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- Manage these three aspects of change in your project
- You can't predict every change that will happen in your project, but you can manage them as they occur. It's said that the only constant in the world is change. You can make a great plan, but you can't account for every potential change that may occur....
- Tags: Leadership, Tom Mochal, change management, configuration management, Project Management Newsletter, Project, Change, Tools & Techniques, Management
- Technical articles 2007-06-04
- Use these five tips when building your WBS
- Using these techniques will save you time and rework on your next WBS. A Work Breakdown Structure WBS is the best way to understand the detailed work of the project when you have to build a schedule from scratch. It's used to break the project down into...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Project management, work breakdown structure, detailed activity, summary activity, Project Management Newsletter, Activity, It Operations, It service Management
- Technical articles 2007-05-29
- Use surveys to measure customer satisfaction
- Surveys are the best way to capture subjective customer information about your project. Here are some tips for what to include and not include in your surveys. Many organizations have a hard time determining whether their projects are successful or not. A couple of these success criteria are...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Marketing research, customer satisfaction, survey, Project Management Newsletter, Marketing
- Technical articles 2007-05-15
- Understand your role in procurement management
- The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) from the project Management Institute PMI describes six processes within the Project Procurement Management knowledge areas. Procurement refers to the aspects of project management related to obtaining goods and services from outside companies. It does not refer to other internal...
- Tags: Purchasing & Procurement, Strategy, Tom Mochal, procurement, Purchasing Department, project management, team, procurement management, Project Management Newsletter, Knowledge, Project Manager, Bottom Line, Team Management, Business Operations, It Operations, It service Management, Management
- Technical articles 2007-05-07
- Managing project risk is easy with the right process
- A lot of project managers are intimidated by the notion of risk management. However, this simple five-step process will be more than adequate for most projects. A reactive project manager tries to resolve issues when they occur. A proactive project manager tries to resolve problems before they...
- Tags: Strategy, Tom Mochal, SECURITY, Managing Project Risk, Contingency Plan, risk, Project Management Newsletter, Management
- Technical articles 2007-05-01
- Use this simple process for package or vendor selection
- Here's a process to help your vendor selection process go easier. The vendor selection process can be fraught with complications if you're not prepared. The following process can be used in most any selection process -- package, vendor, hardware, etc. It's fairly high-level and will require...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Supply chain management (SCM), vendor selection, Project Management Newsletter, Vendor
- Technical articles 2007-04-23
- Don't give up on team morale problems
- Project managers should keep their eyes open for morale problems and look for ways to turn things around. Here are some suggestions. Have you been the project manager for a team that had poor morale? I'm not referring to one malcontent. I'm talking about a team that has...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Team management, Project management, morale, poor morale, team, morale problem, sure people, job, Project Management Newsletter, Project Manager, Team Member, Management
- Technical articles 2007-04-17
- What event signals the end of your project?
- The question of when a project formally ends is one that most people take for granted. However, there is not an easy answer for every organization. We all know that a project is a temporary endeavor. All projects have some start and end date. However, when I teach...
- Tags: Tools & Techniques, Strategy, Tom Mochal, Project management, deliverable, Project Management Newsletter, Project, Solution, It Operations, It service Management, Management
- Technical articles 2007-04-10
- The first step in building a schedule: the WBS
- The first thing you need to do when building a project schedule is to create a Work Breakdown Structure WBS. The first thing you need to do when building a project schedule is to create a Work Breakdown Structure WBS. Creating a WBS allows you to look...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Project management, work breakdown structure, Project Management Newsletter, It Operations, It service Management
- Technical articles 2007-04-02
- Use Earned Value Management (EVM) to determine project status
- The truth is that you can never know with any degree of precision how far along you are in a project. But with EVM, you can get a close estimate. Let's say your sponsor asks you the typical question about how far along you are on your project....
- Tags: Earned Value Management, Actual Cost, Planned Value, Earned Value, Schedule Variance, Schedule Performance Index, Cost Performance Index, Tom Mochal, budgeted cost, Project Management Newsletter, Project, Work, Truth, Productivity
- Technical articles 2007-03-27
- Sample directory structure helps manage project documentation
- Project managers on large projects should plan ahead for how they want their documents to be organized, stored, and retrieved. Here's how to set up the document directory. Large projects tend to generate a lot of documentation. If you're not careful, these documents will become disorganized and require...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Team management, team, Project Management Newsletter, Directory, Management
- Technical articles 2007-03-19
- Project management 101--the case for project management
- The biggest argument against project management processes is that they are somehow "overhead" and not directly related to the success of the project. Here's why that argument holds no water. Convincing people of the value of project management is not always an easy task. It's easier if you...
- Tags: Tools & Techniques, Strategy, Tom Mochal, project management, Project Management Newsletter, Project, Project Management Process, It Operations, It service Management, Management
- Technical articles 2007-03-13
- Use these steps in qualitative analysis of project risks
- When you use qualitative risk analysis you should evaluate each risk and designate each risk as high, medium, or low, depending on two criteria--the severity of impact and the probability of the event occurring. Here's how to do it. The first part of the risk management process is to...
- Tags: Strategy, Tom Mochal, SECURITY, analysis, risk, negative impact, risk analysis, Project Management Newsletter, Technique, Impact, Medium, Management
- Technical articles 2007-03-06
- Use branding techniques to build a positive image for your project
- The purpose of branding a project is to establish an identity that conjures up a positive image. Here are some tips for successful branding. There are three major categories of communication within a Communication Plan--mandatory, informational, and marketing. Marketing communication is designed to sell stakeholders on the...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Marketing research, branding, image, positive image, Project Management Newsletter, Technique, Project, Marketing Communication, Marketing
- Technical articles 2007-02-27
- Use this simple process for estimating project duration
- Any project manager knows that no project is completed in perfect circumstances. So you should use the following process and techniques if you want to make your schedule estimate as realistic as possible. If everyone worked eight hours per day on your project, and was absolutely 100% productive...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Project management, Project Management Newsletter, Hour, Resource, Productivity, Corporate Communications, It Operations, It service Management, Marketing
- Technical articles 2007-02-20
- Audit your configuration management process on large projects
- Configuration audits are difficult and expensive in terms of resources and time. Nevertheless, they are vital in ensuring that the final solution is complete and correct and that you have accounted for all of the configuration assets used to build the final solution. In some organizations, configuration management is...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Asset management, audit, configuration element, configuration management, physical asset, configuration management process, asset, Project Management Newsletter, Operational Planning, Business Operations
- Technical articles 2007-02-13
- Project management fits inside product management process
- Tom Mochal describes the difference between project management and product management. "Projects" are the way that new work gets delivered. "Project management" refers to the processes used to create or enhance the product. "Products," on the other hand, are tangible items that are...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Tools & Techniques, Strategy, vendor product, product management, project management, Project Management Newsletter, Product, It Operations, It service Management, Management
- Technical articles 2007-02-06
- Gathering detailed requirements is the first part of the project lifecycle
- Project management guru Tom Mochal presents three solutions for estimating work to within 10% before you start. Project managers are expected to present a detailed estimate of project work when the charter and schedule are created. However, since the detailed requirements have not been gathered yet, how...
- Tags: Tools & Techniques, Strategy, Tom Mochal, Project management, PRODUCTIVITY, Project Management Newsletter, Technique, Project, Work, Project Manager, Requirement, It Operations, It service Management, Management
- Technical articles 2007-01-30
- Validate work estimates with team members before holding them accountable
- If a team member joins the projects after estimates have been established, it may be unfair to expect him to comply with the deadlines. One of the primary responsibilities of a project manager is to build a project schedule and assign activities from the schedule to team ...
- Tags: Tom Mochal, Team management, team member, team, Project Management Newsletter, Estimate, Management
- Technical articles 2007-01-22
- Consolidate all project management deliverables in the project plan
- A project plan is not the project schedule or workplan. It's the name given to all of the project management documents used during the project. Many people use the term "project plan" to mean the project schedule or workplan. However, the project plan is actually the name...
- Tags: Tools & Techniques, Strategy, Tom Mochal, project plan, project management, project management deliverable, Project Management Newsletter, Risk Management, Plan, It Operations, It service Management, Management
- Technical articles 2007-01-16
