APM Blogs

Recently I was given the challenge of running a session at the APM Women in Project Management conference on how to raise your profile for promotion.

Long ago a 16 year old version of myself told my dad that I was not going to go into “data processing” or become a programmer or follow the same technical path he did.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind, but what is the profession of project management doing about it? There are important exceptions but by and large the profession is fairly quiet on the subject.

The increasingly distant horizons associated with many of our major projects and programmes present a raft of well-documented problems: the continually shifting environment; the onward march of technology; the loss of expertise, experience and corporate memory as some of these very long projects outlive the teams that manage them, several times over.

Whilst two of the key statements within the agile manifesto are “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools” and “Working software over comprehensive documentation”, anybody coming to the conclusion that this removes the need for strong project discipline or governance would be misguided.

What is project reporting for? Most of us do it, some enjoy it, some see it as a distraction, done well it can genuinely help but it can also confuse and mask real problems.

‘…  I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great.

Have you noticed that 'lessons learned' sessions are often a round of high fives or blame and recrimination at the end of a project, rather than a dynamic tool to build project success? A lessons learned session is when the project team and key stakeholders review what has gone well and poorly in a project, builds a clear understanding of why and uses that to come up with lessons (advice for a similar situation to get an better outcome) and discrete actions (to improve the normal way of doing things).

My bags were packed.

Data sensitivity.