We have IQ, there’s Emotional Intelligence (EI) – I say we add EQ – environmental intelligence based on applying that Emotional Intelligence to what’s going on with stakeholders. A quick recap, a stakeholder is someone who has a professional interest in the outcome of a project. That interest may be acknowledged and formalized – corporate… [Read more…]
January 20, 2011 by David Kohrell
Step Two of Resolving Virtual Team Conflict is to treat it as a potential risk. The advantage of looking at team conflict as a risk is it’s an easier to say “hey let’s treat team conflict as a risk element, something that might happen” rather than “gee, we’re conflicted and at each others throat, upper… [Read more…]
January 19, 2011 by David Kohrell
Conflict. The mere term evokes a strong response. In today’s environment, examples of conflict are replete: Middle East, War on Terrorism, Political Divides. Intra personal conflict also appears to be increasing. Project managers also encounter a variety of conflicts: inadequate resources, changing organizational direction, project direction, disagreement among stakeholder groups, clash with functional teams, role… [Read more…]
January 17, 2011 by David Kohrell
While delivering over forty Effective Virtual Team workshops at TAPUniversity since 2006, one question we encourage participants to ask is "well, OK, how does this differ from team members we see in person?" Swift Trust is one concept worth digging in to help answer the question of differentiation.
January 11, 2011 by David Kohrell
Virtual teams are geographical dispersed teams (GDT) who are formed for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the virtual team is formed as a result of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), or a collaboration among organizations may trigger it, perhaps a key employee moves or a company wishes to get some “boots on the ground” in a… [Read more…]
May 10, 2010 by tapuniversity
One of the most common questions I receive from those studying for their PMP® Exam is how to distinguish between the different types of organizational structures. There are three main types of organizations—Functional, Matrix, and Projectized. An organization that has more than one of these types (perhaps across different departments, locations, or teams) is called… [Read more…]
May 6, 2010 by tapuniversity
For large, long-term projects especially, rather than pay the contractor the full payment when the project is complete, partial payments may be made throughout the duration of the project. These partial payments are called Progress Payments. They typically are tied to certain stages of progress or milestones. For example, for a construction project to build… [Read more…]
May 3, 2010 by tapuniversity
The Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome is observed across many realms—not just project management. NIH Syndrome manifests itself as an avoidance to use certain products or ideas because of their origin (with this origin being something other than one’s own). Now if an individual or organization is truly the best at something, than it makes… [Read more…]
April 30, 2010 by tapuniversity
This is what happens in old Western movies when the good cowboys apprehend the bad guys and justice is served. It’s also a scheduling term used in project management. Imagine a project schedule network diagram. For all but the smallest projects, there will be various paths of activities. These paths represent logical sequences of activities… [Read more…]
April 29, 2010 by tapuniversity
“We’ve had to start some of these project activities a little later than we had hoped—how has our wiggle-room for starting these remaining activities changed?” Float (also called slack) is how much time a certain project activity’s start can be delayed without delaying the finish date of the entire project. Please see the earlier posting… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010 by tapuniversity
“How long can I put off starting this activity and not be in trouble?” When managing a project schedule, each activity in the schedule network diagram should have its float indicated. Float (also called slack) is how much time a certain project activity’s start can be delayed without delaying the finish date of the entire… [Read more…]
April 27, 2010 by tapuniversity
Actually getting the funding needed for a particular project is termed “financial sourcing.” This could be accomplished in many ways—explaining the need for the project to the organization’s executives, finding investors who are interested in sharing the profits, or even finding buried pirate treasure! Whatever the means, getting the funding is what this term is… [Read more…]
April 26, 2010 by tapuniversity
“Your llama barn is almost finished—the last thing I have to do is paint and I’ll start that tomorrow” says Peter as he walks towards the barn. “Great! So you had no trouble getting the lavender-colored Llamalike brand llama-friendly paint?” asks Larry. Peter groans. “I forgot about the special paint… I’ll order it today but… [Read more…]
April 23, 2010 by tapuniversity
Larry has hired a local carpenter named Peter to build a barn for his herd of llamas. Although Peter told Larry that he’d have the project completed in three months, when the barn was almost complete a tornado came near and ripped off the roof. Because he has to put on a new roof, Peter… [Read more…]
April 22, 2010 by tapuniversity
Larry has hired a local carpenter named Peter to build a barn for his herd of llamas. Peter told Larry that he’ll have the project completed in three months. However, some delays occurred and it appears that the barn will now take longer than three months. Delays can be either Excusable or Non-Excusable. Non-Excusable may… [Read more…]
April 21, 2010 by tapuniversity
Project managers who deal with procurements may be familiar with terms such as “Lowest Responsible Vendor,” “Responsive Bidder,” and “Responsive, Responsible Bidder.” These concepts are part of the fourth-edition PMBOK®’s Conduct Procurements process in which the buyer selects a seller. The basic process is that a buyer issues an Invitation for Bid (IFB) (or Invitation… [Read more…]
April 20, 2010 by tapuniversity
No, this does not mean that you just saw the commercial for the increasingly-popular SnuggieTM, (the blanket with sleeves) and called the number at the bottom of the screen to purchase some for your friends and family. A Blanket Order is a procurement term that project managers on longer-term projects are especially likely to see.… [Read more…]
April 19, 2010 by tapuniversity
Earlier postings described PROBE and COCOMO (“PROBE” posted April 14, 2010 and “COCOMO” posted April 15, 2010) which are two techniques for making software project estimates. The Putnam Model is yet another technique that can be employed in the project planning stages to estimate the time and effort of a proposed software project. It is… [Read more…]
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January 21, 2011 by David Kohrell
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