Posted on 17 August, 2008 by duardo
| Quality reporting is one of the fundamentals to a successful delivery and without it the wheels of your project will come off. |
|
However there is no one size fits all solution. Every Project Manager and every project develops its own style, some like to keep it loose and vague taking the approach that “you can’t be hit if you can’t be seen”, while others see real benefit in tailoring and controlling messages sent outside of the project team. Whatever your approach, project stakeholders, particularly the ones paying the bills will insist on seeing regular reports.
In PRINCE2 this is the Highlight Report. The report facilitates the regular communication between the Project Manager and the Project Board and is used to monitor progress and track issues / risks. It draws heavily from the internal checkpoint reports and the project logs and its an important perception management tool for the Project Manager.
HINT: project teams usually find reporting painful as they are usually focused on what their believe they were recruited for – delivery of products - however a little bit of regular reporting can set the stage for a strong defence if and when the project comes under fire – if an environment where profit is at stake – these PRINCE2 Highlight Reports, when done correctly, are usually worth more than their weight in gold.
Filed under: PRINCE2, Templates | Tagged: communications management, portfolio management, PRINCE2, Programme Management, Project Management, reporting, Templates | Leave a Comment »
Posted on 14 August, 2008 by duardo
The Six Fundamentals of Success
I only carry one professional development book in my briefcase…
…and its not a book on project management lore. It’s looking a little tatty these days but it’s been around the world with me, in airports, planes, trains, trams and taxis. I don’t read it all the time, just occasionally when i’m in a reflective mood and feel the need to reflect on my professional work.
The full title of the book is “The Six Fundamentals of Success: The Rules for Getting It Right for Yourself and Your Organization”, by Stuart Levine. It’s a small, notebook-sized, common sense book with short, sharp and targeted rules to remind you of the professional fundamentals you needs to get right on a daily basis to achieve the bigger picture.
I love the structure of the book, each rule (there are about 20 per fundamental) is presented in a short 2-3 page brief, which is the perfect format for the time-poor, thoughtful project manager. One of my personal favorite take-away is “Stop Financial Hemorrhaging” which is under “Fundamental #1: Make Sure You Add Value”, golden advice for project managers and a worthy reminder when you have some spare time on the plane.
If you’re not currently toting a book like this around and in the market for one, I can recommend this one.
- Publisher: Doubleday Business; Rev Upd edition (February 21, 2006)
- Language: English
- Cost: USD $13.57
- Available from amazon.com – The Six Fundamentals of Success
Filed under: Top Books | Tagged: book review, books, business, inspiration, motivation, self-help | 1 Comment »
Posted on 11 August, 2008 by duardo
| The PRINCE2 stage plan plays a key role in the Project Manager’s OODA loop (decision making) cycle by allowing for continual refinement of the project plan. |
|
The OODA Loop is a concept originated by military strategist Col. John Boyd of the United States Air Force and has become an important concept in both business and military strategy. According to Boyd, decision-making occurs in a cycle of observe-orient-decide-act. An individual or an organization can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby “get inside” the opponent’s decision cycle and gain a military or business advantage.
In terms of project delivery, the OODA loop can be applied to keep the project flexible and responsive to a ever-changing environment by ensuring that planning occurs throughout the project lifecycle. While detailed planning prior to starting stage 1 is always a good idea, the plan needs to remain flexible in order to remain adaptable to changing or new requirements that appear mid-project or from lessons learned from the previous stage.
By using stage plans in your project, this allows the PM to review previous planning, Observe the current environment, Orient the project team, Decide on the best course of action and finally Act (thereby returning to observe the new environment created by the previous action).
This constant refining on the project plan through the stages enables a more controlled outcome.
Filed under: PRINCE2 | Tagged: OODA Loop, PRINCE2, Programme Management, Project Management, stage plan | 1 Comment »
PRINCE2
project management