True Status – Your Bosses’ Deliverables

Looking back on a project I had where my manager was responsible for delivering a configured server, I see now how important marking tasks as “delayed” every time it applies. The “In Progress” status may not tell the whole story and thus adding “Deferred” “Delayed” “Waiting On” can be used to ensure the true overall

Series: Why Projects Fail – Who Knows Part 2

Sometimes I cringe when I see literally 40 people in the address box on an email however for a large project that might even be too few.  As we use email as discussion boards, Replying All with each follow-up question and 2nd thought and clarification, it can be a long thread of information that doesn’t

Series: Why Projects Fail – Who Knows Part 1

In a large global project, about 7 months in, as a listener of an exchange between 2 divisions within the company, I was taken aback when someone uttered “we were not brought into this at the beginning.”  I realize there are some people that don’t need to participate until much later in the process however

Series: Why Projects Fail – Acts of God

I suspect the phrase Acts of God is most amusing to the One with whom it attempts to label which activities are especially His.  Insurance companies fall on this when referring to severe weather causing catastrophes, an uncontrollable force where the outcome is unknown.  While I think we have a Bible that helps us know,

Series: Why Projects Fail – Overtime

It is simple math: your job requires 8 hours of work (really 6.5 with breaks, relationship building, non-work tasks at work) and you don’t have extra time in the day.  Since you started or since your company came up to capacity you have never had the occasion, say around 3:30pm, to say, “I have nothing

Series: Why Projects Fail – Haste

Besides politics, inability to increase funding or resources, and incomplete planning, speediness is one of the top reasons why projects fail.  In addition to a lack of patience within the project arena, external support is also a factor: Key staff with critical project knowledge are laid off to hasten the payroll savings their departure brings,

When to Move on

For most of us, work and accomplishment can be an enjoyable part of life.  At certain times, the environment that we find ourselves in ceases to be enjoyable and we must review the situation and determine if action is required. Do Nothing -rarely does this approach bring results by the very nature of the in

FDA and IT Validation – Part 1

We have safe medicine and medical devices the US largely due to the Food and Drug Administration oversight for all process involving producing such items. IT process are included in this oversight which cover • Installation of software • Installation of hardware • Performance of SW and HW against manufacturer’s benchmarks • Expected performance regarding

PM Tools Review: Microsoft Project Center

For 6 months at a bio firm, I used a tool the relied on to manage projects and for portfolio management called Microsoft Project Center. It is not the pure web based version of Project Online and the company I am consulting for only licensed PM’s to use the software. So for collaboration and viewing