4 Tips to a Better Project Status Meeting – and 3 Guidelines You’ve Forgotten

4 Tips to a Better Project Status Meeting – and 3 Guidelines You’ve Forgotten

For many projects, status meetings are a given, mostly because that’s how projects are run in most companies. So, if your company culture mandates status meetings, then let’s make those meetings the best use of time possible. Let’s assume that you already have a basic understanding of how a good meeting is run. You know you should have an agenda, only invite the relevant folks, […]

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How to Write a Problem Statement

How to Write a Problem Statement

Project management is all about solving problems and delivering results. When your manager comes to you with a project proposal, it’s because there’s a business issue that needs resolution. Part of the job of a project manager is to define that problem so that it is solvable, then develop the plan, the schedules, and handle the deliverables. It all starts with the problem statement. As […]

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Project recovery: How to clean up the mess

Project recovery: How to clean up the mess

  In a good mood, you arrive in the office with your coffee and a spring in your step. You acknowledge your coworkers as you make your way to your desk. In your email, there’s a message from your boss requesting a meeting. Your coworker’s Project X is not on track and the boss wants you to do project recovery. Your co-worker has been reassigned to […]

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How Did I Get Here: A Career Profile of David Lewis, PMP

How Did I Get Here: A Career Profile of David Lewis, PMP

Here’s the latest in my series How Did I Get Here. These are interviews of current project management professionals intended to help folks see how others made project management a career. Welcome, David Lewis! When did you first decide to become a project manager? I was managing a Manufacturing Engineering department at Boeing and had just finished my MBA at Cal Poly, Pomona. I was […]

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How to Find Awesome Project Management Training

How to Find Awesome Project Management Training

“Help! I’ve just been assigned a project and don’t know where to start! Is there some training I can take that’s affordable?” Was this you at some point in your project management career? I think we’ve all been there at one time or another. Is there project management training out there that is affordable? Yes. Here are resources available for project managers to learn more […]

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Can a Strong Freelance Writer be a Great Project Manager?

Can a Strong Freelance Writer be a Great Project Manager?

I spent years as a corporate project manager, managing all types of projects from software documentation and training development to data warehouse infrastructure construction and server tech refresh. Lately, as a freelance writer, I find that the principles of project management are still relevant. All writing projects require some degree of task management. Let’s talk about the most popular content development projects: whitepapers, case studies, […]

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Is your team lead a successful bully?

Is your team lead a successful bully?

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”  ~Peter Druker As a member of a project team, what is the leadership style of your team leader? Over the years, I’ve seen many different styles of team leadership. Sometimes it was fascinating watching leaders attempt to get the project complete – often with little success. In other cases, it was seeing pure poetry […]

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What’s in Your Plan? The Contents of a Project Plan

What’s in Your Plan? The Contents of a Project Plan

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. ~ Peter Drucker The contents of a project plan document is not a mystery to a project manager. In the past, I’ve focused on the problem statement, scope statement, and deliverables related to projects. You can find that article here. Here, I’m going to answer the question – what else do I put […]

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How Did I Get Here: A Career Profile of Michael Bovilsky, PMP

How Did I Get Here: A Career Profile of Michael Bovilsky, PMP

Here’s the latest in my series How Did I Get Here. These are interviews of current project management professionals intended to help folks see how others made project management a career. Welcome, Michael Bovilsky! When did you first decide to become a project manager? Michael decided to switch to Project Management in 2001 after 6 years in IT Consulting for State and Local governments.  He […]

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Practical advice on your content strategy

Practical advice on your content strategy

So, you’ve got content and you’ve got vision – but you’re not seeing results. What to do? Over the past year, I’ve been helping a few small businesses with their content needs as a content project manager. My background is project management, training, technical writing and communication for much larger companies. Even though these companies are small, they have some of the same problems I’ve […]

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