Project Excellence

New ProjExc Blog

2008-02-11T17:07:00.002Z

With a little help from our friends at NetSecrets we have a shiny new company blog for ProjExc - blog.projexc.com which will be updated more regularly and more closely linked with our corporate website (http://www.projexc.com/) and our Project Management Portal (http://www.projexc.info/).

This blog will become more the personal blog of our founder, John Williams so it's over to him!

Another Satisfied Customer

2008-01-12T12:31:00.000Z

A thank you to Tony Burt at NetSecrets for these kind words on his blog:

ProjExc Project Management Consultancy
Just wanted to post a thank you to John Williams of ProjExc. Over the past few months he has helped NetSecrets enormously in developing better procedures and systems for delivering web design and development projects on time and within budget.
It's easy to think that you only need good project management if you are building a power station or designing a new car but in reality every task undertaken in a business is a project and so benefits from the application of professional project management techniques.
It's hard to generalise but we reckon that a website design and build that took 10 weeks in the past is live in 5 or 6 now. that makes the client happier but also has a major effect on our profitability and cash flow. It particualrly helps in that we can now take on more work with the same resource.
If anyone wants more detail get in touch and I'll gladly elaborate or visit John's website: www.projexc.com or email him on john@projexc.com.

IT Project Failures cost UK & Ireland Business £1/4bn per year

2007-11-22T15:45:00.001Z

CA, one of the world’s largest information technology management software companies, has just published results with the sadly un-surprising figures.

The new research of 100 CIOs and IT Directors reveals that poor visibility and a lack of management control over them is the main cause.

At ProjExc we believe in using the 3 elements of success for business projects – i) process, ii) tools, and iii) competent project leaders. Clearly these need to be scaled appropriate to the project, and as the CA findings showed, if appropriate tools are not used in projects, the odds are stacked against success.

Facebook Widgets to Help with Project Management

2007-11-16T16:05:00.001Z

I was impressed to read of a novel way of making Facebook a good thing for business & project management. Five widgets to help projects:
1) Wikimono
2) MyLinkedIn Profile
3) Sticky Notes
4) Blog RSS Feed Reader
5) Marco Polo

Check out this recent article http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/139655/five_favorite_facebook_widgets_for_business_users.html

What is project management?

2007-10-09T09:23:00.000+01:00

We are often asked for definitions. My favourites are:

•Project Management is the process by which projects are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised.

•Projects (incl. jobs/contracts) are unique, transient endeavours undertaken to achieve a desired outcome.

•Projects bring about change and project management is recognised as the most efficient way of managing such change.

And a long standing favourite of mine is "a project is the way that an organization takes a risk".

Post back if you have some more.

Technical Skills and the Project Manager

2007-04-25T14:24:00.000+01:00

At ProjExc we often help our clients to source project managers. One of the key obstacles to be overcome in the early stages of ideal candidate profiling is discussing the need for “technical” knowledge. This can be technical knowledge of the product or experiential knowledge of the market place. We haven’t yet found a definitive answer, so do contact us if you know of one!

One camp believes that unless you have a thorough understanding of the product/market there is no way that you can successfully manage a project in that space.

The other camp says all that is needed to successfully manage a project is solid project management skills, tools and processes, and that technical knowledge will create a natural draw to work in the project rather than on ensuring the delivery.

As with most things in life, ProjExc are proponents of balance. Generally, in our experience, solid project management competence is the key. Planning and issue resolution can be helped by a little “technical” knowledge. In this context we see a “little” as being sufficient to know when one is having the wool pulled over ones eyes.

Do share with us your views on what can be quite an emotive topic.

PRINCE2 in context

2007-01-12T10:26:00.000Z

I am often challenged by new or prospective clients by statements along the lines of "I've spent a fortune putting my PMs through PRINCE2 training, and we're still encountering regular project failure. Why?". Of course there could be a number of reasons, but generally I find that it's because there is a misunderstanding of what PRINCE2 is. In short, PRINCE2 is only part of what project management is about.

PRojects IN Controlled Environments is a project management methodology published by the OGC, a UK government agency responsible for promoting best practice in many areas of management, including Project Management.

PRINCE2 is not, and was not designed to, cover all of the detailed tools and techniques used in managing projects. It was designed to provide a consistent, well structured framework for the processes involved in managing projects, and can provide a link between business processes and project tools and techniques.

Derived from PROMPT, the 1st version of PRINCE was significantly updated in the mid 1990's creating PRINCE2. It has 2 main elements - processes and components. The OGC link is provided for further details.

On behalf of the OGC, APM Group Ltd manage two levels of PRINCE2 related qualification - 'foundation' and 'practitioner', around which quite an enterprise has grown.

What is Project Excellence?

2006-12-11T20:27:00.000Z

Project Management is one of those "funny" subjects. Most people , if asked, believe that they could easily manage a project. Many people are encouraged to manage a project without being given the tools (systems and competence) to do the job. Not surprisingly a large number of projects fail to meet their goals (upwards of 60% in UK business), and as a side "benefit" their day job suffers.

Having spent most of my working life managing projects or project managers, I have learned that there is rarely a need for a project to fail, if some straightforward logic is followed and some discipline employed. To me, Project Excellence is about putting in place the elements that ensure that the odds are stacked towards a project succeeding.

I hope with this blog to create a tool which can support my goal for creating more project excellence, and I encourage you to join me!