PMP - Project Management Best Practices

Program management is the process of managing programs mapped to business objectives that improve organizational performance. Program managers oversee and coordinate the various projects and other strategic initiatives throughout an organization.

Gold plating is a serious issue as not only can it lead to difficult discussions with the end users, it’s often the case that as a result of the time spent, additional budget would be needed in the long run.

Gold plating is also considered a bad project management practice for different project management best practices and methodologies such as Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and PRINCE2. In this case, 'gold plating' means the addition of any feature not considered in the original scope plan (PMBOK) or product description (PRINCE2) at any point of the project. This is because it introduces a new source of risks to the original planning such as additional testing, documentation, costs, or timelines. However, avoiding gold plating does not prevent new features from being added to the project; they can be added at any time as long as they follow the official change procedure and the impact of the change in all the areas of the project is taken into consideration.

Marie Herman shares her top tips for managing expectations on projects to ensure success

if your aim is to foster speed, agility and innovation – traditional project management will likely stop you in your tracks.

Project Management methodology was different a decade ago when managers had to just keep the project running. Now, it’s more about strategizing, collaborating with the project team, agile project management, and project portfolio management. Analytics can simplify these tasks for modern project managers.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) visually organizes project deliverables into different levels based on dependencies. It’s essentially your project plan in a visual form, with your project objective at the top, then dependencies and sub-dependencies below. In this article, we describe the different parts of a work breakdown structure and how to create one for your next project—along with a detailed example to get you started.

A business case often provides decision makers, stakeholders and the public with a management tool for evidence based and transparent decision making. It is a framework for delivery and performance monitoring of the subsequent policy, strategy or project to follow thereafter.

Release management refers to the process of planning, designing, scheduling, testing, deploying, and controlling software releases. It ensures that release teams efficiently deliver the applications and upgrades required by the business while maintaining the integrity of the existing production environment.

Stretch work assignments are tasks or projects that are a bit beyond an engineer’s current skill or knowledge level and that allow them to improve and learn new things. When done correctly these assignments serve a dual purpose of providing learning opportunities for your engineers, while at the same time completing a project or task that will help your company.