No matter the industry or domain, there will be times when we need to quickly make a management or technical decision. Decision matrix allows us to compare a range of solutions to a defined set of criterion. A quick and easy tool to accomplish this assessment is the decision matrix, of which there are two […]
Risks and Risk Management We continue with our series on the taxonomy of failures in project knowledge areas looking at risk management. In this case turning our breakdown of the project failures toward risk management. Risk management is fundamental to project management as we reduce or navigate the potential impediments to the success of our […]
Risk and Time Management In keeping with our last post, we discuss risks due to insufficient time management that often result in project failures. As is with many things, the symptom of the failure has roots much earlier. In other words, when we witness the failure, it was due to some event(s) or activities much […]
Why Statistics and Control Are Important to the Project Manager More from the TQM and Project Management [1] One of the purposes of statistical analysis lies in its ability to discern random variation from non-random (or “controllable”) variation. Random variation is extremely difficult to control, although we have seen situations where variance could be […]
We take a brief turn from our previous agile posting and divert to Total Quality Management tools applied to conventional Project Management with an excerpt from our book by that title. Consider our company has outsourced a significant portion of our project to a supplier, and in our evaluation of the risks via our Risk […]
Product development work has variation brought on by the product, as well as the organization. Though there are many approaches out there, prescriptions that are based upon the type of organization or the type of product. These approaches may have some relevance but ultimately things are not so easy to allow a prescription, “take two […]
By Jon M Quigley We have discussed the Failure Mode Effects technique a few times in the past. Though Failure Mode Effects and analysis seems to be a powerful tool, the problem is you do not know if the FMEA is effective and perhaps you will never know. The Failure Mode Effects Analysis tool, theoretically, allows […]
Project Management Tools and Risk Management There still remains meat on the bones of this study from Software Advice. On LinkedIn, Joe Hessmiller had an observation that Client relationship and Risk management was far down on the list of concerns. Under the heading More Buyers Request Advanced Functionality Than Basic[1] client management and risk management was […]
Why do we use tools? We use tools to make our lives better. It would not be very fun to hammer a nail into wood with our hand. Imagine the situation if we continued communicate via pony express. Sometimes, when we are not aware a tool exists, we may try to fabricate something. We make […]
Have you seen these risks in your projects? The project that selects a scope that does not match the constraints (cost, quality and delivery). The project strategy that dooms the organization to cost over runs, surprises the organization with late delivery that would have been easily predicted. The ineffectual risk register (or non-existing). The team […]