Evolving project management terms for the new world of work

There are several good glossaries that define and standardize key project management terms, including versions from the PMI, APM, CIO.com, and many others. However, like language itself, lexicons are dynamic and organic – which means that they shift over time to capture new thinking, and just as importantly, shed expired notions. With that in mind,...

When Outsourcing Makes Sense

The idea of outsourcing has long been a debatable topic, but with 24% of employed people doing some or all of their work from home, your best talent might be sitting in their own living room. There are many ways in which freelancers make more sense than in-house employees, so it’s best to explore the...

What Are Some Common KPIs in Project Management?

Good project management should always involve clarity of direction for your team as well as transparency of progress for other stakeholders. One of the most important ways of achieving both of these is by using key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor project progress. There are many different kinds of KPIs for project management, and they...

How Valuable is the PMP Certification?

With over 750,000 professionals with Project Management Professional (PMP) certification across the world, the popularity of the diploma is clear, but what exactly is a PMP certification? The short answer is that it is a professional certification offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). According to research from PMI, the project management industry only stands to...

Can Kanban Improve Your IT Workflow?

Today’s IT teams face more challenges than ever when it comes to producing quality deliverables quickly. As rapid changes in technology make mid-project changes more and more common, IT teams are turning to Agile methods to help them keep up. One popular choice is Kanban. This visual workflow management system actually stems from lean methods...

Project portfolio management: What is it and why does your business need it?

How often does one project determine the success or failure of an entire company? For small companies, fairly often. For large companies, almost never. Yet, no project is an island in any large enterprise. How it gets completed, how resources are utilized, how effectively teams collaborate during a project—all these things are indicators of the...

What Are the Advantages of Waterfall Project Management?

Planning, executing and closing a project requires a variety of skills, but it also necessitates a standard model of practice. Project management methodologies run the gamut but one of the most successful models is known as waterfall project management. In terms of broader project management methodologies, the waterfall method stands out as it is characteristically...

Why Is Project Management Progress Reporting So Tedious?

History is full of stories of how little things, if left untended, can eventually bring really big things down in a heap of dust. Like empires. Like civilizations. And yes, like projects, too. And while we’ll leave a discussion of empires and civilizations for another day, we can certainly spend a few minutes here looking...

Kanban: What It Is and How to Use It

With the variety of different methodologies in project management and with new ones being created all the time, it can be difficult to keep track of what exactly they all are and how they are implemented. Here we’re going to look at one of the most popular Agile methodologies and answer that burning question: Just...

Task Management Theory: What You Need to Know

Task management is basically identifying and monitoring the progress of the various tasks that make up a specific task strand, work package or overall project. The tasks can therefore run from half a dozen to potentially thousands. One thing that stays constant in task management theory however is the focus on clear information and how...