Welcome to our website and blog.If you have a Google Docs account there’s a really cool gadget to help you create neat-looking Gantt Charts which include Task Dependencies and Work Breakdown Structure. The video clip below shows you how to do it.
If you don’t have access to Google Docs, you might be interested in my Excel Spreadsheet Gantt Chart.
Twice in the past fortnight I’ve been working with clients on projects and they’ve told me of their experience of PRINCE2. On both occasions, their experience had not been positive.
The first person summed up PRINCE2 for his colleagues by saying “There are about 30 templates to fill in and about as many processes that you have to follow“. The second person said “I passed the exams, but whenever I asked the trainers about real-life project situations they couldn’t tell me HOW to run a project, so I’ve not been able to use it“.
My experience over the years tells me that these are not isolated cases and I really wonder how much PRINCE2 is giving projects and project management a bad name. Perhaps these people and their organisations are simply not “mature” enough to apply PRINCE2 properly? Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been working with some people recently, helping them to set up projects. Some of these are fairly simple “change” projects, others are more complex and involve both technology and infrastructure changes. On the bigger projects, governance roles are usually much easier to define: there’s often a clear “Owner/Sponsor” within the business, the person I’m working with is clearly the “Project Manager” and he, or she, will either be able to choose a team, or will be given a team. It’s probably also much clearer on these projects what governance structures are in place, such as Project Boards or Steering Groups.
On the smaller projects it’s sometimes not so clear. Somebody asked: “is it possible for me to be the Owner, Manager and Team?“
