Project Management Techniques
By Dick Billows
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Podcast Description
Articles about Best project management techniques
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VideoVideo: Project presentations- Using Body Language | Being an effective presenter is critical to building project support and influencing people; both keys to project success. In our all our classes you make live presentations privately with your instructor over the web. You get a video of your presentation along with your instructor' feedback and comments. Practicing presentations and seeing yourself on film are the best ways to get better. Here is a video we use with students who need to improve their body language. Watch 5 presenters and then listen to commentary on their work by Dick Billows, PMP. | 5/22/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 2 | VideoLeading Project Teams | Having a highly motivated, problem-solving project team is a key component for consistent project success. We need to learn the right techniques to use as we manage our project team through the lifecycle of a project. This includes selecting the team members, crafting the right type assignment for each person, estimating work and duration, receiving status reports and dealing with performance problems. | 5/15/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 3 | VideoSucceeding on Big Strategic Projects | Strategic projects, those that improve an organization's strategic position and long term prospects present challenges that are unique in project management. The challenges includes managing people from a wide variety of disciplines and perspectives on the the project. Also, political support at this level is difficult to maintain over the long term. | 5/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 4 | VideoGetting a Good Start with a Sponsor | That first session with a new sponsor can determine the project's success. Getting off to a good start requires that you talk persuasively about how the executive and project manager should work together. Getting the roles and processes straight is critical to success. | 4/24/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 5 | VideoReal World Project Management: Getting Good Status Data | Hike the shore of a barrier island off the South Carolina coast as Dick discusses how to gather good status data from your team members. He'll also describe techniques to avoid having the team hide problems until it's too late for you to fix them. That makes good project status reports and projects that finish on time and within budget. | 4/17/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 6 | VideoVideo: The Right & Wrong Way to Resolve Project Team Conflict | Watch a project manager walk into a bitter team conflict that has brought work to a stop. The PM uses the wrong techniques for conflict resolution and makes things worse. Hear Dick Billows, PMP's analysis of the flaws. Then see the same situation where the project manager uses good techniques and gets everybody back to work on their deliverables. | 4/10/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 7 | VideoFighting off the Sponsor from Hell & Building Your Project Team's Commitment to Estimates | In this video, you will see a project manager working with her team to develop estimates using the best practices in project management. Specifically, she is using three point estimates which give her not only accurate numbers but also some statistics on the likelihood of being over or under the estimates. Everything is going famously until the project sponsor comes in and wants to really squeeze the team's estimates so the project finishes early. See how she handles it. | 3/31/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 8 | VideoProject Launch Meeting | Watch a client and creative director launch a project with the team and see if you can spot their mistakes. Then listen to the private comments of the team members about the meeting. Finally, hear my analysis of the mistakes and the consequences. | 3/27/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 9 | VideoGetting Good Status Data from Your Project Team | The video shot, on the beach in South Carolina, covers what data you need from your team members and how to get it. I focus on what to ask for and how to get it, as well as how to manage the process so your team tells you about problems early when you can do something about it. | 3/20/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 10 | VideoVideo: What did the PM do Wrong in This Planning Meting? | Watch the video of a PM and 5 team members planning a project and spot the PM's mistakes. See the PM deal with each team member's assignment and cope with the sponsor "sticking his head in." Then listen to private interviews and hear what the team members really thought about the planning meeting and listen to their level of commitment to their estimates. The listen to Dick Billows' analysis of the PM's work. | 3/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 11 | VideoCommunicating With Your Team Effectively | Watch the video to learn about adapting your communications style to "fit" each team member's personality and get better commitment and clear communication. | 3/6/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 12 | VideoVideo: How Many Tasks in the Work Breakdown Structure? | Project managers often ask this question and are often surprised at how you figure it out on each project. Read the article and watch the video on creating a WBS that lets you plan and control the project and make crystal clear assignments to team members. | 2/28/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 13 | VideoArticle & Video: Visual Status Reports=Fast Understanding | Article & Video: Visual Status Reports=Fast Understanding - In status meetings, we need a visual tool to quickly communicate status data, even to people who are new to projects. | 2/21/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 14 | VideoEstimating with Your Project Team: 3-Point Estimates | When a project team is commitment to their estimates, it significantly increases the odds of finishing on time. The 3-point technique for estimating helps you get that commitment with a proven team process and also gives you more accurate numbers for scheduling. | 2/13/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 15 | VideoFix a Dysfunctional Project Team | Dysfunctional project teams can cause major overruns and project duration and budget. There are techniques that project managers can you to salvage dysfunctional project team and turned into a high performing project team | 2/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 16 | VideoControlling Scope: Keeping Stakeholders Happy & Finishing On-time/budget | Trying to fight every change to a project doesn't work. Even if the customer doesn't ram the change down your throat, they are still unhappy with the project and with you. Watch a video of a project manager trying to fight a change and failing. Then see him handle the change correctly, with narration by Dick Billows, PMP, CEO of 4PM.com | 1/31/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 17 | VideoVideo: Planning a Project with a Difficult Executive | Video Project Manager in Action: Watch a project manager start planning, get eaten alive by a tough executive and start work with no defined scope. Then see the PM try it again, using best planning practices, and win the day with a crystal clear scope definition. With analysis of the PM's performance by Dick Billows, PMP | 1/17/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 18 | VideoVideo: 537 Ways to Screw-up a Project | Our project managers have fun in a comedy video about PMs and team members preparing for a big project status meeting. See micro-managing PMs frantically hiding problems, team members pointing fingers at each others, sleazy execs maneuvering for political advantage, IT staff with a million BS excuses and HR people back-stabbing Sales to avoid blame. See all the things NOT to do. | 1/7/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 19 | VideoSimple Risk Management | The hardest part of the whole risk management process is getting the sponsor or the customer to invest a little effort in avoiding risks. A bit of simple risk analysis can give you some ammunition to persuade the sponsor/customer that on this project we might want to try and avoid some risks rather than letting all of them smack us in the face. | 12/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 20 | VideoUsing Brainstorming to Identify Project Risk | Much of our success in risk management comes from the accuracy of the risk identification. So avoid endless fighting fires and workarounds by spending some time in brainstorming sessions with the client and creative staff. | 12/6/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 21 | VideoProject Status Reports | How we report to the project sponsor is a key to maintaining credibility and securing support for corrective action when we have variances | 11/29/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 22 | VideoVideo: Presenting a Plan for Approval | Best practices planning can overcome a bad executive and weak organizational processes. Follow these templates &, techniques from the first meeting and an approved plan & schedule. | 11/21/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 23 | VideoCoping with Changes to Scope, Budget and Duration: Article & Video | We have to be prepared to deal with changes to the project baselines for scope, budget and duration. This article addresses changes to the baselines that come from the project executive, project team or simply performance related events. The article's video describes the process project managers should go through to set themselves up for effective change control. If we don't think about change control until the executive says, "I want to reduce the duration by two weeks," we're likely to handle it poorly. The bad result is that the executive cuts two weeks from the duration without agreeing to any compensating adjustments to resources or budget. The article and video discuss how we create the proper change control expectations from the beginning of the project which makes it much easier to handle changes when they inevitably arise. | 11/15/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 24 | VideoVideo: Project Personalities; Techniques for Being More Effective With People | Dick Billows, PMP, GCA, narrates a video in which we first see a project manager fail to resolve the problems resulting from a team member being pulled off their project work. We see the project manager make things worse by using bad techniques and failing to tailor their communications to the team member's personality type. Then we'll see the project manager use best practices techniques to deal with the issue and tailor their communications to the personality type of the team member. These efforts achieve a much more effective solution. | 11/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 25 | VideoVideo: Why Can't We Ever Do Big Projects Right;? Too many organizations fail to deliver on the big strategic initiatives they n | Dick Billows, PMP, examines the barriers in organizations that prevent these big projects from finishing on time and delivering the significant business value the executives intended. Then Dick discuss ways to "clear the decks" so strategic projects can succeed. | 11/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 26 | VideoTechniques for Leading your Team: | Watch this video of a PM dealing with a situation where a team member has been pulled off the project and assigned elsewhere. In the first video, we see the PM use a technique that does not fit the personality of the team member. The result is complete failure. Next watch an analysis and then see the PM do it the right way, using the right technique for the team member. | 10/18/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 27 | VideoHandling Requests to Finish Earlier | Project managers handle requests to finish earlier all the time. But all too often the PM handles t hem incorrectly and winds us with unhappy customers or a conflict that gets escalated to upper management. There is a better way as you will see in this video which shows the wrong way and then the correct way to handle these requests to finish earlier. | 10/5/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 28 | VideoVideo: Interpersonal Techniques; Adapting your Approach to Different Personalities | Dick Billows, PMP, GCA, narrates a video in which we first see a project manager try to handle a problem with a team member. At first, the project manager makes things worse by using bad interpersonal techniques. Then we see him tailor his communications to the team member's personality type with a much more effective result. | 9/28/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 29 | VideoArticle & Video: Project Estimating for Smaller Projects: Templates & steps for the PM, team and executive | Coming up with good estimates is a challenge for all project managers. We give you the 4 different estimating techniques in the article and the video shows you how to present the estimates to the sponsor. | 9/20/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 30 | VideoVideo Project Management Careers | Watch the video on rising through the stages of a project management career establishing a track record of on-time, on budget project completions where the deliverables meet expectations. Beyond exceptional performance, earning certifications are critical stepping stones for advancement and successful job hunting. | 9/14/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 31 | VideoWork Breakdown the Right Way | A good WBS is not a detailed "To do" list. But too many PMs and executives think all that micro-detail gives them tight control. It actually gives them less control and a schedule that is too detailed to track and keep up to date. | 9/9/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| 32 | VideoArticle & Video: Responding to Project Risks | Responding to Project Risks - Project managers respond to risks using one or more of the following strategies: avoidance, mitigation, deflection or as a last resort acceptance with a contingency plan. | 6/1/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 32 Episodes |
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