Leadership

By definition, a project environment is full of change. It’s what we do. But change can feel unsettling for the people going through it, including the project team. Strong leadership skills help guide, motivate and provide direction for project stakeholders.

‘Leadership’ is multi-faceted and includes knowledge of leadership theory, skills such as influencing, negotiating and coaching and behaviors like acting ethically. There’s a lot that goes into effective project leadership.

Ready to dive in? We’ve got a wide selection of relevant podcasts on essential leadership skills for project managers to help you develop and grow your career.

Listen now to this featured Podcast on project leadership.

Leadership in project management is an essential skill for steering the project to a successful completion. Like leadership in other areas of business, leadership in a project context requires you to demonstrate a range of competencies and behaviors. From directing the team to project governance, leadership is fundamental to ensuring your projects deliver a great result.

Project management and leadership go hand-in-hand. As the project lead, you both manage the project and lead the team. A crucial part of leadership is setting the vision and inspiring the team to work together to achieve it - you can see how important that is in a project context.

Delivering any project is a team effort, and while there are teams that operate without a clear leader, in business it’s most common for someone to be in the leadership role, guiding and directing the team towards their goals. If that someone is you, read on! We’ll be discussing what makes a great leader and how you can develop project management leadership skills.

Project leadership is the art and science of steering a team towards the successful delivery of a project. It ensures that together, the team accomplishes more than they could as individuals because project leadership brings people together to achieve a common goal. And hopefully, have fun working together at the same time!

Here's the PMI definition of project leadership:

Do you need a formal leadership position to be a leader on a project? You might ask that question if you are thinking about the leadership responsibilities of a project director vs project manager.

The truth is that you can lead at all levels. The project director will lead the effort at an executive level, driving senior support and engaging with peers across the organization. They will also set the project's vision. The project manager leads the team on a day-to-day basis, to deliver the vision. Other people on the team can demonstrate project leadership skills, even if they aren't in a formal leadership position as well.

A lot has been written about the difference between leadership and management, and the main thing to be aware of is that management is about tasks while leadership is about people. Your project management skills will help you manage the work and your leadership skills will help you lead the team.

As a project manager, you are leading and managing – often at the same time. You are responsible for managing and controlling the work and the project process, but also for motivating and directing the team.

While you need to be both a project manager and a project leader, it helps to understand the differences between those two roles. You can see the main differences between project leader vs project manager highlighted below.

A project lead is someone who is responsible for part of the project.

The project lead responsibilities include:

For example, you may have a project lead for testing who oversees all the system and user testing required for the project.

The main difference between project lead vs project manager is that the lead is responsible for a single strand of the project. The project manager has responsibility for the whole project.

However, there is no standard set of project management job titles and your organization may use the term project lead to mean something else, perhaps the most senior executive responsible for multiple projects.

Communication skills is one of the core project management competencies. Being able to communicate is very important for leaders because so much of what project leaders have to do involves working with others. You can’t collaborate effectively if you can’t communicate.

Leaders can speak to individuals and groups, in person and over the phone or web conferencing, and convey ideas. They can also put those ideas into writing to ensure the message is shared and understood.

Communication isn't simply about sharing your messages and talking to others. As Jarrett Jackson writes in Forbes, knowing how to listen is just as important.

Communication really is one of the top qualities of a project manager, especially in a leadership role.

The leader sets the vision. They inspire the people around them. Someone with excellent project leadership skills builds agreement and cohesion through the team, as well as being able to do day-to-day team management.

Team leadership on projects involves creating an environment for everyone to excel. The project culture that surrounds them is one that people are drawn to. Stakeholders want to be involved on the project because they know you will ensure the work gets done and at the same time create an environment that’s pleasant to work in.

Conflict is inevitable in situations where you are introducing something new or changing something. Effective leaders know how to harness conflict for good, as the best solutions arise when ideas are challenged.

Conflict can be positive for teams because it allows all voices to be heard and differing views to be put forward – often that results in a better solution and more effective project outcomes. However, leaders need to be armed with conflict resolution strategies to ensure they can identify and tackle conflict proactively before it escalates into an issue for the team. Check out the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument for practical resources on approach conflict. Another of the essential project manager core competencies is to have a range of strategies for addressing conflict.

Leaders motivate others to take actions, even when they aren’t officially in charge. As a project leader, you work out what makes the other people on the team feel like they are making their best contribution and you’ll do your best to give that to them.

Everyone is motivated by different things, and an individual’s motivation can change over time. Great leaders recognize those differences and empower people to do their best by creating a positive working culture.

Part of creating a positive working culture is empowering the team and the wider stakeholder community to get involved in crafting solutions. That means removing roadblocks so each team member can complete their tasks and input creative ideas without having to worry that something is in the way.

Empowering leaders also push decisions down the hierarchy to the lowest possible level, letting experts make the choices about the solutions needed to keep the project moving forward.

Leadership is one of the sides of the PMI Talent Triangle®, along with technical project management and strategic and business management skills. Recently, the profession has started to add digital skills into the mix for project leaders because they are so important to being able to deliver projects in our increasingly complex and digital environments.

Does that sound like a lot of project manager core competencies? You'd be right. The list of project manager skills and competencies you need to excel in the role is vast, and ranges from technical competencies like project risk management and scheduling through to the leadership skills we discussed above.

Being a good project leader often means blending a range of different skills, techniques, behaviors and competencies in the right proportions, at the right time. It's truly part art, part science!

There is no single way of approaching leadership, or a single kind of person who makes a great leader. Project leadership theory tells us that it’s a combination of characteristics and the ability to adapt to different situations, that makes a great leader.

Leadership is something that you can learn to do, and you can improve your skills by building your understanding of leadership theories in management. The three core leadership theory families that translate to the world of project delivery are:

Trait theories

Trait theories relate to project manager strengths. This way of looking at leadership defines the qualities and characteristics that are helpful when leading a team. For example, resilience, integrity, trustworthiness, assertiveness and so on.

There was a school of thought that said these qualities were innate and that you were either born with them or you weren’t. That idea is no longer part of leadership concepts and theories, fortunately. We know that an individual can take steps to become more assertive or resilient, or to develop any other type of characteristic useful in a leadership setting.

Behavioral theories

Behavioral leadership theories focus on what a leader does. Some leaders are autocratic, making decisions without input from their team. Others are collaborative, encouraging input and empowering their teams.

There is nothing wrong with either approach, or any approach in between. There is a time and a place for all styles: you wouldn’t expect a battlefield leader to call a huddle so the team could chat about options, would you? In that situation, a decision needs to be made quickly. However, that autocratic approach wouldn’t work when meeting with a residents’ group about building a new airport close to their homes. A collaborative, listening leadership style would engage the community more effectively.

Situational theories

Situational leadership is a way of determining what leadership style to use in any given situation. These approaches to leadership are also called contingency theories.

They consider whether taking a task-based or people-based approach is most effective. They also consider the people you are leading. What kind of support and encouragement do they need? A leader adapts his or her leadership style not only to the business context and project situation but also to the needs of the team. Someone who has never done a particular task before will need more hands-on support from their team leader than someone who is confident performing that task.

Leadership was cited in a study on what causes project failure as one of the top reasons why projects don't meet their goals. Projects with strong leadership and executive support are more successful than those without. Here are three top benefits of good project leadership.

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Think about the leaders in your workplace, or previous workplaces. Whose leadership inspires you? Each leader applies their skills and knowledge in a slightly different way to get the best out of the environment and the people they work with.

Leadership in project management helps shape the way the work evolves, ensuring that the team moves towards the objective at a steady pace. They make work fun and they motivate everyone to want to do their best.

Without good leadership, the project team will struggle to find the best route forward, and they might not even know where they are going. Leadership is essential to make sure the team is focused on the right things at the right time, and that the goals for the business and the project are met in an effective way.

Leadership is both an art and a science. If there was a foolproof 'how to' guide to leadership, we probably wouldn't see such high project failure rates across all kinds of businesses! However, there are five steps you can take to improve your leadership skills:

Do you want more information on how to make those things work for you? Thought so! Here's our 5-step guide to how to be a good project leader.

Being a good leader means not making it about you. You only have a leadership role because people are prepared to follow you.

There are lots of different ways to lead, and we saw some common approaches and leadership theories above. What's important is that you know which styles work for your team and when to use them.

On a project you'll need to use a range of styles to suit the situation and who you are talking to. For example, you'd want to be more directive with a new member of the team who hasn't previously done the type of task you are now asking her to do. If you were delegating work to an experienced colleague, you would use a different style again.

There are plenty of leadership approaches to choose from so do your research and find out what works best for you and your project team. And remember, just because it worked on your last project doesn't mean it's the right approach for this project!

So much of being a good leader is about being able to communicate, and not in a directive, "I'll just send an email" way. Learn how to facilitate conversations between team members and you'll see collaboration and communication rates dramatically improve across the team.

Project teams are made up of individuals. They are professionals working often in their own field and loaned the project for a specific reason. Great leaders know how to connect with individuals at all different management levels across the organization.

The connections you make on this project will also help you in the future. Approach each project as an opportunity to build relationships and strengthen your internal network. You never know when you might need to work with members of this team again.

Nobody likes to be micromanaged, so great leaders know how to get out of the way.

Your role as a leader is not to be into the details but to remove roadblocks and protect the team from distracting office politics. Get out of their way so you can focus on the leadership and project management tasks that you know will add value to the project, like building relationships with other stakeholders.

As we've seen, one of the keys to project management is being a good project leader. You can do that at any level in the organization, whether you have a formal leadership role or not. In the role of project manager, you can lead your team towards delivering change to meet the organization’s objectives.

A good project leader is someone who demonstrates the skills we covered above, and you can do that in many different ways. There are a number of different leadership styles, all of which are valid. Good leaders choose the most appropriate skills and style to suit the needs of the team, the organization and the project in the moment. They lead by example. They show respect for their colleagues while creating a vision of the future we all want to be part of.

The best advice for becoming a project leader is to look at people you admire in leadership roles and work out what they are doing that inspires you so much. It’s not a good idea to try to directly copy what other leaders do. Instead, try to pinpoint the behavior they show and bring that into your own working style.

Leadership is something you can improve with time, study and focus. The featured podcasts on this page will give you a range of fantastic examples of what leadership is and what it should be. Why not use those as a starting point for your own journey into becoming a fantastic project leader?

You might think of leaders as the person with the most power on the project, but project managers often don’t fit into that category. You can still find an appropriate leadership style, and flex the power you do have to support your time, communicate effectively, look forward, guide and influence stakeholders to create project deliverables that have a positive impact on the organization. Where are you going to start?

Project Management

Whether you are organizing a training session for your colleagues or planning to construct a huge engineering plan, project management will help you achieve what you need to do.

Project management is the way we apply knowledge and processes to work in order to complete that work in the smoothest way possible. Ultimately, we are using tools, methods, skills, techniques and the experience of the team to achieve the objectives set for the work.

Projects have a clear goal, which means we can plan how to get there and work through a structured plan to ensure that the goals are achieved.

Listen now to this featured podcast about project management techniques.

So where did the profession start? Many of the project and program approaches in use today evolved from informal practices: after all, people have always needed to get things done, even if they didn’t call them projects or have the job title of project manager.

Over time, successive innovations in the realm of project and program management have led to how we manage strategic change today.

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The importance of project management is clear. Here are some of the reasons why project management is necessary.

There are 5 project management process groups. These are:

You may also hear these referred to as the 5 stages of project management. Every team guides their work through these project management steps, although the actual tasks involved may look a little different depending on the methodologies used. Below we review each of these process groups in more detail so you can see how they fit together to create a framework for delivering results.

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Planning

Executing

Monitoring / Controlling

Closing

There are many project management methodologies, frameworks and approaches that can be used to allow a multidisciplinary team to come together for a finite period of time to work on a shared objective.

Below are some common project management methods.

Managing a project starts long before anyone starts doing any ‘real’ work. There is a lot of planning, discussion, debate and effort that goes into eliciting requirements and making sure the project team can deliver the organization’s vision.

Projects are different from the day-to-day operations of your business because they deliver something unique and with a finite end. Even if the deliverable created by the change goes on to be used for many years, the project administration to deliver it stops once the deliverable is created.

Change initiatives therefore need a different management approach to business-as-usual work.

All methodologies share similar concepts and objectives of project management. Someone decides to do something, an individual or team works out how that work should be done, then the work is done and the effort stops. The exact tools, techniques and project management life cycle phases differ depending on the methodology in use. Choose the approach that best suits the way your team works and the culture of your organization.

Below we discuss the 4 core project management approaches in more detail. Which of these is most suitable for your next project?

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Project managers are people who lead projects. They are experienced in their industry and hold a range of internationally-recognized project management certifications including the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® or Project Management Professional (PMP)®. They work across every industry and vertical, supporting the delivery of organizational strategy by leading the work to make it happen.

You may also hear the team 'project leader'. As the profession matures and more companies adopt structured approaches, we are hearing that description more often. In fact, it fits better with the job role for someone who leads change. Whether you are constructing a huge oil and gas plant, improving an internal process or launching a new digital app, leadership is an essential part of making sure project work is completed effectively.

So what does it look like to be successful at leading project work? Here are the steps needed to deliver a great result every time.

It looks simple, doesn't it? Just a list of ten short tasks! However, when you start work you'll realize that everything needs to come together in harmony to ensure activities happen as expected, in the right order and with the least amount of friction. That's the skill in project management: making sure the work happens smoothly, despite the inevitable changes and challenges along the way.

Let's look now at those ten steps in more detail so you can see what's involved.

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There is always something you can do better, and organizations constantly strive to improve project management maturity. You can maintain good project management by developing a learning culture. Look at the process for lessons learned or retrospectives and actively implement what comes out of those discussions.

What processes can you improve? How can you adapt your methodology to be even more effective? The answers to these questions will help improve project management performance and give you and your team every chance of success.

What are you going to learn today with our range of podcast interviews?

Leading projects is a hugely rewarding job, with plenty of job prospects and a positive outlook for the future. As project professionals, we have the opportunity to use best practice tools and techniques to shape our environments and make a real impact through our work.

Project management is the way organizations deliver their strategic plans, big and small. It is a growing and vibrant business area, with plenty to learn and a wide variety of areas where you can specialize if you want to. We'd love to part of your journey!

Project Plan

Every project needs a plan! But where do you start? How do you know what to include and what is important to think about before the project work begins? And what are the likely challenges you’ll see when putting together a structured project plan?

On this page you'll find the answers to those questions and more! This is your one-stop guide to project planning.

We also have a range of expert podcast interviews with practitioners and thought leaders who can help you think strategically about what project planning means for your project.

Listen now to this featured podcast on project plans.

In this featured podcast you learn why every project leader needs a plan, drawing on tips and lessons from Ron Black's book: Leadership - The Everyday Superhero's Action Guide to Plan and Deliver High-Stakes Projects. If you don't feel like a superhero right now, you will after listening to this episode!

In our discussion, Ron and Cornelius focus on introducing you to his "Super Power Points". These are poignant one-liners (i.e. "To finish faster, start a little slower") that he offers at the end of each chapter to summarize the message. We review each of the 15 points from the opening chapters and Ron gives us his insights and recommendations that show why even the best project leader needs a project plan. You'll pick up some great insights to support your planning process. Enjoy.

The project plan is a document that lays out everything the team needs to know about how the project will be managed. It’s normally made up of several sub-plans that cover quality, stakeholder engagement, team management, communication, risk, quality and cost management, and you might include other elements if your project environment calls for them. Essentially, include in your project management plan everything you need to document how the project will be managed and controlled going forward. A project overview template will help because it covers all the processes the team needs to follow so that everyone understands the steps to take.

Your project plan is a critical document. It sets out how you will execute the project and the processes and practices for running the project. It's basically your guidebook for doing the project management on this project, laying out how you as the project leader, and the team, will approach completing the work.

It is more than your list of tasks and dates – that list is what project managers normally refer to as a project schedule. The schedule is an important part of the plan, but it’s not the only part. The team decides which project methodology you will use, who needs to be involved and how you will handle things that might or do go wrong -- all that information goes into the plan.

Project planning is important because:

Planning is the process of working out how you are going to deliver the project with the team. Therefore it's really important to clarify exactly what you are supposed to be delivering. Planning conversations help confirm and clarify the project's objectives so everyone knows what they are supposed to be doing.

With your objectives clear, another reason why planning is important is because you get to have a conversation about what's in scope. And, conversely, what is out of scope. You'll use the scope management process to define exactly what the project is going to deliver and what hasn't made the cut.

Meeting as a team and having these preliminary conversations about how you will approach the work is also important for another reason: it makes sure everyone is clear on how the work will be managed. You are setting expectations about who is doing what, and how, right from the beginning. This can help reduce conflict later on and means the team share common expectations.

With around 11% of investment wasted due to poor project performance, it's important to consider what you can do to plan for success.

What is the most important part of the plan? It's that you have a clear objective about what is going to be done. It’s crucial that everyone has the same understanding about what is to be delivered, so the team can work together with a common goal.

There are many other needs for project planning including:

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The project planning phase happens at the start of the project. Preparing your project plan document is something you’ll do as the project gets started. You'll normally work with input from the project sponsor and the rest of the project team. You’ll need their support and agreement for many of the components of the plan, for example, who is going to do the work and how much it will cost.

Every project needs a plan, and the good news is that every other project in your organization should have had one. So you don't need to start from scratch. Find an example of a project work plan from a past project and use that to get started.

The project manager’s role is to produce the project plan, even though you will not personally have all the information required to populate it. You’ll need to work with your project team, facilitating meetings and collaborating on the final document until you’ve got something you can work from.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to the project planning process.

Define the objectives

Assemble the team

Document your project scope

Create the schedule

Plan stakeholder management

Agree your processes

Be prepared to be flexible!

Even if you don't have a plan from an old project to start from, you can still speed up the process by using a document template. Templates include all the relevant headings and topics that should go in the plan. Many templates even have sample text in them so you can see an example of a simple project plan to give you ideas about how to document your own work.

We have collated our recommended project plan templates and we even did a podcast episode about them! In the video podcast, you can see the sites we recommend and take a peek inside a couple of template examples. Watch the episode about project plan templates.

You can create plans in any kind of software. If your company doesn't have a standard for what to use, look for a template that will help with how to create a project plan in Excel or Word.

Here’s a quick-start project management plan checklist so you can make sure all the important elements are captured in your plan.

Planning is a collaborative effort to ensure the project runs smoothly. A great plan will start your project off in the right direction!

A good project plan saves you a lot of time because it removes uncertainty and provides a structure to follow for the whole project life cycle. It also removes a lot of the debate and discussion about whether the project has met quality criteria or how something should be done – because you’ve already documented and agreed what needs to happen.

Project planning can take time, but it’s time well spent. You are ultimately helping the team be more successful by setting them up for success. Strong planning results in a stronger outcome and fewer headaches along the way.

Risk Management

A risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives. Managing those events is what project risk management is all about. Sometimes, you want to avoid a threat happening; sometimes it’s worth encouraging it.

If that sounds strange – why would we want to encourage something risky to happen? – then let’s look again at what risk really is.

Risk can be thought of as ‘uncertainty that matters’. Risks that matter include those with positive effects as well as those with negative effects (which you’ll see referred to as opportunities and threats). They can also affect any project objective, not just time or cost.

We have many podcasts to help you build your project management skills, and risk management strategies are definitely a topic worth learning more about! In this article we’ll look at the types of risk management, techniques you can use, the 5 ways to manage risk and lots of tips for handling this complex knowledge area on your own projects.

Listen now to this featured podcast on managing project risk.

Risk management on projects is important because it decreases the probability and impact of risk, making it more likely that the project will be successful. It helps us predict and manage what might happen in the future and make the best of that situation.

When most people talk about risk on a project, they are thinking about the things that might go wrong. There’s always something that could happen which would have a negative effect on the project’s performance. Maybe it would delay the project, or increase the cost. Generally, people think about risk in terms of things that would affect the project schedule and budget, but risk can impact any of the project’s objectives.

However, the other reason why managing project risk is important is because some risks are positive: we want to take the risk because if it pays off, there is a benefit to the project.

It’s important to think broadly and deeply about what kind of threat or opportunity could affect the project, so you can make adequate plans to manage the impact appropriately. And risk isn’t only limited to the project’s objectives. You will also see risk in your project as a result of variability, ambiguity and emergence. Risk leadership is a huge area!

One exercise you can do to help the team come up with potential problems is to think about how certain things could affect the project. Create with a list of categories (or use a prompt sheet from the PMO if you have one) and see what you can think of that would cause your project a problem from those categories. The categories could be anything: the names of departments, the workstream on the project they impact, for example. One of the ways we like to categorize our registers is by type. The three categories are:

Let project team members know that they can come to you at any time if they have identified a project risk. They should be able to raise concerns and add their newly-identified opportunities and threats to the register at any point during the project.

Project risk identification typically happens at the start of the project, but it is not a one-off exercise. Risk identification should also happen throughout the project as the work evolves and people get a clearer idea about what could potentially impact the work. Let's look at what is involved.

Now you have your risk register populated with the potential problems and opportunities that you have identified. You are ready to prepare actions plans for each of them. Here are the risk management steps to work through with your team.

There are several different options for risk management on projects, and the appropriate action depends on many factors. The risk management process below covers what you should consider at each point.

Use the context of the project to inform your actions. Scrum helps manage risk: if you use that approach to completing projects, you will already be managing your exposure because of the rules you apply to doing work.

Whether you work in a predictive or agile environment, consider the risk appetite of the project sponsor and what else is going on in the organization. It might not be an appropriate time to be taking chances with a project, even if the impact seems to be relatively small. That’s why project risk management should integrate into the risk management frameworks and governance approach that exist in the organization overall.

Analyze the Risk

Evaluate the Risk

Decide on Risk Management Strategy

Monitor and Review

Risk management in business is a detailed subject, and we’ve only touched on it here. Why not pick a couple of podcasts with our risk management expert interview guests and listen to them discuss the theory and practice of risk on projects in more detail?

Whether you are new to project risk management, or whether you can fluently use terms like ‘stochastic’ and ‘aleatoric’ in your conversations with stakeholders, there is always more to find out about the emerging professional discipline of project risk management.

We’ve had the pleasure of speaking to some of the world’s foremost experts in project risk management, and sharing their wisdom and knowledge with you in our range of free and premium expert interviews. Enjoy the episodes!

Scrum Project Management

Scrum project management might sound like a strange term, as there is no formal definition of the role of a project manager in Agile approaches. However, Scrum is often thought of as a way to deliver projects in an agile environment. Being able to effectively manage product development work using Scrum is a growing skill area for people in a variety of roles.

As organizations grow, they sometimes adopt a ‘Scrum of Scrums’ model which needs some oversight and coordination, however that is achieved in the business. There are lots of different ways to succeed in a Scrum environment, whether you have a formal project management role or not. For example, lean scrum project management is one of the possible ‘flavors’ of this agile approach that you may come across in your career.

In this Scrum project management guide, we’ll cover what you need to know about the Scrum project management framework. The selection of curated podcast episodes below provides an introduction to the world of Agile Scrum project management and the skills you need to successfully lead Agile teams regardless of your job title.

Listen now to this featured podcast about Scrum project management and other agile methods.

The Agile Alliance goes on to explain that Scrum is highly empirical. In other words, it enables teams to try new things, learn from that experience and adapt what they do to constantly evolve the product for the best result.

People sometimes ask: "What does Scrum stand for?" The answer is: nothing! Scrum is not an acronym. The name comes from the game of rugby where the team works as one to win, with multiple hand-offs between players.

So how did Scrum come about?

In terms of the history of project management, Scrum is only a baby, although it has roots in productivity and continuous learning -- concepts that have been around for a long time. Here's a brief timeline of how this agile way of working has evolved into what we recognize today.

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A common question is: ‘Is Scrum a project management methodology’ and the answer is: No. You can deliver projects using Scrum but it’s a framework, not a methodology.

Technically, there is no role for the project manager in a Scrum team. The work of the project manager is split between the members of the Scrum team. The responsibilities you would normally expect to be done by a project manager are, in the main, shared between the Product Owner and the Scrum Master. (By the end of this article you will understand what those roles mean and the part the individuals play on the project.)

However, as Scrum is a way to get work done using Agile principles, it is used for project management. Every sprint is a step on the journey to completing the end product. If you have a clear goal in mind, you can use sprints to get there. You’ve delivered your project by using an agile framework and iterative development instead of a predictive approach.

There are lots of Scrum project management benefits. Here are some of the most common that we see across the majority of teams adopting a Scrum project management process.

In a Scrum project management environment, there are several events (also known as meetings or ceremonies) that help keep the team focused and making progress. These include:

The Scrum approach to project management gives the team complete flexibility to adapt the processes to what works best for them. You might find that working as a Scrum project manager looks and feels different in different teams. With a focus on quality, it’s important that the method is adjusted to get the best results for that team, at that time, on that project.

A Scrum checklist can be useful to help you get started with making sure you are following the basic principles of the framework. Here is a simple checklist that covers the high-level goals of Scrum so you can review whether you are meeting the needs of the organization and following the process.

If you need a more detailed Scrum checklist, we recommend Henrik Kniberg’s checklist. It is comprehensive and commonly used, but there are others you can find online as well, so look around for something that suits your team.

You can use a Scrum Checklist during the retrospective to review the work of the team and ensure you are hitting the main important aspects of the framework and focusing on the things that matter.

However, checklists should only be used as a guide. They are a way of learning from other teams and sharing good practice, but always remember to apply your own situation to any checklist and take from it what might be useful to your own environment.

Step 1: Compile the Product Backlog

Step 2: Hold a Planning Meeting

Step 3: Compile the Sprint Backlog

As we've seen, Scrum is a framework. Instead of having to follow a process or series of steps because that is what the project schedule mandates, you can flex to meet the most pressing priorities. This might mean bringing forward requirements that are urgent, building quality into the delivery and making sure progress is being taken in the direction the stakeholders expect. All these things can be achieved with low levels of friction and conflict because the approach allows for flexibility.

As a team, you can quickly inspect the output to ensure it meets quality criteria, and make changes if you feel the product is falling short. You get fast feedback on product features, and customers are closely involved in the work so you know you are delivering something that they will benefit from.

Get started with Scrum project management by bringing the team together and adopting Scrum approaches to doing the work. You don't need any special tools to get going because much of the change in working in an agile way is a shift in culture and mindset.

With the support of a Scrum Master, and a focus on project delivery, you can adopt this tried-and-tested way of working. Check out the podcasts and resources on this page as a starting point, or to delve into advanced agile topics.

Scrum project management is a reliable and exciting way to work. You’ll see constant deliveries and benefit from the visual approach to managing projects that Scrum teams use: whiteboards and sticky notes (physical or digital) will soon become the way you share status and manage progress!

The great thing about a Scrum project team is that all the information required to do the work is easily available. There’s transparency across the team, and because delivery is a collaborative effort, everyone knows what is going on. That makes it easy for the team to adapt to the current situation, whatever that might be.

Scrum is one of several Agile methodologies that help you work closely with the customer to make rapid improvements. You’ll know your Scrum projects are having a real business impact because you’ll see the proof in the results and in stakeholder satisfaction.

Scope Management

Ready to start working on your project? Hold on… first we need to define the project scope. The scope of the project is all the work required to achieve the deliverables. Project leaders plan scope management during project initiation so everyone is clear on what needs to be done.

Managing scope also includes managing the inevitable changes while still balancing the need to complete the work on time and on budget.

Common tools for scoping projects include the work breakdown structure, change control procedure and the scope statement. We have a range of expert interviews covering all kinds of project scoping topics, so you’ll be sure to find something here to expand your knowledge and learn some practical tips!

Listen now to this featured podcast on Scope Management.

In this featured podcast you learn about how project scope management will make or break your project.

Disruptive business models, technological progress and intense competition force your customers to continuously innovate. Clients naturally demand that you deliver high-quality projects involving complex, ever-changing scope at tight budgets and within compressed timelines. Is this challenging? Absolutely! Innovative, effective scope management is a must for project success. Listen in as we discuss the successful project scoping techniques from around the world.

Learn how ineffective requirements gathering, poor scope definition, gold plating, and uncontrolled creep inevitably lead to project failure. And to counteract this, we analyze, adapt, and apply seven proven techniques to increase the probability of project success.

Planning

Controlling

Closing

Product scope defines what the customer wants from the product. Project scope refers to the boundary for the project work.

Product scope could be a wide-ranging selection of improvements that could take many years to deliver and are probably part of a product roadmap.

An example of product scope would be: “A new product to sell digital services to existing and new clients via online consultations.” This scope is managed by a product manager who will guide the product's development direction as well as taking into account business strategy.

The project scope includes all the work required to deliver the new product. The scope of a project in this example would be: hiring a graphic designer to create a website for the new product, building the website, training staff on the new internal processes, providing supporting marketing materials to promote the website, setting up payment processors, creating a process and email sequence to support customers who have purchased, creating help documents for customers and so on. They are all examples of what needs to happen to deliver the new product.

In other words, your project scope statement defines what work is required to deliver the product scope.

Scope management is essential for project managers because it is the process that helps you control what work is to be done. It's important because staying in control of scope helps you save time later. When everyone understands what the project is doing, you avoid miscommunication and that helps prevent unnecessary change requests and conflict later on.

Even when you invest time and energy into confirming the scope, you'll still find that it changes as the project progresses, and that’s to be expected. As you learn more about what it is you are delivering, stakeholders and the project sponsor may update or change their ideas about what they want. A robust approach to managing scope helps make sure everyone's views are heard early enough for their ideas to make it into the scope document, so you can focus on the significant change requests.

The scope management process lets you adapt to those changes in a controlled way so you always have a clear view of what the project is delivering.

1. Understand the goal

2. Clarify what’s included

3. Clarify what’s excluded

4. Document scope

5. Prepare for changes

All that sounds easy enough, at least in theory! However, in practice, managing scope is a challenging exercise. Often, high-level project goals are not clearly defined. Customers and key stakeholders don’t have the time to participate in requirements elicitation or show up for scope meetings. They simply want the work to start. Many stakeholders expect to be able to influence the development of the project as the work unfolds, but sometimes it’s too late to make changes at that point, or changes are very expensive. There’s also rework to consider and the waste of the team’s time for redoing tasks that could have been done right the first time.

Customers themselves can sometimes struggle with the process too, even if they are prepared to make time for it. You ask them what is important and they say everything is important! They find it difficult to prioritize requirements. They might be very clear on design or look and feel, but find it harder to talk conclusively about functionality and what they want the thing to do.

You may also receive a challenge from subject matter experts who don’t see the need to write scope down. If they know what they have to do, what’s the point in wasting time documenting it? The act of discussion and documentation provides clarity and helps validate and uncover assumptions.

Project scope management is an important contributing factor to project success, so it’s essential we meet the challenges head on. We can have difficult conversations with stakeholders and experts, and our projects will be better because of our focus on scope.

Once you’ve elicited requirements and have a good idea about what you stakeholders want, it’s time to document their needs. Prepare your scope management plan and scope statement.

You may have a separate document as your scope management plan, or it could be part of another document. It could be formal or informal, detailed or high-level, and needs to be tailored to your project, organizational culture and expectations.

The scope statement is a definition of what the project is going to deliver and also what it is not going to deliver. It is a list of things that are included in the project scope. Once you have a scope management plan, a good next step is to work towards getting a clear and concise statement of scope.

The scope statement is great for confirming that everyone has the same expectations about what the project will deliver. It’s not a full, extensive list of scope items, and it certainly doesn’t replace the work breakdown structure (which is different from the product breakdown structure). However it is a handy document to have to define the boundaries of the project work.

The scope statement forms part of the baseline for your project scope.

A work breakdown structure, or WBS, is a hierarchical decomposition of the deliverables required to complete the project. You can show the WBS as a tree diagram or a documented list. It should include all the component parts of the project.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is where you break up the work in manageable pieces. Any project, even a kindergarten finger painting activity, must be broken into manageable sequences in order not to descend into chaos. We call those sequences work packages. Refer to the Project Scope Statement to create your WBS. By attacking the project through work packages, everyone stays organized and the workload is manageable.

However you document your project scope, your goal should always be to reduce ambiguity as much as possible and to get the fullest picture possible. Then you can be sure that what your project delivers is going to meet the needs of stakeholders. Work together with the project team and key stakeholders to cover as much ground as you can, and consult widely to ensure all possible scope elements are included (or excluded).

If you want your project to succeed, you need to invest time in project scope management. The resources on this page will help you take the first steps in building your skills in this area, and if you are already confident with the basic, take a look at some of the episodes discussing advanced topics or search the website for those on interpersonal skills. So much of managing the scope of a project is talking to stakeholders, negotiating, and really listening to what they want. Then you can manage those expectations to what is achievable within the time and budget and deliver successfully.

Project Manager

Being a project manager is a fantastic job. It’s a career that will give you so many opportunities in so many different areas. But you have to deliver projects to build a reputation as someone who is successful in the role.

To do that, you need to understand the project manager skills, responsibilities and duties so you can apply them to your own work.

You’re here because you want to learn more about the role of a project manager and what it means to develop those skills to lead successful projects. The resources on this page will let you explore those ideas, guided by a range of expert interviewees who themselves have acted as senior project managers for many successful projects. What will you learn from them?

Let us help you learn more about the project manager function in an organization so you can build your career in the field. We’ll give you a description of what it means to be a project manager. You’ll take away practical tips and thought-provoking ideas for how to make your projects successful.

Listen now to this featured podcast on project management skills

You don't have to have the job title of 'project manager' to be doing project management in your role. Today, project management skills are in high demand. Research on the future of project management by KPMG shows that 35% of organizations have completed more than 50 projects in the past year. That's a lot of change happening in a lot of places!

All of those initiatives would have been led by a PM.

There has never been a better time to become a project manager. Project management skills have been in demand since the Pharaohs commissioned the pyramids and the demand shows no sign of slowing down.

Here is why we think the outlook for project managers is more positive than ever before.

88 million roles

The PMI Project Management Job Growth and Talent Gap 2017–2027 report states that employers will need nearly 88 million individuals in project management related roles.

7.9% of all employment

A study on the contribution of project management by APM showed that 7.9% of all UK employment is in project-related roles. We can expect this to be similar in other countries with equivalent economies.

A third of national GDP

The project management impact on the economy is one third of national GDP according to research by IPMA. That's only expected to grow!

As you can see, the demand is there. That's because more and more industries are becoming 'projectized' which means they structure their work and deliverables via projects.

Organizations are keen to improve project management maturity across their departments, building a stable and repeatable framework for delivering change. In this fast-paced, complex world, being able to adapt to market conditions and respond to disruption is key to staying in business.

That means project management is definitely a viable career choice. Whether you want to work in catering or construction, or any other industry, the people making changes and keeping pace with the evolving economy are project managers. Sometimes they might be behind the scenes, but they are definitely there... and you could be to.

As you can see, project managers work across all industries and professions. The importance of project management skills remains the same, regardless of the discipline. While it might be difficult for a digital project manager to suddenly pick up managing a large oil and gas project, the core project management process groups and skills remain the same.

You can change industry, but many people choose one industry to make their project management career in so they can develop deep subject matter knowledge in that field.

As we've seen, project managers work across all industries and all sizes of companies, both commercial organizations and non-profits. Our podcast episodes include experts from a range of different organizations to show you the full extent of how project management is used.

Are you ready to take your next step in this exciting career? Here are some of the different types of project manager role you’ll see in job adverts.

As we saw in the project manager definition above, a project manager is someone who delivers change.

The job description for a project manager varies from company to company, role to role. You’ll see project manager jobs advertised at a relatively low salary, responsible for largely administrative projects, and other roles that require deep project management skills and industry knowledge, that command a much higher salary.

However, the core responsibilities for a project manager remain the same across roles and industries. A project manager is responsible for:

You’ll see these responsibilities on job descriptions. The level to which the role has responsibility for these tasks depends on the seniority of job in the organization and the type of project the role will be leading.

Below, you'll see those core responsibilities outlined in more detail by two career stages. Find out what a project manager does at the beginning of their career and also at the point where they have more professional experience.

As you can see, when you look at what exactly does a project manager do, the list is long!

In summary, project managers are people who know how to organize the work and other people in order to achieve a goal. They spend time looking at the big picture but also diving into the detail – and they know when to do each of those. The role of the project manager is quite special. You motivate a team, manage and control the work and provide leadership. But you rarely have people working directly for you on a project.

In today’s economy, project managers work in environments where there is much uncertainty and complexity, and when you are trying to get things done, that can be difficult! That’s why the project manager’s role is one that navigates office politics with ease. You’ll spend a lot of time engaging stakeholders and communicating, building trust throughout the team at all levels. In fact, some people say that communication is 80 per cent of the project manager’s role.

Whether you work in healthcare or heavy engineering, policy or procurement, catering or construction (or any other industry), there will be project managers in your field. You can work as a project manager in an employed capacity, or as a contractor. You can work via an agency or run your own independent consultancy. It’s a very flexible career and those who invest in their development find there are almost endless opportunities to make the job your own.

Project management is a diverse and exciting business area. You can put your skills to use in any industry, from architecture to zoology. There are lots of opportunities to specialize, either in a methodology, framework or project management approach, or in a particular type of project, such as oil and gas or hospitality.

Here are some of the top reasons we hear from students about why they want to choose a career in project management.

PMI regularly carries out a career survey that answers the question, “How much do project managers make?” The average project manager salary depends on where you are based in the world, how much experience you have, what certifications you hold and other factors like your industry.

The PMI Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey—Eleventh Edition (2020) shows that an experienced, certified project manager in the United States can earn around $124,000 per year including a bonus.

Your project management career is as unique as you are. You can become a project manager straight out of college, after graduating with a relevant degree. You can move into project management later in your career, after becoming a subject matter expert in your field and taking on more and more project work.

Here are some common project management career paths.

By now you can probably see why a project manager is important in an organization. Let's review the advantages: these are things you can use in an interview situation to explain why you are interested in the role and to show you understand what the role has to offer the organization.

A project manager:

Project manager skills are important for business because they help deliver change in the most effective and efficient way. It’s crucial that organizations can quickly respond to change in today’s project economy.

A project manager is the person who champions the change and leads the team to deliver the results the business wants to see. They add value to the organization by ensuring work is planned and structured efficiently. When someone takes the project manager role on the team, the team members can focus on doing their work in a supportive environment. They can spend their time on what they do best. They are using their technical and subject matter expertise to deliver great results while the PM coordinates and provides the framework for the work.

Leadership

Communication

Planning

Scheduling

Risk Management

Resilience

Teamwork

Calm & Assertive

Critical Thinking

Conflict Management

Project managers have access to a range of tools and techniques that help them plan, track and manage the work. Part of the skill of being a project manager is knowing what tool to use when, and how to adapt it to fit your environment. Projects all have unique characteristics, and what worked on your last project might not be appropriate this time round. That’s why tailoring is core project management skill, so you always apply the right techniques to the project you are currently working on.

By now you might be asking yourself, “How do I become a project manager?” There are 4 steps to consider.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

If you were wondering how to be a project manager, hopefully that has helped you think through the different stages of starting your career.

Our curated collection of podcasts on this page – and the other resources you’ll find in our archives – are also a great starting point for you, whether you are investigating if being a PM is the career for you, or if you want to build your skills to succeed at work. Which one will you listen to first?

The role of the project manager is a fulfilling career option, and there are many opportunities for you to take your career journey in the direction that most appeals. Through the range of expert interviews in our podcast archives, you can listen to the experience of professionals from around the world, in a whole host of different industries.

Many commentators say that demand for people with PM skills is growing. We agree there has never been a better time to build on your skills and advance your career. We’re here to support you in the journey!

Leadership Coaching

As a project leader, you’re guiding and directing a team towards the end goal for a project. You’re also trying to help them build their skills. What can help you do just that?

That’s right: leadership coaching.

If you’re reading this page, it’s probably because you are interested in what leadership coaching can do for you and your team. We have a range of expert interviews you can listen to through our free podcasts on the topics of leadership and coaching.

Let us help you learn more about this topic. You’ll take away tips and techniques to improve how you lead, and help you coach your own team to project and personal success.

Listen now to this featured podcast on leadership coaching.

In this featured podcast you learn about the various project coaching techniques available to you in a project role. We'll see how coaching can make you a better project leader.

It is the people working on our projects who get things done, so we want to unlock their potential. When we coach, we really help people to help themselves in overcoming an issue or in reaching a certain goal.

The tips you'll pick up will help you get better at motivation and coaching skills, leadership and working with your colleagues -- all essential skills for project managers today.

As Susanne Madsen says, "A coach is someone who does the opposite of command and control. They really listen and they help someone to find the answer for themselves. Coaching is a way of unleashing someone else's potential."

Leadership coaching can be defined as a process for helping leaders to achieve their goals in a tailored and structured way, with support from a coach.

Leadership coaching is a powerful way to uncover a path to success. It's personalized to the individual. The coach works alongside the leader as their champion and ally. The relationship is supportive.

The main characteristic of coaching leadership is that the coach doesn't provide the answers. There are no conversations that start, "Well, what I would do is..." Instead, the coach helps the leader reflect on different options for moving forward so the leader can identify the best route forward for themselves.

Leadership coaching in project management is a way to motivate and lead the team. A project coach will ask questions and listen, facilitating the process of searching for answers instead of telling people what to do. There hasn't been much research into using a coaching leadership style specifically in project management, but there are case studies about coaching in the project environment that show how effective it is.

Coaching is one of the six leadership styles. If you Google leadership styles, you’ll normally see it at the bottom of the list, as an overlooked leadership style, almost like an afterthought. But for us as project leaders, it should be at the top of the list! After all, it is the people working on our projects who get things done so we want to unlock their potential. Leadership coaching may just be the answer.

Coaching is non-directive. As a project manager, it might feel strange to work in a non-directive way, as you are used to providing direction to the team. It might also feel strange to receive coaching, as the interactions you have with the project sponsor and other senior leaders in the organization are often around decision making. In other words, you are receiving direction from them.

You can use a coaching leadership style as part of your daily interactions with the team. Here are some examples of when it is appropriate to do so.

For instance, if someone asks, “How do you want me to do this?” you could simply tell them what to do. However, if you take the position of a coaching leader, you would ask a question instead. Turn it around and say “What would you like to achieve?” or “What might happen if you do that?”

Leadership coaching can also be part of a structured development plan for project delivery professionals. As you grow in your career, you might have the option of working with a certified, professional coach as an opportunity made available to you by your management team.

There's a strong relationship between coaching and leadership. Leadership is something difficult to learn in a classroom setting. Working with a coach gives you the opportunity to build your leadership skills in a way that is tailored to your personal style and the organization's culture. Coaching and development go hand-in-hand. As a project leader you will coach and develop your team, and you'll also potentially be receiving coaching and development to excel in your role too.

The main objectives of using a coaching leadership style are:

Sounds great, doesn't it? Let's consider how those objectives apply to your project environment.

A coach is someone who does not work in a command and control manner. Their role is to listen and help an individual find the answers from within themselves. They ask the right questions to help you move forward in whichever direction is most appropriate for them.

A coaching leadership style is where you support and develop your team in a hands-on way. The leader takes an active interest in the team, helping them identify areas for personal and professional growth and then supporting them in achieving those developmental goals. There are different ways to go about this, so let's review those 5 different coaching styles in more detail.

Coach-style leadership is effective in a project management context because project leaders often don’t have full hierarchical authority over the individuals working in the team. You can use coaching styles of leadership without being someone’s line manager.

Here are some coaching leadership style examples:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

If you put time and effort into how to do leadership coaching, you’ll find the results are positive. Leadership coaching supports organizational performance by empowering individuals and teams to act in a professional and independent way.

One of the principles of leadership is that leading is about people. As a project leader, you can choose when to use coaching leadership style to get the best benefit. During a project, there will be times when you have to use a directive leadership style. At other times, taking a facilitative approach will be more effective.

Leadership coaching works because it helps an individual get clear on their priorities, uncover bias, establish how to get things done and build self-awareness.

Leadership coaching is important because it helps project team members stay motivated and develop their skills proactively. A facilitative leadership style helps individuals identify their own areas for performance improvement and encourages the team to work on their own initiative.

Project managers love to be problem solvers because it makes us feel wanted and also keeps the project moving forward. However, solving the problem for someone else doesn’t help them think for themselves or learn from the experience.

Independence

Listening

Coaching Principles

Coaching Skills for Leaders

Whether you are looking to improve your skills so you can provide leadership coaching to your team, or whether you want to secure the services of a coach so you can improve your own leadership, the podcasts in our archives will help you take the first steps in learning more about this topic. Which one will you listen to first?

Coaches take the time to look at the goals. They uncover the problem that needs to be solved, or the objective that needs to be achieved. When you can help someone understand what they are moving towards, it’s easier for them to see the next steps. Then the individual being coached can create an action plan to help them close the gap and achieve their goals.

We have some great interviews with expert coaches in a range of different fields, so dive in and you’ll soon learn more about the topic!

Emotional Intelligence

You’ve probably heard of the term emotional intelligence before. It’s a way of thinking about how we impact the people around us. As project managers and leaders, it’s very important to be conscious of the impact we are having so we make the right impression at the right time.

Emotional intelligence is also known as EI or emotional quotient (EQ). Think of it as your emotional IQ. These skills can also help with negotiating and conflict resolution: as you can see, developing your EQ can have a positive impact on being able to lead your project team!

In the podcast episodes below, you’ll learn about the interpersonal skills required to help your team deliver their best work, create a positive environment and a supportive project culture. You can influence the way your team feels and behaves, simply by tuning into your emotional awareness and making the right choices for the situation. Let our expert podcast guests show you how.

Listen now to this featured Podcast on Emotional Intelligence.

If you already have a project management certification, or are studying to earn one, then you’ve probably come across the term ‘interpersonal skills.’ Leadership, team building, motivation, negotiation or trust building are some of the terms you’ll find under that umbrella. But there is another dimension to those soft skills that you need as a project leader.

And that is emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is the term given to the way we can monitor our own emotions and the emotions of others. From there, we use the clues and information we pick up to guide our actions so that they can be as effective as possible. In other words, EI is being able to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and others.

Self-awareness

Self-regulation

Motivation

Empathy

Social skills

As a project manager, you can see why emotional intelligence in leadership is important. Whether you are leading multi-million dollar projects or small initiatives for your department, you’ll be working with others, building interest in the project, asking people to do tasks and then following up with them. Using your interpersonal skills can make those activities more effective and less stressful for everyone.

EQ means picking up on the clues people give out. Is someone on the team desperate to get more involved in the project and learn from you? Is someone struggling with something at work (or even outside of work)? The more alert you are to the challenges facing your team, the more you can tailor your leadership style to fit their needs.

Ultimately, emotional intelligence and leadership is all about creating a positive working environment where you, as the project lead, can remove roadblocks and help the people on the team deliver the project successfully.

Aspects of emotional and social awareness include strong connected leadership, the ability to handle problems gracefully and being able to create and support effective teams using principles from the world of social and emotional intelligence translated into project management tools and techniques.

You can improve your emotional intelligence. Here are 5 steps you can take to build your skills.

Developing emotional intelligence simply means paying attention and building self-awareness. Take the time to be conscious of the way your actions affect others. If someone is having a bad day, you asking them for a project status update in the next 30 minutes could make it even more unpleasant for them. Instead, if you plan out when you need status updates and provide adequate notice, they can manage your requests without feeling over-burdened.

You already have a level of EQ, but how much do you listen to it and try to improve your skills in this area? The podcasts on this page are a curated collection of interviews with experts in the field. They have some amazing insights and practical tips to share with you. Why not add these episodes to your podcast queue now?

Emotional intelligence can’t be ignored in project management. As so much of the work you do is with teams, it’s so important to know how to get the best out of your working relationships with others.

The good news is that it’s easy to start improving your EI skills. The more you are aware of what you are doing and how other people are reacting to your management style, the more you can start to shift your own behavior and that of others. We can all work on building emotionally intelligent workplaces that treat people as people instead of simply ‘project resources’.

We have plenty of relevant podcast episodes on this topic, so pick a few and start listening to improve your skills!

Earned Value Management (EVM)

Have you been asked to use Earned Value Management (EVM) on your projects or do you want to learn more about it? You're in the right place!

In this article we'll first cover an earned value management definition so you're clear on what it is, and then discuss EVM principles, metrics, best practices and earned value management systems.

EVM has its foundations in being able to monitor, track and control scope, schedule and budget on the project, and has been used by NASA and on projects like the delivery of Olympic parks. In our EVM resources you’ll find a range of topics relating to how to keep your project on track. New to EVM? Start with the featured podcast and you’ll pick up the basics in no time!

Listen now to this featured podcast for earned value management.

In this featured podcast you'll get a refresher on the basics with an introduction to earned value management on projects. By the end of this episode with host Cornelius Fichtner, you'll know how earned value came to be, how it works and you'll have a good understanding of its benefits and shortcomings.

If you've never used or even heard of earned value before, this is the place to start!

EVM is an area of project management where many processes and knowledge areas link together. You need to understand scope management, cost management, schedule and time management, and the change control procedures that help manage scope creep. And you need to be able to interpret the data, so having a head for figures can help.

Of course, even if you aren’t mathematically-minded, you can still use EVM. There are processes and templates to help. Once you know the fundamentals, you can apply the principles to any project and interpret the results.

Earned value in project management is an area where many processes and PM Knowledge Areas link together. You need to understand how to manage project scope, budgeting, scheduling and how to implement the procedures that help manage scope creep. And you need to be able to interpret the data, so having a head for figures can help.

Here's how those elements come into play when working out the metrics.

EVM is truly an area where the maxim ‘garbage in, garbage out’ holds true. You can only report and track real-time project performance measures where you have accurate underlying data. If your team members do not keep their task statuses up-to-date, or input their time spent on an activity, then you will have difficulty drawing conclusions from your EVM reports.

Planned Value (PV)

Planned Value (PV) is a simple starting point. It relates to the cost of the planned work. You may also see it referred to as Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS). Planned Value is measured in financial terms. The total PV for the entire project is called Budget at Completion (BAC). So you can see that the PV for a task is simply the budget for that task. You can calculate this by taking the cost for the Work Package or portion of the project you are looking at. If you need to calculate PV of a task that is part-way through, multiply the amount of progress by the budget. PV = task budget x percent complete.

For example, if a task is supposed to be 60% complete and has a budget of $10,000 then PV = $10,000 x 60% = $6,000.

Earned Value (EV)

‘Earned Value’ measures project progress. It’s a way of describing how much the work done so far is ‘worth’. Again, it's expressed in monetary terms so the result will always be a currency figure. You will also hear EV referred to as Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP), and that description (we think) makes it easier to understand what you are actually calculating.

EV is calculated by taking the percent complete of a Work Package and multiplying it by the budget for that activity. EV = % complete * BAC. Let's use the same example task as when we calculated PV to show the working.

The task is actually 40% complete and has a budget of $10,000. EV = $10,000 x 40% = $4,000.

Actual Cost (AC)

The actual cost is – as you would expect – a measure of how much of the budget has been spent during a certain time period.

There is no calculation for this: simply look at the budget spreadsheet and take the amount that has been spent.

Cost Variance (CV)

The Cost Variance tells you how much over or under budget you are at any given time.

The formula is CV = EV-AC .

Taking our sample task, if we know the EV is $4,000, we can work out the CV using the actual cost. Let's say the actual cost of the work so far is $2,000. CV = $4,000 - $2,000 = $2,000.

In this example, the result is positive, showing we are under the planned cost. In real life, you probably wouldn't see such a substantive cost variance but perhaps on this change initiative the team found a clever way to deliver the task cheaply!

That is EVM in summary! The indicators calculated let project managers compare actual progress to planned progress in monetary terms.

Don't worry if right now the formulas feel difficult. You'll soon get the hang of it, and it helps to have people to talk to about how to use EV in practice. Our forums offer lots of support and there's probably a student who has asked the same question you have, like this discussion on the difference between EV and AC.

Of course, even if you aren’t mathematically-minded, you can still use EVM. There are processes and templates to help. Once you know the fundamentals, you can apply the principles to any project and interpret the results.

There are lots of advantages to using EVM on your programs. Here are the top benefits:

These are the kinds of benefit you might read in a proposal to bring Earned Value to the PMO, but what do they actually mean to you as a leader? Let's explain the advantages that this way of tracking progress can bring for you and the team.

The main limitations of EVM are:

The output from your calculations will tell you there is a variance in the actual plan compared to what you had forecast. That's useful data, but it isn't the whole picture.

Let's face it: EVM is just math. The metrics still need to be interpreted, understood and acted on. You'll need to use your professional judgement for that.

Your EVM analysis and information is only as good as the data you feed into the Earned Value Management formulas. There are many variables, and therefore plenty of places where the data analysis could go a little bit wrong. Your data has to be up-to-date and realistic to be any use. That might be difficult in teams where people are not used to reporting in real-time or measuring progress in this way.

In particular, timesheet data needs to be accurate and captured quickly so it can be fed into the system and used to calculate real progress. If your team doesn't track time today, moving to a system where they do have to measure the time spent on tasks could be a challenge -- let alone the additional overhead of introducing EVM principles.

OK, not all stakeholders will find the reports from EVM difficult to understand but some of them definitely will if they haven't used this kind of progress tracking before.

If you are going to use Earned Value Management techniques for tracking progress, it’s important to get buy in from stakeholders and team members. Often, people haven’t had exposure to this powerful way of measuring project performance. And you want them to support you implementing this new technique. Talk to them about the benefits of project control and how useful the data will be, and make the changes slowly and with support.

In order to get the most out of the earned value tracking approach, you need a full work breakdown structure and full-costed budget as a baseline. Without those elements, your reporting isn't going to be much use.

You'll have those if you work in a predictive project environment that mainly follows the Waterfall approach to delivery. However, if you work on Agile projects, or even in a hybrid environment, you may not have enough concrete detail at the start of the project to feed into your EVMS.

That's not necessarily a problem. There are other tools you can use to track progress on Agile, iterative and hybrid projects. But don't try to use EVM and then wonder why the results aren't that good: it really does need you to have a clear plan that you intend to follow.

The 'value' in earned value is to do with time and cost. The reporting focuses heavily on whether or not your work is on time and progressing to schedule, and hitting the expected financial targets.

In other words, the technique does not care much about quality. As long as you are on track and not overspending, your reports will look good. The results you are delivering could be low quality and failing to meet customer expectations, but EVM won't give you any indication of that.

You do have other ways to investigate and track project quality, as you will have documented in a quality management plan. You would also expect that if the deliverables are not fit for purpose, you'll see a lot of change requests coming through as stakeholders get to see parts of the project that are being delivered. However, it's worth bearing in mind that progress is not the same as quality and you will need other, proactive ways to satisfy yourself that what you are doing is delivering an output that meets stakeholder needs.

Here’s a quick overview of the different steps involved in setting up a basic EVM framework for your project.

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Another hugely useful part of EVM comes into play here: you can use the data to forecast project performance. Based on the current performance, you can extrapolate the data and work out what your cost at completion is likely to be. Your project sponsor will find that information valuable because it helps inform decisions about whether the project is still viable and what the total expected budget is likely to be.

The same goes for timelines. Share the anticipated delivery dates with the customer so they are aware of any potential delays.

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Earned Value Management is often considered an advanced project management technique as it is not required on all projects. Many businesses choose to track project performance in other ways. Many executive stakeholders have never seen EVM reports before and are not sure how to interpret and use them.

Project Management Software

The right project management software can help you surface useful data for decision-making on your project. It streamlines reporting, makes it easy for project team members to see what they need to do, and facilitates collaboration. In short, the right software tools help you deliver your project faster, more easily, and with everyone pulling in the same direction.

There are hundreds of software applications for project managers and teams. How do you know what the right tools are for your organization? In this collection of podcasts, we cover all kinds of questions about project management software, including how to decide on the best tools for your PMO.

Project management software serves many different purposes in an organization. For example, apps are used for project reporting, scheduling, estimating, discussion and tracking time.

Project management tools fall into several categories, depending on their functionality. Here are the main categories.

As you can see, there is quite a lot of choice, ranging from simple solutions for To Do list apps through to fully-featured enterprise-grade PM solutions to manage large complex programs across multiple sites and teams. You might find that your perfect product is a hybrid choice that fits across a couple of these categories, or you might decide a simple solution is the best.

Below we explain more about those categories to help you narrow your search.

While you can manage projects with any of the above types of tool, it’s far easier and more common to use a fully-featured project or program management platform, especially in a medium or large organization where managing projects according to a structured approach is part of the culture of doing the work.

There are lots of these available on the market including Microsoft Project, Wrike, Workfront, LiquidPlanner, Teamwork Projects and a range of agile project management software solutions for teams needing features like burndown charts. They manage the full project life cycle with all the features you need to monitor and control your project.

Project, program and portfolio management systems have many features and tools in common. It’s helpful to understand what the tools do so you can make the right choice when choosing one for your workplace.

Here are some of the features you should look for in a PM app.

Scheduling and task management

Resource allocation

Time tracking

Reporting

Teamwork

The way you want to use tools for managing projects will determine what kind of systems are most appropriate for your PMO. The way you manage work will also be a factor in deciding what kinds of tools are best for you.

For instance, if you work in an international team, you may want a product that can cope with different currencies and help with collaboration across time zones. If you work in a team using Agile approaches, you’ll need a tool that supports the way you work. Some teams will need a lot of enterprise-grade and advanced features to meet the requirements of clients; others will need a simple tool for tracking tasks and dates.

You’ll be using your project management tool every day, making small changes to the schedule, updating actual performance and collaborating with the team. Look for features you’ll use daily!

Project management software also needs to be implemented in the team with the appropriate change management techniques. You will probably have to train colleagues on how to use it efficiently, and over time the PMO may become the owner of software inductions for new starters.

There is no right or wrong answer to what project management software is the best fit for your team, and you’ll find your needs change over time. When you come to select a product, it’s a good idea to think forward about how you want to develop the offerings of the PMO and what functionality would be needed to support that.

Here's a simple process for selecting the right app for your team.

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As the saying goes, “a fool with a tool is still a fool.” So much of whether you get value from your project management software depends on whether you know how to use it to meet your needs. Start with what you want it to do and then find a tool that fits your requirements.

So what is the best project management software? The best project management tool is the one that’s a perfect fit for your organization. Spend some time looking at reviews and project management software comparison grids so you have a good understanding of what is out there.

Here's a summary of some of the most popular tools to get your started.

Project management software helps you manage the work more efficiently, effectively and with greater transparency. You can see what is happening on your project, and more easily identify where you need to change direction or manage the project’s performance in order to reach your goals.

The right tools, implemented in the right way, can improve productivity, collaboration and project success rates. Spend some time thinking about what tools you could choose to support your organization. If you already have tools in place, think about how you could use your project management software more effectively to make it easier for everyone on the team.

We have plenty of relevant podcast episodes on this topic, so pick a few and get listening!

Agile Project Management

Agile project management is on the rise. Agile methodologies are applicable to all sectors. More and more businesses are adopting agile techniques as the default way they manage projects and deliver change.

It’s easy to see why. One of the characteristics of agile projects is that there is constant collaboration with stakeholders and a focus on iteration. Being an agile project manager means delivering on an iterative basis, demonstrating value at every point to ensure the end result is exactly what the customer wanted.

Predictive methodologies will always have their place, and whether you are new or experienced at agile project delivery, we have resources to help.

Listen now to this featured Podcast on Agile Methodology.

Agile project management follows a cycle of planning, delivery and review. It provides a framework to respond to change, making it a fantastic way to approach projects in a complex and uncertain environment.

So why is it called 'agile'? The team at The Agile Alliance explain it like this:

Just to be clear: the authors of the Manifesto were not saying that the items on the right were unnecessary in project management. Instead, they were making the point that they valued the items on the left more.

What does it mean to work to those values? Let's review how you can put them into practice in your workplace.

In the past, agile methodologies were commonly seen as reserved for software projects, with other projects using waterfall or predictive methodologies. A waterfall way of working requires a full project brief upfront so everyone knows what the end product looks like, and a sequential set of steps to work through.

Today, practitioners from almost every industry and vertical have adopted agile and iterative principles and agile is no longer seen as exclusive to software development. It’s possible to think in an adaptive and flexible way, respond to change quickly and meet the needs of your customer (even if those needs change regularly) on almost any type of project. In fact, the agile vs traditional project management debate is fading as project teams from all industries acknowledge that finding an approach that works for them, their project, the team and the client is more important than rigidly sticking to one way of working.

Let's look at a quick comparison between Agile vs Waterfall project management.

Now you know the background to Agile and some of the fundamentals, let's look at why you should consider using these approaches to managing your projects. Here are the benefits of using iterative project management methods.

Yes, Agile methods really do offer these benefits! Let us prove it to you by explaining how your team could benefit from making the shift to a more iterative way of working.

There are a number of common agile frameworks. They all share common characteristics that include delivery on an iterative basis and a strong collaborative approach across the whole team. Whatever agile project management training you do, you'll find the methods share much in common although they do have unique differences that allow you to adapt to the needs of the project and organization.

Agile project management tools and techniques allow you to work collaboratively as a team. Teams are often self-organizing, meaning the team works together to determine priorities. The backlog is the list of work still to do, and backlog grooming helps the team identify what should be worked on next.

So what are these frameworks? Common frameworks and approaches for implementing agile management include:

Agile project management with Scrum is one of the most common Agile frameworks. Scrum project management aims to deliver products and change by releasing incremental improvements and functionality on a regular basis, often during a two- to four-week agile sprint.

The Scrum framework started out as a way of building software systems. The application of Scrum is frequently seen in development teams because it lends itself to incremental delivery over short, iterative cycles, following clear agile methodology steps. However, this way of working is growing in popularity for other industries as well due to the benefits and streamlined approach to project delivery.

More and more project managers are adding Scrum Master to their list of certifications. If you're involved in this type of project, Scrum project management certification would be something to look at for your career.

Crystal is a lightweight approach to development and again has roots in the software industry. The Crystal family of methods focuses on how teams can optimize and adapt their processes to deliver something of value to the customer.

The big differentiator for Crystal is that it’s a collection of agile practices grouped in several methodologies. You select the most appropriate approach based on the size of the team and criticality and priority of your project. The larger the team, the bigger the expected product at the end, and the higher the criticality of the project, the more you need to follow the appropriate agile methodology steps and apply structure to the work.

Crystal is an approach developed by Alistair Cockburn. The method for leading the smallest project is outlined in his book, Crystal Clear.

The DSDM Framework has been around for longer than we’ve been using the term ‘Agile’ to describe iterative, solution-led delivery methods, and it’s a proven framework for project management. It has a strong focus on collaboration and business alignment for projects. In common with other agile workflows, it promotes frequent, iterative development and empowering the team for success.

The unique feature of DSDM is takes a different approach to governance and project control and wraps 'being agile' into a project life cycle that looks more familiar to those managers coming from a Waterfall background.

Where Scrum focuses on delivery, FDD focuses on features, as you might expect from the name! Where Scrum has user stories, FDD has features. The focus on value for the customer is the same.

FDD is structured and scalable. A feature list is created and then planning, design, build and test is completed for each feature. Each feature contributes to the overall model or final product that the customer is expecting.

User stories are important because they put people first. They help the team focus on why they are building something and who they are serving, instead of the technical or feature components.

User stories talk about the outcome or goal: the "why" behind a feature. This approach means the customer's experience is always a top consideration for the development team.

Agile methodologies help you get closer to customer requirements and truly understand the impact of the changes you are making. Working in an agile way often leads to faster, better outcomes, more team engagement, higher customer satisfaction and the knowledge that you are making a real difference.

There are lots of Agile tools, techniques and practices to choose from. Our expert interview guests will break down the topics and help you adapt agile methodologies to suit your own organization.