I’ve been thinking about how to manage the project portfolio, and I just realized why so many project portfolio efforts fail. There are three kinds of cycles the project portfolio managers need to manage: Project cycles: when the project could release something Planning cycles: how often the management team assesses the project portfolio Business cycles: […]
My most recent Stickyminds column is up: Are Your Pants on Fire, or Do You Suffer from Split Focus?. There’s also a podcast on that page. You can leave comments there or here.
Imagine you’re working on or managing a project. You’re dealing with risks and making technical decisions–pretty much humming along. The project isn’t easy, but you’re making progress. One day, you arrive at work and your boss says, “Stop working on that project. Work on this one instead.” You do. A week later, the same thing
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
Edna sprinted down the hall to her next meeting. “Edna, wait up,” her boss yelled. “What do you want, Wayne. I’m in a rush to get to this meeting,” she said. “I want you to run another project for me. It’s about …” Edna interrupted, “Wayne. Stop right there. We had this discussion last month
Contents: This month’s Feature Article: How Many Emergency Projects Do You Have? Announcements =-=-=-=-=- Feature Article: How Many Emergency Projects Do You Have? A project manager at a client took me aside recently. “Johanna, how many emergency projects should I have?” I was a bit surprised and asked what he meant. “Well, my boss thinks
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
A new-to-a-company manager explained this situation to me recently. She’d overheard something like this recently from one of her team members. So you’re working in a place where it seems as if all the managers are Bozos. But you like the work and you like the people, and you know nothing lasts forever. After
Senior managers — the people who make strategic product decisions — need to know when they can expect those products to release. The organization of current product releases against a timeline is a project portfolio. And, planning the project portfolio in an agile environment is different — but not harder — than planning the project
If you’ve wanted to catch some of my presentations but were unable to make it to a conference or one of my speaking engagements, you have three opportunities this fall that don’t require you to leave your desk. I’ll be doing a series of webinars for Orasi, about the impact of people and relationships