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Theme of the Month: Project Management and The Global Economy — So You Want to Be the Best Organization in the Next Market Upswing? The Time to Invest is Now. By Guy Grindborg, PMP

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Failure to improve processes and productivity now will cause companies to lose the competitive edge when the economy takes off.

This article describes some actions an organization will need to take in order to position themselves for the market upswing. “Yes, there will be one.” Cutting too deep in project management and training during these hard times will put many companies behind the curve when the times change. It is important during the tough times to select the right projects, stay within the capabilities of the organization, avoid chasing everything that “moves”, and run projects as efficiently as possible. This means, among other things, a prudent investment in training and process improvements.

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Use Project Management to Recession Proof your Business By George Bridges, PMP

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The recent news reports describes layoff, cutbacks, unemployment and how companies are forced to do more with less; i.e. less time, money and people. Some companies are just looking to survive and stay in business. America and the world are being rocked by a global financial storm. How can you protect your company, your business, your organization and your employees?

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How Valuable Are You? By Steve Blais, PMP

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When the economic outlook is bleak or even foreboding, it is natural to start thinking about survival. What can I do to save my job? A project manager’s job many times is linked inextricably to the current project. In times of cutting costs and pulling back, upper-level management may find it easier to cancel or postpone whole projects and their teams, including the project manager, than to individually evaluate personnel.

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The Key To Project Management Success: The Importance of Information By Christophe Borlat

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The global economic downturn has had a significant impact on how we do business and many companies are looking to optimize costs. The best way to ensure your company’s survival is through strategic planning. This article focuses on the challenges that high-level managers (CIOs, PMOs, IT Managers, Project Managers) face and how they can succeed by managing risks, tracking project progress and budgets. In essence, the key to success is in having the right information needed at the right level, in the necessary detail and at the right time.

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What Every Project Managers Needs to Know About Business Analysis By George Bridges, PMP

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Because of the rise of the business analysis profession, the field of project management will never be the same again! Only a few years ago, there was no such thing as a business analyst (BA). Today, we see more and more organizations using BAs to define the requirements of new systems and products and to manage product scope. BAs are working directly with project managers and project teams. And rightly so. A good BA can help carry the project manager’s burden and greatly increase a project’s chances of success.

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Positive Leadership in Project Management – Leading Through Organizational Change By Frank P. Saladis, PMP

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There is no doubt that we live and work in a very complex and changing business environment. Project managers are encountering greater challenges and faster rates of change and the world economy has added significantly to these “high pressure times.” The typical response to high pressure and change is stress and resistance. People are overdosed on change, tired of uncertainty, and feeling just plain burnt out.

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Why It’s So Hard to Improve Results: The Fundamentals of Design of Experiments By Harry Rever, PMP – Director of Six Sigma, IIL

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This article is Part I of III,

Who knows how to improve results in your company? Does your boss? When your boss says to do this or that, or to implement these changes, do results get better? How do you know? Do project managers know how to improve results; is that part of their training? Many project managers, for example, believe that if they finish a project on time and within budget it is a successful project. Do you agree? What if the project finished on time and within budget but didn’t improve anything for the customer or for the business; is it successful?

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Putting Your Lessons Learned to Work By Karen Quagliata, PMP

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The philosopher George Santayana once said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Easy for him to say – he was probably never a project manager!

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Risk Doctor: After The Crisis – Then What? By Dr. David Hillson, PMP, FAPM

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Many people blame the current global financial crisis on a failure of risk management. They say that risk professionals should have been in the best position to foresee what was coming and warn the rest of us. If the forward-looking radar of risk management was unable to spot the danger signs, then it can be of little use in future. Perhaps we should rely on something else to make sure that we don’t make a similar mistake again.

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PM Crossword Connections™: Mad Money — The Language of Finance and The Economy By Frank Saladis, PMP

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How has the current economic downturn affected your projects?