Project Management Guides, Best Practices, Lessons Learned, PM101 - Part 131
Project Initiation

Managing Project Initiation Phase – A List of Critical Problems & Suggestions

The project initiation phase is critical to successful project development and implementation since this is the time when the project manager takes initial steps to create a solid foundation for success in all of the following project phases and activities. The fact is that there is a set of failures associated with project initiation, which are caused by typical problems and issues. In order to be successful in initiating projects, you need to know those problems, understand how to solve them, and be ready to follow project initiation best practices. Let’s learn the most critical problems you may have to solve when stepping into the first phase of your project.

Key Project Management Challenges

Handling Key Project Management Challenges by Setting Right Priorities

Key project management challenges are those obstacles that prevent successful completion of the project, and one of the efficient ways to remove the obstacles is to apply right PM priorities to tasks and objectives of the project. Key PM challenges do not allow moving the project forward and delivering expected results. An ability of the project manager to solve key PM problems and issues by defining right PM priorities will let the project to be accomplished on time and as expected. In this article we tried to break the myth of unsolvable challenges and show you what basic steps can be take to apply right priorities.

Top management skills of good managers

Best Management Skills to Be the Best Manager

The best management skills are those abilities that let a person perform required job duties while avoiding crisis situations and mitigating the risk of failure. The development of the best management skills is a required task of every manager who wants to achieve success in his/her undertakings. Let’s consider top 5 must-have of a successful manager.

Project Dashboard and MS Excel – Developing Project Dashboard in Excel Sheets

Project Dashboard and MS Excel – Developing Project Dashboard in Excel Sheets

The term “Project Dashboard” refers to a project tracking tool that provides a project manager with a graph view of the project progress, so that the project manager can see at a glance whether project characteristics are on track. Basically, sample project dashboard is a set of project charts and diagrams that help you review the current status of your project in real time. On the software market there are special project dashboard software products that allow you to build project charts and diagrams as well as project dashboard templates either automatically or manually. An example of project dashboard software that lets manually build project charts and diagrams is MS Excel. Today many people involved in project monitoring and control use project dashboard and MS Excel to have the best chance of success.

In this article, we tried to depict several steps to create a project dashboard view in Microsoft Excel software. You can follow the steps listed below to build project dashboard charts and diagrams in Excel sheets.