Lesson learned: Be careful what you measure and how you measure it.
Category: Project objectives / Decision making.
The following post is a “Lesson Learned” that comes from the analysis of the failed projects documented in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” or from the experiences the editorial team have had working with clients around the world. The post is published here to spark discussion and help individuals and organizations think about what it takes to improve project success rates.
I can...
Read More
Blog
And now – A Message TO our Sponsors
The Sponsorship role is perhaps the most important in a project. The Sponsor owns the project and has a direct responsibility for ensuring that the desired business outcomes are achieved. In discussing project failures with people, one of the common complaints I hear is that the Sponsorship role is either non-existent or weak in their organizations. Ownership of projects is often unclear and no one really champions the project within the organization. Project Managers are left holding the baby a...
Read More
Cheese and Onion – Frameworks for Analyzing Project Failure
When it comes to improving success rates, the commercial aviation sector has been one of the most successful. In 1930 taking a commercial flight was risky business. When you board a flight today, the chances of an accident taking your life is about 1 in 30 million. Through rigorous accident investigations and a willingness to challenge every facet of the problem, the industry has continually improved its safety record.
Sadly, success rates for the projects in today's businesses are far worse ...
Read More
Project Initiation – The Kick-Off Canvas
The decisions made during project initiation are among the most critical in a project. They set the direction for the project, establish the project's objectives and establish how the project is to be approached. Mistakes made at this early stage can be fatal. Sadly all too many projects do go wrong at this early stage and once a project has set out on the wrong path it can be difficult to rectify the situation without taking a significant write-down on the efforts and costs made up to that poin...
Read More
The Sink Side of “Sink or Swim”
Lesson learned: Quantify a candidate's experience.
Category: Leadership development / hiring.
The following post is a "Lesson Learned" that comes from the analysis of the failed projects documented in the "Catalogue of Catastrophe" or from the experiences the editorial team have had working with clients around the world. The post is published here to spark discussion and help individuals and organizations think about what it takes to improve project success rates.
Everyone understands...
Read More
In the news – Project Management on the ascent
Project Management is a field that has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Although the origins of Project Management lie in the field of construction, the value of Project Management is now being recognized by organizations throughout the economy.
Recent data attained from a major Canada wide job posting website demonstrates that growth and shows how the ability to lead successful projects is becoming the must have skill organizations are now looking for. The following data was attai...
Read More
Project Management Heresy
I’ve just finished reading a book about the Apollo missions that put man on the moon (Apollo by Charles Murray and Catherine Cox). The Apollo project was initiated by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 when he announced to the US Congress his believe that the United States “should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth". In July 1969 that goal was achieved when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed...
Read More
Befuddle, Bewilder and Baffle
In the Project Management world, it’s a refrain that is repeated in almost every training program offered around the world; communicate, communicate, communicate. Despite the fact that students of Project Management are told that as much as 80% of a Project Manager’s time is spent communicating, in most Project Management training courses, as little as 5% of the time is dedicated to the topic of communications. Even then, most courses simply expose students to some basics ideas (such as the send...
Read More
Say it with Samples
Lesson learned: Use real life samples to make training more effective.
Category: Training / skills development.
The following post is a “Lesson Learned” that comes from the analysis of the failed projects documented in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” or from the experiences the editorial team have had working with clients around the world. The post is published here to spark discussion and help individuals and organizations think about what it takes to improve project success rates.
In...
Read More
Social Learning
Being something of a Systems Thinker, I often find myself reflecting on events to see if I can understand the cause and effect relationships that drive the outcomes we attain. Working in the field of education, that interest has caused me to look deeply into the way individuals learn and how different modes of teaching achieve different outcomes.
When we think about training we typically think in terms of training classes, academic courses and the ubiquitous two day workshop. Despite the prom...
Read More