Project Management News

This is a special Episode of The PM Podcast in which we introduce you to a new project management related podcast called PMPOD, hosted by Sebastian Stücker at www.pmpod.de. Here is what Sebastian writes about this episode:

Today the PMPOD features its first interview, which I am very proud of. Also it is the first english episode. To all german listeners, who might be surprised, I explain everything in Episode 3. The topic for todays interview is Project Blame Management. Payson Hall, a management consultant based in Sacramento, California, proposes this as new knowledge area for the PMPOK Guide.

I had lots of fun doing the interview with Payson and I hope you have the same while you listen to this episode.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by The Project Management PrepCast

Have you ever managed a project where everything was either black or white, yes or no, approved or not approved? You probably haven’t. If your projects are like mine then most decisions that are made are a compromise. You give a little here, you take a little there. In project management nothing is really ever black and white. So don’t adjust your project plan, for you have entered the gray areas. And “Managing The Gray Areas” is the title of the new book written by Jerry Manas, PMP, who joins us on the podcast today to talk about these gray areas and all the tradeoffs that we project managers have to make every single day.

In our Gizmos section we introduce you to a new project management podcast called PMPOD. You can find it at www.pmpod.de .

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

Search for "Experimental Projects" on your favorite search engine and you will find millions of entries. However, most of us "corporate" project manager types will probably never have been involved in this branch of project management. On experimental projects, the outcome is uncertain, the road is bumpy, you will probably take a few detours and failure is part of the plan. Lee Fischman joins us on the program today to discuss not only the concepts behind experimental projects but also to take a look at how you can improve their outcomes. Put your brain into overdrive... especially if you have never been confronted with an experimental project.

And here are the winners who each receive a copy of of our brand new PMP Exam Formula Study: Don Ellis (Premium Podcast Subscriber) and Ozeas Santana Filho from Sao Paulo in Brazil (Free Podcast Listener).

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

This is the supporting PDF presentation to our Interview with Lee Fischman on experimental projects. Copyright by Lee Fischman, 2006.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

Have you clearly defined what sets you apart from other project managers? Do you understand how your own behaviors make others understand you as a brand? Can you "reap" the benefits of others promoting you instead of having to do it yourself? You will be able to answer all of these questions with a resounding "yes" if you are clear about who you are as a professional. If not, then others will make up their own image for you. Then they will broadcast that image. Wouldn’t it be better if you took control? To help you out with this we are extremely happy to bring back Margaret Meloni (www.melonicoachingsolutions.com) to discuss "Your Professional Brand" and how you can quite easily influence how others see you and help promote you. We give you a definition of the professional brand, we talk about the importance of having one, what benefits you will receive from it and most importantly, Margaret opens up her toolkit to you and gives you a step-by-step overview of how you can manage your own personal brand.

And here are the winners who each receive a copy of Hans Jonassons's book Determining Project Requirements: Adam Torres (Premium Podcast Subscriber) and Michael Potter (Free Podcast Listener).

We are also starting a new giveaway where you could win a copy of our brand new PMP Exam Formula Study Guide. Listen to this episode to learn how.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

At the beginning of 2008 we put up a survey and wanted to know from you what you considered to be your Project Management Hot Topics for 2008. Requirements Management received 70 votes and landed in second place. We looked around and are happy to bring to you today an interview with Hans Jonasson (www.jtcunlimited.com). Hans is the author of a fabulous book called Determining Project Requirements and in our interview today we will be looking at how you should be determining your project’s requirements. I promise, you are going to like this one. You will learn not only about the process of properly determining requirements and the tools that are required for it, you will also be able to win a copy of his book.

In this interview Hans Jonasson and I discuss requirements gathering best practices as well as many of the tools of the trade. I would like to know how close your company comes to this ideal state. Please leave a comment below.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

Lean Six Sigma is a business improvement methodology which combines tools from both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Lean manufacturing focuses on speed and traditional Six Sigma focuses on quality. By combining the two, the result is better quality faster. I recently had the opportunity to attend a one week seminar on the Lean Six Sigma methodology from my employer. In this episode I will give you an overview of what I took away, we will talk about the acronyms DMAIC, DIRFT and SWIM and I will give you my conclusion of what I feel is important about Lean Six Sigma.

And here are the winners who each won a copy of Brian Irwin's book Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects: Alfredo A. Guillen (Premium Podcast Subscriber) Karthik Surya (Free Podcast Listener).

Are you using Lean Six Sigma in your daily work? How is it working for you? Where are its weaknesses and strengths? Please leave a comment.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

Today we are starting a new series of episodes. My plan is to go back to the basics of project management and revisit books and teachings from the great names in project management. The reason for this is because I feel that we loose ourselves way too much in the detailed nitty-gritty of our methodologies. Agile, Waterfall, RUP, Scrum and Extreme Project Management are all good methodologies, but in order to be able to apply them properly, you have to first understand the underlying fundamentals of our profession. And there is no better way to do this than by going back to the basics. I have a list of great names in project management in mind. And today, we are starting out with the name that ranks at the very top and that is the world-famous singer, songwriter and project manager Mrs. Britney Spears.

How do you feel about the project management abilities of Mrs. Britney Spears? Do you read her books? Do you apply her best practices on your projects? Please leave a comment below.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

Project Politics are very likely the "ugly stepchild" of project management. We know that we have them, but we try to ignore them as best as we can. Because of that we can be sure that they will bite us. And instead of blaming ourselves for not managing them properly, we blame the elusive "company politics" for the fact that our project just failed. This is where Brian Irwin, PMP can help. He wrote the book Managing Politics and Conflict in Projects, which will help you not only understand the dynamics of politics in a company but will also help you manage it. In our discussion with Brian we focus on one important part of managing your politics, and that is your stakeholders. They say that the only project where you don't have politics is a project where you have only one person participating. But since all of us usually have more than one stakeholder we have to know how to manage their project related expectations properly.

We are giving away two copies of Brian's book. Listen in to learn how to participate in this giveaway.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Spark Internet Marketing

In Episode 62 we spoke with Thomas Cutting, PMP about "How to become a Project Manager". In today's interview with Nehme E. Abuzeid we will be looking more at the middle of your career. You are now an established project manager, you have managed a number of projects, you are (hopefully) respected in your company and you are thinking about your future. Where can you go? What is there waiting ahead of you? Nehme makes the case that because you are a project manager, because you meet and have to work with people from various departments and divisions in your company and because you have seen so many different aspects of the company's processes and workflows you are an excellent candidate to become an executive officer in your company.

And here are the names of the winners of our Leap Year Giveaway: They are Patrick O'Neill (from among the subscriber of the Premium Podcast) and Rajeev Kumar Sharma (from among the registered users of our website). Each has won a license of The Project Management PrepCast™, which will help them prepare for the PMP® Exam.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Genius Inside

The business environment is changing quite dramatically and also quite rapidly. We project managers are facing new challenges like globalization, more complex projects or shorter project schedules. Often this is a result of a changing global marketplace, which changes our company, which in turn changes the way we run projects. Stefan Hagen is the managing director of startup euregio, a full service provider for project and process management, and he has taken the traditional organizational approaches and theories and combined them with business process management and the processes needed to run enterprise wide projects. The result is the IPPM Organization®. We discuss this model and how it supports projects in large companies.

We also announce the winners of the Mind Manager Pro 7 giveaway and remind you of our Leap Year Contest.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Genius Inside

This PDF document is copyright by © startup euregio Management GmbH, 2001-2008

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Genius Inside

In January of 2008 I went on my first cruise, which took me to the Mexican Riviera. Of course, I never leave home without the podcast recording equipment, so it is no surprise that I took a few moments on the ship to record a couple of short episodes for you. This is the first one and I am introducing you to a book titled Getting Things Done by David Allen. This book is all about productivity and how to get your to-do-list under control. However, this is not meant to be a book review in the traditional sense - in this episode I present to you my journey over the past 3-4 months of how I used and implemented this book in order to get my hundreds of tasks under control.

The Project Management Podcast™ is a trademark of ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants. All other trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The Project Management Podcast™ and its RSS feed are copyright © by ScopeCreep Project Management Consultants 2005 - 2008. All rights reserved.

This episode is sponsored by Genius Inside