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The principal objective for a project – delivering a specific output – can often be relegated to a focus on standardization. And very often this standardization of the project management processes boils down to completing a set of project templates. I’ve seen this happen very...

Are you a person who wants to get things done and be successful but lacks the time to make big changes or to start anything complex and new? Based on PRINCE2 ® processes, though taking a more lightweight approach, we have created a brief, practical guidance paper using...

What is a key difference between a traditional and an agile project manager ? You can recognize the latter today as someone more focused on facilitating and supporting a team. For example, a traditional project manager would expect to present an estimated project bu...

Steven Deneir – a project, programme and portfolio management trainer and coach with 20+ years’ experience – highlights his top four tips to agile project management success and reiterates the importance of ongoing learning and certification in approaches such as PRINCE2 ®...

The focus on tailoring in the PRINCE2 ® 2017 Update is about taking only what you and your project need to ensure the right approaches are in place for success. This idea of cutting the best practice guidance down to the size you require is a crucial and useful change to...

The quick-to-market digital environment of today means organizations have to find a way to incorporate agile working in what they do. Take-up of agile remains a mixed bag and we should acknowledge that agile isn’t for everyone or everything. However, where the feeling t...

Christian Tijsmans is founder of Connect the Dotz and Paul Wilkinson is the owner/director of GamingWorks How critical is cyber security training for organizations? Not-for-profit IT governance body, ISACA said in its State of Cybersecurity report that 82% of board dire...

The new ITIL ® Practitioner qualification is about giving IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals practical guidance that allows them to truly adapt and adopt ITIL® in their organization. Practitioner is very much going to be about continual improvement as much as...

The issue with Delta Air Lines’ computer system on 8 August 2016 created chaos for travellers around the world. The official reason for the systems crash was a power outage, initially described as something outside of Delta’s control, a claim that has  not been backed up by t...

1. In your service management experience, how much of a foundation does ITIL provide? ITIL ® provides a deep foundation when it comes to IT Service Management. One of the reasons is because ITIL is a framework. It is a set of best practices that focuses on aligning IT s...

The discipline of project management is evolving rapidly, but what does this mean for the project manager? Lisa Hodges, principal consultant at Cornerstone Service Management, explains why the future belongs to project manager 2.0. At a recent conference one of my fello...

Project management is under pressure – and organizations aren’t doing enough to get the most value from it. According to AXELOS’s PPM Benchmark Study 2017 – The Value of Project Management Excellence, about three-quarters of project managers are facing the dual challe...

To take Bill Clinton strategist James Carville’s famous quotation and apply it to the world of project management: “It’s the benefits and value, stupid!” But as Dr. Harold Kerzner of IIL revealed in a recent AXELOS webinar , 70% of companies fail to achieve the bene...

The Project Sponsor is accountable for the project; or, put another way, the Project Sponsor is the “owner” of the project and the business case that supports it. A sponsor needs to be actively involved and committed to the project in order for it to be successful and shoul...

AXELOS’ research project – The Future Project Management Professional – found that project managers’ roles will evolve to become more strategic within their organizations. In fact, 90% recognized the need for a much stronger strategic vision that aligns with the overa...

Those familiar with Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2® will know that the value of the universal, process-based project management method is that it can be applied to any project regardless of  type, organization, geography or culture. It can be used for any project...

In our latest blog post looking at PRINCE2 ® best practice , Fiona Magee explains why the real value of the PID template is realized only if approached with the right mindset. The complete set of PRINCE2 templates covering all key business activities is available via...

It may seem at odds with purist Agile thinking, but project managers are increasingly finding themselves allocated Agile projects. This trend is partly because Agile projects have become the norm rather than the exception in a number of disciplines, such as IT, where digit...

In the final post in her series on the Most Common Questions from PRINCE2 Foundation Training , Lead Trainer Michelle Rowland addresses some of the most frequently asked questions from Chapters 11 through to 18 of the PRINCE2 textbook . Chapters 11 and 12 What ...

According to AXELOS’ Future Project Management Professional research, the project managers of tomorrow will need to embrace a wider range of skills and become even more multi-faceted. Project manager, Ana Bertacchini considers the implications for the profession. How wil...

A project doesn’t end with delivery but with the realization of its benefits to the business. So why is corporate strategy still not being fully communicated to the project team and what steps need to be taken to ensure that it is? Without a clear understanding of corpora...

Project managers - by their very nature - generally don't start a new project without an underlying belief that their project will be a success. However, what should sit alongside this optimism at the outset of a project is an equal dose of realism and a willingness to ask c...

There are, as you may know, a few key differences between agile and traditional waterfall projects, when managed using PRINCE2® . Traditional waterfall projects are delivered sequentially, whereas agile projects tend to be iterative and incremental. Traditional project p...

Any discussion of project management in the USA demands the question: “how well are we doing?” I’d like to say that Project Managers are doing a good job in delivering projects on time and within budget along with all the scope and quality the customer expects. However, th...

Why, in project management, are small projects treated as the “poor relation”? Many Project Managers aspire to manage large projects and programmes – large, transformation activities with high visibility, significant resources and a lot of kudos! As such, an aspirational Pr...

Can you be both agile and strategic in project management? Based on our recent research, The Future Project Manager , AXELOS invited consultant trainers Duncan Wade and David Hinde to explore the debate in this first part of a two-part blog post series: Project managers...

When project management relationships break down, most of the time the underlying reason lies in misaligned organizational strategic priorities, which result in misaligned project objectives. This prevents the delivery of value to the organization, stakeholders and ultimately...

For many project managers, their role in Benefits Realization is viewed as 'not my job' or out of scope for their role. This attitude will be the death of the 'old school' project manager in a world that is much more socially conscious and holds people accountable for the...

Many small companies and even departments in larger enterprises simply don’t have the need for a dedicated project manager and, more often than not, will appoint someone from within the business to run projects on a case-by-case basis. Selection is usually made on the gro...

Why is it important to plan a project and why are project plans not taken seriously enough? Planning is an integral part of our everyday lives and is perceived as a natural process, such as deciding what to do at the weekend. So why do some people still see it as a tick box...

What’s the point of training people in project management best practices and then not using their new-found skills? Clearly, there is no point; however, this seems to be an issue among organizations according to the latest AXELOS PPM Benchmark Study 2017 – The Value of Pro...

Ongoing measurement of project progress is vital. In the simplest terms, it tells you how much work has been done and what is left to do. However, in certain instances it tends only to be treated as vital when something on the project goes wrong; and only then will you hear ...

What is the current state of project management and Project Managers? At the turn of 2016, PM Perspectives Blog - in its top 10 project management trends post - said: “Project management is no longer boxed away in a corner of the room. It stands front and centre and is b...

What has 2017 meant for project managers and what is coming around the corner in 2018? Karen Ferris of Macanta Consulting looks ahead to the challenges facing project managers and their organizations next year. The need to be both waterfall and agile in projects ha...

Continuing her series on the Most Common Questions from PRINCE2 Foundation Training , Lead Trainer Michelle Rowland addresses some of the most frequently asked questions from Chapters 7 through to 10 of the PRINCE2 textbook . Chapter 7 Why do we have three level...

Rarely does an organization design its project management method from scratch. Instead it needs to be aware of the standards, best practice methods and bodies of knowledge related to project management (e.g. BS 6079 , PRINCE2 ® , PMI’s PMBOK ® and APM’s Body of Knowle...

Why should professionals who have any level of responsibility for projects in their organizations look to approaches like PRINCE2 ® and others for help? Paul Bradley, MD of SPOCE Project Management, shares his view: Many people are involved in project management wit...

I’m a big believer that projects are a product of the people who are involved in them. Of course, an agile framework and clearly defined measures of control are essential but, based on my experience, people have to enjoy what they’re doing and want to work together to ac...

Projects and project management are about delivering change that your organization values. Doing that needs task orientation: you focus on what needs to be done, by when and to what quality – the founding pillars of project management . That same task orientation can le...

What can project managers do to improve their skills and capabilities and – in turn – the performance of project teams? Have a best practice mindset To be truly effective, you need to know your chosen project management method – such as PRINCE2 ® – in ...

What you should do to improve project success and achieve value has been high on the agenda this year. Equally, the increased uncertainty in the economy has raised awareness of the need for increased professionalism in project and programme management (PPM) . In short, we’v...

Which partnership has the most influence on a project’s success ? Though it may not be top of your list, the one between project manager and sponsor (SRO) is arguably the most critical. A positive working relationship between these two roles will help keep the project on tr...

Project managers don’t do enough to advance their careers, even in the current climate where change is constant. And in a year when almost a third of PPM practitioners predict * no increase in their salaries, improving job and earnings prospects needs to be high on the lis...

Project management forms a part of portfolio management and in both there is currently a lot of talk about the issue of sustainability but not a lot of implementing sustainability in portfolio management. Organizations have strategic objectives that clarify what they want f...

How do you prepare your organization for an agile project? Naturally, this depends on the project; but if it’s a major technology project with a digital outcome , then using agile methods will probably be a significant shift for your organization.  Where your organizationa...

In the international bestseller The 7 habits of highly effective people (Free Press, 1988), Steven R. Covey describes an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls the ‘true north’ principles of a character ethic that are universal...

How effective and successful is the practice of project management in the United States right now? Cards on the table – it’s completely variable; the capability of projects is driven by the experience level of Project Managers and their familiarity with project approaches. C...

As a PRINCE2 ® -qualified project manager, I’ve tailored every project I’ve ever worked on. That’s why it’s great to see that the principle of tailoring runs explicitly throughout the updated PRINCE2 guidance and how it can be tailored for projects in any environment: smal...

Projects fail for a number of reasons: while it’s dependent on the industries you are working in, there are some reasons that are more prolific than others. For example: Unclear scope and success criteria Lack of buy-in and engagement Lack of change management skills U...

Ulf Livoff, project manager and PRINCE2 ® trainer, has always had an interest in simulations and mathematical modelling. Having founded Inference Labs to develop learning simulators, he is now applying this interest to creating online PRINCE2 project environments which hel...