What a beautiful morning! I was back for the second day in a row at the beautiful Grand Hotel in Stockholm for an IDC conference with the exciting topic: Consumerisation of IT. The entrance was packed with approximately 40 Chinese people in black suits. I felt a bit different, but soon I found the conference room which was full of my new friends; the CIO:s. There I felt at home since I understand and can talk their IT language. I don’t speak Chinese yet :). Approximately 100 people had signed up for the conference. I was very much looking forward to discuss the challenges and possibilities of consumerisation of IT with analysts and participants.
The introduction speech was held by Nils Molin the Director of IDC in the Nordic countries. He clearly stressed the importance of having a strategy to handle the consequences of Consumerisation of IT. According to IDC this...
One of the traits of the best project managers is a seemingly innate ability to spot the signs of a troubled project. Sometimes the signs are obvious, but at that point it’s often too late to save a project without a major intervention. Here are some tricks to use to spot trouble early:
Check your work
One of the best tests of a project’s true status is performing a demonstration of the end product. Some of the most nefarious failed projects looked perfectly fine from a management perspective: deliverables were getting delivered, stakeholders were happy, teams were buzzing with activity—but the core objectives of the project were not being delivered. Staging regular demonstrations provides a great way to check the status of the final output, and nearly anyone can readily identify whether the prototype is where it should be or miles away from the final objective. It’s difficult to fake progress, and...
Most software suppliers deliver their solutions with some kind of help file. Similarly, we have such a solution and are confident that the information we provide is relevant, helpful and accurate for our users.
But, many software users try to avoid ever reading these help files. It is in fact often the last place people want to look for help. This is odd. The help should be the first place to turn to. Instead, people use different tactics to avoid help texts. Some use trial and error to learn, some ask others for help, some use whatever knowledge they have from other systems to try to figure out how things work.
A typical software user tends to be focused on the end result and is not willing to spend time on studying the help file and, in doing so, reducing productivity instead of saving time.
There are a few possible reasons for this:
Information...
“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to leave the world a better place, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded”. (Ralph Waldo Emerson).
A close friend of mine sent me this quote and I felt I wanted to share it with everyone. Why is it that, although we know that this is what makes us happy and creates satisfaction, we still search for short-term monetary success that just creates the opposite? Why is it that, most of the day, I’m working to create growth for our shareholders who already have more money in the bank than they need?
Market conditions have become extremely tough; competition is fierce and growth pressure is ever increasing. Can infinite growth be achieved? If growth is the measure of success, does it mean that we have...
Some of the best project managers seem to have an uncanny sense of what needs to be completed by whom. If you sit in a meeting with these types, they instantly recall what activities those in the room are performing, what questions need answering, and what next steps are required. Whether interacting with individuals or teams, they’re always aware of what needs to be done in that particular environment.
While project planning is second nature to most PMs, many miss out on a critical element of consideration for each task: its context. Context is occasionally the same as the person assigned a particular task, but more often it’s the environment where a task must be completed. By organizing tasks and project elements in this manner, you can quickly reflect on your current environment, and gather the tasks relevant to that environment.
If you’re having a meeting with a particular team, you can...
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