Payson Hall

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.

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All Stories by Payson Hall

Have You Eaten Your Own Dog Food Lately?

How often do you use your company’s website? It’s important to periodically “eat your own dog food”—that is, use your own product or services in order to work out the kinks so your customers don’t have to. A good user experience can mean the difference between someone using your product over your competitor's.

If You’re Working Too Much, Is It a Challenging Project or Bad Management?

Projects sometimes encounter challenges that require team members to put in extra work. But if this is happening repeatedly, it's worth figuring out where the pressure is coming from. You may need to ask, “Is this project simply challenging, or is it being badly managed?”

Building and Maintaining a Professional Network

Your professional network can be a valuable asset when you are looking for information, recruiting, or seeking a new job. But how do you get a good network? The obvious answer is to be honest, bright, hardworking, and personable, but there are other things you can do to grow and strengthen your network, too.

7 Good Project Management Practices for Replacing a Legacy System

When you need to replace a legacy system quickly, it’s tempting to set aside good project management practices and push forward recklessly. But doing so results in delays, cost overrun, and organizational chaos. Take time to understand the problem, plan and estimate the solution, and set up your project for success.

When You Should Get Your Project Sponsor Involved

If there are decisions to be made on a project, the project manager may think he's helping by going directly to the customer to get her opinion. But project sponsors represent the organization, and they should be consulted before any significant decisions are made. Do you know when you should get the sponsor involved?

Managing Resistance to Organizational Change

Change can be difficult, and some people's reaction is to shut it all down. If they think their concerns aren’t being heard, they get defensive, and your project is on a trajectory for disaster. Don't fire off an email while tempers are running high. Managing expectations thoughtfully is essential to project success.

7 Harms Done by Keeping Unrealistic Project Goals

Project management is about supporting informed decision-making. No one wants to break the news that a project is not on schedule, but a good sponsor would want to know that the original goals are no longer realistic. Reluctance to communicate or unwillingness to hear have some real business consequences.

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