Payson Hall is a consulting project manager for Catalysis Group, Inc. in Sacramento, California. Payson consults on project management issues and teaches project management. Email Payson at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter at @paysonhall.
A project’s sponsors are the senior managers who want the project completed and control the project’s budget and schedule. Effective sponsors support the project manager to get the job done.
Being responsive to customer needs and desires is not a bad thing—the decision to accept, reject, or defer a change is something that should be considered in light of the consequences of the delay.
Projects exceed their predicted schedules for many reasons. The cost consequences of some delays are obvious, but some are subtle. Knowing the expected costs of delays is vital to supporting informed decision-making.
We often talk about the importance of effective communication on a project, but we often omit timing and context. Messages need to be timely if a project manager is going to guide the narrative.
Some tolerate multi-tasking better than others. Beyond tolerance and even the ability of some people to switch contexts more efficiently than others is an effect of multi-tasking that most of us have experienced but rarely discuss.
An important component of any User Acceptance Testing (UAT) plan are the entry criteria. No complex data system will ever be perfect, but starting with lax entrance criteria puts the UAT team in a weak position.
Some issues/hills are important and worth going all in – but most probably aren’t. Project managers must choose their battles wisely and develop scope discipline.
