Category: In the media

Project contingency planning is among the least understood topics related to project management. This is probably due to the fact that contingency deals with the unknown. How do we plan for something that might happen but we don't even know what that might be? And how much will it cost us if it does happen? While risk management is a related area that deals with the unknown, at least in risk management we start by making a list of all the possible scenarios that can go wrong that we can think of. And if we can imagine a negative scenario, then we can estimate what it would cost if it manifested. On the other hand, contingency planning is to cover everything else that we haven't thought of as a risk but that still might happen. The June 2016 issue of PM Network magazine has an article about contingency planning and once again they reached out to project management practitioners for their input. I was...

Once again I was invited to participate in PMI's publication PM Network, this time in their June 2013 issue. I contributed tips about how to be more productive on projects. The article lists ten miscellaneous tips for project managers. One of them was mine, about resolving minor issues by clearing the air via telephone call rather than entering a lengthy email correspondence: “Whenever I detect an undertone such as sarcasm or anger in an email, I never respond by email. I usually telephone the sender and ask him or her to clarify, which allows me to get a clearer understanding of his or her motives. We can resolve minor issues in passing, not having to explain them in lengthy emails.” In my project management experience, I find it much more efficient to pick up the telephone and call someone when there is an issue to be resolved, a matter to be settled or something ambiguous to be clarified rather than firing off an email. By...

In the February issue of PM Network magazine you can read an interview with me about my views on sex discrimination in IT. The article is written as a debate between two project managers with opposing views. My opinion is that based on my experience there is no sex discrimination in IT. Who knows whether my opinion might be different had I been exposed to different experiences? My co-interviewee in the article (whom I never actually met because the article was composed through several e-mail exchanges) says that I was lucky that I always managed to work in environments without sex discrimination. Her opinion made me wonder whether this may be because I always worked in environments where they hired women in IT - after all, they hired me - which shows that they had nothing against women in the first place. I've worked both in places where I was one of a handful of women in predominantly male environments as well...

We have asked 5 questions to 5 Organizational Department Heads from different companies about project management. I was interviewed in the SAS AR Newsletter about project management. The last question was on a less serious note and asked what profession is most closely related to project management. My answer was what I always say in such situations: managing a project is often like parenting teenage children. You can't make them do anything, you can only motivate them. SAS AR Newsletter, April 2011  ...

I was the recipient of the 2006 Jan Korevaar Outstanding Paper Award at the 5th ICEC World Congress, held in Ljubljana, Slovenia in May 2006. The title of my paper was Implementing Earned Value Management on IT Projects. The International Cost Engineering Council initiated the Jan Korevaar Outstanding Paper Award to recognize the paper chosen by Congress delegates through their evaluations as the outstanding paper presented at each International Cost Engineering Congress. The award was created in memory of Jan Korevaar, Executive Director of the Dutch Association of Cost Engineers and Assistant Secretary of ICEC for many years....