Entries by Bonnie Biafore

Expanding Team Member Capabilities

The people on each project team have unique skills and strengths. To increase the effectiveness of your teams, look for opportunities to leverage and expand those attributes. Here are four approaches for expanding team member capabilities.   Identify and leverage team member strengths. Take time to identify your team members’ strengths and weaknesses. Ask them questions […]

Reduce Risk by Managing Project Assumptions

Assumptions are an important and necessary part of launching a project — and you continue to evaluate them as your project progresses. Managing assumptions appropriately helps you reduce project risk. Here are four recommendations for handling project assumptions. Determine when you can validate assumptions. Build a plan for how and when you can validate your […]

Keys to Successful Integration Projects

  The world gets more complex and intertwined, which creates more projects involving complex integrations. What is an integration? It’s when separate systems or components are brought together to build a seamless solution. For example, building a satellite means integrating a propulsion system, navigation component, scientific instruments for research, communication components, and others. Here are […]

Negotiating Project Deadlines

Have you ever had to negotiate a project deadline with your project sponsor? It’s daunting, but being prepared makes the interaction easier. Here are my top four tips for preparing to negotiate a project deadline. Identify what’s driving the deadline. Ask questions about desired deadlines and what drives those dates. It could be a legal […]

Supporting Your Sponsor’s Decision Making

  Sponsors provide financial support, champion the project and make key decisions. So, it’s crucial that you understand how your project sponsors make decisions. By watching for these types of decision-making, you can adjust your approach to get the best decisions and support your project’s success. Fact-based decisions. Project sponsors want facts and data they […]

Project Feasibility Studies – Do’s and Don’ts

Feasibility studies help to show the potential viability of a proposed project. A feasibility study should recommend initiating a project if business conditions are right. If conditions aren’t right, the study should help management understand the risk they’re taking if they approve the project anyway. Here are do’s and don’ts when you run a project […]