I have moved this blog to sites.google.com/site/themanagersguide/home You can download any of the blog articles at this new site as well as get information about the book "The Manager's Guide for Effective Leadership" and the Author Joe Jenney ... << MORE >>

Failing to keep a project’s objectives aligned with those of the enterprise is a failure in communication.The IMP or a special briefing should take care of any misalignment issues at the beginning of a project. However, this is not sufficient for projects lasting more than a few months because the enterprise’s objectives may change or the project objectives may be found unachievable and require modification. Therefore, the effective project leader includes a check on the alignment of objectives at periodic project reviews. ... << MORE >>

It is difficult to budget accurately for projects because every project is new and different from any other work in the past that could provide a basis for accurate budgeting. Projects by their very nature must be budgeted for on the basis of estimates, hopefully estimates based on experience with similar work and sound judgment but estimates never the less. The fundamental principle to follow in order to avoid budgeting being a cause for a failing project is achieving an understanding of the “rules” up front by the team, management and any customers involved. ... << MORE >>

The correct amount management oversight of projects is the minimum that the team needs to be confident in knowing what management wants, that management cares and is available if needed; and the minimum that management needs to be confident that they know the status of the project and know how well the team is functioning. Recall that the primary cause of project failure is team dynamics so certainly management must be able to identify how well the team dynamics is working. Also, management must know if the team is carrying out robust risk management and has properly planned the project. Thus management oversight is more than just reviewing cost and schedule data because if a project team needs help the need should be identified before there are cost or schedule problems. ... << MORE >>

In my experience requirements management is the number four reason projects fail to meet expectations after poor management of team dynamics, risk management and planning. Ineffective project managers often blame project delays and budget overruns on customers or management changing requirements after work is underway. This is an excuse for their poor leadership skills. This post provides one example of a better way to handle requirements that continue to change after work is underway. ... << MORE >>

Poor project review discipline can easily cause projects to fail to meet expectations. Best practice project reviews are easy to teach and implement but it takes discipline by the entire project team to maintain the good practices. ... << MORE >>

The purpose of the SDD is twofold. One is to capture in one document, available to anyone connected with the project, a near complete description of the system being designed and developed. I say near complete because it is not intended to replace the requirements documents, the detailed drawings necessary for manufacturing or the system test planning documents but rather to complement these documents. The second purpose is to ensure that design decision rationale is captured and preserved for the duration of the project. ... << MORE >>

The System Engineering Management Plan (SEMP)is one of the top four project planning documents. An outline is presented that describes how the project work will be executed with emphasis on any deviations from standard practices. ... << MORE >>

To get the most accurate probabilistic estimate of a project's overall schedule it is necessary to analyze all paths and the probability that the project will complete by a certain date is actually the probability that all paths will complete by that date. I wish to suggest a shortcut to analyzing all paths and explain why I think this shortcut is useful. ... << MORE >>

A good Integrated Management Plan (IMP) is about ten pages long or less. If it is any longer it won’t be read by managers who are expected to have oversight of the project or by few workers that are assigned to the project. It is quite difficult to cover all the items that are recommended for an IMP in ten pages but it is far better to put effort into a good ten page document than to put even more effort into 80 pages that will never be read. I will give my advice here on what should be in a ten page IMP. ... << MORE >>

This post describes another technique for further maximizing flexibility in scheduling critical skilled resources. It is called Progressive Freeze. Progressive freeze has the added benefit of shorting project schedules in many situations. ... << MORE >>

Three mistakes to avoid in developing schedules for projects are: not defining and structuring tasks before scheduling them, scheduling a multiyear project in detail at the beginning of the project and using a schedule developed in the bid phase of work for an external customer for the execution phase. ... << MORE >>

Time Blocked Task Lists facilitate accurate project scheduling for inexperienced schedulers. ... << MORE >>

Introduction - If you read the first post in this series on Guidelines for Project Management you may recall that I listed Risk Management as the number two reason for projects not meeting expectations, after Team Dynamics, the primary reason. I have described Risk Management in detail in my book “The Manager’s Guide for Leadership” and given additional details on methods for Risk Management in previous postings on this blog. Therefore I don’t address risk management further in this series. I think it’s a tossup as to the number three reason for project failures. Many would say it’s Requirements Management and I think that’s probably correct for relatively experienced project teams. I am treating Project Planning as the number three reason because in my opinion it’s more likely to be number three for inexperienced teams.   And, since Project Reviews are so closely related To Project Planning I will treat them next after a series on Project Planning.   This delays Requirements Management to number five, ...

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Concurrent Engineering – Individual projects can be organized in a number of ways but experience has shown that some form of what is called concurrent engineering is usually best. ... << MORE >>

Team dynamics involves all the human issues relating to project teams including the leadership styles, the types of personal skills, organization of teams and interpersonal interactions. Difficulties can arise from each of these areas and each is examined here. Some management experts claim that team dynamics is the number one reason projects fail to meet expectations ... << MORE >>

This post initiates a series of posting that address some of the difficulties involved in managing projects and describes some tools and methods project managers can use to improve the likelihood of projects achieving expectations ... << MORE >>

The Dear Abby column in my Sunday paper had an interesting question. A job seeker had experienced a number of interviews that were less than satisfying. In each example he cited the interviewer had failed to spend sufficient time with the applicant to determine if the applicant had either the training or experience for the job opening. Each example was different but typically it seemed that the interviewer had other priorities that delayed, interrupted or postponed the interview. Of course it’s possible that there was something about the applicant that ruled him out at first glance but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he was just the victim of bad interviewers. The reason I wish to discuss this is because in my experience far too many managers, especially young or inexperienced managers, fail to give adequate attention to recruiting. I treat this subject in detail in my book so I will make only a few comments here.

Although there are still a few great companies that recruit new college graduates and train ...

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I recently posted a blog explaining my number one rule for treating subordinates. At the time I also solicited input from members of the Worldwide Management Consultants group on LinkedIn. I received some excellent comments from some highly qualified consultants. In this post I have edited these comments into a more comprehensive set of rules for managers to follow in dealing with their subordinates.   You will see that there is an important message in this list derived from a group of experts in management.

1.        “Your subordinates do not have to work for your enterprise so treat them as volunteers”. (Thanks to Bob Cattoi, one of my former bosses and Peter Drucker, the famed management guru.)

2.        This rule is closely related to rule 1.

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Every manager should ingrain in his/her mind the most important rule for dealing with subordinates. I learned this rule many years ago from a wise boss who told me "remember, they don't have to work for us". The famous management guru Peter Drucker put it even better. He said managers should think of their employees as volunteers. The point is that the good people; those that you want most in your enterprise, are there by choice. They can market their skills to others, especially to your competitors. Your objective should be to keep them in your enterprise and to motivate them rather than demotivate them. This rule doesn't mean you don't hold employees accountable or that you don't expect them to perform to the best of their abilities. It means that you always treat them according to the golden rule. It means never raising your voice or using words that instill fear when you interact with employees. Such interactions are demotivators and can ... << MORE >>