Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Good project managers, especially those working in an Agile environment that can be very internally focused on the client-team collaboration, need to continuously scan the environment for external changes that might impact their projects. Make this a part of your periodic risk assessment. These can include legal, compliance, regulatory, financial, economic, and cultural changes.

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Getting the right requirements are important for project success. Whether you are in a dual role or collaborating with a business analyst, project managers should make sure all their projects include, at a minimum, these three basic types of requirements:

1. Business requirements usually represent the rationale - high-level goals and objectives - for undertaking a project. These should include...

Projects conducted with higher ethical standards have less risk and are usually more successful. Here are five tips to improve your ethics as a project manager:

1. Be a model of ethical behavior - lead by example: As others observe your actions, they will adopt more ethical practices.
2. Focus on issues, not people: Stress can cause unethical behaviors and a culture of blame causes stress.
3. Disclose...

Risks can have an adverse impact on the success of your project. Here are five tips to help you successfully navigate project risk management:

1. Identify risks early and often. Start when you are handed the project charter, continue during planning, and be sure to re-visit your risk log periodically. If there were notable issues during the project, be sure these become a part of the lessons...

According to PMI's 2017 Pulse of the Profession Report, only 28% of project managers always use risk management processes, with 14% rarely or never using them. Often this is because project sponsors and senior management don't see the value of the process. They feel it is a waste of time and encourage the project manager to skip best practices. Here are seven questions the project manager may...

Project managers are often most remembered for their ultimate delivery of the project, rather than any events or activities leading up to it. Here are five tips for outstanding delivery:

1. Start early - plan for all project turnover and termination activities in advance. Be sure they are included in the schedule so the client will receive a fully tested project.
2. Assure clients of a "white glove...

Happy Passover and Happy Easter to family, friends, and colleagues around the world who are celebrating. Easter, in addition to being a religious holiday, is also a marker of the start of Spring (celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the first day of Spring). Here are 5 tips for project managers in the Spring:

1. Review your annual personal and project goals (hopefully...

Here are some additional tips for getting better plans with MS Project:

1. Manually scheduled tasks have shortcomings. Set up Project such that new tasks are automatically scheduled (Options>Schedule>Scheduling options for this project); use manual sparingly.
2. As plans expand, section them out by project phase or major deliverables through space separation, changing bar colors, highlighting,...

Microsoft Project does not encourage best practices and may result in plans with unintended consequences. Here are 5 functions to use as you create your plan. These tips are good for virtually every version of Project:

1. Add project critical success factors as milestones at the top of plans as a reminder. They will not have any effect on plan computations.
2. Add the Type column to the Entry Table...

I've heard from several industry experts that many new project managers do not know how to effectively create and manage schedules. Here are 5 tips for better control of schedules:

1. It is essential to start with a well-constructed schedule.
2. Track all time on a daily basis. On Friday, most people won't remember how many hours they worked on specific tasks and projects on Monday. Be sure to...