Lessons Learned: AKA “Next Time, Let’s Not Do That” You did it. You survived being a volunteer-told Project Manager.The meetings, the stakeholders, the budgets, the go-live chaos — all of it. Now comes the last step of the project: the lessons learned session.(It’s like group therapy, but with more PowerPoint.) 1. The Point of Lessons […]
The Dreaded Go-Live: Champagne or Fire Extinguisher? After months of meetings, reports, budgets, risks, and more “just one more things” than you can count… the day has finally come: Go-Live. This is the moment your project leaves the safety of planning and testing and gets unleashed on the real world.It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. And it’s
Conflict Management: When Bob and Karen Can’t Even Sit in the Same Meeting You’ve dealt with deadlines, budgets, and risk logs… but nothing tests your patience like two team members who can’t stand each other. Meet Bob and Karen. (Names changed to protect the guilty.)Bob rolls his eyes every time Karen speaks.Karen “forgets” to CC
The Budget: Pretending Monopoly Money Is Real Money At this point in your volunteer-told PM career, you’ve mastered meetings, wrangled stakeholders, and even survived scope creep.Now, someone will inevitably ask: “So, how’s the budget looking?” And you’ll realize you’ve been handed a spreadsheet full of numbers, expectations, and the faint hope that money grows on
Communication 101: Translating Tech Speak, Exec Speak, and Team Speak If you thought running meetings and wrangling stakeholders was hard, wait until you realize everyone in your project speaks a different language. And you? You’re the translator. Congratulations — you are now the Google Translate of your project. 1. Talking to Executives Executives don’t care
Scope Creep: When “Just One More Thing” Tries to Kill Your Project If you’ve made it this far as a volunteer-told Project Manager, congratulations — you’ve built a plan, managed stakeholders, delivered status reports, and even pretended to predict the future with risk management. Now, you’re about to meet your greatest nemesis: scope creep. 1.
Risk Management: Fortune-Telling With a Side of Paranoia By now, you’ve gotten the hang of meetings, stakeholders, and status reports. You might even feel like you’re starting to get it. Which is exactly when someone will ask:“So, what are the risks?” Welcome to the magical world of risk management — where you’re expected to predict
The Art of the Status Report: Making Updates Sound Way More Interesting Than They Are Congratulations — you’ve made it this far in your accidental PM journey. You’re juggling deadlines, corralling stakeholders, running meetings that only sometimes go off the rails, and learning the sacred art of saying “let’s circle back.” Now comes one of
The Project Plan: Turning Chaos Into a To-Do List With Dates By now, you’ve survived being volunteered, run your first few meetings, and even learned how to smile at stakeholders without crying inside.Now comes the part where everyone turns to you and says:“So… what’s the plan?” Translation: You need a project plan, yesterday. 1. A
Managing Stakeholders: Herding Cats, but With More Emails By now, you’ve survived your initiation into the world of project deadlines (Chapter One) and mastered the fine art of running meetings without wanting to fake your own disappearance (Chapter Two). But here comes the next level: stakeholders.Yes, the mysterious group of people who all have opinions,
