Entries by Bonnie Biafore

Focus on What’s Important

One of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly-Successful People is to put first things first – that is – put your time and energy into what’s important and say no to what isn’t. Let’s look at common project manager habits that you might want to break in order to have time to focus on what’s […]

Acronyms for Project Managers

If you use social media to manage your projects, why not reduce your typing with a set of project management acronyms? Bob McGannon and I decided to jump start the list with these (mostly) tongue-in-cheek acronyms. If you have suggestions to add to this list, share them in the comments! SOS – Sponsor Over Shoulder […]

Warning Signs that Your Project Schedule Isn’t Feasible

As a project manager, you must be able to recognize that your project schedule isn’t feasible. That way, you can proactively address issues, mitigate risks, and increase the likelihood of project success. Here are common warning signs that your project schedule needs work. Building and sharing a schedule before scope definition is stable. When project […]

Tips for Handling a Phony Scope Item Owner

A recent Project Pointer talked about controlling project scope by confirming that each scope item has a true owner behind it. That is, someone who understands the business processes related to their scope items, has funding for it, and has time to work with the project team to realize its benefits. But what do you […]

You Know They’re the Scope Owner If…

When project ideas flow freely, it’s challenging to manage scope. One sure way to keep scope in line is to evaluate whether the owner of each scope item is the true owner. If they aren’t and you can’t find the true owner, you can remove that scope item from the project. Here’s how to tell […]

Drop the Extraverted/Introverted PM Debate

For the hundredth or thousandth time, I got pulled into a discussion about whether a project manager needs to be an extrovert. It’s a useless argument. None of the key behaviors that separate struggling project managers from successful ones relate to extroversion or introversion. Here are several effective behaviors that introverted and extroverted project managers […]

Which methodology is best for R&D projects?

Someone recently asked about the best methodology for managing a research and development (R&D) project. The answer depends on many factors. Here are a few things to consider and the methodologies you might use depending on the nature of your R&D project. Project goals and objectives. R&D projects usually have lots of unknowns. You might […]

Tips for Supporting Stakeholder Needs

Producing a useful product is one aspect of successful project delivery. Considering the thoughts and feelings of stakeholders is just as important because it helps prepare stakeholders for accepting and using your deliverables. Here are four recommendations to help you support your stakeholders’ needs. Find which business areas your project affects. Include specific tasks to […]

How to write an effective project objective

You may have defined a project with a set of scope statements. A better approach to defining a project is with a single project objective or goal statement. This statement focuses on the overall goal of the project, which helps obtain stakeholder buy-in. It also helps the organization focus on what the project’s supposed to […]