Project Estimating – Facts or Fiction?
Do you often feel like you are chasing your tail when asked for project estimates? Is your usual estimating technique pulling a number out of the air? Do you find yourself working evenings and weekends to meet unrealistic due dates? If you answered yes to any of these questions read on to learn several project estimating techniques and enhance your ability to produce realistic and achievable estimates. Read more.

Risk Management for Results
We’ve all been there before. You are halfway through a project and a team meeting was just called because an unforeseen risk has just popped up and management and the project team are now launching into disaster recovery mode. Read the Tips.

5 Tips for Successful Projects
On a regular basis we are constantly reminded that an overwhelming majority of projects are completed over budget, past the desired deadline and outside the original scope. Read the Tips.

Defining Project Governance
Executives today cannot escape the ubiquitous message that reliable practices in project management have become a necessity and no longer a luxury. Darshana Patel, PMP and Vice President of Project Governance at OnSite describes three steps for implementing a project governance structure within any organization. Read More

Best Practices in Project Estimating
Project managers continue to struggle with creating accurate and meaningful project estimates to guide their project and stay on target. Too often, project estimates are created in a rush and propose values that are far below what the actual figure is going to be. I recently had a chance to sit down with Steve Callahan, PMP, Consulting Director for The Performance Institute and discuss some truly best practices for project estimating. Read More

Fully Utilizing your WBS
We’ve all seen them before; they are the diagrams that detail all the work that needs to be done on specific projects. Many call them time consuming while others call them valuable. Defined by the Project Management Institute as: “A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives,” work breakdown structures (WBS) are designed to help projects run smoother and prevent scope creep. Read More

2007 Project Management Office Summit
The Performance Institute recently convened the 2007 Project Management Office Summit in Arlington, VA. Experts from Coca-Cola Enterprises, Johnson and Johnson and The American Modern Insurance Group came together to discuss the latest innovations and techniques for PMO implementation. Through workshops and best practice briefings, participants discussed critical tips for using PMOs to achieve corporate strategic objectives, integrating multiple projects with project management offices, and the importance of aligning portfolio and PMO management. For more information on the best practices that were features at The 2007 Project Management Summit or to receive more information about an upcoming event, contact Matthew Sheaff, Director for the Center of Project Management at Sheaff@performanceweb.org The Performance Institute is a private, non partisan think tank that works to improve government performance through competition, transparency, competition and performance.

Project Management: Measures and Metrics
Rex Lovelady, the Senior Program Manager with the Transportation Security Administration recently addressed the Ninth Annual Government Performance Summit. In his address he discussed strategies for IT projects and systems to maintain approved project management plans that include expected cost and schedule milestones and measurable benefit and risk expectations.

Making PMO Implementation a Reality: Some Words of Advice
The American Strategic Management Institute recently convened the Project Management Office Summit to discuss the latest innovations and best practices in implementing a PMO into an organization. John Kocon, the Vice President of Business Processes at Rolls-Royce keynoted the event and described how project management offices, along with best-practice project management, can lead to greater enterprise productivity making results faster, better and cheaper.

Project Planning:  The First Line of Defense for Preventing Failed Projects
Every year thousands of projects are completed over budget, out of scope and past deadline.  Still, with each passing year, project managers continue to rush into projects without due diligence in defining the project and creating a plan for project execution.  By lightly addressing these critical components they are, in essence, failing their projects before any work has even commenced.  So how can project managers efficiently execute a project plan while at the same time meeting the deadlines and expectations of senior management? 

Make Fixing Under-Performing Projects a Resolution This Year!
A Q&A w/ Dr. Frank Anbari, past chair of the Project Management Program at George Washington University. As The Performance Institute launches into our 2007 project management program, I
recently had a chance to sit down with Dr. Frank Anbari, past chair of the Project
Management Program at George Washington University. We discussed topics from Earned Value Management, techniques to fix underperforming projects and what 2007 holds for the field of project management.

Survey: Federal Project Managers Need More Training
The key to reducing the number of failed agency IT projects is training — training on risk identification and management; training on initial baseline development and training on technical project management. That is what 104 federal IT executives said when surveyed about the state of IT project management. The survey, sponsored by Price Systems LLC of Mount Laurel, N.J., found that at least 67 percent of the executives either said training in risk identification and management, baseline development and technical project management didn’t exist or they were unsure if it was provided by their agencies.

Strategic Retreat
The agreement between the Office of Personnel Management and the Bureau of Public Debt’s Administrative Resource Center to cancel their relationship under the financial-management Line of Business initiative is not a story of another failed government contract. Just the opposite. It could prove to be a breakthrough in federal project management and a valuable lesson for other agencies. OPM determined that ARC could not fully meet its requirements and decided to recompete the contract instead of spending millions of dollars to force the proverbial square peg into a round hole.

Proper Planning: The Key for Successful Project Execution and Successful PMP Prep
As project management tools and techniques continue to evolve into common practice in organizations, many still find it difficult to successfully execute a project from start to finish...

Using a PMO to Achieve Results in Your Agency
Government agencies continually strive to produce better results. With regular mandates and quarterly score keeping by the President's Management Agenda, agencies are constantly working to become more efficient and better spenders of taxpayer dollars. Distressingly, recent surveys have found that half of all projects exceed budget, are completed past scheduled deadlines and do not meet original business objectives.

OMB Chief Talks Management
Office of Management and Budget Chief, Rob Portman addressed federal employees at a luncheon last month. Portman stressed the need for providing federal lawmakers more detailed information about the benefits of management initiatives. According to Portman, “Congress is a target-rich environment -- there are plenty of members of Congress who need to hear more about management." He concluded his talk by praising the integration of budget and management issues at OMB during his tenure.

Improvements Under Way but Serious Financial Systems Problems Persist
GAO recently released a very sobering report on the status of federal financial management. The report says that the number of CFO Act agencies receiving unqualified financial statements has steadily increased since 1997. In addition, the number of agencies that substantially do not comply with FFMIA has seen relatively no improvement. The report states that, “Although agencies have made improvements and have other enhancements under way, the systems deficiencies that have prompted unfavorable FFMIA assessments indicate that the financial management systems of many agencies are still not able to routinely produce reliable, useful, and timely financial information.”

Recommendation for Overhaul of New Jersey Office of Information Technology
The New Jersey Commission on Government Efficiency and Reform has released its first progress report which includes recommendations on how to overhaul the Office of Information Technology. By implementing the recommendations, including designation a chief information officer, New Jersey will be able to create a framework for a learner, more effective state government. Dedicated to making all levels of government more accountable and transparent to taxpayers, The Performance Institute acknowledges New Jersey’s efforts to execute these recommendations.

No one-size-fits-all approach for EVM
New FAR rule allows agencies to tailor their IT project management policies
Being the nation’s leading authority and repository on performance based management practices for government; the Performance Institute can help your agency with proven strategies and techniques to get the most out of EVM for your agency. A new rule issued July 5 gives federal agencies extensive latitude in determining how and when to apply earned value management to track information technology programs. EVM policies “should be based on the particular agency facts and circumstances,” according to comments accompanying the rule’s publication in the Federal Register.

USDA takes aim at infrastructure consolidation
The government is now calling on IT professionals to create the Federal Enterprise Architecture, as well as individual agency architectures, and reduce cyber security vulnerabilities which will deliver value to the organization and efficiency to the taxpayer.  The Performance Institute helped create the Performance Reference Model, one of the modules in place for an effective EA system.  CIO David Combs' plan is to take the complex issues, worry and costs out of the hands of the department's agencies and offices, and let them concentrate on their mission priorities.

Eliminating Silos in Government
Performance.  One of the tenets The Performance Institute believes is needed for a successful private or public organization.  Surprisingly, despite many state and local officials lamenting the problem of silos in their governments, many still exist.

Keep Your Projects Within Scope with a WBS
We’ve all seen them before; they are the diagrams that detail all the work that needs to be done on specific projects. Many call them time consuming while others call them valuable. Defined by the Project Management Institute as: “A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the project objectives,” work breakdown structures (WBS) are designed to help projects run smoother and prevent scope creep. So why don’t many project managers fully utilize this great resource to its fullest potential? Here’s some no nonsense advice for creating and utilizing a work breakdown structure in all your projects. Read More

Using a PMO to Achieve Results in Your Agency
Government agencies continually strive to produce better results. With regular mandates and quarterly score keeping by the President’s Management Agenda, agencies are constantly working to become more efficient and better spenders of taxpayer dollars.Distressingly, recent surveys have found that half of all projects exceed budget, are completed past scheduled deadlines, and do not meet original business objectives. One solution to this problem that has been slow to gain popularity in the public sector is the implementation of a Project Management Office (PMO).

PMO Implementation: Q&A With Donna-Mae Shyduik
As Project Management Offices (PMOs) continue to be seen as the leading tool to provide the structure needed to standardize project management practices and facilitate IT Project Portfolio Management, Matthew Sheaff, Associate Director of the Center for Information Technology and Project Management at The Performance Institute, recently sat down with Donna-Mae Shyduik, Vice President of Sales and Services with Spectrum Consulting Group, to discuss PMO implementation and the value PMOs can bring to an organization.

Critical Success Factors in Building a PMO
On March 8 - 10, 2006 ASMI in coordination with The Performance Institute held it's first ever PMO Summit.  The Summit brought together some of the nation's leading Project Management experts to our nation's capital for an in-depth look at the rise and function of the Project Management Office. 
Tim Prior, of AP & Associates presented on Critical Success Factors for Building a PMO.  With over 30 years of experience and hundreds of training time developed, Tim outlined the foundation for success in implementing a PMO. 

Introduction to Project Management
Project management is the discipline of defining and achieving targets while optimizing the use of resources (time, money, people, space, etc). Thus, it could be classified into several models: time, cost, scope, and intangibles.  In this presentation are the terms, definitions and basic methodology of the concept of project management. 

IT Project Management
More and more these days agencies are utilizing the benefits of technology to enhance government benefits for the taxpayer.  This presentation presents the fundamentals project management as it relates to IT.