There was recently an interesting post by John Mansour on the Austin PMM Forum (registration required) discussing whether Product Knowledge was an Asset or Liability to product managers. The author makes several claims about how product knowledge is a liability: “In a nutshell, the more product knowledge you have, the less product management yo...

The probability that a project will succeed is different for different cost and time targets. There isn't a single right answer to "How long will it take?" or "How much will it cost?" There are a whole bunch of answers, each with its own probability of being right. The conventional techniques for planning projects only give us one answer—and it's ...

It is common for project managers to question the number of BAs they need on a project or how much time needs to be spent on analysis. The underlying concern seems to be a fear of “analysis paralysis”. Whilst not overtly stated, for many project managers, analysis is a necessary evil that if not carefully controlled, will delay the “real” work of w...

I am in charge of a relatively big training effort for a project (approximately 45 live training sessions in 10 weeks, as well as online training opportunities) to assist with the deployment of a new piece of software.  The live training alone will involve over 450 people and will be quite in depth and hands on.  Training often plays a cr...

This video offers a great way to manage your task list. Check it out and consider how it can help you stay on top of your work.

When it establishes that there is no case for the proposed initiative. When it fails to identify and present the benefits of the propsal sufficiently well to win support. Both of these situations have the same result only the second one is a lost opportunity for the business. You can talk to five different people who ...

My view is that you are making a serious compromise to the potential benfits of swapping across to agile methods if you hang on to a traditional pm process like PRINCE2, but others have different views. Here is one from New Zealand (I think.)

Who owns a project?   “You pay for it, it’s yours.” I am sure I am quoting (or misquoting) someone here, but you get the idea. For an IT project of any size or worth, someone senior enough to be an effective sponsor is usually desired, along with the budget to ‘pay’ for it. I put ‘pay’ in quotes because all the dollars spent on a projec...

In recent years I have done three things which have really ‘ramped up’ my performance at work.    In my readings online, in books and journals I have learned that there is serious researchedevidence that these three things are possible some of the best ways to improve your skills and ability at work (particularly in a thinking job like ...

There are several studies out there that identify why projects go wrong and what you have to have in place to make sure they have a chance. Naturally the readers of Modern Analyst (and BetterProjects.net) are aware of the importance of good requirements management, a theme which permeates the list below, culled from a range of PM literature[1]....