08
Nov
2020
Author: Michael Illsley
24
Jul
2020
Is Everything a Project Now?
Unofficially project management has existed ever since people have been doing projects, even before they were called projects. I’m sure there was someone in charge of building Stonehenge or the pyramids and that they had a some sort of plan, although...
14
May
2020
What Project Management Can Learn From Cooking
Take a look at the two lists below: Lemon Tart6 Eggs125ml Double Cream250g Icing SugarJuice and Zest of 4 Lemons100g Butter175g Flour Automation of Engineering Analysis Functions1 Full Time C++ Software Developer1 Part Time Project Manager1 Development LaptopDepartment Engineering Reference BooksCustomer...
14
Feb
2020
Leaving Project Schedules Alone
While it might be an exaggeration to call a project plan a battle plan, no project plan is ever perfect or will perfectly encompass the project from beginning to end without the need for changes or updates. No battle plan ever...
16
Dec
2019
Questions to Ask when Taking On a New Project
In my experience I have always been too quick to actually start working on new projects. There are a few important steps that I like to go through between saying I will manage a project and I am now managing a...
15
Nov
2019
How to Bring Hidden Projects into the Open
Sometimes projects arise within organisations without being specifically planned as such. Perhaps someone has a good idea that should actually be applied company wide and not just in one department, or maybe a senior manager forces a change at the top...
16
Sep
2019
How to Deal with Uninterested Stakeholders
Every project has stakeholders, yet all stakeholders are not necessarily willing participants in projects. Depending on their importance and influence on a project, uninterested stakeholders can have anything from an irritating to a completely demoralising effect on a project and can...
15
Jul
2019
Planning Your Projects Backwards
In time-limited projects everyone is always looking at the timeline. Departments can start fighting with each other over a few days difference of opinion and things can get out of hand if anyone feels they have been put under more pressure...
15
May
2019
Using KANBANs to give WBS Detail
One of the hardest things to achieve in a project can be a complete list of the project tasks. A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a tool that helps to divide the project into manageable blocks of work, however especially on...
15
Mar
2019
Advanced Risk Management: Planning for the Unexpected
There’s an entire domain of project management that is concerned with planning for events when things don’t go as expected. It is known as risk management and typically involves trying to reduce the impact or probability that an undesirable event takes...
