A Girl's Guide to Project Management - Latest Comments

Re: Is your project team a sales force in disguise?

Vadim Katcherovski — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:49:17 -0000

Internal trainings is another great way to "sell" your project to the rest of the organization. Quite often a team working on the project acquires some unique knowledge or skills that can be beneficial to other departments. Sharing this knowledge can go a long way in promoting your team and your project.

Re: The challenges of IT Project Management, with Dave Gordon

Keath Moore — Sat, 12 May 2012 09:07:16 -0000

But what about the importance of issue tracking? I would like to point out that it is important almost for all IT-project realization stages. When add hog programmes such as Basecamp, Zoho, Comindware and etc. appeared, everything became easier. All you need to do is to choose which programme is appropriate for you. Our company is looking for a smart issue tracking solution. We are still analyzing different project management systems. We would like to stop on Comindware Tracker (http://www.comindware.com/trac.... Could you say anything about it? We’d be thankful for any information.

Re: Happiness is a ticked list

Alice Foster — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:31:10 -0000

Happiness is a Tick List - excellent idea I think I will have that as my motto as well!

Re: The future of project management software: the Microsoft view

Project Tracking Software — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:56:15 -0000

Software'ss such as project management software, time tracking software, employee time clocks, project tracking software and time billing software all are with an excellent concept. These all makes the job easier for many. Managing a project is never been easy unless these software's were invented. I believe frequent updates and new concepts will definitely keep these going. What do you think?

Re: 4 Steps to becoming a better project leader: Book Review: The Shift from One to Many

Elizabeth — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:37:50 -0000

I think the model of servant leadership is a good one - as a leader, think about what you have to offer the followers and provide what they need to get their jobs done. That's how you can add value.

Re: 4 Steps to becoming a better project leader: Book Review: The Shift from One to Many

swot — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:19:51 -0000

Interesting and straight forward thought.. I agree that leadership and project management leadership is about developing talent and recognizing others.. only then they will be working towards success.. trying to gain the recognition of the leader and of peers..

Re: 4 Steps to becoming a better project leader: Book Review: The Shift from One to Many

Elizabeth — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:30:46 -0000

Have a good flight. Administrivia...I've not heard that before. What an excellent word to describe such a lot of what makes project managers good at their jobs.

Re: 4 Steps to becoming a better project leader: Book Review: The Shift from One to Many

gypc_dave — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:34:55 -0000

As Robert Hunter put it, "You who choose to lead must follow." I've recently started describing my job as "concierge." I take care of the administrivia, drive the rental car and deal with the navigation in strange cities, take the arrows from the client, coordinate, communicate, and facilitate. And praise the folks on the team in front of their peers at every opportunity, with a cc to their bosses. I don't know if it's getting better results, but the process is sure a lot more focused on the deliverables and the end result.

Downloaded to my Kindle. I'll read it on the plane tomorrow.

Re: Leadership skills: how female project managers lead

Elizabeth — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:32:24 -0000

I think this speaks to the point raised by Jane - it's unhelpful to categorise "men" and "women" as broad groups but unfortunately that is how academic research is done. It wouldn't be possible, practical or useful to carry out studies that say "Fred is good at this, Mary is good at that." I'm glad you have had a good experience of working with female project managers, but I have to add that I have also worked with some excellent male project managers!

Re: What women think men think about us

Elizabeth — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:30:42 -0000

I'm not aware of any research on how women perceive men in the workplace, outside of this study. Unfortunately people do make generalisations about "men" and "women". I don't think this researcher was saying that either is better in reality, but that people have perceptions of how men and women act in a project management setting.

Re: What women think men think about us

Jane Bolam — Wed, 02 May 2012 10:27:08 -0000

Has research been done on how women perceive men in the workplace? Rather than a gender trait surely how someone is perceived should be based more upon their character and ability. We know women are different to men but that does not make either gender better than the other.

Re: Leadership skills: how female project managers lead

Linky — Tue, 01 May 2012 00:30:50 -0000

I happen to think women project managers are better and I'm saying that from experience of working with them. Women tend to take a more supportive and facilitative role instead of actively leading.
Good points thanks for sharing.

Re: Agile and Distributed Teams: research results

Elizabeth — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:23:42 -0000

Tim, software does not ensure communication. It can't communicate for you, and it certainly struggles to overcome translation problems - you only have to look at automatic online translation tools to know that the language they churn out may be understandable, but it's not how people choose to speak. People do communication, and software can support their communication efforts. I stand by my point that I feel you have to communicate more with distributed teams.

Re: Agile and Distributed Teams: research results

TimTobius — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 13:38:59 -0000

You wanted to know why not so many women among Agile professionals. I guess the answer is simple and evident - the glass ceiling doesn't allow women to move further. Men consider the sphere of IT their own domain. But personally I think that women should be given more responsibility in decision making.
Now what concerns one of the main challenges of Agile - poor communication. I can't agree with you in this point since nowadays you can ensure excellent communication if applied the right software (try comindware) or jira.

Re: The future of project management software: the Microsoft view

Junior Williams — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:38:26 -0000

Microsoft head was already at rest but their hands were still actively moving and giving us brilliant wonderful views. I do believe that they are still indestructible on their ways of giving nice service.

Re: What’s the Profile of a Good Project Manager?

TimTobius — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:26:03 -0000

Hi, Ben
Thanks for the informative article on how we are 'selected' and 'evaluated'. But I have one more point to add to this list - open to new ideas and tools. A good manager should quickly accept new effective task management tools and introduce them into working processes. We had no problems in introducing comindware tracker software solution in our company 'cause our managers were ready to introduce it, unlike in other companies where introducing something new requires years.

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

FurmanJeff — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 09:58:24 -0000

Hi Elizabeth, I just showed your book to my new PMP students last week out in California, and they were very interested. I find in my classes that even though everyone is now on Facebook and Linkedin, there are still many PM environments where there are no Social Media Tools For PMs, and where Excel is the only "PM tool." One of the group was in an Agile environment, and his team was using "Zoho," which is one I hadn't heard of before.

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Elizabeth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:20:26 -0000

That's the idea! I hope that I will also get a different perspective on the concepts in the book, and some ideas for new topics to cover.

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Elizabeth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:19:49 -0000

Well, I hope so. I know the group will discuss topics that they find interesting, and I'm just there to help guide the discussion and clear up any points, or to add my spin to the debate. I am looking forward to it!

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Elizabeth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:18:59 -0000

Thanks!

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Elizabeth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:18:44 -0000

I'm hoping it will be very fun! I think a lot of social media education is currently targeted at marketers and small business owners, but that's because they think of social media as a tool to reach customers, not a way of collaborating more effectively with colleagues.

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Elizabeth — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:17:39 -0000

Unfortunately I wrote the book before Instagram was launched, so the book does not mention it specifically. Having said that, it is tool-agnostic, so it doesn't take specifically about any tools, really. So yes, feel free to join the discussion - I'm sure we can cover something about this.

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Heather Christian — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 02:13:55 -0000

Your book sounds interesting. I'm taking a social media class right now, although it is more targeted at marketers. It would be nice to hear about social media from a project management point of view. The book club is also a great idea. How fun would it be to study a book with the author?

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

Luke W — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:39:49 -0000

sounds like a great way of getting feedback and driving community, all the best with it!

Re: Join me to talk about Social Media for Project Managers

xxx — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:42:47 -0000

Can I and a few friends join as a group discussion about Instagram? We recently had it as a subject.