Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Fire fighting and herding cats is not project management. To bring your project back to a stable environment, pause and consider the following:

1. Are there unidentified, poorly prioritized, or unmitigated risks that need attention?
2. Is there a sound problem solving and decision-making process in place?
3. Has the team been involved in these processes and bought-in to actions?
4. Have you built...

Problem-solving is a skill needed for all project phases and knowledge areas.  Here are seven steps to take to improve your problem solving:

1. Understand the problem. Remember, Einstein recommended 55 minutes to understand an hour-to-solve problem.
2. Identify 3-5 of the best alternatives. These should solve the problem most efficiently, completely, ethically, and with the least cost.
3. Select a...

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.

Examples:

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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...

Risk management is not a one-time event. During the course of a project, good project managers continue to help the team focus on monitoring risks and repeating the processes of identification and analysis as the project changes. Here are five tips for helping team members maintain their focus:

1. Encourage open and transparent communication about risk.
2. Remind the stakeholders that risks aren't...

Risks are both threats and opportunities which can hinder or help project success. Proper risk management can save you from later firefights to bring things back under control. Here are five tips to improve risk management and/or reduce project risks:

1. Don't skip or skimp on risk management. Larger and more complex projects need to have more robust processes that begin to examine risks earlier...