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Adaptive Project Framework is not your Father’s Project Management

We all agree that projects are unique. They will never happen again under the same set of circumstances or conditions. Given that, wouldn’t it be reasonable to expect the management of those projects to also be unique?

The world doesn’t stand still just because you are managing a project. That is one reason why requirements cannot possibly be completely documented at the initiation phase of a project. Whatever management approach you choose to use for your project must be adaptable to changing conditions. Traditional project management models are poorly equipped to accommodate change.


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About the Author

Robert K. Wysocki, Ph.D., has more than forty years of experience as a project management consultant and trainer, information systems manager, systems and management consutant, author, and training developer and provider. His sixteen books on project and IT management include the PMI-recommended Effective Project Management, Fifth Edition (Wiley, 2009). In 1990, Robert founded Enterprise Information Insights, Inc. (EII), a consulting and training practice that specializes in helping large organizations run projects more effectively. His clients range from AT&T and Aetna to the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Wal-Mart, and Wells Fargo.

Portfolio Management Best Practice 2 – The Project Registry

How frequently do organizations duplicate effort because the same initiative is unknowingly performed by more than one group? Probably far more often that one might think and certainly more frequently than one would want to admit.


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Project Management Warning Flag 2 – Breaking-up a Project to Avoid Approval Thresholds

Most organizations increase expenditure authority with each successively higher organizational level. Such budgetary constraints necessitate higher levels of approval for increasingly resource intensive projects; adding to the work required of lower level managers who need to ‘sell’ senior executives on their larger initiatives. Subsequently, circumvention of these often difficult to get authorizations may be sought.


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New Whitepaper Release – Project Size Determination

StrategyDriven contributors are pleased to announce the release of our seventh whitepaper: Project Management – Project Size Determination.

Project Governance and Management – Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right…

A project’s size often dictates the necessary level of governance and management applied to the initiative. This governance and management typically includes items such as:

  • required authorizations
  • level of planning detail
  • frequency and breadth of communications

Subsequently, accurate estimation of a project’s size during project initiation is essential. But what characteristics should be considered in the project’s size determination and how should the project size criteria for each of these characteristics be identified?

The StrategyDriven Project Size Determination whitepaper provides business leaders with a five step process for establishing project size determination criteria used to establish the amount of project governance and management to apply; ensuring initiatives are well, not over or under managed. These steps are detailed with supporting principles and philosophies; helping users understand the reasoning behind each action.

StrategyDriven Premium Members can access Project Size Determination whitepaper by clicking here.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management explores how executives should approach project management in order to enhance alignment and accountability to their organization’s vision, mission, goals, and values. During our discussion, Michael Bender, Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers and author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management: Learn How to Apply Best Practices shares his insights regarding:

  • a process for aligning projects with the organization’s vission, mission, goals, and values
  • frequency for rebalancing the corporate project portfolio
  • criteria and method for evaluating whether or not to discontinue a project
  • importance of accounting for unbudgeted activities when evaulating a project’s cost

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Mike shares in A Manager’s Guide to Project Management and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Ally Business Developers website (www.AllyBusiness.com). Mike’s book, A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, published by FT Press can be purchased by clicking here.

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About the Author

Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, is Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers, a consortium of world-class business, organizational, and professional development experts. Michael’s leadership and project and program management experience contributed to projects including the Hubble Space Telescope, NEXRAD – the Next Generation Weather Radar, and air traffic control systems for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan. He is an American Management Association speaker and guest speaker at DePaul University and the Project Management Institute. To read Mike’s full biography, click here.