Project management

Organizational transformation within a company is typically undertaken because it is believed that the transition will enable a firm to work at a higher level. The aim is to become more efficient, productive, in short, to transform the company into innovative and more profitable. CONTENT What is organizational change? Why does a company change? Tips … Continue reading "Company organizational change: change management process and project manager’s role"

How do direct and indirect costs impact projects? This is the good question a fellow reader asked us and we would like to answer it in this article. Cost classification is an important concept in budgeting, accounting and project management (you may find this article about project management tools). CONTENT What are direct costs? Definition … Continue reading "Direct and indirect costs impact in projects"

Lead time and cycle time are widely used terms in the Kanban world. CONTENT What is Cycle Time? What is Lead Time? Lead Time and Cycle Time Example How can you reduce the gap between lead time and cycle time? However, quite often, people get confused when trying to understand the difference between them and … Continue reading "Cycle Time to Lead Time Ratio"

Configuration Management is a technical management discipline that is used to track changes in complex systems development, and was originally introduced during the 1950s by the U.S. Department of Defense. CONTENT What is the goal of project configuration management? How to run project configuration management How to run configuration management: Be ready from the get-go … Continue reading "Configuration Management"

Gap Analysis is one of the most powerful tools available to Project Managers and more. If used correctly, in fact, it can really help a company correct its course and avoid catastrophic mistakes. CONTENT What is a gap analysis? Benefits of performing a gap analysis Benefits of Gap Analysis: Product Portfolio Opportunities Benefits of Gap … Continue reading "Gap Analysis: what it is and how to perform it correctly"

In this article we will examine the project activities, their role and characteristics. CONTENT What defines a project? 1. Clarify project goals and scope 2. Develop a work breakdown structure 3. Deliver a realistic schedule 4. Create a project risk plan 5. Manage change requests Project activities: planning and development 1. Setting up project activities … Continue reading "Project activities: role and characteristics"

A product’s life cycle (which should not be mistaken with a project’s life cycle) bears a strategic relevance for the company that produces it. CONTENT What is product life cycle management? The four phases of a product’s life cycle and related business strategies 1. Introduction 2. Growth 3. Maturity 4. Decline Product life cycle: bottom … Continue reading "Product life cycle and its relevance in business strategies"

Project quality is a major factor in achieving client satisfaction, which in turn is a key component in project success. Therefore, nothing about quality should be taken lightly, but more importantly, quality control should not be something improvised or done afterwards. CONTENT Planning and identification of parameters to be monitored for quality Parameters to monitor … Continue reading "Project quality control: which parameters should be monitored"

CONTENT Corporate governance role Corporate governance: 7 questions to understand it Governance duties and responsibilities Management’s role Corporate governance vs management: Conclusions Corporate governance and management are not the same thing, although some people might think so. Actually, they are two very different things. Let’s make it clear in this article where we will look … Continue reading "Corporate governance vs management"

Top-down and bottom-up management are two of the most popular approaches in the Project Management world. What you need to know is that before beginning to work on a project, it is very important to have a management approach in place and to be consistent with it. CONTENT What is top-down management? Pros and cons … Continue reading "Top-down and bottom-up projects"

Receiving a negative feedback is never a pleasant experience. You work hard to create a quality product and seeing your actions judged negatively can lead to anger and frustration. These are negative reactions that later can also compromise our performance. CONTENT How to face a negative feedback Facing negative feedback: Better safe than sorry Facing … Continue reading "Negative Feedback: 7 things to do when…"

The Product Manager is a core figure for a business. He ensures the company’s position in the market, drives the product roadmap to meet deadlines and focuses on long-term success. How does a product manager perform this important task? We will discuss the subject in this article. CONTENT What does a product manager do? Why … Continue reading "Product Manager: role importance"

Standard deviation is an abstract construct based on observation rather than computation or experimentation. The standard deviation, also represented by the Greek letter sigma σ, is a metric used to express the amount of variation or dispersion in a group of data. In other words, it defines how much the members of a data group … Continue reading "Project standard deviation"

The Risk Register is a valuable working tool, often underestimated. Projects sometimes involve huge work demands and significant amounts of money to be completed successfully. Ensuring that they are completed is an extremely delicate yet complex task.  How can you achieve this? Simple: with a risk assessment and, thus, the compilation of a risk register, … Continue reading "Risk Register: how to compile it"

Planning a project and conducting a strategic analysis should be a key activity for a project manager no matter what industry they work in. Although digital technologies and the online environment have changed in virtually every industry, the skills, tools and techniques for project planning continue to be relevant. CONTENT What does SWOT mean? When … Continue reading "Strategic analysis in project management"