Comments on: How to Teach Yourself About Project Management…

By: Michael Greer

Michael Greer — Mon, 24 May 2010 06:24:11 +0000

Hi Ameera – Thanks for visiting! Re: your issue with project delay… I’d need more information to help you figure out how PM might apply. Here are some questions you might want to answer:
* Are your projects delayed because you have created unrealistic deadlines? (Did you get agreement from the workers who would be creating your project deliverables that the deadlines were reasonable?… that they could meet these deadlines?)
* Did the stakeholders (all people reviewing the project deliverables while they are being constructed) agree to the schedule? … did they agree to provide their review and feedback to you within your scheduled dates?
* Did senior managers or your sponsor or your customer agree to provide something that your workers need to finish the job, yet ultimately fail to provide it?
* Did senior managers or sponsor or customer agree to provide timely feedback and approval and then fail to do so?
* Did the priority of those working on your project change or were the workers “pulled away” from your project to work on another project?
* Did you have a clear, “high resolution” picture of all your project deliverables and all your project tasks before you set your deadline?
These are some questions to think about as you troubleshoot the causes for any project’s delay.

Generally speaking, the following conditions need to be met in order to avoid project delay:
1. The project must be highly valued by senior management… It must be a high priority so that it is provided with the enough resources (people, equipment, and money) and attention from reviewers to “keep it moving.”
2. The project schedule must be accurately estimated, not simply imposed from the outside. Accuracy in estimating assumes that the people doing the work participate in creating the estimates of deliverables, estimates of tasks needed, and estimates of time required.
3. The project must remain a high priority throughout its evolution. If other work or another project is elevated to a higher priority than your project, then your project will likely suffer the loss of resources and be forced into delay.
I hope this helps.
Readers: Any other suggestions for Ameera??
- Mike G.

By: Ameera

Ameera — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:36:16 +0000

Hi , thank you its very interesting innformation , however I have an issue in my work , project delay ,how can I implement the PM or operation management aspects on this issue ?

By: Gina

Gina — Sun, 09 May 2010 17:26:02 +0000

This is excellent advice for people who want to become project managers! Another helpful site, but for people that already have a little bit of PM experience is the IT Project Blog from NuWave http://www.nuwave-tech.com/it-project-blog/. They recently posted a great video about the habits that a good PM should have.

By: Michael Greer

Michael Greer — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:16:44 +0000

You are quite welcome! I hope it helps you.

By: narayana

narayana — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:58:35 +0000

Thanking you for providing useful information for us to know the about these details.

By: Michael Greer

Michael Greer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:37:31 +0000

Thanks for visiting, Sanjay! And you might also want to examine my articles “Beyond PM Certification: Achieving PM Performance Improvement” — http://michaelgreer.biz/?p=580 — and The Accidental Project Manager — http://michaelgreer.biz/?p=131 — These encourage you to take your time, approach PM on your own terms, and don’t let the certification people make you feel as though you must get their certifications before you can enjoy PM!

Best of luck in your PM work. And feel free to contact me anytime for support as your journey unfolds!
- Mike

By: Sanjay Prakash

Sanjay Prakash — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:02:38 +0000

The articles are thought provoking. Being Quality Professional having more then 20 years experience I am looking forward how to enter in the field of Project management

By: Michael Greer

Michael Greer — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:48:46 +0000

You’re quite welcome! And you’re exactly right. Much of the more formal PM stuff is derived from and practiced in the fields you mentioned.

Re: education projects — I began my professional life as an instructional designer, then managed teams of instructional developers building courses, media interventions, and so on. That led me to write the first-ever book on managing instructional development, “ID Project Management.” So I’ve written quite a lot on managing ID projects. Check out the articles under the heading “Managing Instructional Development Projects…” on the Articles, Tools, & Podcasts page — http://michaelgreer.biz/?page_id=80

Best wishes!
Mike

P.S. — Wondering… What kind of education projects do you do? What are the issues you face?

By: Halimat

Halimat — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 16:56:36 +0000

This is great, and it facilitates the understanding of PM for beginners like me. My worry has always been can these processes be applied to education projects. They seem to be more applicable to construction, engineering and IT fields.

By: Michael Greer

Michael Greer — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:58:18 +0000

P.S. — I’m teaching a free, live video class on eduFire on Friday, March 5. You might want to attend to get a good overview of PM. Here’s the info:
Class Name: Project Management for High-Performing Teams
To Register: http://edufire.com/classes/12705-project-management-for-high-performing-teams