What actually is a milestone?

‘Milestones’ are a much used ingredient in a lot of projects – for good reasons. Milestones are important points on the project’s timeline. One could also call them checkpoints.

Generally speaking a milestone can be an event or a point in time, where

  • something is finished
  • something is started
  • a decision has to be made, as in how to proceed.

Most of the time, milestones occur at the end of a project phase. But there can be additional milestones in between.
Milestones never define a stretch of time, but always a point on the timeline.

Look at the following example: Continue reading →

The duties of the project manager – an open list

Being a project manager isn’t always an easy job. Besides the technical responsibilities many of you have, an awful lot of duties line up to be taken care of.

As we started writing these down, we realised the list keeps growing and growing the more time you spend thinking about it. We organised those duties into three phases: start, execution and closure. We are not following any formally strict scheme here, but are merely simplifying things with these three rough categories. Also, consider it an open list, an inspiration. It is by no means complete and not all kinds of projects will require exactly the same duties and tasks. Feel free to comment and add your own ideas and experiences. Continue reading →

Dirty Reality: When resources play hard to get

This article is part 1 of 1 of the series Dirty Reality
This article is part 1 of 1 of the series Dirty Reality

avatar-biberOnce in a while we will answer questions from project managers out in the field. Reality is not always following the textbook and the job can be tough. Our current topic:

It is always other projects getting the scarce resources, never mine.
In the company I work for there are many important projects. I am really having a hard time to advance my own project as some of those others always block the most important resources. I really need those guys from manufacturing to help, but they never have time for me!

Continue reading →

Better meetings in just 10 simple steps

I love meetings – they give me an excuse to interrupt my work and relax.
I hate meetings – they are a waste of time while I have more important things to do.

Believe it or not, within some organisations those two statements exactly describe the attitude towards meetings. In fact, this mindset is more common in professional environments than many may think or are willing to admit. Maybe even you yourself secretly adopted this destructive way of thinking?

But why this disastrous attitude? Should meetings not be an excellent opportunity for a team to work together on a common problem? Or to spread information? Or to motivate and create a sense of common ground?

Well, yes, in fact meetings can and should do all of that. But too often they simply do not!
If people experience unproductive and inefficient meetings too often, they will accept this frustrating experience as normality and to be unchangeable.
But it is not! You yourself can and must do all you can to boost your meetings to success. Make it your personal goal to organise meetings where people like to attend – because they feel that these meetings are time well invested. Productivity time.

You are asking yourself how to do that? Read on, we have prepared a list of 10 simple tricks that will help you host efficient meetings where people actually like to attend.

Continue reading →