Developed by Toyota in the late 1940s, the Kanban system originally aimed to improve manufacturing efficiency. Taking its name from the card system that tracks production in a factory, it has since been refined and customised by many different manufacturers. Now, this system is used in project management, featuring in the PRINCE2 Agile guidance.

While project management takes a project from its starting point to its end, strategic project management looks at the big picture.

PRINCE2 is a proven and effective project management tool, used in all kinds of projects. That includes sporting events much like the highly anticipated Women’s World Cup. The 2019 tournament started in France on 7 June and is scheduled to conclude at the start of July. Every four years since 1991, the FIFA’s Women’s World Cup, like most international sporting tournaments, is a feat of project management. What lessons can be learnt from project managing this tournament played out on the global stage?

When planning a project timeline, no matter how large or complicated the project is, there are five distinctive phases any project manager should follow, no matter the methodology used. Each stage provides a clear and visible outline of the project at any time during the process.

In project management, dependencies are defined as tasks that require the completion of a previous task before they can be actioned, i.e. they “depend” on the previous activity. Every project has dependencies, often there are several sequences to a task which are dependent on one another. The scope of a project requires these tasks to be completed in order. 

Being a project manager can be highly rewarding, with the opportunity to work in different business sectors, such as IT, construction, engineering and retail.  There is plenty of job variation, interaction with people, working with new technologies, improving your skills and opportunities to train and further your career. We’ve highlighted below a project manager career path that can be followed, along with some useful tips to help you progress.

How many of us have watched The Apprentice and cringed at the way the project manager runs their team? At a guess, I’d say hundreds, and I bet most of them have said, “I can do better than that!” Well, of course, that may be possible, but then again, it may not. Even if you have a project management qualification, there’s no guarantee you can successfully run a project.

In business, two heads are generally better than one. Although you often need to have a single person in charge of a project for it to run smoothly, multiple people or teams collaborating on the task can help a business achieve results fast.

Ask any company owner what their most valuable quality is, and many of them will say it’s their ability to lead. Being able to inspire members of staff can help you to get the best out of your team, push employees that little bit further and drive your company on to real success.

Den gewöhnlichen Leser mag es vielleicht schon gar nicht mehr interessieren: Im Oktober 2019 wird er fertiggestellt sein, der Berliner Flughafen BER. Wirklich? Nun, eigentlich wird der Flugbetrieb erst ein Jahr später im Oktober 2020 aufgenommen, so der Bericht des Berliner Tagesspiegels [1] zum Stand des leidigen Projekts. Das Blatt selbst meldet dazu leise Zweifel an. Die Indizien: Der Termin für Oktober 2020 wurde im Dezember 2017 festgeschrieben. Seither seien zwar gute Fortschritte bei den zwei Problemfeldern Kabel und Brandschutz gemacht worden, allerdings ist die Frist für die letzten, komplexen Tests der sicherheitstechnischen Anlagen wie Entrauchung und Sicherheitsstromversorgung von drei auf zwei Monate gekürzt worden. Insgesamt sei die Flughafengesellschaft bereits wieder um ein drei Viertel Jahr im Rückstand.