Category Archives: Best Practices

PMO Genius: Increase Happiness AND Productivity… Look At Secretaries (PART 1)

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Chris Niccolls

Secretaries… do you still use that term? Years ago, when “secretary” became synonymous with, “We’re paying you less because you’re a woman”, the title became an insult. Corporations changed the title to “administrative assistant,” but not much else changed. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Unique Ideas | Tagged Happiness, Improve, Measure, Metrics, PMO, Project Management, secretary, Staffing, transform | 1 Comment

4th Sigma: Decompose Now And Projects Won’t Go Bad Later!

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Chris Niccolls

Long time readers of this Blog are familiar with my “4th Sigma” series on building simpler, easy to implement process improvement. I’ve argued against training for (and using) all of the tools that Six Sigma offers. It’s not that the … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Project Management Office | Tagged 4th Sigma, Improve, PMO, Procurement, Project Management, Projects | 1 Comment

PMO Genius: 8 People Projects For 2012!

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Chris Niccolls

Will 2012 be the year of people projects? Over the past few years, changes in the economy have driven changes in business models. However, this has largely been a reactive change, without a clear plan for changing staffing in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged Hiring, Improve, Metrics, PMO, Predict, Project Management, Staffing | Leave a comment

Genius PMO: Plan Projects for the New Post Office

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

One of the big changes we can expect in 2012 is the restructuring of the US Post Office. The post office is one of those things that you expect to always be there. You drop off a letter in the mail … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Common Sense Contracting, Decision Making, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged change, Improve, PMO, Project Management, transform | Leave a comment

Genius PMO: How To Manage Like Gordon Ramsay In 10 Steps, Part II

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

Today we continue with our Foodie guide to project management. In our last blog we looked at the work of media star Gordon Ramsay. Today he’s a foul mouthed, ill-tempered egomaniac… but that’s mostly for the ratings. 10 years ago … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged Efficiency, Improve, PMO, Procurement, Project Management, Projects, Satisfaction | 1 Comment

Genius PMO: Five Steps Turn Your PMO Into An Innovation Center!

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

I often quote TED talks in my Blogs, and today is no exception. Steve Johnson gives a great talk about where great ideas come from. Johnson links the explosion of ideas that defines modern culture to the creation of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Delivering Services, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged Efficiency, Improve, Innovate, PMO, Project Management, Projects, Quality | Leave a comment

Genius PMO: Tracking A Project’s Financial Benefit Is Pure Genius

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

At the Wednesday (11/30) meeting of the NYC chapter of the Project Management Institute, Marc Resch gave a compelling presentation on the importance of cash flow models. In a very short time, Mr. Resch covered a lot of important territory. … Continue reading →

Posted in 4th Sigma, Best Practices, Decision Making, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged 4th Sigma, PMO, Project Management, Projects, Track, transform | 2 Comments

Genius PMO: Make Every Project Manager A Genius (Part II)

Posted on November 30, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

In our last blog we talked about developing genius solutions to problems, by using the TRIZ method. TRIZ is an acronym in Russian. In English, it translates into Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. This was developed by a Russian engineer, … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged Measure, PMO, Project Management, Satisfaction, transform | 2 Comments

Genius PMO: Make Every Project Manager A Genius (Part I)

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

If your Project Management Office (PMO) was staffed only by geniuses, you might get more work done. In the real world, we work with a staff that has limitations… limits on what they know, how much they can figure out … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Improvement, Continuous or Not, Learning and Development, Project Management Office, Unique Ideas | Tagged Efficiency, PMO, Project Management, Projects, Quality, tips, transform | 3 Comments

Building Your PMO: The Alpha & Omega of Project Management – Part II

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Chris Niccolls

In our last blog we talked about the two most important project phases for a new Project Management Office (PMO) to focus on, the beginning and end. The last blog spoke about the “Alpha,” the start of a project, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Best Practices, Delivering Services, Learning and Development, Project Management Office | Tagged Metrics, PMO, Projects, Quantify, Track, transform | 2 Comments