flynn019

Businesses and individual projects require both planning and management. This seems obvious, but in the shuffle of our real-world in real time, the obvious is often overlooked. The plan is the road map based upon your initial assessment of the goal to be achieved and your evaluation of the facts available to you, as cartographer, at the time. Management has to do with driving the organizational vehicle in accordance with the road map. But any plan is only as good as the assumptions which were incorporated in its manufacture, and driving on "plan autopilot" (i.e., without making observations , monitoring progress and swerving, braking or accelerating as necessary in response to an inaccurate map or GPS ) can be absolutely lethal. Here are some observations to be acted upon, and to be incorporated in both processes: 1) Both planning and management are dynamic and interactive processes. Neither functions properly without the input of the other, and both must be amenable to ...

Public News Announcement Douglas E Castle Leaves TNNWC to Pursue Other Interests 27th September, 2011 - Westchester, New York --------------- Dear Friends, Readers And Colleagues: This is one of the most difficult letters that I have had to write. While I am quite enthused about the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead, I am more than the slightest bit forlorn about what I am forced to leave behind. Effective one week ago (29th September) I officially left my assignment with TNNWC Group, LLC and formally resigned from my duties as the Company's Acting Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. After much consideration, I have decided to pursue my own interests and passions in writing, speaking and strategic planning, as well as a number of my long-neglected hobbies and research in a number of areas. The prospect of working on my own is a daunting one, and I am grateful for the friendships and camaraderie which developed during my time invested with TNNWC, and conti...

Projects can, and frequently do, become unmanageable. There are a number of reasons for this, as discussed previously. The key is to understand these reasons, to anticipate their possibilities (or probabilities) of occurrence, and to take appropriate measures, during the earliest stages of the defining of the project scope and the construction of a plan to achieve the project's target objectives to both : 1 ) implement measures [right at the outset] to prevent them from happening, and 2 ) allow for adverse contingencies (such as delays, budget issues and any departure (i.e., variance) from the "trajectory" of the plan in the initial client expectation management process . Both of these are crucial to avoiding unmanageable projects and dissatisfied clients. Each plays a role. In quick retrospect, some of the central reasons projects become unmanageable (as discussed in Part 1) included: Project Scope Creep ; Individual Scope Creep ; Poor communications, monitoring and ...

Dear Readers: My next post will contain some wonderful basic rules to follow in order to manage client expectations, and to avoid disappointments and the customary "shaming and blaming" invariably follows a failure that no one quite knows how to repair. These Three Rules will simplify every business, program or project assignment -- further, they are always applicable, regardless of the nature or scope of the work to be performed. No strategic planner, or project manager should be unaware of these simple principles. [ The preceding was a coming attraction ]. In the meanwhile..... When you are able to find a quick moment, I would be deeply appreciative if you would be kind enough to visit the actual site for this blog, located at http://BusinessAndProjectPlanning.blogspot.com and take some time to explore the site and look through our extensive library of links and our trends, breaking news and RSS feeds sections. It is our intention to provide excellent articles (orig...

A Project is a cooperative, collaborative and coordinated (i.e., managed by a Team Leader ) team effort to achieve a defined objective , within a certain time frame using defined resources . The responsibilities subsumed under the Project by the team (to get to the desired and anticipated objective) constitute its total scope - the Project Scope . Within that Project Scope, are the roles and responsibilities of each of the team's individual members - each member has an Individual Scope , specifically defined within the greater Project Scope . Projects become unmanageable for number of reasons : Project Scope Creep ; Individual Scope Creep ; Poor communications, monitoring and feedback among team members, and/or between the team leader and his or her members - situation reports and progress reports serve a strategic purpose in keeping the Project and team members all within the scope...but just as importantly , they serve to inform the participants of where their performance ma...