Last week I got the chance to attend the Microsoft Project Ignite Training in Warsaw, Poland. Christophe Fiessinger and Jan Kalis went over from Redmond to explain the new features and business opportunities of the new Microsoft Project and SharePoint. Here’s an exec summary from my p0int of view: The new version is a landmark release – THE big NEW thing is ‘Project Online’ – the SaaS version of Project that integrates with ‘Office 365′ Microsoft pushes it as ‘The new Project’ (and not Project 2013) – compare it to Apple,
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5 Important Planning Tasks for Programs in Matrix Organizations
Matrix organizations with a strong line organization that are conducting programs are having two key players: program and department managers. Both roles are following competing goals. The program manager is focusing on time, budget and quality – the department manager will look for profitability, team management and corporate strategy. This article will show how to mitigate the risk of failure in program management by giving an overview on the 5 most important tasks for each role. Before looking at the detailed tasks, let’s break the goals down to objectives regarding
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Top Reason for Conflicts in Program Management in Matrix Organizations
Program management in matrix organizations works little different than managing a regular project. While a program owner handles the WBS and the schedule, work packages are delegated to departments with focus on delivery. More background information can be found in my last article. This article reflects on the two main roles contributing as actors in the planning process and how their goals compete with each other. In the given scenario we are facing following main roles: Program planner: a.k.a. program manager, program coordinator, project manager, etc. Department manager: a.k.a. resource manager,
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Temptation That Lead to Conflicts in Resource Management
Standish Group’s Chaos Report of 2009 states that 68% of all projects are not successful. Due to latest experiences and my research, one important factor to mitigate the risk of failure is having the right resources in place when needed. This article shows how simple temptations in communication combined with missing transparency lead to a mismatch in resource allocations. Let’s view an example where the project manager first meets the resource and next the resource manager. Then let’s drill into the resulting issues. 1. Project manager asks resource for capacity The
68% Of All Projects Not Successful
Standish Group stated in their Chaos Report of 2009 that ~68% of all projects are not successful. For sure, the Chaos Report has recently been discussed controversially. Stefan Hagen has looked behind the numbers published the findings on his blog (German). At the bottom line of many articles, the conclusion is that there is lots room for improvement in order to increase organization’s maturity in project management. In the last weeks I did lots of Web research on the reasons why projects have been challenged or even failed. I have
