project management

For those of you wishing to become an accredited Project Manager, and go on to forge your career in that direction, you need to check out my APMIC Primer.

The Association Of Project Managers is the finest proof you can get that you are a capable project manager. My APMIC Primer is based on the Introductory Certificate, including the exam - and it tracks the official Syllabus to the letter - so you won't miss a thing!

I have a Clever-Dick Nephew Nick who lives in Roanoke USA, and 'CDN' paid me a surprise visit for my recent birthday. Apart from the fun and affection of having his giant personality bubbling around me, we had a man-to-man chat about my business and lifestyle. Now I consider myself as a reasonable manager, but thanks to his insights, I found out I had become, well, a little defocused.

See, I had loads of new projects brimming inside my fertile brain and by golly, was I working hard on several of them when he turned up. But I wasn't getting the results I was expecting.

 I haven't been sleeping too well recently, in that I keep waking at 04:30 or thereabouts, and I'm darned if I can get back to sleep...

I usually toss and turn for about 45 minutes, give up and get up. A cup of tea or coffee later, and I'm beavering away at my PC.

Change And Configuration Management

I remember, many years ago, attending my first training course on Quality. Management couldn’t get enough people to attend, so they bribed them with a free scientific calculator (back then worth about $200) – so I attended. To be honest, I found it a whole lot more compelling than I expected. After lunch on the second day, they had an expert talk about Configuration Management.

Well, she certainly knew her stuff – but I came away thinking that CM was a bit ‘academic’.
How Wrong Can I Be?

How about ... it’s BUSINESS CRITICAL!

What is a project -- and what is project management?

Here are some definitions:

Once a project has completed, there are many project management lessons that can be learnt from it.

This is not an opportunity to pass blame to anybody, but an opportunity to help enhance the performance and management of future projects.

During the life of the project, lessons may be learned on a continuous basis - so it makes sense to capture any learnings - as they occur! Setting up a central log - a Lessons Learned Log, is a good way to do this.