Other Posts Archives - Page 12 of 21

Project management and communications

It’s easy to get swallowed by project management tools. It’s easy to feel that we can get all the information we need from a piece of software.

But it’s not true.

If you want to know how well a project is going, take your team to lunch. They will tell you more about the project than any statistic. While you’re sitting at the table with your team, take a look at their non-verbal behavior. Are they happy to be together? Are they talking to each other? Are they just sitting there, waiting for lunch to end?

How your team interacts together will show if they are getting along and where there might be personality clashes. Moreover, the general mood of the team is a good indicator of the project’s status.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-11-25T13:13:00-05:002008-11-25|

Go Ahead, Manage contributes to PM Hut

We’ve published an article on PM Hut, one of the web’s leading blogs on project management: 10 Signs That You Should Give Up on Your Project

It outlines my ten things to look out for in failing projects. I hope you enjoy it!

About PM Hut

PM Hut currently is highly praised in top Project Management blogs, and has the best Project Managers in the world as contributors http://www.pmhut.com/project-management-authors for a list of all contributors). PM Hut is currently the #1 Project Management Blog on blogged.com: http://www.blogged.com/search/project%20management.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-11-20T14:19:00-05:002008-11-20|

Presenting at DSI 2008

Melinda Cline, a university teacher who has been teaching with AceProject, will be presenting a paper at next Sunday at DSI 2008: Using AceProject to Improve Student Learning in MIS Courses.

If you are in Baltimore next weekend, be sure to stop at the Marriot Waterfront Hotel and go listen to her story.

From the Decision Sciences Institute’s Web site:

“Everyone makes decisions. Members of the Decision Science Institute (DSI) approach decision making as a science. Our domain of application is not limited to a particular type of institution, industry, functional area, or discipline, but is all inclusive of decision making in general.”

A big thanks to Melinda who has worked very hard on putting that paper together!

By Daniel Raymond|2008-11-17T14:57:00-05:002008-11-17|

Don’t kill your audience with PowerPoint poisonning

I do a lot of presentations in my job: product demos and user training fall under my responsibility. I love it, because it’s never the same. Each client is different, so I adapt my show based on their needs.

I almost never use PowerPoint.

Why never use PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is too easy to abuse. When you abuse PowerPoint, it poisons your audience. PowerPoint poisoning is not pretty: people’s eyes glaze over, some fall asleep, many will start doodling on their meeting agendas or fiddling with their phones.

PowerPoint abuse happens when people put what they will say in the slides. When they give the presentation, they read their slides.

The problem with this is redundancy. The human eye can read much faster than the human mouth can speak. So, by the time you even start reading the slide, your audience has already finished reading it. What interest should they have in you? All the information is right there on the screen, in the hand-out.

And that’s exactly when PowerPoint poisoning begins.

The presenter talks and no one listens. Her voice becomes part […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-11-10T13:35:00-05:002008-11-10|

International Project Management Day

Yesterday was International Project Management Day. Surprised? Me too! I only found out at the end of the day, by chance.

Having a day to promote project management is a good idea, it’s a great opportunity to discuss project management and promote best practices.

Already quite a few states in the USA have adopted International Project Management Day. However, it’s turning into a project management week. Some states celebrate it on November 1st, others November 2nd, and yet another state has a project management week. The official date for International Project Management Day is the first Thursday of November.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-11-06T21:40:00-05:002008-11-06|

What the client wants, needs, and asks for: it’s up to you to find out!

I’m sure most of you have had this situation when they deliver a product:

Situation 1: What the client wants and what the client asks for are two different things

Client: It’s really nice, but that’s not what I wanted

Supplier: This product was built to meet the specifications you gave us.

Client: Yes, but that not what I want.

Supplier: …

Situation 2: What the client needs and what the client asks for are two different things

Client: This product is great, but it’s not doing what I need it to do.

Supplier: We built the product you wanted.

Client: I know, but it turns out I need the product to do something different

Supplier: ???

What do you do?

Now, you end up with a dilemma in these situations: should you rebuild the product so it does what the client wants/needs, at you cost, or at their cost?

After all, you built a product to meet their specs, and it’s not your fault if it’s not what they really wanted.

Or is it?

What should you have done?

As the project manager, you should have made sure you […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-11-03T15:31:00-05:002008-11-03|

5 ways to involve your client in your projects

When managing a project, it’s important not to lose sight with who you’re working for. Your client is not always an actual customer. Not always the person who pays for the project, your client can also be the person who will use the product or service you are making. For example, if you’re reorganizing archives at your work, the client could be those who need to search the archives: administrative and customer service teams.

It can be quite disheartening to deliver something that disappoints the client. After all, you worked hard on that project, and you would like people to be impressed. If you want to make sure your client is happy with your work, involve them from the start, and keep them involved all the way through.

Start from a client request
A project for the sake of a project is useless. Find something that someone needs, and do it. Most organizations have wish lists where clients or other employees contribute; they are a great starting place.

Right from the start
Even before you start planning your project, contact […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-10-31T18:57:00-04:002008-10-31|

The apple of frustration never gets eaten

A while ago we went grocery shopping at a different shop than our usual place. It’s surprising how we get used to a specific customer experience.

Long story short, we were confronted with rules that seemed illogical in the purchasing of apples. It made our experience at this store negative, and we are very unlikely to shop there again.

A few days later, we bought more apples from our regular store, and the experience seemed even better, because of the frustration we experienced at the other store.

Which apples do you think were eaten first?

We kept looking at the “apples of frustration” and just didn’t want to eat them. The apples themselves were fine, but the memory of buying them was so negative that it spilled on the product.

In the end, we ate those apples, but not before all the other options were exhausted.

Do you want to be that choice?

How people interact with you influences how they see your product. If their experience with your organization is good, they will see your product favorably, maybe even better than […]

By Daniel Raymond|2008-10-29T14:53:00-04:002008-10-29|

Eveyrone thinks about dealines, but what about effort?

When planning a project, we think about how long it will take to complete it. This is what we ask our team members: how long for you to code this module/wire this house/print these brochures?

We forget how hard it will be, how much effort we will have to put into the task to complete it.

It may take 3 days for paint to dry, but there is not much effort involved in this.
It may take 3 days to code a module, for a team of 3 developers who will have to rewrite part of the software core to make it work.

Same duration, different effort.

If something has a high level of difficulty and requires a lot of effort, the risk of delay is much greater, and you should plan for it in your schedule, that is, how long you allow for the task to be completed.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-10-27T14:53:00-04:002008-10-27|

Irritants should be your first priority

I tried to print a fax today. In Windows Vista’s Picture Viewer.

No can do. Vista sees my .tif file as an image, and tries to print is in landscape orientation. There was nothing I could do to change it. This highly aggravated. Vista was getting in the way of getting things done, a big no-no for tools – tools should help you get things done, not prevent you from that.

I turned to Vista’s help with no luck, and googled my problem. Lo an behold, I found several forum threads on that very subject.

The solution: download a fax viewer that works.

I am so irritated that I will download the software. If I could entirely replace Vista’s picture viewer feature, I would.

Don’t be like Vista. Don’t get in the way of your client’s work.

By Daniel Raymond|2008-10-21T18:36:00-04:002008-10-21|