Recently a small business exec asked me about the most common consequence I see of not planning. The answer is simple so let me give you the Twitter-sized answer.  ...

Is a project technically a project if it doesn’t have an end date? I don't think it is. I see businesses that work towards firmly committed end dates, and, ...

The most common problem in projects is poor requirements, yet establishing requirements is just one of many tasks that can limit your success when getting ready to start a project. Even ...

The operation of most organized projects is guided by an underlying structure that takes the team systematically through the maze of preparing and executing a project. Many businesses have a formalized ...

I run into many people and businesses that work with design-build as the basis of all of their projects. And it’s not just about construction, but also IT, software, and systems ...

Previously we wrote about control and governance in traditional project teams. We wrote about structure, strategies, systems, and society as the primary levers to maintain control, and some of the changes ...

When we talk with clients about the Internetworked organizational model, the most common question asked is how control is exercised in highly interactive and less formal organizations. This month we will ...

We build habits to learn how to live in society. We build habits and preferences for how we work so we don’t have to re-think everything we do… so we can ...

“I have made every schedule and commitment for every project I have ever led.” Over the past few years, I have had more than one person tell ...

I am often in the position of having to take a quick look at a project plan to determine the likelihood that the end dates reflect the reality of the project. ...

Centralization of project management and establishing a project management office are high on the list of many enterprises as they experience continuing dissatisfaction with their investments in projects, products, and technologies. ...

Unclear and incomplete requirements remain the most often cited reason for not only project risk and unpredictable schedules, but for outright project failure. Yet one of the most common faults I ...

As a project leader, how much time do you spend managing up? What about managing your peers? And your reports? I don’t know the norms, but I have some ...

Tom Peters recently reminded me about the importance of team diversity. While there are many kinds of team diversity that are important, today my topic is cognitive and gender diversity.  ...

A lessons-learned process needs to be supported by a business's culture in order to provide accurate and valuable feedback. Open Communications In order to have ...

Small companies can be quickly overloaded with processes that are well meaning, but designed for large or complex projects in large organizations. The key to successful project management in small companies ...

Here are the best and worst practices of project leaders as told to us by participants in our project leadership workshops. It’s interesting that this list is different than most best ...

Risk Can Be a Good Thing Project leaders take risks. If the risks are too conservative, the project may fail in the marketplace; if too high, a product ...

We see four barriers to communication of risks in projects: 1. “There isn’t time to work on risks.” There are many fundamentals ...

So your budgets are cut, new hires are frozen, and all hands are headed for the fallout shelter as your corporate leaders prepare for a downturn in the economy. How does ...