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Ding! Project Manager Advances to Next Level In games like Everquest, World of Warcraft, or Diablo there are significant milestones when you accumulate enough experience to “go up a level”. It’s always rewarding to watch a project manager do that in real life. |
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The Sound of Expertise At the beginning of our careers, we know a little bit of theory and have a little bit of practice but worry that the “adults” around us are going to embarrass us when they realize we don’t know everything about everything. |
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Change Isn’t the Problem Project managers need to ensure that sponsors, team members, and stakeholders understand that un-managed change is the real bogeyman. |
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Perils of “Ongoing” Projects Projects should have clearly defined goals, schedule targets, and resource allocations. When projects are described as “ongoing” that is often a red flag suggesting that either this isn’t a project, or it is not being well-managed. |
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Implementing New Standards: Should We Push or Pull? No one likes process for process’s sake. Most of us are naturally resistant to change. Modifying standards or processes is an organizational change task. How do we encourage people to embrace change? |
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User Participation Is Essential to Diagnosis and Problem Solving The role of IT professionals is to help users get the most value from their systems. If IT systems aren’t working efficiently or correctly, it isn’t just an “IT Problem” and the nice folks in IT can’t solve it effectively without user participation. |
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It’s Not All Engineering IT managers often begin their careers as engineers, problem solvers, and innovators. If you are a technical person who aspires to a management role you must learn to embrace and work with budget and priority constraints. |
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The Cost of Vendor Delays Make sure that your change management process is clearly outlined at the beginning of a project and use it when there are unforced errors to get concessions from a vendor when the fault is clearly on their side. |
