Archive for category Project Management
Building Your Project Management Workforce
Posted by admin in Project Management on May 24, 2011
Failure to effectively plan the workforce means Government agencies have to take ‘pot luck’ in who they get to run important projects.
Peter Gershon (2008) in his review of Government use of IT services recommended a whole of Government IT Workforce Plan.
“Options for dealing with identified skills issues, including recruitment, training, and development in areas of skills shortages. With the combination of a common career structure and a workforce plan, it should become much easier to plan to smooth peaks and troughs of demand for ICT skills in individual agencies” (pg 70).
Why workforce planning?
‘Workforce planning’ is about making sure there are people available with the required experience and specialist knowledge and skills to be able to deliver project outcomes.
Issues like the skills shortage, baby boomer retirements, developing nations’ ravenous hunger for IT skills, the sustainability movement, terrorism and global warming threats are causing an evolution of project management that will only get bigger.
The right approach to project workforce planning
It is important for organisations to plan ahead for expected projects, work out what will be needed to achieve outcomes and then plan recruitment, training and development on an ongoing basis.
Up-and-coming project managers need diverse development opportunities to learn real skills. Part of the workforce plan should be to set up opportunities for them to experience different kinds of projects after training.
Keeping PMs after recruitment
A reliable recruitment process is certainly the place to start – ensuring that people have the right attitude and aptitude to take on project roles. Read the rest of this entry »
The Importance of Professional Project Management
Posted by admin in Project Management on May 24, 2011
Private companies and government organisations involved in running large projects, or many smaller projects at the same time, already recognise the benefits of formal project management but as the amount of experience and knowledge gleaned from such tasks has increased so project management has become more complex. And as it has become more complex so the tools and methodologies have had to evolve to keep pace.
It was the UK governmental body OGC (Office of Government Commerce) that back in 1989 first defined the structured methodology that has evolved today into the internationally recognised PRINCE2 methodology. It was originally established to help Government departments deliver the best value possible from its capital expenditure and is an acronym for Projects In a Controlled Environment. Of course, there are also other knowledge-based methods from APM (Association for Project Management) and PMI (Project Management Institute).
Formal methodologies are commonly used for software development, manufacturing, engineering, and construction projects to plan, schedule and control all of the tasks and activities required. More and more they are also being used by services and solutions companies in order to add discipline and control to their projects.
Consequently, managing projects is now a fundamental part of many businesses and the role of project manager is now a professionally recognised one, which involves not only planning, scheduling and controlling activities but also expertise in the management of risk, change and quality. The skills required to successfully complete projects are very much in demand in the competitive business environment and include not only a technical ability to efficiently manage tasks but also people management skills and good business awareness. Read the rest of this entry »