IPMA® Professionals Driving Transformation

Bord na Móna was established 80 years ago to develop Ireland’s peat resources for the economic benefit of Ireland. Today, it is comprised of 6 business units Powergen, Biomass, Peat, Fuels, Waste and Recovery, and Horticulture and is an integral part of the economic, social and environmental fabric of Ireland and Irish life. Due to […]

Do we need faster horses?

Again, I am on my way back home from an IPMA research conference. This time it was held in Incheon, South Korea. I met new people and made new friends, I heard new perspectives and I am so glad for this opportunity. All kinds of new ideas are floating in my head as I cruise […]

4 Fallacies of Typical Project Management Thinking – Part 4 – The Customer is Always Right

Written by Ryan Downing This series concludes with a final project management scenario that I feel conventional wisdom needs to be re-examined as it does not always produce a successful outcome in the project. #4 – The Customer is Always Right Ever since 1909 when Harry Gordon Selfridge, the founder of Selfridge’s department store in London, […]

From the 5th IPMA Research Conference about Project Success

Already for the 5th time IPMA hosted together with the new member association of IPMA Korea the Research Conference in Incheon in Korea from Nov 2-4 2017. The theme of this conference was dedicated to “projects, management and success: do we need a new understanding?” The unambiguous answer of the outcome of the two days […]

One-Point Lessons: A knowledge transfer driven Lean project management technique

Projects are knowledge-intensive entities and the knowledge bandwidth of teams affects their ability to solve problems and deal with emerging challenges during project delivery. Such dynamics require ongoing learning and augmentation of knowledge bandwidth. However, time-bound project environments are not ideally suited to introducing and managing long term learning and training programs to improve that […]

4 Fallacies of Typical Project Management Thinking (Part 3)

Written by Ryan Downing Part 3 – Providing a Very Detailed Schedule As this series continues, we will explore another area of managing projects that many deem to be an essential element.  However, my purpose for writing this is to make project managers aware that they do not always have to manage their projects in […]

Sustainability and Project Management – Perspectives, Challenges and Threats (Part 7)

Project managers typically use standards and tailor them to the needs of their projects. Are there standards available for managing sustainability in projects? Most standards are addressing this aspect. For example, the ISO-series for governing and managing projects, programmes and portfolios (ISO 21500, ISO 21503, ISO 21504 and ISO 21505) address the aspect of sustainability […]

4 Fallacies of Typical Project Management Thinking (Part 2)

Written by Ryan Downing Part 2 – Setting a Go Live Date. You can read previous articles in this series here. In this series, my goal is to bring to light several common project management practices that I feel are forced on projects because they are assumed to be best practice.  However, there are plenty […]

Portfolio Management. A simple case of chicken and eggs- Five steps to succesful portfolio management

What came first; the chicken or the egg? Was it Adam and Eve that gave birth to all of mankind, or was it a case, as Charles Darwin would have us believe, of natural evolution?

4 Fallacies of Typical Project Management Thinking (Part 1)

Written by Ryan Downing Part 1 – The Weekly Status Meeting I have spent over a decade managing projects and studying different philosophies on what the best practices for this are.  During this time, I have managed many successful projects, several unsuccessful ones and obtained the Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Scrum Master (CSM) certifications. […]