Do you know how much profit your organization is generating from its projects? Project profitability is a critical metric for any business, as it reflects the success of the company’s project management activities.  However, recent project profitability and budget statistics reveal that many organizations are struggling to achieve healthy project margins. Surprisingly, some sectors perform better than others, and specific project management practices can significantly impact profitability.  In this blog post, we will explore some surprising facts to help you understand the financial ..read more

In project management, workstreams are a way of dividing labor up into manageable chunks based on the specific needs of a project. By breaking down a project into a network of activities, each with their own set of objectives and responsibilities, a project manager can optimize resources and assign tasks efficiently, while promoting team collaboration and streamlining communication. Ultimately, effective use of workstreams can have a tangible and positive impact on the likelihood of a successful project completion. Benefits of Using Workstreams in Project Management Workstreams offer distinct ..read more

Project management is constantly evolving and advancing, presenting a multitude of methodologies to choose from. Two of the most popular and widely used project management approaches are Agile and Waterfall. Both Agile and Waterfall offer their own unique advantages and disadvantages, and choosing the right approach for a project can be a challenging task.  In this blog post, we will compare Agile vs Waterfall side by side, examining their key features, benefits, and limitations. Get ready to delve into the world of project management and discover the methodology that best suits your proj ..read more

Congrats! You’ve got the project manager interview. Now you are anxiously trying to anticipate the types of questions your interviewer might ask you. As someone who has been interviewed in the field for over a decade and also done my share of interviewing other project managers, I can say these are the top interview questions that are asked in project management-related interviews. In addition to the types of questions that are asked, I dive into the reasoning behind why the questions are asked and examples of how you can nail your response (mine included below). Being prepared for your interv ..read more

It’s easy to confuse the role of a Project Manager with that of a Scrum Master. After all, they both can manage projects. As Coursera noted, Scrum Masters can be Project Managers, or Project Managers can become Scrum Masters. However, if you allocate both a Scrum Master and a Project Manager to one project, you’ll have to draw the line between these two roles. This post will explore those differences so that you can understand who is who and choose which one is right for your organization’s needs. Scrum Master vs Project Manager: Roles & Responsibilities What does a Scrum Master do? There ..read more

Project managers are as efficient as the project scheduling tools they use. You may be a great communicator and have all the soft skills in the world, but without the right tool for project planning and scheduling, things can, and will get out of line quickly.  The truth is, project scheduling is a complex process. This complexity only gets multiplied as you take on more projects and bring in more people. Keeping it all in a spreadsheet is no longer possible, unless you want to spend forever updating every small change. The right end-to-end project scheduling tool can make all the differe ..read more

If you have a project to plan, but some important information you need to complete the planning is not available yet – don’t worry: rolling wave planning can help you out. This technique involves crossing that bridge when you come to it. It will let you do your job, accumulating all the necessary details on your way to the goal. In other words, it allows you to plan while working. It’s different from the traditional waterfall approach, but definitely worth considering. Here we’ll discuss the rolling wave planning principle and how it works in project management.   What is rolling wav ..read more

There’s a growing demand for both program and project managers. Burning Glass Technologies have reported that program management jobs are expected to grow by 8% in the next decade. The Project Management Institute (PMI), in turn, found that project-oriented jobs are expected to grow by 33% from 2017 to 2027.  However, when the terms project manager and program manager are thrown around, it can be easy to get confused about what their exact roles are in an organization. After all, both are responsible for making sure a project gets done effectively and on time, right?  To understand t ..read more

If you’re arguing with someone for more than five hours and yet cannot solve your problem, don’t get desperate: calm down, drink a glass of water, and try the Six Thinking Hats method. Simple and enjoyable, it will help you see different aspects of the situation, staying on the same wavelength with the person you’ve already started hating silently.  The Six Hats method is a great instrument of thinking – constructively, quickly, and in a conflict-free way. It’s similar to playing a game: you take a role, you follow the rules, with the only difference that to win means to find the best sol ..read more

Silo mentality. You’ve probably felt it before while working on a project—the sensation of being “off” from other members of your team. You’re not really trusting each other, or even communicating at all. It makes you feel like you don’t have the full information about your project, let alone the bigger picture of what’s going on within your organization. And if you’re feeling this way, then it’s likely that your colleagues are feeling it too. This type of silo mindset, rooted in the company culture, can be harmful to the business. If you don’t have collaboration between departments, teams are ..read more