Oyebola Olugbemi

Can process management and project management actually co-exist? Not only have I found that they co-exist, but that they actually drive one another's success.   Have you ever heard the phrase "the devil is in the details"? I always thought that this saying was a little strange...until I began to work in project management. The funny thing is that once I got into project management this phrase made so much senses. I can remember being on one project where the project manager was much too myopic. All she cared about was data storage requirements and virtually nothing else. For this project manager, the devil in the details was never thought about, outside of the confines of data storage anyway. On another project, the project manager was so sure of his own abilities to "do his job" that he completely ignored the details altogether. The latter project had some disastrous outcomes...including Social Security deposits being returned to the state that sent them, w...

Project Management is the planning and management of a range of tasks, particularly where there are complexities either within the tasks or within the teams working on the project, in order to achieve a deliverable at the end of the project. A deliverable can be many things; it may be a physical thing such as a new product, it may be an intangible thing such as a new process within an organisation or it may be a new software system.   Whatever the end result of the project, it will involve some type of change within a business. The change could be a modification to the existing status quo or it could be introducing something completely new, so change management is also an element of project management.   A project that is going to be formally managed within an organisation could be in any area of the business, but the most common areas in which project management tools and techniques will be useful are:   ·          IT ·...

One of the challenges of explaining project management to people who are unfamiliar with the approach, is that descriptions are often either so high-level as to be meaningless, or so detailed that they are overwhelming. Over the years, I have come to use a model as a framework for introducing and discussing project management tools and techniques. It can be used as the basis for a five-minute explanation of what is involved in project management, but also as an outline for more detailed discussions. (The actual model can be found on the Key Consulting website under free templates and info.)   A brief description of each step follows:   Assemble Team   The project planning team will be assembled, including appropriate representation from customers/clients, and sometimes subcontractors and vendors. Initial roles and responsibilities will be defined.   Deliverables: Initial project setup documentation.   Define Project Objective   With ...

To get the desired result from a business project, you need to know exactly what you want to achieve. It often helps to break down larger projects into smaller manageable stages to ensure effective project management. A Project Manager must see to it that the sponsor's aspirations are fulfilled while ensuring the customer satisfaction within the prescribed time limits and budgetary allocation. Outcome of a project is no doubt important but so is the journey towards it. Effective utilization of the resources on hand and balancing the risks involved all contribute to the end-result. There are the important factors for the effectiveness of project management. Communication... project staff do not know what their tasks are, or how to accomplish them, then the entire project will grind to a halt. If you do not know what the project staff are (not) doing then you will be unable to monitor project progress. And if you are uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the project wil...