Project Management and Change Articles

Plan Resource Management Before Fighting Over People

The rules for getting, directing and releasing people are easy to agree before anybody wants anything, and almost impossible to agree during the week two projects need the same person.

Financial Control: When a Cost Variance Actually Matters

Underspend is the variance nobody investigates and it is usually the more informative one. A project spending less than planned is often a project that has done less than planned.

Estimating Costs: Accuracy Is Not the Same as Precision

A figure quoted to the pound at concept stage is precise and almost certainly wrong. The precision is what makes it dangerous, because it invites a confidence nothing supports.

Schedule Forecasts vs the Schedule Baseline

The baseline is what was agreed. The forecast is what is now expected. A project needs both visible, and the gap between them is the thing everybody wants to know.

Schedule Control: When Variance Needs Action

Reacting to every slip exhausts a team and hides the ones that matter. The useful question is whether this variance touches a commitment or describes a rate.

Information Radiators: Visibility Without More Meetings

A display that answers one question, sits where people already walk, and is updated by the people doing the work will remove more status meetings than any reporting tool.

Practical thinking for project professionals