Project Management Best Practices

Article: A Simple Lessons Learned Meeting That Pays Big Dividends

Tue, 15 May 2012 09:26:09 -0600

A "quick and dirty" lessons learned process can not only improve the project manager’s performance but also provide an opportunity to help executives and team members play their roles more effectively. Read about how to structure the sessions to keep is short, avoid conflicts and unearth lessons to improve future projects

Article: What the heck is a Project Management Office (PMO). How different types of PMOs work and how to work with them without getting eaten alive.

Tue, 1 May 2012 08:05:44 -0600

Many organizations are using project management offices (PMOs) to calm the chaos where project manages are fighting each other for people and the team members don't know what to work on first. The PMO can organize and standardize the processes used to initiate, plan, schedule and track projects and solve problems. Some PMOs help executives prioritize projects and even allocate resources. Knowing what kind of PMO you have to work with and how to get the most out of the PMO can be a lifesaver.

Video Lecture: Getting a Good Start with a New Sponsor

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:59:35 -0600

That first session with a new sponsor can determine the project's success. Getting off to a good start requires that you talk persuasively about how the executive and project manager should work together. Getting the roles straight and processes understood is critical

Real World Project Management: Getting Good Status Data

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:38:02 -0600

Hike the shore of a barrier island off the South Carolina coast as Dick discusses how to gather good status data from your team members. He'll also describe techniques to avoid having the team hide problems until it's too late for you to fix them. That makes good project status reports and projects that finish on time and within budget.

Video: The Right & Wrong Way to Resolve Project Team Conflict

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:51:28 -0600

Watch a project manager walk into a bitter team conflict that has brought work to a stop. The PM uses the wrong techniques for conflict resolution and makes things worse. Hear Dick Billows, PMP's analysis of the flaws. Then see the same situation where the project manager uses good techniques and gets everybody back to work on their deliverables.

Fighting off the Sponsor from Hell & Building Your Project Team's Commitment to Estimates

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:40:53 -0600

In this video you will see a project manager working with her team to develop estimates using the best practices in project management. Specifically, she is using three point estimates which give her not only accurate numbers but also some statistics on the likelihood of being over or under the estimates. Everything is going famously until the project sponsor comes in and wants to really squeeze the team's estimates so the project finishes early. See how she handles it.

Launching the Project from Hell: An Executive & PM Doom a Project to Failure

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:48:54 -0600

First watch a sponsor and PM conduct the worst launch meeting in the history of project management. Then listen to the project team members privately describe their reaction to the meeting. Finally, listen to an analysis by Dick Billows, PMP about what went wrong.

Article: Risk Management Techniques Projects

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 08:36:46 -0600

A few minutes of risk management can pay big dividends on even the smallest projects. We can identify risks, analyze them and plan ways to avoid or mitigate them over a lunch. Take a look at these bear-bone risk management techniques without a lot of paper work.

Article with Video: What did the PM do Wrong in This Planning Meting?

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:29:03 -0600

Watch the video of a PM and 5 team members planning a project and spot the PM's mistakes. See the PM deal with each team member's assignment and cope with the sponsor "sticking his head in." Then listen to private interviews and hear what the team members really thought about the planning meeting and listen to their level of commitment to their estimates. The listen to Dick Billows' analysis of the PM's work.

Communicating With Your Team Effectively

Tue, 6 Mar 2012 13:29:39 -0700

Watch the video to learn about adapting your communications style to "fit" each team member's personality and get better commitment and clear communication.

How Many Tasks Should I Have in My Work Breakdown Structure? Article & Video

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:27:13 -0700

Article and video on how to build the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Project managers often ask us how big the WBS should be. This article and video answers that question and shows you how to do it. Watch a PM meet with his team and define the WBS the right way.

Video: Hike the Critical Path and DiscusProject Tracking with Graphic Status Reports

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:36:34 -0600

Communicating with stakeholders and sponsors effectively requires that project managers use easily understood visuals that communicate project status. The tracking Gantt chart lets everyone see where the problems and opportunities are quickly. It also makes it easy to explain your options for corrective action.

Estimating with Your Project Team: 3-Point Estimates

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:25:32 -0700

When a project team is committed to their work and time estimates, it significantly increases the odds of finishing on time. The 3-point technique for estimating helps you get that commitment with a proven team process and also gives you more accurate numbers for scheduling.

Fix a Dysfunctional Project Team

Mon, 6 Feb 2012 14:37:52 -0700

Dysfunctional project teams can cause major overruns and project duration and budget. There are techniques that project managers can you to salvage dysfunctional project team and turned into a high performing project team

Project Scope Creep Video: You Don't Always have to Say NO

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:08:52 -0700

Trying to fight every change to a project doesn't work. Even if the customer doesn't ram the change down your throat, they are still unhappy with the project and with you. Watch a video of a project manager trying to fight a change and failing. Then see him handle the change correctly, with narration by Dick Billows, PMP, CEO of 4PM.com

Project Planning: How to Screw it Up and How to Do it Right

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:42:26 -0700

Project Manager in Action: Watch a video lecture and then see a project manager start planning with a sponsor, get eaten alive and begin work with no defined scope. Then see the PM try it again, using best planning practices, and produce a crystal clear scope definition.

537 Ways to Screw Up a Project:

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:01:24 -0700

Our project managers have fun in a comedy video about PMs and team members preparing for a big project status meeting. See micro-managing PMs frantically hiding problems, team members pointing fingers at each others, sleazy execs maneuvering for political advantage, IT staff with a million BS excuses and HR people back-stabbing Sales to avoid blame. See all the things NOT to do.

How To: Select Project Software

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 07:21:57 -0700

There are thousand of project software packages on the web, in the cloud or installed on your PC. Here is how to pick the right package for the kind of projects you manage.

Project How To’s: Spotting Problems Early

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:02:45 -0700

A few prudent steps during project planning can make all the difference. Do you want to be regularly surprised by problems when it is too late to fix them or do you want to spot problems early and fix them before they mushroom?

Article: Critical Path: The Easy Way to Shorten Project Duration

Tue, 6 Dec 2011 12:24:18 -0700

Critical path analysis is a simple and easy-to-use technique to shorten the project duration. Read this simple story to understand how it works and to see how easy it is to apply.

Article: Estimating Techniques You Can Use Throughout the Project

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:30:53 -0700

Project managers should use this four-stage estimating technique to give executives good data about the project's duration and cost. We cover initial estimates when the project is in initiation. Then we discuss weekly rolling estimates of estimating the completion date for each week's status report.

Article: Assignment Work Packages: a Simple Tool to Improve Performance

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:53:59 -0700

The assignment work package is a simple tool that improves the clarity of project assignments and at the same time increases the level of team member commitment to their estimates.

Article: A One Page Project Charter Yields Early Problem Solving

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:23:14 -0700

Chartering a project correctly doesn't take much time and yields big dividends by letting us solve problems about resource availability, project objectives and risks.

Article: Building the WBS with Deliverables Not "To Do" lists

Wed, 9 Nov 2011 04:42:58 -0700

The work breakdown structure provides the foundation for project control and gives the project manager checkpoints against which to measure progress. But if we adopt a "to do"list approach we lose both those tools.

Article: A Simple Lessons Learned Process That Pays Big Dividends

Tue, 1 Nov 2011 11:54:16 -0600

A “quick and dirty” lessons learned process can not only improve the project manager’s performance but also provide an opportunity to help executives and team members play their roles more effectively.

Techniques for Leading your Team:

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:00:22 -0600

Watch this video of a PM dealing with a situation where a team member has been pulled off the project and assigned elsewhere. In the first video, we see the PM use a technique that does not fit the personality of the team member. The result is complete failure. Next watch an analysis and then see the PM do it the right way, using the right technique for the team member.

Handling Requests to Finish Earlier

Wed, 5 Oct 2011 12:32:02 -0600

Project managers handle requests to finish earlier all the time. But all too often the PM handles t hem incorrectly and winds us with unhappy customers or a conflict that gets escalated to upper management. There is a better way as you will see in this video which shows the wrong way and then the correct way to handle these requests to finish earlier.

Video: Interpersonal Techniques; Adapting your Approach to Different Personalities

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 12:26:12 -0600

Dick Billows, PMP, GCA, narrates a video in which we first see a project manager try to handle a problem with a team member. At first, the project manager makes things worse by using bad interpersonal techniques. Then we see him tailor his communications to the team member's personality type with a much more effective result.

Article & Video: Project Estimating for Smaller Projects: Templates & steps for the PM, team and executive

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 09:00:39 -0600

Coming up with good estimates is a challenge for all project managers. We give you the 4 different estimating techniques in the article and the video shows you how to present the estimates to the sponsor.

Video on the Steps in a Project Management Career: Getting into project management, earning an industry-specific certification and PMI certification, then managing multiple projects and executive sponsors.

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:08:03 -0600

Watch the video on rising through the stages of a project management career establishing a track record of on-time, on budget project completions where the deliverables meet expectations. Beyond exceptional performance, earning certifications are critical stepping stones for advancement and successful job hunting.

Build the Right work Breakdown Structure for you Project

Fri, 9 Sep 2011 03:19:27 -0600

A good WBS is not a detailed "To do" list. But too many PMs and executives think all that micro-detail gives them tight control. It actually gives them less control and a schedule that is too detailed to track and keep up to date.

Video: Project Presentations: Using Body Language

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:43:35 -0600

Being an effective presenter is critical to building project support and influencing people; both keys to project success. In our all our classes you make live presentations privately with your instructor over the web. You get a video of your presentation along with your instructor' feedback and comments. Practicing presentations and seeing yourself on film are the best ways to get better. Here is a video we use with students who need to improve their body language. Watch 5 presenters and then listen to commentary on their work by Dick Billows, PMP.

Article & Video: Responding to Project Risks

Wed, 1 Jun 2011 17:38:57 -0600

Project managers respond to risks using one or more of the following strategies: avoidance, mitigation, deflection or as a last resort acceptance with a contingency plan. Learn how to do it.