PMP Hints, Project Management

Techniques to Get back on Budget

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Implement “Zero Tolerance” Scope Change Management

This technique can be applied to help remedy a project that is either over deadline or over budget. Many projects begin to trend over their budget because they are doing more work than they originally committed to as a result of poor scope change management. If you are at risk of missing your budget, the project manager must work with the client and team members to ensure that absolutely no unplanned work is being requested or worked on – even if it is just one hour – unless formal scope change management is invoked. To repeat – this does not mean that there can be no more scope change requests. It simply means that EVERY scope change request must go through scope change management (which should be happening anyway). All other energy should go into cutting costs and completing only the core work that was agreed to. …

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PMP Hints, Project Management

Having Project Management Accountability but not Responsibility

In some organizations, the project manager is accountable for the success of the project, but does not have the right level of responsibility. You are typically asked to manage a project utilizing people when you do not have direct management responsibility over them. You may also find that your ability to resolve issues is hampered because you are not high enough in the organization and you must often rely on more senior management for help. In other instances, you may find that your ability to be innovative and flexible is constrained by organizational policies and inertia. …

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PMP Hints

Conduct a Feasibility Study

Most people are aware of a Value Proposition and Business Case. The purpose of the Value Proposition document is to define the overall benefits and costs of a project at a very high level. The Business Case document allows you to provide much more diligence on the costs and benefits, while still not requiring you to actually go through the effort of chartering the work at this time. …

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Construction Industry, Construction Law, Contract Administration

Surviving the Slowdown: A Current Analysis of the UAE Construction Industry

by Omar Al Saadoon

The title of this article does not suggest the fear of stakeholders in the construction industry in the UAE or any other country affected by the global downturn is wholly irrational. No, on the contrary, the fact the UAE is currently experiencing a dramatic and unprecedented slowdown in its construction industry (which apparently accounts in part for Dubai’s first budget deficit in 2009) is symptomatic of the global fear of the instability of global financial markets and the ability of banks to lend to the public and each other. It is difficult to guage the actual effect of the downturn on the local construction industry given the UAE does not publish its GDP date on a quarterly basis. …

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PMP Hints, Project Management

Techniques to Build a Work Breakdown Structure

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Break Summary Activities into Two or More Detailed Activities

Since you chose to break a summary activity into smaller activities, it does not make sense to only have one detailed activity under a summary one. If you do, the detailed activity represents the exact same work as the summary activity. This does not buy you anything. If this occurs in your WBS, you either need to: …

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PMP Hints

Manage Political Problems as Issues

The larger your project gets, the more you will find that the issues you encounter are more and more political in nature. The issues have to do with the use of resources, project direction, project deliverables, how the project should be run, how the project impacts people, etc. The resolution of these issues requires you to gain consensus among people that have differences of opinion. In other words, the resolution requires you to recognize and work in office politics. …

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PMP Hints

Perform Integrated Change Control

Large projects should apply more diligence throughout the change management process. Change does not always happen neatly. In many cases, it may be hard to understand the nature of a change and the impact to the various aspects of the project. For example a small request can come into the project that results in a change to scope. The scope change request may lead to a request to increase schedule and budget. The request might impact the types of resources that are needed on the project ands it might effect a vendor contract. The project manager needs to understand the nature of the change and how it might impact all other aspects of the project. …

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