Imagine a World Where You Meet Your Goals

Like most disruptions, it began with a problem hiding in plain sight. We were all paying too much for eyeglasses. Then, in 2008, four graduate students, one wearing a pair of frames held together with a paperclip, decided to bring eyewear to the internet. They faced serious challenges. None of them knew anything about e-commerce,...

The Benefits of Using the Agile Approach in Meetings

“Jack be nimble, Jack be quick…” the famous children’s rhyme explains the agile approach to management perfectly. Over the past 30 years, agile innovation methods have revolutionized the way in which a business democracy functions and has greatly increased the success rates of projects and systems. The idea is to be fast and easy—the very...

Probability vs. Possibility in Project Management

When it comes to project management, the words probability and possibility sound phonetically similar but could not be more different. These terms are all too often considered synonyms or are confused, at the project manager’s own peril. Consequently, the designation is something every project manager should familiarize themselves with, because each impacts risk management and...

5 Ways to Become Agile: A Summary

As we finalize our six-part blog series on how to become agile, let’s take a look back at the previous five blogs and provide you with a brief summary of their key points. Throughout this series, we’ve discussed the five ways to become agile, addressed the primary issues and roadblocks, as well as the critical...

Is the Four-Day Work Week the Future of Work in the UK?

It might sound like a crazy idea and the complete antithesis to the direction most work practices are moving across the world, but could the four-day work week be the future of work in the UK? That is what one major insurance company is suggesting, as it prepares a trial that will see 250 people...

Royal Bank of Scotland: The Journey from Traditional Portfolio Management toward Lean Portfolio Management

Steve Marjot, recently joined Jon Terry, Chief Evangelist for Lean-Agile Strategy at Planview, for a webinar to discuss the RBS Agile transformation journey from traditional portfolio management to Lean portfolio management over the last several years. He shared successes, learnings, the obstacles overcome throughout the journey (which is still very much a work in progress),...

Innovation Management at Work: Real-World Use Cases

Global companies waste at least $100 billion dollars per year on innovation, according to an article in MIT Sloan Management Review. Somewhere between idea and implementation exist numerous points of failure. One of these is on the front end: Failure to engage employees, partners, and customers in your innovation management process. These are the people...

The Importance of the K.I.S.S Principle in Project Management

The words may vary depending on the source, but the basic message is the same – K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid) means simple is better. A complicated plan will be difficult to manage and a complicated design will be complicated to develop, use, document and support. A complicated project environment is a nightmare! One of...

Understanding lean project management

One of the things that makes enterprise project management so interesting is that there’s always something new to learn. Whether it’s a new project management methodology, a new technological tool or a new strategy for running a meeting, successful project managers make it a point to pick up a new skill or competency every year....

A new kind of gantt: What are the benefits of a modern gantt chart?

How often does the first draft of a project plan capture every single detail? How often does a project proceed from start to finish without a single change in scope, timing, staffing, or budget? If asked, most project managers would say “never.” In fact, one could argue that the key to success in project management...