Posts

Showing posts from January, 2008

Making a Project Management Process different

Did you know that you can customize this project management methodology included to ensure that it fits your current project management environment? Basically, you can customize any element included in this project management software . Whether you want to change the terminology, processes, procedures, templates or practical examples, you can quickly and easily edit them in this project management tool set.

Users of MPMM Project Methodology

Who uses your software? More than 100,000 people currently use the project management life cycle included in this project management software suite. Customers span every country in the world and all project types and sizes. From large corporate clients to small businesses and enterprises; from construction and telecoms industries to pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries. This project methodology suits all company types, and can be customized to any particular project management environment.

Motivating Staff with a Project Management Template

Hi As a Project Manager, the Christmas period coming up can be a real worry. You have a backlog of project work to complete, yet many of your team will be on leave and the remaining team members want to “wind down” over the Christmas period. So how do you keep on track? Read this project management template newsletter to learn tips for... Motivating Project Staff over Christmas The Christmas period often results in substantial delays for projects. With staff holidays, reduced productivity and a lack of focus, teams often fall way behind with their deliverables. Besides - when your peers are all away in the Caribbean, who wants to work, right? It takes a talented Project Manager to keep their project on track over this period and deliver an outstanding result. To help you do this, use these 5 tips (in your project management templates )... Tip 1: Plan Ahead Often, Project Managers have no idea who is taking leave until the week before Christmas. So they suddenly become short of resource

MPMM Project Management Methodology

MPMM Project Management Methodology Can you please tell me what the MPMM project management methodology is? Yes, its a software tool that you download that includes an entire project management process for completing projects. Regardless of your project size, type or industry, you can complete pall phases in the project management life cycle  quickly and easily. It also includes all of the templates, case studies and practical examples needed to deliver projects from end to end.

Using Project Management Templates and Standards

Hi Have you ever heard a Project Manager say “we use best practice” or “we applied project standards” to projects? If you have, then what do they really mean and how do they do it? Read on, to learn (using project management templates )... How to use Project Standards... A “Project Standard” is an agreed best practice way of managing a project. We say agreed, as the standard will usually have been reviewed and used by thousands of project managers around the world, before it becomes formally recognized as a “standard” practice. There are 3 common standards in the Project Management industry (they do not include project management templates ): 1. PMI “PMBOK” Standard 2. OGC “Prince2” Standard 3. APM “Body of Knowledge” Standard These standards give you a generic way of managing projects. They don’t give you a prescriptive “step-by-step” approach to managing projects (as MPMM does), but they do give you a set of practices and principles that you can apply to your projects, to boost your

Create a Project Management Life Cycle

Creating a Project Management Life Cycle It you don’t want to have to start every project from scratch, then it’s worthwhile creating your own Project Management Life Cycle (using project management templates ). How should you do this? What should it look like? And how do you use it? Keep reading to find out how to... Create your own Project Management Life Cycle ... A Project  Management Life Cycle is a series of steps that you take to complete a project from start to finish. Of course, it implies that you can complete the same steps for every project— so is this true? In principle, yes. Every project will have an Initiation phase, a Planning phase, an Execution phase and a Closure phase. However within these phases, the steps you take may vary slightly between projects. The trick is to create a project management life cycle that is generic enough to use for all of your projects, while still being specific enough to add value and save you time on delivery. Here’s how to do it… Map it

Tender Project Management Process

Q: We’re about to select suppliers to our project, and we want to run a proper Tender Process to do it. Can you please tell us what this entails? A: Using out project management process , you can appoint preferred suppliers to your project quickly and easily. Firstly, you document what exactly it is that you want to outsource to suppliers, within what is called a “Statement of Work”. This states the work that needs to be competed by the supplier, in order to fulfill your needs for the project. Next, you need to issue a “Request for Information” which documents the process that they need to go through, to submit you a proposal for the work to be completed. You then review their proposals and if you n eed more detailed information in order to select a prefferred supplier, then you and a “Request for Proposal”. And finally, you select and appoint the supplier by agreeing a formal supplier contract. The MPMM Support Team Project Management Tools Project Management Methodology Project Mana

Project Management Methodologies during Closure

Q: Hi. We have delivered our project on time and under cost and we’re now ready to close. We think it’s been a great achievement, but we want to make sure that the project is closed properly so that staff leave with a great feeling knowing that they have achieved something great. What should we do? A: The project closure phase is usually rushed by project managers and teams, even though they often use project management methodologies . In our project management methodology, you need to take these step to make sure that your project is closed quickly and efficiently. First, review the project completion criteria to determine whether it’s ready for closure. Then if it is, identify any outstanding items and hand the deliverables and final project documentation over to the customer. Then relesae your suppliers, resources and equipment allocated to the project. This includes all staff and contractors. And the final step is to communicate the project closure to all of the project stakeholder

Project Reviews & Project Management Software

Q: We’re conducting a review of a project that has completed, to determine its level of success. Can you please provide any pointers, so that we may do it correctly? A: Upon project management completion, you can use our project management software to perform what is called a post implementation review, or post project review. This review will determine whether the project met the stated objectives, produced the required deliverab les and fully satisfied the customer. It will also determine whether the project ddelivered on time and within budget, stayed within scope, and conformed to any specified guidelines or standards set out.

Project Management Process for Reviewing Projects

Q : We have nearly completed our project and we think we are ready to close it. What steps should we take in deciding whether or not to close the project? A: Easy. You need to complete a Phase Review. Our project management process will help you do this. First, you need to determine if all of the project deliverables have been completed and signed off by the customer. Then determine if the full scope of the project was delivered and whether you have met your project objectives. And only at that point, assuming that your customer is happy, you have met your objectives, can you decide to close your project formaly. The MPMM Support Team Project Management Tools Project Management Methodology Projet Management Process Project Management Software Project Management Portal

Closure and Project Management Tools

Project Management Tools Tip 1: Confirm Project Completion The first step in closing a project is to confirm that the project is ready to be closed (using project management tools) . The project is only ready for closure when all the completion criteria specified in the Terms of Reference have been met in full. If you’re confident that the project has met all of the completion criteria specified, then the next step is to identify any outstanding items. These are typically activities listed as “Incomplete” on the Project Plan, however they may also be miscellaneous risks, issues or general items that are noteworthy and need to be raised. Identify the outstanding items required to be completed, in order to confirm that the project is ready for completion. Tip 2: Identify Closure Actions Now that you’ve confirmed that the project is ready for closure, you're ready to document the actions needed to close the project, within a “ Project Closure Report ”. You should also identify the act

Project Management for Communications

Q: What is the project management process for issuing communications messages in a project? A: Although there are dozens of types of communications, the manner in which you communicate with your project stakeholders and team members is the same. First, you need to identify the message content (“what” you want to communicate), then the message audience (“who” to communicate to), then identify the message timing (“when” the message should be sent) and the format of the message (“how it should be sent). You then need to create the message, get it approved and communicate it. And finally, you always need to get feedback to determine whether the message was received and interpretted accurately.

Acceptance Project Management Process

Q: I was talking to collegues the other day and they tell me that I need to implement a project management process or “acceptance management” and that it has something to do with managing customers expectations. Can you please enlighten me on the topic? A: Sure. Acceptance Management is gaining the acceptance from the customer, that the deliverables your project has produced have met their expectations and they are happy to “sign them off” as approved. Only when your customer has approved all of your project deliverables, is your project truly complete. And to do this, you need to use some form of project management process for managing acceptnace. Our project management software has such a process.

Procurement in Project Management Methodologies

Q: What exactly is procurement management and how should it be included in my project management methodologies ? A: Well, procurement simply means obtaining goods and services from outside of the business. It’s like outsourcing to a certain extent. You usually don’t have time to do everything yourself so you “procure” goods and services externally to help your projects out. So therefore “procurement management” is manging the procurement of goods and services from external suppliers. In your project management methodoloigies , you definitely need a formal proejct management process for managing procurement, as does our project management software. The reason is that more often than not, if a supplier delivers their goods and services to you late / at a higher cost than expected / at a lower quality than expected, then it will impact on the outcome of your project .