PMStudent Archives - AceProject

Use the Pareto principle to improve project performance

The excellent post “The Lazy Project Manager” over at pmstudent got me thinking.

A common way to manage projects is management by exception. The rationale behind it is that we should only give attention to parts of the project that are not going according to plan. It makes sense. If parts of the project are going well, there is no use scrutinizing them.

However, if we’re only focussing on what’s deviating from the plan, we may be missing opportunities for improvement. If we use Pareto’s 80/20 principle, 80% of the work in the project is on 20% of the project value. This is no doubt the most expensive part of the project. Even if it’s going well, we may gain significant performance improvement by looking at the 20% most costly or most difficult part of the project, and looking for areas of improvement.

By Daniel Raymond|2009-06-22T15:31:00-04:002009-06-22|

Guest post: life beyond the PMP exam

What happens once you’ve passed the PMP exam? Keeping up with 60 Pofesionnal Development Units (PDUs) every 3 years can seem like a daunting task.

I’ve written a post about just that on Josh Nankievel’s blog, pmtsudent.

Enjoy!

By Daniel Raymond|2009-06-11T12:51:00-04:002009-06-11|

eBook Review: Getting Started in Project Management

Since blogs are online, I thought it would be fitting to begin reviewing eBooks. This time, I’ll tell you about “Getting Started in Project Management” by Josh Nankivel.

Josh is the founder of pmStudent.com, a website dedicated to those learning the skill of project management – a skill we may never be finished learning! pmSutdent is set apart from all the other learning-oriented sites for project managements, who are usually focused on PMP certification, and little else beyond that. With pmStudent, the focus is on learning, and getting certified is a subject secondary to that.

Josh wrote “Getting Started in Project Management” to help others getting started with project management, basically to provide a resource he would have liked to have when he got started in 2004.

The book is divided in two parts. In the first half, Josh tells his own journey into project management, from his last lay off in 2004, until he was asked to lead a major project in the aerospace business. This was an interesting read, especially where he writes […]

By Daniel Raymond|2009-06-02T12:04:00-04:002009-06-02|