Dave Nielsen PMP

Job Huddles

Of all the forms of meetings in the project plan, perhaps the biggest bang for your buck is the job huddle. The job huddle should be used as a tool to bring a project back on track, or to prevent it from going off track when it’s trending in that directio... Read >

Gate Meeting Decisions

Many courses on project management leave one with the sense that reaching a decision on moving a project forward to the next phase at a gate meeting is a straightforward step: either the previous phase has delivered everything planned for delivery and res... Read >

Dealing with Gate Meeting Saboteurs

We've all encountered them, those politically motivated creatures who only surface for critical gate meetings so they can point out deficiencies in your project and so bring their superior skills and expertise to the notice of senior executives at your ex... Read >

Using a Timekeeper to Improve Meeting Productivity

There are whole libraries of advice on how to conduct productive meetings but the most effective trick I've ever encountered didn't come from a book, it came from another project manager, someone I worked for at the time. The tip is quite simple, but eleg... Read >

Project Communications - Public Relations

Projects attract the interest of everyone, whether they are on the project team, stakeholders, or merely bystanders. Larger, more complex projects will attract attention from a larger audience. The audience may widen if the project goes off the rails: wit... Read >

Project Communications - Innovative Communication Techniques

Project managers are being increasingly challenged to communicate effectively as more and more of their project teams are de-centralized. The goal of every project manager should be to achieve a team that performs at peak efficiency and delivers project r... Read >

Project Communications - Managing Stakeholder Expectations

Stakeholders expectations are what software development projects must meet if their project managements would have results viewed positively. The path to meeting those expectations appears straight forward on the surface, after all isn't this just a matte... Read >

Dealing With E-mail Wars

How many times have you been placed in a front seat to an e-mail war carried out by two members of your project team? The war starts innocently enough with an e-mail that identifies an error (or what the author perceives as an error) on the part of the re... Read >

11 Tips for Effective e-mails

e-mail writing is probably the next most popular communications method after verbal communication. e-mails used to be a substitute for the formal business letter typed (often by a secretary) and mailed. The fact that the letter had to be dictated led to m... Read >

Managing Projects that Deliver Training

Training is a critical component of any software solution delivered by a project. The only time that training need not be considered is when a new release of a software system has no impact on the user community whatsoever. No impact means that the change... Read >

Managing Projects Delivering User Manuals or Guides

Projects that deliver software systems or other systems which require some degree of proficiency of the system's users must consider developing that proficiency as a project deliverable. Depending on the complexity of the system and the existing level of ... Read >

Situational Questions on the PMP Exam

For many the idea of committing all or most of the PMBOK® Third Edition (or Fourth Edition) to memory seems a daunting task. Unfortunately, just committing this information to memory will not be sufficient to get you past the PMP® examination. PMI ha... Read >

Inputs, Outputs, Tools & Techniques and the PMP Exam

Process Inputs, Outputs, Tools, and Techniques comprise a special category of information in the PMBOK® Third Edition (and in the Fourth Edition to be released in December 2008). This information is emphasized in both the PMBOK® and AceIt© to catch... Read >

Recalling Formulas for the PMP Exam

You can count on a percentage of exam questions that test your ability to recall formulas from the PMBOK® and use those formulas to solve the problems posed to you in the questions. To answer these questions correctly you have to first identify the need ... Read >

Pass Your PMP Exam on the First Try

Sitting PMIs PMP® certification exam can be a daunting task, especially those project management practioners who have been in the field for years and haven't had to write an exam since college. I'll try to give you some tips that will help you maximize y... Read >