A project can fail, and project management can fail too. What are the steps to avoid these issues? Do you know enough and trust your skills to prevent a project management plan to fail? There are skills that every PM must have and should follow to execute a project management plan flawlessly. A project management plan indicates with the maximum amount of details the how of the project, defines
Project Management Articles
Project management, planning and scheduling. Browse our articles.
10 Top Project Management Podcasts You Should Start Listening To
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Time is of the essence and podcasts are a great way to get in your daily or weekly learning sessions. It’s all about convenience and we’ve put together a list of the top 10 Project Management Podcasts that can help you grow within your industry. Check out the top 10 Project Management Podcasts you should start listening to, and have bookmarked. Projectified™ with PMI
How To Manage Unknowns In Your Construction Projects
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Learning how to manage unknowns in your project sounds very tricky and complicated but it isn’t. Every construction project, from design to physical installation will go through numerous processes and challenging situations that can derail the actual purpose of the project. Every project has known unknowns and unknown unknowns; learning how to managing those risks are crucial for a project
These Top 3 Drivers Ensure Project Success According To PMI
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The latest Pulse of the Profession® report from PMI reveals that too much money is being wasted on poor project performance. In today's world when an average of 9.9% of every project dollar is lost to lousy performance, it's time for project professionals to achieve higher results by learning to adapt, adjust and innovate. However, before you become a champion performer, you've got to
How To Manage Changes in Your Construction Project
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How do you manage budget, scope and time? Which one should you prioritize? Many times, we have encountered this situation and it seems like no one has the right answer. Managing change orders in construction projects can be cumbersome and potentially derail the project success. Managing changes requires skills and knowledge to find the sweet spot balancing the triple constraint in project
8 Project Management Infographics That Everyone Must See
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Casting your net in the realm of project management may be a bit overwhelming for some– especially when you’re not exactly sure where to start if you’re a newbie. Regardless, always learning more will put you ahead of the crowd and make the logistics of it all less difficult. Sometimes a great project management infographic is exactly what's needed. I’ve compiled 8 project management
5 Reasons A Project Viewer Will Improve Your Project’s Communications
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Project-oriented organizations are often spending valuable time and resources to find ways to share the project activities and schedule to team members in the hopes of saving bucks on the total number of deployed software licenses. This contingency plan is usually applied for the team members that are only executing the project tasks and need not change anything in the overall project plan. It is
7 Key Project Management Skills of Relentless Leaders
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When you are in charge of planning and coordinating small or large scale projects, you must exude the key characteristics of a great leader to ensure the success of your endeavors. To be an excellent leader, you must never say fail in the face of adversity and always dream up creative ways to work around tough problems. You must micromanage as needed, delegate equally often, and keep your eye on
Addicted To Meetings? Here Are 9 Ways to Make Sure They Are Effective [INFOGRAPHIC]
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Let’s face it, some meetings are just unnecessary. Research conducted by Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics found that 25-50% of meeting time was considered wasted. With so much to do everyday, productivity is paramount and time is money. So why can't we organize effective meetings that are worth attending? According to software company Altassian, the estimated cost of
3 Engineering Career Skills That’ll Make A Big Difference In Landing That Contract
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Job security is fading. No matter your industry, employers are always looking for candidates who are qualified with the required engineering skills, flexible with change, and who have the ability to communicate with the team. And employers are looking for candidates who show the potential to move up in the organization - showing initiative and competencies in many areas. A jack-of-all-trades if
Project Controls Internship: 4 Go-To Resources
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You're trained on Primavera P6 and you're totally qualified for a project controller position - but wait... you need to come with practical experience after all of those months and years of studying and training!? If you’re not sure how to get Project Controls experience I want to help you out. Let me tell you about internships. I've found internships to be the best bet to bridge this gap when
5 Project Management Tips From Santa [INFOGRAPHIC]
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It’s that time of the year where project managers are working on wrapping up their final project reports before holiday vacation, but of course ‘tis the season to be sidetracked. The holiday season brings a lot of distractions and as a project manager a good way to keep your team motivated to the end would be to make a list and check it twice like the North Poles finest, Santa Claus. When you
5 Project Management Lessons From Classic Holiday Movies
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With the holiday season at full roar, you may find your attention distracted by the season's best holiday movies. Between scenes of holiday cheer, you can actually find lessons you can apply to your established project management repertoire. Holiday movies from 'Rudolph' to 'Home Alone' are filled with successes and failures of their own project management jobs. Either way, you can pick up the
52 Tips To Help You Break Into Project Management [SlideShare]
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Are you fresh on the scene of project management or is thinking about investing in a career in this industry - but not sure how to go about starting out or getting your first break? Project Management has become more and more in demand globally and is very popular and necessary in many organizations to run smoothly. Like all other career paths, diving in head first might not be a great idea,
7 Earned Value Management Formulas To Know For Project Controls
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As a project controls professional, one of the most important things to understand is that there are a huge number of different formulas that can make your life significantly easier on a daily basis -- provided that you know when, where and how to utilize them properly. Have you ever spent countless hours of your precious time trying to figure out if the value of the project you're working on is
5 Ways To Completely Revamp Your Project Productivity Style
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We all want to be and feel productive everyday. Somedays you feel like Thor, knocking off the tasks like he swings Mjilnor to bash bad guys. And other days, it's more like you're stuck in "Ground Hog Day" - endlessly repeating the same tasks over and over to no end, seeming to get nowhere. Maybe it's time to check your productivity system. What tools are you using to stay on top of that endless
[INFOGRAPHIC] 30 Stats About Project Management Offices You Should Know
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Its no secret that Project Management Offices (PMOs) have changed how organizations are being managed over the past years and we've touched on this topic before. Still, according to recent data, there are many organizations who are in the process of implementing a Project Management Office or are still thinking about it as a near-term goal. In fact, 30% of companies currently without a PMO plan
How To Convince Your Boss To Pay For Your Project Management Training
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With advanced technology, ever-evolving market and competition, it’s critical for project controllers, schedulers and planners in the construction industry to stay on top of their game. Continuing education and project management training are the keys to advancing skills for controllers, schedulers and planners in the construction field. But how do you convince your boss to pay for your training?
What You Need To Know About PMI’s Upcoming Changes For Collecting PDUs
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If you hold a PMP or other PMI project management certification you are already familiar with the process of maintaining your certification and collecting PDUs. But in case you haven’t heard yet, PMI's CCR program is getting a makeover and there are changes to the requirements for certificate holders. These changes are expected to be effective December 1, 2015 - and here's a heads-up so you can
Top 6 Reasons How PMP Certification Will Advance Your Career
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Working in project management requires careful attention to detail, inexplicable hands-on training, and credibility. However, planners and schedulers in project management roles often find themselves unable to provide proof of their accomplishments beyond previous roles as project managers. To meet the growing demand for a streamlined, predictable means of ensuring a project manager’s
Project Management Training Boosts Success Rate By 26% [INFOGRAPHIC]
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How do you know if you or your team needs Project Management Training? 67% of PMs believe that Project Management training contributes to better project performance. So why should you care? The world of project management and technology is ever-evolving and those who are responsible for the success of the project on-site and off should be equipped to face any obstacles that may come their way.
How To Prepare For Your Next Project Controls Job Interview
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You have made it past the initial grouping of applicants into the interview pool. However, preparing for a project management or project controls job interview does not have to be a nightmare. To help you organize your thoughts and get ready for the interview, follow these seven steps for preparing yourself and your work history. Organizing each of the following areas will help you be ready
Measuring Project Progress : 6 Methods You Should Know
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Accurately measuring the progress of a project is always a challenge. There are many factors to account for in a progress update - type of measurement, accuracy of the data, and the system of record are all important factor in accurate progress measurements. Software packages like Primavera P6 don't always help us out. Sure there a 3 choices for Percent Complete Types, but how to we decide
70 Project Scheduling Terms That Every Planner Needs To Know
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The number of project scheduling and planning terms out there can be overwhelming. Interpreting and communicating a plan can become a task in itself if you are not up-to-date with the planning jargon. So here is a list of 70 Project Scheduling terms every planner should know for smooth sailing – check out the glossary below to brush up on your terms. If you have any terms that are essential
4 Steps To Get Your Team Up And Running With Primavera P6
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Are you about to roll out Primavera P6 to a large number of users? Getting Primavera P6 up and running is not always an easy task, especially from a people perspective. In order to seamlessly move to a new system you're going to have to consider your team, your projects and company goals. So, how exactly do you get your team up and running on Primavera P6? Here are 4 steps that you can
Project Metrics vs KPIs – Knowing The Difference
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I had a manager once, back in my IT days, who suddenly insisted, "If I get another 12-page project report, I'm tossing it." It was too much data to process, so I paired my report down to a 1-page project dashboard that highlighted KPIs for all of my projects. He loved it. And it soon became a template that was adopted throughout the office. That was 12 years ago. But today, we're all still
5 New Year’s Resolutions Every Project Controller Should Consider
We know it takes a lot of hard work to become a Project Controller. Most Project Controllers have a Bachelor's Degree in engineering or a field related to technology. There are just a few industry specific Project Controller’s curriculum in colleges and universities, so most learn by joining a project management team in a company in the industry they want to make a career. The general duty of a
4 Common Construction Bidding Errors And How To Avoid Them
13 days into the New Year and I’m assuming that many independent contractors have begun to seek out and propose bids in hopes of landing a construction job. Whether it is a small or large project the landscape is very competitive and requires a lot more than just presenting a proposal and knowing that you’re remarkable at what you do. To help get you in the right lane when pursuing a private or
Where will your Project Management Software be in the next 5 years?
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The Project Portfolio Management Software Market will be worth approximately $3.9 Billion by 2019! So who says Project Management isn't still trendy? According to a new report, sales of PPM software is set to grow from $2.3 billion in 2014 to just shy of $4 billion in 2019. It is anticipated that North America will be the biggest market implementing PPM software (Virtual Strategy Magazine).
Need Some Help And Don’t Know Where To Turn? [Construction Industry]
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We know how tough it can be to find reliable sources to refer to no matter what industry you’re in – but for all of you in the construction sector it’s your lucky day. An award-winning show produced and hosted by Cesar Abeid since 2011, offers engaging interviews, discussions on trends and products and other information with industry professionals from the construction sector. The
Let’s Meet At The 2015 Construction CPM Conference In January
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Getting away for a conference isn't always a luxury. Sometimes it is essential for staying on top of your game and your industry. I'm happy to be speaking at the upcoming Construction CPM Conference in January 2015. This will be my first time attending this conference, but I've heard lots of good things. I'll be presenting my talk "Hacking Primavera P6 Professional - 10 Creative Solutions to
What is a KPI [in under 100 words]
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How do you know if your car is performing well? I’m assuming one would monitor the dashboard - tracking gas level, oil and engine lights, speed etc. Just like that, a KPI is a metric that helps you track whether you're going to reach your targeted goal. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. It helps you determine if a project is succeeding or failing, and if the goal will be met. KPIs are a
