Project Management Companion

Regardless if you are a project manager who contracts or looking for the next permanent role, there are always fundamental skill requirements to focus on or highlight when landing the next role along your project management journey. It is essential to invest quality time into getting the CV or resume right. Being able to sell yourself and your skills will separate you from the many other candidates also applying for that next role. E ven the most experienced project managers can find themselves being overlooked for roles they are ideal for, by failing to adequately highlight the skills they have. The quality of the CV can make or hinder job-seeking prospects, so no assumptions should be made that experience and qualifications alone are enough. There are some ways available to draw attention to skills and make sure landing the next project management role is easier. Some of the considerations here may seem like common sense, but you will be surprised how often they are overlook

In the course of a project manager’s career, there will be many different types of clients with varied personalities to satisfy. One of the most critical skills which can be learnt is how to relate to, work with, and leverage the strengths of team members. For professional services leaders, being able to adjust communication styles to meet other personalities doesn’t just end with the team. In order to manage successful projects for clients, the project manager has to be malleable, adjust to the people and the environment, while maintaining workflow and  project management  best practices. The following are some of the 4 most common types of client personalities and strategic actions which can be taken to deliver the project without sacrificing productivity.  The hovering client Known as the helicopter personality type, unfortunately projects don’t always run smoothly and if a client has experienced failure before then expect a lot of distractions. As the client who has expe

Are you a project manager who understands your customer, sponsor or stakeholder? Who takes an empathetic approach to their requirements? Understand the effect of the planned change on the organisation and its people. Project Management deals with change that is the outcome of working on the project in the first place. Is it the role of the Project Manager to feel for the people the change is affecting? Understanding the human element of a project is an essential aspect of a quality project manager. The power of empathy enables a person to be of greater service to sponsors, clients, peers, superiors and subordinates.  As project management is about serving the needs of stakeholders and satisfying their expectations, empathy is a critical success factor. This is a lesson learnt over many years as a project manager, because People can often forget what has been said and done to them, depending on the enormity of the issue, but they will never forget how they have been made to f

Project reporting is one of the most important factors in a project manager’s daily function, understanding the information which needs to be provided, and being succinct in the process is a very definite skill. Governance dictates that status report updates need to be provided to management, stakeholders, sponsors and anyone in between at least on a fortnightly or monthly basis. Understanding the content which needs to be injected becomes a critical part of effective project communications and management strategy. Templates , PowerPoint can be used and some produce reports directly from their project reporting tools or a combination of all three can be used. Whatever format used, adhering to a regular and formalized process helps save time and costly data mistakes. Also, by being consistent with reporting process assists in maintaining stakeholder expectations, so everyone is aware of what information they can expect on a regular basis. There will be many different types of

The use of calendars for project managers is mandatory, without a timeline or frame then the project will be at risk on not delivering on the sponsors, and stakeholder’s expectations. There are ways to make the whole planning for the next month, quarter and year easier. Composing a project management calendar from scratch can be time consuming, and deadlines can shift before completion. Also, once the calendar is put together, how is it aligned with other teams calendars? Thankfully there is a way to avoid this frustration and easily share project calendars between teams. The following provides some ways to build a digital project management calendar which supports the planning efforts. It is then up to the project manager and team, via collaboration to decide which is the right for fit for the team. 1. Excel for Project Planning Using Excel for calendar formatting is relatively easy, depending on overall Excel knowledge because of its native table view. As Excel has a pre