Payson Hall

Payson Hall is a consulting project manager for Catalysis Group, Inc. in Sacramento, California. Payson consults on project management issues and teaches project management. Email Payson at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter at @paysonhall.

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7 Good Project Management Practices for Replacing a Legacy System

When you need to replace a legacy system quickly, it’s tempting to set aside good project management practices and push forward recklessly. But doing so results in delays, cost overrun, and organizational chaos. Take time to understand the problem, plan and estimate the solution, and set up your project for success.

When You Should Get Your Project Sponsor Involved

If there are decisions to be made on a project, the project manager may think he's helping by going directly to the customer to get her opinion. But project sponsors represent the organization, and they should be consulted before any significant decisions are made. Do you know when you should get the sponsor involved?

Managing Resistance to Organizational Change

Change can be difficult, and some people's reaction is to shut it all down. If they think their concerns aren’t being heard, they get defensive, and your project is on a trajectory for disaster. Don't fire off an email while tempers are running high. Managing expectations thoughtfully is essential to project success.

7 Harms Done by Keeping Unrealistic Project Goals

Project management is about supporting informed decision-making. No one wants to break the news that a project is not on schedule, but a good sponsor would want to know that the original goals are no longer realistic. Reluctance to communicate or unwillingness to hear have some real business consequences.

Effective Project Communication: Not Just What, but Why

The requirements for communicating project status to executives are often paradoxical: Be brief but thorough; don’t go into the weeds, but make sure I know all the important details. Responding to these constraints can be challenging, but you still need to clearly convey your work's significance and risks.

5 Questions to Ask in a Project Review

Project managers often dread doing reviews, but they're necessary to make sure the project is on the right track. Progress can be affected by unclear definitions, risk, schedules, and cost, so it's important to evaluate whether the project manager, sponsors, and team members are all on the same page.

Investigating Interface Architecture in Legacy Systems

Programmers working with legacy systems often seek to understand how the program is designed, but that's not enough. When trying to understand legacy systems, special care must be taken to also explore, identify, and take inventory of interfaces, which can be integral to the entire system architecture.

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Payson Hall

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