10 Roles and Responsibilities of a PMO
There is much confusion over what roles a project management office (PMO) plays, and indeed the term is quite broad. But PMO's have undergone significant development in recent years and their roles have become more standardized. So whether you're considering establishing a new PMO or wondering what roles your existing....
4 Types of Project Offices
In most organizations, if nobody is responsible for maintaining project management practices they will fade away and become just another fad. For this reason, we have seen the rise of the project office. Project offices come in a variety of forms, but can be loosely broken into the categories of....
What is Resource Leveling?
Resource leveling is the smoothening of resource usage to increase project efficiency. It is performed to realize a trade off between project duration and project cost. Traditional project scheduling techniques do not take resource usage into account, and often produce erratic resource usage that drives up the project budget. For....
11 Types of Estimates
Almost every project requires an estimate. Since a project is, by definition, temporary, somebody must approve a budget for it. Which means they must know how much to approve. The available types of estimates can be categorized into the following groups: Accuracy Source of Data Estimating techniques Accuracy In many....
PMP vs PRINCE2 vs IPMA: The Three Main Certifications
Project management certification is a great way to make your career take off. Promotions, salary increases, and prestige are just some of the rewards waiting at the end of the journey, but not all certifications are equivalent. Hence, it's important to have a flight plan prior to spending many hours....
What is a Project Management Office?
A Project Management Office, usually abbreviated PMO, is an organizational project support function which assists project managers in the management of projects. There is no single definition of a PMO, and the roles and responsibilities vary quite widely. It depends mostly on the organization's project support needs. Some PMO's perform....
Is Room 873 of the Banff Springs Hotel Haunted?
I'm staying on the 8th floor of the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. When I surfed the internet trying to learn about this gorgeous place, to my surprise I ended up finding gruesome ghost stories about Room 873 instead. It's just down the hall from us. In fact, we have to....
How to Draw a Network Diagram
In project management, the network diagram is a graphical depiction of a project schedule which uses boxes to represent each task. It is used to determine the critical path, as well as the float of each task. Critical Path: The tasks which define the completion date of the project. They....
The IPMA Project Excellence Model
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) provides an excellent standard for measuring project success. It's called the Project Excellence Model (PEM), and it establishes an analytical system of points for various categories. It is used in the selection of the IPMA Project Excellence Awards every year. It is documented within....
IPMA Level C: Certified Project Manager
The IPMA Level C designation is a project manager certification issued by the International Project Management Association (IPMA). The nickname for level C certification is ‘Certified Project Manager.’ Level C is for project managers on smaller or non-complex projects where relationships often play a larger role than rigid adherence to project management....
