Erudite Relics of Loc Huu Ho

In a meeting the other day, one exasperated participant exclaimed, “This isn’t part of all the processes I just learned to get my PMP, how am I supposed to run this project?” I bit my tongue and refrained from looking over the top of my glasses and calmly telling him that running a project is a heck of a lot more than a series of check boxes. The poor guy was frustrated and lost. He was truly dumbfounded. His hard-earned certification failed to prepared him for his new assignment. Read the rest of this entry »

The other day a friend said that there were three reasons for project failure.  I took exception and stated there were two.  As I thought about it more, there is only one.  People are at the root of all failures.  Let’s look at some common reasons.

The project is over constrained.  People set the constraints. If they do not understand the project well enough to set the constraints, or listen to the people that are suggesting the constraints, then they are the problem.

It is poorly managed.  Enough said about this.  It is a people problem by definition. Read the rest of this entry »