Project Management in Wonderland

Posted on 3 December, 2010 at 11:45 PM by with 2 Comments

In order to be on top of the project, project manager has to know inside out of the whole deliverable.
Scope, budget, time-line. All these will lead to project quality.

Project Manager cannot lose directions in the entire delivery. Or else, Project Manager will led and managed by the team member instead of the other way round.

Project Scope
Project Manager cannot lose track on the scope.

He has to ensure the team member delivers what has been engaged and approved, no gold-plating. Whatever promised in the requirement or scope, PM has to deliver. Do not deviate from the original project goals.

Project Budget
Project Manager has to ensure the spending has to use within approved budget. Do not over-spend cos Project Manager will have to justify why the project is spending additional funds that was last proposed and approved.

Do not lose track in the project spending. Have a worksheet to track and monitor all the items that needs to be spent and how much was actually spent.

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Running is like project management

Posted on 19 November, 2010 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

Running a race is some sort of a project management.

You need to plan your route well. As quoted by Steven Convey – You need to have the end in mind. Thus you need to plan for several multiple milestones with certain timing. Each time you hit your race milestone; you should maintain your running momentum and aim for the next milestone. After you hit your 5km mark, aim for the next 10km mark. Do not slow down and lose the momentum.
Meeting milestone after another milestone and you will be able to complete the race swiftly and satisfactorily in no time. There will be times for you to slow down the pace or take a break and get a sip of water. However the momentum should not be slowed down.

Similarly, project managers should start their planning and hit the various milestones swiftly. Once the milestone is achieved, then the team should be looking forward to achieve the next milestone more aggressively. Aim to achieve various activities and start to clear them quickly so as to meet the next milestone and eventually finish the whole project.

However, many project teams that I knew started the project very well and aggressively. When they hit or achieved the major milestone, they started to slow down the tempo and getting more complacent with their achievement. As a result, the team faced many unknown issues and unplanned time delayed. Thus a Project Manager should be alert at all times and encourage the team to be vigilant for any unplanned issues and risks.

The project quality will be at stake, if such things not taken care of.

Running

File Naming Convention

Posted on 29 October, 2010 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

How would you name a file name when you save a document?

There are many naming conventions for many people. Some will use versions appended behind a file name, say <filename ver 1>. Some will use date to indicate the version that created in a day <filename 020310.xls>.

In my opinion, having a clear file naming convention is vital because it needs to be easily deciphered by readers or anyone who wants to access the file. It will be difficult to pick up the correct file if there are many of such numeric names in the same folder. It may be confusing.

It may seem alright for the creator to identify the filename. However, if this document or spreadsheet is going to correspond to other party, then a clear file naming is critical. Complex naming convention will be a problem, imagine the recipient has to understand the file name first before deciding which is the correct file.

Comparing < filename 030410 Customer product.xls > v.s. < filename 040310 Customer product.xls> may have dual meaning. With the above scenario, is the file 0304 saved on 3rd of April or 4th of March. There is a mixture of meanings to the file.

If the filename is clear and sharp, the recipient will be able to pick up the correct file.  Say if you are the Project Manager and had saved files in such manner. You may have a possibility of updating the wrong document, say project plan, project cost file etc.

It is of paramount to have a good filename convention. As for me, I would name my file like this

<filename_dd_MMM ver 9.xls>.

Filename is whatever the topic that you are referring to. Include the date in numeric and to abbreviate out the month plus a version number at the back. This will indicate to the recipient that the spreadsheet is created on which date and which versions if there are multiple files saved on the same day.

Hope this helps in your future documents saving.

Please share your comments if you have any feedback or alternate suggestions.

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