I ran into Dan North at the Agile conference today, and explained a little about the project portfolio book. I’m writing it because I have a number of clients who are having trouble breaking the multitasking habit (working on more than one project at one time.) Dan said, “Oh, you want them to commit to […]
John Cook wrote a blog post, Scaling the number of projects, that starts addressing the issue of why it’s everyone’s job to manage their own project portfolios. Here’s an example of the problem he’s noticed: It sounds easy to manage independent projects: if the projects are for different clients and they have different developers, just
While teaching a management class recently, one participant came up to me at a break, and said, “Why are you teaching us project management with this portfolio stuff? This is supposed to be a management workshop.” Portfolio management, determining which projects to fund and when, is management work. The best managers actively manage the
I recently spoke with a manager who had too many projects and not enough people. (Sound familiar?) I suggested he organize two kinds of project portfolios. The first is organized with the weeks across the top and the people down the side, explaining which people are doing what in each week, and how much work
In Greg’s provocative comment, he says, “The idea that contributor initiatives are a drag on an organization speaks more to the insecurity of the management than to its skills.” I’ve been noodling that comment since I received it. I agree with Greg that some managers are insecure enough to insist that they make all
Not all projects should be done. Some projects don’t even rate discussion. But sometimes it’s a lot harder to tell when a project is worthy and should be considered. Here are some questions I ask when trying to evaluate when a project is worthwhile: What business need does this project fill? (Does the organization
I’m in conversation with a client about a possible project. The Big Guy wanted to meet with me immediately, but had constrained time, so I shifted my schedule and met with him. It was clear from our conversation that he didn’t quite know what he wanted, but he did want a proposal from me.
I’m on vacation, so I’ll be blogging very little this week. In my last Pragmatic Manager email newsletter, I wrote about killing canceled projects. Here’s the summary: Explain why you’re canceling the project. Give people time to clean up their work before starting on their new work. Cancel all meetings associated with this project.
At first, when Hal posted State of the Art of Project Management — Underlying Theory is Obsolete I wasn’t sure what he meant by #9: “Project portfolio management is an excuse not to manage each project. Each project team must be set-up for success.” Now in PMO: Obsolete Before It Gets Off the Ground, I
Esther’s here with me this week. We’re revamping our book based on early feedback from our reviewers. We’re focusing on the core skills of managers. Of course, prioritization is in the book. In addition, we’re addressing how to speak the language of the business (to get things done through others), how to give feedback, one-on-ones,