Continuous Improvement in Lean

Continuous improvement is one of the pillars of a Lean environment. It sounds pretty lofty, doesn’t it? “I work for a company that’s always evolving,” is a great blurb for LinkedIn, but what does that even look like? How is a company sure that they’re practicing continuous improvement in Lean ways? This article will discuss...

What is Resource Management and Capacity Planning and Why Should You Care?

I’ve been writing, speaking, and advising for some time now about the importance of resource management and capacity planning, but I realize it is time to step back and define what this truly means in layman’s terms… First, some foundation. What is resource management and capacity planning? When we refer to resources in this context of...

7 factors that make – or break – customer collaboration

Collaboration is defined as “the cooperative arrangement in which two or more parties work jointly towards a common goal.” This certainly has a pleasant ring to it. Just look at the delightful phrasing: cooperative arrangement, working jointly, common goal. In light of this, who wouldn’t enjoy collaborating? Unfortunately and surprisingly, the answer could be your...

Everyone is a Project Manager – Avoid Chaos and Work Smarter

Teams are involved with work of all types, shapes and sizes. And an increasing number of us are finding ourselves having to lead these teams towards positive outcomes whether we chose to ascend to these positions of leadership or not, and with or without any formal background in “project management”. In fact, we conducted a...

What to include in an enterprise collaboration plan

When enterprise organizations look for ways to improve their project performance and gain a competitive advantage, one of the first places they are likely to look is workplace collaboration. In only a few years, enterprise collaboration has gone from being a relatively obscure concept to one of the most important issues on the minds of...

Part 1 – Managing The Chaos Of Change

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin The speed and agility of today’s business climate continues to impact growth, creativity and sometimes leads to chaos. One only needs to study the advancements in healthcare, retail marketing, on-line insurance...

Top 4 Capabilities of Enterprise Planning Software

We first established you can achieve greater business agility through updated plans (see Part 1: Why Companies Want to Improve Plan Accuracy). Then, we confirmed that technology is key into implementing continuous planning (Part 2: Thinking Beyond the Annual Plan). What about enterprise planning software? In Part 3, I want dive into what to look for...

WHERE_TO_PUT.CONSTANTS

When writing software, some conversations happen over and over again. Over the years, I’ve seen different solutions to the same problem that I’d like to share with you. One of those conversations go something like this, even though the answer might differ depending on the team or component. Bob: Hey, I have some string literals...

Get exceptional integration with project management software

It’s not difficult to find cloud-based project management software vendors touting their product’s “exceptional” integration capacity. However, enterprises that put this claim to the test often end up with a different verdict: instead of exceptional, they’re obliged to label the integration as exasperating. While this scenario is frustrating, costly and surprisingly common, it’s not inevitable....

What employees hate about conventional project management software

While the centuries-old phrase “no news is good news” still has some value today, there are situations when this guidance isn’t just inapplicable, but it’s categorically dangerous. And in enterprises around the world, the best – or rather, the worst – example of this involves conventional project management software. Here’s the thing: most employees don’t...