5 pitfalls that derail EVM success – an article in FCW details these areas, along with ideas for solving the issue. The pitfalls are executive ambivalence, poor data & data overload, poorly chosen software, and inexperienced contractors.

Law firms look to process management – for both in-house counsel, and independent firms, use of a model other than the billable hour method gets a look by law.com, as a way to streamline and increase effectiveness.

Who Knows What in the Wall Street Journal discusses how organizations need to make it easier to find experts, and how blogs and wikis can help, along with social networks and “tagging”.

The Project Management Tip You Can’t Ignore – a blog post on Articulate.com that highlights the importance of getting email communication right.

The video is about 8 1/2 minutes long.

Strictly speaking, giving praise to team members won’t cost you anything. It’s free. So, if you see any of your project team players doing a spectacular job, don’t hesitate to acknowledge their efforts.

If someone deserves praise, why not provide some? Some managers are old-school, maintaining “work is it’s own reward” thinking. But in a competitive modern hiring & retention environment, even people who don’t report to you are usually people you want to have ‘retained’ for your project continuity. Even people who always give praise, to almost everyone for even small deeds, are generally seen as conducting beneficial acts for the group.

Meanwhile, your words of praise would do wonders for your project team’s self-esteem, and will also encourage continued dedication.

Project Management Course homepage

More news stories will be posted on a recurring basis.

- A project management methodology should define all of the stages of work. These stages of work may vary based on how an organization wants to chunk out the work, but should define all five “W”s. These five are: Who, What, Where, When and Why, and they should all be established. In order for you to be able to define the direction of your project you must be able to synchronize all of the work responsibilities and relationships between all of the different steps in the methodology. The definitions should have all of the following characteristics:

a – They should be measurable. You should be able to evaluate each stage of work in terms of how long it is going to take for you to perform You should also provide criteria which will substantiate the completion of deliverables, allowing you to essentially ensure that a quality product will be delivered.

b – They should be independent of techniques and tools. These techniques and tools may be deployed as they are required, but they should be independent of the project management methodology.

c – They should be independent of other aspects of project management. These methodologies can exist with project management systems or even without them.

If your methodology does not match the criteria listed above, then the odds are that it is not really a methodology, but rather is a specific technique or a tool.

There are three types of project management methodologies, which will be covered in part 3 of the methologies series.

A project can be pretty much any activity which involves following through with a task that is non-repetitive in nature. So in a sense, everyone is a project manager, and everyone practices project management to a degree. However, there is a very large difference between carrying out a project which is very simple and involves a few people, and carrying out a project that deals with a complex number of people, tasks and organizations. Projects on a large scale once tended to use very simple techniques for resource and control, including brute force in an attempt to motivate the workers.

The art of planning ahead for the future is a trait that can be found in many people. It only really takes a few specific elements to capture a project on paper, such as a start and end date, what tasks must be carried out and a rough outline of when they should be finished, along with a basic idea of what resources will be needed, including people and material resources like machines and tools. Unfortunately, many paper plans can quickly become unreadable when the plan begins to involve more intricate details, including different events occurring at different times, different resources required at different points throughout the plan’s completion, different work rates and so on. Once the paper plan begins to cover an area which is much more vast, it will be difficult to keep track of.

Many project management tasks can be handled by computers that are designed to analyze, but project management software is only meant to be a tool for a project manager to use, not to serve in the role of the project manager itself. Project management involves control, teamwork, resource management and leadership skills which cannot necessarily be handled by a computer or a software program.

Every leader or project sponsor would prefer for their projects to be finished on time, with all objectives met with quality, and without costing more than the originally prepared budget. These three facets of project management form the core of all project manager duties, as well as what is known as the classic “time, quality, cost” pyramid. Project management can be an easy, or a difficult task depending on these three facets, so while you may start a project with an unlimited budget, unlimited time, or a fairly average expected quality for objectives, it will not always play out that way. Generally you should expect projects where time and money have become critical, and where the highest quality of work is expected, but with the right tools and experience, there is reason that you cannot tackle any project as a project manager.

Internet-based free project manager software essentially works by centralizing all of the information relating to a particular project into a single server, which can be accessed by various people. The software allows instantaly-viewable methods of tracking all of the changes and work that are done. This way, anyone who is working on the project management team can access everything that they need at any time without worry. There are several benefits that come with using website-based free project management software which set it apart from the conventional or traditional style for project management, the most prevalent of which involves time-saving. You can drastically reduce how much time is being consumed by manual project handling by instead utilizing web-based project manager software.

Now not only will the project manager be able to see all of the work from a particular day, but he or she will also be able to send that work online, making it easier to delegate facets of the project or to get a glimpse of a project as a whole. The project manager is also capable of using the same mode of distribution in order to send modifications out to other members of the team. Web-based free project manager software has other merits as well, including allowing for automatic mailers and automatic notifications, an improved convenience and so on.

Many companies have come out with their own unique versions of free project management software in an attempt to further assist the technique for online or web-based project management. Free project manager software can do a great deal in order to help you manage any project that is assigned to you both efficiently and effectively. Free project manager software includes great open source tools supporting in the organizing process and makes it much easier for you to manage a team of contributors while delegating tasks and completing projects on time.

There are plenty of project manager software solutions which range in price from $50 to $20,000 depending on the size, capability and application. There are a wide range of sophistication levels associated with these types of software. Luckily, there are also plenty of options for free project manager software, which is especially useful if you want to get acquainted with a software program before you put any serious money into purchasing a full system.

If you are looking for a way to brush up on your current project management skills, or develop some new ones, check out a project management video and you can work on developing your skills on your own time, with less effort. Instructional project management videos will usually give insight into the most important skills that a project manager can have, while avoiding the tedious reading that stops some people from getting started with training. When you are just looking to improve your skills and not to obtain a certification or a diploma, then project management video instruction should suffice.

For those who are lacking a little in motivating themselves to attend training, watching TV (or a computer screen) takes less motivation. Good project management videos will tell you what the experts have to say about managing projects, and you will be able to learn something from the techniques and ideas presented.

Luckily there are plenty of available resources for anyone who is interested in learning about the project management facet of business, as well anyone who is interested in obtaining certification for certain project manager skills. These resources include but are not limited to online courses, face-to-face courses and instructional books or manuals. All of these tools can be extremely useful in helping any individual to develop the project manager skills they need.

For anyone who is in charge of managing a project, the main objective is simply to see the task through from beginning to completion. The secondary objective for project managers in most case is to make sure as little money as possible is actually spent on said project during its completion.

Overall, project manager skills need to center not only on excellent communication, but also on a handful of other facets including but not limited to duty delegation, scheduling and ensuring quick and efficient completion. At the same time, an effective project manager has to be thinking about producing results of the highest possible quality, no matter what task is assigned or time frame allotted.

If you are looking to improve your project manager skills, courses in general management can certainly be a large help. You will surely learn how to delegate specific duties, how to handle issues with employees, how to effectively hire new employees and how to lay off or fire others, and how to schedule projects that you can see to from beginning to completion. You will also typically learn about task monitoring and problem solving through management courses. All of these are important project manager skills which can prove to be invaluable in the workplace.

When looking to increase your project manager skills, there are a wide variety of different certification and training programs that you can choose from. Each program offers something which is a little different from the others, so compare all of the projects available to you before to settle on one over the others. This way, you can lay out an effective plan for your project manager skill training, forecasting the length of the training in the process. Forecasting your project manager skills training in this way will also allow you to sketch out the financial responsibility necessary so that you can plan ahead adequately.

By obtaining new project manager skills, you will be opening yourself up to hundreds of additional job opportunities that address facets of project management. If you are skilled in the art of handling projects which are difficult and diverse, and have acquired the necessary training to effectively complete all of the tasks required of a project manager, then you can easily become quite the invaluable employee or consulant.

Could be true. But if golf is not your bag, or you work for an anti-golfing think tank, or if you just want to try leading a project, put on your positive attitude and start learning. As this Canadian-based article starts off, “If you’re looking for work in IT, you may want to enroll in a project management course.” Similarly, Down Under the advice is similar as this article relates “It’s a good idea today for people to go after some of the project management certifications”.

There are many resources to help you get started, such as this site’s project management training and certification pages. Do some research, and talk to people. As you talk more with those who have learned the skills, the why learn question starts to answer itself.

If you are faced with these types of challenges, below, then you could benefit from some education in organizing and leading projects:

1. What is being done is late, or perceived to be late
2. When work is completed, it’s often not what was asked for, or has defects and other issues
3. More money is spent than expected on tasks or projects
4. Work is getting done, but efforts are not lined up and there is little or no communications
5. Priorities don’t seem to be set, and work is being done out of order of both time and importance

The list goes on, of course. But it’s an approach to answer the why should I learn question posed above.