to explaining why we should comply actually struck a chord with me – perhaps a new way of reasoning with those who consistently break the rules.

I am one of few responsible dog owners that always cleans up after my dog and always has him under control. I do “tut” a lot at owners who let their dogs run a mock over graves and do swear under my breath when I step into faeces (who doesn’t right!).

I can see this approach to tapping into people’s consciences to deter bad behaviour could really work. Similar to project communications – we are often told not to do this or must do that but how often is there an explanation for the reasons behind the “rules” in place?

I have worked with a fair few colleagues and stakeholders who didn’t want to rock the boat by pushing back on decision makers and asking why!?

As much as we encourage questions and expect them – it doesn’t usually happen that way, so why not take a different approach to working and talk about reasons / affects as much as you would benefits!

financial reporting, Negotiation, Project Management, Project Management Communications, Project planning

What could possibly go wrong? Irrational fears

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We’ve all had a nightmare at work at some point and project management in its own right is probably home to more war stories than most professions – but how does this affect our lives and perceptions moving forward? For most of us, we learn from our experiences and carry a great deal of battle scars which tend to make us a little more wary if not more prepared when venturing into a new challenge, however sometimes we can let our thoughts and actions go into overdrive and start having irrational fears.

I will share with you an irrational fear I used to have when I worked for a large blue chip business. On a Monday morning – I was tasked with gathering the weekly financial data for output of all the European manufacturing sites. Once I had all the data I had to produce a report of all the figures for a meeting with the heads of sites, company president and other senior managers’. So as you can imagine – this was a task which could not be put to the back of the “to do” list, in all fairness I found the task a bit of a bore but also knew the importance of having the report ready an hour before the video conferencing. I would contact all of the logistics managers across the manufacturing sites every Monday with a friendly email reminder, followed by a call for those who still hadn’t sent over their reports. Now I don’t want to single out a particular site but there was one which was notoriously late with their reports, in fact they were so bad that I would have called at least 3 times after the initial email which never generated a response. I would be patched through to various departments on each call and basically told that the relevant staff had gone for lunch. Sometimes this was mid morning (even with the time difference), so it became a bit of a joke that this site were basically always eating. This is where my irrational fear came about – as I got it in the neck for my report being late and it was always this site which made me late (despite many meetings /conversations and discussions trying to clarify what the issue was at their end) that I began to believe that they were in fact all sat eating ALL DAY on a Monday.

From then on, I have always been very keen to plan project meetings well ahead of deadlines with the manufacturing site in question – even making up deadlines to be well ahead of the real deadlines in a bid to try and get my projects completed on time; it worked and I did just hit my deadlines on projects but the financial reporting never got in on time from them.

I would love to hear of your irrational fears – whether at work or home, sometimes they can prove to be productive.

Careers Advice, CV Tips, Job Applications, PMO, Project Management, Project management CV, project management resume, Starting out in Project Management, Transferable Skills

Let’s talk about transferable skills – starting out in Project Management

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There’s always a lot of talk about skill-sets and particularly transferable skills; however if you want to transfer your career into the project management field then it is important to highlight the right skills which will be of greatest benefit to you and your potential employer. Now we all know there are differing types of project management roles from support through to managing and there are also more technical PM roles too – not just IT, they may be construction / engineering etc where you need to have a good knowledge of the field as well as PM methods to be successful in delivering benefits. So I am going to cover some key transferable skills for the PM aspect not any specific industry based element, here are a few to consider:

  • Investigating – Researching and questioning why? Key components to any good PM professional, being able to push back with quantifiable evidence is required even more now that funding is tight and projects benefits really do need to be explored thoroughly before starting off another project.
  • Planning – Planning / scheduling projects, predicting outcomes / scenarios, organising events and preparing for tasks – it’s a must!
  • Leadership – Core requirement for any good Project Manager and comes in very handy for Programme Support professionals too.
  • Influencing – The ability to gain buy-in is a big requirement for PM professionals, whether it’s from senior management, external (or internal stakeholders), sponsors or suppliers – you need to be able to persuade and encourage others.
  • Teamwork – Proving you can bond with others and build a strong force which produces results is key to successful project delivery.
  • Problem solving – Taking different viewpoints and exploring solutions is a big part of PM, from understanding workstream leads other commitments to supplier issues.
  • Budgeting – At some point you with be either managing your own budget or monitoring budgets on projects in a support element.
  • Decision making – The ability to look at your options and actually pick a way forward is crucial especially in a critical situation.
  • Training – Working with others either as a manager (PM) to mentor and train people in the project team or as a support person (PMO) to train others in various aspects of the project lifecycle such as risk management etc through workshops and 1 2 1 engagement.
  • Organising – From coordinating teams and individuals, arranging meetings and resources to scheduling.
  • Time management – Meeting deadlines and setting priorities are the core factors of project management and being on time is a given.
  • Creating – Not always highlighted as a core skill for PMs but in my experience of delivering projects, inventing, originating, designing or composing play a big part to success.

Now you can use this as a starting guide to performing a skills audit – once you have a list of transferable skills, you then need to provide some good examples of each skill (where you have used them / how / outcomes etc). These will help you form a basis for applications to project management jobs.