Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Project management can be stressful at times.  Meeting the competing demands of sponsors, stakeholders, and teams can be challenging.  Many mistakes are caused by spending too little time on a task, being distracted, or lacking full attention.

Many project management mistakes are caused by one or more of these issues, which are very common.  So let's make 2022 the year that we all try to eliminat...

Project managers need the most flexibility when dealing with project cost management.  Some may never have budget responsibilities, while others may have full responsibility.  Those with some duties will also need to navigate many organizational practices about preparing and presenting budgets.

Here are six best practices that will help and apply over a wide range of cost management practices.

C...

What are the differences between waterfall and agile projects? We can use both methods to manage projects, but both follow different processes.

With waterfall, a project is initiated, then planned.  Requirements are developed in full before proceeding with the project work.  Finally, project execution begins, and the project manager monitors and controls project progress. Once complete, the proje...

What is the minimum passing score for the PMP® Exam?  This is a trick question because there isn't one!  The scoring of the PMP exam is dynamic.  As stated in the PMI Certifications Handbook:

"The passing score for all PMI exams is determined by sound psychometric analysis. PMI uses subject matter experts – project professionals from around the world and many different disciplines – to determine ...

Last month was Global Diversity Month, so let's take a look at how accessibility and project management are related.  Accessibility is concerned about whether all users will have an equal experience with an product or service - in other words, the output of a project. Anything that makes it difficult or impossible for a person with a temporary or permanent disability to equally use your product or...

Stop throwing away lessons learned or putting them in obscure IT folders!  Lessons learned have tremendous value for projects - don't waste them.  Let's look at four reasons why project management lessons learned are essential:

Don't make the same mistake twice:  Spanish philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Albert Einstein said, "Insa...

What is the project management risk process?  The project management Risk Assessment Framework is a flexible, easily scaled, and tailored framework aligned with the Project Management Institute's PMBOK® Guide. 

The benefit of the framework is that it is easy enough for an aspiring, new, and accidental project manager to understand yet comprehensive enough that even seasoned project managers will ...

As project managers, we have a great responsibility to organize and manage the work of projects for our project sponsors and clients. The effort we put into this sometimes makes it difficult or impossible for us to be as personally organized as we might want or need. Unfortunately this might reflect poorly on our project management efforts, so we need to be as efficient and effective as possible t...

I recently volunteered to coach and mentor adult learners in an organization which is putting some of their staff through a project management training program.  When wrapping up a session a couple of weeks ago, I got a surprising question.  "Should I get my PMP certificate?  What about all the other certifications?  My boss is very pro Lean Six Sigma."

To start with, the PMP is still very releva...

According to the PMBOK® Guide, communications is 75-90% of the work of a project manager.  However, it's important to note that it is not just about talking. The work of a project manager includes writing reports, giving presentations, engaging with stakeholders, conducting meetings, training, mentoring, and of course, a large dose of active listening. In addition, other core or extended team memb...