I’m blogging at www.ittoolbox.com/pm/itprojectmechanic and thought you might want to review the article that I posted there called “Why am I doing this?”

You can visit the blog here: http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/pm/itprojectmechanic/archives/why-am-i-doing-this-23212

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Having implemented a “few” PMOs, I can share a phenomenon that many of you can relate to – the notion that “Portfolio Management” or “the PMO” is going to make an IT department’s situation different because of their existence. I can sadly say that I’ve heard too many seat pocket ideas (like those found holding executive magazines in airplanes) blurted out with conviction, such as, “Well, we have Portfolio Management/a PMO/fancy software – why is this happening?” when problems persist. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, if you have tried to visit us in the past 24 hours you may have experienced some funky behavior or maybe been unable to get to the site.  We saw the need to change hosting services and this has caused a few glitches that hopefully are finished.

Please, stick around  – this should be the last momentus change we make for a while (I hope!)

Every PM I have met along my journey has had at least one, if not a few, projects that could be modestly described as troubled. In fact, I think this is a pretty standard occurrence in the Project Manager ranks – there are projects that despite our best efforts, quality training and experience, spend a majority of their time classed as Red or Yellow on a status report. Why is this happening? Is it the PM? Surely there must be one bad apple spoiling the bunch, right? Someone has done something wrong – that’s why we’re in this situation… Right?

Sadly, I’m afraid our friends in the Quality world have it right – it’s not the people, it’s the process that normally causes things to go awry.

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I was surfing the blogosphere and ran across an article about how Project and Portfolio Management strategy (and software) are musts for CIOs in hard times – I would argue that the belt tightening in lean times and the wild-wild-west rules when times are good is all the more reason to invest in PPM tools for the enterprise.

If you need a tool to tell you what you ought to cut out in one economic climate, it stands to reason that this strategy would work all the time.

I’ve never heard someone say, “Wow, I’m glad we wasted all that money while the stock price was good”… – have you?

PPM strategy a CIO’s must-have in hard times

I would say that my job, as a project manager, constitutes a mix of the following: project chaperone, creative solution-maker and thorough problem surveyor. There are other bits, but I was left on an island with a mega-bank as my client and only three things would be left out of my bag of tricks, those would be what I picked.

Finding project problems is simple – not easy, but simple. There are some pre-conditions that are handy to apply before trying to find out what ails your project or team:

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As you have undoubtably noticed, IT Project Mechanic ‘s blog looks a little different. The old site “took a tumble off the cliff” so to speak, and I had to basically start over.

I’m glad I did – if you are operating or want to setup a blog, check out the theme creator link at the bottom of the page – nice work indeed. The new look and feel doesn’t change the mission or the content of the site – just makes it a little easier on the eyes.

Welcome to IT Project Mechanic and the weblog that started my quest to figure out how IT PMs could be more effective and to talk about real, nitty gritty, subjects that are real to PMs. Now that you’re here, pull up a seat and tell me what you think – your best idea is only so until you find another to replace it.