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Project teams constantly face a barrage of new products and technologies, and have a difficult time differentiating marketing slides and grand promises from deliverable products when making strategic IT acquisitions. The solution is to create a structured, repeatable process for evaluating technology solutions and the vendors that provide them.

This article looks at the management approach used in two different types of projects:
An IT project for an automotive parts manufacturer and a construction project for the same automotive parts manufacturer. The author argues that there are real-world tactics from the construction side that can be applied to the management of an internal IT project and that by comparing these projects, it's clear that an internal IT department would benefit from adopting common management practices that are more typically used in outsourced projects, such as in the construction industry.

Consultants who form virtual project teams know that communication and coordination are two major challenges when team members are dispersed. Rick Freedman reviews two Web-based project collaboration tools (OnProject and ERoom) that can help make virtual projects a reality.

Collaboration is changing rapidly, bringing people, applications, processes and information together in a new environment where fences no longer exist. Business processes, architecture and application integration, communication, and knowledge management are critical factors that must be addressed now.

Sure, you've heard of the waterfall development methodology and have probably used it (whether you knew it or not). But how is it used at the enterprise level? Here's a look at the process, typical deliverables, and what to expect from each step.

Extreme Analysis for Extreme Project Management is a collection of three original theories, Pretense Irony, Expectation Escalation, and Risk Equalizer. Based on the 'polishing of the common sense' model, it builds on the management best practices of corporate America, and takes the Project Management practice that one step above in the evolutionary scale.

Project management skills and project membership skills are becoming increasingly valued as work involves change, new initiatives, and a series of projects to add value for internal and external customers. Here is a checklist to 'sharpen the saw' for effective project management.

It is common for projects to miss budgets, schedules and opportunities, in spite of the heroic efforts of the project manager to keep things on track. There is a need for the project management tool-kit to expand beyond task management. Professors Arnoud De Meyer, Christoph Loch and Michael Pich classify the associated and often-neglected uncertainty, and they suggest alternative techniques for project management, depending on the situation.

A look at 7 points to consider in setting the stage for effective team-work as outlined originally by Organization Development pioneer Richard Beckard.

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This very basic article attempts to explain the difference between projects, programs, and portfolios. Useful for the uninitiated but otherwise can be skipped.

You have a tough enough time managing on-site teams. Scatter team members among locations, and it becomes even harder. One IT consultant shares the lessons he learned on the way to success.

Companies can't make the right decisions about which projects to green-light, expand, downsize, or cut unless they've put in place good processes to keep track of exactly how much they've invested in various deployments, how those installations are progressing, and how closely they track with strategic business goals...Portfolio-management software provides data and reports that help executives make smarter decisions.

Information Technologies (IT) are the central nervous system of today's enterprise. At the same time, implementation of increasingly complex and interdependent IT systems results in a high rate of project failures and underperforming assets. In order to address this challenge, organizations need to adopt a dynamic, streamlined framework for IT implementation that is complementary with the formalized and rigid software development methodologies already in use. The IT Resource Gap Framework offers a model for mapping the perceived quality and quantity of six critical IT resources. The resulting IT Resource Map can help identify relative project risks, systemic weaknesses, and strategic concerns so that project managers can craft a strategy for shifting resources towards alignment and increasing the success rate of implementations.

In the new economy, all work is project work. And you are your projects! Here's how to make them all go Wow!

Editor's Note: despite the reference to the New economy and the fact that this was written in 1999, there is some good tidbits in this article of lasting value.

The right project management software and business processes enable companies to prioritize resources and gain competitive advantage.

To achieve real value from your business-technology projects, try out a benefits-realization process.

By using Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) templates, you can dramatically reduce the time it takes to create project plans and improve the quality of the projects.

Today, the paradox of systems development and management is that as the business and technology environments become more complex, delivery methods must become simpler. This fundamental approach to methodology is essential for success.

The discipline of project management is dedicated to improving the odds that every undertaking is completed within a set time frame and budget and that it achieves an acceptable level of quality. Project managers must know how to apply the right balance of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to the myriad activities required to reach the specified goals. However, many companies do not give project management the attention it deserves because they don't realize that without a consistent method for managing large initiatives, they have no way of predicting whether a project will meet its time, budget and quality goals.

So, you've spent six months on a project. You've developed it perfectly. It's neat, clearly labelled, signed off. It looks great on paper. So why isn't anything happening? Get together half a dozen or so colleagues and run this simple exercise.

Note: Older EBF articles are not currently online. I'm not sure if this is temporary or permanent. If you click you will be taken to the Archive.org site to find an archived copy.

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This article argues that critical path thinking (CPM, PERT, Gantt chart) is not appropriate where project goals are poorly defined. Contingency thinking is better.

You are about to embark on an important project. It is a good idea to hold a project kickoff meeting. Don't miss this excellent opportunity to get across important communications and establish the tone for the project. This article discusses the 10 objectives of a project kickoff meeting, how to achieve them, and templates for presenting them. In Part I, the first three reasons are discussed but you will be left on the edge of your seat in anticipation of Parts II and III.

This article discusses why it is essential to manage project investments in a proactive, disciplined manner, explores the notion of a "project," and provides an overview of what project portfolio management entails.

This paper describes a three-phased approach to the development of a comprehensive project based performance framework. It presents and discusses in some detail a project based strategy map, a set of KPI and project initiatives. It identifies the points of interface between BSC and C/SCS and discusses the project governance issues that must be addressed by the project team. A comprehensive approach to project management such as this can enhance the chances that projects are consistently delivered on time, within budget and to the specification.

Note: TWM articles ARE still available BUT: (1) you must be a member (free for existing members, not free for new members)   (2) you must be logged-in for the link to work. If you get an error page, visit the homepage, login and then try the link again.

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This series of articles - or 'units' - will not deal with all the complexities of big time project management. Instead, it will cover the sort of projects which all managers have to deal with on a regular basis within the framework of a business whose primary aims are not project based.

But in doing so, it will cover the management principles which govern all projects, large or small, thereby giving some insights into why so many projects fail to deliver what was promised. This will provide a starting point both for those managing small projects and those who are responsible for the oversight of larger projects being carried out by more specialised project managers.

Successive units will go through the stages of a project, identifying the management requirements at each stage and the tools which are available. This will be followed by some extra units covering more general issues, for example, common problems faced by the project manager, managing risk, coping with departmental politics, handling outside contractors. We will also cover process improvement projects. And finally we will add items raised through feedback.

Editor's Note: I personally found unit one to be of much less value than subsequent units...

In this paper, the authors advocate that a configuration perspective is needed to capture different kinds of project/programme governance approaches. The basic assumption being that different situations involve different environments and different characteristics and that project management governance cannot be taken out of context. Understanding these situations and contexts, and adapting decision-making and learning systems accordingly, is crucial. The underlying assumptions that have guided the development of corporate strategy are presented under the three umbrella titles of "capability", "guerrilla" and "complexity" core concepts. The theory of complexity and its core concept of emergence are used to support the more recent enactment theory of strategy. The authors also present practical applications of the above.

Editor's Note: as is probably obvious from the description above, this article was written by an academic and is not an easy, clear or especially interesting read...but some of the material covered, especially regarding strategy logics, is very worthwhile.

Information technology (IT) projects fail regularly-considerably missing expectations, drastically overrunning budgets, significantly missing their deadlines, and far too often having to be abandoned entirely. Research shows us that this is the rule, not the exception. Research also tells us why. What is the impact of failure on enterprises, IT professionals and software and services providers? Does it have to be this way?

The bigger and more complex a project gets, the more you need formal processes and techniques to effectively manage the work. This article explains the purpose, value, and implementation of the most critical aspects of successfully managing a project.

You don't have to be a genius to deliver a project on time, nor do you have to be steeped in a mystical project management methodology to be a project manager. This straightforward guide covers key principles and successfully planning and implementing a project. It includes the purpose of the project plan, the fine art of scheduling, risk management, and staying on track. [BNET Annotation]

Usually, when an IT project fails, management is the last to know. But eventually, like a fish left too long in the refrigerator, the failure becomes all too obvious. When the situation reaches that point, your only option is the IT equivalent of pulling everything out of the refrigerator and scrubbing it out with baking soda.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Conventional wisdom to the contrary, project management is getting better. More projects are succeeding, fewer projects are failing outright, and projects are returning more of the IT dollar invested.

Still, only about one-third of all projects are complete successes. Often, the difference between success and failure is spotting the critical early warning signs that a project is in trouble. Here's a quick look at some of the earliest symptoms that all is not right with your "fish"-and what you can do about it before you have to break out the baking soda.