We Want to Help You Achieve Project Success

When businesses (or non-profits or government agencies) set new goals, they undertake projects to bring those goals into reality. Projects are how strategy gets implemented and new capabilities come into being. 

Therefore project management is becoming increasingly important to organizations everywhere.

Those of us in the profession are constantly seeking ways to be better project managers because business projects are also becoming more challenging -- rapid business change, highly distributed organizations, the need to perform projects in the shortest time possible... (the list goes on). 

ProjectSuccessTips.com is here to help you manage projects more effectively and increase your project success. How?

• We focus on project management success and provide information on how to make that happen. Read our articles on good project management principles and practices (and on things to avoid). 
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• Read our blog for diverse observations, commentary, and reviews on various PM topics. And give us your own views -- we welcome comments. 
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Project Success Tip of the Week  

Plan and Act Based on Facts

During project planning and execution, plan and make decisions based on known facts and agreed-to requirements. Beware of assumptions, guessing, and seat-of-the-pants choices (usually emotional)... using those for project plans and decisions are usually high risk. Instead, make plans and choices based on solid information and rational thinking.

Thinking Like a Risk Manager
Article 4 in a Series on Risk Management
By Glen Alleman

Now that we have a framework to speak about risk management, how exactly are we going to “manage” the project? First, let’s revisit a quote from Tim Lister:

Risk Management is How Adults Manage Projects

My apologies for restating this particular quote so often - but I’m wanting to make a point… Risk management is a significant concern in almost all large projects today. Professional project managers on large projects need to take the concern seriously.

If we’re not managing the project through the processes described previously (in the third article), then I’d say we’re not really managing the project – we’re observing the actions of those doing the work on the project and recording their performance. This is a common behavior for both project managers and stakeholders. It’s a “What I don’t know can’t hurt me” type of management style. 

Is it a wonder why a growing percentage of projects – especially IT projects – are considered troubled?

So what are the specific steps needed to start managing projects as “risk managers”?

1. Install a risk management system. Pick one from the list in article 3 of the series. Pick one of your own, assuming it has most of the attributes of the DoD and SEI frameworks. But have a risk management process. Make it part of the project chartering activities. Make the risk management process part of the corporate and project governance processes. This “governance” approach connects business process with project process. 
2. Identify the risks and have their mitigation or retirement in the project plan. If risk is not visible, addressed, handled, and retired, then you’re not doing risk management. 
3. Have the “risk retirement” chart be part of the weekly or monthly project status report. 

Read the full article