RNC Global Projects

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE AN ‘ALPHA PROJECT MANAGER’?

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A few years ago, a meticulous research study of 860 Project Managers (whittled down from 5,258 PMs) and 4,398 of their stakeholders was undertaken.  Called ‘The Alpha Study’, and led by Georgia-based Project Manager and author Andy Crowe, one of the aims of this landmark study was to try to define the qualities that made an ‘Alpha’ Project Manager more effective than any other. Crowe published the findings in his book, ‘Alpha Project Managers (what the top 2% know that everyone else doesn’t)’, which challenged many of the assumptions in the profession of project management today.

Essentially, the assumptions of the PMs were tested against those of their stakeholders, and perhaps not surprisingly, it turned out that most of us are making incorrect assumptions about what our stakeholders want and how we should relate to them.  Interesting too was that only 18 (2%) of the study group were identified as Alphas – 6 female and 12 male, a close approximation of the gender split across the whole study group. 

Crowe discovered that Alpha PMs were the ones who consistently delivered projects that met the project goals, managed stakeholder expectation, and kept the customer, the team and the organisation in harmony.  And whilst it might appear obvious that naturally, an elite PM would be achieving results like these, the reality is that most PMs find it simply impossible.

‘Alpha Project Managers’ is interesting, and has attracted discussion from all sides.  But importantly, it encourages you to think about how you manage your own projects. I’ve extracted some quotes for you to read, but if you’d like to read more, it’s available from Amazon in either hard copy or ebook format.

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Stories from the front line – Banking

Here’s an interesting case study for you. Again, it’s a true story from the front line vault, and after you’ve read the list of findings, you might give some thought, before reading on, as to how you might have dealt with this project. Where to begin? What are the core issues? And importantly, how do you resolve those issues and get straight to work on the best quality processes to reach successful outcomes?     read more

Stories from the front line – a Biotech industry study

I’m truly excited to publish this case study which is to be the first in an occasional series entitled ‘Stories from the front line’.

Case studies are useful reference tools for PMs. They allow us to examine and better understand a project path, in effect, what happened and why.  They also allow us to analyse and identify real-life, real-time problems, and in doing so,  the how, why and ’what the?’ questions are more easily isolated &  unravelled.  Of course no project, program or portfolio follows the same path, but the hindsights of thoroughly researched case studies enable us to implement effective solutions and  improve best practice strategies.  I encourage you to comment on this biotech study – send me your thoughts!  read more

Rocky Flats – A Lesson in Excellent Execution – Working in the ‘Abundance Gap’

Some Clearing / Cleansing Emotions

I just have to have a bleat about people who espouse project management approaches when in fact they ‘know nothing’ (said with Hogan’s Heroes accent).  I have decided once and for all that there is a massive difference project management and project execution.  Once upon a time, management could expect that a PM would deliver an outcome; now it seems all too often that PMs are simply mystified when, having done everything by the book, the project is a mess. Perhaps there’s something wrong with the book?

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