scope management

Project and Portfolio Management Experts

Submitted by Jamal Moustafaev on Mon, 04/28/2014 - 14:03

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Jamal is the author of three books and many online courses dedicated to project, portfolio, and scope management:

Phone: +1 778 995 4396

E-Mail: jamal@thinktankconsulting.ca

Below you will find ten symptoms of a company that is in dire need of project management and/or project portfolio management. Read through the list and count how many of these characteristics can be attributed to your organization:

  1. Unexpected issues and problems arise in the middle of projects
  2. Communications seem to be ad-hoc; too often important stakeholders are not informed about key decisions
  3. Project's requirements are never clearly defined
  4. Project managers and functional managers (department directors and managers) constantly fight over resources.
  5. Priorities of the projects initiated by the executives constantly change, resulting in quick resource reassignments.
  6. There is a chronic shortage of resources at the organization. Employees are constantly complaining about being overworked, while the managers insist that they must roll up their sleeves and work harder
  7. Projects are frequently late and/or over budget and/or do not deliver the full scope promised and the quality of the project product is low
  8. Even if the strategic idea is implemented, the company sometimes fails to achieve the expected improvement or fails to receive any value from the said project at all
  9. The strategic plan – even if the company has one - is presented as a list of projects, but the cause-effect logic tying those initiatives to the company’s mission, goals and the strategy is absent
  10. The list of company projects is not prioritized. Therefore it is assumed that all of these initiatives must be started and implemented more or less simultaneously

Did you count more than three symptoms present at your company? We can help! We offer project management, project portfolio management consulting and both live or online training services to help get your business back on track.

Please contact me directly via email at jamal@thinktankconsulting.ca or by phone +1-778-995-4396.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jamal Moustafaev, MBA, PMP

President & CEO

Thinktank Consulting, Inc.

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News - Downloads Page with Templates and Sample Documents

Submitted by Jamal Moustafaev on Thu, 05/08/2014 - 08:37

Hi all

I have created a “Downloads” page on my website. You can find a variety of project management, portfolio management and requirements engineering (scope management) templates and sample documents there.

Feel free to browse and download. They are free!

Cheers

Jamal

About the Author

Jamal Moustafaev, MBA, PMP – president and founder of Thinktank Consulting is an internationally acclaimed expert and speaker in the areas of project/portfolio management, scope definition, process improvement and corporate training. Jamal Moustafaev has done work for private-sector companies and government organizations in Canada, US, Asia, Europe and Middle East.  Read Jamal’s Blog @ www.thinktankconsulting.ca

Jamal is an author of two very popular books: Delivering Exceptional Project Results: A Practical Guide to Project Selection, Scoping, Estimation and Management and Project Scope Management: A Practical Guide to Requirements for Engineering, Product, Construction, IT and Enterprise Projects.

Training - Project Scope Management: A Practical Guide to Requirements Elicitation, Analysis, Documentation, Validation and Management For All Types of Projects

Submitted by Jamal Moustafaev on Thu, 05/01/2014 - 15:11

Course Overview

Business requirements elicitation (i.e. the initial phase of product scope definition) is underdeveloped in today’s project management science with the exception of IT and software development sectors, where scope definition (aka business analysis) is although relatively advanced, but excluded from the project manager’s domain of responsibilities.

As a result, most industries have a very prominent knowledge gap in project scope planning. A gap that starts some time after the Project Charter has been completed and approved and ends somewhere around the point when the work commences based on the detailed blueprints, technical drawings and bills of materials.

And yet, scope definition remains the key ingredient in the success of any project. After all, as one of my clients used to say, “If one does not understand completely what he or she is going to build, what is the point of engaging in scheduling or budgeting?”

This workshop is dedicated to the requirements elicitation, analysis, documentation and planning on the engineering, product, IT, software development and enterprise projects.

Why You Should Attend?

Recent studies indicate that only 32% of our projects can be considered successful, while 44% are challenged (i.e. grossly over the budget and/or late) and 24% are outright failures (i.e. cancelled by the customers before they are even completed). Further research shows that the lion’s share of this lack of success can be attributed to poor requirements elicitation, insufficient planning and inadequate project control.

This course will demonstrate to the participants how to perform these tasks properly and efficiently by teaching them skills, tools, techniques and economic principles that transcend various company structures, environments and project management philosophies.

Benefits of the Course

Every course participant is expected to understand how to improve the quality of the products delivered on their projects, decrease project durations and budgets and improve both internal and external stakeholder satisfaction levels by learning the following techniques: