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The International Journal of Project Management offers wide ranging and comprehensive coverage of all facets of project management. Published eight times per year, it provides a focus for worldwide expertise in the required techniques, practices and areas of research; presents a forum for its readers to share common experiences across the full range of industries and technologies in which project management is used; covers all areas of project management from systems to human aspects; links theory with practice by publishing case studies and covering the latest important issues. Application areas include: information systems, strategic planning, research and development, system design and implementation, engineering and construction projects, finance, leisure projects, communications, defence, agricultural projects, major re-structuring and new product development. Papers originate from all over the world and are fully peer-reviewed, on the 'double-blind' system. In addition, the journal carries conference reports, and book reviews. Topics Covered Include: Project concepts; project evaluation; team building and training; communication; project start-up; risk analysis and allocation; quality assurance; project systems; project planning; project methods; tools and techniques; resources, cost and time allocation; estimating and tendering; scheduling; monitoring, updating and control; contracts; contract law; project finance; project management software; motivation and incentives; resolution of disputes; procurement methods; organization systems; decision making processes; investment appraisal. The journal is published in collaboration with the Association for Project Management (APM) and the International Project Management Association (IPMA) and is their official journal.

This article gives project managers some tips for managing stress.

Jaime- I am on day 2 of no caffeine and I already feel SO much calmer. I'm craving it really badly, but I was so jittery lately and I know it was stressing me out more. A good reminder on keeping stress under control. Thanks Allan!

I like the recommendations for stress reduction. A few people at my work actually requested that the company create a quiet relaxation room. Not sure if they'll do it, but I hope so. I got into breathing meditation years ago and it pretty much cured me of anxiety attacks that had persisted from my late 20's to early 30's. A couple years of daily practice and they haven't returned for almost 10 years. I don't keep up with the meditation anymore, but I'd say any amount of practice can affect long-term benefits.

The product owner is supposed to represent the voice of the customer. What is the voice of the customer exactly? It's a deeper understand of customer language and requirements...and there are even metrics! This article describes the qualities of a good set of "voice of the customer" metrics.

Michael Greer's site that composes a list of questions as the project moves along. It starts with identifying lessons learned from other projects in order for the team to be refreshed for the new project.

I liked the idea of preparing responses in advance of a face-to-face meeting. That gives people the opportunity to reflect and provide quality answers.

These are good suggestions, but I think it would be even better to also instruct team members to jot down issues and solutions as they come up. I find that when we wait for a debrief after one of our huge events, many of us recall some of the problems that came up over the past months, but not all. There have been many times we've sat there looking at each other saying "what was that thing we had to deal with a few months back?" Sometimes we remember, sometimes we don't. Or conversely, we remember the problem, but didn't document exactly how we solved it and have to recreate the solution in the following year's event. So definitely something to be said for documenting feedback in the heart of the matter rather than in a recap, and reviewing the list in the recap meeting rather than trying to reconstruct it then.

This is a tool that I wanted to share because I know in ILT a lot of people tout using Adobe Captivate for various projects. I recently came across Active Presenter, which has a no-time-limit free version that does all of the basic features of Captivate, most notably screen capturing. One of the obstacles I run into with project management is having everyone on a project team understand how to use various resources. If you have an SME who would be willing to make a quick screen capture of how to use a tool and record it using this program, it will save a lot of time getting everyone on the same page.

Time saver and better screen capturing than Captivate? I must try it!

I'm posting this link to Debra Fine's website. I've read two of her books: "The Fine Art of Small Talk" and "The Fine Art of the Big Talk." While they're not directly about project management, they do relate to the ability to communicate and build relationships both personally and professionally. The content of these two books has helped me build rapport and relationships with teams and stakeholders, open discussions about sensitive topics and project difficulties, and improve my ability to get what I want out of conversations big and small. I would recommend these books to any PM looking to get better at communicating.

Debra, that book sounds very useful to integrate EQ with the PM experience.

No matter how great we are at creating learning solutions, we will not even get off the ground without the right content and context. Sometimes, working with SMEs can be one of the most difficult parts of the process. This article provides four great suggestions for how to effectively work with your SME.

I like #2. So many times SMEs loose sight of the project objective. :-)

Jenna, these guidelines are simple but powerful. What of the greatest challenges I had on a recent project was to get the SME to back off and take care of the content, not the learning materials. I never really succeeded but it might have helped if I had the #4 guideline instilled in our heads early in the project.

While this collection of tools and tips is geared toward the novice project manager, it also includes a wealth of information and resources for even the most seasoned project manager. Browse this comprehensive library for advice, forms, templates and so much more that you can use today.

Thanks. I posted some stuff from brighthubpm.com too - I found it useful earlier in the course to learn more about resource management and get an overview on PMBOK. Nice resource.

Nice general ID blog with a good number of articles about project managment in realtion to eLearning. This article in particular had some nice tips.

I like the idea of educating SME's about the process so they understand why making last minute changes makes it difficult for us.

Simple and concise, this article offers some sound advice on managing eLearning projects.  I love the analogy presented in the opening introduction that project management is like herding a bunch of wild cats in one direction.  It really is true that the project manager is in a position that requires them to deal with people of all different personalities and moods.

An essential tool in any project management methodology is the risk log or risk register. This provides a means of recording the identified risks, the analysis of their severity and the necessary management actions to be taken.

helpful template for risk assessment

The two things I liked about this site most were the concepts of an RAG status and assigning an early warning sign. I like the RAG status because it gives the risk log a quick visual aspect. You can see right away the amount of risk involved in your project. I like the thought of assigning an early warning sign because it really makes you think out each risk involved in your project. When an early warning sign does occur, you will be aware of the risk much sooner than if you had not thought it through.

This is a task management web application based on agile methodology. It has a great visual and clean user interface which makes it easy for anyone to understand and use. The features of Trello are easy to use, such as the drag and drop of tasks/cards. This can be easily used for agile requirements gathering as well.

And it's Free! I like the clean look of the software. I might give this a go for my upcoming move. Thanks for posting.

The cards really remind me of the Scrum model.

I like this website and have read most of the topics. I post the homepage URL to show all the topics available, but take note of the few topics on project management. I've had a long interest in the convergence of PM & KM, and both share some similar qualities from the systems-oriented perspective. There are a lot of other authors and resources out there that talk about PM from a systems-thinking approach, but I thought this site a good starting point. A good book for expanding on this topic is Gerald Weinberg's "An Introduction to General Systems Thinking."

Free templates for all stages of Project Management. Great simple explanations of terminology and descriptions of what should go in each section of templates that are available. Not only are there documents you would expect such as Project Initiation Documents and Work Breakdown Schedule documents, but also Project Meeting Agenda and Minute templates. When you don't know where to start with compiling PM documents, this site offers some easy to use options.

Great resource! I appreciated that not only templates were included, but also lots of related information about "why and how would I use this."

Giselle, this is a great find! I can't believe these templates are free.

Project managing e-learning. More is worse! This blog outlines some of the pitfalls that developing E-learning shares with traditional project management as well as some challenges unique to these types of projects. Some solutions are also suggested, mostly dealing with keeping your project plan agile and iterative.

Thanks for posting this article, Brook. Because it talks about elearning being software (tech) development and content development at the same time, it applies to my case study...and because it talks about training struggles, it is reflective of my own work environment too.

This article brings up some valid points that I wish I had read a year or so ago. Originally I thought eLearning was simple converting F2F material for an online environment. At its basic concept it is, but the complexity of this process is much more complicated and resource intensive than I imagined. Those considering the jump from F2F should seriously consider the points of this article and the affect on their organization resources. Thanks for the info.

This is an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education which discusses the fundamentals of project management.

Wiggio is a free group collaboration tool that helps facilitate communication, document sharing and project execution. Some technical issues have been identified with this site which might prevent effective use of it's tools. Use with caution.

What I enjoy the most about Wiggio is their ability to send text messages about deadlines for school projects. However, when trying to take full advantage of all their social connectivity components, I found myself running into issues with server lags. I think they probably still need more financial support or stability to increase the efficiency of their services.

After using Wiggio for several weeks now, I do like some features, but the number of errors is obnoxious. It really reminds me of when I tried to use Google Wave in its final moments.

Introduction: In order to achieve goals and planned results within a defined schedule and a budget, a manager uses a project. Regardless of which field or which trade, there are assortments of methodologies to help managers at every stage of a project from the initiation to implementation to the closure.

Thanks for posting - it is nice to see a list like this of many of the competing methodologies out there. My interviewee told me that the most important thing prospective PMs can do is learn as many methods as possible as well as possible, because in reality, you need to mix and match them depending on what your project requires, and the more you know, the more you can adapt.