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COVER
STORY
A
Process for Managing Risk
-- Wayne Turk
Risk
Management is one of the cornerstones needed for a successful
project, especially in the IT world. If an organization
doesn't adopt good risk management in a project, it
is headed for failure. This article provides a simple
description of a risk management program. As companies
operate in many different fashions, the article does
not delve deeply into setting up the risk management
organization, but focuses on some of the processes and
actions required.
© 2008 Wayne Turk. All Rights Reserved.
PROJECT
ENVIRONMENT
Project
Management 2.0 : A New Approach to Manage Projects
-- Annam Anand
To
gain control over projects, organizations need to empower
their managers and employees with the Project Management
2.0 tools. More importantly, these collaborative tools
are integrated with e-mail and are easy and inexpensive
to employ.
© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved
PROJECT
ENVIRONMENT
Does
Project Performance Stability Exist? : A Re-examination
of CPI and Evaluation of SPI(t) Stability --
Kym Henderson and Ofer Zwikael
The
development of the Earned Schedule (ES) method by Lipke
in 2003 has been shown to be an important extension
to the Earned Value Management (EVM) method, increasing
the utility of EVM data for project schedule analysis,
control and oversight. As ES provides a reliable time-based
indicator of schedule performance, the objective of
this article is to investigate whether the Schedule
Performance Index (SPI)(t) exhibited similar stability
characteristics to those extensively reported for the
Cost Performance Index (CPI) in EVM. Thirty-seven projects
were examined for SPI (t) stability and 26 for CPI stability.
It has been found that while the behavior of SPI (t)
is broadly consistent with CPI, the widely reported
CPI stability rule cannot be generalized even within
the US Defense Department (US DoD) project portfolio.
© 2008 Kym Henderson and Ofer Zwikael. This article
was first published in the April issue of Cross Talk
Journal. Reprinted with permission.
PROJECT
ENVIRONMENT
Project
Interviewing Techniques
-- Neville Turbit
As
a Project Manager, it is inevitable that you will have
to carry out project interviews. They may range from
interviewing a candidate for a project team role, to
interviewing a Sponsor about his/its expectations on
a project. Rarely are people given training on interviews.
It is just expected that like breathing, it comes naturally.Nothing
can be further from the truth. Interviewing is a technique
and as such it needs to be taught. Some people are naturals
and some struggle. If you doubt there is skill involved,
turn on your TV and watch a professional interviewer
on a current affairs type program. In this article,
we attempt to cover a few basics that will make you
a better interviewer.
© 2008 Neville Turbit. This article was first published
in March in the Project Perfect website (www.projectperfect.com.au).
Reprinted with permission.
PROJECT
STRATEGY
Doing
an ERP? : Here's How to Manage the Data Conversion
-- John C Goodpasture
If
you are doing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
project, then you probably have a business case for
improving operational efficiency, reducing friction
among business units and providing a rich source of
business data to the executive team. Although most ERP
projects follow a familiar project pattern beginning
with process evaluation and then leading to a roll-out
of an application package, the underlying imperative
for success is business data. In this article, we will
examine the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) of the data
conversion project within the ERP project, take a look
at the level 1 project plan and briefly discuss management
techniques proven to be successful in software projects
like data conversion.
© 2008 Square Peg Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
PROJECT
STRATEGY
13
Reasons Why Projects Fail and How to Avoid Them
-- Jean-Bertrand Casseus
More
than 84% of projects fail to be completed on time and
within budget. There are many reasons for failure of
projects and there are many ways to prevent them. From
lessons learnt from many projects that were successful
and many projects that were not, the reasons for failure
and the methods to prevent failure are summarized in
this article as a guideline for better project management.
© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved
PROJECT
STRATEGY
Adaptive
Project Management
-- Lev Virine
Originally
developed by ecologists, adaptive management has become
a powerful framework for project management. It is a
structured and systematic process to continually improve
decisions and practices by learning from the outcomes
of previous decisions. Adaptive management includes
a number of organizational principles, such as iterative
development and avoidance of irreversible decisions.
Adaptive management relies on metrics and quantitative
methods to integrate actual project performance to the
management of projects.
© 2008 Lev Virine. This article was first published
in May issue of PM World Today (www.pmworldtoday.net).
Reprinted with permission.
CONSTRUCTION
PROJECTS
Incentive
Mechanisms in Public-Owned Projects : Application and
Recommendations for Improved Implementation
-- Rizwan U Farooqui and Syed M Ahmed
Recently,
incentive contracting has been increasingly adopted
by construction project owners as a motivating mechanism
for contractors to make them put extra efforts towards
realizing project objectives. This article briefly introduces
the various incentive mechanisms in the construction
industry, provides example applications and analyzes
them for benefits and mechanisms to cater to overall
project performance priorities.trade-offs. Recommendations
have been provided to enable more effective implementation
of incentive contracts. These include increasing understanding
of incentive provisions, setting challenging yet achievable
targets, developing `smart' project plans, incorporating
and allocating fair and flexible incentive measurement
and distribution strategies, and devising
© 2008 Rizwan U Farooqui and Syed M Ahmed. All Rights
Reserved.
PROJECT
COMMUNICATION
Project
Communication : Of Process, Planning and People
-- N Vijaya Lakshmi
In
a world of multi-location project execution, project
management has become more complex. The challenges multiply
further if projects have more vendors globally. The
solution lies in a robust communication model to handle
these challenges effectively.
© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved
IT
PROJECTS
Project
Metrics : Critical Success Factors
-- V Venkateswara Rao
Selecting
the right/suitable metrics for monitoring the project
progress is a hot topic among the project managers today.
An effective project metrics approach will definitely
help improve the success rates of projects being implemented
by the organizations.
© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved.
|
Global
Executive Summaries
|
- Introduction
to Requirements - The Critical Details That Make or
Break a Project
Full
Text: www.globalknowledge.com
|
July '08