Entries by Bonnie Biafore

Analyzing the Feasibility of Aggressive Deadlines

  Business pressures often lead sponsors to set aggressive deadlines. And meeting those deadlines may be exactly what your organization needs. It’s not an easy situation. As a project manager, your best survival strategy is to set stakeholders’ expectations for what it will take to deliver the project in that timeframe. Let’s look at how […]

What If You Feel Lonely as a PM

If you’re feeling lonely or isolated as a project manager, you aren’t alone (pun intended.) Overcoming that feeling is a balance between professional effectiveness and personal relationships. You also have to be intentional and apply some practical steps. Here are a few things you can do: Leverage the decision-making process. Decision-making and resolving issues are […]

PM Power Tool: Leveraging Delegation

  Do you want to expand your capability to manage more projects? You can by delegating! But delegation can be scary, because you’re releasing control to others. With the right attitude and activities, delegation can become your go-to tool that isn’t so scary. Here are the best ways to make delegation work for you as […]

Recognize Constructive Conflict

Conflict isn’t fun for most people. Emotions are high and substantial outcomes could be at risk for both business and stakeholder relationships. Constructive conflict can be beneficial and should be used, instead of being suppressed. Here’s how to recognize constructive stakeholder conflict.  The issue and intended outcome are clear. Conflicts that improve project outcomes have […]

Make Your Project a Positive Place to Work

You’ve probably heard “the leader sets the tone.” This tone is all about the environment you create for your project team. Here are things you can do – TODAY – to make your project a positive (and attractive) place to work. And that helps you make your project a success. Receive news, both good and […]

Learning to Love Project Constraints

Limited budgets, required scope, hard and fast deadlines, and quality standards. These constraints make project delivery challenging! Wouldn’t it be great to manage projects without the pressure of constraints? Not so fast. Here’s how constraints help us deliver our projects.  Budgets drive perceived value. A non-profit I volunteered for used to hold an intro training […]

Objectives for Successful Testing

Testing your project’s products is a critical step in delivering successful projects – testing is one way to confirm that your project accomplishes what it’s supposed to. An effective testing scheme must meet the following objectives. Validate that requirements are satisfied. There should be a specific test for every requirement to confirm that it has […]

Win-Win: Increasing Project Delivery Capability by Providing Opportunity to Your Teams

Providing opportunities to team members makes them individually more capable, which leads to more organizational capability for delivering projects. Here are things you can do – TODAY – to create this win-win environment.  Encourage sharing of risks and issues that may arise. Project status can change based on what’s been completed, what’s delayed, what stakeholders […]

What Conditions Must Be Met to Close Out a Change Request?

In project change management, stakeholders might request a change to introduce new functions, modify a requirement, or resolve an issue. Many project managers close a change record when the change control board approves the change to proceed. Others when the change has been completed and included in the project deliverables. Neither approach is valid, because […]

Refining Your Project Resource Plans

The people who work on your project are both a significant factor in its success and a significant cost. So, it’s a good idea to analyze resource plans with an eye to maximizing success while minimizing cost. Here are a few things to think about to make your resource plans shine. Get skill levels just […]