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Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez’ article in PM World Journal is a fascinating insight into why senior managers tend to ignore project management. I won’t steal his thunder – read the article, it is an interesting perspective; whilst it may feel somewhat depressing I think there is plenty of evidence that things are changing. Antonio is author of The Focused Organization: How Concentrating on a Few Key Initiatives Can Dramatically Improve Strategy Execution.
Enter your projects for the International Design for All Foundation Awards 2013.
The deadline for submitting entries to the awards is 17th February 2013. Entering is easy – all the details are available on the Awards website.
The Awards offer an opportunity for public bodies, private companies and not-for-profit organisations to gain international recognition for the projects they have undertaken in the field of Design for All. In addition, any individual or organisation can send their ideas for user-centred design projects in Living Labs, in order to find the best design solutions for everyday problems through the involvement of real-life end-users.
The Award ceremony will take place on 20th March 2013 during the International Design Biennial in Saint-Étienne, France.
The Founder and President of the Design for All Foundation is Francesc Aragall, who is co-author of the Gower book Universal Design.
The 2012 IPMA Congress made a big thing of sustainability this year, which is very encouraging. The presentations, some of which will be available in the near future on SCOPUS, covered research results and case studies as well as tools and methods, all of which aligned to demonstrate the need, benefits, and practical nature of integrating sustainable methods with project delivery from a social, economic, environmental, process and product/service perspective. They are promising an expanded sustainability stream for 2013 in Dubrovnik. Gower authors, Gilbert Silvius and Ron Schipper (authors of Sustainability in Project Management) were amongst the presenters at this year’s event.
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) has recognized Gower author Dr Rodney Turner, as an IPMA Honourary Fellow. The honour is granted to those who over a period of many years render exceptional service for IPMA and/or to the practice and theory of Project Management. Candidates for honourary fellowship are nominated by IPMA Member Associations, evaluated and recommended by the IPMA Executive Board, and elected by the Council of Delegates. Gower publishing is proud to publish such a respected industry professional.
Rodney Turner is author, co-author, or editor of: Contracting for Project Management, Managing Web Projects, The Gower Handbook of Project Management , Project-Oriented Leadership , and the forthcoming: The Commercial Management of Projects all published by Gower.
Stakeholder communication may be a very urgent requirement for every project but Ann Pilkington’s article in Simply Communicate shows why it’s well worth taking a moment to reflect on the resources you have to hand, before you start the communication process. Have you reviewed the project documentation - how it has been structured and what it contains should be fundamental to your approach to communication; have you talked to the right people, asked the right questions and do you understand the context behind the project? I found this article really refreshing because it provides such intuitive lessons for anyone trying to work out the basis for their communication plan … it’s all there, if you take the time to look for it! Ann Pilkington is author of the forthcoming Gower book Communicating Projects.
David Hillson makes some very sensible observations in his article in the November issue of PM World Journal: One Size of Risk Process Doesn’t Fit All Projects and he offers some useful pointers as to exactly what you might scale up or down according to the size and type of project you are running. This article is well worth reading if you’re just starting out in project management and wondering how to risk manage in the absence of exact, qualitative, data or (at the other end of the scale) are wondering how to assess when too much risk management may be of itself a risk to project progress and achievement. David Hillson is author of Managing Risk in Projects, A Short Guide to Risk Appetite, Exploiting Future Uncertainty, Managing Group Risk Attitude and Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude.
At this November’s Ørdev Developer Conference in Malmö, Sweden, Gower author Elizabeth Harrin presented on: How being customer-centric improves IT success: a case study.
In her session Elizabeth Harrin asked “How can I help you now it is too late?” Harrin argues that the post-implementation review is dead and that instead IT professionals should be looking for continuous feedback and constantly acting in a ‘customer-centric’ way. She presents a new model and shows why project teams and operational IT teams should ask internal customers to score them monthly out of 10. Learn how her organization took customer satisfaction scores from 4 to 10 out of 10 and improved relationships with people throughout the business through the application of this feedback loop.
Elizabeth Harrin is co-author (with Phil Peplow) of Customer-centric Project Management, published by Gower.
Lynda Bourne’s article Communicating Upwards for Effect on PM World Journal is a salutary reminder of some of the simplest communication techniques and their potential impact on sponsors and other stakeholders. Big projects are complex enough without confusing people – often those who may not share your native language – with careless expressions or ambiguous figures. Read it, reflect and act. Her advice is bang on. Lynda Bourne is author of Advising Upwards and Stakeholder Relationship Management.
Graham Oakes’ blog post on the APM website ‘Project Reviews, Assurance and the PMO’ makes a very cogent case for the potential benefits of involving the PMO in assurance. For me, the connection is intuitive. One of the functions of a serious PMO is as knowledge repository. If you accept that function, I’d argue that the PMO is then fundamental to assurance and governance because managing risk and uncertainty depends on an organization’s ability to learn the lessons of the past. You have the opportunity to learn not just simply from Graham’s blog but from the horse’s mouth, as he and Lindsay Scott are running a two-hour masterclass on the evening of Wednesday 12th December at Manchester Metropolitan University. The event is free to APM members and only £10.00 to non-members. Graham Oakes is author of Project Reviews, Assurance and Governance. Lindsay Scott is co-editor of the forthcoming Gower Handbook of People on Project Management.
If you have ever read or referred to any of the 30 books that Dennis Lock has authored or edited in the nearly 50 years he has been writing on project management, including the iconic Project Management (for which an extraordinary 10th edition is due to be published early in 2013), then you will be as excited as I am by the news that Dennis has just delivered the manuscript of a BRAND NEW Gower Handbook which he has co-edited with Lindsay Scott of Arras People. Gower Handbook of People in Project Management will be published in May 2013; the 10th edition of Project Management and Dennis’ brand new title Naked Project Management will be published in February 2013.
