Project managers encounter team member performance problems all the time. In many cases you don't feel like you have the authority to address these situations. However, usually you do have some options. You can at least better understand the nature of the performance problem. Depending on the severity of the problem you might also be able to address it.

Step 1. 

Step 2.

Step 3. . 

As a project manager you have some ability to provide performance feedback when work is not up to your expectations. However, you do not have total control. If your preliminary three-step approach does not work, or if the team member is resistance to working with you, you will need to get the person's functional manager involved and address the situation through a more formal performance management processes.

The larger the project, the more rigor and structure is needed to manage documents. You can end up with a big mess trying to save and find documents if you do not think through a good document management plan ahead of time. The following areas should be considered part of an overall document management plan.

• Determine where to store documents.
• Determine the types of documents to include.
• Define am organization structure.
• Define naming standards.
• Determine if some documents need versioning.
• Determine if (and how) you will track document approval status.
• Define standard document formats.

Think about document management ahead of time on large projects. It will save you a lot of extra work and aggravation one the project starts. 

..................................................

A set of common templates helps get your document management process started on the right foot. Get your project started quickly with a pre-built set of great project management templates. Buy now and use immediately.

Before you can start up a PMO, you must first define the purpose and what the PMO will look like. Without this foundation, all of the other work you do will be in jeopardy. This helps gain clarity and agreement on what you are doing and why. You can think of this as chartering the PMO. This information is communicated to clients, stakeholders and your own staff so that everyone starts off with a common set of expectations.

The following major components are used to define your PMO.

• Mission.
• Sponsor.
• Customers.
• Stakeholders.
• Objectives.  
• Products / Services.
• Transitional Activities.

There are other aspects of the organization that can be defined as well, including the PMO vision, principles, goals, skills, roles and responsibilities

In the past, a project team almost always resided in one location. The reason is obvious: it was not easy to communicate and collaborate with people that were not in the same physical location. Today, it is becoming more and more common to have team members physically located in many different places. This may be because of pulling in resources from other company offices. In some cases, you may have team members that are teleworking from home. In other cases, you may be partnering with a third-party company - perhaps even internationally.

This is more common today because of advances in technology. People can access their company's computer network remotely with almost the same speed as if they were in the office. Software is available to share documents and make updates available real-time to the rest of the team. The team can get together as needed using audio conferencing. You can even see each other using video technology.

That is all good news. However, there are still challenges managing virtual team members. There is no technology that can take the place of reaching out and touching someone or talking to them face-to-face. There are techniques that can help you be successful. Consider the following ideas:

• Make sure everyone has the right equipment.
• Utilize collaborative technology.
• Make sure people have the right attitude.
• Establish good communication processes.
• Plan the handoffs.

A Resource Plan identifies the physical resources required to complete a project. It lists each of the resource types (such as labor, equipment and materials) and how many of each you need. If you would like to define a comprehensive Resource Plan for your project, take the following three steps.

First, identify the different types of resources needed to complete the project. You then need to quantify the amount of each type of resource required. And finally, you need to schedule the consumption of each resource within the project. Let's describe each step in a little more detail.

Step 1: List the resource required

Step 2: Estimate the number of resources required

Step 3: Construct a resource schedule .

............

Need help understanding resource management and other aspects of project and portfolio management? Contact us today to discuss bringing a training class to your organization

In the 1980's and earlier, it was not unusual to walk in the front door of many companies and visit whomever you wanted without any challenge. Some of these were huge companies. For good or for bad, those days are pretty much gone. Over the past 15 years, companies have become more conscious of the need for security at all levels. The goal is to allow all employees to have access to everything they need to do their jobs – and not one thing more!

Security is a broad term and the development of your overall security policy requires help from many different organizations. Let’s look at some of the players who are involved.

• Facilities.  equipment, etc.
• Human Resources (HR). .
• Auditing.
• Business Units. .
• Network administration. .
• IT development. .

Central coordination

Most companies have function with overall responsibility for security. There are many groups involved with the various aspects of security. However, this Security Group is vital to coordinate the various activities and make sure that everything is consistent and coherent. 

Back in the 60', Motown's "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" was a huge hit, made famous by Marvin Gaye. Marvin may no longer be with us, but the grapevine he sang about is alive and well. The "grapevine" is a great metaphor for the way informal and unofficial news travels from person to person. Official news comes through official channels. Informal news, rumors and gossip travel though the grapevine.

In a project environment, the circulation of unofficial information and rumors can be disruptive and destructive. Your Communication Plan addresses the formal communication content and paths, but it can be hard to manage the grapevine. The following tips help stop the confusion and manage the grapevine effectively.

Tip 1 - Become Part of the Grapevine

Tip 2 - Combat Negative Messages

Tip 3 - Stop the Bad Press

Tip 4 - Fill the Vacuum

Managing problems is an important part of project management. Sometimes when you try to resolve a problem, you find that what you thought was a root cause is really a related symptom, not the actual cause of the problem itself. Consider the following example.

A plant manager walks past the assembly line and notices a puddle of water on the floor. Knowing that the water is a safety hazard, he asks the supervisor to have someone get a mop and clean up the puddle. The plant manager is proud of himself for “fixing” a potential safety problem.

The supervisor, however, is suspicious. He is not sure why the puddle is there. It wasn’t there yesterday. He wonders what caused the puddle to be there today. Therefore, he looks for a root cause by asking ‘why?’ He discovers that the water puddle is caused by a leak in an overhead pipe. He asks ‘why’ again, and discovers that the pipe is leaking because the water pressure is set too high. He asks ‘why?’ again and discovers that the water pressure valve is faulty. He asks ‘why?’ again, and does not get a further answer. The faulty valve is the root cause of the problem. So, the valve is replaced, which solves the symptom of water on the factory floor.

Root cause analysis is a way to identify the ultimate cause of a problem. In the example above, there were many opportunities for solving the wrong problem.

В коммерческом плане проекта   документируются условия ценообразования и коммерческие условия, и он составляет основу, по которой оценивается финансовая состоятельность проекта. В нем также оцениваются возможные финансовые риски и определяются стратегии по снижению рисков, а также определяются возможности и стратегии для увеличения прибыли компании. Коммерческий план проекта служит для выполнения следующих целей:

- составление финансовых соглашений между сторонами (заказчиком, партнерами, другими филиалами компании.

- формирование основы для оценки финансовой деятельности

- определение финансовых и других проектных рисков вместе со стратегиями по снижению рисков

- определение возможностей повышенного коэффициента доходности вместе со стратегиями обеспечения такого коэффициента

Ответственной частью начала реализации проекта является определение количества и сбора основной информации по проекту. Эта информация предоставляет проектной группе широкий обзор услуг, проектных данных, условий площадки и другие требования к выполнению. Большую часть этой информации можно получить в ходе подготовки предложения, если же нет, то ее следует получить в ходе данного этапа проекта.

Основные шаги по этой процедуре включают:

1. Выполнить рассмотрение требований и ресурсов

2. Заполнить анкету данных проекта / рабочей площадки

3. Заполнить анкету по исходному техническому проектированию

4. Заполнить контрольный перечень проектных требований (общий раздел)

5. Заполнение контрольных перечней проектных требований по специальностям