Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Here are five common mistakes project managers make, and tips on how to avoid them:

1. React to variance: One week of variation, unless huge, is not going to make or break a project. Better: Look for trends, and don't forget that being under budget and time has consequences as well.
2. Insufficient planning: Top PMs spend more time planning than less effective PMs. Better: Allow some work to start...

Studies have shown that roughly 20% of projects fail due to poor communications. Whether you are discussing risk management or just having a meeting, having strong communication skills is critical for project managers. Here are 5 tips for improving those skills:

1. Know your audience. Do a thorough stakeholder analysis to understand communications needs and preferences.
2. Develop a formal...

As we've learned from projects like healthcare.gov, Agile isn't always the best method to follow for software development. If we look at its strengths and weaknesses, Agile is not especially well-suited in its pure form for projects with fixed deadlines and fixed scope. It also exhibits limitations in complex projects which require strong integration testing.  So there are other...

The primary goal of risk management is to navigate the uncertainty found in any initiative. As the development of the risk management process begins, here are four more general principles to keep in mind to guide decision-making:

1. Timebox risk assessments. Because all uncertainty is not identifiable and the process needs to be scalable to the size of the initiative, allocate some fixed time.
2. No...

The primary goal of risk management is to navigate the uncertainty found in any initiative. As the development of the risk management process begins, here are four general principles to keep in mind to guide decision-making:

1. The organization and initiative stakeholders have attitudes toward risk. These attitudes will affect thinking throughout the process and need to be determined in advance.
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If project management feels like it's herding cats, you are probably doing something wrong. Here are 5 steps to avoid the cats:

1. Be sure you develop a definition of success and a clear vision with the project sponsor.
2. Be sure there are clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
3. Do enough planning, so there is a clear plan for the team to follow.
4. Follow the appropriate project and...

1. Costs and time of implementing risk management are proportionate to the costs and time of the projects -less than 10% is a...

 1) Be sure there is a project...