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The Importance of Good Business Requirements Analysis in Projects

Business Requirements define the scope of a project and enable everyone involved in a project to agree what will be delivered and what they can expect from the completed project. It constitutes the formal agreement between client and provider but in order to be valuable it must be based on a thorough analysis of the […]

Added: 17th March 2014 Read More

Update Of APM Qualifications To The 6th Edition Of APM Bok

The Association for Project Management has announced that its range of project management qualifications is to be updated to reflect the changes in the 6th Edition of the Body of Knowledge. At the same time they will be changing the names of the qualifications, to be more descriptive of the qualification levels. While the changes […]

Added: 11th March 2014 Read More

Project Management Context And Organisations And Governance

These are some typical questions based on the first two chapters in the book. Remember to get the full marks for each questions you need to write five paragraphs for each question. Each paragraph should explain the point you are trying to make and then explain why it is important to project managers. So for […]

Added: 10th March 2014 Read More

Project Management Around The World

Managing Global Projects & What I’ve Learnt About Outsourcing Thinking about what to write for this #PMFlashBlog I started recalling my first foray into the world of project management. I had been working for some years for a blue-chip organisation, designing and developing bespoke software systems for internal use. But as with many large organisations […]

Added: 10th March 2014 Read More

A Basic Guide For Success In Project Management

Project management in its simplest form is the organisation and tracking of tasks required to complete a project. A project can be anything from planning a new garden layout for your own home, designing a new website, building a new bridge or organising the Winter Olympic Games. Projects appear in our personal lives and on […]

Added: 28th February 2014 Read More

What Are The Benefits Of Planning A Project?

Individuals and organisations regularly start a project believing that it can be easily controlled and does not require formal planning to be completed successfully. Such projects are likely to be time-consuming and expensive so failure to plan them properly is a waste of time and money because lack of planning will increase the risk of […]

Added: 25th February 2014 Read More

Is Any Project Ever Truly Successful?

So many projects of all different types fail to live up to our initial expectations that you might wonder if any project could ever be considered successful when compared against the original expectations. At the start of a project there is usually a very clear idea of what should be achieved by the end of […]

Added: 21st February 2014 Read More

Six Tips for the Perfect Project Plan

We have talked before about what is a project plan. In this post we wanted to extend this to talk about the importance of keeping people involved in the project planning process. Keeping projects on track can be extremely arduous for project managers, especially when it comes to constantly changing additions and requests. When project managers […]

Added: 20th February 2014 Read More

How To Avoid Project Failure

There are many and varied reasons why a project might fail. Certain industries have a much higher chance of failure than others just because of the nature of their business. Of course the training and experience of the project manager also plays a part in the likelihood of failure. But if you are currently involved […]

Added: 18th February 2014 Read More

RAM (RACI) chart exercise

    Hi Paul,   Can you please check over the below? Thanks. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Arial”,”sans-serif”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} Describe the use of a […]

Added: 6th February 2014 Read More

Planning software exercise

    Hi Paul,   Can you critique the below please?     Describe 5 major examples of how software tool can help in planning a project and give examples of where three of them might be helpful in solving common planning problems.  Examples: 1.       Helps producing iterations – Project planning is an iterative process […]

Added: 6th February 2014 Read More

New Questions For Those Just Starting The APMP Course

Try any of these typical questions  1) List and describe five differences between a project managment process and a lifecycle? 2) Explain five roles of the project sponsor? 3) Desctibe five benefits of managing projects as a programme and not separate projects?

Added: 3rd February 2014 Read More

Governance Of Project Management

Question 3 from Exam Paper for comment etc – just a straight read across from the BoK.  Is this acceptable an answer.  Obviously won’t have the BoK for the exam. Governance of Project Management Question a Explain the overall aim of project governance Question b Explain what each of the following four components of project […]

Added: 31st January 2014 Read More

Conflict Managment

Question 2 from the Exam Paper – for comment etc.  Am I the only one to think the question doesn’t seem to be asking for much?  What am I missing?   Question List and describe a source of conflict arising within each of the following parts of the project life cycle: Concept Definition Implementation Handover […]

Added: 31st January 2014 Read More

Conflict Managment

Question 2 from the Exam Paper – for comment etc.  Am I the only one to think the question doesn’t seem to be asking for much?  What am I missing? Question List and describe a source of conflict arising within each of the following parts of the project life cycle: Concept Definition Implementation Handover Closeout […]

Added: 31st January 2014 Read More

Resource Management

I am due to take the APMP Exam soon and am working through the exam questions from the sample paper on the APM website.  I would be very grateful for any feedback on my answer, from anyone.  In particular whether the answer: 1)  Answers the question asked 2)  Has sufficient content for they key words […]

Added: 31st January 2014 Read More

Describe Scope And 4 Ways To Develop Project Scope

  Hi Paul/John I had a go at example question section 8 p159 – think I may not have written enough about developing scope (ran out of time)- Please can you comment on the answer and if possible give me an idea as a % as to the mark it might have got in the […]

Added: 26th January 2014 Read More

Interesting PM Reads

Worldwide Project and Portfolio Management 2013-2017 Forecast A recent report from IDC (International Data Corporation) provides a 2013-2017 forecast and analysis for the worldwide project and portfolio management (PPM) market, which experienced growth of 5.4% during 2012, which was significant in a difficult market. In these difficult financial environments there was some revenue growth from […]

Added: 21st January 2014 Read More