Project Management in Practice

This is a podcast where Yegor from Shift+M I discuss use of metrics – can it give us full picture, what purpose it serves, how do you handle performance, what you share with the team.

It is quite common nowadays to make decisions based on metrics. More and more PMOs and management are tasked to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect elements a business wants to measure. Decision making is based on what is being measured. This has definite positive sides – measurement is clear, decision making logic is consistent, there is early visibility if projects are…

  Not always. We have a tendency to solve problems we face with a single silver bullet. In the recent past, I observed an organisation trumpet it’s move to agile in multiple communications. This organisation had undoubted issues with delivering to commitments it had signed up for, and agile was seen as the way to fix all its ills. Yet, when I talk to those working in the organisation, they see…

Research invitation: Motivation among IT professionals in New Zealand

I am currently undertaking research on motivation among IT professionals in New Zealand as part of my MBA. I would welcome your input. Complete the survey and be it to win two $50 vouchers. More than happy to share my findings with anyone that participates. Feel free to pass on the survey to anyone else you think may be interested too.

Research: Motivation among IT Professionals in New Zealand.

Project delivery in the IT space is a fun job. You get to do interesting things, usually no two things are exactly the same and in the process get to play with technology. Life couldn’t be better. That is until you run into some oddities. Agile methods have not been everyone’s cup of tea. Ambiguity is the enemy of most bureaucratic environments. Before committing to any spends, they want…

Using MS Project is a bit of a right of passage for most people that have done project management in an enterprise scale. While many have grizzled and grumbled about the application, for a long time it was really the only one that would allow you to do what you needed to get done. What made it worse was between 1998 and 2010, there had been little new in terms of functionality and user interface…

Reading endless research papers for my MBA may finally be paying off. I’m finding one or two gems. This onefrom Frederick Herzberg is one such article. He contends that dissatisfaction and satisfaction actually contends with two different human needs. First, being the nature to avoid pain from the environment, second being our drive and ability to achieve. Therefore they are in fact not opposites…

What can accounting and finance teach project and program management?

Nearly two decades ago I took one accounting paper and did just enough studying to pass it. I was studying for an IT degree at the time and only did the paper as it was a compulsory one. Wheels have now turned enough for me to come back to doing an MBA and by coincidence, starting back with accounting as my first paper. Today though my attitude is different. I can see use of quite a few…

Do managers need technical background?

Couple of years ago I wrote a post on whether managers needed technical background to be successful. That article had a specific focus on project management. I have recently been thinking about the same topic on a slightly different context.

I recently embarked on an Executive MBA. The first paper I’m taking for the course is Accounting. The aim of the paper is not to turn managers into…

Useful Project Management Presentations

In this post I have attached some presentations I have done over the years on project management…

Is productivity gains the answer to improved business outcome?

I recently ran into an old school friend. At the time we were nearing the end of high school he was…

Building PMO metrics

The Christmas and New Year is always a good time to take some time off the hurly burly of daily…

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Thank you to…

Reblogged from HBR Blog Network - Harvard Business Review:

Does better data mean better employee performance and organizational outcomes? That’s the implication of the current emphasis on big data and the use of metrics in HR, but the answer isn’t an easy…

Can you get the right reaction with the occasional verbal spray?

I was reading an article in the Harvard Business Review regarding the appropriateness of yelling at…

I was reading an article in the Harvard Business Review regarding the appropriateness of yelling at employees. It was quite an interesting article in which Michael Schrage gives examples as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sir Alex Ferguson, Vince Lombardi, Arturo…