Burns (1978) stated that leadership is one of the “most observed and least understood phenomena on earth”. Considering that scientific research on the topic did not begin until the 20th century (Bass, 1960), it seems that much progress is still to be made to explain what effective leadership is about. …

Methods are nothing without the individuals in organisations who will employ them; methods are meant to help people do something systematically (according to a fixed plan, in a thorough and efficient way). The purpose of a method is efficiency in the organisation. Because decision making takes place in uncertainty, it…

I first heard of the goal-setting theory of motivation back in 2011 when I took a management course at Bilkent University in Ankara. The theory was developed by Edwin A. Locke in the 1960’s. In my mind it is linked with two very important terms in job design: Specificity and…

Benefits Realization Management: A Practice Guide, a PMI publication to help businesses drive more successful outcomes and better strategic alignment, contains practices and universal principles that can be applied at project, programme and portfolio level. However, the Guide lacks the practice-oriented knowledge. Luckily, special Interest Groups of Project Delivery Professionals…

Imagine you are an executive looking for strategies to move your business department forward. You schedule a meeting with business owners, organizational leaders, and other stakeholders and you are excited to hear about current and future projects. A PM comes in to talk about a website and says “The site…

Here’s a list of documents with their download links. I will make sure the list is regularly updated. Project charter: The Project charter is issued by the sponsor to formally authorize the existence of a project and provides the project manager with authority to apply organizational resources to the project…

According to an ancient story (or rather an epic poem by Hesiod), Pandora had a box (or rather a jar of the 7th century BC) which was full of gifts from the Gods and Pandora was not allowed to open it. Pandora was curious and she couldn’t resist. …

There’s a wealth of information out there, coming from project management professionals who have established themselves as thought leaders and influencers. One of these influential voices is Michael Kaplan, senior change agent focused on program performance and transforming organizations. “Michael helped deliver $10 million IT project portfolio for a New…

There’s often a gap in the appropriate tracking from planned benefits to their actal realisation. Benefits realisation management (BRM) is an approach used to close that gap and help companies correct their strategy misalignment. What can be the possible causes of strategy misalignment? An organisation needs to respond and adapt…