Post 30 - A Project Manager's Daily Routine

Hi guys, Just came across this useful graph showing what a project manager generally spends his day doing.

This will be useful for those of you looking to become a project manager but aren't familiar with their actual job roles.

I hope this gives you a general idea of what project managers do. Of course it's just a general example and each individual PM may do only some of the above.


Do you feel you have the skills it takes to undertake all or some of these roles?


If yes, then this maybe the right career path for you!

Please feel free to leave your comments below.

Post 31 - New Project Manager Tips

Do you happen to be a new project manager and would like some advice from an experienced manager?

Well here are some tips I came across on a blog written by Bruce Gay; a certified PMP prkject manager.


1 - Spend time on identifying your stakeholders for projects.

2 - Understand who will benefit from the project that you're managing.

3 - Clearly define the scope of the project and get it signed off by organisation stakeholders

4 -  Manage communication with stake holders through an interaction plan

5 - Give plenty of time to planning the project before executing.

6 - Set targets for your team to adhere to.

7 - Be prepared for scope change and plan it's management.

8 - Clearly define action item owners.



These are some of the tips I thought I'd share,  you can find some more tips on the link below.


https://brucegay.com/2018/12/27/tips-for-new-pm/


Also feel free to add any advice you feel will be suitable here in the comments section.

Post 32 - Online Courses for PM Managers

To continue on from our previous article which focused on some tips for a new project manager, thought it would be a good follow on to mention some courses a new manager could undertake.


These courses I guess, are some basic online ones mentioned in the Capterra blog I came across.

I believe that a person should always try to get qualifications and knowledge to better himself at his work and also to stand out from the crowd. in today's age we are facing competition from a lot more people qualified people than ever.


So these are some PM courses below to help you stand out from the crowd :

1. Alison: Diploma in Project Management

About the course

Teaches about project management methodologies, tools, documentation and project life cycle analysis, planning, design, and evaluation.

FREE course / Six to 10 hours / 27 Modules /  must achieve 80% to pass

2. Coursera: Applied Project Management Certificate

About the course

Offered by the University of California, Irvine (accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges). Curriculum fulfills Project Management Institute’s (PMI) educational requirements for the Project Management Professional (PMP) course credentials.

$777 for each module/ Six months/ 4 Modules/ minimum of a “C” pass /

3. Project Management Institute: Project Management Basics

About the course

Helps professionals build their project management skills. Enables students to prepare for the CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) certification given by PMI. The course offers hands-on learning experience.

$400/ 23 hours duration/ Pass CAPM exam

These are some of the courses. If you want to find out about some more courses, refer back to the blog below:

https://blog.capterra.com/the-5-best-online-project-management-courses/

Like always feel free to leave your comments and thoughts below as well as any suggestions of useful courses I may have mentioned below.

Post 33 - Most Influential Projects

I was browsing through the PMI website today and came across this beautiful picture canvas displaying the world's top 50 most influential projects of the last 50 years.



As excited as I was, I went on and clicked right on it. I guess PMI has put this together in order to celebrate the role that project management has played in the world in the last 50 years up until today.

I thought it would be a great idea to share with you guys only the top 10 projects and then let you find out about the remaining 40 projects as well details about each one by reading further in the PMI website itself.

So interestingly,

Here are the first 10 most influential projects of the last 50 years:

1.      World Wide Web

2.      Apollo 11

3.      Intel 4004

4.      Euro

5.      Human Genome Project

6.      Singles Day

7.      Prius

8.      Live Aid

9.      M-Pesa

10.  Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Were any of these projects ones you thought would be in the top 50?

For me I was surprised about a few to be honest.

Read the remaining list and further information as to why such projects were so influential.

https://mip.pmi.org/world-wide-web

Post 34 - Why Do Projects Fail

As I was reading away as usual during my daily reading, I came across some interesting information in one of the blogs I came across and I thought it would be useful to share with you here.

It answered one of my original questions of ' why do projects fail '.



Before I started this course, it kind of seemed strange to me that a high percentage of projects fail because I was of the view that, all companies would take the necessary measures to ensure success. However, It wasn't as straightforward as I expected.

The interesting thing I've discovered on this course and through my readings is that ' Even if you plan, initiate, execute, and manage your projects efficiently, there is still a chance for an unanticipated risk to bring it all to the ground '


So what are some common causes for project failure  ? 

 Here are 7 reasons:


1 - Communication between team members and managers being minimal.

2 - Avoiding Conflict Resolution

3 - Project Managers Lacking Experience

4 -  Resource Allocation being Inadequate

5 - Wrong Time Estimates

6 - Expectations  are Unclear or Unrealistic

7 - Poor Stakeholder Management


These causes might seem simple and straightforward to avoid, but you'd be surprised how common they are causing projects to fail.

Find these causes mentioned in the article below:

https://www.proprofs.com/c/project/common-reasons-for-project-failure/


I will share with you some suggested solutions in the next article so make sure to follow.


Please feel fee to leave your thoughts here also.

Post 35 - Project Failure + Solutions

As promised in my previous post, I want to highlight the solutions mentioned in the post for correcting some project failure reasons.



We pointed out 7 reasons why projects fail in the previous post, so in this post I'd like to provide some simple solutions to each of those reasons for failure.

The causes of project failure mentioned were:

Communication between team members and managers being minimal:

The issue is to do with the fact that the varying levels of understanding between workers and management can cause barriers in communication. However, using project management software tools can make it easier to bring about transparency between the team and management.


Avoiding Conflict Resolution:
Avoiding fixing problems between team members is a sure way of causing unnecessary delays in projects. The solutions to fix every problem right away so workers can get on with tasks with increased positivity.

Project Managers Lacking Experience:
The solution to this is very simple - Hire experienced project managers! 

Resource Allocation being Inadequate:
This is  an avoidable cause for many projects to fail, and the solution to this is planning resource allocation thoroughly before starting a project.

Wrong Time Estimates:
The main cause of this is not making sure deadlines are being met, so the manager must ensure that everyone is well informed of when tasks should be completed.


Expectations  are Unclear or Unrealistic:
Pm should inform team members of their roles within the project and give them what is expected from them in a clear and outlined manner.

Poor Stakeholder Management:
Stakeholders need to be updated regularly with clear progress information rather then giving them what they want to hear.


So these are the simple solutions to some of the common causes of project failure.

Feel free to read up some more information through the article below

https://www.proprofs.com/c/project/common-reasons-for-project-failure/

As usual share your thoughts BELOW.
 

Post 36 - Project Management Terminology

Do you know what a 'project scope' is? or 'project charter'?

If you are not familiar then don't worry, this article will direct you.

It is important for a person to be familiar with terminology relevant to his field.

In this blog I thought I would refer you to an article that mentions 15 project management terminology that a project management student should need to no.




Click on the link below to familiarise yourself now!

https://pmbasics101.com/project-management-terminology/

Post 37 - PM Time Management Tips

There is so much to do ... how do I manage my time??

After reading through what project managers do and their roles and responsibilities, I was rather surprised and by the planning and time arrangement that it must require.



So I looked into the kind of skills a project manager should have to manage his time well and tips that might assist a new project manager.


Interestingly, I came across this these skills that a project manager needs to manage his time and projects well:


1- Planning skills - being able to set goals and follow through.

2- Scheduling - being able to organise the plan and execution well.

3- Monitoring - making sure the project implementation is going to plan.

4- Control - making sure there aren't things happening that will negatively impact the project.


These are 4 skills will also help you  become a better project manager if you can develop them.

You can read more interesting information from the article below:

https://pmstudent.com/time-management-tools-and-tips-for-project-managers/

Please feel free to also leave a comment below.

Post 38 - Risk Response Strategy self - Test

How familiar are you with risk response strategies?

I came across this interesting article helping you test your risk response level. The excellent part is that this article provides you with the solutions to each question at the end as well as an explanation of each response strategy.

Feel free to test yourself by clicking on the picture below:

Alternatively, you can click on the link below:

https://pmbasics101.com/really-best-risk-response-strategy/

Please share with us below, how well you did and any other interesting things you feel you learnt from that article

Post 39 - Simple Project Plan Creation

I came across this interesting article describing the steps needed to make a project management plan and thought I'd share it with you.

I will give you the article points and you can read the article for a more in-depth understanding.

Firstly you need to understand that the planning as an iterative process and the steps for planning are the following:

1 - Determine the plan of the project.

2 - Determine organisational requirements.

3 - Outline the plan contents

4 - Determine the detailed requirements

5 - Determine the metrics

6 - Create the project scope

7 - Choose a Team to help you manage.

8 - Figure out what you need to buy.

9 - Create a Work Breakdown Structure

These are just the beginning planning steps.

Continue reading the remaining steps as well as a more in-depth explanation for each point in the article below:

https://pmbasics101.com/project-planning-beginners-27-simple-steps/

Feel free to share any comments with us below also.

Post 40 - Project Framework for Small Projects

Following on from the previous article, I came across another interesting one that covered the framework for smaller projects.



The PMbok itself provides a framework to follow for small or big projects, however, this article kept it's focus on smaller projects and more importantly the considerations you need to take into account to implement the project efficiently.

The article highlights these 6 tips below:

1 - Know Your Internal Stakeholders

2 - Be Ready with Communications Plan Upfront

3 - Collect Requirements

4 - Create Scope Baseline

5 - Track Against Milestones on a Smaller Project

6 - Quality and Risk Management on Smaller Projects


The article also goes into more useful tips and advice on the different approaches a small project could undertake as well as tips on managing the project more effectively.

Feel free to gain some benefit from the article here:

https://pmbasics101.com/smaller-projects/

Also please feel fee to leave any comments or suggestions below.

Post 41 - What does it feel like being a project manager

Today I came across an article which had a link to an interesting video which I thought I would share.

I believe that a person who wants to adopt a particular profession should at minimum know what life in that profession feels like.

Interestingly this video gives a genera guideline to what it feels like being a project manager.

I would advise you to watch the video and consider after watching it, whether that role is suitable for you.

Watch the video below.




Once you have finished watching, you should check out the link to the actual article below as it has a few other useful videos and information

https://pmbasics101.com/feel-like-project-manager/

Also feel free to leave a comment below in how the video made you see the PM role.

Post 42 - Managing Stakeholders

I wanted to share this interesting article about how a PM could manage stakeholders effectively.

The article mentions 7 practical strategies a PM can adopt to assist him in stakeholder management.

I will mention the brief points and then leave you to go to the article link to read further into the explanations.

These are the practical strategies the article mentions to manage stakeholders effectively:

1. Know Your Stakeholders To Push in Right Direction

2. Adopt Continuous Communication to Control Engagement

3. Giveaway Ownership to Build Motivation

4. Acknowledge Contribution to Build Engagement

5. Give Behind the Scenes Access to Stakeholders

6. Assess How Key Stakeholders are Likely to Behave

7. Call to Action

These are some important strategies mentioned and please go to the article to find out a deeper explanation for each strategy.

https://pmbasics101.com/stakeholders-engagement/

Also feel free to comment below.

Post 43 - Find relevant PM Experience

For those of you hoping to get into the competitive project management field, then you must prepare yourself for gaining a lot of relevant experience before hitting those high end positions that pay a lot more.




I was browsing through this online blog and came across some useful tips that might help a new aspiring project manager get some experience.


Here are some tips mentioned:

1- Mention your relevant skills. Relevance doesn't necessitate that it has to be PM related, it could be some management you did or team building at a previous job.

2 - Take a voluntary leader role. try to look for companies that would be willing to give you the experience just so you can document it.

3 - Take lower PM positions. Just because you start at the shallow end of the pool it doesn't mean you can't swim your way up.

4 - Become assistant PM. Look for a project manager managing a project and see if you could get some experience through assisting him.

There is a lot more information in the article. feel free to read it and get some more useful advice

https://pmbasics101.com/relevant-experience-project-manager/

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions also.