My grandpa worked at the same company from the time he graduated high school to the time he retired. His loyalty was rewarded with promotions, raises, and respect from his colleagues and the higher-ups. His story isn’t really unique to his generation, but it’s unique to ours. Working a “nine to five” schedule for one…

As project managers, we depend on certain tools to help steer our teams and our projects. Last year, PCMag rolled out a survey to their readers on which of these management and collaboration tools were the best. The results are in and guess what? MS Project came in second as the best tool for keeping…

Introduction The core technique available to Project Managers for planning and controlling their projects is Network Analysis. This short guide will provide a basic understanding of networking principles before applying them. Network Analysis, Critical Path Analysis (CPA), or the American “Program, Evaluation, and Review Technique” (PERT) is one of the classic methods of planning and…

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.” – English proverb Missed deadlines. Project over budget. Irate, disappointed stakeholders. Team members home sick at “crunch time.” Sweating yet? If you’re a project manager, these issues are probably enough to strike fear in your heart. Murphy ’s Law suggests “what can go wrong, will go wrong,”…

Having been a project manager for all of my working life and now a teacher of project management skills for more than a decade, I always tell my students to follow sound project management principles and to manage risks proactively. Proactive project risk management is integral part of project management. In fact, I think good…

  The Day I Knew I Was One… Ironically, it was while managing a program to provide upgraded yurts to nomadic people in Southwest China. I realized that after almost 40 years of doing this type of work, I’d become as nomadic as those on the Tibetan plateau that I was trying to help—only perhaps…

In my last article, I covered four misconceptions about critical path. Now, I’ll be going through some of the mechanics of finding the critical path in a project, so that you have a better understanding how it evolves. Keep in mind that Microsoft Project’s software performs similar calculations. Manipulation of the network sequence diagram involves…

Most non-technical people don’t know what the critical path is; whereas, those that work on IT projects know what it means at a high level, but have few insights into the actual mechanics of it—and how quickly it can change the outcome of their projects! The truth is that there are many misconceptions about the…

Frederick P. Brooks Jr., in his famous book, The Mythical Man-Month, wrote, “Adding human resources to a late software project makes it later.” His statement is popularly known as Brooks’ law. Even before the book was published, project managers and other project stakeholders knew that project duration cannot always be shortened by adding more resources….

More Ways to Separate your Project into Manageable Chunks In Part 1 of my article “Split It Out,” we looked at ways to separate projects task into smaller parts or pieces that are more controllable. Let’s look together at a few more areas that can be split out for project success!     Partnering it…