July 2010 PM Survey – The Project Schedule
Posted by Brad Egeland
It’s hard to believe it’s July already, but a new month means it’s time for a new survey. This month, I’d like to get a feel for what we use for project scheduling and how we use it.
The survey is available now through late July at this address:
www.bradegeland.com/july-2010-survey.html
So, for question #1 – I want to know what tool you’re using. There are a lot of tools out there so I’m just looking for the name. You don’t have to tell me if it’s web-based or not – I think we’ll get into more of that in the next month or so.
Questions #2 & #3 – let the readers know how close to the vest you keep the project schedule. Does just the project manager revise and distribute the schedule? Is it a collaborative effort with the project team – do you let others go in and revise task status on percent completes and effort estimates? And do you let the customer do anything but look at it? Are there ever any projects where you allow update capability for the customer? I’m assuming this is probably almost never, but who knows.
Question #4 – Do you use the project schedule to actually track project costs? Are the hourly rates of the project resources and costs for materials entered into the project schedule or do you track project costs through a different mechanism?
June PM Survey: Managing the Project – Part 2
Posted by Brad Egeland
Part 2 of the June PM survey is now available. This 2nd part of the monthly survey again deals with concepts associated with the ongoing management of the project.
The survey is now active and ready for your participation at:
http://www.bradegeland.com/june-survey-part-2.html
In this 2nd part of the survey, we’ll be looking at the following topics:
Definition of project success
For this question, I’m looking for how either you or your organization primarily defines project success. Is it on time project delivery, on budget project delivery, or customer satisfaction? And for those of you who feel it’s something other than those three options, there is a write-in ‘other’ response area available.
Percentage of successful projects delivered
This one will definitely a best-guess scenario because I doubt that anyone has compiled hard numbers on this plus it’s somewhat subjective as to what one would call a ‘successful’ project. I’m trying to get an idea of where our readership stands in regards to successful vs. failed projects. Recent studies – as I’ve reported here in recent articles – place the percentage of failed projects between 62% and 75%. It will be interesting to see where PM Tips readers fall in that spectrum.
Percentage of project revenue from change orders
Change orders are always a love – hate thing. For the PM and team, they are a great way to increase project revenue and executive management loves them. However, it’s often difficult and even uncomfortable for the project manager to present the customer with change orders – unless they are the result of direct customer requests. Also, change orders are a necessary tool to bridge the gap between the originally defined requirements and what reality fleshes out over the course of the engagement.
Project Management, Interop, and Green IT
Posted by Brad Egeland
A week has passed and Interop is completely history. We’re still seeing articles about Interop or related to Interop filter in as is the case with this article and possibly a few future articles that I have planned. What I’m still most intrigued about is the emphasis that was placed last week on Green IT practices and Cloud Computing.
Interop Take Aways
One of my take aways from last week was to try to look for ways to integrate green IT concepts and practices going forward on projects I work for clients. Another take away from the conference is that cloud computing is still a vague concept to many people – even the so-called ‘experts’ and definitely the executives who are pushing cloud computing services and concepts within their own companies.
I sat in on a Lessons Learned session with executives from several companies including Domino’s Pizza, reddit.com, and the Escape Media Group. These individuals had implemented cloud computing in their organizations and they still didn’t weren’t consistently presenting concepts on what cloud computing really is or really means.
For the purpose of this article, I’ll explore what green IT can mean to the consulting project manager. I have more to say on cloud computing services, concepts, and security concerns, but I’ll save that for another article.
Interop 2010 Coming to a City Near You
Posted by Brad EgelandInterop 2010, which boasts that it is the ‘IT industry’s leading event’ and the ‘leading
business technology event,’ has four yearly stops and kicks off the Interop year with it’s annual stop in Las Vegas. Other stops for Interop are: Tokyo, Mumbai, and New York.
The Las Vegas conference, in my stomping grounds, will be held at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center April 25-29 featuring approximately 10,000 attendees and more than 400 leading exhibitors from the information technology industry.
Thankfully, due to having written hundreds of articles on project management, business technology, and small business topics in the past couple of years, it looks like I’ll be able to get a free media pass into the Las Vegas stop on the Interop tour. That’s huge because the price of a full pass is $3100 when purchased in advance.
According to the brochure, here’s what Interop is about…
“Learn about all the latest IT solutions, get up to speed on important trends and learn how to leverage new technologies as the economy rebounds. Interop brings all the important It innovations together in one place to help you identify technology must-haves to drive down costs while improving collaboration and communication.”
March Survey – Remote Project Management
Posted by Brad Egeland
If you’ve been reading my articles for any length of time you’ll know that I’m somewhat passionate about remote project management and green or sustainable project management practices. And I believe that one supports the other.
For my March survey – or at least March survey #1 (there may be more) – I’d like to get an indication on where our readership stands on remote project management. How many of you out there are independent or involved in an organization that supports the management of projects in a primarily remote situation.
And for those of you who are, or have been, involved in the remote management of projects, I’d like to hear what you liked best or least about them. The capabilities of my website right now still limit my surveying options, but I’ve put up what I think are common pluses and minuses with remote or virtual project management in a team environment.
Please take the survey – it’s completely anonymous and it’s brief … only five questions. But I think the results could be very interesting. I’ll close this survey down in 10-15 days and then do a follow-up article on PM Tips analyzing the results.
Please go to this address to complete the survey…
http://www.bradegeland.com/march-survey.html
If any of you survey takers have feedback or something you’d like to add after taking the survey, please feel free to comment on this article or email me at Brad.Egeland@pmtips.net.
Thank you in advance for taking this survey. Your participation is greatly appreciated by me and everyone at PM Tips and Seavus – the creators of Project Planner and Project Viewer.
