Secret Lies in Collaborative Work Spaces

You often wonder how crucial is the environment of the office? The answer lies in observations and countless statistics that prove the importance of a balanced and positive environment in the success of businesses, be it small or large. The fact is that the office environment speaks for itself.

When it comes to project management, an environment that is collaborative and enthusiastic keeps the team aligned to its goals and tasks which eventually leads to successful delivery of outcome.

The reinforcement and impact of such an environment are often underestimated in project management. Below is a set of strategies that a project manager should implement to ensure that the environment at work maximizes productivity and success.

  1. Appreciation and positivity:

When a team member performs well at a given task, appreciate. Give appreciation where it’s due even if it’s for something as small as submitting work on time or working overtime to finish work. Appreciation might seem insignificant but in the long-run, it fosters positivity among team members and increases their self-confidence which is vital to producing a better quality of work. Moreover, appreciation pushes team members to do even better next time. However, constructive criticism should also be given where needed without degrading or insulting any of the team members. Lastly, the variety of opinions and think tanks always lead to improved and enhanced results.

  1. Build Rapport and Communication:

There should be a solid and well-built rapport between upper management and the team. The concerns, suggestions etc from the team members should be effectively communicated to the upper management. Also, feedback from the upper management should also be conveyed to the team members so as to ensure a two-way flow between the two units. As the gap between seniors and juniors diminishes, a positive change can be definitely noticed as that makes the team members feel that their opinions and words hold value. Moreover, communication between everyone involved in the project should be constantly using an email or dashboard. Communication gap can be eradicated by giving every member the confidence to share their input and being concise and clear about their thoughts. No office environment can succeed in suffocating conditions where members are not allowed to share or discuss.

  1. Set Realistic Goals and Expectations:

Do not overburden the team with the excessive workload. It’s often assumed that working under pressure yields better results. That is an utter misconception. Working under pressure diminishes the quality of work. The key to brilliant project outcome is assigning tasks to each member with realistic deadlines that give them time to experiment and do as well as possible. However, it cannot be denied setting bars high occasionally helps members grow their skills and come out of their comfort zones to discover their hidden talent.

  1. Follow a set of rules:

Every member of the team, regardless of his/her position, should and must follow the rules made and set. Standard processes and rules regarding every project help the team members stay connected about the project and keep them on the same page.

Blockchain-Connecting the world to Crypto

In 2008 it all suddenly started mysteriously with the emergence of the whitepaper, that was an unknown entity called Satoshi Nakamoto. This proposed a new peer to peer financial system that was based on Bitcoin (digital cryptocurrency).

The technology which underlying the Bitcoin system is called Blockchain. But the question arises that what is Bitcoin? Probably it is a bit familiar to everyone as we have heard about it from media or somewhere else. So in simple words, the Blockchain is the public data register that is shared or distributed between hundreds and thousands of systems all over the world and all of them are linked together. In other words, we can say that it is registered that is continuously updated about “who holds what” a database of the transaction occurs on the linked network. It is not controlled by a single entity so we can call it a worldwide computer. Blockchain created the backbone of a new type of internet, it allows to distribute digital information but it is not allowed to be copied. According to Don and Alex Tapscott, Author bitcoin Revolution says that Blockchain is an incorruptible digital ledger of transaction that is programmed in such a way that it not only stores the financial traction but also something that has some value.

There is multiple application of this technology in different fields. In the Internet of Things, the blockchain technology has a huge impact. When millions of systems are connected to the security of information and the identity of the system becomes an important issue. So in such cases, the blockchain can become a solution to manage such a large amount of data security and also protecting the ownership and privacy of the data. Smart contracts automatically execute the predefined actions when a specific situation occurs. The main purpose of smart contracts is to provide a high-level security as compared tradition techniques of contracts. It improves the speed of execution and lowers the transaction cost. It is important because it provides the immutable environment, it means that nothing can be modified. As all the blocks are linked so there is no way that the information from the previous block can be altered without changing information in later blocks. Blockchain can be valuable in any situation where keeping a secure and transparent record is important. Many businesses prefer to use Blockchain as there are many genuine reasons to use it. Transparency is a positive attribute that why people prefer to use Blockchain in their businesses. The full transparencies in the network make it most likable technology. There are threats to the information stored in the system as there is nothing secured in the technology world but blockchain promise its users to provide robust security. All traditional financial transactions models are expensive to maintain but the blockchain network is inexpensive. The Blockchain helps to prevent all online scams. People who are involved in the blockchain technology always talk about how to prevent scams. It also saves times as a person can send or receive money or any other financial document securely in a minute.

Providing End-to-End Insights for Success: Primavera Solution for Energy and Utility

With the budgets that reach billion, the timeline spanning years and life cycles that takes decades of utility and energy face enormous challenges in perspective of management for the organization that is sponsoring them. Primavera help the organizations to rise to these challenges by providing the Enterprise project portfolio management solution (EPPM) solutions that give them control to every aspect of the operation. Utility and Energy industries are facing big challenges and issues. like fluctuation in the prices of the fuel, changes in demand, diminishing supply, increasing the regulations, and growing the environmental concerns, the companies face a range of issues in making of capital investment and also with this, safeguarding their businesses from any future loss or uncertainty. it is a complex situation when it comes to choosing between searching for the new generation resources and exploiting the existing one, update the present water infrastructure or safeguard against blackouts and also bird eye view on all the power and the resources. Many world leading companies are turning to Primavera to achieve the project discipline and efficient operational excellence. Utility companies are using Primavera to deliver the greatest possible return.

Big Utilities means that you have large projects, that there may be a large number of business units, so many resources and a number of suppliers and contractors. If one element changes that mean that it will alter everything of the project. With one thing shift so that may go unnoticed and without any clear view across the project and soon it grows into a tidal wave. To avoid this, Primavera helps so that it protects against the mishaps. It provides a clear view of all the projects and also the resources and a single platform for the management of the suppliers, contractors, and the activities.

Primavera provides an ongoing and up to date view of the project across all the business units and regions. With Primavera, it became easy to handle the utility and energy activity as they provide the graphical representation of the project, budget, and trail of the transaction. In this way, it has become very easy to point out the project issue in time and correction can be made in meantime also the resources can be used in the right places with efficiently and effectively. Primavera help to accelerate the better decision making, it speeds up production and increases the efficiency. Many utilities and energy companies are adopting Primavera solutions. It identifies the best exploration and production opportunities. It effectively maintains the efficiency of the existing assets. It helps to coordinate with the existing resources and also help to train new people/talent. Primavera helps to monitor the budget allocations and maximize the labor pool and not only this but also build the end-to-end approach to establish the best practices across the enterprise. It helps to improve the project team coordination and meet the spending target by effective management. It helps to monitor the budgets with timely and accurate data. Primavera help to institutionalize methodology to achieve success.

Primavera solutions for construction companies

Primavera provide the most reliable services to the constructions industry as it provides it to all the other sectors. Primavera professionals use their experiences and relentless attention to provide a solution to the problems that are faced by the construction industry. Industries face many problems due to slow decision making, so for this Primavera play the role of the go-to technology problem for the industries to solve the problem they are facing. Primavera anticipate your business and technology needs. Today the construction projects need new technologies, and new approaches as now the industries are facing unique condition in satisfying the demands of today’s world and also contractual requirements. In these industries, the architecture and structure of many projects need the ability to accommodate and stick to the business implications and with the changing guideline. Prescient Solutions Group with the help of Primavera P6 software help to research on the changing trends of the industries and help your business to meet the everyday business and technology needs. PSG and Primavera help you and your business to face the challenges that are faced by many businesses in the world today and also provide the return on the Primavera software that you require.

Primavera P6 software is a visualization tool that helps to improve the ability of a business to exchange complex ideas among the project participants. Now it is very easy and basic to generate and use the information for a construction project at any time. It deals with project cost and resources so that the organization can deliver the project on time and within the estimated budget and reuse the best practices. For big and complex projects, it is important to have a strong coordination and standardization, experience resource management and reporting about the project and its related work. For all this, Primavera P6 software helps the businesses to manage the work. Human resource is a precious and valuable resource but it is often an expensive resource, so it is a bit difficult to maximize the productivity and cost-effectiveness of them, so for this software for the projected survival. It effectively manages the cost, resources, contracts between the projects teams and also the changes in the single solutions. It helps to get a timely and also accurate data for decision making. You can have an access to the information at any time and any place you want, also it reduces the performance risk in the projects. It improves the operational efficiencies and also accurately forecast the date of project completion. Not only this but also it manages the projects effectively and improves team collaboration. It is a powerful project, portfolio, and human resources management solution.

Primavera has an outstanding reputation in the world of the construction industry. It provides the well-planned and executed projects in accordance with best industries practices. Primavera have experienced and skillful engineers that are ready to implement the industry-leading solution. Primavera staff also help to provide the complete details about planning, tracking, and management to its costumers and make sure that the projects will be completed on the time.

Innovation worth growing as it breeds success

Innovation generally means changing the process, or it means to create an effective process or idea. In business, it means creating and implementing new ideas and improving new services. Innovation doesn’t mean inventing, but it means that changing your present business model for the better future delivery of products or ideas. Innovation should be an inbuilt part of your business where you lead the culture of innovation and creative problem-solving. Innovation leads your business to success, as a business that innovates they create more efficient work and have better productivity and also performance. Innovation can work as a catalyst for your business growth as well as success.

Innovation is actually an evolution of creativity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Not only in business but innovation is everywhere. We live being defined as innovation by innovation. It is with us everytime the moment we wake up until we sleep. Our life is always influenced by innovation. For Business, in the sea of innovation, they take the risk and close the biggest gaps in their success. They identify the opportunities and they are rewarded with the title of innovators and leader by their consumers and colleagues. Being an innovator is most important than modifying the idea that came previously, it is the creation of something new.

Innovation is creativity. It needs an environment where it can grow effectively, where it can breed more and for multiple times. Innovation is culture it is not a human being of the system. It can not be bought or you can’t force it. You can breed it and foster an environment for innovation to happen. In businesses bringing new ideas is innovation. More than 90% of business believe that the long-term success of a business firm or organization’s strategy depends upon the development of new ideas and that is innovation. Most of the employees of many companies believe that their companies and not doing well to foster innovation.

Innovation is like an opportunity if you do not avail this, then you are just going to waste the opportunity. The problem arises is that there are so many businesses that are trying hard to innovate new ideas but they have no proper strategy to innovate it as these ideas aren’t productive. For the successful innovation, the business needs to install new strategies that fit best as required by their needs and goals.

Why Innovation is important

Innovation is vital for the growing companies because it gives the edge to the companies in penetrating markets successfully and faster and to have a good connection with the developing markets, it leads to great opportunities. Innovation gives the confidence to take the risk and to get the things done. when the businesses adopt the culture of innovation it will grow and will be successful easily. Despite the fact that this process of creativity is not easy. It is not always simple to implement new ideas. Be Innovation and it should always be a part of your approach. When you have creative thinking so that problems can be solved strategically. The right innovation technique can save your time and it can give you competitive lead in the expansion of your business.

Project Management is key to success for a business

Companies that are having a bad business record are now jumping on project management bandwagon and showing that how important project management is for the success of the business. In the today’s challenging economic world, the executive management needs to understand the important strategic role the project management is playing in the success of the business. If an organization wants to pursue their plans for the success and stability of their business so they need to know the worth of project management instead of considering them as a functional activity and they should place them at the core of their of business processes. At the same time, the responsibility lies with the project managers to engage better with senior management for the sake of the business. We are mistakenly thinking that project management is only important for industries such as engineering, construction, manufacturing. Indeed it is necessary for these industries but not only these. Project management requires a team of talented and skillful people. Those people are responsible for the planning and then executing that plan for the success of the business. The sound plan can mean a difference between the success and failure of the business.

Why project management is important

Project management deals with the unexpected before it becomes a bigger problem. It helps you to focus on the bigger targets of an organization, let them be more productive and allow you to spend less time on a low value-added task which allows you to concentrate on the high-value task. It leads to overall efficiency and if your project team is efficient and if it works efficiently so it will reflect all parts of your project. Project management team leads to better monitoring of the overall project, this overall overview, available activities, and resources helps you to make the right decisions. This helps you to use your resources to more ambitious projects. The most important factor is that Project management helps in enhancement of team management, as the human resource is the important asset of an organization. This allows your team to share knowledge and work in synergy throughout your business project.

It is essential for every business whether it is small or established. It helps the organization to reach the goal within the predetermined budget and time. It is a big challenge for the small organization as they have to deal with projects with limited resources. It involves the identification of the right project management and then applying it to the desired project.

Primavera helps you as a team of project management. You can rely on it for a project manager. Primavera personnel are experienced project management professionals having experience and leads your projects to the successful outcome. It includes planning, development, innovation, initiation, execution, and control. Primavera has a team of skillful and talented personnel that are having expertise in manufacturing, refinery, medicine, high tech industries, hospitals, aviation, office building, and renovations. Primavera has been supporting companies in long and short-term projects. It supports when your project is near the deadline with scarce resources, Primavera helps you with its highly experienced and qualified project management professionals.

Enterprise Function Support

valueIf you are new to project management, you surely need to know and understand this phenomena,the first thing is understanding enterprise function model. The enterprise functional model is generic one that can be applied to numerous organizations, in any industry. It can be of two ways, product driven and service driven. It represents the highest level functions in an enterprise.

Now a days with the changing needs, everyone is in need of enterprise function support, it is more demanded as hybrid project delivery approaches. The quantitative analysis as show that the hybrid project delivery is becoming rather common these days.

In order to add more value to one’s business the things like aligning business activities is coming into considerations by project management leads. The activities which are made top of the list are project delivery activities.

The considerations may include activities like speed at which project iterations are produced using agile method, complexities of business and technology, and the increasing expectations of customers. Though these considerations are not limited to the ones discussed in the article, there can be many others as well.

All of these enhances the importance of enterprise functions and their support such as portfolio management, release management and resource management etc. these and other enterprise delivery disciplines have been identified by a framework known as scale agile framework. This has been identified as the key to success in agile project delivery methods.

Coming back to enterprise function model and its key features, the material used in enterprise function model gives details about

  • Overview of functions used.
  • Functional responsibilities
  • Terminology

This model is generic and can be implemented to a wide range of industries and enterprises.

The approach used can be product driven or service driven.

A function can be understood as a group of knowledge related (subject area activities).

These activities need to have a purpose.

The framework used for enterprise function model has an impression of creating a sense of getting a long lost thing back specially when considering the innovations, but that’s not the case.

Rather this framework has helped in identifying the critical need to have these functions in place and engaging all types of deliveries in an enterprise.

Whether there are project managers or agile leads, both can increase the percentage of their project’s success by getting closely related and integrated with enterprise functions. Lacking of this will create troubles for enterprise and organizations will have a hard time in processes like schedule, resource, dependency, testing and implementation. Without having any robust enterprise function model in place, the enterprise may lead to lesser number of successful projects ultimately reducing the business value and profit share of organizations, which is indeed closely related to how organizations design their work infrastructure.

Talking about function and their model, it varies with the scope of the industry, whereas the thing that has been seen is all enterprises do have research and development function.

Consistency while following the right model and delivery is very important for businesses.

When the Benefits of Your Recent Project Fades Away

benifitsThis is a thing which is not being paid due attention, for instance, let’s understand it with an example the project you were working on is complete you are busy taking your time out, enjoy success, celebrating with your stakeholders and other teammates. You are not following your recently completed project but somebody else surely is.

You even engage in some new assignment. But then the unexpected happen. Ad what it is?

The project you completed is not delivering results. At some point like the first six months or so of your project, you might even overhear what your project has been creating, a mess for others or let’s just say , not adding the right kind of value or expected value to the business of your customer or the organization you are working for. But once you find out the results are not as expected, next thing on your mind is how you need to carry out the amendments but firstly you get to know, what went wrong?

You start looking for clues and let us see, what can be the answers,

Your findings reveal that the related processes which are supporting your product are not aligned thus in return producing the loss. Which results in erosion of benefits or you can say with this the benefits of the product fade away.

Some of the factors are discussed below, which can be of great help for project managers, these factors will help you fill the loopholes when you work on your next project, so here you go.

  • Overtime
  • Regulatory fines
  • Overlooked tax deductions union disputes.

Discussing these in detail is important.

But first, understand is what your next step would be, focus on the assignment you are currently working on and ignore what’s been lacking behind or work on the solution involving your stakeholders, other project managers, and team in the process. The answer may differ according to the situation you are in, but one thing you need know, updating the project with lessons learned is important. And crucial to your success as a project manager, whether you are in the leadership role or not.

Regulatory fine:

The project processes do not provide the project report on time, regulatory reports to be precise. There is a lack of compliance, data requested by federal or local authorities is missing. This results in creating a lot of mess.

Overtime:

Lack of clarity about changes brought by your project and the changed processes caused the operational areas to work as usual. Producing the undesired results and the operational areas worked as usual, and the work had to be done again.

Union disputes:

The implementation of the new processes and project caused a change in union worker’s duties, which were caused due to not thinking about the minor aspects at hand, in the current contract, the new contract if done, would be on a larger scale with contemplating, each and every aspect.

Benefits Gain Profit Earning Income Hands Volunteer Concept

Standardization and How it Effects a Project Manager’s Business?

project-managementThis article is written for the better understanding of how the standardizing of project management adds value to once business, in any industry, the growth is driven by standardizing project management across the organization.

Some key capabilities for standardization:

An enterprise must invest in standardizing, codifying and documentation of project management practices. It doesn’t mean one way of managing projects but a portfolio of consistent projects the enterprise.

Different business units and verticals may follow different methods or templates for following project management. Many variations are carried out in order to meet the needs of customers and specific markets.

For instance just think if standardizing is not done, it can reduce management’s ability to track and control price change requests and manage scope stuff, which may result in lower margins and increased project risks. Formalizing projects help scale your business. Fostering standardization of processed such as change management, scheduling, costing and project reporting is also very important.

Another major step in standardizing is consolidating and integrating project data. Project teams can also improve productivity and effectiveness.

Benefits of standardization are vast and far reaching, those organization that combined standardized project management processes with the right kind of technology get a significantly good result and successful projects. The outcomes include improved project team productivity, fewer project losses, the higher instance of projects that get completed on time, and are under their financial reachability.

Standardizing project management across an enterprise often encounters resistance. Because teams usually working as how they might be feeling but often you have to encounter adjustments one way or another. There is a positive side of creating consistent project management experience.

Standardization can have the following positive impact on a project manager’s life.

If you are a project manager, you can experience that your life may go from slow and steady to chaotic in a matter of seconds. , it is witnessed it would be helpful both for the leader and the teammates to work efficiently if you share a common way of working such as a framework or interface etc.

Considering an example, if the schedule of your project is built on the same tool as your teammate, it would be easier for you to grab what’s next on the to do list.

When hiring a new project manager, standardized project management, which is already implemented in the enterprise may help the new hiring in the understanding of how the work is done in that organization. Thus, drastically reducing the learning curve.

The cooperative continuous improvement is a very important thing and I have always been in the favor of improving. And the best way of doing this working along the other project managers, peers or pioneers both. This will help you in carrying out your tasks in more effective and standardized way. Thus making standardizing your tasks easier. Having someone to share your ideas and looking up to someone for some good experience is indeed a good strategy

How Outsourcing Adds Value to Your Business?

outsourcingBefore pursuing to the understanding of adding value to your business, first, we need to understand what is outsourcing.  According to our very own Wikipedia, this term refers to a practice used by different companies in which they transfer a portion of their work to different external companies, this is a cost effective way but the condition is, it should be used properly. The external sources or service providers ought to be Specialists in their related fields.

Leaders choose out-sourcing to enhance business value propositions to stake-holders.

The question arises how and why the need arises, some of the processes are temporary and the company does not intend to hire a professional for doing that task.

However, before that, it is necessary that you should think and study about all the advantages and disadvantages of giving the resources and time of your business to a third party vendor, which is indeed very critical for your business.

As every other strategy related to business, there are many pros and cons to outsourcing as well. If not done right, it can bring down your business and create a lot of unrest.

Famous outsourcing business streams may include,

Pros of outsourcing

  • Swiftness and expertise
  • Concentrating on core process
  • Risk sharing
  • Reduced operational costs
  • Reduced recruitment costs

Cons of outsourcing:

The disadvantages include:

  • Risk of exposure of confidential data
  • Hidden costs
  • Lack of customer focus

How it adds value to your business:

When outsourcing, making a strategy which is effective in lowering the cost is very important.

Project managers can help make one.  Considering this three part structure,

  1. Assess the current state
  2. Consider the “to be” state
  3. Consider the governance require to sustain the future state

Project managers can avoid some common pitfalls in their outsourcing projects:

  1. Add a legal team, consisting of procurement and legal outsourcing experts which will help you in making the agreements.
  2. If you have any senior leaders around you, invite them to your project, in this way you can steer the initiative this will also help align it to the business mission.
  3. Gather some leadership support from your seniors; they might help you abstain from committing some serious blunders.

The things that count should be on finger tips of a project manager while handling a process with outsourcing aspects. Leaders can capitalize business value by keeping the right things in mind and if the outsourcing is done with a defined end.

Just to get an idea, consider that Assessments can be made on few things, such as

  1. Associate labor costs
  2. Labor expertise
  3. Value and non value support services
  4. Baseline of operational measures and service levels.

Project managers can help in many ways make an outsourcing strategies that trigger capitalization.

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