Practical guides, templates and straight-talking project management articles for people who need to plan work, manage risk, control change and get projects delivered.
Featured article
From “can any tasks run in parallel?” to “it’s only a small change”, five comments guaranteed to test a project manager's diplomacy. Includes lessons from Crossrail, HS2, BSkyB v EDS and Brooks's Law.
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Project management articles and how-to guides
Project Audits are a fact of life for Project Managers. This article gives an overview of the auditing process and what you can expect at each stage.
The project
Business Case is one of the first and most important project documents, because it sets out the justification for the project. Read the
ultimate guide to the Business Case.
Project scheduling plays a major role in organizing the projects for maximum efficiency and saving time in the process. Learn how to use a Calendar to manage your project
Are you a busy Project Manager? Do you want to be more productive and efficient? Then help is here! This guide will show how you can use generative AI to manage your projects. With 6 examples of how you can use chatGPT to help you plan, and manage your projects.
Configuration Management
Configuration Management is essential for the successful delivery of a project. This article gives a brief overview of the need for, and scope of configuration management.
What is Construction Management? Learn the key components of managing construction projects and the role of the construction manager.
Learn how to delegate using this simple, but effective process for trouble free delegation of project tasks.
How can you fund your project? This article gives an overview of funding options including short-term funding, PFI and grants.
This 15 point checklist ensures that your
project plan is workable and realistic. It is fast and easy to use, and FREE to download in Word and PDF. The top checks are summarised in an infographic.
Learn about the purpose, contents and importance of the Project Initiation Document (PID).
These 10 apps offer the functionality you need to manage a project, coupled with the convenience of online collaboration and a shallow learning curve.
By Tim Bryce. The term "methodology" is being bandied about by just about every software development vendor and consultant imaginable. But like many things in the Project Management industry, the terminology is getting sloppy and it is becoming apparent the true definition of
"methodology" is being bastardized.
In Project Management
milestones are key points in a
project lifecycle. They might be target dates that must be met or delivery of important
work packages or markers of progress. This explains the definition, purpose and sources of
Project Milestones.
Monitoring and control techniques can be split in to four areas:
project plan monitoring, project
budget monitoring, monitoring through regular status and/or stage reporting and monitoring carried at different levels by the
project team. This guide gives an overview of each area and describes key project monitoring techniques.
It is important to have a complete understanding of the nature of projects. Project management is a specialized, multidisciplinary, and cross-functional discipline combining management, business administration, strategy, specialized subject areas, and other fields toward the achievement of project goals.
Online and remote project meetings are becoming the norm. Experience has taught us a few simple things that you can do to make your online project meetings successful. Here are our top ten tips for your next virtual team meeting.
You know the risks within your project, but do you know the risk level of the project itself? This template is designed to help you
assess overall project risk through a series of questions covering project organisation, planning, technology and planning.
What is the average
Project Manager Salary? Well it depends on your country and town or city, your experience, the industry you will be in and your level education. Find out what factors impact salary and how to research the typical salary you can expect in a
Project Manager role.
By Fakher A. Omezzine. A well-researched and comprehensive literature review of Project Success Factors. The nature of nowadays Large-scale Complex Projects necessitates the application of appropriate and adequate Project Management models, as well as full knowledge of PROJECT SUCCESS drivers.
Task Management’s best kept secret. MeisterTask is designed to be the most intuitive task management app on the market.
Project Teams, meaning and definition. A
project team is a temporary team created to deliver
a project.
Understand the concept of project tolerances, and how they are used. See a real-world example of project tolerances for time and cost.
Time, Cost and Quality - The Project Triangle - Project Management is all about balancing three constraints: time, cost and quality. This is one of the most important concepts in project management. This article provides an overview of the key variations of the triangle and explains how it helps you to manage your projects.
By Asya Karapetyan, tech writer and blogger. There is a wide array of applications for project managers that fit their specific
requirements whether they are team collaboration, time tracking, chart drawing, note-making or troubleshooting. In this article you will find the TOP 10 tools used by project managers.
Explore the three essential types of resources in project management: human, physical, and financial. Learn how to effectively manage and utilize these resources for project success.
By Mark Romanelli. What is the best approach to monitoring and controlling
a project? Variance Analysis is a simple but powerful approach for monitoring the
project schedule,
scope and cost.
By Mark Romanelli. Decision making processes can become complex when there are multiple criteria involved to be. When this is the case, a useful tool to help put things into a more clear, objective view is a weighted scoring model.
By Steve Twine. What is programme management and why is it important? Steve Twine, Director at Focus-on-Training defines programme management and explains why it is so important in today's complex world were organizations have to rapidly evolve to changes in technology and the changing needs of their market.
Learn how to describe
a project and understand the difference between a project and
operations or business as usual.
By Rebecca Leitch. Productivity is the number one driving force for small business. Yet the biggest challenge is how to find the time to increase productivity. The key is to manage projects properly and effectively, thereby freeing up more time to work on product development. Rebecca explains how.
Rebecca Leitch, Content Manager for ESI International
By Tim Bryce. Tim gives his answer to the question 'Why does Project Management fail?' and explains the importance of embedding project management into the corporate culture.
This video footage is taken from a Grand Designs episode that beautifully illustrates why professional Project Managers are important on any project.
Change Management
This is a
Change Log Template in Excel. This is a FREE Change Log Template for tracking all of your changes during the
project lifecycle. The Change Log aligns with the
Change Management Plan and
Change Request Form.
Download a
FREE Change Management Plan Template. The Change Management Plan is a
PMBOK document which defines the change control process and describes how it will be managed.
See a real-world
Change Management process for logging, assessing, reviewing and implementing
change requests.
View an example RACI that sets out who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed in Change Management
This
Change Request Template is the perfect tool to ensure changes are successfully managed. It includes the change description, the reason for the request, the options that have been considered and an analysis of the impact.
Project Management Dictionaries and Glossaries
Project Jobs
Project Planning
Project Network Diagram - how to create a project network or precedence diagram
Estimate task duration - how to estimate task duration on a project
Resource Plan - allocating and scheduling resources for a project
Crashing project plans - should you reduce task durations to fit a fixed end date? This is sometimes known as crashing plan
Fixing Start dates - why you should never fix start or finish dates in project planning
Gantt charts - Gantt charts are often cited as the foundation of project planning. Read this brief overview of Henry Gantt and the method he developed for organising work.
Task Sequence Dependency - In project scheduling understanding Task Sequence Dependencies is key to developing a realistic project plan.
Timeline Maker - make beautiful, simple and readable timelines using Timeline Maker. This guide explains how to download, install and use Timeline Maker. The timelines are created in PowerPoint so they are easily incorporated into project reports or client presentations.
Quality Management
Over 50 checks to make sure your project is healthy and on track for a successful delivery! Download our FREE Project Quality Assurance Checklist.
This is a FREE template which you can use to document your project's quality audits. It prompts you to identify good practices to share, areas for improvement, and to create an action plan for any deficiencies.
Download a FREE Quality Management Plan Template. This PMBOK template sets out how quality will be managed on the project. It includes the objectives, standards, roles, responsibilities and control procedures.
Quality Metrics Template in Excel. As you develop the Project Requirements you need to decide what measures you will use to check if the deliverables are of good enough quality.
Explore the essentials of Quality Planning in Project Management. Learn why it's crucial, how to effectively plan for quality, and the best time to implement these strategies for project success.
Explore the essential role of quality in project management, including real-world consequences of quality failures in iconic cases like the Ford Pinto, Challenger Space Shuttle, and more. Learn effective strategies for integrating quality into your project lifecycle, from defining standards and metrics to implementing quality control measures and stakeholder engagement.
