Forums

As Mark and Mike have mentioned in the podcast, management and project management arent the same. I'm not to the point where I'm managing people (though ALOT of the points in the podcast apply elsewhere as well, and I get to practice), but I do run some projects. Does anyone know of some good resources available on the topic? Or point me to something I missed somewhere on the site :)

CuCullin's picture

Whoops! I posted this in the wrong forum... if an admin/mod can move it, I'd appreciate it :)

D's picture
Training Badge

Hi - I've just joined the forum but have been a long-time listener of the podcast. I have a project management podcast (www.controllingchaos.com) that would be a great resource for you. There is another PM podcast that is awesome as well at www.thepmpodcast.com. I also have a list of books and some other helpful tips on how to become more knowledgeable and get more involved with project management. Let me know if you'd be interested!

Dina

cincibuckeyenut's picture

I have listened to the PM Podcast and was in fact also going to recommend it. Pretty solid content, very meaty. I am only a couple of casts into Controlling Chaos, the one that Dina does, so I can't give it a definitive thumbs up or a thumbs down yet, but I can say so far so good.

I will however forewarn you with this. If you are like me and Manager Tools is the first podcast you really spent much time listening to, you will be disappointed by most others, including the PM Podcast. MT is honestly on another level from anything I have found so far.

That said, while MT is the only cast (other than Bucknuts Radio Hour for those Ohio State Buckeye football fans out there) in my personal tier 1 of podcasts, PM Podcast is in my tier 2 with only 2-3 others so far. If you are interested in project management, definitely worth a listen.

And assuming I remember, I will come back and add my two cents about Controlling Chaos after I get a chance to listen to a couple more casts.

bteachman's picture
Training Badge

PM Podcast is a good podcast for project management but there are some other good non podcast related project management resources. Below is a list of references that I refer to on a regular basses when I do project management.

Books
1) The Art of Project Management, by Scott Berkun (This book was written by a software project manager, but has great ideas and basics)
2) Algile Project Management with Scrum, by Ken Schwaber (This book was meant for project management of software, but I use it with project management of new production equipment. This method of project management is meant for projects with unknown or changing project requirements. Also create 30 day cycles, so the business unit constantly sees deliverables. We will put a building up and not know exactly know what is going in it and have to adapt to the business units demand. Meaning we will think we are only getting two lines and business will be doing so well that before the building is done and the equipment is in place they will already be adding an addition on to the building and buying more equipment.)

Web Sites
www.4pm.com - This site is a training site, but on the right hand side of the site some times they have great downloads (templates, etc) and articles.
www.pmi.org - This is the site of one of the leading project management certifications.
www.projectreference.com - This site has a lot of links to useful info, but mainly software related.

Below is a list of useful tools I use for project management that I use. I have found that most of our recent college grads have only gone over Microsoft Project in school.
1) Mindjet Mindmanager (This is a great tool for creating mind maps. We utilize this for gathering requirements and brain storming quickly. We can sit there in a meeting put the mind map on a screen. We still have a white board for drawing it up but have some one typing it in as we go. )
2) Freemind (This is a free mind mapping tool but does not have the extent of features free mind does)
3) Microsoft Visio (This will allow you to easily create flow charts, diagrams, and design documents quickly.

accomplice_guy's picture

I have been using Accomplice (free download at www.accomplice.com) to project manage activities related to the company's launch (covered yesterday by CNN Money at http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/18/technology/personaltech/accomplice/index).

I'd welcome some feedback from members of this forum, especially regarding the activity sharing capabilities and whether they find the ability to drag and drop emails into Accomplice from Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird a useful way to track the sharing and delegation of team tasks.

Thanks,

Kent

paizleygrl's picture

One other website that I have found as a great resources, with ton's of templates and examples is: Gantthead.com

There are also some project management podcasts out at iTunes.

jblack's picture

You might find some value in the project management site:
http://www.pmconnection.com/modules.php?name=Web_Links&l_op=viewlink&cid...

benswallow's picture

I work for Gyroix, we have a Project Management Solution that is very visual. I help companies implement it. If anyone has any questions please contact me at [email protected] :D

Controlling Chaos is a good resource, it is a Podcast on Project Management and has some great ideas. I have listened a few times and always found it useful.

stephenbooth_uk's picture

[quote="benswallow"]Controlling Chaos is a good resource, it is a Podcast on Project Management and has some great ideas. I have listened a few times and always found it useful.[/quote]

Would that be "[url=http://www.controllingchaos.com/]Controlling Chaos[/url]"?

Stephen

benswallow's picture

That is correct. Dina is doing some good things there.

Duardo's picture

If your starting out in Project Management, you need to get a good "big picture" view of how it all hangs together, then there are many online resources around that can help you fine-tune your expertise!

Pick up a book or short course on a methodology like PRINCE2 or something based on PMBOK. This will give you a good birds eye view on the management processes you'll need to consider when running a project.

The project management resources mentioned already are excellent. If you're hunting around for other good online resources on project management, there are a couple. try [url]www.onprojects.net[/url], [url]www.projectsmart.co.uk[/url] or [url]www.pm4girls.elizabeth-harrin.com/[/url] (Elizabeth hosts a very useful monthly carnival of PM articles)

Elizabeth-RebelsGuideToPM's picture

Thanks for mentioning me (all those years ago!). I hope my site is still providing useful resources to people, although I no longer do the Carnival. You can find me now at www.girlsguidetopm.com.

hans111384's picture

PMBOK: Project Management Body of Knowledge

PMBOK covers this stuff:

Project life cycle definition
-Stages/phases: initial (start-up), intermediate (execution), final (closure)

5 management process groups
-initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/control, closure

9 knowledge areas
-integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications, risk, procurement

jasonls's picture

I am new to project management and the book I've found to be an awesome resource is "Just Enought Project Management." For someone new to PM, looking at the PMBOK would probably be a waste of time. It's too complex and too technical for newbies. Not only that, but most people who manage projects aren't professional PMs.. rather, they are managers or others who happen to manage projects are PART of their jobs.

The book was very helpful to myself and my team.

Thanks,

Jason

thaGUma's picture

For any UK based PM's the government has some pretty good resourced - [url]www.ogc.gov.uk[/url]
Very good content, essential if you want to work with UK gov. and don't forget the people who brought you Prince and Prince 2 and ITIL.

erikko's picture

[quote="bteachman"]PM Podcast is a good podcast for project management but there are some other good non podcast related project management resources. Below is a list of references that I refer to on a regular basses when I do project management.

Books
1) The Art of Project Management, by Scott Berkun (This book was written by a software project manager, but has great ideas and basics)
2) Algile Project Management with Scrum, by Ken Schwaber (This book was meant for project management of software, but I use it with project management of new production equipment. This method of project management is meant for projects with unknown or changing project requirements. Also create 30 day cycles, so the business unit constantly sees deliverables. We will put a building up and not know exactly know what is going in it and have to adapt to the business units demand. Meaning we will think we are only getting two lines and business will be doing so well that before the building is done and the equipment is in place they will already be adding an addition on to the building and buying more equipment.)

Web Sites
www.4pm.com - This site is a training site, but on the right hand side of the site some times they have great downloads (templates, etc) and articles.
www.pmi.org - This is the site of one of the leading project management certifications.
www.projectreference.com - This site has a lot of links to useful info, but mainly software related.

Below is a list of useful tools I use for project management that I use. I have found that most of our recent college grads have only gone over Microsoft Project in school.
1) Mindjet Mindmanager (This is a great tool for creating mind maps. We utilize this for gathering requirements and brain storming quickly. We can sit there in a meeting put the mind map on a screen. We still have a white board for drawing it up but have some one typing it in as we go. )
2) Freemind (This is a free mind mapping tool but does not have the extent of features free mind does)
3) Microsoft Visio (This will allow you to easily create flow charts, diagrams, and design documents quickly.[/quote]

nice resources and guides you have keep them coming

IoanLucian's picture

Below is a list of useful tools I use for project management that I use. I have found that most of our recent college grads have only gone over Microsoft Project in school. 1) Mindjet Mindmanager (This is a great tool for creating mind maps. We utilize this for gathering requirements and brain storming quickly. We can sit there in a meeting put the mind map on a screen. We still have a white board for drawing it up but have some one typing it in as we go. ) 2) Freemind (This is a free mind mapping tool but does not have the extent of features free mind does) 3) Microsoft Visio (This will allow you to easily create flow charts, diagrams, and design documents quickly.

You can try RationalPlan as another project management tool. It is very suited for beginners but has powerful features for experimented project managers. And here's some project management resources.
Lucian

erikko's picture

here's my source of tools and information about Project Management

http://www.pmtoolbox.com/