Project Portfolio Management

The PMO is under constant pressure. From maintaining standards for project management practices to planning and delivering projects – the PMO needs to be in constant sync with strategy and business outcomes. This PMO blog category provides numerous recommendations from experts to encourage top down and bottom up planning, improve processes, promote stakeholder satisfaction, and ultimately eliminate silos to advance the PMO function. Get expert advice on the pros and cons of adopting a continuous planning model. Experts will also share real-world advice on choosing your next Project Portfolio Management tool and how to #BeThatPMO your business needs.

How to Identify Your Project’s Objectives

The goal of a project, i.e. its overall purpose, is reached by achieving certain objectives. So, for a project manager, knowing how to identify project objectives and making them applicable for your team is essential for keeping the project on track and eventually achieving a successful result. At the beginning or planning phase of any...

What’s the Difference Between Program, Product and Project Managers?

Program manager, product manager and project manager are familiar terms to people in almost every industry, but what sets them apart from each other? It’s a common question, and an important one, especially if you are just entering the world of program in project management. Understanding the distinctions between these roles can help you navigate...

PMO Spotlight – Aaron Nicholl

Welcome to Planview AdaptiveWork’s PMO Spotlight Blog series. These interview-style articles strive to highlight the individual project management professionals; their backgrounds, strategies and experiences which shape the use of our product.  This piece features Aaron Nicholl, Director ePMO at the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC). Would you please share a bit of background...

The Transformation Journey: Lessons Learned

Most organizations are on a transformation journey of some kind, including Planview. It can be challenging to expand Agile practices beyond IT and development teams. Planview is committed to helping our customers with this transition and to that end, Chief Product Officer Patrick Tickle and I recently presented a webinar on “Leading an Agile Transformation.”...

Project Management Planning Phase: Best Practices

Ask a project manager which project management planning phase in the project life cycle is the most important, and they might say something like “the phase my project is in right now.” It wouldn’t be a bad answer—after all, a breakdown in any of the five phases can set a project on the road to...

Make Your Project Planning Session as Productive as Possible

There are many different types of meetings, such as project kick-off meetings and weekly status updates but the project planning session is especially important. It is one of the centrepieces of the project planning phase in the project management life cycle and is the direct precursor to the project plan which will set out the...

How to make a project plan that works

While it may not be the most time-consuming element of a project manager’s job, developing project plans is generally considered to be the most important. A good plan will get a project off on the right foot and can steer project teams to success under the most challenging conditions. A poorly-constructed plan, on the other...

Milestone Planning: What, Why and How

Milestone planning is one of the most important aspects of project planning, because project milestones are the most visible indicators of project progress. What are milestones and why are they important? Milestones typically mark critical decision points, the completion of major project tasks and the ends of various project phases. Senior stakeholders who are not...

Planning the Perfect Project: A Project Manager’s Guide

Project managers are vital to any organization consistently achieving its objectives. They ensure that projects stay on track and within budget while meeting set deadlines. As well as the people management skills necessary to get the most out of their team, a key to the effectiveness of PMs is the creation, and following of, an...

Project Planning is NOT a Project Management Step

There are a bunch of things that make project management tougher, riskier and (much) more stressful than it needs to be. I have a mental list of things that I could happily live without. Doubtless, you have one, too. Chances are that our lists are strikingly similar. However, there’s something out there that’s more infuriating,...